Hansard — Wednesday, February 14, 2007 p.m.

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

Introductions by Members			5267

Statements (Standing Order 25B)			5268
	Red Cross RespectED program
	C. Trevena
	Land development in Delta region
	V. Roddick
	Child care resource and referral program
	M. Sather
	Nechako white sturgeon release program
	J. Rustad
	Women's memorial march
	J. Kwan
	B.C. Special Olympics Winter Games
	S. Hawkins

Oral Questions			5270
	Child care funding
	C. James
	Hon. G. Campbell
	C. Trevena
	Hon. L. Reid
	Funding for child care resource and referral centres
	R. Fleming
	Hon. L. Reid
	B. Simpson
	C. Wyse
	Child care funding
	K. Conroy
	Hon. L. Reid
	Security budget for 2010 Olympic Winter Games
	H. Bains
	Hon. C. Hansen
	B. Ralston

Reports from Committees			5274
	Select Standing Committee on Health
		A Strategy for Combatting Childhood Obesity and Physical Inactivity in British Columbia
		R. Sultan
		D. Cubberley

Petitions			5276
	C. Trevena
	B. Simpson
	C. Wyse
	V. Roddick
	K. Conroy
	L. Mayencourt

Throne Speech Debate			5277
	R. Cantelon
	J. Yap
	C. James
	Hon. B. Penner
	L. Krog
	D. Jarvis

Hon. G. Abbott: I've got a couple of sets of introductions today. One in the gallery today is my wife Lesley, and with her is a friend of ours from the Shuswap, Karen Norgaard-Wilson. I'd like the House to make them welcome.

Also, Mr. Speaker, in the gallery behind you today are ten new legislative interns. As members of the House will know, we are very fortunate as legislators to have the benefit of these ten top university graduates who join us every year for a few months to assist with research, to get a sense of how things work in here. I hope we don't entirely discourage them from, at some point, entering the political process.

The legislative interns are here, and I'd like to take a moment to introduce them. They are Ashley Cochran, Heather Cochran, Faizel Gulamhussein, James McAllister, Rachel Gottfried, Stefan Currie-Roberts, Erin Bett, Ross Coupé, Sarah Wiebe and Jenny Vermilyea.

Just to note also, Mr. Speaker, that this is the 31st year that we have benefited from having legislative interns work for us. The folks who manage that program have done an outstanding job over those 31 years. I can tell you, as a member of the class of 1976 of legislative interns, that there were a few bumps in the road that year. There always are. The folks who manage that program do an exceptional job. So if the House would join me in welcoming and thanking the people who will give up their entire lives for the next five months in order to serve us, and welcome them.

C. Puchmayr: Mr. Speaker, it's great to be back. I would like to introduce two very special people that are in the gallery today — my mother and father, Victor and Alice, from that NDP stronghold of Surrey-Whalley. Please make them feel welcome.

J. Yap: I'd like to extend a welcome to a longtime, lifelong, third- or fourth-generation member of my community whose forefathers gave the name "Steves" to the Steveston that we know and love — Richmond-Steveston. That's a Richmond city councillor, a farmer and a former member of this House. Harold Steves is also with us today.

S. Fraser: I see a friendly face from my constituency. Cathie Waddington is from Port Alberni. Hi, Cathie. She's here bringing some information about the issue of developmental disabilities for families. Please join me in welcoming her to this precinct today.

R. Sultan: I rise to pay tribute to a distinguished visitor in the gallery this afternoon. Ten-year-old Daniel Minney of Tsawwassen is here along with his mother Mary Minney and his father Kevin Minney as guests of the Select Standing Committee on Health of this Legislature.

Daniel was the grand-prize winner in a poster contest the committee held right across British Columbia as part of its youth consultation efforts. We asked elementary school children to submit their artwork illustrating what the government should do to encourage kids to eat healthier and be more active. Daniel's drawing was exceptional and is featured on the cover of our report, which will be presented later today.

Drawings by other finalists in the contest — and there were very many excellent submissions — may be found on the committee's website, myhealthyspace.ca, and will be displayed in the lower rotunda of the Legislature all week as well as being in the report.

In addition to being an accomplished artist, Daniel enjoys soccer, track and field, cross-country, and field hockey, and playing with Lego, video games and Pokemon. Would the House join me in congratulating Daniel and welcoming him and his parents to the Legislature.

R. Austin: It's my pleasure to introduce three visitors to the precinct today. The first is from Kitimat. I'd like to introduce Linda Campbell, who is a city councillor in Kitimat. She is joined by her sister Mary Northcott, who lives here in Victoria. The third visitor is the city manager for the district of Kitimat, Trafford Hall. I ask that the House please make them all welcome.

V. Roddick: In the gallery today are several excellent examples of why Delta — which is Ladner, Tsawwassen and North Delta — is such a perfect combination of three true communities. Eliza Olson, affectionately known as "the bog lady," virtually single-handedly — no, single-mindedly — saved Burns Bog. Construction engineer Greg Hoover, along with road engineer Olav Naas, continues to advocate for an alternative route for the South Fraser perimeter road and the Tsawwassen power lines. As they say, change not abandonment; progress not destruction.

They are accompanied and supported by Cec Dunn and Bernadette Kudzin of Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Overhead Lines, Don Hunt of the Sunbury Neighbourhood Association and his three sons Danny, Tyler and Liam. Would the House please make them all very welcome.

D. Routley: It gives me great pleasure to introduce a friend of mine and a constituent who is in the precinct. I just saw him wandering around, following the camera people, as he is a beginning broadcaster. Steve Sxwithul'txw is a member of the Penelakut band from Kuper Island. He has a voice for radio and a face for TV. He has everything that it takes to be a great broadcaster,

G. Gentner: It is a pleasure to introduce many members here in the gallery today. First of all, Ellen Jormain, who lives up by Canterbury Heights, is a strong advocate for community living. Mary-Lou McNabb, from the Annieville area, is a family caregiver. I'd also like to recognize Harold Steves, a great mentor of mine in my days in Richmond.

Further, someone very special who has worked many years within the film industry and in the Directors Guild of Canada. She is a former president of North Delta Ratepayers, a former director of the Burns Bog Conservation Society and an advocate for farmland and protection — a very good friend of mine, my partner and my wife, my soulmate. I wish the House to give her a cordial welcome. Truly, she is my valentine.

I have two constituents here from Fruitvale who have long done many things in the community. Larry Racette is an instrument mechanic and a longtime employee of Teck Cominco, and Donna Racette is a unit chief paramedic for region 4 in the Kootenays and is stationed in Fruitvale. Could you please join me in making them welcome.

B. Bennett: My constituency assistant, Courtney Kaiser, is somewhere up behind me. Courtney is 25 years old. She graduated a while ago from McGill University with an honours degree and came back to the Kootenays and had her choice of jobs. I'm really grateful that she chose to work with me. I think she's also grateful that in the Kootenays now, young people can come back after graduating from college and university and find a good job, because not too many years ago that wasn't possible. Please help me make Courtney welcome.

D. Cubberley: It's my pleasure to introduce Dr. Michael Golbey today. Dr. Golbey is a family physician in Kelowna and immediate past president of the British Columbia Medical Association. Members of the Select Standing Committee on Health had the pleasure of Dr. Golbey's company today for lunch, and he's in the gallery to observe the presentation of the committee's report later this afternoon. Would members of the House please help me make him welcome.

N. Simons: In the House today we have guests from across the province representing families of people involved in the community-living community. In particular, I would like to welcome a number of young folks from Powell River who are self-advocates. They are Fergus O'Neill, Thomas White, Darren Hodgson, Shaylene Hogan, Lauralei Reid and Mike Bourassa, and they're accompanied by Kathleen O'Neil, Yvonne Boese and Gauri Nair.

I should just point out in the spirit of the introductions today that never before have advocates in community living needed more of a voice. So I'm glad they're here, and they're welcome.

J. Rustad: In the precinct today are Candi Hewitt and Neil Madu, both of whom are here on behalf of the B.C. Association for Community Living and came and visited me with their issues. I just wanted to thank them very much for bringing them forward and also for their gift of little valentine hearts. Would the House please make them welcome.

Hon. G. Campbell: Yesterday we all had heard of the fact that the former Premier, Mr. Dosanjh, was stricken with a heart attack. He's now in hospital, and I think it would be great for the House to send him our best wishes and tell him to get well soon.

C. Trevena: Today's the day when cupid bows are out and romantic dinners are being prepared for some. Cinnamon hearts are being given to others, and it's a boon for the greeting card industry. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I think we all know it's Valentine's Day today. It's a day of romance.

Unfortunately, that romance too often turns nasty. Too often we hear about violence, usually violence against women, when a man turns on a woman, when a woman is physically or psychologically abused. In our society, in the 21st century here in British Columbia, this should be completely unacceptable. There should be zero tolerance.

That's why I'm very pleased to see that the Canadian Red Cross has launched a program to try to prevent abuse entering relationships and entering young people's relationships. Research shows that the mid-teens to the early 20s is the most common time to experience violence in a romantic relationship, and a frightening 19 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys experience sexual coercion on dates. Unhealthy relationships in adolescence can lead to a lifelong pattern of accepting violence.

The Canadian Red Cross wants people to become familiar with the warning signs of abusive situations and help protect young people. It wants parents and young people to make sure they're fully aware of the dangers and those signs: inappropriate behaviour, intimidation, possessiveness.

The Red Cross RespectED program offers workshops for parents and young people on the importance of love in a relationship and the importance of respect. Volunteers take programs into schools, to parent groups and to youth groups, and their aim is straight as Cupid's arrow. The Canadian Red Cross RespectED program is an effort to ensure that Valentine's Day is a day of love, not fear — a day when people can feel safe, treasured and respected.

V. Roddick: Grow B.C. conjures up different strokes to different folks. With my interest and background, though, it's agriculture — a truly sustainable supply of safe, local, nutritious, delicious food.

We are blessed in this province, more than anywhere else in Canada, with a diverse farming community and its bountiful produce, but we are challenged by lack of overall land base and huge pressures on critical mass for crop rotation. Nowhere is that more noticeable than in the Fraser Valley and, in particular, Delta South where we need to have a truly balanced approach to how we handle the much-needed development — and I repeat, much-needed development — of the South Fraser perimeter road and the proposed Vancouver port expansion and all that that entails.

Our Pacific gateway is a hugely important example of grow B.C., grow Canada and a very necessary doorway for all of us countrywide. Consequently, every single level of government and the public service must work together to collaboratively manage our land, our food, our wildlife and, very importantly, our economy to the very best of their ability. We need change, not abandonment. We need progress, not destruction. We humans, plus our wildlife, all have to eat to live.

M. Sather: I rise in the Legislature today to praise the valuable work of the Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows child care resource and referral program, or CCRR. The program operates under the auspices of the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Community Services, whose executive director is Vicki Kipps.

With limited services and supports for parents and care providers, the forerunner of the CCRR opened its doors in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows in 1991. Starting with only two staff, the program now employs five full-time staff — Jo-Anne MacKenzie, the program supervisor, along with Lynn Malbeuf, Joanne White, Lindsey Willis and Kari Jensen — who service over 600 inquiries a year.

The CCRR has grown to offer not only a referral program but information to parents on child care–related topics and the child care subsidy program. The staff assist parents with the daunting task of completing the subsidy program application and provide their children with a place to play when they do so.

Services to child care providers include networking opportunities to enhance their small business, retreats, play groups, workshops, and seasonal and social events. The CCRR program provides support with activity theme boxes, a newsletter, business startup information, ministry grant information, infant and toddler lending equipment, low-cost craft supplies, a resource library and telephone consultation when care providers are having a tough day.

The CCRR program in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows plays a vital role for our community, as these programs do around the province. Through their screening process, the CCRR brings together parents and child care providers in a safe and credible environment that reassures parents their children will be safe and well cared for.

For the well-being of our children, we must maintain child care resource and referral programs in their present form across the province.

J. Rustad: I stand today to talk about a fish called Wanda. This past fall, through the efforts of the Freshwater Fisheries Society, the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council, the district of Vanderhoof and many, many more, more than 4,000 Nechako white sturgeon were released into the Nechako River. This pilot project is part of a goal to develop a conservation fish culture program for the Nechako white sturgeon.

The white sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish in Canada and is virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs. It can grow to be six metres in length and up to 800 kilograms. Sadly, the Nechako white sturgeon, which is genetically unique from its neighbours, is now officially designated as endangered, with an estimated population of less than 600.

Yet there is hope. Through the group's efforts, funded in part by the Ministry of Environment, Alcan and the Freshwater Fisheries Society, a plan is being developed to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. Last year was the first year in releasing reared fish, and the group is working towards making this event part of an ongoing effort to help repopulate the species. I participated, along with hundreds of students, in releasing these reared fish, each lovingly registered and given a name so that their progress can be tracked.

So on behalf of Wanda, a Nechako white sturgeon released last fall, I'd ask the House to join me in thanking everyone involved in the ongoing struggle to save the species, especially Ray Billings of the Freshwater Fisheries Society; Cory Williamson from the Ministry of Environment; Brian Toth of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation and the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council; Brian Frenkel of the district of Vanderhoof; and Carla Wainwright, who is the coordinator of the technical working group.

J. Kwan: At noon today in Vancouver–Mount Pleasant, people took part in the 16th Annual Women's Memorial March. This is a community-based event held in the downtown east side to honour the lives of the women who die every year due to violence, and to remember the women who continue to face violence today and those who went missing.

The annual march is founded on feelings of grief and loss for women as mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and neighbours. Such feelings are rooted in love, so it is very appropriate to have this solemn occasion on Valentine's Day every year. These emotions provide the energy, strength and hope required to continue working toward the changes necessary to fight against violence and exploitation in our communities.

I believe that we must all keep in mind every bit of the violence done to women in our communities, and especially the attacks against poor and vulnerable women. Much violence is experienced by women who are struggling to survive and who deal with unemployment, poverty, inadequate housing or homelessness, backgrounds of abuse and ill health. But we must also remember that women from all sectors of our society may be victims of violence and even murder.

Along with women in the community, I'll continue to seek changes to public policy aimed at improving safety for women, including improved economic and social conditions; a zero-tolerance policy for violence against women; a policy of mandatory prosecution for perpetrators of violence against women; adequate ongoing funding for women's centres; and stable victim services programs, including crisis lines and referral centres.

I ask all members of this House to reflect on the issues raised by this Annual Women's Memorial March, to consider how to eliminate the conditions and violence that hurt women, and to thank the organizers and sponsors of the annual remembrance for their commitment.

S. Hawkins: This weekend Kelowna and Westbank will be the proud hosts of the 2007 Special Olympics B.C. Winter Games. Our community will warmly welcome over 750 athletes and their coaches from around the province. They'll be competing in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, figure skating, speed skating, floor hockey and curling.

From Kelowna there are 28 athletes and 11 coaches. I know that all of the athletes have worked hard and trained for their moment in the spotlight, and we want to wish all of them the very best. I'm going to be cheering especially hard for Carol Roberts from Dawson Creek. She will be competing in snowshoe. I had the pleasure of sponsoring her to come down for the Winter Games.

Behind the scenes, of course, there are scores of people — incredible volunteers who are helping out. The volunteers have been led by Wendy Falkowski. I'd like to take this opportunity, along with my colleagues from Kelowna–Lake Country and Okanagan-Westside, to acknowledge our appreciation and thanks to the dedicated volunteers as they get to work on their first event, which is the opening ceremonies tomorrow night. That's going to be attended by our Minister of State for ActNow B.C.

I'd like to add that this is the second time in 12 years that Kelowna has hosted these games. I was proud to have served as director of the athletes village in 1995 for the Special Olympics Winter Games back then. I do look forward to this weekend as we cheer on the athletes who I know will once again demonstrate the true meaning of sportsmanship, strength and endurance and the pureness of the human spirit. So join me in congratulating all of them for making it there and wishing them all the best in their events.

C. James: Yesterday the throne speech declared that one single question was at the heart of the government's agenda. Today I want to ask the Premier how his cuts to child care will secure the future of our children and grandchildren.

Hon. G. Campbell: As the Leader of the Opposition will know, the province has not reduced resources for child care. In fact, we've expanded subsidies for people for child care. Families with incomes of $38,000 or less are supported in terms of the subsidies we're providing. We provided for thousands of additional child care spaces in British Columbia, and I'd invite…. [Applause.]

The throne speech yesterday highlighted special initiatives we're undertaking to expand early childhood learning in British Columbia with 80 StrongStart centres across this province.

