British Columbia Social Credit Party candidate Michael Henshall wants to get elected as the MLA of the Fraser-Nicola riding.
The Hope-area based realtor and property manager shared his views on the role of government, natural resource management and the housing market in an interview on April 17.
“I’m concerned that we’re in a housing crisis,” said Henshall. “The amount of inflation that we’ve seen in the housing market is putting fixed-income individuals at a huge disadvantage.
“I’m concerned that all the other parties’ policies are inflationary.”
Henshall said an example of an inflationary policy is excessive spending, and said the Province can use tools to contain inflation.
He sees the 15-per-cent foreign buyer tax as “poorly written legislation.”
“It did not help British Columbians at all,” he said. “The best way to help British Columbians in regards to housing is to increase supply.”
Asked how they intend to do this, Henshall said they won’t socialize housing by building their own supply of houses, and suggested that one issue hampering increased supply was regulation.
“These extra requirements the provincial government has brought in for housing and construction requirements has added up to 15 per cent for our new homes,” said Henshall. “Just talking with builders, the building code and the extra requirements that they have to go through have driven up the cost of housing.”
Henshall also believes in a “fair royalty structure” for B.C.’s resources, whether in water extraction, forestry or mining.
“For example, in Hope here, we have our water,” he said, adding that while he wants Nestlé’s business, he also wants to monitor how much water is extracted and raise the royalties — the cost per million litres of water extracted.
Henshall expanded that he wanted a domestic and export royalty structure. Water sold domestically would see a lower royalty rate.
He also said he wants to ensure manufacturing and processing of raw materials in B.C. by streamlining regulation and keeping taxation competitive.
“The new leader [of the U.S.] is not going to be throwing carbon tax and other taxes … because they are going to try and get every single job possible and they’ll do anything to get those jobs,” said Henshall.
Henshall believes that while building a pipeline brings short-term jobs, building a refinery would bring long-term jobs, and also refined product is less environmentally damaging compared to bitumen.
While the Socreds do not have enough candidates to form government this election, Henshall shared their vision of how a government should operate. He believes government has specific roles but should not intervene everywhere.
“When government gets involved in every aspect of society, it becomes very expensive,” said Henshall. “You will be running deficits and taxes are going to have to increase or you are going into debt.”
He said the government’s role is not in creating jobs, but fostering trade, entrepreneurship and protecting the environment.
On tourism, Henshall said government could lower corporate taxes, fund grants and bursaries.
On trade routes, Henshall also believes more money should be spent on the Trans-Canada Highway. He cited that the highway has been closed many times, disrupting trade in communities like Ashcroft and Hope.
“The provincial GDP slows down when trade routes are hindered, and also for the safety for citizens. If some senior needs to get an MRI in Abbotsford, and all of a sudden, they’ve been waiting for the longest time and they can’t get through … it’s just wrong,” he said.