2024 Election Insights: Hear From NDP Candidate Jennifer Whiteside
As part of our commitment to keeping our membership informed and engaged, we reached out to the New Westminster-Coquitlam candidates running in the 2024 Provincial General Election with questions relevant to our community and businesses.
Below, you will find responses from NDP Candidate Jennifer Whiteside, offering insights into their platforms and priorities for Downtown New Westminster. We also reached out to BC Green Party Candidate Maureen Curran (read here), and Conservative Party Candidate Ndellie Massey. Candidate Ndellie did not respond to our request. We hope this helps you make informed decisions as we head to the polls.
Here are the questions we asked:
Do you support targeted investments to improve community safety, including the implementation of a comprehensive policy framework and required investments that shifts the focus from just harm reduction to include prevention, treatment and enforcement? Explain how you plan to address these complex issues.
What specific plans, policies and targeted investments will you undertake to address the significant challenges associated with mental health, addictions and housing? Again, please be specific.
How will you achieve concrete results with the federal government to address the significant issue of chronic violent and non-violent offenders?
Do you support a review of the five-day sick leave policy, and reducing the financial impact on small and medium-sized business owners and operators?
Do you support the improved delivery, increased access and awareness of the Securing Small Business Rebate Program? And will you extend the program beyond its current end-date of January 2025?
Will you create a dedicated/stand-alone ministry of Small Business?
Do you support the current model and mandate of the City of New Westminster’s Three Crises Response Pilot Program, and how does the province plan on working alongside this City-lead team to accomplish their goals and advocacy actions?
Do you support the Vacant Property Tax on Commercial and Industrial Properties endorsed at UBCM 2023. How do you envision the City of New Westminster implementing this?
Your voice matters—take the time to read through their answers and participate in shaping the future of our community!
1. Do you support targeted investments to improve community safety, including the implementation of a comprehensive policy framework and required investments that shifts the focus from just harm reduction to include prevention, treatment and enforcement? Explain how you plan to address these complex issues.
- Jennifer Whiteside: We are taking action on all fronts to save lives, fight crime, keep communities safe, and get people treatment so they can recover.
Treating mental health and addiction as integral parts of our healthcare system is a priority. The BC NDP has significantly expanded bed-based and outpatient addiction treatment services across the province, increasing funding for community-based providers to ensure more people receive timely care.
We’ve also enhanced complex care housing in New Westminster to support individuals with severe mental health and addiction challenges, ensuring they receive the care they need.
Youth-focused initiatives are a key part of our strategy, with significant expansions to the Foundry network of mental health services and the introduction of Integrated Child and Youth mental health teams across school districts. We have also committed to placing a dedicated mental health counsellor in every school, ensuring students have access to the support they need.
Additionally, we are building a second Red Fish Healing Centre and additional satellite facilities to offer specialized treatment for people facing complex mental health and substance use disorders.
To ensure more timely care for people with traumatic brain injury coupled with mental health and addiction issues, we have engaged Dr. Vigo, a psychiatrist with international expertise in treating concurrent disorders, to make recommendations and systems changes. We’re also developing a specialized treatment program at the Surrey Pretrial Centre to provide early intervention to those with complex needs, including the possibility of involuntary care where necessary to protect individuals and the public.
Our commitment to New Westminster includes closely coordinating with local authorities to integrate health, mental health, and policing resources. We have expanded the hours of the Peer Assisted Care Team (PACT) and the Health Connect Centre, which provides enhanced support for individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crises. These expansions aim to improve access to timely care and reduce strain on emergency services by providing community-based interventions.
The role of law enforcement is vital in our strategy, especially in addressing organized crime and ensuring public safety. We are grateful for the ongoing efforts of law enforcement across the province, who continue to take on organized crime and other serious threats. This comprehensive approach involves not only supporting law enforcement but also ensuring they have the tools and training necessary to effectively handle situations involving individuals with mental health and addiction issues.
By integrating prevention, treatment and enforcement, and working closely with local partners, we can address the root causes of crime, support those in need, and ensure a safer, healthier community for all.
2. What specific plans, policies and targeted investments will you undertake to address the significant challenges associated with mental health, addictions and housing? Again, please be specific.
- Jennifer Whiteside: Across the province, we’re tackling this complex issue by expanding services and creating more supportive housing.
In New Westminster, we are increasing complex care housing to provide stable living environments with integrated health services for individuals facing severe mental health and addiction issues. Additionally, we are building a new supportive housing project at 6th and Agnes, where preparations are complete, and construction will begin next month. This project aims to offer secure, long-term housing with on-site supports to help residents achieve stability and recovery.
Strengthening the healthcare workforce is essential to meet the growing demand for mental health and addiction services. Through the Health Career Access Program, we are training 7000 new community mental health workers to expand the availability of care across the province. This initiative will bolster existing services and ensure more people have access to timely support.
Our approach includes establishing stronger partnerships with non-profits and healthcare providers to deliver accessible, wrap-around services. These services will integrate mental health and addiction treatment with housing support, ensuring a holistic response to individual needs. Expanding harm reduction services and community outreach programs will help connect people with the resources they need while reducing the stigma around seeking help.
We’re also providing supportive, safe and confidential mental health and addiction services to youth and their families. We’ve fast-tracked the development of Foundry Centres for Youth in communities across BC. And they’re working well, with more than 17,500 people aged 12-24 and their families accessing critical mental health, addiction, and physical and sexual health services. We are moving forward with Foundry Centres in ten more communities – quadrupling the number since 2017.
Together, these targeted investments in housing, workforce development, and service expansion will address the root causes of mental health and addiction issues, supporting long-term recovery and stability.
The BC NDP Platform contains specific plans to address mental health, addictions, and housing including:
· Expanding mental health counselling care across BC by fueling the vital work of community-based mental health organizations through a new $50 million Community Mental Health Resilience Fund.
· Helping prevent the cycle of addiction by strengthening drug prevention education in BC schools. Built around providing supportive training and resources to all school staff, this approach is aimed at creating opportunities for children and youth to be engaged about how dangerous and toxic drugs are. And done in ways that are appropriate for their age and grade, and maximizes their odds of making good choices to protect themselves and their friends.
· Creating more access to high-quality addiction treatment by strengthening local recovery homes, supporting First Nations treatment centres and Indigenous-led programming, and funding more at-home addiction treatment services. This will include more access to addiction treatment for youth, as well as culturally appropriate treatment programs.
· Removing barriers to treatment and keeping families together through the recovery process by establishing residential treatment options that provide direct supports to parents undergoing addiction treatment.
· Breaking the chain of addictions leading to crime by setting up designated mental health units in correctional centres to provide rapid treatment for people with mental health and addiction challenges being held on remand or sentenced to custody by the courts.
· Providing secure, supportive and dignified care for people in BC whose struggles with brain injuries, severe mental health illness and addiction require intensive care.
· Expanding specialized treatment beds for people from across the province with both mental health and substance use disorders by building a second Red Fish Healing Centre and additional “satellite” facilities.
· We will bring the Homeless Encampment Action Response Temporary Housing (HEARTH) program to more communities, in line with our provincial decampment strategy to get people inside. We’ll work closely with communities on new housing options and make sure new facilities have the staff, enforce good neighbour agreements, and have locations to deliver successful outcomes for residents and the whole community.
· Fuelling the construction of more non-market housing. People in BC are paying too much for rent. In fact, 25% of renters are spending more than half their monthly income on it. We’ll provide more land for non-market and co-op housing, build more homes on it, and help non-profits take care of those homes.
3. How will you achieve concrete results with the federal government to address the significant issue of chronic violent and non-violent offenders?
- Jennifer Whiteside: Repeat offenders are a significant problem that is impacting communities across the province.
In BC, we’ve launched 12 new dedicated teams of police, prosecutors, and probation officers, currently monitoring almost 400 offenders and driving down offence rates in real and measurable ways. BC’s bail policy is now the strictest in the country, and due to our pressure, the federal government finally requires violent repeat offenders to prove they should be released, not the other way around.
But there’s still more to do. We’ll keep up the pressure on Ottawa until we get the changes BC communities need.
The BC NDP Platform commits to continue our work on repeat offenders by:
· Stopping repeat offenders in their tracks by strengthening targeted policing, increasing funding for immediate police investigations, adding more comprehensive case management capacity for prosecutors, and expanding support for rehabilitative referrals.
· Keeping repeat violent and gang offenders off the streets by pushing Ottawa for stronger bail and sentencing conditions, along with easier access to dangerous offender designations for violent people who need to stay behind bars.
John Rustad would cut the services that help prevent crime and keep people safe – just like his government did before when he repeatedly voted for budgets that slashed funding for crime prevention and victim support. His cuts would make crime and street disorder much worse. We can’t afford that.
4. Do you support a review of the five-day sick leave policy, and reducing the financial impact on small and medium-sized business owners and operators?
