When some politician or media gives that standard line “#FATCA’s unintended consequences” — think twice about whether you should be pacified by the author’s pandering.
Michael Parenti, in “To Kill a Nation–The Attack on Yugoslavia” describes also the “unintended consequences” of the actions carried under orders of the 1999 leader of the executive branch after having been caught with his pants down. During this time, the to-be-FATCA-implementing Secretary-of-State was hiding in embarrassment from the U.S. public, but this SoS-IGA-implementer-to-be was known in the targeted villages and cities at that time as The Mistress of the War.
Parenti enlightens us: “Top policy makers are intelligent, resourceful, and generally more aware of what they are doing than those who see them as foolish and bungling. US policy is not filled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It has performed brilliantly and steadily in the service of those who own most of the world and who want to own all of it. That some critics may not know what policy makers are doing does not mean the policy makers themselves do not know what they are doing. That Western leaders make misleading statements about their goals and intentions does not denote confusion on their part but a desire to confuse their publics as to what interests they are really serving. That they are misleading others does not mean that they are themselves misled, although of course there are times when they make mistakes and suffer bafflement in regard to tactics and timing.”
When the law tries to paint us all “offshore tax evaders”, and it turns out they are talking about us, there are lessons to be learned as to how the media and politicians operate to accomplish a mission. Whether you are ready to hear this author’s entire premise or not, it gives a valid lesson as to how a population of diaspora can be used to accomplish a political and economic goal.
http://michaelparenti.org/ToKillANation.html
Don’t allow yourself to be pacified by the talk of “FATCA’s unintended consequences” and plan your strategy knowing that it wasn’t an unplanned attack.
“The close relationship between politics and economics is neither neutral nor coincidental. Large governments evolve through history in order to protect large accumulations of property and wealth.” Parenti
I had people tell me that Hillary Clinton is both a brilliant woman and that she didn’t know that her use of a private e-mail server would be a violation of government policy.
Either these Ivy League graduates are brilliant people who know exactly what they are doing or they are idiots. I am personally tired of hearing how smart they are but that the effects of their policies were unintended.
There is never anything unintended when it comes to Foreign Policy coming from any government in the Western world, particularly economic foreign policy for which FATCA serves as the mast head of INtended consequences!
That applies to the US as well as the UN and EU.
I find it difficult to believe that people would believe the line that the persecution of expats was an unintended consequence of FATCA. Anyone who continues to repeat that canard is really unwilling to look at the obvious point that the IGAs do not exempt the resident citizens of any country if they have have USA indicia.
Thank you very much for the very interesting and astute observations @Banc De L Asteroide;
I see the truth in the quotes you provided.
For ex.
“…….That Western leaders make misleading statements about their goals and intentions does not denote confusion on their part but a desire to confuse their publics as to what interests they are really serving. That they are misleading others does not mean that they are themselves misled, although of course there are times when they make mistakes and suffer bafflement in regard to tactics and timing.””
The Liberal policy makers currently in power in Canada continue their flipflop defence of the CON’s FATCA IGA implementation, and have taken on the CON defence of it against the ADCS lawsuit after having opposed FATCA on record before they came to power.
And, ironically, now it is a Conservative citing the insupportable cost of FATCA IGA implementation on Canadian credit unions and a Liberal defending it:
https://openparliament.ca/debates/2016/10/31/dan-albas-2/
Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2
Government Orders
October 31st, 2016
12:35 p.m.
Conservative Dan Albas Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
“Madam Speaker, again I go back to the issue of credit unions and the common reporting standards.
Credit unions, as we heard right across the country in pre-budget consultations, have had extreme issues in dealing with some of these FATCA regulations. I believe we heard from Desjardins that they have to submit 300-plus separate reports while some other banks only have to produce one. These commons reporting standards will add to that, particularly to smaller credit unions.
The member heard the Canadian Credit Union Association request that the same kind of exemption for low risk, under 2%, assets that are held by a foreign national in a credit union be waived.
Will the member agree that we should be looking at trying to make the burden on these small credit unions less, to help grow our economy?”
https://openparliament.ca/debates/2016/10/31/francesco-sorbara-6/
Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2
Government Orders
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very important question.
When FATCA was introduced by the United States, there was much negotiation between our two countries on this issue. I will say that we do not want to overburden any institution with regulatory burden and extra cost, but we need to balance that with having institutions conform to global financial standards that are introduced, whether it is with the United States or Europe, that we agree to, and we have agreed to that.
