Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad kicked off a month-long campaign Friday to get people considering the idea of hearing the word “Premier” in front of his name.
It would have been a long-shot effort just months ago, but the party’s surge in popularity and the opposition BC United’s surrender have narrowed the odds considerably. Rustad and Premier David Eby are just a few points apart in most polls on the outcome of the Oct. 19 election.
But after back-to-back appearances at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, both of them now appear offside on one key issue with the majority of the 2,200 local government people at the convention. The delegates passed an emergency resolution Friday supporting the carbon tax on consumers, a tax both leaders are now promising to scrap.
Rustad has been criticizing the 15-year-old escalating tax for more than a year. Eby last week abruptly announced he would drop it if the federal requirement is removed, because people can’t afford it.
Municipal leaders responded by whipping together a resolution that said Eby’s move “poses a threat to the effectiveness of the climate strategy as an essential tool to reduce emissions and transition to a low-carbon economy.”
It urges the B.C. government to engage with local leaders to modernize carbon pricing and share a “significant” portion of the billions the carbon tax brings in.
The resolution has no direct impact on government. Local leaders, whose hunt for more money from senior governments stretches back 100 years, have an obvious interest in the cash. But still, the vote suggests there is more support for the carbon tax than Eby and Rustad may think.
In a low-key address to delegates Rustad insisted the carbon tax must go, and also promised to suspend low-carbon fuel requirements. Removing both those climate change policies would cut 36 cents a litre from the cost of gasoline, he said.
Dogged by questions about his climate change beliefs, he told reporters later: “Climate change is real and man is having an impact on climate. … But the NDP is saying that taxing people in poverty is going to change the weather. It will not.”
His policy is to pursue electrification on a grand scale and talk about using nuclear power generation if need be.
The NDP has huge electrification plans but Rustad said they have no idea how to generate what will be needed in the decades ahead.
The highlight of his speech was a multi-billion-dollar promise to local governments for sewer and water upgrades. No politician wants to stand in front of a new sewer line and say: “Look what I did,” he said. But they are still urgently needed.
He dwelled on assorted crises he said the NDP government has mismanaged, mostly in the “rampant” crime and general public safety realm.
The financial situation has never been worse, he said, citing the recent $9-billion deficit estimate in the current year, $1 billion higher than forecast less than a year ago.
“We can’t carry on with safe supply,” he said, calling for a comprehensive plan for drug-addiction treatment, including “involuntary, compassionate care.”
“That’s a controversial topic, but if your … child is addicted and that child refuses to go into treatment and recovery, there’s nothing you can do as a parent.
“That’s something that we’re going to change.”
Eby recently made room for secure care in the NDP platform as well, one of a few recent examples where he’s aligned the government with B.C. Conservative stances.
Along with the carbon tax flip, his government largely abandoned the decriminalization of dangerous drugs experiment this year, something the B.C. Conservatives also advocated.
“Another thing that’s broken in our system is health care,” Rustad said. “This is not a third world country,” but emergency room closures are routine and there are lengthy wait times for services. “We should be able to do better than this.”
B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, who did a Q and A session with delegates Friday, is now the only party leader who still backs the carbon tax.
She said the delegates’ carbon tax resolution shows the disconnect between the other two leaders and “what’s happening on the ground.”
“We cannot backtrack on the idea that carbon pollution doesn’t cost us. It costs us enormously.”
