Eby and Doerkson campaign in Kelowna and Summerland on groceries and wildfire response

The Story

British Columbia’s major party leaders brought election campaign messages to the Okanagan on Friday, focusing on wildfire preparedness and the cost of groceries ahead of the Oct. 24 vote.

Interim Conservative party leader Lorne Doerkson said his party would spend $500 million on a fleet of Crown-owned water bombers and cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, to fight wildfires if elected on Oct. 24. He said the plan would also emphasize “more on-the-ground prevention and less bureaucracy” as part of improving wildfire response.

Doerkson made the announcement outside a rural property wiped out last month during the Bald Range wildfire. The fire destroyed more than 80 homes in Faulder, B.C., and forced thousands of people to flee from nearby Summerland.

Standing next to property owner Joel Patan and local Conservative candidate Tracy St. Claire, Doerkson said the proposed water-bombing fleet would reduce costs. He told voters, “We will protect our communities, we will safeguard our health care and education budgets by avoiding billions in emergency suppression costs and economic loss,” adding that the goal is to ensure families never again have to “flee their homes in the dark with two hour’s notice.”

When asked about the costs of buying the planes, Doerkson said the province could help pay for them by renting them out to other jurisdictions when they are not needed.

NDP Leader David Eby, meanwhile, announced additional affordability plans outside a Kelowna grocery store. He said his party, if re-elected, would cap unfair increases on staples through “price guards on corporate retailers,” setting hard ceilings on retail margins for everyday essentials.

Eby said, “We have seen prices on the basics climb beyond inflation,” and “So, what we are going to do is put the same protections in place we have for farmers,” referring to marketing boards that regulate their products.

Eby also said the NDP would cap the profit margins large grocery chains can make off certain essentials and introduce measures to prohibit predatory pricing and support smaller, independent grocery retailers.

The NDP said its promise on Friday would apply to six staples: milk, eggs, butter, cheese, chicken and turkey. It said those products are already regulated through marketing boards and that the proposed measures would extend that protection to consumers, with Eby saying just as farmers get their costs, government would cap those retail margins.

After the Kelowna announcement, Eby visited a coffee shop in Summerland and toured vinAmite Cellars winery, where he tasted and purchased a bottle of wine.

Eby also made a wildfire-related announcement, saying the province would match donations to the Canadian Red Cross up to $20 million for people affected by this summer’s wildfires.

Conservative candidate Gavin Dew, running in a Kelowna-area riding, pointed to Eby’s previous grocery-relief promise, saying Eby didn’t follow through on a pledge of $1,000 in grocery relief after the 2024 election.

B.C. New Democrat candidate Ravi Parmar, the forest minister under Eby’s government, questioned Doerkson’s plan and asked, “How is Lorne Doerkson going to pay for this?” Parmar said Coulson Aviation, based in British Columbia, is converting 10 federal government Hercules aircraft into water bombers and that the company contracts with various agencies around the world, including BC Wildfire Service.

The Retail Council of Canada issued a statement Friday saying B.C. families deserve a debate grounded in facts, not political talking points. Kim Furlong, the council’s chief executive officer, said the promise misses the mark on what drives grocery prices, and quoted, “Retailers share the goal of affordable food,” before adding, “Let’s focus on solutions that actually lower grocery bills: reducing supply chain costs, improving efficiency and strengthening competition — not promises that sound good but leave the real cost drivers untouched.”