Liberals will need to renew ideas
How about making B.C. gasolinefree by 2050? How about selling all the government liquor stores to the employees and fully privatizing the business?
How about a provincial concierge service that guarantees you’ll have all the permits needed to start a new business in B.C. within 72 hours?
There are some engaging ideas sprinkled through the campaigns of the six B.C. Liberal Party candidates. The contest is about personalities and track records, but also about renewal. And the best way to signify renewal is to throw some audacious new ideas in among the usual policy statements on the usual issues.
Liquor privatization is endorsed by MLAs Andrew Wilkinson and Sam Sullivan. Theoretically, it makes sense. The hundreds of private liquor stores that opened during the Liberal government established a thriving new retail infrastructure. So why not hand over the government retail system and walk away?
Government would save hundreds of millions in expenses and still get to keep all the tax revenue.
It’s trickier in practice. Liberals had to promise not to do just that to secure a contract with the government employees’ union several years ago. And melding a new private juggernaut into the current mix would be tricky.
First-term MLA Michael Lee has been talking about a gas-free B.C.
“I believe we have a realistic opportunity to make B.C. gasoline-free by 2050 if the people of B.C. are willing to embrace and support that concept.”
It’s a trend many believe is coming, but Lee is the first to cite it as a goal. Or at least a realistic opportunity. If people want it.
Former cabinet minister Wilkinson is pitching the instant small-business concept. He wants a revitalized smallbusiness ministry with a dedicated concierge service “with the goal of having a business created in 72 hours from start to finish.”
And once it’s created, he’d abolish the small-business income tax on family businesses, as a bonus.
He also promises a “Come Home to B.C.” program, aimed at enticing back successful British Columbians who moved away. If there is such a thing as a diaspora of B.C.-raised entrepreneurs out in the world creating wealth, they’d be encouraged to come home and create wealth here.
Wilkinson also wants B.C. represented in major U.S. cities, targeting companies looking to invest outside the U.S. Investment attraction would be a priority for all relevant ministries. That’s a dubious proposition in the current climate there, unless U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade wars start driving money out of the country.
Cutting taxes seemed to work for the NDP, so former transportation minister Todd Stone is trying it out, as well.
He’s promising a freeze on all income-tax hikes, plus a rollback of the surtax the NDP applied on high-income earners. Also on Stone’s mind is a cut in the six per cent provincial sales tax, “when provincial revenues are sufficient to accommodate it.”
As a minister who drove a lot of ferryservice cuts, he has some making up to do. So he’s promising to work toward lower fares, new types of service, no reservation fees, free sports-team trips and tax credits for frequent users.
The party tried that last one in the 2017 election campaign. It didn’t work.
Stone also recognizes the dream of light rail in Greater Victoria, to the extent that he’ll move ahead with business planning.
More rapid bus service between the Swartz Bay ferry terminal and downtown Victoria rounds out his Island overtures.
Former Conservative MP and Surrey mayor Dianne Watts also has her eyes on Vancouver Island. She wants to develop a made-on-the-Island strategy that covers a lot of broad topics, but very few details. She is matching Stone by promising a frequentuser reward for ferry travellers, plus seniors’ rates every day. The NDP government is giving them midweek free rides starting in April.
She also lists some big financing ideas, such as ending dividends Crown corporations pay to government. Government has extracted billions over the years from B.C. Hydro and ICBC, but the practice has been curtailed lately.
Former cabinet minister Mike de Jong campaigned on various ideas in the 2011 leadership race, such as extending the runway at Victoria International Airport. This time, he is touching on general themes and avoiding specific promises.