Carbon tax, inflation, crime debated at Elmwood-Transcona byelection forum

An all-party forum attracted three of the six candidates in the Elmwood-Transcona byelection Thursday night, where the hopefuls were pressed on crime, the cost of living, and climate change.

"People are upset about the carbon tax. That's not lost on me. I get it at the door," said Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre.

The federal Winnipeg riding was vacated when former NDP MP Daniel Blaike left for a job with the provincial government. His party's candidate, Leila Dance, told the small crowd on-hand there should be price caps on essential food.

"Milk, bread, baby formula - these items should not be a 300 to 400 per cent mark up," said Dance.

A question posed by an audience member raised crime as an issue plaguing the area.

"We have to make sure that cities are getting their fair amounts so that they are policing, staffing police equitably," said MacIntyre.

"I don’t believe that policing solves any of these problems; policing attempts to clean them up afterwards," said Green Party candidate Nicolas Geddert.

On fighting climate change, MacIntyre defended his party's carbon tax, saying the money is being used for electric vehicles, planting trees, and jobs for a new economy.

"Climate action can't wait. If this summer has been any example - this is what we're going to be looking forward to," said MacIntyre.

Dance suggested the tax be limited to big polluters.

"We're charging the individual person, working families. We're charging them for those things when maybe we should be going after big corporations," said Dance.

Geddert says the government needs to better explain how the revenue from the tax is spent.

"We need to be very clear with the country, with people who have to pay, what these taxes are for,” said Geddert.

Colin Reynolds, the Conservative Party candidate, was not at the forum, but that didn't stop candidates in attendance from throwing a few political barbs at his party.

"So we know where they stand on what they're saying about cuts," said MacIntyre.

"I know we all agree at this table, and probably in this room, that we don’t want to see Conservative cuts," said Dance.

There are two other candidates in the race; Sarah Couture is representing the People's Party of Canada, and Zbig Strycharz is with the newly formed Canadian Future Party.

Election day is September 16.