Many campaign promises are made, but will they be kept?

All campaign promises from the Progressive Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, and the New Democratic Party for the Ontario 2022 general election

The 2022 Election will be held on June 2, and Progressive Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, and the New Democratic Party have announced different campaign promises. We have rounded up all the pledges made by the three parties so far for a quick look.

Liberal Party

• A four-day workweek plan.
• Suspend corporate taxes on small businesses for two years.
• Ten days of paid sick leave.
• Raise the minimum wage to $16 by January 2023.
• Provide pre – and after-school care for $10 a day.
• Enact a handgun ban within the first year of being elected.
• $10 million in grants for black entrepreneurs and small businesses and regular police training in anti-racism and cultural sensitivity.
• Plant 800 million trees.
• Expand access to drugs to prevent HIV transmission and reduce surgical barriers to gender confirmation.
• Increase Old Age Security payments for low-income seniors by an additional $1,000 a year.
• Raise base pay for personal support workers to $25 an hour, and raise income for health care workers.
• Build 30,000 long-term care beds, reopen 28,000 existing spaces, and increase the senior security tax credit.
• Eliminate provincial HST for all prepared foods under $20.
• Transportation is free for veterans, and bus fares are cut to $1 per line across Ontario and $40 for a monthly pass.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and zero by 2050.
• Invest $10 billion to build and maintain schools across Ontario.
• New natural-gas plants are banned, and electric car rebates and grants for home retrofit renovation are offered.

New Democratic Party

• Expand OHIP coverage to include universal mental health care and prescription contraception.
• Develop a universal drug care plan.
• Ensure a minimum wage of $25 an hour for early childhood educators and $20 an hour for other child care program workers.
• Hire 20,000 teachers and eliminate the requirement that high school graduates take two online courses.
• Impose an additional vacancy tax of 2 percent per year on speculators who own non-residential homes.
• Employ 10,000 personal support workers.
• Employ 30,000 nurses and fast-track the accreditation of 15,000 internationally trained nurses.
• Establish a caregiver benefits program and provide $400 support to informal caregivers.
• Reinstate rent control for all apartments.
• Plant 1 billion trees by 2030. A Youth Climate Corps will also be established to provide young residents with access to relevant knowledge and training.
• A four-year tax freeze for low- and middle-income families.
• Pass the Our London Family Act immediately to combat Islamophobia and hate.
• Adjust natural gas prices.
• Increase renewable resources such as wind and solar, increase hydropower capacity, and improve grid-scale storage.
• Eliminate user fees for patients and families from every part of the health care system.
• Provide for ten permanent personal emergency leave days.
• Raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2026 will increase by $1 a year.
• Build 100,000 homes and renovate 260,000 over the next decade.
• Appoint an anti-racism minister to the provincial agency.
• Eliminate student loan interest and restore the free tuition program.
• Increase Ontario’s work and disability program rates by 20 percent.
• Introduce an energy-efficient building retrofit plan.
• Up to $10,000 for zero-emission vehicles.
• Prohibit non-medical single-use plastics by 2024.
• Reform lobbyist legislation to allow public reporting of lobbyist meetings.
• Repeal section 124 of the limits of public sector compensation increase.

Progressive Conservative Party

• Revise Workplace Safety and Insurance Act rates to increase compensation for injured workers. Move the headquarters of WSIB, the provincial body that provides support and insurance for injured workers, to London to reduce costs.
• Invest $114.4 million in Skilled Trades Strategy and $268.5 million in Employment Ontario over three years.
• Move some provincial agencies out of Toronto to save costs and bring jobs to other areas.
• Invest $1 billion over three years to expand home care.
• Invest $87 million to Toronto police over three years to combat gun and gang violence.
• Develop Ontario’s critical minerals as part of clean steel, batteries, and hybrid and electric vehicles exported from Ontario to the world.
• Invest $158.8 billion over ten years for highways, transport, and hospitals.
• Invest $4 billion over three years to support high-speed Internet in Ontario.
• Abolish the tax credit limit when a book is printed for more than 500 copies.
• Invest $15.1 million over three years to improve and expand the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program.
• Tax relief for low-income people and the elderly.
• Provide consumers with more options to purchase auto insurance.
• Balance the budget in 2027-2028.

Many parties promise many things during election campaigns, but they may not keep their promises if they are elected. The public should weigh not only the party’s promises but also its leaders’ and the party’s implementation of previous pledges. With mail-in and early voting now open for the 2022 Election, everyone’s vote is important for partisan contests, and we encourage people to vote actively.