2016 Legislative Session: Fifth Session, 40th Parliament
HANSARD

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.

The printed version remains the official version.

official report of

Debates of the Legislative Assembly

(hansard)

Monday, February 15, 2016

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 32, Number 6

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

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2016

The House met at 1:33 p.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Introductions by Members

Hon. N. Letnick: It gives me a great honour to be here in the House today to introduce Arzeena Hamir, secretary of the Certified Organic Associations of British Columbia.

Would the House please make Arzeena feel welcome.

S. Hammell: I’d like the House to welcome my constituency assistant, Jason Craik. He has been with me about six months and has, with no political experience prior to coming to my office, fit in like a wonderful glove as he takes on the complex challenges of a constituency office.

Would the House please join me in making him welcome.

Hon. T. Lake: Ninety-four percent of seniors in B.C. live independently. In fact, the vast majority own their own homes. But for those seniors who make their homes in residential care communities or in assisted living, the B.C. Care Providers are a very important partner. It represents operators of assisted-living and residential care facilities across the province.

In the gallery today we have Irene Lien, Vikki Marrs and Arnold Bennewith, all to whom I will have the pleasure to present awards at this evening’s B.C. Care Awards.

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Joining them are their family and friends as well as B.C. Care Providers CEO Daniel Fontaine, board president Elaine Price and board vice-president Karen Baille.

Would the House please make these guests feel very welcome.

J. Horgan: As the spring session has begun, also has the arrival of the parliamentary interns for the 2016 spring session. Joining the New Democrat opposition to help us out in casting our rocks across the floor at the government benches are Chardaye Bueckert from Simon Fraser University; Rowan Laird from Dalhousie; and from the University of Victoria, right here in my hometown, Robert Hill, David Macauley and Michael McDonald.

These five will be assisting critics in bringing forward questions during the estimates process. They’ll be having a lot of fun. We party fairly hard down in the basement, as everybody knows. We on this side of the House are very much looking forward to introducing these five individuals to the fun that can be had with politics in British Columbia.

Would the House please make them all very, very welcome.

Hon. S. Bond: Today we’re joined by another former MLA, joining us on the floor of the House today. Iain Black served in this parliament. He, in fact, served from 2005 to 2011. He was Minister of Labour and Citizens’ Services and Small Business. He has a number of accomplishments. He currently serves as the president and CEO of the Vancouver Board of Trade. I know he’ll be visiting with both sides of the House as he does his work in that capacity, so we certainly want to welcome Iain.

Joining Iain today is Rob MacKay-Dunn, who is the director of public policy and communications at the Vancouver Board of Trade. Rob also worked in this building and has served a number of ministers, including myself. I can tell you he is an incredible young man and served very well. I know he is doing the same in his new role and capacity at the Vancouver Board of Trade.

Please join me in making both of these past participants in the process here welcome back to the House.

M. Elmore: I’m very pleased to welcome Natalie Drolet, who’s visiting us here. It’s her first visit to the Legislature, and she’s looking forward to observing question period. She’s an immigration lawyer and the executive director for the West Coast Domestic Workers Association.

She also happens to be my lovely and brilliant partner. It was a lot of fun. She came down yesterday for Valentine’s Day in Victoria, which I hear is the most romantic city in Canada — so putting that to the test. Also, looking and doing some research to show her a good time…. On every single list of the top dating recommendations of romantic things to do in Victoria was, if you can believe it, a trip to the Legislature. I guess I’ll check in later and see if it actually meets that test.

Everybody, please join me in welcoming Natalie.

Hon. N. Yamamoto: Today we’ll be introducing a new act that will replace the Fire Services Act. I’m pleased to introduce three guests today. Tim Pley is the fire chief of the city of Port Alberni and the president of the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C. Stephen Gamble is the fire chief of the township of Langley and past president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. Chris Jancowski is the fire chief of the township of Esquimalt.

Thank you to the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C. for your input and guidance during the consultations and the work done in considering legislative changes. Thank you very much for all you do for British Columbians to keep us safe.

Would the House please make them feel welcome.

S. Robinson: I’d like to welcome to the House Ken and Shannon Holowanky. They are two constituents of mine.
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Ken is a regular emailer. When I was on city council, I heard regularly about monster houses, and now I hear regularly about run of river and energy policy.

I would like the House to please make Ken and Shannon very welcome, as this is their first time to actually witness a question period.

Hon. C. Oakes: I have two constituents in the House today. I have Lorrie and Rick Rhodes.

Would the House please help make welcome them.

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J. Darcy: I’d like to join the Minister of Health in welcoming the B.C. Care Providers today, including my constituent Daniel Fontaine. I want to thank them, in particular, not just for what they come to the House and share with us, but for the kind of folks that they honour, which I think is really wonderful.

Tonight…. I don’t think its a surprise — is it? — who’s being honoured. In recognition that it takes an entire team to care for our seniors, they will be honouring a housekeeper, who is also with us today, and they’ll be honouring a spiritual care adviser, who also put together a very innovative program for easing the transition into residential care.

If you haven’t signed up for tonight’s event, I would encourage you to do so, for the entire evening’s event but especially to honour these folks who do so much for our seniors every single day.

L. Reimer: On behalf of my constituents from Anmore, Belcarra, Port Moody and Coquitlam, I would also like to welcome the CEO of the Vancouver Board of Trade, former MLA for Port Moody–Coquitlam and former minister, Mr. Iain Black. Would the House please join me in a warm welcome.

Introduction and
First Reading of Bills

BILL 4 — FIRE SAFETY ACT

Hon. T. Stone presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Fire Safety Act.

Hon. T. Stone: I move that the Fire Safety Act be introduced and read for a first time.

Motion approved.

Hon. T. Stone: The Fire Services Act is existing provincial legislation outlining the regulatory framework for fire safety in British Columbia. In the three-and-a-half decades since the last substantial update, there have been substantial changes in fire safety and prevention. Naturally, we need to look at modernizing the regulatory framework for fire safety in British Columbia.

That is why we are pleased to introduce the Fire Safety Act, a piece of legislation that would repeal and replace the Fire Services Act. The new act will include changes to improve fire code compliance monitoring by making it risk-based; enable local authorities to appoint fire safety personnel to carry out fire inspections, investigations and evacuations; and establish an administrative enforcement model to address non-compliance issues in a more timely and effective manner.

During consultations with a number of key stakeholder groups across the province, we heard the importance of proposing these changes. We consulted with the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C., the UBCM, Local Government Management Association, B.C. Fire Training Officers Association, Fire Prevention Officers Association of B.C., Volunteer Firefighters Association of B.C., B.C. Professional Firefighters Association and the B.C. wildlife service. The input of these organizations has been critical to the process that has led to the introduction of this act.

Ultimately, we determined that with these recommendations, we will modernize the legislation and improve fire safety throughout the province. The name of the act will also be changed from Fire Services Act to the Fire Safety Act to better reflect the new intent and scope of the legislation.

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

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

BILL 11 — FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTS CLASSIFICATION ACT

Hon. N. Letnick presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act.

Hon. N. Letnick: I move the Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act be introduced and read for the first time now.

Motion approved.

Hon. N. Letnick: Today I am pleased to introduce the Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act. This act will replace the Agricultural Produce Grading Act, the Agri-Food Choice and Quality Act and the Food Products Standards Act.

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The new Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act maintains current authority to prescribe voluntary food certification programs and standards for food qual-
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ity. The new act will also allow government to prescribe certain phrases as protected labels which must not be used unless specific standards are met. This new authority will enable government to create regulations setting out standards that will have to be met to use the term “organic” in marketing food and agricultural products.

Updating and consolidating these three statutes continues the ministry’s progress on modernizing its legislation, much of which is very old. Some of those changes include updated provisions for inspector appointments, recordkeeping requirements, and compliance and enforcement.

The Food and Agriculture Products Classification Act represents the ministry’s commitment to growth and development of B.C.-produced food and to increase consumer confidence and awareness about the quality of B.C.-produced food.

I move that the Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting after today.

Bill 11, Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Statements
(Standing Order 25B)

BRENDA GILLETTE AND CHILLIWACK
SOCIETY FOR COMMUNITY LIVING

J. Martin: It is my absolute pleasure to stand in the House today and tell the members about a resident in the constituency of Chilliwack who has been referred to as a titan of inclusion and human rights.

At the end of 2015, Brenda Gillette retired after leading Chilliwack Society for Community Living for an outstanding 40 years. Working to support the many families who stood for the right of their children to truly belong, Brenda was often a pioneer for programs in B.C. that provided services to people with developmental disabilities and to their families. Serving on numerous local and provincial boards and committees, Brenda helped established CSCL as a leading advocate for B.C.’s community living initiatives.

CSCL, of course, is one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the province. As CSCL continued to grow, Brenda and her staff assessed the needs of those they served and developed programs for employment, clubs and interest-based groups, homecare, and community inclusion opportunities.

When CSCL celebrated 61 years in the Chilliwack community, with 40 of those years with Brenda at the helm, her message was simple: it’s not about disability; it’s about seeing each one as an individual person and seeing how we can help them.

Would the members of the House please join me in congratulating Brenda Gillette on 40 years of service to Chilliwack Society for Community Living and thanking her for the significant contributions made to the community living field in British Columbia.

LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS

B. Ralston: Yesterday in Vancouver, the Chinese New Year Lunar Parade took place in the historic Chinatown district of the city. A major event that more and more has become a celebration of British Columbia’s breadth of cultural diversity, it drew huge crowds despite what Vancouverites told me was a rare soggy day. Among many celebrants was the Leader of the Official Opposition, and the Premier.

Lunar new year is celebrated by Canadians with connections not only to China but to Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia. As members will know, celebrations take place throughout communities in British Columbia. In my part of Surrey, the Henlong Market on 104th Avenue hosted a lively celebration two Saturdays ago, compete with an energetic lion dance and firecrackers. However, the Vancouver parade maintains its position as the most well-known annual celebration of the lunar new year.

A committee of leading organizations directs the parade and the accompanying events: the Chinese Benevolent Association — James Chu, president; the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver — Fred Kwok, the acting chairperson; the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association — Willie Chan, the chairman. The other organizations involved are SUCCESS; the Chinese Freemasons, Vancouver branch; and Shon Yee Benevolent Association of Canada.

Congratulations to everyone involved for another successful year. If I may say, Xin nian kuai le, San nin fai lok, Chuc mung nam moi, saehae bok mani badeuseyo. Happy year of the monkey to everyone.

LIFETIME LEARNING CENTRE IN MISSION

M. Dalton: I’m glad to have this opportunity to speak about a real gem in Mission. It’s the Lifetime Learning Centre located on 7th Avenue, an independent, non-profit organization that has been in operation in the community for the past 30 years. They have done exceptionally well, accomplishing their goal of providing active living, healthy aging and lifelong learning to our older adults and making their programs accessible to all members of the community.

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Executive director Diana Muntigl, admin assistant Lexi Richards, board members, volunteers and instructors have been doing an outstanding job responding to Mission’s needs by developing innovative programs and activities such as regular field trips and outings, educa-
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tional lectures on a variety on topics, arts and cultural programs, fitness activities, health workshops and preserving Mission’s history, as well as French conversational classes.

Intergenerational relationships and activities are very important to the organization. It helps that our school district’s alternate school, the Fraserview Learning Centre, is on the same premises. Seniors really appreciate the youth giving them workshops, helping them with computer applications and other activities.

Throughout the year, the Lifetime Learning Centre holds various fundraising events, including a fashion show, a walkathon and a golf tournament. Not only do these events provide the society with additional funding, but they also bring participants, volunteers and the community together.

I always enjoy visiting the centre. It’s a hub of activity where relationships are developed, bodies get strengthened and minds are engaged. Would the House please join me in extending our thanks to the Lifetime Learning Centre for 30 years of service and for making such a positive contribution in Mission.

WEST END
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

S. Chandra Herbert: I want to invite the House — indeed, I want to invite all of British Columbia — to come visit “Three great streets. One amazing neighbourhood.” What are those three great streets? Well, they’re Denman Street, Davie Street and Robson Street, of course in the West End.

This has been the campaign of the West End Business Improvement Association for a number of years, and it’s working well. But I want to thank them for so much that goes unnoticed in our community but is so vital for the success of our community and of our businesses, more importantly.

I want to thank them for their hands-on leadership. You might see members of the board, the executive director himself going out and removing graffiti. In fact, he has brought me along on a few occasions to do just that. You might see them advocating around the Jim Deva plaza, a new plaza coming to the West End which will bring community vibrancy if it’s done right, and they’re working to ensure it’s done right.

I’d like to thank them for making our community more artful, more interesting. We’ve had mural projects. We’ve had support for the West End arts group. We’ve had large-scale murals on the sides of buildings, with more to come; lighting projects at King George high school, partnering with local businesses and with the school; and street cleaning, as I mentioned.

Of course, something that you wouldn’t know is that many of the board members and staff work to try and convince some of the landlords in the area, if their shops have been waiting empty for a long time, to lower the rent so we can get more folks in there providing great business for locals and of course all the many, many thousands — tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions — of people that come through our community every year.

I’ll just name them. Michel Duprat, the chair, the Fountainhead Pub; Lisa Arthurs, with the Quick Nickel; Prima Properties’ David Buddle; John Nicholson, with Listel Hotel, who’s really very important in his work, as the past chair, to reset the organization and who should receive special mention; James Steck, with Celebrities Nightclub; Coast Plaza Hotel’s Brian Rohl; Gary Gohren, with Gohren and Associates Accountants; Joe Skokan, with Joe’s No Frills — great deals; Mary Phelps, with Vancity bank — thank you, Mary; Jacqui McMullen, with Times Square Suites Hotel; and, of course, their executive director, Stephen Regan.

West End — come visit; you’ll be amazed. We amaze.

B.C. WINTER GAMES IN PENTICTON

D. Ashton: On the 25th of February, some of British Columbia’s most talented young athletes will converge on the South Okanagan Events Centre, in Penticton, for the opening ceremonies of the 2016 B.C. Winter Games, British Columbia’s premier winter sporting event.

The athletes come from all areas of the province and have been working tirelessly, with the help of seasoned coaches, for the chance to compete, all in the good spirit of competition. The games represent a stepping stone towards higher-level competition for many of these incredibly talented athletes, with the ultimate goal being the Olympics.

The expectations of the athletes, imposed on themselves, is very high. It is remarkable to see the dedication of the competitors, and it’s a reminder of how much talent we have here in British Columbia. Through hours of practice, sweat and tears, these athletes have realized their dreams and something to behold that is really special to them. They are role models to their peers and community, proving that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

It is special to see how the games bring people together. Volunteers have lent their expertise year after year, allowing the competitions to succeed. Parents have spent countless mornings driving to and from practice, being supportive of their kids.

Penticton has had the privilege of hosting either the B.C. Summer Games or the Winter Games for a fourth time, once again showing it’s an ideal location for events such as this. Even in a province as beautiful and as diverse as ours, Penticton continues to stand out.

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With more than 1,700 participants set to compete, this year’s games will surely be one to remember. I encourage everyone to tune in and cheer all their local athletes.
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KENSINGTON COMMUNITY
CENTRE ASSOCIATION

M. Elmore: Madame Speaker and colleagues in the Legislature, please join me in congratulating the Kensington Community Centre Association, KCCA, as it marks its 60th anniversary this year.

The KCCA is responsible for developing and maintaining the excellent diversity of programs that the Kensington Community Centre offers in our neighbourhood. From acrobatic dance to Zumba lessons and most everything in between, they truly have something for both the young and young at heart.

With all due respect to other Vancouver community centres, I’ve been told that this association hosts more events than any of the others, thanks to the support of the KCCA board members and volunteers.

Some examples of the popular events they hold throughout the year include Grays Park Day, Jones Park Day, Music in the Park, Canada Day and their first lunar new year celebration.

This year, they marked their 60th anniversary on Family Day, last February 8, with lots of great activities like high tea, a barbershop quartet, a photo booth and old-fashioned games. Overall, it was a fun afternoon. I was happy to be there to share in their memories.

They are the recipient of the Child Care Legacy Award, which recognizes facilities that have provided more than 40 years of licensed child care. They have provided more than 50 years.

