Take a look at how each of the parties compare on key issues for building food sovereignty in Canada. This document is still being updated as the parties release their platforms.
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Liberals
Support for prioritizing purchases of Canadian food products for National School Food Program, as much as possible.
Make the National School Food Program permanent.
Liberals suggesting inclusion of School Food Program in the next budget. Same claim was made in 2019 but has yet to happen.
2021 Liberal platform promised $1 million to provide school meals for 3 million children but no money has been provided yet. Bloc
Conservatives
In December 2023, Poilievre, along with every single Conservative MP in Parliament voted against establishing a National School Food program.NDP
Support for a National School Food program in the upcoming budget.Green
Advocate for a national school food program with procurement policies that support Canadian agriculture.Support targeted counter-tariffs on Trump, advocate exemptions for deserving businesses, and reserve tariff revenue to aid those hurt by U.S. policies.Support businesses and workers affected by trade war, including a program inspired by the wage subsidy implemented during COVID.Demand a Carbon Border Adjustment to shield our businesses from Trump’s pollution policy.Use most of collected tariffs for tax cuts, with a small sum set aside for workers hit by trade wars.
Knock down interprovincial barriers to help reduce lost north-south trade with east-west trade and make Canada self-reliant.Give money collected from counter-tariffs to workers and communities hit the hardest by the trade wars.Support tariffs on food imports from countries with weaker environmental and animal welfare protections.
Introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment, aligning with global environmental standards, to ensure Canadian companies are not at a competitive disadvantageEliminate all federal barriers to interprovincial trade & labour mobility and remove all federal exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. Build new trade infrastructure that contributes to interprovincial and international trade.
Respond to existing US tariffs on the Canadian economy for “as long as is necessary” while safeguarding Canadian industry from the threat of trade diversion. Every $ raised from tariffs will support Canadian workers & businesses affected by the trade war.Eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1m.
Sell 15% of federally owned buildings so that land can be used to build affordable homes.
To see more on the CPC’s proposed plans re housing click here.
Implement national rent control to protect tenants.
Push provinces to ban renovictions.
Invest in the National Indigenous Housing Collaborative Inc.
Build more than 100,000 rent controlled homes over the next 10 years.
Use $1b over 5 years to acquire more public land for rent-controlled home construction.
Require the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to offer low-interest, public-backed mortgages.
Invest more money in the Rental Protection Fund, a federal program that supports community housing projects.
Ban corporate landlords from buying existing affordable rental properties.
Supportive of a major home retrofit program for 2.3 million low-income households & offering grants and low-interest loans to 1 million more.
To see more: click here.
Use covenants to make sure housing built with public money stays affordable forever.
Stop corporations from buying up single family homes.
To see more on the Green’s proposed plans re housing click here.
Carney’s past writings indicate he will stay within a liberal market-based approach to reducing cost of housing.
Create Build Canada Homes, an entity that would act as a developer overseeing the construction of affordable housing.
Eliminate the GST for first-time homebuyers on homes under $1m.
Double non-profit community housing, incl coop housing.
Increase access to high-quality housing for serving CAF members & their families.
Make generational housing investments to double the pace of construction and drive down cost of homes, rent and mortgage payments.
Make mortgage payments more affordable.
To see more: https://liberal.ca/cstrong/build/ & https://thegreenline.to/guide/federal-elections-2025-party-platforms/ Opposes the Liberal’s “food processing tax”
Proposing a federally legislated price cap on basic food items like pasta, frozen vegetables & infant formula.
Remove GST from grocery store items incl. Pre-prepared meals.
Carney’s past writings indicate they will stay within a liberal market-based approach, such as focusing on competition policy.
Amend mandates of Canadian Food Inspection Agency & the Pest Management Regulatory Agency to ensure cost of food is considered in all regulatory decisions.
Direct the Canada Infrastructure Bank to prioritize investments in agriculture, fisheries, agri--food & food supply chain that reduce the cost of food.Boost training and employment for workers in the skilled trades. Proposing enhancing federal minimum wage.
Train 100,000 more people in skilled trades, incl. Newcomers & those impacted by trade wars.
Undertake a large public infrastructure-building program, creating jobs for Canadian construction and trades workers.
Goal of eliminating energy poverty by 2035.
Introduce a guaranteed livable income.
Expand paid leave to elder care, miscarriage and other family needs.
Invest in clean power projects that create and provide training for thousands of jobs.
Enforce clear rules about supporting disabled workers. Support the skilled trades through an apprenticeship grant, increased access to union-led training initiatives and a new $20 million capital funding stream for colleges to support new training spaces for apprenticeships.
Incentivize the application of AI across our economy to provide better services and create high-paying jobs for Canadians.
Create jobs by investing $5 billion in a Trade Diversification Corridor Fund to build infrastructure.
Give a pay raise to CAF members.
Make it easier for Veterans to get jobs.
Ensure Early Learning and Child Care providers have good wages.
