OTTAWA 鈥� A look at key developments Tuesday on the campaign trail:
Stephen Harper took to a growing community north of Toronto to promote home ownership. The Conservatives want to see 700,000 more homeowners by 2020, calling it an aspirational target. Harper said commitments such as expanding the home buyers鈥� plan, establishing a permanent home renovation tax credit and measures to address foreign ownership of Canadian residential real estate make the target achievable. He said the target was based on projections from the sa国际传媒 Mortgage and Housing Corp. and the Canadian Home Builders Association, which have set projections of ownership growth of more than 140,000 per year until 2021.
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NDP Leader Tom Mulcair visited Iqaluit. An NDP government would spend $32 million over four years to ensure more northerners have access to nutritious food, he said. Mulcair said it鈥檚 unfair that remote Inuit communities in Nunavut and elsewhere across the North frequently have to rely on unhealthy food simply because it is cheap. Mulcair鈥檚 food plan calls for the money to go into expanding a subsidy program called Nutrition North to include 50 isolated communities he said the Conservatives have excluded from subsidies.
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Justin Trudeau announced a Liberal government would put up $200 million a year for three years to help research facilities, small business incubators and exporters. Another $100 million a year would go toward an industrial research assistance program. Trudeau said sa国际传媒 has a smaller base of capital for new firms and his plan would give new technology companies a better chance of success through access to office space in so-called incubators, and partnerships with universities and colleges.
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Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said all federally regulated companies operating in Quebec should respect the province鈥檚 language laws. Banks, railroads, telecommunications firms and interprovincial transport companies are exempt from Quebec鈥檚 language legislation, known as Bill 101, which forces companies to make French the official language of the workplace. Duceppe called on Mulcair to prove he really is a protector of Bill 101 and to stand with the Bloc on the issue.
