Madam Speaker, I also want to begin by congratulating the new solicitor general, who is an Atlantic Canadian. I can certainly say that he is going to have his hands full in the next number of months.
I must say that today's statement is an absolute and utter disappointment coming from the solicitor general. It really consists of nothing more than another promise in a long line of promises from the Liberal government to introduce new anti-money laundering legislation.
This is the fourth time in two years that the Solicitor General of Canada has made this specific promise. The present minister is the third consecutive minister to make the promise.
Let me refresh the memory of the current solicitor general.
In September 1996, at a summit on organized crime, the solicitor general of the day spoke of the grave concerns with the same grave words used by the solicitor general today regarding the increased threat posed by organized crime.
The solicitor general at that time promised to introduce new legislation to enact new financial reporting requirements regarding suspicious transactions and cross-border money movement.
Thirteen months ago, in November 1997, the solicitor general's immediate predecessor stood in the House and delivered his first and last ministerial statement on organized crime. He too promised anti-money laundering legislation.
In April of the same year, the same solicitor general reiterated the same promise to yet again introduce anti-money laundering legislation at an organized crime summit.
While the government held summits and made promises, organized crime continued to increase and flourish in this country. In particular, Canada has earned the unsavoury international reputation as one of the better places in the world for criminals to hide their illegal cash. That is not a partisan comment on my part. That is the conclusion of the U.S. State Department.
In its annual report on the international narcotics control strategy, the State Department of the United States called Canada “an easy target for drug related and other types of money laundering”. The report also put Canada in the same low category as Brazil and the Cayman Islands for its organized crime. The U.S. State Department also cited Canada's weak money laundering laws as the main reason our country is viewed as a safe haven for many international criminals.
More promises from this solicitor general are not good enough. The law enforcement community is tired of the promises and is tired of hearing about pending legislation. They want action.
It is not unlike the Minister of Justice, who has repeatedly expressed her commitment to table young offender legislation in this House. We are still waiting.
In August 1998, a senior CSIS official said that organized crime in this country was at a crisis level. It is ironic that yesterday's report from CSIS indicated that there are international crime syndicates operating in this country. They have identified 18 international crime syndicates operating at this time.
This government's repeated broken promises to introduce new legislation against organized crime have kept Canada's doors open.
I am also extremely disappointed that the solicitor general decided not to address the organized crime funding crunch in any meaningful way in his remarks. The platitudes ring quite hollow for all law enforcement agencies when they do not see the dollars coming from this government to back them up. Simply recognizing the problem is not good enough. Calling it serious is not good enough.
Initiatives in pending legislation do not cut it. Last spring I challenged the solicitor general of the day to justify the $74 million cut in this fiscal year to the RCMP's organized crime budget. The solicitor general said that my information was wrong, much in the same way he denied having an inappropriate conversation with Fred Toole, much in the same way the Minister of Transport denied allegations today.
Those allegations came from the commissioner of the RCMP and the auditor general. The fact is that the RCMP in their documents indicate that $74 million or 13% was cut from RCMP funding for policing services.
This was reaffirmed in a letter of July 1998 from the RCMP commissioner. The one and only strategic priority of the RCMP federal policing services is protection against organized crime.
Specific responsibilities of federal policing services include the government's anti-smuggling initiative, proceeds of crime, coastal enforcement, immigration enforcement and the criminal intelligence program. These areas are all in decline.
How does the solicitor general honestly expect this House or the RCMP, our national policing organization, to do its job in fighting organized crime when the budget has been absolutely gutted by the finance minister? Both the solicitor general's predecessor and the RCMP commissioner publicly called for more resources to combat organized crime. Front line police officers in every major Canadian city from St. John's to Vancouver are overwhelmingly asking that this resource be allocated.
It does not matter what the solicitor general says unless he is prepared to back up the words. The presence of biker gangs on the streets of Canada is becoming all too common a sight. The strongest message that the solicitor general could give today against organized crime would be to restore funding. Instead we get more of the rhetoric that we have heard time and time again.
Today's statement by the new solicitor general provided him with a golden opportunity to put his own stamp on his new ministry and to prove that he is more than just a nice guy who is busy undergoing on-the-job training.
RCMP, CSIS, corrections officers, customs officers and all of our law enforcement officers deserve our congratulations, particularly given what they are working with these days. I urge the new solicitor general, if nothing else, if he really wants to do something about organized crime, to visit the finance minister and make a strong pitch for what is needed, more funding.