Mr. Speaker, I am also pleased to join with my colleagues in the Chamber to debate Bill C-214, the People's Tax Form Act.
At first glance the bill seems to be quite interesting. It even sounds great. I do not think a soul in the Chamber does not support the basic premise that taxpayers, the citizens of the country, have the right to have their views considered on how government spends tax dollars.
However one has to ask if this is the way to address the concerns. Is this getting to the heart of the matter when it comes to people's sense of being disenfranchised? Are there not other steps that must be taken first before we look at establishing another form that requires a great deal of knowledge to complete?
This will in some cases be seen as an unnecessary piece of mail. The major concern of taxpayers is to feel confident the government is prepared to achieve tax fairness and to address the concerns working men and women deal with on a daily basis.
For example, a few years ago one of my constituents had a full time job at a brewery in Winnipeg. The brewery closed down and my constituent lost the full time job he had held for many years. He found a part time job. Then he found another part time job to supplement his income. He is doing night courses to retrain for some other field, for some other hope in the distant future. He has a couple of kids. His partner works. They are all juggling work and family responsibilities to try to make ends meet. They are barely surviving. They got a call from Revenue Canada saying that they owe taxes on the RRSP they had to cash in.
This person was dealing with an institution which did not make the tax deductions at source. This person who is barely making ends meet was suddenly faced with an adamant voice on the other end of the phone from Revenue Canada saying “Too bad, you have to give us something. We need something. You have to pay some of the taxes”.
He asked me “How is it that I am getting harassed on a day to day basis over this kind of situation when so many wealthy people in society and so many big corporations are able to avoid paying taxes, to take advantage of loopholes, to take advantage of deferred taxes, to invest in all kinds of areas and not to pay immediate taxes?”
I raise this situation because it demonstrates where people are at today and what is important. They are saying that the first pressing issue for them is to have some fairness in the system. Sure, they would like to have a say, but the government should first address the fundamental issue of how they survive on a day to day basis, given the present tax structure.
They are saying that there is a heck of a lot of other ways to make government more accountable than having another form come in the mail which takes time, knowledge and resources to complete. They are saying that the government could be more accountable if it was willing to do so right now without the additional forms or paperwork.
The current pre-budget consultations are relevant to this debate. We had round table discussions. The Minister of Finance went across the country and held discussions. Some people had a chance to participate. A small number in each town were allowed to participate but certainly not a vast number of people.
What was even more galling to the folk who saw that as somewhat of an opportunity to participate in the decision making process was that they learned, all the while the pre-budget consultations were going on, the Minister of Finance was meeting with his cabinet colleagues and making decisions about how the budget would be allocated.
If we want to start somewhere in terms of restoring people's confidence in government, letting people know they have some say in how tax dollars are spent, and giving them the sense that some day there might be a bit of tax fairness in our system, we need to start with our own house. We must get our own house in order. We must ensure that the government practises honest and real accountability and does not create some pretence that it is consulting with the people when all the while it has a set agenda.
I have a few other suggestions. Why not ensure much more open and transparent debate in the House and across the country? What does it do to people's confidence in democracy and in parliament when the government readily introduces closure and cuts off debate? It denies us the opportunity to contribute the feelings and beliefs of our constituents on an important issue such as changes to the Canada pension plan.
We are talking about restoring confidence in the system, in the government and in people's ability to influence decisions. What about putting an end to the appointments of MPs who have either decided not to run or who were defeated at the polls? These are patronage appointments for defeated MPs turfed out by the electorate because they did not win the confidence of the people in their constituencies. They suddenly find themselves in a lucrative position with as much power, if not more power, as a member of the Chamber.
Many people have made other suggestions. We need to look at a more simplified tax form so people can see what is happening in terms of their own situation and get a better handle on where their money is actually going.
I made the suggestion again today of the need for a tax ombudsperson, someone people can turn to for raising their concerns when they feel their minister of finance or their elected representative is not responsive. We could give more powers to the auditor general to make his recommendations a much more meaningful part of our decision making process.
The list goes on. It comes down to trying to restore people's faith and confidence in government, in parliament and in politicians. While the idea of the bill seems great at first glance, it is not the solution at this time. It is not an appropriate mechanism for dealing with those kinds of concerns. People want to see us act to put in place measures that will guarantee them a voice in this place.
We have to do that by improving our methods of accountability. We have to try to encourage the government to hold honest and open discussion on such things as pre-budget consultations and on major legislation such as the Canada pension plan.
We have to be able to show people that we are always accountable and do whatever we can to hold round tables in our own constituencies, to get the information out about developments in parliament and to give people a chance to give feedback to us. We need the opportunity to convey those sentiments in the Chamber.
While I appreciate the efforts of the Reform member in introducing the bill, my feeling and the feeling of members of my caucus is that this is not the appropriate mechanism at this time. There are many more ways to address the concerns of people.
Let me conclude by saying that if there is anything we have learned as members of Parliament at a time when people are so cynical and sceptical about politicians, it is that we must go the extra mile to restore that confidence.
Instead of talking all the time about deregulating, privatizing, offloading and cutting back in terms of government responsibilities, we should be truly talking about democratization. This is the greatest service we could provide to Canadians.