Three of the election candidates in Columbia-Kootenay-Southern Rockies attended an all-candidate meeting sponsored by the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce on April 23 at the Adventure Hotel.
Reggie Goldsbury (Liberal), Kallee Lins (NDP) and Jim Wiedrick (independent) attended, while Rob Morrison (Conservative), Steven Maffioli (Green Party), and Laurie Baird (People's Party of Canada) were absent.
Moderator Tom Thomson, assisted by Bob Hall, gathered a list of questions from chamber members, then put those written questions in a plastic water jug they referred to as the "question vault." The candidates, taking turns, drew a question from the vault and had three minutes to answer it.
If they wished, instead of picking a question, the candidates could choose to answer the same question the candidate before them had just answered, offering an alternative or rebuttal. This system resulted in some questions being answered by only one candidate, and some by two or three candidates.
Housing
All three candidates answered the question: "Should the federal government become more proactive in the creation of housing?"
Goldsbury said a Liberal government would:
• Launch a program to build over 500,000 homes per year, and remove the GST for first-time home buyers for up to a million dollars.
• Build homes that are smaller, and work with municipal and regional counterparts to provide variances on water, septic, and other issues to facilitate the development of smaller home communities.
Wiedrick said the government should:
• Provide low-cost financing and incentives for builders to construct more rental and affordable housing units.
• Investigate the extent of sophisticated mortgage fraud and money laundering in the Canadian housing market, and
• Examine the role of non0profit housing cooperatives and municipally driven initiatives with federal support.
• Questioned whether the Liberals building 500,000 homes was possible "when the most number of homes we've ever built in this country is 275,000? Colour me skeptical."
Lins said an NDP government would:
• Develop a house building program to double housing starts by 2030.
• Fund the training of 100,000 builders across Canada through union training centres.
• Direct the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation to offer low-risk, publicly-backed mortgages.
Toxic drug crisis
Lins:
• Declare the toxic drug crisis a national emergency, which would unlock new avenues for collaboration and support.
• Ensure that community-based support services are adequately funded and sustainable, rather than having their funding cut after a short period.
• Provide more financial support to small communities that shoulder a disproportionate amount of the costs associated with the crisis.
Goldsbury:
• Expand access to addictions treatment and increase funding for recovery programs, especially in rural and remote areas.
• Support mental health services and integrate them with addictions treatment.
• Address the root causes of addiction, such as housing affordability and access to health care.
• Implement safe-supply programs and harm-reduction measures, while finding a balance "to ensure they are not misused."
The economy
Lins:
• Institute a new wealth tax and capital gains tax, mostly impacting those making higher incomes.
• Invest in infrastructure projects across Canada to keep people working and bolster the economy.
Wiedrick:
• Evaluate the necessity of $50 billion in corporate subsidies for electric battery makers.
• Assess the recent growth of the federal civil service by 40 per cent over the past 10 years.
• Review the various regional development economic initiatives funded by the federal government to ensure they are not just "pork barrelling."
• Develop a strategy to grow Canada's GDP and improve its economic performance, which currently ranks 45th out of 50 countries in the Western world.
Columbia River Treaty, international students, trade, and defence spending
Lins and Goldsbury both argued for more local representation at treaty negotiations. Lins said Canada's water sovereignty should not be a bargaining chip.
On the reductions in international students, Wiedrick said the government's decision restricting international students was a result of an earlier pendulum swing in a permissive direction, followed now by a pendulum swing in a hard-line direction. Some middle ground is needed, he said.
Wiedrick said Canada should look into cutting federal civil service positions and allocating the money to fund defence spending. We should buy military equipment from Europe, not the U.S, and find ways to separate our increased defence spending from the U.S.
Goldsbury said some of defence spending should go toward fighting wildfires, and the Liberal government would be using drone technology through the military for natural disaster preparedness.
On Canada's trade strategy, Goldsbury said a Liberal government would bring down inter-provincial trade barriers by June 1, revive the plans for the Energy East pipeline, and leverage relationships with Europe and Southeast Asia to expand export markets.
The federal election takes place on April 28, with polls open between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
