Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate the comments of the minister. There is another side to this. She mentions there are two sides to the argument. I intend to follow that for just a moment.
We have listened to the minister and other members of the government side speak of the due diligence they have paid to this problem in the revenue department. We have heard the chairman of the finance committee mention how they have called witnesses. They have invited the opposition parties to call more witnesses. They have looked at it as thoroughly as they could in depth.
There has been a lot of talk, talk, talk about this issue. I am pleased they are coming to some resolution. The issue is not entirely family trusts. In my mind the issue related to that which is perhaps more important is government accountability. To whom is it accountable?
There is a disturbing trend. For example, as legislation is being amended I hear members of the legal community saying that one of the concerns that they have is that the government is seeking less and less accountability in rather small and obtrusive ways.
For example, little words like "shall" are being modified to "may" where there is less accountability, and phrases like "in the opinion of the minister", which is not challengeable in any court because how does one challenge someone's opinion?
Relating to the issue of revenue generation and family trusts, and going one step beyond that, I have seen how the government has looked carefully over a long period of time at this issue, but there are other instances also.
For example, when a farmer took a truckload of grain across the border, he was taken to court. There is nothing wrong with that. When the judge said there is nothing wrong, the regulations were changed in a flash. It did not take weeks and months and years. The government acted immediately.
Another example: Shortly after this Parliament convened after the election, we were confronted by a crisis of smuggling tobacco products. What happened? The government acted very quickly by lowering the duties collected on tobacco products and dealt with the smuggling problem in this manner. It acted very quickly. The consequence of that however is there are thousands of young people now involved in smoking. They have taken up this highly addictive habit and face years of suffering trying to get away from it. The medical costs of caring for them later on have not been calculated but they will be high.
The difficulty is not simply family trusts, it is government accountability and to whom it is accountable. Is it willing to be accountable to the law as all citizens are, or is it seeking to be less and less accountable? It is my contention that this is the case.
In this instance the Liberal government has spent a long time talking about the issue. I will be interested to see exactly what the outcome is. Hopefully it will be that large family trusts will not be able to leave the country without paying due taxes as the rest of us do.
The government is quite properly looking to claim all legitimate revenues. Forms are being sent out to people to tell stories about other people who may not be paying their taxes, who may be escaping their taxes through the underground economy. Are we asking our citizens to be stool-pigeons while other people are quite legally removing their money from the country? There is a matter of fairness that Canadians really object to.
These are the concerns which I have as I talk about government accountability. I ask the minister if she would please respond. Is the government prepared to be accountable in all areas, or simply in the areas where it is most convenient for it?