Stock photo courtesy of Mel Arnold, MP for North Okanagan-Shuswap / Facebook

By Liam Verster

Year in Review

Local MP reflects on bill passed in 2024, but also struggles Canadians faced

Dec 24, 2024 | 6:00 AM

The Member of Parliament for North-Okanagan Shuswap said 2024 had some positives and negatives for most Canadians.

Speaking to Vernon Matters, Mel Arnold said the highlight for his political career this past year was having his Private Members Bill (PMB) pass and become law.

“One of the highlights for my year has been the passing of my Private Members Bill, C-291, to change term in the criminal code to no longer use [the term] Child Pornography, and replace it with the term Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Material,” the local MP for the Conservative Party of Canada, said.

“It’s a rare thing for a PMB to actually make it through both houses and become law, less than four per cent. Since I was elected [in 2015] there’s been 658 Primate Members Bills introduced, and only 27 have passed.”

While he was pleased with his bill passing, Arnold said many Canadians struggled financially in 2024, and that there was increasing unrest from members of his constituency and people across Canada due to concerns about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ability to lead the country.

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“The interest rates are falling, but some of the conversations over recent days and weeks here is that people are still reluctant to make those big expenditures because of the uncertainty that’s out there,” Arnold told Vernon Matters.

“Now, with the threats of US tariffs and so on, and the uncertainty of what that might do to the cost of everyday goods, has really got people on edge. People just don’t have confidence that this government is going to be able to manage that potential threat.”

Arnold held the role of Associate Shadow Minister for Fisheries and Oceans and served on committees involving those in 2024, and said he identified a few key concerns through that work.

“In recent days we have seen how zebra and quagga mussels have expanded their range, especially in Manitoba where they have now been discovered in other water bodies there, increasing the threat and getting closer to British Columbia’s borders, unfortunately,” Arnold explained.

“Then we’ve got whirling disease, which affects salmon and trout, being found in Kootenay Lake just in recent weeks. I continue to advocate for better protective measures to try to keep our waterways safe from those potential invaders.

“Our lakes are so important, both ecologically and economically. It would be a shame to see our beaches covered in shells so sharp you can’t walk on them in bare feet because they would be shredded, but the ecological damage I think is a bigger part of it: what it can do to the native trout and other species in the lakes, and then also to the migrating salmon that the Okanagan Nation has been successful in restoring some of those runs up in the Okanagan system. All of that could be at threat.”

Looking ahead to 2025, the local MP said he wants to see a federal election called, noting he will not be in the same riding as the electoral boundaries are changing.

Every 10 years the electoral boundaries are changed to better represent populations, which will mean the dissolving of North Okanagan-Shuswap and the creation of the Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding, which Arnold will not be running in.

“Because I live in Salmon Arm, I will hope to represent the new riding there of Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies,” Arnold explained.

“That includes over 30,000 people in Kamloops, all the way through the Shuswap area, through Revelstoke, Golden and Field, all the way to the Alberta border.”

Arnold added it “has been an hounour” to represent North Okanagan-Shuswap, and will continue to do so until a new MP is elected.

He said, if there is an election and the Conservative Party of Canada form government, his party would try to find a way to “unleash the potential capital” of British Columbia and Canada by cutting red tape, addressing inflation, and cutting taxes.