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The New Democrats are demanding Culture Minister Caroline Di Cocco step down amid reports a hospital in her Sarnia riding will cost twice its original price tag.

The Bluewater Health Hospital is a so-called P3 project — built and maintained by the private sector but funded and managed by the Ontario government.

It was supposed to cost $135-million, but a letter to Ms. Di Cocco from Health Minister George Smitherman now pegs the cost at $276-million.

Three weeks after the Aug. 14 letter, Ms. Di Cocco was quoted as saying she didn't know the facility's final cost, and that her campaign preparations kept her from seeing Mr. Smitherman's letter.

She also suggested it was just speculation that the cost of the hospital could reach nearly $300-million.

New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton says Ms. Di Cocco either knew or ought to have known the facility's true cost.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Hampton had spoken against restrictions that stopped politicians actively campaigning for a new electoral system that forms one option of the Oct. 10 referendum.

The NDP has long campaigned for electoral reform and is supporting a vote for mixed member proportional in the Oct. 10 referendum.

But Mr. Hampton says legislation prevents him from actively campaigning for a new voting system.

With just a week until the vote, Mr. Hampton says he's hearing from people on the streets that they don't understand the question or why a referendum is being held.

But Mr. Hampton says he doesn't think electoral reform is going away, even though he believes this referendum has been set up to fail.

Meanwhile, Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton waded into the Ontario election campaign, attacking the incumbent Liberals on toxic pollution.

Mr. Layton says Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty let important legislation die this spring when he adjourned the legislature amid the slush fund scandal.

The so-called ‘Right to Know' bill would have ensured people know what toxins and other hazards are in the province's food, ground, air and water.

Mr. Layton made the comments today alongside provincial NDP candidate Peter Ferreira, who is hoping to unseat the Liberal incumbent in the Toronto riding of Davenport.

Mr. Layton used the site of a former paint factory, bordering on a working class community and undergoing soil remediation, as an example of people living with uncertainty over toxins.

Area residents say the stench from the project has been overwhelming and they're in the dark about the possible poisonous chemicals they're living with.