2011 Legislative Session: Third Session, 39th Parliament
HANSARD

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.

The printed version remains the official version.

official report of

Debates of the Legislative Assembly

(hansard)

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Morning Sitting

Volume 20, Number 9

[ Page 6455 ]

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011

The House met at 10:05 a.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Prayers.

Orders of the Day

Hon. B. Penner: I call continued debate in reply to the budget.

Budget Debate

(continued)

N. Simons: Good morning.

Mr. Speaker: Good morning.

N. Simons: I was waiting for that.

I'd like to just start today by acknowledging the honour it is to represent Powell River–Sunshine Coast in this chamber and the thanks I have to the communities that continually are the wind at my back in what I do here.

In particular, I'd like to thank my constituency assistants, Maggie Hathaway and Kim Tournat, who both respond with great enthusiasm and energy to the issues that are raised by constituents on a daily basis in my riding. The work that they do is of immense importance, not just to the constituents that they represent but to me in speaking on their behalf in this chamber.

Some of the issues that have been raised by constituents in my constituency I've been able to discuss here, especially areas around the importance of ensuring that families are safe and secure, that vulnerable people have the supports they need in our communities, that our economies are strong, that we have jobs that support families, that our schools are adequately funded so that children can maximize their abilities with the support of dedicated teachers and principals and administrators and trustees and school staff.

[L. Reid in the chair.]

On the Day of Mourning in particular I think of the workers in my constituency who have been injured or died working in forestry or in other areas that are dangerous and that require our vigilance in ensuring that all the standards are adequate and properly enforced so that we can have faith in our system of regulations, that in fact the public interest is always protected.

I'd like to acknowledge in the House today, in the gallery, a friend, an advocate, someone who's tirelessly pursuing justice for himself but most importantly for others — injured and disabled workers in this province, who are, unfortunately, now under the jurisdiction of a compensation scheme that serves primarily as an insurance scheme for employers, as opposed to a system that adequately and fundamentally supports the rights of workers.

I think we need to contemplate seriously whether or not our system as it currently stands is actually meeting the test of whether or not it's in the public interest. Nothing is more important to our democracy than faith of the people in our institutions. Our institutions must be run in a way that the public is confident that they're meeting the mandate set out for them through the legislation.

Of course, my responsibility today, on behalf of my constituents and the people of the province, is to respond to the budget, also known as the status quo budget. I think we've had a number of budgets in the past number of years that have titles, like the seniors budget or the youth budget.

[1010]

I always warn the sector whose name may appear in the press release issued by government on the release of their budget to watch out. If it's the seniors budget, be prepared for cuts to seniors services. If it's the education budget, be prepared for consequences within our public education system. If it's five great goals, well, I only think of hockey. I've seen none scored in the way that this government say they do.

I was honoured the other day when the new Leader of the Opposition appointed me as critic for Community Living B.C.

Community Living B.C. is the Crown corporation set up by government to administer programs for people with developmental disabilities and their families. It was set up approximately nine years ago, after decades of encouragement by families and advocates for people with developmental disabilities, so that community services and services and programs — day programs, education programs, employment programs, recreation programs — and residential services, including respite, would be managed and governed on a local level for the local community and the specific needs of the local community.

Community Living B.C. was seen, at the time, as an answer to the concerns raised by families for many, many years. And lo and behold, ten years later we've seen this system that has actually become a layer of insulation between the people of the province and the government that is supposed to be representing its best interests. It's a layer of insulation that allows Community Living B.C. to say to families desperate for supports — desperate for respite, desperate for day programming — that it's just not in the budget.

We've seen a massive increase — it is true — in service needs in our communities, but we've seen budgets frozen and projected budgets frozen. We know that there will be people left behind — brothers, sisters, cousins, children — living with a developmental disability that
[ Page 6456 ]
requires a varying degree of support in the community who will no longer get that support or, if they're turning 19, won't get that support as soon as they leave the Ministry of Children and Families auspices.

I just want to personalize this story somewhat by talking about a constituent in this province. I won't say his name, just to respect the privacy, and I won't say the community either.

"Our son is 25 years old and is diagnosed with cerebral palsy. His disability affects him physically and mentally. He can't speak, but he's learned to use augmentative communication devices to communicate a few choices. He can walk for a few minutes with assistance but often uses a wheelchair or a walker to get around the house. He depends on care workers for all of his personal care needs. He can't feed or dress or bathe himself and needs to be supervised at all times.

"He has a very happy demeanour, a wonderful sense of humour and loves to be with people, especially his family.

"Throughout his early school years a one-on-one worker was provided for six hours a day and was funded through the school system. The family paid for an additional three hours a day and eight to 12 hours of respite on the weekend. When he left high school, the community living association funded additional hours of weekend respite."

The financial burden on the family and the physical burden on the wife of the writer of this was enormous.

"The cost of an additional 24-hour care made family vacations nearly impossible." Providing daily personal care left this young man's mother with severe back problems and unable to stand up for the first 30 minutes of every day.

[1015]

"In September our son moved to a residential home operated by the local community living association. It reduced the financial and physical burden on the family, but it was soon apparent that the client-staff ratio did not provide the needs that our son needed or that he had prior to going to this home.

"The young man would show his frustration with the lack of activity by self-injurious behaviour, and after several discussions with service providers and a few meetings with government representatives more hours were found every week. Over the last five years our son has received 44 hours a week of one-on-one staffing dedicated to meaningful activities without self-injurious behaviour."

I'd just point out that these are some of the people in this province who have the highest needs in terms of assistance in daily life. I think it reflects well on our society when we recognize the inherent value and purpose of every single life. The lives of people with developmental disabilities should be treasured for the love that they bring, but also for the lessons that we can learn in how we talk about each other and how we treat each other.

I think it's hugely important that we continually strive for a community that is inclusive, not just in words but in action. A community is a healthy community when it accepts people with varying degrees of ability and from all backgrounds. That's why I think this is such an important issue, and an issue that if government were not to address would be left as an immense burden on every single community.

So the young man was living in a home where he had great supports and services. Then came 2010.

"In 2010" — this is written by the parents — "we attended a meeting with CLBC. At that meeting we were told 'no changes to services would happen without families having a conversation with Community Living B.C.' Needless to say, we did not have any conversations with CLBC regarding our son's services, and funding cuts were made without consultation or concern for our son's health and safety.

"Our son now lives in a residential home that has three high-needs clients and two staff. He's provided with about one to two hours a day of one-to-one, and the short durations leave no opportunity for our son to participate in any meaningful activity in the community. This young man is becoming more socially isolated.

"It has pushed our son's frustration level to the point of loud outbursts and the return of self-injurious behaviour. He's needed medical attention on a number of occasions and his outbursts are very disruptive to his housemates. Funding for day programs, if not restored, will result in our son becoming more disabled.

"Since the funding cuts, we have very quickly had to increase our involvement in our son's care to monitor his daily activities. This level of involvement on our part has become all consuming in our lives. It takes a considerable amount of time. We've had to sacrifice many of our personal and social activities. The stress we feel affects all aspects of our lives and makes it hard to concentrate on some workdays. Our current involvement in daily activities feels unsustainable, yet we continue because we feel that someone has to stand up for the rights of people who cannot speak for themselves.

[1020]

"We ask that you help us to fight to have our son's funding restored. We ask that our son's health and safety be protected by reinstating the funding that has been thoughtlessly stripped away so he can have at least a basic quality of life."

Now, this story is not atypical in the province. I've heard horror stories of adults with developmental disabilities living in a group home for 20-plus years and within two weeks being moved to a home share, with one pre-placement visit with one of the two new home share parents there. Not only is this atrocious social work practice; it is a complete and utter abandonment of the consideration of the rights of adults with developmental disabilities. There is no more vulnerable population in this province.

I've heard of stories of families being told that their child with developmental disabilities will be moving. The parents have had absolutely no involvement in that discussion. Community Living B.C. was set up to ensure that the communication took place, to ensure that the families and the advocates and the service providers and the caregivers were all involved in the decisions made on behalf of the person with developmental disabilities who is unable on their own to make those decisions. That's why we put in place protections. But the protections are useless if there's no will on the government to ensure those protections are used.

These are stories of families in this province. These are families. Nobody is untouched by the cuts to services. Whether or not you have a family member who has a developmental disability or your neighbour does or your community does, we are all impacted by the withdrawal, reduction of services.

