What skills, professional experience, and personal attributes make you an effective representative for your riding in the Legislature?
My many years of interview training, which involves careful listening and observation of body language, will be useful in learning the concerns and perspectives of voters.

My skills in research, working with empirical evidence, writing comprehensive reports in a legal context, and working with forensic data will be useful in summarizing the issues affecting people in the Riding. My calm and measured response style, diplomacy and tact will work well in intergovernmental relations (municipal, regional, federal, Indigenous) to create viable solutions to complex problems.

I have worked with people in conflict for over 40 years, guiding them to peaceful and mutually beneficial plans, to retain their dignity and hope. This has been in criminal contexts as well as in family dynamics, social crises such as where victims of crime were interviewed, and with seniors facing declining health and independence challenges. I am a respectful, articulate and kind person, embracing diversity which includes disabilities and poverty.

Having served as an Expert Witness in a variety of roles and Courts will translate into my performance in the Legislature. I will maintain composure and dignity under pressure from other MLAs and never resort to attacking or degrading other members.

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Cost of living challenges continue to mount, with everyday items and activities becoming increasingly unaffordable. What specific examples of this have you seen in the riding, and what areas would you advocate for to bring relief to residents?
Nanaimo-Lantzville shares challenges in food security and affordability with most of the Province. Food, transportation, home insurance, property taxes, or tenant insurance have all seen significant increases since the Pandemic.

Those living without health care benefits beyond MSP are paying considerably more for prescriptions, vision care, and supplements. While a federal dental plan is a welcome benefit, and a national pharmacare plan is under development, getting to service providers remains a challenge for most people in the Riding, particularly in Lantzville, where transit routes are extremely limited.

The cost of maintaining a vehicle is prohibitive. Using bicycles is not possible for those with physical challenges and road safety concerns. Lantzville does not currently have bike lanes or sidewalks in many areas, particularly in the Winds.

Where people have had to face the closure or disuse of their wells, purchasing drinking water has also become an enormous expense. The recent plan to extend water access from the RDN to Lantzville and the Snaw-Naw-As Reserve has been fraught with complications and frustration.

The cost to individual homeowners to connect to the regional supply would have been prohibitive and has left the community divided and even in despair, where Boron levels in wells…(word limit reached)

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The need for additional housing stock in the region is widely recognized, with various approaches proposed or underway to build more homes, faster, which in turn should reduce costs for renters and home buyers. What specific housing needs have you identified in the riding, and how would you address those needs as the riding’s MLA?

Nanaimo-Lantzville has a rapidly expanding population as people seek to live in this idyllic region. Infrastructure has not kept up; nor has housing availability. Densification may be appropriate in urban areas, but is not the ideal of “dark-skies” and ocean-adjacent places such as this Riding.

Single-family dwellings are expensive, with the rising costs of building materials and the need to import most products from off Island. Many areas of Lantzville and northern Nanaimo are not connected to sewers or freshwater supplies.

Building codes must be brought up to date to take into consideration the number of parking places, for example, that are required in multi-family dwellings and commercial spaces. Transit corridors and an eventual restoration of passenger rail may mitigate the need for everyone to have a vehicle. Ride-sharing can be expanded.

BC has not kept pace with the need to train people in the trades, resulting in a shortage of electricians, welders, plumbers, solar installers, landscapers familiar with xeriscaping to reduce water demand, and workers in renewable heating and cooling systems.

We must invest in students wishing to enter the trades as the baby-boomer generation seeks to retire. We must not saddle these new workers with student debt, but…(word limit reached)

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Local advocacy groups are calling for immediate investment in primary healthcare services across the central and northern Island regions, including additional capital investments for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. What steps will you take to improve access to healthcare in the riding, particularly with regard to primary care physicians and access to specialists?
There has been a shortage of primary care physicians in BC, due in part to the affordability question, and also to the changing demands of workers for work-life balance.

The Green Party platform includes the creation of health care services as hubs within communities, to increase accessibility to services as and when they are needed. These hubs will include a wide spectrum of professionals and services reducing the need for people to travel great distances to access the care that they need.

We must also improve our own responsibility for our health and this can be incentivized with the provision of walking and exercise facilities adjacent to the hubs, dieticians, pharmacists, radiologists, and other professionals. Where possible, Urgent Care and services such as dialysis will also be available.

We must remove the barriers to accreditation that are faced by doctors and other healthcare professionals who are new to Canada. These professionals want to work in their chosen professions here, and we must act quickly to facilitate their employment.

Students who are training as doctors and nurses in BC must be willing to stay and work here once they graduate. There needs to be a contract to do so established at…(word limit reached)

Editor’s note: Candidate responses were limited to 200 words. Any responses exceeding this limit are trimmed as noted. Answers are published otherwise unedited by NanaimoNewsNOW, with the exception of paragraph spacing to aid readability.