Party leaders make push for weekend vote
With election just days away, focus placed on salmon, housing and ailing tourist industry
The leaders of each of B.C.'s major parties closed the last weekend before the election in friendly ridings, touting their promises on topics as diverse as fish, housing and telecommunications.
John Horgan, the leader of the B.C. NDP, started his fourstop day on Vancouver Island in Campbell River, where he vowed to protect wild salmon.
Horgan said his party would work to double the $143-million B.C. Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund and create a watershed security strategy, including a fund to support local and Indigenous initiatives.
“Wild salmon are crucial to the success of our economy, the prosperity of coastal communities, and the lives of Indigenous peoples,” he said. “The challenges affecting wild salmon stocks in B.C. are complex. It's important that we work with people and communities to find solutions.”
The five-year salmon restoration program, set to end in March 2024, is jointly funded by the federal government (70 per cent) and the province (30 per cent), according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Andrew Wilkinson, the leader of the B.C. Liberals, stopped at an orchard in Osoyoos to talk about tourism and spotty rural internet. On the latter subject, Wilkinson said his party would invest $100 million in improved connectivity for communities across the province.
On tourism, Wilkinson
painted a picture of empty hotels and failing restaurants devoid of customers due to the pandemic. “This is their winter of discontent,” as Wilkinson put it. “This is their winter where they're worried sick if they're going to be able
to meet their bills.”
He called for bridge financing for companies in the tourism industry to ensure they could survive until visitors returned to the province.
Sonia Furstenau, the leader of the B.C. Greens, spent the
day in her own riding, Cowichan Valley, where she talked up her party's slate of proposed housing affordability measures. “We can't just keep promising to make life more affordable and just keep tinkering around the edges,” she
said. “That's why the B.C. Greens have set a goal of everyone having a home that they can afford and that meets their needs.”
Furstenau said her party would introduce a meanstested rental housing grant. It
would apply to low and moderate earners who spend more than 30 per cent of their incomes on housing, according to the party platform.
Election day is Saturday.