The Liberal MLA for Cariboo North says she fully supports the money announced by the Provincial Government.
Coralee Oakes says she is just concerned with how it’s being rolling out…
“I am significantly concerned and I will be raising it in the house the fact that many of our areas lack connectivity.  Whether it’s broadband infrastructure or cell service, or even so many of our residents are still, you know the landlines have been down for a significant amount of time since the last storm, and now we have programs that are being put in place that are application driven.”
Oakes says it’s important that every piece of legislation that comes forward in Victoria has a rural lens put on it.
She takes issue with the fact that just one piece of legislation is being introduced during this session in the house….
” There is much more work that needs to be happening, not just on COVID-19, but there are other critical issues that we need to be addressing in our communities.  There is no reason why we couldn’t also be discussing legislation that was tabled prior to the election around emergency management.”
Oakes says they know there are going to be challenges come spring freshet…
“With the amount of groundwater that we have currently, and prior to things freezing we need significant supports, we need significant changes.  I was hoping that that bill would be presented so that there would be an opportunity for us to have robust dialogue and changes to that.”
Oakes says she will be making a private members statement in the house on Monday…
“To address the fact that I think we need to be looking and preparing for spring freshet, and looking at the significant challenges that we have certainly experienced this past year with our road infrastructure, our rural road infrastructure, and what are the plans coming into spring freshet 2021.”
Oakes says she wants to know specifically what kind of increased investments are going to be made in ditching and culverts, so that we don’t have the challenges that we faced this year.