(Hansard)
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1996
Afternoon
Volume 22, No. 1
[ Page 17019 ]
The House met at 2:06 p.m.
This being the first day of the fifth session of the thirty-fifth Legislative Assembly of the province of British Columbia for the dispatch of business, pursuant to a proclamation of the Hon. Garde B. Gardom, Lieutenant-Governor of the province, hon. members took their seats.
The Speaker: Hon. members, I'd like to call the House to order. The prayers this afternoon will be read by Dr. Rev. David Nedd, who is one of the chairmen of the Greater Vancouver Council of Churches and the program host for the "Caribbean Today" news program. He lived in China and Taiwan for 17 years, where he built a Sheraton hotel in southwest China. He and his wife have lived in Canada for four years; he now resides in Burnaby. I would like to ask the reverend if he would please lead us in prayer.
D. Nedd: Good afternoon, hon. Members of the Legislative Assembly. I consider it a privilege to be here, both as an African-Canadian and also as a chairman of the Greater Vancouver Council of Churches. You are truly the hope of B.C. In your localities, your people -- your fellow Canadians -- are looking for direction, for guidance. We stand together, especially from the point of view of the Greater Vancouver Council of Churches, to support you and to encourage you to draw more on the energies that lie in each of the communities across this vast province.
Prayers.
The Speaker: Hon. members, the Lieutenant-Governor is about to enter the chamber. I would just state, prior to his entering, that there are three very important occasions that we may wish to recognize today. Of course, the first is that this is the first time His Honour will have the privilege of reading the Speech from the Throne. As well, his wife is celebrating a birthday today. I don't have the details on that.
The most lamentable thing to reflect upon is that I guess this is my last opportunity to preside over one of these events, and I deeply regret that. But I'll manage to live with it, thank you very much.
I understand His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor will be coming in momentarily.
His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, having entered the House and being seated upon the throne, was pleased to deliver the following gracious speech.
Speech from the Throne
Hon. G. Gardom (Lieutenant-Governor): Hon. Speaker, members of the Legislature, it's my great pleasure to address you in the opening of the fifth session of the thirty-fifth parliament of British Columbia.
[2:15]
I would like to begin by offering my personal thanks to my predecessor, the Hon. David Lam, for his years of service to British Columbia, for his wisdom and his warmth, and also to Mrs. Dorothy Lam for her great support and charm throughout.
The past year marked the passing of the Hon. Phil Gaglardi, a political figure clearly cut from the cloth of this province. He was known to all of B.C. for his colourful, outspoken nature, a passion for political life and a legacy that includes B.C.'s world-class highways. This year also marked the loss of Cliff Scotton, an irrepressible fighter for working people. His boundless optimism, energy and determination were a constant source of inspiration for the many others who shared his vision of social justice.
We lost as well two former members of the Legislature from the Kootenays. Many of us fondly remember George Haddad, who passed away late last year. And we mourn the loss of Randolph Harding, whose long career at all levels of government was marked by a firm commitment to public service.
But the past year has also seen important advances, and none more fundamental to the destiny of this province than the initial steps toward British Columbia's first modern-day aboriginal treaty. In the coming year, my government will work toward concluding a formal agreement with the Nisga'a people while consulting carefully with British Columbians everywhere. This agreement holds the promise of greater certainty and security for families, workers and businesses throughout the Nass Valley and northwestern B.C., and for a future of self-reliance and dignity for the area's aboriginal communities.
Members of the Legislature, this session comes at a crucial point in our province's history -- a decisive point for the province's future. As we celebrate the 125th anniversary of British Columbia's entrance into Confederation, the people of this province face a choice between two very different visions of governing.
One is the vision that has taken hold in some of Canada's provinces, resulting in higher unemployment and cuts to health, education and other services. It maintains that government's role is to convince people to lower their expectations. The other vision holds that people have a right to expect more, both from their own lives and from the people they elect to govern them. This second vision sees an active role for government: building our communities and building the economy to create new opportunities for jobs, working to make our neighbourhoods safer, and protecting health care for our families and education for our children.
