$18.4bn forgiven? Are corporations paying their fair share? | Conservative CRA transparency bill

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Merci beaucoup, monsieur le représentant.

[00:00:03]Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's an honor and a pleasure to rise on behalf of the wonderful citizens of Calgary Midnapore and speak on their behalf. Uh the citizens of Calgary Midnapore recently went through something all Canadians went through, and that is tax filing date. Yes, the end of April. And so, of course, this is the time where we all must do our duty to society and pay our fair share of taxes.

[00:00:32]At least this is what we are supposed to do. Now, of course, there are always those uh who make the decision to not file their taxes. There are those uh who perhaps cannot pay what they owe or are reluctant to pay what they owe.

[00:00:49]Certainly, a problem that compounds over time. But, the majority of Canadians, the certainly more than the fair share of Canadians, want to do the right thing, and that is pay their part to society, contribute to this incredible nation that we live in. And one way we do that is by paying our taxes.

[00:01:12]And so, I want to thank the member for Simcoe Grey, who had the foresight to recognize that there was this lack of oversight uh in Canadian society, that there are corporate members who are not necessarily doing that for one reason or another, that they owe this amount of taxation to our society, but are not paying it, and it is not being recognized that they have not kept their commitment to Canadian society and not having paid these amounts. So, I just want to take a moment and thank the member for Simcoe Grey, who who uh went through so much effort not only to recognize this as a as a problem. He is an expert in finance. Uh I I've been in his office uh when he has um CNBC on um and is following the financial markets and so it's not a surprise to me that he would have this type of thinking that this should be recognized as something that needs to be fixed.

[00:02:24]I also want to thank him for taking the time to work with the other parties to gain the collaboration to bring this um bill forward because and to to see it to success onto this this stage within our process and within the house because this is something very rare and special to do. I myself have never drawn higher than 238 in the private members' bill draw. So, I'm very grateful that first of all he had this good fortune.

[00:02:53]Secondly, that he was able to um see this idea and third that he had the tenacity, the persistence uh to work through this bill with the government and I'd also like to recognize uh their their piece in this collaboration.

[00:03:11]Of course, as a sitting member of the Public Accounts Committee, we we went through this bill in in detail. We thought about all of the different aspects that would have to be considered. There was compromise on on all parts and I again I want to thank the member for his compromise in in that regard as well because it's very easy to get uh very stubborn when it comes to your legislation or something you think should be uh a part of the bill or accurate and to not want to include that, but he went beyond that uh as well.

[00:03:46]So, of course we know that the Canada Revenue Agency is responsible for collecting debts owing to the government, but in recent years, the CRA has been waiving debts owing to the government in record numbers.

[00:03:59]In last year, the government wrote off 4.7 billion.

[00:04:05]They forgave 10.9 billion. In remissions, they had 0.4 billion, and in waivers, they had 2.6 billion, for a total of 18.4 billion dollars, which at this point would would actually be close to 25% of the deficit that we had, not only this year, but last year, and at a time where we are approaching upon 1.63 trillion dollars by 2030 in national debt. Every single dollar counts, and so I'm grateful that this member saw not only this as the right thing to do to society, to pay your fair share, for corporations to pay their fair share, but also at this time where we are in need of such fiscal prudence and responsibility. And so everyone is required to pay their fair share at this time, and that includes corporations. Now, the member for St. Cogray is not the only one who recognized this this lack of oversight, this lack of acknowledgement of those who are not paying their fair share.

[00:05:12]We had a media outlets such as the Globe and Mail, Bill Curry, of course, who has done an excellent job of following Public Accounts Committee, the Treasury Board. Speaking of which, I'm I'm going to do a little promo here, Mr. Speaker. On June 2nd, I'm looking very much forward to taping with the Arrive Can team, the Arrive Can second year anniversary, and will be distributing that come the end of June. But Bill Curry has been fantastic in terms of following stories such as these, as well as CBC News also did a story on the $133 million written written off that was owed by a single taxpayer.

[00:05:57]So, this definitely is something that needed to be addressed.

[00:06:02]And write-offs and waivers for taxes owing to the government uh were done in secret because of privacy provisions in the Income Tax Act. And so, the member wanted to um bring these numbers to light.

[00:06:14]And historically, while the the CRA uh spends a lot of time pursuing small businesses and and ordinary Canadians who owe minor amounts to the the CRA and to Canada, some of these major corporations had gone uh unaccountable and unnamed. Um and so, this legislation does that. So, what this legislation does is it creates a public registry that would require the Treasury Board to publish annually a list of corporate entities that have debts owing to government waived, forgiven, or written off. And the amount that we had put forward originally um was we were thinking somewhere the member was thinking somewhere to 1 to 5 million. And the number that was landed upon was 2 million, which is certainly a substantial uh amount. And but I think also a a good amount that really provides corporations an incentive to to pay their taxes so that they do not end up on on this uh list as well. The contents of the public registry must include the following information in relation to each debt, the name including any business name of the corporation, the trust company, or or partnership that owes the debt or obligation to which His Majesty has a claim, uh the specific amount that was waived, written off, or forgiven, the period to which the amount relates, the act under which the debt obligation or claim arose, and any other information that the President of the Treasury Board may require.

