NDP costing calls for 200 billion in new spending on health care climate change Indigenous reconciliation

The federal NDP has released a costing breakdown of its platform commitments that shows the party is promising more than $200 billion in new spending over the next five years.

Much of that spending would be offset by $166 billion in revenue raised during the same period through a series of new taxes and other measures targeted at wealthy individuals and large, profitable corporations.

"I'm proud to say that we are the only party that has a plan that will ensure that we are not going to put any extra burden on working class people, on the middle class, on small businesses," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters.

"Our plan is the only one with a credible vision to [increase] revenue significantly and substantially so that we can invest in the programs that people need, the help that people need At the same time as putting us in a better situation to reduce our debt."

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The calculation, which is partly based on projections from Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), estimates how much NDP platform promises would cost over the next five years, and how much revenue new tax measures would bring into federal coffers. 

It attaches specific dollar projections to policy pledges contained in the NDP platform, which the party released earlier this summer, but which was criticized as being long on ambition and short on details.

The release of the platform costing comes on the second day of advance voting, with nine days left in the campaign before election day.

No immediate plan to get back to balance

The NDP's costed platform calls for $40 billion in additional spending for 2021-22. The costing predicts a steep deficit of $145 billion in 2021-22 that would decline gradually to $34 billion in 2025-26.

There is no immediate plan to get back to budgetary balance included in the NDP platform, but party officials point to the declining debt-to-GDP ratio â€" which would decline from from 48% in 2021-22 to 45.8% by 2025-26 â€" as an indication that the party has a clear path back to balance.

According to party officials speaking on background, the NDP promises are above and beyond what was contained in the 2021-22 budget proposed by the Liberal government and passed by Parliament earlier this year. 

Unlike the Conservative Party platform, which proposes cancelling the Liberal's big-ticket promise to spend $30 billion to build a national child-care program, NDP plans to honour the existing deals the Liberals have signed with several provinces and to finish building a national system.

The most expensive line item in the NDP costing is $68 billion in health-care spending over the next five years, which would fund universal prescription drug coverage, expand long-term care and home-care options, and cover dental care and mental health expenses for many Canadians on the lower end of the income spectrum.

The party is also proposing to spend $26 billion to fight climate change and support workers who may need to transition out of high-polluting industries such as oil and gas. 

In addition, the party would redirect $35 billion already budgeted for projects with the Canadian Infrastructure Bank into a "climate bank," which would have a mandate to boost investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon technology.

Another $30 billion would go toward efforts to achieve reconciliation with Indigenous people. More than half of that amount would be invested to bring the federal government in compliance with a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling by compensating First Nations families and children who were removed from their homes and placed in the child welfare system.

Ambitious spending, ambitious revenue generation

Below are the revenue raising measures and the amounts the party projects each would bring in:

$60 billion through a 1% annual tax on households with wealth over $10 million. 

$44 billion through raising the capital gains inclusion rate to 75% from 50% .

$25 billion through raising the corporate income tax rate  to 18% from 15%. This would apply only to businesses that make more than $500,000 in profit.

$14 billion through an "excess profit tax" on companies that made large profits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

$12 billion through cracking down on tax havens.

All of the above revenue items have been costed by the PBO.

More to come.

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