NDP, Conservatives, Greens throw rocks at each other over tax changes, health care

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s election campaign stepped on the slippery ice of health-care policy and how to pay for it Monday as leaders offered numerous promises, including a plan to restart projects that had been paused by the former NDP government.

NDP Leader David Eby defended his party’s plan to introduce a new tax bracket for those earning more than $1 million a year, as well as raise existing tax rates on two high-income brackets.

Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson said the proposed changes, which would affect annual earnings starting at $190,405, would discourage doctors from coming to British Columbia.

“Frankly, I feel it may even drive doctors from our province,” Doerkson said, while announcing the party’s plan to set up a $50 million fund to aid rural medical practices at risk of closure.

Eby pushed back, saying his government would maintain “one of the lowest tax rates for medical professionals” in Canada despite the tax hikes.

“Asking people who have a little bit more to give a little more during this challenging time for the province, when seniors are struggling with not being able to get the shingles vaccine for example, that’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Doctors who come from the United States, Eby said, don’t tell him that they are concerned about taxes.

“They say to me, ‘I’m so relieved to be in a jurisdiction where there’s public health care,'” he said.

Eby’s defence of the proposed tax increases came at the Victoria Curling Club, where he directed a rock thrown by Richman Zussman, the NDP candidate in Saanich South for the Oct. 24 election.

The NDP leader said the New Democrats, if re-elected, would revive seven long-term care construction projects that were “re-paced” during this year’s budget because of cost concerns.

The B.C. Conservative Party issued a news release after learning of the promise, calling it a stunning about-face by Eby.

“Now, in the midst of a cynical snap election, he wants you to think he’s changed his mind,” the party said in a statement.

Eby said his tax announcement is linked to improving health care, such as providing free shingles vaccines to those over 50 years old with the extra tax dollars.

A New Democrat government would also use some of the additional revenue to hire 500 staff to help about 5,600 more seniors receive care at home, he said.

“While Conservatives refuse to be honest about their health care cuts, our plan asks the wealthiest to pay a bit more so seniors get the support they need,” Eby said.

Greens also unveiled their own tax plans on Monday, which would require those with wealth levels above $50 million to “pay their fair share” to support items such as universal childcare, free public transit, and affordable housing.

Leader Emily Lowan said the plan would raise more than $22 billion in its first year, followed by another $5.4 billion annually after that.

“Unlike Premier Eby’s tax, which focuses on the income of those earning more than $190k, we are looking at the wealth of households with over $50 million,” Lowan said in a statement.

“It targets what the ultra-wealthy own, not what they’re paid, because massive fortunes don’t grow through wages, they grow through untaxed stocks and real estate.”

Doerkson spent Monday morning standing outside the hospital in 100 Mile House, B.C.

He said the hospital’s emergency room has been closed more than 30 times, in what is a “standing demonstration of B.C.’s broken health-care system.”

Doerkson said the NDP has mismanaged emergency care across B.C.

He said that his party, if elected, would maintain health-care funding at levels approved in the 2026 budget.

“More importantly, when the finance minister starts to build the budget every year, our first decision will be to fully fund health-care,” he said.

While the NDP was in government it committed that each British Columbian would have a family doctor by last year, but about 1.2 million people are still without a family doctor, Doerkson said.

“I don’t believe David Eby anymore,” he said. “There have been too many promises and too many mixed messages.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press