It’s a busy time for the BC Liberal Columbia River Revelstoke Riding association, according to their president Doug Clovechok.
Clovechok explained the association has been trying to get out to listen to the concerns of people in the riding.
“People are interested and we are excited about that,” Clovechok said.
He went on to explain that one of the challenges of this regions is that main concerns can differ depending on the area in which you live. One area of concern for everyone, however, is the creation of more local jobs.
Clovechok said the time has come to create local jobs while also finding a way to make living in the area more affordable so younger people stay in the area.
Another area of interest is the effect Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is having on secondary home owners.
“The HST on those secondary homes is huge. We have spent a lot of time looking at that and have talked to staff from Kevin Falcon’s office to try and make them understand the effect this is having on this area,” he said.
Another area where improvements need to be done in the Columbia River Revelstoke region is roads and avalanche control. Clovechok explained that the roads in the area are not up to par with other areas.
“This area has had nothing in the past six years in the way of significant projects. You look at the roads in Bill Bennett’s riding and they are better than ours. They got things because they have a sitting MLA who can put up his hand.”
After seeing the effects of that avalanches played on Revelstoke and locally Clovechok also felt that people stopped coming to the area during part of the winter out of the fear they may become caught on one side or the other of the events.
As for Premier Christy Clarke, Clovechok said he is hearing many positive things from the people in the Columbia River Revelstoke riding. People are willing to give her a chance according to Clovechok.
“If you look at the polls they have the BC Liberals ahead but it is not a huge gap. But you look at the premier and Adrian Dix, he can’t even see her dust.”