This government is committed to children. It's committed to the future, and I think that's one of the key elements that the throne speech showed every British Columbian.

C. James: We continue to see the Premier and this government close their ears to the facts. The government cannot run away from the clear fact that they are cutting child care in British Columbia. B.C. was the only province that sat silent as the federal government slashed programs for children. Yesterday the throne speech failed to mention the parents across this province who are struggling to find affordable, quality child care.

At a time when this Premier wants our province to be the most literate jurisdiction in North America, how can he put child care at the bottom of his priority list?

Hon. G. Campbell: Again, the Leader of the Opposition is having a lot of difficulty doing any homework. The fact of the matter is that there are more child care spaces available for funding today than ever before; 79,000 spaces are now eligible for funding.

The fact is that in spite of the federal change in the program, which the federal government brought in and the federal government ran on, we've protected funds for children with special needs in British Columbia. The supported child development fund is a critically

important issue for children and their families in British Columbia. The annual budget for subsidies is $126 million a year. We are investing millions and millions of dollars in the children of this province simply in child care.

We're also expanding that. We are developing early childhood learning programs, which are critical for young people, their families and their future, because this is the government that thinks of children's future in British Columbia.

C. James: One fact the Premier neglected to mention in his litany that he put across to us is that they're spending $50 million less on child care than when they took power in 2001.

Yesterday I stood with parents, children and child care providers at this Legislature. They came because they wanted their questions addressed. They wanted this government to act, and they were ignored. They were ignored by this Premier. They were ignored by the minister of state, and sadly, they were ignored by this throne speech.

When will this Premier finally act and build a quality, affordable, accessible child care system in British Columbia?

Hon. G. Campbell: I'll tell you what this government won't do. It won't do what the Leader of the Opposition and her colleagues did previously, which was to make false promises to the families of British Columbia.

Mr. Speaker: Members. We listened to the question. Let's listen to the answer.

Hon. G. Campbell: What this government said was that we were going to create an economy that creates families jobs. We have more jobs in this province for supporting families than ever in the history of British Columbia.

While every one of those members opposite sits there, they should remember that their side of the House drove the economy to its knees and drove families to their knees as well. This government lifts families up, provides them with paycheques, provides them with support and, more importantly, gives their children the support they deserve.

C. Trevena: I hope the Premier realizes that many families are holding down two or three jobs just to afford child care, if they can find a child care space. They're lucky to find a child care space. In 2004 only 13 percent of children who were eligible for child care were able to find a space. In the Minister of Children and Family Development's own constituency there's a four-year waiting list for child care. When is this government going to realize that there is a problem in child care?

I went to the rally yesterday, and the Minister of State for Childcare didn't come. The Premier didn't come. The minister responsible for children and family development didn't come. The Minister of State for Childcare told me before the rally that nobody's life is going to be dramatically affected by changes to child care. She is wrong, and I have to say the Premier is wrong. I would like to ask the Premier when he is going to admit that there are cuts and that those cuts are hurting working families and the economy of this province.

Hon. L. Reid: I welcome the question. Let's be clear. The child care budget in British Columbia is only climbing — $203 million last year. It will likely exceed $250 million this year because this government has been abundantly clear that it is placing priority on vulnerable families.

I am more than prepared to walk this member through it yet again. The income threshold for those eligible for subsidy was $21,000. It is lifted to $38,000, so you indeed are eligible in British Columbia for a child care subsidy if you earn less than $38,000. That is a significant lift that we are protecting and maintaining despite the cancellation of the federal…. [Applause.]

I would welcome the member opposite getting to her feet to suggest that maintaining a priority on special needs youngsters so they can participate in child care is not her priority.

C. Trevena: I do, Mr. Speaker. It's very important to fund special needs, and it's very important to have subsidies. There's no point if you don't have child care spaces that parents can send their children to.

There has been $50 million of cuts since 2002 in child care. B.C. is the only province that passed the cuts from the federal government straight to child care providers and parents. When the Minister of State for Childcare was in the opposition, she was very supportive of child care. She said: "We must create a workable action plan for the delivery of child care. Far too many families are unable to secure quality child care, and this must be addressed."

It's 2007. The minister is in a position where she can provide a plan for child care, where she can make sure that there is secure, quality care. Instead, she's creating chaos. There are waiting lists in Vernon. There are waiting lists in Cranbrook. There are waiting lists in Campbell River. There are waiting lists right across this province.

I would like to ask the Minister of State for Childcare why she won't help those thousands and thousands of parents across this province who do desperately need a working child care system.

Hon. L. Reid: Let me say I was intrigued when the Leader of the Opposition got to her feet and had the

audacity to discuss child care. When she was the director of child care in British Columbia, I would ask her to get to her feet and tell me what indeed transpired on her watch.

Hon. L. Reid: Not very much. In terms of the commentary about the positions this government has taken, we are relentlessly ensuring that we have ongoing dialogue with the federal government. I can assure you that I have met very recently with the federal minister in British Columbia.

The member opposite talks about child care space creation. This government put $14 million into the creation of child care space, and those spaces are opening up as we go forward. Just last Thursday, I had the privilege of attending with the member for Langley the opening of 80-plus spaces in Langley. Those spaces will be available for British Columbia families, and I intend to deliver on my commitment to get the best possible outcomes for the children of this province.

R. Fleming: The minister mentions just last Thursday. Let me take her back three Thursdays ago to Victoria's grand opening of the Childcare Resource and Referral Centre, officially opened right here in Victoria a few blocks from this place at 2100 block Douglas Street. The new centre was custom-renovated for $200,000 at the encouragement and the agreement of the minister.

The minister was even scheduled to cut the ribbon at the centre, but she cancelled her appearance without explanation. She cancelled her appearance because she knew this was not a grand opening and a new beginning, but she knew this was a grand finale of an organization that has served parents, children and child care providers in this community for 17 years.

Can the minister explain to this House why she invested taxpayers' money in a new location in a new centre just a few months ago, only to shut it down permanently this year?

Hon. L. Reid: I'm delighted to continue the briefing for the members opposite. They will know that the budget for child care resource and referral in the province is $9 million. It was enhanced last year, with the addition of the early learning and child care agreement, by an additional $5 million. They will all know, even though the lovely critic opposite continues to wonder why, that the federal government has cancelled the agreement. They have withdrawn that $5 million.

We have invited child care resource and referral operators in British Columbia to work with us. We indeed are returning that budget to its provincial allocation of $9 million effective April 1, and we will see what the future holds.

The two programs I mentioned earlier…. In terms of placing emphasis on vulnerable families, we will see demand-driven programs where those dollars go up. We may indeed make some changes as we go forward in terms of refocusing the service, but we will continue to deliver the service in the province.

R. Fleming: I'm confused by the briefing, if that's what it is, because the minister sent a letter on January 5 of this year to every child care provider in the province suggesting that her budget for child care resource and referral centres was going to decline from $14 million a year to $3 million a year.

In Victoria alone over $200,000 was wasted on the renovation. The Victoria centre isn't the only one that's going to close. Across the province there will be outstanding leases and severance packages to pay for.

Can the minister of state tell the House how much it's going to cost taxpayers to cover outstanding leases and severance packages if the centres are indeed going to be closed across British Columbia if she fails to act?

Hon. L. Reid: Perhaps I'll speak just a titch slower for the members opposite. The provincial child care resource and referral budget is returning to $9 million effective April 1.

B. Simpson: The Premier just said that his government and he personally would not make false promises. Less than a year ago this government through MCFD, not the federal government, pushed the CCRRs to upgrade their facilities, to move to storefront, more visible locations and better access to public transportation, to upgrade all of their resources and equipment, leases, photocopiers and vans, and to add staff.

The PGY is adding an addition to the Y — a total project budget of $1.2 million, 30 percent of which is predicated on the CCRR having a long-term lease in that facility.

Will the minister tell us today what the cost is for the closure of CCRRs — because that's what they believe you have told them? And secondly, who bears the liability for that — the not-for-profit sector? They're waiting for an answer from your ministry. Do they bear the liability, or do the taxpayers?

Hon. L. Reid: Again, the budget for child care resource and referral in British Columbia is $9 million effective April 1, and that will carry them for a number of months — probably right through the fall. Indeed, every single member of a child care resource and referral centre in British Columbia has been on the call, has been in dialogue in terms of how we transition that service. There will be no information you can provide to them that they do not already have.

The language that the minister of state uses is intriguing — that as of April 1, for a number of months it will remain at $9 million. She's told the CCRRs that at the end of that number of months, it will go to $3 million and a new RFP will be put out for an alternate service delivery model which she has yet to explain.

The CCRRs are out there in the province, and they have not heard from the minister or her staff what their future is when that RFP comes out or what their liability is for all of the improvements that they made under direction of MCFD. They have not heard that.

So again to the minister: after these few months at $9 million — when we go to $3 million, which is the ongoing budget — who bears the liability? What are the costs? And why did this government, through MCFD, ramp up this program only to shut it down this year?

Hon. L. Reid: The early learning and child care agreement has been cancelled. The province will see 455 million fewer dollars. I'm not sure why that's not understandable to the members opposite — $455 million less coming to British Columbia. The provincial child care budget is not going down. That dollar is rising in British Columbia and will continue to rise based on the demand and the vulnerability issues in British Columbia. We have said very clearly that we are placing our priority on the most vulnerable families. We have said that very clearly.

Certainly, the issues that the member canvasses…. We are in discussions with child care resource and referral. There has been no one who has absented themselves from that dialogue or that discussion, and I know that for a fact.

C. Wyse: I've heard more spoken in the last few minutes by members opposite protesting the cutbacks that have occurred for child care than I have heard in months. In Williams Lake the CCRR serves first nations communities in my riding as well as including Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Klemtu. Yesterday seven members from the Esketemc First Nation group from Alkali came down to get the attention of the provincial government on the effects that their cuts are having upon their children.

My question to the minister responsible for the cuts to the child care program is simply this: why does the B.C. Liberal government think that closing the doors to centres for first nations children will secure the future for our children and grandchildren?

Hon. L. Reid: Indeed, one of the aspects that we have in place for child care resource and referral has been to support families as they go onto the subsidy program. I can tell you that the demand for that program is only growing, but the contact for that program, frankly, comes through a number of different sources other than child care resource and referral today. So was it time to reframe that service and to maintain that service delivery in British Columbia? Absolutely, it was. No question.

K. Conroy: This minister is obviously missing the point. An increase to subsidies doesn't help those families that are on waiting lists — long waiting lists for child care — and there are waiting lists across this province in most…. In every constituency that I've talked to, they've got waiting lists. There are no child care spaces. They need the spaces.

The decision to cut the funding has had drastic impacts on our health care system. I was at a meeting last week where a nurse spoke publicly, and this is a highly qualified nurse. She can't work full-time. They want her full-time. She can get two days a week of child care — two days. She's on a wait-list. She doesn't know when she's going to get her child care. There are not enough spaces.

The cuts have been drastic across the entire province. When will this minister admit that those cuts have been devastating to the economy, to our health care system? And most importantly, they're devastating to our children — all children — who are vulnerable, because if you can't get good child care, they're all vulnerable.

Hon. L. Reid: There are 80,000 funded, licensed child care spaces in British Columbia. In the last year and a half we have provided funding to create almost 3,300 additional spaces.

The members opposite will know that the federal government has waded into this territory. They campaigned on what they called a spaces initiative. They will know that that advisory committee met during the course of this past fall. They will know that the report is now in the hands of the Hon. Monte Solberg, and he indeed will be making that report public in the next number of weeks. How they go forward on their campaign commitment of 25,000 spaces, $250 million beginning in January '07 is something we look upon with great interest.

H. Bains: Senator Kenny, Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, two very high-level officials responsible for security at the Salt Lake City Winter Games, and the president of the IOC have all publicly said that our security budget is not sufficient. And yet this government and this minister continue to say that our budget is sufficient.

Can the minister tell this House: if the Armed Forces are used to provide air, water or land security, will that budget come out of the $175 million? Or will he try to bury that in some other budget, as they have done in many other Olympic-related budgets?

Hon. C. Hansen: There is a lot of detailed work that's being done on the security plans for the 2010 Winter Games. The RCMP are in fact leading that, with the support of the Deputy Solicitor General for British

Columbia. They are looking at the risk assessment that is appropriate for the 2010 games, and they are developing their plans accordingly. To date, none of them have indicated to me that the $175 million that is budgeted is not adequate.

H. Bains: Given the security-sensitive information available about Vancouver International Airport to anyone who wishes to cause harm, and given the fact that the $175 million budget was put in 2002 dollars and has not been updated since…. Many experts, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, identified Wi-Fi networks as a terrorist threat as early as 2002.

Can the minister tell us: how can he satisfy British Columbians that the security budget for the 2010 Winter Games is sufficient to counter these new security threats?

Hon. C. Hansen: We are seeking the advice of experts in the RCMP and experts in security matters. I would remind the member that when the budget was established at $175 million, it was actually done in the wake of the September 11 tragedies in New York. So when we start looking at the budgets that were put in place, for example, for Salt Lake City, which was the Olympic Games that took place immediately prior to our bid being developed and finalized on those numbers, it was a very different kind of security environment for North America at that time.

So we are working with the experts. We're working with the RCMP, and we're going to rely on that expert advice to make sure that not only we have the best winter games, but we have safe and secure winter games.

B. Ralston: Last week saw the first test of the Olympic security system at the launching of the clock, and we see how well that turned out.

Perhaps the minister can advise. Following the advice of the acting Auditor General, who said that the security costs haven't been updated for five years, it does depend on the receipt of an operational plan from the RCMP…. Has the minister advised Treasury Board of a contingency plan in the event — and I would suggest in the likely event — of a dramatic increase in security costs for the 2010 Olympic Games?

Hon. C. Hansen: I think the actions that we saw by some absolutely irresponsible demonstrators in Vancouver the day before yesterday were absolutely wrong. I challenge the member, when he stands up for a supplemental, to condemn that kind of action, because it is not the kind of action that British Columbians….

Within the $600 million envelope that we have to live up to our obligations for the staging of the games, we have half of the $175 million — the provincial share for security. We also, within that $600 million, have remaining about $76 million of contingency.

I have no reason to expect at this point that that has to be allocated for security, but we do have a $76 million contingency to deal with unforeseen costs that may still arise in the remaining three years.

B. Ralston: The Olympic Games are faced with far greater threats than a few demonstrators, misguided though they may have been. We on this side of the House have always defended the right of peaceful protest. But the issue here is the magnitude of international terrorist threats of which the government has been advised by numerous independent authorities, and that has not been factored into the cost — I would submit — of the Olympic Games.

The government continues to persist in the fiction that these games will cost no more than $600 million; whereas the acting Auditor General, on February 2 this year at the Public Accounts Committee, advised the House that the net cost of the games will be $2.5 billion.

Will the minister acknowledge that the prospect of ballooning security costs will push that $2.5 billion figure even higher?

Hon. C. Hansen: I must say that I am very disappointed, because this member had an opportunity to stand up and not call these hooligans misguided, but rather to condemn the actions that those individuals took…

Hon. C. Hansen: …that put individuals at risk and basically did a huge disservice to the cause they were…

As I said earlier, we have experts in security, including the RCMP, who are looking at the threats that we should anticipate and be ready for when the Winter Games come to British Columbia in 2010.

We will actually listen to the experts, and we will make sure that we develop the programs and the security plans that reflect the appropriate security levels. We will make sure that they are not compromised, because we need to make sure we have the best games ever and the most safe and secure games ever.

R. Sultan: I have the honour to present the report of the Select Standing Committee on Health for the second session of the 38th parliament respecting the committee's

investigation into childhood obesity and physical inactivity in British Columbia.

R. Sultan: I ask leave of the House to suspend the rules to permit the moving of a motion to adopt the report.

R. Sultan: I move that the report be adopted, and in doing so, I would like to make some brief comments.

In November 2005 this Legislative Assembly charged the Select Standing Committee on Health to investigate effective strategies to encourage B.C.'s children to adopt both regular physical activity and healthier eating habits in their daily lives. The Health Committee was empowered to hold public consultations, conduct research into successful childhood health and wellness programs, investigate the use of incentives and disincentives to help influence behaviour, and to undertake discussions with the experts on the factors contributing to unhealthy eating and inactivity. Our investigation provided a sober reminder of the lifestyle challenges facing British Columbia's children today, but also an inspiring confirmation that B.C.'s youth are prepared to meet these challenges head-on.

