Mr. Speaker, ever since the budget was tabled, we have been waiting for the budget implementation bill that will address this issue. We expected that the Minister of Finance's statement today would clarify the situation. In his statement, we read this:
Our proposed anti-tax-haven initiative is composed of four specific parts:
--Firstly, preventing the use of double dipping and other tax avoidance schemes—
--Secondly, we are providing corporate Canada with a transition period of almost five years—
--Thirdly, any tax revenues generated through the anti-tax-haven initiative will be used to further reduce business taxes in Canada—
--Finally, we will continue to look for ways to bring fairness to Canada’s tax system.
This is not clear. The government said it was important to have the right tools to help companies compete internationally. Many other countries have these sorts of measures. The government told us that it would do away with tax avoidance and the excesses that result from it.
Yet today, the statement simply says that double dipping—making one tax deduction here in Canada and another in the country that receives the funds—will be prohibited. There may even be three countries involved. This should be clarified.
The statement also says that companies will have five years to comply with the rules. These rules must be defined as soon as possible. If they are not clarified in the coming months, companies might invest in the wrong place or delay investing. This is a downside to the government's current position. We need clear, accurate, relevant information as soon as possible.
The government still has work to do. We hope it will release information as soon as possible. In a similar vein, why does the government not just go ahead and abolish the tax treaty with Barbados or at least the specific provision of the treaty whereby profits that return to Canada from Barbados are tax exempt? This is not fair to taxpayers.