The Green Party may have a platform that is filled with billions in new spending and bevy of new taxes and tax hikes to pay for it, but at least it is costed out, whereas the B.C. Conservative plan isn’t, NDP Leader David Eby noted Tuesday night in a televised debate in advance of the October 19 provincial election.
Tuesday’s debate covered a range of issues that the B.C. business community has identified as top concerns, including a housing crisis, reconciliation with First Nations, and fiscal accountability.
Moderator Shachi Kurl noted that all three party leaders have pledged billions in new spending, and asked each candidate how they planned to pay for it.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said his plan was to reduce red tape and grow the economy by unleashing the power of the private sector.
“We have seen almost zero private sector job growth in British Columbia,” he said, adding the provincial government is now facing deficits totalling $24 billion over the next three years.This is unaffordable in B.C. We need to unleash the potential of this province.
"We have a forest sector that is in shambles. Two thirds of it’s been lost. We have to get the feet back under the forest sector. We have 17 mines that need to be opened up. It takes two years in Sweden to open a mine. It takes 12 to 15 years in BC. We’ve got to get this red tape out of the way.”
Eby said B.C. has had “the fastest growing province economically since we formed government,” and one of the lowest unemployment rates, but said the province needs to do more to make sure people have the skills and training to fill all the jobs that are created.
“That's why we're doubling apprenticeships in the province to give people the chance to build a good life for themselves and their family,” he said.
The Green Party’s platform contains billions in new spending, which Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said would be paid for with new taxes on the wealthy. She also noted that hers is the only party that would retain a carbon tax.
“We have to find a way to tax wealth, and that's what we're proposing in our platform,” Furstenau said. “An 18 per cent tax on profits over $1 billion, a 0.2 per cent increase on school tax on properties over $3 million, and a 12.5 per cent marginal tax on incomes over $350,000 and then taxing all assets, all real estate assets, looking at that whole wealth and making sure we're capturing that wealth and taxing it properly.”
Eby said the NDP’s fiscal plan would see deficits declining “over time,” and said at least his party and the Green Party have platforms that are costed out.
“We're expanding programs for people, and we're making sure that… with our costed platform you see declining deficits over time. We're going to return to balance, but we're not going to make you pay for it.
“John, you haven't released a costed platform. An economist at UBC says your platform is written in pixie dust. Can you at least be honest with British Columbians? How deep are the cuts going to be in the review that you've proposed? And I know you started with child care for the middle class, getting rid of support for them, but what else is on the chopping block?”
Rustad shot back that $24 billion in deficits over three years is not responsible.
“They have no hope whatsoever to get back to a balanced budget,” he said.
Housing
The array of ideas for dealing with B.C. housing affordability and availability that were thrown out by the three leaders underscored just how complex the problem is.
“You say you will undo NDP policies, including rent caps, restrictions on short term rentals and allowing more density on single family lots,” Kurl said in a question to Rustad. “How would removing these measures help with affordability?”
“We did not say we'll remove rent caps, and we're not going to remove rent caps,” Rustad answered.
He said one of the problems in B.C. with housing is that government bureaucracy holds back the private sector from building new homes.
“It takes far too long to get housing built in this province,” he said. “We're going to come to communities with $1 billion a year to be able to invest in things like water and sewer upgrades so that we can clean up the backlog that's needed, so that the investment can be there for densification. We're going to work with communities on zoning so that we can zone for densification.”
He added a Conservative government would bring back a multi-unit residential (MUR) program.
“This is a program that was very successful building rental units across this country," he said. "It's critical to bring that back.”
Eby said an NDP government would deliver 300,000 new homes.
“John Rustad explicitly said he doesn't think that it's the premier's job to help deliver affordable housing,” Eby said. “Well, our plan will deliver 300,000 middle income homes.
“In addition, we're expediting construction by investing in modular housing construction so housing can be built faster and cheaper.”
Furstenau said one of the problems with housing in B.C. is that it is treated too much as a commodity for investors.
“Neither of these other leaders want to talk about the role that financialized investors, real estate investment trusts, are playing in B.C.,” Furstenau said.
“In 20 years, 59 per cent of rental housing was purchased by real estate investment trusts. We have global capital coming to B.C. buying up housing, and it is not being used to ensure that people have a place to live. It's being used to ensure that shareholders get their profits delivered.”
First Nations reconciliation
Concerns have arisen in recent months, especially within the resources sector, over the NDP’s reconciliation efforts – something that was underscored when the provincial government attempted to amend the Land Act in an effort to harmonize it with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ACT), and then had to retreat from the plan.
Kurl asked Eby if an NDP government would resume its amendments to the Land Act, if re-elected.
“No, we won't,” Eby answered. “And the reason is that we need to show confidence of British Columbians in this critically important work.”
Rustad has pledged to repeal DRIPA, though he has added that a Conservative government would use the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) as a guide. He said the act has created “friction” between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, and that the government’s focus should be on economic reconciliation.
“It needs to be replaced with what makes sense so that we are not creating the divisions amongst people, but instead we're making sure that both Indigenous and non Indigenous (people) have the opportunity to be able to fully participate and benefit from a growing and expanding economy,” Rustad said.
At least one B.C. First Nation – the Tsilhqot’in – have publicly denounced Rustad’s pledge to repeal DRIPA.
“The path that the B.C. Conservatives has outlined for British Columbia is a path of conflict on the land and in the courts,” the Tsilhqot’in National Government said in a press release yesterday.
“DRIPA is an essential framework to hold B.C. to international laws and standards, to implement the human rights of Indigenous peoples in B.C., and to resolve long-standing conflicts in this province based on recognition and respect, in a manner that benefits all British Columbians."
