Nanaimo-Gabriola Island Candidates present their case to students and young voters at VIUSU All Candidate Forum
On October 8 candidates from the Nanaimo-Lantzville and Nanaimo-Gabriola Island ridings took to the stage at Vancouver Island University’s Malaspina Theatre to discuss topics important to post-secondary students. Photo: Jesse Woodward / CHLY 101.7fm
This is part two of a two-part report.
Candidates from the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island and Nanaimo-Lantzville ridings took to the stage of the Malaspina Theatre at Vancouver Island University to answer questions important to post-secondary students.
For the Nanaimo-Gabriola Island riding, the event saw BC Green Party candidate Shirley Lambrecht, BC NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson, and Conservative Party of BC candidate Dale Parker in attendance.
Nanaimo-Lantzville riding candidates were also at the forum.
40 people gathered in the theatre on October 8th, with the event hosted by the VIU Students’ Union and VIU Political Science program. Attendees heard the candidates discuss five key topics VIUSU gathered from students at the university.
The first question asked what their party’s long-term plans are to ensure students and young adults have consistent access to affordable, nutritious food while they study.
Shirley Lambrecht said having worked with vulnerable youth from kindergarten up to high school she has seen students come to their program without having eaten anything that day.
“It's not going to be any one program, but we need to be very creative with the types of programs we create,” Shirley Lambrecht said. “In terms of, there are all kinds of things that we can be doing to fund food so that people who are struggling to make their bills can actually get a regular supply of food, even when we have cafeteria services here.”
Sheila Malcolmson said food insecurity has a huge impact on students who may be isolated from buying groceries at a typical grocery store due to living on campus or not having access to transportation.
“Just really recognizing the huge impact the increased cost of groceries, I wish we could control–we can't ourselves,” Malcolmson said. “I know that this work is happening, in the student movement, working with Loaves and Fishes to be able to access food that shipping companies donate.”
Dale Parker stated the BC NDP policy is only going to help buy “a carrot and a couple of bags of groceries” which will not help people who cannot afford to buy groceries.
“We're going to be investing in our farmers, expanding access to local markets, and cutting the necessary red tape that holds them back,” Parker said. “We're also going to unlock our agricultural potential, support our farmers and ensure British Columbians have access to affordable, locally-produced food.”
The second question highlighted that with the ongoing cost of living crisis, students are spending a significant portion of their part-time or full-time income on rent, and some students face homelessness. Candidates were asked what their party’s plan is to increase affordable housing options for students near campuses.
Malcolmson answered first saying housing is the biggest impact on affordable housing and something the BC NDP government has been working hard on for the last seven years. She said following the BC Liberal government, the BC NDP government had built more student housing in seven years than the previous government did in 16 years.
Parker said the Conservative Party of BC promises to end the housing shortage by streamlining the approval processes and delivering large tax cuts for housing. Along with having the provincial government step in if cities fail to issue permits within six months.
Lambrecht said the BC Greens are committed to building 26,000 units of housing per year of blow-market or non-market social and co-op housing.
“We've already committed to spending $1.1 billion investing in education in our first year, second year, slightly over $1.1 billion and in our third year, over $1.2 billion we're investing in education, and that includes all aspects of education, and housing is part of that,” Lambrecht said. “So we are investing in people, and we're ensuring that people have the shelter that they need.”
For the third question, candidates were queried about budget deficits that universities like VIU are facing, in-part due to the recent caps on international student visas. The candidates were asked what commitments their parties will make to ensure that public post-secondary institutions in B.C. receive sufficient funding to provide high-quality education and services, reducing their reliance on international student tuition.
Parker, who has a background in the IT field, didn’t comment on international students or funding deficits but said his party is looking to strengthen B.C’s technology sector and have the province be a top destination for technology professionals.
“We need to partner with the private sector, and we need to get investment in British Columbia in our post-secondary institutions,” Parker said. “Creating an environment where people are partnering together is going to create more funding for the universities. Our program focuses on innovation investment and creating conditions for our tech sector to thrive.”
Lambrecht said using international students as a business model to fund the university may have been a necessary evil, but it was still not the right approach. She said the right approach is for the government to support education.
Malcolmson said the BC NDP government will continue to work with post-secondary institutions to be able to address huge funding challenges.
“At the same time we've been investing directly on campus to have the new health sciences center, to have upgraded the trades center, the Gathering Place Shq’apthut, to have expanded it and just opened all the accessibility upgrades for people with disabilities to be able to move through the campus more easily,” Malcolmson said. “Those are all direct investments from our BC NDP government that have taken some of the financial pressure off VIU.”
Candidates were also queried what steps they would take to improve access to timely, affordable and culturally competent mental health services for all students in B.C.
Lambrecht said the BC Greens are committed to investing in mental health care by presenting it as a part of their overall holistic wellness policy and practice where mental health is included with physical health.
“We're committed to adding counsellors, not removing them from schools because we know students are facing so much uncertainty. We have an epidemic of depression and anxiety, and we know that we need to provide support for students who are suffering,” Lambrecht said. “There's so much uncertainty that you all are facing, and we totally appreciate that, and that's why we're committing these dollars to make sure that we're bringing counsellors back into the schools instead of cutting them from the schools.”
Malcolmson said there is a need to invest in young people to get the skills to tackle mental health challenges when they are still young to set people up for a life of success.
“The kind of things that we've been building up to that end; addiction treatment beds, mental health counsellors–we've now committed to having one in every school–but already included in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, we have integrated child and youth teams, where we've broken down the silos between the health authority, the school district, Ministry of Children and Family Development and service providers so that young people have a wrap-around support system,” Malcolmson said.
Parker said over the last seven years there has been a mental health crisis and not enough resources to support everyone.
“We're seeing people with mental health problems thrown in the street, who turn to drugs, who are forced to deal with the police. The police take them to the hospitals, the hospitals then are unable to deal with them, and they can't help the patients coming in with bumps and bruises and other serious problems,” Parker said. “These are all the downstream effects of the neglect of mental health services in British Columbia. The BC Conservative Party is going to focus on recovery and treatment for people with mental health problems. We're going to have services designed to ensure all levels of treatment are needed and are available.”
For the forum’s last question, candidates were asked what specific steps their party will take to enhance funding for Indigenous services and supports such as scholarships and community learning hubs to help more Indigenous students complete their post-secondary education.
Malcolmson said it is important to support Indigenous students getting to university and supporting success. She said she is concerned about the absence of support for Indigenous students and will continue to work with Nations locally to see what extra support they would need.
“At the same time, we're really working to build up that support at home for nations right here in Snuneymuxw to have done two major land back ceremonies and given hundreds of hectares of land–1,000s of hectares of land actually, back to Snuneymuxw that originally belonged to them,”
Malcolmson said.
Parker said one of the principles of the Conservative Party of BC is to strengthen First Nations economic reconciliation.
“I'm very proud of the BC Conservative Party, we have two significant community leaders in the First Nations who are candidates in our party, and with their support in helping us understand and gain a deeper understanding of the needs, we will achieve great things together as partners,” Parker said. “We will return forest and land back to the Indigenous people, and we will treat them as equals, and we will find reconciliation through agreement and through partnerships.”
To answer this question Lambrecht said her first task would be to ask the students why they are pausing their education journeys. She said as a government they need to go to the root cause and understand the students' challenges.
“We need to understand why students are choosing to leave their educational path. So to me, I look at this as an aspect of reconciliation, we need to be really working in partnership with our Indigenous communities, and look to them for some of these answers. We are investing in education because we recognize the value of it,” Lambrecht said. “We recognize that every decision we make needs to be viewed through the lens as well with the Indigenous communities so that we really understand the nature of the problems and how we can address them. It's not just for us as settlers to figure out what the problems are.”
Advance voting has now started across B.C. leading up to Election Day on October 19. An advance polling station will be located at Vancouver Island University on October 16 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and October 19 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the upper cafeteria.
With Files from Jesse Woodward
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.