NDP Leader David Eby Tuesday (Oct. 1) pledged to expand travel assistance to British Columbians who need to travel for medical care.

The $5 million expansion would see the province cover mileage if travel by air is neither feasible nor available. The pledge also comes with the promise to cover costs up-front. This means British Columbians travelling for medical care would not have to wait to get reimbursed. 

"This is a commitment to rural British Columbians, to people in smaller centre, who have to travel for care, that there will be a consistent and on-going fund for them to be able to travel to get the care they need, whether that is by car or by plane, whatever is necessary to make sure they are able to get to those appointments and home," he said. 

Eby said thousands of British Columbians depend on this support. 

The question of provincial funding for medical travel came up during last month's 2024 Union of British Columbia Municipalities Convention, when researchers called for a dedicated travel fund with a baseline funding of $50 million per year that simplifies existing programs for various categories of medical treatment. 

Eby also pledged to expand protected job leave for individuals who have received a diagnosis for a serious illness such as cancer, to 27 weeks from eight days.  

He made these announcements in Castlegar, where several NDP candidates including Roly Russell (Boundary-Similkameen), Brittny Anderson (Kootenay Central), and Steve Morissette (Kootenay-Monashee) joined him. 

Eby also used the occasion to highlight improvements in medical care, pointing to efforts that recruit more health care staff and connect British Columbians to doctors.

While the state of health care is top of mind across British Columbia, it resonates even more so in rural parts of B.C., where staff shortages can lead to emergency-room closures, forcing residents to often travel great distances for care. When asked when British Columbians living outside urban centres can expect reliable ER service, Eby said he cannot imagine the stress of having a sick child or partner who needs an emergency room, only to find it unavailable.

"We are ensuring that we are training up the medical professionals that we need, that we are recruiting the international medical professionals that are necessary and getting them off the sidelines and into the hospitals," he said. "This an emergency for emergency rooms and we can't stop until the job is done," he added. 

Eby's appearance in Castlegar comes after a weekend of campaigning in the Lower Mainland, where Sunday he promised a $1,000 tax cut for the average family each year, starting next year,

It also comes hours after the B.C. NDP released a video, which the party says shows John Rustad claiming that efforts to combat climate change are part of an 鈥渁nti-human agenda鈥� designed to 鈥渞educe the world population.鈥� 

The passage stems from an interview with Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson from March 2023 in which he criticized efforts to stop methane emissions and regulate nitrogen-based fertilizer in warning of global food shortages. 

"For some reason, this narrative on climate, it wants to reduce this and I can only put it to the fact that somehow they think we need to reduce the world population, an anti-human agenda...and in good conscience, I can't stand up and support that." 

Thompson praised these comments, then added the following statement: "We have had people talking about de-population out loud, including Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates and that has got to be some kind of joke." She then suggested the existence of a "concerted effort" that is "not very people-positive" in linking a series of fires at food-processing plants and efforts to eliminate nitrogen-based fertilizer. 

Speaking Tuesday morning near Squamish, Rustad said 40 per cent of the world's food supply comes from nitrogen-based fertilizer, when asked whether climate change policies are being used to reduce the world's population.

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested in policies that are going to restrict our food supply and cause... potential food shortages for people in this province." He added that this is why his party wants to double food protection and protect provincial water resources. 

When asked whether he thinks a global agenda to reduce the human population exists, he said many countries have gone through steps to reduce nitrogen-based fertilizer.

"With 40 per cent of the world's food supply coming from nitrogen-based fertilizer, that will lead to food shortages...and I say 'that's wrong.'" Both B.C. and Canada should do everything to ensure food self-sufficiency, he added. "Why would we want to create that kind of problem of food shortages in the world?" 

鈥攚ith files from Surrey Now-Leader staff