THE BC NDP hit back at the BC Conservatives on Sunday, noting that they came out against David Eby’s plan to raise $1 billion by asking the province’s top income earners to pay a little more to improve healthcare.
Interim Leader Lorne Doerkson has promised not to raise new revenue while also reducing the deficit, but he’s been unable to explain how to do this without cuts to healthcare, said the BC NDP.
BC Conservative MLA Tony Luck has admitted their agenda on the deficit will mean healthcare cuts: “If education and healthcare are the two biggest line items on the budget, they’re the ones that are going to have to take the brunt of this somehow.”
The BC NDP said that the BC Conservatives are justifying their opposition by claiming it will impact doctors – even as they opposed Eby’s successful U.S. doctor recruitment plan, are running a candidate slate that includes a fake doctor and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, and are putting forward a plan that will make healthcare cuts inevitable.
It noted that 96% of British Columbians are not impacted by Eby’s tax changes, but will benefit from improvements to healthcare.
“Even after these changes, B.C. will have the third-lowest taxes in the country on incomes of $400,000, and the second-lowest on incomes of $250,000. An individual making $250,000 in B.C. will pay $5,250 less than they would in Ontario and nearly $12,700 less than they would in Nova Scotia,” it added.
