Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, on the issue of FATCA, there are probably hundreds of thousands of accidental American citizens who will also be found in this great schism of sending their data to the U.S. Those are the children who were born in Canada, who have never lived in the United States, who have never been a United States citizen, who the U.S. is now declaring are United States citizens as a result of their parents having been American.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Speaker, there are all kinds of people who are just discovering that, in fact, they hold dual Canadian-American citizenship; and the member is quite right that even if they have never worked in the United States, the fact that they are American citizens because they hold dual citizenship scoops them into this net of FATCA. My office has been deluged with calls from concerned citizens since this initiative by the U.S. was first announced. We do not believe that the government has effectively protected the interests of Canadians.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Speaker, it is fitting that the member talks about rail safety immediately after the discussion about FATCA. The minister has suggested that the reason for the change is to make it quicker for her to change Canada's rail safety regime, and to change it without consultation and discussion, to harmonize it with the U.S.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Is it because they are afraid of those one million Canadians finding out that they were sold out on FATCA?

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  I just want to highlight two that are of particular concern to so many of my constituents in Parkdale—High Park, and I am sure members are hearing this across the country. First of all, with the changes around FATCA, a totally new bill is housed within Bill C-31 that would affect so many people who happen to hold Canadian-American citizenship, and is doing so without answering vital questions around privacy and what it would mean to people's private banking information.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  I know that the member's riding is close to the United States. One item in particular is important in this bill, and that is FATCA. Many people in his riding who are Canadian citizens and do not consider themselves American could be targeted by the U.S. revenue service, according to which they might owe thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars because the U.S. government sees them as American citizens.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  This was embarrassing not just for the Conservatives but our citizens as well. There is some expertise at the finance committee studying FATCA, but there is also a need to work with other committees. Parliament could be mobilized and engaged more thoroughly if we did not have these kinds of disparate measures lumped together in one budget omnibus bill.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Speaker, there are many complex aspects of this omnibus legislation. Certainly, even the title, FATCA, foreign accounts taxation and compliance agreement, is one of the most complex. It certainly would, as the hon. member stated, affect people who have no idea whatsoever that they could be caught in this broad ambit of people who are considered U.S. persons, people like me who were born in the United States but have nothing to do with the United States, who in my case has never lived there as an adult, but purely as a Canadian citizen and renounced U.S. citizenship.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  I would like to take that one step further. She talked about the constitutional issues related to FATCA. It is becoming increasingly clear in budget bill after budget bill after budget bill that the Conservative government's process does not include enough preparation. They rush their bills through with very little discussion, and they introduce bills, like the last one, with monumental errors.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Now, let us get to the bad things that are in Bill C-31. Let us start with the first one, FATCA. What a great deal it is that is buried in this bill. One would think that something like a major tax treaty with our most significant trading partner would have stand-alone legislation and its own debate.

Finance  Speaker, reading off the latest economic data is not cherry-picking. When there is good news, it is considered bad news by the opposition. FATCA has raised a number of concerns in Canada. The agreement addresses these concerns by relying on the existing framework under the Canada-U.S. tax treaty. The CRA will not assist the IRS in collecting U.S. taxes, and no new taxes will be imposed.

Canada-U.S. Relations  Speaker, I rise to ask a question today of the Minister of Finance relating to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FATCA. On the U.S. side of the border, there are concerns raised that because the treaties have not been ratified through the U.S. Senate, these may not be legally binding treaties in any case; and on the Canadian side of the border, no less a legal expert than Peter Hogg, former dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, has written the advice that this very likely will violate section 15 of the Charter by treating some Canadians differently from others.

Finance committee  Are you referring to FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act?

Finance committee  What I'm getting to is whether that would involve people whose accounts have to be given to the Americans because of FATCA. Would such payments be included in this shared information?

Finance committee  Yes. Agreed. I'm also interested in FATCA. I know that there were a few unintended consequences of FATCA, and it is really insulting to a lot of other countries what FATCA has seemed to accomplish. Mr. Rosenbloom, you were speaking before on FATCA.