The B.C. Liberals previously unveiled their 2017 election platform and now the B.C. New Democratic Party has done the same.
B.C. NDP leader John Horgan officially laid out his party’s platform on Thursday morning. The platform promises to freeze ferry fares and reduce small-route fares by 15 per cent along with reinstating the 100-per cent seniors’ weekday discount.
Other highlights include promises to freeze hydro rates, establish $10-per-day childcare, provide a $400 rental credit, raise minimum wage rates to $15, trim ICBC rates and eliminate MSP payments within four years.
The platform also commits to revitalizing the forestry industry by creating 114,000 rental, social and co-op homes over a 10-year period using wood products from B.C.
Leonard Krog, the NDP incumbent in Nanaimo, called his party’s platform “solid” and “workable” for everyday British Columbians.
”It’s the platform of a party that has had experience in government and wants the opportunity to do it again and is not going to oversell and is not going to make ridiculous goals that cannot be kept,” he said.
Krog said commitments such as eliminating MSP payments, freezing hydro rates and ferry fares and giving a rental credit will improve the lives of ordinary people in Nanaimo.
“Those things actually help people who are struggling and I think that is the important thing,” he said. “Getting rid of MSP premiums, putting the brakes on hydro until we can sort out the mess that they’ve made of hydro, giving an annual rental credit of $400 … those things actually help people who are struggling,” he said.
The party’s announcement comes days after the Liberals announced an Island-specific platform on Monday, one day before the writ officially dropped. One of the highlights of that platform was a limited tax credit for 25 per cent of ferry fares for residents of ferry-dependent communities.
Krog said the Liberals tax credits will not help seniors or those who are low-income earners, adding that it will only benefit those who are higher-income earners.
“This is not going to help seniors going back and forth to Vancouver to see their friends and family and grandkids. This is not going to help a whole bunch of people on social assistance. This is not going to help people earning the minimum wage,” Krog said. “The people who are going to benefit from this are the people who are already better off than many and in my community where so many people do not have a taxable income, the credit is not really a benefit.”
Paris Gaudet, candidate for the B.C. Liberals in the Nanaimo riding, told the News Bulletin that the NDP platform is unbalanced, lacks creativity and would cost middle class families a fortune.
“My first thought was who is going to be paying for all this?” she said. “It just doesn’t add up. The plan is not costed, it’s not believable and it doesn’t add up to support the middle-class B.C. family.”
She said freezing all ferry fares is a short-sighted idea that will ultimately cost taxpayers.
“Again, who is going to be paying this? You’re going to freeze all fares but there still has to be a base to keep these services going,” Gaudet said. “Somebody in another part of British Columbia that doesn’t live on Vancouver Island is going to be paying for ferry service. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Gaudet said if the New Democrats were to win the election, the province would return to the “dark days” of the 1990s.
“I don’t think people remember just what happened in British Columbia during that time. We were dead last in Canada for employment and economic growth and 50,000 families left B.C. because there was no job opportunities and this is exactly what this platform is going to be doing,” she said. “It’s going to be a repeat of the 1990s.”
nicholas.pescod@nanaimobulletin.com