There were more empty seats and microphones than candidates on stage at a 2024 provincial election all-candidates forum, focused on environmental issues, in Vernon Thursday, Oct. 3.
The Sustainable Environment Network Society (SENS) hosted the event which drew a crowd of close to 200 to Vernon's Towne Theatre. What it didn't draw was five of the eight declared candidates from the two ridings that cover the North Okanagan. The event was also live-streamed through SENS' Facebook page.
Taking part in the 90-minute forum from the 琉璃神社-Lake Country-Coldstream (KLC) riding were independent candidate Kevin Kraft, and Anna Warwick Sears, representing the NDP.
The only Vernon-Lumby (VL) candidate at the forum was incumbent NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu.
All eight candidates 鈥� four in each riding 鈥� were invited to participate in the live forum, and all were invited to answer pre-submitted questions. Their replies were printed and posted on the wall of the theatre's lobby which forum-goers could read as they entered the facility (answers are slated to be posted on the and ).
Andrew Rose of the B.C. Green Party, running in the KLC riding, responded, but refused the invitation to participate in the forum, and declined to answer the submitted questions.
BC Conservative candidate Tara Armstrong, also running in KLC, did not respond.
Libertarian candidate Robert Johnson, running in VL, did not respond to the invitation or questions.
BC Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht declined both.
"As election day gets closer, the campaign needs to spend the limited time door-knocking. We wish we had infinite time to attend and do everything, but we had to make the difficult decision to prioritize voter engagement. 鈥� Giesbrecht Campaign Team."
Independent candidate Kevin Acton did respond to the questions, but did not attend the forum.
"While all of the topics to be addressed...are of significant concern and interest to most, if not all, Vernon-Lumby constituents, it is my considered position that many of these issues cannot be responsibly discussed or debated in isolation," said Acton, whose reply was read to the crowd by moderator Dr. Jon Corbett, head of global studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
"I am therefore going to decline participation in favour of other forums and debates wherein all matters important to our communities, stakeholders and residents can be comprehensively and thoroughly discussed and debated."
SENS has been a non-partisan environmental advocate in the North Okanagan for more than 50 years, and began hosting all-candidate forums for all levels of government in 2015. Prior to that, said SENS, environmental issues were rarely talked about in public forums.
"We now know that environmental issues affect not only business, but health, food, infrastructure, forestry, water, affordability and more," said SENS.
The lack of response from a majority of riding candidates, said the society, is "unprecedented for our ridings, and very disappointing."
The trio of candidates debated seven questions from the crowd over the 90 minutes, ranging on topics from fracking to protecting trees from global warming, and nature restoration in community watersheds to climate justice. Each was given two minutes for their answers.
One of the main concerns in both ridings is agriculture, and moderator Corbett combined a couple of questions into one. He asked the candidates their views of releasing protected agricultural land from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) to ease the housing crisis, and how would they make food producers like farmers, ranchers, and fisher people remain viable in all B.C. communities given the multitude of challenges they face.
First to answer was Kraft, from 琉璃神社, who is a director on the Regional District of Central Okanagan board, and also a worm farmer. In his riding, he said, there is a significant amount of ALR land that was traditionally ranch land, hundreds of acres of property now broken up into 10-acre parcels that "are on rocky cliffs, different little plateaus, and not really lending itself to strong agricultural production."
"Not only do the property owners think they're kind of stuck in ALR zoning requirements, but they're also stuck on the opportunities that they feel lost on how they can make the most of their properties, and create funding to support their way of life, communities and properties," said Kraft.
"The efforts around the ALR to limit those properties that are 10 acres and no longer viable for certain agricultural practices is really an opportunity to look at secondary homes and approve secondary suite opportunities."
Sandhu called the ALR "one of the historic and biggest accomplishments" of the B.C. NDP back in the day, and praised the work of longtime North Okanagan agricultural staple Coldstream Ranch.
"They been around a long time and they are doing state-of-the-art agriculture," said Sandhu. "They are people who want to do agriculture. It's the farmers that made and make the lands viable. You help them by giving them supports to make their farms more climate resistant, help them with water, irrigation, and stuff, and give them initiatives."
Warwick Sears, the executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, is 100 per cent behind protecting ALR land.
"Agriculture land is a non-renewable resource," she said. "Once we lose it, once we build things on it, we cannot replace it...We can do a lot more to support farmers. We're putting a lot of responsibility on them to make profit on land where they may have to do a re-plant, or may need to put up more irrigation equipment."
Given that the two new ridings are connected by Highway 97, the forum turned to transportation. Corbett asked the candidates how they would support the development of green public transportation across the province, and how would they improve transit between Vernon and 琉璃神社.
Warwick Sears recently rode the bus to Vernon and back home to 琉璃神社, and says one of the things that will help the corridor is bus rapid transit, where you have many buses going very frequently.
"You can start with bus rapid transit right away," said Warwick Sears. "It will help a lot to reduce traffic problems. You can have a dedicated lane. I feel strongly about this. When I drive up to Vernon in the winter, I have a tiny car and I don't like the big trucks spraying slush on my windshield. I like to, when I can, ride the bus up here, but it's hard to get back to work on-time. It's not helpful how infrequent it is."
Asked about improving school bus transit in her riding, Sandhu, former nurse at Vernon Jubilee Hospital and a mother of three, is all for it.
"I was not able to give my kids a ride to school when I was working at the hospital at 6:30 or 7 in the morning, so I know the challenges with the school district," she said. "Transportation to school is a fundamental right, and a key to education. Not all parents are fortunate to have a vehicle or if they are a single-parent and they're working.
She also praised the efforts of a pair of students from Vernon's Clarence Fulton Secondary School, which began a Teens For Transit campaign, which would allow youth aged 18 and under the ability to ride all B.C. Transit and Translink services free of charge. The initiative was endorsed at the recent Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Vancouver in September.
Kraft, the RDCO rural director for the Ellison area of 琉璃神社 (near the airport) is dissatisfied with transit services for his area given the proximity to the airport and UBCO campus.
"We have a community with a changing demographic to younger families, and it's something I'll continue to advocate for," he said. "I'm also not pleased that we don't have a diverse fleet of buses serving our different communities with smaller vehicles and more routine routes."
There is another forum for Vernon-Lumby candidates slated for Saturday, Oct. 5, at 2 p.m. at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. It is being hosted by the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce.