Of course, if there are anomalies that we need to look at, we should look at them. We do not want to hinder the intermediation process in financial institutions. We want to encourage competition among credit unions and banks, and we want to keep that healthy.
I am very cognizant that many credit unions exist and are operating in rural communities. Therefore, we do not want to hinder their competitive landscape. We want to make sure that they are there to serve the local residents. I fully understand that.”
And, as an example of how “When the law tries to paint us all “offshore tax evaders”, and it turns out they are talking about us, there are lessons to be learned as to how the media and politicians operate to accomplish a mission. ”
We have the wikileaks Podesta email link that @George provided http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/11/30/solving-u-s-citizenship-problems-online-january-7-2017-australia/comment-page-1/#comment-7736417 , with the very interesting attachment that details the FATCA talking points developed to feed to angry expats.
ex. see the deliberate and disingenous stuff being fed to expats;
“…. Nonetheless, the expat community remains upset. And, Democrats Abroad have called for an expanded FATCA “safe harbor” that would limit reporting requirements for Americans abroad with financial accounts in the country where they reside. They have an active FATCA/FBAR Task Force that has circulated letters and recommendations and letters to Congress, and regularly comments on the issue. Additionally, concerns about FATCA burdens have been expressed loudly in major media Op-Eds and reports, including the NYT and WSJ. Republicans have called for a full repeal of FATCA – which Democrats Abroad do not support.
Our suggestion is to acknowledge the concerns of Democrats Abroad, and express openness to exploring a solution that eases burdens while continuing to crack down on true tax cheats – which are a small few compared to everyday Americans living abroad….””
Source: attachment to;
MEMORADUM FOR JOHN PODESTA
Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2015
From: Giulia Marchiori Ceresa, Americans Abroad Finance Director
RE: Americans Abroad Global Donor Call
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/5310
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails//fileid/5310/1515
MEMORADUM FOR JOHN PODESTA
Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Time: 7:30 am -8:00 am EST
Dial-in: +1 (916) 469-4760 ; PIN: 586324
From: Giulia Marchiori Ceresa, Americans Abroad Finance Director
RE: Americans Abroad Global Donor Call
I. OVERVIEW
This is the first Americans Abroad Global Donor Call. We have invited all the Americans living overseas who have contributed anything from $1 to $2,700 to our campaign. Several max-out donors and raisers who you have met have RSVPd for the call.
The purpose of this call is to engage the campaign’s abroad donors and encourage them to contribute and raise in advance of the September 30th end of quarter deadline.
II. PARTICIPANTS
• YOU
• Giulia Marchiori Ceresa, Americans Abroad Finance Director
• Kathleen Gasperine, Deputy National Finance Director, Northeast & Abroad
• Robert Roche from Shanghai (you met him at Carolyn Wu’s house in Shanghai)
• Mark Bergman from London (you met him in May in London)
• Approximately 30 participants from around the world
III. SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
7:30 am Giulia greets everyone, gives a quick overview of the call and introduces YOU.
7:32 am YOU thank participants for their support, mention the critical resources that their contributions have allowed us to invest in, and give an overview of the campaign, emphasizing HRC’s role in the global economy and the importance of Americans Abroad. (10 mins)
7:42 am YOU open up for questions moderated by Giulia (2-3 questions)
7:56 am Q&A concludes, YOU thank everyone for their continued support and for helping us raise crucial early dollars for this campaign, and turn it over to Giulia for fundraising pitch.
7:58 am Giulia thanks participants for their support. Giulia and Kathy make fundraising pitch
IV. BACKGROUND ON AMERICANS ABOAD
• The State Department estimates that there are 8.7 million U.S. citizens living overseas.
o If they were all to live in one place, they would constitute the 12th most populous state in the Union— behind New Jersey and above Virginia.
How Our Campaign is Engaging Americans Abroad Donors:
• Americans Abroad have contributed close to $600,000 so far, and have collectively raised more than $800,000.
• We’ve had campaign events and house parties in London, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Geneva, and Madrid. We have additional events planned for Singapore, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Florence, London, Paris, Stockholm, and Tokyo (some of the hosts will be on the phone)
• We have three active Regional Abroad Finance Committees: Latin American & the Caribbean; EMEA; and Asia-Pacific.
• We have a full-time staff person based abroad in London, UK.
