QUESTION PERIOD — Finance

Thank you, Your Honour. The rotation seems to be small. If there is time, I have a series of questions.

Senator Moreau, I want to return to the theme of a lack of transparency and overseas tax evasion.

As you know, many Canadians have just paid their taxes for the year in April. They’re concerned that there’s a double standard: If you hide your money overseas, you’re treated differently by the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA.

I spoke a few moments ago about one bank in Liechtenstein that had 106 clients. A leak followed a couple years later about one bank in Switzerland — one bank — which had 1,785 Canadians with accounts. The agency will not disclose to the Canadian public how much money was in those accounts. They will disclose that nobody has been charged or convicted. Their response to my follow-up question in March 2025, when I asked for the amounts actually collected — because the Canada Revenue Agency will say how much is assessed —

The answer I’m looking for is the answer that every reasonable Canadian is looking for.

If you’re a worker in Canada and you owe taxes, the CRA comes after you. It’s public knowledge. People can be charged and so on.

How much has the Canada Revenue Agency collected from these people whom they have determined are cheating on their taxes because they’ve assessed how much is owed, but they won’t tell us how much is collected? That’s what I would like you to find out.