2015 Legislative Session: Fourth 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)

Monday, March 9, 2015

Morning Sitting

Volume 21, Number 4

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

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

The House met at 10:03 a.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Prayers.

Speaker’s Statement

COMMONWEALTH DAY

Madame Speaker: Hon. Members, today we celebrate Commonwealth Day. Members may note that the Royal Union flag, known as the Union Jack, will be flown on the precinct from sunrise to sunset, along with the Canadian and British Columbian flags.

I will now read Her Majesty’s Commonwealth Day message.

“One simple lesson from history is that when people come together to talk, to exchange ideas and to develop common goals, wonderful things can happen.

“So many of the world’s greatest technological and industrial achievements have begun as partnerships between families, countries and even continents. But as we are often reminded, the opposite can also be true. When common goals fall apart, so does the exchange of ideas, and if people no longer trust or understand each other, the talking will soon stop.

“In the Commonwealth we are a group of 53 nations of dramatically different sizes and climates. But over the years, drawing on our shared history, we have seen and acted upon the huge advantages of mutual cooperation and understanding, for the benefit of our countries and for the people who live in them.

“Not only are there tremendous rewards for this cooperation, but through dialogue we protect ourselves against the dangers that can so easily arise from a failure to talk or to see the other person’s point of view.

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“Indeed, it seems to me now that in the second decade of the 21st century what we share through being members of the Commonwealth is more important and worthy of protection than perhaps at any other time in the Commonwealth’s existence. We are guardians of a precious flame, and it is our duty not only to keep it burning brightly but to keep it replenished for the decades ahead.

“With this in mind, I think it apt that on this day we celebrate a young Commonwealth and all that it has to offer. As a concept that is unique in human history, the Commonwealth can only flourish if its ideas and ideals continue to be young and fresh and relevant to all generations.

“The youthfulness and vitality that motivate our collective endeavours were seen in abundance last year in Glasgow. They will be seen again in a few months’ time, when young leaders from islands and continents gather to make new friendships and to work on exciting initiatives that can help to build a safer world for future generations.

“Last November in India talented young scientists from universities and research institutes conferred with eminent professors and pioneers of discovery at the Commonwealth Science Conference, where together they shared thoughts on insights and inventions that promise a more sustainable future.

“These are stirring examples of what is meant by a young Commonwealth. It is a globally diverse and inclusive community that opens up new possibilities for development through trust and encouragement.

“Commonwealth Day provides each of us, as members of this worldwide family, with a chance to recommit ourselves to upholding the values of the Commonwealth Charter. It has the power to enrich us all, but just as importantly in an uncertain world, it gives us good reason to keep talking.”

Members, I thank you for your attention.

Orders of the Day

Private Members’ Statements

THE VALUE OF POST-PRODUCTION
IN THE B.C. FILM INDUSTRY

J. Thornthwaite: It’s with great pleasure that I rise in the House today to talk about an industry that is a big employer and key economic driver in our province.

[D. Horne in the chair.]

B.C. is a hub for film and television production, thanks in large part to our experienced crews, competitive tax credits, proximity to Hollywood and stunning geography. When you combine these benefits with a low Canadian dollar, our province is the perfect choice for any production. It’s why many producers keep coming back time and time again to British Columbia to shoot commercials, television shows, movies of the week and feature films.

More than 25,000 British Columbians earn a living in film, television and digital media sectors. These industries account for more than $1 billion in annual business and benefit many secondary and tertiary sectors, such as construction, hospitality and food services.

B.C. is now the fourth-largest film production centre in North America. With the start of the TV pilot season underway, more than 20 projects are either in production or about to go in front of the camera.

Our government supports filmmakers, actors and other industry participants in a variety of ways. In January 2013 we combined the B.C. Film Commission and B.C. Film and Media into Creative B.C. By consolidating resources we created a one-stop shop that provides enhanced support for a wide range of programs, services and tax incentive opportunities.

Creative B.C. makes it easier for producers to bring their products into the province and is one of the many ways that we are working with the industry to ensure clients have unfettered access to our high-quality production environment and world-class post-production and visual effects.

In addition to Creative B.C., we support foreign and domestic productions through a subsidy of fully refundable tax credits designed to encourage film and television activity in all areas of the province. These credits help re-
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duce the cost for film and television companies, making it more affordable to operate in B.C.

Tax credits for film and television have averaged $272 million over the past three years, while credits for interactive digital media have averaged $41 million.

Most recently we extended the CRD location tax credit to the capital regional district of Victoria. Announced in Budget 2014, this credit allows productions shooting in greater Victoria to have access to a 6 percent tax credit that was previously only available to projects shooting north of Whistler, east of Hope and everywhere on Vancouver Island except the capital region.

This change has had a profound effect in the capital, where we expect ten productions to film here by late April. Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert says we have never seen numbers like this before. At the current rate, this year is looking like it will beat 2006, which was the capital region’s best year ever, when 12 productions created $18 million in revenue.

[1010]

But this budget, 2015, was a major announcement. We announced the extension of the digital animation or visual effects, or DAVE, tax credit to include post-production services. These last two items were lobbied heavily from the industry to government for the last several years, so much so that we included it on our 2013 campaign platform. Promises made, promises kept.

The extension of the DAVE tax credit to post-production services is of particular importance because though the production side of the industry is booming, we are currently shooting and shipping work away. Once filming is complete, many projects head back to L.A. to finish editing and post-production, despite the fact that we have world-class post facilities and talented editors, sound mixers and colourists right here in B.C. We want to keep the entire supply chain here, from the beginning of the shoot until it hits the screen. That’s why the extension of the DAVE tax credit is so important.

Post-production is the preparation of a motion picture, TV program or on-line digital content for final exhibition. It usually begins with the editing of dailies, or audio and video, which are recorded separately on set and are synced up and prepared for editorial. Dailies also give the director and producers a chance to view the technical quality of the footage and to make sure they have what they need for the performers.

From there, the post-production work flow includes data processing and management, the creation of a digital intermediate picture editorial, visual effects, colour grading, musical scoring, sound mixing and recorded automated dialogue replacement and the creation of final deliverables for broadcast or theatrical exhibition.

There were a significant number of big film and television projects that were shot in British Columbia last year but went to L.A. for post, including Fifty Shades of Grey, Arrow, The Flash, The Killing, Supernatural, Gracepoint, Falling Skies, The Tomorrow People, Once Upon a Time and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. We want to reverse the trend of these projects leaving B.C. once filming has concluded. Not only is this lost revenue, but it also means the local talent goes without work when the post-production side is running under capacity.

In addition, Bob D’Eith from the Music B.C. Industry Association wrote me and said that the news is great for the music industry as post-production includes music and music composition. Hal Beckett, music director of the Vancouver Film Orchestra, also wrote me and said that this announcement indirectly helps the arts in B.C., as most of the musicians who will benefit are members of various orchestras and ensembles and have been eager to participate in the film work that is being done here.

I’ve been very fortunate to meet many people in the industry, all of whom are very excited about the opportunities the extension of the DAVE tax credit brings to the sector. Post-production is a vibrant, integral part of the film industry, and I look forward to following the success that this latest change brings to our province.

G. Heyman: Thank you to the member for North Vancouver–Seymour for pointing out once again how important the film industry in general is to B.C.’s economy. She’s quite right, as Peter Leitch has pointed out to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. The industry is over $1 billion. It does employ approximately 25,000 people directly, but beyond that, with indirect impacts and induced impacts on the economy, the numbers rise to over 80,000.

Hundreds of people are employed in post-production. It’s a 30-year industry in our province. It’s a major investor in infrastructure, and that part of the film sector, indeed, is in the millions of dollars. The future of post-production services in B.C. is key to the digital future of our province, and the extension of the DAVE tax credit will only help to build this part of the industry.

As the member has pointed out, more of the production value chain will remain in B.C. Foreign production will be encouraged to stay here and do the entirety of their production, including post-production. We have world-class facilities. It’s good to see that they will be used.

One of the offshoots of the extension of this tax credit will be to induce and incent more producers from away to do post-production here in B.C., which may be the difference, finally, between whether any part of the production at all comes here. If you can do the whole production here, it is a good thing. It’s an incentive to producers, and it will have, perhaps, an immeasurable impact on the industry.

[1015]

It will also promote domestic productions. It will be one more incentive, and it adds to our competitiveness. But I have to ask, when I look at the budget line for the extension of the digital animation and visual effects tax
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credit to post-production, it is a mere $2 million a year. I shouldn’t say a mere $2 million. That is significant, but in the context of a large budget and the economic impact on B.C., it seems like an amount of money that was promised in the election that shouldn’t have waited two years to be brought in, particularly if, as the member for North Vancouver–Seymour, says: “This is so important to the industry.” This was a long wait, and I scratch my head as to why this wasn’t done in this government’s first budget of this mandate.

If I’m thinking of reasons, perhaps I need look no further than the budget speech. When the Finance Minister talked about the value of a diversified economy in British Columbia and keeping our heads above water when the price of oil dropped and others in Canada were feeling the impact, I looked for what he considered diversification in our economy, and I found a mere five lines with respect to the creative industries generally and film — five lines, while two entire pages were devoted to the resource sector, which of course, is important. But if we’re talking about diversification, we should respect the creative industries. We should support the creative industries, and we should do it sooner rather than later.

If we look at Creative B.C., which plays a very important role not just in film and television but promoting music, book publishing, magazines and art, we see that this is the agency that took over and incorporated B.C. Film. But provincial funding has remained static. Speakers to the Finance Committee said what could be done with additional funding, and they pointed to the fact that Creative Saskatchewan has a budget of $7.4 million. Nova Scotia has $5.3 million, yet here in B.C., Creative B.C. remains funded at a mere $2.2 million. People who presented to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services requested $15 million.

Perhaps that is more than this government could have found, but Creative B.C. could do so much more, and the returns in jobs and taxes and economic development in British Columbia could be tremendous. We could be looking at project development, content development, export preparedness, market research and marketing — taking this sector and marketing it to the world. That’s something that Creative B.C. should be and could be doing if it was properly funded.

In closing, let me say that it is a good thing that the DAVE tax credit has been extended, but much more remains to be done to diversify our economy and support the creative industries.

J. Thornthwaite: I’d like to thank the member for his positive remarks for the film industry.

The film and television industry is particularly important to my community in North Vancouver–Seymour. In fact, close to one in four of North Shore families rely on the industry for their livelihood, either directly or indirectly. In working to bring the concerns of this sector to government, I’ve been fortunate to meet many industry people in both production and post-production.

In September 2013, I joined a group of MLAs to tour Sharpe Sound Studios. Located in North Vancouver, Sharpe is one of western Canada’s leading audio post-production facilities. It provides state-of-the-art sound services for the film and television industry and handles everything from sound mixing to Foley recording and automated dialogue replacement or ADR.

ADR involves the recording of an actor’s dialogue in a studio to replace the original audio that, for some reason or other, is unusable. Foley involves the reproduction and recording of sound effects, from footsteps to the swishing of clothing to the sound of a door opening. Sharpe Studios has worked on many major Hollywood movies, including The Haunting in Connecticut and Elysium, and has a great relationship with Capilano University’s Bosa Centre for Film and Animation.

In March of 2014, under the direction of Suzanne Thompson, I was able to tour Post Modern Sound, Digital Film Central and the facilities of Encore and Method Studios, where they provide services such as dailies, editing, colour grading and digital visual effects. These are just a few of the many post houses located in the province, all of which have a deep pool of talent working in various areas of the industry.

[1020]

We’ve seen great success with the extension of the distant location regional tax credit to the CRD, and no doubt, we expect the extension of the DAVE tax credit to the post-production side. Post is where the magic really happens, where all the pieces come together to form a finished product, and the extension of the DAVE tax credit will ensure that more of that magic stays in British Columbia.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE

L. Popham: As I begin today, I can’t help but think that with a title like “Missed Opportunities in Agriculture,” the variety of topics I could have chosen to cover in this chamber are enormous. Every day I consider the opportunities we are missing and the lack of long-term planning for food security in relation to the importance that it should have for our future.

I have stood here many times and chastised our current government for things that I fundamentally disagree with in their approach. I often feel as though our values are so different that I have no idea how we could ever reach agreement.

But today is different. Today is not about angrily schooling the government members on a topic I can’t believe they don’t know more about. It’s not about attacking and coming on strong because I see a weakness. It’s not about marching the members out on a limb and then sawing it off.
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Today is different. Today I’d like to appeal to the members’ common sense. This is my request for attention to a matter that is in all of our best interests and to call on cabinet to support a part of the agricultural industry that has reached a full crisis. Without support from all of us, we may see the end of an era that began in B.C. in the 1930s. The sector I bring to your attention this morning is the B.C. hazelnut sector.

In preparing for this debate, I took a look at the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture website page on hazelnuts. Just that alone helped me understand that this sector has been overlooked for quite some time. The entries on that page are outdated, and there fails to be a plan for the future, given the current situation.

The regional list of growing sites that are described are inaccurate and incomplete. Only the Fraser Valley gets associated with nut farms, but in reality, we see hazelnuts growing in many areas of the province, including Vancouver Island.

There is mention of hazelnuts having low economic returns, almost as a deterrent for those considering such a crop, but we know that with new cultivars, improved orchard management techniques and a growing demand for nuts and value-added products, hazelnut orchards are a financially smart choice.

This ministry page also fails to mention that hazelnut plantings have relatively low input requirements compared to many other crops, including their demand for water.

As we all begin to understand the challenges that climate change brings to the table, having drought-tolerant agriculture crops like hazelnuts will only become more and more valuable. Already we’ve seen weather play havoc in other parts of the world that grow these nuts, increasing the price. Last fall weather devastated crops in Turkey, the world’s biggest producer, increasing prices by 60 percent. Turkey grows about 70 percent of the world’s hazelnuts.

In many parts of B.C. we have ideal climatic conditions for these nuts. We are geographically situated to successfully withstand climate changes for the right types of crops, like hazelnuts. It’s a fast-growing tree. The nuts are high in demand. We can grow them well, and the nutritional value is huge. The trees sequester more carbon than most other crops, and if that’s not enough good news, they also offer some of the earliest pollen available to our bee populations in the spring.

So what’s the problem? Well, it’s more than a problem. Some in the sector would call it a complete emergency. This is not news to the MLAs that sit in this chamber, representing the areas that host hazelnut farms. They are well aware of this crisis.

In the mid-1970s EFB, eastern filbert blight, arrived in Washington state. It’s a fungus called Anisogramma anomala, and it crept its way, via the wind, up to B.C. by 2005. This is a deadly fungus causing die back of young spring branches, eventually causing the entire tree to die.

Even with stringent pruning and fungicide applications, every commercial orchard in the Lower Mainland is affected. A quarantine has been in place to help slow the spread of the disease, and it has helped, but the destruction has gone very far. Seabird Island First Nation has a 115-acre nut orchard, and every single tree is dead. Orchard after orchard is becoming decimated by EFB, and with that comes a decline in our agricultural productivity and potential.

[1025]

As we see orchards being ripped out or left in place to rot, we need to ask ourselves a few questions. Will this be the end of the B.C. hazelnut industry? Is this a situation without hope? Can anything be done to save it? The answer to all of those questions is the same. It’s up to us, right here in this chamber, to make a choice to support this incredible sector.

I’m appealing to every member in this House to realize the value we have right here in our own backyard and to help to bring relief as fast as possible.

What does the hazelnut industry need? First and foremost, they need a commitment from us that they will have access to orchard-replant dollars similar to the B.C. Fruit Growers. We are fortunate that over the past few years the hazelnut industry has begun to organize. There are dedicated people doing trials with blight-resistant varieties, allowing orchards to be replanted with new trees.

Trials on test plots are underway in the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island. The results are looking good, as the new trees are showing no signs of disease at this point, giving much-needed hope to the industry. We are very lucky that the blight is not carried in the soil, so an orchard can be replanted after a diseased orchard has been removed without having to treat the soil.

But here’s the problem. Just like the B.C. Fruit Growers, the hazelnut growers need a provincial replant program to enable these orchards to be reborn. With this support, they could renew the industry in a very successful way. They need to sit down with government and establish a plan so that they can continue their dedication to what they grow, but it’s got to happen fast.

L. Larson: I’ll speak this morning to all of the opportunities in agriculture, including the hazelnuts. I believe agriculture in British Columbia is an untapped opportunity, not a missed one. It’s one of the best-kept secrets that has quietly moved forward without the high profile of other natural resources but has the same potential of economic excellence.

Primary agriculture in B.C. generated $2.8 billion in sales in 2013. Approximately 20,000 farms utilized 2.6 million hectares to produce more than 200 agricultural products. There are more than 4.6 million hectares in the agricultural land reserve, a very obvious opportunity for farming to grow.
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Climatic conditions in the province make it possible for British Columbia farmers to grow a wide variety of commodities. Total farm cash receipts from the sale of crops — including grains, oilseeds, tree fruits, berries, grapes, field and greenhouse vegetables, floriculture, nursery forage and other crops — amounted to nearly $1.4 billion in 2013, up 2.7 percent over 2012 and up 12 percent over the previous five-year average.

In 2013 B.C. producers led Canada in the sale of blueberries, cranberries, sweet cherries, raspberries, apricots, garlic and leeks, and 15 of B.C.’s other crops ranked second in sales, including greenhouse peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and many ground crops, as well as floriculture and nursery products.

Let’s not forget aquaculture and commercial fisheries. Aquaculture farm-gate sales from farmed salmon, clams, oysters, scallops and other cultured shellfish totalled more than $500 million, and commercial fishing landed values of $300 million.

B.C. producers led the nation in sales of many products, such as cultured salmon, wild salmon, halibut, rockfish, farm clams, oysters and scallops, just to name a few. The aquaculture industry is only just beginning to realize its potential for growth in British Columbia.

Our food and beverage processors represent the largest manufacturing sector in the province, generating nearly $8 billion in sales in 2013, increasing 1 percent over 2012 and 8 percent over the five-year average.

This government recognizes and supports the agriculture industry and farmers of British Columbia. We have invested $6 million in the Buy Local program, including $2 million in this budget, helping B.C. farmers and food processors promote their products and support food security in B.C.

We have committed $8.4 million for a seven-year tree fruit replant program that supports growers’ efforts to meet consumer demand for high-quality, high-value B.C. fruit. The new replant program builds on the recent success of growers who replanted low-value orchards with high-demand and high-quality varieties, like Ambrosia apple and late-season cherries.

[1030]

The B.C. Hazelnut Growers Association revitalization plan is expected to be released in 2015. The plan will contain a set of recommendations for industry and government, including a revised replanting projection and program proposal.

