Under Jack Layton, the New Democratic Party policy takes a clear stand on controversial issues, such as the decriminalization of marijuana. The NDP platform also emphasizes clean economic growth and green jobs.


Based on information posted on the NDP website as of January 9, 2006.

Health care

• During the 2006 election campaign, Jack Layton said his party will focus on stopping the flow of public money into private health care
• Recognize publicly financed and delivered health care as a fundamental right of Canadian citizenship
• Layton has pledged to create a $1 billion annual transfer to the provinces to expand home-care services, which would allow seniors to stay in their own homes while receiving supervised care. It's estimated the program would affect 100,000 households.
• Layton said he would also phase in a $500-million plan to create as many as 40,000 long-term care spaces over four years
• Reduce prescription drug costs with a national bulk-buying program
• Prohibit public money from going to private-for-profit clinics, and make diagnostics such as MRIs medically necessary services
• Phase in a pharmacare program, starting with low-income Canadians and those facing massive drug costs
• Outlaw the practice of "evergreening" prescription drugs (evergreening refers to the practice of putting patent applications on slight variations of the same drug)
• Improve health-care services for First Nations; focus on closer-to-home solutions, rather than medical evacuations
• Include Aboriginal leaders in all meetings of federal, provincial and territorial health ministers
• Implement public and non-profit-based home care
• Establish more community-based clinics to deal with minor medical problems
• Restore ParticipAction, the national program that encouraged physical activity
• Promote proven alternative and traditional health practices
• Ban trans fatty acids in foods as they have done in a few European countries
• Ensure access to safe, therapeutic abortions
• Ensure the federal government address "Romanow Gap" by paying 25 per cent of provincial health care costs within two years
• Respond to Roy Romanow’s concerns about the potential effects of global and continental trade deals on Canada’s ability to keep health care public.
• Better recognize foreign credentials of health professionals
• Implement recommendations on nursing shortages, made by the Canadian Nursing Advisory Committee
• Pursue a major federal plan focusing on prevention through better nutrition, exercise, quality housing and a healthy environment
• Take a precautionary approach to the approval of food and drugs
• Establish a Royal Commission to look at how to protect the sustainability of medicare
• Restore independence to Health Canada in monitoring drug safety
• Help women qualify for maternity benefits by extending coverage to dependent contract workers and eliminating limits on maternity or parental leave that are based on use of sickness benefits.

Same-sex marriage

• The NDP backed legislation for same-sex marriage, while respecting the rights of each religion to determine its own definition of marriage
• Abandon the Liberal Party’s Paul Martin's appeal of the court decision extending retroactive CPP survivor benefits to same-sex couples

Defence

• Support safe helicopters for the Canadian Armed Forces
• Make peacekeeping a priority, under the auspices of the UN
• Establish a Royal Commission to conduct a review of Canada's role in the post-Cold War world
• Increase salaries and improved housing for members of the Armed Forces
• Separate the Coast Guard from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
• Work with other countries to develop replacements for NORAD and NATO
• Against the introduction of a national identity card
• Scrap the Anti-Terrorism Act
• The NDP is opposed to joining the U.S. missile defence plan
• Work with the United States to beef up border security
• Increase security provisions at remote airports
• Launch a full review of Canadian national defence
• Ensure Parliament votes before committing troops overseas
• If a decision is made not to enter war, members of the Canadian Armed Forces should not serve in or command other people's militaries
• Continue to work within multinational arms reduction treaties to eventually eliminate chemical, biological and nuclear weapons
• Introduce legislation to ban racial profiling from federal departments and jurisdictions
• Cancel agreements permitting U.S. soldiers to enter Canada automatically in times of emergency
• Cancel weapons systems for Canadian Armed Forces and reduce DND bureaucracy
• Implement a public Canadian border authority

Marijuana

• Introduce a non-punitive rule-based approach to deal with adult marijuana use

Child Care

• The NDP supports the public delivery of early child care and wants to develop a strategy to ensure a high quality national early learning and child care program.
• The NDP wants the plan extended so as to phase out for-profit day care centres, bringing them into a new funding regime and restricting funding to for-profit day cares.
• They would also like to see protective mechanisms to ensure that public money goes only to public and non-profit services. And they want a public agency to oversee the provision of services.

Crime

• Impose a four-year minimum sentence for illegal possession and sale of restricted weapons such as handguns and automatics.
• Stop the illegal importation of guns from the U.S. with a four-year minimum sentence for importing illegal guns.
• Toughen border controls including arming customs officers.
• Support for reverse-onus legislation for bail on all gun-related crimes and making sure bail conditions are strictly adhered to.
• Improve witness protection programs so that witnesses can assist police without fear of retribution.
• Make changes to legislation so that young offenders 16 and over who are charged with gun offences are tried as adults.
• Focus on eliminating poverty and investing in children at risk as root causes of crime
• Stop the illegitimate importation, sale of and access to the precursors of crystal meth.
• Increase support for drug addiction programs.
• Introduce a non-punitive rule-based approach to deal with adult marijuana use
• Develop a Victims' Bill of Rights
• Support a national sex offender registry
• Ensure transparency and accountability in corporate accounting by bringing Canadian regulations in line with those in post-Enron America
• Introduce legislation that would ban racial profiling from federal departments and jurisdictions

Gun registry

• The NDP supports gun control but has serious concerns about the cost of the gun registry

Democratic reform

• The NDP proposes a referendum on whether to change the voting system to one based on proportional representation, which would give parties seats based on based on the percentage of votes they receive
• Abolish the Senate
• Create aboriginal seats in Parliament
• Lower the voting age to 16
• Create an independent ethics counsellor, toughen up conflict-of-interest guidelines and crack down on expense accounts
• Implement a Parliamentary review of senior appointments to bodies such as Crown corporations, agencies and boards
• Have "third parties" report publicly on the funds they received for election campaigns and advertising
• Crack down on unaccountable election slush funds
• Enact whistleblower laws to protect civil servants
• Improve federal-provincial-territorial relationships through the Council of the Federation
• Ensure Parliament votes before committing troops overseas
• Establish an independent commissioner who monitors federal departments’ compliance to all policies for persons with disabilities and who advises about the effects of pending legislation on persons with disabilities

Government accountability

• During the 2006 election campaign, Jack Layton unveiled the NDP plan to improve government accountability by taking the power out of the hands of lobbyists, making key appointments based on merit; improving freedom-of-information legislation; implementing strong whistleblower legislation; and improving accountability in financing leadership campaigns
• Create an independent ethics counsellor, toughen up conflict-of-interest guidelines and cracking down on expense accounts
• Implement a Parliamentary review of senior appointments to bodies such as Crown corporations, agencies and boards
• Have "third parties" report publicly on the funds they received for election campaigns and advertising
• Crack down on unaccountable election slush funds
• Enact whistleblower laws to protect civil servants

Taxes

• The NDP has committed to proceeding with the increased basic personal credit amounts and the decrease in the lowest personal income tax rate that were announced by the federal government in November
• During the 2006 election campaign, Jack Layton said he opposed new tax cuts promised by the Liberals and Conservatives
• Ensure all Canadians who make less than $15,000 do not pay federal income tax
• Increase the Child Tax Benefit to $4,900 per child and allow Canada's poorest families, who don't pay tax, to qualify
• Guarantee full indexing of tax brackets and credits
• Remove the GST from family essentials, including children's clothing and medicine, school supplies, books, magazines, female hygiene products and medical equipment
• Make the disability tax credit and medical expenses tax credit fully refundable
• Abolish security fees on air travel
• Make the EI account a separate trust fund
• Cancel all tax treaties with tax havens like Barbados
• Index the GST exemption threshold for small and home businesses to the rate of inflation
• Prohibit the practice of letting corporations deduct fines for environmental infractions or unsafe workplaces from their taxes
• Require that stock options be fully expensed in corporate accounting

Foreign policy

• In the deal Layton and his team brokered with Martin’s Liberals, the government promised $500 million in foreign aid
• Increase Canada's international development aid to 0.7 per cent of the GDP by 2015
• Canada should cancel all debts owed to us by developing countries while encouraging democracy and human rights in countries severely lacking
• Implement the Tobin Tax on currency speculation
• End Canada's long-standing objection to a G8 report that shows sustainable development is possible for developing nations through pollution-free renewable energy
• Replace undemocratic, corporate-driven trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO with agreements based on the principles of fair and equitable trade
• Strengthen the United Nations and regional security bodies such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, to replace NATO and NORAD
• Strengthen the Special Economic Measures Act to enable Canada to implement economic sanctions on Canadian companies that contribute to serious human rights violations overseas
• Amend the State Immunity Act to allow Canadians to sue foreign governments for torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity
• Ensure peace and justice in the Middle East by working within the framework of United Nations resolutions and international law, including right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in co-existence in independent states
• Support Canada's continued participation in multinational organizations such as La Francophonie and the Commonwealth
• Adopt legislation that allows criminal prosecution of Canadian-based corporations guilty of human rights violations overseas
• Ensure cheaper, generic versions of drugs are made available to developing countries for AIDS and illnesses such as cancer, malaria and tuberculosis
• Triple existing funding to the Global Fund for AIDS
• Create a new agency to promote fair and democratic elections in among emerging democracies
• Reform International Monetary Fund and World Bank to eliminate lending conditions that cut health and education investment in developing nations
• Refuse to share intelligence with American authorities until they ensure Canadian passport is respected and that Canadian citizens are treated equally at our international borders

