With a lack of public addiction treatment beds 鈥� only six in Campbell River to serve the north Island north of Nanaimo 鈥� what will your party do to address the lack of capacity?
We need more beds. There鈥檚 absolutely no question about that. It鈥檚 just like how we need more money for the school program for the food to feed the children program and to me, I am on board with taking the money away from the Mining and subsidies and from the Oil and Gas Subsidies. Those companies make a lot of money. They don鈥檛 need subsidies, if anything they can pay higher permit fees to cover the inspections we have to do first. I鈥檓 all on board with taking the subsidies away from them to bring in more beds.
Every year, temperature records are broken throughout the province and the forest fire season appears to be getting worse and longer. What does your party see as the best way for carbon reduction, and what goals will you aim to strive in helping the province and Island hit those goals?
We have to stick to our plan with the renewable resources. No questions about that, we have to. The problem with that though is that we have to increase our power grid first because we can stick to renewable resources all we want, we don鈥檛 have the power to do it, it鈥檚 not going to help. If we do that, like going to countries like Australia and other places that have been living in a drought for a long time to see what they;re doing, to harvest the rainwaters and examples like that. I think we can survive it. I鈥檓 hoping the climate is going to turn around eventually but we can survive it. We just have to stick to what our plan is right now. I don鈥檛 think charging a carbon tax is what is going to fix the process.
While there has been an increase in rental housing construction in the Comox Valley, there continues to be a lack of affordable housing. What detailed actions will your party take to increase affordable housing stock here?
I look at housing as a commodity, the same way you look at copper, gold, silver. When demand is high, the prices are extremely high. What will help is giving families low interest loans to put suites in their homes. That鈥檚 going to flood the market with rental suites which will eventually bring the rates down. If we don鈥檛 flood the market, we鈥檙e never going to be able to bring the cost down.
The area around the Connect Centre in Courtenay continues to face issues and there have been reported increases of crime in the surrounding neighbourhood. The proposed Braidwood Complex aims to address these issues, but has faced pushback from some neighbours. Do you agree with the Braidwood Complex and its location, and how will you aim to make it work effectively? If not, how will you address these issues in its absence?
I鈥檓 for the Braidwood, but unless we put rules to this whole decriminalization thing, it鈥檚 not going to work. We already have one that鈥檚 some what similar to what they want to do that鈥檚 actually quite close to my house and I haven鈥檛 seen a huge increase but if we don鈥檛 address other rules of decriminalization, nothing鈥檚 going to help. It鈥檚 all going to be a problem. We need more beds for the homeless, there鈥檚 no question about that, we just need more transitions. Going into the Tiny homes and then seriously bringing them back into society. That way, you give them a sense of worth at least. But we need to make changes to decriminalization rules.
School District 71 has policies and resources that create a supportive and inclusive environment for students. Will your government do anything to change or limit SD71鈥檚 ability to use these policies and resources?
No. They need policies. They need resources. The only thing I would like to see is a full curriculum of what you鈥檙e teaching. I would like to see what my son is learning. I know what he鈥檚 learning with math, I know what he鈥檚 learning with English. I would like to know what they鈥檙e learning with everything else. Everyone deserves to feel safe, it鈥檚 like anti-bullying - we are failing on that because people are not feeling safe, kids aren鈥檛 feeling safe.
