Where the parties stand on public service issues

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The Green Party has the only plan to keep Canada's commitment of 1.5° above 2005 average temperatures. It is a large task, but we have everything we need to achieve it. We need to stop burning things to get around.  We need to stop burning things to make electricity. After that, everything else is easy. And yes, I'm in support of public climate science - https://twitter.com/VoteJeanLuc/status/1172590664628019200

The Liberal Party of Canada agrees with PIPSC that climate change is an important and urgent challenge facing not just Canada but the world. That is why our government has put a price on carbon, which we believe to be the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across industries and across the country.

To help green our economy and keep it globally competitive, a re-elected Liberal government would follow-through on our existing plan to take climate action by:

• Investing in renewables to get to 90% clean electricity by 2030;
• Supporting over 1,000 public transit projects across the country;
• Making zero-emission vehicles more affordable and accessible; and
• Phasing out coal;

We are also working with workers, communities, unions, innovators and Canadians across the country so that we can make a just transition to a clean economy. Budget 2019 announced a new investment of $150 million to invest in infrastructure to support priority projects and diversify coal economies.

In this campaign, we have also announced the following new initiatives we would implement, if re-elected:

• Slash corporate taxes in half for companies that develop technologies or manufacture products that have zero emissions;
• Continue to lead by example and ensure all federal buildings run on clean electricity by 2022; and
• Leverage the purchasing power of the federal government to further drive clean technology adoption.

New Democrats believe that for too long, Liberals and Conservatives have been all too happy to let big corporations and the super-wealthy get away with not paying their fair share of taxes – and in the face of emergencies like the climate crisis, we can’t afford it. We’ll put more money into enforcement, so that CRA can go after tax evasion and crack down on aggressive avoidance. We’ll also boost the top marginal tax rate, create a super- wealth tax on the very richest millionaires and billionaires, and increase the capital gains inclusion rate to 75 percent.

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The Liberal Party is fully committed to ensuring that the next-generation pay system for public servants receives the up-front funding and support that it needs to operate at a world-class level, to match Canada’s world-class public service. The pay problems that employees have had to endure under Phoenix have been unacceptable and we have learned many lessons throughout this flawed process to inform next steps, including if our party is re-elected.

Our government launched a process, working cooperatively with experts, federal public sector unions, employees, pay specialists and technology providers, to review lessons learned, and identify options for the next-generation pay solution. The Treasury Board Secretariat will continue to engage public servants, and their union representatives, throughout this process, to ensure that their feedback is fully reflected in any future solution.

As the President of PIPSC has said, “We can't erase the loss and suffering that Phoenix has caused for these dedicated public service professionals. It took a lot of hard work by the unions to obtain a fair settlement. The hard work was worth it, because with the commitments and the compensation enshrined in this settlement, the Treasury Board has taken important steps forward." We intend to continue this hard work and to make progress for hardworking public servants across the country to ensure they are properly compensated.

New Democrats believe that the Phoenix pay system has failed Canada's dedicated and professional public service. Public servants make incredible contributions to our country – and they deserve a government, and an employer, that treats them with respect. New Democrats will replace the failed Phoenix pay system brought in by the Conservative and Liberal governments, and ensure that impacted workers get fair compensation. We will commit to ensuring a stable rollout of NextGen HR-to-Pay and fully consult unions to ensure that a debacle like Phoenix never happens again.

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We will close the loopholes enjoyed by the richest companies in the world - mostly big tech, big oil and big banks.

One of the key priorities of Liberal government from day one - and which remains a priority to this day - was tax fairness. We committed over $1 billion in our four federal budgets to further help the CRA crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. The CRA has increased the number of compliance actions aimed at promoters who encourage abusive or illegal tax arrangements, has hired additional auditors, and has completed more than twice as many offshore audits in the last three years than in ten years under the previous government.

The CRA now has a unit dedicated to offshore compliance and can now risk assess 100% of multinational corporations every year, while out-of-court settlements are done completely independent of the Minister of National Revenue and their office in collaboration with the Department of Justice as to ensure the integrity of our tax system.

In a new mandate, we will also work to implement a consistent national approach to beneficial ownership so tax authorities and law enforcement have the tools they need, while also respecting privacy rights.

