Mr. Speaker, some necessary prerequisites should be put in place in concert with passing this bill. One of those is to plug the offshore tax haven loopholes that exist so that these characters, after they serve their mandatory sentence, cannot spirit their money offshore and then simply enjoy the hundreds of millions of dollars that they have stolen from Canadians.
We have been calling for years to have the federal government plug the last offshore tax havens. The former Prime Minister of Canada eliminated 11 of these tax treaties. He left in place the one tax haven where he himself had 13 dummy shell companies for Canada Steamship Lines.
It is about time that we closed those tax havens too so that we can get access and perhaps reimburse some of the people who have been cheated, as well as punish the offenders.