44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 21, 2022 11:00AM
- Mar/21/22 12:30:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree. There are several ways to address this situation. What is beginning to alarm me is that this government has various paths it could take, but it will not choose any one of them.
As a result, we are stuck with the status quo, which is not stable itself. We are seeing a trend where money and power are becoming concentrated in the hands of a smaller group of people.
We really need to do something to reverse that trend. That means we need to change the status quo, if not through this proposal, which I think is a good one, then through something else. The government has not demonstrated that it has its own plan. It does not seem prepared to implement other parties' plans either.
However, we absolutely must implement a plan, not only for the coming year, but for the next 10, 15 or 20 years. I believe we have the opportunity here to lay the foundations for a truly equitable economy, but we need to step up now.
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- Mar/21/22 1:26:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I enjoyed the speech given by my colleague from Mirabel. We can always count on him to identify the limitations of the market in a crisis.
He would make the founding fathers of political economy proud, because they emphasized the importance of redistribution. My colleague is offering to teach a course in economics, so I suggest that he also offer a course in economic history.
Historically, whenever there was a crisis, governments always opted for a policy of redistribution through taxes.
Can my colleague tell me whether this is true or false, and provide more details?
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- Mar/21/22 1:27:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would first like to thank my esteemed colleague, the hon. member for Mirabel, for sharing his time with me.
We are here to debate the motion put forward by the hon. member for Burnaby South, highlighting several wealth gap issues that have been exacerbated by current inflation. Let me remind the House that, during the last election campaign, this government promised to levy a 3% surtax on the profits of banks and insurance companies.
We agree with this measure. Let me also remind the House that, while the public finances recorded colossal deficits and the pandemic forced SMEs out of business, several sectors of the economy besides banks and insurers became richer. Today's motion seeks to leverage the huge profits that certain companies earned in spite of the crisis. Their support will essential.
We are currently experiencing a period of high inflation. In December, the consumer price index rose by 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. This major acceleration of inflation significantly affects the purchasing power of Canadians and Quebeckers. The price of groceries rose by 5.7%, and the price of housing grew by 9.3% compared with December 2020. The simple fact is that inflation is affecting almost all goods. That in turn is affecting both individuals and businesses.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a significant impact on the price of energy. Even if the price of gasoline does go back down eventually, its current volatility and unpredictability are enough to worry Quebeckers. We were used to countering inflation by addressing surges in demand, but we are now also facing problems with supply, including increasing pressure on labour and energy costs.
That being said, it is important to implement measures to protect the general public, especially the most vulnerable members of our society, from price increases. Let us look specifically at who could be doing more in this situation. In the past 12 months, several financial groups have earned record profits. National Bank, Laurentian Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, Scotiabank, CIBC and Mouvement Desjardins collectively earned $60.68 billion in profits. That is 39% or approximately $17 billion more than the previous year, which was also a pandemic year.
The year 2020 was a good year for some businesses, according to an analysis of the profits of the largest Canadian businesses published at the end of last year. According to Canadians for Tax Fairness, 111 publicly traded companies headquartered in Canada made profits of at least $100 million in the first nine months of the year, and 34 of them posted record profits. The top profit-maker was TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, whose Keystone project has been in the news for years. The company made $3.5 billion in profit on $9.7 billion in sales in the first three quarters, for a profit margin of 35.6%.
This stands in stark contrast to what has been happening with our SMEs. Many went into debt to get through the pandemic, wagering that the economy would eventually get back to normal. Even if the economy recovers, they will still be in debt. There is a reason the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says that one in four SMEs could close down permanently in 2022 because they went into debt during previous waves. Small business confidence in Canada and Quebec remained especially low in January because of supply issues, the health restrictions and labour shortages.
The Bloc Québécois agrees with the idea of implementing a tax on profits over $1 billion for banks and insurance companies, as well as oil companies and big box stores. The tax should be used for assistance programs, in particular for SMEs.
Such significant measures require an explanation. They are aimed at increasing the government’s revenues to help it deal with the deficit and assist struggling SMEs. These measures would directly help those who are hardest hit by inflation. I can already hear our Conservative friends say that taxing corporate profits makes it more difficult for those that keep the economy rolling to reinvest. However, they are well aware that the large profits made by these companies mean that they already have considerable reinvestment power.
In the final analysis, we would be taking 18 cents out of every dollar of the profit made by billionaire companies. They would still have a bit of a margin left.
In the case of oil companies, we need to make sure that the plan includes programs aimed at reinvesting in the urgently needed energy transition. If we collect these funds, it will have to be to better guide the investments of corporations that have a significant societal impact.
The purpose of taxes is to take a small portion of the surplus of wealth-creating businesses to correct market failures and thus redistribute wealth, while redirecting the funds with a plan and coherent vision aimed at improving Canadians’ well-being. Let us keep in mind that we are talking about 3% for businesses that make more than $1 billion in profits. We are in the middle of a climate crisis and economic tensions that often require state intervention to redistribute wealth.
In short, we support the spirit of today’s motion. The Bloc Québécois will support any measure that effectively benefits the most vulnerable. We cannot just stand idly by while workers and businesses struggle with the effects of the pandemic.
The objective of the proposed surtax is to get revenues from those who benefitted from the crisis to help those who suffered from it. That is why governments exist. We know that the extremely costly measures taken during the pandemic increased the deficit. Now it is time to take stock, and we must correct the failures of a market we know to be imperfect, especially when it is faced with the uncertainty of a pandemic.
What is our purpose as members of Parliament in these critical times if not to propose and support measures aimed at protecting the most vulnerable and promoting a vision whose only goal is the well-being of society?
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- Mar/21/22 2:45:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives continue to talk down the Canadian economy and spin economic fiction, so let us talk about some facts.
Fact: last week, Statistics Canada showed that our annualized growth is 6.7%. Fact: our economy is the second-fastest growing in the G7. Fact: despite omicron, our debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest in the—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Mar/21/22 2:45:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the third of many facts that I will share in this answer is that, at $2.5 trillion, our economy is exactly the same size it was before the pandemic. We are on track and we will continue to fight COVID inflation on behalf of Canadians.
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- Mar/21/22 3:01:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government has developed several programs to support Black communities across the country, strengthen community organizations and help Black entrepreneurs finance their activities. In order to promote an inclusive economy, I announced a $25-million investment to support 10 Black-led organizations.
Can the Minister of Economic Development talk about the impact this support has had on Black communities in Canada?
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- Mar/21/22 5:09:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I visited Quebec City over the weekend.
I know how important tourism is to all of Canada, and especially to the province of Quebec.
I agree.
We should look at measures that entice and that keep folks from exiting the labour market across the country. We did something in the budget by raising the guaranteed income supplement earnings exemptions so seniors could keep more of their hard-earned dollars as they stayed in the labour force.
Any measure that increases labour supply and the productive capacity of the Canadian economy should always be examined. I know, for my part as an economist, that I always take a look at those types of measures because they improve the standard of living for all Canadians and they help provinces such as Quebec fulfill their labour needs. We know that, in Canada, we have a great economy and a strong economy, and we need more workers.
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- Mar/21/22 5:55:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and the NDP for this fantastic initiative, because it is worth discussing.
I come from an entrepreneurial background. All my life, I have heard it said that small businesses and self-employed workers are the backbone of the economy. In my riding, there are a lot of small and medium-sized businesses that are driving the economy.
I would like my colleague to give me some insights into how we can deal with large corporations, which often receive subsidies and then engage in tax avoidance. In the post-pandemic era, how can we urgently find a way to recoup this money?
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