B.C. premier not promising any new cost-of-living rebates 

As people struggle to make ends meet in one of the most expensive places to live in Canada, the B.C. government says it doesn’t have any money to hand out, at least not right now.

CityNews spoke one-on-one with Premier David Eby. He acknowledges things are tight for many people, which is especially challenging ahead of the holidays, but he was non-committal to cutting cheques.

“We’re always looking for ways to support British Columbians with particular attention to kids,” said Eby. “We recently rolled out our school breakfast program to make sure no kids are going to school hungry. Some school boards have fully used up the allocation we provided to them to support low-income kids.”

The expanded breakfast program funding came after some local support groups criticized Canada for being the only G7 country without a national school food program.

He says any way the province can help people afford the basics, they will, but didn’t expand on what options may be on the table right now.

CityNews asked about the possibility of issuing another rebate to residents.

“I don’t have anything I’m announcing today,” Eby said.

The next rebate is linked to the carbon tax and the upcoming installment will be issued this month.

Eby admits people tell him directly that affordability is a major concern.

“Believe it or not, we’re already in preparatory work for the next budget and, obviously, affordability is a huge part of the work … of how we support British Columbians with the costs that they’re seeing go up still.”

He stresses a big part of affordability is being able to buy a home in a market that’s out of reach for most people.

“Housing is a big part of this legislative session, around bringing more housing on so the costs of rent and the chance to get into the housing market in an environment of rising interest rates is something that maybe through using public land … we’re going to be able to bring down some of those costs.”

Eby says there are announcements around that coming up.

This week the City of Vancouver announced a revamped housing plan that includes a further crackdown on short-term rentals. Eby says he is on board with that.

“We’ll be introducing new legislation this session to address what McGill University says are the 16,000 units that have been taken away from British Columbians through unregulated, short-term rentals.”

A recent study from the university found 16,000 homes shifted from primarily residential to short-term rental last year, which was to blame for a more than 19 per cent drop in housing availability in B.C.