This is a page from the 2020 British Columbia general election.
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Healthcare
Invest an additional $1 billion over 5 years in new long-term care facilities; Work towards private rooms for all seniors in long-term care who want them; Work with care home operators to address chronic worker shortages.
Implement a tax credit for seniors of up to $7,000/year for up to $20,0000 of homecare, housekeeping, and home repairs; Expand programmes to assist seniors and people with disabilities with home renos; Reinstate the Home Adaptions for Independence grant programme.
Improve Ambulance Service response-times, especially in rural communities; Increase online booking of medical appointments; Improve public reporting of wait-times; Accelerate adoption of virtual medical consultations; Expand online prescription-renewals, optional home delivery.
Increase training spaces for doctors, nurses, and other health professionals; Expand opportunities for international graduates in health professions; Work to attract health professionals to under-serviced areas; Ensure all workers experience a violence-free workplace.
Implement a provincial prescription drug monitoring programme to prevent addiction with early referrals and specialist care and treatment options.
Launch an independent review of the response to COVID-19 in long-term care and assisted living homes; Implement measures to allow family to safely visit seniors in long-term care, assisted, and independent living during COVID-19.
Establish an emergency Pandemic Response Committee to work with all parties and the Provincial Health Officer to manage the current and future pandemics.
Increase number of nurses in BC hospitals trained to conduct medical and forensic exams for sexual assaults.
Work to eliminate systemic racism and unconscious bias across the healthcare system, and to ensure services equitable and accessible for all.
Jobs, the Economy, and Affordability
Open up the automobile insurance market to private insurance vendors; Give all new drivers credit for up to four years of driving experience when they demonstrate safe driving habits.
Provide a loan guarantee programme for tourism and hospitality businesses; Implement an aggressive agenda to rebuild and expand BC's tourism sector; Develop and grow regional tourism hubs across BC.
Cap online food delivery charges at 15%; Provide a loan guarantee programme for tourism and hospitality businesses; Allow liquor delivery with takeout; Wholesale pricing from any liquor store; Streamline approval of patio and outdoor dining.
Eliminate the 2% small business income tax; Implement a short-term commercial-rent relief plan that flows relief directly to tenants and supports small businesses unable to access current relief programmes; Provide support for PPE from WorkSafeBC surpluses
Expand measures to increase access to capital and investment for the tech sector and new start-ups; Ensure a competitive business environment.
Implement a Trespass Act to protect farmers' properties; Implement reforms to the Agricultural Land Commission to allow farming and ranching families to earn supplemental income on their farms and lease secondary residences; Ensure access to water for crops and livestock.
Expand the provincial Single Parent Employment Initiative to train and support single parents as they seek employment.
Housing & Homelessness
Establish an incentive fund for municipalities with policies that increase the construction and supply of new housing; Implement tax and permitting changes to boost housing supply; Review current property tax structure to incent affordable housing and prevent speculation.
Invest in getting homeless British Columbians a home and connecting them with the health and social service supports they need.
Change the real-estate speculation tax to a condo-flipping capital gains tax; Implement higher property-taxes for non-residents of Canada.
Implement a short-term commercial-rent relief plan that flows relief directly to tenants and supports small businesses unable to access current relief programmes.
Climate Change & the Environment
Implement a programme to engage the public on reducing plastic and Syrofoam waste in oceans and waterways.
Ensure no net loss of wetlands in BC; Take more aggressive control of invasive species; Ensure ongoing restoration of wildlife populations; Accelerate reforestation programmes; Appoint a Minister for Fisheries and Coastlines.
Support investments in renewable energy and technology solutions such as carbon capture; Ensure a comprehensive greenhouse gas strategy that reduces emissions while allowing resource development and Indigenous land use.
Encourage retrofitting of homes and businesses; Improve the provincial building code to maximize energy-efficiency while avoiding one-size-fits-all costs.
Work with federal government to review scheduled increases in the Carbon Tax in light of the current economic recession.
Education
Implement a province-wide framework for hybrid and online learning options; Promote distance learning programmes; Restore $12 million of funding for Independent Distributed Learning programmes.
Build new schools throughout the province, and expand new school construction in areas with rapid population growth.
Adopt the disclosure-requirements of the UK Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, to ensure all BC students know, before they register, the total costs of a programme, the graduation rate, and employment rate.
Increase supports and earlier assessments for identifying learning needs; Provide school instruction that meets diverse learning needs.
Mental Health, Drugs, & Addiction
Expand Foundry Centres and Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Teams to respond to mental health-related emergency calls.
Increase addiction-treatment and recovery programmes; Clearly recognise that addiction is a medical disorder, and ensure a focus on public health and safety in the treatment of people suffering form addictions; Introduce a Safe Care Act to safely help young people into treatment.
