NDP, Liberals say COVID-19 vaccine to be free for all in B.C.
VANCOUVER — The leaders of British Columbia’s two major political parties say every person in the province will be eligible to receive a free COVID-19 vaccine once one is approved and available.
John Horgan told a virtual town hall meeting Monday evening that if the NDP is elected on Oct. 24, it will provide free COVID-19 vaccines to whoever wants one.
Horgan’s promise was quickly followed by a similar pledge from Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, who said he couldn’t imagine charging people for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Horgan said providing a free COVID-19 vaccine will be part of the NDP’s recovery plan because a healthy population can rebuild the province’s economy.
The NDP’s $1.6-billion recovery plan also includes almost two million flu shots, 7,000 more long-term care workers and more options for at-home care.
Wilkinson had promised free flu shots earlier in the campaign, then matched the promise Horgan made on COVID-19.
“In what world would a life-saving vaccine not be free to British Columbians,” said Wilkinson in a post to his Twitter account.
The NDP promise also included making 45,000 high-dose influenza immunizations available to all those living in long-term care and assisted living facilities.
Horgan and several other NDP candidates fielded about a dozen questions from people who were identified by their first names only during the hour-long virtual town hall meeting. The participants asked questions about child care, Indigenous reconciliation, the opioid crises, the environment and support for rural communities.
Earlier in the day, the Liberals and NDP took took a long-running dispute over how to build a replacement for the George Massey Tunnel in Metro Vancouver to the campaign trail.
The Liberals and NDP have both said the 629-metre, four-lane tunnel underneath the Fraser River, which was opened to traffic in 1959 by the Queen, should be in line for replacement, but the project has remained stalled.
Wilkinson resurrected the previous Liberal government’s plan to build a 10-lane bridge over the Fraser River to replace the aging Massey Tunnel.
Wilkinson said the Liberals would dump an eight-lane tunnel proposal and start immediate construction of the 10-lane bridge instead.
The bridge project would relieve the largest traffic bottleneck in Western Canada, he said.
The New Democrat government cancelled the former government’s bridge proposal shortly after taking office in 2017.
The NDP government still hasn’t officially revealed its plans on replacing the 61-year-old tunnel, although Horgan said in May 2019 that a twin-tunnel proposal was getting consideration from his government.
Metro Vancouver mayors released a joint letter at the time asking the government to help with the “terrible bottleneck.” Horgan said the mayors appeared united in their support for a tunnel that would be less costly, faster to build and would not require tolls.
But Wilkinson said the Liberals still support a bridge.
“The people stuck in traffic at the Massey Tunnel on a daily basis for up to an hour in each direction can look forward to the restart of the construction of the bridge replacement for the Massey Tunnel,” Wilkinson said at a news conference.
Ravi Kahlon, the NDP legislature member for North Delta, said the NDP’s plans for a new toll-free crossing are well underway, with the government on track for its final approval by the end of the year, although details of the plan have not been released.
“The B.C. Liberals want to completely change course, risking major delays, risking federal financing and setting the project back years.”
Wilkinson said the bridge proposed by the Liberals when they were in government in 2013 has already been through an environmental assessment and could be restarted again quickly, unlike a twin-tunnel project.
“The NDP’s plans include the prospect of 10 years of litigation with the Tsawwassen First Nation, the risk of destroying the Pacific salmon migration through the Fraser River.”
Wilkinson said the toll-free bridge project will be part of a Liberal government’s $8-billion plan for capital projects, but he didn’t know when the toll-free bridge would be complete.
The Greens focused on mental health Monday, promising to spend $1 billion to ensure services are more completely covered by B.C.’s medical services plan.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said providing more complete and available mental health services for all people will result in healthier and more fulfilling lives.
“Mental health issues are affecting increasing numbers of British Columbians, and we need to treat it like any other health issue by properly resourcing it in our public system,” Furstenau said in a statement.
The Massey Tunnel under the Fraser River on Monday scored its third appearance in a row stretching back seven years as an election issue, and for people who admire audacity, this one was the best yet.
Something about that 60-year-old hole under the Fraser River brings out the worst in B.C.’s well-established tendency to argue major projects to death. The argument reached a new level of absurdity Monday morning, when the NDP reacted to B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson’s promise to put up a 10-lane, toll-free bridge over the river in no time flat.
The previous Liberal government was on the brink of pretty much that during the 2017 election, in the face of an endless round of arguments amongst local mayors with long lists of regional grudges.
When the NDP took over, then-transportation minister Claire Trevena did what every Fraser River commuter has been doing for years; she pumped the brakes hard. She suspended work on the job, using the old dodge “lack of consultation.” It looked a lot more like distaste at the prospect of continuing with a project that then-premier Christy Clark started.
A few months later, she ordered up an independent review, which delivered exactly what she wanted, a series of criticisms of the project, although there wasn’t much in the way of a definitive conclusion.
The review led to another consultation round about the options which included months of back-and-forth arguments amongst the mayors and other interested parties. All the while Trevena exuded empathy with the tens of thousands of people regularly caught in that bottleneck.
It was all supposed to come up with a conclusion as to what to do about the bottleneck — which is as acute for Vancouver-bound south Island travelers as it is for everyone else — by the end of this year. It looked like most of the interest groups were leaning towards a replacement tunnel. But as of the election call, after more than three years in office the NDP has nothing firm in the way of a plan to replace the old tunnel.
So what was the party’s official reaction to Wilkinson promise?
“Any change of course would risk major delays, risk losing federal financing, and set the project back years.”
The NDP even had the gall to say the project is “well underway.”
After driving through it on the weekend, it’s clear the only thing well underway is millions of dollars worth of repair work to extract years more service from the inadequate tunnel.
“Brighter, lighter conditions for Massey Tunnel,” was the headline on the last $19 million contract spent in May on the relic.
No decision has been made on what to do next. And anything other than a bridge is going to need major new environmental approvals that will stretch out for years.
So the party that stopped a job cold and stalled it for three years is accusing a party that wants to restart it of setting the project back years.
The Massey Tunnel could easily figure in three more election campaigns.
Wilkinson also showed a certain amount of nerve. He estimated the project under a Liberal government would take two or three years. Four or five is more like it.
Just So You Know: NDP Leader John Horgan followed the bridge caper later in the day with an announcement that turns the pandemic into a political issue. He promised free COVID-19 vaccine to anyone who wants it.
There is no vaccine and it’s not clear when one will be available.
The commitment is the first outright politicization of the COVID-19 response. If the election itself didn’t make clear the months of non-partisan cooperation regarding the pandemic are over, the free-to-all stand confirms it.