Ontario Liberals 2018 Platform: Quick Reference Guide


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Economic Policy

[one_third]Jobs & Growth

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  • Invest $100 million in the Eastern Ontario Development Fund and the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund over the next 10 years, creating and retaining nearly 20,000 jobs and attracting more than $800 million in investments
  • Invest $30 million over two years to expand and enhance the Skills Advance Ontario program, which provides training for Indigenous peoples and other underrepresented groups

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Trade

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  • Introduce regulations to level the playing field in response to New York State’s Buy American legislation
  • Continue to support the forestry sector’s productivity, innovation and access to new markets through the Forestry Growth Fund

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[one_third]

Universal Basic Income

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  • Continue to evaluate the impact of a basic income in Hamilton and the surrounding area, Thunder Bay and Lindsay

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Emerging Industries

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  • Enhance supports for innovative companies as they start up and scale up, including $85 million over 10 years through the Venture Technologies Fund
  • Increase investment in the New Economy Fund by an additional $500 million over 10 years
  • Create a $50 million Transformative Technology Partnerships Fund to support innovation in AI, 5G wireless communications, advanced computing and autonomous vehicles
  • Renew a 10-year agreement with the University of Guelph that will see $700 million invested in agri-food education, research and innovation

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Healthcare Policy

[one_third]Hospitals

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  • Increase hospital funding by $822 million in 2018-19
  • Support 40 major hospital building projects
  • Create a Diabetes Centre of Excellence

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Long-Term Care

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  • Create 30,000 new long-term care beds over the next 10 years
  • Invest an additional $650 million in home care over the next three years
  • Invest an additional $15 million in 2018-19 to improve access to community-based palliative care

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[one_third]

Mental Health

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  • $2.1 billion additional investment in mental health and addiction care over the next four years
  • Expand access to free psychotherapy for up to 350,000 more people with anxiety and depression

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[one_third]

OHIP+

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  • Make more than 4,400 prescription drugs available free of charge to everyone 65 and over who is OHIP insured
  • Cover all medications on the Ontario Drug Benefit program, including drugs for cholesterol, hypertension, thyroid conditions, diabetes and asthma
  • Reimburse people for 80 per cent of prescription drug and dental costs, up to $400 for single people, $600 for couples and $700 for a family of four with two children

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Education Policy

[one_third]Schools

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  • Invest $16 billion over 10 years in new and improved schools
  • Improve access to high-speed Internet at publicly funded schools, including connecting an additional 250,000 students at 850 schools by the end of 2018 and connecting all classrooms by 2021

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[one_third]

Post-Secondary Education

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  • Invest $500 million, starting in 2020-21, to help renew college and university campuses
  • Provide students from middle-income families with thousands of dollars more in aid from the Ontario Student Assistance Program by reducing the minimum parental contribution required

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[one_third]

Primary Education

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  • Redevelop Ontario’s primary curriculum with respect to math, arts, environmental sciences, and Indigenous history

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Child Care

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  • Provide free preschool childcare to children ages two till they begin kindergarten
  • Create 100,000 new licensed child care spaces over five years
  • Create 4,500 new, culturally relevant child care spaces in First Nations communities
  • Invest $1 billion over three years to increase access to licensed child care for infants and toddlers

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[one_third]

Experiential Learning

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  • Invest $132 million over the next three years in innovative college and university programming that strengthens partnerships with employers and gives students more experiential learning opportunities
  • Increase funding of the College Equipment and Renewal Fund over the next three years from $8 million annually to $20 million a year, to ensure college students have access to modern equipment and technologies

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Infrastructure & Transit

[one_third]Housing

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  • Expand access to supportive housing by funding 2,475 additional units
  • Prohibit-above guideline rent increases in buildings with outstanding work orders related to pest control

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[one_third]Transit

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  • Invest more than $11 billion to support the building of Canada’s first high-speed rail service in the Toronto-Windsor corridor
  • Reduce fares for GTHA transit users, saving regular cross-boundary transit users approximately $720 a year
  • Support green transportation through a $140 million investment to improve cycling infrastructure
  • Reduce all GO Transit trips within Toronto to $3 per trip for PRESTO card users

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[one_third]

Infrastructure

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  • Help municipalities repair roads and bridges connecting provincial highways by increasing annual funding to the Connecting Links Program to $30 million
  • Invest $490 million over the next 10 years to repair and upgrade railway tracks, bridges and trains in Northern Ontario, through the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission
  • Increase NOHFC funding to a total of $150 million in the next three years
  • Increase Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund investments to $300 million by 2018-19 to build and renew road, bridge, water and wastewater infrastructure
  • Commit to permanent annual funding to four-lane the TransCanada highway from the Manitoba border to the Quebec border

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[one_third]

Broadband

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  • Invest an additional $500 million over three years to expand broadband connectivity in rural and northern communities

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Natural Resources & Energy

[one_third]Hydro

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  • Cut hydro bills by 25 per cent for residential consumers
  • Cut hydro bills by as much as 40 per cent to 50 per cent for people with low incomes or who live in rural and Northern communities
  • Complete the Wataynikaneyap Power Grid Connection Project, which will be the largest Indigenous-led and -owned infrastructure project in Ontario history, connecting 16 remote northern First Nation communities to the electricity grid

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[one_third]

Energy

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  • Expand access to natural gas to communities that are not currently served in Northern Ontario, which can save families up to $1,100 per year

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[one_third]

Mining

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  • As part of its $1 billion commitment, build the year-round access road to the Ring of Fire. Road construction is set to begin in 2019

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Environment

[one_third]Climate Adaptation Plan

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[two_third_last]

  • Invest $20 million over three years to launch Ontario’s Climate Change Resiliency Organization
  • Invests $2.3 billion in green infrastructure projects to help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change

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[one_third]

Environmental Protection

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  • Require online and on-label disclosure of toxic substances and chemicals in key consumer products, such as household cleaning products, baby products and cosmetics, starting in 2020
  • Work with the federal government and key stakeholders to make progress towards achieving the Aichi biodiversity target of 17% of Ontario’s lands and waters, including an initial investment of $15 million to preserve our forests, wetlands and lakes
  • Reduce plastic pollution from single-use bottles by requiring that at least 85 per cent of all bottles be recycled

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Labour Policy

[one_third]Wages & Benefits

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  • Maintain planned wage increase to $15/hour by January 1, 2019
  • Expand personal emergency leave to 10 days per calendar year
  • Increase vacation time to 3 weeks per year after five years with the same employer

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Pensions

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  • Create portable retirement plans that stay with workers between employers
  • Piloting a three-year, $65 million program to encourage Personal Support Workers who work in publicly funded home care to save for retirement through a group Tax-Free Savings Account
  • Giving the new Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario an explicit mandate to expand access to high-quality retirement plans

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