B.C. ELECTION 2024: 12 HOT TOPICS AND WHERE EACH PARTY STANDS

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Wondering who to vote for in the 2024 B.C. election? Here are brief summaries of where the B.C. NDP, Conservative Party of B.C. and Green Party of B.C. stand on 12 major issues, and highlights of what they are promising British Columbians:

Affordable housing and rental housing

B.C. NDP: The NDP are promising to expand on many policies they have put in place since David Eby became premier, including additional density near transit stations, upzoning single-family lots to allow four to six units, and developing affordable housing on public land through B.C. Builds. New promises include a program to support first-time homebuyers by financing up to 40 per cent of the sale price on select developments, providing subsidized insurance for landlords, doubling the speculation and vacancy tax for foreign homeowners to three per cent, and eliminating no-pet clauses in purpose-built rentals.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives promise a tax rebate for renters and homeowners that would start in 2026 and initially exempt $1,500 a month of rent or mortgage interest costs from provincial income taxes. By 2029, the exemption would increase to $3,000 a month, which Leader John Rustad said could save renters and homeowners $1,600 to $1,700 annually. The party promises rezoning and development permit approvals within six months and building permits within three months, and a civic infrastructure renewal fund to provide $1 billion a year to municipalities that allow small-scale multi-unit housing on at least two-thirds of their residential land.

B.C. Greens: The Greens are promising $1.5 billion annually to build 26,000 units of non-market housing a year, including 3,000 units for Indigenous people. The party promises a $500 million top-up of the rental protection fund to protect existing affordable rentals and to cap rent increases when a tenant leaves. It would increase the school tax component on homes valued above $3 million from 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent, going up to 0.8 per cent for those above $4 million, and 1.5 per cent for properties valued above $7 million. It would also provide $650 million in infrastructure funding to municipalities, and ban oil and gas hookups in new builds. The Greens would ask the federal government to ban real-estate investment trusts from buying residential properties.

Overdose crisis and mental health

B.C. NDP: The NDP promises a mental health counsellor in every school and $50 million to expand community mental health organizations and to open Foundry centres for youth in 10 towns. It promises on-demand addictions treatment, Indigenous treatment centres, new residential treatment for parents with children, a second Red Fish hospital for mental health and addictions, and new involuntary care facilities for people at risk to themselves or others. The party promises B.C.’s first treatment centre for construction workers and to provide easy-to-use nasal naloxone at all pharmacies. It also promises mental health units in jails.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives have pledged to close supervised consumption sites that are not “meaningful gateways to treatment.” The party would redirect resources into recovery programs to “get addicts off the streets.” The party said the sites “enable drug abuse while neglecting real solutions,” leading to a lack of safety in communities. The party has vowed to increase law enforcement to target dealers, and promises involuntary treatment for those with severe addictions, “especially children.” It would create secure facilities for people at risk to themselves or others and establish stabilization units in hospitals for those in severe mental health crises.

B.C. Greens: The Greens promise $900 million over three years for drug policies, including: supervised consumption sites in hospitals, supervised consumption sites being open 24/7, and expanded drug testing. The party promises to expand safer supply drugs and local production of nasal naloxone. It would expand bed-based and community-based care, and decriminalize substance use. The Greens pledge $446 million to increase mental health services and resources, including more mental health support for first responders, increased recruitment and retention of front-line mental health workers, a provincial mental health advocate, and MSP coverage of six mental health appointments.

bc election 2024 who should I vote for 12 hot topics party platforms — For elxn issues child care. HE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Photo by Darryl Dyck /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Child care

B.C. NDP: The NDP’s platform makes few new campaign promises on child care, promising instead to fulfil the commitments it has made while in power. That includes $500 million over several years to add “affordable” child care spaces, including a long-term plan to build more child care centres, some of them on school grounds. It also vows to continue expanding the $10-a-day model, a marquee program that so far has had limited reach. Since forming government in 2017, the NDP says it reduced daycare fees for 150,000 children, created 37,000 new licensed spaces and boosted wages for child care workers.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives promise to expand the $10-a-day model to unlicensed daycares, which the NDP excluded. They pledge to prioritize children on the $10-a-day waiting list “who need it most” and to create 24-hour child care to support shift workers. The party promises to reduce “unreasonable regulations” in order to allow more child care spaces in homes, offices and public buildings. It vows to increase child care and family benefit programs which would allow parents to “choose the child care that works best for them, whether outside the home, at home with parents, or with family members.”

