Eby and Rustad Trade Barbs in Duelling Pitches to Local Governments

Every September, mayors and councillors from the biggest cities to the smallest villages head to Victoria or Vancouver for the Union of BC Municipalities convention.

It isn’t just a gathering for local government leaders. The provincial government and opposition parties work to show they’re listening to what communities need, whether it’s infrastructure funding, help dealing with homelessness or the impact of mill closures.

The premier and leaders of the other provincial parties get a chance to make their pitches to the delegates.

This year, the speeches took place just before the start of the official election campaign period, and B.C. Premier David Eby and Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad had a chance to sling some mud, make some promises and counter how they’ve been portrayed by opponents.

As they head into a hotly contested provincial election campaign, here are four key takeaways from their duelling speeches.

Changing positions on the carbon tax and involuntary detention

In the last few weeks, Eby has moved closer to Conservative positions on B.C.’s carbon tax and on involuntary care as a solution to safety concerns.

Eby has promised to remove B.C.’s long-standing carbon tax if the federal government ends the requirement for provinces to have a carbon tax.

And he’s promising to implement a program of involuntary care for what he says would be a small number of people with severe behavioural issues causing crime in downtown cores.

Rustad has responded by accusing Eby of flip-flopping. When pushed on how his government would make up the revenue lost by removing the carbon tax, Eby admitted he did not have a detailed answer.

But in his UBCM speech, Eby insisted his party is still a better choice for voters who care about the effects of climate change. He promised the government will keep the carbon tax for large polluters, like oil and gas companies. But with affordability concerns being top of mind for ordinary British Columbians, he felt his government had to reduce the cost pressure of the carbon tax.

“Having a leader of a major political party in British Columbia that believes that climate change is a hoax and a lie, and carbon pollution can't be bad because we're made of carbon, is a disturbing thing,” Eby said.

In his speech the next day, Rustad, who has made removing the carbon tax a central promise to voters, pushed back against that characterization.

“The climate change issue is real, no question. Man is having an impact on our climate, there’s no question about that. But taxing people into poverty is not going to change the weather,” Rustad told UBCM delegates. “We need to take a different approach in terms of how we address climate, particularly things like food production, water management and infrastructure.”

Electricity generation is a big part of that equation, Rustad said, emphasizing as he has in previous speeches that his government would welcome nuclear power plants.

On the last day of the convention, UBCM delegates passed an emergency resolution to keep the carbon tax in place. BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said both the NDP and the Conservatives are playing “short-sighted election games.”

Both leaders accused the other of pushing misinformation

Eby accused Rustad of lying about climate change — a statement the party backed up by pointing to a 2022 comment Rustad made on his Facebook page that reads: “Climate change is real. The CO2 theory does not hold water. All of their projections and predictions have been wrong. Yet the masses have bought into a lie and as the saying goes, it is far easier to convince someone of a lie than it is to convince them they have been lied to.”

In turn, Rustad said the NDP’s election advertising has promoted misinformation about what his government will do if elected.

“They're saying that the Conservatives are going to cut $4 billion out of health care, we're going to bring back MSP, and we're going to bring in bridge tolls,” Rustad said.

“I can hardly believe how easy it is for a premier of the province of British Columbia to lie. All of those are lies. They're not something the Conservative party will be doing at all. As a matter of fact, we're going to be seeing health-care spending increase — we have no plans whatsoever to look at bringing back things like MSP or tolls.”

Promises focused on infrastructure and health care

Spending on infrastructure was the UBCM’s top priority heading into the election. After the NDP government introduced new provincial requirements that require municipalities to build more housing, cities and towns say they need help keeping up with building infrastructure to support the new developments. Municipalities are also struggling with the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including strained health-care services across the province and increased levels of homelessness.

During his UBCM speech, Eby named towns and cities his government had worked with on specific projects: securing clean water for the Port of Prince Rupert, for instance, and working with Chilliwack on improving services for homeless people.

But he did not make a specific commitment of future funding, saying those announcements will be coming during the campaign.

Rustad, who lives in Prince George and has represented the riding of Nechako Lakes since 2005, promised $1 billion in spending for water and sewer infrastructure.

On health care, the province has faced a shortage of family doctors. In large cities, hospitals have been strained. In smaller communities, staff shortages have caused emergency room closures.

Eby said the province has hired 835 family doctors and promised a new incentive program to hire more doctors and nurses to keep emergency rooms open.

Rustad said his government would overhaul the entire health-care system and promised to reduce spending on health-care administrators and redirect the money to frontline staff.

Involuntary care and downtown safety

Rustad has promised to implement involuntary care for youth who refuse to stay in drug treatment programs and for people who have brain damage from using drugs and are homeless.

“Doctors are telling me that within two to three years, these drugs can do permanent brain damage,” Rustad told the UBCM audience. “There are many people who will never be able to recover and function in society. And I actually think as a government that we should... say it's not OK for these people to be struggling day to day, but we should be able to be compassionate, to find a way to [offer] long-term care for them as needed, so that they can live at least a better quality of life.”

Eby announced on Sept. 15 his government would also pursue involuntary care. In response to questions from UBCM delegates and reporters, Eby said the involuntary care program would start at two prison facilities, Surrey Pretrial Services Centre and Alouette Correctional Centre. Involuntary care would be for a very specific population, Eby said, a small group of people who need more help than existing mental health and support services provide.

“When they're in social housing, they're assaulting staff or their neighbours. They're starting fires. When they're in the hospital, they're using drugs in the hospital,” Eby said. “When they're in court, the judge rightly looks at them and says, ‘You have a mental health issue, an addiction and a brain injury. I'm going to send you to jail, but it's going to be a very short time, and back out into the community.’

“What we have in place isn't working for this group,” Eby added.

Eby said the goal of the program he’s proposing is twofold: to help people get the care they need, and to make downtowns feel safer.

Experts have warned that involuntary care has a lower rate of success than voluntary treatment for drug addictions, but Eby said his proposed plan is backed up by the research of Dr. Daniel Vigo, a psychiatrist who is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia.

Eby also promised more provincial money to hire more police officers across the province.

Rustad skipped questions from local politicians

Over the past two years, the UBCM has tried a different format with the premier’s speech, adding a 20-minute Q&A session after a five-minute speech to give mayors, city councillors and other local government elected officials a chance to ask questions.

This year, Rustad was also asked to participate in the Q&A, but after a negotiation with the UBCM, he chose to do a longer speech and skip the question portion.

Eby also spent 40 minutes after his speech taking reporters’ questions in a scrum. Reporters were allowed one question and one followup.

In contrast, Rustad took just eight questions from reporters after his speech and didn’t allow followup questions.

---

Want to get even more of The Tyee’s election coverage? Sign up today for The Run. It’s a free B.C. election newsletter full of smart voices unpacking key issues, fact-checking politicians and exposing disinformation to clarifying light. Go beyond the horse-race headlines and subscribe now.