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Environmental concerns top Nathan Cullen's telephone town hall

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen hosted a riding-wide telephone town hall meeting last week and he said the turnout was good.

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen hosted a riding-wide telephone town hall meeting last week and he said the turnout was good.

The environment topped out as the biggest issue for callers, out of the almost 8,500 participants, said Cullen.

“Over 52 per cent of people responding to this question told us that environmental assessment changes worry them the most,” he said.

Constituents were contacted by phone and asked to participate and 93 per cent of people called stayed on the line.

A poll taken during the call had 82 per cent of 448 callers saying they disagree with the Conservatives including so much in their omnibus budget bill. (The question asked was ‘Do you agree or disagree with putting so many significant changes into one bill?’, and 368, or 82.14 per cent, disagreed.)

In the days following, members of parliament began marathon voting regarding that budget bill.

Cullen said that after 22 hours of voting, the bill passing isn’t being seen as a defeat by him.

“We are looking to 2015 and we’ll continue to hold this government to account until then,” said Cullen in a release.

The bill now has to pass through senate and is expected to be adopted ahead of parliament’s summer recess.

There were 157 individual votes covering 844 amendments in the budget bill, which affected environmental reviews, EI, and other subjects.

The town hall telephone conference polled listeners on three questions over the course of the discussion.

The third question asked was where people thought the federal government should spend money.

College and university funding topped the answers with 53 of the 176 who voted in that question, or just over 30 per cent.

Close behind was boosting pensions for seniors at 46 votes or 26.14 per cent.

From question two about what will have most impact on the Northwest, only 27 out of 216 voted for keeping old age pension at 65.