Where B.C. parties stand on major issues ahead of the election

Amid a flood of policy announcements, platform promises and attack ads, it can be hard to know where party leaders stand. Mario Canseco of Research Co. regularly polls British Columbians on their top concerns. Housing led for the past three years; this year, cost of living ranks first. “It’s something that everybody can relate to,” he said. In a poll conducted Oct. 13, 25 per cent of respondents named the economy and jobs as their top issue, followed by housing, poverty and homelessness at 23 per cent, health care at 21 per cent, and crime and public safety at nine per cent. The campaign concludes Oct. 24. Here is a look at the parties’ positions on several major issues.

**Economy**

As cost of living tops voters’ concerns, economic issues moved to the forefront in the campaign’s final stretch. Parties challenged one another’s budget math and whether spending or tax-cut promises are realistic. After 10 years in power, the NDP is defending its economic record amid historic deficits. Its main new plank is a proposed income tax increase on the wealthiest 3.88 per cent of British Columbians. The party says it would spend the additional revenue on health-care facilities, child care centres and schools, while gradually reducing the deficit over the next three years.

The B.C. Conservatives promise to raise the personal income tax exemption, which would amount to a $1,000 break for everyone. The party also promises new spending and a smaller deficit, but much of that plan depends on extremely optimistic economic growth well beyond forecasts by banks and academic experts. The B.C. Greens propose large wealth taxes on the super-rich to pay down the deficit: in the first year, levies would range from five per cent on wealth above $50 million to 20 per cent on wealth above $1 billion, followed by smaller taxes in year two and beyond. CentreBC would roll back the first-bracket income tax increase from 5.6 per cent to 5.06 per cent and end the freeze on tax brackets to provide economic relief.

**Health care**

All major parties pledge to fix the health-care system, but differ on how to proceed. B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson has announced plans for a new women’s and children’s hospital in Surrey and a $50-million fund to help keep emergency rooms open. The party also plans an expert review panel to identify ways to improve the system and to remove barriers for doctors trained abroad who want to practise in B.C.

The NDP promises more than a dozen new urgent and primary care centres and more doctors recruited from abroad. It also alleges the B.C. Conservatives secretly plan to reduce spending by cutting contingency funds. The fund helps cover additional health-care costs, such as unexpected surgeries, and other provincial emergencies, including wildfires. Doerkson says his party will not cut health care.

The B.C. Greens continue to push for integrated community health centres, promising one in every riding. The centres would provide a range of services, from doctors to dietitians. The party also wants to centralize surgery referrals in a single-entry list, replacing the distributed-list model. CentreBC says it would create a $25-million stabilization fund, add surgeries each year by opening more operating rooms, and build an online public health dashboard to track information from surgery volumes to ER wait times.

**Public safety**

B.C. Conservative candidates blame the NDP, which has been in government for nine years, for what they see as a worsening opioid crisis and increased street disorder. Doerkson and the Conservatives promise safer streets by cracking down on gangs, imprisoning violent offenders, hiring more police officers and stopping illegal drug use in hospitals and shelters. At a news conference, Doerkson used a graffiti-covered alley in downtown Vancouver as a backdrop while promising more police in hard-hit neighbourhoods to address street-level crime. He wants to hire 250 more municipal police officers by expanding the police academy at the Justice Institute of B.C., and add 500 RCMP officers and 150 civilian staff over five years to serve rural and regional communities.

The plan could prove difficult. Police detachments and unions have regularly raised challenges with recruiting and hiring more officers. Doerkson did not say how the B.C. Conservatives would address the gap between recruitment and hiring. He said the party also plans to end the B.C. NDP’s “safer supply” program and expand access to naloxone. Safer supply is a prescription service introduced in 2021 to reduce overdoses.

Since B.C. declared a toxic drug crisis in 2016, more than 18,000 people have died of overdoses. That includes 1,015 reported fatal overdoses from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2026. Former chief coroner and safer supply advocate Lisa Lapointe is running for the B.C. Greens in Saanich South against B.C. NDP candidate Richard Zussman, a former Global News legislative reporter. The B.C. Greens’ plan to address the toxic drug crisis includes providing regulated pharmaceutical alternatives to the illicit drug supply to reduce substance-related fatalities.

The B.C. NDP pledges up to $90 million to create 75 involuntary care spaces at the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver for people with co-occurring mental health, addiction and brain injury diagnoses. The B.C. Conservatives say the promise is years late and lacks a timeline. The NDP platform includes $43 million for the facility in each of the 2027-28 and 2028-29 fiscal years. CentreBC promises to hire 100 more provincial RCMP officers over five years and expand police training in B.C. Party Leader Elenore Sturko is a former RCMP officer. The party would also add 60 Crown prosecutors with support staff by 2030-31 and make an extortion task force permanent. For safer streets, CentreBC says it would fund safety and outreach teams in 20 B.C. downtowns by 2028, with municipal and business association oversight and cost sharing.

**Child care**

Affordable child care moved into the campaign spotlight after it was revealed that NDP Leader David Eby’s children are enrolled in a $10-a-day child care program, despite the family’s high income and only 10 per cent of spaces being designated at that rate. Eby says he donates the difference between the $10 daily fee and the full price back to the centre.

