Some British Columbians are already casting early ballots and the provincial election is just over one week away, but the BC Conservative Party has yet to release its costed platform.
Both the BC NDP and the BC Green Party have released detailed and platforms that include projected costs and revenues.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, have been making near-daily election spending announcements, but have yet to detail how they would pay for their plans if elected next weekend.
“You will see a costed platform, you will see that come out likely in the next three or four days,” BC Conservative Leader John Rustad said Friday.
“We have had so much content to put out. Everyday we are putting out one two or even three policy pieces as we roll through, and once you release a fully costed platform you have released your entire platform. So, we are using this opportunity through the campaign for people to understand who we are.”
UBC political scientist Stewart Prest said the delivery of a costed platform will likely make little difference to the majority voters who have already made up their minds about who to support.
But he said they do represent an important value statement for the more than 20 per cent of voters who have not yet made up their minds about how to cast their ballots. The platforms demonstrate where the party would spend more and where it would spend less.
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“If you say you are going to spend more and you are not telling where the money is coming to pay for that, you are against taxes, that suggests it has to come through some other budget-balancing act. Then voters would benefit from knowing where do you see less important areas of spending, where are you going to draw things down,” Prest said.
“For the Conservatives in particular, if your argument is your opposition is spendthrift and uncareful with money, it’s harder to make that argument if you are not upfront with how you are going to spend your money.”
The BC Conservatives have not been shy on election spending promises.
The party has pledged what appears to be tens of billions of dollars in new capital spending on bridge and highway projects in all corners of the province.
It has also made significant program spending commitments, including a Friday announcement to fund a second round of IVF for would-be parents.
A program to fly patients out of province for healthcare if B.C. wait times are too long, a massive expansion of drug treatment programs and involuntary care, 5,000 new long-term care beds and tax credits for seniors home care, a $1 billion annual municipal infrastructure fund and the $3.5 billion “Rustad rebate” housing tax credit are among the party’s other big-ticket spending promises.
The Conservatives have made those promises while simultaneously pledging to end the carbon tax, to cut small business taxes by 1 per cent, not to cut healthcare spending, not to implement road or bridge tolls and not to impose any new taxes without a referendum, all while eliminating B.C.’s deficit within in two terms.
“When you release a costed platform you have accountability. John Rustad doesn’t want accountability, he doesn’t want to tell you what his plans are,” BC NDP Leader David Eby said on Friday.
“They have been deliberately vague in their policy announcements. What’s their plan on childcare? He says they are going to move to means-tested childcare. Does that mean middle-class British Columbians are now will be going back to the old days of paying $52 a day for childcare, instead of what they are paying now which is $17?”
The NDP has made its own laundry list of big-ticket promises, which would largely be funded with new government debt.
The party’s platform, released last week, would add nearly $3 billion to the province’s already almost $9 billion deficit through 2027, though the Conservatives allege the true number is far higher.
“There will be the costed budget that will come out shortly,” Rustad reiterated Friday.
“And I know David Eby seems to be jumping up and down and proud about having $24 billion worth of deficit and irresponsible spending. We have to take, of course, all of those sorts of things into account in how we are doing things.”
Election day is Oct. 19.
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