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Green leader visits Creek

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau was on the Coast Thursday for a campaign stop with Powell River-Sunshine Coast candidate Kim Darwin.
Green leader visit
Green candidate Kim Darwin looks on as party leader Sonia Furstenau speaks at the One Straw Society community farm in Roberts Creek.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau was on the Coast Thursday for a campaign stop with Powell River-Sunshine Coast candidate Kim Darwin.

The two visited the One Straw Society’s community farm project on the Gumboot Restaurant property where Furstenau talked about the Green policies on food security and income security.

“For many of us, the empty grocery shelves that characterized the beginning of the pandemic were the first time we’ve experienced the possibility of scarcity,” Furstenau said.

She told the dozen or so supporters who’d turned out that the Greens would establish a long-term food sustainability strategy to decrease reliance on import supply chains and diversify farming in B.C., expand the amount of land under food production by creating a publicly owned agricultural land bank that new farmers could lease from, and restrict and regulate foreign ownership of ALR land.

Furstenau told Coast Reporter that the Greens also want to make sure local governments are able to support more agriculture within their boundaries without it becoming a financial burden as a result of the lower property taxes paid by ALR and farm class land.

Furstenau also visited West Vancouver-Sea to Sky this week, where former Gibsons councillor Jeremy Valeriote is the party’s candidate.

Furstenau said during a stop there Tuesday that the Greens feel “the riding is within reach” and she made a similar comment about Darwin’s chances, pointing to her strong showing in 2017.

Furstenau also said she’s confident the B.C. Greens can continue to influence policy after the election, regardless of which party forms government or whether the Greens remain in a balance of power position.

“Just look at this campaign,” she said, pointing out that the Green position on protection of old growth forest had forced NDP Leader John Horgan to take a similar stand.

She said Horgan’s position on Site C has also shifted closer to the Greens. “We’ve been against Site C from the beginning, now he says he’d be willing to consider scrapping Site C.”

After the event, Furstenau joined Darwin and her supporters to wave signs at the intersection of Roberts Creek Road and Highway 101.