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Andrew Scheer makes campaign stop in Parksville

Federal Conservative leader talks tax cuts, environment
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Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, supporting candidate Byron Horner, spoke in Parksville on Sunday Sept. 15 about his plans for a universal tax cut and touched on the Conservatives’ plan for the environment. — Emily Vance photo

Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer made a stop in Parksville on Sunday, Sept. 15 as the federal election campaign is in full swing.

He spoke to a large crowd at the Parksville Community and Conference Centre.

Scheer took to the stage at approximately 6 p.m. and spoke for about 10 minutes.

He highlighted his plan for a universal tax cut, saying that if elected, his government would cut the tax rate on taxable income less than $47,630 from 15 per cent to 13.75 per cent.

He promised to repeal the carbon tax and spoke about the importance of protecting Canada’s rivers by ending the practice of dumping raw sewage into rivers, lakes and oceans.

In an exclusive interview with The NEWS, Scheer said that he attended a roundtable earlier in the day about commercial and recreational salmon fisheries on Vancouver Island.

“A lot of frustration from representatives of those industries saying that they had some proposals that they would have liked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to consider, but they were ignored without any real explanation,” said Scheer.

“I know that has a big impact. People aren’t able to come and whether it’s tourists coming to fish recreationally, or whether it’s for a commercial basis, that could take years to make up for those losses.”

He also addressed climate change, saying that Canada has the ability to export leading environmental technologies around the world.

“Our plan invests in technology, instead of taxes,” said Scheer.

Scheer promised to introduce a tax credit for environmentally friendly retrofitting on homes, and promised to eliminate the GST and HST on home heating bills.

He also called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to waive cabinet confidence in order for RCMP to investigate the SNC-Lavalin affair.