O'Toole Releases Platform: Canada's Recovery Plan
On the first full day of campaigning, Conservative leader Erin O'Toole released his party's platform: Canada's Recovery Plan. While the platform lacked a notable 'centrepiece,' it proposes billions in economic stimulus spending. The Conservative platform is based on five broad themes:
- Securing jobs through a number of
economic development measures, including:
- Paying up to 50% of the salary of new hires for six months following the expiry of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy;
- Creating a 5% tax credit for any capital investment made by companies in 2022 and 2023, with the first $25,000 to be refundable for small businesses;
- Establishing a 25% tax credit on investments of up to $100,000 for Canadians that personally invest in their small business over the next two years;
- Providing loans of up to $200,000 to help SME's in the hospitality, retail, and tourism sectors, with up to 25% forgiven.
- Securing accountability by amending the federal Lobbying Act to remove the 20% threshold (meaning all lobbying is registered) and increasing administrative monetary penalties under the Conflict of Interest Act to up to $50,000.
- Securing mental health by increasing funding to the provinces for mental health care, and providing incentives to employers to provide mental health coverage.
- Securing the country by partnering with pharmaceutical companies to increase domestic production of critical medicines and vaccines; creating a stockpile of essential goods, and reforming procurement rules to create a 'vital national interest category' for goods that must be sourced in Canada. The platform also proposes amendments to the Investment Canada Act which would create an automatic review of transactions involving sensitive sectors such as defence, artificial intelligence and rare earth minerals, and would prevent the takeover of Canadian companies by Chinese state-owned entities.
- Securing the economy by balancing the budget over the next decade. In order to achieve this, the platform includes commitments to wind down pandemic support programs, and ensure stimulus measures are time-limited. The plan also includes revenue generating measures, including a digital services tax representing 3% of gross revenue of foreign tech companies operating in Canada.
Other notable commitments include:
- Implementing a month-long "GST holiday" this fall on all purchases made at retail stores;
- Tabling 'open-banking' legislation;
- Banning foreign investors from buying homes for a two-year period, and
- Replacing the Liberals' $10-a-day daycare with a refundable tax credit covering up to 75% of the cost of child care for lower income families.
#Election44 will continue to break-down the lengthy platform throughout the campaign.
Trudeau Extends Recovery Hiring Program
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Longueuil, Quebec where he announced that the Liberal government would introduce and extend pandemic support for businesses. The Prime Minister's commitments include:
- Extending the Canada Recovery Hiring Program - originally introduced in Budget 2021 - to March 31, 2022;
- Providing the tourism industry with temporary wage and rent support of up to 75% "to get them through the winter"; and,
- Implementing a transitional support program to help bridge workers from the creative industry "who continue to be impacted by the pandemic."
Singh Highlights Excess Wealth Tax
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was in Toronto, highlighting his party's "excess wealth tax." The proposal is a 15% tax that would apply to "large corporations that took publicly-funded COVID-19 wage subsidies and...paid out executive bonuses, executed stock buy-backs or paid shareholder dividends."
Green Party Makes Clear Distinction With Liberals
Contrasting the Green Party with the Liberal Party, Annamie Paul had a clear message for Canadians today: "We are the only party in Canada that has said clearly: no new pipeline projects [including Trans Mountain]; no new oil and gas exploration and no fracking."
Blanchet in Quebec City
Only the Bloc Quebecois will look out for Quebec was the message from Yves-François Blanchet Monday morning. Speaking from Quebec City, Blanchet outlined seven key policy priorities, many aligned with legislation passed by the Quebec National Assembly, including:
- Increasing Quebec's control over immigration;
- Calling on the federal government not to interfere with Quebec's Bill 21, the Act respecting the laicity of the State (Loi sur la laïcité de l'État);
- Ensuring that federally regulated businesses are subject to Quebec's language laws;
- Empowering the province to collect federal taxes;
- Increasing health transfers; and,
- Forcing Ottawa to respect Quebec's provincial and municipal environmental laws.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.