Jobs

Canada is coming out of a recession and jobs are on many voters’ minds. The unemployment rate in February 2011 was 7.8%.

Here’s where the parties stand on job creation:

Conservative:

Loans to new immigrants to help them get their foreign credentials recognized

Provide a hiring credit to small businesses

Extend programs to retraining for seniors and to young entrepreneurs

Liberal:

Will focus on fields it believes to be the job creators of the future: clean resources, health and biosciences and digital technologies. Will support these fields with tax incentives.

Youth hiring incentive – an Employment Insurance holiday for small and medium businesses that hire youth

Canadian Learning Passport – will provide financial support to high school students seeking higher education

NDP:

Will provide $4500 tax credit to employers for each new hire

Drop small business tax rate from 11% to 9%

Bloc Quebecois:

Create income support programs for seniors who have lost their jobs

Make changes to EI programs, such as calculating EI based on the best 12 weeks of work and raising amounts from 55% to 60% of salary

Green:

Create employment programs and tuition credits for youth

Increase bursaries for post-secondary education

Establish a federal minimum wage of $10/hour

Push to remove barriers on foreign credential recognition for new Canadians