Border-town mayors call for end to Canada's COVID-19 test requirement for travellers – CBC.ca

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s election campaign enters its final day in what is viewed as a too-close-to-call contest where David Eby’s New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives led by John Rustad debated big issues of housing, health care, affordability and the overdose crisis, but also tangled over plastic straws and a billionaire’s billboards.

The two main party leaders spent a lot of time telling voters why they shouldn’t vote for the other rather than presenting their own case for support.

The NDP’s election platform document mentioned Rustad more than 50 times while Eby only received 29 mentions.

The B.C. Conservative platform, delivered in the final week of the campaign, included more than 50 Eby references, while Rustad’s name was highlighted 11 times.

“I hope we never see another election like this,” Eby said this week in Nanaimo, describing the tone of the campaign where he has felt compelled to tell voters about controversial public statements made by Rustad and several of his candidates.

“We don’t call people who are gay groomers,” he said. “We don’t tell Indigenous people that what they experienced in residential schools wasn’t real. We don’t propose that health-care professionals be put in front of an international tribunal similar to the trial of the Nazis called Nuremberg 2.0.”

Rustad dropped several previously nominated B.C. Conservative candidates prior to the start of the election campaign last month for their extreme views posted on social media.

But during the campaign he continued to support Surrey-South candidate Brent Chapman who made an anti-Palestinian post on social media in 2015 and North Coast-Haida Gwaii candidate Chris Sankey, who posted on social media about concerns of what he called vaccine Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rustad, who campaigned in Nanaimo on the same day Eby visited the Vancouver Island city, said the NDP leader has consistently attempted to shift focus away from the real issues facing the province, which are the mismanagement of the economy, the crumbling health-care system and the ongoing drug overdose crisis that has resulted in thousands of deaths.

“I don’t know why, I guess as premier he think’s it’s OK to be lying to the people of B.C.,” said Rustad. “The premier of a province like B.C. should be able to be out, being straight up with people and telling them the truth as opposed to lies.”

The campaign’s only televised debate saw Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, who has said the Greens will not receive enough votes to win the election, tell voters that Eby and Rustad are more closely aligned than people may believe on supporting the fossil fuel industry and placing people with mental health and addiction issues into involuntary care rather than increasing voluntary care.

Vancouver billionaire Chip Wilson, co-founder of the Lululemon athletic clothing line, also became a fixture in the campaign.

Large billboards with changing messages were posted outside Wilson’s waterfront home, located in Eby’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding.

Both Eby and Rustad cited the message throughout the campaign.

Wilson called the NDP “communist,” prompting Eby to say he is on the side of ordinary people in B.C. struggling to make ends meet and not the owner of a home assessed at more than $81 million.

Rustad said he supports entrepreneurs like Wilson, but they can’t expect a break on their property taxes.

“Let’s leave John Rustad and Chip Wilson to vote for each other,” Eby said in Vancouver Thursday.

Rustad’s campaign promise to reverse the ban on plastic straws prompted Eby to begrudgingly agree “paper straws suck,” but he suggested the B.C. Conservative leader was trying to stir up controversy by diverting attention from major issues facing the province, including affordable housing.

The vote comes as an atmospheric river, expected to dump as much as 100 millimetres of rain in parts of B.C., is forecast for voting day, with wind and heavy rainfall warnings covering the central and south coast.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s political party leaders have spent the 28-day provincial election campaign wooing voters with promises on critical issues including health care, housing, the cost of living and the environment.

Here is a look at some of the top promises made by each major party ahead of election day on Saturday:

NDP

— Leader David Eby says his party’s housing plan will build 300,000 more homes for the middle class. There’s also a pledge to increase the speculation and vacancy tax on empty homes to one per cent for residents of Canada and three per cent for foreign owners starting in 2025. The NDP says they will prioritize building homes on public land.

— On the campaign trail, Eby has promised that the NDP will exempt $10,000 of individual income from taxes every year, which translates to an annual tax reduction of about $1,000 for most households and $500 for individuals.

