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Some families are really feeling the pinch here.
And they need some support. The kids need help going to school
Families need support in the way of a National affordable Childcare Program.
When a parent needs to have a 2nd income. When there needs to be 2nd income in the home or if a parent wants to go to school
Interestingly enough, this had been negotiated with the Provinces by the Liberal Party back in 2004
When Mr. harper took power, that was his first act of office;
was to cancel all the arranged childcare agreements with the Provinces
Now that was really disappointing to me. You know I have young family members too.
And I know that a national affordable childcare plan would have been perfect for them.
Another challenge for me is to be able to find the staff who can work at the wage that I can afford to pay them
But they also need to have an affordable place to live.
So without affordable housing for people, that puts everybody in a bind.
People will decide, if they’re knew to the area, they’ll go to work for someone. They’ll decide it’s too expensive here
They’ll move. This has happened to me a number of times.
I think I’ve lost 3 very valuable workers in the last year.
Because people were finding it too expensive to live here.
I’m a small business owner. I have a very profit margin.
My wages are competitive in the industry, but they’re not as much as I wish I could pay someone
Because these people are worth their weight in gold.
But there’s a limit to how much I can pay them.
It’s a very complicated situation for me & other business owners.
The people they hire need to be paid a wage,
But they need to be able to find a place that’s affordable to live here too.
I’m one of the industry sectors that was impacted by the HST in BC
That coupled with the recession,
I couldn’t say what portion was attributable to HST or the recession,
but I definitely had a steep decline. I had about a 30% decline in my revenues in 2008, 2009.
It started to pick up in 2010, but it wasn’t great. It’s getting better.
So the only variable here now left, is the economy.
So the HST is still here, but my business is picking up.
So it must be because of the economy. I see signs of economic renewal.
Do you think that the high dollar & high gas prices will have an impact on travel & tourism this year? (JOE)
Oh I think that’s going to have a big impact.
It can’t help but impact peoples’ travel plans.
I think that’s simply something they will have to factor in.
People know that taking a vacation is very good to refresh & renew themselves
And often there are family get-togethers and other reasons for traveling
I believe where possible, people will be traveling & taking vacations,
but for some people that’s just not going to be possible because of gas prices. 0:03:30.010,0:03:34.010 and other increasing prices of traveling & vacationing.
Getting back to what you were talking about with regard to your employees (Cindy)
and their difficulty finding affordable housing, is there something that you can put in place (Cindy)
as a leader in this riding, to help with that situation? Are there plans for that?
Well you know coming from a political perspective there are plans for that.
The Liberal Party has a Youth Incentive Plan & that means youth ages 18-25
The Liberal Party will be giving incentives to businesses to hire youth and
Businesses would also be given EI Premium Holiday’s on hiring you.
And there’s a few other ideas the Liberal Party has devel- oped around how businesses will get incentives
for a new business & emerging business in one of the 3, what they call Canadian Champion Sectors
So digital technology is one
Bio and health sciences is another
And Clean Resources is the 3rd Champion Sector
And so if you start a new business in one of those 3 sectors,
The Liberal Party will give you some support for that.
I think that’s a great idea, because these are the 3 areas that we really need to look at.
Everybody knows that all of our technology is going digital
So this is a really quickly growing industry.
Everybody knows that health & bio-sciences are a part of our being & being able to be here.
And the Clean Resources is extremely important because we must look after our planet.
And make sure we have as close to a ‘zero’ footprint as is possible.
And I just want to add a little bit more about your first question about myself & why I’m here.
In the 12 years that I’ve been in this community, (clears throat)
In the 12 years that I’ve been in this community, I’ve served it in a number of ways.
I’ve done a lot of volunteer work with a number of different community organizations,
such as the Folk Music Society, the Apple TriAthalon,
Where else, the Iron Man in Penticton. Rotary Center for the Arts, I’ve done some volunteer work there.
The Okanagan Small Dog & Cocker Spaniel Rescue, I’ve done volunteer work with them.
I even have one of their dogs. My dear little Penny. I bring her here sometimes.
I used to be a Rotarian for a couple of years. I’m still in touch with my Rotarian Collegues.
I’ve spoke to one this morning, on the phone actually, before I came here.
And I’ve been a director on a couple of boards in the community.
Bally Kelowna I was a director in ’03-‘04
I was a Director of the Chamber of Commerce from‘0-’06.
I know that there are a number of other organizations that I’ve belonged to & done some volunteer work at
I can’t think of what they are off the top of my head.
But I’ve been community service minded since I was probably 14
I used to be a Royal Canadian Air Cadet in my home town of Kamloops
I really enjoyed that. I really liked going out & doing my civic duties – volunteering at different community events
So I’ve always enjoyed that aspect.
And because of my long history of volunteer work, & service to my community
This direction that I’m taking now is yet another way I want to continue to serve my community.
And I think with my education, I as an RN with a Degree and an MBA
and my background in many of the policy areas
I believe that that combination of my Professional experience and my education
makes me quite honestly, a very solid candidate
And I think I would do very well being an MP. Being the people’s voice here in the riding.
So I’m looking forward to being the advocate for people in this riding.
I hear so many people telling me they’re frustrated at the lack of attention they feel they’ve had.
There just seems to be some inattentiveness that I’m hearing about.