Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to comment on the new entente that seems to exist on that side of the House. Now that Reformers and New Democrats are seated together, they seem to be developing a certain comfort and a certain respect for the principles of each of their parties. Perhaps in the future we might see a unite the light movement in this House in the efforts of co-operative opposition.
It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak on Bill C-43. While the minister speaks of the provinces having greater opportunities to affect control and to have control over the levers of this very important agency than they have now with Revenue Canada, I would posit that the provinces' opposition or at least their lack of approval and their concern with this new agency is an indication that they do not believe that greater power and greater authority will be had by the provinces of the levers of this new agency, this new, if you will, King John Inc. the government is proposing today.
The government offloads responsibilities to the provinces by making draconian cuts to health care, for instance, $7 billion in the last term. The minister said there is only one taxpayer. The provinces and the municipalities have been faced with an ever increasing tax burden as a result of the government's failure to lead and the government's failure to take responsibility for national matters, including issues like health care funding.
If the minister is going to be true to his phrase that there is only one taxpayer, he should recognize the near toxic levels of hypocrisy of his government in effectively reducing spending and offloading responsibility to the provinces. You can offload a lot of things but you cannot really offload leadership. That is what this government has tried to do.
The government proposal to transform Revenue Canada from a government department into an agency raises some very serious questions. Revenue Canada is the largest government department.
At various times of the year it has between 40,000 and 46,000 employees. Revenue Canada has many responsibilities including, of course, primarily the collecting of federal taxes and various fees, harmonized sales tax in three provinces, personal income tax on behalf of nine provinces and corporate taxes on behalf of seven provinces.
The new agency is to assume all these responsibilities and the new agency is supposed to be as efficient as the department was without any increased cost to the taxpayer.
I suggest that unless the provinces buy in, unless the provinces support this direction and this new agency, any claims by the government that this agency will lead to greater efficiencies and save the taxpayer money are specious at best.
The government is saying that we could save between $97 million and $162 million per year if all the provinces participate. That is a very big if at this juncture. Currently the provinces have not demonstrated a significant interest in having Ottawa collect and have more authority in effect over taxes beyond what Revenue Canada does currently.
Ontario is looking to attain greater authority over its tax levers. It cannot simply be said to the provinces that someone is going to have more authority over their spending without providing them with more direct authority over tax policies. Some of the provinces feel this agency may ultimately lead to less. If the provinces are not interested, obviously the agency will not save money or lead to greater efficiencies. The board of management may be yet another bureaucratic layer that will simply lead to increased costs.
Another issue is privacy. Too much information on individuals will be concentrated with one agency which will, as a private agency, be looking to contract out services for auditing and collection and ultimately the tax system may become less confidential than it is now.
We believe very strongly in the ability for private agencies and/or privatization to provide efficiencies but that has to be balanced against the very important delivery of service, particularly the confidentiality of this, the most important area of government in terms of its direct contact with people and the level of authority that an agency, currently Revenue Canada, has on people.
I suggest there is also a significant risk in terms of its use of power for this agency. Currently we have a very direct ministerial responsibility with Revenue Canada. That is a good check and balance. This House is a good check and balance on this government department of Revenue Canada.
There have been studies done on the impact to somebody of receiving a letter from a tax agency saying they are being audited. A tax audit letter evokes about the same level of emotion and fear as—