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Kootenay Central Election 2024: Candidates debate in Creston

The Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted the forum on Oct. 9
debate
The four Kootenay Central candidates answered questions in a forum on Oct. 9.

Creston residents filled the Kootenay River Auditorium last night for a provincial election candidate forum on local issues.

Three Kootenay Central candidates - including incumbent NDP MLA Brittny Anderson, independent Corinne Mori, and Conservative Party of B.C. candidate Kelly Vandenberghe - attended in person, while Green Party of B.C. candidate Nicole Charlwood joined remotely due to illness.

The Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce, Kootenay Employment Services, and Creston Tourism hosted the event.

Candidates were asked questions about health care, housing, economic issues, and climate action by moderator Rita Scott. 

The two-hour debate was also live-streamed on the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce YouTube channel, which can be viewed in full at www.youtube.com/live/OnwDppqXIlQ.

Health care|

• What would you do to address the unhoused population, in particular those dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues?

Vandenberghe said these are issues that are not easily dealt with. The Conservatives want to end decriminalization, stop legal drug use, and shut down safe consumption sites. 

“Christian’s Law”, named after a young man who tragically lost his life to drugs, would also be enacted to allow any parent to put their child in involuntary treatment.
   
In response to his comments, Charlwood stressed that drug addiction is a health and social issue, not a criminal one. Instead, she was in support of a regulated drug supply, robust harm reduction services, and evidence-based treatment.

“It is clear that punitive measures such as prohibition fail to foster a safe and healthy society,” said Charlwood. “We hear a lot about involuntary care, but what we really lack is voluntary care and support services. People who use drugs deserve the same access to resources, medical care, housing, love, dignity, and respect just as much as anyone else.”

Mori was critical of the provincial government’s harm reduction model and safe drug supply. 

“The reality is it doesn’t matter. These drugs are drugs, and if you are taking too much, you die,” she said. “If you want to stop the devastation of addiction and death, you need to stop the supply of drugs from our government. The overdose death rate has tripled since the implementation of this plan. It doesn’t work.”

Anderson said the NDP has been continuously working on strengthening mental health support over the last seven years in government. On a local level, she added that funding has been used to support Valley Community Services and the Ktunaxa Nation.

“We’re trying to catch people before they end up in crisis,” she said Anderson. “We’re providing funding and support so that (Ktunaxa youth) are able to get jobs early and contribute to their communities.”

• What action would you take to improve primary health care in Creston?

Mori blamed the provincial government’s bureaucracy for putting additional strain on the health-care system.

“We have a mass exodus of health-care professionals outside of this province because of new legislation that has come down,” she said. “The Health Professions Act is very punitive and dictatory.”

She added that another problem is an overabundance of high-paid management and a lack of focus on what provision of care is.

“There are nurse practitioners who are funded under the Kootenay Boundary Division of Family Practice,” she said. “They just don't have a place to practice. I will open up satellite offices in every community so that these health-care professionals who are forced into telehealth will actually have a place they can come and see you in person.”

Charlwood said the Greens’ approach is to prioritize building community health centres to lower bureaucratic barriers for health-care professionals and increase access to preventative, primary care. 

“Right now, over one million of us do not have a doctor,” she said. “Every British Columbian should have a home for the majority of their care and have access to doctors, nurses, mental health professionals, and specialists like dieticians and physio all within our communities.”

Vandenberghe said the Conservative Party will focus on a patient-first model of universal health care under a single-payer system. 

“Everybody has a story to tell of sitting a long time in waiting rooms or booking an appointment all the way in Kelowna,” he said. “We have to start reducing the long wait times in emergency rooms.” 

From his comments, Anderson raised concerns about the Conservatives asking everyone to pay for health-care. 

“I will fight every day to make sure we have a strong public health-care system,” said Anderson.

As co-chair of the Rural Caucus, she said putting a rural lens on government decision-making is a top priority. 
“David Eby was here last week, and I got to stand beside him here in the Kootenays, where he announced that we will be paying upfront if people have to travel to see a specialist, get imaging, get treatment, or surgery in a place like Cranbrook, Kelowna, or Vancouver, so that people will not be out of pocket,” she said. “This is an equity issue.”

Housing

• What is your policy to increase the housing supply for all income levels?

Mori pointed to over-regulation as the reason for slowing down and complicating the building process.

“We can come up with simple builds that don’t require massive engineering to get people into the housing market,” she said. “But not only that, we need to start focusing on rent-to-own programs. It is not good enough that we are just creating a housing market where people are forced into perpetual tenancy. There is no motivation to invest in yourself if everything you do goes to somebody else.”

Vandenberghe said he agreed with Mori after being met with many surprises while building his house over the last year. 

“Just too much red tape,” he said. “We want to create a civic infrastructure and renewal fund, billion dollars per year for municipalities. Renter and homeowner rebates that’ll be rolled out on budget in 2026. We're on a commitment to review the agricultural land commission as well for any opportunities for modernizing. Conservatives have a plan when it comes to housing shortage by getting our economy back on track and getting B.C. building.”

Anderson questioned this as she believes the Conservatives did little to help the housing crisis while in power for 16 years. 

“When John Rustad was in government as a cabinet minister, you know what happened? We had a ton of foreign investment drive up homing prices,” she said. “Now we are feeling that crunch here today.”

As an example of an NDP initiative, Anderson said restrictions are being put on Airbnbs. 

“You can Airbnb out of your own home or primary residence, but you can't be a corporation that buys up a bunch of different homes for Airbnb. I'm sorry. These homes are for people, until we can get the vacancy rate at a manageable level.”

Charlwood said the Kootenay housing crisis is actually a crisis of equality. 

“Housing has become predominantly a way to make money, and very little of what is available is affordable,” she said. “B.C. should be the best place to live, not just for investors, but for everyone as a human right.”

She added the Greens plan to support renters by controlling rent increases and creating standards for evictions, and a commitment of 26,000 non-market units every year.

Economy

• What can you do to support businesses to recruit, train, and retain employees?

Vandenberghe said the focus needs to be on cutting taxes to businesses.

“Once again, it’s back to the red tape. You’ve got to reduce that,” he said. “Supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs is critical. We’re going to cut the carbon tax. We're going to give people the chance to put that money back in their pocket.”

Charlwood said the Greens propose policies to create sustainable career opportunities and provide job seekers with training, mentorship, and job placement in key sectors. 

“Local industries such as hospitality and construction are facing challenges and attracting skilled labour, while young people are struggling to find meaningful employment that offers a good standard of living,” she said. “What we know is that there is a growing demand for incentives beyond financial compensation, with many workers seeking better work-life balance support for child care and increased leisure time.”

Anderson put emphasis on Creston’s vibrant agricultural community and noted how the NDP will support local farmers.

“There’s a ton of support for agriculture that we’ve been providing, and then there’s more to come in our platform,” she said. 

For instance, she mentioned a free “matchmaking service” to ensure farmers have access to land. 

“If you have land that you want farmed or if you’re someone who is looking to farm but doesn’t have access to land,” she said. “We'll find the right farmer for the right land.”

Mori was most concerned with how the minimum wage is administered and believes it needs to be a graduated program, specifically for teenage employees.  

“If they pay a 12-year-old minimum wage, it's the same as paying a single mom with two kids,” she said. “There should be tiers of how much you get paid so that the employer is actually getting good value from the money that they’re spending.”

To add to the discussion on local farmers, Mori said more hands-on agricultural learning programs are needed. 

“Currently, the average age of a farmer in this province is 55, and they're finding that their children are not interested in taking over the farm,” she said. “We are going to have some problems very quickly, because there is no one that is stepping up to take over this industry.”

Climate action

• How would your policy support our agrarian community so that we have sustainable and consistent availability to water?

Vandenberghe said the Conservatives will invest in flood mitigation infrastructure, expansion of water storage capacities on farms, and protect agricultural water rights in legislation.

“This is good news, not only for the farmers but also for the people trying to manage their diking districts, which they're doing on their own and struggling to have the resources and the money that's not coming from the province for them to deal with it.”

Charlwood said she’d like to see a push towards regenerative farming, which uses less water, and a ban on clearcut logging. 

“We know that the slopes around Creston and Wynndel are experiencing lower water levels, and without the forests and trees to retain water at their source, things are going to dry out much faster,” she said. 

Mori thought Creston needs to be designated as an agricultural resource.

“Less than five per cent of our province is in the agricultural lands,” she said. “Creston is a valuable treasure that needs to be protected, and the way that that will happen is if your community identifies that the priority as the agriculture sector. If you do that, your government leaders make sure that agriculture ends up getting the priority on water over development.”

Anderson acknowledged that a feasibility study is currently underway with the Regional District of Central Kootenay to identify a secondary water source for Creston. 

“We know that this is a thriving agricultural sector,” she said. “We want to make sure that there is enough water. We don't want what's happening in places like California to happen here. So we need to plan for it, and we need to work together.”

• What is your adaptation plan for our continuing climate crisis?

The key to adaptability lies in long-term plans, according to Charlwood. 

“Long-term plans need to be established, and government needs to be empowered to continue working towards things that we need for generations to come, rather than short-term, four-year, quick vote-grabbing initiatives,” she said. “That's hard because we don't get reelected on long-term plans, but that's really what's needed if we are truly going to survive in the climate chaos that is coming.”

Mori said the carbon emissions from wildfires should be cause for concern, and she’d like to see the recommendations for forest management taken more seriously without provincial government interference. 

“We have experts here that know what to do, but what we don't have is the ability to let them do it,” she said. “We just keep having politicians somewhere else making decisions for how we manage our forests, and they're doing a lousy job. The devastation of these forest fires could be totally avoided if we were managing things well.”

Anderson said investment in the next generation is the way forward, via the Youth Climate Corps.

“It's young people being paid a fair wage to do climate action work, and what this looks like is fire smarting around communities,” she said. “They are taking direct climate action. And because of that, in the last budget, we provided $3 million to the Youth Climate Corps to expand their work.”

To close, Vandenberghe said the Conservatives would like to see a responsible energy transition through innovation and technology. He gave examples of energies that he believes make more economic sense, such as combustion alternatives for diesel engines and exploring nuclear power with a long-term feasibility study.

“There are smart ways of getting into energy transition that we all agree we want to get to,” he said. 

Advance voting is now open until Oct. 16 (closed Monday for Thanksgiving). The final day to cast your ballots is Saturday, Oct. 19. 


 



Kelsey Yates

About the Author: Kelsey Yates

Kelsey Yates has had a lifelong passion for newspapers and storytelling. Originally from Alberta, she graduated from SAIT Polytechnic's journalism program in 2016.
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