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Rustad, Bond raise concerns over Throne Speech

The interim leader of the BC Liberals panned the throne speech delivered by Lt. Governor Janet Austin and the NDP.

While the current government is pledging to create new rental housing and address homelessness and mental health, Shirley Bond says it provided little financial support to those who are on the brink.

“We have businesses that struggling to hold on. We have British Columbians, the vast majority of British Columbians – over 53% of them are within $200 or less from being able to pay their bills at the end of the month,”

To further drive the point home, Bond wanted to see more urgency from Premier John Horgan and his government to help those struggling from the pandemic.

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However, she believes the speech fell flat in accomplishing this.

“So, this is about urgent help needed now. In addition to that, we needed to see a long-term strategic plan to restart confidence and the economy in British Columbia. That’s what we would have done.”

Nechako Lakes MLA, John Rustad mentioned there was a lot of discussion in Victoria surrounding potential changes to the Forest Act as well as old-growth and higher-value products.

“There is a lot of work that is already underway. Obviously, there are a lot of moving parts to the forest sector as it of course is moving through some pretty unprecedented times in terms of the products that we sell but also unprecedented in terms of the uncertainty.”

While the lumber industry continues to chug along during this time, avoiding the struggles from two years ago is paramount.

“It’s going to be a very challenging time I think going forward as we see these changes and I just hope the government takes the time to make sure they engage with the industry and communities to get it right and we don’t end up creating another crisis like in 2019.”

Rustad was also glad to see anti-racism and mental health efforts listed in the throne speech, but overall, he felt it was a little bland.

“You could have taken the throne speech from many of the previous years and it really would have sounded pretty much the same under the NDP, which is very unfortunate that we didn’t see that vision as well as a path forward for the economic growth we are going to need in this province.”

Finance Minister Selina Robinson will table the provincial budget next week (April 20th).

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