Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is pledging $1 billion to help Canadians care for sick or elderly relatives, a key plank in his party's election platform.

Ignatieff said Tuesday he plans to pay for his family-care program by eliminating corporate tax cuts proposed by the Conservative government, including a 1.5 percentage point cut slated to kick in Jan. 1.

The Liberal plan would include:

  • A new refundable family care tax benefit of up to $1,350 a year. The Liberals predict some 600,000 families would be eligible for the refund, costing the government about $750 million each year.
  • A broader and longer-lasting family care benefit that would replace the compassionate-care benefit awarded under the Employment Insurance program. As many as 30,000 Canadians could qualify for the new benefit, for a total cost of roughly $250 million a year, according to Liberal estimates.

The current benefit grants six weeks of EI to Canadians caring for a relative determined by a doctor to have less than six months to live. About 5,000 people receive the benefit each year.

The new system would offer up to six months of EI to those caring for gravely ill -- though not necessarily dying -- relatives. Family members could split the benefit among them, and the six months could be spread over the course of a year or used all at once.

Ignatieff unveiled his proposal in Gatineau, Que., at the home of a family struggling to care for a sick relative.

"We think these are the kind of things that a hard-pressed middle-class family really needs," Ignatieff said. "We think it's affordable, we think it's fiscally prudent and we think it's the right thing to do."

Conservatives shot back, saying the Liberal plan to squash corporate tax cuts would compromise the nation's economic recovery and trigger more job losses.

"We're just coming out of an economic recession, seeing some signs of recovery," Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner told CTV's Power Play on Tuesday evening. "This is not the time to increase taxes on businesses, the very people who are creating jobs."

Ignatieff's pledge falls short of a national homecare program, which many experts say will become increasingly vital as baby boomers age. Liberals say that kind of program will have to be discussed with the provinces, who oversee all healthcare services.

But Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh said in the meantime, the party wants to "stand with Canadian families who need help."

"This government actually doesn't believe that we have a role in health care. That's ultimately the difference between the Conservatives and us. We believe as a federal government we have a role in health care. We actually have a role in reducing the burden on Canadian families."

Until today, Ignatieff has vowed to fund his platform promises by freezing corporate taxes at the current rate of 18 per cent, indefinitely suspending a reduction to 16.5 slated for 2011 and a second drop to 15 per cent the following year.

But with no sign of an election this year, the Liberal leader has had to clarify that his government would effectively reverse the upcoming reduction to retain some $1.8 billion in tax revenue.

Liberal strategists maintain that the homecare crisis is more pressing than further lowering the corporate tax rate. Experts say some 5 million Canadians are providing care for relatives and 40 per cent of them are drawing on their life savings to get by.

Nadine Henningsen, executive director of the Canadian Home Care Association, said the Liberal platform is a step forward for family caregivers who are providing as much as 80 per cent of the care for a senior or sick relative at home.

She said the flexible six months of benefits is "exactly what family caregivers need."

"Family caregiving doesn't happen in one week and then it's all over and then you go back to work. Family caregivers provide about 10 hours a week and over three years," Henningsen told Power Play. "So when you need to be able to be there for your family, you need to be able to take that time off work but know that you have job security, too."

With files from The Canadian Press