BC VOTES ON OCTOBER 19!

What must parties offer to help people of all ages thrive?

We have a chance this election to ask for a BC that promotes wellbeing for young and old alike — and our recommendations point the way. We think it’s time to ask all parties to act as wise stewards today, and good ancestors to those who follow in our footsteps.

These principles are already part of BC’s strategic plan, which commits the government to “make B.C. work for all generations” by “planning for all ages, and investing wisely in well-being from the early years onwards.”

This vision should serve as the north star for any party asking for your vote. We’ll let you know if they’re following their compass in our assessment of NDP, Conservative, and Green policy positions. Join our network now so we can keep you in the loop when we release our voters guide.

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Any party seeking to lead this province will have to tackle some thorny intergenerational tensions. Our Good Ancestor Election Platform highlights five that are likely top of mind for BC voters: housing, medical care, child care, the carbon tax, and the deficit. Plus two more, which we think should be top of mind: whether parties are committing to treat all generations fairly and whether they are living up to the intergenerational golden rule.

Don’t forget to share our recommendations — and ask your local candidates if they will promise to be good ancestors. Together, we can elect a government committed to building a BC that works for every generation.

Good Ancestor Election Platform Recommendations

★ Build a BC that’s fair for all generations

It’s time for all parties to put generational fairness at the heart of their election platforms.

We're calling on NDP, Conservatives, United and Green party leaders to commit to An Act to Safeguard the Wellbeing of Present and Future Generations. Enshrining this promise in legislation will ensure our province follows through on the commitment to be good ancestors.

★ Commit to stalling home prices 

We can’t solve housing unaffordability until we are clear about when the housing market is healthy, and when it is not. 

Industry and media too often portray the housing market as ‘strong’ when prices rise and ‘weak’ when they stall. These labels only make sense if we view housing primarily as an investment — not a place to call home. But too many Canadians, especially younger folks, are unable to afford homes as owners or renters. That’s why we need all parties to commit to the goal of having home prices stall, to begin to reconnect the cost of purchasing or renting a home with the earnings we make from our hard work.

Allowing residential real estate to absorb a growing share of our gross domestic product (GDP) is not a marker of a strong economy. Productivity is driven by investment in machinery, equipment and intellectual property, not by borrowing to bid up the price of already-built homes (check out Alberta Central’s comparisons of US and Canadian investment patterns since the late 2000s). So long as Canada’s cultural addiction to investing in existing residential real estate drains investment from other industries, we can expect per capita GDP to remain near the bottom of developed countries.

★ Invest where health begins  

Health depends far more on the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age than on the medical care we receive. Yet political leaders continue to devote more tax dollars to medical care than to the social supports that create lifelong wellbeing. 

Parties should commit to investing more urgently in the building blocks of a healthy society — like affordable housing and a clean environment. We already have more doctors than ever before. It’s time to start focusing on reducing the number of patients to improve access and reduce burn-out.

★ Continue BC’s leadership on paying for our pollution 

We pay for our pollution because our kids and grandkids are counting on us to leave them a habitable and healthy planet. And we betray them if we don’t.

We pay for our pollution because it’s a deep-seated family value that when we make a mess, we should help clean it up. And there’s no denying that generations of British Columbians have made a mess of our air, water and soils with our pollution — making our provinces less safe for our kids.

That’s why all parties must commit to ensuring that BC remains a carbon tax leader. Eliminating the tax won’t magically restore affordability — for that we need real solutions to the high cost of housing, tuition and child care. 

Of course, Canadian families shouldn’t stand alone when it comes to paying for pollution. Business and industry need to step up too, especially big emitters who aren’t yet paying their fair share. But if we don't pay for our pollution now, we burden future generations to pay even more later. That’s not what good ancestors do. 

★ Make life more affordable by building the $10/day child care system

With living costs on the rise, life is getting harder for many families. We need to make sure parents don’t also face child care that costs another mortgage or rent sized payment. We should be proud that BC was an early leader in affordable child care — and alarmed that we’re now underinvesting in the $10/day system.

Parents urgently need all parties to commit to building $10/day child care services. Sending money to parents to cover a portion of child care costs is a distant second-best option — BC tried this approach for decades, and it didn't work. We already have programs like the Canada Child Benefit and maternity/parental benefits that provide money directly to many families. These critical programs help reduce child poverty, and allow parents to take time off work to care for very young children — but they don’t provide the child care services many parents need and want once parental leave is over.

Building a strong system of child care services means making $10/day the maximum daily fee, with no fee for low-income families. Parties should also promise fair wages for child care workers, so BC can attract and keep the number we need. If we can do it for doctors in the top 2% of earners, we can pay child care professionals the recommended $30k-40k/year. 

★ Target deficits by closing the gap between revenue and spending 

This election, all political parties are facing a reckoning. The province has fewer tax-paying workers to support a growing group of retirees. The predictable result is growing deficits — BC’s is now $8 billion — along with costly debt service charges.

The BC Budget bravely acknowledges this hard truth. Now, all parties must offer credible, detailed plans to deal with the imbalance at the heart of BC’s economy. Good ancestors don’t kick their unpaid bills down the road for younger and future generations to cover.

This means going beyond cosmetic cuts to things people love to hate, because the scale of the problem exceeds savings from paring back the public service or closing safe injection sites. We need comprehensive solutions to ensure that we’re not mortgaging our province's future.

★ Protect wellbeing for young and old alike

Securing healthy retirements and healthy childhoods means making sure what we consume today doesn’t risk harming those who follow us. It’s unfair for any generation to use up more than its fair share of shared resources, leaving others with greater scarcity and fewer choices.

Yet this is the path we’re on. Excess pollution contributes to unnatural heat and flooding, making life more unaffordable. Rising home prices generate excess wealth for many (often older) homeowners, pushing housing out of reach for too many younger people. Our aging population means higher medical care bills, leaving little room for governments to invest in the services and supports that could help reverse younger people’s deteriorating wellbeing.

That’s why it’s urgent for all parties to commit to designing policies that uphold the intergenerational golden rule: to treat other generations as we want our own to be treated.