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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/21/22 5:25:45 p.m.
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I have to allow the opportunity for another question. The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Mar/21/22 5:25:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would say to my hon. colleague that I am particularly concerned. Since this has come up in her speech, what can we start doing? We know this is about beneficial ownership that is absolutely hidden. Foreign corporations can be running shell companies in Canada. There is no way to track them down. This applies across a number of provinces as well as federally. Canada is now being advertised in places like Russia as the place to hide one's assets. A recent report called “Snow-washing, Inc.” draws attention to it, so it is both federal and provincial. I would love to hear my hon. colleague's comments on when we can crack down on this, particularly in light of what has happened with respect to the Russian assets of oligarchs around the world.

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Ms. Julie Dzerowicz

Mar/21/22 5:26:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for her excellent question and for bringing this back to the fore. I agree 100% that we need to do everything we can to bring this beneficial ownership registry into effect. We have to do everything we can to make sure it is transparent with respect to who owns the public assets. This should be a key priority for our government moving forward.

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Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

Mar/21/22 5:27:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski. The pandemic has made it very clear that we are not all in this together. We are living in a growing corporate dictatorship where some of us are on lifeboats and some of us are sailing on yachts, where the privileges of corporations are increasingly usurping the rights of workers, Mother Earth, individuals and families, and where the divide between the haves and the have-nots is growing in favour of the ultrawealthy who are becoming richer by the minute while more and more people are finding it increasingly difficult to survive. Meanwhile, many of my constituents are barely able to make rent. The rising cost of food is making food insecurity even more common. The most basic human rights continue to be up for debate in this House while the government continues to reward its corporate friends on the backs of people, including my constituents in Winnipeg Centre. For workers, real wages are falling and Canadian billionaires are becoming richer, including a $78 billion annual increase in their wealth a year after COVID began, an unprecedented pandemic that has left more and more people scrambling to survive. This increase in their wealth has been generated with a complete disregard for human rights, including the rights of workers. Take, for example, Sobeys, one of Canada's largest grocery chains, its parent company Empire got rid of its $2 an hour pandemic hero pay, like Loblaws and Metro. It was hero pay for workers who put their lives on the line during the pandemic so that people could continue to be fed. Adding insult to injury, most Sobeys stores are not even unionized. It is a company that has fiercely and fearlessly resisted organizing efforts, showing a total disregard for the rights of workers. This disregard for workers by Sobeys was not because it wanted to keep food costs down for consumers. In fact, people are paying more for groceries than ever, 6.5% grocery inflation, the highest in more than a decade. It is because of greed, uncontrolled greed with CEOs laughing all the way to the bank. Sobeys just reported a quarterly profit of $203.4 million, up from $176.3 million last year, and it is not the only one laughing. In fact, Loblaws saw its fourth-quarter profit more than double compared to last year, with its net earnings available to common shareholders rising to $744 million. Metro grocery reported net profits of $207 million at the end of 2021. It is uncontrolled greed with no shame, as we witnessed from Sobeys president and CEO Michael Medline, who boasted on a conference in December about how much money they were raking in, stating, “It was a straight-up good quarter, well-executed by our teams across the country.” It was not “a straight-up good quarter” for my constituents who shop at FreshCo on Sargent Avenue, struggling to put food on the table because every trip to the grocery store is more expensive than the last. It was not “a straight-up good quarter” for workers who had their hero pay taken so that CEOs could line their very deep pockets with more cash. Our economic system is rigged, with corporate greed and wealth borne on the backs of individuals and families that is even impacting their ability to have their most basic human rights respected, including the right to food security. Seriously, workers and consumers are seeing no benefits from the major grocery chains' record profits, which are rising because prices are rising. Profits are growing because they are cutting workers' pay and sometimes even violating their human rights, including the profits that were made possible by the many migrant farm workers who grow the food that is sold in these stores, some of the most exploited and mistreated workers in the country. In fact, last December the Auditor General found that the government failed to protect migrant farm workers during COVID-19, revealing that the federal department responsible for keeping them safe did not properly enforce health and safety measures related to the pandemic. At least three migrant farm workers died from COVID, and many more became sick. For the Liberal government to wilfully turn a blind eye to this human suffering is unacceptable, demonstrating time and time again that it is way too close to its corporate friends. What has the Liberal government done to require large companies like Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro, which have earned windfall profits during the pandemic, to share this wealth with workers and communities to ensure the human rights of workers are upheld? Nothing. In fact, the government has yet to implement a tax on excess profits of banks and insurance companies, despite promising to do so in the last election. What are Liberals waiting for? They need to immediately implement the 3% surtax and expand it to include big grocery chains, big-box stores and big oil companies that continue to earn record profits. We need this revenue to make life easier for individuals and families who are struggling to afford to live with the skyrocketing cost of living. It could fund, for example, a new and expanded income support program for seniors, students, people with disabilities and individuals with complex mental health needs and trauma, who are some of the hardest hit by these price increases. It could pay for a national school meal program that would ensure no child ever has to attend class on an empty stomach. It could help fund a guaranteed livable basic income like the one I am proposing in Bill C-223. It is clearer than ever that we are not all in this together. So many people are just trying to survive at this point, while the wealthy elite have never had it so good. They are in their luxury yachts and rocket ships while more and more people are surviving in lifeboats. Enough is enough. It is time to grow workers' paycheques, and not CEO bonuses and shareholder dividends. It is time for the biggest corporations that have made a killing during the pandemic to pay their fair share. It is time to put people before profits and give people who are struggling the support they need to survive, and not just to survive but to thrive. It is time for all people to have what they need to live in dignity.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Mar/21/22 5:35:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I listened to the intervention by the member from Manitoba and could not help but reflect, as I was listening to what she was saying and was being accusatory toward a Liberal government, on the fact that the Manitoba NDP government, on I believe either four or five consecutive occasions, decreased the corporate income tax in the province of Manitoba. I realize that does not necessarily negate anything she said, and I am certainly not saying that, but I am wondering if she has the same criticism toward the NDP party within Manitoba for essentially doing the thing she is accusing consecutive governments within this chamber of doing.

