By HarinderMahil
British Columbia election is only couple of days away as voters head to polls on May 9. The advance poll that began last weekend will be continue on May 5 and 6.
Although the results of the election will have implications for all of us the voter turnout is generally less than 60%. According to Elections BC only 55.3% of eligible voters turned out to vote in the 2013 elections.
We have seen the leaders debate and heard promises made by the leaders of three political parties.
Liberal leader Christy Clark claims that British Columbia has the “lowest middle class taxes in the country” for families. However, the government’s own budget documents show that this is not true.
The government’s budget documents compare taxes paid by a family of four in each of Canada’s provinces at three different levels. In the middle scenario, a two-income family making $60,000 a year would pay $1,216 in B.C., significantly more than the $656 it would pay in Saskatchewan, or $767 in Ontario.
When you add taxes on sales, fuel, property, carbon, health care plans the family in B.C. is paying $2,400 more in total tax each year than it would in Alberta and $1,200 more than in Saskatchewan.
A typical middle class family in BC now pays more in MSP premiums than in provincial income tax.
There are a number of issues that are key in the election. I will discuss housing affordability, poverty and homelessness.
Housing has become so unaffordable in the lower mainland that it is pushingpeople on the street. The average price for a detached house in the City of Vancouver is $2.6 million. Across Metro Vancouver, the average single-family home costs $1.5 million. Prices are now rising in other BC cities, as workers priced out of Metro Vancouver leave the Lower Mainland and buy homes elsewhere. The Liberals have-not taken enough steps to pay attention tohousing affordability.
The NDP has promised to keep the 15 per cent foreign buyers tax and stated that it will add a two per cent property tax surcharge on the assessed home values of property owners who do not pay tax in Canada on global incomes.
The NDP has also promised to build 114,000 affordable rental, non-profit and co-op housing units over 10 years, and to expand provision of social housing from the poor to middle class workers who have been priced out of B.C. cities.
According to BC Poverty Reduction Coalition 13.2% of BCpopulation, that’s 595,000 British Columbians, live in poverty using the Market Basket Measure.BC’s child poverty rate is 20%. In March 2016, over 100,000 people in BC used food banks, and almost a third of them were children.
BC is the only province that has not made a commitment to creating a poverty reduction strategy, despite a vocal non-governmental sector that has been calling for change for a long time.
British Columbia has high income inequality, low minimum wages and social assistance supports, and long waitlists for childcare and health services.
Despite the fact that British Columbia is one of the richest provinces in Canada, homelessness has been increasing. The government has not paid enough attention to this area. Homeless people have become familiar faces in BC’s suburbs and cities. While the most visible homeless are those living on the streets, many more people live in poor-quality housing and are at risk of homelessness. Homelessness harms not only the people who are homeless, but also their communities and social systems.
We need to think about these and many other important issues in deciding how to vote. It is extremely important we exercise our right to vote on May 9. The outcome will affect us all.
HarinderMahil is a human rights activist and is a board member of the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation.
