Election 2015 - The economy
- Details
- Published on Thursday, September 24, 2015
Banner Staff
The Neepawa Banner
Until the federal election on October 19th, the Neepawa Banner will be talking to the candidates about the issues that matter to local voters. This week we begin with the candidate profiles. Check back as we ask the candidates for their views on a new topic each week.
Many Canadians are concerned about uncertainty in the Canadian and world economies. What does your party plan to do to help the Canadian economy weather the storm? Are there any changes to the Canadian economy your party would like to see?
Name: Ray Piché
Party: Liberal Party of Canada
Home: Onanole
The Liberal Party of Canada has put forward a three-point plan for the Canadian economy.
This plan will create jobs with the most significant infrastructure investment in Canadian history – almost $60 billion in new funding over the next 10 years.
The plan will grow the middle class by raising taxes on the wealthiest one per cent and cutting taxes for middle class Canadians.
The Liberals will also help those working to join the middle class by investing in essential social infrastructure, including affordable housing and child care, as well as providing more money to help families with the high cost of raising their kids.
I’d really like to make the comment that our party is proposing to go into modest deficit [to fund this plan], and would like to put “modest” into capital letters. We have no intention of putting this country in a bad position. We will go into modest deficit for two or three years and then balance the budget.
The reason for that is so that we can invest in our country today, now. Interest rates are low, it’s a good time to do it. That’s why we want to do it today. We don’t want to backload and make all these promises that we’re going to do in four years, we want to do it now. That’s part of creating jobs, helping infrastructure and moving forward in our economy.
Name: Laverne Lewycky
Party: NDP
Home: Dauphin
Canadians of all ages have experienced a decade of drought under Harper regarding their finding a good, secure job. Youth today have 60,000 fewer jobs than when Harper first took office. Thousands of young Canadians are unemployed and the economic recovery has by-passed them. They will have lower wages for the rest of their lives. To alleviate their situation, NDP will introduce a $15/hour minimum wage.
Over 200,000 more Canadians are jobless now than before the 2008 recession. A total of 1.3 million people are unemployed. Harper Conservatives have handed tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to large corporations, with no conditions attached instead of supporting job-creating small businesses. Before the Conservatives, the Liberals, through a dozen years of majority governments, rubber-stamped thousands of foreign takeovers that shipped quality jobs overseas.
Tom Mulcair’s concrete plan is to bring more good jobs to Canada, to kickstart the manufacturing sector and to create opportunities for youth. The NDP would cut the small business tax rate from 11 to 9 per cent. This sector of our economy creates 78 per cent of all new private sector jobs in Canada. [As discussed last week,] by partnership with small business, industry, NGOs and government, 40,000 young Canadians could get jobs, paid internships or co-op placements.
The NDP plan will provide municipalities with stable, predictable federal infrastructure funding to support their long-term needs. The NDP will increase direct transfers to municipalities to build and repair roads, bridges and transit with an additional $1.5 billion annually by the end of the NDP’s first mandate. The NDP will work with, not against, provinces and territories to ensure effective investments while rigorously respecting their jurisdiction. By year four, the NDP’s plan will create 54,000 construction, manufacturing and transit operations jobs across the country and add $4.5 billion to Canada’s GDP annually.
Name: Inky Mark
Party: Independent
Home: Dauphin
The world economy is at the brink of bankruptcy. This has been happening over many decades. The money folks have victimized the hard-working citizens of the world. We bailed them out with trillions of public dollars. That is why the 1 per cent are billionaires and the middle class has almost disappeared.
Governments are supposed to govern for the people, but that is not the case. Main-stream parties have always governed for the rich and 85 per cent of Canadians support taxing the rich and the corporations. The economy can only improve for the average citizen when governments begin governing for the people, like stopping foolish wasteful spending, looking after our health care, reducing taxes for the middle class, making CPP and OAS tax free, going to a two tier tax system and looking at basic guaranteed income to eliminate the welfare system for all. Canada needs a Pharma Care program.
I believe we can operate with a small deficit over the next four years without increasing the national debt. We cannot keep signing trade agreements that give away our resources at wholesale prices and get little return. It’s time for governments to start governing for the people and not their rich friends.
Name: Kate Storey
Party: Green Party of Canada
Home: Grandview
During the last global downturn, [Canada] was insulated to a degree. For quite some time, our economy had all its eggs in the oil basket. But we can’t have that singular focus and expect our economy to be strong enough to weather the global storm. Canada has resources and an educated, innovative workforce. We had sensible monetary policies, but have stepped away from that approach in recent years. We need to go back to that way of thinking. Diversify. We need to stop exporting all those unrefined resources and commodities and start adding value to those materials. We can export. Trade is good, but let’s export a finished product and not the raw material. That way, the jobs for production stay here in Canada. This is just a common sense approach.
With the current state of the oil industry, Canadians are paying high prices for gas, but large portions are being shipped and sold off internationally. The Green Party would end the subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. We know [the oil sector] is not going anywhere, anytime soon. We could redistribute and invest into alternate energies. A clean energy economy is better able to deal will global instability. Even if you don’t get off the need for fossil fuels, the diversity ensures your economy is less vulnerable.
The Green Party is not saying “Abandon the tar sands” We’re just saying that we must use the tar sand responsibly. Eventually, we may not need them, but while we do need them, let’s proceed in a responsible manner. Let’s refine that bitumen here, instead of shipping pipelines full of a highly volatile material that can’t be cleaned up all the way from Alberta to the east coast or by rail, which is even worse. Let’s not export it all. Let’s refine it here. The pipeline is not the best option. There are 190 jobs on the pipeline, all the way from Alberta down to the east coast. That’s not very many jobs. We could create way more jobs with the same investment reimagined.
Name: Robert Sopuck
Party: Conservative Party of Canada
Home: Sandy Lake
The Canadian economy is stronger than other countries’ but it is fragile and needs to be protected. The economy is our number one priority, that’s why we have a low-tax, balanced budget plan to protect our fragile economy.
The wrong government decision on taxes, spending or deficits can upset our fragile economy, causing business closures, downsizing and job loss in our communities. Our fragile economy is our number one priority. With a $5 billion surplus so far this year, we’re pursuing a low-tax, balanced budget plan to protect Canadian jobs and growth in the face of global uncertainty. And our debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is the lowest in the industrialized world. The Liberals announced they will run multibillion deficits. They will also raise taxes to pay for their promises. Their deficits and tax hikes will leave our fragile economy exposed, cost you money and risk your job. The NDP is promising billions in new spending with no plan to pay for it. Taxes will have to go up and that will expose our fragile economy, cost you money and risk your job.
Canada has a $5 billion surplus so far this year with a balanced budget law. Our long-term Economic Action Plan that has created 1.3 million new jobs since the depths of the global financial crisis. There have been $6,600 in tax cuts per family since the Conservatives were first elected and a formal pledge for no new taxes. We are committed to a permanent Home Renovation Tax Credit, save the monthly child care cheques and maintain income splitting for families and seniors.
We have a tremendous track record in terms of opening new markets for Canadian products which is especially important for agricultural and forestry communities which depend on exports. We intend to continue expanding access for our goods and services. It is essential that Canada maintain an economic climate that encourages investment and job creation and the record shows that we have been effective at doing so. We will continue our policy of responsible resource development to encourage our natural resources sector, which is especially important for rural communities.
