David Anderson

[Department Of National Revenue, April 26th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, it is very simple to explain why we spent the money, to take the extra customs officers from British Colum-

bia, one from Yukon, three from Alberta, to put them where we had this sudden rush of people crossing the border.

It must be recognized by the hon. member that Canada Customs is the country's first line of defence against the importation of drugs, weapons or terrorism from other countries.

Therefore it is important for us when we are faced with a situation such as we had to make sure we have the people in place who are able to handle it. This type of flexibility is perfectly normal. It took place for the Calgary 1988 winter Olympics. It took place in the Nordic Games in northern Ontario a few months ago and it will take place again if we are successful with other bids for other games in the future.

[Translation]

[Department Of National Revenue, April 26th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I do not have the letter the hon. member refers to but if I may speculate the figure given in the newspaper apparently refers to all the customs officers reassigned to Victoria and Vancouver to take care of the number of people who came specifically for the games, be they athletes, officials or tourists who were there in the regular course of events.

There were a total of 60 people reassigned and of these there were some who were from my staff and from the public affairs office in Ottawa. If I may again toss my mind back to September when I wrote him that letter, the paper is not talking about the same group of people the letter referred to.

[Questions On The Order Paper, March 22nd, 1995]

Revenue Canada is working with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to obtain information to facilitate the development of enforcement programs and to better focus client assistance and education programs so that new Canadians are aware of their obligations.

Revenue Canada's data bases do not at this time contain the information requested concerning immigrant families residing in Canada. Whether foreign source income is reported for Canadian income tax purposes would be determined through verification and audit programs.

[Income Tax, February 20th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question which allows me to state that we collect the vast majority of accounts receivable with interest.

Of course there will always be some area of bad debts. Last year it was less than one-half of 1 per cent of gross revenue. This year, we are budgeting slightly more than that, but still well below 1 per cent.

It is very important to note that we collect the accounts receivable. They are taken into account by the Minister of Finance in his budgetary projections. There is no pot of money out there not being collected which could be used to reduce the deficit. All the moneys in accounts receivable have been taken into account.

[Taxation, February 20th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has referred to a statement made in Vancouver. Just for the record, I would like to read it out to him because he obviously does not understand it. I said: "Obviously we will be listening to the public and obviously I have had many meetings with groups of Canadians on tax matters, but Mr. Martin's approach to the budget will not be altered simply by protests here or there. He has objectives he must meet".

Again I repeat to the hon. member that he cannot blow and suck at the same time. Either he is in favour of reducing the expenditures of the government and meeting our deficit targets or he is not. He cannot keep saying that we must give in to every protest that might come along either on one side or the other.

[Taxation, February 20th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member that the Minister of Finance and other members of the government are listening with great care and attention to the public on many issues related to tax, but I can assure him that we will not be dissuaded from proceeding with our deficit reduction plan outlined, as the Secretary of State for Financial Institutions mentioned a moment ago, in last year's budget.

We will achieve those goals regardless of protests that might occur.

[Taxation, February 17th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I assure the hon. member that the escort services to which he has referred are not permitted.

However, if there is a situation where a bodyguard is required or a tour guide is required, it might be considered a legitimate business expense when entertaining a foreign client or someone like that. An interpreter would be in the same position.

[Committees Of The House, February 9th, 1995]

moved:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 68(4)(a), the 51st report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs presented to the House on Friday, November 25, 1994 be concurred in.

[Taxation, February 8th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the member has raised an important point and I thank him for it.

The design of the form is ambiguous in certain respects. In Quebec, which administers its own individual taxes, the amount is shown in a separate box on the form but in the other provinces and territories, which harmonize with the federal government, the taxes collected are shown as a single lump sum.

I can assure him that this process is the most administratively efficient. It does lead to some misunderstanding and there is no intention to mislead Canadians concerning the amount of provincial tax paid.

We will take his representation and I will have the department look at it with a view to redesigning the form so that we can deal with this confusion that does exist with respect to which level of government receives the taxes individual taxpayers pay.

[Goods And Services Tax, February 6th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question which allows me to correct and clarify some misunderstandings on this subject.

The GST credit is for low income Canadians. For example, a Canadian family of four with a family income of $38,000 would be above the limit for any GST credit. Eligibility is based on family income and this reflects the situation of these low income Canadians.

I should add, however, that it is net income that creates the entitlement to the GST credit. There may be cases of people with high nominal incomes but low net incomes who can in fact obtain benefit from the system through the GST credit. We are doing our best to tighten up the system.