44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 21, 2022 11:00AM
- Mar/21/22 1:55:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I come to members today from the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.
Jocelyn is a constituent in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith. She is the proud mother of two young children, ages three and four. She holds a university education and a strong desire to remain engaged and connected in our community. Unfortunately, Jocelyn was in multiple accidents, leaving her permanently disabled and unable to work. Even though she is currently getting a “deal” on her unaffordable and overpriced rental, she is left with just $500 a month, after her rent is paid, to meet her family's needs. Jocelyn said to me that all she is looking for is the certainty that her children will have food on the table and a place to call home.
In addition to Jocelyn being unable to make ends meet, she is unable to afford the medications prescribed by her doctor to help her with the physical symptoms from her accidents. It would cost $100 a month for the medications that could significantly improve her quality of life. For Jocelyn, $100 a month is well outside her means with her limited income. Instead, she had to find medication that was less costly and unfortunately also less effective at alleviating her symptoms. This is a vicious cycle that too many Canadians find themselves in. When Jocelyn recently told me about her experience, she described it as systemic violence, one where most Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque and are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty. While many people struggle in the system, our richest and largest corporations earn record profits.
As we continue to debate this motion today, I hope members of the House will keep Jocelyn and others like her in mind. We must do better to make sure that Canadians have access to the basic supports they need. That starts with ensuring that everyone is paying their fair share. In our country, where we praise ourselves for taking care of each other and for our high quality of life, how is it that we are seeing so many like Jocelyn? Despite hard work and perseverance, they are still unable to have the basics: a home, food and medications. These are not luxuries; these are basic human rights.
Too many in my riding are struggling to make ends meet, and the pandemic has only amplified a crisis that was growing for years. The last Nanaimo Foundation's Vital Signs report from 2019, for example, showed a worrisome trend of an increase in the number of seniors struggling to make ends meet. We know this trend has only increased throughout the pandemic. We are seeing more seniors becoming homeless or on the edge of homelessness, unable to pay their bills or keep food in their fridges. It is heartbreaking to see seniors, who have worked tirelessly to age with dignity, be left with little hope of even having the basics like a place to call home.
Child poverty rates also continue to increase in Nanaimo—Ladysmith. Children are being left to suffer while large, wealthy corporations make more than ever. This is shameful. I ask my colleagues to take a moment to consider not only the immediate consequences, but the long-term implications of the increasing number of children being left to struggle in poverty. We are showing our children through our actions how to treat one another.
The Liberals and Conservatives tell Canadians that they are looking out for them, but we have seen countless times that this is only true if it does not cut into the profits of their corporate friends. By supporting this motion, they can show that they are ready to live up to their promises to Canadians. Today, they can help make sure that companies that have been squeezing Canadians at the pumps or at the grocery stores are supporting the public services people need.
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- Mar/21/22 3:44:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, right now we are seeing how big corporations spend their record profits. As just one example, last year Scotiabank made a net profit of over $10 billion. After jacking up fees for customers throughout the pandemic, it paid out over $4 billion in dividends to its wealthy shareholders. The same applies to many large grocery store chains that are seeing profits like never before, while the price paid by hard-working Canadians for groceries continues to increase. While corporations raised their prices throughout the pandemic, wages have remained stagnant. It is a broken system and it is only getting worse under the current Liberal government.
Instead of following through with his most recent election campaign promise of raising taxes on the most profitable big banks and insurance companies, the Prime Minister continues to make life easier for the wealthiest and largest corporations. On this side of the House, we know that this surtax cannot come quickly enough. It is also vital that Canada goes beyond just banking and insurance and extends this surtax to oil companies and large grocery store chains with net profits over $1 billion. Canadians know that these record-setting profits are due to big companies taking every penny from regular people that they can. Supporting this motion will show that the government is ready to stand up for Canadians who elected them instead of just wealthy stockholders.
For months now we have seen Liberals and Conservatives try to score political points around who is to blame for the rising cost of living in Canada, but neither really understands the challenges that everyday people are facing and just how out of reach life is becoming for regular people. In some parts of British Columbia, we have recently seen rent explode by almost 20% in the last six months alone. The price of the average home in Nanaimo, in my riding, recently rose above $1 million. These prices are absurd and out of reach for seniors on fixed incomes or new families looking to buy their first homes. They are a by-product of investors and private equity firms buying up homes, reducing supply and then driving up prices.
