MNI POLICY:Canada May Regulate Tech, Gig Work as Deficit Grows

--Fiscal 'Snapshot' Coming July 8, Trudeau Says

By Greg Quinn

     OTTAWA (MNI) - Canada may toughen regulation of tech companies and gig

employers after spending tens of billions supporting low-paid workers who lacked

savings to cover bills after being laid off during the pandemic, Prime Minister

Justin Trudeau said Wednesday as he announced a delayed and partial budget

update on July 8.

     "We've seen this crisis expose real vulnerabilities within our communities,

within our employment systems," Trudeau said in response to a question from MNI.

"We are responding to this emergency right now, but we are also reflecting very

carefully on how we can build back better, build back fairer, build back

greener."

     Trudeau said Wednesday his minority Liberal government will present a

fiscal "snapshot" and declined to say when a budget for the accounting year that

began April 1 will be presented. The budget won't be an "omnibus" bill that past

governments have used to advance favored projects that had little to do with the

country's finances, he said in response to another MNI question. 

     Canada on Tuesday extended CAD2,000-a-month relief checks for another two

months, likely adding tens of billions of dollars to a deficit heading to a

record CAD260 billion or 15% of GDP. Unemployment has reached a record 13% and

the biggest losses have come from low-wage and contract workers. 

     --FISCAL STANDING

     Canada and European governments have moved to tax U.S.-based digital giants

but mostly to collect regular corporate income taxes based on their revenues

abroad. Most of those plans have been delayed because of the threat of trade

retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump. 

     Trudeau also reiterated it's impossible to present a full budget as past

governments have done during World Wars and the Great Depression, saying the

government can't project an economy being driven mostly by the health crisis. 

     "This won't be an economic or fiscal update, it will be more of a snapshot

of where we are now," Trudeau said. "It will be useful for people to see the

scale" of what we've been doing and "where we are compared to others" abroad, he

said.

--MNI Ottawa Bureau; +1 613-314-9647; email: greg.quinn@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$C$$$,MC$$$$]