Four of the six candidates vying to represent the North Island-Powell River riding as MP took part in an all-candidates meeting in Evergreen Theatre on Thursday, April 18. General election day is April 28.
Questions from Powell River Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event, and from audience members (an estimated 300 people) were fielded by Jessica Wegg (Green Party of Canada), Glen Staples (Independent), Jennifer Lash (Liberal Party of Canada) and Tanille Johnston (NDP). Aaron Gunn (Conservative Party of Canada) and Paul Macknight (People’s Party of Canada) did not attend the evening event.
One of the questions for an audience member focused on how to help small businesses: “I'm a small business owner, and I'm wondering, given the trade wars going on right now, what's your plan to support local businesses, both in the region and in the province?
Here are the responses:
Jessica Wegg, Green Party
"The Green Party thinks small businesses need to be considered with every piece of legislation that comes down to see what's going to be the effect. We have a ‘think small first bill’ which recognizes that small and medium-sized businesses employ more than 60 per cent of Canadians, and this amends the Department of Industry Act to establish mandatory review of the potential impact of any proposed government regulation or law and what the impact would be on small businesses.
"I know we're all trying to support small businesses where we can, and really support Canadian artisans and entrepreneurs where we can and shopping locally. We need to continue to support that and make sure our communities have what they need to continue to represent their businesses and continue to thrive in our communities with what they need."
Glen Staples, Independent
"I have terrific reverence for small business people. Entrepreneurship is what we need a lot more of. I think the entrepreneurs will figure out ways through this, probably better than the government will. I've heard some ideas from the liberals on how to help small businesses, but I believe in the small business people more than I believe in the government."
Jennifer Lash, Liberal Party
"One of my best nights of the whole campaign was when I got to attend the Chamber of Commerce awards for small businesses here in Powell River. It was amazing, and you could really see how that is the heartbeat of this community, so thank you for that.
"Absolutely support small businesses. They do not get the headlines the big industries get in this country. They don't get quick attention. We can't afford to lose our small businesses because it is such a vital part of every single community. A couple things I mentioned earlier, breaking down the trade barrier, so there's more markets, but also, how do we invest in them, and how do we use structures for investing in small businesses that doesn't require greater burden?
"Can the federal government step in and start putting money through ICET [Island Coastal Economic Trust’s], which is a provincially run program, so it's streamlined funding, less administration. And can we also make it more affordable by streamlining the tax system? Let’s make it so you don't have to hire an accountant all the time to do everything. It's less costly, less administrative costs for small businesses. I think there's some really creative ideas to help small businesses flourish more, and I would love to learn more from the companies on how we can help."
Tenille Johnston, NDP
"We definitely need to hear from the small business owners for what exactly is going to help. I've appreciated the little ‘Made in Canada’ signs that folks are putting in their shops. But not all local businesses are able to do that, and they're not necessarily able to pivot right into a Canada-made-only store, which is where a lot of people are pouring their their funding and attention to. So we really need to hear what exactly is going to help the most.
"First, both at a provincial and a federal level, and this is where our governments need to come together a little bit, too, we need to all come together to support our small businesses. One of the other ways we could offer more immediate aid is through any surplus that's coming from tariffs.
"We're doing this retaliatory tariff thing. Arguably, tariffs are bad across the board for everybody, but where we are gaining back some money, let's reinvest that into our small businesses and into your pockets to make sure that if your job has been impacted or your business has been impacted, that we're able to sustain you for the time necessary to get through the storm."
Corporate question
Another member of the audience brought up subsidies to large corporations and how unfair they are to small businesses: “My question is about how corporations have taken our tax dollars in the forms of subsidies, big ones and still have big profits. They regulate themselves, they assess their own products, which is a problem, a conflict of interest. They even hire the RCMP to get rid of dissenters if they are complaining in communities about how things are being done by these big corporations, and it's unfair to small businesses as well. How will you address these problems if you get into office?"
Tenille Johnston, NDP
“It has to be stopped, right? We have some pretty huge conflicts of interest riddled through our federal government, and there has to be a mechanism to not only bring those to light, but to prosecute through them. I don't think it's fair for companies to have such a massive stake in our government. I don't think that's good government, and part of the biggest challenge is that we actually need a government in place that wants to do that work.
“We need a government in place that actually cares about conflict of interest, that actually cares about equitable taxation and making sure everyone is paying their fair share. We need that political will to make the changes we need, and unfortunately, the leadership we've had in government has never been interested in doing that, so we need that big shift to accountability.”
Jennifer Lash, Liberal Party
“That's a really big question to answer in a minute, so I'm not gonna do it justice. But I think there's a couple things. So one is accountability is key, right?
“I also think it's very easy to say that large companies shouldn't get investments from the government, but when we're trying to get large corporations to change dramatically, sometimes seed funding from the government helps push them in that direction. A classic example of that is trying to get a large company to decarbonize, which, of course, is urgently needed. Sometimes when the government's willing to put up a part of the money, then the company can put up the rest, and it's like a carrot that helps move them in that direction.
“I know it's easy to say they should just pay it for themselves, and in an ultimate world, that's exactly what would happen. That push is needed sometimes to move them in that direction, but there has to then be an accountability back to the government. That's why something like the industrial carbon pricing system works so well, because the companies pay and that money is recycled back to pay for them to decarbonize.”
Glen Staples, Independent
“I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan. They were all small businesses and they had to be efficient to survive. They've gotten bigger in BC.
“When I read the history here, there used to be a lot of really small towns with little sawmills and a lot of people living out there in the woods and little fishing villages, too, but they got centralized with the TFLs and the TSAs and making these big pulp mills, apparently. But there have to be a few good, big corporations out there.
“I think a lot of the problems are from the concentration of money and power, and the tax system should be used to tax the richest people, who should be paying the most.”
Jessica Wegg, Green Party
“We need to make sure that we're always putting people over profits and holding government and corporations to that standard as well. And if they're going to get government money, they need to be accountable to the government.
“They need to let the government be the ones that are doing the testing, and the government is making sure that they are, the corporations are doing what they say they're going to do, and they're not picking and choosing which scientists they want to do work. They're not picking and choosing which data they're reporting to the public.
“If there is government investment in corporations, that corporation works for the government, and the government works for us. We need to make sure we are always keeping people over profits and we can do this by closing loopholes. We can increase corporate taxes to make sure we're not having corporations with massive billions of dollars of profit and not paying their fair share.
“And the RCMP is not a private security firm; it is a public police service that needs to stay that way.”
More Peak coverage from the all-candidates meeting is to come.
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