Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, under the leadership of this Prime Minister, Canada has enjoyed a stellar economic record. This is why I stand in this House today in full support of the measures contained in the 2014 budget implementation act. Year after year, through our economic action plan, this government has created the economic conditions that allow Canadian businesses to prosper and Canadian citizens to benefit from a high standard of living.

Canada Revenue Agency  Mr. Speaker, we do work with our Privacy Commissioner. We do respect the Privacy Commissioner's recommendations. Again, I think that clarification here is very important. When a global figure was given on privacy breaches, 95% of them had to do with misdirected mail. That is .001% of the 150 million pieces of mail that the CRA deals with each year.

Canada Revenue Agency  Mr. Speaker, we agree that Canadians should rightfully expect their personal information to be protected. The CRA has a close working relationship with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and acts on all of her recommendations. I would clarify, because the member has brought it up, that 95% of the reported privacy issues are related to misdirected mail.

Canada Revenue Agency  Mr. Speaker, our government understands that Canadians expect their personal information to be protected when dealing with government departments and agencies. We have taken a number of concrete measures to strengthen privacy management through a CRA directorate responsible for CRA policy and assessment procedures, a proactive training program to ensure that CRA employees are fully informed of their duties to protect the privacy of Canadian taxpayers and provide security, and privacy-related processes.

National Revenue  Mr. Speaker, CRA's volunteer tax preparation clinics are essential because they help seniors and low-income Canadians prepare their income tax returns. There have been no cuts to this program's budget. However, in Quebec the program is delivered jointly with Revenu Québec. CRA works diligently with Quebec to ensure that the differences in our delivery models and training models do not impact the support provided to these important community organizations.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned last week in the House, we are not taking any measures to reduce CRA's compliance resources. In fact, there are about 400 more tax auditors today than when we took government. Further, we have increased the size of our international audit program by over 40% and we have identified nearly $4.6 billion in unpaid taxes.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, we are not taking any measures to reduce CRA's compliance resources. In fact, there are nearly 400 more tax auditors today than when we formed government. Further, we have increased the size of our international audit program by over 40% and identified nearly $4.6 billion in unpaid taxes.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, the only issue is whether these organizations are respecting the law. As a former president of the West Coast Environmental Law association, the member for Victoria knows that the rules regarding charities and political activities are long-standing. The rules have to be respected.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I repeat, the only issue here is whether these organizations are respecting the law. The laws on political activity for charities have been very long-standing, as the member for Victoria, as an environmental lawyer, knows. The economic action plan gave increased tools to us to look at enforcing those rules.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Calgary Centre for the opportunity to recognize the good work of Canadian charities. In economic action plan 2013, this government proudly introduced the first-time donor super credit. This provides an extra 25% to first-time donors in addition to existing federal and provincial credits.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), the additional $15 million over five years in reallocated Canada Revenue Agency, CRA, funds will be used to bring in new audit and compliance resources to address international compliance issues and revenue collection identified as a result of measures outlined in economic action plan, EAP, 2013.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, during a study of tax evasion and the use of tax havens at the February 5, 2013, meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, the following question was put: “I understand Project Jade was the ability of the CRA to go after those who came out of the Liechtenstein tax evasion situation in 2008.

Canada Revenue Agency  Mr. Speaker, section 241 prevents me from commenting directly on any specific case. However, our government understands that registered charities are an important part of our society and encourages Canadians to donate generously but also to do their homework, such as on our first-time donor super credit that we announced recently.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, in 2012, the Canada Revenue Agency, CRA, put into place an updated information-sharing protocol between the CRA’s areas responsible for security and privacy to insure that information on privacy breaches was flagged to the CRA’s ATIP Directorate, which is responsible for liaising with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, I cannot comment on specific cases. I can say that, as a government, we have a responsibility to ensure charitable dollars donated by charitable Canadians are used for charitable purposes. Shamefully, this does not seem to resonate with some in the Liberal Party. Besides these most recent allegations, we know that the Liberal leader, while an MP, charged hundreds of thousands of dollars to charitable organizations and their hard-working donors.