The statistics are frightening. More than 20 percent of B.C.'s children between the ages of two and 17 are overweight, and a further 7 percent are obese. Recent data published by the American Center for Disease Control indicate that overweight children have an 80-percent higher probability of becoming overweight adults. The experts further advise that this upcoming generation of youth will in all likelihood be the first generation in recent history to have a shorter life expectancy than the life expectancy of the persons in this Legislature — a calamitous forecast.

We aimed our consultations specifically at youth as, presumably, the experts on the behaviour of this cohort. We received, for example, in response to our poster contest — and you've already been introduced to Daniel Minney — over 400 poster entries. The lucidity, directness and persuasion embodied in those pieces of art, to me at least, were far more compelling and convincing than any legislative petition.

We hosted public hearings at high schools in East Vancouver, Campbell River, Fort St. John and Williams Lake. Many courageous and very articulate students provided the committee with tremendous insight into what was happening in their world these days and into what is likely to work and what is not likely to work. Many of us were struck by their quickness and insight. They get it.

Our youth-oriented website continues to meet with a great deal of public interest not just from British Columbians but from people around the world. In total, the committee made 36 recommendations on a wide variety of topics ranging from ActNow to vending machine and food sale policies in public buildings, healthy eating programs, infrastructure investments in communities and physical activity in our schools.

In particular, I would like to highlight three of the committee's recommendations. First, the committee believes strongly that the tax-free ride provided in the statute specifically, curiously enough, for candy bars, confections and soft drinks — a social service tax exemption — should come to an end. While we're not calling at this time for a tax on junk food, we find it curious that the same taxation standards continue to be applied to foods very high in sugar, salt and fats as apply to fruits and vegetables.

Second, we heard a clear message from both youth and adults that we must do more to encourage students to become more physically active. We heard great things about the ministry's Action Schools B.C. program, and we encourage the Ministry of Education to continue to provide to all B.C. students, from kindergarten through grade 12, even more ambitious and comprehensive options for non-competitive physical activity.

Third, the committee actively endorses the government's efforts to remove junk foods from B.C. schools, but the committee believes the removal of junk foods should be extended to all public buildings including schools, hospitals, universities and cafeterias. We must send a clear message to our youth and their parents that junk foods are not ready substitutes for healthy foods.

In closing, I appreciate this opportunity to move the adoption of this committee's report, and I would like to thank all British Columbians who took the serious time to provide us with their thoughts. This is a topic which obviously struck a chord with British Columbians of all age levels, all socioeconomic strata and all geographic areas of the province, including many prominent ethnic groups and first nations participants.

I would like particularly to thank the students who participated in our art contest; the students and teachers of General Brock School in East Vancouver, Sir Charles Tupper, Carihi Secondary, North Peace Secondary and Williams Lake Secondary; and all the people who made a written submission to the committee as well.

I would also like to thank Carla Shore for her tremendous support of the committee's work, and a particular thank-you to the extraordinarily competent, vigorous and helpful work of the Office of the Clerk of Committees. We should be truly proud of that organization.

Of course, I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation to all members of the committee, all the MLAs who gave their diligence and commitment to this important project. Their unanimous — and I underline unanimous — adoption of this report reflects the unanimity of committee members from both sides of this House on strategies required to combat childhood obesity and physical inactivity.

D. Cubberley: It's an honour to rise today to speak in support of the motion to adopt the Select Standing

Committee on Health's report. I believe that the Health Committee's report, A Strategy for Combatting Childhood Obesity and Physical Inactivity in British Columbia, accurately portrays the challenges posed by childhood obesity and physical inactivity, and provides a viable strategy for addressing these serious problems within our society.

Members on this side believe that government plays a vital role in assisting parents, schools and communities to make healthy living choices the easy choices, and for this reason I would simply like to draw attention to several key recommendations. The committee believes that B.C. schools must be at the forefront in the battle against sugary, salty and fatty foods and physical inactivity, and for this reason we endorse the recommendation for government to redouble its efforts to remove all junk foods from B.C. schools.

We heard a clear message that the way to encourage greater levels of physical activity was to ensure that kids of all ages are provided safe walking and cycling routes to and from schools and in their neighbourhoods. That's why we support the committee's recommendation that all schools should have in place a safe routes program and, working with municipalities and the province, have access to infrastructure grants to support the construction of safe pedestrian and cycling facilities.

We heard that both schools and their supporting communities require significant investments to support both independent and competitive physical activity infrastructure. An investment in infrastructure for active transportation is a key part of the solution.

We also endorse the committee's recommendation to expand joint-use agreements between school boards and municipalities to support maximum utilization of existing infrastructure.

We strongly believe that every child needs a healthy and filling breakfast in order to succeed at school. Kids who are hungry at school don't learn well. That's why we strongly encourage government to fully adopt and implement the committee's recommendations on food security, in particular, funding to expand community kitchen and school hot meal programs, agriculture and classroom studies and additional programs to enforce healthy eating habits among B.C.'s students.

A key recommendation of the committee was the creation of a nutrition and exercise council. We envision this council bringing together key stakeholders, including the federal government, representatives from the food and beverage sector and advocates across British Columbia, to begin developing proposals to reduce the level of sugar, salt and fats in prepackaged foods.

We'd also like the food and exercise council to re-examine the current food labelling standards to make it easier for consumers to make the healthy choice when purchasing snack foods, to investigate the feasibility of new junk food taxes on non-nutritive foods and beverages, and to develop ongoing public marketing campaigns to raise awareness of diet and exercise issues.

What comes to mind is the example of Finland, which over a period of 30 years reduced the incidence of death from stroke and heart disease by 80 percent just by reducing salt consumption by one-third — a simple population health measure which was led by the media.

Like the Chair, I want to recognize the contributions made by students and concerned parents and all stakeholders across the province.

I want to say, as well, that we need to act as a society on this pressing problem because the health of our population is at increasing risk. We have only to look at the incidence of type 2 diabetes — 20,000 new cases a year, every year, an additional $80 million in health spending for one disease alone.

The cost of this preventable lifestyle-related disease and its complications was over a billion dollars to the B.C. health care system in '03-04. That's just under 10 percent of total health care spending on a single disease, the primary risk factors for which are being overweight, being physically inactive and smoking tobacco.

If we want to sustain our health care system, we simply have to act now. The report sets out actions that are doable and that can make a difference.

To conclude, I want to support the motion to adopt this comprehensive report on childhood obesity and physical inactivity in British Columbia. This report has support from both sides of the House, and that, I understand, is an unusual occurrence. It provides a clear and comprehensive strategy for government and stakeholder action.

Thank you very much, and in closing, let me say how much I enjoyed working on this project.

C. Trevena: I have a petition with 4,500 signatures protesting cuts in child care.

B. Simpson: I have a 362-signature petition from Williams Lake asking for the continuation of funding to child care resource and referral centres.

C. Wyse: I have a petition of 156 names from 100 Mile House asking for the continuation of the valuable services provided by child care resource and referral programs in B.C. and to the Child Care Operating Funding program for child care providers and parents.

V. Roddick: I rise to present an important petition on behalf of over 2,000 engaged citizens of Delta regarding the South Fraser perimeter road and the Tsawwassen power lines. This petition acknowledges and advocates for change, not abandonment; progress, not destruction. Delta wishes to be a doorway to B.C. and Canada, not a doormat.

Mr. Speaker: I want to remind members that when you're presenting a petition, it's simply the title, please.

K. Conroy: I, too, have a petition on the child care cuts with 145 signatures from my communities.

L. Mayencourt: I rise to present a petition regarding the availability of a speech and language pathologist at Three Bridges Community Health Centre in Vancouver-Burrard.

And so we begin on Valentine's Day, and if I may, a very quick indulgence. At home, my daughter is 12 today. Happy birthday, Abigail.

Very sadly, we must all remember that many brave men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces left their loved ones and will never return. They went to a land far away to help that country establish a democracy, to establish the freedoms and the rights and the privileges that we are here today to exercise. We should recognize and be mindful that it's a rare privilege in this world today that we can act and speak so freely here in this assembly and govern our own affairs.

The cares and concerns of our loved ones and indeed all the people of British Columbia are bound up in their hopes and expectations. We are here today to lay forth plans to fulfil the opportunities that will give them a foundation from which they can achieve their goals and hopes. That begins with the programs we initiated some time ago to lay a sound financial foundation with balanced budgets so that we may begin to earn the trust of our citizens and our businessmen so that they will have confidence to continue the investments and the advancements of our economy and that they will have, most importantly, certainty in their affairs so they can move forward knowing that the investments and the risks they take will not be betrayed by backsliding in financial affairs.

We have in the area of certainty — certainly unprecedented in the area of certainty — labour peace. No one would have thought, no one would have dreamed, years ago that we would achieve the certainty we have in labour affairs with the unique and outstanding achievement of labour peace in the public sector and teachers till 2010, with the hope of bonuses to carry that on further. Why shouldn't there be? I would certainly say our public service is loyal, hard-working, and has every expectation to enjoy all of the rich benefits that this strong economy has provided.

This certainly has also increased job creation and investments. British Columbia leads all Canada in new jobs — 315,000 new jobs since 2001 and 65,000 last year alone. That's a 3.1-percent increase, second only to our neighbouring province, Alberta, with whom we of course now have achieved an economic union at no cost to the taxpayers, which gives us a powerful economic engine to move forward into the next decade.

The unemployment stands at a record low 4.9 percent. In my area, Nanaimo-Parksville, the riding that I have the privilege and honour to represent, the unemployment rate dropped to as low as 4.8 percent. I must acknowledge and report that currently it stands at 6.7 percent. This, however, is nearly a 50-percent improvement from where it was at 12.7 percent in 2001, so we've moved forward.

Now, I'm sure some will say that this is an unacceptable level. I'd be astounded if some don't say that. I think they may take the approach that this is a glass half empty. However, I would submit to you, Mr. Speaker, that we're on the way — that we've moved from 12.7 to 6.7 percent, and the glass is half full. In fact, I'm confident, with the optimism and the investment happening in the constituency I represent, that within a few years it will be full to the brim indeed, perhaps overflowing.

We see many indications of that optimism and forward movement in our economy. The Downtown Nanaimo Partnership, which is a very unique organization — it's an amalgam partnership between city council and business people in the downtown core — set about with ambitious programs and plans to turn around what was basically a desolate, empty downtown into a thriving hub and core of the city that welcomes people. In the last few years they have achieved 91 net new businesses in the downtown core. It's a wonderful place to be, and it's an exciting place to be.

These new businesses, these new entrepreneurs, have created over a thousand jobs in the downtown centre. Also, city council committed $72 million for a new Nanaimo centre, which is being built as we speak — on time, I hasten to add happily, and on budget. This $72 million development will have a 50,000-seat conference centre to accommodate conferences from all over the world.

Some would say, and certainly it is true, that one of the partners building the hotel has had some considerations of developing the hotel through financial concerns. However, what we found, having taken this bold step, is that city council has created a great opportunity for hoteliers, and indeed, several have come forward. The list of people who wish to take part in this development is now at seven.

Downtown Nanaimo's face is changing too. The old, derelict Malaspina Hotel, which many people may know and which stood for a long time as a real symbol of the deterioration of the downtown core, has now been reconstructed. Cape Development has come in and built a new highrise condominium development,

which greatly adds needed residents into the downtown core. It has also expanded the waterfront parkway with a great new open public space that's to be enjoyed by all the citizens of Nanaimo.

Businesses are thriving too. Coastland Wood Industries, a veneer plant in Nanaimo, is doing extremely well, running full shifts supplying veneers. In fact, they're looking at expanding their operations to meet a growing demand for their products. I recently met with the executives of Pope and Talbot, the pulp mill in Nanaimo, and they've enjoyed not a record year but a year that certainly exceeded their expectations, and they look forward to another good year.

The softwood lumber agreement offers new opportunities and new hope. Some may say that our Minister of Forests and Range is perhaps gruff on the exterior but soft inside, but I think we will shortly learn that we will press forward many advantages that are open to us by the softwood lumber agreement, and you will see new investment and new jobs created on the Island. So many things are moving forward.

Parksville is often regarded as a holiday spot. It's famous for its beaches and beach celebrations. Little is known about the industries there, and some of them are very unique. I'd like to mention a couple of them that are doing exceptionally well.

One group called Detailed Design actually does advance CAD/CAM design for all steel-structure buildings in North America, including the Superdome and other major dome structures that you may know. They have clients right across North America and Europe, and they're employing as many people as they can as fast as they can. This thriving business offers high-paying jobs to highly skilled workers, generally in the 20 to 25 age range. It's a great business.

Another unknown success story is Camtech. This industry, owned by Charles and Jean Robinson in Parksville, reconstructs models of the cabins of 747s. In this small town — this small but very thriving city of Parksville — they do instruction for aeronautical safety and procedures and build these cabins so that people can be taught how to behave in emergencies and be trained in aeronautical safety.

The Island Hall, a familiar landmark to everyone, is also being redeveloped, as residential and construction jobs and the industry thrives and booms in Nanaimo.

So business is good. Opportunities are good in my riding, and it's because of the solid financial foundation that has been put forward. People are optimistic, people are investing, and things are moving forward.

One of the concerns in our riding, of course, with the large population of seniors in the Nanaimo-Parksville constituency, is health care — health care as it relates to seniors. We certainly have — and it was acknowledged that we have — the best-ranked health care system in Canada. In Nanaimo, certainly, and in Parksville, the concerns about seniors are being met by this very forward-thinking health care system. The seniors assisted-living facilities are greatly expanding. VIHA has committed to 215 units in Nanaimo, and 135 residential and 80 assisted-living have been announced. In Parksville I was able to announce another 220 units — being 160 residential-living and 60 assisted-living — that were just recently opened.

Many other things are happening, of course, in the health care system. A review is being undertaken of the emergency facilities with an aim to improve the emergency care in the regional district hospital in Nanaimo. That will involve, particularly, a new psychiatric emergency care unit so that people with mental health issues can be separated from those that have other emergent care needs.

The operating theatres have been completed. This was left. It was really an empty shell that was left for ten years, and the Ministry of Health has finished them off. We have now 12 state-of-the-art operating theatres in Nanaimo.

There's generally a very optimistic attitude, I have to say, in Nanaimo. People are happy with the way things are progressing, and people are happy with what is happening. Nanaimo was the first community to endorse the Winter Olympics in 2010, and just recently, we had many celebrations to build the enthusiasm towards the happy Olympic event.

Many of you, of course, know and remember Allison Forsyth, who was injured. I recently had a meeting with Allison. She's still on crutches, but she's determined to be on the podium in the Olympics. As determined and touching was her mother Marion, who is battling cancer. She intends to be there to watch her daughter succeed, and I'm sure she will.

But there are other Olympic hopefuls. At the recent Spirit of 2010 events last weekend I was fortunate enough to watch Kelsey Ross, a very talented 16-year-old, who at the age of nine was able to do double flip — whatever they are — loops, and she has an amazing talent. She skates with grace and smoothness and power. I'm sure there's another citizen from this area that we'll see on the podium in 2010.

Parksville, of course, moves forward. It won the Communities in Bloom in 2006, competing across Canada for that honour. It's really no surprise that they should win it, being such a wonderful place. They've also hosted the Seniors Lawn Bowling Pairs, where B.C. won first and second. That was also done in 2006.

Nanaimo looks forward to hosting, this year, the B.C. Seniors Games, and I'm sure there will be many participants, if not within this chamber….

R. Cantelon: Lots of seniors up there, and it will be a wonderful event. Nanaimo's famous for its volunteerism and its ability to host these events.

This year we celebrated the championship team, the Vancouver Island Raiders, who won the Canadian Junior Football League championships — the first time it ever happened — in what was certainly a heart-stopping fourth quarter achievement.

The Nanaimo Clippers are well on their way to another very, very successful season, and we expect them to do well in the playoffs forthcoming.

We recently — again, as part of ActNow — celebrated the Vancouver Island Raiders championship but also the Grey Cup championship. It was wonderful to see the reaction of people who had never seen the Grey Cup, who had listened to and cheered the B.C. Lions from their inception in '54 when they promised to roar in '54, as some may remember. They had never seen the Grey Cup and were quite thrilled to see it and were happy to have their picture taken with it.

I think we should note that Wally Buono, quite correctly, was named coach of the year for his outstanding achievements. I'm sure we all share in congratulating Wally for his contribution.

