B.C. party leaders campaigned in Surrey on Thursday, with David Eby pledging bus rapid transit funding and a plan to eliminate a $45 seniors’ bus pass fee.
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B.C. NDP leader David Eby returned to Surrey on Thursday for what he said was his fifth visit there, using the campaign stop to outline plans aimed at transit and public safety.
Eby said his government will eliminate the $45 bus pass fee for low-income seniors and allow more seniors to qualify.
He also announced $250 million in funding to work with the federal government to deliver bus rapid transit between Surrey and White Rock.
Conservative candidates in the Lower Mainland focused on the Massey Tunnel replacement during their Surrey campaign activity, saying they would scrap the replacement project and instead proceed with a 10-lane bridge.
Ian Paton, the BC Conservative candidate for Delta South, said the bridge plan would save money for taxpayers, build faster than the tunnel and be more environmentally advanced.
Paton pointed to an earlier timeline that began in 2013, when former premier Christy Clark announced a $3 billion 10-lane toll bridge that was described as having an opening date in 2022.
The source also notes that a new BC NDP government scrapped that plan four years later and announced an eight-lane tunnel replacement in 2021, and that in 2026 the main design consortium was fired.
Eby said the estimated tunnel replacement cost has doubled to more than $8 billion, with completion slated for 2031.
He added that work on a staging area for the tunnel is already underway, and that switching course again would add costs and risks federal support.
Eby said construction delays and redesigns could leave “$3 billion in federal funding at risk, maybe never to be seen again,” and he criticized his Conservative opponent, Lorne Doerkson, for not yet releasing a costed platform explaining how his promises would be paid for.
Elsewhere in Surrey, CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko said she is committed to hiring more police officers if elected, including 500 additional RCMP officers to the provincial business line over five years.
Sturko said the RCMP provincial line stood at 2,602 officers under the NDP and previous governments and that her plan would increase staffing at a rate of 100 officers a year to fill vacancies and expand units.
The BC Green Party continued focusing its campaign on Vancouver Island, with leader Emily Lowan speaking in North Saanich.
Lowan highlighted economic differences she said separate her party from the others, and said she supports increasing the minimum wage annually at a rate of inflation plus one per cent until it reaches parity with the living wage.
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