Water Board leader looking to represent Coldstream and area riding

“I lived in Vernon for three years when I first moved back to B.C., so I have that basic knowledge of the North Okanagan. We (OBWB) also worked out of the Regional District of North Okanagan for a number of years.

“I think more importantly than where I actually live is that I have done a ton of work in this part of the Okanagan Valley with the Okanagan Basin Water Board looking at issues with Kalamalka Lake, Wood Lake, the north end of Okanagan Lake; working with water providers, Greater Vernon Water, District of Lake Country, Black Mountain Irrigation District. I’ve had a lot of focus over the years on Mission Creek; and just spent a lot of time talking to many different groups including fruit growers, people who hunt and fish, and a lot of local officials about all the range of issues they are experiencing here in this part of the valley. I have a pretty broad base of understanding of the area.”

Warwick Sears said she believed affordability to be the top of mind issue for people in the riding.

“Looking at the costs of everything going up, bills being much higher than they were in the past, working people having to work more hours to cover the bills,” the NDP candidate said.

“People are particularly concerned with the cost of housing: the cost to rent, the cost to buy. Even if you have a nice home here you might want your kids to be able to move back to the Okanagan.

“People are just feeling pinched by this inflationary cycle that we’re going through.”

She added her discussions with people have also uncovered concerns about wildfires and extreme weather events, as well as maintaining the quality of the lakes. Warwick Sears noted her experience also found that younger people were the most concerned about climate change.

During the discussion with Vernon Matters, Warwick Sears was asked to explain her and her party’s stances and thoughts on how to address a series of issues people in the riding and British Columbia face.

Affordability

“This inflationary cycle is really a global one, it’s being felt certainly all over Canada and North America.

“The NDP happen to be in government in the time of COVID, and the things that have fallen out since then, but the party really has a focus on trying to make things work for ordinary working people, young people, seniors. Making sure people have access to services.

“There are many different things that have to happen at once to keep the economy rolling and making sure people aren’t falling through the cracks.

“There’s a lot of different things that the NDP are doing with tax cuts and ICBC premiums and trying to get money back into people’s pockets, but I think a lot of it also is just overall looking at the services.

“Reducing the costs of childcare so that women can get out into the workforce, on average the cost of childcare has gone down by 50 per cent in B.C. and it is taking a while to roll out all the $10-a-day childcare spaces but this is something the NDP has been working on very diligently and is continuing to expand the number of daycare centres that can provide that.”

Healthcare

“One thing that the NDP is doing is hiring many more doctors. There’s a doctor shortage also throughout North America, and a competition for doctors.

“The NDP has hired more than 800 doctors in the last year alone and is expanding medical school programs here in British Columbia, including a new medical school at [Simon Fraser University].

“They’re also opening up new spaces for nurses to be trained, and [to train] other kind of medical techs, across the province, so that we just get more people who are trained and into the health care system to be those providers that we need.

“The NDP is also working to speed the approval of doctors with foreign credentials. A lot of times there’s this slow processes where you have to come in from another country, even if you’re Canadian and you trained somewhere else, you have to come here and get recertified as that professional. [Also], trying to make that easier. Also removing the barrier for people moving between provinces with credentials.

“They’ve also reduced the administrative burden for doctors that were having to do a lot of paperwork and restructuring the system so they were able tp spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.

“There’s [also] bonuses for people who want to work in remote areas.”

“The [Urgent Primary Care Centre] is helping to deal with the crises when [Vernon] didn’t have any more walk-in clinics. Now that has been fixed and they’re working on putting in another clinic as well in the next year or so.”

Housing

“The thing [the NDP] has done with the recent housing bill removing exclusionary housing was very big. There’s a lot of confusion about it, it’s not requiring people to put in six-storey apartments, it’s just removing some fo the barriers to densifying. You still can’t put in higher density unless there’s appropriate sewer and water and other utilities, but it’s going to make it easier to do different kinds of density that’s appropriate for the different communities. For example, there wouldn’t be a ton of new houses going up in the rural areas because there isn’t the infrastructure out there to support them, there’d be much more density going into parts of the riding like Rutland where it’s appropriate to put in apartment buildings.

“The NDP is putting in a lot more student housing, which is also in my riding as well. Trying to help support the university and continue to build out.

“Lake Country is trying to put more higher density in the more downtown area of Winfield with access to services. If you put density that is not close to the core then you have more traffic on the roads, and the roads aren’t quite big enough for that, so it’s really focusing on getting the housing in the right places. That’s a partnership with the municipalities and the province, making sure the development is happening along with the infrastructure improvements.

