2013 Legislative Session: Fifth 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)

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 41, Number 2

ISSN 0709-1281 (Print)
ISSN 1499-2175 (Online)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

The House met at 1:37 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Prayers.

Tributes

FIREFIGHTERS

Hon. S. Bond: Today I rise to welcome some of British Columbia's finest — firefighters from around the province, and their families. Today outside the Legislature it was a very moving service, an opportunity to unveil a memorial to those firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Firefighters risk their lives to keep us safe, and in a disaster they are a beacon of hope to those in great pain or mortal danger. We can never, ever thank them enough for keeping us safe. And to the families who have lost a loved one, we can never repay you. We can, however, as we did today, pay tribute to their memory.

I would ask all members of the House to show their gratitude to these fine men and women who serve us and also to make them welcome here in the House today. [Applause.]

J. Horgan: On behalf of the official opposition, I want to join with the Attorney General in thanking and giving our utmost gratitude to the men and women who are joining us here today to celebrate the work of firefighters right across this province.

Mike Hurley, the president of B.C. Professional Fire Fighters, has been a leader in bringing firefighters' issues to this Legislature in a non-partisan way — in a way where all 85 of us can grow and better understand the incredible work that our neighbours, our brothers and our sisters and everyone in our community put into safety, fire prevention and, most importantly, have an understanding and grasp of the challenges that these men and women face each and every day selflessly on behalf all British Columbians.

Again, on behalf of the official opposition, I join with the Attorney.

To those that were at the presentation today: thank you very, very much for your service and your continued contribution to the people of British Columbia.

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Introductions by Members

Hon. J. Yap: We have some special guests in the gallery today. Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Canada; Shahin Soheili, member, national executive and director at large, Armenian Apostolic Church of Canada Diocese; Hasso Essmailian, member of board of trustees, Armenian Apostolic Church of Canada Diocese, and Vancouver parish representative; Armen Martirosian, Vancouver parish representative on the Diocesan Assembly, Armenian Apostolic Church Diocese; and Shant Tersakian, member, parish council, St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church. Would the House please extend a warm welcome to our special guests.

S. Fraser: I'm pleased today to introduce Paul Lacerte. Paul is a champion of aboriginal off-reserve rights and justice, well known to both sides of the House and respected. He's the executive director of the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, and he's visiting us today. Please make him feel very welcome.

C. Hansen: We're joined on the floor of the House today by two of our esteemed officers of the Legislature. Our conflict commissioner, Paul Fraser, and our Merit Commissioner, Fiona Spencer, are here. As we all in this chamber face questions about our job security in the coming months, we're here to provide some answers to these officers with regard to their job security later in these proceedings.

C. James: I have seven visitors in the gallery from Congregation Emanu-El. I'll have a little more to say about that later, but I would like the House, please, to recognize Rabbi Harry Brechner; Frances Aknai; Janis Diner-Brinley; Alan Rutkowski, who is an amazing person in his own right, but some of you may recognize him from a former staff person who worked in the Legislature — this is Jim Rutkowski's dad; Zelda Dean; Tim Humphreys; and one of my daughter's all-time favourite teachers from Central Junior, Barbara Pelman. Would the House please make them very welcome.

Hon. I. Chong: I want to thank the member for Alberni–Pacific Rim for introducing Paul Lacerte. I, too, would like to acknowledge his presence in the House today and, just by way of background, indicate that he is a member of the caribou clan and a citizen of the Carrier Nation in north central British Columbia.

He is here today not just on his own. I believe he has brought his family, so I would ask the House to please make Paul, his partner Asma and their four daughters and one son that are joining us today very welcome.

M. Karagianis: It has become a bit of a tradition in the House to introduce new grandchildren. I would like to introduce my newest grandchild, Caladan Baird Hennebery, who was born on November 28, to my daughter Aubrey and her partner, Brendan. I hope we will make this new baby welcome. That makes my eighth grandchild. I know I can't catch some members of this House, but that's my eighth, anyway.
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Mr. Speaker: We should just automatically go to Chilliwack.

J. Les: Indeed, I rise today to update the House on two additional grandchildren that my wife and I have been blessed with since the last session of the Legislature. On June 29, 2012, Gavin David Les arrived. He's a little brother for Airyn and Lyndon. His parents are our son Chris and his wife, Carina. On November 28, 2012, Kyle Matthew Kooyman was born. He's a little brother for Nicholas and Ashlyn. His parents are our daughter Sharon and her husband, Ron.

We are delighted with these additions to our family, and I would ask the House to please join me in welcoming them to our great province.

An Hon. Member: What's the grand total?

J. Les: Seventeen.

Mr. Speaker: I'm not certain I heard that correctly. Did the member say 17?

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J. Horgan: We have gratitude to the member for Chilliwack for reminding us just how long it has been since we sat here — approximately nine months, plus or minus a few weeks. But again, as always, congratulations to the member and the growing constituency of Chilliwack.

I, however, am rising to introduce the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed interns that arrived with hope in their hearts and a sense of the importance and dignity of this place. Of course, they hadn't been introduced to the lodgings that we were going to give them in the bowels of the building, right beside the infrastructure to keep the computers going. Nonetheless, that's what we've got.

Joining us on the opposition side…. I'm sure my colleague from Shuswap will have some words to say about the government members, but joining us in the 2013 list of interns are Katie Dittrich, Emma Fraser — who may be related to the member for Pacific Rim; we're not sure — Kate Russell, Rebecca Whitmore. Braeden Wiens rounds out the team.

Would the House please make them very, very welcome and ensure on this, their first question period, that we have all the answers to the question that we ask.

H. Bloy: I have three staff from my office visiting me today. I have Barbara Spitz, Ed Sem and Laura Yin. Would the House please make them welcome.

G. Coons: Two guests in the gallery today from Prince Rupert, two firefighters, IAFF Local 559 members: Remo Pomponio and president James Daniele. Could the House please make them welcome for all the hard work that they do — and all firefighters in the province.

G. Abbott: I'll just carry on from the Opposition House Leader with respect to the legislative interns. We've had the pleasure in this Legislature now for 37 years of hosting the legislative internship program. This is the 37th class of interns that will be joining us for a few months. I know they're the 37th because I was a member of the inaugural group 37 years ago. Sometime in the last distant century, apparently, I was a member of it.

But it is a great opportunity for us to learn from them, and also an opportunity for them to learn some of the processes of this very beautiful and important place as well. I would like to introduce Thomas Lattimer, Stephen Satterfield, Maya Fernandez, Vanesa Tomasino Rodriguez and Jared Marley, who are joining the B.C. Liberal side of the House.

I would also like to take a moment, Mr. Speaker, because the program operates so very well because of the support of people like Paddy Smith of Simon Fraser and Karen Aitken, who works in the assembly here to coordinate the program. They do wonderful work, and we look forward to learning much and enjoying the company of the 37th class of legislative interns.

R. Fleming: Joining us in the gallery today are members of the Jordan River Steering Committee, which is an alliance of citizen volunteers and groups from the Juan de Fuca electoral area and greater Victoria, with representation from the Wilderness Committee, the Sierra Club, the Sea to Sea Greenbelt Society and other community organizations. With us are Vicky Husband, Nitya Harris, Rosemary Jorna, Saul Arbess, Torrance Coste and Ray Zimmermann. I would ask the House to make all of these individuals welcome here in the gallery today.

Hon. P. Bell: I'm really pleased today to be joined in the House by three distinguished members of the tourism industry association, provincial destination marketing organization task force. These individuals worked long and hard to come up with an industry-led, formula-funded organization that's going to help support tourism into the future. Joining us today are Lana Denoni, who is the chair of the Tourism Industry Association, Christine Stoneman and James Terry. Would the House please make them very welcome.

Tributes

HARDIAL SINGH GREWAL

R. Chouhan: I would like to pay tribute to a man because of whom I am here in Canada, my father-in-law, Mr. Hardial Singh Grewal, who passed away on February 3 very peacefully. He came to Canada in 1959. When he arrived here, like many other people, he worked in sawmills. He became a very active member of IWA. He also served as the director of IWA Credit Union for many
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years, and he was also president of the Khalsa Diwan Society in New Westminster.

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During his life in Canada he also helped very many people to raise funds to buy medical equipment for Royal Columbian Hospital. He was also a small business man. So please join me to say my best wishes to our family — especially my wife, who really misses him.

Introductions by Members

J. Thornthwaite: In addition to welcoming the firefighters from the district of North Vancouver — Mark Dear and Brian Leavold — I'd also like to recognize Tim Schindel, our legislative chaplain. I just noticed he was up there.

Thank you for the work that you do.

Tributes

CLYDE HERTZMAN

Hon. D. McRae: As the Minister of Education, I'm honoured to have the opportunity to pay tribute to the late Dr. Clyde Hertzman. British Columbia has lost a leader, a teacher, a scientist and an innovator. Dr. Hertzman's intelligence, coupled with his passion for learning and research, has led to an invaluable contribution to early childhood and human development. He strove to make quality early childhood education accessible to as many young British Columbians as possible.

As the director of the human early learning partnership at UBC's college for interdisciplinary studies, Dr. Hertzman studied the connection between biological and socioeconomic factors that impact children in their early stages of development. Concerned about children being vulnerable by the time they entered kindergarten, Dr. Hertzman's applied research in early childhood development has not only measured early developmental health but helped communities, parents, teachers and school boards all work towards improving learning environments at school and at home.

Not only does Dr. Hertzman leave a legacy for his fellow researchers and scientists in his field of study, but his embodiment of leadership also serves as inspiration for all British Columbians to follow. I extend my deepest sympathies to Dr. Hertzman's family.

C. James: I want to echo the words of the Education Minister and add, on behalf of the opposition, our thoughts to Marcy and to their family, to Clyde's children. I think it's an extraordinary legacy that he leaves in this province.

When I think back to my days as a school trustee and the work that Clyde has done to be able to assist people making decisions around resources, making decisions in schools, making decisions on early childhood education…. Children's lives in this province are better because of Clyde Hertzman's work. Children's lives have been improved. Families' lives have been improved because of Clyde's work.

And while I know this is a very difficult time for his family, and our thoughts go out to them, I also know that that incredible legacy will give them some comfort as they're going through this difficult time.

Introduction and
First Reading of Bills

BILL 2 — PROVINCIAL SALES TAX
TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS AND
AMENDMENTS ACT, 2013

Hon. M. de Jong presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Provincial Sales Tax Transitional Provisions and Amendments Act, 2013.

Hon. M. de Jong: I move the bill be introduced and read a first time now.

Motion approved.

Hon. M. de Jong: This bill completes the legislation required for the reimplementation of the PST, a tax that will apply to the same goods and services and provides the same permanent exemptions as the old PST and hotel room tax did prior to the implementation of the HST on July 1, 2010. The PST will be implemented pursuant to this and other legislation, effective April 1, 2013.

The bill provides transitional provisions for the PST for transactions that straddle April 1, 2013, transitional provisions for the Motor Fuel Tax Act and for the Consumption Tax Rebate and Transition Act, Hotel Room Tax Act and the Social Service Tax Act, consequential and related amendments to various other acts, amendments to the New Housing Transition Tax and Rebate Act and, finally, amendments to the Provincial Sales Tax Act itself.

I move that the bill be placed on the orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Bill 2, Provincial Sales Tax Transitional Provisions and Amendments Act, 2013, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

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BILL 3 — DESTINATION BC CORP. ACT

Hon. P. Bell presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Destination BC Corp. Act.
[ Page 12722 ]

Hon. P. Bell: Mr. Speaker, I move that Bill 3 be introduced and read a first time now.

Motion approved.

Hon. P. Bell: B.C. faces fierce global competition for each and every tourist dollar, but we also have an incredible opportunity to move into new markets and emerge with new opportunity. Our new tourism Crown corporation, Destination B.C., will strengthen collaboration with the tourism industry so that we take full advantage of the opportunity to market B.C. as a world-class destination and compete on a global scale.

Although Destination B.C. was established in November of 2012 under the Business Corporations Act, establishing it as a corporation through statute provides greater transparency and funding certainty for the industry, stakeholders and the public.

This legislation sets out a framework for Destination B.C. that will enable greater responsiveness to the tourism industry and increase accountability to taxpayers. It is expected that Destination B.C. will help the tourism industry in British Columbia grow and increase tourism revenue, visitor numbers and job creation across the province.

I move that Bill 3 be placed on the orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Bill 3, Destination BC Corp. Act, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

BILL 6 — LOCAL GOVERNMENT STATUTES
AMENDMENT ACT, 2013

Hon. B. Bennett presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Local Government Statutes Amendment Act, 2013.

Hon. B. Bennett: I move that the bill be read for the first time now.

Motion approved.

Hon. B. Bennett: I am pleased to present the Local Government Statutes Amendment Act, 2013. This legislation responds to a request from British Columbia local governments to allow them to send property tax notices electronically. This will be a service municipalities can now offer to taxpayers. It will be at the request of the taxpayer and is voluntary.

There are also four minor amendments to the Vancouver Charter that were requested by the city of Vancouver. They include, briefly, providing the option of being able to pay for parking with a credit card or phone, closing a loophole in relation to tax sales, authorizing city council to use up to five years for land assessment averaging to calculate annual property taxes, and clarifying the city's power to regulate the days and hours of operation of licensed restaurants.

I move that the Local Government Statutes Amendment Act, 2013 be placed on the orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Bill 6, Local Government Statutes Amendment Act, 2013, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Statements
(Standing Order 25B)

FIREFIGHTERS MEMORIAL

H. Bloy: For our province's firefighters, recognition is not an important part of the job. What is important is keeping their community safe and helping those who need their support. So it is fitting that many of us don't really think about them until we realize we need their help.

Unfortunately, due to the dangerous nature of their job, B.C. firefighters often put their own lives in danger to protect the lives of others. Every once in a while a firefighter gives his or her life to save another. Seventy-six firefighters have lost their lives while on the job, committing the ultimate sacrifice in service to their fellow British Columbians. Today they will get the recognition they deserve.

For the past three years our government has worked with the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Association to create a monument to our province's 76 fallen heroes. I'm very proud that we were able to find a permanent home for the monument here on the legislative grounds.

I would like to thank the Premier and you, hon. Speaker, for your full support on this project in making it a reality. As well, I would like to thank Mike Hurley for all the work that he, as president of the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters, put in to make this a reality, and Jay Brownlee, who worked tirelessly to make this ceremony today such an incredible event.

Because of everyone's collective efforts, every British Columbian will know the bravery of our firefighters and the sacrifice some make to keep others safe. With this monument, they will always be remembered.

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L. Popham: Today British Columbia firefighters travelled to the Legislature to attend the BCPFFA 2013 Fallen Firefighter Memorial service. This memorial service remembered those professional firefighters who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service of their communities and have died in the line of duty.
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This year six firefighters' names were recognized, making 76 the number of British Columbian firefighters who have given their lives for us. Today the last alarm rang for Bruce, Ron, Leister, Terry, John and Sidney. As with the inaugural ceremony in 2011, this one was emotional and moving. The monument that was unveiled will be a welcome place for friends and families who have lost loved ones. It's a place to remember, and it's a place to grieve.

I feel very connected to the B.C. firefighter family, as my husband, Jon Popham, of the Oak Bay fire department, and my brother, Guy McKintuck, of the Delta fire department, have each dedicated over two decades of their lives to their profession. My father, Henry McKintuck, and my cousin David Bjorkman have also served in a volunteer capacity for fire departments around the province. My life is full of these courageous people who have devoted their lives to protecting us.

This poem was written by a firefighter in 1973, and it's called The Last Alarm.

My father was a fireman.

He drove a big red truck,

and when he'd go to work each day,

he'd say: "Mother, wish me luck."

Then Dad would not come home again

until sometime the next day.

But the thing that bothered me the most

was the things some folks would say:

"A fireman's life is easy.

He sleeps and eats and plays,

and sometimes he won't fight a fire

for many, many days."

When I first heard these words,

I was too young to understand,

but I knew when people had trouble,

Dad was there to lend a hand.

When my father went to work one day

and kissed us all goodbye,

little did we realize

that night we all would cry.

My father lost his life that night

when the floor gave way below.

I wondered why he'd risked his life

for someone he didn't know.

But now I truly realize

the greatest gift a man can give

is to lay his life upon the line

so someone else might live.

So as you go from day to day

and pray to God above,

say a prayer for your local fireman.

He may save the ones you love.

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
AND AWARDS IN CARIBOO AREA

D. Barnett: March 9 marks celebrations for the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce as well as the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce in my riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin.

The South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce will be celebrating its 19th annual Business Excellence Awards and Citizen of the Year awards recognizing the invaluable contribution that both business and citizens have made to our communities. On the same evening, the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce will also be celebrating their 18th annual Business Excellence Awards.

These excellence awards are a great way to recognize the achievements of local business and citizens and to demonstrate our appreciation for all the hard work they do to make our communities a better place to live.

I would like to acknowledge Chamber of Commerce Week, which is next week, from February 18 to 22. Chambers of commerce play an integral role for businesses in our communities, often offering economic seminars, networking events, economic development initiatives and Shop Local programs. These services not only play a supportive role for businesses but, in turn, positively affect all members of the community by contributing to a strong economy.

I encourage everyone to take the time next week and participate in their local chamber of commerce events during British Columbia Chamber of Commerce Week. It is an opportunity to support and appreciate work that chambers do supporting businesses across B.C.

150th ANNIVERSARY OF
CONGREGATION EMANU-EL

C. James: In 1863 Congregation Emanu-El was established as a spiritual home for Victoria's Jewish settlers. The construction of a synagogue was a tremendous undertaking, and it succeeded in no small measure due to the support of the wider community, including other local churches.

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Today, 150 years later, the historic synagogue on Blanshard Street is a rare surviving example of 19th-century Romanesque revival architecture and is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in all of Canada. In 1983 it was designated as a national historical site.

What a long and proud journey it has been. Early Jewish settlers in Victoria were actively involved in public life, and the congregation has celebrated many historic firsts. In 1859 Selim Franklin was elected to the B.C. Legislature, the first Jewish person to take a seat in any legislature in British North America. In 1865 his brother Lumley Franklin was elected as the second mayor of Victoria, and in 1872 Henry Nathan Jr. was the first Jewish Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons.

Today Congregation Emanu-El continues its involvement in the wider community. Members provide hot meals to those in need, and in the winter months they convert their social hall into an Out of the Rain Youth Night Shelter. The congregation also provides rent subsidies to families at risk of homelessness, and they run
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educational and cultural programs throughout the year.

June 2 is the 150th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone. It will be commemorated with public events and celebrations spanning several months. Congregation Emanu-El is also raising the almost $1 million needed to restore the synagogue, and I'm certain that our community will once again step forward to help this magnificent historical building to stand for another 150 years at least.

I hope all members will join me in saying mazel tov, congratulations, to Congregation Emanu-El on its 150th anniversary.

POOLE FAMILY FARM
AND CENTURY FARM AWARD

J. Rustad: The Century Farm Award honours agricultural organizations that have contributed to B.C.'s legacy of food production and agriculture for a century or longer, as well as pioneers whose farms have been in the family for 100 years or more.

I'm proud to say the Poole family in my riding is a recipient of this award, and I'd like to share their story.

In 1912 Charles and Alfred Poole, alongside their families, travelled to B.C. searching for good farmland and successfully located an area in the Mapes district, southeast of Vanderhoof.

Ever since Charles Poole obtained a pre-emption claim for the property in 1913 and a certificate of title in 1924, the land has remained in the Poole family. In 1955 the property was transferred to Charles's daughter Grace, the second-generation Poole family to own it. She worked the land with her brother Hubert, and in 2012 the land was then transferred to Hubert's son, Alfred Poole, and Poole Farms Ltd.

Although the majority of the responsibilities fall on Alfred and his son Dale, Hubert and his wife, Edna, are still involved in the day-to-day running of the farm, even after retirement. The family's commitment to working the land demonstrates their investment in the agricultural industry and attachment to the area.

The original property of 160 acres is now a 3,500-acre operation where the family continues to raise cattle. The Poole family exemplifies hard work and dedication to food production in our great province, making extensive contributions to B.C.'s economy.

It's hard to imagine what life was like 100 years ago or all of the challenges and joy that come with working the land over that time. Mr. Speaker, it's a pleasure to recognize the Poole family's achievements. Please join me in congratulating their receipt of the Century Farm Award.

FIRST CALL
CHILD AND YOUTH ADVOCACY COALITION

C. Trevena: For 20 years B.C. has been lucky to have an immensely active advocacy coalition, First Call, out fighting for B.C.'s children and youth, and the need has never been greater.

It's First Call that every year publishes the child poverty report card showing the dismal state of childhood in our province. Every year it highlights how poorly we serve our children by letting them grow up in poverty. It's First Call that brings together organizations from around the province to help advocate for high-quality, low-cost public child care for our youngsters so they and their families can get on with a life fulfilled.

It's First Call that's leading the campaign to end child labour in B.C. The laws were changed by this government to allow kids as young as 12 to work, often in dangerous situations without supervision. First Call is willing to stand up to fight that jobs plan and make sure that children and youth are not exploited by force of circumstance.

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It's First Call that's championing the living wage campaign. That's an effort to get communities to commit to everyone receiving a living wage — not the minimum wage but a wage that families can live on, can feed their kids and get them clothes, can pay the rent and their hydro bills.

First Call, a non-partisan organization, has been on the front lines for 20 years. It's committed to early childhood education. It supports strong transitions from childhood to youth and from youth to adulthood. It wants to see economic equality, and it wants safe and caring communities. Its three-strong staff, headed by the amazing and award-winning Adrienne Montani, continue to guide the coalition through the maze of public policy and partisan stands.

Essentially, none of what First Call advocates for should be a fight. Their positions, if adopted, would enhance the fabric of our society. High-quality, affordable and accessible child care makes sense. Children having to go to work to help their families make ends meet is an insult to all of us, and having kids and families living in poverty demeans us all.

It is, as they say, a no-brainer. We either invest our children now so that they can have a good start in their lives and become active participants in our communities and our society, or we pay the price later, picking up the pieces and seeing our society diminish.

Oral Questions

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING
DURING PRE-ELECTION PERIOD

A. Dix: It's obviously going to be a very interesting session of the Legislature. It feels like we were here about 8½ months ago, and indeed, we were.

My question is to the Premier. As the Premier will know, the government is engaged in an unprecedented partisan
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ad campaign around its jobs plan, ads that should be paid for by the Liberal Party and not the taxpayer. We don't know when the ad campaign will end, however. As the Premier will know, her predecessor, Mr. Campbell, took the view that government shouldn't be doing this four months before an election campaign.

My question to the Premier is simple. Can the Premier confirm that her government wants to continue this taxpayer-funded campaign through at least the end of March?

Hon. C. Clark: Indeed, it is nice to be back.

I would just want to start by clearing this up. The Leader of the Opposition should certainly know that it's not unprecedented in British Columbia, first of all.

Second, when we talk to British Columbians about getting engaged in skills training, for example…. The government has made a $75 million investment in skills and trades training, connecting people with those opportunities all across the province — job fairs that have happened, which the opposition has also opposed, where people have been connected with jobs on the spot. That is the work that government needs to be engaged in.

If we stick to our plan, if we play our cards right, British Columbia is facing an incredible opportunity to grasp prosperity for this generation and future generations. We need to attract that investment, we need to create the jobs and the economic environment here in British Columbia, and we need to make sure that British Columbians are connected with those jobs so that we can deliver that prosperity for the people of our province.

Mr. Speaker: The Leader of the Opposition has a supplemental.

A. Dix: Even though it was 8½ months ago, I remember question period. It's good to show up, probably, with the questions and the answers.

In light of that answer, I have a document from the government that shows that its $16.4 million ad campaign…. The intent of the government is actually to ramp up this campaign, contrary to what Mr. Campbell did, through the end of March.

What is its purpose, when you think of all the things that government is not supporting right now? The purpose of this campaign, according to the government document, is to help "decrease the credibility gap" of the government.

So $16.4 million — yes, it's an ambitious goal. The reality is that the government appears to want to continue to pour it on in this pre-election period and to spend more and more money on government advertising.

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Interjection.

A. Dix: You know, Mr. Speaker, it's interesting. I just want to say, at this point in the session, how much I'm going to miss the member for Kamloops–South Thompson.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

A. Dix: When he's gone, I'm sure we're all going to miss him, and me, surely, more than most.

The question to the Premier is simply this: will the Premier join with the opposition and change the government's approach? Will she put a stop today to this waste of public trust?

