Kitchener-Conestoga candidates discuss cost of living, top concerns in riding

Voters will head to the polls on Oct. 21 and in Kitchener-Conestogapeople will have a choice between seven candidates.

The candidates in Kitchener-Conestoga are:

• Conservative: (incumbent) Harold Albrecht
• Liberal: Tim Louis.
• NDP:Riani de Wet.
• Green Party:Stephanie Goertz
• People's Party: Koltyn Wallar.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo has asked the candidates to answer a survey. All were presented with the same questions.Clicking the candidate's name above will take you to their survey responses. The candidates were told they had a 200-word limit for answers.

Candidates who did not provide surveys by the deadline are invited to still do so and their responseswill be added to this story when they are received.

Harold Albrecht, Conservative Party of Canada

Website

1. What is the top issue facing your riding right now and how would you address it?

There are several topics that I could bring up, but they all fall under one broad tent: their future. People are worried about their economic future, the future of the environment, and the future of Canada on the world stage.

The cost of living is rising faster than wages, Canada's emissions are growing at record rates, and Canadians are concerned that Canada's reputation has diminished on the world stage after four years under Justin Trudeau's leadership.

A Conservative government will live within it's means, lower taxes for middle class Canadians, and make investments in our children. On the environment, rather than punish Canadians with a carbon tax for commuting to work and driving their kids to hockey practice, we willincentivizeenvironmentally-friendly home renovations, and local green technology.

Lastly, a Conservative government will reinvigorate Canada's role in the alliances we share with our democratic allies. This includes existing alliances like NORAD, NATO, CANZUK, the Commonwealth, La Francophonie, and the Five Eyes, but it will also include greater overtures to India and Japan.

2. People are concerned about the cost of living and the future of the economy. What will you do personally to address this if you become an MP?

Over the past four years under Justin Trudeau, nearly 50 per cent of all Canadians are within $200 of insolvency every month. Because of their hard work, Canadians are able to get by, but many aren't able to get ahead. That's why a Conservative government, under the leadership of Andrew Scheer, will put you first and make decisions to help you get ahead.

We have introduced several measures to put money back into your pocket.The universal tax cut will give the average Canadian family over $800 more per year to spend on home renovations, a trip or put into savings. The child fitness and arts tax credits will save Canadians 15 per cent of the total cost of those programs and activities. The transit tax credit will reduce the overall cost of your monthly transit pass; a cost saving measure that was cancelled by the Liberal government.

Kitchener-Conestoga residents are eager to see the removal of GST from home heating costs. When it's 30 below you shouldn't have to decide between putting food on your table or heating your home! That's why we will remove tax on those bills, leaving you more money at the end of each month.

3. The environment and climate change are top concerns for many. What do you want to see the government do to address those concerns?

Our Conservative Party's comprehensive plan for the environment is built on three guiding principles:

1. Green technology, not taxes.

2. A cleaner and greener natural environment.

3. Taking the climate change fight global.

The full plan can be found atarealplan.ca. One key issue that I feel very strongly about is our plan to protect our waterways against wastewater dumping. We will work with municipalities to end their practice of dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into our waterways.

We will also reinstate funding for wetland, watershed, and fisheries conservation that was revoked by the Liberals.

4. What do people need to know about you as an individual?

I'm a proud husband, father, and grandfather and I have been privileged to serve Kitchener-Conestoga as your Member of Parliament for the past 13 years.

I want to continue to serve in this capacity because I love our region and the people who live here! Kitchener, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich all have a special place in my heart, and I believe I'm the best person for this job. Growing up on a farm in Wilmot Township and now living with my wife Darlene in Kitchener has given me perspective on how to represent both rural and urban constituents.

Over the past 13 years, my office has helped hundreds, if not thousands of you deal with federal programs such as CRA, immigration, and other federal government related issues and I hope to continue to serve you in this way for four more years.

Tim Louis, Liberal Party of Canada

Website

1. What is the top issue facing your riding right now and how would you address it?

Affordability for families. Canada's economy is strong and growing, but the rising cost of living is making it harder for everyone to share in that success.

For too many families, it's still tough to make ends meet. Daycare spots are expensive and difficult to find, costing some families more than $4,000 this year. Meanwhile, parents who work late shifts or irregular hours have even fewer child care options.

That is why a re-elected Liberal government will give families up to $1,000 more through the Canada Child Benefit for kids under the age of one, make maternity and parental benefits tax-exempt and reduce childcare fees for before and after school care by 10%.

