Liberals release fully costed election platform
New housing policy features rent control and new taxes on empty homes
Liberals would balance Ontario’s budget in four years unless their promises like smaller class sizes have not been met, party leader Steven Del Duca says.
Revealing a housing policy with rent control and new taxes on empty homes, Del Duca put out a costing of the party’s June 2 election platform that includes $16.4 billion in new spending and counts on the federal government sweetening a recent child care deal.
“We are making a deliberate choice … which is to build up this province,” the Liberal leader said Monday at Evergreen Brick Works, warning of “cuts and chaos” should Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford win a second term.
Ford is leading in the polls as the Liberals try to rebound from being reduced to seven seats in the 2018 vote that swept the PCs to power and cost Del Duca, a former transportation minister, his seat in Vaughan-Woodbridge.
“If I have to choose between smaller class sizes and balancing the budget, I will choose smaller class sizes. If I have to choose between revolutionizing seniors’ care by putting home care first than balancing the budget, I’m going to pick our parents and grandparents,” Del Duca said.
“I will choose the people of Ontario
and what they need every single day of the week.”
The platform costing forecasts a Liberal deficit of $19.9 billion this fiscal year, the same as in Ford’s late April budget, falling to zero in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027.
Del Duca said the costing puts his party ahead of the rival New Democrats, who have released a platform but not put a price tag on it yet. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said that is coming and questioned whether the Liberals will walk Del Duca’s talk after their most recent 15 years in government.
“We got hallway medicine, and we had thousands of nurses fired,” she told reporters in Sudbury. “We had hundreds of schools closed. We had a province where people couldn’t get the things that they needed to build a good life.”
The 81-page Liberal platform booklet recapped promises already made — such as capping class sizes at 20, boosting home care to keep seniors’ out of nursing homes longer, $1 per ride public transit and an optional Grade 13 — but also provided a first glimpse at the party’s housing plan.
Taking aim at the skyrocketing cost and tight supply of housing, Del Duca pledged to build 1.5 million more homes in the next decade with the help of a new financing and construction agency for first-time buyers called the Ontario Home Building Corporation.
“We are going to bring back meaningful rent control everywhere in Ontario,” he added.
Party officials said it would apply to buildings of all ages with an annual rent increase formula to be determined.
Asked about concerns that rent controls discourage investors from becoming landlords, Del Duca replied, “We’re in the midst of an affordability crisis.”
Zoning reforms would allow homes of up to three units and two storeys to be built, along with secondary and laneway suites. There would be new taxes on empty homes: two per cent of assessed value for their Canadian owners and five per cent on non Canadians, raising an expected $450 million next year.
And to discourage construction delays, there would be an unspecified tax on developers with approved permits who are not building on serviced land. Details are to be worked out.
More land can be freed up for housing by targeting “poorly used strip malls,” available government properties and by burying electricity transmission lines so homes can be built in hydro corridors, Del Duca added.
The Liberals also plan to regulate home inspectors and make home inspections a legal right within the real estate bidding process.
‘‘ If I have to choose between smaller class sizes and balancing the budget, I will choose smaller class sizes. STEVEN DEL DUCA ONTARIO LIBERAL LEADER