Have you ever wondered what the federal budget would look like if Citizens for Public Justice and other anti-poverty, environmental, and civil society organizations had the chance to write it?
It’s all contained in this year’s Alternative Federal Budget (AFB), a collaborative project CPJ and several of our partner organizations contribute to annually. It was released earlier this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Entitled “Striking a Better Balance,” AFB 2014 shows how the federal government could address Canada’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental concerns. Rather than austerity measures, it offers a fully costed-out and fiscally-prudent plan that would lift an estimated 855,000 people out of poverty, reduce income inequality, curb greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, and restore essential health care for refugees – all while staying on track to balance the budget.
Environment
The central AFB recommendation for the environment is to introduce a Harmonized Carbon Tax (HCT). Set at $30 per tonne, half of the $15 billion in annual revenue generated from the HCT would go towards an annual Green Tax Refund (valued at $300 per adult and $150 per child) to help offset the regressive nature of the tax for those with low-income, with the other half being transferred to the provinces to fund climate change reduction efforts. This recommendation is consistent with CPJ’s 2013 pre-budget submission to the Finance Committee.
British Columbia, which established a carbon tax in 2008, already collects $1 billion in revenue each year. Despite the province’s rise in population and Gross Domestic Product, BC has seen a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions since implementing the tax. As the AFB notes, a well-designed price on greenhouse gas emissions promotes a healthy environment while supporting Canada’s economic growth.
Other environmental recommendations in the AFB include:
- Creating and funding an Office of Ombudsman for Extractive Industries (as being called for by several of CPJ’s partners through the Open for Justice campaign).
- Ensuring Canada contributes its fair share towards developed countries’ joint commitment to mobilize US$100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries respond to climate change.
- Strengthening the environmental science capacity that’s fundamental to the federal government’s ability to advance the economic prosperity, health, and quality of life of Canadians.
- Investing in a National Conservation Plan, including investments in oceans, grasslands, wetlands, private lands, migratory birds, and Canada’s national park system.
- Investing in strategic opportunities to help Canada achieve its goal of generating 90 per cent of its electricity from non-emitting sources by 2020
Poverty
One of the central recommendations AFB 2014 proposes for addressing poverty is to immediately double the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) in order to lift 260,000 children out of poverty (in our pre-budget submission, CPJ made a more modest proposal that would have lifted 174,000 children out of poverty). Like CPJ’s similar recommendation, AFB 2014 proposes that the increase to the NCBS be funded by eliminating the non-progressive Universal Child Care Benefit, an inefficient program that currently does little to meet the actual needs of childcare, is not targeted to those who need it most, and costs $2 billion each year.
Other poverty-related recommendations in the AFB include:
- Introducing a new federal transfer payment to the provinces to assist them in their poverty-reduction plans.
- Doubling the refundable GST credit to assist low-income families.
- Reversing the decision to change the age of eligibility for Old Age Security from 65 to 67, and increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement for singles.
- Increasing existing federal investments in affordable housing and homelessness prevention to $2 billion annually through three major initiatives: the National Homelessness Partnering Strategy, the Investment in Affordable Housing funding, and funding for existing social housing.
- Investing $1 billion per year, growing to a total of $5 billion, to develop a system of high-quality, affordable, publicly managed childcare.
- Enhancing Employment Insurance
- Maintaining current funding levels in the Labour Market Agreement programs to help vulnerable groups enter the workforce, rather than re-directing this money to the Canada Jobs Grant as recently announced.
- Making significant investments in First Nations education, health, skills training, and infrastructure.
The AFB is proof that when dozens of civil society groups and leading experts work together, it is indeed possible to agree upon helpful policy proposals. Will any of these AFB proposals be included in the federal budget, or will public justice be once again delayed?
Stay tuned for CPJ’s full analysis of the federal budget, set to be released February 11.
