BC United Leader Kevin Falcon and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar in Victoria (image credit - Global BC)

By Michael Reeve

ELECTION PROMISE

BC United pledge to eliminate income tax for 60 per cent of British Columbians

Aug 13, 2024 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — The BC United Party has unveiled arguably their biggest policy initiative ahead of this October’s provincial election. Leader Kevin Falcon is promising that if his party is elected this fall, that they would eliminate provincial income tax for 60 per cent of British Columbians, resulting in an average of just over $2,000 per year back in the wallets of tax-payers.

The BC United plan to eliminate income taxes on the first $50,000 earned will save each person an average of $2,050 a year.

“This is huge,” says current Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone, “It’s intended to address the number one challenge that British Columbians face in every community across the province including right here in Kamloops and that is the skyrocketing cost of living under the NDP Government.”

It would cost his government $5.4 billion a year, but Falcon says there would be no service cuts.

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“The NDP will tell you that all of their spending is actually really important good spending. Well I would argue that they got it wrong,” said Falcon in Victoria at the policy announcement. “To use health care as an example, they say that they have spent more on health care than we have ever spent but the problem is we are getting the worse outcomes we have ever seen in health care. I do not measure success by how much we are spending I measure it by what outcomes we are getting.”

In Kamloops, Stone echoed the Falcon statement about finding dollars in the current NDP budget and guaranteeing that health care and education would not be touched.

“But we will look for ways to better spend the taxpayers money that is already in the budget. Secondly, a lot of the $5.4 billion will be returned back to the provincial coffers because people will take the $200 and they are going to spend it, they are going to spend it on things and put it back into the economy,” said Stone.

This is the second major policy announcement in a week for United, with Stone providing details on a wildfire prevention and response institute coming to Kamloops last Monday (August 5). The election is scheduled for October 19.