Abortion, Euthanasia & Alternatives

Abortion

The party states that:
– while currently, abortions are performed by BC health care professionals both within provincially-operated facilities and private clinics, it believes that abortions (the killing of tiny human beings) do not qualify as “health care”, nor that BC taxpayers, many of whom are conscientiously opposed to abortion, should be forced to pay for them
– it also believes that the money spent on abortions in BC could be better spent on pregnancy care and support for new mothers. Many studies indicate negative health impacts for women who undergo abortions, including suicide, depression, birthing complications and a higher incidence of breast cancers.
– therefor the party advocates a. removing abortion from the list of taxpayer-funded surgical procedures
– the party further believes that BC taxpayers should not be forced to pay for any surgeries that are not medically necessary. (Abortion is an elective surgery and is not medically necessary).
– it advocates restoring the access to statistical information about abortions performed in all BC hospitals and private clinics, including making it mandatory to document all medical procedures in BC. This information must be available to the public through Freedom of Information requests.
– repealing provincial “Bubble Zone” legislation (Access to Abortion Services ACT of 1995) and restoring freedom of speech in BC.

Socially-Assisted Death

The party advocates defending senior citizens and those with disabilities from attempts to institute euthanasia and assisted suicide in the province of BC.

Human Engineering

The party states that:
– BC taxpayers should not be forced to pay for any surgeries that are not medically necessary.

Abortion, Euthanasia & Alternatives | Human Engineering | Population Control

The party has published no statement concerning its policies relating to:
• The meaning or purpose of life
• Abortion, euthanasia, or alternatives
• Gender modification, gene manipulation, or other forms of human engineering
• Population Control

Abortion, Euthanasia & Alternatives | Human Engineering | Population Control

The party has published no statement concerning its policies relating to
• The meaning or purpose of life
• Abortion, euthanasia, or alternatives
• Gender modification, gene manipulation, or other forms of human engineering
• Population Control

Abortion, Euthanasia & Alternatives | Human Engineering | Population Control

The party has published no statement concerning its policies relating to:

• The meaning or purpose of life
• Abortion, euthanasia, or alternatives
• Gender modification, gene manipulation, or other forms of human engineering
• Population Control

Abortion, Euthanasia & Alternatives

The party has published no statement concerning its policies relating to:
• The meaning or purpose of life
• Abortion, euthanasia, or alternatives

Human Engineering, Population Control

The party states that:
– since it came into office, reducing costs for British Columbians remains a priority for it. It has been steadily increasing investments over the past several years to help people with everyday costs, including making more services free, such as prescription contraception.

In-Vitro Fertilization
The party states that:
– for people wanting to start a family, infertility and other barriers to parenthood can have a profound effect on their well-being and quality of life.
– to support people who need help on the path to parenthood, its 2024 budget allocates $68 million for the establishment of a program to help with the cost of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) services, including consultations with an expert clinical group to define funded IVF services including age considerations, service delivery options, and care pathways to access the service throughout B.C. The program will be launched April 1, 2025, to help with the costs of treatment and medication for a single cycle of treatment.
– the new publicly funded program will benefit hopeful parents in B.C. regardless of their relationship status, who they love and how much money they make by removing a barrier for people who may not otherwise be able to access fertility services.

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY – PARTY HAS ANNOUNCED ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ELECTION.  CHECK CANDIDATE LISTING AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BEFORE GOING TO POLLS)

Abortion, Euthanasia & Alternatives | Human Engineering | Population Control

The party has published no statement concerning its policies relating to:

• The meaning or purpose of life
• Abortion, euthanasia, or alternatives
• Gender modification, gene manipulation, or other forms of human engineering
• Population Control

Climate Change

The party states that:
– climate is subject to change due to many factors, including natural causes
– it does not believe that CO2 is the primary cause of climate change nor does it subscribe to climate alarmism with frantic and expensive efforts to eliminate the use of carbon-based fuels
– it advocates responsible and cost-effective research into potential alternative energy sources while allowing the ongoing use, development and transportation of reliable and time-tested energy sources such as— but not limited to—oil, wood, natural gas and coal
– it is concerned about the release of man-made chemical emissions into BC’s beautiful blue skies under Weather Modification efforts. A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will defend the right of BC residents to have no chemical additives deliberately released into BC skies by any government agency or private corporation. It will renew environmental monitoring and protection of BC’s air and skies from unwanted deliberate emissions.

Energy & Resources; Sustainable Development

The party advocates:
– expanding hydroelectric power, especially environmentally-friendly run-of-river projects, opening up the mining industry and rejuvenating the forest industry by reducing bureaucratic red tape and moving to a market based system that is open to all operators including small businesses
– encouraging the use of methanol in gasoline sold within the province
– encouraging construction of plants to convert wood fibre and other products to clean petroleum
– encouraging the Forest Industry to harvest pine beetle infested trees and reseed the harvested area as soon as possible. This will salvage the trees that would otherwise go to waste and will create jobs in the Forest Industry. Timber that cannot be used for lumber or pulp will be turned into liquid bio-fuel
– active promotion of the creation of energy via alternate methods, including wind power, tidal power, solar power and hydrogen power, including the production of hydrogen and bio-fuel from bio-waste such as effluents, junk fish, dead trees and agricultural waste materials
– actively encouraging the building of a bridge from the Mainland to Vancouver Island that incorporates tidal power generators into the structure and generates enough tidal power to pay the capital construction cost and maintenance cost of the bridge over a reasonable time
– amending the Mineral Tenure Act to prohibit unauthorized access to private property for mineral exploration
– reducing the regulation and red tape that prevents more resource-based industries from opening in British Columbia
– promoting the long term generation of electricity by using;
1 – existing hydro electric generating facilities
2 – in-stream turbines
3 – wind generators where practical and deemed to be safe
4 – bio-generation methods to make use of our wastes and effluents
5 – off shore wave generation (using the likes of Pelamis machines)
6 – direct hydrogen generation (using standing, contained effluents)
7 – solar energy
8 – thermal energy
9 – nuclear energy but not until viable waste-disposal solutions have been found; promoting research into the promising Thorium Reactor which appears to be cleaner, safer and to have a more readily-available supply of mineral fuel
10 – geothermal power generation and heat exchange technology; and in addition, any new technology that is developed will be investigated and assessed

In the interim, the party advocates:
1- expanding and improving mass transit facilities where economically feasible
2- facilitating commercial traffic flow and possibly rewarding its use during off-peak hours
3- providing tax credits for research in clean burning fuels for commercial transportation
4- encouraging the use of electric / hydrogen powered vehicles
5- encouraging hydrogen containment and generation technology development in BC
6 – embarking on a major education program aimed at conserving energy

Climate Change

The party states:
– scrap the carbon tax. The regressive, job-killing carbon tax drives up the cost of living and has no impact on global emissions. It is unfair to rural and northern communities and leads to the offshoring of jobs overseas.
– expand liquid natural gas (LNG). It advocates dramatically expanding B.C.’s natural gas production and LNG export facilities and reduce global emissions through the displacement of coal-fired electricity in countries like China.
– get pipelines built. Pipelines are the safest and most economical means of transporting oil and natural gas and are essential in getting our resources to market. Their construction, including TMX, Coastal GasLink and Northern Gateway, deserve our complete support.

Energy & Resources; Sustainable Development

The party states that:
– British Columbians are being taxed into poverty. With the highest gas prices in North America, it’s time to axe the Carbon Tax, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and ensure more refined product reaches the B.C. market.
– it supports B.C. Forestry. B.C.’s forest industry is the envy of the world. It is 100% sustainable and renewable and supports tens of thousands of high-paying jobs across the province.
– it advocates holding activists responsible. Activists who impede the activity of resource development through illegal blockades, harassment and violence must be held legally, and financially, responsible for their actions – as must the groups that support them.
– it supports the encouragement of mining, hydro-electricity, fishing, and more. British Columbia is a resource superpower. Encourage and promote the development of these resources in a way that is sustainable, and that delivers maximum value to the taxpayers of our province.

Climate Change

Carbon Neutrality
The party states that:
– the science is clear: without massive intervention to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, we are heading toward a catastrophe.
– the first step is setting clear goals. The party is committed to making BC carbon neutral by 2045, 5 years ahead of the federal government commitment and in line with California, a leading jurisdiction on climate action

The party advocates:
– interim targets to keep the province on track, as well as sectoral targets for industry
– development of a robust strategy to meet the 2030 target, and development of an accountability framework to ensure we get there. We will take immediate steps to send a signal of our intent by ending government support for the fossil fuel industry
– ending oil and gas subsidies and a moratorium on fracking
– prioritizing natural climate solutions, protecting and restoring forests and wetlands to maximize their potential as carbon sinks
– developing an accountability framework to ensure targets are met.

Species, Diversity & Wildlife

The party states that:
– the beauty and wonder of BC’s wilderness are not only a source of pride for all who call this province home, but the stunning biodiversity that live within provincial ecosystems are central to the health of British Columbia – our physical, mental, social, and cultural wellbeing are inextricably linked to the survival of the natural world around us.
– humans, of course, are part of nature, not isolated from it. While it is something we instinctively understand, our policies need to get better at recognizing this interdependence – an appreciation that the wellbeing of people is connected to the well-being of the river, the forest, the ocean, even future generations.
– we need to embed in our management practices an understanding and acceptance that what we do to the world, we do to ourselves.
– BC’s native ecosystems are reaching a crisis point. Many fish and wildlife populations have been in decline for decades and are currently at record lows. Foundational species like mountain caribou, moose, Interior Fraser Steelhead, Fraser River salmon, and sturgeon are at serious risk.
– lack of funding over many years for wildlife and habitat conservation, and a lack of commitment to science, vague objectives, and a tendency to side with industry instead of threatened species has meant that some of B.C.’s fish and wildlife populations are being managed to zero.
– the fundamentals of responsible fish and wildlife stewardship are funding, science, and social support. We need increased and dedicated funding, science-based objectives for habitat and populations, establishing healthy hunting and fishing limits, and accountability for the ministries that are managing fish and wildlife.
– if we work urgently, with inspiration and vision, we can heal and restore BC’s incredible biodiversity.

The party advocates prioritizing protection of wildlife and their habitat across government, including:
– establishing a strategy to manage our wetlands;
– protecting coastal ecosystems with a Coastal Law and Strategy;
– ensuring appropriate legislative oversight through legislated objectives for fish and wildlife;
– moving the fish and wildlife branch from FLNRO and the Ministry of Environment;
– urgently matching and exceeding historic provincial funding levels for the fish and wildlife branch to match the unprecedented challenges we now face.
– ensuring that science about the status of our wildlife and environment is independent from political interference and made freely available to the public.
– enhanced funding for wildlife conservation, habitat protection and habitat acquisition and dedication of all fishing, hunting, guide-outfitting, and trapping license fees for this purpose.
– creating an endangered species law that establishes legal protection of species and their habitat to ensure their recovery and survival.
– taking action on fish farms to protect wild salmon, including (1) supporting the full implementation of the Wild Salmon Advisory Council recommendations and Cohen Commission recommendations, working urgently to enforce all measures within provincial jurisdiction; (2) negotiate strongly with DFO to complete the recommendations under federal jurisdiction; and (3) working with DFO, First Nations, local communities, and industry, providing stimulus and incentives to create a close containment land based fish farming industry and canceling open-pen fish farm tenures.
– establishing a made-in-BC Environmental Charter that lays out: (1) substantive rights to clean air, clean water, and healthy ecosystems; (2) procedural rights that allow everyone to participate in decisions that affect the environment; (3) information rights that ensure we all have access to all the information relevant to decisions that affect the environment; and (4) application of the precautionary principle to decisions that affect the environment.
– enhance funding for B.C. Parks and the Conservation Officer Service, to a level that will improve infrastructure and ensure that our natural ecosystems are not being degraded, including creation of more campgrounds to meet demand, ensuring that the creation of more sites is commensurate with expanding overall park land and does not cut into existing protected areas.

Energy & Resources

Water
The party states that:
– water is fundamental to many aspects of our lives: to agriculture, energy production, transportation, freshwater fisheries, recreation and industrial processes, not to mention drinking and personal use.
– the forecast impacts of climate change on water supply vary across the province from extreme rainfall events to extended periods of drought. Each end of the spectrum presents different challenges for communities from storm and wastewater management to water contamination, turbidity and salination of groundwater in coastal areas.
– climate-related risks to drinking water are many and are often exacerbated by poor management decisions. Forestry management and water quality are also inextricably linked. As the timber supply has become more constrained, logging has moved closer to communities and into community drinking watersheds, causing painful divisions in the community and threats to drinking water.
– we must recognize that access to clean water is a human right, and we have a duty to ensure the B.C. communities have long-term, reliable, and equitable access to clean water.

To that end, the party advocates:
– allocation of $50 million to create a dedicated Watershed Security Fund that will create sustainable jobs in communities across BC in watershed restoration,
monitoring, technology, training, and education.
– expanding the model of the Cowichan Watershed Board across the province and establishing shared decision-making authority with watershed boards, with watershed sustainability as a core mandate.
– conducting comprehensive watershed planning in conjunction with First Nations, communities, government agencies, stewardship organizations and industry and including watersheds as part of a landscape-level ecosystem-based management approach to development.
– implementing the Water Sustainability Act to secure the environmental flows needed to sustain healthy and functioning rivers, lakes and watersheds.
– working with local governments, school districts and other stakeholders to upgrade municipal infrastructure and replace household pipes through grants and incentives.
– exploring science-based solutions to reduce water acidity.
– a ban on fracking, a chemical-intensive process that has been shown to contaminate freshwater, trigger earthquakes, leak methane, and pose an unacceptable risk to human health.

Sustainable Development
Among its six core principles, the party advocates:
– using natural resources wisely to protect the rights and needs of future generations
– learning to live within the physical and biological limits of our Earth and to protect its life-giving nature.
Community and Habitat Resilience
The party states that:
– communities need to be aware of the risks they face from a changing climate and to have plans to address them. Communities need to build capacity in to respond safely and effectively to extreme weather and natural disasters – and so they can recover quickly when the threat has passed.
– communities must be protected from wildfires and flooding through landscape level, ecologically-centred, forest management and fuel treatment projects.
– the province must also increase the resilience of regional ecosystems by restoring habitats and protecting biodiversity.

The party advocates:
– allocating $100 million over 4 years to fund climate adaptation initiatives for communities, including the development of a coordinated approach with First Nations and other levels of government to disaster risk reduction.
– building capacity in communities so they can respond safely and effectively to extreme weather and natural disasters – and so they can recover quickly when the threat has passed.
– protecting communities from wildfires and flooding through landscape level, ecologically-centred, forest management and fuel treatment projects.
– increasing the resilience of regional ecosystems by restoring habitats and protecting biodiversity.

Agriculture & Food Security
The party states that:
– the COVID pandemic raised awareness of the importance of food security; and in California and other places have reinforced the message: the food security of British Columbians is threatened by the changing climate in major supply regions such as California, Florida and Mexico. We need to be prepared. We must do more to protect agricultural land in our communities, expand the area of land under food production, and establish a long-term food sustainability strategy for the province. This can decrease reliance on increasingly unreliable import supply chains and diversify our farming in BC.
– you can’t have real food without farmers. We need to urgently identify and implement options to make farming a more attractive and lucrative endeavour, especially for younger farmers
– in recent years, agricultural land has become tied to the escalating housing market in many parts of BC, and it’s become untenable for young farmers to get on the land. There are tools at government’s disposal to remedy this. Just as government stepped in to create the agricultural land reserve many decades ago, it is possible to ensure that farming has a future in B.C.
– one option is to create a publicly owned agricultural land bank available to lease by new farmers.
– it’s also important to recognize that all of these decisions are connected. The decisions that we make about our forests, and about development, all impact our food security. We need to get smarter about how we make decisions and recognize this interconnection. Operating in silos won’t solve these challenges.

The party advocates creation of a Food Secure B.C. strategy to make B.C. agriculture more climate resilient, improve local food security and support local agricultural producers, including:
– establishment of a long-term food sustainability strategy for the province to decrease reliance on import supply chains and diversify farming in BC.
– making food production and food security part of the Agricultural Land Commission’s mandate.
– expanding the area of land under food production and creating a publicly owned agricultural land bank available to lease by new farmers.
– recognizing income and regional disparities in food insecurity across BC and working to enhance access to high quality, healthy food for low-income British Columbians, including developing systems for First Nations that honour Indigenous knowledge and values.
– incentivizing agro-ecological farming practices and supporting small-scale farms to adopt new technologies to reduce carbon emissions.
– investigating options to make farming a more attractive and sustainable endeavour, including (1) ensuring that farmers have access to local processing facilities and that they share in the returns from processing; and (2) enabling the growing of high value crops, such as cannabis, to supplement farm income.
– providing $10 million per year to fund research and establish regional agricultural bureaus to provide expertise and support to local farmers to apply innovations on-farm and adapt to a changing climate.
– restriction and regulation of foreign ownership of ALR land.

