HUMBOLDT — Climate change, gun control, the economy and hate speech were just a few of the items touched on by the federal election candidates at a local all-candidates forum.
Present at the Oct. 9 event hosted by the Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce for the Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek riding were Conservative Kelly Block, New Democrat Jasmine Calix, Liberal Rebecca Malo, the People’s Party’s Cody Payant and independent Glenn Wright.
After a random draw, Wright was the first to give an opening statement.
“I'm here on behalf of all of us because I think there's something wrong with our political system. I'm running to try and restore trust in government and I want to bring you an urgent message about sustainability.”
He said the other candidates were muzzled by their central campaigns and that the focus of the parties was on the competition, on winning, rather than co-operating to come up with solutions.
Block has been the MP for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek and its predecessors since 2008.
“I would have to say the past four years under Justin Trudeau and a Liberal government have been disastrous for our country. To prevent another four years of the same, we need to elect a new majority Conservative government.”
She told the audience a Conservative government would lower taxes and live within its means.
Payant said he’s not a politician, but an accountant. He said people were sick of politicians. He said he was a Conservative supporter, but he’s finding that party to be too similar to the Liberals.
“I believe that Canadians know what to do with their money more than the government does. We need to incentivize economic growth, respect provincial jurisdiction and get the government out of every aspect of people's lives.”
Malo said in 2002, she moved to Warman to start a family. She ran a licensed daycare for 10 years and got more involved in the community when her children reached school age. She had decided to go back to school to get an accounting degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
“I was able to go back to school because of the money I received from the Canada Child Benefit, Skills Boost training grants and the expanded student loan program,” she said, adding she realized those were Liberal initiatives. “I want everybody to have the same opportunity as me to recreate themselves.”
Last to speak was Calix. She said while she loves living in Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, she thinks things could be better. She wants to be the local voice in Ottawa, feeling that the silence from the capital has been deafening and there’s a need for change.
“This is a very important election. People are worried about the cost of living, about housing, phone bills, medicine – they all add up for families who haven't gotten a real raise in years.”
She added climate change and reconciliation were important issues the two largest parties haven’t acted sufficiently on.
Dean Gibson wasn’t at the event. His official biography on the Green Party’s website said he’s lived in Saskatoon since 1960. He studied music and the fine arts, including musical theatre at The Banff School of Fine Arts.
“He believes the world economy needs to readjust how it thinks of prosperity, and to include the cost of environmental impact in our assessments of ‘successful’ projects,” the biography said.
Environment
Questions about the environment, climate change and the carbon tax were given to the candidates all evening.
Malo said the Liberals are planning to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 by planting two billion trees to offset carbon emissions, strengthening existing laws to cut emissions and aiming to retrofit 1.5 million homes, using interest-free 10-year loans of up to $40,000 to help people do so.
“While it may seem that the Trans Mountain expansion project works against climate goals, we’ll be investing every dollar we earn from the Trans Mountain into Canada’s clean energy transition, which could generate $500 million per year towards climate solutions and clean energy projects.”
The Liberal candidate was in favour of the carbon tax her party implemented in government.
The NDP see opportunities in a green transition.
“We want to combine economic growth and regard for the planet,” Calix said. “We can do that by creating 300,000 jobs in green energy.”
She said those jobs could come from electrification of transit and creating zero emission vehicles in Canada, with sales tax removed from those vehicles.
The NDP would also work to retrofit homes so they are more energy efficient, and invest in clean energy projects through a climate bank.
Calix said the NDP would revisit the carbon tax to make it more fair for working people.
Wright said that the government is providing $3.3 billion annually in subsidies to fossil fuel companies and that the Liberals bought Trans Mountain for $4.5 billion.
“I would suggest that what we need to do is move towards embracing the future and look at sustainability as the lens on everything,” he said. “There’s no point in expanding the old economy because at some point, the world will have built its last pipeline. Will one more pipeline dig us out the economic struggle we’re in? I don’t think so.”
Wright said a carbon tax was not a silver bullet for the environment.
Block said the Conservative plan had three principles green technology, not taxes; creating a cleaner green and natural environment; and taking the climate change fight global.
