Summary of the two main points of the two main parties, sources below.
- The Liberals pledge to keep the carbon tax, cap oil and gas emissions, install 50,000 electric vehicle chargers, expand incentives, and require that 50 per cent of car sold by 2030 be electric. The party plans to make smelters electric-powered, build EV and battery plants, and retool refineries toward renewable sources. It vows to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 40 and 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and to reach net-zero by 2050 — a plan that includes planting two billion trees in a decade.
- Invest $1 billion over 10 years to “restore and protect” large lakes and river systems
- Establish a Canada Water Agency in 2022 to coordinate federal freshwater efforts
- Modernize Canada Water Act to reflect today’s freshwater realities to include Indigenous water rights and address climate change
- Invest $37.5 million over six years to support freshwater research at the International Institute for Sustainable Developments Experimental Lakes Area
- Ensure oil and gas sector reduces emissions to achieve net-zero by 2050
- Require oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions by at least 75 per cent below 2012 levels by 2030
- Accelerate G20 commitment to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies from 2025 to 2023
- Help Canadians improve energy efficiency of their homes
- Provide grants of up to $5,000 for home retrofits and interest-free loans up to $40,000 for deep retrofits
- Invest $700 million to add 50,000 new electric vehicle chargers and hydrogen stations
- Implement regulated sales requirement that at least 50 per cent of all new light-duty vehicle sales be zero emissions vehicles in 2030
- Develop investment tax credit of up to 30 per cent for a range of clean technologies including low carbon and net-zero technologies
- Eliminate flow through shares for oil, gas and coal projects to help promote clean growth and Canada’s transition to net-zero economy
- The Tories plan to increase zero-emission vehicles. There’s no call to end fossil fuel production. Instead, the party would bring in “personal carbon savings accounts” to replace the carbon levy: Gasoline buyers would pay into an account that will later be used for environmental purchases like electric vehicles. The carbon tax would be lowered to $20 a ton from $40 a ton. It vows to reduce emissions but preserve economic growth
- Eliminate Bill C-69 & Repeal C-48
- Get Trans Mountain expansion built
- Promote “mutually beneficial conversations” between Indigenous communities and resource project proponents, providing $10 million per year to organizations involved
- Invest $1.5 billion to support N.L.’s offshore oil industry
- Introduce zero-emission vehicle mandate based on B.C.’s, requiring 30 per cent of light duty vehicles sold to be zero emissions by 2030
- Invest a billion dollars in building out electric vehicle manufacturing in Canada
JOB CREATION/ECONOMIC RECOVERY/TRADE
- The key Liberal promise is to restore employment to pre-pandemic levels. The party would create “beyond one million jobs” by extending the recovery-hiring program and wage and rent supports for small businesses — particularly in the hard-hit tourism sector — that cover up to 75 per cent of expenses.
- Promises include micro-grants to help businesses take sales online, expansion of its small-business financing program by $560 million and letting small businesses write off up to $1.5 million in growth-enhancing investments.
- In regard to deficit and debt: use roughly half of the five percentage point drop in the projected debt-to-GDP ratio in the federal budget released in April
- $78 billion in new spending over five years
- $25.5 billion in new revenue over five years
- $336 billion expected cumulative budget deficit over five years
- Introduce a $1-billion proof of vaccination fund that will be available to provinces and territories that implement a proof-of-vaccine requirement for non-essential businesses and public spaces
- Immediately invest $6 billion – on top of $4 billion already committed – to support the elimination of health system waitlists
- Extend the Canada Recovery Hiring Program to March 31, 2022
- Provide $3.2 billion to provinces and territories to hire 7,500 new family doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners
- Extend COVID-related insurance coverage for media production stoppages to support 150,000 jobs
- Provide all federally regulated workers with 10 days of paid sick leave, pending amendments to Canada Labour Code
- Reform economic immigration programs to help temporary foreign workers and former international students
- Establish system to help Canadian companies hire temporary foreign workers to fill labour shortages
- Provide the country’s tourism industry with temporary wage and rent support of up to 75 per cent of their expenses to help them get through the winter months
- Invest $2 billion to create jobs for fossil fuel workers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador
- Require financial institutions to offer flexible repayment options, including mandatory option for six-month deferral of mortgage payments in “qualifying circumstances”
- Establish single independent ombudsperson for handling consumer complaints involving banks
- Crack down on predatory lenders by lowering criminal rate of interest
- Invest $200 million over next four years to establish nation-wide agency to investigate financial crimes and enforce federal law in this area
- Table legislation to ensure that every business and organization that decides to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination from employees and customers can do so without fear of legal challenge
- Launch new Asia-Pacific strategy to “deepen diplomatic, economic, and defence partnerships in the region
- Build dedicated passenger rail tracks in the Toronto-to-Quebec City corridor for high frequency trains; procurement process launching in fall 2021.
