The way Canadians looked at our public services and spending changed. The public service implemented major programs to keep the economy going. Our government pulled out all the stops to keep Canadians afloat. Then in 2020, COVID-19 turned our world upside down. Canadians began to understand what was happening.
The wealthiest companies and politicians scrambled to cover up the leaks. Those reports exposed billions of dollars routed through low-tax countries to avoid paying tax where it’s owed. Since then, the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers brought a lot of attention to tax fairness. In 2015, the new Trudeau government reversed some of the cuts, but many concerns remained about the lasting impact of those cuts and reduced capacity. Our members worried the cuts would hinder their ability to reclaim tax revenue. PIPSC members working on criminal investigations and on files related to offshore tax evasion saw their capacity reduced. Shortly after my election as the institute’s president, then-prime minister Harper announced cuts to the CRA that would have eliminated 4,000 positions and nearly $1 billion from its budget. I am heartened by the growing support we see from Canadians for tax fairness. For years, our members have identified concerns about tax avoidance through aggressive transfer pricing or profit-shifting strategies, and the need for the CRA to bring home this missing revenue.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) represents 12,000 auditors, forensic accountants, economists, actuaries and finance professionals at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Given her experience in this portfolio, the public interest in this issue in the last campaign and the throne speech’s focus on economic resiliency, I expect Minister Lebouthillier will want to focus on tax fairness. Once again, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier was appointed minister for national revenue. Last week, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon read her first speech from the throne laying out the government’s plans.
It was released right after a federal election where the major parties all spoke about tax fairness. It exposed shell games that large corporations and the ultra rich use to avoid paying taxes. After the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, a third global investigation into tax avoidance recently hit the media this fall: the Pandora Papers.