We've had an assault on the residential services in this province. The group homes with 24-hour care — qual-
[ Page 6457 ]
ity, educated, skilled 24-hour care in our groups homes in this province — where young men and women are striving to live as independently as possible in this community, are being undercut by government policy. At the very same time, they're being threatened with moving from homes to foster home–type situations.

You can go on Craigslist and find out if your community is looking for people to care for individuals with developmental disabilities. No experience necessary — a mortgage helper. Criminal records check required; driver's licence preferred. Those are not the people, particularly, that we should be expecting to be able to provide the kind of care that as a society we expect our brothers and sisters to receive.

I would not feel comfortable if I knew that a friend or relative of mine was being moved from a group home, where they've lived for many years with their best friends, in as independent a circumstance as possible, going to day programs together, going to work together, taking the bus together, engaging in recreational activities as a group of friends. To suddenly be told that they are going to be moving into a different kind of resource, different kind of home, with sort of a home parent, maybe your own suite, after recruiting this home through Craigslist as a mortgage helper or as free rent….

[1025]

I think that when we see this happen in our society, we don't only worry about those who are directly impacted and the families of those directly impacted; we worry about the attitude of a government that will allow this to occur. I think collectively we have a responsibility to examine the underlying core values that lead to this kind of decision.

We've seen a budget that has been frozen at $681 million. We've seen the demand for services increase. We've seen the cost of providing services increase. Many services are being provided by the lowest-paid public sector employees in this province. It should be the highest paid.

There is an absence of leadership, just like it's a status quo budget. We don't have time for status quo. There is work to be done in this province. How can we introduce a status quo budget after ten months of sitting in this legislature for four days? There's an incongruity between the needs of the population and the legislators elected to address those needs. If we fail to do the work necessary to ensure that our communities and our individuals in our communities have their needs met, we're abdicating our responsibilities.

We can't have any more of the status quo. We've seen poverty increase. By all accounts, we've seen our education system undergoing some of the biggest challenges through budget cuts. We've seen our health care system, one of the best health care systems in the world…. [Applause.] That's the sound of three hands clapping.

I don't think we have time to rest on any laurels. We have a crisis as well. We have people waiting a long time for health care. We have people waiting to find doctors in our province. We have people waiting on waiting lists for months, years, and the legislators of this province are not in the House.

Well, we're here now, and we're debating the status quo. Wow. That's interesting. I don't blame people in the community wondering: well, what do you do when you're in Victoria? You try to make sure that members of the assembly know that the priorities of the province need to be addressed.

In discussing the story of my constituent, a constituent of this province, his needs not being met anymore, I think of another fellow in my constituency. He's an adult with developmental disabilities, and he just falls under the eligibility requirement. He is not eligible for the services, but every day he sits outside the day program hoping that he can get in. There was a time when he was eligible. Now he just hopes. That's not a system that is meeting the needs of our communities.

In this budget, the status quo budget, which is a bit misleading, actually, because there are a number of cuts…. I could go through a list of them. The Ministry of Agriculture has had its budget decreased by about 4.4 percent.

[1030]

Whenever I think about these budget cuts to programs that are so important, I wonder: where did the money go that we apparently saved by closing 150 schools across the province? Where did the money go that we apparently saved by closing courthouses in our rural communities? Where did the money go that we must have saved by closing forestry offices?

You know, we've got communities that at one point, when economic ups and downs were mitigated by the infusion of government money now called infrastructure funding but previously called government spending…. It mitigated the most severe impacts of economic downturn. That is no longer available in communities.

I drove through many communities in the last few months, and I saw the impact. Communities where you have to hitchhike to get to the food bank, you have to hitchhike to get to the courthouse. There's no transportation available. People living in rural poverty, the unseen poverty of this province.

Poverty, if not addressed adequately, is going to cost us a lot of money in the future, and I've said that many times. Poverty is expensive. If we fail to address childhood poverty, we are sentencing young children to failure in our education system. We are ensuring that their ability to achieve is hampered. We're pretty much guaranteeing increased involvement in our health care system and, in some cases, the expense of our correctional system. It costs about 195 bucks to keep a person in provincial custody, per day. That's a lot of money.

I had a young constituent of mine who I knew when he was a child and also now know as an adult. He was
[ Page 6458 ]
just released from prison, where every day he was being supported by $195 of public money. He was sentenced for what I would not consider…. It was a serious offence but one that, with a number of months in custody, allowed him to contemplate and reassess his life. Upon his release from the $195-a-night institution, he was homeless, immediately homeless.

What kind of system allows for a young person who we hope has found something in his heart to change his ways to be released from custody after receiving very few services, only to find himself awash in the same stream that led him to that institution in the first place? It is a legacy to victims of crime to ensure that we do what we can to prevent future crime, and we are not preventing crime if we are allowing people to leave our provincial institutions without having the benefit of education, support, and without having the most basic needs met upon their release from custody.

We have no time for status quo budgets. We have no time for more platitudes, slogans. We need action that will make our communities stronger, that will make our communities healthier. My hope is that the public of this beautiful province will recognize that there's a far better way of doing things, and I'm looking forward to that day and to being part of the team that will implement those better ways.

[1035]

Hon. N. Yamamoto: It's my pleasure as Minister of Advanced Education to rise in the House today to speak in support of the 2011 budget.

Like many of you earlier this week, I too sat transfixed to my television watching an incredible game 7 played by the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks. Like many, many great Canucks fans around this great province, I jumped up and screamed and cheered as Alex Burrows knocked the puck down at the Hawks' blue line and scored that incredible goal to win in overtime the first series for Vancouver. I have to say it was a little reminiscent of Crosby's overtime goal during the Olympic gold-medal games that we've just experienced.

As a hockey fan who obviously holds a major interest in the political workings of this province, I would like to personally thank both the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Transportation for agreeing to delay or reschedule the start of the telephone town hall meetings that were scheduled to begin tonight.

Last night, with no distractions from the playoffs, people who were living in the Peace River area and people who were living in Surrey were among the first of many British Columbians to have the opportunity to speak directly to the ministers to offer up suggestions on how the HST can be improved.

I understand that over 6,000 people from the Peace River area tuned into the telephone town hall meetings, and over 27,000 people in Surrey participated in their town hall meetings. Over the next three weeks my colleagues will speak to people in every region of the province on this matter.

The HST is an important issue to all of us, not just because of how it affects us as individuals but in the impact that it has on our province as a whole. So while much debate has taken place over how the HST was introduced, I believe that now is the time for us to examine the facts and decide once and for all if in fact the HST is the right fit for B.C.

The facts are that HST gives British Columbians several concrete advantages over the previous system in terms of job creation, retail sales, construction and in small business. Before the HST, businesses could recover only the 5 percent of GST that they paid on purchases. They couldn't get back any of the 7 percent of the PST that they paid.

I'll give you a concrete example. A few years ago, while I had my graphic design business, I made an investment of about $17,000 in computer systems and in software for my graphic design company. I was able to claim only $850 back in GST that I paid on that investment. The PST portion of that investment was about $1,200. Now, under the HST, I would have been able to claim over $2,000 back in input tax credits.

It's estimated that B.C. businesses will now save about $150 million annually in administrative costs with the HST. So what is the net benefit to the average person now living in this province? Well, that money that a business saves will allow…. If I had the same business still, it would allow me to increase my investment in my other operations, which may allow me to hire more employees. It may allow me to pay my employees higher wages.

The ultimate advantage for people in B.C. is that the price of our products will actually be lower. So I strongly urge everyone to participate in the process, gather the facts for yourself and then make your voice heard by voting in the upcoming referendum.

As recently appointed Minister of Advanced Education, I'm very proud to see the many successes and advancements made by my predecessors, but it has taken a lot of time away from the work that I do in my constituency office and for my constituents. So I'd like to take this opportunity right now to thank Erin Rennie, my new constituency assistant, who has put in many hours on behalf of the constituents of North Vancouver–Lonsdale.

I'd also like to thank Krista Bunskoek, who for ten years ably served the constituents of North Vancouver–Lonsdale. She was my predecessor Katherine Whittred's constituency assistant as well, and I'm sure Katherine would also share my gratitude for Krista's dedication to service on the North Shore.

[1040]

I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about why post-secondary education is so important for me as a new minister and how the journey for students, all the students in B.C., is quite unique.
[ Page 6459 ]

I'd like to talk about the journey that my dad took to get his post-secondary education. My dad was born in Vancouver. His mother and father were Canadian citizens, but in grade 8, when he was 14, a student of Point Grey Junior High School, the War Measures Act was implemented, and he and his family, along with other Japanese Canadians, were relocated to internment camps.

Fortunately, the internment camp that my father and his family were relocated to was in Lemon Creek, which is a gorgeous, gorgeous part of the Kootenays in British Columbia. Unfortunately, after being pulled out of grade 8, he missed a whole year of school because they didn't have a school at the internment camp, but he managed to start grade 9 a year later in the camp.

The war ended when he was 17 years old, and his family moved around the Interior of British Columbia for about four years working in orchards. He eventually moved to the Vancouver area and began working at a mental hospital which was originally called Essondale and I think we know as Riverview. He worked there for four years, and then he worked up at the DEW line, which is up in Tuktoyaktuk. He worked there for a year with the intention of saving money so that he could complete his education.

He then worked at the Bridge River project, which is near Lillooet, as a first-aid attendant. He did that for two years, saving him about $10,000. But I think what's important here is that he, during this time, completed his grade 10, 11, 12 and 13 — they had grade 13 then, which was senior matriculation and equivalent to first-year university — but he did this all by correspondence.

He did receive a letter from the department of education in Victoria while he was completing his high school education by correspondence that cautioned my dad that he was actually completing his education too quickly. He responded by letter saying that he didn't have the time to do it any slower. He was approaching his 30s.

In that time my dad married my mom and had three children. By the age of 32 he was finally able to enrol in UBC in the faculty of pharmacology. He did this in 1960. Three years later he received his undergraduate degree in pharmacy and then three years later received his master's and PhD. I was seven years old by the time my dad completed university.

I'm telling this story, my father's story, because we've all come to realize that post-secondary education is very important, but we all get there in a different and unique way. I'm very proud of the challenges that my father overcame to get his post-secondary education, and I firmly believe that is the reason why I took post-secondary education so seriously when I went to school, because I didn't have the same challenges that he did.

My ministry plays an important role in the lives of British Columbians and all those who choose to come to our beautiful province to study. We know that post-secondary education has always been and will continue to be a cornerstone of B.C.'s economic success. By investing in our public, post-secondary institutions, we are investing in British Columbians and their families.

Post-secondary education provides British Columbians with knowledge, skills and tools to meet their full potential, and it enables them to secure good jobs, to support their families, and to build strong and vibrant communities. Ensuring that accessible, affordable, high-quality post-secondary education and training opportunities are available for everyone will continue to be our ministry's focus.

Since accepting my new portfolio, I have had the opportunity to visit some of our fine institutions and had a chance to see firsthand what our government's investments have meant to students, their families and their communities. Forecasts tell us that over the next ten years there will be more than one million job openings in British Columbia, and more than three-quarters of these jobs will require some sort of post-secondary education, be it through our colleges or universities or institutes.

What we have expected is that many of these future jobs will be in technology, trades, health care and sciences. Helping our students develop the knowledge and skills needed to fill those jobs will result in a highly skilled and talented labour force, one that will be capable of sustaining B.C.'s success in the global knowledge economy.

[1045]

That's why we've made unprecedented investments in education in British Columbia, helping to create a world-class post-secondary system that's sustainable for the future, both in meeting the learner's expectations and from the perspective of fiscal responsibility.

Since 2001 British Columbia has expanded the post-secondary system by more than 33,000 seats. We've increased the number of universities by seven, and we've invested more than $2 billion in capital and infrastructure, making the system more accessible and more affordable than ever before.

By removing financial and geographic challenges to increase participation of students — including aboriginal learners, students in rural and remote communities, persons with disabilities and those from lower-income families — we remain committed to ensuring that students who want to are able to get a post-secondary education. The fact that our students can stay at home and study saves them thousands of dollars over the course of their degree programs in costs that they would have had to incur by living further away from home.

In Budget 2011 government is committed to funding higher education. Funding for post-secondary institutions is $1.9 billion in 2011-2012, meaning that post-secondary funding has increased by 36 percent
[ Page 6460 ]
since 2001. That means students still pay less than one-third of the actual cost of their post-secondary education.

This is important as we have limited tuition increases at post-secondary education to 2 percent per year since 2005 to ensure that post-secondary education in British Columbia is affordable for both students and taxpayers. This is also the fifth straight year that B.C.'s tuition increase has remained below the national average increases.

We also know that some students continue to struggle financially after school, and this is why British Columbia has developed programs that provide the most benefits to students who finish their studies by either reducing or forgiving their loans, making it easier for graduates to get out of debt faster.

In 2009-2010 the province forgave or reduced the loans for more than 22,000 students and provided more than $250 million in loans, grants and loan reductions to students accessing financial aid. Investing in our schools is about investing in our future, a future that goes beyond buildings and campuses, which is why we've created a knowledge infrastructure for British Columbia.

Wherever learners live, they can get the training they need to be successful. For example, students living in remote communities can choose to study in their own homes through BCcampus. This is an organization that uses information technology to connect the programs and resources of all our B.C. post-secondary institutions all in one place.

We are continuing to maintain our focus on the opportunities for students to train in high-demand fields such as nursing, medicine, skilled trades and engineering. To that end, our government has more than doubled the number of nursing education spaces, with over 4,300 new spaces added and 25 new nursing programs created since 2001.

In fact, just last week we announced $2 million in funding for innovative collaboration between Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan that will add up to 24 more nursing graduates by 2015, and that's increasing. We've invested $168 million to build medical education centres at UNBC, UBC and UVic, as well as a fourth at UBC Okanagan, which will see a further 32 first-year spaces added this September.

As well, we've doubled the number of spaces for first-year student doctors in B.C., and we expect to graduate up to 288 doctors every year by 2014-2015.

We know that to be able to compete with the rest of the world and make B.C. a destination of choice for students to study and ultimately live, work and invest, we need to plan for the future, and that means continuing to expand our post-secondary investments.

During the past ten years we have undertaken the largest post-secondary expansion in history, investing more than $2 billion in funding for over a thousand new buildings or renovations. That's seven new universities, campuses across B.C.: Capilano University, University of the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island University, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and UBC Okanagan.

[1050]

This investment in infrastructure is a major benefit to all our students in B.C. Here are some great numbers to remember: $1.9 billion — that's the amount of dollars invested in post-secondary education this year alone; more than $21 billion — that's the amount of money invested in post-secondary education since 2001; and $10,000 — this is the per-student funding from the provincial government, up from $8,400 in 2001.

Our investments have improved campuses and expanded the reach of post-secondary education throughout B.C. One good example is the University of British Columbia's new pharmaceutical sciences building on the Point Grey campus. My ministry is funding $86.4 million for a new building that will cover almost two hectares of floor space. Each floor is half the size of a football field, containing research and teaching laboratories, office space and classrooms. When it's complete, it will increase the number of pharmacists we train in B.C. to help meet the health care needs of British Columbians now and for the future.

The new space will allow the first-year spaces in the pharmacy degree program to expand by 47 percent when the project is complete in 2012. I would love to take my dad, who studied pharmaceutical sciences at university 50 years ago, on a tour of this new pharmaceutical sciences building one day soon.

We've also been working in partnership with our federal counterparts to support infrastructure enhancements at post-secondary institutions around British Columbia. Through the knowledge infrastructure program, the province has invested a total of $265 million in new capital projects through this program and on campuses in British Columbia. This includes the new film centre at Capilano University in my own back yard.

This new $30.2 million dollar building will offer modern film laboratories, classrooms that will house new sound stages, picture-editing suites, sound-editing suites, green-screen facilities, a specialized classroom for screening and a state-of-the-art 3-D-filming equipment program. These investments are providing students with more choices and increased access closer to home saving them thousands of dollars in travel and accommodation costs.

Our government is also committed to helping aboriginal learners to succeed, and we are working closely with our aboriginal post-secondary education and training partners to create initiatives and increase students' participation in the social and economic life of their communities, the province and society.

