On April 29, four local citizens groups are sponsoring a special all-candidates forum on the environment at the Fifth Avenue Seniors’ Activity Centre at 7 p.m. The groups are Shuswap Naturalists, Kairos- Salmon Arm, Shuswap Water Action Team (SWAT) and Shuswap Environmental Action Society (SEAS).
So far three of the candidates have confirmed their attendance. Only BC Liberal candidate, Greg Kyllo, did not respond to the invitation.
In attendance will be BC Conservative Tom Birch, NDP’s Steve Gunner and the Green Party’s Chris George.
Kyllo told the Observer that he’s already committed to six all-candidates meetings, and that each one requires a lot of preparation.
“I think we’ve touched on all the major communities and I think the right platform is through the chamber of commerce,” said Kyllo. “There’s just so many different special- interest groups, whether it’s health, tourism, logging, there’s just so many different areas. If we attend one special- interest group, it’s going to be pretty hard to turn down all of the other ones that may look at hosting as well.”
The forum will be moderated by Okanagan College Regional Dean James Barmby. Each candidate will be provided time to introduce their party’s policy on the environment before they respond to one question from each of the sponsoring organizations. There will then be an opportunity for audience members to question the candidates.
Key environmental issues that will likely be covered in the forum include watershed management, agricultural pollution, pipelines, fracking, pesticides, the Site C dam, power projects, forest health, environmental assessments, BC parks and greening the economy.