Forestry
The party states that:
– we need to take back control of our forests from major corporations, ensuring forestry is meeting the needs of local communities, both economically and ecologically.
– the forests of BC are a public resource that belong to the people of BC, and the should be managed that way. This means reinstating government authority in decision-making, undertaking major tenure reform, and enhancing scientific capacity in FLNRO.
– despite promising to do things differently, the current government has not changed, in any substantial way, the status quo of forestry management in this province. Recently the cutting of old growth continued as fast as it did under the prior government, and no meaningful reforms to forest management have been made. Local job losses and unsustainable forestry practices have continued.
– forests should be managed holistically, for all the values they hold. Most fundamentally this means enacting legislation that establishes conservation of ecosystem health and biodiversity of BC’s forests as an overarching priority, with timber supply as just one benefit. Different planning processes and harvesting methods flow from this fundamental shift in forest management practice. We can’t continue to liquidate our natural resources for the benefit of shareholders of massive corporations, while continuing to shed local jobs in communities across BC as mills close. Instead we need to generate far more jobs and revenue from what we harvest, for example by ensuring that small producers have access to fibre, incentivizing value-added wood products and nontraditional uses of wood fibre, and revenue-sharing with First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts.
– the province needs to recognize crucial importance of forests to biodiversity and to protect our remaining old growth forests forever. This means fully implementing the recommendations of the old growth review panel in partnership with First Nations and an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems across the province, with the funding needed to back this up and create new opportunities for communities, rather than continuing “consultations” with little action.

The party advocates move now to protect what the province has left, including:
– reforming forestry management in BC so that it serves the long-term needs of local communities and supports a truly sustainable industry, where community and ecosystem values are the primary focus of management.
– taking back control of forests from major corporations, ensuring forestry is meeting the needs of local communities.
– reinstating government authority in decision-making at provincial and local levels, including enhancing the authority of district managers to refuse or amend permits.
– tenure reform to redistribute tenures from a few major companies and grow the proportion of tenures held by First Nations and community forests.
– establish a legislative position of Forester General position, an officer of the legislature who is non-partisan and reports to the House annually.
– establishing a Chief Scientist as a counterpart to the Chief Forester to ensure multiple values are adequately incorporated into timber supply analysis.
– enhancing capacity in FLNRO and establishing more community based Ministry of Forests staff, to support the sustainable management of local forest resources and provide well-paying community jobs.

In order to manage provincial forests holistically, for all the values they hold, the party advocates:
– shifting the management framework through reforming legislation, away from an exclusive focus on timber supply to managing for all the values that our forests hold.
– adopting a wider variety of logging practices, including selective logging and longer stand rotations.
– undertaking landscape-level ecosystem-based planning, reforestation and restoration in partnership with local communities and First Nations.
– protecting communities from wildfires and flooding through landscape level, ecologically-centred, forest management and fuel treatment projects.
– restoring government capacity to ensure forest stewardship, monitoring and enforcement, and enhance funding for forest inventory research and primary research.

To protect remaining high value old growth forests forever, the party advocates:
– full and immediate implementation of the recommendations of the old growth review panel, in partnership with First Nations. This includes: (1) an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems across the province; (2) legislation to establish conservation of ecosystem health and biodiversity of BC’s forests as an overarching priority.
– establishing funding mechanisms to support the preservation of old growth forests.

To generate more jobs and revenue from forest harvesting, the party advocates:
– ensuring that small producers have access to fibre and incentivize value-added product innovation, including non-traditional uses of wood fibre including bio fuels, and productive uses of residual fibre.
– applying the carbon tax to slash-pile burning to reduce carbon emissions from our forestry sector and ensuring the use of residual materials.
– ending raw log exports.
– ensuring that benefits of B.C. resource flow to local communities, by directly sharing more resource revenues with local First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts.
– improving support for forestry workers and communities, including through expanded investments into retraining and support for new job opportunities.
– investigating opportunities to diversify milling and secondary manufacturing to better use existing timber.
– promotion of more sustainable development of forest resources, including investing in tourism opportunities and low-carbon economies.

Transportation
The party states that:
– nearly 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions in BC are from the transportation sector. Establishing a world leading zero-emission transportation system from one side of the province to the other would not make a major dent in our emissions while supporting post-pandemic recovery
– is supports prioritizing investments in electrifying provincial transit systems, including partnering with the federal government to accelerate support for BC Transit and Translink’s efforts to electrify their bus fleets
– a clear vision is also needed for the provincial transportation sector. This means enhancing the ZEV mandate and undertaking a comprehensive build out of public charging infrastructure on all highways in the province, particularly in remote and rural BC, to enable EV drivers to travel across BC with ease. Government should lead the way by requiring all BC government agencies operating in urban centres to shift to 100% ZEV fleets by 2030.
– it is also necessary to lower the cost of electric vehicles so that ordinary British Columbians can afford them. As a first step, it proposes making ZEV ownership more accessible by removing PST on used electric cars and supporting electric vehicle charging in multi-unit buildings.

The party advocates:
– taking early action to enhance the ZEV mandate by accelerating the ZEV mandate to require 100% ZEV non-commercial vehicle sales by 2035; and making ZEV ownership more accessible by removing PST on used EVs
– working with industry to develop additional innovation incentive programs, and to set new ZEV targets for commercial vehicles and on and offroad medium and heavy duty vehicles;
– shifting to 100% ZEV passenger vehicle fleets for BC government agencies by 2030.
– prioritizing investments in electrifying of provincial transit systems, including partnering with the federal government to accelerate support for BC Transit and Translink’s efforts to electrify their bus fleets
– a comprehensive build out of public charging infrastructure on all highways in the province, particularly in remote and rural BC, to enable EV travel across BC with ease
– support for electric vehicle charging in multi-unit buildings through a variety of tools, including building code changes and establishing “right to charge” rules

Stewardship of Creation

Energy & Resources

The party states that:
– the radical “CleanBC” program is an elaborate scheme that, while doing little to help the environment or address the effects of climate change, will drive up energy costs, limit poverty-reducing opportunities in rural and First Nations communities, and generally make life miserable individuals and businesses across the entire province – hitting our world-class resource industries particularly hard
– banning nuclear and fossil fuels, fighting hydroelectric projects and pipelines in the courts, forcing the mining and energy industries to purchase expensive power from BC Hydro, and imposing punitive carbon, fuel, and health taxes while at the same time subsidising expensive, intermittent, and unreliable solar and wind projects that themselves rely on fossil fuels for their production is bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and bad for British Columbians. Good intentions aren’t the same thing as good results, and the CleanBC plan isn’t the same thing as a good idea

The party advocates:
– liberating the energy and resources sectors so that British Columbia may once again punch above its weight in providing the world with world-class, ethically-produced energy and resources that make our comfortable modern world possible, and empower us and millions of others around the world to enhance their environment, adapt to a changing climate, and improve their lives
– taking a smarter approach to energy and resource regulation, liberating core industries from many of the inefficient bureaucratic and regulatory burdens placed on them, while at the same time empowering landowners, municipalities, and First Nations with enshrined property rights protections, and saving taxpayers billions of dollars a year by eliminating corporate welfare in all of its forms, allowing the market to function without the government rewarding losers with bailouts and punishing the innovative upstarts and winners with excessive taxes and regulations that drive up operating costs, drive down competitiveness, limit job creation, and slow innovation
– it continues to invite stake-holder feedback on the critical issues of natural resources, oil & gasoline, logging & forestry, land use rights, fish farming, the Agricultural Land Reserve and more.
– repealing the GreenBC plan to create a government monopoly in energy
– allowing private energy providers to sell directly to consumers, not to BC Hydro
– ending government legal opposition to pipelines and resource export projects
– requesting that the federal government lift the tanker ban in Northern BC
– requesting that the federal government lift the offshore drilling moratorium
– ending corporate welfare and preferential treatment towards energy and resource companies
– eliminating the carbon tax

Stewardship of Creation

The party states that:
– British Columbia has a strong economy, a beautiful natural environment, abundant natural resources and a highly skilled and talented workforce who drive the economy forward. During its term in government it has continued to leverage B.C.’s strengths by making investments and implementing measures to support inclusive growth.
– its 2024 provincial budget provides new investments to protect British Columbians from the effects of climate change and build a stronger, cleaner economy that works for everyone. Over $1.3 billion in new funding measures will help:
(1) mitigate and better respond to the impacts of climate emergencies,
(2) invest in a cleaner and greener economy, and
(3) maintain and improve access to communities through road, transit and community infrastructure investments
– some of investments will begin in 2023/24 and are in addition to funding provided through Budget 2023.

Responding to Climate Emergencies

The party states that:
– B.C. has experienced the impacts of climate change through increasingly frequent and severe climate-related emergencies, from record flooding in November 2021 to unsurpassed drought and wildfires in 2023.
– B.C.’s response to emergency events has historically been led by Emergency Management BC, which has now transitioned to a dedicated Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.
– during its current term in office it has committed to investment of $252 million in new funding over four years to bolster the province’s capacity to prepare for and respond to future climate emergencies.
– the $252 million investment includes $18 million over the fiscal plan to support year-round delivery of government response and recovery programs, such as supporting provincial and regional operations centres and better coordinating vital communications that alert residents to imminent hazards and evacuation orders.
– its 2024 budget broadens support for evacuees by funding specially-trained Service BC call centre agents who provide virtual navigation for accessing information and emergency services. Other new Service BC staff can be deployed directly to impacted communities to facilitate critical emergency services, such as emergency funding distribution and on-site replacement of official documents.
– the remaining $234 million of new funding supports two years of priority infrastructure projects and programming to decrease flood risks in the Lower Mainland and improve the Province’s ability to manage water resources, especially during times of water scarcity. This includes:
• $77 million in 2023/24 to upgrade the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford, which was critical in responding to the November 2021 flooding in the Sumas Prairie.
• $83 million in 2023/24 to increase funding for the Agriculture Water Infrastructure Program. This program supports the agriculture industry and communities to effectively manage, collect, transport and store water for agriculture and irrigation purposes. Improved agricultural water management is critical during times of drought
to ensure human and livestock food sources are secure
• $50 million in 2024/25 for the purchase and installation of water metering in select communities to enable them to better conserve water by identifying leaks, establishing appropriate rates, and educating users on their actual water use;
• $14 million in 2023/24 to help replace the 50-year old Cowichan Lake weir. A higher weir will enable more water to be stored in Cowichan Lake, an important source of drinking water, and better manage water flows to support improved fish habitat in the Cowichan River. This project will be completed in partnership with the Cowichan
Tribes; and
• $10 million in 2024/25 to increase the water storage capacity and better sustain the required environmental water flow of Saint Mary Lake on Salt Spring Island by raising the dam height.

Wildfire Management
The party states that:
– following B.C.’s record wildfire season in 2023, it has committed to investing $154 million in new operating funding and $21 million in capital funding over the next three years to support additional wildfire response, recovery and infrastructure resources.
– while statutory funding to respond to wildfires remains available no matter the cost of a wildfire season, the party has committed to increasing the budget for year-round wildfire response and recovery activities. This approach recognizes the cost of fighting wildfires and rehabilitating the landscape is on the rise and should be planned for where possible.
– incremental capital and operating funding includes:
• $56 million for aviation preparedness and response through increased contract funding for helicopter and air tanker services;
• $60 million for the Forest Enhancement Society of BC to continue industry and community focused wildfire risk reduction and fuel management;
• $38 million to support stable, year-round resourcing including fire crew leaders and front-line staff that provide structure protection, prevention and risk reduction, and
wildfire land-based recovery; and
• $21 million in capital funding for a new Prince George equipment depot

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY.  PARTY HAS ANNOUNCED ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ELECTION.  CHECK CANDIDATE LISTING AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BEFORE GOING TO THE POLL.) 

Stewardship of Creation

The party states that:
– at a time when families are stretched too thin, the current government has doubled the carbon tax. It advocates cancelling the current government’s plan to further triple the carbon tax, and fully canceling the carbon tax if the federal government does.
– not everyone can take a bus to work or to their kids’ soccer practice. Repealing the fuel tax can save families 15 cents a litre, or about $30 for a Ford pickup or Dodge minivan.
– to give British Columbians the same bread Atlantic Canadians get on the carbon tax for home heating, it advocates scrapping the carbon tax on all home heating.

Making Groceries Cheaper
– grocery prices are through the roof. Cutting the fuel tax and cancelling the carbon tax hikes will make groceries cheaper by reducing the cost of growing and transporting food
– families that can’t afford a basic car of their own shouldn’t have to pay for wealthy people to buy Teslas and other luxury EVs. BC United will scrap this unfair handout.

Energy & Resources

The party states that:
– B.C.’s natural resources are the economic lifeblood of the province, but the current government and activists want British Columbians to be ashamed of them. It’s time to stop saying sorry for provincial resources.
– under the current government, resource extraction and development projects are choked by high taxes, red tape, and uncertainty. It’s time to end the culture of “no,” simplify and expedite approvals, and start getting big things done again.
– it advocates going all-in on the development of liquid natural gas (LNG), displacing reliance on coal abroad and contributing to a cleaner planet, all while creating jobs and growing paycheques at home.

Conservation & Sustainable Development

The party states that:
– the current government’s “CleanBC Plan” will kill jobs, kill paycheques, and plunge the province into a recession, while doing nothing for the environment. It’s own economic model confirms this. It advocates scrapping the scheme.
– B.C. should be a clean energy powerhouse, but current government’s policies have cancelled clean power projects and made B.C. rely on imported power. It advocates massive investments in clean power projects to make B.C. energy independent again.

To protect the environment and the province’s natural resources, the party advocates:
– modernizing provincial firefighting services. The party states that B.C.’s firefighting fleets need help. It undertakes to establish a modern, full-time firefighting service with more front-line personnel, an expanded provincial aircraft fleet, and cutting-edge fire suppression technology to protect homes and infrastructure.
– leveraging local wildfire expertise and response teams. The party states that local expertise cannot continue to be ignored in response to wildfires. It undertakes to deploy local contractors for rapid fire suppression, and equipping local volunteer fire response teams, including First Nations and community members with supplies and resources.
– immediate support for wildfire evacuees. The party states that evacuees and communities impacted by wildfires are being left without support for too long under the current system. It undertakes to will provide automatic financial support for evacuees during the first 72 hours, alongside efficient aid through streamlined Emergency Social Services for people and communities.
– moving the Ministry of Forests and overhauling forest management. The party state that people who make decisions about provincial forestry should come from the communities impacted by those decisions. It undertakes to move the Ministry of Forests from Victoria to Prince George, to protect forestry jobs from bureaucrats. It advocates aggressive overhaul forestry management practices, and reducing wildfire risk through selective harvesting, expediting permits, regulatory changes, and financial incentives.
– protection of declining wildlife. The party states that provincial wildlife populations desperately need help. It undertakes to invest $200 million to revitalize declining populations of B.C.’s iconic species and their habitats, and develop a strategy with industry experts to sustainably manage natural resources used for hunting, fishing, and viewing.
– establishing an independent funding model, managed by a new agency that includes title holders and stakeholder to maximize provincial funds, by attracting support from NGOs, local governments, businesses, and through new means such as wildlife license plates and fines.
– restructuring oversight of natural resources, including centralized fish, wildlife, and habitat management within a dedicated Ministry, ensuring sustainable practices are at the forefront of provincial governance, and not undermined by other resource-based legislation.

Role of the Family 

The party states that:
– the family unit is essential to the well-being of individuals and society, because that is where children learn values and develop a sense of responsibility.
– therefore government legislation and programs should support and respect the role of the British Columbian family and the rich heritage of this province where the family unit has traditionally been valued and supported by government.
– it believes in the right and duty of parents to raise their own children responsibly according to their own conscience and beliefs. We believe no person, government or agency has the right to interfere in the exercise of that duty except through due process of law and only where it can be reasonably

Health Care & Elder Care 

The party states that the Health Care System in British Columbia is not adequately meeting the needs of all British Columbians. There is currently a long waiting list for many medical procedures.  In addition, many rural residents now have to travel long distances, sometimes in extreme winter conditions, to access certain types of health care.

The party therefore advocates:
– covering the cost of hospitals cost in British Columbia by payments from the Provincial Government on a “Performance” basis, to cause hospital administrations to become conscious of costs and revenues and help them to seek the most cost-effective way of dealing with their patients, and in many cases to offer more, rather than fewer services. This will help reduce waiting lists for surgeries
– when private health care providers can provide a service more cost effectively and/or in a more timely manner, sending patients to those private health care providers and covering the cost of their services through the BC Health Care system. This is currently being done with most doctors, who operate private, “for profit” clinics in British Columbia
–  making copies of all invoices paid by the Provincial Government, including all payments to Government owned facilities as well as all payments to private health care providers available to the patient or surviving relative. This will enable the residents of British Columbia to see what their health care is costing the taxpayers and will make medical practitioners aware that their invoices are being seen by the customer
– creating an office of Provincial Surgeon General to oversee the complete provincial health care system and ensure fairness in payments to hospitals and clinics as well as to arbitrate patient complaints.
– addressing the shortage of doctors and nurses by fast tracking the accreditation of foreign trained  professionals and by increasing the number of training spaces in provincial educational institutions
– encouraging the establishment of walk-in clinics, including clinics offering 24- hour service, and then encouraging emergency room personnel to refer non emergency patients to those walk-in clinics, where they can be treated more cost effectively
– opening or re-opening hospitals that have been closed in smaller communities in rural British Columbia, where numbers and/or distance from existing hospitals warrant, so that fewer patients will have to travel such great distances, sometimes in extreme weather, to access primary health care. This will also relieve some of the pressure on our regional hospitals. Where numbers warrant, palliative care will be provided at these small, rural hospitals so that those approaching end-of-life can be closer to their families and be kept comfortable.
– placing emphasis on preventative medicine and promote fitness and nutrition as keys to healthier living and to reduce the demand on our health care facilities. This will include health and fitness programs in our schools, including mandatory physical education from K-12.
– establishing a Health Care Task Force that will consult with provincial health care professionals and residents, study health care services in other countries to determine what works and what could provide benefit to the residents of British Columbia
– ensuring that the five basic principles of the Canada Health Act are applied throughout Canada, even though the administration of health services comes under provincial jurisdiction. Residents of any province or territory who require medical assistance or services while visiting elsewhere in Canada should have as full and equal access to all health care facilities and services as residents of the province or territory in which the need for such services is required.

