Affordability
Fuel and transportation costs
Liberal's promise
"Undertake a comprehensive review of provincial auto insurance practices and premiums, which have become the most expensive in Canada, in order to bring costs down for consumers, improve accident care and better protect owners from auto theft." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Poverty
Liberal's promise
"Permanently double the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits and index it to inflation so that Ontario’s most vulnerable are not left behind." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Tax measures and rebates
Liberal's promises
"Introduce the More For You Tax Cut, delivering $1,150 in permanent financial relief for Ontario families. This includes permanently cutting taxes for Ontario workers on taxable income between $51,446 and $75,000 by 22%, from the current 9.15% to 7.15%; as well as eliminating sales tax (HST) on home heating and hydro bills." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Reduce and/or eliminate personal income tax for low-income workers by indexing the Low-Income Workers Tax Credit." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Uitility costs
Liberal's promise
Climate Change & the Environment
Green construction and retrofits
Liberal's promise
Education
Francophone education
Liberal's promise
"Strengthen French education across Ontario by supporting community and cultural partnerships, training, inter-board cooperation and hiring additional French educators." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
K-12 funding
Liberal's promise
"Close the funding gap of $1,500 per student in the K-12 sector and ensure future commitments are tied to inflation." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
K-12 staffing
Liberal's promises
"Allow schools to address their unique staffing and infrastructure needs by expanding funding, eligibility and flexibility for the Safe Schools Grant program." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Allow every elementary, middle or high school student to have support and supervision in the classroom by establishing a lower student-to- teacher and education-worker ratio." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Hire more mental health professionals, educational assistants, Early Childhood Educators (ECEs), social workers, child and youth workers and other staff, lowering the ratio of students to education workers in the Core Education Funding." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Commit to mutual respect and collaboration between the Ministry of Education, students, parents, teachers, unions and administrators starting with a commitment to not blindside educators with Friday afternoon announcements." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
School construction and upgrades
Liberal's promises
"Clear the school repair backlog and install heating, air conditioning and air filtration systems in every classroom by doubling annual capital funding for schools." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Build 90 new schools over the next four years and ensure that no school needs to use portables." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
School nutrition
Liberal's promise
"Feed every elementary and secondary school kid a free and healthy lunch every school day by quadrupling funding for school food programs." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Trades
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Health & Healthcare
Drugs and addiction
Liberal's promises
"Provide wraparound support to help people recover from addictions, including rapidly building supportive housing units." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Act decisively and collaboratively with those on the frontline to bring deaths caused by opioid use down to zero in four years through expanded treatment, recovery and rehabilitation." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Family doctors and primary care
Liberal's promises
"Give every person in Ontario access to a family doctor by attracting, recruiting, retaining and integrating 3,100 family doctors by 2029." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Create two new medical schools and expand capacity in existing medical schools, doubling the number of medical school spots and residency positions." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Deliver team-based care with evening and weekend appointments, integrated home care for seniors, and accessible mental health services for children, youth and teenagers." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Accelerate the process to integrate at least 1,200 qualified and experienced internationally trained doctors over the next four years through Practice Ready Ontario." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Eliminate fax machines, enhance virtual care, introduce centralized referral systems with patient portals and implement interoperable electronic medical records to let doctors and other healthcare professionals focus on patients instead of paperwork." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Incentivize family doctors to serve in rural and northern communities and mentor the next generation to prevent future shortages." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Francophone health
Liberal's promise
"Develop a Francophone Healthcare Strategy to ensure Franco-Ontarians are able to access care in their first language." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Health administration and privatisation
Liberal's promise
"Investigate Ford’s privatization plans, including a full review of Health Minister Sylvia Jones’ mandate letters and audit how Ontario is using the more than $20 billion in federal health transfers it receives every year." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Health staffing
Liberal's promises
"Help hospitals hire and retain the staff they need by paying nurses, PSWs and other supportive healthcare workers a living wage and providing them with additional training and professional development opportunities to stay in the public system." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Help hospitals hire and retain the staff they need by paying nurses, PSWs and other supportive healthcare workers a living wage and providing them with additional training and professional development opportunities to stay in the public system." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Eliminate wage discrepancy across the system, regardless of whether you work for a hospital, in-home care or in long-term care." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Crackdown on Ford’s for-profit healthcare by regulating temporary nursing agencies." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Offer a $150,000 bonus to patriotic nurses and doctors who are currently practicing in the U.S. but want to come home and support our publicly-funded healthcare system." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Long-term care
Liberal's promises
"Repeal the coercive Bill 7 and ensure LTCs are held accountable for mismanagement, non-compliance, and neglect of direct care under a four-hour minimum standard per resident, per day." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Repeal the coercive Bill 7 and ensure LTCs are held accountable for mismanagement, non-compliance, and neglect of direct care under a four-hour minimum standard per resident, per day." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Mental health
Liberal's promise
"Introduce universal mental healthcare under OHIP by expanding the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program, covering conditions like anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, hiring more social workers, and defining standards and coverage so that all people in Ontario have a basic form of coverage they can count on." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Seniors' health and wellbeing
Liberal's promises
"Guarantee needs-based home care through Family Health Teams, boosting annual home care funding by 25%." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Help seniors age at home gracefully by creating a Seniors’ Home Care Tax Credit, saving up to 25% of up to $10,000 in medical expenses a year." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Housing & Homelessness
Home construction and supply
Liberal's promises
"Scrapping Development Charges on new housing, cutting costs by as much as $170,000 on each new family-sized home." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Introducing the Better Communities Fund to help municipalities cover infrastructure costs." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Modernize building codes and subjective design rules (ex. setback, step back, angular plane), establish a provincial catalogue of pre-approved housing designs, create more housing near transit and arterial roads following best practices adopted by other jurisdictions like British Columbia and speed up the conversion of underutilized offices and commercial spaces to homes." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Modernize building codes and subjective design rules (ex. setback, step back, angular plane), establish a provincial catalogue of pre-approved housing designs, create more housing near transit and arterial roads following best practices adopted by other jurisdictions like British Columbia and speed up the conversion of underutilized offices and commercial spaces to homes." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Home purchases and ownership
Liberal's promise
Rental housing
Liberal's promises
"Getting more co-op and rental apartments built by removing punitive and discriminatory extra taxes like Community Benefits Charges." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Introducing fair, phased-in rent control." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Resolving new landlord-tenant disputes in under two months and clearing the 53,000-case backlog at the Landlord-Tenant Board urgently." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Establishing the Rental Emergency Support for Tenants (REST) Fund, a provincial rent bank to provide short-term, interest-free loans for tenants facing financial emergencies to prevent evictions and homelessness." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Trades
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Jobs, Businesses, & Labour
Inter-provincial business and trade
Liberal's promise
"Work with other provinces to eliminate nonsensical interprovincial trade barriers by adopting a policy of mutual recognition of skills and regulated professions and building a truly Team Canada approach to growth and diversification." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Labour protections
Liberal's promise
"Negotiate in good faith and eliminate the practice of using the notwithstanding clause to trample on workers’ rights." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Poverty
Liberal's promise
"Permanently double the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits and index it to inflation so that Ontario’s most vulnerable are not left behind." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Startups and small businesses
Liberal's promises
"Launch an Ontario Growth Strategy to ensure Ontario becomes a competitive place to attract talent, set up and grow a business, afford fixed costs such as clean energy and rent, and have best-in-class consumer protections." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Make it easier for small businesses to compete with big box stores by slashing small business taxes by 50%, delivering up to $18,000 of tax relief to the roughly 450,000 businesses that employ almost three million people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Trades
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Trump's Tariffs
Liberal's promises
"Backstop Ontario businesses with a new Fight Tariffs Fund that gives them access to lower-than-market interest rates (government rates)." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
"Ensure Ontario taxpayer dollars support local businesses and jobs by excluding American companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink from procurement." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Youth unemployment
Liberal's promise
"Cut youth unemployment by half by creating 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Society & Government
Government favouritism and conflicts of interest
Liberal's promise
""Lead an across-government effort to spend taxpayers’ money wisely and invest the savings back into economic stimulus and health care.
Investigate all of Doug Ford’s giveaways, handouts, and sweetheart deals for his rich friends, including the:
$1.9 billion spent on speeding up the sale of booze by multinational corporations, big grocers, and foreign retail giants
$100 million deal with Elon Musk (noted Donald Trump insider) and Starlink Snap closure of the Ontario Science Centre on land primed for development
$2 billion sell-off of Ontario Place to a foreign-owned spa
Sweetheart deal to open ServiceOntario outlets in private American-owned stores $8 billion Greenbelt giveaway to his friends and donors, an issue that is currently being investigated by the RCMP
Dozens of crony patronage appointments at public institutions like the LCBO, Ontario Power Generation, the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee and more
MZO’s Doug Ford gave to his rich buddies"
— Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Infrastructure
Liberal's promise
Transportation & Transit
Fuel and transportation costs
Liberal's promise
"Undertake a comprehensive review of provincial auto insurance practices and premiums, which have become the most expensive in Canada, in order to bring costs down for consumers, improve accident care and better protect owners from auto theft." — Getting the Basics Right: A Plan to Do More For You, retrieved 2025-02-22
Biography
Having an educational background with McMaster in Political Science with a specialization in Public Law and Judicial Studies. Previously working with non-profit organizations across Hamilton and the Niagara Region to provide stakeholder relations, Joshua is now working with Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) within the Nutrition/Diet Services Department for the Eating Disorder and Child and Youth Mental Health Unit.
For the last 6 years, he has been active in our community working with members from all parties and different non-profits and organizations to ensure that healthcare services, mental health resources and education, and public policy changes are made so that a better life for everyone can be delivered. Some key successes to highlight include:
- Drafting a recommendation report that was adopted by the City of Hamilton's Suicide Prevention Community Council (HSPCC) and presented to the Hamilton Chief Health Officer that provides key insights into how our new city suicide prevention strategy should look like and what its goals should be.
- Working with the World Health Organization and our Canadian Delegation to highlight and advise on policy changes for global health concerns. These are meetings that I take part in yearly that are followed by their presentation to the General Assembly and World Health Organization Executive Committee at the United Nations.
- Advised and heavily advocated for the implementation and operations of the National 988 Crisis Line that came into use in November 2023. This included meeting with over 250 elected officials and organizations in a 7-month period to set out the need for this line and its positive impacts if implemented.
In addition to these successes, he has also been a sitting member of the National Advisory Council for the National Initiative for Eating Disorders, and Co-Chair of the National Advisory Council for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada. Leading a team of 85+ people, we have a mission that has successfully delivered change within our healthcare and mental health sectors for people of all ages through drafting policy, meeting with our elected officials, and conducting research.
Sitting on our City of Hamilton Youth Steering Committee, he has worked to ensure greater engagement from all residents across our city with city services, resources, and public services (such as our Hamilton Public Libraries) while also advising on matters of the city budget, community health and safety strategy, how to engage with other groups and organizations, and providing input into all things across the city as needed or requested by Council and city staff.
Coming from a family with strong ties to teaching and education, he understands that our children are not getting the support that they need in our schools, and our teachers and educational support staff are not either.
Having a proven track record of being able to meet with members of our community and affected stakeholders, and deliver real tangible change that has a positive impact, Joshua remains committed to our community and is determined to make the changes needed to reverse the damage done to our public healthcare system, education system, and more by our current PC government and deliver more for you when it matters most.
joshbell.ca joshbell.ca