COMMUNIST PARTY OF BC PLATFORM for the June 24, 2023 by-elections VOTE KIMBALL CARIOU (Vancouver-Mount Pleasant) and TYSON RIEL STRANDLUND (Langford-Juan de Fuca)

TAX THE WEALTHY
Increase annual provincial revenues by $3 billion, by rolling back the huge tax breaks granted to the wealthy & corporations by the Gordon Campbell Liberals. Abolish provincial income tax on earnings under $40,000.

CLIMATE JUSTICE, NOT CARBON BOMBS
Cut hydrocarbon emissions now! Stop the Site “C” dam, LNG/Coastal GasLink fossil fuel project, and Transmountain expansion. End taxpayer subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. Free public transit for all, prioritize renewable energy and conservation.

RIGHTS AND JOBS FOR WORKERS
Security for workers affected by layoffs, including 100% recall rights and wage protection. Protect and expand union rights to picket during labour disputes. Full Labour standards protection for domestic, agricultural & migrant workers. Raise the minimum wage to $23.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, NOT P3S
Put natural resources under public ownership and democratic control. End P3 public projects.

PROTECT AND EXPAND PUBLIC HEALTHCARE
Stop privatization of health care – improve and expand Medicare to include pharmacare, optical and dental care. Give paramedics regular pay, not “standby pay”. Stop the erosion of public healthcare through P3 private contracting.

END THE OPIOID CRISIS
End the “war on drugs” and solve the opioid crisis. Establish a permanent, safe, legal and regulated supply of drugs. Expand mental health services and long term recovery support programs. Build housing for all to save lives and reduce social and health costs of street homelessness.

JUSTICE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Act to ensure inherent Indigenous title to all traditional territories. No resource projects on Indigenous lands without full consultation and approval. according to the terms of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Stop violating Bill 41, the “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.” Cancel construction of energy projects which destroy Indigenous lands, waters and fish habitat.

RAISE THE RATES!
Raise social assistance and disability rates by 100%.

DEFUND THE POLICE
Cut police spending. Cancel the BC government’s spending of tens of millions of dollars on the RCMP’s so-called Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), a special squad which monitors environmental groups, and Indigenous land defenders and water protectors. End injunctions and charges against environmentalists. Remove the provincial authority to order municipalities to increase police spending. Transfer funds to renewable energy, housing, health care, and schools.

BETTER PUBLIC EDUCATION
Increase public education spending by $1000 per student to reach the Canadian average. Raise teachers’ pay by $8000 to match Alberta. End funding and tax breaks (now totalling $500 million/year in BC) for private & religious schools. Protect health & safety for students, staff and teachers. Implement the SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) policies in all school districts and private schools.

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A PROFIT OPPORTUNITY!
As long as our capitalist society treats housing as a commodity for personal enrichment rather than a fundamental human right, the result will be more expensive rents and housing costs, not greater access to a place to live. Build 100,000 units of new & renovated social and low-income public housing. Stop “renovictions” and “demovictions”, ban all evictions. Legislation to limit rents to 20% of a family’s income. End police and government sweeps to remove people using public lands and streets for their emergency housing needs.

DEMOCRATIC REFORM
Establish “Mixed Member” proportional representation, set MLA salaries at the average wage of a BC worker, make 16 the voting age. Repeal BC’s corrupt “wild west” lobbying laws, and increase transparency around public projects.

GENDER EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
Accelerate plans for province-wide universal, affordable, quality child care. Restore funding to women’s centres and programs, provide safe spaces to people escaping misogyny and domestic violence. Trans rights are human rights – take swift legal and political action against those who threaten the 2S/LGBTQ+ community. End the criminalization of sex workers, demand to scrap the so-called “Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act”

FOOD SECURITY
End removals from the Agricultural Land Reserve, encourage food production in urban areas.

SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE!
The profit-driven capitalist system is killing the planet. We call for socialism – a world without poverty and war, where working people have political power, not corporations.

Authorised by the Official Agent for the Communist Party of BC, 604-254-9836, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver