B.C. NDP Leader David Eby used the first leader's debate of the provincial election campaign to argue that B.C. is turning the corner on housing among other issues, while Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad repeated his call for "common-sense change." B.C. Greens' Leader Sonia Furstenau, meanwhile, offered her party as an alternative holding the balance of power.
The debate hosted by Mike Smyth on 980 CKNW was the first of two meetings between the three leaders Wednesday (Oct.2) as they are scheduled to meet again at an event hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Eby and Rustad used the opening question around affordability to remind voters about recently announced pledges. Eby acknowledged that British Columbians are struggling with affordability in blaming high interest rates and global inflation in listing a range of rebates, key among them his party's pledge to give 90 per cent of taxpayers $1,000 starting next year, first as a direct rebate, then as a tax cut. Rustad, meanwhile, pointed to the so-called Rustad Rebate that would deduct up to $3,000 per month off mortgage and rent payments by 2029 in criticizing rising taxes during the past seven years. He also promised that his party would make B.C. more affordable through higher wages by stimulating the provincial economy generally and its resource sector specifically.
Eby questioned the timing of Rustad's proposal, saying that British Columbians need the "relief right now." Rustad responded by saying that the rebate starts in 2026 in blaming financial mismanagement under the NDP for the phased roll-out of the rebate. (B.C.'s record-setting deficit currently sits at $9 billion).
B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau, meanwhile, said both Eby and Rustad of ignoring the real drivers of higher costs, such as the financialization of housing, the reliance on fossil fuels and corporate profiteering. She instead argued for large public investments in non-market housing and alternative energy, pointing to Texas and California, where large investments in solar power have led to residents receiving credits on their energy bills.
Rustad and Eby then traded familiar exchanges on the issue of climate change and carbon taxation. Rustad accused Eby of flip-flopping on the consumer portion of the carbon tax, adding that the Conservatives' pledge to eliminate the carbon tax and various emission standards would provide real financial relief to British Columbians.Eby, meanwhile, pointed out that B.C. cannot unilaterally stop collecting the carbon tax (unless Ottawa agrees) and questioned Rustad's acceptance of the the science around climate change. Rustad responded by saying that "man is having an impact on climate" but added that B.C.'s "real crisis" is affordability.
Furstenau, meanwhile, defended her party's position in favour of the carbon tax in pointing to ecological and economic costs of events like the 2021 atmospheric river that caused widespread flooding in the Fraser Valley and B.C.'s interior regions. She also accused both the B.C. NDP and the Conservative Party of B.C. to being beholden to the fossil fuel industry and questioned Rustad's answer on climate change. "Saying climate change is real and scaling up fossil fuel infrastructure is a circle I like to see squared somehow," she said.
When the debate turned to health care, Rustad touted his party's plan to reform the provincial health care system along European lines in decrying the current state of health care in B.C.
"What we have seen from David Eby are closed (emergency rooms), 10-to-12 hour-waits in ERs, people not being able to get services, it has been an absolute disaster," Rustad said. "We have the second-most expense health care model in the Top 30 countries in the world, and yet we have the second-worst outcomes on many measures."
Rustad said this model would remain universally accessible, but health care itself would be delivered by government and non-governmental -- read: private -- agencies. "The funding follows the patient," Rustad said. "The system is broken and we need to brave enough to say 'we need to do something else.'"
Furstenau said Rustad's volume-based approach to patient care would lead to legal and illegal profiteering in the health care system like it already has in other provinces, but also denounced the growing corporate presence in B.C.'s public health care system. She also lamented the growth of bureaucracy in the provincial health care sytem while touting her party's proposal for integrated, multi-disciplinary community health centres in all of B.C.'s 93 ridings.
Eby responded to Rustad's model by saying that model would trigger a competition for already-scarce health care staff between the private and non-private sector. Instead, government needs to recruit more doctors and nurses, something his party has done and will continue to do, Eby said.
He also used the occasion to reveal a tweet by Conservative candidate Chris Sankey, which Eby says show Sankey believe COVID-19 vaccines cause HIV/AIDS. "Do you agree with your candidate?" Eby asked. He then pushed a piece of paper with the tweet across the studio table to Rustad for proof. "How do we recruit the doctor and nurses we need if you got candidates out there...who say COVID-vaccine cause AIDS?"
Rustad responded by re-stating his opposition to mandates that until recently had required health care workers to be vaccinated and other measures without directly answering the question. Eby -- who raised the same tweet in different ways at least three more times -- accused Rustad of dodging the question.
"He (Eby) is trying to divert...and I get that because he can't defend it, because that is what weak leadership does," Rustad said.
Furstenau implicitly sided with Eby's argument questioning the quality of Conservative candidates, when she pointed to her party's Greater Victoria candidate Camille Currie, who won an award for health care advocacy. "We are bringing forward serious candidates, "she said. "There is a problem with the candidates in the Conservatives' slate."
More to come...