The ministry is working collaboratively with the B.C. aboriginal post-secondary education partners to develop a new aboriginal post-secondary education policy
[ Page 6461 ]
framework. This work will carry on the spirit of the 2007 aboriginal post-secondary education strategy, which included a $10 million endowment to the Irving K. Barber British Columbia Scholarship Society, along with an additional $500,000 provided for the 2009-10 and the 2010-11 academic years.

This also includes almost $15 million to implement three-year service plans between 11 public post-secondary institutions in aboriginal communities. It also includes over $10 million to encourage partnerships and more transitions from high school to post-secondary education in the workforce, including new aboriginal student spaces in priority areas. It also included $13.6 million over four years to create gathering places that reflect aboriginal culture at public post-secondary institutions across the province.

Over the past year this ministry provided $500,000 to support the development of First Nations–language teacher education programs. We've issued a second round of the B.C. Aboriginal Student Award, so 87 aboriginal students received over $259,000 in awards.

We've also provided $250,000 in one-time funding to the University of Victoria's LE,NONET project, which provides culturally relevant programs, community experiences, peer mentoring and financial assistance to aboriginal learners at the University of Victoria.

In conclusion, our government has always and will continue to make education a top priority, and despite the still challenging fiscal environment, we have committed to protecting the funding for post-secondary education in British Columbia. Ensuring access to quality post-secondary education and training that fulfils the needs of our increasingly knowledge-based economy will support our economy as it continues to improve.

We are proud to support all British Columbians as they choose post-secondary education. I look forward to continuing our work to ensure that the people who call British Columbia home are the best-educated and most highly skilled people in North America.

[1055]

But for this investment to pay off, we need jobs for our students who graduate. We need a strong economy. That's just what this government is good at, and that's what this budget offers.

K. Conroy: This is the first opportunity I've had since the last real time we spent any time in this House, because you can't really count those fleeting days in February that actually seem years ago. I haven't had an opportunity since this time last year, when my husband, Ed, and I started on our first and hopefully last dual-transplant experience.

I want to take a moment to thank the so many people who were there for us. The only reason we could both do what we did was because of the incredible support we had from so many people. The constituents of Kootenay West were supportive and understanding of my absence from the constituency.

I live in a beautiful area of the province, and it isn't just the geography that makes it beautiful. It's the people. Their support was and continues to be humbling.

I also want to thank the two women who run my life in the constituency: Elaine Whitehead and Edena Brown, my constituency assistants. They were both an amazing support to me and our family throughout the year, while continuing to provide excellent service to the people of Kootenay West.

Also, the people that work here in Victoria. I want to specifically thank my legislative assistant Amber Nash. Amber Nash is away right now. She is on leave, as she had, on December 2, a beautiful baby girl, Ever Mary O'Brien. So congratulations to her and her husband, Tom.

Family is what gets us through tough times, and we are blessed with so much support from ours, and our friends. It is amazing how true friends rally in times of need, and we have many, many who were there for us.

I want to take a minute to point out one of them that was specifically there. I spent two weeks in Toronto with our youngest daughter and with the help of a few friends. Ed was in Vancouver with other family and friends, who rallied around to help him, something I've always done in the past.

I want to take a moment to thank the member for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant, who not only is a colleague but a true friend. She regularly delivered home-cooked meals to Ed and whichever caregiver was with him at the time and sent support and assurance to me that he was doing okay. And in amongst her extremely busy schedule — and I believe it was right in the middle of a major campaign she was involved in, something called the HST — she was making sure she checked in.

[C. Trevena in the chair.]

Now, she did confess it was her husband, Dan, and her sister- and brother-in-law who did most of the cooking, but we are so very, very grateful to her and her family for that support. There are many things that one gains from this life of politics, and I will always be grateful for the friendship and support of the member for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant.

Needless to say, I am back and ready to respond to the budget that was tabled in February. I think it has been called a lot of things by many different people, but I want to refer to it as a drone budget. I want to explain that. It's a budget that is just there and doesn't accomplish anything — something like what we used to have in the Kootenays, drone dams. They just held water, and we were at the beck and call of our neighbours to the south to provide them with the full benefits of our dams. They held water and didn't provide any significant return to the people of the Kootenays.
[ Page 6462 ]

But unlike this drone budget that's been presented by this government, the government of the '90s created the Columbia Basin Trust and the Columbia Power Corporation and turned drone dams into power-producing dams, which in turn provide resources to the people of the Kootenays and, in fact, to the people of B.C., unlike this government's budget.

It is interesting. When one looks at this budget that was presented, this drone budget, it really has nothing of significance for the people of the province. The saddest fact is that the new Premier has said she will implement this budget status quo. What does that provide to British Columbians?

In Kootenay West we are a very resource-based constituency. We have a beautiful constituency that has amazing opportunities, and yet we struggle.

The forest industry has been decimated in the last ten years, and what has the response been? We have a major ministry reorganization. Forestry, once its own ministry, was part of the Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands and now is part of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

Operating expenses for this ministry, as reconstituted, fell by $29.6 million. This is a 9 percent cut over last year. This is on top of already massive cuts in the last decade.

[1100]

The provincial Forest Service has lost over a thousand positions, one-quarter of its workforce, in less than a decade, and its budget fell by 23 percent between the '08-09 and '10-11 fiscal years. The forest resource stewardship program's budget was cut from $105.8 million last year to $94.9 million this year. This is an over $20 million cut or an 18 percent cut.

Here is a really interesting statistic. As a result of staff and budget cuts, Forest Service employees are now responsible for vast acreages of land — 20,000 hectares each. To put that in perspective, that's over 49,000 acres. This is in stark contrast to the United States — there, one U.S. Forest Service employee for every 2,666 hectares of public forest. In B.C. it's 20,000 hectares that each Forest Service employee is responsible for; in United States, 2,666 — quite a difference.

We now know there are far fewer eyes and ears on the ground to effectively manage and monitor our forests — a resource that doesn't belong to the companies in B.C., doesn't belong to the government but actually belongs to all of us and should be properly managed so that it can be passed on to our children and our grandchildren.

In our region a recent poll was conducted for the B.C. Government Employees Union by an independent polling firm. I want to quote some of the findings. One of the questions they asked is: "How important to the economic well-being of this community would you say the forest industry is — critically important, somewhat important or not that important?"

Of the people polled, 79 percent said it was critically important; 20 percent, somewhat important. When you total those up, 99 percent of the people polled felt that the forest industry was critically important — important to them and their community — and 1 percent thought it was not that important.

Here's one of the other polling questions: "Even though I don't work directly in the industry, my livelihood is significantly impacted by the health and well-being of the industry." Of the people polled, 80 percent agreed with that. It shows you that residents of Castlegar recognize the central importance of the forest industry to the economic well-being of our community, whether they work directly in the industry or not.

One of the other interesting polling questions was…. It showed that an overwhelming majority of Castlegar residents — in fact, 80 percent — acknowledge the need for good regulation and public oversight of the forest industry by the people who work for B.C.'s Forest Service, something that's not happening. Nearly all of the people polled, nearly all of the Castlegar residents polled, supported more public investment in the forest sector. Over 94 percent felt that there should have been more investment.

Since January — it's interesting — the BCGEU has conducted four community dialogue sessions entitled B.C. Forests. Our Future. Now, one wouldn't normally associate the BCGEU with the forest industry, but they do have members who work or did work as stewards of the industry. They held sessions in Castlegar, Campbell River, Kamloops and Prince George, and the union consulted with community leaders at these sessions to develop positive solutions to revitalize the forest sector and reassert government control over this valuable public resource.

I attended the session in Castlegar along with my colleague from Nelson-Creston, a number of municipal politicians from throughout the region and representatives of a wide range of organizations, other unions, and the MP Alex Atamanenko's office. I want to quote BCGEU president Darryl Walker. He said:

"More than 70 mills have closed across B.C., and roughly 40,000 forest sector jobs have been lost since the B.C. Liberal government came to office. Over a thousand Forests Ministry jobs have been eliminated. Compliance and enforcement has been drastically scaled back, while changes to legislation have allowed forest companies to regulate themselves.

"There is a clear disconnect between the B.C. government's sunny forestry rhetoric and the real experience of British Columbians. People who live in resource communities have to live with the results of government neglect every day."

He is right. The polls show it, and the people at the session talked about it.

