| Governments across Canada give tens of billions of dollars of your money in tax breaks, subsidies, grants and loans to profitable big businesses — and they usually ask for nothing in return!
The federal and Quebec Liberal governments handed Bombardier more than $1 billion — with no conditions. So Bombardier’s top executives decided to give themselves a $43.5 million pay raise — while firing 14,000 Bombardier workers.
The federal Conservatives did a secret bailout deal with US Steel/Stelco. The company shut down and tried to stop paying the pensions of former steelworkers. The federal Conservatives also bailed out Canada’s big banks with a record $114 billion bailout in 2008-2009 (most of it by having CMHC purchase mortgages from the banks) — with no conditions. Since then, the banks have hiked fees, fired thousands of employees, and outsourced thousands of jobs to people in other countries.
The federal governmment hands billions to oil and gas companies and doesn’t require them to reduce pollution or act responsibly, and has handed billions to Pratt & Whitney in the past in return for creating jobs that were never created (but the company kept the money).
You can help stop these reckless handouts by signing and sharing this petition. Governments should only give support to big businesses in return for legally enforceable responsibility and accountability guarantees from those businesses to:
- create jobs in Canada and reduce outsourcing to other countries;
- pay fair wages to all employees and contractors;
- pay executives no more than a fair, justifiable salary;
- reduce pollution, abuse of employees and customers and all other wrongdoing;
- protect whistleblowers and empower customers and shareholders, and;
- increase transparency so all their irresponsible actions are disclosed to the public.
Given the Bombardier executive pay hike scandal, the pressure is on the federal government and party leaders to make these changes. Your time to be heard is now — please sign and share this petition with everyone you think may want to sign it.
See details about reckless handouts by governments to irresponsible big businesses in the following recent news stories:
Globe and Mail (April 3, 2017) — Opposition parties say Bombardier’s pay delay is not enough
Democracy Watch (March 16, 2017) — Will Liberals make key changes to stop gouging and abuse of 30 million bank consumers or continue protecting overpaid big bank executives?
Financial Post (Feb. 16, 2017) — Bombardier Inc’s government loan won’t be fully repaid for 15 years
CBC.ca (Dec. 13, 2016) — Steelworkers to Trudeau: Where are the feds on the Stelco deal? |