When the economy crashes, the only certainty is that countries like Canada will bailout big corporations first. Common people sometimes receive assistance too, but often are not the first in line to get the most help.
Bailouts for corporate Canada are being put in place even as the news of economic calamity is still unfolding. It is not all bad to help big businesses, because we do need banks and we do need to support larger industries in order to have a working economy. However, the net effect for regular people is very uneven. This is like the process put in place by the government to let banks voluntarily assess how they are helping consumers with mortgages and loans.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh
Photo Credit: CPAC
The banks got the help that they needed right away, while the rest of us have to wait in line and see which options are made available if the banks will or will not pass anything down to us.
Common people are not the main target of government protection, which is contrary to what has been made evidently clear during the COVID-19 crisis: it is not the very wealthy or corporations who drive the economy, but everyday workers. People who go into work or school, who produce our food, and who take care of their families everyday are the real drivers of the economy. The truth is, without the real people activity, the economy comes to a grinding halt.
But the federal government’s response is better than most and that is because of our minority government.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet
Photo Credit: https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/02/19/collaborate-and-listen-bloc-quebecois-hopes-to-leverage-minority-parliament-dynamics-to-make-mark/236287
It has been an absolute blessing for common people that our current Parliament in Ottawa is not a majority. Under these circumstances, the current Liberal government has been forced to work with all parties to provide programs that are responsive to people’s needs, not just big business. Tracing the original line of thinking being announced by the government, we begin to understand that they have had to adapt to pressure from the smaller parties that hold the balance of power.
The CERB program for the unemployed was originally only going to be an expanded employment insurance program for those fired due to COVID-19. That is what the government had originally proposed. It was going to leave out many unemployed, private contractors, students, and people with disabilities. Countries in Asia and Europe had figured out that having a wider approach would benefit the recovery process, but only now has Canada done so due to the pressure that the NDP, PQ and Green Party has put forth. Even as I write this, we still do not know the government’s position on bailouts for corporations that use foreign tax havens. Trudeau has gone back and forth in the last week about this issue but has avoided both questions in Parliament and from reporters.
France and other European countries have announced that companies that use tax havens will not be receiving taxpayer bailouts. In Canada, a company like Loblaws, which just won a court case versus the crown to avoid a $368 million tax bill related to their use of tax havens and which has seen tremendous sales growth as people are buying more groceries, is likely to receive millions in loans and other assistance. The Liberal government may eventually relent and move on this issue, but only because we have a minority government working on it which could force them to.
COVID-19 is not the first great economic shock we have seen. It just seems that collectively we forget that there are working solutions and that they must involve helping those from the working class because that is what will keep us all afloat.