My Vote, My Future: Ashneel Singh on BC Election 2017
Ahead of the BC election, Daily Hive is profiling young voters from across the province. Want to join in and share your thoughts? Email [email protected], subject line: My Future.
Who are you?
Ashneel Singh.
How old are you?
29.
What do you do?
IT Project Manager.
Where do you live?
Downtown Vancouver.
Have you voted before?
Yes.
Do you plan on voting this time?
Yes.
Does your family influence how you vote?
No.
How closely do you follow BC politics?
Closely on issues I care about, otherwise not that closely.
Do you know who your local candidates are?
No.
Can you name the three party leaders?
No.
Would you ever consider running for office?
Yes I’ve considered it. Why? Because it looks like more and more politicians care about themselves and their re-election rather than the general population.
What issues do you care most about?
Affordability and housing
My fiancée and I have good professional jobs and a combined income of over $120K and we are not even close to be able to affording a one-bedroom apartment downtown. I think that is insane.
There has been a net decline of young adults leaving the city of Vancouver over the past five years. I’ve seen it with my own friends, I’ve seen it in the tech industry.
People turn 30 and want to start a family and would rather move to Calgary where they can buy a home. With young professionals leaving Vancouver who is going to support this city?
We are walking a fine line by keeping prices artificially high to satisfy current homeowners and killing any hopes the future generation has of a livable city.
Implementing policies that help people with insanely high downpayments only continues to inflate these high prices.
There’s a reason people can’t afford the downpayments and no one is looking at the fundamental problem of incomes being completely disproportional to the average price of a home.
First off, I think the government needs to admit to an affordability problem.
It’s unfortunate to see how disconnected they are to people in their 20s struggling to make ends meet, most of whom have university degrees and are well educated.
The problem is these people are elected to implement policies that will support the citizens and so far, it seems like the policies implemented are ones to make sure homeowners values continually stay high.
I think we need to actually look at median incomes in the city and come up with policies that allow people who are living and working in Vancouver to buy versus buying for investment purposes.
Rideshare
Anytime I’m trying to get somewhere and I need to be on hold for 20 minutes or am standing out in the pouring rain, I wonder why we don’t have ridesharing services like other major cities.
The city is already so unaffordable and to give the taxi companies a monopoly without any competition further drives up rates for consumers and does not address demand and your left with situations like New Year’s Eve where people wait four hours to get a taxi home.
There is no meaningful place to give feedback and no other competitor to switch to.
Bring in ridesharing services and empower the taxi companies to be competitive.
I heard the government was going to give the taxi companies $1 million to help build an app to be competitive with ridesharing. I think that’s crazy. Why are we spending tax dollars to keep the taxi industry competitive?
Are you a young British Columbian and eligible to vote in the BC election? We would love to profile you. Email [email protected], subject line: My Future, to find out more.
Daily Hive is your home for BC Election coverage throughout the campaign period. To access our full BC Election coverage click here: Battleground BC.
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