Attachments:
1 – Suggested Talking Points
2 – Background on Global Economy
3 – Background on HRC’s Record as Secretary of State
4 – FATCA Background
5 – List of Call Participants
I. SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS
IV. FATCA BACKGROUND
FATCA and FBAR Background (from Michael Shapiro on Policy Team)
Issue background:
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted in 2010 by Congress to target non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to report to the IRS information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers (including those who live abroad), or by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest. In essence, FATCA was designed to strengthen reporting to prevent tax cheats using foreign banks and other financial institutions. Additionally, as FATCA and other international compliance efforts have phased in, filings under previously required reporting rules (called FBAR) have increased as well.
Many representatives of Americans living abroad, including Democrats Abroad, have raised significant concerns that the new reporting requirements create major disruptions in the lives of Americans living in other countries. These concerns include being locked out of opening a bank account, getting a mortgage, saving for retirement, and other basic means of financing and saving as foreign financial institutions are subject to new reporting requirements, or penalties for non-compliance.
FATCA as a whole has been successful in pushing governments around the world to adopt the kind of information exchange necessary to catch tax cheats socking money away abroad. Further, FATCA already contains exceptions from reporting requirements for smaller accounts of expats, and there’s reason to think that problems faced by expats will dissipate as FATCA implementation goes forward.
Nonetheless, the expat community remains upset. And, Democrats Abroad have called for an expanded FATCA “safe harbor” that would limit reporting requirements for Americans abroad with financial accounts in the country where they reside. They have an active FATCA/FBAR Task Force that has circulated letters and recommendations and letters to Congress, and regularly comments on the issue. Additionally, concerns about FATCA burdens have been expressed loudly in major media Op-Eds and reports, including the NYT and WSJ. Republicans have called for a full repeal of FATCA – which Democrats Abroad do not support.
Our suggestion is to acknowledge the concerns of Democrats Abroad, and express openness to exploring a solution that eases burdens while continuing to crack down on true tax cheats – which are a small few compared to everyday Americans living abroad.
Suggested response on campaign position:
• We’ve heard loudly and clearly about the burdens that FATCA and other reporting has placed on Americans living abroad. We understand that this is an extremely important issue – and is creating disruptions in the basic, day-to-day lives of everyday Americans living abroad. We’ve heard that it can be harder to open a bank account, harder to save for retirement, and harder to get a mortgage. And we’ve read about them in the Congressional letters Rep. Carolyn Maloney has circulated, and in stories and columns in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
• We share these concerns – Americans living abroad shouldn’t face excessive burdens in their lives. We know that Americans living abroad aren’t tax cheats, and we should ease burdens on everyday Americans living abroad while focusing on the real, true offenders.
• This is a complex area, and we need to make sure we don’t weaken enforcement against true tax cheats – while making sure we don’t cause extra burdens. We’re committed to working with Democrats Abroad, and members of Congress like Rep. Maloney, to find the right solution.
Democrats abroad position: https://www.democratsabroad.org/group/fbarfatca/what-fatca-what-are-its-impacts-how-we-aim-reform-fatca
Rep. Maloney Letter: https://www.aaro.org/fatca/524-americans-abroad-caucus-co-chairs-urge-fatca-reporting-relief
Treasury on FATCA: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Pages/FATCA.aspx
Treasury on FATCA / FBAR: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Taxpayers-with-Foreign-Assets-May-Have-FBAR-and-FATCA-Filing-Requirements-in-June
and see also
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/30694
Thanks to @George for the links.http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/11/30/solving-u-s-citizenship-problems-online-january-7-2017-australia/comment-page-1/#comment-7736447
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/30694
Well- they SAID they were going to use the money that FATCA brought in to repair the roads and bridges and train tracks. Why not believe them?
Polly, that is the funniest thing I’ve read all week! Thanks for the laugh.
Yeah they built the highway to hell
Well, no wonder Trump got elected !
Now republicans in full power have to owe up to their promise of repealing FATCA or USA is finished as a democratic nation
This video report on the lawsuit to restore the Bank of Canada to Canadians as a private bank with Rocco Galati :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJBvwm9dGXY
“The government and the Executive cannot refuse to govern” “They have to apply the law”
“You cannot relinquish sovereignty”
In the case of the Bank of Canada they relinquished sovereignty by turning over a public bank that was brought into existence to benefit Canadians and Canada and was turned over to private banking interests for THEIR private benefit at the expense of Canadians. ( over 2 Trillion dollars since the turnover to the International Bank of Settlements in 1974.) The IBS is owned by private individuals who benefit enormously on the backs of ordinary Canadians and the Canadian government not only sanctions this it fights , again, at Canadian taxpayer expense ,the return of the bank to Canada for Canadians benefit, in the courts since 2011.
