NDP leader Jagmeet Singh promises to raise the “no tax” bracket on Canadian income tax to $19,500, a roughly $5,000 increase, and permanently cut the GST on “essential” services.
The new NDP policies will save Canadians $1,450, said Singh.
Singh at a press conference on Wednesday in Hamilton, ON, did a sit-down discussion with a single mom struggling to make ends meet to highlight the hard times Canadians are living in after a decade of the Liberal government.
“We want to fight back against that uncertainty,” Singh told reporters.
“And unfortunately, things are already so hard, it's only going to get harder if the trade war cranks up the cost of groceries and other bills.”
Singh also said the NDP wants to “take the GST permanently off of your monthly bills that are essential,” including internet, cell phone plans, home heating and daily necessities “like grab and go groceries.”
Another group the NDP will focus on are seniors and people with disabilities. “We know that the impact of things getting more expensive is going to hit them even harder,” said Singh.
“So we want to plan to lift up seniors. We want to double the disability benefits.”
“And then we want to increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS),” added Singh.
“That's going to help a lot of seniors and lift them out of poverty.”
Singh then claimed the Liberals and Conservatives only care about helping millionaires.
“And I think that's wrong,” he said.
“Pierre Poilievre’s plan is going to help out the richest Canadians more than it helps out middle income folks.”
The Tory leader this week announced a 15% tax cut for middle income Canadians.
“I think what we're seeing again and again is just more examples of Mark Carney showing you, showing Canadians, that he's not in it for you,” said Singh when asked about Carney’s conflicts of interest surrounding Brookfield Assets Management.
“He was the head of a company that profited off of the backs of Canadians during the housing crisis, and that was a strategic decision of his entire company to find affordable buildings where hard-working people were paying affordable rent to buy those buildings and jack up the rent to make profits off the backs of people.”
“And now we've learned that he was personally responsible for two funds totaling a significant amount of money, purposely set up and registered in another country to avoid paying taxes.”
Carney has been exposed for using Bermuda as a tax haven for Brookfield, which was initially a Toronto-based company until Carney helped orchestrate a move to New York in the weeks before he announced his Liberal leadership candidacy.
Carney has denied having anything to do with the move, despite a paper trail that proves otherwise.
“I think all this questions who he's in it for,” said Singh.
“Is he really in it for you, or is he in it for the super rich? There's more and more proof showing us that he's not in it for you, that he's in it for the folks that he worked for before, the company that he worked for before, not for you.”