Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath made a stop in north Brampton on Thursday, March 22 to push her party’s recent promises to fund universal dental and pharma care.

She also offered a glimpse into how the party hopes to pay for it.

Horwath, surrounded by members of the Ontario Trucking Association and independent truck drivers, outlined some of the details of the proposed programs before taking questions from the media about a number of issues both local and provincial.

Without giving exact numbers, she also confirmed her party would need to run a “small” deficit in order to make those promises happen, adding taxes would be on the rise for the province’s highest earners.

“We’ve watched Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals use our public dollars in inappropriate ways. Whether it’s the gas plant scandal, whether it’s paying a billion dollars more for smart meters than they should have, whether it’s $8 billion extra in infrastructure that they wasted instead of putting our infrastructure in place in more prudent ways,” she said.

“So, we know the Liberals have been spending public money in a way that benefits themselves and some of their well-connected friends, while everyday families go with things like dental care — while communities like Brampton have a hospital that’s literally overcrowded the day it opens its doors.

“It’s a matter of changing priorities first and foremost. The plan I announced on the weekend will also require those wealthiest among us to pay a little bit more,” said Horwath. "It will include a little bit of a deficit … but I think that Kathleen Wynne and Liberals have done enough damage in this province, that we have to take a little bit of time to fix things before we can concentrate then on the deficit."

In addition to highlighting Brampton’s hospital wait-time woes, Horwath also addressed the recently cancelled GTA West corridor highway affecting area commuters.

After years of planning and $14 million in studies and environmental assessments, the Ontario government cancelled plans for a highway which would have eased some of the congestion on already clogged arteries like the 401.

While not committing to resurrecting the popular project, she did say an NDP government would explore all options.