Our Three Point Plan to grow the economy

September 16, 2015

The Liberal plan will create good jobs, grow the middle class, and help people who are working hard to join the middle class.

I’ve spent the last years meeting with Canadians right across the country and I’ve heard the same thing everywhere I go.

I’ve heard it from young Canadians who can’t find work; I’ve heard it from working folks who can’t get a raise, and whose debts are piling up; from middle-class families who face the painful choice between paying for their kids’ education, or their own retirement:

Canadians are working harder and longer than ever, but this economy is not working for them.

Stephen Harper is asking Canadians to stay the course. He wants us to believe his failed plan is the best that we can do to create well-paying jobs. That it’s the best we can do for folks struggling to pay bills each month. That it’s the best we can do for cities with endless gridlock. Well, that’s easy for him to say when he’s spent the last decade in a motorcade.

My friends, this is Canada. Better is always possible. And we’ll work hard together to build a better Canada.

Thomas Mulcair, unfortunately, is no better. He wants Canadians to think he’s ready for change. But he’s signed on to Harper’s budget plan — to balance it immediately, no matter the cost to Canadians. That means Mulcair will make billions more in cuts, just to get us back to balance.

That’s not going to help you get to work on time, get you better healthcare or create a single job. In fact, making those deep cuts would cost us jobs.

Canadians are smart enough to do the math. They know you can’t be Tommy Douglas on a Stephen Harper budget. Canadians understand that we can’t build a better country through cuts, cuts, and more cuts.

Canada can do better. That’s why Liberals have a 3-point plan focused on making a real, positive difference in the lives of Canadians: we will invest to create jobs, we will grow the middle class, and we will help those working hard to join the middle class do so.

  • Create jobs

    • First, to create jobs our plan for Investment, Jobs and Growth will be the most significant new investment in our infrastructure in Canadian history.

    We’ll invest $60 billion new dollars over 10 years — nearly doubling the current government’s planned investment.

    The Liberal plan will deliver the long-term, stable and predictable funding that provinces, territories, and municipalities need.

    Our plan is about building Canadian success now and well into the future. 

    We want to get you to work on time, and back home to your family safely each day; to get our products to market quicker and more efficiently, so our entrepreneurs can grow their companies and create jobs; to improve our quality of life: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the parks where our children play.

  • Cut taxes for the middle class

    • Our plan for Investment, Jobs and Growth is about doing for our kids and grandkids exactly what our parents and grandparents did for us: building a better country and giving hard-working Canadians a fair shot at success.

    That’s why, as the second part of our plan, we’ll give the middle class a tax cut by asking the wealthiest 1% to pay a little bit more and put more money in families’ pockets to help raise their kids.

  • Grow the middle class

    • Third, we’ll invest in those Canadians working hard every day to join the middle class. We’ll make sure the ladder of opportunity that Canada has always provided for people who work hard becomes easier to climb.

    With our Canada Child Benefit, if you’re a single mother making $30,000 and you have one kid, you’ll get $533 tax-free. Every month. That’s over $100 more a month than with Harper’s plan.

    We’ll give lower-income Canadians a real chance to break out of poverty. Instead of giving child benefit cheques to the wealthiest, we’ll use that money to lift 315 thousand kids out of poverty. Nine out of 10 families will be better off, in hard dollars and cents, with the Liberal plan than they are under Harper’s plan.

    We’ll also make investments in child care and social housing. After all, our communities cannot grow without them.

    The Canadians I’ve talked to care deeply about their communities, and they expect their federal government to do its part. Those same communities cannot be expected to shoulder the cost alone, and a responsible federal partner should never expect them to.

We need to remember that economic growth is not only about prosperity. It’s about building a country that gives everyone a real and fair chance to succeed. That is what history has taught us, and it’s what our future demands of us.

Confident, optimistic countries invest in their own future. Every time I look at my three kids I remember why that matters. I remember why it’s worth all the hard work.

Stephen Harper wants us to believe that better isn’t possible, and Thomas Mulcair’s empty promises prove he’s more focused on politics than on people.

That’s what sets us apart.

My friends, this is Canada. Better is always possible. And we’ll work hard together to build a better Canada.

Justin Trudeau

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada