Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise this afternoon to speak on Bill C-43, an act to establish the Canada customs and revenue agency and to amend and repeal other acts as a consequence.
Just to set the tone for my remarks, I want to read from a letter which was sent to me by one of my constituents:
“Dear Mr. Earle:
I am a public servant with Revenue Canada. I am writing to you to voice my concern with the proposed Canada customs revenue agency. As an employee of Revenue Canada, I have a vested interest in the department as it exists today and may be greatly affected if the intended changes to the agency status are implemented.
“If Bill C-43 is passed, I feel that the new agency will be less efficient than the status quo. The agency would also threaten the personal privacy of taxpayers. Finally, I feel that the agency would not deliver promised cost savings and may even lend to the imposition of user fees by both business and the general public for the privilege of paying taxes.
“In closing I ask that you review in depth the proposal for the Canada customs revenue agency. I do not feel the changes will be in the best interests of myself, the provinces and the people”.
That is one letter of many that I received from people in my constituency. All the letters I received had the same kinds of concerns expressed. Some have gone even further to indicate: “The fact that my position will be guaranteed for only two years after the agency commences as well as a threat to my negotiated benefits greatly disturbs me. I also find it difficult to trust an employer who has allowed our collective agreement to expire over a year ago”.
Although I have many points that I could speak on, I want to speak briefly on a few that have been raised by people within my constituency, concerns that have been expressed about this new creation that will take place.
The first is that the agency will become a mega taxman, and the term mega is being used a lot nowadays. We hear about it in terms of the proposed bank mergers, megabanks, and for some reason people, the government in particular, seem to feel bigger is better. But I am reminded of an expression that my mother taught me many years ago which was that good things come in small packages. We all must appreciate that small things are very important and have their place. For example, a big vehicle can come to a stop because of a very small micro computer chip or a very small part in its engine. So bigger is not always better.
There is concern that this new agency will become a very large agency. We realize there are over 40,000 employees with Revenue Canada and $2.2 billion in revenue will be transferred to this agency. It proposes to administer everything from provincial sales taxes to gasoline taxes to liquor taxes. The vision would see a mega taxman who would offer even services to the municipalities. Do we really want Ottawa involved in our property taxes and things like that? Do we really want to put this much power in the hands of a government agency?
A second concern that has been expressed is that the agency will reduce accountability to the public and to parliament. This has been expressed by my colleague who spoke earlier and by others. We know that Revenue Canada as it presently exists is accountable through a minister, but with the creation of a new kind of arm's length agency there will be less and less accountability. As envisaged, this agency's enabling legislation will permit a full parliamentary review only five years after it has begun operation. We know a lot can happen in five years. That has been stated already. A lot can go wrong in that period of time. We do need to be concerned about the accountability function that will be sorely lacking if this new bill is passed.
Another important concern is the agency could jeopardize personal privacy. The aspect of personal privacy was one of the themes that rang throughout the many letters that came to my office in the constituency. We know we live in an electronic world today where there is more and more information about ourselves and our families being quite often sold by various companies, by private sector organizations all the way from credit card companies to charities to consumer goods and companies. We realize that our personal privacy is a very important feature today. We can see what is happening when we look at the APEC inquiry and the concern that is coming forth as we see documents being tabled which show that there have been security investigations and for whatever reason people's names being placed on lists without their knowledge.
This is the kind of society we live in today. There is a great concern about this new agency becoming a big brother where there will be a great deal of financial and other information about citizens available through this agency.
Even internal memos in Revenue Canada have acknowledged: “There are privacy concerns among some stakeholders related to the creation of a big brother. Everyone should share these concerns”.
I will mention another concern that was raised which was spoken of earlier. It is the effect of harmonization of the GST and the provincial sales tax beyond the maritimes. This was something as we know that started out with the government's intention of doing this right across the country. Originally this idea was to make sure that all provinces had a harmonized tax system but it only went as far as the maritimes. People in the maritimes have spoken loud and clear about how displeased they are with that effort in their area.
Some people might say there is an advantage to a combined administration. You will not have to deal with two taxes. You will have to deal with only one. But we know that one tax extends further and further into the lives of ordinary citizens causing them to pay tax on things they normally would not have to pay tax on and creating a great deal of hardship for lower and middle income people.
This concept of the blended sales tax is something we should be very careful of and the intent of this new agency will probably carry it beyond what we see even today.
Rather than go on at some length about the many disadvantages of this new agency that will be created, I conclude with a few remarks in a letter from another constituent. These remarks hit the nail on the head about the kinds of things we should be concerned about with respect to this bill: “How will the agency be accountable to us? By our MPs at present, when the organization is no longer a government department? If the government is looking for something to spend millions of dollars on, here is an idea, our health care system”.
That constituent makes a very real and important point that we should get our priorities straight and in order. She says “As a voter and taxpayer I am taking this moment to let you, my representative in parliament, know that I want this tax monster stopped and that we the taxpayers are tired of the government wasting tax dollars on things that are redundant and not necessary”.
I think that says it all. With those remarks I would say that we are opposed to the bill. We trust the people of Canada will express their concern and that members of the House will express the same concern and not support the bill.