Hansard -- Tuesday, September 13, 2005 a.m. -- Vol. 1, No. 3 (HTML)

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

Official Report of

DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY


CONTENTS

	Routine Proceedings
		Page


Throne Speech Debate		13
	J. McIntyre
	R. Cantelon
	Hon. J. Les
	L. Krog
	L. Mayencourt

Tabling Documents		28
	Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, annual report 2004-2005
	Office of the Auditor General, report No. 5, 2005-2006
	Keeping the Decks Clean: Managing Gaming Integrity Risks in Casinos
	Office of the Auditor General, report No. 4, 2005-2006: Building Better Reports: Our Assessment of the 2003-04 Annual Service Plan Reports of Government
	Office of the Auditor General, annual audit, year ending March 31, 2005
	Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, annual report, 2004
	Office of the Auditor General, report No. 3, 2005-2006: Audit of the Government's Corporate Accounting System, Part 1
	Office of the Auditor General, annual report, 2004-2005
	Office of the Auditor General Report No. 1, 2005-2006: Follow-up of the Recommendations of the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts Contained in its Fourth Report of the Third Session of the 36th Parliament: Earthquake Preparedness Performance Audit
	Office of the Auditor General, report No. 2, 2005-2006: Joint Follow-up of the 2001-02 Report 1: Managing Interface Fire Risk and Firestorm 2003 Provincial Review
	Office of the Ombudsman, annual report, 2004
	Office of the Ombudsman, service plan, 2005-06–2007-08
	Elections B.C., Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of the Surrey–Panorama Ridge By-election, October 28, 2004
	Office of the Auditor General, report No. 13, 2004-2005: Building Momentum for Results-based Management
	Elections B.C., service plan, 2005-06–2007-08
	British Columbia Legislative Library, annual report, 2004

It is a great privilege to rise on behalf of the residents of my community, West Vancouver–Garibaldi, and respond to the throne speech as my inaugural speech in this revered chamber.

The Lieutenant-Governor has laid out our government's plan for continuing progress in achieving our goals for a prosperous golden decade. A decade in which we plan to deliver to all British Columbians, in every region of the province, programs and tools to provide unprecedented opportunity for individuals to reach higher for their children, families and communities. We now have an opportunity to move forward with confidence and realize the true promise of our province.

We've come a long way over the past four years since first elected in May 2001. At that time the Premier and government laid out an ambitious plan to revitalize the economy and halt the downward spiral of the '90s. With leadership, courage and hard work, the recovery plan worked and is still working today. It has been a remarkable turnaround, despite a number of unforeseen obstacles such as 9/11, SARS, BSE, avian flu, forest fires and floods.

I would like to thank my current and former government colleagues in this House, who had the wisdom and the fortitude to do what they knew in their hearts was right for British Columbia. They made tough but necessary decisions to protect our children and grandchildren's future.

We as a province now have finally turned the corner. I'm very proud to be part of a team that has the experience, the vision, the resolve and ability to lead the province forward and keep our economy going strong in the ways laid out in the throne speech. I emphasize that the power of a strong economy means we now have choices. A recent example of the power of a strong economy is that Statistics Canada's August employment numbers show 1.007 million women employed in B.C., marking the first time the one-million mark has ever been surpassed.

It was just a short time ago that the Royal Bank of Canada reported that the B.C. economy, on the verge of a glorious decade, remains one of Canada's top growth leaders with a predicted growth of 3.6 percent this year. We are now working from a position of strength rather than one of weakness. We are leading the country in so many ways instead of trailing our counterparts in other regions, as in the past. I'm proud to reiterate that we recently became number one in the country in such key indicators as job creation, housing starts, retail sales and small business confidence. This government indeed has been playing and will continue to play a key role in providing B.C. families and businesses a far better economic climate in which to live, grow and succeed.

However, we're not quite yet out of the woods. While our biotech and high-tech sectors have rebounded, immigration into B.C. continues to improve, interior mines continue to reopen, and trading ties with Asia continue to develop, we still face many challenges. These challenges include labour shortages, rising gas prices, escalating construction costs and pressures on our environment from urban growth — prime examples of which are all found in my riding, which extends from Dundarave in West Vancouver all the way up the Sea to Sky corridor to Pemberton-D'Arcy. That said, I'm confident that our government has laid out a constructive plan, which the electors of this province have endorsed, to tackle these challenges and solve many of the problems that we may encounter using a balanced, reasoned and moderate approach.

The government has identified key initiatives to ensure that we will continue with momentum to progress on the right track. These include health care reform; advanced education, skills and literacy programs; first nations reconciliation; and transportation improvements to open up our province and ensure the safe and efficient movement of all people and goods around B.C. This is in addition to major economic opportunities such as the Asia-Pacific gateway.

From the perspective of my riding, I'm especially pleased this term to see full ministries for the environment; for aboriginal relations and reconciliation; and tourism, sport and the arts. I'm proud to be a part of this great caucus, and I look forward to working with the ministers and my caucus colleagues to ensure that British Columbia remains on top — not only on top when it comes to our economy but on top when it comes to our environment, our health care, and our children's education and skills development.

As we heard yesterday in the throne speech, the five overarching and far-reaching goals that Premier Campbell identified earlier this year will guide our government's agenda. I hope they become the goals of every person in this chamber and, frankly, every person in our province.

First, I truly believe that it's our responsibility to ensure that B.C. is the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on this continent. Already we've taken a

number of steps, such as providing the highest K-to-12 education funding in the province's history — and I repeat, the highest funding — while at the same time school enrolment is declining.

We're also in the process of allocating 25,000 new post-secondary spaces spread around the province. We're dramatically increasing the number of apprenticeships. We're providing increased funding for ESL programs. We're matching private donations for the Raise-a-Reader campaign, providing $5 million for literacy innovation grants and providing broadband Internet in every B.C. library. The list goes on and on.

Next, I support the Premier's belief that we need to lead the way in North America in healthy living and physical fitness. We've introduced Act Now B.C., emphasizing healthy eating and exercise regimes, especially for our school children. We've recently made major investments in new biking lanes and a playground-to-podium sports initiative through LegaciesNow. Additionally, we've committed more resources to prevention, such as helping citizens adopt a personal health guide or plan.

Growing emphasis on prevention is key. As baby-boomers age, we face spiralling costs that undermine our future prospects if not managed carefully. And note that these new health initiatives I've just mentioned complement the billions of additional dollars committed to health care spending and medical training, as health now accounts for just under 45 percent of our entire provincial budget.

Goal number three. I want to help build the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, special needs, children at risk and seniors. I am confident that this government will not shirk its responsibilities to care for those in need.

This government is committing millions of dollars for social programs and services such as transition houses and increasing the monthly amount for persons with disabilities. We're investing $76 million for diagnostic tests for preschool children: hearing, dental and eyesight.

We're expanding child care, and we're making progress on our goal to create 5,000 new beds for residential care and assisted living, all the while reducing MSP premiums for 290,000 lower-income seniors and families.

I am committed to work with my colleagues to ensure that we lead the world in sustainable environmental management with the best air and water quality and the best fisheries management bar none. I represent the only riding in the province where the Green Party finished second — a huge message. Our province, including West Vancouver–Garibaldi, is facing a multitude of land and water use challenges. We need to set out priorities and reach a balance, encouraging multiple uses of our precious natural resources, especially as we will have an international spotlight on us as we progress to 2010.

In our last balanced budget an additional $150 million was allocated for improved environmental protection and land use certainty, including Crown land contaminated site remediation. This has meant that Britannia mine, located in West Vancouver–Garibaldi, which is one of the worst sites in North America, is finally being addressed with an innovative private-public partnership water treatment plant after decades of inaction. I also applaud the government's plan to add up to 50 park conservation officers and spend $80 million towards the B.C. community water improvement program.

Finally, I'm committed to goal five, the creation of more jobs per capita than anywhere else in our country — in short, to sustain our leading position in Canada. We know that having a job is the single best way for our citizens to thrive.

I was pleased to hear in yesterday's throne speech that our government plans to work together with the official opposition, the B.C. Progress Board and first nations to develop the most appropriate targets, benchmarks and indicators for measuring progress on each goal. I was also pleased to learn that the government has announced a plan for electoral reform which will allow citizens to make a choice on substantial information. I thank the Premier for empowering all MLAs and citizens to engage in this important debate.

Now I'd like to share with you a closer look at my constituency of West Vancouver–Garibaldi. I'm very proud to be representing such a diverse riding, a true microcosm of the entire province. It is a vast urban and rural territory with over ten different communities, and I have yet to find one issue that's of concern to a region of B.C. that isn't also a concern in my riding, whether it's tourism, back-country recreation, natural resources, renewable energy sources, health, education, access to justice, environmental conservation, forestry, affordable housing, urban development or transportation. On top of this, the most important event since Expo 86 is being developed right in our backyard.

