Oil and gas executives, and the politicians who parrot their talking points, are looking out for corporate owners while using workers as cover. What workers actually need is a well-funded plan to help them transition from the oil and gas sector. This would allow Alberta to become less reliant on a single sector, which is in long-term decline.

A weak labour market is always bad for workers. But it is an even bigger problem as we deal with Trump’s attacks on Canada’s economy. Canada’s current unemployment rate is 6.6 percent, down from a recent high of 6.9 percent. However, it is well above the 4.8 percent achieved in 2022, or even the 5.5 percent reached in 2019.

Economists like to fashion themselves as the “adults in the room.” However, their notion that incomes are determined by productivity is naïve. It ignores the role of power in the determination of distribution. The guise of objectivity that economists give to distribution diverts us from the difficult adult conversation that we must have: who should get what and why?

The 2024 budget does not get us anywhere near the kind of public leadership that we need. But the increase to capital gains taxes is an important, if minor, reversal of tax cuts that increased the wealth and power of the richest families at the expense of everyone else. That increase needs to be defended against the vested interests that will refuse any challenge to their power.

The Competition Bureau’s study is just the latest in a string of evidence that corporate profiteering has cost Canadians gravely. Ottawa has now been given a range of policy options to address the problem. As D.T. Cochrane explains, a windfall tax on the largest and most profitable corporations would be an ideal place to start.

Occupy Wall Street popularized the slogan “We are the 99%” to confront the excess of wealth and power of the one percent. Unfortunately, those at the top continue to grab an oversized share of incomes and wealth. Between 2010 and 2019, the top one percent added almost $140,000 to their average incomes, while the ultra-elite 0.01 percent enjoyed an increase of $2.9 million.

There is much economic uncertainty as the country uneasily exits the pandemic. Now is not the time for governments to be timid. Now is the time for the federal government to lead. Bold spending can deliver overdue government programs that support those in need and stimulate the economy. As it stands, the NDP’s promises are the only ones that approach the necessary scale of action.

Early in the pandemic, it was clear that the economic fallout would be unequally distributed. However, few anticipated that the pandemic could mean boom times for some. But that is precisely what happened. While lost wages, lost jobs, and small business closures generated headlines, many of Canada’s largest corporations quietly managed to achieve record profits.

In Janet Yellen’s confirmation speech, she said the government must “act big” to deal with the pandemic’s economic fallout. Three months into her role as the first woman treasury secretary, Yellen is going beyond big spending with an ambitious plan to rollback decades of corporate tax cutting. Canada’s Liberal government must grab the same opportunity to go as big, if not bigger.