By Ian Cobb

e-KNOW

Premier Christy Clark returned to the East Kootenay Friday, March 10, unofficially signalling the start of the 2017 provincial election campaign in the region’s two provincial ridings.

Her first stop was at a Columbia Valley Chamber of Commerce gathering, where she helped announce that a $1 million BikeBC grant application submitted to the province by the Regional District of East Kootenay and Columbia Valley Greenways Trail Alliance for up to $1 million in funding had been approved for the Westside Legacy Trail, Segments 1-4.

Clark also spent time listening to and speaking with Shuswap Indian Band officials and Columbia Valley business owners and leaders, as did Kootenay East MLA and Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett. Joining in for the visit were Columbia River-Revelstoke BC Liberal Party candidate Doug Clovechok and Kootenay East candidate Tom Shypitka.

Then it was south to Kimberley’s Conference and Athletes Training Centre for a roundtable discussion with 18 city business leaders and City of Kimberley officials, including Mayor Don McCormick who organized the gathering.

“Getting face time with the Premier is pretty dear,” admitted McCormick, while noting the many municipalities in B.C. “It’s always good to have the Premier know who we are and know what we are.”

Clark said she was pleased to meet with the Kimberley business owners and managers, noting she needs to understand the challenges faced by business communities around the province “so we can build on successes and cut down on challenges. We’ve got lots of opportunities to do things better.”

Clark touted the province’s top economic ranking in the country, declining unemployment and tax cuts in the recent balanced budget as indicators things are going better in B.C. than elsewhere.

“It’s (success) not evenly spread across B.C., we know that,” Clark said, admitting that “even distribution of employment is a goal” of her government.

Broadband infrastructure support is a way to help make that happen, she said. “Tech business can be anywhere” but there are still many areas in the province that need the infrastructure to support it.

Supporting small business in B.C. is vital, Clark said, noting 98% of the province’s businesses are “small. We have more small businesses here than anywhere else in the country. There is something good about B.C. and we should be investing in that.

McCormick credited Kimberley’s small business owners “for rising our butts out of the pits.”

One item discussed at the Kimberley roundtable focused on regulations and use regarding brown field or formerly industrial land, and impacts on financing for use of such land.

McCormick said the issue is now coming to the forefront “because we are a vibrant community; we have growing businesses; he have people coming in wanting to invest in the community. I’ve been here about 14 years and it’s only in the last couple that the whole concept of business parks and industrial development has even been in the conversation.”

Kimberley may be “primarily” a retail town now, the Mayor told the Premier, but there is a strong desire to bring in higher paying jobs to town.

“That’s the path we are on. I’m not going to say it’s a nice problem to have but I think it has come to the front because we have people who want to invest but it’s a brick wall (provincial regulations on contaminated lands),” he said.

“Well, we should do what we can to figure it out,” Clark replied.

The moratorium on liquor licences in the province, which Kimberley and District Chamber of Commerce manager Mike Guarnery said has “created quite the cottage industry of profiteers,” was another issued discussed.

Guarnery said also asked the Premier if she’d consider providing “Tier One” employment assistant clients funding again to access Community Futures-style training programs for entrepreneurs “to start businesses.”

“The more people we can get back into the workforce faster, the better off we all are,” Clark acknowledged.

Affordable housing was another discussion.

Clark said there are two ways to go at tackling the issue.

The first is to have government build it “which is absolutely the worst way to address affordable housing. We are getting 6,000 units for $800 million. We’re getting a terrible deal. Really, what you want is the private sector building housing and then supporting people to be able to afford to live in it.”

The market also continues to dictate housing prices, she said, noting more units need to be constructed in B.C.

“If there is more supply in the market, the price overall will go down,” she said, adding her government will work at finding incentives for municipal governments to help, as well.

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