Fighting the climate crisis together

• Fare-free public transit—I believe, as a principle, that like other public services in Ontario, public transit should be free at the point of access. Within the context of a province-wide initiative to identify and mitigate barriers to use of public transit, we will develop and implement a plan to eliminate transit fares incrementally over the course of a decade. This initiative will involve all local, regional and provincial transit entities in all parts of Ontario and entail all modes of public transit. We will undertake cost/benefit analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of fare-free transit at achieving targeted environmental, economic and social objectives and determine the return on the province’s investment in free transit. We will use the findings of this analysis to inform evidence-based decision-making on the role free transit can play in transitioning Ontario to a greater reliance on public transit to meet our transportation needs. During our first mandate, we will prioritize providing fare-free transit to young people and seniors, as well as to those Ontarians whose switch to public transit from private vehicular travel is determined to provide the most significant impact toward achieving targeted environmental, economic and social objectives. Ontario will directly support the incremental adoption of fare-free transit programs by local, regional and provincial transit entities all across the province to facilitate the migration of their business models to a fare-free transit ecosystem. Our initiatives to encourage public transit use, including by providing fare-free transit, will be integrated with a province-wide plan to prioritize public transit improvement and expansion as the key component of new public infrastructure in Ontario.
• Build Regionally Integrated Transit and EV-charging Networks across the Province—We will aggressively invest in building up regionally integrated transit and electric-vehicle charging stations networks across the province, which will save Ontarians time commuting and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. We will provide support to local power utilities and transit systems to assist in the implementation, including zero-emission buses. This initiative includes not only investing in an integrated transit network linking the GTHA, with smart improvements such as the GO-train “Missing Link”, but also in other cities, including Ottawa and Kitchener-Waterloo, as well as developing and implementing a comprehensive, evidence-based strategy to provide electrified, high-speed rail linking the southwest and southeast, complemented by expanded support for municipal and inter-municipal bus services, and addressing long-standing transportation needs in our province’s northern regions. 
• Massive Retrofit Program for Public Buildings—We will undertake a massive mobilization of government investment in improving our schools, universities, colleges, hospitals and public housing as well as government buildings to make our facilities better to serve the public, as well as greener, more energy and water efficient and able to support passive-income production, including solar installations on government facilities. Buildings are one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases and we will lead by example by implementing emission-mitigation technologies on public buildings. We will modernize and optimize the Ontario Building Code to ensure new energy-conservation technologies can be brought swiftly to the marketplace. Our retrofit program will deploy both public funding and private-sector financial tools.
• Invest in the Electric Vehicle Industry—Electric vehicle sales have soared in Canada and across the world, but the current government has cut much of the funding that supported this industry in Ontario. I would look to establish a zero-emissions vehicle rebate and to invest in technologies like electric and other zero-emissions vehicles to bring new sustainable jobs to our province.