The committee met at 8:08 a.m.

[J. Routledge in the chair.]

Deliberations

J. Routledge (Chair): Welcome, everyone. We’ll proceed with a fairly lengthy agenda today.

Our first item of business…. We will move in camera for the first part of the meeting. I will accept a motion to move in camera.

Harwinder has moved; Pam seconded.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 8:08 a.m. to 9 a.m.

[J. Routledge in the chair.]

J. Routledge (Chair): Good morning, everyone. My name is Janet Routledge. I am the MLA for Burnaby North and the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, a committee of the Legislative Assembly that includes MLAs from the government and opposition parties.

I would like to acknowledge that I am joining the meeting today from Mayne Island, the traditional territory of the Tsartlip Nation, and their continued presence here is a constant reminder to us newcomers that we have a shared responsibility to help steward the land and be mindful of its fragility.

I would also like to welcome everyone listening to this meeting.

Our committee is currently seeking input on the next provincial budget. Our consultation is based on the Minister of Finance’s budget consultation paper, which we will be hearing about shortly.

British Columbians can share their views by making written comments or by filling out the online survey. Details are available on our website at bcleg.ca/fgsbudget. The deadline for input is 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 30, 2021.

We will carefully consider all input to make recommendations to the Legislative Assembly on what should be included in Budget 2022. The committee intends to release its report in November.

Today we’ll be receiving a presentation from the Hon. Selina Robinson, Minister of Finance, on the Budget 2022 consultation paper. I see that the minister is with us now. She’s joined us.

Thank you, Minister, for taking the time today to walk us through your budget proposal.

Over to you, Minister.

Presentation by Minister of Finance

Hon. S. Robinson: Thank you very much, MLA Routledge.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that I am speaking to you from the territory of the Coast Salish people, in particular the Kwikwetlem First Nation, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to live, work and play on their traditional, unceded territories.

I understand that there is a slide presentation, and I understand that the Clerk’s office is going to be putting that up.

First of all, I’d like to thank you and the committee mem­bers for undertaking the budget consultation process. It is an important role, and I want you to know that I really value your work. This year in particular has been like no other. We have felt challenges personally, in our homes, in our families, in our communities and in our work.

The pandemic has touched our lives in different ways, and many British Columbians are still feeling its effects. We know that they will for some time. But they won’t have to face those challenges alone.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, with all of its unknowns, all of its uncertainty and the anxiety that certainly marked those days in the beginning for our province, we stood shoulder to shoulder in the face of a crisis and relied on each other to see our way through it together. From Lower Post to Langley township, all of us British Columbians recognized that we were in this together, and that spirit of commitment to each other and to our resilience is paying off.

Because of that dedication to each other, while the pandemic isn’t over yet, there are really good reasons for hope, including how well we’re doing with the vaccination roll­out, being able to connect with each other in person again, and we are certainly seeing positive signs in our provincial economy. This hope that we all feel is only possible because we as British Columbians decided that our future success would rely on us all steering into the wind together against an unprecedented challenge.

[9:05 a.m.]

It’s these values that informed Budget 2021, and it was a call to action to deliver for the people of British Columbia, building today for a better tomorrow. Together we created a budget that responds to the impacts of the pandemic, today’s challenges, while preparing us, as well, for the future challenges and opportunities through investing in health care, strengthening the services that all British Columbians depend on and building a bridge to a recovery, one that comes with opportunities that we know lie ahead for all of us.

It wasn’t very long ago that Budget 2021 was delivered. At the time, we were beginning to look forward to a more hopeful summer and the beginning of a stronger economic recovery. Today we are even more hopeful, as we carefully and safely return to a life more like the one that we knew before COVID-19. We’ve cautiously turned more of our attention towards the future, and we are committed to a future that British Columbians have told us that they want, specifically a future where healthy people, healthy communities and a strong economy are all the same. Our recovery must include everyone — everyone in every part of our province — and maintain and strengthen the services that all of us rely on.

This consultation process is one of the crucial ways to ensure that we continue to show British Columbians that we, as members of the Legislative Assembly, hold their well-being to be paramount and will continue to address the crises that face us all, and we’re going to do that work together.

