BC party leaders campaign on transit, the Massey Tunnel and safety

The day after the leaders’ debate, B.C.’s political parties were back on the campaign trail.

BC NDP leader David Eby returned to Surrey for the fifth time on Thursday, promising a plan to eliminate the $45 bus pass fee for low-income seniors and allow more to qualify. He also announced funding for a major regional bus rapid transit project.

“This commitment is backed with $250 million in funding in order for us to work with the federal government to deliver bus rapid transit between Surrey and White Rock,” Eby said.

The BC Conservatives also tackled transportation on Thursday, promising to scrap the Massey Tunnel replacement project and proceed with a 10-lane bridge instead.

“It totally makes sense on saving money for the taxpayers, getting this bridge built faster than they can build this tunnel, and environmentally it’s way further ahead,” Ian Paton, BC Conservative candidate for Delta South, said.

In 2013, former premier Christy Clark announced a $3 billion 10-lane toll bridge that would have been open in 2022.

The new BC NDP government scrapped it four years later and announced an eight-lane tunnel replacement in 2021, but in 2026 fired the main design consortium.

The estimated cost has now doubled to more than $8 billion, with completion slated for 2031.

But Eby said construction of a staging area for the tunnel is already underway and changing course again comes with a cost.

“We’re talking about years of additional waste as they redesign the project yet again, with drivers stranded,” he said.

“It puts $3 billion in federal funding at risk, maybe never to be seen again.”

Eby also attacked his Conservative opponent, Lorne Doerkson, for not yet releasing a costed platform to explain how much his promises will cost or how he will pay for them.

Meanwhile, the BC Conservatives have dumped a candidate after he was accused of posting online remarks about Hitler and the Holocaust.

The party confirmed in a reply tweet on X that Jordan McIntosh, the candidate in Vancouver-Strathcona, will no longer be a Conservative candidate.