Universal $10-a-day child care across the province was a major part of former NDP premier John Horgan’s platform. It has come nowhere close to becoming reality, and Eby paused the program earlier this year. He now promises to build more before- and after-school care spaces while keeping costs down, but no longer promises $10-a-day child care for all B.C. families. The B.C. Conservatives say they would keep existing $10-a-day spaces but means-test future ones. They also want independent child care providers previously left out of the subsidy system to be eligible for funding. The B.C. Greens are now the only party still promising universal $10-a-day child care.

**Indigenous rights**

Much of the campaign discussion of Indigenous rights has centred on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and property rights. DRIPA requires B.C. to align all laws with a United Nations declaration on Indigenous rights. A landmark court decision recently used the law to invalidate parts of the Mineral Tenure Act; the province has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The ruling opens other B.C. laws to possible challenges. Eby helped create DRIPA in 2019, when it passed unanimously in the legislature, but says that was not its intention. He says the provincial government was meant to align its laws with the U.N. declaration over time, and should not be forced to do so by the courts. Eby promised to amend the law, but could not advance the changes last spring amid staunch First Nations opposition and some members of his own caucus refusing to vote with the government.

The B.C. Conservatives say they will do nothing short of fully repealing the law. But with First Nations opposed even to changing it, it is unclear how repeal could avoid protests. Doerkson has not explained how he would respond to the opposition, though he says he still strongly believes in working with First Nations. At the other end of the spectrum, the B.C. Greens promise to keep the laws as they are and work harder to align B.C. laws with DRIPA. OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie has repeatedly said she wants to dismantle what she calls the “reconciliation industry” in B.C. and protect landowners’ property rights, making opposition to Indigenous sovereignty a core position for her party.

**Auto insurance**

In the third week of the campaign, it was revealed that B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson had sent a letter to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), the Law Society of B.C., the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. and the Canadian Bar Association. The letter signalled that, if elected Oct. 24, his party would do away with ICBC’s no-fault insurance system. ICBC launched no-fault insurance, known as Enhanced Care, on May 1, 2021. It provides care and recovery benefits to anyone injured in a crash, but removes the ability to sue.

The Crown corporation says moving to a care-based model “largely removed legal costs from the system” and saves $1.5 billion, helping keep rates more affordable for customers. Doerkson’s letter said “everything’s on the table,” including opening auto insurance to private competition to drive rates down and bringing back sensible limits on minor-injury claims. Asked about the letter, Doerkson said he was “not promising anything.” Eby raised the letter at multiple news conferences, including one where he held it up and pointed to Doerkson’s signature.

Two days later, Eby promised to freeze car insurance rates for three years, claiming a Conservative government would double car insurance costs in B.C. Doerkson countered that a Conservative government would take steps to limit costs and the amount lawyers can charge.

**Housing**

Eby promises an NDP government would increase the province’s speculation and vacancy tax and create a new tax on unsold, empty units. The proposed “unsold condo tax” would begin at two per cent of a unit’s assessed value after one year of vacancy, rising by one percentage point for each additional year it remains empty. The NDP wants to increase the speculation and vacancy tax by one percentage point, bringing it to two per cent for domestic buyers and five per cent for foreign purchasers.

The B.C. Conservative platform says new homes “cost more and take longer to build because of the taxes, government fees and red tape piled onto every project.” The party wants to reduce construction taxes and charges and simplify the building code. The B.C. Greens’ housing platform aims to help renters by preventing landlords from dramatically increasing rents after a tenancy ends. The party also wants to expand non-market housing with $1.5 billion in annual funding to build 26,000 new units each year, and introduce legislation formally recognizing housing as a fundamental human right.

CentreBC promises to speed up homebuilding by setting provincial rezoning standards and capping the wait for building permits at eight weeks by Jan. 1, 2028. It would also double the number of BC Builds projects, adding 20,000 below-market homes by 2031.

**Education**

SOGI, or Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, has remained a focus of education discussions on the campaign trail. Doerkson calls SOGI “an absolute lightning rod for division” and a “challenge.” He wants it repealed. The then-B.C. Liberal-run Education Ministry introduced SOGI 123 in 2016 to guide teachers and schools in creating inclusive and safe spaces for gender-diverse students.

The provincial government recently ended its relationship with the ARC Foundation, which helped develop the program. The government said the service was no longer needed because resources were in place to support those children. Eby says that while the B.C. NDP ended its relationship with the foundation, his party has not “abandoned the essential work to prevent bullying in our schools.” B.C. Conservative candidate Heather Maahs has faced criticism for conflating SOGI with grooming and pedophilia, and mistakenly identifying it as a curriculum rather than the anti-bullying resource it is. The NDP called on the Conservatives to drop her before the Oct. 3 registration deadline, citing those and other previous remarks about LGBTQ+ people. She is still running in Chilliwack North but did not attend a recent all-candidates forum.

OneBC also promises to repeal SOGI, listing it as a top priority in its platform. The B.C. Greens say they would continue supporting and expanding SOGI 123 to create inclusive school environments that support 2SLGBTQIA+ students and address gender identity and sexual orientation. The Greens would also review the per-pupil funding formula and develop a needs-based funding model while eliminating inclusive education funding gaps.

CentreBC says it would add 25,000 school seats by 2031 using standard designs and prefabricated additions. The party also promises 1,500 more education assistants by 2030 and one counsellor for every 400 students. Its platform promises to invest $100 million a year in family support and early intervention by the 2030-31 school year. The NDP promises a new middle school in Coquitlam, but its platform costing does not otherwise mention education.