Hon. Hassan Yussuff moved second reading of Bill C-224, An Act to establish a national framework for the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting.

He said: Honourable senators, I will not be speaking today; my good friend Senator Wells, the critic of the bill, will be speaking.

Hon. Percy E. Downe moved second reading of Bill S-258, An Act to amend the Canada Revenue Agency Act (reporting on unpaid income tax).

He said: Honourable senators, you will note that this is the third time I have tabled the same private member’s bill, the fairness for all Canadian taxpayers act, requiring the Government of Canada to disclose all convictions for overseas tax evasion and to measure the tax gap — the difference between what taxes should have been collected and what is actually collected. It would also require the Canada Revenue Agency to provide the Parliamentary Budget Officer with data it has collected on the tax gap, as well as any additional data the PBO considers important so that he can prepare his own independent analysis of the tax gap.

The second and most recent time, this bill passed the Senate but not the House of Commons. Hopefully, the third time is the charm.

Let me begin, as I always do, with this disclaimer: It is not illegal to have a bank account overseas, but it is illegal not to report proceeds from those accounts to the Canada Revenue Agency. Colleagues, it used to be that the Canada Revenue Agency didn’t attract a great deal of attention, either from the public or from the government. As the one branch of government counted upon to turn a profit, there has always been a temptation to simply let it go about its business — if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

However, that confidence has been eroded as we see story after story about overseas tax evasion with no punishment and, unfortunately, little or no recovery of money, compounded by the repeated responses of the CRA after every public disclosure. For example, “They are working hard to catch overseas tax cheats,” they tell us. “They take it very seriously,” they tell us. They’ve identified, as opposed to collected, X amount of money, and so on. Unfortunately, these comments from CRA belie the fact that their efforts and results are disappointing to the extreme.

One of many such examples is the Panama Papers, which were released in 2016. In the seven years since the release of those papers and the public disclosure, which identified hundreds of Canadians holding accounts in one law firm in Panama, other countries with citizens identified in the publicly released documents as having those accounts hidden in Panama collected over $1.3 billion in taxes that were owing to them.

As of 2021, the last year for which information is available, Australia has recovered $138 million; Ecuador, $84 million; Spain, $166 million; and even Iceland, a country of 340,000 people, has recovered $25 million. But for all the hundreds of accounts and dozens of audits, Canada hasn’t announced the recovery of a nickel. Zero recovery.

The CRA has claimed to have assessed over $16 million owing, but as I said, assessed isn’t collected, and not one person has been charged, much less convicted, of overseas tax evasion. Other countries’ individuals have been charged and convicted, in addition to having to pay back the funds.

In October 2012, almost 11 years ago, I wrote the then Parliamentary Budget Officer, asking him to investigate the economic impact of overseas tax evasion. At his suggestion, that investigation evolved into an effort to determine the tax gap: the difference between what should be collected by our revenue agency and what they actually collect. The PBO determined that it is indeed possible to provide an estimate of the gap, particularly given that so many other countries are doing it. Subsequently, it approached the CRA to secure the agency’s cooperation in that effort.

Colleagues, the CRA refused to cooperate. We know why when we realize the tax gap not only measures what should be collected but also how effective — or, in this case, ineffective — our national revenue agency is in their duty and responsibility to collect money owed to the Government of Canada. I am sure that the exposure, through a tax gap analysis, of the wholly inadequate job the CRA is doing in fighting overseas tax evasion was a major factor in the agency’s refusal to cooperate with the PBO.

But even without the cooperation of the CRA, the PBO was able to come to his own conclusion about the tax gap. He testified before a Senate committee in March 2020, stating that based on his own analysis:

I am convinced . . . having worked both at the CRA and been PBO for a year and a half now, that there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in taxes that go undeclared, unreported and that escape Canadian tax authorities, probably on an annual basis due to the international transactions that take place.

For its part, the well-respected Conference Board of Canada published a report six years ago titled Canadian Tax Avoidance and Examining the Potential Tax Gap. They concluded that up to $47 billion worth of taxes are not being collected by the Government of Canada.

The Canada Revenue Agency maintains on its website a list of press releases about Canadians convicted of offences related to tax evasion. It does so, in its own words:

. . . to maintain confidence in the integrity of the self-assessment system, and to increase compliance with the law through the deterrent effect of such publicity.

If you look at the list, as I did recently, you will find a wide range of people from coast to coast, all caught and all punished, almost all for domestic tax evasion. But if you hide your money overseas, your chances of getting caught are very low, whereas if you cheat on your taxes domestically, you are likely to be caught, fined and jailed in some cases. To that end, of all the notices — and there were 105 when I looked — going back to 2017, only three were convictions for what one might call overseas tax evasion and none were for particularly high amounts. Most of those convictions were through proper insurance action.