Another great thing that is moving forward in our province, and I think a very special one, is the new relationship we are having with first nations. I've had the opportunity to take part and travel where the effects and the hopes and the inspiration that the first nations are now developing and to see that first hand.

I was here in Victoria not long ago at the Empress Hotel and talked with Robert Dennis, chief of the west coast bands, and the joy and the energy in that room was really something to behold. It was really, truly a celebration. You could get the sense that these first nations people felt that something had been lifted from their shoulders, that they were now able to move forward and participate with all British Columbians on an equal footing. But the treaty just lays the foundation, and it's recognized that it is not the complete or full answer to any of the concerns, but it now affords the opportunity for them to move forward. We hope and expect to see many more of these agreements in the future.

I also had the privilege recently to participate in the second aboriginal education enhancement agreement with school district 69. This is the second of the agreements — one of 30 that have been signed with aboriginal peoples across the province — and it's a great partnership between the school district and the first nations. It has achieved some remarkable results.

Since 2001 the completion rate in grade 12 has risen from 31 percent — which I'm sure everyone would acknowledge is terribly low, in fact, dismally low — to 58 percent. Now 58 percent is still not as high as it is for other citizens, other young people, at 79 percent, but that is a significant 27-percent improvement in achievement level. Other achievement levels were equally as impressive.

But the numbers don't tell the whole story, and it's really not about numbers for first nations. It's really about having a sense of hope and opportunity that at last, and I really do mean at last, they can move forward and take part in the opportunities that this thriving economy presents to them, that they can have the hope that they will see their dreams fulfilled in this economy and that the barriers that used to be there for first nations entering the workforce will be removed.

Gordon Bob, who is the brother of the Chief, spoke very eloquently about the sense that this is really a new thing. Right through all my discussions with the various first nations people I had, there's new hope, there's new optimism that they see themselves as partners moving forward with us, and it was a great thing to see.

Ellen White, who is one of the elders of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, spoke. Every time Ellen speaks and gives prayers to whatever group she's speaking to, you feel better afterwards. She lifts everyone up with her words and the depth of her spirituality.

She used a phrase that I thought was quite unique and interesting. She said that these new, young first nations people were going to be raised with a foot in each culture. I think she means to say to us that they're now part of our society in British Columbia in the broadest sense, but they'll always remember their first nations culture and that the two should not be a contradiction in moving forward. They can proudly move forward as aboriginal people but confidently take part in the economy of British Columbia. And that's the way it should be.

I had a recent meeting with Ralph Nilson, the new president of Malaspina College, and he's very rightly proud and enthusiastic about carrying on the tradition of partnerships they have with first nations in a wide variety of educational opportunities that are presented by Malaspina University College.

Also this month I had the privilege of presenting cheques, first to the Inter Tribal Health Authority in Nanaimo — $31,500. This is to the Inter Tribal Health Authority which administers public health to all the coastal bands up and down the coast.

There are two important things about it. Firstly, it is very important, if you think about this, that the people who are providing nursing services to these remote communities are aboriginal. This program and this funding are to support and encourage nurses to become involved first in training and development to supply these public health services. If you're in a remote village and the public health nurse comes to you and she's white or he's white, what that says to them is: they're different. "We're here, and the experts must come and must be white to tell us how to look after our health."

It is one of the key contacts that happens to some of these remote tribal communities. I have to tell you that with my travels on aquaculture, I had no idea how remote some of these villages are. They certainly are. But to have a recognizable first nations face to provide these services sends an entirely different message. It says to these first nations people in these villages, to the young people particularly who are being ministered to, that: "You are part of British Columbia," that "You are welcome," and that "You, too, can move forward, and you, too, can have a career beyond the village and yet still remember and minister to the village."

The other cheque that I was able to present was for $22,000 to Snuneymuxw to support the other side of nursing training. This is to provide tutoring, mentorship and direction so that young first nations, aboriginal women and men, can be encouraged to pursue a career

at Malaspina University College, to develop a career in nursing. Certainly we know that throughout our economy we are very short of trained labour, trained specialists in a wide variety of concerns, and we need every first nation that we can encourage and that we can help break the barriers down so that they can participate in our economy.

Another meeting recently. I met with Minister de Jong and with David Bob of the Nanoose First Nation in my constituency. He spoke at some length of the rich history of how all the villages and communities are intertwined. Everybody has someone in another village that is related, and they're all connected in a very unique and cultural way.

But they, too, are moving forward. They, too, have dreams. They expect their dreams will be fulfilled, and I have every indication that they will be. They have moved forward now. They have an extensive shellfish industry which provides employment and income directly to members of the band, and they've done very well with that.

They also have some very ambitious economic development plans which involve what I think is a very unique facility that they want to build. They want to build a seniors residence and care facility that will basically be oriented primarily to first nations — but not exclusively, they hasten to add — so that first nations seniors, as they reach retirement and old age and eventually pass on, can do so in an environment that's sympathetic to their culture, where their traditions are respected and where they're ministered to in the context of the culture that they know. They hope that such a facility will be one that will be used by all first nations on the coastal area. I think it's certainly a very worthwhile project, I encourage them, and I think they'll see their dreams fulfilled.

We also, with the minister, met with Shawn Atleo and Judith Sayers. Again, the mood was positive. The mood was upbeat. Throughout all of these meetings and all of these encounters I've had with first nations groups throughout the province, and some of the aquaculture tours, there really is a mood of hopefulness, of working together, of partnerships — that yes, we need to move through with the treaties, and yet we can step aside with the treaties and move the economic, cultural, personal and social agendas forward at the same time. It needn't be just the legalistic treaty negotiations, which sometimes seem to preoccupy and in some cases might be viewed as a hindrance as much as a help. We can move forward with an agenda through the reconciliation that moves their hopes forward, and that's exactly what's happening.

Finally, I was very fortunate to take part in the hiring program of the new Representative for Children and Youth, who happens to be of direct aboriginal ancestry, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. Unfortunately, it's true the large portion of children at risk in our society are first nations, and I want to assure this House that we will have an outstanding individual who will champion these causes — a woman of great intelligence, energy and experience, who will move forward the agenda of people and children with concerns, at risk.

All of these things are good. All of these things lay a good foundation as we move forward in the economy, as we move forward with our new relationship with first nations. But all of these will be hollow if we don't preserve the environment in which this economy thrives.

We all love this beautiful country. We all love its lakes and streams. That's our richest heritage that we have. I think that it's incumbent on us to preserve this richest legacy for them. Yes, there must be jobs, but the jobs…. Unless we can manage in an environmentally sustainable way, we will have failed. I want to say that that is not happening. I think the throne speech lays out not only an ambitious but an achievable plan to ensure that our environment will be protected as we move forward.

I was quite astounded when we heard what some of the concerned people have said. One of the authors of the UN report on climate change, University of Victoria professor Andrew Weaver, said that he was taken aback and stunned by the scope and ambition of the program that was laid forward.

His words were: "It's the most progressive plan that I've seen anywhere in North America and one of the best in the world." "This is the way to go," he said: "It's great leadership. It's really super." He even said: "I'm sounding like a party hack." I would say that perhaps someone should approach him about a membership; I don't know. But when you see this…. "If you put my dreams on paper," he said, "everything I wanted was in here. It's amazing." He also pointed out that none of these goals are out of reach.

So we have the best place on earth to live, and it's absolutely important that we preserve it and enhance it for our children and their children. This builds on the progress that we've already made. The targets are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent by 2020. These are achievable goals. We have a $25 million innovation fund to prepare and develop new methods of energy production, and 90 percent of all B.C.'s energy will come from clean renewable resources.

This is an approach that is very much in sympathy with the constituents that live in my area. The regional district of Nanaimo has always been very, very concerned about recycling and waste. They've achieved their target — tops in Canada — of 50-percent diversion of material from landfills. It's an outstanding achievement.

They have also added that the organic material from commercial places, restaurants and so forth, now has to be recycled. They're now developing a household organic recycling program that they feel will remove 70 percent of the material from landfills. So we're ahead of the curve, and we plan to stay there in our constituency.

Methane gas from landfill sites is one of the issues addressed in the throne speech. Madam Speaker, I want to tell you again that the regional district of Nanaimo is already capturing it and is about to embark on a pilot program to put that methane gas to productive use.

Water sustainability, of course. Water is a key element in the sustainability of our communities, and the city of Parksville has moved forward and plans to take advantage of the infrastructure grants to improve and make secure their water supply. I certainly will be assisting them heartily to do just that.

It might be seen by some to be restrictive, but to the contrary, new technologies and new industries that direct their attention to the environment open up new opportunities. We have one business in Nanaimo, ICC, that develops an elaborate composting system where it takes all organic material — trees, roots, stumps — and out the other end comes organic untreated topsoil — very good material.

This facility was visited recently when the secretary of state for Asia-Pacific brought a group of investors from China. We'd hoped that they would be interested in investing money in capital projects in the city. They were more interested in the technology that they could export. So I think the new opportunities that are concerned with and are projects for the environment offer new economic opportunities as well.

Moving on to the education field, again I would say and congratulate that our community is moving forward. In school district 69 we just recognized one of our teachers for winning the Prime Minister's teacher's achievement of excellence. I think in recognizing teachers, we're already moving forward to anticipate what was laid out in the throne speech to give more recognition to those teachers that excel.

They also have a new program called Ready, Set, Learn oriented towards young children to bring them into the schools and to read with them. I think they're recognizing that the parents are the first teachers that children have and that they must be encouraged to read with their children to give them a good start in education.

Also, 68 is one of the leaders with their Building Learning Together program. This is a program that involves a community — some 200 volunteers, drivers, seniors. That takes learning right out into the community with their bus — and Munchkin Land and many other exciting and innovative programs to give children a new start. In both school districts from 68 and 69 in Nanaimo there's extensive use of the buildings for community facilities.

Another aspect that the budget turned to was homelessness. Again, I would salute and congratulate the city of Nanaimo for the active approach they take to homeless people, particularly those on the street. We're using some of the tools that this Legislature has put in their hands — the Safe Streets Act, the Trespass Act. But their focus is more on compliance. They're not out to fine anybody. They're there to take them off the street and connect them with resources. They're working with the downtown Nanaimo partnership, with neighbourhood groups, with police, with VIHA.

They've made great use of the new funding that's been put in place by this government, the $139,000 supplied through VIHA to basically connect people on the streets with services. Many of these people have no fixed address, no place to live and many other barriers to obtaining services. Also, many of them are affected with drug abuse, mental issues and basically self-medication. They've moved forward using these tools to remove what they refer to as drug squats, where people basically camp out in a yard or in a campground and use it as a place to gather and distribute drugs. They use the Trespass Act to displace and move these along.

We recognize that these are only short-term solutions. They know it too, but they keep at it, and they keep moving people along. Randy Churchill says it's like pushing the ocean back in some cases, but they are achieving success. Every time they move a drug house or a crack house or close it down — and they've closed some 30 of them down in Nanaimo — they find that when it comes back in another neighbourhood, it comes back with less of a vengeance. Once they've moved a crack house, the neighbourhood comes in and takes the community back. The house is rebuilt and becomes a functioning part of the community again.

It's still a fragile success, but it's moving forward. We certainly look forward to the initiatives that will be presented and fleshed out in the budget as we move forward to implement the plans laid out in the budget.

The city of Nanaimo, too, has taken a great initiative with homelessness with a project they've set on Meredith Road. Never mind DCCs; the city's donating the land, putting up the land, to build the facility on Meredith Road. A group of people that is sometimes maligned, the development community, has said: "Well, we'll build it. You put up the land, and we'll build it." Here's an affordable housing facility that will be at no cost to taxpayers or anyone else. They've now approached B.C. Housing to see if they can expand the concept with their participation.

I had the opportunity to make the minister for forest, lands and housing aware of this. He was an enthusiastic supporter, and we hope to see his announcement in the near future for the participation of the provincial government in this very worthy project.

The communities are ready. They're moving forward. They're working in a spirit and an atmosphere of optimism. They're moving forward to build their economies, to build better places. Certainly, the new emphasis and the great emphasis on the environment is one that's going to be one welcomed by all people in British Columbia.

I want to close with a favourite saying of a dear friend of mine who just recently turned 90, who served long terms on city council and on boards with me, Margaret Strongitharm. She used to say that there are three kinds of people: those who watch it happen, those who wonder what happened and those who make it happen. I'm proud to be part of a government led by a leader who is in the last category, because this government intends to make it happen for the province and for all the people in British Columbia.

J. Yap: It is an honour and a privilege to rise as the member for Richmond-Steveston to speak on the throne speech delivered by Her Honour the Lieutenant-

Governor. I'm honoured to be the seconder of the throne speech, moved by my colleague from Nanaimo-Parksville, a throne speech which is a blueprint of great vision for our province.

British Columbia has come a long way since 2001, and I am proud to be part of a government caucus which has led the change, led the transformation and the progress which has lifted our province from stagnation to success. As outlined within the throne speech, we on the government side intend to continue with this agenda of change, transformation and progress to make B.C. an even better place to live, to work and to raise a family.

We all, members of this House, come to be here by the support of the many and the few in the communities which we represent. I am grateful to the British Columbians who call Richmond-Steveston home for their support and encouragement, for having me here as their representative in this Legislature.

I'm especially honoured to have the support of a dedicated group of constituents, including Brian Petersen, Michael Chiu, Debbie McBride, Magdalen Leung and Paul Dufour, to name a few. I'm thankful for the yeoman support of my constituency office assistants Paige Robertson and PoWah Ng, who help me serve the constituents of my riding. They are the vital links for me in ensuring that I am meeting the needs of my constituents as an MLA.

I am, of course, grateful to my family for allowing me to pursue public service as a member of this Legislative Assembly.

Richmond, like every other part of B.C., has seen its share of change. From the increased traffic of inbound cargo ships passing through the south arm of the Fraser River carrying goods from overseas to the continued growth of new residential communities along the riverfront of Steveston, we see change. Richmond is one of the most multicultural cities of the province, with a vibrant blend of Canadians, new and not so new, from different cultures coming together to live in harmony, building the community we all love. We see continued in-migration of people into Richmond because, like B.C., it is the best place on earth.

Richmond is renowned for its great community spirit and for its strong business base, with not just a riverfront and harbour, not just the largest airport in the province, but it is also home to innovative, leading-edge companies — companies like MDA, Herbon Naturals, Sierra Wireless, Boston Pizza, London Drugs and CHC Helicopter, to name a few.

Richmond is a caring community with an excellent network of support for those who need help, such as children with special needs, people with disabilities or seniors. I think of community groups such as Richmond Addiction Services, Volunteer Richmond, Richmond Chinese Community Society and Touchstone Family Services association, to name a few.

As I meet and talk with the citizens of my riding, I sense a great deal of hope and optimism at the change which we are seeing in our province. Change is one of those things which philosophers wax eloquent about. It is inevitable, and we must be open to change — positive change — for us to be able continue to progress, to continue to succeed.

In the last six years we have seen tremendous change in B.C. We have seen a great transformation. We have seen great progress. When the B.C. Liberals formed government in 2001, our province was about as low as it could be. Our economy was in the doldrums, one of the slowest-growing in the nation. We were at the end of a decade — yes, a dismal decade — which was marked by government deficits…

We were at the end of a decade — yes, a dismal decade — which was marked by government deficits. It was marked by the loss of our best and brightest. It was marked by jobs and investment leaving our province, and worst of all, it was marked by a loss of hope. There was in B.C. a sense of drift and a lack of confidence in our future.

Thanks to the leadership of our Premier and the B.C. Liberal government, and the hard work of British Columbians these past six years, today we have a very different B.C. British Columbia today has one of the strongest economies in Canada. We have essentially full employment, with a 4-percent unemployment rate — the lowest it has been in over 30 years.

Investment is once again flowing into B.C. Today, in fact, there is over $100 billion in major capital and infrastructure projects underway in our province — a historic high. We have restored prudent fiscal management, achieving surplus budgets for the past three years, and B.C.'s international credit rating has now recovered from all the declines of the 1990s and has been restored to the best level available: triple-A.

At the very beginning of its first mandate our government introduced income tax cuts, which helped to spur our economy and helped to attract investment and increased job growth. Today we have one of the most competitive tax regimes in the country.

We also reduced the regulatory burden, with our government receiving praise from that most unique watchdog of government, the CFIB, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the voice of small and medium-

sized business in Canada. The CFIB honoured our government last year with a special award for its regulatory reforms, which are leading the way in the nation.

