NDP
Environment
Greening Canada's Economy
Green jobs involve any industry or occupation that seeks to improve the environment,
does not adversely affect the environment,or has a less negative effect on the
environment than the alternatives available. Green jobs exist in all sectors and all
industries, from manufacturing to eco-tourism, to the office workplace. Existing jobs
can also be made greener. Technology, or a change in existing practices, can make
jobs that are unfriendly to the environment cleaner, and often more efficient and
competitive. The NDP is aligned with other governments around the globe, who embrace
environment-related employment as a way to meet their international environmental
commitments as well as provide long and short-term employment opportunities. New
Democrats support a federal role on sustainability, climate change, protection of the
species and real environmental enforcement. We believe the government must establish
a National Environmental Infrastructure Investment Program (NEEIP) to rebuild our
public infrastructure. The program would form the basis for a multi-year federal
commitment to upgrade municipal water and waste water treatment plants, improve
recycling, composting and recovery systems, and retrofit municipal buildings with
alternate energy sources. The NDP also supports the establishment of an Atmospheric
Fund to back community-based initiatives that create long-term jobs and government
support for Private Green Investment through reduced taxes on sustainable business
practices and activities.
Facts:
The world market for environmental technologies and services is projected to be
worth $940 billion by 2010. Worldwide, the recycling industry now processes more
than 600 million tons of materials each year, generates $160 billion in economic
activity and employs more than 1.5 million workers. Less than 1 per cent of the
Canadian workforce is employed in "green industries" - sectors of the economy
devoted to recycling, disposal of toxic wastes, energy efficiency and environmental
clean-up. Each dollar invested in energy efficiency creates, on average, four times
as many jobs as a dollar spent in supplying more energy - the federal government
alone could achieve $400 million in annual energy savings by retrofitting its 68,000
public buildings.
Health Care
Fighting for Better Health Care
All Canadians deserve high-quality health care, no matter where they live or what
their income. A family's health should never have to depend on a family's wealth.
That is a principle that Canadians across the country respect and cherish. Deep cuts
by the Liberal government have hurt the quality and availability of services, eroded
public confidence, opened the door to privatization and sowed the seeds for a syste
that allows people with money to get better, faster care than others. More and more,
Canadians are paying out of their pockets for health care services that used to be
covered. Private spending on health has risen to 30 per cent of all health spending
and is rising faster in Canada than in most OECD countries. Canadians are right to
be concerned about the erosion of our public system and the threat of American-style,
two-tier health care. New Democrats built health care in Canada. We know what it
takes to rebuild it. We believe federal funding for health care must as a first step
increase to 25 per cent of the total. We also believe the federal government must
play a role in enforcing real national standards that guarantee equal access to health
care no matter where families live or how much money they have. Health care must also
be reformed to meet new challenges by starting a national homecare program and a
national pharmacare program.
Facts:
Federal funding for health care is lower today than it was in 1994. Even with recent
increases, the federal share of health care will have dropped from 50 per cent to 13
per cent. The result? No cash, no clout! Funding cuts have hurt the government's
ability to enforce national standards. National standards are weaker today than they
were when the Liberals took office, and federal enforcement of the Canada Health Act
is so weak, the Auditor General says they can no longer tell which provinces comply.
The cost of patented drugs rose 27 per cent last year, and today, drugs cost more than
doctors, but there's no national pharmacare plan. And families need help to care for
loved ones at home, but there's no national homecare plan. There is no national plan
to stop privatization - for-profit hospitals are opening, health spending is growing
and drug corporations regulate their own products.
Finance
New Democrats believe that working families have sacrificed enough. The lion's share
of the money from massive income tax cuts proposed by the Liberals will go to big
corporations and wealthy individuals - not to the Canadians who need it the most.
Unbelievably, even a minimum-wage worker living in poverty can get hit with federal
taxes under the current system. Meanwhile, those who could afford to pay their fair
share benefit from an array of loopholes and exemptions which allow them to avoid
paying tax on items like executive lunches and stockbroker's fees. Canadians would
be better served with measures to make the tax system fairer - not one that widens
the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us. In uncertain economic times,
Canada's NDP believes the government must act to protect the most vulnerable. We
believe that income tax reform should focus on low-income Canadians and that the Child
Benefit Plan should be expanded attack child poverty and help middle-class families.
Tax loopholes for big business must be closed, and a 20 per cent excess profits imposed
on rates of return by financial institutions that exceed 10 per cent.
Facts:
The Liberals promised $100 billion in tax cuts in the last election and in the midst
of a recession and continually under-funded social programs, they stuck to that promise
in the latest federal budget . The tax cuts give the nation's big banks a $500 million
windfall. For bank presidents with $5 million in stock options to cash in, Liberal tax
cuts will amount to a gift of some $500,000. The cut in taxes on capital gains introduced
last year means that income from playing the stock market will be taxed at half the rate
paid on income from employment.
