People from across the Bulkley Valley and Lakes were at the Houston Community Hall Monday night to hear the from the local political candidates.
Four of the five Skeena – Bulkley Valley riding hopefuls were in attendance to share their plans and answer questions from the media and the public.
Afterwards, each of the four candidates explained their plan to bring more jobs back into Houston.
Christian Heritage Party representative Donald Spratt
“I would be trying to eliminate all the red tape that keeps entrepreneurship from going forward, get the taxes off of small business and even large ones and make it easier for people to create jobs and hire more people at better wages. I think if the government gets out of the road with just the minimum amount of regulation, because that’s the job of government, that’s the way to go. I think the free market should be given all the leeway that can possibly be given.”
Liberal Party candidate Brad Layton:
“The first thing that we need to do before we bring jobs into the area is we need to fix our infrastructure. We need to have a strong infrastructure to move more people back into the area. In Houston, we need to diversify, we need to strengthen green technologies and technologies like our internet. We need to be able to have top notch stuff in place so we can attract other types of businesses as well. That way, when we do have a downturn in the forest industry, we’re not completely shut down. Proper planning and investment in our infrastructures and we can weather [a downturn].”
NDP candidate Nathan Cullen:
“We have to do more with the resources we have and in a place like Houston, increasing innovations so that we don’t ship so many logs out raw. Almost all the logs that leave Canada raw come out of British Columbia. We want to work with the Province and crank that down and one of the ways you do that is help companies do a whole multitude of things [like] cutting the small business tax rates so small businesses can come into the industry and help as well. We need to diversify and the best place to diversify is starting with your small business community because they’re the ones that will take the risk and be innovative. I’ve got great hope for this town because it’s an incredibly hard-working community.”
Conservative Party candidate Tyler Nesbitt:
“That’s going to be my number one priority focusing on jobs and the economy here. I’m going to measure success, after hopefully four years of doing this, by how many jobs I helped create in this region and how many families are still here because they were able to seize the economic opportunities at our doorstep. I’m here to deliver results for people. I’m here to help us get to ‘yes’ on some of these things like LNG and not to say ‘no’ to them. I think that’s the big difference between what myself and the Conservatives are offering … that’s what I hope to achieve in four years here is delivering results for people.”
Green Party candidate Jeannie Parnell was not in attendance.
The candidates will be in Terrace Tuesday for the next forum.
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