Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio.
Welcome to Policy and Rights show. Gosh, welcome to Policy that Human joys. Alright, welcome back to Policy and Rights
here in Depictions to Media Radio. I'm your host, Michael Cloggs. Well, in this next episode, we're going to hear from Elizabeth May and we're also gonna hear from the automotive sector, and they're gonna be talking about some suggestions to the new federal government as as they come into office and how to protect the automotive sector from one tariff and two in increasing UH prices to directly to to the consumer because of some of the things that that are
actually happening. Well, I'm gonna focus on one and and and then you can listen later on to hear one of they have five suggestions, especially five suggestions, and I'm going to focus on the electric vehicle mandate that they
are asking the federal government to repeal that. Well, one, it should be a consideration to repeal it because well, the electric vehicle isn't as affordable as what it seems upfront, that there is a delay factor in how it actually uses of fossil fuel or its impact on the on the environment. Well, while we can actually see and measure the impact of the environment into with the with a
carbon fueled vehicle, with the with the carbon release. Of course, what isn't actually talked about is the carbon footprint of an electric vehicle through its lifetime is almost exactly the same as the carbon fueled or fossil fueled car.
Now, there's there's.
A lot more to happen with electric vehicles. There's more and more UH innovations and things like that that need they actually need to be putt into place. And this
isn't about attacking Tesla or anything like that. This is this this what I'm talking about applies to all that vehicles and with their traditional manufacturers that because of some of the impacts such as dams and things like that, to build more electric infrastructure, which, as it turns out, you're going to hear in the discussion of from the automotive sector that the if electric infrastructure isn't isn't really going to at this point, isn't really keeping up with
the demand for electric vehicles. And what a surprise that because of the price of a new car, that the economic impact there people are choosing to buy use vehicles and the average you're not going to find too many electric vehicles on a used lot. You're gonna find gas powered or fossil fuel powered vehicles on the used car lot because of some of the impacts of economic impacts that are happening to consumers.
So it may.
Actually make sense to reduce that or take away that electric vehicle mandate. Well, I really want to focus on that, because it may not have made as much sense to put in place a electric vehicle mandate to begin with. There's a lot a lot of pros and cons between the two. I'm going to focus on this on this pro.
The pro is that it actually gave a a jump start to the electric vehicles to get up a lot of electric vehicles out on the street, which is actually not such a bad thing that it's probably a good
thing to start moving that way. But at the same time, when we were being hit with with the with the carbon tax on the fuel if you had a gas powered vehicle, that it caused some economic instability, and well here we are now, maybe it's time to relax that electric vehicle mandate and relax the carbon tax so that we we can actually live. Part of the reason for pushing back against climate change is so that we can
live comfortably as human beings. Well, if we're where about how we're going to pay our bills, get to work, all that sort of stuff, are we living comfortably as human beings here in Canada? Something to think about. Okay, So let's move on to Elizabeth May because the Green Party has released her platform, and one of the big things that I want to want to talk about in her platform is not the reduction of personal income taxes for those who have an income of less than forty
thousand dollars a year. It is she's asking for the elimination of personal income taxes for those who make less than forty thousand dollars a year. Okay, why would I be focused on eliminating the personal income taxes for that particular income group. Well, that particular income group is right now struggling to oh, do I pay rent?
Do?
Or do I by medication? Because some of these people are on disability. Do I pay rent? Do I buy medication? Do for those who still need to go to work and everything? Do I put gas in my car or plug my car in so that I can get to work? Well, there's a lot of choices that are made by these folks, and that needs to be addressed. Eliminating the income tax and releases them to be able to put more money back into the Canadian economy to begin with, which is
the whole point. If we relax something so people can spend more in their community, can do more things in their community without worry, then ultimately we've met the goal of fixing things in the Canadian community. So what a great idea. Other ideas that she had, of course, she's still pushing for Pharmacare, which is a Green Party idea. I know jag Feed always kind of beats it out there,
but he got the idea from the Green Party. It is one of their global mandates and one of their pushes in the United States is for some sort of universal healthcare system for those who otherwise may not be able to afford healthcare. The Green Party isn't just in Canada. It is a global movement and Elizabeth May is one of the biggest representatives of that movement here in Canada.
So something to think about. While the Green Party may not be able to muster up enough to get a large number of seats to form its own parliamentary government, as the levels or the Conservatives can, but they have a direct impact on what we see in our everyday lives. In policy, they have an influence in it. So something to think about with the Green Party. So we are actually going to listen to Elizabeth May as she delivers
the Green Party platform. And keep in mind, Okay, we all have this civic duty coming up April twenty eighth. If you haven't voted early, then you need to get to the polls April twenty twenty eighth and cast your vote. For those of you who have actually already casted your vote and you voted early, thank you so much. It's a wonderful thing that you did. And from what I seen in British Columbia that across the Lower Mainland in British Columbia Vancouver area, that a lot of people have
gone out and voted early. And it's a good thing. One you've voted, you've done that civic duty thing. Two, you have put your voice into motion. And that is the whole point of having a democratic society. There's the whole point to having human rights, is that we all have a equal say in what happens in our government. So let's get started, and let's listen to what the automotive sector has to say about, Hey, buying a car also more than that, it's more than buying a car.
