The Conservatives promise to include farmers in a Tax Reform Task Force
With under a week before Canadians head to the polls, the Conservatives released their election platform to round out the commitments from the four main national parties.
The platform, titled “Change. For an affordable life. For safe streets. For Canada First,” promises measures to address issues like food affordability and housing.
In addition, Pierre Poilievre has targeted promises for farmers and rural Canadians.
To support public safety in rural communities, a Conservative government promises to put defibrillators in RCMP vehicles.
“Canada faces a crisis in rural areas, where a lack of defibrillators results in deaths for people who have sudden cardiac arrests that could otherwise be alive today,” the platform says.
And here’s what the Conservatives are promising specifically for farmers.
As part of the party’s tax reform plan, a Poilievre government would create a Tax Reform Task Force, which would include farmers.
The task force’s job “will be to deliver a simple, fair tax code,” that cuts red tape and makes tax filing simpler.
To protect Canadian farmland from certain foreign investments, the Conservatives promise to pass farmland protection law.
This legislation would “stop foreign governments and corporations from buying up Canadian farmland, and report on how much farmland is already owned by foreign governments and foreign corporations,” the party’s platform says.
Supply management isn’t mentioned in the Conservative platform.
But Poilievre has promised to protect the sector during the campaign.
Previous Conservative governments negotiated trade agreements without sacrificing supply management, and a Poilievre government would to the same.
“When the Conservatives were in power previously, we had an opportunity to sign free trade agreements with dozens of countries around the world, without ever abandoning the supply management system,” he told reporters in Montmagny, Que., on March 26.
Farmers can read about Liberal promises here.
Or about commitments from the Greens and NDP here.
Canadians will elect their next government on April 28.