Nanaimo Chamber hosts meeting for all Nanaimo-Ladysmith candidates

Sounder News

The Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce hosted an All-Candidates Meeting at the Coast Bastion in Nanaimo on April 23, with all candidates running for the Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding in attendance.

The Candidates are:

Lisa Marie Barron, New Democrat Party

Michelle Corfield: Liberal Party of Canada

Tamara Kronis: Conservative Party of Canada

Paul Manly: Green Party of Canada

Stephen Welton: People’s Party of Canada

After their opening remarks, the candidates were provided with questions from the mediator, with each candidate also being provided rebuttal cards to use during the discussions.

Question: How will you support the growth and resilience of small and medium sized business in Nanaimo Ladysmith Gabriola, including those in rural and island communities, through federal tax policy, workforce development initiatives and equitable access to business supports.

Kronis: So a staggering 98% of BC businesses are small and medium sized. They’re the backbone of our economy, and we’ll need them to create good jobs, foster innovation and build strong communities. Our Conservative plan is to restore a business environment where entrepreneurs and business owners and workers will not just survive, but they will thrive. We’ll reduce the tax burden on entrepreneurs and ensure that federal policies are simple, predictable and fair, reducing paperwork and uncertainty for entrepreneurs, help them reinvest in their operations, hire more workers and expand their services. This approach is particularly important for more remote communities in our riding like Gabe, which face higher operational costs, geographic challenges. One thing I do want to mention, and I hear a lot about the doors, is the struggle in Nanaimo’s downtown core for so many businesses, who are struggling with low foot traffic, because of open drugs, vandalism, and crime. A rise in crime, drug trafficking, drug overdose deaths, poverty and homelessness are serious issues here in Nanaimo and Nanaimo residents and business owners deserve better. It’s time for a change.

Manly: I operated small businesses myself, so I understand local businesses what they’re up against, paperwork, access to funding, finding trained workers, then keeping costs manageable. As your MP I support keeping the small business tax rate at 9% and taxing the businesses, the large corporations, bringing their tax rate back up to 21% where it was before the Harper tax cuts. When new laws are brought to the House of Commons, we need to make sure that we look at the impact on small businesses before we move forward with them. I’ll push for simpler tax filings and less paperwork, so business owners can spend more time running their companies rather than rather than dealing with paperwork. And I’ll fight for loans and grants so local business can scale off successfully from small companies to medium sized, larger companies. The government should set aside 30% of federal contracts specifically for small and medium sized businesses, so more dollars stay in communities. We also need reliable, affordable, high speed internet everywhere in Canada, to level the playing field for all small businesses, and to ensure businesses have access to skilled workers, I’ll continue to champions free tuition, including trades and retraining programs.

Corfield – So I started right upon my first business at 18 years old. So a small business is the backbone of Michelle. I also, in my work, have developed six economic development toolkits for First Nations. Co-founded the indigenous MBA program at Simon Fraser University, the first in the world, graduating over 200 MBA graduates. And then larger corporations you can see right here in Port of Nanaimo, and the expansion at Duke Point.
I’ve been an advocate for small and medium sized businesses my entire life, because if you work in First Nations communities, you will know they can’t borrow money against their land, and they can’t borrow money against their house. So you’re there, you have to become very innovative. And I think our prime minister Mark Carney has put these energies and efforts in the right place, simplifying the process for small and medium business-sized business, to get better grants and funding, expand training programs to meet the demand.
Policy, health care and green infrastructure. He also leveraged the $15 billion Canada Growth Fund to support clean energy initiatives, benefiting item-based businesses involved in the low carbon economy.
I propose a regional trade and innovation hub for banking private using national tools for Canada’s strong plan to grow clean industry.

Barron – So first, and foremost, I grew up in a small business, and I will tell you that I know how hard it is. Everybody in the family contributes, because this is not just luxury. This is keeping a roof over your head. Everything goes into that business, and so supporting local and mid-sized businesses is at the heart of so much of the work that we’re doing. One thing that has become very obvious to me as Member of Parliament is, why do we have these large corporations, that have tax avoidance systems, that are not paying their fair share of taxes. Yet our mid size and small businesses are paying far too much taxes. So we need tax fairness to make sure that our small and medium sized businesses are able to not just survive in our communities, but to thrive. We also can do simple things like credit card caps. Why are businesses paying so much in credit card fees to be able to use that to have people pay? Another thing that comes to mind, of course, is supporting those who are working in our small and medium sized businesses to make sure that they have affordable housing, fair wages, and what they need to be able to participate in the workforce. And finally, supporting local is so important. Everything that’s happening right now with Donald Trump has just reinvigorated how important it is that we are supporting local businesses coming together as communities to make sure that our local businesses are supported. Because we know the local businesses support it when we are buying in Canada, when you’re building in Canada.

Welton – Did I mention I had a paper route when I was ten? So maybe I’m not too good at this politics stuff. I’m not going to be getting too much in the way of platitudes and promises. The PPC is a party that believes in small government and as small as possible. We will meddle in local issues as little as possible. Instead, we will create a Canada that is supportive of individual and business endeavors, ensuring fair and equitable access to existing programs in avoiding special treatment towards friends of the government special interest groups, our posture would be one of staying out of the way of local governments and business associations as much as possible. But listening when they need the federal government to remove impediments to their initiatives. The PPC believes in minimizing federal power and maximizing provincial and local power. Good people and good businesses with good ideas need the government to get out of the way.

Question: how do you plan to collaborate with local governments, business associations and chambers of commerce to address regional economic challenges and foster a thriving business environment?

Manly – I have strong relationships with First Nations, local governments, business leaders and local Chambers of Commerce. In fact, many local community leaders encouraged me to run again because they appreciate how I’ve worked with them as a member of parliament. I’ll continue to regularly meet with local governments, chambers business associations and actively listen to their concerns, identifying practical solutions and advocating effectively for their needs in Ottawa. We also need investments in local infrastructure that directly supports and strengthens our local economy. But there’s another critical piece to fostering a thriving business environment, any wasteful subsidies to large corporations, especially those that are foreign owned. These corporate handouts don’t serve our community. Instead, let’s redirect those resources to where they’re actually helpful – local businesses, small and medium sized enterprises and entrepreneurs and workers right here in Nanaimo-Ladysmith. The federal government’s top priority must be to build strong local economies, not to provide corporate welfare for multinationals. As your MP, I’ll continue to fight for these funds back to the local community, ensuring community thrives, and for tax fairness to ensure that local business could do much better than the struggles that they’ve had.

Corfield – so working with local governments and chambers. How do I plan to do that? I’ve been doing this for over 32 years. I’m a facilitator, mediator, and negotiator. I have been bringing groups of people together for over 30 years to talk about and solve really difficult problems. I’ve worked on issues of importance to Canada. I’ve worked on issues of work right here in the Nanaimo Ladysmith. So I’m an expert in the field of bringing people together. So I think we can do this in a way that we start talking to each other. Bringing people together to hosting quarterly round tables with First Nations, local governments and chambers. And I would say this is an important part, because as First Nations grow their economy, they need to feel included. Speed up federal approvals for ready to build projects. Can have construction start without delay. We’re going to have to see that and create a joint funding for municipalities to support local infrastructure, revitalizing the downtown area. I love the work of the DBA [Downtown Business Association] and improving ferry services and expanding transit hubs.

