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)

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 30, Number 7

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

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015

The House met at 1:32 p.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Orders of the Day

Hon. T. Lake: I call continued second reading on Bill 42.

Second Reading of Bills

BILL 42 — ELECTORAL DISTRICTS ACT

(continued)

H. Bains: Once again, after the break, it's a pleasure to stand and speak on Bill 42.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Before the break, I was speaking about the history of South Asians for a reason. It just reminds us of where we came from, where we are today and what we need to do to move forward. When you look at the makeup of the Surrey-Newton constituency, it has a population, under the new boundaries, of 60,000 — sorry, of 58,340.

Interjection.

H. Bains: The minister has said: "What's a couple of thousand?" But the way Surrey is growing…. Since they went and started talking to people in Surrey and saw where everyone lives, there are probably a couple thousand more people that moved into Surrey since that time. Under all estimates, 1,000 new people move in every month in Surrey.

When you look at the demographic makeup of Surrey-Newton, it probably is the most diverse constituency that you can find anywhere in B.C., perhaps in Canada, along with, perhaps, my neighbouring constituency of Surrey–Green Timbers.

[1335]

When you look at the population of Surrey-Newton, the 2006 and 2009 census will tell you that in my constituency, about 70 percent of the population are visible minorities. Out of that 70 percent visible minorities, 75 percent are Punjabis or Sikhs — most of them Sikhs.

Then the next biggest numbers of the population would be the Urdu-speaking and Tagalog, the Filipinos. We also have, if you look at other communities that have made this great constituency, people from Vietnam, of Chinese descent, Nepalese, Ethiopians and many other African Canadians, and those of European and Asian descent. You will find them in Surrey-Newton.

When you look at that heavy concentration of one type of people — in this case, Punjabi Sikhs and people from India — it's always inevitable that you will have all the facilities and services to go along with it. We have — I was just looking at and trying to remember if I'd missed any — about eight Sikh gurdwaras. Within Surrey-Newton or just around the boundaries of Surrey-Newton, there are Guru Nanak Sikh Temple on Scott Road, Dasmesh Gurdwara, Brookside, Khalsa Diwan Society of Surrey, Singh Sabha, Dukh Nivaran. And there are others that have set up in Surrey-Newton or surrounding areas.

Along with it, when you look at all the activities that take place in gurdwaras — the weddings and other religious ceremonies — then we have many, many banquet halls. Just around the same area, I could name — a few of those are large facilities — Crystal hall. We have the Bombay Banquet Hall. We have Bollywood, Dhaliwal, Punjab Banquet Hall, Royal King, and then there are smaller ones.

The importance of mentioning these banquet halls is this. You cannot find a night when there isn't an activity in some of these halls, in addition to the weddings and other activities. There's always some sort of public event to raise money for the right cause. If you walk into one of those on any given night of the week, you'll see some good stuff happening by the good people of Surrey-Newton and from the surrounding areas. That's why this constituency makes for such a hilarious, such an exciting place to live and raise your family.

Then we have a number of mosques in the same area, because the Muslim community is one of the fastest-growing in that particular area. I have so many good friends who stand with me and support me, and we discuss issues that are important to that community so that we can make changes for the better.

My good friends in the Filipino community — many of them live just across from my office. I get invited to their Christmas parties. They come and participate in our many festivities that we host in our office or outside, such as Eid celebrations, Diwali celebrations, Vaisakhi celebrations and Christmas celebrations. I think there never is a dull moment when something exciting isn't happening and where people are engaged to make lives better for each other.

[1340]

Also, I mentioned the Newton Wave Pool. Although it technically used to sit just outside, on the other side of 72 Avenue, it is one of the key centres for many people to come, whether it's recreational or as a swimming pool that they use and bring the children for many, many different training activities. That is just an iconic building there, and everyone comes and enjoys.

The other day, I mentioned the Old Surrey Restaurant, owned and run by Philip Aguirre, who is also executive director of the Newton Business Improvement Association, doing one heck of a job to promote Surrey-Newton, working with the local businesses, helping them to make sure that we get rid of crime in the area so that
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people can feel safe walking around those businesses and doing their normal daily work duties without the fear of getting mugged or people sleeping in their doorsteps.

We also have other organizations, such as Options, in our area that are helping so many people trying to establish in this area, whether it's immigration or to deal with income assistance or housing issues. There are a number of very, very useful operations in that area.

I also want to mention that there are a number of challenges that our constituency faces. Since 2005, myself and my other three NDP colleagues — from Green Timbers, from Surrey-Whalley and, previously from Fleetwood, Jagrup Brar — worked hard, working with the community and raising those issues to make sure that we get investment into our Surrey Memorial Hospital to have the expansion done.

Interjection.

H. Bains: The minister is chirping away. If he pays attention, he probably will learn something. He thinks everything is centred on Vancouver, but just once in a while come to Surrey. Come to Surrey, and you will learn the difficulties and challenges people face.

The expansion to Surrey Memorial took place after so much pressure from the community, and many people raised so much money to help expand the Surrey Memorial Hospital. RedFM radio ran radiothons to raise money to support Surrey Memorial Hospital year after year. Other organizations have done the same thing. Like I said, in those banquet halls, you'll see somebody is raising money for hospitals or for other good causes.

But even today, when people go to Surrey Memorial emergency, quite often it's pretty regular for people to wait six, seven, eight hours to get emergency treatment, to see a doctor there. I think we can do better, and we must do better because we owe it to our people and the people that sent us here.

Then we look at public transportation. Finally, after so much pressure from Surrey, we are starting to get the attention of TransLink and of this government so that we can have our SkyTrain or LRT extended into Newton. I'm going to work hard on behalf of my constituents to make sure that that happens.

Despite the fact that this government has continually abdicated their duty to sit down with the mayors to come up with a stable, long-term funding formula, they continue to say no to any idea that the mayors come up with. They have no idea of their own. They say: "Well, put it to a referendum." You know, such a way to run the province. Always, when you can't make a tough decision, you run referendums.

We have a serious issue with crime that I talked about. Community groups are working hard to make sure that this government, the federal government and the local governments sit down together to find real solutions. We, myself and my other two colleagues, proposed, by working with the local community and the activists, what we call the Surrey accord.

[1345]

We got a very good response from the community about what is needed to cut crime in Surrey-Newton, and they felt the Surrey accord has the answers. We need to….

Interjection.

H. Bains: Well, the Minister of Technology has no idea of his own. He comes from Surrey. He sits here and heckles me when I try to come up with some real solutions. He never stands up here to come up with any solutions. Maybe it is time for him to stand up rather than chirping away and heckling when somebody's talking about Surrey.

So that is the issue. The Surrey accord is something that is needed. We have gang violence in the area. We have drug problems. But we've been successful in many ways. One time we had a problem when what was called doda was being sold in local stores. It was brought to my attention by RedFM, actually. I wrote a letter to the Attorney General and to the police chief. Finally, the police got into action, and now it is not sold in those stores, so I'm glad about that.

This is an example of people working together and coming to a solution, rather than sitting here accusing and chirping away without any solution of their own.

I had the opportunity to attend many of the high schools in my area. Frank Hurt is one of them — one of the oldest buildings, I think — along with Earl Marriott. They call them sister schools. The member for Surrey–White Rock was with me one time when a student had to walk out to draw the attention of this government that we need more classroom space. It's one of the oldest buildings.

I met with the staff, the teachers, the principal and the students not too long ago — wonderful people. They're trying to do their best to make sure that we get the best education delivered to those students.

Princess Margaret is another secondary school. Tamanawis is the other, third, secondary school that covers the catchment of Surrey-Newton students.

Having said that, there are so many activists working to draw the attention of this government. There was an ad hoc committee made up of the Surrey Board of Trade, city council, teachers and parents trying to draw attention to expanding our school space. We have close to 7,000 students in portables right now. I'm told that that would make the 23rd-largest school district in the province, with that number of students.

I think that thanks to their work — Linda Stromberg, Anita Huberman, people from city council and many others pushed the government — finally, we were told that there will be $120 million available to expand our school classroom space. But if you really look at what
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we need, it's about $273 million. So it's about one-third of what we needed.

As I said, it's the fastest-growing community. We have more students coming than any other district every year, so the growth is there, and they all know that the growth is going to be there.

According to Metro Vancouver, another million people will be moving to the Lower Mainland by 2040 — one million new citizens moving into the Lower Mainland by 2040. Most of them, they estimated, will be settling south of the Fraser, the Surrey, Delta, Langley area and the northeast sector. We don't have services to serve the population that we have in Surrey today. Can you imagine when you have another half a million people moving into that area? How are we going to handle our transportation needs, education needs, post-secondary education needs and health care needs?

We have post-secondary education. When you look at the population growth and the number of seats available in post-secondary education at SFU or Kwantlen…. Kwantlen is one of the key institutions that were there right from the beginning.

[1350]

I had the opportunity to serve on that board from 1993 till 1999. This was the time when Kwantlen College's name was changed to Kwantlen University College. It is a great organization, a great institution, but the fact still remains that we have the fewest number of seats on a per-capita basis for post-secondary education south of the Fraser.

That's why, perhaps, there's a link. That's why we have the lowest participation rate of high school students into post-secondary education. It's 24 percent for the rest of B.C., the Lower Mainland, and 11 or 12 percent south of the Fraser. Those are the numbers.

I think we owe it to those children to have…. There was a promise by this government in 2005 that they would double the seats at SFU. I attended a function just the other day hosted by the president. He said they're still waiting for those seats.

Those are some of the challenges. Working together, we can make it better. We will make it better. We will cut crime. We will have a better education system. We will have a better health care system. It just takes the desire and courage of this government to work with us. We can provide you with solutions. We can give you some nice suggestions. The people of Surrey are waiting for this government to act. They're waiting for this government to deliver on the promises they made to the people of Surrey.

I think we have seen some successes when we work together. We will continue to work to make sure that we make it even better for our children, their children, when they come and look back at what we were able to achieve for them. I think it is our duty. It's not just a job. It's our duty to ourselves, to our children who are coming behind us and to their children. We should be able to, authentically and really, in their eyes, say that their lives are better and that British Columbia is better because we played a small role in that.

Deputy Speaker: Members, in the opening remarks the Minister of Justice made on Bill 42, she invited members to talk about their community, but I caution everybody to stay focused on Bill 42.

M. Morris: It's my pleasure to stand here today and to speak to the Electoral Districts Act, Bill 42. It's been a long time coming. If we look at the process that we've had in place here, where, in a previous session, we talked about securing some solid representation in rural B.C., I noticed that our friends across the hall here were virtually opposed to that as we discussed that and voted against that particular bill. It's interesting to see how quickly they have come around to our way of thinking, as we found out discussing the previous motion and as I'm hearing, so far, in the discussion around Bill 42 here.

My riding — right in the central Interior, the centre of British Columbia, the riding of Prince George–Mackenzie — is situated perfectly to provide services, supplies and resources to the resource industry scattered throughout British Columbia.

We're right at the confluence of two major rivers. We are right at the junction of our north-south-east-west highway structure within the province. We have railways that intersect in Prince George as well — north, south, east and west — that provide transportation routes for the majority of resources that come from rural B.C. that are shipped through the Port of Prince Rupert west of Prince George or come south and are shipped through the port in Vancouver.

We also have pipelines that come through Prince George, through my riding. We have pipelines that deliver the valuable natural gas that we have in northeast B.C. There's a structure, a network of pipelines, right across the province that take the natural gas to the west and down to the south. When my colleagues from urban B.C…. B.C. is the most urbanized province in Canada, so when 85 percent of the population wakes up every morning and turns their thermostat up on the wall, they get it from two basic sources.

[1355]

One is from natural gas from northeast B.C. that comes through the ground in these large steel pipes, which keeps our urban friends warm down here. The other way is through the power that, when they turn up the thermostat and turn their lights on…. The power comes through Prince George, as well, from the W.A.C. Bennett dam, which provides over one-third of the power to all British Columbia.

Those power lines are supported by these large steel structures that are made from iron ore, but they're also made as a result of the metallurgical coal that's mined in Tumbler Ridge and through the southwest part of the
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province here. That coal is shipped along these rail lines and highways that we have in British Columbia from rural B.C. down south here.

My riding plays an integral role, as do all the other rural ridings in British Columbia, to support urban British Columbia. In the northern three-quarters of the province, which is just south of my riding — Prince George is only halfway up — in the 100 Mile area north, from the Alberta border to the Queen Charlotte Islands, we have only 320,000 people.

The city of Surrey has more people than we have in the entire northern three-quarters of British Columbia. Yet the northern three-quarters of British Columbia provides the lion's share of the resource revenue that we obtain from our natural resources from forestry, from oil and gas activities in northwest B.C., from mining activities that we have.

I've got Mount Milligan right on the border of my riding and the member for Nechako Lakes. We've got several mines within a two-hour drive of my particular riding that provide billions of dollars of economic activity over the years and employ hundreds of people — First Nations communities and people that live throughout British Columbia.

There's a large segment of people that reside in the urban centre of British Columbia, in communities on Vancouver Island, in the Okanagan, that travel into rural B.C., into northern B.C., into my riding to work. They'll spend ten days working in the camp, and they'll come back out to their great towns and cities that we have scattered throughout British Columbia.

This bill is significant in the fact that it maintains that rural riding representation that we so dearly need in this urbanized province that we live in. We have a significant number of people — you know, four million people — living in urban B.C. right now. Many of them — whether they be immigrants from other countries that are contributing to our economy or whether they're people that have moved in from other provinces that have decided to settle in the Lower Mainland in urban B.C. — have never ventured outside of the Lower Mainland.

Many of them have no idea what we can offer in northern B.C. Many of them have no idea what the infrastructure requirements are to maintain the resource industry of northern B.C., to maintain our hospitals that we have in Prince George. Prince George has a regional hospital there, the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia. We have a northern medical program there where we train doctors and other medical professionals. That all takes tax dollars. We're in competition with the other needs that we have in urban B.C.

I listened to my friend across the way here speaking just a few moments ago, talking about Surrey growing exponentially over the next number of years, how the population of greater Vancouver is going to increase by a million people. That's going to take resources to do that — not only financial resources. It's going to take more steel, more coal, more copper, more natural gas, more fossil fuels to run the trucks and the equipment and everything that's necessary for that.

I'm also interested to see…. Again, this is another indication of how urban B.C. influences what happens in rural B.C. I saw a news clip this morning about the city of Vancouver passing a motion where they say that within the next 35 years, they're going to be operating on nothing but renewable energy. Well, that renewable energy comes from the W.A.C. Bennett dam, the Peace Canyon dam, which is part of the Williston Lake reservoir, and the newly built Site C. It's a good thing we're building Site C, because Vancouver probably wouldn't be able to make that commitment at this particular time.

We're also going to see, as a result of that, they're going to have to string more copper cables in order to circulate that electricity and that green power and that renewable power through urban British Columbia so they can run their new transit systems that they plan on building.

[1400]

There are high hopes that something will get built under Broadway, taking students and the population into UBC. That's another significant part of the Lower Mainland — our advanced education systems and our institutions that we have that rely on the province to help to fund them, to provide that centre for students from right around the world that attend here. A lot of that money comes from rural British Columbia.

By maintaining the rural representation that we have — although it's somewhat watered down with the addition of two more urban seats in the Lower Mainland— we still have the opportunity for strong voices, with the MLAs such as myself and other colleagues that represent the rural areas in British Columbia that provide so much to the economic well-being of all British Columbians, so much with the resource development that we have.

We also offer a great deal of opportunity when it comes to living, when it comes to folks coming from around the world that want to see what British Columbia has to offer with our tourism sector — with our fishing, our hunting, our wildlife viewing opportunities and all of those types of things that are associated with a rural environment.

People enjoy that. They come back to their urban environment that we have down here — the greatest city in the world, as far as I'm concerned, with Vancouver and the Lower Mainland and Victoria. They're icons for beautiful cities from around the world.

They come down here, and they sometimes get…. A lot of people vote with just the familiarity they have with their own area — the parochial thinking they have sitting in the beautiful city of Vancouver or Victoria or Kelowna or wherever it might be.

That's how they vote. They want to vote to make sure that they get the schools, the resources and the infrastructure that they need to live the good life that they
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have, that we enjoy here in British Columbia and Canada — and North America, for that matter — without realizing the impact that it's going to have on rural British Columbia and the development of resources.

What the development of those resources looks like in a lot of the areas — with the mines, the environmental reviews, the process that everybody goes through up there in order to maintain the jobs and the lifestyle and the livelihood that we have…. It's critiqued by a lot of well-meaning individuals that have never stepped out of their urban environment down here. That has an impact on what we do in rural British Columbia.

Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act, is something that will maintain the rural representation that we have in the province. It will help us maintain the strong voice of representation that we have with all of our rural MLAs in the northern three-quarters of the province here.

Hopefully, it's going to maintain that balance that we have in British Columbia so that urban British Columbia can enjoy the infrastructure and the strong future that British Columbia holds with some of the development that this side of the House is trying to forge ahead with, with our resource development, with our diverse economy, with building Site C to make sure that we've got renewable power to see us well into the future.

I look forward to what the rest of the House has to say on this bill as we debate it over the next little while.

D. Donaldson: I'm very pleased to take my spot today in the second reading debate on Bill 42, the bill that will be proposed to implement the recommendations from the 2015 Electoral Boundaries Commission, following the adoption of that report by the House, previous to this.

I'm going to put my comments into two parts. One, a little bit about the technical parts of the bill. Then I'd like to talk a little bit about Stikine. The Minister of Justice, when introducing the second reading of Bill 42, said that she knew people would be talking about their own ridings and took that opportunity herself. So I'd like to follow in her steps as well.

The bill that we're considering will create 87 electoral districts in the province, up from the current number of 85. It would add two, and it would set the boundaries of those 87 electoral districts for not just this upcoming election, in 2017, but the one after that, in 2021.

[1405]

It's part of a regular process where the boundaries of electoral districts are reviewed every two elections. We know why. It's because populations shift, populations grow and populations decrease. The fundamental issue around electoral representation is having approximately the same number of people represented by an MLA. That's the primary consideration. That's called population by representation, population based on an average.

In B.C. right now, the average would be about 53,000 people, with 87 constituencies. As we've learned under the Electoral Boundaries Commission report and now the facts that we're considering under Bill 42, there can be a deviation from that number for a number of reasons. Generally, the Electoral Boundaries Commission tries to keep the average within a standard deviation of plus or minus 25 percent from that 53,000 average.

There are special circumstances that they are able to consider to deviate further, beyond that. A great example of what I'm going to talk about today is the special circumstances regarding the constituency of Stikine, the constituency that I'm very pleased and honoured to represent.

Stikine has approximately 20,000 people in it, and it's 196,484 square kilometres. It's the largest constituency in the province. To put that into a bit more perspective, the size of Stikine could encompass Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands, combined. We've got four European countries that could fit into the boundaries of Stikine…

Interjection.

