‘Money for nothing’ seems the theme for three main parties

The harder you look at the promises and platforms of the three main contenders in the June 7 provincial election, the more likely it is you’ll have a stomach ache, a dizzy headache, or both.

In far too many cases, they don’t add up.

First, let’s consider the fourth party. The Green platform is centred on: Making homes and businesses more energy efficient; lowering payroll taxes on small businesses and nonprofits; requiring all new developments include a minimum of 20 per cent affordable housing; putting mental health services under OHIP; implementing a basic income guarantee; protecting the environment, moving Ontario toward 100 per cent renewable energy and expanding transit. It doesn’t even mention deficits, debt or the budget.

As for the NDP, Andrea Horwath’s party promises free daycare for low-income families, pharmacare, a big boost to hospital funding and returning Hydro One to public hands, reversing the partial sell-off implemented by the Wynne Liberals. The NDP acknowledges it would run a multi-year deficits. It’s not clear how it would balance the books. It’s also not clear how the NDP would finance buying back Hydro One, or what it would do about losing the revenue.

This week the Liberals said they’ve found a major miscalculation in the NDP platform — either $3 billion or $5.7 billion depending on which media report you believe. Regardless, they say it throws the entire costing out of whack.

If that criticism sounds like the pot calling the kettle black, it’s for good reason.

The Liberal platform is basically the last budget, which as we know pledged pharmacare, cheap or free daycare and additional spending of $20 billion over the next three years, with resulting annual deficits of between $6.5 billion and $6.7 billion until at least 20202021. But Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk says those deficits are understated and will be more like $12 billion. Her accounting has been challenged, as has the government’s. So it seems rich for the Liberals to slam the NDP for questionable bookkeeping.

Well, how about the Doug Ford PCs?

There’s little comfort there. They still don’t have a fully-costed platform, and have waffled on whether they will bother with one.

Ford promised “if you are making minimum wage, you will pay zero per cent tax.” What he didn’t add is that those workers would be hundreds or even thousands of dollars worse off than with the current minimum wage plan. He promised tax cuts for the middle class. But under his proposal people earning $45,000-50,000 annually — the actual average across the province — will get less benefit than those earning $80,000 annually. That sounds more like helping the affluent.

Consider the following Ford promises, and party’s associated costing: $2.3 billion for that income tax cut; $800 million to cut hydro bills 12 per cent; $500 million for that minimum wage tax credit; $2 billion in lost cap-and-trade revenue and $1.3 billion to cut corporate taxes. Then there’s the promise to spend $5 billion for GTA transit and also take over Toronto’s transit system. That’s a minimum of $12 billion.

Ford has said he will find $6 billion in savings without cutting staff or services. But even if that’s true, based on what he has promised so far, he’s out by $6 billion. Where will that money come from? Perhaps this explains the lack of a costed platform?

The moral of the story? Be skeptical. Promises like pharmacare, dental care and tax cuts certainly tell us what things are important to the various parties.

But we can’t rely on them to accurately explain how they’ll pay for those priorities.