All four candidates running in Kootenay-Rockies for the upcoming provincial election took to the stage at the Key City Theatre in Cranbrook to debate the issues on Monday, Oct. 7.
Sam Atwal (BC NDP), Pete Davis (Conservative Party of B.C.), Tom Shypitka (incumbent running as an independent) and Kerri Wall (BC Green Party) all shared their visions and fielded prepared questions and vetted questions submitted by the public in a forum hosted by JCI Kootenay.
Candidates gave opening statements, and each responded to four prepared questions. After that, vetted questions submitted by the public were drawn from a bucket, with each candidate given 90 seconds to respond.
The evening ended with closing statements.
The first four prepared questions were cobbled together based on the majority feedback from the public ahead of the event, as each candidate got the chance to respond to the topic.
Those questions focused on climate change, emissions targets and carbon taxation; minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, recruitment and retention of health care professions and plans to expand the East Kootenay Regional Hospital; improving housing affordability and plans to tackle rising homelessness in communities across B.C.; and stances on decriminalization, prescribed safe drug supply and safe injection sites.
After that, vetted questions were drawn out of a bucket, with each candidate given 90 seconds to respond to the subject matter, which included replacing Mount Baker Secondary School and getting Amy Woodland Elementary back into operation. Additional subjects included environmental sustainability and government-mandated paid sick days and ensuring accountability that the sick days program isn't being abused.
The full forum was recorded and will be posted on the JCI Kootenay social media channel in the near future.
The Introductions
Kerri Wall pitched herself as the only woman candidate in the race, noting the riding hasn't been represented by a woman in over two decades. Wall said the riding has been represented by candidates on the right side off the political spectrum and that the BC Green Party serves as an alternative choice committed to fiscal responsibility, environmental programming and social responsibility. Wall moved to Fernie in 2008 and works with Interior Health, helping communities integrate health considerations into local planning and policies. She has a Master of Arts in Leadership and Training and holds certifications in Negotiation, Mediation, and Public Participation and is a founding member of Interior Health’s first anti-racism community of practice.
Pete Davis introduced himself by sharing his story, born in Revelstoke before moving to Cranbrook as a young child. He was raised by a single mother and grew up with the support of social assistance, which he says gives him insight on what it's like for people currently facing cost-of-living challenges. He graduated out of Mount Baker Secondary School, built his first house at 26 years of age, and started a business on commercial financial management. He has been involved with Conservative politics at the federal level, serving on the Kootneay-Columbia Conservative Electoral District Association.
Sam Atawl lives in Cranbrook and works with Elk Valley Resources (formerly Teck) on technology, and has worked in natural resources industry for his whole life. He currently serves as a councillor with the District of Sparwood, winning election in 2022. Running for Kootneay-Rockies is an extension of his public service to the District of Sparwood, as he wants to see the region flourish for his two kids. He touted his connections with Elkford, Sparwood, Fernie and Cranbrook, and the work that the BC NDP has been doing to help families, hiring more doctors and nurses, tackling the housing costs, and building a strong economy.
Tom Shypitka is the two-term incumbent representative who is running as an independent following the collapse of his former party BC United. He pitched himself as the candidate who has already beaten NDP candidates twice in the last two elections and as an experienced representative for the area amid an untested Conservative Party of BC that has only arisen within the last year or so. Shypitka said his independent bid means he answers to no party except for Kootenay-Rockies constituents. Shypitka was born and raised in Cranbrook, worked as a small business owner in the food and beverage sector as well as financial management, before his election to Cranbrook city council in 2014.
Climate change, emissions targets and carbon taxation
• Wall noted the urgency of the climate crisis, pointing to wildfires that devastated Aqam last year and Jasper this year, as well as stronger hurricanes that the Americans are facing in the South.
Wall advocated to stop subsidies for the big polluters and touted clean energy sources such as tidal, wind and solar.
"We know the fossil fuel industry is the number one polluter. We want to commit to clean energy solutions,," Wall said. "We already have the know-how and technology, we simply need the political will to enable these solutions to get started."
Wall said the carbon tax is not a significant driver of inflation, pointing to the United States, which is facing cost of living increases as well yet doesn't have a carbon tax.
• Davis said the Conservative party "believes" in climate change, and advocated for the use of technology to address climate change issues and getting rid of the carbon tax. He segued in into other crisis in health care, housing, taxation, decriminalization and affordability.
