Jack

Layton
Getting results for people

Platform
2006

Getting Results For People

New Democrats make Parliament work for people.
On January 23rd, we have the opportunity to make a real change in Canadian politics – a
change where the interests of working families are put ahead of well-connected insiders.
The way to get that change, the way to make Parliament work for people, is to vote New
Democrat.
Voting NDP gets more New Democrat MPs in Parliament.
More New Democratic MPs means more results for working families and ordinary Canadians.
This platform outlines the NDP priorities for the next Parliament. It’s the NDP action plan
to put working families first.
The NDP will get results for our seniors. We’ll help seniors remain independent in their homes
longer with improved home care. New Democrats will also make sure long-term care beds
are there when and where they are needed.
The NDP will create opportunities for our young people. We’ll help children who are living
in poverty with an increase in the Child Benefit paid to lower income children. We’re
proposing a national child care program so that parents can have the choice of quality child
care when they have to be at work. And we’ve got common-sense proposals to increase the
accessibility of post-secondary education and training – to give young people a good start
in building their future without being forced to mortgage their future.
The NDP will protect and improve our public health care system. We’ll make sure that you
only need your health card – and not your credit card – when you are sick or injured.
Protecting our public health care system is vital, but it is not enough. We must also improve
it – make it better. New Democrats are proposing common-sense, practical steps to improve
our public health care system, including help for families facing high prescription drug costs
and training more nurses, doctors and other health care providers so that waiting lists can
be cut.

The NDP recognizes that improved access to education and skills training will play a key role
in helping our country and economy meet the demands for skilled workers in the years ahead.
The mortgage on our young people’s future is the result of Liberals having wrong priorities.
And New Democrats have a plan for cleaning things up. We have a clear, step-by-step plan
to clean up politics and ensure that all politicians can be held accountable. As well as
practical changes that will make sure every vote counts. These measures will mean your voice
is heard in Parliament rather than the voices of well-connected lobbyists.
The federal government has enough money to do its job – so tax increases are not needed.
Better priorities within a balanced budget are.
New Democrats know that you work hard for your money, so we’ll make sure that you get
the services you are paying for with your hard earned tax dollars.
On January 23rd, you can make a change for the better. For yourself and your family. You
can vote NDP, and get a New Democrat MP who will stand up for working families.

Jack Layton, Leader
Canada’s NDP

1

Contents
Taxes
Education
Health care
The Environment
Aboriginal Peoples
Ethics

3
5
9
15
20
23

Getting More Done for People
• Jobs
• Children
• Child Care
• Housing
• New Canadians
• Seniors and Pensions
• Ending Violence
• Respect. Renewal.
• Peace and Security

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36
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39
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43

Stopping wasteful tax cuts
– investing in Canadians’ priorities
In November 2005, the Liberals unveiled their budget priorities for Canada – and
in the process made it clear whose side Liberals are on.
The Liberals handed out more than $10 billion in tax cuts to the largest corporations and
multinationals, with absolutely no strings attached. Their claim: that these tax cuts would
help improve Canada’s productivity. The truth is there are no requirements on corporations to
earn these tax cuts by investing in the drivers of productivity gains: jobs, training for workers,
child care, technology, infrastructure, or any of the myriad factors that fuel growth.
Without those requirements, the Liberal tax cuts are nothing more than a windfall for big
corporations and their executives.
Even worse, the Liberals never change: In 2000, the Liberals implemented the largest single tax
cut in Canadian history – and our country’s productivity just kept falling. In fact, among
industrialized countries Canada ranked 14th out of 25 in productivity growth between 1994
and 2003, trailing the U.S., Japan, and Scandinavian countries. That’s an awfully steep drop from
the days when we ranked second in productivity among OECD countries.
Clearly, the Liberal approach of corporate tax giveaways to their well-connected friends just doesn’t
work. And yet, they keep wasting your tax dollars to do it.

Wasteful tax giveaways undercut balanced investment in Canadians’ priorities, like:
• education and skills training that will lead to good jobs;
• health care that works for people and improves our standard of living;
• affordable housing and child care that make life better for families;
• cracking down on big polluters and making our air and drinking water cleaner; and
• modernizing our infrastructure to make our communities stronger, safer, and more liveable.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

Our commitments:
The federal government will have enough money over the next four years to do its job inside of balanced
budgets. With billions of dollars in surplus, Ottawa doesn’t need new tax revenues. Accordingly, New
Democrats won’t be proposing to raise new tax revenues during the next Parliament.
What the federal government does need to do is set better priorities with the tax revenues it has now.

Jack Layton and the NDP will:

• Cut wasteful and inefficient spending on tax giveaways to large corporations, where those
funds are given away without requiring that a single job be created, a single person trained, or a
single dollar invested. We will stop the $10 billion in waste in this area proposed by the Liberals in
their November 2005 election platform “economic statement”.

• Proceed with the increased basic personal credit amounts, and the decrease in the lowest
personal income tax rate, announced in November. In current circumstances, we don’t support
further spending on tax cuts. We think that looking after education, our seniors and health care
needs to be addressed first.

• Reinvest funds the Liberals plan to waste on corporate tax cuts into education and health
care – priorities for people that should be addressed first.

4

Education and skills training,
without having to take out a mortgage
It’s time to give hope to young Canadians. Hope for good jobs in a growing and
prosperous economy, and help for families so their children can succeed.
In our globalized marketplace where competition is tighter and competitive advantages more
crucial, our national, provincial, territorial and regional economies must be defined by a
culture of increasing knowledge and innovation.
It’s not an overstatement to say that Canada’s future prosperity – and all the key public services
that rely on that economic prosperity – will depend on how well we can equip current and future
generations of workers with new and changing skills and knowledge to succeed. That means
building a workforce whose skills come as much from their heads as they do from their hands
– who can solve problems, adapt to and even lead the process of change and use technology to
work smarter and more productively.
At the core of that approach is affordable access to education and skills training, starting with
an integrated early learning and childcare system. This is the best investment we can make in
the future of our citizens, businesses – and our country.
Improved access to education will play a key role in helping our country and economy navigate
the unprecedented demand for skilled workers that’s coming our way. In a few short years, for
the first time ever, the number of workers leaving the workforce will exceed those entering it.
At the same time, the level of skills required for most sectors will reach new heights.
It is estimated that because of workplace technology changes, two-thirds of all job openings over
the next decade will require some level of post-secondary education or training.
On top of everything, we are in an intense competition for skilled talent which, in an increasingly
global economy, is more mobile than ever. Many people can pick and choose the employment
they want – regardless of where in the world it takes them.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

Yet within this environment of greater demand and competition for workers with advanced skills,
the Liberal government has moved our country’s education system backward – allowing access
to slip away from more and more young people.
The results of 12 years of Liberal government are clear:
education is more expensive, student debt is soaring and
training is harder to find.

Number of Canada student
loans overdue: 173,000.
Canada Student Loans
Program (September 2004)

The facts speak for themselves. Over the past 14 years, the
average tuition at universities and colleges has almost tripled, with the typical undergrad in Canada
now paying $4,214 a year. Once you add in living costs – like residence, food, books and other
necessary expenses – a year in a post-secondary institution can end up costing $18,000 or more.
With government loans set at a maximum of $7,140, it is inevitable that students will go
deeply into debt above and beyond their student loans.
After 12 years, it’s clear the Liberals’ approach to post-secondary education and training is driving
more and more young people into massive debt just to get the education they need for their careers
and livelihood. In 2004, almost half of all bachelor degree
A recent study found that
graduates left school owing money to government student loan
90% of parents believed
their kids would qualify for
programs – on average, $20,000. But with government loans
government loans. Only half
not covering the full annual costs, those students frequently
actually did.
Canadian Millennium
take on credit card or other non-government debt.
Scholarship Foundation

Even with this problem clearly defined, Paul Martin and the
Liberals chose instead to hand out $10 billion in tax cuts to corporations and multinationals,
rather than invest a portion of it in the next generation of Canadian workers who, if equipped
with the right skills, will be the drivers of our country’s productivity and prosperity growth.

6

Jack Layton has a different vision for young people in Canada – one where their thirst for
knowledge, achievement and growth is met by a forward-looking post-secondary education and
training system that encourages access and participation.
In the last Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP got results for students, young workers and their
families. We stopped the billions of dollars in corporate tax cuts the Liberals didn’t campaign on
and invested that money in people – including $1.5 billion to make education more affordable.
More NDP MPs will get more results for Canada’s young people in the next Parliament.

Greater access to education & training
While most new job openings over the next 10 years will require some level of post-secondary education,
they won’t necessarily require a full four-year degree. That’s why, in order to effectively address the looming
skills shortage, access to all kinds of post-secondary education and training – university, college and
apprenticeships – must be expanded.
To create practical, workable solutions that create better access to post-secondary education and training,
Jack Layton and the NDP will work to:

• A step at a time, as finances permit, restore the funding that was cut by Paul Martin
to transfer payments for post-secondary education in the 1990s.

• Offer provinces and territories a binding commitment to stable, long-term funding in this
area through a dedicated transfer, in return for an equally binding commitment to better
access and lower tuition fees – standards that will be monitored and enforced. In addition,
New Democrats will work with provinces and territories to protect education and research
from privatization.

Reduce the debt of graduating students
Working on their education and future should not leave students in overwhelming debt – yet some
graduates report crushing debt in excess of $100,000. Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next
Parliament to make education more affordable and training more available for young people by:

• Re-investing in a stable, long-term federal grant system to make education and training
affordable in every year of study, including special grants for rural and Aboriginal youth to ensure
students can finish the programs they begin.

