NDP Leader John Horgan promises to cut ferry fares by 15 per cent on small routes, freeze fares on major routes and restore free weekday passage for seniors if he wins the provincial election on May 9.
Horgan, who rolled out his party platform Thursday, also pledged to eliminate interest on student loans, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, wipe out Medical Service Plan premiums and begin implementing a $10-a-day child care program during his first term in office.
He said an NDP government will pay for the promises by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, taxing housing speculators and cutting B.C. Liberal waste.
“Our plan will make the wealthiest British Columbians pay a little bit more, so you and your family can pay less, while we improve the services you count on,” the platform states.
The plan outlines $717 million in new spending in the current fiscal year, while still delivering a balanced budget with a $108-million surplus. The added costs rise to $1.26 billion in the first full year of an NDP government and $1.5 billion the following year.
The budget includes plans to increase all income-assistance rates by $100, raise all earnings exemptions by $200, restore free adult basic education and English as a second language programs, create a new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, and improve home support and residential care for seniors.
Liberal candidate Mike de Jong, who has served as finance minister for the past five years, called the NDP platform dishonest and “misleading in the extreme.”
He said the “massive increase in spending” will cost B.C. its triple-A credit rating and force an NDP government to either run deficits or increase taxes on the middle class. “What the NDP have tabled today is not sustainable and cannot coexist with a balanced budget,” he said. “Our track record here and our credibility is very strong and I am telling you that the spending that is being proposed here will either lead to massive deficits or massive tax increases or maybe a combination of the two.”
Horgan rejected that argument, vowing that an NDP government can deliver on its platform and still live within its means. “We’re going to balance provided the Liberal numbers are correct,” he said. “We built this budget on the framework that was tabled in February.”
The NDP expects to raise $250 million a year by restoring a higher personal income tax rate for those earning over $150,000. Premier Christy Clark imposed the same two-point hike as a temporary measure in 2013 and eliminated it two years later.
The NDP also plans to pull in $450 million by hiking the corporate income tax to 12 per cent from 11, and imposing a new two-per-cent tax on absentee speculators who buy property in B.C. but don’t live or work in the province and leave the property empty.
In addition, Horgan said an NDP government will wipe out Clark’s “fantasy” prosperity fund that was created to store the proceeds of a liquefied natural gas industry that never materialized. The $500 million fund will be used to eliminate tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges over three years, he said.
The promised changes to B.C. Ferries will take effect in 2018 at a cost of about $20 million a year, the platform shows. Seniors, who have been paying half the adult fare since the full discount was eliminated in 2014, will once again be allowed to travel for free from Monday to Thursday except on holidays.
The fare freeze on major routes will remain while the NDP conducts a review of B.C. Ferries.
Horgan said the $10-a-day child care program will be implemented over 10 years. The platform projects the program will cost $175 million in the current fiscal year, rising to $280 million next year and $400 million by 2019-20.
The Liberals pledged in the February budget to halve MSP premiums for families and individuals earning less than $120,000 by Jan. 1, 2018 and wipe out the premiums at an unspecified time. The NDP platform takes that promise further and commits to eliminating premiums during their first term in office, saving families up to $1,800 annually.
B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver panned the NDP platform, saying it lacks vision. “In my view, there’s an awful lot of vote-buying attempts.” Weaver said the NDP seems more interested in one-upping the B.C. Liberals than outlining a real plan. “The B.C. Liberals have no plan and the B.C. NDP’s whole document is framed in a ‘We’re going to be better than Christy Clark,’ ” he said. “I mean, really? Being better than really bad is still bad.”