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Ms. Leah Gazan

Mar/21/22 5:36:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, if my hon. colleague would like to run to become a Manitoba MLA, I am certainly sure I could connect him with somebody in Manitoba. I am a federal member of Parliament and I am calling on his government, which has given multiple corporate bailouts since the time I was elected, to take responsibility for its failure to individuals throughout this country who are struggling and to make sure the ultra-rich are paying their fair share, to make sure people can stay housed and to make sure they can afford to eat and have their basic human rights respected.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Mar/21/22 5:37:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about concerns regarding corporate power in this country, and that is one of the reasons I put forward Bill C-257, which would add political belief and activity to the federal human rights code. I am concerned about situations where an employer might use their privileged position to discriminate against workers who engage in political activity that an employer does not agree with. In addition to other criteria in the human rights code, it is a reasonable way of limiting the power of government or corporations over a private individual's ability to have and express political beliefs. I am wondering if the member or her party has a perspective on Bill C-257 and adding political belief and activity as prohibited grounds in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

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Ms. Leah Gazan

Mar/21/22 5:38:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do have caution here. My hon. colleague was one of the members who supported conversion therapy, so when we are talking about—

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Mr. Garnett Genuis

Mar/21/22 5:38:39 p.m.
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What? That is a lie. That is a lie—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/21/22 5:38:39 p.m.
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Order. We do not call people liars. The hon. parliamentary secretary.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen

Mar/21/22 5:38:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, as you indicated, it was quite clear to members in this room that the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan was calling another member a liar. Perhaps he would like to rise and apologize to the member for that comment.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/21/22 5:38:56 p.m.
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It is what I was trying to address, and I would like to be able to do my job, if the member does not mind. I remind the hon. member that it was very audible and everybody heard it. I invite the member to please apologize to the other member, because we are not in the habit of accepting the calling of names in the House. The hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis

Mar/21/22 5:39:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, objectively, what the member said was inaccurate. I would invite her to withdraw her comments, and I would be pleased to withdraw mine in the spirit of a similar withdrawal.

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Ms. Leah Gazan

Mar/21/22 5:39:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will not be withdrawing that comment. It was in the news, and I am certainly willing to give the hon. colleague the news clip. In saying that, I have caution regarding his intervention and belief. I have not read his bill, and I have caution on what he is trying to promote in it. However, I am certainly willing to review it.

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Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ)

Mar/21/22 5:40:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and her party for bringing this issue forward today. Like most of my colleagues, I believe the rising cost of living is having a big impact on people in my riding who are trying to make ends meet. With the rising cost of rent, groceries and gas, it is becoming harder and harder to get by, so I think this surtax is a good idea. Still, there are other ways to find money. We need only think of the fight against tax evasion and tax avoidance. I know my colleague agrees with this kind of proposal, but I wonder whether she thinks the government should put other measures in place, as well. What would she say to amending the Income Tax Act and its regulations so that corporate income repatriated from tax havens would no longer be exempt from taxation? Furthermore, would she agree that the government could decide to tax multinationals based on profits made in Quebec and Canada rather than where they are registered?

