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Surrey South byelection candidate Q&A: Jason Bax

Libertarian candidate answers five questions for PAN readers
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Jason Bax, the Libertarian candidate for the Surrey-White Rock riding in the Oct. 24, 2020 provincial election

1. What do you consider to be your top priorities for ensuring quality and timely health care for residents in the Surrey South riding?

In 2020 I called for an evidence-based, Return to Normal: Quarantine the sick, not the healthy. Stating, “The numbers are in and they don’t lie; we now know the mortality rate among those in B.C. diagnosed with COVID-19 is =N:E= a 99%-plus survival rate and the at-risk groups are now clearly known.”

Today, in 2022, The BC CDC data is conclusive, vindicating my 2020 stance and definitively reflects the updated WHO designation of COVID-19, “Most infected people will develop mild to moderate illness and recover without hospitalization.” That’s why I’m advocating for an evidence-based, return to sanity.

To ensure our community gets the healthcare they need I would prioritize an immediate reconsideration of the healthcare worker vaccine mandate and permit thousands of experienced healthcare workers to return to work, easing the staffing shortage and practitioner burnout that’s impacting quality of care, increasing wait times and emergency room closures.

2. What projects and approaches would you support to improve transportation, both public and private, for residents of Surrey South (particularly those who commute to their place of employment)?

I cannot support new spending projects given this government’s track record of waste. If current government could have fixed this problem they would have. It’s time to put an end to government transportation price fixing and allow entrepreneurs to serve the unique customer demands in our community. For example, how many people would pay extra for a less crowded 15-person shuttle with cappuccino, WIFI, muffins and chocolate scones? We’ll never know as long as the government keeps entrepreneurs from entering the market.

3. What measures should be taken to ensure that residents of Surrey South can find affordable housing, whether as buyers or renters, and to offset the general rise in the cost of living?

The B.C. government wastes millions of dollars every year. “Enough money for every resident to live in luxury,” described a government contractor I spoke with recently. Most residents don’t realize that half their earnings go to paying various visible and invisible taxes (like inflation) leaving us little, if anything, to pay for housing.

In order to lower housing prices, both for purchase and rent, we must increase the inventory of available properties. In order to encourage builders to build, we must eliminate the red-tape that delays or even prevents building. Before even breaking ground, builders must go through lengthy and time-consuming processes of applying for various permits and approvals of questionable necessity. This red tape has pushed developers to build mostly luxury properties, for which they can charge more. These properties are priced out of most people’s affordability.

While the BCLP does not want to deter foreign buyers, we do not want to enable money laundering. Foreign investment has helped keep BC builders and all related supply industries busy and providing employment through financial fluctuations.

Unfortunately, B.C. has had some money of questionable origin going through our systems. In order to prevent anyone from hiding ill-gotten gains from the CRA or their own foreign government, we propose that no numbered companies can be the owners of local real-estate. Names of people and corporations must be associated with real-estate.

4. What measures would you support to address the current toxic drug crisis in B.C. (including Surrey South)?

Back in 2020, I warned that unprecedented “lockdowns” would lead to unprecedented harm. The soaring, record-breaking drug overdoses is just one example. “2020 was B.C.’s deadliest year ever for drug overdoses, coroner says,” CBC reported.

I stand with law enforcement, Mike Serr, chief constable of the Abbotsford Police Department, who told the CBC, police will continue enforcement efforts on those who import, produce and distribute illicit drugs. “The deaths are staggering, considering the steps we have collectively taken over the last several years to try to disrupt this overdose crisis,” Serr said.

This is a tragic and complicated issue. Unemployment and financial hardship leads to rising rates of depression, addiction and suicide. That’s why we should immediately review and reconsider policies that led to many small business closures, job losses, and personal bankruptcies – contributing to our soaring overdose crisis.

5. What measures would you support to ensure that agricultural land is protected in the Surrey South riding?

Let farmers do what they do best; farm. Farmers, by the very nature of their business, have the most to gain by farming in a way that sustains the land which grows the very product they sell. Basic economics necessitates minimum fertiliser usage.

Radical fertiliser reduction goals set by an outside, bureaucrat entity is leading to food shortages, rapidly rising prices and will plunge families into poverty, and ultimately, hunger, malnutrition and starvation. My neighbours who have immigrated from Asia, India, U.K., Europe, Central & South America can attest that history is a precedent. I stand by our farmers and neighbours who warn, “No farmers, no food!”

My community and I are also concerned about farm crop and drinking water contamination with the current NDP government plan permitting massive, large-scale spraying of herbicide on our forests to kill leaf-bearing trees.