To conclude, please join me in again congratulating everyone involved in the KCCA over its many years and, in particular, its current board members: president Milan Kljajic; first vice-president Mary Sutherland; second vice-president Brad Tamplin; treasurer Margaret Law; and directors Eddie Wong, Joyce Wong, Usher Hammer, Virginia Lew, Bev Gajsek, Elizabeth Enright, Jim Louie, Doug Starink, Peter Kotagiannis and Louise Boutin.

Oral Questions

DRINKING WATER PROTECTION
AND CONTAMINATED SITES
IN SHAWNIGAN LAKE WATERSHED

J. Horgan: The rains are falling hard, as we all know, here in the rainforest. When that happens, the people of Shawnigan Lake again are concerned about their drinking water.

When I raised these issues last fall, the minister at the time told the House that the residents had nothing to fear and that the contaminated dump site, right in the heart of their watershed, just above the lake, run by South Island Aggregates, was not a threat to their health and well-being and that residents were safe.

Last week, however, the minister made a surprise visit to the Cowichan Valley regional district, held an in-camera session and said to the members there at that time that she was now going to conduct, with their assistance, reviews for the next year of the water coming off of lot 23 and lot 21, currently owned by South Island Aggregates.

Can the minister tell us why it is that she is going to continue to allow millions of tons of toxic, contaminated soil to arrive in that watershed before she knows just what the consequences will be?

Hon. M. Polak: Far from my visit to CVRD being a surprise…. In fact, I have even indicated previously in this House that we are working closely with the CVRD and had hoped to have some ways in which we could go forward together.

This was one proposal put forward by my staff. Understanding that the community is feeling a very high degree of concern, we felt it was important to propose a process that would be outside of a government process, would directly involve CVRD and would enable us to provide some data to the residents in and around Shawnigan Lake to confirm for them the confidence that they can have in their water.

I will repeat that our staff continue to monitor the site very closely and to enforce where there are issues of compliance to ensure that, in fact, the water remains safe. For those who are interested, data with respect to their analysis of some of the other testing that has been done by CVRD and others is all posted on our website.

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

J. Horgan: With respect to lot 21, when we asked the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Mines last fall about that particular piece of land, the minister said the following. “With respect to lot 21, it is private property.” We have “full authority to be able to enter that property, conduct testing, investigate” if there are any concerns with respect to pollution.

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That was the answer last fall. Since that time, on January 22, the province advised the former owner of lot 21 — South Island Aggregates — that it had now been forfeited to the Crown. So now lot 21 no longer is the problem of South Island Aggregates. It’s the problem of the people of British Columbia. I find it passing strange that it wasn’t till after lot 21 transferred to the hands of the people of B.C. that the Minister of Environment took the initiative to go to the Cowichan Valley regional district and try some damage control.

My question is to the Minister of Environment. In 2012, her ministry wrote to the owners of lot 21 the following: “We are concerned that the subject soil is contaminated at levels that represent risk to human health and the environment.” My question, again, to the minis-
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ter is: are we now, the people of British Columbia, on the hook for someone else’s contaminated dump site?

Hon. M. Polak: First, I should clarify that the contaminated soil facility is on lot 23. Lot 21 is a former quarry and was the subject of a Mines Act permit. Nevertheless, when a property such as this forfeits to the Crown due to delinquent payments of taxes, this begins a fairly lengthy process during which time the now previous owners do have a number of opportunities to redeem that property through payment of taxes. That process will unfold, as it does, obviously, separate from the work of the Ministry of Environment.

The Ministry of Environment has continued to monitor what is coming from the site, both 23 and 21, and to date has not found that there are elements of concern for human health or the environment. Again, this is part of their ongoing monitoring and compliance work. It is not to be interfered with by those in the political process. It is conducted by qualified professionals in the ministry who operate independently. That is an important feature of our regulatory process in British Columbia and has been for generations.

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

J. Horgan: Perhaps the briefing notes don’t go back far enough for the minister beyond last fall. But in 2012, her ministry was of the view that lot 21, which now resides in the hands of her and the executive council, had contaminated soil on it sufficient to risk public health and the environment. That’s not lot 23. It’s lot 21, which the minister now owns, on behalf of all of us.

If the minister had gone to the site, she would see that lot 23 is, conveniently, right beside lot 21. The people of Shawnigan Lake know full well that there may well be a survey stick between one and the other, but the dump is the dump is the dump, and the anxiety levels are through the roof in that community because of the actions — or rather, the lack of action — by this government.

The statutory decision–maker did not visit the sites. I’m sensing that the minister has not visited the site. The people in Shawnigan Lake are absolutely beside themselves. The rain is coming down. There’s a tumult outside. That water is collecting contaminants and making its way straight down the hill, as gravity will allow it to do, into the drinking-water source for 12,000 British Columbians.

My question to the minister is, will she reduce that anxiety, reduce that fear and pull the permit now?

Hon. M. Polak: For opposition members to suggest that somehow no action has been taken on the part of the Ministry of Environment is absolutely false. Staff have continued to monitor the site very closely. They have also continued to conduct testing. They have reviewed testing that has been conducted by outside sources. They continue to respond to complaints when concerns are raised from the community. It is their obligation.

These are qualified professionals who have the expertise to analyze this data and respond accordingly. I know they take their obligations very seriously. They have dedicated their careers to ensuring that the way we manage water from sites such as this is a way in which we protect human health and the environment. That is what they are dedicated to do. They are fulfilling their obligations, and they will continue to conduct themselves appropriately, without political interference.

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B. Routley: This ministry was in such a rush to get to yes that they failed to release important scientific data to the community about contaminants at South Island Aggregates. The residents are now out of pocket over $1 million in legal fees between the CVRD case and the one that started today, the judicial review. These cases are before the Supreme Court. One is examining the conduct of the company, including allegations of fraud and misleading the Ministry of Environment.

Can the Ministry of Environment tell this House: how much more B.C. taxpayer money are we going to have to shell out before this mess is cleaned up, a mess that should have never happened in the first place?

Hon. M. Polak: While the member may wish to substitute his political judgment for what ought to take place here, I will not. We have qualified professionals who operate independently of our political process. They make their decisions for granting of permits, for evaluation of compliance and for enforcement on the basis of their professional opinion, based on their technical expertise. If the member wishes to substitute his judgment for theirs, he should say so, but I will not.

Madame Speaker: The member for Cowichan Valley on a supplemental.

B. Routley: The minister may not be aware, but the statutory decision–maker did not even go to the site. That’s your science.

You know, this is all about getting to yes. Yes, two local First Nations say they were not properly consulted. Yes, the ministry ignored scientific data and withheld evidence from the public. Yes, an entire community and region feels totally betrayed by this government.

Could this Minister of Environment give Shawnigan families just one more yes? Will she say, “Yes, we’re going to put the environment and the health of Shawnigan residents first,” and will she say yes to suspending this permit?

Hon. M. Polak: The health of the residents of the area and the safety of the environment are, in fact, what staff
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at the Ministry of Environment are dedicated to upholding. They are dedicated to ensuring that they fulfil their obligations. For the member to suggest that somehow the politicians in the room should substitute their judgment for that of dedicated professionals within the ministry who have the scientific expertise is fairly disturbing. We operate within a system that respects…

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members. The members will come to order.

Hon. M. Polak: …the rule of law, and that means that there is an appropriate process that we will follow.

WATER QUALITY IN SPALLUMCHEEN AREA

L. Popham: We’ve just heard the member from Lake Cowichan describe how the residents of Shawnigan Lake fear for their drinking water. Well, I want to talk about a group of homeowners whose water is contaminated and is undrinkable. It happened on the Minister of Agriculture’s watch in Spallumcheen.

Instead of taking serious action when learning about a threat to the Hullcar aquifer and halting activities that led to this contamination, the minister took a casual “watch and see what happens” attitude. Now the aquifer is damaged. The residents are trucking in water at their own expense, and their homes have lost value.

My question is to the Minister of Agriculture. Why did he let this happen?

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Hon. T. Lake: I just want to correct the member, because Interior Health has a water quality advisory in effect — not a do-not-drink or do-not-use order. So while there is a level of risk associated, it does not meet the threshold of a boil-water or a do-not-use order. I think that’s important clarification, firstly.

The public can be assured in this case that extensive coordination is occurring between the Ministries of Health and Environment to mitigate the risk to public health and safety. The Ministry of Environment conducts testing regularly and works with Interior Health to ensure results are shared appropriately and public health is not at risk.

Madame Speaker: The member for Saanich South on a supplemental.

L. Popham: In the Steele Springs waterworks district, the Hullcar aquifer is contaminated by nitrates. The nitrate levels are above ten, which is deemed unsafe by our province’s health officers. The homeowners believe that the contamination is caused by agricultural activity in the area, and the Ministry of Agriculture appears to believe this is also true.

The Minister of Agriculture is responsible for this damage because he’s failed to act on the information given to him. My question, again, is to the Minister of Agriculture. Why did he let this happen?

Hon. T. Lake: The agricultural waste control regulation is the regulation that is involved in this particular situation. The Ministry of Environment continues to ensure compliance with that regulation, and Interior Health works with the Ministry of Environment. They continue to test and monitor water quality within the aquifer, as does the water supplier. If issues arise, Interior Health works with the operator to issue a drinking water advisory so residents are aware of any precautions they need to take.

We will continue to work diligently within our ministries to ensure a coordinated, comprehensive approach to address water quality issues for this area.

S. Chandra Herbert: Well, there is little that could be of higher public importance than protecting the safety of one’s water supply, but what has this government done? What have three ministries done? Absolutely failed.

Nitrates in the water supply have gone up. And while the minister might not think it’s a big deal, nitrates in water are bad for babies, bad for pregnant women, bad for sick people, bad for infants. They are bad for your health. That community cannot drink its water supply. To suggest, “Well, no big deal….” Well, I think the minister is out of touch.

This government couldn’t even get its facts straight of who was responsible for dealing with this issue. They passed the buck so many times. And they continued to let the manure be sprayed four more times, even though they knew that the water was undrinkable and they wouldn’t drink it themselves.

My question to the Minister of Health. He says he’s working on it. What has he actually done, and which one of his ministries, if it’s not him, failed to protect the people of the Steele Springs water district?

Hon. T. Lake: Again, I need to clarify, because the members opposite are, I guess, in the business of making sure that misinformation is out there in order to scare people when it’s not necessary.

There is not a do-not-use or a boil-water advisory. The Interior Health has issued a water quality advisory. It is still drinkable.

The levels of nitrate have increased slightly, and that may be related to the farm that is in question. This is a farming area, and I presume the members opposite do support farming in the province of British Columbia. And that’s why the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health work together to ensure safe water for the area. That is what’s happening, and that is what we’ll continue to do.
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Madame Speaker: Vancouver–West End on a supplemental.

S. Chandra Herbert: Water quality advisory. Well, what does it say? Water quality, bad — not good for women who are pregnant, not good for babies, not good for infants, not good for those with compromised immune systems. Oh, but we shouldn’t worry. Yeah, that gives me a lot of confidence in this government.

The manager of infrastructure at Interior Health summed up this government’s approach very well. He said:”On a personal note, I am very frustrated. As you know, nitrates have been a concern in this area for many years.” I was optimistic that collaboration between the Rob Birtles and his colleagues in the ministries was a first step towards a meaningful solution. A year later, these efforts appear to have gone nowhere.

[1415]

Efforts have appeared to have gone nowhere. The nitrates go up in the water, people shouldn’t drink the water, efforts going nowhere, yet the minister thinks everything is a-okay.

When is the Minister of Health going to do his job, stand up for people’s health and say: “This situation has to end”? When is the Minister of Health going to actually make sure people get clean drinking water?

Hon. T. Lake: As I want to clarify, this is a water quality advisory. It is the result of nitrates in the water and most likely is from dairy practices in the area. We work closely with those farms. We understand that farming is very important to the area and to the province of British Columbia.

Sampling through most of 2015, in fact, showed that nitrates were within Health Canada guidelines for drinking water for most of the year. However, in the most recent findings in December, they were elevated — 13.5 milligrams per litre versus ten milligrams per litre.

I guess the members opposite would like us to just shut down that farm. No, we are working with the producer to ensure that the practices will result in safe drinking water for the community. That’s the kind of approach we take, a collaborative approach to support agriculture — not shut down a dairy operation, as the members opposite would have. We are going to continue to protect and make sure there’s safe drinking water for the North Okanagan.

PROSPERITY FUND AND LNG DEVELOPMENT

C. James: The Premier has apparently found $100 million lying around. Instead of keeping her own promise to taxpayers and reducing debt — I’m sure most of you remember on the side of the bus, it said “Debt-free B.C.” — the Premier has decided instead to create an LNG fantasy fund, even though she has failed to actually sign up any LNG projects.

So if not one dime is coming from LNG, where did the Premier find the $100 million? Well, she found it directly from taxpayers. The latest increase to the medical services tax will bring in $100 million.

My question is to the Finance Minister. Does he think it’s okay to gouge British Columbia families for an extra $100 million to make a deposit into the Premier’s political fantasy fund?

Hon. M. de Jong: I’m looking forward to the debate that will kick off formally tomorrow with the presentation of the budget. It’s a debate that I hope will take into account some pretty important features of where we are as a province.

We are, for example, leading the country in economic growth. We are, alone amongst all of the provinces, regularly posting budgetary surpluses — alone amongst all the provinces. We are close. We are four years away from achieving something that has eluded this province for almost half a decade, and that is totally eliminating the direct operating debt.

And in those circumstances, I think it is entirely appropriate — as foreign a concept as this may be to members opposite — to tap into the wealth, to tap into those benefits and ensure that there is something there for future generations of British Columbians. That’s what we are doing as well.

Madame Speaker: Victoria–Beacon Hill on a supplemental.

C. James: I’d like to say to the Finance Minister: “What you’ve tapped into is taxpayers’ pockets to collect MSP premiums.” That’s what you tapped into.

[1420]

There is no money coming from an industry that has not materialized. That’s what we are talking about here.

No matter how the Finance Minister spins it, families are going to get gouged another $100 million from MSP premium hikes alone. The government’s taking that money. They’re going to put it into a political fantasy fund, instead of protecting hard-working families, with more MSP tax hikes. They’re using it, once again, to play politics instead of paying for necessary health services or giving families a break or paying down the debt.

Again to the Finance Minister: is an empty fantasy fund for the Premier a higher priority than helping hard-working British Columbians?

Hon. M. de Jong: I guess you have to be a member of the opposition to dismiss as inconsequential the literally billions of dollars that have already been invested in British Columbia relating to LNG development. I guess that’s something that the member chooses to do.

Interjections.
[ Page 10363 ]

Madame Speaker: Members. Members will come to order.

Interjection.

Madame Speaker: Surrey–Green Timbers.

Continue.

Hon. M. de Jong: Starting tomorrow, I’ve got great news for the opposition. I’ve got great news for the crew of the good ship HMCS No. Starting tomorrow, they are going, as one, to be able to rise up and say no to all of the capital infrastructure that the government is investing in on the strength of a fiscal balance sheet that is the envy of the nation. They are going to be able to rise up as one and say no to the added benefits that a surplus balanced budget is providing to British Columbians, and particularly those that need it most. They’re going to be able to say no to that.

On this side of the House, we’re saying yes. We’re saying yes to leading the country. We’re saying yes to fiscal discipline. We’re saying yes to balanced budgets, and we’re saying yes to the benefits that that will bestow on the British Columbians that need it most.

CANCER TREATMENT CASE

J. Darcy: Last April we raised the story of Fred Cosman in this House. He was a 58-year-old Princeton man whose face was completely disfigured by cancerous lesions almost beyond recognition. Even after he was diagnosed with lymphoma, he went for months without treatment. It wasn’t until Fred went to the media that he finally got an appointment with the B.C. Cancer Agency.

In January, just a few weeks ago, Fred died. Fred and his family deserved better health care from this Liberal government, and he didn’t get it. Will the Health Minister apologize to Fred’s family for the poor health care he got on this government’s watch?

Hon. T. Lake: Certainly our condolences go out to the Cosman family, to any family that loses a loved member of their family. While I can’t comment on individual cases, I know that Interior Health and the ministry want to ensure that we understand a patient’s journey in this particular case. Interior Health is doing an investigation through the patient care quality office. Those offices were established to ensure quality of care. We are going to, through that process, look at Mr. Cosman’s journey and see that if there were gaps, we can close the gaps. We’re committed to doing that.

Madame Speaker: The member for New Westminster on a supplemental.

