THE BC Liberals on Wednesday noted that affordability has continued to worsen by nearly every measure this month with British Columbians facing rising prices for shelter, fuel and food and slammed the NDP government for failing to take steps to help address the rising cost of living.

“After two incredibly difficult years filled with extreme weather events, a global pandemic, and growing uncertainty, now people have to deal with rising inflation that is dramatically increasing the cost of living,” said Mike Bernier, BC Liberal Critic for Finance. “The NDP government came to power on the promise of improving affordability and has failed miserably at living up to this commitment. People should not have to worry about necessities like food, housing and gas getting increasingly expensive, even out of reach, while a government that promised to deliver affordability stands idly by — especially during the holidays.”

The BC Liberals said that figures released by Statistics Canada show that in 2021, B.C. saw year-over-year inflation of 3.6 percent. Increases were headlined by the rising costs of housing, gasoline, and groceries. December marks the fifth month in a row that B.C. has seen elevated inflation, while government has taken no steps nor laid out a plan on how to help address these rising costs. The impacts of catastrophic flooding and landslides in B.C. were not included in November’s statistics release. Additionally, statistics from the BC Real Estate Association show that the cost of an average home in B.C. increased 22.1% year-over-year in November, which represents nearly $120,000 in extra costs to buyers.

“We know that supply chain constraints are a prominent force in raising the cost of living, and this is reflected in today’s figures. However, the NDP has no plan to mitigate these supply chain factors, which will only continue to get worse as we see the full impacts of November’s flooding,” said Bernier. “Despite all the NDP’s lofty promises of affordability, life is only getting more expensive for British Columbians. We need real leadership to tackle this problem but instead, we have a government that refuses to act or show us it has a plan. It’s more clear than ever that people just can’t afford the NDP.”