Penticton Herald

Opinions aplenty at Osoyoos candidates forum

- By ANDREW STUCKEY

OSOYOOS — It was billed as a forum, but at times it was more of a debate — although not always a contest between the two participat­ing Boundary-Similkamee­n candidates.

Instead, Friday afternoon at the Wine Country Retired Teachers’ Associatio­n forum held at the Osoyoos Seniors Centre, MLA Linda Larson ignored opponent Colleen Ross and corrected speakers standing at a microphone and asking pointed questions.

And, at one point during the 90-minute event, the Liberal Party’s Interior organizer got in on the act, offering a correction of her own after a participan­t suggested an answer Larson provided was just “smoke and mirrors.”

The afternoon forum, which drew about 50 people, was geared toward seniors. A good share of the questions fielded by Larson and her NDP challenger, dealt with issues important to older British Columbians.

Especially healthcare.

It was a question about healthcare, in fact, that first brought Larson’s choler to the surface, with Stefan Cieslik asking the two candidates whether their respective parties, if elected, would eliminate MSP premiums.

“That’s what we’re already doing,” replied Larson. “It’s cutting in half and it’s in for a total phaseout by 2021 — (MSP premiums) will no longer exist.”

After Cieslik pointed out waiting eight months after the election to reduce the premiums by 50 per cent was a bit of “smoke and mirrors,” Ashley Spilak, the Liberal Party’s Interior organizer, spoke up from her seat in the audience.

“It was announced last week in a news release,” she yelled. “We’re just rolling it back into the tax base, which every other province does. It’s a shell game.”

Larson continued her response, telling Cieslik: “We are cutting it in half in January 2018 and eliminatin­g it by 2020. And eliminatin­g it."

“Eliminatin­g,” she said finally, with pronounced enunciatio­n.

Ross, pushed to the side by the exchange, eventually indicated the B.C. NDP would also eliminate the MSP premiums.

“They will be eliminated immediatel­y,” Ross said to applause. “We are going to eliminate (the premiums) and we are going to make this more affordable.”

Later, when the questionin­g turned to last year’s effort by the Okanagan Similkamee­n School District to close Osoyoos Secondary School, Larson rejected a suggestion the province wanted to see the school closed.

“The Liberal government did not want to close the school in Osoyoos,” she replied. “That decision was made by the school board, who you elected.”

Another speaker returned to the education theme, suggesting the SD53 board was pushed into closing the school because of a lack of provincial funding.

“The only reason they would even consider such a move was because of funding,” he said.

“The funding formula doesn’t work for rural communitie­s and it has to be changed sooner not later. It’s the funding, not the trustees. All over the province (it’s) the same story, repeated over and over.”

Larson, who is currently leading a legislativ­e committee reviewing rural education in the province, then seemed to suggest there are considerab­le difference­s between the economic circumstan­ces in Osoyoos and in other smaller rural communitie­s, especially those facing dwindling population­s because of loss of industry.

“Osoyoos is not in a position where it is going to lose its economy,” she explained. “Its economy has always been steadily growing.”

She then provided a motive for the Osoyoos business community’s support for keeping Osoyoos Secondary open.

“Losing kids of that age who can help work with the local businesses and be part of the community in other ways — that was really important to the business community in Osoyoos. They wanted those teenage kids here. They wanted them to be able to come and work after school and take part in things that were happening locally. There was a huge push from the business community to keep the school here because of that.”

For her part, Ross attempted to build on the angst expressed by the speakers, promising an NDP government would generally “make life more affordable for everybody in this riding and in this province.”

But her party didn’t escape the audience’s frustratio­n, however, with at least one speaker rememberin­g healthcare for seniors was just as bad under the previous NDP government. Ross also had to defend against a statement made by Larson concerning job creation.

Larson had previously noted that “every single item that has come through the Legislatur­e in the last four years that was related to the creation of jobs in industry has been voted against by the NDP.”

Ross replied that New Democrats “really, really support job creation, but they may not be the jobs the Liberals want.”

She defined good jobs as being in a person’s hometown and providing “dignity.”

“(Young workers) don’t want to build pipelines. They don’t want to have to go up to Site C or Fort Mac. They want to work at home,” Ross said. “To say we’re against jobs, that’s rubbish.”

Jobs at a South Okanagan national park also came up in the discussion, with Ross noting Canadian Geographic just put out an edition celebratin­g 150 years of national parks in Canada.

“But you know what? You’re not in it,” she told the audience. “That would have been a wonderful, wonderful opportunit­y for job creation in this community. But the Liberals stepped away from the table.”

Larson countered by delivering a long list of job opportunit­ies throughout the riding.

“We’re extremely lucky in this region to have those type of employers and those really good paying jobs,” she said. “I’m extremely confident with what’s happening in rural B.C. — certainly in the parts of rural B.C. that I live.”

The Liberals, she added, have just released a strategy that will “move jobs back out into rural B.C. because as we know everybody tends to drift towards the Lower Mainland.” Creating jobs, she concluded, is critical to the province’s success.

“It’s a fact that there are in B.C. today — compared to four years ago — 200,000 more people working,” she said. “And those are people who are paying taxes. And those taxes are what are going into the programs that we’re trying to create here to make your lives better.”

Ross wrapped up by saying putting all those people to work doesn’t seem to be the solution the Liberals think it is — at least not for ordinary British Columbians.

“I’m talking to a lot of people as I doorknock who are concerned about the cost of housing, the cost of tertiary education,” she said. “They’re concerned about Fortis’ twotier electrical charges. If we’re doing so well, why is life not getting better for (them)? Why are people struggling more and more?” The New Democrats, she concluded, would “put people before profits. We’re just not going to focus on corporatio­ns that subsidize us.”

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