Mr. Speaker, this morning the Journal de Montréal reported that the government signed a tax information exchange agreement with Cook Islands, a tax haven in the Pacific. We all want to prevent fraud, so exchanging information seems innocent enough, but this is a scam.
There is more to this information exchange agreement than meets the eye. It gives businesses carte blanche to use the Cook Islands so they do not have to pay taxes here. Basically, the “Crook” Islands is now the 24th member of a select group of tax havens with a free pass from the government.
The government goes on and on about how it is combatting tax fraud. How? By using agreements to legalize fraud? The government is stealthily giving fat cats a free pass with these tax treaties masquerading as information exchange agreements. Then the rest of us have to pay twice as much because the bankers made off with the cash.
Enough sneaking around. It is time this government was exposed as the handmaid of Bay Street multimillionaires.