Lək̓ʔəŋən [LEKWUNGEN] TERRITORY / VICTORIA, B.C. — “The BC NDP has chosen the broken status quo,” said Leader of the BC Green Party, Emily Lowan. “This budget raises taxes on working people, abandons $10-a-day childcare, and puts thousands of public servants out of work.” Lowan argues that the BC NDP’s economic failures are due to a lack of political courage to take back the hoarded wealth of BC’s 1%.
Lowan pointed to BC’s hollowed-out tax system as a driver of this revenue issue. “The province cannot and will not recover until Eby reverses the billionaire-backed tax cuts of the BC Liberal era.”
According to research from BC Policy Solutions, BC’s revenue has dropped from 19.2% to 15.4% of the GDP since the BC Liberals were elected in 2001, the equivalent of $16.8 billion of lost revenue annually. This is particularly egregious in the face of the BC NDP mimicking Christy Clark’s disastrous trickle-down economic plan, one that centres public subsidies to foreign corporations over taxing corporate wealth.
Successive BC governments have let resource royalties collapse—putting a growing strain on BC’s budget, stated Jeremy Valeriote, BC Greens MLA for West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky. Royalties have dropped from 2.5% of our GDP in 2001 to just 0.6% today. “We send billions in public subsidies to resource corporations every year, so why aren’t British Columbians seeing the benefits? If we had a government with the bravery to reform our royalties system, we could bring bills down and revenue up.”
Rob Botterell, BC Greens MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, looked to the recent dropping of the BC Greens’ agreement with the BC NDP, as a missed opportunity for the BC NDP to invest in working people. “The wealth tax we proposed would have wiped out the deficit and left money behind to build healthcare centres that are now indefinitely delayed,” said Botterell, “By leaving this option on the table, the BC NDP has made it clear that they value corporate approval over the working families of BC.”
Lowan pointed to Eby’s NDP using its reputation as a workers’ party to launder a budget, which hurts the working class most. “Even Eby’s former Minister of Jobs and current Minister of Citizens’ Services, Diana Gibson, said just 10 years ago that ‘history has shown us unambiguously that it’s preferable to raise taxes on those with high incomes than to cut spending.’”
“BC has one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in Canada, with one of the strongest credit scores. Fearmongering around deficits is used to scare working people into accepting bad deals like this one,” said Lowan.
“We deserve more than hidden austerity from our government: financial stability through a wealth tax, an affordability agenda, and an end to the era of corporate capitulation.”
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Media contact
Prym Goodacre, Media & Press Secretary
+778 650 0597
newsroom@bcgreens.ca