2014 Legislative Session: Second 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, February 13, 2014

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 5, Number 4

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

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2014

The House met at 1:36 p.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Introductions by Members

Hon. J. Rustad: I'm very pleased today to introduce a number of people. They're currently out on the steps with an event for the moosehide campaign, but they will be coming in to be part of question period — Paul Lacerte, Raven Lacerte, Jeannette MacIinnis, George Cook, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Chief Ron Sam, Chief Russ Chipps, Jonathan Alec, Kele Antione, Ken Watts, Leonard Ward and Asma Antoine. These are all members of the event that's happening out on the steps today celebrating the moosehide campaign.

I'm very pleased that so many of the members on both sides of the House today are wearing the moosehide. In particular, I want to mention the member for Maple Ridge–Mission and the member for Prince George–Mackenzie, who are also joining me in a fast as part of the moosehide campaign to raise the level of awareness about violence against aboriginal women and try to bring an end to this scourge that is happening in our society.

I'd like to ask all sides of the House to please welcome these guests but also to remember this campaign and bring this forward and tell friends about this. Make sure that we can shine a light on this and that we ultimately work together to bring an end to violence in B.C.

Tributes

DINI ZE' GISDAY'WA

D. Donaldson: I also rise to echo the words of the Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation and thank Paul Lacerte and the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres for the moosehide campaign and the work they're doing.

They've cut out 14,000 pieces of moosehide to raise the awareness of violence against aboriginal women and children and distributed those across the province, so I think that they deserve great thanks for that grass-roots campaign.

Also, with the Speaker's indulgence, I'd like to ask all members of the Legislature to join me today in acknowledging the passing of a strong First Nations leader who was an amazing holder of traditional knowledge locally and also at the forefront of the most important decision in Canada's Supreme Court on the topic of aboriginal title.

Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chief Gisday'wa, Dr. Alfred Joseph, left this world January 31 at the age of 86. He belonged to the Kaiyexwenitts, Gitdumden — House in the Middle of Many, Bear clan — and became Dini ze' Gisday'wa in 1974.

Gisday'wa was the lead plaintiff, along with Gitxsan Simogyet Delgamuukw, on the precedent-setting court case bearing both their names, where Canada's highest court ruled that aboriginal rights were not extinguished in B.C., aboriginal title existed and required consultation accommodation by government, and oral histories were as valid in court as written records.

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I knew Gisday'wa well and worked with him closely in the 1990s during the aboriginal title court actions. It was an intense time, but he was always serene, sharing his great depth of knowledge generously and often providing well-needed relief with his wit and great sense of humour.

He brought a peace lens to the struggle for aboriginal rights and title, and we all know that that requires a deep strength and determination and dedication to the cause.

Thank you for joining me in providing a send-off and a farewell from the Legislature to Dini ze' Gisday'wa. Sabax.

Introductions by Members

Hon. T. Wat: Joining us today is Brian Hawrysh, CEO of B.C. Wood; John Gillis, chair of the board; and Grant MacKinnon, past chair. B.C. Wood represents the value-added wood sector in B.C. They partner with government on marketing B.C. businesses and wood products around the world. They have been in Victoria today meeting with my colleagues and I, and they will leave in a few days for India, where they will be promoting B.C. wood products and helping to create new jobs and opportunities for B.C. business. Would the House please make them welcome.

C. Trevena: I'd like to join the ranks of proud grandparents in this chamber, Madame Speaker. Penelope Grace McIvor was born on November 18 in New York City. First-time parents Josh and Frances of course know she's the smartest and most beautiful baby in the world, and her grandpa Mike and I readily agree. I hope the House will welcome her to the world and gently welcome her to the world of B.C. politics.

S. Chandra Herbert: Imagine if you could not say who you were. Imagine if you could not say that you had a boyfriend or a girlfriend, a husband or a wife for fear of being put in jail. Well, unfortunately, that's the reality our friends in Russia face today if they are lesbian, gay, bi or transgendered.

I'm pleased today that this House will be joining with parliaments all across this great country of ours by raising the rainbow flag of pride to stand up for equality, to stand against hate and to stand as allies to Russian lesbian,
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gay, bi and transgendered people who are facing oppression and need our voices of support for the struggle they are going through. It also is a sign that we stand with our athletes who are representing us so well in Sochi and also having to put up with a difficult situation for themselves in that country.

Thank you to the Speaker, thank you to the Liberal side of the House and thank you to my colleagues with the New Democratic Party for all of our collective stand in support of this action. I hope that you will join me in being able to speak with pride that this Legislature, for the first time in our history, has flown the rainbow flag of equality.

Introduction and
First Reading of Bills

BILL 3 — MISSING PERSONS ACT

Hon. S. Anton presented a message from His Honour the Administrator: a bill intituled Missing Persons Act.

Hon. S. Anton: I move that Bill 3 be introduced and read a first time now.

Motion approved.

Hon. S. Anton: I'm very pleased to introduce the proposed Missing Persons Act today. Enacting missing persons legislation was one of Commissioner Oppal's important recommendations to enhance the safety and security of vulnerable women. The introduction of the Missing Persons Act is just one step the government is taking to demonstrate its commitment to following through with implementing the recommendations of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report.

The purpose of this legislation is to help find missing persons whose safety and welfare are of concern because of their age, their physical or mental capabilities or the circumstances surrounding their absence.

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To be clear, the Missing Persons Act is not about the authority police already have when a disappearance involves a criminal offence. Instead, this proposed law focuses on cases where a missing person has not been seen or in touch with people who are normally involved in their lives. Our act will apply to those times when a person goes missing and there's no suspicion that their disappearance is the result of a criminal offence.

The proposed legislation will provide police with more timely access to information about missing, vulnerable and at-risk people and others who may be in or last seen in their company and to places where they are believed to be.

While the legislation introduced today is consistent with the intent and spirit of Commissioner Oppal's recommendations, it also builds on some features of legislation in other provinces.

We have incorporated some additional layers of judicial oversight as well as a more broad provision to encapsulate individuals due to possible high-risk or dangerous circumstances surrounding their disappearance, all of whom are not included in missing persons legislation in other provinces. Our Missing Persons Act helps to protect all British Columbians who may go missing and helps their families in finding their loved ones.

I'm pleased to report that our government is taking action to support the most vulnerable persons and youth through the introduction of this bill today.

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

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

BILL 4 — PARK AMENDMENT ACT, 2014

Hon. M. Polak presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Park Amendment Act, 2014.

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

Motion approved.

Hon. M. Polak: This bill contains amendments to the Park Act to provide increased certainty and clarity respecting the authorization of outdoor recreation, tourism, commercial filming and research activities, including academic and investigative uses, in parks and protected areas while ensuring that the natural resources and values and visitors' experiences are protected.

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

Bill 4, Park Amendment Act, 2014, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

BILL 5 — FORESTS, LANDS AND NATURAL
RESOURCE OPERATIONS STATUTES
AMENDMENT ACT, 2014

Hon. S. Thomson presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Statutes Amendment Act, 2014.
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Hon. S. Thomson: I move that Bill 5 be introduced and read for a first time now.

Motion approved.

Hon. S. Thomson: Today I introduce amendments to the Forest Act, the Land Title Act, the Range Act, the Wildfire Act and the Wildlife Act to streamline processes within the natural resource sector.

Proposed amendments to the Forest Act will streamline administrative processes by transferring decision-making authority to the minister on most wood residue export applications, allowing people to collect firewood from woodlots and community forests with permission, clarify provisions relating to the annual rent, bonus bids and putting specific conditions on forest licences.

Proposed amendments to the Land Title Act provide certainty to landowners by enabling cabinet to affirm the private ownership of subdivided land underwater when it is next to Crown land.

Proposed amendments to the Range Act reflect our commitment to recommendations in the Ranching Task Force to improve regulatory processes for range tenure holders. Cattle producers, who represent a significant portion of range tenure holders, generate $351 million in economic activity each year.

Proposed amendments to the Wildlife Act will help provide the guide-outfitting industry, an industry that generates $116 million in economic activity each year, with additional business certainty.

Proposed amendments to the Wildfire Act will make it clear that the provincial government should not be held legally accountable for unavoidable property damage or losses caused by wildfire so long as the wildland firefighters did not act in bad faith while working to control or suppress wildfires.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations was created to provide a more streamlined, integrated approach to land base management. Today we are introducing amendments that support our goal of these more streamlined processes within the natural resource sector.

I move that the Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Statutes Amendment Act be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting after today.

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Bill 5, Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Statutes Amendment Act, 2014, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Statements
(Standing Order 25B)

STREETFRONT ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM
AT BRITANNIA SECONDARY SCHOOL

J. Kwan: Determined, resilient, self-disciplined, responsible, dedicated — that's how I would describe the students of Britannia Secondary Streetfront alternative program.

Despite having faced great adversities in their young lives, with the support of family and friends, staff and community partners, the students have shown great determination to succeed. The successes of the students challenge the all-too-common perception of inner-city and at-risk youth and replace them with stories of hope and significant achievement.

The Streetfront teaches the importance of positive lifestyle choices, mental and physical fitness, leadership, team and community spirit, and mobilizing around a core goal. It aims to continue to provide opportunities both within and beyond the classroom, designed to foster socially responsible behaviour for all. To quote one student: "Streetfront made me discover myself."

For 2015 the students plan to travel beyond the downtown core of Vancouver and connect with other youth internationally, volunteer at an orphanage and to take on the Street 2 Peak challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Through this journey, they will gain a perspective into the wider world, broaden their relationships with the global community and gain the unparalleled learning experience of international exchange. It will also give the students the chance for direct experience in achieving milestones through hard work, team building, mental and physical fitness.

However, for the students, meeting the cost of the trip is a bigger challenge than climbing Mount Kilimanjaro itself. It is Streetfront's hope and mine that sponsors will be able to assist in ensuring that students can access this incredible learning opportunity.

I know that the Britannia staff and team, with the community's support, has the experience and the ability to take on this venture. I ask all members of this House to join me and lend their enthusiastic support to this unique opportunity and life-transforming experience for the students at Streetfront.

B.C. RESTAURANT WEEK

G. Kyllo: I am pleased to rise today to speak about B.C. Restaurant Week, a week-long celebration highlighting the importance of the restaurant industry in British Columbia.

Over 12,000 restaurants operate in our province, and the economic benefits of these restaurant industries are realized in every region of our province, in commun-
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ities large and small. Restaurants employ 175,000 British Columbians and generate $10 billion in economic benefits to go right back into our local communities.

Most restaurants in B.C. are owned by small business owners. By choosing to dine at locally owned restaurants, you are doing your part to support local businesses and strengthen our community.

As parliamentary secretary of the B.C. jobs plan and having owned and operated a waterfront restaurant for over a decade, I have learned to understand the importance of the restaurant industry and the fulfilling career opportunities that come with operating or being employed in this industry.

It is also worthwhile to mention that one in five British Columbians aged 15 to 24 are employed in the restaurant and food services industry. Many of us in this very chamber received our first job washing dishes or serving meals to customers. These opportunities help students and young adults gain independence, learn valuable customer service skills and start managing their budgets and finances.

I'd like to also take this opportunity to wish my beautiful wife Georgina a very happy birthday today. There was a time when I thought the three words that she most wanted to hear from me were "I love you"; however, wisdom now tells me that the words she most wishes to hear from me are: "Let's dine out."

I encourage all members of this House to take a night off from cooking this week, go out to your favourite restaurant or try something new. I will say that B.C. Restaurant Week falls on the most perfect time of the year: Valentine's Day.

This is just a friendly reminder, but if you haven't made a dinner reservation for tomorrow night with your significant other, you still have time. So celebrate local business and enjoy some great food, paired with a bottle of world-famous B.C. wine, at one of the many family owned restaurants across British Columbia this weekend. Bon appétit.

JAMIE BENN AND
2014 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES

G. Holman: Canada will be sending our largest contingent of athletes ever to compete in Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games: 221 Canadians, 30 from B.C. They'll join the elite athletes of the world to compete against one another.

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I am pleased to rise today to recognize one of our outstanding Canadian Olympians, from my constituency, Team Canada hockey player Jamie Benn. Born in Central Saanich and attending Stelly's Secondary in my constituency of Saanich North and the Islands, Jamie played in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League with the North Saanich Peninsula Panthers. He'd go on to play in the B.C. Hockey League for the Victoria Grizzlies and in the Western Hockey League for the Kelowna Rockets before being drafted into the NHL by the Dallas Stars in 2007.

Jamie scored his first NHL goal against the Vancouver Canucks — his favourite team growing up — tying the game in the third period. Vancouver ultimately won that game. My support for my constituents only goes so far.

Jamie has played with distinction on the world stage before, scoring four goals for the gold-winning Canadian junior team in 2009. He was recently made team captain of the Dallas Stars for the 2013-14 season. His skill and his leadership qualities will be an important part of Team Canada's success.

Few of us understand how hard elite athletes work, but we do know that these athletes need the support of family and friends to help them succeed. I want to congratulate Jamie's parents, Randy and Heather; his brother, Jordie; and his sister, Jenny — and all the families whose loved ones are competing for gold in Russia.

I know Jamie's family, along with all of us, will be watching as he and Team Canada make our country proud. Most members are probably aware that Canada won its first game against Norway 3-1. Mr. Benn scored the second goal in that game. So congratulations, Jamie.

MOOSEHIDE ANTI-VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN
BY ABORIGINAL MEN

M. Dalton: Along with members of the Legislature on both sides, I am proud to wear this moosehide in the House to show our support of the moosehide campaign. Organized by the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, this is a campaign to counter violence against aboriginal women and children and to bring this ongoing tragedy out of the shadows and into the light.

The moosehide campaign is a grass-roots gathering of men across Canada who are concerned about the disproportionate number of victims who are aboriginal women. They are more than three times as likely as non-aboriginal women to experience violence. The executive director of the association, Paul Lacerte, thought of the idea of the moosehide campaign in 2011 when he was on a moose-hunting trip with his teenage daughter near the Highway of Tears.

Today marks the third annual moosehide campaign. This morning was a moving occasion as First Nation chiefs, men and women met to share their experiences regarding violence, to pray, to fast and to commit themselves to this important societal transformation. Fourteen thousand moosehides have been distributed, and men everywhere are invited to join this movement.

As an Aboriginal Canadian myself, I couldn't agree more with the objectives of the moosehide campaign. I'm pleased that our government is committed to taking
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action, including a recently launched provincial domestic violence plan to help to make B.C. a safer place for women, children and anyone affected by domestic violence. Today it's an honour to participate with men across our nation, to fast, pray and stand up for the safety and security of aboriginal women and children.

WORK OF PRINCIPAL LESLIE LEE AT
GEORGE JAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

R. Fleming: I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate an outstanding person in my constituency, Leslie Lee, for being named one of Canada's top 40 public school principals by the Learning Partnership, which is a non-profit that promotes academic excellence in public schools through innovative business and industry partnerships.

When Leslie Lee became the principal of George Jay Elementary School four years ago, the majority of students were struggling to meet provincial grade-level standards, with staff struggling to keep up with a student population of which nearly half are English language learners. Many students face additional barriers, such as poverty.

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To chart an ambitious agenda of change, Principal Lee committed herself to establishing a safe, caring and inviting learning space. First, she established community partnerships to ensure that students were healthy and well fed at school. Then she initiated positive behaviour support programs, such as engaging a youth and family counsellor to support at-risk students. As a result, behavioural incidents decreased from 900 per year to 100.

Principal Lee created a schoolwide focus on improving writing, math skills and problem-solving, and the effective use of technology for learning. Under her leadership, the number of students meeting provincial grade level expectations went from 66 percent in 2010 to 92 percent in 2012.

Principal Lee's ability for leveraging strategic partnerships has transformed her school into an oasis of inspiration and forward-thinking for her school, for her students, and it is for this reason that there will be a new French immersion program to commence in September 2014.

As a school, George Jay has faced many challenges, but it has proven to be a bright light in my community by providing children in Victoria with a nurturing, uniquely diverse and respectful learning environment.

This award is a significant recognition of Principal Lee's dedication and her commitment as a public educator. Her hard work and her achievement has been identified by her peers, and I would like to add in the House here today the recognition of all of the members of the House for Principal Lee and all she has achieved at that school in a short period of time.

BOB LEE

R. Sultan: It's timely this week to talk about another Lee — my friend Bob Lee. Bob and I both attended King Edward High School in Vancouver many years ago. He was busy even in those days — Chinese school after regular school and, after that, working as a cook in his father's Chinese restaurant.

Our high school counsellor suggested Bob should stick to peeling potatoes, but Bob went on to UBC anyways and met his future wife, the lovely Lily Dong, who became UBC homecoming queen, with some spirited political organization from the engineering students, which I led.

Our high school counsellor didn't realize Robert would become chancellor of UBC and a recipient of the Order of B.C.

Bob became a successful real estate investor — so successful, in fact, you'll see Bob and Lily's name on buildings all over town: the Robert H. Lee Graduate School of business at UBC, the Robert Lee YMCA on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver, the Robert and Lily Lee Community Health Centre in Kingsway in East Vancouver.

He endowed the Chinese school from which he graduated and also his family's ancestral village in China.

The Lee family has discovered a very successful formula: work hard, make a lot of money, and give it all away — for the benefit of all of us.

Thank you, Bob, for rejecting our high school counsellor's advice.

Madame Speaker: May I commend the members on two-minute statements actually being two minutes today. I appreciate that.

Oral Questions

GOVERNMENT APPROACH TO
TEACHERS' COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AND RELEASE OF COURT DOCUMENTS

A. Dix: In her ruling on the Bill 22 and Bill 28 case Madam Justice Susan Griffin ruled as a matter of fact:

"The government thought that a teachers strike would give the government a political advantage in imposing legislation that the public might otherwise not support. It felt that the timing of legislation to deal with a teachers strike and failure of collective bargaining could fit conveniently with the timing of legislation to address the Bill 28 decision repercussions. The government planned its strategy accordingly so that it could have one legislative initiative at the end of the one-year suspension granted in the Bill 28 decision."

Today the Premier did what she refused to do yesterday. She talked about this matter. She criticized the judge again. She said that the judge's decision based on the full facts — not snippets but full facts — was the opposite of the facts.
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That's what the Premier was talking about today, answering questions she wouldn't answer in this House yesterday and providing, as often occurs, her own fact-free version of events.

Will the government release the documents? The Premier is talking about them. She knows what the documents say, and she's providing an alternate version of events.

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Will the government release the full documents in this case so we can see and British Columbians can see what we know: the Liberal Party putting its partisan interest before children?

Hon. S. Anton: As I said yesterday, the appeal has been filed and the documents are with the court. The documents are actually sealed by the court. They are in confidence. We are not going to argue that appeal in this chamber. The place for arguing that appeal is in front of the Court of Appeal. That's where the appeal will be heard. That's where the judge will make his or her decision. That's where the court will make its decision.