Barron – When I got elected as Member of Parliament, it was very obvious to me how far away Ottawa is from here in Nanaimo Ladysmith, and it sometimes feels very disconnected. And so at the forefront of my work as Member of Parliament was making sure that I remained connected with people in our communities, with business associations, with chambers. These are the people who are on the ground and know firsthand the issues that are impacting people in our communities. And when we have a federal government that’s disconnected from that, municipal government feels the trickle down impact of a federal government that’s not stepping up, that’s not investing appropriately into our communities, and it’s felt by everyone in our communities. One example I can think of is the work that I was doing around the derelict and abandoned vessels alongside the chambers in our communities. We know that there are vessels that are being abandoned along our coast, and they are causing immense problems for marine safety. They’re an eyesore for tourists. They’re causing pollution in our oceans. And so I was able to work alongside the local chambers to bring together the business community, to bring together people in our communities to talk about this issue, and to have people, the members of parliament across party lines in Ottawa, seeing the problem firsthand, to be able to finally see solutions moving forward. Ottawa may be a far way away, but there’s with strong representation, there’s so much possibility and opportunities of the work that we can do together.

Welton – I’m an experienced manager. In my career in the environmental field. I want to give you this as an example. I was the point person tasked with interfacing provincial and federal government departments of the environment, I negotiated with the Federal Environment Ministry for a special allowance under the international waste movement treaty and regulations to ensure safe, efficient trans boundary, shipment and treatment of PCP contaminated waste, kind of dramatic and scary. And I mentioned this because this was a challenging negotiation that was for me to run with Ottawa, Washington, Victoria and in Sacramento.
I offer this as an example of demonstrate my skill set in collaboration and negotiation.
Not elbows up kind of playing around with that silliness, but proper tact, diplomacy and negotiation.

Kronis – Thank you. I am so glad that you used the word collaborate in the question, because that is exactly what we need to grow. As your MP, I will work with anyone and everyone, from any party, from the BIA, from chambers, from local associations, to build, foster and sustain a thriving business environment. And I look forward to working with elected officials at all levels. I hope we’ll meet regularly and keep lines of communication open so that we can work in sync on the priorities that will benefit Nanaimo Ladysmith. For too long, we’ve been suffering under an Ottawa-knows-best-big-government approach that has killed jobs and stifled innovation.
If I have the privilege of serving as your Member of Parliament, I plan to meet regularly with local business associations and chambers of commerce.
I will encourage dialog between all levels of government. And I also plan to open two constituency offices, one in Nanaimo. And one in Ladysmith. To make government more accessible and to do a better job of meeting local needs.
Let’s work together to reward ambition innovation and creativity, to boost productivity, and to make it easier for people to start the businesses they’ve been dreaming about that will bring good jobs to our communities.

Question: What is your comprehensive plan to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity while preserving the unique character of our communities?

Corfield – So let’s go through what has Michelle done. I have initiated Save the Harbour when access to the beautiful, majestic, gorgeous waterfront that we have that Protection Island needs access to. We created that initative and stopped the big yachts from coming in. Protection Island still gets to come and go quite freely, as they still need to, to get groceries and get to the main island. Let’s look at the Port of Nanaimo. I was on the Port of Nanaimo for nine years. I was the representative from the City of Nanaimo. And you can see, in those nine years, what we’ve managed to do. $200 million for the Duke Point expansion so we can have access to export. We can have short sea shipping. We can do all of these things. The party will use $25 billion Build Canada Homes Fund to accelerate the construction modular affordable housing in the region. Invest in regional food security, including full storage, climate resilience, with this all being better. We should make BC Ferries an essential infrastructure to improve marine response times and revisit island rail to support local transit.

Barron – I’m going to reiterate how important it is that we are supporting our local and small businesses. Of course, supporting tourism. We live in an incredible place. People want to come here to visit. People want to come here to live. Let’s do everything that we can through the federal government to make sure that our communities are flourishing and people have what they need. As member of parliament, I did handle work to make sure that we saw funding coming into this riding to support the needs of our communities. The Canvas Summer Jobs Program is one example where – I love that we included Gabriola in here – because that’s just such a perfect example of how people in Ottawa think that Gabriola is a suburb of Nanaimo, when clearly that is not the case. So making sure that we have equitable funding in our communities that meet the needs of our communities. View Horizons for Seniors funding. So there’s so many examples where this funding has gone into local programming; gone into helping things that are happening in our communities; to help make our community a healthier, more vibrant place. I also have secured as Member of Parliament, $5 million into Loaves and Fishes and so when reelected, I will, of course make sure that those funds are in the pockets of our communities. And finally, I’m going to say that we need to be funding, we need to see the federal government picking it up and funding the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital patient tower and cath lab.

Welton – Okay, so the situation is there’s a lot of talk about money going on here. I want to make a point very clear here. I think we’re all aware that the Liberal NDP coalition has been making life pretty difficult for people in Canada over the last 10 years. Happiness Index is down, debt per capita, way up. Purchasing power down. Violent crime up. Housing costs up, groceries up. This all raises the question, where’s the money going to come from? So we’ve got a plan to spend a lot of money, to borrow a lot of money, and spend a lot of money. Is that going to really work for Canadians, or is that just passing off our problems, our issues, into future generations? Is that just going to be federal money spent printing, which is highly inflationary? There’s a battle for federal government money. It’s a zero sum game, and unless we tax people and businesses more, that’s the only way to change that game. The PPC would like to avoid increasing taxes. Rather, we’d like to reduce them. That said, there are federal monies available. But if we once again elect an MP who is not with the party that forms government, there’s not going to be a lot of access to money. We’re not a party with a lot of election promises. We’re a party that offers a change from the establishment parties.

Kronis – Central Vancouver Island is one of the fastest growing regions in Canada. We need significant infrastructure and investment if we’re going to be able to build a successful community and keep our island way of life. So many people tell me that they have never felt further away from their government than they do right now. Our money goes east and it does not come back in any kind of equitable way. This has to change. As your MP I will fight relentlessly for our share of infrastructure funding. As part of that, I will do everything in my power to ensure that David Eby keeps his promise to build the patient tower and cath lab at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. I will also fight for every federal dollar that would help realize that goal. A Conservative government will lower taxes so that you can keep more of your own money remove interprovincial trade barriers to encourage east-west trade and build a strong and sustainable economy on the island. We can do that while ensuring that we have robust safety and environmental practices on the coast to protect nature, to protect our workers and to protect our industries. I’ve seen and admire the work done by businesses, chambers and regional economic development agencies here on the island, and look forward to working with you, with them and with all of you to advance our goals in a sustainable and healthy way.

Manly – every region in Canada is entitled to fair representation and transparent funding processes, not just ridings with government MPs. Any candidate who tells you that you need a government MP in your riding is advocating for a single party state like China. As your MP, I’ve stayed very connected to local governments, to First Nations, and First Nations are really involved in the process of economic reconciliation here, and we need to continue to work with them and our businesses and nonprofits. I shared federal funding opportunities and actively championed local funding requests. I wrote letters, met with ministers, and pushed federal agencies to recognize our community’s needs. I’ll continue to do this work when I’m reelected. To support our local economy, we need to stop exporting raw logs. We export about 2.7 million cubic meters every year. We should support Canadian jobs milling lumber here for Canadian homes and Canadian wood products. We should export finished wood products only with the way the Swedes do. IKEA, Swedish for common sense. We should be growing a lot more food on Vancouver Island, and I’ve been a local food advocate for a long time. I’ve advocated for federal funding to help local farmers invest in equipment and infrastructure, and that’s what I’ll keep doing.

