Q: Central and North Vancouver Island has one of the fastest growing and aging populations in Canada, creating a high demand for health care services. Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH) is the designated tertiary hospital for the region, serving a population of 460,000+ residents north of the Malahat, yet continues to lack many specialized services typically offered at a tertiary hospital such as a cardiac catheterization lab and is consistently operating at over its bed capacity.   What is your position on the need for a new patient tower and cardiac catheterization laboratory at NRGH, and what specific steps would you take—if elected—to seek provincial approval, funding decisions, and a clear implementation timeline for these projects?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

David Eby and the BCNDP will continue to advance work at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital by supporting the development of a concept plan for a new patient tower. Announced in Budget 2026, this is a significant step forward as it means formal planning work is now underway for the new tower and what services it will include. The expansion of acute cardiac services at the hospital is a priority, and the planning work for the tower will consider the location of a cardiac cath lab. 

This builds on our investments to improve health care for people in Nanaimo and Lantzville: an expanded high acuity unit providing care for critically ill patients that was recently completed, a new cancer centre that is now under construction, and a new long-term care home in Lantzville that broke ground last month. 

We look forward to advancing this important work to get people in the Nanaimo region the high quality healthcare they need. 

Protecting and strengthening healthcare is critical right now. Since 2017, the BC NDP government has invested almost nine times as much into healthcare capital in Nanaimo as the BC Liberal government did in the nine years prior. 

And there’s a lot more work needed to get everyone the care they deserve - we can’t afford to stop now. The conservative parties are planning big budget cuts that would impact healthcare. They’ve even acknowledged that healthcare will “take the brunt” of their cuts. And they would cancel our US healthcare worker recruitment – they called it “irresponsible”.

Q: If you are elected, will you assist local governments in purchasing privately owned land to protect watersheds, environmentally sensitive regions and land conservation? What specific steps will you and your party take to ensure that local governments are able to influence watershed management in their region?

Q: The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) has requested that the Province provide leadership and functional involvement in bringing together First Nations, local governments, other levels of government, water purveyors, landowners, and regulatory bodies in the pursuit of a regional water supply strategy. Do you support these efforts, and what specific actions would you take to achieve this goal?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

Clean, secure water is essential for healthy communities, local agriculture, and thriving ecosystems. Investing in our watersheds protects B.C. from climate impacts such as severe droughts and floods. 

We have a plan to: 

• Strengthen watershed protection through an additional $30 million-per-year investment in the B.C. Watershed Security Fund. 

• Provide sustainable long-term funding and secure healthy watersheds and thriving communities for generations. 

Building on work that: 

• Created the initial $100-million B.C. Watershed Security Fund jointly announced with the B.C.-First Nations Water Table and the Province of British Columbia. 

We all need to come together and plan for flood and drought conditions to keep our communities safe and resilient to climate change and we agree that the provincial government is in a key position to play a leadership role while working closely with local governments, First Nations, industry and the agricultural sector to support water conservation and long-term water security. 

Conservative politicians want to roll back environmental protections and stall our progress on climate change. Our province can’t afford that, especially as British Columbians are seeing firsthand the threat of climate change through droughts, floods, and unprecedented wildfires. By continuing to work together on the progress we have made, we can strengthen watershed security, build more resilient communities, and ensure British Columbians have the water resources they depend on for generations to come.

Q: Small homes under 1,000 sq. ft. (93 m²) can provide affordable entry-level, workforce and downsizing housing, especially in rural communities, but the BC Building Code’s energy-efficiency and seismic requirements add disproportionately to their cost, making them less affordable. The RDN has urged the Province and Government of Canada to commission an independent cost-benefit review of these requirements for small, single-storey residential homes, and investigation of the potential for a simplified building standard or alternative compliance pathway for these homes.  Do you support this approach, and if so, what actions would you take, if elected, to assist the RDN in its efforts to keep small homes affordable?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

Keeping housing affordable for British Columbians is a key priority for David Eby and the BC NDP. For too long, conservative politicians let speculators drive the cost of housing out of reach for people. But now, David Eby’s housing plan is making a difference. 

• Housing costs are coming down faster than anywhere else in Canada. 

• Starting rents in B.C. are down over 10% since their peak in 2023 – and have gone down for 26 months straight. 

• The average price for a home has come down. 

• And we’ve eliminated local zoning barriers to build 300,000 more middle-class homes 

And we have a plan to: 

• Increase the Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT) rate by one percentage point: from 1% to 2% on domestic resident owners of secondary properties, and from 4% to 5% on foreign speculators, to push more units into the rental market for people. 

