2013 Legislative Session: First Session, 40th Parliament
HANSARD

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.

The printed version remains the official version.

official report of

Debates of the Legislative Assembly

(hansard)

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 1, Number 8

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

THURSDAY, JULY 4, 2013

The House met at 1:33 p.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Madame Speaker: Hon. Members, as we begin introductions, may I begin by extending to our neighbours to the south the warmest greetings on their independence celebration. Happy July 4.

Tributes

ZEKE FANTUZ

Hon. B. Bennett: Every now and again people come into our lives who embody values that we believe are most important.

I've gotten to know a young man. His name is Zeke Fantuz. He's from the Elk Valley, from the Jaffray area, and is 20 years old. Zeke loves to hunt. He's got grit. He's the most honest young guy I've ever met, and he's enthusiastic about life.

About a week and a half ago Zeke was coming out of the mountains in his truck after working all day for a guide-outfitter on a grizzly bear hunt. It was raining. It was very slippery. It was dark. He went off the road. His truck went down into the Bull River, and he perished.

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I spoke to his mother this morning. I just want to say to his mother, Krista, and his father, Dave, who is a good friend of mine, and to everybody who cares about this young man, that those of us in the House respect the wonderful job that those parents did with that young man. I sent my own personal heartfelt condolences to the family.

Introductions by Members

Hon. D. McRae: I have two guests in the gallery today. If we look above, we see the able receptionist from the east annex, Elishia Butler. Welcome, Elishia. We also have, beside Elishia, a constituent of mine from the Comox Valley, a young man by the name of Connor Gibson. I'm pleased to say that today he's starting his first day as a legislative assistant in the east annex. It's just another example of young people doing great work in the province of British Columbia.

I wish Connor all the best in your new job, and Elishia, thank you for all the work you've done for all of us members for so long in the east annex. Would the members please say hello and give them welcome.

C. James: I have a constituent visiting me today in the gallery. Dylan Sherlock has been an advocate for affordable post-secondary education for many years and is now partaking of that post-secondary education, studying in the master of public administration at UVic. Dylan has also recently completed a Vancity-funded project to build a framework for partnerships aimed at developing affordable housing on underutilized religious properties. Dylan is creative. He has great communications expertise. He's passionate about policy and community development. I would ask the House to please make him very welcome.

Hon. S. Anton: I would like the House to acknowledge longtime friends and supporters of mine, Mrs. Nancy Harrison and her daughter Caitlin. Victoria residents, Nancy is a school psychologist and Caitlin works for the federal government in emergency management. But I think the most important thing to know about Caitlin is that she is getting married in a few weeks' time, so if everybody could congratulate her, that would be wonderful.

R. Sultan: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce two guests today. Mavis McKee attended King Edward High School with me in Vancouver a few years ago and distinguished herself by becoming the British Columbia ladies' long-jump champion with a huge leap forward of about 17 feet. I don't know how anybody can jump 17 feet, but she did. Her spouse, Bill McKee, has become memorable to me as the gentleman who probably carried on the most active e-mail correspondence with Conrad Black in the several years he served as a guest of the United States government. Would you please make them welcome.

S. Chandra Herbert: I'd like to welcome a former researcher of this place, Emily-Anne Paul, who's here today to visit from out east, where she's now living. I'm glad you're visiting Victoria and British Columbia and are enjoying this beautiful place. We hope you come back soon. Welcome, Emily-Anne Paul.

Statements
(Standing Order 25B)

MENTAL ILLNESS AWARENESS
AND RIDE DON'T HIDE EVENT

S. Hammell: Are you aware that one in five adults will suffer from a mental illness in their lifetime here in Canada? Hon. Speaker, statistically, that's 17 of us.

Awareness, early diagnosis, treatment and intervention are all key to helping British Columbians who suffer from mental illness. Today I rise in the House to speak about an awareness event which took place on Sunday, June 23, in 13 communities across our province. The Canadian
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Mental Health Association of British Columbia partnered with Shoppers Drug Mart to organize Ride Don't Hide. This was the CMHA's first-ever B.C.-wide bike awareness event. Ride Don't Hide proved to be a much-needed venue for people to speak out about women's mental health issues and begin the steps to break down the stigmas associated with mental illness.

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The event featured 2,200 participants of all ages who were up bright and early to strap on their helmets and slip into their brightly coloured cycling jerseys. This event required the help of hundreds of volunteers around British Columbia. I would like, on behalf of all of us, to thank those who graciously gave their time and efforts to host such an event.

Furthermore, I congratulate the efforts of the CMHA in exceeding its fundraising goal of $400,000. Mental illness does not simply affect one person. It impacts their friends, their families and all of those around them. Mental health is an important issue and one we should all be concerned about. I strongly believe we need to do a better job in this House in supporting British Columbians who live day by day with mental illness.

RUDY ROZSYPALEK AND
AIRCRAFT COLLISION IN PEMBERTON

J. Sturdy: I rise in this House today with a heavy heart. This is not the feeling I had envisioned for my first address to this body, but I feel that the recent tragedy in the community of Pemberton has been too significant, too intense and leaving the community too raw to be passed over.

On Saturday, June 29, two aircraft collided in midair over Nairn Falls Provincial Park in Pemberton. There were four fatalities. These deaths will impact networks of families from around the world.

A couple in a private plane from the 100 Mile area collided with a Pemberton glider piloted by my friend Rudy Rozsypalek, who was accompanied by a tourist from India.

This inconceivable tragedy took place in Visual Flight Rules airspace directly over the park on the Canada Day long weekend. The campground was full. It's a virtual miracle that the debris from the collision landed in, around and amongst but not on the campers, and for that we must be grateful.

If I may, I would like to tell the House a little bit about my friend Rudy. He was a remarkable man and, like each of us, had his own unique story. He escaped from Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, as he couldn't see a future for himself under communism. This is a story in and of itself. He had been flying gliders since he was 15 years old and had always hoped to set up a flying business.

Rudy was the consummate pilot, respected for his skills as a soaring strategist and with an astonishing ability to read thermal lift. He was a coach, an entrepreneur, a friend, a family man, proud of his Czech heritage and grateful for the opportunity that Canada had afforded him.

He leaves behind his wife, Tracey, and his two young sons, Thomas and Troy.

I ask the House to join me in remembering all the victims of this senseless tragedy and hope that through the Transportation Safety Board investigation we can learn something that will help make Canadian skies safer for all of us.

ERIN DAVIDSON AND
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
ASSOCIATION IN COQUITLAM

S. Robinson: Madame Speaker, I rise today to let you and the members of this House know about a local business improvement association in my community.

In 2008 a local resident, Erin Davidson, recognized the value of businesses working together to support each other, strengthen the local economy and build community. Erin worked tirelessly to engage dozens of businesses along Austin Avenue, a local hub of retail and service-oriented businesses that serve the local residents. This became the very first BIA in all of Coquitlam, and my constituency office is located right in the midst of the bustle of this activity.

The BIA has developed beautification banners, community cleanup days, security patrols, promotional materials, service directories, and they just hosted their most successful annual Daisy Day street festival to date.

Erin's commitment and the commitment of the BIA is an outstanding contribution to my community. Together, they make Austin Heights a thriving commercial area that is an attractive and friendly destination for all. So please join us over in Austin Heights and support the BIA.

GRADUATION RATE AT PRINCETON SCHOOL

J. Tegart: I recently had the great honour of attending a number of graduation events throughout my riding of Fraser-Nicola. One graduation in particular stood out for me. It happened in the community of Princeton in a packed school gymnasium filled with students, moms and dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles, community members and proud staff. Everyone was there to support the success of the young people on the stage.

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What was interesting about this group was outlined in the address by the school principal, Ms. Blair. She indicated with great pride that every student that started grade 12 in September 2012 graduated in June 2013. One hundred percent were successful in their grade 12 year.

We hear much in the media about the challenges and graduation rates in our public schools. I'd like to pub-
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licly acknowledge the hard work of these students, juggling their classroom work with academic pursuits and extracurricular activities and interests that have made them into the well-rounded young men and women they are. I would also like to applaud the committed teachers, administrators, support staff, parents and peers in contributing to this great success. They've worked hard to ensure that these students have the foundation they need to pursue their dreams in the post-secondary system or in the working world.

I ask the members of this House to join me in sending congratulations to the Princeton, B.C., graduating class of 2013.

CANADA DAY EVENTS
IN BURNABY–DEER LAKE AREA

K. Corrigan: I think we all attended Canada Day celebrations on July 1, and I wanted to speak about some of the great events in Burnaby. Canada Day was chosen to open the wonderful new Edmonds Community Centre. Thousands of people attended, enjoying the free swimming in the stunning new pool complex, tours of the many studios and gyms, etc., and enjoyed the food and activities as well. We now have a wonderful community asset serving richly diverse southeast Burnaby.

Providing facilities and supports for people, particularly in areas where many folks are financially challenged, facilitates positive development, particularly for our young people. It also tells them that they are worthy of investment. The project provided almost 50,000 days of employment and will support ongoing jobs for approximately 140 people. So congratulations to the city of Burnaby on that.

We then move next door to Edmonds Park for Canada Day celebrations, again attended by thousands of citizens. Thanks to Chief Superintendent Dave Critchley and other wonderful RCMP officers who attended, as always. We thank all the RCMP who kept us safe on Canada Day in Burnaby, Victoria and elsewhere. I was struck, as I always am, by how many new Canadians are so proud to take part in July 1 celebrations.

Next it was off to Masjid al-Salaam, a mosque in my riding that reaches out to and welcomes hundreds of community members on Canada Day and many other days. I am proud of the many contributions this mosque and its members make to our community.

Finally, we attended the huge annual Canada Day party at Burnaby Village Museum. Citizens enjoyed the good weather and toured the many buildings preserved and restored from the early 20th century. It's really a beautiful and an interesting gem that people should come and enjoy, and it's free. You can even ride the Parker Carousel.

There are many other celebrations at churches, at homes and with organizations around our community. I think we all share a great pride in our country and a determination that we will continue to preserve the peace, the harmony and the values that make Canada great.

100th ANNIVERSARY OF PORT MOODY

L. Reimer: The city of Port Moody turns 100 this year. What started as a terminus station for the Canadian Pacific Railway has grown into a vibrant multicultural community that families, businesses and industry call home.

It all started on April 7, 1913, when Port Moody council met for the first time. Many issues were discussed that day, including taking out a loan from the Royal Bank to get the city up and running, instituting a dog tax to control the local pet population and deciding who would be appointed city clerk. The community has come a long way since those humble beginnings and now boasts state-of-the-art facilities like Pacific Coast Terminals, one of the most advanced bulk terminals in the world, and it has one of the highest concentrations of arts and culture employment in the region.

The city's centennial celebrations are taking place all year, but one recent highlight treated residents to a sight not seen in four decades — a Port Moody parade.

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Local groups, businesses and residents took part in the parade, which started at Port Moody Civic Centre and moved onto the beautiful Rocky Point Park. I'm pleased to say it was a great success and truly encapsulated the spirit of the community. It also showed why Port Moody is dubbed the City of the Arts and why residents love to it call home.

Please join me and my colleagues in the House in wishing the city of Port Moody a very happy 100th birthday.

Oral Questions

AUDIT OF B.C. HYDRO
DISASTER RESPONSE PLANNING

J. Horgan: Over the past week and, certainly, over the past number of years we've been highlighting the financial disasters at B.C. Hydro. But little did we know that B.C. Hydro wasn't prepared for a natural disaster, until the release of an internal audit report dated December 4, by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which outlines the following: "B.C. Hydro is not adequately prepared to react, respond and recover from a widespread catastrophic event such as an earthquake."

Let's go down the list: program maturity, underdeveloped; emergency response, inadequate; business continuity, non-existent. These are disconcerting findings for the people of British Columbia, and I well imagine they're disconcerting for the minister as well. I want to ask him directly. Will the B.C. Liberals take responsibility for the past 12 years, or are you going to find a scape-
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goat for this too?

Hon. B. Bennett: Well, the first thing that the member should, I believe, recognize — and all members of this House should recognize — is that the audit that was performed by the firm was an audit that was ordered by B.C. Hydro. It wasn't like the provincial Auditor General suddenly went in and found that B.C. Hydro's processes for a disaster response were not good enough. They actually had an inkling, obviously, that they may have some deficiencies, so they ordered the audit themselves. I think they deserve some credit for that.

Having said that, obviously, it's not a good situation, and it's a situation that has to be rectified.

I can say to the member that B.C. Hydro is taking steps to improve their emergency management program. They are putting a dedicated strategic emergency management team in place. The team planning is going to include leading the development of an emergency and business continuity program, ensuring employees better understand their roles during an emergency, and directing employees on how and where they will perform critical activities if normal headquarters or workplaces are not operational.

They have recognized there are deficiencies, serious deficiencies, and they are addressing those deficiencies.

J. Horgan: An inkling, I suppose, may have come from the previous audits. This isn't the first time that the corporation has taken a look at their emergency preparedness. That's appropriate. We do that here in this Legislature. But the findings are the troubling part of this, and the findings were done on the B.C. Liberal watch.

Again, rather than saying, "We're going to get to it; we're going to get to it," how about addressing some of these issues, such as: "Consistent with prior audits, there has been a limited corporate focus on business continuity. Given the lack of an overall entity-wide business continuity plan and the current state of departmental business continuity plans reviewed, it is unlikely that B.C. Hydro will be able to resume critical business operations within an acceptable time frame"?

That's basic, I think — fundamental to the corporation. Again to the minister, will he take responsibility…? Or perhaps the Deputy Premier would like to stand and answer the question. Will someone on the B.C. Liberal side take responsibility for the past 12 years — take responsibility for cost overruns, escalating rates, deferral accounts, unfunded liabilities for independent power production, and now an inability to respond to a natural disaster?

Hon. B. Bennett: I know that it suits the purposes of the opposition to paint a picture where B.C. Hydro is absolutely unprepared to manage a disaster. That just seems to be in the best interest of the opposition, to paint that picture.

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However, I can say to the member that up where I come from, in the East Kootenay, over the past few weeks we've experienced severe flooding, very similar to what they had on the east slopes of the Rockies in Calgary. We don't have as many people as they have in Calgary, and it didn't make the front page of all the newspapers, but we had very, very serious flooding. In fact, there was a B.C. Hydro dam at a place called Elko in the East Kootenay that was severely jeopardized. B.C. Hydro and many of us thought that dam was going to be breached.

B.C. Hydro had its crews at that dam immediately. They had their crews at that dam 24 hours a day. They were there every single night, not only during the day, to make sure that that dam didn't breach. And it did not breach. The water levels eventually subsided. In fact, B.C. Hydro deserves some credit for being able to respond to that particular emergency. So let's not paint a picture that they are completely unprepared for disaster, because that's not true.

Another point that has to be made is that B.C. Hydro is investing $1.2 billion in the John Hart dam at Campbell River and $800 million at the Ruskin dam outside of Coquitlam to address seismic upgrades — again, to get ready for a disaster.

J. Horgan: Well, I'm not painting the picture; it's PricewaterhouseCoopers that's painting the picture. This is not some nefarious plot by the opposition. This was brought about by B.C. Hydro, which the B.C. Liberals have been managing for the past 12 years.

Let's go back to a couple of more quotes, just to keep the minister on his feet, but before I do that I want to join with him and agree on one point. The good people of B.C. Hydro, IBEW workers and others who go out on stormy nights on the west coast of Vancouver Island in my constituency, as they did in his, should be applauded, and I think all members of this House will agree.

It's not the people doing the hard and dangerous work that we're concerned about; it's the lack of a responsive plan. Let me read a couple of more quotes, if I may.

"Various emergency response plans are in existence. However, not all of the plans reviewed are complete or current. There's also no single repository for access to the various emergency plans. Further, the corporate emergency centre response plan replaced the B.C. Hydro corporate emergency response plan in 2008, and it is only 80 percent complete and is still considered a draft."

And this is the kicker.

"The transmission and distribution emergency centre response plan was last updated in October 2010. However, the staff on the call-out list has a number of employees who are no longer working for B.C. Hydro."

That's not going to cut it if we have a natural disaster in the Lower Mainland or anywhere else in British Columbia. Again, will the minister and the B.C. Liberal Party take responsibility for the past 12 years and explain to the people of British Columbia how it could get this bad?
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Hon. B. Bennett: It's interesting that over the past week we have heard from the opposition that B.C. Hydro is spending too much money on capital projects, that they're increasing debt, that this is a bad thing and that they should stop. But I just ended my last answer by describing two projects that are addressing emergency preparedness. One is the John Hart dam — $1.2 billion.

Would the Energy critic, the members on the other side, not have B.C. Hydro invest in seismic upgrades of $1.2 billion for the John Hart dam, $800 million for the Ruskin dam? Are those projects that we shouldn't do? Should we invest in seismic upgrades of liquor warehouses, for example, instead of the dams?

I've already stated…. For new members of the House who weren't here before the May 14 victory for the B.C. Liberals, the NDP, when they were in government, chose to invest in seismic upgrades of, apparently, a liquor warehouse rather than schools. Those were decisions that they made.

We support B.C. Hydro's decision to invest in these two dam projects. In total, it's $2 billion. And yes, I know that's going to create debt, but we support that decision.

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K. Corrigan: We have three audit reports spanning the whole of this government's time in office — three audit reports on lack of emergency preparedness in B.C. Now we have another one. B.C. Hydro is, in fact, completely unprepared to deal with a crisis situation. Here's another quote: "There was no evidence that the provincial government dam safety officer is signing off on dam safety emergency plans."

Another quote: "There are no formal protocols for liaison in coordination with agencies such as Emergency Management B.C." Another quote: "No effective corporate-wide, structured training program is in place for employees and those with specific emergency response–related responsibility. No disaster preparedness targets and metrics are established to assess the state of readiness."

How long does the Energy Minister expect the people of B.C. to wait for B.C. Hydro to address these very serious problems?

Hon. B. Bennett: Well, I'm sure that everyone here has experienced their power going off at home or in their place of business from time to time. My personal experience and the experience of most people I know is that B.C. Hydro is on it pretty fast and they get power restored very quickly. You see the trucks out in the middle of the night in windstorms. You see them out working on the Elko dam, as I stated a few minutes ago.

I really think it's disrespectful to paint a picture of people at B.C. Hydro who are just completely unaware of what response ought to be when there is a disaster. But as I said a minute ago, they obviously have recognized that there are deficiencies in the audit that they themselves commissioned, so they are taking important steps to address those deficiencies.

I'll go over them one more time. They're improving their emergency management program. They're putting a dedicated, strategic emergency management team in place. The team is going to include leading the development of an emergency and business continuity program, ensuring employees better understand their role during an emergency and directing employees on how and where they will perform critical activities if normal headquarters or workplaces are not operational. They get it. They're going to fix it.

