Last but not least, the NDP released its fully costed platform on Sunday, laying out how Andrea Horwath plans to spend a net $13 billion over three years on new programs if she forms government after June 2.

The NDP is the last major party to release its costed platform, however, it revealed an uncosted version earlier in April. Unsurprisingly the NDP plan has a bigger price tag than the Liberals in terms of cumulative spending, but New Democrats hope to offset its spending spree with a 13 per cent corporate income tax rate, a doubled capital gains tax for large corporations and individuals earning over $3 million, and a revitalized cap-and-trade system. Just from those three sources, the party projects revenues of over $22 billion.

Net spending would be the lowest in the first year of a hypothetical NDP government, at $1.5 billion, but would jump to a high of $6.1 billion in 2023-24 and go down slightly to $5.4 billion the year after.

Large spending items in the platform include $1.25 billion every year for home energy retrofit rebates, $1.9 billion over three years for a promised dental care plan, $898 million every year to upload half of transit costs to the province, and $2.1 billion over three years to cover mental health services under OHIP.

The party’s deficit, however, is expected to be larger than the Liberals and PCs, at $21.5 billion in 2022-23 and decreasing to $13 billion by 2024-25, close to double what the PCs and Liberals project their deficits to be for the same year. $3 billion in increased deficit spending will go toward clearing surgical backlogs and hiring education and health-care workers.

Party officials said they don’t expect to balance the budget until a second Horwath term.

Unlike the Liberals, the New Democrats only costed three years of a potential mandate in their platform to ensure accuracy and clarity, party officials said. They drew from the auditor general’s report which reviewed the PC government’s unpassed budget and economic outlook for the next three years.

One notable change from the party’s platform released in April is a commitment to doubling ODSP and Ontario Works social assistance rates in 2023-24. In its April platform, the party committed to increasing rates by 20 per cent and then overhauling the social assistance programs. The party was criticized by a former MPP and ODSP recipients who wanted the party to match the Greens’ promise to double the rates.

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Now, the NDP plan to fund its latest commitment by drawing on $18 billion in unearmarked contingency funds that the PCs accounted for in their budget-platform.

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The party’s finance critic and candidate for Kitchener—Waterloo Catherine Fife said doubling the ODSP and OW rates was part of the plan all along.

“We are the only party to say this, and we are the only party to fully cost it out. So, we are making a very, you know, strategic and transparent decision about lifting people out of poverty,” Fife said. The Green Party has costed out its commitment to double ODSP and OW rates in the first year of its platform.

On the delay of the platform and what took so long in putting the figures together, Fife said the party was “evaluating how investment could accelerate the recovery of the economy, of the health care system and of the education system.”

“We use the current budget as a benchmark, and it failed on several fronts. So, we wanted to do our due diligence, and make sure that every dollar that we are committing to will have a direct, positive impact on the people of Ontario.”

NDP unveils full platform costs including billions in new program spending

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