The Conservative Party has released a costed campaign platform that includes billions of dollars dedicated to tax cuts and military spending as well as plans to lower the deficit by 70 percent through cost-saving measures.
Canada’s deficit would fall from the Parliamentary Budget Office’s projected $46.8 billion in 2025-26 to $14 billion by 2028, a reduction of roughly 70 percent, according to the Tories’ plan. However, the Conservatives would still run a $100 billion deficit over the next four years.
When announcing the platform in Woodbridge, Ont., Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his government would reduce the deficit by cutting spending on bureaucracy, consultants, and foreign aid, while simultaneously “unlocking the power of our resources” to boost economic growth.
The Conservatives would cut the lowest personal income tax rate by 15 percent, which is estimated to cost $30 billion over four years. The government would also scrap the capital gains tax hike and get rid of taxes on reinvestment in Canada, which would cost a combined $25.1 billion over four years.
The word “axe” appears 15 times in the Conservatives’ platform, referring to many taxes that the party would get rid of. These include the housing tax, which it says “costs more to administer than is collected in taxes,” the escalator tax on alcohol, the planned food packaging tax on fresh produce, and the GST on all new homes that cost less than $1.3 million.
The Conservatives would also put forth the Taxpayer Protection Act, which would ban the introduction of new or higher federal taxes without Canadians first voting in a referendum.
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The Tories’ platform also contains Poilievre’s long-promised “dollar-for-dollar” rule, where every new dollar in spending would need to be accompanied by a dollar in savings. However, Poilievre said during his speech that the rule had been modified to pursue further savings.
“We’ve gone even further. Every dollar of new spending in our platform, especially for things like defence, will be met with $1.50 in savings in other areas,” he said.
A Conservative government would also streamline the public service by only hiring back two employees for every three that retire. It would eliminate the university degree requirements for most federal public service roles to “hire for skill, not credentials,” and ban “double-dipping” so officials can’t profit from government contracts. Spending on consultants would also be cut to save an estimated $10.5 billion.
New Policies on Energy, Military
A Poilievre government would focus on increasing energy production by repealing the Liberals’ Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, creating a National Energy Corridor to rapidly approve and build critical infrastructure, creating a Rapid Resource Project Office to streamline all regulatory approvals, and getting rid of the carbon tax on industries.
The Conservatives would spend an additional $17 billion on the Canadian Armed Forces over four years, which would be sufficient for Canada to meet NATO’s 2 percent of GDP goal by 2030. The Conservative plan emphasizes more control over the Arctic, with two new heavy icebreakers for the Royal Canadian Navy, doubling the number of Arctic Rangers, and building new military infrastructure.
The platform says the Tories would stand up to “hostile regimes” and fight against foreign interference by closing Canada Elections Act loopholes to stop third parties from hiding funding sources, passing a Farmland Protection Act to stop foreign governments from buying Canadian farmland, and passing an Anti-Money Laundering Task Force to crack down on money laundering and financial crime.
The Tories would also keep the rate of population growth below the rate of housing and job growth, ban the dismissal of federal workers based solely on COVID-19 vaccination, oppose any move toward mandatory digital ID systems, prohibit the Bank of Canada from developing a central bank digital currency, and defund the CBC and reform it into a not-for-profit organization while maintaining Radio-Canada services.
The Conservatives’ plan includes projected economic growth as revenue, such as $12.6 billion in revenue from additional homes built under new policies, $11.2 billion in revenue from getting rid of the Liberals’ electric vehicle mandate, and $1.9 billion from scrapping the Clean Fuel Regulations.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney accused the Conservatives of using “phantom numbers” during his April 22 campaign stop in Trois-Rivières, Que. He said the government should not make “assumptions” about possible revenues, and that if the Liberals did the same thing, “we’d be in a fiscal surplus in five years.”
The Liberal Party’s platform promises $129 billion in new spending, and does not include a plan to balance the budget. The plan would add nearly $225 billion to the federal debt over four years. The NDP’s platform would lead to a total of $48 billion added to Canada’s federal deficit over the next four years, in addition to existing debt.