Many of the growers in my riding of Boundary-Similkameen will benefit from the replant programs. Through Growing Forward 2, the governments of Canada and British Columbia have committed $13.4 million through 2018 to support innovation in B.C. products and processes. So far, in 2013-2014, 63 projects have shared more than $5.8 million in funding. That’s definitely not opportunities missed by the farming producers of B.C.

Support from not only government but the consumers of British Columbia is necessary to ensure the continuing success of our farming community. With innovation in farming practices and the work being done to promote our products at home and abroad, farming will continue to increase as an opportunity in British Columbia.

L. Popham: One thing I know about farmers and people in the agriculture industry is that we need them. We need them more than ever. We need the hazelnut orchards to be part of our provincial food security plan. That means we need to increase the amount of nuts we produce, and we can’t do this until we face the needs of the sector.

We need to act now, and I’ll tell you why. Just like most things in agriculture, you can’t snap your fingers and change things quickly. Perennial crops like hazelnut trees take about five years to start producing and ten years to reach full production. That means we need to start replanting now in order to minimize our transition time. We need about 1,000 acres in full production to have a viable industry, and we have a lot of work in front of us to get to that stage.

There is the work of ripping out old orchards, then working through the provincial regulations in order to dispose of or burn the diseased trees so as not to infect new plantings. Currently the way this is handled by the ministry is slowing down the efforts of our orchardists as they fight to be able to burn diseased wood.

There is the work of producing enough trees to replant. Fortunately, work is being undertaken now by those in the industry. The trees being started here in B.C. begin in a tissue culture lab, and getting them to the stage of a No. 1 pot takes about two to three years.

It all takes time, and there’s no time to waste. Replant dollars can help to make this happen, and I know there are government members who know this just as well as I do. I know there have been a couple requests from government members to support a hazelnut replant program. These requests are dated back to 2013. There must be a faster reaction by cabinet.

I think we all understand that this is very much needed, and I hope we can all stand together so it can happen as soon as possible. Let’s not let indifference be the reason the hazelnut industry died. Let’s stand together and let recognition of its provincial value be the reason that it thrives.

BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
IN A TIME OF GROWTH

M. Bernier: I’m pleased to rise in the House today and talk about building healthy communities during a time of boom. As was perfectly said by the group B.C. Healthy Communities — I think they explained perfectly what this means: “Healthy lifestyles, a vibrant economy, affordable housing, protected parks and green spaces, ac-
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cessible community services, thriving neighbourhoods, clean air and water, a sustainable environment, ethnic and cultural diversity, healthy public policy and engaged citizens — a healthy community is all of these and more.” This is exactly what our government is achieving here in British Columbia.

As we look to continue to grow our economy in B.C., our government recognizes the importance of growing healthy communities as well. To make sure our communities continue to grow and thrive, we are investing in a range of areas. We can’t wait until people come to the communities before we start investing. By then it’s too late. We need to continue to make family-friendly communities. We should strive to have the best quality of life possible for our citizens.

How do we do that? Well, natural resources are the backbone of our economy and play a huge role in helping our government grow our communities. In my region, the heartland of natural resource development, I’ve witnessed firsthand some unique ways that communities are capitalizing on natural resources. Building healthy communities means doing what we can to ensure that people have a job.

[1035]

In anticipation of developing our natural resource industry, our government is working to align skills training and labour market demands to equip people with the skills that they need for the future job opportunities here in the province, particularly in the trades. For example, last year our government announced funding for an additional 75 training spaces in Northern Lights College in my region to increase access to help reduce wait-lists for the trades, which are critical for the liquefied natural gas industry and other trades that are in high demand now. This allocation was part of $6.8 million that was announced to create 1,424 foundation and apprenticeship seats in 14 public post-secondary institutions throughout the province.

Taking the opportunities from conception to development and then operation requires innovation, collaboration and sometimes some creativity. The $400 million Meikle wind energy project located between Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd and within the traditional territory of Treaty 8 First Nations in my region is a fantastic example of this. The project will use 61 wind turbine generators to provide 185 megawatts of capacity, enough clean and renewable energy into the B.C. Hydro grid to power the equivalent of approximately 54,000 homes. Skills training and promoting natural resource development are two ways in which we can support growth in our communities.

Another essential component to strong communities is ensuring that residents have access to health care services. We recognize remote areas of the province face challenges, and we are working with health authorities and other stakeholders in recruitment efforts. This challenge is a reality across the country and in communities all over the world. That’s why we are working to develop a rural health strategy, informed by the very communities that rely on our services to create a consistent and comprehensive plan for health care for everyone.

Northern Health partnered with Fort St. John doctors to create a successful community clinic to improve access to physicians for people without a family doctor. We also just recently announced five new much-needed physicians that have been recruited to the Peace region. Building on this, our government’s latest agreement with doctors of B.C. includes a total of $16 million in new annual funding, as well as existing funding, to support recruitment and retention of rural health care workers.

Also, a lot of our communities are fortunate enough to have gaming centres, which bring much-needed funds in for gaming grants. Gaming grants are another way our government provides organizations with the means to continue providing the programs and services that add to the quality of life in communities. The South Peace Child Development Society and the Step Up ‘N’ Ride Society are two organizations that continue in my riding to have a positive impact on the lives of the people who would struggle to operate if it were not for these grants.

When I was mayor for the city of Dawson Creek, I witnessed firsthand the need that our community had for a performing arts centre to serve the many arts and culture-based engagements. As well as being a local focal point downtown and a place to showcase when trying to recruit professionals, it was a much-needed asset for the community. The Calvin Kruk Centre for the Arts, which our government invested $3.2 million towards, is one example of a project that we supported to help to build a healthy community. It is a busy, active place, providing much-needed opportunities for people in our region.

Communities need to have services and amenities to attract families, to attract businesses and professionals to the area. To further grow our communities, we need to continue towards attracting more investment and to diversify our economies. We are committed to working with communities and working with their elected officials and to listen to the issues that they are facing so that we can collectively continue to have healthy places to live.

Of course, people want to have a great quality of life. That is why this government is committed to growing the economy, creating long-lasting jobs and prosperity here in British Columbia. We recognize that, in turn, this will help continue to build healthy communities all around the province.

J. Darcy: I appreciate the opportunity to follow the member speaking about building healthy communities in a time of growth. The reality is that we are taking more and more of our natural resources out of these communities, and we’re not putting in the kinds of services that people need in order to truly have healthy communities.

[1040]

The member spoke about the issue of doctor shortages. There have been some recent steps to recruit doctors, but frankly, we are way, way behind the curve in recruiting doctors for the northeast and for many parts of this province. The GP for Me promise, which was made first in 2010 and then repeated many, many times prior to the last election, promised a general practitioner for every British Columbian by 2015. It’s now mid-March of 2015, and the people in the northeast probably know better than anyone else what that broken promise means in real terms.

These are communities that are growing rapidly. Fort St. John grew by 1,000 people in a year — 4.5 percent. Dawson Creek by 3 percent. Surrey is the only city or community in the province that’s growing faster than these communities. And a walk-in clinic is simply not acceptable. We know that we’re going to see rapid growth in all of the communities in the northeast — in the energy sector and in the natural gas sector. Considerations of work camps within the city, in the case of Fort St. John, have even been under discussion recently.

This is a place where the health care system is already extremely overburdened — not just the doctor shortage but the hospital, where a large number of the beds are taken up by people who ought to be in nursing home beds except that there are not sufficient beds in the residential care facility. We have shortages of a wide range of health care professionals: doctors, nurse practitioners and other health care providers.

There’s also the issue of recruitment, and there’s also the issue of training and retention of skilled-trades workers. We know that there are going to be thousands of skilled-trades workers needed in the coming years throughout the province — and in the northeast, in particular. Frankly, this government is playing catch-up in that area because of a decade of ignoring the need to do apprenticeships and serious training and recruitment in the area of skills training.

The area of health care. When I read the local papers, when I hear about what’s happening in town hall forums up there…. I hear educators and I hear parents also speaking out about how this latest budget is having a serious impact on public education in the northeast — that there are fewer and fewer services that are available to students.

While the government says that the cuts are supposed to be in administrative areas, not on the front line of education, the fact is — and this is quoting a local educator: “We’re being told to cut back. You will have less funds. You’re told, ‘Don’t impact the students.’ But at some point you wonder, how are we going to implement that?” Effectively, the government is downloading costs of public education onto the school districts that are already struggling to make ends meet.

On the issue of affordability, which is an issue that you’ve heard members on this side of the House and you’ve heard British Columbians speaking out about over and over again, especially since the budget came down last month. The issue of affordability is huge in the northeast. The price of rent, the price of housing, has gone through the roof. That means that people are really struggling.

Yes, if they work in the energy sector, in the oil industry, they make pretty good wages, compared to folks in some other occupations. But the fact is: when you’ve got all of your costs going up…. The cost of tuition for post-secondary education is going up, the cost of MSP is going up, the cost of hydro, and the list goes on. On top of that, you’re paying some of the highest rents and the highest mortgages in the province.

There is no question that people in the northeast, just as they are right across the province, are saying: “Why would this government give a tax break to people who made over $150,000 a year while the rest of us are really struggling to pay the bills?”

If we’re going to keep taking resources out of the northeast and out of resource communities across this province the way that we are, we absolutely need to make a commitment to those communities that we’re going to provide the services for them so they can, indeed, have healthy communities while they grow.

M. Bernier: Thank you, Member, for the comments. It’s nice to know that you followed almost in line with all the things I was talking about. But I’m going to diversify a little bit off of northeast B.C. because this is broader than northeast B.C. This is British Columbia.

