OTTAWA – On the day the New Democrats revealed their election promises would lead to massive increases in government costs and revenues, the Liberals and Conservatives traded blows on the economy on either side of the GTA, and the specter of the SNC-Lavalin affair returned to the countryside trail.

As NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh campaigned in Vancouver on Saturday with only nine days left until election day on September 20, the New Democrats revealed how their plan to raise corporate and corporate taxes wealthy would bring in $ 166 billion in federal revenues over the next five years – far more than the Liberals and Conservatives are proposing.

But the NDP is also promising significantly more new spending of nearly $ 215 billion on new programs, which is $ 48 billion more than expected revenues from their new taxes during this period.

The Liberals, by comparison, are proposing about $ 78 billion in new spending over the next five years, while the Conservatives are promising $ 51 billion. And like these two parties, the NDP is not proposing to balance the federal budget within five years.

Among the costliest programs that the NDP promises to implement are:

$ 38.5 billion to create a universal pharmacare plan;

$ 18.4 billion to establish a guaranteed basic income for people with disabilities;

$ 17.5 billion for the well-being of aboriginal children;

$ 14 billion to build 500,000 new affordable housing units;

$ 11.8 billion for public transit;

$ 11.1 billion in dental care for people without private insurance.

The NDP also pledges to maintain the Liberal government’s previously planned spending of $ 30 billion over five years to implement $ 10 a day child care programs across the country.

The federal deficit would however be comparable to the projections of the Liberals and the Conservatives: the deficit according to their plan would reach $ 145 billion this year according to the NDP plan, and would decrease to $ 34 billion by 2025-2026.

The reason this is possible is because of new NDP taxes, including the 1% wealth tax exceeding $ 10 million which would bring in $ 60.2 billion over the next five years, and l widespread application of capital gains taxes which would bring in 44.7 billion, according to analyzes carried out by the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer.

The party is also said to raise more than $ 9 billion over the next five years by blocking oil and gas companies from accessing tax breaks for the resource sector.

“The plan has been very clear to Canadians: we are going to invest in you,” Singh said in Vancouver on Saturday afternoon. “And we’re not going to put the burden on you. We are going to ask the ultra-rich to pay their fair share.

Earlier in a Mississauga backyard, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau made his own appeal to progressive voters, positioning his party as the only alternative to the Conservatives of Erin O’Toole, whom he accused of promoting economic policies “Runoff” that don’t meet what most Canadians need.

Trudeau pointed to child care, where the Conservatives would cut the Liberals’ fledgling child care programs – worth $ 30 billion over five years with seven provinces to date – and replace them with government credits. tax for parents. The Liberal leader also attacked conservatives on climate action, saying O’Toole would weaken federal efforts to reduce emissions.

“The choice in this election is whether we are moving forward with a progressive vision to support families and build a better economic future for them, or whether we return to an approach that has repeatedly failed Canadians.” ”Trudeau said.

While Trudeau spoke in Mississauga, O’Toole walked up to a desk outside a GO station in Whitby and criticized the Liberal government’s “out of control spending, borrowing and debt”. He promised – without promising any new money – that a Conservative government would prioritize transit projects in the GTA and curb inflation by balancing the federal budget within 10 years.

O’Toole also took up a question regarding the upcoming publication of a book by Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former Liberal cabinet minister at the center of the 2019 SNC-Lavalin controversy.

Wilson-Raybould has long claimed she had come under inappropriate pressure from Trudeau and his staff to intervene in a criminal case against the Montreal-based company and come up with a deal to postpone the lawsuits. The Globe and Mail on Saturday published an excerpt from Wilson-Raybould’s book, in which she describes Trudeau as “either accomplice or incompetent” and suggests he wanted her to “lie” so that the controversy would go away.

O’Toole told Whitby it was “a reminder that Mr. Trudeau will say and do anything to win” and that the Liberal leader has pushed women like Wilson-Raybould and the former MP of Whitby Celina Caesar-Chavannes out of politics.

“Canadians no longer believe in Justin Trudeau. He ran on “sunny lanes,” promises a different style (and) a different approach to politics, “O’Toole said.

“We saw how he treated Jody Wilson-Raybould, how he put the interests of a corporate body pressuring legal proceedings before doing the right thing.”

Back in Mississauga, Trudeau denied ever wanting Wilson-Raybould to lie about the situation, and pointed to how the controversy had been studied by parliamentary committees and discussed for months in the media. He also called his differences with Wilson-Raybould an “unfortunate” episode in his overall quest to improve the lives of Canadians.

“When you do great things, things don’t always turn out the way you want them to,” he said. “And the people who were allies and fellow travelers in a particular fight give different perspectives in different directions. And that’s unfortunate. But of course, I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on this. I spend my time focusing on how we will continue the hard work of being there for Canadians.

While most of his remarks were to criticize the Tories, Trudeau was also careful to portray the NDP in a negative light. He repeated his accusation that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was “deeply cynical” in suggesting during the campaign that a Liberal or Conservative government would be just as bad for the country.

“For Canadians, it makes a huge difference,” Trudeau said in French, later accusing the NDP of claiming that the Liberals had “done nothing” on climate change since 2015.

“I’m sorry, a price on pollution across the country, despite objections from Conservative prime ministers all the way to the Supreme Court, is no small thing,” Trudeau said.

“It’s deeply cynical trying to convince people that other guys have done and are not doing anything when you yourself can’t do your homework and come up with a credible plan.”

In Vancouver, Singh defended his characterization of the Liberals as “bad” and the Tories as “worse,” and particularly highlighted the track record of the Trudeau government after six years in power – a period in which annual gas emissions to Canada’s greenhouse effect have increased slightly, according to government figures.

Singh also criticized Trudeau for increasing government support for the fossil fuel sector, which largely happened through the independent state agency, Export Development Canada.

“We shouldn’t be stuck in a battle between evil and worst,” Singh said. “We say we can do a lot better.