Media Contacts

Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions

Media Relations
250 920-6388

BC Hydro

Media Relations
media@bchydro.com
604 928-6468

Backgrounders

Facts about cost-saving programs

The B.C. government is working to reduce costs for families with homes for people, savings and benefits programs, public services, and investments in opportunity:

  • helping people find homes they can afford, supporting first-time homebuyers, increasing the supply of rental housing stock, and measures to crack down on housing speculation.
  • supporting families, cutting fees for child care by more than half – saving parents an average of nearly $8,000 every year – providing the monthly B.C. Family Benefit to about 340,000 families, keeping electricity rates nearly half the Canadian average, and saving drivers an average of $490 every year by driving B.C.’s public car insurance rates down to less than half Alberta’s for-profit rates.
  • covering more health expenses, eliminating MSP fees – saving families $1,800 a year – and making prescription birth control free, saving over 300,000 people about $300 a year.
  • lowering costs for students, benefiting more than 71,000 students with the B.C. Access Grant, saving them more than $145 million with zero-interest on student loans, and providing financial incentives, like signing up 280 newly graduated physicians to practice in primary care with a signing bonus and loan forgiveness.
  • strengthening B.C.’s economy with jobs, adding over 351,000 new jobs in B.C. since 2017 and generating Canada’s fastest average wage growth.