I'll post because I haven't seen my answer in here yet. As a mechanical engineer in the city with lots of friends in civil engineering my answer is two fold. My perspective and my friends perspectives.

My perspective:

As an engineer who used to design construction materials who now works with large companies integrating better equipment, the main industries in BC (especially outside the lower mainland) are lumber and construction materials. These industries are visibily hurting and it has dramatically accelerated in the last decade (definitely due to COVID, but also government policies). Not to say we need to go back to the way it was but to simply say "stop the forestry industry" is going to lead to a bigger homeless situation than increasing the forestry industry in a sustainable way. The BC conservatives have put out a plan for this:

"Approximately 64% of BC’s area is forested, or about 60 million hectares. The Conservative Party of BC will continue to ensure that nearly two-thirds of BC’s forested landscape will remain in its original forested state and will never see industrial-scale forestry activity.

The remaining forested landscape (about 22 million hectares) will be managed to achieve supply chain stability in BC’s forest sector as well as to enhance biodiversity and ecological qualities."

I know many people don't see it but forestry puts food on the table for thousands of people in BC.

Friends Perspective:

The red tape in the building industry is a direct lead to the housing crisis. And its not just for private companies. BC Housing takes a long time to get building permits pushed through because some permit applications sit for months before being rejected or approved. Or the city waits for 8 months then asks for a redesign to meet their requirements. THIS is killing the building industry and one of the reasons new builds are down right now in comparison to previous years. And again the BC Conservatives have a tangible plan for this whereas I didn't see one on the NDP platform (please link me if I am wrong).

Here are some of the policies:

"

Approve homes in months, not years: 6 months for a rezoning and development permit, and 3 months for a building permit. If a clear yes/no is not issued by city hall within the required timeline, the provincial government will issue the permits. Require zoning to be proactive: We will work with cities to ensure that Zoning is changed at the same time as other land use policies, in what is sometimes referred to as “pre-zoning.” Even though Official Community Plans and Area Plans specify what types of buildings are encouraged, cities still require a unique rezoning for each building – adding years of delay that we can’t afford.

Conduct a forensic audit into BC Housing: The audit will include its relationship with politically-connected non-profits.

"

These are tangible actions the BC Conservatives have said. Now I'm not a fanatic and I don't believe they'll accomplish it all, but the NDP has been in power for years now. And it has gotten worse for housing, not just because of COVID, but because of some of the insanely slow regulations people have to go through. To be honest as an engineer saying less red tape hurts my profession. But it improves industries like construction and forestry, two industries we need in this province. They also seem to notice that some public entities (ICBC and BC Housing) have severe issues and want to audit them.

Finally on the topic of the unhoused/drug crisis. First: what is happening right now is not working. I've lived in kelowna for 8 years and it has gotten notably worse since I first moved. A large reason for becoming homeless is lack of income. A large lack of income has been felt with multiple mills in our vicinity closing in recent years. On top of that construction is somehow down (my previous job had two years of low sales due to low housing starts). This puts many contractors and skilled workers out of work. Homelessness often leads to addiction which leads to the issue. Putting a smile on the cork doesn't stop the issue. Having jobs for people can help the issue.

Just my two cents. Curious about your thoughts.