2021 Federal Election Platform Points of Interest

Of note, the CPC have pledged the creation of one million news jobs, and to balance the budget in 10 years.

A key focus of the platform is taxing wealthy Canadians in order to pay for large scale programs like affordable housing and childcare. Other commitments platform include paid universal pharmacare and dental care, student debt cancellation, and rapid emissions reduction fuelled by green jobs.

The platform is divided into six key categories: the pandemic, housing, health care, the economy, climate change, and reconciliation.

• Double the Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit for the next three years to help create more places for apprentices.
• Invest $250 million over two years to create the Canada Job Training Fund. The Fund will provide grants to organizations including employers, apprenticeship training delivery agents, unions, post-secondary institutions, and community organizations for projects that:
  • Give laid-off workers immediate access to training,
  • Reach out to traditionally underrepresented groups,
  • Support the talent needs of small businesses, and
  • Otherwise help workers get the training they need – focusing on areas where there are shortages of skilled workers.
• Create the Working Canadian Training Loan to provide low interest loans of up to $10,000 to people who want to upgrade their skills.
• The CPC would also introduce a Construction Mobility Tax Credit to help with expenses construction workers incur when they temporarily relocate for work. The construction mobility tax credit will allow workers to subtract up to $4,000 per year of temporary relocation expenses (moving, temporary lodging) from taxable income.

• Create more than a million good jobs in a first mandate, in all regions, addressing the climate crisis and boosting economic recovery. These jobs would be in energy efficiency retrofits affordable housing, renewable energy, infrastructure, transit, child care and more.
• The NDP would change EI rules to allow workers who quit their job to go to school to qualify for EI benefits. They would also expand options for workers in designated sectors and regions to take EI funded training in advance of losing a job while at the same time promoting investment to ensure that regional economies are creating good jobs that support families and communities.
• An NPD government would also require large employers to spend at least 1 percent of payroll on training for their employees annually.
• The NDP would also work closely with the provinces to establish national training priorities, and create a new Workers Development and Opportunities Fund to expand training options beyond people who qualify for EI.

• Make it easier for workers to relocate for good jobs.
• Keep experienced workers in the workforce.
• Boost the participation of diverse Canadians in the skilled trades.
• Address the specific needs of evolving sectors

In addition, the platform promises to:

• Bring forward a vision for a new and modern EI system that covers all workers, including workers in seasonal employment, and which is simpler and more responsive for both workers and employers.
• Double the Union Training and Innovation program to $50 million a year to support more apprenticeship training opportunities and additional partnerships in the Red Seal trades across Canada, and target more participation from women, Indigenous people, newcomers, persons with disabilities, and Black and racialized Canadians.
• Move forward with the establishment of a new Apprenticeship Service which will connect 55,000 first-year apprentices in Red Seal trades with opportunities at small and medium-sized employers.
• Reform economic immigration programs to expand pathways to Permanent Residence for temporary foreign workers and former international students through the Express Entry points system.
• Build on the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot and work with employers and communities across Canada to welcome 2,000 skilled refugees to fill labour shortages in in-demand sectors such as health care.
• Grow and improve the Global Talent Stream program by simplifying permit renewals, upholding the 2-week processing time, and establishing an employer hotline, to allow Canadian companies to attract and hire highly skilled workers.
• Introduce a new Labour Mobility Tax Credit to allow workers in the building and construction trades to deduct up to $4,000 in eligible travel and temporary relocation expenses giving them a tax credit of up to $600 a year.
• Require businesses supported through the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to include wrap-around supports. This could include transportation to and from the training program, computers, food, referral to counselling, housing, and legal support, support in finding child care, and mentoring or coaching.
• Introduce a Career Extension Tax Credit to help seniors who want to stay in the workforce, stay in the workforce. The tax credit will let people 65 and over, who earn a working income, reduce their taxes. Seniors who earn a minimum of $5,000 at their jobs will be able to eliminate tax payable on a portion of their income and receive a tax credit of up to $1,650
• Launch a Clean Jobs Training Centre to help industrial, skill and trade workers across sectors to upgrade or gain new skills to be on the leading edge of zero carbon industry.

