9/17/2008 8:28:21 PM

17.09.2008
HALIFAX – The Green Party of Canada today released its complete election platform, a plan that looks forward to an equitable society with a thriving, clean economy.

The plan, fully costed by an independent economist, focuses on the Green Tax Shift, which will use money from taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollutants – the things we don’t want – and use the money to support what we do want, such as good jobs, tax cuts for individuals and businesses, poverty reduction, and measures to help companies lead Canada into the post-carbon economy.

“We are the realists,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May as she unveiled the platform in Halifax’s Grand Parade Square. “While other parties look backward and resist change, we face the major threats of our time – the climate crisis, economic instability, increasing militarism and a growing gap between rich and poor – with clear-eyed realism.

“Our approach puts Canadians and future generations first. We are proving that breaking from the past and voting for tomorrow is not only possible, but is also the best course for our economy, for local jobs and for a secure world.

“We will meet the challenges because that is the only way to ensure a livable world for our children and grandchildren.”

The Green Party platform is comprehensive and coherent. It is based on the principle that all of the policies must support each other and be fiscally responsible. We will not run a deficit.

It is also based on the conviction that government, while it encourages change and innovation, must work to reduce inequality, ensure quality public services and help citizens to be empowered and engaged.

Among the platform highlights, the Green Party will:

• Bring in a $50 per tonne carbon tax and taxes for toxic chemicals. Use that revenue to cut payroll and income taxes – including the introduction of income splitting --and reduce employers’ contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan.
• Cut corporate tax by $50 for each tonne of carbon emission reductions, to create a $100 per tonne saving when combined with avoided carbon tax.
• Return the GST to six per cent, to invest in infrastructure. Expand the exemptions on food items, and extend them to children’s clothing and books. Provide rebates for rural Canadians.
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. Use cap and trade, with hard caps, for some large polluters. Expand research and development of low-carbon technologies.
• Improve energy productivity through smarter regulation of large appliances and vehicles, and a national program to retrofit existing buildings.
• Work toward a Guaranteed Annual Income in place of the current costly and demeaning maze of support programs.
• Increase funding for post-secondary education and cut students’ debt burden.
• Protect our universal, single-payer public health care system and ensure it works well at both disease prevention and treatment.
• Restore Canada’s peacekeeping role and help to build a permanent UN force to respond to conflicts and climate disasters. In Afghanistan, shift from the NATO mission to one led by the UN.

“Conservative Leader Steven Harper promises a steady hand at the wheel, but he is like a stubborn, frightened captain steering his ship toward a dangerous reef,” Ms. May said. “The Green Party is a democratic party. With the help of all Canadians, we will take our country in a direction for which future generations will thank us.”

Ms. May urged all the parties to focus on the crucial choices Canadians face.

Back in 1835, Nova Scotia crusader and later MP Joseph Howe said: “My public life is before you. … The only questions I ask myself are: What is right? What is just? What is for the public good?”

“If only the leaders of today would ask themselves the same questions,” Ms. May said.

“It is time to debate real issues in this election. We need to engage voters with respect. Electing Greens will transform the climate in Parliament.”