The BC Liberal Plan to Keep BC Strong

April 15, 2009

VANCOUVER– Premier Gordon Campbell today released the BC Liberal's election platform to move B.C. forward with proven leadership, prudent management and targeted investments that will create jobs and build stability and confidence in the provincial economy.

The Keep BC Strong platform lays out six pillars for a strong B.C. that will guide a BC Liberal government during these challenging times in the global economy. It’s a plan to carefully manage taxpayers’ money, create new growth in the economy, and improve critical services such as health care, education, housing, and community safety.

 “Now, more than ever, we need to build on the strengths that have taken our economy from the worst in Canada under the NDP to one of the strongest economies on the continent today,” said Premier Campbell. “Our platform lays out a comprehensive plan to build on the solid foundation we’ve created over the last eight years in B.C. and to generate new investment and jobs in every region and in every sector of our economy.

“Our plan will ensure that we continue to live within our means, invest taxpayers’ money where it’s needed most, and also invest $14 billion over the next three years in new hospitals, schools, roads and other infrastructure that will create up to 88,000 new jobs,” Premier Campbell added. “It’s a solid business plan that will reduce costs on our economy, create new opportunities for growth in clean energy, forestry, mining, agriculture and small business.

 “This is the most important election in a generation,” said Premier Campbell. “British Columbians will decide who is best to manage our economy and lead B.C. forward through this tough time in the global economy. With this plan and our proven team of BC Liberal candidates, our province will successfully weather these challenging times and emerge stronger than ever by building on our strategic advantages and making the most of our wealth of human talent and natural resources.”

The BC Liberal Platform is the first multi-media, digital platform ever released in Canada. It reflects ideas from the more than 1,500 submissions that were made through the Open Platform. The full digital platform – which can be found at www.bcliberals.com – contains a detailed record of the BC Liberals’ achievements and policies illustrated through hundreds of videos, photos, web links to strategic reports and other information.

“This platform is truly collaborative, built with input from every region of the province on issues that are critically important to our future.  It reflects the common theme that all British Columbians want to leave this province a better place for future generations,” said Premier Campbell.

This platform will be achieved while meeting B.C’s commitment to balance the budget within three years. Some of the new initiatives included in the BC Liberal platform:

• Introduce a common transit U-Pass program for all post-secondary students in B.C. by September 2010 that will save students money as well as help meet B.C.’s climate change targets.
• Significantly reduce taxes for small business including lowering small business income tax to the lowest rate in Canada by April 1, 2012, and raising the small business income tax threshold to $500,000 on January 1, 2010 – an increase of 150 per cent since 2001.
• Double the Training Tax Credit for employers effective July 1, 2009 – providing up to $4,000 annually for businesses to take on trades apprentices.
• Launch a review of the BC Assessment process to lower the unfair burden of property taxes on small busineWork with the federal government to pursue new income benefits for seniors, including changes to allow the first $20,000 of seniors’ pension income to be completely tax exempt, increase RRSP contribution limits, and ease rules on mandatory RRIF withdrawals.
• Launch a new BC Family Residence Program this summer to provide families who must accompany a loved-one for medical care – particularly rural and Northern families – with new travel and accommodation support.
• Propose a new, national Extended Employment Insurance Program in co-operation with the federal government to extend benefits for workers who exhaust their Employment Insurance benefits.
• Expand the Community Development Trust for new transitional and pension-bridging support for older workers, including new tuition assistance to help forest workers, miners and other workers upgrade and new job opportunities. 
• Pursue new uses and markets for B.C. wood by pushing for a new, national wood-first policy to create new demand for renewable, carbon-neutral Canadian wood products across Canada; create a new Wood Innovation & Design Centre in Prince George; create a new Value for Wood Secretariat to expand and expedite investments in value-added growth; and increase B.C.’s marketing budget in China by 50 per cent.
• Aggressively pursue a strategy to crack down on gang crime which includes more police, more prosecutors, and tougher federal laws. Introduce new legislation that requires those arrested with outstanding warrants from other provinces to be immediately returned to those jurisdictions and deny them access to income assistance and other services requiring residency until they can prove their warrants have been dealt with.
  

Media contact:
Bridgitte Anderson
BC Liberal Party
604-345-7331
 

Backgrounder – Keep BC Strong

Keep BC Strong-  Proven Leadership for BC’s Economy includes measures to create thousands of jobs, strengthen the economy and enhance critical services including health care, education, support for seniors and community safety.

