Federal Election June 2. 1997  ELECTION PLATFORM  A Framework for Canada's Future  Make good jobs the top priority  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will put the needs of people first.  ONE IN TEN CANADIANS is officially unemployed. In parts of Atlantic Canada, it's one in five. The figures from Statistics Canada are a monthly indictment of the Liberal government. We are stuck in the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression, The government has failed to deliver on the most pressing issue facing ordinary men and women and their children.  *  Like the Conservatives before them, the Liberals have cut public services and deregulated industry. It's been very profitable for a few, but not for Canadian families. Corporate profits have increased by 89 percent since 1991, but real family income is less than it was in the mid-1970s.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP place before you a real choice: policies for sustainable jobs, with decent wages to support families. We will fight for a new approach to get more people working and paying taxes, and would reduce the deficit more than the old-style slashing pushed by the Liberals, Tones and Reform. And we would do it without threatening health care for Canadians and education for our children.  ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP WILL FIGHT FOR A NEW APPROACH:  • Make full employment the primary goal of government. Set targets to cut the unemployment rate in half in the next term of government. Introduce a National Employment Act to make it stick.  • Pursue targets for job creation with the same determination as governments have pursued targets for deficit reduction.  • Ensure that the Bank of Canada makes employment growth its central priority, and balances sustainablejob growth with price stability. The central bank must adapt to changing times, not remain fixated on fighting inflation.  • A national program to protect Canada's environment. Thousands of jobs can be created through capital investment in public transit and commuter rail, water and sewage treatment, waste management, recycling, and retro-fitting of public buildings for energy and water conservation. Under this program every $1 million in seed money invested to upgrade municipal utilities and home heating creates 4,000 jobs.  • Ensure the survival of coastal communities by refusing to allow a few giant corporations to dominate the fishing industry. The government's goal must be the survival of the smaller boat, sustainable fisheries that have been the backbone of the industry. Those who catch and process fish must have a real role in ensuring the survival offish, fish habitat and the fishing industry.  • Maximize value-added industries based on primary sectors such mining, and forestry, and agriculture to take advantage of Canada's abundant natural resources, and increase quality jobs in secondary manufacturing and value-added production.  " Invest in community-based, not-for-profit child care and eider care services. These labor-intensive services create direct jobs, and help strengthen the economy by allowing family members who were caring for children or elders to seek paid work.  • Kick-start the construction industry, and jobs in that industry, by launching non-profit and cooperative housing programs.  TRIUMPHANTLY CALLING IT LIKE IT IS  "To a large extent we've triumphed. What we've got in Ottawa is the most conservative  government we've had since the  1950s."  I David Somerville, National   Facts about jobs Priority given to job creation in Liberals' Red Book Number of Canadians officially unemployed in October, 1993 Number of Canadians officially unemployed in January, 1997 Actual number of Canadians unemployed when those who have simply given up looking are included Ratio of Canadian women who have full-time, permanent jobs earning more than $30,000 a year Ratio of Canadian men who have full-time, permanent jobs earning more than $30,000 a year Percentage of the 99,000 jobs created in 1995 that were part-time Number of jobs lost by workers in health care, environmental protection, education and other public services Ratio of Canadian men who work over 50 hours per week Decline in paid employment March 1996 to March 1997 Increase in self-employed jobs March 1996 to March 1997 Number of officially unemployed Canadian youth, Oct. 1993 Number of officially unemployed Canadian youth, Jan. 1997 Percentage increase in corporate profits, 1991 to 1995 Percentage increase in wages and salaries, 1991 to 1995 Number of Canadians who live below the poverty line   (SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA)  PROFITS UP, JOBS DOWN  • General Motors increased profits by 36 percent in 1995 and cut 2,500 Canadian employees.  • Inco - profits up 3,281 percent, 1,963 jobs cut.  • CP Rail - profits up 75 percent, 1,500 jobs cut.  • Shell Canada - profits up 63 percent, 471 jobs cut.  • Imperial Oil - profits up 43 percent, 452 jobs cut.  It's time to insist that Canadian banks do their share.  THEY'RE BIG. They're powerful. They make larger profits than any other Canadian corporation. They are giants, coddled and sheltered by the federal government.  Do the big banks serve all Canadians fairly? Or are some Canadians treated more equally than others? Do the banks provide small businesses with the financing they need to succeed and create jobs? Or do they favour other huge corporate interests?  The Liberals don't ask such questions of banks.  Canadian banks - the elite of the corporate elite - enjoy more privileges than any other sector of the economy. The federal government protects them, and gives them guarantees They protect banks from foreign competition. They give banks special prerogatives in the financial services markets. They protect them from insolvency.  In the cozy warmth of such government security blankets, the giant banks made risky investments in speculative real estate ventures, and questionable developments in the third world. When it comes to providing credit to Canadians for business start-up or expansion, mortgages, or home improvement loans, the banks have been far more cautious. Many Canadian customers and small businesses have complained for years about discriminatory and unresponsive lending practices.  During the past decade, one service charge at a time, the big five banks have reaped enormous profits - $6.3 billion in 1996. While profits were leaping skyward, they cut tending to small businesses. Small business loans under $100,000 now represent only 3 percent of business loans made by Canadian banks. The banks have also closed dozens of community branch offices, and laid off thousands of employees.  Almost all Canadians have money deposited in banks. Deposits account for 95 percent of the  capital base of banks. Shareholder equity totals 5 percent. Canada's NDP would ensure that banks serve their depositors as well as their shareholders. We believe Canadians are entitled to know much more about how banks use the money entrusted to them. Consumers and small businesses should have a meaningful role in overseeing banking practices through periodic public reviews.  How can banks justify their credit card interest rates? How do banks respond to loan applications made by women? By entrepreneurs? By low income families seeking a first mortgage? What is the record in serving farming and fishing communities, and in lending to members of minority groups?  Credit is a major factor in job creation. Banks should explain whether and how they have taken such economic issues into account when developing their lending policies.  Canadian banks play a vital role in the economic life of our country. But they must serve the interests of all Canadians, not just big business and large shareholders. They must recognize their responsibilities in creating economic opportunity and employment in Canada.  Government has given the banks many protections, guarantees and rights. It is time to demand a good deal MORE accountability and democracy in return.  BANKS MAKE RECORD PROFITS., LAY OFF THOUSANDS  As many as 35,000 bank employees will lose their jobs and 5,700 lank branches will close over the next 10 years according to a Braxton Associates Study.   ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP SAY IT'S RIME TO STAND UP TO THE BANKS ON BEHALF OF CONSUMERS AND SMALL BUSINESS PEOPLE. WE WILL FIGHT FOR:  A COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT, SIMILAR TO LAWS ALREADY IN EFFECT IN THE UNITED STATES, WHICH WOULD REQUIRE BANKS TO:  Provide detailed information about their lending patterns and practices.  • Reinvest in communities and in job creation.  * Demonstrate that they are meeting the credit needs of the communities they serve. " Meet specific goals for investing in community economic development.  ACTION TO SUPPORT LOCAL JOB CREATION.  MORE AND MORE of Canada's investment dollars are falling under the control of a few large corporations. The big banks are bigger than ever, and are reporting record profits.  The communities that generate the savings that create the profits often find themselves standing on the sidelines. As the banking industry has grown and become more centralized, less and less is returned to communities.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will fight for an excess profits tax for large financial institutions. The proceeds, $400 million tills year, would finance a National Investment Bank to provide loans and investment for Canadian-based companies and community economic development. This initiative would both secure and create permanent jobs. The National Investment Bank would be managed by business, labour, government and the community.  