B.C. Conservative platform prioritizes affordability and safety
Poli-sci prof criticizes platform for late release and not being fully costed
The B.C. Conservatives have released their platform just four days ahead of Saturday's election, promising to prioritize affordability, safety and infrastructure.
The platform, unveiled at a Tuesday morning news conference at the University of British Columbia, includes $2.3 billion in annual spending over two years, bringing the current $9 billion deficit forecast by the New Democrats to $11 billion by 2027. It also touted a range of tax cuts that could cost the government $4 billion a year.
However, Leader John Rustad promises to balance the budget in the second term of a Conservative government.
The platform includes several measures to make B.C. more affordable, including a "Rustad Rebate," which would exempt up to $1,500 per month in housing costs from income tax, eliminating the PST on used cars and scrapping the carbon tax.
It also includes several "safety and recovery" measures, with a promise to crack down on repeat and violent offenders, mandatory treatment for people with addictions "unable to make life-saving decisions on their own" and an end to tent cities.
However, the platform does not include a breakdown of costs for major capital promises such as a new children's hospital in Surrey, a new SkyTrain to Surrey-Newton, and the replacement of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and the George Massey Tunnel.
Other infrastructure projects promised in the Conservative platform include a new bridge across Okanagan Lake, the replacement of the aging Taylor Bridge across the Peace River and upgrades to several highways.
Rustad says he will conduct a review of government spending to identify and cut or reallocate resources from NDP projects that he says haven't delivered results for people, including the CleanBC program, which provides grants and subsidies to businesses that reduce their carbon emissions.
The Conservative platform promises not to cut health-care funding and increase spending by $900 million next year and $500 million the following year.
"Under a Conservative government, common sense change will be the approach that we take in British Columbia," Rustad said at a Tuesday morning news conference at the University of British Columbia. "Enough of a province that's run by ideology, that's run by the NDP."
Rustad's platform, which does not list any tax hikes, says its increased spending and budget deficits will be offset by an additional $10.4 billion in annual revenue by 2030 due to the forecast of an annual growth of 5.4 per cent, compared with the "NDP scenario" of 3.1 per cent growth.
Both growth forecasts are well in excess of most other predictions, with TD Bank estimating 1.9 per cent real GDP growth in 2026 and the Conference Board of Canada seeing growth in the province averaging 2.1 per cent in 2027 and 2028.
During the news conference, Rustad did not respond to a question about whether he would include in his caucus Conservative candidate Brent Chapman, who has recently been at the centre of controversy for comments he made in 2015 about Palestinians. Rustad noted Chapman has hired a lawyer.
Advance polls open
The Conservatives' platform comes weeks after the B.C. Greens and the B.C. NDP released theirs.
Advance polls have been open since Thursday, Oct. 10. Elections B.C. said 596,755 British Columbians have already voted in the election. In 2017 and 2020, a total of 1.9 and 1.8 million people, respectively, voted in those provincial elections.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said Tuesday that Rustad and his Conservatives are "not serious enough to govern" and they "do not deserve the kind of support they're getting right now."
Furstenau said it's "laughable" the Conservatives have taken so long to release their costed election platform.
As an earlier Tuesday morning news conference, B.C. NDP Leader David Eby made a late appeal to voters to support his party even if they never have before.
He asked voters "how would you feel" to wake up on Oct. 20 to a Conservative government that included "hateful" candidates and policies that he says will be "driving up your costs in every possible way."
He delivered his message at a Surrey construction site, with a sign in the background parodying anti-NDP political billboards put up outside the home of billionaire Chip Wilson during the campaign.
Education platform
The B.C. Conservatives released their education policy plans ahead of the platform on Sunday, which included reinstating provincial exams for Grade 10 and 12 students, restoring letter grades from Grade 4 to 9, and ending SOGI 123.
The news release was removed from the B.C. Conservatives' website shortly after it was issued and republished later that evening with different wording.
"Unfortunately, when the release went out, somebody had grabbed an old version from many weeks ago and released it," said Rustad at Tuesday's presser.
"When we realized the error, we pulled that down and put the actual education platform out."
The initial release called to "remove classroom material that instills guilt based on ethnicity, nationality, or religion," which was changed in the later release to "uplift all kids by ensuring the ideological neutrality of classroom materials."
Platform not fully costed: poli-sci prof
Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, said he was struck by how long the Conservative platform is, noting people may have difficulty reading it in time for the election on Saturday.
"Everything they could possibly think of went into this platform, except how to pay for it all," said Telford.
Telford said the costing part of the platform only provides vague details of how the party will pay for their promises.
"The party is really just disorganized. This is a party that hasn't elected a person to the legislature in 50 years."
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With files from Katie DeRosa and The Canadian Press