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Candidates respond: Mel Arnold

North Okanagan-Shuswap candidates answer the Observer's questions in the run-up to October 19's federal election.
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Mel Arnold

1) Do you support a public health-care system and how do you think it could be improved?

 

I support a public health system in Canada that provides universal health to all Canadians.

B.C. alone will receive over $4.4B in health transfers this year from the federal government who is committed to ensuring that health care remains a national priority.

While parts of our health-care system are better managed at a local or provincial level, some components may be improved with support at a national level. For example, our Conservative government has implemented bulk purchasing of prescription drugs for federal programs and is working with the provinces on enhancing this program.

 

2) How would you plan to address the need for affordable housing in the North Okanagan-Shuswap?

While local communities can best identify their individual housing challenges, all levels of government must work collectively on affordable housing. I will work toward expansion of existing CMHC programs like the Affordable Housing Centre providing seed money to cover costs incurred during the proposal and development stage of affordable housing projects. Further, tax incentives for developers or landlords will affect the inventory of low-income housing within our communities.  The Conservative government has underwritten nearly $1.7B in social transfers to B.C. this year, indicating that safe shelter is a basic human need – and a priority for me.