BC Opposition Parties Release Plans to Do Away With NDP Climate Policies

The B.C. Legislature in Victoria, in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Chad Hipolito

B.C.’s two main opposition parties have released their own emission reduction policies to rival the governing NDP, saying theirs will achieve results while averting financial hardship for the residents of the province.

B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon and B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad have both promised to get rid of the NDP government’s Clean B.C. emissions-reduction targets as well as scrap subsidies for electric vehicles.

“The NDP’s so-called CleanBC Plan will kill jobs, kill paycheques, kill billions in funding for vital public services, and plunge our province into a recession,” Mr. Falcon said in the release.

“The CleanBC Plan is nothing more than a ‘CostBC’ scheme.”

BC United Leader Kevin Falcon speaks at a press conference in Surrey, B.C., on April 12, 2023.The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

Mr. Falcon referenced information from the Business Council of B.C. that says the government’s plan will cost the provincial economy $28 billion by 2030.

“Rather than growing by 20 percent under the Reference scenario, B.C.’s economy grows by less than 10 percent between 2020 and 2030 under the CleanBC scenario,” the Business Council said.

Mr. Falcon said his party will throw out the NDP plan and replace it with their own, which includes:

• Focus on reducing coal consumption and turn to liquefied natural gas (LNG);
• Support private sector innovation;
• An investment in climate-resilient infrastructure;
• An overhaul of forestry management practices and target fires faster to reduce carbon emissions;
• Get rid of the EV subsidy.

Conservative Leader John Rustad, whose position on climate change and carbon emissions got him kicked out of the B.C. United Party (formerly known as the Liberal Party), said that taxes and “working people into poverty will not change the weather.”

Conservative Leader John Rustad speaks to reporters in Victoria on Feb. 16, 2023. The Canadian Press/Dirk Meissner

“The Conservative Party of BC will not go down the rabbit hole of over-taxation, hype, scare-tactics, and false promises,” he said. “Our climate approach will be about safeguarding B.C.’s future and fighting tooth and nail to make life more affordable for everyday, hardworking British Columbians.”

The Conservatives climate plan includes:

• Eliminating the carbon tax, which is currently set at $65 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent;
• Eliminating the gas tax, Clean B.C. and Fuel Standard;
• Increasing food production;
• Improving water management.

The NDP Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman said in a statement that “climate change is real” and dismissed the rival parties’ proposals.

“CleanBC is reducing emissions and creating jobs. Ripping it up would set us back and hurt our econom,” Mr. Heyman said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.

“People want to create jobs while also protecting our environment. That’s what we’re doing.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the United Party and the Conservative Party but did not hear back by publication time.