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October 7, 2020 Sonia Furstenau, M.L.A. B.C. Green Party Leader PO Box 8088 STN Central Victoria, BC V8W 3R7

The Honourable John Horgan, M.L.A. B.C. NDP Leader #320 – 34 West 7th Ave Vancouver, BC V5Y 1L6 Andrew Wilkinson, M.L.A. B.C. Liberal Party Leader PO Box 28131 West Pender St. PO Vancouver, BC V6C 3T7 VIA EMAIL: votefurstenau@bcgreens.ca; sonia.furstenau.mla@leg.bc.ca;

langfordjuandefuca@bcndp.ca; premier@gov.bc.ca; andrew.wilkinson@bcliberals.com; andrew.wilkinson.mla@leg.bc.ca

Dear Party Leaders and Regional Candidates, Questions on Regional Election Items to Party Leaders and Regional Candidates Expressing regional issues, the Capital Region Mayors have the following questions to all party leaders and regional candidates. Please can you provide your answers by Wednesday, October 14 via reply to this letter and during election town halls so that our residents can be informed on your positions as they prepare for voting. Child care

Access to affordable childcare continues to be a challenge for families within the Capital Region. Families continue to look for affordable infant and toddler care, and the need for affordable “before and after school care” continues to grow. Families must make difficult financial choices, and women in particular are halting their careers or finding shift work to accommodate the school schedules. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 has many child care centres reducing the numbers of children, thus resulting in higher childcare costs and a shortage in space. Our economy will recover when all players can participate equally.

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Please address in your election platform how or if your party will:

1. Ensure adequate child care centres are available to meet community needs. 2. Address certification of early childcare educators. 3. Provide funding to families or programs to address gaps in infant care, toddler care, and

before- and after-school care centres. Mental Health, Addictions and Treatment

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an unprecedented escalation in the challenges facing our communities stemming from the mental health and addiction crises. Too many of our residents are affected by mental health and addiction issues and, increasingly, brain injury. These crises existed before COVID-19 but have been exacerbated by a toxic drug supply, the level of pandemic-related homelessness and encampments, and increasing stigma and anger from some members of our communities. Our businesses – already struggling from the economic impacts of COVID-19 – are facing increased break-ins and other challenges, as a result of increasing social disorder and unpredictable, sometimes violent behaviour from people in crisis. Please address in your election platform how or if your party will:

1. Quickly address addictions and mental health treatment and recovery options in our communities for youth, adults, and all those with complex needs.

2. Address the toxic drug supply and scale up access to safer pharmaceutical alternatives for people at risk across British Columbia.

3. Help provide appropriate 24x7 response to mental health and addictions calls in the community.

Transportation from Nanaimo South:

Transportation issues on southern Vancouver Island have been largely ignored by successive governments for many years. We acknowledge that a lot of time and effort has gone into the recently released South Island Transportation Strategy yet we are concerned that the outcome plan does not properly address the vision or desired strategy expressed by local residents and elected officials. In these times of a climate crisis we must be looking to all modes of transportation as we work to reduce emissions and to reduce gridlock. Transportation decisions have been made in an ad hoc fashion for far too long. A regional governance body is necessary. The population of Vancouver Island is rapidly nearing one million people. We must lay the groundwork now for the future. Local government can only do so much without provincial support. Please address in your election platform how or if your party will:

1. Take action to invest in transportation and transportation related issues on southern Vancouver Island.

2. Ensure a type of regional governance body for transportation matters would be established through working with local government.

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3. Acknowledge that transportation issues and governance on southern Vancouver Island must be addressed.

As mayors within the capital region, we wish you all well in the coming provincial election. Sincerely,

Mayor Rob Martin City of Colwood

Mayor Barb Desjardins Township of Esquimalt Mayor Ken Williams District of Highlands

Mayor Stew Young City of Langford

Mayor Geoff Orr District of North Saanich

Mayor Kevin Murdoch District of Oak Bay Mayor Fred Haynes District of Saanich

Mayor Cliff McNeil-Smith Town of Sidney

Mayor Maja Tait District of Sooke

Mayor Lisa Helps City of Victoria

Mayor David Screech Town of View Royal

cc: Regional Party Candidates:

Gord Baird – BC Greens - Langford-Juan de Fuca Karen Bill – BC Liberals - Victoria-Beacon Hill Florian Castle – Communist Party of BC – Oak Bay-Gordon Head Kelly Darwin – BC Liberals - Juan de Fuca Mitzi Dean – BC NDP - Esquimalt-Metchosin Nicole Duncan – BC Greens - Oak Bay – Gordon Head Rob Fleming – BC NDP - Victoria-Swan Lake Roxanne Helme – BC Liberals - Oak Bay-Gordon Head AnneMieke Holthuis – BC Greens - Victoria-Swan Lake John Horgan – BC NDP - Langford-Juan de Fuca Zeb King – BC NDP - Saanich North and the Islands Grace Lore – BC NDP - Victoria-Beacon Hill Andy MacKinnon – BC Greens - Esquimalt/Metchosin Desta McPherson – Independent – Esquimalt/Metchosin Jenn Neilson – BC Greens - Victoria – Beacon Hill Kate O’Connor – BC Greens - Saanich South Adam Olsen – BC Greens Saanich North and the Islands Lana Popham – BC NDP - Saanich South Murray Rankin – BC NDP - Oak Bay-Gordon Head Jordan Reichert – Independent – Victoria-Beacon Hill

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Stephen P. Roberts – BC Liberals - Saanich North and the Islands RJ Senko – BC Liberals - Esquimalt-Metchosin Rishi Sharma – BC Liberals - Saanich-South Jenn Smith – Independent – Victoria-Swan Lake David Somerville – BC Liberals - Victoria-Swan Lake Tyson Riel Strandlund – Communist Party of BC – Langford-Juan de Fuca

October 13, 2020

Re: Questions on Regional Election Items to Party Leaders and Regional Candidates Dear Mayors of the Capital Region,

Thank you for your letter. Please find our responses to your questions below. Child care Access to affordable childcare continues to be a challenge for families within the Capital Region. Families continue to look for affordable infant and toddler care, and the need for affordable “before and after school care” continues to grow. Families must make difficult financial choices, and women in particular are halting their careers or finding shift work to accommodate the school schedules. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 has many child care centres reducing the numbers of children, thus resulting in higher childcare costs and a shortage in space. Our economy will recover when all players can participate equally. Please address in your election platform how or if your party will: 1. Ensure adequate child care centres are available to meet community needs. 2. Address certification of early childcare educators. 3. Provide funding to families or programs to address gaps in infant care, toddler care, and before- and after-school care centres.

Affordable childcare means not asking parents to make impossible choices - like going to work or staying home. The BC Liberals ignored the needs of BC families - and BC businesses - who have been calling for affordable, accessible, licensed childcare for years. When we became government, we immediately made investing in childcare for families a priority:

• We’re creating childcare spaces at the fastest pace in the province's history - we’ve funded 20,000 new childcare spaces in just two years.

• More than 32,000 families in BC are now receiving childcare for $10/day or less, saving up to $1600/month per child.

• We’re creating more than 700 new spaces every month.

• We expanded program spaces and bursary funding for those wanting to pursue a career in child care as an early childhood educator (ECE), after the shortages left by the BC Liberals and our government was the first to give ECEs a wage increase.

If re-elected, a John Horgan NDP government will continue making great strides toward universal child care, including:

• Partnering with the federal government, we will expand the number of $10ADay child care spaces while enhancing our other affordability measures – delivering savings of thousands of

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dollars each month to help families get ahead. By providing an additional $1.5 billion over three years to the program, we will be able to deliver more affordable spaces for families in need even faster.

• We will move responsibility for child care to the Ministry of Education to make sure child care is brought formally into the learning timeline. The Ministry of Education will oversee delivery of all childcare initiatives and funding, manage a capital investment program to build more new spaces, and ensure quality care through ongoing enhancements.

• We’ll make sure Early Childhood Educators (ECE) are a well-supported profession by continuing to implement and enhance the Early Care and Learning Recruitment and Retention Strategy which includes expanding our successful ECE wage enhancement program, and we will continue investing in professional development of current ECEs as well as training new ECEs.

• And we will protect our commitment to quality universal child care in law: much in the way that legislation was introduced to enshrine the concept of universal health care, we will protect the principles of affordable, accessible, and inclusive quality child care in legislation.

Mental Health, Addictions and Treatment

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an unprecedented escalation in the challenges facing our communities stemming from the mental health and addiction crises. Too many of our residents are affected by mental health and addiction issues and, increasingly, brain injury.

