Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is pledging to help offset rising food prices with a monthly grocery rebate for lower and middle-income households.
Stiles said the rebate program would help up to four million families and individuals and could provide a family of four with up to $122 each month.
“That’s over $1,400 per year,” Stiles said at a campaign stop in Toronto on Saturday.
“What I hear from people as I’m criss-crossing Ontario is that everybody is fed up with paying too much for basics like bread, rice and vegetables,” she said.
The tax-free rebate amount would be based on how much the cost of grocery staples has increased over the last several years and tied to the recipients’ annual income and household size.
The NDP said families and individuals with a net income of up to $65,000 would get the full credit, and the rebate would decrease for households earning between $65,000 and $100,000.
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The party said the program would cost about $409 million per month.
If her party forms government, Stiles said it would also introduce measures to prevent co-ordinated price hikes among Ontario grocers and install a consumer protection watchdog.
Meanwhile, the Liberal party made a pledge Saturday to appoint a special investigator to look into various moves by Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s government, including the closure of the Ontario Science Centre and the now-reversed plan to develop land in the protected Greenbelt.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie had made a similar promise last June, long before Ford called the Feb. 27 snap election.
Ford is campaigning in the Niagara and Hamilton regions on Saturday and is set to make an announcement in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, meanwhile, is making several stops in Ontario’s cottage country, including in Kearney and Huntsville.
