Costed B.C. Conservative platform promises $2.6 B in growth, $10.8B deficit

Interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson didn’t make himself available after the platform was released on Sunday, but said at an earlier event that he reviewed the document before it was made public.

“I just had a final look at it in the car on the way over here, and it will be open for criticism, I suppose, this afternoon. But it looks really great to me. I’m really excited about the opportunity to certainly attack the deficit and grow the economy in this province.”

The platform says that traditional industries like mining, energy and agriculture are all fundamental to British Columbia’s prosperity.

Conservatives, it says, will quickly restore confidence in these industries, cut red tape, speed up permits for projects, and support more production and processing in B.C. .

It says the net new “revenue from unleashing growth” includes a 15 per cent increase in gas production over the previous forecasts by 2029-2030.

Conservatives say their plan to “supercharge” the economy will bring in new revenue without cutting front-line services or raising taxes, while giving struggling taxpayers and businesses needed relief.

Promised tax cuts, which were announced earlier in the campaign, include raising the provincial basic personal exemption amount from $13,126 to $32,000, and no provincial sales tax on major projects until they start operating, so taxes arrive with revenue.

Starting in 2026, those tax cuts would add up to $11.3 billion by 2030, the platform says.

The Conservatives say they would fully fund health care, and their plan would add new operational spending estimated at $1.42 billion per year, with growth revenue exceeding spending every year.

Doerkson had promised the platform would be out before people had an opportunity to vote.

It was released late Sunday afternoon ahead of the Oct. 24 general vote, although advanced voting began Oct. 16.

The platform says a Conservative government, if elected, would chop spending by freezing outside hiring, cutting consultants, and will review spending on numerous government ministries.

The 71-page platform says the core review would trim about $1.8 billion over four years, while the hiring freeze and attrition of staff outside the front lines would save about $2 billion over the same period.

Doerkson said in a letter introducing his party’s platform that his job would be about making the lives of B.C. residents easier and better.

“I’ll work to get the economy moving, bring your costs down, and create good jobs. I’ll fully fund and protect our health care, and fix the mess David Eby and the NDP have made so that British Columbians aren’t dying on wait-lists or going to closed ERs when they need help.”

The New Democrats say the platform is “packed full of shell games, wildly unrealistic growth projections, and deep health care cuts hidden in plain sight.”

The NDP said in a statement released Sunday that the Conservatives claim they would save $2 billion a year from cuts to the contingencies envelope, but that funds health care caseload pressures and other unavoidable expenses like fighting wildfires.

“Cutting contingencies is a backdoor health-care cut,” it said.

The NDP said in an earlier statement Sunday that Doerkson has a budget gap of $6 billion after announcing items such as a new women and children’s hospital and changing the Massey tunnel replacement from the current plan of a tunnel to a bridge.

It added that the party’s growth claims are unrealistic.

“Doerkson seems to plan to pretend he can, quote, ‘flip a switch’ and make billions of dollars appear out of thin air. It doesn’t work like that,” the NDP says in its statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Costed B.C. Conservative platform promises $2.6 B in growth, $10.8B deficit

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