- Support high-speed internet access in rural and remote areas with $1 billion over six years for the Universal Broadband Fund
- Recapitalize the National Trade Corridors Fund with $1.9 billion over four years to aid upgrades to transport routes, with 15 per cent dedicated to the North.
- Upgrade satellite ground-based infrastructure and plan for new satellites with $90 million over 11 years.
- Conduct the first National Infrastructure Assessment to identify needs and priorities, for $22.6 million over four years.
- Renovate small craft harbours with $300 million over two years.
- Use promises in the party platform to “reduce the deficit by almost 90 per cent by repairing the economy
- Create one million jobs with measures such as a Canada job-surge plan, which will pay 25 per cent to 50 per cent of wages for net-new-hires at firms for six months following the end of wage-subsidy programs.
- The party’s other promises include rebates and tax credits to encourage domestic tourism, small-business loans of up to $200,000 and a 25 per cent tax credit, worth up to $100,000, for new investments in small business.
- Pledging to balance the budget over the next decade
- $51.3 billion in new spending over five years
- $319.7 billion expected cumulative budget deficit over five years
- Says jobs plan will result in lower unemployment rate and thus higher tax revenue and a “responsible” wind-down of emergency spending
- Restore one million jobs lost due to the pandemic within a year
- Pay up to 50 per cent of new hires’ salaries for six months following the end of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy
- All companies in Canada will be eligible for this subsidy regardless of revenue loss
- Employment baseline for counting net new hires will be the company’s average employment in April, May and June 2021
- Launch Super EI that temporarily provides 75 per cent of salary instead of 55 per cent when a province goes into recession – EI will return to normal levels once recession is over, as evidenced by three months of job gains
- Expand EI benefits for seriously ill workers from 26 to 52 weeks
- Require gig economy companies to make contributions equivalent to CPP and EI premiums
- Pay full 10.2 per cent of taxable income for CPP either by making CPP contribution on behalf of worker to the CRA or deposit contribution in proposed Employee Savings Account so worker can pay CPP premiums at tax year-end
- Pay equivalent of EI premiums of four per cent of taxable income into a locked-in Employee Savings Account
- Double the Canada Workers Benefit to a maximum of $2,800 for individuals or $5,000 for families, paying it as a quarterly direct deposit rather than tax refund at year-end
- Reject mergers that substantially reduce competition and lead to layoffs and higher prices
- Invest $250 million over two years to provide grants to organizations including employers, apprenticeship training delivery agents, unions, post-secondary institutions, and community organizations
- Provide low interest loans of up to $10,000 to people who want to upgrade their skills
- Require federally regulated employers with more than 1,000 employees or $100 million in annual revenue to include worker representation on boards of directors
- Appoint a minister responsible for red tape reduction
- Increase maximum penalty for price-fixing from $24 million to $100 million and introduce criminal penalties for executives convicted of price-fixing, including jail time
- Pursue Canada-Australia-New Zealand-United Kingdom agreement that could include free trade and flow of capital investment between the partners
- Eliminate and replace the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
- Provide the funding needed to complete the extension of the Surrey Langley SkyTrain.
- Facilitate Energy Savings Performance Contracting (See Climate Change and Environment).
- Invest in northern infrastructure, including the Grays Bay Port and Road Project connecting Nunavut and NWT; the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Line; the Tuktoyaktuk road and port; a large-scale clean power project in the Yukon.
