2024 Platform
Building a Sustainable, Equitable, and Resilient British Columbia.
Our 2024 Platform
We have everything it takes in B.C. to build a province where every person feels safe and welcome, where we all have a place to call home, where every child has good, healthy food to eat, and where healthcare is truly accessible to all.
The great news is that this vision isn’t out of reach—it’s something we can achieve by coming together. Building on what we’ve already started, we can create the BC that’s always been possible by focusing on the people and places that make our province unique and special.
As BC Greens, we know that healthy people and a healthy planet need to be at the heart of everything we do—and wellbeing must be the standard by which we measure our success as a province.
This is our British Columbia—it’s yours, it’s mine, it’s every citizen’s who calls our province home. Together, we can build a future where everyone has what they need to thrive in a healthy, prosperous and sustainable way.
This platform is our detailed approach to achieving our aims as the BC Green Party. Please read more to learn about our plans for getting where we need to go.
Resilient Communities
Thriving People
A Flourishing Natural World
Society & Governance
Costing & Investment
The costs of implementing our platform are significant. Eliminating poverty, providing free public transit, and ensuring we have a world-class education system—none of this comes without a price. But inaction is far more expensive.
Take just one example: eliminating deep poverty and ending homelessness in British Columbia is estimated to cost over $3 billion annually. However, the price we pay for keeping people in poverty is much higher. A single hospital stay for someone experiencing homelessness costs more than $16,000. Investing early to prevent poverty and homelessness isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s also fiscally responsible. Upstream investment is the smart choice—for people, for our economy, and for the future of British Columbia.
Likewise, we know that we must transition our economy away from fossil fuels and the depletion of natural resources. Over the past three years, inflation has affected every sector of our economy, with energy prices contributing to a third of that inflation. As long as British Columbia remains dependent on fossil fuels and invests in stranded assets like LNG, energy-driven inflation will persist.
The reality is, British Columbia can afford free public transit, which will not only help those struggling to afford transportation travel to where they need and get more people using our infrastructure, but will also contribute to emission reductions. What we cannot afford is to continue subsidizing multinational corporations to frack methane.
Transitioning to cleaner energy sources is not just an environmental necessity—it’s an economic one. By shifting our investments, we can build a more resilient economy and protect ourselves from the rising costs of fossil fuel dependency.
Correction to Revenue Estimate for Excess Corporate Profits Tax as of October 2, 2024
There was an error in the estimated revenue to be derived from the excess corporate profits tax in the BC Green Party platform. The revenue was estimated to be $4,100 million per annum, when instead, it should be estimated at $410 million per annum.
The error has been corrected and updated in the platform. We apologize for the error, and thank those who pointed the mistake out to us.
Revenue
Our platform outlines new taxation in the following areas:
- A new marginal tax rate of 22.5% for incomes over $350,000 per year. This will raise an additional $394.5 million per annum.
- Amendments to property taxes, to capture the complete holdings of property owners and tax extensive wealth. This will raise an additional $938 million per annum.
- A new marginal tax rate of 18% for corporate profits over $1 billion per year. This will raise an additional $410 million per annum.
- We will ensure all polluters, including the fossil fuel industry, are paying for their emissions fairly.
Year 1 ($, million) | Year 2 ($, million) | Year 3 ($, million) | |
Corporate Taxes | 410 | 410 | 410 |
Property Taxes | 938 | 938 | 938 |
Marginal Income Taxes | 394.50 | 394.50 | 394.50 |
Carbon Tax | 3,549 | 5,462 | 4,818 |
TOTAL | 5,291.50 | 7,204.50 | 6,560.50 |
Expenditure
We estimate the additional costs included in this platform to be in line with the figures below. These do not account for the offsets from cutting existing government programs, as they will require review before they can be costed – for example, the review and amalgamation of the Health Authorities.
Plank | Year 1 ($, million) | Year 2 ($, million) | Year 3 ($, million) |
Wellbeing | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Health | 190.5 | 190.5 | 190.5 |
Mental Health | 142.9 | 148.6 | 154.3 |
Drug Policy | 296.5 | 290.5 | 290.5 |
Poverty | 2023 | 2079.19 | 2137.07 |
Seniors | 321.5 | 321.5 | 321.5 |
Disability | 20 | 20 | 20 |
Housing | 1600 | 2100 | 1600 |
Transport | 1965 | 1476.75 | 1605.26 |
Education | 1072.6 | 1116.9 | 1235.86 |
Arts & Culture | 21.55 | 21.55 | 21.55 |
Biodiversity and Environmental protection | 80 | 90 | 100 |
Forests | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Watershed Security | 175 | 175 | 175 |
Clean Air | 125 | 65 | 65 |
Farming & Food Security | 33 | 33 | 33 |
Democracy | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
Public Safety | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation | 100 | 110 | 120 |
Small business & Community Economic Development | 6 | 6 | 6 |
TOTAL | 8,183.85 | 8,255.79 | 8,086.84 |
Some funding is present in more than one plank, and has been calculated under the first plank in which it appears.
Initiatives to be funded through the Carbon Tax
Plank | Initiative | Year 1 ($, million) | Year 2 ($, million) | Year 3 ($, million) |
Housing | Infrastructure funding to municipalities and Indigenous governments | 650 | 650 | 650 |
Housing | Rebates for deep energy retrofits | 50 | 50 | 50 |
Wildfires | Wildfire prevention | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Wildfires | Community safety and response | 50 | 50 | 50 |
EMCR | Local Authority and First Nations preparation and response | 100 | 110 | 120 |
EMCR | Fund community resilience) | 100 | 110 | 120 |
Clean Energy | Support for clean energy upskilling | 20 | 20 | 20 |
Clean Energy | Incentives for small-scale solar | 20 | 20 | 20 |
Forests | Support for retraining and upskilling | 20 | 20 | 20 |
TOTAL | 1,110 | 1,130 | 1,150 |
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