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Oct/6/22 1:04:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, actions speak louder than words. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has actually applied a special corporate tax for financial and insurance institutions. We have a Minister of Finance and a government that has now made a commitment, by the end of 2023, to end all oil subsidies in Canada. Understanding the issue of fair taxation is something that the Prime Minister himself highlighted when we brought in our first piece of legislation, which ensured that Canada's wealthiest 1% would pay more of their fair share through an increase in tax rates. By the way, the NDP voted against it, but that is okay. We—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/6/22 1:05:18 p.m.
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The hon. member for Beauport—Limoilou.

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Mrs. Julie Vignola (Beauport—Limoilou, BQ)

Oct/6/22 1:05:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/6/22 1:05:33 p.m.
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Can we have silence so the hon. member for Beauport—Limoilou can ask a question? The hon. member.

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Mrs. Julie Vignola

Oct/6/22 1:05:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, towards the end of his speech, my colleague talked about the measures put in place to combat tax havens and how much they cost. According to the Minister of National Revenue, those measures cost $1 billion. If a measure is to be cost-effective, it typically has to yield at least as much as it cost, if not more, within three to five years. To what extent have these measures paid for themselves so far, knowing that Quebec has managed to do better with a smaller investment?

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Oct/6/22 1:06:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I believe it is over two budgets that well over $1 billion has been committed to CRA to look at how we can prosecute, investigate and so forth. One would have to look at it to see the actual breakdown in terms of how many prosecutions are under way. That is what is important. Sometimes prosecutions take a while to get through the court system, and hopefully there will be a lot of negotiated settlements. The point is that under this Prime Minister, for the first time, we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in order to go after people—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Oct/6/22 1:07:02 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. member for North Island—Powell River.

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Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)

