Fallout from weekend storm leaves its mark on election campaign trail
Ontario's four main party leaders highlighted their plans for highways, housing and long-term care Tuesday, as the campaign focused on swaying voters in the Greater Toronto Area.
But climate change also surfaced on the campaign trail, in the fallout of Saturday's violent storm system that roared across southern Ontario and into Quebec, leaving at least 10 people dead, causing widespread damage and cutting off electricity for days to tens of thousands in both provinces.
The Liberals and Greens took aim at the housing affordability crisis, vowing to boost supply to get more Ontario families into homes.
At a virtual announcement, Green party Leader Mike Schreiner announced a “Yes in My Backyard” (YIMBY) housing strategy to boost supply in the province. The Greens want to fast-track applications for secondary suites, such as basement apartments, and help municipalities build affordable housing on former industrial sites.
During a campaign swing through Toronto, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said his party would increase housing supply by creating the Ontario Home Building Corp. The provincial agency would have the “funding and the authority to make sure that underutilized or unused public property” is developed for residential use, Del Duca said.
The Liberal leader also pledged to reinstate rent controls if his party forms the government in the June 2 election.
The Greens, Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are all pledging to build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years.
Fresh off a weekend endorsement by the Residential Construction Council of Ontario, Doug Ford's Tories touted their plan to spend $86.6 billion to build and expand roads, highways and public transit infrastructure in the next decade during a campaign stop in Bradford, north of Toronto.
The promised projects include the Hwy. 413 in Halton, Peel and York regions, and the Bradford Bypass, a new highway link between the Hwys. 400 and 404.
Speaking virtually with families of long-term care residents in Pickering, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said her government would guarantee a minimum of four hours of hands-on care per long-term care resident and ensure families are able to sue care homes by repealing legislation introduced by the PCS.
The legislation partially shields long-term care providers from liability in negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic, except in cases of gross negligence. Horwath said an NDP government would also create a “justice fund” to financially support families pursuing litigation against long-term care homes.
“We know that these big, deep-pocketed corporations have a lot of access to capital, a lot of access to money when it comes to defending against lawsuits. We need to even the playing field,” she said.
With Horwath still self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stumped for her Tuesday, making campaign stops in Brantford and London.
Saturday's violent storm intensified talk of climate change and disaster relief on the campaign trail.
Horwath and Del Duca spoke about the need for long-term climate solutions, while Ford touted electric vehicles and reducing pollution-creating highway gridlock as fixes.
“I believe in climate change, let's make that clear, and we're doing everything to prevent it by building electric vehicles, having an investment into the battery plants,” Ford said in Brampton.
Schreiner called for an immediate emergency grant to help small businesses in Ottawa and eastern Ontario struggling with power outages from the storm.