Investment decisions would be coordinated through regional partners, such as provincial and territorial development banks, credit unions, caisses populates and local development authorities, to ensure that its operations are closely tied to community needs.  Canada's NDP will also support the activities of community economic development corporations.  We will defend and promote the rights of workers in the new economy.  MORE AND MORE PEOPLE are being forced to take part-time jobs, or starting their own businesses, because they can't find full-time work. At the same time, many full-time workers are working longer hours, more than they really want to work, and more than is healthy for them and their families. In August, 1996, three of four men and almost half of women worked more than 40 hours a week. Twenty-two percent of men worked more than 50 hours a week.  Federal programs and laws do not recognize these realities. They were designed years ago, and wrongly assume that a 40 hour week is the norm for most people.  • The improvements negotiated by unions at individual workplaces have often served as models for society at large. This is true of improved wages and working conditions, and it also true of workplace benefit programs  The world of work is changing in ways that make the organization of workers into unions by traditional means more difficult. More workers are working in small workplaces that are harder to organize and in which it is harder to bargain successfully. A large and growing portion of the labour force is self-employed. These changes create challenges for the trade union movement itself. But they are also challenges for public policy.  The New Democratic Party believes that it is a centrally important objective of public policy to strengthen the position of working people by making trade union representation more widely accessible, and by helping trade unions become more effective organizations.  ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP SAY THE GOVERNMENT MUST OPEN THE DEBATE ON THESE ISSUES AND THEIR EFFECT ON WORKING MEN AND WOMEN. THE ECONOMIC CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE MUST BE RECOGNIZED. NEW PROGRAMS ARE NEEDED TO MATCH THE REALITIES OF TODAY'S WORKFORCE, INCLUDING:  Eliminating discrimination against part-time workers in CPP and UI benefits. Requiring employers to pay part-time workers the equivalent to pro rated full-time benefits. Full-time benefits paid to employees working more than 24 hours. Working together with business and trade unions to redistribute working time to create jobs.  Ensuring employees have the right to refuse overtime work. Ensuring all overtime hours are subject to unemployment insurance premiums. Ensuring that employment standards protect temporary, contract and home workers. Reviewing all legislation to eliminate obstacles to redistributing work time. Strongly supporting the right of working people to organize into unions and negotiate better working conditions. To facilitate effective bargaining, the use of replacement workers must be banned.  A TIME TO FIGHT BACK  Reducing the role of government and increasing the emphasis on private markets necessarily involves, of course, making those who exercise power in the private sector more powerful, and those who benefit from the distribution of resources as a result of market forces  richer,  Thus, ultimately what is at stake in the debate over the role of government is the question of who will exercise power in Canadian society.  - Canadians Can Still Afford to Act Collectively, Neil Brooks, The CPA Monitor, March 1997.  IA VOICE FOR CANADIANS  "Alexa McDonough (is) a formidable politician.... McDonough is the only real alternative to the Grits."  - NDP Poised to Return, Calgary Sun, OCT 13, 1996  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will stop the government's attack on unemployed men and women.  THIS LIBERAL GOVERNMENT HAS CUT unemployment insurance more than any government in Canadian history. They reduced benefits. They made it harder to qualify.  The Liberals' renamed "employment insurance" program covers fewer than half of the unemployed. In some provinces, fewer than a third of those who cannot find jobs are able to claim any benefits. The government seems to be doing everything it can to prevent unemployed workers from receiving the benefits they've paid for.  ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP WILL FIGHT FOR A NEW APPROACH THAT TREATS MEN AND WOMEN WHO LOSE THEIR JOBS WITH RESPECT WE PROPOSE:  • A new unemployment insurance program that provides real support for every unemployed Canadian, with a target of replacing 662/3 percent of average earnings  and restoring a maximum benefit of 50 weeks..  • Better integration of provincial training programs and UI, so that UI recipients will be encouraged to retrain. Benefits will be extended where appropriate to permit people to complete training and educational programs.  • Immediate repeal of restrictive and perverse amendments which cut UI benefits and penalize workers for taking short term and seasonal work.  Ifs time to negotiate trade agreements that work for people, not against them.  THE TRADE AGREEMENTS of the last decade have made it easier for corporations to increase their profits, and harder for workers to keep the wages and benefits they have. Their impact is reflected in Statistics Canada reports:  corporate profits have increased dramatically while real family income has declined.  Deals like the Canada - US Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement encourage corporations to go where wages are lower, benefits are lower, and environmental regulations are weaker. Increasing the mobility of capital and goods makes it easier for corporations and the wealthy to avoid paying taxes. In other words, these deals tend to push down Canadian wages, social programs like Medicare, environmental protection, safety and labour standards and the revenue from taxes needed to pay for public services.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP say trade agreements should benefit all Canadians, not just corporations. They should help improve wages and working conditions, not drive them down to the levels that exist in some of our third world trading partners.  WE WILL SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS THAT HELP CANADIAN FAMILIES THROUGH:  • The introduction of real, enforceable and progressive social, labour and environmental standards.  • Stricter measures to prevent corporate tax evasion and stronger financial reporting • requirements for large corporations that are not publicly traded. We will work with  our trading partners to develop international standards for taxation of income from  capital to counter tax avoidance and evasion by corporations and the super-wealthy. • The introduction of an international tax to control speculative currency trading. In recent years, such speculation has undermined some national economies, forcing up interest rates and throwing people out of work.  We must build a transportation system to meet the needs of people, and our needs as a trading nation.  CANADA IS A trading nation. We need an efficient and responsive transport system. Without it, we will lose markets. We will lose the edge to compete in tomorrow's markets in the Asia-Pacific and an increasingly prosperous single-market Europe.  Instead of planning for a secure future for Canadians, the Liberals are dismantling our transportation system. They are privatizing ports and airports. They sold off the Canadian National Railway. They are promoting rail line abandonment. They have undermined the Prairie grain transportation system, and driven up farm costs by abolishing the Crow Benefit. The Liberals are failing to regulate railway monopolies, or ensure they fulfill their responsibilities. They are even planning to tell farmers to buy the hopper car fleet, a key component of the transport system which the public already owns.  The Liberal government is sitting on its hands while airlines engage in senseless, costly competition, flying half empty planes side by side as ticket prices climb in many communities and jobs are threatened.  The government has also abandoned the national commitment to Canada's highway system,  This Liberal agenda is risky for Canadians. Forcing exporters to work through an increasingly inefficient and fragmented transport system will make it harder for Canadian companies and workers to compete.  ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA’S NDP WILL FIGHT FOR REALISTIC POLITICS FOR AN EFFICIENT, RESPONSIVE AND COMPETITIVE TRANSPORTATION  SYSTEM:  • A stable, long-term federal commitment to a national highways program.  • Government action to protect exporters and producers from monopoly pricing by railways. A clear, tough set of incentives and penalties to ensure railways fulfill their responsibilities, particularly their responsibilities to the Prairie grain economy given federal abolition of the Crow Benefit.  • An end to privatization and off-loading of Canada's ports and the seaway system. • Partnership between governments, communities, producers and the labour movement to explore community, co-operative, producer- and worker-owned short-line railroads. We will fight for tougher rules on rail line abandonment, to ensure adequate time to develop alternatives.  • Public ownership of the Canadian hopper car fleet, or their transfer to producers.  • A clear national commitment to build, as the Farmer Railcar Coalition put it last year, a "modem logistically-driven system which is efficient, competitive, affordable and reliable."  Air transport rules that eliminate wasteful duplication of flights, fares that increase faster than me rate of inflation, and the loss of airline service to outlying communities.  • A revitalized, sustainable Canadian passenger rail system.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will promote new investment in Canadian ideas.  CANADA'S PERFORMANCE in research and development is an embarrassment. The Liberals give corporations some of the world's most generous tax breaks for research and development. Despite that, the share of gross national product devoted to research and development is far behind other comparable countries.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP understand that innovation, research and development are the keys to sustainable growth in today's economy.  WE WILL PROPOSE INITIATIVES TO REFOCUS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS TO:  Target federal investment to research and technology that will improve the  environment and the lives of Canadians. We will create jobs through the independent  granting councils and grants to universities and technical institutes. • Build cooperation between federally-funded researchers and die needs of innovative  Canadian businesses• Halt cuts to the independent research councils.  Canada needs strong agricultural communities, built on a plan to provide a secure food supply for consumers and a fair income for producers.  CANADA'S FAMILY FARMS, orchards and ranches are both a way of life and an important part of our economy. Canadians depend on them for a secure food supply. Food producers deserve a fair income in return.  The Liberals have made and broken many promises to the agriculture community. They promised more for agricultural research and development, then reduced it by 16 percent. They promised to defend marketing boards, then bargained away international trade protection. They promised to strengthen the Farm Debt Review Board to help farmers deal with debt, then abolished the board instead.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP say those who make their living in agriculture deserve better than they've received from the Liberals.  The agriculture industry is one of Canada's best export-earners. It is the centre of some of our country's most exciting and innovative research and development. It is a key market for some of our most competitive implement manufacturers. It is the source of tens of thousands of value-added jobs, with the potential for many more.  Farm communities deserve a coherent, clear, national strategy to provide producers with security, and build for the future through trade expansion, investment in better products, and value-added development.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will help build a sustainable agricultural system. We want to give farmers control over their production past the farm gate and allow them to earn a living from farm production. We will support  national policies to encourage vibrant rural communities, and a national commitment to providing consumers with secure access to safe and healthy food.  OUR STRONG COMMITMENT TO CANADA’S FOOD PRODUCERS INCLUDES:  • Stable and significant funding for agricultural research and development.  • Support for value-added economic development in farm and rural communities.  • Action to build a modem transportation system that is efficient, competitive,  affordable and reliable. • A coherent, national and publicly-administered system of food grading and  inspection, without senseless, self-destructive user fees. • A review of farm input costs under the Federal Combines Investigation Act, leading  to tough action against monopoly and predatory pricing. • Support for rural co-operatives, credit unions and pools, and other vehicles of  , community economic development. • A modem, responsive and accountable Canadian Wheat Board.  Support for the principle of single-desk marketing.  We must end the threat to Canada's fisheries and coastal communities  For generations, Canadian men and women have made their homes in hundreds of coastal communities and looked to the sea to make their living. On the Atlantic and the Pacific, tens of thousands of families depend on fishing and fish-processing to earn their income. Through the years they have faced deadly storms, incursions by foreign fishing fleets, and outsiders who don't understand their way of life.  Now there's an even more dangerous threat to their survival: the federal government.  As it has in other areas, the Liberal government has put big business interests ahead of people. The government encouraged corporate domination of the Atlantic fishery. Massive new fleet capacity carries much of the blame for the decimation of major fish stocks and the collapse of the groundfish fishery.  DP Elections 1997 - Election Platform http://www.ndp.ca/eiection97/engiish/Platfonit/platformjobs.htinl  On the west coast similar federal government policies have already wiped out 3,000 jobs. Another 1,000 fishery jobs are on the line.  The Mifflin plan for "license stacking" on the West Coast fleet is another unfair threat to coastal and Aboriginal communities and to the owner-operators who are being told they'll have to pay more for less. It's an attack on the people who have the greatest interest in sustainable jobs in a healthy, progressive fishery.  Many Atlantic fisheries and their jobs are threatened by federal government-schemes to impose Individually Transferable Quotas, rather than working with fishers and communities to develop a policy reflecting a sustainable fishery.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will fight for the survival of coastal communities and sustainable jobs in health fisheries. This must be the primary goal of federal fisheries policy.  The most important step towards achieving this goal is to genuinely share control of the fishery with the coastal communities... with men and women who catch and process the fish.  WE'VE ALREADY MADE PROGRESS. ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP JOINED AND HELPED WIN THE FIGHT:  • To force Ottawa to settle allocation on the West Coast, with the B.C. government involved in decision-making; and • To force Ottawa to implement a west-coast conservation council.  WE'LL KEEP UP THE FIGHT. IN THE NEXT PARLIAMENT, ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP WILL FIGHT FOR:  • Whole-hearted implementation of other positive steps for the West Coast fishery, including a public registry of licences, equitable salmon allocation policies, and a strong commitment to equal access to the resource for owner-operators of coastal and Aboriginal communities.  • A complete rewrite of the proposed Fisheries Act, Bill C-62, to ensure that it genuinely encourages the survival of smaller boat operators and coastal communities.  • Community-based co-management as a means of reducing dictatorial federal control and manipulation of this vital industry, and ensuring a fair sharing of access, benefits and decision-making in the fishery of each area- including a commitment to work  with fishery workers and their unions and organizations which represent them. Reinstatement of the final year of the Atlantic Groundfish Strategy so that displaced workers' benefits continue to May, 1999 as promised by the Liberals and insure that TAG beneficiaries continue to be considered part of the labour force for the purposes of unemployment insurance.  Table of contents  • A word from Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP  • Introduction  • MAKE GOOD JOBS THE TOP PRIORITY  • Canada's children deserve the chance to build a better future  • Ease the burden on working families  • Guarantee health care is there when you need it  • Strengthen the Canadian community  • Appendix  A letter from Ed Tchorzewski - President, Federal New Democratic Party  Federal Election June 2, 1997  A Framework for Canada’s Future  Canadas children deserve the chance to build a better future  GIVING OUR CHILDREN A STRONG BEGINNING.  IT IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE. Canada is among the richest of nations. But, far too many children and their families are trapped in poverty. According to the National Council of Welfare, the number of Canadians living in poverty is over 5.1 million. Over 57 percent of single parent mothers, and 83 percent of single mothers under 25 are poor.  At one time, the Liberals talked about attacking child poverty and providing child care to allow parents to take full-time, family-supporting jobs. They have done the opposite. Three successive Liberal budgets have clobbered poor families. By tossing in the towel on jobs, gutting unemployment insurance and slashing social assistance, they have helped push half a million more children and their families into poverty.  They have also broken their promise to create a national child care program, and cut funding that supported provincial child care programs.  Canada needs a new commitment to better futures for children and families. In 1989, when Parliament unanimously passed a motion by former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. Instead child poverty has increased by 49 percent. One in five Canadian children lives in poverty.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP say all children deserve a chance to show what they can do.  We will fight for a national program to eliminate child poverty in Canada within ten years. Our proposal will lift 500,000 poor children out of poverty by the year 2000, and cut the rate of child poverty in half within six years.  IN COOPERATION WITH PROVINCIAL AND TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS WHERE APPROPRIATE, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD:  " Stop the federal cuts to social services, restore this year's $650 million cut.  • Establish national standards to ensure no Canadian goes hungry or homeless because his or her income has been pushed below survival levels.  • Establish annual targets to reduce child poverty, so that by the year 2000, Canada would have half a million fewer poor children. We would put Canada back on the road to eliminating child poverty within ten years.  THIS WOULD BE ACHIEVED THROUGH A MULTI-FACETED PROGRAM, INCLUDING AN INTEGRATED CHILD BENEFIT, NEW CHILD CARE AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SPACES, AND A SUSTAINED EFFORT TO LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT.  • Launch a national child care and early childhood education program to create 150,000 new quality, accessible spaces by 2000.  • Support an active training program for employable social assistance recipients.  If market earnings alone are considered, more than 1.5 million Canadian families would be considered poor. After government transfers are factored in, one million families remained poor.   Poverty among working-age families, Canada, 1994 Percent of families Number of families Average poverty gap Total poverty gap (bil,ions)   * Working-age families are those in which the head and spouse (if present) are both less than 65 years of age.  Source: Prepared by the Centre for International Statistics at the CCSD using Statistics Canada's Survey of Consumer Finances microdata, 1995.  PRECARIOUS LABOUR MARKET FUELS RISING POVERTY  || The progress against poverty achieved in the 1960s and 1970s has I stalled since 1975. Poverty has not improved at all over the last 20 I years. In fact, the low income population was significantly larger in 11995 (17.8 percent of all Canadians) than in 1975 (14.2 percent).  I The economy of the 1990s is creating an abundance of non-standard I jobs which pay low wages, offer few if any benefits, and are often  part-time or unstable. While most couples now have both spouses in | the workforce, many families are just a pay cheque away from  poverty.  Official statistics greatly understate the problem. In 1995, the real unemployment rate - which includes people who have given up actively searching for work and part-time workers who want full-time jobs - was 15.2 percent or 60 percent higher than the 9.5 | percent official rate.  I- The Caledon Institute, December, 1996  THE INCOME GAP IS GROWING  "In 1984, the median market income of families with children in the wealthiest quintile was 12 times higher than the median market income of families in the poorest quintile. By 1994, the wealthiest families with children enjoyed an income that was nearly 24 times higher than that of the poorest families with children."  - The Progress of Canada's Children, 1996, Canadian Council on Social Development.  CANADA RANKS SECOND HIGHEST IN NATIONAL WEALTH, AND LOWEST IN FAMILY SUPPORT.   i Comparative family support and national 1 wealth | Country Rank 1. Austria 2. Belgium 3. Norway 4. Sweden 5. Netherlands 6-Japan 7. Denmark 8. United Kingdom 9. United States 10. Germany 11. France 12. CANADA   Sources: OECD (1995). The Tax/Benefit Position of Production Workers 1991-1994, Parts III and IV UNDP (1996). Human Development Report 1996, Table 1.    For this comparison, all families in Canada have been divided into five equal groupings, or quintiles.  Giving young people the opportunity to get a good education, build a career, or start a business.  FOR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN today it is almost impossible to find work. The unemployment rate for youth is double the rate for workers over 25. The unemployment rate is 17 percent for all young Canadians, and even higher at 23 percent for those without post-secondary education. Most of the available jobs promise low wages and little future.  Young people understand that education and training are needed to succeed in the modem economy. Many are pursuing higher education and specific job training. But many others have been cut off by high tuition fees and punitive student loan programs.  The Liberals have forced tuition fee increases in colleges and universities, cut funding for training, and haphazardly turned training over to the provinces. Liberal actions have fueled a trend towards elite institutions charging prohibitive tuition fees that effectively exclude the majority of students from attending. For example, first year enrollment immediately dropped 11 percent when Acadia University increased fees that were already Canada's highest.  NEW INITIATIVES PROPOSED BY ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP WOULD OPEN THE DOORS TO EDUCATION, TRAINING AND OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, NOT SLAM THOSE DOORS AS LIBERAL DECISIONS ARE DOING. THESE INITIATIVES INCLUDE:  • Halt this year's $550 million cut in federal support for community colleges and universities.  • Make accessibility a new national standard in higher education. Full federal funding will go to every province to ensure tuition fees no longer exclude students without deep pockets.  • A student assistance program to give all qualified students access to post-secondary education, without trapping them in debt for years after graduation.  • Funding for existing and new training initiatives that involve labour and management in cooperative delivery of training programs.  • Increased capital and research funding to restore and renew our post-secondary facilities.  • Support technology transfer programs at post-secondary research institutions. Such programs will promote economic benefit from Canadian research activities and improve employment opportunities for young graduates.  • Support community research enterprises so communities will get more economic benefits and students will get improved access to jobs from post-secondary research.  TABLE OF CONTENTS  • A word from Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP " Introduction  • Make good jobs the top priority  • CANADA'S CHILDREN DESERVE THE CHANCE TO BUILD A BETTER FUTURE  • Ease the burden on working families  " Guarantee health care is there when you need it  • Strengthen the Canadian community  • Appendix  • A letter from Ed Tchorzewski - President, Federal New Democratic Party  Federal Election June 2. 1997  A Framework for Canada's Future  Ease the burden on working families  The Conservatives' GST and the Liberals harmonized GST put an unfair tax burden on families and consumers.  THE PEOPLE WHO need a break, some real tax relief, are the hard-working men and women who have been trying to make ends meet as real wages keep falling.  Liberals, Conservatives and Reformers all endorse a harmonized GST - a massive regressive shift of $6 billion in taxes from corporations to families and consumers. Only Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP are taking a strong stand to defend the interests of you and your family.  In 1993, Jean Chretien said the GST would be gone within two years. He broke mat promise. Unlike all other sales taxes, corporations do not pay the GST. It represents a massive shift of taxes from corporations to individuals.  Now the Liberals are singing the song of harmonization, to blend the GST with provincial sales taxes. This bad idea was invented by the Conservatives. As recently as March 1997, Conservative senators who were reviewing harmonization unanimously voted to support it. The Reform Caucus issued a report in 1994 commending the Liberals for adopting the goal of harmonization.  Reform urged that the GST be collected on food, medication, and nursing home charges.  Harmonization means new and higher taxes on everyday necessities like home heating, telephones, gasoline, children's clothing and school supplies. Taxes on luxuries and occasional big-ticket purchases are reduced. Overall, ordinary people will pay a lot more, while big corporations pay a lot less. Families in Atlantic Canada are already suffering from this policy.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will fight this huge shift of taxes to people. The GST is bad enough without making it worse.  WE WILL WORK TO PHASE OUT THIS UNFAIR TAX. OUR FIRST STEPS WOULD BE TO:  • Reverse the decision to harmonize the GST and PST in Atlantic Canada.  • Stop negotiations for harmonization in other parts of Canada.  • Immediately remove the GST from books, magazines and family essentials like children's clothing.  • Phase out the GST in the context of comprehensive tax reform.  I am opposed to the GST. I have always been opposed to |it and I will be opposed to it always."  I- Jean Chretien, October 29, 1990.  | "I would abolish the GST. The Manufacturer's Sales Tax I (which the GST replaced) was a bad tax, but there's no excuse to repeal one bad tax by bringing in another one."  'We hate it and we will kill it."  Jean Chretien, Mav 2, 1994  "We are fulfilling the promise that we made as set out in the Red Book."  I Jean Chretien. April 24,1996  | "Only New Democratic Party Leader Alexa McDonough pas presented a credible step-by-step plan for phasing out me GST while gradually replacing it with higher taxes on corporations and wealth."  - Rosemary Speirs, Toronto Star, Dec. 17,1996.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will fight for fair taxes for you, and an end to unfair tax breaks for profit-making corporations and the wealthy.  WORKING FAMILIES pay their fair share of taxes. That makes it all the more infuriating that some wealthy people avoid taxes entirely. In 1994, the Liberal government's first full year in office, 3,500 Canadians earning more than $100,000 a year didn't pay a dime. That's two times more than under Brian Mulroney.