D. Donaldson: …including Denmark, and we have 20,000 people. So it does have to be special circumstances for those boundaries not to be expanded, to remain the way they are.

There are some suggestions about expanding the boundaries in order to capture more population so that it's closer to the average. But the special circumstances that the Electoral Boundaries Commission can consider under the Electoral Boundaries Act, under subsection 9(2), are the geographic or demographic considerations, accessibility, size or physical configuration and communication and transportation. I'll talk in a little bit more detail about those today and why I'm pleased to represent Stikine and pleased that the boundaries will remain the same.

Under Bill 42, when the Minister of Justice introduced the bill, she pointed out, in talking about her own constituency, the constituency of Vancouver-Fraserview, that her constituency is the largest riding B.C. in terms of population, at nearly 63,000.

Now I'm going to be talking about the constituency with the fewest number of people, at 20,000. The total is 20,000 in Stikine, and there are 63,000 people in Vancouver-Fraserview. Each have one MLA, yet the accessibility to that MLA is different, when it comes to geographic considerations, communication and transportation considerations. That's why, under Bill 42, we're able to consider the boundaries of Stikine the way they are. It's called effective representation. And how does that happen?

I know that many MLAs, under Bill 42, are going to be taking a little trip down memory lane, around their constituencies. I just want to point out that if you walk around the grounds of this Legislature and you walk out to the fountain at the back side of the Legislature, you'll
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notice that there are plaques commemorating the four areas that were amalgamated to create B.C. Each of those areas has a plaque and a description. One of those areas was called the Stikine Territory. It is represented by the wolf, and it's discussed on the plaque around the Tlingit and Tahltan territories.

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It was combined with the colony of British Columbia, the colony of Vancouver Island and the colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands in approximately 1862 to form the overall territory that eventually became British Columbia, when it joined Confederation. Stikine has a long history, as far as European context and European settlement goes in B.C.

A lot of the territory of Stikine had to do with protecting economic interests, and a lot had to do with various gold rushes. I had the opportunity to visit the exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum called Gold Rush: El Dorado in B.C. I just had a chance to visit it over the lunch hour here. It's over October 31, so if any of you haven't seen that exhibit, it's well worth a look before the end of the month comes.

It pointed out the gold rush activities and how that was integral to the creation of B.C., the creation of Stikine and also the joining of the three colonies, at that point, in the Stikine territory into what has now become B.C.

That's a little walk down memory lane, in relation to Bill 42, about how we got to where we are today. Effective representation is at the core of Bill 42. As the Justice Minister pointed out, each of us will be talking quite a bit about our constituencies, and I'm not going to be any different. I want to describe the communication and transportation issues that underlie and underpin the reasoning of why one member representing 20,000 people is able to give effective representation compared to one member representing close to 63,000 people.

We'll start, once again, with the fact that after six years of representing Stikine, the honour and the privilege of representing the people of Stikine after the 2009 election and the 2013 election, I still haven't made it to every corner of the constituency. There are many areas of the constituency that don't have population centres, if you could even put it in those terms, and so there are very remote areas with nobody living in them that I haven't made it to.

I'd like to be able to make it to them. They're beautiful areas. I'm sure one day I'll phone up Victoria, people looking for me, and say: "Well, I'm sorry. I'll be in my constituency for two weeks, and you won't be able to get in touch with me because I'll be on the river. There will be no cell phones, and I won't be able to get to a telephone, and I won't be able to get to any kind of population centre. But I will still be in the constituency, having a look around on behalf of the people of Stikine."

The constituency. The first population centre is Atlin, approximately 300 people. It's up by the Yukon border. There's road access to Atlin, and it's about 2½, three hours from Whitehorse. That's the closest major city. Atlin was a result, originally, of European settlement from the Klondike gold rush. There were 10,000 people living there at one point in the gold rush days. And it's the headwaters of the Yukon River.

I want to mention this, just to give a sense the vastness of Stikine. The Yukon River terminates in the Bering Sea. As you move throughout the constituency of Stikine, you have rivers that feed the Mackenzie system that terminate in the Arctic Ocean, and then as you head further south, you have important rivers like the Skeena that terminate in the Pacific. So the Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Pacific — all fed by rivers that originate in the glaciers and the mountains of Stikine.

Atlin doesn't have…. In talking about effective representation, they're not a municipality. They're not part of a regional district. They have formed something called the improvement district, Atlin community improvement district. When they try to make representations, oftentimes their services are located in the Yukon, with joint agreements between B.C. and the Yukon.

[1415]

Other times they have to access centres such as Terrace, which is over 1,000 kilometres south — very north from here but still over 1,000 kilometres south. They need an effective voice, the people of Atlin, in the Legislature here, which I try to do on their behalf, because they are far away from the decision-making centres.

Atlin is also within the traditional territories of the Taku River Tlingit. When I talked earlier about the Stikine territory, of course that was a European set of lines on the map, but all of Stikine is on the traditional territories of a number of First Nations. As I go through this today, already my time is ticking away so quickly, and I haven't even made it south of the Yukon border, barely.

Once we get through Atlin, which is Taku River Tlingit territory…. There is a band office in the community beside Atlin, the Tlingit community. The Tlingit are also governed by a hereditary system that was very influential in the Atlin-Taku land use plan, which was a positive undertaking, I must say, by the government. Unfortunately, it was the last land use plan that they decided to do. More of that needs to be done. But the hereditary system was influential in that land use plan.

Atlin has an antiquated telephone system. If they want to get in touch with their MLA, it can be difficult to do. They don't have cell phone service. Their transportation is a one-way dirt road out to the B.C. border, about 30 or 40 kilometres north of town.

I get to Atlin approximately once a year, sometimes twice a year, but again, when you're talking about effective representation, there are ways to do that through modern communication means. As I said, Atlin doesn't have a lot of the newest technology when it comes to telephone relay switches and those kinds of things, but in the north, as well…
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I don't doubt that this is not the case in urban areas, as well, but in the north, especially, we like to do business in person. We like to do business by developing a personal relationship. So that represents some challenges when you can only get to some of the communities about once a year in an area such as Stikine, which is so large.

If you head to the east from Atlin and drive about 473 kilometres, you get to the next population centre in Stikine: Lower Post. There are about 100 people in Lower Post.

Hon. A. Wilkinson: Telegraph Creek.

D. Donaldson: Oh, okay. We want to get down to Telegraph, because it is such a large constituency.

We head to Lower Post, and then we come back to Highway 97. We'll head south. Lower Post and Good Hope Lake are in Kaska territory. That's the First Nations territory that we're in now. Again, we haven't had cell phone service for, oh, I don't know, maybe five, six hours, maybe longer. The telephone booths are few and far between, so if a person wanted to pick up the phone and talk to their MLA, that would be difficult. Again, I get to some of these places once a year.

The member opposite wanted us to get to Telegraph Creek, and I really want to talk about Telegraph Creek as well.

Hon. A. Wilkinson: And Glenora.

D. Donaldson: And Glenora, a beautiful community downstream from Telegraph Creek.

I wanted to emphasize that people are keen to see their representative when I show up. We hold town hall meetings. We hold meetings in people's houses. I go visit where people are gathering, naturally — in Glenora, for instance, downstream from Telegraph Creek, where the Tahltan have a fish camp. We're in Tahltan territory now, by the way.

The last time I was in Telegraph Creek was late August. It was a trip that I made there. Along with Dease Lake and Iskut, I was in Telegraph Creek. I wanted to get a feeling for what was on people's minds before returning to the Legislature for this fall session.

[1420]

A supporter, a long-time regional district representative there — I found him in the village of Telegraph Creek. We sat down to talk, and he goes: "Oh, it must be fall." The end of August is fall in Telegraph Creek. "The ducks are heading south, and the politicians are heading north." It shows you how difficult it is to visit constituents in these communities and to get to know what's on their minds. As he was pointing out, it's about once a year and close to the fall that I'm able to get to these communities.

Telegraph Creek is a very, very isolated community. It's a beautiful Tahltan community, but it's another 130 kilometres off of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway from Dease Lake, and it's a rugged road. I can tell you that. For a constituent, for example, from Telegraph Creek to drop by my constituency office would take them…. For a sit-down visit to exchange views person to person for me to be able to relay their story in the best possible way to a chamber like we are in today, that's probably about a nine-hour drive one way, to come and to see me in my Hazelton MLA office.

By the way, not unlike a few members in this chamber, because of the vastness and the geographically distributed communities, I have two MLA offices in order to provide effective representation. That's the first time that that's been done in the constituency of Stikine — the first time an MLA has decided to put two MLA offices in place.

One of them is in Hazelton, where we service, from an MLA office perspective, the communities to the west and north, all the way up to Atlin. That office serves the bulk of the northern communities. And then we have an office in Smithers, which is the only town — in other words, a community over 5,000 — in Stikine. We have an office in Smithers that services the Smithers catchment area as well as communities to the east like Telkwa and the rural residents around Quick.

Again, we're in Telegraph Creek, and we're still heading south. We're still nine hours away from the nearest MLA office. We're in Tahltan territory. We pass through Iskut. Again, we still don't have cell service. We're still a day's drive away from many of the amenities and, really, government — the provincial government offices that most people can access within an hour or two, at the most. We come down through the territory of the Tahltan and end up in Stewart, a port.

The Stewart World Port recently opened, in September. I was able to attend that opening ceremony. There are two ports now in Stewart. There's plenty of potential activity to go on. But again, Stewart doesn't have cell service, which is an impediment to increasing business and improving business development. And it has….

Hon. A. Wilkinson: Meziadin. Iskut.

D. Donaldson: Well, we had Meziadin. I was through Iskut already. Yeah. Don't forget about Iskut. Don't forget about Meziadin — and Bell II, another community. Bob Quinn is still alive and kicking, to a certain extent.

So we get down to Stewart, and Stewart has not only cell phone issues but also transportation considerations. There's some heavy-duty avalanche slide pass on Highway 37A, I believe it is. Stewart-Cassiar is Highway 37. This is a branch off it. Oftentimes the road is closed in the wintertime, but the avalanche techs and the highway crews do a great job up there.

[1425]

The Stewart area also has needs when it comes to a reliable source of electricity. They were out for four or five days last year. Most of the time it's pretty good service, but
[ Page 9908 ]
they're looking for a solution to that through B.C. Hydro being able to switch onto the Long Lake power project.

So Stewart. Then we come into Gitanyow territory further south along Highway 37. Gitanyow is an amazing place. The voter turnout in Gitanyow was quite incredible in the last federal election and increased by over 50 percent.

Again, though, the considerations that Bill 42 suggests about keeping Stikine boundaries the same through the Electoral Boundaries Commission are…. Gitanyow is a good example. They have no public transit to link them to the MLA office or to services that the provincial government provides in places like Hazelton, Smithers or Terrace, so it's very difficult for people there to access those services.

You get through the Kitwanga valley and into Gitwangak. Again, we're in Gitksan country now. Then we hit Highway 16. The documented public transportation issues along Highway 16 are well known to this Legislature. Again, if somebody wants to make an appointment and come in to see me at my MLA office in Hazelton, it presents a tremendous challenge.

Then heading east along Highway 16, we go through Gitsegukla, another Gitksan village, through South Hazelton — we're now in the regional district of Kitimat-Stikine — through New Hazelton, a municipality, and then down into the place where I live and where a concentration of the population is, between New Hazelton, Hagwilget, Two Mile, Gitanmaax and Hazelton. Those are areas represented by one regional district, two municipalities, two First Nations reserves and three hereditary territories.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

Even when you're in a population centre, so to speak, in Stikine, it's still very difficult for people to sort through the right avenue for an issue they might be facing. So even more so, they're dependent on coming to our MLA office in Hazelton to help sort through where the lines are and who is the responsible authority — whether it's a regional district, a municipality, a First Nations reserve, a traditional territory or the provincial government. And that's all within seven kilometres.

We have a project that got completed through efforts of all those jurisdictions I just spoke about called the Eagle Down Trail. It's a trail, seven to eight kilometres, that connects all those communities. As you walk seven kilometres, you go through that many jurisdictions — regional district, two municipalities, two reserves and three hereditary territories. Even when we're in a more populated area, there's still a lot to be worked out through access to our MLA office.

As we head back out of Hazelton and through Hagwilget…. I don't know how many members have been up in Stikine, but we cross Hagwilget Bridge. It's a suspension bridge. It's a one-way bridge, and it gets over 2,600 one-way traffic counts per day, even more than Highway 16.

You know, we talk about bridges often in this Legislature in relation to the busy, well-populated part in the Lower Mainland. Here we have a single-lane bridge that has a hospital on one side and major population centres in Hagwilget and New Hazelton — major for Stikine, that is — on the other, and a major highway, Highway 16.

[1430]

When that bridge is out, which happens sometimes when there's an accident or we've had occasions when logging trucks have hit the superstructure of the bridge and damaged it, then transportation is an issue.

So again, those communication and transportation topics — highlighted as a reason for Bill 42 to be able to consider the Electoral Boundaries Commission's recommendation around keeping Stikine boundaries the same even though we're well below the provincial average in population — are there.

We head out now, back onto Highway 16, through some of the more eastern communities in Stikine. We leave Gitxsan territory. We haven't even touched on the Kispiox Valley, by the way; or Kispiox village, Anspa'yaxw; or Glen Vowell; or the regional district unincorporated area that I live in, Two Mile. Two Mile is about 500 people in rural acreages and multiple lots.

There's a sign as you come through Two Mile saying it's "Traditionally non-conforming." That is the motto of the people who live in Two Mile, where I live. Traditionally non-conforming.

Then we get back out east, and we head into Wet’suwet’en territory. So now we've been through Taku River Tlingit, Kaska, Tahltan, Gitanyow, Gitxsan, and now we're into Wet’suwet’en territory.

In fact, coming down between — a colleague across the way mentioned Meziadin — Meziadin and Gitanyow, there's the Cranberry connector that heads over towards the Nass Valley. Stikine takes in a bit of that road, the Cranberry connector, which eventually end up in Nisga’a territory as well.

By the way, the Cranberry connector is the alternate route if the road between Kitwanga and Terrace is closed — Highway 16. The only other way is to go up the Nass, come across the Cranberry connector and come down Highway 37 to Highway 16.

In the past, there've been landslides that have cut off Highway 16 — a tragic one a few years ago where two people died. For days, the road was blocked, and the alternate route was to go through there.

We hit Smithers, the only town in Stikine, meaning it's over 5,000 people. A little further east is Telkwa, about 1,500 people, and then the area of Quick, which is the most eastern part of Stikine and a rural, more agricultural area.

We've come over approximately 1,500 kilometres drive now from Atlin to the area of Quick. It has taken about
[ Page 9909 ]
20 hours straight, if you can do it straight. It just shows that, for reasons of transportation, for reasons of communication, for reasons of geography, I'm very happy that under Bill 42, we are able to keep the boundaries of Stikine the same for the upcoming election and the election after that. For effective representation, I think I've made the case that it cannot be any bigger.

L. Larson: I rise in support of Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act. The Electoral Boundaries Commission recommendations have taken on the difficult issue of balancing the growing populations in the Lower Mainland against the geographically larger and smaller populations in rural British Columbia.

The riding of Boundary-Similkameen is one of the 48 districts changed by Bill 42. It will add the community of Princeton to the Boundary-Similkameen riding. The riding currently ends nine kilometres east of Princeton.

Extensive consultations were done in the region by the commission. It was apparent that the status quo was not a fair balance of numbers. From a regional district perspective, Princeton is a good fit for the riding. Princeton is the only community belonging to the regional district of Okanagan-Similkameen that was outside the boundaries of the Boundary-Similkameen riding.

[1435]

The riding will become further diversified economically by the addition of Princeton and Copper Mountain. The riding has forestry on its eastern boundary, and agriculture is predominant in the middle.

I currently represent 17 communities, all with populations of less than 5,000 people, as well as two regional districts and three school districts. In my previous life as a mayor and member of the board of the regional district of Okanagan-Similkameen, I became familiar with the geography and the people of the Princeton area and look forward to renewing old friendships under the new riding umbrella.

Most provinces, like British Columbia, struggle with how to get quality representation for all their population without creating extreme geographic challenges for those elected to those positions. The commission has done an excellent job of balancing geography against population density. I am confident that all the people of British Columbia will be served well under this legislation.

M. Elmore: I am very pleased to stand and speak to Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act, just having recently spoken to the motion on the floor with respect to the final report. I'm very pleased to speak on behalf of constituents, representing Vancouver-Kensington. It's a great honour to represent the area and to be re-elected to my second term.

With respect to Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act, it is governed by the principle of representation by population and that each MLA should, to the greatest degree possible, represent a similar number of constituents. Having said that, we know that the reality, in terms of…. The demographic and geographical makeup of British Columbia is quite diverse, and we have a real range of constituencies represented, from urban to rural to suburban. Certainly, there's a challenge with respect to balancing the number of individuals in each electoral district and ensuring that voters across the province are treated equally.

It's an exercise that's undertaken every two electoral terms. We know that population growth is not uniform across the province and that periodic reviews of the boundaries ensure that representation of constituents by MLAs remains both equitable and effective in all areas of the province.

We heard previously from my colleague from Stikine. Certainly, representing his area is quite challenging compared to Vancouver-Kensington. I know he outlined the areas that he represents and also the challenges and the realities around travelling — just making it across the broad expanses of his constituency, and representing constituents. It takes him many hours of continuous driving to travel from one end of his constituency to the other — travel for days, also, with respect to the challenge of travelling to remote communities. That certainly is a challenge and a reality that's faced by many MLAs on both sides of the House who represent rural ridings.

It's prescribed in the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act that a new Electoral Boundaries Commission must be established after every second general election to propose changes to the area, changes to the boundaries and possible changes to the names of the electoral districts of British Columbia. In our last election, 2013, we had 85 constituencies. Since the last review of the electoral boundaries in 2008, which came into effect in the 2009 election, we're now mandated to revisit and to re-evaluate those electoral boundaries.

[1440]

The commission was appointed on May 9, 2014. Three distinguished members — Mr. Justice Thomas Melnick, justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia; Beverley Busson, the former commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and Keith Archer, the Chief Electoral Officer for the province of British Columbia. The commission undertook public hearings and travelled the province.

I think it is also important to recognize and also appreciate the efforts that the commission undertook: seeking public advice and input and really engaging individuals, communities, associations and organizations across the province to seek recommendations and feedback with respect to prospective changes. That's an important aspect and component of our democracy that needs to be held and respected also, fundamentally for the citizens of British Columbia to have confidence in the transparency and to trust that recommendations coming forward certainly have taken in all considerations and delibera-
[ Page 9910 ]
tions have been weighed and that rational decisions govern the recommendations coming out of the final report.

