On December 6, 2010, about a month after Gordon Campbell resigned partway through his third consecutive term as Liberal premier, the leadership of the provincial New Democratic Party was put back up for grabs. The NDP were attempting to recapture the populist momentum that carried them through the ’90s, where they formed government from 1991Đ2000.ĘAfter the ballots were cast, Adrian Dix, the MLA from Vancouver-Kingsway, emerged as the new face of the party.ĘSince then, Dix managed to help topple the HST and is now focusing his effort on getting his messages out to voters. Nexus sat down with him recently to get the inside scoop on some issues that matter most to students.
Would an NDP government reinstate a needs-based grant program for post-secondary students?
Absolutely. It’s a major priority. We’re looking at a $100-million program that would bring us back in the top tier of provinces in terms of need-based student grants. There are a lot of people who can’t go to postsecondary right now who the economy needs to go, and they need to go for their own purposes. We have a lot of people who have to extend their postsecondary education indefinitely, take a few courses a year because they can’t get it done more quickly, which delays their goals. And of course we have extremely high student-debt loads. We looked to these questions and we said the best way to get at them is a needs-based student grant program.
And where do you intend to find the money?
Reinstating a minimum tax on banks in BC that was in place under the Liberals until 2007.
What about a tuition freeze?
We’ll look at that, too. One of the problems now is there’s probably $1.4 billion paid in tuition in BC every year, so if you looked at a freeze, or a reduction of five percent, that alone would cost $70 million spread across the board, and may not have as much effect.
Okay, what about student debt/interest forgiveness?
That’s something we’re looking at as well. Not interest forgiveness, but we’re looking at eliminating the interest rate on student loans. That’s something we’re looking at because the eligibility is sufficiently difficult that it’s a reasonable way to mitigate the impact of the debt, and the government can borrow that money at a relatively low level, so you could fund that for a relatively small amount of money.
Switching gears a bit, does the NDP have any particular plans for the BC transit system right now?
One of the problems with what’s happened in the past few years is the government imposed the carbon tax and then gave all that money away in tax cuts. We really don’t have the resourcesŃmunicipalities, local transit systems, TransLink in the lower mainland, Transit Authority in the south island, none of them have the means to address the real demand they face. What I propose is rolling back some of the corporate tax cuts related to the carbon tax so that we can have the resources to deal with things such as the Green Line in Vancouver, and bus routes here in Victoria and all over the province.
As to the teacher’s strike we have on our hands, what is the NDP line on that?
The government and the teachers have to bargain in good faith collectively. Unfortunately, in 2002 we had three pieces of legislation, bills which stripped teachers’ contracts and denied them the right to address working conditions, including class size and composition. Those provisions have subsequently been found to be illegal by the courts, but the government doesn’t seem to be acting consistent with the court decision. But there’s no other solution here; people need to sit down and negotiate in good faith. And they won’t succeed in doing that in public, and instead I think the government is positioning the teachers for political gain. That’s a major problem.
It’s been about a year since the inception of the Missing Women’s Commission. In the first year, how do you think things are going?
It’s obviously not going very well. There’s a problem of participation of people and groups in the commission. It costs a lot of money in itself, and for very little added resources the government could have a commissioned report that reflects broader range of views. And, listen, this is maybe the most important commission we’ve ever had in BC. The issues involved are enormous. Unfortunately, the government seemed to want to have a report, but didn’t seem to want to have a good report.
Obviously, the people have voted against the HST. How big of a deal is this, politically, for the NDP?
It’s terrific; 150,000 votes is a pretty big win. There was probably $20 million spent by the other side, much of it public funds, while there was very little money spent by the “yes” side. It’s an extraordinary upset in that sense. The government put $2 billion of tax cuts into their side of it at the last minute, and the people resisted it. Everyone said we couldn’t do it and we did it. I’m very proud of that.
There’s some speculation that you represent a more left-wing faction of the NDP. What direction should we expect the NDP to go in under your leadership?
We’re going to address issues of equality and sustainability that are critical issues in BC. We’re going to be modest about what we can do, we’re going to say where we’re going to get the money from, and we’re going to win the election and bring some change to the province. I think people don’t view themselves on those left/right continuums anymore. We’re going to be practical and serious in our approach.