Wellesley Institute’s Ontario Election 2025 series laid out our recommendations for what provincial party leaders can do to advance health equity in three key areas: thriving – policies that will help ensure people have what they need to live a healthy life, health system equity, and housing. Below, we examine the parties’ commitments on thriving leading up to the election on February 27.
We have incorporated only what has been announced to date and included policies and legislation introduced by the current government in recent budgets. For the purposes of this analysis, we have presumed all parties used the current “status quo” from the most recent provincial budget as their baseline. We also presume that, unless parties have been explicit about reducing funding from that budget, they do not intend to do so.
Our overall analysis
Although no party has fully articulated a vision of achieving thriving for everyone in Ontario, some measures would advance Ontarians’ ability to thrive. We are pleased to see the Green Party of Ontario and the Ontario New Democratic Party (Ontario NDP) have committed to doubling social assistance rates for both the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) and to other measures to ensure increased access, and that the Ontario Liberal Party will double the ODSP budget.
However, doubling the rate may still be inadequate for many. Changes to OW and ODSP need to be part of a plan to end poverty as a first step towards ensuring everyone has what they need to thrive. It is important that the next Premier launches a process to determine an adequate rate that evaluates both programs and ensures recipients can lead healthy lives in the long-term.
On food security, the Green Party’s commitment to collect disaggregated data on chronic food insecurity would help identify gaps and inform future action. We are also pleased to see both the Ontario Liberal Party’s and Ontario NDP’s commitments to expanding school food programs, which will improve access to healthy food for Ontario children living in food-insecure households. The Ontario NDP proposal for a monthly grocery rebate will also provide low-income households with additional income security every year. However, these are all short-term, inadequate measures. Much more needs to be done to end food security and provincial leaders must work with other levels of government to find solutions. In the future, we recommend parties explore how they can ensure every household in Ontario can afford the nutritious food they need to be healthy.
All provincial parties have committed to expand GO Transit service to varying degrees. This may improve access to transit for some communities. The Green Party and Ontario NDP have additionally proposed to take over some municipal costs for transit funding, which may help address access and affordability of public transit. We recommend all parties work to put in place goals to create equitable transit that gets everyone where they need to go and reduces carbon emissions and commute times in the future.
Only the Green Party and the Ontario NDP have committed to delivering on $10-a-day child care by working with the federal government, expanding non-profit spaces, and comprehensively addressing recruitment and retention within the child-care workforce. The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (Ontario PC Party) would add 1,600 new child-care spaces in schools. Other parties do not specify space in schools they would build. It is important these measures lead to more equitable access to child care for Ontarians.
Wellesley Institute’s thriving framework outlines the resources needed to meet physical, social and psychological health needs now and in the future to live a happy, healthy life. We hope all parties take on this crucial challenge in the future.
Below, please find more detail on each of the parties’ platforms, presented alphabetically by party name.
Green Party of Ontario
On social assistance and income security, the Green Party has proposed:
- Phasing in a basic income, with the first step being to at least double ODSP and OW rates and tie all future increases to inflation.
- Eliminating unfair clawbacks, where recipient benefits are reduced based on other income, including from the Canada Disability Benefit.
- Ensuring shelter allowances reflect the shelter costs where people live.
- Cut taxes for low- and middle-income earners under $65,000 and households making less than $100,000 to save up to $1,700 a year.
- Increase the minimum wage to $20 and continue to index it to inflation.
- Implement 10 provincially legislated paid sick days for all.
On food security, they propose to:
- Annually report disaggregated data on the proportion of the population that experiences chronic food insecurity.
- “Eliminate urban food deserts” by providing start-up funding for community-owned food markets and increasing support for community gardens through land gifts and organizational support.
On public transportation, they propose to:
- Expand all-day, two-way GO service to operate every 15 minutes during peak periods and every 30 minutes during off-peak periods, including on weekends.
- Establish an affordable intercity electric bus service to connect communities across the province, including rural communities.
- Create an annual infrastructure fund for safe walking, cycling and accessible mobility devices for municipalities.
- Upload costs for transit funding from municipalities to the province.
On child care, they propose to:
- Address the recruitment and retention of early childhood educators through the implementation of a publicly funded wage grid which includes funds for equitable wages, benefits and pensions.
- Create a province-wide child-care plan that provides targeted investments and expansions in areas without adequate care, including clear goals and timelines.
- Provide adequate funding for before-and after-school care, including added supports for children with special needs.
Ontario Liberal Party
On social assistance and income security, the Ontario Liberal Party has proposed to:
- Permanently double the ODSP budget and index it to inflation (other parties propose to double the rate). This is framed as a step towards “poverty elimination.”
- Cut taxes on taxable income between $51,446 and $75,000 by 22 per cent (from 9.15 per cent to 7.15 per cent) and eliminate the HST on home heating and hydro bills.
- Index the Low-Income Workers Tax Credit to inflation.
They do not propose any changes to Ontario Works.
On food security, they propose to:
- Quadruple funding for school food programs to provide every elementary and secondary school student a free and healthy lunch.
On public transportation, they propose to:
- Install platform doors in all TTC subway stations.
- Increase GO Transit service across the GTA and southwestern Ontario.
- Expedite the delivery of planned transit projects in Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton.
On child care, they do not propose any new measures.
Ontario New Democratic Party
On social assistance and income security, the Ontario NDP proposes to:
- Double the rates for ODSP and OW.
- Boost the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit program.
- Introduce a monthly Ontario Caregiver Benefit.
On food security, they propose to:
- Create a universal school food program and increase funding to the First Nations Student Nutrition Program.
- Provide a non-taxable monthly grocery rebate that is based on how much the prices of essential groceries like milk, bread and vegetables have increased under the current government. The base credit would be $40 per adult and $20 per child for families earning up to $65,000 and individuals earning up to $50,000. It would then be phased down to 51 per cent for families earning up to $100,000 or individuals earning up to $65,000. Households over those thresholds would not be eligible.
- Establish a Corporate Crime and Competition Bureau to enforce competition laws and prevent coordinated price hikes among Ontario grocers, including requiring big retailers to publicly post when they raise prices by more than two per cent per week.
On public transportation, they propose to:
- Expand intercity bus and rail transit, including GO Transit.
- Restore 50 per cent provincial funding for municipal transit and paratransit net operational costs.
On child care, they propose to:
- Deliver on $10-a-day child care, including by creating 53,000 new public or not-for-profit spaces and creating one single daycare application portal for each region.
- Reduce fees for before- and after-school care, and negotiate with the federal government to expand the national child-care program to school-age children.
- Establish a child-care workforce strategy, including developing a wage grid and decent work standards. This would include a salary scale starting at $25 per hour ($30 for registered early childhood educators) and paid sick leave.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
- On social assistance and income security, the current government has not committed to increasing social assistance rates. In their 2022 budget, they raised the rates for ODSP by five per cent and indexed them to inflation. The minimum wage continues to be indexed to inflation.
- On food security, the current government has neither proposed nor recently implemented any new measure to address access to food and/or the rising cost of food in Ontario.
- On public transportation, the current government has proposed expanding the GO Transit network, expanding light rail transit in Mississauga and Brampton, and constructing a tunnel under the 401 that would include transit.
- On child care, add 1,600 new spaces in promised new elementary schools.