ESG doctrine and why it should not be adopted in professional organizations

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

The following introductory comments by Ian Madsen, Senior Policy Analyst, Frontier Centre for Public Policy provide background on Graham Lane whose attached letter to CPA Manitoba strongly criticizes that organization’s embrace of ESG.

Graham Lane is a retired CA and has had a multifaceted professional career spanning almost 50 years in the public and private sectors of seven provinces as a Senior Executive and Consultant.

In the public sector, before concluding his career as the Chairman of the Manitoba Public Utility Board (PUB), he consulted for three provincial governments and was employed by four provinces. In Manitoba, he was the CEO of Credit Union Central, bringing in online banking, a Vice-President of Public Investments of Manitoba, the interim President of Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI), reorganizing the corporation after its massive losses of 1986, a Vice-President of the University of Winnipeg, and the CEO of the Workers Compensation Board, restructuring the insurer and returning it to solvency. His experience with Crown Corporations goes well beyond Manitoba, he was the Comptroller of Saskatchewan’s Crown Investments Corporation, and a consultant reviewing government auto insurance in BC and workers compensation in Nova Scotia. He received the gold medal in Philosophy as an undergraduate, and a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary International for excellence in vocational service. Throughout his career, and wherever he worked, consulted or volunteered, he maintained an external objectivity. In recent years the Frontier Centre for Public Policy has been honoured by his presence of the Centre’s Expert Advisory Panel where he has been able to share his extensive public and private sector operations knowledge.

Environmental, Social and Governance Standards, so-called ‘ESG’, and scoring arose from ‘Responsible Investing’ efforts in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Institutional and other investors sought to influence corporations that were seen to be involved in, first, the Vietnam War, and, later on, in conducting business in Apartheid-era South Africa. Since then, the movement has morphed, now evolved into ESG.

ESG is essentially a covert way of exerting control over public companies by means other than buying control in the stock market. It is a ‘so-called’ ‘Social Justice’ movement. It seeks to impose non-market ideology on publicly traded companies, such as ‘Green Energy’ and ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’, or, ‘DEI’. The latter two are the main goals of the effort, and are divisive and destructive. There are three paths that this crusade takes: regulatory, professional, and institutional.

The regulatory one is to compel governments to require that ESG standards be applied. This can occur through regulatory agencies such as the Ontario Securities Commission, the most powerful such body in Canada, or through its sister regulatory bodies in other provinces and territories. Federal and provincial legislation can also be passed and implemented to force some or all ESG-related strictures upon corporations.

This institutional path exerts influence upon the largest investors in Canada: public pension plans, such as the Canada Pension Plan and its CPP Investment Board, Quebec’s Caisse de depot et placements, which does the same for enrolees in Quebec; the federal Public Service Pension Plan, Ontario Teachers; and other provincial and professional pension plan investment bodies. Many, if not all of them, to a greater or lesser extent, have already agreed to and endorse ESG ‘principles’, and now attempt to induce the companies they invest in to subscribe to those edicts.

The professional path is, perhaps, the most pernicious. ESG scoring and rating are akin to accounting and financial reporting and analysis, so the professional bodies responsible for those things, such as provincial and national accounting professionals associations, and national and international associations of financial analysts, such as the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute, have begun to adopt ESG regimens.

However, ESG scoring is not just harmful, it is wildly subjective and susceptible to inaccuracy. ESG evolved from Marxist notions of ‘equity’. It is aligned with collectivist, non-market ideology. Transferring much or most managerial decision-making to those with neither direct expertise nor responsibility for its consequences would be irresponsible, an attack on capitalism itself.

Informed and strong opposition, as in the following letter from 2023 by Graham Lane, to the President of the Manitoba office of the Chartered Professional Accounts, should be heeded if citizens, taxpayers, investors and society at large want to avoid the Canadian economy becoming dominated by and managed by ESG criteria. These diverge radically from traditional proven fiduciary and corporate stewardship standards and principles – in favour of ‘Social Justice’ approved outcomes – which potentially damage or destroy returns for pension plan members, and other indirect and direct investors and the economy as a whole.

Ian Madsen
Senior Policy Analyst
January 4, 2024

Text of letter begins below:

Graham Lane, CPA CA (retired)
xxx (address withheld)
Winnipeg, MB

Geeta Tucker, FCPA, FCMA
President and CEO
CPA Manitoba Office
1675 – One Lombard Place
Winnipeg, MB
R3B OX3

August 26, 2023

Re: ESG courses and accreditation, CPA – “A New Frontier: Sustainability and ESG for CPAs and business professionals” (CPA Canada Career and Professional Development)

Dear Ms. Geeta Tucker:

I recently read, with concern, that the association is offering ESG ‘training’, towards immersing members in validating the Environmental Social Governance – ESG’ -movement’. (“A New Frontier: Sustainability and ESG for CPAs and business professionals.”) I also note, with further concern, a supporting column published on the subject (July/August 2023 Pivot CPA magazine). Our profession and members should ‘think twice’ before ‘jumping in’.

“ESG” stands for environment, social and governance. ESG investors aim to buy the shares of companies that have demonstrated their willingness to improve their performance in these areas. ESG is an acronym that refers of environmental, social, and governance standards that socially conscious investors use to select investments. These criteria consider how well public companies safeguard the environment and the communities where it works, and how they ensure management and corporate governance met high standards. For many people, ESG investing is more than a three-acronym. It’s a practical, real-world process for addressing how a company serves all its stakeholders: workers, communities, customers, shareholders and the environment. ESG offers one strategy for aligning your investment with your values, it’s not the only approach.”