Question: Arts and culture play a vital role in both our local economy and community well being contributed significantly to Canada’s GDP and employ more Canadians in several major resource sectors combined. How would you and your party support the growth and sustainability of the arts, culture and heritage sector, both locally and not only Smith and nationally? Will you support initiatives such as the proposed 1% federal funding commitment and what specific strategies do you propose to strengthen the sector over the long term?

Barron – Well, thank you so much. The easy answer here for the 1% federal funding commitment is yes, of course. I mean, it’s the least that we can do. We know that funding has not increased at the rate required in arts and culture, and we know the investment that this is in our communities. When we have strong arts and culture in our communities, we have people that are better connected. We’re increasing wellness, we’re giving opportunities for local talent to flourish. I met with the Nanaimo Art Gallery just recently, and I’m sure everybody in here loves to go in and check out the incredible work that they’re doing, and to see firsthand the space that they’re working in. Yet what they’re delivering in that space, it is quite impressive. So we need to be investing in local arts and culture, making sure that those jobs are there, as it says right in the question – we know how much when we invest in this work, that our communities are benefiting. I want to also point out how important it is that we are investing in public broadcasting, making sure that we are funding CBC. We know that CBC that’s providing indigenous stations as well. So making sure that we are supporting local talent, local journalism, and supporting everything that makes it great to live here in Nanaimo-Laysmith.

Welton – Okay, so I get to be the downer again, the pragmatist of the group. The PPC can’t promise to support the 1% federal funding commitment. Canadians can’t afford it. Canada can’t afford it. The government has been running deficit after deficit, and it’s getting worse. Government debts get paid either by higher taxes or by printing money to inflate the debt away. Which is the same as making a billion dollars look like pocket change. But at the same time, it means your grocery bill keeps getting higher and higher. The PPC policy is a balanced budget. The PPC is to be able to lower taxes. The PPC policy is to eliminate inflation. Arts and culture can be viable businesses, that’s embedded in the question, which states that they contribute significantly to Canada’s GDP and provide more employment than some resources. Getting government funding means getting government approval, and thereby doing things that the government approves of. We’re not for that kind of government interference. I’m certainly not going to engage in electioneering promises. I find that kind of politics reprehensible. I believe that arts and culture, like good business ideas, can thrive on their own.

Kronis – So many of you know that I’m a lawyer. But I also made my living as a working goldsmith and jewelry designer for nearly two decades, I have sold my handmade jewelry in galleries and even in parks with a three month old in my arms. And for 10 years, I had my own retail store where we made everything we sold. I’ll approach the challenges of the arts, culture and heritage sector with the understanding that comes from those experiences. And it’s been incredibly meaningful work celebrating both happy and sad occasions in people’s lives. One memory that’s always stayed with me is of a client who commissioned us to design a wearable urn for some of his wife’s ashes that we were able to include her wedding ring in the design. We both cried when we picked it up. Arts and culture industries are of tremendous value to our local economy. One of the proudest accomplishments of my life was building that business into one that sustained 12 full time jobs for other artists, and was regularly recognized as one of the top handmade jewelry stores in Canada. I’ve always supported the arts, and I will continue to support the arts, and when I’m your MP – I hope – I will be a passionate advocate for any policy that uplifts artists and the gifts that they bring to our communities. I’ll do it from my personal experience.

Manly – Arts and culture aren’t just good for the economy, they are the lifeblood of our community. That’s how we share our stories, that’s how we share our culture, that’s how we enrich our lives and bring people together as your me, I will fight for an increase in funding for the Canada Council for the Arts, for local performing arts groups, and to ensure that arts programs get steady, stable funding and multi year funding to ensure that they can thrive. We also need to be funding festivals, celebrations, cultural events. We’ve seen a lot of those kind of things run into financial problems after the COVID. . They provide incredible economic benefit, and they need stable funding. We need to support Indigenous artists. We need to make sure that they’re not getting ripped off for their culture, that they’re not being appropriated, that their art is protected through property rights, and that they get the support that they need to share their art with the world. We can’t talk about culture without talking about supporting the CBC. We need to support the CBC. It needs proper funding, and we should have per capita funding that matches what they do with the BBC in the UK. To make sure that it is a stable, steady organization that can provide Canadian stories. So arts and culture sector deserves strong, consistent support, and I will work to make sure that that happens.

Corfield – Stabilize funding for rural and indigenous scholars for the multi year support, and new programs. Invest in arts infrastructure like venue upgrades and mobile programs for underserved areas. Such as, I’m not certain that the Port Theatre got its dance rehearsal hall yet? No? Well, Mark Carney’s plan says infrastructure. That’s infrastructure right there. I also want to tell you a little bit during COVID, I spend my days working on the totem pole that you see at Mafeo Sutton Park. I absolutely support the arts. I support indigenous arts. I also want to say, CBC is needed more now than it’s ever been needed. Because we’re in an economic war with our neighbors in the south, and we need to protect our country, and we need to be able to communicate with those members within our country, and we can do that through the CBC. So again, supporting the culture, supporting arts, supporting culture, investing in our indigenous knowledge and our indigenous knowledge keepers, so that they ensure that their culture is able to live on for generations to come.

Question – non-profits play a critical role in the economic and social fabric of our region, with over 120 registered organizations and hundreds of community groups contributing millions to the local economy. How do you represent and support the nonprofit sector at the federal level?  Furthermore, given the growing urgency of issues with issues like homelessness, particularly among vulnerable populations such as youth and seniors, what is your understanding of the root causes? How will your party address this through sustainable, impactful policies? And finally, what immediate and long term actions will you take to support healthcare delivery at Nanaimo Regional Hospital, including securing infrastructure investments such as new patient tower?

Welton – Very complex questions. Okay, so I’m not really too keen on this, the whole homelessness thing, in the sense that we’re reliving different issues. You know, we have people who are having a hard time affording a home. That is very different from those people that are not able to live in conventional homes because of substance abuse issues. So I’m a little concerned by the number of nonprofit organizations we have and all the money that would be flowing through there. And I would suggest it’s about time we had some accounting, financial accounting and performance accounting to see what the effectiveness of that. Because an ongoing homelessness industrial complex is, we’re going the wrong direction with it. But let me get into the topic of health care, which is one of the most pressing, and I think one of the areas that really needs money. And we don’t have a money tree, so we have to get pretty serious about this. I want to read to you from the PPC policies on health care, they’re very different than the other parties. Number one, encourage public and private service delivery. Repeal the Canada Health Act, and create the conditions for provincial and territorial governments to set up mixed, private, public, universal systems, like other developed countries. They will be fully responsible for healthcare funding and management and fully accountable to their citizens for the results.

Kronis – So our nonprofit sector is vital to our island. To those of you who are here tonight who volunteer or work for or run an organization that helps our community, thank you for your service. Canadians are struggling. Residents of Nanaimo Ladysmith are struggling. Many families cannot make ends meet without extra support, and our community somehow figures out how to deliver assistance time and time again, it’s been wonderful to see and get to know many nonprofit organizations that have stepped up here in Nanaimo. Ladysmith, it’s truly the definition of community, but people are anxious about the precariousness of that support system, because while our health system struggles, it feels like community is all we have. I hear regularly about the lack of family doctors long waits and inadequate care. I’ve connected more friends than I ever thought I would have to to grief counselors, to lawyers and to other supports that too many people have needed in moments of distress. The issues that nonprofits and healthcare workers deal with are truly matters of life and death. We need to stop measuring success in healthcare by the dollars spent, and get back to measuring success based on outcomes. It’s time for a change, and I will work collaboratively with all of you and with our nonprofit sector to achieve better outcomes.

