COVID-19 showed us how the economy wasn’t working for people, says Jagmeet Singh

OTTAWA — We are a year into the COVID-19 pandemic — families are struggling to make ends meet and small businesses are barely keeping their doors open. On Thursday, at an event hosted by the C.D. Howe Institute, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stated that COVID-19 displayed how the economy, as it stands, isn’t working for the people who were the hardest hit by this pandemic. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have made it easier for the super-rich to get richer during a time when the rest of us are barely making rent by the end of the month.
“COVID-19 really showed us how the economy wasn’t working for a lot of people—the gap between the richest and the rest of us widened,” said Singh. “The super-rich, like Amazon, Facebook and Shopify, have profiteered throughout the pandemic. All the while, the lowest paid workers took the biggest hit from COVID-19. They paid the price of this pandemic — they lost jobs, and lost pay. It shouldn’t be this way and that’s why the NDP will keep fighting for a fairer system for Canadians.”
Singh also presented the NDP’s plan to help small businesses and their workers survive the pandemic and recover. Canadians who are worried about paying their everyday bills shouldn’t be the ones who have to pay the price for the pandemic. Those who made billions off this crisis should pay for the recovery. That’s why the NDP called for a 1% wealth tax on fortunes over $20 million. Furthermore, the NDP proposed a Temporary COVID-19 Excess Profit Tax so that big corporations who profited off the pandemic help the businesses and workers who paid the price.
“Our economy is rigged against too many people in Canada and this is no accident — Liberal and Conservative governments designed it that way,” said Singh. “The approach of the past hasn’t worked for everyone. We need a new approach that makes the super-rich pay their fair share and that helps people get the services they need. The NDP will make different choices like investing in things that benefit the most Canadians—like universal pharmacare, universal childcare and paid sick leave.”