09/12/21

CANADA: Ultra-rich control 25% of country’s net wealth, says PBO.

As published on ipolitics.ca, Thursday 9 December, 2021.

Canada’s richest families control 25 per cent of the country’s net wealth, according to a report by the federal spending watchdog.

About 160,600 families, each worth at least $6.3 million, make up Canada’s one per cent, according to a Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) report released Thursday.

From 1999 to 2019, the number of ultra-rich families increased by five per cent. In 2019, they controlled nearly $3 billion of the country’s net wealth.

Roughly 1.7 per cent of that wealth is controlled by the bottom 40 per cent, or 6.4 million Canadian families with a net worth of at least $200,000.

The PBO report shows that the gap between the poor and the very rich is growing, said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

“Families are struggling to afford groceries, rent, and heat for their homes, but the very wealthiest keep getting richer,” he said in a news release Thursday.

“(Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau pretends to care about inequality, but, in the midst of a pandemic, he ends the (Canada Recovery Benefit) for 900,000 people and cuts benefits for seniors and families in need,” Singh continued. “Unlike the Liberal government, New Democrats know this is wrong, and we’re going to make sure the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.”

Nor have the Liberals introduced a wealth tax, which the NDP wants, even though they promised one in September’s federal election, Singh said.

A three per cent tax on Canadians with a net wealth of more than $10 million, and a five per cent tax on the net wealth of more than $20 million, could bring in as much as $82.5 billion over five years, according to another PBO report released in July.

The government is equalizing income inequality with a tax cut for the middle class, higher personal income taxes for the wealthiest Canadians, and universal child care, said Adrienne Vaupshas, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s press secretary.

“We are committed to ensuring that everyone pays their fair share of tax, so we continue to have the resources needed to invest in people, and to help our economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” she told iPolitics in an email Thursday.

The government is “committed to: implementing a tax on multinational digital giants; introducing a luxury tax; limiting stock-option deductions in the largest companies; and implementing a tax on the unproductive use of housing that is owned by non-resident, non-Canadians,” Vaupshas continued.

Freeland is scheduled to deliver an update of Canada’s finances on Tuesday.

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