Finance and Government Services — Issue No. 15 — Thursday, October 3, 2013 (HTML)

Present: Dan Ashton, MLA (Chair); Mable Elmore, MLA; Eric Foster, MLA; Scott Hamilton, MLA; Gary Holman, MLA; Lana Popham, MLA; Jackie Tegart, MLA; John Yap, MLA

3. The following witnesses appeared before the Committee and answered questions:

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES


CONTENTS
Page
Presentations	430
D. Daigle
R. Kishi
M. Colclough
J. Lobay
J. Bowen
J. Bowman
H. Furgale
K. Kelly
D. Hoogland
A. Lewis
M. Petter
C. Reader
J. Leech
S. Ackland

A. Hamir

D. Ashton (Chair): We can get underway, but I just have something to read first of all so that we can get it on the record. Then we'll go through introductions. This is new to me, so I hope I won't stumble too much.

Good morning, everybody. We are the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. This is an all-party parliamentary committee of the Legislative Assembly whose mandate includes conducting annual public consultations on the upcoming provincial budget.

We would like to welcome everybody in attendance today. Thank you very much for taking the time to attend. We really appreciate you participating in this important process.

Every year the Minister of Finance releases a budget consultation paper. The paper contains a fiscal and economic forecast and key issues that need to be addressed in the next budget. Once the consultation paper has been released, this committee is required to hold provincewide public consultations. All British Columbians are invited to provide input on the budget.

Following the consultations, the committee releases a report of the consultations along with recommendations for the upcoming budget. This report must be presented to the Legislative Assembly no later than November 15.

There are several ways for British Columbians to participate. This public hearing is one of 17 scheduled to take place in communities throughout the province. All British Columbians are invited to be present or attend the hearings. We have also scheduled video conference sessions, of which this is one, for an additional five communities. British Columbians can also participate in the consultation by sending a written submission, video file, letter or fax.

Information on the consultations, including instructions on how to make a submission, is available at our website, which is www.leg.bc.ca/budgetconsultations. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, October 16. All the public input that we receive is carefully considered.

At today's meeting each presenter may speak for ten minutes. Up to an additional five minutes are allotted for questions from the committee. I'll be giving everybody a two-minute warning.

Time permitting, we may also have an open mike at the end of the hearing. Five minutes are allotted for each presentation. If you would like to register for the open mike, please check with staff, and I'm hoping that we'll hear from your side on that.

Today's meeting is a public hearing and will be recorded and transcribed by Hansard Services. A copy of this transcript, along with the minutes, will be printed and made available on the committee's website. A live audio webcast is also broadcast through the website.

The committee is also on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, you'll find us underneath the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. On Twitter we are at twitter.com/BCFinanceComm.

D. Ashton (Chair): Good morning once again. My name is Dan Ashton. I'm the MLA for Penticton. I'll be chairing the proceedings and working very closely with the vice-Chair, Mike Farnworth — who unfortunately could not be here today — and all the committee representatives and staff to ensure what is said today is forwarded to the Legislative Assembly for proper consideration.

Also joining us today from the parliamentary committees office are some very hard-working and very dedicated individuals: Susan Sourial; Stephanie, who I don't see right now, but she's around; and also Michael Baer, Alexandrea Hursey and a couple others behind me from Hansard Services.

The first presenter that I have is from the Comox Valley Child Development Association.

D. Daigle: My name is Diane Daigle. I'm on the board of directors. I am a parent, and foster parent as well, of children who have received services from the Child Development Association. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services.

First, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the Comox Valley Child Development Association. The Comox Valley Child Development Association is a community-based not-for-profit organization founded in 1974 and governed by a board of community volunteers. The CVCDA provides screening, assessment, therapy, intervention, training, resources and support for children, youth and young adults with special needs, their families and community care providers.

We serve the Comox Valley, including Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland and surrounding areas — including Denman and Hornby islands. In the past fiscal year we provided services to 800 children and youth through our centre. Last year we had over 11,000 visits to our facility by children, families and community partners for therapy appointments, support services, training events, parent meetings and play groups.

The core provincially funded services provided by the Comox Valley Child Development Association are early intervention therapy services for children from birth to school age, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology; the infant development program for infants from birth to three; and the supported child development program for children up to age 12. In addition, we provide locally developed support programs and services for children and youth with developmental delays and disabilities.

The Comox Valley Child Development Association is in the tenth year of offering a program of intensive early intervention for preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder and after-school programs that focus on social learning and social communication for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder.

In partnership with Comox Valley Transition Society, we co-host a support group for grandparents raising their grandchildren, a newly recognized and growing demographic group often dealing with a range of exceptional challenges.

We are our community's hub for services and programs for children with special needs, their families and care providers. In addition, we provide space for other non-profit community agencies to deliver programs and services to vulnerable children and families in our community, and we have been accredited since 2004.

Our recommendations are based on the following key points. Children and youth with special needs, CYSN, services are priority programs that, while funded mainly through the Ministry of Children and Family Development, are interconnected and interdependent with local education and health services and are equally as important as education and health services.

Children and youth who need extra support require adequately funded programs and services to reach their full potential. Families and healthy communities require adequately funded programs and services for children and youth with special needs as a foundation for economic stability and development.

Each year, the Ministry of Children and Development expends considerable resources to renew our annual contracts. This process is repeated for every contract and every contractor across the province.

We have been a community partner with MCFD, providing contracted services since 1974. We provide annual audited financial statements, annual reports and monthly reports. We follow provincial program guidelines and standards. We have been CARF-accredited since 2004, meeting the high standards set for contractors with the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which has invested heavily in accreditation. We submit annual performance reports and are resurveyed every three years.

We believe that the government could make considerable savings and improve front-line service delivery by moving to multi-year contracts with accredited not-for-profit agencies.

This would reduce cost for MCFD, refocus workload for MCFD to front-line service delivery to children and their families, reduce cost for accredited non-profit agencies, refocus the workload to service delivery to children and families for accredited not-for-profit agencies, reduce wait-lists for children and families, provide stability for accredited not-for-profit agencies, and provide a concrete return on government and agency investment in accreditation.

Like other not-for-profit child development agencies, the Comox Valley Child Development Association relies on community donations, local fundraisers and grants to build and maintain our facility, purchase specialized equipment and resources and cover operational costs not covered by government contracts.

Child development agencies such as ours — and the services we deliver — are integral components to the delivery of a continuum of services for children and youth with special needs, yet we receive no infrastructure funding from the provincial or federal government. We need to maintain and upgrade our facilities and infrastructures to meet new and changing accessibility, environmental, privacy and safety standards.

Government contracts have not kept pace with increasing costs that we meet under terms of our collect-
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ive agreements, such as retirement allowances, pension plan costs, benefit plan costs and staff reimbursement for mileage. Professional costs, such as audit fees, have more than doubled over the past five years as new standards have been set by the federal government. Operational costs, such as equipment, supplies, facility maintenance and repairs, have also increased.

Recommendation 1. The government should move to multi-year contracts with accredited not-for-profit agencies, such as the Comox Valley Child Development Association, and allocate these savings to improve front-line service, reduce wait-lists and wait times and cover the true costs of providing contracted services — including collective agreement and benefit costs; business costs, such as audit; and the costs of maintaining accreditation and operating costs, such as infrastructure, equipment and supplies.

The second issue: bundle contracts for services for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder.

The Comox Valley Child Development Association is in the tenth year of offering a highly successful program of intensive early intervention for preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder and after-school programs for school-age children with autism spectrum disorder that focus on social learning and social programs and communication.

We also provide a two-week summer camp for youth living with ASD. In total, we provide services for 55 children and youth each year in our autism spectrum program.

We spend an inordinate amount of administrative time meeting the requirements of the autism funds processing unit for daily recordkeeping and managing monthly invoicing and payments. The process of invoicing and billing is overwhelmingly onerous, time-consuming, excessive and financially punitive for publicly funded and accredited agencies such as ourselves, who are trying to provide maximum services with limited resources for children with autism spectrum disorder.

While a recent business review of the autism funds processing unit led to minor improvements in the billing and payment process, the overall system is still a heavy burden.

Recommendation 2. Eliminate the monthly invoicing and payment systems for autism funding for accredited and not-for-profit agencies that already contract with government for other CYSN services. Switch to bundled, multi-year contracts similar to other CYSN services. Reallocate the savings realized from eliminating this costly system to fund the services provided for children with autism spectrum disorder.

D. Ashton (Chair): Diane, thanks. You have two minutes left on the presentation.

Early intervention therapy for preschool children with special needs. We deliver multidisciplinary services to children with special needs and their families, based on the functional needs of the child and the goals that are important to the family. Our wait-lists include occupational therapy, 37 children; speech language pathology, 23 children; and physical therapy, 22 children.

Recommendation 3. The government should allocate new ongoing funding to the Ministry of Children and Family Development to reduce wait-lists and wait times for early intervention therapies.

Services for youth with special needs. Youth with special needs are chronically underserved in our community and in the communities in the province.

Recommendation 4. Allocate new funding for age-appropriate services for youth 13 to 19 to support more families to access employment.

M. Elmore: Thanks for your presentation, Diane. I have a question. It's actually combining your recommendations 1 and 2. It's with respect to the request to move to multi-year contracts in recommendation 1, and you mentioned that there are some children and youth with special needs contracts that are multi-year contracts.

I understand your argument that it's more efficient and saves on administrative burden. The counter to that is, I guess, the accountability piece — the financial accountability. Can you talk about that a little bit more?

D. Daigle: I sure can. Our agency is accredited and has been accredited since 2004, meeting the high standards for accountability that are requested and required by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. So it seems feasible to us that moving to multi-year contracts, where we are already providing reports, financial statements…. We are regularly audited. It seems that the savings that would come from multi-year contracts would be much better spent in providing services for children and families.

G. Holman: Thanks for your presentation. Just a little bit more to follow up from Mable's questions. Who does the accrediting? What's the entity that does that?

D. Daigle: The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.
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G. Holman: Are there any situations where you're bidding for contracts, or is that not a process at all? Is there bidding where you're competing against other providers?

D. Daigle: I'm certain that there are situations, although I think probably not as common as the contracts that are given for the major services, because these services are not offered in that way in other agencies in our community.

G. Holman: So most of your dealings with MCFD are just kind of annual renewals, that kind of thing?

D. Daigle: Yes. They're annual contract renewals. And that's why we see that if we did it in multi-year contracts, it would be that savings.

Diane, recommendation 2 is: "Eliminate the monthly invoicing and payment systems for autism." Are those programs the only ones that require the monthly invoicing, compared to other programs?

D. Daigle: Yes. From what I understand, it's the autism funding and the way that this funding is invoiced and paid that is extremely onerous and uses up a lot of time that could be spent on direct services to the children.

D. Ashton (Chair): Diane, thank you very much for the presentation. Great job. My first and our first video one. Terrific job. Thank you for coming forward.

Our next presenter is Wachiay Friendship Centre. It's Michael. We're trying to stay on a first-name basis here. It's a little bit easier for us and a little bit more personal.

M. Colclough: Good morning. I'm Michael, executive director, Wachiay Friendship Centre, and Roger is the former program director and now in charge of our homeless outreach program at the Wachiay Friendship Centre. Roger has submitted the brief that he will be speaking directly to.

D. Ashton (Chair): Thanks, Michael, and good morning, Roger. So ten minutes. I'll give you a two-minute notice. I'm sorry to interrupt, but that's the only way I can do it, because I can't use hand signals. Please start. The floor is yours, and then there will be questions after.

R. Kishi: Okay. Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee. We have a very short presentation today. This is, I believe, the fourth time that Michael and I have appeared at the Finance Committee during budget consultations. The two items that we would like to focus on in our presentation today are the off-reserve aboriginal action plan and issues around homelessness and affordable housing in our community.

First of all, in our presentation around the off-reserve aboriginal action plan, or ORAAP, as it's known…. In British Columbia nearly three-quarters of all aboriginal people live off reserve, with 60 percent living in urban areas.

The Speech from the Throne in October 2011 acknowledged the importance of the off-reserve aboriginal population and committed the government to work with partners — with aboriginal partners, the federal government and local governments — to develop an off-reserve aboriginal action plan with the focus of improving socioeconomic outcomes of off-reserve aboriginal people in B.C. The Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation is tasked with coordinating ORAAP.

In October 2012 the B.C. government and the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres also signed a protocol agreement that supports the government's 2011 throne speech commitment to establish ORAAP. The protocol agreement outlines the partnership and principles that guide the work of both parties as they develop and implement the plan.

Although there are many programs and services that provide social supports to the off-reserve aboriginal population in B.C., poor socioeconomic conditions continue to exist in all key sectors: health, education, housing, employment and justice. Several factors are responsible for this, including the long history of colonization, systemic discrimination, structural violence and the degrading experience of residential schools, which have led to adverse multigenerational effects on aboriginal individuals and families.

As a result, many aboriginal families are currently living in multigenerational cycles of poverty, which has created several barriers, including limited participation in the labour market. Addressing these multi-layered challenges is the overall goal of ORAAP.

ORAAP must involve the collaborative efforts of aboriginal groups and communities, all orders of government, non-profits and the private sector to identify and overcome the barriers to aboriginal well-being that are unique to each community. This can be done by jointly working in a way that brings together resources, knowledge and creativity both at the community level and on a provincewide basis.

Given the complexity of the initiative and the need to
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involve a wide spectrum of stakeholders, ORAAP will also include support for collaborative social innovation approaches at the community level. To date, five pilot communities have begun the process of ORAAP, and those communities are Vancouver, Surrey, Prince George, Kamloops and Duncan.

What we would recommend in regards to ORAAP is that there be multi-year commitment and funding to the process and that this multi-year funding and commitment allow the program to expand to other communities in British Columbia. The Comox Valley and the Wachiay Friendship Centre would be very interested in participating in that process.

The second item that we would like to discuss is around homelessness and affordable housing. One of the partnerships that the Wachiay Friendship Centre has is with the M'akola Group of Societies. M'akola is an aboriginal-based housing society that provides subsidized housing and assisted living around the province.

Our partnership with M'akola is that I actually am the friendship centre's representative on the board of M'akola, but we've also established a local partnership between M'akola and the friendship centre looking towards the development of affordable housing here in the Comox Valley.

M'akola was established in 1984 as a non-profit society with a mission to provide safe, affordable housing options to people of aboriginal descent on Vancouver Island. M'akola now operates over 1,300 affordable housing units throughout British Columbia and houses over 3,000 tenants.

M'akola operates as a non-profit society, and in order to be sustainable, M'akola must ensure that housing units and the society overall are operated on a break-even basis. As federal and provincial subsidies expire, monthly rents must cover the costs of operating and maintaining properties. M'akola's goal is to provide affordable housing as well as an appropriate mix of market, or just below market, units in the communities in which we operate.

The issue that M'akola and other non-profit housing providers are facing these days is the expiry of operating agreements. Within those operating agreements are the subsidies that allow the societies to offer those rental units with a subsidy. But with the expiry of agreements with the federal and provincial government and the non-renewal of those agreements, the only way that these societies have to sustain or cover the costs of those units is through the rental charges.

These operating agreements are expiring as we speak. Some of them have already expired. The big crunch for M'akola is going to happen in 2017. So what M'akola has done is…. It's faced with the difficult decision that we will have to increase rents to cover costs where those units have lost their subsidies.

With that being the case, it will make the rents increase. Some of the figures that we're looking at with M'akola are that rents will increase anywhere between 50 percent to 200 percent, thus creating rents that are unaffordable to the tenants who are currently housed there, and could possibly decrease the stock of subsidized housing.

I guess the recommendation there is that senior levels of government — the province and the federal government, because there are operating agreements through B.C. Housing that are also expiring — look at renewing or at least having discussions with non-profit housing providers in maintaining the subsidies. With the maintenance of those subsidies, they would be maintaining affordable housing units in the province.

I did touch on, at the beginning of the discussion about affordable housing, that the partnership here in the Comox Valley between M'akola and the Wachiay Friendship Centre is that we have made presentations to the city of Courtenay about working with whatever entities there are, whether it's local government, whether it is non-profit societies, whether or not it's a private sector partner.

We're prepared to work with whatever organization in the development of affordable housing. Something that M'akola has been involved with throughout Vancouver Island and the province is the full spectrum of project development of affordable housing units.

D. Ashton (Chair): Roger, thank you very much, and Michael also. Roger, for the record, could we have your last name, please.

M. Elmore: Thanks for your presentation, Michael and Roger. Good to see you. With respect to your first recommendation, thanks for your update on the off-reserve aboriginal action plan. Currently, if I understand, it's a pilot project, and you're recommending that the commitment continue on and expand the program. Is that correct?

R. Kishi: Yes. In the five communities that it has rolled out in, they've come up with some plans and recommendations. But now you have to move on to the next stage of: how do you move on now to implementation? Without continued support, those communities where it's already started can't continue. Or if there's a delay, they may have to restart again. But there are a number of other communities — ours being one here in the Comox Valley — where we would really be interested in becoming involved in the process.
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M. Elmore: Thanks. In terms of your second recommendation, with regards to the expiration of the operating agreements to non-profit housing, my understanding is it's primarily federal. Is it also provincial? Or is it that the federal grants that come through are administered through the provincial government?

R. Kishi: Yes. The majority of the money is the federal money that flows through the province. It's the housing money federally that flows through the province. Our main fear is the decrease in the stock of affordable housing. The societies will be forced to increase rents to cover costs. But there are also some cases….

In the case of M'akola, where a lot of the rural native housing is transferred to M'akola, that whole asset has been transferred to M'akola. We do have the option of selling off properties that may be at the end of their life, and proceeds from those sales could support the society. But that still results in the decrease in the stock of affordable housing. You sell off a unit; there's one less.

M. Colclough: We are seeing, presently, rental subsidies being lost to the families in the community, which results in them being displaced from their subsidized housing. They approach our society under the housing outreach program for rental subsidies, which is funded through the provincial government.

One way or another, the funding is coming through one of the entities, the provincial government in this instance. Once the subsidy is lost, the families are now approaching us for a subsidy, which we can extend for up to six months under our B.C. Housing homeless outreach program.

Still, we're using provincial dollars there to subsidize. When that runs out, the family now has no option but to try and find lower-income housing.

G. Holman: Thanks for your presentation. Just wondering about ORAAP, what the current level of funding is for ORAAP. It's just around planning.

I guess the second question is: when the mortgages on the M'akola properties are paid down, does that free up resources for the society to continue to support rental units?

R. Kishi: In response to the first question about ORAAP, since we're not directly involved in it, we're not aware of what the funding levels are for the five communities that are involved in it right now.

When the B.C. Association of Friendship Centres was going to the provincial government and to this committee four years ago, the discussion at that time was for $3 million a year annually to support the 27 friendship centres in the province. Now that has morphed to ORAAP, so I wouldn't have those exact numbers.

For the other case about when the mortgages are paid down, yes, if the property is paid off and there's nothing owing on the mortgage. But there still are operating costs for housing. We still have to pay property taxes. We still have to pay all the things, as any other homeowner, so that does help the society.

At the same time, by the time there has been the expiry of the mortgage, a lot of those units are near the end of their useful life, because over the 20 or 25 years there haven't been adequate resources to do the proper maintenance that's provided. It's just recently that those assets have been transferred over to M'akola. Prior to that, they were either through the federal or provincial government, and the amount of money that was put aside each year to do the maintenance was inadequate.

G. Holman: Just one quick comment, or question. In the capital regional district there was a M'akola project that was just opened up in the Sooke area. The capital regional district has an affordable housing trust fund. I'm not making this comment to weaken your case for provincial-federal funding, but I'm wondering whether the regional district in your area has considered such a mechanism to at least be another partner in funding affordable housing projects.

R. Kishi: Putting on another hat, I'm also an elected official from the village of Cumberland, so I represent the village of Cumberland on the Comox Valley Housing Task Force. Right now the entity that we have in our regional district is a task force, and the main thrust of the task force right now is to try and determine an entity or agency or body that will move forward on the issue of affordable housing in our community.

There have been a number of reports and studies and standing committees and commissions over the last six or seven years, and we still haven't moved forward with any new units of affordable housing in our community.

I noticed that you have done quite a bit of work on a value-added aboriginal agricultural report.

One of the ideas that have been put forward is operating maybe as a co-op or a social enterprise. I'm wondering if there has been any work done tying that to affordable housing or housing opportunities.

M. Colclough: Yes, under the funding from the
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Agriculture Foundation of British Columbia, we completed our business plan and operational plans. The food corporation is known as Aq'saak Aboriginal Food. Products are being launched, manufactured, as we speak. We have an international supplier. We'll be moving products into China and across Canada.

This is a social enterprise to feed net profits back to the organization so that we aren't solely dependent upon federal and provincial funding. One of the aspects of that entity is that we will be hiring disadvantaged, physically and mentally challenged individuals within our community as well as aboriginal individuals.

At this point in time, to get to market before the cash flow of the year, which is the Christmas season, we are having everything privately contracted through agencies in Vancouver. We have a line of teas, a line of seasonings, chocolate bars, that are rather unique. That will be hopefully moved to the Comox Valley next year. We're presently looking at buildings where we can locate the business and purchase the equipment and start manufacturing our product line locally.

Michael, Roger, thank you very much for the presentations. Thank you, gentlemen, very much.

Welcome. The presentation is up to ten minutes. I'll give you a two-minute warning. We have five minutes for questions. The floor is yours.

J. Lobay: Good morning. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge that this hearing is taking place on traditional K'ómoks territory.

My name is Jacelyn Lobay. I'm the chairperson of the North Island Students Union, Local 72 of the Canadian Federation of Students. With me today is James Bowen. He's a former NIC student and is currently a staff person for our students union.

Our organization represents approximately 4,000 students from northern and central Vancouver Island, from Port Hardy to Port Alberni. A large part of our work is focused on advocating for a high-quality, accessible public education system, one that is publicly funded and affordable to people of all incomes.

For more than a decade our institutions have experienced decreasing public funding, which has fundamentally changed the way colleges and universities operate, shifting the funding of our institutions from public to private sources. Students' costs for post-secondary education have increased while core funding to our institutions and non-repayable grants have decreased, increasing barriers to accessing post-secondary education. Our members have increasingly taken on debt to fund their education and have prioritized seeking government commitment to reducing student debt.

The following five recommendations have been identified by students as priorities, with the objective being to improve access and ease student debt upon graduation.

The first recommendation is to reduce tuition fees at public post-secondary education to 2001 levels, with adjustments for inflation.

Number 2 is restoring operating funding to public post-secondary institutions to 2001 levels, adjusted for inflation.

Number 3 is restating government commitment to maintaining free adult basic education programs.

Number 4 is establishing a robust provincial student grants program that would provide upfront, needs-based, non-repayable funding for students.

According to NIC's 2012-2015 education plan, the mission of this college includes providing high-quality, affordable higher education and skills training. Included in this mission is a vision of the college as a "central force in improving the cultural and socioeconomic well-being of the communities we serve."

The recommendations I'm putting forward today would have a huge impact on our student population and ability of the college to continue fulfilling its mandate.

Let me tell you a little bit about NIC students and its potential student population. NIC's 2011-2012 Institutional Accountability Plan and Report states the percentage of individuals in our catchment areas receiving income assistance and employment insurance benefits is among the highest in B.C.

NIC's region also has a higher percentage of 18-year-olds who do not graduate from high school compared to the B.C. average as well as a lower percentage of 25- to 54-year-olds with post-secondary education than in the rest of B.C.

One of the main benefits of studying at North Island College is that it provides access to education at a lower cost and allows students to continue living in their communities, further increasing accessibility to education.

Our first recommendation — reducing tuition fees to 2001 levels — is made as a response to the rapid increase in tuition fees that must be paid to attend a post-secondary institution. As stated in my introduction, tuition fees in British Columbia have steadily increased, from $1,727 in 1990 to an average of $5,029 this year, which is a 300 percent increase over just one generation.

Many studies conclude that higher tuition fees deter students from low- to middle-income families. Statistics Canada reports that students from low-income families are less than half as likely to participate in university as those from high-income families.

Increasing participation among groups that are currently under-represented in post-secondary education — such as those from low-income families, those with no history of PSE in their families and aboriginal students
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— is very important and would benefit everyone in the communities we serve.

The HEQC report also found that one barrier to post-secondary education is price constraint, which is when the perceived costs of PSE outweigh the perceived benefit.

NIC is seeing a shift in enrolment from full-time to part-time students. Many of our students are supporting families or simply can't afford to live without working at the same time. As tuition fees continue to rise, those who are barely able to afford school now will likely not complete their education, as it will become too expensive for them, leaving low- to middle-income families without the opportunity for financial mobility through education.

Reducing tuition fees to 2001 levels will increase enrolment of domestic students in our institutions, redeem economic diversity on our campuses, provide a means of improving standards of living through educational attainment and provide some relief to students struggling to pay the higher cost of higher education.

This brings me to our second recommendation, which goes hand in hand with the first, to restore operating funding for colleges and universities to 2001 levels, with adjustment for inflation.

Funding our public institutions adequately would allow them to fulfil their mandate of granting access to education to all members of society. We recommend a return to a system of progressive income taxation, where British Columbians who have benefited from higher incomes contribute to the well-being of our society by contributing a higher percentage of their income through taxes than lower-income Canadians.

As our colleges and universities seek to recruit international students, they must be able to compete globally. They must be prepared to be leaders in education, research and technology. We must offer up-to-date facilities and high-quality education to attract the brightest to our institutions.

The B.C. government has invested in capital projects and initiatives to update existing facilities. Positive investments like these also require sufficient operational budgets, which have been gradually eroding since 2001 on a per-student basis.

This has led to decreased program offerings, reduced services and supports for students, deferred-maintenance liabilities and increased ancillary fees. Cuts to operational budgets have too often resulted in cuts to these services that students rely on.

Additionally, new programs are being introduced under our cost recovery model, with institutions finding ways to charge differential fees to recover the lost funding from operational budgets. Students seek a return to 2001 levels of core per-student funding, adjusted for inflation, to guarantee the integrity and maintenance of supports for optimal student outcomes.

Our third recommendation is a renewed commitment by the government to continue to offer free adult basic education. As the economy evolves, it is a new norm for many students to anticipate returning to school at some point during their life to upgrade their skills and/or change careers.

In looking back at the demographic of the NIC region — with a higher percentage of 18-year-olds who do not graduate from high school compared to the B.C. average as well as a lower percentage of 25- to 54-year-olds with post-secondary education than the rest of B.C. — the need for accessible ABE courses is pretty evident.

For the past six years students have been able to access ABE courses for free. However, due to shrinking budgets, course offerings are becoming more limited. And for many courses required for admission into post-secondary programs, they experience high wait-lists. This causes problems for students who wish to plan their path back to school. The limited course offerings also act as a barrier to gaining admission into academic and trades programs.

A commitment to providing free adult basic education by funding institutions sufficiently to meet demand is vital to allowing students and workers the ability to evolve with the economy, ensuring British Columbia's future prosperity.

Our next recommendation is to re-establish a robust, upfront provincial grant system of non-repayable financial aid. Similar to the federal government's Canada student grants, British Columbia can introduce a provincial student grants program which would reduce student debt repayable after graduation and provide financial assistance to B.C.'s neediest students.

Currently British Columbia falls behind all other provinces with the lowest amount of non-repayable grants offered to PSE students, resulting in the highest average student debt levels in the country. Effective distribution of financial aid will allow students who cannot afford to pay for their education up front to enter the system and support themselves and their families upon graduation from higher education.

These days many students graduate with massive debt and must spend their first ten years of career-building also servicing debt. New graduates with low levels of student debt would instead be able to pay back into the education system through taxes.

The British Columbia student loan program should also be restructured to reduce debt. A majority of students in B.C. cannot afford to pay high tuition fees up front and end up paying more than their peers because of interest rates that are the highest on student loans in Canada. Revenue from student loan interest gained by the provincial government adds up to only $30 million.

Reducing student debt in B.C. is as easy as eliminating the interest on student loans. We recommend this initiative to make student loans more equitable.

Ultimately, all of our recommendations are focused on
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providing adequate funding to our post-secondary system, with the understanding that investment in public education brings massive economic returns and better secures the future of our province. All of these recommendations will not only directly impact the lives of NIC students but will result in a more equitable B.C., which will have returns both socially and financially.

In closing, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in the budget consultation process today and for the committee's commitment to this work. Thank you for your time.

M. Elmore: Thanks for your presentation, Jacelyn and James. If I understand it, you mentioned that the high school graduation rate on the north Island is lower than the provincial average, which would put more pressure and demand in terms of adult basic education, those courses that people need to complete their grade 12 and also transition into post-secondary.

Did I hear you correctly that there is a wait-list for those adult basic education courses, and is it accurate that there's a backlog or that there's a lot of demand to get access to those courses to move into and transition to post-secondary?

J. Bowen: It's my understanding that at NIC, currently there is not necessarily a backlog.

M. Elmore: Right, thanks. Then just in terms of the ability to…. I know your argument around advocating for accessible and affordable post-secondary education — the ability to allow students to have those opportunities to move from high school graduation into enrolling in the colleges.

J. Lobay: Yes. They're a very important access point, those ABE courses, for students to move into post-secondary education, for those moving from high school. Then many people returning who have had other careers need to upgrade courses, or who just haven't attended post-secondary ed before.

It's extremely important to have that free access point to get them started in post-secondary education. Adding costs to that adds another level of cost to tuition fees over the course of their programs. As of right now, students are barely able to afford their degrees in the first place.

J. Bowen: It's the case that NIC here has maintained the commitment to free ABE, recognizing the importance of those bridging courses, where in other jurisdictions there has been some shift away from that. We're always thankful for that.

G. Holman: Thanks for your presentation — thoughtful, well-researched. You're probably aware that we've been hearing a very similar story throughout our travels. The question I've been asking student groups and post-secondary stakeholders….

You have a number of recommendations that you've made. If you had to prioritize, would you rank one or two proposals over others, or do you see them as a package that just comes together? Given the realities of funding constraints, are there some proposals that you would rank over others in terms of priority?

J. Bowen: I don't know necessarily that I'd rank them. I like the idea of the package. I appreciate the offer.

There are different ways to go about different things. One of the things that we've looked at on the interest rates for student loans and the idea of a grant program is that there's money already available, essentially, in the student aid area around tax credits. We could easily shift those over into a more palatable form for students to benefit up front. That would be a recommendation that we're pretty strong on. But I think all five of the recommendations have great importance for students.

D. Ashton (Chair): Well, thank you very much for the presentation. Very well done. It's good to see you stepping forward.

J. Bowman: Well, good morning to all of you. I have to say, by way of introduction, that I have the unenviable task of following what was a very well-researched, passionate and articulate presentation.

First of all, welcome to North Island College and the Comox Valley via technology. We're delighted to be the host venue for your session this morning, and I think it's fair to say that we're off to a great start.

I'm going to carry on, on the theme of post-secondary and of college programming in particular. My name is John Bowman, and I'm the president of North Island College. I just came to the Island on August 1 after working for many years at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George and Quesnel.

I wanted to say thank you to the committee for this opportunity. We're delighted to have input into the development of next year's provincial budget. In the short time that I have, I want to share a few comments in each of three areas.

Firstly, to provide a little bit more background on North Island College. Jacelyn and James already made
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some of the points that I was going to, so I'll skip over those.

Secondly, I want to draw to the committee's attention and highlight the unique fiscal and operational challenges that are experienced by our province's six smaller community colleges. North Island College is one of six that we refer to as smaller or rural institutions, and we serve amongst the largest parts of the province's geographic area.

Thirdly, I want to express support for the submission that your committee received last week — last Thursday, September 26 — by our provincial association, the B.C. Colleges.

I'm going to close my presentation by offering just three recommendations, and I hope that the committee will consider them for inclusion in your report.

Briefly, at North Island College we serve a geographic region comprised of six school districts, more than two-thirds of the land mass of Vancouver Island and a very significant portion, also, of the mainland coast from Desolation Sound to Klemtu. It's an area of 80,000 square kilometres and home to a population of about 160,000 people. North Island is home to 35 First Nations communities, and approximately 12 percent of our population is of aboriginal ancestry.

As Jacelyn mentioned, the high school non-completion rates are higher in our region than the provincial average. Similarly, completion of post-secondary credentials is lower in the North Island than in the province as a whole.

We operate and deliver programs from four campuses and a learning centre here in the Comox Valley, Courtenay, and also in Campbell River, Port Alberni, the Mount Waddington region, Port Hardy and Ucluelet, which I had the pleasure of visiting earlier this week.

We offer a comprehensive range of programs — a total of 100 credentialed areas of study and more than 1,000 individual courses — including adult basic education, business, health care, fine arts, human services, tourism and hospitality, a range of trades and technical education programs and, of course, university studies.

We deliver programs and services through traditional face-to-face methods. We also have seven on-line and hybrid programs, and we utilize high-definition, interactive television — which we're using today — to link all of our campuses and facilities together to deliver programming. We're very proud of the fact that North Island College has been the provincial and national leader in the use of distributed and distance learning.

We also are very proud of the institutional partnerships and student Pathways agreements that we have established between our institution and others. We have no less than 11 dual and guaranteed admission agreements for students intending to attend universities in British Columbia, elsewhere in Canada and also in the United States.

Working in partnership with our First Nations communities and more remote and smaller communities, we have been increasing our emphasis on in-community program delivery to provide access to learners for whom relocating to attend programs on campus is just not possible.

I'd like to turn now to what I'm going to refer to as the plight of small rural colleges. B.C.'s six smaller community colleges face some significant issues and challenges that are not shared by other larger and more urban post-secondary institutions.

We have multiple campuses, as I've already described, and typically, these consist of a combination of purpose-built facilities as well as temporary and leased buildings that oftentimes are less than ideal.

Our smaller total populations and lower densities of people limit the economies of scale that we are able to achieve compared to larger institutions situated in urban areas. Also, the vast distances between program and service delivery locations increase our costs and offer a variety of other logistical problems.

As mentioned, our regions are home to significant aboriginal populations, and as we all appreciate, these learners require additional supports for a variety of good reasons.

I can speak firsthand, also, about the tremendously high expectations that our communities have for their local colleges. We tend to be one, if not the only, available option close to home for education and training for small communities, and that needs to be considered, certainly.

These smaller colleges, including NIC, generally have amongst the lowest tuition rates in our provincial post-secondary education system. Colleges like North Island are highly dependent upon provincial government funding as the single largest source of revenue for our operations. Last year fully 74 percent of North Island College's income revenue came from direct provincial funding. Tuition revenues amount to only 15 percent of our total revenue, which is a substantially smaller part than the larger institutions — universities, BCIT and some of our urban sister colleges — which range anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of their total revenue being derived from student fees.

Small and rural colleges do not have access to other alternative and significant revenue streams — for example, large international education programs, ancillary businesses and substantial pay-parking revenues that are possible in larger cities.

If, across the board, one-size-fits-all percentage reductions to institutional funding are implemented in 2014-15, those cuts would have a disproportionately larger and negative impact on small rural colleges because the loss of an equal percent of government funding is, in reality, a larger proportion of our total revenue as compared to other institutions.

We have, as I've said, very few, if any, avenues to com-
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pensate for reduced provincial funding. Sadly, the resulting impact on our colleges and the communities we serve would be to require reductions to programs and services at a time when support for the provincial economy and our labour market demands more graduates, not fewer.

I think it's interesting to note that many students in the province face substantially different tuition rates for exactly the same program and curriculum, depending upon where they live and which institution is delivering the program. I'll just cite one example.

Trades training is a big priority for the province and for our post-secondary institutions. North Island College, Okanagan, BCIT and Vancouver Island University all offer a carpentry foundation program. The tuition rates respectively are $2,558 at NIC, $3,047 at Okanagan, $3,046 at BCIT and $3,212 at Vancouver Island University.

Speaking of trades, I want to just mention that North Island College and our sister institutions that form the Trades Training Consortium of B.C. are very pleased to have the opportunity to have input into the core review of the Industry Training Authority that is being led by Jessica McDonald.

The current provincial tuition limit policy has been in place for many years, and it regrettably is severely impacting the sustainability of our smaller colleges that are already the most affordable institutions from a student cost perspective.

The affordability of college education is clearly substantiated on the basis of generally lower tuition fees. Most of our students are resident within our regions, so they do not incur the substantial costs associated with moving and living away from home.

I want to state clearly that we're not proposing the complete deregulation of tuition fees, or that institutions implement large, across-the-board percentage increases. Rather, I'm calling for a more rational and less simplistic policy that considers program-related factors, including labour market demand; the current large disparities between provincial communities and regions; and perhaps the establishment of provincial benchmark tuition rates by major program type.

I think, again, it's important to stress that any one-size-fits-all approach to funding or policy implementation will most likely be unfair to many British Columbians residing in the rural college regions. Their access to college programs and services is already limited, inequitably, by the lack of fiscal capacity within the smaller institutions and by expectations for minimum class sizes needed to achieve what is deemed acceptable FTE utilization.

In closing, my recommendations are simply that we need to review and revise the provincial tuition limit policy so that it provides greater fairness for citizens, and for improved sustainability of our small public post-secondary institutions.

Secondly, I urge the consideration of the distinctive fiscal challenges and operational realities which impact the small rural colleges in the apportionment of any savings that might need to be achieved in total funding to post-secondary institutions next year.

Lastly, support for the multi-year investment plan proposed by our B.C. Colleges association.

I thank you for your time, and I'd be delighted to answer any questions that you might have.

D. Ashton (Chair): John, thank you very much for the good presentation. Please accept my apologies for interrupting, but I have no way to catch your eye. So that's the problem.

M. Elmore: Thanks for your presentation, John. I think you make an excellent case in terms of the difficulties and challenges faced by rural colleges here in British Columbia.

In terms of your second recommendation, are you proposing a change in terms of the funding model for rural colleges?

J. Bowman: Yes. I think the challenges we face in order to provide equitable access to post-secondary education to all citizens of the province — the consideration of multi-campus issues, low-population densities…. In particular, the model FTE utilization has been, for a long time, the mantra of the provincial government, and frankly, we shouldn't be held to the same class-size expectations in places like Port Hardy or Port McNeill, for example, that apply to larger communities.

