Canuck Nepo Baby Billionaires: Canadians for Tax Fairness

Hey Chris, Canada’s most infamous nepo baby, Galen Weston Jr., is in the news again as Loblaw finally begins paying millions of Canadians restitution for over fourteen years of fixing the price of bread. Experts estimate that this coordinated theft cost typical Canadian families over $400. And yet, Loblaw is paying out between $24 and $49 to affected families — and doing it over a decade after the fact. So as a team, we've got nepo babies on the brain. Take Weston, who inherited an entire empire and has amassed over $20 billion in personal wealth. Or the Thomson family, who have hoarded a horrifying $93 billion. Chris, not only are Canadian billionaires accumulating obscene fortunes while millions of us are stretched and struggling, but Canada is the only G7 country without an inheritance tax.

That’s why C4TF has our sights set on an NBT – a Nepo Baby Tax – as we work on developing a new report on inheritance taxes (or lack thereof) in Canada. There are multiple ways to tax the ultra-wealthy: shutting down tax havens, closing the capital gains loophole, and, of course, a good old-fashioned wealth tax. We want to add a nepo baby tax to that list, but we need to crunch the numbers first.  That’s where you come in. We aren’t running on daddy’s crookedly-acquired inheritance. Instead, we rely on the might of the many to fund our research, strategy, and advocacy. When we come together, we can ensure that Canada's wealth makes life better for everyone, instead of being sucked up by a few greedy families. If you’re able, please donate now to fund our work!

Fund our nepo baby research!

In solidarity, The C4TF team

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The New Robber Barons of Canada

 

Chris, Today, our team at Canadians for Tax Fairness released The new robber barons: A quarter century of wealth concentration in Canada, a new report co-authored alongside our friends at BC Policy Solutions. The new robber barons examines the extreme wealth concentration that has unfolded in Canada over the last quarter-century and sounds the alarm on the urgent need to protect our democracy and sovereignty. Here are some highlights: After a quarter-century of extreme wealth concentration, the top 1% now own 23% of the wealth—with the wealth of just 169,000 families up a whopping $3 trillion since 1999. The 1,600 wealthiest Canadian families that make up the top 0.01% hold an average of $448.5 million in wealth, over 4,000 times the average wealth of a family in the bottom 50%. Just to get back to the wealth distribution of 1999, the top 1% would have to transfer $560 billion to the bottom 99%. In 2023, the 86 Canadian-resident billionaire families held $286 billion in wealth, as much as 6.2 million families at the bottom of the wealth distribution—roughly equivalent to the value of all residential land in the City of Vancouver. The wealthiest resident family of Canada in 2025 was the Thomsons, with $93.9 billion in combined wealth. Surprise surprise, they were also the richest family in 1999! Read the full report and see how everyday Canadians can fight back:

READ: THE NEW ROBBER BARONS

Together, we can curb extreme wealth concentration, rebalance economic and political power in Canada, and prevent the kind of slide into oligarchy we are witnessing in the United States. In solidarity, Jared

Jared A. Walker Executive Director | Directeur général Canadians for Tax Fairness | Canadiens pour une fiscalité équitable taxfairness.ca

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billionaires are the bad guys: Billi Eilish/ Canadians for Tax Fairness /People's budget for Canada - not a war budget

 

Dear Christopher, This Tuesday, November 4th, the Carney government will drop their  new budget. Unfortunately, all signs point to it being an absolutely devastating war budget – one that will steal tens of billions of  dollars from health, education, public services, and climate  action and pour it into quadrupling Canadian military spending  and buying American weapons systems. We need to take action NOW to demand that the Carney government  table a budget that puts communities over war and corporate greed.  Demand a people's budget, not a war budget! It looks like this budget is set to include tax cuts for the wealthies t corporations and individuals in the country, increased border  militarization and attacks on migrants, and ongoing subsidies  to new fossil fuel infrastructure, mega pipelines, and large-scale  extraction projects, to be pushed through Indigenous lands without  consent.  We need to speak up now to demand investment in food and homes  – not bombs, in welfare and healthcare – not warfare. For a budget  that rejects an American-style foreign policy based on genocide,  militarization, and warmongering, and instead funds health,  education, housing, and a liveable future built on peace and  liberation for all.  We need your help to make sure Carney hears us loud and clear  before Tuesday.  In solidarity, Rachel P.S. This week we're taking on the budget. Last week we joined  allies to blockentrances to a Canadian arms fair attended by Elbit  and Lockheed (and held a global conference connecting abolition  movements!). Everything we do happens on a shoestring budget  with the support of people who believe that more militarism is  not the answer - can you chip in to support our work?  World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war. Privacy policy. World BEYOND War PO Box 152 | Toronto PO E, ON, M6H 4E2 | Canada worldbeyondwar.org/canada Support our work.

