![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Kelly-Darwin.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cWe need to look at other options, like rail, like a better bus system,\u201d says Darwin, also mentioning a passenger ferry from Royal Bay. \u201cIt\u2019s a quick zip across the water to downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City of Colwood approved plans in July of this year to put up 2,100 new housing units in the Latoria South portion of Royal Bay; Darwin says the ferry would help those people commute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if we take more of a fabric approach, almost a holistic approach, really, we take a whole bunch of little solutions and put them all together, we’re going to have a much better transportation infrastructure out here,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Darwin says that another option for commuting is to get the rail corridor up and running again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they can make this work in Vancouver\u2026 surely we can get it from Langford to Victoria,\u201d says Darwin.<\/p>\n
Darwin says that government needs to be supporting businesses in helping them adapt and bringing their employees back to work.<\/p>\n
\u201c25 percent of businesses [across the province] say they won\u2019t last the next 12 months, which is scary,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the government\u2019s responsibility to create an environment where businesses can adapt and thrive, and then they will create jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
An example Darwin highlights in terms of what he is looking for from a government in power is funding for proper signage, plexiglass, and PPE.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really lucky to live and work in Langford, where our municipal government, very early on, recognized this and started with some small steps of support, but they were major steps, because we had that feeling like they had our back,\u201d he says. \u201cYou walk around Langford and you\u2019ll see the stickers on the floor that were actually provided by the municipality to help those businesses adapt and stay open. That\u2019s the kind of support we need. I\u2019m not seeing that on a provincial level. I think the federal level is doing a great job with the wage subsidy and the rent subsidy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darwin says that looking to people who understand that \u201cyou can\u2019t just throw around a billion here and a billion there\u201d is key.<\/p>\n
\u201cCareer politicians are great at making promises, but at the end of the day, you need people that understand what it\u2019s like to pay rent, to make payroll, to pay their GST. We\u2019re the ones that are going to be able to bring some practical common sense to the economy\u2026 Examples like the PST reduction for two years [zero percent for one year and then up to three percent until the economy recovers from COVID-19], I think that has way more clout in stimulating the economy than giving everybody a $1,000 cheque.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When BC Liberal Langford-Juan de Fuca candidate Kelly Darwin graduated from Camosun\u2019s Computer Systems Technology program in 2005, he never imagined he’d be running for office 15 years later. \u201cI don\u2019t consider myself a politician,\u201d he admits. When the world took a turn due to the COVID-19 crisis, Darwin saw fit to step in. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20110,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20108\/revisions\/20110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}