Under the influence of radical environmental activists and American left-wing foundations, the Trudeau government has done everything it can to stifle the growth of Canada’s oil industry by preventing it from transporting and selling its products.

With Bill C-48, the Liberals imposed a ban on oil tanker traffic on the north coast of British Columbia, which brought the cancellation of the Northern Gateway and Eagle Spirit pipeline projects. After years of legal uncertainty, investors pulled out of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project and sold it to the federal government for $4.5 billion. It is still uncertain when it will be completed.

Unrealistic environmental requirements from the National Energy Board also killed the Energy East pipeline. Finally, Bill C-69 makes the process of building pipelines and other major energy projects so complex and difficult that it could prevent any new investment. Among other things, that bill requires projects to be analyzed based on “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors.”

Because of these constraints, capital investments in the oil and gas industry have collapsed, from $81 billion in 2014 to $37 billion in 2019. Our overdependence on the American market for exports also costs the Canadians economy billions of dollars in foregone revenues every year. Alberta’s economy has suffered a major setback, with tens of thousands of jobs disappearing in the oil patch and many more in local communities that depend on this industry.

Facts

Researcher Vivian Krause has spent years documenting a well-organized campaign to landlock Canada’s oil, funded by American foundations such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Tides Foundation. Almost all the groups involved in various types of campaigns and court cases against pipeline construction received money from them.

Despite the emergence of alternative sources of energy, global demand for oil is expected to keep rising for several decades. Canada has the third-largest oil reserves in the world and is well placed to answer this demand.

If this oil doesn’t come from Alberta and Saskatchewan, it will come from elsewhere, mostly countries with poor environmental or human rights standards such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. And if it is not transported by pipelines, it will be transported by rail, a much more dangerous method for both the environment and humans, as we saw with the Lac-Mégantic tragedy.

Our Plan

The oil and gas industry has been for decades a major source of employment, government revenues, and economic well-being for all of Canada. It should be allowed to grow, export its products, and bring prosperity to our country.

A People’s Party Government will:

Counter anti-oil and anti-pipeline propaganda from radical environmentalists and foreign foundations.

Repeal Bill C-48.

Repeal Bill C-69.

Approve pipelines projects using a streamlined process.

Find a private buyer for Trans Mountain.

Reassert federal jurisdiction over pipelines construction by invoking section 92(10) of our Constitution, whereby Parliament can declare any project to be for the general advantage of Canada.

The Liberal government is spending billions of dollars at home and abroad to fight global warming—or “climate change” as it is now called to account for every natural weather event and its opposite.

In order to lower greenhouse gas emissions, it has imposed taxes and countless regulations, it subsidizes inefficient and costly “green technology,” and it is blocking the development of oil resources crucial to our prosperity.

It is an undisputed fact that the world’s climate has always changed and will continue to change. Until twelve thousand years ago, much of Canada was under ice, and it is thanks to natural climate change that we can live here today.

There is however no scientific consensus on the theory that CO2 produced by human activity is causing dangerous global warming today or will in the future, and that the world is facing environmental catastrophes unless these emissions are drastically reduced. Many renowned scientists continue to challenge this theory.

The policy debate about global warming is not grounded on science anymore. It has been hijacked by proponents of big government who are using crude propaganda techniques to impose their views. They publicly ridicule and harass anyone who expresses doubt. They make exaggerated claims to scare people. They even manipulate school children, getting them to pressure their parents and to demonstrate in the streets.

Facts

Climate change alarmism is based on flawed models that have consistently failed at correctly predicting the future. None of the cataclysmic predictions that have been made about the climate since the 1970s have come true. No new ice age. No steady warming in direct relation with increases in CO2 levels. No disappearance of polar ice caps. No exceptional rise in ocean levels. No abnormal increase in catastrophic weather events. No widespread crop failure and famine.

In fact, CO2 is beneficial for agriculture and there has recently been a measurable “greening” of the world in part thanks to higher levels. Despite what global warming propaganda claims, CO2 is not a pollutant. It is an essential ingredient for life on Earth and needed for plant growth.

Our Plan

Given the uncertainties over the scientific basis of global warming, and the certainties about the huge costs of measures designed to fight it, there is no compelling reason to jeopardize our prosperity with more government interventions.

A People’s Party government will:

Withdraw from the Paris Accord and abandon unrealistic greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Stop sending billions of dollars to developing countries to help them reduce their emissions.

Abolish the Liberal government’s carbon tax and leave it to provincial governments to adopt programs to reduce emissions if they want to.

Abolish subsidies for green technology and let private players develop profitable and efficient alternatives.

Invest in adaptation strategies if problems arise as a result of any natural climate change.

Prioritize implementing practical solutions to make Canada’s air, water and soil cleaner, including bringing clean drinking water to remote First Nations communities.

Canada’s public health care system has the dubious distinction of having the worst wait times of any developed country. Health care costs have been increasing at an unsustainable rate, putting more and more financial pressures on the budgets of provincial governments. The situation is likely to get worse with Canada’s aging population.

Healthcare is an exclusive provincial jurisdiction. However, for years the federal government has insisted that the provinces satisfy a series of conditions set in the Canada Health Act in exchange for transfer payments. These conditions discourage innovation. Also, the money does not directly fund health care services. It is simply added to the provinces’ budgets and they decide where and how they spend it.

All this confusion and undue interference leads to bickering between Ottawa and the provinces over who is responsible for the failings of our health care system, and how much money Ottawa should contribute. It prevents the implementation of sound reforms.

Facts

Canada is among the OECD countries that spend the most on health care. Ottawa’s health care transfers to the provinces have doubled since 2006, from $20 billion to $40 billion in 2019-20, with nothing to show for it.

The fundamental problem is that we are the only developed country where the government has a monopoly on medically required care. All other OECD countries have mixed private-public systems and (with the exception of the United States) universal systems that guarantee citizens equal access.

Patients in these countries have a lot more choice than Canadians. They can be treated in public or private hospitals, with the government or their private insurance paying for the treatment. Wait times are non-existent or very short, and nobody is denied care because of low income.

Our Plan

It is up to the provinces to implement reforms in line with the more efficient and less costly mixed universal systems of other developed countries. Throwing more federal money at the problem is not the right approach. On the contrary, it is part of the problem. Provincial governments will never make the tough decisions if they can always blame Ottawa for not sending enough money. We must end the current confusion over who does what and who is responsible for the problem.

A People’s Party government will:

Replace the Canada Health Transfer cash payments with a permanent transfer of tax points of equivalent value to the provinces and territories, to give them a stable source of revenue. In practice, Ottawa will give up its Goods and Services Tax (GST), and let provincial and territorial governments occupy this fiscal room. In 2019-20, the GST is expected to bring in $40 billion in revenues, the same amount currently transferred by Ottawa.

Establish a temporary program to compensate poorer provinces whose revenues from the tax will be lower than the transfer payments they used to receive.

Create the conditions for provincial and territorial governments to innovate. They will be fully responsible for health care funding and management, and fully accountable to their citizens for the results, while Ottawa will respect the Constitution and stop meddling.

In 2018, the Liberal government denied summer job funding to organizations, including charities, that would not sign an attestation supporting abortion. It also passed bill C-16 as part of a trend to force Canadians to express support for the existence of various gender identities beyond the biological categories of male and female, and to use pronouns demanded by those who identify with these other genders.

In addition to these assaults on conscience, the government launched a series of regulatory attacks on free speech on the internet and is pressuring social media companies, which are already censoring speech that isn’t politically correct, to crack down even more. It is also considering bringing back Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. This hate speech provision was repealed by the Conservative government in 2013 because it was being used arbitrarily to censor statements that offended some people on the internet.

In what appears to be a first step towards restricting our right to criticize some religions, it adopted M-103, a motion that condemns religious discrimination but only specifically mentions one religion, Islam, and without defining the term “islamophobia.”

Finally, on university campuses, a growing number of faculty and administrators—those who should be fighting for open debate of controversial ideas—have become aggressive advocates for censorship.

Facts:

History and social scientific research show that freedom of conscience and freedom of expression, when maximally protected, advance the intellectual life of a nation, foster greater ideological diversity and societal understanding, and nurture other freedoms necessary for a successful democracy.

This is why Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees citizens freedom of conscience and religion, as well as freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.

Our Plan:

What some people find politically incorrect, offensive or even hateful cannot serve as the legal basis for discrimination and censorship. Canadians should be able to enjoy maximum freedom of conscience and expression as guaranteed in Section 2 of the Charter.

A People’s Party Government will:

Restrict the definition of hate speech in the Criminal Code to expression which explicitly advocates the use of force against identifiable groups or persons based on protected criteria such as religion, race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual orientation.

Repeal any existing legislation or regulation curtailing free speech on the internet and prevent the reinstatement of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Repeal C-16 and M-103.

Ensure that Canadians can exercise their freedom of conscience to its fullest extent as it is intended under the Charter and are not discriminated against because of their moral convictions.

Withhold federal funding from any post-secondary institution shown to be violating the freedom of expression of its students or faculty.

The Liberal government is deliberately attempting to erase our borders. Over the past three years, it has done nothing to stop the flow of tens of thousands of asylum seekers illegally crossing our borders. Accepting all these refugees will cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars.

Moreover, in 2018, Canada welcomed more resettled refugees than any other Western country; more than the United States, a country with ten times our population, and as many as all of the European Union.

The UN’s Global Compact for Migration, which the Liberal government signed last year, aims to normalize this kind of situation, and to make it easier for millions of people to move to Canada and other Western democracies at will.

Facts

Since early 2017, more than 45,000 migrants have illegally entered Canada, mainly at Roxham Road in Quebec, avoiding official border checkpoints where they would be turned away and told to file refugee claims in the United States. About 40% of the refugee claims that have been processed have been rejected. These false refugees will eventually have to be deported, after costing governments tens of thousands of dollars each.

A report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer found that the federal government spends on average about $14,000 for each asylum seeker crossing into Canada outside of official border points. The total annual cost for federal agencies to process these claims is expected to reach $396 million in 2019-2020. It does not include expenses incurred by the provinces, territories or municipalities, which pick up costs related to social services.

Our Plan

Our current refugee policy is unsustainable, costly, and it is being abused by false refugees at our borders. This must end. The moral obligation of Canada’s government is to first help those in need among our own population, and then to give priority to real refugees.

A People’s Party Government Will:

Accept fewer resettled refugees (see also Immigration policy).

Take every measure necessary, in partnership with our American neighbours, to stop the flow of illegal migrants at the US-Canadian border.

Declare the whole border an official port of entry for the purposes of refugee claims to send back to the US anyone trying to enter Canada illegally.

Fence off the areas where illegal border jumping is prevalent, such as Roxham Road in Quebec.

Rely on private sponsorships instead of having the government pay for all the costs of resettling refugees in Canada.

Stop our reliance on the United Nations for refugee selection.

Give priority to refugees belonging to persecuted groups who have nowhere to go in neighbouring countries. For example: Christians, Yazidis, and members of other minority religions in majority Muslim countries; members of the Ahmadi community, and other Muslims in these countries who are persecuted because they reject political Islam and adhere to Western values; and members of sexual minorities.

Take Canada out of the UN’s Global Compact for Migration.

The primary aim of Canada’s immigration policy should be to economically benefit Canadians and Canada as a whole. It should not be used to forcibly change the cultural character and social fabric of our country. And it should not put excessive financial burdens on the shoulders of Canadians in the pursuit of humanitarian goals.

Despite Canada already accepting more immigrants than almost any other country, both the Liberals and Conservatives support an unsustainable increase in the annual immigration intake, and are using mass immigration as a political tool to buy votes among immigrant communities.

Facts

Right now, only 26% of all the immigrants and refugees who come to Canada every year are directly chosen because they have the right qualifications and work experience to fulfill our economic needs. The rest are dependents (spouses and children), come through the family reunification program or as refugees, do not work, or do not have the skills that we need even if they find work.

Immigrants generally have lower wages than non-immigrants. They pay on average about half as much in income taxes as other Canadians but absorb nearly the same value of government services. A study puts the cost to taxpayers in 2014 at roughly $5,300 per immigrant living in Canada, for a total annual cost of somewhere between $27 billion and $35 billion.

Demographic studies have shown that newcomers are a bit younger on average than Canadians, but not enough to have a noticeable impact on the rate of aging. The Liberal government has made matters worse by increasing the number of parents and grand-parents accepted under the family reunification program.

Mass immigration also inflates housing prices. More than 41% of all immigrants to Canada settle in and around Toronto and Vancouver, which have some of the least affordable housing among big cities in the world.

Our Plan

Our immigration policy can benefit Canadians only if we welcome the right kind of immigrants. It should prioritize Canada’s economic interests and be calibrated in a way that does not jeopardize Canadian values and the maintenance of our national identity.

A People’s Party government will:

Substantially lower the total number of immigrants and refugees Canada accept every year, from 350,000 to between 100,000 and 150,000, depending on economic and other circumstances.

Reform the immigration point system and the related programs to accept a larger proportion of economic immigrants with the right skills.

Accept fewer resettled refugees (see Refugees policy) and limit the number of immigrants accepted under the family reunification program, including abolishing the program for parents and grand-parents.

Limit the number of temporary foreign workers and make sure that they fulfil temporary positions and do not compete unfairly with Canadian workers.

Change the law to make birth tourism illegal.

Ensure that every candidate for immigration undergoes a face-to-face interview and answers a series of specific questions to assess the extent to which they align with Canadian values and societal norms (see Canadian Identity policy).

Increase resources for CSIS, the RCMP and Canadian Immigration and Citizenship to do interviews and thorough background checks on all classes of immigrants.

The aboriginal population of Canada is extremely diversified. It accounts for about 5% of Canada’s population and comprises First Nations, Inuit and Metis. There are more than 600 First Nations communities dispersed across the country. More than half of First Nations Canadians don’t live on reserves.

Aboriginal issues are also very complex. Some communities are prosperous, others much poorer than the Canadian average. Many suffer from acute social problems, including crime, domestic violence, substance abuse and suicide. Many don’t have the basic services that we take for granted such as access to clean water. There are other major issues to address regarding treaty negotiations, housing, property rights on reserves, etc.

It is not possible to address more than a few of these issues in the context of this election platform. Here is what a People’s Party government would prioritize on the basis of its four key principles.

Respect

Many injustices were committed in the past by the Canadian government towards aboriginals. We cannot rewrite the past, but only seek the best way to live together harmoniously in the future. This relationship must be based on mutual respect and a balanced approach taking into account the needs of the aboriginal population and the interests of the Canadian population as a whole.

A People’s Party government will explore options to replace the paternalistic Indian Act, which keeps aboriginals in a state of dependency and allows the federal government to control most aspects of their lives, with a new legal framework that guarantees equal rights and responsibilities to aboriginal people as Canadians, and promotes the self-reliance of communities.

A People’s Party government will respect our Constitution and treaties. It will reaffirm the federal government’s power to approve natural resources and infrastructure projects, after adequate consultations with affected aboriginal groups, and in partnership with them to ensure they can benefit from these economic opportunities.

Freedom

The lack of real private property on reserves is in part responsible for the poor state of housing and the social ills that derive from it, and is one of the greatest impediments to economic development.

A People’s Party government will explore further avenues to promote the establishment of individual property rights on reserves so as to empower its residents, and give them increased control over their lives.

Fairness

Fairness demands that all Canadians benefit from roughly equivalent services wherever they live. It’s unacceptable that some aboriginal communities live in conditions that resemble those of third world countries. But the current model to solve these problems is based on top-down bureaucratic solutions imposed by Ottawa on dependent communities with no voice in the process.

A People’s Party government will insure that aboriginal communities take more ownership of the services they receive in partnership with Ottawa and other levels of government.

Responsibility

Although Ottawa spends about $21 billion a year on aboriginal programs, there is little evidence that living conditions have been improving in aboriginal communities. The federal government and aboriginal administrations have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayers’ money is well spent.

A People’s Party government will review federal spending to ensure that programs are better targeted to benefit the aboriginal population, in particular the communities that have the greatest needs.