[1045]

In fact, right now if you look at northwest British Columbia, we’re working with the local governments around there too. They’ve expressed concerns over the current and anticipated capacity challenges because of the growth in that area. I know that they’ve been working well with our Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, meeting with her and talking about the challenges they’re facing and how we as a government can help them.

In May of 2014 our government announced grants totalling up to about $1 million to help the local governments in that area affected with significant industrial growth, in the northwest. That $1 million is going to fund two programs. An asset management capacity-building grant will support the review of infrastructure capacity and assist communities in determining what additional services are needed for their specific growth needs. And community land planning grants will assist local governments to do the work required so that their land use bylaws, policies and plans will both align with the needs for industrial expansion and maintain community health and quality of life for the existing and current residents.

This could include, and has included, updating local official community plans or zoning bylaws or new studies for targeted areas around housing affordability. To
[ Page 6494 ]
help make life more affordable for families, our government has provided more than $32 million for subsidized housing and rent supplements for more than 4,900 low-income individuals and seniors and families in northern British Columbia. In fact, just announced, through B.C. Housing, was $1 million in Terrace to help some much-needed renovations around B.C. Housing units in that area. So the investment continues. Over 300 low-income working families in the north region also receive assistance through the rental assistance program.

To finish off, one of the things that we are is the government of getting to yes. We are the government of progression. We are the government that is making things happen. We work every day to try and make a better future for the people of this province. We want our communities to grow. We want our communities to prosper. That’s why we’re making these kinds of investments for the people here in British Columbia: so we can work with them to help build healthy communities.

COLLABORATION IN EDUCATION

R. Fleming: This morning I’d like to speak about the importance of collaboration between government, teachers, parents, policy-makers and school administrators to bring out the very best in all of our students. The importance of showing ambition to improve B.C.’s approximately 1,600 public schools — or, to use this government’s own lofty but rather empty phrase, transformational change — is something that is well recognized.

Across all of the key economic sectors, leaders in business, labour and education, and the public, well understand the direct connection between expanding wealth, prosperity and justice in our province by growing investment in education and the social capital of our citizens. Unfortunately, while British Columbians from every walk of life get it, the provincial budget completely missed this point. But that’s a debate before this House on another day.

I am certain that every member of this House can undoubtedly give proud examples of excellent schools and teaching innovation from classrooms in their constituency. These examples exist, and they are inspiring. I could easily use more than my allocated time to give incredible examples of amazing things that happen every day in the elementary, middle and secondary schools in my riding. But I want to use my time a little differently.

I think the question that we should be asking, the debate that we should be having, is: how do we move our province forward from having a very good system of public education that has served us well to one that is truly great, to serve us in the future? How do we move to an education system in British Columbia that is based on the spirit and the purpose of collaboration?

Unfortunately, what we have seen come into the sharpest focus possible over the past 12 months — in fact, for more than 12 years — is the triumph of confrontation over collaboration in education. And still, on this very day, that failed path remains before our court system.

[1050]

I was very curious to attend an education summit convened in January by the Minister of Education at the Wosk Centre in Vancouver. International experts were flown in — at great expense, no doubt. All the major stakeholders were assembled. Nobody quite knew what to expect. Perhaps even the minister himself didn’t know what to expect.

But whatever information the ministry thought these speakers would present, what was interesting was how at odds their message was with this government’s deliberately disruptive actions in our schools over the past several years. I don’t think I can put too fine a point on it. I think Madam Justice Bennett put a fine point on it based on the sworn testimony and evidence heard in her court.

At this conference we heard European, British and American scholars say several things consistently. If you want to drive better results in your education system, you need to support the ongoing professional development of teachers. We heard that education is made more innovative by giving greater autonomy to teachers. Students should also be given a larger, more autonomous role in evaluating their education.

Above all, we heard that government collaboration with the teaching profession is paramount to innovation, that in fact a jurisdiction’s quality of education cannot, by definition, exceed the quality of its teachers. To improve outcomes requires government to actually support teachers professionally and show genuine respect for the work that they do. Confrontation in education distracts our attentions, and ultimately it robs B.C.’s abilities to seize opportunities to do better.

The risk of failing to embrace collaboration, I would suggest, is that we will continue to see nearly one in five students leave school by age 18 without graduating. That is a high dropout rate by any standard, but by the knowledge economy standards of this second decade of the 21st century we are living in, it is one with a huge social and economic cost.

For First Nation British Columbians, to whom opportunities of the 20th-century growth economy were so often deliberately denied, the risk of today’s crucial knowledge and skills passing them by again exists, with more than four in ten First Nations kids still not graduating in our province. Complacency in our K-to-12 education system should be our only enemy — not teachers, not trustees, not any of the stakeholders necessary to move us from good to great in education.

While this government points to international comparisons of industrialized countries that show B.C. students performing relatively well, they also know that over the past decade British Columbia has slipped in the OECD’s program for international student assessment, or
[ Page 6495 ]
PISA, scores. Math scores went from the top of the pack to somewhere much closer to the middle, with a noticeable decline beginning in 2003 and stubbornly remaining there in subsequent reports.

Within Canada’s pan-Canadian assessment program of math scores for 13-year-old learners, B.C. trails three other provinces, ties three others for fourth place, with four provinces below. In reading, the story is familiar — solid results, to be sure, but not the best by a long shot and, most worryingly, not improving, by most recent accounts. If anybody doubts my word on this account of where test score results have been trending, I reference a ministry briefing note to the deputy minister himself for these numbers.

B.C.’s adults aged 16 to 65 had a literacy score that only met the OECD average, according to the program for international assessment of adult competencies — not better than average, just average. We know that adult literacy gaps close the doors to labour markets for our citizens and can be a deciding factor against investment decisions for our communities.

Taken together, these stats are not the stuff of panic, but they are worrisome all the same. To stand complacent in a complex and fast-changing global economy is a disastrous option. Complacency is exactly what education powerhouses like Finland and South Korea rejected as they deepened their development of sophisticated, high-tech manufacturing and resource management economies.

L. Reimer: Thank you to the hon. member for Victoria–Swan Lake. Collaboration in education is such an important topic, and I stand here today to reinforce just how committed our government is to the children of this province.

[1055]

Our commitment is evident in our investments. That is why our school district funding remains at record levels, with districts receiving $4.7 billion this year, a 27 percent increase since 2001.

The average per-pupil funding has also risen by more than 40 percent since 2000-2001, resulting in the average per-pupil operating grant for the current school year nearing record levels — an estimated $8,819, based on interim 2014-15 enrolment statistics. Annual operating grants to school districts are now almost $1 billion more than they were in 2000-2001 — this, of course, despite the fact that September student enrolment has declined by approximately 75,000 students.

We were also pleased to reach a negotiated settlement earlier this year with our wonderful teachers. This was an historic agreement for British Columbia. Five years of stability in B.C. classrooms is good news for parents, students, teachers and communities. This allows us to put conflict behind and open a new collaborative dialogue with the BCTF.

We all need to focus on the challenging and exciting task that lies before us: making our world-class education system even better than it already is. We have excellent teachers, strong administrators, dedicated school board trustees and devoted parents. They’re all committed to seeing our students reach their full potential.

Our commitment is also evident in our close and collaborative relationship with school districts, which has resulted in British Columbia having one of the best education systems in the world. In order to ensure that we continue to provide this world-class education system, we must take concrete steps to modernize and update it so that we can continue to prepare students for the 21st-century world.

That is why we’ve developed programs like the accelerated credit for enrolment in industry training — ACE IT — program and the secondary school apprenticeship program known as SSA. The ACE IT and SSA programs provide high school students the opportunity to attend training classes while in high school.

In addition to offering students exciting opportunities through these programs, our government is committed to ensuring that B.C.’s young people are able to thrive in a rapidly changing world. That is why three years ago our government launched B.C.’s education plan, a plan to create a more flexible and dynamic education system where students are more engaged and better prepared.

The key focus is personalized learning, where students have more opportunity to pursue their own passions and interests. In order to accomplish this, we’re creating a new provincial curriculum that will give teachers the flexibility they need to personalize the students’ learning experience while maintaining rigorous, high-level standards.

As changes are made to the provincial curriculum to better support personalized learning, it will be more important than ever for teachers, students and parents to know how students are doing. That is why we are currently reviewing our provincial assessment system. In 2014 we engaged an advisory group on provincial assessment to produce a report on elementary years assessment and foundation skill assessments. It is through initiatives like these that we will continue to work towards developing an education system that addresses the current and future needs of our students.

I just want to mention the achievements of our Coquitlam school district. There are over 30,000 students in Coquitlam enrolled in over 75 schools in Anmore, Belcarra, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam.

We are invested in the future of our province. This government knows how critical a role our children and their education play in that future, and we’re committed to working collaboratively to focus on the challenging and exciting task that lies before us: making our world-class education system even better than it already is.

R. Fleming: I thank the member for Port Moody–
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Coquitlam for her response, but I would respectfully disagree with the points I think she was trying to make.

The fact is that we have had a legacy of confrontation in this province that has had a damaging and long-lasting impact, and we’re still not through it. Ask any parents or kids in our school system today whether they think we have something akin to stability, and the word they would probably use is “fragility.”

I marvel at how a government member can put a positive spin on what has been the longest school disruption in British Columbia history. Five full weeks our schools were shuttered, with students blocked from learning in their classrooms and teachers left to make a financially punishing stand on improving learning conditions by addressing the key issue of class composition. That was the exact antithesis of collaboration and the result of this government’s boundless appetite for confrontation.

[1100]

Complacency — let me return to this theme, because there are examples in Canada that I think we can draw some inspiration from.

Complacency is what a Liberal government in the province of Ontario rejected when it cast aside the endless confrontation with teachers brought about by Mike Harris’s Conservative government. Instead, the McGuinty government collaboratively redesigned a new partnership for teacher training with teachers and with faculties of education in that province.

Now, this government will of course deny that it is complacent. But if and when, on those rare occasions, it acknowledges any problems within the school system, it is only to pass blame on to someone else and make it somebody else’s problem. School trustees, school boards, are exactly what is in the sights of this government right now.

The Minister of Education has, on occasion, laughably spun statistics from StatsCan that show B.C. falling from second place in per-pupil funding to ninth place, almost dead last — a full $1,000 less per pupil than the Canadian average — as somehow proof that British Columbia is more efficient than the rest of Canada.

Well, you have to follow the bouncing ball, because the story has changed again this week. In forcing through $55 million of cuts, which school boards have received no direction from this ministry for and have no idea how they will accomplish, the minister says they have to become more efficient. Which one is it?

The definition of collaboration cannot be parsed. You either are collaborative or you aren’t. By breaking directly an oft-repeated promise to fully fund the cost of a provincially determined contract settlement, this government is again choosing confrontation over collaboration. Instead of parents and students who are worried about class size and composition finally getting some breathing room, we get more of this.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to this this morning.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, the unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed with Motion 9 without disturbing the priority of other motions preceding it on the order paper. Is consent granted?

Leave granted.

Private Members’ Motions

MOTION 9 — AVIATION INDUSTRY

D. Plecas: On behalf of my constituents of Abbotsford South, I’m pleased to move the following motion.

[Be it resolved that this House show continued support for the aviation industry as part of our strong, diverse economy.]

There are a number of important reasons why I wanted to introduce this motion. First of all, the aerospace and aviation industry is emerging as one of the bright stars of our provincial economy.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

While British Columbia is widely known for our traditional resource-based industries like forestry and mining, we are branching out and diversifying our economy, with aviation and aerospace among those leading the way.

Every country in the world wants to develop their aerospace and aviation industry because it provides a hub of technical knowledge and manufacturing capability. Naturally, along with that comes high-quality, well-paying jobs. What better place to locate this than British Columbia, which lies a mere 150 kilometres away from the world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing of Seattle, Washington?

It might interest you to know that the B.C. aerospace industry already contributes $2.5 billion to our provincial economy and directly employs over 8,300 British Columbians. In fact, the industry here in B.C. is made up of more than 160 companies, many with world-class capabilities, and supply industry all over the globe.

As a matter of fact, aerospace is one of the three biggest employers in the Fraser Valley. In addition to being the home of manufacturers of two Canadian icons — the Twin Otter manufactured by Viking Air and the Canadarm manufactured by MDA — British Columbia is also recognized around the world for aerial firefighting services.

We’re also known for precision-manufacturing facilities, 3-D visualization and problem-solving capabilities, the design and construction of major airframe structures and satellite subsystem, robotics and geospatial services.

[1105]

That’s why the provincial government teamed up with the Pacific wing of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada last year and announced a five-year, $5 million commitment to help develop the industry right here at home.
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Our goal is to attract investment and expand international trade opportunities. As government, we intend to focus provincial training programs around industry and expand our manufacturing skills base. In fact, this weekend saw the Girls Fly Too event happening at the Abbotsford Shell Aerocentre. This great event was designed to engage women of all ages and encourage them to consider a career in aviation and the aerospace industry.

It seems only natural in today’s workforce that more women should seriously consider becoming a pilot, an air traffic controller, a mechanic or an aeronautical engineer. We already have women serving as pilots and mechanics for the Coast Guard, the RCMP, the Armed Forces and private industry. We want to see lots more of that.

Abbotsford International Airport is a natural hub for the aviation and aerospace industry in British Columbia. Companies such as Cascade, Marshall Aerospace, Conair Aviation and Chinook Helicopters already make their home in Abbotsford. All of them are keen on expanding their operations.

Last year Abbotsford hosted the 2014 Aerospace, Defence and Security Expo in conjunction with the Abbotsford International Air Show and will be doing that again in 2015.

In conclusion, we are demonstrating to the world that British Columbia is determined to make an impact on the global aerospace and aviation industry, and we’re open for business.

C. Trevena: I thank the member for Abbotsford South for bringing this motion to the House today. I think it’s an important one for discussion. It’s good that he is advocating for the aviation industry, because it is something that is going to be vital for us as we grow. It’s something that his government was promoting a number of years ago but seems to have dropped off the agenda for the last few years.

Back in, I believe, 2012 there was a large paper where we’re going to get…. It was Connecting with the World: An Aviation Strategy for British Columbia. It was all part of the then jobs plan and the federal program for jobs. It was there as a big impetus to ensure that we connect with the rest of the world. We were going to have this really strong aviation strategy.

That was it. We haven’t really seen much since then. It was a plan that was thought out looking very much to the East, looking over to Asia, to encourage that link, that trade link. It was talking about the communications. But since that day, even given that it’s federal jurisdiction largely, we have not seen too much from the government talking about aviation.

Just doing a quick scan to see what has been said, there has been no news broken by the government, no news made. We have lots of statements from the government on whatever little opportunity they have. We have seen nothing come on the government’s website since back in 2012. December 2012, I think, was the last time we had seen any news release about what is coming.

I give them a bit of credit. This is federal jurisdiction, but they did have a strategy — nice to see a little bit more energy going into that strategy to connect us to the rest of the world and to make sure that our many airports and aerodromes and our aviation industry are really working, fully integrated with the rest of Canada and the rest of the world.

I hope the Minister of Transportation is paying keen attention to this, because it’s another of his ideas that he can go and have a chat about with his federal counterpart when he has those sorts of discussions.

We are more than just the airports and just the links for commerce. I think the member for Abbotsford South is quite correct when he talks about the industry of building aircraft that we have here.

I’ve got to say I’m very pleased that in my own constituency, at North Island College, we have one of two aviation programs. The other is at BCIT. One is at North Island College, where there are 16 students learning how to build planes.

[1110]

It’s quite an extraordinary program. The students are learning everything literally from soup to nuts — the welding, the fabrication, the engineering. It’s quite extraordinary to see them and see how engaged they are.

One of the things that is very important from this and for them is not only that they get excellent training at North Island College, which is a small community college, but that nearly all of them find work at the end of it. That work comes through connections through employers that hire them on a sort of co-op basis and others.

On the Island we have Viking Air, which the member mentioned, which is rebuilding Twin Otters. It’s booming. It’s building aircraft that are bought from around the world, and many North Island College students go and work there.

The program at North Island College has been recognized by Transport Canada and has been recognized by the Canadian military. It’s important that we do invest both in the bigger concept of the aviation industry and in our students and our manufacturers because we live, as we all know, in resource-dependent communities that depend on access. Oftentimes the access are the floatplanes, the air cabs, the small…. What many people look at are the bush planes that are being manufactured here on the Island and are being kept up and used — used by industry and kept up by graduates of North Island College and BCIT.

We’ve got a real opportunity, if we chose, to expand this industry, to really invest in this industry, to make sure we have the quality training, that it’s not just 16 students from North Island College but that we can get growth there. I think there is a huge amount of opportunity if the government decided to put its mind to it and — again, in the spirit of cooperation that this private members’
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time is — I’m sure they would find willing hands on this side who could participate with it.

With that, I take my place and listen to the rest of the debate.

D. Ashton: On behalf of the constituents of Penticton to Peachland, it is my pleasure to support my colleague’s private member’s motion entitled: “Be it resolved that this House show continued support for the aviation industry as part of our strong, diverse economy.”

This government supports British Columbia’s aerospace industry in many ways. For example, we are in year 2 of our five-year, $5 million agreement with Aerospace Industry Association’s Canadian Pacific division to attract investment and contracts from aerospace firms around the world. We also continue to work with the federal government on ensuring B.C. aviation and aerospace companies can gain a greater share of federal aerospace research and procurement funding.

I come from an area of the province that has an aviation industry that, by any standards, is flying very high. I also have a strong personal interest in anything to do with aviation, having been a pilot myself for almost 40 years now. The Okanagan Valley is much more known, as we know, for orchards, vineyards, sunshine and beaches, but we are also home to some of Canada’s leading aviation facilities.

First, I want to talk to you about one in my area, Penticton, called HNZ Topflight. HNZ Topflight is a helicopter flight training company that is known around the world. This company’s specialty is training helicopters to fly in the most challenging mountain terrain that the world has to offer.

HNZ has done this without an accident since its inception in 1951, when it was known by a familiar name — first of all as Okanagan Helicopters and then Canadian Helicopters. That’s 150,000 hours of training. For a measurement, that’s 17 years, 24 hours a day of flying accident-free in some of the toughest terrain and some of the toughest conditions that B.C. has to offer. That is a safety record that is absolutely unmatched anywhere in the world. Because of this, HNZ Topflight in Penticton is world-renowned for its training programs, which have sent thousands of graduates to fly helicopters in countries all around the world.

Next, I want to go up the valley to Kelowna, where another aviation juggernaut calls its home. Kelowna Flightcraft was founded in 1970 by Barry Lapointe and Jim Rogers as a small aircraft maintenance business. To give you an idea of how small they were, in the initial stages the company was doing aircraft inspections, maintenance and other jobs out of the back of a pickup truck. They gradually expanded over the years by adding a commercial carrier service and a passenger charter service.

[1115]

Today Kelowna Flightcraft is one of Canada’s leading aerospace companies that maintains, flies, modifies, engineers, leases and paints aircraft for customers around the world. It has 1,000 employees in Canada — 600 who work out of the Kelowna airport.

One of its current contracts is to upgrade the interior of all 100 of WestJet’s Boeing 737s with new, state-of-the-art seats. Since 2009 the company has had a contract to maintain and modify the Canadian Forces’ Buffalo and Twin Otter search and rescue aircraft in western Canada. Kelowna Flightcraft is indeed a one-stop shop for servicing the needs of corporate, commercial and military aviation worldwide.

My next stop is also in Kelowna, at its impressive international airport. Kelowna’s airport had humble beginnings in 1946, with a 3,000-foot grass runway and a few aircraft. Today it is the tenth-busiest airport in Canada, with 1.6 million visitors going through its gates. That’s double the number since 1997. With flights through Calgary to places like Toronto, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix direct, that’s a pretty good stop to go to if you want to travel the world.

Kelowna International Airport is a major economic driver for the province of British Columbia, injecting $610 million annually to the province. Along with Kelowna is Penticton’s airport, serviced now by WestJet and Air Canada, which have been there for years. Both of these companies are making an incredible difference to the whole valley.

These are three of the aviation success stories that every British Columbian, and especially those from the Okanagan, can be very proud of and that support this government wholeheartedly.

D. Eby: It’s a pleasure to rise, and I thank the member for Abbotsford South for bringing this motion forward. I understand why he has brought it. The Cascade plant is in Abbotsford.

It’s got to be awkward and a little bit strange for the member to try to visit this plant in his constituency — an internationally known plant that has a contract with the Royal Canadian Air Force to upkeep the Hercules plane — and to have them say: “Well, what’s your government doing for the aerospace industry in B.C.?” He’ll say: “We have a $5 million five-year plan.” And they’ll be like: “Is that $1 million a year?” Yes, that’s $1 million a year. That’s probably less than the brochure budget for LNG.

It’s got to be awkward to hear your government talk about nothing but LNG when there are employers like Cascade in your constituency with 150 good, family-supporting jobs, doing amazing work that’s internationally recognized. Of course he’s bringing this motion forward, and good for him. I think he should.

But just to give you an example of what a government that supports aerospace can generate for their constituency, I want to give you some numbers from the federal grant program, the strategic aerospace and defense initiative — this is a grant to encourage strategic research
[ Page 6499 ]
around aerospace — and how much money B.C. gets compared with, for example, Quebec. B.C. received $42 million from seven grants since 2010 under this program. But in Quebec, where the government has committed themselves to aerospace, they received 83 percent of the grants under this program: $742 million. That’s 17 times what British Columbia received.

So what are we doing here in B.C.? I can see the members on the other side…. “Well, they have big aerospace industry in Quebec. Of course they’re getting more money.” Well, what are we doing in B.C.? We don’t fund PhDs in engineering. We don’t fund PhDs in computer science through a graduate student scholarship.

Every other province in the country funds those students to get the best brains in the country to come to their schools. We don’t do that. You can get up to $15,000 a year as a PhD to come study engineering or computer science or other aerospace-related fields in Ontario. You can’t get dollar one in B.C. In fact, B.C. students pay the highest student loan interest rates of anywhere in the province.

More than that, I think there’s one story that illustrates this government’s so-called commitment to aerospace and the aerospace industry. When I was the Advanced Education critic, I had the opportunity to visit Selkirk College, which had an amazing pilot-training program there. They trained, essentially, bush pilots, people who would fight forest fires, deliver cargo and deliver people to remote areas of the province. They’ve been doing that since 1968 at Selkirk. It was internationally known. They had the highest percentage of pilots who had graduated the program actually working as pilots in the industry.

[1120]

To say that this program declined under the current government would be a colossal understatement, because in the last year there were three students in this program, and it cost $1 million a year to put it on — going from a nationally recognized program to just three students under this government’s watch.

Industry was very unimpressed by this. They came, and they tried to make presentations to the government, asking them to reform the program and save it. James Elian, who is the COO of AirSprint, a big airline, regionally speaking, said: “We had a meeting in my office in Calgary in February when the program announced they would not be taking in first-year students in September.” They reviewed the financials of the program. The COO of this airline said: “It was a limited view, but from what I saw there and what I have seen to date, I believe this program can not only survive but thrive.”

Instead of working with the aerospace industry, with an airline, to save this program to train pilots in British Columbia, the program was closed in July of 2014. No more students will be trained at Selkirk to be bush pilots in British Columbia or anywhere else, and that happened under this government’s watch. It went from a nationally recognized program to closed.

That is this government’s commitment to aerospace. That is this government’s commitment to the aerospace industry. Again, I do understand and appreciate and am grateful to the member for Abbotsford South for bringing this motion forward, because it certainly gives him something to talk to his constituents about. But in terms of the upside available in this province, the opportunities available to us in aerospace, we’re just scratching the surface.

That’s because this government has been so, so distracted by LNG that they’ve neglected the rest of the province. That’s why the jobs plan is a failure. That’s why we’re so far down the list on the jobs plan. That’s why students can’t study the way that they’d like to in graduate studies in British Columbia, because scholarships aren’t available, and that’s why we’re missing the research opportunities that other provinces are enjoying.

R. Sultan: I am pleased to speak to this motion of support. As British Columbians work hard to achieve provincial growth rates beyond the 2 percent of the past, we should pay more attention to a homegrown industry growing much faster. We should celebrate aerospace in all its facets, from passenger airlines and airports to aerospace engineering and manufacturing, and celebrate it we do.

About three months ago my constituent Barry Marsden was honoured with the Order of B.C. Barry began his career as a pilot, logging almost 10,000 hours firefighting. He founded Conair, a maintenance company which evolved into building firefighting aircraft, and then it received large contracts from the RCAF. Conair has grown and is but one example of British Columbia’s excellence in aerospace.

Barry built on a manufacturing aircraft tradition extending as far back as 1939 — the year my sister-in-law Florence, a sales clerk at Purdy’s chocolates, heard Boeing was coming to town, hitched a ride to Sea Island and became part of a workforce which eventually peaked out at 7,000. Florence and her co-workers built an astonishing 362 large, twin-engine, PBY amphibious patrol aircraft and most of the 1,000 mid-fuselage sections of the huge Boeing Superfortress, the B-29, being assembled at Renton, Washington. It was an epic wartime achievement.

Fast forward about 60 years and we find Delta-based Avcorp, specializing in manufacturing composite and metallic aircraft structures for aircraft manufacturers all over the world. Its contract with Lockheed Martin to build outer-wing sections of the F-35 joint strike fighter partners Avcorp in what is probably the largest single military procurement in history, with a lifetime cost, according to some estimates, about equal to Canada’s gross domestic product.

My final made-in-British-Columbia aerospace example is Richmond-headquartered MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, or MDA. MDA’s most recognized products may
[ Page 6500 ]
be the original Canadarm and dextre remote manipulator systems used in NASA’s space shuttle and the International Space Station, still orbiting 250 miles up there.

[1125]

However, MDA today serves diverse commercial and government organizations worldwide based on communications, robotics, high-resolution imaging and such technologies as RADARSAT. All contribute to operational solutions for airborne surveillance; environmental tracking; geospatial information services, including satellite data distribution and intelligence; communication satellites and their ground systems; hosted payloads in commercial satellites; remote sensing; spacecraft refueling and servicing in orbit — imagine that; maritime information systems; and even robotic surgery via MDA’s NeuroArm.

Currently MDA’s annual sales are in the $2 billion annual range, and the market capitalization of this company is about $3½ billion — significant.

The few examples I have selected, from many contenders, demonstrate British Columbia’s ability to compete in the technology-intensive, rapidly innovating and globalized aerospace marketplace. It makes good strategic sense for government policy to strongly support this superb, rapidly growing British Columbia centre of excellence.

R. Austin: It gives me great pleasure to rise and join in the debate on the motion brought forward by the member for Abbotsford South: “Be it resolved that this House show continued support for the aviation industry as part of our strong, diverse economy.”

The member and I have had several conversations around the issue of LNG, because that’s obviously extremely important in my neck of the woods. I’m delighted today to join publicly in commenting and being part of a debate around another industry. While the government has spent an awful lot of time over the last two years concentrating on LNG, all of us who live in British Columbia, even those of us who live in the northwest where LNG is very critical, recognize that this is a very diverse economy.

We need to have a government that’s focusing on all of the sectors and not just on one. I think it’s very worthwhile that the member has brought this forward. Aviation is a very interesting industry. Not only is it highly skilled, well paid, but I use it in my neck of the woods to kind of take a guide as to what is happening in the economy of the northwest.

I’ll share a little anecdote. For about ten years if you went to the Terrace airport, which serves Terrace and Kitimat, on any given day it was very quiet. In fact, the long-term parking lot might have had maybe 20 or 30 vehicles in it. Over the last two to three years the way that I recognize what’s happening in the northwest economy isn’t by going and looking at the statistics that come out of the government on employment or unemployment or housing starts. I simply drive into the airport and see in front of me the fact that our extended parking lot at the Terrace airport had to be expanded four times in about 18 months.

