B.C. Premier David Eby announces another tax credit

B.C. Premier David Eby addressed the province in Surrey on his 100th day in office.

A highlight of his address was the announcement of another round of the B.C. Affordability Credit. This credit is intended to help families with rising living costs across the board.

“Today, I’m very pleased to announce that more help is on the way through another round of the B.C. affordability tax credit. This credit will provide as much as an additional $164 per adult, and $41 per child, up to $410 for a family with two kids. And we know this won’t cover all the bills, but it will take some of the pressure off for families who need it most right now,” he said.

Elsewhere in his address, Eby pumped his team’s tires while covering prioritized areas he and the province have worked to improve since his tenure began.

“British Columbians are optimistic about our province and our future,” he said.

Since he took over as premier, Eby began making changes in key industry areas.

In nursing, new programs are being launched to help staffing issues. B.C.’s new program helps nurses and doctors trained outside of the province work to integrate into our system.

“There are two internationally educated nurses that I met at Langara college while we were doing an announcement about fast tracking nurses with international experience into our healthcare system, and they are excited about that, and they’re excited about the work they’re doing here in British Columbia caring for British Columbians,” Eby said. “2,000 nurses caught in approvals processes at the regulator that are now being fast tracked through, ensuring high standards, but also ensuring that they’re available to support workers in our hospitals across the province.”

The healthcare sector has been a major priority for Eby, additional improvements in healthcare include the announcement of Western Canada’s first new medical school being opened in 50 years.

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In housing, Eby has introduced new laws and regulations to help B.C.’s increasingly thin rental housing market.

“We set up a new half a billion dollar fund $500 million to protect renters from evictions and rent hikes imposed by big international corporations that are buying up those low cost rental buildings in our communities,” he explained.

Eby adds new laws coming into play will increase housing supply to match the province’s rapidly growing population, as well as ending rental restrictions leaving condos empty while people search through an increasingly thin market.

The province’s logging industry was another major topic in Eby’s address, he began summarizing improvements in the area by calling back to an earlier announcement on the improvement on some of B.C.’s mills. Earlier this year, Eby announced his plan to reoutfit mills to transition out of processing old growth, and into smaller logs and higher cost products.

Elsewhere in the logging industry, Eby covered recent changes in how some of B.C.’s old growth logs will be taken care of.

“Over the last 100 days, we’ve shown yet again, that we are a place where you don’t have to compromise the economy. In order to protect the environment, in addition to accelerating our work to protect old growth forests, we permanently protected 58,000 hectares of B.C.’s rarest forest ecosystems in the Incomappleux Valley. It’s just outside of Revelstoke, some of our rarest and most remarkable forest ecosystems protected by community, First Nations, but also in partnership with industry,” he explained.

Other covered topics included childcare, inflation, climate change, and clean energy.