2. People are concerned about the cost of living and the future of the economy. What will you do personally to address this if you become an MP?

The Liberal government's plan to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class is working. It helped Canadians create over onemillion new jobs most of which being full time positions and brought the unemployment rate to a 40-year low.

Despite that, many Canadians struggle to make ends meet given the high cost of living. That is why a re-elected Liberal government will work with telecom companies to lower the cost of wireless services by 25%, increase Old Age Security by 10% once they turn 75 and ensure middle class Canadians pay no federal taxes on the first $15,000 they earn, saving the average family $585 in taxes each year.

3. The environment and climate change are top concerns for many. What do you want to see the government do to address those concerns?

Climate change represents an existential threat and Canadians are taking to the streets to demand stronger action to fight it. That is why the Liberal government is phasing out coal, banning single-use plastics and put a price on pollution.

A re-elected Liberal government has committed to getting Canada to net-zero emission by 2050, make Canada a world leader in clean technology, protect 25% of Canada's lands and oceans by 2025, help homeowners and landlords retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient and plant 2 billion trees.

4. What do people need to know about you as an individual?

I never thought of entering politics when I decided to run in 2015, and only lost by 251 votes. Like many, I was frustrated by the direction of our country under the former government and felt that middle class families like my own were left behind.

In 2019, I decided to run again because the Liberal government has improved the lives of middle class Canadians, but we know there is more work that needs to be done. We need more people who are middle class in Parliament, advocating for our issues. I feel that not everyone's voice is being heard in KitchenerConestoga. If elected I will represent all voices, not just people who share my beliefs.

Riani de Wet, New Democratic Party

Website

1. What is the top issue facing your riding right now and how would you address it?

The concern I hear most frequently from people in the riding, is about affordability, and health care. For many families, these two are closely connected, especially when there are members of the family who need chronic medication.

The inclusion of pharmacare as part of Medicare will offer tremendous relief to many families in Kitchener-Conestoga. Making dental care and vision care available to families who can't otherwise afford it, will not just address a financial need with families, but will also allow people to better participate in the workplace or in schools.

2. People are concerned about the cost of living and the future of the economy. What will you do personally to address this if you become an MP?

There are a number of practical things that will offer relief, like pharmacare. Knowing the NDP has the support of two parties, this finally seems achievable.

Another expense that's crippling is the cost of daycare. Rather than tax credits, which only refund a small percentage (two to three per cent) of the actual cost, I will support the introduction of publicly funded daycare.

We need to have broader conversations about how our economy functions. While wages for more than half of the population are stagnant, the richest people are seeing disproportionate and exponential growth in income. Statistics Canada reports the average total income of Canadians in 2017 rose by 2.5 per cent, barely keeping pace with inflation. However, the average income of people in the top one percent grew by 8.5 per cent and the wealthiest group, those in the top 0.01 per cent, had an increase of a staggering 27.2 per cent.

We need to collectively figure out how to make sure every Canadian benefits from the growth of wealth. This will not be an overnight change, but we have to make sure that as we encourage a vibrant economy, it is vibrant for everybody.

3. The environment and climate change are top concerns for many. What do you want to see the government do to address those concerns?

The first thing I'd support is to stop proving taxpayers' money in the form of subsidies to fossil fuel companies, who are making billions of dollars in profits, and certainly do not need it.

Instead of funding them, they need to chip in and fairly contribute to solving our climate problems. They not only played a large part in creating this crisis, but they have also benefited enormously off it. Green technology, and specifically the development of clean energy, is one of the fasted growing economies in the world, and China and other countries are taking full advantage of this. Canada needs to step up and take our rightful place on that field.

We have a lot of technology and innovation in this country, much of it in our own region, and we have all the potential we need to be the world leader in clean energy and technology. We have to focus our collective will and resources on this, so that we can be an exporter of clean energy and technology, rather than having to become dependent on other countries for the importation of our energy.

4. What do people need to know about you as an individual?

I refuse to settle. Just like workers are worth much more, so are Canadian voters.

I believe in the worth and value of people as people, as workers, as people, as citizens. I believe we deserve better government, better healthcare, better educational opportunities, better wages, a clean, sustainable environment, and a bigger slice of the enormous wealth of our country, wealth that is currently concentrated in the hands of a few, and squirreled away in offshore bank accounts.

