It’s been weeks of accusations and promises and the three main party leaders touting their record to convince Ontarians to give them a vote in their favour on June 7.
But how much of what the leaders say is fact and how much is political spin?
Global News anchor Farah Nasser did some digging to help Ontarians decipher truth from political speak.
Saving the City of Toronto $1.16 billion
“Under the City of Toronto, we saved the taxpayers over $1.16 billion and not one single person lost their job.” – PC Leader Doug Ford.
For decades, Toronto journalists have debated Ford’s claim that he saved the city $1 billion and according to briefing notes from the 2014 operating budget, approximately $972 million was saved at the hand of former mayor Rob Ford.
Ford reduced spending in councillor and mayoral budgets and he also privatized garbage collection west of Yonge Street, saving approximately $6.4 million and $11 million respectively.
However, other media report savings were closer to $890 million.
Nearly one-million jobs created
At the most recent provincial debate, Ontario Liberal Party Leader Kathleen Wynne went face-to-face with Ford and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, and she touted her party’s accomplishments of creating “nearly a million jobs” in Ontario.
“Four years ago, I promised the people of Ontario that I would build this province up and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing,” she said.
“We have created nearly a million jobs.”
Wynne is correct in citing nearly one-million jobs, however, according to the Ontario Liberals’ website, those jobs were created since 2003, and not solely within her tenure.
NDP platform error
Ford has continued to criticize the error on the NDP platform and in Sunday’s debate said, “Do you trust the NDP government that says they have a budget and they made a mistake of $7 billion in their own budget?”
The NDP did admit to a costing mistake in the budgeting of their 2018 platform, however, that mistake was $1.4 billion annually.
It was a result of counting a $700-million reserve fund as a revenue for the government rather than an expense over several years.
READ MORE: Fact check: Did the NDP make a mistake worth $7B in their budget?
Former parliamentary budget officer and economist Kevin Page had costed the platform for the NDP and confirmed the mistake to media, summing it up as “a spreadsheet type of error.”
Ontario NDP Leader Horwath responded by saying her party would stay committed to its platform promises despite the additional $1.4-billion per year price tag as a result of that miscalculation.
—With files from Amanda Connolly and Ryan Rocca