But, the ESG ‘movement’, originally driven by good intentions, has been co-opted by lobbyists, special interest groups, and various NGOs. Recent reviews have revealed ESG’s lackluster performance in creating meaningful environment change, and others have highlighted chronic abuse of flawed methodologies.

ESG has gradually suffused the business and finance world, from its origins in academia and the ‘activist’ movements of various ‘social justice’ interest groups. Now, through the actions of provincial and national CPA bodies, our profession is validating and endorsing the central tenets and precepts of ESG valuation, which is misguided and harmful. ESG is antithetical to the aims of the accounting profession, which is, in part, to give honest, objective and rigorous appraisal of the assets, liabilities, and the profit and cash generating capacity of firms. Risk factors and externalities, including environmental issues, are already covered by GAAP and IFRS standards in financial reporting.

While the proponents of ESG promote it as a means of providing a fuller perspective on important aspects of a firm’s place in society, its community, and the ecosystem, and of its handling of other ‘stakeholders’, who are neither shareholders nor managers of a firm, it does not. In fact, by dubiously evaluating those other aspects of a firm’s status, it badly serves investors by creating possibly devastating conflicts and contradictions. This could imperil a firm and its ability to act autonomously towards providing goods and services to the public, jobs to its employees, and dividends (or capital gains) to its owners (ultimately, the public).

The problem of ESG evaluation and its ‘scoring’ are well-known. There is a lack of consistent standards and objectivity, including those of quantitative metrics that are logical and germane. ESG’s principles are dedicated to diverting and subverting top management; i.e., by substituting other ‘stakeholder’ concerns or aims from those of the firm – which is, principally, to seek short-term and long-term profitability and viability, subject to the constraints of laws, regulations, and physical limitations.

It is important to recall that ESG’s origins were in social activism, with the ‘S’ linked to anti-Apartheid movements on university campus and shareholders’ meetings in the 1980’s and ‘90’s. Then the ‘S’ was ‘Responsible Investing’ – an attempt to isolate and boycott the then-racist regime in South Africa. Then, by bringing the-apartheid regime to the negotiating table, with representatives of the disenfranchised opposition, eventually, it brought to an end to Apartheid itself.

Efforts should continue to draw attention to ‘conflict diamonds’, and minerals being extracted by indentured children and adults in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with the continuing oppression of minority groups in regions of China. For these situations, and, other places around the world where there are violent or corrupt regimes, western companies should be careful as to their dealings. Yet, these problems are generally already noted as business risks in proper, professional, corporate reporting, and are also subject to the law and multilateral guidelines and sanctions.

The ‘Environmental’ component of ESG is, perhaps, the primary one that the anti-capitalist movement have been most preoccupied with. It, the movement, accepts entirely, and bases its ideology on, presumptions that are not, despite media rhetoric, accurate. It is not true that global temperatures that are unadjusted or otherwise manipulated by un-objective persons are rising.

Nor is rising temperatures are ‘entirely’ due to higher levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is not the most important factor in the direction, or magnitude, of any warming temperatures that might occur. Nor do any of some vaunted climate models predict (at least with any degree of certainty) what temperatures will be anywhere on the planet, let alone on average. Such efforts have repeatedly provided false projections.

Media and academic pundits have cited heat waves, or other events, as evidence of the tangible effects of purported warming, but these have been anecdotal and ignored other events, with contradictory evidence in other regions. Past predictions of ice cap and glacier melting, desertification, and more and stronger storms and other dire events, have yet come to naught.

Another fraught part of the ‘E’ in ESG scoring is determining ‘Scope 1, 2 and 3’ GHG emissions. The first one, ‘Scope 1’, is not ‘terribly difficult’ to do, but the other two Scopes 2 and 3, need to delve into what suppliers, customers and others do with the goods or services of the subject firm. These would be extremely difficult to determine let alone accurately quantify – and can be very expensive and/or unreliable to even attempt to calculate. At best, such tests might also give a distorted impression of an environmental impact – even ‘damage’ ’ that the firm may, or may not be, imparting.

Finally, the whole ‘Green Transition’ has become a rent-seeking lobby, attempting to capture government and its tax dollars. Their proponents’ supposition of touted ‘benefits’ of solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries – drastically altering or decimating the conventional energy, transportation and agriculture industries – are often erroneous or fraudulent, ignoring the full costs, financial and environmental, of their proposals.

The ’G’, ‘Governance’, part of ESG is also elusive and amorphous. While some of it has to do with the accountability of upper management, that is already covered by the responsibility of the Compensation, Nomination and Succession committees of the Boards of Directors (of all but the smallest companies), and also by regulations and supervision of applicable provincial Securities Commissions. Any malfeasance by managers or other employees, or by governments or other overseas organizations, involving bribery or other crimes, is covered by laws already. Engagement with ‘less-than-perfect’ regimes overseas is unavoidable for some industries, and it is unlikely that any quantitative scoring of such interactions or presence would or could be validly determined.

Another aim of the ESG effort is to compel companies to commit to some form of DEI: ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’.

In practice, DEI cannot merely be about outreach to historically disadvantaged or under-represented communities, but cqn lead to active discrimination against employees or potential hires who are not members of those communities. Commitment to hiring and promotion goals in those communities is legally questionable, but that is almost the least of the problems DEI entails. One of the worst is about the engagement of DEI directors, or outside DEI consultants, to conduct divisive and stressful DEI training, such as sensitivity and ‘microaggression’ awareness and role-playing exercises.