I believe strongly that if we can achieve a class size of eight or ten in some of our small communities, that should be a viable program offering and that 16 should not necessarily be the standard.

M. Elmore: Thanks. In terms of the multi-year investment plan for B.C. colleges, can we get a copy of that? I haven't seen that.

J. Bowman: That was presented last week, I believe, by Jim Reed, the B.C. Colleges association president, on Thursday.

J. Yap: Thank you, John, for your presentation. You mention that your college and other smaller colleges do not have access to other alternative revenue streams, like international students. International students, of course, are a continued focus for our government.
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We have seen some great success stories among some post-secondary institutions that started some years ago with very few international students and today have many international students. It didn't happen overnight. You know, they built it up over time.

VIU, as you know, has quite a significant international student presence, which they developed over time. I just want your thoughts on whether you see potential there, longer term, to develop international students for North Island College. Or are you not interested in pursuing it?

J. Bowman: Oh no, absolutely. We're very interested in international education, and we have a small but growing program. This year we'll have approximately 150 students from more than 20 countries taking classes at North Island College. But 150 compared to 1,600 — or over 2,000 in places like Kamloops…. The ability of smaller communities like the Comox Valley to accommodate and support thousands of students is just not realistic.

We do have a vibrant and successful international education program, but frankly, it's not going to be the solution to our financial challenges in terms of generating net revenue to replace any loss in government funding. It's important. We value it not only for the revenue but for the benefits that it brings to our campus in internationalizing the experience of Canadian students.

I'm sure it will grow beyond what we have today. It's a goal and a priority for us, but it's not going to be a cash cow that is able to sustain our institution going forward in the long term.

J. Yap: You mentioned 15 percent is where the tuition fee is collected, as a percentage of overall revenue. How does North Island compare to other colleges? Are you in the ballpark, or are you actually…?

J. Bowman: We're at the bottom, yeah. Rural institutions have made a commitment over the last decade to remain affordable. Years ago institutions were — as it was articulated earlier by the students union — increasing tuition rates by large percentages. The smaller colleges didn't do that, recognizing that we wanted to maintain access. That has effectively trapped us and other smaller colleges, though, with very low tuition rates and a low percentage of our total revenue coming from that source.

That means that when government funding doesn't increase — or, God forbid, it's decreased — we really are at a disadvantage and behind the eight ball.

Good morning, Helen. Thank you for coming. We've allotted ten minutes for the presentation and five minutes for questions. Please, the floor is yours.

H. Furgale: We would like to thank you, initially, for allowing the chamber of commerce to present our views on what we believe the government priorities for the 2014 provincial budget should be. Firstly, we wish to recognize the government's ongoing efforts to manage and grow our economy during these challenging global economic times.

The chamber believes that the starting point for government should be ensuring that we achieve a balanced budget, which is truly the first step forward in developing a strong economy and a debt-free future. Government must continue to show fiscal responsibility and to not spend more money than is collected, obviously, from taxpayers.

The ministry has asked for ideas on how to improve how our government delivers programs and services that affect our communities. We will address four areas today which we feel should be top priority for the province for the coming year: provincial sales tax reform, the commercial tax system, employment programming in B.C. and the K-to-12 education system.

That's a lot. We start off with the provincial sales tax reform. B.C.'s tax competitiveness has been seriously undermined by the public rejection of the harmonized sales tax, or the HST. This has been compounded by the fact that the HST has been replaced with an essentially unchanged provincial sales tax. As a small, open-trading jurisdiction, this cannot be left unaddressed if B.C. wishes to remain competitive.

This is an issue of particular importance for small businesses, given B.C.'s reliance on small and medium-sized business for our economic prosperity. Despite the obvious benefits of an HST, the chamber recognizes that the public has spoken through the referendum and that there is no appetite for the reintroduction of a harmonized sales tax. However, we feel that reform is required.

The chamber recommends that the provincial government commits to a dialogue with British Columbians on the development of a made-in-B.C. value-added sales tax system to enhance B.C.'s competitiveness and productivity. Both the value-added tax — VAT — and PST are consumption taxes. However, they differ in the manner in which goods and services are taxed. VAT is a tax at the consumer spending level, whereas PST is a tax at both the consumer level and the business level.

VAT is applied to the sales price charged for goods or services at every point in the supply chain. Businesses are responsible for reporting and remitting the VAT tax collected on the sale of goods and services but can also claim a credit of VAT that it incurs on the cost of materi-
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als and other taxable costs.

PST is a single-stage tax. Tax is only imposed when a purchase is acquired for their own consumption or use. If the acquirer is acquiring the property or service for resale, PST does not apply.

As provided by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants commodity tax division, in the choice between either a VAT or a PST, a VAT is far superior of the two because it adheres more closely to generally accepted tax policy principles. Economically, a VAT system raises tax revenues while having the least impact on economic performance of the country or province, whereas PST is a significant impediment to productivity and growth.

From a tax administration perspective, while theoretically a VAT is marginally more expensive to administer than a PST, a VAT is obviously less susceptible to evasion. It is our position as a chamber that the provincial government should transition away from the PST to a VAT system, which will be to the benefit of the entire province.

The second area which we'd like to discuss or address is to modify the commercial tax system. It is well known that B.C.'s small business sector is critical to wealth generation and our capacity to grow and innovate as a province. But small businesses today are finding it increasingly difficult to compete against a myriad of factors that include the proliferation of giant retail stores in our area and on-line shopping.

The chamber believes that reform of the current commercial tax system is required to help level the playing field for small businesses. Along with our mayor — the city of Courtenay's mayor, Larry Jangula — the chamber would like to see the provincial government establish different commercial zones for businesses. Under the current legislation, when a piece of property is zoned commercial, a one-size-fits-all approach applies, and it deems the multiplier the same number for a small or a large-sized business.

Mayor Jangula recently received approval on his resolution at the Union of B.C. Municipalities. In regard to class 6 commercial properties zoning, he has proposed that the zoning be changed in order to allow a number of different zones within the class 6 zoning. For example, a multiplier of one may be placed on a small business, a multiplier of two on a medium-sized business, one of three on a strip mall or an auto dealership and perhaps a five on a big-box store. Currently all commercial properties are taxed at 2.85.

The proposed system would accomplish a levelling of the playing field between larger firms and small businesses, which are under a great deal of financial pressure these days. In the end, the city would likely collect the same amount of commercial tax dollars, but it would come from different sources. Under the current system, to lower the commercial rate, the residential rate must be increased — which, in turn, raises concerns from homeowners.

The chamber recommends that the provincial government take the momentum provided with the passing of the resolution of the UBCM and establish more flexibility in commercial zones for businesses.

The third area where we're raising some concerns is the employment program of B.C. This past July Don McRae, Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation, was quoted in Hansard as saying that the provincial government has returned $60 million of federal funding. This was transferred under the labour development agreement for the fiscal year of 2012-13. He further indicated that his ministry was working hard to reduce the amount of funds that would be returned from this year's fiscal budget.

The provincial government's failure to spend federal transfer funds is a missed opportunity of colossal proportions for tens of thousands of British Columbians who should have been able to access the services that these funds were meant to provide. It is our understanding that the reason these funds were unspent is because the new employment program in B.C. is restrictive and difficult for British Columbians to access.

Employers are very concerned that the provincial government is not fully meeting its mandate of increasing the skill levels of unemployed workers in B.C.

We are also aware that the province has spent $194 million on a data collection system, the integrated case management or ICM, which has been reported to be unusable and is deflecting valuable staff time to excessive administration and taking them away from serving the public. This raises concerns about whether the province will deliver on its promise to raise the skill levels of unemployed workers. Without skilled workers, our economy cannot grow.

It is our chamber's position that the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation should be taking all steps necessary to ensure that unemployed people and employers in our province get full benefit from the employment programming in B.C.

The last issue is the education system. K-to-12 education is one of the backbones of our economy and our society. In a rapidly changing and ever more connected world, having a positive, progressive, technologically relevant education system is paramount to maintaining our way of life. The key to maintaining a competitive workforce is the teaching of critical-thinking skills and problem-solving. Unfortunately, you won't see a class on these topics in any of our primary or secondary school calendars.

Furthermore, the main focus of our entire education system is still the pursuit of post-secondary education and, ideally, a doctorate. The reality of our workforce and society is that we need a far broader range of skills, trades and professionals than our education system is currently designed to produce. To quote a March 1999 report from
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the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:

"As we move to what many are calling the knowledge-based economy, where the ability to add value based on the use of information and knowledge is critical, the call for a better-educated workforce is not a luxury but a necessity. In addition to literacy, numeracy and specific job skills, today's job market demands skilled communicators with computer skills and the capacity to negotiate different cultures and economic systems."

Important to our job strategy is preparing today's children for tomorrow's jobs. We encourage the province to undertake a review of the K-to-12 school curriculum, in concert with business stakeholders, to ensure that students are being adequately prepared with the necessary employability skills and to increase spending in a responsible, pragmatic manner to maintain and increase our competitive edge.

We further encourage the province to begin a paradigm shift in the delivery and focus of our education system, away from the direct streaming to graduate degrees and toward a broader base of trades, professions and services to better serve our society and citizens.

In conclusion, the chamber wishes to stress that when economic conditions permit, we must mitigate costs for future generations. Once balanced budgets are achieved, a requirement to dedicate at least 50 percent of our surplus to debt repayment is encouraged.

Thank you for your time, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

G. Holman: Thanks very much for your presentation. I must say it's really refreshing to see a chamber of commerce quoting from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

I had a question about the UBCM approval of creating classes within class 6. I understand the intent is to be revenue-neutral, which means you're shifting property taxes from smaller to, say, larger. That may be simplistic, but essentially, that's what would…. On what basis do you make those distinctions within class 6, within that category?

And by the way, this is an assessment authority recommendation. This is what the assessment authority would have to kind of figure out.

H. Furgale: Right. Well, I guess on the surface one could initially sort of look at gross revenues and try to evaluate who's in a better position to pay some of the higher fees.

It's a huge issue in our community. We're seeing a lot of our small businesses encountering very difficult times because of the high tax rates. If we could look at a system that's more equitable, it would certainly be a benefit to small businesses here in our valley, and I imagine it would be the same in any other small community.

G. Holman: Just a comment on the return of $60 million to the federal government. Is it essentially funds for training? Is that how you would describe those funds?

H. Furgale: Well, in 2009 the federal government devolved all their employment programming to British Columbia. So the funding dollars that had been formerly administered and delivered through the federal government through the Department of Employment and Immigration is now taken over by Social Development and Social Innovation.

When they took over the funds, they decided to redevelop the program, and they came up with one program that replaced all of the employment programming. It's called the employment plan in B.C. The way it's structured, it is so bureaucratic that people are unable to access programming because of stringent requirements accessing some of the programming.

Unemployed workers, people that have come off employment insurance, are no longer able to access things like skill training, the self-employment program. We've looked at some of the numbers in our community where these two programs, which used to be very vibrant and support our economy…. Their numbers are so limited now and so reduced. That's why some of these funds are being returned to the federal government — because they're not being utilized.

They have a data collection system called the ICM, which is creating huge difficulties in terms of allowing staff to do their job and get people through the system and into programming such as North Island College delivers.

D. Ashton (Chair): Well, thank you very much, Helen. We're out of time. Thank you for the presentation.

D. Ashton (Chair): Oh, good. We have ten minutes for the presentation. I apologize. I have to interrupt you at eight minutes to give you a warning because you can't see any hand signals. Then we have time allotted for questions and comments. The floor is yours, sir.

My name is Kel Kelly. I'm a politician in recovery living in greater western Merville. I never take the opportunity to directly address my government representatives for granted. This is perhaps more poignant today, given that more than 300 million neighbours to the south of us don't even have a government to address today.
[ Page 443 ]

I am supportive of the idea of a core review process in principle but more than a bit perturbed by how my government is going about this process. I'm not alone in discovering that the only opportunity I will be given to participate is right here, right now, for ten minutes.

As I understand it, the vast majority of British Columbians, who haven't made this discovery by chance, as I did, will not have any other opportunities to provide their government with their creative ideas and their feedback on core review. I would love it if you could assure me at the end of this presentation that I'm wrong about this by letting me know right after this presentation that there will in fact be ample other opportunities for the citizens of B.C. to participate in the core review.

Given the limited time this morning, however, I want to focus on one item that is of major concern to many, many people here in the Comox Valley community and across the province, and that is the agricultural land reserve.

I may be mistaken and once again would love to be corrected by the committee, but I have a quote here from Minister Bennett, the minister in charge of the core review process, that says: "We're going to look at some sacrosanct things, like certain agencies. We're going to look at the agricultural land reserve and the Agricultural Land Commission."