• Overhauling the Canada Student Loans Program to create a comprehensive program designed to
improve access and reduce the burden of student debt.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

Investing in Canada’s universities
International competition for leading academics and researchers has never been higher – complacency will
put us behind in our efforts to attract and retain the best and brightest. That’s why – to help make sure Canada’s
universities continue to deliver world-class teaching and research and to keep it public – Jack Layton and
the NDP will work to increase federal financial support for university-based research.

Fueling lifelong learning through a reformed
Employment Insurance Program
In today's economy, ongoing training and lifelong learning are essential in helping Canadians find jobs and
advance in the workplace. On the literacy front, after years of inaction, we finally have promises in place
by the federal government to act. New Democrats will work with provinces and territories to see that this
promise is turned into action by developing a comprehensive national literacy strategy. Yet when it comes
to training, the Liberals are stuck in the 90s when they offloaded responsibility for training. This lack of national
leadership on training is hurting Canadian workers and our economy.

Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next Parliament to put the Canadian
government back in the crucial business of job and skills training by:

• Revitalizing and building on the national Employment Insurance Program — in consultation
with provincial, territorial governments and labour and management EI partners – to make EI a key
resource for public training strategies and programs.

• Broadening eligibility for employment insurance training benefits to include employees who
participate in full-time training programs and unemployed workers who do not otherwise qualify
for employment insurance.

• Supporting people in the health sector who want to upgrade their skills through training
leaves, facilitated by Employment Insurance.
The goal is simple: use the EI Program as an economic tool that can help more people re-train for new jobs
or upgrade their skills to advance their careers that in turn helps create fuller employment and higher
productivity.

8

Stopping health privatization in its
tracks – and improving public health
care one practical step at a time
Canadians value our public health care. But after 12 years of Liberal government,
its erosion is more dramatic than most people realize – as individuals, we’re
spending vastly more than ever before on basic health care needs. Just look at the
facts:
• Between 1998 and 2002, out-of-pocket spending on basic health care by Canadians increased
by almost 28%.

• Individual Canadians spent an estimated $17 billion out-of-pocket on their health care needs
in 2002 alone.

• In addition, in the same year, private insurers paid another $17.5 billion to cover insured
health care costs.

• The public share (70%) of Canada’s overall health care spending ranks us below countries
such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Studies show that American-style private health care leads to more deaths, costs more money and
reduces accessibility. European-style private care that substitutes for publicly provided services
is used by less than 20% of people in Germany, Sweden and other European Union countries,
and includes prohibitions against doctors working in both systems. And privatization does not
even save governments money. In the United States, the private delivery model is so expensive
that the governments there spend more per capita providing health care than do the governments
in Canada – while leaving many Americans outside of hospital doors looking in.
It’s creeping privatization. And the Liberals have stood back and allowed it to happen. In some
cases, Liberals have helped it happen. It’s now at the point where far too many Canadians are
going without treatment rather than pay from their own pocket. According to a 2004 survey
conducted in five countries, 17% of Canadian respondents said they had gone without the care
they needed in the previous year because of cost.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

An unfortunate and regrettable Supreme Court ruling has
upped the stakes on this issue dramatically. In the wake of that
decision, several provinces have put the federal government
on notice that they intend to set Canada’s public, singlepayer health system aside and open the door to parallel,
private, for-profit systems designed to permit a few to buy their
way to head of the line. The federal Liberal government has
yet to respond to this decision, which many feel is the most
direct assault on public health care yet.

“A universal system where
no one gets left behind
means just that. We cannot
and must not accept that
people living in different
provinces will have quite
different access when it
comes to medically required
care.”
Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai
President, Canadian Medical
Association (October 2005)

Perhaps more alarming is the drastic increase in how much we’re paying for prescription drugs.
A 2005 study covering the decade between 1992 and 2002 showed that household spending on
prescription drugs jumped more than 70% – an extraordinary increase when you consider
that, over the same period, spending on food, clothing and shelter increased by only 11%.
At the same time, the wait for care is getting worse and worse. At 8.3 weeks, people are waiting
a week longer between a GP referral and a specialist consultation than they were four years ago.
Some people are waiting up to 18 months for hip replacement surgery.
It’s time to end the Liberals’ creeping privatization of health care – including the growing trend
of allowing provinces to enter into public/private health care partnerships – and to make sure
people have access to quality public health care when they need it.

In the next Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP will:

• Stop further privatization and protect public health care from being dismantled and privatized.
• Provide dignity for seniors, by investing in long-term care.
• Reduce health costs to families, by phasing in a national prescription drug program.
• Make affordable, step-by-step moves forward, to steadily improve the quality of public health
care over the next four years.

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Stopping privatization
Jack Layton and the NDP will fight to stop the further dismantling and
privatization of Canada’s health system by enacting a Protection of Public
Health Care Act.

• Jack Layton and the NDP will not permit the dismantling of Canada’s single-payer medicare
system. We will oppose the privatization of Canada’s health system.

• Public funds to support the public system. In the next Parliament, we will introduce tough
new rules in the legislation and agreements that govern federal transfers to provinces for health
care. We will make stable, long-term federal transfers for health care contingent on a commitment
from provinces and territories that no federal money, directly or indirectly, will be used to subsidize
a new, separate, profit-making private insurance system covering medically necessary services.

• Ending cross-subsidization. We will make stable, long-term federal transfers for health care
contingent on no federal money being used to cover the salaries or costs of doctors and other
medical personnel involved in a new, separate, profit-making private insurance system.

• Accountable and enforced. These tough new rules, along with all provisions of the Canada Health
Act, will be monitored and enforced.

Dignity and respect for our seniors
We will invest in long-term care for seniors.
As the New Democratic Party argued in the recent British Columbia provincial election, long-term care for
seniors must be the starting point for any plan to reduce waitlists. Currently, 10-25% of acute-care beds are
occupied by seniors who are stuck waiting for long-term care beds.
Expanding good quality, well-regulated, affordable long-term care will reduce pressure on hospitals, cut surgery
waitlists and allow seniors to live with the dignity they deserve.
Long-term care is sadly neglected in many parts of Canada. The result is greater stress on seniors’ families
and the health care system. Beyond that, the people who have helped build Canada deserve better. They’ve
earned better.
We respect the past contributions and present needs of Canadian seniors. We believe that a full range of
supports must be available for seniors, from home care and home support through assisted living, to
complex care and palliative care.

• As a first practical step, we will launch an achievable publicly regulated long-term care
expansion plan – beginning with 10,000 units in the first year, and a total of 40,000 units by 2009
– that will help seniors to live with respect and in comfort, and help take the pressure off emergency
and acute care beds.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

Addressing Health Costs:
first steps towards a national prescription drug plan
In 2002, 7.8 million Canadian households spent $3 billion out-of-pocket on prescription drugs
– an average of $378 per household.
The Liberal government has offered no leadership on this issue, content to let people pay more or go without
necessary medication. In some instances, it has ignored its own reports for almost a decade, such as longstanding recommendations to cut health costs through bulk buying of prescription drugs, whose costs
have soared under this Liberal government.

Jack Layton and the NDP believe this issue must be a priority in the next
Parliament. We will introduce a National Prescription Drug Plan.

• Building on the offer of the provinces and territories and
work together towards the establishment of a national
prescription drug plan, which would be phased in
beginning with coverage for key catastrophic drug costs
and gradually expanding coverage, as finances permit,
until the plan is universal in application.

• Beginning by phasing out the evergreening of patent
drugs so cheaper generic drugs can come to market
sooner. And the ban on direct-to-consumer advertising of
pharmaceuticals so there is less unnecessary prescribing
of drug therapies.

In 2002, Canada’s
public sector accounted
for a much smaller
percentage of spending
on pharmaceutical drugs
(38%) than the public
sectors in Germany (75%),
France (67%) and the
Netherlands (57%).
Canadian Institute for Health
Information, 2005

Moving to a national plan would be good for individuals, businesses
and our national economy.

• Employers would gain a significant competitive advantage over their U.S. counterparts.
• At their 2004 summit, the premiers estimated $2 billion would be saved overall through
a national pharmacare plan. The provinces and territories are now waiting for the kind
of leadership from Ottawa this NDP commitment provides.

Freeing Up Hospital Beds:
providing real care at home
for our loved ones.
Canada’s inpatient hospital sector is shrinking and care is shifting to
the home and community setting. Since 1995, over 275 hospitals
across the country have been closed, merged, or converted to another
type of care facility. The number of approved beds is down
substantially and the number of people being cared for in hospital daysurgery programs has increased. Shorter hospital stays, earlier
discharge, and the use of outpatient procedures have increased the
demand for home care.

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Canada currently lacks 3,000
family doctors, and we
produce fewer family
physicians than we did a
decade ago. This shortfall
could grow to 6,000 by 2011
if nothing is done.
College of Family
Physicians of Canada

Individuals who, in the past, would not have survived a serious illness or injury are now living with
chronic conditions, which often require constant care and / or technology in the home or alternative
settings in the community.
The majority of Canadians (53%) would prefer to recover from an illness or surgery in their own home.
However, the home care sector is seeing a serious supply/demand crunch. Demand continues to far exceed
our ability to deliver. In the area of senior care, for example, Canada’s Association for the Fifty-Plus says that
2.1 million Canadians serve as informal caregivers for their aging family members. Without proper home
care services, many seniors end up in acute-care hospital beds, adding to the overall wait list crunch.
The Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada found that Canadians want a priority
placed on home care. They know this will reduce the use of much more expensive hospital space, increase
the care options for the terminally ill and keep people healthier, longer. Home care is medically effective,
financially efficient and personally satisfying.