I think, with respect to the recommendations we have in the bill, Bill 42 — the recommendation to expand our number of seats from 85 to 87 in the faster-growing areas, in the urban centres of Surrey and also in New Westminster and Richmond, and some other changes — that citizens can be assured that their recommendations were taken to heart and, certainly, that these recommendations stand and have the authority and represent the wishes of British Columbians and make the case for improving the representation here of us all in the chambers in the Legislative Assembly.

The proposals, not only in terms of feedback from the public, are also governed and guided by the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act and additionally by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in addition to the submissions from British Columbians. That's important, because that also supports the legitimacy and also the confidence of British Columbians.

We hear with some unease the term we're familiar with, gerrymandering, which is deliberately changing electoral boundaries for partisan gain and to benefit a certain political party who is in power. Certainly, it's important to ensure that that process is not taking place in our midst, and certainly, Bill 42 withstands that test.

We know in previous history, and it's been outlined by previous colleagues, of the infamous instance of gerrymandering here in British Columbia, typically referred to as Gracie's finger, in Vancouver in the 1980s. Certainly, that stands out as a very blatant example of how the process should not be undertaken.

After every second provincial general election, a new Electoral Boundaries Commission is appointed to propose changes to our provincial electoral boundaries. We had a very capable commission with three members, who I have mentioned, and I also want to thank them for their service and their hard work and their measured recommendations.

[1445]

I just wanted to lay out the principles in terms of the process around the recommendations coming forward from Bill 42, and then I'd also like to get into what that means, particularly for Vancouver-Kensington, and also talk about that in terms of the historical context of the boundaries of Kensington, the historical communities and also the meaning for those constituents that I represent in my constituency.

The right to vote and population equality is the underlying principle that guides the process. The Supreme Court of Canada's decision in the Saskatchewan reference in 1991 provides guidance to electoral boundary commissions as to the standards for relative equality of voting power amongst citizens, with respect to section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is addressing the fundamental right of citizens to vote but also ensuring that the respective strength of citizens to vote is also equal and not unduly weighted.

It's not an easy challenge, as I mentioned previously, certainly in terms of the discrepancy and just the scope of our province and the challenges of geography and large areas, particularly in our rural constituencies, vis-à-vis population density, which we see, certainly, concentrated in Metro Vancouver. But that is the challenge that is laid out, and the guidelines to make those decisions and determinations are what faced the commission in terms of their recommendations.

The right to vote and population equality — that's laid out. Guidelines have been established by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision. The issue of effective representation is germane to that. In some areas, we have small populations and unequal population growth. There are some guiding principles around how to determine and balance those concerns.

We have also what is referred to as the electoral quotient, which I want to address. This is a guideline where the electoral quotient is the average population for an electoral district, and it's calculated by dividing the provincial population by the number of electoral districts. With the recommended 87 electoral districts proposed in Bill 42…. We have, with a population in British Columbia of roughly 4.6 million, an electoral quotient of just over 53,000 — 53,119. That is the quotient, and the deviation that is allowed is…. The Electoral Boundaries Commission Act permits electoral districts within regions to be within plus or minus 25 percent.

Vancouver-Kensington, I note, has, as of 2014, a population just over 61,000 — 61,250. It has a deviation over the quotient of 15.3 percent, so it certainly falls within that range. Vancouver-Kensington has not seen changes to the boundaries or to the name. Everything is pretty much standing status quo. I expect, in the future, certainly, in terms of the challenges around development…. We're seeing densification in Vancouver and in the region. That will be, certainly in the future, a challenge to be addressed by future commissions but not for this time around.

While we consider the electoral quotient, there is also the issue of not only the population but the size of the area. Those were some of the challenges that were undertaken. While we see that there were two new electoral districts added, there were changes….

[1450]

We've heard colleagues from both sides of the House talk about respective changes to 48 of their districts.

J. Yap: I seek leave to leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

J. Yap: I'm delighted that we have some students from my riding, Richmond-Steveston, visiting us today from
[ Page 9911 ]
the great school, Steveston-London Secondary. This morning there was a group of 22 students led by teacher Mr. Edwin Yu. Right now we have a group of 21 students led by Jennifer Girard, with Matthew Girard also here, as a chaperone. Later there will be another group led by Stephanie Christie.

But right now we have this group of 21 students who are here, many for the very first time, to visit the people's House, our great parliamentary precincts. Would members of the Legislature please give this group of students, our future leaders, a great and warm welcome.

Debate Continued

M. Elmore: To continue with comments on Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act, I want to now shift and talk about the history of Vancouver-Kensington and some of the characteristics, some of the neighbourhoods that make up the electoral district — what I think really inform and give that vibrant character that we see in Vancouver-Kensington, which is so special.

At the centre of community activity is the Kensington Community Centre. It's celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and we're going to be having the celebration soon. Kensington Community Centre Association is very active. I know other community centres in other areas play such a vital role. I think that Kensington Community Centre really leads in terms of bringing the community together in that scene, with the participation of volunteers from the community and the many activities and events that happen at the community centre.

They are looking, also, to the future and investing in improvements, as well, in Jones Park and Grays Park. One of the programs that's very well utilized and is important for the area, for Vancouver-Kensington, is their child care facility. They're also working to improve and expand that facility.

It's a great facility. They have new fitness equipment and have also recently renovated. They're very active with youth leaders and engaging youth in programs. Look forward to their annual events that they have every year. A Halloween party is coming up and, with the Christmas season, a breakfast with Santa and a holiday craft fair — and an Easter egg hunt. It's a very vibrant and dynamic hub for the community. It's always great to go there and see the dedicated staff and volunteers — just a very positive organization.

Also making up very dynamic participants for Vancouver-Kensington are the neighbourhood groups, which are very active and have a number of initiatives. We have the Dickens Community Group. It was formed in the year 2000, and it has an incredible number — more than 2,000 members — on their listserv. They keep in touch, keep in contact with each other, give updates and are very active. It really helps to provide that community cohesion. They're a very active group and do great work, and I'm always very pleased to join their many activities and events that they organize throughout the year.

[1455]

We have the Livingstone Neighbours, and they also have a listserv and send out regular updates. The South Hill Neighbours, who have incorporated as a society. They've got a website, monthly e-newsletters and many community development projects. They've undertaken great leadership on the South Hill stories project, where they interviewed individuals who've lived in the area, in South Vancouver, who either have had longstanding businesses or have lived in the area, and put that on an interactive site, bringing to life the living history of Vancouver-Kensington. That's a great initiative.

Also, a very dynamic neighbourhood group that always continues to amaze me with their great work is the Mountain View Neighbourhood group. They recently held their 15th annual barbecue. They've got a website. They've got a Twitter account, as do the South Hill Neighbours. And Mountain View has really distinguished itself. They've undertaken a project that's called the Vancouver street stories, which is another initiative to really bring out the history, particularly around Fraser Street, and bring that to life.

They partnered with the Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House and also, with support of the city of Vancouver, to design street banners, which they put up. They've also designed and installed street plaques, which are digital. A component of that is digital placemaking. They have installed physical plaques along Fraser Street and one on Victoria Drive, talking about the local history in the area. It's a great way to really bring that to life. Vancouver-Kensington is very diverse now. We've seen such an evolution of communities and individuals and businesses. Some have a historical root there, and in some areas we've seen a lot of transition.

This project with the Vancouver street stories — the plaques that mark the history and share that — is a great way to anchor. I think it's important to anchor the community to that history. Of course, there's an open invitation for members to come through and to visit any time. They're welcome to visit me and drop in for a coffee in my office, whoever's interested, and to walk along Fraser Street and view some of these plaques that lay out the really interesting history of Fraser Street, of South Vancouver and of the area.

There are plaques that talk about the lost streams of Vancouver. I heard the comments from members on both sides, from rural areas talking about the great forests and natural resources that are there, and that was also the story of Vancouver. It wasn't that long ago that Vancouver was a forest and, also, that Vancouver was home to over 50 wild salmon streams. Today we don't see those salmon streams through Vancouver-Kensington. Many of them have been covered over. Some of the streams are underground, but that was certainly part of the history.
[ Page 9912 ]

There were also, along Fraser Street — very interesting — the first streetcars, the first public transportation in Vancouver. The city of Vancouver started as a logging village, one block long, along the edge of Burrard Inlet. The streetcars first came in on Fraser Street. That's interesting, as well. There's a website with great photos. That's something that I always appreciate, particularly — looking at the historic photos of Vancouver and, particularly, in Vancouver-Kensington.

[1500]

As well, we've got, as part of the Vancouver street stories project, the marking of the Ruth Morton Memorial Baptist Church and the Sir Richard McBride Elementary School and annex. It's to mark the completion — after Sir Richard McBride drove the last spike — of the B.C. Electric Railway's Fraser Valley line to Chilliwack in 1910. We have two elementary schools that are named after Sir Richard McBride — the main elementary school and the annex.

I'm very pleased that the annex, which was challenged due to underfunding…. There was a real outcry from the community, and the community was able to rally and stop the closure of the annex — with the sustained underfunding that they've been receiving.

There's that history — as well as marking that Sir Richard McBride, at the age of 33, was the first Premier of British Columbia to be born in the province. There's certainly that.

We have Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, which I have mentioned — very vibrant, active and engaged staff and volunteers and, really, a hub for activity. I spoke earlier about the fourth annual Homelessness Action Week, which was just marked a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver-Kensington, with leadership and participation from the sponsoring organizations. Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House is one of them — the John Howard Society, the Salvation Army, the Vancouver Public Library and also the city of Vancouver.

Great partnership, which I think is so important to bringing together the community. I think the leadership of these organizations is an important component of what makes Vancouver-Kensington such a welcoming place, a great place to live and work and a really strong and vibrant community. These are very positive organizations and important work that these community groups do.

It's interesting, as well, to understand the history of the area — of Vancouver as a whole, Vancouver-Kensington specifically — and also where these organizations come out to inform the challenges that we have today, ensuring that individuals come together and are included and can participate fully.

I want to mention that also in Vancouver-Kensington, we have Mountain View Cemetery, which has the distinction of being Vancouver's only cemetery. It opened in 1886. Believe it or not, it's also a very popular place for walking tours to go through. They're well-subscribed and very interesting as well — the history of the cemetery.

As well, they hold an annual…. They just celebrated their 11th annual night for All Souls' Day — marking, through different cultures, the night of the dead, Night for All Souls. There is lantern-making and also a procession through the cemetery, with different activities that happen there as well. Certainly, that cemetery has, really, a history since Vancouver was incorporated as a municipality and continues to be a very interesting place for the history and for folks participating in walking tours and other events and activities.

We have, as well, South Memorial Park, which is a large park, a beautiful park just down from my office, just behind my office. It's a beautiful place to go. Many facilities there as well.

They hold the annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph, which is very popular. We have also a march that gathers at John Oliver high school and proceeds down to the cenotaph to mark November 11, Remembrance Day Every year it's better, and certainly more individuals are participating.

[1505]

It's also a very important event to mark and recognize the sacrifice of veterans in building our country. We have, as well, a number of Legions in the area, which participate and are very active not only in Remembrance Day activities but in engaging the communities. They hold events for Canada Day and are regular areas that individuals attend. You can get a good deal for lunch, and they have weekly meat draws — very active in the community.

As well, in South Memorial Park we have the distinction of also hosting the South Vancouver Little League Baseball. I am just so proud that they're the 2014 Canada Little League champions.

When I was first elected, I had a meeting with some parents who came to my office. They said: "Mable, we have a challenge. We've got a league, the South Vancouver Little League Baseball. They're the only league in Metro Vancouver that doesn't have a batting cage." I said, "Well, we have to fix that," because we had the Hastings group that had previously been the champions. So I said: "We need to get a batting cage for our Little League so we can become the Canadian champions and go to the World Series."

I was pleased to work with them and, with support from the Vancouver park board, to establish and set up a batting cage there. That was just great. They're great. Of course, the Little League is very active and engaged.

We also have the first Vancouver co-housing project, located at 33rd Avenue near Victoria Drive — very excited about that — and the Tupper neighbourhood greenway, which is one city block long, at Tupper high school. That was planted in March 2008 to heal the community, with the tragic death on the school grounds in 2003 of Jomar Lanot. That continues to be an area that attracts a lot of dedicated community volunteers and is really an important part of the community.
[ Page 9913 ]

We have the first country lane, created in 2003 in the 700 block between east 27th and east 28th Avenue. It's the only one in Vancouver, and it's a great place. I encourage you to go and take a look at it.

We have a community newspaper, the REVUE, and our Vancouver-Kensington resident Rod Raglin is the publisher and editor, in the 38th year.

Schools, great events, Main Street car-free day, Pinoy Fiesta— just a terrific neighbourhood.

D. Plecas: Today we are speaking again about the work of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, but more importantly, we're speaking on the legislation that will adopt all of its recommendations. We are here to speak about Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act.

Members of this House who spoke about the work of the Electoral Boundaries Commission went into detail about the ridings they represent and spoke about differences between representing urban versus rural ridings. It was a great opportunity to hear about what's special about each riding in this province and about some of the special challenges faced by people in rural ridings.

Now we want to ensure that all British Columbians are effectively represented, both urban and rural areas of the province. The work of the Electoral Boundaries Commission found that balance to ensure effective representation for all British Columbians. This is especially important because our province has a dense and growing urban area, and we also have the more remote northern and rural areas.

As we also know, this bill will increase B.C.'s electoral districts by two, to bring it to 87 districts. These two ridings will be in Surrey and Richmond–New Westminster. Of course, this reflects the growing population in these areas. As more people move to British Columbia to take advantage of our growing economy, the work of the commission will continue to be important to ensuring that the electoral districts are appropriately distributed.

[1510]

Forty-eight districts will see boundary changes for the next two scheduled elections, in 2017 and in 2020-21. Although these changes are substantial, in some ways, for a few districts, such as the Fraser Valley, Hope-Princeton area and Comox Valley and Mid–Vancouver Island regions, for the most part, around the province, the changes are minor. This is certainly true for my own riding of Abbotsford South.

When it comes to representing British Columbians throughout the province, each district has its own challenges. Again, as we've heard from all members, urban and suburban districts, on average, have more people than rural districts do. It is generally easier for an MLA to represent and serve their constituents because the population is concentrated in a much smaller area, while the representatives of the more remote and rural ridings have to travel much further to meet their constituents and to represent their views in this House, as we are elected to do.

We recognize that it is important that citizens in less densely populated and geographically large districts be effectively represented by MLAs. That is why we are making sure that the current districts in the north, the Cariboo-Thompson and Columbia-Kootenay regions are preserved. We want to ensure that these areas are not at risk of losing representation and that they retain the existing number of electoral districts.

This is not an easy task — to balance democratic representation with geography. Finding this balance was a task the Electoral Boundaries Commission undertook. Every province grapples with how best to manage the urban-rural divide. The larger provinces, especially, have rules for exceptional circumstances, including how to best accommodate rural areas.

B.C. is no exception. The act has always permitted commissions to go beyond the 25 percent population deviation rule in special circumstances. This is not a new situation in B.C. — to have districts outside the threshold. The commission continues to do a good job of balancing population and taking community interests into account.

Throughout the process of electoral boundary changes, politics was not even a consideration for government in preparing this legislation. This government is proposing legislation that is exactly what the independent commission recommended. I want to again thank the members of the commission for their hard work to ensure that all British Columbians are effectively represented.

R. Austin: It's my pleasure to get up and rise and speak to the bill that follows the motion that we have just dealt with, that formally brings into the Legislature the report that has been brought forward by the Boundaries Commission. I am very delighted to speak in favour of this, as I think every member of this House will do.

It's important to note that what the bill does is it recognizes the challenges that we all face in British Columbia, which is to make sure that our boundaries are fair, that we have fair representation in the sense that those parts of the province that have very large and dense populations are balanced out with those of us who live in either suburban or, in my case, very rural parts of the province. That is a huge challenge.

I'm glad to say that I have listened to a lot of the debate that has happened over the past several days. One of the things that's very interesting is that it doesn't matter whether you hear an MLA speak about their particular constituency that is very dense and comes from a large city, whether you hear an MLA speak from a suburban area, or whether you hear someone speak from a place like mine, which has a lot of geography and fewer people. We all seem to speak in unison with the acknowledgment that everybody in British Columbia has a right to be represented properly.

[1515]

Whether you are an MLA who's representing 60,000 people and live in a situation where your 60,000 residents can either walk to your office, or you could bicycle around your constituency or have easy access to them, or whether you are an MLA like myself that has to drive, in some cases, several hours to meet with a constituent, the important thing that we need to have here is to ensure that every British Columbian feels that they have willing access to their MLA.

My riding of Skeena is one, as I've mentioned, that has a great deal of geography. In the northern part of my riding, I have a portion of an aboriginal territory. I say that because it's kind of a little bit unique. A lot of MLAs have First Nations living within their ridings, and of course they represent them here in Victoria. I am a little bit unique in the sense that I represent an aboriginal band, a nation, who have been able to have their own treaty passed right here in this Legislature and then that same treaty passed in Ottawa. I am unique in the sense that I represent a group, the Nisga'a Nation, where they can speak for themselves on a government-to-government basis.

It has been one of the great delights, and I think one of the great privileges and something of great pride for all of us who are on this side of the House, that we worked long and hard to bring into place something that took many, many years. In fact, the Nisga'a — to say that they are patient people would be a huge understatement.

The road that goes from Terrace up into the Nass Valley to the four communities of the Nisga'a Nation has a significant number on it. It has the number of Highway 113. In fact, this is not something that was just chosen at random. As part of the signing of the Nisga'a treaty, one of the things that the Nisga'a were asked to do was to name this road and to give it its number. They consequently chose the Nisga'a Highway, which makes sense, seeing as this road, as it extends north past Terrace and out into the more regional areas, ends up going only into the Nass Valley.

The reason why they gave the number 113 is because from the time that the Nisga'a first sat in Greenville, or Laxgalts'ap, as it is known in Nisga'a…. When a group of people first sat down and decided that what they would like to do is overthrow the cloak of colonialism and get the rights to their own territory, it took 113 years, which is quite extraordinary.

We have lots of debates in here about moving treaties forward and how complicated that is and how it gets bogged down with a lot of legalistic work that has to happen. When you consider that the Nisga'a Nation, as a people, were willing to work for this for several generations and not rise up and get frustrated and use any kinds of tactics that were undemocratic, they actually used whatever manner they could within the law to try and move their process forward.

There have been some incredible decisions that have come about for lots of First Nations and, indeed, indigenous groups all around the world as a result of some of the work that happened during the Nisga'a treaty. I'm going to mention just one piece of important legislation, or legal statement.

In 1973, there was a very important case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and it was named after a member, a chief within the Nass Valley — Frank Calder. The case became known as the Calder case in 1973. What this case did was it set a precedent stating that the Nisga'a had a right to territory that had always been theirs.

