FINA Committee Report

SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION

FROM THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NDP)

The Official Opposition members of the Standing Committee on Finance thank all witnesses who took the time to present their views and policy recommendations during the Committee’s study on terrorism financing. We are pleased to support the majority report; however, we believe there are a number of important issues which are not addressed in the majority report.

New Democrats believe the government should do all it can to combat terrorism and protect Canadian lives, including stemming the flow of money to support terrorist activities. However, New Democrats believe that we need a broad and balanced approach to combatting terrorism.

The NDP members of the committee believe that many of the shortcomings in Canada’s fight against the financing of terrorism stem from the government’s misplaced priorities and misplaced resources.

We note that the Canada Revenue Agency’s budget for the pursuit of terrorism financing remained stagnant for years. Meanwhile, in 2012, the government chose to devote $13.4 million towards the CRA’s political pursuit of environmental charities in Canada. This ideological move has, unsurprisingly, generated few results.

Charities in Canada serve a crucial role in public debates, and advocate and provide direct support for the most vulnerable in our society. There are more than 85,000 charitable organizations in Canada yet, during testimony, the Committee heard that only one prosecution has been carried out against a Canadian charity for terrorism financing. If the government truly believes that charities are actively involved in the financing of terrorism in Canada, their approach has clearly fallen short. In fact, it appears that efforts to date have only harmed the capacity and reputation of the charitable sector in Canada.

We also note that the RCMP continues to face serious challenges with building necessary capacity to track and prosecute those engaged in terrorist financing. Dr. Christian Leuprecht underlined the dearth of RCMP officers who are trained to track and investigate terrorist financing. Mr. Garry Clement, a former RCMP officer, noted that training and retaining officers in this area is a significant challenge for the RCMP. We believe the government must make it a priority to address these internal challenges.

Finally, we note that, at the time the Finance Minister requested that the Committee undertake this study, two years had passed since the completion of a nearly identical study by a Senate committee. The 2013 Senate study issued 18 recommendations, only six of which have been acted upon by the government. Many of the issues and prescriptions that the Committee heard over the course of this study would have been addressed had the government enacted the recommendations it already had in hand.