ESG scoring that rewards destructive efforts would or could make companies and organizations alter their operation to appear to ‘earn’ higher scores, while actually damaging their ability to foster a productive work environment, retain qualified staff, generate an adequate rate of return on invested capital, or survive as a going concern.

Another element of the ‘G’ in ESG is to try to inject parties other than shareholders or management into Governance, diluting shareholders’ control – which could or would obscure responsibility and accountability, and could badly delay or derail important capital allocation and other corporate decisions. These groups are suppliers, customers, those affected by the operations or products or services of the company, and communities in which the company operates, and potentially others. A covert attempt to subvert capitalism itself, and the market economy, might happen.

ESG advocates have engendered support by claiming that higher-ESG rated firms, and the shares in those firms, perform better than the ‘typical’ company. However, that is untrue. Studies of Canadian and American ESG and ‘Ethical’ funds (over the past five, ten, and even longer time periods) indicate that they underperform index funds; i.e., funds that invest in the entire market of large firms traded on a stock exchange.

Any funds that claim otherwise are consciously, or unconsciously investing in a style tilted to certain sectors; quite often the low-environmental impact IT sector. Such companies can perform well in a shorter time frame. When examining ESG funds, moreover, it often turns out that they invest in most of the same companies as the index funds – though perhaps with a higher management fee. Also, they could have peculiar criteria for higher ESG ratings, most glaringly rating some oil companies higher than other apparently ‘Green’ ones, such as Tesla. Elimination of low-ESG rated firms from investing can concentrate risk by narrowing diversification, thus violating a central, crucial tenet of investment risk management.

ESG has gained considerable support from corporate interests, including prominent institutional investors such as Blackrock (Chairman, Larry Fink) and public pension funds. While such ‘responsible investing’ may have a glowing aura, it can also have a pernicious effect of trying to coerce corporate management to attain public policy that ‘progressive’ politicians, academics, think tanks and other operatives believe are paramount. Those goals can supersede the shareholder returns that are vital to guarantee beneficiaries of pension funds and other institutional investment portfolios receive their promised benefits. This could violate the fiduciary duty of investment portfolio managers, which is to strive for the best risk-adjusted return that they can. (Several ‘green energy’ companies’ share prices have declined, some drastically in the past year.)

Several state governments in the United States have prohibited ESG-based investment.The Saskatchewan and Alberta provincial governments may also intercede if this ‘movement’ strikes at the vital energy industry.

Giving the considerable reputational power of CPAs, for the Association to ‘educate’ its members in a potentially destructive endeavour, such as ESG evaluation, is a mistake. It would be folly to add yet more risk and damage by validating and promoting ESG.

ESG advocates are now on the defensive, from information available recounted herein. Shouldn’t our profession review its decision to promote ESG?

Yours Sincerely,

Graham Lane, CPA CA (retired)
Former Chairman, Manitoba’s Public Utilities Board

c.c. Pamela Steer, CEO, President and CEO, CPA, Canada
Paul Ferris, Editor, Pivot, CPA Canada

Related Topics:#EnvironmentalSocialGovernance #ESG #FrontierCentreForPublicPolicy #GrahamLane #IanMadsen

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FULL 2025 Federal Election Conservative Party Plan Including Energy Corridor & Unleashing Canadian Resources

My plan for the Canadian economy could not be more different from the Carney Liberals. I have spent every day of this election campaign setting out my ambitious and detailed plan to build a Canadian economic fortress so we can stand up to Trump from a position of strength.

It is time for Canada to think big again. It is time to challenge ourselves to build. Because decline is a choice, but it’s not my choice. I choose to grow. I choose to meet this moment with ambition worthy of the men and women who built this great country.

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A PLAN FOR CHANGE

Cut Income Tax

You deserve to keep more of your paycheque.

Conservatives will reduce the lowest income tax bracket from 15% to 12.75%.

This will save the average worker $900 and the average family $1800 every year.

Everyone who pays income tax will pay less, but because Conservatives will cut the rate on the lowest income bracket, average hard working Canadians will save the most in percentage terms.

Tax Cuts will create jobs for Canadians and help build Canada’s economic fortress against American threats.

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Axe the Sales Tax on Homes

Canada First Conservatives have a strong plan to build more homes.

We will axe the sales tax on new homes, saving families up to $65,000 on the purchase of a home and $3000 on yearly mortgage payments while spurring a massive new homebuilding boom.

We will sell off 6000 federal buildings and thousands of acres of federal land to build new homes.

We will incentivize municipalities to speed up permits, free up land, and cut housing taxes so homes can be built faster.

We will bring more Boots, not Suits, backing 350,000 positions for trade schools and union halls to train red-seal apprentices to build homes, and we will bring back the $4000 apprenticeship grant that the Liberals plan to eliminate.

We will unlock billions of dollars in the private sector by allowing anyone who reinvests in Canada to defer tax on capital gains to invest more in home building.

Only a new Conservative government will axe the sales tax on new homes for everyone, remove the gatekeepers who block home building and build homes that Canadians can afford, for a change.

Canada first Reinvestment Tax Cut

With the Canada First Reinvestment Tax Cut any person or business will pay no capital gains tax when they reinvest the proceeds in Canada.

These gains will still be taxed later when investors cash out or move the money out of Canada.

This tax cut will be available for any capital gains reinvested between July 1, 2025 and December 31, 2026. But, if it causes a major economic boom, Conservatives will make it permanent.

The Canada First Reinvestment Tax Cut will be like rocket fuel for our economy.

It will incentivize investors—from small business owners, to farmers, to homebuilders—to reinvest and build things here in Canada.