K. Corrigan: This is a picture being painted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, not being painted by the official opposition. The report notes: "Recent seismic activity throughout the world, such as Japan and New Zealand earthquakes and the recent 7.4 magnitude earthquake off the coast of B.C., should be a wake-up call that a significant seismic event could occur at any time."

Three years, and the 12 years past in addition, is too long to wait for B.C. Hydro to get its act together. What is it going to take for this minister to stop making excuses and to actually deal with these urgent public safety matters?

Hon. B. Bennett: The member refers to the need for seismic study and seismic upgrade. The opposition can't speak out of both sides of its mouth. On one hand, they're saying that B.C. Hydro should not be investing this money in projects like the John Hart dam or like the Ruskin dam so that these dams can be better suited to withstand earthquakes. That's what a large part of this investment is about.

It's happening. Money has been approved. Projects are underway. It's happening today. So perhaps the opposition ought to tell us: are they in favour of those particular investments, that particular $2 billion of investment, or not?

FIBRECO AGREEMENT
FOR EXPORT OF WOOD CHIPS

K. Conroy: On January 30 of this year quietly, without fanfare, with no press releases, no photo op, the Forests Minister signed a ten-year deal with Fibreco to allow the export of 300,000 bone-dry units of wood chips. That's about 30,000 truckloads of chips every year.

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The law allows exports of resources only when they can be shown to be surplus to what B.C. needs. It's ridiculous to suggest that the minister knows what the surplus will be to B.C.'s needs ten years from now. Why did the Forests Minister sign the ten-year deal to kill B.C. jobs?
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Hon. S. Thomson: Thank you to the member for the question. Just to review, what happens here is that the applications are made. They are reviewed by both a buyers committee and producers committee. Recommendations are made to our review committee in the process. That's what happened here. They were reviewed.

The advice was provided that this was surplus to industry needs, and that's why the decision was made to provide for this opportunity — in order to protect jobs and to grow market opportunity for that sector.

This process is worked through. The reality is that if, in the future, that export volume is needed, those export permits can be cancelled at that time. But at this point the industry recommendation was that it was surplus to industry needs, that it protected jobs at Fibreco. It resulted in significant investment at Fibreco, and the decision was made to provide that opportunity for them, just as we do for many other mills and opportunities when applications are made through that process.

Madame Speaker: Kootenay West on a supplemental.

K. Conroy: This is preposterous. The very committee that the minister is referring to didn't even know about the deal. The government's own advisory committee that was established to oversee the export of wood chips didn't even know about the deal till March, so how could they have been advised on it? I mean, it's ridiculous. This was a backroom deal done in secret, with no scrutiny, at the end of January. The committee didn't know about the deal until March.

These are B.C. resources that should be used to create B.C. jobs. The minister gave them away for ten years as if he's some fortune teller in some back room. Some sweetheart deal. Can the Forests Minister explain why he made this secret deal, with no advice from his committee, to give away these B.C. jobs?

Hon. S. Thomson: As I indicated, when these applications come forward, the advice is provided by the advisory committee. There is a buyers advisory committee process and a producers advisory committee process. They were aware of the application. All applications are referred to that process. The advice was provided, and the decision was made.

N. Macdonald: The minister is describing what's supposed to happen, but that is not what happened. We have a letter here, April 19, from Merl Fichtner. Merl Fichtner is chair of the subcommittee that the minister is supposed to give this information to but didn't.

This is a ten-year deal that the minister signed off on. He did not follow the proper process at all. The process you described as the proper one — you didn't follow it. Instead, you bypassed this….

Madame Speaker: Member, through the Chair.

N. Macdonald: The minister did not follow the process, bypassed this committee and, instead, went ahead and signed off on a ten-year deal.

This is what the letter that was sent to this minister said, from Merl Fichtner. He said that the deal will have serious, negative, long-term implications for the pulp sector in B.C. He says it is impossible to know what will be surplus ten years from now, especially when chip shortages are inevitable, given falling cut levels.

So there is a problem that would have been identified for the minister. This is a sweetheart deal that the minister kept away from the committee. My question is: why did the minister keep this deal secret?

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Hon. S. Thomson: As I indicated, when the applications come forward — there are many applications; this is one example of the applications that have come forward — they are reviewed by both of the committees. Advice is provided through those committees, and the decisions are made based on that advice provided.

What's important to recognize here is that the decision to provide that opportunity is one that is securing jobs, securing investment at Fibreco, making sure that that company can operate profitably in a world market. As I indicated previously, if the circumstances in the industry change — and the scenario that the member opposite speculates may occur — then the ability is there for those permits to be cancelled. But the process was followed, the advice was taken, and the decision was made based on the advice from both of the committees.

Madame Speaker: Columbia River–Revelstoke on a supplemental.

N. Macdonald: On all of these assertions, the minister is factually wrong. This is not what happened. It did not take place. These are not small players on the committee. The committee members wrote in a letter…. These committee members are from Domtar. They're from Celgar. They're from Canfor Pulp. These are companies that are trying to get fibre to run their operations in an area that is going to lose 50 percent of its cut over the next decade.

This minister signed off on a ten-year deal, pre-election — pre-election, a ten-year deal. Mr. Fichtner goes on in his letter, which the minister should have received. He says that he is surprised and concerned that the deal is given, especially considering that there is an impending shortage of chips coming in the very near future. It's not just pulp jobs. It is bioenergy potential, new products coming on line. All of these things are compromised in this secret deal. The question for the minister is, why did he do it? Why did he sign on a ten-year deal that is going to compromise B.C. jobs?
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Hon. S. Thomson: As I indicated, the advice is received from the advisory committees. What's important to recognize in this situation is the amount of volume that Fibreco had previously exported; the opportunity to secure jobs, not impact jobs, as the member opposite is inferring; to provide stability for that operation; to provide stability for jobs; and to provide stability for investment in that operation.

As I indicated, the provision under the export permits provides the opportunity for review. After three years it also provides provisions that if — and if — the market changes significantly, as the member opposite is speculating, the export permit can be cancelled.

POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION
FUNDING AND LETTER BY
KWANTLEN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

D. Eby: The Minister of Advanced Education has advised this House that his cut of $46 million to our advanced education system will somehow not affect the quality of B.C. education. But the Minister of Advanced Education was on the board of Kwantlen University when the president of that institution signed a concerning letter to the provincial government. The letter said: "It is unrealistic to assume that the reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels." Of course, now, in Budget 2013 the minister is proposing even more cuts.

Does the minister agree with the president of Kwantlen University that further cuts to the budget for advanced education in B.C. will impact student services? If so, will the minister tell this House and B.C.'s university and college students what student services will be affected?

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Hon. A. Virk: It indeed gives me great pleasure to speak about the state of advanced education in this province. A couple of facts, I think, that the public should know, first of all.

The level of funding for post-secondary education in this province is at record levels. Let me give you an example. The hard-working citizens of British Columbia support post-secondary public education to the tune of $5 million every single day. If you want to use some real math — and we won't talk about magical math but real math — that's $1.9 billion a year to post-secondary education in this province.

Let's talk about our post-secondary education. A survey is done of students every year. The satisfaction rate is 95 percent. In my….

Interjections.

Hon. A. Virk: When I went to university that was an A-plus. That's the state of university education in this province.

D. Eby: I'm disturbed that this House did not get an answer to the question. When the Minister of Advanced Education served on Kwantlen's board he was certainly aware of this letter from the president warning the government that advanced education budget cuts would lead directly to student service cuts. Surely he agreed at the time with the letter signed by the president of the institution where he served as a board member.

Given that the minister has now, apparently, changed his mind and flip-flopped on this issue, can the minister advise this House when he changed his mind about the impact of cuts to advanced education, leading to service reductions, and why he changed his mind?

Hon. A. Virk: This side of the House certainly knows about flip-flops, as we've seen in the last election. I don't think there was a citizen in this province that didn't see that flip-flop.

But let's talk about post-secondary education, folks. This government was elected to control spending and live within our means and ensure that taxpayers get what they need and ensure that students.…

There are record investments in post-secondary education — record investments. Let me speak about the $134 million that is going to Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Madame Speaker, $29 million to the Camosun trades renewal project. Let me tell you more — $28 million to the Okanagan College trades project.

COLLIERY DAM PARK IN NANAIMO

D. Routley: The city of Nanaimo is being forced to remove the dams at Colliery Dam Park because this government has rated those dams as a risk. The city and community are at odds, however, and hundreds of people have signed petitions asking for the park to be protected and the dams repaired or replaced instead of removed. The Snuneymuxw First Nation is calling for time to be consulted and to discuss the best solutions.

Will the Minister of Environment ensure that this government will take risk-mitigating steps, such as dewatering the dams, and will they take part in a collaborative solution that protects the fisheries and this park that the whole community of Nanaimo considers a precious asset?

Hon. S. Thomson: Thank you to the member opposite for the question — obviously a very serious question. The dams that he's referencing, people should be aware and people should know, are the two highest-risk dams in all of the audit that was undertaken.

[1420]

They're owned by the city of Nanaimo. Nanaimo understands the public safety risk, as a result of those as-
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sessments, and professional assessments have been done on those dams. We have been working with the city of Nanaimo and other interested parties on options to reduce the risk, to mitigate that risk and to ensure public safety. The city of Nanaimo has made the decision that they wish to decommission and remove both of the dams and to rebuild those dams.

Most recently some other options have been brought forward. I met this week with both the mayor of Nanaimo and the Chief of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on potentially some of those options. What both Nanaimo and myself made clear is that whatever option is chosen, the foremost concern has to be public safety and removing and mitigating the risk to public safety, because they are the two highest-risk dams and high-consequence dams if there's a failure.

All parties understand that. They are continuing some discussions around potential other options, but we made it clear that time is short. Everybody understands that we need to find an option that puts public safety first. Those discussions continue. Our ministry staff remain engaged with both parties.

[End of question period.]

J. Horgan: I seek leave to make a series of introductions.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

J. Horgan: Joining us in the precincts are Christina Bates, former candidate in Victoria–Swan Lake, now ministerial assistant to the minister across the way; Hector Bremner, former candidate in New Westminster, now executive assistant to the Minister of Trade; Nick Facey, former candidate in North Island, now ministerial assistant to the Minister of Health; Steve Housser, former candidate in Cowichan Valley, now working in the nefarious GPCBDDD; and also former candidate from Vancouver-Kensington Gabby Kalaw, who's joining other former candidates Rishi Sharma, Karen Bill and Scott Harrison.

Would the House please make them all very welcome to the B.C. Liberals jobs plan.

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Orders of the Day

Hon. T. Stone: I call continuing debate on the budget.

Madame Speaker: The House will allow a moment for members to take up their other duties.

Victoria–Swan Lake rises on what matter?

R. Fleming: I seek leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

R. Fleming: I wanted to introduce some guests we have in the gallery who are here with us today. A good fellow, Ben Johnson, who works for the opposition caucus, is getting married this weekend. His parents are here, Judy LeBlanc and Brian Latta, and his bride's parents. Lauren Chance — her parents are here, Patrick and Robin Chance.

I would really like the House to make them feel welcome. They've had a wonderful time this afternoon watching the thrills and chills of question period, and they'll be here for the remainder of the afternoon. I ask the House to make them feel welcome.

Budget Debate

(continued)

Madame Speaker: I recognize the member for Surrey–Green Timbers.

S. Hammell: Thank you, hon. Speaker. As I start my comments on the budget, I'd like to, first of all, congratulate you on your election and also to congratulate the Deputy Speaker and the Assistant Deputy Speaker.

[1425]

[D. Horne in the chair.]

They have a bit of a challenge, sometimes, keeping this unruly lot in order. It is a place where strong opinions are held and disparate points of view do thrive. I'd like to make that first congratulations.

The second thing I'd like to say is…. The next thank-you has to be to the constituents of Surrey–Green Timbers for the confidence they've placed in me and the fact that they sent me again to this amazing place.

It is my fifth election. Sometimes I wonder what I've done with my life. They've sent me back here five times, and one time I did take a term off. It was, I considered, mandatory retirement at that time. But I did come back, and I just feel so privileged.

It is an amazing job, and an amazing job to represent the constituents of Surrey–Green Timbers. It is up and down, as most of the members in this House will know, but it is a privilege, an amazing privilege.

When I talk about my place of work to my constituents, especially the young ones when I go into the classroom, I tell them that I work in a castle, that when I come to
[ Page 159 ]
this castle, I work and speak in this amazing chamber. I take with me the bookmark that shows this place and distribute it to the kids, because I just think that we really have an amazing privilege to be here, to be speaking on behalf of our constituents and to make their points of view known.

Over that number of years, I have spoken to many, many of my constituents — obviously, on the doorstep. If you've been through six elections, you tend to go back to a few doors. You also meet people again and again in various communities. I've met people on the doorstep. I've met them in their living rooms. I've been to events. I've been in classrooms, and I've been in workplaces.

The constituents of Surrey–Green Timbers are varied and show the face of this amazing British Columbia. It is a changing face of our province. In my constituency the majority are people of what we would classify as a visible minority. They're not; they're the majority in my constituency. I have South Asian, European, Filipino, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Latin American, African, Arab, West Asian, Japanese, Korean. I have five gurdwaras, one temple, one mosque and two other mosques very nearby, and 16 churches.

Each of these faces and communities are again diverse within. The Muslim faith can be either Shiite or Sunni, from Pakistan, the Middle East. It can be Balochistan, Ahmadiyya or Ismaili. I have, also tucked in amongst this, an amazing aboriginal community.

When I drive home, my drive moves past a park in my constituency where everyone is there. There are kids playing on the jungle gym. There are grandmas sitting around tables. There are couples walking through the exercise track. It is just an amazing place to see all of these different people from different places in our world come together in this amazing community.

Before I do move on and leave my constituents maybe just for a moment, I do want to mention my husband.

[1430]

It is said that the most important decision you make in your life is with your life partner, and I think I did so well. Not only has he supported me in the life that I chose to live; he has been part of that life. We together have committed ourselves to the work of government.

I think that every once in a while you need to step back and say, "Without that person, I couldn't have been here," and I certainly know that's true in my case. So I do want to just say that John Pollard has been an amazing person to me. I know he has always wished me just the very best.

Going back to my constituents, I want to give a little bit of flavour to the House about who I'm talking about. My community is not wealthy. It is regular folk. They are people who, like most of us in terms of time, have come here to this country to make a better place for their children and to have better economic opportunities.

They work hard. They work amazingly hard. I see this with my own eyes. They work on weekends. All of the family work together to help improve the economic status of the family unit. They often embrace an extended family and make sure that the grandparents as well as the children are encompassed in terms of their home.

If we were talking about some of the statistics, they would fall in the category of half the population of British Columbia, because half the province of British Columbia makes less than $30,000 a year, and that's gross. After taxes it's less than that. If you think about it, half of the province of British Columbia makes less than one-third of our salaries. A lot of my constituents fall into that category.

It may seem to you not a surprise that government services are particularly critical to people who have an income of $30,000 or less. That income not only has to do housing and shelter, food, transportation and all of the necessities of life in terms of having kids and raising them, but if you're going to give your child all of the opportunities they need, they have to have a good education system and the ability to go to post-secondary.

When I think of my community, that's who I think of — people who work hard, who are trying to stay out of poverty. They work together with each other to move their families forward, and they fall into that category of half of British Columbians. In fact, 1.5 million British Columbians, some of them working two jobs, make less than $25,000 a year.

I know these people. I work with them. I speak with them. I talk with them. On $11.25 or $10.25 an hour…. I defy anyone in this House to get by with a family on that amount of money. So when I look at this budget, I don't look at this budget from my eyes. I look at this budget from my constituents' eyes, and I have to tell you that it worries me. It absolutely worries me.

[1435]

We have people from the other side saying: "Trust us. We'll manage the economy. Everything's going to be all right. All we need to do is cut services, cut taxes, and everything will be fine." It defies logic, and it defies the facts.

We know — everybody in this House knows — that we lost 31,000 jobs in the last number of years — 31,000 jobs. That is our economic record. It's the record of the government across the aisle, and if they aren't worried, they should be. And 53,000 jobs, almost 54,000, created in Alberta; in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, just under 10,000; and 106,000 jobs in Ontario. Maybe a lot of that comes from the film industry, as our people move from the film industry in British Columbia to Ontario. Quebec, 75,000 jobs created; and in Atlantic Canada, 20,000.

We have been told over and over again that jobs are the mantra, over on the other side of the House, yet 31,000 jobs have been lost. What's wrong with that picture? Anyone with any sense would know that an economy is built not from one part of the community but from three or four parts. You need a strong business community, you
[ Page 160 ]
need a strong labour community, and you need strong government.

Instead, what we have is people abandoning the field, just moving over so one leg of that stool can take over, and it isn't working. It isn't working.

Mr. Speaker, 10,000 people have left British Columbia. I know some of those people who have left. They need to get a job to support their kids and their family, and they can't find it here because we're not creating jobs. We're losing jobs. People can't afford to live here.

I know that we have a number of people who are lined up to speak, so I'm going to be very brief.

Some of the additional costs are really a burden to the people in my constituency. When you have increased MSP premiums…. Now, this is not a premium. This is not a tax that is progressive. This is a tax that is constant in terms of its application. A 4 percent increase is the same as a 4 percent increase for someone who makes a lot more money. MSP premiums have gone up $736 for families, and they're going up 4 percent again.

B.C. Hydro rates have gone up $346, and they are going up again. And believe me, they're going up big-time. You can talk all you want about freezing personal income tax and freezing the carbon tax, when in the other door you're just jamming people with increases because you have to. You have created an economy that is not responding to all the cuts that you can bring through the door.

Real GDP growth is down, employment growth is down, retail sales growth is down, and B.C. housing starts are down. These are significant indicators of an economy that's in serious trouble, and more of the same is not going to fix it.

[1440]

We have people leaving B.C. We have fee increases, we have sales of assets, we have record deficits, and all we have from the other side of the House is: "Trust us. We've got the crystal ball that will make everything better."

When I think of my constituents — probably the majority fit into half of the British Columbians that don't make $30,000 a year — then I am worried. I'm not worried for me; I'm worried for them. They need a strong government that can provide support and services to make their life better. So for the record, I will not be supporting this budget.

Point of Privilege
(Reservation of Right)

Hon. R. Coleman: I reserve my right to raise a matter of privilege relative to the member for Juan de Fuca with regards to some unparliamentary language during question period on another matter.

Deputy Speaker: The minister reserves his right.