Abortion, Elective Surgery, & Socially-Assisted Death (SAD)
The party states that:
– while currently, abortions are performed by BC health care professionals both within provincially-operated facilities and private clinics, it does not believe abortions (the killing of tiny human beings) qualify as “health care”, or that BC taxpayers, many of whom are conscientiously opposed to abortion, should be forced to pay for them
– it also believes that the money spent on abortions in BC could be better spent on pregnancy care and support for new mothers. Many studies indicate negative health impacts for women who undergo abortions, including suicide, depression, birthing complications and a higher incidence of breast cancers.
– therefor the party advocates a. removing abortion from the list of taxpayer-funded surgical procedures
– the party further believes that BC taxpayers should not be forced to pay for any surgeries that are not medically necessary. (Abortion is an elective surgery and is not medically necessary).
– it advocates restoring the access to statistical information about abortions performed in all BC hospitals and private clinics, including making it mandatory to document all medical procedures in BC. This information must be available to the public through Freedom of Information requests.
– repealing provincial “Bubble Zone” legislation (Access to Abortion Services ACT of 1995) and restoring freedom of speech in BC.
– defending senior citizens and those with disabilities from attempts to institute euthanasia and assisted suicide in the province of BC.

Long-Term & Home Care
The party advocates
– opening more long term care facilities in British Columbia in order to get long term care patients out of our hospitals and into a more comfortable environment, and free up hospital beds for acute care patients
– opening more community care facilities in rural British Columbia, in order to take pressure off of our hospitals in those communities
– increasing the availability of home care support and reinstating housekeeping and other services so that more senior citizens can live in dignity in their own homes and so that that the demand for expensive hospital care will be further reduced

Education & Young Workers

Primary & Secondary Education
The party states that:
– parents are the first and primary educators of their own children. A CHP-BC Government will protect the right of parents to choose the best type of schooling for their children.
– provincial funding allocated for the education of BC children in primary and secondary schools “follow the student” and be directed to the school setting chosen by the parents. “School choice” means that the parents can choose the best school for their children and the provincial per-student allocation will be directed to that school, including public schools, charter schools, independent schools, or home schools.
– ensuring that the Ministry of Education establishes minimum academic standards to ensure that institutions or home schools are equipping students with adequate basic knowledge and skills, as well as a ‘fee per student’ that will apply to all students in BC.
– where institutions outside of the public school system are able to provide an equivalent or superior education at a lower cost, the Ministry  will adjust fees accordingly for all students, providing an incentive for excellence and cost-effectiveness
– no schools funded by tax dollars will teach/promote/condone physical harm
– ensuring that volunteers and non-licensed paid employees are allowed to perform non-academic services for independent schools. Remuneration for these services will be entirely at the discretion of the governing body of the independent schools
– negotiating salaries and working conditions of public school teachers on a province wide basis
– ending the practice of taxpayer-funded BC Schools being used to promote social engineering regarding human sexuality, sexual orientation, etc. Parents are primarily responsible for training their own children in matters of morality. Public educators are entrusted—during the valuable time children are in their care and supervision—to support parents as role models, not to usurp their authority nor to undermine the values taught at home. To this end, reversing the Corren Agreement of 2005
– abandoning widespread promotion of “anti-bullying” as a strategy to promote alternate sexual and family models will be abandoned. All students will be protected from all forms of bullying, including pressure from teachers and peers to conform to new standards of sexual labelling and attitudes.
– promoting a high standard of conduct for all students and teachers including positive references to abstinence, chastity and marriage.
 

Post-Secondary Education
In order to promote employment and job creation, the party advocates:
– encouragement of and support for BC residents and support who wish to complete their education up to and including grade twelve
– within the ability of taxpayers to fund the cost, increasing provincial expenditures on education at technical institutes, colleges and universities by providing loans for students who apply and meet the minimum requirements. These loans will be forgivable for post-secondary students who graduate from BC institutions and continue to live, work and pay taxes in BC. Forgiveness of the loans will be pro-rated over a ten year period. If any graduate ceases to be a resident of British Columbia at any time within the ten years following graduation, the unforgiven pro-rated portion of the student loan will become due and payable

Role and development of the family

The party advocates:
– support for all new parents with the costs of daycare directly, while incentivizing the private sector to create new daycare spaces. This plan includes forming partnerships with municipalities.

Health Care & Elder Care

The party states that:
– it advocates serious, substantive healthcare reform. The performance of British Columbia’s health care system throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been abysmal. Chronic shortages in physicians, nurses and ICU capacity has become painstakingly clear. It’s time for serious reform.
– it supports choice and competition in health care, allowing choice and competition in the delivery of health care services while retaining universal access for all British Columbians and ending the government’s court case against private clinics and unleashing the power of private-sector innovation.
– it advocates reducing health care wait times. Unless the province embraces bold reforms, British Columbians will continue to suffer with unreasonable delays on many medical procedures. Reform hospital funding to incentivize output – just like many European countries (and Australia) have done to improve results.
– it advocates more doctors and more nurses, including by incentivizing post-secondary institutions to train more RNs, LPNs, and physicians by prioritizing government funding and support for these programs and students.
– it supports opposition and repeal of Bill 36. B.C.’s healthcare professionals have a right to freedom of conscience and bodily autonomy. Under Bill 36, the healthcare workers we once applauded as “frontline heroes” could be fined or jailed for refusing government decrees, including COVID vaccine mandates. It opposes this bill.

Education & Young Workers

The party states that:
– it supports parents’ choices. Parents have the right to determine how and where their children will be educated. Government must provide fair and reasonable funding to families for the type of education they choose for their children. This includes public, private or homeschooling.
– it advocates removing ideology from the classroom. Political bias and ideology have no place in B.C.’s education curriculum and must be removed immediately. Schools must be places of learning – not tools for activism and indoctrination.
– it supports protection of free speech on campus. Universities and colleges that do not support and defend freedom of expression on campus will be defunded. Taxpayer money will not be used to support places of censorship and intimidation.
– it advocates re-allocation of funding for post-secondary education. Government funding within post-secondary institutions will be re-allocated to promote and incentivize training in essential fields such as medicine, engineering, and skilled trades.

Role and development of the family

The party states that:
– families are under tremendous pressure in BC today. The generation raising young children juggles long working hours and multiple demands on their time, as their household incomes stagnate, and housing costs skyrocket
– its plan to support young families is designed to promote the opportunity for parents to achieve a balance that works for them. Parents who choose to work will be supported by enhanced access to quality childcare, and more flexible work arrangements, those who choose to stay home with their children will have an income supplement, and we will encourage flexible working options to support people to find a balance
– a first priority is to accelerate the work of building a universal childcare system. It’s well-established that the COVID-19 pandemic had disproportionate effects on women, and that we risk losing all the gains made in women’s labour force participation over the past number of decades, without targeted programs that support women. But it is not enough just to deliver childcare. In creating spaces, we shouldn’t be reinforcing a flawed system that’s overly reliant on for-profit providers. We also need to improve flexibility for parents by promoting the opportunity for parents to achieve the right balance between work and family time for their needs. It’s time to move beyond a 20th century approach for working lives and develop supports that recognise the needs of families today.

The party advocates:
– To support stay-at-home parents, providing up to $500 per month for families with children under 3 and a stay at home parent.

Child Care
The party advocates:
– a comprehensive program for childcare and increased funding for child care programs from $674 million in 2020/21 to $897 million in 2023/24. This is in addition to the $300 million funding for preschool for 3 and 4 year olds that is included in the Education budget. Funding would cover the phase-in of the various elements of this plan for a comprehensive program that would include:
• expansion of available physical spaces, prioritizing partnerships with public schools, community non-profits, and First Nations
• free childcare for working parents with children under 3;
• professional development opportunities to increase qualifications of existing child care workers, and the training of more early childhood educators in certified programs;
• establishment of professional wages for early childhood educators.
– maintenance of child care subsidies and supports as needed to ensure adequate financial support for all families.
– moving the Ministry of State for Childcare into the Ministry of Education in recognition of the importance of ECE in the educational outcomes for our children.

To support flexible work arrangements, the party advocates taking first steps towards policies that ensure that families have a viable choice between going back to full-time work, staying at home or balancing both, including:
– in consultation with business, labour and other stakeholders, exploring options for reduced work weeks and or flexible work hours. For example, encouraging employers to adopt a 4-day work week, or reduced hours for a standard work week while maintaining full-time status to maintain benefits, or modified work week arrangements.
– supporting telecommuting to save commuting time
– helping employers to continue to support telecommuting where feasible
– enhancing investments to deliver highspeed internet access across BC

Health Care & Elder Care

The party states that:
– while a crisis can bring out the best in people, it can also expose the cracks in society that are papered over during the normal times. The COVID pandemic did just that, bringing the crises in seniors care, mental health and addictions into full public view.
– the crisis in seniors’ care is a perfect storm fueled by the growing number of seniors; the costs of providing care; the inadequate capacity of the health authorities to provide the care; overworked and undervalued staff; the contracting out of seniors’ care to private for-profit care homes; and, the failure of government to ensure that the quality of care is maintained.
– mental health care is also failing at all levels, from early intervention for children and youth through to tertiary care for adults with complex psychological problems, the system is inadequately resourced, with people waiting for weeks and months to get publicly funded help, and then the help they receive does not always fully address their needs.
– a t the same time, British Columbia is in the grip of two other very serious health crises. Since early spring in 2020, British Columbia has been Canada’s epicentre for the opioid crisis. Successive governments have failed to provide adequate treatment options for addicts and dependence on toxic street drugs. Overdose deaths rose sharply during the pandemic, due to supply disruptions that caused increased toxin levels in drugs sold on the street.
– many of these problems were caused by the austerity years of the prior government, when the province thought that saving money by not investing in services for our loved ones was a good idea. The current government is taking steps in the right direction, but there is a long way to go

Primary Care
The party states that:
– British Columbians rightfully take pride in the provincial healthcare system and its frontline healthcare workers, including in the response to COVID-19.
– after COVID, one of the more important priorities is to tackle the family doctor shortage in BC. Successive governments have struggled to increase the number of family
doctors available.
– it will continue to work with physicians and other stakeholders to improve incentives for doctors to set up family practices in BC. Qualified foreign-trained physicians can also play a greater role in providing services in our province.
– it helped the last government champion the creation of primary care networks. Such interprofessional and integrated teams are providing more access to physiotherapists, nurse practitioners, midwives, dieticians and other health professionals, helping alleviate the burden on doctors, increasing their ability to take on new patients.
– primary care networks will need ongoing support in order to be successful in their goals.
– the accessibility of care is part of another of the party’s core values, ensuring that a far greater share of health care spending is shifted to support prevention.

The party advocates:
– continued roll-out of primary care networks in to expand accessibility of healthcare services, while increasing the number of British Columbians having a family doctor.
– implementation of an essential drugs program, designed to reduce the costs of prescription drugs and ensure the cost of drugs is not a barrier to health management.
– establishment of a task force to develop a plan to transition the balance of resources between acute care and preventative care, including review of the funding and range of services covered by the health care system to ensure a mix of services that better meets the treatment and prevention needs of the population.
– consultations with physicians and other stakeholders to improve efficiency, reduce administration, and incentivize service as a General Practitioner.
– working with the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to create a pathway for qualified foreign-trained physicians to practice in BC.

Elder Care
The party states that:
– for years serious questions have been raised around accountability, monitoring and financial oversight in BC’s long term care homes. The COVID pandemic exacerbated and
spotlighted these issues, showing that our seniors bore the worst outcomes of the pandemic. They deserve much better than the care they’ve received.
– it advocates a broader discussion about how people age and how to reduce isolation amongst seniors. We should be expanding our imagination about the place that seniors occupy in our neighbourhoods, our communities and our society.
– wages and working conditions in the sector need to be improved, and the issue of for-profit ownership in the public care system should be revisited. Public money supports people in care homes whether they are run by health authorities, not-for-profit organizations or private companies.
– it should be ensured that the companies that exist today are meeting the standards required for adequate care. There is far too little accountability about how public funds are being used. It would establish annual inspections, and require standard financial statements and audited expense reports of all private facilities, so that there is confidence that public funding is being used to create better health-care outcomes for seniors, not creating more profit for shareholders.
– most of all, the sector should be shifted away from a for-profit private company model. Our seniors are not a commodity that should be earning some investor a profit – they are our parents, our grandparents. It’s time we shifted our tax dollars away from for-profit long-term care in BC, and instead built a high quality and accessible system of seniors care in this province.

The party advocates:
– beginning to shift the sector away from a for-profit private company model to a mix of public, non-for-profit, and community-based services and co-ops
– ensuring that public funding is only being used to support direct care for seniors, and enhance accountability by requiring annual inspections, financial statements and audited expense reports
– establishing caregivers as a recognized healthcare profession with the salary they deserve
– supporting pilot projects that bring young people and seniors together and integrate seniors more deeply into communities
– giving the Office of the Seniors Advocate more independence and an expanded mandate.

Mental Health Care
The party states that:
– increasing numbers of British Columbians are struggling with their mental health and we need to treat it like any other health issue by properly resourcing it in our public system.
– mental health care is failing at all levels, from early intervention for children and youth through to tertiary care for adults with complex psychological problems. In addition to concerns arising from the pandemic, young people are also facing compounding crises of climate change and affordability. Young people are the emerging leaders of our province and they should feel hopeful and excited about their future.
– protection of our mental health as exists for physical health begins by increasing accessibility to mental health services. Data clearly shows that lack of access to mental healthcare is most pronounced in those with lower incomes, fewer years of education, as well as among vulnerable and minority groups.
– the lack of mental health options for the majority of the population led to many problems even before COVID-19. If we are serious about building back better as a province then increasing the accessibility and affordability of mental health services needs to be a priority going forward.
– lack of access has led to our medical system becoming the de facto provider for those with mental health concerns. However, this system does not have the capacity to appropriately treat these individuals, leading them to over-utilize the medical health system because their mental health needs are not being treated.
– for many patients, even just a few appointments with a mental health professional can significantly improve mental and physical health. We need to invest in mental health services at every stage of British Columbians’ lives so that they can be supported to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

The party advocates:
– investing to build an affordable and accessible mental healthcare system where cost is not a barrier to seeking help.
– allocating $1.0 billion over a four-year cycle to address mental health care within the medical services plan. Funding should be provided for a comprehensive suite of initiatives including: (1) establishing accessible mental health treatment option s for all those struggling with anxiety or depression; (2) early intervention, youth mental health initiatives, integrated primary care specific to youth and mental health enabling families to easily navigate resources in a supportive environment; (3) community-based options for responding to those who need mental health care and their families such as Clubhouse International; and (4) enhanced counselling outreach services to work with the homeless community.
– allocating $200 million per year to invest in facilities to provide mental healthcare services and community-based centres for mental health and rehabilitation; and, accelerating capital plans for the construction of tertiary care facilities and detoxification beds; and protecting operating funding for facilities.
– developing and implementing a Loneliness Strategy.
– a public information campaign to increase awareness and provide information on where to get help.

Opioid Crisis
The party states that:
– British Columbia is in the midst of its worst overdose crisis ever. About 170 British Columbians die every month from overdoses related to the illegal and toxic drug supply. Since a public health emergency was declared in 2016, over 6,000 people in B.C. have died of preventable overdose. COVID-19 has made the situation more dangerous for people who use drugs by disrupting supply sources and reducing services in place to help people remain safe. Drug policies need to support public health and be based on a compassionate and evidence-based response. Key in this approach is providing people who use drugs with adequate resources to minimize the risks of drug use and support individual and public health.
– harm reduction interventions, such as providing sterile equipment, supervised consumption services, overdose prevention sites, and naloxone are cost-effective and key to ensuring that people at risk of overdose are kept alive. Harm reduction has been proven to reduce the risks of transmissible disease, prevent overdose fatalities, reduce public disorder, and create links for people to access healthcare services and enter treatment.
– decriminalization of personal possession of drugs is a policy option that is increasingly being called for by experts. Recently called for by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, decriminalization will reduce the stigma of drug use, which creates barriers to accessing important health services. It would allow us to reduce the costs of policing and the criminal justice system, which we can reallocate into improved evidence-based treatment programs and education.
– in the face of an illegal, toxic drug supply, safe supply is a crucial intervention to keep people safe. By providing access to alternatives through physicians and nurses, safe supply helps people at risk of overdose connect with healthcare professionals and reduce the risk of overdose death.
– one of the most pressing crises of our generation has so far not received the attention and action it deserves. Through courageous, evidence-based leadership, we can change this and save lives.