[00:07:47]So, the enactment amends the Financial Administration Act to require that the President of the Treasury Board establish and maintain this public registry of certain large debts and obligations owed by businesses to His Majesty, as well as claims by His Majesty against businesses that have been waived, written off, or forgiven.

[00:08:06]And it also makes consequential amendments to other acts. Some observations relative to this, Mr. Speaker. In 2023-2024, 11 companies received 1.2 billion in combined write-offs for tax debt and other obligations, and 11 companies accounted for nearly a quarter of the 4.9 billion in write-offs in fiscal year 2023-2024.

[00:08:30]So, this is a small number of bad players that we're talking about here. So, this being passed is a huge step in the direction of transparency, and certainly on this side we have always attempted to fight for transparency, whether it is in the appointment of a Parliamentary Budget Officer, who will always stand up to trans- stand up for transparency and call this government out on things which do not appear to be accounted for. And of course, we advocate against tax increases and new tax measures for everyday Canadians. We believe why should corporations get enormous debt write-offs when they target the little guy for significantly smaller amounts.

[00:09:20]So, in summary, I just want to thank again the member for Simcoe Grey for bringing forward this legislation. It is the right thing to do at in society to pay your fair share that is owed to Canada, that is owed to your fellow citizens. And also, we are unfortunately in a terrible fiscal position with significant debt as well as deficits, 65 billion this year alone, deficits for the last 15 years. This is a piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker, that looks to remedy this. Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.

[00:09:54]I therefore they offer the honorable member for Saint John's North 5 minutes for a right of reply.

[00:10:02]Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to see you in the chair tonight and I want to thank you for your hard work as well and counsel along the way on this bill. It's It's my pleasure to have listened to some very thoughtful speeches from my colleagues in this place and my friend from the Bloc Québécois who shares a committee spot with me on international trade, and I certainly appreciate his his advice and counsel on that committee, and he himself has a private member's bill he's introduced with respect to forced labor that we're looking forward to supporting them on to get through a chamber and and come to a vote.

[00:10:38]I would say that with respect to the overall objectives of the bill, just mention that bringing integrity back to the system so that Canadians have trust in it is important. And as mentioned from my honorable colleague from Calgary Midnapore, yes, there have been many journalists including Mr. Bill Curry from the Globe and Mail who has had a specific focus on this issue which also helped keep this issue front and center around my mind, and there are a number of great members on the public accounts who I would not be able to mention whether they're here tonight, but I was very thought thankful that they brought their thoughtful questions to committee to help it get here. In fact, this was the first bill that went to public accounts in almost 25 years as I'm told the researchers at the Library of Parliament. So, we we weren't quite sure what we we doing there, but we were we were guided very well by the analysts and the clerk and and the great chair in the honorable member from St. St. John St. Croix who did a great job and even had an amendment of his own that helped get this bill over the line.

[00:11:47]I would be remiss to not mention my staff Roman Cheliak and Kayla Kayla Kanzanese who is no longer in my office who is now works for works at the mothership in the whips office, you know, controlling all the things that we do in this place, but I want to thank them for their wise counsel along the way. And as mentioned by the member from Calgary Midnapore, yes, you know, the deficits are large, but Mr. Speaker Mr. Chair, we are here to help. I am here to help. This bill is here to help and I certainly appreciate the opportunity to bring it forward here this evening. And of course one can never forget to thank the most important people in their lives, which is our our families, my wife and my children Davey and Cooper who are probably not watching this at home, but we'll share the clip with them later.

[00:12:36]But I appreciate the opportunity again to stand here to have it's an honor to have a chance to propose changing statutes of this country. I certainly appreciate and take this issue with great respect and hope that we have moved the ball forward in progressing on this very important issue for on on behalf of taxpayers. It is indeed, I think a matter of the public interest.

[00:13:00]With that, Mr. Chair, I was always told to quit while I'm ahead and to take the win when you can have it. And so at that point I believe I'll ask that this house adopt this bill.

[00:13:12]The question is as follows. Mr. Chambers, seconded by Mr. Albas, moved the bill C-230 to enact and amend the Financial Administration Act and to make other consequential amendments to other acts that forgiveness registry be now read a third time and be passed. If If member participating in person wishes the motion be carried or carried on division, or if a member of a recognized party participating in person wishes to request a recorded division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the chair, the honorable member for Simcoe North.

[00:13:37]I ask that this bill be carried, Mr. Chair.

[00:13:39]Agreed to carry the bill.

[00:13:42]Agreed. The motion is carried.

[00:13:45]Third reading of this bill. To us here next till this project de loi.