Alex Shepherd

[Agriculture, September 30th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to take part in the Durham Federation of Agriculture's fact finding tour of area farmers last Friday.

Agricultural sales are second only to the automotive sector in total economic production in Durham. Farmers engaged in the production of beef, eggs, milk and wine were part of our stops where they could voice their concerns to federal, provincial and municipal representatives.

Farmers are part of small business as well, which is why the Scugog Chamber of Commerce hosted a subsequent dinner which also included small business operators. Reinventing government means government, farmers and small businesses working together to solve common problems.

I would like to thank the Durham Federation of Agriculture as well as the Scugog Chamber of Commerce for an opportunity to listen to their concerns. They can be assured their voices are being heard here in Ottawa.

[Supply, September 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think he really addressed one of the questions I posed to him. The Bloc Quebecois is talking in its motion about revealing taxpayers. How does the member feel about the Bloc's attitude about revealing the identity of taxpayers as they also proposed in their motion before the finance commit-

tee? In other words, expose taxpayers to possibly a witch hunt much like Nixon did in the United States when he chased after political enemies. Does he agree that is an acceptable process?

[Supply, September 26th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask some questions and make some comments on the speech by the hon. member for Elk Island.

There is this concept, which is also part of the motion we are debating today, that somehow the Canadian taxation system is not fair. In fact I heard the hon. member start off with that in the first part of his speech.

I would just like to comment on the fact that recent statistics, if we study them, show that the top 30 per cent of Canadian taxpayers are paying 66 per cent of the total of all taxes in this country. We have a system in Canada which is called progressive taxation so that the more one makes the more one pays. The reality is that our system has been regarded as fair and progressive from years back. It is also part of the Bloc motion that we are somehow taxing the

poor and letting the rich off. This just is not borne out by the statistics of reality.

I would like to address some of the issues that have been brought forward by the Bloc motion and which have also been mentioned by the hon. member.

Our system of taxation is based on voluntary compliance. What voluntary compliance means is that 13 million taxpayers agree to file their tax returns every year and have them assessed by Revenue Canada.

This is a process which is accepted in western democracies. It is a very efficient system. In a sense it is based on the honour system. There are some internal controls and some checks and balances but basically it is run on the good wishes and goodwill of taxpayers.

There is one big feature about that. When people file their tax returns they believe they are confidential. I would like to take the opportunity to read the section of the Income Tax Act which addresses this matter. I would be interested in the member's comments on it.

It states concerning the provision of information in section 241: "Except as authorized by this section, no official shall knowingly provide or knowingly allow to be provided, to any person any taxpayer information, knowingly allow any person to have access to any taxpayer information or knowingly use any taxpayer information otherwise than in the course of the administration of the enforcement of this act, the Canada Pension Plan Act and the Unemployment Insurance Act".

The purpose of this is to give people assurance that when they send their information to Revenue Canada that it is confidential.

This matter that has been brought forward by the Bloc today, and I would be interesting in the member's comments-

[Committees Of The House, September 23rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the member for St. Albert. He talked about the issue of confidentiality in the income tax system. This is a very important issue. It was touched on by virtue of the auditor general's investigation in this matter.

For those people who do not know, our system is based on a certain integrity of the system. Information that is given to Revenue Canada is basically confidential. In other words, if any one of us here submitted our income tax return to Revenue Canada, we would not anticipate that another person could get that information and use it for whatever purpose.

I would be interested to know the comments of the member because I know he has some experience in the area of accounting and possibly auditing.

When we choose an audit sample, the idea is to get a sampling of what is going on in a department or a typical population base, but we must be certain when we direct this at something as sensitive as Revenue Canada that the population base is basically large. In other words, we want to know as a general rule how certain procedures of Revenue Canada are undertaken. It is incumbent on the auditor general to respect the confidentiality of the system in choosing that audit sample.

In reading the report of the auditor general, I was somewhat chagrined to discover that the audit sample represented only one or two cases. The problem with that is that when there are only one or two cases, after a while when we start describing what the cases are like, it becomes very easy for somebody in the general public to identify the taxpayer.

The finance committee was really addressing the issue of whether the bases of the audit sample were such that the auditor general contravened the intent of Revenue Canada to have confidentiality. For instance, if he did the same thing with one of us, if he said it was a member of Parliament who comes from St. Albert, by the time he was through defining a sample, we would all know who it was.

Could the member address the very important issue of confidentiality in taxpayer information?

[Taxation, September 18th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

The United States is currently taxing Canadian seniors on social security benefits. Many of these seniors are trying to survive on less than subsistence income and would not be taxed if this income was earned in Canada.

Can the minister tell the House and seniors what steps he is taking to alleviate this hardship?

[The Economy, June 20th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

The OECD has expressed its concern that deficit and debt reduction could have a negative impact on real economic growth in Canada. What assurance can the minister give that the prosperity of Canadians will not be negatively impacted by these actions?

[Supply, June 19th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the member for Vegreville's comments concerning the Canadian Wheat Board. In my former life I also farmed, admittedly in Ontario. I also grew wheat and I also shipped it and was quite happy to ship it to the Ontario wheat marketing board.

I listened with great interest to the member talking about the need for flexibility. I live in an agricultural community. Most of my farmers are involved with the marketing board. They are all happy. They fought long and hard to establish those boards. There was one basic reason. Generally speaking in agriculture there are many producers and there are very few buyers.

The member talked endlessly about the international market and so forth. The reality is that with 125,000 producers there will not be that many buyers. Invariably what happens when that situation occurs is buyers start to conglomerate and pick off these producers. That has actually been the history of prairie grain farmers and farmers throughout the country. That is why so many farmers, whether out west or in Ontario or Quebec or whatever, have formed producer organized marketing systems.

It seems the member wants to go back in history and create a free market economy where there really is none. There is none because we do not have the same number of buyers as we have producers. All the profits from the Canadian Wheat Board go back to the farmers. It is obvious to me and I do not know why it is not obvious to the member. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot have a pool marketing system on the one hand and also have a whole bunch of other farmers outside of it.

[Taxation, June 13th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

The Reform Party at its convention last weekend proposed a flat tax, although it is clear that many of them did not understand what it meant. The Reform Party thought that taxing the middle class and giving to the rich would be a fresh start for Canadians.

Can the minister comment on this policy of Robin Hood in reverse, taxing the lower income workers while giving to the rich, and what is he doing to bring more fairness into the income tax system?

[Petitions, June 10th, 1996]

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition bearing the signatures of 71 constituents. Unfortunately it is a little outdated. It has to do with term 17, the Newfoundland school amendments. I am happy to present this petition on their behalf because they are concerned about minority rights in that province.

The petitioners pray that Parliament not amend the Constitution as requested by the Government of Newfoundland, and refer the problem of educational reform in that province back to the Government of Newfoundland for resolution by some other non-constitutional procedure.

[Business, June 4th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance.

During the late 1980s small and medium size businesses watched their credit lines being indiscriminately pulled, often forcing businesses to close and long term employees to lose their jobs.

How will the advent of a national banking ombudsman protect small and medium size businesses and jobs now and in the future?