Victoria’s newly elected MP is already in the thick of Ottawa politics.
Murray Rankin has been appointed to the standing committee on finance, a non-partisan government panel that provides advice on the annual budget and conducts financial investigations.
The NDP MP is also assuming the role of national revenue critic and said he’s already got a number of issues he wants to tackle through the finance committee.
“One of the things that Canada Revenue Agency has been accused of is targeting environmental organizations in particular, arguing that they have not kept to their charitable status because they spend more than 10 per cent of their activity on advocacy and politics,” Rankin said.
Tides Canada and the Suzuki Foundation are two organizations that have been subject to intense CRA scrutiny, he added.
“If there is evidence of the CRA acting in a political way against groups that are opposed to government policy, it raises flags that we need to investigate.”
Offshore tax havens and the closure of several CRA offices across Canada are also of concern, Rankin said.
Rankin’s constituency office is set to open in the next few weeks in the Mosaic Building, 1057 Fort St., across the street from the office of Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Carole James.
dpalmer@vicnews.com
