An All-candidates Forum in 100 Mile House attracted 80 voters to the Valley Room to hear provincial election opponents face off on some looming local concerns on April 28.
The three candidates vying for the position of Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA remained calm and collected in their responses to the respectful and polite crowd of people in attendance, many of whom had submitted questions in writing at the start of the forum, or ahead of time. (No verbal questions were allowed in order to maintain equity and civility and to manage time constraints.)
Hosted by the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) and the BC Northern Real Estate Board, SCCC president Leon Chretien was the forum moderator who verbally presented numerous written questions with timed responses (one minute each), as well as allowing every candidate to speak in both open and closing statements (three minutes).
The hottest topics seemed to circulate around the issues of health care, poverty reduction, affordable housing, protection of water sources, local jobs/wages and resource management.
Chretien began each round of responses with alternating turns (after a random draw for the first ones).
Opening statements began with BC Liberal incumbent MLA Donna Barnett, now running for her third term. These mainly revolved around her past accomplishments, her latest work on rural issues with well-balanced “doable” strategies (developed in her role as B.C.’s first-ever MLA to become a Minister of State for Rural Economic Development), and one of her current targets, resolving land use and treaties within the constituency.
She also noted her strong offense at some statements made by non-supporters on Facebook, and said she is “not a puppy” to her party leaders in government, while also noting their provincial leadership in recently delivering a balanced budget, and offering to present the budget herself to anyone harbouring doubts about that.
“I have been a fighter for this region, I know this region, I know the issues and I look forward to serving for another four years as your MLA to carry on with the issues of the people of the Cariboo-Chilcotin.
“The most important thing to me is rural British Columbia. This is where it started, and this is where the wealth is … in our resources, in our people and it has made the province … what it is today.”
BC NDP candidate Sally Watson began her opening statement by noting the meeting was held on traditional territory of the “Northern Shuswap people,” as well as her baby grandson’s presence at the back of the room.
After noting her 15-year background as Thompson-Nicola Regional District director and various other board positions, Watson said she decided to run for the B.C. NDP as area MLA because “it is time for a change.”
“I talk to a lot of people, and they tell me they are tired of it – they are tired of promises that don’t come across, that it isn’t what they want out of government, and they are looking for a change. They are looking for life to be more affordable….”
Watson’s initial platform on that began with the “craziness” of BC Hydro costs that match the city dwellers’, the B.C. NDP’s plan to stop medical services plan premiums by the end of their “mandate” (and cut in half this year), and cancelling BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark’s “42 per cent increase” on ICBC rates.
Third up on Chretien’s “hat draw” was BC Green candidate Rita Giesbrecht, who launched with her party’s guiding set of universal principals for any and all the policies, it will make if elected.
“We are the party of principled decision making, we are the party of finding solutions, and we are the party of going upstream to where the problems originate rather than trying to deal with and fix downstream symptoms.”
The different kinds BC Green’s policy planning are all dovetailed together to support the others, she explained.
Giesbrecht added the social and economic environment is what makes our lives livable and equitable for everyone, noting in this election, her party’s provincial platform targets its guiding principals for all its policies, the “social determinants of health” (SDH).
SDH are the equal rights of everyone living in a society under any economic development, such as income and housing equity, education, food security, and safety – especially important for more the vulnerable, such as children and seniors, she said.
Just one of the dozens of questions Chretien read aloud to each candidate was “what will your party do to create jobs in B.C. and in our area here in the Cariboo?”
Giesbrecht (BC Green) said it’s time to transition away from being a resource extractor, noting the key is in the transition, as that’s “always the difficult part.”
“The economic platform of the Green party focuses on financing and supporting incubator businesses and new [and clean] technologies, innovative industries – all of the things that the rest of the world is actually doing in a big way and in which we have been completely left behind.
“There is a whole new economy happening out there in the world in which we are not participating, and for no good reason, except that the supportive resources that could have been put to that, were not.”
Watson (BC NDP) said her party will create jobs through its creation of apprenticeship programs for climate change program, and will “look into the tech sector” for more jobs development.
“The BC NDP will make B.C. a leader in climate change by reducing our carbon footprint and reestablishing the innovative clean energy program.
“We will be retrofitting government buildings and hospitals to make sure they are energy efficient, and those are good jobs that will go to make our communities better. And, I think those are jobs that will be sustainable because these will be never-ending jobs that will just keep on going.”
Barnett (BC Liberal) said the government is already investing $40 million via Northern Development Initiative Trust to improve connectivity in the Cariboo-Chilcotin.
“There are 49 high-tech industries here in British Columbia. We are adding 1,000 seats in our colleges and universities for high-tech, we are adding and have continued to move forward with apprenticeships over the past many years, and we also make policies where private sectors will come and invest money into the province.”
The numerous questions fielded by the candidates addressing these and other hot-button issues, including timber/raw log exports, tourism, agriculture/abattoirs, road maintenance, kidney treatments, disability coverage, lake levels, corporate donations and more are featured in the live streamed video, available online on the 100 Mile Free Press Facebook site.