( From 1938 to 1974 0% interest loans issued by the Bank of Canada was responsible for paying for WWll , The St. Lawrence Seaway, Roads, Bridges, Hospitals, and Schools for the benefit of Canada and all Canadians.
“Constitutional cases go on for years for the simple reason that the Canadian government ignores the law, refuses to uphold the law”
“We no longer live in a Parliamentary Supremacy we live in a Constitutional Supremacy”
In the case of the IGA not only did the Canadian government ignore the illegality of the IGA they CHANGED the law in order to implement an illegal arrangement that has harmed financially thousands and thousands of Canadians. Truly, the impact on their lives has been devastating to them and their children and beyond. Millions of lives if truth be told.
That again, is an abrogation of sovereignty and is a violation of their trust and the Charter of Rights.
Roads and Bridges eh? Better watch out. This generation’s Trudeau might turn over the Bank of Canada to the IRS to Fix America’s Surface Transportation.
@ Norman Diamond
Not if Rocco Galati is successful at putting the public back in Canada’s PUBLIC Bank of Canada. Then we could go back to financing our own infrastructure at zero interest as we did from 1938 to 1974. Rocco Galati is pretty good at challenging the Canadian Gov’t and I hope he improves his 63 to 37 percent winning ratio with this lawsuit. FuriousAC posted a comment earlier today about this but I can’t find it. Here’s the video he linked to though.
Thanks Embee,
But that would be “she” linked to ! 🙂
@ FuriousAC
Oops, sorry!
@Embee ( if you scroll up on this thread, my first comment is two above yours and compliments mine, so Thank you so much!)
My first comment regarding the video of Galati with the link was to highlight this court battle, which to me is VERY significant to Canadians. In this age of Brexit, Trump’s election, Euxit ( the coming conflict on these issues in France, Italy and Germany as elsewhere) it is important to note that our lives have been governed by outside forces for quite a long time now.
Those of us at Brock had our eyes opened a few years ago when WE came under personal assault by our own government and realized that something was going on , had been going on for a long time and we were all unaware.
And that is the DEGREE of global influence.
Not just on large reported issues, but in our daily lives.
For me, I had been unaware, until a couple of years ago, that the Bank of Canada was hijacked way back in 1974 and unaware that the court case to restore it to it’s rightful owners had been ongoing and viciously fought against by our OWN government!!
What Galati has to say in this video is vitally important and extremely pertinent to our own personalized struggle with the IGA.
For IF the Bank of Canada was in the hands of it’s rightful owners, the IGA ( and dare I say FATCA itself) would NEVER have happened.
Of course, if the Federal Reserve had never been allowed to hijack the American structure, it would not have happened either.
Private banks have NO place anywhere NEAR government. PERIOD. A few obscure individuals hiding behind the Curtain of Oz , profiting off the backs of innocent citizens who thought their freedom, so hard fought for, was intact. Only to find that they had never actually had those freedoms. Only illusions while the venal and vicious evil of this world trolled every person on the planet in stealth .
Another point Galati makes that I find fundamental is that we are no longer a Parliamentary democracy we are a Constitutional democracy. Which means , as he expresses in his comments, that Parliament is under Constitutional obligation to take their issues to the people. And we all know that regarding the IGA they did not do that . They hid it in the Omnibus bill.
Hopefully a great deal of this may become moot once Trump takes office. Certainly considering the IGA.
It always irks me that our own government had an easy way to protect Canada’s citizens and legal permanent residents by the insertion of one simple paragraph and chose not to do so.
I would like to think it is one of the main reasons they lost the election, but I know different.
Baby Trudeau is nothing if not a product of the underhanded tactics of Global Obama and his army of vote fraud experts.
Their trial run was in 2011 when Jack Layton and the NDP went from 20 seats to 101.
This time, they had four years to hone and fine tune and the Libs went from 20 seats to 184 and government.
The ONLY reason Donald Trump won the election in the US is the overwhelming grassroots support who came out in the millions to vote him in. This completely swamped the illegal voting, vote shaving, busing in, dead people voting and paying people to vote multiple times. Not to mention machine vote flipping.