Help youth secure their first job by providing funding to Student Work Placement Program, the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, Canada Summer Jobs, and Canadian Service Corps.Proposing income tax cuts that would save the average worker $900/year and average family $1800/year, costing the govt $14b annually. Conservatives claiming they will pay for their tax cuts by cutting foreign aid, consultant fees, corporate subsidies, govt waste & reducing bureaucracy.
9.6 million of the lowest earners in the country would see no benefit from this tax cut plan because their incomes are already so low that they don’t pay federal income tax, nullifying the efficacy of this proposal as a tool for poverty reduction. Only 14% of those living in poverty would see any benefit.
Proposing to reduce taxes for seniors working past age of retirement (earn up to $34,000 tax free).
Proposing scrapping consumer carbon tax (see 10. Climate Change below).
Eliminate the GST on all new homes under $1m.Proposing tax relief measures that target only low- and middle-income Canadians.
Increase basic personal allowance to $19,500.
Eliminate the GST on essentials incl. Home energy, cellular & internet bills, and children’s clothing. Estimated that this measure will save a family of four $448/year.
Eliminate consumer carbon tax.
Proposing eliminating federal income tax on earnings under $40,000Proposing income tax cuts that would save individuals $412/yr and families up to $825/yr, for a total cost of $5.9b/yr.9.6 million of the lowest earners in the country would see no benefit from this tax cut plan because their incomes are already so low that they don’t pay federal income tax, nullifying the efficacy of this proposal as a tool for poverty reduction. Only 14% of those living in poverty would see any benefit.
Carney removes consumer carbon tax, while already sending out a carbon tax rebate to taxpayers for the 2024 fiscal year.
Eliminate the GST for first-time homebuyers on homes under $1m.Raise the cap on the Wage Earner Protection Program to cover wages.
Expand the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act’s “super-priority” protections for workers to include post-employment benefits.
Remove barriers to accessing employment insurance by reducing the threshold for qualifying to a universal 360-hour standard.
Extend the duration of benefits to 50 weeks.
Increase the benefit earning to 2/3rds of insurable earnings with a minimum weekly benefit of $450. Long-term Conservative advisor & campaign manager for Poilievre’s leadership bid, Jenni Byrne, lobbies on behalf of Loblaws.Enforce a mandatory grocery code of conduct to regulate prices.
Empower the Competition Bureau to act as watchdogs.
Tax windfall profits from big grocery chains.
Help boost competition in the grocery sector by establishing a National Food Cooperative Strategy aimed at boosting independent small & medium sized grocery stored.
Support a 2% surtax on corporations earning over $500 million in profits.
Tackle corporate tax avoidance. Hold corporations like Loblaws accountable to stop price-gouging in grocery stores.
Support for closing loopholes that big corporations take advantage of.
Reduce grocery prices by cracking down on grocery company monopolies and anti-competitive practices.
Conduct an expert review of the corporate tax system.Invest in the National Indigenous Housing Collaborative Inc. Work with territorial govts to provide housing & facilities for family doctors & primary care teams to keep healthcare providers in the North.Commits to respecting Indigenous rights & knowledge in climate policy development, ensuring Indigenous communities are partners in climate action & benefit from opportunities.Supportive of fixing Nutrition North to ensure subsidies go to people, not corporations.Supportive of harmonizing UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; of recognizing and respecting treaties, supporting building or re-building governance structures; self-determination. Implement the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.Provide long-term funding to search for grave sites at former residential schools. Introduce legislation to combat residential school denialism. Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes through the residential school system.
To see more: https://www.ndp.ca/campaign-commitments#pillar3Fund restorative justice programs
Support Indigenous communities searching former residential school sites
Supportive of Indigenous consent on decisions about their lands.
Supportive of an Indigenous-led end to the Indian Act
Supportive of Indigenous voices shaping national decisions. Carney aspires to become a “clean energy superpower, supporting projects that project the environment while honouring the rights and prosperity of Indigenous people.”
Supportive of Indigenous-led processes for advancing self-determination.
Supportive of working in full partnership with Indigenous people to realize their full rights & implement treaties, land claims and self-government agreements.
Supportive of advancing work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Actions & support Indigenous communities to uncover unmarked and undocumented graves and burial sites at residential schools.
Supportive of advancing implementation of National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls for Justice and National Action Plan.
Implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the Action Plan.
Launch a new Indigenous Pathways to Prosperity Skills and Training Fund.
Accelerate funding for access to post-secondary education.
Increase lands added to reserves.
Support legislation affirming right to clean drinking water.
Expand Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program from $5 to $10 billion.
Support revitalization of Indigenous languages.
Co-develop evidence-based food security approaches to replace Nutrition North.
https://liberal.ca/cstrong/protect Work to obtain open sectoral and regional permits for temporary foreign workers.Support strong unions to protect workers’ rights.
Support the next generation of farmers, in particular by promoting reclamation of fallow lands.
Support for improving risk management programs like AgriStability
Advocate for transition support to farmers opting out of neonicotinoid pesticides useRemove red tape and gatekeepers to allow farmers to produce more affordable food.Supportive of investing in small-scale farmers.
Back policies that promote regenerative and organic farming.
Increase support for farmers, ranchers and producers to access new markets for their food products with an additional $30 million in the AgriMarketing Program.
