Twenty Tough Debate Questions for Christy Clark

Christy Clark may have won the election, but she has yet to win a seat in the legislature. After losing her Vancouver-Point Grey riding to new New Democrat candidate David Eby, Premier Clark is taking a run for Westside-Kelowna, traditionally a Liberal stronghold, in a July 10 byelection.

Clark faces seven challengers, and this week will take part in two all-candidates' forums in Kelowna. The first is this evening, at 6:30 p.m. at the Westbank Lions Community Centre. The second takes place tomorrow morning, 9:30 a.m. at the Streaming Cafe downtown. (Further details on the public events here.)

This will be one of the few opportunities since the election and campaign leading up to it for the public and reporters to put questions directly to the premier. What would you ask her, given the opportunity?

We reconvened members of The Tyee's crack election reporting team for their ideas, and they were only too happy to oblige. Below, we've compiled 20 tough ones. Feel free to add your own (respectfully, please) in the comment thread below.

On teachers:

1. The BC Teachers' Federation says so far the BC Public School Employers Association has not put any new money on the table during teacher contract bargaining. Last month's budget announcement indicated government needs to find $30 million in savings. What can you offer teachers to convince them to sign a 10-year contract?

2. Given the economic, demographic, political and technological changes you've seen in the past decade, why would you think a 10-year contract with the teachers would still be adequate even five years from now?

On climate and the environment:

3. If you are serious about reducing B.C.'s greenhouse-gas emissions, why are you promoting the extraction and sale of yet another fossil fuel (natural gas) that will add to those emissions?

4. Are you prepared to remove the leases of fish farms that are shown to be causing problems for wild salmon, and what would you consider adequate proof of such problems?

5. With so much emphasis on liquified natural gas being the cornerstone of our economy, how will the government ensure that the types of environmental and water pollution, and disrupted communities that have come with hydraulic fracturing in the U.S. will not occur in B.C.?

On the economy:

6. If "growing the economy" is your chief concern, and every dollar spent on healthcare or education generates three dollars' worth of economic activity, why aren't you investing more in those fields?

7. The BC Liberals dedicated a full page of their election platform to David Black's refinery proposal, calling it a "tremendous game changer." Why then did your government officially oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline -- which would theoretically deliver oil to Black's refinery -- shortly after winning the election?

8. Your critics say you are unrealistically optimistic about the volume of natural gas that will flow as fracking and horizontal drilling succeed here in B.C., and about the volumes it will be possible to sell offshore. On what evidence do you support that optimism?

On spending:

9. Your government spent $15 million advertising your BC Jobs Plan until the election writ dropped -- yet unemployment in B.C. has continued to rise. What positive tangible results can you show for that ad campaign?

10. You defended paying $11 million to bring the Times of India Awards to B.C. before the election, saying the show would have 400 million viewers and showcase the province in a key part of the world. Initial figures suggest the actual number was 30 million. Why was your pre-election estimate so wrong?

11. It was revealed last week that the Northwest Transmission Line (NTL) has escalated in cost to $736 million -- up from around $400 million about two years ago. Has BC Hydro provided you with a satisfactory explanation why their initial cost estimates were so completely off mark, and are you doing anything to ensure these costs do not continue to escalate? Should the resource companies who use the line be made to absorb some of this new cost, beyond any pre-existing agreements? Will you launch a formal investigation into the NTL cost escalation?

On families:

12. As the Families First candidate, do you think a two-income, working-class family can afford a single preschool childcare spot in British Columbia? If not, is there a model that you believe is worth emulating?

13. The B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant, which requires parents to register for their child's education before they are seven, is being constructed in such a way that it says to a six-year-old child: "If your parents are extremely poor, or don't function easily in English, or are addicted to drugs, or are in some other way impaired in their ability to do this, we are going to make it harder for you to get an education." Why are you creating a policy that penalizes disadvantaged children?

14. Before the election you had cabinet committees on Families First and on Open Government. After the election you chose to get rid of them. When and why did your priorities change?

On labour:

15. Nearly a year ago a delegation of family members who had lost loved ones in workplace accidents that were caused by management recklessness or negligence met with two of your cabinet members (Margaret MacDiarmid and Shirley Bond) to present suggestions for steps the province could take to support more robust enforcement of the Westray Act (Bill C-45). To date, the steps suggested by the family members last August have not been implemented. Will your government act within the next six months to establish a dedicated Crown counsel to deal with workplace death cases and to create training for local police and RCMP officers to heighten their awareness of the provisions of the bill? If not, why not?

16. The Tyee learned that Kiewit construction, a firm that has been a substantial donor to your party in the past decade, was judged by a WorkSafeBC inspector to have been negligent in the death of Sam Fitzpatrick, a young rock scaler at the Montrose Creek/Toba Inlet project. Given that finding, plus the checkered history the company has had across North America, will your government exclude Kiewit from bidding on future projects in B.C. until it has presented proof the company is working in a more responsible fashion?

17. SNC Lavalin has been the subject of an RCMP investigation and former CEO Pierre Duhaime was charged with fraud in Quebec eight months ago. The company last year won a contract to build the Evergreen Line in Vancouver and has been involved in many big B.C. projects, including a $179-million contract to "design, build, finance, operate, maintain and rehabilitate" the William R. Bennett bridge in Kelowna over the next 30 years. Gwyn Morgan, who stepped down in May as chair of Lavalin's board of directors, was an advisor on your transition team in 2011. What assurance can you give British Columbians that SNC Lavalin's business in the province has been free of the kinds of problems it has had elsewhere?

On poverty:

18. British Columbia's record on poverty -- particularly child poverty -- is consistently the worst in the country. Welfare advocates have argued for years that social assistance rates aren't enough to cover food and rent. When will you raise the welfare rates?

On Aboriginal affairs:

19. Government has signed 18 non-treaty agreements with B.C. First Nations since January, and your instructions to your new Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister have been to sign 10 more by 2015. But the BC Treaty Commission says signing actual treaty agreements would mean billions of dollars in economic development for the province. Why aren't you pursuing treaties with B.C. First Nations?

Last question:

20. If you are defeated in this byelection, will you step down as leader of your party to allow an elected member to lead the BC Liberals in the legislature? Or will you ask another elected member to step down, triggering another byelection?