Reference:

"Unfair $hares: Corporations and Taxation in Canada", published by
Ontario Coalition for Social Justice and Ontario Federation of Labour
February, 1997
ISBN-1-895998-04-2

This book can be obtained from the Ontario Federation of Labour, 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 202, Don Mills, Ontario, M3C 1Y8 for $5 shipping and handling charges per copy.

Note: Since the information contained in this file has been typed in by someone, i cannot guarantee that this text is free from errors. If you find an error, please send me a correction. Please refer to the book itself if you need the information to be reliable in a legal sense.

Annotated excerpts from the book:

Notes from opening remarks by Gord Wilson, Ontario Federation of Labour:

1. Internal memo of Human Resources Development Canada notes that 55% of jobless Canadians are now ineligible to collect Employment Insurance

2. As of 1994 Stats Can reported that 81,469 corporations with combined profits of $17.1 billion had not paid a cent in income tax.

3. Over twelve previous years over $167 billion in profits had escaped paying any tax and $40 billion is currently owed to the federal government.

4. International Monetary Fund, noted in a June, 1995, report that Canada's tax preferences for corporations "are relatively generous and their effectiveness in promoting investment does not appear to have been large". (International Monetary Fund, Canada-Economic Developments Policies. IMF Staff Country Report No. 95/46. Washington, DC: IMF, 1995).

5. The cause of our debt is not government program expenditures. The problem in large part is due to a decline in revenue through the introduction of tax breaks in the 1970's. (H Mimoto and P. Cross, The Growth of Federal Debt, Canadian Economic Observer, pp 3.1-3.17, June, 1991)

Note: All profit and tax information below is collected from Infoglobe's Report on Business Corporate Database as of January 10, 1997. All data are from the Consolidated Statement on Income for each corporation.

Table 1:
Corporations Paying Little or No Corporate Income Tax (BC related only)

Tax year unless stated otherwise is 1995; first figure represents pre-tax profit; second figure represents income tax paid and if in brackets represents tax credit; and finally figure with % is rate of taxation paid. (Remember the lowest rate on gross earnings for average person is 17% in Canada). 

Ainsworth Lumber Co                 $24,567,000   ($6,425,000)  (26.2%)
Canada Post                 (1996)  $32,158,000    $3,977,000    12.4%
Canada Safeway                      $71,200,000             0     0%
Carmanah Resources                     $561,988             0     0%
Crestbrook Forest Industries         $44,790,00    $2,833,000     6.3%
Fletcher Challenge Canada   (1996) $293,400,000   $34,900,000    11.9%
MacMillan Bloedel                  $357,000,000   $43,000,000    12%
Noranda Forest                     $346,000,000   $41,000,000    11.8%
Princeton Mining                     $4,002,000      $263,000     6.6%
Repap Enterprises                  $521,100,000    $4,200,000     2.8%
Sask Telecommunications (NDP Gov)  $192,501,000      $701,000      .4%
Stone Consolidated Corp (Celgar)   $288,450,000   $12,075,000     4.2%
Sun      Rype Products                 $646,000      ($34,000)   (5.3%)
Westar Group (Bric)                 $40,797,000      $316,000      .8%

Table 2;
Corporations with $5 million or More in deferred Taxes Oustanding (BC related only) 
Ainsworth Lumber Co            $25,540,000
Alcan Aluminium             $1,353,467,000
                     equiv. US$979,000,000 / exchange rate 1.3825
BC Gas Inc                     $44,100,000
BC Gas Utlity                   $6,900,000
BC Sugar Refinery               $6,802,000
BC Tel                        $295,400,000
BC Telecom                    $308,700,000
Canadian Pacific            $1,287,200,000
Canfor Corporation            $127,027,000
Cominco                       $312,587,000
Crestbrook Forest Industries   $89,601,000
Extendicare                    $41,818,000
FletcherChallenge Canada      $282,000,000
Hollinger Inc (Conrad Black)  $128,717,000
Hudson's Bay Co        (1996) $144,558,000
Imasco                         $58,000,000
International Forest Products  $28,947,000
MacMillan Bloedel             $339,000,000
Petro Canada                  $621,000,000
Scott Paper                    $53,753,000
Shaw Communications            $85,318,000
Slocan Forest Products         $92,755,000
Teck                          $189,702,000
Timberwest Forest              $18,600,000
Welwood of Canada             $186,050,000
West Fraser Timber Co.        $112,096,000
West Kootenay Power            $18,895,000
Westcoast Energy              $396,000,000

Table 5:
Share of Federal Revenue From Individual and Corporate Taxes 
Individual

1955     33%
1965     37%
1975     49%
1985     52%
1995     59%

Corporate

1955     25%
1965     18%
1975     17%
1985     14%
1995     10%

Table 7:
Rate of Corporate Contributions to Public Revenue, G-7-1991 
France          15%
Italy           13%
Japan           11%
Germany         10%
United States    7%
United Kingdom   6.8%
Canada           6.1%
G-7 Average     10%


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