A Plan for a Fair and Productive Economy
Nate's Vision
As Premier, Nate Erskine-Smith will deliver inclusive and sustainable growth for our labour force.
Ontario should be a place of opportunity, with a productive and fair economy. We will deliver inclusive and sustainable growth by investing in integrated infrastructure, innovation, a clean economy, and a skilled and healthy workforce.
The Ford government makes decisions in its short-term electoral interest or for the benefit of its friends. We deserve serious leadership that prioritizes our long-term public interest, supporting economic prosperity for rural and urban communities alike, and building lasting social progress on a fiscally sustainable footing.
Nate's Plan:
To support a productive and fair economy, Nate’s plan will deliver:
- Modern transit, housing, and integrated infrastructure: we will get housing built, deliver more effective and efficient transit projects, and build integrated infrastructure in rural and Northern communities to enable greater opportunity.
- Clean growth and sustainable jobs: the transition will happen with or without us, and we will seize the opportunity to attract global investment and create good jobs.
- Innovation and entrepreneurship: we will expand digitization, prioritize productivity with investments in R&D and training, and improve the commercialization of research through a dedicated strategy for industry and PSE collaboration.
- A better deal for workers and a skilled and healthy labour force: Ontario should be an affordable place to live with world-class public services, alongside stronger labour protections and a skilled workforce.
- Strong consumer protections: we will improve transparency and competition in digital markets, and keep more of Ontarians’ hard-earned money in their pockets.
- Fair and sustainable fiscal planning: we will maintain a serious commitment to fiscal sustainability, and ensure the benefits of growth are fairly distributed.
BACKGROUNDER
Ontario should be a place of opportunity, with a productive and fair economy.
To deliver inclusive and sustainable growth, we will invest in infrastructure, innovation, and a clean economy. We will also support workers and improve well-being through strong public healthcare and education systems.
The Ford government is incompetent, chaotic, and makes short-term decisions in its own electoral interest or for the benefit of its friends.
We deserve a serious government that will make long-term decisions in our collective public interest, supporting economic prosperity and building lasting social progress on a fiscally sustainable footing.
To support a productive and fair economy, we will deliver:
- Modern transit, housing, and integrated infrastructure: we will get housing built, deliver more effective and efficient transit projects, and build integrated infrastructure in rural and Northern communities to enable greater opportunity.
- Clean growth and sustainable jobs: the clean transition will happen with or without us, and we will seize the opportunity to attract global investment and create good jobs.
- Innovation and entrepreneurship: we will expand digitization, prioritize productivity with investments in R&D and training, and improve the commercialization of research through a dedicated strategy for industry and PSE collaboration.
- A better deal for workers and a strong labour force: we will focus on making Ontario an affordable place to live with world-class public services, alongside stronger labour protections and support for workers.
- Strong consumer protections: we will improve transparency and competition in digital markets, while keeping more of Ontarians’ hard-earned money in their pockets.
- Fair and sustainable fiscal planning: we will maintain a serious commitment to fiscal sustainability and ensure the benefits of growth are fairly distributed.
1. BUILD MODERN TRANSIT, HOUSING, AND INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE
We cannot afford to wait years or decades to build a province that effectively moves people, houses people and helps businesses succeed. We need to invest today.
Ford’s infrastructure plans are inefficient and those same dollars could be put to more productive uses.
A. Build clean, affordable, and reliable transportation networks
- Design long-term regional transit action plans to better connect municipalities, accommodate growth, and improve labour mobility. See Appendix A for a non-exhaustive list of projects across the province
- Ensure Ontario’s Building Code is updated to reflect the latest in energy efficiencies and construction materials and techniques.
- Support transit operations, maintenance, and improve service quality through increased provincial funding and consideration of new revenue tools.
- Restructure Metrolinx to integrate transit and housing strategies in partnership with the Ontario Housing Authority, and to prioritize transit operations and efficiency of $/km costs in procurement.
- Support active transportation and update the Ontario Cycling Strategy.
- Improve ZEV charging infrastructure and introduce a budget-neutral rebate for EVs.
B. Build housing to keep pace with population growth
Housing affordability is a critical productivity issue as the affordability crisis pushes young workers and families out of our province. We will end all barriers to smart and sustainable growth and get both market and non-market housing built.
