BURSTFormer B.C. Premier Christy Clark said it’s apparent from the results of the recent municipal election in the province that many people are looking for change in the way they are governed.
Speaking at Vancouver Island Economic Summit in Nanaimo on Wednesday, Oct. 21, B.C.’s 35th premier said the mayoral results in a number of local governments in the Lower Mainland were not what many people expected.
Several incumbent candidates went down in defeat in the elections across the Lower Mainland, which saw new mayors elected in a number of cities, including Surrey, Delta, West Vancouver and Port Moody.
“People wanted change, so they kicked out the old and brought in the new,” Clark said while taking questions from Brad McRae, chair of the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance.
“It’s hard to speculate what will happen in the provincial election (set for Oct. 24), but voters should not just sit on their hands. This is not an election where people can count on staying at home and believing that they’ll just get what they want.”
Clark said it’s important that Vancouver Island be well represented by their MLAs after the election.
She cautioned that when the NDP took power from her Liberal government in 2017, the province’s public sector started to grow, while the private sector began to shrink.
Clark said that once that economic model sets in, it’s hard for other governments to fix it when elected.
“If there is no investment from the private sector into the economy, eventually no one has any money,” she said.
Clark pointed out a number of ways B.C. can be economically stronger, including encouraging more aquaculture projects.
British Columbia’s aquaculture sector is currently facing intense pressure as the industry pushes Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal government to scrap its planned ban on open-net salmon farming, scheduled to begin on June 30, 2029.
Clark said the evidence is just not there to prove that open-net farming causes long-term damage to the environment.
“This (ban) will have bad impacts on many Indigenous communities,” she said.
“First, they lost their ability to access (income) from forests and now it’s aquaculture. They should be allowed to continue what they have been doing for thousands of years.”
Clark said it’s also important to get B.C.’s forest industry back on its feet.
Saw and pulp mills on B.C.’s coast have seen a wave of curtailments and permanent closures in recent years.
Clark said one of the biggest problems is the fact that government policies have made it much harder for the industry to survive and thrive.
“The industry is currently only being allowed to use half of the allowable-annual-cut in B.C. (which is 61.5 million cubic metres per year), and that’s a problem,” she said.
Clark added all the bureaucracy and red tape that the government has put in place in many sectors of the economy has to be dealt with.
“It’s killing investment,” she said.
“People need to be employed so they can earn money and pay taxes. Our economy needs to be better to attract investment.”
Clark said B.C. and in particular, Vancouver Island, has the potential to substantially benefit from the ongoing trade war with the U.S. as Canada looks to diversify its economy away from U.S. markets.
She said the Island is the closest part of the country to Asia, where there is a multitude of economic potential, and the deep-sea ports that are in Nanaimo and Port Alberni can play a big role in that.
“(Asian countries) are desperate for what we have here,” she said.
As for relations with B.C.’s Indigenous communities, Clark said it’s important that everybody works together for mutual benefit.
She relayed a story about when she visited an Indigenous community shortly after she became premier, she was handed a list with 60 requests that the First Nation asked of the province.
Clark said she asked why the list was so long, and an elder replied that the last time a politician visited was 50 years before, and he was given a list but never came back or acted on it, so the First Nation decided they’d just give her one big list believing that nothing would ever come of it.
“But we did come back with an interest to assist with their economic growth,” Clark said.
“We were prevented in the past in our efforts for Indigenous communities to understand that they are our economic partners. My view is that, before the colonial powers came, these communities had always lived off the land and gained wealth and sustenance from it, so when materials are taken from that land, we need to share that wealth with them.”
robert.barron@nanaimobulletin.com