S Chris, So American singer-ngwriter Billie Eilish just called out billionaires to their faces. Yes, the same Billie Eilish who gave us Bad Guy. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards on Wednesday, she said: “If you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”

She’s right. Here in Canada, billionaires have more than doubled their wealth since 2019, with just 77 billionaires holding more wealth than over 10 million Canadians. All while millions of the rest of us stretch to cover basics like housing and food. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the federal government is preparing to cut public services we all depend on, while lavishing billionaires and big corporations with another round of tax giveaways. Chris, making the economy work for working people will depend on more than the (unlikely) goodwill of billionaires or one (very cool) pop star asking the right questions. We all have a role to play in turning things around. C4TF is your Canadian voice for a fairer tax system. Through our research and advocacy, we’re fighting for a Canada that taxes the rich and funds the services that build prosperity for all of us. Donate now to show that Billie’s question isn’t just for billionaires, but for the politicians who back them too.

DONATE NOW

If we come together like birds of a feather, we can make our economy work for all of us, not just the outrageously wealthy bad guys. To make a contribution, please visit: www.taxfairness.ca/donate Thank you,  Jared

Jared A. Walker Executive Director | Directeur général Canadians for Tax Fairness | Canadiens pour une fiscalité équitable taxfairness.ca

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Canadian taxes: poor people pay but billionaires don't

 

Dear Chris, Today, C4TF released The Rise and Rise of Tax Havens, a new report showing how the use of tax havens by mega-corporations and the ultra-wealthy has exploded, and how it's been enabled through government policy. Here are some highlights: In 2024, Canada's wealthiest families and largest corporations had at least $682 billion stashed in tax havens, a 165% increase since 2014 Canada loses an estimated $15 billion in tax revenue every year to tax haven abuse — enough to fully fund not just our new dental care program, but a single-payer universal national pharmacare program as well 46 of the 60 corporations on the S&P/TSX 60 index of Canada’s biggest publicly traded companies, have at least one subsidiary in a tax haven These 46 corporations alone avoided $7 billion in taxes due to lower corporate tax rates in foreign jurisdictions in 2024 Five tax information exchange agreements signed in the 2010s led to $47.1 billion being shifted offshore in the five years that followed Read the full report and see how Canadians like you can fight back:

READ: THE RISE AND RISE OF TAX HAVENS

Reports like this don’t always get the coverage they deserve. That’s why we need your help to make sure this research gets directly in the hands of those in power.

Send a message to your MP

Together, we can hold the ultra-rich, mega-corporations, and the government accountable. Thank you for your continued commitment to building a fairer tax system for everyday people.  In solidarity,  Jared

Jared A. Walker Executive Director | Directeur général Canadians for Tax Fairness | Canadiens pour une fiscalité équitable taxfairness.ca

Pour recevoir nos courriels en français, veuillez écrire à: communications@taxfairness.ca View in browser | Voir dans le navigateur Canadians for Tax Fairness in Globe and Mail July 24: Dear Chris, Today our latest op-ed landed in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business. That means that in addition to over 2 million Canadians who read the Globe every day, we’re reaching tens of thousands of influential readers — including decision-makers in Ottawa — with our research and our demands for a fairer tax system. We took our shot and the headline doesn’t mince words: “Why do we keep letting Canada’s ultrarich use tax havens to stash wealth?”