Green party Leader Mike Schreiner sat down for an hour Tuesday with the Toronto Star’s editorial board, answering questions from editors and readers in the runup to the June 7 Ontario election. Here’s some of his answers (edited for brevity and clarity):

If there’s a minority government, and you held the balance of power, would you be open to forming a coalition government with either, or both, the NDP and the Liberals?

At this point I’m not going to engage in any speculation on who we would work with . . . but our negotiation in any sort of minority government situation would be based on our nine priorities as well as what’s in our vision book. For me, proportional representation, and changing the voting system, would be a critically important part of that negotiation and those conversations.

What is your party’s position on deficit spending, and the responsibility of the province to plan to return to a balanced budget?

Any party that believes in social justice and good public services should have a plan to get Ontario back to balance and good economic times. Part of the reason is we spend $1 billion a month in interest payments. That’s $1 billion a month I want to go to education, and better health care, better transit, better public services. For me, fiscal responsibility is not about austerity, but about investing in public services.

We in our fiscal plan don’t get us back to balance. We propose a plan with a deficit of one-third what the Liberals projected . . .

Some of our ways of raising additional revenue: we think taxes on the largest corporations should go up by about 1.5 per cent. The Liberals have cut it by 1.5 per cent over the last few years. If we raise it by 1.5 per cent, Ontario still has competitive corporate tax rates. That’s about $1.78 billion of additional revenue for health and education and better public services which I think is essential.

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Is it part of your platform now to end public funding of the Catholic school board?

It’s been part of our platform for many years. If you go into our vision book, we didn’t put it into our nine-platform commitments. The reallocation of that money is not going to happen in the next four years because it’s going to take a while for the integration to happen.

It has to happen in a way that is respectful of students who are currently in separate and public schools. We have to do it in a way that transitions teachers and educational assistants into the new integrated system so it’s going to take some time . . .

There are students in Grade 1 right now that are in the separate school system and you have to think about how integration is going to affect those students and those families. You have to make sure that integration is done in a way that minimizes any disruption to those families.

Even if it provides long-term benefits for Ontario — the financial savings alone are estimated to be between $1 billion to $1.6 billion. From our perspective, it should go back into education to hire more teachers, educational assistants etc. But it has to be done so that it minimizes disruption to student and family lives. That’s why it’s going to take time to do it.

But we have to do it. I believe we have to start now, start the conversation now; figure out what the best way is to integrate the two systems.

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Tell Ontarians two or three things about yourself.

First of all, I’m a father and a husband. I think most people may or may not guess that family and community life is really important to me.

Secondly, I’m an entrepreneur and a small-business owner because it isn’t what people usually associate with the leader of the Green Party.

They would probably think of me more as an environmental activist. I’ve started two local food businesses in Guelph. I’ve started non-profit organizations promoting local sustainable food and farming.

I know what it’s like to risk capital, I know what it’s like to create jobs, and I know what it’s like to meet a monthly payroll. People may not associate that with the Green leader. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about Ontario embracing a new economy. I see the economic opportunities.

Sometimes people think that if you believe in protecting farmland and water, people and places we love in Ontario, you want to take action on the climate crisis, you want to make sure we reduce pollution, that somehow you’re anti-business. The fact that I’m an entrepreneur and a business owner and I want to crush the whole myth that there’s competition between the environment and the economy.

I’ve said over and over again, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the jobs in the 21st century are good well-paying green jobs.

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