“What would be your strongest green initiative that you commit to accomplishing, specifically in this riding?” That’s a question The Discourse heard after we asked what questions you have for provincial election candidates.
We sent the question to candidates in the Nanaimo-North Cowichan riding, which includes the communities of Chemainus and Ladysmith. BC Liberal candidate Duck Paterson did not respond to the request by the deadline. We will update this story if we receive a response.
You’ll find all our election coverage in riding guides for Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo-North Cowichan, Nanaimo, Langford-Juan de Fuca and Esquimalt Metchosin.
The Discourse is offering pop-up election coverage in Nanaimo based on feedback from residents. Sign up to get our stories straight to your inbox. If enough people want us to continue in-depth coverage in Nanaimo, we’ll stick around.
Chris Istace, BC Green Party
Active transportation is important to me and to our communities. I support the regional districts and municipal governments in expanding any infrastructure that will help people have a choice of how they move around our communities. This would also include the continued goal to complete the Great Trail. Weaving the south and north ends of our riding together with an accessible multi-use trail would provide options to get around our riding, as well as provide jobs through an increase in tourism to our region. A community that is connected with a network of different transportation options provides accessibility to everyone.
Doug Routley, BC NDP
I would like to provide two commitments from our platform that I believe will most benefit our community- the first is the removal of pst on e-bikes (something I heard from many in our community about as MLA) and the new income-tested incentive on new and used zero-emission vehicles, which will help get more people into the electric vehicle rebate program, regardless of their income. The other is also an issue I have heard from many in our community about and that is the need to protect and preserve our watersheds. In our platform we have committed to protecting clean water in British Columbia by creating a watershed security strategy to plan, manage and protect local watersheds for the public good. As part of the strategy, we will seek a partnership with the federal government to establish a Watershed Security Fund to fund Indigenous, local, and regionally led clean water initiatives – and create good, sustainable, local jobs for British Columbians in watershed restoration, monitoring, technology, training, and education