[1425]

J. Darcy: An investigation is a good thing, of course, but an investigation will not bring Fred back to his family. The fact is this government failed Fred Cosman in his hour of need.

After Fred’s story was on television last year and after we raised it in question period last April, the minister said that he was “happy to report” that Fred was finally getting an appointment. This was months after his diagnosis. We now know that that treatment was not successful.

I’ve spoken with Fred’s widow, Tina. Doctors have told her that faster treatment could have saved Fred’s life. She’s speaking out now because she doesn’t want any other family to go through what Fred and his family went through.

Does the minister think it’s acceptable that Fred and his family had to go public and embarrass the government before he finally got treatment for the cancer that he was suffering from? Does the minister think that’s acceptable?

Hon. T. Lake: Again, I want to extend my condolences to the family for their loss.

Health care, as the member well knows…. She’s been in the health care field for a very long time, and every case is not simple. Health care is complex. I, as Minister of Health, am not going to second-guess decisions made by physicians in terms of referral. Every physician has the ability, if they sense an urgency to a case, to ensure timely access to specialists.

Now, that’s not to say that, at times, people would be able to be seen sooner if conditions were different. That’s what we’re trying to find out from this particular case. This is a sincere attempt to understand the patient’s journey, to find out if there were gaps in the service, and if there are, if we can close those gaps so that people do get the very best service in a timely manner.

That is our goal, and this process is designed to accomplish that.

[End of question period.]

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

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

J. Horgan: Thank you, colleagues. Joining us in the gallery today is a very smiling face, a friend of mine and a friend of all British Columbians, the president of the BCGEU, Stephanie Smith. Joining Stephanie is another very good friend of mine, a local boy, coordinator from the BCGEU, Mike Eso, as well as communications officer Evan Stewart and researcher Simon Kelly.

The four of them are here to watch the proceedings of the Legislature and, I believe, interact with members of
[ Page 10364 ]
the Legislature to talk about the important work that the members of the BCGEU do to bring good business to British Columbia each and every day.

Would the House please make them very, very welcome.

Reports from Committees

J. Martin: I have the honour to present the second report of the Select Standing Committee on Parliamentary Reform, Ethical Conduct, Standing Orders and Private Bills for the fourth session of the 40th parliament.

On December 15, 2015, the committee undertook the examination of the revision of the Local Government Act, pursuant to the Statute Revision Act, and recommended to the Lieutenant-Governor that the revision be approved and brought into force.

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

Motion approved.

Petitions

C. Trevena: I have a petition to table. It has 1,340 signatures on it. These are from people in Campbell River, particularly the Oyster River area, who are opposing the closure of the Oyster River Elementary School.

The petition states that “students and families of the rural community of Oyster River would be severely harmed by diminished access to educational services being provided at Oyster River Elementary” if the school were to close.

[1430]

Orders of the Day

Throne Speech Debate

(continued)

Hon. A. Wilkinson: Of course, on the occasion of the throne speech, it’s an opportunity to reflect on how we came to be where we are and to anticipate the budget tomorrow, which will demonstrate our ongoing path to prosperity, which is built upon the opportunities that have developed in this province over the last century and more.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

It’s also a time to reflect on the role of my own ministry, Advanced Education, and the role of our institutions in building the opportunities that lead to the kind of prosperity we now enjoy. It’s a good time to reflect, because it’s the 100th anniversary of the University of British Columbia and the 50th anniversary of BCIT, Vancouver Community College and the preliminary steps leading toward the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University. We can look back and say how these institutions contributed to our current state of well-being in this province, our prosperity and our very bright future.

Back in 1915, the population of British Columbia was 450,000, and UBC was founded and opened in some rather unassuming shacks in Fairview Slopes, which is the current site of the Vancouver General Hospital. UBC set up there and operated there for seven years.

In the subsequent 50 years, this province’s population grew by 30 percent every decade, continuously, resulting in a rapidly expanding population such that, in 1922, pressure was felt to move UBC to a permanent site at Point Grey, which it occupies today.

This is the time, of course, when…. Some British Columbians will remember that motor vehicles in this province drove on the left-hand side of the road until 1922, reflecting the British imperial heritage that we were exposed to from the foundation of this province until that time. In 1922, the road to Seattle was completed, and American cars started to appear on our roads. Of course, they presented a challenge, being driven on the other side of the road.

As UBC opened, we changed sides of the road, and the prosperity of driving on the right-hand side of the road was, of course, assured for the next century.

Interjections.

Hon. A. Wilkinson: I’m glad at least one member picked it up.

Shortly after World War II…. This province had been importing talent and skilled people for decades. Finally, a law school was founded at UBC. The first class appeared after World War II, when our population reached one million.

This province still did not have a medical school, even though our population reached 1.1 million in 1950. The government of the day finally saw the need to put together a medical school for British Columbia. We were the last major jurisdiction in North America to set up a medical school. Alberta had set one up in 1907, with a population of 350,000. For reasons unknown to me today, it took us another 43 years to set up our own training programs.

We were importers of talent until that point. When one thinks about it, the vast majority of our professionals came from elsewhere. They were trained either in the U.K., in eastern Canada or in the United States, for the most part. That situation began to be rectified.

In 1965, as I mentioned earlier, some major institutions were founded so that we could become self-sufficient in educating our population. The population of our province reached 1.8 million in 1965. These extraordinary institutions were set up, which have now become enormously successful and have, between them, hundreds of thousands of students: BCIT, SFU, UVic and Vancouver Community College.
[ Page 10365 ]

We subsequently became self-sufficient in our educated and talented population. We no longer needed to import skilled people. We produced them on our own. This continued with the foundation of the University of Northern British Columbia, UBC Okanagan, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the remainder of our 25 public post-secondary institutions.

By the year 2000, our population hit four million and we had become an exporter of talent. We had developed a situation where 200 private institutions were providing higher education in this province in addition to the 25 public post-secondary institutions, meaning that British Columbia had become a source of services in terms of educating people and either permitting them the opportunity to stay in Canada and settle in British Columbia or to return to their home countries and contribute to the well-being of those societies.

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So we come to 2015, the centenary of the University of British Columbia, which has now risen from a few unattractive buildings on Fairview Slopes to being ranked No. 34 in the world and No. 6 in the Americas amongst public institutions. I believe the Deputy Speaker himself has a connection with UBC, which warrants his pride in this organization.

Being amongst the top six public institutions in the Americas is no small feat. We fall into the same rank as Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Washington and, with some reluctance, the University of Toronto. These are extraordinary world-renowned institutions, and now we have amongst us one of them — the crown jewel of higher education in western Canada, which we founded in 1915.

Our population is now at 4.7 million, and we attract more than 100,000 international students each year. Those students pay market rate tuition — which is, with the decline of the Canadian dollar, even more attractive to international students. That market rate tuition subsidizes the education of the other students in our system. That provides the opportunity to provide programs which otherwise could be less affordable, but they are, in fact, subsidized by international students. Part of my mandate is to increase the population of international students so that we can reach in the range of 140,000 students in the near future.

This represents a coming of age. This society has moved from being a frontier society to a self-sufficient one, to a sophisticated diverse economy which is able to export services as well as goods. That, of course, is the underlying purpose of our government — to create a climate where people can prosper, where they can acquire the skills they need to be the best they can be. This is something we are very proud to do and something that we have accomplished with great success over the past 15 years. This provides a state-sponsored path to opportunity and the opportunity for prosperity for everyone.

The results have spoken for themselves in a variety of fields in our government. In education, we now have a situation where British Columbian K-to-12 students are ranked at the highest in Canada in terms of their success and No. 3 in the world. This is no small feat and is a tribute to our educators, to our systems and to the schools that we operate.

My own children have now experienced a total of 39 years of public sector education with extraordinarily successful results because of our commitment to public education. We’re very pleased and proud to have put our children through the K-to-12 system right here in British Columbia, in the public system, because it works.

The health system, of course, is another hallmark of our success, with the No. 1 health outcome results in the country, with a remarkably healthy population and with a medical care system that works remarkably well.

Our technology sector is another testament to our success — 86,000 people working in 9,000 companies throughout British Columbia and becoming world leaders in their fields — as diverse as data storage in the form of global relay; stem cell laboratory supplies in the form of stem cell technologies; and satellites for the civilian sector, produced by MDA right here in Richmond. We have found that we are no longer dependent on multinationals and on withdrawing resources from our landscape, but we can also build on the benefits that are available by adding value to those experiences.

We have a situation where we are attractive to the big multinationals, whether they’re Microsoft or the movie industry, Google, Twitter and the rest. But we can also look forward to the situation where the employees of those companies look around and decide to spin off their own company and do their own project and build up an opportunity for themselves right here in B.C. This is a blossoming field, and we are proud to be part of it. Of course, the Advanced Education investments we have made have led to the environment where this is possible.

We are also fortunate to realize the social dividends of this prosperity. We have produced, in this past year, the single parent initiative, providing $25 million initially in an unlimited amount for single parents who elect to go back to higher education. We will provide them with daycare, with transportation and with books and supplies and tuition. This presents yet another opportunity for British Columbians in all parts of our society to better themselves and to share in the prosperity that the rest of us enjoy.

This has led to us taking an increased place in Canada. We are no longer just the west coast port, the place beyond the Rocky Mountains. We are now leading the country in so many ways, not just fiscal but in terms of our innovative economy, our educated population and our benefits of being part of a prosperous regime of government.

[1440]

We’re also earning our place in the world. We know this from the number of international students seeking to
[ Page 10366 ]
come here and by the significant number of immigrants, like me, who came here seeking prosperity and found it in a fair, just and productive society.

We’re seeing this currently in the return of substantial numbers of Canadians from other locations, notably Alberta. We’re also seeing this in Americans starting to appear on our shores because of the opportunities here, and also many Canadians who’ve decided to return to Canada from elsewhere and have decided that British Columbia is the most promising environment for them to prosper, and they do exactly that.

We are able to do these things because we’ve had a responsible government. We’ve been investing in many different fields and in my special area of interest, post-secondary education.

The budget for post-secondary institutions involves transferring $1.8 billion from our government to 25 post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. In 2017-18, we will provide $822 million in new capital projects, with a new Emily Carr University campus, which is under construction right now, and we’ll open a new trades building at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt. We’re about to open new trades-training buildings at Camosun College here in Victoria and in Kelowna at Okanagan College.

These are just a few of the many capital projects we’re engaged in at our universities and colleges so that we can provide the tools and the opportunities for the next generation of learners, no matter how old they are, to prosper in British Columbia and be their best.

I digress a minute to tell you a short story of visiting the University of the Fraser Valley campus in Chilliwack and sitting in on a class of students studying heavy-duty mechanics. A man stood in the back of the room, and I mentioned to him that this was for students only. He said: “I am a student.” He was 45 years old, and he had finally taken the leap of doing what he had always wanted to do: taking the heavy-duty mechanics course to upgrade himself, to increase his prospects and increase his income. And he was doing it because it was affordable, accessible and of high quality, which is true of all of our educational programs.

Overall, we have put $2.6 billion into more than 1,600 capital infrastructure projects since 2001 in the post-secondary sector. This is an enormous commitment. It’s not an easy task, and it’s something we are thoroughly committed to.

But building facilities doesn’t accomplish the task. It’s people who teach, not concrete and steel, so we have embarked upon the B.C. skills-for-jobs blueprint. This provides that $460 million annually of our post-secondary institution operating grants will be targeted in 2017-18 to in-demand education and training. This figure started at 10 percent in 2013-14 and will thereby increase to 25 percent by 2017-18. This, again, demonstrates our commitment to the people in British Columbia who want employable skills quickly and who want them to be entirely and fully useful in the workplace.

We’ve aligned student financial assistance grants to in-demand occupations. B.C. access grants, announced in September 2014, have helped more than 1,350 students to receive $5.6 million in educational financial assistance.

The B.C. completion grant for graduates was launched in April 2015, and roughly 100 students have applied to date into this new and exciting program.

We have $13 million allocated for 2,917 additional critical trade seats — well above and beyond the thousands that we already produce — at 14 institutions, because we are very much attuned to the needs of the future.

All of this is driven by the fact that we are facing large numbers of retirements in the next decade, including many members in this House who will probably not be here in ten years. We will need to be replaced. Sadly, there is no useful training program for this particular task, so we focus on things that are actually in demand, like critical trades instead.

With that in mind, we are looking forward to roughly 700,000 retirements in this province, and we will have to train the people to replace every one of those skilled individuals. We intend to do that on time and in an affordable fashion.

We are investing $185 million in infrastructure and equipment for skilled trades and training, including, as I mentioned earlier, $33 million for the Okanagan College trades renewal project, scheduled to open later this year; $30 million for the centre for trades education and innovation at Camosun College, of which the province is providing $29.2 million, which should open in the next few months.

We have dedicated $18.9 million for new trades-training facilities at Selkirk College’s Silver King campus in Nelson. This is an interesting situation because the population in the West Kootenays is not growing.

[1445]

The number of young people is shrinking, but we are reinvesting in that population because we want that population to have the maximum skills available to them so that they can make their own life decisions, whether it’s to work in their local communities, seek employment elsewhere, start their own business or in some other way decide what to do with their newly acquired skills.

First Nations have by no means been left behind in this, in that we have dedicated $11.1 million to support aboriginal community-based education and training partnerships. We have also embarked on a widespread program of trades training trailers, which are facilities which are right up to the minute and are portable and can travel to communities where the candidate students have difficulty getting to educational institutions and might find it intimidating or daunting to travel a distance to go for their education. We take the education to them so
[ Page 10367 ]
that they can explore the field and decide whether they want to pursue that as a career.

We provide on-line trades seat finding tools to help students to find the available seats in their programs. We go out of our way to keep our education affordable.

We hear, periodically, calls for free tuition. Free tuition, in my experience, was a complete flop in the United Kingdom, where the member for North Island came from. She, like many others, obtained an education at no charge, which was provided by general taxation, which meant that people with lower incomes were transferring their assets to people from the upper middle class. So the higher-income people benefited at the expense of the lower-income people.

We do not believe in that approach. We believe that every British Columbian should have access to high-quality, affordable education. We have the fourth-lowest tuition fees in Canada. An undergraduate degree runs an average of $5,305 per year in tuition. Tuition increases in B.C. have remained below the national average for the past ten years and are faced with a 2 percent cap on growth for the past ten years. This has been an extraordinarily successful model for students and provides a predictable revenue scheme for the institutions.

Our student financial aid program helped 67,000 students in 2014-15 to make their education entirely accessible. Those loans are provided interest-free as long as the student is in studies. After that, they are provided with a reasonable interest rate and they’re asked to embark on a repayment program. We find that the median debt incurred by students who turn to our student loan system is $20,000 for a bachelor’s degree and about $11,000 for a trades diploma.

This is extraordinary affordability, because their lifetime income is projected to increase by more than half a million dollars because of this training, and yet this is an investment of $10,000 or $20,000. It is an extraordinarily successful program. And we must remember that 70 percent of eligible students don’t turn to the province at all for these interest-free support programs. Only 30 percent of students are turning to the province for financial aid support, and we are pleased to provide them with it.

We have provided $55 million in targeted grants, including approximately $32 million for the B.C. completion grant, benefiting almost 23,000 students. Of course, in the summary for the amount of student loans in a particular year, in 2014-15, we provided $211 million in student loans. This is an exceptionally successful program, which is provided in conjunction with the federal government, to make sure that our education is affordable and accessible to everyone who wants it.

Aboriginal education is a particularly important focus for our ministry, because this is the path to prosperity. We have heard it time and time again from aboriginal leaders — that they want their children to be the ones who will benefit from the kind of prosperity that’s available through higher education.

Now, 3,241 credentials were awarded to aboriginal learners in 2013-14. That’s an increase of 23 percent over 2009-10. Our goal is to increase the number of credentials awarded to aboriginal learners by 75 percent in the next four years. This is critically important for our society. The aboriginal youth population is growing at triple the rate of the non-aboriginal youth population, meaning that this is a cohort that requires credentials, requires opportunity and will look into this century with a proud and prosperous face.

In terms of aboriginal education, we’ve invested $25 million since 2012 to support aboriginal community-based training partnership programs. We’ve put $4.3 million into one-time funding since 2012 for an aboriginal emergency financial assistance fund. This provides for those special circumstances, which are not entirely unique but certainly are emphasized in our indigenous populations, that when family crises occur, the student must go home.

[1450]

We allow for that, we provide for that, and we fund that movement, so that the student is not caught between a rock and a hard place, between their studies away from home and their obligations at home. We facilitate that transition in both directions so that the student can continue to succeed, rather than be drawn away from their studies by financial pressures.

We’ve provided $15 million for 31 aboriginal gathering places at all 25 post-secondary institutions. This is a place where indigenous students can gather, have the support and advice of elders and commiserate with each other about the challenges they’ve faced moving from an indigenous environment they grew up in, into a generally more urbanized post-secondary environment education circumstance. This has been enormously successful throughout the province, and we now have them in place at all of our institutions.

We’ve provided $4 million in annual funding for aboriginal service plans at all 11 public post-secondary institutions that specialize in this field. This is because we firmly believe that the future for our indigenous population, as they become more prosperous and become more heavily integrated into the economy, lies through higher education, and we intend to pursue this into the future.

On a more broad-based student access issue that is dear to my heart, we have launched the open textbook initiative. Most of us will remember going to the university or college bookstore and facing daunting prices for textbooks that seemed to be the same year after year. The publishers were clearly making a tidy profit by recovering the same old books and rearranging the same old content. We have taken this on, head-on.

We now have more than 130 free open textbooks available on line to students, faculty and staff. They can
[ Page 10368 ]
actually order these in hard copy for the minimal price of printing the book — often $20 or less. This massively increases accessibility of education, and we encourage students and faculty to take the path of going with open textbooks to save themselves a great deal of money. They will recognize, on reviewing the books, that they’re every bit as high quality as the commercially available and much more expensive textbooks in the bookstore.

We’ve estimated that 11,500 students have saved more than $1.1 million, so far, using on-line textbooks. In a single course, physics 100, at UBC, $93,000 was saved by using the open textbook rather than the commercial textbook. We have more than 100 faculty members at 20 of our public post-secondary institutions who are participating in the open textbook initiative.

These open textbooks range from popular first- and second-year books, which are fairly static in their content, such as math and chemistry, through to skilled and applied subjects, as well as adult upgrading. Some are these require frequent upgrades; others are more static. We have embarked on this. We will continue to fund this. We will continue to provide it to students as a free service.

Our international education has been a roaring success. Right now 115,000 international students are studying in public and private post-secondary institutions in British Columbia, in private language schools and K to 12. This is an increase of 22 percent since 2009, and as I said earlier, we’ll continue to do this.

The number of international students in our public post-secondary institutions has grown by 40 percent since 2009, through to 2013, to roughly 40,000 as of two years ago. As the numbers come in, we expect that to get closer to 50,000 this year, because we are facing a situation where our services, our know-how, our skills are in worldwide demand.

We intend to capitalize on that by making the best of the post-secondary institutions that we have built. We have invested heavily in these institutions, and we intend to capitalize on them for the benefit of our society. We intend to be a government that is fully engaged in the world. We are not shy of engaging the world, like some members in this House. We are confident. We do not depend on anyone to take care of us because we are proud of who we are, and we’re a government that does its best to deliver for young people in this province.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Alberni–Pacific Rim to continue his speech.

S. Fraser: I believe I took my space back in a debate here. I think I have maybe five minutes left. I’m not entirely sure, but I’m sure I will be told that. Four minutes, I’m told.

Recapping, last week, as I ran the clock, I was referring to the government’s throne speech and the mantra and slogan of getting to yes — a very subjective and divisive statement that really means nothing. Getting to yes and vilifying those that don’t agree with that type of yes is problematic, to say the least. Getting to yes, when it helps people that need it, would be a good thing.

[1455]

However, let me give you an example. On May 5, 2014, I had a meeting with the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations regarding the loss of at least 50 jobs from the Franklin crew of Local 1-85 Steelworkers. That was to facilitate…. Land was removed. Twenty-five percent of the annual allowable cut was removed from Western Forest Products’ annual allowable cut. It was used as a means to deal with the Maa-nulth treaty issue — something that all sides of the House support.

What we didn’t know at the time was that there would be no compensation coming forward for the workers who would lose their jobs. In other words, the treaty was settled, really, on the backs of the workers and the community of Port Alberni. That’s a problem. However, when I raised it with the minister and, of course, the representative from the Steelworkers at the meeting almost two years ago now, we were told that there would be subsequent meetings and that there would be an investigation done. None of that has happened. That’s almost two years.

We need to get to yes here. This is a government that has a formula. They already developed the formula when they removed forest lands from the same tree farm license 44, back in, I think, 2004 — a 20 percent clawback. The government decided that for every 2,000 cubic metres lost, it would mean one worker loses his job, and they determined and set the precedent for that compensation.

There are 50-plus workers who have been waiting years now for their compensation for a loss of 25 percent of the cut to facilitate the Maa-nulth treaty. Even with an assurance of follow-up meetings and the work to be done, we’ve had no follow-up meetings and no work apparently being done by the government.

That’s counterintuitive, of course, to getting to yes. It’s the polar opposite of getting to yes. The government shouldn’t have the ability to throw a slogan out — getting to yes — and use that, cherry-pick that, any way they want to so that their yes is the right yes.

The people of British Columbia and the workers in Alberni–Pacific Rim get a no, or they get short shrift, to say the least. Not only that — there was a yes. The yes was to follow this up with meetings and the work being done by the minister and the ministry. None of that has happened. So yes, when it was yes, didn’t mean anything. It’s left my community and workers, the Steelworkers 1-85, without the adequate compensation that they are due.

What is wrong with a throne speech that runs just on a slogan? It takes people’s attention away from the real issues of the day. And employment is an important issue in my area. We have some of the highest poverty levels in the province.
[ Page 10369 ]

B. Ralston: It gives me great pleasure to rise and respond to the Speech from the Throne.

Before I begin the more substantive part of my remarks, I do want to acknowledge some changes that have taken place in my community of Surrey, coincident with the last federal election. Jasbir Sandhu, the MP for Surrey North, was defeated, as was Jinny Sims. Both contributed, I think, incredibly to the political development and growth of Surrey and will be missed. They were both hard-working, well-liked Members of Parliament.

But elections are hard-fought battles, and two others, now Members of Parliament, prevailed. I want to congratulate them on their victories. I look forward to working with them in my area. Randeep Sarai is now the member for the newly named Surrey Centre riding, and Sukh Dhaliwal returns as the Member of Parliament for Surrey-Newton. I look forward to working with both of them.

Indeed, the Minister of Infrastructure was out in Surrey just on Friday at a breakfast event hosted by the Surrey Board of Trade. He has continued to make some commitments about spending on infrastructure, which I think need some more detail to be fully satisfying.

[1500]

Certainly, there is a desire and a wish among the people I represent that there be funding for better transit, particularly in Surrey, as Surrey is one of the fastest-growing, if not the fastest-growing, cities in the province and will overtake Vancouver in population very shortly.

I also want to acknowledge some of the work that I’ve done, some of the people that I’ve met in my riding in the recent past. Much is spoken of the quality of education in Surrey. My children attend public schools in Surrey. I had the occasion to visit a couple of classes, one at James Ardiel Elementary, where Donna While and Sandy Nazarchuk are grade 7 teachers.

I was particularly pleased to go back to James Ardiel, because my two sons attended James Ardiel from grades 1 to 7. The teachers, the quality of the instruction there, are excellent. In some ways, it’s a school that probably doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. It’s classified, for some purposes, as an inner-city school, but nonetheless, I can attest that the quality of the teachers and the instruction there was excellent. My children, the two boys, certainly benefited from their time there and really enjoyed it and learned a lot while they were at James Ardiel. I spoke with the grade 7 class there.

I also was the guest of Ms. Sukhjinder Sidhu at a grade 5 class in Cedar Hills Elementary, also in my riding — an unusually well-informed class of students. I often ask students: do they follow the news? How do they get their news? Do they read a daily newspaper? Do they look at something on line? Do they watch television news?

Much to my surprise, because there’s a little bit of variation among classes, this class seemed particularly well informed and particularly interested in the political process. So that was an interesting exchange at Cedar Hills Elementary and I think bodes well for the future of public affairs and the development of an informed citizenry in British Columbia.

My riding — especially after the new boundary changes have moved the division line between my riding and the riding of Surrey-Guildford, which will be a renamed riding — has moved west and increasingly focuses, as it did much before, but to a greater extent, upon Surrey city centre. The development of a vital downtown core with all that one would expect in a vibrant urban centre, whether it’s business, residences or cultural amenities, is underway in Surrey — perhaps, having participated in it for a long time, a little bit too slow, but it is gaining momentum.

There are a couple of organizations that are devoted to assisting that development process, whether it’s on the side of physical infrastructure and buildings or whether it’s on the side of cultural amenities or social services. One of them is the Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association. Elizabeth Model is the CEO, Bonnie Burnside is the manager, and Tracy Gravel runs the office. It’s funded, as these kinds of organizations are, by an additional tax levy on benefiting properties within the designated area. They do a very good job of raising a number of issues.

One issue that they raise and that they’ve undertaken as a campaign — unfortunately, this seems to have fallen on deaf ears; successive Ministers of Advanced Education and the current one are particularly uninterested in this issue — is the development, the following through of a commitment made by the government some time ago, of about 5,000 full-time-equivalent student spaces in the Surrey campus of Simon Fraser University.

Notwithstanding that commitment, a solemn commitment of the government…. I’ve pursued this each year in my questions of the Minister of Advanced Education. There have been a number of Ministers of Advanced Education. No one seems to stay very long in that job. Yet last year, the minister rebuffed my inquiry.

[1505]

But I’m optimistic that this year, because we’re going to hear a budget tomorrow, that commitment will be renewed and the funding will flow. Certainly, the parliamentary committee, the legislative committee that advises the Minister of Finance in the preparation of the budget, unanimously….

This is significant, because the Finance Committee is composed of a majority of government members who are not in the cabinet but are other members of the Legislature and a minority of opposition members. They recommended it unanimously. So it’s significant that the majority of the committee, a Liberal majority, recommended that this commitment be fulfilled.

Not only is the Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association advocating for this, but the legislative
[ Page 10370 ]
committee, the B.C. Finance Ministry…. They’ve done this before — again rebuffed, rebuffed.

I’m not sure who the Minister of Advanced Education or the Minister of Finance listen to, but I would recommend that they listen to the legislative committee — a majority of Liberal members — and that they listen to the Downtown Surrey BIA and, indeed, listen to the repeated polite and diplomatic pressure applied by successive SFU presidents, whether Andrew Petter or his predecessor, who’ve put forward this idea.

Surrey is a growing area. The university is a dynamic one. It’s clearly underserved, proportionate to its growth. There’s a really strong case for making that commitment and, indeed, once that commitment is made, a longer-term plan to grow that university because a dynamic, open and growing university in the heart of the Surrey downtown will benefit not only the university and its students but will benefit the whole region and, indeed, create the kind of dynamic and diverse downtown core that we’re looking for.

The other group that I meet with regularly is the Whalley Community Improvement Association. It’s a little more of a low-key organization. We generally meet once a month, on Wednesday mornings at 7:15 a.m. It’s an early start because most of the people there are heading off elsewhere. It’s composed of merchants, service providers…. The police are there and city bylaw enforcement officers.

That group deals in a very, I think, expeditious way and with a lot of open discussion about some of the concerns that arise, more on the social side, in the city core. That exchange is really important for the development of a great city. I want to just make public and give recognition to the work that that Whalley Community Improvement Association does and the solutions that it brings about.

The other organization in Whalley is the Surrey Urban Mission Society. Leadership of that organization has recently passed to a new executive director, Mike Musgrove. Jonquil Hallgate is the founder and has stepped aside. Mike Musgrove is the new executive director. He’s an exceptional person with strong values and a very supportive family. He has taken over.

I’m confident that this society, which provides a meal program, provides some temporary shelter, generally assists those who are less fortunate people on the street, homeless people…. We have big-city problems in Surrey as well as big-city successes.

Mike will do a great job. When it was announced that he was going to be the director, I was a little surprised, because he’s my next-door neighbour and has been for a number of years. I had no influence over the selection, but I’m very pleased that he was selected, because in addition to everything else, he and his wife are great neighbours, and we’ve enjoyed a very harmonious relationship with them.

He lives in the community. Indeed, he walks to work, which is a bit of a hike, maybe 25 minutes, but he said it clears his head in the morning. He’s off to work, generally, at I think 7:15 or 7:30 in the morning. I think that’s something worth mentioning here.

I want to turn to some of the issues that have arisen in the throne speech. There are a couple of issues.

[1510]

In the throne speech, the government has talked about…. This is not something that hasn’t been said before. They have a catchphrase, and we hear it from the minister responsible for liquid natural gas development. I’m going to read from the throne speech. “B.C. has the potential to be a clean energy superpower, helping others reduce emissions — whether by replacing coal-fired plants with LNG overseas or by supplying hydroelectric power to Alberta.”

We’ll get to the relationship with Alberta. There’s a long history of cooperation, joint cabinet meetings, with the government of Alberta, but that has recently come under a very sharp, vitriolic political attack from the Premier. We’ll deal with that a little bit later.

What I want to talk about is this notion that the export of LNG will reduce GHG emissions in China. In fact, surprisingly, that’s not accurate. One of the people who has addressed this issue, I think in a very thoughtful way and in a very informed way, is a man named David Hughes. He’s a scientist. He’s described as an earth scientist of the Post Carbon Institute. He has researched the energy sector for 40 years, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada.

In an interview that was published — he has written papers, but this is a more succinct view of his — in the Squamish Chief, a newspaper or an on-line publication, obviously, in the Squamish area, the question is: “One argument is that we are not being fair to the people of China who are suffering from coal production and that liquefied natural gas from here will save them from that.”

His answer. I’m going to read it, because I don’t want to be accused of misquoting or distorting, and that’s sometimes the first resort of the 225 people in the government communications department that monitor these communications and attempt to pick fault — the largest newsroom in the province. At a time when the journalism industry is suffering and encountering layoffs, the largest newsroom in the province is employed by that side of the House to pick away at what opposition members say.

Let me give you his answer.

“On a full-cycle emissions basis, the planet would be better off if China built state-of-the-art coal plants rather than burning B.C. LNG for at least the next 50 years. It is true that at the burner tip, gas produces about half the CO₂ of coal, but you have to consider full-cycle emissions from the wellhead to the burner tip for gas. The hydraulic fracturing process and the supply chain — pipelines, processing plants — emit considerable amounts of methane, which is 73 percent as potent as CO₂ on a 20-year time frame and 25 times as potent on a 100-year time frame, because methane leaves the atmosphere more quickly than CO₂. Plus, about 20 percent of the gas must be burned to provide power for the liquefaction and shipping process.
[ Page 10371 ]

“If you compare full-cycle emissions from B.C. LNG burned in China to the state-of-the-art Chinese coal plant, which runs at 46 percent efficiency, compared to the 33 percent efficiency of an old coal plant, B.C. LNG is 27 percent worse than burning coal.”

So 27 percent worse than burning coal over a 20-year time frame and 7 percent better on a 100-year time frame. You’d have to wait more than 50 years until you break even, while suffering the effects of increased greenhouse gases in the meantime.

What that person is saying is that the argument that’s made by the minister, by the Premier, that somehow this huge benefit, this GHG emission reduction benefit, is going to be conferred upon China — indeed, the peoples of the world — by them taking on B.C. LNG, is just not accurate. It’s just not accurate.

As they did in the debate about the emissions of the LNG process, they consider — this is the government, the B.C. Liberals, the minister, the Premier — only the emissions of the plant and not the full cycle, as Mr. Hughes calls it.

[1515]

In other words, you’ve got to get the gas out of the ground, into the pipeline to the plant, liquefy it, ship it over to China, regasify it, take it to a source and burn it. The total amount of emissions is greater in that process than it would be if they adopted — which they are adopting — efficient coal burners. In addition to that, they are doing more. They’re doing more in China than the minister of LNG is prepared to consider.

Interjection.

B. Ralston: What is happening there in China is…. China is also engaging itself as a major wind power. What recent sources say — this is the Global Wind Energy Council — is that China has overtaken the EU, the European Union, to become the world’s top region for wind power, thanks to a burst of turbine installations in the past year. A new report has found that China installed nearly half of the 63 gigawatts of wind power added globally in 2015 and now accounts for about a third of the world’s installed wind power capacity — twice the figure for the U.S. and three times that of Germany, biggest by capacity.”