But let's protect our ability to move freely across our country. And then we'll listen to Elizabeth May with all the wonderful green ideas that she is laying out there publicly for the other bigger parties to also pick up on it and secretly call their own. All right, so let's get structed.
Good morning.
My name is Hugh Williams and I am the national spokesperson for the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association.
Hugh Williams is for Le consistin Adultmobile sementin on a Notre peege Dakada, President Tim Royce, a notre economist, Donald Chef Monsieur Charles Bernard.
So this morning we're going to be making some remarks on the Canadian Competitiveness Automotive Competitiveness Framework and will be let off by mister Royce, followed by mister Bernard in French, and then we'll be able to take some questions from there and do interviews later.
Thank you, mister Rice.
When jour good morning. My name is Tim Royce. Thank you for joining us. Today we are launching Caada's.
Automotive Competitiveness Framework, which outlines concrete regulatory reactions we urge the next Canadian federal government to take in order to
protect consumers, small business, auto dealers, and the economy. The Canadian automotive sector is in turmoil as a result of the US terrorfs, and while we applaud their current Canadian government on its measured response to not make the situation worse, it is clear that we are fast approaching a consumer affordability crisis as the attic costs of the terrorfs work their way through the different supply chains of all the manufacturers and will soon be reflected in the higher prices
in the marketplace.
Face with this, our.
Automotive Competitiveness Framework outlines five concrete actions that the next federal government can take on behalf of the consumers in industry first.
End Canada's ev mandate.
Canada has been very successful in increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road over the last years as consumer demand, charging infrastructure, and purchase incentives were aligned. Most recently, however, the build up of charging infrastructure has not kept pace, especially in multifamily homes and downtown condominiums. Both federal and
provincial purchase incentives have been curtailed and partially eliminated. Consumer demand, while still growing, is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to support the numbers contemplated by the federal and provincial ev mandates, despite the tremendous investments made
into new products by almost all manufacturers. When recently discussing the decision to end BC's consumer carbon tax, VC Premier David Abby said that he does not want people to choose to have to choose between affordability and climate action, and we wholeheartedly agree. However, if Canada's federal and provincial ev mandates remain in place in their current form, exactly that will happen very soon. We urge the next federal government to adjust, update, and recalibrate the original plans to
take into account the changed market realities. Second, expand Canada's automotive regulatory frame. For far too long, Canada has been beholden to the US find environmental and safety standards for vehicles at the exclusion of all others. This means that Canadians only get those vehicles and brands that Americans consider attractive and affordable because Canada's volume alone doesn't justify the cost involved in making the vehicles compliant.
To North American standards.
Almost all manufacturers, including American ones, currently produce attractive and affordive, affordable vehicles in the.
European Union, Korea, and Japan.
The Canadian consumers would be very interested in, and there are also quite a few brands that would like to do business in Canada. Those vehicles and brands comply with a stringent environmental and safety standards in those jurisdictions. After all, do you really believe a vehicle that has been environmentally certified and deemed safe enough to be driven on a German autobon of over two hundred kilometers in is not sative enough to be driven in Canada. We are proposing.
What we're proposing is for the Canadian government to accept the vehicle compliance certificates of Japan, Korea, and the European Union, with whom, by the way, we have free trade agreements. This measure would represent an expansion of Canada's trade horizons, is supported by almost all manufacturers, including American ones, and would not be seen as a retaliation for any US activity.
It is something we can do. Additionally, third, do not allow big banks to compete with the small businesses that they finance. Canada's Bank Act is up for regular review and the big banks are once again trying to muscle their way into being able to lease vehicles to consumers.
What this was mean is that the same banks that provide floor planned financing for our dealer members and therefore or have all relevant financial information from them and have a tremendous lever over them, would now be competing with
them for the same customer. With the amount of power that the Canadian banks already have, it would be impossible for our small business dealers to compete fairly in the marketplace, especially if their competitor is the one holding their hands behind the back with their floor planning conditions.
We should also not.
Forget that during the financial crisis of two thousand and eight, Canada's banks panicked and pulled out of the retail finance market. In some cases, banks pulled long established financing from successful, profitable dealers that had eighty year relationships with their bank.
Two things saved the retail car industry at that time.
First, the strengthened resilience, the strength and resilience of the manufacturer affiliated, finance and least companies. And secondly, the Canadian Secured credit facility purchase up to twelve billion of term asset backed securities backed by loans and leases on vehicles and equipment. If the banks had also controlled leasing during the crisis, it would have been even more catastrophic. We therefore urged the Canadian government not to expand the business
power of big banks into leasing. Fourth, scrap the inefficient luxury tax on vehicles. Since its inception a few years ago, the vehicle luxury tax has been an unmitigated disaster and a clear example of an inefficient tax. Even the Parliamentary Budget Office correctly predicted that it would never have as intended effect as consumers would adjust their behavior and buy
around this tax. What was portrayed as having the rich pay affair share, but in reality was mere populist virtue signaling has ended hurting hard working Canadians such as lotted tendance sale consultants, service advisors and technicians that have been let go at dealerships directly affected by the dropping sales
as consumers adjusted their purchases. In addition, the administration of this tax through a completely new system and process instead of through existing mechanisms such as HSDGST is very costly to the government, manufacturers and dealers, and is so fraught with problems and inconsistencies that the CIRA has been forced to issue countless clarifications.