Manly – Our nonprofit sector is vital to our communities. They provide services for people who are marginalized. They provide environmental services. They provide arts and culture. They do the things that governments and business can do. I’ve worked a lot with nonprofits in this community, and they do amazing work, and I’ve supported them as an MP. I’ve supported their grant applications. I’ve written letters of support, and I’ve reached out to the to ministers to push for more funding for nonprofits in our community. Homelessness and housing insecurity are serious issues in this here in Nanaimo-Ladysmith. I ran a homeless shelter for two and a half years, and the number of people that showed up at the door that were low income workers, people with disabilities, I had a VIU student there for a while. Seniors, so many seniors. The oldest senior was 83 years old. That is just unfathomable. It’s heartbreaking, and it is because we’ve had successive Conservative and Liberal governments who have cut funding for affordable housing. With our hospital, we need to build a new patient tower, and I advocated for that when I was a member of parliament. I took it to the health minister. I said, you need to go back to the 1960s when the federal government put capital funding into the hospitals. We have a $30 billion deficit in just hospital maintenance across this country, and half our hospitals are older than 50 years old. It’s about time the federal government stepped up.

Corfield – we absolutely need to fund heatlh care, including the tower and cath lab and emergency services.Why? Over 500,000 people living north of the Malahat do not have access to tertiary care. That is not Canadian. Canadians have the right to health care, and we have to do better. How can we do that together? With Mark Carney, he wants to create one economy in Canada. Canada, not 13. Healthcare falls under the provincial jurisdiction, so we need to create ways for accountability back to our product. We have way too many health authorities. We need to get together and have one health authority, limit the amount of spending, figure out the patient dollars. There’s a few things we could do. Carney’s plan has enhanced youth mental health services through the new $500 million Youth Mental Health Fund. That’s what we have to do. We have to advance Indigenous health equity with First Nations leadership at the table needs to be a partner, an equal partner at the table, and the 35 other First Nations that live north of the Malahat need to be included and not excluded, but included. I’ll talk about root causes of homelessness. You know, it’s trauma and mental health. We have to tackle those issues at the root of where they start. I will also say not for profits are absolutely essential, and I will help to create a federal strategy when I’m your MP to support nonprofits.

Barron – nonprofits need to be provided with long term, sustainable funding. I know firsthand, as someone’s who has worked in nonprofits, how challenging it is to plan the services, the important services that people are providing in our communities when you’re constantly having to apply for the next grant. So making sure that nonprofits have the money that they need to be able to deliver the services, but nonprofits are actually filling very vital gaps in our communities right now. The trickle down impact, nonprofits are feeling the impacts of that firsthand. I think about the Brain Injury Society who’s providing incredible services to people living with brain injuries, their families, their loved ones and their support networks, and how important it is that we are seeing people that are working in these jobs actually having the funding required so that they’re not set up for failure, so that they can provide the supports that they so desperately want to provide. So I worked alongside the the Nanaimo Brain Injury Society, to see a national approach to brain injuries, to see people being able to access the supports that they need when they need them, so that we don’t have people showing up in complex care in our health care system. We know that investing in communities is economically the best way forward, and I can assure you, I’ll continue to do work like that as your Member of Parliament.

Question: Housing affordability and availability are be critical issues across the country. What role do you believe the federal government should play in supporting market rate housing, and how will your party work to remove barriers to home ownership, particularly for first time homebuyers?

Kronis – I want to thank the Home Builders Association for the work you’re doing, and I want you to know that when you elect a Conservative government, we are going to supercharge your efforts. Housing is yet another area where wholesale change is absolutely necessary. Both home prices and rent on the island have more than doubled over the last decade. Young adults cannot afford to live here, so our kids and grandkids are moving. Interest rates have made it impossible for people to make their monthly payments. In 2024 Nanaimo had 23% fewer housing starts than we did five years ago. And so far this year, housing starts are actually down even more, by 51%, compared to the same time last year. These are problems that are not going to be solved by layering on another housing bureaucracy, as the Liberal platform plans to do. We need the government to get out of the way to get more homes built at a lower cost. So in addition to creating 350,000 additional trained positions, our Conservative plan for change will eliminate the federal sales tax on new homes – not just for first time homebuyers, but for all Canadians, including seniors who struggle to pay the property taxes and operating costs of their homes, but have nowhere to downsize to. I’m looking forward to collaborating with all levels of government so that we can build more new homes here. Canadians deserve the opportunity to live in an affordable home in a safe community.

Manly – so the housing affordability crisis isn’t going to be solved by subsidizing developers who are selling market rate homes. What we need is the government to get back into building affordable homes and co ops for the people that need them. So we’re talking about low wage workers, students, seniors, people with disabilities. We’re always going to need affordable housing for these folks, and so that’s what we need to do, is start to build more affordable housing units. And where we are proposing that we triple the amount of affordable housing in this country. We need to stop speculation in the housing market and stop treating it like a stock market. We need to stop having foreign investors buying up real estate here and driving up prices. We need to make sure that we have public registries that show who the real beneficial owners of properties are, because right now, they can be hidden behind investments and blind trusts and things like that. We need to make sure that we end preferential tax treatment for corporate landlords and real estate investment trusts so that they drive up prices. And we need to to end this process of them buying up affordable units and driving them up into market rates so that rentals become unaffordable for ordinary working folks and people who need affordable housing. Thank you.

Corfield – to quote the Prime Minister, Canada needs to get back in the business of building homes. We can reduce the barriers by creating access for first time homeowners. We need to in the forest industry, move from primary, move to secondary and tertiary forest industries, to ensure that we can actually get fiber and finished wood product into our local economy. That will actually reduce the possibility in the house. But what’s our problem? Canada doesn’t have Crown land available in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith area. If it does, it’s already alloted to Snuneymuxw. So we have to be mindful of that. We have to be mindful that Canada needs to settle land claims with First Nations so we can assure that there is certainty for growth. Growth will only come when we have certainty in our Nanaimo-Ladysmith area to ensure that we can grow these homes. So that is one thing that I will be focused on and working on as your MP. Ensuring that we have a land base to to build for first time homeowners.

Barron – what we know is that housing is a basic human right, and instead, what we’ve seen is consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments have allowed the housing market to be used as an investment tool. We’re seeing affordable homes coming up and then corporations swooping in buying them up before people in our communities have even a chance to be able to get into the market and to be able to have a home and a roof over their head. And so the NDP will make sure that we’re moving forward with homes that are affordable. One thing that we’re committing to is to replace the housing accelerator fund. Now I’d like to point out this is the same housing accelerator fund that the MPs in the Conservative Party were not allowed to push forward because of the leader had said that that was not allowed. Anyways, let’s move forward. With real solutions that we are putting in, a strategy that has funds attached to it that are long term, that we are attaching to those funds going into our communities, the requirement that there are regulations that we’re not seeing increased renovictions from homes, that there is not continued price gouging. And of course, let’s make sure that we have the workers that are being trained with Canadian products to make sure that we have the homes that we need, including cooperatives, affordable housing. We need non market housing. We need private market Absolutely. But we need to be investing to make sure that people have the homes that they need.