The party advocates:
– scaling up safe supply beyond its current level by (1) working with the colleges of physicians and pharmacists to encourage their members to participate in existing programs; (2) funding a wider range of safe supply resources, including low-barrier ways of dispensing (e.g. dispensing machines); and (3) ongoing consultation with people who use drugs in order to create low-barrier and accessible programs.
– enhanced funding for harm reduction services and creating COVID-friendly plans to ensure people have access and don’t use alone.
– decriminalizing the simple possession of drugs through: (1) de-prioritizing policing of simple possession through implementing Dr. Bonnie Henry’s recommended amendments to the Police Act, and; (2) strongly pursuing decriminalization with the Federal government for B.C.

Education & Young Workers

Education
The party states that:
– B.C. is entering a time of rapid economic change, in which many of the jobs our children will have don’t yet exist, and that they will be using technology that has not yet been invented to solve the incredible challenges society
– the education needs to be redesigned to prepare our children for this future, and instill in them a commitment to lifelong learning. Adaptability, perseverance, problem solving and creativity are some of the most important skills our children will learn.
– sixteen years of austerity has left classroom sizes large, teacher salaries struggling to compete nationally and school districts struggling to find the dollars needed to ensure a quality education for all students.

To ensure quality education, safe school environments, and flexibility for parents, and students, the party advocates:
– ensuring that every school district has the resources to develop credible and robust remote learning and hybrid learning options, to help ensure that even when learning from home, students are able to keep a connection to the school they attend and the community they live in
– supporting the mental health of students with $24 million in new funding to enhance the number of counsellors in schools, starting with the current school year
– developing and implementing a province-wide plan to address racism that exists in schools, and commit to additional, ongoing funding to deepen the work of reconciliation and Indigenous education across K-12

To help support the integration of early childhood education (ECE) into our public school system, the party advocates:
– allocating $300 million in new funding to begin phasing in up to 25 hours of free early childhood education programs per week for 3 and 4 year olds, rising to $550 million as capacity expands
– providing $100 million in new funding to create a new capital program in the Ministry of Education to fund renovation and additions to existing schools to support ECE spaces

To help address affordability, to ensure that no child attends school hungry and to better integrate nutrition into our curriculum, the party advocates a new $25 million fund for school districts to develop a food program for their schools in their district, including:
– proposals to be be developed by the district to ensure local needs are addressed
– conditioning funding on ensuring the program integrated nutrition into the curriculum and demonstrating how the plan would eliminate the stigma associated with accessing food programming
– working with education partners on a long term plan for improvement of provincial per-student funding, including: addressing the continued disparities in wages, class size and composition between districts; access to speech-language pathologists and school psychologists, and development of new resources for students with special needs
– beginning with the development of a new funding formula that supports a 21st century education system
– doubling the funding of the B.C. Access Grant to help support post-secondary part-time students, and those enrolled in multi-year programs

Culture, Arts & Tourism

The party states that:
– small businesses were deeply affected by the COVID pandemic. Not only with respect to costs, but also with uncertainty about the future, about not knowing whether what they have built will last or whether they will have to lay off employees
– for tourism operators, the challenges were exacerbated by border closure and travel bans
– the simple fact is that the provincial government has not done enough to address the challenges facing our small business and tourism sectors.

The party advocates allocating $300 million to create a 6 month rent subsidy program for small businesses, including:
– for qualifying businesses, covering 25% of rental costs. Criteria would include limitations to $50,000 in monthly rent costs
– retooling the provincial grant program to focus on supporting small tourism operators
– immediately working with industry to establish criteria that make sense
– accelerating the timeline to ensure grant money can start to flow immediately
– working with the not-for-profit tourism businesses, cultural facilities and attractions to develop a separate granting program that will ensure these signature businesses can survive COVID 19 and beyond.
– working with the federal government to establish a repayable loan program for the hospitality sector and for tourism operators that exceed the criteria for the small tourism operator grant program.

Role of the family

The party has published no official statement concerning its understanding of the role of the family in society.

Health Care & Elder Care

The party states that:
– the province currently has a multiple-payer healthcare system in which workers injured on the job (WCB), those injured in accidents (ICBC), the RCMP, Armed Forces, federal employees, politicians, and even federal prisoners can access care from outside the public system and obtain procedures and surgeries very quickly.
– 65,000 surgeries are done annually in BC at the dozens of private surgery centres that have been operating for decades.
– additionally, many medically necessary services like prescription medications, ambulance rides, dental care, and mental health counselling are excluded from our public system, despite their importance in health outcomes. Users pay for these services, or they purchase private insurance to pay for part or all of the costs.
– its policy would not change this model, as the remaining 70% of the healthcare system is dictated by the Canada Health Act to be paid for directly by the provincial government.
– numerous consecutive provincial governments have attempted to tackle the increasing portion of their budgets going toward healthcare. Attempts have been made at increasing efficiencies in our current system, improving the overall health education of people, reducing wait times and many other well-intentioned reforms. What were repeatedly hyped as fix-alls have barely moved the needle. Health Care consumes 40% of the provincial budget.
– with aging demographics, rising populations, and increasing availability of new lifesaving treatments, health expenditures are expected to rise by 6% annually, outstripping economic growth, and increasing the portion of the budget directed toward healthcare (to 50% or higher, without significant new taxes). This will result in a budgetary crisis, necessitating more rationing of care.
– hidden efficiencies remaining to be found can only be uncovered by competitive forces in the delivery of health care services. For example, patients are costing hospitals $1200/day taking up hospital beds, when they could be getting care better suited to them in a long-term facility that bills the government $300/day instead. Hospital admissions are costly, and serve as a bottleneck in the system which impacts the delivery of care in unanticipated ways, such as emergency rooms which are over capacity. This increases wait times, and results in patients even being seen in hallways as physicians struggle to cope with fewer available beds.
– institutional diversity in delivery of care would allow for entrepreneurial doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners to group together and open their own specialty facilities that specifically target the needs of underserved hospital patients. Diverting these patients to more appropriate care facilities will free up hospital resources to improve outcomes in the areas they are best suited for.

The party advocates:
– putting the needs of patients and their families first and protecting charter rights in all legislative decisions
– maintaining the existing multiple payer system for total health care costs
– liberating healthcare by legalizing private delivery options
– promoting preventative, primary and long-term care
– reduction of bloated healthcare administration costs without reducing delivery expenditures, tying funding to outcomes and reducing funding for programs that do not deliver acceptable returns compared with their cost. We will use legislative action to legalise private delivery options and ensure transparency in pricing, which will immediately create a rush to provide patients with the lowest cost, highest quality healthcare possible.
– looking at countries globally who have better healthcare outcomes and are comparable to Canada in other ways, including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Japan, Iceland and Switzerland
– increasing the number of family doctors within the province, including increased compensation for doctors serving underserved areas until the shortage is eliminated, the use of non-government delivery of services to increase the diversity and creativity of compensation package
– reducing waiting times, including by attracting more doctors
– channelling more patients to long-term care
– applying the ruling of Chaoulli v. Quebec, to the effect that preventing individuals from procuring their own care is a violation of their charter rights, in BC

Education & Young Workers

The party states that:
– K-12 education has consistently underperformed its objectives for many years. This has been met with a chorus of groups demanding more funding, and this funding issue has consumed virtually all discourse on public education for decades. Depending on how it’s measured, funding has both been increased and decreased for varying periods of time.
– it questions whether the dollar amount of funding really the most important factor in whether our children will receive a quality education, and that there is little evidence to prove that it makes much of a difference either way.
– it believes that to ensure access to a quality education for every child, parents should have more choice in determining the way it is delivered. It’s already well-recognized that a one-size-fits-all approach results in far too many students being left behind. The logical extension of that view is that the availability of more approaches will leave fewer students behind.
– COVID-19 and the closure of schools offered an opportunity to test out a number of alternative approaches like online learning, student pods, homeschooling and private tutoring – to wildly varying degrees of success. We believe education should be an innovative process in normal times as well, where the exploration of new methods can lead to discovery of better matches for individual children.
– a quality education should not depend on the geographical location or the financial means of their family. Educational choice is how the playing field can be leveled between the underprivileged and those lucky enough to live in close proximity to the best schools. Indeed, the present system has failed to achieve this for long enough.

The party advocates:
– moving as much decision-making as possible away from the Ministry of Education and toward local school districts, where parents can have more of a say in policies and procedures, including consulting with educational providers about how a system whereby public education funding can follow the student, on an opt-in basis, can be introduced and be used at parents’ discretion within an expanded menu of educational options.

Culture, Arts & Tourism

Post-Secondary Education
The party states that:
– post-Secondary subsidies are particularly costly to taxpayers, consuming roughly $4 billion dollars annually.
– these subsidies are intended to make tuition more affordable. However, schools are in business to make money and like all businesses they have difficult decisions to make in covering their costs. To match supply with demand, these subsidies do not reduce the cost of school, but are simply added to the amount students are generally able to pay and paradoxically increase the costs of education. In other words, the subsidies increase demand for post-secondary education and push prices higher. The result is higher tuition costs, students leaving school with larger debts, higher taxes, and a less productive economy.

The party advocates:
– phasing out subsidies to post-secondary would be phased out over a 10 year period, reducing expenditures by $400 million annually

Role and Development of the Family

Child Protective Services, Child Welfare
The party states that:
– as governing party it is committed to ensuring children and youth whose parents are unable to care for them receive the services and support they need
– to that end, its 2024 provincial budget provides $114 million over three years to support children in government care or who are placed in alternative care (or out-of-care) arrangements with a family member or someone with an established relationship or cultural connection.
– work is also underway to improve front-line support and oversight, and information management within the child welfare system. This includes up to 72 new child welfare and oversight staff including increasing the number of roots workers from 14 to 25 staff.
– Roots workers support Indigenous children and youth living in both in-care and out-of-care homes with meaningful family and cultural connections and cultural planning, such as tracing of family lineages, identifying contacts with family and community, and reconnecting with the child’s Indigenous community. This helps build a strong foundation based on cultural, spiritual, mental and emotional traditional teachings, while supporting and encouraging connections with their family, extended family and Indigenous community. This supports the well-being of all children and youth in British Columbia to live in safe, healthy and nurturing families, and to be strongly connected to their communities and culture.
– its 2024 provincial budget further includes $10 million over three years to provide stable, ongoing funding for the Director’s Legal Counsel and Indigenous Child and Family Service Agencies Secretariat. These services support children in care and include addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care and work to improve the well-being of Indigenous children, youth, families, and communities.

Children and Youth with Support Needs
The party states that:
– as a part of its continued work to support families and advocates of children with various support needs, its 2024 provincial budget provides $26 million above the fiscal plan to support more children and youth diagnosed with autism diagnosis, as well as families accessing medical benefits for children and youth with severe disability or complex health care needs. The new funding will support over 2,800 more children, bringing the estimated total in 2024/25 to nearly 28,000 children and youth.
– autism funding supports children under age six with reimbursement up to $22,000 per year in services, and youth aged 6-18 with reimbursements up to $6,000 per year.
– benefits assists families and caregivers with the extraordinary costs of caring for a child or youth with severe disabilities or complex needs, especially through the provision of medical supplies and equipment to children with acute medical needs. New funding will support expected growth in demand for the program.
– $30 million in additional funding is provided to support children with dyslexia and related learning differences in the K-12 school system, including money to support early literacy screening for kindergarten to Grade 3 students, provide additional intervention and outreach programs for kindergarten to Grade 12 students, and better equip teachers and support staff in public and independent schools through professional development. The funding support schools in delivering early literacy screening for over 150,000 students, and provide interventions to over 9,000 students annually, as required when fully implemented.

Health Care & Elder Care

Health Care
The party states that:
– in order to build capacity within the health sector, the party’s 2024 provincial budget provides over $2 billion more across the fiscal plan
– with an aging population and large segment of the workforce retiring in the next decade, the province needs newcomers to fill gaps in the labour market. More people are needed to meet current and future demand in the health sector
– in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated that the province needs to be better prepared to respond to public health emergencies, its 2024 budget proposes $3 billion over the fiscal plan to support ongoing costs for measures previously funded through time-limited pandemic contingencies and federal funding, such as the costs for COVID-19 and immunization/flu vaccines, personal protective equipment, lab testing and monitoring.
– the budget also provides ongoing funding to support rural and remote access to emergency care through ground and air ambulances and support increased staffing capacity and virtual services, particularly in historically underserved communities

In-Vitro Fertilization
The party states that:
– for people wanting to start a family, infertility and other barriers to parenthood can have a profound effect on their well-being and quality of life.
– to support people who need help on the path to parenthood, the party’s 2024 budget allocates $68 million for the establishment of a program to help with the cost of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) services, including consultations with an expert clinical group to define funded IVF services including age considerations, service delivery options, and care pathways to access the service throughout B.C. The program will be launched April 1, 2025, to help with the costs of treatment and medication for a single cycle of treatment.
– the new publicly funded program will benefit hopeful parents in B.C. regardless of their relationship status, who they love and how much money they make by removing a barrier for people who may not otherwise be able to access fertility services.

Cancer Care
In its 2024 provincial budget, the party advocates investment of an added $270 million over three years to support a 10-year Cancer Action Plan, which was launched in the spring of 2023 with an initial $440 million investment to expand cancer-care teams and service hours, introduce revised pay structures to ensure B.C. is attractive and competitive for oncologists and cancer-care professionals, improve cancer screening programs, support cancer research, increase Indigenous patient support positions, and support patients who must travel for care from rural communities.

The party states that:
– the new funding will support the action plan with prevention and screening services such as HPV vaccines and cervical cancer screenings, hereditary cancer screening, and medical imaging strategies. New funding will also support improved collaboration, partnership and capacity for the cancer care workforce.
– it also proposes to improve timely access to cancer treatments by expanding specialized cancer services, such as malignant hematology, immunotherapy, theranostics, and pediatric oncology services, in order to provide treatments that are difficult to access or currently unavailable in the province.

Home and Community Care Services for Seniors

In its 2024 provincial budget, the party states that:
– to improve seniors’ quality of life by enabling them to live in their own homes for longer, it is allocating $354 million over three years in home and community care for seniors.
– home care investments also increase capacity in other parts of the health care system, and thereby align with government’s commitment to provide health care when and where needed
– investments include $227 million for home health services to help seniors and people experiencing short- or long-term disability, to manage their health care needs and remain living at home. These services are provided by regulated professionals including nurses, occupational and physical therapists, and social workers. Home health services also include services delivered by community health workers who help clients with their activities of daily living, such as bathing, grooming, lifts and transfers, and nutrition.
– a further $127 million is allocated for community-based seniors services such as Better at Home, a program that supports seniors with day-to-day tasks such as such as grocery shopping, light housekeeping, minor home repairs, snow shovelling, and transportation to and from medical appointments.
– additional capital investments of $13.0 billion are projected over the course of the next three years for health care infrastructure, including support for construction of hospitals throughout the province; new long-term care facilities with construction approved in Abbotsford, Richmond and Nanaimo among others; and more acute and cancer care facilities.

Education & Young Workers

K-12 Enrollment Growth
The party states that:
– in 2023, B.C. saw its highest population growth in 30 years. This has led to an increase of 13,000 more students enrolled in B.C. schools in September 2023 compared to the previous year.
– to support the growing number of students, Budget 2024 invests $968 million in new funding over three years, including providing more teachers and support staff in the classrooms.
– this funding includes $651 million for public school enrolment growth and $62 million for independent school education costs.
– there is also $255 million provided over three years to increase funding for the Classroom Enhancement Fund. This fund supports the hiring of additional teachers, including special education teachers, teacher psychologists, and counsellors.
– total annual operating funding for K-12 education is a record $8.7 billion in 2024/25.
– in addition, its provincial capital plan includes a record $4.2 billion over the next three years to build, renovate, and seismically upgrade schools and playgrounds throughout B.C.

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY.  PARTY HAS ANNOUNCED WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ELECTION.  CHECK CANDIDATE LISTING AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BEFORE GOING TO THE POLL.)

Role & Purpose of the Family

Child Care
The party states that under the current government’s model, only 10 per cent of families are receiving access to $10/day child care.

The party advocates:
– providing direct financial subsidies to parents, ensuring that child care costs are capped at $10/day for all lower and middle-class families
– providing tax credits for people whose children are cared for by parents, grandparents or other relative
– integrating child care facilities into schools and hospitals, while expanding options through public-private partnerships and incentivizing the private sector.

Health Care & Elder Care

The party advocates making B.C. first, not worst, in health outcomes, by putting the interests of patients ahead of bureaucrats. This includes for example:
– ensuring that treatment beds are available for those who need them, when they need them, rather than turning them away with DP waitlists turn patients away. The party undertakes to ensure there are enough treatment beds for everyone who needs them.
– providing compassionate involuntary care, where and when needed. The party states that it is not compassionate to turn a blind eye and leave the severely mentally ill and addicted to languish on the streets with no ability to care for themselves. It undertakes to compassionate involuntary treatment possible for those at risk of harming themselves or others.
– ending the chaos in B.C. The party states that provincial cancer care is now the worst in Canada, with treatment so bad that patients are shipped to the U.S. for treatment. It undertakes to end this.
– hiring back unvaccinated healthcare workers. The party states that although the provincial healthcare system is in shambles, the current government fired thousands of healthcare workers whose support is needed now more than ever. It undertakes to immediately re-hire the unvaccinated fired healthcare workers.