This region — stretching from Dundarave in West Vancouver, up the Sea to Sky corridor to D'Arcy at Anderson Lake — is one of the, if not the, fastest-growing region in the province. There are expanding communities such as Furry Creek, Britannia Beach and a planned community with first nations at Porteau Cove.

There are also communities in transition, such as Squamish, which is growing at a rapid rate as it moves from a more traditional economy based on forestry operations and rail transportation to one of the new economies based on ecotourism, recreation and knowledge-based activities. This progressive community is looking forward to the opening of the Sea to Sky University as well as a major expansion of Capilano College, which is now being positioned as a tourism learning centre.

The Squamish downtown is being revitalized, and the waterfront is undergoing an incredibly exciting development which will transform it into a Granville Island–plus destination. I understand it's the last port of its size — over 70 acres gifted by the province — to be developed in North America. I can proudly state that planning for these projects has involved key stakeholders, including the general public, using the

charette process and smart growth principles to ensure sustainability and a conciliatory approach.

We envisage, in the not-too-distant future, pocket cruise ships touring up spectacular Howe Sound, sailing by Britannia Beach, which is undergoing a major facelift with the government's support, and stopping at Squamish, where tourists will then be able to board a train to continue their trip up to northern destinations.

At this time I'd also like to acknowledge the provincial government's significant financial support for two other major attractions in the Squamish area: the adventure centre on the side of Highway 99, which will be a deluxe visitor information centre housing the chamber of commerce, among others; and the West Coast Railway Heritage Park, which is fast becoming a top attraction and will now be housed with a conference centre.

Whistler is also undergoing a transition as it moves towards hosting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As I speak to you today, we are only about 1,600 days away from the opening ceremonies, where we will be showcasing the very best of B.C. Construction has already started on two key venues: the nordic centre in the Callaghan Valley, which will hold various trails, ski jumps and temporary stadiums; and the sliding centre at Blackcomb Mountain, designed for bobsled, skeleton and luge.

Whistler is still addressing some of the fallouts of 9/11, SARS and the rising value of the Canadian dollar as well as Mother Nature's weather, which have all negatively impacted their tourism base. But I am confident that they will continue to move forward as they develop the resort as a four-season destination. The 2010 legacies and the Squamish and Lil’Wat Nations Cultural Centre will be positive new contributions to this effort.

It should be noted that this resort community has become a model for sustainability, adopting the Natural Step principles and producing their Whistler 2020 comprehensive sustainability plan that has resulted from a multi-year planning process involving all community stakeholders.

Pemberton is also undergoing some of the typical pressures associated with population growth as they prepare for 2010. The community is debating on the nature of future development, community recreational facilities, their local airport, back-country issues, independent power projects and community forest. I'd like to point out that the village of Pemberton council and Mount Currie Band Council, in official coordination for the very first time, created a drug and alcohol task force which produced a document entitled Winds of Change: A Healing Vision, for which they should be complimented.

In this region the provincial government has recently made significant financial contributions to the newly opened wastewater treatment facility, to diking projects to help protect the community from further flooding and to major upgrades to the Duffey Lake Road, easing transportation and establishing a circle tourism route

At the other end of the riding, West Vancouver is also preparing for the 2010 games as a venue city with freestyle skiing and snowboarding events being planned for Black Mountain in Cypress Provincial Park. Their local school district 45 has just received from the government additional funding in the amount of $1.6 million, with which they plan to hire ten new teachers as well as make improvements to library systems and hire an ESL coordinator, among other initiatives.

Before closing, I want to mention that the one major link to the constituency communities is our Sea to Sky Highway. We are privileged to have been awarded a $600 million P3 highway upgrade that is making what was a notorious road much safer and more efficient to travel, not only for tourists but for the many corridor residents who commute to work every day.

I see and hear almost daily how well the work is progressing. This has been a well-managed project combining a vast table of environmental commitments, construction apprenticeships for first nations and a high level of public consultation throughout, all contributing to a positive outcome — so far, on time and on budget, proving that partnerships can work and produce value-added benefits. In this case, this amounts to many additional safety features, including dividers and additional miles of added lanes.

Now, no doubt, hosting the 2010 games is having a major impact on this particular constituency of West Vancouver–Garibaldi. Yes, there are growth pressures. However, the incredible opportunities before us — some of which remain unimaginable, even at this stage — far outweigh the short-term issues.

At the end of it all, the success of the games will not just be gauged by what country or athlete won what medal. The success of the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics will be measured by the legacy left for all the people of this province to enjoy. The facilities and infrastructure developed, the jobs created and the cultural and environmental legacies will all be part of our future, and we must ensure we do it right.

I am confident in this government's leadership and that we will rise to the challenges as we execute the plans laid out in the throne speech. Together we will ensure that British Columbia never again becomes a have-not province. We have so much to gain if we can all work together towards an even brighter future.

Mr. Speaker: I just want to remind members not to use other members' names in their speeches.

R. Cantelon: It is a great honour and a privilege to be recognized in this House this morning, and I rise to second the Speech from the Throne. The speech lays out a comprehensive approach to building on the success that the economy has achieved in recent years.

It is now possible to build a bold new future for all British Columbians on the solid financial foundation that has been put in place during the last four years. This presents tremendous opportunities for the Nanaimo-Parksville riding that I have the privilege and have been

elected to represent. It was this opportunity that drew me to seek office in this Legislative Assembly.

As a city councillor for the city of Nanaimo and a director on the regional district of Nanaimo, I have always been a supporter and an advocate for business development and economic expansion. It is necessary, first, for wealth to be created by the private sector and generate tax income for the government before our government is able to act and respond to the needs of its citizens. As this government moves forward with this ambitious agenda, I sought the opportunity to represent the riding of Nanaimo-Parksville to see that they were in on the action, so to speak.

The economy in the Nanaimo-Parksville riding is booming. It is led by the construction industry, where activity levels of new home construction and other construction are setting and breaking records on a monthly basis. People are moving to British Columbia even from that paragon of growth, our sister province of Alberta. What is most gratifying, though, is to see the return of our young people to our province. Certainly, they never wanted to leave, and it was only out of economic necessity that they left in the first place.

I met a young man during the election campaign, Jason, who had moved with his family to Calgary in the 1990s to seek work. He was, I'm afraid to say, one of thousands of our young people who were forced to seek work outside the province. He has now found work as an automotive technician in Bruce Alexander's automotive dealership in Parksville. I'm happy to report that it is a well-paying job, and it has enabled him to move with his family back home to British Columbia and to his home on Vancouver Island.

This trend, Mr. Speaker, is critical to the success and the future of our province. Indeed, there is an ominous demographic bulge — a battle of the bulge, if you want — facing us as the shortage of trained young workers and professionals looms on the horizon, as the baby-boomers begin to retire in significant numbers. It is essential that our province offer hope and opportunity to our youth as they begin to enter the workforce.

During the 1990s too many of our youth simply dropped out of the economic system through frustration and discouragement. Others, as I have noted, simply packed up and left. Unfortunately, virtually a generation became disillusioned and opted out. We need to bring them back. We need them back.

Training and education without hope and expectation of meaningful employment is a hollow pursuit. That is why a robust economy with a range of vocational options is essential. More than creating specific job opportunities, we need to inspire and engage our youth with a spirit of entrepreneurship. We must say to them, in effect: "Start your own company. Create your own job. Opportunity abounds in this rich province."

It is a fact that the 25-year job with the gold watch and the company pension has proven to be a myth for a generation of boomers. We do our youth a better service to encourage more independence. The independent thinker, the person with a dream who creates his — and, of course, more and more now her — opportunity: these are the people that have built this province. We need to invigorate these passions and reward initiative with real hope and real opportunity. Hardy individualism built this province and could lead us in what promises to be a golden decade.

It is necessary to diversify our economic opportunities. I have been involved, on behalf of the Nanaimo city council, on the board of Tourism Nanaimo and as chair of the conference centre advisory committee in initiatives and projects to diversify the traditional resource-based economies in that area. I want to acknowledge, certainly, at this time the support that the provincial government has given in these projects — a very significant contribution of $8.3 million towards the project, which makes it feasible to proceed.

