Bringing back letter grades in report cards, scrapping the 15-cent gas tax and the carbon tax on home heating, revisiting safe consumption sites and getting rid of red tape – these are some of the things BC United opposition leader Kevin Falcon outlined at a Richmond town hall meeting that he’d do if elected premier in the fall.
Falcon was speaking in front of a friendly crowd on Monday evening at the Sandman Hotel, laying out his plans for a BC United provincial government and taking questions from the audience.
While his message was on-brand for a right-wing B.C. opposition leader, he touched on some hot-button issues that were specific to Richmond.
He told attendees a safe consumption site could still be in the cards for the city.
Just three weeks ago, city council asked Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to look into the feasibility of setting up a safe consumption site at Richmond Hospital. Immediately after this decision, VCH came out saying they wouldn’t be opening one.
But the initial city council motion was met with fierce backlash from the community with rallies and hours of public input at two city council meetings.
Falcon claimed that, while Premier David Eby has paused the safe consumption site issue in Richmond, it could come back after the fall election if he is re-elected.
“They might pause it for a minute because of the politics, and there’s an election in eight months, but I promise you, they’ll bring it back – they’ll bring it back,” Falcon said.
Last year, BC United MLA Teresa Wat walked back comments she made on Chinese-language media opposing safe consumption sites, saying she had “used the wrong choice of words and misrepresented our position.”
She added she had meant to say that all drugs are harmful.
At that time, Falcon supported safe consumption sites, but he questioned whether they were run properly and had information about treatment programs.
If elected premier, Falcon said he'd revisit how they operate. A better approach, he told the audience Monday, would be treatment and "secure facilities" for those who are struggling with mental health and addiction issues.
He added he doesn’t think it’s right to leave people with substance use and mental health issues in the community where they are prey to drug dealers and exploitation.
He also blasted giving addicts medical-grade drugs so they don’t use street drugs, which are increasingly tainted with toxins such as fentanyl, benzodiazepines and carfentanil.
Handing out “free drugs” doesn’t help, he said, as he claimed it has just led to more deaths.
“They don’t need free drugs, they need free treatment,” he said, noting there needs to be a greater emphasis on education rather than telling kids “to snort cocaine safely” and handing out fentanyl pills to kids under 19 without parental knowledge.
He also said he’d reverse the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs within 90 days of being elected premier, something brought in last year by the provincial government to reduce drug-related criminal charges.
Parental involvement needed in schools
As for schools, Falcon reiterated support for LGBTQ students, but he also insisted that more parental involvement was needed in the school system, and that lessons about sex education need to be “age appropriate.”
Falcon’s declaration that he’d bring back letter grades on report cards was met by applause from the audience of about 100 at the Sandman Hotel.
With two daughters in school, he said he finds the current report cards puzzling.
“The report cards come home, I don’t understand the report cards – we’re bringing back letter grades,” Falcon said.
Furthermore, Falcon said he wants to bring back “excellence” such as honours programs into the school system and involve parents more in their kids’ education.
“That means you don’t push parents out, you bring parents in,” Falcon said.
Lowering taxes and reducing debt
Falcon decried the NDP’s increase in the deficit, which has grown from $50 billion in 2017 to $103 billion in 2024.
“I’ve never seen so much spending with such bad results,” Falcon said.
He noted the high price of housing, groceries and fuel – as well as the on-going family doctor shortage.
He noted the health ministry has 72 vice-presidents in its administration. He'd rather see a focus on getting more frontline workers.
And Falcon questioned the ability of BC NDP government to manage files such as housing.
He claimed that those in government have hardly any business experience and no experience in housing, unlike himself, who left the provincial government in 2012 and went to work for Anthem Properties for 10 years, building homes in B.C., Alberta and northern California.
“They have no idea what they’re doing and you can tell by the results we’re getting because the results we’re getting are the worst in North America,” Falcon said, citing high housing costs and the highest average rents in Canada.
“We’re letting down a whole generation of kids that are now saying, you know what, I’m never going to be able to afford a house in British Columbia,” Falcon said.
Falcon said to tackle the high cost of housing, he’d make public land available for low-market rentals, eliminate the PST on new residential housing and create a rent-to-own program.
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