The Minister of Natural Gas Development has said China is not moving to wind. “They’re not.” That’s what he said. That’s an exact quote: “China moving to wind? They’re not.” That is clearly not accurate. The central argument that is made on occasion by the Premier and by the minister of LNG is clearly challenged by objective scientific evidence, which of course, probably means nothing to that process over there. But that’s what Mr. Hughes said, and I think that’s a fair assessment of the argument that’s sometimes made.

Recently, last week, in addition to that consideration of the emissions of these plants, the draft environmental assessment report of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency was released. It assessed the potential GHG emissions of the project — that is, the Pacific NorthWest LNG project — and the total emissions, including the upstream emissions. What it said is that….

We have to remember that in the debate, what those on the opposite side said was that this was going to be the cleanest LNG in the world. There’s a plant in northern Norway, and the emission intensity of CO₂ was going to be equivalent to, if not lower than, that particular plant in Norway.

It’s significant what this report says. “Even a project with an emission intensity of 0.16 tonnes CO₂ per tonne of LNG, at a maximum capacity of 19.2 million tonnes of LNG per year, would still be one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.”

In addition, what they also say is that the project “would result in 5.12 million tonnes ofCO₂ per year — 0.27 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of LNG.” That’s “a marked increase of greenhouse gas emissions at both the provincial — an 8.5 percent increase — and national — 0.75 percent increase — level. Upstream greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project of 6.5 million to 8.7 million tonnes CO₂…would represent 10 to 14 percent of provincial emissions and 0.90 to 1.1 percent of national emissions.”

The fact that was refused, ignored, sidestepped, obfuscated, omitted by the government in this report — and this is a report by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency — is that the upstream emissions of this plant would represent 10 to 14 percent of the total provincial emissions. That’s a huge increase in provincial emissions.

[1520]

They go on to provide this assessment in the same part of the report. What they do say is:

“The upstream greenhouse gas emissions estimate of 6.5 to 8.7 million tonnes CO₂ per year can be characterized similarly to the direct emissions: high in magnitude, continuous, irreversible and global in extent. Accordingly, the upstream emissions could be considered likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects. This information will provide additional context for the environmental assessment decision and help inform the government’s development of a national climate change plan.”

The new incoming Liberal government, which has now been there for approximately 100 days, has signalled an intention to evaluate projects in terms of their impact on climate, and it would seem that this report set the objective conditions for a serious evaluation of these projects.

Now, that’s a new approach in assessing these projects. It’s outside the environmental assessment plan or the environmental assessment that was taking place prior to their coming to power, but nonetheless, the government has signalled. It will be interesting to see. When you have the report saying that the upstream emissions, “similarly to the direct emissions: high in magnitude, continuous, irreversible and global in extent…likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects….”

We have heard the government talk about LNG for some time, and notwithstanding the debate that we had
[ Page 10372 ]
here about emissions, it’s clear that the government was either mistaken in its view of the GHG impact of these plants and the total system for delivering the gas to the plant, or they were simply ignoring it or hoping it would go away or, by rhetorically stressing the emissions of the plant, that the other part of the emissions process would be ignored.

It’s over to the new federal Liberal government for that assessment. I know members opposite have recently visited Ottawa and spoken with senior ministers there, so I’m sure that they have some sense of how this process will play out. I’m hoping that the Minister of Natural Gas Development or the Premier will advise the public, given this report, what that impact will be upon LNG developments.

And this is only for one project — a major project, granted, but only the impact on one project. A number of the people that the government consults with from time to time on climate effects have stressed this for some time, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out and how this is resolved, because obviously, it has significant impact on the decision whether or not to go forward with those projects.

As much as we may wish or expect…. And certainly, Pacific NorthWest LNG is well advanced in the approval process, as is the Shell project, although the Shell project has been deferred now until at least the end of 2016 and perhaps into 2017. Certainly, all their approvals are in place. This project — the Pacific NorthWest LNG project — has an additional hurdle to overcome.

We’ll see how that plays out. Certainly, for those of us who are interested in the future of LNG in the province, that will be a significant decision.

The other thing that was striking in the Speech from the Throne and some of the subsequent commentary was what was said about the province of Alberta. I’m looking for my exact quotation here. “Over the decades, Alberta lost its focus. They expected their resource boom never to end, failed to diversify their economy and lost control of government spending.”

[1525]

This comes in an unusual context, because what has happened since at least 2003 is that there have been regular meetings between the cabinet of British Columbia and the cabinet of the government of Alberta. In fact, I have a document here. It’s probably the closest thing to a sacred document we have here. It’s a document signed by the hon. Gordon Campbell — I know that the member for Kootenay East was a big fan — and the hon. Ed Stelmach.

Interjection.

B. Ralston: Well, we don’t want to retail those kinds of old stories now, member for Kootenay East.

A commitment to partnership between the government of Alberta and the government of B.C. There are a number of areas. There’s an agreement. As far as I know, this agreement is still in effect, because there’s no time deadline on it. It can be terminated.

They were going to work together on economic matters. They were going to work together on improving services, sustainable economic development. Pretty well anything that you can think of in the economic and political sphere, those two governments were going to work together on. Now, this was somewhat superseded.

There were regular meetings. If you go back and check, there were a number of meetings. Let me just give you some detail on those meetings: October 8, 2003; May 26, 2004; May 18, 2005; April 28, 2006; May 18, 2007; October 1, 2008.

Then with the signing of the new west partnership, there were joint meetings between B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan on May 12 and 13, 2009; September 11, 2009; April 30, 2010. There were continued meetings. There were even recent releases, as recently as 2014 and one relating to a meeting in February 2015. So the government of Alberta and the government of B.C. — and certainly, this Premier is probably no different from the previous Premier — participated in these meetings and had a joint discussion.

How did it come about that Alberta lost its focus all the while, over these many years getting advice from British Columbia? That view was never expressed by the Premier until there was a change in government in Alberta. I think what it demonstrates is that there is no relationship, no network of cooperation, no partnership, no friends or associates that the Premier is not prepared to burn if it serves her immediate political interest.

It’s a sad commentary, but that is what I draw from this, given the lengthy cooperation between these two governments at the cabinet level. This is not public servants, although I’m sure they were involved at the senior level. This is at the political level, the highest political level — meetings of the Premiers of Alberta and British Columbia and meetings of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. So there’s a whole history there of that kind of cooperation — yet burned to serve the immediate political purposes of the Premier.

S. Gibson: It’s a pleasure to be back here for the fifth session of the 40th parliament. I’m feeling very optimistic today. I’m feeling very optimistic about our government and the exciting vision we have for this province.

You know, I was out for a run this morning, as is my case. I like to run in the mornings. It was absolutely soaking. It was just a horrible day, but I ran. I got really wet, but as I ran, I saw all these little flowers peeking out. They’re just starting to peek out in my home riding of Abbotsford-Mission, but they’re really peeking out here. You can’t help but feel optimistic and excited about the future of our province when you see all those cheerful little flowers peeking out and saying hi. It’s a good
[ Page 10373 ]
world we’re getting into here, and it’s a good time to be in our province.

I want to acknowledge the good work that went into the speech. I was impressed, and I want to share a bit on that.

[1530]

It’s a pleasure for me to represent two great communities, Abbotsford and Mission. How many people get to drive across a majestic bridge to work virtually every morning, across the mighty Fraser River? That’s my pleasure, that I get to do that.

Our two communities are vibrant. If you travel around you, can’t help but to get excited about the agricultural possibilities — the raspberries, the blueberries and the big dairy farms. It’s an exciting place to be, and it’s a real honour and privilege for me to represent the people of the Abbotsford-Mission areas.

A lot of great work is going on. With thanks to the province, we recently completed a $21 million seismic safety upgrade to the Mission Bridge, which is a key connector.

A lot of people, when they think about Mission and Abbotsford, think of those towns. But there are a lot of cute little communities — small, vibrant agricultural communities — throughout the entire area that I represent. McConnell Creek. We have the Ten Oaks area, Auguston, Deroche, Dewdney, Matsqui Prairie, Lake Errock, Hatzic and so many more delightful little communities.

There is a lot of pride there. For some of the MLAs that come from urban areas, it can be kind of amorphous. You can go from one area to another, and there’s not too much change. But in my communities of Abbotsford and Mission, you’ll see a certain vibrancy. There’s a real pride in those little communities.

I also represent two school districts in the area, and we’ve committed a lot of capital funding. In Abbotsford school district 34, we’ve provided over $1 million last year for three schools to improve such things as roofs, air units and hot water tanks — all well needed. In Mission, school district 75, we’ve invested over $675,000 last year for three schools to upgrade heating and hot water and air systems. There’s good money being invested in education in facilities, and these investments increase the longevity of our schools.

Well, we know about the community gaming grants and the contribution they make. It’s always a pleasure for me to visit community organizations and hear how happy they are with our grants that we have through community gaming. Over the past year, we’ve provided almost $850,000 to organizations in Abbotsford and $613,000 to organizations in Mission through the program.

It’s all good. It’s good progress, and everybody is really appreciative. On top of that, we’ve got grants going to the Abbotsford Community Services and also for Mission Community Services to provide programs such as the food bank.

We welcome new British Columbians to our province, refugees from Syria, perhaps, and other countries and people moving to B.C. to take advantage of our growing economy. It’s one thing I noticed as I travel around the Abbotsford-Mission riding. A lot of new homes are being built, and there’s a real kind of ebullient mood in the air. People are just pleased to call Abbotsford or Mission their home.

The B.C. jobs plan is our plan to keep B.C.’s economy diverse, strong and growing, and that plan is working. We’re investing in skills-training programs to ensure British Columbians have the skills they need for the jobs that are available — future jobs that will be opening up thanks to a growing and vibrant economy.

We want British Columbians to be first in line for jobs in this province. In my own riding, we’ve provided funding to Sprott-Shaw Community College and also the University of the Fraser Valley, where I taught for some 13 years to train students in a variety of various programs. These programs are for in-demand jobs: electricians, carpenters, plumbers and welders. New trainings program to support students as they train for new occupations.

We have partnered with the Industry Training Authority for the secondary school apprenticeship program that places students with local employers to attain practical experience.

There are eight key sectors in the jobs plan, and currently, the fastest growing is the tech centre, as we’ve heard frequently here in our Legislature. We launched our #BCTECH strategy to support the growth of our vibrant tech sector. We want to ensure that B.C. has the talent and investment needed so that companies can develop innovative products and ideas to fuel our economy and create the jobs that we all know that we need for our young people as they grow in our province.

Having a diverse knowledge-based economy that supports innovation will have very positive implications throughout our province. The strategy highlights the K-to-12 curriculum, which provides the opportunities for students to gain basic skills needed for careers needed in technology, like coding. We’re hearing about that, and I think we’re all pretty excited about the opportunities for coding for our young people.

In addition, incorporating into the K-to-12 studies, we’ve also introduced a new curriculum to better meet the needs of all learners. We are focusing on preparing students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century.

[1535]

It is a privilege for me to serve as parliamentary secretary for independent schools in the ministry and being able to observe firsthand the excellent progress we’re making to the benefit of British Columbians.

It is not just the beauty of our landscapes that makes B.C. such a wonderful place to live, but it’s the people that are here. The hard work, continued focus on con-
[ Page 10374 ]
trolling government spending, balancing budgets and building a strong and diverse economy — we just heard this a moment ago, with one of our presentations here in the House.

We are leading the country in economic growth. Last year we led Canada by creating more than 50,000 jobs. That’s more than the population of Mission, in my community. We’re on track for the fourth consecutive balanced budget. Despite the fragile global economy, we’re remaining vigilant, and we’re doing well. We’re creating a climate where businesses can thrive and create jobs.

As a former owner of a business, I know how hard it is when you have to meet a payroll — have to pay your taxes, pay utilities, lease payments, all those things. I admire those people willing to got out and create their own businesses. This government is creating a vibrant environment for that, cutting red tape, making it easier for people to start businesses and flourish.

We recognize that economic development and environmental protection go hand in hand. We can sustain both, even with the challenges that sometimes come with that.

Our dedicated social workers work hard in some of the most difficult situations and touch the lives of thousands of families. In the past year, good news: 274 children were placed for adoption. We saw more than 111,000 licensed child care spaces funded. We are committed to maintaining the stability in the ministry, as has been recommended. We’ll be hiring even more social workers as well.

Our trade strategy — raising our game in Asia — is paying off. We’re planning on opening even more trade and investment offices. As Canada’s Pacific Gateway, B.C. is well positioned to access all those countries. By strengthening and diversifying trade in our Asian markets, this helps grow our economy. Trade and investment are proven contributors to job growth.

With our strategy, we are expanding B.C.’s presence in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region and seeing successes, with total exports well over $35 billion, annually.

As well, 2015 was a great year for agricultural exports. Of course, that’s an important part of my constituency of Abbotsford-Mission, which is tops in agriculture in all the province, in farm-gate revenue.

As well, 2015 was a great year for agricultural exports. Some $3.8 billion worth of B.C. agrifood and seafood were shipped around the world. Our reputation is wonderful around the world. This positive trend will help B.C. meet its goal of seeing revenues in agrifoods and seafoods reach up to $15 billion by the year 2020. What a great story to report to our friends around the world.

We will capitalize on our successes in agriculture by encouraging and supporting British Columbians to buy local and grow local. With our moderate climate, particularly in the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, that growing season makes that possible — and, of course, into the Okanagan as well.

B.C. has the potential to be a clean energy superpower and help others reduce emissions. B.C. was one of the first jurisdictions to not only set a price on carbon but to use that revenue to cut taxes at home. We’re currently consulting with British Columbians on our climate leadership plan.

We achieved the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, a monumental and globally significant agreement that conserves an area along the beautiful coastline of British Columbia.

I had the privilege as a young man, as a university student, of working with B.C. Ferries. I worked on the Queen of Prince Rupert ferry up and down the coast between Port Hardy, that part of the world, and Prince Rupert and have real memories of the majestic coastline of British Columbia, as a student at university, working with B.C. Ferries.

We have done everything we set out to do to attract investment for the cleanest LNG in the world. As companies move forward toward final investment decisions, we continue to work on bringing the opportunity of LNG to B.C. We’re going to ensure equity for future generations by establishing a prosperity fund to pay down our debt and invest in vital services.

With developing and growing economies in countries like China and India looking for cleaner energy to power their future, we can help them reduce emissions by replacing coal-fired plants with LNG. By being a vital supplier, this means jobs in B.C. and reducing global emissions.

[1540]

Forestry is a critical industry for British Columbians. We have forestry, actually, in my riding of Abbotsford-Mission, and we’re committed to working with the federal government to renew the expired softwood lumber agreement — very important.

We continue to stand up for B.C., defending the interests of our natural resource sectors and the hard-working families that support them.

Housing affordability. We’ve talked about that today, even here in the Legislature. The rising cost of living pressures are important to British Columbians. We will be taking steps to give British Columbians a better opportunity to enter the housing market and encourage more of a housing supply.

There’s no single solution, but we’ll work with the municipalities to ensure hidden costs are clear and transparent to the homebuyer. As a former council member in Abbotsford for many years, we were conscious, as local government, about the cost of housing and trying to keep those costs as low as possible for residents. We want to protect the savings and equity that existing homeowners have placed in homes.

I’m pleased to stand here in this House and support the hard work of this government as we grow our strong and diverse economy. We have a lot to be thankful for. We have a lot to be optimistic about. I’m proud to be a govern-
[ Page 10375 ]
ment MLA, and I’m proud to stand here in the Legislature today to support, enthusiastically, the throne speech.

V. Huntington: Once again, we stand in that strange hiatus between throne speech and budget — a time in which members get up and either praise or critique the government message just before they get up to either praise or critique the government budget, a time in which all that work and energy vested in preparation disappears into the ether of what supposedly constitutes debate in the House of the people.

It’s also a time in which members can more broadly speak to issues that face their constituencies, that face the province, that concern our citizens. And it is a time to pause at questions and whether the policies of government are moving us forward economically and socially.

As such, I’d like to begin by speaking to the government’s claim that B.C. is ready to take over Alberta’s role as Canada’s energy superpower. But an even more hyperbolic statement of B.C.’s new role is the claim that we are going to be the global clean energy superpower. I do have to say: wouldn’t that be nice?

