Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his broad question. I will try to give him an answer that is more limited in scope.
It is obvious that the government tolerates quasi fraudulent practices such as these and just turns a blind eye.
This morning I heard the Minister of National Revenue, who is responsible for the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, say that is was legal. Of course it is legal; it is this government that makes the laws allowing this kind of tax evasion. It is this government that does not amend our laws, allowing these harmful fiscal practices to go on. Yes, it is legal. This government makes laws promoting tax evasion. Not only does it promote tax evasion, but it encourages investors, through the Department of Foreign Affairs website, to use tax havens. These are harmful practices that have been denounced by the OECD.
The level of hypocrisy is such that Canada has signed the OECD report on the need to eliminate fraudulent fiscal practices on an international scale, saying that tax havens are unacceptable, but it still refuses to terminate a tax agreement with Barbados, the worst tax haven.
My colleagues have referred to the change in the definition of tax havens, which consisted in removing one criterion. Countries were listed as tax havens if they had little or no taxation, an absence of transparency, and an acceptance of shell companies that were merely fronts with a mailing address. That last criterion was removed, reportedly in response to pressure from Canada and 12 other countries. Its existence worked against Canadian investors or Canadian corporations with branch operations which were nothing but fronts and made these kinds of questionable transaction possible.
Once this criterion is removed, obviously only five or six tax havens are left, but in reality the number is closer to fifty. They are all still there. The definition was just changed to please countries that in fact benefited from the existence of tax havens.
Reference has been made to Canadian banks but there are 1,700 companies, branches of Canadian companies, in Barbados and other countries considered tax havens.
By allowing capital to escape in this way, by turning a blind eye to these strategies, which allow major corporations and multinationals with numerous foreign subsidiaries to make transfers, we are depriving ourselves of tax revenue. This money could be invested in education, health, social assistance, highways, or used to help seniors.
Is it not shameful to owe $3 billion to seniors for the last five years and refuse to pay it, to have kept it from them that they might be eligible for the guaranteed income supplement, while we watch hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars going off to countries considered tax havens? It is scandalous.