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September 10th, 2019

Why won’t Justin Trudeau’s Liberals tax the ultra-rich?

In 2015, Justin Trudeau gave Canadians some pretty words about taxing the rich: "I'm asking those with the most to do a little bit more to help those in Canada with less." (CBC, 11 May 2015)

And in 2017, he promised to crack down on tax dodgers: "it is absolutely unacceptable that there be people not paying their fair share of taxes." (CBC, 3 March 2017)

Time and time again, he has talked about taxing the rich and closing tax loopholes. But his words haven’t been followed by action.

You don’t have to look too hard to see why: Under Justin Trudeau, the top 1% are his senior advisors and backers.

Although Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s exact net worth is unknown, he indicated in 2017 that he owned $21 million shares in Morneau Sheppell. He was forced to sell those shares after weeks of controversy for bringing in pension reforms that could have directly benefited his company and hurt workers. (National Post, 21 Nov 2017)

We know from coverage of the Paradise Papers that Trudeau’s fundraising chief Stephen Bronfman was involved in “multimillion-dollar cashflows” to offshore havens in the Cayman Islands to potentially avoid Canadian taxes. (The Guardian, 5 Nov 2017)

Minister of Infrastructure and Communities François-Philippe Champagne was a director of Bionest and reportedly personally approved the transfer of payments to tax shelters in the Turks and Caicos. (Journal de Montréal, 21 Apr 2016)

It’s clear that despite his nice words, Justin Trudeau has refused to stand up to the rich interests who aren’t paying their share of taxes.

This morning, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced a tax on multi-million dollar wealth above $20 million. Over a decade, the Super-Wealth tax will raise almost $70 billion to fund a New Deal for People.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh: “Families shouldn’t have to worry about their future. Justin Trudeau has put the super-rich first and made everyone else pay the price. Canadians deserve prescription drugs covered by Medicare, and expanded health care services to cover people head-to-toe – we can do this when the richest pay their fair share.”