There weren't just complaints about the issues. There were actually sound recommendations arising out of these sessions, like: the cuts to the B.C. Forest Service must end, and government should immediately begin reinvesting in our forests.

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[ Page 6463 ]

The social contract between the forest industry and local communities must be restored and strengthened. Government has to take decisive, concrete action to further diversify the industry and generate more value from B.C.'s forests. Tougher regulations and more enforcement are needed to ensure sustainable forest management practices, and government should establish a public commission to independently review and make recommendations on the forest industry. All are sound recommendations that I hope the minister and the government take seriously if we are to retain a sustainable forest industry in this province.

Are there good things happening? I say yes, in spite of the government's neglect of our region.

Recently I met with a group of people who work at the local Celgar pulp mill — a meeting organized by the union, the pulp and paper workers of Canada, Local 1. It was attended by the mill manager, the chief forester. What was really refreshing was the opportunity to sit and talk to them all about the issues in the forest sector and how it affects their industry, but how working together they acknowledge that when they work cooperatively they can accomplish much more for the benefit of both workers and the company. I am looking to much more discussion and positive results coming from this mill.

There are many things that can be done. You just have to have the political will to want to do them. I was pleased to be able to take on the role of seniors critic again, but I am quite saddened by how few changes have actually taken place in the last six years. Another point in this drone budget is the lack of commitment to seniors in this province.

Here is the real commitment. I want to talk about the Liberal government's recent record on seniors. On January 1, just this year, residential care rates were raised for 75 percent of patients. A senior whose before-tax income was $22,000 — $22,000 annually — is now forced to pay an additional $2,000 or 10 percent of their income.

I heard commitments from all the Liberal leadership candidates to look at the policy — vague promises to see how it has affected seniors within the year. Well, it is affecting them now. I have heard stories from seniors who are struggling to make ends meet, as they can't afford this increase. It might not seem like a lot to the Liberals that brought the policy in, but it is creating havoc with some seniors' lives — the difference between purchasing the expensive medication or taking it every other day instead of taking it every day as they are supposed to.

Think of the health care costs a policy like this will cost us all in the long run. Seniors can now only afford to eat one meal a day, as they just can't afford any more. How healthy is that? The policy of charging 80 percent of a person's income doesn't take into consideration that the seniors might not be able to live together. The senior in the facility might be the lone income earner, so you end up with 80 percent of one income paying for the facility and 20 percent to pay for all the costs of the senior at home.

There are exceptions, seniors are being told, but it is too little, just too late. One elderly woman came to me in tears as she thought the best thing to do was to split up with her husband and go on social assistance. That was the only way to keep her in their family home and him in the residence where the services he needed would be provided.

At the upcoming B.C. Old Age Pensioners Organization AGM there are a number of resolutions to be debated. One of them deals with just this issue, and I want to read it for the record.

"Whereas the new guidelines require patients to pay 80 percent of their net income for their care in residential facilities; and whereas many low-income seniors receive only OAS, GIS and CPP, leaving the spouse living at home with only the remaining 20 percent to cover all of his or her costs; therefore be it resolved that the BCOAPO urge the government to revise their guidelines to allow the partner living at home sufficient funds to cover his or her living expenses."

This needs to be done now. This can't wait. This can't wait till this time next year, or if this government ever gets around to looking at this policy and seeing that it was wrong to implement it as it is, that seniors are suffering because of it and that it needs to be changed.

Research was also recently done by Megan McKinney for the HEU as to the effect the new residential care rates increases would have on families. The accounts are heartbreaking, and it is obvious that these are not just isolated cases. This has been replicated across the province. The report shows 15 different cases with commonalities of how the increases have affected them in the financial and emotional burden, the decline in the quality of care, and the problems with the hardship review process, just to name a few.

[1110]

I want to read just one record. The names have been changed to protect the people's identities. This is about George. His 2011 monthly rent was up $400 in two years. Alice's father, George, is in care on Vancouver Island after suffering a massive stroke that left him paralyzed and completely dependent on others for his basic care. His care costs have gone up $200 a month and will do so again this year.

Alice is refusing to pay the increase. She maintains that they cannot possibly afford the increases, and as the fee increases, the quality of care declines. Alice reports that since George moved into the facility, he has suffered unnecessary sores and infections as a result of declining quality of care. Due to the very poor food quality at the facility, she contends that George has lost so much weight that his dentures no longer fit in his mouth. He is only bathed once a week, and the facility now purchases heavy-duty incontinence supplies so that the residents can be changed much more infrequently.
[ Page 6464 ]

Further, Alice finds herself picking up more and more of the basic duties of care that are supposed to be covered in the cost of the facility, from doing his laundry to cleaning his room.

The few hundred dollars George is left with every month barely cover his regular expenses such as hygiene, medications and bills, and for any additional expenses, such as the $5,000 wheelchair recently purchased, Alice will need to drain her parents' savings. Alice has no savings herself to contribute to the cost of her father's care.

Alice's mother, Margo, lives independently, though she should be in assisted living or residential care as she is becoming less and less capable of caring for herself. However, in light of the changes to George's care, Margo is afraid of the cost and of becoming more of a burden on Alice. As it stands, Alice now must visit both of her parents' homes every day to care for them.

Those stories, all 15 of them, are repeated again and again and again. But I want to read the summary of the report, as I think the summary says it all.

"Seniors and others living in residential care deserve to live with respect and dignity. According to those we spoke to, the new rates strip residents of their assets, leaving them financially incapable of paying their basic expenses and without any money left over for enjoying small comforts in their lives.

"While lowering the cost of care for low-income residents and increasing the quality of patient care are understandable goals, the B.C. government's efforts to increase government revenues come at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens."

Surely this drone budget could have found the finances to ensure seniors are adequately cared for in the time of their lives when it is so needed. I find more and more often that it is seniors caring for seniors — the 70-year-old children coming in to talk to me about their 90-year-old patients and the struggles that they're going through. It's just not right.

Yesterday the member for Vancouver-Fairview made the following comment: "Our Premier clearly values seniors. She chose to have a parliamentary secretary for seniors because she wanted to make it clear that seniors are part of the families-first agenda." Well, as the new parliamentary secretary, she should know there was actually a minister assigned to seniors, not just a parliamentary secretary, and if seniors are truly part of Premier Clark's agenda, there would be actual dollars in the budget to address the real needs of seniors in the province.

There has been some increase in supportive housing, but the reality is this province does not have adequate beds for those seniors who require long-term care in residential facilities. The former Minister of Health — or was it the former, former minister? I can't quite remember — spoke about how they shut down facilities because they weren't up to standard. But here is the reality. They shut down perfectly good facilities in order to create a crisis and ensure their friends in the private sector could reopen facilities. They still don't have enough beds, and what we have is seniors waiting in acute care hospital beds for long-term care.

Now, when I see some of those seniors and the care they are receiving and know what some of the facilities and care were like in the ones that the Liberal government shut down over the years, I think I would take the former any day as would the majority of the seniors and their families who I have been speaking to.

Today we still don't have the 5,000 residential beds promised way back when. In fact, we have 800 fewer residential care beds, and we have more seniors requiring the beds. We're not going to cloud the numbers with supported-housing beds. We're not going to cloud the facts with assisted-living beds. It's 5,000 residential beds that we do not have, which we need.

[1115]

We're positive that supportive housing and assisted-living beds are needed, but they cannot take the place of the level of care of residential care beds. We have seniors in those types of facilities who really should be in residential care, but they are waiting too. They're in the assisted-living beds waiting for residential care.

As the member said yesterday, seniors in Burnaby might have more supportive housing options, but there is actually a 19 percent decline in residential care beds in Burnaby. Seniors who need residential care can't live in supportive housing beds. There are currently 12 residential care facilities in Burnaby with 1,400 publicly funded beds. In 2003 there were 14 facilities with over 1,600 publicly funded beds — again, a 19 percent decline in residential care beds.

Supportive housing does not provide the support that residential care beds do, so in Burnaby they've seen a decline. Seniors in this province deserve better. We can't keep using these numbers games to deny them that.

B.C. also has the lowest rate of care per hour per resident in Canada. When you talk to seniors who only get one bath a week, you know we aren't at adequate levels with something as basic as hygiene, and we know that seniors were getting more than one bath a week in the '90s. There is nothing in this budget to increase the quality of care for seniors living in long-term-care facilities.