All along, as our government worked to transform and grow the economy, we continued to make significant investments in the key areas of health care and public education. Indeed, contrary to the rhetoric of the opposition, we have increased spending in each of these areas in the past six years.

British Columbia has made great progress, and with this new year before us, we have the opportunity to continue to make strides to do even better as a province. The throne speech lays out a great plan for us to continue to move forward.

The throne speech has a strong environmental focus, which is good for Richmond, for our province and for Canada. For many years the city of Richmond's slogan has been, fittingly, "Island City, by Nature." Richmond people have a keen appreciation for the environment. They want to be good stewards of the environment, want practical and effective solutions to ensuring that we protect our environment, preserving it for our children and their children.

For example, my constituents enjoy the natural environment and beauty of the south arm of the Fraser River, which includes ecologically sensitive areas such as Steveston Island, also known as Shady Island, a small island in Steveston harbour. A dedicated group of Richmond citizens are working to preserve the natural state of this island, with the support of the city of Richmond. I support these efforts and look forward to working with stakeholders, including the city, federal and provincial governments, towards this goal.

Today it is said that environmental concerns are foremost in the minds of Canadians, but this is nothing new. British Columbians have always been concerned about the environment. Our government has been clear about this, setting it out as one of the five great goals which call us to lead the world in sustainable environmental management, with the best air and water quality and the best fisheries management, bar none.

The throne speech sets out clear, measurable goals for British Columbians to strive for in order to achieve this great goal. These goals will not be easy to achieve, but the time for easy is over. British Columbians want action, solutions and goals which will lead us forward in managing our economy in an environmentally sustainable manner, and I am proud that our government will deliver on this great goal with the initiatives enunciated in the throne speech. B.C. will lead the way in reducing carbon emissions. B.C. will lead the way in dealing with global warning. B.C. will lead the nation into the Pacific century.

British Columbians want government to lead with a strong environmental agenda, but they also want to keep our economy strong. The throne speech spells out a plan for us to have both here in B.C. Unlike the NDP, we on the government side believe that a strong economy is key to achieving our goals as a province.

Our economy has never been stronger. Whether it's in the construction, high technology, tourism, natural resources, manufacturing or services sector, our economy is firing on all cylinders. Yet as we look into the future with the dramatic changes happening in the world, with the emerging economies of the Asia-Pacific taking their place in reshaping the world economy, B.C. as an open economy has to continue to diversify and focus on the potential that trade and investment with the economies of China, India and other Asia-Pacific economies represent.

B.C. needs to continue to capitalize on its position as Canada's only Pacific province and on the advantage provided by our diverse population, with many British Columbians having cultural, linguistic, familial and business ties to the Asia-Pacific economies. B.C. is truly the gateway to North America for the Asia-Pacific economies.

I am very proud and pleased that the throne speech emphasizes this strategic advantage as part of B.C.'s Pacific leadership agenda. Certainly, in my community we see this gateway in action, with the many dynamic and successful businesses which are led by entrepreneurs who have linkages to the Asia-Pacific acting as bridges between economies and emphasizing Richmond's and B.C.'s place as the gateway to Canada and North America.

Speaking of gateway, the transportation infrastructure program by the same name is a crucial part of ensuring our continued economic growth and success. I am proud of the government's investments in this area, some $3 billion over the coming years. The addition of the Canada line finally linking Richmond, the Vancouver International Airport and Vancouver will not only provide a needed boost to the regional economy, but it is environmentally the right thing to do. I look forward to the day in the not too distant future when this transit service is completed and in operation.

A strong economy requires that its greatest resource — its people — work effectively and productively and are fairly compensated. I am proud of the great example set by this B.C. Liberal government with the labour peace achieved last year: 139 labour agreements, covering 94 percent of public sector employees, without strikes or disruptions — a significant, indeed historic, accomplishment that eluded even the NDP when they were in government.

A strong and growing economy also requires innovation, lateral thinking and great vision from government in laying the groundwork for future prosperity. This we saw in spades when our government entered into the trade, investment and labour mobility accord with Alberta. B.C. and Alberta's economies combined are 30 percent larger than Quebec's. This accord will eventually add almost $5 billion to our province's GDP and create 78,000 new jobs in B.C. alone.

The throne speech also emphasizes the need for us as a province to recognize and honour our diversity as

a people. As we head towards the 150th anniversary of British Columbia's founding as a colony and province, it is fitting that we have a historic chance to make good on recognizing and honouring the first peoples of our great province.

I am proud that our government has made great strides towards reconciliation with first nations peoples. Last year we saw a creation of the new relationship fund — $100 million set up to help first nations achieve capacity and improve the future potential of their people.

We should all be proud of the results of the treaty negotiation process, which has now produced three final agreements that are in the process of being ratified — the Lheidli T'enneh, Maa-nulth and Tsawwassen First Nations final agreements represent hope for these communities to satisfy their land claims and open economic possibilities for these first nations. The treaties will bring reconciliation between them and all British Columbians and help bring certainty as to the future economic direction of our province.

We are a province blessed with many great resources, a strong economy, a people with renewed optimism and even greater potential for progress. Yet there are some in our society who need help. I am proud that the throne speech makes clear that our government will continue to help those who are the most in need.

Whether it is housing for the most disadvantaged, low-income seniors, services for those with physical disabilities or support for families dealing with the effects of addictions or mental illness, our government will direct resources to these areas so that every British Columbian can benefit from the progress we have achieved and will continue to achieve under the leadership of our government.

The throne speech makes clear that B.C. will remain committed to the principles of the Canada Health Act. B.C.'s health care system has been rated the best among the provincial jurisdictions by the Conference Board of Canada, something we can all be proud of.

I am pleased that the government has continued to invest in health care with funding at historic high levels. In Richmond these investments include the construction of the Austin Harris assisted seniors residence, the Rosewood Manor seniors care facility expansion, and at Richmond Hospital, the new state-of-the-art intensive care unit, new pediatric surgery program and successful joint-and-hip-replacement projects.

As our population grows and ages, as new technologies continue to emerge in health care, it is clear that we need to take steps to transform our health care system so that it can be sustainable for the future. Today we spend 43 percent of our provincial budget on health care. At the current rate of growth of health care spending, that will rise to 71 percent in ten years if we do nothing.

British Columbians already enjoy the best health care system in Canada. Our children and our children's children deserve nothing less going forward. But the health care system needs to be sustainable.

My constituents tell me that we have a duty to make changes to make our health care system sustainable. My constituents have told me that they are tired of the rhetoric and ideology put forward by special interest groups. My constituents want changes to make our health care system even better and sustainable.

I am pleased that our government has launched the Conversation on Health to canvass the views of British Columbians in order to get the best ideas to achieve a sustainable, publicly funded health care system. I look forward to the recommendations from these conversations and the dialogue which will ensue as we move forward with our responsibility to strengthen and sustain our public health care system.

A key part of this reform of our health care system will be in the paradigm shift that is needed where each of us, each British Columbian, takes responsibility for our health and wellness. The ActNow B.C. initiative promotes healthy choices in nutrition and lifestyle. It will help us all focus and move us forward to achieving great goal number 2, and that is to lead the way in North America in healthy living and physical fitness.

What a wonderful opportunity we will have to focus British Columbians on fitness with the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to our province. In less than three years the attention of the world will be on Vancouver, Whistler and also Richmond. Richmond's speed skating oval will provide a wonderful sports, economic and community-building legacy for not just the people of Richmond but all British Columbians.

As a parent of two school-age children, I am well aware of the need for us to continue to invest in our public school system. Our public schools already produce great outcomes for our students compared to other jurisdictions. We have among the highest graduation rates at 80 percent. I note that for the Richmond school district, the graduation rate is 92 percent, among the highest in the province.

I have visited the schools in my riding and know firsthand the dedication of the teachers as they help to develop the skills and knowledge of our students. The throne speech calls for further innovation in public education and encourages excellence in teaching with the proposed Premier's award for teachers.

I am proud of the continued strong commitment of the government to public education with the increasing investments made in our K-to-12 public schools, even with declining student enrolment. Since 2001 the province has increased funding to public schools by almost $1 billion. During this same period enrolment declined by almost 43,000 students, and this decline is projected to further continue, to the order of 30,000 over the next five years.

For the Richmond school district this increased funding has included such things as the $101,000 recently announced to support innovative literacy programs; $48,000 for Hugh Boyd Secondary School's hairdressing trades program; $25,000 in funding for

summer student camps; and $14 million for the Steveston-London secondary school expansion project.

Again, as the world changes, we must change, and public education is no different. The introduction of further innovations such as distance learning and on-line tutoring will help improve the outcomes for our students.

The throne speech emphasizes the continued priority of skills and knowledge training as key for the continued progress we all desire for our province. Already the government has begun to dig us out of the NDP's legacy where no new doctor or nursing spaces were added during the 1990s. We have increased the number of doctors and nurses being trained. We have earmarked 2,500 new graduate spaces in our post-secondary institutions as part of the commitment underway to add 25,000 additional post-secondary spaces.

We have invested and will continue to invest in skills training to meet the needs of our growing economy. I am proud of the government's record in advanced education and look forward to continued progress in the coming year.

The throne speech is a call to British Columbians to work for progress in improving our environment while keeping our economy competitive and strong, while looking after those citizens who are most in need. It calls us to strive for more, to build on the great progress we have achieved these past six years towards an even brighter future.

It calls us to be open to creativity and innovation. It calls us to not fear but rather to embrace change as we work to build an even better British Columbia. It calls us to reach higher.

C. James: I am pleased to rise in response to the Speech from the Throne. In the past B.C. Liberal throne speeches and budgets have provided insight into what the Premier fears are his political vulnerabilities. But they have been always a terrible barometer of the government's true intentions.

Last year the throne speech promised transformational change in health care, but that transformation only resulted in more chaos. By the year's end many of the people the B.C. Liberals handpicked to deliver patient care lost confidence in their Premier. In the words of Dr. Dana Devine, a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority board member who resigned just a few weeks ago: "I have come to the conclusion that there is no willingness on the part of the Ministry of Health or the Minister of Finance to face the reality of our situation."

The reality for British Columbians is simple: longer wait-lists, gridlocked emergency rooms, hallway medicine and a long-term care bed shortage that the Liberals simply refuse to address. The throne speech promising transformational change in health care was followed by a budget that the Premier dubbed "the children's budget." Well, this is small comfort for at-risk children and families who have paid the heaviest price for the Premier's one-sided tax cuts.

Now, one year later, B.C. parents are facing an uncertain future, struggling to balance work and home, and with many fewer child care spaces because of the Premier's announced child care cuts. Many of those parents came to the Legislature yesterday to register their dismay and to remind the Premier that our economy will not continue to grow if parents are struggling to choose between work and family.

The throne speech offered those B.C. parents no comfort. Child care wasn't even mentioned in that throne speech. At a time when more and more parents are struggling to make ends meet and to find safe, affordable child care for children, the throne speech's silence on this issue speaks volumes about the B.C. Liberals' priorities.

Last year's children's budget was preceded the year before by a seniors' budget. That year, you will recall, senior citizens still didn't get the 5,000 long-term care beds they were promised by the B.C. Liberals in 2001. Married couples living in long-term care like the Albos were split up and sent to different parts of the province. The acute care bed shortage brought emergency rooms throughout B.C. to a standstill.

But I have to say that for sheer rhetorical insincerity, nothing, absolutely nothing, matches the throne speech in which the Premier renamed the interior of British Columbia the heartlands. It's not surprising that name didn't stick. What did stick was the unnecessary pain that was brought about by an agenda of mean-spirited and shortsighted cuts that tore the heart out of communities.

Given this pattern, British Columbians can be forgiven if the Premier's sudden concern for the environment is met with some skepticism, if not outright worry, about what this might mean for our planet. Children, seniors and interior residents all know what it's like to be the target of this Premier's PR machine. They know that their 15 minutes of throne speech fame goes by very, very quickly. They also know that actions are much more powerful than words.

Let me take a few minutes to measure the Premier's rhetoric in yesterday's throne speech with the reality of the Premier's actions over the last six years. As one respected pundit pointed out, the words "climate change" made their first appearance in yesterday's throne speech. Incidentally, the same was true in George Bush's State of the Union Address just a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, the public's concern about a warming planet has not escaped politicians for whom the issue has only been an irritant in the past.

Not that long ago, in remarks to a small gathering of supporters, the Premier defended burning dirty coal by arguing that it didn't actually matter what B.C. did because our impact on the world stage was so very small. Of course, it was not that long ago that the Premier fired the commissioner for environment and sustainability; not that long ago that the Premier scrapped the climate change plan that actually established targets and goals; not that long ago that he gutted the Environmental Assessment Act; not that long ago that

he cut over 1,000 environmental protection officers; and not that long ago that he eliminated over 800 Forest Service jobs, axed the climate change working group and spoke out publicly against Kyoto.

It was not that long ago that the Premier eliminated the Ministry of Environment altogether, and now he's asking British Columbians to believe that he cares about climate change.

The question remains: has the Premier really changed, or has he just changed his story to suit his political ends? If he's just changed his story, then yesterday's promises on climate change will join the promises of past throne speeches. But if he's really changed, then yesterday's throne speech needs to be followed by actions, by targets, by measurable benchmarks to address climate change and to make up for the years of lost ground under the B.C. Liberals.

Two weeks ago I put forward a plan that proposed a cap on B.C.'s greenhouse gas emissions and a process to target reductions in future years. My plan aggressively expands tax incentives, it toughens regulations, it proposes incentives to actually reduce emissions for oil and gas drilling, and it matches federal public transit tax cuts. My plan says very clearly: no to dirty coal.

I reached out to the Premier, and I said: let's actually work together on setting tough, new emission targets. Let's agree that climate change threatens our future, that B.C. should be a leader, and that we can actually achieve more united than we can divided.

I'll take this throne speech as the Premier's response to my challenge and that of British Columbians everywhere who have demanded attention on global warming. Clearly, the Premier read our plan to tackle climate change, and parts of it are reflected in the throne speech. But the big question for all of us is: can British Columbians trust this Premier to deliver?

It's a fair question. The first and only firm greenhouse gas reduction target is not until 2020 — 13 years from now. The interim targets are actually sectoral, not provincewide, and it's nine years before we see a real commitment on emission reductions in the oil and gas sector or vehicles.

The Premier wants to stand in the shadow of the California Governor, but his plan falls short of even that state's climate change targets. By 2010 California will have reduced greenhouse gases to 2000 levels. By 2010 here in B.C. we'll still be ten years away from getting anywhere near that target.

So British Columbians have every reason to be skeptical about the Premier's sudden climate change conversion. They want action, not words. But the deep skepticism on climate change can only be matched by the anger and frustration that British Columbians are feeling about the other key priorities that this Premier has abandoned.

Last year the Premier promised action on health care. The throne speech was in fact dominated by that issue, and this year health care was hardly mentioned. Six throne speeches, six budgets, countless promises, millions and millions of dollars in advertising, a conversation, and now the Premier's plan for health care can be reduced to three simple words: don't get sick.

The Premier's attention span wasn't even long enough to follow through, and he created a terrible mess for British Columbians — hallway medicine, code purples, failed privatization schemes, administrative chaos. Now he and his government are walking away.

We'll also remember that last fall the Premier promised action on poverty and homelessness. A few months later, in the throne speech, this crisis only gets a passing mention. It's a crisis that has reached alarming proportions under this government's leadership, a crisis that is tearing at the hearts of our communities, that is overwhelming our capacity to cope with too few resources and no support from this government.

It's a crisis that is getting international attention. A recent article in The Economist warned that the crisis is disfiguring Vancouver's international reputation. It told the world about statistics that have become depressingly familiar to people here at home. In the past three years the number of homeless has doubled. On any given night 1,800 citizens are living on Vancouver streets. More than 40,000 people are at risk of being homeless, and there are more than 10,000 people on B.C.'s housing wait-list.

The Economist could have mentioned, but didn't, the fact that B.C. now has, once again, the highest child poverty rate in this country. We also have the fastest-growing gap between the rich and the poor of any province.

There's only one way to describe this record. It is shameful, in a province like British Columbia, to see these statistics. In a province as rich as ours it's inexcusable, and the responsibility lies at the Premier's feet. The Premier deliberately chose to make the most vulnerable among us bear the heaviest price for his agenda.

Today every British Columbian is living with the consequences. Sadly, homelessness, child poverty and the growing income gap were yesterday's problem for the Premier — a political flavour of the week that captured the government's attention for one brief, fleeting moment and now takes a back seat.

