BC United Leader speaks to Fort St. John crowd, addresses various topics

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — BC United Leader Kevin Falcon stopped in Fort St. John to speak at a town hall meeting Tuesday night, addressing various topics concerning Peace region residents.

Peace River North MLA Dan Davies and Skeena MLA Ellis Ross spoke at the meeting, and Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier was also in attendance, sitting in the front row.

In their opening statements, the BC United trio covered topics such as resources, industry, agriculture, the Taylor Bridge, crime and SOGI before delving into more detail during the question period.

One audience member asked about BC United’s plan to “overcome that growing population of idiots” to win the election.

Falcon responded by saying the individual should have a little more faith in the public.

“They’re a lot smarter than we give them credit for,” Falcon said.

He believes it will come down to whether the province wants him or David Eby as premier.

“It’s gonna come down to competence and who’s got a plan to actually fix the problems we face, not just bumper sticker politics,” Falcon said.

“I think that when the public looks at our plan, they’re gonna say, that makes sense to me.”

A different audience member suggested the rest of the province split from the Vancouver area and Vancouver Island.

The BC United leader said he understood the sentiment but does not want to split the province.

“I think this is a great province – every region of this province is important and valuable,” Falcon said.

“But to do that, it would be nice if we could get a premier that would even come up here once in a while.”

One woman brought up Bill 36, the Health Professions and Occupations Act. 

Falcon made it clear that BC United voted against Bill 36 and tried to reach out to those who may be affected but did not receive much of a response until it passed through legislation.

He explained that the bill was passed because the provincial NDP had the majority in parliament.

Another topic discussed was mental health and addiction services and the lack of a treatment facility in Fort St. John.

A member of the audience raised concerns about the overdoses occurring across the province, suggesting a mandatory detox or treatment program for those brought back to life after an overdose.

Falcon encouraged the man to read BC United’s mental health and addiction plan, which includes mandatory treatment programs in the jail system.

“If they’re going to be spending two years less a day in jail anyhow, let’s turn it into recovery for their addiction,” Falcon said.

He said the focus would be on detox and a longer-term program because the evidence is “not great” for 30 to 90-day programs.

In the same vein, another audience member questioned the MLAs and leader about the closure of treatment facilities across the province.

Falcon claimed it was a North American-wide phenomenon spurred by a movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, from 1975.

“That literally drove a societal change that repelled against institutionalizing [people],” Falcon said.

He said the theory was to close the facilities and put people back into the communities with support.

“The truth is, there was never the proper supports in the community,” Falcon said.

“I actually think, let’s just all accept that we’ve made a bad societal decision, and we’ll take our share of the blame, and now, let’s help people.”

Following a recent bulletin released by BC Coroners Service revealing the number of drug-related deaths in B.C. has increased to an average of seven people per day, BC United called for an emergency implementation of a virtual opioid dependency program (VOPD).

The program, which is in BC United’s Better is Possible plan, would provide same-day, no-fee, no-waitlist access to medication treatment and addiction medicine specialists anywhere in British Columbia, removing barriers for those without a doctor or walk-in clinic access.

Another audience member brought up the anti-SOGI protest in May, with around 100 people in attendance. 

They marched from City Hall to Centennial Park, where the Trans Alliance Friends, Family & Youth Society (TAFFY) held a “peaceful presence.”

The man said Davies called the parents at the anti-SOGI rally “hateful,” which the MLA denied doing.

Falcon explained to the crowd that he didn’t know what SOGI was when he returned from retirement, so he asked his wife, an on-call teacher.

“She goes, ‘I think it’s a module for teachers on anti-bullying,’ so I go, okay, that doesn’t too bad to me,” Falcon said.

He said the Canadian Human Rights Act was updated to include not being able to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation in 1996 or gender identity in 2017.

“So because this was now added to the Human Rights Act, that had to be updated, the teacher’s module for anti-bullying,” Falcon said.

The BC United Leader did his best to make it clear that SOGI was not part of the curriculum.

He said the module was created for teachers to use as tools if they see a child in the classroom who is being bullied or at risk of being bullied.

“I think we can all agree, we definitely want children to be protected, right? We don’t want them bullied or harassed,” Falcon said.

“Many of us grew up in a system that had no protections, and we saw some pretty nasty things happen to kids.”

Falcon said the issue is that the government has changed, and now, teachers are “painting well outside the lines.”

“We hear these anecdotal stories, it’s truthfully, sometimes hard to track down, but we do hear enough anecdotally to know that some teachers are obviously playing way out of bounds,” Falcon said.

The BC United Leader said his guiding principles in the school system are parental involvement, transparency and age appropriateness.

The public, including him, has also got to get some perspective on the risks for children, and a cellphone is a more significant risk, added Falcon.

He plans to ban phones from schools so kids can spend six hours a day not on their phones, paying attention in class and learning numeracy and reading skills.

Falcon said BC United also plans to restore letter grades.

“So that we can understand what the heck our kids are actually doing in the classroom, not the ones I get now that I can’t even understand,” Falcon said.

After their night in Fort St. John, the MLAs and Falcon held a town hall meeting in Dawson Creek on Wednesday.