Hon. C. Clark: I recognize that the information the government is putting out offers some uncomfortable facts for the opposition, including the fact that in the first year of the jobs plan we were number one in job creation of any province in Canada, including the fact that we have maintained our triple-A credit rating in the face of a terrible economic downturn and including the fact that we have the lowest personal income taxes in the country for most taxpayers in British Columbia. Those are uncomfortable facts.

Those are facts. As we enter this next age, where today and tomorrow and over the next year we are going to be making the pivotal decisions that will determine whether or not our province grasps the opportunity for prosperity that is promised by liquefied natural gas…. As we move into that era, we won't be just talking about those facts. We'll be talking about some of the facts, the uncomfortable facts, about where the NDP stands on those issues as well.

Mr. Speaker: The Leader of the Official Opposition has a further supplemental.

A. Dix: Where we stand on this issue is to end this kind of misuse of public funds. The government, on the record….

Interjections.

A. Dix: Well, the members opposite will have the opportunity in this session to join with me in legislation that will ensure that every government ad is approved by the Auditor General. The government will remember the Auditor General. To say no to all government advertising in a pre-election period — that's a good idea. Premier Gordon Campbell supported it. Why doesn't the government today?

There was $3.9 million in ads in late 2011-2012…

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.
[ Page 12726 ]

A. Dix: …and $5.1 million for nine 15-second ads. The only way we could be number one in job creation is to ignore the existence of seven other provinces.

So $2 million for the domino ad that's currently running, $1.5 million for two ads about skills training that are currently running and — here it is — $4.1 million for post-budget ads that will start next week. Apparently, the government doesn't believe the budget will sell itself.

My question to the Premier is simple. Does the Premier think that enough is enough — that we should change the way we deal with government advertising and ensure that the partisanship is taken out of it once and for all?

Hon. C. Clark: It's always interesting to see the member do an about-face on just about every issue — on this one, on all of their positions that they've taken with respect to liquefied natural gas. "Yes, we'll have Site C. No, we won't have Site C. Yes, we'll have green power. No, we won't have green power" — all of their positions that they've taken all across the board. Of course, this one is no different.

In British Columbia here we are with one of the best economic track records you will find anywhere in the world. That did not happen by accident.

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It happened because we planned for the long term, because we were disciplined, because we were committed to doing what we said we were going to do, and that has delivered thousands of jobs for people all across this province.

Mr. Speaker, as you could detect from the throne speech yesterday, we are just getting started.

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
AND SPENDING PRIORITIES

C. James: The Premier mentioned the throne speech. Yesterday's throne speech actually laid out some revenue projections that seem to be based on some fantasy world. Today we learn that the advertising numbers, in fact, also were not exactly accurate.

Originally, we heard the government say they'd be spending ten million taxpayer dollars on these partisan ads. Then the number went up to $15 million, and now we hear it's $16.4 million or more. British Columbians are already outraged at this waste of money, and now they find out they're spending more of taxpayer dollars.

When the Liberal government is actually looking at cutting resources for forest health, when we see the shameful statistic around child poverty in this province, the priority of this government is to spend taxpayer dollars on partisan advertising.

I ask the Premier today: how does she justify spending that money on partisan advertising to simply boost her own political gain?

Hon. P. Bell: Apparently, what we have with the opposition is a case of: "Don't do as we did. Do as we say." I was just scanning the blue book estimates for the 1990s, when the NDP also had an advertising budget. A quick scan of it from 1993 to 2000 points out that the $16.3 million that we have budgeted this year is less than any given year in that entire period of time.

You know what? There is a standard that has been set by certain opposition members, which is below anything that I could comprehend in terms of partisanship. In fact, we have ads here from the member for Fraser-Nicola that use not only his constituency office and his MLA title but also the B.C. NDP website in exactly the same ad. That's partisan advertising. The opposition needs to acknowledge that they're far more guilty in this than anyone else.

Mr. Speaker: The member has a supplemental.

C. James: The documents that the Leader of the Opposition referred to show that the next set of ads will be aimed at selling the Premier's budget. Now, I understand, given how far from reality the 2009 pre-election budget was, that's going to be quite the sales job that's going to be needed on this budget.

British Columbians expect their government to provide services that they need, not waste tens of millions of dollars on partisan advertising. That's why British Columbians support the New Democrats' direction to ban this kind of partisan advertising.

I ask again today: will the Premier…

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

C. James: …do the right thing? Will the Premier cancel this ad campaign and direct that critical money into services for seniors, children and people who need them the most?

Hon. P. Bell: For me to take this member seriously, she would need to stand up and also admonish the Leader of the Opposition, who — when you go back to the election period when that member was the chief of staff — spent $28.4 million in advertising, not the $16 million.

For me to take that member seriously, she needs to stand up and admonish the member for Fraser-Nicola for spending constituency funds on an ad that he now says was just a mistake. We can't take these folks seriously. They don't do as they say. They do as they did, and that's very, very damaging.

[1425]

JOB CREATION AND
GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

J. Kwan: Clearly, these partisan ads are a waste of taxpayers' money.

Now, let's do something that the Liberal government is not used to doing. Let's look at the substance of the jobs plan ads. The $16-million-plus ad claims that British Columbia is leading the nation in job creation, when in fact this is categorically false. It has since been that case when the jobs plan was announced back in September 2011. Statistics Canada's labour survey study released last Friday actually shows that B.C. is eighth in the country in overall job creation.

Will the minister stop wasting taxpayers' money…

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker: Member.

J. Kwan: …and put a stop to these partisan ads?

Hon. P. Bell: I know there are some uncomfortable facts for the members opposite in the ads that are running. The first point, the very first point, in the dominoes ad that's running right now is that there are economies around the world that are in a fragile state — very clearly articulated. I know the members opposite actually don't want to admit that. They'd like to think that things are rosy around the world. In the European Union, the United States and other provinces — very, very challenging economic times.

The second point that's likely uncomfortable for the members opposite is that this province, as a result of its judicious management of fiscal resources, still has a triple-A credit rating.

Mr. Speaker, people are nervous in British Columbia right now. But I'll tell you why they're nervous. It's because the members opposite have not disclosed their hidden agenda. What are their plans? What are their strategies to generate the revenues that are required to pay for the services that they're talking about?

Mr. Speaker: The member has a supplemental.

J. Kwan: Speaking of uncomfortable facts….

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

Member, just take your seat for a second.

Continue, Member.

J. Kwan: Speaking of uncomfortable facts, the latest figures actually show the overall jobs numbers have been stagnant since the jobs plan was introduced in September 2011. In the private sector alone, where the job plan is supposed to target, we have seen a dramatic loss — a job loss of 37,000 jobs since the job plan began. That is actually the worst in the country — 37,000 private sector jobs lost. And the government is still spending millions of dollars, taxpayers' dollars, with their partisan ads. This kind of waste is exactly why British Columbians want to see a ban on government advertising.

Will the minister just do the right thing? Will he just confirm what everyone already knows — that is, that the jobs plan is a complete failure — and save taxpayers' hard-earned money and cancel the jobs advertising?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Just take your seat for a second, Member.

Reminding members that this is the first question period, but let's listen to the question, listen to the answer and show a little bit of respect on both sides of the House, please.

Hon. P. Bell: Another uncomfortable fact for the opposition. When that member that just asked the question, actually, was last in government, the unemployment rate in Canada was 7.2 percent. Ironically, last year the unemployment rate in Canada was also 7.2 percent.

[1430]

The uncomfortable part of the fact is that when that member was last in government, the B.C. unemployment rate was half a point higher than Canada's. The other side of the uncomfortable fact: the B.C. unemployment rate is now half a point lower than the rest of Canada.

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
AND SPENDING PRIORITIES

M. Farnworth: Let's talk about another uncomfortable fact — that the priorities of this government are clearly not the priorities of the public of British Columbia.

The priorities of this government around things such as seniors care. Can you imagine how much seniors home support could be provided for more than $16 million?

Can you imagine how many miners could have been trained for more than $16 million, how many educational opportunities could have been given to young people in this province for more than $16 million? Can you imagine what $16 million would do in developing an anti-bullying program in the province of British Columbia?

Will this government admit that its priorities around advertising are wrong, that this ad campaign is a gross misuse of taxpayers' dollars and get on side of the public? Pull these ads, and put that money where it could be doing real use, which is services for the people of British Columbia.
[ Page 12728 ]

Hon. P. Bell: Today is, unfortunately, a day of uncomfortable facts for the NDP. I'm glad they continue to put up members that were actually in government in the 1990s, because I can point out some uncomfortable facts during that point in time.

The government communications department of the day actually had an interesting name. The member opposite will likely remember it was called Cupcakes. What was interesting about that — when that member was in charge, when that member sat in cabinet — is that the budget for Cupcakes was $39.28 million, and there were 322 FTEs in that department. I guess that's the idea of NDP job creation, from what I can tell.

Now, the budget today for that particular department is 33 percent lower than it was when that member was in government. The FTE count is 37 percent lower than it was when that member was in government. The advertising budgets have shrunk significantly. We need to make sure British Columbians know where we stand.

What I would like to know is what the hidden agenda is that the members opposite have and why it is that they are so hesitant to tell us what their economic plan for this province is.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

Take your seat, Member.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: It's your time, Members.

The member has a supplemental.

M. Farnworth: We're talking about 2013, when people are concerned about the spending of their taxpayers' dollars. They don't like this advertising. They've made that abundantly clear.

Let's look at what the attitude of this government is. Their own document says, "All parts of the campaign work together and drive one another. No one ad works alone, and no piece of creative operates outside a media buying and targeting strategy" — a strategy that involves ramping up taxpayers' dollars from now till the end of March.

Well, the government doesn't want to listen to the opposition or the public, but perhaps the Premier will listen to one of her own members who understands how grotesque this strategy is. The member for Cariboo-Chilcotin gets it, because when she was asked a direct question about whether this spending on government advertising was excessive, she replied correctly: "Yes." There's one member on that side who gets it. It's a shame the rest of them don't get it.

[1435]

Will the Premier, if she doesn't want to listen to British Columbians across this province, at least listen to the member for Cariboo-Chilcotin — who gets it that this orgy of government advertising should end — and cancel the campaigns?

Hon. P. Bell: I'm wondering if Cupcakes perhaps wrote that particular speech for the member opposite.

The members opposite would like to deny the history that they bring with them. In fact, when I look across the aisle, I see people like the member for Fraser-Nicola, the member for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant, the member for Port Coquitlam, the member for Nanaimo and, of course, the Leader of the Opposition, who was not necessarily elected at the time but sat in a very important power as the chief of staff to the Premier of the day.

The facts are very, very clear. When I look up the numbers, $28 million, $22 million, $18 million, $19 million, $21 million was spent on advertising by the NDP each and every year that they were in power.

For me to take that member seriously, I need to hear him stand up and say: "We were wrong. This is completely contrary to what we believe, and we support the model that we're currently operating under."

NATURAL GAS REVENUE PROJECTIONS

B. Ralston: Yesterday's throne speech showed this Liberal government is clearly out of ideas. The centrepiece of the speech was the empty promise of a fantasy windfall of revenue up to 30 years away.

But British Columbians know they can't trust this government to project revenue with any degree of precision. Over the last four years natural gas revenue projections were consistently off by hundreds of millions of dollars, most dramatically last year.

Will the Finance Minister answer why British Columbians should accept the Liberal government's fantasy fund and LNG revenue projections over the next 30 years when they were inaccurate in projecting natural gas revenue over the last 12 months?

Hon. M. de Jong: The investment that is taking place in the liquefied natural gas industry, for the members' information, is real. The opportunity that exists for British Columbia to access markets where the product we have in abundance, the resource that we have in abundance in British Columbia, is being purchased at a dramatically higher price than is available in the continental North American market is real.

There is a third thing that is real. If we squander this opportunity, if we do not move quickly to ensure that the infrastructure is in place and the agreements between the private sector and the government are in place so that we can begin to move this product offshore into those more lucrative markets, then we will have to look our children and grandchildren in the face and answer for that.
[ Page 12729 ]

There is nothing mythical about the opportunity that confronts us today. British Columbians will know, and they will have an opportunity to choose the group that is best equipped to take us to that reality.

Mr. Speaker: The member has a supplemental.

B. Ralston: Well, last year the then Minister of Finance had to revise his estimates of natural gas revenue, which is domestically traded and traded in the United States as well, down by $1.1 billion over three years. I appreciate the confidence of the minister, and one looks forward with optimism to the capital projections of those companies that are assessing the opportunity in the LNG industry. But it is a global market and at a price that's set globally.

Will the minister acknowledge that given his failure to project revenue accurately over the last 12 months, projecting revenue of those measures over 30 years gives no confidence whatsoever to the public and that it is simply a B.C. Liberal…

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

[1440]

B. Ralston: …fantasy designed as a lure in the election campaign to come?

Hon. M. de Jong: I think it's troubling that the member and many of his colleagues appear to have been as dismissive of this opportunity as they are — which I say, again, is very real.

I will say something else. Pursuing this opportunity will require a singular commitment on the part of government, on the part of communities and on the part of industry, because there is competition — there is competition in Australia, in Russia, in Africa — and the opportunity will be lost.

We have heard the conflicting comments from members of the opposition — some who say it's a good idea, some who say it's a bad idea and some who don't know.

We know. We know that there is an opportunity to take advantage of a price differential that exists in the markets overseas for liquefied natural gas, and we're going to go get those opportunities on behalf of all British Columbians.

J. Horgan: I don't want to quibble with the Finance Minister's view of the 30-year horizon, but I will just pose this series of simple questions.

If I understood the throne speech yesterday, the mythical prosperity fund will have zero dollars in it in 2013, zero dollars in it in 2014…

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker: Member.

J. Horgan: …zero dollars in 2015, zero dollars in 2016. If I'm not mistaken, we will be into the second election cycle before we see one scintilla put into a prosperity fund.

Again, in light of the abysmal record of judging what revenue we will get from natural gas in a North American market, why in the world would British Columbians believe a government that thinks they have the answers 30 years out? It's ridiculous. Admit it.

Hon. M. de Jong: Well, to my friend the Opposition House Leader, I agree with one aspect of what he said. The bulk of the revenue opportunity that will flow from this extraordinary opportunity will flow into British Columbia and into B.C. coffers after the electorate has had a second opportunity to reject the NDP.

Look, I will say this. The member chooses — and I understand why he and his colleagues talk about 30 years…. This is happening now. In the same way that when the Olympics were awarded in 2003 and we thought, "Oh my goodness, 2010 is a long time off," seven years happen very quickly. That's the window for beginning to realize the benefits on liquefied natural gas.

The fact that the members opposite scoff in the way that they do and dismiss this opportunity in the way that they do fills me with trepidation, except for one fact, and that is because British Columbians this May will have an opportunity to choose who is going to lead British Columbia into the future.

[End of question period.]

Reports from Committees

C. Hansen: I have the honour to present the report of the Special Committee to Appoint a Conflict of Interest Commissioner and a Merit Commissioner.

I move that the report be taken as read and received.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Continue, Member.

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

Leave granted.

Mr. Speaker: Please proceed, Member.

C. Hansen: I move that the report be adopted.
[ Page 12730 ]

This report constitutes the committee's unanimous recommendation for the appointment of a Conflict of Interest Commissioner and a Merit Commissioner for British Columbia. On behalf of the committee, I am delighted to put forward this unanimous report to the House recommending the reappointments of Paul Fraser and Fiona Spencer. [Applause.]

[1445]

Mr. Fraser was first appointed Conflict of Interest Commissioner in 2008. Members have all benefited from his sound judgment and advice. Mr. Fraser's continuing commitment to his statutory responsibilities impressed the committee members.

Since her appointment as Merit Commissioner in 2010 Ms. Spencer has shown a continued dedication to the principle of merit. Committee members recognized and particularly appreciated the knowledgable and professional manner in which Miss Spencer has undertaken her duties.

I will be moving a motion requesting the Lieutenant-Governor appoint Miss Spencer as Merit Commissioner. Section 14(2) of the Members' Conflict of Interest Act requires that the Premier move the motion respecting the Conflict of Interest Commissioner.

Once the House has dealt with my motion regarding the Merit Commissioner, I will take my seat and the Premier will move the motion respecting the Conflict of Interest Commissioner.

Mr. Speaker: The question is adoption of the report as read and received.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Continue, Member.

C. Hansen: I ask leave of the House to permit the moving of a motion requesting the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint Ms. Spencer Merit Commissioner of the province of British Columbia.

Leave granted.

Mr. Speaker: Proceed, Member.

Motions Without Notice

APPOINTMENT OF MERIT COMMISSIONER

C. Hansen: I move:

[That this House recommend to Her Honour the Lieutenant Governor the appointment of Ms. Fiona Spencer as a statutory Officer of the Legislature, to exercise the powers and duties assigned to the Merit Commissioner for the province of British Columbia pursuant to the Public Service Act (RSBC 1996, Chapter 385).]

Motion approved.

Hon. C. Clark: I ask leave of the House to permit the moving of a motion requesting the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint Mr. Fraser Conflict of Interest Commissioner for the province of British Columbia.

Leave granted.

Mr. Speaker: Continue, Premier.

APPOINTMENT OF
CONFLICT OF INTEREST COMMISSIONER

Hon. C. Clark: By leave, I move:

[That this House recommend to Her Honour the Lieutenant Governor the appointment of Mr. Paul Fraser, QC as a statutory officer of the Legislative Assembly to exercise powers and duties assigned to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner for the province of British Columbia pursuant to the Members' Conflict of Interest Act (RSBC 1996, Chapter 287)]

Motion approved.

Petitions

J. Slater: I have a petition to present from 250 people in the South Okanagan, Oliver-Osoyoos area, on the operations of the South Okanagan General Hospital.

Ministerial Statements

ANTI-VIOLENCE INITIATIVE
BY ABORIGINAL MEN

Hon. I. Chong: Today I rise in the House to make a statement with respect to an event that will be taking place this Friday, February 15. On that day, I will have the honour of participating in a very special event taking place here in Victoria. It is the second annual gathering of aboriginal men standing up against violence toward aboriginal women and children.

The event is part of the moosehide campaign initiated by Paul Lacerte and the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres. The campaign encourages men to wear a small piece of pinned moosehide to raise awareness and signify a personal commitment to ending violence against aboriginal women and children.

The gathering is a call to action and an invitation for brothers, uncles, fathers, grandfathers and sons to stand together to help end violence against aboriginal women and children. It is a remarkable event and one that speaks to the importance of the voice of men and the community-based approach to ending violence against aboriginal women and children, whether they are First Nation, Métis or Inuit.

Violence against aboriginal women and children is a complex issue, and solutions are not easily found. We know that solutions must be community-driven, community-led
[ Page 12731 ]
and respectful of culture, traditions and language.

It is an honour for me to be able to be part of the gathering of aboriginal men event on Friday, and I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Paul Lacerte and all those who worked hard to make this event happen.

[1450]

Violence against aboriginal women and children is not just a woman's issue. We must include men in the discussions and in solutions.

S. Fraser: Hon. Speaker, I would first like to apologize to you and the House. I wore a moosehide patch in the House today, and of course, that's against the rules. I apologize for doing that, but the cause is a good one.

I want to join the minister in congratulating Paul Lacerte and the moosehide campaign for taking a leadership role — men against violence against aboriginal women and girls — in the province of British Columbia. It's an important and powerful statement, considering the Human Rights Watch report that came out today that highlights, again, the issues in the north — violence against women and girls, missing women, other issues.

I think it's just so timely that Paul Lacerte…. The moosehide campaign is underway, and they were ahead of their time on this. I think we should all learn.

I will also be attending, and I urge all members who are available on Friday to also attend the events. I think it's between 12 and three o'clock, but…. I stand corrected on that.

Orders of the Day

Hon. M. de Jong: I call continued debate on the Speech from the Throne.

[1455]

[L. Reid in the chair.]

Throne Speech Debate

D. Barnett: It is my honour to move today, seconded by the member for Coquitlam–Burke Mountain, the following motion:

[We, Her Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in session assembled, beg leave to thank Your Honour for the gracious speech which Your Honour has addressed to us at the opening of the present session.]

It was with great interest that I listened to the Speech from the Throne yesterday. The central theme of the throne speech was seizing on economic opportunities and securing the future of British Columbia families, and nowhere is this more important than in rural areas of British Columbia.

As the parliamentary secretary for rural issues, I represent not only my riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin but also the interests of rural communities across our province. Representing rural British Columbia is a responsibility that I take very seriously, and I consider myself privileged to speak on behalf of the communities that make up the backbone of the province of British Columbia.

While much of the population of our great province lies in urban areas such as the capital region and Metro Vancouver, it is the rural areas that give British Columbia its unique characteristics.

Rural and urban regions in our province depend on each other, but the fact is that many rural areas in British Columbia are going through a difficult period as a result of the global economic downturn of the past few years. This includes many regions which will become the focus of our province's future economic growth, with the development of resources such as natural gas.

But it is important to remember that rural B.C. is not a uniform region with the same resources or the same needs everywhere. There are major differences between the issues facing different rural areas. While some areas have seen a boom as a result of oil, gas and mining, many have seen slow population growth and relative economic stagnation.

As the parliamentary secretary for rural issues, addressing this is very important to me. The fact is that while the unique needs of rural communities in our province are often acknowledged, what is really needed is a discussion of what could be called for….

Systemic changes facing rural B.C. We need a clear picture of these challenges if we are really to improve the economic standing of rural communities in our province, ensuring that they experience growth proportional to that which is benefitting urban centres.

Last month the Rural B.C. project, which I am involved in through my work with the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition, released a discussion paper entitled The Pathway to Prosperity in British Columbia Runs Through its Rural Places: A Long-Term Strategy for Rural Development. This paper was focused on setting out a long-term strategy for investment in the social and economic development of our rural regions.

I'd like to take some time to talk to you about this paper and work on the Rural B.C. project, which is relevant for all rural British Columbians. The Rural B.C. project is dedicated to increasing public awareness of the issues that are faced by rural B.C. It uses a non-partisan, cooperative approach, presenting a picture of the needs of rural communities free of any political agenda.

It was launched in 2010 through contributions from each of the three regional beetle action coalitions in our province: the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition, the Southern Interior Beetle Action Coalition and the Omineca Beetle Action Coalition. These three beetle action coalitions, each supported by $1 million a year in provincial funding for a period of three years, have worked together to create the B.C. rural project.

[1500]

The paper released by the Rural B.C. project last month, which is the result of a great deal of research into this subject,
[ Page 12732 ]
proposes a long-term strategy to support social and economic development in rural communities.

The report recommends working with existing organizations for economic and social development and collaborating with First Nations and non–First Nations communities as part of the decision-making process. Government must commit to long-term investment in rural regions, appoint a provincial cabinet minister responsible for rural issues and engage local rural stakeholders to adopt public lands and a resources management strategy. Using the resources of post-secondary institutions is a key asset. Venture capital and business support are required.

The needs of rural British Columbians are diverse, and each also has different strengths. My region, the Cariboo-Chilcotin, relies on several key industries, including forestry, mining, agriculture and tourism. Our forest industry is alive and well despite the damage caused by the pine beetle infestation. We are working with business groups and First Nations to ensure that our forest policies are both economically and environmentally sustainable.

Last month our government issued a First Nations woodland licence to the Tsq'escen' people of the Canim Lake Band, allowing the band to harvest up to 20,000 cubic metres of timber per year. This is only the second First Nations woodland licence agreement to be signed in the province, and I'm proud it was in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. We are also working with business groups to promote a sustainable forest policy in the region.

This past week I had a chance to visit Quesnel, where I dropped by the College of New Caledonia campus. I had the chance to see the trades and training program in action, a program that has been running for two years. I attended a ceremony for the joint program being run by West Fraser Mills and the College of New Caledonia. It has West Fraser employees receiving training at CNC and improves access to courses for students in the region.

West Fraser Mills and CNC are working together to design and deliver programs that help meet the needs of the industry and provide jobs for new graduates — for example, as millwrights. In 2013-14 over 140 students will be participating in apprenticeships through this program.

Not surprisingly, the newest building on the CNC campus in Quesnel is officially named the West Fraser Technical Centre. West Fraser Mills is investing $250,000 over a period of ten years, or $25,000 a year, in CNC.

This is just one of many examples of the way that our government is producing partnerships with the private sector. We understand business, and we are providing businesses the opportunity to grow prosperous, benefiting our provincial economy and B.C. families.