It is this second vision of protecting health care and education and of investing for jobs that my government has chosen. And today that choice has been rewarded with the best job creation record in Canada, the strongest economy, the highest credit rating, the lowest debt and the highest environmental rating.
My government intends in this session to pursue that vision of a government on the side of middle-class people and working families. The upcoming budget will lay out a program of continued decisive action to protect health care and education, safeguard our communities, and create and protect jobs. This government is determined to get its priorities right, to reflect the priorities of the people of British Columbia.
The people have made it clear their first economic priority is jobs. They want to know there are opportunities for themselves and that there will be opportunities for their children. This government shares that commitment to job opportunities. It has launched the most comprehensive youth employment initiative in B.C.'s history. In the coming months, my government intends to introduce action plans to expand and promote jobs in such fields as environmental technology,
[ Page 17020 ]
energy and tourism. And my government is working to create and protect thousands of jobs in British Columbia's forests, long a key sector of our province's economy. After years of conflict and neglect, my government has brought peace to the forest and put this crucial industry on the road to long-term sustainability.
In the past five years, this approach has helped to create 15,000 new jobs in B.C. forests. Now the time has come for the forest industry to move into a new era. This government has set a target of 21,000 new forestry jobs in the next five years. The government is working with the forest sector to develop a jobs and timber accord that will tie access to public timber directly to the creation of new jobs. The goal is to increase job-to-timber ratios to levels comparable to those of our competitors in Washington and Oregon. The Premier has directed the Minister of Forests to work in partnership with all those who have an interest in B.C.'s forests in order to achieve this objective.
My government will also introduce a strategy to greatly expand the value-added sector in British Columbia, so that B.C. timber can be processed in B.C. plants by B.C. workers, creating B.C. jobs. People expect us to get more jobs from trees cut on publicly owned land. And it's time government, industry and labour worked together to make sure that happens in forest communities right across our province. This industry and the people who rely on it have been through major changes in the past decade. Those people deserve help to cope with those changes. And so my government will act to ensure laid-off forestry workers have the first priority for jobs created by Forest Renewal B.C.
There is another resource that requires urgent attention. Like our forests, thousands of B.C. families rely on it for employment. Like our forests, it is very much a part of our history and identity as British Columbians. But unlike our forests, this resource is in imminent danger of disappearing for generations to come -- perhaps forever. I speak of the Pacific salmon, a living symbol of British Columbian identity.
My government is committed to a comprehensive program to protect our salmon. The government has introduced new pollution control rules, worked with communities to rehabilitate salmon habitat, invested in sewage treatment and cancelled the Kemano completion project because it threatened a vital salmon river. My government intends to bring in a fish protection act, legislation that will safeguard salmon habitat even further. And my government will also implement a comprehensive program of fish habitat restoration.
But one province alone cannot save the salmon. It takes a shared commitment. Yet I'm sad to say that commitment has not been forthcoming from our American neighbours, and in particular from Alaska. My government has outlined the steps that are needed immediately to achieve a fair, effective Pacific salmon treaty.
British Columbia accepts that change will come to the fishery. But the change that comes must be just and must put conservation first. Regrettably, recent federal proposals fail on both counts. Ottawa's plan to cut fishing licences without adequate compensation is an affront to B.C. fishers. This government has joined with commercial and sports fishers, business, environmentalists, first nations and industry workers to urge Ottawa to take stronger action. The federal government must tell the Americans that if the U.S. is unwilling to conclude an agreement that puts conservation first, they will face the consequences.
The reinstitution of the transit fee, the withdrawal of permission for the testing of U.S. weapons at Nanoose Bay -- these are the tools that Ottawa must be willing to bring to bear in this situation. The government hopes to have the support of all members of this Legislature in pressing Ottawa to take firm action to safeguard an irreplaceable resource and an integral part of who we all are as British Columbians.
The salmon has sustained the peoples of the West Coast for centuries -- from the first nations to the modern commercial and sports fisheries. Now it's our turn to repay that debt, and we are determined not to fail. British Columbians have long been aware of the importance of sustainability, a principle that we must apply not only in resource use but in all elements of social and economic life in our province.