These investments will rebuild our industry, restart our economy and allow us to become self-reliant and sovereign from the Americans, and stand up to Trump’s threats from a position of strength.

That’s how we will put Canada First, for a Change.

Lower Taxes, Secure Retirement for our Seniors

Canada First Conservatives will put seniors back in control of their retirement by lowering taxes and reducing clawbacks.

We will:

Allow working seniors to earn up to $34,000 tax free—$10k more than now.
Allow seniors the option of keeping savings growing in RRSPs until age 73, up from 71.
Protect OAS, GIS & CPP by keeping the retirement age at 65.

Our seniors should not have to work, but they should not be punished with clawbacks and taxes if they choose to. We should reward rather than punish work and those who choose to grow their savings for longer should have the chance.

Conservatives will restore the Canadian promise, protect seniors’ savings and build a Canada where a lifetime of hard work means a secure retirement.

That’s putting Canada’s seniors First, for a Change.

Boots Not Suits

Conservatives will boost training for the next generation of workers. “More boots, Less Suits” is part of our Bring it Home Economic Plan that will train 350,000 new trades workers. Conservatives will:

Reinstate apprenticeship grants of up to $4,000. The previous Conservative government created these grants, but the Carney-Trudeau Liberals will cancel it at the end of this month, leaving Canadian workers behind.
Fund training halls that will skill up 350,000 young workers over 5 years by expanding the Union Training and Innovation Program (UTIP). Conservatives will make sure the actual buildings and centres where these people get trained are also eligible for UTIP funding. Smaller unions will also have equal access to funding that covers as much as 75% of the costs of building and running these programs.
Create a special class of rapid EI payout for skilled tradespeople by allowing union training centers and colleges to pre-register apprentices for EI. Trades workers will now quickly get support they are entitled to.
Work with the provinces to harmonize health and safety regulations so our tradespeople can work anywhere in Canada without redundant retraining.
Pass the Travelling Fairness Tradesworkers Act which allows our tradesworkers to write off the full cost of their food, transportation, and accommodation.

Conservatives are ready to fight for Canada’s workers. With Donald Trump’s tariffs on our economy, we must bring home our paycheques and production, and take back control of our economy from the Americans.

Canada First TFSA Top-Up

Conservatives will create a Canada First TFSA Top-Up allowing Canadians to contribute an extra $5,000 a year to Tax-Free Savings Accounts for investments in Canadian companies. The existing $7,000 limit would remain, but Canadians will now be able to contribute up to an additional $5,000 a year if that money supports Canadian companies that employ Canadian workers and pay Canadian taxes.

The tax system already defines Canadian investments. A Poilievre government will create a definition that lets financial institutions and advisors label which stocks, mutual funds and other investments can go into your Canada First TFSA Top-Up.

The Canada First TFSA Top-Up will reward patriotic Canadians who invest in Canadian businesses and help grow our economy.

Unleash Canadian Resources

Canada’s energy sector has made a list of 5 policy recommendations to make Canada less reliant on the USA. Canada First Conservatives are committed to meeting all of the recommendations. We will:

Repeal the “No-New Pipelines” Law, Bill C-69, and the Tanker ban so we can build new pipelines and LNG terminals to export our energy overseas, ending our economic dependency on the United States.
Set a six-month approval target for decisions on resource projects.
Scrap the job-killing energy cap on Canadian growth and approve and build new major projects fast.
Axe the industrial carbon tax to take the tax off Canadian steel, aluminum, natural gas, food production, concrete, and all other major industries.
Provide Indigenous loan guarantees by establishing the Canadian Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, led by Indigenous people to offer loan guarantees for Indigenous communities.

Mark Carney has committed to exactly none of these recommendations. His radical anti-energy plan will make us more dependant on the United States.

Conservatives will unleash our resources so we can be strong, self-reliant, stand on our own two feet, and stand up to the Americans.

Canada Shovel Ready Zones

Conservatives will create ‘Canada Shovel Ready Zones.’ These zones will be areas already permitted for construction, meaning the permits will not just take less time, but will already be completed when a company decides to build a mine, LNG terminal or pipeline, bringing home thousands of jobs for Canadian workers and taking back control of our economy from the Americans.

To create these zones we will:

Identify a location that makes sense for a power station, LNG plant, pipeline, or another major project.
Make sure it is safe for Canadians and the environment.
Work with other levels of government to lock down zoning and permits in advance of construction.
Offer pre-permitting before even getting an application so that permits could be published online with a checklist that businesses would have to complete in order to protect nature and people.

This means businesses could buy the land, move in, hire people and build, knowing they already have the permits. This will unleash 100s of billions of dollars in power plants, nuclear energy, mines, pipelines, data centres, and much more. Canada Shovel Ready Zones will bring home powerful paycheques for our workers.

Canada Energy Corridor

Conservatives will create a Canada First National Energy Corridor to fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other critical infrastructure across Canada in pre-approved transport corridors entirely within Canada, transporting our resources within Canada and to the world while bypassing the United States.

It will bring billions of dollars of new investment into Canada’s economy, create powerful paycheques for Canadian workers, and restore our economic independence.

Axe The Carbon Tax

Conservatives will axe the entire carbon tax law.

For everyone.

For real.

For good.

This includes the federal backstop and the industrial carbon tax. We will take the tax off Canadian steel, aluminum, natural gas, food production, concrete, and all major industries. This will lower prices and bring home powerful paycheques for Canadians.

Unlock The Ring Of Fire

Conservatives will green-light all federal permits for the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario to harvest chromite, cobalt, nickel, copper, and platinum.

