44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 6, 2022 10:00AM
- Oct/6/22 10:50:18 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague spoke about the CRA. Could he please explain to the House how he is ensuring that terrorists in this country are not funnelling money to support other countries? What is the CRA doing about that?
40 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/6/22 10:50:42 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, the Canada Revenue Agency has robust measures in place to make sure that terrorist financing does not take place in our country. We constantly survey these issues to make sure there are no loopholes in that system.
If we are talking about the issue on the floor of the House today, which is making sure that we do not have tax evasion, we could look at the Canada Revenue Agency's tax record. In just the investments we have put in to the CRA since we formed government, billions of dollars have come back from individuals and companies that have put their money into tax havens. The CRA is doing its job. It has a great track record on that issue. Not only do we not stand for any financing of terrorist organizations in Canada, we are going to make sure that tax cheats pay their fair share.
150 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/6/22 10:51:28 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would have liked to hear my colleague say whether he does or does not support the objective of the motion moved by the NDP.
The fundamental question being asked is the following: Are we prepared, as a state and as a government, to do more to secure the revenue we need from big corporations who are getting rich at our expense? That is the principle of the motion.
I find that the government boasts about its results and that my colleague is exaggerating. When he says that Canada is doing a lot to crack down on tax havens, he believes it. In reality, the federal government is quite complacent.
In effect, it has been giving the Canada Revenue Agency more and more money to tackle the problem with little to show for it. The CRA has only gone after a few million dollars.
Is the government prepared to do what the motion is calling for in order to ensure tax fairness?
164 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/6/22 11:06:47 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, today's motion follows a report from Canadians for Tax Fairness that shows that some of the wealthiest corporations in the country quietly avoided $30 billion in taxes in 2021 alone. Meanwhile, however, the CRA continues to chase low-income Canadians in my riding, as well as in the member's riding of Kings—Hants, for example, for a couple of thousand dollars in CERB repayments. What can the member do to help refocus where the CRA should be, which is on this $30 billion in tax loopholes?
91 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/6/22 12:05:45 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech, and I hope that Bloc Québécois members bring all of those points forward in their next opposition day motion. It would be a bit much if we included all of that in ours today, but I think we totally agree with the member.
I will bring up one example that I would like to talk about here in the House, because it shows how egregious these offshore tax havens are.
A Canadian mining company had a big mine in Mongolia, and over the course of five years or so, it was facing $600 million in Canadian tax and $200 million in Mongolian tax. However, the company opened a post office box, not an office, in Luxembourg and wrote to the CRA to ask if it was legitimate. The CRA said it could go for it because it was perfectly legal. The company ended up paying no tax in Canada, no tax in Mongolia and $80 million in tax to Luxembourg, and it is legal. We have to change this.
185 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Oct/6/22 1:06:22 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I believe it is over two budgets that well over $1 billion has been committed to CRA to look at how we can prosecute, investigate and so forth. One would have to look at it to see the actual breakdown in terms of how many prosecutions are under way. That is what is important. Sometimes prosecutions take a while to get through the court system, and hopefully there will be a lot of negotiated settlements.
The point is that under this Prime Minister, for the first time, we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in order to go after people—
104 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
