Former federal Green candidate running in the provincial election

“I don’t love what’s been going on, so at the end of the day it’s important to stand up and offer some push back instead of just letting it pass by.”

The candidate criticized the decision to hold an election just one week after the municipal votes, and was under the impression Eby believed “the chaos in the Conservative Party would play in his favour,” but did note the choas in the other parties could be beneficial for the Greens.

“We have a platform that could actually help everyday British Columbians,” Visscher said.

“I’m hoping people get our message and we make some good strides toward a less chaotic political system within our province.”

The Green’s candidate went on to speak about a number of key issues British Columbians were facing and how her party planned to address those.

Healthcare

Visscher noted many people within the riding and across British Columbia do not have a doctor, and emergency rooms in the province face regular closures, which she said all had to do with policy issues.

“Our platform is to adequately fund our healthcare system; we are going to open community health clinics in every community so that everybody has access to care; we’re going to support our doctors and nurses and other healthcare staff so they can actually show up and do their jobs and not be overworked and overcommitted in time,” the local candidate told Vernon Mattters.

“Visiting the hospital for basic care, going to the ER and seeing how overwhelmed the staff are trying their best to do their job and provide care for those who need help is pretty heartbreaking. For the B.C. Greens, and me in particular, it’s one of our primary goals. We need to pay attention to what is going on in healthcare, fund it adequately, and ensure everyone has access to doctors.”

Economy

In funding healthcare improvements, the Greens would want to implement a five per cent Fair Share Tax on the ultra-wealthy making $50-million or more annually.

“In the first year alone, the one-time five per cent tax, which would then go down to two per cent annually, the one time tax increase would give us $22.5-billion,” Visscher stated.

“That’s more than enough to cover our deficit, and invest in healthcare, transportation and childcare.”

Housing

The B.C. Greens main point on housing would be to re-instate renter protections.

“For the 30-something per cent of British Columbians who are renting, it costs more than a mortgage, which is already very high, with very few protections in place to make sure you’re cost of living is not going up exponentially,” Visscher told Vernon Matters.

“We’re planning to re-introduce renter protections, which were introduce and really popular and then scrapped.

“We’re also looking at building more sustainable, low-carbon, resilient buildings, and engaging B.C. Housing to make sure we are actually building affordable housing.”

Visscher said the Greens would also want to “cut out the private, corporate middle man” in housing to avoid the government subsidizing developers that lose money when they build multi-million dollar units and homes that do not sell.

Public Safety

The local Greens candidate said the party had a research-backed plan to offer voluntary addiction services and housing for those in need.

“What we saw the NDP kind of start to do to address the addiction crisis was just open safe consumption sites with no other supports, and that didn’t work,” Visscher said.

“A pretty clear thing to do is offer additional support for those people so that people who are unhoused have access to housing, mental health care supports, and the ability to safely try to get off the substances they are addicted to. We would implement all of that with all of the money that comes from the Fair Share Tax, we could provide services for people that actually make real change so that we don’t have people trapped in this cycle of being unhoused, turning to addiction, and then being trapped.”

The Greens would also want to address the repeat offender issues by developing a mechanism within the justice system to hold those people accountable, while also offering mental health and other services to address the root causes of crimes.

Wildfires and Climate Change

With the province facing severe wildfires and droughts, Visscher said attention should be put on taking proactive measures.

“There’s a stat out there that shows every $1 we spend on prevention saves $8 of reactive costs, whether that’s firefighting or having to reduce our water usage, in which farmers get hit quite hard,” The Green’s candidate stated.

“We’re all about preventative measures and we need to take it so seriously.”

Those actions could include prescribed burning to reduce wildfire fuel buildup, especially around key watersheds and near communities, as seen in recent investments and work up at Aberdeen Plateau.

Visscher noted investing more in preventative actions could also generate new jobs for people in B.C. through new forestry management and wildfire risk reduction projects, done in partnership with the forestry sector.

She also stated this work could yield benefits for the agricultural and tourism sectors, in that there would be less smoke and more water, but also help with people’s mental status and health as they would be breathing in less smoke and be less at risk to being evacuated and losing their homes.

The full B.C. Green Party platform can be seen online here.

In closing Visscher also encouraged people of all political affiliation to sit down with her for discussions about plans and policies, saying she believed many people “would be surprised how much the B.C. Greens policies have in common with what they actually want, and if they don’t think that I’m happy to chat with them about that as well.” She also stated she believed the role of the MLA is to represent everybody within the riding, and wanted to be the person to engage with the constituents and represent them in the legislature.

Votes for the provincial election will be cast October 24.

by Liam Verster

Former federal Green candidate running in the provincial election

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