Editor's note: A number of our readers have contacted us with concerns that they have not yet seen the answers to our five key questions from Conservative candidate Jeff Kibble. Kibble was sent our five key questions at the same time as the other candidates in the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding. He provided his responses on Friday afternoon, April 11. Here they are.
1) Where do you stand on U.S tariffs and Canada-U.S. relations?
I believe in focusing on the things we can control, rather than the things we can’t.
The current volatility outside our country is not something we can control so our efforts are best directed towards strengthening ourselves at home.
For example, it is within our control to eliminate job-killing inter-provincial trade barriers.
It is within our control to develop and promote alternative markets for Canadian products.
It is within our control to build the pipelines we need to get our oil and natural gas to the coasts for export.
We have deep cultural and historical economic ties to Europe, India and many other countries that we can, and must, expand.
There is such a thing as a Canadian identity and much to be proud of in our history.
2) Major tax cuts are being proposed during this election campaign; do you think that this will have impacts on the ability for the government to fund social programs with the loss of revenue?
A growing economy requires growing our tax base and responsibly using our natural resources to generate wealth.
This is basic economics, which is understood by all capable economists.
Reducing tax rates will not reduce the ability of government to fund programs and services if we grow the economy at the same time.
If we stop strangling Canadian industry and small business, we will increase tax revenues.
What the last decade has taught us is that if you over-tax and over-regulate the private sector, you create a disincentive for business and industry.
This is partly why Canada has managed to run up a $1.4 trillion debt that our grandchildren will be left paying off and how we got the lowest GDP per person growth in the G7.
3) The affordability of housing in Canada is being hotly debated by candidates. How can you as an MP and the federal government help Canadians buy homes and pay their skyrocketing rents?
The one thing we learned for sure is that having the government build housing is not an efficient solution.
That is just a prescription for more government debt and waste.
A big part of the housing cost problem comes from government red tape.
We need measures to cut through the layers of bureaucracy that prevent the private sector from meeting the demand for housing.
The CD Howe institute has shown that 60 per cent of the cost of building a house in Vancouver comes from approval delays, fees, regulations and taxes.
If you want to reduce rents and enable young people to buy a house, that is an obvious place to start.
A common sense Conservative government will incentivize municipalities to increase approvals and reduce unnecessary red tape as well as eliminate and reduce taxes.
We also need to reduce demand by calibrating immigration to a level that our housing supply and public services can support.
4) What would you do to help the environment and fight climate change?
I believe that ensuring we have a healthy natural environment to hand down to our children is a moral imperative.
Facts matter, and so we need to look at what works rather than just what sounds good.
We also need to work more collaboratively with our Indigenous communities to make our natural resource management practices more sustainable.
I have travelled all over the world during my 28 year career in the Navy and I have observed the simple fact that economic prosperity allows countries to invest in environmental sustainability.
Poverty is not good for the environment.
If we are broke, we can’t invest in the technological innovation that is the only practical way to meaningfully address global environmental problems.
If we build the infrastructure to get our cleaner-burning natural gas to overseas markets, it will be a net benefit to global emissions while creating prosperity and building wealth here at home.
5) What would you, as an MP, want to see done about the opioid crisis?
Here at home on the Island, we can all see what hasn’t worked just by walking through the downtown cores of any one our towns and cities.
Health Canada reports that 50,928 apparent opioid toxicity deaths were reported nationally between January 2016 and September 2024, and a disproportionate number of those were here in B.C.
To put that number in perspective, it is more than all the soldiers we lost in the Second World War.
Legions of bureaucrats, special interest groups and various advocates keep telling us the only solution is to spend yet more on their demonstrably failing programs.
The well-meaning but misguided enabling of drug addiction has become a self-perpetuating industry.
We need to instead accept the evidence of our own eyes that decriminalization and providing a safe supply have not solved the opioid crisis.
To reclaim our parks, playgrounds and neighbourhoods, we need to recriminalize dangerous drugs like fentanyl, prosecute drug dealers and shut down illegal drug production.
Our resources need to be reallocated to programs for which there is clear and objective proof of effectiveness, and to supported, sustainable recovery for addicts.
