Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad says the Throne Speech delivered by the NDP government was lackluster at best and failed to put people first.
Rustad believes the best way to make life easier for residents is to eliminate the Carbon Tax as well as overhaul our health care system.
However, Rustad told Vista Radio the Throne Speech revealed more of the same-old approach past and present governments have tried and failed at.
“It’s been 16 years of the BC Liberals and now the seventeenth year of the NDP and we have a crisis in housing, we have an affordability crisis, we have a health crisis, we have a crisis in drugs and crime. The province quite frankly is in crisis.”
“You can’t solve problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”
Rustad, who also serves as the MLA for Nechako Lakes believes the province’s current approach to health care isn’t working and that his party has some fresh ideas.
“You need to be able to look at health care differently by putting forward a plan that is similar to what we are seeing in Europe as opposed to the failed system that we have in British Columbia – we are going to be rolling out some bold platform pieces in the coming months to show people that British Columbia can be on a different path, a better path.”
“It’s about time quite frankly that people became the focus of governments rather than what we are seeing, which is ideologies and other types of approaches that have failed every time they have tried.”
While Rustad appreciates issues such as housing and health care were made front and center, he was equally displeased with the lack of acknowledgment shown towards the forestry and natural resource sectors, a key economic driver here in the north.
“These are foundational for what has helped build this province. The foundation across many communities in my riding of Nechako Lakes and pretty much the entire province and I found it very disappointing to see the lack of understanding and crisis that those sectors are facing.”
The provincial government will unveil its 2024 Budget on Thursday.