I don't think there's anyone in this chamber today or anywhere in this building that could get by on one bath or one shower a week. I raised this when I was first elected and I was the Seniors critic back in 2005, and it is appalling that we are still talking about the same situation today. Six years later seniors are still being treated like this. It is appalling.

I notice that the member…. She didn't talk about the cuts to home support. She only said it was provided in the '90s. But here is the difference between what was provided in the '90s and what is being provided today. Home support was just that in the '90s, a full continuum of care so that seniors could stay in their homes, so that they could access real home support services, including healthy meal preparation, housecleaning, bathing — all those things a home support worker can't do today, all
[ Page 6465 ]
those things that actually do support a senior to stay in their home longer.

The cuts to home support are shortsighted, as it costs more in the long run when a senior's health gets run down and they end up in acute care, as they aren't getting the proper home support to keep them healthy and at home, where every senior wants to be. I don't hear seniors tell me they're just crazy about getting into the residential care facility. They want to stay at home as long as they possibly can.

This is just common sense, something the bean counters in this province seem to be forgetting — forgetting it's not all about money; it's about health care. And good-quality health care, as in home support, can be far more cost-effective in the long run.

The member did talk about the great work seniors are doing as volunteers in this province, and that is indeed commendable. But it should be a service that adds to the quality of life both for the volunteers and for the people who are the benefactors of their generosity and not one that is supposed to take over as a necessity of life. Volunteers cannot provide the much-needed services trained home support caregivers provide. It's as simple as that.

I, too, have talked to seniors, caregivers, seniors groups around the province, and the common message is that they are frustrated with the lack of commitment from this government. Home support workers in rural B.C. tell me how they are allotted so many minutes per client and have to include their driving time in the allotment. They barely have time to pop in, say hello and head back out again, certainly not the time required to ensure the proper services are being provided. They are burnt out and stressed that the seniors they care about are not getting the care they deserve and need.

The member is right in that the government did follow through on one of the key recommendations of the Premier's Council on Aging and Seniors Issues — to eliminate mandatory retirement, providing choice for those who want to continue working. In this province many seniors don't have a choice. They can't afford to retire. You talk to seniors who are carrying on working — some because they genuinely want to; many because, again, they simply can't afford to.

The member is right that we have an amazing diverse group of seniors in this province, and they should be recognized accordingly. Unfortunately, this budget just doesn't do that.

[1120]

One other issue that I really need to address is the misinformation about post-secondary cuts in this budget. The former minister insisted that there were no cuts and took us to task for insisting there were cuts. I want to read this letter from a person in our region who works with the Selkirk College students on a daily basis and truly understands the situation. In fact, he even corrected my own interpretation.

"I would like to set the record straight. On Wednesday the minister condemned the NDP for spreading fear about the government making cuts to student aid programs in the 2011-2012 budget, calling these claims not true.

"While the NDP may have reported a larger cut than there is in this budget when it first came out, the minister seems to be trying to spin the situation as if there was no cut at all. If the minister had bothered to look at the budget that her party had passed, she would see in black and white that the budget for student aid programs in B.C. went from close to $85 million in last year's budget to just over $74 million in this year's. Anyone familiar with primary school arithmetic can easily see that this represents a budget cut of over $10 million.

"The minister claiming that there have been no cuts suggests that she either doesn't know what a budget is and how it works or she is…."

Here he uses an unparliamentary word. It starts with "l." So I'll just substitute it with "inaccurate."

Interjections.

K. Conroy: Misrepresentation of the truth?

"A quick look at the track record of the B.C. Liberals on student aid programs in B.C. shows some very disturbing trends. Since 2008 the budget for student aid programs in B.C. has been cut by 36 percent, and B.C. has the highest interest rates on student loans in the country. To make matters worse, in 2003 the B.C. Liberals eliminated the B.C. student grant program, giving our province the dubious distinction of having the worst system of non-repayable student support in the country.

"Students and their families should be afraid of these cuts as they worry about how they will be able to afford a post-secondary education in a province where tuition fees continue to go up every year.

"The minister is right about one thing in her letter. Post-secondary education is a key driver for the economic future of this province. Now it's time for the B.C. Liberals to put our money where their mouth is and properly fund post-secondary education rather than just paying it lip service."

This is from Dave Lubbers, an organizer at Selkirk College Students Union, Local 4, Canadian Federation of Students. I think it sums it up very eloquently, and I thank David for his clarifications.

Now, if only the new Minister of Advanced Education could take his words to heart and ensure there are truly no cuts to post-secondary education students in this province.

Are there other issues in this budget that affect the constituents of Kootenay West? Of course there are — numerous. Issues that will be addressed in the coming estimates debate: the fact rural education isn't properly funded and our school districts are struggling to provide quality education to children in our region. The Community Living cuts that are affecting vulnerable citizens living in our group homes.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that today is the Day of Mourning and to actually point out that the Day of Mourning was started in Ontario in the '70s after a mine explosion at Elliot Lake. The people that worked there decided to do a Day of Mourning in recognition of the miners that were killed in that explosion. It was then duplicated in Ontario and across the country and in the
[ Page 6466 ]
United States so that now it is an actual recognized Day of Mourning in both countries that people actually take part in and acknowledge people that have been visibly hurt or killed on the job.

One thing that we've noticed with this government in this province is that there are silent killers of people that work in industry. One of the ones that has the largest-growing number of people dying from it is from asbestos — asbestosis. This government took away the right for workers that got sick or ill after they retired to go back on a WCB claim, so that asbestosis is silently killing hundreds of people that work in this province, and they have no right of access back into benefits from a company where their work killed them. That is a crime. That is happening today in this province.

It is something that needs to change. The people at WorkSafe B.C. need to look at those changes and need to ensure that people who die from working, die after being infected with asbestosis, actually get some kind of recognition. Those people need to be recognized today too.

[1125]

I think as we all take a moment to recognize people that have been killed or visibly maimed or hurt on the job, we need to recognize all those people and their families and what they have had to endure.

Again, I would like to say how nice it is to finally be back in the House, to finally have a session of some substance and to get on with the work of the people of this province.

J. Slater: Hon. Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to the budget and provide some examples on how Budget 2011 will affect the Boundary-Similkameen.

But first I'd like to congratulate all the candidates that ran for leader on both sides of the House. It was very interesting. Obviously, the B.C. Liberal Party hasn't had an issue like this for 17 years, and the candidates were awesome.

I'd also really like to thank all the volunteers that took these candidates all around the province to expose people to the candidates and listen to the issues that were coming in, in all the different ridings. I'd also like to congratulate the B.C. Liberal Party for recognizing that rural British Columbians should have an equal say on picking the leader of the party.

I congratulate the new leader, the new Premier, and I'd like to also congratulate the new Leader of the Opposition.

I'd also like to acknowledge my staff, the people that have helped me work. They're all part of my team: my constituency assistants, Diana Thomas, Patt Vermiere and Sharon Gibbs, who has left to work with her husband at their family business; also my legislative assistants, Evan Southern and Kellie O'Brien; my communication officers, Stacie Dley and Jeff Melland; research officers, Mark Chawrun and Tom Hancock. We all know how valuable these assistants are to all of us, again, on both sides of the House.

This past year has been an extraordinary and exciting time for politics in British Columbia. We had a change in leadership, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank former Premier Gordon Campbell for his dedication and hard work over the last 17 or 18 years that has enabled us to build a strong foundation for our future.

The first step toward creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it. That's a quote from former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Tony Dungy, and under the leadership of our new Premier, Christy Clark, we envision a stronger economy for families in British Columbia.

Budget 2011 focuses on health care and social services but provides the flexibility for priorities outlined by Premier Clark, such as increasing the minimum wage and tax credit for families, green energy and clean economy, open government, creating new jobs and investing in community groups, putting families first.

Since 2001 most British Columbians have had their provincial personal income tax reduced by 37 percent or more. As a result, we have the country's lowest provincial personal income taxes for individuals earning up to $119,000 a year. An additional 325,000 people no longer pay B.C. income tax, putting more money in the pockets of families.

Funding B.C.'s education system remains a key priority for our government. Per-pupil funding will rise to $8,357 in the 2011-12 year, the highest level ever. In the Boundary-Similkameen the per-pupil funding will range from $9,704 in the South Okanagan to $11,288 in the Boundary district. Total operating funding for school districts remains at $4.7 billion.

