THE BC) GREENS PLAN
EOE A MORE EQUITABLE
AND SUSTAINABLE BC)



TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Affordability and equity
 

a. Public education 

 

b. Childcare, and flexibility for families

 

c. Income security

 

d. Housing affordability

 

e. Equity and inclusion

3. Inclusive economy
 

a. Small business and tourism

 

b. Vibrant cities

 

c. Public transit

 

d. Indigenous reconciliation

 

e. Measuring success

4. Green recovery
 

a. Carbon neutrality

 

b. Innovation funding

 

c. Clean, sustainable jobs

 

d. Electrifying transportation

5. Comprehensive healthcare
 

a. Seniors’ care

 

b. Mental health

 

c. Opioid crisis

 

d. Primary care

6. Managing our natural assets
 

a. Food security

 

b. Forestry

 

c. Water

 

d. Climate resilience

 

e. Wildlife and biodiversity

7. Our investments
2

BC GREEN PLATFORM 2020

 AINTRODUCTION
VISION FOR OUR FUTURE
It is clear that 2020 is one of the most unprecedented
years in modern history. Multiple overlapping crises - the
affordability crisis, the overdose crisis, the climate crisis
- were already coming to a head even before COVID-19.
We need to act urgently to get people and businesses
the support they need now, and make sure we’re building
a stronger, more resilient province in the long term.
Consecutive BC Liberal and BC NDP governments have
promised to make life better for people, but have failed to
deliver security and long term sustainability. Their actions
have not followed through on the promises they make.
The BC Greens are different. We worked hard in the
last minority government to improve the NDP’s policies
and to stand up for the issues that matter to people’s
wellbeing. We’ve shown that partisanship is less
important than advancing policy that makes a difference
in the lives of British Columbians. Now as we face down
COVID, we need this commitment more than ever.
Our plan proposes new, targeted supports where they
are needed most. We know the anxiety that British
Columbians are feeling about the present and future.
We know that for many people, COVID-19 has simply
further entrenched the cost of living challenges they were
facing. For others, the economic security that was already
feeling distant now seems completely out of reach.
People are worried about their health and safety, their
kids going back to school, and the future of their jobs
and the economy. To address these concerns, we need
to build a stronger, more resilient province so that
people can be safe and secure in their communities.

WE ARE PROPOSING REAL
SOLUTIONS, LIKE:
•  Support for small business owners by helping
with rent payments through the winter;
•  A new grant for those facing unaffordable rents as
part of ensuring everyone has affordable housing;
•  Better quality care and an end to the
privatization of our long-term seniors’ care;
•  Supporting young families with affordable

childcare, income for stay at home parents,
and more flexible work arrangements;
•  Implementing principles of basic
income into our social safety net;
•  A green recovery from COVID-19 with an
ambitious climate plan at its centre.
These priority actions won’t just help address the
immediate challenges in front of us - they can help
position our province for success coming out of
COVID-19. We need to ensure that the investments
we make today to address the health and economic
impacts of COVID, allow us to build a stronger,
more sustainable, more resilient economy.
While COVID is the most pressing crisis
we face, it is not the only one.
For many, the cost of living in BC is far outstripping
the ability of people to cover the necessities, let
alone save for the future. Not enough has been done
to address the growing number of people who are
being left out of the prosperity of this province.
Some fear that the massive disruption caused by COVID
will pale into insignificance compared with the disruption
caused by the changing climate. Our communities face
growing threats and our government is not moving
fast enough to adapt, and reduce our emissions.
In all of this is an opportunity. By making deliberate,
strategic choices in how we navigate COVID-19, we
can seize new opportunities from these challenges. We
can build an economy that is more inclusive, that has
secure jobs for British Columbians across the province.
We can establish BC as a world leading low-carbon
economy, exporting the ideas and the technology
that the world needs to solve the climate crisis.
We know that the government works better when
no party has all the power. No matter the outcome
of this election, we will fight for the immediate and
targeted support that can get us through COVID-19,
and we will hold the government accountable
for positioning our economy to emerge stronger,
cleaner, and more equitable on the other side.

INTRODUCTION


3

 AFFORDABILITY AND EQUITY
The COVID-19 pandemic has created not only a health crisis, but widespread
economic insecurity for people across our society. While governments at
all levels have responded quickly with a range of supports to meet people’s
immediate financial needs, we need to ensure that going forward we have
the programs in place to protect the wellbeing of British Columbians.
Our plan for supporting British Columbians goes beyond the provincial and federal government programs
already in place, and focuses on the longer term security provided by having the education and skills to be
part of the post-pandemic economy. It provides a strong start for our children’s education and assists women,
especially, get back into the workplace through the provision of quality early childhood education and care.
It recognizes that investing in education is the single most important investment we can make in our
society and starts to fund our K-12 system to the levels it needs to support children, teachers, and
learning outcomes. It envisions a less frenzied work culture that allows for a higher quality of life and
more time with loved ones, and it recognises the importance of a home that people can afford and that
meets their needs. It also envisions an inclusive society where no-one is left behind, where everyone
has income security and is free from the fear of not being able to afford basic necessities.
COVID has shown that any of us can be subject to income insecurity and that we need to keep
in place broader financial supports that do not stigmatize those who need them.
The recovery will not be complete unless all British Columbians feel valued and part of the recovery, and
we need to take steps to address long standing inequities and systemic injustices in our society.

4

AFFORDABILITY AND EQUITY

 PUBLIC EDUCATION
We are entering uncharted territory as we move through
the 2020s. Rapid changes in the economy mean that
many of the jobs our children will have don’t even exist
today and they will be using technology that has not yet
been invented to solve the incredible challenges facing us.
We need to redesign our education system to prepare our
children for this future, and instill in them a commitment
to lifelong learning. For our children to be able to
prosper in the world that is taking shape before us,
adaptability, perseverance, problem solving and creativity
are some of the most important skills they will learn.
Sixteen years of austerity under the BC Liberals
has left classroom sizes large, teacher salaries
struggling to compete nationally and school
districts struggling to find the dollars needed to
ensure a quality education for all students.
While the BC NDP have taken some action around the
edges, they have done very little transformative work,
where it really matters. This won’t be something we can
change overnight, but it is essential that it starts now.
COVID 19 has complicated the challenges that
already existed, adding new stressors to our
education system. While some resources have
been put in place, not enough has been done to
address the fears and challenges in our system.
Parents shouldn’t have to feel that they have
to choose between their child’s safety and the
quality of the education they receive.
Teachers shouldn’t have to worry about their
personal safety and districts shouldn’t be facing
uncertainty about whether they have the funding
needed to ensure a high quality education for all
students, regardless of how they receive it.
With a focus on ensuring that the money needed
to address the current school year is in place, the
BC Greens education plan is based on bringing
the age of scarcity in education to an end.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR EDUCATION:
To ensure a quality education, a safe school
environment and flexibility for parents
and students, the BC Greens would:
• Fund operating grants for school districts to
100% of the grants received in the 2019/2020
school year to ensure that enrollment during
COVID does not comprise the quality of
education, nor the ability of schools to retain
current teachers or education assistants.
• Maintain additional COVID funding for PPE and
online learning throughout this school year, and
into the 2020/2021 school year as required.
• Ensure every school district has the resources
to develop credible and robust remote learning
and hybrid learning options. This will help ensure
that even when learning from home, students
are able to keep a connection to the school
they attend and the community they live in.
• Support the mental health of our students
with $24 million in new funding to enhance
the number of counsellors in our schools,
starting with the current school year.
• Develop and implement a province-wide plan to
address racism that exists in schools, and commit to
additional, ongoing funding to deepen the work of
reconciliation and Indigenous education across K-12.
To help support the integration of ECE into our
public school system, the BC Greens will:
• Provide $300 million in new funding to begin the
phase in of up to 25 hours free early childhood
education programs per week for 3 and 4 year
olds, rising to $550 million as capacity expands;
• Provide $100 million in new funding to create
a new capital program in the Ministry of
Education to fund renovation and additions
to existing schools to support ECE spaces.

PUBLIC EDUCATION


5

 To help address affordability, to ensure that no child
attends school hungry and to better integrate nutrition
into our curriculum, the BC Greens would create a
new $25 million fund for school districts to develop
a food program for their schools in their district.
• Proposals would be developed by the district
to ensure local needs are addressed;
• Funding would be conditional on ensuring the
program integrated nutrition into the curriculum and
showed how the plan would eliminate the stigma
associated with accessing food programming.
Work with our education partners on a long
term plan for how BC can improve its per
student funding. This would include:
• Addressing the continued disparities in wages,
class size and composition between districts;
• Access to speech-language pathologists
and school psychologists, and develop new
resources for students with special needs.
• This starts with the development of a
new funding formula that supports a
21st century education system.
• Double the funding of the B.C. Access Grant to
help support post-secondary part-time students,
and those enrolled in multi-year programs.

6

PUBLIC EDUCATION

 CHILDCARE AND
FLEXIBILITY FOR
FAMILIES

CHILDCARE

Families are under tremendous pressure in BC
today. The generation raising young children
today juggles long working hours and multiple
demands on their time, as their household incomes
stagnate, and housing costs skyrocket.
The BC Greens’ plan to support young families is
designed to promote the opportunity for parents
to achieve a balance that works for them. Parents
who choose to return to work will be supported
by enhanced access to quality childcare, and more
flexible work arrangements, those who choose to
stay home with their children will have an income
supplement, and we will encourage flexible working
options to support people to find a balance.
First of all, we need to accelerate the work of building
a universal childcare system. It’s been well-established
that the COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionate
effects on women, and that we risk losing all the gains
made in women’s labour force participation over the
past number of decades, without targeted programs
that support women. But it is not enough just to deliver
childcare. It matters how we build this system. In our
haste to create spaces, we shouldn’t be reinforcing a
flawed system that’s overly reliant on for-profit providers.
We also need to improve flexibility for parents by
promoting the opportunity for parents to achieve
the right balance between work and family time for
their needs. It’s time to move beyond a 20th century
approach for working lives and develop supports
that recognise the needs of families today.
Our economy has been structured to encourage more
work, more spending, and more economic growth -- but
the benefits of economic growth haven’t been shared by
most. Instead, the wealth has been concentrated at the
top, while more people feel like they’re working harder
and harder but still falling behind. Ultimately, we need
to make sure our economy benefits people. Our plan to
support families is about giving people real options.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
CHILDCARE AND FLEXIBILITY:
SUPPORT FOR STAY-AT-HOME PARENTS
• Provide up to $500 per month for families with
children under 3 and a stay at home parent.

The BC Greens will create a comprehensive program
for childcare and increase funding for child care
programs from $674 million in 2020/21 to $897
million in 2023/24. This is in addition to the $300
million funding for preschool for 3 and 4 year
olds that is included in the Education budget.
Funding would cover the phase-in of the various
elements of this plan for a comprehensive
program that would include:
• The expansion of available physical spaces,
prioritizing partnerships with public schools,
community non-profits, and First Nations
• Free childcare for working parents
with children under 3;
• Professional development opportunities
to increase qualifications of existing child
care workers, and the training of more early
childhood educators in certified programs;
• Establishment of professional wages
for early childhood educators;
We will maintain child care subsidies and
and supports as needed to ensure adequate
financial support for all families.
We will move the Ministry of State for Childcare into the
Ministry of Education in recognition of the importance
of ECE in the educational outcomes for our children.
SUPPORTING FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS
We would take the first steps towards policies
that ensure that families have a viable choice
between going back to full-time work, staying
at home or balancing both, including:
• In consultation with business, labour and other
stakeholders, explore options for reduced work
weeks and or flexible work hours. For example,
encouraging employers to adopt a 4-day work
week, or reduced hours for a standard work week
while maintaining full-time status to maintain
benefits, or modified work week arrangements.
• Supporting telecommuting to save commuting time
• Helping employers to continue to support
telecommuting where feasible.
• Enhancing investments to deliver highspeed internet access across BC


CHILDCARE AND FLEXIBILITY
FOR FAMILIES

7

 INCOME SECURITY

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
INCOME SECURITY:

The growth of BC’s economy has not benefited
people equally in this province. Many British
Columbians were feeling left behind and left
out of the benefits of our prosperity well before
COVID. Now, COVID is exacerbating existing
inequalities in our society and expanding the
number of people facing economic insecurity.

• Implement a basic income for youth aging-out of care.
• Begin a transition towards basic income
with the following initial steps:
• Increase income support levels, beginning with
making the $300 crisis supplement permanent
and indexing assistance to inflation;

As we rebuild, we can’t afford to go back to our
old patchwork of social supports that weren’t
meeting the needs of people. We need to build
a more resilient social safety net, that lifts
people up and doesn’t leave anyone behind.

• Eliminate the asset test;
• Reduce clawbacks on earned income
to reduce the disincentive to work;

It’s not only the most marginalized people in our
communities who suffer from economic insecurity.
We, like every other jurisdiction, have large
multinational corporations operating here, paying
less than livable wages while they hand out massive
profits to shareholders abroad. That’s a problem and
it contributes to the cycle of poverty in our province,
even amongst those with full time jobs. At the same
time, we recognise that for many local businesses,
significantly higher minimum wages may hurt their
viability, particularly while we deal with COVID.
Our priority is to ensure that all British Columbians enjoy
income security and eliminate the fear of being unable
to afford the necessities of life. We can begin this task
by integrating the principles of basic income - simplicity,
economic security, and reduced stigma - into our social
safety net. We entrench people in poverty with programs
we have right now, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The
purpose of our social safety net should be to help people
get out of poverty. To do that, people need certainty,
security, and the ability to save and plan for their futures.

• Establish a 12-month period where those
who qualify for income assistance can
earn extra income without clawbacks.
• Establish a housing office specifically charged
with assisting people with disabilities and youth
aging-out to find suitable accommodation
and supporting the transition;
• Establish a task force to advise on modernizing
employment standards and reducing inequality
in modern employment relationships.
• The task force will include representatives
of the technology sector, business,
workers, and economists.
• The task force will recommend ways to
modernize our employment standards to adapt
to the changing nature of work and technology,
and assess jurisdiction and advise on strategies
for working with the federal government
to ensure that multinational companies are
paying their fair share of taxes in BC.
• The terms of reference will include considering
profit-sharing as a means to ensure businesses
who are profitable are paying their workers
a living wage, and that workers benefit
from the profits that are too often only
accrued at the top of an organization.
• Establish a permanent Fair Wages Commission to
recommend consistent and predictable increases in
the minimum wage and reduce political interference.

8

INCOME SECURITY

 HOUSING
AFFORDABILITY

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY:

Despite some progress to cool the housing market
somewhat in recent years, housing remains
nowhere near affordable, particularly for young
people. Far too many British Columbians have
struggled to find affordable homes to rent and
have been shut out of the housing market.
There is much more that we need to do to ensure
that our housing is affordable for people who
live and work in our cities, and isn’t being treated
as a vehicle for speculators to profit from.
We need to begin with a clear goal on affordability and
an action plan to achieve it. Our goal is that everyone
has a home that they can afford and that meets their
needs. To achieve this we need a comprehensive suite of
policies to deal with the housing affordability crisis for all.
As a first step, we need to do more to support B.C.
renters, who are facing sky-high rents and escalating cost
of living. In BC, 43% of renter households pay more than
30% of their income in rent. This is having significant
adverse effects on their mental health and wellbeing and
makes it more difficult to save and plan for the future.
The rising cost of strata insurance is also a significant
stressor for condo owners. In the last year we
have seen a huge leap in the cost of insurance - in
some cases doubling or tripling. While work is done
to look into the root causes of the spike in rates,
we must take steps to ensure British Columbians
on fixed incomes are not out of their homes.
We also need to work with local governments to expand
our supply of more diverse forms of more affordable
housing, including co-op housing, affordable rentals, and
the missing middle, such as townhouses and triplexes.
And we need to tighten up our laws and policies to
close loopholes and reduce speculation in our market.

• Take further steps to expand diverse forms of
housing in our communities and ensure that
our housing is affordable for people who live
and work in our cities. These steps include:
• Taking a housing first approach and accelerate
investments to affordable, supportive
and social housing on a priority basis;
• Expanding supports for co-op housing
through extending leases for existing coops about to expire, create a land bank
for new co-ops, and provide security of
tenure for co-ops on leased land;
• Work with local governments to
expand the “missing middle”, such
as townhouses and triplexes;
• Establish a capital fund to support the acquisition
and maintenance of rental housing by nonprofits
to maintain affordable rental units and address
the financialization of the rental market;
• Close the bare trust loophole;
• Close loopholes in the speculation tax
that allow too many foreign owners
and satellite families to be exempt.
• Introduce a rental supplement that will:
• Close the gap between affordable rent
and what renters are actually paying.
• Introduce means-tested grant that applies to
low and moderate income earners who are
paying more than 30% of their income in rent.
• Convene a taskforce to deal with the rising cost of
strata insurance and develop solutions as soon as
the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) finishes
their investigation. The taskforce should include
insurance brokers, insurers and strata owners.

