Mr. Speaker, I for one find it absolutely shocking that the Minister of National Revenue of all people would have the unmitigated gall to stand in her place today and knowingly and willingly turn her back and forgo, or at least turn her back on, this incredible amount of money, which is a lost opportunity for Canadians.
In her job as the watchdog or the person in charge of oversight of our revenue taxation system, it has been brought to her attention many times today and other times that people are knowingly and willingly avoiding paying their fair share of taxes in Canada through these structural and by design tax havens. They are knowingly and willingly avoiding their taxes.
I call it economic treason when Canadian businesses or individuals take deliberate steps to avoid paying their fair share of taxes in Canada, in the country that gave them the opportunity to flourish and prosper and become wealthy for one good reason, because it puts an added burden on the rest of us. We have to shoulder their burden.
I would like the hon. Minister of National Revenue to give us an explanation. Never mind the issue of double taxation. I think we all agree that we need rules in place that no one gets hit twice, but we are talking about people who do not even get hit once. There are chartered banks, for instance. Would she not agree that our chartered banks that enjoy special privileges in this country and deliberately take steps to avoid paying their fair share here should lose their charter and be disciplined in that way for what I call economic treason?