No More Handouts
To Corporations
While working Canadian families in Mission—Matsqui struggle to afford groceries, keep up with rent and mortgages, and access healthcare, Ottawa has been handing out billions to corporations that don't need it, fossil fuel giants that gouge us at the pump, tech corporations that harvest our data and make billions selling it, and automakers that take hundreds of millions in public money and lay off thousands of workers anyway. These are not investments in Canada, they are transfers of wealth from the middle class to the corporations that have spent decades hollowing it out.
The more wealth concentrated in the hands of fewer, the more political capital is concentrated with it, and that capital bleeds into our institutions, corrupts and erodes them, and concentrates more power in fewer hands with every passing year. It is time to end corporate welfare, tax the ultra-rich, and ensure Canada's wealth stays in Canada, in the hands of the working Canadians who create it.
End All Fossil Fuel Subsidies
In 2009, the Conservative government promised to end fossil fuel subsidies. In 2015, the Liberals promised the same. And again, in 2019, and in 2021. Yet year after year, the government doles out more and more to these already profitable corporations. New Democrats are fighting to finally end fossil fuel subsidies once and for all, no phase-out period, no grandfathering in, no weasling out. The fossil fuel is among the most profitable on earth, they do not need your tax dollars.
Community Benefit Agreements as a Condition of Public Investment
When the federal government does invest public money in a private business, working Canadians deserve a guaranteed return. That’s why we’re demanding binding Community Benefit Agreements as a condition of any federal subsidy to large businesses, mandating union membership, apprenticeship training, wage floors, environmental commitments, and local hiring. If a corporation wants public money, they answer to the public. No more Algoma Steels, receiving hundreds of millions in public subsidies and laying off a thousand workers before Christmas.
A Wealth Tax on the Ultra-Rich
88 per cent of Canadians across party lines support a wealth tax, yet Liberals and Conservatives have refused to implement it. Rather than taxing the wealthiest Canadians, instead they continue to gut the public services working families rely on, while their donors amass trillions: the richest 1 per cent in Canada hold nearly $3.9 trillion in wealth, almost as much as the bottom 80 per cent of Canadians. That’s why New Democrats are fighting for a wealth tax of 1 per cent on net wealth above $10 million, 2 per cent above $50 million, and 3 per cent above $100 million, generating $40 billion per year to invest in the public services working families depend on.
Close the Capital Gains Loophole and Introduce an Inheritance Tax
When working Canadians do their taxes, 100 per cent of their income is taxed. When a wealthy investor sells a property or cashes in stock options, only 50 per cent of that income is taxed. New Democrats are pushing to treat capital gains the same as employment income, with exemptions maintained for farms, fisheries, small businesses, and primary residences, raising an additional $11 billion a year. We’re also calling for a 45 per cent inheritance tax on estates above $5 million, generating over $2 billion annually and tackling the generational concentration of wealth that is making Canada less equal with every passing decade. The more wealth concentrated in the hands of fewer, the more political capital is concentrated with it. That capital bleeds into our institutions, it corrupts and erodes them, concentrating more power in the hands of fewer and fewer.
End Tax Havens and Fund the CRA
Every year, income hidden in offshore tax havens costs Canadians $15 billion in lost revenue, money that could've been funding healthcare, housing, and public services. The wealthiest Canadians amass their wealth on the backs of hard working Canadians, yet when our public services are crumbling, they siphon the wealth created by workers out of the country, wealth one could never hope to spend in one lifetime. That's why we’re calling to end all tax agreements with known tax havens, require companies to have a genuine business case for foreign subsidiaries, and front-load funding to the CRA to hire hundreds of new auditors focused on wealthy corporations and individuals. For every dollar invested in the CRA, taxpayers make four dollars back. It's the most straightforward investment in public services this country can make.
Reinstate the Digital Services Tax
When the Liberal government ended the Digital Services Tax, they handed Big Tech billions in avoided taxes and capitulated to pressure from the Trump administration. New Democrats are fighting to reinstate it immediately. Tech giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon have avoided billions in taxes across international jurisdictions while profiting from Canadian users, Canadian content, and Canadian data. If you want to do business in Canada, you pay taxes in Canada.