As part of our 2004 federal election coverage, Investment Executive asked the major national political parties to outline their fiscal platforms.

Judy Wasylycia-Leis is the NDP spokesperson for finance, status of women, public accounts, pensions and crown corporations.

She was elected Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North Centre in 1997 and re-elected in 2000. She is a long-time member of the New Democratic Party.

She is a member of the NDP’s advocacy teams dealing with healthy communities and peace and independent foreign policy.

How low do you think federal public debt need to be as a percentage of GDP? When would you expect to reach it?
The NDP’s fiscal strategy will reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 25% within a year of the target set out in the Budget 2004 documents. This will be done by making strategic investments in health and education and in Canadian communities.

Further, we would bring more of Canada’s national debt under the control of the Bank of Canada, as it used to be, Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio is the second best in the G7 with recent reductions overwhelmingly due to economic growth.

Are you prepared to run deficits if necessary?
We have fully costed our election platform and will balance the budget every year. Our economic forecasts are based on cautious projections similar to those used by the current government.

What areas of program spending can be cut to pay for election platforms such as health care, defense and funding the cities?
Although we will maintain only government programs that continue to serve Canadians’ needs, our priority source for additional budgetary resources would be efficiencies gained through improvements to the taxation system. We have determined priorities for spending that reflect Canadians’ needs and have presented a strategy for financing those priorities over a five-year period within a balanced budget framework.

How high are you prepared to let program spending go as a percentage of GDP?
The current Liberal government has reduced program spending as a percentage of GDP to an 11% range not seen since the late 1940s and early 1950s. They have maintained these low levels despite the capacity, through surpluses, to return spending to the levels needed to maintain programs adequately and have reneged on their own promise to “balance” surplus allocation between programs and tax/debt reduction. We would increase spending to levels that are appropriate to meet the needs of Canadians at the beginning of the 21st century instead of the middle of the 20th — or 19th — century.

Will you allow Canada’s banks to merge?
Canada’s financial institutions have failed to prove that further bank mergers would be in the public interest. Canadians, especially small businesses, need access to competitive financial services. Bank mergers, by definition, reduce competition. The NDP will fight for better competition for financial services.

Do you support a national securities commission?
Yes.

How would you change the current retirement savings regime?
New Democrats strongly support the Canada Pension Plan as the primary retirement savings vehicle for Canadians. We also believe the CPP can be used more efficiently for the mutual benefit of both pensioners and the communities in which they live. We are proposing, for example, a completely secure and guaranteed federal revolving fund leveraged by the Canada Pension Plan to fund low-interest loans to businesses, institutions, apartment complexes, schools and recreation centres for energy-efficient retrofitting.

We would also protect workers’ pensions by requiring broader representation of Canadian workers on the CPP Investment Board and changing the mandate to promote sustainable industrial and community development. We would work to establish an ethical screen on our public pension management.

The NDP would also:

  • provide a legal framework for joint trusteeship of pension funds to assist using these funds to invest in job creation through community economic development;
  • create a federal pension insurance program for businesses under federal jurisdiction, which will act as a catalyst for an inter-provincial program to cover all workers;
  • make employees and their pension plans the preferred creditor in the event of bankruptcies;
  • improve access to public pensions for women by including unpaid care for loved ones current “drop-out” provisions; and
  • protect private pension plans and shareholders by limiting the tax deductibility of CEO salaries to $300,000 and requiring that stock options be fully expensed in corporate accounting.

How would you change the current personal and business income tax regime?
New Democrats are proposing a number of changes to the income tax regime including the following:

  • Guaranteeing full indexing of tax brackets and credits, so that Canadians don’t receive hidden tax increases as wages and salaries rise.
  • Ensuring all Canadians who make less than $15,000 a year pay no federal income tax.
  • Increasing the Child Tax Benefit to $4,900 per child and altering the program to permit Canada’s poorest families, who don’t pay tax, to qualify.
  • Making the disability tax credit and medical expenses tax credit fully refundable.
  • Treating income from capital gains the same as all employment income while retaining exemptions for the sale of principal residences and profits from family farms and small businesses.
  • Reversing corporate tax reductions, recognizing that Canadian corporate taxes are now well below U.S. corporate tax levels.

    • Cancelling all tax treaties with tax havens like Barbados.

  • Ending tax deductions applying to fines for environmental infractions or unsafe workplaces.
  • Closing corporate and very high income tax loopholes like the one that let a prominent Canadian family move $2 billion out of Canada through trust accounts and never pay a cent of income tax on the transaction.
  • Creating a fair taxation system for small businesses.

Would you maintain or cut the present subsidies to business?
We would evaluate subsidies to business, whether delivered directly through specific program spending or via tax incentives, on their merits, including the extent to which they fulfil their program objectives, and/or contribute to a greener and more prosperous economy.