THE ISSUE

The pollsters have confirmed what most people well understand: there is a sharp divide in B.C. between metropolitan and non-metropolitan communities. The BC Liberals lead in Lower Mainland polls. The NDP leads in much of the rest of the province. Recent government service cuts have affected small communities more tangibly than big ones. Forest industry jobs in smaller communities have shrunk even as the harvest increases. The economy — particularly the construction boom — tends to favour urban communities over rural ones, even though rural industries remain important to our economic well being.

Of course, it’s complicated

British Columbia has become a much more urban province in the last 30 years. The trend will continue. And our provincial economy will grow in future mainly on the strength of our cities.

The bottom line

How would your party ensure that the small business that drive small-community economies are enhanced? How would you ensure that resources extracted from rural communities deliver jobs to those communities. How will you ensure that as B.C. becomes even more urban that the political divide developing in our province is bridged?

THE ANSWERS

Green Party of BC

Small, locally owned businesses are the basis for a healthy and stable economy. Small businesses comprise 98 percent of all businesses in BC and provide 58 percent of private sector employment. Our Green Book 2005 provides a number of initiatives to help small business, including tax incentives and a cut in the tax rate from 4.5 percent to 3 percent over three years. We have proactive policies designed to increase tourism, eco-tourism, arts and culture throughout the province. We would change the focus of our forestry industry to small, community-based forestry, ban raw log exports, and encourage the development of a “value added” industry in BC wood. Unlike the NDP and Liberals who focus their economic policies on special interest mega-projects like the Olympics and RAV, our policies are designed to provide a sustainable economy for the entire province.

BC Liberals

The Liberals have developed the Northern Development Initiative to spur development in north B.C. and in First Nations communities. It will provide $185 million to help northern citizens “leverage and invest in forestry, pine beetle recovery, transportation, tourism, mining, Olympic opportunities, small business and sustainable economic development.” Little else in the platform indicates what the Liberals will do to bridge the urban-rural divide. It may be because the Liberals’ political policies have generally encouraged the freedom of the marketplace and are expecting the market to deal with the urban-rural gulf. The Liberals’ forestry plan have increasingly allowed big companies to consolidate their power over the industry and removed restrictions encouraging logs to be sent to local mills.

NDP

Little in the NDP platform is expressly aimed at bridging the urban-rural divide. However, the NDP forestry policy does aim to ensure that logging practices directly benefit their local communities — stumpage fees will be sent directly back to communities to help mitigate the problems that may happen after cut rates fall. Outside of this, it is hard to find other mentions of what the NDP will do to bridge the urban-rural divide. The NDP also initiated an agreement protecting the Great Bear Rainforest, which incorporated sustainable logging practices “while ensuring the coexistence of healthy, fully functioning ecosystems and human communities.” Under the Liberals, a revised agreement in principle was announced in 2004. But some groups find its compromises unsatisfactory, and fear it may not be fully honoured. Among other concerns, they pointed out that while the conservation plan prohibits logging it allows for mining in some areas.