Conservatives also committed $1 billion over three years to the construction of the long-overdue road connecting First Nations communities and the critical mineral deposits in the Ring of Fire to the Ontario highway network.

The Ring of Fire will boost our economy with billions of dollars allowing us to become less dependent on the Americans, while our allies overseas would no longer have to rely on Beijing for these metals, turning dollars for dictators into paycheques for our people.

Life Sentences For The Worst Offenders

Conservatives will lock up the worst criminals for life.

Conservatives will impose life sentences for anyone who is convicted of:

5 or more counts of human trafficking
Importing or exporting ten or more illegal firearms
Fentanyl trafficking.

Canada First Conservatives will stop the crime to bring home safe streets.

Secure The Border

Conservatives have a common sense plan to protect the border and put Canada First–For a Change.

We will:

Immediately deploy military helicopters and surveillance to the border to spot and intercept risks.
Expand the powers of the CBSA Border Agents to patrol anywhere along the border, not just at official crossings.
Hire 2000 new CBSA agents to intercept illegal crossers, drugs, guns, and other dangerous law-breaking.
Install high-powered scanners at all major land crossings and shipping ports. These scanners can see through walls of containers or vehicles to spot drugs, guns, and stolen cars.
Build border surveillance towers and deploy truck-mounted drones systems that can spot border incursions.

Secure our Arctic

Canada First Conservatives have a plan to take back control of the Canadian Arctic.

We will:

Double the size of the 1st Patrol Group of the Canadian Rangers from 2000 to 4000 Rangers.
Acquire two additional Polar Icebreakers for the Royal Canadian Navy. These icebreakers will be on top of the current polar icebreakers that are being built for the Coast Guard.
Build Canada’s first permanent Arctic military base since the Cold War: CFB Iqaluit. This base will host the new F-35 fighter jets and Poseidon P-8s.
Upgrade the Forward Operating Location in Inuvik to full base status (CFB Inuvik) to host fighter jets and Husky tankers—enabling quick interceptions of Russian and Chinese incursions and securing the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage.
Procure a fleet of Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft to increase radar surveillance and command capabilities in Arctic skies.
Build the Arctic Security Corridor, a 600 km all-season road from Yellowknife to Grays Bay, including a strategic upgrade to the Port of Grays Bay.
Establish a new Canadian Army reserve unit in Whitehorse and restore Operation NANOOK to its full strength, as under the previous Conservative government.
Construct a new Arctic Naval Base in Churchill, Manitoba, to support Canada’s growing fleet of polar icebreakers and secure Arctic shipping routes.

Launch Interprovincial Free Trade

With President Trump’s tariffs it is reckless to rely on the United States alone to buy our goods. We need to trade more with ourselves, but governments impose massive trade barriers on us that cost $5100/person.

Canada First Conservatives will bring home free trade within Canada. Conservatives will:

Within 30 days of forming government, bring together the Premiers to agree on removing as many trade barriers as possible.
Create one standard set of trucking rules.
Create a blue seal professional licensing standard so workers can work in all provinces.
To get the deal done, I will offer the provinces a Free Trade Bonus. Every time a provincial government removes a barrier, my government will calculate the resulting boost in GDP and give the increased federal tax revenue to that province for schools, hospitals or whatever else Premiers choose.

Axe the Escalator Tax on Alcohol

Conservatives will axe the automatic annual tax increases on alcohol that the Mark Carney Liberals hiked again on April 1st. Conservatives will bring the tax rate back down to 2017 levels so Canadians pay less and businesses earn more.

Automatic annual Liberal tax hikes are an affront to our democracy because they allow the government to raise taxes without Parliament’s approval. The Conservative plan will cancel all future automatic Liberal tax hikes, providing relief to restaurants still recovering from the pandemic, as well as to brewers, wineries, distillers, and exporters, bringing home lower prices for Canadians.

When you buy a beer today, you might think that the $10 goes to the brewer or the bar. In fact, more than half goes to the government, and every year it gets more expensive. A new Conservative government will axe the punishing Liberal taxes, deliver lower prices for Canadians and make our businesses more competitive.

Axe The Sales Tax On Made In Canada Cars

President Trump’s decision to slap a 25% tariff on Canadian-made vehicles is a direct attack on our workers and our automotive industry, jeopardizing thousands of jobs. To counter this unjustified attack, Conservatives will temporarily remove the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on purchases of all new Canadian-manufactured vehicles. The GST will be removed as long as Trump’s tariffs remain in place.

On a Canadian-made vehicle priced at $50,000, axing the GST will save consumers $2,500. This immediate relief will help consumers under financial strain caused by Trump’s tariffs and support Canadian auto workers by making it easier for Canadians to buy vehicles made here at home. Conservatives also called on Canada’s Premiers to axe their provincial sales taxes on new made-in-Canada cars, saving Canadians between $6,000 and $7,500 on that same new $50,000 car.

Keep Workers Working

The Keep Canadians Working Fund is a targeted, temporary liquidity program designed to help businesses affected by sudden tariffs keep workers on the job. It will provide up to $3 billion in short-term credit lines and low-interest loans to ensure companies can maintain operations and keep employees working in industries affected by Trump tariffs.

The Fund is modelled on the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP) that the Harper government created during the 2008 recession to successfully protect affected businesses and jobs. The program will be administered through three existing federal entities: the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Export Development Canada (EDC) and Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

We must rebuild our economy so that we can stand up to Trump from a position of strength, and never be in a position of weakness again.

Tougher Sentencing For Intimate Partner Violence

Conservatives will address the epidemic of intimate partner violence. Poilievre will keep abusers off the street and behind bars to protect the most vulnerable Canadians.

We will:

Create a new offence of “assault of an intimate partner” to deliver tougher sentences for anyone who abuses an intimate partner.
Require the strictest bail conditions for anyone accused of intimate partner violence, including GPS ankle bracelet monitoring, with any breach of conditions resulting in immediate imprisonment.
End the senseless practice of downgrading the murder of an intimate partner to manslaughter, simply because the murderer claims it was a so-called “crime of passion”. A Conservative government will make sure that the murder of an intimate partner, one’s own child, or a partner’s child will be treated as first-degree murder.

Government has failed the most vulnerable Canadians. Those who abuse their partners or their children should be off the streets and behind bars where they can’t harm their victims or anyone else. A new Conservative Government will make sure our justice system always puts victims, not criminals, first.

Cut Regulations by 25%

Conservatives will eliminate 25 percent of all red tape within their first two years of government. This will significantly ease the administrative burden on taxpayers and businesses, waking up our economy from the red tape-induced slumber it has been in after a Lost Liberal Decade. Conservatives will introduce a ‘two-for-one’ law mandating that two regulations be repealed for every new one imposed.

A Pierre Poilievre Conservative Government will also require that for every $1 in new administrative costs, $2 must be cut elsewhere to relieve the government burden that makes it harder for Canadian businesses to compete globally. And to ensure the reductions happen, a new Conservative government will pass a law requiring the Auditor General to verify them every year.

Bring Our Loved Ones Home Drug Free

We have lost 50,000 Canadians to opioid overdoses over the last decade. That’s more Canadians than died fighting in the Second World War.

Conservatives will bring our loved ones home, drug free. We will fund life saving drug treatment and recovery for 50,000 people to help them get off drugs for good.

We will fund recovery by cutting taxpayer-funded unsafe drug supply programs and suing opioid manufacturers that caused the crisis in the first place.

We will treat fentanyl traffickers like the murderers they are. Anyone caught trafficking over 40 mg of fentanyl – enough to kill 20 people – will face life in prison.

We will stop the flow of drugs with 2000 new CBSA agents, container scanners at ports, and expanded patrols using drones and surveillance towers.

One and Done

Conservatives will create a new One and Done rule for resource projects with one application, one environmental review, and a maximum one year waiting time.

Conservatives will also rapidly approve 10 new energy projects that have been stuck for years due to the Liberal’s slow federal approval process.

Some of the projects a Conservative government will work with First Nations to approve:

LNG Canada Phase II Expansion Project (BC): Aims to double LNG output but faces power supply challenges and output limitations related to the emissions cap.
Suncor Base Mine Extension (Alberta): Expansion of an existing mine anticipated to produce 225,000 barrels per day of bitumen froth. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2020.
Rook 1 Uranium Mine (Saskatchewan): A development-stage uranium project expected to be a major source of low-cost uranium. Approval process started in 2019 with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Springpole Lake Gold (Ontario): A proposed gold and silver mine with an on-site metal mill. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2018.
Upper Beaver Gold Mine (Ontario): A proposed underground and gold and copper mine. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2021.
Northern Road Link (Ontario): A proposed all-season, multi-use road in northern Ontario. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2023.
Crawford Nickel Project (Ontario): A proposed nickel-cobalt mine with an on-site metal mill. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2022.
Troilus Gold and Copper Mine (Quebec): A proposed gold and copper mine. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2022.
Sorel-Tracy Port Terminal (Quebec): A proposed new port terminal in the industrial-port area of Sorel-Tracy. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2022.
Cape Ray Gold and Silver Mine (Newfoundland): A proposed gold and silver mine with a milling complex. Under assessment with the IAAC since 2017.

Crack Down on Tax Cheats

While Canadians struggle to make ends meet, Carney stashed his Brookfield funds above a bike shop in Bermuda—one of the world’s most notorious tax havens. According to KPMG, Bermuda has no capital gains tax, dividend tax, or withholding tax, making it one of the most attractive tax havens for the global rich like Carney who want to avoid the taxes they impose on the rest of us.

While Carney advised Trudeau to hike taxes on working Canadians, he made sure his company’s profits stayed offshore, beyond the reach of the CRA. These were calculated decisions to dodge Canadian taxes while the Trudeau government squeezed small businesses and middle-class families to pay for their skyrocketing spending.

Conservatives will end Carney’s two-tier tax system, where elites get loopholes and working people get audited.

Close Carney’s offshore tax loopholes. Poilievre has already announced that he will appoint a Bring It Home Tax Task Force to make tax rules fairer, simpler and easier to administer. The same task force will also ensure that we close all the loopholes that allow companies like Brookfield to stash their money in offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share here in Canada.
Redirect CRA resources away from auditing and harassing small business owners and charities towards cracking down on offshore tax havens — collecting at least $1 billion more every year from those who try to hide their wealth overseas.
Create a name-and-shame website to expose all the wealthy multinational corporations that are dodging taxes and refusing to pay their fair share.
Expand the Offshore Tax Informant Program, giving whistleblowers up to 20% of recovered funds when they help expose illegal tax schemes.

Three Strikes and You’re Out Law

Conservatives will stop criminals convicted of three serious offences from getting bail, probation, parole, or house arrest, and keep violent criminals behind bars longer to protect victims and our communities.

