Voters head to polls in federal byelection on Monday in Oxford

Voters will cast ballots in Oxford in southwestern Ontario on Monday — one of four federal byelections across Canada.

The Oxford riding includes Woodstock, Tillsonburg, Ingersoll and Norwich. 

Longtime Conservative MP Dave McKenzie triggered the byelection when he stepped down in January. A Conservative MP has held the Oxford riding since 1953, except for nine years between 1993 and 2002, when it was held by a Liberal. 

CBC London gathered the candidates from the three biggest parties in the region to talk about the race and their priorities. 

David Hilderley is on the ballot for the Liberals, Arpan Khanna is the candidate for the Conservatives and Cody Groat represents the NDP.

London Morning host Rebecca Zandbergen moderated the discussion. It's been edited for length and clarity.

RZ: We'll start with the skyrocketing cost of living. How will each of your parties help to make life more affordable?

David Hilderley: Our party already has started some initiatives including lowering the cost of day care, very important for parents to be able to get out and work and support their family, and improve their quality of living. We have the child tax credit that helps families. We've have also topped up our seniors income by 10 per cent allotment this year.

Arpan Khanna: This is an issue that's top of mind for voters. It's probably the number one issue I'm hearing at the doors. Nine in 10 folks are struggling to get into the market. Our food bank usage is at record highs after eight years of Justin Trudeau. One in five are skipping meals. That's not the same Canada my parents chose to come to. That Canadian dream is slowly starting to slip away and one of the reasons is that the Liberals introduced a carbon tax. April 1 it went up and there's a second one coming on July 1. That is driving up the cost of living, whether it's heating your home, your hydro, your gas prices — it's putting a financial strain on the folks that are the most vulnerable in our community. A Conservative government is going to make that a top priority, to scrap the carbon tax and put that money back into the pockets of our farmers, of our seniors, our families.

RZ: Housing is a key part of the cost of living and there's a need for more subsidized and affordable housing. What will your government do about housing?

Arpan Khanna: If you look at the G7, Canada under Justin Trudeau has become the most expensive country for home building. The home prices have doubled under Justin Trudeau. Look at the mortgage rates. After Trudeau told everybody to keep borrowing away, interest rates will remain all time low, he increased them nine times. We have to make sure that we remove some of the gatekeepers that are blocking some of this home building and make sure we cut some of that red tape from the federal side,

What's the candidates answer to a question about the cost of living:

Cody Groat: My perspectives on this, comes from growing up in Oxford, in geared-to-income housing. We have people in our community who have been on geared-to-income waiting lists for over a decade, we've met a lot of people during this campaign who think they're gonna be homeless by the time the election has ended. That's ridiculous. Oxford County has a master housing strategy where they have a number of geared-to-income housing projects that are shovel ready. They're just waiting for specific and targeted federal investments. That's the first thing that we're gonna be advocating for if elected, to get that funding for those projects done. And then Mr. Hilderley had mentioned guaranteed income supplement for seniors. We want to make sure that that continues to rise with the pace of inflation to assure that seniors are provided with that security net that they need because far too often on a fixed income, seniors are finding there are too many gaps.

RZ: Southwestern Public Health is looking at the possibility of opening a supervised consumption site for people who use drugs. Would you be in favour of such a site being located somewhere in Oxford County?

Cody Groat: I've come out very firmly in support of this. Both of my parents, prior to me being born, struggled with addiction. My father was an alcoholic and my mother suffered a narcotics addiction. They both received treatment and they have remained sober the entirety of my life. I look to what we have in Oxford County — we don't have those systems in place to receive treatment. The good thing about safe injection sites is they provides a pathway transition to build positive relationships with people who are dealing with addiction so that they are able to receive treatment on their own terms, which is so essential to assuring that treatment stays positive for the rest of their lives.

Listen to the full round table discussion:

David Hilderley: If Southwestern Health is recommending that, I certainly support that as well.

Arpan Khanna: We have seen record numbers of overdoses happening across our country. There's no safe way of doing illegal drugs. I think we have to find a path forward. We have to work with all levels of government, work collaboratively  with our partners. But at the same time, we have to show compassion and encourage more treatment. We're not being compassionate enough to put them on a treatment plan.

RZ: How do we tackle climate change?

David Hilderley: Our government is investing in looking at ways to improve climate change and that investment is a very important investment for the future. It's important for my kids and my grandkids. The environment is in dire straits right now and we need to invest in that. We're building electric trucks in Ingersoll, they're coming off the line right now — a great investment by the federal government and that's the future we need to move in that direction to curb our climate issues.

Arpan Khanna: The Conservatives don't believe in taxes when it comes to climate change. We look at technology and innovation. We'll be looking at making those investments in innovation to make sure that we are having a more efficient carbon footprint. We all care about the environment, we all want to make sure that Canada and around the world is in a good condition, investing in green technology and making sure that polluters like China, India, Indonesia, we're working with them to make sure they have the tools they need to get better on technology as well.

RZ: How do we meet our own targets here in Canada?

Arpan Khanna: I think we have to do a lot. We have to look at technology and innovation, I think that's the solution, not taxes. And if you look at the carbon tax it, it's not working and that's the government's own numbers. It does nothing but put a financial strain on familie and it hasn't worked on the environment. In Oxford County, our farmers, our folks commuting, there's no other public transit available either so I think you have to look at alternatives other than taxes and the money that's being raised in the carbon tax is going to the general coffers of the government anyway and they're wasting that recklessly when families are struggling the most.

Cody Groat: We definitely need a climate mitigation strategy. One of the big things that we're hearing in the agricultural sector is fertilizer — nitrogen fertilizer, for example. The federal government wants to significantly reduce that as a climate mitigation strategy. I think that's definitely a goal that we need to be working toward but again, that's an example where there's not a viable alternative right now economically for farmers. So we need to find that right balance between incentivizing this transition as soon as possible, but also reducing the numbers. We have goals that we need to meet as soon as possible, but we also need to nuance as we go. We need to develop a strategy actively every year,