Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to start off by saying hi to everyone. It's good to be back in a HESA committee meeting. I served for five years with you guys and I miss it, but I'm now on the public accounts committee, so that's quite interesting as well.
Mr. Chair, as all of you are aware because I sent you a document indicating my thoughts on the amendments here, in short I cannot support the proposed changes. It changes the scope and it changes the spirit of the bill, which is to get the initiative front and centre on the income tax form.
I want to talk a bit about the bill and the fact that it would not infringe on the provincial responsibilities of managing donor lists. It would just support their existing work.
My proposal is so simple and it could be implemented so quickly. The federal government, via the CRA, already successfully shares, every day, with the provinces and territories via these encrypted networks with strong privacy and reliability safeguards. The existing infrastructure is already in place so there would be virtually no cost to the CRA. The CRA, as you guys know, already shares dozens of data fields on information on every taxpayer with the provinces and territories. This would simply be one more data exchange.
The actual proposal by Mr. Sorbara, in my mind and in many people's minds, would change the scope of the entire bill. It would take it off where you can see it, which is right on the front page of the T1 form. By moving the question off the main income tax return, it becomes a footnote of irrelevance, and the effectiveness is dramatically reduced to the point of being basically pointless. These amendments would allow CRA to put the question somewhere less obvious and it could even be as obtuse as asking people to file a separate form, which nobody would do.
This issue came up in the last Parliament, in the HESA committee, and all the parties were clear that they wanted the question to be on the front page. The CRA was also clear about their ability to do this, as requested and expected by the members of Parliament.
I want to ensure today that the CRA hears loudly and clearly that the expectation of Parliament is to have this addition made on the front page of the T1 tax returns in all provinces and territories. This is déjà vu. We covered the same issue in the last Parliament. I testified at this health committee on the bill, which at the time was Bill C-316. I said that I wanted to ensure that the CRA hears loudly and clearly that the expectation of Parliament is to have this addition made on the front page of the T1 tax returns in all the provinces and territories. I also wanted it made clear that we expect people to have the option to tick a box on that front page, which would basically be a call to action.
I have to indicate also that the CRA was at the committee meeting and it was made clear to them. In fact, Sheila Barnard was at that meeting. She is with the CRA. She is responsible for the legislative changes affecting the T1 returns. She testified and stated that they had understood the intention of the bill to be on the annual tax return.
Mr. Frank Vermaeten, the assistant commissioner with the Canada Revenue Agency, was also there, and he was more direct in confirming his understanding on this issue. He stated:
The front page is certainly a crowded page, especially when you move into the French version of it. That being said, we believe we can put it in that first page. That would be our intention.
Even our colleague Sonia Sidhu discussed it at HESA. She commented, “You said it's possible that, on the T1 layout, we can have a tick box on the front page so it can't be missed.”
That is the point here. If we allow this question or process to be buried, it will be ineffective. I completely agree with her.
Mr. Chair, you also said:
In our discussion, we have talked about the importance of this data capture appearing on the first page of the T1, but it doesn't specify that anywhere in the bill. Is there a way to ensure that this happens?
The CRA, Mr. Frank Vermaeten, said:
I don't think there's a clear legislative way to ensure that this happens. As I indicated, it would be our intent to put it on the front page.
The CRA, then, indicated at the time that it can be done and that they were going to do it. All of a sudden, here we are again: déjà vu.
We have to simply ask ourselves the question: Does the amendment that MP Sorbara put forth strengthen the effectiveness of the bill and better improve the outcomes for those awaiting a life-saving transplant? I believe the answer is painfully obvious and I would strongly welcome your agreement, committee members, in this regard.
We have all worked so hard. I have worked so hard. Parliament has passed this unanimously, up to this point. We have worked hard to make sure that this initiative has been unanimously supported, just as it was in the last Parliament.
There are many people awaiting a life-saving transplant. They would be bitterly disappointed if we wasted this important opportunity and buried the question on some form in the back pages that nobody is going to fill out. Let's show all Canadians that we are united and determined in our desire to truly improve Canada's organ and tissue donation procurement system here in Canada. Please do not support the proposed amendments.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.