Continue to expand the Canada Workers Benefit to support about 1 million additional Canadians in low-wage jobs, helping them return to work and increasing benefits for Canada’s most vulnerable, who will be eligible for up to $1,400 a year.
Ensure that Canadians who qualify are automatically enrolled, and that the benefit is delivered on a quarterly basis.
Continue to ensure that secondary earners—mostly women—can exclude up to $14,000 of their working income when income-testing the Canada Workers Benefit, so that families can receive up to $2,400.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
That’s why, until the industry becomes more competitive, we’ll put in place a price cap to make sure that Canadians aren’t paying more than the global average for their cell phone and internet bills.
Expanding cell coverage and delivering reliable, affordable broadband internet to every community in Canada is vital to the economic future of rural Canada and remote communities. But it has been ignored by successive governments for far too long. That’s why we believe that we need to act urgently to close the digital divide now, not ten years from now as the Liberal government proposed. We are committed to declaring high-speed internet an essential service and making sure that every Canadian has access to affordable, reliable high-speed broadband within four years. This will include taking the first steps to create a Crown corporation to ensure the delivery of quality, affordable telecom services to every community.
In addition, we’ll make sure that providers offer a basic plan for wireless and broadband that is comparable with the affordable plans that are available in other countries. To put an end to surprise bills, we’ll require companies to offer unlimited wireless data options at affordable rates, as exist elsewhere in the world, and abolish data caps for broadband internet.
And finally, to protect Canadians from unfair wireless and internet sales and services practices, we’ll introduce a Telecom Consumers’ Bill of Rights and put an end to gouging for good.
— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27
1. Dedicate additional resources to making a universal, affordable, early learning and child-care (ELCC) system a reality
● Collaborate with provinces/territories, local communities, Indigenous communities and the child-care sector to ensure that a comprehensive short-, medium- and long-term policy road map – based on the principles of universality, affordability, quality, inclusivity, accessibility, and equity – finally becomes a reality.
● These principles will ensure a right of access for all children regardless of their parents’ work status or income levels, while at the same time allowing for regional and local adaptation.
2. Improve and strengthen parental leave
● Make parental leave more inclusive so it covers leave to care for elderly family members, leave following miscarriages and more,and more flexible and better paid.
3. Increase federal child care funding
● Immediately begin to ramp up federal child care funding to achieve the international benchmark of at least one per cent of GDP annually.
● Long-term, stable, national funding must be made available and be sufficient to meet the standards of the guiding principles. It must also be secure and predictable enough to permit the long-term planning and sustainability of the programs.
● Ensure the training, recruitment and retention of well-paid and professional staff.
4. Eliminate GST on all construction costs related to child care spaces
5. Ensure equitable access to high-quality, culturally appropriate ELCC programmes for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children
● Build on the Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care and the accompanying bilateral agreements that have been negotiated with every province and territory, as well as with the First Nation, Inuit and Métis Peoples to ensure solutions are meeting their needs.
— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11
Reduce fees for child care by 50% in the next year.
Deliver $10 a day child care within five years or less.
Build 250,000 new high-quality child care spaces.
Hire 40,000 more early childhood educators.
Finalize agreements with all remaining provinces and territories.
Work with the province of Quebec to build on its world-class, affordable child care system, improve working conditions for educators, and create more spaces for families.
Work with Indigenous partners to ensure Indigenous children have access to culturally appropriate, affordable, high-quality early learning and child care.
Enact federal child care legislation to strengthen and protect a Canada-wide child care system.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
To help make ends meet while on EI, we’ll create a low income supplement so that no one who is relying on EI regular or special benefits to stay afloat receives less than $2,000 a month.
Particularly in the midst of a global health crisis, New Democrats know that there are circumstances where people leave a job voluntarily but still need support. That’s why we would make EI available to people who quit their jobs to go back to school, to provide necessary childcare, or to protect their health or the health of immunocompromised family members.
For many Canadians who need EI when they’re dealing with an illness, the current system falls far short and doesn’t provide the kind of help people actually need. To make sure that Canadians can count on EI when they’re dealing with a serious illness, a New Democrat government will extend sickness benefits from 15 to 50 weeks, and create a pilot project to allow workers with episodic illnesses and disabilities to access EI sickness benefits a day at a time, as they need them. This flexibility will help support those who want to continue to work while providing the seriously ill with the benefits they need.
New Democrats also understand that seasonal workers face particular challenges accessing EI. To help Canadians in seasonal industries bridge the gap between the end of EI and the start of seasonal work, we’ll bring back the former Extra Five Weeks pilot project and make it permanent, and we will restore the economic regions in the territories and PEI to their 2014 boundaries.
Parental leave should be available for all Canadian families, in the way that works best for them. Eighteen months of leave is an attractive option for many parents, but not many Canadians can afford to live on just 33 percent of their salary. New Democrats will bring in a new special leave that allows parents to take shorter parental leave at a higher replacement rate. We’ll also allow self-employed workers to opt-into parental benefits at any time before taking the leave, and move to double leave for parents of multiples.
Finally, we will also protect the EI Operating Account in law, so that future governments can’t raid it for general revenue. Premiums, which are currently at a historic low, will be frozen until the economy recovers.
— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27
For Canadians facing a serious illness, we’ll make Employment Insurance work better by extending sickness benefits to 50 weeks of coverage, and creating a pilot project to allow workers with episodic disabilities to access benefits as they need them.
— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27
We will launch a Super EI that temporarily provides more generous benefits (75% of salary instead of 55%) when a province goes into recession (a 0.5% increase in the unemployment rate, as defined by the “Sahm Rule”). EI will return to normal levels once the recession is over, as evidenced by three months of job gains.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
Introduce a new EI benefit for self-employed Canadians, delivered through the tax system, that would provide unemployment assistance comparable to EI and lasting for as much as 26 weeks. This could provide support of nearly $15,500 when it is needed most.
Self-employed Canadians seeking to access this benefit would only be responsible to contribute the portion they would normally pay if they were a salaried employee. Further details regarding this benefit will be developed over the coming year with the launch of this new benefit happening in January 2023.
Strengthen rights for workers employed by digital platforms so that they are entitled to job protections under the Canada Labour Code and establish new provisions in the Income Tax Act to ensure this work counts toward EI and CPP while also making these platforms pay associated contributions as any employer would.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
Establish an EI Career Insurance Benefit. This benefit will be available to people who have worked continuously for the same employer for five or more years and are laid off when the business closes. The Career Insurance Benefit will kick in after regular EI ends, providing an additional 20% of insured earnings in the first year following the layoff, and an extra 10% in the second year. This will give workers up to an almost $16,900 over two years, providing significant help at a difficult time.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
New Democrats will partner with provinces, territories, municipalities and Indigenous communities to work towards a national school nutrition program that will give every child in Canada access to healthy food, and the food literacy skills to make healthy choices for life. We’ll aim to make culturally- appropriate food available to children in every community in Canada, so that all children can grow and learn.
— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27
Work with our provincial, territorial, municipal, Indigenous partners, and stakeholders to develop a National School Food Policy and work towards a national school nutritious meal program with a $1 billion dollar investment over five years. Introduce new restrictions on the commercial marketing of food and beverages to children and establish new front-of-package labelling to promote healthy food choices.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
We’ll start this work immediately by lifting every senior and person living with a disability out of poverty, and build from there until every Canadian can count on a basic livable income when they need it. This will be complimented by bold new investments in housing, health care, post-secondary education and training to set all Canadians up to succeed.
In time, New Democrats will work to expand all income security programs to ensure everyone in Canada has access to a guaranteed livable basic income. Making the creation of a guaranteed livable basic income a priority will strengthen our social safety net and finally ensure dignity, security and peace of mind for everyone in Canada.
— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27
1. Create a comprehensive and equitable Guaranteed Livable Income for every person in Canada.
● Building on the Market Basket Measure, payment would be set at a “livable” level for different regions of the country. The federal government would provide an initial base level subsidy across the country, and an intergovernmental body would determine and administer the necessary supplemental amounts.
● Allowing the provinces to reduce their expenditures on provincial welfare, a national Guaranteed Livable Income would liberate provincial budgets for the health budgets they have asked Ottawa to support.
● GLI would serve as a supplement for and complement to existing public services, and unlike provincial welfare regulations, would not discourage work.
● The Guaranteed Livable Income program would cover everyone, with a benefit amount gradually decreasing as other income increases. Seniors’ and children’s benefits would remain in place.
— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11
• Double the residency deduction, which has not increased since 2016, to recognize the rising cost of living in the north, boost the basic amount in the intermediate zone to match the northern zone, and add the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, new parts of northern Saskatchewan, and new parts of north-western B.C. to this zone.
• Implement a Northern Housing Strategy built on:
° Providing the territories with their fair shares of federal housing funding;
° Ensuring that funding is stable and predictable; and
° Working with Indigenous groups including the Inuit, and with resource companies investing in the north to ensure that housing gets built.
• Support innovative approaches to address the crises of mental health and addiction, such as land-based treatment programs developed and managed by Indigenous communities as part of a plan to enhance the delivery of culturally appropriate addictions treatment and prevention services in First Nations communities with high needs.
• Improve Nutrition North so that it achieves the goal of ensuring that northerners have access to affordable healthy food.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
● Work to create a Canada Disabilities Act (CDA) to express Canadians’ vision of a more equitable society rather than the current confusion resulting from the multiplicity of acts, standards, policies, and programs that prevail.
● Support a national equipment fund to provide equipment such as wheelchairs and accessibility tools to assist persons with disabilities with the tools needed to fully participate in work and community life (This can be a joint program with provinces – the concern is equal access and common standards).
● Invest in social housing adapted as necessary to meet particular needs, with both rental and purchase options.
● Provide federal health transfer payments to provinces and territories directed to rehabilitation for those who have become disabled, e.g. loss of limbs etc.
● Enforce the Employment Equity Act to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal opportunity to long-term employment and advancement. People with disabilities are generally the last to find employment and the first to be laid off.
● Institute a Guaranteed Liveable Income for people living with disabilities so that none live in poverty.
● Convert the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) to a refundable credit.
● Redesign the Canada Pension Plan/Disability Benefit (CPP/D) test to incorporate the DTC definition of disability and permit employment.
— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11
Re-introduce a Disability Benefit Act which will create a direct monthly payment, the Canada Disability Benefit, for low-income Canadians with disabilities ages 18-64.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
Develop and implement an employment strategy for Canadians with disabilities. This strategy will be focused on supports for workers and employers and creating inclusive and welcoming workplaces. It will also include an investment in the Ready, Willing and Able inclusive hiring program to support individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Create a new stream of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program (YESS) to support 5000 opportunities a year for young people. This would help young Canadians with disabilities gain the skills, experience, and abilities they need to make a successful transition into the labour market and build successful careers.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02