VICTORIA — The B.C. government is offering financial support for homeowners who want to retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient and drivers who want to switch to cleaner vehicles.
As part of its Clean BC program, the government is spending $902 million over three years to help achieve its climate change goals.
The 2019-20 budget includes up to $6,000 to help people buy zero-emission vehicles.
It also gives homeowners up to $14,000 for retrofits and switches to energy efficient heating, and $2,000 to replace fossil fuel home heating systems with electric heat pumps.
Families are also eligible for a $400 climate tax credit this year.
Finance Minister Carole James says the budget links climate change to people's pocketbooks through those incentives.
"British Columbians, from all political stripes, recognize the threat posed to our province by climate change," she said in her budget speech.
"We are reducing climate pollution by shifting homes, vehicles and businesses away from fossil fuels towards clean electricity and other sources of renewable energy."
The budget provides $41 million to make clean energy retrofits to homes and $90 million to help people purchase electric vehicles.
The government's climate plan would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 40 per cent by 2030, 60 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050.
The Georgia Strait Alliance said the government's approach will help it achieve 75 per cent of its 2030 pre-Paris agreement target, but the province is still relying heavily on revenue from the development of an LNG facility that undercuts its climate goals.
"It is as though we are revving the engine while parked," said Anna Barford, a community organizer with the alliance.
Barford said how the government achieves the remaining 25 per cent of its climate change target is still to be outlined in future budgets.
Highlights of the 2019-20 British Columbia budget
VICTORIA — Highlights of British Columbia's 2019-20 budget presented Tuesday:
— A new Child Opportunity Benefit will replace an existing tax program for families next year, providing families with one child under the age of 18 with as much as $1,600, more than double what the old benefit provided.
— Interest is immediately eliminated on all new and existing student loans from the provincial govenrment, which means an average student would save $2,300 in interest, based on a combined federal and provincial loan of $28,000 being repaid over 10 years.
— A first-time revenue sharing agreement will provide First Nations with $3 billion over 25 years from provincial gaming revenue, with every Aboriginal government eligible for between $250,000 and $2 million annually.
— Support payments for foster and adoptive parents, as well as extended family members caring for childrean, are being increased at a cost of $85 million.
— Social assistance payments are going up by $50 a month, on top of the $100 monthly increase that was previously announced.
— Another 200 modular homes will be built for homeless people, bringing the total across the province to 2,200.
— The Clean BC climate plan will see $902 million spent to cut greenhouse gas emissions and offer incentives to help people retrofit their homes and purchase electric vehicles.
— A surplus of $274 million is projected for 2019-20, $287 million in 2020-21 and $585 million in 2021-22.
— The government expects to bring in $59 billion in revenue in 2019-20 and spend $58.3 billion.
— Economic growth is forecast to hit 2.4 per cent in 2019 and between two and 2.3 per cent next year.
