Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise this afternoon and participate in this debate on Bill C-93, an act to amend the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, the Income Tax Act and the Tax Court of Canada Act.
What we are talking about is tax fairness. Fairness is something all Canadians are really looking for today, fairness in their tax system. I hear members opposite talking about the red book and talking about the green book. The only book that is really important and the one we are concerned about for Canadians is the bank book. Canadian bank books are paying for all these open ended and over generous tax credits. We are talking about $60 million in tax credits; $60 million in unfairness that is actually not in the system at the moment.
I am a Rotarian and Rotarians have a four way test. These tests apply to all the things we do and say. One of those tests is: Is it fair to all concerned? Bill C-93 misses the mark about being fair to all concerned by a very wide margin. It is unfair to the average income Canadian taxpayer who is overtaxed, has no paintings or sculptures in his or her home and he or she is the least able to pay the tax burden he or she is presently under.
It does benefit the very wealthy, the very rich in our society who have the art works and who have the sculptures and who have the ability to pay. Here we are subsidizing them. Those who have the sculptures, those who have the art works also have the bucks and are not deserving of the overly generous tax credits we are talking about in Bill C-93.
We should be looking for tax relief for the average taxpayer. I hear lots on the other side about their ability to deal with numbers, how good they are with numbers. I wonder about that when I see we are rushing toward bankruptcy, $550 billion to $560 billion in federal debt, and deeper every day, and then sleep walking to bankruptcy. I do not know where all the experts in numbers are but they sure do not know how to balance the books very well. We are still spending in excess of $35 billion more than we are taking in. They had better reclassify their experts. They are failing the mark there.
In Bill C-93 we are missing the mark in three areas when I talk about fairness. Bill C-93 introduces two new levels of appeal. There is more bureaucracy and more costs. On the second point there are tax credits for charities that are treated differently than the tax credits for the rich who have their works of art. That is grossly
unfair. The third is it is an open ended system with tax loopholes a mile wide for those with the money and ability to look for them.
Let us take the first one where we are introducing two new levels of appeal. Prior to 1990 Revenue Canada decided the value. That was the way it should have been. After the 1990 budget the Canadian cultural export review board was brought into being with no appeal, or at least no appeal without reason.
Today Bill C-93 adds two steps to that. We now can have an appeal without a reason. We do not need a reason for an appeal. I cannot understand the logic of that but we can appeal without a reason. Perhaps someone over there can explain that to me.
Then there is an appeal to the Tax Court of Canada-more delay, more bureaucracy and more cost. In the end we have taken it right back to where we were in 1990 where the tax department makes the final decision. What have we accomplished other than more delay and more costs to the taxpayer who is footing the bill?
These appeals will escalate the cost. Take the scenario in which I have a piece of art in my home. I would be lucky to have a piece of art worth $1 million. I say it is worth $1 million. The review people take a look at it and say it is only worth $.5 million. What do we do for the next step? We go to the tax court. Judges being what they are will say they will meet me half way and it ends up being worth $.75 million. Who is the winner there? It is not the overtaxed taxpayer.
Let us look at the tax credits to charities. The limit is 20 per cent of net taxable income. It is money going to food banks and the Salvation Army, money to help those really in need and we have a limit on it. They are crying for help. They are under constraints from the government. No, it is a 20 per cent limit. That money goes to charities to help people really in need.
Now we look at works of art donated by the rich and the wealthy of this community and there is no limit. The government will give them whatever they want. It is all right. It is a blank cheque. It makes no sense at all. It is grossly unfair. It is Liberal mathematics. The number crunchers have come up with this and the deficit will increase, the debt will increase and our tax burden will increase.
It is an open ended system. I do not think there are any qualifiers. They can keep dumping art on us until the warehouses are full. There is no regulation which say we can only take so much or we have only so much money to put into this. It keeps increasing and we will keep putting it into warehouses. It might eventually find its way into museums. I would certainly hope so when we are spending $16 million a year and it is increasing. It seems to be acquisition for acquisition's sake.
Is this bill fair? Is Bill C-93 fair to all concerned? I am not just talking about the artsy-fartsy; I am talking about the hard working taxpayers who are paying for all of this art which they rarely ever get to see. It is only fair to the top 1 per cent of our community. It is grossly unfair to 99 per cent of our overtaxed taxpayers. It is unfair to the charities looking for relief. They are looking for help and for donations from Canadians. Art donations have a higher priority with the government than does the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is helping those in need and those looking for assistance.
To say that if we defeat the bill it will be the end of art donations is rubbish. They will not stop, they will continue. We are not the ones out to destroy the cultural community, but we will not buy it with money we do not have and give it to people who do not need it.
If we defeat the bill it will close a very big loophole of which the very rich in the community can take advantage. That is wrong. The ordinary taxpayer is incensed by it and wants something done about it.
Let us do what is right for the majority of hard working, overtaxed Canadians who have no loopholes, just empty pockets. Let us be fair to all taxpayers and defeat Bill C-93.