Transit & minimum wage dominate Ontario election campaign trail Tuesday

Public transit, minimum wage and corporate tax rates received a lot of attention on the Ontario election campaign trail on Tuesday.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said her party will raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour instead of the Liberal’s promise of $11.

‘We will gradually increase that minimum wage by 50 cents over the next two years, and also reduce the small business tax at the same time,” Horwath said a news conference on Tuesday morning.

She also said her party plans cut the small business tax rate.

PC Leader Tim Hudak, who is against government grants to business, visited a small business that used government money to expand it.

“I don’t blame companies that are trying to get some of their money back. But the problem is taxes are too high in Ontario,” Hudak told reporters.

He said the owner told him he had to rely on that money because many companies are relocating to other provinces because the cost of doing business in Ontario is too expensive.

“I want to see those jobs here at home, and I’m focused on how to do that,” Hudak said.

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne stopped by the Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction site to push for public transit.

“People want more public transit. They want to be able to have more frequent public transit that they can rely on,” she told reporters.

Wynne is battling back after accusations from Horwath and the head of the Amalgamated Transit Union that the Liberals are privatizing public transit in Toronto. She wants to keep public transit in public hands.

“We are going to work with the private sector. I’m not going to make the private sector the enemy, but are we in the business of privitazing public transit? No,” she said.

Ontarians head to the polls on June 12.

With files from The Canadian Press