This is in sharp contrast to the NDP record on forestry management, exemplified by the breach-of-contract court case brought by Carrier Lumber in the Cariboo. In that case, much of the work took place during the hon. member for Vancouver-Kingsway's tenure as chief of staff for the government in the 1990s, ending up costing taxpayers close to $150 million in compensation after a 1999 court ruling found that the NDP government concealed evidence and manipulated administrative procedures to get its way.

[1505]

With a record like this, how can we even say the NDP has a viable forest policy? What about an economically viable mining policy?

[H. Bloy in the chair.]

In yesterday's throne speech one of the main themes was the economic opportunity that presents itself to our province at the present time and the chance to create a legacy that will benefit our children and grandchildren through the prosperity fund. The prosperity fund presents a wonderful opportunity for securing the economic future of our province, providing a legacy for our children and grandchildren. Paying down our provincial debt, for example, will save our province $2.5 billion a year — money which can be reinvested in the economic development of B.C., including its rural area.

In my riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin there is another prosperity project, and it also offers a promise of a lasting legacy that can benefit all of the surrounding communities now and for future generations. The project I am talking about, of course, is the Prosperity mine. The Prosperity mine would bring strong and far-reaching economic benefits to our region, but it has been delayed by an ongoing federal environmental review.

Our province has the highest environmental standards, and we value our environment. That is why we demand full environmental impact assessments before allowing projects to go forward, secure in the knowledge that when a project is approved, that project has been evaluated in a fair and thorough manner. And when these assessments have been completed and the project is approved, we know it is safe from an environmental point of view.

The Prosperity mine project has undergone a thorough evaluation, and the B.C. environmental assessment office has once given it a conditional approval. Our environmental experts looked at the project objectively and ruled it met the most stringent environmental standards, yet the Prosperity mine is not moving forward at this time. And a project that could be worthy of its name, for a region that has been affected in the last few years by the global economic downturn and the devastation of the pine beetle infestation, has been stalled.

I hope to see this issue resolved in the near future and to see the project move forward, and while I find myself disappointed to see a project that could have such a positive impact in our region held up, I am even more disappointed to see the political posturing of the opposition around this issue. A project such as Prosperity mine, which can help revitalize the economy of our entire region, should not be
[ Page 12733 ]
held hostage by what is politically convenient.

When built, Prosperity would create 500 full-time jobs and over 1,200 indirect jobs and would spend $200 million every year during the 22-year anticipated life span of the mine. That's why it disappoints me to see the NDP opposing this beneficial project, which could have such a positive economic impact on our region. The NDP remains opposed, both literally and figuratively, to prosperity.

Agriculture is an important industry in my region and all over rural B.C., with farms ranging in size from a few acres to over 30,000 acres, and the beef sector is a major part of our economy. I have been fortunate to sit on the Ranching Task Force, looking at the many important issues facing our agriculture industry, such as predator control and range issues and meat inspection.

Another important industry in the Cariboo-Chilcotin is tourism. Last month I was honoured to be asked to write the introduction to the Guide to Williams Lake and Area. Our region provides so many amazing opportunities, and I am very proud to represent this region with so much to offer.

[1510]

I have been working with the Cariboo-Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association to improve tourism opportunities in our region and look forward to continuing to work with them in the future. The tourism industry requires a quality transportation system to function properly, and I was thrilled to see the completion of $8.5 million worth of regional road improvements in my region, with the resurfacing or seal-coating of many of our most important transportation arteries.

Yesterday's throne speech focused a great deal on leaving a lasting legacy for our children and grandchildren, but it is important to remember our elder citizens as well. That is why I'm proud to note some of the great investments government has made to help seniors in my riding.

This includes the opening of a DriveABLE assessment service in Williams Lake. This means that drivers who have been recommended for the assessment as a result of medical practitioners' concerns about an individual's cognitive abilities in regards to safe driving can now complete the assessment close to home.

Another great investment for seniors has been the renovation of Deni House in Williams Lake and the expansion of Fischer Place in 100 Mile House.

It is important for our government to continue to invest in this type of care for our elderly citizens, to ensure that they have access to the best services available. Our support for seniors is boosted by the age-friendly grants recently received by Williams Lake and 100 Mile House. So 100 Mile House received $19,967 and Williams Lake received $20,000 to support age-friendly planning and projects benefiting seniors.

This program, which our government runs in partnership with the Union of B.C. Municipalities, is just one way that we are supporting seniors and families.

Having celebrated Family Day earlier this week, we are reminded of the importance of supporting British Columbia families and ensuring that they can rely on a strong economy and well-paying jobs both now and in the future. Nowhere is securing this legacy more important than our rural communities — our mining communities, our forestry, our tourism, our agriculture and more.

I hope to see all the members of this House working together for the good of our rural regions, which will keep B.C. strong.

D. Horne: It's with great honour that I rise in the House today to second the motion from the hon. member for Cariboo-Chilcotin.

The throne speech provides a vision of the future and an understanding of the direction this government intends to lead British Columbia this year and into the future, with the support of the people of British Columbia this May 14.

Mr. Speaker, 2013 is a pivotal year in the history of British Columbia with one of the most important elections in many years, and the people deserve to fully understand and appreciate the choices before them. The issues that are important to British Columbians and the residents of Coquitlam–Burke Mountain, those I represent, are public safety, education, access to health care, jobs, transportation and family finances.

Before I go more in-depth on each of those issues, I'd like to speak a little bit about the last four years, the time since I've been elected — particularly my wife, Larissa Horne, who joins us in the gallery today — and the support that we each receive from our family.

My wife, Larissa; our two daughters, Liza and Victoria; my mother, Phyllis; my father, Neil; and my stepmother, Joyce — I have to say that the support of one's family is so important when one is in elected life. We spend a lot of time at events and different functions, and without the strong support of our family I think it would be very, very difficult for each of us on both sides of the House to do the work that we currently do.

As well, I'd like it say how proud and honoured I am to represent and serve the people of Coquitlam–Burke Mountain. I thank all of the residents for their support and confidence in me.

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It's a spectacular place in the province that I represent. Coquitlam–Burke Mountain is over 600 square kilometres. Where the people actually live I think I can drive in less than ten minutes. So I represent a lot of trees and a lot of bears but also the spectacular ability for large towers.

Currently in the Coquitlam city centre we have many towers over 30 storeys. We currently have one tower under construction that's 43 storeys. We have several more towers of that height that are currently in the planning stages. It really makes for a remarkable community — a place
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that's so close to nature yet so urban, with all of the amenities and things that come along with that.

We also have the wonderful development of Westwood Plateau, which I also represent, that was developed by Wesbild. Wesbild is now developing a further community on the Burke Mountain side. Their vision for the community there is much the same as Westwood Plateau, a wonderful place with the nature and the housing and the wonderful amenities that we have there as well.

I have to say the support that Wesbild and Mr. K, who is the chairman of Wesbild, have given to the community — they continue to give to the community — and all of the work that they do really does make the place that I represent and the place where we all live just that much better. It's wonderful to have an opportunity to represent the people of Coquitlam–Burke Mountain.

We meet and attend many community events each year — Canada Day; citizenship ceremonies; walks and fundraisers for our local hospice, Crossroads, and foundations and organizations that promote health and awareness, like the Michael Cuccione Foundation and the dinner and the soccer tournament that they host each year in support of the great work they do for childhood cancer research and their efforts; as well as the Aga Khan Foundation and the World Partnership Walk; and many walks for the cancer society, the kidney foundation and many others.

I have to say that one of the highlights of my year is also the teddy bear picnic and the parade — such a wonderful time with all of the families and young children. Promoting literacy, promoting…. Each year from my booth there I give out hundreds of books and promote reading and the imagination and the excitement that reading generates. I have to say that it's one of the highlights of my year. It's one of the things that I really say, when I have a chance to meet all of the people, how wonderful it is.

One of the things that I think is very important to the residents not only in Coquitlam–Burke Mountain but also to the residents across British Columbia comes to public safety and safety within our communities. Since 2001 our government has more than doubled the annual provincial policing budget. It's up by $167 million, and it's helped increase the officer count across British Columbia by more than 2,100 — a budget that is increased by $66 million over the next three years and supports the anti-gang strategy and maintains 168 officers hired in Prince George, Kelowna and the Lower Mainland.

This is something of particular interest to those in the Tri-Cities. As recently as last fall we saw a gang-related incident and shooting in the Tri-Cities. It's this type of work — it's working with gang-related task forces; it's working with integrated task force — that really allows us to address this problem and work together to ensure that our streets are safer.

Our government currently invests more than $1 billion annually in the justice system. Last fall we also launched a reform initiative led by Geoffrey Cowper, QC, to identify actions that the government and judiciary and the legal profession and the police can take, all working together. I think, really, that's the key. It's a key to many things that we do. By working together, by communicating, by actually talking and trying to find the answers that make sense for all of British Columbians, we create a far better province.

As well, this government created a new civilian independent investigations office that will investigate serious incidents involving police in B.C. In December 2011 Richard Rosenthal was appointed as the chief civilian. The independent investigations office is currently setting a standard for independence in police investigations in Canada.

I think that one of the other great things on the public safety side that we see is the return of 100 percent of the net traffic fine revenue to B.C. municipalities, providing an additional $493 million in 2012, since 2001. They can put that to local crime prevention, policing. Last year Coquitlam received over $800,000 under this program.

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As well, other provincial programs that Coquitlam also benefitted by…. For example, there's a program that's funded under the traffic fine initiative for Bike B.C. to build biking infrastructure and bike paths. Coquitlam was one of the beneficiaries of that program last year.

I think one of the main issues that many think about when it comes to safety is also drinking and driving. There has been a 40 percent decrease in drunk-driving-related fatalities on British Columbia's roads. The addition of the primary goal of a tougher approach is meeting the other key goals. During the first year of the tougher new drinking-and-driving laws the number of drinking-driving cases being referred to Criminal Code prosecution has dropped by 75 percent, freeing up much-needed capacity within our court system.

Police enforcement time spent processing drivers found drinking and driving has also dropped by approximately 75 percent, with the amount of time required to process a driver under the new law taking less than an hour compared to 4½ hours previously under the Criminal Code system. We also are working to make a fix that's required to maintain the success that we have had in saving lives in British Columbia.

Public safety is a key issue to many British Columbians and making certain that we make criminals pay for what it is that they've done and not to…. One of the things about the gang lifestyle that many find enticing is the fast cars — and the money and all of the accoutrements that they see coming with a gang lifestyle.

I'm proud to say that, through the civil forfeiture law that was put forward, the proceeds of unlawful activity are now taken away from these people. More than
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$23 million to date has been obtained from the sale of seized assets.

B.C. was one of the first provinces to have a law. Today there are seven provinces operating under this. I think that's hugely important. It's being able to take back the proceeds of criminal activity and not really having the enticement of the ability to keep that as time goes on.

I think one of the other key issues for British Columbians, as well, comes to education and health care. One of the things that really, truly is important to many on the health care side is the huge shortage of nurses and physicians that we've seen in the past. Certainly, that is not a problem that's been solved, but it's one that's been addressed considerably.

Currently we've added 4,500 new student seats for training registered nurses in British Columbia since 2001. I think this does a great deal to make certain that we have the medical professionals that we need.

It goes also to the fact that we need to train skilled professionals to provide the services that we need, not only in the health care system but for the jobs in mining, the jobs in the liquefied natural gas sector, the jobs in the many other sectors that will really drive and build the economy as we move forward.

Key to this, as well, is the number of doctors graduating per year in British Columbia. This has doubled since 2001.

Currently we also have over 100 trades in which apprenticeship training is available in British Columbia and over 33,000 apprenticeships in trades and training — more than double the numbers since 2004.

It's also important that we talk about how this is all paid for. I meet oftentimes with post-secondary students, and they talk about the cost of post-secondary education and how it's a very difficult situation for many. The costs facing, just for housing and many of the other issues, is very, very difficult.

One of the things, actually, that I found difficult when I met with one group of students was…. There was the group of students. There was one person in the group that was firmly convinced that we, as a government, actually made money off post-secondary education and that the tuition fees that they were paying were actually profiting the British Columbia government and that we were using this money elsewhere.

I think it's by sitting down with people and communicating with people and building a better understanding that we actually have a much better dialogue as we move forward to try to find solutions to things. This person was very shocked when they realized that almost 70 percent — actually, in many institutions about 72 percent — of the cost of the education is already borne by the province of British Columbia. Really, students are only paying 30 percent — less than 30 percent — of their education.

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It's important. The training and building post-secondary education are extremely important. It's an extremely important issue. But it's something that we have to understand and rationalize how it is that we pay, how we make it accessible, how it is that we train the people that we need, but also that we train the people that we need for the skills that actually get them a job and get them what they need to be able to be employed at the end of the process. That, sometimes, is something that we need to think more about as well.

You know, oftentimes…. I remember, at the time when I was in my university years, it was interesting because people would either go into BCIT or trades training or they'd go into university. It's funny now because you go and you read the Peak newspaper at Simon Fraser University, and there are ads within the Peak newspaper for trades training for those that, once they graduate from university, want to get further training to be able to be involved in the economy. So things change. Things change dramatically over time, but it's very, very important that we continue to fund and we continue to stress that.

I also want to talk about the K-to-12 sector and the importance of that. I look to my own area, and I think one of the most important things facing Coquitlam–Burke Mountain right now is to do with schools and the funding of schools and, really, where we're at when it comes to education.

I found one thing disheartening in the last year. There was a poll done last year — I actually think I spoke in this House to that poll last year, earlier — and that was a poll of British Columbians. The question was asked: "Do you believe the government of British Columbia has systematically reduced or cut funding to education over the last ten years?" In response to the poll, two-thirds of British Columbians, 66 percent of British Columbians, said: "Yes, that is a true statement. The government of British Columbia has systematically cut funding to education."

It's very, very difficult. I chair the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. We toured the province as well. I can remember one teacher who came before the committee, an extremely passionate gentleman — you know, really cares about education, was someone that really went above and beyond the call of his profession and really cared substantially. He gave a presentation to the Select Standing Committee on Finance. During the presentation he talked and used the words "cuts to education" 32 times.

At the end of it I was a little bit shocked, and I mentioned to him the fact that in the province of British Columbia, overall, we have 63,000 less students than we had ten years ago, but despite the fact that we have 63,000 less students than we had ten years ago, we still spend $1.4 billion more on education than we did ten years ago.

So the fact that there have been cuts to education is simply unfounded in fact, but we hear it over and over again. That's one of the difficulties. Oftentimes we hear these things over and over and over again, and as they're repeated over and over again, they become the truth.
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They become reality. You know, I've actually been challenged by people on the fact that we've cut funding to education.

Hon. B. Bennett: People over there believe it.

D. Horne: People over there certainly believe it.

You know, it's difficult because the fact of the matter is…. I look to only my own district, and I look to the per-student funding, the fact that we've had a decrease in enrolment. This year we're actually challenged because there are less students in our district than was anticipated, and that's caused some difficulties on the funding side. But I have to say that our school board works very hard to try to deal with these issues, and so in working together and in working collaboratively, we can get things done.

I think that's one of the things best highlighted on the capital program. Since 2001 more than $4 billion is committed to school capital and maintenance programs throughout British Columbia. This includes 93 new and replacement schools, 150 additions, 27 renovation projects and 22 site acquisitions throughout British Columbia. I have to say that one of those site acquisitions is for the new Burke Mountain secondary school that we look forward to.

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I also have to talk locally in my own area. I was very pleased at the beginning of my term to be able to open the Glen Elementary School; Heritage Mountain middle school, which was actually mentioned during the throne speech yesterday; Pitt River Middle School, which is currently under construction; an addition to Bramblewood School in my area.

Only a week and a half ago I opened the brand-new James Park Elementary. I have to say that one of the things that was most exciting about opening the new James Park Elementary School is that this is a school that is in the member for Port Coquitlam's riding and has actually existed for more than 100 years. It was a very old school and a wonderful place.

I think one of the most interesting things about the way we design schools and the way that children learn and the way that we move forward is that the new James Park Elementary School has the ability to be a community school. It has partitions within the school so that other community groups can use it in the evening time. The school can use those spaces during the day. Really, it becomes a centre in the community that is used both for much more hours and for much more opportunity for the community than we've seen in the past.

As well, I think one of the most exciting things was…. We were in the gym when we opened the school. The Minister of Education said, as he was there…. He pointed out the fact that the gym of the school actually has windows, large picture-frame windows. If you've been in the average gym of a school, usually you'll have a nice, big solid wall, usually with a nice picture of the school's mascot on the side of it, but it's a very sort of closed, almost dark place. In the new schools this wonderful new light and wonderful huge new windows just enhance the space so much and so dramatically.

I've been working very hard. One of the things that I think we're finally in the place of is that the schools up Burke Mountain…. I mentioned Burke Mountain secondary, which we've already purchased the land for. To get a new elementary school up there I see as one of the huge priorities and something that needs to be done in the short term. So I've been working very hard. It's been in the capital budget to have it built in 2017-2018, by the time students go there. I've been working very hard. I think we're finally in a position, or will be shortly, to be able to fast-track that school and have it built much, much sooner.

Having schools within our community, having places that children can go but that also can be centres of communities, as with James Park, is just a fantastic thing.

Also, I attended recently, at the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce, a speech by the Leader of the Opposition. It was interesting, and many of his colleagues were there as well. He spoke during the speech as to the economic record of the NDP government during the 1990s and our government over the last 12 years.

One of the things that seems to be forgotten…. If you look at the independent view of the world, it is forgotten. We have a triple-A credit rating in the province of British Columbia, and that's not our saying that we have a triple-A credit rating. That is independent bond-rating agencies saying that you have fiscally been responsible and that you are managing the finances of the province of British Columbia in a very good way.

To actually bring substance to what a triple-A credit rating is, we have today a higher credit rating — in other words, we're more credit-worthy — than the United States of America. So to stay that we are more credit-worthy than the United States of America, I think, is saying quite a bit. It goes fundamentally to where we stand in the world and the fact that the United States of America doesn't have a triple-A credit rating and the fact that many other countries around the world — France and, obviously, Greece — do not have a triple-A credit rating.

You know, you go to where we are in the world, the fact that we've had a very turbulent global economy, one that is slowly…. The United States has been doing better over the last little while, but it's not a fait accompli that we're out of the woods at this point.

Prudence is extremely important, and managing the government's budget and balancing the budget is just respectful of taxpayers and something that I think we all need to work towards.

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I have to say the Deputy Chair of the Finance Committee and myself worked very hard. I have to say of all of the
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achievements since I've been elected, I think one of my proudest accomplishments — and one of the things that really talks to how we should work together — is the report of the Finance and Government Services Committee from last fall. It was one of the few times that the committee actually reached a unanimous report.

That shows that when we actually do work together, when the opposition and the government work together for what is best for British Columbia, which is why we all should be here, we can actually achieve results that British Columbians believe we should achieve and have the best interest of British Columbians on the whole.

Paramount to that, and the key recommendation of that report — and as I say, the opposition members of the committee agreed with this as well — is that we should have a balanced budget, because a balanced budget is so important, not for us but for future generations.

I've told this story many times. You have a couple. Let's say you have an older couple that's retiring. They've worked very hard all their lives. You know, many older couples, as they come to their retirement, think it might be nice to get themselves a nice RV, and they go in the RV, and they go and travel around the province, travel around Canada, travel around the United States. Many believe, as they come into their retirement ages, that not only do they deserve that but that that's their entitlement.

So we have our older couple. They believe that they deserve that. They believe that's their entitlement. Quite frankly, for the hard work that they've done, it's a wonderful way to spend one's retirement years.

Unfortunately, the couple that I'm speaking of doesn't quite have the money to be able to pay for the RV. One of the options they have is they go to their kids. They say to their children: "You have good jobs. You're doing very well. I think you'll do better in the future. Really, right now we'd like to be able to spend this money, so will you co-sign the loan for our RV?" I can tell you that most children in the province of British Columbia and in Canada would look at their parents like they were completely nuts at that point and say: "What planet are you on?"

And that's what balancing the budget for the province of British Columbia is all about. When we don't balance the budget, we are asking our children, our grandchildren and subsequent generations to co-sign the loan for our spending today. Quite frankly, that's not fair.

They have their own priorities. They have their own objectives as to what they see as important to them. We take their options away from them when we don't balance the budget, when we aren't fiscally responsible, and when we don't do things that are important.

The other issue that we saw today — we saw it during question period — was the talk about liquefied natural gas — the future, the prosperity, the opportunity and the revenue that liquefied natural gas represents to British Columbia. We heard some from the opposition side say: "Oh well, don't worry about that. That's years down the road. You won't even see any revenue from that for four years. Quite frankly, if you're not seeing any revenue from that for four years, what difference does it make today?"

What difference it makes today is…. Well, we plan for the future. While we may not see revenue from it for four years, if we don't start it today, we won't see anything from it in four years. Quite frankly, if we don't start it today and we lose the opportunity, and if the Australians and many others from around the world seize the opportunity and move forward so that they push us out of the marketplace and don't allow us to achieve the advantages that the liquefied natural gas plan can accomplish, then basically, we would never see it.

So we can look, and we can, as the opposition says, study this further, and we can look at whether or not it makes sense to move forward with this plan, or we can seize the moment, we can move forward, and we can make sure that future generations of British Columbians will have the options, will have the financial stability and will have the choices that they deserve.

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It's really a pivotal change as we move forward. You look at Alberta today. You look at Saskatchewan today compared to where they were a decade or so ago, and it's night and day because they see the advantages. They've been able to seize the opportunity on the oil revenues that they now enjoy. That has taken their economy and moved it to a new level — and Alberta in the same way, with the revenues they enjoy.

We have to be proud in British Columbia. You look at the production of energy and the use of natural gas compared to other fossil fuels, compared to coal. In China today, Shanxi province has a huge amount of coal that's burned for energy. By moving into that market and having a transfer from energy derived from coal to energy derived from natural gas, the greenhouse gas effect on that is massive as well. It's much cleaner burning, as well, so the particulates that you get from burning coal are no longer in the equation.

Really, that's the choice. We talk about the choices that are before British Columbians, the choices that they're going to have to make over the next few weeks, at this point. To understand those choices and understand what they're really being asked…. From what I see, as I hear it over and over again, they understand the opportunities that are before us. They understand that we've been managing this province in a very fiscally prudent fashion, that we've been keeping taxes and tax rates low — having the lowest personal income tax rate in Canada for those that make up to $120,000 a year and keeping other levels of taxes down as well.

You know, I think that's one of the things, when it comes forward as we move forward, that we really have to understand and look at more. We say it oftentimes in government, but we need to really put more credibility to it. There is only one taxpayer. We really need to appreciate that.
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When it comes to civic taxation, when it comes to provincial taxation, when it comes to federal taxation, it's all the same person that pays all of these taxes. You can only put your hands in that same person's pocket enough times before, quite frankly, it makes it difficult so that they can't make the choices themselves that they'd like to make.

I think a perfect example of that, too, is…. Unfortunately, as a society, I know that all of us are guilty of this to a certain extent. It's all right to do something as long as it doesn't affect me. If it doesn't affect me, then it's probably all right. It doesn't affect me, so I really don't care.

For example, the NDP has said, point-blank, that should they become government, they'll put a capital tax on banks in place that basically kills banks. The average person goes: "Well, that's a great thing, because that doesn't really affect me. I think it's great. The banks make billions of dollars. They make huge amounts of money, and they should be paying a little bit more tax."

Then you tell the average person: "Hey, why don't you take a look at your RRSP? Why don't you take a look at your pension fund? Why don't you take a look at the ways that you plan on funding your retirement, those things that really are important to you in the retirement years?" We just went into the fact that you'd like to buy an RV and go and be able to relax and enjoy your retirement years. The top investment in the average pension fund and RRSP in Canada is, oh, a bank. The No. 2 investment in the average pension plan or RRSP is a bank. Oftentimes, in many pension plans the third investment is also a bank.

So taxing the profitability on these banks: what does that do? Oh, that basically makes it so that you put in peril the income of the banks. What does that do? It lowers the value of the stock of the bank, which basically lowers the value of the RRSP.

Now we're actually affecting average people. When the average person does the math and says, "Well, okay, by doing that, you're actually attacking my pension income," that doesn't sound like such a great idea anymore.

