Finance Committee on May 1st, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

There's a point of order.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

I appreciate you're trying to protect the Minister here, but I was in the middle of asking my question.

It's out of line for you to interrupt.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

There's a point of order from this side.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I see some irony in the comment that Mr. Poilievre just made about “that's interruption”, because I think that's what we've been seeing. Frankly, I would hope that this committee could operate in a respectful way when we have folks come before us. Thank you.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Right, I couldn't agree more.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Poilievre, finish your question.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

What is the exact maximum amount of money Canadians will be forced to give the Asian infrastructure bank? What's the amount?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

We've made a commitment to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. That was done I believe in budget 2018—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

I just want the amount.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

No, Mr. Poilievre, the minister has the floor.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

We continue to believe that this was an appropriate investment made with other like-minded countries to help less developed countries in the Asian region to be more successful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Dusseault, I committed to give you one last quick question.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

I will be brief.

Last year, Canadians made investments of $353 billion in the 12 most notorious tax havens. As Minister of Finance, you have a similar budget, that is to say approximately $350 billion for the federal state. What is your reaction to that figure?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I don't know if those figures are accurate.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Those figures on direct foreign investment came from Statistics Canada.

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I'm going to ask Mr. Marsland to answer that question.

What I can tell you, however, is that we introduced several measures in the budget to ensure that we have a system that will protect our economy and allow us to fight money laundering and the funding of terrorist activities.

In our opinion, this is very important for our economy.

Over the past few years, we have done several things to improve the system, notably as concerns effective ownership, so as to know who the real beneficiaries are in organizations.

Mr. Marsland, what do you think of those figures?

[Andrew Marsland]

I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with the actual numbers you're quoting, so I can't comment on them.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Direct foreign investments in 2018...

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll have to leave it there.

To wrap it up, Mr. Fergus, you have the final question, and we're all done.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Minister, given your reception here, I find it amazing that you always say yes when we invite you to come to the committee. Could you tell us how many times you've come to this committee and how this compares with other previous ministers of finance?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Over my three and a half years, this is my 16th visit to a parliamentary committee. I guess in contrast to the previous government, over 10 years the finance ministers attended committee 20 times, so my record is about four times per year as compared with the previous government, which was about twice a year.

This is consistent with our approach to making sure that we make ourselves available to the committee and to Canadians. We think that's important. It's a way for us to talk about the important things we're trying to achieve and answer important questions that help people understand how the government is working on their behalf.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

With that, thank you, Minister and officials, for coming. Sometimes we have an exciting time and sometimes not so much, but that's what happens around Parliament. Again, thank you very much for your willingness to come.

We will suspend briefly and ask officials who have been here before, for part 4, division 1, to come to the table.

The meeting is suspended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll reconvene.

We're dealing with officials on part 4, division 1, subdivision A and subdivision B. I guess we'll begin with subdivision A on the Bank Act. I'm not sure if anyone is making a presentation to start.

Who's up?

[Margaret Tepczynska, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Financial Institutions Division, Department of Finance]

Mr. Chair, I am. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Margaret, you're up.

Could you introduce yourself too, please?