Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace
10 St. Mary Street, #420
Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1P9
416-922-1592 x 25 - email: amjackson@devp.org
fax 416-922-0957

Federal Election Questionnaire

Dear Candidate,

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace is the official development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada established by the Canadian Bishops in 1967. CCODP is a democratic movement for international solidarity and supports partners in the Third World in pursuit of alternatives to unjust social. political and economic structures. It also educates the Canadian population about the causes of impoverishment of peoples and mobilizes actions for change.

We would like to take the opportunity of the federal election campaign to ask you, the candidate, about your position on questions that are vital to our projects and those of our partner organizations. We appreciate your co-operation in completing this questionnaire. Your responses will be circulated to those members of Development and Peace and other concerned Catholics in the riding in which you are running.

When you have completed the questionnaire, please return it to our Toronto office at the address above, either by post, fax or as an e-mail attachment.

Sincerely,
Dave Szollosy
for the Archdiocesan Council of Development and Peace

A. Concerning Canada's International Trade:

I. Will you push for the amendment of the Export Development Act so that the Export Development Corporation:

1. Must conduct externally monitored social and environmental impact assessments on all submissions prior to providing support for any project?

2. Is made accountable to Canadians by making it subject to the provisions under the Access to Information Act?

3. Must respect Canada's commitments to international human rights and indigenous rights agreements when reviewing submissions.

4. Must consult with the communities affected by any given project and obtain the agreement of these communities that the project go ahead prior to providing any support.

II. Will you push for the amendment of the Canada Business Corporations Act so that corporations:

1. Respect through their actions the needs of communities affected by their projects?

2. Disclose for public scrutiny their records of compliance with environmental, human rights, labour, health and safety laws.

3. Be prohibited from taking any action against any individual (employees, shareholder or other) who discloses non-compliance with any environmental, human rights, labour or health and safety laws in any operation of the corporation anywhere in the world?

III. Will you push for the effective enforcement of existing legislation, such as the Special Economic Measures Act, which will require the Government of Canada to impose sanctions on corporations which encourage, exploit or benefit from conflict in other countries.

IV. Will you push for the immediate allocation of 0.7% of GNP to Official Development Assistance as committed to by successive governments since the 1970s?

B. Concerning Aboriginal Land Rights:

I. Will you push for the establishment of renewed relationship between Aboriginal people and the Government of Canada based on mutual respect, responsibility and sharing?

II. Will you push the Government of Canada to respect the calls of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the United Nations Human Rights Committee to establish immediately an independent commission with the mandate to implement Aboriginal land, treaty and inherent rights?

C. Concerning the environment:

I. Will you push the Government of Canada to immediately ratify the Kyoto Protocol?

II. In the first budget of the new Government, will you push for the inclusion of a comprehensive package of measures, economic and otherwise, which would be adequate to meet Canada's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012?

III. Will you push the government to immediately implement steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by:

1. Supporting financially the development of alternate fuel sources?

2. Supporting financially (through grants or tax concessions) those corporations that are developing machinery that uses alternate fuel sources?

3. Providing increased grants to provincial governments to be used by municipalities for the development of more effective and useable public transportation systems?

4. Providing tax concessions to individuals and corporations who reduce their dependency on traditional fuel sources?

5. Providing a "Health Grant" to provinces and/or cities that reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

IV. Will you push the Government to amend the Special Economic Measures Act to require the Government of Canada to impose sanctions on corporations that encourage, exploit or benefit from environmental degradation in other countries?

D. Concerning Women's Issues:

I. Will you push the Government of Canada to take immediate steps as identified by the Canadian March of Women's Committee, to eliminate poverty and to ensure a fair distribution of the planet's wealth between rich and poor, and between men and women?

II. Will you push the Government of Canada to take immediate steps as identified by the Canadian March of Women's Committee, to eliminate violence against women and to ensure equality between women and men?