Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. This question cuts to the heart of the issue. When an agency is given unchecked power, no critique, no bottom line as to who it is accountable to that is a dangerous precedent. I do not see anything in this legislation that protects taxpayers or gives them some court of appeal.
I again applaud the initiative of the member for Calgary Southeast that there must be an office for taxpayer protection before this legislation can go anywhere. I appeal to all members to consider that we must have something like this in the bill. His proposal states: “A chief advocate shall be asked to present each year a summary of 25 of the most serious problems encountered by the office and present recommendations as to how these can be avoided in the future”. That speaks to accountability. Let us see how the thing is working and make sure there is some measure of accountability.
To speak directly to the member's question, another component of taxpayer protection put forward is that the protection office would act as an advocate of last resort for taxpayers who feel they are being treated in an unfair, unjust or arbitrary manner. A court of appeal is just common sense, nothing to be afraid of. But it is incumbent on us to have it be part of this whole package if we are really going to serve our constituents.