Any list of BC NDP promises to small business gets two lazy treatments during a campaign. Supporters say everything was delivered; opponents say nothing was. Neither survives contact with the record. Independent tracking found the party completed most of its first-term platform, and it also cancelled a headline rebate, reversed its deficit trajectory, and left several business commitments unfinished. This post takes twelve specific BC NDP promises made to small firms since 2017, checks each against public evidence, and gives it one of five labels: delivered, partly delivered, unverified, broken, or off track. The point is not a verdict on the party. It is to show what "we kept our promises" and "they broke their promises" each leave out.
Why only the NDP? Because it is the only party with a governing record to check. The Conservatives and Greens have 2024 platforms and, as of this writing, no complete 2026 platform. When those arrive, the same standard applies: a promise counts when it names the change, the date, the cost and the funding.
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The twelve BC NDP promises, scored
| Promise | Status | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cut the small-business rate by 0.5 points (2017) | Delivered | Rate is 2%. CBC's promise tracker recorded it complete |
| Raise the Employer Health Tax exemption to $1 million | Delivered | In force from the 2024 return year. The $1.5 million cliff remains |
| Index the minimum wage to inflation | Delivered | Automatic each June since 2024; now $18.25 |
| Launch an ease-of-doing-business review | Partly delivered | Launched June 2025, 260 submissions, progress page live. Promise was to complete and implement |
| Quarterly instead of monthly PST filing for smaller firms | Partly delivered | Lower collectors already file less often; firms collecting over $12,000 a year still file monthly |
| Manufacturing investment credit and expanded SR&ED | Delivered | Budget 2026: temporary 15% refundable credit; SR&ED expiry removed |
| Lower-cost dispute resolution with commercial landlords | Unverified | Civil Resolution Tribunal lists no commercial-tenancy stream |
| Ontario-style liquor modernization | Unverified | Explicit 2024 promise; no evidence of full implementation |
| Industrial Land Reserve | Unverified | In the 2024 platform; no implemented reserve located |
| $1,000 household rebate, then an annual tax cut | Broken | Promised for 2025; cancelled February 2025 citing tariff uncertainty and a $2 billion cost |
| Declining deficits and eventual balance | Off track | Projected deficit $13.8 billion; no updated date for balance |
| Interprovincial mutual recognition of goods | Partly delivered | Goods agreement reported concluded late 2025; services still being negotiated |
BC NDP promises delivered, and the catch in each
The EHT change is the clearest win on the list of BC NDP promises. Doubling the exemption to $1 million took most small employers out of the tax entirely. The catch is design, not delivery: under the province's EHT rules, a firm whose payroll crosses $1.5 million pays 1.95% on the whole amount. The exemption helps you until you grow, then punishes the hire that grows you.
Minimum-wage indexing was promised as predictability and delivered as promised. The catch is that predictability is permanent: $18.25 today, and up every June without a vote. Whether that is good policy is a political question. Whether it happened is not.
The manufacturing and research credits in Budget 2026 are real and targeted. If you make things or do R&D, they help. If you run a consultancy, a clinic, a café or a trade, they do nothing, and the PST you pay on equipment is untouched.
CBC's tracker found 96 of 122 promises from the first term completed or clearly underway by 2020, about 79%. Business items delivered included the small-business rate cut and venture-capital support. The BC Hydro rate freeze was not.
What that number does not tell you. A high completion rate on a long list says little about the handful of promises that decide your costs. Those are the ones scored above.
BC NDP promises unfinished or unverifiable
Three 2024 BC NDP promises matter directly to tenants, restaurants and manufacturers, and none can be shown complete. The commercial-landlord dispute promise would give a small tenant a cheap route when a landlord withholds a deposit or disputes a repair. The Civil Resolution Tribunal, which would be the obvious home, still lists small claims, strata, vehicle injury and society disputes, and nothing for commercial leases. Until legislation or a program appears, this is a promise in progress at best.
Liquor modernization was promised in Ontario-style terms and is popular with the hospitality sector. The record reviewed for this post could not establish that the broad promise was carried out. The Industrial Land Reserve, meant to protect premises for light industry and trades, appears in the 2024 platform comparison and nowhere in implemented policy that we could find.
The ease-of-doing-business review is the honest middle case. It was launched, it is taking submissions, and it publishes progress. But tax is outside its scope, and a review is not a shorter permit. Credit it when a rule you deal with changes.
How to read "unverified". It means we looked for the legislation, the program page or the tribunal mandate and did not find it. If it exists and we missed it, the fix is a link, and we will update the post. If it does not exist, the promise is open.
BC NDP promises cancelled or off track
The $1,000 household rebate was the signature affordability promise of the 2024 campaign, to start in 2025 and become an annual tax cut. In February 2025 the government cancelled it, citing US tariff uncertainty and a cost near $2 billion. Reasonable people can argue the reason was sound. The promise was still broken, and it is the one most voters remember.
The deficit is the other reversal. Years of budgets showed a declining line toward balance. The September update projects $13.8 billion, debt servicing is around $6.3 billion a year, and the finance minister has not supplied a date to balance. For a small firm that is not an abstraction: a structural deficit is a tax increase, a cut, or a delayed road with the date left blank.
And the professional-services PST, which prompted much of this scrutiny, was paused only after businesses had already prepared to collect it. That episode is covered in our post on the BC PST expansion pause.
Real delivery and high-profile reversals coexist. The EHT exemption, wage indexing and targeted credits happened. The rebate did not, the deficit went the wrong way, and the structural reforms for tenants, hospitality and industrial land are unproven. A voter can weigh those however they like; the record itself is not in dispute.
The costs that never made a headline
- Bracket creep. Budget 2026 paused indexation of personal tax brackets and credits for four years and raised the lowest rate from 5.06% to 5.60%. An owner-manager's effective tax rises as nominal income grows, with no announcement.
- Policy by regulation. Employment standards, sick-note limits, 27 weeks of job-protected illness leave, gig-worker rules and procurement criteria all changed without a new tax rate. They are real costs and real obligations.
- Cost shifting. Subsidised childcare, transit and training lower an employer's costs and are paid for with taxes, debt or cuts elsewhere. Deregulation lowers compliance costs and shifts risk. Ask, for every item, who benefits, who pays and when.
For the full issue map and where every party stands today, see our guide to the BC election 2026 for small business. For what to ask before you vote, see 15 questions to ask your candidate.
Quick answers
Which BC NDP promises to small business were kept?
Some clearly, some partly, some not. The EHT exemption, minimum-wage indexing and the 2017 rate cut were delivered. Commercial-tenancy dispute resolution, liquor modernization and the Industrial Land Reserve are unverified. The $1,000 rebate was cancelled and the deficit is off track.
What is the biggest delivered benefit for small firms?
The Employer Health Tax exemption at $1 million of payroll, which removes the tax for most small employers. Its cliff at $1.5 million is the unfinished part.
Which of the BC NDP promises was broken outright?
The $1,000 household rebate promised for 2025 and cancelled in February 2025.
Where does the promise tracking come from?
CBC's tracker for the 2017 platform, government sources for tax and employment changes, the Board of Trade's 2024 platform comparison, and the Civil Resolution Tribunal's published mandate. Links are in the post.
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