Centre-right Acton looking to represent Vernon-Lumby as an unaffiliated MLA

Acton also served on the Board of Directors for the Regional District of North Okanagan, including as the current chair, and as the chair of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional Hospital District.

Speaking with Vernon Matters, Acton explained he is a “fiscal conservative with a social conscious.”

“I’m right leaning but I definitely don’t believe in human suffering, and it takes money to take care of people, so there’s a really strong fiscal conservative part there,” Acton said.

“If you look at the Village of Lumby and how we run that, that’s exactly run in the same way. We don’t have any debt, as a matter of fact we’ve got some money in the bank; we still contribute to the health society, the senior society, the WCRC (Whitevalley Community Resource Centre) which is our resource centre, parks and [recreation], children’s sports, stuff like that. There’s always something to provide support to on the social side of things.”

In the discussion with Vernon Matters, Acton said he considered housing affordability to be the biggest issue people face.

“The provincial government, even the federal government, can’t control people’s spending habits, and that’s what drives inflation and whatnot. But, especially in the housing market, I’ve noticed as mayor that there’s so much regulation and red tape that developers are not as eager these days to invest so they seem to be holding back a little bit, and people that were previously investing in rental properties seem to be really holding back, I think they don’t feel safe with their investment,” Acton explained.

“I think we’re seeing less construction of homes through the private sector. I think something that really kind of irks me is David Eby made a comment saying the private sector is not making enough headway in housing, so [the province] is going to do it, and I thought ‘who’s going to build the housing for the government?’ it’s still going to be the private sector except for it’s going to be more cost because, being in government, I can tell you we pay more for things than the private sector or not-for-profits do.”

He added the shortage of doctors and nurses is another key issue that he attributed to poor planning in the context of a growing population.

Though not affiliated with any party, Acton said he believed he could still serve the constituents and address the issues if elected.

“If I was running for a party and we lost the election and ended up forming opposition, you basically end up spending four years yelling about legislation you don’t approve of; and if you form a majority government you get to have total control and probably still do a lot of things that you shouldn’t,” Acton told Vernon Matters.

“As an Independent, when we get to Victoria if the election plays out the way I think it’s going to, we could have a lot of influence over government if a minority government is formed and there’s a small group of Independents that are needed to help move legislation forward. We’re seeing that right now federally with Jagmeet Singh [and the NDP], and we saw that [provincially] with the Greens in 2017 with Andrew Weaver.”

He added most of the work as an MLA is not supporting or putting forward legislation, but being in the community to hear and solve problems, by connecting people with the agencies or supports they require.

Acton also noted that being unaffiliated means he doesn’t need to toe party lines and can act in ways he believes would best serve British Columbians.

Acton was then asked to explain his stances and thoughts on how to address a series of issues people in the riding and British Columbia face.

Affordability

“Affordability, I hate to say it, but a lot of it is tax.

“We’ve seen the government grow 40 per cent since 2017, that’s a massive growth in government, and I haven’t really seen the productivity change. I don’t see things as 40 per cent better. So I think reduction in taxes is definitely in the cards for our province, for sure, so I would very much support that.

“Also, we have such a province of abundance. Not just in resources but in capabilities. We have great programs for education; we have renewable supply of wood through the forestry industry that I don’t think we take anywhere near the advantage that we could; mining is available everywhere; hydro power. So there’s so many opportunities and it seems like, with this government, it feels like British Columbians should be ashamed of their resources, and that’s just wrong. We have to be able to have things to sell outside of our own markets in order to create wealth for our province.”

Healthcare

“The first thing I would do is ask fro the entrance bureaucracy or red tape, to be able to get into this province to practice medicine, be severely reduced and down to maybe an equivalency exam and a short residency to prove you are capable of practicing in British Columbia. That would see a huge difference in the amount of people who can practice medicine here.

“Something else I talked with students about the other day at the college was they were talking about tuition and how expensive it is, and I was thinking we need to get the future employers involved a bit more. In Lumby, the seniors housing complex was having trouble finding care aids, so they’re having to pay for foreign workers to come into the province, and it’s very expensive, so we suggested ‘Why don’t you offer to pay some high school students to take the care aid course to see where that goes?’ and that has been hugely successful in a lot of ways. Kids who might not be able to afford to normally take that time off to go to school, ro be able to afford the school, have been able to go; they know they’ve got a job when they come out of school, because the company is already paying for it and promised a job. So we could see that same sort of attaching students to employers in a lot of the health care fields.”

Housing

“[B.C. United] had a plan to do a rent-to-own program where we’d see the government make the developer whole for a property that somebody wants to buy, then the young family or person could rent it for three years at full market value and then at the end of that three years, 100 per cent of their rent would go to their down payment.

“It’s frustrating because both [Conservative Leader John] Rustad and [NDP Leader David] Eby are talking about using taxpayer dollars to subsidize housing, and I don’t get it. There is so much private market money out there, and I don’t know too many people that actually want to live in government housing.

“The reality is there’s a million other ways to get housing built without using taxpayers dollars. There’s people that want to invest in British Columbia all the time.

“A big barrier to development is the upfront cost of infrastructure. I’ll just keep using Lumby [as an example] because I’m just so familiar with it, but in Lumby, in order to keep some of the subdivisions that we have that will be available, there’s probably about a $4- or $5-million water reservoir that needs to be built. For the developers, that’s a big chunk of money to put out for a little tiny community like Lumby, but, for us, it could create 100, 200 affordable houses with one little project. So if the province were to get a little bit more involved in making sure infrastructure costs are covered and puts the municipalities in a position where it can help the developers make sure they can be successful, I think we will see way more development.”

