Local candidates square off at all-candidates forum

Oct 9, 2019 | 9:37 AM

Hundreds of people packed the Vernon Performing Arts Centre Tuesday to watch the five local MP candidates square off at the all-candidates forum.

A total of 410 people sat in the auditorium as candidates were posed a number of questions from sponsors and members of the audience.

Candidates were first asked how they would work to grow the farming sector.

“Supply management protects our family farms and communities and hundreds of thousands of jobs, so we are committed to fully protect the supply management and ensuring the reciprocity in the trade negotiations and supporting those sectors as they innovate and grow. We’ll make sure farmers are fully compensated for the losses having occurred in the liberal and conservative trade negotiations,” said NDP MP candidate Harwinder Sandhu.

Green Party candidate Marc Reinarz told the audience that more should be done to protect farmers from the effects of climate change.

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“We need to provide the farmers support, transition to crops that can handle the different aspects of climate change, crops that are more resilient to the change of weather, crops that can have more resilience to the changes in humidity, unpredictability to the weather,” he said.

Kyle Delfing of the People’s Party of Canada said taxes and fees that penalize farmers will be reduced, if they form government.

“We are going to reduce the grain commission fees. That’s the fee farmers pay every time they bring their grain into the grain elevator. We are actually making a profit of $100 million a year off of it, we can reduce the fees to get rid of that profit. The next thing we can do is get rid of the carbon tax in this country that is killing farms and making it hard for affordability at the kitchen table.”

The question of speeding up the process to encourage the free movement of labour, goods, and services, was then posed to candidates by the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce.

Incumbent Conservative MP Mel Arnold said the issue of interprovincial trade barriers is something that he has been working on as MP

“We have some incredible B.C. wines that we can’t get into liquor stores in Ontario and other parts of Canada, those are the types of things we’ve been working on to make sure that people can bring their trade certificate from one province to another,” he said.

Liberal candidate Cindy Derkaz said eliminating interprovincial trade barriers will be a high priority if elected.

“Absolutely we need to get rid of the barriers that prevent the movement of goods and services , that has been a problem that has prevailed through many,many governments. I am prepared to roll up my sleeves and get to work across party lines to see that get done.”

Kyle Delfing of the People’s Party of Canada said the party will assert the federal government’s jurisdiction over provinces to allow those with the proper certifications to move across the country without having to recertify.

“As well we will open up the border to internal trade. You may know B.C and Alberta has an interprovincial trade agreement which allows us to do trade between B.C and Alberta we are going to allow that to go across the country.”

Addressing labour shortages plaguing businesses locally and across the country was also discussed.

“We can help do that by getting back to a fair, orderly, and compassionate immigration system,” said Mel Arnold.

“We will make an important new investment in training Canadians and boost the support for traditionally underemployed groups and we believe in making a path to temporary workers,” said NDP candidate Harwinder Sandhu.

“The Green Party will bring what we call now the temporary foreign workers, they will be working under the exact conditions that a permanent resident has, they can move around from employer to employer they aren’t tied to one, they have the same rights they won’t be abused,” said Marc Reinarz.

The all-candidates forum was sponsored by the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, the BC Fruit Growers Association and the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society.

“The turnout was impressive, and it demonstrates how engaged our members and residents are,” said Dione Chambers, Greater Vernon Chamber general manager.

As part of the event, the Chamber asked two questions of importance to its members.

The first question revolved around removing inter-provincial trade barriers and all of the candidates indicated that, if elected, they would work to ensure free movement of goods and labour.

The second question focused on what can be done to ease the labour shortage many employers face. Once again, all of the candidates committed to putting people to work, with the options ranging from skills training and investing in youth to immigration.

by Tiffany Goodwein

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