Premier David Eby brought down his government’s budget on February 22, 2024.
This will be his last budget before the provincial election this October and it is by far one of the best budgets the NDP has ever produced.
Here are just a few of the highlights:
- Financial benefits included:
- a one-time 25% increase to the monthly BC Family Benefit for 2024;
- a new Electricity Affordability Tax Credit;
- an increase to the Climate Action Tax Credit;
- no increase to ICBC rates and
- ending interest on student loans.
- Housing investments featured:
- leveraging government, community, and non-profit lands and low-cost financing to build more homes for middle-income earners;
- raising the property transfer tax credit for first-time home buyers and
- a home-flipping tax for houses bought and then sold within two years, to be introduced on January 1, 2025.
- Health care investments included:
- focusing on better ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer;
- beginning in April 2025, providing a new program to help with the cost of in-vitro fertilization services and
- expanding access to mental health and addictions care.
- Climate action initiatives included:
- new funding to mitigate and better respond to climate-related emergencies such as wildfires and flooding;
- more rebates on heat pumps;
- expanding public electric vehicle charging stations;
- cleaning 1,400 kilometres of coastline, which will also create 630 new jobs;
- developing a new Energy Action Framework;
- supporting climate-ready communities and
- partnering with Indigenous communities on clean energy solutions.
Everything is coming into alignment for a landslide NDP victory in October. This budget will be the foundation of that well-deserved victory.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (March 13, 2024): 424.52ppm
One year ago (March 13, 2023): 420.01ppm
Subscribe to Tim Louis
Keep up to date Tim's latest posts.