Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to follow up on a question I asked on March 22 during question period in order to obtain a more substantive answer. I especially want to reiterate the facts at issue.
I would first like to explain what led to the question of March 22, 2016. An investigative report revealed what is known as the “Lake Champlain scheme”. This report also revealed that the deputy minister of public safety directly intervened in the matter even though he is responsible for the Canada Border Services Agency, which is obviously involved in this infamous Lake Champlain scheme. The deputy minister intervened directly in an attempt to ensure that this scheme, if I may call it that, would continue.
I will recall the facts. Through this scheme, owners avoid paying taxes on the purchases of vessels. I can provide a simple and quick explanation. When you buy a good intended for export, you do not pay the taxes, including duties, if the good comes from another country. That applies to European vessels, for example. When you buy this item for export, it obviously has to be exported. You buy the vessel in Lake Champlain, in Canada, and then you export it to the United States. The border is right there; it is not very complicated. You then navigate to the United States on a vessel registered and licensed in Canada, which is deemed to be free of duty when it is in U.S. waters. In this case, when you cross the border, you do not have to pay U.S. taxes because the boat is not considered to have been imported.
The most disgusting thing about this scheme is that people can come back to Canada to put their boats in storage. The Canada Border Services Agency allows what can rightly be called a scheme because boat owners can come back to Canada to store their boats at marinas around Lake Champlain for the winter. People are bringing goods that were initially intended for export back here for the winter. The next summer, that boat is back in American waters.
Even the Canada Border Services Agency called this procedure a scheme in an internal memo. I would like to quote from the Radio-Canada article that mentions the Canada Border Services Agency's email:
A Border Services Agency internal email confirms the existence of this practice, calling it a “scheme” and stating that there are at least 600 boats on which no tax or duty has been paid on Lake Champlain.
This problem facilitates and perpetuates the violation of Canadian laws and perhaps American laws too. It costs Canada significant revenue. This scheme needs to be stopped as soon as possible.
That message was revealed in the investigative report.
In response to the message, the Gosselin marina expressed concern. It said:
We also obtained an email chain dated August 14. The chain begins with Christine Gosselin, one of the owners of Marina Gosselin in Saint-Paul-de-l'Île-aux-Noix, who writes directly to François Guimont, the deputy minister responsible for the RCMP, CSIS, and the Canada Border Services Agency.
“I heard from a reliable source that as of next week, customs officers will no longer be allowing boats on which no tax or duty has been paid to enter Canada without written directions from Ottawa”, she writes.
In response to my question, the minister said:
Mr. Speaker, the deputy minister has engaged with the Ethics Commissioner on this file, and she will provide any advice that is necessary.
Accordingly, could the parliamentary secretary who is here today tell us what advice the Ethics Commissioner had to give and what has been done about this issue since I asked the question on March 22, 2016?