Federal Liberals are accusing Andrew Scheer of planning to give a tax break to parents who send children to private schools, even though the Conservative leader has said the policy won’t be in his election platform.

During the 2017 Conservative leadership race, Scheer proposed a tax deduction of up to $4,000 per child for parents who send their kids to independent schools, and a $1,000 credit for those who homeschool their children.

However, Scheer’s office told iPolitics this summer that Tories won’t pursue the policy “at this time,” putting the blame on Liberal deficits.

And it’s those three words — “at this time” — that Liberals have seized on to launch the broadside, playing out against the backdrop of a possible teachers’ strike in battleground Ontario.

Those three words were also used by Scheer in a Toronto Star editorial board meeting this week when he was questioned about the abandoned proposal.

Scheer: Not ‘part of legislative agenda at this time’

Asked to explain his thinking around the idea, Scheer noted that parents who send their children to independent schools still pay taxes to the public system, something he described as a “financial hardship.” He said public schools benefit by still getting revenue with “fewer students to spend it on.”

Scheer also said parents who make “huge sacrifices” to put their kids in private institutions are “in some ways” making the public system stronger. Yet the Tory leader said his party is focused on tax relief for Canadians that will be as “broad-based” as possible.

“Given the financial situation that we’re going to inherit, the fiscal mess that we’re going to take over from, we’ve decided not to pursue it at this time because there are some other tax-relief measures that we believe will impact a larger number of parents, a larger number of young families, be more universal in their application and help them with… other aspects of the costs of raising kids,” he said.

Asked if he would consider bringing the policy back into play later, Scheer said: “It won’t be part of our legislative agenda at this time and anything in the future… I’d be speculating to say right now.”

The exchange can be seen in the Toronto Star video below: