House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 43% of the vote.
Finance November 17th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, obviously the hon. member does not know much about business.
When business people have liabilities those liabilities are booked. Those liabilities are banked whenever they exist. She should do her homework. She should talk to business people and find out how they do their accounting. Obviously she does not know a lot about business.
Finance November 17th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, this finance minister is the best finance minister we have ever had. We are very proud of the work he has done. Members opposite should be embarrassed to ask the questions they have asked of this finance minister.
Canada Customs November 3rd, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I recently launched a blueprint for Canada customs and revenue.
As our tourism has increased and as our trade has increased there are new challenges for Canada Customs in its trade administration.
We will be consulting with stakeholders, with employees and with Canadians on how to address the new challenges to ensure that we can expand tourism and continue to have increased trade, which is up 50%.
We are consulting, we are listening and we will be responding to Canadians.
Questions On The Order Paper October 28th, 1998
Federal taxes are levied at the manufacturing level. The distribution of petroleum products to various provinces and territories occurs after the excise taxes have been levied. Consequently, no figures are available showing excise taxes collected in each province and territory. Moreover, excise tax licensees may report the excise taxes as a consolidated amount for all their Canadian production instead of by province of manufacture or production site. Therefore, Revenue Canada neither requests nor captures excise fuel taxes data by province.
We have, however, included the total excise fuel taxes collected for the fiscal years 1993-94 to 1997-98, broken down by revenue type: petroleum and gas revenue tax; excise tax on motive fuel and gasoline; and excise tax on aviation gas and diesel fuel.
Taxation October 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member because sitting between the solicitor general and the human resources minister, I feel like the Maytag repairman.
Let me say that it is not true what the hon. member has said. In fact we only recognize a tax benefit if it is over $100, any gifts over $100. I do not know about the hon. member, but I do not get invited to many Christmas parties where the cost is more than $100. Perhaps he gets invited to some rich parties. The limit is $100. Only when it is over $100 does it become taxable.
National Revenue October 22nd, 1998
Mr. Speaker, last week we signed a service agreement contract with the Government of Nova Scotia. We also signed a contract to look at Revenue Canada under the new proposed agency to collect for the Workers' Compensation Board. Let me quote Nova Scotia finance minister Don Downe, “This contract builds on the strong co-operative relationship between Nova Scotia and Revenue Canada and provides means for our relationship to evolve under the new agency”. Let me also quote Peter O'Brien, spokesman for the Canadian Federation of Independent—
Taxation October 9th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, we had some very interesting meetings this week. We had the ministerial conference of OECD countries addressing the very important issue of electronic commerce and taxation of electronic commerce.
One thing agreed on was we do not need new taxes on business done on the Internet. We want to encourage business. We want to make sure there is neutrality. Fundamental principles were agreed on this week by the OECD ministers that will ensure we have growth on the Internet and that Canada can play a leading role in electronic commerce.
Canada Customs And Revenue Agency Act October 1st, 1998
Madam Chair, I can only conclude that the member unfortunately has not read the material and is not aware of some of the points. Perhaps I can correct her.
First of all, moving to the agency is creating a vehicle for options. I do not know why the member is against creating new options so that we can work with the provinces, so that we can sit down and say let us see what the benefits are, let us see how we can work together. It is about creating new options for Canadians as well.
Let me give the hon. member a good example. In the last tax return we asked Canadians if they would like to be on the electoral list. We asked them to checkmark the electoral list. Eighty-one per cent of Canadians chose to be on the electoral list. That means for Canadians we are going to save $30 million for every election because we do not have to do an enumeration. That is about working together for the benefit of Canadians.
Let me give the hon. member another example, the child tax benefit. When the Government of British Columbia wanted to carry out a child tax benefit, it came to Revenue Canada and said can you perform this service for us. Because we have the computer system, the data, we were able to provide the service, to deliver a very important benefit for the Government of British Columbia at millions of dollars less than if it had to build a parallel system to deliver that program. We worked with British Columbia. Creating the agency is about creating a vehicle for choices. It does not force the provinces to do anything. In fact, it includes them.
The member has mistakenly said that we can put anybody on the board. Clearly the legislation says that each province will be able to nominate. The NDP government in British Columbia will be able to nominate people to sit on the board of management to make sure there is accountability.
The bill surely talks about accountability. I know many members have quoted the auditor general. The auditor general's quote was referring to the old model. I have made the changes because of the consultation I have done over the last year to make sure we have full accountability.
My final point is that in the last finance minister's meeting, one of the items on the agenda was the agency. In fact, all the finance ministers agreed to the guidelines regarding what the agencies could collect.
Mr. Petter, the former finance minister of British Columbia, at that time said this is the right direction, it is about reducing overlap, about reducing duplication, about making sure we reduce the compliance cost to business and about giving better service. The ministers agreed.
The member talked about user fees. It is simply not true. That is totally erroneous.
In terms of harmonized sales tax, the agency says you do not have to harmonize. Let us sit together and see if there is opportunity to work together on collecting non-harmonized taxes. If you want to talk about harmonization that is something that the finance people do. We are in the business of tax administration. We have said part of this is to be able to collect non-harmonized taxes.
In terms of the quote from Mr. Krishna, he was referring to the former model. Mr. Krishna is a member of an advisory committee to me as Minister of National Revenue. I have discussed this matter and he was referring to the original model which we have changed to create greater political accountability.
Really what we are talking about are choices. What we are talking about is opportunity. What we are talking about is bringing the federal and provincial governments together. Canadians want us to work in co-operation. They want to make sure we get rid of overlap and duplication to simplify and streamline.
That is what the agency is all about. It is creating a new vehicle for us to work together in co-operation.
Canada Customs And Revenue Agency Act October 1st, 1998
Mr. Speaker, Manitoba finance minister Eric Stefanson on May 22, 1998, talking about the agency, said western provinces have long advocated a national agency. He supports the concept.
Let me also quote Mr. Ed Blanchard, minister of finance for New Brunswick: “Where there are efficiencies to be gained, I am open to alternatives. There may be areas that, yes, some of our current taxes can be collected in an efficient way by this agency and I have not shut the door on any possibility”.
Canada Customs And Revenue Agency Act October 1st, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the provinces particularly in western Canada have asked me for such an agency. They have been saying they want to play a role in the agency. When I met with the ministers from Saskatchewan and Manitoba they asked for such an agency, and we are responding to them.
When the HST was signed in the maritimes one of the requests those provinces made was to have an agency in which they would have a say. We are responding to the provinces. Of course we do not have an agency until we pass the legislation. They want to see what the final wording is. They want to make sure they know exactly what they are getting.
I have had very good meetings with ministers of finance across the country. They have said it is the right direction because they understand the needs of the business community. They understand the needs of Canadians. They know we have to respond to the changes in Canada. We have to respond to the new realities, and that is what the agency is all about.