Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Friday, 05 September 2008 |
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CARIBOO-PRINCE GEORGEPRINCE GEORGE CHAMBER
Prince George-resident Bev Collins has been announced as the NDP presumptive candidate for Cariboo-Prince George for the anticipated federal election.
Collins is named the presumptive candidate because she can be challenged until the end of next week.
Collins, an employment coach and facilitator in Prince George, has run four times in a federal election as a Canadian Action Party candidate, twice in Prince George and twice in the Kootenays.
Collins switched her allegiance she said because she realized to make a difference she had to be elected and go to Ottawa. She believes the best chance of doing that is with one of the three main parties, and she noted the NDP's ideology was closest to the Canadian Action Party.
The action party stands for scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement and distancing Canada from U.S. influence.
Collins said she will be campaigning on the NDP's three key issues: the economy, the environment and health.
She said the economy, in particular, is a big local issue.
In the wake of the forestry downturn -- which has closed many sawmills -- there is a need for more retraining to give workers skills for the burgeoning mining and oil and gas sectors, said Collins. But she noted there are bureaucratic obstacles to displace worker access training funding, which in itself is limited.
For example, North Central Plywood workers (the plywood plant was destroyed in a fire) found that once they collected severance they were ineligible for training funding, said Collins.
Workers need that severance money to pay their bills, and shouldn't have to use it for retraining because that's an economic hardship, she said.
Collins also noted that Canada's Employment Insurance fund has a $52 billion surplus that should be used for exactly this kind of retraining.
Collins is a director on the Prince George Chamber of Commerce.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 05 September 2008 )
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