Federal Feature Posts

Momentum has been building for a national pharmacare program since a June meeting of provincial health ministers. Canada’s new Health Minister, Jane Philpott, says she plans to be in touch with her provincial counterparts to begin the preliminary work of establishing a new health accord which, according to some health experts, could include at least the broad outlines of a national pharmacare program. The 2004 Health Accord expired March 31st, 2014 after the Harper government refused to...

Prime Minister Elect  Justin Trudeau has promised to do what Stephen Harper pointedly refused to do – help Premier Kathleen Wynne implement Ontario’s new pension plan. But reconciling Trudeau's long-term vision of enhancing the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) with Wynne's "ready-to-go" Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP), could prove tricky. Trudeau to help on short-term implementation issues The Conservative government refused to change federal regulations to help establish and collect contributions for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan...

In this post, Canada Fact Check takes a look at five key issues facing the newly elected Trudeau government for the period leading up to, and including, the early-Spring budget. Infrastructure The new Liberal government’s top priority will be to quickly implement its high profile infrastructure program. Trudeau says a Liberal government will run deficits for three straight years and will double spending on infrastructure to stimulate economic growth. According to a Liberal policy paper, the Liberal fiscal...

    What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ? Canada, U.S. and Mexico have long had special access to each other’s markets under NAFTA. Instead of a group of three as under NAFTA, twelve countries would share in the advantages of TPP membership. Broadly speaking, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is similar to NAFTA in that it involves pledges to reduce or eliminate tariffs on a wide range of goods and services. It also sets out rules for...

Just 36.6% of unemployed workers are receiving Employment Insurance benefits - an all-time low in Canada, according to recent government numbers. In 1990, 83% of the unemployed received benefits, but coverage declined to 42% in 1998 — when the former Liberal government redesigned the program to make it far less generous. After further changes by the Conservative government in recent years, the beneficiaries-to-unemployed ratio fell below 40% in 2012 for the first time in almost 40 years. In 2013,...

In this post, Canada Fact Check examines the different proposals put forward by the three major parties regarding personal taxes and family policy. The NDP has proposed a $15-a-day national child-care strategy, the Conservatives' family tax package features income splitting, and the Liberals have released a proposal that creates a new Canada Child Benefit. The Liberals: A revamped child benefit and a more progressive personal income tax system The biggest Liberal family related proposal by far is...

With at least one poll suggesting Tom Mulcair’s New Democratic Party is within reach of securing a historic NDP majority government, the debate between the two opposition parties over fiscal policy has become considerably more pointed. In this post, Canada Fact Check takes a look at the latest polling numbers and then assesses the fiscal positions being staked out by the Liberals and NDP. First, the most recent polling numbers. The latest polls A Forum Research poll for...

In a previous post, Canada Fact Check took a look at the Harper government economic record and began an examination of the three economic legs of the Conservative economic plan: 1) reduced corporate taxes; 2) Canada as an “energy superpower”; and 3) an aggressive approach to balancing the budget rooted in curtailing government spending. In today’s post, Canada Fact Check assesses the economic impact of the Conservative government's policies aimed at turning Canada into an "energy super power”....

Last Friday, Statistics Canada released its jobs report for July, 2015 – the first such release during the election period. Employment was up a bit in July as compared to June (+6,600) and the unemployment rate stayed at 6.8% for the sixth straight month. Compared with a year earlier, employment had increased by 161,000 (or 0.9%), primarily because of the growth in full-time work. Provincially, employment in Ontario was virtually unchanged in July. Compared with 12 months earlier, employment in the province...

Canada Fact Check continues its election coverage with a look at the likely tax planks in the NDP and Liberal platforms. Mulcair and Trudeau on Harper Tax Cuts First, both Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Tom Mulcair have announced that if they form a government, they will cancel the Conservative “Family Tax Cut”, an income-splitting measure that primarily benefits higher-income earners. Both parties would also cancel the increase in the Tax free Savings Account (TFSA) to $10,000 which...