Finance Committee on April 12th, 2016

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

We think we should start at the beginning. It seems obvious to us, according to the Radio-Canada reports and those of other media, that there is cause to proceed with an in-depth examination of this matter here in committee.

We certainly do not rule out the possibility of inviting the minister later. Nothing prevents us as a committee from considering inviting the minister. However, it is clear that over the past 10 years certain things have been going on at the Canada Revenue Agency that our committee needs information about. My colleague's motion will mean that we will begin this examination. If it must be an in-depth examination and if it should include the presence of the minister, I don't think the committee would hesitate.

Nevertheless, we feel that there is cause here to ask questions and to examine what was provided to KPMG as well as what happened between the agency and the accounting firm. The motion will mean that we will begin this study, and we will see where it takes us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I'm going to take a couple of more speakers and then call the vote, because we are relatively over time.

Mr. McColeman.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I think what we're witnessing, in the previous vote and in this vote, is that the promise of independence of members of this committee is being compromised. I could see this across the way. I just want to make that comment. I don't know what they're trying to hide or why they're trying to side-step having the minister here.

I have the floor. Thank you.

Obviously they are side-stepping these things for whatever political reason.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Caron.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

I would like to reiterate what I said.

The minister made unequivocal statements before all of the parliamentarians of this country. The committee needs to understand how she came to her conclusions. She did not say she would look into the matter and get to the bottom of things. She said there was no amnesty, nor any amnesty proposal. And yet the Radio-Canada investigation and the subsequent investigations showed that there was an amnesty proposal.

I need to understand, as a parliamentarian, what information she had and why she came to such a conclusion. We need to understand this.

The government members tell us that we don't have enough time to talk about the guaranteed minimum income, but that we will find time to discuss this and that eventually—we hope—we will have another meeting before the end of June on this issue, after having met with the person whose reports are given to the minister. The minister has to answer to parliamentarians.

It is the committee's responsibility to ask her to appear, together with Ms. Henderson and the other persons responsible who have already been mentioned, in order that we may have an overall picture of the situation and not only the viewpoint of an official from the Canada Revenue Agency.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Ms. O'Connell.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

I think the responsibility and the independence of this committee reside in the fact that we want to look at this and get to the bottom of this and find out what happened. If there's any side-stepping, frankly from my perspective it's that of the former government, who were in charge of this when it happened. I would like to actually get to the bottom of it and then bring in the minister to see what we're going to do to ensure that the mistakes of the past 10 years don't happen again and that these types of sweetheart deals for certain Canadians don't continue, moving forward.

Certainly I would like to know who was responsible in the first place, when this was happening. Asking the current minister, who had nothing to do with the deal that was made previously.... I think we would be positioning ourselves as a committee much better to actually get to the bottom of what happened and find those who were involved in the process to begin with.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Is there a point of order?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Chair, the member...

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I have a point of order from Mr. Caron.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

It is now 1:05 p.m. I think we should conclude on this topic and come back to this issue next Thursday.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Just hold on.

Mr. Caron is right. If I don't have unanimous consent to go beyond 1 o'clock, I can't.

Are you asking for the meeting to be adjourned?

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

The meeting will adjourn, and we'll deal with this on Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.