Education & Young Workers

Early Childhood Education
The party states that:
– it recognizes the essential role of Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) and child care providers
– it therefore advocates immediate implementation of a fair wage grid for child care workers to reflect their qualifications and the critical service they provide.

K-12 Education
To bring common sense back to education, the party advocates:
– bringing back letter grades. The party states that the new grading scheme implemented by the current government makes no sense to anyone. It undertakes to will bring back common-sense letter grades that everyone can understand.
– banning cellphones in class. The party states that although cellphones in class are bad for learning, the current government refuses to introduce a province-wide ban. The party undertakes to ban cellphones in classrooms so that children can get back to learning, not scrolling.
– building permanent schools, not portables, The party states that more kids than ever are stuck in portables. It undertakes to build more schools so that children kids can learn in real classrooms.
– consulting parents. The party states that parents deserve to know what’s going on in their kids’ schools. It undertakes to bring back transparent and age-appropriate curriculum and ensure parents are included in the education system.
– getting results. The party states that although under prior governments the province’s students led Canada in education, B.C. is now well below average. It undertakes to focus on ensuring that children learn the basics and get back to improved results.

Post-Secondary Education
To ease the housing crisis for students, the party advocates:
– requiring universities to prove they have room to house BC students before accepting students abroad

Labour, Unions & Employment

To promote employment and job creation, the party advocates:
– encouragement and support for BC residents and support who wish to complete their education up to and including grade twelve
– within the ability of taxpayers to fund the cost, increasing provincial expenditures on education at technical institutes, colleges and universities by providing loans for students who apply and meet the minimum requirements. These loans will be forgivable for post-secondary students who graduate from BC institutions and continue to live, work and pay taxes in BC. Forgiveness of the loans will be pro-rated over a ten year period. If any graduate ceases to be a resident of British Columbia at any time within the ten years following graduation, the unforgiven pro-rated portion of the student loan will become due and payable
– amending the present Fair Wage policy so that in future it will include both unionized and non-unionized entities in the bidding process for public construction, including construction of schools, including review of the policy with a goal to ensure fair competitive bidding on public construction projects
– using tax incentives, including royalty holidays, to encourage the establishment of new businesses and industries in British Columbia
– establishing an “Essential Services Dispute Mechanism” as a fair and impartial way of resolving issues between the Provincial Government and its employees
– incorporating appropriate environmental regulations in the development of provincial natural resources in order to ensure that the environment is adequately protected throughout all phases of exploration, development and extraction of the resources
– negotiating a deal with the Federal Government, similar to the deal they now have with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, to give British Columbia control over and the royalties from offshore resources
– discouraging further urbanization of the Lower Mainland, which has already gone too far; has created virtually insoluble traffic problems and dangerous levels of pollution, including encouraging the location of industry and the development of public infrastructure facilities and services, including necessary road, rail, and air links, in the North and Interior by making Crown land readily available for such use, thereby creating opportunities for employment in rural areas suffering economically as a result of mining, forestry, government, and other cutbacks
– adding an export duty to raw logs, which would be used to re-train the people currently in the logging industry. The aim would be to promote manufacturing of wood products in B.C. instead of exporting jobs with the raw logs.

Industries, Corporations, Competition & Consumers

Agriculture
The party advocates:
– ensuring that Agriculture in British Columbia remains competitive with other jurisdictions by freeing the industry as much as possible from government red tape and control.
– encouraging the growth of secondary industry in the Agricultural sector by offering incentives to farmers to build facilities for the processing of farm produce such as slaughterhouses to process B.C. beef, and establishing processing facilities.
– working with the agriculture industry to promote their products both inside and outside British Columbia, and to promote the development of new agricultural products in B.C.
– guaranteeing an annual provincial agriculture budget for the Agri-Food sector, at par with the Canadian average returns as a percentage of Agricultural Gross Domestic Product.
– full participation in all federal Agricultural and Environmental initiatives, and review and administration of all Canadian Agricultural Risk Management Programs.
– providing a sustainable crop insurance system in BC based on full production guarantees and insurable values that reflect the unique diversity of British Columbia’s Agri-food Sector.
– establishment of a modern system of conservation to replace the Agriculture Land Commission. Agriculture land-use decision-making will be returned to local/regional government control
– establishment of an Agriculture Regional Development Authority to provide interest free long term Provincial Infrastructure Loans to fund water supply and water purification projects through local governments, regional districts, First Nations governments and certified irrigation water districts.

Fisheries
The party states that:
– the Federal Government must be required to carry out its fisheries commitment to British Columbia as set out in B.C.’s Terms of Union with Canada The Federal Government in the Terms of Union committed to “assume and defray the charges” for the “Protection and Encouragement of Fisheries.” A Christian Heritage Party of BC Government will insist that the Federal Government carry out its part of the bargain.

The party advocates:
– legislation that recognizes and protects the public right to fish so that all Canadians will have an equal right to fish and equal access to the fishery regardless of their race, heritage or ethnic background.
– ensuring that treaties and treaty negotiations are consistent with, and respectful of, the public right to fish and will ensure that aboriginals have equal access with all other Canadians to the fisheries resource.
– seeking compensation from the federal government for fishermen where federal fisheries policies have undermined the livelihood of BC fishermen, and advocating for BC fisheries.
– appointment of a BC Minister of Fisheries, and ensuring that aquaculture operates in a manner that does not harm or threaten wild fish stocks. A timetable will be established by which all fish farms will be required to move to closed containment.

Transportation
The party advocates:
– design or redesign of suburban road systems and construction of more rapid light rail lines to enable travelers to get to their destinations faster and with a minimum number of transfers
– encouragement of car-pooling, vanpooling and the use of all other high occupancy vehicles
– encouragement of the use of bicycles and pedestrian travel
– encouragement of extension of light rapid transit systems
– encouragement of the production and use of more fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrid vehicles as well as vehicles that rely on alternate sources of fuel such as electricity, hydrogen or bio- diesel
– ensuring that revenues earmarked for specific transportation goals will be applied only for these purposes
– ensuring that any public transit service operated by a regional government will not exclude the development or management of private ownership of new transit services
– when funds are available and after negotiating a cost-sharing agreement with the Federal Government, “twinning” the Trans Canada Highway from Kamloops to the Alberta border
– considering bypass routes around urban centres in the Interior of BC on a priority basis, the bypass routes being only with the approval of the residents of the communities affected
– a moratorium on implementation of new tolls on existing highways, and consideration of tolls on new highways or bridges only when alternate toll-free routes are available

An Economy to Serve People

As a matter of principle, the party states that:
– it believes that a competitive free-enterprise economy with the right to private property are essential to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit that creates prosperity

Housing & Poverty Reduction

The party states that:
– British Columbians are being taxed into poverty. With the highest gas prices in North America, it’s time to axe the Carbon Tax, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and ensure more refined product reaches the B.C. market
– it believes in a strong social safety net that cares for the vulnerable in our society while encouraging individual self-sufficiency

The party advocates:
– encouraging a stable and predictable housing market. This means getting prices under control by promoting the development of new housing supply while cracking down on illegal money laundering that has inflated prices and facilitated criminal activity.

Industries & Corporations

The party states that:
– small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the provincial economy and the bedrock of our communities. Useless and redundant regulations need to be removed, while larger corporations need to be held accountable if they engage in unfair or anti-competitive practices.
– the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) is a bloated, ineffective government monopoly that charges some of the highest rates in the entire country. It’s time to allow choice and competition so that British Columbians can shop around for the price and plan that’s right for them.

An Economy at the Service of All People

Housing & Poverty Reduction

Income security
The party states that:
– growth of the provincial economy has not benefited people equally. Many British Columbians were feeling left behind and left out of the benefits of our prosperity well before COVID. COVID has exacerbated existing social inequalities expanded the number of people facing economic insecurity.
– in rebuilding, the province should not return to its old patchwork of social supports that weren’t meeting the needs of people. A more resilient social safety net is needed, one that lifts people up and doesn’t leave anyone behind
– it’s not only the most marginalized people who suffer from economic insecurity.  Like every other jurisdiction, BC has large active multinational corporations operating, paying

less than livable wages while they hand out massive profits to shareholders abroad. That’s a problem and it contributes to the cycle of poverty in our province, even amongst those with full time jobs.  At the same time, it recognises that for many local businesses, significantly higher minimum wages can hurt viability, particularly while recovering from COVID.
– its priority is to ensure that all British Columbians enjoy income security and eliminate the fear of being unable to afford the necessities of life
– this task can being with integration of the principles of basic income – simplicity, economic security, and reduced stigma – into our social safety net. Rather than entrenching people in poverty with programs like those currently available, the purpose and effect of the social safety net should be to help people get out of poverty. To do that, people need certainty, security, and the ability to save and plan for their futures.

The party advocates:
– implementing a basic income for youth aging-out of care
– beginning a transition towards basic income with the following initial steps:

• increasing income support levels, beginning with making the $300 crisis supplement permanent and indexing assistance to inflation;
  • eliminating the asset test;
• reducing clawbacks on earned income to reduce the disincentive to work;
• establishing a 12-month period where those who qualify for income assistance can earn extra income without clawbacks;
  – establishing a housing office specifically charged with assisting people with disabilities and youth aging-out to find suitable accommodation and supporting the transition;

– establishing a task force to advise on modernizing employment standards and reducing inequality in modern employment relationships, the task force:
• including representatives of the technology sector, business, workers, and economists
• being tasked with recommending ways to modernize provincial employment standards to adapt to the changing nature of work and technology, and assess jurisdiction and advise on strategies for working with the federal government to ensure that multinational companies are paying their fair share of taxes in BC
• terms of reference for the task force including consideration of profit-sharing as a means to ensure businesses who are profitable are paying their workers a living wage, and that workers benefit from the profits that are too often only accrued at the top of an organization
– establishing a permanent Fair Wages Commission to recommend consistent and predictable increases in the minimum wage and reduce political interference.

Affordable housing
The party states that:
– despite some progress to cool the housing market somewhat in recent years, housing remains nowhere near affordable, particularly for young people. Far too many British Columbians have struggled to find affordable homes to rent and have been shut out of the housing market.
– there is much to do to ensure that housing is affordable for people who live and work in our cities, and isn’t being treated as a vehicle for speculators to profit from.
– it advocates establishing a clear goal on affordability and an action plan to achieve it, in order to ensure that everyone has a home that they can afford and that meets their needs. This will require a comprehensive suite of policies to deal with the housing affordability crisis for all.

The party advocates:
– as a first step, doing more to support B.C. renters, who are facing sky-high rents and escalating cost of living. In BC, 43% of renter households pay more than 30% of their income in rent. This is having significant adverse effects on their mental health and wellbeing and makes it more difficult to save and plan for the future.
– addressing the rising cost of strata insurance, which is a significant stressor for condo owners. In recent years we have seen a huge leap in the cost of insurance – in some cases doubling or tripling. We must take steps to ensure British Columbians on fixed incomes are not out of their homes, including convening a taskforce to deal with the rising cost of strata insurance and develop solutions as soon as the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) finishes their investigation. The taskforce should include insurance brokers, insurers and strata owners.
– working with local governments to expand the provincial supply of more diverse forms of more affordable housing, including co-op housing, affordable rentals, and the missing middle, such as townhouses and triplexes.
– tightening up provincial laws and policies to close loopholes and reduce speculation in the provincial market.

To expand the diversity of forms of housing and ensure that housing is affordable for people who live and work in BC’s cities, the party advocates:
– taking a housing-first approach and accelerating investments in affordable, supportive and social housing on a priority basis;
– expanding supports for co-op housing through extension of leases for existing coops about to expire, creating a land bank for new co-ops, and providing security of tenure for co-ops on leased land;
– working with local governments to expand the “missing middle”, such as townhouses and triplexes;
– establishing a capital fund to support the acquisition and maintenance of rental housing by nonprofits to maintain affordable rental units and address the financialization of the rental market;
– closing the bare trust loophole and loopholes in the speculation tax that allow too many foreign owners and satellite families to be exempt.

To assist renters, the party advocates:
– introduction of a rental supplement that will Close the gap between affordable rent and what renters are actually paying, and introduction of a means-tested grant that applies to low and moderate income earners who are paying more than 30% of their income in rent.

Labour, Unions & Employment

The party states that:
– the province needs to ensure that British Columbians are able to take advantage of the countless opportunities for meaningful, secure jobs that a low-carbon economy can create
– over time, many new jobs will be created as innovation occurs and new businesses are created, but there is an immediate need to provide people with well-paying, meaningful jobs, especially for those who lost jobs during the pandemic, and for workers in industries in transition
– its clean jobs plan has three major components:
(1) implementation of a just transition program for workers in the oil and gas sector and other industries in transition and working with them on a pathway to a guaranteed job in the clean economy.
(2) establishing a clean jobs program to complete provincial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and getting people back to work immediately. This would create thousands of jobs enhancing BC’s natural assets, tree planting, habitat restoration, remediating environmental liabilities, as well as climate adaptation and improving community resilience to climate change.
(3) expansion of the CleanBC Better Buildings program and making it a true jobs creator by increasing the short-term incentives offered to stimulate retrofits, accelerating the requirements of the building code and efficiency requirements of equipment to drive long-term action and strengthen the business case for retrofits, and partnering with colleges, technical institutes and private organizations to develop training programs to expand employment in the green retrofit space.  Programming should focus on supporting sectors impacted by COVID-19, as well as supporting the just transition program for workers in the oil and gas sector.

To such ends the party advocates:
– establishing a $500 million fund to support sustainable jobs
– development of a clean jobs program focused on enhancing BC’s natural assets, tree planting, conservation, remediating environmental liabilities, as well as climate adaptation and improving community resilience to climate change.
– implementation of a just transition program for workers in the oil and gas sector and other industries in transition, working with them on a pathway to a guaranteed job in the clean economy
– working with industry partners to enhance the Clean BC Better Homes, Better Buildings program, including by: (i) Increasing the short-term incentives offered to stimulate retrofits; (ii) accelerating the requirements of the building code and efficiency requirements of equipment to drive long-term action and strengthen the business case for retrofits; and (iii) partnering with colleges, technical institutes and private organizations to develop training programs to expand employment in the green retrofit space. Programming should focus on supporting those sectors impacted by COVID 19, as well as supporting the just transition program for workers in the oil and gas sector.

Industries & Corporations

Innovation
The party states that:
– it championed the Emerging Economy Taskforce , which looked at the future, and the opportunities and challenges facing our economy and zeroed in on climate change as one of the major forces shaping the provincial economy, and highlighted opportunities that come with developing a low carbon economy.
– to realize the opportunities, British Columbians have to extend beyond mitigating climate change within the province, and instead focus on deliberate investments into green innovation
– as a first step, it advocates the provincial innovation strategy with the mission of establishing BC as a world-leading low-carbon economy, which means   establishing a strategic innovation fund that can make targeted investments that align with climate goals
– it is also necessary to leverage government procurement processes to prioritize BC based, low carbon products and technology
– British Columbia needs to immediately end the subsidies offered to the fossil fuel industry, and put that funding behind new green economic sectors
– too many governments use innovation as a buzzword and do little to help channel the direction it takes. The party is committed to making its innovation policy in BC a bigger part of the economic strategy proposes to deliberately build towards the future BC wants

The party advocates:
– establishing a $1 billion strategic investment fund to support business innovation that aligns with the province’s goals, with a particular emphasis on supporting innovations that help the shift to a zero carbon economy
– supporting the creation of a biofuels strategy and clean hydrogen roadmap as part of the energy mix used to replace fossil fuels in the transportation sector.
– integrating a GHG emissions lens into all government procurement processes
– immediate reinstatement of the scheduled carbon tax increase and returning to regular and predictable increases in the carbon tax of $10 per year
– partnering in innovation clusters in areas where BC has a strategic advantage, based on the proposal from the Innovation Commissioner’s report
– enactment of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) legislation

Agriculture
The party states that:
– the COVID pandemic raised awareness of the importance of food security; and in California and other places have reinforced the message:  the food security of British Columbians is threatened by the changing climate in major supply regions such as California, Florida and Mexico. We need to be prepared. We must do more to protect agricultural land in our communities, expand the area of land under food production, and establish a long-term food sustainability strategy for the province. This can decrease reliance on increasingly unreliable import supply chains and diversify our farming in BC.
– you can’t have real food without farmers. We need to urgently identify and implement options to make farming a more attractive and lucrative endeavour, especially for younger farmers
– in recent years, agricultural land has become tied to the escalating housing market in many parts of BC, and it’s become untenable for young farmers to get on the land.  There are tools at government’s disposal to remedy this. Just as government stepped in to create the agricultural land reserve many decades ago, it is possible to ensure that farming has a future in B.C.
– one option is to create a publicly owned agricultural land bank available to lease by new farmers.
– it’s also important to recognize that all of these decisions are connected. The decisions that we make about our forests, and about development, all impact our food security. We need to get smarter about how we make decisions and recognize this interconnection.  Operating in silos won’t solve these challenges.

