National and local environmental issues will be the focus of an upcoming federal all-candidates’ debate in Tsawwassen next week.
Organized by several Delta residents, including the Delta Naturalists, the debate is one of the last opportunities for the Delta riding candidates to say where they stand on some important topics on the environment, said Kevin Liang, who is helping put together the event at KinVillage.
“There’s four predetermined questions that’s consistent across the nation and we’re finalizing the few that are for Delta specifically,” he explained.
Topics will include Burns Bog, the proposed LNG Wespac terminal, dikes in Delta and the salmon population in the Fraser River.
Liang said they are trying to organize it in a way that can have specific environmental groups in Delta have questions voiced through the debate.
Liang said the forum is part of the “100 Debates on the Environment Project” campaign by the national environmental group GreenPac. Liang said unlike the GreenPac, which is aiming to have 100 ridings have debates across Canada, the Delta organizers won’t be making endorsements of any particular candidates following the event.
“This debate is really a forum about the environmental issues in Delta and what the candidates are proposing on how they’d approach these issues,” he added.
The Delta federal election debate on the environment takes place Thursday, Oct. 10 at Kin Village (5410 10th Ave.) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
For more information email 100debatesdelta@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, GreenPac, which says it is non-partisan, in a recent news release noted a poll conducted by a research firm found 60 per cent of Canadians say they are less likely to vote for a candidate that skips a candidates’ debate on the environment. A majority would also consider such a candidate to be out of touch with average Canadians, GreenPac said.