Welton – call me skeptical about government programs and where all the money is going to come from, especially government programs to build homes. I don’t think you really want a home that was built by the government. Housing Affordability is absolutely a critical issue, especially in particular for young people, first time buyers. The federal government’s role is actually quite simple. The extraordinarily high levels of immigration, encouraged and facilitated by the existing government, have introduced outsized demands for housing. High demand means high prices. We all get this. Anybody who has sold a house during a bidding war understands what that does to price, when there’s that demand. Around 250,000 or so houses are built in Canada each year. The Liberals have been bringing in a million people a year. That’s a huge demand. Okay, so we do have to answer the question, if we’re going to bring them in, how we’re going to house them? Well, we don’t have an answer to that. So an answer is to reduce the immigration to a more sustainable level, and that will reduce the pressures on house prices. We’ll actually be able to house people. Canada first.

Question – what specific measures will your party take to reduce government imposed costs, streamline regulations and red tape in the home building process, support necessary infrastructure and address chronic labor shortages within the residential construction industry.

Manly – Nanaimo is one of the fifth fastest growing region in Canada, so we’ve seen a boom here in the people moving to Nanaimo and it has created a real crisis. The federal government could be supporting municipalities by helping them with the software development of tools that help them to streamline the process for permitting, etc, just to make the whole process. But I have a development behind my house. It was zoned 10 years ago, has permitted eight years ago, and it hasn’t been built yet. And that’s because it is a market driven economy. That’s why we need the federal government to do what they did from World War Two to the early 80s, where they built affordable housing and cooperative housing for the people in our community that cannot afford market housing. That’s the right thing to do. Let the market sort itself out with interest rates and supply and demand, and the development behind my house will eventually get built based on the market. But let’s, let’s get the government involved where it needs to be involved. That’s affordable housing. absolutely support housing initiatives that enable people to get into a home.

Corfield – I absolutely support housing initiatives that enable people to get into a home. I lived in a cola housing, and I’m proud of that. That enabled me to save a little bit of money to buy my first house. So subsidized housing actually works. So I actually agree with Paul on this. So what do we need to do? We need to have approval.for indigenous, cooperative, and non profit housing projects. Under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan, we gotta train trades people, bring in skilled workers thru immigration. And again, using creative solutions like modular builds and partnerships to work around the land limits. And I keep saying this because I’m going to drive this home – until we have certainty in British Columbia resolved through the treaty process for another recognized agreement. We don’t have certainty. We need to get back in the business of resolving land claims in British Columbia.

Barron – I’ll build off what I was talking about before. There’s solutions that we need to be moving forward. We need to be getting creative. One thing that has come up over and over again is around the construction of prefabricated homes to speed up building timelines. Right now, seeing everything that’s happening in the United States and the threats that have been happening, is so important that we are looking at solutions that will increase that security, that we can develop and not have to rely on the chaos that’s being created down south. That we know that we have what we need to be able to build here in Canada. Having pre fabricated homes is one step in that direction, to make sure that we can have what we need here in Canada. The other thing is around making sure that we are trained, that we are training, and having those who can do the work actually here and trained to be able to do. We know how much emphasis is placed on other areas of education. We need to make sure that we are supporting our province to deliver effective trades and skill building, as we know that we need people here in Canada to build the homes that we need and to ensure that people have a roof over their head. It is a basic human right. This is not an investment tool for rich corporations. This is a right that everyone deserves to have a place to call home.

Welton – there’s some talk here about supply side economics in effect, and those dressing supply side providing more homes. That’s just another inflationary effect. We try to build more homes, we’re going to need more materials, we’re going to need more more people. That’s going to drive up the wages. We’re not actually bringing in the kind of people that know how to build homes. So it’s a little bit of a pie in the sky idea there. I just don’t see it viable for the government to be involved on that level. And I’ve heard talk on both sides about government involved, and then let the let the market sort itself out. The ideas here have been all over the map. I think it’s pretty simple that we’re seeing a housing crisis largely created by excessive demand, which is the amount of immigration that we have at these extraordinarily high levels. I know it’s not a particularly kind thought or popular idea, but our levels are way above historic levels, and it’s creating excessive pressures in the system that are harming young Canadians.

Kronis – So Canada needs more homes, but we need to build homes, not bureaucracy. We’ve seen many, many, many housing announcements over the last 10 years, and there are more than 150,000 federal regulations, more than 20,000 that have been added in the last little while that stand in the way of Canadians getting things done. And so this question is about red tape, and what we would do to reduce red tape. And there’s a few things that we would do. The first one is, is that we would implement a two for one rule that says that for every new regulation you bring in, you need to find two regulations that you take away. What we will also do is we will ensure that we train up 350,000 more trades people to be able to be available to build those homes. Training is a way to enhance people’s skills, and it will provide good jobs for Canadians. The classic sort of Liberal approach to things is to send people cheques and create government bureaucracies to dispense money. Our approach is to build our way out of it. It is time to build that. That building will create good jobs for Canadians. Thank you.

Question – Would you agree to the elimination, or at least the reduction in the number of political signs for another election? They are a blight on the landscape and waste a plastic to be disposed of after the election.

Corfield – well, seeing as I was the last one to put up my signs, and my signs have been disappearing like crazy. I think I’d agree to the elimination or fewer signs, because I do agree. I know they’re not recyclable. They’re plastic. Paul, are your recyclable? So, yes, absolutely, signs have been my nightmare.

Barron – I guess my answer to this would be that the signs really mean this much (showing 1cm between her finger and thumb) in the bigger scale of an entire election process. And so the signs, I don’t really think, mean a lot to all of us, but they are one tool for engagement, so I’ll give them that. But I’d rather focus my time on the many other tools of engagement during elections. So being out and talking to people in community, having debates like this one today, having all candidates here for all the debates, making sure that we are out in the community. We are all here today, applying for a very important job that impacts all of your lives, so making sure that we are all showing up. Here to answer the tough questions and to make sure that you can make the best decision for you on where your vote should lie.

Welton – you’ll essentially hear agreement from me on this issue, not only because our party has about a tenth of the budget as the other parties. I understand that there has to be a certain amount of name recognition the candidate name with the party that some people are out there, they’re driving around, they’re noticing that there is an election happening and who the players are with the signs. But we can do that with far less than the profusion that we see out there. I do actually have a stronger feeling about lawn signs, and it has to do with the division we’re seeing too much of in society. And I feel that neighbors are looking at their neighbors and questioning their politics. They’re finding a reason to dislike their neighbors because of a political statement, and that’s unfortunate. I think the voting and democracy is more of a private decision. People should be informed and not necessarily declaring to everybody and trying to influence others.

Kronis – I want to thank you for this question, because it gives me an opportunity to thank my sign team, because as fast as those signs are coming down, they’re putting them back up. So thank you to everyone who has shown their support, who’s let us know that a signs down and who has helped put them back up. Now, municipal bylaws, from a constitutional perspective, are not the purview of federal Members of Parliament, and I have no doubt that there would be a robust discussion and debate about this topic at Council, incorporating topics like freedom of expression, freedom of speech, environmental impacts and the ability of people to make their views heard, and for candidates to find a way to make get their names out. But whatever the rules are that the various entities that govern signs in this riding make we will always strive to do our best to abide by.