"I don't believe that climate change is the hugest crisis we are facing today," Davis said. "It is something that we need to deal with but it doesn't need to consume our lives and the money of the people that are in our community. It's just not fair."
He advocated for supporting industry in an environmentally-friendly way, particularly for mining and forestry sectors, to create revenue for the province in order to invest in schools and hospitals.
• Atwal said B.C. residents are seeing first hand the effects of climate change, noting the province has seen two of the worst wildfire seasons back-to-back. BC Wildfire Service has expanded due to increased fire activity and more work is being done to conduct prescribed burns.
He said there are costs associated with wildfire devastation, pointing to the money it takes to rebuild a community like Jasper and Aq'am, and added that the government is working on building a cleaner economy.
"I work at the coal mines. Everything we're doing up there is transitioning into cleaner ways of actual coal mining," Atwal said. "And that's the important piece. We want to have it better, we want to work with our industry partners we want to make sure that everything we are doing is in a cleaner economy."
Atwal said the federal government has mandated a federal carbon tax, and that the province would remove it for individuals if that federal legislation changes.
• Shypitka affirmed that climate change is a real phenomenon and took aim at the BC NDP Clean BC program, noting the province hasn't met it's emissions targets.
He voiced support for the coal mines and resource sectors, noting that B.C. is losing it's competitiveness because of the carbon tax, and that other jurisdictions that don't have the same environmental, social and governance standards that the province has.
Shypitka said emission caps are detrimental to the oil and gas sector and touted Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) development to help countries such as China and India get off thermal coal.
"We need to get people off thermal coal in those countries and we've got it," Shypitka said. "We've got it here. We've got the fourth-largest reserve anywhere in the world in British Columbia and we're not using it."
Minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, recruitment and retention of health care professions and plans to expand the East Kootenay Regional Hospital
• Davis said ratios are a good idea but noted that there are not enough doctors and nurses to meet demand. He pointed to the Conservative Party health care platform, advocating that funding should be attached to the patient, so that if a surgical procedure becomes available in a private clinic, a patient can get the care they need.
He advocated for the use of physician assistants, which can work with doctors in their private clinics to help take in more patients and alleviate pressure on emergency departments.
"Right now we have 5,000 people in Kootenay-Rockies that don't have a family doctor. We've got over a million people in B.C. who don't have a doctor. This is a crisis," Davis said.
He also advocated for using primary care paramedics to attend house calls for patients in their homes.
• Atwal affirmed the work that the BC NDP has already done to establish nurse-to-patient ratios, noting that it was done based on specific requests from the BC Nurses Union. Atwal noted his commitment to the second tower at the East Kootenay Regional Hospital for expanded renal and oncology, and said that funding has been approved.
He took aim at the Conservative plan to utilize private health care.
"When looking at this American-style health care system, it doesn't work in America, why would it work here?" Atwal said. "It just makes no sense to me."
He added that the BC NDP is training more doctors, and is building a new medical school at Simon Fraser University, adding that 400,000 people have been connected to a family doctor over the last two years.
• Shypitka said he's had many meetings with local nurses who have been petitioning for better nurse-to-patient ratios.
He said the accreditation process for nurses from other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, are onerous and nurses who move to B.C. are simply choosing to forgo the process and work in other sectors.
Cranbrook and Kimberley were left out of the Provincial Rural Retention Incentive, an $8,000 annual bonus, which he called "an absolute embarrassment."
He also advocated for the creation of a Master Plan for the East Kootenay Regional Hospital that must include radiation therapy treatment, which he cited as one of the main reasons he decided to run for re-election.
• Wall leaned on her background working with community health as part of her career with Interior Health, as well as touting the BC Green Parthy health care philosophy based on wellness and prevention.
She lent her support to nurse-to-patient ratios, and said that decisions need to be guided by evidence and experts. Expanding EKRH and modernizing facilities will help with recruitment and retention of health care professionals.
"If we have better ratios, better working conditions and more up to date facilities for our health care workers to work in, they will stay with us longer," Wall said.
Wall, speaking as a political candidate and not a health authority employee, also added that the BC Greens want to reorientate relationships with the seven different health authorities which are heavy on bureaucracy and top heavy on salaries.
Improving housing affordability and plans to tackle rising homelessness in communities across B.C
• Atwal said the BC NDP is looking at new home ownership opportunities through BC Builds, a $2 billion program that is working with municipalities to ramp up housing across the province.
He added that his party is fast tracking pre-fabricated homes for quicker delivery and lower costs for single family, duplex, triplex and townhouses.