Debate Continued

Hon. C. Oakes: I am absolutely delighted to be here today, and I would like to first start to offer my congratulations to MLAs on both sides of the House for the recent election. I would like to thank the constituents of Cariboo North. I would like to thank our former MLA, Bob Simpson, and thank the legislative and ministerial staff for making our transition so enjoyable. Thank you very much. It truly is a great honour to rise in this fine House today to speak in support of balanced budget 2013.

If you may permit me for one moment, may I offer my sincere thank-you to my family — my mom and dad, Jim and Nancy Oakes; my brother Toby; nieces Darian and Delany; my grandmother Olive Oakes; my grandfather Harold Hartley — for their tremendous support on the campaign. To my campaign team — these two amazing women who have supported me for a long time, who have never participated in a campaign before, stood up to become my campaign managers. And thanks to all of the amazing volunteers for so many years of standing up and helping support a girl from Moose Heights follow her dreams and stand in this House today.

This is a budget that enshrines the values that I support — balance and responsibility. Grow the economy. Make sure we have jobs. I am confident that the British Columbia I represent supports these values as well.

It was a proud moment for me when I was sworn in as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Cariboo North, proud and humbling, because representing Cariboo North is a great responsibility. Many fine people live and work in communities and rural areas in my constituency. I've been privileged to meet and to get to know many of them and their families.

Cariboo North, if I may, is a constituency of 33,000 square kilometres that reaches from Barkerville Historic Town, the heart and the soul of early gold rush days, to communities like Quesnel and Williams Lake, to some of the more interesting remote areas such as Likely, Horsefly, 150 Mile. And we have 11 First Nations communities.

I stand today in support of balanced budget 2013 because of the values that I was raised with. My great-grandparents moved to the Cariboo — in fact, they moved to Moose Heights on a grant during the Great Depression — in 1933. I raise this because I think it's important to know that every day we were raised with the understanding that the Great Depression was extremely hard for citizens of British Columbia. I was raised to understand and to know the value of what a job could create for our families. I was raised to know that it was our responsibility to step forward and work to grow our community.

I wish I could invite you all to see our community that our families had a hand in creating — the agricultural land that we so enjoy today and the great community that I've had the privilege to live in. I've seen firsthand
[ Page 161 ]
the hard work and dedication shown by ordinary British Columbians serving the community as volunteers.

[1445]

I've seen how families pass on volunteer spirit from generation to generation to generation in the same community, ensuring that the continuality of important local events and traditions happens right here in our communities.

My family are farming people. Like our neighbours, business owners and residents across the province of British Columbia, we know the value of hard work and responsibility — responsibility to our families, responsibility to our livelihoods, responsibility to our communities and responsibility to our future. People in my community, in our region spend a lifetime working hard to secure their home, their family and their business. They know the necessity of balancing their books, living within their means and paying down their debts. They know that fiscal responsibility requires facing tough choices, making difficult decisions. They know that they need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their financial sustainability through prudent management and fiscal discipline, and they want their provincial government to do the same.

That is why I stand proudly in confidence of Budget 2013. This budget is about responsibility. It is about fiscal balance and prudent management. This is a plan that will balance the budget, control spending and promote economic growth. It's a commonsense budget for commonsense people.

I consider myself richly blessed. I have a wonderful family. I have deep roots in a great community. I've spent my life working hard in support of values that I cherish. I mentioned how proud I was to be here when I took the oath as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. I was also deeply honoured when Premier Christy Clark appointed me to her cabinet as Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development with a focus on community and, therefore, on people. It's a great portfolio.

I really want to thank the ministry staff for making me feel so incredibly welcome. I'm looking forward to working with the ministry — a great tradition of working with local governments and sports and art organizations to help make British Columbia communities great places to live, work, invest and, of course, play. The Ministry of Community, Sport and Development's budget for the fiscal year 2013-2014 is $181.907 million. Our core mandate to reach is ensuring that rural communities in the northwest benefit from the LNG opportunities.

We will continue to work hard with partners such as the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to achieve maximum benefit from the implementation of the new federal gas tax and infrastructure programs. We'll implement improvements to the local government election process in time for the local government elections in 2014. We'll continue to work with sport and cultural development communities to ensure that British Columbians receive maximum benefit from investments in these sectors and manage our ministerial budget by controlling spending.

Since 2001 our government has provided $3 billion to British Columbia local governments over and above previously existing funding streams, as well as helped to secure $1.5 billion in federal funding for local governments to help them enhance community infrastructure. Almost half of our $3 billion investments supported local governments' capital and infrastructure, while the remainder supported local government operations. These investments help support hundreds of local governments, including drinking water, sewer systems, walking and cycling paths, central plazas and outdoor entertainment areas.

The ministry provides tools for local government, including the Community Charter, Canada's most empowering local government statute, giving communities broad powers to address local issues effectively; and Canada's first Auditor General for Local Government to help local governments identify the most efficient, economical and effective way to address priorities important to British Columbia communities.

We've streamlined tax and regulatory systems. We've been innovative, with community revitalization property tax exemptions, to achieve economic and social objectives.

[1450]

We have adaptable land use planning. We support rural communities. We support green, sustainable communities through the climate action plan, LiveSmart British Columbia, the B.C. energy plan, the transit plan and, finally, the jobs plan.

We're committed to improving the local government elections process and working with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, Elections B.C. and other stakeholders to ensure that these changes are implemented for the 2014 elections. We will continue to bring a positive relationship with local governments in British Columbia to ensure that these investments, measures and programs keep benefiting citizens in communities large, small, urban and rural throughout the province of British Columbia.

Today I had the wonderful privilege of sending a message to Team British Columbia as they head off to the Canada Summer Games. The B.C. government remains committed to supporting active, healthy lifestyles for all British Columbians. In 2013-2014 the ministry will provide more than $50 million for sport programs and initiatives to ensure that citizens have the opportunity to take part in sports and realize their fitness goals.

Every year support from our ministry helps about 650,000 British Columbians participate in sport activities throughout the province, including First Nation communities. Our investment in sports helps British
[ Page 162 ]
Columbians continue to support both the local generation and the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

We also recognize that hosting sporting events generates significant economic and social benefits. Upcoming events that the British Columbia government intends to support are the 2013 B.C. Summer Swimming Association provincial championships in Coquitlam; the Canadian Open blind golf championships in Port Alberni; the 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games; the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, which I'm proud to be an ambassador for; and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup here in Vancouver.

Further to ensuring that professional competitions for sports like boxing and mixed martial arts are safe for competitors, our government has established the office of the B.C. athletic commissioner to regulate these events.

B.C. is home to the most amazing, talented artists and cultural institutions. In British Columbia we are blessed by inspirational cultural traditions from the artistic legacy of First Nations to creative innovations of contemporary art. The B.C. government supports culturally rich communities and a creative economy, fostering sustainable jobs and a quality of life.

In 2013-2014 the B.C. government increased funding for the arts and cultural organizations, including individual artists, to over $60 million. That's about $7 million higher than last year. B.C. government funding for the arts and culture in 2013-2014 includes $24 million for the B.C. Arts Council, a record-high level of funding for the Arts Council.

The B.C. Arts Council, an independent agency of the provincial government, supports arts by consulting with the arts and cultural community to develop policies, programs and strategic priorities. Each year the B.C. Arts Council approves approximately 1,000 grants, funded by the B.C. government. This funding benefits large cultural organizations in B.C. cities but also grants to smaller art communities and rural communities.

I know the great work done by these fine local groups and organizations and their dedicated volunteers, and I know that this support goes a long way in communities. It's true in Cariboo North, and it's true across the province of British Columbia. The range of approved B.C. Arts Council grants reflects the astonishing diversity of artists, a broad cross-section of the arts and an extensive list of cultural organizations in more than 200 communities, representing every region of the province of British Columbia.

The B.C. arts programs benefiting from increased B.C. government funding this year include creative youth initiatives, the artists in education program, scholarship programs, and Artists in the Classroom. Thanks to our support for these programs, more schoolchildren and youth in communities across British Columbia will enjoy increased opportunities and experience with the arts.

[1455]

These programs support B.C. Creative Futures for our government's strategy to nurture a creative workforce in order to ensure that British Columbia's creative economy continues to flourish and grow in the future.

To illustrate the dramatic impact this budget lift for the arts is having on some of these individual programs, let me focus on the B.C. Arts Council scholarship program. Our government has increased support for scholarship programs from $150,000 to $750,000 this year. As a result, the number of scholarships granted to British Columbians studying the arts could more than triple.

Also, new funding increases the maximum value of scholarships from $4,000 to $6,000. These scholarships help students attend prestigious art schools and universities in the province, across Canada and worldwide, including the Juilliard School and Canada's National Ballet, for example.

Of course, much of our support for the arts and culture is focused on community celebrations and events in British Columbia. For example, every year in British Columbia we celebrate B.C. Arts and Culture Week. In 1999 the B.C. Arts Council initiated B.C. Arts and Culture Week to showcase and celebrate arts in British Columbia. This past April 21 to 27 British Columbians proudly celebrated the 14th annual B.C. Arts and Culture Week.

With special funding from council, about 40 local arts councils organized events highlighting the social, cultural and economic importance of the arts. Works by more than 20,000 B.C. artists inspired B.C. Arts and Culture Week. Events included art crawls, public art projects, art exhibits, art festivals, concerts and First Nations celebrations. B.C. Arts and Culture Week helped connect artists with audiences of all ages. ArtsBC and ArtStarts in Schools, two of British Columbia's very distinguished non-profit organizations, presented B.C. Arts and Culture Week with support from the British Columbia government through the B.C. Arts Council.

I want to congratulate some of our 2013 B.C. arts champions: Bernice Heinzelman from Quesnel, for her arts administration; Dianna David from Vancouver, an artist; and Dianne Ocampo from Surrey, for youth. B.C. Arts and Culture Week proved a great success this year, and we can look forward to many in the future.

The ministry's responsibility also includes distribution of community gaming grants that ensure British Columbians share the benefits of gaming revenue. Every year government sets aside a portion of annual gaming revenue to help support non-profit community organizations throughout British Columbia. These grants provide funds for fairs, festivals, heritage associations and museums, arts, culture, sports, environmental organizations, human and social services, public safety, parent advisory councils and district parent advisory councils.

During 2012-2013 approximately 5,300 community
[ Page 163 ]
groups across British Columbia shared $135 million in community gaming grants. Community gaming grants will continue to support valuable services by non-profit organizations throughout British Columbia, benefiting virtually every community in the province of British Columbia.

I support this budget because it expresses values shared by so many people in the province of British Columbia: fiscal balance, prudent management and responsibility.

I'm confident that this budget will help British Columbians enjoy a prosperous future with economic opportunities that will benefit their families and communities now and into the future. Thank you, my colleagues. Thank you, Premier Clark, for your leadership and vision.

I am proud to support balanced budget 2013, and I look forward to the opportunities that LNG will provide to this generation and generations to come.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant.

J. Kwan: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and congratulations to you.

[1500]

I rise today to enter into debate about Budget 2013. I think to myself: what's the difference between this budget and the budget that was tabled before the election? Essentially, there is very, very little difference.

I think there's a bigger question, as well, that needs to be asked. Really, what's the difference between the Liberals' economic record post-election and that of the one prior to the election?

Let me just say this. Before the election we heard from the Premier, Premier Clark, and the B.C. Liberals pretty well said whatever they wanted to say to bolster their economic record in this province. They claimed that they had created the most jobs in the country. They used taxpayers' money to do advertising to talk about what a great job they've been doing with the jobs plan. They used taxpayers' money shamelessly to self-promote in the interests of the Liberal Party's political fortune instead of the interests of British Columbians.

Let me just say this. Quite frankly, they misled British Columbians on the Liberals' economic record. They hid service cuts from British Columbians until after the election. Even with this budget, Budget 2013, we won't know the extent of the depth of the cuts that will hit British Columbia. That is the truth.

They actually used smear tactics, and they're proud of it. They use smear tactics to attack their opponents, and they are proud of it. They made up fictitious facts and advertised them, and they're proud of that record. That's what happened during the election. Yes, they did get re-elected, and they're very proud of the fact that they got re-elected.

I've got to say that we all strive to achieve goals that we want to achieve. There is no question. That is what we do. But we do this with, as I think one of my colleagues said today, a sense of fairness, a sense of fair play. That's what we teach our children. That's what I want my children to learn and, I hope, their children and generations on down.

When we compete for something — whether it be in the sports arena or elsewhere, or compete for a job — we do it with a sense of fair play. But not so in this last election, because that's not what we saw. That's not what happened, and the Liberal government is shameless about it. They are. They are shameless about it, and they're proud of it. This is something that they want to say: "Hey, give us a gold star, because that is exactly what we did, and we feel pretty good about it." Dirty tactics, smear tactics.

Let's just look at Budget 2013. In Budget 2013, if you look at the issue of private sector jobs…. The Liberal government advertised, using taxpayers' money, to say what a great job they did on the jobs plan. They were number one in the creation of jobs.

Fact. Statistics Canada backs this up. The fact is that the province of British Columbia actually lost private sector jobs. I'm not talking about one job or two jobs or ten jobs or 100 jobs or 1,000 jobs. I am talking about 31,300 private sector jobs that were lost since the Liberal jobs plan was introduced in September last year. That is the truth.

You would not have seen that anywhere in the campaign — not on the bus that Premier Clark rode on, not at all — because they wouldn't want British Columbians to know the truth. You wouldn't have seen that fact in the advertising that the Liberal government used taxpayers' money to do prior to the election, because that would be telling British Columbians what really is going on in the province of British Columbia on the Liberal economic record.

The jobs plan is not the only thing in terms of evaluating the Liberals' economic record. Let's look at another piece of fact. You will hear from the Liberal side…. I've heard it, because I've been here a very long time — 17 years and counting.

[1505]

You would have heard the Liberals say that under the NDP government, British Columbians fled this province. Not true, to this extent. When you compare the record of the ten years under the NDP government versus that of the Liberals and their ten years on interprovincial migration numbers, it shows — and these are Statistics Canada numbers — that under the ten years with the NDP, the NDP actually had interprovincial migration to British Columbia to the tune of 130,000 people; under the Liberal ten years, just over 56,000 people, not even half of what the NDP achieved.

But that's too much of a fact for the Liberal govern-
[ Page 164 ]
ment to put forward in its advertising campaign about its economic record. If they put those numbers up, it would actually show that they underperformed in comparison to the NDP government. The nub of it is this. More than 10,000 people left British Columbia to go to other provinces.

That's not the only item that you want to measure economic performance. You want to take up other numbers as well. So let's look at the real GDP growth. In this budget, Budget 2013, it actually showed a drop — yet another drop in real GDP growth under the Liberal government's watch. It moved from 1.6 to 1.4 percent — hardly a record that you can boast of and say, "What a great job we're doing," because the facts do not hide reality. It tells the truth, and the facts tell you exactly that.

These are hard comments to listen to, but truth sometimes is. I know that during the campaign the job of the government, it seems, the Liberal Party, is to do exactly that — to hide the truth — because those are hard facts for British Columbians to face, and they wouldn't want British Columbians to know the truth.

Let's not just look at these numbers in isolation. Let's compare them. On the annual GDP growth under the NDP, 2.8 percent over those ten years; under the B.C. Liberals, 2.5 percent. Once again, on this set of numbers, the B.C. Liberals underperformed in comparison to the NDP's record.

That, too, is not the only issue that you want to measure in terms of the government's performance. We have heard over and over and over again about the government's attack on the NDP on job creation — aside from the fact that under the Liberals' watch, with their B.C. jobs plan, we lost 31,300 jobs.

But let's look at job creation on average in that ten-year block — the NDP ten years versus that of the Liberal ten years. This set of numbers comes from the B.C. Business Council report 2012. It states that the NDP average is 2.17 percent; Liberals, 1.58 percent. Once again, in yet another set of numbers measuring economic record the Liberals underperformed in comparison to the NDP.

Export growth was strongest, in fact, according to the B.C. Business Council report, in the 1990s and weakest in the 2000s, under the Liberal watch. Generally speaking, in comparison with the rest of the country, in export growth over the past 20 years, British Columbia underperformed relative to the rest of the country. That's another fact that came out of the B.C. Business Council report.

[1510]

Numbers do not lie. Facts do not lie. They tell the truth. No matter what the government likes to say, no matter what the advertisement says, it does not erase the fact that these numbers are the truth.

We've heard how the Premier said during the campaign that she wants to make sure that future generations are not saddled with debt. She in fact painted her bus to say "Debt-Free B.C." on her bus.

Well, let's look at the debt issue, because the Liberal government's debt is something else. It is something else. Under this Premier, the debt grew faster than any other Premier in their history — just so people know the truth.

The debt record — let's just look at the facts. Under the NDP in the 1990s our debt went from $20 billion to, in 2001, $33.8 billion, okay? Those are the facts, and you can find those numbers in the previous budget books. The Liberal record, from their time since they've been in government: their debt actually went up 870 percent, to $120 billion. That includes, I will add, the hidden debt that they would not want British Columbians to know about — the contractual obligations, those debts that they like to off-load and hide in a different column in a different place and claim that somehow they are not debt to British Columbians.

In fact, they are. They are hidden under a different column, what they like to call contractual obligations, and so the net effect is this. The debt went up 870 percent under the Liberals, to the tune of $120 billion. Those are the facts.

So how does that mesh with the idea that somehow this is debt-free British Columbia, that somehow this government is not saddling future generations with debt? It is simply not true. It is fantasy. It is not reality.

Now, on the deficit question, the Liberals are very proud, and the Premier…. I've heard her say at Chinese community events, saying in Chinese, that she is going to reduce taxes, that she's going to erase and eliminate the deficit and so on. Well, the Liberal record: seven deficits, seven deficit budgets with this government, with the Liberal government. In fact, under this Premier, she has missed the deficit target by — yes, that's right — $1 billion.

I'm not making it up. These are the facts. The numbers are there. They are all in your budget books. All a person has got to do is go back and review the numbers and add them up, and you will find exactly that information. So $1 billion for a Premier who claims that she loves balanced budgets and she's going to outlaw deficit budgets and so on. Under her watch, she missed the deficit target by $1 billion — not exactly chump change.

You may say, "Hey, you know, deficits are kind of a guessing game. You really can't exactly be that accurate." Well, this Premier is exactly not very accurate and missed the deficit target to the tune of $1 billion. She violated and broke her own balanced-budget law. They have a way of getting around it, of course. We all know that. We have been around this House long enough to know what the tricks of the trade are to get around, breaking the government's own balanced-budget law. Yes, they did it — time after time after time.

Now on the economic record. Those are not the only things. Sometimes you say, "Well gee, we can't control everything." But look at this. Let's just look at the list of
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projects under the Liberal government to see how they have done in terms of cost overruns, because that would be a measurement of economic success, a measurement of economic competence, management competence, if you will. Let's just look at this.

