The Liberal campaign promise of a 30 per cent tuition break will be in place by January — at a cost of $201 million next year, says Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The grant could save Ontario families $1,600 per student in university and $730 per student in college every year for every family earning $160,000 annually or less, McGuinty said Thursday.

“This is good for families, it is good for young people and the economy at the same time,” he said at Don Mills Collegiate Institute. “The longer you stay in school, the more likely you are to get a good job.”

But the opposition questions the merits of beginning a tuition cut program — at a cost of $201 million in 2012 and $423 million in 2013/2014 — when the Liberals won’t support their idea of removing the 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST off of home heating bills.

Add the tuition cut, which the Liberals plan on building into the budget, to the seniors’ home renovation tax credit and the public purse will lose nearly $500 million a year, they argue.

Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli asked: “How are they going to pay for that?”

Fedeli would not say if he or if the PC party supports a tuition cut in principle, but he admitted Ontario has some of the highest fees in the country. “It is important to see how it is going to be paid for to be able to base our judgment,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“We know they know how to spend. We want to look at the full equation.”

McGuinty will meet with PC Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath individually on Friday. The House returns on Monday with the election of a Speaker.

It is the first minority provincial government in decades. The Liberals have 53 seats in the 107-seat Legislature, the PCs have 37 and the NDP have 17.

“Our political system is founded on a healthy partisanship. There will be differences, that are natural, but I am convinced we’ll find a common ground,” he said. “It is a matter of choices.”

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