Question 1

How will your party address the affordability problems facing Ontarians, including:

The housing shortage and barriers to building housing in infill locations with denser urban formats that would help lower costs and better match what families need.

Green Party response:
Ontario Greens are committed to creating thriving, affordable, people-first neighbourhoods that reflect the diversity and energy that Ontario represents. We can create these types of neigbourhoods without paving over farmland or destroying nature, by championing smart growth near transit. We will:

• Update the Planning Act, Provincial Planning Statement and other applicable laws and regulations to expand zoning permissions to allow for fourplexes and four storeys as-of-right within existing urban boundaries and sixplexes in cities with populations over 500,000.
• Set uniform provincial standards for urban design and remove onerous rules around floor space index, setbacks, and angular planes that are barriers to building missing middle and midrise housing.
• Update provincial planning laws to prezone for missing middle and mid-rise housing of 6-11 storeys on transit corridors and main streets in larger urban centres.
• Increase financial and legal supports for small-scale builders of missing middle and mid-rise infill homes; including offering low-cost, long-term fixed-rate financing.
• End mandatory minimum parking requirements for all new developments.
  Change planning laws to ensure various building types can be built along main streets, transit stations and corridors, public lands, surplus commercial lands, and residential neighbourhoods to ensure there is a liveable mix of housing in all neighbourhoods.
• Freeze urban boundaries and reverse recent boundary expansions by the Ford government.
• Reverse the Ford government’s changes to the Provincial Planning Statement that encourage sprawl and instead prioritise housing where roads and sewers already exist
• Use taxes and incentives to encourage developers to build within existing neighbourhoods in towns and cities.
• Prioritise and speed up the development approval processes for projects led by or in partnership with non-profit housing providers, and provide low-interest loans via a new revolving fund.
• Require minimum housing densities at transit stations and along transit corridors as a requirement in transit funding agreements between the province and municipalities.
• Work with all levels of government to include affordable housing developments above transit stations and on transit station surface parking lots.
• Reinstate the provincial brownfield remediation fund to support municipalities to safely build affordable housing on previously industrial sites.
• Incentivize and remove barriers to the construction of housing on commercial properties, such as abandoned plazas and warehouses
• Work with nonprofits to build 250,000 new affordable non profit and co-op homes and 60,000 permanent supportive homes with guaranteed funding for mental health, addictions and other supports

Increasing the frequency and reliability of public transportation and improving active transportation options to reduce dependency on costly personal vehicles.

Green Party response:
We’re committed to increasing the availability of affordable transportation options, because we believe people should have a range of choices, instead of being locked into expensive commutes as their only option. We will:

• Expand all-day, 2-way GO service to leave every 15 minutes during peak periods and every 30 minutes off peak, including weekend service. Offer at least one express service each way during weekday peak periods.
• Establish a clean, affordable, accessible intercity electric bus service to connect communities across the province, ensuring connections in small, rural communities and dedicated bus lanes.
• Create a predictable, annual Infrastructure fund for safe walking, cycling and accessible mobility devices for municipalities. Stop the province from interfering with municipal transit plans like bike lanes.

Taking full advantage of low-cost solar and wind power and efficiency measures and working with Quebec to deliver power storage services to lower energy costs.

Green Party response:
By investing in renewable energy like wind and solar, we can make electricity more affordable, make the air cleaner, and reduce climate pollution. Ontario Greens will:

• Remove red tape to make it easier for people, farmers and businesses to connect renewable energy to the grid and to make virtual net metering possible
• Ensure grid capacity and low cost grid connections for renewable energy generation
• Invest in smart grid implementation and innovations such as bi-directional EV charging, peak demand programs and storage
• Phase out expensive fossil gas plants by 2035
• Direct IESO to have an open, competitive bid process for the lowest cost emission-free sources of electricity generation
• End the moratorium for off-shore wind energy
• Ensure community and individual monetary benefit agreements for people who live near wind farms
• Maintain existing nuclear generation at Bruce and Darlington
• We need to add at least 7500 MW short- and medium-term storage to help our electrical grid run smoothly. We support negotiating with Quebec to find a solution.
• Implement conservation programs that help people save money through energy-efficiency upgrades

Still rising grocery bills and growing food insecurity that may be increased by climate change and development on vital farmlands.

Green Party response:
Farmers are our food security. We must protect farmers and stop paving over our farmland. As the impacts of climate change intensify, and global politics and economics continue to be unpredictable, including the threat of US tariffs, ensuring Ontario can feed itself has never been more important. Further greedy grocery corporations must be stopped. We will:

• Introduce strict anti-gouging and collusion laws to stop grocery corporations from gouging people on their grocery bills.
• Ensure the existing Federal-Provincial-Territorial grocery retailer code of conduct is mandatory, enforceable, transparent, and benefits both customers and farmers.
• Create an Ontario Foodbelt to permanently protect prime farmland from being lost to non-agricultural uses, such as urban sprawl, highways, and gravel mining
• Invest in local food hubs to support local farmers, supply chains and businesses.
• Provide tax incentives for local food and beverage manufacturers who purchase inputs grown by Ontario farmers.
• Establish a food processing infrastructure fund to support investments by Ontario-based companies in food processing facilities.
• Increase provincial investment in AgTech to support innovation in the food and farming sector including research into low-carbon grain drying and greenhouse heating solutions
• Support supply management and defend Ontario food and farmers in trade negotiations
• Eliminate property tax penalties for farmers with small-scale, value-added production facilities on farm.

Question 2

How will your party improve the livability and health of our communities in a way that reduces exposure to toxins and protects vital natural areas, specifically:

The huge infrastructure challenges facing municipalities, including the need to increase climate resilience and access to healthy green space combined with the need to get maximum value from public infrastructure dollars.

Green Party response:
The current provincial government has downloaded numerous costs onto municipalities, putting them in compromised financial positions given limited revenue tools. Here’s how we’ll support municipal governments so they can help create better neighbourhoods for everyone:

• Create a dedicated $2B per year Climate Adaptation Fund for municipalities.
• Grant municipalities autonomy to implement revenue tools to fund critical infrastructure needs and services.
• Upload costs to the province that had previously been unfairly downloaded onto municipalities like community housing, shelters, and transit funding.
• Provide dedicated and ongoing funding to municipalities to address the mental health and addictions crisis.
• Support municipalities to create infill greenspaces in all neighbourhoods

The need for more robust and comprehensive waste diversion programs that retain resource value and avoid toxic emissions.

The destruction and deterioration of the natural areas and farmland that protect communities from flooding and other climate-driven disasters.

The need to protect globally important natural ecosystems with high ecological integrity in northern areas and remaining wetlands everywhere.

Ontario Greens know that when it comes to climate change, our natural ecosystems provide our best low cost solutions to maintaining a clean water supply and providing flood protection. We are committed to ending the mindless sprawl that is paving over the important natural ecosystems and biodiversity they support. We will:

• Prohibit 400 series highways in the Greenbelt, starting with canceling HW 413 and the Bradford Bypass
• Implement a predictable multi year-fund for municipalities to build climate-resilient infrastructure
• Create a Safe Home Fund with zero interest loans for home renovations to protect homes from climate-fueled unsafe weather events.
• Expand the Greenbelt to include a Bluebelt of protected waterways
• Reverse the Ford government’s attack on Conservation Authorities, EAs, wetland and species protection
• Adopt a provide-wide net-gain wetland policy to increase protections for wetlands and reverse Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES) changes; update and implement Ontario’s 2017 Wetland Strategy.

Question 3

How will your party seize opportunities to grow Ontario’s economy and jobs, specifically:

Building a more circular economy that reduces over reliance on single-use products.

Green Party response:
Ontario Greens will reduce waste and cost by building a circular economy in the following ways:

• Expand the federal government’s list of banned single-use plastics to include water bottles, coffee cups and other unnecessary packaging. Expand Deposit Return to non-alcoholic beverage containers.
• Ban food waste from landfills or incinerators and expand food waste collection to all municipalities across the province.
• Set required minimum use of recycled aggregates in infrastructure projects as well as providing research and education funding to ensure that all reclaimed concrete material can be re-engineered and re-used as effectively as possible.
• Lower costs and reduce waste with a Circular Economy Act to support reuse, repair and recycling jobs and businesses
• Create a community fund to support tool sharing libraries and repair programs to help people save money and reduce waste

Making the most of energy transition possibilities while ensuring impacts do not outweigh benefits for workers or the environment.

Green Party response:
Solving climate change is about protecting the people and places we love, but it’s also a monumental opportunity to strengthen our economy and create good, green jobs. Ontario has all the talent, resources, and people to be a world leading economy.

In order to ensure no one is left behind, we would conduct a transition census of vulnerable jobs and economic sectors to develop strategies that help workers and businesses adapt to a new climate economy.

Better recognizing the immense value of ecosystem services like climate control, clean air and clean water and the linkage of these to human health.

Green Party response:
Ontario Greens prioritize a preventative approach to healthcare and we know that ecosystem services like climate control, clean air and clean water are inextricably linked to human health. We will:

• Improve environmental determinants of health by prioritising clean air, clean water, and access to healthy local food in all communities.
• Mitigate the health risks to people from heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and drought
• Establish stricter monitoring and enforcement standards for air and water pollution in areas where communities are exposed to potential health risks from multiple industries.
• Properly recognize the value of natural areas, particularly forests, wetlands, and peatlands, for climate control. Create mechanisms to enhance protection and restoration.
• Work with the federal 2030 Nature Strategy to protect and restore biodiversity in Canada by protecting 30% of Ontario’s land and waters by 2030 and restoring 30% of all degraded ecosystems – in addition to the targets in the Ontario Biodiversity Strategy.

Using GHG emission reduction efforts to drive new economic opportunities and jobs across the province.

Green Party response:
The climate crisis is a massive threat, but it is also an opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of good, green jobs. If Ontario wants to attract jobs and investment in the $2 trillion global clean economy, we need to show that we’re a province that takes climate change seriously.

• Invest in an Ontario strategy to create more jobs and prosperity by making Ontario a global leader in the $2 Trillion invested annually into green energy
• Create hundreds of thousands of new jobs by retrofitting 40% of existing homes and workplaces to net zero by 2035, and 100% by 2045.
• Over 4 years, give 60,000 people the skills and experience to work in the green economy through a year of free college tuition plus a year of guaranteed work when they graduate.
• Implement a Green Hydrogen and Ammonia strategy
• Implement tax credits for investments to decarbonize businesses and industry
• Create an industrial efficiency support program that provides collaboration opportunities with local clean technology and green energy companies to allow emissions reductions for heavy emitting industries.
• Create a fund to support green tech start ups