• Scrap the Canada Infrastructure Bank and commit the money sitting unused on its books to infrastructure projects that can strengthen the economy. The CPC would continue already committed projects and return to the model used in the last Conservative government of working in partnership with provinces, municipalities, and First Nations to encourage the use of Public-Private Partnerships.
• Reprioritize the Investing in Canada Plan towards infrastructure projects that would have the maximum benefit for economic recovery. The CPC proposes including projects that strengthen transit and trade, reduce congestion and gridlock, and advance economic reconciliation with First Nations. The CPC also notes that they will reduce bureaucratic red tape in the application process so money can get out the door faster.
• Create requirements that equipment and materials for federally funded infrastructure projects be purchased from Canadian companies or those from countries with which Canada has agreed to mutually allow our workers to supply each other’s infrastructure projects.

• Require the use of Canadian made steel, aluminum, cement and wood products for infrastructure projects across the country.
• Partner with provinces, territories, First Nations and municipalities to deliver reliable public infrastructure funding by using Community Benefit Agreements to ensure that good jobs, training, apprenticeships and support for local businesses are part of every infrastructure project.
• The NDP would also encourage provinces to work with social enterprises to make sure that the training and jobs associated with building affordable housing go to those who need opportunities the most.
• Partner with provinces and municipalities to create half a million units of affordable housing over the next ten years. This will include social housing, community and non-market housing, as well as rental assistance for co-ops.
• New Democrats will work with provinces to put in place a new deal for rural infrastructure programs that provide long-term predictable funding for communities and increasing the funding available for adapting to climate change and rebuilding when disasters happen.

• Create open-access climate toolkits to help infrastructure owners and investors develop projects that ensure Canada is on the path to a net-zero emissions and resilient future. Building on our existing climate lens requirement for federally funded infrastructure projects, these toolkits will offer resiliency assessment methodologies, opportunities for incorporating low-carbon.
• Develop a climate data strategy to ensure that the private sector and communities have access to decision-useful climate information and to inform infrastructure investments.
• Launch a National Net-zero Emissions Building Strategy, which will chart a path to net-zero emissions from buildings by 2050 with ambitious milestones along the way.
• Create a Low-Carbon Building Materials Innovation Hub to work directly with entrepreneurs, municipalities, provinces and territories, and Indigenous governments to ensure Canadian innovations are best positioned to succeed.

• In order to kick-start building emissions reductions by 2030 and achieve significant, broad-scale reductions in building emissions by 2050, the CPC will:
  • Provide a regulatory and financial framework that will facilitate Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC). This program would be modelled after the SOFIAC program in Quebec.
    • The CPC would also work with provinces and territories to promote ESPC for government and publicly funded institutional buildings, including a “2030 Bonus” that will provide an additional benefit for those buildings that complete their retrofits prior to 2030.
• Develop a Net Zero Foundations program to begin putting in place the building blocks required to meet our net zero goals. This will include:
  • Continuing to develop the building codes and standards necessary to support net zero goals for both new builds and retrofits;
  • Developing curriculum for trade schools and institutes that support building design and construction;
  • Improving certification standards; and
  • Developing initiatives to pilot new technologies and solutions that will lower the cost and speed up the pace of retrofits, particularly residential retrofits.
• Work with provinces, territories, and applicable utilities to put in place a Residential Building Retrofit Initiative that will:
  • Provide an “efficiency concierge” service for homeowners that acts as a one-stop-shop to access programs and information; and
  • Apply lessons learned from technology pilots and from government, institutional and commercial retrofits, to a residential context.
• Immediately invest in critical projects that will put Canadians to work, cut commute time, and clean up the environment.
• The CPC will also take further actions to cut emissions by:
  • Creating an accelerated Impact Assessment process for projects that will reduce GHG emissions.

Investing a billion dollars in Small Modular Reactors, to get this zero emissions source of electricity and heat to the point that it starts to be deployed across the country, including in the oilsands.

• The NDP will create a retrofitting program to upgrade where people live and work, including requiring large scale building retrofits in all sectors. They will set a target of retrofitting all buildings in Canada by 2050 – beginning with upgrades to all buildings built before 2020 in the next 20 years.
• The NDP would develop a National Crisis Strategy aimed at helping communities plan for and adapt to the changing climate and the weather extremes we are already facing – particularly for vulnerable, remote, and Indigenous communities. The strategy would be supported with long-term funding for adaptation, disaster mitigation, and climate resilient infrastructure.
• The NDP would also ensure that Indigenous communities have the resources to make homes greener and more energy efficient.

• Launch a community-led net-zero homes initiative that supports projects that pursue multiple concurrent retrofits in a community or neighbourhood, to reduce overall costs. This initiative will be modeled on the Dutch “Energiesprong” program.