In any election, the goal of political parties is to present their solutions to problems facing the public. This should be obvious, but it is not always the case when one looks under the hood. And so, in British Columbia, the true beneficiaries of policy announcements by the B.C. NDP and B.C. Conservatives are becoming ever clearer. The NDP is focused on solving their own political problems, while the Conservatives are focused on solving the province’s.
This was driven home again on Wednesday when the NDP announced a signature plan to finance housing for British Columbians. The “Opening Doors to Homeownership” plan would see the province finance up to 40% of a home for first time buyers. The project would commit to $1.29 billion per year in financing for the next five years. David Eby touted this as a plan to address housing affordability. The only problem, of course, is that it is highly dubious it will.
Financing housing via the public purse has the effect of maintaining housing prices, while not putting more money in the pockets of citizens. It is, if anything, inflationary. It also costs the government money it does not have. Let us not forget that B.C.’s deficit this year is nearly $9 billion: almost double the Covid budget deficits.
What this policy does do (potentially anyways) is solve the NDP’s political polling problems. By sounding good, but not actually being good, the policy may well attract some voters looking to buy their first home. As polls come out placing the Conservatives ahead of the NDP, the scramble to save voters by Eby and Co. continues.
This, solving political problems but not societal ones, fits nicely with the NDP track record in recent weeks. First, their dumping of the carbon tax, after labeling anyone against it a climate denialist. Then, their sudden switch to being in favour of involuntary care for people with substance abuse and mental health issues, after characterizing such treatment as inhumane.
The latter two positions had long been held by John Rustad and the Conservatives. The NDP only flipped to these policies when it became clear it was politically valuable to do so. Little, if anything, the NDP has offered so far on the campaign appears to have been done out of belief or conviction. Instead, it has the appearance of political expediency.
The B.C. Conservatives have the advantage of insurgency and took a different route on housing. Their proposal seeks to provide immediate tax relief to British Columbians by allowing residents to reduce their taxable income up $1,500 whether they rent or own.
The difference here is emblematic of the chasm between the approached taken by the parties on many issues. Eby and the NDP focus on top-down, government-controlled type programs, while the Conservatives focus on giving money back to citizens and letting them decide what to do with it. On the ballot is cynical NDP dirigisme versus economic freedom and consumer sovereignty.
For all the handwringing and name-calling over societal issues (such as the NDP calling Rustad an antivaxxer and the Conservatives calling the NDP antisemites), there should be little confusion as to what this election will ultimately come down to — the economic future of the province.
People have had enough. Inflation has cut into salaries, not enough housing is being built, and families are feeling the pinch harder than ever. Almost unbelievably, the NDP government oversees a province where the GDP per capita is roughly that of Alabama and Arkansas — two of America’s poorer states. Something has to change.
The solution to these economic ills is not more government involvement, it is less of it. The only focus of an incoming government should be on reigniting B.C.’s economy by developing the inbuilt advantages British Columbia has.
Key to this will be natural resources development. This is an issue Eby has never understood. John Rustad has made clear mining, oil and natural gas, as well as forestry, are key to B.C.’s prosperity and Rustad is intent on seeing them developed.
More government funding of fantastical housing promises is not what British Columbians need — free market economic development is. If BC (and Canada) are to find our way out of our current economic morass, it’s time to get our productive resource industries going and get away from government intervention.
When voters see future policy announcements they should seriously ask, “Whose problems are being solved here? Mine or the government’s?” So far, the NDP’s plan makes it clear they’re mostly in it for themselves.
Adam Pankratz is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business
National Post