Jack Layton and the NDP will help provide the home care Canadians need.

• Expand the coverage of home care including post-acute
coverage, home mental health services and interventions,
and palliative care for those in the last six months of their life.
We will work with the provinces and territories to implement
the Home Care Transfer called for in the Romanow Report.

4,000 international medical
graduates could be eligible
for residencies if they were
available.
Task Force Two:
A Physician Human Resources
Strategy for Canada

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Getting results for people

Providing the Caring Hand:
health care professionals are the foundation
of a strong health care system.
Timely access to the health care system can only be realized if there are enough people to provide the care.
This includes enough nurses, nurse practitioners and other health care providers.
A key impediment to timely health care access is the shortage of health care professionals — the people who
provide the care.
Education and training programs must be funded and health professionals need to be acknowledged and
respected. As well, recruiting and retaining the full range of health care professionals is needed along with
a sustained effort to promote careers in the health sciences.
To improve patients’ access to the needed health care providers, it is essential that we increase enrolment
in Canadian health science education programs and health training courses, as well as expanding
postgraduate training positions.
A central challenge to the immediate problem is getting Nurse Practitioners working in communities as soon
as possible. Nurse practitioners are experts in community-based primary health care and prevention,
bringing advanced training that allows them to carry out a broad range of health care services, including
diagnosing, prescribing medications, ordering diagnostic tests and managing common acute and chronic
illnesses.
There in no more financially strategic or medically flexible way to help our health care system than
increasing the role and numbers of nurses and nurse practitioners.

Jack Layton and the NDP will increase the number of nurses, nurse practitioners
and health care providers.

• Invest in training and upgrading health care providers, particularly
nurses and nurse practitioners, through a Health Care Provider TrainingFund. We will begin
by investing in education and training programs and initiatives with a goal adding 16,000
health care providers to the Canadian system.

• Increase support for provincial and territorial health initiatives and joint federal, provincial
and territorial national strategies, including the Cancer Control Strategy, that bring constituent
groups together to work on a health problem. This is often carried out through community based
health programs and centres.

People with Disabilities
The NDP is the only party with draft legislation (The Canadians With Disabilities Act) and has played a leading
role in developing this legislation through broad-based consultation.

• We commit to the introduction of this legislation at the earliest opportunity.

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Keeping our air and water clean
– cracking down on polluters
No issue has been handled more ineptly by the Paul Martin Liberal government than
the environment, and few broken promises are clearer.
In opposition in the 1980s and early 1990s, Liberals urged meaningful targets to cut pollution
and condemned Brian Mulroney for outlining pollution reduction targets they deemed too weak.
In government, Liberals weakened Mulroney’s targets and simply broke their word to meaningfully
reduce pollution that causes climate change and smog.
As Liberal environment critic and author of the 1993 Red Book, Paul Martin personally
promised that by 2005, Canada’s climate-changing emissions would be cut by 20%. Canada’s
emissions are up by 24%. Eleven separate environmental organizations say the Liberals’ weak
Kyoto plan simply does not keep Canada’s promise to the world to pollute less.
After 12 years of Liberal government, Canada’s air and water are more polluted and we are falling
further and further behind.
The Liberals’ negligent approach to the environment endangers our natural heritage and our
quality of life. People have a right to clean air, water and land, and our economy needs to prepare
in order to prosper in the greener century ahead.
Again, the facts speak for themselves: in the decade from 1993 to 2003, Canada’s emissions rose
at almost double the average for all OECD countries, and higher than countries such as France,
the United Kingdom, Mexico and most Eastern European countries. And, incredibly, Canada’s
climate-changing emissions are now growing faster than those in George Bush’s America.
This is a serious issue – and one that has been ignored for too long under the Liberals’ watch. In
this Parliament, Liberals voted against common-sense measures such as mandatory fuel efficiency
for vehicles while Jack Layton and the NDP got results through the NDP budget. That budget
invested $900 million in environmental initiatives such as energy efficiency and public transit.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next
Parliament to bring much-needed environmental
responsibility to government.
We introduced a comprehensive environmental plan in
January 2005. Key elements:

Health problems related to
water pollution in general
cost Canadians $300 million
a year.
Environment Canada

Clean air, water and land
Legislative action is needed now to clean up our air, water and land.

• There are now more than 1,000 “boil water” alerts each year across our country.
• Respiratory illness is the leading cause of hospital admission for children under age 10.
• A recent study showed that Canadians have a cocktail of dozens of poisonous pollutants
in our bodies, pollutants that we absorb from the air, water, and through our food.
Jack Layton and the NDP will work to introduce and pass three major laws that will crack down on big polluters
and help guarantee a cleaner environment for current and future generations.

• Clean Water Act: to establish national standards and protection for drinking water, including
those jurisdictions under federal control such as First Nations reserves. Water quality
regulations under this law would include standards for solid waste disposal, dump management,
mine site operations and rehabilitation, forestry and farming practices, and pesticide use. Finally,
related to this legislation, the NDP’s infrastructure-financing program will provide funding for badly
needed improvements to public sewer and water systems, making a real difference in water quality.

• Clean Air Act: to set and pursue a target that lives up to our responsibilities to the Kyoto
Accord to address air pollution. In 1993, the Liberals committed to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions 20% from 1990 levels by 2005. Instead, emissions are up by 24%. The NDP’s Clean Air
Act will undo the damage caused by Liberal neglect and set a firm target – by 2020, Canada’s
greenhouse gas emissions will be 25% below what they were in 1990.

• Polluter Pay and Toxic Pollution Reduction Act: to overhaul the Canadian Environmental
Protection Act – Canada’s national pollution law – to introduce the polluter pays concept and
to replace the current emphasis on voluntary action with mandatory pollution prevention
measures. This puts the protection of citizens and their health ahead of the needs of big polluters:
the onus would be on industry to prove that a chemical is safe before it goes to market. This kind of
crackdown on polluters is long overdue in Canada and is consistent with action taken in other
industrialized countries. For example, the European Union has already banned some of the most
toxic substances being dumped into the environment by industry.

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Clean, sustainable energy and conservation for people
Canada’s energy consumption record is nothing to be proud of. In the decade between 1993 and 2003, our
energy consumption grew by 19% – higher than both the average for OECD countries and for the United
States.

Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next Parliament to reduce our
reliance on fossil fuels, help Canadians conserve energy, and promote
the use of alternative, sustainable, clean sources of energy by implementing
the NDP Kyoto Plan. We will meet Canada’s international obligations.
In the process, these initiatives will create thousands of good jobs.

• Establish a national energy retrofit program for residential, commercial, industrial and
government buildings based on successful models used by local and provincial governments.
In this proven job-creating program, the government would contribute money up front, which
would be repaid from energy savings in the future.

• Introduce new building codes for homes and industrial, commercial and institutional
buildings and provide financial incentives for the construction of buildings that meet these
new codes.

• Improve the energy efficiency of our transportation system.
– Provide significantly increased federal funding for public transit, rail transport and rail passenger
services, and low-impact transportation options including cycling and pedestrian facilities.
– Require a phased-in substitution of Canadian ethanol from local inputs for non-renewable fuel
sources to 10% of motor vehicle fuel by 2010 and target increases in reliance on biodiesel fuel.

• Fight smog by implementing a green car strategy.
– Encourage the manufacturing of lower or zero-emission vehicles in Canada, the kind
of new models we need to keep auto plants open.
– Establish mandatory vehicle emission standards, opposed by the Liberals, applicable
to all vehicles and modeled on the tough California emissions standards.
– Provide financial incentives for purchasers of alternative-fuel vehicles, support the
development of a domestic market and domestic R&D and component production.

• Increase the Gas Tax Transfer to municipalities to the full 5 cents per litre requested
by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to be used for sustainable transportation
initiatives – such as public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and rural roads.

• Require all new appliances sold in Canada to meet the Energy Star standard.

continued overleaf…

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Getting results for people

Clean, sustainable energy and conservation
for jobs and our economy
Jack Layton and the New Democrats will work to:

• Provide financial incentives for energy production from solar, wind, water, biomass and
other renewable sources for electricity production and from industrial co-generation
and small-scale community facilities. This area has potential for significant job growth. As the
union representing energy workers says, meeting Kyoto can create 3,000 net new energy jobs.
But if Canada doesn’t start investing in this century’s energy we will see those jobs created in
countries that are thinking ahead.

• Exercise federal government leadership and provide financial support for the establishment
of an east-west power grid to assist provinces dependent on non-renewable energy to reduce
their fossil fuel consumption and fight smog.

• Ensure federal commitments to energy sustainability.
– Retrofit 75% of all buildings used by the federal government and its agencies between 2006
and 2010.
– Establish a common purchasing agency for alternative fuel vehicles for federal agencies.
Provincial, territorial and local governments and their agencies would be eligible to participate.

• Phase out subsidies for non-renewable energy production and consumption, and invest
these public dollars into renewable energy sources all within a revenue-neutral framework.

• Provide no new federal financial support to nuclear power production.
• Protect the moratorium against drilling for oil off the coast of British Columbia,
and oppose drilling for oil in the Great Lakes.

• Adopt a just transition strategy for good jobs and an energy-efficient economy.
– Establish a made-in-Canada policy for renewable energy developments.
– Work with communities and workers to foster the development of a viable
and sustainable economic base.
– Provide income, education and training support for up to three years to workers affected by
environmental change.
– Ensure that the transition is gradual and well-planned, with early advance notice
and support for workplace and community-based adjustment initiatives.