Let me say that I appreciate that throne speeches are by their very nature longer on rhetoric than they are on specifics and that the Premier's rhetoric about change, shaping the future and what kind of society we are becoming is very well-crafted and very high-minded. I agree that in a world buffeted by change, governments need to act now to secure our future. But to meet the challenges the throne speech sets out requires a new approach, a different attitude and a renewed agenda.

This Premier and this government blow with the political wind. Their agenda is not driven by the needs of tomorrow but by the headlines of today. The history of their throne speech promises is a testament to that. One wonders if climate change and the environment will get any mention in next year's throne speech.

Perhaps by then the child care crisis brought on by this government's cuts will become so acute that lightning will strike, and the Premier will actually announce that child care is his next priority.

Maybe, just maybe, it will be student debts and the skills shortage. Possibly the Premier will wake up to the pine beetle crisis. Perhaps homelessness and poverty will have tripled by then, and the Premier will announce that he's going to tackle poverty. Perhaps public safety will top the agenda, or maybe he might just go back to making health care promises that he has no intention of keeping.

Whatever issue catches the Premier's attention next year is really beside the point because the throne speech guessing game does nothing to meet the challenges that we all face. What British Columbians need to succeed is a sustained agenda that actually invests in the most important commodity we possess: our people, our communities and our families.

We need to work in partnership with other governments — municipal and first nations — to achieve those goals. We need to address two sides of the same coin: social inclusion and economic growth. In our province every family, every child and every citizen deserves opportunities — opportunities to pursue their dreams, opportunities to share in the wealth of our province.

That means making life more affordable for average families. It means reducing financial barriers to post-secondary education. It means providing school districts with more than a new name but the resources to actually do their job. It means actually standing up and fighting for universal child care that this Premier helped the Prime Minister scrap in our country. And yes, it means an honest accounting of what families are being asked to pay for the Olympics. It means an end to failed health care privatization schemes that force patients to pay cash for care.

A renewed agenda for British Columbia must focus on those families who struggle every day to balance life and work, to educate their children, to care for their parents and to save for their future. Their need must always guide our work in every throne speech and in every budget, not as a short-term political strategy but as a sustained social and economic plan for B.C.'s future. Under my leadership, New Democrats will provide that alternative to British Columbians.

We provided a climate change plan with established and achievable targets. We provided a plan to tackle homelessness with new investments in affordable housing. We provided a plan to renew public health care, to invest in our children and to keep the economy going.

Over the last six years B.C. has become a more divided society — between the rich and the struggling middle class, old and young, rural and urban. The fundamental question is how we're going to bridge these divides and bring our province together in common purpose. This throne speech was silent on that question.

I know we can do better. I know we can repair that divide and build a sense of community and mutual responsibility shared by every British Columbian. I know that you can govern for the many, not the few. I know that we can deliver lean, smart government that is caring, prudent, accountable, and that includes everyone in the province's journey. That was missing from the throne speech, and we will stand up for those issues every single day.

Hon. B. Penner: What a wonderful time to live in British Columbia, where we have a Premier who's optimistic. He's got vision, he's bold, and he takes action. There could hardly be a more stark contrast between what we see on this side of the House and what we just heard from the Leader of the Opposition. People sometimes ask me: "What is it that the letters 'NDP' stand for?"

Hon. B. Penner: Today we saw what those three letters "NDP" stand for, as demonstrated by the Leader of the Opposition: natter, dither and procrastinate — totally negative about the future of British Columbia. In contrast to the vision that we saw in the throne speech and the progress this province has made over the last five or six years under the leadership of our Premier, we just saw a very weak display of leadership.

She talks about a plan that she claims that their party put together, but it was only a couple of weeks ago when she held a news conference in her office and admitted they had no plan to address climate change, and it would take them two and a half years to put something together. Imagine the amazement of the press gallery when they were summoned only a week later and notified that the Leader of the Opposition had suddenly decided she was going to put out a climate change plan after being rightly criticized for saying it would take her another two and a half years to get around to it.

That news conference, unfortunately, did have to be postponed, but that indicates how that opposition party operates. They have every right to be embarrassed, particularly in light of the comment from the member for Nelson-Creston. I think he summed it up very well: that frankly, they have no idea what to do about climate change and its implications for socialist principles.

That was a very revealing comment, and clearly that MLA doesn't have much confidence in the leadership of his party for him to say that. The performance we've seen here today and over the last couple of weeks from the leader gives rise to a good reason for that person to feel that way.

That quote, though, indicates a few interesting things about how the party called the NDP operates. Their primary concern, according to that letter, isn't

about the impact of climate change on fish, rivers, oceans, ice packs, glaciers, snowpacks, or even future generations, children or families today, or even our economy. It's about the impact on socialist principles. That was what his concern was: that his party hadn't quite got their head around climate change and its impact on socialist principles. I don't think British Columbians are really hung up on socialist principles, and thank goodness for that.

Over the last five or six years we've gone from being a province where there was a state of decline during the 1990s — where people were leaving en masse from British Columbia, we had net out-migration from this province, we were losing investment, losing jobs, and frankly, losing confidence in the future — to today, where we have the strongest economy in western Canada or are certainly on par with Alberta that way.

We created more jobs last month than any other province in the country. We have record-low levels of unemployment, and people are moving back to British Columbia again. People are voting with their feet. In the '90s under the NDP, during the decade of decline, they were leaving en masse to find hope and opportunity, and today they're coming back.

We get some more insight into the NDP's version of dealing with climate change when we look back to what another member had to say. The member for Cariboo North just last fall was quoted, on November 9, in the Williams Lake Tribune. He said: "Frankly, we have to question the perpetual growth model."

That tells you that the NDP's approach to dealing with climate change is to freeze the economy, to slow it down. Frankly, I'll give them some credit. They did try to slow the economy in the 1990s, and they succeeded. Our unemployment rate went up. People left the province, as I mentioned. Young people lost hope and opportunity in this province.

Despite all of that and during a time when the debt doubled and our taxes went up to record-high levels and were amongst the highest in North America, guess what happened. According to their socialist principles or theories, you would have thought that by strangling the economy the way they did, they would have dealt with greenhouse gas emissions — that they would have somehow slowed them down.

In fact, during that dismal decade of the 1990s greenhouse gases went up by 24 percent under the NDP. And that was at a time when they succeeded in putting our economy on its back. The difference couldn't be more stark between this side of the House and that side.

You have to feel a little bit sorry for the opposition, because clearly, they're still trying to get their research right. When the Leader of the Opposition did get around to trying to cobble something together — which she presented as a two-page climate change plan after saying it would take her two and a half years to do it and then did it in a week or so — they got their facts wrong, and maybe no surprise.

They alleged that the fastest three-year growth of greenhouse gas emissions occurred under this government. Factually incorrect. In fact, the fastest three-year growth rate was 16 percent in terms of greenhouse gas–emission increases. That occurred between 1993 and 1996.

They said that the single biggest increase in one year occurred under this government. No wonder people can't believe anything the NDP says. They get their facts wrong all the time. That single biggest increase occurred under the NDP. It was almost 8 percent, and that took place in 1995.

In one year alone greenhouse gas emissions in British Columbia rose by almost 8 percent. At a time when they were doing everything possible to cripple our economy with higher taxes, more red tape, more regulations, more government control of everything that happens, still greenhouse gas emissions went up in this province at a rate we haven't seen since. So it's a little bit tough to take from the opposition leader — to try and pretend that somehow their party has an idea what's going on, when her own MLAs are writing to anybody who will listen that they don't have a clue what to do with climate change or its impact or implications for socialist principles.

Madam Speaker, what you heard in the throne speech was visionary. What you heard was determination. Just like in the past, when our Premier has said, "We're going to balance the budget," we did it. "We're going to lower taxes." We did it. "We're going to get the economy going." We did it. "We're going to start a new relationship with first nations." We did it.

It's little surprise, then, that given that track record and, I think, the very positive comments that you heard in the Speech from the Throne…. Even the NDP's Environment critic saluted the throne speech in his comments. In fact, only a few hours ago on CBC radio he made some comments, saying that people have every right to be delighted that this government has seen the wisdom of pursuing targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

Just last night on CKNW he told CKNW's listeners that it is a very aggressive plan and that if it's achieved, it will be great. I'm here to tell you that we're going to work night and day — the Premier's going to work night and day, and every member of the B.C. Liberal caucus is going to work night and day — with industry and everyone else to get the job done.

It's not just the opposition Environment critic who is saying that this is an aggressive, bold and assertive plan. There are other people weighing in on this. I know that today the B.C. Federation of Labour put out a news release. Right in their first sentence or so, I think, they say that they acknowledge that this is important and that it's a positive thing we did in terms of the acknowledging the importance of dealing with climate change.

I understand today that one of the lead authors of the United Nations report on climate change had some words to say about the Speech from the Throne yesterday.

Prof. Andrew Weaver from the University of Victoria, one of the people that contributed to the IPCC report a few weeks ago and the summary that was released, says: "It is the most progressive plan that I have seen anywhere in North America, for a start, and one of the best in the world. This is the way to go. This is great leadership. It is really super."

We are taking action. We are dealing with climate change. We are not just talking the talk. We are walking the walk. If you take a look at the measures we have put in place since we were elected in 2001 — all kinds of initiatives, including the highest portfolio standard for entering new electricity in terms of renewables; in terms of $2,000 tax credits to encourage people to buy hybrid vehicles; in terms of requiring entirely hybrid vehicles starting this year for the B.C. government fleet, which no other jurisdiction, state or province in North America is doing — we are showing leadership.

As you heard in the Speech from the Throne, it's a big challenge. It's going to take more action, and we're committed to delivering on it. We are going to not just talk the talk. We have already been walking the walk. That stands, again, in stark contrast to the NDP side of the House, where they prefer to natter, dither and procrastinate.

The classic example is that while they tell us, "Why don't you develop more green sources of energy…?" By the way, since 2001, I think about 40 or so different projects have been approved and have actually gotten built that are providing clean, zero-emission, 100-percent renewable electricity — such as run-of-the-river projects. We have approved about 350 megawatts of wind power generation over the last year or so, and I understand there may be more to come.

While all that has been taking place, the members of the opposition say: "But not in our back yard or somebody else's back yard. Climate change is important, but it's not that important that we should approve a project — even if it has gone through Canadian Environmental Assessment Act review, even though it has gone through all the provincial assessments and even though the local first nation, which claims the traditional territory upon which it would be built is theirs, has come out and said: 'We want that project to go ahead, because we believe it respects the land base, we believe it provides opportunities for our young people, and we think it's good for everybody in the province.'"

Despite that, that NDP opposition is so desperate for a couple of votes that they're willing to side with a few people who want to stand in the way of that kind of progress, that kind of help for local first nations. They're working against those kinds of projects.

Guess what. Because of their dithering, their negativity, their nattering in the 1990s, B.C. became a net importer of electricity. So if we don't get on with developing clean, new, renewable sources of electricity in British Columbia, we are forced to import more electricity from outside the province.

Guess what is generating that electricity from outside the province. Any guesses? It's coming from Alberta, and it's coming from the United States of America. Of the electricity generated in the United States of America, 60 percent comes from very old, coal-fired technology.

By standing here and fighting against green power projects that have the support of first nations, that have passed every environmental assessment thrown at them, they are encouraging the importing and the production of more dirty, coal-fired power generation. That is shameful. Really, that is the difference between this side of the House and that side of the House.

While they talk the talk, we're walking the walk. We're doing what it takes to get the job done, to get clean, renewable projects built in this province, bringing in hundreds of millions — billions — of dollars of new investment, creating jobs in rural communities across the province and supporting local first nations who have said that they want these projects to go ahead.

How do you build a respectful relationship with first nations when you say: "We know you want this project to go ahead. We know that your young people have high rates of unemployment. We know that in the 1990s we drove other young people out of the province because of the unemployment rate here. But despite all that, we're going to say no to this project — maybe on ideological grounds, because after all, jeez, we don't like the private sector." Heaven help us.

Remember those socialist principles that we heard about earlier? That seems to be the preoccupation of that side of the House — rather than making meaningful differences for individual people's lives while actually helping solve not just a British Columbia problem about helping keep our lights on and keeping our economy going but a global problem by encouraging renewable electricity generation that does not contribute to global warming. That's called walking the walk.

Yes, we'll take criticism. Anytime you're showing leadership — you're being bold and decisive — there's going to be someone that says: "Wait a minute. I think maybe I like the status quo. Can't we just wait? Can't we just study? Maybe we can set up a committee, and maybe we'll just do something different." After all, being bold can sometimes be a little bit scary.

That seems to be the NDP's approach. That's why they're opposed to the Ashlu Creek small hydro project, something that, frankly, even Dan Miller, when he was a member of this Legislature — he did some work when he was the minister responsible for that area of government — identified as one of the top opportunities for new electricity generation in the province. After a report that he commissioned, that put that right near the top of the list of the next best available source of electricity for British Columbia.

Too bad he can't talk some sense into that side of the House, because you know what? We need to move forward in British Columbia. We've got big challenges. It's true that our greenhouse gas–emission reduction targets, which are even more aggressive than those set by the state of California, are going to take a lot of

work to get done. But it doesn't help at all, to accomplish that goal, to have the NDP opposition, out of desperation to try and get a few votes from somebody, say: "We'll side with you if you back us, because we think your particular vote is better than what's good for the first nations, good for our economy, good for our environment and what sets the standard for the rest of the world to follow."

There are other projects in the province too. And unfortunately, the opposition has been opposed to those.

The Cascade heritage hydro project in the West Kootenays. The member for Nelson-Creston, who admitted that his party has no clue about what to do about climate change, proves that he himself doesn't quite get it when he's actively opposed to that project, also many years under review and study. It has been tweaked many times to try and address the concerns of local residents.

That has gone through an extensive Canadian Environmental Assessment Act review as well. It has gone through a B.C. environmental assessment office review. Guess what. It passed with flying colours.

More than that. That project has a letter of support from the Washington State Department of Ecology, because the water from that project, of course, goes right across the border. Well, you know what? What would they stand to gain from this project? Nothing. They don't stand to generate jobs or taxes for this project. Yet their Department of Ecology, after looking at that project, says they are satisfied that it will not have a negative impact on fish.

In fact, if anything, there's an opportunity with that project to actually decrease the amount of compressed gaseous oxygen in the water, which is a beneficial thing for fish. So, if anything, there can be a beneficial result for the fish, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

In the face of all that — in the face of our need to generate more electricity in a responsible way and to hopefully not send money from British Columbia to the United States to purchase coal-fired electricity generation, where they can then generate jobs and taxes in addition to greenhouse gas emissions — what does the NDP say? "Don't do it."

Better off, I guess, to import that electricity from a dirty source of power, sending our money south, than to have that money come here and create jobs and produce electricity without contributing to climate change, without contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. No wonder the member for Nelson-Creston says they don't have a clue what to do about climate change. They prove it every day by their internal inconsistencies.

We've all got a big job to do in British Columbia to get on with this, but we're not going to get there by simply trying to pander to a few votes by playing up the NIMBY card when projects have passed environmental assessments, have the support of first nations and provide an economic benefit to British Columbia.

Is it simply ideology that's driving them to this position? One is tempted to think so. Out of their instilled hostility to the private sector the idea of investment and jobs somehow coming from the private sector here to British Columbia is something they just can't fathom. Whether they are conscious of that attitude or not, it is displayed in their actions and their words, and it gave us the result that happened in the 1990s.

The 1990s didn't happen just by accident. Maybe they didn't really intend for it to get as bad as it did, but they intended the specific actions that they took. Perhaps they didn't realize what the consequences would be, but the consequences were very real nevertheless, and they were entirely unacceptable.

Let us not go back there. Let us not let our ideological bias against private sector investment make us turn our back against people who come up with bright ideas that are good for the economy and good for the environment. That's my challenge to them and my challenge to the leader of the NDP.

If she wants to start walking the walk instead of just talking the talk, tell her Environment critic to back off the Ashlu Creek small hydro project. Tell the member for Nelson-Creston to back off the Cascade heritage hydro project. Tell the member from the West Kootenays to lay off and to support a project that will bring tax dollars to her community, bring jobs to her community, bring electricity to the province and not contribute to climate change.

There are many other things you can say about the comments from the various people that are coming in, but I just want to put this comment on the record. This is from Guy Dauncey, the president of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association. Last night he also told CKNW listeners what he thought of the NDP's plan.

