FINA Committee Report

Supplementary Opinion of the New Democratic Party of Canada 

The committee heard compelling testimony and received many well-crafted recommendations for consideration for the prebudget consultation in 2022-2023. New Democrats welcome many of the recommendations included in the main body of the report.

New Democrats recognize that the pre-pandemic status quo was failing Canadians. Before the pandemic many Canadians were within only $200 of not being able to pay their bills at the end of every month. Meanwhile, Canadians were losing, and continue to lose, around $25 billion in revenue for public services every year as the super-rich legally shuttle their money out of the country through the use of tax havens.

The pandemic only exacerbated these differences between the super-rich and everyone else. Near the end of 2021, the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that 40% of the Canadian population currently share only 1% of the wealth Canada produces, while the 1% of Canadians at the top share 25% of the wealth between them. If we are to transform Canada into something better than the pre-pandemic status quo, these inequities cannot continue.

Two years into the pandemic, life is getting even harder for most Canadians. Tight supply of goods, labour shortages, production interruptions, droughts and now the economic consequences of Russia’s illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine are all contributing to higher prices at the grocery store and the pump.

Public investment of various kinds will be necessary for some time to support certain sectors of the economy as they continue to recover from the economic consequences of the pandemic. At the same time, public sector investment is urgently needed to lead the transformation our infrastructure in the face of the climate crisis, heal our exhausted healthcare system, promote reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples, tackle the housing crisis and eliminate poverty to ensure that all Canadians can live with dignity.

These goals represent an ambition worthy of Canada, but require certain principles and approaches that are not represented in the main body of the report.

Tax Fairness

 The Canada of our dreams requires everyone to pay their fair share. This is incompatible with the aggressive trend toward greater wealth inequality that has been steadily accelerating over the last few decades.

The main body of the report fails to recommend solutions adequate to reverse this trend. New Democrats believe Canada must move act on recommendations by organizations like Canadians for Tax Fairness who, among other things, proposed: (1) that the large corporations who saw a marked increase in profits during the pandemic pay a higher rate of tax on those additional profits, and (2) that Canada implement a 1% tax on fortunes of over $10 million.

Expediting the creation of a public beneficial ownership registry, as recommended by groups like the Publish What You Pay coalition, would not only provide a foundation to implement real tax fairness in Canada, it is also an important step in combatting the nefarious effects of a domestic and international financial system that is simply not transparent enough. These effects are in the spotlight as Canada and its allies work to push back against Vladimir Putin and his cronies in the face of the illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

Climate Crisis

For as much suffering and economic strife the pandemic has created, climate change promises to do even more in the years and decades to come. The world still has a window to reduce the severity of the changes that are to come and Canada has an important role to play in that effort.

New Democrats endorse many of the climate-related recommendations in the main body of the report, but we believe that a successful transition to a low-carbon future has to be centered on workers. The Green Budget Coalition had a number of recommendations in this regard, including: (1) implementing and adequately funding the Task Force on Just Transition for Canadian Coal Workers and Communities’ full suite of recommendations and (2) creating and adequately funding a federal authority with a mandate to create, and support the implementation of, a strategic plan for guiding the Canadian economy into a low-carbon future.

There are more recommendations we could highlight, but the problem is not a shortage of good recommendations on how to proceed, or even a lack of affirmations by government of their intention to proceed. The problem has been a lack of political will to actually do the things we know need to be done.

New Democrats urge the government to finally act on the climate file with the sense of urgency that these matters deserve. 

Healthcare

Throughout the pandemic, healthcare workers have made significant sacrifices to protect and care for Canadians. We hear that they are exhausted and the facilities they work in have been pushed to the limit. Even still, they continue to care for Canadians in this difficult time. We thank them for their continued dedication.

The federal government should manifest the gratitude of Canadians in this regard by getting serious about repairing our overstrained health system.

