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As a result, Canada has become an enabler of large-scale money laundering — to the point where “snow washing” has become a familiar term in addressing the issue. And any excuse about jurisdiction rings hollow in light of how easily concerns about the division of powers are dispensed with — whether through federal intervention or provincial negotiation — in order to serve the interests of our corporate class.

What’s worse, we’re also years behind the curve in tracing and recovering revenue lost to the tax evasion which has already been publicly exposed.

Other countries have announced the return of hundreds of millions of lost dollars resulting from investigations into the 2016 Panama Papers revelations. But the Canada Revenue Agency doesn’t anticipate being able to offer even an estimate as to what might be recouped for another two years.

Meanwhile, as our inclination and ability to ensure that wealthy individuals pay their fair share both remain lacking, new research has offered a clear indication as to the stakes involved in properly documenting and fairly taxing wealth.

In a study of Scandinavian countries which traced both official tax data and information leaked from offshore institutions, Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman determined that offshore tax evasion is almost entirely confined within the richest .01 per cent of households. But the privileged few people at that level of wealth managed to secret away enough assets to change their share of an entire country’s wealth by up to 25 per cent — and in the process, avoided paying a quarter or more of the taxes they should have contributed to the public good.