I should note that the recent years have not been without some measure of success. The 2015 election platform of the Liberal Party contained a commitment to:

Directing CRA to immediately begin an analysis and stronger enforcement of tax evasion, or what the OECD calls the “tax gap.”

The agency, for all its past reluctance, has been forced, due to that promise, to begin to release a series of reports on the gap, starting in 2016, with the most recent one released last summer, which makes passing reference to overseas tax evasion.

However, Canada needs a series of studies over time to gauge the effectiveness of the CRA to see what is working and what needs improving. The decision on whether to pursue that series should not be left to the CRA alone; given their refusal to cooperate with the PBO, it should be required by legislation, which this bill would provide.

I want to emphasize that a requirement for the CRA to report on overseas tax evasion and the broader tax gap is not the result of mere curiosity. Other countries — the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Sweden and even the State of California — measure their tax gaps and have found it to be a valuable policy-making tool. They all agree that the money hidden overseas must come home, and they need continued tax gap information to identify the dollar amounts involved and to help bring that money back.

In Canada, as I stated, there is no risk to hiding your money overseas because your chances of being charged, let alone convicted, range from slim to none. The hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars identified by the Parliamentary Budget Officer will not, as if by magic, solve our financial problems, but if we collected even a portion of that, we could reduce the deficit and fund various programs. We all know that every time a new policy is suggested in Canada, the question is often asked, “How will you pay for it?” It is a wonderful suggestion about how it will be paid for. The billions of dollars hidden overseas would answer that.

Various taxes could be lowered as well.

It is undeniable that a significant amount of money is lost to this country through overseas tax evasion, but beyond that is the simple fact that it is grossly unfair. Those of us who are playing by the rules and paying our taxes are being deceived by other Canadians who are skipping the system and hiding their money overseas.

The failure to collect taxes owed undermines confidence that everyone is being treated equally. If we are all in this together, then we all pay taxes. Otherwise, there is special treatment for some Canadians with the resources to hide their money, while the rest of us must pay more to make up the shortfall.

Colleagues, before I wrap up, I want to express my thanks to those senators who delivered speeches in favour of this bill when I last introduced it. The bill before the Senate today is identical to that previous bill. The support from Senator Paul MacIntyre, who has since retired, Senator Bovey, Senator Galvez and Senator McPhedran is much appreciated. I thank them for that support. Indeed, I thank all senators who passed this bill in the Senate last time. We hope for common sense to grip the House of Commons this time so they will pass it as well.

Thank you, colleagues.

(On motion of Senator Martin, debate adjourned.)

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum moved second reading of Bill C-226, An Act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice.

She said: Honourable senators, I rise today as the Senate sponsor of Bill C-226, An Act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice.

I would like to thank MP Elizabeth May for her work and leadership on this important initiative, and former MP Lenore Zann, who initially introduced it in the second session of the Forty-third Parliament at the other place, when the bill was known as Bill C-230.

As you will remember, colleagues, this chamber recently unanimously passed a motion of apology to former students of residential schools and their intergenerational families. That motion acknowledged the systemic racism upon which this country was built, wherein representatives from the federal government and the churches gave themselves a unilateral authority to remove First Nations and Inuit children from their families and their communities.

I bring this up to remind senators that environmental racism is one very profound piece of the broader picture of systemic racism that exists in this country, whether systemic racism is in parliament, academia, corrections, policing, health care institutions or government branches across this country. Systemic racism allows other forms of racism to continue to flourish in these disparate areas without question because systemic racism has become normalized, largely desensitizing the general population to its very existence and effects. In other words, environmental racism is not experienced in isolation of other contexts, nor is environmental racism unintended. These are deliberate decisions that, in many cases, reflect the creation of so-called “sacrifice zones,” communities that are largely out of sight and out of mind from the general public, a fact which somehow legitimizes their devastation. This is known as geographic racism.

An apology is only the first step in the process of conciliation or reconciliation towards a new relationship. The ushering in of a new, transformative and meaningful relationship requires more than words. In other words, we need to understand, become aware of and act on addressing the serious issue of environmental racism, which this bill seeks to accomplish. We must first each explore the work we need to do as individuals and as a collective to move forward in this relationship, to honour and fulfill our work as senators in our role as advocates for those not represented at the other place and for those without a voice or power in their own country.

