Ontario's tax system will shift so residents pay "for what you burn, not for what you earn" if the Green party is elected on Oct. 10, leader Frank de Jong promised as he unveiled his platform Thursday.
Income taxes and the Ontario health tax would fall, while fuel and resource taxes would go up under the plan, de Jong said after arriving by bicycle at a news conference at Queen's Park in Toronto.
"When other parties say that it's time for change, they mean that it's their turn to be in power and do what they usually do," de Jong said in a statement released after the news conference. "When the Green party says it is time for change, we mean that it is time for this province to change fundamentally the way it does business."
That can be done without spending more money, by shifting priorities, taxes and spending, the party says.
De Jong, a teacher, also targeted hot campaign issues such as faith-based education. He said his party would take the opposite approach to the Conservatives, who plan to extend public funding from Catholic schools to all religious schools.
"We talk about merging the Catholic board with the public board, and encouraging all the children in Ontario to learn together, to learn to empathize with each other, to play together and to live in social harmony," de Jong said. "And that will happen only when Ontario ends faith-based education."
The Green election platform extends far beyond protecting the environment into issues that are "inextricably linked" to it such as education, health, agriculture and northern development, de Jong said.
In the area of taxes, the party promises to:
- Cut personal income taxes by $5.7 billion over four years by boosting the basic personal exemption from $8,377 to $11,000.
- Cut corporate income taxes by $1 billion over 4 years without affecting tax revenues by shifting taxes from profits to resource use.
- Phase out the Ontario health tax introduce by Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government.
- Introduce a 2-per-cent carbon tax on oil, natural gas and coal imported or extracted for use in the province.
- Replace the existing property tax system with a "location value tax" based only on land and not building values, to encourage denser growth in urban areas.
In other policy areas such as education and health, it plans to:
- Merge Catholic and public schools into a single, publicly funded education system and introduce a mandatory world religion course.
- Cap university tuition at an average of $3,000 a year and college tuition at an average of $700 per year.
- Cap the amount of fresh water that water bottlers and industrial water users can take, and tax water use at $100 per million litres to encourage conservation.
- Ban the construction and refurbishment of nuclear reactors and phase out coal-fired power plants by 2009 if consumers can reduce electricity use by 20 per cent through conservation and energy efficiency programs.
- Adopt "California-style" emission standards for new cars, light trucks and SUVs by 2012, provide an additional $2,000 over the federal government's existing sales tax rebate on the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles, and add an additional $2,000 levy on inefficient vehicles.
- Lower the voting age to 16.
- Boost the minimum wage to $10.25 by June 2008 and ban unpaid overtime.
- Provide a $1,000 health care allowance to low-income residents.
- Spend $10 million to help farmers switch to organic farming.
- Boost provincial spending on northern communities, including $90 million for health, $180 million for economic development and $25 million for transportation.
- Encourage homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient by boosting the provincial grant for that purpose from $5,000 to $10,000.
- Encourage municipal green building projects through a $500-million grant program.
- Spend $100 million to compensate farmers who preserve wildlife habitat such as wetlands instead of farming it.
Phase in a province-wide ban on the cosmetic use of synthetic pesticides.
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Ontario Votes 2007 »
- McGuinty wins massive majority, Tory loses seat
- Dalton McGuinty won a second majority government for the Liberals in Ontario on Wednesday night, a triumph for a party that earlier expressed fears of a drop to minority status.
- Ontario rejects electoral reform in referendum
- Ontario voters have rejected a proposed electoral reform that would have seen some provincial legislators chosen based on a party's share of the popular vote, results showed Thursday.
- Ontario voter turnout a record low
- The percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in Wednesday's Ontario election hit an all-time low despite changes introduced in an effort to boost turnout.
- Ont. Green party scores 8 per cent of vote
- No Green party candidates made it to the Ontario legislature in Wednesday's election, but that defeat was sweetened by a swell in their share of the popular vote, which more than doubled.
- McGuinty only leader not facing leadership questions
- Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty won re-election in Ottawa South and NDP Leader Howard Hampton again won his northern Ontario riding of Kenora-Rainy River. PC Leader John Tory was defeated.
District Profiles
More Ontario Votes Headlines »
- McGuinty wins massive majority, Tory loses seat
- Dalton McGuinty won a second majority government for the Liberals in Ontario on Wednesday night, a triumph for a party that earlier expressed fears of a drop to minority status.
- Ontario rejects electoral reform in referendum
- Ontario voters have rejected a proposed electoral reform that would have seen some provincial legislators chosen based on a party's share of the popular vote, results showed Thursday.
- Ontario voter turnout a record low
- The percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in Wednesday's Ontario election hit an all-time low despite changes introduced in an effort to boost turnout.
- Ont. Green party scores 8 per cent of vote
- No Green party candidates made it to the Ontario legislature in Wednesday's election, but that defeat was sweetened by a swell in their share of the popular vote, which more than doubled.
- McGuinty only leader not facing leadership questions
- Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty won re-election in Ottawa South and NDP Leader Howard Hampton again won his northern Ontario riding of Kenora-Rainy River. PC Leader John Tory was defeated.