This past year two schools in my riding, Beaverdell in school district 51 and Tuc-el-Nuit in school district 53, were both involved in the possibility of closures. Due to the continued operating funding that we provide, the school boards, parents and community in both districts working together, both schools will remain open.

The government spends over $24 million per school day on education programs and services to support B.C. students across the province. We're supporting new approaches to encourage and improve student achievement.

[1130]

Both school districts 51 and 53 implemented full-day kindergarten, which is available to every five-year-old starting school. The StrongStart centres in both districts give parents and preschoolers free, convenient access to high-quality early learning programs. It's not just the kids that are getting help. It's the parents — new parents that aren't able to help themselves sometimes, so they come to these learning centres and get the skills that they need.
[ Page 6467 ]

The Southern Okanagan Secondary School, located in Oliver, was built in 1949 and is undergoing a $26.8 million renovation project that is expected to be completed by 2012. The design intent is to construct a LEED gold building and to maintain the Art Deco theme of the original school.

All post-secondary institutions have benefited from the federal-provincial cost-sharing knowledge infrastructure program which contributed to 40 projects that resulted in renewed or additional buildings.

Madam Speaker, as you know, in your riding we have Okanagan College's new centre of excellence in the sustainable building technologies and renewable energy conservation being built to be one of the country's most environmentally responsible and sustainable facilities. It will more than double the size of the existing campus. This campus allows the students from the Boundary-Similkameen the option to attend post-secondary education while still living at home, keeping families together.

Budget 2011 confirms the government commitment of supporting health care and achieving high-quality health outcomes for British Columbians. The new funding provided in the budget builds on funding increases in the past years to raise the Ministry of Health's budget by almost $2 billion over 2010.

In the Boundary-Similkameen we are experiencing an increase in the aging demographic, as in most places in the province, and the need for residential care. I am pleased to see that the government is addressing these needs and will be creating four new care beds in the Boundary area and an additional 72 beds in the South Okanagan. This will greatly assist keeping families together so that loved ones won't be in facilities that are hours away.

Budget 2011 also provides $65 million over three years to the Ministry of Social Development for income assistance for individuals and families in need.

Even during the worst of the recession, we fared better than most other places, including other Canadian provinces. British Columbia has continued through difficult times to maintain its triple-A credit rating, the highest standard available. Exports, housing starts, retail sales and tourism numbers are all on the rise. Mining is now back in a big way, with mineral exploration spending more than ten times higher than it was at the end of the 1990s.

We continue working towards a stronger, more vibrant forest industry, recognizing its central role in supporting so many families in so many communities. I, along with the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, had the honour of attending the official ribbon-cutting of the reopening of the Midway mill. The closure of the mill three years ago caused great hardship on families in the area. Either the whole family would move away for a job, or one of the partners would move away and leave the other one back at home taking care of the kids. The reopening of the mill will bring families back together and, over time, encourage more families to move into the area.

I would also like to congratulate the members of the Boundary Sawmill association, who worked tirelessly in a lot of the communities up there to ensure that their efforts would not be lost and the mill would reopen. On their behalf, I would also like to thank the former Minister of Forests for his support to the association during this whole process.

Revenue from the forestry sector is expected to increase by more than $100 million in the year ahead. It appears that the industry is well on its way back to a healthy economic recovery.

[1135]

We need to protect this resource and protect British Columbian families who live near our forests. Over the next two years $25 million will be committed for fire mitigation. This is in addition to the $37 million in funding that has been provided by the province and the government of Canada since 2004 through the strategic wildfire prevention initiative. This program assists local governments and First Nations to reduce the risk of interface wildfires, where forests and grasslands meet cities and towns.

Just this past month, we celebrated and applauded the many individuals in our communities who give so much of themselves: the volunteers. They are the backbone of every community in our province. Whether they volunteer as a coach for youth sports, a member of a local service club, a parent on a PAC, or at the local food bank, they all face the same challenge of financial support.

In the past many of these organizations depended on fundraising activities, memberships, donations, sponsorships and, if they were successful, gaming grants. This year the government distributed an extra $15 million in gaming grants to community organizations throughout the province, bringing the total up to $135 million for this 2010-11, which amounts to an increase of $22½ million over last year.

June 24, 2011, will be another extraordinary day in British Columbia, as we ask each and every eligible British Columbian to vote on whether to keep the HST or go back to the PST and GST tax system. Last year I was a member of the Legislative Initiatives Committee, where the decision was to listen to the people and give them the choice. Take this to a vote through a referendum.

We can debate all day long how badly we introduced the HST. But, as we move closer to the referendum, it is important to understand all the implications of extinguishing the HST and what it would mean to go back to the PST and GST tax system. I encourage everyone, before you make up your mind, please ensure you get all the facts on each tax and that you make the decision that is right for you, your family and, into your future, your
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children's family. We do not want to leave a debt that our children's children will have to pay.

Agriculture is one of the top three economic sectors in the Boundary-Similkameen, ranging from ranching to orchards to vineyards. The Ministry of Agriculture has developed a service plan that outlines how the government will support the agriculture and food sectors to grow sustainably and contribute to the well-being of all the families in British Columbia. Growing Forward is a five-year national agriculture framework that coordinates federal and provincial agriculture policy.

Through Growing Forward, government is delivering $475 million to provide income stability and insurance against losses to B.C. farmers. An additional $78 million is being invested in a number of programs designed to improve competitiveness and profitability.

In addition to expanding markets, the ministry is aggressively investing in innovation. This means sustainable technology, new products and more efficient and profitable operations. Five million dollars will be targeted to both the beef and fruit industries in B.C. through the federal-provincial agriflexibility agreement. This funding support translates into real solutions for our producers and our processors, and it ensures that British Columbia remains a leader in agricultural innovation.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Kevin and Annamarie Klippenstein of Klipper's Organic Acres in Cawston, as they were the recipient of the 2011 B.C. and Yukon Outstanding Young Farmers Award from the B.C. Agriculture Council. Not only do they farm approximately 40 acres and have built a cold storage on their site, they have also started a community-supported agriculture model that members sign up for and receive a share of the farm's harvest throughout the year, as well as starting an apprenticeship program designed to teach all areas of organic farming.

This young family, which includes four children, has worked hard to create a farming environment that is sustainable and, at the same time, provides a lifestyle for their family.

[1140]

Their goals continue to find ways to improve their organic farming practices, educate people on what they are eating, and pass this knowledge on to young farmers that are just starting out.

In June 2009, I was bestowed the honour of being the Parliamentary Secretary for Water Supply and Allocation — the water guy — and given the task to update the hundred-year-old Water Act. This has been a very rewarding process that hopefully will be one of the first of many pieces of legislation that British Columbians will have input into.

The Water Act modernization, now called the water sustainability act, is made up of four phases. Phase 1 was the scoping, the review and the background research. Phase 2 is the engagement and policy development; phase 3, requests for legislation and legislative drafting; and phase 4 will be the bill introduction and approval.

To date there have been 12 regional workshops — some with First Nations alone — 2,250-plus written submissions in this area and 15,700 blog visits, with over 34,700 visits to the Living Water Smart website as well. I am pleased to say that phase 1 is complete, and we're in phase 2 now. We're working diligently at that as well.

With changes in climate, population and water use, now is the time to review the act to address new pressures on water. In a lot of the critical watersheds, it's: how much water do we have, how much water are we using currently, and how much water are we going to need in the future? Those are the three big questions that we need to do.

Modernizing the Water Act is not about fixing something that's broken, but instead it's about recognizing that the context and foundation upon which the Water Act was built were very different a hundred years ago. Our ways of doing business have changed, and will continue to change, to reflect today's context and play a key role in the future sustainability of British Columbia's water resources.

As you may have read, the Kettle River, located in the Boundary, is on the top ten endangered rivers list. I know this river well. I have camped there many, many times and fished with my family over the last four decades along this river, and many times other recreation activities as well. During peak times of the year the water level is really low, which affects the fish. When the water level goes down, the temperature goes up and the oxygen goes down, and it's very hard on the wildlife in the stream.

Withdrawals for consumption and irrigation. Again, we don't know how much we need, and we don't know what we're doing in the future, so we need to make sure that this is done.

