Where the parties stand on key issues

Ontario’s election campaign officially starts Wednesday, with the four major parties already making promises on issues from housing to highways. Here are where they stand on some of the key issues in the June 2 election:

Economy and economic recovery

NDP $1-an-hour increase to the minimum wage, hitting $20 by 2026; a small business recovery grant would help companies over two years; COVID-19 emergency business fund for Black-owned businesses/entrepreneurs; commercial insurance decreases.

Green Retrofit 40 per cent of existing homes and workplaces to net zero by 2030; free tuition for 60,000 young, diverse Ontarians to work in the green economy; create a complete electric vehicle supply chain.

Liberal Remove corporate taxes for small businesses hit hard by the pandemic for two years; eliminate incorporation fees for new startups; guarantee loans to small businesses; remove provincial HST on food under $20 in part to help restaurants hard hit by COVID-19.

PC Create a “critical minerals strategy” to boost exploration and supply chains; invest in transformation to low-carbon steel production; boost electric vehicle/electric battery production; reduce WSIB premiums by 47 per cent without any reduction in benefits; continue cutting red tape for businesses.

Long-term care

NDP Transition all homes to public/non-profit care over the next eight years; create 50,000 new spaces in a smaller, more homelike model; end wait lists for care; minimum of four hours of hands-on care every day; hire 10,000 personal support workers and better support family caregivers; boost home inspections; hire a provincial seniors’ advocate.

Green Ensure all new long-termcare facilities are publicly run, regulated and fully staffed while phasing out for-profit homes; prioritize new licences for small, communitybased homes; better integrate longterm-care, home-care and caregiver services.

Liberal End for-profit long-termcare homes by 2028; $2-billion increase to home and community care, helping 400,000 more seniors by 2026; Old Age Security top-up to $1,000, so more can qualify for it.

PC Create more than 31,000 new beds and more than 28,000 upgraded ones across the province; spend $5 billion to hire more than 27,000 long-term-care staff over four years; average of four hours of direct, hands-on care by 2024-25; spend $1 billion over the next three years to expand home care.

Highways and transportation

NDP Cancel PCs’ planned Highway 413 and Bradford Bypass; expand Highway 69, highways 11 and 17, Highway 3, Morriston bypass, Thunder Bay Expressway Interchange Project and Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph; make GO transit two-way, all day between Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto, and daily-or-better service to Bowmanville, Grimsby and Niagara; extend Hurontario LRT to downtown Brampton and restore the downtown loop plan; fund 50 per cent of municipal public transit; improved fare integration.

Green Cancel Highway 413 and Bradford Bypass; cut all transit fares in half for an initial three months to offset rising prices at the gas pump; electrify the GO system and speed up electrification plans for all transit systems; introduce a $10,000 rebate for a new electric car and $1,000 rebate for electric bike.

Liberal Cancel Highway 413; introduce $1 fares on all public transit networks; widen Highway 401 at targeted bottlenecks; finish Morriston Bypass between Guelph and Highway 401; in rural and northern Ontario, expand 2+1 highway model to support safe passing on major highways; finish four-laning Hwy. 69; incentives to buy electric cars.

PC Build Hwy. 413 and the Bradford Bypass; widen Hwy. 401 starting at Brock Road in Pickering all the way to Eastern Ontario; new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph; improved Highway 101 through Timmins; complete the Morriston Bypass; in the GTA, $17-billion Ontario Line, three-stop Scarborough subway extension, the Yonge North subway extension and the Eglinton Cross West extension; expand GO service to two-way, all day through the Greater Golden Horseshoe; restore passenger rail service to northeastern Ontario.

Housing

NDP Help first-time buyers with 10 per cent of the purchase price for a down payment, which does not have to be repaid until they sell; return full rent controls so rates aren’t hiked when new tenants move in; build 100,000 affordable homes and 60,000 homes with supports; increase the housing supply — especially starter homes such as townhouses — by 1.5 million over the next decade; target speculation with new measures.

Green Expand zoning to allow for triplexes and fourplexes; pre-zoning for mid-rise housing on transit lines; build 160,000 affordable rental homes in next decade; freeze urban boundaries to protect farmland and wetlands; multiple homes speculation tax on domestic buyers with three or more homes.

Liberal Increase housing supply, especially affordable housing; protect renters (details to come).

PC More than 100,000 new homes construction; build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years.

Labour

NDP Kill Bill 124, which caps public sector wages; boost minimum wage to $20 by 2026; provide 10 permanent, paid sick days; remove barriers to join a union; ensure benefits and other supports for gig workers; create Ontario benefits to cover all part-time and casual workers for things like vision care; reform WSIB; recruit and train workers from diverse communities.

Green Introduce a living wage for all Ontario workers that reflects the cost of living; 10 paid sick days with supports for small businesses to afford it; revoke Bill 124.

Liberal Boost minimum wage with a regional living wage starting at $16; provide all workers with portable drug, dental and mentalhealth services; examine four-day work week; 10 paid sick days; equal pay for equal work; match up to $1,000 in annual retirement savings for low-income earners.

PC Recruit workers into the skilled trades; invest an additional $114 million in a skilled trades strategy; expand college degree programs to help grads get into the workforce faster; guarantee 30-business day service for out-of-province workers and newcomers in regulated professionals and trades; connect internationally trained immigrants with in-demand jobs through $67 million for the Ontario Bridge Training Program; increasing minimum wage to $15.50 in October and tie future increases to inflation.

Ontario’s election campaign officially starts Wednesday, with the four major parties already making promises on issues from housing to highways