Ontario NDP, Liberals release election platforms, promise billions in new spending

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles (left) and Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie are seen in this composite image. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO — Ontario's NDP and Liberals are both pledging tens of billions of dollars in new spending to pay for their campaign promises, but are taking different approaches to the other side of the ledger, with the NDP proposing wealth taxes and the Liberals eyeing "efficiencies."

The two parties released their full platforms Friday with less than a week to go until next Thursday's election, and the Progressive Conservatives are set to release theirs on Monday. The Greens put out their platform on Feb. 12.

The NDP platform promises $70 billion in new spending over three years along with $37 billion in new revenue and savings, including tax increases.

The party estimates that new tax brackets for those earning $300,000, $400,000 and $500,000 a year would bring in about $3 billion per year.

It also says increasing the amount of capital gains subject to tax from 50 per cent to 80 per cent would bring in about $3.5 billion per year, and increasing the provincial land transfer tax rate on homes purchased for $3 million or more would see $33 million a year in revenue.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles had already announced the bulk of the party's promises ahead of the platform release, including a monthly grocery rebate, connecting everyone to a family doctor, establishing a public builder for 300,000 affordable homes and creating a universal school food program.

The NDP would put $10.5 billion over three years into public health – including their promise to attach everyone to team-based primary care. Their home-building plan would cost $7.5 billion over three years and their grocery rebate would cost $11 billion over that time.

Doubling disability support payments and Ontario Works payments would cost nearly $23 billion over three years. Spending on education would increase by $13 billion over three years, not including spending $830 million per year to address a school maintenance backlog. And a group of promises to increase transit funding, implement a caregiver benefit, eliminate hospital parking fees and reduce home heating costs would add up to $4.8 billion over three years.

Stiles wrote in a press release accompanying the platform that it's her plan for a better Ontario.

"As premier, I will fight against rising costs, freeze taxes, hire doctors, build homes you can afford and fix local schools," she wrote. "I'll lead a government that will always be on your side."

Ontario's Liberals are promising $65 billion in new spending over four years, along with finding more than $28 billion in efficiencies, in a platform they say contains no new taxes or tax increases.

Crombie also highlighted some previously unannounced promises on education in the platform, including building 90 new schools, establishing a lower student-to-teacher ratio and shortening teachers' college programs to one year to alleviate the teacher shortage.

"Our school system used to be the envy of the world, our elementary, our post-secondary, and it's really failed over the last seven years under Doug Ford," Crombie said.

"We see our classrooms overcrowded, our schools crumbling. Our young people are spilling out into portables."

Crombie also said she would consider lifting a school closure moratorium, "if it makes more sense to close a school and build another one elsewhere."

The Liberal platform estimates that their health-care promises, including attaching every Ontarian to a family doctor, would cost $29 billion over four years. A group of promises including home building, responding to tariffs and implementing tax cuts are costed at $26 billion over four years, though a more specific breakdown was not available.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is in Washington, D.C., for the second time during this election campaign for another round of meetings to push back against U.S. tariff threats.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2025.

Allison Jones and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press