I see your argument. I feel like the argument could be made, as is often the case, the other way as well, just in terms of costs and clarity.
A second point to this, and this is for our officials. What I assume Madam May is trying to clarify here is to narrow the description of what a U.S. person is. Now, we know under U.S. law they are going to leave that interpretation up to themselves, but certainly on the Canadian side of things, we would seek an agreement that would make obvious Canadians, if I could put it that way, and not accidental Americans, clarified in the law.
We've talked a lot about misinformation. I know on tax treaties it's the potential on both sides to oversimplify and ramp-up rhetoric. We heard a number of times from the minister and from others in the government suggesting that no Canadian will be impacted by this. I keep struggling with that comment simply because it's to suggest that somebody who is a dual citizen is not a Canadian. That would be quite offensive to anybody who has citizenship in this country, or anybody who was born in the U.S. and becomes a Canadian. They're not a Canadian, yet they will get swept up into this law. That's a fact.
Mr. Saxton can argue against that, but under the U.S. definition as it exists right now in the incorporation of this law that Canada is willing to sign off on, those would be U.S. persons. We can bemoan the fact that the Americans define it that way, but they do. I think these amendments are attempting to narrow that scope, to remove those people so they don't end up in that accidental American trap. My worry is that these folks are going to end up with their information passed on without any notification.
This is my question, Mr. Ernewein. We have an amendment coming up around a requirement of notification from the banking institution to the client. For the life of me, I don't understand why this is a problem or would be a concern to any right-thinking person. If the banking institution is maybe seeking additional information, and deems by their test, by a computer test, in some cases...and is about to pass their information on to the CRA knowing it's going to end up in the hands of the IRS, why not tell the client? Why not require the bank to tell the client?
My question is simply this, Mr. Ernewein. Is it possible, under the powers of the Canadian government, to make that requirement of the banks? If they're about to pass forward that information from their clients, do we have that power that they explicitly inform that client that this is where their information is going and why? Does the Canadian government have that power over the chartered banks?
