Darryl Schmidt Asks:
What are your plans to stimulate high paying jobs specifically in the Kamloops area?
Two areas of our local economy that will continue to offer stable well-paid employment will be in the health fields, especially focused around RIH (especially as it continues to expand services as a regional health center), and in education, focused around the ongoing development of Thompson Rivers University. We need to be attentive to direct more investment into these areas and facilities: advocating to the provincial government for even greater funding support. Post-pandemic, there will be a recovery of tourism and hospitality. In the BC economy, tourism has provided over 160,000 jobs and has revenues of $20.5 billion. We are poised well for the surge of demand after this trying time. It is vital that we support our tourism industry now in the pandemic. Mining and Forestry will continue to provide well-paid employment; yet there is a need for innovation in our forestry practices and for a larger provincial reform of how forestry can provide greater benefits to local communities, including Kamloops.