Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is absolutely right. The terms around FATCA are not defined. The intergovernmental agreement, the so-called IGA between the U.S. and Canada, has not been ratified as a treaty by the United States. We are treating it as though we have treaty obligations.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  We should challenge it in international court. These experts say that we should stop the introduction of FATCA, ensure that it does not violate our charter rights, protect the privacy rights of Canadians, and not rush into this. I urge the House to pull FATCA out of Bill C-31.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Professor Hogg's letter, dated December 12, 2012, was advice to Finance Canada that what he saw in FATCA definitely violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically section 15 of the charter, which says: Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination...

Finance committee  Christians and others, it's not at all clear that FATCA only applies to U.S. citizens who would obviously be U.S. citizens. As Professor Hogg also pointed out, there's nothing in this that will provide any notice to Canadian citizens, who might also be U.S. citizens under the understanding of “U.S. persons”, that their information has been handed off to the IRS.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  This is why it is estimated that approximately one million Canadians will be affected by FATCA. Does the hon. member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke have some concerns for those constituents within her riding?

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Does hon. friend from Victoria not agree with me that it is entirely likely that once again the House is passing legislation that will find its way to the Supreme Court of Canada, where FATCA will be ruled to violate Canadian charter rights?

Finance committee  We have under proposed section 4 at page 73 a provision that is overly broad and could be interpreted to mean that any inconsistency between this agreement and the provisions of any other law, that the FATCA agreement would supersede any other law. That could include the Privacy Act of Canada. It could include the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We don't know what other laws can be superseded by FATCA.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  I can assure members there are many Canadians who are not dual citizens, but the ambit of the FATCA would require Canadian banks to turn over private information about people who have no idea that they could be considered to have any connection whatsoever to the United States, for tax purposes.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  I do not think we have had any estimates put forward of what it would cost the Canadian banks, which we know they would not absorb but pass on to consumers. Not only is FATCA discriminatory towards approximately one million Canadians, not only is it likely to waste government resources in fighting off a Supreme Court challenge on its constitutionality, which the federal government is undoubtedly going to lose, but what will it cost Canadians?

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, given that the FATCA buried in Bill C-31 requires that the bank search every single customer record with a fine-tooth comb, does the government have any estimates for what that is going to cost and how much of those costs will be passed on to every bank customer across Canada?

Finance committee  I think I'll speak to each separately, Mr. Chair, because they do speak to different issues, unlike the last ones that dealt with FATCA more or less at once. This is what I'm proposing to do here, Mr. Chair. At clause 115 on page 97, there's an opportunity to do something that's a lacuna in Canadian regulatory practice.

Canada-U.S. Relations  As I say, it is poignant and bittersweet to pursue in adjournment proceedings at 12:15 a.m. the matter of the constitutionality of something that many Canadians have probably never heard of: the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, otherwise called FATCA, which is buried in Bill C-31, the current omnibus budget bill. What this Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act does is this. We know that sometimes we call the United States “Uncle Sam”.

Extension of Sitting Hours  We spent hours discussing bills on which everyone agreed, whereas there had been short shrift given to things like FATCA, on which both my hon. colleague and I want to run back to the finance committee to try to get a proper result there, an omnibus bill on which we know there was not adequate time for debate or study.

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  There are changes to trademark law; changes to the Hazardous Products Act and to the workplace hazardous chemicals regime; and substantial and devastating and anti-constitutional provisions under the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act, known as FATCA. I would ask him if he would not be willing, within his own caucus on that side, to argue against the use of such monster bills in the future?

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Speaker, I am so grateful that we are actually having a conversation and talking about this issue. The reality of the FATCA that the current administration has accepted is that it does nothing for reciprocal exchange of tax information. It is non-reciprocal; it is asymmetrical. It is unprecedented in international law for one sovereign country to say, “Oh gosh”, and cry uncle, “They are going to get our information whether we like it or not and they are going to punish our banks”.