Corporate Tax Freedom Day
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CLC report: Corporate Tax Freedom Day is January 30 - Big businesses hoard cash from tax giveaways, not investing in jobs
OTTAWA – A research study by the Canadian Labour Congress shows that CEOs in Canada could be dancing in their suites to celebrate Corporate Tax Freedom Day on January 30. Their companies will by then have paid their share of taxes to all levels of government for the entire year.
“Corporate income taxes amounted to only 8.3% of all government revenues in 2011, down from 8.8% in 2010 and from an average of 11% in the 1960s and 70s,” says CLC Secretary-Treasurer Hassan Yussuff.“In return for tax breaks companies are supposed to be investing their windfall to create good jobs in Canada but instead they are hoarding cash and paying fat compensation to their CEOs.”
Pathway to Poverty
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LONDON, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 18, 2013) - Local labour leader John Gibson today called Conservative leader Tim Hudak's plans for Ontario a Pathway to Poverty. Mr. Gibson made his remarks in response to the Conservative leader's speech to the London Construction Association.
"Tim Hudak is playing into the hands of corporate interests at the expense of working families by proposing policies like 'Right-to-Work' and 1:1 apprenticeship ratios," said John Gibson, business manager of local 120 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. "This will make Ontario a low wage, low skill economy like we find in many southern American states."
IBEW® FOUNDERS’ SCHOLARSHIP
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The IBEW Founders’ Scholarship honors the dedicated wiremen and lineman who, on November 28, 1891, organized the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Each year the officers of the IBEW are pleased to offer its working members scholarships on a competitive basis. It is hoped that the awards will not only contribute to the personal development of our members but also steward the electrical industry that our founders envisioned.
This award is for $200 per semester credit hour at any accredited college or university toward an associate’s, bachelor’s or postgraduate degree in a field that will further the electrical industry overall (as determined by the Founders’ Scholarship Administrator). The maximum distribution is $24,000 per person over a period not to exceed eight years.
MUNICIPAL PENSIONS – Who is responsible?
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Local Authorities PENSION PLAN
Important Update – January 2013
There has been much discussion about potential changes to the Local Authorities Pension Plan. Like many pension plans, the LAPP has a large unfunded liability at this time. In order to address the unfunded liability, there needs to be more contributions and/or changes made to the plan itself to off-set the liability.
There are three options that are being explored and none of the three choices are particularly appealing. Further to this, you can also expect new standards regarding taking out your commuted value (cash value) from the pension plan, and this will be discussed by LAPP in March 2013.
Not all of us have a good working knowledge about our pension plan. Many people don't, and simply count on the pension being in place when they need it. That was a reasonably safe approach for many years. It is still reasonable to count on your pension being there when you need it, however you will need to become involved in the path to your pension earlier than you may have anticipated.
Right To Work "For Less"
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Paraphrased, “FROM THE OFFICERS”, The Electrical Worker, January 2013
Passage of right-to work legislation in Michigan marks a huge step backward for working families – both in the Midwest and across the United States. Contrary to the claims of right-to-work boosters, there is no evidence that weakening unions will make a jurisdiction more competitive to create jobs. What it will do is “Walmartize” the economy, creating a haven from low-wage jobs that do little to lift the average worker out of poverty.
Right-to-work laws drive down wages for all workers by an average of $1500 a year, whether they are union or not. And 28% more workers go without health and welfare benefit plans. This type of policy increases the power of the very wealthy, silences the voices of working families and promotes an economic race to the bottom – a race where the only winners will be Wall Street and outsourcing CEOs.
Bill C-377 - A Conservative Government Action to Amend the Income Tax Act and make all the Union business public knowledge.
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Bill C-377 – An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act – PRIVATE CONSERVATIVE MEMBER’S BILL
Bill C-377 would create unnecessary, bureaucratic red tape for government, businesses which manage employee pension and benefit plans and unions.
- Bill C-377 would create a huge government bureaucracy to process the public disclosure of union expenditures of over 25,000 unions, locals and labour organizations. But it is unnecessary because union members already have access to union financial reports through membership meetings and upon request, and most provinces and the federal government already have reporting laws for unions.
- Meeting C-377’s onerous obligations will be a difficult and time consuming task, both for reporting andadministration. Businesses like insurance companies that administer pension and benefit plans would have significant additional reporting, some of it duplicating existing regulatory requirements with which they must already comply. Adding additional management expenses to pension plan administration would burden already struggling pension plans.
Bill C-377 is unnecessary, bureaucratic red tape that would be very expensive for government to administer, would intrude on privacy and may be unconstitutional. It should not proceed.
- Bill C-377’s reporting bureaucracy will be very costly for the federal government to set up and administer, for employee pension and benefit plans, and unions and labour organizations that represent over 4 million Canadians. Those costs will all have to be paid by ordinary taxpayers.
Bill C-377 would wrongly intrude on the privacy of individuals, businesses, employers and unions.
- Bill C-377 would wrongly be a major intrusion on individual privacy by forcing the disclosure of such payments as dental, vision, drug, life, health insurance and pension benefits – even the details of widows’ survivor benefits – for over 4 million unionized Canadians!
- Payments made to small, medium and large businesses providing services to over 25,000 unions, union locals and labour organizations – including rates and fees and other private commercial information – would also be published.
Bill C-377 is discriminatory, singling out unions and union members for unfair treatment under the law.
- Bill C-377 applies only to unions and excludes professional organizations such as bar associations and medical associations whose members are also able to deduct professional fees from their taxes, just like union members.
- Bill C-377 violates the privacy of over four million Canadians and their families just because they are union members. The bill would make all pension plans and health and welfare plans that cover unionized workers turn over to the government the personal and private details of payments to individuals. The Government would then publish those details on a public website. Canadians lucky enough to belong to pension plans and health benefit plans that don’t cover union members won’t have their personal privacy breached in such a manner. Why is some Canadians’ personal privacy worth protecting and others not?