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY


9

 EQUITY AND INCLUSION
COVID-19 has not impacted everyone
equally. Like most crises, it has exploited and
exacerbated many of the inequalities we
already struggle to deal with in our society.
Low income workers were caught between losing
their jobs, and being among the first to be forced back
into work places. These jobs were also disportionately
held by Black, Indigenous and People of Colour
(BIPOC) workers and in particular, women.
We need to renew our commitment to fighting for
inclusion and equity across our province and in every
aspect of our society. The BC Greens are committed to
ensuring that every British Columbian is treated justly
and has the means to benefit from our recovery strategy.
Systemic racism and gender inequities exist in BC, and it
will take systemic change to ensure that we move beyond
words to achieve the outcomes we all wish to see. The BC
Greens have and will continue to put forward systemic
solutions to systemic issues with evidence-based policies.
To accomplish this goal, stimulus spending should target
opportunities to correct the underrepresentation of
certain genders or demographics in specific sectors,
such as caring professions and trades. It should apply a
“Gender Based Analysis Plus” (GBA+) and Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous People Act (DRIPA) lens in policy
development and implementation, address structural
inequalities in wages, and build on the work underway to
develop a suite of genuine progress indicators to provide
a more holistic view of the health of our economy.
The BC Greens are committed to addressing a number
of long standing inequities in our society - work
that must be done in partnership with Indigenous
peoples and BIPOC organizations and advocates.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
EQUITY AND INCLUSION:
• Restart the Police Act review that was set aside
when John Horgan called an election. This would
include a review of: all provincial police force
contracts, a comprehensive analysis of funding,
the depth of policing activity in BC and the roles
and responsibilities of law enforcement.
• Review procedures for wellness checks in
consultation with Indigenous and BIPOC
organizations, advocates and health
professionals, with a goal of expanding the
use of integrated mental health crisis teams
in BC for mental health wellness checks.
• Invite the BC Human Rights Commissioner to do
a study on the impact of police violence and racial
discrimination on Indigenous peoples in BC.
• Support better collection of disaggregated
demographic data as required to better understand
disparities in our society, for health, education,
housing, and employment outcomes in particular.
• Provincially recognize the International Decade
for People of African Descent and carry out the
requests of the BC Advisory Committee on the UN
Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD).
• Re-introduce legislation to ban
conversion therapy in BC.
• Introduce equal pay legislation.
• Address barriers to accessing contraception by
making prescription contraceptive products
free for those under 25 and removing the PST
on all prescription contraceptive products.
• Introduce a BC Accessibility Act, including actioning
the themes of breaking down barriers; advancing
human rights; and promoting fairness and equity.
• Establish permanent core funding for the Victoria
Sexual Assault Centre in order to support indefinite,
integrated care for survivors. This funding would
be part of a larger strategy that establishes a new
funding model for medical and police integrated
sexual assault services, ensuring communities across
BC can establish clinics that meet their needs.

10

EQUITY AND INCLUSION

 INCLUSIVE ECONOMY
Have you ever been somewhere and just had the feeling that you belong
there? It is often referred to as a “sense of place”, and expresses the way
we feel about a street, a neighbourhood, town or city. It can influence
our desire to visit a place again or to want to live there. How we perceive
the places where we live can have a significant impact on our wellbeing.
Our sense of place might be influenced by architecture, gardens, or parks, events or people. History is
also an important factor, but it can be positive or negative. The history of the colonial relations with
Indigenous People clouds our sense of place, as does the treatment of people of colour and members of
the LGBTQ community. Indigenous reconciliation is an essential part of our collective prosperity.
During COVID our sense of place has been disrupted by empty streets and closed businesses. We tend to take for
granted the amenities in our community, but once they were gone we realised how much we missed vibrant streets
with cafes and restaurants, and interesting shops. We missed going to the theatre, summer festivals and the thriving
arts and culture scene that not only enhances the health of our community but also attracts tourists. And we became
conscious of the serious impacts of COVID on the many small businesses that are the lifeblood of our communities.
The tourism industry has been severely affected by COVID and as global tourism has
dried up, thousands of jobs in the small businesses that tourists (and locals alike) frequent
have been affected, with many businesses facing uncertain futures.
If there is an upside to COVID, it is that we have developed a greater connection to our communities as we
explored our communities on foot or by bicycle. We started to appreciate streets free of traffic congestion,
and less time wasted sitting in traffic jams. Many of us are not in a hurry to return to the stress of the
morning commute, the noise and the air pollution - not to mention the Greenhouse gas emissions!
Getting around on foot or by bicycle or public transport enhances our sense of place, increases our connection
to the community, and makes a positive contribution to our health and wellbeing as well as the environment.
In coastal BC and some interior communities, ferries are an essential part of the transportation network that enables
communities to remain connected and tourists to enjoy some of the most spectacular cruising in the world.
The feeling of belonging has a powerful influence over our personal health and that of the community.
The BC Greens are committed to supporting investment by local governments and the province to
create a positive sense of place. COVID has shown the importance of things close to home, and the
BC Greens have a plan to shape thriving places that create a healthy and inclusive economy.

INCLUSIVEECONOMY

11

 SMALL BUSINESS
AND TOURISM

THE B.C. GREENS’ PLAN FOR
SMALL BUSINESS AND TOURISM:

In every community right across this province you
will meet innovators and entrepreneurs who through
hard work have built their own business . These
businesses are often at the heart of the communities
we live in. They employ our friends and neighbours,
bring a vibrance to our streets and contribute
immensely to the surrounding neighbourhood.
And with COVID they faced trials like never before.
It’s not just the costs they face - it’s the uncertainty
they feel about the future. It’s the anxiety of not
knowing whether what they have built will last. Whether
they will have to lay off employees who worked for
them for years. As they struggle to transition to new
business models that offer no more certainty.
For tourism operators, the challenges have been
exacerbated by the border closure and travel
bans. Many are wondering how they can navigate
the winter, when the revenues they usually count
on in the summertime never arrived, and next
year’s bookings have yet to materialise.
The simple fact is that the provincial government has
not done enough to address the challenges that are
facing our small business and tourism sectors. They
have not shown that they understand the reality facing
businesses across these sectors. They don’t seem to get
that convoluted and delayed grant programs are not as
helpful as support paying next month’s rent. That for a
tourism operator, a potential grant in 2021 won’t help
ensure that your business can survive the winter.

• Allocate $300 million to create a 6 month
rent subsidy program for small businesses.
• For qualifying businesses, we would
cover 25% of the rental costs
• Criteria:
• Small business limited to $50,000
in monthly rent costs
• Simple, accessible criteria developed
to support access to program
• Retool the provincial grant program to focus
on supporting small tourism operators
• Immediately work with industry to
establish criteria that make sense
• Accelerate the timeline to ensure grant
money can start to flow immediately
• Work with the not-for-profit tourism businesses,
cultural facilities and attractions to develop a
separate granting program that will ensure these
signature businesses can survive COVID-19.
• Work with the federal government to establish a
repayable loan program for the hospitality sector
and for tourism operators that exceed the criteria
for the small tourism operator grant program.

The BC Greens plan is different.
We know the immediate challenges facing
small business owners and tourism operators
and urgency of action that is required.
With our plan we will step up with immediate funds
to help pay the rent this winter, taking some of the
stress off of business owners and letting them know
that we will be there with the help they need.
For tourism operators, it’s about ensuring that
grants can flow immediately, and are not locked
behind complicated application processes and
criteria that ensures few are eligible.
Simple, straight forward financial support that is
deployed urgently to meet the challenges facing
businesses this winter. That’s our plan.
12

SMALL BUSINESS AND TOURISM

 VIBRANT CITIES
Across the entire province, COVID-19 has had a huge
impact. It closed our social networks and cancelled our
travel plans. Where at one time we would have gone
to bars or restaurants, enjoyed concerts or attended
events, COVID-19 required us to stay closer to home.
That put our communities in a spotlight like never
before, forcing all of us to think about how we live
and play, how we work and how we get around.
For many this meant walking and cycling instead of
driving, and spending more time in parks. People filled
outdoor spaces as one of the only areas where we
could socialize while adhering to the social distancing
guidelines. As businesses slowly reopened, we saw
them expand out onto our streets in order to take
advantage of the relative safety of serving outdoors.
As BC turns its attention to economic recovery, we
have a unique opportunity to hold on to some of these
changes that have improved our quality of life, and
helped build more resiliency into our communities.
While local governments have shown leadership
on this front, what has been missing is a provincial
partner that tirelessly pursues the vision of enhancing
the liveability and sustainability of our cities.
There are many things we can do, in partnership
with local governments, to make our cities more
attractive and inclusive places to live, work and play.
We would partner with local governments to drive
development of more walkable neighbourhoods,
complete communities, and healthy community design.
We would expand provincial funding for sustainable
projects such as bike lanes, paths, parks, community
spaces, and pedestrian-only streets. And as part of our
plan to support vibrant cities in BC, we also need to
have an honest conversation about sustainable funding
for local governments, that would allow them to plan
and to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR VIBRANT CITIES:
• Partner with local governments to drive
development of more walkable neighbourhoods,
complete communities, active transportation
and healthy community design, by providing
funding for cost shared funding for projects
such as bike lanes, trails, parks, community
spaces, and pedestrian-only streets.
• Make the expanded patio program permanent,
working with local governments and
stakeholders to ensure that patio expansions
are maintained in a safe and sustainable way.
• Make electric bikes more accessible by:
• Removing PST from electric bikes,
• Requiring offices and commercial
premises to provide secure bike
parking with charging capabilities;
• Creating more safe storage options including
bike lockers at key locations e.g. transport hubs.
• Promote neighbourhood car co-ops with
insurance instruments and parking areas.
• Work with local governments to explore
modernization of revenue models to fully
capture the public’s fair share of the land
lift from transit oriented development.
• Work with local governments in partnership to
reform our local government finance system, which
leaves local governments overly reliant on regressive
property taxes and unable to properly deliver the
projects required for cities in the 21st century.

VIBRANT
 CITIES

• This would include a committee to
consider relevant recommendations in the
UBCM report Strong Fiscal Futures.

13

 PUBLIC TRANSIT

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT:

One of the most important areas in truly
establishing livable cities is to address
transportation needs in a forward-thinking way.
Before COVID-19, we saw public transit ridership
growing at significant rates, as many residents chose
transit over a single-occupancy vehicle. COVID has
dealt a temporary, but significant blow to the finances
of our transit agencies. We cannot let our transit
infrastructure be compromised by the pandemic - instead
we need to double down on these investments.
We need to have the courage to tackle regional planning
in a holistic and thoughtful way, rather than simply picking
projects according to their potential to win more votes.
We also need to integrate our climate goals into every
infrastructure decision we make, and ensuring any public
money spent on transportation is expanding our transit
and active transportation networks. Investing in transit,
livable cities and active transportation will not only help
us meet our climate targets - it will improve our physical
and mental wellbeing, the strength and connectedness
of our communities, and our overall quality of life.
The BC Greens’ transit strategy would prioritize
investments in transit service coming out of COVID-19
and ensure that long term financial support is provided
to TransLink, BC Transit and BC Ferries. For coastal
communities and some interior communities, ferries
are part of the way of life and a core part of the
transportation network. We need to stop pretending
that ferries should, or could, be run with a profit
motive and bring their focus back to the essential
services they provide to our communities.
We have an opportunity to reimagine what we
want our communities to look like. That means
making them safer, healthier and more connected
for everyone. These changes are entirely within our
grasp. It’s time we started thinking beyond a fouryear election cycle and focused on ensuring our
communities are prepared for the decades ahead.

• Work with local governments to establish
a vision for sustainable transportation in
an era of expanded population growth on
the South Island, including through:
• A regional transportation strategy;
• Establishing a regional governance body to
overcome fractured decision-making and deliver
integrated planning for the growing region;
• Investing to support expansion of public transit
options to help people move around more easily;
• Building frequent and affordable public
transportation links between cities, such
as between Cowichan and the CRD.
• Prioritize investment in transit service coming out of
COVID-19 to support economic recovery, improve
livability of communities, and reduce GHG emissions.
• Ensure that the projected long-term losses
facing TransLink, BC Transit and BC Ferries are
dealt with so that service levels are maintained,
allowing ridership to quickly bounce back
through the economic recovery period.
• Ensure no disruption in future
expansion due to the pandemic.
• Work with local and regional governments to
redesign the transit funding model and establish an
equitable, stable long-term funding model for transit.
• This review would include
consideration of mobility pricing.
• Develop climate and sustainability criteria, including
consideration of cumulative impacts, that will
be applied to all future capital projects including
transportation infrastructure investments.
BC Ferries
• Bring BC Ferries back into government as a Crown
Corporation, and conduct a full review of BC
Ferries operations focused on providing an efficient,
public service for British Columbians, and the
role of ferries in BC’s transportation network.

14

PUBLIC TRANSIT

 INDIGENOUS
RECONCILIATION

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
INDIGENOUS RECONCILIATION:

The passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples Act (DRIPA) was a historic step in the fight
to recognize and affirm Indigenous rights. We’re at
the beginning of a long journey of reconciliation and
the next steps are to put the legislation into practice
and apply UNDRIP to the laws of British Columbia.
The BC Greens are committed to working every day to
ensure that the provincial government delivers on its
commitment to create an action plan, as required by
the legislation, to implement the DRIPA. The time for
lots of words is over. The provincial government needs
to be sitting across the table in a good way, ready to
implement and live up to what we have committed to do.
In the face of COVID, we need to double down
on the urgency of the action plan, committing
new resources and energy to reforming our
relationships with Indigenous communities across
all aspects of our society and our economy.
Even as the work on the action plan begins, it is clear
that urgent action in specific areas is needed. On
energy security, child welfare, economic development,
healthcare and wild salmon we are proposing concrete
first steps that the BC Greens will work in partnership
with Indigenous communities to advance.

• Ensure that the Action Plan for implementation
is adopted and supported with adequate
resources. The budget for implementation
will be determined once we have a clearer
idea of the scope of work and timetable;
• Ensure that there is meaningful progress towards
reconciliation based upon a collaborative
relationship as we implement the Action Plan;
• Work with First Nations to ensure a pathway
to energy independence, including following
the BCUC’s recommendations regarding the
creation of Indigenous owned utilities;
• Build a new focussed approach to preserving and
rebuilding our province’s salmon fisheries and wild
salmon populations in partnership with First Nations ;
• Expand broadband access for First Nations
communities to meet the basic needs of those
who live there, and ensure they can take part in
new economic development opportunities;
• Urgently move away from the colonial MCFD
structure by supporting indigenous-led child
welfare programs in their communities that
provide wraparound services and supports to
help families stay healthy and together.
• Continue to advance cultural competency training
for existing healthcare practitioners and support the
training of new Indigenous doctors while prioritizing
opportunities to expand public healthcare services
within communities, as led by Indigenous leadership.

INDIGENOUS RECONCILIATION

15

 MEASURING SUCCESS
GDP was an accounting tool that originated in the 1930s
to measure the size of the US economy. Somewhere
along the way, governments started to treat it as a
measure of the health of our economy and human
wellbeing - a purpose for which it was not intended.
The flaws of measuring success in this way have been
known for years - back in 1968, Robert Kennedy
gave a famous speech in which he noted that if you
just look at the aggregate number, the US looked
to be in fine shape, but he went on to say that:

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
MEASURING SUCCESS:
• Adopt health and wellbeing budgets with genuine
progress indicators focused on economic, health,
social and environmental factors, and require
Ministries to justify spending in accordance with
measurable progress on these indicators.

“ (GDP) does not allow for the health of our children, the
quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does
not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of
our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the
integrity of our public officials….it measures everything,
in short, except that which makes life worthwhile”
Kennedy’s words still ring true. B.C. has enjoyed the
strongest GDP growth in the country, but the benefits
of our economic growth aren’t being felt by many.
Younger British Columbians, in particular, are being
squeezed by the extremely high cost of living. GDP
doesn’t capture this pressure, nor does it tell us
how difficult it is for British Columbians to start
business, or how long it takes to save money for a
down payment on their first home. It doesn’t tell
us about the state of our natural environment, or
whether our resources are being managed sustainably
and for the benefits of local communities.
We need to move away from an exclusive focus on
GDP, and start measuring what really matters to the
health and wellbeing of people in this province. Other
countries are already embracing this approach. New
Zealand has adopted Wellbeing budgets, which force
Ministers to work together closely, focusing on how
they could collectively address the wellbeing priorities.
We can do the same thing here, adopting budgets
focused on health and wellbeing, and measuring
our success with a suite of genuine progress
indicators that more adequately capture the
real health of our economy and our society.

16

MEASURING SUCCESS

 A GREEN RECOVERY
FROM COVID-19
With all of the challenges that COVID 19 has presented us with,
it’s easy to forget that it’s not the only crisis we face. It was only
a few short weeks ago that our communities were choked with
smoke from the forest fires raging across the pacific northwest. It
was a pointed reminder that even as we navigate the health and
economic challenges of COVID 19, the climate crisis is ongoing.
The Emerging Economy Taskforce looked at future opportunities and challenges facing our economy zeroed in on
climate change as one of the major forces shaping our economy. Most governments have acknowledged this fact but
have been slow to act fearing it will be unpopular with voters or that it will compromise their connection to the fossil
fuel industry. Above all, they fail to understand that the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of acting decisively.
The Emerging Economy Task Force was the brainchild of the BC Greens, and CleanBC would probably
not exist without pressure from the Green Caucus. The NDP’s attitude to meeting GHG emission
reduction targets is, at best, ambivalent. The BC NDP finished the work of the BC Liberals to bring
LNG Canada to our province and proceeded to throw more subsidies at the venture than even the BC
Liberals were willing to do. Fossil fuel subsidies have climbed to higher levels under the BC NDP than
under the BC Liberals. This year alone the NDP are giving $1 billion dollars to fossil fuel companies.
You cannot have it both ways - expanding the fossil fuel industry does not make us a climate leader. If BC
is going to build a world leading low carbon economy, it has to move away from fossil fuels altogether.
The BC Greens are the only party with a plan that will actually meet our climate commitments while taking full
advantage of the economic opportunities that a clean recovery offers. We’ll do this by supporting innovation
and the development of clean industries in BC, providing the tools and incentives needed to meet our targets,
and ensuring a just transition for those workers impacted by the ending of the fossil fuel economy.

A GREEN RECOVERY FROM COVID-19

17

 CARBON NEUTRALITY
The Emerging Economy Taskforce zeroed in
on climate change as one of the major forces
shaping our economy and didn’t mince their
words about the scale of threat we face:

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
CARBON NEUTRALITY:
• Commit to be carbon neutral by
2045, matching California.