Human Rights & Equality
Require companies with at least 50 employees to report the compensation paid to categories of male and female employees, via the Equal Pay Reporting Act.
Ensure all government services are free of racism and prejudice, and require all government offices to follow anti-racism policies.
Adopt and ensure diversity commitments for hiring in the public service and for government-appointed boards.
Increase the supply of fully-accessible housing units for persons with disabilities in newly-built multi-unit residential buildings; Modernize the BC Building Code to address accessibility.
Extend the Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act beyond public post-secondary institutions to all of government; Adopt Clare's Law, making violent criminal histories open to those at risk, esp. potential partners.
Transit & Transportation
Expand public transit options; Continue TransLink expansion in areas of population growth, including south of the Fraser, the Fraser Valley, and North Vancouver; Increase transit hours in the Interior, North, and Vancouver Island.
Widen the Trans-Canada highway in the Fraser Valley to six lanes all the way to Whatcom Road; Increase funding for road and bridge maintenance; Upgrade highway rest areas; Enforce open procurement on public infrastructure projects.
Public Safety
Increase funding for public safety by $58 million; Hire 40 additional full-time Crown prosecutors and additional support staff; Provide tools to the BC Prosecution Service to reduce delays and aggressively crackdown on crime.
Children, Childcare, & Youth in Care
Provide $10-a-day childcare to families making up to $65,000 annually, and stepped rates of $20 or $30-a-day for families of incomes up to $125,000; Build 10,000 new childcare spaces across BC; Expand access to before-and-after school care in schools.
Expand the Baby's Best Chance support programme for parents of newborns to support healthier outcomes for children; Increase supports and earlier assessments for identifying learning needs.
Indigenous Issues
Work with Indigenous peoples to resolve issues of rights and title; Work to clearly define how UNDRIP relates to land use decisions; Work with Indigenous communities to identify gaps and update a resource management framework.
Work with Indigenous peoples to provide interpretation and education services in parks and enhance cultural and environmental understanding.
Resource Extraction & Export
Expedite Indigenous-lead LNG export projects through collaborative agreements with Indigenous groups; Work with Indigenous groups to establish accelerated review and approval processes.
Implement a fully online digital regulatory system by 2025; Improve the process for mine development, permitting, inspection, and remediation, and cut permit-processing time in half; Pursue benefit sharing for small and rural communities.
Misc.
Appoint an independent Fair Tax Commission to review all provincial taxes and suggest taxes for adjustment or elimination.
Establish a northern Premier's Office in Prince George; Significantly expand high-speed broadband and mobile coverage across BC in rural and remote communities, by leveraging governments purchasing power as part of the procurement of telecommunications services.
Biography
submitted by the candidate or their team
Paul Lepage is a professional negotiation consultant living in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife Madoka and his daughter Madeline Kyoka in Vancouver-Kensington. He is an avid motorcyclist, musician and advocate for his neighbourhood and the Indigenous Community of Canada.
Paul was born in St. Eustache, Quebec in December 1967, and is the oldest of four boys and the child of Clément and Suzanne Lepage (née Barnes).
He attended Knowlton Academy primary school, Massey-Vanier Secondary School, Marianopolis Private College on a scholarship, and Concordia University for his Bachelors and Masters degrees.
During his Masters degree, Paul worked for the Office of the Auditor General of Canada working as a value-for-money auditor and reviewer for the 1994 Peacekeeping Audit. He worked at Communications and Consultations at the Queen’s Privy Council Office on a variety of research and communications projects, including public service renewal, program review, the Spanish Canadian Turbot War, Krever Inquiry and the Quebec Referendum on Sovereignty Association.
Paul worked as the Executive Assistant to the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture in the House of Commons (Jerry Pickard, Liberal Member of Parliament, Essex-Kent). He was a Municipal Councillor for West Bolton, Quebec and Committee President for Civil Protection and Security during a two year term in 1995-96.
He also worked for Aerospace and Defence Industry Branch at Industry Canada as a Consultant on industry strategic competitiveness frameworks and the international subsidization of the aerospace industry.
In 1996, Paul started his consulting business Lepage Associates in Vancouver, primarily focussed on public sector negotiations. In 1999, he completed his Master’s thesis, The application of principled negotiation methods in the Government of Canada versus Native Peoples of Canada. defended, June 2000.
Since 1996, Lepage Associates has worked with, consulted to and advised a diversity of clients, and continues to operate to the present. The majority of the practice is focussed on business partnerships, land development and negotiation on behalf of Indigenous clients in Western Canada. However, Lepage Associates has held several contracts with the Government of Canada, the Province of British Columbia and large private corporations. Lepage Associates has worked for Indigenous clients in Alberta, the Yukon and several Nations and organizations across British Columbia.
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