Our mission

Natural and publicly-created wealth should be publicly shared.

Canada’s housing crisis, weak productivity, and growing inequality share a common root: much of the wealth created by communities, public investment, and technological progress flows into the value of scarce assets instead of to the people who build, work, and power our economy. That can change.

01 — Land value return

Putting our biggest asset to work for Canadians.

Return more publicly created land value to the public, so we can lower housing costs, reward building, boost productivity, and shift taxes off work and enterprise.

02 — Sovereign wealth fund & dividends

Invest shared wealth for future generations.

Invest Canada’s natural, public, and technological wealth in sovereign wealth funds that pay dividends and give every Canadian a stake in our common prosperity.

The math, briefly

What's at stake for Canada.

$240B/yr

Economic rents (excess profits) flowing from Canadian land & natural resources each year — common wealth that could be returned to Canadians.

$7,500

Annual dividend to every adult Canadian if these rents were shared.

$1T

Canada's mineral wealth being plundered — equal to a $24,000 tax per person — that could be invested in a fund that pays dividends.

$7T

Estimated value of Canadian land. It's the biggest asset class in our economy — more than the entire TSX market cap.

Why the answer starts with land.

A community scene: a light-rail train at a stop, families on a bench, a school with a water tower and playground, surrounded by trees — and the utility infrastructure running below.

01

We invest together.

When a community builds transit, schools, parks, and utilities, it makes nearby land more valuable.

A single-family lot glowing gold against the city around it — civic buildings, low-rise apartments, shops, a tram. The community's growth makes the land beneath the house worth more.

02

Land values rise because of the community.

As an area improves, demand increases and land prices climb, even if the owner didn't add anything.

Cross-section of a city block: people, a worker carrying lumber, shops and homes above ground — and below them, a tall column of soil highlighted as the part being taxed. The land, not the building.

03

Pay for what you use, not what you make.

Policies like a land value tax charge a fee on the land's location value, not buildings. It's fairer and more productive than taxing paycheques, businesses, or housing.

A radiant public-treasury rotunda at the centre, with gold paths flowing out to housing, a park bench, a school playground, and a tram — the captured value returning to the community.

04

Reinvest that wealth back to citizens.

We can capture that publicly created wealth to pay dividends, reduce taxes on property and income, or fund other community needs.

A vibrant, sunlit street scene: new mid-rise apartments going up with a construction crane, a tram, cafés on the corner, people walking, biking and lingering. The results: more housing, more life.

05

More housing, productivity, and prosperity.

Charging land value discourages vacant lots and rewards building. Shifting taxes and paying dividends supports the people who create real wealth — workers and builders.

Visit our Land page to read more.

Land →

What experts are saying about common wealth.

"Most of the increase in the value of wealth is an increase in the value of land… A tax on the return to land — and even more so, on the capital gains from land — would reduce inequality and, by encouraging more investment into real capital, actually enhance growth."

Joseph Stiglitz Nobel Laureate in Economics · former Chief Economist of the World Bank

"A citizen's dividend allows the proceeds of co-created wealth to be shared with the larger community — whether that wealth comes from natural resources that are part of the common good, or from a process, such as public investments, that has involved a collective effort."

Mariana Mazzucato Economist · Founding Director, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

"The natural resources in the ground — that's something we own in common. We believe in the market, in competition, in an open economy. But the extra rent connected to natural resources shall be something which is in the common ownership of the people."

Jens Stoltenberg Former Prime Minister of Norway · former NATO Secretary General

"Economic rent — the surplus that flows to land, resources, the right to pollute, the spectrum — rightfully belongs to the community, which created it in the first place. Instead, it flows to private asset owners, forcing governments to damage the economy by taxing incomes and consumption."

Frank de Jong Environmentalist, author · first leader of the Green Party of Ontario

Recent publications

Research, notes, and the receipts.

All research

Flagship report

Notes from the front of the debate.

All posts

B.C. · Policy history May 11, 2026

Every Canadian deserves a stake in our common wealth.

Natural and publicly-created wealth should be publicly shared.

Putting our biggest asset to work for Canadians.

Invest shared wealth for future generations.

Solving our biggest problems begins with the biggest asset in our economy — land.

A common wealth fund. A dividend for every Canadian.

What's at stake for Canada.