It is time for this inefficient tax to go and finally.
Pay the debt ode to car dealers for the isf incentives.
As I'm sure many of you have seen reported in the press a few months ago, Transport Canada announced on a Friday that the federal ev incentive program might be running out of money in the coming weeks, and then allowed one US company that hardly has any investments in Canada, be they manufacturing or dealerships, to submit claims for over eight thousand vehicles totaling over forty eight million dollars over that weekend, which led to the program having to shut
down on Monday. While there's still a number of unanswered questions in this matter, one thing is clear. Once left holding the bag were our members to the tune of eight to eleven million dollars that they had fronted on behalf of the Canadian government to consumers.
At the time they bought an EV.
This is unacceptable and undermines the entire EV support system by which our members agreed to front the money on behalf of the government in order to facilitate the transaction at the point of sale under the assumption and trusting that they would be reimbursed accordingly irregultaibly, breaking that trust by not paying the debt currently owed to dealers would undermine our member's ability to continue transacting with EV customers in.
The way it is currently designed.
While we have received some political assurances that this will be done, nothing has happened yet. On the contrary, we have recently received the written communication from Transfer Canada that in their opinion, they did everything right and buy the book, which is quite interesting and in of itself, since we have yet to see the results of the thorough.
Internal investigation announced by the Ministry.
In closing this automotive Competitiveness Framework will go a long way in ensuring the continued competitiveness of the automotive retail business in Canada and will enable our members to continue to deliver exceptional products and services at afford oil prices to Canadian consumers.
Despite the tumultuous situation we find ourselves in thank you for your attention.
On might like to hand over to a lead economist Charles Bernard for food mark in fresh.
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Mexico perfect thank you for being here and uh Jordan from the press gallery. Please, I know we have journalists online, so so I'll leave it over to here.
Yes, we will start with questions online. Please use the raise and function now to ask a question. Is I don't come on sick the kiss on links completely.
Pull them on there, but kiss you know.
Our first question comes from Todd Phillips Universe Media.
Please go ahead, yes, a little more come morning, Todd.
We can hear you. Okay, great, So.
Tom Phillips, the editor Canadian Honor Dealer. So the first question I have is on lead environmental stuck regulations, just opening up of standards, imports from other countries, beaned for vehicle choices and pricing for Canadians and MAEDI. You can answer it in the short term and maybe what that longer term out look would look like perfectly.
Thanks for that question, Todd.
It is currently the fact that pretty much all manufacturers in Canada are producing vehicles in other jurisdictions that Canadians would love.
In Europe and Japan and Korea, for example, hatchbacks.
Canadians would love hatchbacks, smaller vehicles, very affordable and by the way, also very environmentally friendly. But calling anything a hashbag, as you might well know, is almost a kiss of that for a vehicle in the US and with consumers that consumers don't like it. So Canadian volume alone is
not enough for these companies. So we've had concrete discussions with manufacturers that are looking at bringing Vehicle X into Canada that they could sell anywhere between eight to ten or twelve thousand vehicles of those in Canada would be perfect for Canadians, but they're saying.
That volume alone of Canada is not enough to.
A pencil if you will, the investments that have to be made to comply with the North American standards. And it's not that the standards are more stringent, they're just different in its execution because again these jurisdictions European Union, Korea and Japan are already very very stringent in their regulations and how they apply them. So if this would be implemented short term, we would foresee a lot more vehicle offering somewhat different than the US being available for
Canadian consumers. Again, very attractive products for the marketplace and actually environmentally even better than.
Some other problems.
Do you have a follow up, Todd, Yes, if I could.
Another comment would just be tim on this year in contact a lot of dealers across the country.
What are you hearing from them about.
What they're seeing in the showrooms now with you know, the ca use over terras. Are they looking to buy Canadian made vehicles? Are they looking to you know, buy now before the full impact of the terrorists hits. What's going on if you will, on the on the showroom floor right now as a result of the terrorff of even.
Yeah, there's there continues to be a lot of confusion.
Obviously that has now a transition to more of a of a cautionary approach.
Okay, what does this really mean for the next months.
What we are actually currently seeing in the marketplace is dealers being able to advise consumers very closely on listen, this is what I know currently, this is what I don't know, this is what my brand has told me might happen, or this is where we currently are, and advise them if they're close to or around their purchase decision. And they still have inventory on ground and coming in
from from the manufacturer. So the dealers are are are not necessarily worried for right now, but they are looking for because they already see what's coming, the affordability prices that we were talking about, and how will they be able to handle that. Will they still have vehicles available at a price point that Canadians want to buy, what's going to happen to use car evaluations, All of those
things are still open a question. So there's yes, confusion, but that's turning into action that dealerships across the country, as you know, our three four hundred members are very good entrepreneurs and are able to adjust to very tumultuous environments. And by large, most manufacturers are doing actually a pretty good job and keeping dealers informed about also what they.