“The science is clear: without massive intervention
to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases,
we are heading toward a catastrophe.”
In BC, the record of both the BC NDP and BC Liberals
is mixed at best. Both have had moments where they’ve
embraced climate action, and moments when they’ve
done everything possible to undermine it. Only the
BC Greens see GHG reduction as non-negotiable.
The first step is setting clear goals. We are committed to
making BC carbon neutral by 2045. This commitment sets
us 5 years ahead of the federal government commitment
and puts us in line with California, a leading jurisdiction
on climate action; and, we will set interim targets to keep
us on track, as well as sectoral targets for industry.
We will also develop a robust strategy to meet the
2030 target, and develop an accountability framework
to ensure we get there. We will take immediate
steps to send a signal of our intent by ending
government support for the fossil fuel industry.

• Set sectoral targets to ensure industry is contributing
their fair share to emissions reductions.
• Set an interim target for 2025 to make sure
the government is on track to 2030.
• Develop comprehensive plans to meet
the 2030 and 2045 targets.
• Immediately end oil and gas subsidies and
redirect that money to spurring innovation,
to help grow businesses in BC and help
us meet our climate commitments.
• Prioritize natural climate solutions, protecting
and restoring our forests and wetlands to
maximize their potential as carbon sinks.
• Develop an accountability framework
to ensure our targets are met.

The BC Greens will act immediately to set an
interim target for 2025 and develop, sectoral
targets. We will also end oil and gas subsidies
and implement a moratorium on fracking.

18

CARBON NEUTRALITY

 INNOVATION FUNDING
While we wrestle with the immediate economic impacts
of COVID 19, we cannot afford to miss the opportunity
to lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity.
The Emerging Economy Taskforce the BC Greens
championed to look at the future opportunities
and challenges facing our economy zeroed in on
climate change as one of the major forces shaping
our economy and highlighted the opportunities that
come with developing a low carbon economy.
To accomplish this, our aspirations have to extend
beyond mitigating climate change in our province
and instead focus on the new opportunities to make
deliberate investments into green innovation.
The first step the BC Greens would take is to align our
innovation strategy with our mission of establishing BC
as a world-leading low-carbon economy. This means
establishing a strategic innovation fund that can make
targeted investments that align with our climate goals. We
must also leverage government procurement processes to
prioritize BC based, low carbon products and technology.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR INNOVATION:
• Establish a $1 billion strategic investment fund
to support business innovation that aligns
with the province’s goals, with a particular
emphasis on supporting innovations that
help the shift to a zero carbon economy.
• Support the creation of a biofuels strategy and clean
hydrogen roadmap as part of the energy mix we use
to replace fossil fuels in our transportation sector.
• Integrate a GHG emissions lens into all
government procurement processes.
• Immediately reinstate the scheduled carbon tax
increase and return to regular and predictable
increases in the carbon tax of $10 per year.
• Partner in innovation clusters in areas where BC
has a strategic advantage, based on the proposal
from the Innovation Commissioner’s report.
• Enact Property Assessed Clean Energy
(PACE)-enabling legislation.

Making a deliberate choice to build on our strengths in
green innovation means moving away from fossil fuels.
We need to be immediately ending the subsidies that
the BC NDP have offered to the fossil fuel industry, and
put this funding behind new green economic sectors.
BC has to make a choice - we can’t have it both ways.
Too many government’s use innovation as a buzzword
and do little to help channel the direction it takes. The
BC Greens are committed to making our innovation
policy in BC a bigger part of the economic strategy we
use to deliberately build towards the future we want.

INNOVATION FUNDING

19

 CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE
JOBS
We need to ensure that British Columbians are able
to take advantage of the countless opportunities for
meaningful, secure jobs that a low-carbon economy
can create. Over time, many new jobs will be created
as innovation occurs and new businesses are created,
but there is an immediate need to provide people
with well-paying, meaningful jobs, especially for
those who have lost their jobs during this pandemic,
and for workers in industries in transition..
Our clean jobs plan has three major components.
First, we would implement a just transition program
for workers in the oil and gas sector and other
industries in transition and work with them on a
pathway to a guaranteed job in the clean economy.
Second, we would establish a clean jobs program
to help us recover from COVID-19 and get people
back to work immediately. This program would
create thousands of jobs enhancing BC’s natural
assets, tree planting, habitat restoration, remediating
environmental liabilities, as well as climate adaptation
and improving community resilience to climate change.
Finally, we can expand the CleanBC Better Buildings
program and make it a true jobs creator by increasing
the short-term incentives offered to stimulate retrofits,
accelerating the requirements of the building code and
efficiency requirements of equipment to drive long-term
action and strengthen the business case for retrofits,
and partner with colleges, technical institutes and
private organizations to develop the training programs
to expand employment in the green retrofit space.
Programming should focus on supporting those sectors
impacted by COVID-19, as well as support the just
transition program for workers in the oil and gas sector.

20

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE JOBS:
• Establish a $500 million fund to
support sustainable jobs;
• Develop a clean jobs program focused on
enhancing BC’s natural assets, tree planting,
conservation, remediating environmental liabilities,
as well as climate adaptation and improving
community resilience to climate change.
• Implement a just transition program for workers
in the oil and gas sector and other industries
in transition, working with them on a pathway
to a guaranteed job in the clean economy.
• Work with industry partners to enhance the Clean BC
Better Homes, Better Buildings program, including by:
• Increasing the short-term incentives
offered to stimulate retrofits;
• Accelerating the requirements of the
building code and efficiency requirements
of equipment to drive long-term action and
strengthen the business case for retrofits;
• Partner with colleges, technical institutes
and private organizations to develop training
programs to expand employment in the green
retrofit space. Programming should focus on
supporting those sectors impacted by COVID
19, as well as support the just transition
program for workers in the oil and gas sector.

CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE JOBS

 ELECTRIFYING
TRANSPORTATION

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
ELECTRIFYING TRANSPORTATION:

Nearly 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions in BC are
from the transportation sector. Establishing a world
leading zero-emission transportation system from one
side of the province to the other would not only make a
major dent in our emissions, but would also support our
COVID recovery. Our plan would prioritize investments
in electrifying our transit systems, including partnering
with the federal government to accelerate support for BC
Transit and Translink’s efforts to electrify their bus fleets.
We also need to set out a clear vision for our
transportation sector. This means enhancing the
ZEV mandate and undertaking a comprehensive
build out of public charging infrastructure on all
highways in the province, particularly in remote and
rural BC, to enable EV drivers to travel across BC
with ease. Government should lead the way in this
by requiring all BC government agencies operating in
urban centres to shift to 100% ZEV fleets by 2030.
We also need to lower the cost of electric vehicles so that
ordinary British Columbians can afford them. As a first
step, we would make ZEV ownership more accessible
by removing PST on used electric cars and supporting
electric vehicle charging in multi-unit buildings.

• Take early action to enhance the ZEV mandate
by accelerate the ZEV mandate to require
100% ZEV non-commercial vehicle sales
by 2035; and making ZEV ownership more
accessible by removing PST on used EVs
• Work with industry to develop additional
innovation incentive programs
• Work with industry to set new ZEV targets
for commercial vehicles and on and offroad medium and heavy duty vehicles;
• Shift to a 100% ZEV passenger vehicle fleets
for BC government agencies by 2030.
• Prioritize investments in electrifying our transit
systems, including partnering with the federal
government to accelerate support for BC Transit
and Translink’s efforts to electrify their bus fleets.
• Undertake a comprehensive build out of public
charging infrastructure on all highways in the
province, particularly in remote and rural BC, to
enable EV drivers to travel across BC with ease.
• Support electric vehicle charging in multi-unit
buildings through a variety of tools, including building
code changes and establishing “right to charge” rules
to facilitate access to home charging infrastructure
for British Columbians living in multi-family buildings.

ELECTRIFYING TRANSPORTATION

21

 COMPREHENSIVE
HEALTHCARE
While a crisis can bring out the best in people, it can also expose
the cracks in society that are papered over during the normal
times. COVID has done just that, bringing the crises in seniors
care, mental health and addictions into full public view.
The crisis in seniors’ care is a perfect storm fueled by the growing number of seniors; the
costs of providing care; the inadequate capacity of the health authorities to provide the care;
overworked and undervalued staff; the contracting out of seniors’ care to private for-profit care
homes; and, the failure of government to ensure that the quality of care is maintained.
Mental health care is also failing at all levels, from early intervention for children and youth through to tertiary care
for adults with complex psychological problems, the system is inadequately resourced, with people waiting for weeks
and months to get publicly funded help, and then the help they receive does not always fully address their needs.
At the same time, British Columbia is in the grip of two other very serious health crises. Since early
spring in 2020, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has preoccupied British Columbians. But at the same
time, British Columbia has been Canada’s epicentre for the opioid crisis. . Successive governments have
failed to provide adequate treatment options for addicts and dependence on toxic street drugs.
The COVID crisis has aggravated the opioid crisis by disrupting supply chains and making street
drugs even more toxic. British Columbia recorded 147 overdose deaths in August, pushing the
death toll in the first eight months of 2020 past the total for all of 2019. 1,068 people have died
of a fatal overdose so far this year, compared to a total of 983 deaths in all of 2019.
Many of these problems were caused by the austerity years under the BC Liberals when the
province thought that saving money by not investing in services for our loved ones was a good
idea. Ths NDP is taking steps in the right direction, but there is a long way to go

22

COMPREHENSIVE HEALTHCARE

 SENIORS’ CARE
For years serious questions have been raised around
accountability, monitoring and financial oversight in BC’s
long term care homes. COVID-19 has exacerbated and
shone the spotlight on these issues. COVID-19 has thrust
an issue that has too often been wilfully forgotten into
the spotlight. It’s made clear that our seniors have borne
the worst outcomes of the pandemic, and that they
deserve much better than the care they’ve received.
We also need to have a broader discussion about
how people age and we need to reduce isolation
amongst seniors. We should be expanding our
imagination about the place that seniors occupy in our
neighbourhoods, our communities and our society.
We need to improve wages and working conditions
in the sector, and we need to address the issue
of for-profit ownership in our public care system.
Our public money supports people in care homes
whether they are run by health authorities, notfor-profit organizations or private companies.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR SENIORS’ CARE:
• Begin to shift the sector away from a for-profit
private company model to a mix of public, non-forprofit, community-based services and co-ops;
• Ensure that public funding is only being used
to support direct care for seniors, and enhance
accountability by requiring annual inspections,
financial statements and audited expense reports;
• Establish caregivers as a recognized healthcare
profession with the salary they deserve;
• Support pilot projects that bring young
people and seniors together and integrate
seniors more deeply into communities;
• Give the Office of the Seniors Advocate more
independence and an expanded mandate.

We need to ensure that the companies that exist today
are meeting the standards required for adequate care.
There is far too little accountability about how public
funds are being used. We would establish annual
inspections, and require standard financial statements
and audited expense reports of all private facilities,
so that there is confidence that public funding is
being used to create better health-care outcomes for
seniors, not creating more profit for shareholders.
Most of all, we need to begin to shift the sector away
from a for-profit private company model. Our seniors are
not a commodity that should be earning some investor
a profit - they are our parents, our grandparents. It’s
time we shifted our tax dollars away from for-profit
long-term care in BC, and instead build a high quality
and accessible system of seniors care in this province.

SENIORS’ CARE

23

 MENTAL HEALTH

THE B.C. GREENS PLAN FOR
MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING:

Increasing numbers of British Columbians are
struggling with their mental health and we
need to treat it like any other health issue by
properly resourcing it in our public system.

• Invest to build an affordable and accessible
mental healthcare system where cost
is not a barrier to seeking help.

Mental health care is failing at all levels, from early
intervention for children and youth through to tertiary
care for adults with complex psychological problems.
The uncertainty and instability around the pandemic
is placing increased psychological strain on us all. On
top of that, young people are also facing compounding
crises of climate change and affordability. Young people
are the emerging leaders of our province and they
should feel hopeful and excited about their future.

• Allocate $1.0 billion over a four-year cycle to
address mental health care within the medical
services plan. Funding should be provided for a
comprehensive suite of initiatives including:
• Establishing accessible mental health
treatment options for all those struggling
with anxiety or depression.
• Early intervention, youth mental health initiatives,
integrated primary care specific to youth and
mental health enabling families to easily navigate
resources in a supportive environment.

We must act quickly and decisively to protect our
mental health as we did our physical health. This
begins by increasing accessibility to mental health
services. Data clearly shows that lack of access to
mental healthcare is most pronounced in those
with lower incomes, fewer years of education, as
well as among vulnerable and minority groups.

• Community based options for responding to
those who need mental healthcare and their
families such as Clubhouse International.

We must also remind ourselves that the lack of mental
health options for the majority of the population led
to many problems even before COVID-19. If we are
serious about building back better as a province then
increasing the accessibility and affordability of mental
health services needs to be a priority going forward.
This lack of access has led to our medical system
becoming the de facto provider for those with mental
health concerns. However, this system does not have
the capacity to appropriately treat these individuals,
leading them to over-utilize the medical health system
because their mental health needs are not being treated.

• Enhanced counselling outreach services
to work with the homeless community.
• Allocate $200 million per year to invest in facilities to
provide mental healthcare services and communitybased centres for mental health and rehabilitation;
and, accelerate capital plans for the construction
of tertiary care facilities and detoxification
beds. Protect operating funding for facilities.
• Develop and implement a Loneliness Strategy.
• Conduct a public information campaign
to increase awareness and provide
information on where to get help.

For many patients, even just a few appointments
with a mental health professional can significantly
improve mental and physical health. We need to
invest in mental health services at every stage
of British Columbians’ lives so that they can be
supported to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

24

MENTAL HEALTH

 OPIOID CRISIS
British Columbia is in the midst of our worst overdose
crisis ever. About 170 British Columbians die every month
from overdoses related to the illegal and toxic drug
supply. Since a public health emergency was declared in
2016, over 6,000 people in B.C. have died of preventable
overdose. COVID-19 has made the situation more
dangerous for people who use drugs by disrupting supply
sources and reducing services in place to help people
remain safe. Drug policies need to support public health
and be based on a compassionate and evidence-based
response. Key in this approach is providing people who
use drugs with adequate resources to minimize the risks
of drug use and support individual and public health.
Harm reduction interventions, such as providing sterile
equipment, supervised consumption services, overdose
prevention sites, and naloxone are cost-effective and
key to ensuring that people at risk of overdose are kept
alive. Harm reduction has been proven to reduce the
risks of transmissible disease, prevent overdose fatalities,
reduce public disorder, and create links for people to
access healthcare services and enter treatment.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
FOR THE OPIOID CRISIS:
• Scale up safe supply beyond its current level by:
• Working with the colleges of physicians and
pharmacists to encourage their members
to participate in existing programs;
• Funding a wider range of safe supply
resources, including low-barrier ways of
dispensing (e.g. dispensing machines);
• Ongoing consultation with people
who use drugs in order to create lowbarrier and accessible programs.
• Enhance funding for harm reduction services
and create COVID-friendly plans to ensure
people have access and don’t use alone.
• Decriminalize simple possession of drugs through:

Decriminalization of personal possession of drugs
is a policy option that is increasingly being called
for by experts. Recently called for by the Canadian
Association of Chiefs of Police and B.C.’s Provincial
Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, decriminalization will
reduce the stigma of drug use, which creates barriers
to accessing important health services. It would allow
us to reduce the costs of policing and the criminal
justice system, which we can reallocate into improved
evidence-based treatment programs and education.

• De-prioritizing policing of simple
possession through implementing
Dr. Bonnie Henry’s recommended
amendments to the Police Act, and;
• Strongly pursuing decriminalization with
the Federal government for B.C.

In the face of an illegal, toxic drug supply, safe supply
is a crucial intervention to keep people safe. By
providing access to alternatives through physicians
and nurses, safe supply helps people at risk of
overdose connect with healthcare professionals
and reduce the risk of overdose death.
One of the most pressing crises of our generation
has so far not received the attention and action it
deserves. Through courageous, evidence-based
leadership, we can change this and save lives.

OPIOID CRISIS

25

 PRIMARY CARE
British Columbians rightfully take pride in how our
healthcare system and our frontline healthcare
workers responded to COVID-19. Despite surgery
cancellations and total shift to dealing with a pandemic
of at the time unknown proportions we adapted.
Now as we head into the fall we need to start to
balance competing priorities: we must remain vigilant
and able to respond to a second wave even as we
start to bring back surgeries and slowly open up more
of our healthcare system to non-COVID care.
One of the more important priorities we must
once again tackle urgently is the family doctor
shortage in BC. Successive governments have
struggled to increase the number of family
doctors available in communities across BC.
The BC Greens will continue to work with physicians
and other stakeholders to improve the incentives for
doctors to set up family practices in BC. There is also
a greater role that qualified foreign-trained physicians
could play in providing services in our province.
In the last government, the BC Greens helped
champion the creation of primary care networks.
These interprofessional and integrated teams are
providing more access to physiotherapists, nurse
practitioners, midwives, dieticians and other health
professionals, helping alleviate the burden on doctors,
increasing their ability to take on new patients.

THE B.C. GREENS PLAN FOR
PRIMARY CARE WILL:
• Continue the roll-out of primary care networks
in BC to expand accessibility of healthcare
services, while increasing the number of
British Columbians with a family doctor.
• Develop a proposal to implement an essential drugs
program beginning in 2022, designed to reduce
the costs of prescription drugs and ensure the cost
of drugs is not a barrier to health management.
• Establish a task force to develop a plan to transition
the balance of resources between acute care and
preventative care. The task force will review the
funding and range of services covered by the
health care system to ensure the mix of services
better meets the treatment and prevention needs
of the population. The task force will deliver its
recommendations to the government by May 2022.
• Consult with physicians and other stakeholders
to improve efficiency, reduce administration, and
incentivize becoming a General Practitioner.
• Work with the College of Physicians and Surgeons
of British Columbia to create a pathway for qualified
foreign-trained physicians to practice in BC.

While promising, the primary care networks will need
ongoing support in order to be successful in their goals.
It’s more important than ever that British Columbians
can get access to the care they need in their community.
This accessibility of care goes hand in hand with
another core value of the BC Greens approach to
healthcare - ensuring that a far greater share of our
health care spending is shifted to support prevention.

