TORONTO — The Ontario Liberals released their costed platform Monday. Here are some key promises:
– Balance the budget by 2026-27, though making room for “unforeseen circumstances.”
– Build 1.5 million homes over 10 years, work with municipalities to expand zoning options, and bring back rent control.
– Establish the Ontario Home Building Corporation to finance and build affordable homes; build 78,000 new social and community homes, 38,000 homes in supportive housing and 22,000 new homes for Indigenous people.
– Increase the minimum wage to $16 an hour in January then develop regional living wages.
– Provide 10 paid sick days for all workers and study a four-day work week.
– Remove the provincial portion of the HST from prepared foods under $20.
– Introduce a surtax of one per cent on corporate profit above $1 billion.
– Introduce a new tax bracket for Ontarians with taxable income of over $500,000 per year, taxing at a rate of 15.16 per cent.
– Extend $10-a-day child care to after-school care.
– Provide free tuition for early childhood education college programs.
– Top up the federal 18-month parental leave program so benefits aren’t reduced and increase the provincial child-care tax credit.
– Cut the cost of transit rides across the province to $1 until 2024.
– Provide up to $9,500 in rebates on purchases of electric vehicles.
– End for-profit long-term care by 2028.
– Increase funding for home care and help 400,000 more seniors get home care by 2026.
– Increase Old Age Security by $1,000 per year for eligible seniors.
– Hire 100,000 health-care workers and train 3,000 new mental health and addictions professionals.
– Clear the diagnostic and surgery backlog with a $1-billion investment.
– Establish maximum wait times for surgeries.
– Enroll anyone without an employer benefits plan in a portable benefits plan, including self-employed, gig and contract workers.
– Invest an additional $3 billion in mental health and addictions services and lift the cap on new Consumption and Treatment Services sites.
– Forgive all student loans for nurses, paramedics and other health-care workers on the front-lines of COVID-19.
– Cut carbon and methane pollution by more than 50 per cent by 2030, transition to a fully clean energy supply, ban new natural gas plants and phase out reliance on them.
– Expand the Greenbelt and designate 30 per cent of Ontario land as protected, up from 10 per cent.
– Divert and recycle 60 per cent of waste from landfills by 2030 and 85 per cent by 2050.
– Eliminate corporate taxes for two years for businesses most impacted by the pandemic.
– Cap class sizes at 20 students for all grades and hire 10,000 more teachers.
– Double OSAP funding and give “significantly” more grants, and eliminate interest on provincial student loans.
– Increase disability support payment rates by 20 per cent and reintroduce a basic income pilot.
– Use ranked ballots for the next provincial election, and allow municipalities to use it, and explore other voting changes such as lowering the voting age.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2022.