Know and what they don't know in this rapidly changing environment. Yeah, Todd, Hugh Williams.
One thing I would add to that is that we haven't seen the second shoe drop in all of this. The US Administration's automotive task includes automotive parts, and the knock on effect to that to the supply chain remains a concern. But I think one of the key things that we've noticed in dealing with federal effec on this is that this government has taken a smart, strategic approach to retaliation. You put a number of measures in the mix to lessen the impact on the competitive structure here,
but again we remain concerned going forward. The other thing I would highlight as well is that it's clear from dealers meeting with their individual line manufacturers that not every showroom in Canada and the US will look identical as they have over the last ten years. So as we manage this crisis, they'll certainly be changes on both sides of the border to reflect the tariffs that have been put in place.
We will now take another question online. I have David Kennedy with Auto News.
Please go ahead, Hi, thanks for taking questions. Just to quick one, Kim, you pointed out the bats to a consumer affordability crisis, and obviously this plan from c Ada is designed to help that. Could you just give me a little bit on what if implemented by the government. You know, we'll see these plan called prices steady during the terriff fight, Will it, you know, mitigate some of the price pikes that we expect to see. I can you just expand a.
Bit on that for me. Yeah.
Obviously we have not necessarily done a calculation overall, because it's very difficult to do because different manufacturers are affected in different ways, right and in different in different amounts, obviously depending on where they're currently producing, where they get their products, et cetera.
But what is clear is that the measures that we are proposing, especially.
The EV mandates, the expansion getting rid of the EV mandate and expansion of the regulatory framework, that would have a fairly almost immediate effect in the marketplace because on EV mands, Let's not forget that we're getting very close in the provinces of BC and Quebec next year where manufacturers will be constraints to restrict the numbers of internal combustion engines that they sell to those provinces because they're not able to meet and consumer demand is not as high,
plus charging infrastructure is not there and incentives are not there to reach the prescribed volumes in certain provinces. So restricting supply into a province obviously is going to drive up prices. Right, So this is what would be a measure that that prevents something from from from happening in the marketplace as well as we deal with all of
the turmodel from terraff. So will it will all of these measures be able to dampen all of the teriff effects to your question, will remain to be seen, and it's also dependent on different and individual manufacturers what top of decisions they take, because so manufufacturers might decide to take different decisions as well long term on their production
facilities and their arrangement of supply. Where they might be getting a vehicle currently out of the US, they might change that supply chain for those vehicles to be now coming from an the country.
Right to avoid some of the costs. So that will have to be considered as well.
Yeah, David Hugh Williams, I would just add to that that it's important to remember, as you certainly know that there's more people working for dealerships in the new car supply chain than any other sector. We have over one hundred and seventy thousand individuals working in communities across Canada to serve millions of customers you know, close to two million new transactions and certainly five million or more used
in parts transactions. So these are these these measures have impact on that, and I think when you look at all of the governments, the premiers have come together with Prime Minister Carney and talked about eliminating barriers to trade. If you look at the Quebec vehicle mandate and the BC vehicle mandate, these are really intervinmential trade barriers. Canada and those two jurisdictions in particular is known among auto manufacturers as being a very expensive jurisdiction to do business in.
And one of the things we're going to have to do to be more competitive and recognized across the board by all political leaders is clean up our own house and getting rid of these mandates could certainly be part of that. And I'll just invite Charles Bernard to say just a couple of words on that.
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Do you have a follow up table?
Did we lose you, David? I do have another question?
Please yes, So we have a question from Grace Auto News Please go ahead.
Good morning, Grace, Thanks.
Good morning. Thank you particuling my question. When you talk about bringing in vehicles, uh, you know that are popular with consumers from other parts of the world, and you say a Germany an example of you know, the Canada adopting safety standards for some of these vehicles. Are you thinking about or do you have in mind vehicles that are that would be more affordable for Canading consumers and do you have any name plates in mind?
I always Trinke to the name nameplates, but I'll let Tim Tim handle it.
Yeah, Grace, I would encourage you to to have those discussions with individual manufacturers. Pretty much all of them from the three jurisdictions that we mentioned European Union, Japan, and Korea. They already all have in their potential product plans for Canada quite a few ideas of what they would like to bring into Canada. But as I mentioned as well, and this is maybe different than what it was ten or fifteen years ago, there's also.
American manufacturers. The industry has changed.
Has globalized over the last fifteen years, and they also find themselves in a situation where they're currently producing in those jurisdictions certain vehicles that would be perfect for Canadians. I mentioned a couple of types of vehicles, so I'm not at liberty to discuss brands or models. If you will, I'm fairly certain you will be hearing in the coming days from all of the manufacturers on their specific examples
of what they would like to bring to Canada. And again we're only talking about those three jurisdictions Japan, Korea and European Union, with which Canada already has free traded remons and with and jurisdictions that have a very stringent also environmental and safety standards.
Right, yeah, because I think that that's quite frankly, that would be an idea that would be popular with a lot of canad and consumers.
Yes.
Yes, and you might see name plates that you currently don't have in Canada. They might be part of a larger conglomerate that already does business in Canada, but brands that are currently not represented. You're an expert in the industry race, so you know exactly what brands I'm talking about.
That farm part of you know, in Europe and Japan and Korea, part of larger conglomerates where certain brands that are currently not doing business in Canada would like to come to Canada and with this framework that they could do so. And by the way, our members would be very very willing to take on the business and work with those brands.
Thank you, Grace.
I would just say as well that that opens off opportunities for reciprocal benefits for those that are manufacturing Canada as well. Any other questions, Grace or others.
None, good, Thank you, Thank you, Grace.
We have time for one question with no follow up I have, David Kennedy, please go ahead.
I think just do one more while we're here, just wondering, Hugh, you mentioned off a few minutes ago talking about, you know, expected changes of dealerships in Canada versus what they look.
Like in the US.
So I'm just hoping you can give me a little bit more on that. Obviously, we know you know MAS is one example to see. It's fifty's going to get dropped at least for the time being based on US production.
It sounds like you, David, we lost you there temporarily, So I can answer the base question if if you're like I.
Think you know.
One of the things that's become clear as we go through this tariff war. For certainly there's the unpredictability of the US administration and how they're handling tariffs. I mentioned the auto parts element, which where the US is teriffing auto parts, but the Canadian government, in my opinion, our opinion, has been very smart in terms of not tariffing auto parts, and we hope the US administration takes that lead as well, which.
Helps protect the supply chain.
And of course, our overall goal is to get rid of any automotive tariffs at all. The industry has thrived in Canada, both on the manufacturing side and on the dealer side, by having a unified, harmonized North American market. That market is better for the economies in both countries, it's better for the dealers in both countries, and most importantly, it's better for the consumers in both countries.
We need to live in an auto.
Teriff free environment here in North America until that time comes.
However, to the.
Essence of your question, David, you've got manufacturers looking at their product line and making inordinately difficult calculations as to what content is coming from which side of the border, and what is compliant under the current trade agreements, and how that will be treated. And we know that the manufacturers are meeting proactively with their dealers to talk about the potential implications if you don't get this solved over
the next little little while. We know, of course, that there's a lot of product that's already landed before the tariffs have taken place, and for those consumers that we've certainly been talking to consumers and consumer groups if they're nervous about the tariff situation, The most important thing is to go visit your dealer and to purchase a vehicle.
Before we see the effect.
Of this, and with it restricted demand, presumably we'll see prices increase. So that is a certainty, and it's also a certainty that the manufacturers will be calibrating to figure out which cars they can bring in traf free to the US market and the Canadian market, and therefore you just won't have that compatibility. And I've been privy to numerous conversations that dealers have made on this with their manufacturers, but of course we can't share that between manufacturers to
manufacturers because of those are enormously important competitive decisions. But we know those discussions are going on. Thank you for the question, David. Thank you to the Press Galery, you want to go to them, Yeah, I think we're good. Thank you very much for being here, and of course to the Press Galley for hosting us here.
Thank you very much, Thanks a lot for coming.
First of all, the Happy Earthday everyone, April twenty second, before I start diving in to budgetary details and comparing the Green Party of Canada platform and budget to those of the Liberals, New Democrats, and today Last Minute has
released his platform and budget numbers. I wanted to review something that's I think quite significant, and that is that over the decades, the Green Party of Canada has been the first to promote and propose some really transformative changes, some important ideas, and we have never minded when other
parties take our ideas. So the purpose of today's press conference is to address mister Karney in particular Prime Minister Karney, I'm mister Pradiev, Leader of Visual Opposition, mister Singh, mister Blonchet and all Canadians to say it's time again for some of the other parties to take our ideas. We're offering them to you on a silver plate. Now, just to review some of the things that we have said in the past that you'll find in the platforms of
the other parties. Now, we were the first party to call for the significance of an east west electricity grid that actually functions. You find now that mister Carney is
saying we need this really important energy corridor. You could also have founded in our twenty nineteen climate plants that without a functioning east West North South electricity grid, you really can't get to the carbon neutrality that Canada has committed to over the years, and it's a fantastic idea and it goes back to that fundamental point that underscorts and underlines our platforms since twenty fifteen that Canada has to act like a country and to do that, we
have to think like a country. We've never before seen such a focus on the problem of the non collaborative nature between the different orders of government as we have since the Trump cariiff threats.
We're now seeing.
