Ontario Liberals propose removing the regional portion of the HST from prepared food purchases under $20. The Harmonized Sales Tax is a consumption tax in Canada. 

HST is used in provinces where both the federal Goods and Services Tax and the provincial sales tax have been combined into a single value-added sales tax.

Currently, the maximum HST exemption for prepared foods is $4, and Liberal leader Steven Del Duca says the proposed measure will save money for families adding food like roast chicken to groceries or an office worker having lunch from a local restaurant.

Liberals say they will pay for this step by raising taxes on the wealthy in Ontario and highly profitable corporations.

They will add an additional 1 percent tax on corporations operating in Ontario with annual profits exceeding $1 billion, which they say will generate about $150 million annually.

Liberals also propose implementing a 2 percent income tax increase on individuals earning incomes over $500,000 per year.

They say this will create a new tax bracket of 15.16 percent on individual income above this threshold—affecting 0.2 percent of Ontario’s population—and generate more than $350 million in annual revenue.