Housing Affordability and Drugs: BC Leaders’ Debate Hones In on Key Issues

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad (L) and B.C. NDP Leader David Eby shake hands as B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau watches while posing for photographs before the televised leaders' debate, in Vancouver, on Oct. 8, 2024. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

The leaders of B.C.’s three biggest political parties discussed their plans for affordable housing, health care, and the drug crisis during a televised debate on Oct. 8.

NDP Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad focused on criticizing each other, while Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau hammered at both Eby and Rustad for lack of leadership.

The first question posed to Eby concerned the timeline for residents to expect improvements in public safety, housing, and affordability across the province. Eby answered that under his leadership, more will be spent on support services while his party will deliver a tax cut to middle-income earners and develop affordable child care and car insurance.

Rustad said he is concerned by the number of people who want to leave the province. The Conservative leader said he will tackle the affordability problem through his housing rebate and by getting rid of the carbon tax. He also said that provincial drug policies have failed, criticizing safe-supply and saying his party would focus on treatment options.

The first question directed at Furstenau was why voters should support the Green Party. She said the other parties were not putting forward strong leaders, accusing them of either offering more of the same or a return to the past.

Housing Affordability

An early topic was housing affordability with the leaders putting forward their plans for tackling the problem.

Rustad said reducing bureaucracy and improving local partnerships is the answer.

“It takes far too long to get housing built in this province,” he said. “We’re going to come to communities with a billion dollars a year to be able to invest in things like water and sewer upgrades,” he said, adding money has to be put into densification in communities.

Eby outlined his party’s plan to speed up construction using modular housing “to build faster and cheaper.” The NDP will also preserve lower cost rental housing, he said.

The Greens will bring in rent caps on properties between tenancies while building “tens of thousands of units of non-market housing every year to put a check on the cost,” she said.

Drug Crisis

Another major debate topic was the province’s decriminalization of illegal drugs and the increase in overdose deaths, homelessness, and addiction problems, as  well as concerns over public safety.

B.C. decriminalized some illegal substances, including opioids and cocaine, in January 2023. Amid rising complaints about increased drug use in playgrounds and other public places, the provincial government reversed its decision earlier this year, asking Ottawa to amend its exemption.

During the debate, Eby acknowledged that the decriminalization pilot project had failed.

“We tried it and it didn’t produce the results that anybody wanted,” he said, admitting his government “had to change course.”

The government is now focused on opening treatment beds and will continue to do so if reelected, he said.

Rustad said a Conservative government will take a different approach.

“We need to make sure that we bring an end to decriminalization and state supply ... and to the government being a drug dealer,” he said. A Conservative government will also promote recovery options for those with addiction, he said.

“We’re going to make those investments—everything from doctor-prescribed treatment to short-term recovery to longer-term recovery and to involuntary compassionate recovery,” he said.

The Green Party has said it supports drug consumption sites, and its platform lays out plans to expand them. Furstenau said there will also be more focus on education about the issue.

“It’s really important that young people get good information, they get reliable information. We’ve seen in programs in the United States in middle schools and high schools, where when young people get the information that gives them everything they need to know about the risks and dangers, especially of opioids and hard drugs, there’s a 66 percent decline in use amongst young people,” she said.

Health Care

Party leaders were also questioned about their plans to improve health care in the province.

Rustad said the answer is to retain doctors and bring back health care workers who lost their jobs.

“We need to make sure we have a model in this province where doctors want to stay here and work,” he said. “We need to be able to make sure we deal with training and people coming into our province.”

Eby agreed on the need to train more health care professionals and recognize the credentials of those coming from other provinces and countries.

The Green Party platform outlines plans to add 93 community health centres in the first year, which Furstenau defended as a way to focus spending on “the delivery of health care by the professionals who are trained to do it” instead of on medical bureaucracies.

Leaders were also asked what their parties would do for the B.C. economy.

Rustad said his priority will be getting “red tape” out of the way, while Eby said B.C. is already prospering with fast-growing wages and low unemployment and the focus has to be on training.

For Furstenau, growing inequality between rich and poor can be addressed by taxing wealth in various forms. The Greens propose a new 18 percent marginal tax rate on corporate profits over $1 billion, a doubling of the property tax rate on residential property above $3 million to 0.4%, and a new marginal tax rate of 22.5 percent on incomes over $350,000.

Rustad was targeted during the debate for his past comments on vaccine mandates.

“I am not anti-vax, I’m anti-mandate,” Rustad said during the debate. “I believe that people should have choice. It shouldn’t be thrust upon them and forced upon them, or coerced.”

B.C.’s election is scheduled for Oct. 19.