Christy Clark needs to tell Kootenay and Columbia voters if they intend to strip the region of vital benefits of the Columbia Basin Trust if they’re re-elected, say four BC NDP candidates.

Jim Postnikoff, Christy Clark’s Liberal candidate in Kootenay West, told a forum in Nakusp Tuesday that the trust, which funds vital services across the region, should just be used to to fund the BC Liberal platform.

“The Columbia Basin Trust is a model for community development and it assures that the regions who own the resources benefit from those resources,” said Kootenay West BC NDP candidate Katrine Conroy. “It’s incredible to think that Christy Clark's Liberals want to take those benefits away from this region.”

“You have to wonder if this is another plank of the BC Liberals’ secret platform,” said Nelson-Creston BC NDP candidate Michelle Mungall. “We’ve already heard a Lower Mainland candidate talk about how she wanted to privatize health care, and Christy Clark refused to disavow those comments. And just a few days ago, another one of Christy Clark's candidates said the BC Liberals are planning a review of the tax system to justify bringing in the HST again.”

The Columbia Basin Trust was implemented in the 1990s to return benefits to regions devastated by the original Columbia River Treaty in the 1960s. The trust fund was never intended to be included in general revenue, and certainly not to plug holes in the BC Liberal financial plan.

“Christy Clark hasn’t been working for the people of the Kootenays since she came to power,” said Columbia River-Revelstoke BC NDP candidate Gerry Taft. “We need someone like John Horgan - who was instrumental in the creation of the Columbia Basin Trust - to stand up for our interests.”

“The BC Liberals have failed rural BC, and there are fewer people working outside of Vancouver than there were in 2008,” said Kootenay East BC NDP candidate Randal Macnair. “The fact that the BC Liberals are looking at emptying the trust shows they are completely out of touch with the people of rural BC.”