But LNG is not a clean source of energy; it is simply a cleaner source of energy. Yes, it will be important as a transition fuel, but that’s all it is — a less dirty transition fuel. I would be willing to bet that the transition to truly clean, green energy power sources worldwide is going to be much faster than this government apparently believes. What happens to B.C. if that becomes fact?

There is a battle of epic proportions facing humanity, and while governments pretend to recognize the coming reality, most are doing too little to prepare. Bits and pieces occupy them when, in fact, we need a huge overarching, pan-provincial plan that can give us a goal that everyone understands, trusts and will work together to achieve.

But what do we have? Bits and pieces. No forward plan. We need higher dikes. Really. Who will pay for this broad social necessity? Who will compensate the homeowners and businesses who presently sit on our dikes? Who will rebuild the roads that will disappear as the dikes are raised and thus widened? How can municipalities possibly cover the cost? Yet that is what the province is intimating. A goal with no plan.

The government appointed a climate leadership team. The first set of recommendations have been made. They are a compromise developed by the government’s own independent team. Has the government listened? Will they listen? Will they bite the proverbial bullet and figure out how to reduce — truly reduce — emissions by 40 percent?

Probably not, because they know what that means. They know that it would require a radical rethinking of how our economy and society will need to work, and because everything they stand for is unequivocal support for a dying and increasingly deadly fossil fuel-driven economy.

I’m going to say right now, before the masters of yes start calling “no” across the floor, that we all support a healthy economy — tax measures and royalty structures that encourage investment and make sense. Any responsible government must do that, and in many respects, this government has been very successful.

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Where they have gone wrong is the utter failure to understand that what they have concentrated so many of our intellectual resources on is a faltering industry. They count on LNG income because they made impossible political promises and because there is no other plan, no other battle, no other promise to protect the real future of our people and our province. Thinking in bits and pieces and counting on a single golden commodity won’t do that job.

How unclean is LNG, and what does the federal environmental assessment office say about the emissions of just one of the developments, the Pacific Northwest LNG or Petronas-led project? “It is high in magnitude, continuous, irreversible and global in extent. Accordingly, the upstream emissions could be considered likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.”

That single sentence confirms every caution the government has heard from members of the opposition — cautions that suggested you can’t have an LNG industry of the size and impact that they have supported and meet their climate emission goals. That one project, according to the federal government, will eat up roughly 25 percent of B.C.’s entire carbon budget for 2020.

We were right, and the government knew it, and the government tied itself in knots. “We will leave the reduction problem to the Chinese,” you said. “We will double our emissions so that they can reduce theirs.” What kind of sorry intellectual joke is that? Stop the propaganda, and talk intelligently about how to face the future about what LNG really is — a transition, a stopgap to a new type of economic growth.

As I said previously, what is so sadly lacking is any leadership from government on understanding what the new economy will look like and how we will get there with as little disruption as possible.

The throne speech also speaks to our mining industry. I am as proud as any member in this House of the resource industry in British Columbia. I agree with the government that it has been the foundation of our general well-being and prosperity. I have supported the government’s budgets that recognized the importance of attracting, maintaining and supporting the extraction and forestry components of our economy.

Resource industry–driven economic growth needs to be rethought to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and I see nothing in the throne speech, or in action, that government is preparing for the long-term changes that are coming — changes that will see a gap developing between the consumption of resources and continuing economic growth.
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How will B.C. position itself? How are we trying to understand the future? How are we preparing in the back rooms of government to meet these changes in the world economy?

I don’t presume to understand what the future will wholly look like, but I do know that the great think tanks of the world, including the United Nations Resource Panel and Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, to name just two, are beginning to look at what is called the decoupling of resource use from economic growth.

Is government trying to understand what the impact of this decoupling will be on the British Columbian economy? Does it care that the consensus-based international goal will soon be to reach the green economy and that many countries are light years ahead of us?

This is the long term, the real meaning of leadership and guidance, preparing this province for the inevitable change that is happening faster than this government realizes. Whether it is forced upon us by reality or whether an outstanding morality suddenly hits the nations of this world, we need to know what lies ahead, and we need to plan for it.

It isn’t just LNG. As the member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head has oft repeated, the basket of LNG eggs can break, and nothing but a slimy mess can pool at your feet.

Where is the plan to encourage diversity? Why has it taken so long for the government to develop a tech strategy? You only moved in that direction when LNG looked like it was stumbling. You moved in that direction only last summer, a tech strategy hurriedly put together to make it look like government had been looking all along at fostering diversification — $100 million, which is wonderful; a new website; another chapter in the B.C. jobs plan; a tech summit.

[1550]

Don’t misunderstand me. I applaud anything that will let this sector know it has the full support of government, that it is a major component of an economic outlook. I’m just disappointed that encouraging economic activity and diversity has had such limited imagination and innovation in the halls of government.

The day is coming when per-capita consumption will be frozen, when decoupling human well-being from resource consumption will be the norm. To face that future, we need massive investment in technological, financial and social innovations — not bits and pieces but a consistent, complex and mandatory game plan going forward. That is the leadership we need, and which the throne speech failed utterly, not only to deliver but to even contemplate or — in the face of government groans decrying the opposite — to outline for the people of this province.

What did I like about the throne speech? Well, the short statements about assisting the agricultural industry, for one. For how many years have the farmers of B.C. been asking the government to reinvigorate the buy-local program? It’s very nice to know that it finally may be happening, and it’s a welcome move, to be sure, as is the adoption of an Ontario-style tax credit for farmers who donate food to non-profits — a helpful decision for all concerned, for the farmer who in Delta is extremely generous with donations of food, for the non-profit organizations who work so hard in their communities and, especially, for the people who need it most.

I have to say, though, that the increased funding for the Agricultural Land Commission is nothing more than what government ought to be doing and should have been doing over the last 15 years. The commission was underfunded for so long that it became almost toothless, and I’m glad to see this further support for the work of the ALC. The claim, however, that government has grown the size of the ALR is absolutely laughable, egregious propaganda that is a sorry indicator of how little it truly does support the protection of arable land in this province.

Finally, finally, we are seeing a move toward a public discussion on food security. It’s perhaps a bit hypocritical, given the loss of class 1 northern agricultural lands to Site C and the weakening of the ALC legislation, but at least it’s a recognition that the issue of food security is of importance. The food security summit is a good step, and it allows the public an opportunity to hear the science and to contribute to the steps forward.

However, I return to my earlier comments regarding the need for a pan-provincial plan that takes us into the new economy. Agriculture is integral to that plan. As the government contemplates food security in B.C., let it do so on a grand and inclusive scale — a scale that provides leadership and belief in the path toward a new economy.

There are so many issues I would like to speak to — everything from the Massey bridge, terminal 2, the future of the Fraser River and the continuing viability of the Pacific migratory bird migration route. But I do want to ensure that I touch on two other issues of great importance — the state of social services in B.C. and the state of democracy within this Legislature. The throne speech gave us no vision for either of these enormously important subjects.

Let me begin my discussion of social services with a congratulatory note to the Minister of Social Development for her announcement of a meaningful step forward in the field of PWD applications. Removing an unnecessary assessment for disabled youth and individuals who are transitioning to PWD is a sound move, and I hope we hear of many more such improvements. They are sorely needed in a system that has such trouble displaying compassion.

Every month my office hears from people in Delta who are struggling to access B.C.’s income assistance and PWD programs. On PWD alone, individuals must wade through 90 computer screens just to begin an ap-
[ Page 10377 ]
plication process that can take weeks. The energy that is put into the application and the energy put into making it difficult to access assistance boggles the mind. That energy doubles, triples, for those who are computer-illiterate, who don’t have access to a computer, who don’t speak the language or who are nominally illiterate in the first instance. This waste of energy, time and emotional health must stop.

We all know that a single individual on income assistance in B.C. receives $610 a month from the province. We know that a single individual with PWD designation receives $906 a month. But do we all fully understand that the poverty subsistence line runs from $1,068 to $1,633 a month, depending on where one lives? Only three other provinces have a worse assistance rate.

[1555]

Of course, none of Canada’s poverty-level assistance rates are anything to be proud of, but it is an embarrassment that any government, particularly my own, considers these rates to be an acceptable standard of living.

When the government froze the assistance rates in 2007, the $375 shelter allowance was still not enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in British Columbia — not in Port Alberni, not in Fort St. John and certainly not in Vancouver. Yet here we are almost ten years later with the same $375 shelter allowance. It is cruel, it is beyond unrealistic, and it is contributing to desperation on the streets of our communities.

When the province last increased assistance rates in 2007, government anticipated a $400 million surplus. Well, government records are showing B.C. had a $1.68 billion surplus last year, and I hope now government does its duty. It is time to make life more tolerable for so many people who depend solely on its assistance. So many don’t have access to so much.

While some of the highly touted programs like asset protection help some, they don’t help many others. And it is those others that we must care for. Arguments of fiscal responsibility mean little if people are being driven to hopelessness and to despair in both health and in spirit.

I said last year that if government had spent as much money on a cross-ministry resolution of the health or social assistance issues as it has on the LNG file, we could already be starting to work our way out of these endemic, persistent and chronic problems. If all deputies, ADMs, ministers and ministries had been directed to find innovative approaches to these great social issues, how much better would we be as a society? How much money could have been saved? How much redundancy in the system would disappear? How much more compassion could we afford to extend to our vulnerable neighbours?

Couldn’t a close examination of a guaranteed minimum income be a step in that new direction? Right now we have an opportunity to work with the new federal government on a trial of a guaranteed minimum income. There are indications that it is interested in looking at a new pilot project. What would be the hesitation to cooperate in such a venture or even to start a made-in-B.C. pilot project?

The basic idea of GMI is that no one would earn less than a basic minimum income. Anything less than the basic amount would trigger a rebate or a top-up. While critics suggest that such a program would only encourage people not to work, trials in the United States and in Canada show that simply isn’t the case.

In Manitoba, for instance, the only people who worked measurably less were new mothers and teenagers who had been supporting their families. Both health outcomes and graduation rates improved. A program that guarantees stability of income would open so many doors for so many people.

What are the savings? A reduction of bureaucracy over the long hall. A reduction in programming. An elimination of embarrassing and invasive means tests and health assessments. Shouldn’t we take a look at the idea — an idea which is no longer at the fringes of economic thinking?

Supporters of a guaranteed minimum income have included Milton Friedman. They include now Quebec Premier Couillard. Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Senators Hugh Segal and Art Eggleton and the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. The councils of Kingston and Cornwall. Alberta mayors Iveson and Nenshi. Columnist Andrew Coyne and the Globe and Mail editorial board. In Finland, which is currently planning a number of trials to determine what model of a guaranteed income would work best for that country, it is also becoming a reality.

We need to take a good, hard, realistic look at the pros and cons of guaranteeing a minimum income to the people of this province. Will it help B.C.’s fiscal picture? I think it will. Will it help the disadvantaged live a more dignified existence? I know it will.

Lastly, let me say that a throne speech is at the heart of the history and tradition of parliamentary democracy. I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the Speech from the Throne by commenting on what I feel is the continued failure of this House to act on democratic reform, an issue I would truly have loved to see explored by Her Honour.

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I recall listening to the final speeches of members who knew they would be leaving this place prior to the 2013 election. A surprising number of them expressed hope for change within this Legislature. Ron Cantelon said: “We need to make changes in this chamber in order to re-engage voters.” George Abbott said: “We need to think about the committee system of this place.” Dawn Black said: “Members’ expertise could and should be utilized much more fully in a more functional legislative and standing committee system.”
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[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

She added that the time has come for a ban on corporate and union donations. Randy Hawes talked about the value of free votes. “When a party line gets in the way of your conscience,” he said, “follow your conscience.”

Blair Lekstrom noted that not all opposition amendments are bad amendments. He said: “When a question is asked, I’d love nothing more than to see a question answered.” Guy Gentner called the parliamentary reform committee useless and irrelevant.

That was three years ago, and nothing has changed. Those individuals, particularly the government members and cabinet ministers, had a chance to drive real change while they were here. Either they didn’t try, or they couldn’t make it happen. And then it was too late. They asked future parliamentarians to do what they did not.

I wonder how many members feel that this institution is functioning the way it should, how many wish the throne speech could have opened up a new era on how we do the business of the people.

We have a parliamentary reform committee that could begin a review of the many reports and suggestions that have been made over the years. But our weak committee system and a government indifferent to a change in the status quo ensures they won’t have the autonomy to do so.

We know the opposition supports moving the fixed election date to the fall, and the Minister of Finance said there were rational reasons to look at moving the date. But nothing happened because the political advisers see an advantage in posting election-year budgets that don’t have to stand up to scrutiny.

We know the opposition supports banning corporate and union donations. It’s an idea that the government dismisses as an affront to democracy. Our Wild West donation rules are out of step with the rest of the country. It is a threat to our democracy, and we only have to look south to see the threat in action.

Free votes are still essentially meaningless in this place, despite government protestations to the contrary. I know that political messaging takes a hit when it looks like there is disagreement. But disagreement and debate, especially public disagreement and debate, is healthy. It is what democracy is all about. In fact, it is why we are here, and it is vital to our system of government.

If members had real free votes, the voting public might see debates that move beyond the aggressive talking points and finger-pointing and controlled messaging that are so familiar and so despised by the public.

Finally, I want to speak to the most egregious inefficiency in this place, our committee system. Had the throne speech suggested reform to this single problem, I would have been thrilled.

I have spoken for years about the need to improve our committee process. My office has drafted motions to amend our standing orders, motions that can improve our work and enable all members to contribute to policy development and enrich the legislative process.

We could give our committees autonomy. We could make them permanent for the life of a parliament. Those are changes most jurisdictions have already made. But we do not seem to have the courage in this place to enable reform that is meaningful to legislative democracy. The government is clearly a force of no when it comes to democratic reform in the Legislative Assembly of B.C.

Next spring, members will be standing up and giving their final speeches and will no doubt talk about how this place could be made better. But 2017 is a whole year away, and those same members have the time to make positive, democratic changes in this place. You have an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy that will make this a better place.

Be a champion in your caucuses for democratic reform to our committee system. Demand that committees be given broad terms of reference and the autonomy they need to enable the members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia to contribute to the good governance of this wonderful province.

J. Tegart: I’m grateful for the opportunity to respond to the government’s throne speech to open this fifth session of B.C.’s 40th parliament.

I’m proud to represent the hard-working people of Fraser-Nicola, which is, without a doubt, one of the true jewels of British Columbia.

[1605]

It’s a large, diverse riding of stunning beauty that stretches from the U.S. border south of Princeton to 70 Mile House in the Cariboo and from the Coast Mountains in the west to near the outskirts of Kamloops in the east.

I’m pleased to add my support to this throne speech because it represents a continuation of our government’s formula for economic growth. I need look no further than my own riding to see how, under our government, people and businesses are thriving. Desert Hills Ranch in Ashcroft is one such success story. Desert Hills grows more than 40 varieties of fruits and vegetables, including the finest watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, etc.

Interjection.

J. Tegart: You are hungry.

They supply several retail outlet stores in B.C., including Superstore, the Overwaitea Food Group and co-ops, and of course, their products are available right at the farm in Ashcroft and at their retail store in Cache Creek. Business has been so strong that production has tripled in the past three years, and the number of employees has increased to 200 from about 20 just three years ago.

Agriculture is a key economic driver in our province, with 55,000 British Columbians directly employed in
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the sector. As a whole, exports of B.C. agrifood and seafood products last year accounted for $3.8 billion in the provincial economy, the highest sales total ever.

Additionally, we saw a record $12.3 billion in sales of B.C. food and beverage products in 2014. Our government will continue to work on increasing provincial revenues in agrifoods and seafoods towards a goal of $15 billion a year by 2020. At home, we will capitalize on our success in agriculture by encouraging and supporting British Columbians to buy local, grow local to strengthen our cities and towns and allow the sector to grow even further.

We are also committed to helping small communities like those in Fraser-Nicola through the rural dividend. Last year, the rural advisory council, which is chaired by my colleague up the road in Cariboo-Chilcotin, recommended the creation of the rural dividend, which will provide up to $75 million over the next three years to non-urban B.C. communities with populations of less than 25,000.

The rural dividend will help communities that are working to reinvigorate and diversify their economies and support them in putting in place their own solutions based on each community’s values and needs. The rural dividend will support innovative and ambitious ideas and solutions with potential for the greatest impact on rural communities.

