Communists Call for a People's Agenda
September 2, 2007
The Ontario provincial election, set for October 10th, is critical to halt the attack on Ontario workers and in fact all Canadian workers. Communist Party Canada (Ontario) provincial leader Liz Rowley has called for Peoples’ Agenda to stop the dismantling of social programs, rebuild the manufacturing base of Canada and to “upload” the crisis onto the banks and corporations.
“We need progressive tax reform based on ability to pay, and we need it now,” said Rowley. “The crisis in this province is a revenue crisis, not a spending crisis”, she said. “That means a shifting of the tax burden off working people, and onto corporations and the wealthy, would solve the revenue problem, and with it the funding of social programs. It’s as simple as that.”
The Communist Party program stresses a new energy deal for Ontario and calls for an “All Canadian Power Grid”. Housing, transportation, social services and daycare are the fundamental requirements for workers in Ontario.
The Communists are running 8 candidates:

Elizabeth Rowley, Brampton-Springdale
Johan Boyden, Toronto-Centre
Shona Bracken, Toronto-Danforth
Drew Garvie, Guelph
Sam Hammond, St. Catharines
Bob Mann, Hamilton Centre
Dave McKee, Davenport
Stuart Ryan, Ottawa Centre
Communist Party of Canada (Ontario)
290A Danforth Avenue
Toronto, ON M4K 1N6
416-469-2446

Program of the Communist Party
A PEOPLE’S AGENDA FOR ONTARIO

New Energy Plan for Ontario
  • Regulated, public power in an east-west power grid
  • Cut residential rates by 50%
  • Restore public ownership and control over nuclear power plants
  • Phase out nuclear and coal fired power; expand hydro electric power
  • Develop new sources of energy: solar and wind power
New Financial Deal for Municipalities
  • Provide adequate, stable funding in statutory grants, or, provide cities with the power to tax corporate wealth
  • Cut property taxes by 75% - upload the costs of education, health, housing, welfare and transit off the property tax and onto the province
  • Transfer 50% of gas and road-user taxes to municipalities
  • Fight to give municipalities status in Canada’s Constitution
A Transportation Policy for People
  • Full federal and provincial funding for public transit to reduce fares and increase ridership
  • No toll roads
  • Expand GO Transit service; lower the fares; keep it public
Make Ontario a Voice for Peace and Disarmament
  • Get out of Afghanistan – bring our troops home alive
  • Cut the military budget by 50% - build homes, not bombs!
  • Say YES to an independent Canadian foreign policy of peace and disarmament
  • Protect civil and democratic rights – restore habeus corpus
  • Ban handguns and tighten borders against them
Just Settlement of Land Claims Now
  • Immediate action for a just and early settlement of Aboriginal land claims
  • Enact the recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry now
  • Return the Stoney Point Reserve to Kettle and Stoney Point First Nations
  • Protect the Six Nations reclamation sight at Caledonia; speed up negotiations on the Haldimand Tract
  • Immediate public investment in Aboriginal healthcare, housing, water and sewage treatment, public and post-secondary education, job creation
  • Recognize Aboriginal self-government and self-determination
  • No more suicide, no more genocide
Civilian Control over Police and Prisons
  • Put municipal police, OPP, RCMP and CSIS under public, civilian control
  • Close the Harris boot camps – open up jobs, schools, community and sports facilities
  • No private jails – no contracting out policing or prisons
Fight Racism
  • End racial profiling
  • Strengthen and enforce hate laws
  • Enact and enforce equity in education, employment, healthcare and housing as a priority
  • Fight to change racist immigration and refugee laws
Universal, Accessible, Affordable, Quality Public Child Care Now
  • Build an Ontario system of quality public child care now
  • Implement low $7 per day per child fees (like those levied in Quebec)
  • Create thousands of new, subsidized child care spaces annually
  • Require ECE diplomas for child care workers; improve wages and benefits
  • Fight for a national system of universal, accessible, affordable, quality public child care
Universal Quality Public Health Care – People Before Profits!
  • Stop the privatization train! Fight to implement the Romanow Report now
  • Expand public health care to include dental and eye care, pharmacare and long term care
  • Enforce the Canada Health Act. Ban public-private partnerships. Ban private clinics. Say NO to LHINs!
  • Reverse the de-listing of insured health services
  • Rescind Balanced Budget legislation: Fund public health care and hospitals!
  • Recognize credentials of internationally trained physicians and health care workers
Affordable Housing and Rent
  • Build 100,000 units of affordable social housing over the next 5 years
  • Legislate real rent controls; roll back rents
  • Fund emergency shelters and transition housing
  • Enforce housing standards by-laws
  • No evictions or utility cut-offs due to unemployment
Accessible Post-Secondary Education
  • Reduce, and then eliminate tuition fees. Grants, not loans!
  • Fund public, post-secondary education
Universal, Quality Public Education
  • Public funding for one universal quality public school system open to all
  • No public funding for private or religious schools
  • Invest $20 billion over 5 years; legislate a needs-based funding formula
  • Ban user fees and fund-raising for school essentials
  • Reverse 15 years of staff and program cuts
  • Enact equity in staffing, curriculum; make schools the hub of communities
  • Reduce class size
  • Strengthen local democracy and autonomy
Tax the Greedy
  • Introduce a progressive tax system based on ability to pay
  • Raise corporate taxes; rescind corporate tax cuts
  • Eliminate taxes on incomes under $35,000; Scrap the PST and GST
  • Keep the capital tax; restore the corporate minimum tax
  • Collect billion$ in upaid and deferred corporate taxes
  • Implement wealth and inheritance taxes on estates over $500,000
  • Make the polluters pay!
Jobs for All
  • Fair trade, not free trade – protect Canadian jobs and sovereignty
  • Say NO to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)
  • Emergency action to save Canadian manufacturing
  • Enact a new Auto Pact – foreign investment must require Canadian made parts and assembly
  • Build a Canadian car, machine tool industry, ship-building and agricultural implements industry
  • Rebuild ageing provincial and municipal infrastructure
  • Reduce the work week to 32 hours with 40 hours take-home pay
  • Restore and expand social programs; build affordable housing
  • Introduce plant closure legislation with teeth
  • Ensure environmentally sustainable development
Economic Justice
  • Increase the minimum wage to $15 and raise all wages
  • Raise social assistance and ODSP rates above the poverty level now
  • Reduce the pension age to 60, increase pensions and benefits
  • Legislate pay and employment equity; close the gap
  • Strengthen overtime laws, and ban compulsory overtime
  • Increase statutory vacations to 4 weeks annually
  • Make May Day a statutory holiday
  • Fight to increase EI to 90% of previous earnings; restore eligibility to cover all unemployed; remove eligibility requirement to use up severance pay
  • Restore anti-scab legislation
  • Enact a Labour Bill of Rights: guarantee the right to strike, picket and organize
  • Implement public auto insurance
Clean, Safe Environment
  • Phase out nuclear power; put all nuclear plants under public ownership and control pending closure
  • Replace coal fired plants with new publicly owned sources of energy: solar, wind and new safe and secure energy technologies
  • Protect farmland from urban sprawl; expand parkland
  • Reduce landfills, corporate packaging, and divert reuseable, recyclable materials
  • Oppose privatization and user fees, protect the Great Lakes, oppose sale of Canadian water
  • Fight for Kyoto!
For Democratic Electoral Reform
  • Legislate MMP and then eliminate the 3% threshold
  • Lower the voting age to 16
  • Introduce right to recall legislation
  • Sharply reduce election spending limits
  • Legislate to provide equitable media coverage to all political parties
FOR A PEOPLE’S AGENDA VOTE COMMUNIST