Madam Speaker, if there is one topic on everyone's lips these days, it is the one we are addressing today. Since time is running out and in order to allow as many people as possible to reflect the views of the citizens who live in each of the ridings, views that all point in the same direction, I am announcing that I will be sharing my time with the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie.
Let me say from the outset that I am far from being a tax expert. I am not an expert in the matter, but one thing I am sure of is that I listen to the citizens in my riding and share their frustration on the issue.
I would like to be able to say that politicians are leaders in tax fairness and that they promote measures that improve the lives of all Canadians. However, the truth is that, once again, we are tagging along behind the simmering anger of our citizens.
The difference between the NDP and successive governments in Ottawa is that we hear the grumbling and we are doing everything we can to propose tangible measures to stem this rising tide.
For example, in the last election campaign, we were roundly criticized by some people for our proposal to balance the budget. Maybe we did not sell our own platform well enough. What is clear is that there were proposals in the revenue column that no other party in the House dared to make, that directly influenced the government’s capacity to seek out new revenue sources.
We need only think of the tax rate on large corporations that the Conservatives cut from 22% to 15%, as part of a job creation strategy, with very few results when it came to job creation. I will always remember that request, or rather that plea, by a former minister of finance, Mr. Flaherty, for whom I have great respect, even though we had different political allegiances. He pleaded with the big businesses to which we had given tax cuts to reinject the money into the economy. That did not happen, and we know the rest.
At present, with wealth disparities continuing to grow, it is high time that we did something, that we stop talking and start acting. Instead of hiding behind the excuse that the problem is international in scope and we cannot do anything on our own, it is time for Canada to act like a leader and initiate the movement. Canada could be in the lead, as I was saying, instead of just saying “Canada is back”.
I am going to give a few statistics, just to provide a clear and precise picture in two or three figures, for everyone listening to us. We are talking about Canada, with Canadian numbers. The highest paid CEOs in Canada are paid 193 times the average Canadian wage. I am not talking about the median wage, even; I am talking about the average wage. Two billionaires own about one third of all personal wealth in Canada: $33.1 billion. The richest CEOs earn in a half day what the average worker earns in a year. We can see how urgent is is for us to promote greater equity, to hear and understand the discontent expressed to us from everyone in Quebec and Canada when they tell us enough is enough.
I am therefore pleased to rise today to speak on behalf of the taxpayers of Trois-Rivières who work hard to make ends meet and who are faced with this scourge of tax evasion and tax avoidance, which must be condemned, certainly, but which must also be combated with effective proposals.
To that end, the NDP is proposing very concrete measures. For the people who are following our debates, these are the main points of our motion. The NDP is calling on the Liberal government to identify the tax giveaways that benefit the wealthy and keep its promise, among other things, to cap the stock option deduction loophole.
For instance, what is the real issue with stock options, since most Quebeckers or Canadians cannot really afford to buy them?
A CEO can buy shares in the company he himself leads and sell them when he sees fit. Obviously, the right time for him will be when he will be guaranteed the most money. The resulting profit will be a capital gain taxed at half the rate of regular working income. The federal government is therefore encouraging large corporations to keep up this practice, since the CEOs who are benefiting from it pay 50% less tax on the profit from selling their shares.
As a result of this tax loophole, every year, the federal government and the provinces are losing $1 billion in revenue that could have been put toward a better employment insurance system, compensation for all the pyrrhotite victims in Trois-Rivières and Mauricie while we are at it, and upgrading our infrastructure, particularly in terms of Internet access since we know that many remote regions still do not have broadband service. In short, with $1 billion, just imagine what a finance minister could dream of. However, it seems that the minister has a stronger allegiance to the wealthiest than to the middle class he keeps talking about.
To make our tax system fairer, the NDP proposes three concrete measures to address tax evasion: tightening rules for shell companies, renegotiating tax treaties that let companies repatriate profits to Canada tax-free, and ending penalty-free amnesty deals for individuals suspected and potentially charged or convicted of tax evasion, should there ever be a prosecution someday.
I would like to briefly comment on the relevance of our motion. Many people are finalizing their income tax returns and doing their duty as citizens. However, for those for whom the T4 is everything, or in other words, those who file the simplest income tax return with just one source of revenue, there are no loopholes available. That is the case for most Canadians, but late filers beware because there will inevitably be penalties. That means that average Canadians, and I am not talking about those with an average salary, but most Canadians who file their income tax return using only a single T4, will have to pay penalties at even the slightest sign of an error. I am not talking about fraud but about mistakes. That is because it is easy for the government or the CRA to catch these errors and do something about them.
It is true that it may be more difficult to determine whether large corporations are evading taxes, but the government needs to put more time, energy, and money into doing so. When the Conservatives took office, it was the opposite. They cut a lot of positions at the Canada Revenue Agency, which made it practically impossible to conduct these kinds of major investigations.
Every time we see a pothole or wait forever for health care, we have to remember that the money meant to improve our roads and our public services is hidden on the Isle of Man or somewhere else.
Unfortunately, because I have only a minute left, I will jump ahead to the conclusion.
Despite not having had the time to say everything I wanted to say, I hope that the main takeaway is how emotionally-charged the issue is for me because of what I hear, day after day, when I travel in my riding and people say to me, “Enough is enough, thank you to the NDP for standing up in the House and fighting to put an end to tax evasion and tax avoidance.”