The candidates for the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA seat hit the campaign trail hard on Wednesday night (April 15) in Pemberton, taking aim at the other parties' platforms while introducing their own positions at a meeting hosted by the Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce.
Liberal candidate Joan McIntyre promoted her party's performance and her record as she kicked off her re-election campaign. She also didn't shy away from taking a swipe at the opposition.
"Unlike the NDP, we're not prepared to mortgage our children," she said.
She listed contributions and strides she said the Liberal government has made for health care, post-secondary education, work with First Nations communities, labour peace, and social programs, while taking leadership on climate change and environmental issues.
"I'm proud of our government's track record, and the role I've had to play," McIntyre said, adding that she's also proud of the government's plan and actions to help families, individuals and small businesses during the current economic woes, and the infrastructure spending that has benefited corridor communities.
NDP candidate Juliana Buitenhuis, a West Vancouverite and youth counsellor, acknowledged the Pemberton event was her first public forum.
And she lost no time tackling points of the Liberal government's performance, condemning the passage of Bill 30 for taking away the authority of local communities over water license applications, the "degradation and destruction" at Eagleridge Bluffs, the rates of homelessness and child poverty, and the premier giving himself a raise but none for minimum wage earners.
"We need an accountable, honest government," Buitenhuis said, pledging that the NDP would fight to keep resources public while investing in child care and affordable housing.
Green Party candidate Jim Stephenson, a computer financial systems consultant who has been a business professor at the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University, presented himself as an independent, pragmatic voice who would be able to call for change, addressing what he said is a perilous time for the economy with dire news on climate change and peak oil.
Stephenson said he believes the Liberal carbon tax is much needed. But he said the Liberals view the private sector as the solution to every problem, with the proceeds from run-of-river power generating projects are primarily benefiting private companies, while favouring large-highway projects that aren't sustainable without fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, Stephenson said, the NDP "seems to have totally lost their soul on the environment in a desperate play for power."
Asked in the meeting's question period why she supported Bill 30, which stops local government zoning actions from impeding provincial government decisions about the development of private power projects on Crown land, McIntyre said she knows that's been "a very controversial topic, particularly in this area," and she apologized for causing "consternation" in the corridor.
But, she said, the intention was to engage with private companies who have expertise with smaller run-of-river power projects, and to give them the same rights as BC Hydro has, in order to get green power into the BC Hydro grid and meet the "growing demands for energy" and the goal of energy self-sufficiency.
"We want public participation, we want local groups and elected officials to have input about whether these projects are appropriate, because they have to be the right projects in the right place," McIntyre said, pointing to the environmental assessment process.
Pressed on why the government seems to be afraid that local governments would reject these projects, McIntyre said that for all of the talk of a gold rush on resources, "very few of these projects come to fruition."
Buitenhuis said the NDP's position is that local governments are the experts on their land, not private companies, and leader Carole James would abolish Bill 30.
Stephenson said some elements in the Liberals' climate change action planning don't add up. While green energy is needed, he said, touching off a gold rush on run-of-river power isn't the way to achieve that.
McIntyre questioned some of the elements in the Green Party's platform, saying some of their "utopian ideals would completely bring our economy to a grinding halt."
The candidates also fielded questions about the creation of local jobs, community-led independent power projects, assistance for the forestry industry and municipal infrastructure spending.
The candidates return for an all candidates public forum in Squamish May at the Sea to Sky Hotel from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
