Stop the escalator — Liberals reveal plan to cut billions from healthcare, public services

Hoping to avoid scrutiny, the Liberal Party released their fiscal plan on a Saturday – with their leader Justin Trudeau nowhere in sight to answer the tough questions.

It’s clear why – their plan is to make deep healthcare cuts, backtrack on promises for Indigenous communities, and has an unexplained $1.5 billion gap that they have no plan to make up for.

Let’s look at the highlights:

Healthcare = $0… and more cuts

It’s unclear whether the Liberals forgot about healthcare or see it as a cash cow. After years of speaking out against healthcare cuts, they’re going to have to cut healthcare themselves – that’s not really any different than Stephen Harper’s plan:

Except that not only does healthcare get no new soup (money) – they’re going to cut soup (money) that healthcare already has. That means fewer doctors, nurses, care beds, surgeries – you name it. World Record for Fastest Broken Liberal Promise Many Indigenous communities are in crisis. They need schools, fire safety investments, clean water – the list goes on. In week two of the election campaign, the Liberals promised $515 million in desperately needed new funding for Indigenous communities. And now in week eight, they’ve cut that number by $400 million. That’s right - they said $515 million – and then clawed back $400 million of that money within the same election campaign. 1.5 Billion Dollar Hole Earlier this year, Justin Trudeau famously said, “Budgets Balance Themselves” (Toronto Sun, 02/13/2015). It appears that the Liberals still believe this is true. Their plan overestimates how much money their income tax increases will bring in – meaning they have 1.5 billion dollars less to spend than they think they do. When confronted with this fact, they chose to pretend nothing was wrong. This is in addition to the fact that their plan is to run $30 billion dollar deficits for the next three years – and in the fourth year, they’ll find a few billion between the couch cushions and everything will be fine. Of course that’s not how the world works. So Justin Trudeau needs to tell us – which promises will he break? What services will he cut? Or will he not balance the budget in year four like he says he will? Letting Corporations off the Hook The Liberals are going to run massive deficits and cut healthcare – and the reason is clear. Canada’s profitable corporations have received generous tax breaks from Harper’s Conservatives for a decade now. He’s given back billions of dollars that should have gone to help middle class families. And now Justin Trudeau refuses to ask corporations to pay their fair share. That’s why he has to run deficits. That’s why he has to cut healthcare and public services. Tom Mulcair’s NDP will ask corporations to pay their fair share and close CEO tax loopholes – allowing investment in the programs Canadians need and balance the budget. See the plan here: ndp.ca/plan