Mr. Speaker, as I speak to this legislation, to my colleagues, parliament and the people of Canada, I will briefly outline an initiative I took awhile ago. As I describe it I will relate it to the legislation.
A couple of years ago I asked an independent lawyer for an analysis of the bills that were before the House of Commons. I requested an examination of the bills before the House to determine which pieces of legislation were taking power away from the people of Canada through their elected representatives and giving it to the bureaucracy. What bills before parliament were enhancing or reducing accountability to the people of Canada?
Members may find this very, very interesting because it relates directly to what we are doing in parliament this afternoon and the member's speech which just took place.
I put the question forward because many people were coming to me expressing concern that the government was out of control, that it was growing bigger and bigger and becoming less accountable.
As was mentioned previously, Canadians are afraid of the tax department. They are afraid of Revenue Canada. Why? Because the bureaucracy wields great power and the ordinary citizen feels quite helpless before it. It appears to extract the maximum amount of money from them without informing them of their rights or the minimum amount that would be payable. The Income Tax Act is overly complex, as we know, and it is intimidating. The key point is that Canadians would rather have a thief break into their house than deal with the tax department. People have told me that.
My point is that this bill will only make things worse. There will be less accountability. I can only support this initiative if there is a built-in structure. I would like to ask for the member's comments with regard to the proposal I am putting forward. There should be a built-in structure that protects taxpayers and those importing goods into Canada or exporting goods out of Canada.
We have to look at what happened with harmonization in eastern Canada. Has it improved efficiency? Not that I am aware of. In fact, I understand there are provinces that want to pull out of it, like Nova Scotia.
We need an agency to protect taxpayers, one that will make sure they are treated fairly and justly and not in an arbitrary manner. We need an agency that will help resolve disputes or problems with Revenue Canada. I think before we can support this bill, we have to have that agency in place. I would like to know if my colleague has any comments in that regard.