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TORONTO — The Liberals and Tories took aim at each other's Achilles heel Saturday, cementing Ontario's controversial health-care tax and public funding for religious schools as dominant issues leading up to an election campaign that won't officially begin until Monday.
Ontario's governing Liberals attacked the Conservatives' plan to bring religious schools into the public system, saying it would cost far more than the $400-million Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory has suggested.
Mr. Tory, meanwhile, took another stab at the province's health-care “premium,” a sore spot for the Liberals who broke an election promise when they imposed the tax in 2004.
Deputy premier George Smitherman launched the Liberal offensive with a pre-emptive strike, summoning reporters to the diverse Toronto neighbourhood of St. James Town to blast Mr. Tory's plan to fund religious schools, just one hour before Mr. Tory was set to speak at an east-end hospital about health care.
Mr. Tory recently got into hot water by musing that such public religious schools could teach creationism as well as the theory of evolution, drawing fire from the Liberals and support from some religious groups.
If elected Oct. 10, Mr. Tory promised to give $400-million in public money to religious schools if they opt into the public system, hire accredited teachers, teach the Ontario curriculum and administer standardized tests.
But providing funding for the 53,000 students attending private religious schools in Ontario would cost at least $500-million and divert crucial taxpayer dollars from students in the public system, Mr. Smitherman said.
“We don't think it's fair to divert attention from the core responsibilities for those two million kids in Ontario in favour of a policy that encourages people to divide up on religious and ethno-cultural bounds,” he said, echoing the comments of many of his cabinet colleagues.
However, the Liberals have maintained their support for public Catholic schools while panning Mr. Tory's plan, a stand some groups have criticized as favouring one faith over others.
The government's obligation is to ensure that the current and long-established public education system works well before diverting money away from its students, Mr. Smitherman said.
He also rejected Conservative claims that several prominent Liberals, including Premier Dalton McGuinty, had previously supported the idea of providing funding to faith-based schools.
“I'd never, I'm quite sure, done that,” he said. “That'll be another example where they'll say anything and don't think it through.”
The health minister would have better used his time talking to voters about their problems with the province's health-care system, countered Mr. Tory, who used the hospital tour to launch another plank of his election platform and slam Mr. McGuinty on the health tax.
“I look more to what people have been telling me at the door and on the streets,” he said.
“They've been coming up to me and telling me their stories about Dalton McGuinty and their inability to find someone to look after their health ailments, their children with autism that are getting no treatment ... the fact that they're paying a health tax today they were promised they would never have to pay.”
In the four years since the Liberals came to power, Mr. McGuinty has failed to make significant progress in addressing the shortage of family doctors or seniors left in sub-standard long-term care facilities, even after imposing the tax, Mr. Tory said.
The tax requires every eligible taxpayer in the province to pay as much as $900 more a year — worth $2.6-billion annually to Ontario's health-care coffers.
Mr. Tory, who plans to phase out the tax, says he'd boost health-care funding by $8.5-billion over the next four years, including $540-million to support the implementation of electronic health records — widely seen as key in improving wait times — and $400-million to recruit and retain doctors and nurses.
The money would come in part from projected growth in government revenues and by cutting down on government waste, he said.
Mr. McGuinty said earlier this week that the Liberal platform is focused on education and health care, his two top priorities, and that the province can't afford to eliminate the health “premium” imposed in 2004 despite a promised tax freeze.
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