Vaughn Palmer: Greens promise $8 billion a year in new spending while hoping to hold balance of power in a minority government
VICTORIA — B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau released her party election platform on Tuesday, a 72-page document that came with a whiff of familiarity.
The Greens would increase social assistance rates to combat poverty. Expand social housing to end homelessness. Protect old growth, species at risk and biodiversity. End log exports.
Those promises and many others echoed the platforms the New Democrats used to produce before they got into power and ran smack dab into the realities, limitations and compromises of governing.
Then there were planks that sounded like recent NDP policies.
The Greens would continue increasing the carbon tax every year, which is what David Eby was going to do before he flip flopped last month.
The Greens would expand safer supply and decriminalization of drugs, a stance that would not have been a departure for the NDP before this year’s backtracking.
Here and there the Greens did go beyond anything mainstream New Democrats have seriously contemplated in or out of government.
The party would end the production, distribution and export of natural gas in B.C. “When elected, the B.C. Greens will commit to a fossil-free future,” the platform reads in part.
Meaning: “Stop permitting new fracking wells. Set a date to phase out gas production in the province. Prohibit any new LNG projects. Stop permitting new pipelines.
“Introduce a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies. Increase the industrial carbon tax. End all subsidies and public financing for fossil fuel infrastructure. Accelerate BC’s target of near-zero methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. Ban oil and gas advertisements. Enforce a provincewide ban on gas hookups in all new buildings.”
And so on, until one of B.C.’s biggest generators of resource revenues has been stamped out.
Another idea not likely to show up in an NDP platform, leastways not since the party imposed a $10 filing fee to discourage applications under freedom of information: “The B.C. Greens will remove the fee for freedom of information (FOI) requests and require all government departments and ministers to respond to requests within the legislated time frames.”
The Green promises are costed at a hefty $8 billion in the first year. The biggest items are $2 billion to provide free travel on public transit and an expanded bus system, $2 billion to increase social assistance and a $1 billion top-up for the K-12 education system and child care.
All funded by $9 billion worth of increases in corporate, personal income, property and carbon taxes.
The Greens are no more likely to form the next government of B.C. than was B.C. United before it pulled the plug on itself a month ago.
But Furstenau hopes no party wins a majority, leaving the Greens holding the balance of power as they did in 2017. Back then the party struck a power-sharing deal with the New Democrats, signed by MLAs from both parties.
What would the Greens want this time? Furstenau was asked.
I thought she might have insisted on the platform call for “legislation to implement a proportional representation system” for the next provincial election.
The Greens would proceed with proportional representation without first seeking public approval through a referendum, as happened in 2005, 2009 and 2018, when proportional representation lost.
Rather “a referendum will be held after the second proportional representation election to confirm whether the system aligns with voter interests.”
The Greens believe that denying voters a direct a say until years down the road increases the chances of success for proportional representation.
Though Furstenau believes that proportional representation would curb the heavy-handed abuses by majority governments, it would not be her first demand if she were in a position to bargain with the NDP or Conservatives after the election.
Rather her first priority would be adoption of an idea borrowed from New Zealand, the establishment of “well-being framework” to guide government policy and budget-making.
“Well-being frameworks generally provide measurement across four broad indicators: people, nature, infrastructure and society,” according to the summary in the Green platform. “When we evaluate decisions using these broader categories, we make choices that go beyond just economic factors.”
The framework would be backed by legislation, setting measurable targets and requiring progress reports to the legislature each year along with the budget.
Several questions from reporters Tuesday were about the well-being of the Greens.
The party fell two dozen candidates short of a full slate of 93 when nominations closed Saturday.
The shortfall perked up the New Democrats.
They believe the Green vote, in ridings with no Green candidate, will disproportionately migrate to them, delivering easier wins in seats that would otherwise be ranked as toss-ups.
Furstenau said she was “discouraged” at how the party’s organization drive had faltered.
In a number of ridings, would-be Green candidates were unable to round up 75 local residents to sign their nomination papers, as required by Elections B.C.
The implications go beyond this election.
Fewer Green candidates probably means fewer votes for the party and, thus, a smaller subsidy from taxpayers in the years of rebuilding ahead.