Resource development and making British Columbia an “energy superpower” to grow the economy would allow for a new provincial government to pay down record deficit, both the NDP and Conservative party leaders said on the campaign trail Monday.
Interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson promised to double liquefied natural gas production by 2032 in the province, if elected, while NDP Leader David Eby announced his government would double the export of critical minerals within five years.
Doerkson said there’s a global energy crisis and “our allies in Asia and Europe desperately need Canadian LNG.”
While Eby picked up on the same theme, saying B.C. has an abundance of critical minerals that other countries need.
“Getting them to world markets means less dependence on the U.S., while creating family-supporting jobs and the prosperity needed to strengthen health care and public services,” said Eby, who was in Prince Rupert on Monday.
He also said an NDP government would expand the Prince Rupert port to be the second-largest facility of its kind in Canada by 2030.
When questioned about the $13.8-billion deficit that Eby’s NDP government accumulated while in power, both party leaders said their plans to grow the economy would help trim the shortfall.
British Columbians demand that the deficit be reduced, Doerkson said at an event in Vancouver.
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“We can’t be dealing with a $14-billion deficit in British Columbia,” he said. “How do we manage anything, knowing that we are faced with these deficits year after year?”
Doerkson did not offer details about how a future Conservative government would balance the budget.
“The reality is that we’re not sure how bad the books are,” he said.
The interim leader, who replaced Kerry-Lynne Findlay about a week ago following her resignation, pointed to an accounting error by the provincial government that overstated forecast revenues from natural gas by nearly $1.5 billion.
“It’s going to be almost impossible to commit to how quickly we will be able to arrive at balanced budgets,” he said. “But the reality is, we have to get back to that.”
Doerkson’s promised on Sunday that his government would not raise existing taxes or introduce new ones.
Eby said the promise of a tax freeze shows the Conservatives are not transparent about their plans.
“The math doesn’t work for the Conservatives,” he said. “It’s very clear that their agenda, when you do the math, is to dramatically cut health care and education.”
Eby pointed to comments from Conservative candidate Tony Luck, who is running for re-election in Fraser-Nicola.
Luck said in February 2024 that if education and health care are the two biggest budget items, then they will take “the brunt” of cuts.
Eby said there is no difference between the major parties when it comes fiscal sustainability.
The real question is how to get there, he said.
“We’ve got to end wasteful spending,” he said. “We’ve got to grow the economy with announcements like today’s.”
Both leaders were also asked about a gathering of alleged white nationalists on a B.C. First Nation reserve on Sunday, just days away from National Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Roseanne Casimir, chief of Tk’emlups te Secwepemc nation, said a group of masked people dropped a banner from an overpass in Kamloops on Sunday questioning reports of human burials at the former sites of residential schools.
Eby called the display “disgusting,” while Doerkson denounced the group.
In Victoria on Monday, Green Leader Emily Lowan said her party would lift the freeze on the NDP government’s $10-a-day childcare spaces, with a goal to achieve universal free children care space by 2031.
“Lack of access, lack of qualified educators, and unaffordable fees send a clear message to young people and families: the government is not investing in you,” Lowan said in a statement.
The current childcare model in B.C. is expensive and complicated, and it’s been exacerbated by the former NDP government’s funding pause in the last provincial budget, Lowan said.
– With files from Nono Shen in Vancouver
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