Don Kossick and other representatives from the Canadians for Tax Fairness present a Cameco security guard with the petition and a letter to Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel.
Two corporate watchdogs have collected nearly 37,000 signatures demanding Cameco pay $2.1 billion in alleged back taxes before the matter goes to court.
The uranium company and the Canadian Revenue Agency are headed to court in September over a tax dispute dating back to 2003.
The CRA is questioning Cameco’s practice of selling uranium at a low fixed price to its European subsidiary and then selling the product at a higher price worldwide.
This results in more profits being booked in Europe than Canada where there is a more favourable tax regime.
The organizations Canadians for Tax Fairness along with SumOfUs presented their petition Wednesday morning to both the Prime Minister’s Office and Cameco Headquarters demanding the uranium company pay all of the alleged tax money before heading to court.
“We are just hoping that the government will do something after the Panama Papers have shown trillions of dollars taken out of economies and we feel we have to do somethings about it,” said Don Kossick a representative for the organizations in Saskatoon.
“If Cameco cares, if they truly care about Canada and Canadian citizens they should pay up.”
Kossick said he’s concerned Cameco and the CRA will make a deal and they won’t have to pay the full $2.1 billion.
That’s why he and others are lobbying the federal government and Cameco to avoid the court process.
“We understand that people are concerned and we would like this issue resolved as well,” said Cameco spokesperson Rob Gereghty. “We followed all of the rules we paid all of our taxes.
“The petition itself doesn’t change anything because our dispute with the CRA will be resolved before a judge in tax court.”
Gereghty says they are confident in their case, but couldn’t speak to any details.
The matter will be before the courts in either late September or early October.