CTV News Reality Check: B.C. leaders' debate includes misleading, muddled statements

When the three major party leaders spoke to British Columbians for 90 minutes Tuesday during their only televised debate, they slung attacks at each other while touting their own ideas and promises.

Some of their remarks were either misleading or outright wrong. 

Claim: Rustad saw a dead man

Early on, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said he saw a man who had “died from an overdose” in downtown Vancouver, at Robson and Hornby streets, as he walked to the debate. CTV News has made several attempts to confirm whether B.C. Emergency Health Services attended a call at that location in that time frame but has not received a response – while the B.C. Coroners Service said it is not investigating any drug toxicity deaths at that location on Tuesday. 

When Rustad was asked about the encounter after debate, he told reporters that it’s become common for people to be “on the street, dead.” He went on to say: “What I saw from the window as I was looking down on this individual on the ground with the emergency people pumping his chest, trying to bring him back to life with an ambulance coming up, I mean, it’s horrendous to think that is becoming normal.”

Claim: A family doctor by the end of 2025

“Every British Columbian who wants a family doctor will be able to have one by the end of 2025 at the pace we’re going right now,” NDP Leader David Eby told debate viewers. This is not true the way it was phrased. On the campaign trail, Eby’s staff have clarified that the people signed up on the BC Health Connect Registry will be matched to a doctor during that time frame, and that the waitlist is roughly half what it once was. Of course, this does not include people who want a doctor but are not on the list. 

Claim: Rustad offers a dark vision

“He never talks about solutions, he talks about all the problems and he consistently focusses on what’s negative,” said B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, of Rustad. “His vision is dark and it’s gloomy.” Rustad has offered solutions to issues ranging from slow mining approvals to street disorder, but he hasn’t provided any cost estimate or – in many cases – how his proposals are any different from what the NDP is already doing. After the debate, a reporter asked Rustad whether he was sending a negative message of life in B.C. and he said, “I think, unfortunately, that is the reality in British Columbia,” going on to cite overdose statistics and that “people are thinking about leaving this province because they don’t feel safe.” 

Claim: Arrests for drug dealing at supervised consumption site

Rustad said that he would have a “zero tolerance” approach after “we have seen in some of these safe supply locations, we have actually seen people arrested and distributing drugs in those facilities.” He is conflating safe consumption sites with safe supply. Most consumption sites are operated by health authorities and typically do not provide drugs, but have nurses and peer support workers on hand to reverse overdoses. Multiple studies have shown “safer supply” results in fewer deaths, though only 5,300 of the estimated 70,000 people with opioid use disorder in B.C. are getting prescriptions. Insite is one site that does provide “access to safe supply and opioid agonist treatment” under close supervision. 

It’s true that Vancouver police arrested two people with the Drug User Liberation Front who were selling tested drugs at a compassion club in the city. The organization has been unapologetic about providing drug users with illicit narcotics, but it is not a sanctioned, government-operated consumption site. 

Claim: Conservative candidates won’t debate

Eby pointed out that B.C. Conservative candidates have declined invitations to local all-candidates debates, but Rustad responded that NDP candidates have also avoided participating. There do not appear to be any party policies requiring or excluding their candidates from participating.

Claim: Eby is an authoritarian

“David Eby's approach is just to be an authoritarian,” Rustad said during a discussion about short-term rentals and the restrictions the province has enacted. The province is facing a lawsuit from some B.C. property owners who argue the government unfairly took away their rights to rent their investment properties and consider the approach heavy-handed. Eby has been unapologetic on the issue, pointing out some 20,000 homes became available in the Lower Mainland alone after the restrictions came into effect. 

Claim: Multi-party legislatures lead to less polarization

Late in the debate, Furstenau pointed out political polarization is worse in a two-party system and that “the least polarized we were in BC was during the minority government from 2017 to 2020 when we worked together, particularly in response to the global pandemic.” The Greens formed a supply-and-confidence agreement with the NDP in 2017 to form a kind of coalition government, but there was still a rift between right- and left-leaning voters. However, analysts have pointed out a factor in the B.C. Liberals’ loss in the 2020 election included their co-operation and general support of NDP pandemic measures, which largely unified the public and policymakers.

Claim: Paper straws suck

It’s hard to find anyone who would disagree with Rustad that “paper straws suck,” though a poll earlier this year affirmed the majority of British Columbians (71 per cent) still support banning single-use plastics.