We will make sure that three-time serious criminals get a minimum prison term of 10 years and up to a life sentence. They will also be designated as Dangerous Offenders, meaning they cannot be released until they prove they are no longer a danger. The only way for these repeat serious criminals to obtain their freedom will be through spotless behaviour and clean drug tests during a lengthy minimum prison sentence, with earned release dependent on improving themselves and their life opportunities, such as by learning a trade or upgrading their education.

Cut taxes by $100,000 per home

On top of axing the sales tax on new homes, a Conservative government will incentivize municipalities to cut building taxes, for a total savings of $100,000 on an average home in Canada’s cities.

For every dollar of relief a municipality offers in development charges, a Conservative government will reimburse 50%, up to a maximum of $50,000 in savings for new homebuyers.

Put Veterans First

The Conservative plan for Veterans starts with ensuring their benefits are in place before they leave the military and will:

Automatically approve disability applications if they are not processed within 16 weeks.
Give Veterans full control over their medical records.
Let military doctors assess injuries using one standardized system.
Ensure PTSD service dogs are available to Veterans who need them, with a consistent national standard for support.
Make the Education and Training Benefit available to Veterans immediately upon receiving their release date.

Veterans shouldn’t have to fight their own government for the benefits they earned, but right now they face endless delays and denials — waiting months or even years for disability claims. This is wrong and Conservatives will fix it.

Conservatives will prioritize Veterans for jobs in the public service, give preference to veteran-owned businesses in federal contracts, double the hiring target at Veterans Affairs and fast-track the renewal of security clearances for those who already have them and need them for a new job. We will also add spouses of Veterans and Canadian Armed Forces Members who want to work for Canada into the Veterans Hiring Act.

Conservatives will help Veterans transitioning back to civilian life by:

Providing Veterans the documentation they need to have their skills recognized by civilian employers upon release through a red-seal system.
Ensuring Veterans get post-secondary course credits for skills and knowledge they gained while serving in the CAF, such as credit for courses on leadership if they already have a background in leadership positions.
Reviewing and removing clawbacks of military pensions for Veterans who get jobs, ensuring their new income is on top of their pension, not in place of it.

A new Conservative government will also make sure that our military Veterans get the recognition they deserve for putting their lives on the line, and country before self. This includes recognizing Veteran Service Cards as valid government ID nationwide. We will also immediately complete the National Monument to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan and officially recognize Persian Gulf War veterans and their wartime service.

Accountability Act 2.0

Conservatives will strengthen the Accountability Act to end the Lost Liberal Decade of corruption and insider dealings in Ottawa. The new rules will close loopholes like the one that Mark Carney used to be appointed as an ‘unpaid advisor’ and set government policy while he lined his own pockets.

Conservatives will:

Ban shadow lobbyists and close the Carney loophole by requiring anyone advising the government directly or indirectly, who stands to gain financially from their advice, to register as a lobbyist.
Ban politicians from making decisions that benefit themselves or their families disproportionately, and require Ethics Commissioner approval and full public disclosure of all personal interests.
Increase fines for ethics violations to $10,000.
Tax transparency. Require anyone running for public office to disclose where they paid taxes for the last seven years.
Require cabinet ministers to divest fully from tax havens and disclose assets to the Office of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, with penalties for non-compliance. No more so-called blind trusts that only blind the public.
Require party leaders to disclose their assets within 30 days of becoming leader and require Prime Ministers to divest their assets within 30 days of assuming office.

Consecutive Sentences for Mass Murderers

Conservatives will put victims first– for a change– by giving judges back the power to sentence mass murderers to consecutive prison sentences without parole eligibility beyond 25 years.

Conservatives will reintroduce the Protecting Canadians by Ending Sentence Discounts for Multiple Murders Act, which the Supreme Court of Canada struck down in 2022 because, in their opinion, it was too hard on mass murderers. Poilievre will restore this legislation using Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Supreme Court’s decision resulted in the sentences of some of Canada’s most notorious killers being reduced, giving them a chance to walk free early. Alexandre Bissonnette, who shot and killed six people in an act of vile hatred in a Quebec mosque in 2017, had been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years. But after the Supreme Court’s decision, Bissonnette is now eligible for release 15 years sooner.

Justin Bourque was convicted for his horrific shooting spree that killed three RCMP officers and injured two others in Moncton in 2014. The judge in his case deemed his crimes worthy of consecutive sentences with no eligibility for parole for 75 years. But after the Supreme Court’s decision, his parole eligibility was also reduced to just 25 years, which will give him the opportunity to walk free just in time for his 50th birthday.

The Supreme Court’s opinion was shockingly out of touch with the sentences the Canadian public expects for the worst killers. A new Conservative government will use its constitutional powers under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to bring justice back to the criminal justice system and end discounts for mass murderers.

Stop Scammers – Protect Seniors

Conservatives will protect seniors by cracking down on scammers that target them. We will ensure Canadian banks and telecom companies do a better job detecting scams, alerting victims before they are scammed, and reporting and blocking suspected fraud in real-time. We will also increase fines and prison sentences for criminals who defraud vulnerable Canadians.

To do this, Conservatives will,

Require mandatory scam detection systems for banks and cell phone companies, especially for high-risk accounts such as seniors over 65.
Require real-time flagging and blocking of suspicious activity, including unusual or suspicious money transfers, repeated phishing text patterns, and robocall patterns—backed by heavy penalties for non-compliance.
Create a Senior Transaction Shielding Protocol (STSP): a mandatory 24-hour transaction delay for high-risk transactions on seniors’ accounts–or on the accounts of anyone else who requests such protection–during which time a verification call and fraud check must occur.
Mandate public reporting by banks and telcos on fraud prevention statistics, volume of scam data blocked, and customer reimbursements made.
Impose a mandatory minimum one-year jail sentence for fraud over $5,000, three years for fraud over $100,000, five years for fraud over $1 million and minimum fines of ten times the amount defrauded.
Impose penalties of up to $5 million per violation for willful neglect for failure to implement adequate scam prevention tools.
Create a new Criminal Code offence of “willful blind profiteering from fraud,” targeting executives who ignore red flags and knowingly allow scam traffic or activity to continue.