The party advocates creation of a Food Secure B.C. strategy to make B.C. agriculture more climate resilient, improve local food security and support local agricultural producers, including:
– establishment of a long-term food sustainability strategy for the province to decrease reliance on import supply chains and diversify farming in BC.
– making food production and food security part of the Agricultural Land Commission’s mandate.
– expanding the area of land under food production and creating a publicly owned agricultural land bank available to lease by new farmers.
– recognizing income and regional disparities in food insecurity across BC and working to enhance access to high quality, healthy food for low-income British Columbians, including developing systems for First Nations that honour Indigenous knowledge and values.
– incentivizing agro-ecological farming practices and supporting small-scale farms to adopt new technologies to reduce carbon emissions.
– investigating options to make farming a more attractive and sustainable endeavour, including (1) ensuring that farmers have access to local processing facilities and that they share in the returns from processing; and (2) enabling the growing of high value crops, such as cannabis, to supplement farm income.
– providing $10 million per year to fund research and establish regional agricultural bureaus to provide expertise and support to local farmers to apply innovations on-farm and adapt to a changing climate.
– restriction and regulation of foreign ownership of ALR land.

Forestry
The party states that:
– British Columbians need to take back control of their forests from major corporations, ensuring forestry is meeting the needs of local communities, both economically and ecologically.
– the forests of BC are a public resource that belong to the people of BC, and the should be managed that way. This means reinstating government authority in decision-making, undertaking major tenure reform, and enhancing scientific capacity in FLNRO.
– despite promising to do things differently, the current government has not changed, in any substantial way, the status quo of forestry management in this province. Recently the cutting of old growth continued as fast as it did under the prior government, and no meaningful reforms to forest management have been made.  Local job losses and unsustainable forestry practices have continued.
– forests should be managed holistically, for all the values they hold. Most fundamentally this means enacting legislation that establishes conservation of ecosystem health and biodiversity of BC’s forests as an overarching priority, with timber supply as just one benefit. Different planning processes and harvesting methods flow from this fundamental shift in forest management practice. We can’t continue to liquidate our natural resources for the benefit of shareholders of massive corporations, while continuing to shed local jobs in communities across BC as mills close. Instead we need to generate far more jobs and revenue from what we harvest, for example by ensuring that small producers have access to fibre, incentivizing value-added wood products and nontraditional uses of wood fibre, and revenue-sharing with First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts.
– the province needs to recognize crucial importance of forests to biodiversity and to protect our remaining old growth forests forever. This means fully implementing the recommendations of the old growth review panel in partnership with First Nations and an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems across the province, with the funding needed to back this up and create new opportunities for communities, rather than continuing “consultations” with little action.

The party advocates move now to protect what the province has left, including:
– reforming forestry management in BC so that it serves the long-term needs of local communities and supports a truly sustainable industry, where community and ecosystem values are the primary focus of management.
– taking back control of forests from major corporations, ensuring forestry is meeting the needs of local communities.
– reinstating government authority in decision-making at provincial and local levels, including enhancing the authority of district managers to refuse or amend permits.
– tenure reform to redistribute tenures from a few major companies and grow the proportion of tenures held by First Nations and community forests.
– establish a legislative position of Forester General position, an officer of the legislature who is non-partisan and reports to the House annually.
– establishing a Chief Scientist as a counterpart to the Chief Forester to ensure multiple values are adequately incorporated into timber supply analysis.
– enhancing capacity in FLNRO and establishing more community based Ministry of Forests staff, to support the sustainable management of local forest resources and provide well-paying community jobs.

In order to manage provincial forests holistically, for all the values they hold, the party advocates:
– shifting the management framework through reforming legislation, away from an exclusive focus on timber supply to managing for all the values that our forests hold.
– adopting a wider variety of logging practices, including selective logging and longer stand rotations.
– undertaking landscape-level ecosystem-based planning, reforestation and restoration in partnership with local communities and First Nations.
– protecting communities from wildfires and flooding through landscape level, ecologically-centred, forest management and fuel treatment projects.
– restoring government capacity to ensure forest stewardship, monitoring and enforcement, and enhance funding for forest inventory research and primary research.

To protect remaining high value old growth forests forever, the party advocates:
– full and immediate implementation of the recommendations of the old growth review panel, in partnership with First Nations. This includes:  (1) an immediate end to the logging of old growth forests in high risk ecosystems across the province; (2) legislation to establish conservation of ecosystem health and biodiversity of BC’s forests as an overarching priority.
– establishing funding mechanisms to support the preservation of old growth forests.

To generate more jobs and revenue from forest harvesting, the party advocates:
– ensuring  that small producers have access to fibre and incentivize value-added product innovation, including non-traditional uses of wood fibre including bio fuels, and productive uses of residual fibre.
– applying the carbon tax to slash-pile burning to reduce carbon emissions from our forestry sector and ensuring the use of residual materials.
– ending raw log exports.
– ensuring that benefits of B.C. resource flow to local communities, by directly sharing more resource revenues with local First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts.
– improving support for forestry workers and communities, including through expanded investments into retraining and support for new job opportunities.
– investigating opportunities to diversify milling and secondary manufacturing to better use existing timber.
– promotion of more sustainable development of forest resources, including investing in tourism opportunities and low-carbon economies.

Small businesses & tourism
The party states that:
– entrepreneurs who through hard work have built their own business can be found in every community within the provinces.  Such businesses are often at the heart of the communities we live in. They employ our friends and neighbours, bring a vibrance to our streets and contribute immensely to the surrounding neighbourhood.
– such business were deeply affected by the COVID pandemic.  Not only with respect to costs, but also with uncertainty about the future, about not knowing whether what they have built will last or whether they will have to lay off employees
– for tourism operators, the challenges were exacerbated by border closure and travel bans
– the simple fact is that the provincial government has not done enough to address the challenges facing our small business and tourism sectors.

The party advocates allocating $300 million to create a 6 month rent subsidy program for small businesses, including:
– for qualifying businesses, covering 25% of rental costs.  Criteria would include limitations to $50,000 in monthly rent costs
– retooling the provincial grant program to focus on supporting small tourism operators
– immediately working with industry to establish criteria that make sense
– accelerating the timeline to ensure grant money can start to flow immediately
– working with the not-for-profit tourism businesses, cultural facilities and attractions to develop a separate granting program that will ensure these signature businesses can survive COVID 19 and beyond.
– working with the federal government to establish a repayable loan program for the hospitality sector and for tourism operators that exceed the criteria for the small tourism operator grant program.

Transit

The party states that:
– one of the most important areas in truly establishing livable cities is to address transportation needs in a forward-thinking way.
– regional planning must be tackled in a holistic and thoughtful way, rather than simply picking projects according to their potential to win more votes.
– climate goals must be integrated into every infrastructure decision, as must ensuring that any public money spent on transportation is expanding transit and active transportation networks
– investing in transit, livable cities and active transportation will not only help us meet our climate targets – but it will also improve physical and mental wellbeing, the strength and connectedness of communities, and the province’s overall quality of life.

The party advocates:
– prioritizing investments in transit service and ensuring that long term financial support is provided to TransLink, BC Transit and BC Ferries. For coastal communities and some interior communities, ferries are part of the way of life and a core part of the transportation network. We need to stop pretending that ferries should, or could, be run with a profit motive and bring their focus back to the essential services they provide to our communities.
– working with local governments to establish a vision for sustainable transportation in an era of expanded population growth on the South Island, including through: a regional transportation strategy; establishing a regional governance body to overcome fractured decision-making and deliver integrated planning for the growing region; investing to support expansion of public transit options to help people move around more easily; building frequent and affordable public transportation links between cities, such as between Cowichan and the CRD
– prioritized investment in transit service to support economic recovery, improve livability of communities, and reduce GHG emissions
– ensuring that the projected long-term losses facing TransLink, BC Transit and BC Ferries are dealt with so that service levels are maintained, allowing ridership to quickly bounce back through the economic recovery period
– working with local and regional governments to redesign the transit funding model and establish an equitable, stable long-term funding model for transit, including consideration of mobility pricing
– developing climate and sustainability criteria, including consideration of cumulative impacts, to be applied to all future capital projects including transportation infrastructure investments
– bringing BC Ferries back into government as a Crown Corporation, and conducting a full review of BC Ferries operations focused on providing an efficient, public service for British Columbians, and the role of ferries in BC’s transportation network.

Housing & Poverty Reduction

Housing
The party states that:
– affordable housing subsidies for purchasers make housing less affordable. Their introduction encourages insiders to speculate on the price gains that will occur when all the new buyers soon compete for the same properties with a larger borrowing capacity.
– affordable housing subsidies for renters may marginally increase the supply of rentals, and thereby lower the price. But the cost of doing so, at nearly $500M annually (projected to increase substantially) is far too great for the actual impact it will have (even if successful, only keeping up with population growth). When combined with the poor incentives introduced with changes to the Residential Tenancy Act, it is likely the number of rental units per person will fall again.

The party advocates:
– eliminating provincial affordable housing subsidies, to save an estimated $500 million annually
– focusing instead on measures that will increase supply of entry-level accommodations, such as reducing the complexity of building codes and encouraging municipalities to offer extra Floor Space Ratio for rental only buildings.
– putting property owners back in the driver’s seat under the tenancy laws, allowing more to put their properties up for rent without the risk of being locked in with a bad tenant.

Tax Reduction
The party advocates:
– eliminating provincial fuel and carbon taxes, saving the average family over $1000 annually. Everybody pays more when transportation is taxed to the extent that it is today. While it is costly to build and maintain transportation infrastructure, the majority of those costs are not funded by fuel taxes and carbon taxes. Most of the maintenance is paid for by municipalities while capital projects are funded independently. Tax revenue received on fuel (and soon carbon) goes into general provincial government revenues.
– because such taxes are applied to every grocery item we buy as well as gasoline consumption, they are regressive, affecting those least able to pay more than the wealthy. They also unfairly target those that must commute to work, adding insult to injury for those on the run from unaffordable urban housing and traffic congestion.
– review of regulations that stand in the way of new refining capacity in the highest demand areas, so transportation costs of gasoline can be reduced further.

Industries & Corporations

Small and Medium Business
The party advocates:
– elimination of the Employer Health Tax. Recently government acted to replace Medical Service Plan (MSP) premiums paid by individuals with a tax on employers of up to 1.9% of total payroll. This approach raises the barriers to job creation, discourages business expansion, encourages businesses investment in automation technology, and puts pressure on wage and benefit increases for employees.
– as with individuals and their tax brackets, business owners will attempt to avoid the triggering of higher health tax rates by reducing their overall business activity and hiring fewer workers. Employers only budget for labour cost increases that they can afford. With an employer tax on payroll, they will instead postpone their plans for wage increases, or accelerate their plans for automation. Marginal workers are the ones most affected by this change in cost burden, making it a very regressive tax by excluding these most vulnerable workers from the workforce entirely.
– as with minimum wage increases and other interventions, artificially increasing the cost of labour will have a negative effect on the most vulnerable, teenagers and students, and those with a disability that reduces their productive capacity. Current trends have workers joining the workforce at later ages, reducing their lifetime earning potential, human capital acquisition and overall sense of contribution and worth. The government should not add fuel to the fires driving these trends.

Transit
The party advocates:
– repealing the Passenger Transportation Act; defund enforcement, instead foster quality-driven market competition for ridesharing, taxis, buses, and other for-hire transportation modes, including dissolving the Passenger Transportation Board that fixes prices for the taxi industry, shuttle buses, limousines and for inter-city bus services. This will eliminate the government setting of prices and tariffs for transport vehicles and the requirement for “Special Authorization” to be granted a license for operation. The Transportation Board’s requirements that prospective providers demonstrate first that there is a “public need” and that the application “promotes sound economic conditions in industry” presumes far too much knowledge of the bureaucrats running the board, while it also offers protection for incumbent providers from competition. This kind of interference in the market results in poor customer service and has resulted in many gaps in service coverage throughout the province.
– removing legal and regulatory barriers to ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft and end corporate welfare to the taxi industry. Services like Uber, Lyft and others – drastically improve the transportation of people and goods wherever they are introduced. These modern transportation solutions are disrupting the ineffective and expensive legacy taxi and public transit industry, in the same way Amazon, iTunes, Netflix and Airbnb overturned the models in their respective industries. Ridesharing is bringing mobility to those who could not previously afford it, improving transportation service-quality, reliability and trustworthiness, and allowing ordinary people to generate extra income out of their vehicle. It is not an appropriate function of the government to decide who can and who cannot rent their cars out to third parties for money. Travelling by any means carries different risks, costs and benefits, whether it be walking, riding a bicycle, driving, taking the bus, or taking an Uber, among many others. Each individual should be allowed to determine the relative reward and risk of any given means of transportation. Moreover, a system that is driven by individual choice, rather than central control, will be more efficient, accessible and productive, as the individual is in the best position to make these relevant choices. After all, it is their own body and money that they are putting at risk, and only each individual knows how important it is to get to a given destination at a given pace and price.
– allowing competition in all types of auto insurance and convert ICBC’s insurance business into a member owned and operated co-operative.
– ending the TransLink monopoly on bus service in the lower mainland; refocusing their business around integrated rapid transit services such as the SeaBus, SkyTrain, and West Coast Express. British Columbians should expect better transportation services in the modern age, and that the money taxpayers fork out for some of these services should be spent on projects that will benefit the greatest number of people, including enhancements and modernisation of the Canada Line, SeaBus, SkyTrain, and West Coast Express, as well as the accelerated construction of new lines with public-private partnerships such as the SkyTrain expansion to UBC, an Arbutus Greenway Tram, a Surrey LRT, and perhaps others
– eliminating carbon and fuel taxes, and PST on private vehicle sales.
– banning photo radar in British Columbia and reinstating tolls on bridges and express highways.
– supporting Charter Rights challenges as a matter of principle
– directing the MOTI to prioritise funding for critical infrastructure projects, such as: Massey Tunnel replacement, SkyTrain expansions, twinning the TC Highway 1 to the Alberta border, and the Malahat bypass
– ending the government’s union-only “community benefits agreement” infrastructure contracts, of which more than $4 billion worth have already been awarded through a new Crown Corporation called “BC Infrastructure Benefits Inc.” that will hire union workers for construction of major public projects. And they will hire only union workers – non-union citizens of BC aren’t welcome to enjoy in the “community benefits” therein. Premier Horgan claims this unions-only approach will support local hires, drive apprenticeship, training, and employment opportunities for women and indigenous people, that projects will run more safely, efficiently, and economically, and that there will be “only be a modest 4-7% increase” in construction costs. Which means it will be more than 4-7%. The CBAs require workers on designated projects to join one of 19 government-favoured unions within 30 days of being on the job. All construction worker payroll and benefits will run through this new government Crown Corporation. (BCIB) and will be considered the Employer of all employees working under the scope of the CBA. Contractors must recognize the BCIB as the employer. Open-shop companies can bid on projects but their employees will be required to join a designated union (the newly-created “Allied Infrastructure and Related Construction Council of BC”) after 30 days on the job.

Agriculture
The party states that:
– current law in British Columbia forbids distribution of a product – unpasteurized milk – which is legal in 43 US states plus England, Ireland, New Zealand, and all European nations. The sale of raw milk is currently illegal under a 1991 Federal regulation plus under the provincial Milk Industry Act.
– herdsharing has been illegal in BC since Social Credit Health Minister Peter Dueck issued the Health Hazard Regulation thirty years ago, back in 1988. This law, now section 2(a) of the Health Hazards Regulation under the Public Health Act, defines all unpasteurized milk as a “health hazard.”
– there is no evidence or documentation to support the prohibition of the sale of raw milk. The gold standard for microbial testing, quantitative microbial risk assessments (“QMRA”), show that raw milk is a low-risk food. Finally, outbreaks cited by the CDC to vilify raw milk are often caused by illegally-imported Mexican “bathtub” cheese and contaminated milk produced by industrial methods by confined-herd dairies, i.e. milk that need to be pasteurized in order to be safe, not milk from grass-fed micro-dairy herdshares with professional and certified agisters.
– the Raw Milk Institute (est. 2011) has developed an on-farm food safety training program for raw milk production producing excellent results. It has been proven that milk can be produced in British Columbia pathogen-free.
– eighty-nine percent of Canadian dairy farmers drink their own farm-fresh milk according to a 2010 study by Guelph University, suggesting that this food eaten by humans for millenia is safe.

The party advocates:
– development of modern regulations and a certification process for farms that provide the sanitary production, distribution and sale of unpasteurized milk in the province
– adopting the draft Artisan Herdshare Regulation proposed by the British Columbia Herdshare Association and creating a new class of farm: “certified herdshare farm” under the Milk Industry Act
– amending section 2(a) of the Public Health Act, Health Hazards Regulation, to exempt herd-shares certified under the new Regulation

Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
The party states that:
– The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) is consistently rated as the worst insurance provider in the country, yet consumers are powerless to choose a competing insurer for their basic auto insurance needs. Not only is ICBC universally hated for poor customer service, it’s prices consistently rank among the highest in the country
– it advocates completely liberating drivers from ICBC and allowing every British Columbian to purchase any form of auto insurance from any insurance provider of their choice, finally ending over 46 years of government monopoly in British Columbia.