Oct/6/22 1:07:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski. Before I start my speech on this very important motion today, I want to apologize to the amazing interpreters of this place. I was just in a committee where we were having some conversations with interpreters and some of their representations on the work they do here and the impacts that hybrid Parliament have had on them. I hope that all of us are mindful, as we go through this process, of how precious our interpreters are to the work we do. We should honour and respect them the best that we can. Today, we are here to talk about fairness. I have talked about it in this place before, and I will never stop talking about it until I leave. It is the idea of having a bar of a dignity in our country, a bar of dignity that we do not let anyone fall below, that we hold one another to account. Whether as individuals, as corporations or as part of a big family or a small family, regardless of where we are from or our age, we need to commit, collectively, to having a bar of dignity that will allow people to live the best lives they can. Today's motion talks specifically about that bar of dignity. We know that so many people across this country are falling behind. We know they do not have enough food to eat. We know they are unable to find somewhere safe to live. I am still saddened, disgusted and shocked by how many seniors from across the country are calling my office and talking about how close they are to losing their homes, how some of them, even as old as people in their 80s, are couch-surfing from one family friend to another, because they simply have nowhere safe to live. Parents from across my constituency have told me that they do not have enough money to make ends meet, that they have made hard choices about what they will feed their children and whether they can make the basic necessities of their life happen. I do not know about the other members, but I have lived through very hard financial times and, as a parent, one of the hardest things was saying no to my kids on things that I would regularly ensure they had. That is what is happening in our country. We are talking about this bar of dignity, because we know that people are worried about whether they will be able to feed themselves. I have talked to parents who are not eating their last meal of the day so their kids have enough to eat for the whole day. At the same time this is happening, CEOs and grocery stores are seeing huge returns. People in the oil and gas industry, at the top echelon of it, are making more profit than they have seen in over 30 years, while the most vulnerable, the most hard-working of them, the everyday people who are doing their jobs, going to work every day and coming home, who are doing nothing wrong, are paying the price of inflation and they are paying the price of the wealthy becoming wealthier. The CEO of Sobeys has been awarded a total compensation package of $8.6 million in 2022, which is over 15% from the previous year. I do not know about the rest of the members in this place, but the constituents who I have talked to have not seen their wages increase by 15%. They are not seeing that return on the hard work they are often doing so wealthy people can get these huge extra payments. That is shameful in a country like ours. I keep hearing discussions on the Conservative side about whether we should be giving people this bit of money to help with their dental care, the one-time payment of $500 to help get them through this next period of time. I think it is absolutely essential. What is so sad is that both the Conservatives and Liberals are not talking about addressing the issue of ensuring the very ultrarich are paying their fair share. We hear from the government side, but we do not see action. What we do see are reports, like I saw the other day, of $30 billion that could have been brought to Canada to help with key important things like non-market housing, housing that seniors, with their very limited fixed incomes, could afford to live in, or people who are struggling one day to the next with different challenges would have a place to stay, a place to call home. This is happening because of tax loopholes. I bet a lot of people across the country right now are working very hard and paying their taxes. They do it during tax time. I talked to seniors who have a little extra and pay their taxes. I talked to working families that pay their taxes. Why do we have a system that builds in these loopholes that allow the very wealthy, who can afford to pay people who understand these systems, to get away with paying less? Why should hard-working Canadians pay more, in terms of share, than those who make so very much? CEOs are walking away with huge bonuses, getting incredible raises of 15%, having millions of dollars in annual income, while 24% of people are cutting back on how much basic food they buy. These are real people in our communities who are having to make these hard decisions, and it is not fair. We need voices in this place fighting for fairness, that are saying that it is not right that there is this big disparity and it is growing every year. Everyday Canadians are staying at one level and the ultra-wealthy are rising and rising. I hope that everybody in this place is going to support the motion, because this is about saying we are going to hold those making excess profits accountable and ensuring that they finally are going to pay their fair share, so the bar of dignity is there for all. Not too long ago, there was an incident in one of my communities where some young people were addressing unhoused people in a manner that was less than profoundly kind. This tell me that if we are not fighting this lack of fairness, we will be allowing for things to happen in our society of which we will have to live the long-term consequences. It is hard for people who are unhoused. It is hard for their loved ones and for businesses. It is hard for everyone, but we do not have a government that is taking it seriously, in a profound way, and it is not taking action to address fairness. It is really sad that we are now living in a country where eating without worry is becoming less and less of a reality. Eating without worry is now becoming a privileged place to be. That is absolutely shameful and we need to do better. There are things we can do and this motion would provide them. We can strengthen the Competition Act. We know that in European countries the competition laws can fine people substantively, so we need to do that. We need to ensure there is no price gouging. They have used it to ensure that pharmaceutical companies are not increasing medication costs, especially, for example, cancer drugs. Right now, competition law in Canada has no teeth; it has no way of addressing this. This motion is about accountability to fairness and to the hard-working people of Canada. It is time we put it in place, and I hope every member in the House supports this.

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Mr. Kody Blois (Kings—Hants, Lib.)

Oct/6/22 1:16:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, when we look at the text of the motion, I think most members in the House would agree that the conversation around food inflation and pricing is an important one, but it seems to suggest that there is already a predetermined outcome, that grocers and CEOs are absolutely price gouging. When the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford raised his point, I asked him about whether there could be a correlation between the fact that many Canadians would have been buying groceries for home over the last year as opposed to eating at restaurants and that, because of the inflationary pressures we are seeing, prices could have been up, but grocery profits also could have been up because of the changed dynamic of how we were purchasing food and feeding ourselves over the last couple of years. Does the member think there is a plausible rationale for why those two things are happening or is it just her assertion that grocers are absolutely price-fixing the system?

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Ms. Rachel Blaney

Oct/6/22 1:17:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the things I have talked about for many years, prior to this job as well, is that systems matter. They matter profoundly. We can trust people and hope they are doing the right thing all the time. I am a person who usually believes that. I believe most people have a good heart and care about people, but without robust systems, we cannot be assured of that. This motion talks about having that Canadian competition law and making it more assertive, aggressive and accountable for everyday Canadians. We can speculate who is doing what, but until we have the system that holds people and systems to account, we will never be at the place we need to be.

