B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon said his plan to eliminate provincial income taxes for 60 per cent of residents is part of a "bold" policy agenda and dismissed suggestions his pledge will go unheard as his party remains behind in the polls.
"One thing I can guarantee you is we will have well-thought-out policy," he said Tuesday (Aug. 13) in Victoria. "It's not going to be bumper-sticker politics. I care a lot about policy. That's why I am making these kinds of announcements."
The plan — which Falcon hailed as the largest middle class tax break in B.C. history — would raise the exemption on the provincial income tax to $50,000 from just under $12,000. Falcon said the cut would put up to $2,050 per year back into the pockets of every taxpayers as many British Columbians are struggling to make ends meet.
"Many families and seniors just struggle to make a decision about whether to they are going to be able to have food on the table, or pay for prescription drugs," he said.
The cut would also send a signal, he added.
"We also will create a climate where the business community and the investment community has confidence...and once you start generating that confidence again, you will see (capital investment) return to British Columbia."
The plan would cost about $5.4 billion. Falcon said his government would pay for it with contingencies, cuts to wasteful bureaucracy and better management of capital projects. The party also said the cuts would generate additional economic activity.
This plan is not the first plan by B.C. United to cut taxes. The party is also proposing cutting the provincial fuel tax, removing the carbon tax from all home heating fuels and capping future carbon tax increases among other measures.
The tax cuts appear against the backdrop of a record-setting NDP deficit of nearly $8 billion — a deficit which the party plans to balance within its first term if elected. Falcon said his party will hold spending to inflation plus population growth while cutting layers of unnecessary bureaucracy and delays.
"We will protect health care and education," he added. "But I want to be really clear — we are not just going to spend the same way the NDP spent."
Falcon said "it is one of the great myths of the left" that services need to be cut for tax cuts.
"I do not measure success by how much we are spending," he said. "I measure it by what outcomes we are getting."
Falcon's party sits in fourth place in a recent Research Co. poll with nine per cent, behind the B.C. Greens and the second-placed Conservative Party of B.C. When asked why voters should trust him to grow the economy as his party loses candidates and sitting MLAs to the Conservatives, Falcon pointed to his track record with the former B.C. Liberal government.
He also dismissed the polls.
"I don't need to warn all of you that you should take a real cautionary approach to polls and punditry," he said. He added British Columbians are currently not paying attention to the polls, but predicted that the campaign will matter.
Reaction to Falcon's tax cut pledge from the political opposition was prompt.
Speaking at an unrelated event in Penticton, Premier David Eby called it "extreme" and "radical" adding it would require cuts in services.
"I think he is truly revealing who he is, which is someone even to the right of John Rustad, when it comes to cutting public services in service to a particular ideology," Eby said.
Eby predicted that Falcon would not only cut services, but also introduce tolls and fees, just as the B.C. Liberals did.
"So we will campaign and we will put forward proposals for affordability as well as high quality services that people depend on like health care, like education and like the desperate need for affordable housing across the province," he said.
B.C. Green Sonia Furstenau also attacked the proposal. She called the cut "reckless" and accused B.C. United of misreading the economy with a recession looming.
"Their $5.4 billion proposal, combined with a promise to balance the budget, would result in $12.4 billion in cuts when we need services the most," she said.
She said the plan would "gut" the budget when the healthcare system is already in crisis.
"The business community knows that without a healthy workforce and reliable government services, the economy can't succeed," she said.
It was the B.C. Liberals, who "eroded" the social safety in the early 2000s, she added.
"Now we’re seeing the same party with a new name propose that more services be slashed."
Anthony Koch, campaign spokesperson for the provincial Conservatives, suggested that B.C. United was trying to copy his party.
“After lobbying for weeks to remind (British Columbians) that they used to be Liberals, BC United are now trying once again to pretend to be Conservatives," Koch said.
"If you want real tax cuts and common sense policies, vote for the real deal in the Conservative Party of British Columbia, not a deeply unserious (fourth)-place party fighting daily to keep a single seat."
—with files from Brennan Scott Philips
