Platform By Platform: What Are They Promising?

They waited until the last week, but with the Conservative platform finally being revealed on Tuesday, you can now compare all the major parties and what they promise they’ll do for you if you put them in charge of things in Ottawa.

Here are the platform-by-platform guarantees from the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Green Parties in advance of the October 14th vote.

Conservatives

• $200 million more each over four years for the repayable Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative and Automotive Innovation funds.
• Cancel changes to film and television tax credits allowing government to disqualify certain productions. No cost provided.
• Two-cent-a-litre cut in taxes on diesel and aviation fuel over four years. $600 million a year once fully implemented.
• Allow 49 per cent foreign ownership of airlines and foreign ownership of uranium mines.
• Tax credit for first-time homebuyers to claim up to $5,000 in closing costs for a rebate of up to $750. $200 million a year, fully implemented.
• Ban kid-friendly flavours and additives from tobacco products and require cigarillos to be sold in packages of at least 20. No cost provided.
• Maximum life sentences for offenders as young as 14 convicted of first- or  second-degree murder; maximum 14-year sentences and an end to anonymity for youths who commit violent crimes.
• End conditional sentencing, also known as house arrest, for 30 serious crimes, including robbery, theft, and arson.
• $113 million over five years to crack down on environmental crime, including maximum penalties of $6 million for companies and $1 million for individuals.
• Internet anti-spam law, ban on charging for unsolicited text messages, crackdown on gas-pump tampering. No cost provided.
• New tax credit for parents of children under 16 enrolled in eligible arts programs; $150 million a year.

For more of the Conservative party platform, click here.

Liberal

• Contingency reserve of $3 billion a year to be applied to national debt if not used
• 10 year, $70 billion plan to invest in infrastructure, working with provinces
• Transfer of almost $25 billion to municipalities through gas tax transfer
• Create $1 billion fund to help manufacturing and research & development sectors
• Rural Canadians to receive additional $150 per tax filer each year
• Make all students eligible for guaranteed student loans of $5,000 regardless of parental income
• Double the amount of funding to Canada Council for the Arts
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 60-80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050
• Reduce number of people living below poverty line by 30 percent, and number of children living in poverty by 50 percent
• Create $40 million Gun Violence and Gang Prevention Fund
• Establish Doctors and Nurses Fund to help recruit, train and integrate more health care professionals into the system

Green Shift plan, highlights of which include:

• Putting a price of $10/tonne of greenhouse gas emissions, rising by $10/year until it reaches $40/tonne in year four. Liberals promise every dollar raised from taxing carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax cuts.
• Lowest income tax rate to drop to 13.5 percent from 15 percent. Middle class tax rate to drop to 21 percent from 22 percent, and to 25 percent from 26 percent.
• By year four of Green Shift plan, families to receive annual child tax credit worth $350/child
• Increase Working Income Tax Benefit
• Make Disability Tax Credit refundable
• Provide incentives for green technology and investments
• Tax breaks to help Canadians go green

For more of the Liberal Party platform, click here.

NDP

• Create $750 million Green-Collar Jobs fund to train new workers and re-train displaced workers, with a focus on the new energy economy.
• Bring in an environmental automobile strategy.
• Create and support pan-Canadian sector-based strategies.
• Invest equivalent of one cent of the GST in funding important priorities of cities and communities (public transit, affordable housing, expanded child care) by 2011.
• Set National Minimum Wage at $10/hour, indexed to inflation.
• Restore uniform 22.21 percent corporate tax rate.
• Implement “net neutrality” to protect Canadians’ right to freely access internet content at a flat rate.
• Increase number of inspectors at Canada Food Inspection Agency.
• Provide $1,000 grant to all undergraduate or equivalent students who qualify for student loans, paid at the beginning of the school year.
• Establish and fund a Canada-wide child care and early learning program.
• Introduce Poverty Elimination Act, goal of which is to end poverty in Canada by 2020.
• Implement a comprehensive and fully-funded affordable housing strategy.
• Dedicate one per cent of Health Canada budget to physical fitness and amateur sports promotion.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
• Hire 2,500 new police officers.
• Support federal and provincial anti-gang units.
• Working with cities and provinces, implement ‘absolute ban’ on handguns by tightening existing restrictions.
• Invest $5 billion over five years in First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities.
• Refocus CRTC mandate to promote and protect Canadian culture.
• Streamline recognition of foreign credentials, overseas degrees and previous employment experience.
• Withdraw all Canadian forces from Afghanistan combat mission.

For more on the NDP platform, click here.

Green

• Assist small businesses through Green Venture Capital Funds and tax shifting.
• Renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• Support the family farm. Provide GST rebates and compensation for protecting ecological services, such as wildlife habitat.
• Encourage production and consumption of Canadian agricultural products, especially organically grown.
• Cut corporate tax by $50 for each tonne of carbon emission reductions, to create a $100 per tonne saving when combined with avoided carbon tax.
• Bring in a $50 per tonne carbon tax and develop taxes for toxic chemicals. Use that revenue to cut payroll and income taxes, and reduce employers’ contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan.
• Return the GST to six per cent, to invest in infrastructure. Expand the exemptions on food items, and extend them to children’s clothing and books. Provide rebates for rural Canadians.
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.
• Support only bio-fuels that actually save carbon emissions and don’t distort food supplies or prices. That means no corn- or grain-based ethanol.
• Protect our universal, single-payer public health care system and ensure it works well at disease prevention and treatment.
• Rebuild hospital capacity and make smarter use of it by increasing long-term-care facilities, as well as post-surgery recuperation outside of hospital, with access to nursing.
• Eliminate income tax for those earning $20,000 or less.
• Ensure universal access to excellent childcare and early childhood education.
• Cut debt for post-secondary students through measures including a Canadian National Student Loan and Bursary Program.
• Forgive half the loan for students who complete degree or certificate programs.
• Expand the rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transsexual Canadians.
• Restore Canada’s peacekeeping role and help to build a permanent UN force to respond to conflicts and climate disasters.

For more on the Green party platform, click here.