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Ms. Lianne Rood (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC)

Oct/6/22 1:18:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I hear from my constituents on a regular basis, too, that they are having difficulties making ends meet. It is not just Canadians right now; we are seeing food insecurity across this globe. If we do not have farms in Canada, we do not have food. If we do not have a viable area in Canada to produce food, if we do not have good policy to back our farmers up, we will not have food sovereignty in Canada. We will not be able to feed not only ourselves, we will not be feeding the world and we will have a global food shortage. I am wondering if my colleague can comment on what supports she thinks we need to see from the government and what we could be doing to improve supports to our farmers to ensure we can continue to have food sovereignty in Canada and have food security for folks, so they have available and affordable nutritious food.

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Ms. Rachel Blaney

Oct/6/22 1:19:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in the area I live, we have different farms of different sizes that do incredible work to feed our communities. One of the things that is unique in our area, as we live on Vancouver Island, is that we have three days of food for people, and that is it. If there is any emergency, there is a lot of concern about what we will do to address the fact that there is three days of food on the whole island for the people who live there. If we cannot get food into our communities, it will have a profound impact. Part of the solution is that all levels of government need to work with farmers to ensure they have a robust ability to do their work. I went to visit a farmer not too long ago in my riding. On Vancouver Island, we are seeing draught like we have never ever seen before. One of the things the farmer showed me was that she had dug a significantly huge hole so that during the winter it filled up with water, which allowed her to keep all her produce watered even during the draught. She talked about how we needed to do more work on those sorts of innovative solutions.

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Mr. Martin Champoux (Drummond, BQ)

Oct/6/22 1:21:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague from North Island—Powell River on her excellent, empathetic and sensitive speech. I completely agree on the issue of fairness and sensitivity to the populations or regions that are having a tougher time. I also think it is important to hold big corporations accountable and make them pay their fair share of tax. This government is doing nothing to eliminate or correct the problem of tax avoidance and tax havens. In 2019, we lost $381 billion to 12 tax havens. That is more than one-third of Canadian investments abroad. Does the member not agree that it is good to bring in measures to help those who are struggling the most, but that we really need to stop big corporations from profiting from tax avoidance and these tax havens?

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Ms. Rachel Blaney

Oct/6/22 1:22:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I could not agree more. The bar of dignity in the country is based on our capacity to take the ultra-wealthy and make them accountable, to ensure they pay their fair share. We are not asking for more; we are asking them to pay for their fair share, like most Canadians do.

