Leaked paper sheds light on NDP planning process
Free post- secondary education, universal child care among suggestions from party members
VICTORIA — The New Democratic Party’s governing council, two- and- a- half years ago, considered proposals such as cutting funding to independent schools, and eliminating tuition fees at the B. C. universities and colleges.
Those and other proposals are part of a 12- page report, developed by members of the NDP provincial council less than a month before Carole James was forced out as party leader.
The document was leaked to The Vancouver Sun on Sunday by a Liberal supporter.
Among other ideas developed at the meeting, which are not part of the party’s 2013 platform, were: ending premiums for B. C.’ s medical services plan, reverting to governmentrun liquor outlets only, providing public universal child care and early learning, and nationalizing independent power producers.
A handful of suggestions from the document are reflected in the 2013 platform, including raising the minimum wage and apprenticeship- training initiatives.
In an email Sunday, party spokesman Jim Rutkowski said the document is a collection of suggestions by individual party members, and was never a reflection of party policies.
“Absolutely not,” Rutkowski said in an email when asked if the document was part of the party’s policy.
Party policy, he said, is set through votes by delegates at party conventions. And election platforms are developed by the party leader, in consultation with the caucus and the party executive.
He added that the 2010 meeting of the provincial council took place while James was still leader, and months before Adrian Dix took over.
“Participants were asked to brainstorm about their ‘ individual dream for the province.’ … The report summarizes in point form those ‘ individual dreams’ discussed in a brainstorming session.”
Dix has publicly ruled out several of these proposals.
On MSP premiums, Dix has repeatedly criticized the B. C. Liberals for increases, but has also noted the difficulty of rolling back a revenue source that brings more than $ 2 billion a year to the provincial budget.
The New Democrats have been sharply critical of the deals struck under the B. C. Liberals with independent power providers, and the party’s energy critic, John Horgan, has pledged to review those deals if the NDP wins the election. But Horgan and Dix have specifically ruled out breaking those or other contracts inherited from the Liberals.
Dix has repeatedly said that a first term of NDP government would maintain the current funding formula for independent schools, which in most cases provides per- pupil operating grants equal to 50 per cent of those given to public schools.