Green Platform Promises Big, Largely Uncosted Social Programs, End Of Fossil Fuel Industry

Without hosting an official platform launch featuring party leader Annamie Paul, the Green Party of Canada quietly released a series of expensive and largely unencrypted pledges for the 2021 election campaign.

The platform offers a new list of social programs, such as a universal drug plan, dental care, an affordable child care plan and a free university in addition to the cancellation of all student debt.

Although the cost of the platform has not been analyzed by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the platform estimates that the cost of free university education would be $ 10.2 billion per year.

The Greens also promise to create a universal long-term care system that would be governed by national standards of care under the Canada Health Act.

The system would be funded directly by the federal government through a new separate component of federal health transfers to the provinces and territories called the senior care transfer.

The Greens also propose to introduce a guaranteed living income that “would provide every Canadian with a basic source of income, ensuring that people can cover basic expenses such as food and shelter.”

The program would be based on what is needed to have a “livable” existence in each part of the country. The platform says this would ease pressure on provinces to provide programs such as social assistance, freeing up provincial budgets to focus on the rising cost of health care.

“Our platform is what this moment calls for. Many tragic events that have unfolded over the past 18 months have exposed gaping holes in our society, vulnerabilities which, if left unaddressed, will leave us in a state of danger. dangerously weak position to face the immense challenges of the 21st century, â€Paul said in a statement.

Closure of fossil fuel industries

The plan would also require an increase in Canada’s emission reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement – which currently call for a 40-45% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 – to a reduction 60% over the same period.

Part of the way to get there, according to the platform, is to increase the price of carbon. Right now, Canadians pay $ 50 a tonne, which increases by $ 15 a year until it reaches $ 170 in 2030. The Greens want to increase the annual increase to $ 25 a year, for grow to $ 250 per year by 2030.

The Green Platform says the party can do it with a series of measures that will shut down the fossil fuel industry in Canada, including: ending the extraction of all fossil fuels in the country; the cancellation of all new pipelines, including the Trans Mountain pipeline; cancellation of all new oil exploration projects; and end the leasing of federal lands for the production of fossil fuels while withdrawing existing licenses, banning hydraulic fracturing and ending fossil fuel subsidies.

The platform also calls for the phase-out of existing oil and gas operations and would require the Canada Pension Plan to get rid of all investments in fossil fuels.

Additionally, the sale of all internal combustion passenger vehicles would be banned by 2030 and all passenger ferries would be converted to electric or hybrid systems.

To make it easier for oil and gas workers to access greener industries, the party will introduce the Just Transition Act, which “will replace every well-paid job in the fossil fuel sector with a well-paid job in the green sector through salary insurance, retraining programs and early retirement plans â€.

Carbon frontier adjustments and other promises

The platform makes a series of other proposals, in particular for:

• Declare housing affordability and homelessness a national emergency and immediately appoint a federal housing advocate.
• Invest in the construction and operation of 50,000 supervised housing units over 10 years.
• Build and acquire a minimum of 300,000 units of very affordable non-market, cooperative and non-profit housing over a decade.
• Allocate $ 10 billion to post-secondary and trade schools.
• Decriminalize possession of illicit drugs for personal use.
• Undertake an immediate review of the RCMP’s role in policing municipalities and reserves and identify areas in which to “detach†police and reduce police spending.
• Prohibit and condemn the practice of medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children.
• Prohibit and condemn the practice of conversion therapy, in all its forms.
• Develop and implement carbon border adjustments to ensure Canadian businesses do not face unfair competition from polluting jurisdictions.
• Expand VIA Rail into a rail and bus system.
• Replace one-third of Canada’s food imports with domestic production, which will bring in $ 15 billion to the economy.
• Call on the Pope to apologize on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for his role in residential schools
• Prohibit the development of new nuclear energy.