Breadcrumb Trail Links
NewsLocal News
Eby says polling provides insight and noted that “people are really hurting right now and struggling with affordability.”
Article content
On Thursday, B.C. NDP leader and Premier David Eby sat with Conversations Live host Stuart McNish and took questions from Postmedia reporter Alec Lazenby and the public.
This was the third and final Conversations Live event held this week to highlight the policies of B.C.’s three political leaders and their parties.
Here are some takeaways from Eby’s conversation:
Advertisement 2
Article content
He feels your pain
The Conversations Live event began with the results of a series of polls from Research Co.’s Mario Canseco that highlighted how bad things have become for regular British Columbians over the past two years, with 97 per cent of those polled thinking their economic situation had worsened.
McNish also noted that, according to Statistics Canada, an average family of four had a household income of $99,000 in 2019. In 2023, that amount rose by just $2,000 a year while the cost of living had risen up to 20 per cent.
Eby said polling provides insight and noted that “people are really hurting right now and struggling with affordability.”
He said this was due to the rapid run up in interest rates that made borrowing more expensive, a slowing global economy and a huge growth in population due to immigration.
“People are really and rightly frustrated and looking for ways to support themselves to deal with these things,” he said. “My role is to channel that energy.”
Cost of living led to carbon tax decision
Eby said that the carbon tax, which adds 17 cents a litre to gasoline, had been around in B.C. since 2008 and because it is higher than in other parts of Canada had put the economy at an economic advantage.
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
But he said with the rising cost of living, he was speaking to people who needed an economic break to afford groceries.
“I want people to have a good life for themselves,” he said. “It was a difficult but important decision to take (the carbon tax) off the table.”
Eby says he will scrap B.C.’s “consumer carbon tax” if there is a change to federal legislation to allow it. Carbon taxes on large companies would remain.
Provincial government must create middle-class housing
The B.C. government must take charge of municipal zoning, as it has done with Bill 44, in order to allow developers to build multi-unit buildings on single-family lots.
Eby said the federal government used to fund housing, but since it cut back, and as immigration increased, not enough homes are being built.
In its 1990 budget the federal government cut the amount of new money promised for low-cost housing by $51 million over two years and in 1992 terminated the federal co-operative housing program.
He says he is also in favour of a “unified city state,” an amalgamation of Metro Vancouver municipalities that would have one set of rules for all development.
Advertisement 4
Article content
He got it wrong with the Land Act
In January this year, the Eby government proposed changes to the B.C. Land Act that would have allowed shared decision making with First Nations over the use of all public land.
A month later the plan was shelved after the government heard from the mining, forestry, oil and gas, tourism, hunting and agriculture sectors concerned about potential changes to land use.
“The Land Act issue caused anxiety among a number of different businesses,” Eby said. “That was not the intent. We didn’t do the work, it was not done properly and the minister pulled it at my request.”
Involuntary care will impact hundreds
Eby used the example of a barefooted man walking down the middle of a street yelling at cars as someone who would benefit from involuntary care, a forced treatment model backed by both the B.C. NDP and Conservatives.
He also wants a phone number set up so that someone having a mental breakdown can make one call and be prescribed medicine to help them.
He said the sort of people who would be placed in involuntary care would previously have lived at Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam.
dcarrigg@postmedia.com
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.
Article content
Share this article in your social network