Nanaimo, I would note, was the first city to formally recognize the opportunities that the 2010 Olympic bid presented to our community. Tourism represents a significant opportunity for the central Island. The Vancouver Island conference centre will bring thousands of delegates to our beautiful harbour — and I invite you to join them — to enjoy our spectacular walkway, the eclectic shops, the coffee shops and restaurants and the growing arts and culture centre and district. The art galleries offer a wealth of treasures from our own Vancouver Island artists. Many of these delegates and visitors will return to visit, to invest and to make it their home. I look forward to working with the Oceanside Tourism in Parksville and Tourism Nanaimo to take advantage not only of the 2010 Olympics but also the Asia-Pacific gateway initiative that this government has begun.

I've been speaking about the importance of business and the economy, and they are important in job creation. But they are not just an end to themselves. A thriving and vigorous economy enables a government to have the resources to provide education, health care and support services for its citizens. It is first essential to have a balanced budget and therefore a solid financial footing on which to build responses to these needs for British Columbians. Indeed, the government sets a platform, clears the deck and gets out of the way of business.

Insofar as being prudent financial managers, government must operate on sound business principles, but the business of government is its people. It must invest in the future and well-being of its citizens. The citizens of this great province are the first and most important resource that we have.

That is why I'm excited about this throne speech, because it focuses on expanding education, health and support services while being vigilant about our environmental stewardship. Of course, we must maintain momentum on the job creation that we have begun. The economy pays the rent, after all.

The five great goals will have sweeping consequences throughout the province, and I would like, if I may, to touch on how they will affect the riding of Nanaimo-Parksville that I represent.

The first goal is to make B.C. the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent. If we are to achieve the potential of this great province…. It is essential that we equip our young people with the best knowledge and skills if they are to compete in the global economy. And it's not just for the global economy that we must equip our upcoming generation but also to prepare the many professionals we will need to serve the needs of our communities. The initiative to increase the number of seats in our universities is an important example of how our educational system must respond and expand to meet the needs of all British Columbians.

In the riding of Nanaimo-Parksville the new funding for K-to-12 has been well used by the administrators and trustees of school districts 68 and 69. They have taken moves to cap and limit the class sizes while allocating funding resources to teacher's aides and other needed requirements. While the enrolment has dropped, the per-capita funding per student has continued to increase.

The initiative begins at K-to-12 and continues throughout to the university level. This government recognizes that many of our young people and not-so-young people became frustrated with the lack of opportunity and opted out of educational programs. Their attitude, I think, might be said to be: why train for jobs that aren't there?

I'm pleased to report that the robust economy is now generating jobs at a record rate in Canada. There are shortages in a wide range of technical, professional and other vocations. We can expect that there will be many returning to the classrooms to upgrade their skills and take advantage of the many opportunities that present themselves. In fact, filling the tremendous number of new, skilled positions that our economy is creating is one of the greatest challenges that B.C. faces in the upcoming years.

The second great goal is to lead the way in North America to healthy living and physical fitness. While this goal has obvious consequences for health care, that is not the prime objective of this goal. Let me tell you that I attended one of PGOSA's regular Friday events. PGOSA is an acronym that stands for Parksville Golden Oldies Sports Association. I attended a field day for seniors — a real field day like we used to have in high school. It featured slo-pitch, golf, horseshoes, bocce ball, and other athletic events were offered.

They have a regular hockey team called the PGOSA Panters. They displayed, I think as much as anything, what this goal is all about: being fit, staying fit, being active and enjoying life to the fullest. They have over a thousand members in the community of Parksville.

I also attended recently the Canadian seniors mixed pairs lawn bowling championship held in Parksville. The Parksville club has over 160 members, and Nanaimo has two clubs. As I went to the banquet on Saturday night, I thought I was in the wrong room. There were over 300 people in the room. They're a very, very active group.

We live in the best climate, in the most beautiful setting in North America. This initiative aims to encourage and facilitate its citizens of all ages to use and enjoy it to the fullest.

The third great goal is to build the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, special needs, children at risk and seniors. Surely, the measure of success of any society is how it looks after those who are disadvantaged by circumstances of health or misfortune or age.

Seniors built this country, laid the foundation for prosperity and established the values of the caring society that we now enjoy. The Parksville riding has a 50-percent higher percentage of seniors than the British Columbia average. This was the last census, and I'm sure it is even increasing. According to a comprehensive survey taken by the Vancouver real estate board , 62 percent of the people purchasing homes in the Parksville area were purchasing them for a retirement home.

Now while many of these people come from Alberta and Ontario, the large majority of them come from British Columbia. Far be it from me, however, to suggest that other areas of our province are less beautiful than central Vancouver Island. I would certainly not presume to do that. It is a fact, however, that people are choosing the moderate, sunny climate that they find on Vancouver Island in ever-increasing numbers.

This presents the government with particular challenges. Meeting these challenges was one of the principal reasons that I ran for office. The seniors council that this government has initiated will help to enlist the critical issues, and there are many. Even the name "seniors," which we use to identify this growing demographic group, needs to be reviewed. I'm afraid to admit that as the saying goes, I resemble that remark more and more each day.

More and more of our citizens are daily joining this group, and while it originally referred to people who had reached the traditional age of retirement at 65, both ends of that age spectrum are expanding. The baby-boomers are cashing in their equity, principally in their homes, and heading for the golf course earlier in life. This wonderful climate on central Vancouver Island appeals to them.

One of the issues that we do need to review is mandatory retirement. That's an issue, too, that this House has to face. It used to be that once you were past your 70s — and I hope my constituents who might be following this will forgive me — you were considered to be getting old.

I remember my dear mother, who refused to acknowledge to her writing group that she was no longer 79. "Ronnie," she said to me, "79 isn't too bad, but I don't want the group to think that I'm in my 80s. It's too far."

Now one of the fastest-growing age groups is over 80. They're active, and they're busy. This group of seniors that bought close to a thousand homes in the Parksville area alone in 2004 — and that number will be, in 2005…. It raises the question: where will they be

living? Will they be in their homes, or what sort of home will they be in when they can no longer keep their home up?

The need is immense now, and it will quickly grow larger. It is not acceptable to warehouse seniors in substandard accommodation. The atrocious conditions that we found in many of the older-type seniors homes cannot be acceptable, and this government has looked to new concepts.

One of the urgent needs in the Parksville area is the construction of the planned expansion of the Arrowsmith Lodge. The new units will be complex care units. The new concept will provide a continuum of care from independent living to tertiary care. This will add 75 units to the facility, and it is one of my top priorities as MLA for Nanaimo-Parksville riding to see that this facility is built during my term in office.

However, when you consider 75 units against the thousands of homes that are being purchased by seniors in the Parksville area alone, one can easily deduce that we will not be able to build enough units fast enough to accommodate the growing need. We will need to look to other answers. We will need to keep people in their homes longer. This will require a broad strategy of support.

Senior housing is not the only pressing support concern in the Parksville area. Persons with mental issues, I'm sad to say, are facing a critical shortage of housing. The community has organized a group to begin an initiative to address this concern, and I will be working and assisting them to achieve their goals.

The fourth goal is to lead the world in sustainable environmental management with the best air quality, water quality and fisheries management, bar none. The top priority coming out of the seminar session held about two years ago by the directors of the regional district of Nanaimo, which I attended, was water quality and supply. This is of particular concern to Lantzville and the other outlying areas in Coombs. They are all relying on wells for their primary source of water, and the name Walkerton holds a special horror for people in this area.

The regional district welcomes and was very enthusiastic about the expansion of the government role in this area. I met with the new quality engineer, Mr. John Spencer, who incidentally was very happy to be able to return to British Columbia from the north. His duties will include reviewing the engineering integrity of the various smaller water systems on the Island. It's much-welcome assistance, but generally speaking, only stringent adherence to high standards of sustainable environmental management is acceptable in today's world.

The fifth goal is to create more jobs per capita than anywhere else in Canada, last but certainly not least. That is a goal that has already been achieved. British Columbia leads the nation in job creation. The challenge now is to sustain sound and environmentally friendly growth.

We must continue to look at new markets. The Asia-Pacific is one that we must expand. While Australia has doubled their exports to China, Canada's exports to that country have increased by only 17 percent. The recent outcomes of the softwood lumber dispute make clear that we cannot rely on the United States markets for our lumber exports.

Vancouver Island's lumber and wood fibre manufacturers are facing great challenges of modernizing and competing with the production of forest products with other jurisdictions including, I note, the interior of B.C., which has a number of very high-speed, high-efficiency mills. Frankly, the interior of B.C.'s mills are kicking our…. Well, I can't refer to the part of the anatomy. But I think the colloquialism is familiar to all members in the House, and that's what they're kicking.

We're experiencing a phenomenal boom in new home construction, as I noted, on the Island. We're very efficient at this. Our construction industry is one of the most innovative and productive areas in the economy on Vancouver Island. It is a fact that this entrepreneurial energy, however, is focused mainly on selling product to ourselves. We need to turn some of that energy and investment outward towards developing product for export.

