Parliament is being urged to force the Canada Revenue Agency to publicly account for offshore tax evasion, with labour-backed advocates calling for mandatory annual reports detailing audits, prosecutions and recovered revenues tied to tax havens.In a submission to the Commons finance committee, Échec aux Paradis Fiscaux said MPs should require the CRA to disclose how much money it actually claws back from offshore schemes and how many offenders face charges. Blacklock's Reporter said the coalition is supported by the Québec Federation of Labour, United Steelworkers and the Québec wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.“The Canada Revenue Agency should improve its accountability by publishing a detailed annual report on the amounts it has recouped, the audits it has conducted, the prosecutions it has launched and major cases it has solved,” said the group’s report, Use Of Offshore Tax Havens. It also called for a full public accounting of the federal tax gap, including tax avoidance, with clear methodology, breakdowns by taxpayer type and international comparisons.Greater transparency is critical to protecting the integrity of the tax system, the group argued, noting the CRA itself has estimated the federal tax gap at as much as $40.4 billion a year. That figure, published in a 2022 federal report, includes billions shifted through offshore corporate accounts..The submission also pressed Ottawa to tighten tax treaties with what it called “classic offshore centres” such as Barbados, Guernsey and Panama. Poorly designed agreements, particularly with Barbados, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, have enabled treaty shopping, profit shifting and base erosion, the report said.Calls for mandatory disclosure are not new. In 2019, the Commons defeated a Senate bill that would have required the CRA to publish annual tax gap reports and name convicted tax evaders. Bill S-243 was voted down 150 to 134.At the time, bill sponsor Sen. Percy Downe said even Parliament lacked basic facts. “Are we losing $3 billion to overseas tax evasion or $30 billion?” Downe asked. “I don’t know, you don’t know and more importantly the government doesn’t know.”More recently, Conservative MP Adam Chambers introduced Bill C-230, which would require the Treasury Board to create a searchable online database naming corporations with tax debts of $1 million or more, including amounts that have been waived, written off or forgiven.“It is in the public interest that this information be available for all Canadians and taxpayers,” said Chambers. “This strengthens accountability and builds public trust in how taxpayer dollars are managed.”
