Your Kitchener-Waterloo riding candidates:
Jamie Burton – Liberal
Stacey Danckert – Green party
Catherine Fife – NDP
Tracey Weiler – Progressive Conservative
Platform points
Post-secondary Education
NDP plans to:
- Freeze post-secondary tuition at their 2014 levels
- Make provincial student loans interest-free
Liberals plan to:
- Continue the 30% off tuition grant
- Provide funding to build new campuses
- Provide $500 million over 10 years for maintenance
PCs plan to:
- Encourage students to attend colleges rather than universities
- Make it simpler to transfer from college to university and vice-versa
- Put a stronger focus on science, technology, engineering, business and math
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Environment
NDP plans to:
- Create a fund to give loans to families for solar panel installation
Liberals plan to:
- Continue to invest in clean green energy
- Expand forestry by planting one million trees
Green party plans to:
- Reduce pollution through energy conservation
- Protect farmland and drinking water
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Living
NDP plans to:
- Reduce hydro costs by merging four agencies, capping hydro CEO salaries and direct trading
- Take HST off home hydro bills
- Bring better public transportation through a fund of $29 million over 10 years
- Prioritize all-day two-way Go train service between Kitchener and Toronto
- Reduce auto insurance by 15%
- Have municipalities enforce building standards and maintenance rules for landlords
- Invest in communities to build bike lanes and expand current cycling infrastructure
Liberals plan to:
- Lower auto insurance rates by 15%
- Lower electricity rates through a program for lower-income families
- Expand all-day two-way Go train service
- Invest in the LRT expansion to Cambridge
PCs plan to:
- Bring down energy costs
- Lower income taxes
Green party plans to:
- Invest in new and existing transit infrastructure
- Cut home energy costs through providing grants to homeowners for conservation
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Jobs
NDP plans to:
- Create the Job Creation Tax Credit to encourage small businesses to offer more jobs
- Establish an emerging industry fund for job growth in high-tech and creative sectors
Liberals plan to:
- Establish 10-year, $2.5-billion jobs and prosperity fund
- Extend the youth jobs strategy by adding $38 million to the youth employment fund
- Increase number of apprenticeships
PCs plan to:
- Increase opportunities in the skilled trades
- Create jobs in rural and northern areas
Green party plans to:
- Create the social innovation foundation to provide grants, loans and mentorship to young entrepreneurs
Health Care
NDP plans to:
- Open 24-hour family health clinics
- Hire more nurse practitioners to treat ER patients more quickly
Liberals plan to:
- Expand and renew existing hospitals and invest in new hospitals
PCs plan to:
- Prioritize mental health care
Editor’s note: these are not points of the entire platforms, just main issues we believe students would be interested in. To get more information, read the platforms in their entirety.
