Mel Arnold of Conservatives looks to secure third term in North Okanagan-Shuswap

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Through that work with the Wildlife Federation, Arnold worked with MLA’s, MP’s and government ministers, which eventually led him down the path to federal politics.

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Arnold was elected into office in 2015, and has held the seat as the MP for North Okanagan-Shuswap ever since.

Discussing the Conservative platform for the 2021 federal election, Arnold told Vernon Matters that a key issue for this riding is affordability.

“That is everything from [seeing] the price of gas go up 40 per cent here from a year ago; and the cost of groceries, home insurance, house prices, everything has just become more expensive and it’s harder for people to live day-to-day or to plan for the future,” said Arnold.

“That’s why we as Conservatives want to create more stability and secure jobs and secure the future for so many more Canadians.”

Arnold went on to say there has been an uncertainty in business growth in the region, and that businesses are also struggling to find staff. In order to address these concerns, he said a Conservative government would create incentives for businesses to hire new people.

“Training incentives, 25 per cent in tax and federal support for businesses to hire new employees, and up to 50 per cent incentives for people who have been off for longer term because of COVID,” said Arnold. “So we’re certainly going to encourage businesses to increase their hiring rate, and that, coupled with a gradual scaling back of programs for those that don’t really need any more, hopefully we’ll get people back into the employment sector again.”

He went on to say the Conservatives have a plan to increase densification in order to address the housing affordability issue.

“We’ll do that by tying transit infrastructure funding and resources into increased density in some of the urban centres,” said Arnold.

“We also recognize that we need to make more property and land available for development for housing. We’re looking at how much of the properties owned by the federal government, because the federal government is a significant property owner, how much of that property can be released and used for housing development.”

Mel Arnold visits a local farmers market (Submitted photo/Mel Arnold/Facebook)

Inflation is another issue that Arnold said needs to be addressed, saying if it continues to trend upwards, it won’t just have an impact on people getting into the housing market, but on everyone from seniors to young families to the next generation .

He adds there is no plan for a Conservative government to increase the minimum wage, saying it’s better to have a free market system with businesses taking the initiative to up the wage and make their jobs more appealing for people seeking work.

Arnold also took the time during the discussion with Vernon Matters to speak about the wildfires that have been a burden or concern for many people in the region, and tieing it into the issue of climate change, which he said the Conservatives are preparing to address. In order to do this, the party has created a plan entitled ‘Securing the Environment,’ which is included in their platform this year.

“There’s pieces in there where we look to transition vehicles away from fossil fuels towards electricity and hydrogen. We’re looking at ways to reduce the amount of energy that people need to heat their homes or operate their homes, and we’re also looking at how we can build in renewable natural gas that can be captured from landfill sites and other systems like that into the system so that we’re operating on much cleaner fuels,” said Arnold.

“We’re also looking at transitioning to liquefied natural gas so that we can get other countries off of coal-fired power generation. [It’s] a much cleaner alternative and our B.C. liquefied natural gas can be produced much cheaper than anywhere else in the world and we look on capitalizing on that for the benefit of all Canadians.”

The Conservative plan also includes a ‘carbon credit’ that would cap at a maximum of $50/tonne. Rather than go to fund green investments across the country like the Liberal carbon tax, the Conservative plan would have the money go into savings accounts that the individual could access in order to pay for their own green technologies for themselves, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines or solar panels for their own properties.

The discussion with Vernon Matters moved on to the topic of COVID-19 and health care, and Arnold took a moment to extend his gratitude to the health care workers, including paramedics and first responders, emergency room staff, and doctors and nurses.

“They’ve just been doing such an incredible job, and we understand how they are becoming so tired and fatigued because of the COVID situation,” said Arnold.

He went on to say he feels the Liberal government failed to respond to the pandemic quick enough, and criticized the messaging that has come out during the past 18 months as not being clear, which he says has created division amongst Canadians.

He added that he encourages everyone who can to get a vaccine, but also says he respects the rights of Canadians to make their own personal health choices.

“So we are looking at alternatives to mandatory vaccination. We called on this government for months to put in place rapid testing, make it available so that everyone had access to it, and they failed to do that. That would be part of our response, dramatically increase the opportunity for rapid testing,” said Arnold.

He added the cost of making the rapid testing available isn’t known at this time, but said they would allow people to get back to work and businesses could continue to operate, which would justify the expense.

“The costs to our tourism sector, or restaurants, any of these service industries, some of which have been closed for over a year now and some that have been struggling to get by for months, if we could get them reopened somehow and save their investments, their lifetime investments, this is what we need to do.”

He said anything they could do, whether it be increasing vaccination rates or making rapid tests more available, could help take some strain off the health care system, adding that rapid testing would also help cut quarantine times for people who recover from COVID-19, allowing them to get back into the workforce sooner.

Arnold also stated that mental health is a key pillar in the Conservative plan, saying a three-digit suicide prevention line would be established and health care transfers to the provinces would be increased by a minimum of six per cent a year to address health care and mental health supports. He also said incentives would be created for businesses so they could provide mental health care through their health care plans.

Another issue that Arnold discusses with Vernon Matters was Truth and Reconciliation. The topic came up while discussing residential schools, and Arnold said the findings at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School led him to write Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ask the government to follow through on the calls-to-action 71 through 76, all of which are focused on the topic of ‘Missing Children and Burial Information.’ Arnold added that Indigenous communities need to be at the forefront of this work to make appropriate choices as to how to move forward.

He said work also needs to be done to rebuild trust, saying “everyone needs to understand the wrongs that have been done in the past and how we got to where we are, so that we can move forward together. I don’t think any group can move forward in true reconciliation without everyone being involved in that reconciliation together.”

Arnold wrapped up the discussion with Vernon Matters by again stating the importance of creating a more affordable Canada, and that the Conservatives do plan to address the issue as it affects everyone from business owners to young families to seniors and the nearly-retired.

He also said a Conservative government would work to rebuild Canada’s international reputation and relations, which he claims has deteriorated in the past six years.

The 2021 federal election will be held Monday, Sept. 20.

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