The leaders of B.C.’s major parties were on the campaign trail again Monday, this time making big promises around public safety, education and child care.
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad chose the Vancouver park where a repeat offender allegedly severed a man’s hand in September to promise a crackdown on crime if he were to be elected on Oct. 19.
“People around this province have been telling me enough is enough — it is time to put the rights of citizens before the rights of criminals,” Rustad said.
“So many people today across the province say safety is the number one issue … that we have a province that is being overrun by crime.”
Rustad said a Conservative government would end the so-called “catch and release” of offenders by toughening charge assessment guidelines and pressing the federal government for stricter bail rules.
The Conservatives are also pledging to hire more judges and sheriffs and to create a new statutory court to speed up trials for minor criminal offences.
“Getting them out of the system so they can get this done in a week or two at tops,” he said.
“There is no question it is difficult to get through the process within our court system, they’re locked up, there is reform needed as well in our court system to streamline this.”
The BC NDP has argued the court system remains independent of government, but on Monday party leader David Eby said his government had already taken a similar track.
“We are pushing Ottawa hard to review the rules they put in place to identify why it is even following the changes they have made that these offenders are continually being released back into the community,” he said.
“At the provincial level, we are going hard at tracking, monitoring, arresting and putting forward the best possible case. We have strict directions for our prosecutors to seek detention and jail for repeat offenders and we are going to keep pushing in that direction.”
The Conservatives have also pledged to hire more police officers and to tackle gun and drug smuggling at the ports, something Rustad said the NDP has ignored.
He also promised a “zero tolerance” policy in supportive housing for crime and nuisance behaviour, and to eliminate homeless encampments in the province.
However, he was unable to say how a Conservative government would do so in the face of court rulings that have affirmed the right of homeless people to shelter in public, in the absence of available housing options.
The Conservatives are also vowing to expand the use of involuntary care for people with severe mental health and addiction problems.
Eby, meanwhile, was in Maple Ridge on Monday to unveil details of a new education policy he said would also help the province address its child care woes.
A re-elected NDP government would guarantee a mental health counsellor in every B.C. school, along with education assistants (EAs) in every K-3 classroom.
An NDP government would also put EAs to work staffing before- and after-school care.
“You know your kids can be dropped off on your way to work and picked up after work, and that they are in the same school building with some of the same staff that support them every day,” Eby said.
“They are safe, they are in an appropriate facility, they are looked after and it’s affordable. The school is already built and the staff are already there.”
Eby said the program, which is currently being piloted in several schools, would help B.C. recruit and retain EAs by allowing them to work full-time hours instead of needing to find a second job to make enough money.
Eby said NDP programs had already reduced child care fees by up to $900 per month, per child and promised $250 million in capital spending per year to add thousands of new child care spaces.
Eby did not put a price tag on the new program spending, but the NDP’s overall platform released last week anticipates adding nearly $3 billion to the provincial deficit.
The BC Conservatives unveiled their child care platform last week.
The Conservative plan would look to private childcare providers to increase access, create 24-hour childcare spaces and prioritize access to $10-a-day care for families who need it most.
The party says it would slash regulations to speed up new child care space creation and review the Affordable Childcare Benefit and BC Family Benefit to boost benefits for low and middle-income families. The Conservatives would also allow EAs to provide childcare during the summer.
The party has yet to release a full education platform but vowed earlier this year to deal with B.C.’s growing portable problem by increasing class sizes.
BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau did not make any policy announcements on Monday but held a media availability in Victoria where she took aim at Rustad’s plans for homeless encampments and both other parties’ platforms on liquified natural gas projects.
“We’re hearing from John Rustad that he’s going to end homelessness but shut down tent cities which he knows the court made clear he won’t be able to do, he’s going to shut down transitional housing and opposed to supportive housing,” Furstenau said.
“Proposing to fix something but not offering any actual solutions to do it is what we’ve been seeing again and again from John Rustad and a lack of evidence-based approaches.”
Furstenau added that both the NDP and the Conservatives have committed to expanding LNG exports while the rest of the world is moving to cleaner energy sources which are also becoming a cheaper alternative.