'Super-wealth tax' to raise $5.6B in 1st year, Singh says during Hamilton NDP event

Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says a tax on the super rich would raise $5.6 billion that could be invested in health care and housing.

He spoke about the "super-wealth tax" and the funds it would raise Tuesday at a "kitchen table" event at an east end Hamilton home. 

He said the Parliamentary Budget Officer crunched the numbers to estimate that the super-wealth tax would raise $5.6 billion in the 2020 - 2021 year, and anticipates that it would grow to around $9.5 billion by 2028 - 2029. Over 10 years, it estimated that this tax will raise almost $70 billion. 

"If we put this super-wealth tax in place, we can raise the funds to put in place that medication coverage for all, we can invest in housing to make sure it's affordable, we can make people the priority," Singh said. 

The super-wealth tax would include a one per cent tax on Canadians with fortunes over $20 million. It would be applied annually and include real estate, luxury items, and investments. 

Singh said that this would apply to around one tenth of one per cent of Canadians. 

If elected, the NDP would want to implement the tax by 2020. 

In a press release, Singh called out the Liberals and Conservatives for "[working] for their powerful friends." 

"Our plan is simple— we can afford to help people when we have the courage to ask the super-rich to pay a little bit more to fund the services we all rely on," said Singh.  

Liberal party spokesperson Joe Pickerill said, in an email, that the Liberals raised "taxes on the wealthiest one-percent" in order to "lower them for the middle class." 

Singh spoke with the Angeloni family about health care expenses and how his proposed tax might help alleviate pressure. 

Gina Angeloni said that since leaving college eight years ago, she's had to pay out of pocket for medications required to manage her Type 1 diabetes. 

The costs are high — enough that Angeloni, who works as a laboratory technician and is a single mother, has moved in with her parents to juggle life expenses.   

Angeloni said that supplies costs her about $300 to $400 a month, plus an additional $500 for two glucagon kits, which expire over time.

"You can't afford not to have it. It's a life saving medication, " she said. "[To have universal health care] would mean the world."  

And despite this being a federal affair, Premier Doug Ford's name was still mentioned at the table. 

When Angeloni told Singh about her daughter, who had suffered a brain hemorrhage, Singh asked whether "Ford's cuts meant she lost her coverage."  Angeloni clarified that it happened before Ford was elected.  

When CBC asked Singh about other top issues for Hamiltonians, he spoke about the need to support Canadian manufacturers in order to create and maintain jobs in Canada. 

"What we're committed to do...is to make policies that actually encourage jobs to remain in Canada," he said. "There should be a made-in-Canada provision [when spending public dollars] so that we're actually using made-in-Canada steel, made-in-Canada aluminum, and made-in-Canada manufacturing." 

He said that countries like Germany and the United States already have similar provisions despite trade agreements.