- Jennifer Whiteside: It’s important to work with businesses to find solutions to areas where outdated laws or regulations have made doing business unnecessarily difficult – that’s why the BC NDP is committed to undertaking an Ease of Doing Business review to remove obstacles for business. But, there are also important policies we need to keep in place to support workers and keep them safe. Paid sick leave is one of them. With COVID, we saw how important it is to make sure workers are not at work when they are sick. When our government engaged with businesses and organizations on paid sick leave – some wanted more than five days of paid leave, and some wanted less.
5. Do you support the improved delivery, increased access and awareness of the Securing Small Business Rebate Program? And will you extend the program beyond its current end-date of January 2025?
- Jennifer Whiteside: The Ease of Doing Business review will look at both the rules and regulations that are creating issues for businesses, as well as provincial government programs designed to support businesses that are unnecessarily difficult to apply for or may not be working as well as they could. Our commitment is to work with key business organizations, individual business owners and entrepreneurs to identify and remove barriers to establishing or growing businesses here in British Columbia.
6. Will you create a dedicated/stand-alone ministry of Small Business?
- Jennifer Whiteside: Small businesses are diverse across this province in needs and priorities, and they will be supported through multiple ministry programs from tourism to forestry to agriculture and more. But we’ll also make sure that there is a single minister with bottom-line accountability for small businesses so you know who to turn to in order to navigate government.
From a BC NDP government, you’ll see tangible action that will support vibrant urban centres and help small businesses succeed.
One early example of this work is our commitment to cutting red tape for BC restaurants, wineries, breweries, and distilleries by modernizing liquor laws and licensing, including a move to risk-based licensing that encourages good business practices throughout the industry.
You’ll also see new support for the activities that bring people downtown and into the businesses there. We’ll build up the heart of our communities by investing in the tourism, arts and cultural activities that people here – and those visiting here – love most. The BC NDP platform includes:
· An expanded Arts, Culture & Sports Infrastructure Fund that helps local community and cultural organizations bring people together, and inform, entertain and engage ever-widening audiences.
· Bringing people together to celebrate their communities, cultures and love of local arts by providing stable, year-over-year funding for fairs, festivals and events.
We have also helped ease the cost of doing business by increasing the threshold for the Employer Health Tax so that now 90% of businesses don’t pay the tax.
7. Do you support the current model and mandate of the City of New Westminster’s Three Crises Response Pilot Program, and how does the province plan on working alongside this City-lead team to accomplish their goals and advocacy actions?
- Jennifer Whiteside: I fully support the current model and mandate of the City of New Westminster’s Three Crises Response Pilot Program. It is a strong initiative that addresses the complex challenges of mental health, addiction, and homelessness through a coordinated approach. The program, along with the integration of peer assistance and Assertive Care Teams, provides crucial support to meet the needs of the community effectively.
The province will work alongside the city to enhance this initiative by aligning provincial resources, such as those from the Fraser Health Authority’s Integrated Homelessness Action Response Teams (IHEART), the Peer Assisted Care Team (PACT), and complex care programs. These resources will help strengthen the existing framework by offering additional healthcare and social service support to individuals in crisis. The integration of Fraser Health's specialized teams with the city-led efforts will ensure a seamless continuum of care, from immediate response to long-term recovery.
Enhancing service coordination and data sharing between provincial and local programs is essential for improving outcomes for vulnerable populations. By working closely with the city and Fraser Health, we can address gaps in services, reduce duplication, and ensure that people receive timely and appropriate care. This teamwork-based approach is vital for tackling the interconnected challenges of mental health, substance use, and housing instability.
The collaboration between the province, the city, and Fraser Health can make this initiative a model for other regions, demonstrating how integrated health and social services can effectively respond to crises and support individuals in achieving stability and recovery.
8. Do you support the Vacant Property Tax on Commercial and Industrial Properties endorsed at UBCM 2023. How do you envision the City of New Westminster implementing this?
- Jennifer Whiteside: As one of the fastest-growing cities in the province, New Westminster is experiencing unique challenges and opportunities related to vacant commercial and industrial properties. The BC NDP is considering various options to keep the cost of commercial tenancies in check and is committed to supporting local governments in finding solutions that work best for their specific circumstances.
Programs such as the Securing Small Business Rebate and grants for downtown revitalization projects are designed to stimulate economic activity and reduce barriers to property development. These initiatives are especially important for growing cities where increasing business activity and addressing vacant spaces are key to sustainable development.
Ultimately, we are committed to supporting New Westminster's efforts to navigate its growth and ensure that local governments have the autonomy and resources to implement effective strategies for managing vacant properties and driving community revitalization.