Mental Health and Addictions

“We need to separate mental health from addiction. We treat them both the same and it is not healthy.

“Our shelters, we have people in there with mental health issues alongside with people that have addiction issues, and the sort of functionality and lifestyle of the two groups are not the same. There’s a vulnerable section of the population that’s being lumped in together with people that are maybe able to take more advantage.

“We made a mistake, we need to admit we made a mistake when we shut down all these mental health facilities all over North America. The reality is there’s people out there that are just not able to take care of themselves.

“I went and rode that bus, the warming bus, this last winter, and honestly the very first guy that got on the bus I looked at him and thought ‘There is no way this guy is ever going to be able to take care of himself, ever,’ and if he’s not dead within a year or two I would be surprised. He climbed on the bus, he could barely communicate, his fingers were swollen and frost bitten, he was hunched over, he obviously had some major mental health issues. Even if you supplied that guy a free apartment and transportation to the food bank, there’s no way he’s going to be cooking or cleaning or shopping or doing meal prep or whatnot. He needs to be in a place where he will get three quare meals a day, where he’s taken care of and can take his meds, and be taken care of.

“We [also] have to stop using words like ‘safe supply.’ Teenagers are impressionable and when you’ve got adults calling something safe – safe supply and safe drugs and safe places to do drugs – I don’t know about you but I think if when I was a teenager and somebody told me something was safe, I probably would have put it in my mouth.

“I think we need to change that attitude about the stigmatism behind drug abuse and addiction, we’re worried about stigmatizing people and yet when we stigmatized smokers by not allowing them to smoke in public places, a whole group of the population quit smoking.”

Crime and Public Safety

“Small towns [and big cities] are a little different, but not a whole lot. We had a murder out in Lumby and the suspected person was detained for only an hour or two and then released back out and basically the family was living in terror while this person was out on the streets.

“I know some of these are federal issues. But as Mayor, even though there are provincial issues, I have a duty to my constituents to advocate for them, and as MLA I certainly would advocate to the federal government to stop with the soft on crime and catch and release attitude.

“There needs to be consequences. If somebody’s been arrested 10 times for bad behaviour, if you just never do anything about it it just becomes openly brazen, and that gets dangerous to the public. That’s not fair to everybody else that’s out there.”

“However, I absolutely love the restorative justice process where a first-time criminal, or person that does harm, gets an opportunity to learn from it and make amends to the person they hurt. That program could easily be funded a lot better through the provincial government and I would definitely support that.”

Climate Change

“I said this the other day to students at the college and they kind of laughed because I think they thought maybe I was saying climate change doesn’t exist, and that’s not what I was saying. I had said to them, I think, the phrase ‘Climate change has been weaponized and the government is using it as an excuse to tax.’

“The reason I say that is because we collect all this carbon taxes but it just goes into general slush, we don’t actually see it going to things that are better for the climate. I guess we can find things this government is doing to help with climate change, but that’s not where all this climate tax money is going. And when people can buy carbon credits to offset their production of carbon, I’m not sure you can consider that carbon reduction either.

“For us, in Canada even, not just B.C., I think one of the things we need to do is look towards science and technology to find ways to help people be more efficient and create a circular use cycle.

“What we need to do, as government, is come to grips with the fact that humans are consumers. There’s eight billion of us on the planet and we all consume in one way or another, so rather than try to get people to stop consuming we need to come to grips with the fact that we’re consumers and find a way to deal with it.

“So I think having some programs supported by the government could see this circular use of products would be a huge help for climate change.

“But I would rather call it pollution, honestly, than climate change, because it seems like all of a sudden we forgot about pollution, which is more than just carbon. It’s the production of waste through consumption, and it needs to be addressed as a whole, not as a little piece.”

Public Education

“There’s a couple of things I’d like to see back in the school system and competition is one of them, whether it’s competing with yourself or competing with your peers – Creating an awards system in schools, which I think we have pretty much flat out removed, I think is a big part of motivation for a lot of us. Almost everyone of us work a job to get money and that’s the reward for working hard and the harder you work the better you’re treated, the more you make, and I think school is really not setting us up for that through the removal of letter grades and everybody gets a ribbon type thing.

“Competition, learning competition, fair competition, learning how to lose, learning how to win with grace. Those are all things that I think we should be teaching our children in school.”

Economy and Jobs

“As a small businessman, the extra sick days, the extra holidays, the extra stat holiday that was put in, government seems to think that small business can just keep taking these hits and be successful and it’s not true.

“When you’ve got [a business] that is hard to get off the ground already, and then you start throwing all the extra expenses increases, be it minimum wage or days off and now I think they’re talking about mandatory medical care and I think they’re talking about moving to 10 days paid sick leave, those are just things that small, minimum wage jobs were never meant to sustain.

“There needs to be some jobs out there that are for making money and learning, not for buying a house and living off of, and I think sometimes with these minimum wage jobs the wage is just high enough that we get people stuck in a situation where they can borrow money and they can put themselves in a situation where they’re not able to afford to leave their job, but they’re also not able to afford to get ahead. British Columbia has become very underemployed because of that.

“I think we need to make it so there’s opportunities for people to move out of minimum wage jobs, get the training and education they need, and move into careers rather than try to survive working at McDonalds.”

Advance voting for the 2024 Provincial General Election will begin on October 10, with general voting day going on Oct. 19.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Vernon Matters has contacted all local candidates for the Vernon-Lumby and Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream ridings, and will publish profiles as they respond. All candidates interviewed were asked the same questions.

by Liam Verster

Centre-right Acton looking to represent Vernon-Lumby as an unaffiliated MLA

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