[1515]

I'm not going to — we don't have time, in fact — name off all of the cost overruns and the boondoggles that have happened under the Liberal government. I will only give you a shortlist.

Well, let's start with the northwest transmission line, a very recent project, for which the government said during the election they did not know that there was another $200 million of cost overrun. They've only been the government for 12 years, but they had no idea because they never saw it, you know. They never heard it. They saw nothing. They see nothing. Well, on that very project the cost overrun is $342 million.

That's not the only project. In the Lower Mainland we have the South Fraser perimeter road. Guess how much the cost overrun for that project is. Yeah, $464 million, thank you very much.

Next project, the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. Yeah, $341 million of cost overrun. The B.C. Place roof. How can we forget the iconic B.C. Place roof that actually says "cost overruns" — flash, flash — that has a big screen that says "cost overrun" to the tune of $149 million?

And the Port Mann Bridge. The government says they like to invest in road construction. Well, okay. When you're investing in road construction, you would expect competent management of that infrastructure and the building of that infrastructure. And guess what the cost overrun is on that. Mr. Speaker, $1.8 billion — not million, billion.

Add it all up, and guess what that number says. Yeah, we're hitting the $4 billion mark, folks. That's Liberal financial management. That is their mismanagement of taxpayers' money.

If you can just imagine for one moment that amount of money — $4 billion that could be invested in British Columbians, in the services that they need, in the economic opportunities that they could thrive on, in the education that we can build for the generations to come. Mr. Speaker, $4 billion — what that could do for British Columbians.

Would you have seen any of that information during the campaign from the government? Absolutely not. You couldn't drag it out of them if your life was dependent on that. They hid it with piles and piles of stuff, and then they said, with a bright, big smile, with a bright, big bus: "Debt-Free British Columbia." Underneath all of that flash, all of that shine, all of that paint…. You peel behind that to find the truth and find the numbers, and this is what you will find.

I stand here and I'm, well, a little astounded, actually, at the fact that during the campaign the government said that there would be no service cuts, right? But Budget 2013 shows that they will be at least $130 million short in services.

Now, right after the election, what does the government do? Hmm, their first act: let's take care of friends. That's what the Premier chose to do. She took care of her friends, all right. She went and gave an increase to her political friends, people who are, essentially, political aides to ministers, political advisers to ministers. They all got a big, fat bonus, I'll tell you that. They got a big, fat bonus of $10,000 in salary increase. The person who got the biggest bonus was in fact the Premier's deputy chief of staff. And guess what her position was during the campaign. Well, as it happens, her position was that she was the deputy campaign manager for the B.C. Liberals. Yeah. Guess how much she got by way of a bonus, an increase in salary.

An Hon. Member: How much?

J. Kwan: My good colleague asks: "How much?" I'll tell you this: somewhere between $30,000 on up.

[1520]

Now, I know the Liberals will say: "But we backed down on that." Yeah, they did. They actually did away with some of those incredible salary increases for their political friends. After the opposition raised the issue, after the public screamed bloody murder on this act of betrayal, they did back down. Then the Premier says: "But then I show that I listen." Yeah. Why do I think she did that? Because she's running for a seat in this House. She's running to be an MLA in Kelowna right now, at this moment.

I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that she heard on the doorsteps in Kelowna, where people said: "Are you joking me? This is what you are doing?" And then she backed down. But guess what. She backed down to a degree, but the person who is still central to the Liberal campaign, who was a political aide to her during the campaign as the deputy campaign manager for the B.C. Liberals, remains her deputy chief of staff and got a $30,000 pay raise. And that remains.

Now, this decision was made before she even started the job. Some people would say: "Hey, if you did a good job, your boss should in fact give you a raise. That is justified." Well, guess what. She hadn't even started her job yet for this term, but she got a pay raise anyway. Do you know what that bonus was for? It was for her job well done for the B.C. Liberals in the campaign, and that is being paid for by the taxpayers of British Columbia. That's what this Liberal government is all about.

The Liberal members might not like it, and they shake their heads. Well, I don't like it either. British Columbians don't like it either. But I didn't hear any B.C. Liberals on that side of the House get up to say publicly, on the
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record, that this is not acceptable and that it shouldn't be done. Why? Oh, because they can't speak up. They couldn't challenge the Premier. Heaven forbid. How dare they do that?

The Premier has the right to do whatever she wants, and they all must just toe the line, irrespective of the fact they get up here in this House to say that they are going to speak on behalf of their constituents. I did not hear one single Liberal MLA, one single Liberal cabinet minister get up to say to the Premier that it was the wrong thing to do to make that kind of decision. That is the reality of what we face today here in this Legislature.

I can go on, because there is much to be said, but let me close with this. There are many other MLAs who wish to speak, and I do want to afford every MLA the opportunity to do so, to speak to Budget 2013.

One of the things I heard during the campaign from the Liberals and from the Premier was that in fact she was going to get right onto it. It's her top priority. She was going to make an apology to the Chinese-Canadian community for historical discriminatory acts. In British Columbia, it is sad to say, we do have a very long history of discrimination against the ethnic community. The Premier and the B.C. Liberals had 12 years to make an apology before the election. They didn't do it. They claim that they really tried.

Well, yes, on the eve of the election, that is true. They did try to bring forward the idea of making an apology right in the midst of their Ethnogate scandal, where the Liberal government was caught using taxpayers' money to do partisan work. There was a big investigation using taxpayers' money to investigate the Liberal government's wrongdoing.

That wrongdoing, just so everybody knows, comes right from the top — right from the top, from the Premier's office herself. What she says and claims is that she knew nothing about it. Then there was a big investigation, and it was revealed that they did in fact use taxpayers' resources to do partisan political work, and part of that was to try to achieve what they call "quick fixes," as though making an apology….

Deputy Speaker: I remind the member that we are debating the budget. I have given the member significant latitude, but we are currently debating the budget.

[1525]

J. Kwan: Absolutely it is related to the budget, because you know what, Mr. Speaker? Budget 2013 includes the expenditure. It includes the expenditure of the quick fixes. Just so we know, it is part of the Premier's expenditure that came out of the fiscal year of 2013. So absolutely this is part of the budget debate. There is no question about that, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the guidance so that I can explain clearly to everyone that we know what we are talking about.

Yep, quick fixes, quick wins. There was no apology that was made before the election, in the midst of the scandal. During the election the Liberal government and the Premier said that she would go and make this a top priority. So we were waiting with bated breath to look and hear in the throne speech — which is supposed to lay out the blueprint of where the government wants to go, backed up by Budget 2013, of that direction…. Was there any sighting of the idea of making an apology in either the throne speech or the budget speech? No, not one word.

Not one word for a Premier who says she is so deeply committed to actually making that apology. She could not find one space, one letter, an initial, even, in the budget speech to add that in there or in the throne speech to show their sincerity, shall we say, in wanting to make that historical apology. Couldn't find any space for it — I know ministers in this House have said: "Oh, couldn't find that space" — out of the 17-minute throne speech.

Historic apology to Chinese, historical injustices — in less than five seconds I think I could say that. But couldn't find that in that space to add to the throne speech. Couldn't find the print space in the budget to add to it, in the entire budget documentation. Couldn't find that. Couldn't find it in the ministerial breakdown on a ministry-by-ministry basis of what some of that programming might be and what some of those actions might be. Not in the Ministry of Multiculturalism, not anywhere. Not in education — to say that you might want to recognize this history and then to address these issues in the education curriculum or even in learning materials or anything like that. Nope, not a word. Well, that shows sincerity, really. It really does.

I and the Leader of the Official Opposition had written a letter to the Premier asking her what her intentions were with respect to this issue, this important issue that she made a very big issue out of during the campaign. Through the media the Liberal government and the Premier have said over and over again that their intention is there to make that apology. Yet, to date, the opposition has not been contacted about this apology. So there you have it.

That's the intention, and that's really the entire way in which this government operates: say one thing; do another. That includes Budget 2013. So you will not be surprised that I will not support Budget 2013. I fear for the people of British Columbia, what this budget would mean, and I fear for them especially on the service cuts that the government would not tell them — what they are — that are coming done the pike.

One thing we already know, that's already happened. They can take $300 a month out of seniors for wheelchairs, but they cannot do away with a pay raise for the Premier's deputy campaign manager, during the campaign. They cannot do away with that, and still she gets to keep a $30,000 pay raise for the job that she has just only begun.
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That is this pattern of behaviour that we are going to see, and that's the direction and the tracks that the Liberals have laid out for the next four years, and I will not be supporting this budget.

Moira Stilwell: It's with great pleasure that I rise in the House today to offer my support for Budget 2013, a prudent, fiscally responsible, forward-thinking budget that provides a framework to guide B.C. into a more prosperous future.

As it is my first time speaking in the House since the election, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the members in the House who have returned and especially the new members.

[1530]

Having had four years behind me now, it has given me an opportunity to think about what it has been like to be a member here. There has been not one day when I haven't thought what an honour and privilege it is to serve the people of British Columbia as a citizen and to have the opportunity, if not always the reality every day, of being able to have impact and influence on the important issues of the day and the things that I care about, my family cares about, my friends, community and the citizens of British Columbia care about for themselves and the rest of us.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made it possible for me to be here. I'm continually touched, and actually I'm often really amazed, by the support that I receive from people. Not just the people who know me well — family, friends, community and constituents — but I am really touched and I find it very poignant when people I don't know support me, when people you meet for three minutes reach out and say, "I think you're terrific; I'm going to help you," and they do. Then they come right back again with greater enthusiasm and confidence in you four years later.

I think that is one of the most touching aspects of this career that has motivated me in a way that is different from the opportunities as a physician, where you have a similar opportunity to improve people's lives every day. I want to thank my constituents for giving me the opportunity to represent them for a second term. Their confidence in me is very rewarding.

I have followed recently in the footsteps of two great MLAs in Vancouver-Langara. Carole Taylor, who's been talked about, served both Vancouver-Langara — Langara-ites or Langarians, I'm not sure what we call ourselves…. She served the community and the province so well as Minister of Finance. Also, Val Anderson. There are probably not very many people in the House today who served with Val. He served Vancouver-Langara for a long time. Even now, when he is passed on many years, when I knock on doors people who knew Val still speak of him with great love. So I have two people to look up to and emulate in my duties.

Vancouver-Langara is a wonderful, diverse community. It's a home to families, students, seniors, businesses, a vibrant arts and culture sector, and part of a hub — a shrinking hub — of Vancouver's Jewish community. It's a region where residential neighbourhoods, shopping malls, golf courses, botanical gardens and post-secondary facilities come together to create a unique cultural landscape.

I'm privileged to live in one of the most multicultural regions on the planet, and our diversity and inclusiveness have shaped who we are. I want to thank the community, and all the communities within the community, for their support. I promise to work and do my best to ensure that their voice is heard here in Victoria.

British Columbians are cognizant of the economic reality that the world woke up to, now five years ago, in 2008 with the economic collapse and uncertainty that prevailed. They're aware of the fiscal challenges facing governments around the globe, and they understand the importance of fiscal responsibility and of not living beyond our means.

I strongly believe this government received its mandate because our message of a balanced budget resonated with British Columbians. I heard it on the doorsteps. It's really very intuitive to the people in my riding, who themselves, like in all ridings, work hard and care very deeply about their future, the future of their children and children's children.

I believe that British Columbians want a government that will not spend more money than it receives, and they do understand that that is accomplished by making difficult choices and sometimes going without all of the things that we would like.

They want a government that will work to create the economic conditions that allow us to pay down our debt as a province and allow individuals and their families and communities to succeed and continue to have the services that we depend on and expect and deserve.

Budget 2013 is the first step to making the Premier's vision of a debt-free B.C. a reality. It's not about cutting services or funding. It's not a fire sale of assets, nor is it an attack on any sector, public or otherwise.

A balanced budget is about increasing spending modestly and responsibly while continuing to create the conditions that stimulate job creation and allow our province to grow.

[1535]

It's about maintaining our triple-A credit rating so taxpayers aren't hindered by higher borrowing costs, and it's about increased government effectiveness and wise investments in the training and education of our future workforce. By investing in education we are investing in our province's and our children's and our children's, children's future. Within this budget is a framework to help families save and plan for their children's future. Some 90 percent of B.C. families with young children will be eli-
[ Page 168 ]
gible for the B.C. childhood tax benefit, a refundable tax credit of up to $660 per year per child under the age of six — not enough to make me think about having more children, however.

The B.C. training and education savings grant will provide a one-time $1,200 grant towards a B.C.-resident child's RESP after the child turns six years old. All B.C. children who were born from 2007 on are entitled to receive this grant to help them save for post-secondary training or education. All it takes is setting up a registered education savings plan in the child's name before he or she turns seven. With a small savings of $50 a month, combined with federal grants, a child can have $12,000 to put forward to their education by the time they turn 18.

These grants will go a long way in helping families provide for their children's future education, and every parent that I met in Vancouver-Langara is well aware that that is key to their children's success. It will be welcome in my community, where Langara College serves nearly 21,000 students every year with a variety of programs and courses. Langara College is one of B.C.'s leading undergraduate institutions and is an important part of the Vancouver-Langara community and our portfolio in the province of colleges and universities.

I'm very proud of our government's continued support of the college. Last year alone we provided $2.2 million to upgrade campus facilities and more than $44 million in operational funding. We've increased the number of funded student spaces by more than 6 percent since 2004 and have provided almost $45 million in capital investments since 2001.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very proud of our government's accomplishments over the last decade. This budget builds on our success with a bold plan for future growth. By focusing on fiscal responsibility, by maintaining an economic environment that encourages investment and by constructing the infrastructure we need to get our goods to market, we can ensure a more prosperous future for our children and our children's children. That, ultimately, is why we are all here and why I am happy to offer my support for Budget 2013.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Victoria–Swan Lake.

R. Fleming: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and congratulations to you in your position that you have been elected to by this House.

I want to begin, as other members have, by thanking a few people who have helped me return to the Legislative Assembly to begin another term in this parliament — my campaign team first of all, which was a fantastic team. In Victoria–Swan Lake it was a great campaign; it was a high-energy campaign. The number of volunteers we had and the enthusiasm from which we conducted that campaign have left me with a great deal of memories and many thanks to give. If some of those campaign members have not received their thanks, the card is in the mail. It's taken a little while to do some of them.

I also want to thank my constituency assistants, Marni Offman and Alice Ross, who've been with me for eight years and continue to staff my community office in Victoria–Swan Lake. It's fair to say that in my community office we deal with a very high volume of casework — you know, that helps the elderly population in my community, that helps those seeking to retrain and pursue employment opportunities, and those who deal with ministries or Crown agencies like ICBC and the Workers Compensation Board, or WorkSafe B.C.

All of those things put a lot of demands for the time in my office, and it's the stuff, I think, that MLAs do that is vitally important, but of course, MLAs often don't do it directly. In this kind of casework, it's the constituency assistants, and I really could not do my job without Marni and Alice, so I want to thank them.

I want to thank my wife and two children, my family, because my kids are young enough that for them, the campaign is really about balloons and colourful lawn signs. That's sort of the understanding level, which is great.

[1540]

Along with other MLAs — they can relate to this, I'm sure — it's about long hours, being away from home a lot and relying on other family members to pick up for us in our absence. Really, to my wife, Maura, and to my two children, Rory and Jack…. I have to thank them for helping me do this job as well.

With those thanks, I want to direct the balance of my remarks to what I think is being accurately called bogus budget 2.0. In version 1.0 of the budget, the one that was tabled here in this House in February, many of the assumptions were the same as the budget that was tabled earlier this month.

I think what's interesting, Mr. Speaker — and you will probably recall this — is that polling showed that less than 12 percent of British Columbians actually believed budget 1.0 was balanced. Those were the numbers that came out within a few weeks of the budget debate, and as you will recall, that budget was never fully debated. It was tabled, the House was shut down, and an election was on. That's the lack of credibility that that document had just a few months ago, and here we are with substantially the same budget, although with some key changes, which I will speak to in a moment. I wonder what the public perception is out there about the so-called claims of balance.

The public response, I think, and certainly the media response and the scrutiny of those that are listening to the words of this government around the claim to be moving towards a debt-free B.C., are rightfully derisory. At least former Finance Minister Carole Taylor argued in this House not too many years ago, when she was Finance Minister, that the important indicators for government
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to watch and the targets to achieve were the debt-to-GDP ratios. That's what she argued the province should be concerned about. While she didn't manage to control the debt-to-GDP ratio especially well in subsequent years under, now, two different Premiers, at least the discourse and the discussion were grounded in the real world.

The idea to talk about B.C. being on some kind of trajectory or road to debt-free status is ridiculous. It's ridiculous for anyone who takes the time to examine this budget and the three-year service plan that supports it, because it is not a road map for a debt-free B.C. It's quite the opposite. I think if we're going to have a real debate with taxpayers and give them confidence about how their money is spent and how efficiently it is used and what goals it is supporting, then we need to have fiscal indicators and targets that are grounded in the real world — the real world where government takes their money and uses it with their consent.

Let me examine this claim of debt-free B.C. in a little more detail, because it's the claim made by Premier Clark. This is something, admittedly, that the B.C. Liberals didn't talk about for their first decade at all, but now this is the mantra of Premier Christy Clark.

Now, what's the record? She's been Premier for two years. The updated forecast of the province of British Columbia's total debt when she came into office was $55.8 billion. The budget estimate in this document before the House that we're debating here this afternoon shows debt in the province of British Columbia of $62.6 billion. Debt-free? That's a $6.8 billion increase in the province's debt under her watch. Added to the debt this year: $6.8 billion — one year.

[1545]

Now, for those who may be interested in drilling down what that means statistically on a daily basis, every day that Christy Clark has been Premier, she has added $18.5 million to the debt — every day. Per hour? Every hour that she's been Premier — $771,000 of new debt. Since election day, 49 days ago, this government has added $906 million to the debt of the province of British Columbia — just under $1 billion since the election 49 days ago. Since budget day, six days ago — when, again, the Finance Minister parroted the Premier and said: "We're on a trajectory towards a debt-free B.C." — $110 million has been added to the province's debt.

Now, the rhetoric of the throne speech, a day in advance of the budget being tabled, talked about debt-free B.C. in terms of future generations. Per-capita debt is a particularly important statistic. What are we leaving to our children in terms of debt obligations? The debt per person in British Columbia, per capita, was $13,400, roughly speaking. The debt per person in 2015-2016 will be $14,600 — $1,200 for every man, woman and child in British Columbia added to the debt in B.C.

Now, let's have a discussion about whether that's good debt or bad debt, and let's examine where the spending is happening. But as a starting point in this discussion and in the passing of this budget — because government members are apparently going to vote for it — let's not make the absurd, ridiculous and absolutely disingenuous claim that this somehow puts us on a trajectory towards a debt-free B.C. It does not. It adds to the debt almost $7 billion.

