Liberal leadership hopeful George Abbott was one of the last high-profile candidates to visit the lakecity.
Abbott was in Williams Lake Friday afternoon meeting with riding association members at the Pioneer Complex.
Abbott, a Shuswap MLA, spoke candidly of the disconnect felt by ridings outside the populous Lower Mainland; he promised to listen and, “do what I say I will.”
Abbott insisted that he would wait until the mandated election date before embarking on a provincial election.
“I have to earn your vote,” he said.
He supports the HST but is in favour of moving the referendum forward to June.
Under Abbott’s leadership there would be no free vote in the legislature on the HST.
He suggests combining the HST referendum with a question on the carbon tax, asking voters whether to freeze the tax or to continue with the tax’s legislated incremental increases.
Abbott acknowledges that businesses that rely on fuel are at a disadvantage with the carbon tax.
“If you’re heavily dependent on fuel you’re at a disadvantage every time the levy goes up,” he says.
“I don’t want to punish our industries and make our industries less competitive. We can’t do it alone.”
But he was careful to stress that his government would not take every taxation issue to referendum.
Abbott supports the Prosperity mine and further endorsed a one environmental review process.
“I think potentially it’s a win-win-win situation and until we’ve exhausted every possibility I believe it can be done.”
Abbott promised that when Taseko decides to proceed with a second mine proposal the company would have to submit to an “abbreviated assessment.”
“We don’t put people through the process again if there is no substantive changes to the proposal.”
He further supports the development of the province’s resource industry.
“My big thing is every community and every region to build a resource base. That is where all the wealth flows from — from the land,” he says.
And he’s eager to see resource extraction benefit the entire province, including First Nations.
Abbott says his government would also provide funding annually for the predator control program in the amount of $500,000 a year.