This government has taken historic measures to safeguard the environment: new measures to protect water quality from pulp mill emissions; new measures to protect air quality; and perhaps most of all, the creation of 156 parks and wilderness areas -- unique and precious ecosystems protected now for all time. From the Tatshenshini to the Stein Valley, this is a legacy of stewardship in which every British Columbian can take tremendous pride. We are well on our way to the goal of doubling B.C.'s parks and protected wilderness areas, and to protect this achievement my government will introduce legislation to enshrine the boundaries of these areas in law.
Just as the natural environment has a profound impact on the quality of life in our communities, so does the social environment. And nowhere is the difference between the two paths facing British Columbia clearer than when it comes to the services that families rely on.
Some claim there is no choice but to deeply cut critical services, like medicare and education, in the name of deficit reduction. The federal government is sharply reducing funding to the provinces for these services. British Columbia alone will lose $435 million in federal funds this year. Other provinces have responded with severe cuts of their own to health care and to education. The people of British Columbia, however, are fierce defenders of medicare. It is probably the most important service that government offers. And while others may support cuts, my government is dedicated to protecting the principle that lower- and middle-income families can count on the same quality health care that wealthy British Columbians receive.
The cost pressures of a growing, aging population and the federal cuts are both very real challenges, but my government is committed to protecting -- indeed, improving -- health care for B.C. families and education for B.C. children. To do that, we have cut the size and cost of government to find the savings we need to protect medicare and education. That has meant reductions in administrative overhead, in senior management, in the size of cabinet and in the number of Crown corporations and agencies.
These measures eliminated more than 2,200 government positions and saved more than $210 million in taxpayers' money -- savings that my government is reinvesting in protecting health care and education.
It will take the efforts of all British Columbians. And I'm pleased to note that B.C.'s doctors and public employees are working with my government to find even more of the savings we need to protect medicare.
By redirecting those savings, the province has made important progress. Wait-lists for heart surgery and cancer treatment have been cut in half. There is more funding to fight breast cancer and heart disease. And to keep pace with our growing population, my government has expanded funding for B.C.'s hospitals.
[ Page 17021 ]
The budget that the Finance minister will introduce shortly will reflect these priorities.
[2:30]
British Columbians have come to expect the best health care system in Canada. My government intends to keep it that way and will be introducing a new act that will guarantee in law the rights of British Columbians to health care and education, protecting existing levels of service to the families of this province.
Education is the most direct investment in our future that a society can make, and British Columbia has come to be known for the quality of its schools, colleges and universities. The savings my government has found have meant that we can protect funding throughout our school system, keeping pace with the 10,000 new students who will enter our schools this year. The upcoming budget will secure that funding for the coming year.
My government is also committed to ensuring opportunities for young people as they further their education through B.C.'s post-secondary institutions -- our colleges and universities -- and afterward in the workforce. This government amended our province's laws to give 18-year-old British Columbians the right to vote. And it eliminated the punitive lower minimum wage for young people, giving them the same minimum-wage protection as other workers.
But my government understands that the young people today face serious challenges in a changing economy. That is why the Premier announced a Guarantee for Youth: guaranteeing affordable education, access to education and an opportunity for work experience.
The government is committed to keeping education affordable. Other provinces are cutting funding and hiking tuition fees by as much as 20 percent. But that would stop too many young people from getting in. Instead, this province has frozen tuition fees for the coming academic year.
My government is also providing increased funding, as a contribution to its partnership with faculty and administration, to create 7,000 new spaces for our colleges and universities next year. That increase means a guaranteed space in B.C.'s colleges, universities and post-secondary institutes for every qualified student in our province.
Finally, my government's youth employment initiative will create up to 11,500 jobs for young people, and work experience and training opportunities for 80,000 more through the Youth Works program. It adds up to a guarantee of opportunities -- for work, skills training and education.
There is another service that government offers in partnership with business, and that is compensation for workers injured on the job. Workers' compensation should be about giving people the confidence that a workplace injury will not leave them destitute. But confidence is exactly what many British Columbians do not feel toward B.C.'s Workers' Compensation Board. Serious questions have been raised in recent years about the board's management and practices. My government has taken action on those concerns.
