A comprehensive breakdown of party platforms on education, health care, the economy and environment.EducationHealth CareEconomyEnvironmentProgressive Conservative PartyProvide short-term help to schools in financial trouble; review financial needs every year to deal with crisis situations; limit the homework burden on young children to the recommended 10 minutes per grade level; provide healthy exercise and food to fight obesity; invest in special education and ESL funding; bring faith-based schools into the public system. Increase health-care spending by $8.5 billion; modernize health-care facilities; increase the number of doctors in Ontario and bring more health care professionals into family health teams; commitment to 70 per cent full-time employment for registered nurses in all sectors by 2010; expand enrollment in medical schools and defer loan payments for graduate students in medical school.Introduce a “smart regulation” system; streamline infrastructure funding for both urban and rural municipalities for better long-term planning; replace higher taxes by finding efficiencies
and savings. Increase annual environment expenditures from $325 million in 2007-08 to $465 million by the fourth year of a PC Government, an increase of over 40 per cent; reduce greenhouse gases in Ontario by setting strong short- and long-term targets for the province—10 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 60 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.Family Coalition Party
Encourage an education system that allows children to develop physical, intellectual and moral qualities; propose a fixed rate for student-loan repayment greater than the Bank of Canada prime rate; give parents “Child Education Cheques” to pay for schools; eliminate sexual education programs that refer to “deviant” sexual practices (“sodomy, lesbianism, transvestitisms, trans-sexualism, sado-masochism, bestiality, polygamy…”)
Introduce a Medical Savings Account system in Ontario, setting aside $2,000 each year per adult in Ontario, to be used when necessary; increase support for pregnant women and health care coverage for children in the womb. Reform tax laws so as not to discriminate against married couples who choose to have one parent stay home to raise children; encourage a free-enterprise economy. Encourage industries to reduce waste through government incentives and penalties; ban the production, use, transportation, sale and disposal of “persistent toxic chemicals” that damage the environment and pose a health risk; waive the provincial sales tax on new vehicles being converted to natural gas.Freedom PartyIntroduce a direct-pay system for schools instead of funding them through taxes; offer voluntary yearly testing of children to ensure they’re on track with the curriculum; publish an annual report of each school’s average test score. Legalize the purchase of private health-care insurance and control the prices of health-care services provided by the government; pay as you go health care; legalize non-profit and for-profit health care facilities for diagnostic procedures or simple nursing or paramedic procedures to shorten wait times in hospitals.Eliminate income and property taxes; convert PST into a broader-based value-added tax and lower the PST rate; allow municipalities to add a municipal premium to the PST in their jurisdictions. Remove regulatory roadblocks to facilitate off-grid and on-grid power generation such as wind turbines and solar cells by home-owners, business owners and other consumers.Green Party End funding for religious schools in Ontario, but introduce a mandatory world religion course in all grades; increase physical education and nutrition programs; provide funds to cap university tuition at a $3,000 yearly average and college tuition at $700; re-regulate deregulated undergraduate university programs; improve apprenticeship opportunities; reinvest interest on student loans.Provide Ontarians in the lowest 75th percentile of income with an additional health-care allowance of $1,000; increase the budget of the Ministry of Health Promotion; increase support for multidisciplinary clinics; legislate full and open disclosure of all public-private partnership agreements.Phase out the Ontario health premium tax through a revenue-neutral tax shift; raise the personal tax exemption to $11,000; reduce corporate income taxes through a revenue-neutral tax shift; apply a two per cent carbon tax on oil, natural gas and coal imported or extracted for use in Ontario; establish a sustainable business development program for northern and rural communities.Increase fines to pay for increased enforcement of existing environmental legislation; freeze urban boundaries around municipalities and allow new construction only on land already zoned as urban; implement deposit-return systems for more products; invest in conservation and demand-management programs.Liberal PartyIncrease funding provincially: $150-million “Every Student Fund” for students in Grades 4 to 8 to minimize funding gaps for elementary students; $300 textbook and technology grant for post-secondary students; increase new apprenticeships by 25 per cent.
Ban trans fats from school cafeterias and prescribe a healthier menu and fitness program to combat childhood obesity; increase the number of family doctors and nurses, including 50 more Family Health Teams in rural and northern Ontario.Expand the “Next Generation Jobs” fund to $1.15 billion to support job creation in areas of Ontario; increase support for the “Innovation Demonstration” fund to create jobs in Ontario; increase the rural economic development fund by 50 per cent; increase funding for the Northern Heritage Fund to $100 million per year. Institute the province’s first long-term energy plan; improve rapid transit throughout the province; provide rebates and tax incentives for buying energy-efficient appliances; ban the cosmetic use of pesticides across the province.New Democratic PartyCarry out an annual public review of funding formula; restore the “Local Priorities Grant” to give $200 per student for school essentials such as textbooks; fund services in classrooms to give children with autism and special needs more support; roll back university and college tuition fees and then freeze tuition; eliminate classroom fees for apprenticeship programs. Certify internationally trained doctors to practice in Ontario; expand home care and guarantee a daily minimum of three and a half hours of personal care in long-term care homes, emergency rooms and family caregivers; provide a health tax rebate to individuals earning less than $80,000 a year.Keep property taxes down and freeze transit fares; investing $40 million to ensure safe and fair workplaces; commit an additional $125 million for a Jobs Commissioner’s office. Energy efficiency and conservation incentives, loans and grants for home retrofits; require manufacturers to label products that have known or suspected toxins; establish a right-to-know law that ensures families know what environmental hazards are in food, air, ground and water; shut down the Nanticoke coal plant by 2011.
—Compiled by Jane Switzer and Lisa Jemison
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