Contenders for the vacant seat in the B.C. legislature shared their vision at a Nanaimo all-candidates debate Thursday, touching on issues such as homelessness, affordable housing and a foot-passenger ferry to Vancouver.
Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce president Kim Smythe told the audience at the Beban Park community centre: “This is one of the most important elections that Nanaimo has ever had.”
The outcome of the Jan. 30 byelection, called to fill the seat vacated by Leonard Krog when he became mayor of Nanaimo, has the potential to shift the balance of power in the legislature. The NDP-Green partnership has 44 seats to the Liberals’ 42.
Six people are running: Conservative Justin Greenwood, Liberal Tony Harris, New Democrat Sheila Malcolmson, Green candidate Michele Ney, Robin Richardson with the Vancouver Island Party, and Bill Walker for the Libertarian Party.
> For more on the byelection, go to timescolonist.com/bcelection
The candidates addressed the continuing problem of homelessness in the city, where a tent city had at least 300 campers. About 160 people were moved into temporary supportive housing, but some neighbours have complained about a rise in crime and lack of consultation from the province.
Ney said the city has seen 16 years of cuts in education and health care — the number of years the Liberals were in power — and said funding needs to be reinstated.
“Those children who have deep-rooted social, emotional, physical issues and traumas have been not addressed and supported as they move through the education system,” she said.
Malcolmson also took aim at the Liberals, saying the homelessness crisis was 16 years in the making, and said the tent city residents were moved into supportive housing because it was an emergency situation.
“I really regret that it is has had impacts on the neighbouring communities and is really wearing our the front-line groups that have been asked to take on the burden.”
The NDP has committed to building 121 new units of affordable housing, Malcolmson said. She raised the possibility of splitting up the supportive housing projects and adding more services to take the pressure off neighbours.
Harris said more supportive housing is needed. He reiterated the idea that sites could be rezoned for that use and programs could be introduced through collaboration between the city and province and in consultation with residents.
Greenwood said housing affordability is only part of the problem. Those with disabilities need to be cared, for but others can be taught to be self-reliant. “Unless these programs are directed at self-reliance, nothing is going to work.”
Richardson, whose party wants to break away from B.C. and become a new province, favours launching a pilot program in Nanaimo to provide citizens with a guaranteed income of $1,800 a month. Giving residents more money would create incentives for builders to put up rental units, he said.
Walker, who argues that government is too involved in the lives of citizens, said the homelessness crisis has been building for close to 50 years and called for removal of roadblocks to construction of affordable housing.
The debate was continuing at press time.
