Pirate Party of Canada decided to live blog their own answers to the questions asked. The following is the transcript
taken from the party website.
Question 1: Jobs
Canada is facing structural, rather than cyclical change. Do you have a
job plan, beyond taking things out of the ground?
Retort to the leader's response:
No concrete plans for job creation mentioned by all 3 leaders than desired results.
Question 2: Energy & Environment
In the last campaign, the NDP put a cost of $21 billion on its carbon-
pricing policy. What is the cost of your planned cap-and-trade proposal?
their cronies and lobbyists, innovation and creativity suffers.
Retort to leader's responses:
We should avoid raising taxes unless absolutely necessary. We cannot sacrifie environmental safety to put all our egg in one economic basket. Basic Income or BIG combined with patent and copyright reform would let the private sectors move our country forward. It will empower Canadians NOT the lobbyist and monopolist.
Question 3: Infrastructure
You are committed to taking us into deficit to fund your infrastructure
plan. Spending money is an easy promise. What does success look like?
We need to give the municipalities a permanent source of revenue aside from property taxes, tickets, and the obsolete exorbitant license cost for taxis. Municipalities are the heart and soul of a nation and they must be empowered to create a community according to their vision. One way of doing that is through infrastructure bonds.
Infrastructure bonds can help fund the creation of zero or low-emission transportation which will increase mobility, interconnectedness and access to businesses throughout a community. By funding and using bicycle lanes, for example, people will become healthier, thereby decreasing costs to health care, and will have more spending money as a result of using a more cost-efficient mode of transportation. Decentralization can be good for physically building our nation. Top down micromanagement has been shown not to work for infrastructure, as our deteriorating roads, bridges, and sewage treatment plants demonstrate.
Retort to leader's responses:
We need to empower the provinces and municipalities. Listen to ideas and feedback from the grassroot and work with them. Federal government dictating everything and micromanaging how money should be spent have not worked.
Question 4: Immigration and the Economy
All parties agree immigration is central to Canada’s long-term economic strategy. What is the right balance between economic migrants and those seeking family reunification?
Question 5: Housing
Canadians have been on a borrowing binge to buy ever more expensive homes. What would you do to guard against a housing bubble?
Our government should study the effectiveness of Land Value Tax in controlling wild speculation and minimize housing bubble. It will also encourages productive use of land and prevent housing shortages.
We must support our municipalities. Although we are open to restoring the Federal GST by up to 2% in order to give municipalities a permanent revenue source, we think Infrastructure Bonds are a much better route. By utilizing these bonds, municipalities could find the funds that they require to fix their roads and bridges, upgrade their fire departments and police stations, and maybe even build a sewage treatment plant or stadium. With interest being paid to the Canadians that purchased the bonds, this would lead not only to more work, but also more money being spent within the community. The wave of economic benefits is undeniable.
Retort to leader's question:
Minimum wage won't fix poverty. Mincome or BIG would. Renovation tax credits and constant increases in tax credits during election is not sustainable. We can create a drastic improvement in our society. By axing $600 billions of corporate subsidies (approximate cost so far over 30 years or ~ $22 billion per year) in combination with the elimination of boutique tax credits, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and a welfare system unable to make a difference, we can afford to implement our BIG idea. We can have a Basic Income Guarantee that provides the buffer necessary for people from all walks of life to live with dignity. As a cushion, people will be more inclined to take a risk on a new business, move to a new city in search of work, or take the step from renting to owning. Our BIG idea will give our economy a BIG push in the right direction, and everyone will be better for it.
Question 6: Taxation
You will raise the corporate tax rate from the current 15% to 17% What economic, rather than political, reason justifies your decision?
However, it is also greatly unfair for few companies to engage in corruption, conflicts of interest, and lobbying so they can have an industry clutched within its stranglehold. Since it has become apparent, and recognized by economists, that corporate subsidies do not create jobs, we would redirect those money to invest in ways that will actually benefit Canadians. Our corporate tax rate must remain competitive with other countries, without being exceptionally low. We need to implement a wide range of patent & copyright reform to ensure the development of an Open Market with fair competition.
Our current economic structure and copyright and patent laws encumbered innovation and propagation of culture. It encourages monopoly, cartel, hoarding of creative works and innovation. Big companies hoards the money instead of creating jobs and expanding or innovating like small businesses tends to do to remain competitive. This is what Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney referred to as the "dead money".
Retort to leader's responses on taxation:
We should ask how do we make our economy sustainable? Political tax credits announced every election complicates the tax system and adds to government cost. It is time to do away with all that and implement a simpler but effective solution through Basic Income Guarantee. There is a continuous need to raise taxes because of this growing complication in our budget. Political boutique tax credits are unfocused, insufficient and does not solve what it claims to solve. BIG on the other hand would prevent senior's poverty, child poverty, disabled and unemployable economic hardship, and the list goes on and on. And it can all be done in a focused and more efficient ways at a much lower cost.
Leader’s debate on: Creating a New Economy
While candidates likes to use the term "middle class", we cannot neglect the increasingly large portion of the population that make up the working poor. Precarious, temporary and casual jobs have created a lack of job security that is starting to become a drag on our economy. Some people are able to work longer hours to make ends meet, but most can only find casual, part time, or temporary employment. Poverty from the working poor is a huge burden to our society costing us at least $72 billion from a heavily strained health care system, an overburdened criminal justice system and numerous hours of lost productivity. Add the $185 billion price tag that comes with welfare and its supporting bureaucracy, and it becomes easy to see where prior governments have thrown good money after bad. There is a simpler and more efficient fix that will provide economic security for ALL Canadians. It is a called Basic Income Guarantee or BIG.
Politicians rarely talk about poverty and avoid campaigning in poor neighbourhoods, but the problem will not go away and it is leading to increased mental health issues and encourages a growth in crime. Our BIG idea will make sure everyone has a cushion to help provide them with the necessities, like food and housing, while making it possible for people to live a decent life.
You cannot talk about economy without even mentioning poverty.
Post-Debate Statement on: How to make Canada a world leader on democracy and economy.
With health care costs always on the rise, and our innovation & economy stagnating, we need to make some major changes. A Basic Income Guarantee will reduce government size, decrease government waste, and help Canadians right across the country get ahead, get educated, and start their own businesses. By altering Industrial Protectionism laws to reduce copyright and patent monopolies, we can spur industrial and cultural innovation. Through the construction of a Nationwide Research Collection Centre, we can develop all sorts of new materials, ideas, and methods that will benefit our economy and our way of living. The Pirate Party of Canada has a plan that will decrease health care costs, spur innovation, and electrify our economy.
Canada is lucky to have a great set of rights and freedoms, but these have been slowly stripped away under the guise of increased security. Without our rights and freedoms, what is all that security actually protecting? The Pirate Party of Canada will start by repealing C-51, and then we will strengthen your rights and freedoms, provide you with a better voice in government, and give you the ability to hold your local representative to account for their actions. We will find ways to increase Canada’s digital security, without stripping away your ability to learn, to grow, to innovate, and to be free. The Pirate Party of Canada will stand up for your rights and freedoms.
The world has changed, and continues to change no matter how hard other parties might try to keep us mired in the past. It’s time for Canada to be at the forefront of that change. We need to embrace our diversity, leverage our research and technology, and build a better tomorrow. This year at the ballot box, take back your government by voting for the Pirate Party of Canada.