Mr. Speaker, Canadians work hard to pay their taxes. They want their government to treat their tax dollars with respect and they want to ensure that everybody pays their fair share. That is why in budget 2005, the Liberal government invested $30 million to fight tax havens. That $30 million helped the government collect an additional $2.5 billion in tax revenues since then.
However, instead of building on that success, the Conservatives are cutting the CRA. In June, they issued 400 layoff notices to CRA auditors.
The Conservatives need to develop a real plan to crack down on tax evasion. The first step toward solving a problem is actually knowing how big a problem it is.
The Tax Justice Network estimates that governments around the world are losing about $280 billion per year to tax evasion. We have asked the Conservatives to publish an official estimate of how much money our federal and provincial governments lose each year to tax evasion.
Canadians who work hard and play by the rules deserve to know how big the problem is. They deserve to know what—