B.C.’s 2020 provincial election is underway, and the party leaders have begun to make pledges about what they’ll do if they’re elected.
To help make sense of it all, Global News is tracking what the major party leaders are promising, should they form government after Oct. 24.
This post will be regularly updated throughout the campaign as each party makes new commitments.
Skip to promises made by the:
BC NDP
BC NDP platform
- Leader John Horgan has promised to complete a new Surrey hospital in Cloverdale.
- Horgan has promised 10 new urgent and primary care centres by the end of the year.
- Sept. 30: Horgan promises $1.4 billion over 10 years to build new long-term care homes and improve wages for long-term care workers.
- Oct. 1: Horgan promises to expand access student access to up to $4,000 per year to help them pay the cost of tuition, textbooks, and supplies, based on financial need.
- Oct. 2: Horgan promises to ensure B.C. reaches net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
- Oct. 4: NDP promises ICBC profits generated during pandemic will be returned to drivers as a rebate.
- Oct. 4: Horgan promises to boost funding for seniors home-care, does not commit to a dollar figure.
- Oct. 6: The BC NDP releasing full election platform. The platform includes dozens of promises including $1,000 in COVID-19 relief to certain families if re-elected, freeze rent increases to the end of 2021 and a means-tested, $400 renters’ rebate.
- Oct. 6: NDP pledges to ban single-use plastics
- Oct. 6: NDP pledges to expand Highway 1 between Abbotsford and Surrey by 2026.
- Oct. 6: NDP promise to integrate childcare into the provincial public school system.
- Oct. 6: NDP promise to make prescription contraception free.
- Oct. 6: NDP promise to make transit free for children under the age of 12.
- Oct. 6: NDP promise to create a Silver Alert system for missing seniors.
- Oct. 7: Horgan promises to build cancer centres in Nanaimo and Kamloops.
- Oct. 7: Horgan promises that the province will fund school supplies for classrooms.
- Oct 8: Horgan promises an NDP government will complete a SkyTrain connection to Langley.
- Oct. 9: Horgan promises long-term shipbuilding strategy for B.C.
- Oct. 9: NDP promises six-month 15% commission fee cap for food delivery services
- Oct. 10: NDP promise to build a new elementary school in Vancouver’s Olympic Village.
- Oct. 12: Horgan promises $400 renters’ rebate for households earning less than $80,000 per year.
- Oct. 13: Re-elected BC NDP government will launch BC’s second medical school at the Surrey SFU campus.
- Oct. 15: NDP promises to eliminate PST on electric aircraft.
- Oct. 17: NDP promises to build new regional cancer centre in Kamloops as part of 10-year cancer plan.
- Oct. 18: Horgan promises to double B.C.s contribution to the B.C. salmon restoration and innovation fund.
- Oct. 19: BC NDP committing provincial funding support to the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre in the Oakridge neighbourhood.
- Oct. 20: On The Mike Smyth Show on AM980 CKNW, Horgan vows to not raise or create new taxes if re-elected.
- Oct. 20: On The Mike Smyth Show on AM980 CKNW, Horgan said his government will not bring in mobility pricing.
- Oct. 21: NDP promises to introduce accessibility legislation in its first legislative session if reelected.
BC Liberal Party
BC Liberal Party platform
- Sept. 24: Leader Andrew Wilkinson promises to scrap the Speculation and Vacancy tax, and replace with a tax on flipped presale contracts. He also promised a “complete overhaul of property taxation.”
- Sept. 26: Wilkinson promises not to bring MSP premiums back if elected.
- Sept. 26: Wilkinson promises free flu shots for all British Columbians if elected.
- Sept. 28: Wilkinson promises to get rid of the PST for a year, cut it to 3 per cent for the second year.
- Oct. 1: Wilkinson promises to work to restrict camping in city parks and enforce the ban on unsafe roadside panhandling.
- Oct. 2: Wilkinson promises to prevent protesters from blocking Trans Mountain pipeline construction.
- Oct. 2: Wilkinson promises to overhaul stumpage system in the forestry sector.
- Oct. 4: Wilkinson promises 35 per cent tax credit worth up to $7,000 for seniors home-care services.
- Oct. 4: Wilkinson promises $1 billion over five years to build new long-term care and assisted-living homes.
- Oct. 4: BC Liberals promise to freeze Surrey RCMP transition within 60 days of election, hold referendum on process.
- Oct. 5: Wilkinson promises to restart construction on a bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel.
- Oct. 6: Wilkinson promises Liberal government would end the ICBC monopoly, allow people to buy basic insurance from private insurers.
- Oct. 7: BC Liberals promise to fund integrated police/mental health teams, increase capacity of existing mobile crisis response teams.
