Tackling transportation gridlock, high housing costs and the high cost of living, while creating jobs, is among the top concerns for Lower Mainland businesses in the 2017 provincial election, according to business groups like the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT).
So how do the three main party platforms stack up when it comes to addressing key business issues?
On the housing crisis and affordable child care, the BC NDP and BC Green Party platforms include the most ambitious and costly plans, while the BC Liberals platform has the strongest commitments on job creation and transportation. It is the only major party committed to replacing the George Massey Tunnel – identified as a priority by business groups.
Both the Greens and NDP have deferred to the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation to identify priorities for Greater Vancouver transit investments. Both would twin the Massey tunnel rather than replace it with the 10-lane $3.5 billion bridge planned by the Liberals.
All three parties have pledged to match federal funding of $2.2 billion to support the priorities for public transit established by the Mayor’s Council, although the Liberals insist any new regional levies, such as road pricing, must be approved in a referendum.
As for job creation, the NDP has an ambitious plan to create 96,000 construction jobs over 10 years, although they would be financed by the taxpayer, rather than the private sector, in the form of public works projects.
On what the GVBOT calls gateway resources (movement of goods, including exports) and the importance of Asia-Pacific Gateway infrastructure and strategy, the organization’s platform analysis says the Liberals have “the most thorough export development strategy,” while the Green party makes “no mention of the gateway, the importance of the Asia-Pacific market or trade-enabling infrastructure in their platform.”
As for the NDP, the GVBOT states: “There is not a single mention in their platform of supporting the physical movement of goods or of the Asia-Pacific Gateway.”
Broadly speaking, the NDP and Liberals have similar planks on two major issues: phasing out Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums and capping or scrapping bridge tolls.
The Green party’s plan is to roll MSP into payroll and income taxes and keep bridge tolls.
The Liberals are running on their fiscal track record of producing five balanced budgets, a triple-A credit rating and a thriving economy. The NDP is also promising balanced budgets, although the Liberals claim there is a $6 billion funding gap in their costing.
The Green party’s platform proposes a four-year budget with two deficits and balance in Year 4, which the Green plan says would be achieved through new taxes and tax increases.
Here’s a recap of some of the main business planks in the three parties’ platforms.