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will fight to end the special tax deals for corporations and the wealthy. Ordinary men and women and their families have paid more than their share for too long.  Other parties have proposed tax changes that give the biggest break to the wealthiest. When you look at the details, they would make the tax system even more unfair. New Democrats will expose and fight such plans.  There are only three major industrialized nations that do not tax large accumulations and transfers of wealth. Canada is one of them. Even the US taxes large transfers of wealth between generations.  The accounting firm Peat Marwick estimates more than $1,000 billion will be transferred between generations in the next 20 years. If Canada imposed the same tax as the US, and limited it to transfers of more than $1,000,000, it would  raise at least $4.5 billion a year to support services to people.  In addition, the Chretien and Mulroney tax breaks for corporations are extremely generous by international standards, according to the International Monetary Fund. This is the reason why many corporations with large profits pay no taxes.  The Liberal's approach to deficit reduction is to let corporations and the rich keep their tax breaks while the rest of us pay more.  The Reform Party has numerous proposals to give even more to the rich, at your expense. They want to eliminate the tax on capital gains, and cut taxes for the highest income Canadians. They will take from you by eliminating federal contributions to higher education and deeply cutting programs for people, including payments to the elderly.  ONLY ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP PROPOSE ALTERNATIVES THAT BENEFIT YOU:  • Ensure that everyone pays a fair share so we can continue to afford health care, education and other vital public services. We will close the loopholes and end the giveaways.  • End corporate tax deduction for any salary or other pay in excess of $200,000 a year, so company owners don't receive indirect tax subsidies for handing out these inflated incomes.  • End the special tax exemption for corporate lobbying, so company owners and shareholders pay in full for trying to influence government to favour their private interest.  • Increase the GST tax credit for individuals by 30 percent.  • Make the income tax system more progressive by adding new tax brackets for individuals with incomes above $100,000 a year.  • Eliminate federal surtaxes on low-income taxpayers.  • Conduct a thorough review of the cost and benefit of corporate tax subsidies and eliminate all those with no net benefit to Canadians.  • Introduce a real minimum corporate income tax and other measures to bring corporate tax revenue up to the average for industrialized countries.  • Set withholding tax rates at the same levels as those countries with which we have tax treaties.  • Ensure that large banks and other profitable financial institutions pay their fair share of taxes.  • End special tax breaks for capital gains in Family Trusts set up by the nation's  wealthiest families.  Bring Canada's tax system into line with those of other industrialized countries by  introducing a Millionaire's Tax on transfers of more than $1 million between  generations. This tax would apply only to the value of the transfer in excess of $l  million. The transfers of working farms within the family would not be taxed as long  as the farm is operated by the family.  Replace the dividend tax credit with a system for integrating corporate and personal  income taxes for small business similar to that used in the United States.  Tax income from capital gains at the same rate as employment income. Ensure the  existing exemptions from capital gains are available to legitimate small businesses  and family farms.  81,462 PROFITABLE FIRMS NOW PAY NO TAXES  Under the Liberal government, over $17 billion in corporate profits were untaxed in 1994, up from an average of $15 billion in the 12 years from 1980 to 1992 and over $1 billion higher than in 1993. The number of profitable corporations paying no income tax also continued to increase under the Liberals, from 66,008 in 1992 to 74,799 in 1993, to 81,462 in 1994.    Canadians deserve a more responsible approach to eliminating the deficit — and not the Liberal approach that puts most of the burden on working families.  Most Canadians agree that we need to get Canada's finances in shape. No party is more committed to preserving the financial freedom of government than New Democrats - we want the bankers off Canada's back.  During periods of growth and prosperity, we therefore favour balancing the federal budget, and reducing the weight of federal debt on the Canadian economy.  The issue is how to do it, how quickly to do it, and who should bear the cost.  The present government has made the wrong choices on every count. It has reduced the deficit by cutting health, education and income support. The Liberals cut federal investment in these services by 33 per cent — on their way to a planned 40 per cent cut by the end of the next fiscal year. The burden of Liberal budget-balancing is being borne by those least able to afford it.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will fight for a better, more balanced approach to deficit and debt reduction.  THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S DEFICIT IS NOW LESS THAN $15 BILLION. UNDER THE PLAN WE WILL FIGHT FOR, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WOULD COMPLETE THE JOB OF ELIMINATING THE DEFICIT WITHIN THREE YEARS, THROUGH A BALANCED APPROACH:  • Pursuing policies that put Canadians to work, and building modem, efficient, responsive public services, as detailed in this platform. More jobs — supported by strong public services, which are highly efficient job-creators themselves - means more taxpayers, and more revenue to reduce the deficit;  • Ensuring wealthy individuals and profitable corporations contribute to deficit  reduction by paying fair taxes;  • Controlling debt services costs by maintaining low real interest rates; and  • Controlling government spending by working to modernize the federation -eliminating needless duplication and complex arrangements between government.  ONCE THE FEDERAL BUDGET IS BALANCED, WE FAVOUR CONTINUING WITH A BALANCED APPROACH TO MANAGE FUTURE BUDGET SURPLUSES. AS FINANCES PERMIT, WE FAVOUR INVESTING FUTURE SURPLUSES IN THE FOLLOWING PRIORITIES:  • Continued investments in jobs and people, as detailed in this platform;  • Tax relief for ordinary working families — by beginning to phase out the GST in the context of comprehensive tax reform; and  • Reducing the weight of federal debt on the economy, working towards the European Economic Community's goal of reducing public debt to 60 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product.  New Democrats also favour a careful review of how other governments are reducing the burden of public debt. For example, the United States Federal Reserve assumes a small but significant portion of U.S. federal debt directly.  This Liberal government is killing good jobs for women and pushing women into poverty.  CANADIAN WOMEN are being pushed into marginal jobs. Massive job losses in industry, clerical occupations, hospitals, child care and education are falling largely on women.  Canada has the second highest incidence of low-paid employment for women (34.3 percent) among industrialized countries, according to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Only Japan at 37.2 percent is worse. Canadian women are four times more likely to be low paid than those in countries like Finland and Sweden where social equality has long been a national goal.  Full-time jobs for women are disappearing. Women are feeling the pressure in  retail and other service jobs where they can't get enough hours of work to feed themselves and their families.  In 1996, all of the new jobs for women were part-time. One third of women working part-time wants a full-time job. With so little full-time work, women are taking on multiple jobs, contract work, homework and telework. Many are classified as self-employed, but their jobs have no standards, no benefits, and an uncertain future.  The wage gap between women and men has widened since the Liberals were elected, but the federal government won't even honour a seven-year old pay equity settlement it owes to 80,000 public service women.  Women are picking up most of the unpaid work that governments offload, while still doing more than their share of housework and family care. Meanwhile, time out of the workforce will mean greater poverty for women.  The Liberals are denying elderly women the right to a pension in their own names, starting in 2001. Gutting unemployment insurance is particularly hard on seasonal and part-time workers, 70 percent of whom are women. Maternity benefits and survivor benefits have also been hit.  On jobs, child care and the destruction of social services, the Liberal record continues what the Conservatives started.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's New Democrats know that women's work, paid and unpaid, is vital to the economy and to society. Our fight for jobs, for education and for health is of particular benefit to women.  In Remero House, the number of meals they prepare has gone up from 2500 to 7500 per month. Some teenage kids are bringing along their younger brothers and sisters. When you have more food banks  than McDonald's in a city, that's a bad epitaph of the 1990s."  