Mr. Speaker, I want to preface my comments by saying that I felt compelled to speak to this particular bill because of some instances that have happened in my riding.
I felt that it was obligatory to stand and speak in support of the taxpayer bill of rights, which has been so wisely put forward by my colleague from Calgary Southeast. I also want to point out to the House and to those watching the importance of the taxpayer bill of rights in the context of what we are seeing going on today with Revenue Canada.
I will begin my remarks with a couple of statements to clarify where I am coming from.
When I look at the state of Revenue Canada today and what I have encountered in my short time as a member of parliament with the people who have come to my constituency office, I realize that what we have is a bureaucracy that is out of control. As I dug into some of these cases it bothered me to see the pain this bureaucracy is bringing to many of my constituents.
It is an interesting admission on behalf of the government that it is a bureaucracy out of control because it is now setting up a new entity. Rather than fixing what is there, it is talking about setting up a new entity. The government feels it might be easier to create something new rather than to bring efficiencies to the existing government bureaucracy.
Our party is not against efficiency. Certainly we are all for it. However, if we cannot bring efficiencies to the bureaucracy, can we magically bring them to something that is not close to the government, that is an arm's length operation? I am not sure the logic follows.
The government is selling this on the grounds of some promised efficiency gains. As I understand it, some of these economic gains will only occur if the provinces agree, and yet we have not had a commitment there. I understand that some of the Atlantic provinces are pondering whether they want to continue with the harmonized tax program which the federal government launched.
Are we really going to see these efficiency gains? That is a good question. I am not saying that the status quo is the answer. It certainly is not.
I would like to highlight some of the situations that I have encountered in my short time as a member of parliament. I will allude to one situation. If members wish more details, I will provide them, although I know that some individuals involved are concerned that the details might get out. The taxpayer bill of rights is needed because of the intimidation factor. These people feel there might be repercussions if the details are brought out.
One particular business was an oil contracting and production business owned by a fairly prominent businessman in my riding. His company had been through a number of mergers and different purchases.
His problem related to GST numbers. When a merger takes place, the old GST number does not die. People are still required to track on the old one and on the new one. There is a convoluted set of rules surrounding it. But to cut a long story short, they tried to maintain the old ones and follow this complicated tracking procedure.
They submitted all the required information, as they understood it, to the tax department. Continually, though, they were asked to re-submit the information because they were told it had not been received or there was something missing. They continued to try to hit the mark and satisfy Revenue Canada.
In fact this gentleman related to me that he was talking to someone at Revenue Canada and offered to fax in what they had already submitted because there was no record, according to Revenue Canada, of having received it. He was told “We do not have a fax number here”. It was not too much later that he was talking to a different person in the bureaucracy and was given the fax number for the same department.
I am not casting aspersions on these individuals. What I am saying is that this is symptomatic of a bureaucracy that is out of control.
The last time I checked with this individual they were still attempting to demonstrate that they had followed the rules and they were looking for some acknowledgement or direction as to what they missed in trying to meet the mandate. It is not easy.
I feel, and I am sure that many of the members of this House feel, that our tax code and tax laws are just too convoluted. The act itself is 600 pages and there are another 600 or 700 pages of special interpretations and guidelines. The Ottawa phone book does not have as many pages as the tax act. It is no wonder a business person would find it difficult to meet all the requirements, even with the best of intentions. When we add to that some of the inefficiencies in the current bureaucracy it is really hard to satisfy the demands.
This is all the more reason for a taxpayer bill of rights, some advocate that a frustrated taxpayer can go to and say “I am trying to meet the requirements but I am just not making it”.
Let me give another example, closer to home, of an East Indian couple in my riding who immigrated to Canada. They have worked hard. They are a very diligent couple. They started a few small businesses. They tried to adhere to all of our laws and the requirements of the tax code. Yes, they had some professional help.
This couple started these small ventures. They thought, according to everything they had filed, that they had complied with all the rules. One day they were contacted by the tax department which advised them they had not. They were in the middle of the appeal process with the tax department to make their case when the person they were dealing with felt their case was not warranted. The next thing they knew the wife's account was garnisheed, locked up and no money was moving in or out.
We can imagine what this did to this small businessman. Suppliers were not getting paid. Customer relations were jeopardized. It was a tragic situation. Interestingly enough, he continued to appeal to Revenue Canada until he got to a higher level than the particular person he was dealing with.
At the end of it all, after a separate hearing and looking at all the facts, the answer was that the junior person had not really seen the whole picture. Revenue Canada released the accounts and everything carried on. At this point in time they are attempting to resolve the situation.
The bottom line is that the account should not have been locked up. But the damage was done to this gentleman's business and no apology was offered.
One final example that demonstrates the critical need for a taxpayer bill of rights, if we are going to have this new agency, is that of a young family I know. They received a windfall one day. They were told by the tax department that their child tax credit had been underpaid. It was great news.
They took this $1,000 and spent it. About two months later they got another letter from the tax department saying it had made a mistake and they really should not have had the overpayment. The next threat was that it was now going to garnishee their wages unless they instantly paid it back. Here was this family under great pressure and duress all because of this bureaucratic inefficiency. To add to that story, they were not the only ones. In their encounter to find out what happened they found out there were many other families.
I put forward those illustrations and many more just like them in our country where taxpayers need and must have a taxpayers bill of rights before any changes can be made to the bureaucracy that collects the taxes.