Mr. Speaker, I rise again today to provide an addendum to the submission I made on May 3 to my original question of privilege raised on April 4, 2017.
As you will recall, and the record will show, my original question of privilege concerned statements made by the Minister of National Defence in this House concerning the hardship benefits, danger pay, and the tax relief status of members of the Canadian Armed Forces stationed in Kuwait on Operation Impact.
The additional information and evidence supporting my question of privilege comes from a briefing note provided to the Minister of National Defence and obtained through the Access to Information Act by my office on Friday, as well as a ministerial order issued by the President of the Treasury Board on April 17, 2017. The briefing note reads in part:
The initial assessments for the Op IMPACT (Kuwait) locations were conducted on 11 June 2015 (with an effective date of 5 October 2014, the start of the operation) and established a Risk Level of 2.13. In accordance with the Income Tax Act, the Minister of National Defence requested that the Minister of Finance designate Op IMPACT (Kuwait) locations for Tax Relief. The Minister of Finance concurred with the request and designated Op IMPACT (Kuwait) for Tax Relief.
Therefore, under the previous Conservative government, all members of the Canadian Armed Forces deployed to Operation Impact in Kuwait were provided with a tax relief status on their hardship and risk pay effective October 5, 2014. This was able to occur because former defence minister Jason Kenney took the initiative to request that then finance minister Joe Oliver designate Operation Impact, Kuwait location, for tax relief. The request was approved without question simply because it was the right thing to do.
The solution to this problem is rather simple and should have never reached this point. The briefing note goes on to say that the tax relief status was re-evaluated on March 31, 2016, under the current Liberal government. The result of this re-evaluation was that our troops stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait could no longer receive the benefit, effective September 1, 2016.
According to the briefing note that was prepared by the Minister of National Defence on November 24, 2016, all troops stationed in Kuwait on Operation Impact were receiving the benefit effective the first day of the operation, October 5, 2014, until September 1, 2016. The minister and his office were aware of this.
However, the Minister of National Defence said in the House on March 21, 2017, “the previous government was the one that actually sent our troops to Iraq without the tax-free benefit.” In question period on March 8, he said, “I would also like to correct the member in terms of the previous government's actions on this. It actually sent troops into Kuwait without the tax-free allowance”. On March 9, during a debate on this very issue, the minister said, “Our troops did not have tax-free status when they were actually deployed for that operation. It was in February 2016, after my visit to Kuwait.” During that debate, he also said, “I cannot change reality. When I visited the troops, they did not have a tax-free allowance.”
The minister has already apologized once for his attempt to change reality. I hope he does so again, and this time actually takes responsibility for his wrongdoings. The Minister of National Defence's first visit to Kuwait was in November 2015. As I read in my original question of privilege and the addendum, the tax relief status was effective from October 2014 until September 2016. Therefore, while the minister was visiting troops in November 2015 in Kuwait, the tax relief status was still in place.
We now have several documents in our possession that prove all soldiers deployed to Kuwait on Operation Impact were receiving tax-free status on their hardship and risk pay effective from the date that the operation began, October 5, 2014, until September 1, 2016, including a briefing note prepared specifically for the minister and a response to an Order Paper question with the minister's signature.
Furthermore, due to the government's lack of willingness to take action to correct the mistake of cancelling the tax-free status for the soldiers in Kuwait in Operation Impact, I had to table a motion on March 9, 2017, on behalf of the official opposition which reads:
That the House call on the government to show support and appreciation for the brave men and women serving in the Canadian Armed Forces by reversing its decision to take away from the soldiers fighting against ISIS the tax benefit which provides them with $1,500 to $1,800 per month for the hardship and risk associated with their deployment, and to retroactively provide the payment to members stationed at Camp Arifjan whose tax relief was cancelled as of September 1, 2016.
The motion was passed unanimously. The minister told this House, “We support the motion related to Canadian Forces members at Camp Arifjan, who were deployed when the risk level was adjusted.”
However, on April 17, 2017, the President of the Treasury Board issued a ministerial directive to provide personnel at Ali Al Salem Air Base tax exempt status until August 16, 2017, while those at Camp Arifjan, a mere 40 kilometres away, were only provided the tax exempt status until December 18, 2016.
Furthermore, the access to information request I referenced also notes that the chief of the defence staff provided direction to evaluate the Kuwait region as a whole rather than each base separately. This direction was ignored, which is evidenced by the ministerial order that extended the tax exemption for Ali Salem Air Base to August 2017, while Camp Arifjan had its benefit cut as of December 2016. I hope the government is not being vindictive and penalizing our troops at Camp Arifjan for speaking out about this unfair situation.
Therefore, the government did not reverse its decision to take away the tax benefit. It only provided retroactive payments for three and a half months, leaving soldiers deployed for up to eight months without the tax exemption.
To summarize, on multiple occasions in this House, the Minister of National Defence accused the previous government of deploying troops to Kuwait and Iraq without the tax exemption. We now have a response to Order Paper Question No. 600 with the minister's signature, multiple access to information requests, and a quote from the minister in an April 19 press release from DND that say otherwise.
Furthermore, by supporting the Conservative motion on March 21, 2017, the minister agreed to retroactively pay the tax relief benefit to soldiers at Camp Arifjan. However, a ministerial directive issued by the President of the Treasury Board on April 17, 2017, and a press release issued by DND on April 19, 2017, state that those troops will only be receiving retroactive payments for three and half months and not for their full deployment.
The Minister of National Defence has a clear, intentional, and repetitive pattern of making misleading statements.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I submit, for your consideration, the following documents: the access to information request I just referred to; the ministerial order from the President of the Treasury Board issued on April 17, 2017; the response to Order Paper Question No. 600, signed by the Minister of National Defence; and the press release issued by the Department of National Defence on April 19, 2017, confirming the ministerial order and that troops deployed to Kuwait for Operation Impact had the tax exempt status effective on the first date of their deployment.
I look forward to the ruling on my question of privilege.