4 minute read
thinkng.
– Katrina Conroy
the Climate Action Tax Credit from July 2023 onwards, increasing from $193.50 to $447 per year for an adult, from $193.50 to $223.50 for a spouse, and from $56.50 to $111.50 per child.
The long-promised $400 renters’ rebate, first promised in 2017, was also fleshed out. It will be a $400 tax credit for renter households who earn less than $60,000 per year. Households earning up to $80,000 will be eligible for a portion.
The promised amount has not increased with inflation; the 18.84 per cent inflation over six years means a $400 rebate in 2017 would be equivalent to $475 today. It also does not take into account that rents have increased by hundreds of dollars per month in the intervening six years.
And while 80 per cent of renters will be eligible for the tax credit, 92 per cent of homeowners are eligible for the home owner grant that costs the province nearly $1 billion per year.
Housing is seeing $4.2 billion in operating and capital funding over the next three years, aimed at homes for renters, Indigenous people and middle-income families. There’s $640 million over that time frame for supportive housing for unhoused people; $575 million specifically for new student housing; $394 million for transit-oriented development; $266 million for complex care housing for people with overlapping mental health and substance use issues; and $230 million over 10 years to help BC Housing protect its rental stock. There’s also an incentive for developers to build purpose-built rentals and a separate pilot project for homeowners to develop secondary long-term rental suites, with more information set to come out about all housing initiatives in a housing strategy that will be out later this spring.
Vacancy control, which housing advocates have touted as an important way to prevent rents increasing as units change between tenants, was not announced as a line item policy in the budget.
Climate
There’s $1.1 billion over three years dedicated to fighting climate change, including $300 million to refurbish or replace infrastructure damaged by climate emergencies on top of $750 million previously announced as going to affected communities.
(A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives last year found that climate disasters in 2021 alone cost at least $10.6 billion.)
The budget also includes some more funding for clean energy, fueling hopes for a just green transition. There’s $480 million over three years to the Future Ready Plan to ensure people can access skills and training to be ready for “the jobs of tomorrow,” including more training and workforce participation initiatives.
$100 million is going into transportation networks to promote walking, cycling and transit, while $40 million will go towards subsidizing non-profits and businesses switching to electric vehicles. Additionally, carbon tax increase rates are coming—and will help fund increased tax credits for lower and middle-income people and families.
There’s $21 million over three years going towards creating eight more Forest Landscape Planning tables (up from the existing four), to defer logging old growth forests. And there’s $100 million for the Watershed Security Fund for biodiversity and clear water programs, but without clear targets attached.
There’s no other funding listed to help the province meet the goals in its Old-Growth Strategic Review or the commitment to protect 30 per cent of the province’s land and water by 2030. Some advocates say the budget doesn’t do enough to actually make sure these targets are met.
“If Premier David Eby and the BC NDP are serious about keeping their promises to safeguard at-risk old-growth forests and double the amount of protected areas in the province in the next seven years, they need to spend money to make it happen,” Torrance Coste, national campaign director of Wilderness Committee, said in a statement. GS