• Introduce a new Unsold Condo Tax on large developer-owned finished condos that have been vacant and unsold for more than 1 year, starting at 2% in Year 2 and increasing by 1% for each additional year a condo remains unsold to push developers to lower prices or turn units into rentals. 

• The change will help put more empty units into the long-term rental market, and any additional revenue will go to building more affordable homes people need. 

• This will unlock up to 5,000 finished condos for British Columbians to buy or rent at prices people can afford. 

We agree that small homes are also a good affordability option and are committed to finding solutions to simplify the pathway for small homes. Homes under 1,000 sq ft are also well suited to prefabrication, which are designed to meet Building Code requirements, and can be built at very cost-effective prices. We recently rolled out a new housing program - Digitally Accelerated Standardized Housing or DASH - 

to reduce costs and speed construction times by making prefabricated kit designs for small apartment complexes more accessible and affordable. 

The conservative parties would scrap David Eby’s housing plan – that means higher costs and fewer homes for people. We can’t afford that, especially right now.

Q: The RDN has requested that the Government of British Columbia consider improving the sustainability of search and rescue operations in BC through a dedicated visitor-pays funding stream, job-protected leave for volunteer firefighters and SAR volunteers, and WorkSafeBC presumptive mental disorder coverage for SAR volunteers.  Would you support this request and if so, how would you advocate in the legislature for making SAR operations more sustainable?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

David Eby and the BC NDP recognize the critical role volunteer SAR groups play in provincial and community safety. We have significantly strengthened support for SAR by investing approximately $6 million annually in stable base funding to SAR groups through the BC Search and Rescue Association (BCSARA), replacing the previous ad hoc grant model. We also increased the volunteer firefighter and search and rescue volunteer tax credit and are dedicating approximately $9 million annually to reimburse SAR groups for operational deployments, training and equipment. 

It’s important that volunteers can participate in emergency response activities without jeopardizing their employment and that’s why we established employment protections for certain emergency management volunteers deployed under the Emergency and Disaster Management Act - and there is more to do. SAR volunteers currently have access to a range of mental health supports including peer support, critical incident stress management services and WorkSafeBC-supported psychological care and we will advocate that these support needs to evolve to meet the needs of our hard-working volunteers.

Q: Local governments depend on stable provincial FireSmart funding to deliver mitigation projects and foster shared responsibility for wildfire risk reduction. With the Province shifting to one-year funding for FireSmart efforts, the RDN has asked the Province to reaffirm its commitment to community wildfire mitigation through continued, stable, and accessible funding through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Community Resiliency Investment program; to return to the previous funding model to provide local governments with more predictable and consistent access to funding for multi-year mitigation initiatives; and to recognize FireSmart as a core component of local governments’ Emergency and Disaster Management Act (EDMA) obligations and funding that supports those obligations.  How would you support these efforts?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

This wildfire season reinforced what we know to be true: FireSmart works. And David Eby and the BC NDP have been investing in Firesmart with approximately $190 million invested in the FireSmart Community Funding and Supports program since 2018. In fact, applications are open now for the next intake of FireSmart funding, providing a total of $15 million for community initiatives throughout BC. 

A re-elected BC NDP government will also take new steps to support families impacted by this summer’s devastating wildfires. The new supports will focus on uninsured properties and funding to help rebuild essential community infrastructure - and build on action we have already taken, including: 

• Making the BC Wildfire Service a year-round operation 

• Recruiting thousands more wildland firefighters and making hundreds more positions permanent year-round – increasing permanent full-time staff 56% – with a new training centre in Kamloops 

• Boosting wildfire-fighting equipment, airplanes and helicopters, deploying advanced new technologies like drones and upgrading BC Weather Stations to better monitor and predict wildfire movement and growth, adding a new northern operations equipment depot in Prince George. 

The BC NDP funding for wildfire prevention is 9 times higher than it was under the previous conservative governments. The BC Conservative plan would force deep, unaffordable cuts to public services. It’s a risk British Columbians can’t afford.

Q: Local governments require comprehensive data on the wildfire risk in their region to meet their obligations under EDMA and access funding. However, the Province excludes wildfire risk data for Private Managed Forest Lands from datasets available to local governments.  The RDN is asking the Province to restore complete, all-lands wildfire risk information to local governments to support them in managing fire risk.  Would you support this effort and if so, how?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

We recognize that some communities are having challenges where hazard information is incomplete or not readily available. We are open to discussing ways to improve data sharing to help local governments with wildfire management to protect our communities.