Manly – the signs may not be recyclable, but they’re reusable. I think they’re a blight as well. Honestly, there’s actually two parties here that have adhered to the local sign bylaw. There’s a lot of other oversized signs that aren’t adhering to the by law, and I find that very unfortunate and really, really problematic. Because some of us, as a city councilor, I should be following that bylaw. Quite honestly. They are a necessary blight in elections. But I kind of agree with Steve that I’ve heard more people say that they don’t want signs. They’re supporting me, but they don’t want them because there’s so much vitriol and division in our community, and we need to work on coming together as a community board and being a little more respectful to each other during elections.

Question – Can you please share with us what in your background makes you the best candidate to represent this writing?

Barron – I’m a single mom with two kids and understand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. We need more people in parliament that understand what it’s like to experience the challenges in our communities, to be able to go to Parliament, to be able to fill the gaps and advocate for true solutions in our communities. The other thing is, right now, we only have 30% women elected in federal politics. That’s the highest it’s ever been. I just want to point out that we need to be doing all that we can. I’ve been pushing for electoral reform to make sure that we see a parliament that is representative of our communities. And so why am I the best fit? Because I understand what it’s like. I’m an embedded piece of part of this community. I love being part of this community, and I’m going to do everything that I can to defend everything that people here in Nanaimo-Ladysmith hold so dear to their hearts.

Welton – as somebody who has degrees in earth sciences, worked in the environmental field for years. I have that kind of academic background and personal experience and passion for the protection of the environment. I have the negotiating skills, diplomatic skills from working on large projects with various stakeholders. I am a father and stepfather, very concerned about the future of Canada, for the young people, and that’s why I believe that I am a good candidate for the MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

Kronis – the first job of an MP is to run a really good constituency office, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. And it’s something that my background as a lawyer and a team builder really prepares me for. Because when someone comes to see a lawyer, they have a problem you’re or they want to be heard, and your job is to open a file, work that file, keep them updated on the file, and ultimately make sure that you deliver what people are expecting. And that’s what we’re going to do. When it comes to building a team. I thanked my sign team in the last question, and I want to thank the rest of my team in this one. We have built an incredible team in this campaign. It’s been a team of people from all kinds of walks of life and all kinds of different situations and very different political viewpoints, and we’ve done that, and we’ve created an atmosphere of collaboration and fun and really something doing something meaningful. So that’s what we’re going to do.

Manly – Well, I have a broad range of experience as a filmmaker. I learned how to do a lot of research and talk to people with different viewpoints and then find solutions to serious problems. As a member of parliament here, I responded to everybody’s emails, I responded to calls, and I responded in ways that assisted people with the challenges and issues that they were facing in our community. This election, I want to go back to the House of Commons to deal with Donald Trump. I was in the debates the first time around the change from NAFTA the CUSMA, is actually my area of expertise. Is international trade, investment. We need good, solid, progressive voices in the House of Commons that understand these issues and are able to counter the kind of threats that we’re dealing with to our sovereignty, to our economy, and to ensure that we protect workers rights, consumer standards and environmental protections in any trade agreement that we sign again with Donald Trump.

Corfield – so I’m the daughter residential school survivor. I’m also the daughter of a woman that was so traumatized that what happened to her, left her with settlement illnesses as a result of that trauma. But yet I stood up after even being told in at John Barsby school, that I would amount to nothing. So this is the type of racism that I have experienced in my life. So I stood up for our people, over 30 years, dating myself here. So I don’t come from a life of privilege. Actually come from a hereditary system of government where I fall under a chief. I also paid my own way to school. I have a BA in First Nation studies at MA in conflict analysis and management, and I have a PhD in organizational leadership and management. I have worked and worked tirelessly.

Question – how will your party ensure the well being of our veterans?

Welton – so this is an issue that of great importance to the PDC. We do have a platform element to policy on veteran support services. We do want to respect them in a better way than they have in the past, for the service that they have provided, they have been underserved. This is an area where the people. City would be spending more money to support veterans. We understand their mental health needs, we understand their financial needs, and that the and the young ones definitely need some support transitioning into the more the non military workforce.

Kronis – this is an issue that means a lot to me, because I’m on the executive at Branch 2561, one of our Legions. Veterans Affairs is something that I see every day, and I was so happy to see our platform on this and I would encourage you to take a look at it. It’s pretty incredible. It includes automatically approving disability applications if they’re not processed within 16 months.

It involves commitments to make sure that skills obtained in the military are recognized and translatable into the private sector. It includes service dogs for people who need them, and a national monument for our service in Afghanistan and so much more. I am so proud of this policy.

Manly – We need to make sure that our veterans are properly cared for when they return to Canada or when they serve our country. And that includes RCMP, it actually includes firefighters, it includes people that serve our community across the board. That’s why you see, you know the walks of the cycles that they do. They all stand together. People that are have dealt with trauma. They sometimes have mental health challenges after serving their community. We need to make sure that they have access to good housing, that their pensions are protected, that their survival benefits are protected and that they are respected. I’ve heard from veterans in this community that we have veterans who are homeless living out at Mount Benson. That is just unfathomable. It’s really problematic. We need to do a better job of protecting those that protect and serve us.

Corfield – first, we can thank our vets for providing us the sovereignty that we have in this country. We can thank our vets that we have our Charter of Rights and Freedoms that we can live by. We can thank our vets for protecting our country against wars, and we can also, again, thank our vets for everything that they’ve done to step up to protect others. We’re in an economic war right now, and we’re reminded of all the sacrifices that our vets have actually given for our country when they went to war for us. So I stand behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s platform to support his commitments to veterans. You built our country, you should be cared for with the dignity and respect that you would have earned and deserved. Thank you for your service.

Barron – First, I want to say thank you to all those who have served our country, their families, their loved ones. We know the incredible sacrifice that these people have have done, and of course, the fact that we are enjoying the peace and freedoms that we are today because of their service. I also want to comment on how important it is our local legions that they are supported. We have three legions in this riding – and they are stepping up to provide incredible supports for people in our communities. It’s always impressive to see the community and the love that’s coming out of there. But ultimately, veterans need to be provided with the supports required to have affordable homes, to have head to toe health care that includes mental health supports. I don’t know why we insist on separate separating out different parts of our body, our teeth, our ears, our eyes, our mental health. It’s all interconnected, so making sure that we have head to toe health care for our veterans so that they can access the care that they need.

Question – Nanaimo has thousands of people homeless. Homeless people die two ties as often as the rest of Vancouver Island from poison drugs. We spend money on police and commonly safety. What would you do to support community members who are struggling?

Kronis – this is a really important question, because so many people are suffering in our communities, and we need to take a holistic approach to this very complex problem. It’s actually in our platform. We need to return to a housing first approach for people who find themselves unhoused, and we need to work on the root causes of poverty and the root causes of trauma that put people on the street. That is one of the reasons why we are focused on many aspects of this problem. I have heard over and over again at the doors how well received our commitment is to provide 50,000 recovery spaces for 50,000 Canadians. But recovery is not the only way that people end up on the street. We need to tackle poverty. We need to tackle all we need to tackle issues around providing good jobs and income security and to continue to support our nonprofits and build our communities. Thank you.

Manly – As you know, I’ve run a homeless shelter for two and a half years, and there are far too many people in our community, who never expected to be homeless, who became homeless. Low wage workers, students, people with disabilities, seniors, very vulnerable people. That is because we do not have the social infrastructure we need in this community, affordable housing, Co-op housing, places for people to live with, those folks that have mental health and addiction challenges. We need complex care beds. We need treatment facilities. When somebody asks for treatment, they need to get the treatment right away. They can’t be waiting four weeks or five weeks or six weeks to get treatment. They should be sent somewhere right away. People are asking for help and we can’t get the help that they need. We don’t have enough mental health resources. Mental health should be part of our health care system, as well as teeth, PharmaCare and everything else. Head to Toe all the way.

