During the federal election Annie at PhD in Parenting had great coverage of the party platforms. I decided to review the PC, NDP, Liberal and Green party platforms for the provincial election. I will mostly focus on their commitments to the environment, green energy, transportation, food and healthcare but I will also give the top highlights of other parts of their platforms. I also interviewed candidates from across the Province and will post their perspectives on their parties platforms.
The Progressive Conservative platform is called the Change Book and it outlines their commitment to health care, education, taxes, business, transparency in government and the environment.
The Environment
* 100% of hunting and fishing license revenue will be dedicated to conservation
* Investment of $10 million in Ontario Parks to make them even more enjoyable and accessible
* Increase funding to expand land acquisition for the Bruce Trail
* Cancellation of the eco taxes on items like batteries and light bulbs
Energy
* Complete the closure of coal powered plants by 2014. Use sites for natural gas or biomass
* Focus on natural gas, hydroelectric, and nuclear for power generation
* Remove the provincial portion of the HST on hydro and the cost of home heating
* Unplug mandatory smart meters and allow families to decide if they want time-of-use pricing
Food
* Implement a Buy Ontario food policy
Transportation
* Invest more than $35 billion to pay for new infrastructure (transit and transportation)
Health Care
* Eliminate the 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs)
* Make ER wait times available in real time through Telehealth and online
* Increase annual investments in health care by more than $6 billion by the end of the first term
Addition Commitments include
* Continue to roll out full day daycare
* Reduce business tax to 10%
* Lowering income taxes by 5% on the first $75,000 of taxable income
* Change the tax system to allow all couples to share up to $50,000 of their income
* End the foreign scholarship program and reinvest those funds in Ontario students instead
* Create up to 60,000 post-secondary spaces in Ontario
I reached out to several PC candidates for interviews and did not hear back from any of them so I am unable to provide their perspective on the Change Book.
What do you think about the PC platform? Have you read the Change Book? What are your thoughts?
My biggest questions/concerns are where will they generate all the money they are cutting through the proposed tax cuts (HST, eco-tax, corporate taxes, income tax etc) and why are they continuing to invest in nuclear power? There also was no mention of funding or support for midwives.
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about where they stand on education. Historically, my union has not gotten along with Conservative governments.
ReplyDeleteI'm concerned about an anti-HST stance, too. I know that most people don't like the HST, but from the government's standpoint, it eliminates redundancy in administering the tax and cuts their expenses, which saves us money in the long run. But I could be misinformed about that.
It looks like they are going to pump lots of money into schools. $2 billion into K-12 by the end of the first term. No clue where that money will come from though?
ReplyDeleteThey also plan to allow teachers to ban cell phones, teach phonics, give out marks free from pressure to inflate grades. They also plan to reinstate the fall report card for elementary students.
Do any of those things ease your concerns with education? For me it just raises more questions
I just don't see how they will cut the HST. I would want to see exactly how it will happen and where they will make up the money.
This platforms concerns me greatly. I know none of us like taxes easpecially ones people dont understand but HST and the eco tax are already here so why decrease them or get rid of them. People are already use to them. Also how will you get money to put into these projects without taxes. Oh right is two years they would have to create there own tax.
ReplyDeleteThe HST isn't going anywhere (anyone remember when the GST came in and it was supposed to be scraped as soon as the Conservatives were kicked out of power)
ReplyDeleteLets be honest if they are going to do all kinds of tax cuts (which everyone wants to hear) all that means is they have to cut services to make up the short fall...either that or they have to run a giant deficit which is partly the reason why we have some of the McGuinty taxes (Health) that we have now. The Mike Harris Years left Ontario in such a huge hole financially
PS
This is not an anti PC Rant:-)
They outline some spending in their Change Book. Specifically for education and healthcare but they don't indicate where the billions of dollars will be coming from considering the massive tax cuts they are proposing.
ReplyDeleteThey do however generalize that they will get rid of OPA and LHIN's and that they will have a small government so I can see that freeing up some money but the question I would have is how much and does it equal the net loss of tax income.
The right to ban cell phones seems like a strange thing to promise. I already don't allow cell phones in my classroom. Am I supposed to be asking McGuinty permission to do that?
ReplyDeleteI hate, hate, HATE the idea of reinstating the fall report card. I have no worthwhile evidence to evaluate a kid I've known for a couple of months beyond "He's doing well" or "She's not doing well."
I wonder what the specifics are of the plan to remove the pressure to inflate grades. Would they scrap EQAO testing? Or ban parents from phoning me to complain?
I wonder if certain school boards do not allow teachers to ban students from doing things (like using cell phones)?
ReplyDeleteThe Change Book doesn't go into an detail about you being free from pressure to inflate grades. Was there ever funding based on grades or something like that?
love the unplug smart meters and "allow" families to want time of use pricing. kind of like how families wanted the two taxes joined together into the hst. sounds like a nice way to say they will implement it anyways.
ReplyDelete