Only two out of the five candidates for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding showed up on time at the Terrace Sportsplex for the All Candidates Forum on Friday, April 11. 

The NDP incumbent Taylor Bachrach and Christian Heritage Party of Canada candidate Rod Taylor were there at 5:30 p.m. to greet residents and address their concerns. Some of near 40 attendees felt the absence of other candidates, particularly Conservative Party of Canada candidate Ellis Ross, who showed up after the event was over. 

Since Ross, Liberal Party of Canada candidate Inderpal Dhillon and Green Party of Canada candidate Adeana Young announced they would not be at the forum, the moderated discussion was cancelled by the Terrace Chamber of Commerce the night before.

Bachrach and Taylor went through a one hour a question period, answering questions from the audience on topics ranging from healthcare, the environment and industry, unions, rail safety, the economy and tariffs, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and Israel-Palestine.

Israel-Palestine

The evening began with a question asked by a U.S. expat concerned about children in Gaza. "Does anybody care?," he asked.

"What's happening in Gaza is absolutely atrocious, it's a humanitarian crisis, it's a genocide," expressed Bachrach. "It's something that Canada must stand up to and use every tool in its power to stop. I'll continue to be a voice for peace, a voice for ceasefire and a voice for an arms embargo."

"The atrocities that began on October 7 are unbelievable and Israel is still trying to recover from that," said Taylor. "What's going on in Gaza is unfortunate, but there's a saying that if the Palestinians and the hostile nations surrounding Israel would lay down their arms, there would be peace. If Israel would lay down our arms, there'd be no more Israel."

Healthcare

Multiple residents in attendance raised questions related to healthcare. Bachrach was asked to explain the NDP's dental care and pharmacare rollout.

"The dental care plan covers people in Canada who earn less than $90,000 and don't currently have access to insurance through an employer or a past employer. It's been rolled out in phases. The latest phase is everyone who fits those criteria. The first phase was kids that are 18. The second was seniors, people with disabilities, et cetera. The pharmacare plan has just been signed by British Columbia partnership with the federal government, it's going to start by covering contraception, hormone replacement and diabetes medication and devices as of May [2025]."

Taylor agreed with Bachrach about providing healthcare for those in need.

"Are you folks keeping track of what we agree on? That might be it," joked Bachrach. "Let's see."

Several residents praised the $10-a-day childcare program implemented by the Liberal-NDP coalition government in 2021, which has since been extended to 2031. Bachrach said an NDP government will expand the program.

Taylor countered, "Childcare is tremendously important. The best possible childcare a child can have is their mother and father. There are cases where a single parent does need it so that they can go out to work. When both parents are working and earning wages, it seems to me that they should be able to afford to pay for their own childcare."

Regarding medical assistance in dying, or MAID, an emotional resident shared that she appreciated the federal program. "If my friend didn't have that opportunity, he would die a slow, painful death from throat and mouth cancer. I'm very thankfully that it became legal and he had that choice.

Bachrach echoed the point raised by the resident who lost her friend. Taylor said, "The Liberal government, support of the NDP, has moved towards medical assistance in dying for seniors rather than providing quality care to the end of life. As taxpayers, we're paying for doctors to help them commit suicide."

"Calling medical assistance in dying suicide is a real misrepresentation of what it is," expressed Bachrach. I've have family members who have chosen that way to have their lives ended. It's been an incredibly beautiful thing. The best way we can honour our loved ones is to respect their wishes."

Bachrach also countered Taylor's claim that Liberal-NDP coalition legalized assisted death. In the early 90s, Sue Rodriguez, who suffered from ALS, brought a case forward to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) that section 241(b) of the Criminal Code, which prohibited assisted death, was unconstitutional. The SCC narrowly voted against her case, 5-4. In 2015, the SCC unanimously voted to allow medically assisted death. 

"The Supreme Court has made a lot of mistakes over the years," said Taylor.

While provincial governments are responsible for delivering healthcare, both candidates recognize that the federal government plays a big role in the direction of healthcare, like for end of life care.

Bachrach discussed how the NDP worked hard to bring in national standards for long-term care in Canada on the heels of the atrocities that occurred during the pandemic. He argued that the federal and provincial funding for elder care should be a 50-50, which it is not currently and according to him, was always meant to be 50-50.

Taylor argued for more beds for palliative care, long-term care, and assisted living spaces. 

Environment and industry

One resident raised the point that climate change is an issue that has been flowing under the radar in their election cycle.

Taylor said, "The Christian Heritage Party does not believe that the unproven theory of man-caused climate change through the emission of CO2 is a real thing. We think carbon taxes have been a mistake from the beginning. It's part of the reason we have such high inflation and [the lack of] housing affordability. It's doing nothing for the environment, it's simple a tax grab.

"Climate change is an existential threat and that much is clear. We feel it all the time in this region. It's a tough issue to get a handle on because of the pace that it's happening at, and short term economic issues, cost of living issues, often jump into the forefront. That's understandable because people need to put food on the table. But we can't lose sight of the fact hat our kids and our grandkids deserve a table climate.

"The Conservatives are talking about climate this campaign. They're talking about not just burning the furniture to keep the house warm, they want to burn the house to keep the house warm. We can't allow that to take place. We need to drive down emissions and the good thing is that if we do it in the right way, if we change our economy and retool our country, there are huge opportunities and we can have un-tap better lives for our kids and grandkids. That's my hope.

A resident asked the candidates, "As industry continues to ruin our region, how will you advocate to ensure that the cumulative effects of pollution are accounted for before new projects are approved?"

"Although I support the industry... energy production and export, I also believe we do need to have strict environmental approval processes," said Taylor. "I think we have pretty good processes now for evaluating projects based on their environmental impact

Bachrach went back to talking about the Conservatives' stance on climate.

