Ontario Green party leader Mike Schreiner unveiled his party’s fully costed platform Wednesday morning in Toronto.
Schreiner was joined by Green party deputy leaders Dianne Saxe and Abhijeet Manay.
Schreiner said the goal of the platform is to “welcome new solutions to old problems” by focusing on six key points:
- prioritizing building homes over highways
- investments in youth mental health
- climate change
- economy development
- worker protections
- preservation of nature
He added climate will remain the party’s biggest focus, with plans to introduce a climate budget and make the province net-zero by 2045.
“Every day that Ontario fails to invest in the growing green economy we are missing out on opportunities to create new businesses and careers that change the economy and people’s lives,” Schreiner said.
Schreiner says the Greens will work “hand-in-hand” with Indigenous communities to help preserve wetlands.
With inflation at an all-time high and housing market prices rapidly increasing, Schreiner vowed to spend a billion dollars a year to build 160,000 new affordable rental homes, including 60,000 supportive homes.
The Ontario NDP platform plans to build over 500,000 units of affordable housing whilst the Ontario Liberal party plans to build 1.5 million homes including supportive housing.
Schreiner said treating substance abuse as a substance issue rather than a criminal justice issue would be more effective in reducing substance use.
Both the Ontario NDP and the Ontario Liberal parties detailed their mental health plans today, but the Green party’s press secretary Darren Elias says his party released its mental health plan first, and would specifically focus on supporting marginalized communities.
Plans to reverse the Ontario Progressive Conservative cuts in education were also mentioned in the platform.
Schreiner said “After years of underinvestment in our post-secondary institutions, we will make the investments necessary so our college and universities regain their world-class status and have the proper tools we need to educate our future.”
Schreiner said to give more students more financial support during their post-secondary education and room for financial growth, the Green party will reverse Doug Ford’s OSAP cuts and change loans to grants to reverse debt.
More details on the Green party’s platform can be found at www.gpo.ca/platform