Everybody, regardless of where they are on the political spectrum, saying it's time to have an to end into provincial trade barriers, it's time to get into provincial cooperation. Nowhere is that more critical than in our electricity grade. So again, that's been Green Party platform from at least twenty nineteen six years, and we're glad other parties are catching up with us. Another one that was in our twenty fifteen platform when we were the first party to promote this
is national Pharmacare, universal single payer pharmacare. We're the only country that has a universal healthcare program that doesn't have pharmacare. Now I know the due people say, well, that was Tommy Douglas's idea, and yes, Tommy Douglas is a hero and much revered by I think most Canadians for what
he did for this country. But it had been a very long time, and in fact, we were the first party to put universal pharmacare in our platform back in twenty fifteen, based on the study done by a number of academics across Canada, including Steve Morgan at UBC called Pharmacare twenty twenty. That's how long ago it was, when twenty twenty was still ahead of us. We also were
the first party to call for a wealth tax. It was in our twenty nineteen platform, and again we were the first party in this election to have the studies about our costings placed on the PBO website. Now, once something is posted on the Parliamentary Budget Office website, it's in the public domain and anyone can use it. So
our wealth tax numbers were published on April ninth. The NDP platform came out after that, and in debates locally where my NDP opponent says we're the only party calling for a wealth to actuvay, yeah, well no. And also we posted it publicly first. When we're looking at other issues over time where we'd have been the first and now it's accepted as normal Canadian policy. We were the first party to call for equal marriage. We were the
first party to call for legalizing cannabis. We remain, as far as I know, the only party calling for a guaranteed liverable income. We are the first party to call for a green tax shift, taking taxes off things we want, like income and putting it on pollution. As I said to Stefan dion Over at the time, if you're going to take our ideas, that's okay, but please don't mess them up.
Please know how to communicate them.
So we've now seen all the efforts to include carbon pricing in climate policy essentially renounced by all parties in this election other than the Greens. Now when we look at the things we've advocated in the past that are now accepted within Canada, again, please look at our platform. Please look at our budget and look at it carefully. I want to highlight a few of the things that would really help Mark Carney's budget balance sooner and without
taking shots, because it's really important. I think we're still team Canada. I don't want to take any unfair shots at anyone. I do want to highlight that the Parliamentary Budget Office does extraordinary work. Today for the first time, a number of studies from PBO asked for by the
Conservatives have been posted. As far as I can see, none of them justify the effort the Conservatives have made in today to say that their cuts in spending and various tax changes will result in twenty one billion dollars of new tax revenue by twenty twenty eight twenty twenty nine.
That's reported by the Globe and Mail. As the Consertis are betting on increased tax revenue of twenty one billion a year by twenty twenty eight twenty twenty nine, isn't There are a number of changes that they've made, Yes, and the number of changes were reviewed by PBO. But at least at this point, looking at the PBO website, we can't find that that conclusion of the Conservatives is other than their internal hunch that that will create that
kind of benefit. I also want to be very clear of what the Parliamentary Budget Office does and what it doesn't. It's an extraordinary thing, and many Canadians may not know that all federal political parties have access to Parliamentary Budget Office analysis. Top notch tax advice and fiscal advice, and it has to be nonpartisan, so they seek the party's permissions to publish. What they publish, they're in the public domain.
So that's when we put forward what a wealth tax would generate in the public domain with all the details on April ninth. It's worth knowing that that public domain money would generate wealth taxes excuse me, only on net household worth of over ten million dollars going up to a higher tax bracket of three percent for those in the fifty million to one hundred million dollar range, we'll generate one hundred and twenty one billion dollars by twenty thirty.
That's in the public domain. Other parties can use that number. The wealth tax is an important part of new revenue for the Government of Canada, extraordinarily something that has been in the public domain as a discussion item for decades.
Were the first party to actually look at it and what would it generate.
And this is particularly important again for other party leaders who have increased spending. Mister Carney has one hundred and thirty billion dollars a year in increased spending. We of course have to cover the things that we're proposing so again to the question of social equity. We announced this weeks ago to help the lowest income wage earners in Canada. The Green Party of Canada will eliminate income tax for those who are earning forty thousand dollars a year or less.
Not a tax cut, eliminate personal income tax if you're earning less than forty thousand dollars a year. Now, we're able to cover that entirely with what I'm going to talk about next, which is a really big idea, really significant for Canadians to know. The Green Party is paying attention to affordability issues. We don't want people who are just scraping by to have to pay personal income tax. Corporations need to pay their fair share. But this next item,
financial transaction tax, is a sure fire winner. Canadians won't feel it at all. It won't even pinch the pocketbook at all. It's called a financial transaction tax. It was first proposed decades ago by Nobel Prize winning economist the late James Tobin. The idea is the money's clicking through financial markets. You change in the value of the making billions on what the end is worth in the morning.
With the dollar is worth at night, every transaction to every time you're changing currency or bond traders, we would put a tax on every transaction of zero point three five percent. Now, what that comes to, and numbers people can identify quickly, is that for every transaction of one hundred dollars, there'd be a thirty five cent tax. Even
the bond traders won't really feel it. You'd have to be someone like George Sorrow's trading hundreds of billions of dollars a day to even notice it, and then he'd hardly go broke. The reality is that by shifting some of the taxation off personal income and on to speculative financial transactions of the high rollers at thirty five cents for every hundred dollars of transaction, the financial transaction tax generates by twenty twenty nine to twenty thirty per year ninety billion dollars.
Imagine that thirty.
Five cents on every hundred dollars into financial transaction, and this again over a five year period cumulatively two hundred and seventy nine billion dollars. That's why we're able to project a one point four billion dollar deficit. We don't get to a balanced budget. Within five years, but we get closer even than the Conservatives, and these are based on studies done by the Parliamentary Budget Office, they're all public. Are really urge the other party leaders to have a
look and take it seriously. People don't expect the Green Party of Canada to be the party that comes up with the most practical, innovative solutions for how to grow an economy and fight Donald Trump. Now on the fight Donald Trump front, I just want to review the Green Party again has some very exciting ideas. We announced them in Nanaimo back on March twenty ninth, creating strategic reserves for Canadian raw resources.