Honourable senators, I want to inform you of the gift that we bring to this chamber as senators of First Nations, Métis and Inuit non-status descent: Our experiences of racism, exclusion, assimilation, genocide, inequity and inequality, but also our strengths — our two eyes seeing through the melding of Indigenous and Western knowledges, kinship and cultural ties to communities, our ancestors’ proclivity for sober second thought and the wisdom that comes from navigating a lifetime of oppression.

A special mention about women is required here. Indigenous women’s ways of knowing and being have been largely squandered, and violence against women exists throughout this country. Much of this is related to the root causes of environmental racism. This includes the dispossession of land, governance, health, economy and self-determination. There has simultaneously been a rise in water and food insecurity, inadequate housing infrastructure, intimate partner violence, addictions, human rights violations, biodiversity loss and the contamination of land, water, air and our other relations, which are all impacting women negatively and increasing the unpaid work they have to shoulder.

As such, we share with you our unique experiences that need to be taken into account every time we stand up and we speak. We speak from our experience. I have worked in communities for over 40 years. I have lived with the people. I have seen the devastation that they live with, and that is what we bring to the table. As Indigenous senators, when we share our perspectives from our ways of being, knowing and experience, we are offering you a gift. We say to you that the legislative system has never provided a means to redress the issues brought into our lives and communities by colonial laws and policies. Why do you think there’s so much unrest in Indigenous communities and increasing court cases? Because they have nowhere else to go. This unrest has to come from somewhere, and it comes a lot from legislation.

As Indigenous women, we also have to navigate violence from our own patriarchal and colonial leadership in our own communities. Many times, our own men have been colonized, and they are brought to the table to counteract what we have to say in this chamber. The voiceless cannot compete with educated people. The educated people have the privilege, and the grassroots people remain voiceless. That is what we bring when we come and we speak for the people that we work for.

Honourable senators, please take the time to understand and accept that we are different from you in how we have experienced genocide on our homelands in this country, and how we continue to live in “stranded regimes,” to borrow a phrase coined by the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, or MKO. Stranded regimes brought on by legislation, sometimes from this very place.

Honourable senators, I would now like to speak to environmental racism, how it can be brought to light and how it can be combatted. It was African-American civil rights leader Benjamin Chavis who coined the term “environmental racism” in 1982, describing it as:

. . . racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of colour for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of colour from leadership of the ecology movements.

When I speak about the examples I will give, think about how reconciliation is going to work to address these issues and really make it reconciliatory.

Colleagues, when I recently attempted to include reference to this matter in another bill, the minister denied that amendment, saying that the term had no precedent in existing legislation and that they were new terms. Environmental racism is not a new concept. It has long existed, disproportionately affecting First Nation peoples and communities across Canada. I have witnessed this first-hand. Many of you will know that I have spoken many times about environmental racism in the resource extraction industry.

Honourable senators, how and why does race play a major role in exposure to environmental dangers and land use within a community? Failing and substandard infrastructure of housing and water; failing and substandard infrastructure of sewage lines and plants; failing and substandard infrastructure of fire services; and stranded regimes of bylaw enforcement are all issues that contribute to the reality of environmental racism.

Moreover, these have been studied, acknowledged and researched by committees within the Senate and House of Commons as issues existing within First Nations communities in Canada. The history of environmental racism in Canada contains other examples of the federal, provincial and municipal governments — as well as large corporations — failing to protect the most vulnerable communities. How did these communities become vulnerable, and why are they kept vulnerable and powerless?

What are some of the root causes of environmental racism? Policy failures, intentional or otherwise, that unfairly affect those without a voice; legislation that doesn’t take into account the marginalized through measures like GBA Plus; interjurisdictional gaps arising from issues like natural resources, water, health and child care; lack of human and financial capital to challenge governments and corporations; poverty; dependence on government through the Indian Act; not honouring treaties; establishing resource-extractive operations or toxic waste sites on cheap land, with disregard for the populations that call that land home thus establishing sacrificed zones.

Honourable senators, having identified some of the root causes, I will now provide real-world examples of environmental racism.

Water contamination disproportionately affects low-income communities of colour. We are all aware of minority communities that lack clean water. Contaminated water can deplete a community’s health, causing illnesses that range from waterborne diseases to cancer and the inability to practise self-care like bathing. They live on bottled water brought in by the government. How do you take a bath, cook and clean with bottled water?

Water contamination issues can cause long-term consequences. One example in Manitoba is the remote community of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, where they are experiencing flooding from a hydro dam operating in their territory, endangering the sturgeon population, coupled with the upstream flushing of waste water as far away as Winnipeg, which has caused blue-green algae to flourish from herbicides and pesticides. The blue-green algae cause rashes in children, the deaths of fish and moose that are relied upon for sustenance and causes an inability to have a stable drinking water supply.