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

Oct/6/22 1:22:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise today to talk about our NDP motion, proposed by my colleague the hon. member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, which urges the House to recognize the struggle and the pain Canadians are going through right now. The reality is that excessive corporate profits and out-of-control inequality are harming our country. These excessive corporate profits are fuelling inflation. A government that cares for its citizenry would have done something about it. Sadly, we are not seeing that from the current government. A government that cared about the struggle that working people and families are going through would have requested an investigation into the predatory behaviour of grocery store chains. Not only did we not see that, but this is the same government that preferred to buy fridges for these grocery chains a short time ago. Unfortunately, that is how it has been with the Liberal government, preferring empty words to real systemic change, preferring to be there to support its rich friends rather than holding them accountable and making them pay their fair share. It is time for the wealthy to pay their fair share in Canada. It is clear that we simply cannot afford not to do so. Every tax loophole and avoidance scheme is money taken out of the pockets of working people and the most vulnerable in our country. It keeps them in poverty and holds our country back. It is a choice made by the current government and governments before it to keep people poor, marginalized and divided. All the while the rich are laughing all the way to the bank. It is clear that Canadians are angry. Many of them are increasingly also hungry. They cannot afford their next meal. They do not know how they are going to feed their families. All the while, rich CEOs in our country are gouging them. There is only so much to squeeze out. It is hard to even call what is in our current system loopholes anymore, as these are by design. We are talking over $30 billion in tax avoidance in 2021 alone from only 123 corporations. That is $30 billion in the pockets of the already obscenely wealthy that could have been invested in communities across our country. Let us be clear. This is a choice, a choice with disastrous effects on Canada. In August 2022, the price of a grocery basket rose 10.8% in one year, exactly twice as fast as people's wages. Meanwhile, the CEO of Sobeys has been given a total compensation package of $8.6 million in 2022, an increase of more than 15.5% over 2021. This is a choice our government has made and it is clearly not a good one. The choice by the government to cover its eyes and avoid helping Canadians who are struggling has left nine out of 10 Canadians tightening their budgets, as if there was room for many to do so. Almost one-quarter of Canadians are buying less food. We need to call this what it is, a crisis, and one that has been growing for a long time for far too many people. It is only now that the Liberals are noticing. While the Liberals are not offering any real solutions, and neither of course are the Conservatives despite all their bluster, there is an important distinction to make. We, in the NDP, will work with anyone if it means getting results for Canadians, if it means real results for people struggling to get by so they can get the supports they need, whether to make rent, get dental care or afford the most basic necessities. When the Conservatives and the Liberals team up, watch out, because it is the little guys, the working people, the Canadians on the margins, who are getting screwed. They may sit on opposite sides of the House for the TV, but when it comes down to it, the Liberals and Conservatives have a track record of going to bat for the ultrarich in Canada. This is the real coalition government in our country, one run by the wealthy, for the wealthy. It allows the Liberals and Conservatives to block meaningful change, whether it be ending the housing crisis facing indigenous communities, stopping the billion-dollar giveaways to big oil or ending the ability for telecom companies to screw Canadians over, time and time again. This is perfectly in character for the new Conservative leader. Do not forget, the Conservative leader wants to give a $567-million gift to corporate CEOs at the expense of workers, who will see their EI benefits and pensions cut. So much for standing up for working people. Not surprisingly, he has already voted against the minimum wage increase twice. Why is the Conservative leader putting the interests of wealthy CEOs ahead of workers? What should we as parliamentarians, who are supposed to be acting in the best interests of Canadians, be doing next? We need to find solutions and act on them to end the unfair tax system. We must place a priority on fixing the tax gap, as highlighted by Canadians for Tax Fairness earlier this week. First, we must raise the corporate income tax rate. It is only 15% today, and with all the loopholes available to corporations, it is clear that they can easily avoid, and they are easily avoiding, paying that tax. Increasing the basic tax rate is a solution to tackling inequality in our country. Second, we must implement a minimum tax on book profits and take inspiration from what our neighbours to the south are doing. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act passed this measure that will be a check on corporate exploitation of tax loopholes. It is essential in ensuring that we close the tax gap. Had Canada had a 15% minimum tax rate in 2021, we could have increased government revenues to fund essential services by over $11 billion. Third, we must close the capital gains loophole, finally. Income must be taxed as income, whether it is for rich shareholders or working-class Canadians. It is a matter of basic fairness. Doing so would go a long way to fixing the housing crisis that many people on first nations and indigenous communities face. It would go a long way to ending the crisis in our emergency rooms and hospitals. It would go a long way to lifting people up across our country in every community across Canada. The reality is that Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. Those of us connected to our communities hear this, day in and day out. In regions like mine, people do not have more to give. As somebody who represents one of the poorest parts of Canada, people are already set back and are only being set back further. I have heard from many indigenous people who had already been struggling to make ends meet and afford healthy foods in their communities that things have only become worse. I have heard from working people across our north, for whom access to basic services are already limited, that times are increasingly tough. I have heard from families who do not know how they are going to pay for a Thanksgiving meal with their children. The reality is that we, as MPs, are not just here to talk about the difficulty people are facing. We are here to act on their behalf and to act on the solutions that many have said are right in front of us. That starts with showing some political will: political will that we have yet to see from Liberals and Conservatives, political will that prioritizes taxing the rich and political will that requires looking into why so many corporations, including supermarkets, made a killing during the pandemic and made sure their CEOs got off with major bonuses and incomes, only to see Canadians set further and further back. We are not here to just talk; we are here to act. That is why I am proud that we in the NDP have put forward a concrete plan in today's motion to act on ending inequality in our country, to act on the affordability crisis many Canadians are facing and to act to end the greedflation that we are seeing, aided and abetted by the Liberal government. Let us no longer sit by. On the eve of Thanksgiving and families coming together, however they do, to celebrate being together over food, let us make sure we are taking actions so that they can afford what they need, and what we all need, to move forward. It is our responsibility to act now.

