With the northwest accounting for more resource extraction than the rest of BC combined, we asked your Skeena MLA candidates how to keep those profits local.
For NDP rep Sarah Zimmerman, securing permanent Northwest Resource Benefits Alliance funding is step one.
She had advocated for the initial 5 year, $250 million agreement while serving on Terrace council in 2024.
But she’s also stressing the importance of keeping industry jobs in the region.
Conservative incumbent Claire Rattee also wants permanent RBA funding, but doesn’t understand why it isn’t already, like similar deals in the Peace.
She also wants to make all levels of government pay their fair share.
Green candidate Nick Gottlieb says if we want to keep industry profits and jobs local, we have to keep the resources local.
Gottlieb says we need to incentivize production over just extracting raw resources and shipping them, and the profits, to foreign companies.
We haven’t been able to reach OneBC’s Larry Taylor, but he believes we need to attract more local developers and procure materials from within BC.
We’ll be voting one of them as our next MLA on Saturday.
