BC United leader Kevin Falcon addressed the concerns of small businesses at a luncheon hosted by the Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce (MRCC) at the Best Western on Monday (Oct. 16).
In a speech, the Vancouver-Quilchena MLA outlined his party’s ambitions and spoke about issues including transportation, healthcare, housing, mental health and addictions.
Falcon says housing affordability is an important issue for small businesses because of the increasing difficulty of living in B.C. and retaining employees as a result.
“Even in Mission, it’s getting really tough and this used to be the place where people could go to because there was real genuine affordability,” Falcon said.
MRCC executive director Miriam Bozman asked several questions on behalf of the chamber’s Government Affairs Committee. Bozman asked about workforce development, access to capital for small businesses, bureaucratic hurdles, future collaboration with local chambers and infrastructure.
“If we’re going to ask Mission to take on a lot more growth, then we have to make sure we’re aligning infrastructure investment with it,” Falcon said. “That includes the schools — not just announcing and re-announcing — but actually getting it under construction, getting it built and the elementary schools and the transportation infrastructure because otherwise … it’s not going to work.”
Former Mission mayor and MLA Randy Hawes asked about “rerationalizing” local Agricultural Land Reserves (ALR) to allow for industrial purposes.
Falcon said the ALR is not working for farmers and that there needs to be more regional flexibility in oversight.
Meanwhile, Fraser Valley Regional District Electoral Area G Director Cory Cassel outlined concerns with flooding infrastructure and asked Falcon about his plan to improve it.
“I actually think we have to revisit the entire model, to be honest, because I think you’re exactly right — it’s not working,” Falcon said.
He says there’s a need to prioritize a separate, provincially-driven group that’s solely focused on improving the dykes rather than local improvement groups, regional districts and city councils with a lot on their plate.