Vancouver Sun

COULD BE BY CABINET ORDER OR REGULATION­S:

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Major election promises

Send B.C. Hydro’s Site C project to a review by the B.C. Utilities Commission.

Create a fair wages commission and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over four years, later to be indexed to inflation.

Raise income assistance and disability rates by $100 a month. Create a ministry of mental health. Freeze B.C. Hydro rates and stop ICBC rate increases.

Reduce waiting lists in health-care facilities and hospitals.

Create new urgent family care centres across B.C. for doctors, nurses, pharmacist­s and other workers, open evenings and weekends.

Other points drawn from the NDP platform and the agreement with the Green party

Cancel or pause the $9-billion bridge to replace the Massey tunnel and fast-track replacemen­t of the Pattullo Bridge.

Order B.C. Hydro to not expropriat­e more private land for the Site C project.

Expand earnings exemptions for income assistance recipients who earn some money themselves.

Hire and fire appointees to as many as 300 provincial authoritie­s, boards, commission­s, corporatio­ns and councils.

Respond to softwood dispute with United States.

Order hospitals to use B.C.-grown food.

Expand the use of wood in public building projects.

Implement a cap on government IT contracts and insist on using B.C. companies for IT contracts.

Create a B.C. mining jobs task force.

Repair and replace aging hospitals, and build and upgrade schools (capital money must eventually be in a budget).

Freeze ferry fares on major routes. Reverse Liberal cuts to adult basic education and ESL programs.

Make post-secondary student loans interest-free.

Cap tuition fees at colleges and universiti­es.

Change regulation­s to allow colleges and universiti­es to build affordable housing on campus.

Improve availabili­ty of naloxone kits.

Adopt “Ask once, get help fast” approach, pioneered in the U.K., to mental health and addictions treatment.

Improve seniors funding and care hours.

Broaden the Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters program.

Expand funding and resources for the Therapeuti­cs Initiative, which studies prescripti­on drugs.

Reduce the cost of prescripti­on drugs.

Set up a multi-agency unit to fight tax fraud in the housing market.

Conduct a provincewi­de homeless count.

Increase funding to support women and target domestic violence by $8 million a year.

Create NDP’s PowerBC energy retrofit program.

Ban grizzly bear trophy hunting. End the disability bus-pass clawback.

Fund more mental health counsellor­s in schools.

Create a First Nations school curriculum.

 ?? B.C. HYDRO ?? The NDP and Greens could potentiall­y order B.C. Hydro to not expropriat­e more land for the Site C project without a vote in the legislatur­e.
B.C. HYDRO The NDP and Greens could potentiall­y order B.C. Hydro to not expropriat­e more land for the Site C project without a vote in the legislatur­e.

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