An NDP government would free up $600 million from Ontario municipal budgets next year if elected this fall by paying many of the costs that cities currently cover, said party leader Howard Hampton.

The NDP package would cover half the cost of operating public transit and that subsidy would be used in part to pay for a two-year freeze on transit fares, which would be worth $220 million next year, Hampton announced Tuesday.

Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton has promised a two-year freeze on transit fares and a provincial takeover of funding for other municipal responsibilities.
(Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

The package would also cover a greater share of many other programs whose costs are shared between provincial and municipal governments, he said.

In addition, an NDP government would stop downloading the cost of disability support and drug benefits to municipalities, said Hampton, who accused the province of failing to honour its cost-sharing and funding agreements with its cities.

The announcements followed Hampton's promise on Monday that his government would take over the costs of court security.

When asked about the details of the transit subsidy, Hampton acknowledged that it wouldn't necessarily improve transit.

"That's something we would have to sit down and look at with municipalities, in terms of their plan and where they want to go," he said.

One of Hampton's aides said the entire municipal uploading package would be worth almost $1.5 billion a year by 2011, when it would save Toronto alone $400 million.

Hampton would not say where the government would get the money or whether one source would be a provincial tax hike, but promised to lay out a more detailed plan before the election on Oct. 10.

With files from the Canadian Press