Mr. Speaker, this is Christmas time in Canada. It is known as the time of giving, not taking.
We are here today talking about government behaviour and how it takes its taxes. From my historical reference book which sits on the clerk's table in front of me in the centre aisle of this Commons chamber, I want to quote a relevant portion about taxes at Christmas time. The book is the fundamental legal and cultural base reference work for Canadian society, where we look at the roots of our Canadian origin.
We can understand from the reference I will quote that it has long been viewed as legitimate that governments can tax, can count its subjects and render economic recompense to the central authority. Specifically the Bible says in Luke, chapter two:
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife—
We learn from this venerable reference that indeed taxes, levies or a portion of production including the census of all, has traditionally been taken from individuals to serve the purposes of those in power. Therefore in history governments tax and people pay. It has always been that way.
However the fundamental political question for our society now is how the government takes or collects its taxes and how, with its degree of wisdom, does it use the revenue taken. For some years now Canadian governments have taxed too much, spent too much and thus we owe too much. And now at Christmas time we are presented in this parliament with a whole new regime of federal taxation.
The bill changes the legal basis of how taxes are collected. We are creating a new agency that is something akin to a crown corporation, as we have known them in Canada, as the final controller of economic life.
Specifically the government has proposed Bill C-43 which establishes the Canada customs and revenue agency to carry out the mandate of the Department of National Revenue and repeals the Department of National Revenue Act. The Minister of National Revenue is named as the minister responsible for the agency.
The minister continues to be accountable for the administration and enforcement of federal tax, trade and customs legislation. The agency supports the minister in the administration and enforcement of such legislation and the minister directs the commissioner of customs and revenue and the agency employees in that regard. The enactment also authorizes the agency to contract with the provinces to administer provincial tax and other programs.
This enactment sets out the responsibilities, accountability regime, organization, human and financial resources regime and planning and reporting framework of the agency. It establishes a board of management to oversee the management of the agency and gives the commissioner of customs and revenue responsibility for day to day management of the agency as its chief executive officer. The minister may issue written directions to the agency in matters within the authority and responsibility of the board that affect public policy or could materially affect public finances.
The agency continues to be subject to Treasury Board's requirements with respect to financial management but has its own authorities for matters such as human resources, contracting and property management. The agency must annually submit a corporate business plan to the minister for recommendation to the Treasury Board and the minister must table a summary of the plan in parliament. The plan must include the strategies the agency intends to use to meet its human resources and other administrative objectives as well as the proposed operating and capital budgets.
This bill may be the sleeper hold on Canadians which will catch us unaware. The bill is a dramatic historical change. It is powerful and pervasive.
Consequently the official opposition has put forward a comprehensive proposal for a taxpayer bill of rights. It would enumerate for the first time in federal law a number of rights to due process for taxpayers in the collection system. There are rights existing now with manuals of operation, interpretation bulletins and various rulings, but a single charter list of performance standards and actionable rules that are listed up front for taxpayers to hang on to just is not there. It has never been administratively convenient for bureaucracies to be user friendly or too willing to provide its servant clients with too much bargaining power against the official edicts of the department.
Essentially our draft taxpayer bill of rights would have legislative force. It would essentially ensure in legislation that taxpayers would be presumed innocent until proven guilty in the tax process. It would reverse the onus which is now on taxpayers who too often are determined to be guilty and financially penalized before even being ruled innocent. Furthermore it would give taxpayers various avenues of appeal.
Currently if taxpayers of ordinary means find, as they do in many cases, that they have been unduly targeted by a heartless collection agent at Revenue Canada, they have only one real avenue of recourse and that is through the tax court. The vast majority of people of modest means do not have the resources to use the appeal process through the courts. They cannot hire tax lawyers and spend months and years and tens of thousands of dollars defending their basic rights.
We propose as part of our taxpayer bill of rights the adoption of an office for taxpayer protection which would essentially be an ombudsman to adjudicate legitimate disputes between taxpayers and the revenue agency. It would essentially provide an avenue of appeal and mediation which would be far less costly and far more accessible to taxpayers than what currently exists. These two measures, a taxpayer bill of rights and the adoption of an office of taxpayer protection, would go a very long way toward protecting Canadian taxpayers in the new era of the Canada customs and revenue agency.
We can see no good reason, nor has the government offered a single good reason, why a taxpayer bill of rights ought not to be introduced and passed as part of the bill before us today. I call on the government to consider our sincere, detailed and thoughtful proposal for a taxpayer bill of rights. If the minister were to give us an inclination that he was willing to seriously consider this kind of recommendation that we have made, we in turn as the official opposition certainly would seriously consider fully supporting the bill because of some of the administrative innovations that may be achieved by it.
It is clear that many Canadians are not satisfied with the level of fairness and due process in the tax collection system. There is a need to entrench and protect the taxpayers rights as the agency becomes more distant from government. In a previous speech I outlined some of the suggested specific terms of a list of written rights which parallel some of the rules of fundamental justice concerning due process. There are some rights now but taxpayers do not know them and there is no tax charter.
In conclusion, it must be a fundamental principle and it would be of a Reform government, that the rights of taxpayers must supersede the efficiency enhancements or the interests of the agency. We must guard against agency interests overwhelming taxpayer interests. Let us never forget about who works for whom. Certainly we have evolved somewhat since Caesar taxed the world.
As Reformers proceed to get support for a more simplified and flatter tax system, we are going to try to be vigilant to monitor that any benefits derived from the new CCRA are not lost due to the greater damage wrought upon taxpayers through poor implementation and assaults upon taxpayers' basic dignity of the person. An office of taxpayer protection in place to enforce the taxpayer bill of rights represents a very low cost, partially self-financing, effective tool for protecting citizens and ensuring that the human cost of change and implementation are carefully considered. For, in spite of the technical nature of revenue collection, it is still all about people and how we as a society organize ourselves to be governed with fairness, equality and above all, compassion.