Liberal election platform vows $78B in new spending, no plans to balance budget

The Liberal re-election platform released Wednesday includes $78 billion in new spending, more than three times the direct new revenues promised over the next five years.

The 82-page document includes all of the announcements Trudeau has made to date on $10-a-day child care, new mental health transfers to the provinces, climate change and housing.

But it also throws down two political wedges targeting Conservatives – enshrining abortion services as publicly funded and medically necessary in the Canada Health Act and making it mandatory for people who own banned assault weapons to sell them back to the government or allow them to be made inoperable at the government’s expense.

They will also give cities $1 billion next year to ban handguns.

The platform also includes a promise to permanently end interest payments on federal student loans, introduce a new stand-alone national financial crimes agency, and add or extend tax credits for teachers, people who work at home and seniors who want to keep working after they turn 65.

Overall, the Liberals fully costed platform will add $70.2 billion to the deficit over the next five years, but they say the debt-to-GDP ratio will still be lower than predicted in last spring’s federal budget.

by The Canadian Press