18

Transparency and respect in food labelling
• We favour respecting consumers’ right to know through mandatory labelling of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).

Protecting our natural heritage
All nations today are being challenged to protect their share of the world’s wilderness and wildlife habitats.
It’s a responsibility we have not only to our citizens but to those with whom we share our planet.
What we’ve seen from the Liberals though, is a striking gap between their commitments and their record,
as the long-promised completion of the national parks system remains unfulfilled.

Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next Parliament to make sure Ottawa
gets serious about protecting Canada’s natural heritage by:

• Working to complete the system of national parks, beginning with the expansion of Nahanni
National Park Reserve and establishing new marine conservation areas from coast to coast
to coast.

• Setting up a National Conservation Fund that will include $250 million from the federal
government and leverage another $750 million from other orders of government, NGOs,
community groups and other sources. This fund will help ensure the preservation of national
wildlife areas, involve the full participation of Aboriginal peoples and engage Canadians in
on-the-ground conservation efforts.

• Reassert strong leadership on Great Lakes protection issues, beginning with a strong position
on the re-negotiation with the United States of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

• Commit to sustaining Canada’s ancient forests for future generations. The NDP will work with
provincial and territorial governments, stakeholders, forest communities, First Nations, and
environmentalists to protect Canada’s large intact forests (such as the Boreal Forest) and include
adequate preserves, and that sustainable forest management be practiced.

• Improve Canada’s environmental rules regarding endangered species so that politics does not
trump best available science when it comes to our responsibility for species that are at risk.

19

Getting results for people

Honour Canada’s obligations to
First Nations, Métis and Inuit people
People from the Original Nations of Canada can and do make prominent
contributions to a better Canada and a better world: in the arts, media, science,
government, business, health and education.
However, years of accumulated neglect deny hundreds of thousands of First Nations, Métis, and
Inuit people the opportunity to realize their potential, to live in decent housing in healthy
environments, to receive a high standard of services and to enjoy health and well-being, both
on and off reserve.
We cannot afford a Canada that does not provide space for these Original Nations to exercise
their rights and share their talents and energies. It is time for a genuine commitment to be made
and fulfilled.
Despite the hope for the future envisioned in the recommendations of the report of the Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Liberal policy about Original Peoples has been bogged down
in endless processes that go nowhere. It’s more of the status quo, more broken promises, more
litigation – more denial of rights.
Costly negotiations with no results, self-government discussions that go nowhere, round tables
that just go round and round, First Ministers’ Meetings to make commitments without mechanisms
to guarantee delivery and accountability, and lofty promises in Speeches from the Throne that
await budgets and lead to meetings and more promises. Everything but concrete results.
We must give life to existing recommendations by developing strategies to implement the
recommendations of the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the 1983
Penner Report on Indian self-government. We must ensure that commitments, like the ones made
in Kelowna, are delivered in a timely fashion.
Canada cannot afford to maintain a colonial system that seeks only to keep communities in
dependency and denies more than a million people the opportunity to contribute to their own
well-being and Canada’s prosperity.
Not addressing outstanding issues, not meeting acute needs and failing to settle Canada’s
lawful obligations means continued uncertainty and future liabilities.

20

In the last Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP got results for Aboriginal people by including
dedicated funds for Aboriginal housing and education in the NDP budget. In the next Parliament,
Jack Layton and the NDP will work with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples on issues
important to them and to Canada, including 12 high-priority matters:

• Recognizing Canada’s responsibilities for residential schools abuse by quickly implementing
lump-sum compensation, a Truth and Reconciliation process and an apology by the Prime Minister
in the House of Commons. Jack Layton and the NDP will stop the federal government from wasting
millions of dollars challenging legitimate claims and painting victims as liars.

• Accepting responsibility for efficient resolution of claims by respecting the 1998 Joint Task
Force report that recommends an independent, effective system to resolve land claim disputes.
Jack Layton and the NDP will establish an Independent Claims Commission to decide on specific
claims and a comprehensive claims policy that respects Treaty-based settlements, so that Canada
can meet its legal obligations.

• Developing community economies with people as the priority by providing infrastructure for
First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples to fully participate in Canada’s prosperity. This will include
legislating financial reforms to provide enhanced access to capital for community economic
development and increasing management of natural resources and sustainable development.

• Supporting First Nations, Métis, and Inuit initiatives to improve health.
– Provide adequate housing, water, and infrastructure.
– Respect traditional healing, working together with western medicine to provide quality care.
– Respond to the unique health needs of northern and remote communities.
– Encourage traditional nutrition, fitness, and breastfeeding practices.
– Work with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples to develop comprehensive and holistic mental
health and wellness strategies with special focus on healing, addictions and suicide prevention.

• Creating approaches to justice that heal and provide opportunity by giving indigenous youth
better opportunities than those provided by gangs and by encouraging healing facilities and
systems of restorative justice that also assist victims of crime.

• Ensuring First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities have infrastructure, sustainable
housing, water and other services equal to those that are enjoyed by Canadians by respecting
community decisions and knowledge, by training local people to maintain and operate systems
and by making clean drinking water and sustainable waste treatment a top priority.

continued overleaf…

21

Getting results for people

• Respecting implementation of the inherent right to self-governance by creating legal space
and recognition for the legitimacy and jurisdiction of indigenous governments with a properly
compensated and trained public service and by promoting supporting systems of government
that have the support of communities and nations, including their instruments for accountability,
recourse to appeal, human rights, audits, matrimonial property and encouraging the restoration
of civil society and community-based non-governmental activity.

• Restoring the health of languages by strengthening First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities
and culture by supporting their efforts to restore – in this generation – the health of indigenous
languages. Jack Layton and the NDP will develop a corps of trained second-language teachers
and provide positions for them.

• Making Canada safe for First Nations, Métis and Inuit women, wherever they are, by taking
immediate action on the recommendations of the Amnesty International’s Stolen Sisters Report
and by supporting efforts of native women to develop healing centres and educational and
training opportunities.

• Emphasizing education and training of children, youth and adults by encouraging the
participation of public and private sectors with the federal government in the development of
programs that will move tens of thousands of persons into employment in health, education,
social services, sciences, commerce, engineering, trades and entrepreneurial opportunities.

• Ensuring equitable participation of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples and governments
in Canada’s stewardship of air, water and lands.
– Encourage environmental career choices.
– Provide specific space on boards, commissions and international delegations.
– Ensure equitable participation in environmental projects and activities, especially
those related to climate change.

• Keep governments accountable for their promises and obligations by appointing a
Parliamentary Commissioner to use international and mutually-acceptable standards as the
basis for regular public report cards on government conduct. The Commissioner will receive
and investigate complaints about government actions or omissions, negotiate their resolution,
and report to Parliament when recommendations are not accepted and implemented.

22

Clean up Liberal corruption and
hold politicians accountable
During the past months, Canadians have witnessed
the spectacle of almost-daily revelations of the abuse
of public trust by the Liberal Party.
• Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, wasted.
• Tens of millions missing and misappropriated by corrupt

The Liberal party “cannot
escape responsibility for the
misconduct of its officers and
representatives.”
Justice John Gomery
On the Liberal sponsorship
scandal, November 2005

officials, Liberal Party operatives and well-connected
friends of the Liberals in what Justice Gomery described
as a kickback scheme.

• A casual blurring of the lines between the interests of the government and those of the
Liberal Party, between the roles of Liberal activists and lobbyists, between lobbyists and
public servants and between politicians and lobbyists.

• Despite Paul Martin’s declaration of an end to the “politics of cronyism,” a seemingly
unending succession of appointments of former Liberal politicians, candidates and
political aides.

• Numerous instances of Paul Martin ignoring majority votes of Parliament, including
proceeding with a bill defeated by Parliament.

Justice Gomery’s report on the Liberal sponsorship scandal should be a wake-up call.
A wake-up call to focus on the broader culture of rewarding the well-connected friends that
permeates today’s Liberal Party. A culture that needs to be cleaned up.

continued overleaf…

23

Getting results for people

Let’s look at Paul Martin and the Liberals on the
accountability front
• His rules for political staff are voluntary.
• He’s ignored all-party, unanimous recommendations
from House committees on scandal prevention.

• He broke his word on democratic reform.
• And he owes too much to well-connected corporate
lobbyists to accept the urgent reform required.
Paul Martin has already promised to act and there is no doubt that he will make the same promise over again.
But we cannot trust Liberals to respond to Liberal corruption.
Jack Layton and the NDP have responded to this crisis of confidence in our government with a plan of action
to clean up the corruption and make our government truly accountable to Canadians. It began in October
2005 when Ed Broadbent introduced the first-ever Ethics Plan by a federal political party aimed at restoring
ethics and accountability to politics in Canada.

In the next Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP will work to make
this plan law in Canada.

• Take power out of the hands of lobbyists and ensure all decisions are made in the open by:
– Obligating lobbyists to file annually a declaration of their political work.
– Toughen penalties for violations of the Lobbyists Registration Act.
– Ensuring lobbyists’ fees are disclosed and profit-based contingency fees banned.
– Prohibiting businesses (including their owners, partners, employees or subsidiaries) from
providing consulting advice to a government agency or department while simultaneously
engaging in lobbying activity.

• Make appointments on merit, not on political connections.
Liberal connections and Martin appointments
September 14, 2004: appointed his director of communications, Mario Lague,
as Ambassador to Costa Rica.
March 24, 2005: though forced to resign from cabinet for giving contracts to
a girlfriend, former Liberal MP Art Eggleton is appointed to the Senate until 2018.
August 2, 2005: appointed defeated Liberal MP and Martin loyalist Stan Keyes
as Canada’s Consul General to Boston.
August 2, 2005: appointed close friend and organizer of his 2003 leadership bid,
former Liberal MP Dennis Dawson, to the Senate until 2024.
August 2, 2005: appointed the head of the Liberal Party’s elite donor club, Rod Zimmer,
to the Senate until 2017.
August 29, 2005: appointed his principal secretary, Francis Fox, to the Senate.

24

• Ensure that prior to the appointment of Supreme Court Judges, an independent committee
would provide the House of Commons Justice Committee with criteria for examination and
debate. Judicial appointments would be measured against public criteria.

• End abuses in the appointment of other public officials by:
– Converting more Governor-in-Council (GIC) appointments to normal public service positions.
– Establishing an independent advisory committee to develop criteria for GIC appointments and
to act as a central clearing house for appointment recommendations to the Prime Minister and
responsible Ministers.
– Requiring approval by Parliamentary Committees of appointments of senior officers and board
members of government agencies and Crown Corporations.

• Improve Canada’s freedom-of-information legislation by:
– Extending the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act to Crown Corporations and
agencies now excluded, including incorporated not-for-profit organizations that receive at least
two-thirds of their funding from the federal government.
– Making cabinet ministers and their staff subject to the Act.
– Removing unreasonable financial and time barriers to access.
– Specifying which cabinet records must be disclosed or not disclosed.
– Improving public access to third-party contracts and free access to public opinion polling.

• Pass a new Protection of Whistleblowers Act, applicable to both the private and public
sectors that:
– Provides legal protection from reprisal for those who disclose wrongdoing internally or
externally, including imposing fines and jail sentences against individuals who engage
in reprisals.
– Establishes a whistleblower officer selected by, and reporting to Parliament who has broad
powers of investigation and reporting.

• Pass a new Accountability to the Electorate Act that makes MPs accountable to their electors
when they switch parties. This will require MPs to resign their seats and seek election again
if they want to switch parties, or to join a party after being elected as independents. Members
would, however, be permitted to leave their parties and sit as independents without triggering
a by-election.

continued overleaf…

25

Getting results for people

• Pass a new Fixed Elections Act to end the power of the governing party to control election
timing by establishing fixed election dates.

• Pass a new Leadership Accountability Act to shed the bright light of accountability onto party
leadership contests. Jack Layton and the NDP would pass laws to put strict spending caps on
party leadership contests to keep them fair, democratic and free of corruption.

• Introduce an Every Vote Counts Act to change Canada’s federal electoral system to a mixed
electoral system that combines constituency-based MPs with proportional representation.
Ninety percent of the world’s democracies – including Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland
and Germany – have abandoned or significantly modified their electoral systems to address exactly
the same kinds of problems of regional, ethnic, gender and political balance that Canada now faces.
As the Canadian Law Commission recommended, fairness requires a mixed electoral system that
combines individual constituency-based MPs with proportional representation.
The Liberal government, on the other hand, has stonewalled. On a motion presented by Ed
Broadbent, a Standing Committee called for a citizens’ consultative process to work in parallel
with a parliamentary initiative on electoral reform, beginning in the fall of 2005. Nothing has
happened. So much for Paul Martin’s concern about the “democratic deficit.”
It may be in the interests of the Liberal Party of Canada to block progress towards electoral reform.
It is not in the interests of Canadians. Our changes will make sure each Canadian’s vote counts.

26

Getting More Done For People
The Liberals are out of steam – and their list of neglected commitments is evidence
of that. They’ve become so mired in the corruption scandal and so concerned
about trying to talk their way out of their broken promises that they are doing nothing
on the priorities on which people expect action.
Jack Layton and the NDP are providing practical, workable ideas on the issues that are important
to families here at home and that reinforce our position internationally as a caring, compassionate
country dedicated to world peace and security.
In the next Parliament, we will also work to deliver on the following priorities: jobs, child care,
housing, new Canadians, seniors, ending violence, renewal and peace and security.
These priorities are important to families, important to women and children. Our proposals
address the challenges women and families face through practical solutions. Jack Layton and
New Democrats are committed to addressing gender equality, providing fairness, respect, and
dignity for all citizens – one practical step at a time.

Jobs
Canadians are looking for evidence of a strong economy that brings
direct benefits to them and their families. The Liberals’ answer is to
take credit for the drop in Canada’s unemployment rate, while
ignoring the dangerous loss of manufacturing jobs and failing to
respond to George Bush’s attack on forest workers and businesses. The
reality is they fall far short on the many other measurables that
determine how well our economy is working for families.

“Almost one-sixth of
full-time workers in
Canada earn very low
wages - below $10 per
hour in 2001 dollars. The
percentage of full-time
workers earning such low
pay is about the same as
it was in 1980 - the rising
economic tide has not
been lifting all boats.”
- Canadian Policy
Research Networks,
“Lifting the Boats: Policies to
Make Work Pay” 2005

continued overleaf…

27

Getting results for people

Across the country, people are seeing Canada lose control of its own
economic future as foreign ownership of Canadian businesses and
resources reaches historic highs. In some cases, such as Terasen Gas in
British Columbia and Alberta, the Liberals oppose even public hearings
as to whether takeovers are in communities’ and Canada’s interests.
Rural, industrial and resource communities are seeing plants and entire
industries shutting down and workers forced into unemployment.
They’re being gouged at the pumps by oil companies. And they
have less and less ability to save for a rainy day.
Jack Layton and the NDP know our country’s economic priority
must be to put the needs of Canadian families first, providing security
for them in the months and years ahead.

In the early ‘90s, Canadians
were able to save around
13% of their disposable
income. Now, after years of
Liberal governments that put
the economic interests of
their well-connected friends
ahead of Canadian families,
workers are able to save less
than 2%.
Figures from the OECD
Factbook 2005

While there are issues at work in the global market economy that concern the NDP, we understand that if
we want a seat at that table then there are rules we will need to use. Ultimately, it is how we organize our
economy, the investment we make in ourselves as we build a wealthy and just society that will distinguish
our country, and from which others may learn.
The NDP is as serious about prosperity as it is about social justice. Here are some key principles we bring
to the economy and jobs:
First, we are committed to annual balanced budgets.
Second, we are committed to creating a competitive tax regime by maintaining the GST, reducing income
taxes on lower income Canadians, and targeting carefully managed, monitored and enforced incentives to
encourage investment and the development and production of leading edge environmental and other
technologies.
Third, we favour a comprehensive investment strategy focusing on cities and on regional economic
development. In particular, a twenty-year programme of infrastructure development.
Fourth, we strongly favour the steady reduction of provincial trade barriers.
These commitments along with our continued emphasis on health and education investment are a powerful
expression of the NDP’s commitment to wealth creation.

In keeping with these principles, in the next Parliament, we will work on the
following key initiatives.

• Transforming NAFTA in order to achieve a fair trade policy. Deeper economic integration with
the United States is not working for Canada. In light of recent and on-going trade disputes, the time
has come for the parties to NAFTA to take a new look at the treaty, and to find ways to make it work
in the cause of fair trade. We favour elimination of Chapter 11 (which, in our view, unreasonably
limits Canada’s sovereignty in regulating investment). We also favour changes to address the serious
shortcomings of the treaty provisions on energy and water. These issues require a broad consensus
– and there is a striking consensus emerging about them across Canada. To build on this growing
consensus, we favour a public review of every aspect of the impact of NAFTA on the Canadian
economy and Canadian public policy including tariffs, dispute resolution, energy, corporate
regulation and ownership and culture.

28

• Achieve fairness for Canadian workers, communities and businesses by indicating Canada is
prepared to impose export duties on gas and oil exports to the United States to ensure the Bush
Administration respects NAFTA rulings in Canada’s favour on softwood lumber.

• Bring balance to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to include the interests of workers
and communities as well as businesses.

• Develop priority industrial sector strategies in sectors such as auto, aerospace, steel, tourism,
forestry and shipbuilding. Sector strategy development will involve government and stakeholders.

• Revitalize and modernize infrastructure at all levels of government by:
– Creating a new national public infrastructure financing agency, co-managed by the federal,
provincial, territorial and municipal governments. This would enable governments at all levels to
take advantage of the federal government’s borrowing costs, which are the lowest in Canada. Our
plan provides for a significant federal contribution to this agency.
– Establishing a permanent Border Infrastructure Initiative, automatically reviewed annually
to make projections on the changing needs for physical infrastructure to our vital economic
border crossings and points of entry. Federal spending on transportation infrastructure fell 46%
through the Chrétien-Martin era (1991-2001). Under Liberal governments, communities such
as Windsor, whose four crossing points service 42% of Canada’s trade with the United States,
are paid lip-service with no real action to get international truck traffic off city streets to improve
the quality of life of residents.

continued overleaf…

Jack Layton and the NDP will help small businesses create jobs and prosperity by:

• Improving small business access to loans. Banks, a main provider of capital for small business
activity, are currently unaccountable for their performance. The NDP supports performance
requirements for bank loans, information on fees and service charges. We would add protections to
ensure that access to loans is not denied because of the size of a business.

• Redesigning federal government programs to improve small business access to venture capital.
• Modifying the regulation of credit cards to address small business concerns over increasing fee
levels charged for credit card acceptance.

