Tories would take over and expand Toronto’s subways, election plan reveals
Patrick Brown to also reveal that Progressive Conservative government would invest $1.9 billion in mental health services and slash middle-class income taxes, the Star has learned.

TheStar.com
Nov. 24, 2017
Robert Benzie

A Progressive Conservative government would take over and expand TTC subway lines, invest $1.9 billion in mental health services and slash middle-class income taxes by 22.5 per cent, the Star has learned.

PC Leader Patrick Brown will unveil his party’s ambitious spring election plan — dubbed People’s Guarantee — in a speech to 1,500 PC delegates Saturday at the Toronto Congress Centre.

A new childcare tax benefit that will allow parents to write off more of their daycare expenses is being heralded to help families pay for soaring costs.

Sources say the 80-page platform would have the provincial government assume financial responsibility for the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway network, leaving the buses and streetcar lines to the city, if the Conservatives topple Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals on June 7.

Tories believe the uploading promise — similar to one made by former PC leader Tim Hudak in the 2014 election — will be more popular with voters now that the subway extends into Vaughan and has become more of a regional transportation utility.

With direct provincial control, a PC administration could expedite the TTC’s planned downtown relief line along Carlaw Ave., ensure completion of the controversial Scarborough subway and extend the Yonge line to Richmond Hill.

Brown will announce an additional $1.9 billion for mental health initiatives over the next decade to match the federal funding announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in March.

There would be more money for autism services, an expansion of subsidized dental care for senior citizens and a promise of 15,000 new long-term care home beds.

In a salvo at Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals, in power since 2003, there will be a new Stephen Harper-influenced provincial accountability act to improve conflict-of-interest rules and boost transparency and oversight at Queen’s Park.

Because the Tories believe the Liberals are concealing a budget deficit, they will not balance the books of a Brown government until the second year of their mandate.

Once back in the black, they plan to earmark $1 billion toward paying down Ontario’s $311.9-billion provincial debt.

The Tories asked Kevin Page, the former federal parliamentary budget officer who is now with the University of Ottawa, to check their numbers in the People’s Guarantee.

“We did check the numbers for reasonableness — methodology and assumptions. We will provide this service to all parties if requested. We ask for no remuneration for this service,” said Page.

While declining to discuss specifics until Saturday, Brown promised tax relief for Ontarians.

“Right now, middle-class families feel beleaguered, under attack. There’s an affordability crisis, and that’s whether you live in Kenora or Ajax,” he told the Star.

“You’re struggling to be able to afford a home, pay your hydro bill, dealing with the ever-increasing tax burden in Ontario.”

To that end, there will be significant cuts in income taxes for the two lowest tax brackets.

There will be a 10 per cent cut in the provincial tax rate paid on the first $42,201 of taxable income. In 2017, that rate was 5.05 per cent, which would drop to around 4.5 per cent under the Tory plan.

The tax rate on the next $42,203 of taxable income — meaning it would include those making up to $84,405 a year — would drop to about 7.1 per cent from the current 9.15 per cent.

That’s a 22.5 per cent reduction.

As well, there’s a further cut in the small-business income tax rate, which the Liberals are reducing to 3.5 per cent from 4.5 per cent in January. The Tory rate would be closer to 3.2 per cent.

Conservative insiders — declining to speak for attribution in order to discuss internal deliberations — said the cuts would be bankrolled by cancelling the Liberals’ cap-and-trade program that increased gasoline and natural gas prices.

The measure, which ties Ontario’s greenhouse gas emission reduction program to Quebec and California, brings in about $2 billion annually.

To curb climate change, the Tories would implement Trudeau’s federal carbon tax of $10 a tonne starting next year, increasing to $50 by 2022.

Brown said the policies were developed by grassroots Tories who voted on 139 resolutions submitted online from across the province instead of “top-down-inside-the-bubble” from Queen’s Park.

“The resolutions that were adopted formed the basis of our platform and what I like about these policies is that I start from the position that there’s no monopoly on a good idea. We had roundtables in every part of the province, listening to how can you get Ontario back on track.”

There will be about 1,500 delegates, who each paid $199 to participate, at Saturday’s convention.

“It has been the biggest, widest, deepest policy consultation process in any provincial party’s history,” said PC convention co-chair Kevin Gaudet.

Gaudet noted there were 17 policy committees across the province, and some 400 people volunteered their time in person.

With voters headed to the polls in six months — and public-opinion surveys showing the Conservatives enjoying a narrow lead over the Liberals — Tories are eager to take their ideas to Ontarians.

That’s why they are releasing their plans to govern so far in advance.