The 2018 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) delivers a roadmap to where the country could be on the eve of the next federal election, if the government moves forward with bold action to deliver a progressive economic plan that leaves no one behind. If implemented, the 2018 Alternative Federal Budget: Getting There will reduce income inequality, lift close to a million people out of poverty, close unfair and expensive tax loopholes, and create 600,000 jobs while locking in the unemployment rate in the five per cent range.

Download Alternative Federal Budget 2018: Getting There

The AFB plan:  

• Boosts direct transfers to low-income families in ways that would lift 600,000 children and adults out of poverty and reduce child poverty by roughly a third;
• Eliminates all fossil fuel subsidies and creates a Just Transition Fund to help ease energy sector workers into new roles in a fully green economy;
• Tackles historic under-investment faced by First Nations communities through a $9-billion investment this year in urgently needed infrastructure, clean water, education and health care on reserves;
• Acts immediately to implement pay equity legislation and invests heavily in child care so women’s labour is no longer discounted as a result of discrimination;
• Slashes senior poverty rates by 30% by increasing the Canada Pension Plan income exemption for the Guaranteed Income Supplement by $3,000 and boosting the top-up amount by $1,000;
• Accelerates the national carbon price to reach $50 per tonne by 2020, while investing in training, apprenticeships and green infrastructure.

Source: The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)