HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia's Liberal leader is focusing his campaign for the second straight day on the province's utility by promising legislation to force performance and reliability standards on Nova Scotia Power.

Stephen McNeil says the law would impose fines of up to $100,000 per day on Nova Scotia Power for every day of an outage under the performance standard.

The Liberals campaigned Sunday on a promise to break the utility's monopoly.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie visited a restaurant in downtown Halifax to promise the elimination of the small business tax.

Jamie Baillie says the tax rate for small business is an impediment to growth and eliminating the 3.5-per-cent tax would give those companies more than $62 million to help create jobs.

The NDP, meanwhile, outlined plans for a multi-year plan to pave local roads, which it says would be a first for the province.

Premier Darrell Dexter says the program wouldn't cost any additional money because it would come from a reallocation of government funding.

The election will be held Oct. 8.