You can read more about our ambitious housing plan here, including the creation of the Ontario Housing Authority to help acquire and build non-market homes.
C. Build growth-enabling and integrated infrastructure
- Invest in clean energy generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure to foster sustained growth, enhance resilience, and reduce electricity costs.
- Enhance wireless and internet connectivity across Ontario to close all remaining gaps, including satellite connectivity in remote areas and along major highways.
- Improve the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund by providing increased and stable overall funding for rural and Northern municipalities.
- Leverage Ontario’s position as a global financial services hub and explore ways to maximize the role that public pension plans play in building Ontario’s infrastructure, learning lessons from Quebec.
2. DELIVER CLEAN GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE JOBS
A. Strengthen Ontario’s rural economy to adapt to a changing climate
Climate change presents both a threat and an opportunity for Ontario’s farmers. We will:
- Protect agricultural land, including through a responsible land use policy that prevents sprawl, and work with farmers and conservation trusts to preserve farmland.
- Support agri-food innovation to help farmers gain additional markets and grow the agri-food sector. Facilitate a “Grow Ontario” focus to assist farm producers to sell locally, and enhance programs to help farmers increase productivity, including to adapt to longer growing seasons, advance climate smart practices, and develop crops more resilient to adverse weather.
B. A clean industrial plan to establish Ontario as a responsible global leader in critical minerals, clean manufacturing, and clean technologies
We are committed to an ambitious clean economy plan to ensure Ontario remains competitive through the global transition.
We will invest in homegrown clean technology and a moonshot fund for seed and early stage capital, take a responsible approach to critical minerals by empowering Indigenous communities, and advance a sustainable jobs plan through work to make Ontario a centre for clean jobs training and support for impacted workers.
You can read more about our climate and clean economy plan here.
3. ENCOURAGE INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
A. Create, commercialize and retain made-in-Ontario intellectual property:
- Use Ontario’s $30 billion procurement budget to catalyze sustainable and home-grown business.
- Translate knowledge into commercialization by supporting early-stage companies, encouraging IP generation and tech adoption through IP Ontario and industry-PSE collaboration, and supporting young entrepreneurs through campus accelerators.
- Mandate better data collection and impact assessment of Ontario’’s innovation and investment systems, through the Ontario Centre for Innovation.
B. Enhance productivity, expand digitization, and reduce red tape
- Expand Ontario’s Digital ID adoption and use, learning lessons from e-Estonia.
- Continue efforts to reduce red tape and ensure that regulations serve a public value commensurate with their cost. We will work to reduce the regulatory cost of doing business in Ontario, while maintaining strong public interest protections.
- Incentivize business to invest in R&D and training including through the review of innovation tax credits and by simplifying application processes.
- Address interprovincial trade barriers through cooperation to harmonize regulatory standards and to remove irrelevant and dated exceptions to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement.
- Prioritize GDP-per-capita growth, and embed productivity concerns at the core of policymaking: we will initiate and conduct a 12-month productivity review, as Australia does every five years..
C. Support small businesses and succession planning
- Encourage the orderly transition of farms to the next generation by providing access to top level management expertise, and assist the entire farm sector through labour mentorship, recruitment, and training programs, and by enhancing the Agristability program for new entrants.
- Promote and support employee ownership including work with the federal government alongside employment investment legislation modelled on BC.
- Support the main street economy with standardized commercial leases, improved commercial lease dispute resolution, and a consideration of a commercial vacancy tax or other controls.
4. SUPPORT A HEALTHY LABOUR FORCE AND A BETTER DEAL FOR WORKERS
Ontario workers deserve a better deal. Ontario businesses face a labour shortage. We will work to address both of these challenges at the same time.
A. Move from labour shortage to robust labour force:
- Improve labour mobility by recognizing credentials as-of-right from other provinces and select countries, alongside services that guide immigrants with credentials from other countries into a related job.
- Increase labour supply and productivity by fairly compensating work and taking care of workers. You can read more about our labour plan here.
- Invest in our future skilled workforce by prioritizing skills development and training in construction, agriculture and other sectors in need, and by delivering high quality K-12 and post-secondary education. You can read more about our education plan here.
- Improve access to affordable childcare by ensuring competitive wages for early childhood educators, increasing the number of full subsidized spaces for low-income families, and investing in digital infrastructure to improve the application process, in partnership with municipalities.