Supporting rural community transition and stability, the rural dividend is focused on the following priorities: building community capacity and quality of life, expanding learning and skill development opportunities, providing opportunities for rural youth to stay and return to their rural communities and encouraging collaboration and partnerships between rural British Columbians and First Nations bands. I look forward to working with all my communities to maximize their access to these funds.

Mining is another industry that is vital to the livelihood of many people in my riding. A few days ago, the Minister of Energy and Mines announced a plan to help keep thousands of B.C.’s metal- and coal-mine workers on the job by allowing mining companies to temporarily defer a portion of their hydro bills. We are in the midst of a challenging time for the mining sector, but this program will provide some temporary support to help the mines stay open as long as possible and, hopefully, until commodity prices bounce back.

Under the five-year term of the program, which will be delivered by B.C. Hydro, companies operating metal and coal mines in B.C. will be able to defer a portion of their electricity payments to B.C. Hydro. The amount a mine will be allowed to defer is capped at the equivalent of up to 75 percent of its electricity costs over two years of the program.

[1610]

As commodity prices recover, mines will repay the amounts deferred, plus interest. The mining industry provides more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in B.C. This program offers immediate and meaningful relief to mining companies facing significant power costs and will help keep our mines open. This innovative and flexible program will be a boon to mineworkers and their families in Fraser-Nicola and all over our province.

The application of biosolids on land near Merritt has been controversial in my area. Biosolids have been applied to a variety of locations in the area for more than a decade, but concerns have been raised, and our government has taken these groups’ concerns seriously.

Following several meetings, the provincial government and five Nicola Valley First Nations agreed this fall to a collaborative engagement protocol which opens the door for First Nations oversight and participation in the scientific review of biosolids in our region. The protocol establishes a constructive, government-to-government process to address concerns related to potential impacts of biosolids on human health, wildlife and the environment, as well as First Nations’ aboriginal titles and rights.

With the agreement, a principals’ table comprised of government and First Nations chiefs will oversee the biosolid scientific review, including the composition and work of both the review’s advisory committee and technical working group. Following completion of the biosolids review, government-to-government discussions will commence to consider recommendations flowing from the review.

The protocol addresses a number of topics, including gathering all necessary information to inform the parties of the potential effects of biosolids in the Nicola Valley and obtaining the necessary information to inform the development of a monitoring and testing regime for biosolids in the Nicola Valley. As well, consultation and, if necessary, appropriate mitigation and accommodation measures with First Nations must occur before decisions are made on new biosolid uses in the region.

While there is still much work to do on the biosolids issue, I’m pleased to report that the principals’ table has had a number of very productive meetings. Work is progressing on the scientific review, as well as planning for soil, water and air testing this spring. It is expected that this work will be completed in 2016 so that Merritt and area residents will be able to consider the merits of this issue based on sound science.

On another note, my hometown of Ashcroft is the site of a thriving inland port. Ashcroft Terminal is a private, inland transloading container storage and distribution centre and member of the Asia-Pacific corridor initiative. Every railcar that travels on the CN and CP Rail main lines must go directly through the Ashcroft Terminal. Ashcroft is the last location westbound and the first location eastbound at which main-line traffic can stop to and from Metro Vancouver.

Shippers, producers and manufacturers who work with the Ashcroft Terminal to remove bottlenecks and smooth
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out movement of their products have been amazed at the efficiency of the terminal. The Ashcroft Terminal is an integral part of moving goods in British Columbia. Our goal is to assist those in the Lower Mainland to look at the port of Metro Vancouver, look at the transportation routes and consider inland ports very much a collaborative partner in that. The Ashcroft Terminal is a job generator for young families and is incredibly important to my region and to the province as a whole.

Forestry is another important industry in Fraser-Nicola. Although our mills have challenges with the annual allowable cut and the after-effects of the mountain pine beetle epidemic, there is relief in the Canadian dollar and U.S. buyers who use our softwood lumber.

[1615]

The Merritt green energy project is a $235 million state-of-the-art, biomass-fired, electricity-generating facility. I had the opportunity just last week to tour the facility. It will consume approximately 200,000 tons of biomass fuel, mostly sawdust waste, annually to generate 285,000 megawatt hours of renewable electricity, enough to power more than 40,000 homes for a year.

Fuel will be sourced from local sawmill waste, and the plant will use state-of-the-art emissions reduction equipment. In addition, Merritt Green Energy Limited Partnership has signed an impact-and-benefits agreement with the Lower Nicola Indian Band, which will provide employment and investment opportunities.

We are also making significant strides in health care in my riding as well. Upgrades are in the works for the emergency department at the Nicola Valley Hospital and Health Centre in Merritt, benefiting patients and health professionals. This is an important investment in health care services in the community.

We know that having modern health care facilities and services are important criteria for many businesses and families in their decisions to locate in rural British Columbia. I’m excited about what this expansion means for the future of the Merritt region.

Furthermore, two new family physicians will be starting their practice in Ashcroft on March 1. Just this last Friday, I was pleased to be in Logan Lake to introduce their new doctor to their community.

Contrary to the somewhat flippant remarks of the Leader of the Opposition, communities in Fraser-Nicola are working hard to attract and maintain health services and doctors in our rural communities.

Young people in Fraser-Nicola have a wide range of career-training opportunities at home, at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, our aboriginal, public post-secondary institute in Merritt. Forty-six percent of the aboriginal population in B.C. is under the age of 25. Increasing their participation in the workforce is important to supporting a diverse, strong and growing economy.

Our region has a bright economic future. Community-based training will help ensure that students have the education and training they need to contribute to our collective success.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank the constituents of Fraser-Nicola for the honour of serving them in this House. My riding is significantly impacted by the boundary review. As a result, I will see the loss of the community of Princeton and area. I am sad to see them go, but I know that they will be well represented in their new riding.

I look forward to including the Fraser Canyon, the First Nations communities and the communities of Boston Bar, Yale and Hope in my new riding.

I would also like to acknowledge my hard-working staff in my constituency offices and in Victoria. They truly understand the concept of service — service to constituents, which is what this job is all about.

There is much to be proud of in British Columbia in 2016. With our government’s continuing guiding hand, I have every confidence that every region of our province will continue to grow and prosper.

S. Hammell: It’s a pleasure for me to take my place on behalf of my constituents to join the debate in response to the throne speech.

Before I begin the detail of my speech, I did want to just acknowledge a number of people who have passed away this past year. These were people who were important to my constituency.

First, I’d like to mention Len Friesen — an amazing man. He had a long and very successful life. He was predeceased by a loving wife of 47 years and survived by a second wife of ten years. Rita is a beautiful singer and a fantastic woman.

[1620]

He had two sons, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A Mennonite devoted to making a better world, a lifelong CCF-NDP supporter, an organizer and federal candidate, he was a businessman, educator and abstainer of all things that might go bump in the night.

Another person who we will remember was Jennifer Wadge. She was the Surrey Teachers Association president. Jennifer died suddenly on December 29, 2015, in her home. A vibrant young woman, she was only 39 years old.

During her much too short life, her sparkling and caring personality touched many, many lives. As an educator and a union leader, she worked tirelessly on behalf of others. But her greatest legacy, I believe, will be her devotion to the cause of improving the working and learning conditions in Surrey schools.

The last person I am moved to talk about is Jetevre Dowa. Jetevre was a constituent of mine for a number of years. A strong family man, he is survived by a loving wife and very devoted daughter. He was a community activist and always looking to contribute to making the world a better place. The last time I did see him was just before one of the town hall meetings that were held
[ Page 10381 ]
around the crime issue that was strong and continues to be strong in Surrey.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been elected as the representative for the Surrey–Green Timbers area five times since 1991. I do date myself, so do not laugh too loud. I was very young when I started.

Set in the centre of Surrey’s urban development, Green Timbers was once home to a forest of giant trees, which spread over 5,000 acres. After completion of the Pacific Highway in 1923, it became famous as the only remaining stretch of first-growth forest all the way from San Diego to Vancouver. People travelled from afar to view the 200-foot timbers that lined the highway.

Remnants of the historic timbers that were once abundant can now be seen in the protected Surrey–Green Timbers urban forest. Through the hard work and dedication of conservation groups like the Green Timbers Heritage Society, we will be able to keep at least a small part of that once vast forest preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Criss-crossing my constituency are many creeks and streams. It is absolutely a marvel, from Surrey, that all the creeks and streams have not been paved over or culverted over or through. Just a few metres from the back door of my constituency office is Quibble Creek, where each year, you can see salmon heading for their spawning grounds. And that is absolutely amazing in a dense urban area.

No matter where you are in Surrey–Green Timbers, you are only moments away from nature, whether you’re wandering through the vast network of trails used for biking and walking or taking advantage of outdoor sports facilities that we have at Bear Creek Park, as well as wandering through the magnificent forest in Surrey–Green Timbers. These pockets of nature set against the backdrop of incredible urban growth are what make my constituency so special.

As I’ve said, I’ve represented Surrey–Green Timbers for a number of years. I’ve lived there for over two decades and have seen firsthand the incredible transition into the cultural mosaic we have today. For decades, individuals looking for new opportunities have come from all over the world and have settled in the Surrey area, and that has led to Surrey–Green Timbers being a community of families from many, many different social, cultural and religious backgrounds.

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Eighty percent of the households in Surrey–Green Timbers are single- or multifamily dwellings, with almost 40 percent of the residents in those homes falling in the 20- to 44-year-old range. My community is filled with motivated and inspired people looking to give their children and families a higher standard of living.

Spread throughout the community are many people of many different cultures. In just Surrey–Green Timbers alone, there are 50 first languages spoken. You can imagine the challenge that any school district has when they have that variety in front of them. The vast array of backgrounds comes together in a seamless and inclusive community, to the marvel of our school system.

On any given day in the summer, you can see a cricket match, often just off in the park beside my townhouse, or a kabaddi game being played in the park, or maybe a Fiji Day Celebration, complete with great food and lively music, or a battle on the rugby or soccer pitch. With over 65 percent of the population being of South Asian descent, the opportunities we have to share in South Asian culture are endless.

Personally, one of the highlights for me in living in Surrey–Green Timbers, beyond the people, is the incredible amount of ethnic food being served at every corner of the community. We have restaurants that specialize in Middle Eastern food. We have the Afghan Chopan, which is, clearly, from the Afghan area. We have North African cuisine and dishes from all the regions in India and countless other areas of the world.

With such a worldly population, we have an opportunity to experience a diverse array of religions and customs. Whether it be a Sikh gurdwara, a Hindu mandir, a Muslim mosque or one of the many Christian churches, you can practise whatever faith you believe in. With deep ties to the community, our many religious groups work tirelessly to ease the transition for new arrivals into the region. Regularly I attend beautiful celebrations in different temples, churches and mosques, and I’m taken aback by the passionate and positive messages being spread.

The religious groups in my area, regardless of the denomination, have all been instrumental in welcoming the refugee population that is making its way, and will make its way, to Surrey in the future. Whether through food and clothing drives, securing housing or working as translators, they have worked hand in hand with local advocacy groups tasked with refugee resettlement.

One of the aspects of my community I’m most proud of is the self-reliance and entrepreneurial spirit that so many of my constituents exhibit. With a population made up of many new Canadians, the drive to provide a better life for their family by moving to another country is felt in my community’s tireless pursuit of betterment. Whether through owning a small business or finding employment in the resource sector, the path of many new Canadians has been the same for many decades.

We are a community of working people, and this is shown in many of the business parks and outdoor malls that dot my constituency. Made up of hundreds of small businesses, these proprietors have decided there were niches to fill and took it upon themselves to fill them. From the many restaurants that serve delicious world cuisine to opulent banquet halls that host lavish weddings, to world-class tailors, the entrepreneurs that make up our small business community work hard day in and day out to provide a high standard of living for their families. They have created jobs for themselves and for others in
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the community and should be commended for success not only for bringing themselves up but for having a hand in bringing the whole community up with them.

A regular story I hear from the community is one of perseverance. Many of the residents came to the area with very little but, through hard work, have turned the entry-level positions offered upon arrival into careers that have allowed them the ability to provide for their families and give the next generation the opportunities once considered unreachable.

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Many first-generation Canadians have taken the work ethic passed on to them from their parents and used it to excel at post-secondary or have built a start-up from the ground level up. Every personal story of success makes our community stronger as a whole, and I am very proud to say that success stories are abundant in Surrey–Green Timbers.

The backbone of any community is its infrastructure, and with the rapid growth of the region, we have a few areas we need to address before we could ever say we got it right.

At the edge of my constituency sits the second-largest emergency department in Canada, reopened in 2014, which sees upwards of 400 patients through its doors every day. If you put that in the context that there are 1,000 people moving into the city of Surrey every month, that is 12,000 people per year. Year after year after year, 12,000 people to the city, and the health care system is struggling to keep up. Even with this brand-new, state-of-the-art wing, the hospital is over capacity already.

Focus needs to be on preparing for the inevitable growth of the region instead of reacting once things get to a crisis point. While work still needs to be done on the acute side of health care in my constituency, unfortunately, the community-offered services are also lacking in the same abundance. The already hard-to-manage caseloads of community mental health workers in my constituency are climbing every year. Instead of a proactive, holistic approach to health care that has been proven a success, the clinicians in casework tasked with caring for our most vulnerable population are just trying to keep their heads above water.

We are becoming more reactive as the years go on, trying to save money today without thinking of the associated costs tomorrow. As a society, we are only as strong as our most fragile, and with the current structure of the province’s health care, those who need it the most often are unable to access it.

The social infrastructure of my constituency is being pushed to the limit in other ways as well. With 12 elementary schools and four secondary schools in my area, there are thousands of children being educated every day. With the rapid growth of this city, the school district has had to make adjustments after adjustments after adjustments with the sudden influx of school-aged children.

In the last decade, we have seen the addition of more than 100 new portables to the district. If you just take the 7,000 students being taught out of portables in Surrey, they would amount to the 24th-largest district in the province, with 37 districts being smaller than the 7,000 students in portables.

There are four high schools that are on staggered openings. They have two openings, two lunches and two closings. It is a solution to crowding completely unique to Surrey.

The district is the largest in the province and is constantly asked to do more with less. While, fortunately, the schools in my constituency of Surrey–Green Timbers haven’t felt that deep crush of overcrowding as badly as other areas in the city, the problem is still felt citywide. With the count of these portables now numbering 300 — 300 portables in the district — and the approximately $4 million needed to service these temporary classrooms and make them functional, this puts a large dent in the yearly operating budget.

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Money that could be spent on teachers, on labs, on field trips, on classroom supplies, on the basics, is being used…. The $4 million that could be used on these other things is being used to make sure these portables continue to be functional.

As a former educator myself, I know firsthand that education is a primer to a robust and successful community, and we need to do a better job at making it a priority in this province. With overcrowding at such a crisis level, the energy that teachers and administrators used to use to spend on innovation and giving our children and our youth a first-class education is now being spent on problem-solving around crowding. Some of the stories you hear in the district, in the part of the district that is acutely overcrowded, are heartbreaking.

Until we see the oft-promised revenue from the fantasy LNG fund, we will be forced to wait around until the government releases the funding for the long-approved district capital upgrading plans in place. We have high schools that are in crisis, and we do not have the capital money being released from this government.

To be quite frank, the crowding is in the government side of the House. The government side — Surrey-Cloverdale, Surrey–White Rock, Surrey-Tynehead, Surrey-Fleetwood — is the area where most of the crowding is occurring, and it’s amazing to me that the government members have turned a blind eye.

One of the other crises that my constituency is facing today is the incredible rise in drug and gang violence in the past year. I know that everyone in this House has heard of some of the examples that have happened in Surrey. In 2015 alone, we had over 60 shootings in our city — 60. A large percentage occurred in my constituency, one of them out the backyard of a townhouse complex. With a call of “shots fired” going over the radio over
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once a week, on average, real concrete steps need to be taken to ensure the safety of the public on the streets.

While we have been lucky in the sense that more deaths haven’t occurred when criminals are brazenly shooting up elementary schools in broad daylight, all of the efforts should be placed on stopping such incredible acts of violence. Hard-working, honest citizens feel they’re being held prisoner in their houses while the streets around them have become war zones. I can speak to that. I live in the community and understand the peril or the fear now of going outside that you did not feel a number of years ago.