Actually, we don't really have to worry about that too much. I said what I've just said to a senior vice-president of a large bank in Canada. He said: "Well, no, we're not really all that worried about that, because no, it wouldn't affect the value of our stock at all. That really wouldn't come into issue at all, Doug, because all we'll do is we'll increase our fees to British Columbians to recover the cost."

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In a perfect and direct sense, should the NDP become government and put this new capital tax in place, British Columbians can rest assured that they will be paying those fees, will be paying that tax. Quite frankly, it will affect them whether they like it or not.

That's the thing that, really, British Columbians need to understand. Within the economy, when we talk about all of these issues — when we talk about liquefied natural gas, when we talk about other opportunities within the economy — it affects each and every one of us.

It is something that affects us all. It is something that — when we build the economy, when we build jobs, when we create all of the things that are important to all of British Columbians — affects us all. Really, that's how we all have either a comfortable lifestyle with a growing economy and the jobs that we all deserve, or we don't, you know?

I'll take another perfect example of sort of working together and being part of one. It's something that's very, very important to our area but something that oftentimes people forget. That is transportation.

If you take a look at the investments that this government has made in transportation since 2001, this government has delivered $14.3 billion in vital transportation infrastructure throughout the province. I look to my own area, with the gateway transportation program. I look to the new Pitt River Bridge. I look to the new Port Mann Bridge. I look to the Evergreen line, which is now under construction, that I'm so proud of and pleased.

You know, it's something that really does benefit all British Columbians, because it's not only personal travel across the Port Mann Bridge that is enhanced by the new Port Mann Bridge and the fact they have ten lanes on the new bridge, but it's also commercial traffic. It's moving goods faster. It's making our economy move and perform better than it has in the past.

As I mentioned before, during my time as Chair of the Finance Committee we went and travelled around the province. I have to say that the member for Surrey-Tynehead mentioned over and over and over again — so I would be very remiss if I didn't mention it — that the Port Mann Bridge is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the widest bridge in the world.

I have to also talk about funding for the Evergreen line, as I mentioned. You know, this is a project that went on for years and years and years. Actually, it's funny, because you can probably make it even longer. My understanding of the original concept and plan for the Millennium Line that we have and that was built under the NDP government in the 1990s…. The original plan for that Millennium Line was that it would come into the Coquitlam town centre, but unfortunately, as it was finally designed, it wasn't the case. So we've now….

Interjection.

D. Horne: No, no. It was moved into two phases. I'm being reminded by the member from Port Coquitlam that it was in two phases. But before it was in two phases, it was actually in one phase that included just coming to the Tri-Cities. Then, when the second plan was created, it was created in two phases, where the Evergreen line became the two phases, which is, as I say, the extension of moving it forward.
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I have to say, the province took a huge leadership role in making this happen — establishing the project officer, establishing the engineering, moving the thing forward and trying to pull everyone together. I have to say, it's a difficult thing for us all when you're dealing with a group of mayors on the Mayors Council and the way that currently we deal with the regional transportation within the Lower Mainland. It's very, very difficult.

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I think one of the most difficult parts of that was the mayor of Port Moody at the time. Throughout the entire process he was incredibly negative and spent an incredible amount of time explaining why the project wasn't going to move forward, explaining why he didn't like the project, explaining why he didn't like SkyTrain as an option.

Actually, I'll read a quote from some time ago. A Port Moody councillor at that time moved a motion "that the GVRD and GVTA be advised that Port Moody council is opposed to any SkyTrain line through Port Moody and strongly supports the alternative route along Lougheed Highway to Coquitlam Centre, to the east end of Port Moody." That was moved by the then councillor and current member for Port Moody–Coquitlam.

In 2001 that member also mentioned that if we were to tunnel through Port Moody — and I'll quote him at this point — the tunnelling through the city of Port Moody

would be done "with the residents of Port Moody lying in front of their bulldozers."

Luckily and fortunately for all, we are moving forward with the Evergreen line. We will be tunnelling so that it will actually arrive in Port Moody. It will be a great thing for all Tri-Cities residents and a great thing, quite frankly, for the Lower Mainland — rapid transit and moving people around and making it convenient for people.

Look at the Canada Line that was built under our government and the opportunities that the Canada Line has created and the number of people…. It's far ahead of expectations.

Lastly, talking locally about health care, I'm proud to say that this last fall we expanded the number of beds at the Eagle Ridge Hospital. That has really allowed people to move from the emergency room into being admitted into the hospital and really cleared the logjam. We now have a plan moving forward to expand the Eagle Ridge Hospital emergency room. As I say, I think health care is fundamental to a strong and good community.

With this throne speech, a vision for our future, a vision for where we're going but also a vision on how we're going to pay for it. Through the liquefied natural gas plan and the prosperity fund, we really do have a plan on how British Columbia and future generations of British Columbians will have a strong economy, will have the jobs they need and will have the opportunity that all British Columbians deserve.

N. Macdonald: I need to start by extending best wishes to the deputy critic for forestry and the MLA for Cowichan Valley. He had his valves cleaned out like an old Ford. That's the way he described it. In any case, he's doing well. As everyone knows, he's a great friend of mine and a powerful advocate for sustaining the land base and for protecting the interests of those who make a living from our forests.

We're thinking of you out there. I know he's watching today.

I want to take the time that I have today to talk about forestry. This was a topic largely ignored in the throne speech. Forestry is, of course, very important not only to Columbia River–Revelstoke, but it's critically important to all of rural British Columbia.

The forestry critic role is one that I've had for four years now. I also served as the Deputy Chair of the mid-term timber supply committee that was active last spring and summer. That the throne speech ignored the committee's work bothers me, because it was an expensive committee. It was an expensive exercise, and 650 groups or individuals took the time to participate, thinking it would inform decision-makers. People will see that it certainly has supported and informed NDP thinking.

As we head into a provincial election, B.C. New Democrats will be seeking a mandate from the public on many things, but certainly, an important part of it will be investing in our public lands. One of the key things that I've heard from people in communities across British Columbia is that there needs to be an attitude shift in Victoria towards better stewardship of the land. How we achieve that stewardship has to be viewed in context, starting with the fiscal realities that we face.

The B.C. Liberals, in the throne speech, asserted that they were all about balancing the budget, but the truth is that the budget for the province is in deficit. It has been in deficit since the B.C. Liberals last won the election, and you would need to be significantly naive to believe that we will not be in deficit going forward into this year's budget.

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Provincial debt has been increased, under the B.C. Liberals, from $33.8 billion to $57.4 billion. That's a 70 percent increase. As well, there is the off-the-book debt, which has risen from nothing in 2001 to $96 billion. These are the contractual obligations, the energy purchasing agreements, the P3s and so on.

The next government will be significantly constrained financially. Despite that, New Democrats believe it is crucial to invest in the land. We have to invest in the land because it is our most valuable asset and because there is a great need. The B.C. Liberals have taken from the land without putting resources back for most of the past decade.

As I've said, I was Deputy Chair of the Special Committee on Timber Supply. What we heard in community after
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community was similar to what was made clear in reports from the Auditor General, the Forest Practices Board and the association of B.C. foresters. What we heard is that the B.C. Liberals have made choices to underfund stewardship efforts for this province from the moment they came to power. The results of those decisions were predictable, and they are now evident for all to see.

Let's first talk about timber and non-timber inventory. As you know, what you do not count and measure, you cannot manage. A current reliable inventory tells us not only how many trees we have but what species and size and where they grow.

In 2002 the B.C. Liberals rescinded legislation in the Forest Act requiring the chief forester to conduct and maintain a current and reliable inventory of the lands and forests of the province. As a result of relieving themselves of the legal obligation to maintain and conduct inventories, the B.C. Liberals, by their own account, have purposefully allowed just under three-quarters of the province's forest estate, 74 percent, to degrade where the inventory is 30 years or more out of date.

Consider this. In the 1990s budgets for inventory averaged $23.6 million — $23.6 million on average. Compare that to an average of only $8.5 million under the B.C. Liberals.

As well, in 2010 the ministry assumed the additional responsibility for conducting and maintaining 34 TFL inventories — so even more work with budgets well under what forest professionals identify as the minimum needed to do inventory work properly. Forest professionals, by the way, say that $15 million is the minimum that is needed — money better spent, I think many would agree, on inventory than partisan ads.

The B.C. Liberals intend to cut budgets for inventory work going forward in the upcoming budget. What I'm told is that the budgets for inventory will be around $7.5 million, about half of what it needs to be, at a minimum.

We have to ensure that all management unit inventories are current within ten years to the VRI standard, the vegetation resources inventory standard. We've been told time and again that inventories that are more than ten years old don't have much worth. There are exceptions to that standard, but it's clear that government needs to make inventory work a priority once again. This includes updating units for gross depletion such as logging, large-scale pest infestations and major roads.

We also know that current and reliable inventories for non-timber inventories such as wildlife, soils, water, recreation and visuals are essential. This is the work that the timber committee recommended be done. It is the first practical step towards properly managing our land.

Next we need to talk about silviculture and replanting in particular. The Council of Forest Industries — which represents many of the Interior's major licensees such as West Fraser, Canfor and Gorman Bros. — in their presentation to the Timber Supply Committee cited the need for urgent action by the government to restock our public lands. Of course, COFI's comments echo the recommendations made by the Auditor General and the Forest Practices Board.

We have an NSR crisis in the province, not sufficiently restocked. NSR describes the land that should be replanted, that hasn't been replanted, that is a provincial obligation.

[1600]

Again, some history. In 2002 the B.C. Liberals rescinded legislation requiring the province to assess NSR land and to replant it if feasible. The B.C. Liberals then cut the budget by 90 percent.

Predictably, a vast area now sits unplanted that should have been planted. The Forest Practices Board, in a June 2012 report, pointed out that the total NSR that was feasible to plant, that this government neglected to plant, was over one million hectares. The B.C. Liberals have not invested in replanting in a meaningful way.

After doing no planting for a few years, the B.C. Liberals started Forests for Tomorrow in 2005. I was here in the House when that was announced. The B.C. Liberals at that time, and for years subsequent to that, promised the rate of planting would reach 50 million — five-zero — seedlings a year by 2012. But the truth is that the government planted about 16 million seedlings last year — one-six — and they intend to cut funding in this upcoming budget. I have heard it will be cut by 30 percent.

[D. Black in the chair.]

This continues the degradation of the last decade. We know we will realistically need four to five years to get to a meaningful level of replanting, and we know that we need to start now. Consistent with the timber committee's recommendations, consistent with the public interest, New Democrats will improve inventory, New Democrats will replant, and furthermore, we will re-establish the research branch.

What we're talking about is the past, the present and the future. Inventory work represents understanding what has happened on the land base. Reforestation and silviculture are today's investment in the land base, reflecting the information we've gathered in the inventory stage. The third leg of the stool is research, which prepares us for the future of the forested land base.

In a time of climate change we manage credibly only if information is evidence-based, science-based and grounded in long-term sustainability. A renewed and vigorous science program lays the foundation on which decision-makers can base policies to sustain the land base for the next generation.

New Democrats also recognize the need to review land use plans and sustainable resource management plans. This would be done first within the 12 timber supply areas
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worst affected by the mountain pine beetle.

This work has to be done involving rural communities and First Nations groups to make sure that the plans are reviewed and reported on regularly. Rural British Columbians, it was clear to us again and again, want a say in land use decisions that impact them and their communities. New Democrats believe that wisdom about the land sits in our communities, and they need a voice where decisions are going to be made.

Finally, New Democrats also recognize that better insect and disease monitoring and treatment, forest and range evaluation as well as strengthened restoration and landscape management are needed.

I started my comments with the province's fiscal state. At the same time, as I just outlined, the need for action is essential. I recognize that many will be impatient for change, and I understand that. I want to assure people that there will be change focused on the health of our forests and the practical steps that we need to take towards proper stewardship and ensuring that there are boots on the ground to do the work. These would be priorities for a New Democrat government.

Ecosystems are changing with the impacts of climate change, so there's no question that the work we need to do is incredibly complicated. But we have capable people that are able to do this work if government shows leadership. At the same time, we can be excited about the challenge that is there. We know that we can add value to our lands through efforts in forest health.

[1605]

I also think that we've only begun to tap into the value-added products that can come from our forests. There are still many more opportunities in engineered wood products. Nanocrystalline cellulose technologies are opening up all sorts of possibilities that are new. As well, we have our traditional excellence in structural wood products.

The truth is that markets are picking up. Russell Taylor and the International Wood Markets Group have reported on the market improvements. We need to remember that U.S. property markets collapsed to the tune of $6 trillion not that many years ago. But the fact is that that market is coming back, and with new markets in China, there is a tremendous amount to be excited about. All of these are powerful reasons to look after our forests.

I'll switch now to the next area where we need to improve. We need jobs from our logs. The B.C. Liberals have lost over 30,000 forestry jobs since 2001. Vancouver Island and the northwest have been particularly hard hit; 33 mills have closed since the B.C. Liberals took power. At the same time, the volume of raw logs exported has grown from one million cubic metres to almost six million cubic metres exported as raw logs. That represents 32 percent of the coastal harvest.

Now, for those that are less familiar with the terms used here, a cubic metre is the size of a telephone pole. Six million cubic metres put on logging trucks, if they were placed end to end, would stretch from Victoria to Thunder Bay. So that is an incredible volume of logs sent off, without any value being added to them, each and every year.

It is still the law in British Columbia to manufacture logs and to export only what manufacturers do not need. Part 10, section 127, of the Forest Act is unequivocal in its language, even if you only look at the titles of things like part 10. The title is "Manufacture in British Columbia." Or the title of section 127: "Crown timber to be used in British Columbia." That's still the law.

Section 127.1 of the Forest Act states that a person must not attempt to remove from British Columbia timber or wood residue harvested from Crown land; from private land granted after March 12, 1906; or from private land granted before March 12, 1906, in tree farm licences. So the law remains clear. B.C. logs should be manufactured in B.C. to create B.C. jobs.

The public is even clearer that they see raw log exports as job exports. That is what the public believes. The public believes that B.C. Liberals are facilitating the giveaway of our logs. I have heard this again and again from people across the province. They expect their provincial government to do better. Six million cubic metres exported and, on top of that, an average two million cubic metres per year of usable logs left on the ground on the coast as waste. Huge opportunities — lost.

What are some of the things that we, as New Democrats, say need to happen? First off, we need the timber export advisory committee, also called TEAC, to be allowed to direct wood to existing mills. At the very least, allow the timber export advisory committee to do its job.

The fact here is that for the past 20 months the timber export advisory committee has been overridden dozens of times by the Minister of Forests to allow logs to be exported even though they were needed here in British Columbia by existing manufacturers. Then last month the minister changed the rules — changes that will shut the timber export advisory committee out to a greater degree and will inevitably result in even more logs being exported, even more jobs being lost.

Nearly six million cubic metres were exported in 2012 — a record number. Meanwhile, mills in communities on the coast, on the Island, even some mills in Vancouver and along the Fraser, are shutting down shifts because they can't get fibre.

[1610]

Even the B.C. Liberal member from Nanaimo says that it's a wrong-headed approach, and if you live in any of these areas, you will consistently hear that. That's what people believe. It's a public resource, and government has to be mindful of that.

As a province, we need to commit to working with all stakeholders to get more jobs from our logs. Government has the ability, through control of fees in lieu, to bring everyone to the table, and with a mandate from the public, it will happen. The New Democrats will seek that
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mandate, because we know that we can only find solutions here with a change of government.

Skills training was mentioned in the throne speech, but it is an area of particular weakness for this government. In forestry there are real shortages of drivers, tradespeople. Government can point to recent programs and to where training related to the forest industry has taken place. New Democrats need to continue what works, if given the opportunity to govern, and to build programs to fill the very real gaps in skills training.

We also need to manage fuels in the wildland-urban interface. We know wildfires will be increasingly difficult to control. We need to commit to fund strategies and activities for reduction of fuel in the interface, to make sure that tenure holders help manage fuels across the broader forest landscape and to do this work so that our communities will be safe.

We also know that since 2001 the B.C. Liberals have lost over 70 mills. Government inevitably is drawn into communities where a major employer is lost. What I can say is that when you look over the past dozen years, the government response has been remarkably inconsistent.

In Mackenzie the government response was to use what is essentially appurtenance — a tool that they got rid of in all other parts of the province. They used appurtenance in Mackenzie to try to get a mill back up and going. You compare that to what was done in Barriere which was essentially nothing. You compare that to any number of communities where nothing was done. So it's tremendous inconsistency in the approach to these job losses.

The other problem is that the quality of the work has been very inconsistent as well. The leaked cabinet document that members here will remember from the spring was the work done by Bob Clark in Burns Lake. It was a set of proposals that was never going to work.

We asked Bob Clark at the committee: "Is this the work?" Bob Clark was the gentleman that was appointed by the Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. We asked him: "Is this what you suggested — this leaked cabinet document? Is this the document you sent to cabinet as the plan for going forward in Burns Lake?" He said it was. Was it ever going to fly? No. Was cabinet ever going to agree to it? No.

What we have is just this very inconsistent approach, not only in when work is done but just in the quality of the work. It's simply not good enough for communities that are depending upon government to be competent at some level. So what we need is a community economic response team that is competent and consistent, and policies that are competent and consistent.

Finally, we have come into this session expecting legislation about creating more area-based tenures. It's been referenced. That is legislation that, of course, we're yet to see.

What I do know is that this was an area that was widely debated and widely canvassed with the committee. We have recommendations in the Timber Supply Committee report on creating area-based tenures. So what I can say definitively is that I know the government knows the appropriate way to proceed. It is there in the recommendations, supported not only by three MLAs from the NDP side but four MLAs from the government side. Those recommendations are there.

The question, I think, is whether the government is going to choose to do the right thing. As I say, all the information that's needed is there within the committee report.

[1615]

I want to finish with just a couple of thoughts. The first one is this. New Democrats called for an all-party standing forestry committee as far back as 2005, although I have to say that when, in 2012, the B.C. Liberals announced a special committee on timber supply, I was highly, highly suspicious. I think all on the NDP side were.

In the end, I was really proud of the work that the four B.C. Liberal MLAs did with my two NDP colleagues and me. The previous speaker talked about the satisfaction he had working on the Finance Committee. I would say this was a group that had discussions and did hard work and came up with some very useful work.

We were supported by ministry staff who were excellent — two retired chief foresters — and we had the participation of over 650 groups and individuals. Like I say, the committee did very useful work. I found that we had a lot in common on both sides of the partisan fence, and our unanimously supported report reflects that.

The NDP leader, our leader, has been clear in both words and actions that he'll do politics differently. This includes looking at ways to ensure a higher degree of understanding and debate on issues as important as the stewardship of our land.

I think it's a point to be taken here that two speakers in a row say the most satisfying work that they've done is where people can sit from either side and have intelligent debate based on fact. I think that we need to work, as our leader has suggested, to make sure that that is more common than simply the exception here in British Columbia.

What's clear to me is that change is needed. But more than that, really, a change for the better is needed. I think it's coming, and that's an exciting prospect.

One of the last things I'd just like to say is that part of that change is the decision that people make to step back into civilian life. On our side we have people that we've spent eight years with: Delta North, who's busy behind me, working away; Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows; North Coast; New Westminster; Coquitlam-Maillardville. These are people that I've come to know very well, and they're really going to be missed. I certainly appreciate all the work that they've done.

I also want to just say there are others that through their work done as ministers — Peace River South, Shuswap,
[ Page 12743 ]
Surrey-Cloverdale; there are many that I know are going to stand up and give their last speeches — have all contributed a tremendous amount.

The last thing that I meant to say, that I was remiss in not saying, is that we also had Hansard staff and legislative staff, who always do a tremendous job with the committee as well. We had, I think, the Hansard staff here that travelled. And while we would stand around and chat, of course, they were busy setting up and putting down a tremendous amount of equipment.

That concludes my remarks. As always, it's nice to be here, and it's always a privilege to stand and to speak in this House.

Hon. S. Thomson: I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to stand and respond to the Speech from the Throne and share some of my thoughts on the benefits of the direction and the focus of the throne speech to the constituents of Kelowna-Mission and to families all across this province, and just to recognize the tremendous honour that we have in being able to do this and to be here in this House, and to thank all the constituents of Kelowna-Mission for that opportunity.

Kelowna-Mission is where I was born and raised. It is a great place to have been born, a great place to have grown up, a great place to continue to live and a great place to represent. I also want to take this opportunity again — I think, as we all do when we get opportunities in this House — to really thank my family for their continued sacrifice and support in doing this job.

[1620]

As people have mentioned, we're away a lot, and it puts tremendous strains and pressures on our families. I really want to thank my wife, Brenda, my sons, Andrew and Spencer; my daughter, Alex; and our five grandchildren for continuing to have that patience.

I should do a little bit of a shout-out at this point. When I talk about one of my sons — Spencer, my youngest son — I want to give a little shout-out to the mining industry and the mining exploration industry, who probably, this summer, gave my son the best summer of work that he has ever had, working in up in the Northwest Territories in mining exploration.

What it taught him this summer in terms of learning about the industry, work ethic, working in remote camps and everything…. It was a just a tremendous opportunity. So a little shout-out to the mining exploration business, which I'll say a little bit more about later.

I should also take this opportunity to thank for the great work that our constituency assistants do in our offices over the years. We're away a lot, and they really hold down the fort, representing and working with all the constituents in our community in our offices.

My great thanks to Nan Pellatt in my office and to Rebecca Narinesingh who, unfortunately, we have just lost in our office. She found other very good employment that provided her some full-time opportunity. She was a part-time constituency assistant. We're really going to miss her. I want to welcome Jennifer Newman to our office. She's doing great work in the first early days in our office. I really appreciate all the work that they're doing.

The throne speech clearly stated our government's focus. It shows British Columbians that we are dedicated to supporting economic growth, creating jobs for British Columbia and the communities, and making sure that we that have the tools and the focus and the vision in order to be able to do that. This is so important to us because our future is dependent on a strong economy to support the critical programs that we need.

The focus on LNG opportunities in this throne speech is an opportunity that is before us now. It's an opportunity that we can't afford to miss, and our throne speech recognizes that opportunity and provides the focus and the vision that will ensure that it happens.

The throne speech also introduced the government's plans to set up a British Columbia prosperity fund, which will direct funding generated by exporting natural gas and the tremendous opportunities we have to reduce our provincial debt and to support B.C. families. It will allow us to continue to direct funding towards key local programs, capital projects that benefit our communities not only for today but for the future.

We are fortunate in my riding of Kelowna-Mission to see the direct results of the work of government by looking at our investments in health care, education, affordable housing and agriculture in the Central Okanagan, just to name a few.

Providing quality health care is important to British Columbians. It really does impact every one of us. Looking at our record, I am proud of our government's commitment to the health system.

Since 2001 health care spending has increased by 92 percent, from $9.4 billion to this year's total of $18 billion. Cardiac care is particularly noteworthy in the Kelowna area. In November 2009 at Kelowna General Hospital we had the first ever PCI interventions performed. That was our first ever performed outside of the Lower Mainland and Victoria. Lives were saved, and patients no longer had to wait for care in the Lower Mainland or Victoria.

We now have the very significant investment in the new Interior health and surgical centre at Kelowna General Hospital. This five-phase $360 million endeavour is already in operation. In fact, the first surgery was performed last year on December 3, 2012. This successful operation was the first cardiac surgery to occur outside the Lower Mainland or Victoria, and we can appreciate the significance of this for many patients and also their families.

I would like to share a comment from Luke Brockholm, the patient who received the first surgery at Kelowna General Hospital. This is what he said: "I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to have my surgery done
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at Kelowna General Hospital. Being only an hour away from where I live in Penticton, I was able to return home in less than a week, which has been a huge relief for me and my family."

We are very close to having 100 more stories exactly like this, a tremendous gain and tremendous benefit to our communities not just in Kelowna but in all the communities in the Interior and the region that the Interior health agency serves. It will allow patients to remain close to home and their support networks while reducing the stress and financial burden that can go with travelling farther away.

[1625]

We're also continuing our strong commitment to capital projects, with almost $7 billion spent since 2001 and an additional $2 billion earmarked for the next three years. It has allowed us to invest in hospitals across British Columbia — Abbotsford, Victoria, Surrey, Vernon, Vancouver and, of course, the Kelowna General Hospital. The Interior heart and surgical centre, which I have already discussed, isn't the only big accomplishment, with the $432 million Kelowna General Hospital patient care tower, which had its first helicopter land in March.

The platform outlined in the throne speech yesterday has outlined a clear path to sustain this vital commitment to education and training. It focuses on ensuring that the next generation can enjoy a promising future. This is not possible without a commitment to education.