But it is clear that the people in B.C., both workers and management, continue to have serious concerns. Accordingly, in the coming days a royal commission will be struck, with a wide-ranging mandate to examine and report on the concerns of British Columbians over the WCB and ways to restore their confidence in this important agency.
People in British Columbia have also told my government they want our communities to be safer places in which to live and raise a family. They want their government to fight crime and the causes of crime. My government has listened, and it is responding with a wide range of initiatives, giving police the tools they need to reduce crime and enforce the law. There has been a special emphasis on combatting the sexual exploitation of B.C.'s young people, by targeting those who prey on and exploit teenagers through prostitution. My government intends to proclaim legislation that will strengthen the rights of victims of crime. And to further enhance community policing, there will soon be 100 new police officers working to make our neighbourhoods safer.
Protecting services and creating and protecting jobs adds up to opportunities for young people and for those already in the workforce. That is what people have told my government they want to see.
But they also want to see a well-managed government. They want to have confidence in the people they elect. And to further enhance that confidence, my government will be tabling an amendment to the conflict-of-interest act. Under this amendment, an all-party committee will recommend a person to be nominated to the office of conflict-of-interest commissioner, a process consistent with the way other officers of the Legislature are appointed.
We will also be introducing measures to make Crown corporations more accountable, beginning with a new Crown corporations committee of the Legislature, modelled on the Public Accounts Committee and chaired by a member of the opposition.
People have told my government they want to see spending and finances under firm control. This government will soon introduce its second consecutive balanced budget. And that budget will be balanced, not through the kind of extreme, radical cuts that other provinces have imposed, but through a steady, careful, evenhanded approach.
For the long term, my government has a management plan that will ensure health care and education are protected while eliminating the province's direct debt.
My government replaced the old welfare system with B.C. Benefits, a new approach to social assistance that shifts the emphasis to jobs. It offers people opportunities for skills training and work experience, giving them the tools they need to find good, rewarding jobs. And it makes work a better deal than welfare, offering new benefits for the first time in Canada to the children of low-income working parents.
The first results are very promising. The growth in welfare caseloads is in check. According to the accounting firm Peat Marwick, the B.C. Benefits reforms and B.C.'s impressive job creation record are combining to lower caseloads and save taxpayers a potential $350 million to $470 million in the coming fiscal year.
Thanks to that balanced approach to our provincial finances, British Columbia has the lowest debt in all of Canada. Financial experts consistently give B.C. the highest credit rating of any province, and British Columbia residents pay the second-lowest taxes in the country. But it is still often difficult for many middle-class working families to make ends meet. So in recent weeks my government has moved to make things just a little easier for them by freezing hydro rates and B.C. car insurance rates. My government intends to introduce legislation to ensure consumers are protected, putting freezes on taxes, Hydro and ICBC rates into law.
[ Page 17022 ]
There will be further action. Like many B.C. families, small businesses often struggle to get by, yet they are the strongest job creators of our economy. Middle-class families, working people, small businesses -- government has a duty to try and give them a break wherever it's possible. That's why the upcoming budget will include a tax reduction for middle-income earners and small businesses.
All of these initiatives -- indeed, the entire legislative program of my government -- are aimed at demonstrating to British Columbians that they have a government that's on their side, a government that's working toward their priorities: protecting and creating jobs, making our communities safer, and protecting medicare and education. Those priorities demand a vision of government that works with business, labour, local communities and all British Columbians to build our province, our economy and our society. It's a different approach than the one we see so often outside our borders, but it is an approach that is clearly working.
Building prosperity by building B.C. -- that's the B.C. way. From the highways and bridges that W.A.C. Bennett built to the information superhighway today, B.C. has found prosperity through investment and partnership between government and business. Just as important, we have found a quality of life that is second to none.
