The Budget Office said on Thursday that if oil and gas companies had to pay a windfall profit tax, it would bring in $4.2 billion.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Green Party MP Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, ON) asked for these numbers. He believes that the government should make energy companies pay more taxes.“We are not going to ask,” said Morrice. “That’s one of the issues here, that there are far too many consultations and running to the oil and gas industry and putting our hands out to them. It’s the other way around. They are gouging Canadians at the pumps. They are making record-breaking profits.”The Budget Office, in a Legislative Costing Note, said a one-time windfall profit tax on oil and gas companies was worth $833 million annually over five years for a total of $4.2 billion.Calculations were based on the same terms as a one-time Canada Recovery Dividend tax on banks and insurers.The bankers had to pay a 15% tax on any profit over $1 billion in 2022. They could pay this tax in five instalments, with each instalment being $604 million. In total, they would pay $3 billion over five years.“We simply call for the federal government to take this windfall profit tax – they call it the Canada Recovery Dividend – and apply that same 15% one-time tax above $1 billion to oil and gas,” said Morrice. On September 14, Morrice drafted Commons Motion 92 asking that Parliament “immediately extend the Canada Recovery Dividend to include the excess profits of fossil fuel companies operating in Canada.”“This has already been done,” Morrice told reporters. “We didn’t see banks and life insurance companies dramatically increasing prices when they had the Canada Recovery Dividend applied to them, in part because there is no real cost to pass on.”“This is simply a 15% tax on the excess profits above and beyond a billion dollars,” said Morrice. “I think we can all agree that is excessive.”“Are you suggesting this kind of move doesn’t need consultations?” asked a reporter. “I don’t think it’s a deep concern,” replied Morrice.“I haven’t seen an industry before come to the federal government saying, ‘Please introduce a windfall profit tax, we’re making far too much here.’ I’m not sure how much more consultation we need.”In 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to put a windfall tax on bankers and insurance companies during the federal election campaign, which he did.“Everyone else had to tighten their belt,” Trudeau said at the time. “We’re going to ask them to do a little bit more.”“Big banks got a windfall,” said Trudeau. “So as we rebuild, we’re going to ask big financial institutions to pay a little back, to pay a little more, so that we can do more for you.”
