Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-22, the money laundering act.
The report stage amendments have been very constructive and helpful in addressing some of the issues I raised when speaking to this legislation earlier. The legislation without these types of constructive amendments would provide a carte blanche, a blank cheque to the new agency which has the ability to effectively pursue activities without any checks and balances and potentially persecute innocent Canadians in the course of its activities.
It is in the interests of accountability and ensuring that the rights of all Canadians are respected and protected against all powerful institutions, particularly these new agencies, whether it is the Revenue Canada agency or this new money laundering agency. We need to ensure that we in the House are vigilant in protecting the rights of each and every Canadian.
My greatest concern, and I raised this when speaking to this legislation earlier, is that ultimately the money laundering agency would have the power to refer information on questionable cases to Revenue Canada. If that is done only in cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering is one thing. However, if in a case where there may not be enough evidence to suggest money laundering activities but some evidence of tax evasion exists and the money laundering agency refers the matter to the Revenue Canada agency, that is a very different matter. We need to ensure that with the combination of these two agencies we are not creating a turbocharged Revenue Canada agency that has a greater level of power to pursue and persecute Canadians.
My concern on the Revenue Canada agency as brought forth earlier was that it has the capacity to become an IRS style agency, Godzilla the tax collector. The new money laundering agency could augment the powers of an unaccountable agency and make it even more frightening to the average Canadian taxpayer.
The accountability and transparency that would result from the amendments would go a long way to help address a fundamental flaw with the original legislation. I would hope that members in the House will support these amendments and will continue to monitor the activities of these agencies on an ongoing basis.
We do not want to create a system of fear in Canada for the average taxpaying citizen that at the other end of the tax enforcement side we are actually creating a turbocharged Revenue Canada agency. We do not want to tilt the balance against the average Canadian taxpayer who in the past has had to deal with Revenue Canada, now the new Revenue Canada agency, without a lot of defences.
Again, with the new money laundering agency, anything we can do to ensure that its activities are held accountable by some means, in this case by reporting and by some independent analysis and parliamentary reporting and so on, that will all help take the necessary steps in the right direction.
The Progressive Conservative Party would be supportive of the direction of these amendments and hope that other members of parliament would see these amendments as being constructive.