Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. Tax evasion and tax avoidance are extremely important issues. As he said when he referred to how most businesses and individuals pay their taxes, problems arise when we consider the amounts that are not making it to the government coffers. Some people who are already in a position of privilege and power are benefiting from a system that has clearly failed in achieving fairness, in this case tax fairness, within our society.
The multilateral instrument that we are talking about here today reminds me of the debate that we had in the House of Commons during the last Parliament about the free trade deal with Panama. Before ratifying a free trade agreement with that country, the United States made sure that Panama had made a firm, official commitment to combat tax evasion and that it was making an effort to ensure that the United States was getting the money it was entitled to. Canada did not do that. That was one of the reasons why we opposed the agreement signed by the previous government.
Does my colleague not believe that we should ensure that the countries with which we sign free trade deals do more to ensure that the money belonging to our own citizens comes back to us?