90 wealthiest Canadian families are richer than three provinces combined – CCPA reports
By Anson Liski
With files from Susan Ponting
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative (CCPA), reports that 87 families in Canada are richer than all of the people living in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island – combined.
David Macdonald, author of the study, and CCPA senior economist, said in a statement, “Canada’s dynastic families have got it all – more wealth, more inheritance, and are as lightly taxed as they were the last time we looked in 2014.”
Macdonald adds, “We should expect the growth in the net worth of the wealthiest Canadians to outpace everyone else by a larger and larger factor with each passing year.”
The report states that Canada is the only G7 country without taxes on inheritance, estate, or gifts, and the CCPA says that is worsening inequality. Macdonald says, “In other words, not only do these families control vast wealth, but their members are disproportionately likely to be among the highest-paid people in Canada.”
The CCPA is suggesting more taxes on Canada’s most wealthy and estimates, that if there were a 45 per cent tax on $5 million estates or higher, it would add $2 billion to federal income.
Not all are in agreement however, many say that the inheritance tax has already been taxed, and say it should not be taxed again.
In a Global News interview on the CCPA’s report, France St-Hilaire, vice president of research at the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), said that the proposed policies are, “over-simplified,” and without a comprehensive review on tax policy in Canada, “raising particular taxes can have unintended consequences.
Context reviewed the effects of income inequality earlier this year in our program that takes a look at the growing divide between rich and poor in our world – watch it here.