— Eby has promised a re-elected NDP government will open involuntary-care facilities for those with overlapping addictions, mental illness, and brain injuries.

— Eby also promised the NDP will scrap B.C.’s long-standing consumer carbon tax if the federal government drops its requirement for the tax, and will instead shift the burden to “big polluters.”

— The NDP says they will increase job-protected leave to 27 weeks from the current eight days for people with a major medical diagnosis such as cancer.

— The NDP aims to attract more health-care workers with a new program forgiving the tuition loans of health professionals in return for a long-term B.C. residency guarantee. They’ve also promised immediate provisional licences for Canadian-trained care providers and licences within six weeks for qualified foreign applicants from other approved places.

B.C. Conservatives

— Leader John Rustad is promising the “Rustad Rebate,” a plan to exempt rent or mortgage interest costs from income taxes, beginning at $1,500 per month in the 2026 budget and increasing to $3,000 by 2029. His party is calling it the “largest housing tax cut in B.C.’s history.”

— The Conservatives are pledging publicly funded “partnerships” with non-governmental health clinics and a wait time guarantee for some surgical procedures that would see patients sent outside the province for faster care. They are also promising to build a new children’s hospital in Surrey, featuring a pediatric emergency room and intensive care unit, a maternity ward and a women’s health centre.

— Rustad has promised to end the Insurance Corporation of B.C.’s monopoly on car insurance and open the market to other providers to lower prices for consumers, while modifying ICBC’s no-fault insurance model to make it easier for people with life-altering injuries to seek redress in the courts.

— Rustad promised to scrap the provincial carbon tax completely.

— Rustad said he will return 20 per cent of B.C.’s forests to First Nations, replace the current stumpage system with an end-product tax, and streamline the permitting process for the forest sector.

— The Conservatives have pledged to bring back plastic straws and cutlery, and eliminate mandatory fees for grocery bags.

Green Party

— The party, under leader Sonia Furstenau, is promising to maintain the carbon tax with or without a federal mandate. Furstenau has also vowed to introduce a “windfall profits tax” on oil and gas companies, and redirect revenue from industrial carbon pricing to fund community climate action.

— The Greens’ health plans include up to six visits to a mental health professional, such as a psychologist, under the Medical Services Plan. They promise to regulate the psychotherapy professions.

— The Greens are promising to provide $1.5 billion annually to construct 26,000 new units of non-market housing each year.

— Furstenau says her party’s platform is aimed at people’s “well-being” and includes a promise to create frameworks to measure B.C.’s social and environmental performance instead of using GDP as the standard measurement.

— Furstenau says her party will increase social and disability insurance and “wraparound support” for youth aging out of care to combat poverty.

— The Greens promise to invest in climate action, renewable energy and infrastructure, including $650 million annually for municipal infrastructure to support new housing and $250 million to expand child care.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

More details are expected today on a proposed deal that would see the three major companies pay out billions of dollars to provinces and territories as well as smokers and their loved ones.

The companies — JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. — sought creditor protection in Ontario in 2019 after Quebec’s highest court upheld a ruling ordering them to pay nearly $15 billion in two class-action lawsuits.

All legal proceedings against the companies were then put on hold so the three could continue to operate as they worked towards a global settlement with their creditors, which include the Quebec plaintiffs and provincial governments looking to recoup smoking-related health-care costs.

A proposed plan of arrangement developed through mediation was filed in court Thursday, and includes nearly $25 billion for provincial and territorial governments as well as more than $4 billion for the Quebec class-action members.

It also includes more than $2.5 billion for smokers in other provinces and territories who were diagnosed with lung cancer, throat cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease between March 2015 and March 2019.

Lawyers involved in the Quebec lawsuits and those representing a group of provinces and territories in the proceedings are expected to discuss the proposal in separate media events today.

The proposal must be approved by creditors and the court before it can be implemented.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.