Axe the Food Packaging Tax

Conservatives will stop Mark Carney’s proposed Liberal food tax and scrap the existing Liberal plastic ban. Conservatives will:

To do this, Conservatives will,

Stop proposed new labelling and packaging requirements that will raise the cost of fresh produce by as much as 34% and cost the average Canadian household an additional $400 each year.
Scrap the Liberal plastics ban, including the ban on straws, grocery bags, food containers and cutlery, and other single-use plastics, letting consumers and businesses choose what works for them.
Protect restaurants, grocers, and low-income Canadians from one-size-fits-all packaging rules that disproportionately affect those who can least afford it.

This will save the average family $400 / year and up to 60,000 jobs.

Compassionate Intervention

Conservatives will give judges the power to mandate treatment for people struggling with severe addiction. This compassionate change will save lives and help people escape the destructive cycle of addiction.

Addiction robs the most vulnerable Canadians’ ability to choose recovery. We will help them take back control of their lives with care, compassion, and a commitment to bringing them home drug-free.

To do this, a new Conservative Government will:

Allow judges to sentence offenders to mandatory treatment for addiction, giving courts the power to order treatment as an alternative to prison when people are too sick to choose it themselves and the offender’s only crimes involve small quantities of drugs for their own use and other minor non-violent infractions, where provincial legislation allows it.
Require recovery-oriented rehabilitation in prisons, ensuring that more serious offenders struggling with addiction participate in evidence-based therapeutic living programs in prison, where such treatment is available.
End the failed Liberal so-called “safe supply” experiment that has flooded streets with taxpayer-funded addictive opioids, keeping people hooked instead of helping them heal.
Impose life sentences on fentanyl traffickers and criminal organizations profiting off the opioid crisis.

Under the Conservative plan, those struggling with addiction will be given a real path off the streets with safe housing, medical detox, evidence-based medication, and structured rehabilitation that helps them rebuild their lives.

Build 2.3 Million Homes

Conservatives will build 2.3 million homes over the next five years. And unlike Mark Carney, who followed the old Trudeau playbook and just plucked a number out of thin air, Conservatives have an actual plan to get it done. We will get gatekeepers out of the way to speed up homebuilding, cut taxes on homebuilding to lower costs, and free up federal land to build homes on.

Since 2015, the Liberal government has put in place costly government programs that build bureaucracy, not homes. As a result, Canada has the second-slowest building permit approval time out of 35 countries, as measured by the OECD. And when compared to the United States, Canada’s approval times are over 3x longer. Poilievre’s plan to fix this will:

Reward cities that permit over 15% more homebuilding each year with additional federal funding, while reducing infrastructure funding proportionally for cities that miss their targets.
Require cities to permit high-density housing around federally funded transit stations as a condition of receiving federal funding.
Require cities to pre-permit housing as a part of getting federal funds for related roads, bridges & transit.

In Canada’s largest provinces, government taxes now make up more than 30% of the cost of a new home. The Liberals gave billions to cities with no requirement to lower housing taxes. As a result, many cities took the Liberal funds and raised taxes instead. Conservatives will axe homebuilding taxes to build more homes and bring down costs. We will:

Axe the GST on new homes under $1.3 million, saving Canadians $65,000 on the price of a new home.
Incentivize municipalities to cut building taxes by reimbursing municipalities with 50% of every dollar spent up to $50,000 in savings for new homebuyers.
Axe the GST on new rental housing construction to build thousands of affordable rental units.

After three Liberal terms, the Liberal government has only marked 90 federal properties to convert to housing, even though The Globe and Mail managed to identify hundreds of unused or underutilized sites that could unlock 288,000 more homes. The federal government owns over 11,000 federal properties, many of them in prime urban locations near transit and jobs. A Conservative Government will sell these federal lands in cities to developers who will build affordable homes quickly. We will:

Identify 15% of federal land and buildings to sell in cities within the first 100 days of a new Conservative Government.
Work with municipalities to pre-zone that land so builders can break ground immediately.
Prioritize home builders who will build affordable homes, especially for young Canadians priced out by the Liberals.

Poilievre also pledged that his government will fix Canada’s broken building code. After three Liberal terms, Canada’s National Model Building Code has ballooned to over 1,500 pages, loaded with costly, excessive rules that do little to improve safety but dramatically increase costs. This red tape has paralyzed homebuilding and has caused housing starts to collapse. To fix this, Conservatives will:

Simplify the National Building Code, making it more affordable to safely build homes, while giving maximum flexibility for new materials and building methods.
Cut red tape for builders and tradespeople, working with provinces to harmonize building code regulations.

This plan is based on real numbers and achievable reforms.

Canada started building 245,000 homes in 2024. A Poilievre government will add 36,000 more each year by axing the GST on new homes under $1.3 million, and another 25,000 by encouraging cities to lower development charges, totalling 306,000 homes in year one.

We will tie infrastructure dollars to cities permitting 15% more homes annually. More building will mean more funds—less building will mean less. We’ll also unlock at least 288,000 new homes by selling federal land, using estimates from The Globe and Mail, which reviewed only a portion of federal sites. This adds up to over 2.3 million homes built in five years.