That's the record of this Premier in the last one year — $7 billion worth of new debt. Let's be honest about that. Let the government defend where that debt comes from. Explain it. The road to a debt-free B.C., on the examination of the facts and some of the numbers that I have shown to this House, apparently begins at the drive-through to fill up on burgers and fries. That's what this government has done in a fiscal sense.

Now let's examine the claim on the operating side that this budget is somehow balanced. Balancing the budget, as I mentioned earlier, is something that approximately 12 percent of British Columbians actually believe the government is doing. Yet there it is as the frame for this budget discussion — an insistence that this budget is balanced.

Well, to balance the budget in B.C. one of the things you would need to have going for you is to have people paying more income taxes. What we have seen since Christy Clark became the Premier…. Even though there's a jobs plan that B.C. has — which is mostly an advertising scheme, as we all know — you would have to see employment growth.

Now, how does British Columbia stack up to other provinces in Canada on private sector job growth? Well, the numbers aren't good. While our neighbours in Alberta have added 53,000 jobs between September 2011 and May 2013, British Columbia has lost — lost — 31,300 private sector jobs.

You know, even Atlantic Canada has added 21,000 private sector jobs in the same time period of which I've spoken. Atlantic Canada, with a population many times lower than ours, has added 21,000 jobs, while we have lost 30,000 jobs here in British Columbia. Atlantic Canada doesn't claim, to my knowledge, to have a jobs plan, but they're creating jobs. British Columbia and this Premier claim to have a jobs plan. They claim to have a job plans on the nightly news and every advertising rotation imaginable through paid media using tax dollars, and that's a jobs plan that has led to the loss of 31,000 private sector jobs.

[1550]

Ontario during this same period…. These are numbers used by Statistics Canada, by the way, just in case government members want to object to where I'm getting this data from. Ontario has added 106,000 private sector jobs to its economy at the same time that British Columbia, under the B.C. Liberal jobs plan, under Premier Christy Clark's watch, has lost 31,000 private sector jobs. Where's the income tax growth coming from, with those dismal
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job numbers, to balance the budget that we have before us? They aren't there. Where are the indicators in British Columbia over, say, the next three years of this budget plan that we're debating that might show some green shoots in the economy that give us some optimism?

Another indicator that I think really undermines the budget assumptions that have been presented to us is the fact that people are leaving British Columbia right now. We don't have a brain gain in B.C. of skilled workers and professionals coming to our province to embrace the economic optimism that the Premier advertises to our own citizens. We have the opposite situation. We have educated, skilled British Columbians leaving our province to go raise their families and support their families in other parts of Canada. Ten thousand British Columbians have left B.C. for the rest of Canada since 2011, under this Premier's watch. How can you claim to be balancing the budget when you have indicators like that confronting you?

Now let's see how the markets have responded to the re-election of a so-called free enterprise government. In February the budget presented to this House gave projections that real GDP would grow by 1.6 percent, and employment would grow by 1.1 percent. Retail sales were benchmarked to grow at 3.5 percent, and housing starts were set to decline, as they are in other parts of Canada, by 10 percent.

The budget we were presented with last week shows GDP growth falling even further to 1.4 percent, employment growth being pegged down to only 0.7 percent, retail sales growth cut in half to a mere 1.8 percent growth in the assumptions of this budget and housing starts falling by nearly 13.5 percent.

You can well imagine how many tens of thousands of good-paying construction jobs, as well as local entrepreneurs and contractors, suffer from that kind of outlook. Yet they pay, with their reduced incomes because they have less work, to be told on radio and television that our government and the B.C. Liberals have a jobs plan that's working. Again, how do you balance the budget when the economy is sliding like that in this budget?

The other thing that asks us to suspend our disbelief if we are to accept any of the claims of this budget is that you have to believe that the Liberals have a plan to make $130 million worth of cuts in this budget.

There's supposedly a core review going on around here. I don't know where the wizard is hiding behind the curtain to make $130 million worth of program and spending cuts happen. There was a core review in 2002. It famously led to the largest layoffs in British Columbia's public service history on that infamous day known as Black Thursday. I don't know if there's a secret core review committee planning that kind of drastic action to meet a target of $130 million of cuts, because that is what this so-called balanced budget is premised on.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Again, to believe that budgets that are frozen, many of which are cut already, are going to find $130 million of new savings defies belief. Or if you do believe it, it means that the government's promises, the B.C. Liberal party's promises to continue and not disrupt important public services that British Columbians rely on, are another casualty of truth in the election campaign. That may be what we find out is behind that.

[1555]

Now, you will also have to believe, if you think that this budget is balanced, that British Columbia can achieve what no other province or U.S. state or OECD country or member of the European Union has done, which is to limit health care spending growth to 2 percent. That's not going to happen, or if it is going to happen, then the government ought to explain which hospitals and community care clinics and services are going to be cut and closed, and where on the map of British Columbia those cuts and closures are going to happen.

There isn't a health care reform agenda in this government to achieve savings like that. There isn't time to put in a thoughtful plan that would revamp health care and have it delivered efficiently to support what no other OECD country has been able to achieve. So the government ought to explain to British Columbians where the shock therapy is going to lie on achieving those kinds of cuts to restrict growth in health care spending at that level, and they haven't done that.

The government, in the throne speech and the budget, highlights something called a ten-year skills plan. Now, this is interesting, because I think this is about the fifth throne speech that I can recall that talked about a renewal and investment in the skills of British Columbia. All of them failed to deliver, because they never had budgets that supported those claims.

We were warned as long ago as 2002 that one of the key economic challenges facing British Columbia was falling labour productivity. That is a very worrisome statistic, especially over a long spread of time like a decade or 12 years, as in the case of this government, because it means that your economy is falling behind others. It means that the efficiency of the economy is declining.

So now they've rediscovered a skills plan. We've just been talking in question period and in other venues in this House about what the failure and the cost to taxpayers is of not having a skills plan — $342 million of overspending on a transmission line in the northwest; taxpayers' money inefficiently spent to hire people from outside British Columbia to take the payroll back, and all the benefits and local spending, somewhere else besides British Columbia.

Not only do we have to pay more and incur more debt for a project that's badly managed because we didn't invest in the skills training of young people in British
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Columbia; we don't get the payroll benefits and the spending of that happening in our communities or in the northwest. It's a double whammy of incompetence.

But this government claims that they now have a skills plan while they cut $50 million from the Ministry of Advanced Education. Where is the skills plan money going to come from? How are you going to ramp up skills training in British Columbia when you're ramping down the money that you provide to the skills trainers in the province? Again, it can't be done, and that is why this is a bogus budget.

Cuts to forest health. Now, this is interesting. You would think a government that has talked a lot about jobs and government helping the private sector and having an interest in investment coming into this province would be facilitating business with the kind of infrastructure they need to make those investments in B.C.

That primarily means you would make the assumption that the Ministry of Forests, the so-called dirt ministries — the Ministries of Environment, Energy, Natural Resources — would receive some kind of budget lift to make the permit work go faster, to have the scientific staff there to get approvals done, to make sure that corners aren't cut and that things are done properly and approved on time. This has been a major problem that executives in the mining industry and other private sector enterprises have complained about in recent years.

In fact, once upon a time the Minister of Energy himself — before he was put in the penalty box, he was the Minister of Energy back then — defied his Premier at the time. This was only a couple of years ago. He defied his Premier because his ministry was being cut, and he said: "You cannot cut any further to the ministries that raise revenues for the province of British Columbia. That is a dumb idea." I'm paraphrasing, but if you know the member I'm talking about, from Kootenay East…. I'm actually taking out some choice words when I say that.

That was his opinion just a couple of years ago. Now he's in charge again of one of those very same dirt ministries. In fact, he's in charge of the core review. He's got to cut $130 million from the budget just since February.

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Where's the plan? Let's assume that he was saying something truthful and insightful a couple of years ago when he said that there's no way you can achieve savings in ministries that help develop business in the province of British Columbia that then creates jobs and brings taxes into the province. So again, they're making cuts that aren't going to help the treasury in any way, because they're not going to help business have certainty and be able to do business well here in B.C. Therefore, again, you have to suspend belief to accept the Liberal assumptions of this budget.

The other thing that I think British Columbians need to understand about this budget is that it hammers the middle class again in B.C. This is a government that has always targeted middle-class British Columbians and their pocketbooks in the most disingenuous way. Often they say, "We're cutting taxes," and then they more than compensate for that with increases in fees — everything from medical services premiums to B.C. Hydro rates to tuition fees to daycare programs. All of those things that are part of the costs of daily life have gone up dramatically under this government.

Again, this is perhaps the only believable assumption in this budget. Again, fees that British Columbians pay out of their own pocketbooks are being targeted for increases in this budget. I believe them when they say they're going to increase medical services premiums. On that, their record is consistent and strong. They've gouged British Columbians year after year after year for health care services that many provinces don't even charge their own citizens for. They're masters at it, and they've promised to do it again in this budget. I believe them, and I take their word on that one.

Now, let's look at another budget assumption here, which is asset sales. This one should really concern British Columbians. It really should, because any government that thinks that selling off land, buildings and fiscal instruments or assets of the province is a good way to balance a budget doesn't have a lot of examples internationally to point to. Certainly, from a household perspective, nobody would say that's a good thing to do — sell the house to have more security.

What we're seeing here is $625 million worth of asset sales on the books to, again, achieve so-called balance. Now, here's where you really have to suspend your imagination to believe the government — that $625 million would be greater than the last ten years of total land sales. It would, in fact, be twice as much. In the last ten years the province has sold $380 million worth of stuff, assets. In the next couple of fiscal years, to achieve its so-called balance, the province is engaging in a fire sale to achieve $625 million worth of sales.

Where are these assets of the Crown, of the people of British Columbia? The minister said the other day: "Oh, we've sent you a list." There's no such list. I would like the minister to table that. He says: "Oh, the 100 properties are known." They're not known.

I think why British Columbians deserve to know…. Well, there are two reasons. One is that any economist would tell you that selling assets in this kind of fashion, in this kind of panicked way — you know, put them all on the auction block — gives you a very bad return. It is the antithesis of financial sustainability, because of course you can't sell these assets over and over and over again. You run out of assets to sell. There's nothing fiscally sustainable about doing business on behalf of the people of B.C. this way. So that's problem number one.

But what we deserve to know is what the government's plan is for these asset sales. Before you sell a piece of land in Surrey that was being held for — I don't know
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— schools being built in the fastest-growing urban part of the province of B.C…. Let's say it truly is surplus, and there's a surplus test to measure these kinds of things. Why wouldn't you be entrepreneurial about it?

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Here's a so-called free enterprise government. Why wouldn't you upzone that land and actually create wealth for people in British Columbia? What's wrong with government being entrepreneurial and smart? It's not smart to put everything on the auction block and flood the market and lower your price. By the way, we're selling in a down market right now. Now, that's dumb.

Why wouldn't the government reveal and give British Columbians the confidence — if they're really going to pursue asset sales as a way to balance the budget — that they're doing it the right way? I suspect that the reason they haven't given us any indication about how they're doing it is because they don't have a plan.

Now, the last couple minutes I just want to spend on education. I've talked a little bit about the skills plan, the government regurgitating the idea that skills are important. Oh, lucky us. They've discovered that for a fifth or sixth time and never done anything about it.

Let's talk about before that happens in skills training — the transition to post-secondary education, which is where 80 percent of jobs are going to be in the future, if not now, and growing. The key thing to get right in our economy and in the programs that government provides is education, the K-to-12 system. Early education is important for the success of the K-to-12 system, but I'll let others speak to that.

As the critic for Education, economic well-being in this province…. If we want to be a powerhouse province again, our K-to-12 education system is going to have to be the best in this country and ranked amongst the best in the world.

I chuckled when the government had such a poor public record on standing up for the people of B.C. on the Enbridge file. They failed utterly to connect with British Columbians' concerns about the environmental risks of the Enbridge pipeline. So what did they do to try and dampen that down? They went to Norway and said: "Let's find out what world-class oil spill prevention standards look like, because we don't have any in B.C."

Okay, fair enough. But have you ever heard the B.C. Liberals say: "You know what? Our education system could be better. In fact, we want to have a world-leading education system. Let's go to Finland." Have you ever heard…? No, you haven't.

In fact, what we have seen over the last couple of years is that instead of striving for more and better outcomes in the K-to-12 education system, the B.C. Liberals have lowered the performance indicators in the service plan of the ministry. I'll give you one example. Aboriginal graduation rates in British Columbia are far too low and below what they should be. It is a disparity between non-aboriginal and aboriginal British Columbians that can't be excused, and the government should never rest until they achieve parity there.

What did the government do just a year ago? They lowered the 65 percent graduation target down to a 55 percent target. Education is not being supported in this budget, especially in the way that it should be. That is one of the many reasons that I have outlined this afternoon about why I will be voting against budget 2.0, the bogus budget.

Deputy Speaker: Member for Richmond-Steveston.

J. Yap: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and congratulations to you on your elevation to the office of Deputy Speaker.

It's great to be back in the House, and as this is my first opportunity, as other members have, I'll just take a few moments to reflect on the last couple of months. Of course, we had the election, and I want to thank the many people who helped me have the opportunity to return to this House for the third time as the member of the Legislature for Richmond-Steveston.

There were so many volunteers, a couple of hundred of them at least, and I do want to single out a few who truly made the difference in my campaign: my campaign manager, Marnie Plant, who was incredible and helped guide our campaign team; also my good friend Michael Chiu, who was there for me at every turn; Sarah Curry; Jake Jaffe, Christiania Wu and the many others who were part of a great campaign team that had fun while we worked hard, knocked on a lot of doors, talked to a lot of constituents and gained the trust and the support of the constituents, which has resulted in my having the opportunity to return here.

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I also want to thank my two incredible constituency assistants, Paige Robertson and Po-wah Ng, who are my presence in the community when duties have me here in Victoria or away from the riding. I do want to thank them for the exemplary work they do and the service they provide to the constituents of Richmond-Steveston.

I also would like to congratulate all members, from both sides of the House, on the honour and the privilege of being elected to this 40th parliament of the province of British Columbia.

As we have seen just in the last couple of days on the 24-hour news channels, the yearning for government to reflect what the people desire is on full display. We are so fortunate, all of us, whatever your political stripe, to live in a peaceful, democratic and free society where people can come together and in the people's House try to work on the issues that matter. There can be disagreement, as we have seen in the debate on the budget, but we debate respectfully. We come to agree or disagree and make decisions, but in a democratic fashion.

We're all blessed to be living here in the province of
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British Columbia, in Canada, a great nation with deep democratic traditions. All of us recently had the opportunity to participate in an exercise of that democracy. So congratulations to all members.

I'm rising to speak in favour and in full support of the balanced budget 2013 update. This budget update follows through on the budget that was introduced by the Minister of Finance in February and is an affirmation of our commitment to keep British Columbia's economy strong and to keep us on a path towards prosperity.

During the recent campaign all of us talked to a lot of people. I talked to a lot of voters in my riding of Richmond-Steveston. It is a riding that is like many others, that reflects a diversity of people from many backgrounds, very middle class, people who are concerned about basic things. The one issue that I found very consistent as I went about during the campaign was this. It was: "Please look after the economy. Please ensure we have a strong economy. Please balance the budget. Please ensure we can have jobs for ourselves, our children" — their children. That was very consistent as we went about during that period of time.

This budget will deliver on that commitment. This budget has a framework that will lead to a continued prudent management of the finances of our province, prudent management that has preserved our triple-A credit rating. You know, I'm sure all members appreciate, as we look around the world at the financial volatility that's still out there — markets that are still volatile, economies that seem to be troubled — British Columbia's economy is strong, and this budget will help our economy continue to be robust and to provide for British Columbians today and into the future.

We've heard some comments about debt from the previous speaker, the hon. member from Victoria, and I just wanted, for the record, to confirm that in fact, taxpayer-supported debt, which this budget reaffirms, will come in at a very prudent ratio of about 18.4 percent. When you contrast that to Canada, taxpayer-supported debt to GDP is at about 35 percent. In Ontario, 41 percent. The province of Quebec, 47 percent. In the U.S. — celebrating, of course, Independence Day today — the economy reflects a debt-to-GDP ratio of 76 percent.

British Columbians can have great confidence in the continued prudent management that this B.C. Liberal government will provide British Columbians, which was our commitment that we made during the campaign. We are following through with it with balanced budget 2013.

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A few comments about my new role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to engage with British Columbians and stakeholders in undertaking a review of our liquor policy to come up with potential ideas for the government to consider in modernizing what some have described as an antiquated liquor policy framework. I'm looking forward to that opportunity.

We've made a commitment as a government to control spending. That goes hand in glove with what I mentioned earlier: good, prudent fiscal management. It is very easy to say yes to everything. There are so many worthwhile projects, worthwhile expenditures that can be made, but prudent management means finding a way to do the very most you can, the best you can with as efficient allocation of resources as possible.

This budget will continue to challenge ourselves to find ways to provide needed public services in the most effective and efficient ways possible. As has been said, through this budget, through controlling spending, through finding ways to be more efficient and to grow the economy, we will achieve a balanced budget. That is our commitment, and this budget will deliver that.

Twelve years ago, when this government was first elected in 2001, we made a commitment to keep taxes low. We continue to live up to that commitment. We made a commitment to make B.C. a competitive economy. We're sticking with that commitment.

Now we have a great opportunity: the real promise and opportunity of liquefied natural gas in a world that is wanting the resources that we have in great abundance, about a 100-year supply of reserves of natural gas that we can provide to growing economies around the world that are seeking cleaner sources of energy, seeking to turn from oil or coal to natural gas to meet their burgeoning energy needs. The economies in the Far East, economies in Asia, China, India, come to mind.

We need to continue to capitalize on our great success in growing trade opportunities with these economies, and liquefied natural gas will provide us with that opportunity and with an incredible game-changing opportunity for our province to be able to reap a stream of revenue that is exceptional over the next many years, to put us in a position where we can, through prudent management, through a prosperity fund, find ways to eventually reduce and eliminate the debt. That is the focus. That is the optimism that we have to achieve in the coming years, and this government will deliver on that commitment.

Before I wrap up my comments, I do want to reflect on my riding again, the great riding of Richmond-Steveston that I am so lucky to represent. I know every member believes they're lucky to represent their riding, but I really feel I'm blessed to represent my riding of Richmond-Steveston. It includes the historical fishing village of Steveston, with its great history, and the great opportunities for the people who call Richmond and Steveston, this area, home.