B.C. Greens: The Greens’ child-care plan is part of the party’s education proposals, costed at $3.4 billion over three years. The plan includes creating a universal funding model to reduce paperwork for daycare operators and gradually increasing teachers’ wages to $30-$40 an hour by 2026. The Greens would attract more workers with paid practicums, pensions and benefits. They promise $250 million to expand child-care spaces for children under five. They vow to ensure $10-a-day care is eventually available to all and to expand before- and after-school care. They pledge $100 million for schools to build additions for new daycares.

Health care

B.C. NDP: The NDP pledges $811 million over two years in new spending in health care and mental health. It will continue with or expand programs to train more doctors and nurses, enable pharmacists to prescribe medication, build urgent and primary care centres, provide financial aid for patients who travel for care, build more hospitals, and continue its 10-year plan to improve cancer care. The party says it will improve health care for women by providing free hormone replacement therapy for menopause. It would ban employers from requiring employees to provide a doctor’s note for short-term illnesses.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives would replace lump-sum payments to hospitals with payment for each procedure. They would create a waiting-time guarantee so patients can get care at approved clinics outside B.C. and be reimbursed if the wait in B.C. is too long. They would pay for patients to go to private clinics for services with long waiting times. The party would reduce paperwork for family doctors so they have more time to take on new patients, expand post-secondary spots for health-care workers, accelerate credential approvals for foreign-trained professionals, and recruit and retain workers with higher pay in underserved areas.

B.C. Greens: The Greens budget $571 million over three years in new health spending. They vow to create community health centres in all 93 ridings, staffed by doctors or nurse practitioners, physiotherapists, dietitians and other health workers. They also promise to eliminate cigarette sales in pharmacies, ban vaping ads, replace the six health authorities with a single agency, create a centralized referral system for surgeries to reduce waiting times, boost funding for nurses to stop reliance on private agencies, review loan forgiveness and paid practicums to encourage more students to study health care, make all vaccines free, and reduce paperwork for family doctors.

Education

B.C. NDP: The NDP promises to staff each kindergarten to Grade 3 classroom with an education assistant to support kids with complex needs and to make sure every school has a mental health counsellor. The party also promises programs to attract teachers to work in high-need districts facing staffing shortages and to build 20,000 more student spaces in the fastest-growing communities. The party would carry out its commitment to ban cellphones in schools and to work with teachers on expanding drug prevention education.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The B.C. Conservatives have yet to release their education plan despite repeated requests from Postmedia for information. Party leader John Rustad has said he will scrap SOGI 123, a set of books and resources designed to help teachers talk to students about bullying and create a safe space for LGBTQ+ students in the classroom. Rustad says this program promotes the “sexualization of children” and is contrary parental rights. He believes schools should focus on teaching children how to think — not what to think.

B.C. Greens: The Greens promise to modernize operational funding for K-12 education to ensure every school district has adequate resources and to create pre-approved school designs that will be reviewed every 10 years. The party also promises a range of supports for students, including mental health supports and free school lunches, as well as accessibility measures to help students with disabilities. The Greens would expand education on sexual orientation and gender identity issues, Indigenous issues and the Holocaust. They would expand the access grant for post-secondary students and provide $5 million annually to support prevention of sexual violence.

Cost of living

B.C. NDP: The NDP promises to cut taxes by about $1,000 for households and more than $500 for individuals by exempting an additional $10,000 of individual income from provincial income tax each year. The party has emphasized its track record for reducing costs through scrapping MSP premiums and bridge tolls and making prescription birth control free. The party promises to freeze ICBC premiums, add more affordable child-care spaces and expand the school meals program. It promises to eliminate B.C.’s carbon tax on consumers if the federal mandate requiring the tax is removed by the party that wins the next federal election.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives promise to cut costs for household by exempting $1,500 a month from rent and mortgage interest costs from provincial income taxes by 2026 and exempting up to $3,000 a month by 2029. The party also promises to end the “ICBC monopoly” on auto insurance, help parents directly with daycare costs and remove the carbon tax. The party says it will support industries like LNG, forestry, mining and agriculture to boost the economy while creating more private sector jobs. It also pledges to reduce taxes for small businesses.

B.C. Greens: The Greens promise to raise social assistance and disability assistance rates to help everyone meet basic living expenses. People earning more than $350,000 would be hit with a tax increase of about 22.5 per cent. The party would raise the food crisis grant from $40 a month to $200 a month to better support people facing food insecurity. The party also wants to expand the availability of “deeply affordable housing” to prevent people from becoming homeless. The Greens say people leaving hospitals, medical care and prisons will be offered support for at least six months to facilitate a successful transition.

Seniors care and seniors issues

B.C. NDP: The NDP says it will help seniors get around with free off-peak transit. The party promises to provide more assistance to seniors who rent and to increase the supplement for low-income seniors. The party pledges to help seniors live independently and will expand programs that provide non-medical support services for those who live at home. The party promises more affordable housing and will build 5,400 more long-term care beds.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives promise to expand access to home care as an alternative to long-term care, which they say would save $45,000 a senior each year in care costs while “improving seniors’ quality of life.” The party plans to boost tax credits for family caregivers and increase funding for home support. It would deliver 5,000 long-term care beds by 2030, provide financial assistance for mobility aids, glasses and hearing aids, and cover the cost of shingles and high-dose flu shots. The party would eliminate hospice care charges, improve assistance for seniors who rent and expand transportation options like HandyDART.

B.C. Greens: The Greens promise to provide more assistance to seniors who rent and to apply vacancy controls to assisted-living facilities. The party promises to increase publicly funded long-term care beds by 10 per cent each year to meet growing demand and to improve at-home care, respite care and day programs. The party vows to increase transparency around care home finances. It wants to develop strategies to help seniors in rural communities with housing, home care and transportation to medical appointments.

Indigenous relations

B.C. NDP: The NDP says it is committed to continuing work on completing all actions under the 2019 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act plan. So far, the government has made progress on 60 of the 89 actions and completed six, including the establishment of a declaration act secretariat and implementation of a mandatory course on First Peoples as part of the K-12 curriculum. The party’s other promises in 2024 include building housing for First Nations on and off reserve and partnering with First Nations on the protection of 30 per cent of the land base by 2030.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives are proposing a shift to what they call economic reconciliation through partnerships between First Nations and the private sector on natural resource projects in the mining, forestry and oil and gas sectors. Leader John Rustad has backed away from an initial promise to scrap the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, instead stating he will review the legislation and modify it if necessary. The party’s other promises include the return of 20 per cent of forests to First Nations and to push Ottawa to provide all nations with adequate housing and drinking water.

B.C. Greens: The Greens are promising to recognize all Indigenous governments and to seek to remove limitations on band councils formed under the Indian Act, to give all Indigenous governments stable funding and to enact an Indigenous Languages Act guaranteeing language rights, including for government-issued identification. They promise to review the Land Act to align it with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (similar to what the NDP was planning before facing backlash), to create an expert advisory committee on legislation related to Indigenous rights and to provide education to civil servants on Indigenous history.

Street disorder and public safety

B.C. NDP: The NDP says it will crack down on repeat offenders by strengthening targeted policing, while pushing the federal government for stronger bail and sentencing conditions for repeat violent offenders. To make streets safer, the party pledges to support police to keep guns off the streets and to continue anti-gang programs, like the new gang homicide team. The party promises tougher hate crime legislation, expanded availability of transition houses for women escaping domestic abuse, higher fines for “reckless supercar drivers” tied to the value of their cars, and red light cameras at busy intersections. The party will also ramp up seizures of the proceeds of organized crime.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives want to “clean up” communities by shutting down drug consumption sites that are not “meaningful gateways to treatment.” It would end B.C.’s drug decriminalization pilot. It promises to crack down on crime and open drug use, and increase policing in communities that have an increase in both. It would increase funding for police and hire more sheriffs and judges. It will fight for minimum sentences and create a court to hold trials for minor criminal offences within one week of arrest. It will have “zero tolerance” for tent cities on provincial property.

B.C. Greens: The Greens are vowing to “transform” policing and justice systems to prioritize accountability, equity and community safety. They would establish a new provincial police service, create a task force to investigate cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, disband the RCMP’s industry response group, and recognize the conservation service as law enforcement. The party promises to create a response system for mental health, addiction and other complex social issues. Drug use would be defined as a health and social issue, not a criminal one. The party wants to work toward decriminalizing substance use while ensuring services are in place.

Energy

B.C. NDP: The NDP’s plan is underpinned by their CleanBC strategy. Released in 2018, it’s meant to significantly reduce carbon emissions and transition the province to a less carbon-intensive economy. The NDP says it would double electricity generation by 2050 by increasing renewable sources like wind and solar. It would use revenues raised from oil and gas development, including liquefied natural gas, to build a “clean” economy, which it says will attract more investment. The party promises to expand the electricity grid, double electric vehicle chargers and provide rebates and incentives to increase efficiency and switch to electricity.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives plan on ripping up the CleanBC plan and say they’ll reverse the “forced” electrification of vehicles and natural-gas heating systems. They want to start a conversation on nuclear energy, which was banned in B.C. in 2010, and plan a feasibility study, particularly on the use of small modular reactors. The Conservatives acknowledge nuclear is not a short-term plan, but say all options should be on the table. They say B.C. cannot solely rely on renewable energy and will consider expanding hydroelectric capacity or developing new natural gas facilities, as well as alternative sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

B.C. Greens: The Greens say B.C. needs to transition away from fossil fuels and that doing so will protect the environment and strengthen the economy. They would spend on renewable energy like wind, solar and geothermal and create a timetable with annual targets to do so. They would fund research of geothermal energy production and work to transfer technological know-how from oil and gas drilling to the geothermal sector. The Greens would invest $20 million annually in small-scale solar projects, aiming to have solar account for 15 per cent of electricity generation by 2035.

Climate change

B.C. NDP: NDP leader David Eby would end the provincial carbon tax on consumers, if Ottawa removes the legal requirement to have one. The NDP says it will work with partners to preserve critical, at-risk areas of biodiversity, and will commit to protecting 30 per cent of land and water by 2030. The party would expand salmon restoration, fund the Youth Climate Corps, which provides environmental jobs to young people, and double public chargers for electric vehicles. The NDP would continue with solar panel and home battery rebates to create and store energy and lower hydro bills by putting electricity onto the grid.

Conservative Party of B.C.: So far, the Conservatives have not released a climate plan despite repeated requests from Postmedia. Party leader John Rustad has said he believes humans have played a role in causing warming, but it is not a crisis and that “taxing people into poverty” through the carbon tax “won’t change the weather.” He would axe the provincial carbon tax, increase disaster recovery funds and improve flood mitigation infrastructure to help farmers recover from extreme weather events.

B.C. Greens: Green Leader Sonia Furstenau says she would keep the carbon tax and has pledged to end new permits for fracking wells, to set a firm date to phase out gas production and to reject any new LNG projects. The Greens would also direct the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office to allow the 2014 environmental certificate for the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project pipeline to expire. The party has committed to protecting 30 per cent of B.C.’s land and water by 2030.

Infrastructure

B.C. NDP: The NDP promises to continue doing what it has started, such as complete the Pattullo Bridge replacement, build a Massey Tunnel replacement, and the Surrey to Langley extension of SkyTrain. New promises include extending the Broadway subway extension of SkyTrain to UBC and continue the next leg of Highway 1 widening from Abbotsford to Chilliwack. It would also extend intercity bus service between transportation hubs and support TransLink priorities, including bus rapid transit to the North Shore, extending the West Coast Express to Chilliwack and new commuter rail in the Fraser Valley. No costs were attached to the plans.

Conservative Party of B.C.: The Conservatives rolled out their transportation promises under the slogan “get B.C. moving,” but without costs attached. The list is heavy on bridges and highways, but includes commitments to transit and commuter rail in the Fraser Valley. The party would expand the Pattullo Bridge replacement to six lanes, expedite a Massey Tunnel replacement with a new “high-capacity” crossing, build a new Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, and widen Highway 1 to six lanes to Chilliwack. The party promises to extend SkyTrain to Newton and “fully fund” TransLink for two years while audits sort out a sustainable funding model.

B.C. Greens: The party has made public transportation a key plank in its platform by promising to make transit free, both through TransLink in Metro Vancouver and around the province through B.C. Transit. The party would double the number of buses travelling in and between cities within four years. Furstenau called it a “win-win” to reduce transportation costs for families and ease congestion on roads. The Greens also promise to give $650 million per year to municipalities to build infrastructure and to share a part of property transfer taxes with communities that meet housing development targets.

Story by: Vancouver Sun