- Support skills-based training and the development of micro-credential programs in partnership with colleges, universities, and employers. We will consider a province-wide skills-matching platform to leverage and recognize these programs, to help connect workers looking to upgrade skills with relevant employers.
B. Fix Ontario’s public healthcare system:
A productive and resilient economy requires a healthy workforce. We will address the health human resource crisis, expand access to family health teams, improve mental health supports, and prioritize preventative and public health approaches.
You can read our comprehensive healthcare plan here.
5. PUT CONSUMERS FIRST
To deliver competition and strong consumer protections, we will:
- Crack down on subscription traps and require all subscription services to allow for easy opt-outs. If it takes one click to subscribe, it should take one click to unsubscribe.
- Increase transparency for consumers including by tackling internet scams and new deceptive practices like “dark patterns” that trick or manipulate consumers.
- Establish a consumer protection and competition council to undertake a wholesale review of any legislative and regulatory changes.
- Review Canada’s auto insurance industry to improve the affordability of rates, and consider other provincial regulatory models such as BC. We will also prioritize combating organized crime that is responsible for a surge in auto thefts.
6. FAIR AND SUSTAINABLE FISCAL PLANNING
We will maintain a serious commitment to fiscal sustainability, and ensure the benefits of growth are fairly distributed.
- A fiscally sustainable plan: a responsible fiscal plan is necessary to protect the future of government programs that people rely on and to maintain overall economic stability. Our fiscal plan will carefully prioritize new spending, focusing on capital spending that drives sustainable economic growth, targeted program spending increases to address clear and pressing needs, and an approach that respects generational fairness and debt-to-GDP as a fiscal anchor.
- Fair taxation: we will establish a commission to examine tax fairness and productivity, with a particular emphasis on wealth inequality. The commission will consider a range of potential revenue sources, including a financial transactions tax and progressive taxation of extremely wealthy estates.
Appendix A: Transit projects to be considered for provincial support (non-exhaustive list):
As we study new capital transit projects, including subways, LRTs, BRTs, and GO trains, we will look at international best practices on obtaining better per kilometre costs so that there is more funding available for more projects. Below is a non-exhaustive list of projects that we know we’ll need to consider, and remain open to considering more based on needs of each region and community:
- Build additional Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rapid Transit (LRT), GO transit, and subway projects to enable improved connectivity in the GTHA including supporting high-ridership growth communities such as Brampton
- Improve the OTrains operations and study an Ottawa-region GO style train service.
- Support the federal government’s efforts to extend HFR to Southwestern Ontario and ensure collaboration between Metrolinx and VIA Rail for short-term critical track investments that can cut travel times and add more service
- Partner with municipalities where there are studied capital expansion plans, such as completing Phase 2 of the ION LRT and Toronto’s Waterfront LRT.
- Work with the federal government where it has directly offered federal funding to improve GO train lines, such as its offer for 50% funding for capital improvements for the Milton Line that the Ford government has ignored
- Resolve funding shortfalls that have resulted in sharply deteriorating service. For example, the TTC’s CEO has urgently warned that subway Line 2 could be closed due to a lack of funding for signaling upgrades and train replacements.
- Provide funding for essential equipment and resolve staff shortages by training new bus and train drivers.
- Review existing rural microtransit projects and provide sustainable support.
- Support affordable and reliable transportation in Northern Ontario, including:
- Expand highways (ex. four-laning Highway 69 and Highway 11/17 between Thunder Bay and Nipigon).
- Implement a proven 2+1 highway model to support safe passing, ensure the highest level of winter maintenance standards on Northern highways, and review training for truck drivers that operate on Northern routes.
- Integrate strategies for housing and transit for the 9 Northern communities served by public transit.
- Ensure the completion of the Northlander train project and prioritize the restoration and expansion of service, including extending the Polar Bear Express southward to Timmins.
- Recognize the valuable role of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, commit to sustainable funding for its strategic objectives, and work with Northern municipalities and Indigenous communities to expand Ontario Northland service and to improve connectivity and transportation infrastructure.
- Advance the widening of Highway 17 from Kenora to Manitoba and the reconstruction of Highway 101 in Timmins.
- Move forward with the Cochrane by-pass from Highway 11 to Highway 652.
