Local governments and school districts can’t rely on “random acts of funding,” says John Horgan, promising municipal politicians Thursday that a New Democrat government would develop a 20-year infrastructure plan they could depend on.
“We will build partnerships with you and the federal government to make sure that your priorities are our priorities in every corner of this province,” the B.C. NDP leader said in an election-style address to mayors, councillors and regional directors at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria.
“Today, I want to commit that I will sit down with you and our federal partners and develop a 20-year plan for provincewide infrastructure development in communities right across this province.”
The Vancouver Board of Trade and the B.C. Federation of Labour agree that with one million additional residents expected in the Lower Mainland by 2040, investments must be made to improve transit and transportation.
Horgan said every region of the province would benefit from transportation improvements in the Lower Mainland.
“Your local products get to markets through our ports, mostly through Metro Vancouver. Your shops and your local businesses rely on goods to make their way through that corridor to your hometown,” he said.
Instead of “stepping up,” Premier Christy Clark “picks fights with mayors over funding — stalling, blaming, blocking the way forward for our economy, for our climate, for our future,” Horgan said.
The planned $3.5-billion Massey Tunnel replacement is a priority of the B.C. Liberal government, not local mayors, Horgan said, reminding the audience of his commitment to increase the provincial government share of Lower Mainland infrastructure to 40 per cent of the cost from 33 per cent. The municipal share would decrease to 10 per cent from 17 per cent.
“It will create 43,000 jobs and $3 billion worth of salaries and wages in British Columbia — $4.5 billion in investments in our province just by focusing on the Lower Mainland, and I want to repeat that investment right across British Columbia,” Horgan said, adding that he would four-lane Highway 1 from Kamloops to the Alberta border.
Speaking to the same audience a day earlier, Clark pledged to invest $10 million in the battle against an “epidemic” of drug overdoses in B.C. Half of that is slated to go to a new B.C. Centre for Substance Use.
During the last election campaign, the B.C. Liberals promised to provide 500 new treatment beds; eight months out from the next election, it hasn’t created half that many, Horgan said.
“It is a public health crisis. It is a challenge for all of us. But if we can find hundreds of millions of dollars to give tax breaks to the richest people in British Columbia, surely to goodness we can meet a modest target of providing 500 beds for people who need them.”
On Wednesday, B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver told delegates his party would no longer accept corporate or union donations.
Horgan said if elected, he would pass legislation putting an end to union and corporate donations.