Atwal added that doubling construction apprenticeships will help add more trade expertise needed to build homes, while adding that a mortgage support program has been announced to help people get into the housing market.
He also noted the importance of non-profits, pointing to a 30-unit housing development in Sparwood and the partnership between municipal, provincial, federal levels of government, as well as the Columbia Basin Trust and the Elk Valley Family Society.
• Shypitka lamented the increase in housing prices, and advocated for more building supply by incentivizing municipalities and regional districts.
He criticized the amount of bureaucracy involved in the permitting process as well as the BC NDP's speculation tax on homes that are not a primary residence.
Shypitka pointed to the same Sparwood development raised by Atwal, noting that each unit cost roughly $700,000, questioning how that can be called affordable.
He also pointed to using Agricultural Land Reserve land, which currently has restrictions on the amount of secondary dwellings a land owner with in the ALR can build.
"You've got a thousand acres of land but you can only put one or two houses on it," Shypitka said.
• Wall pointed to her work on poverty reduction, specifically with the City of Cranbrook and challenges responding to homelessness at the municipal and provincial levels. She spoke about her experiences being a renter and being renovicted in Fernie, where she was kicked out of her place ostensibly due to renovations.
"Everybody, no matter if you're a renter or owner, you need housing," Wall said. "Housing is a cornerstone for health and wellness. It's absolutely the bottom line. It intersects with so many other issues that we talk about here tonight or around the kitchen table."
Housing costs are too high, incomes too low, Wall said, noting that the Greens want to implement vacancy control as well as directly fund municipalities to manage homelessness instead of through a crown corporation such as B.C. Housing.
• Davis said B.C. has a housing crisis and needs to triple the amount of houses built in the province over the next 10 years. There is also a skilled labour shortage which will impact the pace of housing construction, he said.
Davis also said that the province needs to support municipalities to develop infrastructure such as water and sewer.
"If you cant get things in the ground, you can't get things built up top," Davis said, advocating for getting rid of the Step Code and Clean B.C., taking aim at heat pumps and the demand on the electrical system.
He also pumped up the "Rustad Rebate" — a $3,000 rebate per month on income taxes for renters and mortgage holders.
Stances on decriminalization, prescribed safe drug supply and safe injection sites.
• Shypitka noted that the decriminalization plan is a Health Canada exemption permitted by the federal government. The province's plan for decriminalization needed additional supports from pillars of recovery that include harm reduction, prevention, treatment and enforcement.
Shypitka argued that the province wasn't prepared by not providing enough support to those other pillars and called for the end of decriminalization. He said there needs to be more support for voluntary measures, noting that involuntary treatment should be a last resort.
"Let's look at putting proper treatment in place, let's look at putting proper prevention measures in place and educating our children on the harms of drugs," Shypitka said.
He also criticized the BC NDP "soft-on-crime" policies, adding that police need more "teeth" to do their jobs on enforcement.
• Wall framed the toxic drug crisis as a public health emergency, noting the B.C. declared it an emergency in 2016.
She criticized the lack of political will to follow expert medical advice, noting that many issues overlap with the toxic drug crisis.
She lent support to decriminalization and a prescribed safe supply, committing to allocating annual funding for drug checking which helps keep people safe and alive.
"When we talk about a medical health emergency, a public health emergency, it's because people are dying, and they're just just people," Wall said. They're our neighbours, they're our community members and they're our families."
More mental health supports and more housing is needed, she added.
• Davis got personal while talking about a family member who lived with an addiction, adding that the Conservative Party would reverse decriminalization while rejecting the concept of safe supply.
"Drugs are not good," Davis said.
He called for an end to "safe injection sites" and transitioning those facilities into intakes for people who are living with an addiction. He said compassionate voluntary and involuntary care and that there need to bee long-term health and mental health supports.
• Atwal said the losses from the toxic drug crisis is "devastating" noting that it has touched everyone in the room.
He said it's difficult to force people into treatment into involuntary care and that people need to want to voluntarily commit to recovery, adding that the province has opened up 650 treatment beds across the province.
Education and prevention, including harm reduction, are making a difference, he said, noting that there is a place for a prescribed — not public — safe supply as part of the policy response to the crisis.
Following those four main questions, candidates were given 90 seconds each to respond to questions pulled out of a bucket that were submitted by the public and vetted by volunteers before the event.
Each candidate also gave a closing statement to make their case before the event officially ended.