He goes on to say: "I'm going to look at things that politicians have been nervous about looking at over the years and ask to better understand how they make their decisions and why they make their decisions and determine whether they're structured to help achieve the goals of our provincial government."

I'd like to make my best effort to answer those three points, as raised by Minister Bennett. The first is how the Agricultural Land Commission makes its decisions. It's hard for me to imagine that after 40 successful years of operation, your committee does not yet "understand" how the ALC makes decisions. The best and most direct way for you to find out would be to spend more time with people both at the Agricultural Land Commission and with real people, like the farmers on our longstanding Agricultural Advisory Committee, to get that answer directly from those people.

The process, with all its rough edges, has been established, streamlined and enhanced continuously for four decades. It works not only in our community but around the province. The agricultural community would have all of the answers that you seek about how decisions are made regarding the ALC. Creating enough time to consult with them would be beneficial for everyone, including the members of your committee.

Number 2, raised by Mr. Bennett: why the Agricultural Land Commission makes decisions. The answer to this question can easily be found on the website of the ALC itself. There are three guiding principles that drive the decisions made by the ALC. The first is to preserve agricultural land. The second is to encourage farming on agricultural land, in collaboration with other communities of interest. And the third is to encourage local governments, First Nations and, I stress here, the provincial government and its agents to enable and accommodate farm use of agricultural land and uses compatible with agriculture in their plans.

The reason I'm wanting to address this point today is that I recognize your committee as agents of my government, and I really hope that you take the mandate of the ALC into account in your plans.

The answer to your "why" question, then, is simple. The province — and that includes the committee — is mandated to enable and accommodate farm use and uses compatible with agricultural land in your plans. So that's a relief, then, and I hope answers question No. 2.

Number 3 of Mr. Bennett's points: determine whether they — the ALC and the ALR — are structured to help achieve the goals of our provincial government. I've heard on a number of occasions that some of the goals of our provincial government are generating revenue, creating jobs and keeping our economy robust.

At first glance, as a primary industry — excluding commercial fishing, aquaculture or post–farm processing — agriculture seems like a bit player with sales in 2011 of $2.6 billion, representing a contribution to gross domestic product of just 0.8 percent. Government figures show agriculture employs only 26,000 people out of a total labour force of 2.3 million. In the provincial government the Ministry of Agriculture receives the least of all ministries.

I'm guessing that you have seen these types of figures and that they possibly influence the way that your committee might be looking at the agricultural land reserve. But growing vegetables and raising livestock are only part of the economic story. Agriculture output must be processed, packaged and delivered to consumers.

The supply chain is where value-added in the agriculture industry is to be found here in British Columbia. Add to production the processing, transportation, warehousing, wholesaling and retailing of food, and agriculture rivals manufacturing as the largest industry group in B.C., with revenues of more than $40 billion annually and nearly 300,000 workers. Those figures represent 13.6 percent of B.C.'s labour force and nearly 19 percent of provincial GDP. Food and beverage processing, comprising 1,400 small and medium-sized firms, is the largest manufacturing activity in the province.

B.C.'s 20,000 farms are already highly productive, occupying less than 3 percent of the provincial land base, or roughly 2.8 million hectares. Yet exports from that acreage equal $1.5 billion annually of agricultural products to more than 140 different markets in 2011, an increase of 7 percent over 2010.

Agricultural exports from British Columbia are rising faster, in terms of contribution to the economy, than any other sector in British Columbia at this time.

So I hope that all of this helps to achieve the goals of our provincial government. I certainly hope that you can see that it does.

Lastly, it is important to note that agricultural revenues are on a rising curve that can only continue to climb. The 2011 Census of Agriculture, released last May, reported that farm revenues rose at a faster rate than farm expenses, resulting in slightly improved profit margins — good news for B.C. farms, of which 98 percent are family operations, small businesses.

I've heard some rumours that the ALR is on your table, as your core services review committee, because it is an impediment to other economic plans that our government may have. I've seen written speculation that the ALR might be seen by some of my political representatives as getting in the way of expansion of petroleum and LNG pipelines or the creation of new hydro projects — say, for example, the Site C dam.

If you are looking at the ALR as an impediment to economic growth, I suggest you are looking at it the wrong way. Name one other impediment that generates 20 percent of provincial GDP, with $40 billion annual revenue, that is guaranteed to keep going up. The ALR is money in the bank. It is just starting to show its economic potential.

I hope this presentation helps you to find the answers you are seeking about what you describe — quite properly, in my opinion — as our sacrosanct agricultural land reserve. It is more than paying its way. It is working well. It deserves ongoing protection from you, our government. And I hope that from an economically and socially responsible government, we could expect to see ongoing protection recommended by your committee for the agricultural land reserve.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to present my thoughts to you today. I welcome your questions.

D. Ashton (Chair): Okay, Kel, thank you very much. Just before I go, one of the members has a question or comment. I just want to assure you that, in a discussion that I had yesterday, we will absolutely take any input like what you have just presented to the committee in the direction that you've asked it be presented for, which is the ALC and the ALR.

But in the core services review, I was assured yesterday that there'll be lots of opportunity for presentations and comments and discussion around the core services review. So this is not the only opportunity. The core services review — the process has just been initiated, and it carries on until December 31, 2014. There will be lots of opportunity for input.

E. Foster: Thanks for your presentation. I guess my concern with your presentation.... And we've heard from others. You commented on rumours that are out there about the plan to scrap the land reserve or plans to cut it out. Then we hear from yourself and other presenters that we don't need to look at the land reserve, that the land reserve does a good job.

In that case I would suggest…. In the budget this year an additional $4 million came out of Agriculture to go to the Land Commission to continue their good work. If in fact we don't need to do anything with the Land Commission, we could probably put that $4 million somewhere else.

We have a lot of people that have issues with the land reserve. They have concerns and questions. The whole idea of the discussion is, hopefully, to alleviate a lot of those concerns and put them to sleep. If we do not bring these out for discussion, then there's no opportunity to answer the questions that people have. Then rumours on the other side of this thing develop — you know, it's an organization that's totally against everything.

I think bringing something to the discussion table is always a good idea. As a recovering politician, you should know that rumours just cause problems for everyone.

K. Kelly: I do. Thank you for that. I value that we need to have debates on every item, both pro and con. We need to continually revisit.

All I'm leaving with you, I hope, is a message that…. The last survey that I saw about support for the Land Commission was well over 85 percent of British Columbians in support. So while it's on the table, I just want my opportunity to say that I hope you hear those other concerns of that 15 percent that don't support it or have other interests, integrate those thoughts into your considerations and then resolve to hear what the vast majority of British Columbians like myself have to say about the ALR.

I appreciate that we need to open this up and have conversations and revisit these issues from time to time.

L. Popham: Thanks for presenting. I thought you did a great job. Given that we are a bipartisan committee, I think that, with working together, we're still able to have our own personal opinions as MLAs that sit at this table.

L. Popham: I would agree that things need to be continually looked at. But I'd just like to say on record that we've just done a review of the Agricultural Land Commission, and we do have an excellent business plan that was put forward by the chair of the Agricultural
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Land Commission. So I believe your concerns are valid.

D. Ashton (Chair): Kel, I just want to restate and also make sure…. This committee's input for Finance ends October 16. It's the last date that we can get input. There are going to be other opportunities. But the input for people with concerns for the Finance Committee, which is also accepting concerns for the core services…. You're more than welcome, but please have that input in before October 16.

K. Kelly: Could you please advise me so I can tell others what method that input would be and how we can reach you and how citizens from my community can reach you?

D. Ashton (Chair): It can come in by fax. It can come in by letter. It can come in by video. It can come in by e-mail.

Please go to the government website. We're easy to find on it, underneath the Finance Committee, underneath the Legislative Assembly. So please get it in. Like I said, October 16 is the cut-off date. And just so you know, the instruction, sir, is www.leg.bc.ca/budgetconsultations. That'll give you the direction from there.

K. Kelly: All right. Thank you very much, and I appreciate your hard work on our behalf.

D. Ashton (Chair): Thank you, and don't forget there are other opportunities coming forward, other than this committee.

Good morning, folks. I have Martin, Danielle, and April. Welcome. Thank you for coming today. We have ten minutes allotted for the presentation, five minutes for questions and answers.

I do apologize. I have to interrupt your conversation because I have no way to signal you that there are two minutes left. So I will, as gracefully as I can, interrupt you at eight minutes and give you a heads-up on that. The floor is yours.

D. Hoogland: My name is Danielle Hoogland. I am the Comox Valley literacy outreach coordinator and an employee of Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Association, the organization that is supported by Decoda Literacy Solutions to lead our community literacy planning process. I'm joined by Martin Petter, who is the president of CVLLA, and April Lewis, who is from Hornby Island Educational Society.

First, we would like to thank the B.C. government for the funding you provide to Decoda Literacy Solutions for the coordination of literacy work across the province. Both Hornby Island Educational Society and Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Association receive funds from Decoda to collaborate with our community partners to deliver community-based literacy and learning programs — unique programs that support people who are not served by other organizations or learning institutions such as school districts and colleges.

These funds also allow us to raise awareness of literacy in our communities and focus on getting books in the hands and homes of families, which is where early learning skills are developed and fostered. Your funding enables us to reach all parts of the community.

Here in the Comox Valley we are reaching families through comprehensive family literacy programming. One example is a program that focuses on increasing the literacy skills of parents so that they in turn support fundamental literacy development in their children. The program is premised on the belief that parents are a child's first and most important teacher.

Within the program parents are given the opportunity to work on their literacy and numeracy skills with either a trained adult literacy tutor or a college ABE instructor. They can work on employment readiness and essential skills as well. While parents are learning, their children are engaged with child care providers in play and arts-based activities.

We also support parents in learning how to help their children learn the importance of reading age-appropriate books — for example, the importance of rhymes and songs and, of course, the importance of playing with their children.

Another component of the program is food and health literacy, making simple and healthy meals, emphasizing eating together and discussing how to shop economically for healthy local fresh food. This family literacy program is supported by multiple community partners. That's leveraging the resources and impact that the program has.

One of our program participants demonstrates how critical family literacy programs are in our community. A mother of three, Denise, had her first child at 15. When we first presented the family literacy program to her, she said that she had no interest in being anything but a mom. She was extremely skeptical of the program, wanted nothing to do with school but at the same time was attracted to the program because of the meals she and her children would have and because of the hours that she would have away from her children to work on her own learning. Keep in mind that Denise can't afford child care, so she is with her young children 24-7.

We were fortunate to have received funding to have a college upgrade instructor work with participants for an hour on their English and math skills. After getting to know the instructor, Denise asked to have her English college assessment. She began to dream that she could
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be more than a mom.

She explored college programs and got excited about the health care aide program. She had a goal. During the program she worked on developing her writing skills. Initially, she struggled to produce three consecutive sentences. After working with the upgrading instructor, she produced 20 sentences on a topic that was meaningful to her.

She was hooked. She understood that she could learn and apply herself. She took time outside the program to visit the college campus and meet with academic planning and student support. She applied for the adult education program and organized applications for funding support as well as a child care subsidy. She also secured her son a place in the child care centre on the college campus.

Denise is now a college student, a future health care aide. Who knows? Given her determination, she might become a nurse or physician. Her life has completely changed. She still attends the program and shares her excitement for learning with other parents. Now other moms, most of them on various forms of social assistance, are looking at upgrading. They're inspired by Denise.

Another parent of this program is a Sri Lankan immigrant mother with two children. Although well educated, she struggles with her English. During the program, she worked on her writing and grammar. She then connected with the employment readiness facilitator, who connected her to an entrepreneurial program. Wonota has now started her own catering business, and she sells Sri Lankan cuisine at our local farmers market.

What is important about a program like this is that it is a gateway program to further education and employment. It is about building community, gaining confidence, accessing resources, and it's about moms and dads becoming the best teachers they can be to their children. Investing in parents is an investment in their children's education.

A. Lewis: Hi, my name is April Lewis. I'm the executive director for the Hornby Island Educational Society. We offer a variety of educational support services on the island, including literacy outreach. We've been funded for that program since November of 2010. We now receive that funding from Decoda Literacy Solutions to help support our work, specifically around life skills literacy. Like the Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Association, we too initiate and coordinate activities and programs that develop support and enhance literacy skills in children and families.

As a rural community, we have different challenges. We have very few social support services in the community and very limited and costly access to resources off-island. Ferry costs for one town trip now are $63.20 if you have a Coastal Experience Card and $88.20 without it. Consequently, our literacy outreach program may be the only resource available to our community.

Our client base includes community members of all ages — adults without children, adults who face multiple barriers to employment and adults without the skills, knowledge or ability to either find or access resources that would improve the quality of their lives and reduce the emotional and financial costs associated with more urgent and critical situations.

An example of this is an older male with physical and mental health challenges that eventually led to his being homeless. A friend gave permission for our LOC to contact him. She was then able, over time, to support him to identify and access those resources that met his needs. She also coordinated the initial responses from the various off-island agencies that became involved in his life.

He's now living in a supported environment. He's recovering his physical and mental health, and he's able to manage his own affairs with little support now.

Without the support of our literacy outreach coordinator to assist him with the multitude of forms and applications that he needed to fill out, he would not have been able to return to a life of self-sufficiency or self-respect, and he would have required much, much more expensive care from our health system.

This literacy support funding given to the communities through Decoda — both urban and rural communities — not only supports community members to increase their personal capacity and self-esteem; it leads to reduced barriers for employability and reduced need for other, much more expensive government services. It's a win for everyone, short term and long term.

On behalf of our island and other rural communities in B.C., we ask that the funding be restored to its previous $2.5 million budget and flow through Decoda, and that will serve our community very well.

M. Petter: Good morning, my name is Martin Petter. I just wanted to add a couple of comments very briefly.

The positive impact of higher literacy levels on communities as a whole cannot be denied. It affects everything from health care to employment to the economy. To increase literacy rates improves a community's ability to participate in today's B.C. jobs plan.

We are here to ask that you continue to provide the minimum amount of funding required for the coordination of literacy work — $2½ million for the province. Currently there is only $1 million in this year's budget. We are also asking that you provide the minimum amount consistently over multiple years so we can continue to improve the quality of life for people in our communities.

This funding makes a difference in people's lives, and it builds stronger communities. Our community is a tes-
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tament to that.

D. Ashton (Chair): Martin, Danielle and April, thank you very much. Your organizations have been very progressive in coming forward, and we've been hearing this message as we've been travelling around the province.

I don't see any, so thank you for the presentation. I have one favour to ask you, though. We're a bit blind on this side. You know that there are seven of us in the room. How many people are present in the room at this point in time — in your room?

D. Ashton (Chair): Okay, good. Thanks. We did hear some clapping, but we just weren't sure.

G. Holman: Hi, folks. Just a quick comment further to Dan's comment. Part of the reason why we're not asking questions is because there have been so many presentations by related groups. You know, we get the message loud and clear. You've made your point.

Good morning. Thank you for coming. We have scheduled ten minutes. I'll give you a warning at eight minutes — I do apologize that I may have to interrupt you; I'll try and pick the time — then five minutes for questioning.

C. Reader: Thanks very much. My name is Cheyla Reader, and I'm here to talk to you about the importance of sport in British Columbia.

I come from an athletic family. My mother competed at the national level in tennis, my dad competed in the World Police and Fire Games, and my brother, Martin Reader, represented Canada for beach volleyball at the London 2012 Olympics. My own journey with sport led me to play five years of college volleyball, and I currently coach senior girls' volleyball at a local high school, Vanier here in Courtenay.

As someone who was raised with sport woven into my daily life, I know the transforming power of athletics well. It was here in the Comox Valley that my brother's dream to reach the Olympics was born, back when we were little kids and were exposed to international-calibre beach volleyball at an exhibition.

Thankfully, there happened to be coaches in place who were able to start the foundation of skills necessary for his chosen sport. We had friends in town that took a personal interest in his growth as an athlete and dedicated time to coach him. He gained exposure through events like the B.C. Summer Games and beach volleyball tournaments throughout his teen years. But where would Martin's dream have gone without the numerous people who took an interest in his development?

As a coach at Vanier, the local high school, I saw 35 girls in grades 9 and 10 try out for the junior girls volleyball team. Unfortunately, the team had to be pared down to 12 athletes because only one woman had stepped up to take on a coaching role. What happens to the 23 girls who don't have a chance to play? What will they do with their time and energy?

As a competitive athlete myself and also as a sister of an Olympian, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt how important sports are to our development as people and in the formation of leadership skills. Absolutely every one of us, in order to contribute to the world around us, needs to know how to learn. No matter the setting we are in, there are always learning opportunities.

Being able to learn with grace and humility is crucial to job competency, which is where most of us spend our waking hours as adults. Sports provide a boot camp of learning skills. No matter the level of play, there is always so much to learn.

Most of us will spend our lives interacting with a variety of people in the workplace, in our communities and through social settings. I am so thankful for all the years I played on teams. I learned how to be a contributing member of a group and to take on different roles, depending on the situation. Athletics forces people into close contact with each other as they strive toward a goal, and there is no way to simulate the learning that comes from this kind of environment.

Not only do participants strive toward goals together, but they also make mistakes, fail to achieve those goals and walk straight into challenging situations. I think of my brother Martin's road to the Olympics, when his dislocated big toe interfered with his chance to play. He had to play through immense pain to keep his dream of going to London alive. Perhaps a big-toe dislocation does not sound like much, but when you're running around barefoot in the sand, it is not exactly comfortable, to say the least.

Although Martin played through his pain, he and his beach volleyball partners still lost an extremely important game. Not only did he have to face and deal with his physical pain but also the emotional stress of a tougher road to qualify for the Olympics.

This is what we admire in the Olympians we see on TV: their ability to push through challenges to reach their goals. It is not an easy journey to represent your country at the highest level, and developing the character traits to overcome obstacles and dig deep when times are tough may be one of the most important legacies high-level
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athletes leave behind.

Perhaps as an aside, but equally important to these character traits developed through sport, athletes learn about their bodies and the importance of health so they can perform at their best. It is self-evident that this foundation of knowledge given to young athletes is of immeasurable worth. To have our young people understand about a healthy lifestyle has positive, far-reaching implications, as they will know how to care for themselves as they age.

Martin's experiences throughout eight years of professional volleyball have now formed the foundation for his career moving forward. He started a business called StriveLife. One of the six pillars which make up the vision is: "We are ultimately building the body for real-life functions and situations and enhancing one's overall athleticism."

The only way Martin knows about how to train the body is because of all his years of training. The fact that he made it to the Olympics has propelled him into success which would not otherwise be his.

After completing my first year of college, my volleyball coach asked me to come back for a second year so I could captain the team. I had not planned on staying for two years, thinking I would move on to university for my degree. But the opportunity to take on a leadership role was something I could not pass up, as I knew it would challenge me and allow me to grow. And it did.

I captained my college team for three years, and those experiences have been foundational for my development as a leader.

At the age of 23, when I received my degree, I had significantly more leadership experience than most of my peers due to the years I had captained at the college level. My three years of captaincy transferred into the foundation for my career, opening doors for employment and continually pointing me toward leadership and leadership training.

That being said, it is not only those of us who have the chance to captain who learn leadership skills. At some point in the course of a game or competition, everyone is given opportunities to step up and perform in big moments. When people do that, they then have an experience that can form the bedrock of their self-belief and enable them to take on different challenges in the future. As a coach, there is nothing like seeing the look on one my athlete's faces when she succeeds against her own expectations.

Martin, my brother, made it to the Olympics against the odds. I don't say that as a sister who lacked faith in him but as someone who saw the obstacles he had to overcome and heard about them in innumerable phone and Skype conversations. Although he was a member of the Canadian national team for the eight years that he played professionally overseas, the funding he received was minimal.

Most people have no idea what it looks like to play beach volleyball professionally, so I will give you a quick rundown. From March to August there are tournaments that happen either every week or every two weeks in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Martin would fly from Mexico to Brazil to China to France and so on for the summer months.

That's sounds idyllic to most of us, but what we don't realize is that unlike most professional athletes, he was responsible for booking all of his flights, hotels and arranging everything so that he could make it from tournament to tournament. For someone who is supposed to be training full-time, one can imagine how this was an added burden.

Additionally, he was not being paid much, so he took the initiative to get sponsorship deals, organize fundraisers and draw support from people he was meeting. For people in organizations, this kind of fundraising role is a full-time job, yet for Martin, it was simply another have-to so he could reach his goals.

If you add all that up, Martin had three full-time jobs: as an athlete, an administrative assistant and a fundraiser. But that's not it. While at tournaments he rarely had any support from coaches or an athletic therapist. He and his beach volleyball partner were on their own.

Other national team programs travelled with more than four support staff, while Martin would show up with some balls and his teammate. Even as I say this, I'm reminded of what it took for Martin to make his Olympic dream a reality. I forget how hard he worked.

The reason I share all of this with you is to elucidate the leadership training Martin received simply by striving for the Olympics. Not only that, he knows more about marketing, fundraising, world travel, taking care of his body and innumerable other areas as a result of his experiences as a professional athlete.

The beauty of his journey is that he is giving all of those experiences back as a volunteer for the Canadian Olympic Committee, the CAN Fund, the Sandbox Project and in his own business.

Martin's dream to reach the Olympics was also paired with a passion to encourage others to pursue their dreams. His tag line was: "What is your Olympic podium?" For many young people who watched the Olympics last summer, I have no doubt that they dream of reaching that level of competition.

I know that the province of B.C. invests in sport, so I wanted to say thank you. Whether it was the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games or the upcoming Sochi 2014 games, this government's commitment to sport has helped our athletes and coaches inspire a culture of excellence.

In keeping with ViaSport's vision, I am not asking the committee to increase funding for sport. I am simply requesting the same amount of funding from the govern-
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ment that the sports sector received last year.

Participation in sport is beneficial to physical and mental health, the development of interpersonal relationships, lifestyle satisfaction, academic achievement and career achievement.

D. Ashton (Chair): Cheyla, thank you very much for the presentation. Once again, you've been very proactive — not only hearing from you today but hearing from others about ViaSport.

Next up is Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia — John Leech.

Good morning, John. Thank you for coming. We have you for ten minutes. I'll try and slip the two-minute warning in at eight minutes, and then we have time allotted for questions.

J. Leech: It seems maybe John Yap has let you know that I have a tendency when I get the podium not to release it easily, but I will respect your ten minutes.

I know Mable and others on the committee and look forward to meeting others as we continue to work together to promote technology education and careers in the province of British Columbia.

In fact, that's the focus of my presentation today, as you're well aware. I'm going to walk through it, hit some of highlights and then spend a good portion of the last part of the ten minutes talking about the 12 recommendations that we're bringing forward to government. Again, some of it is not new to you, but hopefully, it will help to refresh what it is we're here to do.

I don't think that anyone would disagree that science, technology, engineering and math, STEM, are foundational to the world around us. In some, this is acknowledged, nurtured and celebrated and leads to innovation and increased productivity. But this is not the norm in B.C., to the point that ASTT continues to seek government's commitment to lead a full-press initiative to imbue a renaissance in science and technology.

Our brief focuses on practical strategies. Being technologists and technicians, we're the folks on the ground to try and get things done. Hopefully, with no additional funding so no added stress to the budget, our wish is to build a science and technology culture in the province of B.C.

In addition to our professional regulatory role as the ninth-largest professional body in British Columbia, ASTT has been working hard to advance science and technology in the province and the importance of science and technology to the growth of our economy. We are, in fact, the lead organization in B.C. advancing a consistent and pressing message that technology education and the technology professionals who build the careers throughout B.C. in engineering and applied science technology are essential to economic development and prosperity and to the sustainability of B.C.'s economy and our environment.

We make the point in the paper of just reinforcing that ninth largest comes with a membership of over 10,000 in B.C. These are B.C.-critical practitioners. We are the glue holding everything together — working on design, construction, testing and inspection, and then long-term maintenance and sustainability.

We argue that ASTT-registered technology professionals are B.C.-critical. One example I use is in the health care community, where the biomedical technologist and technician is ensuring the competence of all of the equipment in the hospital.

Whereas people go into a hospital and know about doctors and nurses and lab techs and X-ray techs, they probably don't give a second thought to the biomedical tech. Yet every piece of equipment in the hospital environment is managed, maintained and sustained by technologists and technicians.

We hear a lot about trades training, and John, who has served in the portfolio of Advanced Education, knows this well. While ASTT applauds the initiative — certainly, we recognize that most parents expect their kids to go to university — in the middle ground is the diploma in technology and the technician certificate. These produce job-ready graduates who enter rewarding, well-paid and recession-proof careers.

Technologists and technicians in engineering and applied science enter the world of work from one of B.C.'s world-class post-secondary institutions. This morning you heard from John Bowman. I know John, who was president of the College of New Caledonia, so I know you've got a great catch here in this region.

North Island College, you may not know, has an automation technician program that is fully accredited for ASTT registration. So we applaud that initiative.

We point to reasons why we should be concerned about technology skills. Let me just cite a couple.

One, it permeates every job and every workplace, every sector in our society. Secondly, technology skills are important to most sectors, such as LNG and mining in the resource industries; construction; transportation; health care, as I've mentioned; government; and various service sectors.

Let me point to the area of concern. Globally, ManpowerGroup, in 2012's talent shortage survey re-
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sults, found that the top five occupations most difficult to fill were (1) skilled trades — no surprise; (2) engineers; (3) sales representatives, many of whom are technical; (4) technicians and technologists; and (5) IT, information technology, and many of these are technicians and technologists.