• Streamlining the interaction between small businesses and government by promoting a ‘single
gateway’ or ‘one-stop-shopping’ approach wherever possible.

• Developing, in consultation with stakeholders, a strategy to minimize the impact of the
increasing cost and decreased availability of property and casualty insurance on small
businesses.

29

Getting results for people

Introducing a package of “Smart Incentives”
We do not agree that at this point the broad-based, general corporate tax cuts being proposed by the
Liberals and Conservatives are necessary.
Today, corporate profits as a percentage of national income have never been higher. In the four years
following deep cuts in corporate taxes, there is no evidence this has had a positive impact on productivity.
In fact, Canada’s productivity has slipped dangerously.
Nevertheless, there are some changes to corporate taxation that could increase investment, encourage new
environmental technologies, and promote fairness. In addition, the NDP will support incentives to promote
training with specific targets. All of these changes can help improve growth, income, and employment critical
for Canada to compete in the global marketplace and ensure that the world’s best jobs and companies can
be found in Canada.
The NDP will support a careful review of federal tax policies to assess the utility and timeliness of
“smart incentives”, including: accelerated depreciation rates for capital investment; incentives to develop
environmental technologies; harmonization of the federal capital tax rate; harmonization of federal
and provincial tax and regulatory policies; and incentives to promote workforce training.

• Stabilize income for family farms, based on the fundamental principle that farmers in Canada and the
United States should be able to compete on an equal playing field. Initiatives include:
– Overhauling the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program to enhance its effectiveness
and overall coverage in protecting and stabilizing incomes for family farms. We will abandon the
present “one size fits all” approach and work with producers and the provinces to develop a
program that meets the needs of the various farm sectors.
– Ensuring there is a permanent stand-by capacity to deliver assistance to farming industries
and communities by establishing a permanent farm communities’ emergency support fund.
This fund would provide assistance in addition to normally budgeted assistance.
– Supporting Canada’s system of orderly marketing. We will resist efforts to weaken the integrity
of the system, and will strengthen Canada’s position in support of that system in international
trade negotiations.
– Working toward sustainable agriculture outcomes that will help reduce input costs for pesticides,
herbicides and fuel, which are largely paid by Canadian farmers to multinational corporations.
– Ensuring fairer price competition in the Canadian marketplace by working to develop producerrun co-operatives. These co-operatives are essential to restoring fair prices in a market
dominated by a few corporate agri-giants.
– Working with farmers to ensure the right to save and reuse seed. The right to reuse seed will
be a fundamental principle of Canada’s international aid development.
– Standing behind the right of Canadian farmers to use single-desk marketing for western wheat,
and over-quota tariffs to maintain the health of our domestic supply management sectors. These
tools provide fair prices to consumers and producers alike.

• Take the lead in developing resource management strategies, and funding a national
response to the pine beetle infestation.

30

• Work with provinces, territories, communities and Aboriginal people on a sustainable
forest management strategy and a community economic diversification strategy. A priority
of these strategies must be to increase value-added production in all forest resource development,
with policies, programs and incentives to encourage local transformation of raw materials into
marketable products for Canadian and international consumption. We support implementation
of the interim forestry package announced in November.

• Adopt a community-based, co-management approach to maintain fish resources and
a sustainable fishing industry that includes:
– An overall approach based on transparency and locally derived science, that makes
the community, industry and DFO accountable for the maintenance of the resource.
– Working with provincial governments to ensure that aquaculture is developed in a responsible
manner that protects adjacent waters and communities to the highest environmental standards,
with an aim in particular of protecting wild salmon stocks.
– Supporting a moratorium on dragging in international waters and within the 200-mile limit
until all sensitive ecological areas are identified with the assistance of industry and scientists.

• Ensure fair wages and working standards, including:
– Increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour for workers under federal jurisdiction.
– As an important step towards fairness for women, implementing the recommendations
in the Pay Equity Task Force Final Report.
– Implementing federal laws to outlaw replacement workers in strikes or lockouts in areas
of federal jurisdiction, something the Liberals oppose.

• Re-establish Employment Insurance as a core of Canada’s system of income security
for working women, men, and their families. We will:
– As finances permit, reserve all revenue generated by
Employment Insurance premiums
for unemployment insurance benefits.
– Implement changes in the system to increase the
percentage of unemployed Canadians covered by the
program from the current level of less than 40% to a target
of 80%, by phasing in an increase in the qualifier to 360
hours.
– Reflect the realities of seasonal workers by using the best
12 weeks of employment to determine EI benefit levels.
– Support an expanded caregivers program where caregivers
would receive up to one year of Employment Insurance
while caring for a sick or elderly family member.

Employment Insurance no
longer provides a safety net
for the majority of workers
who are temporarily
unemployed; therefore
many vulnerable families are
forced to rely on social
assistance. Only 43.5% of
those who are unemployed
are receiving EI, down from
75% a decade ago.
Campaign 2000
2005 Report Card on Child
Poverty in Canada

• Introduce legislation to create an independent watchdog on oil and gas prices that will report
to Parliament, to help protect against future gouging by the big gas and oil companies.

continued overleaf…

31

Getting results for people

• Strengthen the status of Canada’s artists by:
– Introducing a system of tax averaging to provide fair and equitable tax treatment
for Canadian artists.
– Building on a model in Quebec, introduce an exemption for the first $30,000 on
copyright and certain royalty income.
– Protecting children in the arts with minimum standards and trust fund rules for
income earned as performers.

• Strengthen the arts in Canada by:
– Providing increased funding for the Canada Council for the support of artists.

• Strengthen Canada’s homegrown film and television production by:
– Directing the CRTC to require clear, binding, monitored and enforced performance
standards for broadcasters, including a significant and permanent increase in the
production and broadcast of Canadian drama.
– Reviewing and restructuring the CRTC to avoid the mixed mandates and conflicts
of interest that undermine the role of the commission in promoting and protecting
Canadian cultural industries.
– Ensuring that Canadian television networks remain Canadian owned.
– Providing sustained funding for the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada.
– Enhancing federal film incentives to encourage film and television production.
– Establishing a forum with film distributors to agree on targets and a strategy
to screen and distribute domestic films in Canada.

32

Children
We could say it, but these people say it better:
“Child poverty is a special concern for governments and communities. No one
can ignore the evidence from the multitude of studies that have documented
the dreadful effects of poverty on children... Canada’s high rate of child poverty
is shocking for a country ranked among the wealthiest in the world. Canada
ranks bronze on childhood poverty, with a rate almost six times that of
Denmark!” The Conference Board of Canada, 2005
“More than 1.2 million children – one child out of every six in Canada –
still lives in poverty.” – Campaign 2000, 2005 Report Card on Child
Poverty in Canada.
In his last days as Leader of the New Democratic Party, Ed Broadbent introduced a motion in the House of
Commons proposing that Canada dedicate itself to the goal of eliminating child poverty by the year 2000.
The motion was adopted unanimously.
And – as just another example of the lack of respect of the Liberal government for Parliament – this
unanimous motion was ignored.
Earlier in this campaign, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives proposed that the federal government spend
over $4 billion on a 1-point reduction in the GST.
There can be no clearer example of the difference in priorities between New Democrats and Mr. Harper’s
Conservatives. We believe Canada should look after its people – beginning with our children – before investing
in lower-priority measures like broad-brush tax cuts.

In lieu of Mr. Harper’s GST cut the NDP will:

• Increase the Child Tax Benefit by $1,000 per child above the currently scheduled increases
and inflation adjustments. This improvement will be directed to the first tier of the benefit, which
is not subject to clawback of provincial social assistance benefits.

• Enact legislation to establish an independent Children’s Commissioner to monitor, advocate
and recommend on behalf of the rights and welfare of Canada’s children. The Children’s
Commissioner shall report annually to Parliament.

33

Getting results for people

Child Care
A 2001 Swiss study determined that publicly funded child care
results in:

• A doubling of the hours mothers were able to work.
• Higher productivity and earnings due to maintaining
productive workers.

• Higher contributions to social security and savings.
• Less dependency on social assistance during both
the productive and retirement ages.
The study further showed that the public investment in child care was
offset more than 200% in additional tax revenues and reduced public
spending on social assistance.

An industrialized, servicebased economy with
between 50-60% of young
children in unregulated,
unsupervised care has a road
to travel to ensure child
development on an
equitable basis for all its
children.
OECD Early Childhood
Education and Care Policy
– Background Report for
Canada (2004)

Yet in Canada, a 2004 OECD study found there had been no significant expansion of public child care in
a decade, outside of Quebec. Despite Liberal promises of action, less than 20% of children aged 0-6 years
find a place in a regulated, public child care facility – compared to Belgium (63%), Denmark (78%) and the
U.K. (60%), as examples.
The NDP has fought for years alongside women, early childhood education experts and parents for a
national commitment to quality child care.
Funding was promised in the very first Liberal Red Book of campaign promises in 1993. We had to wait for
12 years and four elections until a minority Parliament forced the Liberals to put that promise into practice.
New Democrats celebrate the fact that NDP governments in Manitoba and Saskatchewan signed agreements
to ensure the non-profit delivery of child care.
But the Liberals are still failing Canada’s families by allowing precious federal dollars to be diverted to profits
for commercial child care companies. Jack Layton and the NDP have tirelessly pressed the government to
direct its funding to building a comprehensive system of high-quality, licensed, non-profit child care.
A great deal more must be done if we are to have the early childhood education system Canada needs to
succeed in the 21st century.

Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next Parliament to:

• Introduce a National Child Care Act, legislation that will firmly establish a framework for a
national child care and early learning system with a permanent commitment for the federal
government. It will establish standards for a network of high-quality, licensed, non-profit care
for our children.

• Invest $1.8 billion in the first year, and then increase this sum by $250 million a year over
the following three years. At an average of $9,000 per space, this commitment means we will be
providing 200,000 spaces for children, with an additional 25,000 children finding care in each of
the next three years.

34

Housing
In his 1996 federal budget, Paul Martin abolished Canada’s internationally recognized affordable housing
program created by New Democrats and Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s. In 1998, the Liberals gutted the National
Housing Act, eroding the role of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in solving the nation-wide
affordable housing crisis. Since then, Liberals refused to build affordable housing, and even recent
announcements left housing unbuilt due to onerous requirements for provincial matching funds. In
October of 2005, the Liberals joined with the Conservatives to defeat a plan to reinvest part of the billiondollar national housing surplus in new homes.
In the last Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP got results. In the NDP budget, $1.6 billion was allocated
for affordable housing construction with no requirement of provincial or territorial matching funds. The NDP
budget bill also allocated $100 million for energy conservation in affordable housing.

In the next Parliament, the NDP will continue to get results for the 1.7 million
Canadians who don’t have adequate shelter. We will:

• Restart a 10-year national housing program to build 200,000 affordable and co-op housing
units (including homes for aboriginal people, seniors, people with disabilities and students),
renovate 100,000 existing units, and provide rent supplements to 40,000 low-income tenants,
many of whom are single mothers who pay a large percentage of their income in rent.

• Underwrite low-interest mortgages for affordable housing – using the large profits generated
by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation – and renew and refocus CMHC’s responsibility
for social housing funding, specifically making it easier for community-based housing
organizations to get funding.

35

Getting results for people

New Canadians
Canada is a nation, largely, of immigrants. Our cities are powerful magnets for talented and creative
people from around the world who look to Canada for economic opportunity, social cohesion and
political freedom. The Liberal Party for the past 12 years has created hardship for new Canadians and their
families by: imposing landing fees for all immigrants for the first time in Canadian history, cutting funds to
the Immigration Department resulting in less support for immigrants attempting to settle in Canada, and
reducing staffing in Canada Immigration Centres overseas. The subsequent delays for families wanting to
re-unite in Canada are currently up to ten years in some places.
The Liberals have not told the truth to talented immigrants hoping to build a new life for their families here
in Canada. Without supports, their claims are “False advertising”. Immigrants have been badly served by
the Liberals. Unfortunately, this is no longer the party of Trudeau.
As the rate of natural population growth has declined, Canada has become more and more dependent on
immigration to maintain our labour force and continue to prosper.
The diversity of our largest cities is an enormous advantage for Canada in the competitive environment of
the global economy. Canada’s respect for diversity and the opportunity it offers to immigrants often sets this
country apart in the eyes of potential immigrants.
But we benefit from this source of economic strength and social enrichment only to the extent that we provide
the support that immigrants need to become full participants in Canadian society and enable immigrants
to contribute the skills and education to Canada that qualified them to come here in the first place.

That’s why Jack Layton and the NDP will work in the next Parliament to:

• Improve the immigration and refugee system to make it speedier, fairer and more
accountable.

• Immediately increase federal funding for immigrant settlement by 20%.
• Provide support in major centres across Canada to assist immigrants in gaining recognition
for their credentials and qualifications.

• Amend the Immigration Act to enact a once-in-a-lifetime provision to enable Canadian
citizens and permanent residents to sponsor one relative to help reunite families and
investigate how to amend current immigration laws and practices to make family reunification real.

• Allow people without status who already call Canada home the opportunity to apply for
legal status, in the context of humanitarian and compassionate relaxation of the rules.

• Allow annual immigration levels to rise to the equivalent of 1% of the population. And,
adequately staff immigration offices to reduce the unacceptable delays in processing family
and tourism applications in many parts of the world.

• Abolish Paul Martin’s punitive and unfair head tax on immigrants.
• Issue a full apology to Chinese Canadians for the Chinese head tax and the Chinese Exclusion
Act and establish compensation to individuals and their families beginning, on an urgent basis,
with those still living.

• Restructure the immigration appeal process to remove the discretionary power of the
minister to settle final appeals and to substitute for that power an appeal to a politically
independent, expert national appeal panel, and implement the provisions of the Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act to establish the Refugee Appeal Division.

36

Seniors and Pensions
It has been 40 years since the last major, comprehensive reform of Canada’s income security system for the
elderly. Our economy and our labour market have changed a great deal since then. Fewer employees work
for one employer long enough to earn a pension. The proportion of the workforce covered by a pension plan
continues to shrink. The gap between rich and poor is growing. And while living standards for seniors generally
have improved, thanks largely to the Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement programs and
the CPP, poverty among elderly women continues to be a major problem.

As our population ages, these problems will only become more acute. The time
to deal with them is now – and Jack Layton and the NDP will deliver on these
issues in the next Parliament.

• Protecting pensions by:
– Implementing a pension benefits insurance system for employees under federal jurisdiction,
and invite provincial and territorial governments to join the system.
– Working to end the clawback of military and RCMP pensions when pensioners receive
CPP benefits.
– Building on the success of the NDP’s Wage Earner Protection Act (Bill C-55) and introduce
amendments to Canada’s bankruptcy laws to put the economic interests of workers first.
This would give both severance pay and unfunded pension liabilities priority in the allocation
of corporate assets in bankruptcy.

• Initiating an annual review of seniors’ income needs, looking forward 10 years to determine the
adequacy of income support programs. Such reviews will be built into all income support planning,
and will be reported annually to Parliament.

• Ensuring that workers’ pensions are protected by introducing changes to eliminate the
practice of employer-contribution holidays and to tighten the rules to prevent employer
underfunding of pension plans. That pension funds exist for the sole purpose of providing
benefits to plan members is a principle reinforced by the courts.

continued overleaf…

37

Getting results for people

• Fighting to enact the NDP’s Seniors Charter we introduced in Parliament in the fall
of 2005 and to create a minister for seniors. Like all Canadians, seniors have fundamental
rights and freedoms that deserve protection. Sadly, too often, too many seniors still get the short
end of society’s stick. The NDP’s Seniors Charter outlines the rights of all seniors to “a fulfilling
life with dignity, respect and security.” It highlights fundamental needs like secure pensions,
secure housing, secure public health care, opportunities for self-fulfillment and timely access
to all government services.

• Amending the Canada Pension Plan benefit formula to permit time spent caring for the
elderly or people with disabilities to be credited when determining benefit entitlements.

• Supporting an expanded caregivers program where caregivers, usually women, would receive
up to one year of Employment Insurance while caring for a sick or elderly family member and
where caregivers are recognized and not penalized when CPP/QPP benefits are calculated.

• Abandoning Paul Martin’s appeal of the Supreme Court decision extending retroactive CPP
Survivor benefits for same-sex couples.
– Long-term Care Recommendations; see page 11.
– Home Care Recommendations; see page 13.

38

Ending Violence
While Canada’s overall crime rate has held steady and declined over the last few years, there are serious crime
issues that threaten the security each of us feels in our own community.
Violent crime overall is 35% higher than it was 20 years ago, while Canada’s homicide rate rose 12% in 2004.
In some urban areas, particularly in Toronto and increasingly in Greater Vancouver, gun violence has
reached crisis proportions. Firm, balanced and urgent action is needed without delay. We are concerned that
the Liberal administration has ignored recent trends and has failed to mobilize new responses to new
threats to community safety.
There are three pillars to the NDP approach. Firm punishment and deterrence through legislation, regulation
and much stronger targeted sentencing provisions for crimes involving guns, form the first pillar. Enhanced
resources for enforcement combined with a political commitment to fostering collaboration between law
enforcement agencies is the second.
The third pillar will incorporate overdue and essential investments in crime prevention, communities and
youth. The goal of these investments is to counter the stereotyping, inequality and discrimination all too often
felt by people, especially young people of colour, living in communities where poverty and despair fuel the
negative forces of gang life, exploitation and violence.
As outlined in other parts of this document, we support investments in affordable housing, childcare, education
and training, apprenticeships, employment and training, and youth programs. To be most effective, these
should be provided in a community-based effort to promote healthy, strong and respected neighbourhoods
and individuals.
In many urban areas, disputes are increasingly being settled by gunfire, as guns are often seen as a status symbol.
This normalization of gun culture needs to be changed, and illegal guns – many of them imported from the
U.S. or stolen from homes – must be taken off the street. Hand guns have no place in our cities.
Violence against women, as well, remains a crucial concern, as we are reminded every December 6th. We
must continue to strengthen programs to reduce and to prosecute domestic violence.

To make Canada’s communities safer, Jack Layton and the NDP will introduce
an omnibus Safe Communities Act, including:

• Arm officers at border locations. “The federal government should arm border officers if it is not
prepared to station and maintain an RCMP presence at all crossings”, as recommended by the
Senate Committee on National Security and Defence.

• Increase the mandatory minimum penalty for possession, sale and importation of illegal
arms such as hand guns, assault rifles and automatic weapons. Place each of these minimum
penalties at four years, up from current one-year penalty.

• Add mandatory minimum sentences to other weapons offences. Place a four-year minimum
sentence on all weapon offences, such as “possession of a concealed weapon”.

• Amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act so youth offenders 16 or older who commit a crime using
a gun will be tried as adults, except in the case of exceptional circumstances.
continued overleaf…

39

Getting results for people

• Strengthen the RCMP’s Federal Witness Protection and Support Programs. With additional
support, the program will encourage witnesses to step forward to put violent offenders behind bars.
Such support is necessary to provide the security witnesses and victims need to see cases through
the justice system effectively and secure convictions of violent offenders

• Target the selling of illegal weapons via the Internet by increasing resources to allow the RCMP
to crack down on the use of the Internet for sale of illegal weapons, making the sale of illegal
weapons through the Internet a specific criminal offence; and establish a Parliamentary task force
on other pro-active methods for discovering and eliminating internet sales.

• Provide federal support to multi-level task forces in communities facing heightened violence,
understanding that they will include broad community representation and youth involvement and
ensuring a focus on all aspects including root causes, enforcement, and prevention priorities.

• Support a reverse onus on bail for all gun-related crimes, and make sure bail conditions are
strictly enforced.

• Support legislative, regulatory and sentencing initiatives to embody the principle that
handguns have no place in cities, except in the hands of law enforcement officials.

• Return a significant portion of the proceeds of crime back to

local communities and
neighbourhoods, as requested by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).

• Form integrated enforcement task force units to unite the RCMP with municipal and provincial
police forces to share information and intelligence gathering techniques.

• Help prevent youth from becoming involved in gangs in the first place, with more funding for
community programming outside school hours and other targeted educational programs, thus
helping to restore hope to core communities affected by gang violence.
Another significant threat to security in our communities is major drug offences. One of the most worrisome
is the rise in production, sale and use of “crystal meth”.

To address the impact of crystal meth on the safety of Canada’s communities,
Jack Layton and the NDP will cut it off at the source:

• Enact import controls on bulk ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, and limit access to the
precursors necessary for legitimate uses, such as cold medications. These ingredients should
be placed behind counters and purchases of abnormally large quantities should be tracked.

• Create a new offence for possession of precursors for the purpose of meth production.
• Increase funding to programs for addressing drug addictions in general, and study new and
more effective and targeted forms of treatment for meth addiction.

40

Respect. Renewal.
The Canadian federation is not working well.
For many years, the Liberal Party of Canada sold itself as the party that could be relied on to address the
aspirations of the people of Quebec within Canada – keeping our country together.
The revelations of Liberal corruption from the Gomery Inquiry have destroyed that role – perhaps for a very
long time. In the process, our country’s symbols have been sullied in the minds of many citizens, and the
federation is more gravely threatened within Quebec than it was when the Liberals came to office.
On unity, the Liberal Party has made things worse – much worse.
In the meantime, after helping to lead the creation of key national programs in housing, health and income
security – and in support of provincial priorities in post-secondary education and public infrastructure
development – the federal Liberal government walked away from its responsibilities in the mid-1990s.
The result was a fiscal catastrophe for provincial governments and a disaster for many Canadians who depended
on those shared-cost programs. Standards and services deteriorated as funding cuts were passed on down
the line to communities and service providers.
The federal government’s disengagement in the 1990s was a monumental mistake. And recovering from that
mistake has proven to be extremely difficult, because of the depth of the fiscal hole created by the cuts in
the 1990s, and because of the federal government’s record as an unreliable funding partner.
Rather than attempt to develop consistent and credible systems for federal-provincial cooperation and revenue
sharing, the Martin Liberals have adopted what has been described as a ‘fiscal cafeteria’ approach. Every
province gets its own deal. And every deal is different.
Thus, the Liberal Party of Canada has gravely damaged the federation within Quebec due to its conduct,
while gravely damaging the effectiveness of the federal government in the rest of the country – without the
apparent intended benefit of building unity.
The ad-hoc series of deals cut by the Prime Minister in recent months has done little to address either challenge.
Sometime, somehow, in a manner broadly acceptable to all of its citizens, our federation will need to re-address
itself to the need for a positive act of national reconciliation.
Our ultimate goal is that all citizens of Canada exercise their right to choose – to stay with Canada, because
it is a good country that together we can make better.

41

Getting results for people

Jack Layton and Canada’s NDP favour:

• Developing a framework for national standards in areas of provincial jurisdiction that fully
respects the autonomy of the people of Quebec and of their National Assembly, within its
jurisdiction. For example, the Quebec Pension Plan; the province’s childcare network; its network
of public community clinics; and its prescription drug program are national models – not targets for
federal interference under our plan.

• Committing the federal government to long-term consistent funding of shared cost programs
with the provinces, territories and local governments, so that the federal government’s funding
partners do not face the threat of arbitrary and abrupt changes in federal policy.

• Restoring fairness to equalization with a level playing field for all Canadians within the
equalization system. In the short term, for example, the ad-hoc adjustments implemented by the
Martin government have produced a gross anomaly in Saskatchewan that needs to be addressed.
For the long term, we favour working with provincial and territorial governments to develop a
consistent rules-based system of fiscal equalization designed to equalize basic services rather than
simply revenue-raising capacity.

42

Peace and Security
The 2004 tsunami disaster exposed a glaring gap between the Liberal government’s response to international
disasters and that of individual Canadians.
Through their unprecedented generosity, Canadians demonstrated their understanding of the obligations
of wealthy countries to the developing world. Regrettably, the budget that followed failed to reflect the
willingness of Canadians to meet our long-promised overseas development assistance, putting Canada even
further behind the target of 0.7% of GDP than we were at the time of the disaster.
In fact, the Liberal government reduced Canada’s level of foreign aid from the levels we saw when Brian
Mulroney was Prime Minister. And despite supporting more than 50 United Nations resolutions at the General
Assembly and other votes in favour of the 0.7% target, after 12 years of Liberal government of Canada has
yet to keep our promise to the world – or even have a timeline to do so.
As a result of strenuous efforts by NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough, the House of Commons
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade followed by the House of Commons itself,
adopted unanimously an NDP motion calling on the government to honour its 0.7% commitment. Meeting
these commitments is not a matter of altruism. It is the most practical response Canada can offer to reduce
global economic inequality – the single-most important contributor to political instability and insecurity.
It’s been more than two years since the government introduced the Pledge to Africa legislation to send drugs
to developing countries to support the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Today, not a
single drug approved for export is in production. Not a single pill has reached Africa. Each and every day
through the delay, 6,000 people in Africa alone die from AIDS.
In this Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP ensured Canada took tangible steps towards keeping this crucial
promise to the world and its people. We stopped the billions in tax reductions for large corporations, and
instead diverted $500 million to help the world’s poorest and most needy people.

continued overleaf…

43

Getting results for people

In the next Parliament, Jack Layton and the NDP will continue to work to
restore Canada’s traditional leadership role in the world. We will:

• Honour the Millennium Development Goals and commit immediately, through a plan, to
increase Canada’s aid budget to 0.7% of Canada’s GDP by 2015, and to develop an aggressive
debt cancellation strategy for eligible countries.

• Improve our aid effectiveness by strengthening the partnership with civil society, both in
Canada and overseas.

• Introduce legislation before the next federal budget that establishes poverty reduction as the
priority for Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA).

• Ensure the increased funding is reflected in the 2006-2007 federal budget.
Jack Layton and the NDP would establish two clear priorities for Canada’s defence policies: the assertion and
protection of Canadian sovereignty, including the protection of Canada’s offshore resources; and the
promotion and protection of international peace and security through participation in peacekeeping,
peacemaking and humanitarian and environmental support operations. Our foreign and defence policies
must reflect Canadian values, rather than becoming an interchangeable part with the U.S. military.

Jack Layton and the NDP will:

• Insist Parliament review important defence agreements such as the 2006 NORAD renewal
agreement and Canadian Forces’ integration with the United States military.

• Reorient Canada’s defence procurement to support the priorities of peacekeeping,
peacemaking, humanitarian and environmental support operations. Total defence spending
would not be reduced. Good pay, family support, and good basic equipment are priorities.

• Commit Canadian troops to overseas operations only under the auspices of international
peace and security organizations.

• Speed up the identification, location and cleanup of all DND chemical dumpsites (both on
land and at sea).

• Speed up the investigation and compensation of military and civilian personnel exposed to
Agent Orange/Agent Purple.

• Immediately implement the Pledge to Africa legislation to send drugs to developing countries to
support the fight against HIV/AIDS.

44

The impacts of the Air India bombing, which was the largest terrorist attack against Canadians, and the tragic
events of September 11, 2001, have brought Canadians face-to-face with the fact that we aren’t invulnerable
to threat. We need to be vigilant in today’s world — vigilant in a manner consistent with our values, and in
a manner that respects civil liberties.

Jack Layton and the NDP will:

• Establish a victims of terror fund that will support and compensate Canadians who are victims of
terrorist acts.

• Scrap the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act, written by Liberals and opposed by the NDP, which
has already impeded media freedom in Canada. We will replace it with legislation that respects
civil liberties, ethnic communities and freedom of the press.

• Introduce legislation to ban racial profiling from federal departments and jurisdictions.
• Respect the right of those accused of a crime to know the evidence against them by banning
the use of security certificates.

• Provide training for security guards and first responders such as police officers, ambulance
attendants and firefighters.

• Restore a national ports police to combat organized crime, smuggling and illegal weapons
importation in our port communities, and ensure adequate funding and training for Canada’s
ports police.

45

Getting results for people

Notes:

46

Notes:

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Getting results for people

Notes:

48

Getting results for people

New Democratic Party of Canada
Suite 300
279 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5J9

www.ndp.ca

Authorized by the registered agent for Canada’s NDP.

cope:225