Currently the Kootenay-Boundary regional district is engaging in a Kettle River water study using the same principles as the Okanagan Basin Water Board study in their recently launched water supply and demand study. If we understand the demand from our rivers, then we can work on maintaining the supply.

The Similkameen is also listed on the endangered rivers list, and the regional district of Okanagan-Similkameen has received $25,000 to conduct a gravel management assessment of the Similkameen River. The assessment will determine the best course of action to reduce flooding in the Similkameen and improve safety and water quality for families in the area.

In closing, I'd like to utter these words that were actually uttered 2,000 years ago by Cicero in relation to the problems of ancient Rome. This is what he said: "The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, and the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and
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the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest we become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance." That's 2,000 years ago.

Budget 2011 builds on the strong foundation that we have built over the past ten years. It will enable us to move forward as a government to serve the people of British Columbia. We are determined to turn things around, to leave our children a different kind of legacy.

[1145]

H. Lali: I rise here in the Legislature to take my place in the debate on the so-called status quo budget. Before I do that, I want to officially congratulate the leader of the Liberals, who is now the new Premier, Christy Clark, on winning her leadership a couple of months back and welcome her back into this House. We served on opposite sides in the 1990s, from '96 to 2001. Both of us took a bit of a hiatus at different times, and she's back again, so I want to congratulate the new Premier.

At the same time, I want to also offer my congratulations to the new Leader of the Official Opposition, the member for Vancouver-Kingsway, who only a couple of weeks back won the leadership. I want to actually congratulate him and also thank him for taking on this great task in terms of holding, for the next few months, the government to task and then going on after the next election to become Premier of this province.

J. Les: Dream on, Harry. Dream on.

H. Lali: Well, I guess we've got some Liberal dreamers there. They think they're going to be back for another term. Anyway, we'll see what happens in the next election. Keep on dreaming, I say to them. Keep on dreaming, whole bunch of thumpers. Keep on dreaming.

Anyway, this latest budget, the new budget, which is actually a repeat of a whole bunch of old Liberal budgets that have been passed in this Legislature a few times over….

The government has run out of ideas; they've run out of steam. They're not putting forward any kinds of programs that are going to look after the interests of your average working British Columbian in this province. As much as they may try to actually put a gloss over things, it's just the same old repetition over again, and that's all we see from the B.C. Liberals. They've run out of steam.

But I'm going to talk about a whole new thing and items that are missing out of the budget, whether it's any strategy for job creation or protection of forestry jobs and resource sector jobs in this province.

We'll talk about how the Liberals have failed regarding poverty reduction. There's nothing in it for eradicating child poverty in this province or even First Nations poverty, which is the highest of any segment of our society. And I'll talk about homelessness and health care, rural health care and transportation — a whole myriad of issues. I'll put those on the table because this government has repeatedly for the last ten years failed to deal with those kinds of issues.

You know, I see Liberals sitting across the way, and some of them are shaking their heads. Some of them are waiting to see what I'm going to say. They may not want to believe what I have to say, because that's their choice. They've chosen to actually close their eyes and plug their ears when it comes to positive ideas coming forward from this side of the House. They just would rather listen to the old Premier, Mr. Campbell, who has gone, or to what the new Premier says she's going to do, and that's their choice.

I want to put on the record in terms of this budget what others are saying, what people who watch us from up there, from the galleries, and others have to say about this Liberal budget that was put forward.

In no particular order, I've taken clippings. I want to read some of this into the record and have the Liberals…. Actually, a lot of these folks over the last 20 years, 30 years that I've been following politics haven't really had much of a kind thing to say about New Democrats. They sort of tend to be friends of the right. But let's listen to what they have to say, and what they have to say about this budget that was put forward.

I'm going to start off, like I said, in no particular order. This is from February 16, Vancouver Sun, Mr. Vaughn Palmer. The heading is "Finance Minister…," and it names the minister, of course. So from now on I won't, obviously, name the minister. I'll just say Finance Minister and leave out the minister's name. "Finance Minister's 2011 Budget Not as Comfortable as He'd Like Us to Think."

[1150]

I want to quote. This is what Mr. Palmer says.

"So you got a budget with more than the usual amount of cash tucked under the couch cushions. Between contingencies and forecast allowances, there's about $2.5 billion spread over the next three years."

Of course, that's a political slush fund.

Then he continues:

"Though the Minister of Finance tried hard to pitch Budget 2011 as a status quo exercise with a hefty built-in margin of safety, his three-year fiscal plan was, on closer examination, not nearly as roomy and comfortable as he made out.

"Yes, there's $2.5 billion in unallocated funding, but that amounts to about 2 percent of total funding over the next three years, not much of a safety margin on a spending plan of that size and scope.

"Moreover, the Minister of Finance budgeted for just a 2 percent increase in program spending on average for each of the next three years. Actual increases have been running at closer to 6 percent in recent years.

"Meeting that target will require an unprecedented success in holding the line on spending for health and education at a time when complaints are mounting about underfunding and cuts in service."

Hon. Speaker, you know what that means — if you read between the lines, what Mr. Palmer is saying? That means the Liberals will be making massive cuts or continue to
[ Page 6470 ]
make cuts to health care and education and social services in order to meet their own spending targets that they have outlined. That's what this means here.

He continues here:

"Spending, taxes and the third area of concern in the minister's budget is debt. As noted in a piece that I wrote for the Sun's website Tuesday, the Liberals have lately been presiding over a dramatic run-up in the total provincial debt.

"From $34 billion just three years ago — also the debt level inherited from the NDP — they are proposing to push the debt above $60 billion by the end of the current three-year fiscal plan, meaning the budget year ending March 31, 2014."

He says:

"But you don't need to look very far into the financial statements to discover that all of the indicators — debt as percentage of economic output, interest payments as a share of provincial revenue, debt per capita — are moving in a direction that the Liberals deplored when the New Democrats were in office. Taken together, it means that the province's exposure to a spike in interest rates is greater than ever."

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

That's the picture that is being painted of this Liberal budget and what the Liberals are doing by Mr. Palmer.

Again in the same newspaper, Don Cayo, his article. The caption is "Fast-Mounting Debt Leaves B.C. Open to Risk." He writes:

"In 2001 B.C.'s debt totalled almost $34 billion. It was growing at moderate speed, and the newly elected B.C. Liberals were alarmed.

"Today it's $47 billion. It's growing nearly 50 percent faster than ten years ago. It'll hit $53 billion by the end of the coming fiscal year and will peak at more than $60 billion in two years. And here's the kicker. The long-governing B.C. Liberals are okay with that."

They're okay with that. When they were in opposition, they railed against the New Democrats when we were building highways and schools and hospitals. They said: "Oh my god, the debt, the debt, the debt." Well, with the Liberals, it's growing much faster.

If you look at the first 130 years of Confederation, of B.C. coming into Confederation, our total debt was $33.4 billion in 130 years. Well, in just the last ten years since the Liberals have been in office, the debt has increased to $60 billion — $60 billion — and that's just the one that's on their books.

Anyway, I know that my time will be up, but I'm going to read the rest of this into the record before I beg leave, hon. Speaker. He says:

"This government has also run up $5.6 billion in future liabilities through its use of public-private partnerships as a way to get pricey new things built without a lot more red ink showing up on their books…. But over the 30-or-so-year life of most of these agreements, they add up. And like debt, they'll surely limit the spending options of the next generation of taxpayers....

[1155]

"So what about those government-incurred mortgage payments — the $12,762 that every B.C. man, woman and child will owe by the time our debt is expected to stop growing? And what about the fast-rising debt-servicing costs that have already passed $2.5 billion a year and are headed for $3 billion? Is it okay for our government to be okay with this?"

They railed against the New Democrats, but now they're sitting on that side and are just burdening our future generations with this massive debt. When you look at the $60 billion that they're admitting to, when you add the nearly $6 billion for the liabilities they talk about, plus when you look at the IPPs and the $20 billion there — so you add another $26 billion on top of that — the debt under the Liberals is now at $86 billion, not just the $6 billion that they're talking about. I'll have more to say after lunch.

I note the hour, so I will reserve my place to speak after lunch.

H. Lali moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. B. Penner moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until 1:30 this afternoon.

The House adjourned at 11:57 a.m.

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