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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 124

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 3, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 124 - Nov/3/22
Mr. Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP)
  • Nov/3/22 2:29:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, recent reports show that in the last year Loblaws made its biggest profits ever to the tune of an extra million dollars in profit for every day of the year. While families are turning to food banks or skipping meals to reduce their costs, Galen Weston and his shareholders are lining their pockets. The NDP has called on the government to make these chains pay what they owe to Canadians, so we can do things to help, like remove the GST on home heating. We want stronger consequences for price-fixing and we want a windfall profits tax. We have not seen it. Are the Liberals finally going to get going on this and tackle “greedflation”, which is making the rich richer while everyone else pays the price?
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Context: House Hansard - 124 - Nov/3/22
Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)
  • Nov/3/22 5:50:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we are in the midst of a climate emergency, yet big oil and gas companies are making record profits. In light of that fact, I am sure the member for Joliette was as relieved as I was that, at the very least, the governing party did not introduce new fossil fuel subsidies in this economic update. Then again, the government did not introduce a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies, it did not completely end fossil fuel subsidies and it did not invest in major energy retrofits with those funds. Is the member concerned about that?
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Context: House Hansard - 124 - Nov/3/22
Mr. Daniel Blaikie
  • Nov/3/22 6:27:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am certainly happy to do that. In this time when we are seeing companies making extraordinary profits well beyond what they were making prepandemic, in a time of massive need, that is a lost opportunity to ensure people who are struggling, and who do not have the extra money in their bank accounts, can continue to do well. That is important from a moral point of view, but it is also important from a financial point of view. Allowing large corporations to accrue larger and larger surpluses to pay out to their already rich shareholders means that people do not get the help and support they need. They are the people who end up homeless or who do not get access to health care, so they end up in emergency rooms, on the streets, in the justice system and in difficult circumstances that are themselves very costly to remediate. Everyone ends up worse off. That is why having a fairer tax system with proper investments in people who need that investment is a smarter way financially over the long-term too.
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