Five out of six federal candidates for the Skeena- Bulkley Valley riding gathered virtually for a joint all candidates forum on Wednesday (Sept 8).
Incumbent NDP Taylor Bachrach, Conservative candidate Claire Rattee, Green Party candidate Adeana Young, People’s Party of Canada candidate Jody Craven and Christian Heritage Party candidate Rod Taylor were all in attendance.
The only candidate who did not attend was Lakhwinder Jahj who is the candidate for the Liberal party.
One of the major topics of the event was truth and reconciliation which all candidates had the opportunity to touch on.
The first to touch on the subject was CHP candidate Rod Taylor who said the truth needs to be available.
“The truth needs to be available to everybody about the citation that has taken place about the residential schools and many other things that are hidden from our site,” he said.
According to Conservative candidate Claire Rattee, for her truth and reconciliation is doing the hard work that will improve the lives of Indigenous people.
She said we can’t cherry pick recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“We need to actually make sure that we do all of the recommendations and that is what the Liberal government is doing right now they’re cherry picking. The recognition of Indigenous rights has been hard after decades of struggle by First Nations,” Rattee said.
She added there also needs to be investments in arts and culture and provide better mental health support to communities.
NDP Incumbent Taylor Bachrach agreed with Rattee about how the government should not cherry pick from the Truth and Reconciliation commission.
He also added that the truth must be heard from the Indigenous community that they have been telling for generations.
“The discoveries of the unmarked burial sites really drove home the fact that so many people haven’t listened to the stories carefully enough and accepted the difficult truth of what happened,” Bachrach said.
People’s Party of Canada Candidate Jody Craven said the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples must be based on mutual respect and balanced approach.
“Taking into account the needs of the Indigenous population and the interest of the Canadian population. We’re about building relationships, reconciliation and we can do this with each other” he said.
Lastly, Green party’s Adeana Young touched on the subject, who is of Haida Nation.
“As an Indigenous woman running in a Federal election moving towards reconciliation is not coming in with a biased, it means coming in with open ears and an opportunity for us to be able to work collaboratively,” she said,
The general voting day is on September 20th with advanced voting starting on Friday (Sept 10).
Another all candidates forum will be held Thursday (Sept 9) on the Burns Lake District Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.