Wild weather didn’t dampen BC Opposition Leader John Rustad as he toured of the Kootenays this weekend.
After attending the Spirit of the Rockies parade in Cranbrook, and visiting Kimberley and Marysville in the East Kootenay, he made it was to the West, with stops in Trail, Castlegar and Nelson, meeting with various groups about the issues currently facing the community, particularly with the mining industry.
“One of the biggest issues is just how difficult it is to get permitting and to do anything. Accessing the backcountry is becoming a huge issue and the opportunity to really move forward a project, whether it’s something as simple as a small aggregate mine, or whether it’s just to do some exploration work, it has become extremely frustrating and difficult to actually do anything in this province, especially down in this region.” said Rustad.
Joined by Easy Kootenay MLAs Pete Davis and Scott McInnes, Rustad said they will be taking their issues back to the powers-at-be.
“I will be pushing them on these issues as to why we can’t get work done, why it takes so long for the ministries to do anything. But more importantly, as well as it gives us a good base in terms of that opportunity- should we have the honour of forming government, to look at what the priorities should be to be able to help regions like the Kootenays, to be able to see these jobs created and to be able to see a prosperous economy.”
Rustad weighs in on United States actions against Iran
The opposition leader has weighed in on the U.S attack on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, saying there’s not enough leaders talking about peace.
“We need to be looking at how to bring peace, whether it’s to what’s going on with Gaza and Israel, whether it’s Iran and Israel, whether it’s what’s going on in Ukraine with Russia, we need to be able to find ways to be able to bring peace in the world.” said Rustad.
“When I see the action that the Americans took against Iran, if the intelligence is right and Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon, there’s no question it would end up being used, and I think we do need to take steps to make sure that doesn’t happen, but I’m very fearful in terms of what will the fallout will be from this war that’s going on now between Israel and Iran, and now that the United States is being drawn into it.”
