BC NDP promises to cap grocery profits while Conservatives unveil wildfire plan
Friday marked day 11 on the election campaign trail and BC NDP leader David Eby was in Kelowna for an announcement.
With a Jim Pattison Group-owned Save-on-Foods in the background, Eby said his party will work to keep grocery prices down.
“In this announcement, don’t worry about Save-On-Foods, don’t worry about Jimmy, he’s going to land on his feet, but we have to take steps to make sure families are protected at this time,” Eby said.
Eby said that the BC NDP will use a “price guard” to cap profit margins on essentials like milk, eggs, cheese, butter, and poultry.
The proposal also outlines mandating clear per-unit pricing to combat shrinkflation, ban real estate controls that block competition grocery stores, in the long-term and work with the federal government to open an independent food terminal in the Lower Mainland for local farmers and smaller grocers.
In September 2024, Eby promised relief for grocery bills in the form of $1,000 per household.
In February 2025, then-finance minister Brenda Bailey said that government could not pay the so-called “grocery rebate” because of the provincial deficit.
Eby is now facing a $13.8 billion budget deficit, but is promising a 10 cent a litre cut on gas and diesel.
BC Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson visited a family whose Summerland home was destroyed by the Bald Range wildfire in the summer.
He announced the Wildfire Action Plan, including buying a fleet of firefighting aircraft and promising better handling of B.C.’s economy, and said he would not be cutting services.
“I think what we’ve announced today is an investment in our province of a half a billion dollars and you know the reality has been that the money that we are spending on wildfire in this province is a staggering number and if we don’t turn a corner to invest in this in a way that we can, in a future date, lower some of that investment, I think that we’re on a very dangerous path that is going to cost us more than this plan certainly suggests today,” Doerkson said.
The BC Conservatives are also promising a freeze on all taxes and a temporary cut to the 10 per cent PST on Canadian alcohol, which is about $250 million a year in lost revenue.
“At some point, new money has to appear and you need a good story about where that’s coming from and it can’t just be through efficiencies and undefined growth,” Stewart Prest, a lecturer in political science at the University of British Columbia, told Global News.
“It needs to be a little more concrete than that.”
The BC Greens announced its platform to take on “Big Tech” and protect British Columbians from the risk of artificial intelligence.
“In June of 2025, the girl who would commit the horrific Tumbler Ridge shooting was instructed by ChatGPT on how to avoid tripping its violence sensors, receiving advice for months on how to carry out her appalling attack,” said leader Emily Lowan. “She asked how to most effectively use her weapon: ChatGPT responded ‘close quarters is its playground’.”
“We still don’t know how OpenAI missed these overt warning signs, because OpenAI has refused to disclose it. AI executives themselves have expressed fear at the product they’re creating, and we know they won’t regulate themselves. That’s when it’s government’s job to step in and hold these corporations accountable.”
The BC Greens said they will put a moratorium on the construction and operation of AI data centres until a detailed public-interest audit is developed and appropriate regulatory regime implemented.
They will work with the federal government to create an independent AI oversight commission so that it is properly tested for safety and regulated and develop province-wide directions on the safe and ethical use of artificial intelligence without allowing it in classrooms until a plan is put in place.
