Ottawa (02 Dec. 2020) — Public Services International, the global union federation of public sector unions, has joined a global coalition working to address the many issues with Amazon’s business practices, including tax dodging and mistreating its workers. The campaign, Make Amazon Pay, is demanding changes to both Amazon’s company policies and government legislation.
Ottawa (01 Dec. 2020) — Rightfully, much of the focus of yesterday’s Fall Economic Statement was on the COVID-19 pandemic. There were some additional funds for the public health response, including PPE and vaccines, and more measures to support workers, families, businesses, and communities that are impacted by the lockdowns.
Ottawa (01 Dec. 2020) — Canadians for Tax Fairness revealed that the wealth of Canada’s richest billionaires grew by more than $50 billion between April and October of this year.
Ottawa (20 Nov. 2020) — A new report from the Tax Justice Network (TJN) estimates that tax dodging by multinational corporations and the wealthy is costing governments around the world over C$560 billion a year.
Ottawa (19 Nov. 2020) — This week, Members of Parliament voted against an NDP motion calling for a wealth tax and a tax on excessive corporate profits. The NDP proposal called for a 1% tax on wealth over $20 million and an excess profit tax. It was proposed that funds raised through these measures be used to fund income security programs, health care and housing.
It was defeated when the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois voted against it.
New polling from Environics Research shows the majority of Canadians support the government in making “major changes to fix long-standing problems in society,” such as inequality. Another poll in Quebec found the majority of Canadians are willing to pay more in taxes.
“This pandemic has demonstrated that inequities in our society place some populations — and ultimately, all Canadians at risk. No one is protected from the risk of COVID-19 until everyone is protected.” — Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada
When billionaires are wealthier than ever before, making cuts to public services that will penalize low- and middle-income people to pay for the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic is obscene.
Ottawa (16 Oct. 2020) — While most of the world’s population is struggling to get by, the very wealthy are now richer than ever before. According to a report from UBS, a multinational bank based in Switzerland, the holdings of the world’s billionaires are now worth US $10.2 trillion, or about C$13.56 trillion. This is higher than the previous record of US$8.9 trillion.
Adequate funding for services like health care or enabling tax dodging and money laundering — it shouldn’t be a tough choice.
“Now is the time for a universally accessible, publicly funded, not-for-profit, and high quality child care system that fairly compensates workers in a unionized workforce.” — Larry Brown, NUPGE President