Four candidates are campaigning to represent the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding as MLA. General election day is October 19.
Randene Neill (BC NDP), Greg Reid (Independent), Chris Moore (Conservative Party of BC) and Christopher Hergesheimer (Green Party of BC) were asked the following question:
What do you believe is the most important issue in the riding and how would you work to address it if your party forms government?
Here is the response from Randene Neill:
What I’ve been hearing from knocking on hundreds of doors these past few months is that there is more than just one issue. Health care, cost of living and housing are the top issues I’m hearing from people.
If we focus on housing, the latest reports on the upper and lower coast found we need to build thousands of homes in the next few years, including affordable and deeply affordable housing for seniors and for our workforce - nurses, teaching assistants, construction workers and care aides and their families.
I would work with local governments to ensure we apply for BC Housing and BC Builds funding. The programs provide financing, grants and low cost loans for communities and individuals that bring forward land.
Gibsons was one of the first places in the province to take advantage of the program, and just announced the opening of 40 new rental homes with 33 new homes, and a child-care centre, underway for Phase 2.
In qathet, the Community Housing Fund (that supported Life Cycle Housing in Cranberry) will open again in early 2025. The program has funds to finance 3,000 more affordable homes. I would work with local governments to ensure we get the funding.
I would also work with families here to apply for a new home ownership plan. The plan will help 25,000 first-time buyers who are currently renting, by financing 40 per cent of the purchase price. Homeowners would pay back the province when the home is sold, or after 25 years, whichever comes first.
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