Wednesday June 19, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Updates 9 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
For a good portion of the time during John Rustad’s speech to the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce today, there was rapt attention from the nearly 120 people in the room.
That’s slightly more people than attended the lunch speech by Kevin Falcon eight days ago according to a count by the organizer.
As leader of the Conservatives of BC, Rustad said “this is already one for the history books”, referring to the fact that his party has been resurrected from nearly no political presence whatsoever over many decades.
Range of topics:
Rustad opened his remarks with the public safety issue as relates to drug use and issues of decriminalization.
That seemed to tire the audience, and he switched next to address housing.
Then also transportation — mostly a critique of BC Ferries but saying there could be success with a non-vehicle passenger ferry service in the west shore as the “Colwood crawl is pretty brutal”.
He also outlined that “front line service should be in the office” as an appeal to the downtown business sector, which garnered some nods and applause.
Housing made simple:
As most politicians will do, Rustad tries to state the obvious in simple sentences. But sometimes that falls short in that it sounds like he is unaware of the many factors that might have produced a serious issue. Such as about housing: “We desperately need more housing” and “We need to triple the housing starts in BC”.
“We have to create an environment where people want to come and build in BC,” said Rustad.
The current NDP provincial government has been working on those issues for the last 18 months in particular, but was clearly already aware of the need for more housing and have tried different things starting in 2017. During and since the COVID pandemic the disruption of supply chains and the construction trades in the labour market has been a challenge for any government, jurisdiction or community.
Rustad says he would go back to the drawing board on provincial housing legislation that guides the Official Community Plan process at the municipal level. “The current government wants to override local governments,” said Rustad, referring to legislation that essentially removes the public hearing process for housing and other land development. The NDP government has tried to speed up the housing permit process by streamlining the process by which councils get information from their community about project developments.
Rustad says that if his party forms government, a BC Conservative government would reverse the short-term rental ban that became activated in May of this year.
Immigration made simple:
“We don’t have the specialists to build out (the housing development),” said Rustad today. Part of his solution is to “look seriously at immigration — bring in skill sets that we need”. That’s already being done, both provincially and federally.
This is another example of how a vigorously stated point to an audience that might not be following every move by the provincial government will fall on welcoming ears.
Health care views:
There is a crisis in the health care system, said Rustad, stating the obvious. He repeated what we know, that one in five people in BC don’t have a family doctor.
“This doesn’t get talked about,” said Rustad, which seems a bit odd, as it’s one of the most talked-about concerns both in communities and in political discourse. But he says more stats are needed to bear out the real costs to people. He reminded his audience that wait times are up and that sometimes people die waiting for diagnosis.
The private sector can contribute to the success of things like home care, he told Island Social Trends after the speech.
“We need to figure out how to better deliver those services. There’s a role the private sector can play. But the key is we want it to be universal health care. So I don’t want those who can afford to pay to have better health care than those who can’t afford to pay. It should be a single payer. But I am more than open to the idea of it being delivered by multiple sources,” said Rustad about how he envisions BC’s health care system.
“We need to get the big picture right then look at how we transition and change it. It’s going to take time. It can’t be changed over night. It’s a $38 billion business that you don’t just move on a dime. It’s going to take some time to do some structural changes,” Rustad told Island Social Trends today.
As for Urgent Primary Care Centres being always overloaded and backlogged: “I’m not sure if money is the issue,” Rustad said. “We need to be looking at the models in Europe in terms of how efficiently we can provide those services which have a lower cost per capita than British Columbia does,” the BC Conservatives leader says. “We need to get the right health care model in place before we worry about trying to put more money after something that’s not working.”
Does our current model rely too much on triage by phone? “Our current model is just broken. There are so many problems you can’t put your finger on one thing. It is a system that is more focussed on a system of bureaucracy than it is on patients,” said Rustad in his interview with Island Social Trends today.
Standing for what’s right:
The Conservatives of BC will “stand for what’s right” and “for the everyday person,” said Rustad, to tidy up his distinction from the BC United on the centre-right of the political spectrum. He posited that the BC United are still interested in a mainstream style of government.
Policies aside, mainstream governance includes checks and balances and has safeguards in many areas. Unpinning some of those guardrails might be a problem under a Conservative government in BC.
All political parties feel they are standing for what’s right. That’s the wind behind the sails of the BC NDP, BC United, BC Greens and BC Conservatives in this 2024 pre-campaign period. The writ drops (campaigning officially begins) on September 21 and Election Day is October 19.
Will the Conservatives of BC have a full slate of 93 candidates come September 28 when candidate nominations close? “Oh most definitely. That won’t be a problem at all,” said Rustad to Island Social Trends today.
Presently the party has 69 candidates, though there has been a bit of churn as some candidates who were accepted then were dropped.
===== RELATED:
Government’s job to keep running the province (June 18, 2024)
“British Columbians are mainstream not extreme,” says BC United Leader Kevin Falcon (June 6, 2024)
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