Carney, Poilievre talk seniors, national parks, resource project approvals in B.C.

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OTTAWA — The Liberal and Conservative leaders both started the third week of the federal election campaign in British Columbia — a battleground province with 43 seats up for grabs when Canadians go to the polls.

The Liberals pledged environmental conservation measures and support for seniors, while the Tories offered more efficient approvals for resource projects.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney was in Victoria on Monday and met with B.C. NDP Premier David Eby. The premier has thrown his support behind NDP incumbents seeking re-election, including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who represents Burnaby South.

At a news conference in Victoria, Carney outlined a number of new conservation measures and promised to create at least 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas, as well as 15 new urban parks.

He also pledged to invest $100 million in a “strategic water security technology fund” to advance Canadian research and development, artificial intelligence, monitoring and data tools.

Carney said a re-elected Liberal government would “pursue a bold new nature strategy with smart approaches to preserve our natural habitat and to use our finite financial resources to maximum impact.”

The Liberals also said Monday they would temporarily give seniors more flexibility to draw from their retirement savings and, for a period of one year, increase the guaranteed income supplement for low-income seniors.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was in Terrace, B.C., where he announced a plan to speed up approvals for major resource projects.

Poilievre said each project would have one application and one environmental review and he would work with the provinces to create a single office to co-ordinate project approvals across all levels of government.

Poilievre is promising to rapidly approve 10 projects he said are stuck in federal review limbo, including LNG Canada Phase II, a liquefied natural gas project in northern B.C.

Singh, who met with Hudson Bay employees in Toronto, said workers should be compensated for unpaid wages, benefits and severance ahead of creditors when companies like Hudson Bay file for bankruptcy.

Singh is also promising $16 billion over four years to build three million homes by 2030.

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The funds would be split evenly between two programs. One would “reward” cities that build more multi-unit homes in all neighbourhoods, build more homes near transit hubs and speed up permitting, while the other would help provinces expand the water and sewage infrastructure needed to support housing.

In Ottawa on Monday, federal security officials said they found an online information operation focused on Carney that they linked to the Chinese government.

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force said “contrasting narratives” were spread on the social media platform WeChat “amplifying” Carney’s stance on the United States and targeting his experience and credentials.

It traced the operation to the news account Youli-Youmian, which intelligence reports have linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s central political and legal affairs commission.

Monday was also the deadline for parties to nominate their candidates. Elections Canada can’t yet confirm how many parties fielded a full slate of candidates because it is still processing the final nomination papers that were filed, but Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic party officials told the Toronto Sunthey are fielding candidates in each of the 343 ridings.

— With files from David Baxter in Toronto, Craig Lord, Catherine Morrison and Jim Bronskill in Ottawa, and Chuck Chiang in Terrace, B.C.