We remain committed to quality education in the Central Okanagan and across British Columbia. This will also help British Columbians gain the skills to get good jobs in our province. In the K-to-12 system, yearly per-pupil funding has increased by almost $8,000, ensuring our kids have the resources they need to get the best start they can on their educational careers.

Since 2001 the province spent $84.3 million in the Central Okanagan school district. It has allowed the school district to complete 13 construction projects, including a new school in my riding, Chute Lake Elementary. It has allowed us to welcome more young students, with an additional $9.5 million for additional spaces in full-day kindergarten.

I had the great honour of being able to reopen a school in my riding, Okanagan Mission Primary, to support full-day kindergarten. This was the school where I first attended in my kindergarten days and first years of grades 1 to 4 at Okanagan Mission Primary. It was a great opportunity, because this school had been closed for a number of years. To be able to reopen that school to provide the services…. It was a real honour to be able to attend that day.

As a father of three children and with five grandchildren, I know how important it is that students have access to safe, modern facilities.

Over the next decade there will be approximately one million job openings across our province. We must ensure that B.C. has the right mix of skills-training programs so that B.C. students are first in line for jobs that are close to home. We are prioritizing training so that we stop training people for jobs that don't exist and start training them for jobs that do.

Our government is supporting the training and trades to get more students into technical programs by investing $75 million in improving and upgrading training facilities, equipment and access to teachers. Just last fall at Okanagan College we received $28 million to expand and renovate the trades training facilities, in addition to $867,000 for equipment upgrades.

Reducing completion time for apprentices while respecting the need for high-quality workers is part of this program. There are approximately 5,200 apprentices registered in the Thompson-Okanagan region, accounting for almost 16 percent of the total apprentices registered in the province.

We're investing in capital funding to ensure students can learn in modern facilities, including $220 million in capital funding at UBC Okanagan. What has this accomplished? It has provided funding for the health sciences complex. It went towards the engineering management education building, the arts and science building and many others that are building quality education at this great new facility in our region.

Our government has funded over 32,000 new student spaces and created seven new universities, allowing more students to study closer to home. It's important that we continue to support our education system, both K to 12 and post-secondary, to ensure that children all across British Columbia have the skills and knowledge to fill these positions.

Judging by the momentum that we are seeing at both Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan, the future appears bright in the Central Okanagan and, indeed, across the province.

With our triple-A credit rating we remain an economic safe harbour, one of the jurisdictions that continues to attract investment. Part of attracting investment includes the need for a strong transportation system facilitating the flow of goods and people.

In the Central Okanagan, projects we've invested in include the four-laning of Highway 33 from Muir Road to Gallagher Road; constructing two kilometres of passing lane on Walker Hill; Highway 97 improvements — the William R. Bennett Bridge, building the UBCO Flyover, additional lanes on Highway 97 through Kelowna. Likewise, we're adding a new four-lane stretch from Winfield to Oyama, a project which is on budget and is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

[1630]

Our air transportation network continues to grow in the Central Okanagan, with last December's exciting announcement at Kelowna International Airport welcoming daily direct flights from Los Angeles on United
[ Page 12745 ]
Airlines. The airport's economic impact study predicts clear skies, with each daily long-haul flight adding 21 person-years of employment and $1.2 million in wages to the local economy in the Okanagan.

Our government continues to reduce the barriers, allowing this type of good news to occur. For instance, in 2012 we eliminated the jet fuel tax for international flights. This has reduced the cost for airlines, which equals expanded services and improved flight options, benefiting B.C. families and making B.C. more competitive in the global marketplace.

The results speak for themselves, with the Kelowna International Airport placing in the top ten busiest airports in Canada, creating over 2,700 jobs and producing a total economic output of $610 million.

There are many important initiatives in our community which continue to drive growth. As an example, Accelerate Okanagan is a local, successful organization that aims to foster entrepreneurial spirit supporting local startups in the technology sector. In 2011 our government, in partnership with the government of Canada, committed to provide $2.1 million to this local facilitator for the next three years.

There have been many successful organizations and businesses that have benefitted from Accelerate Okanagan's mentorship. Just to name a few — Vineyard Networks, which was just recently purchased by Procera Networks; Media Cooler Innovations; Orcamax Business Solutions; and Trajectory Design Automation. These are all new businesses, creating additional jobs in our community, that are being fostered and mentored by the great work and the support of Accelerate Okanagan.

Agriculture is also a vital part of our economy in my riding of Kelowna-Mission, employing many people. Our $2 million B.C. Buy Local program, for instance, will help businesses and organizations in my riding and, indeed, across the province, launch and expand their marketing campaigns.

By nurturing a strong relationship with our partners in the community, local industry and government leaders, we've supported this sector. Just last year, as part of the province's agrifood strategy, our government announced a $2 million replant program to increase tree fruit growers' competitiveness and profitability, encouraging planting of high-demand varieties of apples, including Ambrosia and Gala and other new varieties.

I would like to thank the Minister of Agriculture, the member for Kelowna–Lake Country, for recent adjustments to the program, reflecting the growers' and industry needs. This is a case where we listened carefully to the concerns of growers about the existing program, and some very important strategic adjustments were made to the program, which will benefit the industry overall and many of the growers in my riding. We're also working closely with the federal government by jointly providing the B.C. tree fruit growers cooperative $2.7 million to upgrade their plant in Lake Country.

As I've mentioned, our strong relationship with other levels of government allows us to achieve benefits for British Columbians, ensuring key industries will continue to grow and create jobs. For instance, our government is working effectively with the federal government and the industry to get cherries into the Chinese market.

With over $1.5 billion invested in the Central Okanagan, we have a lot that we have achieved, a lot to be proud of. These are accomplishments that I'm very proud to have been able to be a part of. I believe they were only possible due to close cooperation with my fellow Central Okanagan MLAs, the members for Westside-Kelowna and Kelowna–Lake Country — Team Okanagan, as we call ourselves — and all the members of the Okanagan caucus.

But it's not just us; it's not just our work. Our team extends to our partners in the community, including government at the local and federal level, school districts, social not-for-profit organizations and many other dedicated individuals in our community. It has allowed us to identify priorities for our community and collaboratively achieve these goals. I'm optimistic that it will allow us to continue to move forward with a strong, united voice in the Okanagan.

I'd now like to share some of the important things that we're doing these days in the province's Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, a ministry which I am proud to lead. Our job is to take all the factors into consideration when making decisions about land management in British Columbia. To do that, it's essential to balance environmental sustainability and economic prosperity.

[1635]

In fact, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity have equal importance in the ministry's vision statement, yet I see them not as contradictory goals and contradictory visions but complementary.

From forests to fish and wildlife, to heritage sites, to archaeological resources, to assessing and reviewing permits and applications for major projects and licences of occupation on Crown land — these are all areas that my ministry is taking action on. With such a wide range of responsibilities, it is important for the ministry to bring a high degree of coordination between agencies and organizations.

A project or activity on the land base may require multiple authorizations. In the past applicants told us they found the process time-consuming, overly complicated and inefficient, and we've been listening to our clients and customers. To that end, we've created a single land manager for the province's resource sector. This helps ensure our policies are integrated with the operations side of resource management.

Our new business model — we call it a one-project, one-process approach — means project applicants have a single engagement with the ministry, often for multiple
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authorizations. In other words, all these required authorizations are processed together, based on the client's needs. It's more efficient, eliminates overlap and uses fewer resources. Based on the feedback we've received to date, our clients confirm it is working and are appreciative of our initiatives.

Naturally, this increased coordination is important to support B.C. workers, businesses, investors and the environment. The employees at my ministry understand very well that it's collaboration across the natural resource sector that makes us different. As the saying goes, the conversation we have with our customers is the relationship, and when that conversation stops, so does the relationship.

My ministry's commitment to the customers is to continue that collaborative relationship, to continue that cooperation and to make sure that we meet our commitments that have been written into B.C.'s jobs plan. Just an example of what I mean by that is the work that we have done to address the backlogs in permits and applications, or permits and authorizations, that were identified.

I'm very, very pleased to report that we have met the targets that were set out in the B.C. jobs plan. A great deal of this relates to additional assistance or support that was provided to our ministries — not just my ministry but across the resource ministries — with a $24 million program designed specifically to address those backlogs while upholding environmental standards and consulting with First Nations.

By reducing the backlogs, we were able to speed up our natural resource development within our province. There were specific targets. This included an 80 percent reduction in notice-of-work permits, a 50 percent reduction in Water Act and Land Act licences and a commitment to maintain a 60-day turnaround for notice-of-work applications.

You may be wondering how we are doing on these targets. I'm pleased to report that we are meeting them. In fact, we actually reached our notice-of-work reduction target two months ahead of time. We met our targets for land applications, and we met our targets for Water Act applications. We're well on our way to attaining our goal of a 60-day turnaround for notice-of-work applications. We've already reduced the turnaround time from 110 days to 80 days, and we will reach our goal of a 60-day turnaround. We plan to maintain that level of performance as we continue to build confidence with our business partners.

Reducing delays and ensuring a predictable process helps ensure people keep working and are not unduly burdened by the application process we promise to improve.

Our client-centred approach will offer the first e-application for notice-of-work and water licence applications. This new on-line service will be available through FrontCounter B.C., put together by government to simplify the application process for individuals or small- to medium-sized natural resource businesses starting up or already operating. This new system will launch this month.

We're also seeing an increase in complex applications. Last month our Premier announced the important news that for the second consecutive year our province had a record year of investments. Preliminary estimates for exploration expenditure are $680 million for the last year. That's up 47 percent from the record levels of 2011.

To help the industry take full advantage of the growing global need for natural resources, we also announced that B.C. is investing an additional $7 million to continue our successful streamlining process. We'll be using it to provide more efficient permitting for water, land and mining exploration; better processing times; reducing the average turnaround time for notice-of-work applications; all the while balancing our commitment to protect the environment and requirements for First Nations consultation.

[1640]

I also believe that our natural heritage is something worth preserving and celebrating. This is a commitment that I'm proud to say we've lived up to. In Budget 2012 we announced $21 million over the next three years for the maintenance and operation of provincial heritage sites.

One project in particular that stands out to me is the McAbee fossil site, which we formally recognized as a heritage site last year. I was very pleased to be able to complete that process and to provide that protection and designation for that very, very critical and important resource here in the province. The ministry is actively working on a conservation management plan with all stakeholders to ensure these important fossil beds are preserved for all time. We'll soon be releasing a heritage strategy for B.C. which will allow us to continue to protect these sites in British Columbia.

I'm also very proud to say that our forest sector continues to recover from the worst downturn ever and one of the most challenging periods in its history. In 2009, at the bottom of the downturn, the B.C. forest product exports totalled $7.6 billion. Fast-forward to 2012. Forest product exports totalled almost $10.2 billion.

As the member for Columbia River–Revelstoke said, we're seeing a period of predicted continued improvement in market returns. Over the last three months lumber prices have been consistently above $355 per thousand board feet, which means softwood lumber export tax is zero and companies have more money to invest in their mills, supporting B.C. jobs in communities.

Over the last year alone we've seen over $300 million in investments in mills from Vancouver Island to Mackenzie to the Kootenays, reflecting the confidence in the future of the industry. That's over and close to $900 million investment in the last two years.

We're very familiar with the devastating impact that the pine beetle has had on our forest sector. Government's
[ Page 12747 ]
response to the special committee report that the member for Columbia River–Revelstoke referenced and talked about…. I would also like to add, at this point, my thanks for the work of all of the members of the committee — the work that they took on over the summer. They took time out of their other commitments and schedules to be able to do that very, very important work across the province.

We have provided our response to the special committee report. We're in our next phase of responding to that mountain pine beetle infestation and the report. And the response includes nine sustained and 11 new actions. Since 2001 the government has committed $884 million in fighting the mountain pine beetle infestation and its environmental and economic impacts. The bulk of the committee recommendations are being implemented, and legislative recommendations, as was noted, will be introduced soon.

We're updating our inventory, developing type 4 silviculture strategies, and we have three new fire management projects underway.

As we implement the recommendations, the government is seeking to create viable, lasting partnerships that include First Nations, communities and industry. We will respect the interests and the rights of all parties by ensuring an equitable, transparent process to implement all commitments, including the identification of area-based licences.

Now that the infestation has run its course, we have the opportunity to take stock of the current state of our Interior forests. We will continue to invest in those areas. We'll continue to address the recommendations of the mid-term timber supply committee report and continue the important work that was done through that process.

This January at the Truck Loggers Association convention I was pleased to announce changes that will increase domestic availability of supply to our coastal industry. I also shared with those in attendance that B.C. Timber Sales will be accelerating its sales schedule and will be auctioning an additional 500,000 cubic metres on the coast before June. These changes are designed to increase harvesting economic activity on the coast, and industry estimates that up to 4,000 additional jobs could be created.

So how are we doing? Overall, during the first year of our plan our economy attracted $800 billion in new investment.

Sorry, it contributed $80 billion in new investment.

Interjections.

Hon. S. Thomson: The members opposite are listening. You are.

For the first time ever, exports to the Pacific Rim were higher than to the U.S. Exports to China increased by 24 percent and to Korea by 45 percent. We've maintained a triple-A credit rating, despite the very uncertain economic times. This is good news for all British Columbians and for everybody in the Okanagan.

[1645]

We're living in extraordinarily competitive times. We're seeing one of the greatest and largest economic shifts in our history from the west to Asia, and it's happening now. While other countries might be trying to adapt to this new reality, B.C. is well positioned to take advantage of the shift. But to keep us competitive, we have to confront some challenges. In dealing with our growing skilled labour shortage, we will be focusing on skills training. Over one million job openings are expected by 2020, 43 percent of which will require skilled workers.

The numbers in the Thompson-Okanagan region for the same period are staggering. By 2020, 110,000 job openings are expected in the region, with nearly 28 percent of them expected to be newly created jobs. Kelowna and the Okanagan need to be ready, and under our government and the B.C. jobs plan, we will be ready. We need to make sure that British Columbians have the skills needed to fill these jobs and that our training system is flexible enough to meet the changing needs of the evolving labour market.

We're supporting the plan with concrete action. We still have a lot of work to do. I'm proud of the work that our government has done to address the challenges of the future, and you'll see in a week's time that our budget will set the financial pathways to meet the opportunities and challenges that lie before us.

I believe in a British Columbia that encourages individual initiative, rewards hard work and creates economic opportunities for the thriving private sector. I believe in building confidence in our economy, both here at home and around the world.

Thank you very much for the opportunity, and I'm pleased to stand and support the throne speech and provide these comments that talk about the tremendous opportunities that the work that we have done as a government has provided for the province as a whole and specifically for our region in the Okanagan.

A. Dix: It's always an honour to stand in the Legislature and represent the constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway. It's a constituency that has had over time extraordinary representation — people who have advocated for the citizens of Vancouver-Kingsway, who made a difference in the lives of the citizens, who've fought for change and for social justice across the province but particularly in our neighbourhoods.

You think of people such as Alex Macdonald, the former Attorney General of the province, and Bob Williams, the former resources minister of the province, and Glen Clark and Dave Barrett. Think of those names.

Think of Harold Winch, who twice in general election
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campaigns in British Columbia won a plurality of votes. He did not win the government because of the nature, in those times, of electoral systems and electoral distribution of seats but was an extraordinary leader who came to the Legislature in the early '30s. He was on relief, and he came and represented his constituents.

We have a proud tradition. Rob Nijjar represented the constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway on the government side, and he continues to work in Vancouver and make a real contribution to the community. Recently Rob contacted me about a person he thought, from his work as an MLA, was worthy of the Queen's jubilee medal. In fact, I was happy to join him in nominating that person, who won that award.

I think it's an extraordinary thing, and I think especially in this session at this time in the Legislature we need to acknowledge what a privilege it is to sit here and the work that has been done by other members of the Legislature over time.

A number of members of the opposition caucus are leaving the Legislature. They've announced that they're not seeking re-election. All of them — and I know this from having worked with them on a daily basis over years — have done a truly exceptional job, not just in their jobs as critics or in this House but in their jobs as representatives of people in their community.

I think of the member for Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, a biologist by training, and his advocacy for people on environmental issues, his real and profound understanding and fights on issues such as IPP development over time and issues in his community, advocating for hospital care and home support in his community — a tremendous MLA with a tremendous legacy.

[1650]

The member for Delta North, who served as a councillor in Delta before becoming a member of the Legislature, whose legacy around Burns Bog, whose belief in fighting for community events such as the Tour de Delta, his idea that you can build community and participation through public events that bring people together, his commitment to the ALR, which has been expressed with such passion and such eloquence in this House….

I think, of course, of the member for North Coast, who's been our ferries critic over time and has worked to advocate on behalf of his constituents, people on the coast who often have not had adequate access to ferry service, who have felt, I think, the pressure on their services. The member has made the case and often been heard on the government side. I think of his arguments heard at times by the successive Ministers of Transportation, including the member for Peace River South, who's also retiring today.

We think, of course, of the member for Coquitlam-Maillardville — also a city councillor, our Education spokesperson for years — and the passion and humour that she brings to this Legislature, her role as a small business person in her community and how she has fought, I think, believed in and expressed the need for that community to be represented here, the need for women to be treated with justice and equality.

And her voice, that thing which we can hear — all of us who know the member can hear that voice. They can hear it in their ears now and know what that has meant in her contribution over all those years of public service as a councillor and as an MLA — just exceptional.

Hon. Deputy Speaker, yourself once voted — I think justifiably — as one of the ten best members of Parliament in another House and has come and represented the people in New Westminster, a community with just as great a tradition of representation as my constituency. I can think of the people who have represented it and think of the fact that not long from now people will speak of that and add to names such as Anita Hagen and Dennis Cocke and Rae Eddie that the member for New Westminster, the current member for New Westminster, represented them in the House and made an enormous difference.

I think of members on the government side as well. One of the proudest moments I had as an MLA — I was Health critic — was the day that the former Premier, Mr. Campbell, and the Minister of Health, who had advocated for this, initiated a program in British Columbia to allow young people in need of insulin pumps to get government funding. They made an announcement on the west side of Vancouver. The Minister of Health was there.

I had advocated for that for some time. The Minister of Health delivered on that, as he has for a very long time in the Legislature, since 1996, representing his constituents — representing them well and proudly on the government benches.

As many disagreements as I've had with the member for Shuswap — some of them dating through 20, 24 or 26 hours of estimates — the fact of the matter is that I don't think anyone can say he hasn't made a profound contribution to this place.

I think of the member for Abbotsford-Mission, who helped me in a motion that I had passed in the Legislature recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The member for Kamloops–South Thompson spoke to that motion, and we unanimously came together and did that as legislators on both sides.

I think of my friend here from Chilliwack, who has represented as a mayor and as an MLA with passion.

I think of one person who isn't here, who all of us in the Legislature miss, the former member for the Comox Valley, Stan Hagen, who represented us. He was the Minister of Children and Families when I came to the Legislature. I was the Children and Families critic, and while we two disagreed often, the reality is that after his time as critic he took the step, which is hard in government — we've done this on both sides; we've experienced this — of stepping back from an initiative the
[ Page 12749 ]
government had taken and reinstating, along with the unanimous vote of this Legislature, a Representative for Children and Youth.

This is a great place, and I want to acknowledge the effort of the entire opposition, all of the members retiring from the Legislature at the end of this session who've made an enormous contribution to British Columbia.

We think of our community. Last week a guy that I knew well from Collingwood Neighbourhood House, who was a volunteer — he was almost 90 — Albert Battistoni…. He always used to wear funny clothes, funny-coloured clothes. He always had a joke. He volunteered for years at the Collingwood Neighbourhood House.

[1655]

That changed. It was actually created — to speak of the kind of things we were talking about — at a time when a predecessor of mine, Glen Clark, was the MLA and the mayor of Vancouver was Gordon Campbell. They worked together to create the Collingwood Neighbourhood House, along with the community.

Albert had volunteered there for a very long time. A couple weeks ago Albert passed away, and we're going to recognize his contribution. But the value that people such as Albert bring to our community and the change they've brought and what they saw and the joy they've brought to people's lives….

You know, the people at our schools in my community…. The Aviva Community Fund recently recognized Gladstone. You think of the issues that they see as important — that young people see as important in our community. Just look at the work being done at Gladstone Secondary School in my constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway — $50,000 from the Aviva Community Fund — because they want to promote local food.

They did a video to the fund that talked about the cost of importing tree fruit, apples, from New Zealand to British Columbia and how it would be a better idea to grow locally. They built the case to build a greenhouse in their school to help make that happen. They won that contest and won $50,000. That's what they're advocating for. They understand that local food is important and should be recognized and promoted in a government's economic and agricultural strategy. They understand that.

The students at Windermere School understand it. They hosted, as they do every year, a conference on climate change recently, and 500 people took part on a professional day. They didn't have to be there, but they were there — an extraordinarily diverse audience that came together there to talk about the future of the planet.

Their expectations of us are that we not ignore issues around climate change, that we take action, that a throne speech — in their mind, surely, if they were writing a throne speech — would not ignore issues around climate change. They would argue that those issues are of central importance to them, to their future — our economic and environmental issues — not just of their city, not of their community and not just of their neighbourhood but of their province, of their country, of their world.

Students at Gladstone, as well, did us proud this year. They showed what can happen in K-to-12 education with dedicated teachers working together with students, when they won the world robotics championship. Over a period of years, one of the most interesting days…. They came back, and they had a celebration with people who'd been in that program over four years — a program the community had supported because they had to get to Dallas and then they had to get to Anaheim each year. So it was a very difficult thing.

In Gladstone School, in our constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway, those students finished first and second in the world amongst thousands who participate in that competition. And it's because of a teacher who won the Prime Minister's medal recently, Todd Ablett, who made that happen.

Those people, the group of people involved in the program, have been transformed. Many of them were not, when they entered the program, always the leading students in their schools, but they have a legacy now, and they've gone on to follow that legacy at places like BCIT and in engineering. And the students behind them, who they continue to work with, are part of that legacy. They are an example of why we have to give more opportunity, not less opportunity, on issues of skills training.

Then there are other students at Gladstone, who are currently in a class with 54 students in it, who make the case that maybe in public education…. They made a video — which I recommend to people — advocating for their school and their community and saying that 54 students are too many students in a public school.

They would expect issues of class size and composition to be reflected in their throne speech, just as the robotics students would expect skills training, just as the Windermere students and Gladstone students would assume that local food and agriculture would play a key role in the throne speech, just as students from across the city who took part in the climate change conference at Windermere would expect that climate change would be a key issue in any government's legislative agenda in the 21st century and in a throne speech.

I think that we're in a period, obviously, that's an electoral period, but I think a fair person looking at this government's throne speeches over time would find the throne speech presented yesterday to be out of step even with those presented by the government in the past.

There was no overarching vision of the economy — other than, seemingly, one idea and one project. There were no goals. There was no evidence of climate change and the environment being a key issue, as there had been in successive throne speeches under the former Premier. In fact, there was very little of that at all.

The government, it would appear, treated the throne
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speech a little bit like a campaign exercise, where they would release one little fact and not lay out, as governments are expected to do in their throne speech, their legislative agenda, to speak of their vision of the province and where they thought it would go.

[1700]

We didn't see that in this throne speech. We didn't see the key issues facing the province of British Columbia — issues around prosperity and productivity, of inequality and sustainability in our economy — addressed in any kind of comprehensive or coherent way, in my view.

That is, I think, a difference between a government that is at the end of its mandate — not to use an expression related to their throne speech, but it appears to have run out of gas — and a government and, hopefully, an opposition that is addressing the tough, difficult key issues of our time, not looking forward with hope for miracles in the future but addressing the issues that my constituents face, the constituents and people across B.C. face right here in the here and now.

Our economy has enormous reasons for success. My constituency of Vancouver-Kingsway…. Think of this in the context of the world. It's a constituency where 86 percent of people are what they call in Statistics Canada jargon visible minorities. Of course, it's 86 percent neither visible nor minorities, in fact. Thirty-eight percent speak a Chinese language at home, and 48 percent of people speak the English language at home. People from the Philippines and Vietnam, people from Chile, people from all over the world have come together in a community and work together.

I think British Columbia's openness to the idea of immigration, of people coming together and living together and working together in a community — something that Albert Battistoni symbolized in himself, that our neighbourhood house symbolizes for a broader community and our province symbolizes — is one of our greatest strengths. We have, as a province, great strengths that go beyond the partisan debate.