I  - CUPE Member, Moncton, New Bnmswick Women and Work, Canadian Labour Congress, 1997  "I'm 25 years old. I'm the only one within my circle of I friends of the same age who is making more than $5 an I hour."  - Young woman, St. John's Newfoundland, Women and Work, Canadian Labour Congress, 1997  staggering $11 trillion is missing from the global economy each year because of unpaid housework, child care, agricultural work and other labour performed by women, according to the United Nations Human Development I Report, August 1995.  Only 20 percent of women have full-time, full-year jobs which pay more than  |$30,000 a year, compared to 40 percent of men.  Women account for less than 20 percent of those in the top ten job categories. They represent more than 70 percent in the lowest paying jobs.  The unemployment rate is 15.6 percent for young women; 13.4 percent for visible minority women; 17.7 percent for aboriginal women; and 16.6 percent for women with disabilities. Research by the Disabled Women's Network of Canada shows 65 percent of women with disabilities who are unemployed want to work.  In less than 20 years, the number of women part-time workers has increased by 200 percent. Women make up 70 percent of the part-time workforce.  In the last 15 years, the number of women working more than one job has increased by 372 percent.  Source: Women and Work, Canadian Labour Congress, 1997  THE NDP IS THE ONE PARTY PREPARED TO FIGHT FOR AN AGENDA FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY:  • 150,000 more early childhood education/child care spaces as part of an action plan for early childhood care and development. Investing in our children is investing in our future. New spaces will help mothers whether they work at home or outside the home, and give children a strong beginning.  • Employment equity. Systemic barriers to employment continue to shut out equality seeking groups, including women. This government's jobless economy means  traditional women's jobs are increasingly sought by men. New Democrats will fight for stronger employment equity measures, including fair access to training and quality jobs for women and minorities.  • Pay equity. New Democrats will fight for government to pay what it owes so women receive equal pay for work of equal value. And we will fight for proactive federal pay equity legislation.  • A strong public sector. Many of the best jobs for women are in valued public services such as health care, libraries, education, elder and child care, and immigrant services.  Ensure pensioners have security and dignity.  AFTER YEARS OF WORKING for a living, Canadians should be able to look forward to a secure retirement in relative comfort and dignity. A strong Canada Pension Plan is essential. Private pensions and RRSPs can only meet the needs of a minority, those who can afford to put aside a sizable portion of their income. For most Canadians, public pensions will be even more important in the future than they are today.  The Liberals cut CPP benefits, greatly increased CPP contributions and turned disability benefits over to private insurance companies. They are imposing the worst benefit cuts and the biggest premium increases on the poorest workers.  The Liberals have created an enormous smokescreen around the subject of public pensions by creating a crisis around the CPP. This has effectively obscured the real issue which is that the public pension system is being starved while private pensions are increasingly inadequate.  The Reform Party wants to eliminate the CPP entirely, and replace it with RRSPs. They would give additional tax breaks to the wealthy, those who already have little worry about retirement income, and leave others to fend for themselves.  $4 BILLION LIBERAL CUT WILL HURT  "The present structure (of health care in Canada) cannot accept speedy and drastic reductions without sacrificing something. We believe universal access is particularly vulnerable. Should universal access be compromised, the game is over - Medicare as we know it will be gone."  -National Forum on Health  ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA’S NDP WILL DEFEND A PUBLIC PENSION PLAN TO ENSURE THAT ALL CANADIANS, NOT JUST THE WEALTHY, CAN LOOK FORWARD TO RETIREMENT. WE WILL:  • Fight for a fair, long-term plan to build a stronger CPP.  • Fight for fair disability and survivor benefits.  • Fight the higher premium increases being imposed on the poorest workers, many of whom are living below the poverty level.  • Invest CPP funds to improve returns and promote economic development in Canada.  • Fight for a National Review of the Retirement Income System in Canada to address the increasingly serious inadequacy of Canada's pension system.       :   Table of contents                                                                           • A word from Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP                                            • Introduction • Make good jobs the top priority                                            • Canada's children deserve the chance to build a better                                  -  future                                                                                      • Ease the burden on working families • Guarantee health care is there when you need it     • Strengthen the Canadian community                                                         • Appendix                                                                                  * A letter from Ed Tchorzewski - President. Federal                                         New Democratic Party                                                                           Federal Election June 2,1997  A Framework for Canada’s Future  Guarantee health care is there when you need it  High quality health care for you and your family - for all Canadians regardless of income - is under attack.  MEDICARE SETS US APART. Medicare is a declaration that all Canadians deserve quality health care, regardless of how much money they have. A family's health should never have to depend on a family's wealth. Only Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP have a realistic program to maintain and improve health care for families into the next century.  The Liberals promise that they are preserving Medicare. Their actions speak louder. They have cut funding by almost $4 billion over four years. They have opened the door to privatization, service restrictions and user fees that signal the arrival of a two-tier system: the best of care for the rich, and a lower quality of care for the rest of us.  The Liberals have also cut funding for programs that promote good health, including programs to prevent domestic violence, control the spread of AIDS, and discourage smoking. The Liberals defended 20-year patent protection for multinational drug corporations which has dramatically driven up drug prices.  ALEXA MCDONOUGH AND CANADA'S NDP WILL MAKE QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A NATIONAL PRIORITY. WE WILL FIGHT TO:  • Establish a national prescription drug plan as part of medicare.  • Expand Medicare to cover home care and prescription drugs so community-based and non-hospital care is available to all without an American-style two-tier system.  • Enforce the principles of the Canada Health Act: universality, accessibility, portability, comprehensiveness, and public administration. We will encourage more emphasis on public health promotion, disease prevention, community-based care and a system driven by the health care needs of people rather than fee-for-service medicine.  • Stop the cut of$1.2 billion in health funds this year.  • Provide stable funding for Medicare, with a floor of at least $15 billion for Canada Health and Social Transfer.  • Replace the discredited drug patent law, which has caused drugs to become the fastest-growing health care cost, with a law that makes affordable and effective generic drugs available earlier whenever that will improve the health of Canadians.  • Create a special fund for research and development and pilot projects in the health care field.  • As a transitional measure, support the development of community-based primary care, and health support services such as shelters for battered women, and women's health centres.  • Establish an Aboriginal Health Institute to support Aboriginal communities in taking action to improve their health, broaden research, identify culturally-relevant approaches to Aboriginal health issues, and increase advanced education for Aboriginal students in the health professions.  • A national strategy for research, treatment and prevention of AIDS.  • A national commitment to promptly tackle emerging health needs and disease prevention priorities.  PRIVATIZATION OF HEALTH CARE IS WRONG FOR CANADA  "The profit motive in financing health care is both inconsistent I with a view of health as a public good and moreover leads to high administration costs and inequities in access and quality. International evidence suggests that public funding and administration are the best ways to achieve fairness and value for money."  National Forum on Health  Right Targets Medicare  "Charest's "Let the Future Begin' manifesto sketches out plans for the most radical restructuring of Canada's public health insurance system since its introduction in 1968.  "It's the last and toughest nut to crack," says David Somerville, head of the National  Citizen's Coalition.  Charest's Tones are taking tentative steps in that direction. Their platform calls for Ottawa to get almost entirely out of the business of funding Medicare. The Canada  Health Act - the law governing Medicare - would effectively be scrapped.  