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Promises Galore!

Posted in Featured, View Point

Published on May 27, 2022 with No Comments

Now Ontarions have less then a week to  cast their ballot in the upcoming provincial election and a lot has been promised by the parties in the contention.

Housing and healthcare have been the top two agendas for the parties, and this time, the cost of living has been a major concern as pandemic has hit the employees and business hard.

The Liberals said they would increase the minimum wage to $16 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2023 and “develop a living wage structure” that “factors different wage rates in different regions of the province.” On the agenda of “Lowering your cost of living section,” Liberals have promised to remove the provincial portion of the HST on prepared meals under $20, and help pay for it by implementing a 1 per cent surtax on corporate profit above $1 billion and increase taxes on individual incomes above $500,000.  NDP intents to lower the cost of the living by banning the postal code discrimination in auto insurance. This could make the voters in the GTA happy, but may not be in a good enough numbers to form a government. Incumbent PC party plans to bring in a legislation that would speed up approvals for all types of housing, increasing capacity at the Ontario Land Tribunal and Landlord and Tenant Board to resolve cases faster, temporarily cutting the gas and fuel taxes beginning July 1, changes to the Low‐income Individuals and Families Tax (LIFT) Credit. PC party plans to implement an average of $10-a-day child care in Ontario by September 2025 extending the Ontario Community Support program in 2022-23 which delivers means, medicine, and other items to low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities.

The NDP too has  promised to explore ways to have $10-a-day child care implemented faster, and increase the wages for child-care workers  Another area where NDP wants to focus is clean renewable energy. It intents to bring in , an energy efficient retrofit program to help homeowners and businesses with the cost of retrofitting, stop privatization and “expensive private power contracts,” and and implement measures to “make better use” of Ontario’s off-peak surplus.

Off late, the gas prices have increased concern for the drivers and business, NDP has promised to regulate gas prices. At the same time, NDP plans to ban payday loans that become “predatory”, and establish an Independent Consumer Watchdog are also in the NDP platform.

Both  NDP and Green Party promise to bring mental health care under OHIP coverage. Expansion of dental care is another agenda on focus of NDP that also plans to raise the minimum wage to $ 20 in 2026.

Green Party has never been able to go beyond two seats, this time has promised to  increase funding for home care services, and create incentives for retrofitting homes to make them easier to age in place. Increasing minimum wage being another factor crucial for making life easier for Ontarians,  Green Party said it would increase the minimum wage to $16 this year and have it increase annually by $1, with a top-up in cities where the cost of living in higher. Repealing Bill 126 and “problematic sections” of Bill 106 is also in the Green platform. They promised to establish a $25 hourly base pay for PSWs. Just like NDP, the Greens said they would prohibit payday lending.

Regarding housing, the Greens committed to freezing urban boundaries and building 1.5 million homes and 182,000 affordable community rental units, including 60,000 supportive homes over the next 10 years. They said they would clamp down on speculation and reinstate rent controls.

The parties have spelled out their vision for the voters. Now the voters have an onus to understand, analyse and most importantly walk to the voting stations and cast their vote.

 

 

 

 

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