26

PRIMARY CARE

 MANAGING OUR
NATURAL ASSETS
Climate change is threatening our communities in myriad ways. It’s
not only wildfires, but also drought, sea level rise, and flooding. Like
any crisis, these impacts will disproportionately affect the most
vulnerable among us. Yet successive governments have failed to
invest in measures to adapt to these threats and keep people safe.
In recent months, food security has been thrust into the spotlight, as COVID-19 has created
instability in our food system for people who have never experienced it before, and the changing
climate affects agricultural production in places we rely on for our food supply.
The changing climate is also threatening the health of our forests, presenting a double threat to communities that do not
always get the full benefit of the resources that surround them. For too long, foreign-owned multinationals ship minimally
processed resources out-of-province and we suffer the environmental consequences of our model of resource extraction.
Climate is also exacerbating threats to our watersheds that are already threatened by
decades of poor management decisions that have left communities vulnerable.
It’s clear that the status quo is not working. It’s not working for our environment,
and it’s not serving the needs of local communities.
We need to manage our resources for the benefit of local communities,
while recognizing the vulnerabilities to a changing climate
Small communities are on the front lines of this. They have seen raw products continue to leave their
communities, as they lose jobs and witness environmental degradation at their doorstep.

MANAGING OUR NATURAL ASSETS

27

 FOOD SECURITY

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR FOOD SECURITY:

Food security has been top of mind for many who have
never thought about it before, as empty shelves became
common earlier on in COVID, and more recently as
we’ve watched the wildfires in California with horror.
The food security of British Columbians is threatened by
the changing climate in major supplying regions such as
California, Florida and Mexico. Recognizing this threat,
we need to be prepared. We must do more to protect
agricultural land in our communities, expand the area of
land under food production, and establish a long-term
food sustainability strategy for the province. This way we
can decrease reliance on increasingly unreliable import
supply chains and diversify our farming in BC, so that
we aren’t overly reliant on an export-import model.
And as everyone knows, you can’t have real food without
farmers. We need to urgently identify and implement
options to make farming a more attractive and lucrative
endeavour, especially for younger farmers. In recent
years, agricultural land has become tied to the escalating
housing market in many parts of BC, and it’s become
untenable for young farmers to get on the land.
There are tools at government’s disposal to remedy
this. Just as government stepped in to create the
agricultural land reserve many decades ago, we can
take action to ensure farming has a future in B.C. One
way to do this is to create a publicly owned agricultural
land bank available to lease by new farmers.
We also need to recognize that all of these decisions
are connected. The decisions that we make about
our forests, and about development, all impact our
food security. We need to get smarter about how we
make decisions and recognize this interconnection.
Operating in silos won’t solve these challenges.

We will Create a Food Secure B.C. strategy to make
B.C. agriculture more climate resilient, improve local
food security and support local agricultural producers.
• Establish a long-term food sustainability
strategy for the province to decrease reliance
on increasingly unreliable import supply
chains and diversify farming in BC.
• Make food production and food security part of
the Agricultural Land Commission’s mandate.
• Expand the area of land under food production
and create a publicly owned agricultural land
bank available to lease by new farmers.
• Recognize income and regional disparities
in food insecurity across BC and work to
enhance access to high quality, healthy food
for low-income British Columbians, including
developing systems for First Nations that
honour Indigenous knowledge and values.
• Incentivize agro-ecological farming practices.
• Support small-scale farms to adopt new
technologies to reduce carbon emissions.
• Identify options to make farming a more
attractive and sustainable endeavour:
• Ensuring that farmers have access to
local processing facilities and that they
share in the returns from processing.
• Enabling the growing of high value crops, such
as cannabis, to supplement farm income.
• Provide $10 million per year to fund research and
establish regional agricultural bureaus to provide
expertise and support to local farmers to apply
innovations on-farm and adapt to a changing climate.
• Restrict and regulate foreign ownership of ALR land.

28

FOOD SECURITY

 FORESTRY

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN
FOR FORESTRY:

We need to take back control of our forests from
major corporations, ensuring forestry is meeting the
needs of local communities, both economically and
ecologically. Our forests are a public resource that belong
to the people of BC, and we need to start managing
them that way. This means reinstating government
authority in decision-making, undertaking major tenure
reform, and enhancing scientific capacity in FLNRO.
Despite promising to do things differently, the NDP
have not changed, in any substantial way, the status
quo of forestry management in this province. Over
the last 3.5 years, the cutting of old growth has
continued as fast as it did under the BC Liberals, and
they have failed to make any meaningful reforms to
how forestry is managed, as we’ve continued to see
local job losses and unsustainable forestry practices.

• Take back control of our forests from major
corporations, ensuring forestry is meeting the
needs of local communities. Our forests are a
public resource that belongs to the people of BC,
and we need to start managing them that way.
To achieve this goal the BC Greens would:
• Reinstate government authority in decisionmaking at provincial and local levels, beginning
with enhancing the authority of district
managers to refuse or amend permits.

We need to start managing our forests holistically,
for all the values they hold. Most fundamentally
this means enacting legislation that establishes
conservation of ecosystem health and biodiversity
of BC’s forests as an overarching priority, with
timber supply as just one benefit. DIfferent planning
processes and harvesting methods flow from this
fundamental shift in how we manage our forests.

• Begin a process of tenure reform to redistribute
tenures from a few major companies and
grow the proportion of tenures held by
First Nations and community forests.

We can’t continue to liquidate our natural resources for
the benefit of shareholders of massive corporations,
while continuing to shed local jobs in communities
across BC as mills close. Instead we need to generate
far more jobs and revenue from what we harvest. There
are tools the government can use to make this happen,
from ensuring that small producers have access to fibre,
incentivizing value-added wood products and nontraditional uses of wood fibre, and revenue-sharing with
First Nations, municipalities, and regional districts.
Finally, we need to recognize the crucial importance
of our forests to biodiversity and protect our
remaining old growth forests forever. This means
fully implementing the recommendations of the old
growth review panel in partnership with First Nations
and an immediate end to the logging of old growth
forests in high risk ecosystems across the province,
with the funding needed to back this up and create
new opportunities for communities. We can’t afford
4 more years of talk, “consultations” and little action.
We need to move now to protect what we have left.

• Reform forestry management in BC so that it
serves the long-term needs of local communities
and supports a truly sustainable industry,
where community and ecosystem values
are the primary focus of management.

• Establish a forester general position, an
officer of the legislature who is non-partisan
and reports to the House annually.
• Establish a Chief Scientist as a counterpart to
the Chief Forester to ensure multiple values are
adequately incorporated into timber supply analysis.
• Enhance capacity in FLNRO and establish more
community based Ministry of Forests staff, to
support the sustainable management of local forest
resources and provide well-paying community jobs.
Manage our forests holistically, for all
the values they hold. We would:
• Shift the management framework through
reforming legislation, away from an exclusive
focus on timber supply to managing for
all the values that our forests hold.
• Adopt a wider variety of logging practices, including
selective logging and longer stand rotations.

FORESTRY

29

 • Undertake landscape-level ecosystem-based
planning, reforestation and restoration in partnership
with local communities and First Nations.

• Ensure that small producers have access to fibre
and incentivize value-added product innovation,
including non-traditional uses of wood fibre including
bio fuels, and productive uses of residual fibre.

• Protect communities from wildfires and flooding
through landscape level, ecologically-centred,
forest management and fuel treatment projects.
• Restore government capacity to ensure forest
stewardship, monitoring and enforcement,
and enhance funding for forest inventory
research and primary research.

• Apply the carbon tax to slash-pile burning to
reduce carbon emissions from our forestry sector
and ensure that we use residual materials.
• Put an end to raw log exports.

Protect our remaining high value old
growth forests forever. We would:

• Ensure the benefits of B.C. resource flow to
local communities by directly sharing more
resource revenues with local First Nations,
municipalities, and regional districts.

• Immediately move to fully implement the
recommendations of the old growth review panel
in partnership with First Nations. This includes:

• Better support forestry workers and communities,
including through expanding investments into
retraining and support finding new job opportunities.

• An immediate end to the logging
of old growth forests in high risk
ecosystems across the province.
• Enacting legislation that establishes conservation
of ecosystem health and biodiversity of
BC’s forests as an overarching priority.
• Establish funding mechanisms to support the
preservation of our old growth forests.

30

Generate more jobs and revenue from
what we harvest. We would:

• Investigate opportunities to diversify
milling and secondary manufacturing
to better use existing timber.
• Promote more sustainable development of
forest resources, including investing in tourism
opportunities and low-carbon economies.

FORESTRY

 WATER

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR WATER:

Water is fundamental to so many aspects of our lives:
to agriculture, energy production, transportation,
freshwater fisheries, recreation and industrial
processes, not to mention drinking and personal use.