I’m thankful for and appreciative of this committee — the members and the solemn responsibility you have in listening to the needs and the dreams of British Columbians, who have sacrificed so much — and look ahead to a future that leaves no one behind.

Now, the work of this committee and its consultation process to gather, inform and advise will be critical to continuing the spirit of unity and progress that we have come to be known for. As we start the consultation for the next budget, it’s essential to understand, really, what we’re building on. We are building on the legacy of all-party support for British Columbians in the face of an unprecedented crisis.

We’re building on the success of our collective commitment to British Columbians. The current budget is focused on continuing to protect British Columbians’ health and safety, supporting people and businesses through the pandemic and strengthening the foundation of our economy for a strong post-pandemic recovery.

In addition to new permanent investments of $8.7 billion over the fiscal plan, pandemic and recovery contingencies have been included to keep us nimble and responsive to the needs of all British Columbians as we turn the corner on COVID-19. Turning the corner on the pandemic and building an economy where all British Columbians can participate in its prosperity with dignity and hope remains an absolute priority. To do that, investing in the people of this province and building an environment where we can all thrive together must be at the forefront of our actions.

As you know, Budget 2021 makes significant new capital commitments in the health, transportation and education sectors, and the government continues to fund the values of British Columbians, with investments in hospitals, schools, post-secondary facilities, transit, roads and other infrastructure around the province. That represents a record $26.4 billion over the fiscal plan period.

Our collective commitment to investing in British Columbians is what helped us weather the storm during the worst of the pandemic, and it will be the commitment that guides our prosperity in the future.

If we don’t have healthy people, frankly, we don’t have a healthy economy. This last year has highlighted the importance of strong health and mental health services. As more and more British Columbians get vaccinated, we can absolutely see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not there yet, and keeping people safe continues to be our top priority.

Budget 2021 provides more than $4 billion to help keep people safe from COVID-19 today while strengthening our health and mental health care system for tomorrow. Together we’ve committed to funding to reduce wait times for surgeries, giving patients faster access to the help they need, and supporting seniors, who’ve had a frightening and lonely year, with improvements in long-term care and home care.

[9:10 a.m.]

The physical and mental well-being of British Columbians across this province is important to all of us, and we all recognize that the loss of so many of our fellow citizens to a poisoned drug supply must continue to be addressed. We also know that continuing to improve mental health supports for young people, for Indigenous People and for British Columbians as a whole is critical to helping people live long, fulfilling lives. I imagine that continuing to invest in health and mental health will see strong representation and advocacy in the consultations that you will do with the public and with stakeholders.

As you know, every day, people and businesses across our province are working hard to fight the virus and to get life back on track. For too many families, life was difficult before the pandemic, and COVID-19 exacerbated the struggles for those families. It became exceptionally clear that for British Columbians to get through the worst of the pandemic, British Columbians had to be supported, and the services they relied on had to be readily accessible when they needed them.

The social infrastructure that we have committed to building during the pandemic will see families come out the other side stronger. K-to-12 education, free public transportation for children under 12, introducing and growing a universal child care system and increasing women’s participation in the economy after the pandemic reduced their participation in the workforce are just some of the actions that British Columbians have told us we need to continue to address. I expect that you’re going to see this, as well, in your consultation process.

We also know that not everyone was affected by the pandemic in the same way. Some people who were already struggling have been at risk of falling even further behind as a result of the pandemic. For people who are already experiencing economic and social barriers, the pandemic presented an additional barrier to getting the help they need.

That’s why Budget 2021 funds the largest permanent increase to income and disability assistance rates ever. For low-income seniors, we doubled the seniors supplement rates. This is the first increase ever in the program’s history. It was started in 1987 and had never been increased.

We’re also continuing to support people experiencing homelessness by providing more than 3,000 temporary shelters and hotel spaces for people experiencing homelessness. This comes with meals, support staff and equipment needed to maintain safe shelters.

These investments will allow us to continue to progress towards reducing the overall poverty rate by 25 percent and the child poverty rate by 50 percent by 2024 and meeting our poverty reduction goals.