Immigration

• Raise immigration levels to one per cent of the population
• Enact a once-in-a-lifetime provision to enable Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor one relative
• Work with the provinces and territories to better recognize foreign credentials of professionals, and to help attract and retain immigrants to maintain labour force
• Eliminate the head tax on immigrants
• Freeze immigration fees, and use the money instead for education and skills training in Canada
• End lengthy delays in processing applications from such posts as Beijing and Delhi
• Amend current immigration laws, that currently bar most immigrants that would have been admitted during the Trudeau era
• Allow those who already call Canada home the opportunity to apply for legal status
• Eliminate head tax on immigrants, effectively regulating and enforcing tighter rules on private immigration consultants and their fees
• Make immigration and refugee system speedier, fairer and more accountable
• Freeze immigration fees to prevent gouging and allowing them to be used as credit towards education and skills training in Canada

Environment

• During the 2006 election campaign, Jack Layton said he would commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Canada by 25 per cent by the year 2020
• In the deal Layton and his team brokered with Martin’s Liberals in 2005, $900 million was pledged for environmental initiatives such as an energy retrofit program that helps homeowners reduce energy bills and pollution through efficiency
• Use the sale of Ottawa's 19-per-cent stake in Petro-Canada as collateral to borrow capital for a new Crown corporation for renewable energy
• Establish centres in solar, tidal, wind and geothermal power across Canada
• Apply the polluter-pay principle
• Help Canada shift from fossil and nuclear energy toward green energy with a phased in tax regime
• Build more wind turbines and foster markets for wind energy
• Auction off emission credits to corporations
• Establish a university degree program in green technology
• Phase in over four years a tax shifting regime to transform incentive, subsidy and investment programs to focus upon green and co-generated energy
• Create markets for Canada’s green energy businesses, particularly solar energy businesses, through the building retrofit program
• Make sure Nova Scotia receives fair share of resource revenue, that people of Newfoundland and Labrador are treated fairly in accordance with Atlantic Accord, and that Saskatchewan is treated on an equitable basis with respect to energy revenues and equalization
• Provide assistance to coal-dependent provinces to close coal plants and help provinces shift from coal-powered plants, providing means to export cleaner hydro power from Quebec and Manitoba to coal- and nuclear-dependent provinces
• Develop a transition fuel strategy that maintains an adequate domestic supply of natural gas to replace oil and coal by directing the National Energy Board to ensure Canadian energy needs are met before allowing unlimited natural gas exports to the United States
• Support family farms by expanding incentives for ethanol as a transitional fuel and supplement farm incomes by importing innovative ideas from states like Iowa, which rents strips of land from farmers for wind turbines
• Maintain the moratorium on oil and gas exploration off the Pacific coast and in the Great Lakes
• Establish a national building energy-efficient retrofit program to reduce demand for electricity
• Ban all animal-to-animal feed
• Reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions

  Transportation

• In the deal Layton and his team brokered with Martin’s Liberals in 2005, the government promised a one-cent increase in the gas tax transfer to municipalities to improve public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in urban areas, and freight rail and rural roads in rural communities
• Share half of the federal gas tax to improve public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in urban areas, and freight rail and rural roads in rural communities
• Provide tax incentives and funding for research into new fuel technology for cars
• Make emission targets mandatory for all manufacturers selling cars in Canada, not voluntary
• Set mandatory sales targets for green cars
• Provide GST rebates on greener cars
• Make public transit passes to employees a tax deduction for employers

  Kyoto

• Retrofit buildings to cut pollution, reduce energy costs and create jobs
• Export cleaner power from Quebec and Manitoba to coal-dependent provinces through an east-west transmission grid
• Support only those carbon sink projects that improve local biodiversity
• Fund investment in public transit, rail and renewable energy

