Liberals and Tories square off over spending in key policies streaming, campaign, document, increase, Stephen

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Liberals and Tories square off over spending in key policies



OTTAWA — The policy differences between Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper were laid bare Sunday as the Liberals unveiled a thick, ambitious platform document while the Tories offered a promise of another tax credit.


At an elaborate campaign event complete with media lockup, live streaming and pre-recorded video messages from Liberal candidates across the country, an energized Ignatieff vowed to slash spending, increase some taxes on the rich, encourage homeowners to make green renovations and allow citizens to vote online.


The Liberals pegged the cost of their program at $8.23 billion.


The Tories, meanwhile, offered voters a modest adult fitness tax credit on Sunday and said they'll only get it once the budget is balanced.


At the same time, they claimed the cost of the Liberal pledges was at least $10 billion.


The NDP, preferring to focus on health care Sunday, said it didn't matter what the Liberals promised because Ignatieff's party had no credibility.


But Ignatieff defended his platform.


"Government might do this, it could do that, but government must do the things that really matter," he said, touting a family pack of policies "to help the Canadian family because we understand if you help the Canadian family to succeed, the whole Canadian economy succeeds."


The Liberals say their program is carefully costed. They indicated, for instance, they will tackle the deficit the same way they did in the 1990s: aiming to reach a deficit target of one per cent of GDP within two years.


They said they'll save $3 billion in their first year in office — rising to $5 billion in year two — by increasing the corporate tax rate by 1.5 percentage points — to a level of 18 per cent.


The Liberals also pledged to eliminate a tax break on stock options for the very rich that, they said, would bring $300 million to the treasury. Canadians who earn more than $100,000 in annual stock options would have to pay income tax on their earnings.


The party also believes it will save $500 million over two years by slashing government advertising, limiting the size of the cabinet and the Prime Minister's Office and cutting the amount of money spent on consultants.


The party's platform is entitled "Your family. Your future. Your Canada."


Among the Liberals' new proposals was a green renovation tax credit worth $2,025 for expenses of up to $13,500 on new windows, doors and roofing. And a new youth-hiring incentive would allow small- and medium-sized businesses to avoid paying employment insurance premiums for any youth hired.


The party would end the accelerated capital cost allowance for oilsands development and reinvest the $265 million into technologies to reduce the oilsands impact on the environment. The Liberals also pledged to create a cap-and-trade emissions system, which charges companies for spewing more than a set quota in greenhouse gases. A cap and trade program already exists in Europe.


The party would boost spending on aboriginal education and language training. It also pledged $40 million for a veterans' learning benefit.


The Liberal promise didn't stop there. They said they would also: restore the court challenges program; spend $100 million for a freshwater strategy; and reallocate $1 billion in funding after the Afghan mission, to increase development aid and Canada's participation in UN missions.

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Ignatieff also pledged to reform question period in the House of Commons, with one day dedicated to questions the prime minister personally would have to answer.


The party would also create a "people's question period" in which cabinet ministers and the prime minister would answer online queries from Canadians.


Even before the platform unveiling, the party had promised: a $700-million boost to the Guaranteed Income Supplement; $1 billion for post-secondary education; $1 billion to help family caregivers; and $500 million for early childhood learning.


But the Tories say the Liberal plan is missing billions of dollars in projected spending.


"There are some items that are not mentioned at all that Mr. Ignatieff has committed himself to," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in Toronto.


"One is the HST in Quebec, and the payment for that. There is no mention of the high-speed rail promise which he has made which is billions of dollars in addition to the $10 billion plus that I've already mentioned. There is no costing for pharmacare at all in the budget, in the proposed spending items that Mr. Ignatieff has listed."


Flaherty said the plan would "kill jobs" and business investments and would also end up costing taxpayers more money.


As the Liberals spread promises Sunday, Harper added only a slim pledge to his campaign resume: to extend an existing fitness tax credit to adults — once the budget is balanced in five years.


The Conservatives created a tax credit in 2007 allowing parents to claim up to $500 in expenses on the fitness activities of their children, such as participation in hockey or soccer leagues. The Tories now propose to double that incentive to $1,000 per year.


They will also establish a similar $500 tax break for adults that will enable them to claim gym memberships and other fitness-related costs.


The Tories have been cautious in their election promises to-date, emphasizing small tax credits rather than large spending items.


They unveiled a new ad Sunday portraying Ignatieff as a tax-and-spend leader.


For its part, the NDP said the Liberals are all talk and no action.


"Can we trust them? That is the question people will be asking all over Canada. And my answer is quite clearly 'no,' " said Francoise Boivin, the NDP candidate in Gatineau, Que.


"Not one single family doctor is going to be hired from this new Ignatieff Liberal platform. Mr. Ignatieff's words don't match his deeds," said Olivia Chow, the NDP candidate in Trinity-Spadina. "It doesn't matter in some ways what kind of platform has been announced, because it is, at the end of the day, empty words."


With files from Amy Minsky and Andrew Mayeda


Liberal sums:


How Ignatieff plans to pay for his program:


- $8.3 billion from a cancelled corporate tax cut, over two years


- $500 million from a wireless auction


- $615 million from a cap on a stock-option deduction


- $551 million from a cancelled PPP fund


- $490 million from the end of an oilsands development tax break


- $750 million from a government-spending review

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Canada's Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announces an election platform during a campaign stop in Ottawa April 3, 2011


Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff reveals his party's election platform at the Delta Centre in downtown Ottawa Sunday, April 3, 2011.



Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff reveals his party's complete election platform at the Delta Centre in downtown Ottawa Sunday, April 4, 2011. Here, he waves the new red book.



Canada's Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announces an election platform during a campaign stop in Ottawa April 3, 2011.