We know that quality, affordable and inclusive child care is critical to families, to communities and to the economy. Every day this fact is becoming more known not only here in British Columbia but right across the entire country. I’m glad that British Columbia is a leader in this regard in supporting families and the economy.

In 2018, government listened to British Columbians and launched Childcare B.C. to bring affordable, accessible and quality child care to families across the province. Since then, over 26,000 new child care spaces have been funded, with thousands more new spaces funded each year under the new spaces fund.

Budget 2021 provides funding to create even more spaces, and the federal government has now come to the table with additional funding to support this landmark effort here in British Columbia. The number of children who can get care for $10 a day or less through the universal child care prototype program is being more than doubled. This also includes 400 new spaces for the Aboriginal Head Start program, which provides culturally appropriate child care for Indigenous families.

The workforce behind the workforce — those early childhood educators — have been absolutely instrumental to these efforts and in keeping our economy going during COVID-19. They are the foundation for a strong future. Their work is recognized, and they will benefit from new wage increases introduced in the 2021 budget.

Making life more affordable for British Columbians also means being able to attract and retain workers and families, especially when it comes to housing. The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the high activity we are currently seeing in the housing market. With more people working from home, the demands for more space increased housing activity. Low interest rates combined with low inventory of homes have certainly driven up prices. However, while we do expect some moderation in the market in the coming months and into 2022 as the recovery takes hold, all levels of government continue our combined effort to improve housing affordability.

[9:15 a.m.]

We’ve remained vigilant in continuing to tackle the crisis by addressing speculation, reducing rent increases and implementing the current rent freeze. We must build new homes, and B.C. Housing is working hard to meet its goal of building, in partnership, over 114,000 affordable homes over ten years. To date, close to 30,000 new homes have been completed or are underway.

Budget 2021 continues that work. We’re continuing to fund new low- and middle-income housing units with funding to non-profit providers and $1.6 billion of provincial capital investment. In this budget, we are providing $2 billion in additional financing to expand the HousingHub program. This program alone will add 9,000 new homes for families over the course of the next three to five years, in addition to the 1,000 homes that have been built to date.

Budget 2021 focuses on investments that will ensure that no one is left behind as we continue to fight the pandemic and move into recovery. We all know that recovery won’t happen overnight, but these investments build on previous measures taken to make a difference for people every day. This includes more affordable child care, eliminating MSP premiums, the B.C. child opportunity benefit that families started receiving last October, eliminating student loan interest and bridge tolls and bringing in more affordable car insurance. These measures and those in Budget 2021 all make life more affordable, something that is deeply needed, especially in the face of economic recovery.

Budget 2021 continues to help businesses manoeuvre through COVID-19, helping them to adapt and prepare to seize the opportunities that recovery will bring. We all know that the pandemic impacted different sectors in different ways. By working together, we didn’t wait to get support into the hands of the businesses that needed help. We acted.

Working with business stakeholders, Budget 2021 continues to build on the supports we provided over the previous year, including the StrongerBC tax incentive for employers that have hired or increased compensation in the last quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter; more funding for the Grow B.C., Feed B.C. and Buy B.C. strategies; and the PST exemption for select machinery and equipment to help businesses expand operations.

Through B.C.’s restart plan, there is now a clear path forward that will provide businesses with some certainty as we begin a gradual and careful return to normal. Through StrongerBC, B.C.’s $1½ billion economic recovery plan, businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic were and will continue to be supported. Supports will also remain in place for businesses and workers.

On May 18, the major anchor attractions program was announced after working closely with stakeholders, businesses and non-profits in the tourism sector that operate major attractions.

The agritech grant program has invested up to $7½ million to help B.C.’s agritech, agriculture and technology companies scale up, expand and develop technologies to help increase sustainable and regenerative food production in British Columbia and to work towards increasing local food security.

The accelerating manufacturing scale-up grants program provides eligible businesses with cost-shared funding to a maximum of $250,000 for individual business projects or up to $500,000 for projects by a group of businesses.

