A Liberal government would dedicate two cents a litre of the existing provincial gas tax to public transit in the Greater Toronto Area as one of several measures designed to give Canada's biggest city a boost, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.

Canadian Press

TORONTO — A Liberal government would dedicate two cents a litre of the existing provincial gas tax to public transit in the Greater Toronto Area as one of several measures designed to give Canada's biggest city a boost, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.

In a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade on the second last day of campaiging towards Thursday's Ontario election, McGuinty said his party would also demand that Ottawa match the tax commitment and invest directly in major infrastructure projects.

McGuinty suggested Premier Ernie Eves, who spent Tuesday morning attacking McGuinty's hydroelectricity plans, has neglected the Toronto's needs.

"For eight years, instead of leadership from Queen's Park, Toronto has seen buck-passing," McGuinty said. "Instead of partnership, there has been a patronizing attitude. Instead of redoubling our efforts, there has been double-talk."

"You and I understand what the current government fails to understand: Ontario cannot succeed unless its biggest city, Toronto, and its most populous region, the GTA, succeeds," he told the business audience. McGuinty also said the Liberals would help establish a Greater Toronto Transportation Authority to bring GTA municipalities together to tackle shared problems.

If elected, the party would also match federal support to create 20,000 new affordable housing units, and give the Ontario Municipal Board clear planning rules "to stop the sprawl that is destroying green space and undermining our capacity to fund infrastructure in our cities," said McGuinty.

McGuinty's plan to help Toronto follows a promise by Eves two weeks ago to reduce gridlock in the GTA by improving and expanding highways if the Tories are re-elected.

McGuinty, Eves and NDP Leader Howard Hampton were planning an aggressive day of campaigning Tuesday in an attempt to woo voters as the clock wound down in the Ontario election campaign.

Eves warned a handful of supporters at a Toronto hotel that McGuinty's proposal to close Ontario's coal-fired generating stations by 2007 could result in significant increases in hydro costs.

"Every single ratepayer who uses hydro is going to have a significant increase in their bill" if the Liberals win, Eves said, adding that closing the stations would cost taxpayers $15 billion.

"That's big money, and who's going to pay? You and I are going to pay," Eves said.

On Monday, McGuinty said the province would have to borrow billions of dollars to build new generating stations, and promised "all public hydro assets will remain in public hands" under a Liberal government.

Eves also reiterated the Tory platform to make it illegal for teachers and other education workers to strike or stage work-to-rule campaigns, and for school boards to lock out teachers or other education workers during the school year.

Eves was set to visit Simcoe, Stoney Creek and Niagara Falls, and Hampton planned stops in London and northern Ontario.

The premier was expected to face further questions Tuesday about the province's SARS outbreak as a public review into how the outbreak was handled entered its second day.

The review overseen by Justice Archie Campbell heard Monday that the Ontario government failed to live up to its moral and legal obligations of protecting both health-care workers and the public.

Eves shots back: "I couldn't disagree more."

"If you listen, ... the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said on several occasions they don't think there is any health-care system anywhere in the world that could have done a better job of controlling SARS than was done right here in the province of Ontario."

Hampton maintained that his party, which had just nine members in the 103-seat legislature at dissolution, will form the official Opposition and win at least 30 seats.