This weekend, British Columbians will go to the polls to choose a new provincial government, with affordability understandably at the centre of the conversation.
When that new government is established, BC’s New Car Dealers will encourage it to broaden that conversation by developing something our province does not currently have: a transportation affordability strategy.
Governments have rightly focused on the cost of housing, groceries and other essentials. But another major household expense deserves the same attention: getting where we need to go.
For hundreds of thousands of British Columbians, particularly those outside urban centres, owning a vehicle is how they get to work, take their children to school, make medical appointments, run a business and participate in their communities. Yet decisions affecting the cost of mobility tend to be made one at a time.
We tax vehicle purchases and fuel. We establish electric-vehicle targets and incentives. We invest in charging infrastructure and public transit. And we consider new sources of transportation revenue. Each decision may have a rationale, but we don’t often enough consider their cumulative impact on the person paying the bill.
Consider vehicle taxation.
In BC, a provincial Luxury Surtax begins increasing once its value reaches $55,000. Whatever the original rationale for that threshold, today’s vehicle market is very different. New vehicles incorporate increasingly sophisticated safety, emissions and other technology, while electrification has further changed costs. A tax system should distinguish between genuine luxury purchases and the increasingly high cost of ordinary transportation.
The transition to electric vehicles presents another affordability challenge.
New-car dealers support the transition toward lower-emission transportation. But successful transitions happen when consumers can afford the product and have confidence it will work for their lives. That includes ensuring people living in condos, driving long distances for work or travelling between smaller communities have convenient and reliable access to charging. Policy needs to consider the entire ownership experience, not simply the vehicle purchase.
Another challenge is emerging.
As vehicles become more efficient and drivers move away from gasoline, governments and transportation authorities, such as TransLink face declining fuel-tax revenues. The funding challenge is real. A growing region needs reliable public transit and well-maintained roads.
But solving one transportation problem should not create another. Before introducing any new charge connected to driving, British Columbians deserve to know what it will cost, who will pay, whether it will replace an existing tax or simply be added to what motorists already pay, and how the revenue will be used.
Those questions matter particularly for people who can’t simply leave their vehicle at home: tradespeople, shift workers, families, small businesses and those living where transit options are limited.
This isn’t an argument for cars over transit, or gasoline vehicles over electric vehicles. It is an argument for looking at transportation as a system.
BC needs good public transit, efficient roads and bridges, reliable charging infrastructure, skilled automotive technicians and policies that support lower-emission transportation. But we also need to make sure British Columbians can afford to move.
That is why, once a new government is in place, we will be encouraging the development of a provincial transportation affordability strategy.
It should examine the cumulative taxes and charges associated with vehicle ownership, modernize outdated tax thresholds, consider affordability in environmental policy, support charging infrastructure and establish clear principles around future road-use or mobility charges. Most importantly, every major transportation decision should start with a simple question: What will this mean for the household trying to make ends meet?
British Columbia has spent considerable time thinking about how we will move people in the future. The next government should give equal attention to whether British Columbians will be able to afford to get there.
Blair Qualey is President and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of BC.
