Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure for me to speak in the House with regard to Bill C-48, a bill that I believe is important.
I am going to take the liberty of beginning my speech with some slightly monarchist comments, by showing how princely I can be and by giving the government credit for drafting this huge bill that at least allows us to deal with a major taxation backlog. This must be acknowledged. It will be a great pleasure for me to support this bill because I wish to serve all Canadian taxpayers, be they wage earners, pensioners or entrepreneurs. It is about time.
As we have heard over and over again, the government has made countless tax rulings, some of which were obvious while others were less so. The real problem is that unfortunately both this government and the preceding Liberal governments used some artistic license that was actually rather inelegant and left everyone in a state of confusion. Ultimately, all the experts and everyone else in Canada had to fly blind without solid legislative instruments or the necessary regulatory instruments for businesses to make informed decisions and move ahead.
I will remind hon. members that the massive immobilization of capital is one of the major problems we now face, one of the great economic challenges now confronting us. More than $500 billion are languishing in corporate coffers. I referred to this before the Holidays: it is a very clear symptom of a feeling of insecurity. It is something I was reminded of once again a scant few days ago when I had the pleasure of meeting business people in Quebec City, where my riding of Beauport—Limoilou is located.
Business people are very concerned, and have been for a number of years, about the failure to recognize entrepreneurship: people who have ideas and decide to take risks and make a real contribution to society in keeping with their talent and their ideas, and about a glaring problem with respect to the entrepreneurial succession. I refer to this because this government, for all its grand claims, is unfortunately producing very few results, and is even working directly against our common interest. I say this because after seven years in government, business people are still concerned, and companies remain cautious in their activities and in their efforts to invest and grow. So where does the problem lie? The problem is attributable to this government.
As my colleagues can see, I have stopped handing out compliments. I was happy to compliment the government on the bill it has introduced, but now we are going to take a few shots to make it truly clear that the emperor has no clothes.
I am going to take advantage of the opening of the hockey season to use an analogy from our splendid sport. Ultimately, Bill C-48 is an effort by the government in the middle of the third period to try to overcome a 10-nothing deficit. Mathematically, of course, the government may ultimately hope to emerge with a victory, but in reality, there is a huge deficit in terms of planning, vision and responsibility towards all the players on Team Canada and the spectators in the stands.
I am using this image to say “better late than never”, but there is nevertheless a limit.
The other problem, as my colleague from Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques has rightly pointed out, is that this corrects nothing. On the contrary, it increases the lack of transparency in the tax system due to its excessive complexity. Its great complexity is driven by, among other things, the government’s neglect and its very long-standing pork-barrel approach.
I first became active in politics in 2005. In 2011, I was in my third election campaign. I witnessed the blue wave in the greater Quebec City area. I was able to see the claims of the government, and the illusion it has maintained for years about its competence and capability. Unfortunately, those claims are utterly contradicted by the facts.
Getting back to the issue of the complexity of the tax system, I would like to state one very simple truth. Last week, sadly I was surprised to find out that the Canada Revenue Agency will no longer be producing a simplified tax return package. A great many people file a very simple tax return. Often people have only one source of income to declare and claim only a handful of credits. They do not need a detailed tax package that covers a wide range of areas, unlike the return I had to file in years past when I had several different sources of income. Several years ago, I was self-employed, among other things.
Doing away with the simplified income tax package represents a major, insurmountable obstacle for most taxpayers. As my colleague for Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques pointed out, over 60% of Canadian taxpayers required to file a return do not prepare their own tax return. They rely on someone close to them or a professional to do their taxes, which is quite understandable.
I would like to give you one example from the Province of Quebec. When it comes to housing and rental laws, my reference source is the Civil Code.
In addition to having a unique Civil Code, Quebec also follows its own special practices. One agency, the Régie du logement, acts as a safety net and also provides support to all tenants and landlords in the province. I am talking here about residential leases, not about commercial leases.
The standard lease is one basic tool that has been around for many decades. It is a standard document that is easy to understand. It sets out the rules governing residential leases. It is a contract between a landlord and a tenant.
In the course of my work both as a politician and as a volunteer in private life, I have had to dispel and fight many myths associated with the basic rules governing rental housing. Another thing that is unique to Quebec is that landlords currently send out notices to their tenants advising them of changes to their lease. These notices are governed by very specific rules. Tenants are required to respond to these notices. Many tenants, despite the fact that they have a lease and a clear document, are under the mistaken impression that simply because they received this notice, they will be forced to move if they refuse to accept the proposed changes to their lease.
It is truly a horrible situation. For starters, tenants are not exercising their fundamental right to negotiate in good faith and this unfortunately results indirectly in a certain amount of speculation.
