Opinion: No new taxes, two tax cuts, 900 police positions and a $13.8 billion deficit. Doerkson owes voters the numbers

This article is the opinion of the voche.me editors. The facts it relies on are listed with their sources at the end.

Lorne Doerkson could be premier in 17 days. An Angus Reid Institute survey published on October 5 put his Conservative Party of BC at 48 per cent of decided and leaning voters, with the BC NDP at 43 per cent.

He has made three kinds of promise. He will raise no tax. He will cut two taxes. He will pay for more police, more prosecutors and an emergency room fund. He also says the deficit must come down.

We read what his party has published and added it up. The numbers a voter needs to check this plan are missing.

Promise one: no new taxes

The Canadian Press reported on September 27 that Mr. Doerkson said a Conservative government would bring in no new taxes. Daily Hive quoted the party statement the next day, in which he said that "under my government, there will be no new taxes".

The party's plan page goes further: "Throughout the entirety of our government, we will not raise taxes on British Columbians."

Promise two: two tax cuts

On September 29 the party promised to remove provincial sales tax from Canadian beer, wine and spirits. The release says the cut will last for as long as the trade war with the United States does.

On October 7 it promised to remove the same tax from machinery, equipment and business software for three years.

Neither release says how much money the province would give up each year.

Promise three: more spending

The party's October 5 release promises a $50 million emergency fund for emergency rooms and more doctors and nurses. It says this will happen "while protecting current health care funding".

The party's public safety release of October 6 promises to hire and deploy 250 more police officers and to add 500 RCMP officers and 150 civilian staff over five years. That is 900 positions. It also promises 50 new Crown prosecutors and says the party will work with Ottawa to fund 20 more trial judges.

On October 7 the party promised $15 million toward a Filipino Cultural Centre in Vancouver. Its plan page also says a wildfire plan "will buy water bombers".

What has a price

We read six party releases and the plan page. Two promises carry a dollar figure: $50 million and $15 million. The total is $65 million.

The two sales tax cuts have no figure. The 900 police positions have no figure. The prosecutors, the doctors, the nurses and the water bombers have no figure.

The deficit he says must fall

The Canadian Press reported on September 14 that the province's forecast deficit is $13.8 billion, a record. The $65 million that the Conservatives have priced is 0.47 per cent of that.

Mr. Doerkson agrees the deficit is a problem. "We can't be dealing with a $14-billion deficit in British Columbia," he said in Vancouver on September 28, as The Canadian Press reported. The same report says he gave no details of how a Conservative government would balance the budget. "It's going to be almost impossible to commit to how quickly we will be able to arrive at balanced budgets," he said. "But the reality is, we have to get back to that."

Daily Hive wrote on September 28 that the tax pledge came with no financial plan to explain how the party would pay for better public services.

Three ways to shrink a deficit

A government can collect more money. It can spend less. Or the economy can grow, so the same taxes bring in more.

Mr. Doerkson has ruled out the first. On the second, he has promised to protect health care funding and to add police and prosecutors. That leaves growth.

His growth plan is to double natural gas production by 2032 and to reduce the rules that businesses must follow. The year 2032 is six years away. A new government would present its first budget long before then.

David Eby has his own answer. "The math doesn't work for the Conservatives," he said on September 28, in the same Canadian Press report, and he said their plan means cuts to health care and education. The Conservative release says health care funding is protected.

A voter has no way to check either statement today. One page of numbers from the Conservatives would change that.

What can be said in his defence

A fair reader should weigh three points.

He is new. The Canadian Press reported on September 28 that he had replaced Kerry-Lynne Findlay as leader the week before.

The government's own numbers had a mistake in them. The Canadian Press reported that the forecast for natural gas money contained a $306 million error, which the government called a "serious mistake". Mr. Doerkson said on September 28: "The reality is that we're not sure how bad the books are."

Mr. Eby's plan leaves most of the deficit in place too. The BC NDP says its new income tax brackets will raise $1 billion a year by 2028/29. That is 7.2 per cent of this year's deficit. Daily Hive reported that the government's own September update still shows a deficit of $12 billion in 2028/29.

We have weighed these points. They explain why a full budget is hard for an opposition party to write in three weeks. A party chooses its own promises, so it can put a price on each one.

What we ask

Advance voting opens on October 16. Before that day, the Conservative Party of BC should publish one page with four things:

1. what each tax cut costs per year
2. what each spending promise costs per year
3. the deficit it aims for in each of the next four years
4. what the government would spend less on to get there

We ask the same of every party. Our article on the BC Greens' wealth tax asks for the calculation behind $22.2 billion, and our article on the one leaders' debate gives a question for each leader.

Read the sources below and decide for yourself. The Conservative Party of BC page lists the party's candidates. Election day is October 24, 2026.