The leader of the federal New Democrats wants large corporations to chip in to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic.
Jagmeet Singh was joined by Windsor-West MP Brian Masse and Essex candidate Tracey Ramsey Tuesday to roll out a plan which would see big companies taxed on earnings made during the pandemic with the revenue funnelled to small business.
Singh says most retail giants are doing just fine.
"What we've seen and what really troubles me is that there are too different realities. For big box stores and for large businesses, the web giants like Amazon, Netflix, Google they've actually been able to, not just make a profit, many of them have made record profits."
He says the mom and pop shops need help.
"People, when they think about Windsor-Essex, they're proud of the local businesses. Those are what give us flavour and those are the ones that have suffered. So what we're proposing is why don't we make sure that the richest, biggest, wealthiest corporations and companies are the ones that contribute more to supporting small businesses?"
Singh says similar programs have been put in place in the past.
"After the world wars we put in wartime profiteering. We decided to do that in Canada and many countries around the world. We're proposing the same thing. We're calling it a pandemic profiteering tax that companies like Amazon, that have made record profits off the pandemic, should absolutely pay more."
According to Singh, if the Liberal government were to bring in a one time tax on excessive profits it could recover as much as $8-billion.
— with files from the Dan MacDonald Show