Federal Party Platforms Summaries 2021

From Energy Efficiency to Training: Federal Party Platforms Summaries 2021

Updated: September 8, 2021

Below is a high-level summary of how each major national party (Liberal, NDP, Conservative, Green, Bloc Québécois) is addressing issues that could affect the industry. These are not the complete campaigns of each party.

Please note that not all party platforms have been officially released yet.

See each full campaign:
Conservative Campaign
NDP Campaign
Liberal Campaign
Green Party Campaign
Bloc Québécois Campaign

2030 Targets
The Liberal Party: reduce emissions by 40% to 45% from 2005 levels.
The Conservative Party: reduce emissions by 30% from 2005 levels (backtracking on our current Paris target).
The New Democratic Party: reduce emissions by 50% from 2005 levels.
The Green Party: reduce emissions by 60% from 2005 levels.
The Bloc Québécois Party: committed to meeting the Paris agreement targets and to look at exceeding them.

Jobs & Skills Training

Liberal NDP Conservative Green
  • Create a Labour Mobility Tax Credit so construction workers can deduct up to $4,000 in travel expenses.
  • Create more than one million new jobs in the first term by spending on “bold public investments” in clean energy, social infrastructure, energy efficiency and climate resilience.
  • Expand domestic manufacturing capacity and supply chains for critical sectors including auto, aerospace, shipbuilding, construction materials, pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment.
  • Develop a national industrial strategy to build “an advanced low-carbon manufacturing economy.”
  • Create a construction mobility tax credit of up to $4,000 for temporary relocation costs.
    Support non-profit initiatives designed to attract women to jobs in skilled trades.
  • Introduce laws that incentivize green investment and the creation of green jobs (such as in sustainable transport and energy efficiency), and that disincentivize unsustainable investments.

Housing

Liberal NDP Conservative Green Bloc Québécois
  • “Build, preserve or repair” 1.4 million homes in four years by putting $4 billion in a Housing Accelerator Fund to support municipalities’ housing efforts; increasing the funding to the National Housing Co-investment fund to $2.7 billion over four years; and introducing a Multigenerational Home Renovation tax credit for families adding secondary units for relatives.
  • Have landlords report rent received before and after renovations and impose a surtax on “excessive” rent to stop renovictions.
  • Create an anti-flipping tax for residential properties sold less than 12 months after purchase.
  • Reallocate $300 million from the Rental Construction Financing Initiative to help convert excess commercial property to rental housing.
  • Spend $14 billion building 500,000 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years—half of them in the next 5.
  • Establish “fast-start funds” to streamline the application process to stimulate the creation of more co-op and non-profit social housing.
  • Tighten rules on loans by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to help stop “renovictions.”
  • Waive the federal portion of the GST/HST on the construction of new affordable rental units.
  • Build a million homes in three years by switching 15% of federal real estate to housing; incentivize the private sector to give land for affordable housing; require higher density near federally funded transit.
  • Alter the “mortgage stress test” requirements to help contractors, casual workers etc.; remove stress test for homeowners switching mortgage lenders.
  • Increase the Home Accessibility Tax Credit claim amount to $10,000 per person.
  • Invest in construction and operation of 50,000 supportive housing units
    over 10 years.
  • Expand the Rapid Housing Initiative to bring new affordable and supportive housing on stream without delay. With this expansion, more
    quality projects with funding and agreements already in place can quickly become affordable or supportive housing.
  • Build and acquire a minimum of 300,000 units of deeply affordable
    non-market, co-op and non-profit housing over a decade.
  • Restore quality, energy efficient housing for seniors, people with special needs and low-income families, by providing financing to non-profit housing organizations, cooperatives, and social housing to build and restore quality and affordable housing.
  • Invest 1% of the Federal government’s annual revenue into social housing.
  • Convert all unused federal properties in affordable social housing to fight the housing crisis.
  • They are calling on Ottawa to reinvest in social, community an affordable housing, and to proceed with financial reorganization of various programs resulting from the National Housing Strategy.

Climate Change & Environment

Liberal NDP Conservative Green Bloc Québécois
  • Reduce emissions by 40-45 per cent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
  • Invest $5 billion over seven years in the Net Zero Accelerator to help companies reduce emissions
  • Issue federal green bonds, with a target of $5 billion, to fund projects such as conservation and green infrastructure.
  • Help homeowners undertake energy efficiency upgrades through interest-free loans of up to $40,000, through giving $4.4 billion over five years to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
  • Set a target of reducing carbon emissions to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, getting there by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, enacting carbon budgets on a national and sectoral basis and redrawing the mandate of the Bank of Canada, the Export Development Canada Act and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act to align them with a net-zero target.
  • Retrofit all buildings in Canada by 2050, beginning with all buildings built before 2020 in the next 20 years, along with requiring large-scale building retrofits in all sectors.
  • Create a National Crisis Strategy to help communities—particularly vulnerable, remote and Indigenous ones—reduce and react to climate risks and extreme weather, with long-term funding for adaptation, disaster mitigation and climate-resilient infrastructure.
  • Offer low-interest loans to households making energy-efficient improvements, with targeted supports for low-income households and renters.
  • Update the National Building Code to ensure that by 2025, every new building in Canada is net-zero.
  • Develop a Clean Buildings Plan, including a regulatory and financial framework that will facilitate Energy Savings Performance Contracting, with a bonus for retrofits completed by 2030.
  • Devise a national climate adaptation strategy and a natural infrastructure plan.
  • Create and implement a national green retrofit of existing residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings.
  • Support agencies and institutions working to create innovative, efficient, and cost-effective programs to carry out green retrofits in different areas and for different communities, thereby creating local jobs and reducing emissions.
  • Change the national building code to require that all new construction and major renovations to older buildings meet net-zero standards by 2030.
  • Undertake a green retrofit of all federal government buildings, including government agencies.
  • The Bloc Quebecois say the government’s timeline of making Canada net-zero by 2050 is not ambitious enough and pledge that they would have the country there by 2030, if elected.

Indigenous Affairs

Liberal NDP Conservative Green
  • Build housing for Indigenous communities with $2 billion over four years, including more than 50 per cent of that funding available for the 2022 construction season.
  • Provide more than $6 billion over five years to support infrastructure maintenance and construction in Indigenous communities.
  • Work with Indigenous communities to implement a co-developed and fully-funded Indigenous National Housing Strategy within the first 100 days in office.
  
  • Develop and implement an Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous
    Housing Strategy.