Doubling of revenue protection for farmers under AgriStability (to $6 million per farm) in case of significant revenue drop due to tariffs, extreme weather or other shocks. Farmers appreciate this move but fear it is insufficient to compensate for real losses.
Increase support for farmers & ranchers to buy new equipment with a $30 million top up to the Agriculture Clean Technology Program.
Double the loan guarantee limit of Canadian Agricultural Loans program & expand term to 20yrs. Demand federal govt fully support QC efforts to stimulate organic farming, greenhouse farming, urban & local agriculture, local frozen sector & more.
Supportive of decentralizing Canada Economic Development & assigning funds to regional funds to enhance regionalized decision-making.
Support market diversification plan for fisheries, of which 85% is exported to US
Support market diversification plan for fisheries, of which 85% is exported to USSupportive of building stronger local food systems.
Support for increasing food security.
Supportive of reducing food waste. Supportive of increasing agricultural productivity through automation & local slaughter capacity.
Support product labeling to identify country of origin.
Support reintroducing a bill to protect farmers’ and processors’ supply management
Support for labeling to identify additives, colorants, GMO.
Advocate for a review of Canadian principles of equivalence which allow US to export products to Canada containing additives, pesticides or other elements prohibited in Canada. Remove red tape and gatekeepers to allow businesses to produce more affordable food. Ensure accurate labelling of ingredients and countries of origin. Ensure more rigorous safety testing of imported food products. Support self-sufficiency in national food production, incl. Increased diversification in the types of food and agricultural products produced. Support supply management and its goal to deliver high quality products to consumers for a fair price with a reasonable return to the producer. Build more domestic food processing capacity in rural and remote areas, with a $200 million Domestic Food Processing Fund.Proposed a suite of policy measures to support and protect agrifood supply management. Increase transparency & stringency in origin of product labelling to simplify buying Canadian. Deploy a made-in-Canada procurement strategy that prioritizes Canadian suppliers and supply chains. Supportive of increasing resilience of food supply chains by supporting innovation.
Keep supply management off the table of any negotiations with the US.Support for a ban on neonicotinoids & investment in R&D in alternatives for overall pesticide reduction.
Support for entrusting management of fishery stocks, licenses & quotas to decentralized independent agency so that decisions are based on science.
Defends the principle of QC’s environmental sovereignty
Introduce legislation to prevent regression in environmental & climate policies.
Propose establishing a climate test so all federal decisions assessed based on alignment with Paris Agreement’s objectives.
Fight for the imposition of a cap on GHG emissions from oil & gas sector.
Propose eliminating all subsidies & public assistance to fossil fuel sector.
Defend carbon pricing across Canada
Campaign against promotion of “green” oil & greenwashing strategies of oil sands industry. Demand that federal define only renewables as clean energy.
Work to ban Canadian exports of thermal coal.Promises to repeal both the federal consumer carbon tax and standards for pricing GHG emissions from large industrial emitters (or the industrial carbon tax). An analysis by the Canadian Climate Change Institute found that pricing of industrial emissions is expected to be the biggest driver for reducing GHG emissions in Canada between now and 2030, accounting for between 20-48% of all reductions.
Poilievre promises to “clear the way for pipelines [...] north, south, east and west” as part of his commitment to support rapid expansion of oil and gas industry.
Will eliminate the Clean Fuel Regulations (which requires oil companies to reduce the carbon content of the gasoline and diesel they sell), the Clean Electricity Regulation (which mandates a ‘net zero’ electricity system by 2035) and the Electric Vehicle Availability Standards (that phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035).
Opposes proposed cap on pollution from the oil & gas sector.
Opposes a single-use plastic ban.
GHG reduction to 50% below 2005 levels by 2035.Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies by the end of 2026. Implement a cap on oil & gas emissions immediately.
Establish an Office of Environmental Justice to address disproportionate impacts of pollution and loss of biodiversity on Indigenous, Black & racialized communities.Support for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and reducing GHG emissions by 60% by 2030.
Ensure that 100% of Canadian electricity is produced from renewable sources by 2030, incl. The development of a national renewable energy electricity grid.
Proposes ban on sale of internal combustion engine passenger vehicles by 2030 to reduce transportation related emissions.
Calls for the creation of a National Climate Emergency Task Force to coordinate & implement climate action across the country. Repeal consumer carbon tax while keeping in place industrial carbon tax, levied primarily on fossil fuel companies. Proposes replacing the Consumer Carbon Tax with incentives to reward people for greener choices.
Carney hinted at support for new pipelines.
Liberal platform talks of clean energy projects.
Support for Clean Growth Fund, investment tax credits, home energy retrofits and heat pumps, electric vehicle subsidies and investment in EV charging infrastructure.
Carney’s environment minister says cap on pollution from oil & gas sector to be maintained.
Launch Canadian Nature Protection Fund. Champion nature conservation in partnership with Indigenous People.
Proactively rehabilitate and mitigate environmental & species at risk in areas where significant infrastructural development over the next 5 years is expected.
Supportive of carbon removal & sequestration technology & innovation.