Loweryour costs
Protection from rising costs – gas, groceries and housing.
Add your nameCuttinggas by up to 30 cents a litre – that's $20 a tank
Cappingprices on grocery basics to bring your bills down
Keephousing costs down and free up more homes
Keepdelivering homes people can afford
Cutting gas prices by 30 cents a litre and cracking down on gouging
Big oil and gas companies have exploited overseas conflicts to make record profits, leaving ordinary drivers and truckers to pay the price every time they fill up. Donald Trump's war in Iran caused global oil prices to spike, and oil companies used the conflict to unfairly inflate their margins by 20 cents a litre. This corporate price gouging has cost British Columbians an estimated $865 million in added fuel costs, while the four largest Canadian oil companies doubled their quarterly profits. With Trump now threatening a ban on diesel exports, drivers and truckers face even higher costs at the pump.
We have a plan to
- Suspend 10 cents per litre of the provincial motor fuel tax on gasoline and diesel to provide immediate relief at the pump.
- Establish a "price guard" empowering the BC Utilities Commission to enforce strict pricing rules and cap excess profit margins.
- Taken together, these actions will provide direct relief at the pumps – saving drivers up to 30 cents a litre and $20 per tank for an average family vehicle. Short-haul truck drivers will save as much as $116 every time they fill up a tank of diesel.
Building on work that
- Eliminated B.C.’s consumer carbon tax.
- Is lowering housing costs – that are now falling faster in B.C. than any other province.
- Reduced car insurance rates by $500, then freezing rates for seven years.
- Delivered the lowest middle-class taxes of any province.
- Cut childcare costs in half – on average, parents are saving more than $7,200 a year.
Cracking down on big grocery price-gouging, capping profits on basics, and banning predatory surveillance pricing
Families are being squeezed every time they go to the store because corporate retailers are using inflation as a cover to jack up prices on essential goods, while the profits of grocery giants soar. This year, an average family of four will spend over $17,500 on groceries with prices 27% higher than five years ago, while five retail chains control 80% of the market.
We have a plan to
- Put a Price Guard in place to cap big grocery store profits on basics: Set a hard ceiling on retail margins for everyday essentials, including milk, eggs, cheese, butter, and poultry, which already have wholesale price management.
- Stop them from blocking competition: Ban anti-competitive real estate deals and property controls that big grocery chains use to keep independent competitors from opening up shop in your neighbourhood so they can charge you higher prices.
- End their hidden price games: Mandate clear, consistent per-unit pricing on the shelf in all stores so corporations can't use deceptive "shrinkflation" to hide price hikes with smaller packages.
- Support smaller local grocery stores: Invest in local food infrastructure by partnering with Ottawa to build an independent, regional wholesale food terminal in the Lower Mainland, letting smaller independent grocers bypass the giants' distribution chains, and bringing you more choice and lower prices.
- Stop predatory surveillance pricing: Strengthen consumer protection and privacy laws to prohibit AI-powered algorithmic pricing. This prevents big corporations from exploiting your personal data and market power to unfairly manipulate and raise prices at the register.
- The impact on grocery costs for families will be seen over time, as corporate retailers are prevented from price gouging and, depending on the region, implementing this suite of measures could save customers up to $700 per year.
Building on work that
- Reduced car insurance rates by $500, then froze rates for seven years.
- Is lowering housing costs – that are now falling faster in B.C. than any other province.
- Delivered the lowest middle-class taxes of any province.
- Is keeping hydro rates the 3rd lowest in North America.
- Cut childcare costs in half – on average, parents are saving more than $7,200 a year.
Freezing ICBC basic auto insurance rates
Families need their cars to take kids to school and to work – they want predictable low costs for car insurance. While Conservatives made a secret deal to dismantle ICBC and double insurance costs for drivers, we’re focused on keeping costs down and maintaining stability for B.C. drivers.
We have a plan to
- Extend the freeze on ICBC basic auto insurance rates for an additional three years, keeping basic rates frozen through to spring 2030, totalling a decade of rate freezes.
- Protect drivers from high litigation costs and rate hikes, keeping lawyer expenses out of the insurance system to ensure stable and predictable rates.
- Ensure seriously injured people get the strengthened support they need.
Building on work that
- Froze basic auto insurance rates for seven consecutive years since 2020.
- Introduced Enhanced Care in 2021, saving the average customer $500 per year on auto insurance.
- Delivered $640 in five separate rebates to basic insurance customers, totalling about $2.7 billion in direct relief.
- Keeps drivers paying an average of $1,000 less per year than they would have without ICBC reforms.
Turning more empty condos into homes people can afford
As Donald Trump's trade war drives up prices here, we need to do everything we can to lower people's everyday costs, starting with housing costs. While measures like the Speculation and Vacancy Tax have helped turn 20,000 empty units into long-term rental homes, developers holding onto empty, unsold finished condos continue to keep housing prices out of reach for middle-class families. Over 5,000 finished condos worth $4.45 billion are currently sitting empty and unsold across B.C., with over 1,300 vacant for more than two years.
We have a plan to
- Increase the Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT) rate by one percentage point: from 1% to 2% on domestic resident owners of secondary properties, and from 4% to 5% on foreign speculators, to push more units into the rental market for people.
- Introduce a new Unsold Condo Tax on large developer-owned finished condos that have been vacant and unsold for more than 1 year, starting at 2% in Year 2 and increasing by 1% for each additional year a condo remains unsold to push developers to lower prices or turn units into rentals.
- The change will help put more empty units into the long-term rental market, and any additional revenue will go to building more affordable homes people need.
- This will unlock up to 5,000 finished condos for British Columbians to buy or rent at prices people can afford.
Building on work that
- Turned 20,000 empty units into long-term homes for British Columbians through the Speculation and Vacancy Tax.
- Drove starting rents in B.C. down by over 10% from their 2023 peak, falling for 27 consecutive months.