In his first ever town hall telephone conference, MP Nathan Cullen and Assistant Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Denise Savoie listened to the concerns of everyone in his riding.
The town hall conference call dialled all numbers in the phone book from Haida Gwaii to Bella Coola, and Cullen reports that 86 per cent of the people dialed, some 9,415, answered the call.
“Our electronic town hall was a tremendous success, a truly creative way to connect with communities right across our huge riding,” said Cullen.
The idea for the town hall call was started by businesses south of the border. U.S. President Barack Obama uses the technology to reach all his constituents, and with a riding as large as his, it just made sense, Cullen said.
“The opinions, questions and concerns of constituents are very important to me,” Cullen said.
Savoie, who also serves as MP for Victoria, said she was glad to join in. Causes she champions in her riding include housing, childcare, and working with the tanker ban.
Once the line was opened up for questions, concerned citizens throughout the riding let loose with the concerns they had surrounding the Northwest. First was Nancy from Granisle, who now has to drive to Burns Lake to see a doctor given the situation in Houston where a doctor has quit and moved, and now Burns Lake is having its own issues in keeping doctors working at its hospital. This shortage of doctors is especially felt in smaller communities, she said.
Cullen sympathized, saying it was a symptom of cuts to the healthcare system over the past few years. When you do that, work to each doctor increases, until one day (which was four weeks ago for doctors in Burns Lake) the doctors can’t handle it and it’s the patients who suffer.
“The Northwest has just been hammered by this and it makes it difficult for people to be able to live in the Northwest,” Cullen said.
He and the NDP are lobbying for more funding, he said, not just for here but for all over Canada as everyone is feeling the hardships in healthcare.
Cuts to the education sector were of a huge concern to a woman named Jean, who noted that most people don’t have the funds to put their children through post secondary education, yet more and more cuts are made to the education system each year.
Cullen acknowledged the severity of the concern, however it was Savoie who answered. As the former critic for post-secondary education, it was the NDP who introduced an act that would ensure there was affordable post-secondary, she said, but the government needs to keep working at it.
“At the moment I am hearing from people that they’re ending up with just incredible debt,” Savioe said. “That would be the first thing we would have to do is ensure there’s a grant system.”
Other concerns brought forward included the economy, the forestry industry and exporting, as well as the proposed Northern Gateway Project by Enbridge.
An informal poll taken during the call found that 63 per cent of on-call voters were not convinced that the Conservative government was on the right track, which is incredibly close to what they see on the national front as well, Cullen said.
“This is spot on about what folks are saying,” Cullen said.
In all, 251 questions were asked, however due to timing only 20 of these were answered during the call, but Cullen noted that all questions posed were recorded for follow-up.
“We’re definitely looking at holding these fantastic telephone town halls annually,” he said.
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