A running list of Ontario election promises in campaign for snap Feb. 27 vote

TORONTO — A running list of election promises announced by the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, NDP, Liberals and Greens in the province’s snap election campaign. The vote is set for Feb. 27.

Progressive Conservatives

Feb. 8 on security: Spend $50 million to expand the Ontario Provincial Police’s Joint-Air Support Unit with two new H-135 helicopters to support the Niagara Regional Police and the Windsor Police Service with increased border patrols, security and enforcement.

Feb. 7 on transportation: Build a tunnel under Highway 401 from Mississauga in the west to the Markham area in the east, at an unknown cost.

Feb. 6 on transit: Seek to build a freight rail bypass along the Highway 407 corridor in Peel Region.

Feb. 5 on affordability: Take tolls off Highway 407 East, the provincially owned portion of the highway. Permanently cut the provincial gas tax by 5.7 cents a litre, which the PC government has already done on a temporary basis since July 2022.

Feb. 4 on transit: Upload the Ottawa LRT and integrate its operations under provincial transit agency Metrolinx, taking costs off the city’s books to the tune of about $4 billion over a few decades.

Feb. 3 on tariffs: Spend $10 billion toward support for employers through a six-month deferral of provincially administered taxes on Ontario businesses and $3 billion toward payroll tax and premium relief, $600 million in a fund aimed at attracting investments, and $300 million to expand an Ontario manufacturing tax credit.

Jan. 31 on infrastructure: Spend $15 billion over three years to speed up capital projects including widening the Queen Elizabeth Way between Burlington and St. Catharines. Add $5 billion to the Building Ontario Fund. Add $2 billion to the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund. Add $300 million to the Community Sport and Recreation Fund.

Jan. 30 on electric vehicles: Commit to deals with Stellantis and Volkswagen for their battery plants regardless of what happens with U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs and rip up electric vehicle tax credits.

Jan. 30 on tariffs: Invest $1 billion in a skills development fund for autoworkers to transition to a different trade and another $100 million for an employment fund to help workers who are vulnerable to trade disputes transition to “in-demand” jobs.

Jan. 29 on infrastructure: Spend $1 billion to build a new police college. No further details were provided.

NDP

Feb. 8 on affordability: Create a monthly grocery rebate for lower- and middle-income Ontarians, linked to inflation, with a family of four able to get up to $122 per month. Create a provincial consumer watchdog office. Establish a Corporate Crime and Competition Bureau. Force large retailers to publicly post when they raise prices more than two per cent in a week.

Feb. 7 on health care: Ensure every Ontarian has access to a family doctor by recruiting and supporting 3,500 new doctors, reduce administrative burden on doctors, introduce more family health teams and shorter specialist wait times, and increase the number of internationally trained doctors, at a total cost of $4 billion.

Feb. 6 on housing: End a loophole that exempts rental units built after 2018 from rent control. Crack down on renovictions and demovictions. Allow fourplexes as of right in all neighbourhoods and allow midrise apartments along transit corridors as of right. Limit short-term rentals like AirBnB’s to primary residences. Build or acquire at least 300,000 affordable rental homes.

Feb. 5 on homelessness: End encampments and tackle chronic homelessness by creating 60,000 supportive housing units, having the province pay for shelter costs instead of municipalities and doubling social assistance rates.

Feb. 4 on education: Spend an additional $830 million to repair schools. Hire more school staff. Create a universal school food program. Support students with disabilities. Invest in French education.

Feb. 3 on tariffs: Implement a federal-provincial income support program, direct agencies to procure locally and create new supply chains for trade-exposed industries. The NDP did not say how much this would cost, only that it would work in lockstep with the federal government to deliver the stimulus.

Jan. 27 on affordability: Get rid of tolls for all drivers on Highway 407, on both the government-owned portion and the privately owned part, named the 407 ETR. The party also pledged to buy that part back.

Liberals

Feb. 8 on accountability: Appoint a special investigator to look into various plans and deals under Doug Ford, including the $612 million cost of speeding up the availability of alcohol in corner stores by one year, the sudden closure of the Ontario Science Centre and the now-reversed Greenbelt land swap, also under RCMP criminal investigation.

Feb. 5 on affordability: Double Ontario Disability Support Program benefits. The boost would be pegged to inflation and phased in over two years.

Feb. 3 on tariffs: Offer a $150,000 bonus to Canadian doctors and nurses working in the U.S. if they come back here to work, establish a “fight tariff fund” giving Ontario businesses lower interest rates, and eliminate interprovincial trade barriers. Also pledged to phase in rent control. No costing for the plan was included.

Jan. 31 on transit: Boost transit safety by hiring 300 special constables, doubling investment in mobile crisis intervention teams, giving transit services an unspecified amount of money for safety equipment such as cameras, and installing platform doors in all Toronto subway stations.

Jan. 31 on affordability: Cut middle income tax bracket by 22 per cent and take HST off home heating and hydro bills.

Jan. 30 on electric vehicles: Bring back consumer rebates for electric-vehicle purchases in an effort to help slumping sales.

Jan. 29 on health care: Give all Ontarians access to a family doctor within four years by significantly expanding the health team network and recruiting thousands of new domestically and internationally trained family doctors.

Greens

Feb. 7 on affordability: Cut income taxes for people making under $65,000 a year and raise taxes on people in the top tax bracket.

Feb. 6 on affordability: Immediately double Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works rates and tie future increases to inflation. Build 310,000 affordable non-profit and co-op homes, including 60,000 supportive homes.

Feb. 5 on agriculture: Expand business risk management programs by $150 million annually. Develop local procurement guidelines for public sector food purchases. Create an AgTech Innovation Fund for the food and farming sector. Mandate permanent protection of farmland.

Feb. 4 on local priorities: advocate for new hospitals in Huntsville and Bracebridge. Safeguard the watershed and work with Indigenous communities to conserve 30 per cent of natural areas by 2030.

Feb. 3 on housing: Allow fourplexes across the province and homes with six units in large cities, and mid-rise buildings of six to 11 storeys on transit corridors and main streets. The Greens also pledged to remove development charges on homes under 2,000 square feet and remove the land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers.

Jan. 31 on tariffs: Create a tariff task force, create an investment tax credit, develop a Buy Ontario strategy, create a Protect Ontario Fund for businesses disproportionately impacted, diversify trade partners and work to remove interprovincial trade barriers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2025.

The Canadian Press