Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House, but it is also a pleasure to rise on Bill C-230, a private member's bill I drafted. I want to thank all of my colleagues, obviously the ones from my own party who spoke in favour of this bill today but also colleagues in other parties who have expressed a willingness to see this bill sent to committee, which I hope we will be able to do at the end of my remarks this morning.
I would also like to thank the legislative drafters, a small team that does great work, Marie-Claude Hébert and Marie Danik, who helped draft this legislation. We should recognize all of the work they do to support private members' business. Unlike government ministers who have legions and a number of resources at their disposal, this group in the House of Commons supports us very well, and we are very well served by their expertise.
To follow up on some of the comments, it is important that taxpayers know how their money is being used. When the government, through CRA, goes after or contacts regular Canadians to pay monies they owe the government and starts charging interest on the first day they miss a payment or the first day they are late for very nominal sums, sometimes as low as $100 or even less, it is offensive to every sensible person to know that behind the cloak of secrecy, officials within CRA or the government, in general, are waiving millions and millions, tens of millions and, in some cases, hundreds of millions in debts owed to the government. This happens with a stroke of the pen behind closed doors. This is the kind of transparency that we need.
Unfortunately, we are going backward. My colleague from Kitchener South—Hespeler just mentioned how Prime Minister Trudeau ran on having a very open government, and now the government is deleting its emails and messages after 30 days. That is quite a reversal.
I do not want to get too far ahead of myself and off topic because I understand we have support to see this bill sent to committee. I will have more to say on this if it is successful and comes back to the House, but I would mention that I am open to reasonable amendments. I will make myself available to the minister and his office, who I have been appreciative of so far in terms of getting information and having comprehensive and fruitful discussions. That is how this chamber is supposed to work. We are supposed to collaborate.
This is a great bill and a great idea. We will improve transparency on behalf of all taxpayers.