These crises existed before COVID-19 but have been exacerbated by a toxic drug supply, the level of pandemic-related homelessness and encampments, and increasing stigma and anger from some members of our communities. Our businesses – already struggling from the economic impacts of COVID-19 – are facing increased break-ins and other challenges, as a result of increasing social disorder and unpredictable, sometimes violent behaviour from people in crisis.

Please address in your election platform how or if your party will: 1. Quickly address addictions and mental health treatment and recovery options in our communities for youth, adults, and all those with complex needs. 2. Address the toxic drug supply and scale up access to safer pharmaceutical alternatives for people at risk across British Columbia. 3. Help provide appropriate 24x7 response to mental health and addictions calls in the community.

Before the pandemic, our efforts to tackle the opioid crisis were making a difference, and we saw the first drop in the rate of overdose deaths since 2012. We had a lot more to do, but things were heading in the right direction. When COVID-19 hit, and the crisis escalated, we responded across the full continuum of care - opening two new treatment facilities and doubling youth treatment beds, increasing overdose prevention services, providing more outreach teams, and giving people greater access to prescription medication alternatives. We are also currently implementing 6 new Assertive Community Treatment teams in communities to provide care for people with severe mental health challenges, and help reduce interactions with police.

A re-elected BC NDP government will move quickly to accelerate B.C.’s response across the full continuum of care, including:

• Building new treatment, recovery, detox and after-care facilities across the province;

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o 800 new treatment beds, for a 30% increase in beds when combined with our existing investments to double youth beds;

• Expanding the range of supportive housing for people who need it by: o Continuing to build on the success of the 2,800 supportive homes built so far, in

communities across the province; o Developing new Complex Care housing facilities to provide an increased level of support

– including more access to nurses and psychiatrists – for BC’s most vulnerable who need even more intensive care than supportive housing provides; and

o Funding new rental supplements to help those who have stabilized in supportive housing and are ready to move into the private rental market, creating space in existing supportive housing to help more people experiencing homelessness who need the on-site supports.

• Investing in the supports needed to address the impacts of this crisis in our communities: o New funding for more mental health and community social service workers to ensure

there are more frontline workers to respond to needs in communities, and take pressure off police so they can focus on serious crime;

o Providing $100M in grants for local governments which will help support them in responding to community concerns around street disorder and community safety; and

• Continuing our work to help prescribers separate more people from the toxic drug supply through safe prescription alternatives.

There is more work to do to tackle these challenges and get more people the treatment and healthcare they need. The BC NDP is committed to continuing that work in partnership with communities.

Transportation from Nanaimo South

Transportation issues on southern Vancouver Island have been largely ignored by successive governments for many years. We acknowledge that a lot of time and effort has gone into the recently released South Island Transportation Strategy yet we are concerned that the outcome plan does not properly address the vision or desired strategy expressed by local residents and elected officials. In these times of a climate crisis we must be looking to all modes of transportation as we work to reduce emissions and to reduce gridlock.

Transportation decisions have been made in an ad hoc fashion for far too long. A regional governance body is necessary.

The population of Vancouver Island is rapidly nearing one million people. We must lay the groundwork now for the future. Local government can only do so much without provincial support.

Please address in your election platform how or if your party will: 1. Take action to invest in transportation and transportation related issues on southern Vancouver Island. 2. Ensure a type of regional governance body for transportation matters would be established through working with local government. 3. Acknowledge that transportation issues and governance on southern Vancouver Island must be addressed.

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We are committed to delivering more options for clean, green transportation, including on the South Island. If re-elected, we will work with the region to invest in much-needed transportation improvements, including through the elements identified in the South Island Transportation Strategy. We will also work to provide more active transportation infrastructure, rapid bus service to the West Shore, and safety upgrades to the Malahat highway.

Our platform commits $9 billion in capital funding through our Recovery Investment Fund, to deliver on needed infrastructure across our province, including transit and transportation infrastructure. And we are also committing funding to support planning work to develop the next big ideas, so that together we can continue to support the economic growth of every region. Our success so far has been built on our commitment to working with regions to build the projects that make sense for their communities and the people in them, and we will continue to work with all regions to deliver transformative transit projects in the years ahead. On the specific question of regional governance, a BC NDP government would be happy to sit down with local governments in the region to discuss how this could work to deliver the services that people in the region need. Should we be re-elected I would encourage you to please follow up with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Minister of Transportation to start that discussion.

