Green Party Platform – Federal Election 2021

As a non-partisan organization, OSPE considers it a civic duty for all Canadians to vote based on a clear understanding and knowledge of the platforms of each political party.  In the upcoming weeks, OSPE will extract information from each official party platform on issues impacting the engineering community.

This week OSPE is showcasing the Green Party of Canada’s 2021 electoral platform. Don’t forget to make sure you are registered to vote on Monday, September 20, 2021 by visiting  https://ereg.elections.ca/CWelcome.aspx.

green party logo

Energy

  • Ensure that 100 per cent of Canadian electricity is produced from renewable sources by 2030.
  • Create a national coast to coast to coast energy corridor for green renewable energy by building up the inter-ties needed to link existing provincial grids.
  • Implement a national, non-emitting electricity grid to help Canada meet its target of net-zero GHG emissions.

Environment

  • Ensure a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 60 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, with clear enforceable targets and timelines starting in 2023.
  • Cancel all new pipeline projects (beginning with Trans Mountain)
  • Cancel all new oil exploration projects, including in the off-shore
  • End leasing of federal lands for fossil fuel production and retire existing licenses
  • Ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking)
  • End all subsidies to the fossil fuel sector
  • Enact a detailed Carbon Budget, determining the cumulative amount of GHG that Canada can emit to do its part to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
  • Accelerate the increase in carbon taxes. Beginning in 2022 and up to 2030, increase carbon taxes by $25 per tonne each year.
  • Enact a Carbon Border Adjustment, which will ensure Canadian companies paying carbon taxes are not placed at a competitive disadvantage with foreign companies located in countries with no such taxes.
  • Create and implement a national green retrofit of existing residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings
  • Increase funding for the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) to support climate resilience projects critically needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change including: wildfire mitigation activities, rehabilitation of storm water systems, and restoration of wetlands, shorelines, and other natural infrastructure.
  • Create an independent, scientific, non-partisan, diverse Climate Council to advise the government.

Infrastructure

  • Change the national building code to require that all new construction and major renovations to older buildings meet net-zero standards by 2030.
  • Ban the sale of all internal combustion engine passenger vehicles by 2030, and expand charging stations for electric vehicles, including charging stations in smaller communities and rural areas.
  • Continue to support the Universal Broadband Fund, and retain that funding with an additional $150 M annually over 4 years to reach communities at the lowest end of the eligibility spectrum.
  • Build electrified, 200 km/h or faster, high-speed rail in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City triangle and the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Indigenous Peoples

  • Implement all 94 of the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
  • Provide sustainable funding for new and existing Indigenous Healing Centres to address the harms caused by residential schools.
  • Increase funding to Friendship Centres across Canada providing critical social services off-reserve.
  • In partnership with Indigenous Peoples, work towards the creation of an Indigenous Lands and Treaties Tribunal Act to establish an independent body that will decide on specific claims, ensuring that treaty negotiations are conducted and financed fairly.
  • End all drinking water and boil water advisories.

Housing

  • Maintain a moratorium on evictions until the pandemic is over and for a reasonable time thereafter, in cooperation with provincial governments.
  • Declare housing affordability and homelessness a national emergency.
  • Redefine affordable housing using a better, updated formula, that accounts for regional variations across the country.
  • Immediately appoint the Federal Housing Advocate, as established in the National Housing Strategy Act.
  • Raise the “empty home” tax for foreign and corporate residential property owners who leave buildings and units vacant.
  • Assess the role of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Canada’s housing market.
  • Close tax haven loopholes that allow foreign investors to hide the names of beneficial owners of properties in Canada.
  • Invest in construction and operation of 50,000 supportive housing units over 10 years.
  • Build and acquire a minimum of 300,000 units of deeply affordable non-market, co-op and non-profit housing over a decade.

Taxes

  • Hold the small business tax rate at no more than 9%.
  • Apply a corporate tax on transnational e-commerce companies doing business in Canada by requiring the foreign vendor to register, collect and remit taxes where the product or service is consumed.
  • Increase the federal corporate tax rate from 15 to 21 per cent to bring it into line with the federal rate in the United States.
  • Charge a five per cent surtax on commercial bank profits.
  • Apply a one per cent tax on net (family) wealth above $20 million.
  • Establish an arm’s length Federal Tax Commission to analyze the tax system for fairness and accessibility, based on the principle of progressive taxation.

Jobs and Skills Training

  • Create a comprehensive and equitable Guaranteed Livable Income for every person in Canada.
  • Extend wage and rent subsidies until COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions are fully lifted.
  • Replace every high paying fossil fuel sector job with a high paying green sector job through wage insurance, retraining programs and early retirement plans.

Health Care

  • Expand the Canada Health Act by fully funding a universal pharmacare program.
  • Expand Medicare to include free dental care for low-income Canadians.
  • Create enforceable National Standards for Long-Term Care.
  • Create a programme through the federal government so people can access pharmaceutical alternatives of drugs of choice safely.
  • Establish a national mental health strategy and a suicide prevention strategy

Research and Innovation

  • Increase R&D spending to 2.5% of GDP, bringing Canada in line with the OECD average.
  • Increase funding for the granting councils from $22.4 billion3 to $30 billion, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).
  • Increase direct federal funding for private and student-led business R&D.

Diversity and Inclusion

  • Implement recommendations to begin dismantling systemic racism in Canadian institutions.
  • Support the 23 recommendations outlined in the LGBT Purge Fund’s report entitled Emerging from the Purge which highlights the reality that LGBTQI2+ people continue to experience significant discrimination in federal workplaces.
  • In collaboration with women’s and Indigenous organizations, develop a comprehensive Canada-wide plan of action – with a timetable and dedicated funding – to eliminate violence against women, girls and gender-diverse people.
  • Pass pay equity legislation, as recommended by the Pay Equity Task Force; immediately implement full pay equity for women employed in the federal sector and develop tax incentives for companies to meet the highest standards of gender and pay equity.

Read the full Green Party Platform here.

What do you think of the federal Green Party platform? Are these promises attainable?

Leave a Reply

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.