As the newly re-elected MLA for Richmond-Steveston, I'll continue to work for my constituents to advocate for issues that are important to them, including issues related to dredging in the Steveston harbour. I'm very happy that we have a program in place in partnership with the city of Richmond as well as the federal government and other
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partners to undertake dredging projects to improve the navigation opportunities in Steveston harbour.

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As well, Steveston has become a tourist destination, given the very unique heritage opportunities and environment that are in place in my community. I look forward to working with community leaders and others in my community to continue to build on our reputation as a great place to go to visit, to spend time in, whether it's for fish and chips or to see some of the fine retail opportunities in the village of Steveston. I'm looking forward to supporting the good people of my riding, Richmond-Steveston.

This budget, balanced budget 2013, will put British Columbia on a continued course of prosperity. As we reached out to all British Columbians, that's what they asked us to do, and this budget will deliver on that commitment.

Our government, led by Premier Christy Clark…. By the way, all of us recognize that the Premier made history by being the first female Premier to win an election in the province of British Columbia, and we're all proud, on this side of the House, to be part of her team. I'm looking forward to working with the new members of our caucus who have joined us to provide great government for the province of British Columbia.

I'll close with this. All of us want to do the best for our ridings, for the people that have entrusted us to be their representatives, and I, of course, feel the same way. The opportunity and privilege of being an elected official does mean that you are away from home, or sometimes never home, and I want to close by thanking my great family, my wife and my two children, for their patience, their forbearance, their support and their love. It has been the anchor that has allowed me to be able to try my best to be the MLA for Richmond-Steveston.

With that, I'd like to say that I support this budget, balanced budget 2013, and will be voting in favour of it.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Kootenay West.

K. Conroy: Congratulations to you, Mr. Speaker, on your new position. It suits you well.

I rise to take my place to respond to the budget presented last week — a very similar budget to the one presented in February, but with a smaller so-called surplus and a revised economic forecast to reflect a slowing economy.

First, though, I, too, want to take the time to acknowledge and thank the many people who helped me to return to the Legislature for my third term. To all of those who worked on my campaign: my heartfelt gratitude for all the work you did. Specifically to Henne Henegraff, my campaign manager, and the incredible team we had in place: thank you.

Also, by the support of the constituents of the incredible, diverse constituency of Kootenay West — and I, too, think mine is one of the best in the province — I continue to be humbled.

To my family: thank you just doesn't seem quite enough, and to my husband, Ed, who has been my rock these past eight years and now for the next four years. Between us we have over 20 years of public life, so to our family I say thank you for all your support to both of us all these years.

People have no idea what a family gives up when a member enters public life — on all levels, whether municipal, provincial or federal. So to everyone in this province who has been elected to all levels of government: I thank you for your commitment and your families', for their support of your work.

I do want to specifically thank our four children, their spouses and our five grandchildren for all of their support during the election and for all of the years we have been committed to the public office. They have all helped out, being part of the events, the parades, the elections, and they all helped on E-day. All of my grandkids helped on E-day, but my oldest granddaughter was proud to work on very her first election campaign this year. She answered phones, made calls, worked in the office. At 12 years old, Daira is the exact age I was when I first got involved in politics, so I believe it's in the blood.

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I want to thank my parents for that, Ben and Ingeborg Thor-Larsen, for raising us to ensure that our family — our children, our grandchildren — are all involved in progressive politics and understand that we can never give up, never lose our commitment to ensuring a better world for everyone.

So again, to all of my incredible, supportive family, I want to say thank you.

I just want to take a moment to acknowledge my father-in-law, Ed Conroy Sr., who, sadly, passed away during the campaign. "Fast," as we all affectionately called him, had been an incredible support to both Ed and me over the years. I will miss his wit, which we did miss during the campaign, and we will continue to miss it for many years to come.

I also want to acknowledge the incredible staff we have working with all of us, but specifically my constituency assistants, Elaine Whitehead and Edena Brown, and my legislative assistant Joleen Badger. I want to thank you for everything you do for me and the constituents of Kootenay West, because all of us know that in this House we couldn't do this job without the support of our constituency assistants and our legislative staff working here. They make us look and be as good as we are, and we really thank them for that.

Now back to the budget — the budget that was presented last week, this so-called balanced budget that isn't even close to being balanced. The budget shows what a
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failure this government has been at ensuring supports to the people in this province — especially those people who are vulnerable, struggling to make ends meet. Will this budget help them? Well, no, it just won't.

Let's talk about the fee increases that this budget introduces, the fees that people in this province will now have to pay to make up for this government's fiscal mismanagement. I want to start…. Let's talk about medical service premium fees.

Continually throughout the campaign I heard how people are struggling with MSP costs, especially seniors. Every seniors organization I have spoken with across the province unequivocally — Old Age Pensioners, the COSCO, Canadian Association of Retired Persons, the Senior Citizens Association…. I recently spoke at their 60th annual general meeting, and MSP issues was a resolution again, as it has been for a number of years.

All of these groups have expressed their concerns about the cost of MSP, and now it's rising another 4 percent — the only province in the entire country that charges seniors MSP. B.C. is the only province that charges seniors MSP. Yes, if they make less than $30,000, they don't have to pay. But for those low-income folks that are just over the $30,000 mark, it hurts, and an increase will really hurt them. We will continue to hear about this increase from them.

Now the rates are up. It's $736 for families too. To some people, that might not seem like much, but to thousands of families, it's too much. It's the last straw, especially when you add in the increases to B.C. Hydro rates that are definitely going up, ferry fares that are going up, tuition fees that have doubled as people are struggling to put family members through post-secondary education.

Then the extra costs to seniors. We know residential care costs have gone up. Now what do we get? Well, right after the election, we got raises to the Premier's political staff and an increase to fees for everyone else, including the entire wheelchair fiasco.

Who would have thought, in a province like this, that vulnerable seniors would get charged extra for a wheelchair? Then government members say: "Oh no, no, it's only for those who can afford it." Well, here's a reality check. If a senior can afford it, they generally go and buy their own wheelchair. I've talked to those seniors. It's those who can't afford it, those who don't have a wheelchair that need one from the facility. Where's the logic in it?

The reality is that so many seniors are really proud. They have real difficulty asking for help, and to be demeaned in this way is just so unacceptable. The number of senior spouses, family members, friends who have expressed their anger on this has been really significant. It makes one muse. You have to ask the question: okay, now, if they can charge for wheelchairs, what's next? What's going to come up next?

Let's see. How about beds? You either buy your own bed, or we're going to charge you for it. You want a comfortable chair in your room? Bring your own, or we're going to charge you for it. What's coming next? People are continually asking me that. What's next?

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Where is the dignity and respect that seniors have earned and deserve? Where in this budget does it say: "Seniors deserve the best services possible"? Well, it doesn't. It doesn't even begin to address the many recommendations made by the Ombudsperson in her report The Best of Care. It has been over a year, and so many of these issues have not been addressed, and they will continue to not be addressed in this budget.

How long do seniors have to wait? That's a question that's of real concern, because many of them don't have the time to wait. They will not be able to get the services they need, and it is just so wrong to treat seniors with this disregard.

I am incredibly pleased to be named the seniors critic once again, and I will look forward to holding this government to account to ensure seniors get the services they deserve, to ensure the recommendations made by the Ombudsperson are implemented, to ensure seniors can live with the dignity and the respect they deserve.

I'm also really pleased to be named the critic for the Columbia River treaty, the Columbia Power Corp. and the Columbia Basin Trust. These are incredibly important issues to the people of the Kootenays, and I believe that all Kootenay MLAs can hopefully work together in the best interests of the people of the Kootenays.

I was very proud to watch the work that four Kootenay NDP MLAs did with the government in the '90s to ensure that the trust and the Columbia Power Corp. were formed to try to bring back some of the benefits lost to the people of the basin as a result of the Columbia River treaty.

We see that work continues today, with their foresight in ensuring hydroelectric projects with a local-hire policy — unlike the work being done in other areas of B.C. today, like Kitimat, where the majority of the people being brought in to work on the projects there aren't from the area. Many of them aren't even from our province. This is work that is not done by the people in the area.

That leads me to the current jobs fiasco, the only province in the entire country that saw job numbers plummet after they introduced a jobs strategy — a loss of over 31,000 jobs since Christy Clark became Premier. I say to the Premier: "Please stop the jobs strategy. It's not working. The people of this province can't afford to lose any more jobs." Even the Atlantic provinces, which are always considered have-not provinces, have had a higher job growth rate.

So how is it working for people? Since this government was elected, we've had over 30,000 jobs lost in the forest industry. How is that working for people? It's not. The fact is that the number of people leaving the province is
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well over 10,000 — just since 2011.

The member from Comox talked about his growing airport. Well, it's growing because it has the largest number of workers in this province that are flying directly to Fort McMurray. It has the biggest exodus of flights. I mean, how many communities have direct flights to Fort McMurray? Well, Comox does, because it has the largest number of workers working in Fort McMurray. In order to live in B.C., mom or dad has to fly to northern Alberta to work. I know how hard it has been on my daughter's family and my grandkids that Dad had to leave the community to go and work.

So how's that working for families? Where does this budget show that it's going to work for families to be able to live in their own community and have good family-supporting jobs? The sad reality: now it's my own brother, who has had a really successful business in the Kootenays. In the last year there has been an economic downturn, and where has he had to go to work? Saskatchewan. He's in Saskatoon. He's coming home on the two-week-on, one-week-off. I mean, what does that do for his family?

You know, once again, another family is going to suffer because of the job policies and economic realities of this budget and this government. Why? Well, it's obvious why. Real GDP growth, down; employment growth, down; retail sales growth, down; B.C. housing starts growth, down. And the record of deficits? Seven deficit budgets since 2001. Just since Christy Clark became Premier, the deficit targets were missed by $1 billion.

This government has repeatedly broken its own balanced-budget laws. It's hypocrisy. Why bother having laws when our own government goes ahead and breaks them? It makes one muse: what other laws does the Premier think it's okay to break?

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This is such an unrealistic budget — unrealistic health spending that doesn't match the demand, cuts to universities and colleges during a worsening skills shortage, cuts to our forest health when our forest industry desperately needs investment. But we are getting a core review to find an additional $130 million in cuts to programs. We all remembered what happened last time the Liberals did a core review. The cuts to programs, especially in the social service sector, was devastating. The sector was devastated with cut after cut.

The cuts in the health care sector through initiatives — and I use that word loosely — resulted in Bill 29. Thousands of people lost their jobs or had their wages and benefits cut — primarily women. The sad fact is that this bill, even though it was struck down by the Supreme Court, still is utilized today by facilities to cut costs, and in the end, it directly hurts the seniors in those facilities. It hurts the care they should be getting.

I could go on, as there are numerous concerns I have with this budget, numerous other reasons why I will be voting against it. But out of respect to my colleagues who would also like to respond to this budget fiasco, I will take my seat and allow them to express their concerns.

S. Sullivan: I rise in spirit, if not in body, to speak in favour of the proposed budget. As I'm speaking for the first time, I hope the members would indulge me a few comments on my riding. I am very grateful.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate all the members for their being elected. I'd like to also thank the citizens of Vancouver–False Creek for giving me their confidence. We have a very interesting riding. It is one of the fastest-growing ridings. It's the smallest riding in the province, it's the densest riding in the province — one of the most populous — and it is the riding that has the largest percentage of citizens from 20 to 40 years old. It's a very young riding.

It's also incredibly diverse, and I hope you indulge me if I would say a few words to some of my fellow residents. [Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Korean, Farsi, Tagalog and French were spoken.] I could go on and on. But to some of my citizens, who speak so many different languages in my riding — in fact, over 70 languages spoken in Vancouver–False Creek: I thank them.

Vancouver–False Creek has been referred to as downtown British Columbia. It has the largest core of jobs-producing businesses in the province. It is the largest junior mining centre in the world. More exploration, more discoveries of mines throughout the world come from Vancouver than any other city in the world. If you stand on Hastings and Howe, you will, within a three-block radius, find over 1,200 mining companies.

We also have a burgeoning high-tech sector — these scary young people that are creating the future of tomorrow. They are creating a number of high-tech solutions to many problems. We have other industries such as Lululemon, which were incubated and which grow in Vancouver–False Creek and are changing the way the world dresses.

We have many cultural institutions — the Vancouver Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Gallery, Scotiabank Dance Centre, the Arts Club Theatre, a number of cultural facilities like the Playhouse, the Orpheum, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Telus Science World and many, many other institutions. As I've had an opportunity to serve the riding at a local level as the Vancouver city councillor and also as mayor, it was very exciting to see the growth in this particular area.

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One of the things that I was very active in was preparing the city for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Vancouver–False Creek was the site of many memories from those games. I think about the Olympic village, the three Live Sites, the opening and closing ceremonies. We had the world's largest potlatch, where you would have an incredible demonstration of First Nations vitality and resilience. Who can forget the gold-medal hockey game?
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I was pleased also as mayor to work with the Minister for Housing, the current member for Fort Langley–Aldergrove, who took on the challenge of 14 free city sites to create supportive and social housing. He purchased 18 SRO buildings to give security and stability to low-income people. In fact, he catalyzed the largest commitment to social housing in 40 years. I'm pleased to be part of a government that could do that.

I can't speak about the Olympics without referring to the member who preceded me in Vancouver–False Creek, Mary McNeil. She provided service to the citizens of Vancouver–False Creek with compassion, enthusiasm and dignity, and I'm very grateful for the model that she has given me. Throughout her time in the Legislature, she had three different cabinet portfolios, one of which was the Olympics and Paralympics. She has an incredible record of public service, and I will always be grateful to her for the work she's done for this House and for this province.

As mayor, one of my priorities was an initiative I called eco-density. It recognizes that high-density living can be good for the environment and for the economy, and very good for the cost of infrastructure and also for culture. It supports a high-quality culture. But I also recognize, through eco-density, that high-density living requires high-quality services.

I have a lot of hopes for the community. We have wonderful services and a very high quality of life already. I'm looking forward to the opening of the International Village school. Our schools are completely full — big waiting lists — so full, in fact, that many of our students go outside the riding to Lord Strathcona school. I'm looking forward to working with the Minister of Education on ensuring that this school is revitalized and the heritage work is done.

We also have a very important hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, and I know our government has a commitment to revitalization of that hospital. Already, $50 million has been given to the Vancouver Art Gallery for their renewal. We have a concert hall that's being planned. The Arts Club Theatre and Bard on the Beach are going together to have a rehearsal space. They're creating many, many other activities that make it a very exciting place to live.

I want to just say a few words for my campaign team. It was an amazing team. It was the first time I've ever run a campaign entirely with volunteers. It was because of our co-chairs, Cristian Worthington and Sandra Giffin, financial agent Michael Young and all of the amazing volunteers, highly skilled and very tech-savvy — very young people that got involved and worked so hard to get me elected.

I'd also like to acknowledge the tremendous support I've got from my parents, Ida and Lloyd Sullivan, and Lynn, whom I fell in love with 43 years ago and who continues to amaze me with her commitment and love. I would certainly not be here without her.

I'd like to also say that I'm pleased to serve under our Premier, and I'm very pleased with the directions she has set for our government — a strong economy, a secure future. We need to control spending. This budget ensures stable economic growth.

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I'd like to just make a comment about the numerous educational facilities that are within the riding. We have UBC, SFU, VCC. Numerous other schools have representation in the riding, and I know they are very aware and grateful for the B.C. training and education savings grants that are a part of this budget.

When I look around the world — the U.S., Europe, other countries — I see the real pain that a poor economy can give. I am very proud to be part of a government that has such a record of a good economy. We missed what a lot of the other countries are experiencing. We think about the crisis right now and the tragedy of Egypt. A lot of that is generated by a very poor economy. It's a serious issue.

We need to have discipline. We need to have controlled spending. We need to provide a supportive environment for our businesses, and through this we will support our social services. This budget does all of this and continues our path to prosperity, and it is deserving of all of our support. I will certainly be supporting it myself.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Vancouver-Kensington.

M. Elmore: Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your election. It's great to rise here to return for a second term. I'd also like to extend congratulations to all the successful members elected in the previous election.

I'd like to start and say a few comments about Vancouver-Kensington and the election that we've just come through, just to paint that context in terms of my remarks for the budget.

It's a great privilege to be re-elected for my second term now and to return as the MLA for Vancouver-Kensington. Coming out of the election, it was a very dynamic election. It's one of campaigning. It's something that I certainly enjoy, going house to house, talking to constituents and voters. My first thanks are to the constituents of Vancouver-Kensington for entrusting me with their vote and electing me as their representative.

That wouldn't have been possible without my very capable, dedicated and hard-working campaign team. I am indebted to them, my campaign managers and all my volunteers. I think our campaign really reflected the diversity of Vancouver-Kensington. Many members have talked about the different aspects, the continuum of diversity in their areas that they represent. Certainly, Vancouver-Kensington is very diverse in terms of ethnic makeup, of background, of communities.

I think our results, and the feedback we got from
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people within Vancouver-Kensington, is that the message they heard from myself and from the NDP campaign — supporting community, supporting individuals and, certainly, for a government working to ensure that all the citizens, all individual British Columbians, have the opportunity to fulfil their potential — resonated with the majority of voters in Vancouver-Kensington.

In Vancouver-Kensington, just to set a context in terms of the budget and the impact of the 2013 budget, Vancouver-Kensington is diverse not only in its people but also in its neighbourhoods, its businesses. We have one of the highest concentrations of small businesses in Vancouver, very active and very vibrant, robust. I think it's an increasingly successful area in Vancouver, certainly in South Hill in South Vancouver, where folks across Vancouver and across Metro Vancouver come to do their shopping, to eat in the restaurants and to also enjoy leisure time.

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The community is very diverse, led by the business improvement associations. The South Hill and also the Victoria Drive business improvement associations really have a good relationship in terms of connecting with community groups and organizations. The types of activities that I enjoy and that all the constituents of Vancouver-Kensington and across Vancouver enjoy really give you an idea of the type of community that we have in southern Vancouver.

We recently celebrated 100 years. The history, as well, in the area is remarkable. We recognized just in the last few months the 100-year anniversary for the Sandford Fleming Elementary and also David Livingstone Elementary School. The schools — from elementary to high schools and also our South Hill adult education centre — play a very key role in terms of hosting either the McBride Annex spring fair or the Charles Dickens spring fling. It really brings that sense of community spirit.

We see the community spirit, as well, reflected in the caring of the citizens. One incident that comes to mind that brings that together…. It's a rather unfortunate incident. A mother and wife, Nida Tumanda, was tragically hit and killed in Vancouver-Kensington last year. We really saw the community come together and support the family, from the South Hill neighbours to St. Andrew's church to local businesses. They really reached out and opened their hearts to support the family and the young children, to help them in this difficult time.

