Ontario election: Here’s what the main parties are promising on five key issues

With Ontarians heading to the polls on Thursday, here’s an overview of what the Progressive Conservatives, NDP, Liberals and Greens promised on five key issues during the snap campaign.

HEALTH CARE

Progressive Conservatives:

— Spend $1.8 billion over four years to connect two million more people to primary care.

— Spend $88 million to expand the Learn and Stay grant to provide free tuition for medical students who practice family medicine in a community for at least five years. Expand medical school seats to 500 new undergraduate spots and 742 new residency positions by 2028.

— Continue building and upgrading 58,000 long-term care beds and 50 hospitals across the province.

— Spend $66 million to support 100,000 more patients access MRI and CT services annually, and connect 60,000 more patients to GI endoscopy services.

NDP:

— Spend $4.1 billion over four years to ensure every Ontarian has access to primary care, recruiting and supporting 3,500 new doctors.

— Legislate safe nurse-to-patient ratios. End reliance on private nursing agencies, and hire at least 15,000 nurses over three years at a cost of about $1.5 billion.

— Open a full-service hospital in Welland with a 24-7 emergency department and restore full services to the urgent care centres in Port Colborne and Fort Erie.

— Hire 350 doctors, including 200 family doctors, in northern Ontario and double residency positions at Northern Ontario School of Medicine University, expand locum programs and increase rates for the Northern Health Travel Grant.

— Repeal Bill 7, which allows hospitals to force discharged patients to long-term-care homes not of their choosing.

Liberals:

— Give all Ontarians access to a family doctor within four years by recruiting 3,100 family doctors.

— End hallway health care in part by paying nurses and personal support workers more and ensuring wage parity among those professions across the entire system, including in long-term care and home care, and bring nurse practitioners into the public system and ban private-pay NP clinics.

— Accelerate the integration of 1,200 qualitied and experienced internationally trained doctors.

— Cover mental health care under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan at a cost of $1 billion, to fill in the gaps of private coverage.

— Repeal Bill 7 and ensure long-term care homes are held accountable for mismanagement, non-compliance, and neglect of direct care under a four-hour minimum standard per resident, per day

Greens:

— Recruit 3,500 more doctors in Ontario so every person can have a primary care provider within three to four years, decrease administration demands on doctors, increase number of nurse practitioners by 2,500 over the next five years.

— Increase fast-tracked credential approvals for international health care workers.

— Cancel the Highway 413 project and redirect the money into ensuring everyone has a family doctor, providing equal pay for nurses, doctors and PSWs no matter the health-care setting and covering mental health care under OHIP.

— Spend $1.89 billion in hospital funding, competitive wages and nursing program expansions.

— Expand and provide start-up funding for family health teams across Ontario, including those for social workers, addictions and physiotherapy.

HOUSING

Progressive Conservatives:

— Put $50 million to support more factory-built homes and innovative home building technology.

— Remove red tape from the permitting process, use artificial intelligence to identify and implement red tape reductions, appoint a permitting and approvals czar, and develop a provincewide tool to accelerate land use planning and Building Code permit approvals.

— Add $2 billion to the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund.

NDP:

— 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 mid-rise apartments along transit corridors as of right. Limit short-term rentals such as those listed on Airbnb to primary residences. Build or acquire at least 300,000 affordable rental homes.

— End encampments and address chronic homelessness by creating 60,000 supportive housing units. Have the province pay for shelter costs instead of municipalities.

Liberals:

— Eliminate the Ontario Land Transfer Tax for first-time homebuyers, seniors who are downsizing and non-profit homebuilders. Scrap development charges on new housing and phase in rent control.

— Resolve new landlord-tenant disputes in under two months and clear the case backlog at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Establish a provincial rent bank to provide short-term, interest-free loans for tenants facing financial emergencies to prevent evictions and homelessness.

— Introduce the Better Communities Fund to help municipalities cover infrastructure costs, modernize building codes, establish a provincial catalogue of pre-approved housing designs, and create more housing near transit and arterial roads.

Greens:

— Build two million homes within urban boundaries over the next 10 years. Update applicable laws and regulations to expand zoning permissions to allow for fourplexes and four storeys as of right within existing urban boundaries, and sixplexes in cities with populations over 500,000.

— Fund the operation of 60,000 supportive housing units at a cost of $2.5 billion over four years. Impose new taxes on housing speculators, including an anti-flipping tax and a speculation tax on a third home. Offer zero interest loans of $25,000 for homeowners to add an affordable rental unit.

— Build 310,000 affordable non-profit and co-op homes, including 60,000 supportive homes.

— Reduce multi-residential building property taxes. Restrict short-term rentals to principal residences. Reinstate rent controls on all units. Place a moratorium on above-guideline rent increases.

U.S. TARIFFS

Progressive Conservatives:

— Create a $5-billion Protect Ontario Account to support major industries and workers if U.S. tariffs go through. Introduce enhanced termination and severance rights for workers affected by tariff-related layoffs and closures.

— Spend $10 billion toward support for employers through a six-month deferral of provincially administered taxes on Ontario businesses. Put $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.

— 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.

NDP:

— Implement a federal-provincial income support program, direct agencies to procure locally and create new supply chains for trade-exposed industries. Work in lockstep with the federal government to deliver the stimulus.

— Launch the “Ontario Tariff Fund,” an emergency measure providing direct payments to businesses affected by U.S. tariffs, and restart the Ontario Business Costs Rebate Program for tariff-impacted industries.

— Double the maximum amount and expand the eligibility of the Ontario Made Manufacturing Tax Credit, and extend the life of the tax credit to 10 years.

Liberals:

— 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.

— Launch an “Ontario Growth Strategy” to support business growth and attract talent, eliminate interprovincial trade barriers, exclude American companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink from procurement.

Greens:

— Create a tariff task force to negotiate trade with the U.S., create an investment tax credit, develop a Buy Ontario strategy and implement public procurement rules that support Ontario businesses.

— Create a Protect Ontario Fund for businesses disproportionately affected by tariffs, diversify trade partners and remove interprovincial trade barriers.

— Prioritize Ontario-grown food by developing local, sustainable procurement guidelines for public institutions, support supply management and Ontario farmers in trade negotiations.

AFFORDABILITY

Progressive Conservatives:

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

— Continue to increase Ontario Disability Support Program payments annually by the rate of inflation.

— Remove the minimum retail price for liquor.

— Deliver a home renovation rebate program that covers up to 30 per cent of the cost of everyday home renovation and improvement projects.

NDP:

— Freeze taxes for 98 per cent of Ontarians and double Ontario Disability Support Program benefits.

— 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.

— 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. Buy back the privately owned part.

Liberals:

— Double Ontario Disability Support Program benefits. The boost would be pegged to inflation and phased in over two years.

— Cut the middle income tax bracket by 22 per cent.

— Take HST off home heating and hydro bills, and reduce and/or eliminate personal income tax for low-income workers by indexing the Low-Income Workers Tax Credit.

— Boost annual home care funding by 25 per cent, create a tax credit for seniors’ home care, create 40,000 employment positions for young people.

Greens:

— Increase the minimum wage to $20 and index to inflation. Phase in a basic income, cut income taxes for people making under $65,000 a year and raise taxes on people in the top tax bracket.

— Introduce strict anti-gouging and collusion laws aimed at grocery corporations.

— Double Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works rates and tie future increases to inflation.

— Increase the Employer Health Tax exemption to $1.5 million for small businesses. Amend zoning rules to allow small businesses such as corner stores and cafes to open in residential neighbourhoods. Implement a Commercial Renter’s Bill of Rights to create standardized leases. Develop an affordable commercial insurance program for small businesses.

EDUCATION

Progressive Conservatives:

— Spend $705 million to expand training capacity at post-secondary institutions, including funding 20,000 new seats in STEM programs and money for in-class apprenticeship training and seats in construction and infrastructure-related programs.

— Spend $1.3 billion to build 30 new schools and 15 school expansions across Ontario to create more than 25,000 new student spaces and more than 1,600 new licensed child care spaces, as part of a $16 billion education investment since 2018.

NDP:

— Keep post-secondary tuition rates frozen for domestic students, eliminate interest from existing student loans and turn student loans into grants. Increase per-student funding by 20 per cent and tie future increases to inflation.

— Spend an additional $830 million to repair schools. Hire more school staff. Support students with disabilities. Invest in French education.

— Create a universal school food program and increase funding to the First Nations school food program. Update the student transportation funding formula.

Liberals:

— Build 90 new schools over four years. Clear the school repair backlog and install heating, air conditioning and air filtration in every classroom by doubling annual capital funding. Reintroduce one-year teaching degrees. Establish lower student-to-teacher ratios.

— Eliminate interest on Ontario Student Assistance Program loans, create 40,000 co-op positions, paid internships and apprenticeships through tax credits to companies that hire young people and make student residences more affordable.

— Raise income threshold for repayment on OSAP loans to $50,000 and to fund universities and colleges fairly. Cap international student enrolment at 10 per cent for each post-secondary institution and keep tuition frozen for domestic students.

Greens:

— Eliminate all interest on student debt and provide grants for all low- and middle-income students to cover post-secondary tuition. Increase per-student university and college funding by 20 per cent with annual increases matching inflation.

— Cap class sizes for Grades 4 to 8 to a maximum of 24 students and kindergarten to a maximum 26 students. Ensure each class is staffed with a full-time certified teacher and a designated early childhood educator. Increase per-student funding by $1,500, establish an independent review of Ontario’s education funding formula and review the formula every five years.

— Create a tuition waiver to attract students to post-secondary degree programs for field experiencing shortages. Provide 60,000 people with a year of free college tuition plus a year-long apprenticeship when they graduate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.

The Canadian Press