We’re also investing $42 million in the new launch online grant program to help eligible small and medium B.C. businesses build or strengthen their digital commerce capabilities. We’ve provided funding to Small Business B.C. to support the B.C. business COVID-19 support service and the Personal Protective Equipment and B.C. Marketplaces.

We are prepared to continue supporting British Columbia for however long this crisis lasts, and we are setting ourselves up to take further actions as needed. Through the whole pandemic, we’ve been nimble in creating new supports quickly as they were needed, and we’re adjusting our response as the landscape changes. This is why we’ve built significant pandemic and recovery contingencies into this budget.

The circuit breaker business relief grant is an excellent example of this. The program was developed in less than a week, and we will continue to get help to those who need it when they need it. We will continue to support businesses through this challenging time and right through recovery.

Collectively, we have also made reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a cross-government priority. Budget 2021 includes stable funding to support engagement with Indigenous Peoples on a range of matters, including land and resource activities, legislation and policy.

[9:20 a.m.]

We’re also providing more funding to create more child care spaces for Indigenous families and deliver the skills-training initiatives that will lead to long-term employment for unemployed and underemployed Indigenous People.

Let’s be really clear. Racism has no place in this province and in the delivery of its services. Budget 2021 provides funding to implement recommendations from the In Plain Sight report as well as cultural safety and humility training across health and mental health and addictions services.

We know the road toward reconciliation and addressing racism is long. We will continue to work with Indigenous People and First Nations communities to create a stronger and inclusive B.C. for everyone.

COVID-19 is not the only great challenge of our generation. Our action on climate change will shape our province and the world for generations to come. Given the current situation with fires right around this province, it has only become more and more evident that climate change is the most pressing issue for all of us.

We must make sure that a post-COVID future is a greener and more sustainable one. CleanBC is our plan to build a cleaner, more sustainable future. Budget 2021 includes an additional $506 million in new investments to reduce emissions, to create opportunities and to promote affordability. Budget 2021’s investments bring the total funding for CleanBC to nearly $2.2 billion over five years. It will support working with industries to decrease their carbon footprint, expand clean transportation, build more efficient buildings and make British Columbia a centre of clean energy innovation, protecting our future and this place that we love.

By keeping people healthy and investing in communities, we are moving toward a strong economic recovery that includes everyone. Budget 2021 includes record levels of capital investment, with $26.4 billion in funding over three years. This is a $3½ billion increase when compared to Budget 2020. These investments support a strong and sustainable economy with investments in roads and transit and schools and housing and hospitals — investments like hospitals in Cowichan and Surrey and Stuart Lake and Dawson Creek and the replacement of St. Paul’s Hospital.

We’re investing in the future of B.C. and high-growth potential businesses through the $500 million InBC investment fund. We’re leveraging investments from the private and public sectors to help businesses grow so these companies can scale up and making B.C.’s economy stronger by supporting start-ups, anchoring talent and keeping jobs and investments right here in British Columbia.

British Columbians have been through a great deal, and we’ve been through this great deal together. I’m sure that every single one of us can point to a moment in the last 16 months when we felt that our world was turned absolutely upside down. COVID-19 has challenged and changed British Columbians in ways that we never could have imagined. But British Columbians are resilient. We look out for each other.

We know our recovery won’t happen overnight, but by focusing on those things that matter to people most, we’ll keep making impactful and successful progress. Government will continue to be here for British Columbians. Budget 2021 supports people now, keeping them safe and keeping them healthy, and it looks to the future.

I can tell you that a future with opportunities is what we need. A future with opportunities for everyone will be part of a strong economic recovery. And I can tell you that even with the financial challenges brought on by the pandemic and the need to provide people and businesses and communities with support, our credit ratings are healthy. They’re the best in the nation. That’s thanks to our solid fiscal planning, our strong economic foundation and our reputation as a jurisdiction that everyone can count on.

I’m pleased to help kick off this committee’s 2022 budget consultation, and I want to thank you for the work that you’ll be doing and have done to date. This budget consultation process is an opportunity for British Columbians to tell us their stories. It’s an opportunity for them to share their ideas and to outline their priorities for their government.

[9:25 a.m.]