We've had notable successes in the past, most particularly in Japan. However, that success has faded, and the European countries are now eating our lunch in that market. While the Asian economic flu abated, our markets in Japan did not come back. The new ministry to open up the Asia-Pacific gateway will bring the needed focus to identify opportunities and partner with industry to expand our markets and product to the Far East.

Small business is not only a vital key to economic progress in British Columbia, but to a large extent it defines who we are: independent, optimistic and ready to measure our abilities against an opportunity that presents itself. This is particularly true on Vancouver Island. Some of the smaller businesses did, in course, indeed become industry giants. They were founded by individuals with a dream and energy. With more hard work than capital they founded successful enterprises. Most failed more than once before they succeeded, but persistence and optimism prevailed, and the province has prospered.

Optimism and opportunity are the fuel for ideas and initiative, more so than vast amounts of capital, and that's what drives the B.C. economy. It's vital to retain and nurture this spirit of entrepreneurship.

The Minister of Small Business and Revenue has initiated a small business round table to monitor the business-friendly quotient, if you want, towards small businesses. The Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce has already struck a committee to monitor just that very business-friendliness in the city of Nanaimo. The minister can be assured that the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce will be knocking on his doors to lead that important forum.

Considerable progress has been made in cutting the Gordian knot of bureaucracy. A friend of mine recently wanted to set up his own construction company in Parksville. I directed him to the business registry page

on the B.C. government website. In a matter of about an hour — not even an hour, more like half an hour or so — we walked through the application process and registered his company on line, effective that day.

The site also enabled him to register for GST, PST, WCB, municipal licences and other necessary requirements from his own home, without having to make dozens of phone calls, make a raft of appointments and subsequently run all over the place to get set up in business. It's a marvellous improvement and greatly reduces the anxiety and frustration in getting an enterprise underway.

I've talked about how these five great goals will impact and benefit and how they relate to the riding that I represent. Each of the ridings in this beautiful province of ours will have a different flavour depending on the blending of needs for the particular riding in the province.

Finally, the voters sent us a powerful message with the STV vote. In reading Mr. MacDonald's book on the process, it's clear that it was as much about being heard or the process or how we do business as about proportional voting. He states in his book a rather condemning fact. He says that one of the main reasons the assembly liked the Ireland STV model so much is because politicians there didn't like it. What does that say about how we are viewed by our citizens?

The chairs of the Citizens' Assembly agree. They don't like, it seems in my view, the way we conduct business. They want more input. They want more relevance. To my mind, it comes down in large part to how we conduct ourselves here. Our constituents have a right to expect real dialogue, real debate on the issues. They want an exchange of ideas, not catcalls.

We've made changes. This government has taken the lead in Canada once again to make changes. We've expanded the question period, we've added a deputy House leader, and we've made other changes to open the process of developing legislation within this House. We hope that these changes are going to be viewed by all members in this House on both sides as positive changes to improve how we construct and develop legislation.

No one owns the whole truth, Mr. Speaker. There may be ideas on both sides of the House. I think it's incumbent on all members, but perhaps particularly on the government side of the House, to listen to the ideas and incorporate those ideas that help make things better and improve them. Who knows? With current trends on TV programs these days, people might start to watch this on TV. This might even become the new hit reality show — watching your legislators actually develop ideas, do work and accomplish things for their government. What a concept.

All of this will be meaningless, though, unless our aboriginal first nations are part of our growth, prosperity and future. We aspire to set an example to the nation and to the world. We're number one in job creation. Indeed, we are leading the nation on important issues such as Pharmacare and surgical waiting times, but we cannot hold our success up to the world unless they are truly partners with us. Otherwise, it is a sham and a shame.

I can remember, in a previous incarnation in an all-candidates debate in one community, we were talking about employment. In those days the employment rate was quite bad. It was between 10 and 15 percent. A first nations person got up and spoke and said to me in a very direct and poignant way: "Well, we'd be happy if ours was only as low as 25 percent." To me, that struck home. They're just not with us, and they're not part of us, and we have to change that.

Now it's up to us. We are on the cusp of greatness. B.C. now is poised to take its position from some of those other more eastern provinces as the leader in Canada. We are leading in democratic reform. We are leading in legislative reform.

This is our opportunity. It's the opportunity within this House, and I challenge us all to seize that opportunity. We can make this a great decade. We can make B.C. famous worldwide for its greatness and progress. The proceedings of this House in the next term, in the next few months, will have a profound effect on the future of all British Columbians.

Hon. J. Les: It's my pleasure to rise this morning and respond in reply to the Speech from the Throne.

Before I begin my remarks, Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate you on your election to the very honourable office of Speaker. It is indeed a great honour. The residents of your constituency in the Penticton–Okanagan Valley should be very proud of the fact that you have been selected by this Legislature to guide the proceedings in the months and years ahead.

I'd also at this point like to express my appreciation to my constituents in the riding of Chilliwack-Sumas who decided in May of this year to re-elect me as their MLA. This is the second time that has happened. I immensely enjoyed representing the riding of Chilliwack-Sumas during the years of 2001 to 2005. It is a very vibrant riding where there are a lot of things going on, a lot of economic growth. Construction starts in the last several years have broken all records. It is indeed a very dynamic place, and thus it is even more of an honour to represent a riding which represents that kind of confidence and optimism for the future.

In May 2001 our province faced a pivotal moment. The electorate of the province decided at that point that we needed to embark on a different direction. British Columbians everywhere recognized that we had gone from being a first-place economy, typically, in Canada to being a last-place economy. British Columbians decided that simply wasn't good enough. They elected a government that was committed to change, and change we certainly embarked upon very, very quickly.

I remember so well the 90-day agenda that was implemented soon after the election of 2001 — the tax cuts that were implemented and other measures that were taken to stimulate the economy. What we now know is that the measures that were taken, particularly in those early days in 2001, very directly led to the economic revival we have seen in this province since that time.

As people approached the election of May 17, 2005, I think they clearly took note of those decisions and choices that were made in the preceding four years, some of the difficult challenges that were addressed and some of the difficult choices that had to be made collectively. The people, indeed, passed judgment, and they decided that the province should continue on that track of economic growth and prosperity, and that is exactly what I am committed to do as the member for Chilliwack-Sumas.

Today we are an economy in British Columbia that has gone from last place in 2001 to a point where we are recognized as an economic leader in Canada. Of that I am very, very proud. People have a renewed optimism in British Columbia today. If you look at the construction industry, for example, almost all over this province the amount of construction going on is at record levels.

Our port infrastructure is being strained to capacity because of the goods that are flowing back and forth through those ports, and we are facing significant pressure to expand those ports and, indeed, to develop new facilities in places such as Prince Rupert.

The mining industry in British Columbia is back. Mining investment in British Columbia had dwindled down to less than $30 million per year by 2001. Today we see mining and exploration investment in this province back in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That is going to need to continue on a sustained basis to ensure that we bring back active and working mines in British Columbia, which by the way also provide very good, high-paying jobs for people who are employed in the mining industry. Those jobs typically pay somewhere in the neighbourhood of $85,000 per year, which is a very good salary for people who are employed in those industries.

The forest industry in British Columbia has certainly gone through a number of challenges, not the least of which is the softwood lumber disagreement, as I like to call it, with the United States. But in spite of that major hurdle, the industry has been able to retool, to re-invest in new technology, partly because of the changes that were made as part of the 90-day agenda in 2001. The industry has responded, and it is today, without question, the most efficient industry of its kind in the world.

In spite of the major tariff hurdles that have been put in place, there are literally record amounts of lumber being exported to the United States, and one has to remain optimistic that this tariff situation will eventually be resolved. If and when that happens, I think the future prospects for the forest industry in British Columbia can be nothing but very, very optimistic indeed.

Tourists, as always, love to come to British Columbia. We have here a world-class tourism destination. We certainly can look forward to the future and think about the rapidly increasing numbers of tourists that are going to come to our province. China, for example, is currently negotiating approved destination status with Canada, which is going to open the door to a radically increased number of Chinese tourists coming to British Columbia. If the tourists coming from Japan and Korea and other southeast and south Asian countries are any indication, this is the next new world of opportunity for tourism in British Columbia and something I'm certainly very much looking forward to.

As part of that, we need to work with the federal government to work on our Open Skies agreements. Clearly, we need a liberalized regulatory platform through which access to our airports occurs. In the new reality I think it's critically important that that happens.

Of course, as we are all aware, in 2010 our province will have the rare opportunity, honour and privilege to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. This is something that, if nothing else, is one huge opportunity for all of us as British Columbians. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from which we can springboard so many things.

I was just talking about tourism. If there is any better opportunity to showcase our tourism potential than the Olympics, I don't know what it is. It is our opportunity to showcase British Columbia to the world, and I think we are going to do that with great success. If Expo 86 was any example at all — and it will, in the end, only serve as a very small example of what the Olympics can be — we know that the years immediately after our hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympics will represent years where the tourism industry in British Columbia expands by leaps and bounds. We need to anticipate that, Mr. Speaker. We need to be ready for it to make sure we realize all of the potential that that opportunity can provide.

I've talked about the economy and how important a strong economy is and how well we've done over the last several years. The strong economy is necessary for certain basic things that we all enjoy, such as health care, for example. In the Fraser Valley, a new health centre and cancer treatment centre is currently under construction in the city of Abbotsford — an investment of over $300 million — which is very much appreciated by the residents of the Fraser Valley, who have been waiting for years for this important infrastructure to be put in place. You don't invest $300 million, or more than that, with a faltering economy. You need a strong economy to support all of the not only capital costs but operational costs that will increase as a result of that as well. It certainly is encouraging to see that important project underway.

Education is another public service that we need to continue to support. A healthy and thriving economy in today's modern world relies very much on an educated workforce. We need to continue to provide more and better post-secondary education opportunities, for our young people particularly but also for people in middle age, for example, who increasingly are going to require retraining and upgrading as they proceed through their careers. We've certainly made important commitments to the expansion of post-secondary education in terms of the 25,000 additional post-secondary education seats, for example, and new facilities in a variety of places around the province as well as a new university in the Kamloops area, a UBC campus in

Kelowna and other initiatives of that nature that are going to occur in the months and years ahead.

In my own community of Chilliwack and in Abbotsford the University College of the Fraser Valley has long been a valued institution. They are certainly very much discussing with the Ministry of Advanced Education, at the moment, the potential relocation of the Chilliwack campus of the University College of the Fraser Valley to the site of the former Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack. This is an enormous opportunity, not only for the city of Chilliwack but also for the university college as an institution. To be able to access a site like that is indeed something that can propel the institution forward to new achievements.

Also on the site of the former Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack is being established the new campus for the World Trade University, which is an institution that has been sanctioned by the United Nations. Its world headquarters will now be located here in British Columbia on the campus that is being developed in Chilliwack. I think that is something of which we can be enormously proud here in British Columbia, that we would be selected by the United Nations to host an institution that will obviously be centrally important in the development of world trade and educating people, from the Third World in particular, in international business and opportunities.

I'm looking forward to the official opening of that institution in the next several months. There will be a private member's bill presented to the House in the weeks ahead to give effect to the establishment of this World Trade University, and I think that will be another great day, indeed, for our province here in British Columbia.

If I can just make a few remarks about my particular ministry, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, again, a strong economy is necessary to ensure that we are able to provide the resources to ensure that our communities are safe for British Columbians. People increasingly are concerned that they have not only communities in which they are safe but communities in which they feel safe. I am committed to ensuring that we have the resources necessary to allow people to feel safe and secure in their own communities.

My predecessor in this position, the member for Fort Langley–Aldergrove, I think undertook a number of initiatives that were fundamentally important to ensuring that police services were better delivered here in British Columbia — a great emphasis on more integration of police services, whether they were RCMP or city police forces. The bottom line is that crime knows no boundaries, and today it is imperative that we integrate our policing resources as much as possible. I believe a lot of that has been very successfully accomplished over the last several years.

The ISPOT team, just as one example — the integrated sexual predator observation team — is an enormously important tool to ensure that those who need particularly close supervision are in fact supervised so that they do not victimize people further. They have had numerous successes, and I am sure they're going to continue to have those successes.

The IHIT team, integrated homicide investigation team — again, fundamentally important. Many of these crimes today are completely irrespective of boundaries, and in the past, we all know, crimes were unsolved as a result of a lack of integration between police resources.

We also have the PRIME program rolled out today, which is going to require further resources. That is the police resources information management system. Again, that allows real-time access to all police forces of all current information relevant to policing.

Just under a year ago our Premier announced at the UBCM convention in Kelowna that communities, too, would be given additional resources. As many of you will know, and as you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a former mayor of a community. It always rather irked me that although the community paid for policing resources, any resulting revenue that came from fine collection, for example, always went straight to the provincial government. Well, that has been rectified.

Last year our Premier announced that all traffic fine revenue will now accrue to municipal government — some $40 million worth of resources that are now available to municipal governments across British Columbia to help with their policing resources requirements. I know that was very, very much appreciated by municipal government across British Columbia.

Further resources were put into policing, as well, including the hiring of an additional 215 RCMP positions across the province. I know that has been very warmly received, particularly in the rural areas of British Columbia.

Our efforts will not stop to ensure that we have the resources to combat crime. In the spring of this year we introduced an exposure bill, civil forfeiture legislation. That legislation is going to be reintroduced in this session. It is, simply put, a bill that allows government to ensure that those who engage in criminal activity do not benefit from this activity, and to seize assets that result from or are used in the commission of crime. I would certainly commend that legislation to the House when we are able to introduce it.

Our government, also, has really taken leadership in terms of parliamentary reform. We introduced fixed election dates. For the first time in Canadian history a government actually took the step of establishing a fixed election date, not leaving that up to the whim of a government leader but establishing that in legislation so that it's something people can plan towards on both sides of the House. We know today, for example, that on May 12, 2009, there will be the next election here in British Columbia.

The fixed legislative calendar was another innovation whose time had come. Not having been here prior to the establishment of the fixed legislative calendar, I can only operate from the hoary tales of others who preceded me in this place. I certainly have heard from them that the indefinite legislative calendar that used to characterize this place was something they wouldn't

wish on anyone. People's personal plans, their family vacations and items of that nature, which are extremely important, often had to be set aside because of the agenda of the House.

The responsibility of being an MLA and being a member of this House is plenty onerous as it is, without us creating conditions that make it even more so. The fixed legislative calendar was certainly, I think for all of us, a very welcome innovation.

Yesterday in the throne speech it was revealed that question period will be doubled in length, from 15 to 30 minutes. I'm sure that was welcome news to the members of the opposition. But it is further evidence of our wish as a government to be open and transparent and accountable to British Columbians. I'm certainly looking forward to those opportunities as well.

The selection of a second Deputy Speaker — but this time the second Deputy Speaker from the opposition benches — is another way in which we as a government have said it is important that all members of the House participate in the activities that happen here. I think that was a great innovation, as well, and it is an innovation, by the way, in British Columbia. It's not like that particular innovation hasn't happened elsewhere in the past. I know that my Member of Parliament, for example, who is from the opposition party in Ottawa, is today the Deputy Speaker in Ottawa.

Some of these things, although they might seem bold and innovative in the B.C. context, in some cases have been done before, but certainly not such things as fixed election dates and the fixed calendar. Those are indeed made-in-B.C. initiatives.

A very important initiative that we embarked upon in the last several years was the establishment of the Citizens' Assembly. That assembly, as we all know, made recommendations which were brought forward in the referendum that was held coincidental with the election on May 17. In the event, as we all know, the referendum failed, based on the criteria that were established. But there was certainly a major expression — a majority expression, in fact — on behalf of all British Columbians, it seemed, that there is an interest in some renovation of the parliamentary system and the system of election here in British Columbia.

I think we need to honour that expression of willingness to change. That was brought forward yesterday in the throne speech, and we've laid out how we're going to give some expression to what the recommended option would look like — the single transferable ballot and what the riding boundaries would look like — so that British Columbians can make a further informed choice as to whether they want to embark upon the single transferable ballot option. It will be interesting, indeed, to see how those riding boundaries evolve, the debate that I hope ensues around the STV option, and what British Columbians' verdict will be at the referendum that will be held in November of 2008.

Hopefully, these and the other initiatives I've talked about will ensure that British Columbians will become more confident in their democratic institutions here in this province. We sometimes rather glibly talk about the fact that people think that political life, not only here in British Columbia but perhaps throughout the western world, is becoming a little bit non-consequential, or perhaps that it doesn't enjoy the best reputation.

I happen to believe, and have believed for a long time, that being allowed to be a political representative is a very honourable profession indeed. Anything we can do to regain some of that credibility, not necessarily for ourselves, first of all, but for the institutions we serve, is something I would certainly support very, very strongly.

In closing, I would just like to say this. I am as enthused and excited as I've ever been about the future of this province. We are today on the threshold of a golden decade of opportunity. I've talked about some of the prospects for the future, not the least of which is the Olympics. I'm very proud of the accomplishments we've been able to work on over the last several years with all British Columbians.

Let's not forget that progress does not depend solely on the 79 people who occupy this House, but we indeed must work with all 4.2 million British Columbians to fully realize the potential of this province. When we do that and encourage people to work with government and listen to some of the really bold ideas that British Columbians have — how we can propel this province forward into a future that perhaps many of us have not yet imagined — I believe we can do great things together.

On behalf of my constituents and all British Columbians, I very much look forward to that future for all British Columbians.

L. Krog: I think I could safely say it's been a while since this chamber has heard my dulcet tones.

I firstly want to offer my very sincere congratulations to you, hon. Speaker, on your election. You occupy an office that is ancient in its history, honourable in its tradition and very important for the civil conduct of this Legislature. I also want to offer my sincere congratulations to the government on its re-election. Narrow as the victory may be, it is nevertheless a victory, and you enjoy that victory. But I also want to offer my sincere congratulations to my colleagues on the opposition benches, much risen in number from three to 33 and aiming to achieve an even greater number in 2009, I trust.

My greatest thanks, and that which affords me the honour of speaking here today, are to the good voters of the ancient and old constituency of Nanaimo itself. To them I owe a great deal of gratitude and an astounding level of support in the last provincial election.

Nanaimo, as many of you know, is one of the oldest cities in this province. It was also the first community to elect a socialist member to the Legislature of British Columbia in 1903. It is a community that has enjoyed a long history in terms of labour. It is a community that saw many vicious strikes. It saw death in working conditions that we would find absolutely intolerable. It

saw family strife. It saw divisions in communities that have lasted for a very long time. I am conscious of the honour it is to represent a community like Nanaimo.

Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, in her remarks yesterday, noted that there were 854 people who have enjoyed election to this House in the history of this province. I took time before the last election to inquire of the Clerk's office how many had enjoyed election prior to that time, which included myself, and that was a total of 816. It is a remarkably small number of people who have enjoyed the honour and privilege to speak in this legislative session.

I might say, though, that I'm reminded of the words of the great poet Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Perhaps we should all keep those words in mind.

Which leads me, hon. Speaker, to golden promises and a golden decade. It is perhaps, I think, fitting to say that golden promises often are — how shall I say? — the paving stones of the road to political oblivion. All that glitters is not gold. What has happened in British Columbia in the last four years — and I give the government some credit for this, although no government should ever take full responsibility for a good economy nor responsibility for a bad one — is that in the wealth that has been created in the last four years…. What has happened is that some communities and some sectors of our society have benefited so much more than others.

In my community in the city of Nanaimo a count for homelessness was done at the time of the last election. By best calculation 150 people in the city of Nanaimo, which boasts a population of 79,000, are homeless. That doesn't include what we refer to as couch-surfing in the vernacular nowadays — people who have no home but who simply travel where they can and spend time with friends. I guess my concern as the member for Nanaimo is that things have not gone as well as some might wish to suggest in this House, that great promises have been made, but promises not always kept.

I want to compliment this government on its reforms. I want to thank them for the opportunity to see a member from the opposition sit as Assistant Deputy Speaker. I want to compliment them on lengthening question period. That will be the most interesting reform. I'm delighted to remind this House, of course, that it was a previous New Democratic Party government under Dave Barrett that brought in question period to this House and, indeed, introduced Hansard, so that what we say may in fact come back to haunt us from time to time, as it should, during relevant elections. But we have not heard anything about some of the other issues, and I will go on at length in a moment about those.

I want to thank the government, also, for instituting a special committee on sustainable aquaculture, although I somehow think, given the controversy of the issue, that perhaps the government has simply tossed us a stinking fish and hopes we catch it. But I want to assure that the opposition will take full opportunity of the chairmanship of that committee and the majority of its members to work towards a sustainable solution for aquaculture in this province. I suggest that we will listen with open mind to all of the suggestions of government and the people and the members of this assembly, who I hope will take full time to participate in that committee.

What can I tell you about the city of Nanaimo? What are the issues for Nanaimo? Why did they elect me? For that matter, I suppose, why did they elect anybody? They elected me, I trust, to represent them, to address those issues that are important to the citizens of Nanaimo.

I could not stand here today and make any remarks if I did not first address the most pressing issue in my community, which I alluded to earlier, and that is the issue of homelessness and housing and affordable housing.

Nanaimo, as a port city, probably has a higher incidence of drug abuse than many other communities, and consistent with that drug abuse is often a co-diagnosis of schizophrenia or related mental illnesses. There are people who do not, it appears, qualify for social assistance. There are people who do not, it appears, actively participate in our society in the full way that all citizens are expected to. Their daily lives are focused on survival or finding a fix or finding a place to sleep at night. That's something that none of the members of this House have to worry about.

I would be remiss if I did not drive home that point to this government. Social assistance rates in this province have not risen for years, except for people with recognized disabilities. But there are hoops to go through to achieve that status — difficult hoops — and many do not make the mark. You have to ask yourself: where do those people go? Do they fall back on some private charities? Do they return to families? Who cares for them? Who provides for them?

The truth is that many of those people are not provided for. They have no families to return to. They have no home communities. They simply constitute the numerous people in this province who die in its streets year in, year out — ignored by governments, ignored by legislators and often ignored by society at large. I sincerely hope that this government, enjoying the benefit that all governments hope to enjoy, which is a surplus, will take advantage of that surplus to distribute some of that wealth towards assisting those without housing and homes in British Columbia and in particular in my city, Nanaimo.

We live in two solitudes, in some respects, in the city of Nanaimo. My friend the hon. member for Nanaimo-Parksville, newly elected, represents what I will call the wealthier half of the city, the northern part. Housing is booming. Prices are through the roof. People are quite happy. I represent the older part of the city. My constituency office overlooks the Salva-

tion Army, so every day, if I take the time, I have the opportunity to see those lining up who are without in our society and who have no hope and no prospect for the future.

I think it's an appropriate place to be representing the community that I do. Nanaimo is the third-poorest constituency in the province. I'm conscious of my obligation that if, at the end of four years in this House, I have done nothing to secure funding for housing in my community — and these words may well come back to haunt me — I will perhaps have failed in my duty. But I say in all candour: if this government does nothing in the next four years in pursuit of its promises and, in pursuit of its desire for the golden decade, does nothing to alleviate the problems of homelessness and housing in the city of Nanaimo, I suggest the greater failure will lie with them.

There are many in my community who have some very specific goals. I congratulate the members of cabinet, whom I will be approaching in the next few weeks and months when it comes to securing, perhaps, some benefits for my community. In particular, I want to address the Ministry of Environment, because there is an active community group in my community, the Nanaimo Area Land Trust, which will be seeking assistance to purchase Mount Benson, the spectacular mountain one sees when you enter the great harbour city of Nanaimo. It's a small amount of money that would be required, but it is important. It would promote the values of tourism and economic development, which are so important to my community, and I would hope that this government will see its way fit to doing something about that.

In my community there are also many active organizations that require government assistance. The Clearview Detox Centre is actually in the process of getting funding from the government. I appreciate that, and the citizens of Nanaimo appreciate it. But there are simply not enough detox beds in Nanaimo, nor indeed on Vancouver Island.

The Columbia Centre Society provides housing and assistance to those leaving psychiatric care at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and those with disabilities who require assistance. It, likewise, requires more funding.

The Haven Society, which provides and has a long history of providing care for women and children from abusive family situations, requires funding. Indeed, I will be meeting later today with my predecessor Mr. Hunter, the former member for Nanaimo, in order to discuss with him and the executive of that society's board the necessity of providing funding to maintain programs that are so important in my community.

I also say with some pride that Nanaimo has been a leader not just in its history of labour in fighting for the rights of working people but also on the environmental side. The Nanaimo Fish and Game Protective Society this year celebrated its 100th anniversary — its 100th anniversary. Interestingly, it was formed initially because there were rumours that wealthy American interests were going to purchase much of the wilderness surrounding Nanaimo and turn it into a private hunting reserve. It didn't really matter, because the land ended up in the hands of the Dunsmuir family anyway as a private reserve for making money for the building of the great railway.

The Nanaimo Fish and Game Club has worked tirelessly throughout this province's history to ensure that habitat for wildlife was protected and to ensure that all governments acted appropriately on environmental issues. I want to give my sincere compliments to them on this historic anniversary.

In my job as an MLA I have met with many groups who have concerns about my community. Those concerns are not going to be solved in the course of one legislative session. I am, in that sense, proud that the government is in some way envisioning a future for British Columbians, talking about a plan — even if it's a plan that the opposition may not support.

I'm glad to see that we have come to an era in our history where we understand that we just can't keep running over the next hillside and logging a few more trees or developing another mine or finding another bay in which you can catch some fish. We are reaching the limits of our sustainability. If you will, we are reaching the limits of growth. If we plan appropriately, we can build this great province together to be a beacon unto the world, to be the New Jerusalem that T.C. Douglas talked about.

We have the wealth. We have the resources. We have the education facilities. We have a dynamic population, diverse in culture. I look around this chamber and imagine what it was like a hundred years ago — not nearly the diversity in terms of colour; ethnic origin; sexual orientation; and gender, obviously and more importantly. We have come a long way, but we have a great deal of a way to go.

I'm going to have to arrive late on Thursday night to a special community forum in Nanaimo. It has been organized by the city, and it's a forum on crystal meth. Drugs are a problem in my community — a very serious problem.

I want to emphasize to this government that we cannot continue to provide band-aid solutions around the issue of drug abuse and drug addiction in our society. The city of Vancouver has taken steps in this area, but it is up to the province to approach this in a coordinated fashion. There is no community safe from drug abuse and the problems arising from addiction. There is probably — it's safe to say, unfortunately — no neighbourhood or family…. Again, these are things that this government needs to look at.

Amongst the things that weren't mentioned in the throne speech, which I found somewhat surprising because they are of such great concern to those of us who represent coastal communities on Vancouver Island — and I think particularly of my friend the member for Cowichan-Ladysmith and myself, whose ridings are particularly affected by this — is the export of raw logs. I have not heard this government call upon

its federal counterpart to demand that some charge or levy or tax be placed on the export of raw logs.

As all those bumper stickers you see if you drive up and down Vancouver Island indicate, we are exporting our jobs. We are exporting our children's inheritance. We are exporting our ability to develop a sustainable economy. We are destroying opportunities for thousands of young British Columbians who want to work in the forest industry and who want to work in secondary manufacturing related to the forest industry. That seems to be off the radar of this government, and it needs to be put back on and put back on quickly.

It seems to me that if we are going to address the transition from a frontier society…. That is essentially what the leadership of Mike Harcourt's government was all about, that transition from a society where we could log another hill, where we could find some other resource to exploit. If we are going to make that transition successfully, we have to pay more attention to what we're doing at home. That's what I'm trying to emphasize when I talk about the export of raw logs. That's a very basic step.

To insist that the wealth we generate here be generated in such a way that we get the greatest value for all of our citizens, to ensure that they all have an opportunity for employment, to ensure that they all have an opportunity to have a home at night, to have schools in which to educate their children, to have care facilities for their aging parents…. All of that comes because we generate wealth. When we export raw resources, we give away that wealth. We do not control it ourselves. We give away our opportunities.

It is not just our generation that is important. Surely, in the minds of all of us, it should be the generations that follow us — our children and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. If we do not address these issues in this time, in this day, given the level of wealth we enjoy in this society, we never will.

I'm looking to this government to provide assistance for that transition. It isn't just about expanding the number of fish farms willy-nilly and destroying the environment. It is not about allowing an increase in the annual allowable cut beyond sustainable levels. It is not about deregulating how we treat the land. It is about providing stewardship. It is about planning. It is about sustainability. It is about implementing those principles which my party fought on in the last election.

There are other issues of concern in my community, not just raw logs. Nanaimo enjoys the presence of the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. But it is dirty, and it is crowded, and its emergency room is often nothing short of a sort of chaos on the face of it. It is killing to those who work in it. We require more funding in my community in order to ensure that decent medical care is provided at that hospital.

What happened to those people who worked in our hospital, who provided care at decent wages, was in my view frankly reprehensible. People who have given their lives in the health care community deserve to be paid decent wages, and they deserve to be treated fairly and appropriately by their employers. Because we will all at some point end up in a hospital, out of pure selfishness if nothing else, surely we would expect and believe that the people who care for us should be qualified and happy to be in their place of employment and proud of their employment, not working for some contractor at minimum wages in poor working conditions.

The provision of health care in our society, in a universal health care system, is one of the hallmarks of the greatness of this nation. This province is part of that great country. Surely, surely, it should be one of our priorities. It cannot be a priority if you are not prepared to pay and provide working conditions for the people in that hospital system in our health care system.

I must say — and, again, my compliments to the government — there was much said in the throne speech around the issue of reconciliation and finally dealing with the longstanding political sore in this province which is its treatment of aboriginal people.

I remember very clearly that when I gave my first response to a throne speech in this House back in 1992, I was immensely proud of the then government that was going to institute legislation to create the Treaty Commission. Of course, when I said I was proud to be a member of the government, the Clerk of the House very carefully reminded me afterwards that as a backbencher I was not a member of the government, something which I'm sure members in the back bench in the opposition have discovered themselves over the last few years.

However, it was a start. It was a very good start, and it was an appropriate start. But the treaty process somehow bogged down, and in my community the Snuneymuxw first nations are still waiting for a treaty. Their community is heavily divided. Their community still suffers the burdens of high suicide rates, of crushing poverty, of high unemployment, of all the hallmarks of a community that is not all that it could be. I think I can assure the government that the opposition will support any sensible expenditure or proposal that will move us towards the kind of just society where social and economic justice is enjoyed by all, particularly first nations people in British Columbia.

When the NDP were in power, they were building schools. Unfortunately, in Nanaimo today we are waiting for funding for the expansion of Woodlands Secondary and for the expansion of Dover and other schools in our community. I hope that this government in its generous and giving mood reflected in the throne speech will ensure that the funding for those proposals is received quickly by the school board, which is pressing them for an answer.

This government has talked about bold, new, collaborative steps to tackle the social challenges of housing, addictions, mental illness, poverty, illiteracy, skills development and community safety. Those are nothing more than empty promises unless they put the money down on the table, unless something happens.

I suppose that those of us in the opposition are anxiously awaiting the delivery on those promises. We are anxious to see what will happen. There is a new spirit in this chamber and it is reflected by the bright, ambitious young faces over here on the opposition benches who are all anxious to do their part to build a better British Columbia and, in fairness, reflected with the bright, young and somewhat older faces, perhaps, over on the government side of the House.

I would be remiss, looking across the House, if I didn't compliment my friend the member for North Vancouver–Seymour, who has served this House and his constituency long and well.

What is it we want? What is it the opposition wants? It's not what we want; that's not what's important. It's what the people want, and it's what the people need. What the people are looking for are schools for their children, hospitals for themselves and their families, care facilities for their parents. They're looking for a government that sets the standard with decent wages and working conditions for its own employees, for a government that sets employment standards that are appropriate to a province about which they talk in such golden terms as being such a wealthy and wonderful place.

The people are looking to government. They're looking to all of us to ensure that when they go into a workplace, it's safe; that there are, in fact, regulations in place that guarantee the safety of workers; that there are, in fact, people who will enforce those regulations.

They want access to the justice system. I want to offer my congratulations to the hon. Attorney General, the member for Vancouver-Fraserview, on his appointment as Attorney General. I want to assure this House that I will be looking to him to take a leadership role on ensuring that appropriate funding is granted to the Legal Services Society.

To come back to a tune that may be getting a little tiresome as I go on this morning: representing a poor community. The loss of the community law office in the city of Nanaimo was devastating. Those people I talk about who sleep in the doorways of Nanaimo or who live in substandard housing needed that kind of community law office. They needed assistance to deal with bureaucracy. They needed people who could help them with social assistance appeals.

They needed a great deal, and we took away from them what little they had. I'm not sure I heard in the throne speech that it's going to be provided back to them. If we are to build this decent, caring society, then we have to do that.

I think the people of British Columbia in the May election said what they wanted were politicians who actually did something, who cooperated, who provided care, who dealt with major issues.

If I can offer one final criticism of what I didn't hear in the throne speech, it is, for me, what I spoke about during the election campaign and what the Green Party spoke about during the election campaign, and that is that the greatest crisis facing the planet today is climate change — global warming. I don't recall any remarks in the throne speech to deal with that issue. Sometimes I think we will stand in this House, and we will talk on and on, and we will do nothing about it. If we do nothing, we will have failed our generation, our children and our grandchildren in a way for which they will never, ever forgive us. We have some last opportunities, and we should act accordingly.

There was no acknowledgment of energy issues. Nanaimo, Vancouver Island — we want to build something that's sustainable. I didn't hear anything about that. I didn't hear the kinds of promises around reforms that I'd hoped to hear.

I want to close on a positive note. I want to say to this government that you have invited us to the dance, and we accept your invitation, but just try not to step on our toes. That is what we are looking for. We are looking to build something better in this Legislature. But I want to assure the government benches that if cooperation is not forthcoming, if the words are mere words and not sincere, then we will do what oppositions in this province have historically done: we will defend the rights of the people of British Columbia. We will not look after the few; we will look after the many.

