NDP, Greens attend forum

With a couple of election candidates pulling out at the last minute, only two MLA hopefuls from the Salmon Arm-Shuswap riding took part in a virtual all-candidate climate forum Thursday night.

About 30 residents attended the online forum, which was hosted by the Shuswap Climate Action Society. Event organizer Julia Beatty said independent candidate Greg McCune and BC Conservative candidate David Williams had both pulled out of the event earlier that day.

Sherry Roy, the riding's other independent candidate, had previously told organizers she would be unable to attend.

The candidates in attendance included the Green Party's Jed Wiebe and the NDP's Sylvia Lindgren. They fielded questions submitted by residents prior to the event, with all questions being climate related in some way.

One of the questions posed to the candidates was about identifying the main risks that climate change poses to B.C.

Lindgren said she believed atmospheric rivers and food security were some of the biggest threats. She said the flooding that took place in 2021 was “unprecedented,” and showed how rising waters could damage important infrastructure.

“We have a huge issue with food security,” she added, noting forest fires, flooding and landslides damaging roads could prevent food from being able to be shipped into the region.

Wiebe said he felt there were many dangers posed by climate change, but emphasized a message of hope.

“It's not too late to have hope,” he said. “We can do this, but the risks are enormous.”

Wiebe said he’s lived his whole life in “a state of grief” about ecological collapse, but has "moved through the stages of grief and I’m at acceptance and hope.”

“Now it's time to do something about it,” he added.

Tackling transportation emissions

The candidates were asked how their parties propose to reduce transportation emissions, given data shows the largest proportion of greenhouse gas emissions in the province comes from transportation.

Lindgren said electrification of school buses would make a big difference for the Shuswap.

“We transport kids across a huge district," she said.

She pointed out the electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the province has improved dramatically due to BC Hydro installations.

Lindgren went on to stress the importance of shopping local due to the challenges posed by electrifying large trucks.

“We need to stop shipping things across the country and across the planet,” she said. “We need to become more local.”

Wiebe said he believed the BC Green Party plan to provide free public transit across the province was an important step towards reducing emissions.

“We're also committed to local food production,” he said. “We're going to invest in local food processing and local food distribution.”

Candidates weigh in on carbon tax

Candidates were asked whether their party would remove the carbon tax, and if so, what a possible replacement might look like.

Lindgren said it was a John Rustad government that created the carbon tax in the first place.

“John Rustad suddenly doesn't seem to be supporting it, but it was his government that wrote the book on it,” she said.

She said the BC NDP would drop the carbon tax if there was no federal mandate to have one, and if they did, they would replace it “with something that taxes big polluters.”

Wiebe said removing the carbon tax would be “clawing back our progress” on reducing emissions. He said the move would be consistent with what the NDP have done as far as “support for the big polluters.”

He claimed the NDP changed the carbon tax while they were in power so “big polluters pay nothing on the first 65 per cent of the carbon that they emit, and only half the rate on the remaining 35 per cent.”

A complete video of the all candidates climate forum will be made available on the Shuswap Climate Action Society website in the coming days.

Residents who want to learn more about where the Salmon Arm-Shuswap candidates stand can attend an all candidates forum in Sicamous on Oct. 10, hosted by the Sicamous Chamber of Commerce.