Website: http://nbndp.ca/
Platform: http://nbndp.ca/sites/default/files/2010-NDP-Platform-English.pdf
The provincial NDP is lead by Roger Duguay. They've billed themselves as the "middle class party," marketing that hasn't really meshed with the public - but then that's no surprise since all of the parties (save maybe the Greens) try to market themselves in exactly the same way.
The NDP has long had a reputation for being fiscally irresponsible, a reputation they earned largely due to the provincial party of B.C., where to this day the mere mention of "fast ferries" will likely cause locals to foam at the mouth with rage. They generally haven't had much luck in the Maritimes, with the exception of very recently in Nova Scotia where they were given control of the provincial legislature - an event nobody was really expecting, particularly the Nova Scotia NDP. Last time I checked their popularity was once again deteriorating, but from what I can tell they've been doing pretty well governance-wise. (Take that with a grain of salt - I haven't been a Nova Scotian in a very long time, and I haven't exactly been paying anything more than very vague attention to N.S. politics in the past year.)
The main thrust of the New Brunswick NDP's efforts right now is to convince the electorate that they're fiscally responsible. More specifically, that they're fiscally responsible in a way that will ensure the maintenance of provincial health care. While this is something all the parties are trying to convince the electorate of, more or less, the NDP's particular angle is to point out that the two main parties are both promising tax cuts while stating that health care (and senior care) won't receive any cutbacks - and the math, the NDP state, doesn't really add up.
(As a matter of fact, Dr. Tony Myatt, an economist at UNB, is running for the NDP in Fredericton-Silverwood. He's co-written economic textbooks with Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. So, they're actually in a pretty good position this year to put forth the "fiscally savvy" narrative.)
So, without further ado, let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
The Economy:
First off, the NDP gets huge points in my book for including their full proposed (balanced) budget in their platform document. They're the only party that bothered. Not even the PC Party, who present themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility and conservatism, did this. Neither did the People's Alliance, who present themselves as even more PC party than the PC party.
This puts the NDP in a unique position: When someone wonders "How are you going to pay for [promise X]?" they can respond by pointing to their budget, where it's all laid out in black and white. The best that can be said is that the budget is optimistic at points, but even an optimistic budget is better than none at all.
At the heart of their economic development plan is their "New Job Tax Credit," which is intended to create jobs by reducing taxes for businesses that employ new workers. It's designed to be available to all businesses, which neatly sidesteps the whole nepotism/patronage problem that comes hand-in-hand with job-creation grants. Since, y'know, it's not a grant.
At one point, the document claims that this tax rebate (15%) will create 17,000 new jobs. This statement directs the reader to a footnote which is, sadly, non-existent. I found myself highly irked at the fact this number was being thrown out and clearly referenced something, but that something was nowhere to be found. Where were they coming up with this number? I wasn't about to just take it on faith, any more than I was willing to do so with the other parties' platforms.
So, I wrote the NDP. Apparently, the footnote wouldn't format correctly, so they removed it (bad idea, that), but since I asked they gave explained how they arrived at the number:
[1] New job tax credit programs have been extensively researched in the United States. The key parameter is the “responsiveness of labour demand to changes in labour cost”. The work of Daniel Hamermesh (1993) remains the foundation of this research. After extensive review of the literature, he concluded that this responsiveness was “probably bracketed by the interval [0.15, 0.75], with 0.3 being a best guess” (Hamermesh 1993, 135). This is obtained by multiplying the 15% subsidy by the responsiveness parameter, and then multiplying the result by total current employment.
So, colour me impressed once again; not only is the logic explained, but they actually cite an expert and give me a reference for further research if I were inclined. This is completely unique in all five of the platform documents I've read since Wednesday.
Another big pillar of their economic promises is to "hold the line on taxes." As the document puts it:
New Brunswick needs to have a
conversation about taxes. If we want world-class public services, from
roads to hospitals, we have to pay for them. We will hold the line on
income, corporate, and sales taxes for two years. During that time we
will hold province-wide consultations on what we want our government to
do and, in light of those consultations, develop our long-term economic
strategy.
In the meantime, they'll refrain from implementing the planned Liberal tax cuts to ensure that "front-line public services" can remain fully intact. Personally, I'd prefer that they come up with a "long-term economic strategy" for the province before they get elected, rather than after... But at least they're showing us their short-term plan. Like I said, it's a huge step more than the other parties were willing to go with their platform documents.
Next, they want to end Business New Brunswick, which has (fairly or not) earned a rather poor reputation over the years for some of its shadier dealings on behalf of sitting governments. They promise to make every effort to redeploy BNB employees elsewhere, though. As they put it: "Its failure is not due to [workers] and they should not be penalized." Still, it strikes me as throwing the baby out with the bathwater - surely, even if you put an end to government loans to businesses, there's still functions BNB can perform? Well, anyway.
Lastly, they plan to save $210 million each year by ending "March Madness." This is a phenomenon wherein departments that are approaching the end of the fiscal year make a mad dash to spend whatever left-over money they have so as to avoid budget cuts the following year. I'm honestly uncomfortable with this idea - some years are more or less expensive than others for well-run departments, but legislatures tend to view them as static expenses, which is where the "tradition" came from in the first place. However, the NDP points out that Nova Scotia already introduced prohibitions against this sort of spending to good effect, so... Hey, worth a shot.
Tobacco:
Although a minor point, I give this its own section to draw attention to it, since for some people this will be a Pretty Big Deal (TM). The NDP wants to increase tobacco taxes by ten cents per cigarette over for years, at a rate of 2.5 cents per year. This will, they state, bring New Brunswick's tobacco taxes into line with Nova Scotia and PEI (and will incidentally lead a lot of smokers to quit, since the Canadian Cancer Society cites higher prices as a reliable means of reducing the smoking population.) So, yeah. You've been warned.
Energy:
With regards to promises, the NDP wants to "work to meet the New Brunswick Renewable Portfolio Standards, which state that within ten years the government must provide 25% of New Brunswick's energy needs through sustainable energy." Personally, while that's certainly not a bad thing, I'd be happier if the number were somewhat higher. Ten years, 25%? Eh. Doesn't exactly get me excited.
Also of not is the Energy and Utilities Board; apparently, ever since McKenna's Liberals, the EUB has only been allowed to review rate increases by NB Power that are over 3%. So, over the years when NB Power increased the rate by 2-3% on ten separate occasions, that fell outside the EUB's purview. (Then in 2006, Bernard Lord fired the head of the EUB when it was going to recommend against a 13% proposed increase... which kind of defeats the point of having the EUB in the first place.) The NDP promises to undo the break-up of NB Power, and restore autonomy to the EUB - as well as remove that 3% requirement.
Oh, and the sale of NB Power is off the table.
Governance:
First, and most importantly, the NDP wants to introduce a mixed-member proportional vote for the provincial legislature, getting rid of our current first-past-the-post system. I could go on for hours about how badly we need electoral reform in our country, so... I consider this an unqualified good thing. (If you're inclined to find out why I consider it so, feel free to poke around the Fair Vote Canada website. It should prove enlightening if you've never been there before.) This is an issue they share in common (actually one of several) with both the People's Alliance and the Greens.
They also promise to cut MLA pay by 20% and pensions by over 50% (their 20/50 bill), and give control over benefits to an independent commission.
They also want to make public every government document and meeting, except in cases where there's an explicit reason not to do so. Charges for filing Access of Information requests, likewise, would be removed.
Finally, they want to ban all contributions to political parties by businesses and unions. Strikes me as a good idea, but your mileage may vary.
Health Care:
Among the most important of the Front-Line services that the NDP wants to protect. Here, they want to introduce a "Helping Hands Tax Credit" to help those "looking after loved ones who are disabled or elderly."
A much bigger deal, in my mind, is their promise to introduce a provincial pharmacare program - they point out that currently, along with PEI, we're the only province not to have one. It's really rather shameful, and I'm glad that four out of the five provincial parties are looking to fix this (the PC plan I don't count because it's so limp-wristed.)
Mostly, though, their big promise here is to make sure nothing gets cut.
Miscellaneous:
The NDP promises to introduce a provincial public auto insurance program. This has been tried in many other provinces to resounding success. Really, it's only fair - if drivers are going to be forced to buy insurance, they should at least have the option of getting it through an organization that isn't designed to profit off of it.
They also promise to introduce pay equity legislation to eliminate wage descrimination between men and women, modelled after Quebec's pay equity laws.
The document talks about reducing poverty, and their main strategy here is to eliminate literacy, which they cite as a mere 56% according to StatsCan.
Finally, the Dippers promise to keep their promises. I shit you not, it's right there in the document. It's actually funny at first blush, then when you think about it it's kind of depressing since, y'know, they're including that to help distinguish themselves from the provincial Tories and Grits.
* * *
Overall, while there's plenty that's lacking herein (little to nothing about student debt, sigh), overall it's the most solid of the platforms presented by the parties. By "solid," I mean it has two main things going for it:
-The NDP isn't afraid to give you context, to cite programs in other provinces that have been proven to work, or to cite expert research to back up their points. In fact, they're the only party that does this, and it lends them a great deal of weight.
-Their promises are somewhat optimistic, but also realistic. Whenever I found myself wondering about how they'd pull something or other off, I'd have that budget at the end of the document to show me that they'd put a lot of thought into everything they included.
This isn't to say that it's completely devoid of empty platitudes - such can be found here, too. There's just a much, much higher content-to-platitude ration here than in the Lib or PC documents.
* * *
Originally, I was going to take this into tomorrow, giving the Greens and People's Alliance their own half-reviews. I'm exhausted, though, so I'll be leaving that undone. Maybe next election. Still, you can review their platforms yourself if you like (and in fact, you should; I found both the documents quite enlightening, as the parties hold certain views I did not expect them to hold):
People's Alliance: http://www.panb.org/PoliciesFinal/PANBPolicies.pdf
Greens: http://www.greenpartynb.ca/images/stories/green%20platform-english.pdf
At the very least, give the Greens' platform a look-see. It's truly a thing of beauty. If I thought they had even the slimmest chance of getting a single seat, I'd be voting for them. Seriously, the world that the Greens of New Brunswick want to bring about? I wanna live in that world. It sounds like it'd be awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment