Madam Speaker, it is always good to see you on Mondays, although, as you know, the same is also true for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
I will not keep anyone in suspense today. We support this bill, which promotes transparency in the administration of the public finances. As members know, the government is a huge machine with many departments, agencies and Crown corporations. Take, for example, the Canada Revenue Agency, which operates at arm's length from the CRA minister and the government and which is owed certain debts. We support more transparency. That is basically what the member for Simcoe North is proposing today.
What does this bill propose? Basically, it proposes keeping a registry of significant debts owed by certain entities that have been waived, written off or forgiven. When a business, individual or entity owes money to the Canadian government and the government decides to waive, write off or forgive that debt, it will all be entered into a registry that can easily be consulted by parliamentarians, the media and anyone interested in the public finances. We think this is a good thing.
Obviously there will have to be rules and smart parameters governing this. We also think the bill is well written. We are used to seeing well-thought-out bills from the member for Simcoe North. This bill focuses on debts, obligations or claims worth more than $1 million that are waived in whole or in part, meaning the government partly or totally writes them off as a loss.
What would be in the registry? First, it would associate a recognizable name with the debt, obligation or claim. Sometimes businesses incorporate federally or provincially as numbered companies, and we know that people can hide behind those numbers. This requirement would allow parliamentarians, taxpayers and journalists to clearly identify the entity to which the debt, obligation or claim relates. That alone is a good thing. The registry would also state the period to which the debt, obligation or claim relates, the amount owed, the amount waived, written off or forgiven, and, just as importantly, the act under which the debt, obligation or claim was owed or arose.
Obviously, the question here is whether this would add to the burden on public administration. A registry seems like a simple thing since the data already exist. They are already in the public accounts. We just need to add a little more information, make it more accessible and intelligible and put it in a registry. The Bloc Québécois believes that the government already has all of this data ready. However, we have to be careful, because this government tends to complicate simple things and make things more expensive than they need to be. We hope that we will not end up with cost overruns of $3 billion, $4 billion, $5 billion or $10 billion for a simple registry that would make our lives easier and improve transparency.
This is a rather important bill. Of course, we have here the figures from the most recent public accounts. In 2024-25, $5.3 billion in debt was written off, while $1.2 billion was forgiven, for a total of about $7 billion. There was $166 million under the Old Age Security Act alone.
Is everything okay, Madam Speaker?