NDP - Parenting and Family Issues

This post describes some of the key parenting and family issues outlined in the NDP platform for the 2008 election.

Family Needs and Finances

• Introduce a Poverty Elimination Act to elimiate poverty in Canada by 2020, with initial targets of reducing child poverty by more than 50 percent and overall poverty by more than 35 percent in the first 5 years


• Phase in a new Child Benefit that will build on the existing Canada Child Tax Benefit and expand in phases to $5000 per year per child and consolidate current benefits and tax credits into a single non-taxable monthly check to parents


• Work with provinces to eliminate provincial claw-back of Child Supplement Benefits for families receiving social assistance


• Provide aggressive incentives to help ordinary families and those with low or fixed incomes become more energy efficient, helping to reduce energy costs and contribute to fighting against climate change


• Provide greater support to working families that need assistance managing their consumer and household debt


• Reduce overcharging and hidden fees by banks, airlines, phone companies, Internet service providers, gas companies, etc.


• Institute a "Bring Canada Home" affordable housing plan and reinstitute a pan-Canadian affordable housing program


• Address the "leaky condo" crisis with inquiry, tax exemption and restoration costs


• Ensure motorists can choose their own mechanic by requiring automakers to make diagnostic software available to all repair shops and technicians


• Provide $1000 grant to all undergraduate or equivalent students who qualify for student loans, keep tuition affordable, and reform the Canada Student Loans system to ensure that students don't have to repay their loans while still in school

Children and Child Care

• Enact Early Learning and Child Care Act (which already passed second reading in Parliament) and ensure adequate funding for a Canada-wide child care and early learning program that will make 150,000 (start) to 220,000 (by year 4) new high quality, accessible, affordable, non-profit and licensed child care spaces available to Canadian families including aboriginal Canadians.


• Develop a Children's Nutrition Initiative to support and expand provincial and local programs that provide healthy meals to school children

Women's Rights

• Empower and the Status of Women Canada and other appropriate federal agencies to work to implment the recommendations fo the report on Canada by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women


• Reinstate funding for women's programs and organizations and Status of Women regional offices  that was cut by Harper's government


• Support Stephen Lewis' call for international action on women's equality. Work for the creation of a UN Women's Agency to ensure that women's votes and concerns are represented at the highest levels of the international community


• Reaffirm women's right to safe therapeutic abortion services


• Implement full pay equity in the federal public service, strengthen pay equity provisions in the Canada Labour Code for workers in the federal jurisdiction


• Give domestic violence cases higher priority in the administration of justice, improve counselling and therapeutic services for abused women and other victims of crime, and increase funding for family shelters for victims of violence and crime

Family Health and Safety

• Provide government with greater authority to investigate and recall unsafe and toxic consumer products, including toys groceries and pet food and increase testing and inspection of imported products to ensure that they match the standards required of Canadian products


• Reassess, control and eliminate toxic substances from products used by Canadian families through a new Toxic Pollution Act and take action to stop the import of toxic products to better protect Canadian children


• Respect the rights of families to know what they are eating with new labelling requirements for farmed fish, genetically engineered food, and the origin of food products and their ingredients


• Increase number of inspectors at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and increase administrative support so that they can spend more time on the floor and less time on paperwork.


• Implement a Canadian organic food and agriculture strategy


• Establish and phase in a Canada-wide prescription drug program for all citizens in cooperation with the provinces and territories


• Dedicate 1% of the Health Canada budget to physical fitness and amateur sports promotion including investing in the development of more community centres, senior centres, recreational facilities and playing fields.


• Launch a federal Determinants of Health initiative with emphasis on clean air, safe water, reducing poverty and improving children's health and nutrition. Includes banning trans fats, expanding programs to promote healthy foods and healthy eating, addressing childhood obesity, limiting exposure of children to junk food promotion.


• Help tackle violent crime with more police officers, strengthened efforts in areas such as cyber crime that targets youth and seniors, attempt to combat gangs and organized crime networks, restrictions on hand guns, addressing the roots of crime by developing healthy communities, and using effective prosecution and enforcement, especially for repeat offenders.

The information in this post is taken from the NDP's Platform 2008.

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