"The reality is that the Conservatives, who have a chance to form the next government, see the assessment of environmental impacts and cumulative impacts as a barrier, not a safeguard. They plan to cut the most important legislation when it comes to assessing impacts... First of all, they give it a clever nickname and then they talk about how it's ruining Canada. That's a big problem."

"I think cumulative impacts aren't adequately assessed under the current process and they sure aren't going to be if we have a government that cut those processes," continued Bachrach.

BIll C-69, the Impact Assessment Act and Canadian Energy Regulatory Act, was enacted in 2019 to give the federal government the authority to consider how the environment might be impacted by proposed natural resource projects.

Economy

Taylor brought up the fact that Canada is $1.2 trillion in debt and Bachrach countered that Canada has the lowest net debt to GDP ratio among G7 countries for the past 20 years.

"I think we should measure by looking at the outcomes, looking at how healthy our population is. The Conservatives stood up in the House of Commons a few months back and compared Canada to Alabama. You look at the infant mortality rate in Alabama, you look at the child poverty rate, the life expectancy, and then you make the comparison? It's shocking.

Both the NDP and CHPC candidates reject the concept of corporate welfare and subsidizing corporations. 

Regarding the question of tariffs, which was raised by a young resident, Bachrach argued that Canada should use the tools that we do have to push back and do it in a targeted way so that Canadians are not harmed in the process.

Taylor argued that while Canada needs to improve its manufacturing within the country and eliminate inter-provincial barriers to trade, the federal government should not panic and enact retaliatory dollar for dollar tariffs as Trump will not be backed into a corner.

Highway of Tears

Gladys Radek, a Witset elder with the Tears to Hope Society, raised the question of what will be done about the , and how only two out 231 calls for justice issued by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls have been fully completed.

Both candidates similarly shared concerns about the lack of progress in addressing the crisis.

"The Conservatives, the main party I'm running against in this riding, opposed creating the National Inquiry in the first place, and I've sat in the House of Commons for six years and I've never heard them raise these issues or push the implementation of a single call for action. The one piece that we're focused on right now is something called a Red Dress alert."

Similar to an Amber Alert, a text would be sent out to everyone in the region with a description of who's missing and where to call if you have any information.

"I think that's a tangible thing that we can do in the near term," continued Bachrach.

Taylor spoke about his experience working in forestry in Witset for around nine years and he has had friends who were direct relatives or close friends of those who had gone missing.

"I'm not sure why the RCMP has not been able to get to the bottom of more of those cases... It needs to be a new focus for the RCMP."

Rail safety

A resident asked the candidates about the increase of rail traffic in the Skeena-Bulkley Valley region.

Bachrach,, spoke about how the real concern with this increase is the dangerous goods that are coming through the region.

"I'm very concerned that our fire departments, especially in the smaller communities, are not properly equipped to deal with a massive industrial rail incident, especially fires and spills," he shared. "I've been working in Parliament to try to get to the bottom of what the response plans are."

He connected this safety issue with his stance on how environmental assessments are currently inadequate. He brought up the the example of how the assessment of the marine terminal on the coast did not include the impact of rail traffic along the corridor, meaning that communities like 亚洲天堂 Lake, Fraser Lake and Smithers never got the opportunity to participate in the process.

"We almost got there. We passed a motion to force the companies to provide parliament with their plans, with the emergency response assistance plans. Unfortunately, when parliament was dissolved, those efforts got shelved, so it's one of the first things that I hope to do should I make it back to Parliament."

Taylor, who worked on CN Rail for six years in Alberta before his family moved to Terrace in 1987, worked on traffic maintenance. He acknowledged the safety concern, and also added that Canadians should be able to get on a train any day and go east or west, which Bachrach agreed with as well.

Unions

The candidates were asked by the chairperson of the B.C. General Employees Union, Mark Whalen, about their thoughts on unions.

Bachrach said that he supports the right to strike and recognized how unions have improved the material standard of living for people in Canada, as well as built the middle class. 

"I've been proud to stand on the picket line with working folks in this riding, with postal workers, with port workers, with so many people that have made that tough decision. I'm incredibly proud that in this last parliament, we accomplished something that unions have been working for as long as Canada has been a country, which is the the national anti-scab law that prevents employers from using replacement workers.

Taylor brought up his experience working in saw mill in Smithers for 14 years as shop steward. He also acknowledged the benefits unions brought in improving standards of living.

"I believe in reasonable negotiations to improve both working conditions, safety, health and and wages.However, I am concerned about public, essential services, like the postal strike before Christmas. I think it was not fair to the Canadian people and I probably don't think it was necessary to achieve reasonable results. I believe in bargaining in good faith. Employers, employees are just people and we need to treat each other with respect.

Better late than never

The Conservative's Ross showed up after the forum had wrapped up and the chairs had been folded. He was confronted by some residents who questioned him about missing out on the forum.

鈥淒ebates are how we hear from everyone side by side,鈥� expressed one resident. 鈥淪kipping this feels like you don鈥檛 care about [democratic processes]."

"I was meeting with people in Fort St. James, Fort Fraser, Fraser Lake, Topley and Granisle the past few days.  I cut my trip short so I could come back to Terrace," said Ross in a statement to the Terrace Standard. "I'm regularly in Terrace 鈥� I have an office here 鈥� but I wanted to meet people who are going through tough times in the forestry and mining industries.  People are losing their jobs in that part of the riding and it was important for me to hear directly from them."

Ross said that he has committed to every debate from this point onward until the federal election on April 28.

How to vote

People can vote any time at the Canada Elections office at the Skeena Mall. Early voting at local polls will begin the weekend of Easter for four days.

The federal election is on April 28, 2025.