Even now they are trying everything in the book to overturn it. ( and even some things that AREN’T in the book!!)
Anyone who knows the Constitution, knows the founding of the nation and why the structure is the way it is, as a Constitutional Republic, knows these bogus and illegal efforts to overturn the election are criminal.
Those who know the Canada Charter of Rights know that the same effort is under way in our own country. Every day.
We are praying every day that President Elect Trump takes office and begins the work of tearing down all Obama wrought, not only on America but worldwide. For without him there NEVER would have ever been FATCA or any IGAs.
@ FuriousAC
Wow how blind am I? Since your original comment had scrolled off the recent list and I didn’t remember which thread it was on I didn’t search for it … obviously. But there it was just inches away. Sheesh and palm smack to forehead! BTW, I so often find myself nodding along in agreement with your comments that they are right up there among the many special ones I gravitate to at Brock. What I found so compelling about the Rocco Galati video was how his comments about sovereignty tie together so beautifully with our own lawsuit. So go Rocco and go Joe … sovereignty must reign in Canada!
One of the reasons the con man got elected was the proliferation of fake news on hundreds of websites and Facebook. Now, thanks to Furious AC, fake news has spread to IBS.
@ DoD
I hardly recognize you since you abbreviated. Fake news is as likely to be on the so-called mainstream media as anywhere else these days. It’s a very difficult swamp to navigate and nobody can paddle forth with any certainty that they’re taking the truest route. We can only do our best and carry many grains of salt to take with whatever we hear, see and read. Personally I have never like Donald (that whole ego thing he has going doesn’t sit well with a little mouse like me) but Hiliary chilled me to the bone and that’s why I stated first thing here at Brock that I was relieved with the election result but not rejoicing. Truthfully I’m not sure at this point who or if anyone will be inaugurated on Jan 20th. The game is well afoot to upset the election applecart. One thing I’m hopeful about (just because, damn it, I want to be hopeful about something) is the RNC recommendation for the repeal of FATCA and the switch from CBT to RBT. Poo-poo the hope if you want but I’m clinging to it anyway.
@DoD:
Here is the real deal on fake news. Watch it. Learn it.
@Dod, there is fake news oozing out of Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CBC, BBC, SKY, FOX, NPR………
Trump has his faults and Clinton had her faults.
But on ONE issue expats/former-pats have the highest hope ever and that is with the repeal of FATCA and maybe replacing CBT.
In 12 months or so….the court battles and the political lobbying will all be over and we are going to know exactly where we stand.
The bottomline is that those Americans Abroad who could vote and did vote for Donald Trump had sound and sober reasons to vote for him. No one can fault that vote it was made with good reason.
To be honest those Americans Abroad had a hell of a lot better reasons to support Trump than Canadians (w/US Indica) did to support Trudeau. I can NOT fault any American Abroad who decided to vote for Trump, none. I do not fault any Canadian (w/US Indica) who supported Trudeau!!!
Expats in Europe ARE getting crushed, former ex-pats in Europe ARE getting “less” crushed. The Republican Party was/is the only game in town.
We know because of Wiki Leaks that John Podesta was warned by Democrats Abroad and Americans Abroad were told by Clinton to eat cake. That wikileaks was very sobering.
If the GOP fullfill their promise and get rid of FATCA, I will send President Trump a Thank You Card and I will sing praises of him in Europe and once again be a great “US Ambassador.”
If the GOP manages to get rid of CBT, this non-citizen will do whatever I lawfully can to support the GOP overseas in 2020.
I care about one thing and one thing only and that is to help my nine million countrymen who have been oppressed by the actions taken by a Democrat Congress and a Democrat President. I am seeing more and more people, many that are old age pensioners, getting the shock of their lives and not knowing what to do.
In four years if FATCA is still alive, guess what you can take a bow and pat yourself on the back. And if FATCA is still alive I will be cursing the GOP with more venom than I have today for the Democrats.
@EmBee and I thank you for your positive can do attitude because you manage to hold out longer at times than I can. 🙂
We are down to this final hand of proverbial poker and ALL our chips are riding on it.
Call the hypocritical Conservative out on his flip-flop. Ask him where his nuts were when they voted in unanimously that they were going to implement FATCA in Canada.
