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AMO’s 2022 Provincial Election Strategy

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As the 2022 provincial election approaches, municipal governments in Ontario have a strong and clear message for all political parties: our success is foundational to the success of Ontario.

Municipalities in Ontario work tirelessly and effectively to safeguard the people of Ontario and the social, cultural and economic life of our province – and never more so than during this time on the frontlines of the global pandemic.

Municipalities have shown that when governments work together, as taxpayers expect them to, we can overcome serious obstacles and accomplish positive change. Looking ahead, we are eager to work in partnership with a provincial government that is committed to creating opportunity across every part of Ontario.

AMO’s 2022 Provincial Election Strategy: Advancing Ontario’s Prosperity provides the foundation for the next four years of provincial-municipal cooperation and accountability. It is objectively non-partisan, broadly focused, attainable within the provincial sphere of influence, and reflects sector-wide priorities.

The strategy sets out an eight-point plan and asks all Ontario political parties to commit to fulfilling all eight commitments and to share in AMO’s vision for economic recovery, prosperity, and increased opportunity.

AMO's 2022 Provincial Election Party Platform Tracking Chart (Updated: May 26, 2022)

The chart below describes platform promises made public to date that relate to AMO’s election advocacy or may have an impact (positive or negative) on municipal government. Throughout the election, AMO will be analyzing party commitments against our Advancing Ontario’s Prosperity lens to assess the impact of campaign promises on municipal governments. The language used to describe campaign commitments in this document may be paraphrased from the cited sources. This is not intended to be a full list of commitments made by each party. Please consult each party’s platforms and local candidate communications for the full party commitments.

1. Commit to a provincial-municipal fiscal framework that is stable, sustainable and affordable for property taxpayers

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Doubling the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) to nearly $2 billion over five years.
  • Cut gas tax by 5.7 cents/litre and fuel tax by 5.3 cents/litre for six months, while maintaining municipal transit funding.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

  • Review municipal fiscal sustainability and the potential to upload responsibility of more critical infrastructure like bridges and roads to the province.

  • End for-profit long-term care by 2028 by not renewing licenses or transferring licenses to municipal and non-for-profit providers. (estimated $150m per year).

  • Cut all transit fares in Ontario to $1 until 2024 and cap monthly transit passes at $40. The province would cover the cost of lost revenue.

  • Invest an additional $375 million in annual transit operating funding – supporting more routes, extended hours of service, improved accessibility and more intercity connections.

  • Make Community Transportation Grants permanent for smaller and rural communities to pay for transit.

  • Provide municipal and non-profit partners with $360 million annually to operate and improve social, supportive and community housing services.

  • Provide $300 million over five years in new funding to municipalities to make sure they have the resources they need to approve housing quickly and responsibly.

  • Provide municipalities and housing support providers with $100 million per year to promote a ‘Housing First’ approach to ending chronic homelessness.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)

  • Pass Bill 121, the Municipal Representation Protection Act which would limit and regulate how the province can alter municipal councils.

  • Strengthen municipal decision making, including city charters, and supporting municipal governments’ legitimate powers.

  • Restore provincial funding for municipal public transit and paratransit systems to 50 per cent of their net operating costs.

  • Increase provincial funding for local public libraries.

  • Upload some municipal services to the provincial government.

  • Implement property tax deferrals for seniors over 55 and have the province pay these taxes until paid back when sold. 
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)

  • Restore the 50% provincial cost-share for transit operations.

  • Provincially fund 50% of shelter and community housing costs while allowing municipalities to maintain management control.

  • Create a $8 billion Climate Adaptation Fund ($2 billion per-year for four years) to support municipalities with green and resilient infrastructure.

  • Grant all municipalities the same powers as the City of Toronto to levy a local municipal vehicle registration tax, provided that the funds raised be dedicated to transit and to active transportation.

  • Decrease land taxes on buildings with below market rent opportunities 
 

2. Acknowledge and support municipal governments as key partners in Ontario’s economic recovery and future prosperity

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Consult on legislative amendments to the Municipal Act to provide BIAs with access to grants and funding.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Launch a one-stop 311-type service to help businesses navigate government supports. 
  • Help municipalities create tourism strategies. 
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)  
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)  
 

3. Commit to a comprehensive and integrated response to the environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Launch a consultation in Fall 2022 to support Phase 3 of the Natural Gas Expansion Program.
  • Provide $91 million to make electric vehicle chargers more accessible to the public across the province and introduce the Rural Connectively Fund to support the installation of electric vehicle chargers in rural communities. 
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Become a net-zero government by 2030, transition to a fully clean energy supply, and create 25,000 green jobs.
  • Cut carbon and methane pollution by 50% by 2030 and improve carbon pricing for businesses and create a new carbon offset system.
  • Protect 30% of our land and expand the Greenbelt.
  • Get carbon pollution out of the air by planting 800 million trees.
  • Divert and recycle 60% of waste from landfills by 2030, and 85% by 2050.
  • Restore and expand natural infrastructure like wetlands and green roofs and support communities in becoming more resilient to extreme weather through a new $250 million annual fund.
  • Provide grants and interest-free loans to retrofit homes and buildings and provide rebates on electric vehicles, e-bikes, and charging equipment and expand the availability of electric vehicle chargers.
  • Require all new passenger vehicles sold in Ontario to be zero-emission by 2035.
  • Create zero-emission mandates for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and require that the public sector only buy zero-emission vehicles and equipment.
  • Provide communities with $100 million annually to build separated bike lanes and cycling trails.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
  • Reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
  • Implement cap and trade system that makes big corporate polluters pay for their emissions and ensure at least 25% of revenue goes to supports for rural, Northern, and low-income families.
  • Create one million jobs over the lifetime of the Green New Democratic Deal.
  • Expand clean renewable energy.
  • Create a building retrofit program to retrofit at least five per cent of Ontario buildings per year.
  • Expand the Greenbelt.
  • Create a Youth Climate Corps.
  • Create a Provincial Water Strategy to guarantee public access to sustainable water sources and review all water-taking permits.
  • Work with municipalities to improve and expand the producer-responsibility model of waste diversion to include more sectors, set higher recycling targets, and to expand recycling and composting services.
  • Ban non-medical single-use plastics by 2024.
  • Implement a climate stress test on all provincial infrastructure.
  • Create a provincial action plan on flooding.
  • Invest in forest fire prevention and plant one billion trees.
  • Make electric vehicle chargers more accessible to the public across the province.
  • Offer incentives for purchases of zero-emissions vehicles.
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
  • Create an $18 billion Climate Adaptation Fund to support municipalities with green and resilient infrastructure.
  • Support green building workforce development outside of the Greater Golden Horseshoe to support local jobs and ensure that no regions are left behind.
  • Permanently protect farmland from urban sprawl and freeze urban boundaries.
  • Strengthen existing watershed protections.
  • Permanently protect key natural heritage areas.
  • Create incentives for retrofitting our homes and buildings.
  • Provide direct, dedicated funding for retrofitting all provincially owned buildings, with priority given to community housing and long-term care homes.
  • Support the community housing sector in the widespread retrofit of affordable rental apartment towers through low-interest loans and tax incentives.
  • Work with public and private utilities to create effective building upgrade programs and make them widely available.
  • Assist local governments to scale up Property Assessed Clean Energy programs to help finance building retrofits to save energy and money.
  • Mandate all new buildings to meet net zero standards by 2030, with no new gas-burning appliances in cities.
  • Stop new gas hookups and new fossil fuel infrastructure by 2025.
  • Require all building projects that receive government funding to meet net-zero, accessibility and healthy building standards.
  • Establish funding and protocols for local building inspectors to transition from prescriptive to performance-based codes that prioritize renovations that will save the most energy.
  • Amend the Building Code to ensure buildings are built with lowest carbon footprint possible and are net zero by 2028.
  • Change the building code to make homes solar ready and restore the requirement for electric vehicle chargers on new homes.
  • Create incentives to install low-carbon district energy systems.
  • Make electric vehicle chargers more accessible to the public across the province.
  • Provide incentives for the purchase or rental of an e-bike or electric vehicle.
  • Phase out the sale of new gas and diesel-fueled passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses and support the conversion of existing buses to zero-emission buses.
  • Provide municipalities and practitioners with knowledge, technical expertise, resources, and training via a Green Infrastructure Support Hub. 
  • Allow municipalities to borrow money to make municipally owned buildings more efficient and pay the loans back out of the savings. 
  • Require all municipalities to adopt plans for reducing corporate and community emissions as far as possible to net-zero by 2045 and give them the authority and tools to implement them, including long-term, predictable funding.
  • Integrate climate resilience into land use planning and infrastructure planning
  • Set high recycling and management standards for printed paper and packaging (Blue Box) materials, and a minimum standard of 85% for plastic packaging by 2030. 
  • Adopt clear, stringent, and enforceable extended producer responsibility standards for waste and packaging.
  • Ban food waste from landfills or incinerators and expand food waste collection to all municipalities.
  • Restore a robust environmental assessment process.
  • Restore automatic environmental assessment of public-sector projects, plans and policies.
 

4. Invest in social infrastructure, infrastructure and transit that build sustainable and competitive communities and support broader participation in the economy

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Double OCIF to nearly $2 billion over five years.
  • Invest $632 million through federal-provincial investment to support municipal services such as public transit and shelters.
  • Invest $25.1 billion over ten years for highway expansion and rehabilitation projects across the province.
  • Invest $61.6 billion over 10 years for public transit.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Cut all transit fares in Ontario to $1 until 2024 and cap monthly transit passes at $40; the province would cover the cost of lost revenue.
  • Invest an additional $375 million in annual transit operating funding – supporting more routes, extended hours of service, improved accessibility, and more intercity connections.
  • Make Community Transportation Grants permanent for smaller and rural communities to pay for transit.
  • Expand public transit throughout the province and electrify GO trains, public transit and school buses.
  • Help municipalities install microplastic filtration in drinking and wastewater systems.
  • Invest $50 million in a new Rural Development Fund to build or repair rural and Northern community.
  • Increase annual funding for Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to $150 million.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
  • Restore provincial funding for municipal public transit and paratransit systems to 50 per cent of their net operating costs.
  • Move forward on fare integration so people can move seamlessly across municipal borders.
  • Develop an Intercommunity Transportation Strategy to better connect communities across Ontario.
  • Expand public transit across the province.
  • Get needed roads built.
  • Introduce a 10 minute service guarantee or better service on core routes across every major transit system in Ontario.
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
  • Restore the 50% provincial cost-share for transit operations. 
  • Immediately cut transit fares in half for an initial three months.
  • Stop provincial funding for purchase of diesel buses by 2025.
  • Electrify Ontario’s transit system, including by adding 4,000 electric and fuel-cell buses by 2030.
  • Direct and fund municipalities to build protected bike lanes, give bike lanes, bus lanes, patios and green space priority.
  • Establish fossil-free zones and car-free days.
  • Stop building new highways or highway expansions.
  • Establish an affordable, convenient, low-carbon intercity mobility service, including investing in Ontario Northland.
  • Fully fund the Northlander passenger rail service. 
  • Work with municipalities, community groups and small businesses to increase access to rural and remote EV charging.
  • Electrify GO Transit and Metrolinx.
  • Support municipalities to create infill greenspaces to have one within a 10-minute walk of all homes by 2030. 
  • Improve the community benefits system for major infrastructure projects to increase the social and economic benefits received by the local community.
  • Prioritize public transit in all transportation planning decisions. 
  • Triple the number of dedicated bus lanes by 2025. 
  • Explore on-demand systems for public transit, especially in suburban and rural communities.
  • Support regional fare integration and seamless travel between transit systems.
 

5. Invest in broadband and connectivity to expand opportunity, access and economic participation in every part of Ontario

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Utilize reverse auctions to provide high‐speed internet access to at least 266,000 households and businesses across Ontario.  
  • Partner with the federal government to support large‐scale, fibre‐based projects made possible by a joint investment of up to $1.2 billion.
  • Invest in low Earth orbit satellites, EORN, and SWIFT to improve internet and cellular access.
  • Improve connectivity in Northern Ontario, including $10.9 million to bring faster internet connections to several First Nation and Northern communities.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Get affordable, high-speed internet to everyone by 2025 by leveraging existing public fibre assets to expand small, municipal or community-owned networks and investing in low Earth orbit satellites.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)  
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)

 

  • Enhance broadband in rural, remote and low-income areas to allow more people to work remotely without commuting.
  • Make broadband Internet an essential service and roll out high-speed access across the province.
  • Use regulations to level the playing field for small, local internet service providers. 
 

 

6. Adequately fund the municipally delivered provincial health and human services that underpin the social and economic wellbeing of Ontarians

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Invest $56.8 million to increase capacity in emergency health services.
  • Invest $60 million over two years to expand Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care across the province.
  • Invest $7 million to the existing funding allocated to paramedic services to reduce offload delays at hospitals.
  • Build more than 30,000 net new beds across province by 2028.
  • Invest $19 million to support the phasing out of ward rooms in all long-term care homes over the next 4 years.
  • Increase ODSP financial supports by 5% and introduce legislation to increase ODSP rates annually by inflation.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • End for-profit long-term care by 2028 by not renewing licenses and negotiating the transfer of licenses to non-for-profit providers (estimated $150 million per year) and build and redevelop 58,000 new non-profit long-term care spaces.
  • Fund 15,000 new assisted living homes.
  • Increase OW and ODSP financial supports by 20 percent.
  • Bring back the basic income pilot.
  • Reverse planned cuts to public health units.
  • Provide municipal and non-profit partners with $360 million annually to operate and improve social, supportive and community housing services.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
  • Cancel forced mergers of public health units and restore the province’s traditional share of funding.
  • Fix the long-term care system by making it public and not-for-profit and build 50,00 new long-term care spaces.
  • Increase OW and ODSP financial supports by 20 per cent.
  • Overhaul Ontario’s social assistance system.
  • Restart a basic income pilot.
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
  • Increase base funding for long-term care by 10% and phase out for-profit long-term care and stop licensing new for-profit homes.
  • Phase in a universal basic income program.
  • Double ODSP financial supports.
 

7. Implement an integrated response to mental health and addictions

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Invest an additional $204 million under the 2020 Roadmap to Wellness to expand existing services and improve access to mental health and addictions support.
  • Invest $45.2 million over 3 years into programs focusing on early intervention and providing access to specialized mental health services delivered by trauma-informed clinicians for public safety personnel.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Expand and reduce wait times for publicly covered mental health and addiction care and have mental health responders available at 911 and in emergency rooms.
  • Invest an additional $3 billion over four years in mental health and addiction services.
  • Build 15,000 new supportive homes over the next ten years for those struggling with mental health and addictions.
  • Invest $300 million across addictions sector to prevent, intervene and treat opioid addiction and overdoses.
  • Lift cap on new supervised injection programs.
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
  • Expand access to counselling and therapy services by bringing therapy services into OHIP.
  • Build 60,000 new supportive housing units over 10 years for people living with mental health and addictions challenges.
  • Invest $10 million for mobile crisis services and $7 million more for safe bed programs to support mobile crisis teams.
  • Establish 24-hour civilian community mobile teams across the province to respond to low-risk crisis situations.
  • Declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency and invest in addiction rehabilitation, detox centres, and harm reduction strategies.
  • Remove cap on new supervised injection sites.
  • Increase resources for criminal diversion programs and dedicated diversion courts.
  • Provide an immediate 8% funding boost for frontline mental health and addiction agencies and provide ongoing sustainable funding.
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
  • Ensure core mental health and addiction services are available in all regions of Ontario so people can access care where they live.
  • Increase mental health spending to 10% of Ontario’s healthcare budget.
  • Include mental health and addiction care under OHIP.  
  • Provide an immediate base budget increase of 8% to the community mental health sector to increase access to publicly funded care.
  • Allow local communities more decision-making power in how mental health and addiction funds are distributed within their region.
  • Set up a 3-digit mental health crisis line so people can get help from health professionals instead of the police.
  • Create and expand 24/7 mental health focused mobile crisis response teams, crisis centres, rapid access addiction medicine clinics, and short-term residential beds across the province.
  • Coordinate with public health units to collect and release data on the overdose epidemic. 
  • Work with the federal government to fast-track the decriminalization of drugs and start reallocating funding from the criminal justice system to mental health care services.
  • Ensure that court mental health workers are available in all regions of Ontario to divert more individuals living with a mental health issue and/or substance use concern out of the justice system.
  • Integrate mental health and addictions services into expanded Family Health Teams and walk-in clinics to improve early intervention.
 

8. Work with municipalities on innovative approaches to increase the supply of affordable housing

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Build 1.5 million new homes over 10 years.
  • Deliver a housing supply action plan every year over four years, starting in 2022-23, with policies and tools that implement the Housing Affordability Task Force’s report.
  • Introduce the Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator to streamline approvals for housing and community infrastructure and invest $45 million for Ontario’s 39 largest municipalities to accelerate planning approvals.
  • Create the Development Approvals Data Standards to digitize land approval processes.
  • Invest $19.2 million for Ontario Land Tribunal and Landlord and Tenant Board to resolve cases faster and address backlog.
  • Protect consumers from unethical developers.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years including 138,000 deeply affordable homes – 78,000 new social and community homes, 38,000 homes in supportive housing and 22,000 new homes for Indigenous peoples.
  • Implement an empty homes tax and work with federal partners to ban new non-resident ownership in Ontario’s housing market for the next four years.
  • Provide $300 million over five years in new funding to municipalities for resources to approve housing quickly and responsibly.
  • Update Ontario’s growth planning framework to make building homes a priority and allow homes with up to three units and two storeys, secondary and laneway suites to be built as-of-right across the province.
  • Require municipalities to regularly publish transparent housing statistics and reward local governments that meet or exceed housing targets.
  • Create a digital platform for development applications.
  • Invest $15 million annually into the Ontario Land Tribunal and Landlord and Tenant Board.
  • Reform the blind bidding process, make the history of house sale prices more transparent, make home inspections a legal right for homebuyers, and regulate and license home inspectors.
  • Invest $100 million per year for municipalities and housing providers to promote a ‘Housing First’ approach to ending chronic homelessness.
  • Fund new emergency shelter beds, improve the condition of existing shelters, and renovate older shelters as long-term residences and supportive housing units.
  • Relaunch the homelessness census.
  • Develop a distinct housing strategy for and led by off-reserve Indigenous peoples.
  • Charge developers a per-unit levy for delays in building municipally approved units 
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
  • Build 1.5 million homes over 10 years, in a mix of starter homes, purpose-built rentals and affordable housing units by ending exclusionary zoning, updating growth policies and establishing Housing Ontario to finance and built 250,000 affordable and non-market rental homes operated by public, non-profit, and co-op housing providers in mixed-income communities. 
  • Introduce an annual speculation and vacancy tax on residential property.
  • Introduce rent control for apartments and end vacancy decontrol.
  • Create a portable housing benefit.
  • Fix the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) and restore the right to in-person hearing.
  • Reform the Ontario Land Tribunal, stopping private interests overturning legitimate municipal decisions by limiting appeals only to matters of law.
  • Implement a Housing First Strategy and work to end chronic homelessness within 10 years.
  • Create a for-Indigenous-by-Indigenous Housing strategy.
  • Update 260,000 social housing units to extend their lifespan.
  • Build 100,000 units of social housing over the next decade, with a portion set aside for women and their families escaping violence.
  • Build 60,000 new supportive housing units over 10 years for people living with mental health and addictions challenges.
  • Require Metrolinx to make its surplus lands available for social and affordable housing.
  • License short-term rentals.
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
  • Build 1.5 million new homes, including missing middle and 182,000 new permanently affordable community housing rental homes, 60,000 permanent supportive homes, and renew 260,000 community housing units over the next decade.
  • Update the Planning Act, Provincial Policy Statement and other applicable laws and regulations to expand zoning permissions to allow for triplexes and fourplexes as-of-right within existing urban boundaries. 
  • Require minimum housing densities at transit stations and along transit corridors as part of the Growth Plan and transit funding agreements between the province and municipalities.
  • Create a portable housing benefit.
  • Require a minimum of 20% affordable units in all housing projects above a certain size.
  • Utilise a Housing First model to ensure that stable, permanent housing solutions are the first priority when helping those in need.
  • Restore the goal of ending homelessness in Ontario within ten years and resume the homelessness census.
  • Fund 22,000 Indigenous-owned and operated permanent homes under an Urban and Rural Indigenous Housing Strategy. 
  • Work with municipalities to implement a province-wide vacant homes tax.
  • Expand the Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) to the entire province and increase the rate from 15% to 20%.
  • Implement a multiple homes speculation tax, equivalent to the existing Non-Resident Speculation Tax.
  • Increase the Land Transfer Tax (LTT) on all single-family homes valued over $3 million across the province.
  • Create opportunities and incentives for homeowners to add more rental units through zoning changes and turn their accessory dwellings, driveways and laneways into more affordable units.
  • Place stronger regulations on short-term vacation rentals and create a province-wide short-term rental registry.
  • Reinstate rent controls on all units to regulate rental increases year-to-year and implement vacancy control to limit rent increases between tenancies.
  • Prioritise the development approval processes for non-profit housing projects and provide low-interest loans via a new revolving fund.
  • Allow single family dwellings to be divided into multiple condominium units to create more attainable home ownership opportunities within existing neighbourhoods.
  • Develop and support alternative homeownership pilot programs such as cohousing, tiny homes, and rent-to-own to assist low and middle income first-time homebuyers. 
  • Freeze urban boundaries.
  • Transform appropriate publicly owned land for affordable housing, such as above transit facilities and in transit station surface parking lots. 
  • Reinstate the provincial brownfield remediation fund to support municipalities to safely build affordable housing on previously industrial sites. 
  • Develop a framework that encourages the construction of housing on commercial properties, such as abandoned plazas and warehouses, where safe and appropriate. 
  • Require that intensification targets are met with distributed density throughout urbanised areas.
 

Other Areas of Municipal Interest

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO)
  • Fire Certification: Continue the current approach to firefighter training and certification in order to meet community needs.
  • Cannabis Stores: No intervention in location of cannabis stores; municipalities can use planning tools to address local concerns.
Ontario Liberal Party (OLP)

 

  • Fire Certification: Will work closely with small municipalities to keep them safe. 
  • Cannabis Stores: Revisit licensing model for cannabis stores
Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP)
  • Fire Certification: Make sure fire protection is available in northern communities and build an approach that works as the current regulations do not.
  • Cannabis Stores: Revisit licensing model for cannabis stores
Green Party of Ontario (GPO)
  • Fire Certification: Fought against the closure of the Fire College and believe privatization increases the costs to municipalities.
  • Cannabis Stores: No intervention in location of cannabis stores; municipalities can use planning tools to address local concerns.