Below is a review of the NDP's Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reviews of platform costing.
The federal NDP is promising $214 billion in new spending over the next five years, according to a costing breakdown of its platform commitments released Saturday. 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. ...
The costed platform calls for $40 billion in additional spending for 2021-22. It predicts a steep deficit of $145 billion in 2021-22, which would shrink to $53 billion the next year before declining gradually to $34 billion in 2025-26. There is no immediate plan to get back to budgetary balance, but party officials point to the declining debt-to-GDP ratio — which would go from 48% in 2021-22 to 45.8% by 2025-26 — as an indication that the party has a clear path back to balance.
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, the 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 new 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 says this would bring its platform the closest to meeting the provincial and territorial premiers' demand to have the federal government cover 35 per cent of all health-care costs — which would amount to increasing the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) by $28 billion per year. (The Conservative platform would inject $60 billion into health care over the next 10 years with no strings attached, although most of that money would be coming in the latter half of the decade. The Liberals would create a dedicated mental health transfer and say they are willing to negotiate increases the CHT).
The NDP 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. ...
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. This would apply to only some companies that make profit in excess of $10 million per year.
$12 billion through cracking down on tax havens. The Canada Revenue Agency would receive $100 million in extra funding to expand its capability to track down such funds.
All of the above revenue items have been costed by the PBO, according to party officials.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-platform-costing-1.6172629