The Real Story On...The NDP's Economic Record

• The NDP came into office in 1991 on a promise of fiscal discipline, low taxes and economic stability. The actual results looked far different:
• After saying they wouldn’t raise taxes during the 1991 election campaign, the NDP raised taxes by nearly $2 billion in their first two years. As a result, by 1994 B.C. had the highest marginal income tax rates in North America.
• From 1994 onward, B.C.’s economic growth performed below the national average nearly every single year. By 1998, B.C. had the worst economy in the country.
• The NDP brought in EIGHT consecutive deficit budgets and doubled the province’s debt. They introduced five debt-management plans over eight years, and missed every single target. As a result, they received two credit rating downgrades during their time in office.
• The total operating debt – the debt accrued through spending on government operations – doubled to over $12 billion in 2000/01. This resulted in a $3.8 billion "structural deficit" left by the NDP in 2001.
• Between 1992 and 2000 B.C. ranked last in private-sector job creation per capita in the country, and suffered the highest unemployment rate of all the Western provinces nearly every year. The unemployment rate reached 10.2 per cent under the NDP with record high unemployment for women and youth.
• Under the NDP, Real Disposable Income dropped every year between 1991 and 1997, and didn’t even return to 1991 levels until 2001. 
• Under the 1990s NDP, thousands of British Columbians fled the province. In their last three years of government (1998 to 2000), B.C. lost nearly 45,000 people to other provinces.

The Carole James NDP have promised more of the same with their new platform that drives up spending, adds new taxes, and will kill jobs:

• The NDP’s new platform includes over $3.6 billion in new spending that will add (by their own account) over $1.5 billion to our operating deficit – and billions more given their unrealistic estimates of future revenue.
• They want to further reduce revenues by scrapping the carbon tax on pollution, costing $2.3 billion in revenue – only to replace it with over $1 billion in new taxes on job-creation including new taxes on oil and gas (over $400 million), reinstating the job-killing corporate capital tax ($185 million), and new costs on clean energy development ($75 million).
• Their platform even includes a new hidden carbon tax on rural industries worth $250 million a year that experts estimate will kill up to 60,000 jobs in communities from Port Alberni to Fort St. John.
• This isn’t surprising given that the NDP voted against over 120 tax reduction measures—measures that cut personal taxes, small business taxes, small business taxes and taxes supporting rural industry.
  

The NDP continues to advocate for policies that threaten jobs, including:

• A 25 to 30 per cent increase to small business payroll costs through minimum wage policies, costing small business up to $450 million a year in new labour costs and resulting in tens of thousands of lost jobs.
• Policies jeopardizing the Softwood Lumber Agreement, which would lead to $200 million in lost revenue every year, $2.4 billion in industry duties clawed back, and 30-40 per cent export taxes paid to the U.S.
• Demanding a moratorium on the development of independent power projects would result in billions in lost private-sector investment and thousands of potential jobs cut.
• Back in the 1990s, people believed the NDPs promises and paid the price. In today’s economy, British Columbians can’t afford to take that chance.