I think one of the greatest differences in British Columbia in the years following 1968 and before, the greatest differences between British Columbia then and now is an openness to immigration that is a change in our province. We remember as a province…. We talked about it, the member for North Vancouver–Lonsdale, I think, in a very moving presentation about what had happened during World War II, the internment of Japanese Canadians in that time.

One of things we pointed out and discussed in that debate was that in British Columbia after the war, because of what happened in this Legislature in large part, the advocacy of this Legislature, Japanese Canadians born in British Columbia, living in British Columbia were not allowed to return to the coast until 1949, when in other jurisdictions such as Washington State, a jurisdiction close to us with similar circumstances to us, people were allowed to return in 1945.

There was injustice in both places. It reflects, in fact, an unwillingness at the time, which hurt our economy for decades, to be open to the world and open to immigration. That has changed in our province, particularly since 1968.

The development of a community that's dynamic and open to the world, that sees people coming to the province — as my parents did, as many of our parents did or ourselves did, many current members of the Legislature did — as not a disadvantage but an advantage, a force for good in society, a force for economic growth and advancement…. It's something that we have to continue to nurture because it's a huge advantage for us.

We're well situated on the coast of British Columbia, with access to the Asian markets. Governments of various stripes from 1972 on — Dave Barrett being the first Premier to go to China — have successively pursued the Pacific Rim, the Asia-Pacific as a goal of economic policy. Diversity of trade and openness to that have been a goal of successive governments. The Minister of Jobs has been to China many times and worked on those issues just as ministers have over time.

This is another significant advantage for British Columbia. Our land base and our resources also represent a significant advantage for our province, one that we have to build on. We have to do a better job of upgrading the resources we have here, processing the resources we have here. This has always been a challenge. It's been a challenge since this Legislature started.

The first debates of this Legislature in the first decade of the 20th century were about raw log exports, and the McBride government of the time and the actions it took have always been part of our debate here and issues that we have worked on over time. Some of the laws, in fact, that were introduced at that time are still on the books today, sometimes not always enforced, but that's another issue for another debate.

[1705]

We have, as a province, on top of all those things, the extraordinary people of our province, who offer so much to the world in the way, I think, that we live together in our communities — not always perfectly, sometimes imperfectly. The way we live together in a community, we have enormous advantages as a province. We have things that we have pursued over time that have made this a wonderful place to live — certainly it has been for me — for people across the province.

So how do we deal with the challenges we face? I think that we'd all acknowledge that the province faces real challenges. Economic growth over that last decade has slowed as compared to previous decades. This is a challenge. Productivity over the last few years has trailed the Canadian average, particularly in the 2005-2011 period — about half of the Canadian average in terms of growth and labour productivity over that time.
[ Page 12751 ]

That's a significant long-term challenge. As you see British Columbia dropping down the list of provinces in terms of labour productivity, Canada itself is dropping down the list in terms of productivity compared to other countries in the world — a double problem for British Columbia, I would suggest.

On top of those issues of productivity, we have an issue that's actually closely linked to it, which is that issues of inequality beset our province more than most provinces. The fact of the matter is that we have the highest absolute levels of inequality in British Columbia of any province in Canada. The amount made by the bottom 20 percent as compared to the top 20 percent — that ratio is the worst in the country.

Bottom 20 percent. Less than 5 percent of after-tax income, after the impact of the regressive tax system. Bottom 20 percent — and there we're not talking about the very important issue of street homelessness. There we're talking about a group in the economy that represents 800,000 people, a very significant group of people who are clearly struggling in the economy, and those just above them, middle income people, who are facing pressures and, in fact, have much more in common with people of low income than they did a decade or two ago.

The inequality issue is a key question in our economy. What we know about what happens in our economy is that people are seeing the means of what I would call the predistribution of wealth taken away from them. It is much more difficult to get access to post-secondary education at the very time when all of us know, when the government's own information tells us, that 80 percent of the jobs of our future require post-secondary education, that 44 percent of those jobs are about trades and training.

At that very time, we've made it more difficult for young people at the age of 18, when, by definition, their income power is the worst. We're making the fact of what income they have and income their parents have very important as to their ability to get those jobs.

If we know in an economy that the growth of technology increases inequality for those who don't have control over technology, don't have the same level of education, the importance of education is greater now than it ever was. The importance of post-secondary education is greater now than it ever was.

Then we have the challenge — and nobody, I think, who lives in the interior of the province would be surprised about us talking about it — of issues of sustainability and the environment. The idea that they're in some way disconnected, that we can have a discussion just about natural gas without talking about the environment, that we can have a discussion just about forestry without talking about the environment at a time when we have timber supply areas where most of the trees are dead and they're killed by the mountain pine beetle…. That, we know, is related to climate change.

These issues of sustainability in our cities, in rural B.C., are crucial. Our fundamental responsibility, it seems to me, is to ensure that the land base that we inherited as a province, which has sustained so much wealth in our province, is passed on in good order to the next generation. That responsibility is under pressure, and we've lost ground in recent years, not gained ground.

So what do we do? What do we focus on? I think that there's a lot to say and a lot to do. This throne speech, unfortunately….

I think of people I've met in my constituency who work in the film and television industry — one more example of this — who, like many people…. There was a rally of people in film and television industry at North Vancouver studios in January, and 4,000 people attended that rally. More people attended the rally than worked in direct jobs in the industry when the previous government, an NDP government, brought in the tax credit system that's under discussion today.

[1710]

In fact, we've seen growth in that industry in the order of 500 percent because those policies undertaken by the NDP government were followed up by a Liberal government and have been led with success. Those are middle-class jobs, and they're important jobs, and they are not mentioned in this throne speech. They're not addressed in this throne speech. I think that's a problem.

The government has narrowed the debate about our future to one project, natural gas, but I don't think you've even done a good job with that. You have to. As the Premier, I think, said yesterday, decisions we make now are important as to whether we'll be able to take advantage of LNG development. But forgetting about issues of climate change, forgetting about the impact of development on the government's own legally ordained targets, which they appear to have abandoned, the impact of increased hydraulic fracturing on water resources in our province….

These are issues we have to address now. They're fundamental to the success of LNG. They're not over here; they're not on the side. They should be part of this discussion and part of this plan so that we will be successful. The government seems to not want to talk about that, to talk about LNG and the decisions made by international investors and international markets, as if it's something that they control, and not taking care of some of the things that we do control that will be fundamental to the success.

So what do we think the government should focus on? Well, in the last couple of years they tabled a budget, as you know, in February 2012-13, that cut support for post-secondary education by $70 million. It's in the budget. They did that. I mean, it seems strange that the government is advertising on some of these questions now when that's the approach they took at that time.

Don Drummond, in his noted report on spending in Ontario, said that the one thing you don't cut is skills
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training and post-secondary education in this economy because young people have to get access to the skills they need for the jobs of the future. The one thing that the government cut was just those programs.

It seems to me that they're on the wrong path here, that we have to focus on those issues. We have to dig in. In Alberta they've gone on a different path. They didn't blow up their system in 2002. They didn't eliminate compulsory trades. They didn't eliminate counsellors. They didn't see completion rates drop like a stone in apprenticeship programs in their province. We need, I think, to focus on this. This needs to be a provincial mission.

Last year I met with over 200 business groups. Every single one of them talked about the skills shortage. The government is simply out of step with this. This is something that is absolutely required for the government to do in this age — to make a singular focus now, and not just now but in '14, '15, '16, '17 and '18 to ensure that young people have access to middle-class jobs so that we don't have circumstance where there are projects in our province and, as has been suggested, there's no one from Canada and no one from B.C. who can take those jobs.

This is a future we have to avoid, because we have to ensure that when there is development, people from B.C. get those jobs. It will mean more jobs in small business. It'll mean more jobs in communities. It'll mean hope and aspiration and opportunity for young people.

That needs to be the focus of a throne speech. That needs to be the focus of concerted action. It's not saying, as the throne speech does, that when apprenticeship completion rates have been dropping like a stone, all of our policies have been successful — look at us — that when there's a significant skills shortage and we're out of step with other jurisdictions such as Alberta, all of our policies have been correct.

I think that the government has to acknowledge that they have let us down on this question and that we have to start on a new path. That's why we believe that skills training should be a primary economic focus of a new government in British Columbia.

If we can acknowledge together that these are challenging financial times…. We have to ensure that when government spends money, to the maximum extent possible it spends money in the communities, that when we have programs in British Columbia — outstanding programs, in the past….

I think it's important to recognize this. I try to say this all the time. I think that governments to some degree change and to some degree change the policies as they come in and, in some cases, build on policies brought in by other governments.

The current government got rid of a Buy B.C. program that had been very successful, that focused on local food. Most of the health authorities in our province have no plan to use local food. If government is spending money anyway, shouldn't the money they spend benefit the community in priority? Shouldn't we be supporting local farmers? Shouldn't we be advocating that people in B.C. buy local, just like those students at Gladstone?

[1715]

Shouldn't we, when the government in a throne speech talks about it, talk about our share of a local market, talk about tree fruit growers in the Okanagan and their share of the local market as well? It's not just the idea of selling cherries overseas but selling fruits and vegetables right here in British Columbia to consumers who are aching to buy those fruits and vegetables in our province. They're ahead of the politicians on this issue. They believe that buying local is important.

It's important that when we have resources in our province — and I've talked about the Richard McBride government and the legislation brought in at that time — and that when we have processes like the TEAC process that say that when there's demand for logs in British Columbia that they be used in British Columbia, that we support the TEAC process.

When we set up a process, it's not to give exemptions, as the government has done dozens and dozens of times, but to ensure that when there are local manufacturers who want access to logs in British Columbia, they have access to those logs. It means jobs. It means more people working on shift. It means a healthier forest industry.

Don't you think that ought to be a priority? Instead, in the throne speech in the province of British Columbia, with the centrality of forestry in our communities…. The throne speech in the province of British Columbia spends one sentence on forestry — one sentence on forestry that is supposed to define the full strategy and the full policy of a whole government, that is supposed to be part of its vision on jobs and the economy and social programs. They spend one sentence on forestry.

A sentence on agriculture. Nothing on film and television. Little or any hope on issues such as high-tech and other issues, which are growing parts of the economy. No mention of green jobs, which had repeatedly been part of the equation under the previous Premier.

In other words, what we have is a vision which I didn't always agree with. I voted against those throne speeches here in the Legislature. We have a move from a government that at least had a vision that people could agree or disagree with to a government that has one proposal, one idea — the exploitation of one resource, natural gas, at the expense of everything else. Surely, the people of British Columbia deserve and should expect more than that.

I think we have to acknowledge that we have to…. If we're going to meet our responsibility — not just our legal obligation but our historic responsibility — to address issues of the environment, to address issues on the land, to address issues of climate change, we have to come to the table on those issues as well. You can't just rewrite the standards and get out of your obligations.
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You can get out of your legal obligations, I suppose, if you have a majority in the Legislature and you've decided that climate change was a priority and it's no longer a priority. You can make that choice. But that historic obligation to future generations — you don't get out of that. You don't get out of that.

We, I think, as a province need to do better. That means, especially in urban areas, that we have to do a better job on transportation. We have to do a better job on housing. We have to do a better job on buildings. We have to do a better job of reducing emissions.

If you're going to create the room for new industry, you better do the job on climate change. This is not news to anybody, but it disappeared as part of the equation of the current government.

We've had a discussion on the carbon tax. We'll say that the government ran the last election, and one of the issues was the carbon tax. They won the election, and we have the carbon tax, which is going to continue to be in place now. But what is true, and I've said this before, is that not a penny of that carbon tax goes to any transit initiatives, supports infrastructure in rural communities. All of it was sent off in tax cuts.

We don't think that's a good idea. We think that investment in infrastructure is necessary, that connecting the carbon tax people pay with the real infrastructure decisions the government takes — the tax people pay to transit, the tax people pay to ensure people in Sicamous have good clean water and aren't on boil-water advisories, and on and on….

The fact is that in the interior of B.C., municipal governments, local governments, local school districts often face much more significant challenges and costs in terms of energy. We have to ensure, whether it's a carbon trust that takes money out of the public sector and gives it to big corporations and others, that we're investing in our communities and that we're meeting our historic obligation to the environment, our historic obligation on issues such as climate change.

[1720]

Finally, I'd say this. It's been four years of this government. The most significant public policy achievement of the government they passed early, which was the HST. Then, of course, they were forced to withdraw. It affected every business in the province. It affected every individual in the province. It had a negative effect.

I understand the government doesn't want to campaign on its record. But you have to view the whole economy. It's small businesses and public services. It's forestry and mining. It's high-tech and green jobs. It's film and television, and LNG and energy jobs. It's forestry. These are the jobs that sustain communities.

You've got to have a broader agenda than what we see in a throne speech that is limiting us to one idea. Whether we think that idea will succeed to some extent, to a greater extent or a lesser extent, we have an obligation now to get our house in order, and the government hasn't done that.

Every taxpayer dollar is important. That's why we're going to be proposing real changes in this legislative session — changes that ensure that the partisan misuse of government advertising ends in British Columbia; as we have supported for years and the government did include, to its credit, in the throne speech, the need for a seniors representative and a seniors advocate in British Columbia; the idea that was supported by the Premier, when she ran for election in the by-election in Vancouver–Point Grey, that we need to ban cosmetic pesticides — an idea that we have introduced in legislation and will introduce again in legislation, to keep the pressure on a government that used to put that in throne speeches and left it out this time.

I think we're going to contribute to the debate. Our approach is going to continue to be the same approach throughout this session. When the government does things we agree with, we're going to unhesitatingly agree, because I think people are tired of opposition for opposition's sake. We're going to present a plan that addresses the issues that people care about in their communities over the coming months: on health care and education, of course; on issues addressing productivity and inequality; of jobs and sustainability; of the future of our province.

I think a lot of people in our province are worried. They're worried that their children and their grandchildren aren't going to see the opportunities they've had. It feels like I'm speaking in a TV ad. But I think that's a real worry, and it's an obligation as well — like climate change, like inequality, like job creation, like taking care of the land, like supporting local communities. It's an obligation on us as legislators to do, which is to ensure that British Columbia and British Columbians have more opportunities in the next generation than our generation did.

This is something, over various governments and over time, we've generally done in British Columbia. It's something we have to do now.

We need some change for the better. We need a government more connected to people — not a government that's out of gas and grasping at straws but a government that's committed to real change to address the fundamental challenges facing our province.

Hon. P. Bell: It's a pleasure to be able to respond to the Speech from the Throne. I will get to that in a few minutes. But having just spent about 40 or so minutes listening to the Leader of the Opposition, there are a couple of things that the Leader of the Opposition stated that don't square with the facts, and I think that we need to get those on the record very quickly in order to ensure that they are factual.

Interjection.
[ Page 12754 ]

Hon. P. Bell: The Opposition House Leader says: "Take out an ad." Actually, he should probably talk to the member for Fraser-Nicola about his advertising budget and spending. I think that would be the more appropriate place to have that conversation.

You know, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say a number of things. He certainly spoke about previous Premiers of this province, Glen Clark and Dave Barrett, as economic heroes of the NDP. I find that very challenging, having lived through both of those leaders and seeing what it did to the economy of British Columbia.

[1725]

But one thing that really disturbs me is I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that, in fact, the economy had been better in the previous decade, referring to the 1990s, than it has been in this decade. Yet the facts absolutely do not point to that.

In fact, in the 1990s the gross domestic product growth in the province of British Columbia was 0.22 percent behind the rest of Canada for the entire decade. In the first decade of the 21st century the average GDP growth has been 0.47 percent ahead of the Canadian average, a clear indicator that our province has performed exceptionally well over the last ten years.

A real GDP per capita during the 1990s was 0.65 percent. During the 2000s, 1.2 percent — again, a clear indicator.

Earlier, in question period today I disclosed the information that we've seen from Statistics Canada that suggests the unemployment rate in Canada at the close of the NDP era in government was 7.2 percent for all of Canada. It's an interesting number because it's also 7.2 percent today. The difference is that in 2001 the unemployment rate under the NDP government of the day was 0.5 percent higher than the Canadian average. Today the unemployment rate is 0.5 percent below the Canadian average. All of those things concern me.

Then I heard the Leader of the Opposition talking in very melodramatic terms about the need to have climate change added to the debate and particularly in the throne speech. That, to me, is just absolutely shocking, because it was that member — the record will show very clearly — that voted against the carbon tax. In fact, he voted against every initiative that this government has brought forward to promote the issue of climate change, to find ways to have meaningful impacts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to make the types of changes that have been promoted far and wide and heralded as British Columbia leading the world.

The member opposite voted against all of those, the Leader of the Opposition, and at the same time, today stands up and says that he's shocked that there was nothing included in the throne speech. I think that all of those things point back to the theme of question period today, which was the saying — it appears amongst the opposition, and the Leader of the Opposition, especially: "Don't do what we did. Do what we tell you to do now, because it's going to be all different." History does not show that's been the case.

But with that said, I do want to kind of get on to my key themes of my response to the throne speech. First of all, I need to again thank my wife, Brenda, for her willingness to allow me to do this job for almost 12 years now. It's been one of those very difficult things, and I know that all of us in this House who have a partner or a spouse find it very, very challenging. It's difficult for our partner, our spouse, to stay at home while we're faced with a day-to-day barrage of requests of our time, demands of our time. I think that without that kind of support that we all have, it would be impossible for us to be here.

Having looked back over 12 years, I think it's remarkable to see the stability of relationships that the members of the House have been able to maintain, given the nature of the work that we do. There have been a few separations over time but not many. I think that, overall, the record has been pretty good on both sides of the House in terms of being able to maintain relationships with partners and spouses. Again to my wife, Brenda, I just can't even begin to thank her enough for her willingness to continue to allow me to do this job.

I also was very, very pleased at the tail end of last session to be able to announce the birth of our grandson Joey. He continues to do very well, almost nine months old. I got to go and see him in swimming lessons last night, and he's progressing well, I can report — not quite doing the 100-metre breaststroke yet, but we're working on that one. Lots of fun to be able to spend time with him.

For me, that's really kind of driven me and motivated me in a different way, perhaps, than I've been in the past — the knowledge that I do want to leave a legacy behind for my grandson and that that's an important element of what we do here. It has caused me to think longer term as opposed to shorter term. I will touch a bit more on that.

Of course, to my daughter Donna and her husband, Matt, thank you very much for blessing us with this wonderful grandchild. We'll return him on a evening basis, on a regular basis, when we're done with him for the day, full of sugar and all those things that grandparents get to do but parents don't.

Also, to my other daughter, Diana, and our other son, Doug — thanks for your ongoing support.

They're all adults in their own right now and pursuing their own careers. It's just tremendous to see that as a father, as parents. It's just wonderful.

[1730]

[L. Reid in the chair.]

In addition, I wanted to thank my constituency staff back in Prince George and Mackenzie for all of the work that they do — Charlotte and Judy, along with Bev in Mackenzie. They've just done a tremendous job over a
[ Page 12755 ]
long period of time — Charlotte for the full 12 years, Bev more recently and Judy in between those two places. I couldn't do the work that I do here without their support, and I very much appreciate that.

On a more sad note — the passing of a couple of individuals that were very close to me. First of all, my mother-in-law, Charlotte Lapp, passed away in November very, very suddenly. She was very much like a mother to me, since I lost my parents over 20 years ago, and will be missed. The music community in Prince George will miss her deeply. She was a tremendous musician and artist in her own right. She mentored many, many individuals in the music community and particularly the young fiddlers in Prince George.

Her son is someone that has some notoriety here in Victoria, Daniel Lapp. Many will know him as a regular fiddler in various events in the Victoria and Vancouver areas.

It was a deep loss in our family. It's something that was a very sad time, but we've struggled through. Her memory is only just a push of the cassette deck away, and the music will ring through the halls again in the way that it always did.

Another loss that I had January 1, actually, was a very good friend of mine and a very good supporter, Tom Michael. Tom was 90 years old and passed away down in Trail. He was a long-serving councillor in Mackenzie, British Columbia.

He actually flew Spitfires in World War II. In fact, he was the first British Columbian to fly a Spitfire and flew, as I understand it, well over 60 different missions until he was shot down and managed to struggle out and return to England and then back to Canada. He returned to the forest industry on Vancouver Island and ended up in Mackenzie in the mid-1970s to spend the rest of his working career up there.

Tom just was a tremendous individual, a short man by stature but very tall in terms of wisdom. He was someone that often provided good advice to me individually and, I know, to many other people, including our previous Premier, who he would correspond with from time to time. It was a sad passing in the sense that Tom was just such a fixture for Mackenzie. In a small community like Mackenzie, just 4,000 or so people — a real loss but, again, something that we all have to move on from.

Getting to the key themes of my remarks today on reply to the Speech from the Throne, I wrote down 11 key elements that were important, I think, in the Speech from the Throne.

The first one, really, is the notion that the world is changing out in front of us. That's just so important to contemplate and deal with because what we have known, I believe, over the last ten or 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years is not really relevant in today's world. Things have changed so quickly, and it's because of the massive shift that we've seen in the global economy from the United States and Europe into the Asian marketplaces, into China and into India, in particular, but right across the Asian marketplaces.

It is astounding to see how rapidly this is taking place. When you travel through China, as I have done on a number of occasions, it's amazing to see the evolution of their economy and the way that individuals change through that process. It is a very organized and methodical economy in the way that they approach it. India is different than that, but they are growing at an equally compelling rate that we need to continue to track and make sure that we take full advantage of.

Change always creates opportunity. It also creates risk. I think that we need to try and capture that opportunity. The thing that concerns me most about the notion of change is how quickly we need to respond and react to the change that's taking place.

Australia, I think, has done this very, very well. In fact, if you look at the Australian economy through the early and mid- and latter 2000s, what you'll see is they really were not hit by the economic challenges that the rest of the world had in 2008. In fact, they successfully navigated their way through that period of time, and it was because of the close linkages and the diverse trading relationships that they have with the Asian marketplace.

Most people think of Australia as much closer to China than we are, and I suppose to southern China they are, but to northern and eastern China, in fact, they're really about the same distance as Canada. It takes about the same amount of time on an airplane, perhaps an hour less from Australia to Beijing than it does from Vancouver to Beijing, but clearly, there is a great opportunity for us there.

[1735]

So Australia is a country that we need to think about and worry about. They're in the foot race with us to capture the global opportunity that's represented in China and in India. I think the United States is going to work very hard to revitalize their economy over the next number of years. I think they are also in the foot race. Then there are countries like Qatar, and there are other countries throughout the world, in South America and Africa, that we need to be paying attention to, because this is a race that will not see a number of medals delivered at the end.

I think there will largely only be one significant medal that will be offered up. I would like for British Columbia to be the one that is the recipient of that medal, because I think we're worthy of it, but also, because I think we can fight hard enough to receive that reward.

The benefit of that medal or that new relationship or trading relationship will carry on for many, many decades, far beyond the time — with the possible exception of the member from the West End — our collective lives…. The member in the West End just reached 30 years old now, which is a significant milestone in anyone's life, so congratulations to him for that.
[ Page 12756 ]

Interjection.

Hon. P. Bell: He's 32 this year. Holy cow, time flies when you're having fun. I was 43 when I entered this House. That would make me 55 now. Actually, I guess I was 44, come to think of it, which will make me 56 shortly.

In any event, the notion of us really building a future prosperity, well into the future, is critical. You only do that by capturing the new opportunity that comes with the economic change.

The next word that I had written down in my comments or thoughts was "discipline." It would be very easy to be undisciplined during this period of time. It would be very easy to be fractured, to chase too many targets and too many goals, to think that we can be the best in the world at everything that we do when, in fact, there are many that are trying to be the best in many areas of focus. It's not realistic in a small jurisdiction — 4½ million people, 4.4 million people — to try and be the best in every single area.

What you need to have are trading relationships. You allow other countries and jurisdictions to compete in areas where they can perform at a very high level. We focus our efforts in the areas that we can compete in, and then if you do that, you trade with those partnerships and relationships in a way that will allow you to excel and exceed the expectations of your jurisdiction.

So discipline is absolutely critical. One of the things that worries me, as a province, is: do we have the discipline that it's going to take to make sure that we can deliver on the dreams, the aspirations and the goals that we have out in front of us?

I've talked about the third word already: "compete." I do think, very much, we are in a competition with many other countries in the world. Part of my responsibility is that of tourism. I often talk about the competition in tourism.