This is a critical time to engage the public and to hear their thoughts on where government should be focused on, as we move forward. I eagerly await reading this committee’s final report on budget consultations when it’s ready, and I encourage everyone interested in lending their voice to the process to read over the 2022 budget consultation paper. And I look forward to working with you as we continue towards a pandemic-free future.

Thank you very much. I’m happy to take your questions.

J. Routledge (Chair): Thank you, Minister. I will open it up to the committee to ask questions.

Maybe I’ll get things started. Minister, I know this may seem like a bit short notice in terms of everything that’s going on right now. Can you give us a bit more background, detail, about how you would envision, specifically, the impact of climate change and the evidence of it that we’re seeing daily — how you would see that as impacting on our next budget, on how we as a province should be spending money?

Hon. S. Robinson: Thank you very much for the question. I think we need to recognize, first and foremost, those people who are on the front lines. I want to express my gratitude to those who are fighting the fires and dealing with those challenges.

I think about how we have to prepare on two fronts. The reality is that we’re seeing more extreme weather events, so we need to be prepared in protecting our infrastructure and protecting people. How do we invest in that, in terms of making sure that what we have is safe — the people, the businesses, our communities and our infrastructure?

We also need to be paying attention to reducing GHG emissions, because we know how costly it’s going to be if we don’t get a handle on that. I’m sure most of you have been seeing what’s happening with the flooding in Europe and in China and these extreme weather events and the impact on the infrastructure. I’m thinking about Lytton — the infrastructure costs alone as a result of the fire and what that means to rebuild a community.

There are real costs going forward if we do not reduce our GHG emissions, if we do not get pulled back from this edge. We need to find the right balance to protect what we have as well as investing and making sure that we can reduce our GHG emissions.

B. Stewart (Deputy Chair): Minister, thanks very much for your presentation, the goals and outlining the important issues that you’re trying to deal with.

The recent announcement. I’m just wondering. Under improving health and mental health, you talked about the safe drug supply. I don’t know what the cost is and whether that’s kind of included in these tables that you’ve provided. I’m wondering what the cost of that program is going to be or what it’s forecast to be.

Hon. S. Robinson: Thanks for the question. I don’t have that detail. I can certainly get that to you, if you’d like. I didn’t bring a costing-out of all of our programs, but it’s all built into Budget 2021. I’d have to go and pull up the answer to your specific question, so we can get that to you.

B. Stewart (Deputy Chair): Maybe one other question. Your former colleague, Joy MacPhail, presented a report, just prior to days when the session ended, about affordable housing and some of the barriers in that. I realize that that’s your colleague’s responsibility. I guess the question is that there are some fairly significant and provocative suggestions in there on both sides, both with local government…. I know you’ve been the minister of that, as I have, and I know that that would not necessarily be as welcome as easily as it’s written. But I do think that the issue about affordability…. I think it’s a hallmark of your government, and of course, being the critic, I do hear about this in every community that I talk to.

[9:30 a.m.]

More importantly, I suspect that this committee is going to hear lots about affordability — well, really, the lack of affordability. And I don’t think government can build all the affordable housing. So I’m just looking at: does this document go far enough in terms of what you’re willing to do? And maybe that’s a combination of legislative changes versus investment just to kind of try and address that.

Hon. S. Robinson: Yeah. It’s an excellent question, and it’s certainly a significant challenge. You know, all governments have a role in addressing housing affordability, and I think you’ve certainly hit the nail on the head around local governments certainly having a role. Certainly as a province, we have a role. The federal government finally, after a tremendous absence, is finally back in the game of addressing affordable housing.

So I’ll respond to your question with three different parts. First of all, if you take a look at the impact on housing affordability and how things have changed over time, you can pinpoint when CMHC got out of the business in ‘93, and then you can see the deterioration of housing affordability since ‘93. We know that the federal government has a significant role in addressing housing affordability, for sure.

The province absolutely…. Our commitment with $7 billion over ten years to build thousands and thousands of subsidized housing but also middle-income housing…. The HousingHub is a new creature of B.C. Housing, and their role is to bring together the private sector and the local government as well as the province to bundle creative ways of delivering on affordability for middle-income. So it’s targeting middle-income. In this last budget, we provided them with an additional $2 billion for development financing to help move things along and deliver more affordability.