Building for the future, we create opportunities and security for the future. And we fulfil the one overriding obligation of any generation: to give the next generation a better place than the one we inherited. With more jobs, with better education and health care, with the lowest debt in Canada and with the second-lowest taxes in the country, British Columbians are meeting that obligation to the future. We are building a better province for our children. And we're doing it by listening to the priorities of people -- the needs of middle-class working families from one end of this province to the other. Those families deserve a government not beholden to any interest, but working for a stronger, better, more prosperous British Columbia for all of us.
His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor retired from the chamber.
[The Speaker in the chair.]
The Speaker: In order to prevent mistakes, hon. members, I have obtained a copy of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor's speech.
The purpose of this bill is to assert the right of this House to deliberate and to act without leave of the Sovereign. The introduction of this bill prior to the consideration of the throne speech is a reaffirmation of parliament's assertion of independence from the Crown in matters of legislation, first made by the Parliament at Westminster on March 22, 1603.
Bill 1 introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.
[2:45]
Hon. J. MacPhail: Hon. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Opposition House Leader and the member for Okanagan-Vernon, that Gretchen Brewin, member for Victoria-Beacon Hill electoral district, be appointed Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole for this session of the Legislative Assembly.
Motion approved.
Hon. J. MacPhail: I move, seconded by the member for Fort Langley-Aldergrove and the member for Okanagan-Vernon, that Dale Lovick, member for Nanaimo electoral district, be appointed Deputy Speaker for this session of the Legislative Assembly.
Motion approved.
Hon. U. Dosanjh: Hon. Speaker, I move that the Votes and Proceedings of this House be printed, being first perused by the Speaker, that he do appoint the printing thereof, and that no person but such as he shall appoint do presume to print the same.
Motion approved.
Hon. G. Clark: Mr. Speaker, I move that the select standing committees of this House for the present session be appointed for the following purposes:
and that standing order 68(1) is hereby amended to so reflect, which said committees shall severally be empowered to examine and inquire into all such matters and things as shall be referred to them by this House, and to report from time to time their observations and opinions thereon, with power to send for persons, papers and records; and that a special committee be appointed to prepare and report, with all convenient speed, lists of members to compose the above select standing committees of this House under standing order 68(1), the committee to be composed of Hon. Joy MacPhail, convener; Hon. Andrew Petter; Hon. Lois Boone; Messrs. Janssen and Schreck; Ms. O'Neill and Ms. Brewin; Messrs. Gingell, Farrell-Collins and Hanson.
[ Page 17023 ] G. Farrell-Collins: I know it's not normal in this House -- at least, by past practice -- to speak to this motion, but I feel it necessary, given the events of the last four years. Hon. Speaker, at repeated times members of the opposition, not just from our party but from independents and from the third party, have raised the issue of the accountability of Crown corporations -- not just B.C. Hydro, I might make note to the Premier, but the Workers' Compensation Board, ICBC and all the range of Crown corporations -- and that they need to be more accountable to the people who own them. That's the people of British Columbia. Time and time again, the committee that was in effect and in force was available to sit to deal with those Crown corporations, and it never did. For four years, that committee has not sat.
I suggest that this government would not have had to fire the board of the Workers' Compensation Board, members of the board of B.C. Hydro, chief executive officers of those Crown coporations, time and time again, had this government and this Premier acted earlier in this mandate to increase the accountability of Crown corporations. So it's high time that we have some accountability with Crown corporations. Perhaps if this government had followed this earlier in their mandate, like so many others things we've heard in the throne speech today, they wouldn't be in the position they are now.
G. Wilson: I'd like to congratulate this government for the introduction of a standing committee on Crown corporations. It's something that we have been asking for. I think that, with all due respect, it should at least carry the honorary title of the former member for West Vancouver-Garibaldi, who repeatedly brought this forward at every session for the last four years, and who quite regrettably is not here today.
However, I note with respect to matters of the power of inquiry that was mentioned by the Premier that that is something we would want to look at and scrutinize considerably. Power of inquiry by standing committees of the Legislative Assembly might be a very effective vehicle to use to try and mitigate abuses within Crown corporations. It's something that we would like to work with this government on. I believe that we can, with those powers being properly defined and properly used, use this committee as an effective way to get at some of the abuses that we have seen in Crown corporations, and that we can find a way to better serve the people of British Columbia. To that extent, we congratulate the government on this initiative.
