Finance committee  No. So far, no one has been prosecuted. From questions posed to the CRA, the answer that has come back is that they're continuing to investigate. We wonder why other countries have been able to successfully prosecute. It would be good to know one way or the other if the CRA can move forward with prosecutions.

Finance committee  We think that the model that's been set up for the beneficial ownership registry can serve as a template for something similar. It should be relative to the beneficial ownership registry. This is a much simpler step, but you can definitely coordinate among the various relevant government departments to figure out how to do this in a way that maximizes transparency and doesn't potentially risk exposing information that you may not want to make public.

Finance committee  The wealthier you are, the more you can afford accountants and lawyers who can help you sidestep the taxes that you should be paying, often legally. We want a comprehensive review of the entire tax system to identify the loopholes that are being exploited in this way.

Finance committee  It's hugely important, and it's also the type of thing that gets support from Canadians of all stripes. Everyone thinks it's ridiculous that we don't know how much revenue and profit Amazon makes in Canada. How much tax does Amazon pay in Canada? It's obviously becoming an ever greater part of our economy.

Finance committee  An income tax is a tax on a flow. That's the money that's moving into people's accounts. A wealth tax is a tax on a stock. The wealth tax that has been proposed would really affect the 1% of the 1% but generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue. That in and of itself wouldn't reduce inequality that much, but where you could start reducing inequality with those funds would be by providing greater supports at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Finance committee  There are a lot of different ways to measure this. We put out a report recently looking at corporate taxes as a share of revenue. In that report, we make the point that the cuts haven't led to investment. We looked at the machinery, equipment and intellectual property assets as a share of total assets of non-financial corporations.

Finance committee  A lot of the productivity gains that we probably could achieve if we were investing in innovation just simply aren't happening. A lot of the economic activity that could be there, isn't. We could have government funding the types of jobs we actually want. We've been told for so long that we need to just leave this to the market and to the private sector.

Finance committee  Any time you give any kind of preferential tax treatment to some segment of the corporations, capital will move into that segment. That provides funds to the REITs to start buying up the housing stock. With ultra-low interest rates, the total cost of purchasing a home hasn't gone up that much.

Finance committee  I don't know the beginning date. My knowledge is mostly at a time when the entire government recognized, oh, this special trust treatment is a huge problem and we need to eliminate it. It was eliminated everywhere except for real estate, for some unknown reason. It's not talked about enough, the way the failure to eliminate that special treatment has affected our housing market, even though everyone is concerned about our housing market.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to speak with you today. As Canadians for Tax Fairness, we are concerned about two long-term trends in our tax system that stymie our ability to achieve a sustainable, equitable and prosperous future. First, four decades of changes to our tax laws have drastically reduced public revenues.

Finance committee  Absolutely, it's the wealth tax. It would bring in more revenue, and it would have some of the same effects as an excess profits tax. We are alone among many of our allies in not having some form of wealth tax. It's in the fiscal tool kit. We just need to make use of it.

Finance committee  Yes, and my organization gave your government kudos for doing so. There's just much more that needs to be done and can be done. There are many more tools in the fiscal tool kit that your government's just not using. It has made hints that it will use some of them, but it has not said concretely what that will actually look like, despite widespread calls to implement these kinds of measures to create the fiscal space that's needed to address both the pandemic aftermath and the climate crisis going forward.

Finance committee  Yes, I'm aware of those. The digital giants taxation is again something that we gave big kudos for, although a thumbs-down for delaying the implementation for a year, which is costly. Actually, I would pose a question that we have, if I could. Will that tax apply to Uber and Lyft?

Finance committee  Okay.

Finance committee  That just shows what can be done through government action. We have seen unprecedented levels of spending that had this unexpected positive impact—and I mean unexpected to many commentators. There were a lot who said, “Put money out there and it will help address inequality.” I'm here to say, go further and do more.