Madam Speaker, it is my great pleasure and honour to address the House.
I would like to resurrect a question that I asked in the House on September 22, 2016. Two months ago, during question period, I asked the Minister of National Revenue a question relating to the latest information leak in the news. In September, everyone heard about the Bahamas leaks, which surfaced shortly after the Panama Papers, though the latter are more familiar to Canadians. The information in both was very similar.
Between 1990 and 2016, 175,000 companies were registered in the Bahamas. The information was obtained by a German daily paper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and was then handed over to a consortium of journalists including some from the CBC and the Toronto Star. Three Canadian banks were named in the leaks: RBC, CIBC, and Scotiabank.
This leak of information occurred after the Panama papers, which really alerted the world to the important and growing phenomenon of tax evasion. As everyone knows, globalization and the introduction of technology have increasingly led businesses to use tax evasion schemes. Businesses organize their tax matters with an eye on paying as little in taxes as possible. This is a global trend and Canada is no exception. For that reason, Canada must do more, and it must show leadership in fighting tax evasion. Unfortunately, that is not what we are seeing with this government. There was praise for a few additional investments. However, at the international level, the fight must be fierce, concerted, and led by leaders who care about this. Unfortunately, at this time, Canada is not doing nearly enough on this issue in comparison with other countries.
I therefore asked the minister for the government's response to that new information leak, especially regarding the fact that Canada has a tax information exchange agreement with the Bahamas. That agreement, signed by both countries, allows them to exchange tax information. Despite that, and despite other agreements with other countries, tax evasion continues. Tax evasion in the Bahamas was revealed thanks to that information leak. Despite those agreements, journalists are the ones keeping us informed. Information leaks enable the government to handle these things, conduct investigations, and carry out audits.
I have some basic questions for the parliamentary secretary. Has the government obtained the information that was in the information leak from the Bahamas? How did it get that information and through what source? Was it from a network of journalists, from a government, or from some other source? What did Canada do with the information it has from the Bahamas leaks? What is it doing right now regarding all the files on Canadians involved in this information leak? What happened to the files of Canadian taxpayers involved in this information leak? Can we expect a verdict, prosecutions, and convictions for taxpayers who tried to cheat our tax system?