Madam Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-230, an act to amend the Financial Administration Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts.
Before I begin my speech, I would like to very briefly address a tragedy in my community. I recently met with a grieving mother in Penticton who lost her son when he was swarmed, assaulted and beaten until he died. That horrifying event occurred four and a half years ago, yet it has still not gone to trial. Justice delayed is justice denied to the family and friends of victims and to this mother. A full and fair day in court should not take almost half a decade.
Returning to the legislation, I want to thank my esteemed colleague the member for Simcoe North for bringing this important legislation forward. He has been a great colleague to me, and I know he is widely respected across this entire chamber.
This legislation addresses one of the most important aspects of governance: transparency in our taxes. Now, while there has always been disagreement across the House on how tax dollars should be spent, there has been an agreement among all parties that we should always be able to see where they are spent. This is what makes this legislation so important. It seeks to cast transparency on potentially billions of dollars lost every year with no window for the public to understand why.
Just a few years ago, a Conservative colleague of mine discovered that the Canada Revenue Agency had written off $133 million in taxes owed by just one taxpayer. Was this a person? Was this a corporation? The CRA would not say. The CRA did not have to say. Can Canadians know if this was a person or a corporation that benefited from public subsidies? No. When the Liberals approved $1.2 billion in 11 separate corporate tax debt writeoffs in 2024, were Canadians allowed to know which corporations were involved? No.
In Canada today, corporate debt owed to the Canadian government through the Canada Revenue Agency can be written off, waived or forgiven entirely in secret. There is no requirement for the CRA to tell Canadians which corporation had these debts written off or the reasons they were written off. There is no explanation of how nearly 60,000 public employees at the CRA were unable to collect these enormous outstanding debts.
There is a curtain here that disguises millions, if not billions, in lost collections owed to the government. In fact, just last year, the Liberals wrote off $18.4 million in outstanding taxes, and billions owed by corporations. That is not right. Ultimately, these are tax dollars lost that Ottawa would move to collect from Canadians elsewhere to make up the revenue shortfall.
Residents and small businesses in my riding do not often get this type of treatment from the CRA. When their taxes are outstanding, or even just slightly off when filed, they see the letters in their mailbox, the voice mails on their phone and the emails in their inbox. They see interest charges and collection attempts. We see them in our offices regularly. Regular citizens are chased down for small amounts. Many businesses I meet with are frantic because they cannot even get a hold of someone at the CRA, let alone understand what went wrong or why they owe this amount. Sometimes they just need to talk to somebody.
There are single mothers and older Canadians who do not have the means to pay what might seem like a small amount compared with these huge amounts I have been speaking about, but these people are trying their best to do the right thing, so they come into our offices. They should not have to do that. It is time for fairness and transparency at the CRA. This is a start, and that is why I support Bill C-230.
The bill would create an accessible, searchable public registry under the Treasury Board. The registry would annually publish a list of all corporate entities that have had debts owed to the government waived, forgiven or written off, if the amount exceeds $1 million. Attached to each case would have to be an explanation, and this is extremely important, as to why the Canada Revenue Agency says it is not worth pursuing millions, possibly billions, in outstanding debt.
We know this reasoning exists internally at the CRA. It may even be understandable, such as in bankruptcy proceedings, but the registry would make it clear and public. I know there has been some discussion about the million-dollar threshold for reporting, and I believe the author of the legislation says he is open to good-faith amendments to this.
We should make it clear that the legislation would apply only to corporate entities and is set with that in mind. It is not the purpose of the legislation to shame an individual Canadian or even a family farm that might be going through a bankruptcy proceeding. The focus of the law would be on giving Canadians more information, especially when they see the government seeking to engage in, for example, corporate welfare. It is too common for Canadians to see press releases and ribbon cuttings for public subsidies and tax dollars being used to try to pick winners in our economy, only for those projects or expansions to fall flat.
We have seen this very recently with the Liberals' approach to the auto sector over the last several years, with shiny deals announced only to be followed up with the downsizing of Canadian workers. Now, if these same companies have their debts written off, there is no way for Canadians to know. The bill would shine a light through this fog.
In the age of deficits, when the Liberals continue to insist that debt is permanent, that the budget will never be balanced and that we will always be spending more than we take in, it is even more critical to ensure that the money Ottawa is owed is collected. When we set taxes and undercollect, the pressure always pushes the government to raise more taxes to fill the gap. It is vital to ensure that the highest taxpayers do not wriggle out of their obligations, because that pressure will ultimately fall on those who can pay less to make up the shortfall.
Proper tax collection is what sets the floor for reducing the tax burden on working Canadians. The record-high amounts that the Liberals have been writing off, with, again, $18 billion written off in just one year, only sets conditions for more tax hikes.
There were many well-deserved tributes to former prime minister Stephen Harper last week. One of his accomplishments that I did not hear enough about was how, by 2015, he had reduced the federal tax burden to its lowest level in over 50 years. Canadians are no longer the beneficiaries of that sound fiscal policy. To ensure we have the transparency in our tax system that helps to set the conditions for lower taxes, I would call on all members of the House to pass Bill C-230.