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Ms. Leah Gazan

Mar/21/22 5:41:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I absolutely agree with my hon. colleague. I absolutely think it is time that we go after offshore tax havens and that the ultrawealthy and multinational corporations pay their fair share and be held to account. I think it is beyond time. Certainly, the government, which has been elected since 2015, has had lots of time to amend the tax system to make it fairer and make sure that people's needs are met, but it has failed to do so.

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Ms. Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, NDP)

Mar/21/22 5:42:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, almost two-thirds of the children living in northern Manitoba live in poverty, the highest number in the country. For them there is never enough. There is not enough food. There is not enough housing, and there is not enough medical care. There are communities such as Shamattawa, which in the last couple of years has dealt with a lack of clean drinking water, a COVID outbreak, a tuberculosis outbreak and an acute lack of housing. There are few communities in the country that better represent our collective failure as a country than Shamattawa does. There is a stain of settler colonialism and an uncaring government that leaves people and communities like these to die. Garden Hill, York Factory, Tataskweyak Cree Nation and Red Sucker Lake are all communities, just from our part of the country alone, that the government has turned its back on. They are communities that do not know week to week whether the water they depend upon will be clean enough to drink or bathe in, whether there will be access to the medical care they need in their community if a loved one gets sick. These are communities that, during the H1N1 pandemic, were sent body bags and, during the COVID pandemic, were sent tents in the middle of winter. For isolated communities like these, how can we ever talk about affordability when people's basic needs are not being met? These are communities that do not have enough doctors. These are communities that have a third world housing crisis. We are talking about 12, 15 or 20 people living in a home that is often infested with mould and inadequate for our climate. Fundamentally, these are communities that successive Liberal and Conservative governments will not stand up for, and it is everywhere. In my hometown of Thompson, we see the struggle every day. It is a working class town that has lost most of its good jobs. They were sold off by successive Liberal and Conservative governments. People are worried they cannot make their rent or pay for their medication. People are out of work and they cannot make ends meet. These are people who have seen government rely on platitudes rather than supports they desperately need. This is repeated in communities across the country. The ever-increasing concentration of wealth with the one percent while more and more are lost and struggling. It is a rigged system and the government shows its true colours every day. The Liberals will say that we are all in this together to a family who just lost their job and cannot afford to fix the broken fridge, but they will actually give $12 million to Loblaws to buy new fridges. The government said that nurses and grocery store clerks were the real heroes of the pandemic, but they never got disaster pay, while wealthy CEOs used the wage subsidy to fund their bonuses. The Liberal government does not care about struggling people. It just plays that role on TV. During the last election campaign, the Prime Minister promised to raise income tax on the most profitable big banks and insurance companies. We are still waiting for the Liberals to do that. Canadians expecting their government to stand up for them are still waiting. The reality is that in the six and some years they have been in power, the Liberal plan has made life easier for the wealthiest and largest corporations while everyone else is worse off. Time and time again, people who have so little have had to watch the government cater to those who have so much while people suffer. They are indigenous people, northerners, working people and the poor. The billionaire class, not just from Canada but from all over the world, benefits from the government's inaction on tax fairness. Canada's reputation is used to advertise to oligarchs around the world, showing how generous Canadian tax laws are to help them develop their tax avoidance schemes. This was demonstrated in the latest report from Transparency International Canada, Canadians for Tax Fairness and Publish What You Pay Canada, which quotes: Canada is a new player in the world of offshore companies...it has no negative offshore reputation and no association with tax avoidance or evasion. It is by far one of the best neutral jurisdictions, providing offshore benefits without any of the traditional offshore drawbacks. This is Canada. We got to this point by design, not by accident. Canada's tax laws were left untouched despite a flurry of scandals and leaks from the Panama papers to the Pandora papers and more. These should have been a wake-up call the world over, but the Liberals have not budged. Despite losing tax case after tax case, and despite clear evidence that Canadian laws are not up to the task of dealing with tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax havens, we have yet to see the desperately needed overhaul of the tax system. What should we expect from the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party who regularly fundraise off the billionaire class? Of the 100 richest families in Canada, each of them worth over $1 billion, 56 of them have contributed to the coffers of one or the other of Canada's ruling parties. Last week's report made it clear that they are getting their money's worth. The capacity of the Canadian tax code leaves the door open for tax dodgers to do as they please. As private companies can be owned anonymously, the shareholders, partners and other beneficiaries can act in darkness, sheltered by Canada from paying their fair share. There is no oversight as financial reporting is not mandatory. Acting now is a matter of fairness and justice. There needs to be more transparency and disclosure in order to close this gaping tax loophole. These companies that act as fronts for tax havens must be brought to light and made accountable. Beneficiaries must be named. Disclosure must be required, to know on behalf of whom these companies are operating. There must be accountability requirements as well as real enforcement in case of false declarations and non-compliance. Given that Canada has failed to successfully mount any cases against major tax cheats with its existing laws, and given that Canada is failing at prosecuting major corporate tax cheats despite regularly promising to add to the CRA's capacity to do so, we need to make sure that there is real enforcement of those needed changes to Canada's tax laws. We are not asking for much. Canadians are not asking for much. They are just asking for the Liberal government to live up to its rhetoric rather than continue along the path it always has, which is one of catering to the billionaire class rather than standing up for people. With respect to big banks, big-box stores, insurance companies and oil companies, I implore my Liberal friends to trust me: These do not need their solidarity. In a time of record profits, they do not need the Liberals' help. A 3% surtax on these industries would still mean record profits and bonuses, but it would be world-altering for communities and people on the margins. They are the ones the government should be helping out. They are the ones who need our solidarity. They are the ones who want and need to see a plan from the government. It is time we stopped standing idly by and refusing to fix the loopholes that allow these companies to take the wage subsidy and, instead of investing it in workers, hand out million-dollar bonuses to those who do not need the money. We must start taking seriously the issue of tax evasion and bring in a beneficial ownership registry in the upcoming budget to help tackle tax evasion and money laundering in real estate. Approximately $130 billion in illicit funds is laundered each year in Canada, mostly through businesses. This is not surprising, as Canada has some of the least transparent corporate laws in the world. At a time when the Liberal government is not doing enough to build more affordable housing, billions of dollars in laundered money through home purchases put upward pressure on prices. That is why the government needs to accelerate the adaptation of transparency tools that discourage money laundering by criminals and the wealthy, including a nationwide publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry. We must start investing in communities' infrastructure needs. Indigenous and northern communities that are at the forefront of the climate crisis need a partner in the federal government. We must use the Canada Infrastructure Bank to prepare communities that need it most to take on the climate crisis. The Infrastructure Bank, with its $35-billion budget, has yet to complete a single infrastructure project almost five years into its existence. Today, what we are asking is for the government to match its rhetoric with its actions, to stop talking about standing with communities and actually stand with them, to stop being part of the problem and to start being part of the solution.

