VICTORIA - Some of the key promises made Thursday by British Columbia's Liberal minority government:
- A comprehensive ban on corporate, union and third-party donations to political parties; and a maximum donation limit for individuals.
- A referendum on electoral reform.
- $1 billion to be spent over the next four years to create 60,000 new childcare spaces.
- A $100-a-month increase to social assistance rates while future annual increases in disability assistance rates would be tied to the consumer price index.
- Increase in legal-aid funding by 25 per cent.
- Increase in the number of RCMP officers dedicated to drug enforcement by 30 per cent.
- Create new minister of state for mental health, addiction and recovery.
- Work to fully eliminate medical service premiums.
- Establish a royal commission on education to ensure students and teachers have the resources, training and tools they need.
- Work to build light rail on southern Vancouver Island and a passenger ferry connection between Vancouver and Nanaimo.
- Conduct feasibility studies to connect the Lower Mainland and North Shore communities in the Vancouver area by transit and light rail.
- Eliminate tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and work with TransLink to eliminate tolls on the Golden Ears Bridge.
- Build 50,000 new units over 10 years as part of a new rent-to-own program for the middle class.
- Work to open eight new mines by 2022 to help rural communities.
- Continue construction on the Site C dam.
- Raise the carbon tax by $5 per tonne per year, starting in 2019, up to a total of $50 per tonne by 2022, but offset future increases by reducing the provincial sales tax by a corresponding amount.
