Name: Joe Peschisolido
Party: Liberals
Profession: Lawyer
Education: BA (Hons) and law degree
Achievements: Volunteering legal expertise to local environmental, animal and civil rights groups
Theme Song: Beautiful Day by U2
Three Priorities: 1. Help middle class by investing in education, infrastructure. 2. Invest in public infrastructure to create jobs. 3. Grow economy.
On pledging to help families, especially the middle class, Joe Peschisolido said, “People have to have money to make sure everything works well. We are going to change the Family Benefit plan; we’re going to have one benefit, rather than a variety.”
This change, claims Peschisolido, will give from $400 to $1,500 more to families, depending on each circumstance (income, number of children).
“And we’re also going to eliminate the income-splitting on tax returns, (which he claims will generate around $2.1 billion). Only 15 per cent of the population benefit from the current income-splitting rules.
Peschisolido said seniors will also benefit from a move to bring the age of retirement back down to 65 from 67. However, he offered no details on how much that move would cost the government and where that money might come from, other than “As Justine Trudeau has said, we are going to have to run a small deficit, of around $8 - $10 billion. But in a $2 trillion economy, that’s not a big amount.”
As far as investing in infrastructure, Peschisolido said a Liberal government would plunge in $60 billion over 10 years and would leave the decisions on how that cash is spent to the provincial and municipal governments, as they are the “best decision-makers… for these kind of projects.
“The federal role is not to micro-manage; these are decisions for local politicians, while the role of the federal government is to provide the funding.”
Peschisolido said that tax cuts for the middle class, amounting to $2.1 billion, will be siphoned by introducing a new, high-income tax bracket (33 per cent).
“It’s the middle class that spends the majority of the money in this country,” said Peschisolido.
