Co-Operative Prosperity: Ending Poverty in Canada
Canada is a rich and resourceful country – yet, over 10% of people live in poverty. Co-operative prosperity means using the wealth already in Canada so everyone can count on basics like food, housing, and public services, not just the richest few. It ties together income security, fair taxes on extreme wealth, and smart public investment so people in every community feel real stability and opportunity in their daily lives.
There are three key parts to accomplishing this:
Deliver a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income for Canadians
Make the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share
End Fossil Fuel Handouts
Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI)
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A guaranteed basic livable income builds upon our social safety net so that when someone loses work, becomes disabled, or leaves an unsafe situation, they still have enough each month for rent, groceries, and medication.
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The call to institute a GLBI for all Canadians is echoed by the MMIWG Call for Justice 4.5 because it will serve as a powerful tool in eliminating gender-based violence, or which Indigenous women and girls are most targeted.
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For a Basic Income to be enough for someone to live with dignity it must be set at a livable economic and social standard geographically adjusted to local costs.
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Backed by UBI Works Canada, a truly livable Guaranteed Basic Income (GLBI) would eradicate poverty and make sure everyone has enough each month for rent, food, and essentials.
Certain costings show that lifting 1.2M Canadians out of deep poverty can be funded with just 3% of current government spending, with no new taxes on working Canadians.
With the goal of ending poverty, Tanille’s plan is a first step towards lifting millions out eliminating poverty and reducing the pressures poverty puts on shelters, health care, our justice system, and children’s services.
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We endorse a GLBI based on the parameters outlined in the Consensus Statement on a basic income guarantee representing the wide consensus of the basic income movements. That means signing into law a progressive basic income aimed at the elimination of poverty in Canada.
Making the wealthy pay their fair share
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We need to tax wealth, not work: that is why we need a 1% wealth tax on annual incomes over $10M, a 2% tax on additional wealth above 20 million 3% above 50 million and 5% for households that hold over 500 million in wealth. This approach asks those doing extraordinarily well to fund housing, health care, and climate solutions that everyone relies on.
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Corporate taxes are at a historic low of 15% It is time we raise the corporate tax rate to a modest 22% to fund housing, healthcare, and a GLBI.
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The use of offshore tax havens is so normalized amongst corporate Canada that Mark Carney helped facilitate tax avoidance through Bermuda at his previous employer, Brookfield.
Let’s stop the rich from benefiting from off-shore tax havens and end tax agreements with known tax havens and require corporations to have a genuine business reason to set up subsidiaries in tax havens.
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By signing on to the G20 global wealth tax on the world’s richest 3,000 individuals, and by supporting the United Nations tax convention process, which Liberals have refused to support, Canada can work in coordination with the international community to prevent the wealthy from dodging taxes by hiding their wealth abroad.
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We tax income from workers more than we do capital gains from millionaire traders on Bay-Street.
It is time to reverse Mark Carney’s tax break on the wealthy and get rid of the capital gains inclusion rate so that capital gains are taxed the same as income.
Ending Fossil Fuel Handouts
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Our Liberal government gives around $30B a year in direct subsidies to fossil fuel companies; we’re going to re-route these and use the funding to make life more affordable for people. $20B of that is a single massive federal loan to the overbudget Trans Mountain pipeline, a project that threatens Indigenous lands, waterways, and our wild salmon habitat, despite opposition and legal challenges from many affected Nations.
We must end these subsidies and redirect that funding into ending poverty, building national public transit and non-market housing, and expanding health care coverage for everyone.
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Commit to getting Canada off Fossil Fuels altogether and not investing in new fossil fuel projects in or outside of our borders. Let’s reaffirm our commitment to a coast-to-coast energy grid and do it sustainably.
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Let’s rewild our environment where these projects have caused habitat destruction and redirect funding into ending poverty, building non-market housing, and expanding health care coverage for everyone.