The blue-green algae in the Great Lakes and in other lakes in Ontario were taken care of through bylaws that prevented the use of herbicides and pesticides, and they cleaned up their lakes. But this is different, and this is allowed to flourish. That is environmental racism.

Another example is the tailings ponds, which grew 300% in 20 years despite legislation that should have protected against this plight. We know that tailings ponds are now leaking, further impacting water safety, biodiversity and animal health. The Athabasca region First Nations in Alberta are actively involved in fighting against devastation wrought on their lands from tailings ponds. Addressing water contamination issues requires government intervention, which has not been forthcoming.

Environmental racism is also related to the protection of the water species. We have addressed this in the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources. It has been brought forward over and over again.

We are also seeing some communities with drastically high rates of air pollution, such as an area known as Chemical Valley in Ontario, where air pollution data from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation forecasts foreign air pollutant chemicals linked to cancer up to 44 times the annual level. High air pollution contributes to many critical diseases, including lung cancer, respiratory infection, strokes, pulmonary disease and others, according to the World Health Organization.

Another issue we are seeing is lead poisoning. An example of this is Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario where they have been dealing with mercury poisoning in their water for three generations, which is the result of industrial pollution from the 1960s and 1970s and remains unresolved today.

Colleagues, there are many unique environmental situations and occurrences in Canada that lend themselves to environmental racism, which includes a lack of piped water, as some First Nations communities in northern Ontario have youth in their twenties who have never had the privilege of living a life with piped water.

Another example is abandoned oil wells and their continued threat of pollution — an issue which still has not been adequately addressed despite the acknowledgement of their deleterious effects.

Extensive agriculture is another example. Swan Lake First Nation in Manitoba is predominantly affected by intensive and monocultural agriculture. The community’s lake is considered dead and no longer a viable food source. Fragmentation and surrounding land use has also contributed to a decline in flora, including medicines.

Laws have fragmented populations, leaving people displaced from some of their territory. Northern examples of environmental racism include communities and territories impacted by planned flooding and forced relocation, a lack of access to safe drinking water, lack of consultation regarding the manipulation of water levels of hydro dams, abandoned construction and extraction sites from mining, violence resulting from work camps and insufficient water partnership agreements, unresolved land claims, lack of connectivity to the internet, repopulation, forced amalgamation of First Nations into bands and the lack of access to health care and the continuous inadequate and non-existent consultation in anything that affects us.

One more example that I would like to highlight is Rooster Town in Manitoba, which was home to rural Métis who arrived to find work in the urban economy and build their homes while keeping Métis culture and community as a central part of their lives.

Rooster Town grew without city services, within the City of Winnipeg. In 1951 the City of Winnipeg began encouraging suburban development in this area. Today it is called Grant Park. To remove Rooster Town families, the city and media reported false stories rooted in racist stereotypes that were harmful and humiliating to the Métis community. In 1960, the last few houses in Rooster Town were bulldozed and destroyed.

Honourable senators, there are countless other examples of environmental racism in Canada. I know some of our colleagues will be giving voice to these issues.

Honourable senators, you will note that in Bill C-226 there is no definition of “environmental racism.” Although the original definition was given at the outset of my remarks, the situation in Canada is unique due to the history of treaties, Canada’s heterogeneous Indigenous population, the passage of UNDRIP legislation and the duty to consult and accommodate. As such, while a definition is not required, as we have seen with this bill’s passage in the other place, any definition would need to reflect the Canadian experience.

The national strategy fundamental to this bill is key to promoting effective change in achieving environmental justice, not just for First Nations, Métis, Inuit and non-status people, but for all Canadian populations who are victims of this insidious issue.

Honourable senators, let us take the honourable path to ensure that we end the premature morbidities and premature mortalities that continue to be inflicted upon Indigenous peoples in Canada due to environmental racism. Those who have contributed the least to environmental degradation are often those at highest risk of experiencing the worst human rights impacts.

As stated by Assistant Secretary-General Ilze Brands Kehris of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:

Unfortunately, continuing harmful practices, insufficient action, and inaction by Governments and other duty-bearers with respect to the protection of the environment threatens the progress needed to protect the environment for all people.

Colleagues, addressing environmental racism will protect vulnerable people, vulnerable environments and the generations yet to come. We all have the right to a healthy environment. Let us work to uphold that right by supporting Bill C-226. Kinanâskomitin. Thank you.

(At midnight, pursuant to rule 3-4, the Senate adjourned until later this day at 2 p.m.)

Appendix—Senators List