BC election: Conservatives promise to create a children’s hospital in Surrey, NDP discuss insurance rates
Monday may be a holiday for most British Columbians, but the leaders of the province’s two major political parties didn’t take the day off.
British Columbia Conservative Leader John Rustad was in Surrey where he presented the party’s last major policy plank before the October 19 vote: a promise to build a new children’s hospital.
“There is a desperate need for more services. Surrey is a city that has been treated like a second-class city for too long, and that needs to stop,” Rustad said.
“We need to think not only about what needs to be done today but also what needs to be done for the future. »
Rustad said Surrey Memorial Hospital currently treats about 50,000 children a year, but was built with a capacity to treat only 20,000. He said up to 1,000 children each year are forced to travel outside of Fraser Health to get the services they need.
He said the new facility would include a pediatric emergency room and pediatric intensive care unit, as well as a maternity ward and a women’s health center.
Rustad was unable to estimate the cost of the hospital, saying only that it would be a “fairly expensive project” but worth “a significant investment.”
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Rustad also said the Conservatives would release their long-awaited costed program on Tuesday, five days before election day. The party has was criticized during the election campaign for delays in publishing the document after a series of spending announcements that did not include cost estimates.
BC NDP Leader David Eby was also in Surrey on Monday, where he attacked the BC Conservatives over their plan to end ICBC’s monopoly on auto insurance and to terminate no-fault insurance for serious injuries.
Eby touted his government’s changes to the province’s auto insurance system, which he said reduced the average driver’s premiums by $500.
“We have also been able to return several rebates to British Columbians, most recently a $110 rebate, and unlike other things in life, ICBC rates are guaranteed to be stable for the next two years,” he said. Eby said.
Eby said inviting private insurance companies into the B.C. market would result in higher costs for drivers.
He challenged voters skeptical of the claim to call their family members in Alberta and Ontario to ask them what they pay to insure their vehicles.
BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau had no public events planned for Monday.
Monday’s campaign took place as pollster Angus Reid released its latest poll, which showed the BC NDP leading the BC Conservatives by five points as the race enters the final stretch.
The poll puts support for the NDP at 45 percent, support for the Conservatives at 40 percent and support for the Greens at 12 percent among decided and leaning voters and past voters.
It found that the NDP led 56 percent to 31 percent for the Conservatives in Vancouver and Burnaby, 49 percent to 36 percent in Richmond and Surrey, 46 percent to 44 percent in the North is from Metro Vancouver and the Tri Cities, and 44 percent. percent to 36 percent on Vancouver Island and the North Shore.
The poll finds the Conservatives leading the NDP 50 percent to 34 percent in the Interior and 48 percent to 42 percent in the Fraser Valley.
The poll also found that health care has become the top election issue, surpassing inflation and the cost of living, which have been the top priority for more than a year.
Angus Reid Institute president Shachi Kurl said the change could benefit the NDP in the final days of the election.
“Even though there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the NDP regarding its performance over the past seven years in areas such as management of the economy, job creation, as well as affordability housing and managing the cost of living, when it comes to health care, Eby and the NDP seem to have that advantage,” she said.
“You combine that with the fact that HC is now taking on increased importance to BC voters, and it’s a small movement.”
The poll found the NDP had a slight advantage when it came to reducing the cost of housing, while the Conservatives were seen as best equipped to improve citizens’ financial well-being and improve safety in respondents’ communities.
The Angus Reid Institute survey was conducted online between October 9 and 13 among 2,863 adult British Columbians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would have a margin of error of +/- 1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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