The Kitimat All-Candidates forum saw questions posed on services, business, taxes and transgender rights. Here's a bit of what the candidates said about the B.C. economy.
Sarah Zimmerman, NDP:
“the B.C. NDP has made some really clear choices around these issues to invest in infrastructure and people and services that were drastically cut under the previous government. Under the B.C. Liberals, I was a reporter at the Terrace Standard in the early 2000s when the Gordon Campbell government was in, and I wrote story, after story, after story about the public sector being cut, about classrooms being cut, classroom sizes not being limited. We lost people in the forestry sector. We lost a pertinacity to mills and forest licenses. There was a lot of decisions that were made then that we needed to start recovering from when the B.C. NDP came into power. And I think that finding and growing our economy at a sustainable rate and still providing services, is always the question the government deals with, and I think that it's a bit of a misnomer that the economy isn't doing well here. Last year we've seen some of the strongest private sector job growth in Canada, in British Columbia.”
Claire Rattée, CP:
“I think that we need to focus on a smaller, more efficient government. Again, that comes to the entire concept of the bureaucracy. It has grown exponentially in the last seven years. We need to be promoting small business and driving investment in this province. Currently, we have 17 mines in B.C. that are permitted or about to be permitted. That represents a $38 billion investment in this province. That's how we will generate revenue for the province to ensure that we don't have cuts to services, that we cannot in fact invest that money back into communities with these mines. You know, its $800 billion that would be added to our GDP over the lifetime of these projects. So it's not about looking at ways to cut back on services. It's about finding ways to drive more investment to allow the private sector to do what it does best to encourage investment, specifically in areas like ours, getting different industries like forestry back up and running. There were successive policies brought in by the NDP that have driven up the costs of forestry and it's unrealistic at this point for people to want to invest in that industry. We need to make some significant changes there.”
Another topic addressed was the demand for a detox facility in Terrace.
Sarah Zimmerman, NDP:
“I've spoken to the Minister of Mental Health in my capacity as a city councillor, along with our city council. I've put forward resolutions to advocate for detox in the Northwest. I've helped I've joined my City Council colleagues in supporting the First Nations Health Alliance proposal for land based, culturally sensitive detox and recovery services in this region. And I understand that there will be some action on that. And we know that we have a foundry that has come here and that's something that we needed to advocate for for a very long time.
I have a dear friend, had a daughter with mental health issues and wasn't able to access the care that she needed. Her name was Georgia and she took her own life because she wasn't able she was on a and Foundry can open the door to offering mental health and addictions services for youth that desperately need it in a timely manner, in a timely manner, and also give recovery and support or support services there. It's not detox, but it's definitely something that will help our because we really need to think about proactive ways of helping young people not get to the point where we're seeing some really terrible outcomes as people become adults.”
Claire Rattée, CP:
“The current government has had seven years to try and address this problem. And apart from, you know, some harm reduction measures that have been put in place, we haven't seen any significant growth on that. We need to start prioritizing harm prevention and recovery. And I have a personal background and story with addiction. I am a recovered addict. I went to treatment 13 years ago and so I'm in a unique position to understand both sides, to understand what goes on with people that are struggling with mental health and addictions problems. I, I think that I am uniquely qualified to be able to address that issue in this area because I can see where the gaps are.
For instance, when we talk about detox, it seems that the current government has put a lot of focus recently on detox facilities and that's great. That's an important step. But the problem with just focusing on detox is that if you're doing that and you're not building out treatment facilities and ensuring that you have ratios of beds in detox to beds and treatment and that it is a smooth and seamless transition for people, what often happens to an addict is once they've gone through detox, spend usually a couple of weeks and you get to the point where you are not physically dependent on the drug anymore, mentally you're still dependent on it.”
And in the North Coast Riding, candidates took the stage at the Lester Center of the Arts. Candidates responded to a variety of questions, including their plans to address the housing shortage;
Tamara Davidson, NDP: “Housing supply is the real issue here. Here in Prince Rupert, in the North Coast and Haida Gwaii for example, we supported the building of new housing projects with over 216 new units and 200 more underway. We're the only province in Canada to support farmers or indigenous housing projects.”
Christ Sankey, CP: “Here’s the story. A lot of families here in Prince Rupert are bundling up in a two to three bedroom house that is unliveable. We can’t have that in a place that is resource rich. We should not be having that. In fact, I want to go back to the city’s 2030 plan. Where it was one thousand units that was actually designated to be built in the downtown core, with an additional three to five thousand units that would roll out as the Port expands.”
The entire livestreams of both meetings can be found on the Kitimat and Prince Rupert and District Facebook Pages, respectively.
