Outrageous isn't enough. Changes are needed before we run out of time

By Pepper Parr

January 16th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives started the new year with a bang: On January 2nd they launched their annual CEO pay report, Canada’s New Gilded Age, which reveals that Canada’s highest-paid 100 CEOs make 246 times more than the average worker.

Those 100 CEOs were paid an average of $14.9 million—setting a new all-time high. Top CEOs are making $7,162 per hour, meaning it only takes eight hours to make what the average worker earns after an entire year’s worth of work.

To look at the details click HERE.

That data is outrageous.

Certainly outrageous but also very dangerous.  The number of people earning those exceptionally high salaries while thousands are not certain they are going to be able to keep the homes they have been making mortgage payments on for a decade.  A society can’t function with this kind of imbalance.

The tax system gives the federal government the power to create a more level distribution of money.

But the government hasn’t been doing that.

Nor has the federal government been keeping the promises it made.

When Rogers took over Shaw the public was told that internet access and cell phone costs would not increase.

Remember when the federal government summoned all the heads of the supermarkets to Ottawa to demand that changes be made to the way food was being priced?

Have you seen anything positive done on either of those issues?

There comes a point when the public doesn’t want to put up with the failed promise delivery. Trust in government is diminishing.

If you want to understand what can happen when that trust disappears – just look south.

The CCPA report dominated the media market, garnering 2,195 media mentions in the first two weeks of January alone. That’s 48 per cent higher than last year.

Among those thousands of media hits, CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald spoke with the CBC’s As It Happens and continues responding to interview requests even today.

The CCPA maintain they are not just making an impact in the media, they argue that their research feeds movements: both the Council of Canadians and Lead Now have launched campaigns mobilizing Canadians to pressure the government for measures that would disincentivize extreme CEO compensation.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.