House Debate - The Economy

It's that time! The first House debate of the campaign is all about the economy. What are parties proposing to keep Canada's economy growing? To create jobs?

We sat down with Conservative candidate in Calgary Nose Hill and Minister of State for Western Economic Development Michelle Rempel, New Democrat candidate in Eglinton-Lawrence and former Energy Minister and Finance Minister provincially in Saskatchewan Andrew Thomson, and Liberal candidate in Regina - Wascana and former Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale. 

Here's what they had to say:

Can you point to the one thing in your campaign that will help address what's going on in the economy?

MR: I think the key word I would use is stability. Companies right now are looking at investments, they're looking at their work force, they're looking at projects and saying, 'can we do this in this economic climate?' And the answer is yes under our campaign plan. Businesses know we're going to keep taxes low, we've pursued a very strong free trade agenda and we've been very clear and predictable.

AT: What we're going to do obviously is to bring some focus back into the areas of the economy that should be growing beyond the resource sector, in the areas of manufacturing and technology, and we're looking at doing that through targeted tax incentives.

RG: The imperative is to drive greater growth, and you do that by better supporting the middle class. A middle class tax cut would be very helpful. We need a single, focused tax-free Canada child benefit...we need a bolder plan for investing in infrastructure, in access to post-secondary education, science and innovation — those things that drive growth.

On oil and the energy sector:

MR: We can use the strength of our primary industries like the energy sector to grow other areas of the economy as well. Why this ideological opposition to growth in that sector?

AT: Nobody's saying divert away. Everyone's saying it's time for us to make all the cylinders in this economy are firing. The Conservatives have put all their focus on the resource sector. That's not the strength of the Canadian economy traditionally. We need a manufacturing sector too.

How do low oil prices affect your ability to cost out the promises your leader is making?

AT: I think we're being fairly modest in the types of promises we are making. We're certainly talking about the need to rebalance corporate taxes so that larger corporations do pay a fairer share. We're being very upfront about that, at the same time we're talking about the need to invest in infrastructure and targeted tax reductions for sectors like manufacturing and technology and innovation.

RG: What you have to do is build your way out of this mess. You do so by investing in the drivers of growth. That means investments in those things like the middle class, infrastructure, post-secondary education. Those things drive growth and that will lift the economy and facilitate the balancing of the books.

MR: We know we have to support job-creating companies in order to see the long-term growth of our country. Certainly the budgeting projections that we put forward, we're already in a surplus for this part of the fiscal year. I want to show the whole suite of services and programs our government have put in place — low taxes, free trade agenda, balanced budget and a strategic review of government. It's our government that has the stability that Canadians and investors are looking at when making decisions.