What unites Reform and Troy platforms... is the desire to push Ottawa into the background of the Medicare picture and circumscribe what public health insurance  I should cover.  These two parties are not atone in wanting to redefine and limit Medicare. Liberal prime Minister Jean Chretien mused about the same kind of thing back in 1995.  Michael Walker, Executive Director of the Fraser Institute (which has been lobbying to get rid of Medicare for years), calls the five principles of Medicare "five handcuffs" on  provincial governments. "I don't foresee creative change until things really go sour."  Toronto Star, March 25, 1997  THE IMPACT OF THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENTS CUTS TO  PROVINCIAL BUDGETS IN 1996-97 ALONE ARE EQUIVALENT TO LOATHE FOLLOWING:  ,   NINETY PERCENT of the total provincial spending on long term care facilities in I Newfoundland.  ALMOST ONE QUARTER of the cost of operating the province's seven hospitals in PEI.  MORE THAN ONE OUT OF THREE dollars spent on doctor's services, dentists, optometrists,  pharmacists, and ambulance operations in Nova Scotia.  Almost DOUBLE the cost of provincial prescription drug program for seniors and other  vulnerable citizens in New Brunswick.  TWICE THE AMOUNT spent on drugs and pharmaceutical services for the elderly in I Quebec.  THE COST OF OPERATING one hospital in five in Ontario.  THREE TIMES the total provincial spending on community and mental health services in I Manitoba.  OVER TWICE the cost of the Saskatchewan Prescription Drug plan.  Forty PERCENT of the cost of insurance for all basic medical services provided in  Alberta.  TWICE THE AMOUNT spent on Community health prevention and promotion through  I health service programs in British Columbia.  TABLE OF CONTENTS  * A word from Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP I Introduction  Make good jobs the top priority I Canada's children deserve the chance to build a better future  Ease the burden on working families GUARANTEE HEALTH CARE IS THERE WHEN YOU NEED IT Strengthen the Canadian community I • Appendix  A letter from Ed Tchorzewski - President. Federal New Democratic Party  Federal Election June 2,1997  A Framework for Canada's Future  Strengthen the Canadian community  We will promote a positive option for Canada.  THE CHALLENGE for national unity is to bring people together to work for fairness, jobs, and justice throughout Canada. Many common values unite Canadians from every region of the country. These deeply-held unifying values are threatened by the cutbacks, increasing economic inequality, and dismantling of national institutions and infrastructure - including pensions and Medicare -begun by the Conservatives and continued by the current Liberal government.  In addition, you cannot build unity when a privileged few are piling up immense profits, and laying off thousands of workers, while most Canadians are scrambling to make ends meet each month. Every Canadian should contribute fairly to the wealth of the country and share fairly in that wealth regardless of where they live.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP believe that Canadian federalism must permit the vigorous and balanced growth of the country as a whole and assure provincial autonomy.  It is time to ensure the federation meets the needs of all Canada's regions in an equitable way. Unilateral federal action to remake Canada, however, can only  be divisive.  o Constitutional change must be carried out in a way that is open and democratic, with meaningful involvement and participation of Canadians.  o Appropriate governments should have the authority and resources necessary to deal with their responsibilities. Many services could be better provided at the provincial level. In other areas, we can eliminate the duplication of having ten regulatory agencies by delegating responsibility to the federal government. None of this, however, should affect the right of Canadians to equivalent services regardless of where they live.  o New Democrats recognize that Quebec is different from the other provinces. We believe in recognizing that difference in the constitution, in a manner that fosters the unity of the country.  We understand that Quebec, as the only majority French-speaking society on the continent, may meet societal goals differently. We also understand the need for Quebecers - and all francophones in Canada - to protect and promote their language and culture. Though we believe that ordinary Quebecers' best interests are served by remaining in Canada, and that Canada itself is worth preserving, we respect the right of Quebecers to democratically determine their future.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP will defend our environment. Fresh air, clean water, and viable ecosystems are a vital legacy for our children.  THE FOX IS GUARDING the hen house. The Liberals have made polluters responsible for policing themselves. "Voluntary measures," they call it. It's not good enough.  The current government is failing to meet Canada's international obligations to reduce global warming. They are failing to protect our air, water, resources and ecosystems.  W 12  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP are committed to improving the environment for our children and grandchildren. Fresh air, clean water and a healthy environment must not be sacrificed to short-term corporate demands for more profit.  WE WILL FIGHT FOR:  • A strong Canadian Environmental Protection Act.  • Specific targets and policies to meet Canada's commitments to reduce emissions causing global warming.  • An emphasis on pollution prevention, with a mixture of taxation and regulatory policies to back it up.  • A new way to measure progress that includes factors such as unemployment and income distribution, community and individual health, environmental quality and resource depletion. The genuine progress indicator will be used along with conventional indicators like the Gross National Product, which counts both the creation and clean-up of pollution as though they were good things, to better inform public debate and guide decision making.  • A "green screen" to integrate environmental criteria into all public decision making.  • A long-term strategy for sustainability, developed after thorough consultation, to maintain environmental integrity, bio-diversity and to protect and restore eco-systems. We must ensure that renewable resource use does not exceed rates of regeneration, that non-renewable resource use does not exceed the rate at which sustainable renewable substitutes are developed, and that pollution does not exceed the capacity of the environment to absorb it.  Safer Streets; Safer Communities  MORE AND MORE CANADIANS say they feel unsafe in their homes and in their communities. The persistence of gang violence, child and spousal abuse, sexual offenses, car theft, home invasions and break-ins is a matter deeply disturbing to any Canadian who feels that we all have a right to feel safe, secure and protected in our daily lives.  Most Canadians react to news of such events with a mixture of fear, anger and frustration that our justice system seems so unable to deal swiftly and justly  r 12  with those who perpetrate such offenses. And there is anger that respect for the law sometimes appears to be undermined by the very workings of our legal system, including the shameful manipulation of that system by notorious criminals.  New Democrats believe that it is important to recognize the links between social conditions and crime while at the same time promoting a renewed sense of individual responsibility. In simple terms, we believe in being tough on crime. We start by being tough on the causes of crime.  A number of studies have demonstrated that violent crime increases in direct relation to growth in unemployment and insecurity. And a government that tolerates the second highest level of child poverty in the industrialized world, and consistently and deliberately excludes one tenth of its workforce - about a million and a half citizens - from a real and meaningful role in society, is sowing the seeds of crime in its own backyard.  And while the government has taken some action within the justice system to clamp down on criminal behavior, on the economic front, the Liberals have declared war, not on poverty and unemployment, but on the poor and the unemployed.  A realistic, coherent approach to dealing with crime begins where crime begins:  in the frustration, alienation, and despair that foster it. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, risk factors for youth crime include child poverty;  difficulties in school; family breakdown; racism and other forms of discrimination; and living in situations where there is substance abuse. Studies of young offenders show that ninety seven percent of children in custody have suffered abuse at the hands of a trusted authority figure, and that those categorized as repeat offenders have often been repeat victims as children.  But while a deficient upbringing of one kind or another may be an explanation, in the end, it is no excuse for crime. Individuals are still responsible for their own actions.  New Democrats believe that a society where there are decent employment opportunities for all those who are able to work, where education and health care is available to everyone regardless of income, and where all individuals have equal protection against discrimination, is a society which promotes community cohesion. A society in which every individual, rich or poor, has a sense that justice will serve them equally and fairly, is a society that reinforces individual responsibility for one’s behavior.  