I think that that is also a great example of the community spirit. Now my office will continue to work with the neighbours to increase the safety through that area and also to ensure that the neighbourhood is safe for everyone in the area.

We also have a very vibrant celebration of festivals. Tupper high school held their third annual Multi-fest to great success. Migrante, a temporary foreign worker organization, held their picnic at Grays Park. We celebrated the 11th annual South Hill Festival, as well, along Fraser Street.

We have a number of very active centres — the Kensington Community Centre and the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. Celebrating Canada Day and, of course, playing a central role are the Royal Canadian Legion No. 16 and the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans, Unit 26, who are really taking a lead and celebrating that community spirit.

So in that context, in terms of just the great communities and neighbourhoods and individuals who call Vancouver-Kensington home, I'm rising to speak against the budget. I won't be supporting the budget. I can't bring myself to do that. I think it's informed by the conversations I've had with constituents, but also with the situations that have come forward, that they have expressed and that they have asked for assistance with. It is in light of those that I have criticisms of the budget.

Particularly, I want to hit on a few of the key themes in terms of the budget, where I think it's not accurate and doesn't serve British Columbians. One of them is the claim that the Premier's jobs plan is creating jobs for British Columbia. The numbers that we've seen out of Statistics Canada show the opposite of that, where British Columbia is actually the leader, not in terms of job creation but in the loss of private sector jobs. So we're certainly going in the wrong direction.

The claim of Budget 2013 that it's creating opportunities for British Columbians — it's not shown in terms of net migration or people coming into British Columbia. The number we see is that British Columbia has an out-migration of over 10,000 citizens leaving British Columbia for opportunities in other provinces. We're on the wrong end of that statistic in Canada because we're leading the out-migration of provinces in Canada.

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In terms of the budget that was tabled, it's similar to the budget from February, with a few changes. We've seen worsening economic indicators. We've also seen a narrowing of already a very slim projected surplus — certainly cause for concern.

We hear the Premier and the claims from the Finance Minister that Budget '13 is a balanced budget. I think the numbers don't bear that out. Certainly, we're seeing that this current budget is continuing in terms of yet another deficit budget that we are seeing tabled here — seven deficit budgets from 2001 to 2012.

We've seen that there has been on the one hand the promise of balanced budgets, but the reality is that in a cumulative perspective we've seen deficit targets missed by over $1 billion. This current budget, Budget 2013…. The budget and fiscal plan is unrealistic. It's not balanced, and we are faced now with the reality of the necessity of spending cuts.

The government has announced to undertake a core review and cut $130 million in government spending,
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and we're seeing some of the impact of that now, some of the first wave of cuts. They are really reverberating down at the community and at the neighbourhood level, and I'm hearing about it from constituents coming in.

One of the cuts that has been announced that I'm very alarmed at is cuts for Art Studios, which is a Vancouver Coastal Health mental health program. Art Studios is closing after 21 years. This is a program that offers support for people with mental illness and has shown to be very successful and been a key component in Vancouver-Kensington — certainly a shortsighted cut and very concerning for my constituents.

We have further cuts as well from Vancouver Coastal mental health, supporting immigrants who are endeavouring to access and improve their English — immigrants and refugees with mental illnesses. This is another cut that is having a negative impact.

Falling short in the budget as well is really a lack of addressing the need for child care, certainly in Vancouver-Kensington. According to 2011 statistics from Statistics Canada, Vancouver-Kensington, Kensington–Cedar Cottage and Vancouver-Fraserview, which overlap my area, have the highest percentage of school-aged children — children from five to nine in Vancouver city…. There's a real shortage in terms of out-of-school care, and there are nearly 200 children on the waiting list.

We are also seeing come to my office increasing requests for support for children with special needs in not only out-of-school care but also provision of child care spaces. This is an area that's of grave concern, that there is a real need to address, that there is a shortfall, and it's not addressed in the budget.

As well, we've seen with this budget an increase. Not only are we seeing cuts happen now to important vital services — more to come, as well as increasing fees and rates. The first one, right out of the block, is the wheelchair tax: $25 a month for seniors living in care homes, which puts a greater burden on our seniors when they can least afford it and at the time when we should be supporting the quality of their care. This is a disappointment.

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In addition, in speaking against the budget, I don't feel it addresses the challenges and necessities to invest and improve the accessibility and affordability of post-secondary education. This is also a big priority and a concern that I have and that I hear in my community.

I've attended the graduation ceremonies for my local high schools. We hear about the aspirations of the graduates to go on to post-secondary, either college or university or trade or certificate training, which is imperative for advancing in their careers and being successful in the workplace and in the future. Increasingly, the barriers of high tuition fees and lack of spaces are an impediment to success for these youth. That's not addressed in this budget.

As well, I have the South Hill adult education centre, which helps to transition students coming out of the high school system to upgrade their classes and their marks to be able to access college, university and other trade courses. It's a vital and important step, and there needs to be more support for students who are really looking to make that transition and improve their training and advance their skills to be successful. So that's another shortfall in the budget that's not addressed.

In terms of other fee increases, we can see, anticipate that this is where the aspirations of a so-called balanced budget will come. We've seen the wheelchair fees come up. We've also seen MSP premiums rise. We're expecting B.C. Hydro rates to increase, and we're still waiting for the number on that. Ferry fares — we've seen them come up. Tuition fees have more than doubled. We are seeing, really, sweeping right across British Columbia that it will be regular British Columbians who will be taking up that slack and paying more in terms of fees and rates to make up the shortfall.

Just to wrap up, I want to make a few points, because I know there are other colleagues who also want to make some remarks — to make a point in terms of the shortsighted view of the sale of assets to balance the budget. It's unprecedented, certainly. We haven't seen it.

When you look historically in British Columbia, the comparison of what is proposed now in this budget is nearly ten times what has been proposed in the past decade. It's a very disproportionate selling off of assets in key areas that are growing — particularly Surrey, which is seeing a record growth and which will need more planning and development into the future. So certainly, very concerned about the shortsighted nature of undertaking asset sales as a component to balance the budget.

I think this Budget 2013 is characterized and can be summed up…. It hits many themes, and one of them very consistently is financial mismanagement.

We have seen cost overruns for a number of government initiatives — worthwhile initiatives, but it's been breathtaking in terms of the…. Some of them — over 100 percent cost overruns. If you go from the northwest transmission line — cost overruns 85 percent — to the south Fraser perimeter road — 58 percent…. The Port Mann/Highway 1 is over 120 percent. The Vancouver Convention Centre and B.C. Place roof…. We really see a consistent inability to manage these projects within budget. So that is also a concern.

Given the claim of Budget 2013 being balanced, it certainly doesn't meet any of the markers, I think, that you would expect, as well as the claim of reducing government debt. We see government debt rising, our provincial debt rising substantially, and also rising at the fastest rate, with the largest margins that we've seen.

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I know we've heard a colleague across the way, from Richmond-Steveston, remark that the ratio is relatively small compared to other jurisdictions. But I think I
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would also call back our attention to the numbers and that a rise in debt, in terms of the rate and the gross rise in the debt, is the fastest in history and certainly doesn't meet the target.

I'll conclude my remarks. I won't be voting in favour of the budget. I feel that it doesn't meet a number of the claims that it makes in terms of being balanced or being fiscally responsible or having the perspective and the view to managing and bringing down our long-term debt.

I feel that the Budget '13 lays out a very concerning situation and scenario where we are going to be faced…. We're already seeing cuts to vital services, imposition of increasing rates and fees on British Columbians who can least afford them. It's also not addressing key concerns in our economy to bring British Columbia forward for success and also ensuring that all British Columbians are able to take advantage of these opportunities.

So thank you very much. I conclude my remarks, and I'll take my seat.

J. Martin: It is such an honour and a sense of a thrill, mixed with overwhelming…. I'm humbled to be in this House to speak and rise for the very first time. I've never been so humbled in my life. This is a spectacular institution, and I'm so honoured to be here. I congratulate all my colleagues on both sides of the House, new and returning members, and I'm just thrilled to be part of the Legislative Assembly.

I took an interesting road to get here, as many people did. It is not a result that could have been achieved without the tireless effort of so many fine people, friends and volunteers, and I would just like to acknowledge a few of those people.

First off was Martin Silverstein, my campaign manager, a gentleman I've had the privilege of working 20 years-plus with at the University of the Fraser Valley. Collin Rogers, who's the president of the riding association, worked effortlessly as a veteran of campaigns. We couldn't have done it without his leadership, his guidance. Ben Besler, a very close friend, was very instrumental in coming over to the B.C. Liberals and very much a part of strengthening the free enterprise coalition.

A good friend of mine, Rob Nicklom, was the camp financial manager. Desmond Devnich, who worked hours upon hours upon hours, actually cashed out his holidays to work 12 hours a day on the campaign, and I'm so thrilled that he accepted my offer to be the constituency manager in the office. I'm so fortunate to have him.

Dillon Roberge, a young fellow who came out with me six days a week — knocking on doors no matter what the hour, what the rain — wore out a couple of pairs of running shoes. I couldn't have asked for a better mate to help me on the doorsteps. Lori Moren, as well, is someone else I've had the pleasure of working with for the better part of a quarter century.

Pam White was very instrumental, as well, in terms of helping the transition from the previous member of the Legislative Assembly, who I'd like to acknowledge — John Les. John was so much a part of my being here today. He's just such a credit to this institution, and I'm so indebted for his help, his advice.

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Just to give you a sense of John Les, how down to earth this man is…. On election day he was sitting at a folding card table with the other volunteers, working the phone bank for eight solid hours, drinking coffee out of a Styrofoam cup like every other volunteer. That's how John Les spent his E-day. Giving effortlessly for more than 30 years of public life, to his community, to his province….

I know he will be missed. I'm told that John Les was the loudest desk pounder in the House, so I've been hitting the makiwara and the sandbags, toughening up the calluses on the palms, trying to follow in his footsteps.

I'm thrilled to be here to represent the most beautiful part of the province: Chilliwack. The fine people, the constituents in Chilliwack — I'm so thrilled to be able to be the member representing them in this House and excited to be part of a government presenting a balanced budget.

In 2012 this Premier delivered what was applauded from coast to coast as the single most fiscally conservative budget in the country. So what does she do for an encore? She shows it's no fluke, and she comes out and does it again 12 months later. That is unprecedented. That's the type of leadership I am thrilled to be working under.

Budget 2013, a balanced budget, is based on sound financial planning, and it will ensure that B.C. has a bright future, a prosperous future. It's a budget that is at once honest and responsible. This is the exact antithesis of an election budget. There's no pork in there. There are no giveaways. There are no goodies for swing ridings.

The easiest thing this government, this Premier, could have done was go into another deficit budget and spread some goodies all around — the typical electioneering budget. She was having no part of it. The Finance Minister was having no part of it. This party was having no part of it. This is a balanced, prudent, fiscally conservative budget. It's the right budget for the right time.

This budget was taken on the doorsteps all across this province. It was presented to the people, and they made their verdict on May 14. The people approve of this budget. We have a responsibility to pass that budget, and that's what's going to be happening next week.

A lot of people have been speaking to specific components of the budget. Let me talk a little bit about job creation. The accelerated B.C. jobs plan is going protect the future and drive growth in this province. Creating, protecting jobs — one of the single most important goals this government will champion.

When I was on the doorsteps…. After you're doing this for hours and hours, days and days, you start to kind of make up a few little pastimes. What I noticed when
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I went to the doorsteps was when I saw a work truck in the driveway with ladders, with a big toolbox, or when I shook someone's hand and it was like a 2-by-4 from years of hard labour, that was the B.C. Liberal supporter. That was the person who loved this budget, a balanced budget that is going to move us toward a debt-free B.C.

The middle class, the working class — those were the core of our supporters that know the importance of job creation, particularly in the resource sector. The resource sector and job creation must be spread and distributed throughout all parts of this province. We cannot ignore parts of the province and concentrate on others. It was approved, overwhelmingly, and I'm excited to be part of a government that is going to deliver on that type of promise.

We have a unique opportunity here in timing, in geography. We have an opportunity to expand markets, to create quality jobs for British Columbians and move toward…. Many have said: "Well you can't do that. Pie in the sky. It's not going to happen." Well, it is going to happen. We are going to move toward a debt-free B.C.

It's a priority for this government to ensure that goods and services make it to ever-expanding markets by cutting red tape, by improving infrastructure, and we can achieve this by building on existing relationships and creating new ones. You know, since the launch of the Asia-Pacific initiative by this government, our exports have increased by billions, and they will continue to increase by billions.

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Now, I come from Chilliwack. I represent a community about an hour-and-a-half east of Vancouver in the eastern Fraser Valley. It is blessed by the number of small businesses. That's one of the driving forces in Chilliwack. Small businesses make up the bulk of the economy, and they drive it forward. Constantly, small businesses are developing new technologies. They're finding new opportunities, creating jobs right at home, right in my riding.

I know how important these businesses are, and that's why I'm proud to be part of a government that recognizes the important, the critical contribution that small jobs make to the economy. This government is committed to fostering the development of small business.

It's not just talk, okay? So what have we actually seen? Well, when this government came to power the small business tax was very prohibitive. It was putting a strangle on small businesses. This government has reduced it, and they're going to reduce it by a further 40 percent by 2019.

This government has eliminated — no exaggeration — literally thousands of regulations and pieces of red tape. Now, regulations are great for regulators and inspectors and more middle management and more bureaucracy, but they're not so good for entrepreneurs. They're not so good for small business. They're not so good for consumers, and they're certainly not good for an economy that is dependent on the success of small business. So this government has already demonstrated its commitment to support small businesses and has been recognized and awarded the only A rating in the country for its contribution to eliminating red tape. And that's not enough. We're going to do more of it.

This budget is a particularly important document in the future, not just of British Columbia but in the country as a whole, because British Columbia is going to be the leader in this country.

In Chilliwack, agriculture. That is one of the driving forces in my particular riding and that part of Fraser Valley. Agriculture is key. We're the breadbasket in British Columbia, and it's a lot more than the corn that people always talk about. We have a thriving agricultural community. To ensure that industry remains competitive, this government is providing a carbon tax exemption for coloured gasoline and diesel fuel used in farm use, okay? We are taking account of the agriculture industry.

There is already major, significant capital investment in the development at the University of the Fraser Valley of a school of excellence in agriculture. It will be the only facility of its type in British Columbia. That is an institution that the Fraser Valley and the agricultural community for 25 years has been calling for, and it's underway now, under this government. It's happening exactly where it should be, in the breadbasket of Chilliwack, and I'm proud to be able to champion that. That will be one of my personal challenges in this House: working to see that that institution becomes reality.

This government supports and promotes local agriculture. The already successful school fruit and vegetable nutritional program is being expanded — an additional $1 million, bringing local food, including Chilliwack milk, to kindergarten children up to grade 2 in the Chilliwack area.

At the heart, nothing is more important in preparing for the future than education. This government, time and time again, has shown its commitment to education, both at the K-through-12 and the post-secondary levels. We'll continue to make investments in the education system. There are capital projects all throughout the province — in my riding in particular, the development of the University of the Fraser Valley as part of Canada Education Park. It's one of the gems of higher education in this country.

I've worked as a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley for over 25 years, and I think I know as well as anyone the value of a quality education, not just in terms of someone's career opportunities but in terms of character, in terms of developing citizenship. I'm pleased that this government has the commitment to higher education and to public education, and that is going to continue.

This particular government is going to strive for a ten-year agreement to minimize labour disruption and bring
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peace into the workings of the public school system. Now, again, some people will roll their eyes at that and such.

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I can say that in over 25 years working at the University of the Fraser Valley as a faculty member — under Socred administration, under a couple of NDP administrations and under this administration — I've not lost a single day to labour disruption. So I don't think it's an enduring regularity that you have to have labour disruption in education. It's not required.

This government…. This is the first government that has ever shown that type of commitment to getting an agreement, labour peace in the public school system. It's great for parents. It's great for students. It's great for the institution, for teachers, for the entire school system. I'm pleased that this government is thinking big — big ideas, ambitious ideas. That's what we need.

Budget 2013 is going to also help parents save for their children's education through the training and education savings grant. For every child born 2007 or later, we'll be contributing a one-time $1,200 grant towards a registered education savings plan. With just a $50-a-month contribution to their RESP, that $1,200 could very well turn into over $12,000 by the time that child turns 18. That is an investment in education, an investment in youth, an investment in the future that is unprecedented, and I am proud to be part of that.

You know, it's been…. Over the last few days, some of the commentary from hon. members about this particular budget…. There's been some citing of a poll that speaks maybe unfavourably of how many people support the budget or the level of belief that it's a balanced budget. Not too many of us are paying attention to polls these days, so I'm quite reluctant to accept that as a valid concern with the budget.

Again, this budget was taken door to door, pretty well to every doorstep in the province. It was presented to the people. It was when the government was returned with a strong mandate that the very same budget was presented again. That is a budget that I'm going to be supporting, that I'm going to be voting in favour of, not because I'm a member on this part of the House, not because the Whip knows where my office is, but because it's the right budget for the right time. I am so pleased to be part of a government that has that type of commitment to this wonderful province.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Surrey-Newton.

H. Bains: Thank you, hon. Chair, and congratulations on your new portfolio, your new appointment. I think it's a proud moment — a proud moment for me, a proud moment for you, and I think it's a proud moment for the whole community, because you are the first of South Asian background to sit in that chair in this House. I think that is quite an achievement.

Interjections.

H. Bains: Yes, sorry. Second one. You're the second one. I missed out the first one. I apologize.

It is quite an achievement, so I congratulate you.

I stand here to participate in this budget debate. I will not support it. I will tell you why. It's quite glaring. The evidence is here to show why we should not support this, because as it was sold to British Columbians and as it was presented here in this House, it is a balanced budget. It is not. It is not. No one believes it, except a few people on that side, and I think they even have some question about that with their own discussions.

If you take a look…. They said it's a balanced budget. You know what it reminds me of? It's 2009. They said a $495 million deficit and not a penny more. Remember that — 2009? What happened after the election? We found out it was a $2.8 billion deficit. Same thing is happening here.

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They said it's a balanced budget. You know, it's hinged on straws. They have left room for 0.8 percent growth over the last year. If you do that, only two things will happen, because the inflationary cost alone will go about 2 or 3 percent. If that's the case, only two things could happen. One, the budget is not balanced. There will be a huge deficit. Second, you have to cut some programs, and we have seen some of that, or add more taxes and fees. We have seen that. They are hitting an area where the people can least afford it. Those are some of the reasons why I do not support this budget.

Before I do that in detail, I would like to go back to the election. We just went through the election. I want to thank so many people who put me here a third time. First, my campaign team led by Emily Zimmerman; Lamber Sidhu; and Mike McDonald, the president of my constituency; and all other volunteers, close to 300 volunteers who worked through my campaign in those 28 days.