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

Oct/6/22 1:32:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know the member in her speech referenced the political will of Conservatives and Liberals. I would encourage her to have a little more optimism and not to assume that there is no political will on this side of the House with regard to this motion. I certainly am very much interested in it. I do agree with her, in that I believe it is a well-crafted motion and that it hits on a number of things. There might a couple of words or terms in here I do not agree with, but I certainly agree with what the NDP has put forward. I know the motion speaks specifically about the grocery sector, but I am curious if she can highlight any other sectors that she believes should also be looked at other than oil, which I think is a very obvious one. Are there other sectors the NDP believes we should be looking at?

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Ms. Niki Ashton

Oct/6/22 1:33:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, while I appreciate the openness of the member and I certainly hope it will result in the Liberals supporting our motion and, more importantly, acting on what is in our motion, it has been disappointing so far to see the Liberal Party, which claims to stand up for the middle class, not actually taking bold action when it comes to taxing the rich, which we know is a critical step in standing up for the middle class and reinvesting in our social programs and the social safety net that is essential to greater equality in our country. We believe it is important to act on the recommendations in the groundbreaking report by Canadians for Tax Fairness. It is not a quick fix, but there are clear steps we could be taking right now to close loopholes, to tax capital gains and to increase the corporate tax rate, which would obviously apply to not just grocery chains but all sectors that have seen record profits during the pandemic.

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Mr. Warren Steinley (Regina—Lewvan, CPC)

Oct/6/22 1:34:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to rise today on behalf of the constituents of Regina—Lewvan and ask a question of my NDP colleague. I listened to her speech very intently. One thing she talked about throughout her speech was how the government could get more money, how the government could cut more money and how the government could be more greedy and take more money from taxpayers and not put it back in taxpayers' pockets. The member talked about concrete actions that could be taken to help Canadians. There are not a lot of concrete actions in here. There is talk of doing a study or making a plan. When we brought a forward a motion a couple of days ago to lower taxes for all Canadians, to make sure that they were not triple-taxed when it came to the carbon tax and to make sure that they were not further taxed on their paycheques when it came to EI and CPP, the New Democrats voted against that. How far has the NDP fallen? How irrelevant is it going to become? It will basically be as irrelevant as Blockbuster video if it does not stop taxing Canadians.

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Ms. Niki Ashton

Oct/6/22 1:35:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I had to compose myself, as somebody who grew up with Blockbuster video. I am not sure the member actually listened to my speech, because what I was talking about was taxing corporations and the rich. Maybe he did not hear it because the Conservatives seem to be largely allergic to wanting to tax the rich and corporations, something that they did not do when they were in power a few years ago. Concretely, we point to the groundbreaking work of Canadians for Tax Fairness that talked about the $30 billion that corporations did not pay in taxes, the $30 billion that could have and should have been invested in Canadians. I will say there is a double standard in this country. Working people are expected to pay their fair share of taxes while the richest among us get away scot-free. It is time for the Conservatives to get on board with the idea that there should be tax fairness for everybody, including their rich friends, who are clearly not paying their fair share of taxes. I invite the Conservatives to support our plan to tax the rich and lift Canadians up during these hard times.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

Oct/6/22 1:37:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this afternoon some governing party members have bragged about a windfall tax on banks and insurance companies, yet the UN Secretary-General has called for the same windfall tax to be placed on the excess profits of oil and gas companies that are gouging Canadians at the pump in the midst of a climate crisis. Could the member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski comment on the importance of the governing party following this call?

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