Policy Highlights

     We have to believe in B.C. We have to believe in our people, and their willingness to be daring and innovative.

•  We have to believe in the intrinsic value of our natural resources, and encourage their development.  We have to believe in the value of our geographic position as the Gateway to the Pacific.

• We believe in balanced budgets.  (Real balanced budgets not fire-sale budgets!).  We believe in spending smarter.  B.C. doesn’t need more balanced-budget laws. What we need is a government composed of politicians who are dedicated to reining-in expenditures – elected representatives who will ensure that spending doesn’t out-strip revenues.

• We believe in fair taxation.  The carbon tax is an example of unfair taxation. It hurts farmers and it hurts ranchers.  Importantly, the carbon tax discriminates against British Columbians living in the rural parts of our province, residents who simply do not have the transit alternatives which are available to those living in of our major urban centres.  The carbon tax must be repealed.

• B.C. is losing population to other provinces. We also have a declining birth rate. That means our only reliable source of population growth is international immigration.  Yet nearly every new British Columbian from another country settles in the Lower Mainland. Very few settle in the rural parts of our province. B.C. now has the lowest rural population, as a percentage of the entire population, of any province in Canada.  We intend to reverse that decline. Rural B.C. has been neglected and ignored for too long.  We believe in rural British Columbia, and we want to restore its economic strength.

• We believe in developing B.C.’s natural resources.  We believe in protecting the environment, but environmental concerns cannot be the sole consideration when new projects are proposed to develop our natural resources.

• We believe in agriculture, but B.C. farmers and ranchers have not been doing well in recent years. Across Canada in 2011, net farm income more than doubled from the previous year – soaring from $2.5 billion to $5.8 billion.  In B.C. in that same year, however, farmers once again lost money. It is time that our provincial government developed agriculture-friendly policies that helped our farming communities to prosper.

• We believe that it is time to question Canada’s need for temporary foreign workers. It is fair to ask: why is British Columbia importing workers from other countries?  The reason is simple – we have not invested sufficient resources here in B.C. to give our young people the skills training and apprenticeships they need to find employment in high-wage occupations.  The time has come for Victoria to significantly increase the resources allocated to skills training and apprenticeships for our young people.

• We believe in transportation.  Good highways are essential to B.C.’s economic growth. We need to create better access to our natural resources, especially in rural and northern parts of the province.

• We believe in safer communities.  For too long Victoria has been starving funding for sheriffs, judges and other components of our justice system. Trials have been adjourned for lack of resources, and criminals have been allowed to go free.  The province needs to provide sufficient resources to law enforcement and the judicial system and make our communities safer for law-abiding citizens.

            British Columbia is incredibly rich in people and resources.

            We have the geographic location.

            All we need to do, to secure a better future, is to believe in ourselves.

We believe in B.C.!!