“Under this plan, it will not be free to pollute, we will not give exemptions to the largest emitters, we will put limits on GHG emissions, but we also understand the greenhouse gas emissions are not limited by borders and that Canada definitely has a leadership role to play in the global fight against climate change.”
Block said her party would scrap the carbon tax.
Payant said the government needs to get out of the way of companies that are making innovations to reduce emissions and that Candian leaders need to stop bowing to the United Nations when it comes to climate policy.
“The PPC, I’d say, is the most environmentally-friendly party of any party in Canada because we understand that the government is not going to magically create commercial viability and save the planet through taxation.”
Payant said the People’s Party would scrap any form of carbon pricing.
In their platform, the Greens say they’ll cut 60 per cent of carbon emissions by 2030, cancel the Trans Mountain pipeline, make electric vehicles affordable and expand charging stations and renew the National Forest Strategy. They’d remove exemptions on the carbon tax the Liberals have made with some emitters.
Gun Control
One audience member asked for the candidates’ positions on gun control
Payant said there’s a need need to deter the criminals and leave the law-abiding gun owners alone. His party would money into RCMP for faster response time and look at legislation allowing people to defend themselves, like some states in the U.S.
“People should be able to protect themselves and their families while they’re being attacked and with deadly force if necessary.”
Malo said the Liberals would ban military style assault weapons and have a buyback program for the ones legally bought. They would work with provinces to allow municipalities to restrict or ban handguns.
“We will protect the rights of law-abiding hunters and pledge not to bring back the long gun registry,” she said. “Hunters do not use or need assault weapons.”
Calix said the NDP was concerned about the use of illegal guns by gangs.
“We do recognize that in Canada people use guns for sporting events and for recreation and we’d like that to continue because it’s very much of Canadian life and of rural life.”
Wright said he lives on a farm, likes to hunt and has a gun.
“Our gun laws don’t need to change. They’re fine as they are right now. Any effort we spend on it is distracting us from the more important issues that we have before us right now.
Block said the Conservatives would bring in tougher sentences for violent gang crime and make it easier for prosecutors to convict known gang members.
“We know that blanket bans and new rules on those who obey the laws don’t make our streets safer. We believe that gun laws should target criminals, not law-abiding firearm owners.”
The Greens said they would ensure illegal handguns are intercepted and kept out of Canadian cities and launch a confidential buyback program for handguns and assault weapons.
Small Business
Brent Fitzpatrick with the chamber asked what the candidates would do for small business.
Block said the Conservatives would make it easier for business to get set up with the Canada Revenue Agency and reduce the complexity of the rules the CRA enforces. They’d aim to reduce federal regulations by 25 per cent over four years, and require that for every new regulation, two would be repealed.
Payant said the People's Party would stop corporate welfare, accelerate capital cost allowance, scrap the capital gains tax, reduce small business taxes, farm taxes and corporate taxes. They’d also reduce person income taxes, going towards a flat tax.
Malo said the Liberals would cut red tape, cut corporate tax in half for those that develop products with zero emissions, and create a Canada Entrepreneur Account that will provide up to 2,000 entrepreneurs up to $50,000 each to launch their new business.
Calix said the NDP would small business taxes, lower unfair credit card fees for merchants and invest in skills training.
Wright said there was opportunities for small businesses in dealing with waste that being sent to Asia and creating solutions that produce less waste. He added regulations were needed to protect small business against the internet giants.
The Greens said they would keep small business taxes the same, review the tax system and exempt small business from a tax that charges businesses more for replacing jobs with technology like artificial intelligence and robots.
Hate speech
One audience member asked about hate speech, referring to a Facebook post made by Payant.
In the post, Payant said governments needed to protect free speech and that the market would deal with social media platform with political agenda incongruent with consumer demand.
“Our country could use more hate speech, more offensive comments, more ‘micro-aggressions’, more violation of safe spaces with words, and more critical thinking,” the post said.
At the forum, Payant said he’s not in favour of hate speech, calling it awful. He added that speech was better to solve conflict than physical violence.
“I support freedom of speech. I think resolving conflict through speech is, always, 100 per cent of the time, the better alternative to it being pushed underground and the government determining what people can and cannot say.”
The other candidates said they opposed hate speech.
