Mr. Speaker, I had to laugh when I heard my colleague from Mississauga South mention that this new agency would be able to solve the long standing problems that have been plaguing Revenue Canada.
This is trying to fool people, especially when we see what the agency will have to offer. There is an old saying that “Taxation without representation is tyranny”. Others say that representation, now that we have it, is worse than tyranny.
The government wants to set up an agency whose decision-making powers are removed from the elected representatives. It will have many powers including the authority to administer and impose regulations that might take unfair advantage of taxpayers even more than now. The current government seems to turn a blind eye to the increasing poverty in this country. It seems bent on reducing taxes for the rich.
I would like to put a question to my colleague regarding clause 8 of the bill. This clause seems to grant limitless powers to the agency. I would like to ask the member for Mississauga South for his views on this clause.
I will now read the most significant sentence of this clause:
The Minister may authorize the Commissioner... subject to any terms and conditions that the minister specify, to exercise or perform on the Minister's behalf any power, duty or function of the Minister under any Act of Parliament or of a province.
Does this not mean that the agency has total freedom to do whatever it wants at the expense of Canadian taxpayers and their elected representatives?