Unpublished letter sent to the Toronto Star

Re: Ontario in line for $7B chunk of $19B economic aid package. July 17, 2020.

As Justin Trudeau is unloading buckets of taxpayer’s cash in an a vain attempt to soften the blow of the pandemic and even Conservative Premiers like Doug Ford are opening up the traditionally tight provincial purse strings to help, Corporate Canada and the private sector have contributed an insignificant amount of cash to help. No level of government has said a word about raising corporate taxes to offset the hit to the economy. This would be a real, tangible way for corporate Canada to pay it forward and give back some of the billions in corporate welfare they have benefited from in the past. Bombardier and GM are only two of many that have benefited from free cash. A ten percent toll would go a long way to taking the edge off the final bill. Wealthy individuals should also willingly pay an extra ten percent surcharge over and above their regular taxation. The one group that makes and owns all the money in society hasn’t shared a penny of it with working taxpayers.

Regular workers (male and female) are taking a personal hit after being laid off from their part-time minimum wage jobs but as well will have to pay back every cent of the money that has been lavished on them to this point including the money paid out to business. No one, not the least of which is Bill Morneau wants to let the taxpayers know how they are going to balance the books again. Its not itme to talk about the twenty-year depression that is going to follow the pandemic.

In an era when hundreds of inequities have been exposed those with the most have given the least. The wealthy corporations and individuals who keep telling us in their commercial advertising that we are all in this together have yet to step up. These are companies who have seen their corporate taxes massively shrink over the past fifty years and who have pocketed the cash. Whether it is the oil industry, air lines or hospitality they have all made billions in the past but now they all don’t have any cash. Shat happened to saving a pool of cash for just sucn emergenceis as individuals are told to do? During the time of big profits the economy has remained stagnant as have wages and benefits while corporate profits went through the roof.  These same companies pay out all their profits to rich shareholders and cry poor when the government comes calling with more corporate welfare. Corporations around the world are totally unscrupulous in the way that they drain every cent out of governments claiming they are just getting by. When in doubt they go bankrupt leaving clean-up costs to the taxpayers again.

Instead of buying a new Bentley for the driveway or a new yacht for their home in Monaco corporations should be paying it forward.

Unpublished letter submitted to the Toronto Star

Re:Money coming from Ottawa not sufficient, Tory says. June 2, 2020.

During the COVID-19 pandemic every area of society and the economy has been hammered with the exception of corporations. It has exposed the gig economy as a fraud made up of millions of low-paid contract and essential workers living from cheque to cheque – many of them women. The federal government has been pouring billions of taxpayers’ dollars to support the economy while running up an historic deficit to keep everything afloat. These are unprecedented times.

Recently, when discussions have started to turn to how to pay for this avoidable disaster the mayors of cities, businesses and the premiers have been seeking even more money from the federal government to avoid massive property tax increases or even worse – cuts to essential services – exactly what got us into this mess in the first place.  Historic under-funding of society by the private sector is the real problem. The government has already put us all in the hole for generations. We repeatedly hear ad nauseum that we are in this together. Not quite.

During all this time and before there has been one area that has had nothing but big tax cuts over the past fifty years and stratospheric profits with little social responsibility – corporations. It is astounding how transparent the corporate sector can become in times of crisis. Corporate taxes have dropped precipitously from around 90% after World War II (another worldwide crisis comparable to the pandemic) to around 14% in 2020. It is high time that corporations started kicking in some serious cash.  The Feds need to raise corporate taxes by 10% immediately while cutting the interest rates on credit cards by the same amount. A Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) must also be implemented because it would cost the government less than all the combined programs expenditures thus far. A GAI would also make corporations honest in what they pay their employees because the common threat of starvation and poverty would not be part of their calculus ever again. These three simple measures would cost less than all the other money already committed. are needed now to begin to restore the social balance and to ensure this does not happen again. Individual taxpayers cannot and should not be expected to continue to carry the burden of society while corporations carry nothing – except money.  Its time for corporations to put their money where their mouth is.

Because we’re all in this together – aren’t we?