MLA CANDIDATE ISSUE #5 – Balancing resource development and the environment

“It’s important to keep our economy moving and we have to keep our resource development,” said Mike Wisla, Kamloops Centre NDP candidate. “We have invested a lot in the cleaner projects, in LNG, the northern hydro lines, more electrification – so that really, really helps. We have to keep moving forward with that, and we have to keep meeting our targets. The NDP have been successful in being under our carbon targets for the last two years and we’ll keep moving forward with that.”

The Green Party is pledging to ‘treat the climate crisis like the emergency it is’, ending subsidies that encourage fossil fuel production and opposing the Pacific Link Pipeline.

“For sustainable environmental practices in B.C., we need to shift towards sustainable forestry including dedicating 20 per cent of the allowable annual cut to community forests,” said Annelise Beach, Kamloops Centre candidate. “This would ensure our forests are sustainably managed at the local level in partnership with First Nations. A community forest agreement would also aid our community in wildfire prevention and mitigation.”

OneBC’s website does not include a section on the environment, with Kamloops Centre candidate Rocky McAfee saying the province can’t keep stopping development.

“If you want to build prosperity, you have to have progress and if you keep stopping everything, nothing will materialize,” said McAfee. “Dallas (Brodie) is all for freedom and prosperity and looking at anything that will make this province work. That is what OneBC wants.”

Kamloops Centre independent candidate Thaelo Proctor believes B.C. is getting short-changed for its resources.

“Right now, B.C. is getting a terrible deal for our resources. We have some of the most untouched resources in the entire planet right now, and those resources should be going for gold you know,” said Proctor. “We should be making money, we should be able to pay for our homes, we should be getting jobs out of them. We should not be subsidizing these huge industries that are raking in billions and not making any jobs. What the NDP and the Conservatives are proposing for these pipelines that British Columbians are paying for, British Columbians are not getting jobs from, is ridiculous. Yes we have resources, we can get these resources to market, but we can do it in a way that is actually benefitting British Columbians. We don’t have to take U.S. corporations, international corporations that just want to pretend they are doing something for us, when we have all the power.”

The BC Conservatives believe getting B.C. back to fiscal stability will come from supporting the resource sector.

“Part of our way that we will get back on the fiscal footing that B.C. should be, is really about our natural resources – be it oil and gas, be it lumber or critical minerals,” said Peter Milobar, Kamloops Centre incumbent candidate. “We need to open up for the rest of the world to get it to global markets to get the highest price possible. I fully support the new pipeline coming through. Again, that will create a lot of economic good not just for B.C. but for the Canadian economy. That is how we pay for the services we rely on. We have to be mindful of our emission profile overall, but we also have to be mindful of the fact that it’s a big airshed, when you are talking about a global airshed. And if we can help other jurisdictions bring down their emission profiles at the same time, that is still a net-benefit to British Columbia in the big picture of things.”

“That is a two-part thing. Obviously, we have to be able to encourage investment in our mining. Yes, it’s great news about having an additional increase on our piping capacity in the North Thompson. But one of the biggest challenges is we don’t even have enough electricity for those pumping stations right now,” added Ward Stamer, Kamloops-North Thompson incumbent candidate. “We’ve got to be able to determine exactly where we are going be able to get that additional generating capacity. Not just wind farms, not just solar, we are probably going to be looking at natural gas, we will be looking at co-gen electricity production as well.”

“The environment is important to all of us. We have got some of the highest environmental standards in the world and we want to be able to continue to maintain that. And wildfire is definitely another issue that we have to get ahead of. We need to do a better job in the interface, we have got to do a better job of putting fires out when they are small. And that is what our party will do.”

Polls are open Saturday (Oct. 24) from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

NDP candidate for Kamloops-North-Thompson Kory Clark was not available. OneBC Kamloops North-Thompson candidate Deborah Friesen did not wish to be interviewed.

by Michael Reeve

MLA CANDIDATE ISSUE #5 – Balancing resource development and the environment

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