SoVote

Mar/21/22 5:21:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford spoke about the litany of broken Liberal promises. I am concerned that the Liberals may break their promise to create a publicly accessible nationwide beneficial ownership registry. This would not only help tackle money laundering, which is having a devastating impact on our housing market, but it also would make it easier to identify assets connected to sanctioned Russian oligarchs and strengthen the enforcement of sanctions. Can the member speak to the need for a publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry and commit to pushing her government to fulfill its promises?

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Ms. Julie Dzerowicz

Mar/21/22 5:22:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would say I am very proud of our government and the promises that we have kept. Many of them I mentioned in my speech, including increasing taxes on the wealthiest 1%, reducing them on the middle class, supporting our families both with respect to introducing the Canada child benefit and now a national child care plan, which all provinces and territories, except for Ontario, have already signed on to. There have been many other promises to try to reduce income inequality and create tax fairness in this country. In terms of the publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry, I fully support it and am very proud that our government has committed to implementing it. Money laundering is indeed a very serious issue. It is one that is increasing in complexity, so I support this program and I absolutely support continuing to encourage our government to implement it as quickly as possible.

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

Mar/21/22 5:23:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke about how, at the beginning of its mandate, the government raised taxes on some people. The promise it had made at the time was that the tax shifting it was doing would be revenue-neutral. However, in the end it was not. It significantly added to the deficit, and we have seen continuing measures that have added to the deficit. I think what the member glosses over in her remarks is just how unequally and disproportionately the effects of high levels of deficit spending, leading to inflation, fall on middle and lower-income Canadians. Those who are very wealthy have a variety of tools at their disposal for protecting themselves from the effects of inflation, but everyday working Canadians simply do not have the same opportunities. We are passing on costs to those who can least afford it and to subsequent generations. Does the member acknowledge this problem and believe the government needs to do more to confront inflation and other ways in which out-of-control spending is passing costs on to those who can least afford it?

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Ms. Julie Dzerowicz

Mar/21/22 5:24:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, through you, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question. It is an important one. I would like to respectfully disagree with the member. I think we have done a lot. We have implemented many things to do everything we can to try to reduce income inequality in our country. Whether it was the introduction of the Canada child benefit, the increase in the GIS, taxing the top 1% and reducing tax on the middle class, or introducing increases in the Canada worker benefit a couple of times, there have been a number of measures we have taken to try to reduce income inequality in our country. Inflation absolutely is a huge issue and I think it impacts everyone. We should mention that there are a number of measures in place that will help to protect those on the lower end of the income scale in our country, indexed to inflation, so our—

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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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