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Mr. Kody Blois (Kings—Hants, Lib.)

Mar/21/22 5:51:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague touched upon grocery outlets and big-box stores, as did her colleague for Winnipeg Centre who spoke before her. One of the things that we are studying right now at the agriculture committee, and which was brought up today, is that sometimes retailers are unfair to suppliers in terms of their expectations and some of the additional costs. That has given rise to the idea of a grocery code of conduct. The member for Sarnia-Lambton actually read out a passage where, with the CP Rail strike and the fact that there could be disruptions, the retailer was still expecting the producer to provide the product with basically no recognition that there could be a disruption. My question is twofold for the member opposite. Would she support the idea of a grocery code of conduct to try to create a regulatory environment for larger chains, to have some type of recourse available to producers? Vis-à-vis the CP Rail strike, does the member think that at some point the government will have to move in to protect collective interests and maintain rail services across the country?

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Ms. Niki Ashton

Mar/21/22 5:52:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me be clear that the NDP is a party that clearly stands in support of workers' rights to bargain collectively. We do not support legislating workers back to work. We are very much in solidarity with rail workers, including CP workers right now. It is shameful to see governments, both Liberal and Conservative, that claim to stand up for working people abuse the fundamental right of workers to bargain collectively and legislate them back to work, and we certainly will be fighting any attempts to do so. More broadly, it is clear that what we need from government is to rein in corporate Canada, including the big grocery stores that have made incredible profits throughout this pandemic. We know they have not supported their workers in the most fundamental ways, including health and safety. We know that certainly their profits have not been reflected in lower prices for consumers, and really, we need to see the Liberals stop favouring their friends in corporate Canada and stand up for Canadian workers and consumers. We certainly believe the government has the power to do that. We are still waiting.

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The Deputy Speaker

Mar/21/22 5:54:10 p.m.
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Questions and comments, the hon. member for Kelowna—Lake Country.

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Kelowna
Lake

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