The local government, of course, as you know, has the land use planning tools. They have the responsibility for determining things like density in particular areas, and they also do all of the development permitting. Time is money. We all know that. And we are certainly seeing a real mixed bag in terms of some communities that can deliver all the permitting in six months and others that take years and years and years. That creates significant challenges around affordability.

So we started the DAPR program, looking at the development approval process review. We did it in combination with my previous ministry role. That review was undertaken in collaboration with the UBCM as well as the development community to really problem solve and identify different ways and different places to address getting that system working more effectively.

Right now Minister Osborne and Minister Eby together are looking at that. I’m keeping an eye on it, partly because I have the finance file, but partly because I’d spent significant time trying to address that particular challenge. There is interesting work happening, and they are identifying ways that they can speed up the process.

Of course, we do have a legislative tool. I always like to work with local government. I think we get better results, and they’re recognizing their role as well.

In fact, just to give you a small example, yesterday I was at a housing announcement here in my community in Coquitlam. When I was first minister — so this would have been early in 2017 — there was a community open house looking at a project that was going to be built by Concert Properties several hundred meters from Burquitlam station. It was going to be 300 homes. I think they had identified ten homes for affordability.

I have to say, I was deeply concerned that that was all that they were going to be able to deliver with the rule that the provincial government was brought to the table. The feds weren’t in the game yet. But also that the local government has a housing affordability program and really pushed the developer to reach out to B.C. Housing, to reach out to the city. I really felt that there was more that they could deliver.

It’s been a couple of years, but yesterday — and the feds, of course, have come in — we joined with the federal government and with the local government and with the non-profit. It’s 300 rental units that are being built, and 100 of them, through the community housing fund, are going to be operated by the local not-for-profit housing society.

[9:35 a.m.]

It’s going to be interspersed with all the other rental units, so there’s no such thing as a poor door. This is going to be with market rent, with seniors, with subsidized seniors and subsidized for families. Right by SkyTrain. The YMCA is building also a facility right next door, so all the recreation supports are there. There will be child care there. It really is a spectacular project.

The thing that happened was everyone came to the table. It was an announcement with a federal representa­tive, a provincial representative and a local government representative. And I have to give kudos to Concert as the private-​sector developer, because they came and said: “We are going to do this. It’s going to be hard work, but we are going to do this. We are going to bring everyone together.”

It’s going to be a spectacularly fabulous project, and I know it can be done. That really means all of us working together.

J. Routledge (Chair): Thank you, Minister.

M. Starchuk: Thank you, Minister.

You highlighted a number of programs that dealt with art, film, tourism and sport. I think through the pandemic, everybody is craving to be able to do all of those things, to get out and about. We see in our presentations that are coming our way that there is a raft of organizations that are coming forward to speak to those topics. Just curious as to the lens that will be coming forward from what we’ve been successful with doing now and how it will apply into the next budget.

Hon. S. Robinson: This is the important work that you’re doing. It’s really critical that we hear from these various sectors. You’ll notice that when the pandemic first struck, we delivered broad-based supports. We took a look at reducing taxes for businesses and identifying really broad-based programs that are available to anyone.

Here we are, a year and a half in, and we are learning and seeing that not all businesses were impacted equally. There were some that managed just fine. There were some that actually thrived, and there were some that were really hit hard. The Economic Forecast Council even, when I met with them back in January…. Their advice to me as Finance Minister was: “It’s time to pivot, to do specific, tailored supports.” That broad supports are no longer the best way to go in terms of investments.

So we know that the tourism sector, the arts and culture sector, have been hardest hit. Hearing specifically what they need to help them move forward, to help them thrive and grow, is really critical. We’ve been doing our best to focus on that. That’s why we had the Tourism Task Force. That’s why our colleague, Minister Mark, has been very laser-focused on listening to them and tailoring programs and supports for them. But we need to hear more, and I really do look forward to hearing from your deliberations, your consultations on how those specific businesses can benefit from government supports going forward.

