Guy Caron

[Taxation, February 27th, 2018]

That is my point exactly, Mr. Speaker. Those are small taxpayers he is talking about. This government is letting the big fish, like KPMG, get away. It is not going after the rich and powerful precisely because they are rich and powerful.

Here is another example of this government's complicity with the rich and powerful. It does not require American Internet giants to charge the same sales tax that our Canadian companies have to charge, thus giving American companies a significant competitive advantage over Canadian companies. The Amazons of this world have an advantage over Canadian stores like Simons.

Will the budget put an end to that nonsense once and for all?

[Taxation, February 27th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, during the Prime Minister's disastrous trip, the #taxfairness coalition left him a gift, Alain Deneault's book, Canada - A New Tax Haven. It should help him to understand how his government is just as complicit on tax havens as his predecessors were.

This complicity also causes the government to allow the Canada Revenue Agency to conduct cost-benefit analyses when deciding whether to enforce the law. It is not worth going after a big company like KPMG, which has the means to defend itself, but small taxpayers who do not have the means to defend themselves get hit hard.

Will today's budget finally put an end to this two-tiered justice system?

[Taxation, February 26th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the question speaks to the fact that we have a law and that the agency is trying to determine whether it will or will not enforce it based on how much that will cost. That makes no sense.

Canadian KPMG officials went scot-free for the Isle of Man scheme while the U.S. KPMG officials were convicted of criminal charges for setting up a similar scheme. While KPMG executives here were treated with kid gloves, we know that everyday Canadians get persecuted to the full extent of the law.

In tomorrow's budget, the government will have a chance to start fixing what is wrong with our tax system. Will we see measures to ensure that everyone is treated the same way no matter the size of people's bank accounts?

[Taxation, February 26th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, while the Prime Minister was embroiled in this fiasco last week, the coalition against tax havens was trying to meet with the Minister of Revenue.

No such luck for this group led by Vincent Graton, Marwah Rizqy, and Alain Deneault, which was only able to get a meeting with senior officials of the Canada Revenue Agency. However, they did learn some interesting things, including the fact that KPMG was not touched by the agency, which is doing a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it will or will not enforce the law.

How can the minister defend this two-tier justice system?

[Marijuana, February 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that under the tax agreements that this government has signed we cannot find out who is part of those tax havens.

Automatic information-sharing agreements do not work. We still do not know who owns these corporations and who is investing in tax havens. How do we know whether they will invest here next?

Oddly enough, we learned today that friends of the Liberal Party, including a former treasurer and a former advisor, are using these tax havens to invest in the production of cannabis, just a few months before it is legalized. We are understandably concerned.

This is a wake-up call the Prime Minister is ignoring. When will he wake up and realize that the involvement of these Liberal friends is just the tip of the iceberg?

[Marijuana, February 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Liberals voted down an NDP motion that would have taken real action in fighting tax havens. Why the Prime Minister will not stand up to tax cheats and the unaccountable leadership of the Canada Revenue Agency is beyond me.

What is clear to me and what is clear to Canadians is that highly connected Liberal insiders are not shy about exploiting Canada's weakness on tax havens to invest in cannabis production. Why is the Prime Minister so slow in acting on the unaccountability of the CRA, so slow in acting against tax havens, and even slower in addressing the critical issue of anonymous tax haven investors in cannabis production?

[Taxation, February 13th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, my question was about the lack of accountability of the Canada Revenue Agency.

The government is actually acting exactly the same way that the previous government did, not only in protecting the unaccountable Canada Revenue Agency, but also in withholding information on tax havens.

Canada just signed two new tax treaties, with Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada. What do those tax treaties do? They allow corporations to set up subsidiaries in those low-tax countries where their worldwide profits will be attributed, and they will bring those profits back into Canada tax free.

Why are Liberals continuing to sign those tax-avoidance agreements?

[Taxation, February 13th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister informed us yesterday that the Canada Revenue Agency is finally going to share its data with the parliamentary budget officer after making him wait for 62 months. It may be too early to celebrate, however, and this agreement does not address the main problem, which is the agency's refusal to be transparent and accountable.

The agency acts as though it is not accountable to Parliament. The privacy of taxpayers must be protected. However, we have a major problem when agency officials use legislation to shield themselves from parliamentarians rather than to protect taxpayers.

When will the Liberals make the agency accountable to Parliament?

[Taxation, February 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, that does not resolve the root problem. The Canada Revenue Agency has an institutional culture of secrecy. Its directors constantly hide behind the infamous section 241 of the Income Tax Act to deny any responsibility, even when it does not involve the privacy of taxpayers. When we ask questions about the agency's failure to act on the Panama Papers or its communications with KPMG, the agency refuses to give us the information.

Will the Prime Minister stand with the parliamentary budget officer or the CRA's unaccountable directors?

[Taxation, February 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, Ottawa's coffers are apparently short $47.8 billion in uncollected taxes. I say “apparently” because that is an estimate made by the Conference Board of Canada.

The parliamentary budget officer has been trying to get to the bottom of this shortfall since December 2012, but five years later we are still going in circles. The Canada Revenue Agency refuses to give the parliamentary budget officer the data he is asking for, even though the data is anonymous.

Will the Prime Minister call on the Minister of Revenue to work with the parliamentary budget officer or is he waiting to be taken to court?