J. Weisgerber: Well, I'm happy to see a committee on Crown corporations. I doubt if it will meet very often before the next election. But let us not forget, in our enthusiasm for committees, that the responsibility for Crown corporations is a ministerial responsibility. It's a ministerial responsibility that's gone wanting lately, and I would hate to see us cloak ourselves in the notion of a committee as an excuse for mismanagement of Crown corporations -- and those have been obvious to us.
R. Chisholm: I would like to rise and support the government on bringing this forward, but I have a couple of questions for the government. Could this Premier tell us whether this committee on Crown corporations would have the freedom to call its own business or whether it would only be allowed to deal with matters forwarded by this House? I don't think it will work if they're just forwarded by the House.
To give my full support, I would want to see that the committee had full freedom to call before it any Crown corporation board of directors and/or officials whenever it wanted to do so, and that automatically every year it would review the four major Crown corporations: B.C. Hydro, B.C. Rail, B.C. Transit and ICBC.
Motion approved.
Hon. J. MacPhail: I ask leave of the House to permit the moving of a motion to establish a special committee in respect of matters arising out of the Gove inquiry into child protection.
Leave granted.
Hon. J. MacPhail: Now, with leave, I move that a special committee be appointed to monitor and evaluate the progress of the work of the transition commissioner in respect of recommendations arising out of the Gove inquiry into child protection, and that the special committee so appointed shall have the powers of a select standing committee and be also empowered to appoint of their number one or more subcommittees, and refer to such subcommittees any of the matters referred to the committee, to sit during a period in which the House is adjourned, during the recess after prorogation until the next following session and during any sitting of the House, to adjourn from place to place as may be convenient, to retain such personnel as required to assist the committee and to permit minority opinions in a report of the committee; and shall report to the House as soon as possible or following any adjournment or at the next following session, as the case may be, to deposit the original of its report with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly during a period of adjournment. Upon resumption of the sittings of the House, the Chair shall present all reports to the Legislative Assembly. The said special committee shall be composed of Messrs. Beattie -- who will convene it -- Kasper, Hartley and Jones; Ms. Brewin, Ms. Hagen and Ms. Lord; Mr. Farrell-Collins, Ms. Stephens, Ms. Reid, Mr. Neufeld and Mr. Chisholm.
Motion approved.
Presenting Reports
M. Farnworth: I have the honour to present the report of the Special Committee to Appoint a Chief Electoral Officer for the fourth session of the thirty-fifth parliament. I move that the report be taken as read and received.
Motion approved.
M. Farnworth: I ask leave of the House to suspend the rules to permit the moving of a motion to adopt the report.
Leave granted.
M. Farnworth: I move that the report be adopted.
Motion approved.
M. Farnworth: Before I ask leave of the House, I would like to point out that the committee's choice, Mr. Robert Patterson, is with us today in the gallery. I would also like to take the opportunity at this time to thank my co-chair, the member for Fort Langley-Aldergrove; the member for Peace River North, and all the members of our committee; and the staff
[ Page 17024 ] who worked on the intensive search process undertaken. After an in-depth review of all candidates, we selected Mr. Robert Patterson, the previous incumbent. It was a unanimous recommendation.
With that, I ask leave of the House to permit the moving of a motion requesting the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint Mr. Robert Patterson the chief electoral officer for the province of British Columbia.
Leave granted.
M. Farnworth: I move that this House recommend to His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor the appointment of Mr. Robert Patterson as a statutory officer of the Legislature to exercise the powers and duties assigned to the chief electoral officer for the province of British Columbia pursuant to the Election Act.
Motion approved.
Hon. J. MacPhail moved adjournment of the House.
Motion approved.
The House adjourned at 2:57 p.m.
10. Transportation, Municipal Affairs and Housing;
11. Women's Equality;
12. Public Accounts;
13. Parliamentary Reform, Ethical Conduct, Standing Orders and Private Bills;
14. Crown Corporations;
Copyright © 1996: Queen's Printer, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada