Federal minister Sajjan tours Kamloops to tout 2023 budget

KAMLOOPS — Minister Harjit Sajjan began his tour of Kamloops at a downtown grocery store, where he touted his party’s economic plan for the future. He highlighted a grocery rebate, a new dental plan and increased healthcare funding. Sajjan twice reiterated the importance of moving to a green economy.

“Whoever does not take this step is going to be left behind. You can’t catch up down the road when industry is already created in the clean technology field. We are already seeing our investments paying off. B.C. is already taking advantage of this, as well. We have a lot of opportunity but we need to make sure we get this right,” said Sajjan.

The international development minister also took a short walking tour around the downtown core of Kamloops, visiting with a few local business owners about how he believes the budget will help support them.

“When you lose a company, you can’t just start something up. The investments that we put into place was to make sure we have good quality jobs, and what these investments are now looking at not only helping Canadians with what they need now with some of the inflation challenges but making sure we have a stake in the economy of the future,” added Sajjan.

Howie Reimer and Jeremy Heighton from the local business improvement associations had a chance to speak with the minister regarding his file on Pacific Canada development, noting a lack of funding for some of their key programs.

“We consider ourselves non-profits, and we’ve been deemed by the federal government a public entity. That has effected our funding, particularly with our summer customer care and patrol team, potentially the clean team,” said Reimer.

The budget forecasts a $14 billion deficit in 2027-28, and higher deficits each year than had previously been projected. The minister said the government is taking a calculated risk to ensure Canada continues to grow.

“It doesn’t mean you keep spending, what this means is you have to spend responsibly. Targeted investments to keep investing in Canadians, to make life easier for those Canadians that are still struggling. But making sure to keep the economic engine going and, more importantly, grab a piece of the clean economy of the future,” said Sajjan.