They have lived there for thousands of years. They could prove that they lived there for thousands of years. The Calder case that was won in the Supreme Court by a lawyer who is known to many members of this Legislature, Justice Berger, enabled them to move forward and to ultimately be successful in having the Nisga'a treaty.

[1520]

That case emanated from my riding of Skeena, and had an effect around the world. If you look at what the Aborigines in Australia have had to go through to try and get the same kind of success that indigenous peoples here in British Columbia have done…. It was cases like the Calder case that were used as a precedent in Australia to move forward Aborigine rights and title there, with the big decision that was made in 1992, the Mabo decision.

There is a lot of history in my riding. It is not just the Nisga'a. We have other First Nations groups who have lived there for millennia. In Terrace, I am very fortunate to represent two First Nations — one on the west side of Terrace called Kitsumkalum, and just to the east of Terrace the Gitselasu or the Kitselas First Nation. These are also, in many ways, kind of related to the Nisga'a in the sense that they have intermarried over the generations. They are also a people who….

Because we live inland, people think of some of the First Nations in my riding as not being coastal. But in fact, if you look at the history of First Nations like Kitsumkalum and Kitselas, they also are connected to the coastline. One of the interesting things is that many inland bands along the Skeena River — who are situated, in some cases, 150 kilometres or, in some cases, more than that inland — also had the rights to go and to gather food and resources off the coast of Prince Rupert, amongst all the islands there.

In fact, there are some very interesting facts that have come about as a result of these two First Nations also proceeding through the treaty process. For example, the people of Kitsumkalum not only fished at the mouth of the Skeena River and in the general area of Prince Rupert, but they lived there for many, many years. They were in fact moved from just inside the mouth of the Skeena River all the way over to Terrace as a result of a fire that took place, I believe it was in the 1960s, in Port Essington.

The people of Kitsumkalum were essentially a seafaring First Nations who lived off the ocean and had a com-
[ Page 9915 ]
munity called Port Essington that was built kind of on stilts, just on the side, on the coast of the Skeena River. They made their living by collecting food and by processing it. They actually had several plants that processed the fish right in their community, right in their village. Interestingly enough, this plant didn't just have aboriginal people living there. It wasn't just First Nations in Kitsumkalum that lived there. They also had other people who brought skills to this plant.

For example, there was a Japanese community that lived in Port Essington. You might ask why. Well, of course, just like the First Nations of the northwest coast, the Japanese themselves have relied on the food that surrounds their country. As a result, Japanese people who moved to Canada after European contact went necessarily to live in places where they could bring the skills that they had from their country.

So there was a small Japanese population that lived amongst the First Nations there. That is why, amongst the people of Kitsumkalum, you will also find Japanese surnames, because they intermarried with the First Nations and formed great relations and have brought those cultural values also to our First Nations.

If you go further south down my riding, we come to another group who I am very proud to represent, the Haisla Nation. The Haisla Nation also have a very interesting history. Not only have they been there for millennia, but they also were combined many years ago with another First Nations group to the south who were almost wiped out by disease. As a result of measles and other diseases, they decided that they would give up their traditional territory where they were living — it was very remote — and moved to one side of the Douglas Channel to become part of the Haisla Nation.

[1525]

The Haisla Nation are very, very successful and are very forward-looking in their thinking. They have taken huge advantage of some of the economic opportunities which one would hope would come to all First Nations who live in northern B.C.

One of the very difficult things, not just in my riding but across northern ridings that have large numbers of aboriginal people living in them, is that they are very remote. Some of these First Nations are so remote that they are, to all extents and purposes, removed from the mainstream economy. That is the challenge. That's part of the reason why we see a lot of inequality in terms of opportunity — opportunity for learning, for education; opportunities for health care; opportunities to participate in what we would all know as the modern economy.

At one time, it didn't matter to them. Being remote and living off the land meant that they could still have very successful and fruitful lives. But in the times we are in now, it's much more of a challenge. We understand, all of us who work here and all of us who have children and all of us who have grandchildren, that one of the most essential things in a modern economy is to have education and skills that enable you to go and become part of that modern economy.

The Haisla, because of where they are located, are blessed. They have, of course, existed on one side of the Douglas Channel, with the community of Kitimat on the other side of the Douglas Channel. Kitimat, even though it's a very remote, small town, has been blessed to have a major industry around which the community of Kitimat has been able to grow since its inception.

Kitimat is a very interesting community. It was essentially carved out of the wilderness. It did not exist until the late 1940s, early 1950s, when the government of the day here in British Columbia decided that in order to try and increase the population of northwest B.C., in order to try and diversify from what was at that time the only industrial activity in northwest B.C. — namely, logging — they would try and bring a new industry into the province and into the northwest.

It sounds absolutely incredible, but what they decided at that time was to essentially give a river to a private company and allow them to build a structure that would essentially change the direction of a river and create a large reservoir, which they could then use to power electrical generators.

Now, remember, this is 1950 we're talking about. In so doing, what they did was they allowed, at that time, the Aluminum Co. of Canada to get access to this river and to build what was, at that time, the greatest engineering project anywhere in the world. I say that without any sense of hyperbole. They were able to create a massive reservoir, put a dam at the end of that and then dig a tunnel 2,600 metres down through rock to a series of generators that were put in a place called Kemano.

As a result of that…. If you could imagine, the generating house that was built into this rock was all done manually. It wasn't done with the great machinery we have today. It was done manually with jackhammers. The chamber is probably as big as this chamber. If you can imagine a gigantic room this big carved out of the rock with generators that probably span the width of this chamber…. It's 1950 we're talking about. It was probably finished around 1952, 1953. If you can imagine that being built, even today that would be extraordinary. But in those days, it was just amazing.

The reason I'm telling you this is because what it did was it created a brand-new industry that has been able to not only keep the citizens of Kitimat and many of the Haisla having good-paying jobs, but it has also brought huge economic activity to the whole of the northwest.

All of us here know full well that when you have a major project take place in a rural area, it isn't just the direct benefit to the town or area where that is built. In fact, there are all kinds of economic multipliers that speed out from that.

[1530]

The Haisla were able, as a result of being close to the people of Kitimat — in fact, they were there long before the Europeans arrived — to also access jobs and skills and education that came about as a result of this economic activity.

I mention Kitimat and Alcan for another reason, and that is this. We do not have many places in rural British Columbia where you have one company and one industry that have successfully endured for 60 years. We have just celebrated the 60th anniversary of the building of the aluminum smelter in British Columbia.

When I say it's visionary, think about this. To think in those days of making a river change direction to create a body of water big enough to drive generators — this is very visionary kind of stuff. If we were to come up today and think of some big industry that we could bring in here…. We've had lots of discussion here about the potential of LNG, but with the aluminum industry coming into Kitimat, the government of the day had a vision and actually brought it to fruition with the help of a lot of human capital, and it has successfully gone on.

In fact, as I speak to you today, the old smelter that was built in the 1950s is now gradually going to be shut down over the next little while. A brand-new smelter, which I have had the privilege to go and see as it was constructed…. I've had the privilege of going and seeing the first hot metal come off the potlines there.

It is a sight for sore eyes to recognize that this industry is moving forward with a brand-new smelter. If the old one is anything to go by — the last 60 years…. The new smelter that we now have gotten built in Kitimat will provide employment, exports out of British Columbia, huge tax revenues to the purse here, to the treasury here, as a result of all of this economic activity.

Because the water that drives Kemano is a renewable resource and because the electricity that comes from the Kemano power plant has essentially been paid for…. I mean, the capital project was paid for a long time ago. They've had to do upgrades now, which they are doing.

They are renovating a second tunnel that was originally built to try and expand Kemano. They have invested huge amounts of money in ensuring that the long-term future of the aluminum industry in my riding will continue by fixing up the secondary tunnel. Once you've had water flowing down for 60 years through the original tunnel, inevitably rocks and debris come down that tunnel, and that tunnel now is in need of repair.

The only way to maintain an aluminum industry is to keep the electricity going non-stop, obviously, and the only way to keep the plant going and people employed is to be able, at some point, to shut down the original tunnel in order to fix it. In order to do that, of course, you have to have a separate source of water, an alternative source of water, to drive those generators. You have a company that has been willing to invest to build or to upgrade the second tunnel and link it to the powerhouse in such a way that we now, I think and I hope, will see employment continue.

I mentioned that the Haisla have taken advantage of that. As a result of the aluminum industry coming in, we saw other industries come into the Kitimat area. At one time, we had a large Eurocan Pulp and Paper plant that was operating in my riding. When I first got elected, there was another large company called Methanex that was making methanol in my riding.

So while I represent a largely rural riding, I also have a very industrial base in one of my communities. All of us who live in Terrace and other parts of the riding can be thankful for that, because Kitimat is an end-of-the-road community. It doesn't go any further than that. It's at the mouth of the Douglas Channel. So all of the paycheques that come from the industrial activity that has taken place in Kitimat over the last number of years….

[1535]

Most of those paycheques…. Once people have paid for their housing costs and their heating, electricity and the basic needs of life, they spend those dollars not just in Kitimat but also in Terrace.

Terrace, over the last number of years since I got elected, has gone through some very, very challenging times. What we have found in Terrace is that…. We had a community that was built and fostered entirely around one industry originally. It was fostered around the forestry industry. It has a relatively short history, 75 or 80 years, and it was founded because it was a central place along the Skeena River.

You could process wood and have that wood transported on barges down to the coast and then down to other plants. Also, over the years, there were sawmills that were built in Terrace to process the wood locally. Those sawmills that were in the area locally also then produced all of the offtake that was used to make pulp and paper.

What you had was a series of sawmills in northwest B.C. — two or three, at one time, in Terrace. The sawdust and bark that came off that wood production was then taken to Prince Rupert to feed a large pulp mill there or brought down to the pulp mill in Kitimat, which I have referenced already. So you had an industry that at one time was booming.

But as we all know — those of us who have worked here for any time — the forestry industry goes through booms and busts. Things have not been kind to the forestry industry in northwest British Columbia since the time that I got elected. In fact, I have seen sawmill after sawmill shut down in my riding, creating huge economic dislocation for the people, particularly the people of Terrace, and all the First Nations communities.

A lot of aboriginal people were also involved in the forestry sector, not just out in the bush cutting down the trees and transporting them and doing all the work necessary to keep a forest healthy. They also worked in some of our sawmills. So they have gone through a very, very difficult time.
[ Page 9917 ]

What has Terrace done? Well, I think what Terrace has done is it has recognized that the good times in the forestry sector — certainly in terms of manufacturing — are over. We have now got one mill, thankfully, that has been bought by a Chinese investor. After a great many years, probably seven or eight years, of not a stick of wood being cut on a commercial scale…. We have very small-scale sawmills up and down Kalum Lake Road, but we haven't had commercial sawmilling up until the last two or three years.

What has Terrace done? It has tried to diversify, recognizing that we may never, ever get back to that level of manufacturing base that we had in the past. What Terrace has done is it has recognized that it needs to try and sell itself as a hub for northwest B.C. If you look at a map of my riding and the two adjacent ridings, you will note, just by looking at the map, that Terrace is fortunate in the sense that it is a natural geographic hub, not just for retail sales but for services like government services, medical services, dentistry, legal.

What has happened is that it has gone from being, essentially, a sawmilling town that lived off the logging industry to a town that recognizes it has to cater to a much broader base than just those who live in Terrace or Thornhill. And they have been very successful.

We are fortunate to have a medical community that attracts a large number of doctors. Not as many as we'd like, obviously — I think it's fair to say that every single community in northern B.C. would love to have more doctors — but we have been fortunate to be able to attract physicians to come, not just from other parts of British Columbia and other parts of Canada. In fact, we have been fortunate enough to attract medical professionals to come from other parts of the world to make their home in Terrace.

One community and one country that pops to mind, of course, is South Africa. If you look at the number of doctors and medically related physicians and other medical experts who live in Terrace, a number of them come from South Africa. You might wonder: "How come we suddenly had an influx of doctors from South Africa?"

[1540]

Well, first of all, most northern B.C. communities were having a hard time attracting medical professionals to come and live there. I think it's fair to say that a lot of the professionals — whether they're doctors, teachers, accountants or lawyers or whatever — tend to want to live in Canada's large cities, for a number of reasons. It's always been difficult to attract professionals to come and live in northern and smaller and remote communities.

We were fortunate because, at the outset of being able to attract South Africans to come and operate as medical professionals in Terrace…. I guess a couple of them came, initially, from Saskatchewan. What happened was that the Saskatchewan government attracted some physicians to come from South Africa.

I don't want to say anything detrimental about Saskatchewan, but, you know, it's fair to say they have very cold winters there. If you are a physician from South Africa seeking a new life with your family in a country as blessed as Canada, you might not want to pick Saskatchewan, ideally, as a great place to go. It's not just culturally very different from South Africa, but to make that adjustment from the incredible climate of South Africa to Saskatchewan is a difficult thing.

So what happened was that some of these doctors looked on a map and discovered, hey, if you come to a place like my riding of Skeena and settle down on the banks of the Skeena River, it might be a nice place to live. You haven't got long winters. You can go hiking. You can go fishing.

What's happened over the years is that a whole whack of South Africans moved to Terrace. As soon as they arrived, they phoned up their friends and said: "Hey, come on here. It doesn't snow all year, and it isn't minus 25 for five months of the year." So we have been so fortunate. These people have brought so much to our community. As a result, it has helped Terrace to form a base of services that have enabled us to now attract people from all over northwest B.C. to come to Terrace.

I'm speaking about people who live in Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek. I'm looking at the hon. member for Stikine. Those folks often have to come to my community of Terrace in order to get basic, and specialized, health services, as well as dentistry.

The catchment area for Terrace, and for my riding now, doesn't just expand to the 20,000 people who live in the Terrace area. Instead, it has become a hub. We attract people to come shopping from Prince Rupert, from all of the First Nations communities north of Terrace, as far away as Dease Lake.

There are some weekends when Terrace is so packed that we have to actually wait at traffic lights. I know that may sound strange when you only have four traffic lights, but that is how busy Terrace can get on the weekends when people come. I'm glad we only have four traffic lights. That's what I like — a small community.

J. Yap: I seek leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

J. Yap: I just wanted to add to the introduction I made earlier. In the precincts today are a total of 64 students from my riding, from Steveston-London Secondary School — grade 11 students — led by a group of teachers. I specifically want to recognize teacher Stephanie Christie, who has been doing this field trip, bringing her grade 11 students to the people's House, over the last number of years. I would ask members of the House to give a great
[ Page 9918 ]
welcome to the grade 11 students of Stephanie Christie from Steveston-London Secondary School.

Debate Continued

L. Throness: It's been very interesting listening to detailed descriptions of the parks in Vancouver and aluminum smelters in Kitimat as the opposition engages in dilatory debate for some mysterious political purpose. But we on this side will stick to the topic of Bill 42, which is the Electoral Districts Act, the work of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, which will radically alter the boundaries of my constituency.

That's symbolized in the name, the changing name of my constituency. Right now, my riding is called Chilliwack-Hope. It indicates that there's an east-west access to my riding.

[1545]

That will change in 2017 to Chilliwack-Kent, which suggests a north-south orientation, as the population shifts within my constituency. My riding is one of the most changed, most altered constituencies in this entire exercise undertaken by the Electoral Boundaries Commission.

Why is my riding changing so much? It's about numbers. As B.C.'s population grows and more and more people want to come to B.C. — because we have an excellent government that's doing great for our economy, and people want to come to B.C. — the commission's mandate has to adjust boundaries so as to have as little variation between constituencies as possible so that each British Columbian's vote has equal weight.

I think that makes sense. It's a good ideal. It's a fine ideal, but it does mean that some ridings are hugely impacted. Mine certainly is. There are actually 48 of 85 ridings, plus the two new ones that will be created, that are affected.

Now, I want, for my constituents' sake, just to go over my present boundaries and how they will change. My eastern boundary goes almost as far as Manning Park. It's just past the community of Sunshine Valley, which is a beautiful place. The boundary extends south to the American border from there and north up to the old tollbooth site on the Coquihalla Highway.

The northern boundary of the riding comes west, just north of Boston Bar, takes in the entire Fraser Canyon and Hope to the south of that. It continues north of Harrison Lake and then down the west side of Harrison Lake through the Morris Valley and over the Fraser River.

Now, when that gets to Chilliwack, it gets a little more complicated. It comes down Reeves Road. It jogs over to Prest Road. It continues west on Baily Road and then South Sumas Road over to Lickman, taking everything south of that, including the communities of Promontory, Ryder Lake and Cultus Lake, the Columbia Valley and the Chilliwack River Valley. In short, the riding is everything east of Prest Road and south of South Sumas Road in Chilliwack.

This is changing. In 2017, on the dissolution of the House, the boundaries will change on the western side. Everything east of Prest Road will become Vedder Road, so the new boundary will take in everything south of the Trans-Canada east of Vedder Road.

It sounds like a small change, but that small piece of territory actually holds about 5,000 people. That's a large urban area that will become part of my riding. This means that my riding will be much more urban than it was. Now it's quite rural in nature, but that is changing.

The eastern frontier of my riding will be much closer than before. It's moving to the west. Its boundary from north to south will be moved from the Sunshine Valley and Hope and the Fraser Canyon westward toward Seabird Island and Laidlaw.

Its northern boundary will also shrink. Now it's north of Harrison Lake, quite a bit north, and it will run through Harrison Lake itself, which means that I will lose the In-SHUCK-ch people at the head of Harrison Lake, which is a sad thing to me. I'm sorry about that. I've visited that beautiful part of the world. I enjoyed representing them. I met with representatives in the band office in Deroche just a few weeks ago. I will lose the opportunity to represent them to my colleague to the north.

Altogether, my riding is going to shrink from 10,842 square kilometres to 3,168 square kilometres — 70 percent smaller. It'll be much more of an urban riding than it currently is. It will have about 51,000 people in it, so it's still quite a large riding.

So I'm happy to speak in support of the bill before us. It's necessary to periodically do boundary adjustments, but it gives me the opportunity to highlight a couple of issues related to the process that I want to talk about.

First, a couple of facts that my constituents will be interested to know. They'll be interested to know that the commission is reappointed every second election. So the changes in this report will take effect in May 2017 and be in effect for eight years after that, until May 2025. That's quite a long period of time.

Related to this, I want to point out what I see as a problem with the process, because this is the place to do it, in this chamber. I want to be personally transparent about that issue and talk about myself alone, but it does affect dozens of other MLAs in this House and how they do their jobs.

All MLAs in this House are good and dutiful people. We all want to do our jobs because we love our province. We love the people in our ridings. We do our jobs out of a sense of affection toward our people and also out of a sense of duty. But there is another motivation that every MLA experiences, and that's what I would call the democratic imperative.

This is the fundamental motivation of self-interest. In the business world, it would have its counterpart in the
[ Page 9919 ]
idea of profit. Simply put, we want to please those who elect us. We want to serve them well so that they will vote for us again. This is not a fault in the process. This is a marvellous strength of democracy.

Sometimes politicians are accused of being weak-willed. They're accused of pleasing people and watching polls and swinging with the winds of public opinion. When I hear that accusation, I say: "Yeah, great. That's good. That's a good idea." Within reason, that's the way that it ought to be.

[1550]

I tell people that Mr. Stalin and Mr. Mao never cared about public opinion. They were not motivated by public opinion. They didn't seek it. They didn't care what anybody thought. They did whatever they wanted to, because they were dictators.

But we respond to people, both at a local and a provincial level. When we do that, it shows that it's the people who are in charge. It's the people who are our bosses. We're doing what they want. That's the great incentive of democracy — that we are held accountable to those people who are going to vote for us or are going to vote against us in the next election.

It results in very good, very responsive government and very good levels of service to our constituents, because the right incentives are in place — those of duty, those of ties of affection but also of the democratic imperative. The democratic imperative, the drive to be re-elected, is a very powerful incentive. It is a significant motivation, and it is a good one.

This system of accountability to our constituents is disturbed every eight years, somewhat, when boundaries are revised. I want to point to myself as an example. I knew as of September 24, almost two years before the next election, that Hope and the Fraser Canyon will not be in my constituency in two years, that the 6,000 people in those areas will not be able to vote for me or against me in the next election, in May of 2017.

What are the incentives that result from this kind of knowledge? It means that I am no longer motivated by self-interest in those areas of my riding. I'm no longer motivated by the need to be re-elected in those areas. I'm motivated purely by my sense of affection for those areas and by my sense of duty to those constituents.

Fortunately, I have strong affection for those areas, and I have a strong sense of duty. I want to assure my constituents in those areas that I will represent them and attend to them, just as I did before, right up until the next election. But the democratic imperative, the impulse to be re-elected, is no longer there in those areas of my riding.

The other effect of the boundary adjustment process — I again point to myself as the example here — is that in 2017, I'll be serving people who are not now in my riding, thousands of people in Chilliwack. I now have the democratic incentive to appeal to those people, to serve those people, to make myself known to those people, who are currently in the neighbouring riding, because they will be able to vote for me in 2017 or vote against me. But I already have all the people in my own riding to serve. It is an extra burden, and it results in a mismatch of accountability.

Further, this mismatch is not insignificant. It is significant. Since more than half of all riding boundaries are changing in this boundary readjustment, it affects pockets of people all over the province. And further, this mismatch of accountabilities, as in the current boundary adjustment, will last for 19 months out of the next eight years, which is 96 months, or 20 percent of that eight-year period.

Since the boundary readjustments happen every eight years, it means that on a permanent basis, 20 percent of the time in areas all over B.C., most MLAs have the incentive to serve constituents who are currently in a neighbouring riding and the incentive not to serve some constituents who are currently in their own riding.

This is kind of bizarre. It's an outcome I never would have thought of before I became an MLA. I would point out and add to this that not only constituents are vulnerable here, but MLAs are also vulnerable. I have 52,000 people to serve in my own riding. What if an individual or a group that lives in the area that will be in my riding comes to me and says: "We know we're not in your riding yet, but we have an issue that we're concerned about. We want you to help us, and if you don't help us, we're not going to vote for you in 2017"? That's a real threat. How can an MLA say no to that?

This situation not only has the potential of selling constituents short if some MLAs don't pay as close attention to that area as they did before; it also puts MLAs in a difficult spot, as people are able to force them to represent them, even if they are not in their riding. It takes time. It takes energy away from time and energy that should be devoted to their current constituents.

It's a bit of an odd situation. While all members of this House are motivated by affection, motivated by duty, I think it would be better if they were also motivated by the democratic imperative, the imperative of self-interest, in pleasing people to whom they are accountable. I think it would result overall, over time, in better government.

I see this as a flaw in the process. But what can we do about this? I've thought about it. I don't argue with the need for a commission. I don't argue with the need to readjust boundaries every eight years. Those are important things. I don't argue with the commission beginning its work in good time and doing public consultations, as it has done, nor do I argue with the need to let members and others know in good time, well ahead, how their boundaries will change. All these elements are good elements.

[1555]

Certainly, it's in the interest of, say, political parties and MLAs and government agencies to make adjustments ahead of time. It's in the interests of MLAs to have 19
[ Page 9920 ]
months to prepare. But is this amount of time, this length of time, in the public interest? That is the question that we must always ask in this House. Is it in the interest of our constituents?

I would argue that it's not in the public interest to allow that much lead time and leave the accountabilities of most MLAs to be blurred, to be partially mismatched for 20 percent of every eight-year period between boundary adjustments. In short, I don't think we need to know 19 months in advance how and when our boundaries are changed. That's a long time. That's almost two years.

While we can't eliminate this problem of a mismatch in accountabilities, I think we can reduce it by a number of months. By how much? I would think that the ideal would be to preserve existing boundaries and the match of accountability for as long as possible, while still giving a reasonable time for this House to pass legislation — like the bill we have before us — and political parties, government agencies, MLAs and everyone else to prepare for the change.

I think that we could get by with probably an eight-month period of foreknowledge. This would reduce the mismatch in accountability to our constituents from 20 percent to about 8 percent of the time, and I think it would result over time, on a provincewide basis, in better government.

This would require a small change — not to the bill before us today, which is fine, but to the electoral boundary readjustment act. So I would recommend to this House, to future legislators, that some time in the next eight years — we have lots of time — before the next boundary adjustment, that this Legislature would change the law in order to keep the democratic incentive in place for as long as reasonably possible and maximize the accountability of MLAs to their constituents, to keep our constituents as our constituents, as close as possible to each election, and to give MLAs every incentive to focus on their current constituents rather than on future constituents.

Now, I'd like to address another issue. I want to talk for a moment about Hope, respecting my boundary adjustments. The district of Hope is located right where the mountains bordering the Fraser Valley come together, so it is geographically located within the Fraser Valley, but it's right at the jumping-off point to other areas of the province — the Fraser Canyon to the north, the Crowsnest and the Coquihalla passes to the east. In many ways — geographically, economically and culturally, as I argued to the commission — Hope is connected with the Fraser Valley rather than north and east with the Fraser-Nicola region.

This was a big deal for my constituents in Hope. I immediately began receiving feedback from people in Hope and even from people to the north of Hope. They appeared before the commission in Abbotsford. They came a long way to do that. Again, at the hearing in Hope…. And I want to thank the commission for appearing in Hope. They actually went to Hope to hear out my constituents, and I appreciate that. There was so much feedback that not all constituents could appear before the commission.

I want to quote from the commission's report here, which said: "The majority of the public opinion we received was regarding three areas: Hope and the Fraser Canyon, Surrey and the Comox Valley. Opinions were split on whether Hope is the gateway to the Interior and therefore belongs in the Fraser-Nicola electoral district, or whether it is the gateway to the Fraser Valley and therefore belongs in an electoral district with Chilliwack."

Opinions may have been split, but I'm glad the commission did not suggest that they were equally split, because they were not. They were split, I would estimate, 95 percent in favour of Hope remaining in the Chilliwack-Hope riding.

After the local district council passed a unanimous resolution in favour of Hope being retained in the riding in which it now is, I began a petition that would give local people a voice — that would allow local people to express themselves. And the people of Hope, themselves, gathered nearly 400 signatures on that petition in a very short period of time.

In order to facilitate the people of Hope expressing their will, I placed an advertisement in the Hope Standard, the local paper, that invited them to a local coffee house, the Blue Moose, where I had the petition ready and waiting for a few hours one afternoon, if people wanted to come in and sign it. And that they did.

Now, someone on the other side of the House saw the ad in the paper, complained in writing to the Speaker — I think the House Leader did that — suggesting that this is was partisan use of my MLA constituency office funds. Of course, when I saw that letter, I immediately explained my actions to the Speaker, and I'm happy to report that this matter has been decided by the Speaker.

[1600]

She had a discussion with me, as well as the Legislative Assembly's executive financial officer, and decided that she was satisfied that the use of constituency office funding for the advertisement was within the guidelines provided in the "Members' guide to policy and resources" and that the advertisement was non-partisan in nature. I want to assure my constituents and all members of this House that it was non-partisan. I made good use of taxpayers' funds. I was doing my job in representing my constituents, and I will do that until 2017.

I continued to do that this summer when I appeared before the Electoral Boundaries Commission, when we had the opportunity to do so here in Victoria, and I presented the petition to the commissioners on behalf of my constituents.

I think, in conclusion, that it's unfortunate the commission finally chose to make the decision it did; that is, to put Hope and the Fraser Canyon within the constitu-
[ Page 9921 ]
ency of Fraser-Nicola. But I understand their reasons for doing so. It's a difficult job of an independent commission to do this kind of work, and of course, I accept their verdict.

I will be sad to lose those areas of my riding, which I've come to have affection for. They are such beautiful areas of my riding. I have so enjoyed getting to know the unique people that populate Hope and Yale and Boston Bar and smaller areas in between. They are salt-of-the-earth people. They are good people. They are genuine people. It has been such a pleasure to represent them, and it will be such a pleasure to represent them for the next 19 months until the next election.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Port Coquitlam on the second reading of Bill 42.

M. Farnworth: Thank you, hon. Speaker. It's a pleasure to see you in the chair, and it's a pleasure to rise and speak to Bill 42. I've got a number of comments to make.

Actually, before I start my speech, I notice the Minister of Energy is here, and I have a couple of comments I just want to direct to him, because I told him once before that I would say this.

A lot of times people think that government and opposition aren't able to cooperate on an issue and that all we ever do is fight. I want to acknowledge that there was an issue in my riding — which I will talk about at further length — earlier on; that is, that one of the key events that I have been involved with in politics in my riding, in my community, was the creation of the Pinecone Burke Provincial Park that was done in 1995. Currently there's access, but it's limited.

There's work being done by B.C. Hydro on the power line right-of-way that runs over that. It crossed a significant creek, and during that work, a bridge was created. A lot of times a lot of this work is not left in place but is, in fact, dug up, and there's no actual, real road there. But there was concern in the community that in this particular case this bridge was wonderful access into the park.

I worked with the minister, and he was able to ensure that Hydro, in fact, left that bridge in place. So I just wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank him for doing that. Who says that government and opposition can't work together on things?

Now, back to the piece of legislation before us. I listened with interest to my colleague's comments down the way. I was a bit disappointed that he described opposition speeches as dilatory speeches about their ridings rather than the issue at hand. I'm surprised that he would say that, because had he listened to the minister who introduced the bill, her opening comments were very clear to members on both sides of the House, which were: "I look forward to hearing speeches about your individual ridings." She did, indeed, say that. So I'm a bit surprised about the dilatory nature.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

I listened with interest to the member's speeches, and I understand his concern about what happens when a riding gets split and how these decisions are often made. I've now been through four riding redistributions, and it is always an interesting process.

I'll give him one piece of advice. You may lose some areas, you may gain areas, and you may be concerned about those new people coming in to vote for you. But my piece of advice is this. They already have an MLA, and the best thing in your interest is: don't interfere with the work of the existing MLA, especially when he's in your own party. If you do that, things will go a lot smoother. I see that the Minister of Energy fully understands that.

[1605]

The first time I was associated with a boundary redistribution was in 1988. I was on the city council of Port Coquitlam at the time, and it was the significant boundary redistribution that had been put in place by Bill Vander Zalm, the Fisher Commission, which was to get rid of dual-member ridings and actually put in place a proper and independent commission in British Columbia to make changes to the boundaries.

We, in Port Coquitlam, have always been concerned about keeping our community together because we are divided by CP Rail's largest marshalling yard in all of western Canada. It bisects the town in two, so there's a north side of Port Coquitlam and a south side of Port Coquitlam and then a small piece of Port Coquitlam on the west side of the Coquitlam River. Often the railway line is seen as an obvious boundary, just like a river is or a municipal boundary.

In this particular case, some of the proposals being floated were to put the north side of Port Coquitlam in with Pitt Meadows and the south side of Port Coquitlam in with Port Moody, creating some really strange configurations. The council was very concerned about that, and I was council's delegate to make a presentation to the commission. We argued that Port Coquitlam should be kept whole, and the result was, in fact, that we were.

We had a big chunk of what, in essence, is the riding of Coquitlam–Burke Mountain. It was also part of the Port Coquitlam riding that came at that particular time. In 1991, I had the good fortune to be elected as the MLA for the area. Then there was a subsequent boundary readjustment or redrawing in the late '90s in time for the 2001 election. That was, again, a significant event. I lost almost 40 percent of my riding because of the population growth at that time.

That's a little bit about my experience, initially, with boundary redistributions. For MLAs who are attached to their communities, they can be somewhat disconcerting, and they do have an impact. And all of us as MLAs do have, as I said in my initial speech on the motion, a vested interest in how those boundaries are drawn.
[ Page 9922 ]

We've gone through, in the motion debate, the history of the drawing of boundaries in this province and how they have evolved to the present situation where they're done by an independent panel. I'd just like to comment on that, because, as I said, I've been involved now with four of them.

The one thing that I think every single boundaries' commission since the Fisher Commission has done, and I think it bears out, is that every single one has got it right the first time around. Their first set of hearings, where they hear from people and communities, they come out with their interim report, and then that interim report is available for public comment. And they go back and they hear what they've heard the second time round in the hearings, and then they come back with their final report. I'll talk a little bit about the one prior to this.

In every single case, by and large, the initial map is the map they stick with. They will make some minor adjustments, but there has never really been a significant variation or deviation from that map. I think that's important. Except, I was going to say, last time, when both government and opposition realized the impact that the terms of reference had had on rural British Columbia and on the number of ridings. Both said: "You know what? We need to add a couple of additional seats over and above what the commission was thinking to meet those challenges." So the commission went back, took those into account and, in fact, put in place a map that was adopted by this House.

Again, this time around, the commission went out. It heard hearings. It held its hearings across the province. It came back with a map. By and large…. You know, there were people who made suggestions on changes. I know that the member for Chilliwack-Hope wanted…. He had a particular view. I understand that, and I respect that. But the commission made its decision.

[1610]

They did make some changes on the south side of the river in the Langley and Abbotsford areas, which I know the Minister of Environment represents. They did not change the map overall in a significant degree, but they did readjust boundaries in a particular region.

That report was tabled in the House. It was bought forth in terms of a motion. That motion was passed, and subsequently, yesterday the Attorney General tabled the legislation that will now give effect to that report and will put in place those boundaries in time for the next election.

I was also interested to listen to the member from Chilliwack's comments regarding the amount of time that it takes to make changes on those boundaries and that perhaps that time should be shortened. I think he would find there would be significant disagreement on both sides of the House in this chamber on that thought. I understand what he's saying, but I think the realities of changing constituency boundaries require a significant lead time.

They require significant lead time for a number of reasons. First, within the practical considerations of those who are elected, over time, as all of us have known.... The requirements from Elections B.C. in terms of how constituencies are constituted, the reporting requirements of constituencies on an annual basis, the reporting requirements of constituencies during an election and the requirements around the division of assets and the division of liabilities are far more complicated today than they were 30 or 40 or 50 years ago.

The result is that constituency associations.... You are dealing with volunteers. As a result, you have to have your executive meetings, you have to have the annual general meetings, you have to have accountants involved, and you have to have financial statements involved.

That takes a considerable amount of time for individual constituencies that — especially when their boundaries have been changed — have to dissolve the constituency association, create a new constituency association, put in place new financial agents, new financial officers. Those financial officers who have signing authority, for example, now have to have credit checks done on them.

There's a whole litany of steps and processes that have to be fulfilled that you didn't used to have to do, and that's just at the local constituency level. At the party level, at the party organizational level, there's a lot of work to be done in terms of organizing constituencies within the political party itself. Again, that takes an awful lot of time.

Finally, there's the issue of Elections B.C. We know from experience from the last redistribution that in our desire to make sure that in rural British Columbia, those seats were protected.... When the report came in — it came in at a similar time of the year as what we are dealing with now with this report — the decision was to tell the commission: "Look, we think you've done great work, but the reality is that it's not meeting the needs of the House, on both sides. We're in agreement on that. You need to go back, and you need to add an additional two seats."

That required the commission to go out, redo its work, redo its map and bring that back, and we were dealing with it in the spring. By the time it was passed, we literally had that eight months that the member was talking about.

It really put Elections B.C. under the gun in terms of being able to do the work that they need to do in terms of getting their processes in place, their requirements in terms of creating poll maps, creating polling stations, identifying polling stations, ensuring that the boundaries are proper, ensuring that they have the ability to deal with each of the new constituencies that have been created. All of those things take an enormous amount of resources, time and effort.

[1615]

As much as I understand the desire to say, "You know what? Maybe boundaries shouldn't come in until eight months before," I think the current system we have is the
[ Page 9923 ]
right system. It allows for MLAs, it allows for political parties, and most of all, it allows for Elections B.C. to do the work that needs to be done, because it is a very complex process setting up the new systems and the new administrative requirements around the creation of a new constituency.

Now, this particular redistricting, this particular redrawing of boundaries, is one that I'm happy with. I mean, I'm happy that we got the map provincewide. But looking at it, as I said, from a strictly personal vested interest as the MLA for Port Coquitlam, I am happy because my boundaries do not change. My boundaries are coterminous with the city of Port Coquitlam, and I am extremely pleased with that.

One unique fact that you may not be aware of with the passage of this particular piece of legislation — the riding of Port Coquitlam will, in fact, become unique in the province of British Columbia. I can see the Minister of Community Development looking at me with a "how-so?" look on his face.

Currently there are two ridings in this province whose MLAs' boundaries are coterminous with one community — that is, New Westminster and Port Coquitlam. With the changes in this map, part of the community in New Westminster will be in a second riding, so they will have two MLAs. Port Coquitlam will be the only community in British Columbia that is represented by a single MLA.

Every other riding in the province will either be large enough, such as Cariboo-Chilcotin, for example — where you have a number of communities throughout a very large riding — or be like Vancouver, where you have ten MLAs serving one large city.

In my case, one city, one MLA, one council, and I really like that. You don't have to worry about other MLAs stepping on your toes or you stepping on theirs, and that does make life a lot easier. So from my personal perspective, as I said, I'm quite happy with the boundaries.

I'd like to talk a little bit about my riding, which I have represented since 1991, with the exception of a four-year interregnum between 2001 and 2005. It is an interesting community.

Port Coquitlam was founded in 1913. Just prior to its inauguration as the city of Port Coquitlam, it was known as Westminster Junction. It was called Westminster Junction because it was the junction on the CP Rail main line that linked the railway from east to west. It was the junction at which the spur line went off to New Westminster.

It's there that the Canadian Pacific Railway company established its marshalling yard, which, as I said earlier, is one of the largest in all of the country and certainly one of CP's largest in western Canada. It was around that that the industrial area grew, around that railway, at the turn of the century and in the decades after.

It became a major industrial centre with the railway, with lumber mills close by — such as Fraser Mills in Maillardville, Flavelle Cedar in Port Moody — as well as what was known for a long time as Essondale and is now more commonly known as Riverview, the province's psychiatric hospital. All of that contributed to a significant amount of development in the Port Coquitlam area, now known as the Tri-Cities.

During that time, we've had a number of particularly interesting representatives. When the area that is now Port Coquitlam entered Confederation in 1871 along with the rest of British Columbia, we were in the New Westminster district. At that time, there were two representatives: Josiah Charles Hughes and William James Armstrong.

[1620]

Four years later in the next election, one of the incumbents was re-elected, William James Armstrong. And we had for one term I think a member with probably one of the more interesting and unique names in the history of this province, and that was one Ebenezer Brown. I think that's worth a mention just for that alone.

We have been represented through the years by a number of Premiers. John Robson was the MLA for the area that covered Port Coquitlam, from 1882 through to 1890. We were represented by Sir Richard McBride from 1898 through 1907. We were represented by John Oliver in 1916, who was also one of our Premiers, as well as Dave Barrett when our riding was known as Dewdney, from 1960 through 1975.

We've been represented by people who really cared about their communities, and they have represented a number of political parties. As I said, we've had Richard McBride, and we've had John Oliver. We had Lyle Wicks in the late '50s, who was Social Credit. More recently, in 1979, we had Stu Leggatt, who sat in this House and later became a Provincial Court judge. We had my immediate predecessor, Mark Rose, who was a former MP for what was Fraser Valley West and who became the member for Coquitlam-Moody in 1983 and represented it in this House till 1991. He was also Opposition House Leader, I might add.

In 1991, I arrived in this House. At that time, the riding was called Port Coquitlam, which it was for two elections until 2001, when the seat was held by Karn Manhas and was known as Port Coquitlam–Burke Mountain. It was also known in the 2005 election as Port Coquitlam–Burke Mountain, until the last redistribution, when it retained the name for which it has now, which is Port Coquitlam.

What's particularly special about my community and why I like representing it so much is it's the community that I've grown up in. We moved there in 1969 when there were about 8,000, 10,000 people. Now there are around 60,000 people, so it's a pretty large suburban riding, but it has always retained its small-town charm.

Though it's grown through the years, a lot of the things that make it special and unique are still there. It's got its small-town charm. We have a mayor and council that
[ Page 9924 ]
are very much in tune with the history of our community and protecting and preserving the traditions that have made our community a great place to live.

I want to talk about two of them for a second. One of them, actually, relates to what the member for Chilliwack-Hope was talking about earlier: how things change over time.

When we first arrived in Port Coquitlam, the celebration that you looked forward to every year — and still do; it's the hallmark each year of the community of Port Coquitlam — was May Day. Our May Day tradition has been going continuously since 1923, though the first one was held in 1913.

We have a May Queen. We have maypole dancers. A lot of the elementary schools participate, and it really is a family occasion. We have a May Day parade that goes through downtown Port Coquitlam. It has the floats and the parade. We get thousands and thousands of people each year out to see it. It's organized by a dedicated group of community volunteers supported by our mayor and council, and they do a wonderful job.

The fascinating thing about it, and here is how things have changed over the years, is that when we first moved there in 1969, the parade would start where it starts now, down by Central School — which was, along with James Park, one of the first two elementary schools in the community, dating back to 1914. The parade would go through downtown Port Coquitlam. It would go under the underpass, and they would block off the Lougheed Highway. They would close the Lougheed Highway in both directions for the parade to go from the south side of town to the north side of town.

[1625]

No one thought anything about it. There was so little traffic that it didn't cause a disruption. Even though it took probably 45 minutes to an hour for that parade to go across, they would block off the Lougheed Highway in both directions.

Could you imagine the reaction today if you tried to shut the Lougheed Highway for five minutes in both directions, let alone an hour, for a parade to go across? It wouldn't happen. The growth in traffic and the growth in the community have been that tremendous. But that parade still goes ahead, and it's something that all of us in Port Coquitlam really look forward to.

The other aspect about Port Coquitlam which is unique and helps shape our community is one of the things that the mayors and councils over the years have encouraged and supported to keep our community together. As I've said, we are divided between a north side and a south side, and there is always that tension, ensuring that both sides of town are getting their fair share in terms of recreational facilities, playing fields, and attention to roads and the ability to deal with traffic.

We are bordered by three rivers. We're bordered by the Coquitlam River, the Pitt River and the Fraser River. The Fraser River loops around Mary Hill, and I'll talk about that in a moment. We are a diked community on three sides. We have an important regional park, Colony Farm Park.

One of the things that was established in the very early '70s — I think it was about 1971 or '72 — was the creation of what was called the PoCo Trail. There was a vision to have a trail that ran right around the community. It runs right around the community, so you have the ability to walk all the way around Port Coquitlam on an amazing trail system that runs along the rivers. It runs through some incredible green space. It gives amazing views up the Pitt valley and to Pitt Lake. It is one of the most important greenbelts in the Lower Mainland, and it is used by people in our community literally every day of the year.

In fact, I can walk out of the house, and in ten minutes, I am on the dike. You can go for an amazing walk along that dike. We are in the Lower Mainland. It is not unusual, when you're out there, to see the most incredible wildlife, whether it is bald eagles or ospreys. You can see coyotes on a regular basis. You can see otters. You can see deer. You can see bear, which this year we have seen a number of. You can even see the occasional seal in the Pitt River.

It truly is a remarkable place. It is something that we in our community are extremely proud of. It's an incredible environmental asset. It's an incredible community asset that people use, and it helps define our community. It helps define the geographical location of our community.

That's why, when we're looking at electoral boundaries…. When the boundaries commissioners are looking at community of interest, those are the kinds of things that they take into consideration. That helps to define community of interest.

The name of the trail, initially, was the PoCo Trail. After the death of one of our city's longest-serving mayors, an individual whom I had the pleasure to serve with from 1983 till 1990 on the city council and then as MLA for Port Coquitlam…. I know some of my colleagues in this chamber will remember him. That was Len Traboulay, who was the mayor of Port Coquitlam for some 20 years. When he passed away, the city honoured him by naming the PoCo Trail the Traboulay PoCo Trail, and it was a very fitting tribute.

I see that my time is almost up, but I just want to leave with a couple more comments.

[1630]

This boundaries report was based on a lot of hard work by the commission. I want to thank them for that. They try very hard to balance competing interests, often relying on community groups, political parties, communities and individuals who may have different points of view on how a map is created. In many cases, it is a difficult challenge, because it's kind of like pushing down on a waterbed. If you kind of move a bit of population from here over there, you gotta do something over there,
[ Page 9925 ]
which then impacts over there. So it's not an easy thing to do. But I think they did a job.

We asked them to do it as this House. They have got it right, and they have produced a report. Those will be, once adopted, the boundaries that we run on in 2017. I can tell you that as the MLA for Port Coquitlam, I am very happy that my boundaries do not change for 2017.

One quick final note before I take my seat. I'm reminded… Again, the member for Chilliwack-Hope said something about: "When they take something away, you lose the incentive to represent those constituencies."

Well, I just want to let him know that in 1999, when the boundaries report came down and I lost all of the territory west of the Coquitlam River, I still fought hard with the Minister of Education and the Premier to make sure that we built 14 brand-new schools in that part of my riding. We built a new college, and it was much appreciated.

Hon. S. Bond: I, like other members in this House, am very pleased to be able to stand today and provide my support for the decision to introduce and adopt all of the Electoral Boundaries Commission recommendations.

This is certainly not the first time in this Legislature and in my time here that there has been a great deal of discussion about boundaries. I think the reason that it actually generates so much discussion and debate here is because it's really not about the lines that end up being drawn in one part of the province or a part of a city or a part of a region. It's about ensuring that British Columbians, who care passionately about having their voices heard wherever they live in this province, actually have effective representation.

I think we've heard a lot over the course of the last few days, and I anticipate we'll continue to hear over the next few days, about why it's so important and why people are connected to ridings and why MLAs get connected to their ridings. But it's about much more than just the lines.

In this particular redistribution, and I have faced a couple of them over my…. I guess it's getting close to 15 years soon as a cabinet minister and here as an MLA. I, too, have faced changes previously in the boundaries that define where I represent.

In fact, my riding has changed names as well. I was elected as the MLA for Prince George–Mount Robson, and I always loved that name because it is an iconic part of British Columbia. And while Mount Robson remains inside my riding, the name changed, and I am the MLA for Prince George–Valemount.

But what matters to me most, certainly, as a person who has lived my entire life in a northern part of the province.… I used to say, "I live in the north," but then I am reminded regularly by my colleagues that hardly could we consider the centre of British Columbia the north. But I do feel very much that I live in a northern rural-urban riding in British Columbia.

But one of the things that I thought a lot about as we were going through another process in terms…. And it's regular. We do…. I think it's important and responsible to take a look at the demographics of our province from time to time to make sure that the constituents that we serve are well served.

From that perspective, I think the Electoral Boundaries Commission process is important, and I think that, certainly, a great deal of hard work has been done here. We've heard, you know, from some of our colleagues how challenging some of these changes will be for them, because they work hard.

[1635]

You know, I never doubt that members of this House, whatever side you sit on or whether you're an independent, choose to run for public office because they want to make a contribution to British Columbia and to serve their constituents well.

Change is often difficult. I am very pleased. While my riding is facing some change, I can say that it's physically captured within my own community — basically, a differing boundary. Rather than using a highway as a dividing line, it'll be using a river. While there is some variation in the riding, generally speaking, the riding is fairly complete.

One of the reasons that is enormously important to me is that I have come to absolutely love the part of the province I represent. Not only the city of Prince George and some of the surrounding regions, but I also have an incredible degree of care for the people in the Robson Valley, as we call it. It's a part of British Columbia that would certainly be described as rural and remote.

As we speak today, I am working on an issue where one part of my riding actually has no cell phone service for some reason. So we're trying to figure out what went wrong. There was going to be a change made, and today their phones aren't working. That's part of the culture of the riding that I represent.

I know this. The people that I represent in the Robson Valley, whether they live in Dunster or Dome Creek, whether they live in Valemount or McBride, in Loos or Crescent Spur — all of those incredible parts of our province…. They are resilient. They are hard-working. One of the things I know they care about is making sure that they feel like their concerns are heard.

As you can imagine, I am very lucky in that my riding, certainly, is not as large as Stikine, the largest constituency in British Columbia. Mine still covers thousands and thousands of kilometres — in fact, probably the size of a small European country. What matters to me is that I am closely connected to people throughout the entire riding.

As you can imagine, while we are in Victoria, there are days that we complain about it being cloudy and rainy. Where I live, obviously…. When it's raining here in the winter, it's probably snowing at home. I can tell you that getting to the outermost points of your constituency, no matter where you live, can be challenging. Certainly, for
[ Page 9926 ]
those of us who live with very significant northern climates, it can be downright treacherous to be attempting to get from one end of your riding to the other.

For me, it is over three hours to leave the centre of Prince George and get to the easternmost boundary. That wouldn't actually be to the Alberta border. It would be to Valemount. My riding, obviously, extends right to the Alberta border from the city of Prince George.

I think that as we look at being pragmatic in British Columbia…. How do you grapple with that balance? It is about finding balance. I have colleagues across the way and on this side of the House that represent thousands of people in a very small geographic space. Those of us who represent northern or more rural ridings, more remote ridings, face exactly the opposite challenge. We have thousands of kilometres and a very small population comparatively.

I think that the work done by the Electoral Boundaries Commission takes all of that into consideration. They look at geography. They look at how you find that balance.

I know this. One of the issues that sparked the most passionate response from people where I live was the thought, even the thought, that their representation, the degree of representation that they have today, was potentially being threatened. There would be reduced representation in some way — the amalgamation of a riding, the elimination of a particular seat. That would mean one fewer MLA that would be part of that very, very large northern part of British Columbia.

I can remember hearing from constituents. It's one of those things you hear a lot about when the circumstance occurs, and people…. I can say this. No one that spoke or reacted to the then potential changes and drove our desire to protect certain ridings in the province…. No one stood up and said: "I think we're overrepresented." It was not something that I heard.

[1640]

In fact, the fear and the concern about what might happen was real for people. They already have a hard enough time feeling like we who sit here in Victoria.... Despite the fact that we go home every week and work as hard as we can in those hours that we're at home, they have a hard enough time feeling connected to us.

For me, this is a very personal issue. Having been born and raised, and my family…. Literally, we are generations in terms of our connectedness to our community, to our region. I'm so grateful that one of our children lives in Prince George. So we have another generation being raised there — two very, very energetic little grandsons — and enjoying all of the things that the north has to offer — a lot of hockey, I can tell you. The oldest is only five, and we're already spending a lot of time, continuing to spend time, in a hockey rink.

One of the things that I've tried very hard to develop over time in my work in my riding is a sense that it's about a team of people that represents a particular geographic region. I have been very, very fortunate to work with representatives, right across the political spectrum, who are working to hear and respond to constituent needs. I consider that we have not just an MLA, but we have a team that represents people.

In fact, this summer we had a wonderful opportunity to bring together the team of elected officials that work in the Robson Valley. We had a celebration as team Valemount. We brought together our MPs, our regional district representatives. We brought together Mayor Townsend, her council. Next time, I want to be sure that I include the school board representatives, because they're a critical part, especially in rural British Columbia, as we grapple with how we continue to provide quality education in communities like McBride and Valemount, where they always feel threatened and concerned about the viability of those schools.

We had team Valemount and team McBride events where people could come and talk not just to me, but they could reach out to their MP, their regional district representative, their mayor, their council. I can tell you that I found it incredibly productive and positive. Wherever we sat on the political spectrum, we wanted to work together for the betterment of the people who live in the Robson Valley.

Obviously, we have a very constructive working relationship with Mayor Hall, our new mayor in the city of Prince George, and his council. Again, it's our opportunity to bring a stronger voice, a stronger degree of attention, to the issues that matter to northern British Columbians.

I want to emphasize that, for me, this is about effective representation. How do you reach out across, in my case, well over 30,000 kilometres contained within my riding? How do you do your job as well as you possibly can in those geographic circumstances? There would be those who would readily suggest: "Well, we can use technology." Well, they would not be people who spend a lot of time in the northern parts and many remote parts of British Columbia, because we're still working, though we've done a lot of work, to connect British Columbians. There are still those last-mile connections which are so incredibly difficult to make.

"Using technology" shouldn't be an easy or simplistic answer to people suggesting: "Well, we can figure out how to represent people in that way, and use that." Sure, it should be used as a tool. But it's not equitable across the province yet. We're working very hard to try to close that gap for British Columbians, but we're not there yet. We still have more work that we need to do.

As a rural MLA, I certainly know that there are times when I am simply not able to get to the outer reaches of my riding. One of the fantastic things about Prince George–Valemount is the various climatic changes that you face, even in that three-hour drive from Prince George to Valemount. It can be a great, sunny day in
[ Page 9927 ]
Prince George, and the next thing you know, it's snowing heavily by the time you get to Slim Creek. By the time you get to Dome Creek or Dunster, who knows what the road conditions are going to be like? Those are pragmatic and important considerations.

[1645]

At the end of the day, what it really comes down to is: how do we effectively represent British Columbians? The act that we're discussing today, I think, finds that important balance. I would be the last person to deny the fact that we have incredibly complex, rapidly growing urban areas in British Columbia as well. While they may not face the same challenges that I face as a rural MLA, they certainly have significant challenges as well.

As everyone has noted to this point, the act proposes to increase the electoral districts to 87 from 85. I think one of the things we'll be trying to figure out is — we've already seen an expansion in here — how do we just technically fit two more desks in this place? But I'm sure that the people who work in the Legislature will figure that out for us.

It is about balance. It's about recognizing that there is significant growth. It's about changing to meet the needs of that growing population. But it does preserve current districts in the north — the Cariboo-Thompson, the Columbia-Kootenay regions — to make sure that citizens that live in less densely populated areas, yet incredibly geographically diverse and large, can be effectively represented by their MLAs.

There are also, as you would know, boundary changes to 48 areas, including substantial changes in the Fraser Valley, the Hope-Princeton, the Comox Valley and mid–Vancouver Island regions. We heard one of our colleagues speak very passionately, and others, about the concerns, about that disconnection for that particular MLA from the current area that he serves.

We do know that these proposals, when they are adopted, will be in effect in 2017 and 2021. Then, at that point, we'll go through the process again. There will be some form of electoral boundaries process which will say: what does British Columbia look like today, and how are we doing in those rural parts of British Columbia?

Sadly, we know that the issue of depopulation of rural and northern communities is not unique to British Columbia. In fact, it's a Canadian challenge, as we see many people choose to leave northern and rural communities. We can only hope that as we see our economy grow, as we continue to have it diversify, we're going to see people making a choice to live and contribute in parts of the province like the one I represent.

One of the things I know is that if you choose, as a young couple, to come and live in a place like Prince George or McBride or Valemount, there is still within your reach the possibility of that family home. I think about how very blessed my children are. My son and his wife are blessed to have a home with a backyard and lots of room for, as I said, two energetic little boys to be playing in the backyard.

As we move through this process, we know that it is essential that we have excellent and effective elected representatives. That is precisely what this bill is about. It responds to the needs of our entire province.

I actually think that as complex as it was for the members of the Electoral Boundaries Commission…. I do, as others have, want to compliment them. I remember their time when they came up to the northern part of the province for some of their sessions. There were some travel challenges. They actually experienced that. But they worked their way throughout British Columbia, ensuring…. Many of them had long-term experience with our entire province.

The bill that resulted from their work ensures that we don't have a loss of representation, but at the same time, we are not increasing the disparity between urban and rural British Columbia. We need to make sure that growth is recognized, and I think that certainly has been reflected here.

As we look back over time, there has been much discussion about how we do this and where the boundaries change and what the lines look like. But it isn't about lines. It's about people. It's about making sure that they're able to exercise what it should be: a primary right in British Columbia, the right to effective representation by someone who is regularly and intensively connected with their communities.

[1650]

I am very passionate about the place that I represent. While I won't take as long as others have, necessarily, to celebrate the place that they live and that they, most importantly, represent…. I think each one of us in this place considers the riding that we represent the most beautiful, the most wonderful, the best riding in British Columbia. I certainly feel that way about the place that I live.

From one end of my riding to the other, you can experience the majesty of the mountains. You can be absolutely thrilled to see wildlife. On one trip, I remember coming back through the Robson Valley. Over every crest that we passed, we would find some form of wildlife. Even to this day, as I make that trip frequently, up and down that stretch of highway — often with my husband — we still stop. It never gets old, the beauty and majesty of this province.