I do not have an actual copy of a lease agreement with me, but given that most people cannot understand a simple document like the one I have just described, just imagine how they feel about the general income tax package.
I logged on to the Canada Revenue Agency’s website. In addition to the general income tax package which is at least 50 pages long, if not longer, there is also the tax package for Quebec residents. There are basic tax forms, tax calculators and 13 separate schedules, including one calculating federal tax in Quebec, one for calculating federal amounts transferred from one’s spouse or common-law partners, one for capital gains or losses, one for a statement of investment income and so on and so forth. A number of schedules apply to self-employed workers who do not automatically pay employment insurance premiums or make contributions to the Régie des rentes.
When you look at the amount of paper provided in the basic general income tax package—which incidentally will be the only paper package for people—I must say it is so incomprehensible for most people that they cannot be faulted for not understanding it. The public did not ask for a tax form or tax package this complex.
I have received letters from people in my constituency who are indignant that the short form has disappeared. It made filing an income tax return much easier. Imagine the problem for seniors and people with low literacy levels, who already have trouble reading and understanding written texts beyond a certain degree of complexity, not to mention a lot of people who find it very hard to do basic calculations.
In fact, the government is sending the clear message that taxation is reserved for an elite, for people who have the education, the ability or the financial resources to have their taxes done for them. Unfortunately, my basic principle is that taxation should be affordable and accessible enough so that people do not have to spend a penny. In our democratic system, this should be something comparable to exercising the right to vote.
The government has failed at this, and Bill C-48 unfortunately will not help matters, although we can be glad that we can add measures that were passed more than 10 years ago to the act and regulatory framework. That is wonderful.
I am going to talk about another issue. There are a lot of them, of course, but I am particularly concerned about this one because I spoke about it before the holidays, and that is the issue of tax evasion. Unfortunately, after complimenting the government for once, I must really offer it some heartfelt criticism. The government is saying one thing and doing another.
It is great that the measures in Bill C-48 to address tax evasion can be passed and added to the act. We agree on that. However, as I have previously said in the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and in other forums, what is the point in having a written act if it is not enforced or if we do not provide the means to enforce it?
These are two very important issues. Basically, the act states an intention and gives us a tool, but we have to use it and pay the price to enforce it. Otherwise, these are just meaningless words.
Before the holidays, we had a debate on the adoption of a free trade agreement with the Republic of Panama, which is practically a kingdom, one of the five most attractive tax havens in the world. I criticized that treaty because the government could not be unaware of that state of affairs, despite the claims made by the Republic of Panama. Panama may have laudable intentions of improving, but before going any further we will await the results. We really need to have results we can see.
Intentions have led to a great deal of human suffering, in relationships and in many other areas. As the singer Dalida said, "words, words and words". She saw things clearly and rejected this flood of words, because she had nothing more tangible or solid to rely on in her dialogue in that famous song.
If Bill C-48 passes, then the government is making a mockery of these measures by signing an agreement with the Republic of Panama. In my speech in the House, I provided proof positive that Panama was still a very popular tax haven. There are very attractive and very up-to-date websites, particularly European sites, saying that Panama is a winner if you want to evade income taxes, and feel free to help yourself. What purpose is there, then, in the government’s pretences if it is then going to contradict them by establishing an ongoing relationship, by sanctifying and recognizing the Republic of Panama, when it does not fully deserve such recognition?
Apart from enacting the measures, there is another aspect. We are seeing a flood of massive, savage cuts. As the Parliamentary Budget Officer said, those cuts mainly affect direct services to the public, the public service, essentially: the resources available to the Canadian government for carrying out its various missions. The measures concerning tax evasion set out in Bill C-48 will ultimately be no more than pretences, with no resources and no returns, or diminishing returns.
If there are no truly motivated employees in the public service who are trained and numerous enough to meet the challenge of tax evasion, we can enact all the laws we like, and we will simply be a laughing stock. In fact, and let us not delude ourselves, this is already the case. I have heard enough harsh comments. Some of my constituents have even used a few words to describe this government that I cannot repeat in this House. It is true.
I have only a minute left. My goodness, how time flies. I could have used at least another 20 minutes, or 40 minutes, to talk about C-48. In closing, I want to stress this inconsistency, which will not stop my colleagues in the official opposition and myself from supporting Bill C-48, which is nonetheless important. My questions have informed my colleagues about my concerns regarding the fact that we are only catching up halfway and we will not give up until we see the end of this government.
Hope will return when we form the government, but as always, New Democrats will find we have a heavy workload. However, we are not afraid of hard work. It will be our pleasure to rise to this challenge and do justice for all citizens of this country.
