Jim Maloway

[Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 2010, May 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I thought we were talking about Bill S-3, so I will ask the member a question about the bill. I asked the parliamentary secretary whether he could tell me how much money had been recovered by Revenue Canada from tax havens and he was unable to tell me.

That just speaks to the fact that the government has not provided a briefing session, which it should have with this bill. It should have been able to tell us the number of people who are involved in this measure and how much has been recovered in abated taxes.

[Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 2010, May 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I want to follow up with another question for the member.

I was watching the committee hearings on television last night regarding Mr. Jaffer and the whole argument about whether he did or did not look to Belize as a tax haven. When I look at the list that I have here of all of the 80-some countries with which we have agreements, I do not see any of the tax havens on the list. I do not see the Cayman Islands or Belize on the list. I do not see any of these other countries.

Why would the government not be looking at establishing these sorts of treaties to avoid double taxation and tax evasion? Why would we not be working with some of these countries that are known tax havens to rein these countries in a little more and also demand that they have proper bank rules set up in those countries?

I know the United States is putting a lot of pressure right now on Switzerland to make its banking system more transparent in light of some of the computer tapes that have been sold over the last year that have ended up in the German government's hands and it is chasing the German tax evaders who are hiding money in Switzerland.

It seems to me that if we are going to get at the problem of tax evasion, we should be getting some tax agreements perhaps with some of these tax havens so that we can start chasing some of this money that is evading us.

What does the member think of those observations?

[Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 2010, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of any government briefing. Normally there are some sort of government briefings on bills, where critics could be briefed on the provisions of the bill. In this particular case, one would have to brief the parliamentary secretary, because after he made his speech I asked him how much money has been recovered in terms of tax avoidance and tax evasion issues. Given that these treaties have been enforced for many years, and there are 80 of them in place, one would think he would be able to tell us right away how much money had been recovered in terms of tax avoidance and tax evasion issues.

For many years in Manitoba, I was able to get in estimates, on an annual basis, the amount of arrears on PST, on provincial tax arrears. In estimates it was an open book. I find it really surprising that the member would not have that information at his fingertips.

Another question I want to ask him is: To how many people does this apply? Surely the government has some idea of how many citizens this particular new initiative, the new Bill S-3, would apply to in terms of citizens from Greece, Colombia and Turkey who we are dealing with here.

Clearly the government should be a little more prepared and have more information when it brings in bills such as this. I ask the member if he would like to make some comments about those points.

[Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 2010, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his speech on Bill S-3. I have several questions for him, but the main one that I am interested in is the fact that even though we have 90 or so of these treaties in existence right now, and they do deal with the whole issue of tax evasion and tax avoidance, I would like to ask him whether he could tell us how much money has actually been recovered under the existing treaties that have been signed?

He talks about how we can co-operate between our tax department and the tax departments in other countries. I presume that there are some provisions to get our hands on bank records. I am just not sure how that works.

Under the existing 80 to 90 agreements that are in force and have been in force for a number of years, how much money has actually been recovered by the Canadian government in terms of tax avoidance or evasion?

[Fairness at the Pumps Act, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I know the member is absolutely right about the proposed inspection system.

If the Conservatives had done proper consultations on the bill with the industry and with the independents, I am sure the independents would be more than willing to see the government inspection team beefed up and perhaps over a period of a couple of years we could double or triple the number of inspections. However, I think those independents would trust a government inspector over a privatized inspector.

Let me tell the House what can happen with a privatized inspection system. It is contemplated that the privatized inspectors will be able to set their own prices. The member talked about a small town with a single gas pump. The operator will have to pay for that inspector, who might have to drive a couple of hundred miles. Since the inspector can set his own prices, he can charge an arm and a leg for that inspection.

The other issue is there now will be random inspections. Therefore, the operator will never know when the inspector will show up. We will have a system where the inspector will phone first, tip the operator off and then charge the operator triple the price that would be paid under a government program.

This is all messed up. This is typical Conservative consumer legislation, always an offset to private business.

[Fairness at the Pumps Act, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, consumer advocates have known for years that, after 125 studies gathering dust and no action being taken, the Competition Act needs to be changed to allow the commissioner to inquire into the oil industry.

