A Tax Plan for the 99%

We live in a country awash in wealth. Before 9:30am on January 2, Canada's top 100 CEOs had already made what the average worker makes in a year. The top 1% richest families control almost a quarter of the country's total net wealth. Meanwhile, the six biggest banks raked in $70 billion in profits last year. On Bay Street, times have never been so good.

But in cities, towns and rural communities across Canada, it's a different story. The gap between the rich and the rest of us hit a record high at the start of 2025. As Ed Broadbent once argued, inequality harms everyone, including the wealthy. It makes our society less healthy and less safe, while holding back our full economic potential.

Fountains of wealth are being generated, but it's not trickling down to working people, it's stuck at the top and being hoarded by the corporate welfare bums. We need a government that has the courage and the political will to finally go after it.

Almost 90% of Canadians support a wealth tax, and 80% believe that the rich should be taxed more. It might not win us friends at the yacht club, but it will show working people, regardless of whether they've voted NDP, Liberal or Conservative in the past, that we're on their side.

Taxing the rich will generate significant revenue: but that's not its only purpose. Reducing inequality helps balance the scales of society and create social solidarity: a shared sense that we are all in this together. This is in dramatic contrast to the dangerous and divisive fiscal crisis PM Carney is creating by driving up military spending while slashing public spending and tax revenue.

Between Carney's reversal on taxing capital gains, bailing on the Digital Services Tax, and a so-called middle class tax cut that actually benefits the richest the most, this Liberal government has turned its back on $53 billion over the next 5 years.

Finally, we'll fight for equality by increasing the income supports that people with disabilities, seniors, families and low-income adults need to lead dignified lives. No one should live in poverty in a country as wealthy as Canada. Letting that happen is a political choice, not a fact of life.

This is our plan to ensure that the wealth of this country is not hoarded in the hands of a few, but redistributed to improve life for everyone:

Tax the ultra-rich

With a wealth tax of 1% on the top 1%, rising to 3% on the largest fortunes, which could generate $40 billion a year. Introduce a new tax bracket for the top income earners. Treat capital gains the same as employment income. Follow the lead of other industrialized countries by implementing a tax on inheritance of wealth over $5 million.

End corporate handouts and break up monopolies

No more blank cheques for corporations that take our money and move production south of the border or overseas. End fossil fuel subsidies and keep costly consultants out of the public service.

Crack down on the corporate hoarding class

A tax on excess corporate profits, a crackdown on tax havens that are starving our essential public services of much-needed funds, and a CRA with the resources it needs to go after tax cheats.

Raise the floor for all of us

Lift people out of poverty with major increases to income supports for people with disabilities, seniors, families with children and low-income adults. Establish a national framework for a guaranteed liveable basic income to establish a social floor below which no one can fall.