PM targets income inequality, tax evasion in P. E. I. speech
CHARLOTTETOWN — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says paying taxes and caring for each other is part of our responsibility as Canadians.
In a speech on the state of the Canadian Confederation in Charlottetown, Trudeau targeted offshore tax evasion and rising income inequality.
Over the past three decades, he says most Canadians saw their incomes grow by less than one per cent a year in real terms while the wealthiest saw their incomes nearly triple.
Trudeau says conversations about money can be uncomfortable, but he says it’s unfair parents are forced to decide whether they can afford winter boots for their children while the CEO at their company gets a milliondollar bonus.
He says business leaders bear some responsibility for rising income disparity and need to start looking beyond the short- term interests of shareholders to the long- term responsibility they have to workers and the communities that support them.
He says Ottawa has committed almost $ 1- billion to investigate offshore tax havens.
Trudeau pointed to a Prince Edward Island couple that help clear the snow for their neighbours every winter, and says being there for each other and helping neighbours is the Canadian way.
He was presented with a Symons Medal for his contribution to Canadian life at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown.
He held a lengthy question and answer session following his lecture, in which he touched on carbon reduction and the environment, LGBT rights, expectations for newcomers to Canada and North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.
Earlier in the day, Trudeau touched on more lighthearted topics, such as not being able to pop into a Canadian Tire for a screwdriver or grab a doubledouble at Tim Hortons without “causing a bit of a kerfuffle.”
In an off- the- cuff radio interview in P. E. I. that touched on shopping, sports, fashion and TV dramas, Trudeau said it’s hard for him to partake in these commonplace and quintessentially Canadian outings.
Being the head of the Canadian government comes with “amazing things but a certain awkwardness in stopping in for a double- double,” Trudeau said in an interview with Charlottetown’s Ocean 100 radio host Kerri Wynne MacLeod.
“The level of kerfuffle — there are flashing lights in the street right now — around a PM can go to your head or you can take it the wrong way,” he said. “The only way to make sense of it is there is no way all of this is for just one guy. It’s for the office.”
The 23rd prime minister of Canada said he stays grounded by “finding moments where I can just hang out with friends and be chill,” including shooting pool.
Trudeau also divulged that “like in any good marriage” his wife decides the television shows they watch together, which lately has been a combination of Outlander on Netflix and the new season of Grey’s Anatomy.
The prime minister caused a flurry of excitement on the Island recently when he was spotted sporting P. E. I.made sunglasses, Fellow Earthlings eyewear, on a recent trip Vietnam.
A photo snapped of Trudeau stepping off the plane shows him adjusting the vintage leather- covered aviatorstyle sunglasses, a model called the Canadian.
“I never imagined people would connect on those little details. They’re absolutely gorgeous, I love them,” he said. “I get nothing but compliments on them and they’re from right here in P. E. I. They’re just slick.”
The 45- year- old also weighed in on this weekend’s Grey Cup final between the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts in Ottawa, which he plans to attend with his family.
“I’m bringing the kids and Sophie has agreed to come as well, which is always a bonus,” he said. “Unfortunately, my beloved ( Montreal) Alouettes aren’t in it, but the Argos and the Stamps will give a great game. I hope for a really close game.”
The prime minister was expected to head to eastern Newfoundland later Thursday to meet with a local Liberal candidate in Clarenville.
Trudeau is expected to be in Goose Bay on Friday to apologize to former students of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.
They were left out of a compensation package and a national apology in 2008 by former prime minister Stephen Harper.
His Conservative government argued that Ottawa did not oversee those schools.
— The Canadian Press