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Platform Announcement - Bringing Change for Better in Ontario https://t.co/WGOW81943s — Andrea Horwath (@AndreaHorwath) April 16, 2018

On the same day the NDP released its platform, the Ontario PCs promised to end income tax for minimum wage earners.

The Ontario Liberals issued a statement that says they welcome many policies in the NDP platform because “we are either already implementing them or because they reinforce our view that this election provides a stark choice between care and Conservative cuts.”

DEBT AND TAXES

The price tag for the Ontario NDP plan — more debt and taxes.

The NDP propose to increase income taxes on those earning over $220,000 a year by 1% and on those making more than $300,000 a year by 2%.

Someone who buys a vehicle that costs more than $90,000 would have to pay a 3% surcharge.

The party would also slap a Housing Speculation Tax on foreign and domestic speculators who don’t pay taxes in Ontario — $5 per $1,000 of assessed value, rising to $20 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2019.

The speculation tax would not generally apply to vacation homes or houses that are being rented out, the NDP says.

It’s anticipated that the speculation tax would put $671 million in additional revenue into the government coffers starting in the second year.

The additional tax income would not be enough to offset spending.

The NDP would also run operating deficits for its entire term of office — $3.3 billion in 2018/19, $4 billion in 2019/20, $5 billion in 2020/21, $3.6 billion in 2021/22 and $1.96 billion in 2022/23.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she believes that spending must be increased in the early years of a new government to make up for cuts by the Liberals and the previous Progressive Conservative governments, but deficits would taper off at the end of an NDP mandate.

aartuso@postmedia.com