L. Mayencourt: Mr. Speaker, it's a great honour to be back in this House. As you know, I had quite a landslide in Vancouver-Burrard. I want to thank the people of Vancouver-Burrard for bringing me back here.

I also want to congratulate you, sir, on your position as the Speaker of the House. I know that people in your community — I was up in Penticton this past weekend — are very justifiably proud of the contribution that you've made in our cabinet and the contribution you are going to make as the Speaker of this House, so my congratulations to you.

I must say I really enjoyed the reply to the throne speech from the youthful, ambitious and fresh member for Nanaimo. I wanted to just respond to a couple of things that that member mentioned.

First off, one of the issues that has been really important to me and actually brought me to this Legislature in the first place was the issue of persons with disabilities. That member was in the former government that created a category called schedule C. I'd like to just discuss what that was like for individuals living with disabilities.

To give some context to that, I'd like the member to understand that in 1993 I became an activist in the AIDS community and created a non-profit agency called Friends for Life, which existed to help people living with life-threatening illnesses — people with AIDS, people with cancer. It's a great agency that continues today, with or without me, and it provides services to people.

One of those services that we did provide to people was a form of advocacy. You see, we believe that people living with disabilities should receive additional benefits. In fact, this Legislature in the early '90s actually passed legislation to ensure that that would happen. They created a bill to deal with catastrophic ill-

ness, and it was specifically targeted towards the AIDS and cancer communities. It was a wonderful gesture from the previous government.

There was one problem with it, though. There were about 600 people in this province that applied for schedule C for those extended benefits under the previous government. In each and every one of those cases, people with disabilities were absolutely denied those benefits, so they followed the process which was set up by the previous government to deal with that. They went to a tribunal. In each and every one of those cases, they won at the tribunal, and the government was ordered to pay those benefits to those individuals. The government appealed the tribunal in each and every one of the cases, and in each of those cases they lost again.

Now, this took place over the course of 12 to 16 months. In many cases the people that applied for those benefits died waiting for approval. This government actually decided to do something about it, because we did think that was a crime; we did think that was wrong. And it is wrong.

The gentleman spoke a few minutes ago about hoops. I want to say, as someone who's been in the trenches, that the hoops the previous government put up were so impossible to deal with, were so tragic that they actually hurt people — hundreds and hundreds of people in my community, in Nanaimo and in other communities around the province. It was because that government did not want to honour the rules or the legislation that was put forward in this House.

Our government, by comparison, is the first government in the last two decades to actually raise benefits for persons with disabilities. We fought long and hard for that, and I am glad that we were able to do it. We were able to do it because we straightened out British Columbia's financial problems.

Today individuals that want to receive disability benefits are processed within a very short period of time — nowhere near the 16 months that was the average under the previous government, but actually much faster. We asked them to provide us with bits and pieces of information — one page of information that provides us with their name, their social insurance number, the name of their physician, the name of the people that are going to testify for them. The rest of it is filled out by a physician, someone who knows whether that person is or is not disabled.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have people who live with AIDS, people who live with cancer, able to get those benefits quickly. As a matter of fact, the largest increase in recipients to welfare over the past four years has been persons living with disabilities. That is because members on this side of the House actually went to work to ensure that people with disabilities were treated fairly, equitably and quickly and that we provided them the benefits that this House decided they deserved.

It's great to talk about persons with disabilities and how important it is, but we're now in an age when the government has moved forward on these things. To have a member from that side of the House, who sat in the Legislature when the other schedule C was created, criticizing the government about hoops…. I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker; I just must object.

We have made many commitments to the people of British Columbia. One of those is to make British Columbia the best-educated and most literate jurisdiction on the continent. I'm proud of that, but I want to explain to all members of this House that there is actually work in progress to deal with those things.

We have the biggest budget in B.C.'s history for education. We have the highest per-capita funding per student — $2 billion more in annual spending than when that party left office. We're on track to create over 25,000 new post-secondary positions in our universities. That's a great commitment. That's something that we're doing, and the reason we're doing it is because we know we need a very well-educated population to make up for the shortage of skilled, trained workers in our communities.

We support education, and we do it in a number of ways. As members of this House will know, for the last four years I've spent a good deal of my time working on student safety in our school system. To support that, I'm working on a piece of legislation that I hope we will actually debate in this session of the House called a safe schools act.

Safe schools act is something near and dear to my heart. It's near and dear to this heart, and it means this: I believe that in our school system, kids are being bullied, harassed, intimidated and discriminated against. The reason I know that, the reason I say that, is because I've been on the road. I've visited dozens of communities and talked to literally thousands of students in our school system.

Our school system has some very serious problems when it comes to harassment, bullying, intimidation and discrimination. And it's this. There is reluctance on the part of some adults in the school system to acknowledge that that even exists. As a matter of fact, in British Columbia it is said that something between 20 and 25 percent of the students in our school system have been victims of bullying or been a witness to one of those acts.

When I travel in British Columbia and I have an assembly of, say, 400 kids, I will ask them to stand up if any of three things have ever happened to them. I've asked them if they've ever been bullied, and a group will stand up. I've asked them if they've ever witnessed a bullying incident, and another bunch has stood up. And I've asked them if they've ever been a bully, and the rest stand up.

What I want to say to you, Mr. Speaker, and what I want to say to members in this House, is the reason that the safe schools act is so important to me is that I have rarely had less than 95 percent of the students in those assemblies stand up. In other words, while the science tells us that 20 to 25 percent of the kids have been bullied or affected by bullying, my experience on the ground in schools in Nanaimo, in Prince Rupert

and in other places in this province is that almost all of them have been affected by it.

It's a serious problem. It's something I take very seriously, something I am committed to. I know that members of this House, I hope, will join with me in making sure that we make our schools safe for all students in our system.

One of the ways we can do that is to actually take a look at the existing laws we have in our School Act. We also should look to our B.C. Human Rights Code. It's a great guidepost or a great guiding legislation that allows us to take a look at what the problems in our communities are around racism and discrimination and sexism and homophobia. We have a very wonderful B.C. Human Rights Code. Members on that side of the House and this side of the House both worked together to create the B.C. Human Rights Code.

Unfortunately, the B.C. Human Rights Code is not really clearly understood within our school system. It is my belief that in order for us to actually deal with those issues in our school system, we must link schools' codes of conduct to the B.C. Human Rights Code, to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to the Official Languages Act so that everyone in our province knows that those tenets, those things that we call true to ourselves, the things that make us British Columbians — the fact that we are against racism, that we are against homophobia, that we're against sexism, that we're against ageism — all of those things…. If we can bring those into our school code of conduct, it will mean that kids will have the opportunity to discuss and understand what they mean. Perhaps, as my experience has taught me, when they understand those higher values — those higher human values, the basic understanding of those things — that will help to decrease the incidences of bullying, harassment and intimidation.

Mr. Speaker, I have way more that I'd like to talk about this, but noting the time, I move adjournment of debate.

Mr. Speaker: Hon. members, I have the honour to present the following documents: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, annual report2004-2005; Office of the Auditor General, report No. 5, 2005-2006; Keeping the Decks Clean: Managing Gaming Integrity Risks in Casinos; Office of the Auditor General, report No. 4, 2005-2006: Building Better Reports: Our Assessment of the 2003-04 Annual Service Plan Reports of Government; annual audit, Office of the Auditor General, year ending March 31, 2005; Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, annual report, 2004; Office of the Auditor General, report No. 3, 2005-2006: Audit of the Government's Corporate Accounting System, Part 1; Office of the Auditor General, annual report, 2004-2005; Office of the Auditor General, report No. 1, 2005-2006: Follow-up of the Recommendations of the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts Contained in its Fourth Report of the Third Session of the 36th Parliament: Earthquake Preparedness; Performance Audit; Office of the Auditor General, report No. 2, 2005-2006: Joint Follow-up of the 2001-02 Report 1: Managing Interface Fire Risk and Firestorm 2003 Provincial Review; Office of the Ombudsman, annual report, 2004; Office of the Ombudsman Service Plan, 2005-06–2007-08; Elections B.C., Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of the Surrey–Panorama Ridge By-election, October 28, 2004; Office of the Auditor General, report No. 13, 2004-2005: Building Momentum for Results-based Management; Elections B.C. Service Plan, 2005-06–2007-08; British Columbia Legislative Library, annual report, 2004.

Hon. B. Penner: It's my honour to introduce a provincial counterpart, Tom Osborne, the Minister of Environment and Conservation, from the great province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Would the House please make him welcome.

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