Charlottetown candidates debate housing, bridge tolls, climate change

The availability and affordability of housing especially in Charlottetown where the vacancy rate is just0.2 per cent was one of the maintopicsas all five federal candidatesfrom Charlottetown debated for the first time inthe 2019 election campaign Tuesday night atW.A. Murphy Student Centre at UPEIpresented by The Guardian.

Sean Casey, Liberal candidate and incumbent for the riding, sayshis party wasbehind the eight-ball in regards to housing but, saidthe federal government has become involved in the housing file.

"The political will is there and the federal dollars are there," he said. "This problem will be solved. This is a temporary problem."

Christian Heritage Party candidate Fred MacLeod said the Island requires a lot of new units, and in a hurry. He said he believes it isimportant that people are able to afford their own homes.

"At the end of the day, what really makes a country great is for the people to own their own property," he said.

Robert Campbell said a Conservative government would remove the stress test for first time home buyers, and said the problem wascomplex,requiring work from all levels of government.

Darcie Lanthier with the Green Partysaid she has noticed a lot of empty houses in Charlottetown when out campaigning.She said the cityhas a density problem andhousing shouldn't be treated the same way as other commodities.

"We are treating the issues of housing something that should be a human right like an equity investment," said Lanthier.

Joe Byrne said an NDP government would be committed to making investments in public housing, saying it needs to be that way as the private sector's primaryinterest isin profits from housing.

The candidates also faced questions on climate change, Confederation Bridge tolls, EI zoning and other topics.

Climate change

The candidates were asked if elected what their first step would be on climate change.

Bryne said in order to effectively combat climate changean entire retooling of the economy is required.

"The same economic system that brought us climate change in 2019 is incapable of getting us out of it," he said.

A Christian Heritage Party government would widen the scopeand look at everything that's harming the environment, said MacLeod.

"There's no direct connection to charging carbon tax to changing people's habits," he said. "That's why it's called a money grab."

"The house is on fire we shouldn't build a pipeline to put some gasoline on it before we call 911," said Lanthier.

While Lanthier touted her party's Mission: Possible plan and said that retrofitting buildings to become more energy efficient would actually save owners money in the long run.

Lanthier took the moment to take a shot at her colleagues.

"Everyone's jumping on the bandwagon and that is fantastic," she said. "So nice to see the green podium."

ButCampbell said the Green'splan is unrealistic and isn't going to happen.

"Elizabeth May is a fourth-party leader, she knows full well she cannot form government. She's coming up with ideas about retrofitting every building in Canada. It's going to cost and it's been costed by Bloomberg $67billion. Who's going to pay for that?"

"It has to be a balanced way of doing it," he said. "And we have the plan of doing it now, not in 10 years time."

Campbell said a Conservative government would commit to lowering emissions to 40kilotonnesand said under their plan, companies that exceed their green investment plan would have to pay into research and development of technology that would reduce their overall emissions.

Casey said his party has spent 15 times as much on climate action as it did on thepipeline.Casey also pointed to theLiberals' plan to plant two billion trees and retrofit 1.5 million homes over the next five years to make them more efficient as proof of his party's solid climate change plan.

Confederation Bridge tolls

The candidates were mostly in agreement that if electedtheir party would look at modifying or eliminatingtolls on the Confederation Bridge.

"I think everyone on the Island would like to see the tolls either reduced or gone," said Campbell.

Byrne said the bridge tolls are a barrier for low-income Islanders.

MacLeod said Christian Heritagewould also look at modifying or eliminatingbridge tolls.

Liberal candidateCaseywas the only one to not commit to action on the bridge tolls if elected. The incumbent candidate said the issue is more complicated than it seems.

"Let me just inject a little realism into the discussion," said Casey.

Casey said the government is in a 35-year agreementending in 2032, and anything that's done prior to that would involve a renegotiation of the contract.He said if bridge tolls wereeliminated,tolls would also have tobeeliminated for the ferry.

Byrne questioned the Liberals' priorities in spending, pointing to the Liberals' recently-announced camping credit.

"If we can spend $150 million on people to go camping, surely we can do something about tolls on the Trans-Canada Highway," he said.

EI Zones

The candidates were asked, if elected, if they would support a return to a single EI zone.

Casey said he supports a return to a single EI zone and said it's the file he's spent themost of his time in office on, and committed to returning P.E.I. to one EI zone if elected.

He said the move to institute a dual EI zonewas a cynical political ploy by Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

Lanthier agreed and said the dual zones were unfair.

Campbell agreed that it needed to be fixedand pledged a Conservative government would work as quickly as they can to fix it.

He was quick to point out thatthe split to two EI zoneswas a Conservative move and thatCasey and the Liberals have had four years to change it back but have not.

Byrne agreed that the EI zones needed to be fixed, saying ithad beenan arbitrary changeso it should be able to be easily reverted.

"If you want to change arbitrarily, just go aheadand change it," he said.

Voters head to the polls on October 21.

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