And, ironically, now it is a Conservative citing the insupportable cost of FATCA IGA implementation on Canadian credit unions and a Liberal defending it:
https://openparliament.ca/debates/2016/10/31/dan-albas-2/
Conservative Dan Albas Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
– Perhaps he feels that getting on the FATCA oppression insight bandwagon will help propel his party back in to power. He needs to be reminded of his ineptitude when his party WAS in power.
“With regard to submitting to the CRA your FATCA reports, how many reports did your organization have to produce?”
This idiot knows EXACTLY HOW many reports the banks had to produce and he knows damned well that they didn’t go to the CRA…they went directly to the IRS!!!
“So again, it’s the same reporting standard but a much different, administratively burdensome, system.”
And he didn’t see this back when the Conservatives voted for implementing this IGA?
“FATCA was implemented by the Americans; we really had no say in the matter. However, the OECD requirements are something that Canada voluntarily signed up to. Is that correct?”
And here he goes on the same schtick that “we really had no say in the matter”… Yes, the Conservative government in 2012 while they were debating the whole FATCA issue, Albas could have stood up and said that he objected to the implementation of the IGA on the basis of undue burden on infrastructure of the banks and undue persecution of Canadians affected by this legislation, but he decided to cower and vote in lockstep with the rest of his Conservative cronies.
If I can get IBS’rs to remind themselves of NDP MP Guy Caron’s attempt to obtain why this motion for the IGA was included in omnibus:
“…This time is no exception. Indeed, in the Hazardous Products Act amended by this bill, derivatives in securities will be amended by giving much more discretion to the ministers in question. Obviously, we can only engage in minimal discussion on the matter, because the bill is 350 pages long, and the government will push it through as quickly as possible. If the government stays on trend, which it usually does, it will start with a time allocation motion that is likely to come some time today or maybe tomorrow….
…When a bill of 350, 400 or 500 pages that amends 40, 50 or 60 laws comes to the Standing Committee on Finance, we may have four or five meetings at most, including meetings with the people responsible and with government representatives. Four or five meetings to discuss complex issues, such as FACTA, which could violate the privacy of thousands—if not tens of thousands—of Canadians who could be considered by the U.S. government as American citizens who owe taxes. These people could have their personal file handed over to the U.S. government without their knowledge, and they could end up owing a considerable amount of money, even though they no longer consider themselves to be American, even though they were in the past.
This issue alone should take at least four, five or six meetings. We spent six to eight meetings discussing tax havens, and FACTA, which I just mentioned, was a key part of the debate we had at the Standing Committee on Finance. However, this will be just one of many dozens and dozens of issues we will have to discuss in that committee.
The very first time the government introduced an omnibus bill, we called on the government to separate the bill into parts so that the parts could be discussed in the relevant committees. The government separated the bill, but it sent the parts to the committees—such as the immigration, public safety or justice committees—for one meeting. These committees do not even have the right to propose amendments that could then go back to the Standing Committee on Finance.
This made the whole process a farce, and the budget implementation bill, regardless of what this government says, is also a farce. I urge the government to take these issues seriously, not only for the House, but also for all Canadians, whom we represent. they have the right to a competent and transparent government. The government has always claimed to be that kind of government, so it should demonstrate that right now by separating this budget into different parts to ensure that it can be carefully studied by the committees responsible for these issues.”
Dan Albus went on a disingenuous tangent with regards to one particular comment regarding “derivatives” stymieing discussion of the particulars of why there was not enough time to discuss the matter in Parliament and why it was implemented in omnibus as a tactic so that opposition was unable to have enough time to go over the particulars choosing only to cherry pick one single word in a long speech by Guy Caron.
You can see Albus’ comments here in his role as the Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member opposite for his speech. I always find him to be a very reasonable person, so I was quite happy to hear his views as the deputy critic for finance for the official opposition.
My question is very specific. He mentioned some of his concerns regarding the regulation, particularly to this budget implementation act, of derivatives. Derivatives are very complex formulas or algorithms that are used to calculate, particularly in the banking industry. Canada’s banks are some of the world’s most secure and obviously we want to keep them secure.”
He said that he had specific criticism of it. What specific criticism would he have of the proposals in this budget implementation act and, if he has time, what would he give as an alternative.”
This is why I am of the sole opinion that these government MP hacks have nothing better to do than to blow hot air across the center aisle of Parliament at each other eventually accomplishing nothing but to harm Canadian citizens.