  Water

• New deal for cities should make clean drinking water and sustainable waste water treatment a priority
• Implement a ban on bulk water exports
• Create a federal department of water stewardship to develop common standards
• Draft national guidelines for clean drinking water
• Support farmers who try to reduce pesticide and antibiotic dependence
• Back municipalities in legal battles with chemical corporations after attempting to limit pesticide use in their community
• Introduce a far more comprehensive Water Stewardship Act to protect our most valuable natural resource
• Creating a department of water stewardship to address federal water issues and develop common standards
• Take an aggressive stand on cross-border water issues
• Create a Canadian Centre for Environmental Heath to promote research on human and ecological health
• Overhaul the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to implement mandatory pollution prevention measures for corporations and institutions

  Toxics

• Ban all imports of toxic waste
• Require chemical companies to produce scientific evidence of a chemical's safety
• Renegotiate NAFTA with regard to environmental treaties

  Biodiversity

• Let scientists, not politicians, determine whether a species is at risk, and aim to protect their habitat
• Impose a moratorium on new genetically engineered crops, and make labeling of all GMOs mandatory
• Impose a moratorium on current fish farm practices
• Move to sustainable forest practices
• Reduce the fees that national parks charge
• End clear-cut logging in old growth forests

Aboriginals

• In the deal Layton and his team brokered with Martin’s Liberals in 2005, $1.6 billion was promised for affordable housing construction, with a dedicated fund for Aboriginal housing construction
• Recognize aboriginal self-governance as a fundamental component of a modern federal state
• Convene a First Ministers' conference to discuss the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
• Settle land claims and encourage partnerships between the business community and aboriginals
• Establish an Independent Land Claims commission to decide on specific claims
• Train 10,000 aboriginals in health, education and social services
• Make housing and infrastructure programs in aboriginal communities a top priority
• Expand the use of traditional aboriginal justice in the criminal justice system
• Abandon any appeal of court decisions on Indian residential schools and negotiate fairs settlements with abuse victims
• Create aboriginal seats in Parliament
• Invest in new funding, staff and facilities for First Nations with regard to health care
• Improve health-care services for First Nations; focus on closer-to-home solutions, rather than medical evacuations
• Develop a national strategy to deal with issues faced by urban aboriginals
• Include First Nations leaders in all talks with provincial, territorial leaders and federal health care leaders
• Make clean water for aboriginal communities a top priority
• End low-level flight testing over Innu land
• Dedicate some of the recent increases in Sport Canada funding to increase access to programs to aboriginals

Trade

• In 2005, Layton joined the other two leaders of Canada's three opposition parties to call for federal loan guarantees to help companies suffering from U.S. duties on softwood lumber.
• Replace undemocratic, corporate-driven trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO with agreements based on the principles of fair and equitable trade
• Eliminate the investor-state dispute mechanism in NAFTA, or Chapter 11
• Refuse to sign any agreement that contains investor state mechanisms
• Work with countries world-wide to negotiate a fair trade agreement that respects existing environmental, social and labour treaties
• Ensure NAFTA does not supersede existing environmental, cultural or labour treaties
• Establish a level playing field within North America to attract and retain auto plants
• Prepare to respond to punitive tariffs on Canadian forest exports with retaliatory trade measures on energy exports and ensure no agreement is signed that imposes US-style forest policies on Canada
• Work with forest communities, workers and businesses to develop wood product industries to create jobs and reduce Canada’s reliance on exporting raw logs
• Try to create a level playing field for Canadian steel by making retroactive dumping duties the norm, not the exception
• Increase funding for Canadian farm families until a level playing field can be re-established internationally
• Challenge U.S. subsidies to the auto, agriculture and softwood lumber industries

Education

• During the 2006 election campaign, Jack Layton demanded a cash injection of $4 billion to post-secondary education
• In the deal Layton and his team brokered with Martin’s Liberals in 2005, $1.5 billion was promised to reduce the costs of post-secondary education for students and their families via an agreement with provinces and territories; and better training for workers through the E.I. system.
• Cut tuition fees for post-secondary education with a plan to reduce fees by 10 per cent and then freeze them by increasing federal funding
• Provide needs-based grants to replace those administered by the Millennium Scholarship Fund
• Credit all interest accrued on the Canada Student Loans program against graduates' income taxes
• Create a national training strategy for life-long learning for workers to address skills shortages
• Develop a strategy with provinces and territories to ensure high-quality early childhood education across Canada within a decade
• Work with the provinces to establish a Canada Post-Secondary Education Act to prevent private, for-profit universities
• Increase funding for research to ensure science is examined on its merits, not vetted by the funding corporation
• Expand the Special Opportunities Grant Program to recognize the costs associated with having a disability for training, postsecondary education and job opportunities