We must recognize that access to clean water
is a human right and ensure B.C. communities
have long-term, reliable, and equitable
access to clean water. We can start by:

The forecast impacts of climate change on water supply
vary across the province from extreme rainfall events to
extended periods of drought. Each end of the spectrum
presents different challenges for communities from storm
and wastewater management to water contamination,
turbidity and salination of groundwater in coastal areas.
Climate-related risks to drinking water are many
and are often exacerbated by poor management
decisions. Forestry management and water
quality are also inextricably linked. As the timber
supply has become more constrained, logging has
moved closer to communities and into community
drinking watersheds, causing painful divisions in
the community and threats to drinking water.

• Allocate $50 million to create a dedicated Watershed
Security Fund that will create sustainable jobs in
communities across BC in watershed restoration,
monitoring, technology, training, and education.
• Expanding the model of the Cowichan Watershed
Board across the province and establishing shared
decision-making authority with watershed boards,
with watershed sustainability as a core mandate.
• Conducting comprehensive watershed planning
in conjunction with First Nations, communities,
government agencies, stewardship organizations
and industry and including watersheds as
part of a landscape-level ecosystem-based
management approach to development.

There are a number of steps we can take, starting
today, to protect our water. First, we need to conduct
comprehensive watershed management planning in
collaboration with communities and First Nations.

• Implementing the Water Sustainability Act to secure
the environmental flows needed to sustain healthy
and functioning rivers, lakes and watersheds.

We need to include watersheds as part of a landscapelevel ecosystem-based management approach to
development. We also need to implement tools
that we already have at our disposal but haven’t
used - like the Water Sustainability Act, which
provides a potentially powerful way to secure the
environmental flows needed to sustain healthy
and functioning rivers, lakes and watersheds.

• Working with local governments, school
districts and other stakeholders to upgrade
municipal infrastructure and replace household
pipes through grants and incentives.
• Exploring science-based solutions
to reduce water acidity.
• Implementing a ban on fracking, a chemical-intensive
process that has been shown to contaminate
freshwater, trigger earthquakes, leak methane,
and poses an unacceptable risk to human health.

We need to create a dedicated Watershed
Security Fund that will create sustainable jobs in
communities across BC in watershed restoration,
monitoring, technology, training, and education.
And most fundamentally, we must recognize
that access to clean water is a human right
and ensure B.C. communities have long-term,
reliable, and equitable access to clean water.
If we start taking these steps and prioritizing
community resilience, we can make ourselves
resilient to the inevitable changes we will
experience in coming years, while also creating
jobs and opportunities for British Columbians.
WATER

31

 CLIMATE RESILIENCE

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR
CLIMATE RESILIENCE:

Communities need to be aware of the risks they face
from a changing climate and have plans to address
them. We need to build capacity in communities so
they can respond safely and effectively to extreme
weather and natural disasters - and so they can
recover quickly when the threat has passed.
We need to protect communities from wildfires and
flooding through landscape level, ecologically-centred,
forest management and fuel treatment projects. We
must also increase the resilience of regional ecosystems
by restoring habitats and protecting biodiversity.

• Provide $100 million over 4 years to fund climate
adaptation initiatives in our communities,
including the development of a coordinated
approach with First Nations and other levels
of government to disaster risk reduction.
• Build capacity in communities so they can
respond safely and effectively to extreme
weather and natural disasters - and so they can
recover quickly when the threat has passed.
• Protect communities from wildfires and flooding
through landscape level, ecologically-centred,
forest management and fuel treatment projects.
• Increase the resilience of regional ecosystems by
restoring habitats and protecting biodiversity.

32

CLIMATE RESILIENCE

 WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
AND BIODIVERSITY
The beauty and wonder of BC’s wilderness is rightly a
source of pride for all of us who call this province home,
but it is more than that too. Our ecosystems and the
stunning biodiversity that live within them are central
to the health of British Columbia - our physical, mental,
social, and cultural wellbeing are inextricably linked to
the survival of the natural world around us. Humans,
of course, are part of nature, not isolated from it.
While it is something we instinctively understand,
our policies need to get better at recognizing
this interdependence - an appreciation that the
wellbeing of people is connected to the wellbeing
of the river, the forest, the ocean, even future
generations. We need to embed in our management
practices an understanding and acceptance that
what we do to the world, we do to ourselves.
And it is clear, unfortunately, that BC’s native
ecosystems are reaching a crisis point.
Many fish and wildlife populations have been in
decline for decades and are currently at record
lows. Foundational species like mountain caribou,
moose, Interior Fraser Steelhead, Fraser River
salmon, and sturgeon are at serious risk.
A lack of funding over many years for wildlife and habitat
conservation, and a lack of commitment to science, vague
objectives, and a tendency to side with industry instead
of threatened species has meant that some of B.C.’s fish
and wildlife populations are being managed to zero.
The fundamentals of responsible fish and wildlife
stewardship are funding, science, and social support. We
need increased and dedicated funding, science-based
objectives for habitat and populations, establishing
healthy hunting and fishing limits, and accountability
for the ministries that are managing fish and wildlife.
If we work urgently, with inspiration and vision, we
can heal and restore BC’s incredible biodiversity.

THE BC GREENS’ PLAN FOR WILDLIFE
MANAGEMENT AND BIODIVERSITY:
• Prioritize protection of wildlife and their habitat
across government, including through:
• Establishing a strategy to manage our wetlands;
• Protecting coastal ecosystems with
a Coastal Law and Strategy;
• Ensuring appropriate legislative oversight through
creating legislated objectives for fish and wildlife;
• Moving the fish and wildlife branch from
FLNRO and the Ministry of Environment;
• Urgently match and exceed historic
provincial funding levels for the fish
and wildlife branch to match the
unprecedented challenges we now face.
• Ensuring that science about the status
of our wildlife and environment is
independent from political interference
and made freely available to the public.
• Enhance funding for wildlife conservation,
habitat protection and habitat acquisition and
dedicate all fishing, hunting, guide-outfitting,
and trapping license fees for this purpose.
• Create an endangered species law that establishes
legal protection of species and their habitat
to ensure their recovery and survival.
• Take action on fish farms to protect wild salmon:
• Support the full implementation of the Wild
Salmon Advisory Council recommendations
and Cohen Commission recommendations,
working urgently to enforce all measures
within provincial jurisdiction;
• Negotiate strongly with DFO to complete the
recommendations under federal jurisdiction;

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AND BIODIVERSITY

33

 • Working with DFO, First Nations, local
communities, and industry, provide
stimulus and incentives to create a closecontainment land based fish farming industry
and cancel open-pen fish farm tenures.
• Establish a made-in-BC Environmental
Charter that lays out:
• Substantive rights to clean air, clean
water, and healthy ecosystems

• Application of the precautionary principle
to decisions that affect the environment.
• Enhance funding for B.C. Parks and the
Conservation Officer Service, to a level that
will improve infrastructure and ensure that our
natural ecosystems are not being degraded.
• Create more campgrounds to meet demand,
ensuring that the creation of more sites is
commensurate with expanding overall park land
and does not cut into existing protected areas.

• Procedural rights that allow
everyone to participate in decisions
that affect the environment
• Information rights that ensure we all have
the access to all the information relevant
to decisions that affect the environment

34

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AND BIODIVERSITY

 OUR INVESTMENTS
The table below breaks out the estimated additional costs that will
be incurred in order to implement the BC Greens plan. The costs are
presented in the form of the annualized costs of the program rather
than by fiscal year, since almost three quarters of the current fiscal
year will have elapsed by the time a new government is in place and
it takes time to get new government programs off the ground.
The BC Greens are planning to invest over $10 billion over three
years to deliver a green and inclusive recovery from COVID.
It is important to note that there will be additional revenue and offsetting savings that will mitigate the
impact on the province’s bottom line. For example, approximately $1 billion per year will be saved by
ending oil and gas subsidies; reinstating the regular increments of the carbon tax and increasing the annual
increase to $10/tonne CO2e will draw in additional revenue in the short term; and, investment in social
programs will avoid future costs, while investing in education and innovation will yield future returns.
We recognise that the province’s financial picture is significantly weaker than in 2017, but now is not the time for austerity.
Smart, deliberate investment by government is required in order to protect and enhance the health and wellbeing of
British Columbians,; and, we cannot put on hold climate action or ignore the opioid crisis while we deal with COVID.
These are challenging times that demand bold action.

OUR INVESTMENTS

35

 Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

($ million)

($ million)

($ million)

Education

557

657

807

Supporting families

500

500

523

Housing affordability

700

600

600

Other

138

138

138

TOTAL

1895

1895

2068

300

0

0

Other

20

20

20

TOTAL

320

20

20

Green innovation

500

0

0

Clean, sustainable jobs

500

550

600

Other

25

25

25

TOTAL

1025

575

625

Mental health

250

250

250

Other

125

125

125

TOTAL

375

375

375

Water

40

40

40

Climate resilience

25

25

25

Other

155

155

155

TOTAL

220

220

220

TOTAL INCREMENTAL EXPENDITURE

3835

3085

3308

Supporting British Columbians

A healthy and inclusive economy
Small business and tourism

A green recovery from COVID-19

Taking care of ourselves and those we love

Strong communities, healthy environment

36

OUR INVESTMENTS