Twenty years ago there were about ten or so countries that controlled 80 percent of the total tourism market. Today there's not a single country in the world that you could find that doesn't list tourism out as one of their top economic priorities. The new wilderness tourism experiences in Third World countries are dramatic, and they are constantly trying to attract people into those experiences.

Our competition out there is far more aggressive than it's ever been. In order for us to be successful, we need to be very focused on our competitive attributes or assets. That's why we created a strategy or a plan, Gaining the Edge, that focuses on different six areas where we think we have a natural competitive advantage. It's starting to actually pay back significant benefits.

What we saw, interestingly, this fall…. We went to the Toronto ski show as a group of ski hills. As opposed to going individually to the Toronto ski show and having 12 or 13 different booths, we went with one very large booth. What we saw was that early season bookings were up anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent — very positive numbers. We've continued to see that throughout the ski season. So competing is absolutely key for us.

In the Speech from the Throne, one of the elements that didn't receive a huge amount of media play was the notion of us establishing a new partnership between the federal government, senior leaders in the business community, academia and the provincial government for creating a seamless opening into the Asian marketplace so that when businesses come from Asia, we can host them in a way to make sure that we meet their expectations and that we vie for their business. We know the world's vying for their business.

I think this initiative is going to be absolutely key for us in terms of driving that trading relationship forward with China, with India, with other Asian countries to make sure that we maximize the benefits of those investments, both from the perspective of outbound trade and inbound investments.

[1740]

This is a very interesting idea. I just had the opportunity, actually, to speak to the Canadian ambassador to China today at lunch. He noted that this was an interesting initiative, from his perspective, that he thought we could really build on and develop. The federal government has shown some interest in working collaboratively with us, as has the B.C. Business Council, as has academia — to really build this notion of a single entry or a single window into the Asia-Pacific.

That's a key element, from the perspective of our overall strategy, and it's certainly something that I think needs to have more focus in the weeks ahead. Certainly, I hope to be able to bring some media attention and the public attention to that.

Obviously, the big item we've talked about was the notion of a new prosperity fund and the opportunities associated with the LNG business. One of the things I found interesting was that the criticism from the opposition, from other individuals was largely that we were looking too far into the future, that we were dealing in a time that was not practical, that was not realistic for us to achieve our goals and objectives.

I actually thought back to when W.A.C. Bennett introduced the two-rivers strategy to the province back in the 1960s. I thought to myself: "I wonder if that's what people said about W.A.C. Bennett?" Although I was relatively young at the time, I do remember the dialogue, and I'm sure that eventually the member for West Vancouver–Capilano may even speak to the notion of the two-river system, because he was not a young man even then. He's an older man now.

The vision that W.A.C. Bennett brought forward when he introduced the notion of the two-river system and building the very, very large dams created a tremendous amount of controversy in the province.

One of the things I always find interesting is when you
[ Page 12757 ]
listen to members of the opposition and when you listen to the public in general, that's all been forgotten. It's all been forgotten that that was a very controversial strategy, because he built for the future. In fact, the cost of power at the time was very, very expensive. It was far more expensive than could be produced in other, less expensive means of electrical generation.

Yet W.A.C. Bennett had the vision to go out and challenge those that didn't believe we should move forward with a project of this nature in British Columbia and built the two-river system. I think it was a tremendous initiative and is what has really set us up today for the future in terms of power generation and the price of electricity.

We would not be endowed with very inexpensive power if W.A.C. Bennett hadn't looked the naysayers in the eye and said: "No, we're going to invest in the future because this is important. We're going to invest in the future, and regardless of whether you think it's going to pay benefits today, just wait and see what happens 30 years from now."

I think this prosperity fund is exactly the same thing. We need to be thinking out into the future. We can't be thinking about today. Politicians are often accused of thinking too short term. That's why we've laid out this vision for the province, this notion that 30 years from now if we're smart about we manage our affairs, if we resist the temptation to put the money into incremental services on a day-to-day basis right now, if we manage our affairs tightly and if we continue to focus on protecting our resources, this can yield a long-term benefit to the province.

Who knows what it could achieve for us? The opportunities are endless. A hundred billion dollars could do anything from removing the debt that we have in the province and eliminating PST to incremental spending around family affordability initiatives and seniors initiatives. It could be anything that you want.

But the opportunity is only there if you have the discipline today to say we're not going to spend that money now. We're going to save it for the future.

I mentioned earlier that I have a grandson now — Joey. For me, having a legacy like that for Joey, I think would be a tremendous thing. For me, to have Joey, 30 years from now — if I'm still around, if I'm fortunate enough to still be around — say to me, "Grandpa, I'm glad that you guys established the prosperity fund because it's making a huge difference to our province now…." Or if I'm not around, at least maybe he could think that I had a little bit of a role in establishing the prosperity fund and moving us forward.

That's what drives me on a day-to-day basis. That's what gets me to think about a long-term vision. We have a vision, with a plan. That's really what is critical to this. The jobs plan that we brought out about a year and a half ago, give or take; our focus on the LNG business, with a very detailed strategy and plan; Gaining the Edge, our tourism plan; forestry initiatives; mining initiatives — all of those things are constructed in a way that will yield long-term results.

[1745]

I remember ten years ago our colleague, who is now the Minister of Finance, had a dream and vision. He was then the Minister of Forests, and he said that, you know, we cannot continue to rely on the United States as the only place that will buy our lumber. At the time they were buying 70 percent of our production in the United States.

What would happen, the now Minister of Finance and then Minister of Forests said, is that if we had a housing collapse in the United States — when they went from a million and a half, two million, three million houses per year; up as high as two million at one point, down to half a million — we would lose our industry.

So he went to China, against all odds. At the time, everyone said, "You're never going to break into that market," and he said: "We need a long-term strategy." He went over with a small amount of money and built the first wood-frame demonstration project. It still stands today. I've had the opportunity to visit it on a number of occasions.

He looked at what all the challenges were with the industry over there — there was no building code, there was no one trained in how to build with wood, and there was no distribution network — and he built strategies that were long term in nature that allowed us to mitigate those challenges that were out there.

Today we're selling five billion board feet of lumber into the Chinese market. It represents about 30 percent of our total production. The United States is down to 40 percent of our production. But more importantly, lumber is selling for $400 a thousand board feet, and people are working across the forest industry in British Columbia as a result of that. But that took ten years to make that happen.

Ten years ago people said: "Oh, you better not do that. It's going to take too long. It'll never happen anyway. How could you possibly project out ten years?" If the minister — today's Minister of Finance, then the Minister of Forests — hadn't had that vision, it wouldn't have happened today, and people would be out of work in the forest industry today instead of working each and every day.

It takes that vision in order to really develop an economy over a long term, and that's why I just think the notion of a prosperity fund is absolutely critical for us. We've seen what happened in Alberta with their heritage fund — very positive for a long time. Now, unfortunately, Alberta has not maintained its spending discipline in a way that has allowed them to protect that heritage fund, and I think we need to learn from that as well.

I think the notion of a fund that is protected over the long term, an endowment type of fund, is probably the right approach to take because then, in the event that you have a government at some point in time that is undisciplined with their spending habits, they can't get at that money in a way to spend down the principal. They can
[ Page 12758 ]
only spend the interest from that. But again, it's those sorts of things that I think are absolutely key.

Moving on from the prosperity fund, which I find difficult because I think it's such an exciting opportunity out in front of us, there are a couple of other key elements before I close off my comments to the throne speech that I think are important.

The first one is our skills-training plan. I've had the opportunity as minister responsible for skills training, which is focused largely on trades training, to influence the direction that we have in trades training for a couple of years now, and I am proud of the results.

If you go and talk to people like MaryAnne Arcand in Prince George and ask her how it's going, she'll say that the new truck-driver training that we're doing in Prince George is delivering real jobs to people who need them badly, and it's creating opportunities for people that they have never seen before. Disadvantaged people that have had long-term levels of unemployment, that have been unable to find stable careers, are now working in the truck-driving industry and having real family-supporting jobs as a result of it.

If you go and look at Camosun College, they'll tell you about the just under $30 million that we're investing at Camosun College, building a world-class training facility for shipbuilding, making sure that they have the necessary tools and equipment and the type of facility that will ensure a long-term future for shipbuilding.

If you go to Okanagan College and ask them at Okanagan College…. I think it was $27 million that we're investing at Okanagan College in a brand-new new trades-training building, brand-new facility.

If you go to Prince George, my home town, and talk to the College of New Caledonia, where they had the largest single investment in trades training in the history of the college…. Just tremendous new facilities — new buildings, new facilities, new classrooms, all new equipment that is world-leading in terms of training for trades training.

Today we have about 35,000 people in the apprenticeship programs. I often hear from members opposite that we've cut our budgets, we've slashed our budgets and we've not delivered. And yet during the entire 1990s you rarely saw over 20,000 or 23,000 or 24,000 apprentices at any point in time in their trades-training system. We're at 35,000 now or 37,000. So we are significantly increasing the number of people in trades training.

[1750]

What I'm most proud of is that a lot of that has come from First Nations. The First Nations population in the province of British Columbia is just under 5 percent — 4½ percent or so — and yet the population of First Nations in trades programs is at 9 percent. So again, I think it's a real success story in terms of creating opportunities for First Nations peoples across this province in trades training.

We've got lots more work to do with women, with disadvantaged people, with other people that need to have the same opportunity. But again, the investments are being made. We're growing the programs. Last year we handed out over 8,000 credentials in the trades training program.

Members opposite often talk about not having sufficient credentials being issued, and yet during the entire 1990s it was commonplace to have 4,000, 3,000 or 2,000 credentials being issued in any year. The 8,759 that we did last year was a record — more than has ever been issued — and all the next records are under our government, so our skills training plan is sound. It's delivering results, and we need to make sure that we continue to stay focused on it.

The next element in the throne speech that I wanted to touch on just briefly was our plan for future energy. This includes Site C, in our opinion. Site C, although it's controversial at times, is one of the most environmentally green forms of electricity that we can create. It's taking the Peace River and making it double the width that it is today. It's not creating a big, new lake; it's just simply raising the river. But because it would be the third dam on the river system, it's a very efficient use of power and creates a tremendous amount of power for a relatively small footprint on the entire site.

B.C. Hydro is doing very good work consulting with First Nations, with local communities, making sure that we are going through all of the processes necessary to take local input into account as we do this work. But again, it's building for the future that's absolutely key, and that's the theme of this government.

There are other elements — the small business priorities, a seniors advocate, some very interesting ideas around child care — that we're going to be talking about over the next number of weeks, which are all very, very important elements of our throne speech and of our government. But let me conclude with some remarks about the future.

I'm excited about the future of British Columbia, but I'm also nervous about it, because there are two visions of the future of British Columbia. There's a vision on this side of the House that says we need to maintain a strong economic position, that we need to control spending and that we need to provide an attractive, competitive environment for people to do business in. And there's a vision on that side of the House that doesn't include any of those elements.

That worries me because just as during the 1990s people went to Alberta with their investments — they went to other jurisdictions with their investments — they'll do exactly the same thing if they aren't presented with the type of vision that says: "We want your business. We want your business here in British Columbia, and if you trust us with our decisions around how we want to grow this economy, we'll deliver for you in ways that you
[ Page 12759 ]
can only dream of."

There is a future for British Columbia, but it's in the hands of the government on this side of the House.

C. Trevena: It's a privilege to stand up in this House again. It's been almost nine months since we've had the opportunity to represent our constituents.

Before I go too much into my response to the throne speech, I would like to pick up on a couple of comments that the Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training has just raised, one of which is casting back once again about 20 years ago and rewriting history for what happened in that period.

The minister mentions whether people went to Alberta. If he comes again to Campbell River — which he has been doing quite regularly because we have one iteration of the jobs plan occurring in Campbell River, a pilot project — he would find that many people from Campbell River are actually now working in Alberta. They're working in the tar sands because they cannot find work in B.C. They are being driven out of their communities to find work because there is nothing here.

The minister also talked about apprenticeships and how the apprenticeship program is working very well. I was at an announcement the other day at North Island College for some equipment that had been given. Suddenly, just a couple of months before an election North Island College gets some equipment in the welding program — really good equipment, really wanted it. But in talking to the apprentices who were there, they are really distressed about how their programs are being gutted.

[1755]

They want to do a full apprenticeship, but it's not like it used to be ten, 15 or 20 years ago. They are not getting full apprenticeships, and they're extremely concerned about what this means for their future. Their future is the future of all of us in B.C.

Now, the minister talked about a vision and the importance of a vision for the province, and we quite agree. I think there is no question that we all want to have a solid, firm economic foundation on which to build our vision. The government's vision, however, I think, really is built on desperation.

We listened to the throne speech yesterday talking about the whole plan for the prosperity fund. I find it very interesting that the minister, who does quite a lot of talking on behalf of the government, talks about the notion of a prosperity fund, which does, if you start parsing the language…. A notion is…. How serious is it going to be? Is there going to be one, or is it just a notional fund that we're going to have here?

The notional fund, the notional prosperity fund based on liquid natural gas, is a 30-year plan. So we're not going to get any money for many years, maybe not the whole of the next government and possibly into the government after that. But what seems to be forgotten in all of this wonderful notion and wonderful vision that government members and the minister are talking about it is that we don't even have the liquid natural gas plants up and running yet.

So we have this 30-year plan. People are worried about a five-year plan or a ten-year plan. We have a 30-year plan where there is actually no foundation to create the fund that is going to pay for all these things that will be wonderful, will get rid of the sales tax, will fund the seniors advocate, will do this, that and the other.

I think that, as I say, this is not visionary. It's pure desperation. It is a fantasy created just in the vain hope that the government will be able to sell it to the voters of British Columbia. I'm sure we're going to see more public money — our money, taxpayers' money — going on ads.

We've already seen all the ads so far. We had a debate earlier on today in question period about the cost of the ads, where they're going and the politicization of these ads, which is really offensive to people in my community.

We're soon, I'm sure, going to be seeing ads about this whole prosperity plan — more government funding, more of our money going into that to tell people what a wonderful idea it is, when it's not going to exist for years.

Madam Speaker, we haven't been in this place for nine months, which I think is a great sadness. I know that you yourself respect this place — a very proud democratic institution, the parliamentary system that we have — like myself. It is something that I believe you treasure.

I find the fact that we are just coming back now for what everybody is assuming is going to be a limited time, possibly just five weeks — which will be 19 days of sitting between last May and the election — particularly troublesome, because there is a place for us in this Legislature to work on people's behalf — not to just pontificate, not just to stand and make speeches, but to actually work on people's behalf.

We have heard a couple of members earlier — my colleague from Columbia River–Revelstoke, the member for Coquitlam–Burke Mountain — talking about how important it is to work in a collegial way on the committee system. We haven't seen many committees work very well in this place, and I think there is a real opportunity for us to move on and work as legislators, to get together in a collegial way, on committees. This has been seen to work.

I have the privilege of being the Deputy Chair of the Children and Youth Committee, and we have very active meetings. We work very collegially together and can get things done.

There are real benefits of working in this Legislature that aren't just the question periods, aren't just standing up and making speeches, but really getting the work of the people of B.C. done.

While we don't sit, while we are not here, we are, I think, adding to the cynicism of the people of B.C. about what politics is, what politicians do and why we are elected. I think that is particularly troubling. I think
[ Page 12760 ]
it is something that we really do need to think about as we go towards an election. We are all representatives of our communities and have to think very seriously about what that means.

I have just been preparing my thoughts for this throne speech, the response to the throne speech, which I think in many ways can be pretty wide open. Really, all we have from the throne speech to talk about is the prosperity fund, which isn't going to come into existence for a while.

[1800]

I've been going back through my notebooks over the last few months. When I go out and talk to people and listen to people, I take notes just to remind myself. It's very interesting — some of the images that it brought back.

For instance, I was in Port Hardy a few months ago, talking to teachers — young teachers, elementary school teachers — who ended up, in this meeting, in tears because they were not getting the support they needed to ensure that the kids in their classroom were able to get a good quality of education.

These were young teachers who are passionate about their profession and really wanted to get engaged. They had parents coming in to offer teaching assistant support, offering support for other children in the classroom. They had some special needs children in the classroom with the high flyers — those ones who were going to get by — and the teachers were really worried about sort of the plodders, the ones who may need a bit of extra assistance. These young teachers were really engaged, desperate.

Another conversation I had was with some people from the Ministry of Children and Families, who were exceedingly worried about the wait-list for children and youth with mental health problems and the fact that we have too few staff and too many kids who are suicidal, who are severely depressed, who have serious problems, who aren't seeing the counsellors they need.

There's a rural community where there is concern about access to the ambulance service. The changes in ambulance call-out have meant that they are not able to get their own ambulance used in a crisis — instead, because the service is being centralized, they're getting an ambulance from a different community coming in — and the real fear of what that is going to mean.

Many notes are from communities about our ferries and what has been happening on the ferry system.

In the fall we had a consultation process about our ferry system. We had, going from community to community, a group of people — a hired consulting company and a couple of people from the Ministry of Transportation and a couple of people from B.C. Ferries — coming to coastal communities to talk about ferries and, essentially, pitting one community against another and one ferry route against another. "Which one would you cut?" People in our communities did see through that pretty quickly.

There is no mention — this is why I say it's rather a wide-ranging response to the throne speech — of any of these things in the throne speech. There's no mention of some of the essential aspects of life in my constituency, a rural and urban constituency. There's no mention of things that really matter to people in my constituency in this throne speech.

We have seen advertising coming out. We've seen a huge amount of advertising — $16.4 million is what we heard today as the cost of the advertising — to "decrease the credibility gap of the government." I think if there was substance in this throne speech, if there was a real vision for the next few weeks of this Legislature and a vision to the future, that would decrease the credibility gap.

But when we have a throne speech where the prime economic driver of this province for generations, forestry, gets one sentence and that one sentence is about exporting logs, that provides no vision for people. It provides no vision for the people across B.C., and it definitely provides no vision for the people in my constituency.

My constituency has traditionally been a forest-based community, a forest-based economy. We have a huge number of forestry-dependent jobs and, yes, guys who work in the bush. No question about that. We do have people logging, and logging is very active. You can count the trucks going down-Island, and they're going down-Island because there aren't any mills in the community. There is the Port Alice Specialty Cellulose mill, which is not a sawmill, is not a pulp mill.

We have no mills, so the logs that we are seeing in our community go down-Island. People are watching, effectively, their jobs being shipped out of their communities, and this throne speech doesn't address that. This throne speech allows people to pack up their bags and go and work in Alberta, because that's where the jobs are.

[1805]

The minister talks about the different statistics of who's got the most jobs and everything. What he fails to acknowledge under this jobs plan — as I say, Campbell River is a pilot for the jobs plan — is that we are actually losing jobs. Under this jobs plan, B.C. is actually losing jobs. It's quite extraordinary. The level of incompetence is amazing. That you can set up a whole plan to create employment….

We had a jobs fair in Campbell River the other day. All it seemed to be was local businesses all gathering together, literally under the banner of the jobs plan, and that was it. There were lots of flags around, lots of banners around, but not really any creating of jobs, not really creating of energy in the community.

People expect more, and they really deserve more. I think this is one of the huge problems — that the government that has been in power since 2001, the last 12 years, has gotten to the level of arrogance, a level of self-congratulatory views of itself, that it cannot see what is really needed in B.C. It cannot see the need in this province. It cannot see the problems that really…. It cannot see what is happening for families in the province.
[ Page 12761 ]

It talks about liquid natural gas and the prosperity fund. It talks about…. One sentence on forestry and one sentence on agriculture, and it misses other economic drivers like tourism and so on.

It doesn't see the pain that people are facing. It doesn't see the teachers who are crying or the families that literally can't put food on the table or the seniors who, when you go and talk to them and say, "How is it for you?" they say: "It's hard. If it wasn't for the thrift store, I wouldn't have clothes, and if it wasn't for the food bank, I wouldn't have food." They're sitting there trying to keep it together but are devastated that life has got to this.

That is not reflected in this throne speech. The throne speech is one of arrogance, I would say. It is one of negligence. It ignores the huge inequalities that exist in this province.

There is no question that we have big problems in B.C. I'm not being negative. There are big problems. I think you just go and talk to families. See how they're coping.

Go and talk to those families who are holding down two or three low-wage jobs just to pay the rent, just to pay the hydro, just to get food on the table. Talk to the kids who are actually going out to work to help the families make ends meet. We have big problems, and they're not going to be addressed by this government through this throne speech and this government's 30-year plan.

In my own community we have a lot of hope. There are big projects that are going to be coming to Campbell River. People are thinking that things are going to get better. People want things to get better. They want the communities to thrive. But they also want some sort of assistance.

I'll just cite one example. I mentioned that one of the big gaps in this throne speech was ferries — nothing mentioned about ferries.

I represent, as I've mentioned many times before, a forestry community — and nothing about forestry. I also represent many ferry-dependent communities. In fact, anyone who represents anyone on the Island represents ferry-dependent communities because, in essence, we all rely on the ferries because we are an island, and we're separate from the Mainland. Flying is a luxury.

So we had a consultation about ferries. If I might just quote from some of the notes on this, the Port Hardy mayor described the consultation material as provocative and unhelpful because it doesn't recognize the realities of living and working in ferry-dependent communities. It doesn't recognize the fact that the ferries are highways.

Ferries — basically, they're highways. They're highway vehicles. They're not anything smart. They're not cruise ships. These are our roads.

[1810]

The consultation didn't allow for real debate about what we need to do about our ferries. It didn't allow for real debate about the structure of our ferries and ensuring that they become part of our highway system and are integrated into our highway system so that people who live in ferry-dependent communities — all ferry-dependent communities, whether they be Campbell River, Nanaimo, Victoria, Quadra Island, Alert Bay or Malcolm Island…. It didn't recognize that we need these as part of our highways.

Nor did it give any scope for debating the absolutely essential part of cost of living for everyone who lives on the islands — whether it's on the big island, in Campbell River or other communities of the big island, or on smaller islands — and that is the cost of the ferries.

Now, it's interesting. We talk about highways, and the transportation section of this throne speech talked about all the wonderful investments going to highways — four-laning this road and four-laning that road, building a bridge here and building a tunnel there.

We had, recently, the building of the Port Mann Bridge. The Port Mann Bridge costs — with, I believe, a little card that you can use — $3 to go approximately two kilometres for a car and driver and however many passengers are in your car.

Now, to go from Campbell River to Quadra Island, which is about the same distance — a bit less; it's about 1.8 kilometres — costs $30 for just one car and one driver, no passengers. That's not counting the passengers. That's our toll, around $3 being the toll on the Port Mann Bridge. Where's the equality in that? Where is the common sense in that? That is not healthy for an economy to survive. It is not healthy for a community to survive.

To allow communities to survive, you've got to make sure that the infrastructure is there and that the infrastructure works. And the infrastructure is, if you are tolled on it, which we are on our ferries and which we accept on our ferries…. Like on some bridges, you're going to be tolled, and maybe on some tunnels there may be a toll. But a $30 toll, compared to a $3 toll?

It really is unacceptable, and it is killing island communities. It's killing island communities in families leaving. It is killing island communities who want to build business, because it drives tourists away. Tourists can't afford to come to any of the islands. I was talking to some tourist operators last summer who said that when people found out the cost of the ferries…. When they wanted to bring their car up and bring their boat up, they just said: "We won't come."

By ignoring something as simple as the ferries in this throne speech and by refusing to address the problem, this government has, I think, just closed its door on island communities. It has just said: "You're not important to us. You may be a rural community, you may be out there, and you are not important to us. We don't care about your highway. We care about the highways in the Lower Mainland. We care about some of the Interior highways and Trans-Canada. But your highways and your highway boats? Forget it. Your economies? Forget it."

This is an essential part of our communities that has
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been ignored in the speech. Forestry has been ignored. Our land base is being ignored. Our ferries are being ignored.

We've been talking earlier about climate change and whether climate change was in this throne speech. Climate change wasn't in the throne speech, and neither was anything about the environment.

I know that the Ministry of Environment has received letters from right across my constituency, in the north part of the constituency, about a lack of conservation officers. We have bears. We have cougars. We have wolves. We have a lot of interaction with wildlife. The nearest conservation office is about 350 kilometres away. They say: "Oh, you can call out the RCMP." That isn't a solution.

Recently there was a report saying that the sports fishery, which is about 50 percent of the value of fisheries in B.C…. Aquaculture and commercial fisheries are about 50 percent, sports fishing about 50 percent. Nothing here about environment. Nothing here about our rivers, maintaining the health of our rivers.