The party advocates:
– allowing competition and innovation in all types of auto insurance
– converting ICBC’s basic and optional coverage insurance business into a member owned and operated co-operative, to make it more efficient
– returning driver licensing and vehicle registration and administration to the provincial government with regional offices
– winding down the ICBC administration and executive bureaucracy, and selling the $80M head office property at Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver
– a full review of ICBC’s fines schedule and collections practices; transfer to municipalities
– repeal of the “Enhanced Care Coverage” legislation also known as “No-Fault, which denies accident victims pain & suffering damages, access to legal representation for their care and recovery, and would ultimately make our roads less safe
– modernizing BC’s wrongful death laws, as all the other provinces have done, so all citizens have a foundation of equal value and protections under the law, not just income earners with dependents as is the case with the present 174 year old legislation
– creating a “Road Safety Centre for Excellence” as a public/private partnership to continually develop and implement driver and road safety measures to make our province safer for all users of the roads, cycling lanes, paths, and pedestrian walkways

An Economy to Serve People

The party states that:
– prior governments have nickel and dimed taxpayers while giving billions in tax cuts to the richest British Columbians. Hydro rates, ICBC premiums and ferry fares have all increased. Tuition fees have tripled and MSP fees have doubled. Steep tolls have been applied to key commuter bridges, where transit options don’t exist.
– prior governments also did nothing to stop steep rises in the price of housing and rent
– since it came into office, reducing costs for British Columbians remains a priority for it. It has been steadily increasing investments over the past several years to help people with everyday costs, including lowering the costs for child care, car insurance and health care premiums, and making more services free, such as transit for youth under 12 and prescription contraception.
– it has made more than 146,000 child care spaces made more affordable through fee reductions and the $10-a-day program, so that families are now saving up to $900 per month.
– new and enhanced supports such as school foods programs, the Renter’s Tax Credit, expansions to the Climate Action Tax Credit and a permanent increase to the BC Family Benefit help low and middle income people with affordability
– its 2024 provincial builds upon this foundation by providing new targeted benefits for those struggling with cost of living, including an additional BC Family Benefit Bonus. For one year, starting in July 2024, families currently receiving the BC Family Benefit will get a bonus of 25 per cent per child until June 2025. It is estimated that up to 66,000 families who have never received the BC Family Benefit will also receive the regular benefit and the bonus.
– in total, approximately 340,000 families will benefit from an estimated $248 million investment, with an average of $445 over the bonus period
– the BC Electricity Affordability Credit will help reduce electricity costs for residential, commercial and industrial customers starting April 2024. B.C. households will see, on average, approximately $100 in savings on their residential electricity bills over twelve months, depending on their power usage in 2023/24.
– commercial and industrial customers will also benefit from reduced operating costs as they will also receive bill credits proportional to approximately 4.6 per cent of their electricity consumption. This is estimated to save British Columbians $370 million over the next year
– to reduce Employer Health Tax (EHT) for small and growing businesses, increasing the exemption threshold from $500,000 to $1 million starting in the 2024 calendar year. Businesses with payrolls between $1 million and $1.5 million will continue to be partially exempt and will also see a decrease in tax obligations. An estimated 90 per cent of businesses will now be exempt from the EHT. The change is estimated to save businesses more than $100 million annually.

The party advocates:
– getting rid of Medical Services Plan fees, saving families as much as $1,800 a year.
– building 114,000 rental and co-op homes, and providing renters an annual rental home credit of $400.
– implementing $10 a day childcare.
– eliminating tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges.
– eliminating interest on student loans and providing students a $1,000 completion grant.
– freezing BC Hydro rates and stop Christy Clark’s 42% increase in ICBC rates.
– rolling back ferry fares on small routes by 15%, freeze fares on major routes, and return the 100% seniors’ weekday discount.

Housing & Poverty Reduction

Housing
The party states that it during its current term in office it launched its Homes for People plan, launched in 2023 with allocation of $4.2 billion in operating and capital funding in the first three years. Its 2024 provincial budget includes:
– introducing a new tax targeting home flipping activity to discourage short-term speculation that contributes to inflated housing costs
– allowing small-scale, multi-unit affordable housing, including townhomes, duplexes and triplexes through zoning changes and proactive partnerships
– offering forgivable loans for homeowners to build and rent secondary suites below market rates to increase affordable rental supply quickly
– streamlining permitting to reduce costs and speed up approvals to get homes built faster
– strengthening enforcement of short-term rental regulation
– providing an annual income-tested tax credit of up to $400 per year for renters, starting with the 2023 calendar year
– launching BC Builds aimed at utilizing underused land, low-cost financing, and grants to deliver more homes for middle-income people and families
– to discourage investors from driving up prices, B.C. introduction of a new tax targeting home flipping activity starting on January 1, 2025. This will be a tax on the profit made
from selling a residential property within two years of buying it. Revenue from the tax will go directly to building homes in B.C., like the existing Speculation and Vacancy Tax
– raising exemption thresholds for property transfer tax for first-time home buyers and newly built homes to help lower costs for more people who are buying a home, the measures being estimated to save British Columbians over $100 million annually
– an exemption for new, eligible purpose-built rental buildings between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2030, to help lower costs and encourage development of rentals
– provides funds to maintain over 500 temporary and permanent shelter spaces across the province, including ongoing shelter spaces in Kelowna, Williams Lake and Merritt
– as part of the new BC Builds program $150 million of operating funding and $48 million in capital funding to speed up the development of new housing for middle-income households to own or rent

Labour, Unions, Employment

The party states that:
– unemployment is up in every region outside the lower mainland and the Island. People who are working are working harder and longer, and not getting ahead. More and more jobs are part time, and more and more people are working two jobs to make ends meet.
– the only industry that was supported by the prior government was natural gas. The rest of the economy, including resource communities and families, have paid the price.
– the provincial relationship with First Nations has also suffered.

The party advocates:
– making reconciliation with First Nations a priority, creating certainty and opportunity for First Nations and for the economy as a whole.
– creating good jobs and build a sustainable economy in every sector of the economy and in every corner of BC.
– creating 96,000 construction jobs by building schools, hospitals, roads and rapid transit over the next five years.
– building, directly and through partnerships, 114,000 rental, social and co‑op homes over 10 years using BC wood products as building materials.
– increasing minimum wage to $15 and bring in $10 a day childcare.
– revitalizing BC’s forest industry and make BC a world leader in engineered wood products.
– sparking innovation and growth in BC’s tech sector, by improving investment tax credits, hiring local software developers, and re-establishing the Innovative Clean Energy program
– making BC a leader on climate action, including reducing the province’s carbon footprint with energy efficiency retrofits to public buildings and residential homes, and create good jobs that last in every community.
– supporting BC small business with a half-point cut to the small business tax rate.
– also investing in traditional sectors of our economy and launching a major jobs initiative in clean energy and energy efficiency to reduce home heating bills.

Sustainable Economy

The party states that:
– British Columbia has a strong economy, a beautiful natural environment, abundant natural resources and a highly skilled and talented workforce who drive the economy forward. During its term in government it has continued to leverage B.C.’s strengths by making investments and implementing measures to support inclusive growth. For example, investments in affordable and accessible child care have led to an increase in women’s employment in B.C., while the Province’s Future Ready Action Plan helps to break down barriers so more people can get the training and supports they need to move into in-demand careers. This includes providing Future Skills Grants that are helping people 19 years and older access high-quality and relevant training opportunities.
– its 2024 provincial budget allocates $228 million over three years to sustain Future Ready initiatives implemented in prior budgets, including the doubling of student loan maximums and reducing student repayment obligations. These measures will help employers recruit and access the talent they need to grow their businesses and support their local economies.

Industries & Corporations

Clean Economy
The party states that:
– its climate plan, the CleanBC Roadmap to 2030, prioritizes investments to accelerate the development and adoption of low-emissions technologies and supports sustainable jobs for people in the clean economy.
– its 2024 provincial budget allocates $318 million to reaffirm its commitment through new operating funding to continue CleanBC grant and rebate programs for clean transportation, energy efficient buildings and communities, and support the development and implementation of regulatory measures to continue the transition to a low-carbon economy
– an additional $93 million from prior commitments includes a further $20 million for active transportation grants to communities, $40 million for additional heat pump rebates for low- and middle-income households, $30 million to continue the implementation of electric vehicle public charging infrastructure across the Province, and $3 million to increase youth involvement in climate action initiatives.
– in addition, the 2024 provincial budget confirms the party’s 2023 commitment to direct revenue from the $15 per tonne carbon tax increases to relief for British Columbians through enhancements to the climate action tax credit. Individuals and families currently receiving the tax credit will see their climate action tax credit payments increase in 2024, in order to help make life more affordable
– the above investments are in addition to incremental capital funding provided in the 2024 provincial budget, which includes $50 million in Active Transportation infrastructure and $27 million to enable more school districts to buy electric school buses.

Critical Minerals
The party states that:
– during its current term in office it announced the first phase of a made-in-B.C. Critical Mineral Strategy to build a clean economy and support sustainable jobs for people by expanding the critical minerals sector in alignment with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
– this strategy was supported with $6 million over three years provided in prior budgets to conduct geoscience, economic analysis and engagement, including establishing a Critical Minerals Advisory Committee.
– the 2024 budget adds $24 million in new funding over three years to ensure adequate resources for regional and major mines permitting and support Mineral Tenure Act reform in collaboration with First Nations, and engaging with industry and communities.

Transportation & Community Infrastructure
The party states that:
– investments in community infrastructure and critical transportation networks support the movement of goods and people, and help lower greenhouse gas emissions to support a clean and growing economy.
– its 2024 provincial budget allocates more than $15 billion in capital investments over the next three years to ensure British Columbians can move throughout the province. This includes funding to continue major Highway 1 projects through the Fraser Valley and from Kamloops to the Alberta border, and major infrastructure projects like the Fraser River Tunnel project.
– the 2024 provincial budget further provides capital funding to continue and complete transit projects in the Metro Vancouver region, including the Broadway Subway and Surrey Langley SkyTrain, as well as $248 million in capital funding over three years to BC Transit for expanded infrastructure outside the Lower Mainland to house additional buses, for new zero-emissions buses, and to increase the capacity of depots and passenger facilities.
– a further $28 million is allocated for operating funding to support a 14.5% expansion in BC Transit services in priority communities, with a commitment to continue working with partners to address the transit needs of a growing population
– an additional $26 million is allocated for operating fund to support BC Transit base operations and address inflationary pressures.
– investing in the efficient operation of the province’s transit system supports CleanBC greenhouse gas reduction targets, the alleviation of traffic congestion, and ensures transit continues to be a reliable, safe and affordable service for British Columbians.
– a further $207 million is provided for critical road and bridge maintenance on provincial highways, including 47,000 kilometers of roads and more than 3,000 bridges. Contracted services include road resurfacing and pavement marking, highway electrical maintenance, snow removal and response to emergency events, which are all critical to the safety of the travelling public, and to ensure the flow of commercial traffic across major road networks.
– $67 million is to be provided over four years to support the operation of contracted inland ferry services. Inland ferry routes are free services connecting many rural and remote communities to the Provincial highway system, including First Nations communities, and ensure access to school, work, medical appointments and basic goods.
– additional funding of $23 million over three years will support contracted services with BC Ferries, for expected growth in student, senior, medical travel and accessibility fare discounts. The funding will also help to address the rising cost of fuel and mechanical maintenance costs for contractors who operate ferry services on unregulated routes.
– to support economic growth and development, the budget provides $250 million over five years for the 21 local governments that make up the Northwest BC Resource Benefits Alliance. These communities are primarily rural, remote, with small populations but are relied upon to support an influx of new industry and workers. Funding will be used to support planning and construction of municipal infrastructure, such as roads, water, sewer and other community facilities needed to support new industrial development and create liveable communities for their workforce.

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY.  PARTY HAS ANNOUNCED ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ELECTION.  CHECK CANDIDATE LISTINGS AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BEFORE GOING TO THE POLL.)

An Economy at the Service of All

The party states that:
– at a time when families are stretched too thin, the current government has doubled the carbon tax. It advocates cancelling the current government’s plan to further triple the carbon tax, and fully canceling the carbon tax if the federal government does.
– not everyone can take a bus to work or to their kids’ soccer practice. Repealing the fuel tax can save families 15 cents a litre, or about $30 for a Ford pickup or Dodge minivan.
– to give British Columbians the same bread Atlantic Canadians get on the carbon tax for home heating, it advocates scrapping the carbon tax on all home heating.
Make Groceries Cheaper
– grocery prices are through the roof. Cutting the fuel tax and cancelling the carbon tax hikes will make groceries cheaper by reducing the cost of growing and transporting food
– families that can’t afford a basic car of their own shouldn’t have to pay for wealthy people to buy Teslas and other luxury EVs. BC United will scrap this unfair handout.

Housing & Poverty Reduction

To end the housing crisis, the party advocates:
– establishment of a new Rent-to-Own program to unlock homeownership by requiring developers of new housing to set aside up to 15 percent of homes in participating projects for eligible British Columbians who are first-time buyers only. Such buyers would take possession and reside in the home for three years at which time the sale will officially complete. During the three years, participants would pay rent at market rates, with 100 percent of payments being applied toward their down payment — helping renters become homeowners.
– eliminating the Property Transfer Tax for first-time buyers on properties valued up to $1 million —saving people up to $18,000 and making it more affordable to purchase a home.
– using empty public land to build affordable housing, including offering non-profit and market homebuilders 99-year leases on unused public land at one dollar per year. In exchange, builders would be required to construct below-market rental housing for families and seniors.
– elimination of the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on all new residential construction to make it cheaper to build more homes.
– because red tape makes homes cost more for families, cutting red tape to make homes cheaper.
– regulating short-term rentals in a way that respects your property rights, while making sure there are enough homes for everyone
– requiring universities to prove they have room to house BC students before accepting students abroad

Labour, Unions, Employment

The party states that:
– the current government’s “Community Benefits Agreements” give contracts to NDP-friendly unions while shutting out 85% of the workforce – meaning British Columbians pay more for less. It advocates scrapping CBAs and restoring competitive bidding on public projects.
– The government’s “CleanBC Plan” will kill jobs, kill paycheques, and plunge the province into a recession, while doing nothing for the environment, that its own economic model confirms this.  The party advocates scrapping the scheme.

Civil Rights & Liberties

The party states that:
– the values most Canadians share in all the provinces and territories, which are part of our great Canadian heritage, are greater that the values on which we are divided
– it believes that all Canadians should have the freedom to travel freely, and to move to any location in the Country, to work, to vacation or to retire wherever they desire in this great land. It also believes that they should be fully entitled to all the benefits offered by the Government of any province where they choose to live and that they should have a reasonable expectation that those benefits will be similar, no matter which province they choose to live in. It will fight for the standardization of benefits throughout the Country so that this type of disparity is eliminated.
– it advocates working with the federal government to amend the Federal Constitution to include Property Rights, as well as to guarantee that no person shall be deprived of their just rights without due process of law and full, just and timely compensation.

Social & Civic Institutions
The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on the roles, purposes or rights of social or civic or institutions.

Civil & Human Rights

The party states that:
– it supports protection of free speech on campus. Universities and colleges that do not support and defend freedom of expression on campus will be defunded. Taxpayer money will not be used to support places of censorship and intimidation.
– it opposes vaccine mandates and passports. While medically-approved inoculation should be encouraged, and vaccines offered to all British Columbians, individuals should not be mandated or coerced into receiving any medical treatment against their will, and fired government employees (including nurses) should be hired back immediately.
– it opposes identity politics. Identity politics is a divisive ideological force that must be rejected. British Columbians should be treated equally regardless of their race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. Programs that discriminate based on these characteristics must be disbanded.

Social & Civic Institutions
The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on the roles, purposes or rights of social or civic or institutions.

Civil Liberties & Human Rights

Among its six core principles, the party advocates:
– acknowledging that all humans have a fundamental right to health, wellbeing, and freedom
– protecting and valuing all cultures and individuals while conserving variety in the natural world

The party further states that:
– British Columbians need to renew their commitment to fighting for inclusion and equity across our province and in every aspect of our society
– it is committed to ensuring that every British Columbian is treated justly and has the means to thrive in society.
– systemic racism and gender inequities exist in BC, and it will take systemic change to ensure that we move beyond words to achieve the outcomes we all wish to see. It will continue to put forward systemic solutions to systemic issues with evidence-based policies.
– to accomplish systemic change, stimulus spending should target opportunities to correct the underrepresentation of certain genders or demographics in specific sectors, such as caring professions and trades. It should apply a “Gender Based Analysis Plus” (GBA+) and Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People Act (DRIPA) lens in policy development and implementation, address structural inequalities in wages, and build on the work underway to develop a suite of genuine progress indicators to provide a more holistic view of the health of our economy.

The party advocates:
– restarting the Police Act review that was set aside when the prior government called an election. This would include a review of all provincial police force contracts, a comprehensive analysis of funding, the depth of policing activity in BC and the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement.
– reviewing procedures for wellness checks in consultation with Indigenous and BIPOC organizations, advocates and health professionals, with a goal of expanding the use of integrated mental health crisis teams in BC for mental health wellness checks.
– inviting the BC Human Rights Commissioner to do a study on the impact of police violence and racial discrimination on Indigenous peoples in BC.
– better collection of disaggregated demographic data as required to better understand disparities in our society, for health, education, housing, and employment outcomes in particular.
– provincial recognition of the International Decade for People of African Descent and carrying out the requests of the BC Advisory Committee on the UN Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD).
– re-introduction of legislation to ban conversion therapy in BC.
– introduction of equal pay legislation.
– addressing barriers to accessing contraception by making prescription contraceptive products free for those under 25 and removing the PST on all prescription contraceptive products.
– introduction of a BC Accessibility Act, including actioning the themes of breaking down barriers; advancing human rights; and promoting fairness and equity.
– permanent core funding for the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre in order to support indefinite, integrated care for survivors. This funding would be part of a larger strategy that establishes a new funding model for medical and police integrated sexual assault services, ensuring communities across BC can establish clinics that meet their needs.