Q: Roadside encampments on provincial road rights-of-way in the RDN’s electoral areas create significant public safety, environmental, operational and community challenges. Efforts to coordinate a response via a multi-agency regional working group could be more effective with the consistent participation of Ministry of Transportation and Transit staff. What is your position on the role of local government in coordinating a response with the Province, RCMP, BC Housing, relevant ministries, and community service providers? If elected, what specific actions would you take to improve provincial accountability and inter-agency coordination on this issue?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

David Eby and the BC NDP are committed to building safe, secure homes and providing needed supports to help people overcome the cycle of homelessness. We are working to close encampment across the province and bring people indoors where they can access services. 

Our homeless and encampment response and temporary housing solutions are providing rapid, coordinated, multidisciplinary responses to address encampments when they arise, as we continue to build and deliver supportive housing and shelters. 

Since 2017, we have more than 550 supportive homes open or underway in Nanaimo. It includes 159 HEARTH units open and 63 permanent shelter spaces with more temporary shelter and emergency weather-response spaces funded during the winter. Because Nanaimo has a range of low-barrier supportive housing, a recovery-oriented housing site can provide a valuable additional housing option and the new purpose-built housing coming to 250 Bryden St. (formerly known as 250 Terminal Ave.) will be recovery-oriented housing. 

We agree that addressing homelessness is a shared responsibility, requiring partnership from all levels of government to help people experiencing homelessness stay safe, access health services, and gain stable housing with the services and community supports they need. We are committed to ensuring that coordination of these supports is effective and includes all necessary partners. 

We have more work to do. But the only way to resolve encampments is to get people indoors with housing and shelter - and we’re doing that work. Conservatives have opposed all of our housing actions. Their choices mean more encampments, not less.

Q: Many rapidly growing communities adjacent to urban centres remain classified as rural, resulting in higher speed limits and limited sidewalks or safe shoulders, even as commuters, pedestrians, cyclists, children, farm vehicles and trucks increasingly share the roads. What is your position on improving road safety in these areas, and, if elected, what specific actions would you take to advance provincial policy, funding and infrastructure changes—such as revisiting road classifications, permitting traffic-calming measures, expanding school zones and supporting active transportation infrastructure?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

David Eby and the BCNDP are taking action to make the roads in all our communities safe. This action includes: 

• Replacing all 140 intersection safety cameras with new, modern technology. 

• Adding automated speed enforcement equipment at some of B.C.’s highest-risk intersections. 

• Ensuring intersection safety cameras operate 24/7 to ticket vehicles going through red lights. 

• Introducing Increased financial penalties and lengthened driving bans for high-risk behaviours like excessive speeding and distracted driving. 

• Implementing mandatory entry-level training for new commercial drivers and, working with police agencies, increasing commercial vehicle safety inspections. 

• Establishing consistent Class 4 operator training requirements across the taxi, chauffeur and ride-hailing sector. 

• Creating new Motorcycle Licensing Program for all new motorcycle drivers to help reduce fatalities and serious injuries resulting from motorcycle-related crashes. 

In addition, the Zero Grant Program launched by our BCNDP government in 2021, is investing more than $3.8 million to support almost 240 community-led projects to improve road safety. This year’s funding will support: 

• new crosswalks and multi-use paths 

• traffic-calming features, such as speed signage and speed humps 

• improved lighting and visibility for road users 

The Conservative parties are planning big budget cuts that would impact road and community safety. As the newly re-elected BCNDP government, we will continue implementing the 2025 Road Safety Strategy and take action needed to improve road and community safety.

Q: Highway 19 through the Nanoose Flats is an essential regional transportation corridor with a serious and persistent road-safety problem. Although Highway 19 is under provincial jurisdiction, local government has an important responsibility to represent community concerns, contribute local knowledge and press for accountable action.  The RDN Board has previously communicated support for the Province’s Operations and Safety Review, has advocated to the Province for evidence-based improvements, and is prepared to work with the Province and affected partners to reduce collision risks at intersections and access points and along the corridor. Do you support this position? If elected, what specific actions would you take to ensure the Operations and Safety Review reflects local concerns and results in timely and effective safety improvements on Highway 19 through the Nanoose Flats?

BC NDP Candidate's Joint Response

A re-elected BCNDP government would work with the Regional District of Nanaimo as well as the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation to address these concerns. 

The Conservative parties are planning big budget cuts that would impact road and community safety. As the newly re-elected BCNDP government, we will continue implementing the 2025 Road Safety Strategy and take action needed to improve road and community safety.