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The measures would save the average family $1,150 a year in “permanent financial relief,” she said, contrasting the breaks to the $200 tax rebate cheques Ford’s Progressive Conservative government will send to 15 million Ontarians in January to defray the cost of living after a bout of high inflation.

“Doug Ford thinks a one-time $200 rebate cheque makes up for the cost of living crisis he created. Well, I don’t,” Crombie said Tuesday at a Gabby’s restaurant location in Scarborough.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation applauded her move.

“Premier Doug Ford promised income tax relief for the middle class six years ago, but taxpayers are still waiting,” said Jay Goldberg, the organization’s Ontario director.

“While the federal government’s carbon tax keeps making those basics more expensive, Crombie’s promise to take the provincial portion of the HST off home energy bills will make a big difference.”

Ford wouldn’t commit to matching the Liberal tax cuts at a campaign-style stop in the Barrie area to announce funding for a new facility to train crane operators for Ontario’s construction industry. 

He accused Crombie of planning to give municipalities broader taxing powers while revoking his temporary gasoline tax cut of 10.7 cents per litre, elimination of tolls on Highways 412 and 418 and scrapping of licence plate renewal fees.

“What Bonnie Crombie doesn’t understand is there’s an affordability crisis right now. Taxing people does not work,” Ford said. 

“They’re going to have a very clear choice,” he added, referring to Ontarians. “Vote for a government that’s creating opportunities, creating jobs, getting people trained, building infrastructure … and making sure we’re prudent fiscal managers.”

The premier’s income tax cut never materialized as the province was engulfed in the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent Ontario’s deficit skyrocketing as the government was forced to dramatically increase spending on health. 

Ford’s $200 rebate cheques, which opposition parties have dubbed a pre-election bribe, will cost the provincial treasury $3 billion this fiscal year as the province runs a deficit of $6.6 billion.

Crombie said her tax cut plan would cost $2.8 billion, but there is no clear accounting of where the money will come from. 

The Liberals said it will be paid for by ending “shady backroom deals” that Ford has made with “wealthy friends and insiders over the last six years … at the expense of the real people of Ontario.”

Crombie cited the abrupt closure of the Ontario Science Centre and its planned move to Ontario Place with a parking garage, a deal with the European company Therme to build a spa at Ontario Place, up to $1 billion spent to put beer, wine, cider and ready-to-drink cocktails into convenience stores a year ahead of schedule, and the government’s $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal now under investigation by the RCMP. 

“We’ll just stop the giveaways,” said Crombie.

The Liberals now have nine seats and hold a distant third place in the legislature behind the Official Opposition NDP. Ford’s PCs have a solid lead in public opinion polls. 

Crombie’s tax cut plan comes a couple of weeks after Ford began touting his rebate cheques and taunting her with them.

“Instead of holding on to this money like Bonnie Crombie would, we’re putting it back into the pockets of taxpayers … she wants to increase taxes,” Ford said late last month.

Crombie’s income tax break would reduce the tax rate on taxable income between $51,446 and $75,000 to 7.15 per cent from the current 9.15 per cent.