It is rather interesting that in other parts of the economy and in other industries, for a quite a number of years now, the fight against price-fixing is actually being won. The travel industry, the real estate industry and the insurance industry are all industries where, for a number of years now, the Competition Bureau has sent out CDs and have held seminars explaining to them how they are breaking the law if they get together in collusion, say in a travel agency business, with the neighbour to price fix in a given area.

Somehow we are having an effect on the little businesses, which is fine, and we should, but the oil industry does not seem to be part of that whole equation. The government talks about too big to fail. Is this the case of the oil industry just being too big to regulate?

Nobody in the government seems to want to take on the oil industry. The government feels totally secure chasing around little real estate agents or travel agents to ensure they do not price fix but what about the oil companies? What is the government afraid of?

[Fairness at the Pumps Act, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, members are aware that over the last 20 years, perhaps, successive studies have been done. As a matter of fact the pile is thick. I believe about 125 studies have been done on price fixing at the gas pumps. In all cases, at the end of the day the conclusion has always been that the oil companies are doing nothing wrong, when the public knows better. The fact of the matter is that the Competition Act has to be changed. That is key to this whole business.

The Bloc has introduced a bill in private members' hour, Bill C-452, to do exactly that. Under the Competition Act, it would authorize the Commissioner of Competition to inquire into an entire industry sector.

It has been pointed out many times that gas prices are much higher here than in the United States. We know there is price gouging and price fixing going on. It has been reported many, many times by people, who actually work in the gas stations, that they get a phone call from their head office and are told to raise the price. They do this with all of their stations. They do not dare question that.

That is what is really key here, but does the government make any moves in this direction? Absolutely not. Did the Liberal government do anything about this issue during its 13 years in power? Absolutely not. At the end of the day, we can only conclude that what we need is an NDP government in this country to bring in real consumer protection, because it will not happen under Conservatives or Liberals.

[Fairness at the Pumps Act, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I have never seen Conservative consumer legislation, ever, that does not have an offset for private business.

In this case, the government wants to turn a random inspection system done by government inspectors which the industry will trust over to the government's private sector friends who can charge an arm and a leg for the inspections. They will be making appointments, I presume, so the retailer will know when the inspector is showing up. I cannot think of a worst case scenario than what the government is proposing.

We had a very similar situation in Manitoba a number of years ago with automobile inspections. The inspections were done on a random basis over the course of several governments over many years. The public was satisfied with that system. Cars were called in on a random basis once or twice over a 10-year period and the required repairs were done. The Filmon Conservative government turned the system over to the private garages, which have a conflict of interest. Not only are they certifying the vehicles as safe, but they are also doing repairs. There is an incentive for them to drive up the repairs. When this system was brought in under the Filmon Conservative government, the cost of low-end cars doubled overnight.

The other thing is that an inspection is not done unless the car is being sold. If someone drove a car for 15 years, it would never be inspected no matter how many things need to be done to it. An inspection is only done when there is a change in ownership and the garage hits the owner up for maybe hundreds of dollars' worth of repairs.

This is the type of Conservative approach to consumer affairs. There is never an approach like defending air passengers by passing air passenger protection because there is no offset in that for private business. That is what the Conservative government is all about.

We would like to support legislation like this, but we would like to see it being fair to the public. We do not want it to be legislation that turns some of the public sector over to the private sector so that it can benefit. I do not think we are going to see a lot of happy private businesses.

I would like to know when we are going to hear from a Conservative speaker on this bill. I have been waiting three days now for one of the government members to speak because I have some interesting questions to ask about an unknown part of this bill, and that is the rollback of odometers. While it is covered under the Weights and Measures Act, this bill would actually increase the penalties which would cover the rollback of odometers. That is great news. Why is there no mention of this in the government press release? As a matter of fact, rollback of odometers probably costs the Canadian public much more than what shortages at gasoline pumps cost them.

I would like somebody to answer that question.

[Fairness at the Pumps Act, May 13th, 2010]

Random inspections.

[Petitions, May 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is also signed by dozens of Manitobans calling on the Canadian government to match funds personally donated by the citizens of Canada for the victims of the earthquake in Chile.

Members know that on February 27, 2010 an 8.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in southern Chile. The Chilean Canadian community has been putting on social events, raising money for earthquake relief.

The question everyone is asking is, “When will the Prime Minister give the same treatment to the earthquake victims in Chile as he did for the earthquake victims in Haiti, and match funds personally donated by Canadians to help the earthquake victims in Chile?”