Along with that, I have never had a sense of diminished responsibility, even having been in this place for a very long time compared to many who spend time here. I am always incredibly humbled and grateful that the people of now-called Prince George–Valemount, previously called Prince George–Mount Robson, chose to send me here.

I think the principle by which we serve should always be: it's not our job to take the message of Victoria to Prince George–Valemount. Our job is to bring the voices, the concerns, the input and the views…. My
[ Page 9928 ]
job is to bring the voices of Prince George–Valemount to Victoria and to make sure that whether you live in a small but beautiful place like Dunster, British Columbia, or McBride or Valemount….

My constituents have the same hopes and dreams for their children, for their future that people do who live in downtown Vancouver. They just choose to live in a different part of this province. So we need to have an electoral system that allows them to have the best level of service from an elected representative that we can put together.

There are lots of debates about electoral reform and all of those issues, but today we talk about, basically, geography and population. In many ways, it has been reduced somewhat, as we have the discussion, to a formula, the formulaic approach to this. For every MLA who has stood up in this House, it is way more than being about a formula.

It's about that effective degree of representation. How do we balance demographic representation with geography? That is not an easy task.

I look at some of my colleagues. When I look at Cariboo-Chilcotin, for example, the variety of geography, having been there and visited with that MLA and most communities across the province…. There are places in our province where it takes you a day to fly in, a day to do your work and a day to fly out. All of that has to be considered as we look at how we can serve our province.

I am very pleased to add my support to the bill that has been tabled. I express, as others have, my gratitude to the Electoral Boundaries Commission, who didn't sit in an office and draw lines on a map. They actually travelled across the province. They gave British Columbians and they gave northerners the chance to share their views. I'm grateful that we have stepped up to preserve those areas' representation that were under threat.

I can tell you that my constituents cared about that. As I said earlier, it was one of the most passionate discussions that we go through as the cycle works its way through each time, and we come back to that whole question about: how do we take geography and numbers and figure out what the appropriate number is?

It's easy to say that one size doesn't fit all, but it certainly doesn't in terms of our ridings and in terms of British Columbia. What should be consistent is the view that people have the right to effective representation. I think it's just so much more complex than thinking about: where do I draw the boundary?

[1655]

I am grateful that I continue to represent the majority of Prince George–Valemount after these changes will be put in place. I, like others, want to thank my constituents for having faith in me.

I can tell you that even to this day, when I am approaching, I think, 15 years here in this place, I still find that a very humbling and incredible experience — that when you put your name on a ballot, people look and they think. We've certainly seen that with the recent federal election — people getting energized about making a choice that matters to them.

What I want to do is honour the choice that they've made and work hard every day. I am grateful that the boundaries of my riding and many others in northern British Columbia have been preserved so that we can do the best job we possibly can.

I have no doubt in my heart that that is the goal of every MLA in this House, though we might disagree and have vigorous debate at times. We certainly find areas of disagreement. But the goal of effectively representing our constituents, about the passion we feel for the people who choose to send us here and that sense of responsibility that all of us should have…. It is not about going home and taking the message from Victoria. It is all about living in communities and bringing their concerns and voices here to Victoria.

As always, I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak. I add my voice of support to the bill and look forward to continuing to work hard to serve the constituents in a riding that I absolutely love and I am very proud to call my home.

C. James: I am pleased to take my place to speak to Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act.

I'd like to take a moment just to thank the minister for her words and for her reminder about the beauty of our entire province. I had the good fortune to live in the minister's riding for a couple of very important years in my life. I spend much of my summers and my winters in that area, as well, as my husband is from Burns Lake. We travel through. It's our camping time. It's our downtime.

I think the minister described very well the importance of making sure, whether you're setting boundaries or whether you're looking at other areas in the province, that it isn't an either-or. It isn't about — and I've heard some members refer to this — saying that a rural riding is more important than an urban riding or an urban riding has more complications than a rural riding. In fact, every riding is unique in this province, and every riding in this province has its unique challenges.

Certainly, I think the minister has described well, in the Prince George area and in other areas more north, that the distances and the challenges of the travel are huge. In urban ridings, the density and the ability to be able to connect with your voters, if you're looking at apartment buildings or condominiums, and being able to access voters and have that relationship can be difficult in its own unique way as well.

I think it has been a wonderful discussion, from my perspective — to be able to listen to members talk about their ridings, to hear about the beauty of British Columbia, to be reminded about this great diverse province and the kind of place that we live in. I think it has been a side benefit that, perhaps, we didn't think about
[ Page 9929 ]
when we saw the boundaries bill coming forward.

Now, when I rose to speak to the motion to move this commission report forward, which we finished debate on yesterday, I talked about the unique circumstance of a motion or a bill coming forward. Although we haven't had the vote on this bill, I have certainly heard members speak in a unanimous way about support for this bill. I expect that this will be one of those times in this Legislature — which aren't hugely common — where we see unanimous support for a bill. I think this will be one of those times.

I spoke…. I won't repeat it in my time today, but I took my time, in discussion on the motion, to talk about the history of setting boundaries and the history of commissions in our province. I'm a big believer that we need to learn from our history — that we need to take the time to look at our history, to look at why it brought us to where we are.

[1700]

Certainly, I believe it was the mistakes made in setting boundaries that brought us to a place where we have an independent boundaries commission that can bring forward a report which can be supported by all members on all sides of this House. It was boundaries commissions that came forward that weren't independent that in fact did end up with political interference. They were set in very strange ways that were challenged in the courts, challenged by communities, challenged by MLAs. It was that history and that process that led us to the place today where we have regularized a routine time, every second election, where an independent boundaries commission is put in place.

We have a public process, and I think we can't underestimate the value of that public process. The report, when it comes forward.... The commission — the minister mentioned it as well — travels the province. It doesn't sit in Vancouver or Victoria, drop a map, make a decision and decide that's how the province is going to be governed. In fact, they travel the province. They hold hearings in places around the province. They provide the opportunity for the public to have a say about their governance system.

Again, I think this is a really important point that we have to remember as we look at this. All of us, myself included, will speak with affection about our ridings and about the place we live and how much we value it, but it belongs to the people. It belongs to the people who came before us, it belongs to the people who live here now, and it belongs to future generations. So the opportunity for the public to have a say in the Boundaries Commission is critical. It's a critical piece of the work that the Boundaries Commission does.

I think the other piece that sometimes gets underestimated is the preliminary report that comes out from the Boundaries Commission; then the public gets a second opportunity to be able to have a say. So the preliminary report is released, and the Boundaries Commission then does another round of hearings and provides another opportunity for people to have a say.

I think it is one of those things where — we can't always point to it, but in this case, I believe we can — we can say we did learn from our history. We did learn from the mistakes. We did learn from the political interference. We did learn from where it didn't work to say: "Let's look at a better process, and let's put it in place."

I think it's also really important to remember that setting electoral boundaries is about a lot more than simply a map. It's about a lot more than simply numbers. It really is about community. It's about social and economic activities in your community. It's about geography, and it's about the people.

I want to begin, in speaking about my constituency that I live in and that I am grateful to represent, by recognizing the Songhees and Esquimalt people whose territory we're on, because while I talk about the history of my community, that history began with the Lekwungen people. That history began with the Esquimalt and the Songhees people.

Again, I talked about history and how important it is to learn from it. Our past was not a positive one for First Nations people, for aboriginal people in our community and in our area. I believe it's always important to not only acknowledge but also to remember that as we look at the history.

If you take a look at Victoria when European ships first sailed here across the Georgia and the Juan de Fuca straits, there were ten Lekwungen villages along the shore of what now is greater Victoria. When James Douglas, who at that time was a British agent looking for new Hudson's Bay Company headquarters, landed here, he in fact was welcomed by the Lekwungen people. The Lekwungen people welcomed him and talked about how they could look at trade and economic opportunities here in our community.

Again, if you look at the history of British Columbia, if you take a look at the First Nations history in particular, we actually had treaties negotiated here in this area. We had the Douglas treaties negotiated — 1849. Douglas concluded 11 treaties with First Nations between 1849 and 1854. Those were known as the Douglas treaties. And just a little interesting piece of information: the actual original Douglas treaty resides at the Royal B.C. Museum, right here in Victoria — an extraordinary piece of history that is actually there.

[1705]

But like much history when it comes to aboriginal people in British Columbia, those treaties were not lived up to. Governments of the day didn't live up to them, either in spirit or in the law, when it came to maintaining those treaties. So we saw the mistreatment. We saw the aboriginal partnerships ending. Although, as I said, it began as a relationship where Lekwungen were welcom-
[ Page 9930 ]
ing people, Europeans, to our shores, it was not a positive experience, and it began a long and very negative history for the Songhees and the Esquimalt people — not only here but, in fact, aboriginal people around our province.

While there has been some movement to reconciliation — and I'm certainly pleased to see that — I hope that we sincerely see many of those positive steps moving even further to rebuild that relationship and, in my area, to really truly live up to the Douglas treaties. I had the pleasure of being involved in some of that reconciliation in the area of education, for example. When I was on the school board, we negotiated education agreements with our First Nations in this area, which, again, was a step to repairing some of the damage that needed to be done. We see in Victoria that the harbour authority, for example, has seats on the board for both First Nations. Again, a positive step, but that needs to continue, and a lot of work has to be done.

I've had the privilege and the honour of representing Victoria–Beacon Hill as their MLA since 2005, and also had the privilege and honour of being elected in this community of Victoria as a school trustee from 1990 to 2001. It's really an extraordinary gift. I, every day, remember that, living in this community. I sometimes get bugged by other members about the privilege of living in a community where I get to go home when the Legislature is sitting. While other members are keen to be able to head to the airport, to head to the ferry, to get in their cars or to be able to catch that plane and try to get home — some members Thursday, some members Friday, by the time their travel arrangements…. I do have the privilege of being able to head home in my own community, and I never take that for granted.

It's a community that I grew up in, and it's an interesting story of how my family ended up in Victoria. My grandparents, with my mom and myself — born at that time — emigrated from England to Saskatchewan, like lots of families moved to Saskatchewan. My grandfather's brother had a farm in Saskatchewan, and my family headed over to the farm. The one thing I remember about that time period — I was fairly young — in Saskatchewan was my grandmother saying often that they were dirt poor in England, but at least the toilet was inside the house. So a farm in Saskatchewan was not somewhere my grandmother ever talked about fondly, I have to tell you. It was not an experience that she expected coming from England, nor that she looked forward to.

In fact, we ended up in Victoria because my grandmother, who was a nurse in Saskatchewan at the time, had been caught in a blizzard in a winter. She was working night shift and was coming home from the hospital and ended up caught in a blizzard and wasn't found for a number of hours — almost a day — because of the snowstorm and ended up having her leg amputated because of the blizzard. So my grandmother actually looked on a map when I was four years old and tried to find a place in Canada that had the least amount of snow, and that's actually how my family ended up in Victoria. If you look at the weather — and that continues — of Victoria, it's one of those places in Canada that has a rare amount of snow. That's, in fact, in 1963, how we ended up as a family moving to Victoria.

We moved to what, then, was the riding of Victoria, now is the riding of Victoria–Beacon Hill, and moved into a neighbourhood about six blocks from here, from the Legislature, into what, as I said, would become Victoria–Beacon Hill and a riding that I would represent. To be able to be in a community, to represent a community that I grew up in, that I went to school in, that I had my first job in and that I raised my children in really is an extraordinary gift, and I feel very, very grateful.

It has been an interesting journey, when you attend schools and then your children attend the schools after you. I attended James Bay and South Park schools here in my community, as did my children.

[1710]

My children attended the James Bay co-op preschool. My grandson is now going there, so I will often, if I get a chance to be able to have one of those rare days to pick up my grandson from preschool, have the opportunity to be able to relive those memories from those time periods.

It was an amazing, and still is an amazing, community to grow up in.

I was raised in a 1904 house here in James Bay and the same house that I bought in 1978 from my grandparents to raise my kids in. So my kids were raised in the same house that I grew up in, which, again, creates wonderful, long memories in a family. I think, like lots of members, that it was a real neighbourhood — lots of children, lots of individuals to be able to play with and to build a community with.

That really is what we're talking about today. Although it may seem, as we talk about boundaries and numbers and setting maps, that it's all about how you balance that representation, really a community and representing a community is about the people and the community.

Members will know that one of the jewels of Victoria is the Inner Harbour. Many members walk past that Inner Harbour or fly over it as they head out. And we're very, very fortunate in our community to have two historic boats that come into that harbour, right into the centre of Victoria.

Often, when you have boats coming into a community, they'll come in, in a distant area, a port. You have to drive into the centre of Victoria. But if you take a look at both the Coho and the Clipper…. The Coho boat goes back and forth between Port Angeles and Victoria, and the Clipper goes between Seattle and Victoria.

The times you travel and listen to the tourists and people who haven't had an opportunity to be here…. Listen to them as they pull into what is an extraordinary view in that Victoria Harbour, with the Empress hotel,
[ Page 9931 ]
with the ivy that will be growing back on the Empress hotel, with the harbour and the activities that go on in the harbour, particularly in the summer.

It's an extraordinary experience, and it's something, again, that I now, as an elected representative, have the opportunity to be able to advocate for and try and protect and make sure we get the resources that we need to keep that there, because it keeps the economic development of our community going. But it's also a reminder, as I said, of a real jewel of a city.

The Coho still goes on the same schedule that it did when I was a kid, and the Coho horn was our signal to come home when we were playing on the beach as kids. It goes at four o'clock. We knew we had to be home within the next ten minutes or we'd be in big trouble. And that horn still goes today. At four o'clock you'll hear the Coho pulling out and know that it's still there — so, again, wonderful memories of an extraordinary place.

I think it's also interesting that another place where I spent a great deal of time when I was a kid in the summertime…. My mother was a teacher, a single parent until she remarried when I was older, so we were often with large groups of kids in the summertime, and we'd be sent off to go and learn something. It was a long time before I learned that that really was a teacher as mother or a mother as teacher who would provide the opportunity to their kids.

We were sent down to the museum. At that time, the Provincial Museum, the Victoria museum, was free, and it was a place where you could just head off and spend a couple of hours exploring. The museum, at that time, was here at the Legislature. The east annex, in fact, was the museum, and so I spent most of my summers hanging out in the east annex with….

Hon. N. Letnick: Welcome back.

C. James: Yeah, welcome back. Exactly. No, I'm quite happy on this side of the House, thank you, Member.

That's, again, an opportunity where I never could have imagined or even thought that I'd be spending time back here in this Legislature in a different kind of way. But it shows you, again, the history of a community.

I want to talk about a couple of things to do with Victoria–Beacon Hill, because I think it's important when you look at the boundaries and the areas that they're in.

My colleague was speaking about his city and the fact that it's one MLA representing one area, one municipality. We certainly, here in Victoria, have one municipality, but we share as MLAs. There are two of us, and in fact, after this boundary changes, there will be three of us in the Victoria area, who will have parts of Victoria that we'll be representing. It will require us, as we've done so far, to work well together and to be able to serve our community well together.

[1715]

It's an extraordinary activist community. There is no question that if you live in Victoria, you know that it is an activist community. It was when I was a kid growing up. It was a community that was very involved in the peace movement, very involved in international relations when it came to the peace movement.

I was at a dinner just this last weekend for the Canada-China friendship association, their 50th anniversary. It was one of the first chapters ever opened up. It was right here in Victoria, where a group of people came together, Chinese and non-Chinese, to talk about how they could build relationships between China and Canada.

It was before the borders had been opened up. It was before the opportunities for people to travel, before it had been recognized in the UN as a country. I think what kind of amazing history and what kind of generational history there is there for a community like Victoria that saw themselves and saw their role in supporting that kind of international work. I think that speaks volumes about my community and our community of Victoria–Beacon Hill.

We were one of the first communities that had a community school. When community schools were being developed, we were one of the first communities to step up to the plate and say that we were keen on having a community school. Again, I live in a community where they believe in those links, where they believe in breaking down those silos and those barriers and working together to be able to serve the community.

We had the James Bay Community Project which, again, was one of the first community health centres that opened up with doctors on salary, with a nurse practitioner when nurse practitioners were not common around this province. That provided amazing quality care and continues to do so in our community in a different kind of model, because things do change. But, again, it showed the kind of activism that really occurred and continues to occur in this community.

We also were one of the first communities that agreed to a resource board, which some members will perhaps remember from the 1970s. Resource boards were put together so that money came to a community, and they had a board of community members who determined where the social service needs were in the community. Again, extraordinary, extraordinary activism for the time and, again, looking at a better way to serve the community.

We, like lots of members in their communities as well…. We have a very large number of not-for-profit societies that, really, I call the fabric of our community. They really knit together and particularly for people who fall through the cracks, particularly for those individuals who live in our community who are a part of our community.

People often talk about people who are homeless or people who are in communities. They are part of our
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community. If it was not for that fabric — if it was not for those individual not-for-profit societies and the extraordinary people who work in them and the extraordinary volunteers — it would be impossible for our community to be the kind of caring community that we are.

Whether it's the Threshold Society, Together Against Poverty, Cool Aid, Our Place, AIDS Vancouver Island, Anawim House, Mustard Seed, Citizens Counselling, Umbrella, United Way, Bridges for Women, Family Services Network, Coalition to End Homelessness or Literacy B.C., it really is an extraordinary list. I want to recognize them and thank them for the work that they do in the community.

If you look at the Boundaries Commission, they talk about trying to maintain the municipality together. I think that has a lot to do with these connections that you see in the community.

We are a thriving arts and culture community. We are a community that believes deeply in the contribution that arts and culture makes to our community — not only the economic benefit, but the joy of living in a community where you have Open Space, where you have Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, where you have a symphony, where you have the Belfry, Operatic Society, Intrepid Theatre and Kaleidoscope, Langham Court and Pandora Arts Collective. You name it. We are a community where we are rich in the resources that we see.

We're also a community that believes in history and protecting our history. Heritage is very big in Victoria. Anyone who lives here knows that that is something that we value. That is something that means a lot to us as a community. I think that's whether you head down to Market Square and see a business area that has been revived — and we've had some extraordinary developers who took part in that work — or St. Ann's Academy, which is close by to here at the Legislature. The protection of that heritage means a lot to people in Victoria.

[1720]

We have the second oldest in North America — and the oldest in Canada — Chinatown. Certainly, I would encourage members, if they haven't had an opportunity, to head down to Chinatown to take a look at the little alleyways and the wonderful extraordinary businesses in that area. It really is, again, a wonderful part of our community. Back in 1911 when the gold rush brought people here to our area, our Chinatown in fact had more people…. At the number of 3,000, more people than the entire population of downtown lived in Chinatown at the time. It's a thriving area. So I'd encourage people to take a look at that.

We have protected green space, which is, again, a very important part of our community. Beacon Hill Park, I think, is the place that most of the members would know — a place that I spent a lot of my time in as a child, a place that I raised my kids as well, spending lots of time. I now have the blessing of being able to take my grandkids off to Beacon Hill Park — a disputed piece of land in the beginning, disputed first with First Nations.

In fact, you had traditional burial grounds there. If members take a walk through Beacon Hill Park, you can now see plaques that are being put there to recognize that it was a First Nations burial site. Then there was a later dispute between the municipality and the Legislative Council in the late 1800s, and the park was turned over to the city in trust in 1882.

We also have a thriving downtown and a thriving economy. I think it's important to recognize that as well, because a city is a component, and a riding is a component, of all of those pieces. We have a very strong downtown business association and the chamber, obviously.

We also have individual business areas. I'm pleased to have my constituency office on Fort Street, and we have a fabulous Fort Street group that does some amazing things. If any of the members are walking downtown along Fort Street, you'll see the stencilled crosswalks, which is something that the Fort Street Business Association came together to do to try and brighten up the area and to add a little life to the community. Again, it's been an extraordinary part of our community.

We've also seen a growing high-tech industry here in Victoria. It's the fastest-growing industry in our area. It's the leading economic generator right now, at $1.95 billion, and it employs 13,000 people. It has a huge economic…. You think of the spinoffs of that. You're looking at double, $2.6 billion, when you think about that. It really is a community where, as I said, you can work, you can live, you can play, you can enjoy the life of a community. I'm very fortunate, as I said, to represent this community.

I mentioned at the beginning that electoral boundaries are about more than maps and numbers, that they really are about the people and the place and the values. I want to take a minute just to talk about that, because I am proud to say that my values — and, I think, each of our values, obviously — are shaped by how we grew up with our family. I'm very grateful to my family and to have been raised in a very welcoming, inclusive family. But my values were also shaped by this riding. They were also shaped by Victoria–Beacon Hill and growing up in this community.

If I take a look at how deeply my community cares about the natural environment — whether we're talking about our shore, our coast, green space or food protection — if you take a walk around our neighbourhood, you will see that the boulevards, often, in our community will have fruit trees or will have small gardens there. I've had people who've said to me: "How on earth can you grow vegetables or produce on a boulevard outside the city?"

Again, this is a program that is here in the community. It shows the kind of support that our community has for agriculture and for food protection, and it's been an exciting way to bring neighbourhoods together to be able to
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support each other, to be able to socialize and to be able to do their part for protecting our environment.

Many members have talked about the challenges of their communities and travel, and I'm very fortunate in my community. Growing up, I never took that for granted, that in my community you can bus, you can walk, you can bike pretty well anywhere in this community. It's a very easy community when it comes to public transit, when it comes to getting around.

[1725]

That really shaped my values and shaped my commitment to protect that identity in our community — to protect the green space, to protect the ability for us to be able to walk, to use transit, to have bike lanes, to make it safe for people. That's a critical piece. We're a community that has a large seniors population, which, again, shaped my values around seniors — not being seniors over here in a centre but, in fact, part of my community, part of our family, learning and giving back. In an activist community, you certainly learn to get involved. There's every opportunity to get involved.

But one of the other important values that I believe in and that I learned in this community is that you also have to take your responsibility to listen to people and to respect everyone and to listen to those voices. That's a very important value that I learned in this community.

So I'm pleased to have taken my place, to have had the opportunity to speak about the place that I grew up in — the place I continue to live in and that I have the good fortune to represent — and to support this bill despite the changes. And there are some very small changes in my constituency.

Despite those changes, I believe the community will continue to be linked together. I believe it's a community that has the opportunity for governance, for giving feedback to and being involved with their elected official, which I think is a value that all of us believe deeply in and that we have to protect.

That democracy we can never take for granted. I've done a couple of independent election observations across the world, and it only takes one to remind us about how important this place is and how important it is for people to have the right to vote, to be able to let their elected official know if they disagree with them and to be able to do that in a non-violent way. It's an extraordinary gift that we cannot take for granted and one that every day…. Whether I'm in this place or around and out and about in my community, whether I'm talking to my grade 3 teacher at the grocery store or connecting with a constituent who has a challenge, I am grateful for that opportunity.

Thank you for the chance to speak, hon. Speaker.

M. Dalton: It's a privilege to speak in favour of Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act. It was good to hear the various members, including the member for Victoria–Beacon Hill, speak of their riding and the passion they have to serve their riding. I know that we all do. I've lived in my constituency now over two decades, and the longer that I'm there, and during my time as MLA, I've found that my appreciation and my passion for it has grown as I meet with individuals, with groups and just connect more and more as the years go on.

In May 2014, the Electoral Boundaries Commission was tasked with recommending provincial electoral boundaries before the next election in 2017. Justice Thomas Melnick of the Supreme Court of British Columbia was appointed to chair the three-person panel. Also, we had the former commissioner of the RCMP, Beverley Busson, and the Chief Electoral Officer for B.C., Dr. Keith Archer. They were the two other members that were appointed to the commission. They put in a tremendous amount of work, consideration, sensitivity and engagement with people from across British Columbia in order to make the recommendations.

During the last Boundaries Commission process, it became clear that three regions of B.C. were at greatest risk of losing representation in the Legislative Assembly. These regions, of course, are the sparsely populated districts in the rural and northern regions.

Because ours is a province with dense and growing urban regions with rural areas, we must ensure that all British Columbians are represented appropriately. I think that's the key word — "appropriately." It's not that every vote has an equal value, even. It's taking into consideration the size of the ridings and being able to serve these ridings. It's pretty unanimous — it is unanimous — here that we agree with these recommendations.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

There is a tension between regional representation of our more rural ridings and equal representation. I don't recommend doing what they do in the United States with the electoral college. Basically, if one state is increasing at a greater rate than other states, they remove points or congressional seats from that state, and they give it to the larger state.

[1730]

I mean, that certainly is fair. But I think we're trying to keep that balance here, keeping the ridings at a certain deviation. I believe it's about 25 percent more or less than the median. This will ensure that British Columbians are effectively represented in both urban and rural areas of the province. We wanted to make sure that the current districts in the north, the Cariboo-Thompson and the Columbia-Kootenay, are preserved. This bill ensures that citizens in these less densely populated yet geographically large districts can be effectively represented by their MLAs.

Our population is growing here in B.C. More and more people want to come to live and work in this beautiful province. They are drawn by its nature, its opportunities
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and its safety, which are available to them. People want to live here because they see that our economy is growing and that it's a great place to raise a family.

To address this population growth, the commission recommended increasing the number of seats by two, up to 87. How long can we continue to do this? I don't know, given the size of our chamber, but that's for our future members to determine. These new seats will be in Richmond and New Westminster, and in Surrey.

This helps preserve our voice for the more rural areas of B.C., where so much of our wealth and natural resources are generated. Maintaining the number of rural seats is non-partisan. It's equally divided between both parties, the B.C. Liberals and the NDP. There will be boundary changes to 48 districts in this province. My riding of Maple Ridge–Mission will only receive minor changes — unlike 2009, when the riding was carved partly out of Mission and out of Abbotsford.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Randy Hawes, who is currently the mayor, represented Maple Ridge–Mission before me. In 2009, he decided to run in the new riding, rather than represent Maple Ridge–Mission, because he had won by 198 votes in 2005 and thought it would be electorally a lot safer. And it was. He won by 6,000. I won by 68, but I'm happy I won. In 2013, I was re-elected by a 1,500-vote margin. I thank my constituents for giving me the honour to serve them once again with an increased margin.

Only a small section of the northern boundary in my constituency will be adjusted — it's in the district of Mission — to follow the district's boundary lines. There's no additional population, except, perhaps, a few more birds and wildlife. Personally, I'm glad that my riding has been left unchanged. It has been years of developing relationships with constituents and with groups, not just myself but my staff.

Maple Ridge and Mission have seen steady growth. We have a lot of families moving here. Why are they coming? Well, for one thing, the cost of housing is about half or a third, even a quarter, of what it is in Vancouver. You can get a nice house with a fairly large lot for about half a million dollars. Compare that to Vancouver, where I think the median is about a million dollars for a house, and it goes up a lot higher. It's still expensive compared to other parts of the province, but it's cheap for the Lower Mainland.

People can hop onto the West Coast Express from Maple Ridge and Mission — it's a relaxing train ride — have a cup of coffee, read the paper, snooze, and they're downtown. They can work downtown. But it's not all people working in…. These aren't just bedroom communities.

Now, with the building of the Pitt River Bridge and the Golden Ears Bridge and these infrastructure improvements, the economy is really growing. The population is growing, and we're a lot more connected. I remember that when I moved to the Lower Mainland in about the 1980s, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Mission seemed a long way away. Now it's very much connected and part of Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

People come for the quality of life. It's only a few minutes' drive from right in the core of the city, and you're at Alouette Lake or Golden Ears Park or Stave Lake. You can really enjoy the beauty of nature, mountains, parks. You can walk on the dikes, horseback riding. It's quite idyllic, yet you have the amenities of urban life. This doesn't mean that we don't face challenges. There are, but we have it very good.

[1735]

A couple of days ago, the Health Committee, which I'm a member of, met with parliamentarians from Kenya. We talked to different representatives, and they found it hard to believe the services that we have here in British Columbia, especially when they compare that with their own country. They visited the B.C. cancer hospital. They saw the cobalt radiation machine, of which we have several in B.C. I was talking to one of them, and they said they only have one for the entire population of 44 million people.

They were impressed by even the older sections of the hospital — how clean and modern and well equipped it was, and it didn't smell. It's just something that we sometimes can take for granted. That's something that I know my wife and I don't take for granted — this year, especially. In March of this year, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she had five operations and surgeries. It's been a real challenge, but she's now cancer-free. We do really want to commend and thank the medical staff of Ridge Meadows Hospital for just their attention and care.

Both Maple Ridge and Mission have hospitals. There's a lot of investment going into them. Mission Memorial has seen a significant expansion in the past two or three years, with tens of millions of dollars in new structures. It's reflective of the investments in health that we've seen across the province.

These investments in health care are so important for the viability of communities across the province. I know that that's ongoing as far as the health care investments. Today I was in an announcement with the Minister of Health. I attended this announcement. Another $2 million is going into breast cancer research, so it's important.

People also come to Maple Ridge and Mission — why? For opportunities. Between 2010 and 2015, Maple Ridge was voted the No.5 top Canadian investment city for the whole country. Some of the attractions are the tech industry, the film industry, small business.

Something else is that about three-quarters of the land available for industrial growth in Metro Vancouver is in Maple Ridge. So there are a lot of opportunities in Maple Ridge and also in Mission. I'm sure that the growth will be increasing, even as the years continue.
[ Page 9935 ]

Mission has a population approaching 40,000, and Maple Ridge has a population of 80,000. I share the representation of these cities with the member for Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows and with the member for Abbotsford-Mission. It's good to work alongside of both of these members to address issues of importance for these vibrant communities.

The electoral boundary changes will be in place for the scheduled implementation in 2017. I want to thank the commission for their hard work to ensure that all British Columbians are effectively represented.

B. Routley: It is very heartwarming, indeed, to listen to all of the members speak about their ridings, their electoral areas. I, too, join with those members in the House that will be supporting this legislation. Certainly, in my case, I've got a lot to talk about, about the amazing communities that are within the Cowichan Valley and their common community of interest.

I do want to start out by mentioning that the difference between the 2008 commission, where we were recommending we move to 85 electoral districts…. At the time, the Cowichan Valley had 59,232 people. We still seem to have 59,232 people, but the difference is that the deviation has changed from 8.9 percent to 11.5 percent. I would note that we're actually, in terms of population, the largest electoral area on Vancouver Island.

[1740]

I do want to turn now and outline why leaving that electoral map as it is makes a lot of sense, particularly when you look at the major communities of interest that we have throughout the Cowichan Valley, which include, certainly, the collective history of our communities, our connection to and history with the railway on Vancouver Island, the forest industry within the communities all around the Cowichan Valley region, the agriculture and, of course, our beautiful lakes.

We have Cowichan Lake and Shawinigan Lake — as I understand it, Nos. 1 and 2, in terms of size, on Vancouver Island. And, of course, our beautiful Cowichan River, that heritage river that runs through our outstanding communities and our watersheds.

I do want to go back. I found it fascinating. I appreciate the opportunity to have gone through the chronological changes and how, in this place, we went from having 12 districts and 25 MLAs in the province of British Columbia — with no parties, I might add. The group actually got together in this House and chose the Premier from amongst the bunch that were here.

I do want to go back a bit and look at what happened in the Cowichan Valley region at that time. Doing this research, I might add, has been very fascinating and rewarding to me as an MLA. You know, just when you think you're starting to get to know your area, you discover there's so much more that you can learn when you start to do some research and look back.

The European settlement of the 1800s. When the settlers arrived, bringing a different view of the region's landscape, Europeans imported the notion to the Cowichan Valley of private ownership — the so-called taming of the wild — and perceived, apparently, this unused land as a land simply waiting to be made useful.

Oliver Wells, the first non-native person to conduct a detailed land survey of the Cowichan Valley, back in 1859, described the landscape as "45,000 acres of superior agricultural land that could be parcelled into farms for 500 to 600 settlers." As I just said, there are more than 59,000 of us now, so I think that was a little underestimated.

But by the 1860s, we had logging and land-clearing going on in the Cowichan Valley, and it was underway. The creation of farms in low-lying areas within the region were being settled. By 1913, the Canadian Pacific extended a rail line to Cowichan, and by 1928, 18 logging companies, employing 1,200 men, were harvesting forests of British Columbia.

You know, I want to stop there for a minute and mention that, when I was a little boy, I used to go with my mother. She used to drive to see friends in Lake Cowichan — we lived in Duncan — and I remember that she used to call it "stumps all the way from Duncan to Lake Cowichan."

I've got a picture, actually in my office, of back in 1937. I guess this sounds like an old logger speaking, because I said: "We basically got it all." There were just stumps. All the way from Duncan to Lake Cowichan was just a sea of stumps.

However, I'd hasten to add that today, we have these beautiful, majestic forests that have now been logged not only for a second time, in some cases, but I've got a picture that shows that we're logging for the third time — that these areas have reproduced naturally, in some cases, beautiful forests. In some cases, companies like BCFP planted a lot of trees.

So even now when I stand in communities like Lake Cowichan and look at the forest activity and the harvesting that goes on, I am reminded of the tremendous history that we have together. And while it's changed dramatically — and not all wonderful, from my point of view — it's still an outstanding community. The people are vibrant and very much survivors.

[1745]

The new residents of the region back in the 1920s made substantial modifications to the ecological system. For example — and again, these really have impacted us in the long term — the hydrological system, or the river, was altered not only by logging. The mighty Cowichan River was once made up of a long series of rapids and waterfalls. Most of these falls were blown up with dynamite or removed to facilitate greater access to the movement of logs.

Again, that seemed like a bright idea at the time. I'm sure I would have supported it fully and been there with the dynamite.
[ Page 9936 ]

The log drives, to be driving logs down this majestic river, that was…. I'm sure the folks at the time thought: "Well, this is just progress. We've got to get this wood down to Cowichan Bay." Eventually, these logjams caused huge losses to the logging operations. They would get hung up and create these big logjams, and they would be forced to turn these logjams into kindling. They would use dynamite to blow them up, because it was really clogging up things. Of course, that was a huge loss to the forest company, which I'm sure paid a substantial amount of money to all these crews to get this wood that far. Anyway, it wasn't exactly the most efficient way to get logs downstream.

These significant impacts of these modifications are still felt today, as I've said. Winter floods threaten the investments. I know the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources is familiar with the problems that we have in the Cowichan River. I've been to see him many times about this. He's familiar, and this will probably interest him as well, what's happened.

Anyway, when you look at the changes that have taken place, the significant impacts of these modifications have included threats through winter floods to roads, to railroads even — although they're not operating at the current time — to the Cowichan Basin and to the growing settlement in the Cowichan or in Duncan.

The dikes were seen as the answer. I've seen the progress of dikes, all the way through Duncan, to protect the Cowichan River. But as a result of that action, gravel became a problem, and the clogging up of the river with gravel. So we had to, from time to time, get in there and deal with that.

Farmers were able to benefit from the rich soils in the Cowichan Valley that were a real gift from the Cowichan Basin. They did straighten and deepen the streams to hasten drainage and drilled wells to extract water for irrigation. With settlements came pavements, storm drains, septic fields and sewage treatment plants, all of which have affected the region's natural water cycles as well as the water quality and quantity.

Industry, too, needed water, and soon extensive water licences were being issued to support the growing industries. For example, when pulp mills first came to British Columbia, places like Crofton were started. We were all grateful for the job creation that came from that investment, but the Crofton mill needed to divert substantial quantities of water from the Cowichan River. While it created jobs, this also resulted in the need for building a permanent weir.

The weir was built back in the '50s to increase the capacity of the lake in order to store water for the mill. But this obviously connects our communities all the way around the lake. The Cowichan River, right down to Cowichan Bay, is impacted. The weir also helps downstream communities, everything from the dilution of pollution to helping the fish. So thank goodness we did have the weir built, in the sense that with all the diking that went on, we would have been in more dire circumstances without the building of the weir.

The Cowichan First Nations, the Hul'qumi'num were dramatically impacted by what went on. I do want to mention that during a period of roughly 30 years — it's really a short time frame that so much change occurred — virtually all the land in the Cowichan Valley previously occupied by First Nations people came under the control of the region's new European settlers.

[1750]

In the 1860s to the 1870s, about 60,000 hectares of the Hul'qumi'num land on Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands were claimed and occupied by these settlers, including prime oceanfront and riverfront lands and areas of Cowichan Valley. The newcomers were settled among the long-established Cowichan peoples' villages, occupying and inhabiting many of the domestic and resource places previously occupied by the Cowichan people.

These newcomers, unfortunately, brought smallpox, which decimated First Nations populations throughout Vancouver Island. The estimated population before European contact was as high as 10,000 people in Cowichan Tribes. Today they're back up to about 4,000 people, but they were dramatically impacted.

In the 1880s, the bulk of the Cowichan's land was given to a politician businessman by the name of Robert Dunsmuir in exchange for Dunsmuir's promise to build a railroad between Esquimalt and Nanaimo, the E&N Railway. And I would note that, unfortunately, as a bargainer, I wish somebody had bargained in the deal that they would keep the rail line running, because we've seen the end of the train running in 2011. For the Cowichan people, this deal represented a loss of about 85 percent of their traditional land and resources and an almost complete erosion of their way of life.

I do note the time. If it's appropriate, I'm happy to be noting the hour, to reserve my right to speak again and to call for an adjournment of the debate.

B. Routley moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. S. Thomson moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 5:52 p.m.

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