Mr. Speaker, as I start to make a few comments about this bill, I would first like to recognize the hon. member for Mississauga South, who proposed this motion. I would like to acknowledge the fact that it is aimed at correcting a serious problem we have in our country, which is the evasion of taxes, specifically the GST.
As the GST is such a magnet for all of the discomfort and discontent with the tax system in the country, it is not seen by the ordinary citizen as theft. It is not seen as stealing from each other by evading the GST.
I think the hon. member opposite has brought to the House a very important consideration. The social contract we all have is based on the premise of fairness, that we are all going to pay our fair share and that we will do so more or less willingly, provided everybody else is paying a fair share.
When we combine the fact that the GST is such a horribly unpopular tax with the fact that the average Canadian is just barely getting by and does not like to pay the tax in the first place, there is very fertile ground for tax avoidance. When people avoid paying taxes that are legitimately owed it means that somebody else is carrying their load, and that is just not right.
I want to commend the member opposite for bringing this motion before the House. Members know, but for the sake of Canadians who are watching I should point out that a motion brought to the House will not bind the government in any way to act on it. It is really just a means of trying to get the attention of cabinet and say that this is something we should do. Although it is votable, it is not binding. I am sure the hon. member would like to see it binding, but it just plain is not.
There are many things that happen in politics in the House and outside the House that are not binding, such as promises that are made during election campaigns. During the last campaign, members will recall members of the Liberal Party made a lot of hay out of the fact that they were going to get rid of the hated GST. As a matter of fact, I recall specifically being ridiculed on a campaign platform by my Liberal opponent because I said we could not possibly get rid of the GST without replacing it with another tax. The GST generates $18 billion in revenue. We just cannot say poof and it is gone. We have to deal with reality.
Here we are a couple of years later and the GST is still in place, still being corrected. That brings me to the problem we have in supporting this bill. We have to do more than just cure the symptom; we have to cure the cold.
We are in complete agreement that the GST has led to a burgeoning underground economy. Simply offering a limited amnesty is not of its own accord going to bring people back to the market. Advertising or letting people know that avoiding the GST or working underground is in fact stealing and is not something that should be condoned in our country would be a very worthwhile thing to do, with or without any of the other items in this bill. It would not hurt to use some of these Dr. Feelgood ads that are running across the country right now to say that if you are working in the underground economy you are stealing from your neighbour.
As earlier speakers have pointed out, how would you like to be in the renovation or construction business competing with and losing jobs to somebody who is constantly being paid under the table?
I had some extensive renovations done in my home a year ago. Just try to get them done and pay the GST. It is not an easy chore. There are quite a number of people in the construction and renovation business who will not do any work if it requires receipts. This is not to mention all the service industries that work under the table. We all know it exists.
The problem is that it is like a speed limit on a highway. You are tooling down a highway at 110 kilometres an hour and for no apparent reason the speed limit is 80 kilometres an hour and there is a radar trap there. Well, citizens will go wherever it makes sense. The reaction to the GST was a visceral reaction to the taxation levels in the country. That more than anything else is the reason people are not paying the GST. It is not seen by the ordinary Canadian to be a crime.
Rather than tinkering with this, rather than treating the symptom and not curing the cold, I would ask the hon. member opposite to give thought to joining with other colleagues in the House in a bipartisan approach to see if we cannot do something about the underlying problem in the tax system, which is a disincentive for reinvestment. My hon. colleague for Mississauga South well knows-far better than I because of his experience as a chartered accountant-what a disincentive it is for people in our country to reinvest profits. That is a much bigger problem than the GST problem.
My specific objection to this bill is not the thrust of the bill, which I think is honourable and in the right direction in saying that people have to get out of the underground economy. My objection is not to the limited amnesty, which would give people the opportunity to get out if they have become involved in the underground economy. While we would offer them a carrot, we should also offer a fairly substantial stick.
I do have a problem with the notion of offering a tax credit to people for renovations. We might be able to square that circle and address that problem if for instance we were to allow people to use an RRSP to do a renovation, just as they can for buying new homes, depending on the equity level in the home, but only if they bring in a qualified receipt showing the GST. That would then ensure the public purse does not get hit twice, once for the RRSP and again for the tax credit. What about the people who might do it themselves, or whatever?
I do not think we should be giving tax credits to induce people to obey the law. People should obey the law because it is the right thing to do. The advertising should be there, amnesty as the carrot, and a substantial stick for breaking the law. This is not to induce people to do the right thing because we are going to pay them to do it; they are going to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do and because the underground economy is no longer seen in the community as tolerable.
I would reiterate that the Liberal government promised to get rid of the hated GST. When I go out to buy my next article at the store I am pretty sure I am going to be paying the hated GST, which is two years after the fact. I would be very surprised if in the life of this Parliament the GST is gone.