What does that tell you? It tells you that as a result of the kind of investment that was coming in ahead of any LNG industry, suddenly our airport was busy as heck. I think it just shows you how important airports and aviation are to driving our economy. If we didn’t have access to that and we didn’t have more airlines opening up and coming into our area, we would not have been able to accommodate the kind of economic growth that’s taken place in the last two to three years.

Just following on that note, if I was to tell you how things are going right now, I can say that the parking lot at the Terrace airport has too many empty slots, which kind of shows right now what’s happening. There’s been this huge expansion of investment, huge capital dollars coming in, and now there’s a slight pullback as we see these companies are waiting to make these very important decisions for all of us.

I’m going to change the topic for a second and move over to training. We are fortunate to have training facilities here in British Columbia that do not just train people on how to manufacture planes. I think my colleague from the north Island has a college where they actually train people to build aircraft. In the northeast we have a college, Northern Lights, that trains people in how to maintain aircraft. So it isn’t just BCIT or the Okanagan that have wonderful training facilities. Even rural parts of British Columbia also have access for young people to go and understand and become a part of the aviation industry.

[1130]

In the northwest we have a locally based airline, Hawkair. We have helicopter companies. If it wasn’t for the kinds of training that are accessible to people in remote areas, they would never even have the idea that this is something that they could do. It’s very, very important that these programs be continued and expanded.

I’ve seen in the last three years, again, the huge increase in my area for people who are working in the maintenance field. Those people — who work in mining, who work in exploration, who work on pipelines — all do a lot of their work and get around the northwest in helicopters. The great thing about a helicopter, of course, is that for every hour that it flies, it needs several hours of maintenance, because essentially it’s a machine that shudders itself to the point where it needs lots of maintenance. That’s a good thing. It’s a real job creator in itself every time it flies.

I don’t want to be facetious about it. It is very important, when people are flying in very dangerous terrain, in very difficult climates, that we have local technicians who are able to go and get trained around British Columbia and then return to the northwest to work at, I think, what is now the major regional airport for the northwest.

I thank the member for bringing this forward. I think it’s something that all of us in British Columbia need to be paying attention to. We don’t want to just see Quebec
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be the leader in aviation. We want to make sure that British Columbia gets its fair share. On that, I will pass on to the next speaker.

M. Morris: I, too, would like to speak in favour of the motion presented by my colleague from Abbotsford.

It’s interesting to note some of the comments coming from across the House here this morning. I really like the support that the member for Skeena has shown, acknowledging the good work that’s been done in LNG and the increase in air transportation and facilities that we have in Terrace to facilitate that. That’s indicative of most of the airports throughout British Columbia.

I do have to comment, as well, on comments made by the member for Vancouver–Point Grey, where he talks about the millions and millions of dollars in subsidies that the aerospace industry is getting in Quebec and Ontario and other provinces across our great country and the amount of government subsidies that these companies need in order to survive in the economic climate in which they work. B.C. is a little bit different. The member for Vancouver–Point Grey did point that out. We have a thriving aerospace industry in British Columbia. We have a thriving air sector in British Columbia. We have thriving airports right across our province without subsidies. There is a difference in the way British Columbia approaches this, in comparison to some of the other provinces.

We have had balanced budgets three years in a row — three consecutive balanced budgets. We also have a low interest rate on the money that the province owes in comparison, the triple-A credit rating that we have. The other provinces don’t enjoy that. We work and live within our means.

We have, throughout British Columbia…. I think we’ve got 38 airports in British Columbia that have registered, scheduled transportation passenger service that links this great province of ours. This provides the ability for people to live anywhere they want in British Columbia and work anywhere they want in British Columbia. We see the Horn River Basin. We see the Montney gas play in the Dawson Creek–Fort St. John area, where we have people working who live in Kelowna, who live in Courtenay, who live in the Lower Mainland, who live in the great southern areas that we have in urban B.C. but who make their living in areas across the province here thanks to the air transportation sector that we have.

I want to focus a little bit on what we have in Prince George. We’ve got the third-longest runway in Canada at 11,450 feet long, which equates to about 3½ kilometres in length. I’ve heard from sources…. I’ve never been able to confirm this, but the word is around Prince George that if the space shuttle ever needed an extra spot to land on, we could accommodate it there in Prince George. We’ve had large cargo aircraft landing there to transport seven helicopters in one particular load going over to Asia, to do some work over in Asia there. We do have the facilities there.

[1135]

We’re working on cargo facilities right now because Prince George can be a competitive centre for goods and people coming across from Asia to North America and beyond. Prince George will play a vital link in that.

Prince George Airport provides just about 500 direct jobs in the Prince George area, which is pretty significant. It contributes $7 million in direct and indirect wages in the Prince George area, which is also a significant contributor for Prince George.

We’ve seen our passenger load increase in Prince George. Now we’re looking at around 500,000 passengers per year using the Prince George Airport — maybe not quite as significant as the Kelowna airport or in comparison to the Vancouver airport, but as an Interior airport, it provides a significant level of service. People from Mackenzie, people from throughout the northern Interior of British Columbia use Prince George as a major centre for direct flights to Mexico, for direct flights down to Vancouver and elsewhere within the province. It’s a vital link for us.

Right now the Prince George Airport Authority is looking at opportunities. They will be over in China in the not too distant future talking to some major transportation sources over there, looking at a combination of cargo and passenger services for Prince George. There are investors that are looking at the Prince George Airport to develop a major aerospace technology centre in addition to the cargo opportunities we have.

Prince George is a significant contributor to B.C.

B. Ralston: Perhaps I will begin by addressing some of the comments by the member for Prince George–Mackenzie. I recall that the Prince George economic commission had a concerted plan to develop the cargo capacity of the Prince George Airport.

One of the steps in developing that cargo capacity, as the member has pointed out, was to lengthen the runway and to build the kind of aprons and capacity for warehousing at the airport that would accommodate an expanded aircraft cargo industry, centring in Prince George.

The Prince George economic development commission made a number of representations around North America. I’m not sure that that’s been entirely successful. It wasn’t for the want of trying. They certainly had a plan, and they worked on it.

I’m surprised to hear the member say that he’s somehow opposed to subsidies. The extension of the air runway at Prince George was provided and done with provincial money. It was a provincial program that lengthened the runway at Prince George.

I don’t understand why he’s opposed to government assisting industry and strategic industries to develop business. I find it an astonishing position, given what
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the Prince George economic commission has done for Prince George. If that’s the reason why the plan for the aerospace industry from the B.C. government is only $5 million over five years, to this huge industry with huge economic potential, it’s probably not surprising, given that kind of an attitude.

There are other industries. I suppose it’s understandable that the member for Abbotsford South would mention Conair, a well-recognized company, and that a member from the Okanagan would mention Kelowna Flightcraft, a well-developed, internationally known company.

Avcorp has been mentioned. I’ve toured Avcorp, which is an aircraft component manufacturing facility here in British Columbia. Sometimes people think we can’t compete in manufacturing. It’s very successful. They send a wheel well for the Boeing 767 — one a day — south to Seattle. That’s one of the things they do. They do, as the member from West Vancouver has mentioned, the wing tip for the F-35, the aircraft carrier version, which has folding wingtips. That’s what they’re manufacturing there in Delta.

Also, another aerospace company in Delta is sometimes confused with Avcorp. Avcorp is a public company with operations in British Columbia — in Delta — and in Ontario. ASCO is a privately owned company headquartered in Belgium but has a manufacturing facility also in Delta.

[1140]

I’ve toured there as well. They manufacture components for Airbus, for Boeing, for Bombardier and for Embraer — slats, flaps, mechanisms, engine mountings. They’re a very sophisticated, high-tech manufacturing firm that builds to…. One can well imagine that, in aircraft manufacturing, precision is important. It’s emblematic and symbolic of the industry that the tolerances that are permitted in aircraft manufacturing, for error, are very, very narrow indeed.

The other company that’s very successful, a British Columbia company, is Viking Air, here in Victoria. They just concluded a deal selling Twin Otter 400s, along with an Australian company, to Fiji.

The opportunities in aircraft manufacturing are huge. It’s nice to see that the laser focus of the Premier and the members opposite has shifted from LNG to industries that are here in British Columbia and deserve government support.

We also recently — members of the opposition; I’m sure government members did — met with the leadership of YVR. YVR, a public-private enterprise, on their own, developed a thing called the border express kiosk. Those of you who’ve been to the airport will know that it’s a machine that reads passports and speeds up entry and exit of passengers from customs areas and passport control. They’ve now taken that prototype, manufacturing it in Surrey, and they’re selling it to 20 North American and international airports.

So there are opportunities. I’m glad that the members have let LNG drop for a day and that they’re focusing on something else.

D. Bing: On behalf of my constituents of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, I am pleased to support the following motion: “Be it resolved that this House show continued support for the aviation industry as part of our strong, diverse economy.”

While it may not be apparent to most, Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows contains one of the most important hubs of British Columbia’s aviation industry. That would be Pitt Meadows Regional Airport. While you might not expect it, Pitt Meadows Regional Airport is the 15th-busiest airport in Canada and the third-busiest in the Lower Mainland.

It is also home to many businesses in the aerospace industry, including Maxcraft, the largest avionics repair facility in Canada. Another promising Pitt Meadows aerospace story is Anotek Anodizing, which just received its certification as a Boeing-approved supplier in November. Other businesses include Island Coastal Aviation Inc., Skydive the City, Pitt Meadows Air Park, Coast Dog Aviation, Pacific Rim Aviation Academy, AerSpace Aviation, Air1 Insurance Services Ltd. and many other businesses.

