Regulate or devastate? That is the question
March 22, 2001 - Today non-governmental organizations call on Finance Minister Martin to act immediately to control financial market behavior.
“With stock markets crashing around us, the need to control the rollercoaster of international finance has never been more urgent”, said Gord Walker of Halifax Initiative member organization RESULTS Canada, "Parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to do so two years ago, but the federal government has dropped the ball."
Canada was the first Parliament in the world to pass a motion to "enact a tax on financial transactions in concert with the international community" on March 23, 1999. The motion passed by a margin of 164 to 83 with all party support including that of 131 Liberal members.
“Canada made commitments to control international finance in ’99, yet is preparing to completely de-regulate investment through the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)”, said Pierre Henrichon of the Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC) Québec. “These wild mood swings, in markets and in governments, are unacceptable.”
Recent trends to liberalize financial flows globally have increased not only the volume of transactions, but volatility in recent years, inviting destabilizing speculation and abrupt capital flow reversals. Financial transactions taxes, known also as “Tobin-type taxes” are designed to help eliminate speculative behaviour without impeding productive investments in bricks and mortar and jobs. By helping to stabilize currency markets, the tax is designed to help prevent the panicked capital flight that destroyed economies in Asia in 1997 and the future of many retirees in Canada this year.
\When US$ three trillion dollars evaporates from the markets virtually overnight, taking with it the retirement savings of millions of Canadians, “ said Robin Round of the Halifax Initiative, ”It’s time the Finance Minister told the boys in the red suspenders that enough is enough.”
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31|en|aen46f41ec130d2b|Press Release : Thursday, March 23, 2000|
One year later - Where's the leadership? Groups urge Minister Martin to "walk the talk" on parliamentary motion on the Tobin Tax