'You have a partner in me,' Earle McCurdy tells Board of Trade

NDP Leader EarleMcCurdy took his policies to a business audience in St. John's Friday, saying "you have a partner in me."

Despite the unlikely alliance of a former union leader and a room full of employers, McCurdygotlots of laughs.

"First square meal I've had in a month," he joked to the lunchtime audience.

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McCurdy also drewapplause, as he promised to eliminate the tax on small business and increase the wage top-up for parental leave.

"We can't shrink our way out of trouble," he said. "Thelousiest tool for getting out of a hole is a shovel."

Family friendly

McCurdysaid the biggest challenge facing Newfoundland and Labradoris itsaging population.

"A critical part of planning for the future of this province isdevelopingan environment where young people want to stay to get educated, to work, to put down roots, to start a family," he said.

"And if we're unable to develop an approach to that then quite frankly we don't have a hope."

To do that, McCurdy said the NDP would bring in measures to help parents take time off work to have children.

"Our party wouldtop up E.I. (employment insurance), which pays 55 per cent of average earnedincome, to 80 per cent," he said.

"Thatwould provide concrete help to people who aretryingto raise a family,help young people get a start in life," he said, to applause from the business audience.

The NDP, he said, will also reinstate a tuition freeze for all students, including those from outside the province, and improve public services.

'Balancing act'

New Democrats have also promised to increase the minimum wage by a dollar in 2016, a move McCurdy acknowledged would be tough for many small businesses.

However, he said the party would also eliminate the tax on small business, another promise that drew applause from the Board of Trade members.

McCurdy said the NDP will cost out its election promises on Monday, but said he would strike a balance between spending and borrowing.

"Too much debt ends up shackling us with debt-servicing costs," he said.

"We believe in prudent management of the province's finances, but at the same time we have to make sure that the cure, the so-called cure for our economic ills, is not worse than the disease and doesn't make a bad situation worse."

Investing in companies that create 'green jobs'is a priority, said McCurdy, to offset losses in the oil and gas sector and to deal with climate change, which he called "one of the greatest challenges of our time."

McCurdy said the NDP will also announce supports for protecting the environment and a new plan for the fishery.

"We survived Beaumont-Hamel, we survived the sealing disaster, we survived the Ocean Ranger, we survived the northern cod moratorium," he said.

"Yes we have challenges today, but if we survived those challenges and those disasters, then we can surely overcome the current financial and demographic challenges.Now is not the time to lose our nerve."