VICTORIA, B.C. - The BC Green Party used the final stretch of the provincial election campaign to release an arts and culture platform that promises to make British Columbia the easiest place in North America to get a film permit, create a new licence class for small live venues, and raise the annual BC Arts Council budget to $65 million.
Party leader Emily Lowan announced the plan in Victoria on Thursday alongside Justin Douglas, a filmmaker and the party’s candidate in Cowichan Valley, and a group of B.C. actors. “Arts and culture are frequently underfunded and unsupported by all levels of government,” Lowan said. She argued that years of under-investment, combined with the cost-of-living crisis, have closed beloved community arts spaces and put downward pressure on the artists who work in them.
“I know first hand how hard it is to make it in the entertainment industry in this province,” Douglas said. He said the Greens would “roll out the red carpet, and cut the red tape” on the sector.
The party says B.C.’s arts and culture sector fuels more than 88,000 jobs and $8.3 billion in economic output, spanning music and sound recording, motion picture development and theatre. Lowan said the sector has the potential to lead in several artistic fields, and that government has to look beyond a simple cost and benefit calculation at a time when artists face both an affordability crisis and the rapid spread of artificial intelligence.
The headline promise targets film and television production. The Greens say they would work across all levels of government to deliver faster location approvals and simplified studio-use rules in every production hub in the province, with the goal of making B.C. the easiest place in North America to actually get a permit and start rolling cameras.
That pledge speaks directly to Metro Vancouver’s production economy, including Surrey, which has been building a production footprint of its own through studio space and location filming. Faster location approvals and clearer studio rules would apply in production hubs across the province, a change the party says would help keep shoots, and the jobs that come with them, in B.C. communities.
A second plank would create a dedicated “small live venue” licence class, with lower fees and simpler zoning for smaller venues that book local artists. The party frames the measure as protection for the small stages where local acts get their start, the kind of bars, halls and community spaces that host live music in Surrey and Delta.
The platform also commits to increasing the annual BC Arts Council budget by over 50 per cent, to $65 million, to expand support for arts and culture initiatives across the province. On technology, the Greens say they would collaborate with sector professionals to identify and develop legislative responses to the impacts of AI on the creative sector.
The release gives no overall costing for the package beyond the Arts Council figure, and no timeline for the permit and licensing changes. The announcement came as the parties made their final pitches ahead of the provincial election on Saturday, October 24.
Source: BC Green Party news release, October 22, 2026