My wife and her friends and our family members took the responsibility that once somebody walked into that office, they were not going to leave hungry. They did a really good job making sure that everyone was fed.

From the smallest volunteer, my grandson, who turned one on June 25, and my granddaughter, who turned five on June 29…. They were there every day. They were there every day with their mom, my daughter-in-law Parveen; my son Kulpreet; and my daughter Jasmeen, who came after finishing a degree in Ireland and became a doctor. They were all there. Their friends, their nephews, their nieces; my nephews and nieces and their friends, their cousins; and my brothers, my cousins and uncles — they were all there, along with, like I said, another 200, 250 people. Every day they were there, so I want to say thank you to all of them.
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Especially I want to thank the citizens of Surrey-Newton. For the third time in a row they put confidence in me to make sure that I am their voice to bring their issues here into this House and represent them. I'll make sure that their issues are raised here in this House.

Mr. Speaker, if you look at the budget itself now, we are looking at a job plan that the Premier sold us. There's a job plan that was started in September 2011. Since that time 31,300 people have lost their jobs in the private sector — 31,000 — whereas at the same time, every other province gained private sector jobs: Ontario, 106,000 during the same period; Manitoba, about 10,000. So every province you look at gained private sector jobs. It was only in this province that we lost jobs.

No wonder people are leaving this province; 10,388 people left. More people left this province since 2011 than who came in. That's a clear indication, people leaving. Families are being separated because one of them has to go and find a job in Alberta and other places, and the rest of them have to stay here. The Premier continues to say that the job plan is working. Well, the people of this province need some honest answers. They're not getting it.

Why the balanced budget is not a balanced budget…. Here are some of the indicators of why. GDP growth, as it was projected in February this year, was supposed to go up 1.6 percent. That was the assumption. Now it is 1.4 percent. Employment growth was 1.1 percent. It's downward, 0.7 percent. Retail sales growth, 3.5 percent down to 1.8 percent. B.C. housing starts, minus 10 percent down to minus 13 percent. How can you say that the numbers are still the same, that we will still be able to balance the budget? Either it's not balanced or you will be cutting services — one of the two.

There is so much more to say, but I'm recognizing the time here, because there are a number of our colleagues who want to make some points here as well.

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I want to say a few more things here. Seven deficit budgets since 2001 to 2012 — seven. They've been telling everyone that they believe in the balanced-budget law. They broke every balanced-budget law since 2001 to 2012.

During the time since Christy Clark became Premier, deficit targets were missed by $1 billion. If you look at where the money is coming from to pay for all this and where the fees are going to go up…. MSP rates are up $736 for families. B.C. Hydro rates are up $346 per year. Ferry fares are up. Tuition fees have more than doubled. Residential care fees are up.

And you know what? Another part is because…. The reason we're not in a very good financial position is because of the mismanagement of our resources, the mismanagement of all those big projects. The northwest transmission line — we just heard the debate — is $342 million over budget. South Fraser perimeter road, $464 million over budget; Port Mann/Highway 1, $1.8 billion over budget; Vancouver Convention Centre, $341 million over budget; B.C. Place roof, $149 million over budget.

The result? Since 2011, when the provincial debt was $45.2 billion, it is projected to go up to $69.8 billion in 2016. Today it is $55.8 billion. I mean, just add the numbers: over $11 billion since the time Christy Clark became Premier. How could you trust that she could lead the province into prosperity, as she claimed? Those are some of the real numbers. Those are the real numbers.

Now I want to talk about some of the real issues concerning my constituency. Mr. Speaker, in my constituency we have 7,000 students in portables because since 2005 up to 2012 not a single dollar was approved for capital for those schools. For any school that was built during that time, that capital budget was approved prior to that. Even in 2012, when the new capital budget was approved, it was about one-third of what we needed — one-third.

This is the fastest-growing community. We get about 1,000 new residents in Surrey every month. They bring children with them. That area needs to be fixed. There's nothing in the budget to fix that. We will have 1.2 million new people moving into the Lower Mainland in the next 30 years, by 2040. We're not even ready for the people that we have now south of the Fraser.

Public transportation in that region. We get 0.9 hours on a per-capita basis compared to Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond, where they get 1.9 per capita. So we get about half of what they have. And they need improvement on their side.

That's why I will be saying no to this budget, because there's no answer to those issues that we have in Surrey.

HandyDART is an issue. You know, instead of helping those people, they are cutting, and 28 drivers are scheduled to be laid off. This is at a time when 30,000 trips were denied last year. These are people in need. They're in wheelchairs. These are our seniors. Even with the service we have now, they're only guaranteed a one-way trip, and they have to make their way back home themselves. And now we're cutting more. That needs to be fixed.

Pattullo Bridge — old, dangerous, over capacity. Now it will be shut down for three weekends. Now the people of Surrey and south of the Fraser will all be forced to pay tolls. So we're asking: "Why not? It's your policy that the tolls will only apply to a road or bridge where there's a free alternative." There is no free alternative.

I offered the new Minister of Transportation to come. I'll give him a trip and show in Surrey how far it is from Guildford to travel — as the minister said to take the Alex Fraser — the Alex Fraser, if you're working in Coquitlam, drive through two communities, over the bridge, drive through two more communities, ten kilometres each way — and say that that is a free alternative.

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I think the minister probably should go and talk to my colleague from Surrey-Panorama. He will tell you the geography of Surrey, that that's not a free alternative, practically speaking.
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The other issue: TOIFA. We had this two-day show — $11 million. How far could the $11 million go to help those people on handyDART, where they are cutting? How many more buses…? How many of those drivers could be kept and more hired? Because need more. We need more support for handyDART drivers. How far would it go to build some schools in Surrey so that those students finally will have a hope that they will have a real classroom?

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

The forest industry. We have mills in Surrey shut down because raw logs are being exported, and they can't get those logs. The minister continues to overrule his own committee that advises him on timber export. Those are many, many issues in my constituency.

Post-secondary education — another $46 million cut. It would mean 56,000 fewer spaces. At a time when 80 percent of future jobs will require post-secondary credentials, we're cutting back in that particular area. How does that make sense? It does not make sense. That's why I will not be supporting this budget.

There's so much to say, but there are other colleagues of mine who want to stand up and make their point.

I want to thank my constituents once more. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity three times and putting your confidence in me. I promise, like the last two terms, I will continue to be your voice, and I will continue to stand strong. Together, we will make a difference.

D. Bing: I am proud to represent the amazing people of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows as their MLA. It is truly an honour for me to rise to speak for the first time in this House as the member for Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows. I have a great sense of pride living in and representing two incredible communities that are bursting with enthusiasm and community spirit. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the extraordinary citizens of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows for their support in the provincial election and for giving me this privilege to represent them in the Legislative Assembly.

I have a lot of other people to thank for the fact that I have an amazing new job in an amazing new workplace. First of all, I'd like to thank my wife and partner of 36 years, Helen, who supported me and allowed me to pursue my dream of becoming an MLA. Secondly, I'd like to thank my three sons, Jeremy, Graham and Eric, and my brother, Ed, my sisters, Irene and Dorothy, and my aunt, Susan, who helped with the campaign.

A big thank-you also goes out to everyone who helped with my election campaign, especially my tireless campaign manager, Cheryl Ashlie, and the riding president, Brent Perry. I'm totally indebted to all of them.

I served on city council in Pitt Meadows for eight years, and I would like to thank the citizens of Pitt Meadows for honouring me by electing me three times. I would like to recognize the support of Mayor Deb Walters and the council of Pitt Meadows. I would also like to recognize the support of my friend, Mayor Ernie Daykin, and his council in Maple Ridge. And I would also like to recognize the support of the local Member of Parliament, Randy Kamp.

I would also like to thank my colleagues the member for Maple Ridge–Mission, the member for Fort Langley–Aldergrove and the member for Richmond-Steveston for their support.

Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows are located in the northeast corner of Metro Vancouver. They are outstanding places to live, work and play. In the past year both communities were rated as the second-best place to invest in the entire province by the Real Estate Investment Network. They are complete communities in a spectacular setting that balances growth with the protection of the natural environment.

That being said, I am pleased to speak in support of our June update on Budget 2013 and outline how it will impact my riding. Premier Christy Clark has designed a long-term plan for our economy to grow and thrive. A key component of this plan means taking advantage of our plenitude of liquefied natural gas.

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LNG can serve our economy in many ways, including reducing our provincial debt, reducing taxes and improving programs and services our government offers. It can serve as the basis in which we can slowly but surely continue to build a strong economy so our children can have a secure future.

One part of our economy that resonates with me personally is small business. I believe that I am only the second dentist to ever sit in this House. Working as the co-owner of a private dental practice with my wife for 33 years when I first came to Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, I understand the concerns of small business.

Small business fuels job creation and productivity and helps grow the economy. There are over 385,000 small businesses in B.C. This makes up 98 percent of all businesses provincewide. These businesses employ over one million people, generate 29 percent of the province's GDP and account for 84 percent of all provincial exporters.

By lowering small business taxes, business owners will be able to keep more of their money. Among the numerous small businesses that make up the communities of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows are various restaurants, shops and resorts that make up our tourism industry.

We have majestic mountains; gorgeous rivers, lakes and streams; picture-perfect farmland; and a network of dikes that are begging to be walked on — something for everyone. During the summer thousands of people visit our parks. Golden Ears Provincial Park is packed with campers on summer weekends and is one of the busiest in the provincial park system.
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Thousands of golfers visit our outstanding golf courses. We have Golden Eagle, Swan-e-set, Pitt Meadows golf course, Meadow Gardens golf course and Maple Ridge Golf Course. All of these tourism-based businesses employ residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

Unsurprisingly, there is an interdependent relationship with restaurants in the tourism industry and the agrifood industry. Farmers provide fresh organic food for restaurants in my riding. There are thousands of acres of berry farms, growing mostly blueberries but also strawberries, raspberries and cranberries. People come from far and wide to our outstanding farmers market or shop at our delightful food specialty shops, such as Hopcott Premium Meats, Bruce's fish market and the cheese works.

The Haney Farmers Market is a wonderful Saturday outdoor market in Maple Ridge. There farmers sell their fruits and vegetables and give constituents a chance to purchase fresh produce directly from farmers. Farmers and greenhouse growers make up an important part of the small business sector, and their livelihood depend on the support of local residents and businesses.

That is why in our June update of Budget 2013 our government has taken a practical approach to help farmers and greenhouse growers by giving them a tax break. Effective January 1, 2014, our government will exempt carbon tax on coloured gas and coloured diesel for farmers and greenhouse growers.

The June Budget Update 2013 confirms $20 million over a three-year period for an ongoing carbon tax relief grant for commercial greenhouse growers, including vegetable and floriculture growers, wholesale production and forest seedling nurseries. This means farmers won't have to pay carbon tax when they buy coloured gas and coloured diesel, for the same reasons they are now allowed to use coloured fuel under the Motor Fuel Tax Act.

In addition to attracting tourists, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows also attract artists. The local Maple Ridge Art Centre and Theatre offers classes across many artistic mediums that encourage many young people in my riding to find their creative outlets and instil a love and appreciation for the arts. There are more than 100 artists living in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Many of them have their studios open to the public.

Maple Ridge also serves as a backdrop for film-making. Our government has developed a strategy called B.C. Creative Futures in order to ensure that B.C. is better preparing its young people to enter the fast-growing world of the creative economy. To support the creative sector, our government will provide a further $6.2 million in new funding each year to this new program in the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development.

This Creative Futures strategy has the following objectives: develop skills training and participation in many arts activities from the time B.C. children are very young, engage children with exemplary works of art and provide young people with opportunities to train and work alongside creative professionals.

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B.C. is a first-class centre for screen-based entertainment. This includes digital media content producers and film, television, book, magazine, music and sound recording companies. The foundation for this success comes from talented people working in the entertainment sector and industry collaboration, as well as strong production and publishing infrastructure to carry out the work.

The film industry spends over $1 billion in B.C. every year in production activity. This creates about 20,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs. It is important that young people realize there is a practical way for people to use creativity and that creativity is valued in our society, not just culturally but economically.

Our government's goal is to continue making life affordable for families across British Columbia. Growing the economy is not something that can happen overnight. It takes planning, careful decision-making and discipline. June Budget Update 2013 confirms our government is on track to balancing the budget in this fiscal year. Additionally, our June update forecasts surpluses in all three years of the fiscal plan.

As we move towards growing our economy, I stand in support of this practical and realistic budget. As our economy becomes stronger and stronger, this will secure the future for our children.

M. Mungall: I do see the time on the clock, so I'm going to run through things very briefly.

I did want to take this opportunity to say a few words about the budget, but also, since it's been the first time in the House I've had the opportunity to rise, to thank some amazing people who took part in this last election — of course notably my campaign team. I actually created a list of everybody. I wanted to read their names off and get them into the record because they certainly deserve at least that for their incredible dedication to the democratic process.

But noting the time, I'll have to forgo that and just say this. I was truly blessed with a wonderful campaign team and stellar, stellar volunteers, whether it was the day-to-day in the office or participating in some very fun events, like running down the main streets in the different communities in my riding or dancing it up at a fundraiser — to a Star Wars theme, no less — scrutineering, or whatever it was — everything. It takes volunteers to bring every single one of us here, and I was so proud of the group that participated in this election. I'm very grateful to them.

I also want to give special thanks to my parents — because despite wearing another political stripe, they are very proud supporters — and also, of course, to my husband, who is one in a million. I'm so fortunate that he
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has my back.

As I mentioned, all these people worked very hard because they believe in the democratic process. That is what brought us here. I think the most important thing, though, when it comes to the concept of democracy, is not just the right to vote. Of course, the right to vote and choose between different parties, different ideas at a regularly staged election, is critical to the democratic process and to democracy existing. But democracy is also about equality, each person having a voice, each person having meaning to the broader community, each person having value, having dignity in our society.

Skipping ahead through some other notes and going right to the meat of where I wanted to head to with my speech on the budget, this budget does not do the best job that I think British Columbia can do in making sure that every single person in this province matters, that every single person in this province is treated with dignity.

Namely, let's look at the history, over the last 12 years, of poverty in British Columbia. In the last 12 years B.C. has been the champion of the largest income gap in all of Canada. That isn't just a personal opinion. That is actually coming from a report released recently, in 2012, by the Toronto Dominion Bank. They noted that B.C. has the highest level of income inequality in Canada.

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We also have the worst poverty rate in the country. Well, for eight years running we had the worst child poverty rate. We managed to get up. We're now No. 9 out of ten — not the incline that we wanted to see for child poverty in this province. We didn't arrive here, to these horrible statistics, to this situation of poverty in British Columbia, by accident. It was a consequence of policy decisions made by a Liberal government.

They put forward a budget before the election, and they put virtually the same budget together just recently, and this is the budget that we're debating on now.

In that budget we don't see any plan to address poverty. We don't see a poverty reduction plan, a comprehensive plan that has legislated targets and timelines, that has a minister responsible for making sure that plan is adhered to and implemented. We don't have a plan that includes broad public participation. We don't even see any attempt to increase the rates for people living in poverty, most notably people on income assistance and people with disabilities. We don't see any increase in those rates at all.

What we see is a plan to keep people in poverty, ignore the fact that they have value in our communities, ignore that they have dignity. This province can do better. This province must do better. Members on this side of the House will hold this Liberal government accountable so that every single person in British Columbia is treated fairly, with respect and is considered by government. This province deserves no less.

With that, I'll take my seat and pass it on. Hopefully, in the next few minutes we'll be able to get down our list and get everybody an opportunity to say what they have to say about this budget.

Hon. T. Stone: I would like to wish all members of the House a glorious weekend with their families and adjourn the debate.

Madame Speaker: Nelson-Creston, would you be so kind as to adjourn the debate?

C. Trevena: Point of order. I had stood up. I hadn't been recognized, but I had stood up to participate in the debate before adjournment. I did want to have my opportunity to participate in this debate before we ended for this evening.

It is the opportunity to stand in this House and, really, to do two things. One is to have the opportunity to thank both my campaign team, who worked extraordinarily hard, but also to thank the people of North Island who returned me for a third consecutive term as their representative here in Victoria. As they did so, they did that knowing that I was going to stand up and talk on their behalf in this Legislature on matters that were important to them, and a budget such as this is important to them.

In those few moments before we adjourn for the evening I did want to voice some of the concerns that I heard from my constituents, both on the doorstep…. They had seen the previous budget, and since this budget has been tabled in the last week, the budget update — their concerns on what is essentially a fraudulent budget. It claims to be balanced, but that balance is on such a fragile foundation of sell-offs and cuts to public services that it causes real concern.

In the North Island, for instance, we are a forest-dependent community. Apart from the throne speech not mentioning forestry, my constituents have seen years of cuts to the forest sector and know the impact of cuts. This budget is going to imply cuts, and those cuts are going to hurt all constituents.

Likewise, something as simple as conservation officers. We've seen so many cuts in the Ministry of Environment that we don't have conservation officers. We've got a number of cougars — almost rampant cougars, some communities are saying — and yet we have nobody there to deal with it. These are things that might seem small, but they are important to my constituents.

I know that time is very limited. People do want to go and enjoy their weekend and get back to their constituencies. But I do want to question this whole concept of balanced budget when, effectively, for the last consecutive four years this government has been breaking its own law by not having a balanced budget.

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We hear that in future — and I quote the throne speech — budgets are to be balanced, and "your government will toughen the balanced budget law." It defies how that will
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happen if they can't keep their laws in place for the last four budgets and seven out of the last 12 years. So there are real concerns with this.

The other area I'm going to touch on very quickly is that we see this, as I say, fraudulent budget, bogus budget, at a time when we are seeing costs rise for all constituents. We've seen ferry fares rise 100 percent in some constituencies, and they'll continue to rise 4 percent. This is a cost of living.

Meantime, we have a government that talks about being debt-free, which I've got to say is essentially a joke. One of my colleagues mentioned that since Christy Clark became Premier again, the debt has gone up $18½ million a day and, in the last year, $6.8 billion. These are figures that people cannot comprehend — they are so big. They are incomprehensible, and yet this government allows them to continue.

Over the next four years I will continue to stand up here and challenge this government on what is affecting the constituents of the North Island and constituents across B.C.

On that note, Madame Speaker, I would like to adjourn the debate and ask leave to resume my place in the debate when it continues.

C. Trevena moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. T. Stone: I do want to wish all members a great weekend, and I do move that the House now adjourn.

Hon. T. Stone moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Madame Speaker: This House at its rising stands adjourned until 10 a.m. Monday morning.

The House adjourned at 5:57 p.m.

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