In the Americas the priorities were similar, engineers and technicians being the top two. In Canada engineers and technicians and technologists ranked 2 and 5 respectively. In 2012 the B.C. Technology Industry Association reported that the job title of the single most important position companies were trying to fill was a specialty technician or technologist.

In 2013 Pat Bell was at a special forum we held. We'd launched the strategic direction for technology education and careers. We've provided you a hot link to our website to look at that document. In that, we focus attention on the need for a strategic approach to technology education in the province of British Columbia.

Recommendations in that report range from seeking support for technology courses in K-to-12, asking for a ten-year plan for technology education and to create a science and technology culture. I might add that we noticed in the mandate letters that the Premier has called on a ten-year skills plan. We think that's a great direction, and we applaud that.

We also applaud the B.C. jobs plan. It's a vehicle to focus attention, decision-making, resources and funding in support of developing and sustaining our economy. Technical education was added in 2012 to join trades training as a priority for government. Again, we thank members of the Legislature — like John Yap and Mable, Rob Fleming, Pat Bell and others — who recognized the need to stress technical education in addition to trades.

We were enthused when Moira Stilwell led a charge for the Year of Science, a future-focused initiative that helps spark interest in science and technology, especially among young minds in the province of B.C. We were disappointed, though — again, you will know this from some of the ASTTBC's notes in the past — that it came to an end.

We were disappointed that there was not a continuing effort to promote science and technology throughout the province of British Columbia. We call on the government to fully engage — in fact, to lead and to build a science and technology culture. That, of course, has to be done by action.

ASTT is concerned that there is not presently an apparent and a universally accepted strategic focus for science and technology education. We observe efforts by post-secondary institutions to collaborate, and that's all good stuff, but there's a lot more that needs to be done.

Let me come back to the question about focus on science with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. I might add that I was back in Ottawa not that long ago, meeting with a number of CEOs, including the Association of Canadian Community Colleges and, also, CCCE.

They said in a report: "How will we meet the need for scientists, engineers, technologists and skilled trades people when our post-secondary system is largely driven by student choice and when insufficient numbers of students seem inclined to pursue such careers?" Then they go on to say that of children 16 to 18, only 37 percent are even thinking about a science course.

We've got some serious challenges. We are innovative and creative people, and I'm sure we'll manage our way forward.

Recommendations. One, build a science and technology culture in B.C. On the weekend…. Unfortunately, I was out of town, but my name is attached to a draft science charter for the province of B.C. Again, we were talking to John and others about that — Moira Stilwell. We need to provide a foundation by way of enhancing a science and technology culture.

In terms of action on the ground, we're asking government to appoint a lead group to lead STEM initiatives in the province. We respectfully suggest that the Premier might take on an honorary chair in order to send a strong signal that government is behind this.

Designating Science World as a lead organization — maybe a no-brainer, but clearly, they've got a lot of resources and an ability to get the job done.

Four, support a project to document efforts to promote STEM. Our concern here is that there are many different silos advocating for science and technology across B.C. but not a coordinated effort. We think government can help lead an initiative to bring these various silos together.

Create a science and technology fund. We're not asking for the $50 million that's recommended in here, but we're asking for government to lead the initiative to reach out to industry, to various organizations, to contribute to a fund that might help support S-and-T — STEM, in fact — initiatives.

Six, support education programming that focuses on labour market needs. Again, I think you're well aware of that imperative.

Seven, approve the target funding or incentive funding for new engineering technologist and technician programs. John Bowman — we've encouraged him to create a new civil technology program at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George. We'd encourage you to take that under advisement and consideration.

Encouraging technology courses in K-to-12. We signed an MOA with the Vancouver school board. We're working with Kamloops and other districts across the province to include technology courses in K-to-12.

I'm going to jump over nine, which is the BIG Little Science Centre. I encourage you to google BIG Little and find out the exciting things that they're doing. Count on
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us to help support similar initiatives.

We talked recently with Minister Wilkinson about the B.C. training tax credit. It includes one technologist in there, and the rest of the career areas are in the trades. We'd ask that you expand that to include technologists and technicians.

Two more. Number 1 is repay student loans up to $5,000 for those completing a technology program in the province of British Columbia.

Then, finally, an area of keen interest to ASTTBC and, in fact, a great opportunity for us to fill and help address the skill shortage. That's our aboriginal, our First Nations, technologists and technicians. ASTT created the First Nations Careers Council in 2008, and through this initiative — very modest, I might add — we're offering bursaries, scholarships, mentoring. We're getting out to career fairs.

We spoke recently and had a good meeting with John Rustad, Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, to talk about ways that we could work collaboratively.

D. Ashton (Chair): Okay. There are people that want to ask you a question, and we have another presenter. I'm sorry, sir. We have them in front of us, so thank you.

M. Elmore: John, thanks for your presentation and your enthusiasm. I think it's great leadership, certainly, on bringing this area forward and, I think, particularly, changing attitudes and the culture and getting it set in the minds of young people that it's a great, exciting career path.

My question is with regards to your recommendation 7 — to approve and provide incentive funding for new engineering technologist and technician programming at colleges in north and central B.C. Just quickly, is it specifically tied to industry needs in those areas, and do you have partners from local companies that are supporting this recommendation?

J. Leech: Right, Mable. Yes, indeed. In fact, the college, together with many organizations…. ASTT threw a modest $5,000 into a study about four years ago. It showed emphatically that civil technologists and technicians are needed in the north. As I travel across the province of B.C., in every sector, in every corner of this province there is a demonstrable need for technologists and technicians.

The story has not been well told, but as John and other members know, this is not to be taken lightly. The concern is that LNG plants in the northwest are not going to operate without process technicians and technologists. Yes, it's a priority, and yes, it's needed. We'd encourage you to support it.

J. Yap: Thanks, John, for your presentation. You packed a lot into your ten minutes.

My question is not regarding, specifically, any of your recommendations, but the work that I know you have done, ASTTBC has done, on helping to develop accreditation for foreign-trained technologists. Can you give us an update on how those efforts are going?

J. Leech: John, thank you for raising that point. As you well know, based on some of our past meetings…. Let me cite a few examples. ASTTBC — we're kind of a modest bunch, so I don't want to overstep it.

Number 1, we created what's called Technology Registrations Canada. It's a five-year project, $700,000, largely a combination of ASTT and ESDC funding. From anywhere in the world, you can go on line at no cost and do a self-assessment against the national technology benchmark — competency-based statements. It provides an individual sitting in another country a look into Canada and to do a self-assessment.

We've been fortunate to get some contracts with the B.C. government on ITP, as I think you're aware. We produced 12 vignettes, and each of these technology professionals from other lands are talking about specific issues that they face when they come to Canada. Those will be released very shortly. We have put together a package of programming that's going to help individuals set the stage before they come to Canada, so these vignettes will help.

We're jointly working with APEGBC, the professional engineers — so a one-stop shop. If you're an engineer, technician or technologist in another country, you'll be able to look at this and make a determination as to whether you should apply to APEG or to ASTT, saving the individuals a lot of time.

We were in the Philippines a year and a half ago looking at their education system. As an engineer in the Philippines, you will not get registered, typically, in Canada. But with this process, you'll be able to make that determination and get on the job, get to work faster.

D. Ashton (Chair): John, thank you very much. A good presentation, sir. Have a good day.

A Voice: Arzeena is not here yet, but we understood that there was an 11:20 appointment with Shirley Ackland from the North Island College Faculty Association.
[ Page 452 ]
Shirley has her confirmation from the committee to indicate that.

D. Ashton (Chair): Okay, that's fine. I apologize that we didn't have them on our list.

D. Ashton (Chair): Good morning. Thank you for coming. I'm sorry about the mix-up on our side. Ten minutes for the presentation. I'll give you a two-minute warning to the ten minutes, and then we have five minutes allotted for questions. The floor is yours.

Also, would you spell out, please, who you're representing, because we don't have it in front of us.

S. Ackland: Certainly. I'm representing the North Island College Faculty Association. I'm Shirley Ackland. I'm the president of the faculty association, and I've been a faculty member at North Island College for 25 years, since 1988.

I teach English from the Port Hardy campus, mostly on line, so I'm accustomed to not seeing my students on a face-to-face basis — although I must admit I would have liked to meet the Finance Committee face to face. It would have been great to meet all of you here. I think I see Mable. I recognize her from the last time I did a submission.

I've made submissions to the Finance Committee for the last four years, and I said last year that I would keep coming back until I thought the committee had given due consideration to what I believe are some of the inequities that are faced by small colleges across this province.

What I'm talking about is the access to training and post-secondary programs for those of us in rural and remote communities, the inability of small colleges to provide relevant training and education that's critical in small communities because of perpetual lack of program funding.

For example, the licensed practical nurse program has a program requirement of 15 students before it's funded by the government to be delivered at a local community college. It's not an issue at Douglas or at Vancouver Community College, but in the north Island at the Port Hardy campus we had eight students. After a lot of negotiating and lobbying, we managed to get permission to run the program in the Port Hardy region and graduated eight practical nurses.

In my community, in the region of Mount Waddington, eight trained practical nurses — it's life-changing. In fact, all of the graduates of that program were working in the region within weeks, some within days. It illustrates that students trained in a region usually stay in that region.

Establishing a rural FTE fund would be one way that would allow small colleges with remote rural campuses to access money to help fund necessary programs in the individual communities that they serve. It would also help to lessen the inequity between smaller colleges and the larger urban colleges. And there are other ways to address some of the inequities. Over the past years the disparity among college institutions has grown instead of coming closer together.

I know that your government has committed to fixing ITA and the trades apprenticeships in the province, and I'm really heartened to hear that. It's become increasingly difficult to get trades instructors to work in a community college, and it's an even larger problem in a college the size of ours.

Part of the issue is the wage instructors receive. I recognize the Finance Committee doesn't determine faculty or administrative salaries at colleges, but college boards are appointed by government.

I would like to illustrate what greed does when it hits an institution of our size. When we negotiated our first collective agreement in 1991, the focus was getting faculty regularized with continuing work, and that happened. Towards the end of the 1990s the top of salary scale for faculty was $65,000 a year. Our president's salary at that time was $95,000 per year. The added $30,000 identified the president's responsibilities and his role as leader of the institution.

What changed? Well, in the 1990s North Island College had four campuses and 21 small centres. Now North Island College has the same four campuses, but only one centre is still open, that centre at Ucluelet. One could argue that the responsibility of the president certainly hasn't grown the way the salary has.

So we come to 2013. This year we bargained for an improvement of faculty salaries and benefits, and I use the term "bargain" loosely, as we were not permitted to bargain anything monetary. Nothing that had a dollar value — that was the mandate.

However, at the end of June we ratified an agreement that saw a lift in faculty salaries of 1 percent, which means that the top of scale for a full-time continuing faculty is now $85,500 per year.

We just hired a new president of North Island College whose salary is in excess of $172,000 per year. We also have three vice-presidents at this institution: a vice-president of education, a vice-president of finance and a vice-president of student services. Each of those salaries is over $130,000 per year.

I draw your attention to these figures because, as a finance committee, I think it's imperative that government have discussions with the board of governors at community colleges about the greed that has gone by unchecked at the topping up of administrative salaries. The top-ups have been done at the expense of keeping tuition fees affordable, providing reasonable wage in-
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creases for faculty and programming dollars we continually do not see.

At this institution we have a secondary scale for sessional or part-time faculty. What that means is a person who comes in as a faculty member starts on a sessional contract. It's not a continuing appointment. That person is placed at step 8 on a secondary scale and earns just over $50,000 a year if they work full-time.

The member doesn't move on that scale. They don't get a raise or an increment each year as a regular faculty member does. Until that member becomes regular, he or she remains at that scale at step 8. You can imagine the difficulty trying to entice faculty and trades professionals to teach at this institution for that low salary.

Another continuing issue is that the members don't get regularized while they're on a secondary scale. That means the person doesn't have continuing work, has no access to benefits or pension and, for a good portion of the year, those individuals are on layoff.

The college's administrative practice of keeping faculty as part-timers is incredibly short-sighted. We're looking to build the faculty with young, well-educated professionals that will provide the stability for the future of North Island College and ensure post-secondary education remains strong in our communities. Our very mandate is to provide post-secondary education and training in the communities where we live.

In fact, one of your own Post-Secondary Employers Association lead counsel is a woman by the name of Anita Bleick. She started her career at North Island College in Port McNeill. In fact, she was one of my students. She started off by taking an office admin course, as she was a young mom and wanted to improve her skills and then venture into university courses. Once she'd completed all she could take in Port McNeill, she moved down south to continue her education at UVic, where she completed an undergraduate degree and her degree in law and now works for PSEA.

That road to success that Anita found no longer exists at this college. In 2013 we still have four campuses and just one centre, but two of those campuses, Port Hardy and Port Alberni, function nearly in the role of centres as they do not have the access to the programming or the faculty or staff that exists at the larger Courtenay campus.