J. Routledge (Chair): Thank you, Minister.

Any other questions for the minister?

L. Doerkson: Thank you, Minister, for obviously a very comprehensive report.

I just wanted to ask…. You touched a little bit on wait times. That’s become, obviously, pretty serious through COVID. Are there any specifics that you could outline or any programs? I know it’s not specifically your ministry, but could you speak to that a little bit?

Hon. S. Robinson: Thanks for that. We have been, since we formed government, addressing wait times. Just to provide you with an example — if I can go pre-COVID — just as a reminder, operating CT scans and specialized equipment 24-7 instead of just sort of a nine to five or an eight to four. British Columbians were eager. If they could get their scan done, their MRI or whatever, at two in the morning or wait eight weeks, they would much prefer to do it at two in the morning. That really did wonders in terms of moving things through. We had made tremendous headway before COVID-19.

[9:40 a.m.]

Of course, as you’re well aware, the health sector had to pivot to address COVID and all the COVID protocols, which certainly resulted in delays. We’ve been making significant catch-up as a result. I have to give credit to British Columbians, because British Columbians did the right thing. British Columbians kept each other safe. Our health care system did not get overwhelmed. I think that is something that we should all be proud of.

We never had to use the convention centre. I don’t know if everyone remembers. We seconded the convention centre and set it up for overflow should we need it. We just started dismantling it this last week because we know that British Columbians know to do the right thing and are getting vaccinated, and we don’t expect to need it.

So there’ll be some opportunity. We’ve been doing catch-up, for sure, for the last number of months, but there’s certainly more to do. That’s just an example of how we’re doing catch-up and reducing wait times.

J. Routledge (Chair): Any other questions?

Well, with that, it looks like we can let you go, Minister. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for framing and giving context to the important work that we have ahead of us, and thank you for answering our questions and helping us focus.

I’m really taken by your comments about giving British Columbians an opportunity to tell their stories. That is what we are charged with — to encourage them to tell their stories, to hear their stories and make sure that their stories and their personal experiences are reflected in the next budget, which is basically where we’re going as a province.

Thank you so much for your time, and thank you for your thoughts and wisdom.

Hon. S. Robinson: Thank you, everyone. Have a wonderful summer. Have a safe summer. I do look forward to seeing you all in person when we get the next chance. Thank you for your work. Bye-bye.

J. Routledge (Chair): Thank you. Bye-bye.

B. Stewart (Deputy Chair): Thanks, Minister.

J. Routledge (Chair): Before we go back in camera to make some final decisions about our schedule of presentations, shall we take a break? Shall we recess for ten minutes?

Interjection.

J. Routledge (Chair): Okay. See you in ten minutes.

The committee recessed from 9:42 a.m. to 9:59 a.m.

[J. Routledge in the chair.]

Budget Consultation Planning

J. Routledge (Chair): Thank you, everyone. Welcome back.

I’ll now entertain a motion to move in camera.

Motion approved.

The committee continued in camera from 9:59 a.m. to 10:25 a.m.

[J. Routledge in the chair.]

Committee Report to the House

STATUTORY OFFICERS INTERIM REPORT

J. Routledge (Chair): Thank you, everyone. We’re pretty well at the point of concluding our meeting for today. We have a couple of motions.

Pam, would you like to read out your motion?

P. Alexis: I move:

[That the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services approve and adopt the report entitled Interim Report on Statutory Offices as presented today and further, that the Committee authorize the Chair and Deputy Chair to work with committee staff to finalize any editorial changes to complete the supporting text.]

Motion approved.

J. Routledge (Chair): Do we have another motion?

B. Stewart (Deputy Chair): I move:

[That the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services deposit a copy of the report entitled Interim Report on Statutory Offices with the Office of the Clerk; and further, that upon resumption of the sittings of the House, or at the next following session, the Chair present the Report to the Legislative Assembly at the earliest available opportunity.]

Motion approved.

J. Routledge (Chair): I believe that concludes our business for today, so I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Harwinder has moved that motion.

Motion approved.

The committee adjourned at 10:28 a.m.