Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting us.
I would like to inform you that the CSN represents 330,000 members across Canada, in all sectors of activity.
Let me start by saying that we support the government's proposal to increase the capital gains tax. First, we acknowledge that government must not only raise additional revenue, but also provide public services and social programs. It must meet the needs of all Canadians, while respecting provincial jurisdictions. I believe that the purpose of government is to meet the needs of the public.
However, there are many needs. This has been pointed out before, and it hasn't changed. We hear talk of housing investments; improvements to the employment insurance system in order to fill in the gaps; the establishment of a comprehensive public pharmacare program; investments in green economy projects; improvements to public transit; and better support for print and other media. Of course, all this requires revenue. So revenue is needed. The Confédération des syndicats nationaux welcomes the decision to raise the capital gains inclusion rate from 50% to 66.66%. Perhaps it could have been raised higher. That said, we think that it's a step in the right direction and that it can be taken further to meet the needs of Canadians. All the same, it's a good thing.
Moreover, it affects the wealthiest people as well as corporations. I heard the previous witness say that it affects few taxpayers, but that it does affect corporations. We find that it represents a progressive aspect of taxation. This matters, because it helps to address inequalities. Let's face it. Inequalities have been increasing for years. The wealthiest 1% and 0.1% of the population have continued to get richer and richer. How has this happened? Basically, financial assets are taxed less than earned income. In our opinion, this obviously encourages speculation, in a number of cases, unfortunately. This approach doesn't always produce the desired results when we consider investments based on historical data. My colleague, François Bélanger, can address this issue even better than I can. This approach has failed to deliver on its promises.
Of course, we know that other sources of funding would be useful to the government, such as a minimum tax on multinational corporations. That said, again, we welcome the inclusion rate increase to 66.66%.