Kevin Berger – Leader Staff
Rural crime, agriculture, health care and the Indian Act’s dissolution were among the topics broached at the All Candidates Forum hosted on Oct. 2 at the Barrhead Senior’s Drop-in Centre.
About 150 to 200 residents turned out that evening to learn more about the positions of Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) candidate Arnold Viersen, Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) candidate Leslie Penny, Green Party candidate Peter Nygaard and People’s Party of Canada candidate John Schrader.
Jennifer Villebrun, the NDP candidate for the Peace River-Westlock riding, was unable to attend the forum.
While introducing themselves and sharing some of their background, each candidate was asked what they saw as the main issue facing Canadians.
Referencing the Climate Strike protests that occurred on Sept. 20 and 27, Nygaard said the most important issue facing Canadians was climate change.
“Canada is not a very populous country. When a million people take to the streets, the government should recognize what these people are saying, and what they said is they want climate action,” said Nygaard.
The Green Party has advocated reaching net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, which will be achieved by a transition to renewable energy and the establishment of a national electricity grid to transfer renewable energy across the country, as well as a national program of retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient.
He would note later in the forum that the Parliamentary Budgetary Office (PBO) has reviewed the Green Party platform and it has been fully costed out.
Nygaard said Canadians would be employed via these initiatives, but also with planting trees. He also promised to help oil and gas workers with income protection and re-settlement costs.
“We want a stable economy. We want people working. This is how as an MP I would address this issue,” he said.
Viersen, who is the incumbent MP, said this election demonstrates a stark contrast between the various parties.
“We have, on the one hand, parties that are very much concerned with their global perspective, and the other hand, we have a party that is prepared to stand up for the Canadian way of life,” he said.
“That is probably the biggest question facing us in this election: what kind of country do we want to be, and how do we want to pay for everything?”
Viersen then reiterated the CPC’s promise to repeal the federal carbon tax immediately and added a promise that his party wished to also remove the GST from heating bills.
Penny, who is a Town of Barrhead councillor, said it is challenging to come up with a single “crisis point” facing all of Canada, but one issue she feels that doesn’t get a lot of attention is the viability of small communities.
One of the threats to small town viability is the lack of medical practitioners, referencing the impending closure of the Barrhead Medical Clinic and the loss of two more physicians on top of the three that left this summer.
Noting that small towns also have difficulties finding speech language therapists, Penny said the federal government has some tools that can help bring these professionals into small communities.
Penny also mentioned how the federal government oversees student loans and how they can assist students with those costs, as well as through grants.
Schrader, who is from Westlock County, said the most pressing issue for Canada is investor confidence.
“The way the PPC is going to tackle that is comprehensive. We’re going to balance the federal budget within two years and we’re the only party that’s interested in doing that within one term,” he said.
Schrader said the PPC would also stop damaging investor confidence with “environmental fear-mongering,” noting that the party will reduce regulation and introduce “results-based, measurable environmental standards.”
While the PPCC aims to lower corporate and farm taxes to 10 per cent and eliminate the capital gains tax, they also aim to end corporate welfare.
Schrader noted that he had recently read an article stating Canadians spend $29 billion a year on business subsidies.
Drugs and crime
The first question posed to the candidates concerned rural crime and its connection to drug use, which was highlighted during a recent rural crime forum in Barrhead on Sept. 25.
Viersen said the Conservatives would enable the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to do better checks, noting that many of the drugs flowing into Canada come from China.
Conservatives would also assure that gun-owners won’t see their property “go missing by the hand of the government” and concentrate on drug dealers and gun-runners through changes to the law.
Penny said her own position on crime was different from that of her party’s position, noting that she was convinced the war on drugs cannot be won.
“We have been working on it for close to a century, and we’re no further ahead than we were before,” she said.
“We need to have a de-criminalization of drugs so that if (addicts) come to seek help, they’re not going to end up getting arrested.”
Schrader said he didn’t see a point to decriminalization without full legalization, but he wasn’t’ going to create policy for the PPC on that front.
However, he said the PPC fully supports the right to self-defence, noting that he believes that is important to rural citizens like himself.
Nygaard said he actually agreed with Penny and Schrader’s stance that drug addiction was a mental health issue, not a criminal issue, and needs to be addressed as such.
“(The Green Party) would treat it as a mental health issue. We would have support services for those who are addicted, and of course support services for the families of those addicted.”
Agriculture
The next topic was agriculture and what each party would do to help farmers after yet another difficult year.
Penny mentioned the need to integrate more value added-products into agriculture “so we are not just shipping resources, but we are shipping products made from our resources.”
Penny also noted that Canada has been having difficulties with its trading partners like China, which banned imports of Canadian beef and canola. She said the federal government is working to get those markets restored.
Schrader said the PPC supports free markets totally and doesn’t support government subsidies in any industry, although there are probably some insurance programs that are acceptable if they are cost-negative to the government.
Noting that he is a farmer and rancher himself, Schrader said Canada must get fair trade deals, noting that other countries cannot be shipping goods to Canada with minimal tariffs while they refuse to allow beef and canola exports.
Nygaard said the Green Party’s platform on agriculture and food security is extensive, but it begins with funding research and extending support to farmers to shift from conventional agriculture to organic farming and “regenerative farming systems which work with nature, not against it.”
Nygaard also said they would invest $2.5 million per year into a land and quota trust program and apprenticeship initiatives to expand local, small-scale agriculture and help new farmers get started. “We want to advocate the 200-kilometre diet. We want local farmers feeding the communities,” he said.
Viersen said one of the biggest things the CPC can do to help agriculture is bring respect back to Canada on the world stage, noting that China is running roughshod over Canada.
Another problem with the honey industry in particular — which is a big part of the economy in northern Alberta, he noted — are imports of honey from China that is being labeled Canadian.
Viersen said they want to enable the Canada Border Services Agency to stop these imports of fake honey and increase inspections of Chinese products.
Senior’s housing and health care
When asked for his party’s stance on of senior’s housing, the incumbent candidate said the CPC plans to continue a lot of the initiatives that were started under the Harper government, like the Tax Free Savings Plan.
Viersen also said they want to make it so seniors do not have any “clawback” on their pension.
In regards to health care, Viersen said he believed the current health care system is working for most Canadians, and in any case, the provinces mostly administer it.
However, he did say that they’ve noticed a lot of hospitals have difficulty getting equipment like MRI or CT scanners, so they have a plan to help hospitals purchase those items.
Penny said the Liberal government is very concerned about providing opportunities to have safe housing.
They can help people get a home through the Canadian Mortgages and Housing Corporation, but they can also encourage provinces and municipalities to look at ways to introduce more accessible housing in their communities.
On the subject of health care, Penny took aim at the Conservatives’ plan to purchase expensive equipment for hospitals, noting that while it is one thing to buy MRI machines and CT scanners, it is another to get people to run them.
Penny also advocated the creation of the national pharmacare program that was promised in June by the Liberals. She pointed out that when you’re in a hospital, you get your medication for free, but when you’re at home, you pay for it.
Schrader said that he didn’t believe affordable housing was a federal issue and the PPC had no plan to contribute money towards it, but they will focus on making the economy healthier.
“We will be eliminating artificial price inflation, which will allow your money that you earn today to hold its value. And that is the best policy for people on a fixed income,” he said.
Earlier, Schrader had said the PPC would order the Bank of Canada to stop devaluing the Canadian dollar.
Nygaard, who is a member of the Onion Lake First Nation, noted that Indigenous people teach youth to respect seniors, and the Green Party does as well.
“We would ensure the Canada Pension Plan remains robust, and we would over time increase the target income replacement from 25 per cent to 50 per cent.”
“We would support innovative home-sharing plans and other measures to allow people to stay in their own homes,” he said.
Nygaard also said that the Green Party would develop and fund a National Dementia Strategy in collaboration with provinces/territories and health care professionals, noting that within 25 years, the number of Canadians suffering from dementia could reach 1.3 million.
“The strategy would support research, improve quality of life for patients and caregivers, and educate the public to increase awareness and reduce stigma.”
Indigenous issues
The one topic from the evening that all four candidates seemed to agree upon was getting rid of the Indian Act. Schrader was first, calling it a “racist act” that was not doing any good for First Nations people.
He also referenced the lack of safe drinking water on many First Nations reserves. “We need to make sure that every Canadian has clean water, and that has to change. The current situation is really an international embarrassment – I’m not happy with it at all,” he said.
“We support Aboriginal rights and land claims that are legitimate under the original treaties that were signed with our federal government, and we would look forward to working with Aboriginal bands to get these disputes resolved.”
Nygaard also said that the Indian Act was a “racist document” and the federal government had to work towards something better while working with Indigenous leaders.
He also said Canada needs to enact the recommendations of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) inquiry, as well as the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“As John said, we need to be equal. Equality is the standpoint we need to have in order to be a unified nation,” he said.
Viersen said no one would disagree with getting rid of the Indian Act — that has been the goal of the federal government for some time, regardless of who was in power.
However, Viersen also highlighted other measures that the CPC could enact quickly, such as putting into place maternal rights on reserves and enforcing the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, which the Liberals have not upheld.
Viersen said that if you wanted to learn what your municipal government is spending money on, you could do an online search. But if you live on a First Nations reserve, you have to take your band to court several times to get access to their books.
Penny agreed that the Indian Act had lost its value to Canada long ago, assuming it had any. And when developing new legislation, it was “so very, very important” to consult with bands and chiefs, although it will be difficult to get consensus.
She also mentioned that, in addition to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she believed Canada must adhere to the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from 2007.