Madame Speaker: The Leader of the Opposition on a supplemental.

A. Dix: Well, the Premier has been expressing her contempt for the ruling of the B.C. Supreme Court everywhere — on radio, at fundraisers, today at a press conference. The Minister of Education is sending out letters to tens of thousands of people saying the same thing, contrary to the facts as they know them, contrary to the facts as they are.

It seems to me that if the Minister of Justice is serious about that message, she might consider talking to the Premier about it.

The facts as determined by the B.C. Supreme Court are pretty clear. They saw, the Liberal Party saw, in all of this — I'm quoting Justice Griffin — "a useful political opportunity." Stop children from going to school to benefit the Liberal Party. That is what they are about, and that is why they don't want to have the public see their work.

If the Premier and the Minister of Education continue to talk about this case, continue to express their contempt for that court ruling, then doesn't the government have an obligation to let the public see the documents?

Hon. S. Anton: The matter is before the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal has the documents. The Court of Appeal will be ruling on the documents. But I would remind the members opposite — and some of those members have been in cabinet in the past — that every cabinet member swears an oath of confidentiality.

I am guessing that when those members on the opposite side were in cabinet, they did not breach that oath of confidentiality. That is an oath that we take that we solemnly swear. It's an ancient parliamentary tradition, and it is a current parliamentary tradition. Times have not changed. Cabinet is confidential. Those documents are in front of the court. The Court of Appeal will be considering them, and it will make its decision accordingly.

Madame Speaker: Hon. Leader, one moment.

I offer the following as a caution. House was informed by the Attorney General that an appeal has been filed with the B.C. Court of Appeal arising out of the reasons for judgment by the B.C. Supreme Court between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the province of British Columbia. I know that all members would not want to prejudice the outcome of the matter now before the Court of Appeal, and accordingly, members should refrain from raising the matter in the House until the Court of Appeal has issued its decision. I offer that as a caution.

A. Dix: Hon. Speaker, what we have is a decision of B.C. Supreme Court as to point of fact, and given that the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that that group over there conspired to provoke a strike, conspired to keep children out of school, you bet we're going to ask questions about that in question period.

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They have an obligation — it's an ancient obligation — to serve the people of B.C., and in this case they did not do it. So the exact thing that we just heard surely applies to the Premier as well — except she is presenting an alternate view of history, one that defies the evidence in the case and the ruling of the B.C. Supreme Court. That's what the Premier is doing.

They decided not to present that response yesterday here in question period, but they're doing it everywhere in British Columbia, using public funds to disseminate information that is contrary to the ruling of the court and contrary to the evidence presented before the court by their own witnesses. This, I think it's fair to say, shows a government in contempt of the people of British Columbia.

The ruling of the court — the standing ruling of the court — is that the Liberal government tried to provoke a strike to keep kids out of school. Why shouldn't we see the documents on which that ruling is based? Why doesn't the minister table those documents today to decide whether the Liberal government puts kids first or the Liberal Party first?

Hon. S. Anton: I will read from George Morfitt's book on the rules of debate. George MacMinn, sorry. Get my name right.

"The sub judice convention exists for the equally good reason of protecting the separation and mutual respect which must exist between the legislative and judicial branches of government in order that parliament not interfere with a judicial proceeding by constituting itself as an alternative for debate on the same issue."
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Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

ROLE OF PREMIER'S OFFICE IN
GOVERNMENT APPROACH TO
TEACHERS' COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

R. Fleming: The reality is that the Premier is in the media every single day since the Supreme Court ruling talking about her government's appeal, and right now, in British Columbia, governing by open-line radio isn't going to cut it for British Columbians.

B.C. parents expect and deserve a lot more from the Premier and from this government in a matter so serious that this government has been revealed to have provoked a strike putting 500,000 kids out of school.

Yesterday we revealed sworn testimony admitting how this government wanted to escalate pressure on teachers in order to provoke a strike. Now we have new freedom-of-information documents, obtained by the opposition, showing at least 15 meetings between the Premier's deputy minister, Mr. Dyble, and the lead negotiator for the government, Mr. Straszak.

These meetings took place between April 2011 and March 2012, the same timeline as government's plan to provoke a strike. Clearly, the government's school strike strategy was under development during these meetings. The Premier herself was at a meeting on December 16, 2011, in this regard.

This matter is a mess now, and the government has an obligation to ask questions that British Columbians have.

Will the Minister of Education finally stand in this House, in this place, and tell British Columbians what specific tools were used to provoke a strike and were decided upon in those meetings involving the Premier of B.C.?

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Hon. P. Fassbender: I am pleased to rise in this House and put the facts straight. Let me say that this government's goal has always been labour peace and labour stability. And let me put the facts on the table for the hon. members across. Let me tell you that the teachers began withdrawing services in September of 2011. They refused to issue report cards….

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Minister.

Hon. Members. Thank you.

Proceed.

Hon. P. Fassbender: They refused to issue report cards, have parent-teacher meetings. They refused to do any extracurricular activities with students. Then on March 1, 2012, they issued a three-day notice of a full strike.

This government issued legislation for a six-month cooling-off period, and we did that with the sole intent to avoid any labour disruption and any disruption in the classrooms. We then appointed Dr. Jago as the mediator, and he worked tirelessly with us and with the BCTF to negotiate a settlement, which we reached at the table — a negotiated settlement with the teachers that avoided classroom disruption.

Madame Speaker: Member for Victoria–Swan Lake has a supplemental.

R. Fleming: I do, Madame Speaker, and I look forward to the Attorney General cautioning the Minister of Education and using her "before the courts" argument.

Isn't it interesting that the government, having been proven by documents and evidence presented in court to have set something in motion that conspired against 500,000 kids, now pats itself on the back because the strike they wanted didn't go off? Isn't that interesting?

The meetings I refer to were revealed through freedom-of-information requests. John Dyble's calendar indicates he met with Mr. Straszak on June 28, 2011. They met again on December 15, 2011, with then Deputy Minister of Education Graham Whitmarsh. They met the next day, again, with the Premier along with the Solicitor General and the Premier's chief of staff, Mike McDonald. They met the next day after that with the Premier, Mr. Straszak, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Whitmarsh and other cabinet ministers.

To the Minister of Education, now that he's had weeks to familiarize himself with all of the evidence that was presented under sworn testimony of the court, will he finally tell British Columbians what tools his government and senior staff were using with the elected officials to try and provoke a strike during the school year at these meetings?

Hon. P. Fassbender: This government has an unprecedented record in this country of….

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members, Members.

Minister, please proceed.

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Hon. P. Fassbender: An unprecedented record of labour peace over 13 years.

This government is committed, in our negotiations with the B.C. Teachers Federation, to find labour peace, to find long-term stability in our schools for the sake of the students, for the sake of the teachers. And what we provoked was a negotiated settlement as a result of our effort.
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C. James: The minister now appears to be fine, talking about the facts, so let's put a few facts on the table. We know the government was pursuing a strategy to cause a provincewide school strike. Justice Griffin found that, and Mr. Straszak's testimony confirmed that under oath in Supreme Court. All of that was because the Premier felt that without a strike, reimposing illegal legislation a second time around might be a problem.

Today we see that during the course of this strategy, the Premier's deputy minister met with the chief negotiator assigned to make this strike a reality a minimum of 15 times — 15 times. So my question is to the Education Minister. How can he possibly continue to say that the Premier had absolutely no involvement in provoking a strike when the Premier's own deputy met with the government's chief negotiator at least 15 times during this time period?

Hon. P. Fassbender: I'm going to try to speak a little slower so the members opposite hear — actually hear — the facts of what happened.

Fact 1: teachers in this province initiated work slowdowns, lack of extracurricular activities, no report cards, no parent-teacher interviews. We stayed at the table with them, trying to find a negotiated settlement.

Fact 2: the teachers announced that they were going to take a three-day full strike, putting children and their families into disruption, and we stayed at the table. We initiated a cooling-off period so that we could continue to negotiate.

Fact 3: we appointed a mediator with the sole purpose to mediate a solution to the teachers' work disruption. We were able, by the deadline of that mediator's work, to reach a negotiated settlement.

Madame Speaker: Member for Victoria–Beacon Hill rises on a supplemental.

C. James: Yesterday the minister and the government wouldn't speak. Today the minister says he's going to speak slowly. I would say to the minister and the government: what about speaking the truth? Isn't it time to speak the truth?

We know that the government's chief negotiator admitted that provoking a full-scale strike during the school year was a primary objective of this government. Today we know that the Premier's deputy minister met with Mr. Straszak, who was assigned the job to make this strike a reality, at least 15 times.

[1425]

The Minister of Education continues to insist that the government never wanted a strike. But it is inconceivable that these 15 meetings took place and no direction was ever given from the Premier's office. So if the minister wants to continue to argue otherwise, then I would ask today that he release all the documents related to those 15 meetings.

Hon. P. Fassbender: Truth has an amazing way of being distorted to suit a particular purpose. Let me remind the members opposite of the truth. The truth was that the BCTF initiated job action in September.

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Minister, please take your seat.

We will wait until the answer can be heard by all sides.

Minister of Education, please continue.

Hon. P. Fassbender: The fact and the truth is that the work stoppage and disruption was initiated by the BCTF. It was started because back in 1998 a government in power at that time passed legislation that imposed, against the will of every school district in this province, arbitrary class sizes that created the very dynamic that brought us to the place we were in 2011.

This government worked very hard to negotiate a settlement — fact and truth. We imposed a cooling-off period so that we could ensure no disruption in classrooms, so that we could ensure that a mediator had the opportunity to work with the BCTF and this government. He was able to do that with both parties, and we reached a settlement, because that was the goal of this government and will continue to be the goal of this government in anything that we do in the future.

S. Hammell: Facts 1, 2, 3, 4 — under any circumstances, deliberately trying to provoke a strike in our school system is outrageous, absolutely outrageous.

Fifteen separate meetings. The Premier's deputy minister met 15 times with the government's chief negotiator. There are 15 sets of minutes with accompanying documents, and these minutes and documents are not in front of any court.

Will the Minister of Education let the people of B.C. know what role the Premier's deputy and chief negotiator had in proposing to provoke a full-scale strike in our schools by tabling the minutes and documents of these 15 meetings?

[1430]

Hon. P. Fassbender: Thirteen years of unprecedented labour peace, 13 years of this government's desire to work with our labour unions across all sectors, including the BCTF; a cooling-off period to bring both parties to a calmer approach; bringing in a mediator who worked with both parties; and — I will repeat again — a negotiated settlement within that period that ensured that every child, every teacher, every parent and every community had labour peace.

That's what this government negotiated. That's what this government stands on. And that's what this government is going to continue to do.
[ Page 1269 ]

Madame Speaker: Member for Surrey–Green Timbers on a supplemental.

S. Hammell: The fact that these 15 meetings occurred is not before the courts, nor is the content. The people who attended some, if not all, of these meetings include the former chief of staff, Mike McDonald; the member for Prince George–Valemount; former chief of staff Ken Boessenkool; Graham Whitmarsh; John Dyble; Paul Straszak; and the Premier herself.

I'm sure the Minister of Education has been fully briefed on all these meetings. Can he tell this House if this government's plans to provoke a strike were not being discussed at these meetings, and will he table the minutes for each and every one of them?

Hon. P. Fassbender: This morning I was at an elementary school in the member opposite's riding, Esquimalt–Royal Roads, and what I saw there were children that were engaged in their educational journey. What we have attempted to do and will continue to do, as we did even while limited job action, a contemplated three-day full strike…. We said: "Let's sit down. Let's work through the issues. Let's negotiate a settlement." We had many meetings with the mediator to achieve that goal.

Thirteen years of unprecedented labour calmness in this province; 13 years of proof that this government is committed, as we are today, by sitting with the BCTF and attempting to negotiate long-term stability in our schools for the benefit of students, teachers, parents and communities. And the proof is that in 2012 we negotiated a settlement.

GOVERNMENT APPROACH TO
TEACHERS' COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

N. Macdonald: Mr. Straszak was clear. The government conspired to force a strike. He said it under oath. Is the Minister of Education saying that Mr. Straszak committed perjury?

Hon. P. Fassbender: I'm not going to debate what's before the courts, but what I will reinforce are the facts. Negotiated settlement.

Interjections.

[1435]

Hon. P. Fassbender: Negotiated settlement.

Interjections.

Hon. P. Fassbender: I think English is very clear. Negotiated settlement.

[End of question period.]

Reports from Committees

D. Ashton: Madame Speaker, I have the honour to present two reports of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services for the first session of the 40th parliament. The first report covers the committee's public consultations on Budget 2014.

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

Motion approved.

D. Ashton: I ask leave of the House to move a motion to adopt the report.

Leave granted.

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

The public consultations on the upcoming provincial budget began on September 10, following the release of the budget consultation paper by the Minister of Finance. The committee held the consultations over a five-week period.

During that time our bipartisan committee travelled the province and held 17 hearings in communities across British Columbia. We also held video conference sessions to hear from an additional five communities. In total, 674 submissions were received. They included 243 oral presentations, 169 written submissions and 262 responses to an on-line survey.

This report summarizes the input received and makes a total of 73 recommendations for the government to consider as part of the budget of 2014.

Across the province we heard a clear message from individuals, stakeholders and organizations. British Columbians want a fiscally responsible government, a balanced budget and a strong economy that will create opportunities now and into the future.

Other recommendations are made to strengthen the education and health care systems and to enhance community and social services, particularly in the highest-need areas such as rural-remote communities.

As Chair, I am very pleased to say that all of the recommendations were carried unanimously, endorsed by the committee members from both sides of this House. I speak for committee members when I say that it is our hope that the recommendations be given careful consideration as part of Budget 2014.

It was a pleasure to serve as the Chair of the committee that worked so well together across party lines. I commend all committee members on both sides on their hard work and their service to British Columbians and especially the vice-Chair, the member for Port Coquitlam.

Also a special thanks to the staff of the Clerk of Committees office and to Hansard, who made our travel and meetings very successful.
[ Page 1270 ]

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the British Columbians who took the time to participate in this important process. We received excellent and thoughtful input, all of which was carefully considered during our deliberations on this report.

M. Farnworth: I rise to provide a few comments to the report and to thank the member for his comments and his work as Chair.

In my mind, I think, actually, this report will reflect what the member for Juan de Fuca talked about this morning, which was the role of parliamentary committees. I think that this report reflects the kind of work that can happen when we allow our committee system to do a task — to go out, work together and to come up with recommendations that can be supported by both sides. I think we need to see more of that in this chamber, and that's why I'm pleased to offer my support for the report.

There was, as we said, travel around the community. We met with groups right across British Columbia and heard views on a wide range of topics, from health care, education to business, to communities and, of course, invasive species. I can tell you that this is a report with a lot of positive recommendations in it.

But as in any report, the proof will be in the enactment, and I look forward to seeing the recommendations in the budget on Tuesday.

[1440]

Motion approved.

D. Ashton: I would now like to present the second report of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, the Annual Review of the Budgets of the Statutory Offices.

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

Motion approved.

D. Ashton: I ask leave of the House to move a motion to adopt the report.

Leave granted.

D. Ashton: I move that the report be adopted. In doing so, I would like to make some brief comments.

This report summarizes the committee's annual review of the budget proposals, annual reports and service plans of the eight statutory offices of this House. The committee held meetings with all of the statutory officers and their staff and gave careful consideration to all of the budget requests for the coming fiscal year.

Given these challenging economic times, we were very appreciative of the efforts that have been made to manage within existing resources. I would like to thank all eight statutory officers and their incredibly hard-working staff for the important services they provide to British Columbians and the members of this House.

In closing, I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank, again, the Deputy Chair, the member for Port Coquitlam, and all of the other committee members who I had the pleasure of working with this fall. I am very proud of the fact that we were able to work collaboratively as a group, and I hope that we'll be able to work with each and every one of you again in the near future.

I would also like to thank the parliamentary committees office and their staff for supporting the work of the committee.

Motion approved.

Orders of the Day

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

Throne Speech Debate

(continued)

J. Darcy: It's with great honour and pride that I stand to give my first response to a Speech from the Throne on behalf of the people I represent in New Westminster. It's a very different conversation than the one that we were just engaged in, and I will beg the agreement of this House if I respond first and continue the discussion in which we were just engaged.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Many of you will know that I had the great honour of representing health care workers in the Hospital Employees Union in British Columbia for 6½ years. Many of you will know that in my constituency of New Westminster the single biggest occupational group is people who work in health care.

There is not one single day, not one single week that I am not still approached on the street by a constituent or by someone I once represented who talks to me about the record of this B.C. Liberal government in tearing up contracts, about the biggest layoff of women workers in Canadian history that took place with Bill 29.

For the Education Minister — he's no longer listening, but I wish that I could have his attention for a moment — to stand in this House and to say that he is proud of the record and of the history of this government of 13 years of unprecedented labour peace…. I want to ask the minister: what world is he living in? What world is he living in? I'm going to return to that issue later on in my remarks.

When I sit in this chamber, as I have for the last few days, listening to the throne speech and the debate that follows, it's the voices, it's the issues, it's the people in my constituency that I try and keep uppermost in my mind.

[1445]

I try and listen and look at every issue that comes before us through their eyes, through their ears, about how it affects their lives.

The community I'm very proud to represent, New Westminster, is a very special community. I know we all say that, and our communities are all very special places.

Ours is a community in every sense of the word — 67,000 people in six square miles on the banks of the mighty Fraser; a city where people come together in their workplaces, in their schools, in playgrounds, in faith organizations, in local businesses and restaurants and, again, to play in the Westminster Pier Park on the banks of the Fraser River.

It's a community where we celebrate our successes, and there are many of them. It is also a community where we come together as one in times of adversity. Since this House sat last, 202 days ago, New Westminster has once again — not just once but twice — come together as one in the face of adversity. We have faced not just one trial by fire but two trials by fire. I mean, literally, major fires in our community.

The first one, on October 10 of last year, devastated most of a historic block containing heritage buildings that had been in existence for over a century. As those buildings were destroyed, so were over 20 businesses, some of them longstanding family businesses, some of them owned by new entrepreneurs, all of whom had invested their life savings, their hard work and many, many hours into making their businesses a success — all destroyed.

But what happened next in my community…. I know this happens across British Columbia, across this great country. People come together as never before. It's a beautiful sight to behold. Within a couple days, for those devastated businesses, other businesses in the community were opening their doors, offering space, allowing people to set up and restart their businesses as soon as they possibly could, and the help has kept coming in.

The second fire in my community took place just two weeks ago. It devastated an entire low-rise apartment building at Fourth and Ash in New Westminster, in the heart of what we call apartment city — a lot of low-rise apartment buildings built in the '50s, '60s and '70s.

Through the heroism of neighbours taking care of neighbours, through the incredible work of our New West fire department that was on the scene, every single person got out alive — seniors, people with disabilities. Everybody got out alive, including any of the cats and dogs and even a bird that was rescued in the process.

But those people lost everything else, absolutely everything else — 32 households. No fire sprinklers, no insurance, not even ID to start rebuilding their lives. Again, the community of New Westminster rallied to support those people in need — our social agencies, our churches, our fire, our police, our emergency services, our constituency office, food banks — over and over again. Within 48 hours those agencies and churches that were receiving donations of food and furniture and appliances and clothing had to say: "Stop. We're overflowing. The need has been met."

The immediate need, of course, was to take care of those families. The next step, however, is to look at what we can do in our community, in this chamber and working with the federal government to ensure that we put in place changes so that this kind of thing cannot happen again.

People who live in low-rent — relatively low-rent — affordable housing should also be able to go to sleep at night knowing that they're going to be safe and that their homes and their buildings and their possessions are not going to be destroyed in the middle of the night. That's an issue that I will certainly be working with my colleagues to bring before this House.

[1450]

Forty-eight percent of housing stock in my city is rental housing, most of it built in a period before the current fire code regimes were in place — a high percentage of tenants. Tenants' rights are a very, very big issue.

Certainly, the people in my community, when they send me here, say: "We want to know what this government is going to do. We want to know what's going to be in the throne speech, what's going to be in the budget, what's going to be in the vision of this government to protect tenants' rights in the future." I'd love to say, "Yes, there is," but there's not one single word in this throne speech that speaks to tenants. It's as if tenants in this province don't exist for this government.

I want to speak for a few minutes about transportation. I'm glad that the Transportation Minister is in the House today, because New Westminster stands at the crossroads of the Lower Mainland, strategically located on the banks of the Fraser River in an area that was once inhabited by the Qayqayt First Nation, a place they called the gathering place.

My predecessors before me have stood and reminded us over and over again that the first capital of British Columbia was in New Westminster — the Royal City, and still very proudly so. But today, with everything that my community and my city has to offer, unfortunately what New Westminster tends to be best known for now is being top of the list on the traffic report almost every single morning, every single afternoon and every single night because of the traffic going on and off and in the surrounding streets around the Pattullo Bridge.

My condo building stands just above it. I can see it at all hours of the day. It is the top of the traffic news almost every single day. Almost every single day nearly half a million vehicle trips pass through New Westminster without stopping. The congestion, the noise, the pollution, the safety of our children — the impact on our quality of life is getting to be pretty overwhelming for the community that I represent.
[ Page 1272 ]

Yes, we are at the crossroads of the Lower Mainland, but we are also experiencing firsthand. We are right in the centre. We are the clear evidence of the lack of a real regional transportation plan for the Lower Mainland, and that's an absence of leadership by this government that the people in my community and elsewhere are paying the price for.

With great fanfare, not long ago the South Fraser Perimeter Road opened. However, it's not yet connected, and we don't know if it ever will be, to the Port Mann Bridge. In fact, the truckers have to take a 16-kilometre detour in order to get on the Port Mann Bridge. So what do they do? Extra gas, extra time; got to get the goods to the destination. They go to the Pattullo Bridge.

The Port Mann Bridge — the widest in the world. We've heard that over and over again. When the lower tolls were first put on last year, again the traffic started streaming to the Pattullo Bridge — a lack of a clear regional transportation plan. Those trucks continue now — by some estimates, a 30 percent increase — on our major egress and access routes but also on neighbouring streets, affecting our children, affecting our schools, making streets less safe for our seniors.

What does this Transportation Minister in this government say to the people of my community who believe that his job as Transportation Minister is to work with our city, to work with our municipal governments, to work with our communities to develop transportation and transit plans that serve everyone? What does he say about traffic on the Pattullo Bridge, which is a nightmare? He says we're imagining it.

The numbers from TransLink clearly show that the Transportation Minister is wrong when he says that the Port Mann Bridge tolls are not causing thousands of vehicles and trucks to use the Pattullo Bridge instead. Yet this government minister says: "There has been no mass diversion of traffic, truck or otherwise, from the Port Mann to the Pattullo Bridge." Yet in one week alone crossings increased by over 40,000 vehicles. Where are they coming from? In one year only, it's estimated, a 30 percent increase in truck traffic.

[1455]

I want to take this opportunity to echo what I know my mayor and city council have said in extending an invitation to the Transportation Minister to come to New Westminster and see it for himself. I know that he will hear from our counterparts at the municipal level the same message that I deliver in this House. That is that it's time for this government to stop playing divide and rule — and trying to create havoc for political purposes about something as absolutely critical to the well-being of our economy and our communities as a good, functioning regional transportation plan, including public transit in the Lower Mainland.

I wish there was a glimmer of that in the throne speech. We say: "Wait ten years. We're going to have a ten-year transportation plan." We need action now. We need action that brings people together in a consultative way, not in a dictatorial way, because my community and other communities need real solutions.

I want to touch on the issue of affordability for families in daily life. There's also not a single day on my street or in my constituency office when people don't come up to me and say: "How's it going in Victoria? What's happening in Victoria? How's the Legislature?" Of course, they're shocked to hear that we have sat less in this Legislature than any other Legislature in the country.

Invariably, they tell me about the issues they want me to raise, and the affordability of their daily lives is at the very top of the list — MSP hikes, school fees, out-of-pocket health costs, transit fares, tuition costs that are putting post-secondary education out of reach, and child care.

Whoa, do they ever talk an awful lot about child care. Over the last few months there's often been exchanges, sometimes in person and sometimes over Twitter, over #newwest, where people talk about, "My child care costs are the second-highest, after mortgage or rent," and then someone else says: "Well, I've got two kids, so actually, my child care costs are higher than my rent or my mortgage."

Is that what families first means for this government: that the cost of child care, the cost of early learning — which experts like Clyde Hertzman, who we have saluted in this House, have talked about as absolutely critical to early childhood development and to future opportunities — that child care is so completely out of reach? Yet there is absolutely nothing in this throne speech that talks about child care, that talks about early learning. There's something desperately wrong with this picture.

There's also not a word in this throne speech — and some of my colleagues have spoken eloquently about it before me — about child poverty. How can it be that a government says that its agenda is about families first and yet there is not one single word, not one single action proposed to alleviate the worst child poverty record in this entire country? We've had that abysmal record year after year. How can this Premier, how can this government abandon the children of this province and still claim to have an agenda called families first?

Is this pessimistic? Is this about no? Absolutely, it's not. It's about saying that every single child in our community, no matter what their social or economic status, should have the opportunity to succeed. Children are poor because their parents are poor, and we need a poverty reduction strategy in this province. It's long overdue. Other provincial governments of different political stripes are taking action on it. Why is there not one single word in this throne speech about that?

Speaking of children and of young people, one of the great joys of being an MLA is meeting with students in my constituency. It's such a pleasure to see the world through their eyes, to understand the issues through their questions.
[ Page 1273 ]

[1500]

I had the opportunity recently to meet with students from the New West Secondary School environment club. Many of you have maybe been visited by students across the province. I was expecting three or four of them, but 20, 25 showed up and invaded the office. It was wonderful. They were smart. They were well versed. They were articulate. They were passionate.

They wanted to talk about a wide range of issues. Of course, they were concerned about jobs, about skills training, about the economy, about the environment and about their futures. They filled my ears for an hour, asked me a lot of questions. It wasn't, for them, about either jobs or the environment, either the economy or climate action. Their question was a very simple one. "Will you act to ensure that this province and this government respect the climate action targets for 2020?" And I was proud to sign onto that commitment.

I went outside my office afterwards. They pulled me outside. Some of them had lagged behind when they first came in. I discovered that it was a very, very good thing that I had, in fact, said what I believed in my heart, that we absolutely need to respect those climate action commitments, because there was an enormous display of chalk art on the sidewalk in front of my office that said: "Defend our future. It's about us."

I want to come back to some other children I had the opportunity to meet with recently. That was a grade 5 class at Robson School in New Westminster.

Our school district, like others across B.C., has struggled to provide high-quality public education in the face of 12 years of underfunding by this government. They have struggled, especially, to cope with the needs of special needs children, who learn differently, who need additional supports in the classroom. We know, parents of special needs children, that if those children don't get the support that they need now, the consequences later in life will be devastating for them and will be far more costly for our community and for our society.

Our school district has struggled to put in place targeted programs not just for special needs children but for other children with varying economic backgrounds who face particular challenges and who need some additional supports. We are blessed in our school district to have teachers and special education assistants and resource staff and support staff throwing their heart and soul and every ounce of their energy and their expertise every day in order to make sure that our children get the best possible education and the best possible start in life.

This grade 5 class at John Robson was an incredible testament to that. They were bright-eyed. They were inquisitive. They were as diverse as any classroom you would find anywhere in the country, and they asked wonderful questions about what it meant to be an MLA, what government is, what it does, where it meets — all of that kind of thing.

I tried to describe this august chamber and the sense of responsibility that goes with being here, and the history and the tradition. One little girl put up her hand at one point, and she said: "You work in a chamber? That sounds like a really horrible, scary place." I, of course, hastened to assure her that that was not the case at all.

The most interesting conversation of all revolved around the issue of apology to Chinese Canadians. Some of these kids in the room knew something about racism. For others, they were pretty puzzled by the concept, and the questions and the comments were flying back and forth. It was very, very powerful. At one point I asked this little girl: "What do you do if you make a mistake?" She stuck up her hand. She says: "Well, you apologize." It's just very easy. "And then what do you do?" "Well, you don't ever do it again," she said with great conviction.

[1505]

Then I asked her something that puzzled her a bit more. "How do you know not to do it again?" "Well, I guess you could go and ask somebody. I guess you could go and talk to the person that you hurt." You make a mistake. You understand why you did it. You apologize, and then you don't do it again. That's a pretty profound conversation in so many ways with a five-year-old about the treatment of Chinese Canadians, in this case, about Japanese Canadians, about South Asians and about First Nations people.

I'm very proud to say that my city of New Westminster was the very first municipality in this country to issue an apology to our Chinese community, by going back and digging and exposing the history of the racist laws and regulations that prohibited where people could work or play or eat or get health care or go to school or gather. Then they put in place a real plan for reconciliation that involved action and education — concrete measures to make New Westminster a more welcoming and more inclusive community.

The cross-cultural youth summit that a class from New West Secondary School was really thrilled to be part of also involved some profound conversations. A class of 20 students — again, incredible diversity, our future leaders in our community and in our province. They were very much engaged in connecting the past to the present and the future in order to ensure that we not repeat those mistakes of that odious past.

One of the issues that came up in conversation was about exploitation of Chinese workers in the past and how they were treated and discriminated against.

The discussion evolved onto things like lack of proper recognition of foreign credentials still today in this province and in this country and also the issue of a temporary foreign worker program and why it's critically important that we continue to welcome people to our shores and welcome immigrants to come and work in our workplaces but, when we welcome them, that we don't treat them as second-class citizens and say that they should be
[ Page 1274 ]
paid half or two-thirds of the wages, without benefits, of other people doing that work. In fact, when they come to this country, it should be a path to citizenship with full rights so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past.

I want to just continue on this theme about mistakes of the past and learning from them. I want to share the outrage that has been expressed in my community — by parents, by folks on the street, by people I encounter all the time — when the sordid tale was revealed over the last couple of weeks about this government's strategy to provoke a strike with teachers.

Now, I've bargained a lot in my life. I've bargained with this government. I've bargained in the private sector. Big contracts, little contracts, it's tough stuff. It's very, very difficult. But there's a fundamental ingredient to getting to yes. This government likes to talk constantly about getting to yes. The fundamental agreement to getting to yes is that both sides actually want to find a solution. The fundamental ingredient to getting to yes is that the people at the table are putting first and foremost the interests of both who they immediately represent as well as the interests of the people of this province.

I could not believe my eyes when I read in this throne speech the words that we are working toward "creating a personalized education plan for every student and an agreement to ensure a decade of labour peace in our classrooms." A decade of labour peace.

[1510]

Those words were written after a Supreme Court justice in British Columbia said clearly that the government planned, that the government conspired, that the government, we hear now, met 15 times with Paul Straszak to figure out how to provoke a strike.

Frankly, as I began my remarks today…. It was not my intention to begin there but impossible not to, quite frankly. I thought I had seen the most scandalous labour relations ever possible in a democracy before this latest sordid chapter was revealed. Go back to 2002. Bill 27 and Bill 28 we have spoken about, as they affect teachers. Bill 29, as I have mentioned — biggest layoff of women workers in Canadian history.

Talk about a jobs plan. That was about replacing decent, family-supporting jobs, mainly held by women, and cutting the wage. Replacing them with jobs at half the wages, no benefits, fighting unionization tooth and nail and spending millions of taxpayers dollars in order to do that, stripping collective agreements of job security provisions.

Today the legacy lives on. It especially lives on in our care homes, where it is a monthly occurrence that we see contract flipping. That means that not only are dedicated caregivers thrown out on the street. But seniors who have — as we all know, if we have family members in care — an incredible attachment to those caregivers…. To have those caregivers ripped away from them, evidence says, increases the rates of morbidity and mortality.

How this government can stand and say with pride that they have an unprecedented record of labour peace defies imagination, because it was this government's egregious actions, launched in 2002, that led the Supreme Court of Canada for the first time in Canadian legal history to say that collective bargaining rights shall from this point forward be deemed to be Charter-protected rights — Charter-protected rights.

I was honoured to lead health care workers not during but in the aftermath of what this same government did to those folks — the layoffs, the 15 percent rollback — and then, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in June of 2007 that the government was wrong, to negotiate a settlement for those workers.

This government needs to learn from its mistakes. What that grade five student said really said it all. You make a mistake, you learn from it, and you don't do it again.

I want to rise on behalf of my constituents and say yes to a throne speech and say yes to a budget. But how can I do that in good conscience when this throne speech says nothing about health care except that we've got the second-lowest costs in the country, and we've got the best outcomes? That's it. Nothing about seniors. Nothing about preventive care. Nothing about standing up for a federal health accord. Nothing about hospice care. Nothing about transforming our health care system so that it's more community-based.

J. Thornthwaite: I stand in the Legislature today offering my support for the throne speech. As is customary in a lot of inaugural speeches in the Legislature, I'd like to say thank you for the support and love that I get from my family. My youngest is at home today. She's sick. She's got the flu, I think, and now is kind of the time that you kind of wish as a mother that you were with her.

[1515]

I know she's not watching, because there are so many other things that are much better to watch. But I'll remind her that I was on television earlier. In either case, both Zoey and my other daughter, Mallory, and Jeremy definitely have to put up with their mom being away a lot and working a lot.

I'd also like to thank my staff, both in North Vancouver — Alysia, Lynn and Corinna — for all the hard work they do for me back home, and then obviously we have some legislative staff here as well that that are very helpful. Chantel is very helpful here, as well as our communication officers and research officers, Marc Wang and Stephanie. I just wanted to put a shout-out for them because I know that they work hard behind the scenes and don't always get the recognition that they deserve.

So I'm happy to be back and happy to support the throne speech. But, first of all, just before I get on to my remarks, I just wanted to reiterate my thank you, actually, for the LG and her remarks about tributes.

I mentioned the first day back in one of my two-
[ Page 1275 ]
minute statements about the passing of a hero and a friend of mine, a constituent of mine, Tim Jones, who was the leader of the North Shore Rescue as well as a paramedic. So I just wanted to draw viewers' attention if they wanted to look at those remarks for more information. But certainly we all miss Tim, and he's going to be sorely missed for a long, long time.

I'm totally confident that that team will…. They have been, actually, picking up and going where he left off in rescues. They even did it two days after he left us. So I'm very confident that North Shore Rescue is well taken care of with the team that he actually trained and provided and gave guidance to. Thank you, Tim, for all that you did for us and, actually, everybody that needed to be rescued.

About the throne speech. When I listened to the throne speech, I thought about the word "connections." Because there are a lot of connections that are going along here, and we are always trying to bring things together — bring ministries together, try to break down silos, try to make things so that we're all working together.

One of the connections that sometimes doesn't get a lot of attention in my riding, given the fact that it's an urban riding, is the connection between the resource sector in the north or rural areas and the wealth that we all share in British Columbia, including the urban centres like North Vancouver.

In my riding we don't actually have any major resource industries, but I will mention that my neighbouring riding, of course, will be building the great shipbuilding contract for Seaspan that is coming now. We do have lots of people that work in those industries that live in my riding.

I also have many, many people that work in the mining industries, forestry industries, oil and gas industries, even though those actual industries are not in my riding. We have engineers. We have accountants. We even have the baristas in the coffee shops that make their coffee. We have a lot of people provincewide that benefit from the wealth that we get from the resource sector.

Of course, we are building new schools. We have a lot of new schools happening in North Vancouver. Even since when I was elected in 2009, it seems like we've got a booming school growth business there. We've got another one that is coming up, actually, in the next few months — a grand opening at Queen Mary.

So I'm very proud of the capital funding that is going towards our new schools. And, of course, we have got the new Lions Gate Hospital opening coming up — the psychiatric unit — and we'll be hearing more about that in the spring as well.

All of those costs in health care and education cost money, so we do have the thanks of the resource community to provide us with that wealth, provincewide, as well as in North Vancouver.

Our economic plan is working, and it is leveraging our strengths, opening new markets and attracting new investments. We're working very, very hard to realize our long-term goal of a sustainable LNG industry to help pay off our debt and move forward with a prosperity fund to help all of the people of B.C. realize their potential and to lift people out of poverty.

Connections are also about matching what we need to what we want and what we can afford. Every single family in British Columbia has to balance that.

[1520]

Next week our Finance Minister will introduce another balanced budget — a triple-A credit rating. I understand that only Saskatchewan is the other province that is going to be able to show a balanced budget. We are the government of prudent fiscal management — paying off debt — of bold ideas, a strong economy and a secure tomorrow.

The other type of connection that I noticed that was profiled in the throne speech is the connection of education, skills training — both in the K-to-12 as well as the advanced ed — and the jobs that are available after they graduate.

My colleagues in the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Jobs, the Ministry of Advanced Education and even Children and Families, and Social Development and others in Technology are all working very, very hard to make sure that our citizens are the first people in line for the 100,000-plus jobs that are going to be available within the next few years, courtesy of LNG and other resource industries — not to mention the high-tech industry, including film and digital animation. I'll speak about that a little bit later.

Leveraging our strengths in technology is also working on our major hubs of technology with Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna. Technology is B.C.'s third-largest industry, and we are working very hard to capitalize on the entrepreneurialship of today's young people who thrive on high-tech.

In B.C. we're also looking at a wave of retirements and new economic growth across the province. We have the opportunity and challenge of a million job openings over the next decade, so we need to improve the number and quality of trades and technical graduates. This is my focus, and what my parliamentary secretary position focuses on, in education.

I'm thankful to once again be appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Student Support and Parent Engagement and to work very closely with the Minister of Education. Education is the key to our future, and we have been working very hard to bring our education system up to the 21st century.

The appointments of the superintendents of achievement for literacy, aboriginal, graduation, trades and career development are all indications of the intense investment our government is putting in education. We have upgraded our graduation requirements and curriculum to help our students become more job-ready.

I'm working very closely with parent groups, the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils and district
[ Page 1276 ]
PACs across the province and asking their advice, parents' advice, on how we can help educate parents on the importance of the trades for their children. I'm working with schools to ensure that those children know that there are lots of high-paying, highly skilled jobs available, waiting for them when they graduate, but they have to get ready, and they have to know that they're out there.

A couple of weeks ago I attended, at the North Vancouver school district, Ticket to Your Future, put on by the North Vancouver school district skills-training department. This was an excellent example of school districts committed to educating our citizens for the future. Over 500 parents and students showed up on one evening to learn about all the different career opportunities that are available for students and where they can pursue their post-secondary studies to ensure that they get those jobs when they graduate.

I'll just give you a few examples: trades and technology, tourism, business, digital design and media, health, humanities, fitness, recreation, science. They had people from BCIT, from Capilano University. They had jobs people waiting, for hiring, from Seaspan, from the Great Canadian Landscape Co., from Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier — all sorts of different matches for what's available for the kids after they graduate, what they have to do and what kind of courses they have to take in school, K-to-12, as well as to encourage them to move forward in their post-secondary studies.

I was very heartened to hear the Minister of Education in his statements that he said yesterday in his response to the throne speech that tomorrow's classrooms are not like they were even a decade ago. We do have to respond to the changing world. That involves not just changing the physical structure of classrooms but how students are taught and how teachers teach. Kids are way more tech savvy than the adults, and we need to ensure that we are teaching them in their language.

There are things that we need to do and that we can do to protect them. I'm working on that as well, with regards to the ERASE Bullying strategy.

The Minister of Education also stated yesterday that stability in the classrooms will allow us to deliver on the expectations that all students, all parents and all staff would prefer, so we are working on a stable labour agreement.

[1525]

As parliamentary secretary, I work with parent groups to encourage all parents to become more involved and engaged in their children's education and how we can assist them with the technology that's available.

One of the things that I'm looking forward to seeing up and running, shortly, in my school district, is the new Connect-ED system — a secure web-based portal, accessible through all browsers, including mobile phones, to provide parents, students and teachers with real-time access to their student records, assignments and learning resources. This will be a true interactive way for parents to be involved, and directly involved, in their children's education on a day-to-day basis.

This term, I am taking up the issue of anti-bullying, which was spearheaded by our Premier in June, 2012 — ERASE Bullying. What does ERASE mean? Expect respect and have a safe education. It's a ten-point strategy — a five-year, very aggressive strategy — multi-training for 15,000 educators and community partners to help them proactively identify and address threats in our schools. Level 1 is preventing bullying and ensuring a safe and caring school community, levels 2 and 3, threat risk assessment, and level 4, train the trainer.

So far, over 5,500 people have been trained already in public, independent and First Nations schools, with partnership with police, youth mental health, child protection and probation. There are now 60 dedicated safe school coordinators and teams in every school district in B.C.

This year I have attended the first meeting of the Provincial Advisory Committee on Bullying and Violence Prevention, with fellow members from police, school and social agency partners. The ERASE provincial anti-bullying program is nationally recognized and respected. But we are not done yet.

One of the things I find very interesting that we're moving forward on is the ERASE Student Advisory Committee. This is a student-to-student initiative. Government is always looking for new ideas on how to change the culture of bullying. Students need to be at the forefront. So on January 17 government announced the ERASE Student Advisory, which will be a group of about 12 students from all over B.C. representing public, independent and First Nations schools. They will advise the Minister of Education and the Premier on bullying and student safety issues.

Today schools and communities are dealing with a number of complex issues specific to student safety — many issues that students know more about than adults. That is why we are creating the student advisory — so that we can connect directly with students and continue to make them part of the solution. By taking a youth-by-youth approach, students will be more engaged in how they can make a positive impact on their school and community.

I just want to make a brief mention about cyberbullying. This is something I'm very interested in. In addition to attending numerous presentations from digital experts, like the most recent BCCPAC Vancouver Island presentation, I'm now working on a video project with student-safety experts Jesse Miller and Theresa Campbell. Jesse is a social media safety and awareness expert. Theresa Campbell is president of Safer Schools Together, and she was instrumental in implementing our government's ERASE Bullying strategies.

Through these videos, parents will be able to learn the
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preventative actions and techniques that they can take to protect their kids. They will also find out what to do to protect their kids and how to find out what to do if their child is the target of cyberbullying.

Kids today are way more tech savvy, as I said earlier, but they don't necessarily know that whatever they put out on the Internet is there forever. They don't realize that privacy settings or Internet friends are not necessarily really their friends and that everything they put on the Internet stays there.

I was first introduced to this fact at one of Jesse's classroom sessions that he happened to do in North Vancouver. One of the things that was really telling is that my daughter had told me about this Snapchat program. Those of you who don't know what Snapchat is, you should probably ask your kids, because they'll be able to tell you because they're all using it.

It's very stunning what Jesse does. He talks to the kids, initially, in the morning and the afternoon, and all different age groups. Then in the afternoon and the evening he talks to the parents, those same parents that have the kids in the school. It's absolutely stunning to learn how much those kids know about the Internet and about social media but how much they don't know about how to protect themselves.

[1530]

That's what I'm working on. It all comes down to education and good digital citizenship for kids, for adults, for educators, for parents, for everyone. It's also about empathy and caring about others.

Just a little note here. Children do emulate adult behaviour, so we do have a long way to go on that one because we tend to say a lot of things on line that we wouldn't say in person to someone. We don't know how it affects them when they look at what is said about them on line, and you can't see their reaction. So we're working on that. We're working on this anti-bullying program, and I'm very confident that a lot of people are going to learn a lot.

Carrying on in the education end, the member opposite mentioned personalized education which, of course, is the main strategy for our children's education, in addition to the curriculum review. But I did want to mention that British Columbia does have an exceptional education system. We maintain the historical position as one of the top-performing jurisdictions in the world.

Depending on the subject, we put B.C.'s 15-year-old students, all of them, in a range above other high-performing jurisdictions, including Finland, Germany and Australia. And in comparison to other Canadian provinces, B.C. students are top-ranked in reading and science and only second to Quebec in math. So I think we have an education system to be very, very proud of.

Before I just move on, I've got to give a little plug to North Vancouver again — the new schools that have been built since I became an MLA: Lynn Valley, Westview, Sutherland, Ridgeway, Carson, Highlands and the famous Windsor artificial turf. And here we are going to be opening Queen Mary in the next few months. We've got a lot of good things happening in education.

Moving on, then, I thought I'd briefly just mention something about the new hospital that's coming up. We have in North Vancouver the Lions Gate Hospital HOpe centre, which includes the new UBC faculty of medicine and a new ambulance station. It's called the Greta and Robert H.N. Ho centre for psychiatry and education, and I'm looking forward to joining my other North Shore colleagues in the next month or so, and the Minister of Health, in a grand opening of that facility.

Here's another connection. I've just talked about health. I've just talked about education and all of the investments that are occurring in North Vancouver. Here's the connection back with the resource sector. Demand for world energy and natural gas is tremendous. By 2020 the middle class in the Asian countries is forecast to triple to 1.7 billion. This was mentioned in the throne speech.

The demand for cleaner, safer energy has never been greater. LNG is not only going to be the biggest job creator and an opportunity for British Columbians to pay off our debt and to develop a prosperity fund; it has the potential to be the biggest step that we could possibly do to fight global climate change.

By helping countries like China switch from coal to LNG to generate power, we can help the world reduce emissions. Agreements have already been made in two parcels by Grassy Point, and we are also taking steps towards an LNG Buy B.C. initiative to match B.C. businesses with LNG investors and projects.

Back to connections. I just wanted to say a brief statement about transportation, because that was also brought up by the member opposite. We are building on a 13-year record of improvements in transportation, and we are developing a ten-year improvement plan for transportation. We have a huge project that the Ministry of Transportation, myself, MLAs, the district of North Vancouver and the city of North Vancouver have all been working very, very hard to work for fruition: the Fern Street overpass, Highway 1 interchange. There's going to be more coming on that in the next little bit.

Then lastly, I just would like to talk to you about a subject that is near and dear to my constituents, and it's about the film industry. All I can say is: wow. What a difference a year makes. The film industry is booming in B.C., and it's a great example of how education and highly skilled careers are being connected to meet the job markets of the future — high-tech job markets.

In my riding, in North Vancouver, the film industry is actually a good example of the B.C. jobs plan and efforts to combat the shortage of skilled workers in the motion picture arts, digital media — and other very highly technical and skilled, trained professionals who work in the many, many creative industries.

[1535]

For example, Murray Bulger, who is a digital media educator with the Digital Media Academy at Ecole Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver. He excites kids about film. When they get excited in grades 10, 11 and 12, then they want to go — where else? — to Capilano University, the Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation. There this cutting-edge facility gives our future film-makers access to the latest technology: 3-D capabilities, a 200-seat high-definition theatre, sound mixing and recording studios, an 8,000-square-foot sound stage, picture and sound editing labs, as well as visual effects, animation and costuming studios — everything you need to make a feature film.

Then I just want to finalize my comments with regards to the film industry. I went on a tour, and I visited a very, very successful digital company, the largest animation studio in North America: Nerd Corps. From a very small provincial investment that occurred in 2005, they have grown from a team of ten to nearly 400 full-time employees. Their productions to date will have generated in excess of $190 million and produced more than 460 half-hours of content for television.

They create, develop, produce, manufacture, manage and export their own B.C.-generated and -owned kids' entertainment brand and retain the underlining rights to the IPs. They've created five properties. They've spawned hundreds of episodes, generated in excess of $80 million, instigated the creation of a global licensing division and two worldwide licensing programs, and driven the creation of an interactive division producing top-rated web- and mobile-content and games.

They are made and bred and foster and flourish in British Columbia. They embarked on a trade mission to China because it is their biggest untapped market. Sound familiar?

Their business creates stable, high-tech, green-friendly jobs and supports the growth of the high-tech and creative sectors in B.C.

Their biggest complaint? They can't get enough skilled workers, and there's a shortage of talents and skills. So there you go. We're working on it in North Vancouver, and we're working on it at Capilano University.

Just to summarize from Peter Leitch, who's the chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and president of North Shore Studios: "The foundation of B.C.'s creative economic mix is the combination of talent, quality, experience and adaptability that has helped screen-based production to continue to flourish in spite of competitive conditions that are sometimes daunting. We have what it takes to keep B.C.'s growing economy if we work together on the big picture to build our successes."

In summary, getting back on my theme of connections, British Columbians are very fortunate to live in the most beautiful province in the most beautiful country in the world. We have much to be grateful for, and our ability to balance responsible and environmentally sustainable resource development is something we can all be proud of.

Our economic plan is working, creating more opportunities for everyone by controlling spending, opening new markets, attracting new investment, leveraging our existing strengths and moving towards the realization of LNG and our high-tech industries.

We are preparing, and will continue to prepare, all British Columbians to be first in line for all of the upcoming job prospects. We are in exciting and challenging times. We have a strong economy, and we have a secure future.

K. Corrigan: It's probably appropriate that I point out that I had risen on this response to the throne speech previously and spoke for about two minutes. I've been advised that I can retake my place now, so I am continuing on. I don't know if there was a minute or so that passed previously.

I want to start by doing what many others in this House have done, which is to thank some people that are very important to me in the work that I do, and that is Heidi Reid, my legislative assistant here in Victoria. Heidi helps me, and she does a fabulous job in keeping me organized and doing things that support me in the work that I do. She does a great job.

I particularly also want to thank my constituency assistants, Cate Jones and Isaac Vallee. Cate and Isaac help me, but more importantly, what they do is help the public and help citizens in my constituency who come in seeking help, looking for ways to navigate the problems that they have in dealing with government.

[1540]

They do that exceedingly well, and they're also great people. I'd like to once again thank them for the work that they do.

You know, I was shaking my head a little bit when I heard the B.C. Liberal throne speech a few days ago — more about what was missing and the lacklustre content that was presented, by a government that has had 200 days of vacation and then arbitrarily refused to do during that time what it's obliged to do, which is to come to Victoria and debate issues and policies.

Here we have a province that has really serious problems. We have problems with job loss. We have problems with government sectors which are, I would say, in disarray because of this government's incompetence and mismanagement. We only sat 40 days in 2013. There are so many things that need to be addressed in this province — serious problems. We've missed many opportunities to correct those problems.

I noticed that the throne speech this time seems to contain a number of what would be called ten-year plans. Ironically, it seems to me that those ten-year plans — the greater plans, the big plans — largely are in areas where this government has more than a ten-year record of neg-
[ Page 1279 ]
lect or destruction or strife, sometimes even with catastrophic or fatal consequences.

I want to speak first about the ten-year plan for education. That plan is to have ten years of peace. I have to say I have found it astounding. The last two days we have brought forward information about the fact that we had a plan by this government, an intentional plan to provoke, to goad, to, I would say, bully…. I've heard that word on the other side repeatedly: "We are opposed to bullying." I would call what this government did, in trying to provoke the teachers into a strike so that they could turn public opinion against them…. To try to do that I would call bullying behaviour.

Teachers have a saying, and I've heard it often. I was a school trustee for nine years, chair of the board of Burnaby board of education — some of the most enjoyable years, because in that system everybody was working together for the good of the kids. And I certainly have not seen that in the last few days.

Teachers have an expression that says you need to model behaviour. Well, what kind of model has this government presented to the people of British Columbia, to the teachers of British Columbia, to the parents of British Columbia and the kids of British Columbia by claiming now — suggesting — that a justice is wrong, a justice who has said that on the evidence, they were intentionally trying to provoke behaviour to bring a strike to British Columbia?

You know the thing that I find astonishing in all of this? I think the people to respect in this are the teachers and the representation of the teachers, the union, who went through all of this and for the good of the kids would not be goaded into a strike.

There was limited action. That is their right under a collective agreement. But despite the intention of this government to have a strike, to try to impose financial penalties on those teachers, to try to force school boards to impose penalties on those teachers, all those things that we've heard, the teachers of this province continued to teach the kids. They went about their business doing the great work that they do. And they do fabulous work.

You know, there cannot be ten years of labour peace when you have a government that has intentionally been poking and goading teachers over the last ten years. How can that bring labour peace?

[1545]

I remember reading Madam Griffin's first judgment, where she talked about the roots of labour peace and referred back to the Korbin report. She said that in order to have peace, in order to have good negotiated settlements, in order to have a mature bargaining relationship, you needed to have trust.

How can the teachers of this province or the parents of this province ever trust this government again on the education front after what we have heard in the last few days about what this government was doing? I just find it absolutely atrocious.

This government, through its actions, has not only not set the table for ten years of labour peace; it has made absolutely sure that there is no possibility of ten years of labour peace, because we have a relationship that has once again been broken and tattered by this government. Not by the teachers. Don't blame the teachers. I will never blame the teachers when I know what has happened here. It's unbelievable.

It reminds me. All of this was happening about the same time as something was happening in my community. That was planning by this government as well, a cynical plan in order to use my community hospital — our community hospital, Burnaby Hospital — to leverage, again, public support in favour of the Liberals.

Actually, their plan was to get rid of me and perhaps my colleague from Burnaby-Edmonds and other MLAs. They planned to do that. They planned to use Burnaby Hospital at the same time as we found out through leaked documents that 84 people had died from C. difficile in the hospital, and they, cynically, were using Burnaby Hospital as political leverage in order to attain their political goals. I just find it so cynical and so unbelievable.

I mentioned that there seem to be some ten-year plans, particularly in areas that the Liberals have been quite challenged in over the last 12 years or so. One of them is skills training, and now the government has said it's going to have a ten-year skills training action plan. Well, what has been the history of this government on skills training?

In 2002 this government abandoned a successful apprenticeship training program, where the vast majority of the apprentices had graduated in favour of an industry-dominated privatized system that saw apprenticeship completion rates nosedive. Completion rates were as low as 43 percent in 2009-2010 and down to about a third, 34 percent, in 2012-2013. I believe that it's far lower if you don't count the union-run programs. What a waste of potential. What a waste of money. And now, over a decade later, we're going to have a plan?

[D. Horne in the chair.]

In the meantime, we have a provincial cohort of students who could have gone through our entire education system and embarked on an apprenticeship program and been making good money at well-paying jobs and helping to build this province. Instead, what do we have after 12 years with an apprenticeship system that has failed? We have unemployment rates for young people close to 15 percent. I lay that partially and directly at the feet of this government.

In its throne speech this government dares to talk about the need for well-trained young people. It dares to talk about the importance of the high-tech sector when not only did it intentionally and methodically decimate
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its apprenticeship system but it also cut university funding. Funding transfers to post-secondary institutions were cut by $70 million, starting with the 2012 budget.

Well, not surprisingly, B.C. has one of the lowest provincial higher education attainment rates in Canada. In an economy that should be advancing, in an economy that should have strong international ambitions, this is not acceptable, and it's irresponsible.

We have another big plan in another area where we have had transportation planning in disarray, certainly in the Lower Mainland where I live.

[1550]

In 1996 B.C. Transit, under an NDP government — B.C. Transit then included the Lower Mainland, so it basically covered the whole of the province — was rated the number one North American transit system by the American Public Transportation Association. That was in 1996.

You guys love to talk about the '90s. Let's talk about that in the 1990s.

What do we have under the Liberals? What have we had for the last several years? We have a system in a mess. We have a government that refuses to work with local mayors, a government that removed transit planning from the Lower Mainland and a government that gave decision-making to a private, unaccountable board that makes decisions behind closed doors and gets its marching orders from this government.

The present minister said he wanted a clear vision from the mayors. He said that very recently. But the ability to plan and control of transit was stripped away from the local governments in a fit of pique by Kevin Falcon in 2007, when he couldn't get his way.

They were told then that they weren't going to be able to control transit anymore and they weren't going to be allowed to decide on the priorities. So I find it highly ironic that the minister is now insisting on a vision. Give transit control back to local government, and they will have the vision and will run it way better than it has been run over the last seven years.

This government has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of respect for and an inability to work productively with local mayors. They, several times, despite what the minister may say publicly….

Interjections.

K. Corrigan: I'm getting a few shots from there right now.

Despite what the minister may say now, the mayors have repeatedly, like the teachers, tried to work with this government. They've offered several sources of funding. They've tried to suggest ways to improve things, and they have been met with delay after delay, denial after denial, ragging the puck for years on end.

This present minister — all the best of luck to you, Minister — is only one of a succession of ministers who promised to work with the local leaders but has done nothing. That's alienation. That's alienation of leaders of almost half the population of the province. So I'd like to congratulate this government on being able to alienate every local mayor in the Lower Mainland, representing almost half of the province.

The Transportation Minister said recently that he'd heard the mayors. I don't think so. Every single one of them said they don't want the referendum. I don't think you've heard anything. There's no sense of working together, no good-faith negotiations. Again, just like with the teachers — arrogant, high-handed approach.

This is not good public policy. This is not the way to accomplish things. This is not the way to make the best decisions in the interest of the taxpayers, in the best interest of the public services that government delivers. It leads to bad decisions and a waste of taxpayers' money.

We know now that the cost…. We're told that the cost of congestion in greater Vancouver is $1½ billion annually, not to mention all the frustration of the kids that I talk to who are constantly waiting for buses.

Another area where government says it has a long-term plan is to move towards a violence-free B.C., assuring women that they're going to have the supports — aboriginal women and so on. We've had years of inaction on the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. I was pleased to see that we had legislation introduced today. Finally, after about a year and a half and 63 recommendations, we're going to have a piece of legislation.

[1555]

But to talk about violence-free B.C.? This government, again, has had 13 years. We have report after report after report from the Representative for Children and Youth begging for action from this government, telling this Liberal government over and over again that women and children are dying in this province because a system that should have protected them is broken, underfunded and incompetently managed.

I think it would be laughable, if it were not so tragic, that this Liberal government can stand here and talk about a violence-free province in the face of persistent and callous inaction on this front and on the front of poverty and inequality in this province. We know that inequality and poverty are ingredients for increased domestic violence, not to mention a strong predictor for problems, risk factors for children.

Child poverty in this province has increased 4.3 percent this year. The increase is much larger for single mothers, whose poverty rate…. There was a jump in one year, and if you are a single mother in this province, then there is a 50-50 chance that you're living in poverty. We know that if you're living in poverty as an adult, you have impoverished children as a single parent. I think it's a despicable record.

What the Liberals do, as inexcusable as the inaction
[ Page 1281 ]
on the poverty front is and the worst inequality in the country…. What we hear from the other side is a suggestion that everybody is going to have jobs — oh, and be violence-free in the future too. We're going to have that. I wonder how many years we're going to hear that last slogan, because we've had lots of them.

Let's see how the Liberals have done on the economy. They don't actually have to be successful. They can just say that this is what they cared about. They actually haven't paid down the debt at all. In fact, it's gone up more under the Premier's job plan than it ever has in history. You don't actually have to increase jobs.

Here's some of the record. We lost 8,500 private sector jobs last month. Since we had our last session in July, B.C. lost 21,400 full-time jobs. B.C.'s employment rate is low. We're seventh, behind every province west of the Maritimes. In other words, we have the weakest job market west of the Maritimes.

Interjection.

K. Corrigan: You're doing lousy. You can talk about 20 years in the future. Your record sucks.

B.C.'s use of temporary foreign workers is the highest in the country, and that's not something we should be proud of.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

K. Corrigan: An estimated 29 percent of new jobs have gone to temporary foreign workers, and almost two-thirds of new jobs are temporary and casual jobs.

We have a weak gross domestic product. Since people started leaving B.C. — because they do leave under the B.C. Liberals — in the second half of 2011, 12,800 people have left this province. Those are largely younger people who can't find a job because of the lousy record in job creation of this government.

British Columbians are the most indebted in this country, with average consumer debt of almost $40,000. When you add that to a failed Liberal job plan, increasing fees for hydro, mismanagement of the ferries, increased MSP rates, the middle class is getting squeezed. People are getting poorer, and the result is greater inequality. I think the Liberals should be very proud of that record, but it's sad for the people of this province.

You know, there's a history of confrontation. Thinking about unions, I saw my friend and colleague who represents the riding of New Westminster listen to the Education Minister talking about labour peace and not wanting to hurt the unions.

[1600]

It's unbelievable. When you have that woman, who was head of the HEU for years and had to deal with the devastation of the people who lost their jobs because the Liberal government of early 2001-2002 decimated the members and in fact, I believe, caused an increase in unemployment just because of those actions…. It is unbelievable. She and others have lived the impact of this government.

But there is a different way of doing things. It doesn't have to be confrontational. We don't have to — what was it when you guys came in? — squash unions like a bug. That was the plan. That's a quote. I'm sorry. If you can go back 20 years, I can go back a few as well. I'll find it for you if you want. That's what they said. That's what you said. "Let's squash unions like a bug." And you're still working at it, with the way that you treat the teachers. That's working at it. You don't always get away with it. Unions are too strong.

Deputy Speaker: I'd remind the member to…. Through the Chair.

K. Corrigan: Through the Chair. Thank you.

I do think there is a different way of doing things, though, and I would point to my community of Burnaby. Burnaby is a well-managed, well-run debt-free city with healthy and growing reserves to pay for future infrastructure. You know what they have that this government doesn't have? It's got balance.

It understands that you can find a balance, and I think we in British Columbia, in the government, could find balance. I don't see it yet, but maybe they will. I think government can bring balance. It can bring balance to the way it does things. It can find a balance between economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental responsibility.

Actually, Burnaby, over the last several years, has had an economic sustainability strategy that was very successful, and social sustainability, and is now engaging on the final stages of an environmental sustainability strategy. I'm very proud, not only of the results which have been embraced by my community but also by the process.

The process involved engagement of citizens from all areas of life in all three — economic, social and environmental. It involved the board of trade in active participation, non-profit groups, educational groups, small businesses, environmentalists — all types of organizations — in all three strategies. There have been hundreds of people involved in each and every one of those strategy initiatives, and the results have been fabulous.

What you have when you have a government which is endeavouring to work with its citizens, to work in a consultative way and in a way to find consensus, is that you end up with a community that is happy and supportive of local government and of the work. They feel that they've been heard, even though not everybody can get everything they want.

I've got to say that the economic development and the
[ Page 1282 ]
social sustainability strategies that are in place now have both been award-winning. I have no doubt that this very robust environmental sustainability strategy will also be very successful and will make Burnaby an even more livable, healthy and resilient city, which is growing like crazy — $600 million of building permits in 2013. Metrotown, which is part of my riding, is growing very quickly, with lots of investment.

Burnaby, of course, is also a major film industry centre. It has more than 52 percent of the sound stages in the Lower Mainland. We, of course, have educational institutions in Burnaby — Simon Fraser University and the B.C. Institute of Technology.

I'd also like to acknowledge the great work that the school board does. I was there for nine years, as I said earlier, and they do a great job. The staff, the teachers, the leaders, the administrators, and the parents all work together to make the life for students as good as it could be. But I'll tell you that they're feeling under a great deal of pressure.

[1605]

My worry is that if we do not adequately support the public education system, we will have a continuation of what, unfortunately, has been happening, which is people leaving and going to the private school system. That is not good for equality. That's not good for democracy. So I worry about our public education system.

I think, finally, that my friends across the way, the B.C. Liberals, could learn something from the Burnaby city council — an NDP majority council for over a quarter century. They could learn how to run a fiscally capable but socially responsible and environmentally sustainable government, a balanced government that makes sensible and transparent decisions for the good of all of its citizens, not for the well-being of its richest citizens or friends or donors. It can be done, and it should be done, but it's not being done by the B.C. Liberal government.

S. Hamilton: It's an honour to be here speaking on behalf of this House and representing my community of Delta North. I speak in wholehearted favour of our throne speech.

It's been a busy year in our community and a busy time for me and my wonderful staff as we work to represent the interests of the people in my riding.

I'd like to first start by thanking my family: Kristen; Paige and Lauren, our daughters; and a special shout-out to a couple of guide dogs that we have at home. They did work at one time very hard on behalf of people who were not sighted. Now they're a little elderly and enjoying their retirement years.

My constituency staff, Kim and Debbie, who also work very, very hard on behalf of the good folks in my riding. My riding association volunteers. My communication staff, my research staff, of course, and all of the legislative assistants in my office, especially Kadagn, who works very hard on my behalf.

The people of British Columbia elected this government on a promise of a strong economy and a secure future. As outlined in the throne speech, in order to have a strong economy, we must control government spending. It really is that straightforward. By balancing the budget, by keeping the promise we made to the people of British Columbia, we're laying the foundation for a business environment that will attract investment.

One of the major features contained in this Speech from the Throne is a commitment to fiscal responsibility by government. The Premier has made balancing the budget a top priority, and in doing so, she's demonstrated leadership among her fellow provincial Premiers.

Balancing the budget is not an easy thing to do. It requires courage to make tough decisions and a strong commitment to live within our means. Piling up debt and leaving it to our children to pay off down the road is not family-friendly. It's the reason why this government is committed to a balanced budget over the next four years.

To relieve future generations from financial burden, we're dedicating at least 50 percent of future surpluses to pay down the debt so we can eventually leave our children with a clean fiscal slate. Furthermore, we're recommitting to the balanced budget law, which has entrenched even tougher penalties for ministers who miss their budget targets. Take heed, folks. These strict measures, among others, are critical to maintaining our triple-A credit rating.

At the same time, we're making investments today that will benefit families across British Columbia. For example, the B.C. early childhood tax benefit will provide $146 million to approximately 180,000 families with children under six years of age. The B.C. training and education savings grant — a one-time $1,200 grant contribution towards a child's RESP following their sixth birthday. B.C.'s early-years strategy will invest $76 million over three years to support the creation of new child care spaces and improve the quality of child care and other early-year services.

The effective management of the public finances also ensures the government can maintain our commitment to freezing personal income tax and the carbon tax for the next five years. Low income taxes have the added benefit of leaving British Columbians with more money in their pockets to spend on their families.

[1610]

In the short time since the provincial election, our government has been working hard to deliver on the economic action plan contained in our platform, and we're really getting results.

In December the Conference Board of Canada released a report predicting British Columbia will lead the country in economic growth in 2015. The Conference Board recognized that British Columbians are getting the fundamentals right, that we are successful in creating
[ Page 1283 ]
favourable conditions for the private sector to flourish.

I'm proud to remind this House that we're following through on our commitment to reduce our provincial small business tax by 40 percent. It's also our plan to lower our corporate income tax rate by 10 percent by 2018. By following on our commitments, we're providing B.C. with a competitive advantage by adopting a tax regime that fosters job growth.

In British Columbia small business plays a large part in the private sector. We're talking about companies with less than 50 employees, yet small business drives almost 55 percent of B.C. exports. To further support small business, part of our strategy is to slash red tape and reduce the regulatory burden placed on companies. Excessive paperwork and making businesses jump through many hoops creates a drag on the economy and, ultimately, costs us jobs.

Our goal is to become the most business-friendly jurisdiction in Canada. We're achieving this by working closely with local governments in expanding the mobile business licence program. We're achieving this by working closely with local governments, including my community of Delta. This is a boon for tradespeople, making it easier for them to go where the work is in the region without having to worry about the cumbersome necessity of picking up a business licence in every community where they wish to operate.

When we do invest our tax dollars, also, we do it wisely. When we invested in a new highway for the Lower Mainland, we did so to strengthen the province's economy. The new South Fraser perimeter road will generate 7,000 long-term jobs in Delta and Surrey through improved industrial development opportunities along that corridor.

Let me pause there, because I found the comment that was made by the member for New Westminster somewhat puzzling when she suggested that at some point there may have been an intention to connect the South Fraser perimeter road with the Port Mann Bridge. Being on Delta council for as long as I was, I was intimately involved in the discussions, and I knew that was never going to be the case. It was never the case.

Those trucks that are coming from Deltaport aren't going…. Their destination is Highway 1, the intermodal yards. If they're going anywhere, they're going down to Vancouver. Other than that, they're going down to Vancouver and they're coming through the tunnel. If you want to see truck traffic through a narrow corridor, come and see the George Massey Tunnel sometime in the future.

Now, I'm not saying this to underplay or minimize the concerns that the city of New Westminster has expressed concerning traffic in their community, truck traffic transiting the Pattullo Bridge. I know that our good Transportation Minister has taken strides and is committed to working with the city in order to help alleviate those problems in the future. We will do the best job we can.

In the years to come the South Fraser perimeter road will be a great benefit to Delta. In fact, building the road has already helped transform what once was an abandoned landfill into prime industrial land that is now a new home for a business in Delta.

It was a contaminated landfill. Ocean Trailer, owned by Mr. Sid Keay, along with the corporation of Delta and this government, struck a deal and a development plan. The work required an innovative system to collect the leachate methane and rehabilitate the land, but it's functional land now.

We would not have had that without that partnership. It's an innovative project, and it received the Engineering Excellence award from the Consulting Engineers of B.C.

The South Fraser perimeter road also removes big trucks from Highway 99 and River Road and gets them and the products they carry to the markets faster and safer than ever before. That's a benefit to everyone in the region.

The road also makes it easier to access the Tilbury Industrial area, which is important for another reason. It's noteworthy that the LNG plant has been operating at Tilbury Island since 1971. The plant is operated by FortisBC and helps supplement the Lower Mainland with natural gas in its peak demand.

FortisBC has recognized the value of their Tilbury Island plant and is proposing a multi-million-dollar expansion of that plant. That project is going to create jobs both during construction and for the operational lifetime of the plant.

[1615]

The FortisBC expansion is just one of several LNG projects worth billions of dollars for our province, and I support each and every one of those projects going forward.

Highway infrastructure is an important part of the Pacific gateway strategy. B.C. is blessed with a number of competitive advantages, not the least of which is that our seaports are closer to Asia than any other in North America. The Port of Prince Rupert, for example, is two days closer to Asian markets than any other mainland U.S. port. It's the reason why the government has partnered with industry to promote the Pacific gateway, to ensure that we get our goods to market faster than our competitors.

So far this province and its partners have spent $17 billion to upgrade roads, railways, bridges and ports to gain and leverage competitive advantage. Transportation infrastructure is vital to an economy's growth because it continues the cycle of investment in the province. Consumers in Japan, China, India have a growing appetite for B.C. products, including those from our agricultural industry. We are continuing to promote investment in transportation infrastructure with our partners in the private sector. Our relationships with world markets will
[ Page 1284 ]
continue to grow our economy.

Our government has had the vision to see the opportunity in liquefied natural gas. We're building a new LNG industry that will lead to 100,000 new jobs and eventually help this province eliminate its debt. It's an industry that will benefit communities across this province.

Just to change the tone a little bit, earlier this month our government announced — and I was very pleased to be there — a $1.5 million fund to move training programs into a new centre in Delta on Annacis Island. Heavy-duty transportation programs offered by the B.C. Institute of Technology and Vancouver Community College will be taught at the new motive power centre on Annacis Island in Delta.

This centre is going to train heavy-duty mechanics, transport-trailer mechanics, diesel mechanics, commercial transportation mechanics, railway conductors and forklift operators. These are good skilled trades that will help British Columbians earn good livings and support their families.

It makes sense to locate these programs from two schools into one centre focused on heavy-duty transportation. Students from this new motive power centre will be in demand. It's estimated that 43 percent of the one million jobs expected to be created by 2020 will require trades or technical training. The new motive power centre will open this September and will play an integral role in the B.C. jobs plan.

An estimated 13,000 people are already employed in B.C. in the field of heavy-duty commercial transportation and as diesel technicians and transport-trailer technicians. When the new motive power centre opens later this year it will truly mark a new chapter in the economic security of British Columbia and in my riding of Delta North.

Our government has also helped local farmers by supporting the B.C. Growers Association with $100,000 in funding. This money will help brand and market local produce, and the campaign will show British Columbians the benefits of supporting B.C. growers. Greenhouses in B.C. generated more than $240 million in total farm cash receipts in 2012.

Another important project that will help to get that produce to market is the planned replacement of the George Massey Tunnel with a new bridge. The tunnel as it is now opened on May 23, 1959. It was and remains a vital commuter route and a critical component of our highways infrastructure.

Businesses in Delta as well as the ones in Surrey and Richmond depend upon this tunnel. It's an access point that connects key gateways such as the Vancouver International Airport, the Peace Arch border crossing, B.C. Ferries in Tsawwassen and the Deltaport container terminal. But the tunnel is more than 50 years old, and it's operating well above its intended capacity.

On average, 80,000 vehicles per day use this tunnel, with rush hour traffic stretching for miles. Kilometres, sorry. I'm a mile baby.

Its lack of capacity also results in additional pressures being placed on alternative crossings. As such, we have the Alex Fraser Bridge and the Pattullo Bridge, so I think there's impact from both up and down the Fraser River. The public has said they strongly support solving these problems. The people have also said they want more options for transit, cycling and pedestrians. We've heard them, and we're going to act on it. We're going to respond to it.

[1620]

Now, just to switch gears for a second as I draw to a close, I'd like to speak about schools — schools in my community. I know a lot's been said about public education in this House over the last few days. I've had the pleasure of attending several of the schools in my community.

I don't know what everyone else is seeing, but in my community I'm seeing vibrant schools. I'm seeing students that are flourishing. I'm seeing committed teachers, committed to their profession. I'm seeing engaged parents, and I'm seeing boards who are committed to the job that they're doing.

Not to discount the fact that they have their challenges, but we are working with them to overcome those challenges, as has been said in this House on many occasions, and I will continue to commit myself in my own community to help achieve those goals.

As I draw to a close, I have to say as a new member in this House that I am disappointed with both the level and tone of the debate that I've been listening to, particularly during question period and in these throne speeches. I find much of what is being said often rhetorical, and if it's not rhetorical, it's downright misleading.

Having said that, I am concerned and continue to be concerned as we move forward that we can maintain a certain decorum and level of debate that this House, I believe, should show a certain respect toward. It's what the people of British Columbia want. I think they deserve as much, and I'm prepared to deliver that on behalf of the government I represent.

L. Krog: I'm delighted to begin after reference has been made to the terms — what was it? — "misleading" and "rhetorical."

Always delighted to be inspired by members on the government side after we've listened to them talk about liquid natural gas and the $100 billion sinking fund that's going to eliminate B.C.'s debt and all those positive, wonderful things, as the government tries to answer questions about a court case in which we have a Premier and a Minister of Education who say one thing outside of the chamber and a judge who says something actually different inside the courthouse.

Apart from a little sarcasm, perhaps, I'll try and be a
[ Page 1285 ]
little kinder today, just in the spirit of goodwill, as we're only — what? — six weeks, nearly two months, after Christmas.

I think it's appropriate, when a government has been so successful — and I'm going to be kind — in winning three elections, to perhaps offer a bit of retrospective on what's happened in British Columbia in the last 13 years.

