Ontario election: Liberal platform includes GO expansion, Ring of Fire development

THUNDER BAY, ONT.The Liberals are offering a grab bag of new initiatives from capping hospital parking fees to bringing in 60 minutes of physical education a day for youngsters to developing the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario.

The initiatives in the partys platform, which was released Sunday, put meat on the bones of the unsuccessful May 1 budget and the Liberals promise it can all be done with the $119.4 billion in spending set out in that budget, which they say they will reintroduce if they form the next government after the June 12 election.

All of the commitments are fully costed within our 2014-15 budget, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne told a campaign gathering in Thunder Bay.

These kind of details, she said, would have followed in the wake of the May 1 budget had NDP Leader Andrea Horwath not triggered an election by refusing to support it.

My plan is about the opportunity and security that will allow this province to flourish and that is dependent on making the right investments right now in people, in their skills, in transportation and infrastructure and in a business climate that is competitive, she said.

On Monday, Wynne tees off against Horwath in a northern debate, one of two to be held this election campaign. Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak will be visibly absent from it after announcing he had a scheduling conflict.

It is inexplicable to me that he is not here it would never have occurred to me not to come to the northern debate, Wynne said.

She described the June 12 election as a referendum both on the Liberal plan to grow the economy and on Hudaks plan to cut 100,000 public sector jobs, which she says threatens Ontarios economic recovery.

Both the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats were quick to pounce of the Liberal wish list Sunday, saying it lacked credibility given that the province is mired in debt and the jobless numbers are consistently high, especially in the north.

The May 1 budget set aside $1 billion for development of the Ring of Fire, contingent on matching federal dollars. But the Liberals now say the province would go it alone under their election platform.

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Ontario election: Liberal platform includes GO expansion, Ring of Fire development

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