What would an NDP government mean for business in B.C.? Business in Vancouver sat down with Horgan for a wide-ranging question and answer to discuss his promises and policies, as they would affect business.
Why should business owners in B.C. vote for the NDP?
“I believe our political institutions need change and renewal periodically. What I’ve tried to do…is to focus on making sure everyone benefits from the economy. The biggest challenge, as I’ve travelled around B.C. talking to people, is that they find it is extremely difficult to live here.
“It’s not just housing. There are costs that government imposes on people, like car insurance, BC Hydro rates, medical services premiums, tuition fees. It seems to me that affordability is a big challenge, and the services that people depend on is the second commitment.
“When it takes a Supreme Court of Canada 15 minutes to determine that a government has abused their powers, I think that’s time for a wake-up call, not just for regular people, but for business as well.”
What policies in your platform would benefit business the most?
“Making sure that we can move goods and services around in our metropolitan area, for example. For the past four years, the B.C. Liberals have made it more difficult for people to move around. They’ve put in a divisive referendum on how TransLink and, by extension, people in the region were going to be able to fund extensions and expansions of transportation initiative.
“We’ve committed to 40% of the cost, as has the federal government, of what the mayors are calling their 10-year plan. I believe that the horse-trading that’s gone on within the region to set the priorities for that plan over a 10-year period are the right priorities.”
Would you move forward with a 10-lane bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel?
“It’s not in the mayors’ plan. I believe this is a vanity project, quite honestly. The premier and the B.C. Liberals continue to want to push this one solution, when we could take that revenue and spread it throughout the region. Only one mayor in the mayors’ council supports this and I believe that’s not a consensus.”
You support the mayors’ 10-year plan for transit and transportation, but they are also interested in mobility pricing. Would you consider that?
“I’m going to work with the mayors, when they come forward with their plan and see how we can make it work. They have to pick up about 20% of the cost of these expansions, over the life cycle of that infrastructure, and I’ll wait and see what they bring forward before I make a comment on it.”
One of the ways to address the housing supply issue is to increase densities, but some municipalities don’t want increased density. How do you resolve this?
“I agree the fundamental challenge in bringing down cost is always bringing on more supply. I believe we do have to work with all levels of government. I’m encouraged that the new federal government under Mr. Trudeau wanted to get back into the business of housing.
“The question of density is clearly a challenge in some communities. But in the discussions I’ve had with mayors and councils throughout the Lower Mainland, I’ve heard there’s a desire to complement increased density with increased investment in transit and transportation. But unless there’s a deal between all levels of government to make that happen, we’re going to continue to have gridlock and congestion. If you don’t have a commitment to build the transportation infrastructure there to address that density, you’re creating more problems in communities.”
One thing we hear a lot from business leaders is concern over the PST. Christy Clark has recently said she would not consider a value-added tax to replace it. Would you?
“(Former premier) Bill Vander Zalm said just yesterday … that he ‘s convinced they’re going to proceed with it. They weren’t going to proceed with the HST either and they did. I believe that tax competitiveness is critically important to industry…but I believe you do that, not by stealth – you do that by having a broader consultation.
How would you retool the PST to keep business competitive then?
“I believe we need to look at competitiveness through a whole range of issues not just tax rates. I believe there are issues around medical services premiums, for example. I believe we need to get rid of medical services premiums. We’re the only province in the country that has a flat regressive tax to collect revenues. We also need reform when it comes to Workers Compensation. The system’s not working for anybody, it seems to me.
You want to strike a special panel to look at replacing the MSP. The Green Party agrees MSP is regressive and would switch to an Ontario model, with a progressive health premium. Is this something you could support?
“It’s absolutely possible. I don’t want to pre-judge the outcomes of a panel.”
You plan to raise the corporate income tax 1% while the Trump administration is moving to lower business tax rates. How will B.C. be able to compete and continue to retain and attract investment?
“I’ll wait and see what happens in the United States. Mr. Trump has had 100 days of chaos, it seems to me, rather than successes. I’m more concerned with our competitiveness with our neighbours here in Canada, and the increase in corporate income tax would put us in line with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“I’m more concerned, in terms of the United States, in our relationship, when it come to trade – softwood lumber, of course, the highlight and imperative right now. The United States and British Columbia have had long serving relationships that benefitted us all. The Columbia Treaty is up for renegotiation, for example – absolutely critical to the United States, less critical to us. So we have issues that we can bring to bear in a negotiation on softwood.”
What are your plans for attracting investment to B.C.?
“I believe that investing in public infrastructure creates jobs, creates economic activity. We have local hire and local procurement provisions in the request for proposals. That creates more opportunity for local businesses.
“I use the Osoyoos example…. They decided they had to close the high school. If you are a professional, if you’re a doctor, if you’re a lawyer, if you’re an engineer, would you set down roots in a community that just closed their high school? The answer to that question is ‘No, you wouldn’t.’ I believe that government’s tools are not just tax rates. I believe people make decisions based on more than that. That’s why I am running a platform that has modest increase on profitable corporations.”
A lot of your plans are based on public sector investment. How does that create new wealth?
“The wealth is generated by stimulating more private sector investment by ensuring that people have confidence that communities are going to grow.”
Where do you see B.C.’s resource industries five years from now?
“I believe that there is an opportunity for our natural gas sector to continue to grow. The premier made some fairly outlandish commitments before the last election. None of them have been realized. Market conditions weren’t there five years ago.
“The world is awash in natural gas. We have it in abundance. It’s a natural resource that belongs to all British Columbians and I’m anxious to get that to a higher priced markets. So on the natural gas side, I’m very optimistic that, over the long term, I think there’s opportunity there.
“On forestry, my frustration with the government on the softwood lumber deal is that the premier just was mailing it in. This was a pivotal issue for British Columbia. The deal expired two years ago, and nothing.”
What would you have done differently?
“I would have been working with the federal government. As I understand it from U.S. trade representatives, there was a deal on the table. Not necessarily in the best interest of Canada, but if there’s a deal on the table, negotiators negotiate.”
The ban on non-renewable natural gas that the City of Vancouver has brought in could effectively condemn the people living in the new affordable housing that you want to build in Vancouver to energy poverty. Does this concern you and would you do anything about it?
“The 87% increase in BC Hydro rates over the past 16 years have been debilitating for families. I sat yesterday in Hope with two elderly couples that had, one, a $1,300 hydro bill, and the other a $700 hydro bill. The guy lives in a manufactured home. That’s outrageous. That’s not sustainable. When I talk to industry, they say to me, privately, ‘Keep up the fight on hydro bills because we just can’t afford this.’
“So those are critical issues to industry, not just to individuals. The BC Liberals have, in my opinion, failed to recognize that their energy policies of buying more energy than we need in a market that is awash in energy…is an enormous challenge for new industries to come on stream, particularly in the mining sector which is very energy intensive. I think there’s great opportunity in our mining sector, but they need to have low-cost energy.”
So how do you lower hydro costs?
“Why would you make decision like buying new sources of supply only within British Columbia? Saying we’re only going to buy electrons that are generated in British Columbia, when we have a grid throughout North America – which we used to dominate because of our reservoirs – that makes no sense at all.
“The BC Liberals went on a drive to purchase private power. They bought more…run-of-river power to complement an already water-based system. Why would you not look at alternatives that make more sense – wind and solar?
“Now, during the spring freshet, we’re paying for energy at 70, 80, 90 cents per megawatt hour when the market is selling it for 10 cents. It’s not the cost of the nine or 10 billion dollar dam that we’re building…it’s the cost of all the power that we purchased that we didn’t need because it had to come from British Columbia, which was madness.”
Kinder Morgan plans to source the steel for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Canadian steel mills. The United Steelworkers union – your party’s largest donor – now supports the project. Would this change your stance against the project at all?
“Not at all. I believe that a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic is not in the interest of British Columbia.”
Is there an issue in this campaign that ought to have received more attention?
“I think there’s one that’s simmering below the surface but not top of mind…and that’s public education. I’ve always been a supporter of public education and the record of the BC Liberals, particularly Premier Clark, from 2002 to today, it starved a whole generation of kids from kindergarten to Grade 12 of the education I believe they deserve, by not having specialist teachers, not having counsellors, not having teacher librarians, and now we are going to have to pay for that.
"And there’s not a lot of discussion about the consequences of BC Liberal decisions a decade and a half ago that we’re going to have to deal with over the next decade. It’s not showing up on the evening news, it’s not showing up on the front pages of the newspaper, but it’s deep seated and people are frustrated – certainly parents – that their kids have been short-changed because of policy decisions the Liberals have made."