Nothing about our land base. Nothing that's really going to make sure that we have a future on our land base. That would be a prosperity fund. Invest in our land base. After all the cuts we've seen for all the years, let's put some money back into it. That would be investing in the future.

[1815]

That would be a good 30-year plan, but so much of it has been torn out that I think the government is just terrified of finding out what's really happening out there.

There is no oversight. Logging companies, forestry companies, can do what they want because there is no oversight. If you talk to any member of the Forest Service, they will tell you that very sadly — that there is very, very little left.

If this throne speech is sort of the semi–election platform for the government, I think that they have very little to stand on. If it's the history that they're going through, I think, also, they have very little to stand on. There is so little here for communities and, as I say, particularly for rural communities.

I'm going to shift briefly for my remaining few minutes to talk about my critic area. While there is nothing here for my constituency in this throne speech, maybe we'll see lots in the budget. I very much doubt it.

But while there's nothing here for my constituency in this throne speech, I would have hoped that there would be something for my critic area. I'm the shadow to the Minister of Children and Family Development. It is, I believe, one of the most important, if not the most important, of the ministries because this is the ministry that really looks after our most vulnerable resource and our precious resource — our children.

Now, last week there was a horrifying report that came out about a child who was within the system, known since birth in the system. He had been fostered, had been in foster care, and had been abused and neglected. It shocked people right across the province — a boy who, by the time he was 11, was tasered by the police. He has severe special needs and no skilled support. He has been in care homes where there have been nice people, maybe, looking after him but no specialized support, which he needs.

Yet that wasn't raised in the throne speech — the needs of that boy and the other maybe 30 or so children who have what's described as complex needs, multiple needs, high special needs. There's nothing in the throne speech for a child like that. A 30-year plan that may or may not come to fruition is not what that child needs. That child needs something now, and that's not in this throne speech.

Talking to social workers, they say that children with significant mental health and behavioural challenges are routinely placed in a hotel room with one or two child care workers because there is nothing in the system for them. That wasn't addressed in the throne speech.

I think that is a condemnation of this government — that they cannot address these real, fundamental needs for our children in their plan for the future. Their plan for the future doesn't include those children, and I think that is a tragedy.

Nor did the throne speech address the complete mismanagement of a computer system — I mean, absolute incompetence in bringing in a computer system, investing $200 million in a computer system. It's a failure that…. We're seeing time and time again and hearing reports of how poorly it is working, how unsuited it is to child protection.

So badly rolled out is it that there is now a freeze on taking it to the next stage. It's not going to be used in other parts of the Ministry of Children and Families just yet because there are such big problems.

There are 19,000 cases that they have to check to see…. That means 19,000 children and families that have to be examined to see whether the information is right. Social workers are just waiting with fear that this system will leave a child falling through the cracks. So $200 million spent on this.

[1820]

No reference to that in the throne speech, no reference to how we are going to address something as simple as looking after data and ensuring that we get the proper supports there for kids. A computer system may not seem like a proper support, but you need to keep records, and you do need to be able to access files.

No answers in this throne speech for the many, many workers who are daily trying to tackle that, and no answers for the many, many families who are caught within the system. No answer for those who are worrying whether they will actually find all the information they need in that system in a short time.

The system is a debacle. A visionary throne speech would have admitted that something had gone wrong
[ Page 12763 ]
and given a vision for what could go right for that ministry and the Ministry of Children and Families.

Nor was there anything there for children and youth with mental health, as mentioned in my opening remarks, opening parts of my speech — the conversation with people from the Ministry of Children and Family Development and with psychiatrists about wait-lists for children and youth with mental health.

Now, the wait-lists for children and youth with mental health come because the ministry is short-staffed. The social workers are overworked, and the resources are not there — not just the resources for children with complex needs but for kids who have some problems. They are not there. To compound it, there is a problem of numbers of staff and a lack of staff that are working within the ministry — a freeze, keeping numbers low to save money.

This throne speech is, I think, a sad indictment of a government that has run out of steam. It has run out of gas. It has run out of ideas, forgetting its responsibility that it is still the government and can make action at the moment.

Yes, this province needs a vision. It needs its severe problems addressed, but it needs a vision that embraces all communities, deals with the inequalities we have seen growing and growing over these last 12 years, looks at the fundamentals of our very rich province — our economy, our land base, our forest land base, our water base — looks at our environment and our precious resource, our people, and invests in those, not in some pipe dream that may or may not come to fruition many years down the road.

I think this throne speech is a sad joke, and the people of British Columbia deserve a lot better.

Hon. B. Stewart: It is a pleasure to rise before this House. To members on both sides of the House, it's an honour to be here this evening to respond to the Speech from the Throne, the fifth session of the 39th parliament. I think that it's important to recognize we're all here, of course, for the last session of this particular parliament. But it wouldn't be possible without the support of many people.

First of all, I think about, in the past almost four years, the constituents that I've had the opportunity to represent in Westside-Kelowna and the vast array of opportunities that they've given me to not only learn more about a community that I grew up in and live there but, more importantly, to address specific issues in helping to make government work better for them, to be able to create opportunities and to be able to create the certainty that I think they expect from government.

Certainly, getting elected in a period of such economic turbulence — the magnitude of the recession we faced and the dramatic fashion we entered into the recession in the fall of '08 — left us with, I think, what is one of the legacies of this particular government: stability, vision and the ability to recover and react to circumstances which are beyond the ability, sometimes, of any government in the world.

[1825]

I have to especially thank the people in Westside-Kelowna for their patience. The fact that we have continued to invest, a massive amount of investment, in health care.

Education. We have new schools being built in Kelowna-Mission, Westside-Kelowna. We have improvements and projects, and this is only one of the many areas. I know in many places in Surrey there are new schools being built.

However, I know that we can always do more. I think that is a criticism I've heard a lot today about. "Why aren't you doing more?" And I think that the answer is: "Just add more money."

Clearly, the people I represent in my constituency expect us to live within our means, whether they're seniors, families or youth. I think they all realize the value of a tax dollar, and the fact is that their lives are getting tougher with the squeeze that everybody has faced. The reality is they expect us to do the same thing.

I want to also thank the people that I have the opportunity to work with and for here in Victoria in the Ministry of Citizens' Services — my staff, Terry Lalari, Cindy Flesh and Sarah Britton; as well as the deputy, Kim Henderson.

I am truly blessed having had the opportunity to work in this ministry previously with some of the most creative minds, I think, in all of the government staff. They are constantly challenging themselves about finding new ways to innovate and to try to find opportunities to be able to make those tax dollars stretch further and to continue to put out exceptional and really outstanding results. I'm really pleased to be working with them.

On the home front I have two staff, Erica Macnab and Cheryl Doll, who do an unbelievable job in keeping the home fires burning. But more importantly, they do a great job in really dealing with some of the issues that all of us talk about here every day — whether it's to deal with ICBC or WorkSafe or if it happens to be a social issue — and getting people to the help government provides.

That's one of the things that I think this government has provided a sound foundation for — really good programs in all sorts of sectors, whether it happens to be health care, schools, education.

It's not perfect, but the reality is that we really are trying to make improvements. I have to say that when it comes to a lot of the things that constituents come to my particular office for in my riding…. They are often impressed by the fact that they can get these services from the government.

I also want to thank two other constituency assistants that I deal with on a regular basis — one that's in Kelowna-Mission, Nan Pellatt, and Katja Maurmann,
[ Page 12764 ]
who works in Kelowna–Lake Country. I have to really talk about the group that is in the Okanagan, but more closely in the Central Okanagan. I'm blessed to work with Norm Letnick, the Minister of Agriculture; and Steve Thomson….

Interjection.

Hon. B. Stewart: I beg your pardon. I take that back, Madam Speaker.

The Minister of Forests and Lands represents Kelowna-Mission, and the member for Kelowna–Lake Country is the Minister of Agriculture.

I also want to especially thank my family, who really give the opportunity for me to be here, to be able to do what I believe is something that's really important in your community, to stand up for what you believe in, which I think every member in this House is here for. I think it really is important that they give me the licence to be able to come down and spend the time, weeks at a time, dealing with issues, both in the constituency as well as in my ministry.

My daughter Llane and Jan have recently had a third addition to the already-growing Dobbener clan of girls. Ruby and Ginger were joined, on November 9, by Hazel, another young girl. Kitson and Jennifer, who live in Penticton, continue to have great opportunities in that community, and our son Patrick, who is working in the central Kelowna area. I have to give a great debt of gratitude to all of them.

I wanted to talk about the throne speech and the true crossroads we're at in history. Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor's speech provided us with a much-needed vision of where we're going for future generations.

This speech acknowledges our government's efforts to build a safe harbour to grow and protect jobs. This is on top of the already solid foundation we have worked very hard — diligently — to build. It speaks to our government's unwavering commitment to being disciplined in its spending, and we have committed to another balanced budget coming up next Tuesday, and it touches on areas that I'm firmly committed to, as well as firmly familiar with.

[1830]

It talks about a deepening and an opening up and an expansion of trade ties with Asia. We heard a comment in the throne speech: three billion people. How many people are on the globe today? I think it's about seven billion people. Almost 40 percent are living in Asia, and that is a growing economy that cannot be ignored.

Certainly, there was a growing and very large economy to the south, which I think we are very familiar with. We have a lot of strong trading opportunities still with the United States, but I think the real future opportunities for Canada and British Columbia depend on us opening up and having those linkages to Asia being strong and familiar. And the fact is that we already do a lot of trade there.

I only have to refer to the member for Prince George–Mackenzie, the Minister of Jobs and Skills Training, who referenced the growth and the vision that the former Forests Minister, the Minister of Finance, had in establishing links with China and how that has held us in good stead in being able to maintain jobs.

I know that many of those communities would have been worse off than what they were faced with when we opened up and we expanded trade by literally hundreds of percent with China over the last number of years. We maintained our relationship with Japan, opened up Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and a lot of these places that, frankly, are looking for wood products from companies that are here in British Columbia. They're looking for our resources.

Building relationships is really important for us, to make certain that we maintain and sustain the economy that we're trying to build here. This is not something that you just go down and do one visit. I've been on the road for 25 years selling products, and I can tell you it takes visit after visit to build the relationships that you need, to make certain that you have that trust and that relationship.

The other thing we talk about in the throne speech is seizing the opportunity to develop natural gas products — in turn, creating tens of thousands of jobs for generations to come and generating two major revenue streams for the province of British Columbia. When I think about this, I think about, you know, how often a lot of us take things for granted. We take natural gas — we turn on our stove; we turn on our furnace — and the fact that natural gas is there. But the reality is that there has been lots of exploration, lots of natural gas found all over North America. The reality is that the market has reached a saturation point.

But in other places where that opportunity hasn't really existed and they're using other methods of energy, such as thermal coal and maybe nuclear power, these people are looking for ways to clean up their environment.

I heard a criticism about our environmental record. I honestly can't believe how you can't embrace the idea of selling clean natural gas to countries that are spewing out tonnes of CO₂ emissions in terms of what the output is. I don't think any one of us would be satisfied with that, and I don't think they are. One of our key goals in trying to help other parts of the world reduce their carbon emissions is by expanding that.

It also creates opportunities. As a member of government…. I know many of you have had the chance to travel in this province. I know the member for Stikine and other places like that — places that were literally decimated not only by the recession but by years of not having the right opportunities — and I know how many people were looking for work in those communities.

But since the first time, probably about 3½ years ago —
[ Page 12765 ]
into Kitimat, Terrace and Prince Rupert — these places are literally on fire with optimism, jobs, the revitalization at the Alcan plant, the fact that there are opportunities. I mean, I lived in Kitimat in the '70s. The fact is that there were lots of jobs there, but slowly they became less relevant. They became critical of the employers they had. They made it difficult. But they've had to see things differently.

I'd just give you an example. Recently I had a chance to travel to the Caribbean. One of the comments I had was from a lady in Grenada. She said: "You know, we used to think that all the tourists were rich. We've forsaken the fact that these were people that were coming there to spend their hard-earned dollars and invest in us."

I think the fact is that the relationship has to be in balance when it comes to our relationship with industry, the citizens, all of the places that the resources come from and the environment. Frankly, that's what's happening in just one area.

[1835]

We have this other amazing opportunity that we're talking about with liquefied natural gas — being able to take something, compress it through refrigeration, put it onto ships, knowing that it's safe and that we can send it around the world. The fact is that there's very low environmental risk from what we're talking about here. We're not going to compromise our environmental standards.

We have a Minister of Environment that I think is probably one of the champions of what environmental protection should be. He's going to make certain that we don't have a second-class standard here in British Columbia. But I can tell you, we're going to do this whether people want to come along, because this is something that is a generational opportunity. It isn't about 30 years.

I'll tell you one other thing: 25 years ago people were talking about free trade. They talked about it decimating the entire province of British Columbia. In the industry I happened to be in…. I was a farmer, and I was out there growing fruit for wineries where, really, they had no future. There was no plan, but everybody said 25 or 26 years ago, when we were on the eve of free trade, that essentially, it was a sunset industry. We were going to be out of business, and frankly, we'd better find something else to do.

A handful of us stuck together. We created the B.C. Wine Institute. We created the VQA program. We struck a plan. We thought we had the exports, so we went around the world. What we learned was that we really didn't make as good a wine as we needed to make if we were going to export. That helped us improve things. But you look at the opportunities, 25-plus years later. The fact is, it's continuing to grow.

I think one of the things about the prosperity fund…. Sure, it sounds like…. Sure, we'd like to have a few billion dollars to pop into the prosperity fund today. But it is about a place for these revenue opportunities to go into so that future generations know that the province has the opportunity to invest. We still have a legacy here that we haven't dealt with, which is a debt that was left over from a previous government.

One of the things that we're also trying to do with LNG is to strengthen and build capacity with First Nations, who are really still struggling. I mean, sure, we embarked ten years ago on a new relationship and the idea that we were going to be able to help bring these opportunities to people that were in very remote areas, improve health care, education. Some of that requires revenue-sharing.

The fact is that these opportunities are only going to come as a result of collaboration between the energy companies, the government, First Nations and all of the people that are here in this House. So I think that the other outstanding part of the LNG opportunity that we talk about in the throne speech is making the ongoing development of a skilled workforce a top priority.

These are just some of the measures in the highlights in the throne speech that are putting us on the right track towards strengthening the economy, creating more jobs and providing all British Columbians with a good standard of living.

I know that the member for North Island previously talked about things in her community that were important to her. They're important to all of the colleagues that I sit with here. The fact is that we would like all of the resources to be able to end all of the issues that we have to talk about here. But that probably is not going to happen. We need to be realistic.

The reality is that this government has built this foundation that has increased investment in all of the social ministries, education and health care, and we get criticized for the fact it's not enough. Well, of course, it probably isn't enough if you happen to be an individual that's impacted in a way. But I can tell you that one of the things we're still facing — and it was mentioned in the throne speech — is that we have about $2.5 billion a year going out in interest costs.

Okay, now some of that's from infrastructure that has been built, and that's much-needed infrastructure. But a large part of that is the almost $40 billion that was left over as a debt that we had to take over from the former government. We're paying that down, but that's not the future that we would be doing if we were mortgaging our homes, etc. We'd ideally like to have no mortgage, and we'd like to make certain that we have enough in our savings account so that we can weather whatever next recession is going to come up.

I think that the key thing when I talk about infrastructure investment…. You know, the Port Mann to the Quadra Island example. I can't help but…. I'm not quite certain if that's a fair comparison. I realize that the residents of Quadra Island deserve regular ferry service.
[ Page 12766 ]

But I think I know enough islanders, and I think they moved to islands because they wanted to have the lifestyle. If they were going to commute or do something else, maybe they needed to think about living in the community where their work is. The Port Mann is a link between where a lot of people live and where they work in the Lower Mainland. We can't ignore the 2½ million people there.

[1840]

Look at the investment that the government has committed to or are already building — the Canada Line, the Evergreen line that's under construction and yet-to-be-constructed other links. Rapid transit, in my community and Kelowna-Mission and Kelowna–Lake Country, is a foundational thing. We don't get to the Canada Line on the basis of the fact that we have a population of, maybe, 200,000 people. But we will get there one day.

I think that this throne speech is really about trying to get a budget and a vision together that continue on the foundation that we have tried to build here within the government in British Columbia in the last 12 years. I also think that the throne speech has properly captured the challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead of us.

As we move into the new session, I feel that it is particularly exciting, as an opportunity, to be the Minister of Citizens' Services, and I'm appreciative of that honour.

Providing the best possible services for the citizens of British Columbia is the primary focus of our ministry. That means that if you happen to be in Hazelton, Terrace, in the northeast, etc., or in the southeast of the province, we need to make certain that you get the same services that we expect here in Victoria, in Vancouver or in the Okanagan.

Providing the best possible services for the citizens is the primary focus of our ministry. We do everything that underpins and supports the hard work of government. This broad mandate means that we have many opportunities to support the leadership and the direction outlined in the recent Speech from the Throne.

I mentioned the hard-working civil servants in Citizens' Services, and I mentioned the innovation and the things they've brought to the table.

This throne speech has emphasized the government's dedication to strengthening economic prosperity for First Nations. One of the important ways we are doing this is by supporting First Nations in their efforts to close the gap that exists between the aboriginal people and the rest of the province when it comes to broadband Internet connectivity.

Today there are 170 of 203 First Nations in the province of British Columbia that have broadband connectivity. Now, it has happened in a few short years that we've increased that connectivity by about 35 First Nations. NetWork B.C. will continue to support First Nations as they continue to connect the remaining First Nations.

Connecting communities is essential for the delivery of services such as health care and education and for economic opportunities. Today 93 percent of the population in British Columbia has broadband connectivity. When we started in 2001, we had 80 percent. We've increased connectivity 13 percent, and that is no feat.

The member for Columbia River–Revelstoke lives in a particularly mountainous area. It is not a case of just sticking up one or two cell phone towers or putting fibre through the mountains, etc.

The reality is that we are undertaking a very significant broadband initiative. In the coming month or so we're going to be announcing a successful proponent to help add about another 3 percent of connectivity in the province of British Columbia, making it so that the people that are in the most remote areas will be able to access satellite broadband. I'm proud we're going to be able to do that.

That doesn't close the entire gap. But the other thing that's been significant is the arrangement we have with Telus, under the new services agreement we have with them, and the fact that we are going to be able to close that gap so that by 2021 — we give you our commitment — we will have every British Columbian have broadband connectivity available to them.

Connecting communities has been essential for the delivery of the services that I mentioned at Service B.C. and all of the ministries in government, whether you need them to improve access to health care, education, economic opportunities. I think what we're showing is that this has been thoughtful investment in NetWork B.C.

Closing the gap in rural and remote communities is a challenge. I mentioned the mountains, the terrain and the size of the province. NetWork B.C. works most with these communities, all levels of government and the Internet service providers to facilitate and coordinate broadband connectivity for citizens of this province.

British Columbia has gained international recognition for its innovative approach to this challenge. That's something that we're all proud of.

[1845]

Many British Columbians excel in the field of information technology, a skill that is becoming more and more valuable for this government and for the Ministry of Citizens' Services in particular. People who are skilled in information technology have helped this ministry earn the recognition as a leader in finding ways to use technology to work smarter.

This is the foundation that this government has looked at in terms of trying to look at the government service in how we can deliver the services that British Columbians require through innovative ways and not necessarily just pouring more money into it.

The use of better technology has improved government services and contributed literally millions and millions of dollars in savings to the provincial treasury. Through our Government 2.0 strategy, we have been giving people
[ Page 12767 ]
a way to more directly participate in and use the information and resources of government to make their lives better.

This throne speech emphasized the importance of creating a skilled workforce. Whether it is the civil service jobs I referenced in the information technology or nurses or welders, we need to continue to create training opportunities and incentives for young British Columbians.

In my hometown of Kelowna, for example, Okanagan College offers a range of trades and technologies and academic programs. They operate with a provincial operating grant from this government of $44.5 million in their 2012-2013 operating year for 4,833 students studying for certificates, diplomas, associate degrees and applied bachelor degrees.

I think it's worth mentioning that Okanagan College is one of the province's first locations to learn a skilled trade, established in 1965 under then Premier W.A.C. Bennett.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

This government is also investing $62.8 million in the 2012-2013 year for 6,923 student spaces at UBC Okanagan, where students can take a wide range of disciplines.

The need for skilled tradespeople has also presented itself in my own industry. I spoke a few minutes ago about the opportunity that was created when free trade happened. Nobody had a plan that we needed winemakers, cellar hands, viticulturists, people that understood how to sell, market, distribute. It was a new experience, and as I mentioned, just being an orchardist and farmer, it presented an immense challenge.

I have to say I'm thrilled to see the fact that Okanagan College's president, Jim Hamilton, and others within the leadership of those two institutions in the Okanagan are directly getting involved in the skills shortage that we have right in our own industry. Here we are. We've been working with them, but the reality is we need to take it to that next level.

It is a competitive world out there when it comes to the future of agricultural beverage types of products like what I produced in the business I was in previously. I think that one of the things we really need to celebrate is the fact that we have created all sorts of opportunities for young people in our own area, which has traditionally been an area where they would take skills and perhaps, sometimes, go elsewhere.

Look at all the jobs that we've created in hospitality, accommodation, tourism. The fact that we're having people not just…. We talk about staycations. We've got people coming….

I was reading the headline from the Wine Spectator of about 15 years ago. It was the first article on Quails Gate that I was kind of mentioned in, in terms of the recognition. But what it talked about was.... It said Canada had found its Napa. That was the headline on the front cover of an issue not that long ago. It's framed in our.…

I think, really, that you have to imagine that we've got people talking about British Columbia — the wines that we produce, the experience that we have, the pristine environment that they can come and be here in and vacation, etc., from all over the world. It's not just Alberta, not just Washington State. A lot of visitors are coming here for those benefits, so we need those skills. We need them soon.

I know that I have lots more to say, but I'm just wondering.…

Interjection.

Hon. B. Stewart: You want me to keep going — right? — and talk about the opportunities for Fraser-Nicola. Well, I have to tell you I visited one of your local constituents who is invested in Lillooet, of all places, and making fabulous product — a new opportunity for the member for Fraser-Nicola.

[1850]

I just want to make certain that I don't forget to mention agrifoods. Another point raised in the Speech from the Throne that resonates with me as somebody that's a founder of a winery is the growth of the province's agricultural industry. People are quick to kind of dismiss and say that we're missing opportunities, but I can tell you many examples in British Columbia, as I just mentioned.

I'm really proud of the government's initiative to grow and diversify agriculture, resulting in record seafood exports to China in 2011 and a 300 percent increase in B.C. wine exports since 2008 — 300 percent. That's a lot of wine, and it's a lot of grapes. If it keeps growing like that, we'll be planting a lot more grapes in other parts of the province.

Agrifoods are a great opportunity for British Columbia, again in the Asian marketplace, around beef, seafood and even fresh products like blueberries and cherries. I had a chance, as the former Minister of Agriculture, to meet with a gentleman that has his two sons working with him in blueberries outside of Abbotsford. Mr. Rajinder Lally — I believe that's his name — exports blueberries to Florida. He starts shipping in July. Starting in July two semis a day leave Abbotsford and head down to Florida. He's built a business that most people would be enviable to have any part in.

The David Geen family in the Okanagan have built an entire cherry-packing facility, which rivals many of the Okanagan packing houses, in just the last few years, packing cherries and shipping them out of the airport in Kelowna, flying them to Japan and other markets around the world where they demand the best quality. The technology that we have developed in terms of the products that we produce has been developed at Summerland research station and has been able to help improve our ability to sell
[ Page 12768 ]
products around the world.

There are many more points in the throne speech that I wish I had time to address, but I do think the following deserve mention as important measures in securing the future for B.C. families: continued investment in health care and innovation in health care, as exemplified by the establishment of a school of traditional Chinese medicine; improving access to quality early childhood services, to affordable child care; bringing in measures to help families of young children save for post-secondary education — I have firsthand experience when I have my daughter, who's got three kids and is trying to work at the same time; I know how difficult it is to not have some of the child care support that we're going to be hopefully offering — and maintaining labour peace in our schools so that our young children can continue without further disruption.

I'm proud to be a part of this government. One of my highest priorities as Minister of Citizens' Services and MLA for Westside-Kelowna is to listen to the citizens of British Columbia. I look forward to the year ahead, the future opportunities and the accomplishments we will reach.

Hon. B. Stewart moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. I. Chong moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.

The House adjourned at 6:54 p.m.

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