But I specifically want to mention.
One idea in particular that we mentioned that day and got very little attention. We used to all of you buy Canada savings bonds. We call them Saving Canada bonds, where every Canadian can buy a bond and for instance, by help the Government of Canada buy up the potash.
Why potash.
It's not going to be enough to take on a bully like Trump, to go into a ring and say for every punch you deliver us, we're going to punch you right back equally hard. The bully in the ring with us is ten times bigger than we are. That's not a fight we can win. Retaliatory tariffs are good in making it clear the United States that we're not
going to be pushed around. But if you take on a bully ten times your size, you've got to be prepared to well, I don't know it sounds mean, do the equivalent of sticking fingers in his eyes.
You have to make it hurt.
Canadian Saving Canada bonds in holding Canadian potash here north of the border for the growing season of twenty twenty five, US farmers have already bought up the potash they need.
But if we buy up the potash for their next going season.
And say, well, you know, it's not something we're selling this year, it's tied up in our Saving Canada bonds, every Canadian could buy Saving Canada bonds. Help us buy up the potash and have a solid, committed five percent rate of return. It's a good investment. It's an investment in saving Canada. That's just one of the ways the strategic reserves of Canadian resources cannot only help us take on Donald Trump, can help us make sure he runs away screaming. I know that sounds mean, but it's a
nice image. We also underpin all of this with a transformative approach to how our various orders of government should work together. Now this has been in our platforms since twenty fifteen. I just want to say how much how important it is for us to get accountability right. The provinces, for instance, have had a fourfold increase in transfers from the federal government for health care, but healthcare from the
provinces has not gone up fourfold since twenty twenty. We know that the trance and interprovincial non tarff trade barriers reduce the size of our economy by two hundred to three hundred billion dollars a year.
We've kind of got unanimity on that.
Now within Team Canada, all party leaders are talking about, let's get rid of interprovincial trade barriers.
That's a good thing.
Why are they there?
Because we don't coordinate well at all.
We need to bring in a Council of Canadian Governments where the federal government is at the table working with provincial and territorial governments and the left outside of decision making. Most responsible order of government, local governments, mayors and councils that have to really deliver for the people who live in their communities but don't have access of the tax dollars they need for the investments they need to make, and indigenous governments. So picture a circle for quadrants and
this is what they do in Australia. They bring to one table the people who make the decisions and say we need to buy consensus. All of us agree what is our national goal for energy? What's our national goal for transportation? What's our national goal on climate? Healthcare? Now that four quadrant circle would come together frequently and as they do in Australia, one big table for national goals and subtables when you're dealing sector bisector, healthcare, education and
so on. I will just close by saying again we believe that accountability and revised ethic codes are also essential so that the Canadian public can again feel trust in their government and in their public institutions. There's a lot to cover here because we have a very long platform. Canadians can find it on our website. Our platform has the costing items from the Parliamentary Budget Office that relate
to where we find the revenue. The individual platform items are our own estimates not costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office. To be clear, in the background documents, you'll see highlighted in different colors what's been costed by the Parmatary Budget Office and what hasn't. Not as easy to do that when you look at the other party platforms, but we believe in full transparency and our own accountability as we put forward these really solid, good exciting ideas to revitalize
the Canadian economy, to create economic sovereignty for Canada. So we're no longer hewers of wood and drawers of water for foreign transnational corporations.
But we protect our workers, we protect our.
Communities, we protect our economy, and we spend more where Trump spends less. We spend more where pre puli of what's to cut. We spend more for the CBC, we spend more for overseas development assistance because now that Donald Trump has killed the US AID program, and Pierre Pualief thinks there are savings to be had in taking programs that help educate women and girls, fight malaria around the world,
fight HIV AIDS. That's where Pierre Qualia thinks we've got to cut any place Trump is cutting Canadians pull together. We've got to step up. The US used to be the cop of the world. Now it's the bully of the world. We've got to do more than protect ourselves. We've got to step up for all the countries on Earth that are in Donald Trump's crosshairs, for the poorest of the poor that he is targeting. We have to
do more for international development assistance. That's why we needed to bring in financial transaction taxes, wealth taxes, increase corporate tax rates and ensure that the government of Canada has more public money while each individual Canadian has more personal money. It's doable, but you've got to really think outside the box, and the Green Party is really good at that.
Open for any questions you might have.
Remember any.
