Outgoing MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, Jordan Sturdy, has taken more of a backseat role in the coming provincial election by remaining outside of the search for a BC United candidate to replace him—but he still has plenty to say about the state of politics in B.C. while the NDP government seeks a third term.
As the province heads towards the election in October, Sturdy told Pique the previous election might as well have been “a different age,” given it took place in 2020—but there were a lot of the same issues cropping up for his constituents.
“The issues certainly over the last number of years are pretty consistent,” he said.
“Affordability obviously is first and foremost, and that filters down to all sorts of things, specifically the housing piece as well as the transportation piece with fuel prices,” he added, explaining affordability is all-encompassing, and crosses over into all other issues such as health-care and childcare.
“Really we haven’t particularly moved the dial on any of those issues in the last seven or eight years, in fact I would almost argue it’s worse than it has been."
One issue discussed in 2020 that has been moving along, however, is the ongoing development of the Woodfibre LNG project near Squamish, and right in the heart of his riding.
BC United, then operating as the BC Liberal Party, was the government that approved the project to begin with, which the BC NDP then inherited. The BC Greens have remained steadfastly opposed at every step, while current Green candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, Jeremy Valeriote, has made his opposition a central plank in his campaign.
Sturdy said that wasn’t a surprise.
“I think for the most part, for the Greens this is their issue. So it's not a big surprise that that’s what he is focusing on.”
Sturdy said BC United has been consistent, and argued natural gas as an industry is better in Canada than anywhere else.
“Some would argue that Canada should not be in the business of selling natural gas … I would argue that there’s a market for this product for the next 30-plus years, a global market," he said. "Somebody is going to provide that product, and satiate that market demand. We’re an ethical producer, and if we choose not to enter into the market, well other players will, be it Russia or Qatar, or the Americans or the Australians.
“The point is that the market is going to be supplied, and we can either generate wealth here, or we can allow other people to generate wealth.”
He said he believes the Woodfibre export facility is likely “as good as it gets” in regards to environmental controls and oversight, adding that “if we can’t do Woodfibre, then we can’t be in the business at all.”
Sturdy credited the economic investments that came into B.C. under the BC Liberal Party as a major driver of the province's fortunes, and noted many of the big projects—such as Trans Mountain—are wrapping up.
“This is the criticism I have of this government—there is no plan, certainly no articulated plan [to replace that]," he said. "They have borrowed a huge amount of money, they’ve doubled the provincial debt in just a few years. They’re borrowing money to just pay the bills. We [BC Liberals] borrowed money for capital projects like highway infrastructure, hospitals, but these guys are borrowing money to pay for lunch.
“That is an unsustainable situation.”
Top of mind for many communities is the threat of wildfire. Hot on the heels of a wildfire disaster in Jasper, and with hundreds of fires burning across British Columbia, BC United pledged to lean into wildfire prevention as part of a suite of initiatives.
While it’s a changing season, Sturdy said he believes the main focus of authorities should be preparation, though he acknowledged it was hard to know what being better prepared looks like—but evacuation work is a big part of it.
“How we manage fires going forward is going to be a continually evolving piece," he said.
“Can we do fuel mitigation for the whole corridor? I don’t think that’s possible, so we’re going to have to figure out the public safety piece and make sure we can respond as rapidly as we need to and attack pretty aggressively.”
Sturdy will not run for re-election in the vote scheduled to occur on or before Oct. 19 this year. His party, BC United, is yet to nominate a successor candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky as of Aug. 20.
