Editor

If you saw the first leaders’ debate – the one without the PM – and were surprised at Jagmeet Singh’s robust performance, you shouldn’t have been. He is an experienced Parliamentarian, formerly the Deputy Leader of the Ontario NDP.

The three leaders touched on climate change, but we need a national debate on the matter with Trudeau in the room. The climate crisis, along with inequality, are the top two things on people’s minds this election.

Both are costing us dearly. Levels of household debt are still increasing. We owe $1.78 for every dollar earned. Nearly half of Canadian families are $200 away from financial ruin.

Meanwhile, rapid climate change is draining more money from families who don’t have insurance and from the economy (insurance costs for wildfires and flooding are now $2 billion a year, and that’s not counting the cost to the health care system). That cost, and the high levels of household debt are both among six economic vulnerabilities in our economy according to the Bank of Canada.

It is likely that the costs of fighting climate change now will balance out the cost of the climate crisis to Canadians. But fighting the climate crisis will take three things …

Increasing revenues. The NDP will finance the fight against the climate crisis (and inequality) by …

• Ending the billions of dollars in federal subsidies now flowing to the fossil fuel industry.
• Instituting a ‘super wealth tax’ on the one-tenth of one per cent of us who earn over $20 million (worth some $70 billion over 10 years according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer).
• Closing loopholes in our tax system to collect taxes owed and income hidden in off-shore tax havens.
• Rolling back the Conservative tax give-away to corporations from 15% to 18%.
• Taxing executive renumeration schemes (such as stock options) as income – which they are.

Adhere to realistic targets. Canada’s commitment to the Paris Accord is to reduce emissions by 30% below 2005 levels. We will adhere to that realistic target and work to better it.

Stimulate Innovation. An NDP government will accelerate the shift from a carbon-based economy to one driven by renewable energy by investing in made-in-Canada technologies such as advanced fuel cells and zero-emission vehicles. Many of the 300,000 good, new jobs we are predicting will come from this sector of our economy.

For more information: https://www.ndp.ca/climate-and-jobs.

Chris Stephen
NDP Candidate for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound