Ontario Greens unveil platform, pledge to build 2 million homes, cut taxes

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The Green Party of Ontario will build two million homes in a decade, cut taxes for low- and middle-income earners and create a “foodbelt” to protect farmland if it wins the election, Leader Mike Schreiner pledged Wednesday as he released the party’s platform.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, meanwhile, promised to end hospital hallway health care in part by paying nurses and personal support workers more and ensuring wage parity across the entire system.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford remains in Washington, D.C., in his capacity as Ontario premier as he attempts to head off looming U.S. tariffs, while NDP Leader Marit Stiles had no public events Wednesday.

The Greens are the first party to release a fully costed platform. The NDP and Liberals said they will release costed platforms soon while the Progressive Conservatives committed to releasing their plan in the coming days, though it wasn’t clear if it will be costed.

Schreiner said he would legalize fourplexes across the province and mid-rise residential buildings six to 11 storeys tall in larger cities. He would also cut taxes for those earning less than $65,000 or households earning less than $100,000 and double the rates of both the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works.

“Our plan addresses the fairness that we need to build affordable homes and protect renters, to bring fairness back to our health care and education systems, to protect the prime farmland that feeds us and lower your energy bills and reduce climate pollution,” Schreiner said at a campaign stop in Toronto.

Earlier Wednesday, Crombie said her party would address a long-standing issue in health care: Pay parity.

“It shouldn’t matter where that nurse or where that PSW is employed,” Crombie said. “Whether they are in the community in a long-term care facility or in the hospital, there should be parity in their wages.”

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the problem of unequal pay among nurses and personal support workers. Generally, hospitals paid nurses and PSWs more than long-term care homes, which in turn paid more than home-care services.

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The lack of pay parity played a major role in nursing home staffing shortages during the pandemic, Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission concluded.

“Financial disparity between sectors of the health-care system leads to the needless movement of staff who understandably are looking for greater and more stable income,” wrote Justice Frank Marrocco, who led the commission.

“This cannibalization of one sector’s workforce for another’s does nothing to improve the lives of those needing care. To ensure sufficient staffing for all sectors, the income disparity across the health-care sector must be addressed.”

Ford has justified calling the snap election set for Feb. 27 by saying he needs an even bigger mandate to deal with four years of U.S. President Donald Trump. Opposition parties have all said the election is a waste of time and money and done for personal gain with Ford ahead in the polls and to get ahead of an RCMP investigation into the Greenbelt land-swap scandal.

The budget for the election is $189 million.

— With files from Sharif Hassan.