Candidates for the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island provincial riding gave their platforms and answered questions during a Thursday, Oct. 3 election forum. (L-R) BC Conservative candidate Dale Parker, BC NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson, and BC Green Party candidate Shirley Lambrecht. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

nan-gab

Nanaimo-Gabriola candidates debate election hot topics

Oct 4, 2024 | 1:22 PM

NANAIMO — Healthcare, public safety, and protecting the environment were some of the main topics discussed at the latest candidates forum held in Nanaimo.

The event for candidates in the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island riding was held on Thursday, Oct. 3 at the Nanaimo Curling Club, featuring Sheila Malcolmson of the BC NDP, Dale Parker representing the Conservative Party of BC, and Shirley Lambrecht with the BC Green Party.

The largely civil and procedural forum began to heat up when candidates were asked how they felt about reconciliation efforts with First Nation communities.

Lambrecht said reconciliation efforts needed to “keep moving forward”, and then brought up BC Conservative leader John Rustad’s interest in appealing the law adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People during a rare, unanimous vote in 2019.

Rustad was a member of the opposition B.C. Liberal Party at the time.

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“That’s deeply concerning,” Lambrecht said. “We need to ensure that Indigenous people have the sovereignty, and we show them respect, that we allow them to set the pace in terms of the agreements that are formed, but we need to keep going forward, and it touches all aspects of life.”

Parker responded by saying his party is focused on “economic reconciliation.”

“We see it by advancing their economic and social progress, this is a form of reconciliation. The Conservative Party will honour the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People as it was intended, but we don’t want it to be seen as an obstacle, and we want to make sure the guiding principles of that declaration are intact.”

Malcolmson said the Snuneymuxw First Nation is the only First Nation in B.C. to sign a housing agreement with the province promising to get more homes built, shining a light on the work her government has done.

“With Snuneymuxw First Nation, in 2020, we signed an agreement with them to return 3,100 hectares of land, Mt. Benson and Mt. McKay, back to Snuneymuxw. Just this year, smaller but even more important, arguably, almost three hectares of land right in the centre of our community on the former…Howard Johnson.“

While the forum was mostly cordial, the candidates did get into it a bit over topics of healthcare, mental health and addiction. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Questions about the strained healthcare system and dealing with addiction treatment featured prominently in the event, hosted by the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District.

Malcolmson said lives are still being lost every day, and it has been “the most heartbreaking and necessary work of the last seven years.”

She said the NDP has taken the number of addiction treatment beds in Nanaimo from zero in 2017 to 50, some of which were announced in October 2023.

Future plans include a detox and treatment centres all under one roof.

“We have been experimenting over the last 10 months or so in a program called Road to Recovery at St. Paul’s Hospital, where somebody who comes to the emergency room having overdosed, can be walked right across the hall into detox, and then, under one roof, go through all the stages of treatment with not be able to fall through the gaps.”

Parker responded by saying the NDP have implemented a “free drug” policy which isn’t working, and said not enough is being done on the treatment side of things.

He brought up the recent bust at a Nanaimo Overdose Prevention Sight, and brought out a photo of 13-year-old Brianna MacDonald, an Abbotsford teen who died of an overdose in August at a homeless encampment.

Parker said her parents put the blame on local health authorities who supplied drug paraphernalia.

“[The NDP] talk about where they’ve put money into the problem, but it hasn’t fixed the problem. And we see billions of dollars wasted on things that aren’t even related to services that people need, and yet, many people are living on the street with brain damage, they have access to free drugs, they’re smoking crack at ice cream parlours, in the hospital, in seniors care homes. It’s frankly disgusting.”

Parker also mentioned the free harm reduction and first aid vending machine previously located outside the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, calling it a “bad policy”.

The machine was removed in early September after the government called for a review of the harm reduction services the month prior.

Lambrecht said her party’s platform is to continue the safe supply and safe injection/inhalation sites because they save lives.

“People are going to use drugs whether they have safe supply or not. The problem with an unsafe, or a toxic drug supply, is they die. They die in droves. So, that is an intervention to…stop people from dying. The safe injection sites are based on evidence. It wasn’t just something that was cooked up here.”

A crowd of curious voters filled the Nanaimo Curling Club on Thursday, Oct. 3, to hear from the three candidates from the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island riding. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

This is the second election forum this week, the first held on Oct. 2 for the Nanaimo-Lantzville riding.

A similar event last week profiling the Ladysmith-Oceanside riding.

The Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce will host a public all-candidate meeting at the Nanaimo Golf Club on Wednesday, Oct. 9 starting at 6:30 p.m., featuring all candidates from the Nanaimo-Gabriola and Nanaimo-Lantzville ridings.

Advance voting for the upcoming provincial election is coming up between Oct. 10 to Oct. 16 (with the exception of Thanksgiving on Oct. 14) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Eligible voters can also attend any District electoral office up until general election day on Saturday, Oct. 19 to cast their ballot.

Mail-in ballots are available through Elections BC until Oct. 13.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow