Madam Speaker, I am proud to have raised the matter of tax havens in the House of Commons.
Motion No. 42 is the Bloc Québécois's first motion in this Parliament, and there is a reason for that. I am a separatist because I want Quebec to handle matters within the purview of sovereign nations itself. International taxation is one of those matters.
Tax treaties are the cornerstone of international taxation, which means that Quebec cannot get involved. Unless the federal government closes the loopholes that enable sharks to use tax havens, Quebec will continue to lose income too. Quebec's National Assembly knows that. On April 14, it adopted more or less the same resolution we are talking about today, pointing a finger squarely at Ottawa. The National Assembly recognized that the solution I have proposed could help fix the problem. Members of all parties in the National Assembly unanimously asked the House to support my motion. Until something changes, taxpayers, citizens, will have to make up for the shortfall by paying higher taxes and fees and settling for reduced services. As a social democrat, I cannot accept that.
There is no social justice without tax justice. There is no justice at all when the financial sector hides its money in the Caribbean and ordinary people are left paying the bill. As a result of this shortfall, Quebec is cutting funding for homework clubs and increasing the cost of child care. Ottawa is cutting transfers. In the meantime, bankers are keeping their billions under the sun in the Caribbean and it is totally above board. That is the problem.
Canada represents only 2% of global GDP. That is not a lot. However, the IMF said last summer that three major Canadian banks, the Royal Bank of Canada, Scotia Bank, and CIBC represented 80% of the banking assets in Barbados, Grenada, and the Bahamas. Furthermore, Canadian banks represent 60% of the assets of the eight other tax havens that make up the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
Canada is not an economic superpower, but it is a superpower in these tax havens, which is no accident. The regulatory framework was written purposely to allow banks and multinationals to avoid paying taxes here. I say “regulatory framework” because the problem is indeed regulatory in nature.
No tax treaty allows for the use of tax havens, no matter what my Conservative colleague says. He clearly did not read the note that I sent him. Even the treaty with Barbados does not cover the shell companies that enjoy tax breaks in Barbados. With regard to the other tax havens, Canada has not signed tax treaties with them. No treaty allows for the use of tax havens, no matter what my Liberal colleague says, and neither does the Income Tax Act.
Parliament has never allowed the use of tax havens because parliamentarians did their job when passing laws and treaties. They prohibited tax havens. The government is the one that did not do its job. It is the government that violated a decision of Parliament. The government declared, by regulation, that the laws and treaties that parliamentarians had passed did not apply and that the banks could be exempt from paying tax on profits by transferring that money to the Caribbean. I repeat: parliamentarians have never authorized the use of tax havens. If my motion is rejected, it will be the very first time that parliamentarians do so. I trust that they will not authorize tax havens now, particularly since international pressure to put an end to this scourge is rising.
By adopting my motion, Parliament will send the strong message that we will not accept tax avoidance and the use of tax havens. The government must take action by repealing section 5907, which it ordered in secret. This vote will be the first time that members are being clearly asked whether they are for or against tax havens. That makes this a historic vote. I trust that this Parliament will stand on the right side of history. I sincerely hope that it will.