Here's what he had to say about what we just heard from the Leader of the Opposition: "You can't put an immediate cap on emissions, because every car is producing emissions, and you can't legislate an immediate cap. It just can't be done because people are moving to B.C." That's true. We've turned that around. Under the NDP they were leaving, but they're now coming back. "Our population is growing, and we're buying new appliances. You've got to phase this stuff. It's meaningless to put an immediate cap on it, because you'd break it within a day."

The NDP is asking us to do something meaningless. We're not interested in that. We're interested in dealing with this problem. It's a global problem. It's going to take concerted global effort, but there's no excuse for us to wait.

We think we have an opportunity to show leadership and moral courage and to develop technologies and know-how within our province to address our own challenges here and then to export that know-how, that technology and that expertise to other parts of the world that may come a little later to the game than us

in terms of acknowledging that they have to do something. By getting in first, we have the opportunity to develop this technology, sell it to other countries and help them help us by reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the globe.

I just go back again to the comment from Professor Weaver. This is what he has to say: "They haven't said anything that's not doable. I think they're all doable. I mean, they didn't make this up overnight." They didn't ban coal burning, which I understand some members of the opposition would like to see. Nobody has ever said, "Ban coal burning," according to Professor Weaver, the climatologist.

"What we're saying is that if you're going to do it, you've got to capture the carbon. There are technologies being developed to sequester the carbon in geological reserves. That's fine. That's good policy. I'm totally supportive of this."

What we hear from the NDP is: "Let's not be bold. Let's not challenge people to try new technology. Let's just step back, and maybe somebody else can do it. Maybe there's a risk involved about trying."

We're all about trying. We're about working hard. We're about having confidence in British Columbians. There are a lot of bright people in this province, and there are a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest and across the continent of North America and around the world who are willing to help us, I believe, in our objective of developing new technologies to help solve problems around the world. That's what this side believes in, and I'm really sad that they don't.

I'll just quote some more from this article, which I understand appeared on the Times Colonist website today: "Some people try to dismiss the issue as one of a kind of left-wing attempt to undermine capitalism, etc. It's never been about that. It's about doing the right thing, based on what the science has been saying, and the right thing involves the marketplace, and it involves solutions, and it involves marketing solutions to a world where every person in the world is a consumer of energy."

That is basically the idea that is behind the throne speech. We believe in the marketplace. We believe that it has to have direction from the government. We have to set the right signals, set the right playing field, and then it's amazing what that marketplace can do. It's amazing what technology can come forward.

You know, I can't really think of a whole lot of technological breakthroughs coming through from North Korea. It's just not happening. What do you know about Cuba? What have they really provided in terms of technological advances? Or any other socialist country?

What is it about socialism that some people find so compelling? It's hard to think of it. It takes creative individuals, it takes know-how, and it takes people who have determination, foresight and the willingness to go pursue an idea to get something different to happen.

If anything, what I've heard from the opposition over the last couple of years is this incredible sense of status quo. They like to consider themselves a progressive party. Yet if anything, they're an extremely conservative party in the sense that they don't really want to try something new.

"Can't we just hold to the ideas we had of the past or the socialist principles we read about out of some kind of socialist textbook years ago? If we just cling to that hard enough, maybe some socialist utopia will emerge out of the mist, although it never has happened before in the history of mankind. Maybe if we just hope and pray long enough, somehow, somehow Karl Marx will save the day."

I'm here to tell you that that hasn't worked. We saw the results in British Columbia in the 1990s, and we're not going back. The NDP might prefer to natter, to dither, to procrastinate, but this side of the House, with our Premier and the courage of his convictions, is going to show leadership. It's already being recognized around North America.

I understand that yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger issued a statement congratulating the province for our commitment and the efforts we're making. You're going to hear a lot more, because we are serious about this commitment. We are embarking on some very ambitious goals for the province.

Just like when the Premier said, "We're going to balance the budget," we balanced it. "Cut taxes." We cut taxes. "We're going to reduce unemployment." We reduced unemployment to the lowest level on record. "Start a new relationship with first nations." Just like he said those things and we did those things together, we're going to tackle climate change. We're going to show leadership, and we're going to be a beacon of hope to the world.

We won't get there on our own. We're going to work with our partners in the United States — unlike the previous government, which wanted to pick fights, blockade ferries in Alaska, insult the Governor of Washington State. We're going to work proactively. Our Premier knows you get a lot more done working together than you do by poking people in the eye.

That's why people like Governor Schwarzenegger are looking forward to coming to British Columbia, why they're willing to work with our Premier when they weren't willing to work with the previous government. We know that we need to work together to combat big problems.

Global warming is a big problem, and that simple, reactionary approach of the NDP to cave in to some NIMBY interests or ideological concerns because of their interest in socialist principles is not going to do it. We have to think bigger than that. We have to think bolder than that. And if we do, we can get the job done.

Finally, just to note one other commentator who I got to hear on the radio yesterday. Mr. David Suzuki said: "Maybe I'm just being Pollyanna, but I think this man" — referring to the Premier — "is capable of making this kind of shift, and I have great hopes for it."

Compare that kind of support for the vision — the belief in the vision, the determination, the drive, the know-how that people are expressing in Premier Campbell — with the complete lack of leadership we're seeing from the NDP, where individual members of the caucus are criticizing her leadership by saying she doesn't know what they're doing on climate change. Or they're going off and acting as free agents, opposing green power projects, making her look bad.

You have to feel sorry for a leader who has that little support from her own caucus, but conversely, maybe she has to earn that support from her own caucus. I'll let them sort that out.

I know, from the rest of British Columbia's perspective, that they're looking for bold leadership. They're looking for a united team. They're looking for people who can get the job done, and where they're going to find it is on this side of the House — not with the negative, nattering, pathetic NDP, who can't get anything done.

L. Krog: I must compliment the Minister of Environment. That is the finest Oscar-winning performance I have seen in this House in a very long time. I think that towards the end of his own remarks he actually believed what he was saying.

What an astonishing display. What an absolutely astonishing display of the conversion on the road to Damascus once again. The government that last year didn't even want to talk about this issue has now gone green. My goodness, it's been a fabulous day here in the Legislature listening to them.

It occurs to me that if he had managed to climb the greasy pole of politics earlier in his career, there wouldn't have been the name Minister of Environment for him to have. When this government came into power, they had even abandoned the term Minister of Environment. This is the commitment of this government to the environment: it doesn't exist, except when there was a dramatic shift in political polling.

Suddenly the environment and global warming got to the top of the political agenda. Then we saw this government, in its wisdom, realize that perhaps its misguided policies, its complete ignorance of this issue…. This important, compelling issue that the opposition has been talking about for years suddenly became so important that this government decided it should ascend to the top of their political agenda. It's a remarkable conversion.

The throne speech represents an excellent political response to a changing view in society. For those of the listening audience in British Columbia who don't understand what the throne speech is all about, it may be delivered most elegantly and eloquently by the Lieutenant-Governor, but in fact it is the words of the government. It is the government outlining its program and its platform.

Even in the body of the throne speech itself these are the words they use: "The challenge of reversing global warming is more difficult today than it was in 1992 at the Rio summit and more dire than it was in 1997 in Kyoto." And a little further on: "The science is clear. It leaves no room for procrastination. Global warming is real."

My question to the government is: so where were their heads in 1992 and 1997, when all the nations of the world agreed it was a real problem?

Where was the mayor of Vancouver in those days? Was he concerned about it? Where was the Liberal Party? Were they concerned about it?

They come into office in 2001, they eliminate the Ministry of Environment, and they pretend now in 2007, when all the other nations of the world a decade and a half ago understood this was a problem, that it is the major issue and that the science is clear. The science was clear in 1992. The science was clear in 1997.

In 2001 British Columbia's greenhouse gas emissions were trending downward. The fact is that when the NDP were in government, we were dealing with the issue. What's happened since? Greenhouse gas emissions since 2001 in this province have skyrocketed. They have skyrocketed.

During this time, when we've seen glaciers disappearing…. Oh, and the throne speech does talk about that too. "If we fail to act aggressively and shoulder our responsibility, we know what our children can expect — shrinking glaciers and snowpacks, drying lakes and streams, and changes in the ocean's chemistry."

They've been in government for six years. Everybody of any intelligence has been talking about those things. I have to ask myself: why now? Why now in 2007 do they suddenly discover the environment? They discover it because it's politically expedient. It is the most insincere approach to public office.

Do they think the people of British Columbia are so gullible that they will accept that this is a sincere commitment, a sincere change of policy, a sincere recognition of the most important issue facing the planet today? Do they think the voters of British Columbia are that dumb?

I don't think they're that dumb. I think they will see this for exactly what it is: political expediency of the worst kind — a shameful, shameful withdrawal from their own values and views about this — to come before this House in this time and to now pretend that they are actually sincerely interested in climate change.

It's not surprising that Governor Schwarzenegger, an ex-actor, has been mentioned so often in this last day in the House — a great actor who, like this government, has suddenly discovered that if you really work hard at your role, you might actually convince people you're not acting.

But I don't want to spend my whole speech talking about the environment because we're going to hear an awful lot from this government, and I emphasize we are going to hear an awful lot from this government. The issue for British Columbians will be: in the next couple of years in the lead-up to the provincial election, will they actually see concrete action, or will we simply continue to talk about the goal for 2012, for 2016 or for 2020? That's where the proof will be in the pudding.

It's amazing to me that yesterday, notwithstanding that hundreds of British Columbians were on the lawns of the Legislature protesting the lack of accessible, affordable, quality child care in this province, the throne speech mentioned it nowhere — nothing, nada, not a word.

Yet we hear from industry and business across the province, from employers in every corner of British Columbia, that they can't get workers. They can't get workers. I wonder if it's ever occurred to the government that they can't get workers because the workers who are willing to work can't get accessible, affordable, quality child care for their children so that they can go into the workforce and participate fully in British Columbia's life. I wonder if that thought has ever crossed the government's mind.

I wonder if the government has ever given any thought to the issues around education. Last night and by the close of tomorrow night, I will have attended two meetings around school closures in my constituency — two schools, one of which is the heart of the community of South Wellington. A school has existed there for a very long time — the heart of the community. The fact is this government refuses to fund public education fully to ensure that British Columbia's children get adequate education. They refuse to provide the kind of support that families need in order to ensure that those children can get adequate education.

At a time when we should be talking more about improving education, this government is telling school boards to look at all their capital plans and try and trim. The only real hint we've got about future government policy in the throne speech is the message that we're going to be closing more schools. It's fairly clear. The remark is that a new process will be put in place "to ensure schools or school lands are used for their highest and best use for maximum public benefit."

You know what? That's a good idea. That's a very good idea — if, of course, there is no longer a valid and appropriate use for that school to sustain communities. Everyone in this House knows that if you take a school out of a small community, you kill that community. No young families are going to move there to revitalize the population. No young families are going to locate there if they can't get adequate schools for their children or any schools. They're not going to move there, and they're certainly not going to participate in the workforce if they can't find adequate child care.

On the theme of education, how many published articles in the last year around the issue of private colleges? How many problems around, particularly, foreign students being ripped off by British Columbia private colleges? How many articles? And what is the government's response in the throne speech? Not one word. Not an acknowledgment. I would have thought the government might even have considered apologizing.

On one hand, we are talking about the Pacific gateway, and at the same time, students from many of those nations with whom we expect to do business and develop trade relationships are sending their students here in good faith to have them ripped off. But again, nothing in the throne speech about that.

At the same time, the government talks about its incredible new-found commitment to the environment. They brag about the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement. Indeed, the member for Nanaimo-Parksville referred to it as an economic union. So when we start to match the standards around environment, for instance, or around regulation of industry and automobiles and things that are important with respect to climate change in British Columbia, are we going to go down to somebody else's standards eventually? Is that what TILMA's all about?

I suspect that's an issue the government is going to have to figure out fairly soon and address very quickly when they discover that, in fact, we may well be involved with TILMA in a race to the bottom. But this government doesn't want to debate TILMA. This government doesn't want to put TILMA before the Legislature. This government refuses to allow public debate on that issue. This government instead negotiates a treaty in secret with the province of Alberta and then refuses to put it before this Legislature, before the duly elected representatives of the people who should have their full opportunity to criticize, scrutinize and pass judgment on the government's negotiations carried out in secret.

L. Krog: The member for one of the Kelowna ridings has just asked: what am I for? I am for an honest, open government. I am for democracy. I am for a caring society in which the most vulnerable are taken care of, and I'm glad the minister has decided to give me an opening into the next portion of my remarks.

The government has been in power for six years. We hear constantly about the prosperity in British Columbia. We hear how wonderful things are. Okay. We've heard how wonderful things are.

Let's talk about a little report, The Cost of Eating in B.C., put out by the Dietitians of Canada. It says here — you know, it's remarkable — that notwithstanding all of this good news, B.C. has the highest child poverty

rate in Canada; that welfare rates — not the numbers on welfare — have dropped to their lowest level since the 1980s; that 52 percent of food bank recipients are on social assistance; that the minimum wage in this province is inadequate to provide a single person working full-time a yearly income above the poverty line in most of British Columbia.

I would have thought this government, instead of pounding their desks constantly and cheering themselves on, might actually in this throne speech have been moved to deal with the genuine and serious issues of poverty and deprivation in which so many of our fellow citizens exist.

In 2004 the B.C. poverty rate for children was 23.5 percent. That was well above the national child poverty rate of 17.7 percent. The rate in 2002 was 24.2 percent. In 2003 it was 23.9 percent. The fact is the closest province to us in terms of child poverty in 2004 before taxes was Newfoundland and Labrador — the poor sister of Confederation. British Columbia is ahead of Newfoundland and Labrador in child poverty rates.

It is astonishing to me that in the midst of such prosperity, in the midst of such arrogance on this government's behalf about how well it manages the economy — as if somehow they could manage the economy — that they would not in this throne speech have announced they were finally going to listen to the conscience they should have and raise not only shelter rates but assistance rates; that they would not, in fact, raise the minimum wage so that at least those in receipt of the minimum wage throughout this province could say that they were at least living above the poverty line. I would have thought that might have been forthcoming from this government, but I didn't hear that in the throne speech either.

The fact is that we now have in this province a core of poverty and deprivation that we have never seen in the history of British Columbia. In the midst of incredible surpluses due to rising resource revenues and low unemployment, in the midst of all of that prosperity, do we hear this government saying that now is the time to actually lift out of the grinding poverty in which those people exist, that now is the time to lift them out of that poverty? No — not a word, nothing. Not a word in the throne speech.

L. Krog: My colleague and friend, the member for Nelson-Creston says: "Shame." That is exactly what this government should feel: shame.

It is one thing in a tough economy with unemployment high and resource prices low….

L. Krog: Oh, my — bad government, yes. I'm delighted to hear the member, and when he wishes to speak, he'll have his turn.

It is one thing in those times to say: "Well, we can't afford it," or "We've got to put it off," but this…. Here we are….

L. Krog: Here we are in 2007, several budgetary surpluses in a row, and nothing is forthcoming. The fact is that if you believe in the values that motivated the founding of my political party at least — and indeed the founding of the Social Credit Party, for that matter — then your compassion should move you to do something, then your sense of human decency should move you to do something.

The member for Nanaimo-Parksville spoke earlier today, and he talked about how things are doing well in Nanaimo and things are great. You know something? In the north end things are pretty good — lots of housing developments. That's where people with money tend to live. But my constituency, in Nanaimo itself, is the third-poorest constituency in the province. The member for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant enjoys the rather sad privilege of representing the poorest constituency in British Columbia.

I'm just wondering if the member for Nanaimo-Parksville actually ever drives through my constituency, through downtown Nanaimo. He can drive there early in the morning. He can see people sleeping in the streets there. He can observe the homeless.

I suspect that he probably, inside the caucus of the government, actually raises these issues. I suspect a number of the caucus members on the government side must raise these issues. They must represent constituencies where there are homeless people, because homeless people exist in every constituency in this province now in greater numbers than they've ever existed before in the history of British Columbia, and this government has to take responsibility at long last for eliminating the problems of poverty and homelessness that exist.

I suspect that somehow it may get raised, but nothing happens because it isn't high enough on the public agenda. It's not like climate change, which the polling tells us has become an important issue, and suddenly, that's the theme of the throne speech.

I'll guarantee this. If prior to next year's throne speech the polling tells us that the single most important issue facing British Columbians is poverty, I'll guarantee that we'll have a throne speech filled with empty promises just as this one is filled with empty promises — promising to eliminate child poverty, promising to put British Columbia at the top of the list. I guarantee that that, in fact, will happen.

I only hope that the public of British Columbia will give consideration…. Those of us who are comfortable, and all of us who are in this chamber are comfortable…. I hope that the people of British Columbia, when they

get that phone call at night, will answer it and tell that person asking all those funny questions: "Yes, the most important issue to me is the homeless people who live in the streets of my downtown."

Deputy Speaker: Member, you're not allowed to make comment unless you're in your seat.

L. Krog: The throne speech itself says that the challenges of housing, homelessness, addictions and mental health require us to rethink the actions of a generation. The failed approaches of the past that require more money but deliver no improvement are also not acceptable. New approaches are needed.

It's a wonderful new approach. We're going to download it to the municipalities. It's their fault. We're going to make changes. We're going to require that municipal governments with a 25,000-or-greater population identify and zone appropriate sites for supportive housing and treatment facilities. That's great news.

Unfortunately, in the rest of the throne speech, and I looked through it very carefully before making my remarks today, I didn't see a commitment from the government for funding for that housing or to actually build these treatment facilities for persons with mental illnesses and addictions. So we're going to get the municipal governments to zone the land, and that will clear their conscience. They'll have done their bit, but we're not going to actually provide any funding.

This is the best part. We're going to ask municipal governments to…. I'll read it: "We will encourage local government to exempt small-unit, supportive housing projects from development cost charge and levies." Oh, that is so touching. What incredible hypocrisy. We're going to tell municipal governments that they've got to look after the problem.

You know, in the public's eyes, this problem started under the federal Liberal government in the '90s when they started to make cuts and to download on to the provinces. We're going to have a little history lesson today, my friends. In this province the NDP government swallowed that cut and continued to provide services at the same level, notwithstanding what the federal Liberals had done. That's what good government does. It doesn't quit looking after those that it has responsibility for simply because it gets downloaded.

Now this government, in the midst of this incredible prosperity, is actually turning to municipal governments and trying to download, even though the coffers are flush. The Minister of Finance admits to have $2.15 billion surplus anticipated. Most people believe it's going to be $3 billion because, frankly, the evidence is that this government really can't add that well. Every year they somehow manage to come up with a bigger and bigger surplus.

That tells me two things. Either they're overtaxing us, or they're not delivering the programs that they're asking the revenue for. I'd like them to deliver the programs that are needed by the people of British Columbia. That's what I'd like to see.

In my constituency I'd like to see them deal with the issues of homelessness. I'd like them to deal with the wait-list for parents with children with disabilities at the Child Development Centre in Nanaimo. I've been told it can be a year or a year and a half. Do the members opposite not understand what a year means to a two-, three- or four-year-old child? Do they not appreciate what that means? That's a quarter or a third of that child's lifetime.

We are told we want to make British Columbia the most literate jurisdiction in the world, and yet we won't fund the most basic services to deal with children who, through no fault of their own, have significant learning problems or disabilities that require our help — notwithstanding how fat that surplus is.

I'd like them to deal with the shortage of beds for seniors in my community. I'd like them to address the public safety issues, and I see the Attorney General is listening carefully to my remarks. I'd like them to deal with the public safety issues in my community. I'd like them to provide the supports. I would like the Attorney General, through his ministry, to do what the chief judge of the Provincial Court has acknowledged and said openly in public on many occasions. As the people he talks to tell him: "Deal with the issue of housing and homelessness." It's at the root of most of our social problems.

But again, all we got in this throne speech…. Well, I don't want to repeat myself. We know what we got in this throne speech. We got a whole bunch of hot air, and we got no commitment whatsoever to deal with the real issues. People in my constituency are concerned about ferry rates. We're all just waiting for when the next little agreement runs out and the ferry rates go up.

My constituents are concerned about minimum wages. They're asking that the government does well, does the right thing. I must tell you, one of the busiest little enterprises in my community is the food bank. It's shocking. It is amazing to me how this government can stand back and not acknowledge this, how the members opposite can mock me. I don't mind being mocked. I'm a big boy. I wanted to get into this place. I'm happy to take a little flak from the members opposite, but I would really like them to go back into their caucus and sit down and figure out how they could un-harden their hearts and accept the fact that the hard-to-house in this province, that the poorest of the poor need the help of all of us. The "all of us" are here in this House.

The government has the majority. There is a surplus in place. I ask this government…. For the third time I've had an opportunity to speak to the Speech from the Throne, and I ask them for the third time — as I've asked them every time before — to do the right thing, to take that surplus, acknowledge the problem, deal with it, and stop giving the people of British

D. Jarvis: I'm wondering if the previous speaker was speaking…. He confused me. Most of the things he said are what we're doing and what they didn't do. Anyways, I'll tone it down a bit.

I rise today to speak to this 38th parliament on the throne speech, as I have countless times in the past. I represent a very vibrant and integral part, or historic piece of beautiful British Columbia. Two years ago I was honoured again for my fourth term to act as the representative for the people of North Vancouver–Seymour. I thank them for their continued support and trust.

It's on their faith and goodwill that I endeavour to continually build on the work of those MLAs immediately before me, such as Barrie Clark and Jack Davis, while fostering a dynamic and prosperous vision for the future of their grandchildren and my own.

For one and a half decades I have served my constituents — on both sides of this House, I might add. In the first decade I watched in opposition the then government, which was the NDP, take our burgeoning province and lead it into debt and disrepute.

Their revolving-door premierships — I guess it was about one every 2.5 months — led to a cascade of negative consequences for our province. The people of British Columbia finally took it upon themselves to set things right. I believe the vote was 75 for the government at this time here to two of the opposition. And they wonder why they were defeated. All they had to do was look back on their record.

I've been in this House, in this Legislature, a long time. I'm one of the longest here, and I've seen a lot of MLAs come and go. Although it's not becoming of me, I must say that this opposition is one of the most ineffective I've ever seen. I would say "worst," but that wouldn't be proper.

One could say that the disappointment of the past came to a head, as I said, in 2001. A new decade led to a sense of hope and renewal by the people of British Columbia. A momentous time of change had arrived, piloted by a strong leadership, innovation, vision and ultimately the desire of every British Columbian to realize the potential of this great province.

We are now more than halfway through our current decade, and the changes can be seen on every urban street, in every rural landscape and in every person's home, especially in their wallets. Look at their residential home assessments and how they've risen.

The quality of life here is unparalleled, and we seek to build upon this with the throne speech, which was given the other day — a great achievement for every person calling British Columbia home. A throne speech, in essence, is a blueprint that gives all parties involved a sense of direction and purpose. It also sets out a foundation of principles and values.

The prosperity and growth seen in British Columbia is a direct result of these blueprints. Prudent planning, sound economic policies, effective spending, accurate accounting and innovative social and legislative policies have been a hallmark of this government, of which I am pleased to be a member.

Under the direction of Premier Gordon Campbell this province has undergone a renovation of sorts. We have reformed government. We have strengthened education at all levels and protected the environment and agricultural land. We have increased health care funding. We encouraged sustainable economic growth. We've patronized sports and the arts and have entered into a new and historic relationship with the first nations.

This throne speech builds on this legacy. It also envisions an inheritance for future British Columbians that we can all be proud of as this strong economy continues to grow.

Six years after this government's inauguration British Columbia has moved up the ladder in comparison with other Canadian provinces, with unprecedented growth in the economy coupled with fiscal responsibility. We are back to our rightful place as a national leader.

This government has moved away from a reputation of disorganization and ineptitude by the previous government to become literally a model for other jurisdictions all over North America. The difficult decisions of the early years have multiplied into a harvest of assets for this province.

B.C. continues to be a national leader in job creation. In the last year alone more than 51,000 jobs have been created, and that ranks third in Canada, behind Alberta and Saskatchewan. I'm not quite sure how Saskatchewan got in there, but those are the actual facts.

Unemployment rates are among the lowest on record. As an example of the job creation, this past January we recorded nearly 32,000 new jobs, the second-highest monthly increase in 30 years. In fact, if you walk down any street or into any construction site, you are bound to see "Help wanted" signs at every turn.

There's never been a better time to be a wage earner. Last year real, average, personal disposable incomes grew by 2½ percent — one of the biggest jumps in two decades. More disposable income allows B.C. families to plan for their children's future, buy their first homes or simply save their money. When the economy is strong, our quality of life improves, leaving B.C. families with better education, stronger health care and greater security. In most instances, if you don't have a job, you don't want to work. In every field there's a labour shortage.

The issue of labour peace is a significant one for many. Job security and safe working conditions are very important to them, and the new negotiating framework laid out by the Minister of Finance has helped provide this important security for many public service employees. The province negotiated 139 collective agreements, covering 94 percent of the

public sector unions, and this includes the first provincewide settlement with B.C. teachers since provincial bargaining began.

Labour peace and stability are ensured to the year 2010 and beyond, thanks to the Finance Minister and her staff and thanks to a strong economy that made this possible. One of the effects of an economy overdrive is a shortage of labour, both skilled and unskilled. It is resulting in the need for more training to help prepare the people for the estimated one million openings that are expected in the province over the next 12 years. Our government is working hard to ensure that we will be able to meet those current and future needs.

As of December '06 there were 32,456 registered apprentices in British Columbia, and that has actually doubled the number of registered apprentices that we had in April of 2004 when the Industry Training Authority was first established. The Industry Training Authority is engaging young people to get them excited about their future careers. They have developed a new website, www.theskilledlife.com, which is designed to encourage kids to consider the trades as a profession.

Another way to get our young children and young adults interested in trades is through the ACE IT program, where students are given the opportunity to learn specific trade skills while earning their high school diplomas. Students then graduate from grade 12 not only with their Dogwood diploma but also with the first year of their apprenticeship already completed — a marvellous program, if I do say so.

In the '90s many British Columbians fled this province to seek opportunities elsewhere. However, the tide has turned, and last year we saw B.C. attract 4,800 people from other provinces to come here and work. But there's still more that we can do to encourage people to work in British Columbia. We have worked with the government of Alberta to establish a new agreement, which is called the Alberta–British Columbia Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement. The acronym for this is TILMA. With it we've created the second-largest economy in Canada — some 7.7 million people.

It's estimated that the accord will add $4.8 billion to our provinces' GDPs and create 78,000 jobs in B.C. alone. One of the things that's significant in this agreement is it will allow skilled workers more mobility so that workers will be able to move freely between two provinces and have their credentials and their skills recognized by the new province without having to go through additional training — again, another marvellous program put forward by this government.

Investment in B.C. continues at record levels. Gone is the plethora of red tape and anti-business sentiments which characterized much of the 1990s. Here to stay is a very business-friendly environment, where investment is encouraged and British Columbia communities will grow and prosper.

We now have the lowest unemployment ever — another sign of a strong economy — and a well-structured fiscal framework. This framework has resulted in Moody's Investors Service Inc. upgrading British Columbia's credit rating to a triple-A status as of last October, marking the first time since 1983 that B.C. has received the highest ranking from Moody's. This was the fifth upgrade from a major credit service since 2001. Now, you don't get this unless you are considered a fiscally responsible government, for sure.

Another major milestone is the softwood lumber agreement. Working with several levels of government and the industry as a whole, our government was able to secure improvements to the final agreement, which will lead to stability and certainty in the forest industry while maintaining the essential jobs in our communities.

In international trade, 10 percent of all B.C. wood exports and $1 billion in sales connect us directly to the Japanese markets. Only the U.S.A. is a larger market. Meanwhile, economic ties to Chinese markets are growing and strengthening, leading to a cross-cultural movement of people, goods and services that will benefit both our countries. One example is the Premier's launch of a new Chinese-language website in Shanghai promoting B.C. as a destination for tourism and education.

China's burgeoning market will surpass the U.S. probably in the next decade. Along with that and India, we are virtually in the middle of the world's fastest-expanding markets. We in B.C. have the closest ports to Asia in all of North America, and as these markets open, they will create greater wealth for all British Columbians.

The first of our government's five great goals focuses on the foundation of any civil society, and that is education. We seek to make B.C. the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction in all the continent. Education is the basis of B.C.'s prosperity. All facets of life are built upon and improved by the ability to read and write. So it is an essential ingredient in getting an education, finding employment and having an enriching, socially conscious life.

It is for these reasons that we have invested so heavily in education. Again, we can only do this with a strong economy. K-to-12 education funding is at its highest level ever. Per-pupil funding is approximately $7,207 per year — up $114 over last year and certainly higher than any time before.

Added to this is the investment in infrastructure, meaning new schools are being built and existing schools are being made safer. Since 2001 we've invested nearly $1 billion in K-to-12 facilities, including 26 new schools, 27 replacement schools, 140 additions to existing schools and 28 renovation projects. Now for grandparents like me, it is encouraging to see that our children and their children will have the necessary tools to follow their dreams.

I myself also sit on a special committee for literacy, and I've watched funding for literacy programs that has risen to record levels. Since 2001 the province has provided more than $92 million in literacy funding, including $15.6 million for public libraries, $4½ million for adult literacy and $10 million for Literacy Now.

While funding for public education is at its highest level ever, concerns were expressed over even classroom conditions. We addressed these concerns by adopting legislation establishing new class limits, accountability measures and requirements for consultation with parents and teachers. We promised, and we gave the parents more opportunity to be involved.

Since introducing this legislation last year, class sizes across this province are shrinking. In North Vancouver, for example, the number of classes with 30 students decreased by 45 percent this year.

At the post-secondary level we are continuing to expand seating and infrastructure. To date, 12,000 new post-secondary seats have been funded, and work is being done to create 25,000 more by 2010. At the same time, more than $1 billion has gone into capital expansion as we work to meet these commitments.

In the area of training and retaining nurses, we have added 2,500 new spaces since 2001. In the area of training and retaining nurses, we have added 2,500 new spaces since 2001. None were added during the '90s. It's a 62-percent increase. Since 2001 more than $146 million has gone towards nursing — the nursing recruitment, the nursing retention and education programs resulting in over 2,100 more nurses working in our system. In a time of world shortage for nurses, we believe that we are doing extremely well in this matter.

The same could be said for our doctors, as we train more of them than ever before. In fact, we have almost doubled the number of our first year doctor training spaces to 224. By 2009 nearly 900 medical students will be at various stages of training at any one time.

Our government has made record investments in the health care system in British Columbia. This has resulted in record levels of surgeries, decreased wait-lists and the availability of state-of-the-art technology, like the addition of a 64-slice CT scanner in my own hospital, Lions Gate, for example. Yet despite annual increases in the health care budget, the demographic pressures of our aging population combined with the high cost of new technologies and drugs are putting unbelievable, tremendous pressures on our health care system. This year we plan to spend $12.8 billion on health care in this province — an increase of $3.5 billion, or nearly 40 percent over the 2000-2001 era.

Even with this unparalleled funding increase, the system is still struggling to provide efficient care for British Columbians. That is why we launched this conversation on health that is so important. We know that all British Columbians value the quality of health care, and this conversation gives everyone a chance to be heard. It is important that we all take part in strengthening our health care system and working towards a goal of sustainability. We know that it is not about spending more money. It's about spending money better.

Just recently I held a public forum in my community of North Vancouver–Seymour to discuss health care issues for seniors. Over 85 people from all walks of life, age groups and vocations took part in a round-table discussion. For almost three hours seniors, concerned citizens and even HEU workers talked about what they see as the fundamental issues around health care. Each table came up with three specific problem areas and then put forward solutions for each one of them. In all, it was very good. I've even been asked now to put on several other ones in my riding.

Much like the citizens' assemblies, the conversation on health helps to connect ordinary citizens with issues that affect them, while giving them a voice and a mechanism to influence positive change. With an aging population, seniors issues are no longer their own. We must all come together to provide things like affordable housing, assisted-living units, affordable and accessible prescription drugs and even emotional support.

I got some figures just today saying that we have approximately, in my riding alone, a total of 1,291 residential and assisted-living beds. Not enough, but I sincerely believe that this government will be working on it and things will get better. In North Vancouver we have come together to provide seniors housing, and I think the private sector and the government sector will work together.

Mr. Speaker, I am noting the hour, and the members of the opposition are asking me to cut off.

D. Jarvis: I guess they're hungry. It reminds me of the time the member for Nelson-Creston adjourned the whole House to go down to have a cheese sandwich. Having said all that, I would like to….

D. Jarvis: Exactly. No, I was going to reserve the right to continue, but I want to take pity on most people. I will just move the adjournment of debate.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until ten o'clock tomorrow morning.

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