I think she should probably try to explain that to some of the campgrounds that are currently taking her department and the Canada Revenue Agency to court over some of the reassessments they have received on their tax bills. I'll list about three of them. I'm not going to name the businesses specifically, but I know of one in the GTA area that was audited for the 2012 through the 2014 tax years and has been sent a tax bill for approximately $250,000 in taxes. I have a whole list of services that it provides and it is certainly not a passive business.
I have another one in the Kitchener area that was audited for 2013 and 2014 and received about a $40,000 bill. Again, I have a whole list of services that generate anything but passive income. I have another one in the Kawartha Lakes area that was reassessed for 2012, 2013, and 2014 and presented with a tax bill of about $75,000.
One of these businesses at least has been put out of business as a result of the actions of your department, so I wonder if you could maybe try again to explain to us how you're not affecting any of these businesses, how nothing has been changed. The agency has, in fact, changed its interpretation of these rules. They have, in fact, targeted some of these businesses and they are putting them out of business, Minister.
I have asked you this over a series of months. You should be well aware of the problem. You should have gone back and checked this out. You clearly haven't done that. I would hope you're going to take this seriously and stop just repeating a talking point to the effect that you think small businesses are important and that somehow they need to pay their fair share.
I hope this doesn't go back to the comments the Prime Minister made during the election campaign that small businesses are just a way for rich people to avoid paying taxes. This is a serious matter. These businesses are being put out of business, and you need to take a look at this and be serious about it and realize that you need to be doing something to prevent it.
When we were in government, we recognized there was an issue here. We put in place a review of this in our last budget in 2015. Your government cancelled it in your first budget in 2016, and then Revenue Canada started to go after these businesses, these campgrounds. I've given you a few examples. There are others.
After 12 of the 13 submissions we received under that review indicated that these rules were unfair and needed to be changed, I wonder if you can tell me why you feel this is not an issue.
Can you please tell me when you'll stop this war on small businesses? Can you tell me if you're just going to keep repeating these talking points or if you're actually going to get serious and address this?