Yeah, I hear a lot of very deep anxiety, and I'd have to say the anxiety and the fear is almost amorphous. So people don't They say, oh my god, south of the border and they say, oh my god, pure pliant. But then they also say, why is no one talking about climate? So there's a mix of things of the doorstone. Ye, So more than issues, what I feel at the doorstep is emotion. People come out to talk to me. Quite often they just come up to
say thank you, thank you, thank you. When I'm depressed, all I do is I go watch that video of you telling Donald Trump California it could be the eleventh province. I also have never had a time when I've gone door to door where people are so emotional that after talking to me for a while, I realize it's not making them feel better. They look like they're closer to breaking down in tears. It's very unusual. I've never canvas before before where I leave the doorstep. Instead of saying
would you like a lawn sign? I say would you like a hug? So I end up feeling a lot of a lot of love and a lot of hugs, and you know, hang on, We're going to be okay. There's no point being afraid. There's no point voting out of fear. Really, we are so lucky to be Canadians
remind us all of that every day. Imagine being a trans youth in the United States, or a person of color going off to worship your house of work and not knowing if the immigration rate is going to grab you that day and send you to a prison in El Salvador, where it doesn't seem to even matter if the US Supreme Court says that's against the law. I'm much more concerned for people living south of the border. Living north of the border.
We're in the promised plant and we can get through this.
Yet it is.
Yeah, yeah, Well, I'd say one thing when you're when you're and an election campaign is a very long job interview. So I think it's really quite shameful that Kathy Unska doesn't show up for any of the interviews. She ditched the interview the well she has, she's only been to one.
She hasn't been to any of the public all candidate meetings went to one that was at a private residence of Berwick at Royal Oak, and we haven't seen her since she's you know, it's either it's neck and neck between me and Kathy instead, so she's not showing up.
What does that say?
The sanate Jenalt Protection Society debate that we had on what wasn't really a debate, It was all candidate meetings at the Sanitch Fairgrounds hosted by the sanate Jenlet Protection Society. The excuse that was offered by the moderator was that the conservative candidate had gotten back from it said she had a prior commitment on Pender Island. She had a meet and greet on Pandor Island and it was at a local pub where she charged thirty five dollars a
person to come in and meet and greet her. So I think in this race because in the all candidate meetings, all candidate debate meetings, it's me, the Liberal candidate, and the NDP candidate, and they can say whatever they want about it being a three way race or whatever we say to them. Will if you have internal polling that
says anything different, please show us. But everything we see this is a neck and neck race between the Conservative candidate who isn't showing up for the job interviews and me, and as I think most of my constituents know, if there's work to be done, I show up. I keep being elected pat Parliament's hardest working MP, and that's something I embrace. I'm very, very very proud of my record that I show up and I do the work, and I want to keep doing the work, and I am.
I sometimes tell my team I'm not really superstitious, but I'm sort of stitious. So I'm sort of stitious enough not to say what I think is going to happen on Monday, but I do hope Paul Manley and Nanaimo Ladysmith is in a race quite like mine. Nanaimo Ladysmith is either the Conservative candidate or Paul Manley, and he's got the momentum. He was, of course the MP from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one and got the highest vote of any of the people running for Nanaimo City Council.
He's an extraordinary parliamentarian and I so want to be back in parment with him, with Mike Morris, with a number of other candidates. So I think April twenty eighth is as I said, I'm sort of stitious, we're having a gathering. I hope you'll all come and details are available. Shouldn't probably broadcast where the gathering is, but it's going to be fun and you can find out easily that
we're going to be and oh, I'm really happy. Bill Henderson from Chillo actually going to come and play a few tunes, and Laurna Crozier, one of Canada's most loved poets, will also be there, and a few other surprises. So we plan to have a good time. Win loser, draw green stow have a good time. So yeah, and I'm really so proud of the work we've done. This is the work of volunteers across Canada. Our platform is the
work of the Shadow Cabinet, the people who wrote this platform. First, we have to only follow Green Party policy as passed by.
All our members. And then the people who are on Shadow Cabinet are running for office, so.
It's an amazing group and they're all out there, like annree zedluc A, who's our candidate in gwelf thirty five year family doctor in Gwealth and one of the first people in Canada for doctors to offer an open HIV AIDS clinics back in the horrible day when it was still a stigmatized disease of HIV being HIV positive. Annree
Zedlock is our health critic. We launched our Health Plank together in Gwelth a few weeks ago to say that every Canadian has a guarantee for a primary health care practitioner, family doctor, nurse practitioner and team medicine options. And as she pulls out of her own practice to become a member of Parliament, she's creating a health hub in Gwealth and when we announced it, reporters said, well, that would take I guess some years for government politicians.
No, no, I'm doing it.
I'm opening a health hub in Gwealth because I've got to take care of my own patients as i move into being a federal Member of Parliament for Gwealth. These are amazing people. It's a lot of hard work and it's it's difficult because we know and I'm not going to you know, you're here, Thank you for being here. But our platform hasn't gotten nearly the coverage of the
status quo, very similar platforms offered by everybody else. So I do hope in the last few days when people are making up their minds, but go to our website, read our twenty twenty five election platform and know that to the extent we could. By the way, guaranteed libal income is not yet costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, it's in our platform. And our disability benefit not yet costed,
but it's in our platform. But the Parliamentary Budget Office is still number crunching to give us the answers we want, so that we have an authoritative source for our platform numbers for disability benefit and guaranteed libable income. It's amazing to me how hard the Parliamentary Budget Office works at the Service for Parties. We've been having daily meetings with our analyst at PBO, including Saturdays and Sundays. It's a hard working bunch of policy experts available to political parties.
So I'm real proud of the work that everybody's done on this platform.
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