Our public healthcare system was chronically overwhelmed even before Covid-19. Canadian nurses are overworked and leaving the profession. Getting an appointment with a specialist usually takes months, and wait times for high demand procedures can take years. Even though our government spends more (by far) on healthcare than anything else, in terms of outcomes Canada ranks near the bottom of wealthy countries.

Why is this? It’s because our healthcare system is centrally planned, like a Soviet economy. It isn’t responsive to changes in demand and supply, so we end up with the medical equivalent of “bread lines.” 

To fix this, healthcare funding needs to follow the patient.

Housing has become insanely expensive in Vancouver. For many young people, owning a home in the city is out of reach. There are many factors, both increasing demand and reducing the supply.

The other political parties think the way to address this is by building more public housing, offering paltry rebates, or tinkering with tax incentives. We know that such measures amount to a drop in the ocean, and more fundamental change is needed if we want people with average incomes to be able to buy a home in Vancouver without a crushing debt burden.

See the link below for the 11 actions a Libertarian provincial government would take to tackle the key causes of high housing prices, which include money laundering, restrictive zoning, and lengthy/ambiguous permitting processes.

The Ministry of Forests / BC Timber Sales proposed Pest Management Plan involves spraying glyphosate and other herbicides on forests from Squamish to Hope. The idea with the 5 year plan is that conifers are relatively resistant to these chemicals, but they’ll kill competing species, increasing the yield of commercial timber. In terms of reducing forest fire risk, this is not a good plan; forests that include deciduous trees don’t burn as well as conifer forests. The spraying would also kill native species like salmonberry and blueberry that provide a food source for wildlife, and are important traditional foods for First Nations. Lastly, there’s the concern for human health, as chemical herbicides have been identified as possible carcinogens.

In forestry, as in so many other industries in BC (auto insurance, electricity, gaming/lotteries, etc) the government is both the primary commercial interest and the regulator. They may claim these arms are separate and independent, but we know that’s not how things go in the real world. When the government stands to make money, they allow practices that would be highly restricted or illegal for private companies. In the case of forestry, BC Timber Sales should be disbanded, and the system of leasing huge tracts of forests on Crown lands phased out in favour of private ownership and community forestry. We believe that small-scale private land owners, First Nations, and voluntary organizations with full title to their forest lands will do the best job of managing the resource well for the long term, and balancing economic with ecological health.

For more on environmental issues from a Libertarian perspective, see the posts below.