It might also interest you to know that the runways at Pitt Meadows Regional Airport are designed in the same configuration as Vancouver International Airport. This gives pilots in training the same experience in preparation for landings as YVR.

As a matter of fact, Pitt Meadows Regional Airport is strategically located and a key launch point for access throughout the Pacific Northwest. The airport is located on 500 acres of land, which allows for future expansion. It offers exceptional value and investment opportunities for the aerospace sector.

In addition, Pitt Meadows Regional Airport is popular with the movie industry and has served as a backdrop for many film and television productions. While my hon. colleague from Abbotsford South mentioned the world-famous Abbotsford International Air Show, Pitt Meadows also plays host to an annual air show. Last year it featured Super Dave Osborne.

Pitt Meadows Regional Airport not only features land-based runways, it also boasts a water runway with float-plane docking facilities. In September 2014 a brand-new transportation option arrived with Harbour Air seaplane service. This new service offers convenience to local residents and connects our region with seaplane facilities around the province.

With everything that the aerospace and aviation industry has to offer, it only makes sense that the government of British Columbia is partnering with industry to give our province a competitive edge.

[1145]

That is why Budget 2015 confirms our commitment with
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the Pacific division of Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. This represents a five-year $5 million commitment to develop B.C.’s provincial aerospace industry.

The goals of the program are to increase collaboration among B.C. aerospace industry partners to enhance market access and expand international trade opportunities and develop a globally competitive supply chain to expand access to global markets; also, to improve the B.C. aerospace industry’s research and development capabilities, access B.C.’s fair share of federal program procurement in research funding and leverage provincial training programs and opportunities to strengthen the advanced manufacturing skills base.

For B.C.’s aviation and aerospace industries, we aim to increase the $2.5 billion contribution to the provincial economy that this sector already contributes.

In conclusion, our government’s vision for the aviation industry is to ensure British Columbian families have access to affordable air options and to allow communities throughout the province to realize their business and economic opportunities.

L. Krog: I’m delighted to rise this morning and remind the House that the motion before us is: “Be it resolved that this House show continued support for the aviation industry as part of our strong, diverse economy.”

Those of us on this side of the House are delighted to see this motion come forward because of its historical significance, as it recognizes, of course, all of the great work that has been done heretofore by other administrations in support of the aviation industry.

I mean, it’s rather like the attitude of teenagers. They think they come fully formed with all the wisdom in the world, of course, and forget that they might have had parents or schooling or influence behind them. I think much the same applies here today as I listen to the government members extoll the virtues of the aviation industry and how much interest they’ve shown in it — although, as my friend from Surrey so ably pointed out, the Premier’s laser-like focus has shifted now from LNG to the aviation industry and all the other industries that support British Columbia.

When you talk in this House, you have to have a little respect for history. I certainly have a great appreciation of history. I just want to read a quote from Hansard, July 13, 1999. That’s when the NDP were in power.

No less a distinguished personage than Gary Farrell-Collins, who eventually became Finance Minister, was railing on and said: “We have a government that’s investing money in Western Star, Conair Aviation, film studios, not to mention a multitude of other smaller investments. Any of those companies should be able to secure those funds in the private sector.” Of course, he was speaking in opposition to those very investments in those very industries that the government is now trying to take credit for.

Let me just mention a couple of those things. So 200 new high-skilled jobs were created and 250 preserved as a result of an aerospace joint venture of the provincial government, Daimler-Benz Aerospace industries, MTU Maintenance Canada and Canadian Airlines. The provincial government invested $19.5 million in that. I would suggest to the members opposite that the return on that investment has been significant for the people of British Columbia. Conair Aviation invested $50 million in a new aerospace facility that would create 800 new jobs then. The province provided a $17.5 million commercial loan.

Now, I am sure that Gary Farrell-Collins, being a strong lifelong Liberal as he is, if he was in this chamber today, would be applauding the enthusiasm with which the members in the B.C. Liberal Party are now in fact recognizing that government played a significant role in the development of the aviation industry under the New Democrat Party — not without a certain amount of opposition, it would appear, from the B.C. Liberals, who are now crowing so wildly.

It was so interesting to listen to the member for Prince George–Mackenzie talk about the independence of the industry, and his whopper of an airport that’s the third-largest in Canada, without a peep about the history that led us to where we are today with the successful aviation industry we do have in British Columbia. I have heard it so many times from the other side. “Government doesn’t create jobs” — except, of course, when the government chooses in its own peculiar way to take credit for investments and supporting industry when jobs are in fact the end result and created.

[1150]

It’s not that I am accusing the members opposite or the B.C. Liberals of hypocrisy. That would never be my intent. Goodness knows, hypocrisy would never pass my lips. But let me just suggest that there does seem to be a convenient alliance with things that are seen as good news and an inconvenient distancing from things that are bad news.

I mean, the gas has obviously escaped from this chamber entirely. We never hear about liquid natural gas anymore. That’s been pushed off to the future. But do we want to take credit for an NDP-supported aviation industry that is now prospering in British Columbia? Oh my goodness. What is it they say about success? “Success has many fathers, and failure is an orphan.”

I just want to say thank you to the B.C. Liberals for today, by this very motion, recognizing in the very wording of that motion that government has a role, because let me remind you, hon. Speaker, what the motion actually says. “Be it resolved that this House show continued support for the aviation industry as part of our strong diverse economy.”

I am glad that 16 years down the road the B.C. Liberals have finally recognized the important role that a singularly intelligent and able government can play in supporting an economy, in recognizing the future, in sustaining jobs
[ Page 6504 ]
and employment, in attracting industry. We are indeed fortunate to have had that government.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

D. McRae: I know we all know the aviation industry needs support from multiple partners to survive: the private sector, local government, the federal government and, of course, the provincial government.

I’m so pleased the member opposite, the member for Nanaimo, is bringing up history. I know he looks back at the halcyon days, 1999, of the NDP with great pleasure.

Let’s just use some stats from the waning days of the NDP. We’ll just pick a day at random, say 2000, 2001. I want the Member opposite to remember this number. We have grown the population of Vancouver Island by 100,000 people since then. Just remember that number, if you would.

Let’s take a look, perhaps, at the airport in Victoria. The airport in Victoria in 2000 had about 1.1 million people going through that airport. Today 1.6 million — half a million more — people are going through that airport because of investments that those partners have made.

It’s not just that airport. The member opposite is proud of Nanaimo. In Nanaimo in 2000 just a mere 44,000 people a year went through the Nanaimo Airport. This year, because of those partnerships, over 230,000 people are going through Nanaimo…. But member opposite, I know the member beside you from North Island, from Campbell River. She’s going to say: “But what about us? Have you grown the airport in Campbell River?” It has grown by 10,000 people in the last 15 years.

I would be remiss to stand in this chamber and not talk about the Comox Valley. In 2001, 72,000 people went through that airport. I want to say that last year it was one of the fastest-growing airports not just in western Canada but in all of Canada, and 240,000 people went through that airport. I’m just a history teacher, not a math teacher, but the quick math says that in the last 13 years we’ve seen airport transportation on Vancouver Island alone go up by over one million passengers.

Now, I know my time is limited, so I’ve got to get some more stuff in quickly. I didn’t even talk yet about the seaplane growth, which is about another 100,000 individuals here in the last 12 years.

Let’s talk about Victoria — Viking Air. What a success story. In 1998, closed. Now many of us in this chamber, many British Columbians, have flown on the old Beaver or the Otter or the Twin Otter. I’m so glad that in our time in government — 2009, what happened? — Viking Air resuscitated the Twin Otter. That company has grown by 450 employees this year in British Columbia. Shifts running 21 hours a day.

Future growth is unbelievable. Some people say it’s grown by over 700 percent in just the last five years. Why? Because we have a great aviation industry in the province. One that we need to support and grow.

I’m pleased to see that it’s not just for Comox Valley and not just for British Columbia residents. We sell this technology around the world. In fact, one of Viking Air’s best customers, believe it or not, is the Peruvian Air Force, and 12, 14 planes have gone down to Peru. Why? Because it’s a great plane in a rough terrain.

There’s even more opportunity — you might not know this: the fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft replacement project? We’ve all heard of the shipbuilding contracts. What about the fixed-wing replacement project? Over $1 billion replacing machines — the Buffalo and Hercules aircraft — that have been working incredibly hard to save British Columbians and Canadians and air force members — worth a huge amount of money.

[1155]

Now from that, how does Comox Valley benefit? Well, you know what? Comox Valley, Abbotsford and Kelowna have a great aerospace industry. The manufacture of that aircraft will probably not be done in western Canada. Why? We only have one manufacturer of aircraft in western Canada, and that’s Viking Air. But the training part could happen anywhere in British Columbia. Comox Valley is home to the search and rescue training school in Canada and does a great job there. I know the expertise that they bring from the members opposite’s area, in Abbotsford — outstanding. Kelowna has, again, a very, very strong sector.

Hundreds of millions of dollars could actually come to British Columbia. Why? Because the federal government, the local government, the provincial government and, of course, the private sector want to work together. I will challenge the members opposite in this chamber. We have grown the air force and the aircraft sectors in this province not just because we want to but because we’ve worked together with those partners to make this industry strong and vibrant. I’m proud to stand on this side of the House and defend that record any day we want.

D. McRae moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. M. Polak moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Madame Speaker: This House, at its rising, stands adjourned.

The House adjourned at 11:56 a.m.

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