Corfield – Nanaimo deserves to feel safe at home, at work, downtown. This is a health crisis with public safety consequences that requires leadership. I am absolutely aligned with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plans for housing and homeless. We need to take a trauma, informed safety first approach to the opioid crisis, expand access to treatment, detox, and long term recovery options, enforce against organized traffickers and unsafe sheltering practices, support permanent supportive housing with oversight background services, require transparency and accountability in housing program delivery. Coordinate across federal, provincial and municipal levels, so cities like Nanaimo aren’t left to carry the burden alone. Bottom line, we cannot arrest the whale. We can’t ignore the Public Safety Commission this time, it’s time.

Barron – we’re seeing in our communities that so many people are living paycheck to paycheck. I’m talking to many seniors in our community who are worried that they’re not going to be able to make their rent or their mortgages, that they’re having to make tough decisions after contributing our communities for generations. This is a big issue, and it needs to be addressed. And so you know some of the ways that we need to be looking at making sure that people have affordability, so making sure that housing is affordable, making sure that groceries are affordable, making sure that we have head to toe health care, making sure that we’re looking at the root causes of poverty and not just continuing to put bandage solutions to a complex problem. But yes, there are more and more people that are without a home, and we need to remember that these are our brothers, our sisters, our fathers, our mothers. These are people on the streets that deserve to have a place to call home, and deserve to to know that they you know that they have a place to call home. I’m going to leave it there.

Welton – focusing on the drug addiction and substance abuse issues, this is going the wrong. We’re seeing the situation on our streets getting worse, not better. So we have to reevaluate what we’ve been doing in that regard. The PPC would recriminalize hard drug use. It’s not helping to just give people drugs and leave them in that state. They need treatment. To that end, one of the policies that the PPC has is a replacement of Canada Health transfers to enable the provinces to get into the specific issues. In effect, what the practice would be for to for Ottawa to give up its Goods and Services Tax and let provincial and territorial governments occupy this fiscal room that would bring in $52 billion revenues, which is the same amount transferred by Ottawa, to fund health care, so we could remove the federal impedance and have this directly handled, The money, directly handled by the provinces.

Rebutal from Corfield – I just wanted to raise the fact that provincial government’s have been responsible for providing health care. It’s time for the federal government to have an accountability framework for the provinces so that they actually provide the right to Canadians, which is the right to health care.

Rebuttal from Barron – so I’ve heard a mention around the toxic substance crisis, and I just want to use this opportunity to make sure that we are clear that we are seeing again so many of our loved ones that are losing their lives in this toxic substance crisis. We know groups like Mom Stop the Harm who have so tragically lost their children are telling us what needs to happen. We need to be following public health advice, not politicians, but people who are actually trained and qualified to work in healthcare. We need to listen to those who have lost their loved ones. We know that we need to keep people safe. We need to make sure that we have on demand treatment that meets people’s needs. So that could mean so many different options, of course, and we need to make sure that we’re protecting our borders to stop the toxic substances from crossing over in from the United States into Canada. During Harper’s time, we had 1,100 border officers. We need to make sure that we have border officers that are stopping those illicit substances from coming into Canada and the ingredients as well.

Rebuttal from Manly – we do need to address the root causes of homelessness. And it’s actually a much larger problem than what you see on our streets. There are people in our community living in cars. There are people camped out around in the bushes, all over the place that aren’t fitting in with what you what you see on our streets, with mental health and addiction. So we need to deal with the root causes. Is poverty, there’s trauma, there’s a lot of complex problems that people have dealt with that have led them to this place of being homeless. So we need a housing first policy. We also need to direct transfers from the federal government to ensure that the funds that the government aligns to the provinces are spent for the things that they submit with what you spend them on, that includes health care, mental health treatment facilities, etc. Can’t just go flowing into general revenue and be used however the provinces decide to spend those funds, they need to be directed transfers.

Question – Submitted by a person identifying as a nurse, read verbatim, “I am a nurse. What have you and your party done to protect us from the drugs, the violence, the weapons and assaults brought into our workplace. We feel nothing. How will your party protect us?

Manly – I’m sorry to hear that is happening and it shouldn’t be happening, and that’s one of the things you know in our health care system. Running a shelter, I had to look out for the Work Safe of my workers. So that meant phoning the police. That meant banning people from the shelter who were violent, who were problematic, and no health care worker should have to put up with this. That’s why we need we need complex care. We need treatment facilities, and we need to deal with criminality. The repeat offenders in the community are the ones that are causing the crime. They are victimizing marginalized people in our community. The most vulnerable members of the homeless community are the ones that are dealing with the most violence. So let’s deal with these violent criminals. Let’s deal with the people that are causing you know, the most damage in our community in the criminal justice system, and make sure that the vulnerable members of our society are protected, including nurses.

Corfield – our front line workers should not have to endure this. They’re well trained. Some of these nurses, nurse practitioners, go to school for what five years become a crisis here, student nurse practitioner, registered nurse, four years. LP, two years, the police ambulance, all facing insane, similar situations. It’s absolutely unfair, and we have to find new ways to deal with this, I would say it’s a crisis. We have to find ways, and the only way we can do that is by talking with each other, by building a community of practice that enables those that are most impacted to come together, to discuss it, to just to create our own solutions, and we can support them as leaders, we can just support. Full stop.

Barron – We know our health care system is overburdened and that nurses who are qualified and wanting to provide a level of care for our loved ones at the time that they need it, are burning out. It is tragic to see, and so the federal government needs to step up to provide the supports to the provinces so that they can deliver the health care that people in our communities deserve. We need to see the federal government increasing the amount of the health care transfers to provinces, that was reduced during Harper’s time again, and now we’re seeing the impacts on people in our communities. We need to make sure that those who are qualified to work in health care are having reduced barriers of being able to get into that work. We’re seeing people that are coming here from outside of Canada, who are qualified in healthcare, yet are receiving barrier after barrier in being able to do the work that they need. Ultimately, nurses need to have what they need and deserve to be able to show up to work and know that they’re going to be able to have safe working conditions, a fair wage and a representative that’s going to stand with them.

Welton – my partner was a nurse, and it was very difficult for me to hear the stories when she would come home from work. It raised my my ire, my protective instincts, but there was little that we were able to do. It’s shameful, that shouldn’t be happening. Politically, we would put the front line workers, the regular citizens, ahead of the criminal element, and on this issue, probably a rare time that I agree with Paul, I will support everything he said.

Kronis – I have so many conversations about this, including one that I just had this morning where I was reminded that not only our nurses and the people who support them in various settings completely and utterly overworked and stressed – but they deal with people dying in their arms every day. As a human rights lawyer, I have an active case right now around nursing and PTSD and the kind of supports that people aren’t getting in the institutional setting, and so this is an area that I actually know quite well, and there’s a few things here that there won’t be enough time to talk about them. One of them is that treatment for 50,000 Canadians is going to make a big difference. But another thing that’s going to make a big difference is increasing the supply of healthcare workers to relieve some of that burden through a blue seal program that will mirror the red seal program that we currently have from the trades to make nursing qualifications more portable and to make other healthcare qualifications more affordable.

Question – will your party reintroduce Bill C-295, the Long Term Care Act, that was approved by parliament, but was under review in the Senate.