In Port Hardy the building that houses the college has had a leaky roof for the past four years. It's still unfixed. We have facilities personnel — a director, a manager and staff — none who work outside in the outlying region but all who work here at the Courtenay campus.

College boards need a directive from the government that we can't afford another B.C. Ferries fiasco with padded administrative salaries and retirement bonuses. We have students who deserve to access training in their home communities throughout this region. We have well-trained faculty that deserve to be paid a fair salary and to see the secondary salary scale abolished at this institution. It's discriminatory.

We need to ensure that the money that goes to post- secondary education is spent across the province in a fair and equitable manner and not spent offering college presidents and vice-presidents exorbitant salaries. Budget cuts can't be absorbed by faculty and students any longer.

Why would a president at Vancouver Community College, one of the largest community colleges in this province with 23,000 students, have a salary that is $20,000 less than a president of North Island College, one of the smallest colleges in this province at 4,300 students?

If we're going to have a frank, honest discussion on how to improve the college system in this province, this government needs to first address these long-standing inequities.

D. Ashton (Chair): Shirley, thank you very much. We don't have a copy of your presentation. If you're reading off it, we'll get it from Hansard, but if you were doing a bit of ad-libbing or you didn't read it all, could we get a copy of it, please?

G. Holman: Thanks for your presentation. Just a quick question, and sorry for my ignorance. It's not provincial policy that establishes these salaries. It's presumably the board of governors. Who sets the salary structure?

S. Ackland: We do have a salary scale that's negotiated, but the salary structure for administrators is decided by the board. If you look at the Public Bodies Report, you can look at what the salaries are. They have gone up exponentially, compared to faculty salaries in the last ten years.

G. Holman: Just to clarify, the board determines administrative salaries, but the faculty's salaries are in negotiation with the province. Do I have that right?

S. Ackland: Yes, but the last round of bargaining…. Our contract actually was supposed to be renewed in 2010. We didn't have an agreement then. We just ratified the 2010 round in 2013, and the mandate from the government was to not open any monetary issues. So the lift to our faculty scale was very modest. But when you look at what the presidential salaries have been across the province, they have just gone…. They're double what a faculty member's is, across this province.

M. Elmore: Hi, Shirley. Thanks for your presentation. You make a good case in terms of the inequities and the
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additional challenges faced by rural and remote colleges.

Also, we heard earlier from — you might have run into him there — your new president, John Bowman, who actually did a very good job in terms of advocating on those issues.

My question is with respect to your point around the disparity between administrative salaries and faculty salaries. Do you have a specific recommendation in terms of addressing that?

S. Ackland: I know that FPSE, the post-secondary federation…. George Davison, who is the secretary-treasurer, has gathered a lot of the information.

Part of what I think we need to look at is just the growth of the administrative bodies. In the '90s we had a president, we had a dean of academics and a dean of trades, a bursar and a registrar. I'm not suggesting that we don't need to have a balance of administrators, but if you look at the growth of what the administrative bodies have been, compared to who has been hired as faculty and the growth of the students, it has really run away.

I'm aware…. I live in Port McNeill. I actually sit on town council. The money that came out of our small communities 50 years ago built this province. I live in the logging capital of B.C. We need to see that some of the money that comes to fund this province comes back in an equitable fashion everywhere across the province, not just to those who are running institutions but to the main-line troops that are actually teaching the courses.

I have a faculty association here where more than half of them are part-time, don't have continuing work, are on layoff for four months of the year. These are people that have six and eight years of post-secondary education. Now, that's wrong. That is just not a fair and equitable way to distribute the post-secondary funds that come into this province.

M. Elmore: Thanks for your comment. We have heard similar submissions from others — Federation of Post-Secondary Educators — around…. I think there was a report that was done in terms of comparing the levels of administration, faculty staffing levels and also student levels. We'll look into that.

S. Hamilton: Thank you, Shirley, for your presentation. I'd like to focus on the issue — and we heard it a little earlier — regarding the enrolment numbers and the inability to achieve the appropriate class size in order to fund the seats.

However, you said something that was, to me, quite compelling, in the sense that you did achieve enrolment of eight students for LPNs. As you said, in a community in a region like yours, eight is invaluable.

How were you able to do that? Obviously, you employ the use of certain technologies, like we're doing right now. You're able to leverage that to a certain extent. Have there been discussions going forward to try to exploit that to a greater extent in order to achieve the ability to actually have classes with fewer numbers?

I know it's all a monetary issue. I know there are certain fixed costs. But as we go forward, are there other ways — and I'd like to continue to advance discussions about this, as well — that you can think of that we can move forward and achieve those goals?

S. Ackland: Well, thank you for that question, Scott. North Island College, I think, has always been on the leading edge of trying to find different ways of delivery systems. We were one of the first at distance delivery. We have been on the leading edge of offering on-line delivery, and components of that have been offered to provide programming across our regions, because we cover 82,000 square kilometres.

What we were particularly looking at for those smaller colleges — College of the Rockies, Selkirk College — is to access a fund, take some away from the big folks, and say that this can only be accessed by those colleges that support remote communities. For somebody to drive from my community of Port McNeill to attend here is a three-hour drive one way. That person, who is going to work in Port McNeill as a nurse or a practical nurse, should be able to access a portion of that or access that program in our region — maybe not every year, but know that it's going to be there every three years.

If North Island College could access a fund that allowed them to put that funding there, then we're not fighting with the other large colleges that just opened their door and there's a lineup of 500 students out in the Fraser Valley.

It's a way of putting some aside so that those of us who can't just keep going, "Hey, pick me; we're over here; we're little" know that we can have access to that because that money is going to be set aside for us to use those innovative approaches.

S. Hamilton: Just as a point of interest, in my previous life I designed computer networks, and NIC was one of my clients as part of advancing that technology.

D. Ashton (Chair): Shirley, thank you very much for the presentation. You've brought up some interesting points, something that we have heard elsewhere in the province, but I thank you for reinforcing it. In closing, would you say hi to His Worship Gerry Furney for me, please?

D. Ashton (Chair): The presentation is scheduled for ten minutes. There's a two-minute warning. I may have to interrupt you. I'll try and get you between a breath there. And then we have time allotted for questions. The floor is yours.

Hon. members of the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, my name is Arzeena Hamir. I'm a professional agrologist, a member of the Comox Valley Food Round Table and the local Women's Institute. I'm the board secretary for the Certified Organic Associations of B.C. and a board member of the B.C. Food Systems Network, but most importantly, I'm a farmer.

I farm 26 acres here in the Comox Valley. We grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, which we sell at the Comox Valley Farmers Market to a growing number of customers, as well as a weekly box program.

We are facing a crisis in B.C. Farmers are aging. Farmland prices are astronomical. Yet there is a growing understanding that locally grown food is essential not only for our health but for our economic security. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than here on Vancouver Island.

We used to grow more than 90 percent of our food on this Island, and now we import more than 95 percent of it. One megastorm, one large earthquake and this Island only has four days of food supplies on its shelves. How will we be able to work and keep our economy growing without this food? We won't. How will businesses continue to run when workers are hungry? They won't. Where will people turn to for food on day 5? They'll turn to their farmers.

But where have all the farmers gone? I look around, even in the vibrant Comox Valley, and I am considered the young one, and I'm in my 40s. So many of our farmers will retire in the next five to ten years, taking all of their knowledge and their food production with them. Then who will grow food for our children?

Time and time again, our reliance on imported food has proven to be foolhardy. If you recall the food scares in 2008, when the rice and wheat crops failed in Australia and Russia, the prices in Canada soared. It doesn't take much to show how vulnerable our import-reliant food system is to outside shocks.

British Columbians should have a safe and secure food supply. What can this government do to support agriculture? It needs to invest in innovation, attract young people into farming, into this profession, and support them with extension agents.

Currently we have one of the lowest levels of government spending in the agricultural sector in Canada. I believe only Newfoundland is lower. British Columbians not only need better support but deserve better support from our government.

In 2006 the B.C. Minister of Agriculture published the B.C.'s Food Self-Reliance report stating that in order to produce a healthy diet for British Columbians, we needed just over two million hectares of food in production. This would have to increase to 2.8 million hectares by 2025. As of 2011 we are 200,000 acres short of this 2025 target.

But how do we get land into production and attract new farmers in agriculture? We need to support them, provide them with the knowledge and extension information they need to make proper business decisions. The Ministry of Agriculture budget needs to increase substantially.

We also need affordable land for new farmers to farm on. I left Richmond, B.C., to come to the Comox Valley because agricultural land prices in Richmond were completely unaffordable, ranging anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000 an acre. Why is this so? Because developers have, over the decades, been given signals that if they speculated on farmland, they would eventually be able to take it out of the agricultural land reserve. The time for this type of irrationality is over.

I'm imploring you, in your capacity as members of this standing committee, to support the current practices that are being implemented by the Agricultural Land Commission to limit reapplications for exclusions. I'm also asking you to recommend a major cost-cutting measure that could potentially help fund many of the asks that I have outlined today. I hope the boldness of this ask and this recommendation doesn't negate everything I have just said.

This cost-cutting measure is to stop accepting ALR exclusions entirely, thereby saving staff time and resources. I'm asking you to recommend that the boundary of the agricultural land reserve be drawn with a hard line. No more exclusions out of the ALR — period.

We have had 40 years to fiddle with the boundaries, and the time has come to stop wasting money and resources and dedicate our energy to saving the existing and remaining farmland and getting more land into production. This would be the new focus of the Agricultural Land Commission, along with enforcement of the current legislation that protects farmland from soil dumping and contamination.

Only 5 percent of B.C.'s land base is arable, and this land base is under a constant pressure, but we absolutely cannot forgo our food production security for the sake of residential or industrial development. Our children and our grandchildren will never forgive us for sacrificing our
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food-producing land.

I'm here to state that farming is a viable economic enterprise and the highest and best use of agricultural land. I provide food for my community and circulate the money given to me right here in my community. This is an essential economic activity that will support British Columbians for generations to come.

I ask you to think about any other economic activity that is essential for us to live. I can't think of one.

So this concludes our video conference. Thanks to the folks that were there. It was the first one for me. It seemed to go off okay except for a couple of faux pas there.

A Voice: Can I ask you a question? What have you done to stop the black market, get some taxes from the black market? What does the Finance Committee do? What does the government do? That's my question.

D. Ashton (Chair): Okay. Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate that. We'll note that.

Again, thank you for the presentations today. We'll adjourn at this point in time. And thanks to the help from the college.

Hansard Services publishes transcripts both in print and on the Internet.
Chamber debates are broadcast on television and webcast on the Internet.
Question Period podcasts are available on the Internet.

1) Comox Valley Child Development Association	Diane Daigle
2) Wachiay Friendship Centre	Michael Colclough
	Roger Kishi
3) North Island Students' Union	Jacelyn Lobay
	James Bowen
4) North Island College	John Bowman
5) Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce	Helen Furgale
6) Kel Kelly
7) Comox Valley LifeLong Learning Association; Hornby Island Educational Society	Martin Petter
	Danielle Hoogland
	April Lewis
8) Canadian Sport Institute	Cheyla Reader
9) Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC	John Leech
10) North Island College Faculty Association	Shirley Ackland
11) Arzeena Hamir

Chair:	* Dan Ashton (Penticton BC Liberal)
Deputy Chair:	Mike Farnworth (Port Coquitlam NDP)
Members:	* Mable Elmore (Vancouver-Kensington NDP)
	* Eric Foster (Vernon-Monashee BC Liberal)
	* Scott Hamilton (Delta North BC Liberal)
	* Gary Holman (Saanich North and the Islands NDP)
	Marvin Hunt (Surrey-Panorama BC Liberal)
	* Lana Popham (Saanich South NDP)
	* Jackie Tegart (Fraser-Nicola BC Liberal)
	* John Yap (Richmond-Steveston BC Liberal)
	* denotes member present
Clerk:	Susan Sourial
Committee Staff:	Stephanie Raymond (Administrative Assistant)

Witnesses (Courtenay):	Shirley Ackland (President, North Island College Faculty Association)
	James Bowen (North Island Students Union)
	John Bowman (President, North Island College)
	Michael Colclough (Executive Director, Wachiay Friendship Centre)
	Diane Daigle (Comox Valley Child Development Association)
	Helen Furgale (Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce)
	Arzeena Hamir
	Danielle Hoogland (Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Association)
	Kel Kelly
	Roger Kishi (Wachiay Friendship Centre)
	John Leech (Executive Director, Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of B.C.)
	April Lewis (Executive Director, Hornby Island Educational Society)
	Jacelyn Lobay (Chairperson, North Island Students Union)
	Martin Petter (President, Comox Valley Lifelong Learning Association)
	Cheyla Reader (Canadian Sport Institute)

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS (Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES