NanaimoNewsNOW reached out to each candidate in the 2019 provincial byelection, asking for a brief bio and answers to the same three questions surrounding important local issues.
The responses below are unedited.
Biography/contact info:
justingreenwood.ca
bcconservative.ca
Age: 37
Hometown: Saanichton, B.C.
Occupation/Background: Area Manager for a Real Estate Marketing Firm. Background in Business Administration. Currently the Interim Deputy Leader of the BC Conservatives.
Question 1: What is your top priority specific to Nanaimo which you would work to address if elected to the legislature?
My top priority is moving to scrap the carbon tax. This will make life more affordable for all of Nanaimo. Scrapping the carbon tax will give immediate relief at the gas pumps, immediate relief on utility bills and start to lower food costs. It will also put money back in the budgets of the city and schools who are paying this tax. A tax that has GST charged on top of it by the Trudeau Liberals. You heard that right, a tax on a tax.
Question 2: The current approach to Nanaimo’s homelessness issue is causing much angst in the community. What made-in-Nanaimo solutions would you lobby for to address the crisis?
There has been an extreme lack of transparency surrounding how this have been dealt with. Most especially with the surrounding area where it’s located and how much was spent with no real plan to remedy the situation. The way it’s being dealt with by the NDP government is just enabling it further. There has to be formal consultation with the city and the public before this type of project gets underway. If the programs that are being attached to this solution by the government do not contain anything in regard to self-reliance, then not only are they not helping the people in need, they’re wasting tax-dollars.
Question 3: The current NDP government is taking steps to “cool” Nanaimo’s real estate market, lowering home values in the interim. Do you support this approach? Why or why not?
No, I do not agree with it whatsoever. These steps include telling home owners what to do with their properties. Properties that they have purchased and already pay city taxes on. The NDP’s blanket reason behind the speculation tax in Nanaimo is to open up rental spaces that will somehow make life more affordable? That is ridiculous, short-sighted and clearly shows they don’t know what they’re doing. There will only be a handful of rentals that come out on the market from this, they will be at market value which is very high in Nanaimo when looking at comparables. In order to drive rent costs down there needs to be a big influx of units introduced, such as purpose-built developments. Not forcing people to rent out their homes. But to be fair, if the Liberals didn’t turn a blind eye to the money laundering happening in BC Casinos and the Real Estate market, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