Canadians deserve a fair, transparent, and equitable tax system. If re-elected, we will continue to make systemic changes within the CRA to make sure that this is the case. We will introduce new measures to close tax loopholes used by the wealthy and by large corporations, including a modernized anti-avoidance rule. This will naturally involve further work to strengthen CRA’s capacity, a capacity that had been drastically reduced by the previous government, when they made deep cuts to CRA’s capacity to serve Canadians

Canadians know that good services we can all count on need to be funded sustainably. But for too long, Liberal and Conservative governments have told Canadians to expect less – cutting back on services, handing out special deals for big corporations and big polluters, and giving tax breaks to their wealthiest friends. Instead of lowering costs for Canadian families, they have delivered outrageous giveaways to the richest few, while letting costs grow for everyone else.

CRA needs to keep pace with the complexity of tax avoidance schemes, we’ll invest in the CRA to ensure that they can collect what Canadians are owed, make sure that foreign web giants are paying their fair share, create a beneficial ownership registry to fight money laundering, and crack down on avoidance techniques like profit shifting.

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The Liberal Party has always been and will remain committed to supporting federal science through adequate funding, as well as protecting the integrity of science policies throughout government.

Our Liberal government believes in evidence-based policy and in science and in the Canadians behind the next big ideas. After a decade of setbacks and cuts to science, our government is rebuilding Canadian research and supporting our country’s greatest minds. We unmuzzled government scientists, brought back the long-form census, and re-instated the position of the Chief Science Advisor.

We are supportive of the Chief Science Advisor’s work to:

• implement Canada's first government-wide Scientific Integrity Policy, which was developed in partnership with PIPSC, to ensure all federal scientists can openly conduct and speak about their research to Canadians; and
• create a network of Department Science Advisors across federal departments to reinforce evidence-based decision making throughout the Government.

We also launched the first fundamental science review in 40 years in response to the Conservative cuts and mismanagement of research. As a result we invested over $10 billion in science and research through Budget 2018. This includes the single largest investment in fundamental research in Canadian history.

Budget 2018 allocated $2.8 billion to renew federal laboratories where federal scientists can collaborate with their colleagues within the federal network as well as extramural scientists from universities or SMEs.

We will always stand up for scientists - in academia, in the public service, in innovative sectors of our economy - and will absolutely protect scientific integrity policies as well as funding in the federal government.

We believe in independent public science. An NDP-led government would: expand the role of the Chief Science Advisor to allow them to better monitor federal science capacity as well as create a Parliamentary Science Officer position to inform Parliamentarians about scientific evidence; make investments in federal government science, particularly climate science, and review the state of federal science funding across government; and ensure that government science is carried out independently and free from political management and oversight with strong scientific integrity policies.

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As your MP I will commit to keeping our public service with the capacity of operating itself. Outsourcing can be very beneficial, but the tipping point was crossed where our public service has become dependent on those not employed by our nation's government. We must correct things so contractors are used to enhance service, not deliver core mandate.

We would like to continue working with public sector unions, including PIPSC, with regards to this issue. We remain committed and believe there is progress possible in these discussions and that any agreement must have meaningful contributions from public servants and their representatives.

New Democrats believe that a dedicated, permanent public service is a strong public service. We could work with unions to reduce the use of outsourcing and temporary help services to foster internal expertise and the public service's strong culture of excellence.

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Our Party shares PIPSC’s belief that, after a lifetime of hard work, Canadians deserve financial peace of mind when it comes to their retirement. Bill C-27, for example, won’t come back.

Protecting retirement security is also why our Liberal government, in 2018, named a new Minister for Seniors, specifically because of the importance that we as a government place on retirement security. In the mandate for this new role, the Minister for Seniors is to consult Canadians and coordinate the government’s efforts to strengthen the protection of workplace pensions. 

This follows through on Liberal Party’s commitment to take a whole-of-government, evidence-based approach towards addressing retirement security for all Canadians, and builds on the important work we have already done improving Canadians’ retirement conditions, such as restoring the retirement age to 65, enhancing the Wage Earner Protection Program, and for the first time in a generation, strengthening the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

We believe there is a way forward that balances the retirement security of hard-working Canadians with current economic realities, and we will continue to work hard to identify a path forward that benefits all Canadians.

The federal government has a critical role to play in protecting defined benefit pensions across the country. The Liberals’ openness to target benefit plans in the public sector, which don’t guarantee stable benefits for retirees, puts defined benefits at risk for all Canadians – and we will immediately put a stop to this chipping away of retirement security.

We are committed to strengthening public pensions and improving retirement security for all Canadians. A New Democrat government will create a Pension Advisory Commission to develop a long-term plan to protect and enhance Old Age Security, boost the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and strengthen the Canada Pension Plan.

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Over the past four years, our Liberal government has made a number of significant investments in child care and families, including:

• the Canada Child Benefit;
• the Early Learning and Child Care Framework, which invested $7.5 billion dollars to create tens of thousands of new child care spaces around the country; and
• a commitment to develop an additional 40,000 high quality and affordable learning spaces each year, rising to 100,000 by 2030.

Earlier in this campaign, we also announced that a re-elected Liberal government will help by:

• creating up to 250,000 more before and after school spaces for kids under ten;
• putting $800 back into the pockets of the average Ontario family of four — every year — by lowering parents’ fees by ten per cent across the country; and
• dedicating a target of ten per cent of the new spaces to provide more child care options for parents who work overtime, late shifts, or multiple jobs so they can count on help when they need it most.

We will get this done by nearly doubling the current level of federal support provided to provinces and territories for child care, investing at least $535 million more each year.

A re-elected Liberal government will work to improve the capacity, quality, and accountability of child care across Canada. We will:

• give more support to our early childhood educators, to ensure they are better paid and trained to take care of our kids. We will do this by investing at least $25 million per year to help cover the costs for early childhood educators seeking further training, and lower tuition costs for people getting their early childhood educator degree;
• establish a national secretariat to work with the provinces and territories to lay the groundwork for a pan-Canadian child care system. The secretariat will help establish national standards for future agreements under the ELCC Framework, promote best practices, and advance gender equality. The secretariat will work closely with the recently established Expert Panel on Early Learning and Child Care.

Young families need access to quality, affordable child care. But today, there is an affordability crisis in child care across the country. Families are struggling to find child care spaces and get on waitlists – before their children are even born. Costs are unaffordable in many cities. And parents are forced to make impossible choices between delaying their return to work or paying huge amounts for the child care they need.

Our vision is to give families relief. Every parent across Canada should be able to find the child care you need, when you need it with a licensed provider making a fair wage. We’ll work with other levels of government, Indigenous communities, families, and child care workers to ensure that care is inclusive and responsive to the needs of all Canadian children. And we’ll introduce legislation that enshrines Canada’s commitment to high-quality, public child care in law. Public early childhood education and child care that is affordable and available to all families helps our economy and gives parents real choices.

We will make child care better for families by investing $1 billion in 2020 and growing that investment annually, along with the provinces and territories. We’re on the side of parents to ensure affordable, quality child care for all – because no one should be forced to choose between having a family and having a career.

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No Canadian should have to choose between paying for prescription drugs and putting food on the table. While Canadians are proud of our health care system, many are still forced to make hard decisions. These decisions are even more difficult when it comes to the health needs of seniors, which can put even greater strain on any family.

As a government and as a party, we gratefully accept the report by Dr. Hoskins and the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare and the report is an important step in laying the foundation for a national pharmacare program.

We have already committed to working together with provinces and territories to create a Canadian Drug Agency that will make medications more affordable by negotiating better drug prices on behalf of all Canadians. In particular, we know that the cost of many drugs for rare diseases can be astronomical, so we are putting in place a national strategy for rare disease drugs to help Canadians get the life-saving drugs that they need. 

If re-elected, we will work closely with the provinces and territories, and our partners and stakeholders to consider the best way forward. Our newly announced investment of an additional $6 billion over the next four years will include dedicated funding to further the progress we have already made towards universal pharmacare for all Canadians, as guided by the Advisory Council.

New Democrats believe in a public, universal Pharmacare system and would immediately work to make it a reality. We will begin working with the provinces right away to target a late 2020 start date, with an annual federal investment of $10 billion. That means access to necessary medicines in the same way that we have access to medical and hospital care – free at the point of care, financed by a public insurance system that covers everyone. It means that you’ll need your health card – not your credit card – at the pharmacy till. And it puts an end to costly co-payments, deductibles and premiums that cost families hundreds and even thousands a year.