Gordon Campbell lost the '96 election because he promised a number of things. He promised to sell B.C. Rail — not bright for the people of Prince George. It wasn't appreciated. He promised to eliminate pensions and then brought back pensions over time. He did sell B.C. Rail eventually.

He engaged in a significant right-wing experiment, commencing in 2001, that began with a dramatic tax cut. Nobody was going to oppose a tax cut of 25 percent on low-income earners. It's kind of hard to argue against giving the poor and most vulnerable in this province a little more of the income they earn.

But of course, that wasn't the only cat in the bag. The bigger cat was that everybody got it. The rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate — they all got the 25 percent tax cut in provincial income tax.

Along with significant corporate tax cuts over the last 13 years, that has left this government, in particular, with a significant issue. That is the gap between revenue and expenditure — and the growing gap, which is obvious and borne out by statistics that are irrefutable, between the rich and the poor in this province.

Now, it was a great experiment, and the concept was based on, I think, the Laffer curve. I know that the member for West Van–Capilano will be able to explain that in more articulate language than I possibly could, being an erudite person of great education, an economist and a bright fellow. Essentially, the Laffer curve says if you cut taxes enough, eventually it will boost revenue.

Well, I think many leading economists around the world now have come to accept that, really, what happens is, yeah, you might get a boost over time, but essentially, you cripple the abilities of progressive liberal democracies to deliver the services that people who live in liberal democracies have come to expect, whether that's public education or public health care — government services readily available, even in rural communities and small towns.

[1625]

I would argue that as we look at this throne speech, which was pretty thin by comparison…. By thin, I mean both literally and figuratively. We only squeeze out 13 lucky pages — there's a number that's auspicious, I suppose — of slim promises about what the future of B.C. is going to look like.

As we look over that thin throne speech and consider what's happened in British Columbia in the last 13 years — there's that number, 13, again — what do the statistics and the information sort of tell us? Well, the promise was that we were going to cut government expenditure to the bone, that we were going to cut taxes. It would boost the economy, and there would be a flow of revenue sufficient to deliver services to British Columbians that they needed.

Just as an example in my critic area, legal aid took a 40 percent hit — a 40 percent hit. The majority of applications they now receive, they have to turn away because people aren't eligible to receive services, particularly people who are applying for services in family law matters.

They were promised that when revenue went up there again, things would be fine. Of course, revenue did in the mid part of the last decade. We had resource revenues pouring in here like crazy. It was a wonderful time in government.

I see the minister from Prince George smiling. I think she probably remembers those heady days when the coffers were full and the cash was pouring in, the budget was balanced and the nasty opposition didn't have anything much to say. As a matter of fact, the nasty opposition, up until 2005, was reduced to two solitary members, which made getting through the government's business a lot easier in this place.

I come back to my example of legal aid. They didn't see that increase. They didn't see the benefit of the cruelest joke, the Laffer curve. They didn't see an increase in revenue. They didn't see a restoration of those cuts.

I had the pleasure of attending the Justice Summit this year — an amazing number of people there, interesting group. Unfortunately, the message from the government's perspective was all pretty much the same.

Setting aside the issue of the lack of courthouses in Surrey and other parts of the province, setting aside the issue of a lack of court time, you have a real crisis in this province for anybody who wants legal aid.

You have the lawyers, the defence counsel of this province, just having announced once again that they're essentially going to go on what amounts to a withdrawal of services. You can't say strike, because they're not members of a union, but they're going to withdraw services. That's because the government isn't funding the Legal Services Society the way it either needs to be funded or should be funded.

I come back to my comments. It's always dangerous territory to talk about taxation. But you know what? We're a long ways out from the election, and I think it's become kind of obvious in western democracies — we only need to look at what's happened in many parts of Europe — that you can't cut your way to prosperity. It doesn't work.

What it does do is cripple a generation or two in terms of social viability, in terms of education, in terms of health, in terms of allowing a generation to get the kind of post-secondary education that it needs in a modern industrial democracy in order to make that industrial
[ Page 1286 ]
democracy prosperous. So after 13 years I would suggest very politely that the great experiment has failed.

I still hear the language of it. I hear it from the members opposite, and I hear it every throne speech, as I've heard it for, well, many years since 2005. "A job is always the best way to fight poverty."

It's a nice cliché, but when you're on disability, it doesn't matter what the unemployment rate is. If you need legal aid and you can't afford a lawyer, it doesn't matter how many jobs there are. If you're a person with serious disabilities and you need assistance, it doesn't matter what the unemployment rate is and it doesn't matter whether there's a whole pile of jobs.

[1630]

I would suggest, again, the statistics speak to some disparity, if you will, between the reality of British Columbia and the promises of the Premier. How many have we lost? What is it? In the last 200 days alone — well, I guess it's 203 or 204 now, isn't it? — 21,600 private sector jobs.

Now, if we accept that the private sector is the greatest creator of employment in our society, and not government, I don't know how that fits in with the Premier's jobs plan. I'm still waiting to see the words on paper that tell me what that jobs plan is, apart from good rhetoric.

I've got to tell you, I admire and I compliment the Premier for winning an election, making her promises and making people believe them too. I mean, in politics it's one thing to promise, but it's another thing to make the people believe you. If you can master that, well, anything is possible.

I see one of my favourite members here. He was the first to rise up after the leader spoke, because he just wants to hear the opposition say: "What are you going to do?" Well, unfortunately, I have to advise the member that my side lost. Your side won. You have the power. It's: "What are you going to do?"

So what are you going to do? We have now enjoyed 13 years of Liberal government. We haven't seen….

Interjections.

L. Krog: I knew they'd be thrilled to hear me today. I knew it.

What do we have to show for that enjoyment?

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: Well, in Surrey we have unregulated facilities for the treatment of drug addiction. We have the highest rate of child poverty, ten years in a row, in the country. So I think the members need to understand that when I said "enjoyed," there might have been a tinge of sarcasm in there that the subtler minds over there didn't quite pick up on.

B.C. Hydro rates, ICBC, MSP, fees and licences generally — all of those are up. But: "Oh no, we don't believe in raising taxes. No, no, we would never consider raising taxes" — over there — "because that would hurt the economy." But you have to ask yourself, after 13 years: "When do the good times begin for British Columbian families?" Honestly, when do they begin?

When do those in receipt of social assistance see a lift in the miserly income that's paid to them today, which makes Grace McCarthy look like Santa Claus on steroids? When are they going to see an increase?

When are students going to leave our post-secondary education system with a debt burden that isn't so insurmountable they can't imagine how they'll ever pay it off, unless they get a permanent job as a barista somewhere in Vancouver and get good tips.

The stewards of the land in this province, the people who used to work in the Ministry of Forests, who used to work in the Ministry of Environment — when are we going to see those folks rehired to ensure that the incredible natural resource that we received by virtue of our birth here, this beautiful province, is in fact going to be protected? When are we going to see that?

The people who need legal aid — when are they going to see the provision of legal aid in the way it used to be available? When is that going to happen?

We are coming to the fundamental problem that this province in particular and many other jurisdictions face. You've cut your taxes. You've got…. The members here are going to start to scream and cry again. I can hear…. They'll probably applaud. You've got, if I believe their rhetoric, possibly the lowest tax regime in North America and — wait for it — the highest child poverty rate in Canada.

Okay, so we have a problem. Anyone, abandoning even my rhetoric for a moment, would have to step back and say: "How long does this continue? When do the sacrifices that have been made by the middle classes, the working poor and the poor generally in this province…? When do they get something back for that sacrifice?"

[1635]

We know that the wealthy in this province have done very well. We know that. You only have to look at the income statistics from StatsCan to understand that this is a great place to live if you're rich, and we have a number of rich people. Now, we can argue about what "rich" means. Is it income? Is it assets? Is it a mix? Is it a certain figure to pick on?

You know what? Even the B.C. Liberals proposed increasing infinitesimally income taxes on people earning over $150,000 a year. Well, I've got to tell you that in my constituency, I could probably gather all the folks who make $150,000 a year, fit them comfortably in this room and walk amongst them without bumping shoulders. Now, maybe in West Van–Capilano, although even there I doubt it, that might or might not be true. But the fact is
[ Page 1287 ]
there is an incredible disparity in our society.

Now, I'm not like Gordon Campbell, who was accused, rather unkindly and unfairly, perhaps — I admired Gordon Campbell because he's a reader — of being influenced entirely by the last book he read. But on holiday I had a wonderful opportunity to do some reading that you don't get to do normally.

There's a lovely new book out by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the biographer of Lyndon Johnson, called The Bully Pulpit. Now, it should appeal to the members opposite because it's the story of the relationship between Teddy Roosevelt, that great Republican, and William Howard Taft and, of course, the relationship they had with the muckrakers of their time, as they were called, not very kindly. It led, as most of the members will know, to the election of Wilson in 1912 because Roosevelt broke with his old friend — a man he actually loved, I think, and that love was felt back — over issues of the day.

There were two great issues that Roosevelt saw facing America then: the growing gap between the rich and the poor — Roosevelt was going after the big trusts; and what he saw as the desecration of that wonderful wilderness that was America, that was an integral part of that American psyche. The concept of the wilderness. The wild, the strong, the place where mankind, if you will — I hesitate to use that sexist language — faced the elements, was strengthened by that adversity.

Roosevelt creates incredible parklands, sets aside federal reserves and goes after the wealthiest. A Republican. Kind of like Nixon going into China. Only a Republican could do that.

I come back to where we are today. Here in British Columbia, we hear the same issues being placed squarely before us: the growing gap between the rich and the poor, incredible pressure to exploit the environment, and at the same time a growing and strengthening environmental movement — a consciousness that the Minister of Education, no doubt, saw reflected in the school he visited earlier today in Esquimalt–Royal Roads.

I have no doubt that the kids he was speaking to or associated with are probably more environmentally conscious at their stage of life than any of us were when we were young. They are also incredibly conscious of the fact that they don't have a mom or dad working in a sawmill anymore at a union wage, in all likelihood. They might have a public servant, if they are lucky, in Victoria. They know that money seems tighter somehow than it did in the '50s and the '60s and the '70s. They know that something's wrong.

So I come back to it. We can go back and forth in this chamber over the next three years, having these rhetorical arguments, and the government promising that prosperity is quite literally around the corner.

There is a segment of British Columbia that has enjoyed prosperity for 13 years, as we review this throne speech. And there's a whole bunch of folks who, if you sat them down and they calculated what they were worth 13 years ago and looked at what the purchasing power of their dollar is today, would say, "You know what? I am not better off, yet I live in probably the most favoured part of the planet" — a part of the planet that has incredible geography, significant natural resources and the opportunity to be a beacon unto the world in terms of environmental stewardship, in terms of public education, in terms of lifestyle.

[1640]

We know that people come here for that very reason. All of those rich people who help drive up the cost of housing in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland come here because they can live in a city where they can actually breathe the air without the necessity of a surgical mask, where they can see the mountains at the edge of the city, where they can go sailing in the Salish Sea and actually see Nanaimo across the water before you get to it.

Now, surely, we can do better. I guess that's what I really want to talk about today. We have so much opportunity here, so much opportunity, and yet we have been promised so much, and so little has been delivered.

The jobs plan. I'm sorry. It hasn't worked, and the numbers bear it out. In terms of wealth creation, if wealth is being created, it isn't being distributed. In terms of public education, we have institutions now that get something in the range of 40 cents out of their dollar from government. So the rest of their money is coming from begging some of those rich folks and former alumni. It comes from raising tuition.

It comes from one of the things I just talked about a moment ago — all of those people who don't live here, looking at this wonderful place and saying: "If I'm going to pay ridiculous tuition somewhere, I might as well do it in this favoured part of the planet. I can come to beautiful British Columbia. I can go to the Vancouver Island University. I can pick up a master's in business administration, and I can live in a small community where I can breathe the air, I can swim in the ocean, and I can eat the food without worrying about anything."

I am a product, and a grateful product, of this province's best years. Some of you may think it's just rhetoric and Krog trying to pluck your heartstrings, but it's true. The opportunities I have been given were given at a time when, as my friend the member from Cowichan will tell you, we had a lot of people working in the bush, tuition was cheap, education readily available, opportunities abundant and public education something that was there for the taking, in a sense. If you had any brains and you worked, you could get into an institution. And you could leave that institution, as my wife and I did, without student debt and with a little money in the bank.

Now, perhaps I can't deliver that to my grandchildren, but surely it is our job to try. I just sense from this throne speech that this government has long since run out of gas, run out of steam. After 200-plus days since we last as-
[ Page 1288 ]
sembled here, the only thing they could serve us up was this throne speech.

Now, I'm going to be a little off base here, because my leader and I have, perhaps, differing views. I won't say that, but I don't….

Interjections.

L. Krog: Oh, no, no. Don't…. You know, if they'd just listen. They always want to jump to the conclusions. You know? It's like they won't think or listen.

You know, this fabulous quote at the end of the throne speech, page 13. Who do we quote? God, who do we quote? A serial adulterer and probably one of the biggest fornicators ever to occupy the White House, and he's the guy we look to for guidance in the world? Now, if they'd talked about Lyndon Johnson, who was probably just as bad. At least Lyndon Johnson cared about the poor. Lyndon Johnson tried to create the Great Society.

Now, I would have appreciated it more…. If I've got to refer to an American politician in my throne speech because I'm so devoid of Canadian heroes, I would have thought you might have picked somebody who actually wanted to create a better world and was sincere about it.

Interjection.

L. Krog: Absolutely. The member mentioned Cesar Chavez. There's a whole pile of people you could talk about. But comparing liquid natural gas and going to the moon — now, that's a rhetorical stretch that even I find I'm not capable of managing.

A strong economy, a secure tomorrow. I have listened to this — well, in this chamber — for eight-plus years, nearly nine, and from the government, generally, since 2001. Honestly, if I could see the evidence of it, I'd be more thrilled.

[1645]

I mean, I remember when average families used to actually hop on ferries and go to Vancouver because they could afford to do it. They'd actually go over to the Big Smoke. They'd drive through West Van–Capilano. They'd go to the PNE with their kids. They might even head up to the Okanagan.

But when the average family — a mom, a dad, a couple of kids — looks at the cost of their car and the ferry, part of our transportation system, they can't afford to get on that ferry and drive up to the Interior on those wonderful roads that this government keeps building up there. Now, I appreciate that the trip between Kelowna and Penticton has got to be foremost in the government's mind, but it's not the only highway in the province of British Columbia.

What I'm asking for is the government to admit, for once, that as liquid natural gas isn't going to start flowing in here for three years…. And how do we know that? Well, because their Minister of Finance has already announced that liquid natural gas revenues aren't booked in the three-year fiscal plan he'll be filing next week.

We've got three years without any liquid natural gas, so I'm just wondering when the promise of prosperity and the strong economy and the secure tomorrow is actually going to be a today for some British Columbians.

Interjection.

L. Krog: The member from Kamloops reminds me of Churchill's line. And I don't mean this in the way that it might sound, so let me finish.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: Churchill said that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. We just heard the example of the third one: statistics. More people working.

Well, guess what, hon. Member. There are more people living on the planet today than there were 13 years ago, and there are probably more people working around the world. It doesn't mean anything. It is a meaningless statistic, unless you look at the unemployment rate, you look at the percentage of people in receipt of government assistance, you look at people who live in poverty, you look at the numbers of people who are homeless, you look at the vulnerable who need assistance. Unless you look at those things — a meaningless statistic. "Oh, we've got more people working" is just that. It's utterly and thoroughly and completely meaningless.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: I'm always glad to have support from my friends.

Now, what aspect of society is better off than it was 13 years ago? I mean, just tell me. Are people on social assistance better off? Are people with disabilities better off? Is the middle class better off? Are children in our classrooms better off? We're only a thousand bucks behind the national average in per capita student funding, I believe.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: The newly elected member, the new minister — I can't even remember his constituency — says: "Why are scores so high?" He didn't hear the Leader of the Opposition the other day when he said he wanted to be optimistic.
[ Page 1289 ]

Just imagine, Member, imagine for a moment that if you'd put real money into public education, what the scores would be. I'll accept what you say. If they're already as good as what you say, think what they would have been if we had invested appropriately. Think….

An Hon. Member: You mean like all-day kindergarten?

L. Krog: Well, all-day kindergarten. Again, now there's a brilliant idea.

There are studies — and I will remind the member — that indicate, in fact, that's a real waste of money. Finland is a prime example. In fact, all-day kindergarten does not produce better results. So maybe that's another experiment that we should examine carefully. Unless there's good, hard evidence that the program works, you shouldn't be doing it.

But there are programs, we know, that do work. One of them is just ensuring that people have a roof over their heads. In terms of housing, we know that's the case. We know….

Interjection.

L. Krog: You know, I am always pleased when I speak in this chamber that I arouse such interest from the members opposite. It feeds my ego.

[1650]

What could the government do? And what should the government do? First, let's start with what we talked about here in this chamber this morning. The government could engage in some genuine parliamentary reform, because there's a hunger for that — certainly among politicians.

You could ban corporate and union donations from the political process. That would improve things. That would restore some faith in democracy. You could actually get the legislation passed that deals with contributions to municipal campaigns. That doesn't even cost you any money, for heaven's sake. That's an easy one. It's not going to happen.

You could actually say to British Columbians: "You know what? Particularly those of you on higher incomes, we're going to raise taxes somewhat. And this is what we're going to do with the money." Or you could say to all of those corporations that haven't invested here, notwithstanding our incredibly low corporate tax rates: "You know what? We're going to raise those a bit, too, because we're in a tough time." We've waited 13 years for things to get better, many of us, and it hasn't.

Now, for folks like us in this chamber, arguably, I'd say it is better. You know what? We're all making $100,000 a year plus. Most of my constituents don't. We're part of the comfortable folks, and we're very comfortable. But would it kill the government for a little while to just try something different?

Maybe take a lesson from Teddy Roosevelt. Take a lesson from previous politicians who have faced similar times, similar crises, similar disparities in income and similar pressures on the environment. Take a page from their books, and perhaps do something a little different. Surprise us. Give us optimism that I won't be saying, pretty much…. I hate to say it, and I'd like to think it's consistent, as opposed to repetitive: give us some optimism to believe that the next time I have to respond to a throne speech, British Columbians….

Interjection.

L. Krog: See? I was right about that member, wasn't I?

The next time I have to respond to a throne speech, maybe the government will have instituted some reforms that will make things better for most British Columbians, instead of the wealthiest British Columbians. Maybe they will have paid attention to Gordon Campbell's views about the environment and taken some steps there. Maybe things will improve.

This is the opportunity. This is the opportunity the government has before it. You have been given a great gift from the people: power. You've been given the majority of this Legislature.

I would hope that you won't spend the next three years stumbling through it with this throne speech as your guide, because if that's the guide, then — to use a biblical reference — I think we're all going to be wandering in the wilderness for a few more years. And maybe….

You know what? I realize it's very cocky and confident now to feel good about having won the last election, but there is another one coming in three years. So this government has its opportunity. I strongly advise this government to not waste that opportunity. Do the right thing. Look out for British Columbians — the most of us, instead of the few.

Hon. A. Wilkinson: It's indeed an honour to rise today to respond to the Speech from the Throne. Of course, one must observe that after numerous complaints from Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition about the lack of opportunity to debate in this very chamber, we notice a grand total of four members of the NDP.

Deputy Speaker: I'd ask the member not to….

Hon. A. Wilkinson: Nonetheless, we look forward to supporting this government, to find new ways to continue to grow the economy, to drive economic development and create opportunities for all British Columbians today and for generations to come. And we'll achieve that through our commitment to a balanced budget with controlled spending and fostering a positive business climate while providing the services that our citizens expect.
[ Page 1290 ]

The member opposite launched on a bit of a tirade about how the great experiment has failed. In fact, Canada is doing very well in this regard. Canada is spending about 40 percent of its GDP on government services. We only need to look at France, with 56 percent spent on government services, and watch their economy go into a tailspin.

Sweden, which is often touted by the members opposite as the utopia for all of us to emulate, is dropping its taxes, has removed most corporate income taxes, and there's optional union membership in an open-shop arrangement. This is the kind of place that we have built here in Canada and in British Columbia, a place where prosperity is possible, rather than following the 1970s rhetoric of the members opposite.

[1655]

We're told by the member opposite that we can't cut our way to prosperity, whereas this party believes we cannot tax our way to prosperity.

The throne speech reaffirms our commitment to invest in skills training, to improve our infrastructure and to modernize government policies and services so that we can build on our strengths in sectors like the one I'm responsible for, technology, to prepare our citizens for the jobs of tomorrow and to foster the kind of climate where people are proud to live and work in British Columbia.

Of course, this leads to the point that my friend made about inequality in British Columbia, when in fact, Canada and British Columbia run at the very same levels of income equality as Australia, the U.K. and New Zealand. This comes as no surprise. These are advanced, industrialized economies just like ours, where we seek to make every member of our society prosperous, and we will continue to build the economy to do exactly that.

One of the areas we'll be building and supporting is technology. We can be proud that this sector is thriving in this province. We're at full employment in the tech sector in this province. Any qualified coder or website developer finds employment virtually immediately, with competing job offers.

We have nearly 9,000 established tech companies here in British Columbia, providing 84,000 people with employment. These are spread all around the province, and on February 1, I had the privilege to speak at the largest free computer coding event in Canada, in the history of this country. Five hundred young coders showed up at an event in Vancouver. It was put on for free, and there were more than 100 employers in the room who were providing the tutorial services for those youngsters. It was an incredible feeling of prosperity and opportunity in that room. That's what we are building in this province, and that's what we are going to build upon.

They're going to hold another event. It was called HTML 500 — the first one. They're now looking at holding HTML 1,000 with another 1,000 bright young faces looking forward to the opportunities that are present right here in British Columbia. It's events like this and the people involved that are going to contribute to the growth and prosperity we all seek in this province. These are homegrown companies, major success stories like HootSuite, and they're becoming major employers.

Our tech strategy fosters that success in a number of ways. We're becoming a destination for the technology sector throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. We have companies building their employment base here in British Columbia, with names like Sap, Google, Microsoft, Sony digital media, McKesson, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook. We are the envy of the rest of the world in our ability to attract and build this sector.

One of the things that we do to build this sector is the venture acceleration program. It has shown solid success in the first year of operation, with ten accelerator centres around the province, and I'm pleased to say that six of them are outside the Lower Mainland — in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Cranbrook, Victoria and Nanaimo. All are doing well. All are building companies, and all are encouraging the kind of entrepreneurship that will build our future.

By funding this program, our government helps B.C. technology companies in every region of the province, and especially in the 250 area code, where numerous small technology companies are growing up around the resource sector, starting to use data and data management tools to build that sector.

When we help these companies to become more competitive, the result is job creation. A great example of this is a recent event that I attended at UBC, where they launched what's called Entrepreneurship@UBC. This is an oversubscribed program for undergraduates in their final year that they are calling e@UBC. We provide them with $200,000 to scale and build the program so that undergraduates finishing their degrees can finish with an entrepreneurship training that prepares them for the modern economy.

This is not the stale economy my friend opposite referred to, where we could all work in a unionized part of the resource industry. We have moved on in this province. We value those resource sector jobs, obviously, but we can build upon them with jobs in the technology and other sectors to expand the economy, rather than living in the past, as my friend suggested.

Our commitment to technology extends also to our digital infrastructure. We're extending new cellular coverage along primary and secondary highways, upgrading fibre optic connections for public schools, maintaining Internet points of presence within rural communities. Those items — points of presence, known as POPS — are the core of building the digital economy, and we have them throughout British Columbia.

[1700]

We've partnered with the federal government and with the First Nations' All Nations Trust Co. to help con-
[ Page 1291 ]
nect 203 First Nations to the Internet. We've been advocating for increased federal broadband funding, and we're pleased to see that in the budget they introduced on Tuesday, was $305 million that has been allocated by the federal government for rural broadband, building the future throughout Canada and especially in British Columbia.

Our goal, which we are well on track to succeed with, is to provide high-speed connectivity for all British Columbians by 2021. The recent CRTC survey showed that British Columbia is tied for number one for low-speed broadband and is number one in the country for medium- and high-speed broadband, with penetrations above 90 percent. This is the future that we're building in this province for those people who are keen to build that entrepreneurial economy, and especially so in the tech sector.

I'm also proud of the role that this ministry plays in serving citizens directly, providing access to government services. From Service B.C. centres to our on-line presence, the ministry provides a diverse range of services so that citizens can get what they need from government quickly, efficiently and inexpensively.

The ministry staff work to help citizens, with a commitment to customer service and efficiency, and to ensure that we provide the best service we can by creating an environment where business can succeed by using on-line tools, providing easier interaction between citizens and their government and providing efficient and effective service delivery to core government and the broader public sector.

One of the latest tools we have developed is the B.C. Services Card. It was launched a year ago this month, and already one million British Columbians are carrying service cards in their wallets, with almost no hiccups in the rollout. This is a remarkable success, which will come into full fruition when more than half the population have the cards two years from now.

A full slate of services will be rolled out so that the B.C. Services Card can take advantage of advances in technology and provide a secure piece of photo ID. It contains multiple anti-fraud features, with an embedded smart chip that allows for services to be garnered on line in a secure fashion, with full identification of the user.

We will continue to build this sector. We'll continue to build this economy with our devotion to low taxes and smart and manageable regulation. And we'll reward and celebrate enterprise. We'll educate and train the skilled workers of tomorrow in all the fields in this province, and we'll support the development of industry and business throughout British Columbia.

S. Fraser: It's great to be here. I'd like to just comment on the previous speaker, the Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services. He talked at length about connectivity. It's an issue in Alberni–Pacific Rim. Tofino, Ucluelet, the Nuu-chah-nulth communities on the west coast of my constituency are tapped out. They're maxed out. And they have been…. We've lost another year. We don't have the investment from this government.

I'm going to take this as a good-news statement from the minister — that that's going to be looked at. When we're maxed out, that's no new connections, that's no new business, and that's no new economies. That's not in the best interests of the province — not my constituency but not the province in general — and it certainly wouldn't be in the government's best interests or the minister's to have that continue. So I look forward to maybe a future conversation on that important topic.

I'm glad to be here again. This place is magnificent. It never fails to daunt me sometimes. It's been nine years since I've been elected in Alberni–Pacific Rim, and I want to thank my constituents for putting their faith repeatedly in me. I'd like to also thank my beautiful wife, Dolores, for the time that she has to put up with me not being there and me ranting and raving about this, that or the other thing. It's Valentine's Day tomorrow, so it's probably good timing for that also.

My daughter has had to put up with a substantial, maybe, lack of time with me in the past. She's on her own now and thriving in post-secondary education, and I'm proud of her. I just want to acknowledge my family in that regard.

[1705]

Brenda McLean, and Patty Edwards in my constituency office. I've been so fortunate to have both my constituency assistants — I call them constituency managers — in place for the whole nine years.

We all know in this place that we're only a part of the picture of what happens. Our constituency assistants on both sides of the House, I'm sure, help so many people and know so many things that we don't actually know as MLAs. We're the politicians, but it doesn't mean we know how to work our way around a system, how to assist people with filling out very important applications and appeals and that sort of thing. They do so much work, and we cannot thank them enough.

I'm the critic for rural economic development. That also includes mining and fisheries. There weren't any substantial new things in the throne speech regarding fisheries or fish or mining. There were some of the statements that have come out before from government.

I think I'm going to reserve my time to respond to those issues, if I may, at a future date, probably in response to the budget, which we all have an opportunity to speak to in a similar way as we do now in response to the throne.

At that point, I'll hopefully be able to find out if there are changes and what they are and ask the appropriate questions and raise the issues that I think are important on those very important topics.

We're back. It has been — what? — seven months, 200
[ Page 1292 ]
days, since we've been in this place. We come back for a throne speech after 200 days, after being prevented from doing our job in this place for 200 days — 200 days of watching and not debating. That's 200 days of not sitting in this place and holding the government to account.

It's an important 200 days. What happened in those 200 days? The provincial debt has increased by $2½ billion in the last 200 days. We are once again leading the country in child poverty. That has been affirmed in the last 200 days by StatsCan. Hydro rates are going through the roof. MSP rates, ferry rates, ICBC rates — all escalating. And massive job losses. The worst record in Canada.

We were not allowed to sit in this place and hold this government to account. While this government and this Premier were engineering…. What's the term? It was used in the throne speech. It was "managed decline."

Now, the term was used and pointed at us in the opposition. But this is government. They are responsible for these grim statistics. They have managed an era of managed decline in every way for the people of British Columbia.

They've managed a decline in democracy, too, by shutting down this House — the people's House. We sit probably some of the least times of any Commonwealth country in the history of the Commonwealth. That is nothing to be proud of.

It doesn't matter who is government, which side is which, the check and balance of the parliamentary system is essential for the parliamentary system to work. This government and this Premier have been hindering that process. No government should be allowed to do that.

I would have expected reforms coming from any government to increase the power of democracy, the effectiveness of this place, and we see the opposite.

I mentioned some pretty grim realities. We're not celebrating those in the throne speech. We're celebrating the wonders of one commodity: LNG, liquid natural gas. From listening to the throne speech, you could conclude that LNG was some magical elixir invented, created, by this government, this Premier, as a gift to the good people of this province and that this government is ensuring that it's going to solve everything.

It is a wonderful thing — everything from climate change to paying off the debt to maybe a pony for every child. It's going to be wonderful — 100,000 new jobs and a prosperity fund. A prosperity fund that will put billions, no, trillions into all of our pockets. Let everyone eat cake.

[1710]

LNG, for those listening and not watching the Olympics — and there're probably not many — is a commodity. It's a natural resource. It's quite volatile — literally volatile. I mean, it burns. It blows up. We saw that in Manitoba. It's volatile on the international market also. We can't predict the international pricing on LNG from month to month, let alone many, many years in the future.

These fantastical numbers being cited in the throne speech by this Premier and this government are based on nothing. There are no firm commitments. There are no guaranteed markets from anyone. This government can't even figure out the tax regime or the regulatory system for this one natural resource that they're placing everything on. Making outrageous claims without any of those things is misleading in the extreme.

Deputy Speaker: I caution the member.

S. Fraser: In the throne speech it compared natural gas to — it was a quote from Kennedy; it's been cited a few times — going to the moon. More applicable, maybe, would be a quote from, let's say, someone who has been to the moon, Neil Armstrong: "One giant leap for mankind."

LNG — riches for all, one giant reality leap for this government. LNG is a commodity, and the commodity may well provide some benefit as part of a mosaic of an economic plan. Putting all your eggs in one basket is fraught with problems.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members. Members.

S. Fraser: While we're on LNG, as far as the claims of paying out the debt, we'd better hope that it's trillions. Of course, from experiences from other jurisdictions, like Australia, we know that their great hopes were not that great after all, and they're way ahead of us.

Of course, the Premier always says that we have to get on this fast. They can't even develop a tax regime in any timely manner, so that doesn't look too good. It had better be trillions, because if you look at the numbers, this Premier, this government is spending like a drunken sailor. I mean that with no disrespect to drunken sailors. No, this government, this Premier….

No Premier in the history of this province of British Columbia has increased the debt faster or more dramatically than what's happening now — $2.5 billion in the last 200 days. That's the increase in the debt. That's on-the-books debt, not the obligations that we have for contracts for the future. That doubles the rate of the debt for that.

Paying off the debt by LNG, based on nothing but speculation…. This financial folly is based on gambling on this one commodity, with no contracts and no guarantees of anything.

The throne speech speaks about jobs, the jobs plan. We've all heard it. This mythical plan has driven…. Well, it's not mythical. This government has spent, oh, about $20 million pre-election of taxpayers' money to promote the jobs plan that doesn't exist.

There is no jobs plan. If there is, how come we are the worst record in Canada? So $20 million, I guess, provided some jobs to some PR firms, so there are jobs there. But
[ Page 1293 ]
people have been fleeing this province to seek employment. We have the worst jobs creation and the worst jobs statistics in Canada under the so-called jobs plan.

[1715]

Well, I guess the only argument the government or the Premier could have is: "Well, think of how bad it would be if we didn't have a jobs plan." Maybe it would be even worse. Maybe we'd be from rock bottom to rock bottomer. We can't get worse than tenth out of ten.

These are slogans. The government is running on slogans. We're being ruled by sloganeers. There's no governance here. There's a vacuum. It's vapid. That's natural gas, maybe.

The throne speech speaks of skills training. One of the members opposite mentioned mining. I was at the mining roundup a few weeks ago. You talk to junior companies and senior companies, bigger companies, and there's a real problem with skilled labour in this province.

If the mythical 100,000 jobs ever came out of LNG, we wouldn't have anyone to fill them. The minister responsible actually said that in the press following that conference. Why don't we have anyone to fill those jobs? The industries have been telling and warning government for years that there was a looming skills shortage, and the government did nothing.

Now the looming is here. They did worse than nothing. This government gutted skills training as an opening move when they formed government. They gutted the skills training programs in this province, which had a very great completion rate way back when in the dismal decade. Now it's like less than a third of people are graduating through the apprenticeship programs.

This government did that, and then they made it worse. I mean, the last budget actually cut post-secondary funding in the middle of a skills shortage. So whatever prosperity the government is talking about that may come or may not come, they've set it up so that the people of British Columbia cannot reap those benefits. It's like they engineered it. You couldn't do it better. Industry had been warning them for years, as I said.

In the throne speech they speak of some kind of — it's not clearly defined — tampering with post-secondary education as a solution to somehow fix a problem, a problem that they created in the first place.

What are they going to do to post-secondary? What does that mean? This is the government that brought us the highest student debt in the country. The average student debt…. It's probably higher now. The last statistic I saw was $27,000 for a bachelor's degree in this province. It's the worst student debt situation in the country under this government.

This government cancelled all needs-based grants like that, as another opening move, as they gutted the skills training in this province. So those who have the wherewithal and the desire to better themselves in this province, which is something we should all be supporting, could not get post-secondary education without massive debt — the worst in Canada.

We're charging the highest interest rates on student loans at the same time. We have the highest student debt, orchestrated by this government, because we've had the highest rates of tuition fee increases in the country and the highest rate of interest on the student loans. It's like if you were targeting any single group in this province, it would be students and those that want to get ahead through college and university and stills training.

When they mentioned in the throne speech that they're going to try to fix the problem, the fix that they have for the problem of no skilled labour, which they created, is going to be tampering with post-secondary, which they've already created a lot of damage to.

[1720]

It's cause for concern for all of us and nothing to be proud of, because those students are the future of this province.

We as politicians should look beyond year-end fiscal, and we should look beyond, certainly, even the electoral cycle of four years. We need to have a broader view, because not supporting those students will hinder any chance of economic development or job creation that we have in this province, and that's not in anyone's interest.

We need to look out for the economy. I get that. What I get is the government doesn't get that.

I'll give you another example, hon. Speaker: B.C. Ferries. We're not getting a lot of comfort from the throne speech on B.C. Ferries. The last statistic I saw — I think it was from the chamber of commerce of British Columbia — is 30 percent of the citizens of this province rely directly on B.C. Ferries. Of course, we know it's a lifeline, a critical lifeline, socially, culturally and geographically but also economically. But this government doesn't get it. Their privatized model has been a colossal failure.

The capital, this place, is on Vancouver Island. We are bound by ferry traffic. That should not be exclusionary. People should be able to come to this place. It should be a right.

I drive a Yaris. I crossed on the ferry a couple of weeks ago for a mining meeting. I couldn't get a flight because of the fog. Many people, I'm sure, had that same issue. Certainly, I had the opportunity that many don't have, to have options. So I drove my Yaris — just me and my Yaris, not a very big car — onto B.C. Ferries. Back and forth was $140 for a round trip on B.C. Ferries to get on and off this Island, where this place is.

Since the B.C. Liberals, this government, semi-privatized the Crown corporation back in 2003, the public interest has taken a back seat to a corporate model where high corporate pay structures and an obscene bonus system are paid for ever-increasing fares. The pattern is simply continuing now, except that the Liberals have permitted the obscene corporate bonuses to be incorporated directly into an even higher corporate pay structure. So
[ Page 1294 ]
this is not a fix.

I attended the closest public consultation meeting on B.C. Ferries on Vancouver Island. There wasn't one in my constituency. I had to go to Courtenay. That's outside of my constituency.

Alberni–Pacific Rim. It's not like the people of Port Alberni or Tofino or Ucluelet or Bamfield or Bowser aren't relying on B.C. Ferries for cultural reasons, for economic reasons, for geographic reasons. It's important. There was no public forum there, so I went to Courtenay.

It was a well-attended meeting. There were people from all over the place who had to drive there because they didn't have the option of such a consultation in their area. Everyone raised the same concerns. I contacted other people on other forums on other parts of the coast, and those concerns were repeated again and again and again at similar events all over the coast.

It turned out to be, this whole consultation process, just another PR stunt, because none of the concerns were addressed in the minister's announcement last week.

[1725]

The so-called long-term Liberal plan for B.C. Ferries was and is to cut sailings and services, charge more for seniors, introduce gambling on some routes and some vessels and to then implement further fare increases.

More of the same for B.C. Ferries. The downward spiral continues — never-ending fare increases leading to loss of ridership, leading to cuts in services, rewarded by egregious executive compensation. A recipe for failure.

B.C. Ferries is not a luxury — not for the people of Alberni–Pacific Rim, not for the 30 percent of people in British Columbia that rely on that service. This is our marine highway. Any credible long-term plan, which has been cited but doesn't exist, would recognize that fact and would ensure that critical decisions that are made are informed by economics and social impact studies.

You don't make these changes without any information at your disposal. There were no economic impact studies. There were no social impact studies. That's how decisions are made under the so-called long-term plan.

None of the work was done in the decision-making process. It just didn't happen, and we will all pay the price for that. It's very expensive to gut economies on the coast. By providing the vital highway link, the marine highway link…. Every other marine jurisdiction in the world recognizes it for what it is — a highway, a critical link for social reasons, for cultural reasons, for geographic reasons and for economic reasons.

The throne speech speaks of a decade of labour peace in our classrooms. I wrote that one down. In the midst of the Griffin decision, Justice Susan Griffin…. A decade of labour peace — what are they talking about?

Let's look at the last decade. This Premier, formerly the Minister of Education, brought in legislation in 2002, just over a decade ago, designed to strip the rights of teachers away — away from the teachers but all at the expense of our children and the classrooms and their parents in the public education system.

Bills 27 and 28 were found to be unconstitutional. That's unbelievable. Although, of course, this government had already done that. Again, another opening move was to strip rights, guaranteed in the constitution, from HEU workers.

There's a pattern here. Bills 27 and 28 were found to be unconstitutional, and then they did it again with Bill 22. Another court decision now, but now not sitting as the Minister of Education but sitting as the Premier — still at the helm, and more rights stripped from teachers.

They didn't try to fix an appalling legacy of stripping rights, rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution of Canada. This government, this Premier, engineered doing it all over again, but this time Justice Susan Griffin dropped a bombshell.

While actually having the gall to cite a decade of peace in the classroom in the throne speech, sworn court documents highlight a very disturbing plot by this same government and this same Premier to incite a strike by B.C. teachers for political gain. No intention of negotiating in good faith — the polar opposite.

You couldn't write this stuff, hon. Speaker. As elected representatives, we swear an oath of office. As government and as Premier, there can be no more fundamental role to play than to ensure that the rights that we all have and cherish as citizens, that are enshrined in the Constitution of Canada, in the Charter of Rights, are protected.

Get that? This is job one for any government and any Premier. We must do that.

[1730]

People have fought and died for those rights. A government and a Premier who purposely and repeatedly contrive to plot to strip those rights away do not deserve to be government. And to do so using tactics that will hurt students and their families makes it, if such a thing is possible, far worse.

I have taken a negative tone in my response to the throne speech, for those who might not have noticed. But I do hold out hope. The Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services hit on an issue that was peripherally mentioned in the throne speech. It's about connectivity. I hold up hope that his words in this House will bear fruit, that the people of the west coast — my constituency in Ucluelet, in Tofino, the Nuu-chah-nulth communities that have some great long-term and sustainable economic development plans — will get the help they need to be connected.

I have attended meetings on this issue and including representatives from B.C. Hydro and Telus and the community leaders, mayors and chiefs. We have everyone at the table. We need the government to be a player here. We need them to put out a meagre investment, because the new jobs will not happen, the economic growth can-
[ Page 1295 ]
not happen in the region without that connectivity.

You know, I'm still pretty much a Luddite. I didn't realize just how fundamentally important that connectivity is. Fibre optics, these kind of…. We need this connectivity right away. So I am hopeful, because I have been given some hope from the minister, and I thank him for that.

You know what else we need that I didn't quite see in the throne speech but I'm hopeful that maybe we can get? Maybe it's going to show up in some of the changes. We've had changes from the Minister for Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, who's here, and I'm thankful for that.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

But I'm hoping — we had a bill introduced today in forestry — that we'll see some changes that might allow for some sustainable forestry on the coast, in my constituency.

Forests, the last of old-growth forests, critical habitat are being wiped out. They're being liquidated as fast as possible, and those logs are being shipped away with no value added. The damage to critical ungulate winter ranges and wildlife habitats that have been established for decades by government scientists, by this government's scientists, today are being allowed to be wiped out at the expense of all of the communities — at the expense of potentially damaging the water systems in Port Alberni, in Cherry Creek, in Bamfield.

We, hopefully, will see changes coming forward. There's a chance here with a new bill dealing with forestry. I'm looking forward to being an optimist. They say an optimist thinks the glass is half full, a pessimist that it's half empty, and the opportunist drinks it. But I'll be the optimist here. I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that we'll see support from this government in very innovative educational plans for the west coast also.

In Tofino, for instance, there is a plan to create a hub for post-secondary institutions to work through to provide in situ academic studies, trades training and professional development to their students on the west coast on Vancouver Island, in the middle of the first UNESCO biosphere — one of two in all of British Columbia. I look forward to the Minister of Advanced Education supporting that. The previous minister was very supportive.

Hon. S. Thomson: It gives me great pleasure to rise and speak to the Speech from the Throne today, a great opportunity and a real honour.

[1735]

Before I start into some comments around the Speech from the Throne, I just want to — as many other members have done here — first of all, thank all the constituents of Kelowna-Mission for the confidence and the honour in being able to continue to represent them here and to thank my family for their continued patience. It's been a very, very busy time since the summer, particularly with the work in the ministry, and I always continue to marvel at the great patience they have, particularly my wife. I really thank her for her support and my son for his continued support.

I want to digress for one second and just tell a little story. I think I've mentioned, in one of my earlier speeches, the great adventure that he was undertaking in doing an adventure rally by car from London to Mongolia, 10,000 miles in a Kia hatchback with three other kids. They completed it successfully across 23 different countries — into all of the "stans," into Russia, through Siberia, crossed into Mongolia in northern Mongolia and finished in Ulan Bator; just a great, great life-changing experience for him.

He gave my wife and me, as parents, some pretty anxious moments during that trip, but also, we're really proud of him. They dealt with so many situations — with adversity, with challenges through the process — but had this overarching vision and goal to complete. Some 260 cars started. They were one of 160 cars that completed — without GPS, using old maps, and lots and lots of adventure. We are really proud of him.

Now he's back — rejoined us at home just before Christmas — taking some courses at Okanagan College, that great institution we have here in the Okanagan. We're really, really proud of him and very happy with his continued patience — having to be away as much as we are.

Also, we need to, as many others before us have done, pay a lot of thanks and appreciation to our constituency assistants — to my assistants, Nan and Jennifer, in the office in Kelowna. They do such a great job of looking after community interests and individual needs through that office. I really want to thank them for their continued work while I'm away and around the province, working with stakeholders and with industry across this ministry.

This is a very exciting time for the province. We have the chance to create jobs and opportunities that will last for future generations — a chance to leave this province in a better place than it was when we started. That's why all of us, I think — members on this side of the House and members on the other side of the House — put their name forward for public service. It is a great honour to be able to continue to do that.

The way that we can do this and provide for all of these opportunities is to ensure that we have a strong economy and a balanced budget. We're one of the two provinces to have a balanced budget. I was very proud to be part of the government that has achieved that objective and also will be very proud to be part of a government that will be tabling the second consecutive balanced budget this year.

This legacy of fiscal responsibility has earned us top credit ratings from rating agencies across…. We maintained that triple-A credit rating even during these very uncertain times we have in economic uncertainty in
[ Page 1296 ]
many areas of the world and across the world. So this is one of the very, very important foundations and legacies of this government and one that has been committed to continue to do through this throne speech.

What this has done has provided us the opportunity to make very, very significant investments in the province in infrastructure. We are investing in our future. Projects across the province have created opportunities for B.C. businesses to reach new markets and expand existing markets.

This rings true for Kelowna. I want to talk just a little bit about some of the significant infrastructure that we've seen in Kelowna that has really helped provide for very, very important growth in Kelowna.

[1740]

It's one that is supporting our community, one that is supporting our tourism industry in the Okanagan.

One of the best examples of this, and one of the greatest examples of this, is our Kelowna International Airport. This year Kelowna Airport, or YLW, set a record of more than 1.5 million passengers, and the airport saw an all-time record for passengers every month of the year. Airlines are adding new routes and direct services to Kelowna. In October, Pacific Coastal Airlines added direct service between Cranbrook and Kelowna, connecting the Okanagan Valley with the Kootenays.

Just last month WestJet announced regular daily service from Kelowna to Fort McMurray, and Air North has direct service between Kelowna and Whitehorse. This is added onto the direct service that we also have with United Air to Los Angeles, connecting the business community in the Okanagan with the business community in Los Angeles — adding to the tourism industry as well, but adding also very significantly to that connection between the technology industry in the United States and the growing technology sector and centre of excellence that we are developing in Kelowna.

The airport expansion projects are expected to lead to more than 3,000 jobs and over $525 million in economic output by 2025 in the Okanagan. We understand the importance of infrastructure to support economic growth and job creation, which is why we invested $1.35 million in the Kelowna airport, matched by our partners in the federal government, in the 2008-09 fiscal year — a project which has encouraged, as I've just pointed out, the new airlines, new routes and increased passenger numbers we see today.

We're also proud in the Okanagan to see the completion of over $1 million in upgrades to Westside Road, in addition to more than $5.5 million in previous improvements. We've seen significant improvements to Highway 97 completed and are currently in the planning process for the widening of Highway 97 from Highway 33 to Edwards Road out at UBC Okanagan, including intersection upgrades, particularly at Sexsmith intersection.

These are very, very important benefits that will continue to help goods and services and people move efficiently through the Okanagan, moving students efficiently out to UBC Okanagan — again, a great partnership project between local government, provincial government and federal government. We continue to identify infrastructure needs in our community, working with our partners and other levels of government to support our businesses, keep our families safe and support trade and tourism.

On the tourism side our government is committed to creating new jobs, and the tourism sector is a key industry sector where our province can expand markets and strengthen our economy. No one knows the importance of the tourism industry better than Kelowna and the central Okanagan. We welcome visitors from across the province, the country and around the world to our beautiful region to enjoy our wine and outdoor activities available throughout the Okanagan. Wine tourism and the associated agritourism and the food industry in relation to that are creating jobs and generating hundreds of millions of dollars of economic output in our region.

We worked to reduce barriers to trade for B.C.'s wine industry, both within Canada and internationally. After consultations throughout British Columbia with individuals, stakeholders and organizations, we announced commonsense changes to B.C. liquor laws that will support Kelowna's wine industry and promote wine tourism. We're cutting red tape, and we'll be allowing the sale of wine, craft brewery and craft products at various locations like farmers markets and secondary tasting rooms.

I know that this is something that'll be a great opportunity for our region, because our farmers market in Kelowna is probably one of the largest and most well-attended farmers markets in the province. I go to it regularly on the weekends. They're now open three days a week in the Okanagan — Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It has provided a great opportunity to focus on local food production in the Okanagan and on continuing to build support for producers in the area. Now, with this opportunity, it will provide additional opportunities for our wine and vineyards in the Okanagan.

In addition, we've created Destination B.C. to promote British Columbia as a tourism destination in a highly competitive global market. In 2013 we invested more than $48 million in Destination B.C., funding that will allow our partners in industry and this new Crown corporation to attract tourists to all regions of the province, including Kelowna and the central Okanagan.

[1745]

We were excited to announce that four Okanagan sporting events received Hosting B.C. funding from our government to further promote our region, including the Para-Snowboard World Cup and Sport Chek Snowboard Cross National Championship at Big White Mountain, the B.C. Cross Country Skiing Championships in Peachland and West Kelowna, and the Hayman Classic
[ Page 1297 ]
Junior Stage cycling race in Penticton and Summerland.

These events, and the work of Destination B.C. and our local tourism associations, have earned global coverage for Big White and the Thompson-Okanagan, including, recently, a column in the London Times featuring Big White, and a feature on channel 10 in Australia.

All of this is evidence that the investments that we're making in tourism are providing great opportunities for our region, and I want to extend my congratulations to Big White on their tremendous success this year in achieving record numbers of visitors in December and January.

I think there's no greater evidence of the opportunities that we see in the Okanagan than the very, very recent announcement that after many years of work Westcorp in Kelowna is now moving forward with a great new addition to our city, a new hotel, a 24-storey hotel in the downtown waterfront area in the Okanagan. It's going to be a great addition to our city, creating 720 construction jobs and many long-term jobs after construction. I think that's just an indication of the confidence that companies have in both the province and investing in the province and confidence that they have in the growth and the opportunities in Kelowna and the Central Okanagan and confidence in the future of this province.

Interjections.

Hon. S. Thomson: The member for Kelowna–Lake Country acknowledged that that's in the Premier's riding. But when you look at the way that we operate in the Okanagan with Team Okanagan, we view this as an opportunity for all of our ridings in the Okanagan, and we don't….

Interjections.

Hon. S. Thomson: Yeah.

One of the great opportunities that I have in my position as minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is to work towards ensuring that we leverage the strengths of this province in natural resource development. We need to continue to build on those strengths, including using our natural resources to build our economy, and I think that this is one of the very clear differences between members on this side of the House and those on the opposite side of the House.

On this side of the House we are focused on ensuring that we have responsible resource development, because this is a province that was built on resource development, one where the resource industries that we have in this province are the foundation of the province, have been in the past and will continue to be in the future. The work that we do in our role is to ensure that we can continue to move forward, move projects forward, get to yes and make sure that we can continue to build on those resource opportunities that we have in the province in a responsible, sustainable manner.

As B.C.'s one land manager, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is committed to getting to natural resource development decisions faster while recognizing that this needs to happen in an environmentally sustainable way and in a process that ensures that we respect the relationships and consultation with First Nations through these processes. As development levels increase, corresponding pressures are placed upon environmental and social values on the landscape, and there's a need to recognize and balance the cumulative footprint of development on social, economic and environmental outcomes that are of primary importance to British Columbians.

That's where my ministry comes in. It's our job to build the tools that integrate competing and overlapping needs of the various resource sector interests and to work to create integrated processes that help our sector grow and flourish. This integrated approach benefits the resource sector with more efficient service, sustainable environment and certainty in the resources' long-term viability while protecting resource values.

The ministry is now three years into a streamlined approach that integrates policy with operational resource management, creating a single land manager for the province's resource sector. This means greater coordination between agencies and organizations, including a more efficient system to support B.C. workers, businesses, investors and the environment.

[1750]

For example — and I'll just use one example — this past summer it took staff 120 days to process authorizations associated with the Roman coal mine near Tumbler Ridge. Previously this would have taken 320 days. This is just one example of how this coordinated approach is providing for increased economic opportunity and resource development in the province.

In 2012 we met the original jobs plan's commitment to reduce the backlogs in notices of work and Land Act and Water Act authorizations, reducing timelines — again, a commitment that was made and a commitment that was delivered. In February 2013 we began to move more applications from hard copy to electronic.

Changes to mine legislation have resulted in a simpler process for mining clients by exempting certain low-impact exploration activities and time extensions for previously approved exploration drilling from having to participate in the same processes larger projects are subject to. We now work on a process of multi-year, area-based permits that will allow the mining industry to avoid applying for multiple permits when working in the same exploration area.

The member from Port Alberni–Clayoquot talks about regional economic development and the mining industry. We are taking significant steps to help improve the cli-
[ Page 1298 ]
mate, and we're seeing the results with new mines being opened and new mine approvals for expansions of mines. We'll continue to work to meet the targets that are set out in the B.C. jobs plan and the commitments that we have made to achieve those targets.

In October, I had the real honour of leading 25 senior forestry executives on a forestry trade mission to Japan and China. In October we set new records for shipments of lumber to China, the highest volume shipped in one month, and also set a new record for total value of shipments to China.

By the end of 2013 over $1.4 billion in softwood products had been shipped to China. The previous record was set with almost $1.1 billion in 2011. In 2013 softwood lumber exports to Japan increased by 23 percent to $827 million from $674 million in the previous year. The U.S. remains B.C.'s number one market, and softwood lumber exports increased to $2.56 billion in 2013, a 28 percent increase from the $2 billion shipped in 2012.

Overall in 2013 the forest sector showed that it continues to recover from the 2009 global economic downturn. In 2013, 58,200 people were directly employed in the sector, up 13 percent from 2009. The value of forest product exports totalled $11.6 billion, an increase of 53 percent from 2009, and accounted for one-third of B.C.'s total exports by value.

We've worked in partnership with the industry through the deepest and most difficult time in their history to provide for that foundation, for recovery and to help the industry move forward. I can say that this industry is poised with optimism and poised with opportunity for the future.

One of the other critical commitments in the throne speech that's very, very important for our region and for the Okanagan is the commitment to be tabling a new sustainable water act this session, which will update and replace the existing Water Act, respond to current and future pressures on water, including groundwater, and position B.C. as a leader in water stewardship.

I think everybody knows in the Okanagan that water is critically important to the future of the Okanagan. This legislation will make sure that we continue to have that leading-edge stewardship in the Okanagan Valley. It's a result of extensive consultation with British Columbians, including thousands of submissions. This will really help build on the work done by the Okanagan Basin Water Board on water issues in the Okanagan.

I just want to acknowledge the great work of the board and recognize that this year they received an award of excellence in water stewardship awarded by the Council of the Federation, which demonstrates their leadership and their initiative and their achievement in focusing on water stewardship in the Okanagan and one that the new legislation will really help and assist us to continue to make sure that we protect and enhance that water security for the Okanagan Valley.

[1755]

One of the great opportunities that we see in the Okanagan is investing, is building, as I mentioned earlier, in the technology sector in our community. We have a great initiative going with Accelerate Okanagan. Through the B.C. venture acceleration program and the B.C. Innovation Council our government is providing support for entrepreneurs and technology companies to accelerate their growth and maximize their success.

More than 170 companies have engaged across the province in creating jobs and opportunities. Just a small example of a company in Kelowna called Two Hat Security — a great example of how we support and provide funding to give entrepreneurs the support they need to succeed. This award-winning web security company, which was a member of Accelerate Okanagan's venture acceleration program, is now growing rapidly, taking on large clients and hiring staff.

This is an initiative where we will continue to focus to ensure that we continue to build on that very, very important centre of excellence that is developing in the Okanagan — one of those kind of quiet, untold stories but one that we'll be promoting and continuing to grow because it is a great opportunity and a great centre of excellence that will be developed in the Okanagan.

Madame Speaker: Minister, noting the hour, do you wish to reserve your place in debate?

Hon. S. Thomson: I'll conclude quickly here.

I had talked and the member for Kelowna–Lake Country has talked about the investments in health care in the Okanagan, investments in our leading educational institutions at Okanagan College and UBC Okanagan. But just in conclusion, our government is unwavering in its commitment to better this province for all British Columbians, in keeping our commitment to our constituents who send us here with a mandate to create a strong economy for a secure tomorrow.

I rise in support of this speech because I know that we're making the right decisions, sometimes the tough decisions, to spend within our means and create opportunities now and into the future.

Having concluded my remarks, I now move adjournment of debate.

Hon. S. Thomson moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. T. Lake moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 5:57 p.m.

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