Madam Speaker, I am glad to speak to Bill C-43, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency Act, an act that affects all Canadians and is extremely important to the House as taxation is the primary reason for the existence of government.
I would like to change the direction of the debate a little to how the legislation itself will be considered. It is being debated in the lower House and will probably be passed by the Liberal majority. After it goes through second reading, it leaves the House and goes to the other place, a place of unbiased sober second thought which is not in any sense subject to partisan consideration. We do not really believe that. We know the only piece of equipment required over there is the rubber stamp that is issued without any delay when a senator is appointed and not elected to that place.
While it may seem an aside in the discussion of Bill C-43, I would like members of the House to consider that for the last two federal elections there has not been a single Progressive Conservative elected west of the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. Yet the Prime Minister recently appointed a senator for Alberta who was not from the Reform Party, which has the bulk of support in Alberta, and not from the Liberal Party which has marginal support but from the PC Party which has no support.
Does anyone believe that a place of sober second thought will represent the so-called regions, the regions being the provinces? Several provinces have already indicated they do not support the legislation. How are their concerns to be heard in that place?
What do they have at the present time? They have members of parliament, the bulk of whom are Liberals, who will vote for the legislation, probably denying any proposed amendments set out by any of the opposition parties. They have premiers who have moral suasion but do not have legislative power.
Parliament needs a triple-E Senate that has the power which flows from elections, the people's choice, effected senators able to act independent of the Prime Minister and equal in that each province has its own senators who will represent the province's point of view in debates like this one and others. They will represent their provinces in parliament. They will not represent the governing party in the House of Commons. That is some of the background I wanted to set. As we consider this matter we know the provinces will not be heard in this place.
Turning to consideration of the actual bill, we understand that debate is important in that various perspectives on tax collection policy are at issue. The balance is between increased efficiency in the collection of taxes owed to the government and the potential for abuse by the government of the centralized tax collection power.
Few people would admit to being happy to pay taxes. The dissatisfaction with paying taxes is largely due to perceived government waste and the inefficiencies in the use of the tax dollars collected. In a civilized society no one would acknowledge that a world without taxes is possible since taxes are used to provide services of benefit to all as well as services that benefit those particularly in need.
Dissatisfaction with paying taxes should lead. though, to actions to lower tax levels and to make the government more accountable for the use of tax dollars. Dissatisfaction with paying taxes cannot justify the evasion of taxes properly owed. Dissatisfaction with paying taxes should also not lead to unreasonable delays in paying taxes properly owed.
The position of the official opposition on Bill C-43 is essentially that there should be greater safeguards for citizens with respect to the centralized tax collection power of government. It must acknowledge that concerns about the tax collection practices of government assumed public prominence in the early 1980s.
Some in the House will remember that the Conservatives then in opposition conducted public hearings into the fairness of tax collection policies. The parliamentarian conducting those hearings, Mr. Perrin Beatty, later became the Minister of National Revenue during the Conservatives' term of government.
At that time comparisons were made between tax collection policies in the United States and Canada. I believe it is fair to state that tax collection policies in the United States, notably through the actions of the IRS, have always been regarded as significantly more aggressive than they are in Canada, perhaps due to national differences in perspective as much as to the benevolence of government.
In the United States the government and its citizenry often assume adversarial roles whereas in Canada the consensus appears to be that citizens are less inclined to regard government as the enemy. We must be very cautious with respect to any criticism of initiatives to make tax collection more efficient. After all, it is well known that those least able to avoid paying taxes are the salaried employees throughout Canada. Those most able to avoid paying taxes are self-employed persons and businesses.
Everyone should pay taxes justly owed. The requirement for instalment tax payments on the part of business and the self-employed is to avoid unwelcome tax liabilities and collection difficulties.
There is a further difficulty that the government faces in collecting taxes and that is the elimination of its priority under the Bankruptcy Act.
For better or for worse it was determined that the government did not merit the status of preferred creditor under the Bankruptcy Act, meaning that for many people the easiest answer to tax collection problems is simply to go bankrupt. Given this trend some might argue that it is in the larger public interest that tax debts survive a bankruptcy, not unlike family support obligations.