2 \  Alexa McDonough and New Democrats believe that the solution to crime lies in both holding individuals responsible for their actions and social and economic policies that build safer, more responsive communities. WE would work to prevent crime through:  * Ensuring that punishment of criminal activity is in keeping with the severity of the crime.  • Investing in families, with measures such as access to high quality child care, support for parents, labour policies that encourage employers to respect family obligations, and stop the disappearance of good jobs.  • Reforming the Young Offenders Act so that age is only one of several factors considered in determining consequences.  • Preventive intervention for "high risk" youth, including access to programs for street youth to help treat dependencies and develop skills for community participation  • treatment for victims of sexual and physical abuse  programs to combat illiteracy  assistance for children with behavioral and learning disorders  • Increasing funding for community policing activities; particularly targeted patrols in residential areas by well known officers committed to working closely with the  Strengthening services and support for victims of crime, and those most vulnerable to crime, including children, women and the poor.  • Taking action against criminal gangs, including outlawing membership in, and recruitment to gangs involved in crime; increasing sentences and bail conditions for gang-related crimes; providing court support for victims, and introducing tough new measures against criminals who intimidate witnesses.  • Imposing tough laws and sanctions against corporate misconduct and white collar crime.  • Increasing efforts to promote successful rehabilitation, including culturally sensitive approaches such as sentencing circles in aboriginal communities where appropriate.  Canada's cultural community gives voice to our rich diversity and helps to build national identity.  Our artists and creators play an important role in helping to define Canada's national identity. Our musicians, writers, poets, dancers, dramatic and recording artists, producers, sculptors and visual artists build bridges of communication and understanding among people of different regions and backgrounds. They strengthen the many diverse communities that make up our nation. They give voice to our aspirations, our dreams, our common humanity.  Under the Liberals, Canada's cultural sector has been cut down, rolled back, starved, and put on life support. Canada's public broadcasting system has been cut in half and subjected to benign indifference by the government that promised stable and secure support.  Half the daily newspapers in Canada are now owned by one person with an aggressive political agenda and little tolerance for dissent. This highly-concentrated ownership of the media limits the free exchange of ideas and information among Canadians. But the Liberal government has lacked the courage to get in his way.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP recognize that the strength of Canada's cultural sector is as fundamental to our economy as it is to our sense of who we are. In a global information society, the voices of our artists, writers, creators and citizens need to be strengthened, not silenced. And our information and news sources must become more diverse and representative of me breadth of Canadian society, rather than being dominated and controlled by one or very few persons. The free flow of news and information is, after all, the lifeblood of democracy.  CANADA'S NDP WILL FIGHT TO:  • Guarantee secure, independent funding to rebuild the CBC as a world-class public broadcaster active on the airwaves, on cable, and on the Internet in a voice that is distinctly Canadian.  • Adopt the Kent Royal Commission recommendations to limit the concentration of media ownership.  • Increase financial, regulatory and infrastructure support for Canadian cultural institutions in all sectors, publishing, film-making, music, the performing arts, fine arts, as part of a coordinated strategy to make the Canadian voice a leading and vibrant presence in the culture of our own country.  • Address the distribution problems faced by Canadian performers and film-makers trying to be heard in their own country.  • Double the sale of Canadian books here and abroad over the next five years; and double the number of Canadian films and television dramatic productions.  • Develop provincial public television by financing joint ventures and supporting Canadian productions.  Ifs time to ensure Aboriginal people can take their rightful place in the Canadian  community.  INDIAN, METIS, INUIT and other Aboriginal Peoples want to be strong and integral partners in the building of a new Canada for the 21st century. They are frustrated and angered by the same old Liberal and Tory promises and policies.  It is no surprise that the empty Liberal Red Book was burned by Aboriginal people who originally drafted the Liberal's Aboriginal platform. The Liberal government abandoned the Red Book's policies and, instead, pushed for self-government while providing reduced resources and no viable economic base for communities.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP urge a new approach based on mutual respect between cultures.  We will work in strong partnership with Aboriginal peoples to uphold treaty and Aboriginal rights and to implement the inherit right of self-government.  We will fight for recognition by governments of the Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal people. Within six months of a new government's mandate, first ministers, aboriginal leaders and the prime minister should convene meetings to discuss the recommendations and to develop an action plan for implementation.  As additional interim steps, Canada's NDP will fight for:  • A National Independent Land Claims Commission to decide on specific claims. An expanded role for the federal government in training Aboriginal people for new positions in health care, education and social services.  • Increased federal government investment in Aboriginal community infrastructure, such as roads, housing and basic public utilities.  • Financial reforms to give Aboriginal people greater access to capital for community economic development.  • Sustainable, practical and dynamic economic, social and cultural development should be priorized - providing partnerships with, and respecting the autonomous self-sufficiency of Aboriginal peoples.  "^•———.^P.c.ele.,^,^^  ^ J '""""""^"^O^,^  ^SS^^'sa-  ^NADA'S NDP HAS  f'^sSSS^^  We recognize that new • - ^y^ ^^eed.  ^arytopayallthe^^S^d^^^  "'ifortiBately.theproere^.  K5S;|iSHS^^^^^^ ••^•^^'^SK^  "T"'^000^——.^. „,.„,'""""  ^isssxrrr----f^ss^^s^"'^1^"-'^1^'"  Recom™ Canada to th" ^7 ^canada^ ^and^ A ^Ca,^3^ d" "^ow^ ^^ bv  :^=^^^^^^^^  • ?^S£s^yS^'" •• •"«..,  • ^^SS^  •ctkms 1997 - Election Piatfonn http://www.ndp.ca/elecrio«i97/englisli^latforrri^plartbrmcornniunity.htm!  ordinary applicants from developing countries.  • Eliminate the discriminatory Liberal Tiead tax'.  • Facilitate the efforts of domestic workers and refugees to gain full landed status in Canada and to re-unite families.  Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP stand for an independent Canadian foreign policy based on the principles of a common security  The end of the Cold War allowed the world to take a few welcome steps back from brink of nuclear conflict, but many challenges remain. Canada can help meet these challenges with a policy geared to building a common security based on nuclear disarmament and a universal reduction in levels of conventional weapons. We need international security agreements based on mutual trust and information sharing under the auspices of a reformed and strengthened United Nations.  As a country often called in for peacekeeping missions when conflict occurs, Canada's foreign policy should be guided by the principles of conflict prevention. We need international political, economic and environmental policies that address the root causes of conflict found in poverty, environmental degradation, human rights abuses, and the manipulation of weak states by the strong.  CANADA’S NDP WILL STAND UP FOR:  • Improving arms export controls, so that Canadians can be sure that Canadian-made weapons or components do not contribute to destabilizing arms races or fall into the hands of human rights abusers.  • Working for an international ban on the use and manufacture of land mines and setting an example for the international community by introducing such a ban for the Canadian armed forces.  • Supporting the Abolition 2000 movement for universal nuclear disarmament, and arguing for Canada to show leadership by dissenting from NATO's attachment to a nuclear weapons strategy.  • Ensuring that Canada does not contribute to the development or testing of nuclear or space-based weapons systems.  • Strengthening the United Nations so that the U.N., rather than NATO or the United States, responds to military crises when they occur.     Table of contents                                            • A word from Alexa McDonough and Canada's NDP             • Introduction • Make good jobs the top priority             • Canada's children deserve the chance to build a better     future • Ease the burden on working families                 • Guarantee health care is there when you need it            • Strengthen the Canadian community • Appendix               • A letter from Ed Tchorzewski - President. Federal          New Democratic Party