Election Promises and Costs

CBC news has a list of promises and costs at http://www.cbc.ca/ontariovotes2007/features/features-promises.htmlElection Promises
By Jennifer Wilson
CBCNews.ca | Updated Sept. 20, 2007


What the parties are promising and how much their promises will cost

Even before the writ dropped on Sept. 10, Ontario's parties had started to promise billions of dollars in spending to improve health care, education and social services across the province.

In the Liberals' 43-page platform, called Moving Forward, Together, the party promises $14.7 billion in new program spending by 2012. The party has not yet offered the full cost of its proposed tax cuts and credits. Highlights from the party's platform include funding a full-day pre-school program, cutting taxes on corporate assets and hiring 9,000 new nurses.

The Progressive Conservatives, who launched their 61-page Leadership Matters platform well before the official campaign started, offer a comparable $14.1 billion in additional annual spending by 2012 as well as tax cuts worth an additional $3.8 billion. Tory promises include funding faith-based schools, eliminating the use of 905-area tax revenues for services in the Greater Toronto Area and phasing out the controversial health-care tax by 2011.

The New Democrats rolled out their six-plank platform over the campaign's first two weeks, with plans for $16.8 billion in new program spending by 2012. The party's plans include cutting the health tax for low- and middle-income families, freezing college and university tuition fees at 2003 levels for four years and creating a program for OHIP to cover physiotherapy, optometry and chiropractic care.

The Green Party platform, Meeting our Green Obligations, focuses on electoral reform to a mixed member proportional (MMP) system, "turning back the clock" on climate change and amalgamating the Catholic and public school boards into a single, publicly funded school system.

To help keep track of the many promises flying from the platforms and the campaign trail, here are the new programs and tax cuts the four main parties have said they would implement if elected on Oct. 10. The CBC will be updating the promises and filling in the costs throughout the campaign.