- Oct. 8: Wilkinson promises to end 2 per cent Small Business Income Tax.
- Oct. 8: Wilkinson promises bridge financing for tourism sector to cover fixed costs during pandemic.
- Oct. 9: Wilkinson promises to cap online food delivery charges at 15 per cent.
- Oct. 9: Wilkinson promises daily childcare fee caps. $10/day childcare for families earning under $65,000, $20/day for families earning under $90,000 and $30/day for families earning under $125,000
- Oct. 9: Wilkinson promises single, online waiting list for families seeking government funded childcare.
- Oct. 10: Wilkinson promises to complete new tower at Richmond Hospital.
- Oct. 13: BC Liberals promise to fund 10,000 child-care spaces.
- Oct. 13: BC Liberals promise to create a province-wide hybrid and online learning framework for K-12 education.
- Oct. 13: BC Liberals promise emergency Pandemic Response Committee.
- Oct. 13: BC Liberals promise to change to fixed election date law to prevent snap elections.
- Oct. 13: BC Liberals promise to appoint an independent Fair Tax Commission within 60 days of election to review all B.C. taxes.
- Oct. 13: BC Liberals promise to release a new economic response plan within 60 days of being elected.
- Oct. 16: BC Liberals promise $1.75 billion over three years in capital funding and $146 million in new operating funding for affordable housing.
- Oct. 18: Wilkinson promises $100 million to upgrade high-speed rural internet access.
- Oct. 18: BC Liberals committing provincial funding support to the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre in the Oakridge neighbourhood.
- Oct. 19: BC Liberals promise to scrap NDP’s Community Benefits Agreement public works union contracting program.
- Oct. 19: BC Liberals promise to build Lougheed Highway/Harris Road interchange, Abernathy Extension between 232 and 240 St. and the 240 St. Bridge in Maple Ridge.
- Oct. 20: BC Liberals promise to create new Ministry of Fisheries and Coastlines, expand fish and wildlife programs.
BC Green Party
BC Green Party website
- Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has promised to pause construction on the Site C dam if elected.
- Oct. 4: Furstenau promises $500-million renters grant. Program would be means tested with payouts varying by need. Program would be targeted at people spending more than 30 per cent of income on rent.
- Oct. 6: Furstenau promises up to $500 per month in support for stay-at-home parents with children under three years old.
- Oct. 6: Furstenau promises free childcare for kids under three, up to 25 hours per week of free childcare for kids aged three to four years old.
- Oct. 6: Furstenau promises to launch a consultation process to explore a four-day work week.
- Oct. 7: Greens promise $300 million, six-month rent subsidy program for tourism businesses, covering 25 per cent of rent.
- Oct. 8: Furstenau promises to ban logging of old growth forests in high-risk ecosystems, enact all recommendations of old-growth review panel.
- Oct. 8: Fursteanu promises to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
- Oct. 8: Furstenau promises to restrict foreign ownership in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
- Oct. 8: Furstenau promises to apply carbon tax to slash-pile burning.
- Oct. 8: Furstenau promises to stop the export of raw logs.
- Oct. 9: Furstenau promises $1 billion COVID-19 economic plan focusing on innovation and transition to a low-carbon economy
- Oct. 9: Furstenau promises to reinstate $10/year carbon tax increases
- Oct. 9: Furstenau promises to restrict sales of non-zero emission vehicles by 2035.
- Oct. 10: Furstenau promises to expand funding for bike lanes, trails and pedestrian-only streets, eliminate PST on electric bikes.
- Oct. 10: Furstenau promises to make expanded patio program permanent.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises operating grants for school districts based on pre-COVID enrollment.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises to ensure remote and hybrid learning options for all B.C. school districts.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises a basic income for youth aging out of government care.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises to make $300 crisis supplement permanent and indexed to inflation.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises to create a permanent Fair Wages Commission to recommend minimum wage increases.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises $100 million of new capital funding to renovate and add to existing schools to support early childhood educator spaces.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises $24 million for more counsellors in schools.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises province-wide program to address racism in schools.
- Oct. 14: Furstenau promises new capital fund to support acquisition and maintenance rental housing.
- Oct. 15: Greens promise to lower voting age to 16.
- Oct. 19: Greens promise to turn BC Ferries back into a Crown corporation, conduct full review of ferry operations.
BC Conservative Party
- The BC Conservatives are promising to scrap the province’s carbon tax.
- The BC Conservatives are also pledging to allow private companies to compete with ICBC on basic insurance.
- BC Conservatives would create forestry revitalization committee.
- BC Conservatives would recalculate formula for forestry industry stumpage fees monthly.