Leaders talk transportation on final week of B.C. election campaign

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WatchAs they begin the final week of the election campaign, the three main party leaders discussed transportation issues on Vancouver Island.

NDP Leader John Horgan cast his vote Monday in his riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca before heading to Saanich where he met with several of his south Island NDP candidates to discuss health care in the final week of the B.C. election campaign.

At the stop, Horgan encouraged British Columbians to get out and vote saying it only took him “a minute and a half”. He was also asked about the E & N rail corridor on Vancouver Island which he called “extraordinarily important” but said it requires federal cooperation.

“The federal government has a responsibility not just to pass on a disused line and say good luck with it but also help us put in place infrastructure that will serve the people of Vancouver Island not just now but well into the future,” he said.

On a blustery day in Pitt Meadows, BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson began his speech by calling for an end to tent cities.

“We need order back in our society. The NDP keep talking about permanent tent cities we say it’s time to end tent cities because those people are the most vulnerable to crime in our society,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson made a local infrastructure funding promise before also commenting on transportation issues on southern Vancouver Island.

“The Malahat has been talked about for a long long time, it’s a very tight bottleneck past a sensitive watershed, so it needs to be addressed comprehensively because the population is not going down on the Island,” he said.

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And in Brentwood Bay, BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau was also discussing transportation along with Saanich North and the Islands Green candidate Adam Olsen.

“Adam and I both know what it’s like to rely on our ferry systems for our day to day lives,” Furstenau said.

She says more passenger service and a better reservation system is needed but that ultimately BC Ferries needs to be restored to a Crown Corporation.

“It’s time that we recognize that ferries are part of our transportation network and remove the profit motive from their operations,” she said.

 

April LawrenceApril Lawrence

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