The BC Liberal Plan to Strengthen the Economy:

• Reduce the small business income tax to the lowest rate in Canada by April 1, 2012.
• Raise the small business income tax threshold to $500,000 on January 1, 2010 – an increase of 150 per cent since 2001.
• Double the Training Tax Credit for employers effective July 1, 2009 – providing up to $4,000 annually for businesses to take on trades apprentices.
• Launch a review of the BC Assessment process to lower the unfair burden of property taxes on small business
• Invest $14 billion over three years in provincial infrastructure, creating up to 88,000 direct jobs.
• Continue to reduce regulations and red tape to lower costs to business.
• Create a new, voluntary, defined-contribution pension plan for self-employed workers, small businesses and their employees. 
• Implement the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement with Alberta which is expected to create 78,000 jobs.
• Pursue Open Skies agreements to allow airlines to land at any airport.
• Expand access to venture capital and maximize growth in new media, information technology, software, biotech and clean technology.
• Develop a Western Economic Partnership with Alberta and Saskatchewan to open up new opportunities for business expansion through harmonized procurement and streamlined regulatory and business registration processes.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for Fiscal Responsibility:

• Meet B.C’s. commitment to balanced budgets within three years.
• Put 100 per cent of all future surpluses towards eliminating operating debt.
• Prevent taxpayer-supported debt from rising to levels that jeopardize the province’s triple-A credit rating.
• Achieve $1.9 billion in government savings through reduced government advertising, travel and other measures.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for Jobs and Workers in the Resource Sectors:

• Propose a new, national Extended Employment Insurance Program in co-operation with the federal government to extend benefits for workers who exhaust their Employment Insurance benefits.
• Expand the Community Development Trust for new transitional and pension-bridging support for older workers, including new tuition assistance to help forest workers, miners and other workers upgrade and find new job opportunities.
• Expand the ‘wood-first’ policy, requiring wood as the primary building material in publicly-owned and provincially-funded buildings.
• Push for a new, national wood-first policy to create new demand for renewable, carbon-neutral Canadian wood products across Canada.
• Create a new Wood Innovation & Design Centre in Prince George.
• Create a new Value for Wood Secretariat to provide one-stop access to government agencies aimed at expanding and expediting investments in value-added growth.
• Increase B.C.’s marketing budget in China by 50 per cent and open new trade offices in Asia to deliver on the goal of selling four billion board feet of lumber into China by 2011.
• Pursue additional wood demonstration projects – including wood-frame construction such as the building of wood-frame schools in China – to build new markets for B.C. wood products in Asia.
• Establish a new Commercial Forest Reserve.
• Expand access to fibre through working with First Nations and forestry communities.
• Create a new tenure specifically designed for growing trees.
• Facilitate the “right fibre to right resource process” to make better use of small-dimension timber, different species and grades of fibre.
• Introduce new “lump sum” sales where licensees can buy an area of timber instead of only paying for the trees they harvest.
• Aggressively pursue new opportunities for clean bioenergy through new tenures that provide new access to waste wood and to stable fibre supplies.
• Honour the Softwood Lumber Agreement, which creates stability in the forest industry.
• Extend the Mining Flow-Through Share Tax Credit.
• Build the new transmission line along Highway 37 through working with First Nations, the federal government and mining companies. 
• Push for a “single-window” process for environmental assessments and other necessary reviews that currently require multiple government approvals to speed up job creation in energy, mining and resort development.
• Push to replace the federal Navigable Waters Protection Act with a modern framework that reduces undue costs.
• Implement new strategies to market B.C.-produced agriculture products through the new Agriculture Plan.
• Pursue a new Recognition and Reconciliation Act to create new confidence in the economy and certainty on the land base.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for a Sustainable Energy Industry and Green Jobs:

• Work with Northern communities and First Nations to achieve B.C.’s energy potential in the Horn River, Montney, Bowser and Nechako basins to open up a new Northern Energy Corridor that could carry liquefied natural gas from the Peace River to Asia via the Port of Kitimat.
• Pursue the possibility of developing Site C as a public asset, owned by BC Hydro.
• Appoint a Green Energy Advisory Task Force to look at how to maximize growth in clean energy at the lowest impact to the environment.
• Continue to support the development of new, clean independent power projects with new private-sector investments that transfer risk from the taxpayer to investors.
• Implement new measures like in-home metering, smart grids and LiveSmart BC energy-efficiency initiatives to meet the goal of becoming electricity self-sufficient by 2016
• Maintain B.C.’s competitive advantage of low-cost heritage power for residential and industrial users.
• Move B.C. from being a net-importer of dirty coal power from the U.S. and elsewhere to a model of clean, renewable power.
• Continue to pursue a regional cap-and-trade system by 2012 with all members of the Western Climate Initiative.
• Assess our electricity generation and transmission resources in B.C. that will potentially be developed during the next 30 years, and the most cost-effective and most probable sequences of development, through the BC Utilities Commission.
• Support new solar power solutions for remote communities
• Open the first leg of the Hydrogen Highway in time for the 2010 Olympics
• Lead the way in commercializing the production of cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel.

