A postal worker from Victoria is running for the B.C. Green Party in Powell River-Sunshine Coast for the upcoming provincial election.
Griffin Leonard Lea says the affordability issue is “immensely challenging.”
In an interview with Vista Radio, Lea said, if elected, his party would reinstate the cancelled $1.4 billion Community Housing Fund – a move by the B.C. NDP that he says was punishing to municipalities with shovel-ready projects.
“There is a strong base of Green support in the riding over the last several decades and certainly there was a lot of support to make this candidacy happen. I think we’re the only ones talking about tackling a lot of these issues in any kind of bold way,” Lea said.
The Green agenda also includes building 26,000 affordable housing units per year and also weaving mental health care into the public health care system.
“That’s a huge piece that is causing an enormous burden on the primary care system to be dealing with very complex patients that it is not built to support,” Lea said. “It would be preventative. I think that is another big piece, there’s not enough preventative work happening.”
Lea also noted the education system is “woefully under funded and under supported.”
Specific to the riding, Lea would like to see more trips with BC Ferries to improve the flow of people and goods as well as boosting regional transit.
Lea referenced the work of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote.
“(He’s) managed to get some really great transit along that corridor and so I would also advocate to do that and tie that to the ferry schedules. I think both of these things can grow simultaneously together and that would benefit everyone in the region,” Lea said.
As for being in the riding, Lea said the last time he visited Powell River-Sunshine Coast was about five years ago.
We head to the polls on Saturday, Oct. 24.
