Desautels runs in her first election as the North Okanagan – Shuswap Liberal candidate

Sep 13, 2021 | 5:00 AM

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles on the North Okanagan-Shuswap federal election candidates, running in alphabetical order.

Shelley Desautels is making her political debut as she runs as the Liberal party candidate in the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding.

Desautels was born and raised in Vernon, and has spent the last seven years living in Salmon Arm.

She told Vernon Matters that while this is her first time running in an election, it’s not her first voyage into the world of politics. In 2019 Desautels volunteered in Cindy Derkaz’s campaign, which she said inspired her to get her name on the ballot.

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“At that point I kind of saw how she was reaching out and advocating for people, and it just kind of clicked for me and that this is something that really makes sense to me,” said Desautels.

“I’ve done a lot of community advocacy works, so for me, to be in politics and help make positive changes, it is really is what I want to do in the future.”

Moving on to discuss policies, Desautels told Vernon Matters that climate change is something that needs to be addressed, especially after seeing the heat dome and the wildfires putting people’s lives and livelihoods in jeopardy this summer.

Shelley Desautels puts up one of her campaign signs ahead of the Sept.20 election. (Submitted photo/Shelley Desautels/Facebook)

Desautels says part of the Liberals’ climate change plan includes reducing emissions to have real long term positive impacts on the climate, but that will take time, so for now, work needs to be done to mitigate the impact of these events.

“So what we have done in light of the fires that have happened, specifically for B.C., we’ve proposed in our new plan if we get elected in, or when we get elected in, to hire and train a thousand new firefighters (across Canada) and we’re going to put $450-million to invest in equipment to fight fires. We’ve heard people saying ‘We were ready on the ground, we just wanted to fight these fires, but without the proper training, the proper insurance, the proper equipment, it was too dangerous,” said Desautels.

“So if we had 1,000 people who we could put out to fires as soon as they hit the ground, we’re not going to have this case where a fire takes off because we don’t have enough resources to tackle them.”

The Liberals also plan to top up the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund by $1.4-billion, which allows the government to do work on the ground to mitigate the impact of forest fires, such as through FireSmart practices and clearing debris that could catch in future fires.

Speaking about affordability and debt, Desautels told Vernon Matters that it’s important to know that the Liberals were trying to support people at the onset of the pandemic.

“We wanted to make sure people had food on their table, were able to keep roofs over their heads, and that businesses were able to stay open. So the money we put into the pandemic was necessary to keep communities going,” said Desautels.

“So [critics] talk about this frivolous debt, but I think it was absolutely important to do this to protect us.”

Desautels went on to say other Liberal initiatives to address affordability is an affordable housing plan, which would see 1.5-million homes renovated and built so people could afford them. The Liberals also have a Buyer’s Right plan that could help younger people get into the housing market.

“Plus child care is a big one, the $10/day child care plan that we signed with [B.C.] to actually get affordable child care, is another piece of this affordability. If I can’t afford to pay for child care, I can’t afford to go to work. There’s all these pieces that all tie into each other.”

She added that the affordable units in the Liberals’ plan would be spread out across the country, but if elected into office, she would advocate for the people in the North Okanagan-Shuswap communities to see these initiatives brought here for people in the region to access.

Liberal candidate Shelley Desautels visits a local market in the North Okanagan. (Submitted photo/Shelley Desautels/Facebook)

In discussing Truth and Reconciliation, Desautels told Vernon Matters that the Liberals have set aside funding to help with the location of residential school grave sites, and the subsequent excavation, moving and re-burial of the children.

“Honestly, it was such a horrible time when things were being discovered, and it’s not that we didn’t know about it, we all knew about it, and we should have done more previously for it, but I’m happy that we’re on that track to move forward.”

She added that there’s work underway to create child care systems in Indigenous communities.

“In Cowessess, in Saskatchewan, they had signed a deal to actually create their own child care system. So instead of the traditional foster care system, this is a culturally-based [plan, where] Indigenous children can stay within families, and we will help support families and they will have their own child care system,” said Desautels.

“I think that’s going to happen, we’re going to see that happen across all provinces. The only reason that it seems to take longer is that we need to work with each of these First Nation bands, it’s not a one-size-fits-all, everyone wants things done just a little bit differently, so we are working with them to develop these plans so we can roll them out.”

Desautels also said the Liberals are working with a few bands to get them out of the Indian Act so they can govern themselves once again. She added that, like the child care system, the federal government will work with individual Indigenous communities to find ways to implement this across the country in ways that best fits the needs of each community.

On the topic of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, Desautels said Canada was the first to place orders for vaccines, but because Canada doesn’t have any facilities to produce vaccines, Canadians had to wait for other countries to get shots for their own citizens before Canada could get any doses.

She adds that Canada used to produce vaccines, but the previous Conservative government sold that asset while in power. Desautels said the Liberals have now promised funding to build vaccine developing facilities in Canada once again, so in the event of future public health crises, Canadians will be able to access vaccines much faster than they could in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asides from that, Desautels said she believes the Liberals took the best measures in following the science and recommendations from Health Canada as they became available, and believes that Canada did a good job dealing with the virus, especially because this is the first time in 100 years that a pandemic of this scale has been seen.

Wrapping up the conversation with Vernon Matters, Desautels asked that the public look at what has been brought to the community in the form of federal investments over the past several years, and vows to represent the North Okanagan-Shuswap as an active voice if elected as the Member of Parliament for the region.

“We need someone who’s going to be the voice of all the people in our community, for every group, every organization, every sector, and that we really need to think about how we want to be represented in Ottawa and whether or not we’re okay with the status quo that has been here for the last many years.”

The federal election will be held Sept. 20.

Other profiles:

Mel Arnold Conservatives

Kyle Delfing People’s Party

Andrea Gunner Green Party

Ron Johnston NDP

by Liam Verster

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