• Capitalize on B.C.’s Olympic advantage by aggressively marketing B.C. before, during and after the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are estimated to create 244,000 jobs.
• Refurbish BC Place Stadium to bring in new economic opportunities including the new Major League Soccer Vancouver Whitecaps Soccer Club.
• Continue building the knowledge economy through partnerships with leading public research institutes – the Michael Smith Foundation, Genome BC, the BC Innovation Council, the Premier’s Technology Council, the BC Technology Industry Association, Life Sciences BC, Geoscience BC, the Pacific Centre for Climate Solutions and the Wood Innovation & Design Centre.
• Make major new investments in health research at BCIT, Earth Sciences at UBC, and cancer research.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for a Healthy B.C.:

• Launch a new BC Family Residence Program this summer to provide families – particularly rural and Northern families – with new travel and accommodation support.
• Continue expanding and building new hospitals and health facilities in Surrey, Kelowna, Vernon, Victoria, Prince George, Fort St. John, Vancouver and communities throughout B.C.
• Open a new medical school in Kelowna in September, building on new medical schools already opened in Prince George and Victoria.
• Create new labour mobility for qualified doctors, nurses and other health professionals allowing them to be automatically registered to practice in B.C. no matter where they are from in Canada.
• Introduce measures to enhance access to fresh fruit and vegetables for remote communities.
• Create new seniors community parks and expand cycling paths and pedestrian walkways.
• Increase investments in chronic disease and addiction prevention, mental health, and AIDS prevention and treatment programs.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for Education and Skills Training:

• Introduce a common transit U-Pass program for all post-secondary students in B.C. by September 2010.
• Double the Training Tax Credit for employers effective July 1, 2009 – providing up to $4,000 annually for businesses to take on trades apprentices.
• Develop a new law school at Thompson Rivers University in collaboration with the University of Calgary.
• Increase funding to education at all levels, despite declining enrolment.
• Expand Neighbourhoods of Learning in concert with parents, community groups, boards of education and city councils.
• Establish all-day kindergarten for five-year-olds and work towards preschool opportunities for four-year-olds.
• Give parents, teachers and principals the right to decide whether video surveillance cameras should be used in their schools to protect students and their property.
• Launch a major education review to ensure parents and teachers have the right tools that work for all children.
• Launch a comprehensive curriculum review to identify areas needing more attention.
• Seek new efficiencies to redirect savings from administration to new performance initiatives to be developed through the Learning Roundtable.
• Build a new Earth Sciences building at UBC, and undertake a major expansion of the Sauder School of Business at UBC.
• Continue developing the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.
• Continue to limit tuition increases to the rate of inflation and maintain this year’s higher funding levels for student aid.
• Enhance the Provincial Nominee Program to accelerate immigration for skilled workers, health professionals, international graduates and experienced entrepreneurs.
• Make new investments in ESL and WelcomeBC to support the more than 40,000 immigrants who come to B.C. each year.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for Supporting Seniors and Children:

• Pursue new income benefits for seniors by seeking changes with the federal government to allow the first $20,000 of seniors’ pension income to be completely tax exempt.
• Pursue increases to RRSP contribution limits and the easing of rules on mandatory RRIF withdrawals with the federal government.
• Create 1,000 new homes for seniors and persons with disabilities in communities throughout B.C.
• Establish a registry for residential care aides.
• Legislate a new “Resident’s Bill of Rights” for seniors living in residential care facilities.
• Develop a new provincial web site providing information about residential care facilities for families.
• Increase access to home-support services, in-home nursing and rehabilitative care.
• Increase the budget for Adult Community Living Services.
• Continue investing $1,000 for the future education of each child born in B.C. through the B.C. Children’s Education Fund.
• Increase funding for early childhood development, child care and supports for children with special needs and expand StrongstartBC centres.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for Safe, Secure Communities:

• Build on the BC Liberal plan to crack down on gang crime which includes more police, more prosecutors, more jails and tougher laws.
• Expand Community Courts to other communities to expedite sentencing and support aimed at preventing crimes, appropriately punishing crimes, and reducing repeat offenders.
• Introduce legislation requiring those arrested with outstanding warrants from other provinces to be immediately returned to those jurisdictions and deny them access to income assistance and other services requiring residency until they can prove their warrants have been dealt with.
• Aggressively combat the use and abuse of dangerous drugs like crystal meth.
• Strengthen initiatives to stop school bullying.
• Expand access to 24/7 safe homes for women escaping violence through expanded partnerships with non-profit and volunteer organizations. 
• Expand the Bait Car program and develop other programs aimed at reducing property crime.
• Build on efforts to introduce cameras to reduce street crime in high-risk areas.
• Invest a further $172 million in housing projects on six sites in Vancouver, with a further six sites to follow, and invest another $130 million to build an additional 478 new housing units on 11 sites in seven additional communities.
• Upgrade and renovate 2,000 units of affordable housing in SROs and other facilities purchased by the BC Liberal government to protect affordable housing stock.
• Continue battling homelessness through partnerships with communities such as Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, Kelowna, Abbotsford, Campbell River, Maple Ridge and Nanaimo.
  

The BC Liberal Plan for Protecting the Environment:

• Extend B.C.’s network of land conservancies.
• Pursue strategies to protect our drinking water and fish habitats through the Living Rivers Trust, our Water Plan, and wetlands preservation measures.
• Implement new anti-idling measures.
• Implement low-carbon fuel content standards and California-equivalent tailpipe emission standards.
• Expand strategies to protect species at risk.
• Work with the federal government to transfer regulatory oversight of aquaculture and fisheries management to the federal government.
• Work with the federal government and Capital Region communities to implement a new sewage treatment plan for Greater Victoria, and outlaw the dumping of raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.