Madam Speaker, I am rising today to speak to the third grouping of amendments to Bill C-22, in particular Motions Nos. 9 and 11.
I want to say first that I support the bill. We all know there is a need that has been agreed upon both nationally and internationally to combat money laundering. It is a global phenomenon. Enabling and co-ordinating the efforts of different law enforcement agencies through a centralized body such as would be established by this bill certainly is not in question.
I should also say that the amendments I have proposed do alter the bill. I would ask my friends opposite who have proposed a subamendment to think about what my amendments in fact say because I do not believe that we are saying anything differently. I would ask them to consider the following points.
The reason I have proposed these amendments is that I have very specific concerns about the lack of a role for parliament, in particular the House of Commons, in the oversight of the centre established pursuant to the bill, and the limited accountability to parliament, in particular the House of Commons, on the part of the Minister of Finance for the centre's practices. However that certainly is not a criticism of the minister.
My amendments attempt to redress what I would characterize as an undermining of what some would call backbenchers' rights by a bill that allows for too little accounting of actions undertaken in the name of Canadian citizens by the centre. My amendments do not attempt to micromanage or second guess the daily activities of the centre. They attempt to provide a role for members of parliament to monitor the means used by the centre to fulfil its mandate and also to enable members to scrutinize periodically the effectiveness of the policy that underlies Bill C-22.
My first amendment modifies the reporting obligations of the centre's director. As it now stands the director must submit an annual report to the Minister of Finance on the centre's operations for the preceding year. The minister would then table the report to both houses of parliament within 30 days.
Merely tabling the report in parliament does not provide members the opportunity to seriously consider the effectiveness of the centre's activities. It does not enable them to question officials from the centre. It does not permit members to monitor the centre for potentially abusive practices. This is particularly troubling to me, given that some of the witnesses before the committee described the bill's breadth as excessive and the powers reserved for it as potentially sweeping. Legal experts testified that the danger of abuse of power is real and that the safeguards they foresaw in the bill might not be adequate to forestall such abuses.
My amendment proposes an additional step to the formal report made under the current legislation to the Minister of Finance, that it be reviewed by an appropriate parliamentary committee. I understand the desire of my friends opposite to have the bill say it is the House of Commons, but if we look at this, the amendment in fact says that it be reviewed by an appropriate parliamentary committee. It could be designated as a committee of the House of Common. It is very rare that a committee of the Senate would take upon itself such an activity. It could be referred to a committee of parliament that has been established for that purpose.
I would also point out to my friends opposite that the traditional role is for the finance committee to carry out those sorts of things. In some respects I can understand the fear they have that the Senate will come into this but our tradition shows that will not happen.
Requiring a committee to make a report of its own would obligate, I would suggest to my friends opposite, members of parliament to study the effectiveness of the centre. It also would permit concerns to be addressed to the director of the centre and his officials as well as raise any problems that may not have been seen when the bill was created. That is not a very radical idea. I am not in any way suggesting that members could ask who they are investigating, how they are investigating or anything of that nature. It would simply be about where the money is going, how it is being spent and whether it is working.
I have also proposed changes that would add a sunset clause to the provisions that would give effect to the bill limiting those provisions to a period of five years, just like the Bank Act. To quote from the proposed amendment, the sunset clause would require a parliamentary committee to “undertake a comprehensive review of the act, the regulations and their administration and submit a report to parliament including any recommendations pertaining to the continuation of, or changes to, the act, the regulations or their administration that the committee wishes to make”. This process already exists in the Bank Act. It would have to be completed so that new re-enabling legislation could be introduced to parliament. It is very simple. It would have to be considered, voted and acted upon within five calendar years of the time that this act is given royal assent.
Such a provision would allow members of this place to further scrutinize all the aspects of the money laundering act. The sunset provision would also allow changes to be made as new law enforcement techniques are discovered and more important, as different ways of money laundering emerge. There will certainly be techniques and ways we cannot even foresee or imagine today especially with the emergence of electronic technology. In short, I would call it a guard against statutory rust-out. It is a Ziebart provision, if I can call it that.
I said at the beginning of my remarks that this bill undermines backbenchers' rights because we are creating it, giving it regulatory powers, and there is a reporting provision. We know this is not the only piece of legislation that has short-circuited the rights of members in this place. Over the past number of decades, we the backbenchers have witnessed a decline in means of participation in and influence on the great public policy debates. We have little ability to influence new legislation as it is being drafted in the faraway reaches of this place. Nor do we have a parliamentary committee structure that enables members to adequately influence the course of action taken or even to hold ministers to account.
It has become a common practice here to time allocate legislation so that it does not get bogged down in the House. While it is important to ensure against parliamentary gridlock, not having adequate time to debate legislation in some ways invalidates our roles as legislators.
These impediments do not only have implications for our jobs as lawmakers or legislators. Most important, it dangerously weakens the link between those who govern and those who are governed. Important questions about the true nature of democracy arise. In a parliamentary democracy like ours, we as well as our leaders must be aware that the elected members of the House of Commons are the repositories of democracy in this country. We must at all times be aware of the fact that our obligations must remain to our constituents, to national objectives and the ability for us to ask the kinds of questions that are expected.
In recent times these obligations have become misplaced. Increasingly as a body we are giving up our ability to question, to debate and to propose changes to legislation. By having the sunset clause we will bring that back to this place. The idea of depositing a report with the minister is fine and that minister's depositing it in this place is fine, but we need that other connection for us. That is the ability to bring the person responsible before a committee of parliament and allow us from this place to ask those questions. A committee report on the table here does not allow debate, does not allow questions.
I am simply saying that these amendments are not revolutionary. They just allow for the centre and its operations to be subject to the scrutiny of us in this place. The way it stands, that is not the case. For the department to resist such an amendment is not the correct thing to do. It enables us, the backbench members and those who will come here in the future to have some scrutiny of that operation.