Fall constituency tour reveals challenges and opportunities

Oct 24, 2018 | 3:03 PM

The provincial riding of Fraser-Nicola is a vast one, comprising a number of unique communities, both large and small.
 
We go south in the Fraser Canyon to include Hope, Yale and Boston Bar, and all the way to Manning Park and the U.S. border. To the north we have Big Bar Creek, Clinton and 70 Mile House which border the Cariboo-Chilcotin electoral area.
 
The smaller but beautiful communities of Gold Bridge and Bralorne are the most westerly in the riding, close to the border of the Sea to Sky region. The eastern part of Fraser Nicola borders a number of Kamloops and Okanagan ridings—six in fact— and that’s where we find the communities of Merritt and Logan Lake.
 
And then there’s the centre of the riding — Lytton, Lillooet, Cache Creek, and the place I call home, Ashcroft. I’m proud to live right in the heart of Fraser-Nicola.
 
With a riding this size, it’s important for me to hear from everyone. That’s why I set up two constituency offices in Ashcroft and Merritt, so that more residents are able to reach me and my staff. That said, I periodically go on a constituency tour to talk to people where they live, about the issues that are important to them.
 
My most recent three-day tour at the end of September brought to light a number of concerns — the most pressing being the upcoming referendum on proportional representation (PR). We had quite a large crowd turn up to our PR discussion in Hope, and our session in Merritt was also very well attended.
 
Constituents expressed concerns about a lack of information surrounding the referendum. They had lots of questions about what the ballot will look like, and were eager for details about the three PR options that will be on it.
 
We tried to share as much information as we could, but what details could we possibly provide when two of those three PR systems aren’t in place anywhere else in the world? Sadly, sharing information with British Columbians hasn’t been a high priority for the current NDP government and their partners in the Green party.
 
This week our caucus tried to move an amendment in the Legislature to push the ‘pause’ button for six months, which we feel would be in the best interest of British Columbians and our democracy. Unfortunately, the NDP and Greens teamed up to defeat that request.
 
Meanwhile, a number of other issues were raised during the tour. Many of our small communities are struggling with things as basic as cell service. Downtown revitalizations are another key issue with many communities looking for support to diversify and grow, or rebuild after wildfire and flood damage.
 
Transportation is another challenge, particularly down the Fraser Canyon for people who don’t have cars, who are upset Greyhound will soon be making an exit. Meanwhile, affordable housing and seniors housing were a major concern in every community we visited. People want to stay close to home, and fulfilling that desire requires a government that listens and works with community groups to get projects moving quickly.

With municipal elections now behind us, we have a fantastic opportunity to look at projects and processes with fresh eyes and renewed vigour. Fraser-Nicola has some game-changing initiatives in the works that could help address some of the challenges I just outlined.

Fraser-Nicola is very fortunate to host a strong mining community in Highland Valley Copper. We also recently saw some major announcements at our inland port, Ashcroft Terminal.

Our challenge as a region is to visualize what these announcements and projects could mean for us, and come up with concrete action plans to help create the conditions necessary to attract people to, and keep them in our communities — which in turn supports our local economies.