INDIGENOUS RELATIONS/RECONCILIATION
- The Liberals pledge to appoint a special interlocutor to work with Indigenous communities to develop the “legal and regulatory framework to advance justice” over unmarked graves at former residential schools. They’ll build a national monument to honour children who were taken from their families. It promises to clean up the bad drinking water in many Indigenous communities and spend on mental health services and housing. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples would be included in every cabinet minister’s mandate letter.
- Build housing for Indigenous communities with $2 billion over four years, including more than 50 per cent of that funding available for the 2022 construction season.
- Support access to trauma-informed, Indigenous-led mental health and wellness services, for $2 billion over five years, including renewing funding of the Indian Residential Schools Health Supports Program and Crisis Line.
- Manage the health impacts of climate change on First Nations and Inuit communities, including impacts of extreme weather events, with $125.2 million over four years.
- Provide more than $6 billion over five years to support infrastructure maintenance and construction in Indigenous communities, as well as continue First Nations’ community access to clean water and services with $125.2 million over four years.
- Invest in Indigenous early learning and child care with $1.4 billion over five years, including $264 million to repair and renovate existing centres and $420 million to build new ones.
- Negotiate agreements with interested Indigenous governments to enable them to raise tax revenues on their lands.
- Invest an additional $2.2 billion over five years to build a safer and more inclusive society, in response to the national tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, including $275 million to support Indigenous peoples’ reclamation of Indigenous languages and $126.7 million to promote health systems free of racism and discrimination.
- The Conservatives promise to fund investigations at former residential schools where unmarked graves may exist. They’ll develop a plan to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s six calls to action involving missing children and would build a national monument. They would also clean up bad drinking water. The party platform emphasizes “prosperity through partnership” in land development and working with First Nations on a transparent process they can use to “identify who represents them in consultations if it is someone other than elected chiefs
- Expand the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (See Climate Change and Environment).
- Create a Canadian Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, with an initial $5 billion of capital, that would support First Nations and Inuit organizations seeking to purchase equity stakes in major projects.
- Recognize safe drinking water as a fundamental human right and end long-term drinking water advisories; target high-risk water systems; work with Indigenous communities to ensure water systems investments are protected.
- Provide $1 billion over five years to boost funding for Indigenous mental health and drug treatment programs.
CRITICAL MINERALS:?
- The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) platform4?also includes specific initiatives with respect to critical minerals, referring to using all tools (including the Investment Canada Act) to “ensure the protection and development of our critical minerals from both an economic and national security perspective.” These measures include building an end-to-end sustainable battery supply chain, attracting major “anchor investments in key areas like mineral processing and cell manufacturing,” and doubling the existing 15 per cent mineral exploration tax credit (METC) for critical minerals, which are essential to clean technology manufacturing such as batteries. The METC is a non-refundable tax credit that enables investors in mining companies that incur eligible exploration expenses to reduce their taxes payable.5?This occurs when investors purchase “flow-through shares”6?in such companies, which renounce the qualifying expenses they incur in favour of the FTS investors. In the case of the METC, eligible exploration expenses are essentially those incurred in conducting aboveground mineral exploration activity to determine the existence, location, extent or quality of a base or precious metal deposit in Canada.
- The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) platform3?proposes the implementation of a Critical Minerals Strategy “to take advantage of Canada’s abundant resources of the minerals needed to power our clean energy future.” Specifically mentioned are policies to facilitate the responsible exploitation and mining of lithium, support for the export of uranium to responsible countries for use in civilian programs, and new initiatives to recover critical minerals from historical mine wastes.
CORPORATE TAXES:
- Raise corporate income tax rate by three percentage points – from 15 per cent to 18 per cent – on all earnings over $1 billion at Canada’s largest banks and insurers
- The new tax would generate $5.3 billion between this fiscal year and 2026. Another $5.5 billion would be raised over that same time frame from the Canada Recovery Dividend (a yet-to-be defined temporary levy on those large financial institutions).
- Make foreign tech companies pay “fair share of taxes,” including sales tax and digital services tax representing three per cent of gross revenue in Canada if they don’t pay corporate income tax here