“I know development has slowed in some areas, and that has a lot to do with interest rates and loans and inflation on building materials.

“We’ve seen that a bit in Kelowna as, but one of the things that;’s helped, both with the provincial and federal governments, is making it less expensive to do purpose-built rentals with tax breaks and so-forth on purpose-built rentals.”

Mental Health and Addiction

“There was a big announcement about increasing the number of involuntary care beds for people who were specifically dealing with the combination of mental health and addiction.

“[NDP Leader David Eby says] he has been working for years on getting the background in place to start putting these beds in. It’s not a sudden reaction, put in for this election period. He has been working for years to buy the property, do the consultations, do the planning with specialists in this area, trying to figure out how you’re going to spread these facilities around to different parts of the province.

“I think it’s 700 new beds they’re opening but they’re looking for more to fill the need.

“Of course there is a lot more people out there struggling with addictions, but this is for the people with really severe problems and are really challenging, getting picked up and released over and over again because there wasn’t enough space for them to be placed in a centre.”

Crime and Public Safety

“It’s such a big issue across the province. The NDP has been working with the RCMP and some specialized task forces to work more on cracking down on organized crime, which is where a lot of the problems are originating then spreading out through different communities. It’s interesting to watch the news and see how much organized crime is actually in the Okanagan, it’s not just a Lower Mainland problem.

“Hiring more RCMP, that was something in the [NDP] platform. Focusing on trying to arrest the dealers and the people trying to get addicted to drugs.

“One thing that they’re not going to do, like the B.C. Conservatives have asked for, is requiring the RCMP to ignore these federal gun laws. The laws they’re talking about is for things like illegal handguns and illegal assault rifles, and these are the things being used to commit crimes.”

Climate Change and the Environment

“One of the things that really got me to think about running for office was the threat of wildfires to our water system. Being in the water career, working in the water field, I hear a lot about the problems from different water supplies and one of the things that came up in the last couple years was the threat of wildfires to the reservoirs and water infrastructure on the Aberdeen Plateau, which are the mountains on the east side of Kalamlaka and Wood Lakes going up toward Big White.

“The Aberdeen Plateau has not burned for a long time so it’s very densely wooded, there’s a lot of highly flammable dead material in there. It;s a huge ire risk, and that is where a large portion of our drinking water comes from.

“So if a fire came through and it had a severe burn like we had on the West Side, we’d be getting a lot more sediment, a lot more ash, not to mention the risk to homes.

“It’s a real concern when you have the reservoirs up there supplying water for tens-of-thousands of people and a whole lot of farms. You think about Black Mountain, the District of Lake Country and Greater Vernon Water, that’s a huge amount of people who are depending on water from the plateau.

“This was something that I got involved in, helping the water suppliers advocate to the provincial government about, and the NDP came forward with a grant for $15-million last spring to help with fuel load reduction around the reservoir, and also to work with the Okanagan Indian Band to develop a long-term management plan to reduce fire risk up there.

“That was something that got me thinking about needing really strong representation in the Okanagan.

“Wildfires are a huge risk but the ongoing droughts are also really a tangible problem.

“There’s still a very significant flood risks as well and a need to upgrade infrastructure along the lakeshore to reduce the flood risk.

“there’s a lot of problems out there that need very active management and a lot of support from government, and those are things that, as someone who’s very passionate about climate adaptation, those are things that I would love to take forward as a representative.”

Public Education

“[I am not fully versed with the education aspect but I understand that there is more money for education in the [NDP] platform.

“The faculty that I’ve talked to really feel like they just need more funding overall to keep hiring those teachers and maintain the high quality education and the different types of programs that can be offered to students in addition to the regular reading, writing and arithmetic programming.”

Economy and Jobs

“It’s an interesting time, because there is a big shortage of skilled workers. So one of the things going on is there’s a lot of training, like trades training, trying to build out trades programs, so that we can have more people in the construction trade, we can have more electricians to help with a green economy, we can have more teachers, we can have more doctors and nurses. There’s a lot that needs to be done with just training people and getting them into the workforce as the baby boomers continue to retire. That’s going to be important for the ongoing economy.

“B.C. has one of the strongest economies in Canada, we can be proud of that. Even in these rough economic times we are really the best in class among the provinces.

“I think there’s a lot of concern about rural areas and the loss of forestry jobs and the resource sector, but there’s also a lot of opportunity with the transition into green energy. Many more hydro projects going in; many more solar and wind projects expanding the grid; electrifying houses; retrofitting houses to have less costly forms of electrical energy; insulating houses. All kinds of construction projects to help people improve their homes and reduce energy use.

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

Water Board leader looking to represent Coldstream and area riding

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