If the people of Kitchener-Conestoga choose to send me to represent them in Ottawa, that is what I will fight for.

Stephanie Goertz, Green Party of Canada

Website

1. What is the top issue facing your riding right now and how would you address it?

"Water is life. The Green Party's vision for our water is clear: keep it, conserve it, and protect it," said Elizabeth May. "We will defend Canada's water from bulk exports, create a National Water Policy, and restore Canada's environmental laws to protect our waterways."

"We really need to do more to expand natural ecosystems ... Our lives depend on being able to access clean drinking water and on restoring more of nature's filtration systems for providing drinking water," May says.

The Green Party will:

• In collaboration with provinces, territories, municipal/local governments and Indigenous peoples, develop a national water strategy to ensure safe drinking water for all Canadians.
• Direct the Canada Infrastructure Bank to invest in climate-proofing essential infrastructure, prioritizing upgrades to drinking water and wastewater systems to protect against flooding, droughts and contamination.
• Use the existing Green Infrastructure Fund, launch a national program to restore natural buffer zones along waterways, and carbon sinks through ecologically sound tree-planting and soil re-building.
• Renew the National Environmental Farm Plan Program to help farmers protect wildlife habitat areas and marginal lands, maintain water quality in streams, lakes and aquifers, increase carbon sequestration and decrease water requirements.

2. People are concerned about the cost of living and the future of the economy. What will you do personally to address this if you become an MP?

The Green Party has threepriorities:

1. Protecting workers whose incomes and work lives are being and will be disrupted, by AI & the transition away from fossil fuels.
2. Enabling the creation of new jobs.
3. Facilitating the transition of workers from shrinking sectors into new jobs.

In 2017, 268,000 people were already employed in the clean energy sector. This does not include the 436,000 jobs in the energy efficiency sector & we have not yet begun a serious national retrofit of buildings andindustries. Projections put future jobs in energy efficiency retrofits alone at four million.

Green MPs will:

• Launch a massive energy efficiency retrofit of residential, commercial & institutional buildings.
• Finance building retrofits and installation of renewable energy technologies such as solar and heat pumps through direct grants, zero-interest loans & repayments based on energy/cost savings.
• Expand the single-payer Medicare model to include Pharmacare for everyone as well as free dental care for low-income Canadians.
• Appoint a Minister of Housing to strengthen the National Housing Strategy so that it meets the needs for affordable housing. The target would be 25,000 new & 15,000 rehabilitated units annually for the next 10 years.

3. The environment and climate change are top concerns for many. What do you want to see the government do to address those concerns?

Accept, at every level of government, that climate is not an environmental issue. All parties will work together to ensure that the climate is no longer treated as a political football.

Establish a new target and file it as Canada's Nationally Determined Contribution with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: 60 percent GHG reductions against 2005 levels by 2030; zero emissions by 2050.

Restore funding of climate research within the Government of Canada.

By 2030, rebuild and revamp the east-west electricity grid to ensure that renewable energy can be transmitted from one province to another. Ensure all new cars are electric. By 2040, replace all internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles.

Create millions of new jobs in the trades by retrofitting every building in Canada residential, commercial, and institutional.

Engage every municipality and community organization, as well as every school and university to plant trees, install solar panels, heat pumps, assist in retrofitting buildings to maximize energy efficiency.

Invest significant resources in adaptation measures to protect resource sectors such as agriculture, fishing and forestry. Map flood plains and other areas of natural vulnerability and adjust land-use plans accordingly.

Launch a global effort to restore carbon sinks.

4. What do people need to know about you as an individual?

With a strong desire to help build communities and people around her, Stephanie has worked tirelessly to promote a sense of community.

In 2007 she was hired by the Toronto Police Service and continued in this role until her first child was born. It was at this time that Stephanie decided to become an entrepreneur and work with small businesses and not-for-profits, who were passionate about increasing the health of local families.

She began to bring people and businesses together, from across multiple sectors and industries, to understand shared values and solve shared problems. Stephanie's father, Allan Beach, started his company when she was around twoyears old. His work ethic and dedication to his job instilled in Stephanie the drive to keep building and expanding in business. Stephanie's two children have given her the reason to run for MP.

She knows that the future is unknown, but by electing honest and ethical people in politics, ones who understand we are stronger together, there is hope. We need to act now. We can not wait another four years. We already know our system is broken. Vote for what we need and want, not for what we fear.

Koltyn Wallar, People's Party of Canada

Website

Responses not yet received.