Shamefully, while Canadians continue to struggle to find homes, they do not have any way to see who they are competing with when trying to do so due to Canada's weak public beneficial ownership registry laws. That is why our motion today also calls for the government to get serious about a beneficial ownership registry. Canada's weak disclosure laws allow for an estimated $130 billion to be laundered through Canadian corporations each year, and the real estate market is a huge part of this illegal activity. In British Columbia, the provincial NDP has moved forward with a publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry, but it cannot do it alone. Unfortunately, the current government has barely begun to scratch the surface. At the rate we are headed, we will not see anything to curb money laundering and tax evasion until at least 2025.
One thing that continues to be true prior to the pandemic and remains the same today is that it is not the workers or those living in the communities who are benefiting from the billions in corporate profit. Instead, it is the wealthy corporate shareholders. It is time to start holding these large corporations to account by paying their fair share and putting it back where it belongs, in our communities.
One of the truly remarkable things about our community in Nanaimo—Ladysmith is the strength of our small and medium-sized businesses. These are businesses that have made our region their home and want to see it thrive. They are invested. Like everyday Canadians, these businesses are also feeling the pinch. Our local chambers of commerce are seeing businesses struggle. They are struggling to find employees because people are being priced out of the housing market. They are struggling to make their businesses work with increased costs from high gas prices and banking fees. This motion is critical to allowing our local small and medium-sized businesses to operate on an even playing field.
I want to close my thoughts by speaking about people like Jocelyn, who feel like they have been left behind, who feel like the system has been built to keep them down while the wealthiest keep getting richer. We can build a system where people are not left behind, where prescription medications, dental care, eye care and mental health services are all part of a public health care system, where we invest in programs to better support seniors living on GIS and CPP and we ensure that everyone is able to afford a roof over their heads and groceries for their families.
A better, more compassionate system starts with the Liberal government getting serious about putting people before corporate greed. It is about the government living up to its campaign promises and getting serious about taxing Canada's wealthiest corporations, and it is about making sure that Canadians can finally have more corporate accountability through a publicly available beneficial ownership registry.
A more compassionate future is possible. We can build a future where everyone has the support they need. I hope every member in the House will help us move forward toward a better future and support this motion.
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- Mar/21/22 3:51:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we know that in 2018, the amount of money laundering was estimated at $5.3 billion just in British Columbia, my home province, through the real estate sector. We know that money laundering through home purchases is putting an upward pressure on prices. I think we can all agree on that.
We need to see the Liberal government implementing transparency tools that discourage money laundering by criminals and the wealthy at a pace that is much quicker than what we are seeing today. That is why we are putting forward in this motion the need for a beneficial ownership registry that creates a means for us to shine a light on the assets and properties that are owned and may be otherwise hidden by shell companies. I am in agreement that we need to do all we can to move forward.
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- Mar/21/22 3:53:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we know that we need to be doing all we can to reduce pollution. We are in a climate crisis and we need to be ensuring that we are investing in renewable energy sources and moving away from our reliance on oil and gas. Bigger than that, we need to look at ensuring that the big oil and gas companies that are reaping profits like we have never seen before are paying their fair share. Their fair share of taxes can then be put back into the community where it belongs.
We know the impacts from this high cost of living crisis are being felt disproportionately by those with lower incomes. We need to take the money that is taxed from big oil and gas corporations and put it back into the pockets of everyday people.
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- Mar/21/22 3:54:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is a very good question. What we are seeing right now through the pandemic is that the rich are getting richer and the number of people struggling to make ends meet is increasing. We need to make sure that we are looking at how we lift everyone up and that we are taking care of one another. Right now the systems that we have are not set up to do that.
I spoke about Jocelyn, who is a constituent in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith. Without her knowing that this motion was coming forward, she spoke about the barriers that she was experiencing in being able to get ahead and that we need to stop and look at the systems that we have so that everybody has an opportunity to—
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