Madam Speaker, I would like to thank all of my colleagues, especially those who are kind enough to remind the members that they are supposed to ask for that at the beginning of their remarks.
As I said, the numbers are breathtaking. These are sums of money earned by individuals and companies—both real people and corporations—in jurisdictions like our own where there are institutions that guarantee the rule of law, competent courts untainted by corruption, police forces, educational institutions and so on. All of that costs our society money to ensure the peace, order and good government we have enjoyed here in Canada for 150 years. Then, once they have earned money thanks to these institutions that cost all taxpayers money, they are rich enough and organized enough to get their money out of this country and stash it away in opaque—non-transparent—jurisdictions. In other words, they do not pay their fair share of the cost of the social institutions that helped them get rich.
This is not just about cheating on taxes. This is about swindling the society that helped them get rich. That is what we need to tackle, and it is hogwash to suggest that such a treaty will curb tax evasion. That is not true. All we have to do is review the list of jurisdictions that have signed similar conventions with Canada to see that we are still signing agreements with problematic countries.
That brings me to another major concern about Bill S-3. This bill covers three countries. The issue I am about to raise has nothing to do with Greece or Turkey, but it does have to do with Colombia, and we believe that including that country in this treaty is a poison pill. The government knew exactly what it was doing when it included Colombia in a bill that also covers two countries that are not problematic in this regard.
All members are aware of our fierce opposition to the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. There is a reason for it and it is not difficult to understand. If Canada is prepared to sign a free trade agreement with another country because it says that how we do business, deal with people, train our professionals, our way of being and our values are fairly similar, the other party must respect our basic values such as the respect for human rights. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the current government in Colombia.
That is at the root of our fierce opposition to the free trade agreement with Colombia, proposed by the Conservative government. We will vote in favour of the principle of Bill S-3. This bill could make it possible, for example, for a young Greek couple, working one half of the year in Canada and the other in Greece, to avoid double taxation. That is reasonable. However, we want to make it clear right now that although we are voting to send Bill S-3 to a parliamentary committee, once it gets there, we will do everything possible in terms of House procedure to split the bill, to amend it and to use every means available to remove the part concerning Colombia. That is understandable because we have to be consistent.
Therefore, while recognizing that there may be a young Colombian couple in the same situation, we will continue to work with the authorities in that country and with groups trying to raise the bar for human rights. Let us be clear, we cannot, on the one hand, express our fierce opposition to a free trade agreement with Colombia and, on the other, agree to the signing of this type of treaty. Consequently, it can be expected that the NDP will do everything possible, at the parliamentary committee, to split the bill and remove the part concerning Colombia or, once again, to amend it.