Cheatsheet: What B.C. party leaders said about business in campaign’s only televised debate

Tuesday October 8 saw all three party leaders square off in the campaign’s only televised debate. The NDP’s David Eby, Conservatives’ John Rustad, and Green Party’s Sonia Furstenau took to the mic to cover a series of predetermined topics ranging from housing affordability to healthcare, Indigenous rights and land use, and the future of B.C.

No one question targeted each leader’s take on tech and business directly, though their answers revealed much about their implicit approach to handling economic growth and what that will mean for the local business community. In a close-run race that currently has no clear winner, every sentence counted in their efforts to secure votes in Saturday’s polls.

Jump to:

• The economy

• Green energy and cleantech

• Housing affordability 

• Economic reconciliation and Indigenous rights

• How to pay for their promises

• Closing statements

The economy

Key takeaways:

• The Conservatives believe the economy and job growth has stalled under the NDP for the last seven years. It hopes to bolster the forestry and mining industries.

• The NDP says B.C. is the fastest-growing province for wage growth and the economy at large. It will invest in young people including increasing apprenticeships.

• The Green Party argues that inequality has increased between rich and poor, and suggests a number of new taxes to close that gap.

Economic prosperity was a hot-button issue for all three candidates, with each following key talking points repeated frequently across the debate. Rustad leaned on the statistic that “one in two youth are thinking of leaving British Columbia” and that the NDP “hasn’t delivered” despite seven years in power. Furstenau’s Greens reiterated the statement that the NDP is “more of the same” and the Conservatives are “back to the past”. Eby, meanwhile, reinforced that Rustad is promising a lot, but his time as a cabinet minister for the BC Liberals proves he didn’t accomplish those goals then, and therefore won’t now.

Rustad opened fire on Eby, arguing that “there’s no question we need to get our economy going in British Columbia.” He claimed that the province’s economic performance under the NDP has almost been cut in half, that it’s seen “almost zero private sector job growth”, and that the NDP’s policies will create a $24 billion deficit over the next three years. The forest sector, he said, is in “shambles”, and, for mining, the government needs to step back to decrease bureaucracy and red tape.

“Well, there was a lot there,” Eby responded. He countered by saying B.C. is the “fastest-growing province economically of any of the big provinces since we formed government,” especially since the pandemic. He tied that back to citizen’s bank accounts, suggesting that B.C. has the fastest-growing wages and one of the lowest for unemployment rates, and argued that “contrary to what John just said, we’re one of the leaders in Canada in private sector job creation.” The NDP’s promises to double apprenticeships in the province got a nod, as did investing in training for young people.

Furstenau took a different approach, considering the government’s COVID-era promises that B.C. would “build back better” with a more fair economy, and address the gap between rich and poor. Instead, she said, that gulf has widened. To counter that inequality, she highlighted the Greens’ proposal to tax 18 percent on profits over $1 billion, add a 0.2 percent increase in school tax on properties worth over $3 million, and a $12.5 percent marginal tax on incomes over $350,000.

Green energy and cleantech

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