NDP Leader Jack Layton unveiled a platform Sunday aimed at helping Canadian families, focusing largely on child care, and said he would fund the plan by raising corporate tax rates.
"Our plan does not include a corporate tax cut. Our priorities are those of the kitchen table, of helping families make ends meet," Layton told a rally at his riding of Toronto-Danforth.
The plan includes promises of giving families a new baby bonus, ensuring Canadians have better health care, and giving more financial help to First Nations people and students.
A major highlight of the platform is a new child-benefits monthly cheque of $400, which would replace existing benefits. That would mean a family that had two children and earned $75,000 would have an extra $2,140 per year.
The proposal would cost roughly $500 million in the first year, double for the next two years, and then by 2012 it would cost the government about $4.4 billion.
The proposal also includes a promise to devote $1 billion towards improving the lives of aboriginals, in a similar plan to the failed Kelowna Accord.
Layton said the platform would not create a deficit. But in the first year, it would boost government spending by about $8 billion; by the fourth year, it would be up to $18.1 billion.
Because of the high cost, the New Democrats say they would reverse the Conservatives' reduction of the corporate tax rate, boosting it to 22.12 per cent from 19.5 per cent. The Tories have promised to slash corporate taxes.
The NDP also says Canada would save $1.1 billion a year by pulling troops from Afghanistan, and spending some of the government's projected budget surpluses over the next four years.
Other highlights of the platform include:
- A new $1,000-per-year grant to undergraduate students who qualify for loans
- Devoting $1.4 billion to start a new national child-car program
- A national home-care program for seniors that would cost $1 billion
Environment
Layton has also promised tough action on Canada's biggest industrial polluters. The proposal would generate $2.5 billion a year in carbon auctions, and would invest that money into public transit and environmental incentives.
The NDP leader has been bolstered by stronger-than-expected poll numbers for the party since the election campaign began earlier this month.
On campaign stops Layton has rarely mentioned the Liberals or their leader Stephane Dion. Instead, he has insisted he is campaigning against Harper and the Conservatives to get to the Prime Minister's Office.
In B.C., Layton continued to attack the Tories on Saturday.
"We're going to kick Stephen Harper out and put the Jack Layton New Democrats in," he told a crowd in Vancouver.
He also responded to accusations from Harper that a NDP government would be bad news for the Canadian economy in a time of global uncertainty.
"If average families are looked after, if they can pay their bills, if they can meet their monthly mortgage payments and keep they jobs, the banks will be just fine," he said.
"Let's get the fundamentals right for Canadian families."
With files from The Canadian Press
