Global Courant 2023-04-18 22:54:37
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh plans to introduce legislation to “curb outrageous CEO pay” by raising taxes on companies where CEOs make “excessive” profits.
Singh told reporters on Tuesday that he is taking a page out of the books of US Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren by introducing a bill for members that, if passed, would raise corporate taxes on a sliding scale: they would increments of 0.5 to 5. percent, depending on the level of the CEO’s salary compared to the average salary of an employee in their company.
“What this bill will propose is to finally say clearly that if you can afford to pay exorbitant salaries to CEOs, you should raise workers’ wages,” Singh said. “This is to reduce inequality. This is to force companies to put an end to the increasing inequality.”
According to the NDP, Singh’s bill would be “similar” to the US Senate Tax Excessive CEOs Pay Act, which the party claims would have paid some companies significantly more if it had been law in Canada by 2021, including:
Loblaw pays up to $106 million more; Rogers pays up to $23 million more; and RBC pays up to $200 million more in taxes.
The NDP leader is currently near the top of the list of MPs eligible to introduce a private member bill, boosting his chances of doing so before the end of the session.
While inflation has cooled over the past month — to 4.3 percent in March, according to Statistics Canada’s latest consumer price index released Tuesday — food prices remain high. In his remarks, Singh directly mentioned the supermarket chains and their CEO salaries.
Singh mentioned the salary of outgoing Loblaw president Galen Weston several times on Tuesday. It was announced on Tuesday that Weston would step down from the day-to-day operations of Loblaw, while remaining on as chairman of the board and CEO of parent company, George Weston Ltd.
Weston was one of three supermarket CEOs and presidents to appear in March before a parliamentary committee examining high food prices.
According to the Canadian press, Weston’s compensation was $11.7 million last year, an increase of nearly $1.1 million from the previous year, between his two roles as CEO of Loblaw and its holding company.
Singh was asked Tuesday if replacing Weston as CEO would change anything at Loblaw.
“I’m not worried about Galen Weston,” Singh said. “I think he’ll be fine.”
“I don’t even know if this is really resigning or if he’s getting a promotion, who knows how these things work in their corporate restructuring, but what I do know is that the new inflation numbers came out today and the inflation price on food is still high. ”
Singh added that in this case it is “the government’s responsibility to step up” because “there is no limit to how much profit” CEOs hope to make.