Sincerely,

BC NDP

Facebook: @bcliberals | Twitter: @bcliberals | @ Instagram: @bcliberals.com

Authorized by the BC Liberal Party, David Goldsmith, 1-800-567-2257 | www.bcliberals.com

October 15, 2020 Capital Region Mayors Sent via email: Rachel.Mattiuz@saanich.ca Your Worships,

Thank you for your October 7 letter requesting the BC Liberals position on childcare; mental health, addictions, and treatment; and transportation from Nanaimo South. We have strong candidates running for us in the South Island ridings. On behalf of those candidates and the BC Liberal Party, please accept my response, below, to the issues you raise. Child Care BC Liberals know that child care must not be a burden for parents trying to earn a living so we will subsidize child care for low income and middle class families who need it most. This includes investing $1.1 billion to bring $10 a day child care to families with household incomes of up to $65,000, $20 a day child care to households making up to $90,000 a year, and $30 a day child care to households making up to $125,000. We will ensure that the right child care is available to every parent who needs it. We will dramatically increase access to child care by building an additional 10,000 new child care spaces across B.C. and make those spaces easier to find through an online, province-wide electronic application that all providers receiving government funding must use. Parents can reject an invitation for an available space and wait for the next one depending on their personal preferences. Appropriate child care access also means expanding access to before and after school care in our schools, and creating incentives for employers to support child care options for their employees. The BC Liberals will expand training and support needed to get better qualified child care workers. To oversee this system, we will replace the Minister of State for Child Care with a full minister to manage licensing and funding, who will work with the federal government to further increase child care options.

Facebook: @bcliberals | Twitter: @bcliberals | @ Instagram: @bcliberals.com

Authorized by the BC Liberal Party, David Goldsmith, 1-800-567-2257 | www.bcliberals.com

Mental Health, Addictions, and Treatment The BC Liberals clearly recognize addiction as a medical disorder and will increase addiction treatment and recovery programs, ensuring those who need help getting off drugs have a clear pathway to treatment. Our plan to invest $30.9 billion in infrastructure over three years – the biggest infrastructure investment in the Province’s history – includes funding for hospitals, primary care clinics, and mental health treatment. We will focus on people needing treatment and support by upgrading and expanding mental health beds, Foundry Centres, and Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Teams to respond to mental health-related emergency calls. We must also focus on public health and safety while medically treating people suffering from addictions. First responders need the right tools to deal effectively with mental health-related events, so the BC Liberals have committed to funding 200 additional police officers and 100 new psychiatric social workers and nurses across British Columbia. In terms of increasing access to safer pharmaceutical alternatives, some individuals need access to a safe supply but this can't be addressed with a one size fits all policy. We need pathways to get people off drugs to lead healthy, productive lives. We cannot confine people to a lifetime of drug addiction if recovery is a possibility. We need to deal directly with the causes and prevent the harms from occurring, and this includes implementing a prescription drug monitoring program to prevent addiction, with early referrals to specialist care and treatment options. We also must end funding discrimination that disqualifies abstinence-based treatment programs so that every person receives treatment appropriate to their individual needs. Recognizing that youth also require addition mental health supports, the BC Liberals will increase mental health assistance in public secondary schools, such as registered psychiatric nurses. Transportation from Nanaimo South We will be pleased to work with you to address your transportation requirements and resolve governance issues surrounding transportation. Shortfalls in the South Island Transportation Strategy should be remedied as soon as possible so that it meets the needs of residents and elected officials.

Facebook: @bcliberals | Twitter: @bcliberals | @ Instagram: @bcliberals.com

Authorized by the BC Liberal Party, David Goldsmith, 1-800-567-2257 | www.bcliberals.com

Again, thank you for the opportunity to outline the BC Liberal position on these issues. I look forward to continuing these discussions with you and your communities both during, and after, the provincial election. Sincerely,

Andrew Wilkinson Leader Cc: Karen Bill – BC Liberals - Victoria-Beacon Hill

Roxanne Helme – BC Liberals - Oak Bay-Gordon Head Kelly Darwin – BC Liberals - Juan de Fuca Stephen P. Roberts – BC Liberals - Saanich North and the Islands RJ Senko – BC Liberals - Esquimalt-Metchosin Rishi Sharma – BC Liberals - Saanich-South David Somerville – BC Liberals - Victoria-Swan Lake