Corfield – Absolutely. It’s a Liberal bill. We will 100% bring that back.

Barron – yes, I will absolutely support it. I mean, I think it begs a bigger question here is, why don’t we have a Long Term Care Act currently in place? Why do we not have a strategy and a plan for the population that we know is aging? We know that our population is growing, and so we need to make sure that our loved ones are cared for in the long term. We saw the implications of us not having the supports in place for people during the pandemic. It was devastating to see the impacts on people who are living in care homes, and their loved ones. We need to have a strategy in place to ensure that we have public accessible care for our loved ones, so that everybody can access the care that they deserve without having to use their credit cards.

Welton – it sounds very nice, but I’m going to admit to you that I don’t know the details of that Bill, and so I’m not going to offer or opinion on something that I’m not familiar enough with.

Kronis – Long Term Care is largely provided in provincial operational contexts, and we need to work to ensure that those care homes have the supports that they need to be able to provide excellence for our vulnerable seniors. And so I will do everything in my power to make sure that we’re able to support great and important the great long term care at the provincial level, in a way that does not result in a massive increase in bureaucracy and paperwork at the national level.

Manly – Long Term Care challenges was one of the issues that somebody brought to me when I was a Member of Parliament. They came and told me about the substandard conditions that their parents were living in in a long term care home here in Nanaimo. This was a long term care home owned by a foreign corporation. And so I started to talk about it in the House of Commons and say that we need to make sure that we’re not warehousing seniors for profit in substandard conditions, because it was a it was obscene what was happening. And then COVID happened, and we saw the deaths in long term care facilities. We saw people warehoused in four to a room that were dying. And I was, you know, apoplectic with it, so I wrote a motion. I got it costed by the parliamentary Budget Office, and the Liberal Party adopted a lot of that motion, and it’s in the Long Term Care Act. We need to bring this back. We need to make sure that seniors are properly taken care of, and we need to make sure that it’s not for profit. It is non-profit.

Rebuttal from Barron – I just want to add the point that we need to be making sure that we see our health care remaining public and accessible. What we’re seeing right now, what I’m hearing on the door when I’m talking to people is the fear that we are moving towards more American style health care, and so we need to make sure that we are protecting our public health care here in Canada. We cannot see Conservatives coming in and making cuts to our health care, increasing the privatization of our health care system, and seeing our loved ones being even more at risk of not getting the care that they need and deserve.

Corfield – ʔaʔiičum. That is what we call our elders. ʔaʔiičum. In my culture, we do not generally put our elders in facilities and have others look after them. So ʔaʔiičum is the most important people in our community. So we look after them. So I will, always will, stand up for ʔaʔiičum every single day. However, I do know and believe, even though I’m not an expert in the field, that it was the Conservatives that sold off all the care homes to the foreign companies. So, what was with that? Bad for Canada.

Rebuttal from Kronis- I just want to correct the record here. Conservatives are not in favor of American style health care. If you look at the quote, it’s taken from a speech that Pierre Poilievre gave about the Ottawa airport. There is a lot of misinformation in this space. Conservatives voted in favor of C 295 and we have no intention of bringing American style health care to Canada.

Rebuttal from Manly – so we have a lot of foreign ownership in this country. And it was the Harper government that opened up foreign ownership of our long term care homes. We have, we have the highest level of foreign ownership in the OECD. We’re only like number two or something like that. So we’ve seen the Harper Conservatives. They sold off the Wheat Board to the Saudis. So sold off Nexen to the Chinese. 75% ownership of our fossil fuel industry is by foreign companies owned and controlled. Mining. LNG Canada, five, four multinationals. We have to stop the sell off of Canadian companies and Canadian resources and use those resources for the benefit of Canadians and Canadian companies and make sure that we get the maximum number of jobs. Stop selling off for our resources and back up on this whole privatization thing that we’ve been dealing with for decades. It’s time that Canadians have control of our resources, control of our healthcare facilities, and control of our destiny.

Closing Remarks

Stephen Welton, PPC – Okay, thank you. I just want to bring our attention back to where we really are in Canada right now as a result of the last 10 years of the Liberal-NDP coalition government. The Happy Planet Index down from fifth to 15. Debt per capita up. Purchasing power down. Violent crime rate up. Housing costs skyrocketing. Grocery prices consistently inflating. It’s getting worse under this government. We need a change. That’s what the PPC is offering. Is a change from the establishment parties. We have a different way to govern. We have a more fiscally responsible platform, and we’re looking to build our party and show another way to do things politically.

Lisa Marie Barron, NDP – I just want to say first data has been such an incredible honor to serve as your Member of Parliament since 2021 and I’m going to say I’m so far from done. There’s still so much work left to do. It has been so wonderful to be able to do the work. To see an expansion in our health care system, to see that dental care being expanded, to see PharmaCare being expanded, $10 a day child care. People in Nanaimo. Ladysmith know one thing I hear over and over at the door, that people here in Nanaimo Ladysmith do not want to see Conservatives representing this riding. I have a proven track record. I am here to beat the Conservatives again. I did it last time. I most certainly can do it again. You stand with me. You will have the person that will represent the people’s needs in our communities, and not large corporations, not the ultra rich. We don’t need any more of the top 1% in Parliament. We need people to understand what it’s like in our communities to get things done. Thank you.

Michelle Corfield, LPC – two people running for prime minister in this country at the moment, and I’m on the ballot with Mark Carney, and I couldn’t be prouder to be Canadian strong and stand up for Canada as we enter this economic war with Donald Trump. We feel that war right here in our in the Nanaimo Ladysmith. Our forest sector is under threat. It’s under threat for various reasons like provincial regulation legislation, but also soft wood and tariffs. I am committed to advance infrastructure investment like I’ve already done in our work to our hospital tower and our forest sector and our university, because our university needs to get back to what it was doing when it first started, and that’s training trades people. I’m excited to be on the ballot. My name is Michelle Corfield. April 28. Vote Liberal. Vote Michelle.

Paul Manly, GPC – I have been an effective member of parliament in this community. I’ve responded to everybody that’s showing up on my door. First Nations, pensioners, students, working people, people with disabilities, and when they ask me for help, I’ve gone to bat for them. I’ve changed legislation. I do that, but I’m effective because I don’t heckle, I don’t call people names, and I don’t engage in the juvenile behavior you see in the House of Commons. And that means I get the respect of ministers, and parliamentary secretaries, and the others that I work with. I’m also not whipped. I’m not told what to say or told how to vote. I’m not owned by the party bosses. So I can do what you need me to do in the House of Commons. I will fight for you. I will work hard for you. I will be transparent, and I will be effective. Vote for me and I’ll and I’ll gladly represent you in the House of Commons again, thank you.

Tamara Kronis, CPC – I’d like to thank everyone who put together tonight’s debate. We know that the last 10 years have been about the Liberals, but the next 10 years, we want them to be about you. I’ve knocked on doors up and down this riding. I spent last night door knocking Ladysmith and I’ve had some of the most meaningful conversations of my life on your doorsteps. This country is full of people who work hard, play by the rules, and just want a government that does the same. If we want safer communities, more affordable lives, and a future where our kids can actually get ahead, we need change, and we need it now. I volunteer at the Legion. I get regularly schooled by bridge playing seniors. My husband and I enjoy exploring trails with our dog. This is my home, and I love this community. It would be an honor and a privilege to serve as your Member of Parliament. Thank you.

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