Voters in the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island riding have three candidates to choose from with drastically different approaches to key policies.
Previously elected to legislature with the B.C. NDP under the former Nanaimo riding, Sheila Malcolmson is aiming to take a seat once again, with Dale Parker of the Conservative Party of B.C. and Shirley Lambrecht of the B.C. Green Party looking to challenge her.
All three made an appearance during the Regional District of Nanaimo's all-candidates' forum Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Nanaimo Curling Centre, where they shared what they have to offer voters.
On the subject of health care, both addictions and the need for a full-service hospital tower and cardiac cath lab at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital were discussed.
Malcolmson said the NDP government inherited a deregulated addiction treatment system and insufficient public investment that they've brought back – but it's not enough.
B.C. NDP leader David Eby committed to funding a hospital tower during a stop in Nanaimo on Sept. 26, but Malcolmson claimed that plan has been in the works since before even the NRGH cancer centre was first announced – first promised in 2020 and slated for construction in 2025.
"For years we have been working with Island Health to get the patient tower in the capital plan, hospitals over the entire province need phenomenal and substantial upgrades because of under-investment under a neo-liberal government that did not invest sufficiently in public health infrastructure," Malcolmson said. "This has all been building up, I promise you it did not come up last week because an election was called – we have been working years to get a new patient tower."
On addictions, Malcolmson said the government would like to implement a model provincewide that has found success at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, where an overdose patient can get treatment, then detox under the same roof.
"We've also recently found a way with the existing mental health act, for people presenting in emergency repeatedly overdosing and not looking like they can make good decisions, [to send them into] involuntary treatment."
Parker criticized the NDP government's safer opioid supply policy and supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites, suggesting that if elected he would shut them down.
"This is such a bad policy, we need to stop it immediately," he said, adding that the B.C. Conservatives would increase funding in health care while "removing the waste" including removing certain health authority positions viewed as bureaucratic.
Lambrecht also criticized the NDP's addictions policy, but as it related to involuntary care, accusing it of not being effective. In terms of the safer opioid supply policy and overdose prevention sites, she said the Greens would continue funding with greater data collection to track progress. In addition, funding for more treatment beds would be made available.
"Part of our platform is we need to continue with safe supply because what happens is people are going to use drugs whether they have a safe supply or not. The problem with an unsafe or toxic drug supply is they die. They die in droves," Lambrecht said. "That is an intervention to stop people from dying. The safe injection sites are based on evidence, that wasn't just something cooked up here."
To repair the health care system, Lambrecht said the Greens would put a health care centre in each provincial riding, where physicians can work with multi-disciplinary teams that would include mental health care providers.
"If we wait and it takes us 10 years to build a patient tower and 10 more years to build a cath lab and a few more years … The whole room, none of us will be alive then. So we need to invest now, we need to be looking to all levels of government for financing."
Parker criticized Malcolmson for not showing up at the Fair Care Alliance rally for the patient tower and cardiac cath lab earlier this summer as well as Eby not promising a cardiac cath lab, while Lambrecht and Malcolmson both criticized the Conservatives on the feasibility of their health-care policies.
Lambrecht drew attention to Conservative leader John Rustad's policy of privatization of some health-care services and sending patients out of province. Malcolmson noted Parker's commitment at the Fair Care rally to support a patient-tower anticipated to cost $1.7 billion, while suggesting his party would cut billions from health-care spending.
Watershed security and land conservation was another subject focused heavily on during the debate.
Each of the candidates were asked how they would advocate in the B.C. legislature for local governments to be able to protect key watersheds as well as protect sensitive areas like the Mt. Arrowsmith Biosphere Region.
Lambrecht said her party would push to enact legislation targeting over-logging in watershed and sensitive areas, repeal the private-managed forest land act and advocate to move watershed stewardship into the hands of regional districts and First Nations.
"The First Nations people managed these lands beautifully for thousands of years, they know how it's done," Lambrecht said. "They know how the systems work. Forest systems are so complex and we kind of just looked to them as a resource and we can't be thinking that way anymore."
For the NDP, Malcolmson drew attention to the her government's drought management strategy, $100-million investment in healthy watersheds and investments in freshwater salmon habitat restoration.
Parker promised a review of the forest and range practices act, which outlines how forest and range activities can be conducted on Crown land, to "make sure they're being managed effectively and they're doing their job." He called watershed security and water supply "one of the most critical things we have" as well as essential for economic stability and a sustainability.
In terms of Indigenous reconciliation, Lambrecht promised to push for adherence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's 94 calls to action.
She said she was deeply concerned by Rustad's intention to repeal B.C. legislation related to Indigenous rights. She also criticized the NDP government's response to the Fairy Creek old-growth logging protest blockade.
"We need to ensure Indigenous people have the sovereignty and we show them the respect to allow them to set the pace in terms of the agreements that are formed, but we need to keep going forward."
Malcolmson brought up that the NDP government first created the act, which established the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the province’s framework for reconciliation, which was previously demanded in the calls to action.
"We haven't just been enacting legislation, we've been walking the talk."
She pointed to 3,100 hectares of land returned to Snuneymuxw First Nation earlier this term as well as the three hectares at a downtown hotel property earlier this year, which was supposed to be protected in the Sarlequun Snuneymuxw Treaty of 1854. Aside from land itself, she drew attention to affordable housing units promised on Snuneymuxw land.
Parker focused on Rustad's promise of "economic reconciliation" as his primary reconciliation approach, and said his party would support UNDRIP "the way it was intended, but we don't want it to be seen as an obstacle and we want to make sure the guiding principals of that declaration are intact." He promised to prioritize child and family services and ensure land is transferred back to First Nations, including 20 per cent of forests in B.C.
"By advancing their economic and social progress, this is a form of reconciliation," he said.
Final voting day is Oct. 19. Advance voting takes place on Oct. 10-13 and 15-16 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