The committee heard from many witnesses is that we need a simple, but significant, increase in the Canada Health Transfer from Ottawa to the provinces. New Democrats support this call.

We also believe the federal government should convene the provinces and territories to prepare a pan-Canadian healthcare workforce strategy to recruit, train and retain the healthcare workers we need to see us through the pandemic, address the backlogs it caused and set a higher benchmark for care into the future. While provinces and territories should lead the implementation of this plan, the federal government should play the lead role in funding it.

The pandemic clearly showed the negative impact that profit-seeking can play in the delivery of health services. Nowhere was it more apparent than in the long-term care sector. As we rebuild our health system coming out of the pandemic, it is important that we base our reforms on the principle of public delivery. That is why New Democrats support the recommendation of witnesses like UNIFOR, who call for an end to private, for-profit long-term care. A good place to start would be for the federal government to transfer the federally-owned long-term care company Revera into public ownership.

We know that in too many cases, the cost of healthcare continues to be a barrier to access. The creation is of a national, universal, single-payer pharmacare program is the way to increase access to prescription drugs and lower the cost to both patients and taxpayers. It is beyond time that the government should move quickly to make this proposal a reality.

Another important area of healthcare where cost restricts access to care is dental care. We support recommendations along the lines of those proposed by the Canadian Dental Association to ensure that all Canadians have access to basic dental care.

Reconciliation

New Democrats are please to see the Finance Committee support the full implementation of both the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 231 Calls to Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

We were also pleased to see the committee endorse a number of recommendations that would contribute to the economic empowerment of Indigenous peoples and recognize that they should have the power to determine their own economic futures.

Once again, this is an area where the major problem has been a lack of political will on the part of the government to push ahead with the implementation of these measures. We urge the government not make anymore excuses or cause any more delays in moving ahead on initiatives to support and empower Indigenous people in Canada.

Housing

For decades, the price of rent and housing has been outpacing inflation and eating up a larger share of Canadians’ household budgets. The longer the federal government waits to act, the longer it will take for prices in the Canadian market to cool.

In addition to recommendations in the main body of the report, the government should act now to eliminate the preferential tax treatment for real estate investment trusts, as recommended by Canadians for Tax Fairness. It should also act swiftly on its election commitment to ban blind bidding.

Dignity for all

As wealth inequality grows and the middle class shrinks, women, racialized people, seniors and people living with disabilities continue to be more likely to suffer the worst effects of poverty. If we ensure everyone is paying their fair share, Canada is wealthy enough to secure a basic level of comfort and dignity for all our citizens.

That is why New Democrats support the recommendations in the main body of the report to develop a basic income program for Canada, which we believe should provide a guaranteed liveable basic income for all Canadians.

In the meantime, the federal government could alleviate a significant amount of suffering by raising the Guaranteed Income Supplement and establishing their proposed new Canada Disability Benefit without delay. We believe that, until a guaranteed liveable basic income can be established, these programs should reflect the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit standard of $2,000 per month, with an additional $200 per month for people living with disabilities in recognition of the additional costs that often come with living with a disability.

Beyond that, the disability community and employers would have liked to see a recommendation suggesting the government continue and expand the Ready Willing and Able program. New Democrats agree with this recommendation.  

We recognize that many people are still struggling with job loss or significantly reduced hours as a result of the pandemic. The is why the eligibility criteria of the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit must be expanded to include workers in hard-hit industries, like independent travel agents who have been left since November 2021 without any meaningful income support as their industry continues to recover from the pandemic.

When Canadians are sick, whether that be with cancer, or long covid, they should trust they will be able to access their employment insurance benefits. New Democrats are pleased to see the recommendation for the EI caregiving benefit to be increased to 52 weeks, but would have welcomed the inclusion of a 52 week EI sickness benefit.

These are just some of the things New Democrats believe we must do to ensure that our pandemic recovery puts Canada on the road to a prosperous, sustainable future in which all Canadians can share the benefits of our collective prosperity.