martin not harper best choice

Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin
January 06, 2006
liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?id=11322

Good morning.

On January 23rd, Canadians are going to elect one of two people as their leader. On January 24th, either Stephen Harper or myself will be prime minister. That’s what this election comes down to. That one choice.

It’s a choice between two leaders, with two different ideas of what Canada should be, two different notions of the values it should carry into the future.

Stephen Harper wants to cancel our national child care program. He wants tax breaks that give the greatest benefit to the wealthiest among us with the most to spend. He stands against our plan to ban handguns. He would move us toward a fend-for-yourself society. A decade ago, it was Mike Harris. Today, it’s Stephen Harper. It was the wrong way to build a strong society in 1995. And it’s still wrong today.

I believe we give ourselves the best chance to succeed as a nation when we rally behind the conviction that we must leave no one behind. Perhaps at times our success lets us imagine that we can take for granted the path we’re on – the path of prosperity and opportunity. But we can’t. Our commitment to the common good must be protected.

That means supporting the values on which our country was forged – fairness and generosity and respect. And it means supporting Canadian families.

A Liberal government will support today’s families by putting in place the biggest tax cuts, the first new social program in a generation – child care – and the best plan for safer, healthier communities. We will support families with 1,000 new family doctors and a real Health Care Guarantee, to ensure timely care.

And we will support Canadian families by helping people overcome barriers to obtaining an education, getting the right training and finding a good job.

I’m here today to announce that a Liberal government will further help families by giving new support to caregivers, to seniors and to Canadians with disabilities.

Let me outline the details of these new initiatives. First, expanded support for caregivers.

When it comes to meeting the daily needs of Canadians living with chronic illness or a disability, or frail seniors, most of this care – the vast majority of it – is provided by unpaid caregivers. Family relying on family. It is critical work, hard work, and it is my belief that government ought to do more to support them – especially when they need time away from work to ensure they have the time and the energy to care for a loved one.

Therefore, I am announcing today that a Liberal government will create a new Family Leave program, which will give Canadians the opportunity to take up to two months off from work to care for a loved one who is seriously ill. Two months in which their job will be protected and benefits will be paid through the Employment Insurance fund. Two months that could make all the difference in a person’s life. You can take it all at once. Or you can take it in increments over your working life.

A Liberal government will also broaden the current EI Compassionate Care Benefit to include family members other than parents, spouses and children – because we recognize that today’s families are so varied in their makeup. We will work to extend the current benefit to part-time workers. And we will create a new community caregiving program, modeled on our successful New Horizons program for seniors.

Finally in this regard, we will provide greater support to unpaid caregivers by increasing the annual Caregiver Tax Credit by 50% to $15,000 – and we will reach out to caregivers right across our country, to make sure they are aware of what we are doing, and what programs and benefits there are to help them.

Second, supporting Canadians with disabilities.

One of the defining values of our country is our pursuit of and dedication to equality of opportunity. But Canadians with disabilities and their families face unique challenges – they are confronted by an opportunity gap – and there is a role here for government to help bridge that gap. To foster inclusion for people with disabilities – helping them achieve financial security, gain access to higher learning and contribute in the workforce.

A new Liberal government will create a Registered Disabilities Savings Plan – so that family members and others can help Canadians with disabilities save for the future. The RDSP will operate on the same principle as the Registered Retirement Savings Plan, in that savings will grow tax-free until they are accessed – giving Canadians with disabilities a new tool by which to achieve for themselves financial security.

We will also extend the Disability Tax Credit and increase the Child Disability Benefit. We will boost the refundable medical expense supplement by 33 per cent. We will invest in employability assistance programs – so that disabled Canadians who are able to work get that opportunity. And we are going to expand these programs over the next mandate. And we will earmark $135-million from the Post-Secondary Innovation Fund to improve access to post-secondary education facilities for Canadians with disabilities, which is, of course, a crucial step toward the goal of ensuring equality of opportunity for all Canadians.

Third, further supporting Canada’s seniors.

It is my belief that the things we do to support our seniors speaks to the kind of country we are. They reflect the values of fairness and generosity and respect on which our country was forged.

That’s why my government is putting in place the largest increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement in our country’s history. That’s why we’ve delivered tax cuts that have taken hundreds of thousands of seniors completely off the tax rolls, invested to keep public health care strong and established a National Seniors Secretariat within the federal government. And that’s why we took the Canada Pension Plan – a plan that was at risk –and did the hard work of ensuring it will be there for today’s seniors, for tomorrow’s and for generations of Canadians to come.

Today, we take the next step forward to support Canadian seniors.

Many seniors today have the capacity to stay in their own homes – but find that rising property taxes and high maintenance costs can outstrip increases in annual income. In recent years, reverse mortgages have become an increasingly popular tool for seniors on fixed incomes – a tool that allows them to access a portion of the equity they have in their homes.

However, the fact is that commercial institutions that offer reverse mortgages frequently charge a relatively high rate of interest for their services.

A Liberal government will enable seniors to gain access to the equity in their homes in a way that can save them thousands of dollars compared to the status quo. We will do this by creating Mortgage Equity Access Now for Seniors – or MEANS – a program that will provide insurance for reverse mortgages through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. This will bring down interest costs and put more money in the pockets of Canada’s seniors.

In summary, let me say that I am extremely proud of what my government has done to support caregivers, Canadians with disabilities and seniors.

I believe that our social programs, the things we do to help each other out and help each other up, speak to the kind of country we are, and the country we want to be. But living up to that goal requires national leadership. It requires a prime minister who believes in identifying a destination down the road and doing what it takes to ensure we get there together.

It’s a question of values – everyone coming together, standing side by side for the common good, for the protection and betterment of all. It is that conviction that guides us to look to the good that government can do in our society – the good it can achieve for all the different kinds of families that define the Canada we’re so proud of, the good it can do to help families by giving new support to caregivers, to seniors and to Canadians with disabilities.

Thank you.