Candidate Interviews: Peace River North BC Conservative Jordan Kealy

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Peace River North MLA candidate Jordan Kealy, the Conservative candidate in the 2024 provincial general election, sat down with Enegeticcity.ca to answer questions submitted by residents of the Peace River region. 

How does your party plan to reform the healthcare system, specifically so that all northeastern BC residents get equal access to care? What will your party do to address the healthcare staffing shortages experienced specifically in our region?

“I think the biggest problem with our healthcare system is that it’s different with every region that it’s offering services in,” Kealy said. 

He pointed out the differing reasons behind the closures, how some regions close due to a lack of nurses, and others due to a lack of physicians.

“From a party standpoint, we have to do an external audit of all of the health authorities; we need to figure out exactly what the problem is in each area, and try and pinpoint on correcting those issues,” Kealy stated. 

Kealy explained that part of the Conservative Party’s platform for the upcoming election was bringing in the private healthcare system to subsidize the provincial healthcare system. 

“That’s part of the solution, the biggest part is finding the weaknesses in our public system that have to get repaired,” Kealy said. 

In the long run, for northeast B.C., Kealy stated that it will be important to incentivize and encourage people to come to the region and individuals from the region to enter the healthcare field.

How will your party continue investing in natural resources while respecting Indigenous rights and climate change?

Kealy discussed his belief that the incredible natural resources of the province can be harvested in a sustainable manner, enhancing economic development while maintaining environmental health. 

He spoke of the necessity of incentivizing companies and industry and lamented that the current system makes doing business more difficult, using the recent Canfor sawmill closure announcements as an example. 

“The current government has made it very difficult for [sawmills] to do business. Between the stumpage fees doubling, the carbon tax being applied, the permitting process taking substantially longer,” Kealy said. 

“We’re definitely not doing something right. And if we don’t have someone taking care of the forests, they’re gonna burn, and right now, we’ve seen just last year alone two million hectares burn.”

Kealy also discussed continuing to communicate with Indigenous Nations while streamlining the process of permit approval and decision-making. 

What will your party do to address housing affordability?

Kealy believes the primary problem with housing affordability across the province is inflation. 

“Inflation is happening by record spending across the country, and across the province. Right now, federally, we’re seeing debts that we’ve never had before,” Kealy said.  

The candidate also stated that the Carbon Tax was influencing inflation rates, increasing the cost of living for British Columbians. 

“We have to control how much money we’re spending and the inflation rates, but then when it comes to building new houses, we have to make it cheaper,” Kealy said. 

The Conservative Party will be working to reduce government spending in a variety of ways, Kealy explained. 

“We’ve got to do business smarter, and that’s not just spending well beyond our means, especially if we’re cutting back our gross domestic product,” Kealy said. 

What is your stance on education and curriculum?

Kealy spoke of a more fluid education system, less structured around university and leaving more room for individual opportunities. 

“Our primary goal at a young age is to teach kids how to learn, and not necessarily tell them how to learn,” Kealy said. 

He spoke of diverse private schools opening around the province where the focus is on life skills.

“We don’t want to make it too complicated, there’s already so many distractions that we have in life, and we don’t want to bombard them with those distractions.”

What is your party’s plan for investment in infrastructure for our region?

Kealy described how he sees a regional reliance on globalized products, with goods being shipped into the province for consumption. 

To improve infrastructure, Kealy explained keeping money and goods local would benefit the province as a whole. 

“There are a lot of things we can do to build our infrastructure, and one of them is that we can promote our forestry system and that all of these homes that we need to build, we can make it so they have to be built with our products,” Kealy said. 

He used the shipping of natural gas to the United States of America as an example, stating the infrastructure needed for the refinement process is present in the province and stating it might be better to ‘do it at home.’

“All the jobs we can promote, the growth for our population, that can all happen as we sustainably grow our resource industry, and I think we can do it in an environmentally friendly way,” Kealy said. 

Are you willing to work across party lines to best represent your constituents?

Kealy cited the growth in the Conservative Party of B.C. and a lack of clear planning from BC United as reasons for his confidence ahead of the provincial election in October.

“I think we’re seeing a pendulum starting to shift. We’re seeing it in the polls. We have the NDP worried. I am very optimistic going forward that if we can have somebody in a minister position from Peace River North and Peace River South, that would be amazing for the shift in influence that we can have,” Kealy said.

This article is one of a series of articles featuring each candidate running in the 2024 provincial general election in the Peace River North and Peace River South ridings. Candidates are being interviewed according to their availability. To view articles written on other candidates, click here.