The Canadian Press

Canadians will be hearing a lot more about the need for a global tax on financial transactions despite the federal government’s insistence that such a levy has no grounds — and certainly no place on the agenda for the G20 summit.

A grassroots campaign in favour of the transaction tax has spread quickly throughout Europe. Now, the labour movement is bringing the cause in serious way to Canada in the hopes of influencing the summit in Toronto at the end of June.

The goal is to have G20 governments agree to a minuscule tax on every trade in stocks, bonds, currencies and derivatives. The proceeds would be put in a global fund directed at poor countries or climate change. At the same time, the tax would encourage traders to think twice before engaging in reckless behaviour.

“We want to make the case for it because we think the case is extraordinarily strong,” said Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. The organization groups unions representing 175 million workers in 155 countries.

Ryder, in Vancouver to prepare for a major congress of global unions in June, said in an interview that he realizes there is more fertile ground than Canada to campaign for a transaction tax.

The so-called Robin Hood Tax has taken off among grassroots groups in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and across Europe. Governments there have also been receptive, with France and Germany leading the way.

European Union finance ministers are discussing the idea this week. And British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is openly campaigning for the G20 to adopt some kind of tax or levy on financial risk-taking.

In the United States, the Obama administration has not closed the door to the idea.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper — who, as host, is in charge of the G20 agenda — has refused to entertain such a notion, preferring to focus instead on raising capital requirements to make sure banking practices don’t get out of hand.

“We do understand Mr. Harper is probably not our strongest ally on these matters,” Ryder said in a phone interview. “But our line on that is that we have to take the case to the people. And trade unions are well placed to do this.”

The European Union has said such a tax could raise about $70 billion a year, while non-governmental organizations say the amount is more like $400 billion annually.

Ryder noted that G20 countries are under pressure to keep economic stimulus flowing, and rein in their deficits at the same time.

Plus, they are obliged to live up to previous commitments to increase aid for developing countries and pay into a climate-change fund, he said.

A financial transaction tax would help pay for those international obligations, he explained.

“We think it’s a fair way to go about this job and we think it’s entirely practical,” Ryder said “And it has the potential to generate the scale of resources to get the job done.”

The International Monetary Fund is studying the idea and is expected to present options and analysis later this month at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington.

But comments from fund officials suggest the IMF is cool to the idea.

And Canadian officials are arguing vehemently that the G20 must not get distracted by populist notions, and should stick to stabilizing the banking system through stronger rules on capital and liquidity.

Still, the labour movement has had significant influence on the G20 agenda at previous summits, working closely with governments to design job-creating stimulus programs.

“We think there is political momentum as there never has been,” Ryder said.

So far in Canada, however, the financial transaction tax idea has been low-profile, even among the non-governmental organizations preparing to lobby Ottawa leading up to the June summit.

The At the Table campaign, grouping major Canadian NGOs, is focused on anti-poverty and does support the financial transaction tax. But the idea is buried deep in its literature and is not prominent on its website.

Similarly, One — co-founded by U2 singer Bono and based in the United Kingdom and Washington — has just hired a well-connected Canadian adviser, but the financial transaction tax barely makes his radar.

One has hired Mark Entwistle, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Cuba and before that, spokesman for former prime minister Brian Mulroney.