Here is a reply I received from the office Liberal MP Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) on the FATCA IGA and proposed legislation
Thank you for your email regarding FATCA.
The government’s recent announcement of how it plans to implement obligations under FATCA is disappointing, in particular because it does not demonstrate respect for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, privacy law, and Canadian sovereignty. We anticipate legislation implementing the government’s FATCA agreement will find expression in the upcoming budget implementation act. We will review this legislation carefully, suggests amendments, and continue to work with both tax policy and constitutional experts. From obtained documents, it appears that the government has consulted with banks rather than Canadian citizens.
Mr. Hsu will continue to monitor this situation, and the members of the Liberal Party team who are working on the file will certainly continue to obtain and analyze all necessary information to develop a strong policy that will respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the meantime, I invite you to share your concerns with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of National Revenue, at flaherty.j@parl.gc.ca and Kerry-Lynne.Findlay@parl.gc.ca respectively.
Thank you for your email. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact our office.
Thanks for posting this, Blaze.
For the record, I sent comments on February 6 to my own MP (Paul Dewar, NDP) as well as the opposition leaders, Murray Rankin, and Scott Brison, and separately to Flaherty. I did receive a robo-reply from the Finance Department Ministerial Correspondence Unit, verifying receipt and promising to call my comments to Flaherty’s attention at the next opportunity. To date, more than two weeks later, I have received no other replies to my comments — not even robo-acknowledgements even from the NDP, which has more seats than the Liberals and hence presumably a larger staff and budget (and no excuse for not responding as fulsomely as Hsu).
If that situation changes, I will update this post. I am not impressed; the NDP is not shy to bombard my email with requests for financial donations, but very spare in replying to my emails to them on matters such as this. For shame. If Hsu can be bothered to respond to Blaze (whom I know isn’t one of Hsu’s constituents), why the hell can’t Dewar my own MP be bothered?
I’m cross-posting the following, but I think it’s important, so bear with me.
Wow, I just got a robo-acknowledgement from the Finance website in response to my submitted comments on their legislative proposals.
That’s more than I’ve got from the NDP to my multiple emails to my NDP MP and to Mulcair and Rankin, on this subject. In marked contrast to Ted Hsu of the Liberals (see above).
I’ve been deluged with funding requests from the NDP lately. I just sent them the following reply to the latest funding request. I urge anyone else who has been getting these funding requests to do likewise, if your experience matches my own.
Ditto any MP of any party, if you’re their constituent and haven’t been replying. It’s their damn job to reply to constituents. It’s one of the things we pay them for with our taxes.
My reply to the robo-funding email:
You know what? I am getting rather sick and tired of this barrage of donation requests from the NDP.
For months I have been sending thoughtful, details questions and comments to Paul Dewar my own MP, also to Tom Mulcair and Murray Rankin, about problems I see with the recently-announced intergovernmental agreement that our government has signed with the US concerning FATCA and a probably unconstitutional and illegal exchange of financial account information on Canadians with the US IRS. I haven’t even received a robo-acknowledgement of my expressions of concern, even though Flaherty’s office has at least acknowledged receipt of my comments, and I know others who have received replies from Ted Hsu, Liberal MP for Kingston and the Islands, who has been on top of this file.
Why do you think I will continue to contribute to a party which can’t be bothered to acknowledge my deep concerns and opinions on matters of public policy, never mind continue to vote for you?
Get real.
Your’re the official opposition and have more seats in the House than the Liberals. Hence a larger budget for replying to citizens’ concerns. Yet you don’t do as good a job. I’ve noted this fact in public web forum posts. This is going to boomerang on you, if you don’t clean up your act PDQ. Your job is to represent the constituents who elected you and whose taxes pay your MPs’ salaries, not to mention party members past and present who have donated money in the past. Remember that the next time you send another funding plea. I certainly will.
Likewise, Schubert, I am disgusted with my own Con MP Ed Holder. The only reply I have had from him on this whole issue over two years was to send me a Fact Sheet reminding me of my responsibility to file FBARs.
That was in response to a letter which began by telling him “I am Canadian and only Canadian’ and advising him I have been a Canadian citizen for 41 years.
I realize all the MPs are busy, but you would think they would all have a robo response they could make on this issue.
However, in fairness to the NPD, I have been in touch with Alex Atamanenko who is an MP for the BC Interior. He has had articles published in BC newspapers oppossing FATCA.
His constituency assistance advised
In another e-mail, she said:
I also sent Alex a copy of the Open Letter we sent to Flaherty three months ago and asked if he could ask in Question Period why Flaherty has still not responded. She said only Murray Rankin can ask that in Question Period as he is the NDP Critic on Revenue and the NDP lead on this issue. So, I again sent the letter to Murray Rankin asking if he can do that. I have not had a reply.
Alex’s constituency assistant also encouraged us
It think she meant keep the pressure on the government, but I think we need to also keep the pressure on all of the opposition.