Why this is important can be seen in the experiences of countries where there is widespread public contempt for tax collection, which is usually tied to great public lack of confidence in government. Our most recent example is that of Russia where the outgoing head of tax collection has predicted this week that his successor will soon fail, given that the government is bankrupt and likely to fall within weeks.
These types of attitudes cannot gain a strong foothold in Canada lest it be to widespread resistance to paying taxes justly owed. The appropriate response in a civilized society is political action to change dimensions of the tax system considered to be objectionable.
I might add again that political action should involve creating a House of Commons and a Senate that are workable. The proposals of my colleague from Calgary Southeast, who is also the official opposition critic for national revenue, appear to be aimed at balancing the need for the efficient collection of taxes justly owed with protections to curb the potential for abuse of the collection power.
This balancing of interests would occur through the legislative enactment of a taxpayers' bill of rights combined with the creation of an office for taxpayer protection. This office for taxpayer protection would involve an independent taxpayer advocate who would report to parliament in a similar fashion to that of the auditor general. We have recently seen why the need for independence in reporting is important in terms of the assertions now made by the recently dismissed chief actuary of Canada.
Some may ask why a taxpayer's bill of rights. We know that the tax department collection policies are generally asserted to be far more considerate of taxpayer concerns than in years previously. There is a similar bill of rights approach communicated by the tax department to taxpayers. However, with the centralized collection power of the new agency the position of the official opposition is that Canadians should never be subjected to the abuses of power and summary treatment that has made the internal revenue service the most feared institution in the United States.
What is a primary constraint on the abuse of a centralized tax collection power? As proposed by my colleague from Calgary Southeast, the office for taxpayer protection represented by a chief advocate would have the power to issue taxpayer protection orders to protect taxpayers from arbitrary treatment or treatment that could lead to undue financial hardship. The office of taxpayer protection would also have an ombudsman-like role with respect to assisting taxpayers in resolving disputes with the Canada customs and revenue agency.
To those who are concerned that this proposal would increase costs without any demonstrated benefit in terms of increased efficiencies in tax collection, I wish to point out that there is no intention to create another government bureaucracy in the office for taxpayer protection. Rather, this office would be funded primarily from an appropriation to general revenues from Revenue Canada's current budget.
In terms of the taxpayer rights that are being referenced in the proposed taxpayer's bill of rights some of the more important dimensions concern circumstances where a taxpayer acted in good faith and without the intention to evade taxes, which are more or less synonymous terms. Another circumstance is where a taxpayer relied upon incorrect advice provided by a Revenue Canada official or an official of the Canada customs and revenue agency. In these circumstances penalties and interest otherwise payable must be waived.
In addition, in cases where penalties and interest may cause severe financial hardship or in cases where reassessments can be proven to cause severe financial hardship, the Canada customs and revenue agency must make alternative payment arrangements. This could be by way of negotiated repayment schedules or in certain cases abatements of amounts owed.
Many will argue that current tax practice incorporates these elements in any event. So what is the problem? The fact that tax collection practices in Canada are not regarded with great disfavour does not minimize the potential for future abuse. By formalizing a good practice as a taxpayer right one is ensuring that a social good will be preserved, notwithstanding changes in governments or government debt positions.
One area involving a particular compassion relates to the effects of the seizure of assets on employees or family members not involved with a particular tax transgression. We know the actions of wrongdoers frequently have negative consequences far beyond their own persons. Families can be destroyed by wrongful acts over which they have little or no control. The sensitivity of the tax department in this area is a matter of discretion on the part of particular officials.
What is proposed under the taxpayer's bill of rights is that the office of taxpayer protection can advocate fairness in seizure practices, making a protection order, for example, in cases where undue hardship is caused to third parties. In a general sense the office of taxpayer protection acts as an intervener and moderator with respect to government seizure practices.
I emphasize that the official opposition's concerns primarily relate to the protection of individual taxpayer rights. No one, absolutely no one, can be seen to be an advocate of letting those who justly owe taxes to the government avoid their obligations to pay such tax.