Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe spent Tuesday in Gaspe region of Quebec, a blue-collar separatist stronghold. He stopped in the towns of Rimouski, Ste-Flavie and Mont-Joli, where he met with local supporters and BQ candidates. Mr. Duceppe was dogged by questions about his position that asbestos is a safe material, a claim he made a day earlier. "If (the production of asbestos) is done in a responsible way, then it's safe," he insisted on Tuesday.
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The Bloc Québécois platform
Globe staff
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A look at Bloc election promises so far
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A CF-18 fighter jet undergoes routine inspection before take off at CFB Cold Lake in Alberta on Sept. 28, 2010.
Defence
-Require the federal government to submit military equipment purchases costing more than $100-million to the standing committee on national defence and veterans affairs for consideration. (From party platform)
-Clarify that the National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman reports to Parliament and not the government.
-A monthly pension for life for disabled military veterans and more government resources for veteran health, including PTSD.
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Canadian dollars
The economy
-Increase support for the forest industry.
-Secure $2.2-billion from Ottawa in compensation to Quebec for harmonizing its sales tax.
-Changes to Employment Insurance which include: Eliminating the two-week waiting period, increasing the benefit rate to 60 per cent of wages earned from 55 per cent, and studying the possibility of extending the program to the self-employed.
-Increase the Canada Summer Jobs budget to $123.5 million – indexed to the minimum wage level and rising cost of living.
-Impose a 2 per cent surtax on annual incomes of between $150,000 and %250,000 and a 3 per cent surtax on incomes over $250,000 in order to generate $4.8-billion in revenue
-Introduce a tax on non-monetary bonuses.
-Eliminate tax shelters for banks and big business.
-More support for small and medium businesses and the return of the Canadian Textiles Program
-Equalization payment reform
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Education
-Push the federal government to restore education transfers to the levels seen before the cuts in the mid-nineties.
-Continued support for tax-exempt scholarships for postdoctoral students.
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Inmates of the Toronto Jail on Feb. 24, 2011.
Defence
-Push for Quebec's own criminal code.
-More money for a national strategy for crime prevention.
-The Bloc platform outlines its opposition to the abolition of the gun registry and would move to create a system with free gun registry.
-Push the federal government to do more to fight arms trafficking.
-More support for victimes of crime.
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People wait to see a doctor in the Emergency/Trauma Unit waiting area at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital on Dec. 5, 2010.
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Syncrude's oil sands plant at Mildred Lake, north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
The environment
-Calls for federal funding for a high speed rail that would link Quebec City and Montreal that could be extended to Windsor and New York.
-$750-million in party platform for the development of green energy.
-The Bloc platform proposes financial incentives for implementing alternative energy (geothermal, biogas from landfills, wind, solar etc.).
-Eventual mandatory – but free – energy assessments. (From party platform)
-Amendments to building code standards for thermal efficiency in older homes and require that standard be met before renovation permit issued. (From party platform)
-The Bloc platform calls for serious effort to be made towards widespread use of the electric car.
-Impose absolute targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the short and medium term to match targets set by Kyoto Protocol. (From party platform)
-Plans to develop and protect the St. Lawrence River.
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The Guaranteed Income Supplement has been instrumental in reducing rates of poverty among the elderly in Canada over the past 35 years.
Seniors
-Raise Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) by a minimum of $110/month.
-Make people over 65 automatically qualify for GIS.
-Increase family income allowable under GIS.
-Take measures to encourage phased retirement.
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Idman Shil at her Surrey BC home on October 28th, 2009. The former Somali refugee was told to leave her newborn behind by International Office of Migration staff at the refugee camp she was in in Uganda and and have him brought over at a later date, only to be told by Canadian Immigration officials that he is not eligible to come to Canada.
Immigration
-Insertion of a clause explicitly prohibiting the expulsion of an individual to countries where they risk torture
-Expedite family reunification and to begin negotiations with Quebec to transfer responsiblity for family reunification
-Accomodate disaster victims quickly and to create a contingency plan that will establish guidelines in the case of a humanitarian disaster
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Families
-Continue to support $184-million per year going to a federal child-care tax credit.
-Gradual investment by the federal government until $2-billion per year is invested in social housing.
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Jumbo carrots being harvested at the Visser Brothers Farm.— Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Food
-The right of a nation to choose the direction of agricultural policies.
-A more robust federal food inspection system: 1,000 new jobs, traceability laws and public inspection reports.
-Overhaul the troubled farm income support program, which most parties agree is expensive ($4-billion annually) and ineffective.
-Increase federal funding by $150-million a year for next 10 years.
-Correct loopholes in food import laws that give foreign producers a competitive advantage over Canadians.
