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The Conservative Party of Canada today released its full 160-page election platform — an ambitious agenda that promises billions of dollars in new spending to prop up an economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unlike past Conservative platforms, this one embraces a robust role for government in the economy through large cash injections to help businesses weather the pandemic crisis over the next two years.
The multi-billion dollar plan has not yet been costed; the party says the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has not finished studying the numbers.
Party leader Erin O’Toole said a Conservative government would balance the budget in ten years’ time. The federal deficit for this fiscal year alone is expected to be $381.6 billion.
“You’ll probably notice ideas that you haven’t heard from Conservatives like me before. It’s time for Conservatives to take inequality seriously, because that’s becoming more of a problem in our country,” O’Toole says in the opening paragraphs of the document.
A Conservative government led by O’Toole would end the Liberal party’s plan to create a national child care program; the party would instead flow money directly to parents to cover those costs.
The platform also promises to spend much more money on health care by boosting the annual growth rate of the Canada Health Transfer to at least six per cent from its current rate, which is tied to how much the economy grows in a given year with a floor of three per cent. The party says the more generous health transfer to the provinces would cost the federal treasury nearly $60 billion over the next ten years.
But the centrepiece of the plan is a promise to create a million jobs. To accomplish that goal, the party is offering even more money than the Liberal government has budgeted for the country’s pandemic-struck employers — part of a push to recover all jobs lost over the last 18 months.
Since the last vote in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of nearly 27,000 Canadians and pushed unemployment rates to levels not seen since the 2008-09 financial crisis.
For businesses: ‘investment accelerator’ and a hiring subsidy
Through its Canada Jobs Surge Plan, the party is promising that a Conservative government would pay up to 50 per cent of the salaries of new hires once the existing Canadian emergency wage subsidy (CEWS) is phased out. Before the election was called, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland extended the CEWS program until the end of October.
To spur business spending, the party vows to create a “Canada Investment Accelerator,” which would provide a 5 per cent tax credit for any capital investment made in 2022 and 2023.
It also would introduce something called the “rebuild Main Street tax credit,” which would provide a 25 per cent tax credit on amounts of up to $100,000 that Canadians personally invest in a small business over the next two years.
A pedestrian walks past a retail outlet offering online shopping on Toronto’s Queen Street on May 18, 2021. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
And as part of the proposed “Main Street business loan,” a Conservative government would provide loans of up to $200,000 to small and medium businesses in the hospitality, retail and tourism sectors to help them “get back on their feet.” Up to 25 per cent of such loans would be forgivable, depending on a company’s revenue.
The party maintains the government’s current Canada emergency business account (CEBA) program, which offers $60,000 loans to virtually all small businesses, is “too small.”
To support restaurants, the Conservative party is promising a billion-dollar benefit. For one month, a Conservative government would provide a 50 per cent rebate for food and non-alcoholic drinks purchased for dining in at restaurants between Monday and Wednesday.
GST ‘holiday’
To help ailing retailers, a government led by O’Toole would implement a “GST holiday” — a month-long break on federal sales tax — sometime this fall. All purchases at a retail store would be tax-free for a month.
He said these sectors have been “hanging on by a thread” because of public health measures like lockdowns. The Conservative plan, O’Toole said, “will help them them thrive and help us get a growing economy. We want to make sure we help some of the people hit hard, some of the vulnerable.”
O’Toole’s team is also promising to deliver a “raise” to low-income workers by doubling the existing Canada Workers Benefit up to a maximum of $2,800 for individuals and $5,000 for families. The party also is promising to pay the money as a quarterly direct deposit rather than a year-end tax refund. The program is only available to individuals earning less than $24,573 a year, or families with household incomes of $37,173 or less.
The Conservative government would scrap the $30-billion Liberal child care program — which the government has said would reduce child-minding costs within five years to just $10 a day per child, nationwide — and instead convert the existing child care expense deduction into a refundable tax credit to cover up to 75 per cent of the cost of child care for lower income families.
Children play at a child-care centre at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (Michael Gorman/CBC)
Provinces that have signed child care deals with the federal government would be able to keep the initial tranche of money that already has been paid but, moving forward, a Conservative government would direct most child care funds to parents themselves.
“This will massively increase the support that lower income families receive and provide more assistance to almost all families. We will also pay out the deduction over the course of the year so that families do not have to pay the cost of child care and then get the money back later,” the platform reads.
O’Toole said he would do away with the Liberal plan because it doesn’t help all parents.
Critics maintain the Liberals’ approach to child care funding unfairly punishes parents who care for their own children. Cardus, a faith-based think tank, has said a program focused on publicly funded daycare spaces “devalues the work parents and other caregivers do outside of an institutional setting.”
The Conservative leader said his tax credit would “help all parents.
“All parents — immediately, not some years from now. Parents know what’s best. We’re going to help all families and lower income families will have 75 per cent of the costs covered. We’re going to empower families.”
WATCH: Conservatives release election platform:
Conservatives make funding, job promises in platform release
18 hours ago
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole released an election platform full of generous promises for funding and creating one million jobs. But the glossy 160-page magazine-style document also plans to scrap the Liberals’ child-care plan in favour of tax cuts. 4:01
The party projects that a family with an income of $30,000 would receive up to $6,000 to cover child care costs, more than the $1,200 they can claim today. The party says that, under its plan, a family with an income of $50,000 would get $5,200.
O’Toole to ban foreigners from buying homes for two years
Beyond job-creation measures and child care, the detailed platform includes a number of populist-minded measures — a tougher regulatory stance on cell phone companies, a crackdown on grocery price fixing and new legislation to “open banking so Canadians can connect with fintech companies that can provide a better offer for banking services.”
A Conservative-led government would also order the Competition Bureau to investigate bank fees. O’Toole said he would allow foreign telecommunications companies to offer cell phone service to Canadians to drive down prices, “provided that the same treatment is reciprocated for Canadian companies in that company’s country.”
To address the issue of affordable housing — Canada’s sky-high average real estate prices are typically higher than those in Western countries — O’Toole would ban all foreign investors from buying homes here for at least a two-year period.
In the last federal budget, the government pitched a one per cent tax on foreign-owned vacant homes to reduce home price inflation driven by foreign nationals scooping up Canadian homes.
O’Toole is pictured on the cover of the Conservative party’s 2021 election platform. (Hannah Thibedeau/CBC News)
The platform also includes O’Toole’s climate plan, which calls for a reworked version of the existing carbon pricing regime. Instead of sending tax money to Ottawa, the Conservative plan would see the levies paid on fossil fuels banked in personal “low carbon savings accounts.”
“Our plan will ensure that all Canadians can do their part to fight climate change, in the way that works best for them, and at a carbon price that is affordable,” the platform reads.
During the Conservative leadership race, O’Toole promised to privatize and “defund” the TV and online division of CBC while leaving CBC Radio and the French-language services of Radio-Canada untouched.
In the platform document, however, O’Toole said a government led by him would instead “review the mandate of CBC English television, CBC News Network and CBC English online” and “assess the viability of refocusing the service on a public interest model like that of PBS in the U.S., ensuring that it no longer competes with private Canadian broadcasters and digital providers.”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
