The Facts:

• The NDP platform is based on raising $21 billion from a carbon tax scheme aimed at traditional fuel sources.  The tax essentially provides that companies will have to pay billions of dollars in order to continue carrying on their businesses, for example, producing, refining, and transporting gasoline.
• Experts, including Jack Mintz, one of Canada’s pre-eminent tax experts, have determined that this NDP measure will raise gasoline prices by 10 cents per litre, rising by 2014 to an additional 18 cents per litre tax hike on gasoline.
• The tax increase would also increase the cost of home heating fuel.

Our position:

• Rapid increases in the price of gas are a concern. Filling up the car is a major expense for hardworking families. It hits the family budget hard.

• That is why since 2006, our government has reduced taxes for families, individuals, seniors and businesses, including cutting the GST from 7 to 6 to 5 per cent.

• These reductions have saved the average Canadian family $3,000 per year.  The GST reductions alone ensure families save money every time they fill up.

• The NDP has voted against every tax we have reduced.

• Canadians know that the Conservatives are the low-tax party and that the NDP is a high-tax party.

• Unless Canada has a stable, national Conservative majority government, the NDP will make sure everything goes up:  Higher taxes, higher gas prices and massive new spending.

• The NDP’s high-tax agenda will stall our recovery, kill jobs and set families back.

Facts on our own climate change plan:

• Unlike the NDP-Bloc Québécois-Liberal Coalition, we will never impose a carbon tax on Canadian families and businesses.
• We will continue to work towards a realistic plan that includes all major emitters.
• We will continue to harmonize our action with the United States, to reduce GHGs and protect Canadian jobs.

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO – Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today that a re-elected Conservative Government will invest $100 million to establish the Canada Brain Research Fund to support brain research and neuroscience in Canada.

Prime Minister Harper said that one in three Canadians are affected by brain disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, brain and spinal cord injuries, concussions and stroke.  The Canada Brain Research Fund will help to find new treatments and cures for these diseases that affect so many Canadians and their families.  “I am proud to support the Canada Brain Research Fund,” Prime Minister Harper said.  “Brain diseases and disorders touch the lives of so many Canadians and their families.  Our funding supports cutting-edge research and builds on our record investments in Canada’s health care system — to keep it the best health care system in the world.”

A re-elected Conservative Government’s contribution to the Canada Brain Research Fund will leverage matching contributions from the private sector and neuroscience-related organizations for a total investment of $300 million.  The Brain Research Fund will serve as a public-private partnership involving Brain Canada, the Neurological Health Charities Canada and the Canadian Association for Neuroscience.

Funding for this initiative was included in Budget 2011, the Next Phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, tabled in Parliament on March 22.  The Ignatieff-led Coalition with the Bloc Québécois and NDP opposed this historic investment in Canada’s health care system when they rejected the Budget and forced an unnecessary election.

Prime Minister Harper observed that Canadians face a real choice when it comes to supporting medical research:  A re-elected Conservative Government that supports the Canada Brain Research Fund, or an Ignatieff-led Coalition that rejected this proposal.  The Prime Minister stated that “only a majority Conservative Government can be trusted to continue our record investments in the Canadian health care system and critical medical research in Canada.”