Civil Rights & Liberties

Temporary Restrictions under COVID
The party states that:
– crisis management during the COVID pandemic was disproportionate to the harms of the virus and caused more damage than it helped to cure. While the province was fortunate to have a measured and rational public response guided by the Public Health Officer when required, along with some of the most relaxed restrictions in the world, the climate of fear carried on once the crisis had past caused great, possibly irreparable, harm. This harm can be measured in increased overdoses, suicides, social isolation, drug abuse, domestic violence, poverty. We see it in the loss of livelihoods, homes, relationships. The play of children has been disrupted, and elders have been left to die alone. British Columbia is suffering.
– of course every single one of the 230+ deaths directly caused by COVID in BC was a personal human tragedy. It’s also important to note that Vancouver alone lost over 14,000 small and medium sized businesses, many of them are never to return. That’s tens of thousands of jobs and so many livelihoods now laying in ruins. Dreams and hopes for the future reduced to rubble.
– studies found no relation between lockdown restrictions and COVID infection. The harm of lockdowns, however, was very real.
– we should remain ever mindful of the tendency for governments to find emergency powers incredibly useful in achieving their unrelated goals – goals that could not be achieved through the regular functioning of democratic participation. Tolerating emergency powers for long periods of time raises the prospect that such powers become permanent, as with Bill 19, with an irrecoverable loss for civil liberties.

Free Speech
The party states that:
– freedom of expression is the foundation of all freedoms. It has inherent value; every individual experiences life in a unique way and should be free to share that experience with others. Moreover, our society has long seen the value in Free Speech. History is replete with examples of controversial, unpopular, or even illegal ideas eventually coming to redefine the course of history, uplifting humanity in the process. The free exchange of ideas is necessary for individuals and societies to test out good and bad ideas alike, to advance in knowledge, and to challenge the received wisdom of an era, for the benefit of all. Robust debate breathes life into the intellectual struggle.
– in the absence of free speech, historically, societies have turned to violent confrontation over competing ideas, values and beliefs. The protection of freedom of expression must extend even to the protection of offensive or hurtful ideas, so that these hurtful thoughts stay in the realm of words and discussion, and that we as a society can unpack them, assess them, and discard them. Our culture is increasingly losing its value for freedom of expression and there is a growing intolerance toward free speech, manifesting as counter-protests and even violence. As intersectionality and “cancel culture” become a dominant cultural force, we risk losing the ability to discuss and engage critically with some of the most crucial issues of our time
– it believes that all individuals are entitled to equal treatment under the law, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or religious belief. This is a long-standing classical-liberal principle that libertarians hold dear. We have long been champions of fairness and equality under the law, or by society at large. The foundations of our society – the rule of law, protection of private property and the person – can and must be applied to every person regardless of aforementioned characteristics.
– as such, it also rejects laws or cultural norms that seek to raise one identity group above another. This leads us inevitably to a rejection of institutional intersectionality; people must be considered as individuals first and foremost. Intersectionality refers to an ideology which seeks to redistribute social, political, and economic power along the lines of race, gender, and sexuality. It does away with meritocracy. In fact, individuals are organized according to an entire spectrum of oppression. The more oppressed an individual’s race, gender, or sexuality is said to be, the higher they rise in the hierarchy of intersectionality. If an individual can be identified as having several “intersecting” marginalized traits, they may verily walk as royalty among the adherents to this peculiar philosophy. Justice, in this view, must consist of taking social, economic and political power away from the privileged (by force if necessary) and giving it to the marginalized, not taking into account the agency, decisions, or capabilities of individuals in either group.
– ultimately this kind of redistributionist and heavy-handed ideology must be rejected because its sustenance requires violence. Marxism must be rejected because it says the most important characteristic about a person are those immutable traits which they have no will or control over. Cancel culture, violence-against-speech, and the whole basket of hardcore authoritarian ideals must be rejected because it elevates the perceived wants of the so-called community over the needs of the individual. It reduces individuals to faceless representatives of a “group.”
– all such things stand in contrast to the libertarian’s commitment to the defense of individual liberty, and the British Columbia Libertarian Party is proud to reject collectivism and defend freedom of speech.

The party advocates:
– fostering an environment and culture within all government institutions respectful of diverse viewpoints and free expression
– ensuring universities have robust free-speech policies with tangible enforcement mechanisms, using financial pressure as necessary
– identifying and eliminating any recruitment or hiring policies within government based on race, gender, or sexuality, “Critical Race Theory”, and so forth

Civil Rights & Liberties

The party states that:
– it is building a better, more inclusive British Columbia
– It is proud to stand with LGBTQ folks, but also believes actions speak louder than words
– during the 1990s it formed BC’s first government with an out gay MLA, and first to bring in adoption rights and pension benefits for queer couples
– in 2019, six NDP MLAs were LGBTQ
– it has re-established the BC Human Rights Commission, and made it fully independent
– it has made it easier for British Columbians who do not identify as either male or female to display an X marker in the gender field of their BC driver’s license, identity card, birth certificate, and BC Services Card
– it believes that all students deserve to be welcomed, included, and respected in a safe learning environment while being fully and completely themselves, and that all of BC’s school districts have adopted SOGI 123.
– it joined a call for a federal ban on conversion therapy

Social & Civic Institutions
The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on the roles, purposes or rights of social or civic or institutions.

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY.  PARTY HAS ANNOUNCED ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ELECTION.  CHECK CANDIDATE LISTINGS AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BEFORE GOING TO THE POLL.)

Civil Liberties & Human Rights 

The party states, as a matter of principle, that:
– every individual has value
– life and liberty are a fundamental and inviolable right, and that everyone is born equal to enjoy life in a tolerant society that respects their individuality and freedom of speech, religion, and assembly

Social & Civic Institutions

The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on the rights or purposes of social or civic or institutions.

Supporting the Marginalized

Mental Health Care
The party states that:
– increasing numbers of British Columbians are struggling with their mental health and we need to treat it like any other health issue by properly resourcing it in our public system.
– mental health care is failing at all levels, from early intervention for children and youth through to tertiary care for adults with complex psychological problems. In addition to concerns arising from the pandemic, young people are also facing compounding crises of climate change and affordability. Young people are the emerging leaders of our province and they should feel hopeful and excited about their future.
– protection of our mental health as exists for physical health begins by increasing accessibility to mental health services. Data clearly shows that lack of access to mental healthcare is most pronounced in those with lower incomes, fewer years of education, as well as among vulnerable and minority groups.
– the lack of mental health options for the majority of the population led to many problems even before COVID-19. If we are serious about building back better as a province then increasing the accessibility and affordability of mental health services needs to be a priority going forward.
– lack of access has led to our medical system becoming the de facto provider for those with mental health concerns. However, this system does not have the capacity to appropriately treat these individuals, leading them to over-utilize the medical health system because their mental health needs are not being treated.
– for many patients, even just a few appointments with a mental health professional can significantly improve mental and physical health. We need to invest in mental health services at every stage of British Columbians’ lives so that they can be supported to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

The party advocates:
– investing to build an affordable and accessible mental healthcare system where cost is not a barrier to seeking help.
– allocating $1.0 billion over a four-year cycle to address mental health care within the medical services plan. Funding should be provided for a comprehensive suite of initiatives including: (1) establishing accessible mental health treatment option s for all those struggling with anxiety or depression; (2) early intervention, youth mental health initiatives, integrated primary care specific to youth and mental health enabling families to easily navigate resources in a supportive environment; (3) community-based options for responding to those who need mental health care and their families such as Clubhouse International; and (4) enhanced counselling outreach services to work with the homeless community.
– allocating $200 million per year to invest in facilities to provide mental healthcare services and community-based centres for mental health and rehabilitation; and, accelerating capital plans for the construction of tertiary care facilities and detoxification beds; and protecting operating funding for facilities.
– developing and implementing a Loneliness Strategy.
– a public information campaign to increase awareness and provide information on where to get help.

Opioid Crisis
The party states that:
– British Columbia is in the midst of its worst overdose crisis ever. About 170 British Columbians die every month from overdoses related to the illegal and toxic drug supply. Since a public health emergency was declared in 2016, over 6,000 people in B.C. have died of preventable overdose. COVID-19 has made the situation more dangerous for people who use drugs by disrupting supply sources and reducing services in place to help people remain safe. Drug policies need to support public health and be based on a compassionate and evidence-based response. Key in this approach is providing people who use drugs with adequate resources to minimize the risks of drug use and support individual and public health.
– harm reduction interventions, such as providing sterile equipment, supervised consumption services, overdose prevention sites, and naloxone are cost-effective and key to ensuring that people at risk of overdose are kept alive. Harm reduction has been proven to reduce the risks of transmissible disease, prevent overdose fatalities, reduce public disorder, and create links for people to access healthcare services and enter treatment.
– decriminalization of personal possession of drugs is a policy option that is increasingly being called for by experts. Recently called for by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, decriminalization will reduce the stigma of drug use, which creates barriers to accessing important health services. It would allow us to reduce the costs of policing and the criminal justice system, which we can reallocate into improved evidence-based treatment programs and education.
– in the face of an illegal, toxic drug supply, safe supply is a crucial intervention to keep people safe. By providing access to alternatives through physicians and nurses, safe supply helps people at risk of overdose connect with healthcare professionals and reduce the risk of overdose death.
– one of the most pressing crises of our generation has so far not received the attention and action it deserves. Through courageous, evidence-based leadership, we can change this and save lives.

The party advocates:
– scaling up safe supply beyond its current level by (1) working with the colleges of physicians and pharmacists to encourage their members to participate in existing programs; (2) funding a wider range of safe supply resources, including low-barrier ways of dispensing (e.g. dispensing machines); and (3) ongoing consultation with people who use drugs in order to create low-barrier and accessible programs.
– enhanced funding for harm reduction services and creating COVID-friendly plans to ensure people have access and don’t use alone.
– decriminalizing the simple possession of drugs through: (1) de-prioritizing policing of simple possession through implementing Dr. Bonnie Henry’s recommended amendments to the Police Act, and; (2) strongly pursuing decriminalization with the Federal government for B.C.

Indigenous Rights & Relations

The party states that:
– it believes that outstanding treaty claims must be settled equitably and quickly in order to facilitate the orderly growth and development of the province. This will involve the federal government, the provincial government and the First Nations affected by any settlement.
– it advocates honouring, with the federal government’s cooperation, existing Constitutional obligations while negotiating agreements which will be beneficial for both aboriginal and non-aboriginal British Columbians
– it insists that the Federal Government fulfill its responsibilities in carrying the cost of any negotiations and settlements
– it believes that the current Indian Act is outdated and must be replaced with more appropriate legislation
– it advocates encouraging private ownership of all existing housing on reserve lands with full property rights recognized for current residents, including case-by-case review of territorial claims outside of reserve lands
– it believes that all residents of British Columbia should be treated with equal respect under the law, equal access to services and equal opportunity for employment, education and advancement

The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on:
– the health and development of rural communities
– immigration and newcomers

Supporting the Marginalized

Mental health & addictions
The party advocates:
– re-opening and revitalizing mental health facilities, to give suffering British Columbians the help that they deserve.
– ending heroin hand-outs. Handing out heroin and other hard drugs to those suffering from addiction does not solve the problem and instead perpetuates a coercive and destructive addiction.
– ending the warehousing of the suffering. Taxpayer money should not be used to purchase hotels in residential areas and warehouse those suffering from addiction. These programs don’t work, crater property values and increase crime in the community.
– it rehabilitation, instead of “destigmatizing” hard drug use. It’s time to acknowledge the serious harm it causes to users, their families and the communities around them. Its plan would introduce voluntary and mandatory rehabilitation, giving those suffering from addiction an opportunity to get clean and rebuild their lives.

The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on:
– Indigenous rights & relations
– the health and development of rural communities
– immigration and newcomers

Solidarity

Among its six core principles, the party advocates:
– acknowledging that all humans have a fundamental right to health, wellbeing, and freedom
– protecting and valuing all cultures and individuals while conserving variety in the natural world

Indigenous Rights & Relations
The party states that:
– passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) was a historic step in the fight to recognize and affirm Indigenous rights. British Columbians are at
the beginning of a long journey of reconciliation and the next steps are to put the legislation into practice and apply UNDRIP to the laws of British Columbia.
– the time for lots of words is over. The provincial government needs to be sitting across the table in a good way, ready to implement and live up to what the province has committed to do.
– urgent action in specific areas is needed. On energy security, child welfare, economic development, healthcare and wild salmon we are proposing concrete first steps

The party advocates:
– ensuring that the Action Plan for implementation is adopted and supported with adequate resources. The budget for implementation will be determined once a clearer idea of the scope of work and timetable are available
– ensuring meaningful progress towards reconciliation based upon a collaborative relationship as we implement the Action Plan
– working with First Nations to ensure a pathway to energy independence, including following the BCUC’s recommendations regarding the creation of Indigenous owned utilities
– building a new focused approach to preserving and rebuilding our province’s salmon fisheries and wild salmon populations in partnership with First Nations
– expanding broad- band access to meet the basic needs of First Nations communities, and ensuring they can take part in new economic development opportunities
– moving urgently away from the colonial Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) structure by supporting indigenous-led child welfare programs in their communities that provide wraparound services and supports to help families stay healthy and together
– continuing to advance cultural competency training for existing healthcare practitioners and supporting the training of new Indigenous doctors while prioritizing opportunities to expand public healthcare services within communities, as led by Indigenous leadership.

The party has released no official statement concerning its policies on:
– supporting the marginalized
– Indigenous rights & relations
– the health and development of rural communities
– immigration and newcomers

Supporting the Marginalized

Mental Health and Addictions
The party states that:
– in 2023 it provided significant new investments to support the roll out of a new model of care that supports individuals dealing with addiction throughout their entire recovery journey. This model provides the full spectrum of care services ranging from withdrawal management to treatment, recovery and aftercare. Budget 2023 also expanded funding for harm reduction initiatives, prescription alternatives and crisis response teams to help save lives and respond to the toxic drug crisis.
– in its 2024 provincial budget, the party proposes investment of an additional $215 million over three years to sustain addictions treatment and recovery programs currently operating or being implemented. This funding includes:
• $117 million to continue funding over 2,200 community mental health and substance use treatment beds at over 300 health authority and community care facilities;
• $49 million to support existing harm reduction initiatives at 49 overdose prevention sites throughout the province, drug checking, and naloxone kit distribution;
• $39 million to provide continued funding for existing Peer-Assisted Care Teams and Mobile Integrated Crisis Response Teams; and,
• $10 million to support ongoing policy development and implementation for treatment and recovery programs.
– In addition to operating funding investments, the capital plan includes funding to support treatment and recovery beds. This includes work on expanding the Red Fish Healing model.

For the Disabled
The party states that:
– there are approximately 235,000 people who receive income, disability and supplementary assistance. Supplementary assistance includes the Senior’s Supplement, the Bus Pass and Transportation Supplement for persons with disabilities, and other supports such as the crisis supplement, counselling, school start-up, and other health supplements for dental, diet, and medical equipment and supplies.
– its 2024 provincial budget allocates $300 million in additional funding across the plan to support anticipated demand for these supports

Community Living
The party states that:
– the Community Living BC program provides supports and services to adults with developmental disabilities, as well as individuals who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and who need support managing daily activities.
– its 2024 provincial budget allocates $105 million in addition funding over three years to support growth in demand for clients served by Community Living BC.

Indigenous Rights & Relations

The party states that:
– in earlier budgets during its current term of office, it allocated $12 million annually in new funds to improve the maintenance of forest service roads around the Province.
– its 2024 provincial budget allocates nearly $24 million more in operating funding for four years target further maintenance enhancements for key forest service roads that serve as primary community access routes for remote First Nations, improving road safety and reliability. This includes capacity funding of $12 million for First Nations to
acquire equipment and secure training to provide opportunities to perform contracted maintenance work.
– the 2024 provincial budgets also provide an additional $8 million over three years in capital funding to support road widening and infrastructure upgrades on the forest service roads to improve their drivability.

(FOR REFERENCE ONLY.  THE PARTY HAS ANNOUNCED ITS WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ELECTION.  CHECK CANDIDATE LISTING AND CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES BEFORE GOING TO THE POLL.)

Supporting the Marginalized

Mental Health & Addictions
The party advocates:
– focusing on treatment, rather than platitudes. The party states that the current government has too long overlooked treatment in favour of publicly-supplied addictive drugs, that see people locked in an endless cycle of addiction and poverty. The party proposes laser-focused treatment and recovery.
– affordable treatment. The party states that treatment should be accessible for everyone, regardless of income. It advocates elimination of user fees at publicly funded addiction recovery centres.
– providing compassionate care, including involuntary care, in appropriate cases. The party states that it is not compassionate to turn a blind eye and leave the severely mentally ill and addicted to languish on our streets with no ability to care for themselves. It advocates making compassionate involuntary treatment possible for those at risk of harming themselves or others

The party has published no official statement concerning its policies on:
– Indigenous rights & relations
– the health and development of rural communities
– immigration and newcomers