Economic issues took centre stage in B.C.’s provincial election campaign on Wednesday, as the leaders of the front-running parties duelled over whose tax cut will save people more money.
Speaking at an event billed as a kitchen-table sitdown with Richmond families, BC NDP Leader David Eby touted his proposed $1,000 per family tax cut as an “immediate” benefit to the public, while the Conservative benefit won’t fully kick in until 2029.
The NDP claims their benefit will provide nearly twice as much money to a renting couple who makes $75,000 over the next four years than the Conservatives’ offering.
And a multi-generational family of four adults with a $1 million mortgage would receive substantially less than under BC Conservative Leader John Rustad’s plan, Eby said.
That’s because the Conservative proposal is tied to a person’s housing cost.
“You don’t get the actual benefit unless your housing costs are $3,000 a month. And for a mortgage, that $3,000 a month is interest only,” he said.
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“If you live in a low-cost rental in rural B.C., in a smaller centre, if you’ve paid off part of your home, you don’t see the full benefit. The fact that the full benefit only goes to the people who have the most doesn’t make any sense.”
Rustad disputes the allegation his benefit, dubbed the “Rustad Rebate,” would benefit the wealthiest most.
He said the Conservatives will implement an income cap on the benefit somewhere in the ballpark of $250,000.
Rustad said that the only reason the Conservatives can’t fully implement their benefit immediately is because of the deficits accrued under the NDP and that the housing rebate isn’t the only tax break he’s offering.
“Between the Rustad Rebate and the carbon tax it is $3,000 dollars a year in tax savings that people will have in this province. And I would love to introduce it immediately, but there has been such fiscal irresponsibility from the NDP,” he told Global News in a Wednesday interview.
The Conservative tax credit will allow people to apply up to $1,500 in housing costs against their provincial income tax in 2026, rising to $3,000 by 2029.
Once the benefit fully kicks in, at the maximum payout, the Conservatives say it would deliver a tax break of about $1,600 to $1,700 per year.
The BC Greens, meanwhile, focused on public safety Wednesday, proposing two new major reforms.
Speaking in Vancouver, Green Leader Sonia Furstenau called for a task force on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people to address what she called “systemic inequalities.”
“The BC Greens are committed to ensuring that the justice system is truly about justice and that it reflects the systemic issues that we are yet to address in our society, including racism, poverty, and the toxic drug crisis,” she said.
Furstenau said the BC Greens would also disband the RCMP’s Critical Response Unit.
“Sonia Furstenau is pro-police, ensuring that there is safety in the community for everybody, and that’s the role the police play, and I think when police are actively engaged in working with people and Indigenous leadership and creating greater safety for everybody we all win,” she said.
“What we’ve seen from the particular unit we are saying to disband, is it has created a sense of less safety for Indigenous people. It has created less safety for the land defenders.”
Early voting in the provincial election opens Thursday.
Election day is Oct. 19.
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