Skip to main content
Start of content
Start of content

e-4380 (Taxation)

E-petition
Initiated by Melissa Silber from Oakville, Ontario

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada created programs to financially assist businesses and individuals: The CEWS program paid out over $100 billion to more than 460,000 businesses. Average received per CEWS recipient was $218,573. The CERB program paid out over $80 billion to more than 8.9 million individuals. Average received per CERB recipient was $9173;
  • From Auditor General reports, it is estimated that audits of approximately 50,000 companies receiving CEWS could potentially recover $15.5B in funds from ineligible companies;
  • There has been focus on recovering CERB from citizens and other benefits have been clawed back in order to do this;
  • Corporations have profited off this pandemic and despite apparent price fixing and monopolistic behaviour, have not been subjected to increased disclosure requirements; and
  • Corporations have been taking advantage of tax loopholes, which contribute to the inequality we see in Canada.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
- Update disclosures of the corporations that received CEWS to include the amounts received and identify the parent companies;
- Shift effort from CERB recovery to CEWS recovery;
- Claw back CEWS funding from corporations who took the benefit while also paying shareholders, buying back stock, acquiring other businesses, changing compensation structures for executives or laying off employees;
- Increase corporate tax rates and implement a windfall profits tax;
- Close corporate tax loopholes such as capital gains exemptions and tax havens;
- Introduce a cap on executive salary deductions for corporations; and
- Require all multinational entities to provide public disclosure of country-by-country data in line with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) recommendations.
Open for signature
April 5, 2023, at 9:16 a.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
August 3, 2023, at 9:16 a.m. (EDT)
Photo - Matthew Green
Hamilton Centre
New Democratic Party Caucus
Ontario