We’ve had bullets shot at schools and that have passed through bedroom walls to where children and adults slept. We have had running battles between moving vehicles on busy residential thoroughfares. While this might be acceptable during the final scenes of an action movie, the fact that it’s occurring in neighbourhoods filled with families is appalling.

Between 2014 and today, violent crime is up 36 percent. Attempted murders are up an astronomical 211 percent; sexual assaults, 40 percent; abductions and kidnapping, up 65 percent, to quote the member for Surrey-Newton from earlier this morning.

The mostly law-abiding population is fed up, and I’m asked all the time by concerned citizens when this will all end. But to my own frustration, I’m unable to give them an answer. The “we’ve got it under control” rhetoric from law enforcement isn’t enough anymore. Only through transparent actions and increased dialogue between law enforcement and the community will we ever be able to return to the safe streets we know are possible.

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It is an amazing place, Surrey–Green Timbers. It has some of our newest citizens, newest members of our country. It also has many people who have been here for all their life and are very proud of their community.

It is a distinct pleasure being elected as representative of Surrey–Green Timbers, a community made up of vibrant residents, beautiful culture and some of the most impressive green space offered in an urban area. Over the years, I have seen the community grow and morph into an inclusive, dedicated society that we have today. I’m proud every day and look forward to serving my constituents from now and into the future.

In closing, I’d just like to mention that I have two amazing constituency assistants. I introduced Jason Craik earlier this morning. I have Rajveen Shergill, another amazing young woman who assists in my constituency. I have a number of also amazing volunteers who contribute — Margaret is one of them; Abdul another — who contribute to serving the community in Surrey–Green Timbers.

With that, I’ll say I’m proud to stand here and speak on their behalf.

Deputy Speaker: The Minister of Transportation. [Applause.]

Hon. T. Stone: Well, well, it’s great to be back, and thank you for that warm welcome there. So far, so good. Week 2 has been good.

I rise to speak, obviously, in favour of the throne speech, but I really want to take this opportunity to speak a little bit about the community I represent, that I’m very fortunate to represent, and that is the constituency of Kamloops–South Thompson.

Now, this is quite a diverse constituency. Obviously, the majority of the population resides in the city of Kamloops, particularly along the south shore, south of the Thompson River. I’m pleased to actually jointly represent the people of Kamloops with my good friend and colleague the Minister of Health and member for Kamloops–North Thompson, who is doing such a terrific job both in his ministerial portfolio but also as a member of this assembly.

You know, Kamloops is a town that’s on the move. It’s a city that continues to grow in population. The unemployment rate continues to be at historic lows. Housing starts continue to be strong. Airport numbers are very strong. We have a thriving university. There’s a lot going on in Kamloops.

As I said earlier, there’s a lot more to Kamloops–South Thompson than the city of Kamloops. I’m also fortunate to represent a number of other communities. On the far western end of my riding, I represent the unincorporated community of Savona. While it might appear on the outside to be a sleepy lakeside community, it’s a community full of great people and folks that are very proud to live where they do and to be actively involved in their community.

I’m very fortunate to represent the village of Chase, which is on the far eastern side of my riding. The village of Chase has a population of about 5,000. I manage to get out there probably a bit more than even I thought would be possible, but it’s always a delight to visit Chase and hold a public coffee at the different coffee shops there — and always have a terrific group of people, often very different folks from one session to the next, come out to meet their MLA and to talk about what’s working for them, what’s not working for them and to make sure that what needs to be on my radar screen is indeed.

I want to thank the council in Chase, the mayor and council, who have been very constructive and very roll-up-the-sleeves attitude in their approach in dealing with me.

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In particular, I want to acknowledge Coun. David Lepsoe, who is probably one of the most passionate individuals that you will meet in a community anywhere in this province. David has taken it upon himself, in addition to his councillor role, to essentially almost self-
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appoint himself as the local historian. He just thrives in ensuring that the history of not just the village of Chase but the surrounding region is captured and understood and communicated to future generations.

He does that, in part, by hosting a number of walking tours. I’ve had the good fortune of going with him on a number of his walking tours, where he will regale you in all kinds of stories about the village of Chase. I have not yet done the graveyard tour with him, but I’m looking forward to that as our next tour together.

I’m also pleased to represent the communities of Westwold and Monte Lake, which are up Highway 97, south of Kamloops. These are predominantly ranching communities. These are hard-working men and women who work the land, predominantly. I enjoy getting out to these communities when I can.

Obviously, there are a number of First Nations in the constituency which I have been very pleased to get to know better. The Tk’emlúps Indian Band, in Kamloops. I should take a moment to congratulate the new Chief of the Tk’emlúps Indian Band, Fred Seymour, who was very recently elected. He, of course, succeeded Shane Gottfriedson, the former Chief of the Tk’emlúps. As we in this House all know and are very proud of, he sought the election of and was successful in becoming the new Regional Chief for the AFN here in British Columbia. Very proud that he calls Kamloops his home, as well, and I certainly continue to wish Chief Gottfriedson very good luck and Godspeed moving forward.

The other First Nations in the constituency include the Skeetchestn, Neskonlith, Little Shuswap and Adams Lake — all very unique. Again, I’m very proud of a really good working relationship with all of them.

I would also like to take this moment to, again, acknowledge a few folks that we lost recently in Kamloops — two folks in particular. Dr. Gur Singh was a neurosurgeon in Kamloops. Beyond the miracles that he performed on a weekly basis when he was scrubbed in, in that operating room, he continued to perform miracles in ensuring that awareness was always front and centre in people’s minds as to the impact of head injuries and that the community was actively engaged in working with him to raise funds necessary to build out supports for those who have head injuries. Very inspirational, the work that he did with the Kamloops Brain Injury Association. Terry-Lynn Stone is the executive director there. They do just some exceptional work.

Also, I want to acknowledge Jann Bailey, who was a titan in the arts community in Kamloops, who passed away recently. I was never elected to council in Kamloops, but when you talk to the mayor and you talk to the council members, she was not a person you could say no to. She was a force of personality and not just passionate about the arts, although that was her focus in life. She was passionate about people. She was passionate about supporting kids who might show interest in arts but also might be interested in sports. She was passionate about getting behind all kinds of different organizations and efforts in Kamloops. So she’s greatly missed within the arts community but also more broadly.

I want to also acknowledge — in addition to Chief Shane Gottfriedson, who’s the Regional Chief now, as I mentioned — that we also have the new chair of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, Brant Hasanen. He lives in Kamloops and is doing a great job with his new role with the chamber of commerce. Of course, that follows on the election of Deb McClelland, who is the executive director of the Kamloops chamber. She is now in a very senior role, elected president of the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada, and will serve on the board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. So in many respects, Kamloops has been and will continue to punch above its weight.

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Actually, with respect to one other individual who comes to mind, Lori Marchand of the Western Canada Theatre is now the vice-chair of the B.C. Arts Council. She’s contributing on behalf of the folks in Kamloops at that level as well.

I would like to congratulate Gordon Gore, who is the founder of the BIG Little Science Centre in Kamloops. This is just a terrific example of what can happen when a group of people come together who are all very passionate about ensuring that our children are exposed to science early, early on. I know that with my three daughters, who are now 11, 9 and 6…. We still go — at least the two younger daughters that are still interested.

It’s just a terrific learning environment for young kids, and they make it fun. They do it with a tremendous amount of support from volunteers. Gordon Gore recently received a Meritorious Service Medal, and I take my hat off to him.

I also want to acknowledge the Pain family and the Haughton family. These are two of the longest-established families in Knutsford, which is a ranching community that is mostly within the Kamloops city limits, but some of it is not. The Pain family last year received a Century Farm Award, which I was very honoured to present to them on behalf of government.

Likewise, I was really pleased to acknowledge, on behalf of the Premier and government, the 100-years-in-ranching mark for the Haughton family. I was able to present a certificate of congratulations to Doug Haughton for that remarkable achievement as well.

I would obviously be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge and thank my hard-working staff in my constituency office in Kamloops. Maryanne Bower is very well supported by Pat and Leah. They all do such terrific work managing a very significant volume of public requests and questions and invites and on and on the list goes. They do a terrific job representing me when I’m not able to be in Kamloops, so I thank them for that.
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As I said earlier, in Kamloops, there’s a tremendous amount of really, really good stuff happening in town. It was just last year that the B.C. Lottery Corporation, which is headquartered in Kamloops — which was a courageous decision of a previous government many years ago, to headquarter Lotteries in Kamloops — celebrated its 30th anniversary of being located in Kamloops.

B.C. Lotteries employs hundreds of people, and these are really good-paying jobs. B.C. Lotteries is very much invested in the community and a strong corporate citizen in Kamloops. I’m very proud of the fact that our government hasn’t just reaffirmed our commitment to the head office in Kamloops but that we’ve actually worked really closely with B.C. Lotteries.

In fact, we’ve made it very clear to them consistently for a number of years now that the head office will remain there. We expect the majority of executives to be based in and living in and working out of Kamloops as well. That was not the case 2½ years ago. That is the case today. With a number of the executives having recently moved to Kamloops, we can say the majority of the executive is there now.

The impact that B.C. Lotteries has had on the city of Kamloops cannot be underestimated. In celebrating the 30th anniversary of being located in Kamloops, B.C. Lotteries announced that during that time, the fact that B.C. Lotteries was in Kamloops was actually directly attributable to a $1.1 billion economic impact to the community — $1.1 billion.

Related to B.C. Lotteries, we were very pleased to see the grand opening of the new Cascades Casino last summer in Kamloops. Not only does it provide a couple hundred additional jobs, but it represents a $40 million investment in the local economy — about a $7 million annual payroll and $1.7 million in local purchasing. This is another example of a company that has been a really good corporate citizen.

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Domtar, which previously was known as Weyerhaeuser, celebrated its 50th anniversary in production in the city of Kamloops — 50 years. I’ll tell you, that operation has been one of the pillars of the community in terms of its support for community organizations, particularly youth- and sports-focused but a number of other ventures as well. Hundreds upon hundreds of people have worked at that mill over those 50 years in good-paying jobs.

Domtar today — Weyerhaeuser, previously — continues to work really hard to stay ahead of that curve in terms of the environmental impact of their operation, proving that industry and the environment can co-exist in a manner that is good for the environment and good for jobs. So I acknowledge and applaud the good work that Domtar and, previously, Weyerhaeuser has done in Kamloops.

The tech sector in Kamloops is booming. As a former technology CEO myself…. You know, it wasn’t that long ago when I was still running my company, and to say you could count the number of tech companies on one hand would be a bit of an exaggeration on the low end. There were more companies than that. But there are dozens upon dozens of innovative, creative technology companies that have popped up in Kamloops over the last three, four or five years and that are doing some really exciting things and really plugging themselves into the provincial and national economy. They’ve even been winning some awards.

We have a budding wine industry in Kamloops. There are now four wineries that are producing some very good wine: Monte Creek, Privato, Sagewood and Harpers Trail.

I was really pleased to work with the Kamloops Wineries Association, which formed last year, to develop a signage program with them to really promote the Kamloops region as a new wine destination. They came up with a marketing brand called the Kamloops Wine Trail. We worked closely with them to establish signs on all the entry points into Kamloops. They are bustling and bursting at the seams with respect to the number of people that are seeking out their wineries.

As I said, they’re competing very well. Each one of the wineries in Kamloops has, over the last couple of years, won international awards for the quality of their wine.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the growth at our university. We’re so very proud of Thompson Rivers University and the exceptional job that they do at connecting students with the labour force in a very practical and applied manner. Today there are approximately 12,000 full-time students or FTE equivalents on campus in Kamloops. That’s remarkable.

So much practical research is taking place in partnership with local industry in Kamloops as well. There’s so much good work that’s being done at TRU as they help us ready the labour force for the labour needs that we know aren’t just coming but are there today across a broad spectrum of sectors. I’m very proud that TRU is a big part of solving that labour shortage in the years ahead.

I was pleased late last year to host the Special Olympics in Kamloops. That was probably one of the most touching events that I’ve ever had the good fortune of participating in. Just to see the look on the faces of all of the athletes and to actually watch them giving it all they’ve got as they competed but had fun along the way was quite moving.

Just a few days ago Kamloops was the host of Hockey Day in Canada — a couple of days of Don Cherry and others in Kamloops and tremendous exposure for Kamloops and region. The community was abuzz with excitement.

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That’s an example of the kind of event that Canada’s tournament capital, as Kamloops has branded itself, hosts in any given week, on any given weekend, of the year. In fact, in March of this year, we’ll be hosting the
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women’s world hockey championships right in Kamloops, and we’re ready. The community will once again shine as we welcome the world to British Columbia and, indeed, to Kamloops.

I want to touch really briefly on some of the investments, from an infrastructure perspective, that are making a real difference in Kamloops and the region. Again, as the throne speech pointed out — and we’ll hear more about this, I’m sure, tomorrow with the budget presentation — because we have built such a strong financial foundation in this province, we are able to continue to invest at record levels in our critical infrastructure.

Whether you look at community infrastructure…. For example, in the Kamloops area, last year we made some very strategic investments in partnership with our federal and municipal partners in the emergency raw water intake in Kamloops, a new sewer system upgrade out in the community of Pritchard, the Savona wastewater project, the Chase sewage treatment upgrades and a number of others — not sexy stuff, but critically important to each and every one of these communities.

Of course, we are very proud of the investments that we’re making in Royal Inland Hospital, phase 1 of the redevelopment expansion. A $79.8 million expansion, which is the clinical services building, is on schedule to open later this year. It adds a tremendous amount of capacity to Royal Inland Hospital. I’m very proud of the fact that the phase 2 expansion, which will involve the construction of a new patient care tower…. That project is very much on track. We’re well into the business planning on that and expect to see that project continue to move through the process. That will represent a very significant expansion in capacity at Royal Inland Hospital, which is now one of the busiest trauma hospitals in the province of British Columbia.

From a roads perspective, we had one of our more robust rehabilitation programs last year — lots of resurfacing and rehab in roads around Kamloops and the Kamloops region. East Shuswap Road. There were a lot of safety improvements done out at Monte Lake, which were really driven by the community there coming forward and really highlighting the safety concerns that they had. So we went out, and we took care of that, putting another left-turn lane in at Gardi Road, and the Paula Lake–Pinantan Lake Road rehab, which was long overdue.

Of course, there’s significant work that we continue to do with respect to the Trans-Canada Highway, the four-laning that we’re doing between Kamloops and the Alberta border. I’m very, very excited that late last year we were able to announce, in partnership with the federal government, the next two phases of the Trans-Canada expansion east of Kamloops. We’re finishing off Hoffman’s Bluff this year. That’ll get done by the late fall.

Then we move right into the next two phases, which represents an additional $90 million of investment, which will four-lane the highway from Hoffman’s Bluff right through to the village of Chase. So you’ll be able to drive all the way from the Lower Mainland through Kamloops and about 21 kilometres east of Kamloops all the way to Chase over the next five or so years, because of the investments that we have announced there. In fact, the investments in the four-laning of the Trans-Canada Highway between Monte Lake and Chase represent about $200 million of investment. Again, that’s all about improving safety and improving capacity.

I want to close by just saying this. There is so much good that we are able to see and invest in around the province, whether it’s infrastructure or other critical services that British Columbians need. Again, that comes back to what I said earlier — the strong economy that we have in this province. You know, when you’re in the number one ranking across the country, you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself. You certainly don’t want to get complacent.

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You certainly don’t want to sound like you’re maybe bragging at the expense of other jurisdictions. We certainly don’t wish any ill will on any of our neighbours and any other provinces, but it is something, I think, for British Columbians to be proud of — that we do have the strongest and the top-ranked economy in the country. We’re the bright spot in Canada. We’re growing at roughly double the national average. We’re expected to lead the country in economic growth, not just this year and not just the year after but the year after that.

Again, I come back to infrastructure as one example. The ability to continue to invest record amounts in infrastructure is because we continue to grow our economy. The economy is not just strong. It’s not just growing. It’s also diverse. That has somewhat sheltered the province from the strong headwinds that we’re seeing in economies in the rest of Canada and elsewhere in the world.

We created more jobs, on a percentage basis, in British Columbia last year than anywhere else in the country — 52,000 net new jobs. B.C.’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Canada. There are now about 2.3 million British Columbians who are actually working, which is the highest that it’s ever been.

We’re going to balance our budget for a fourth consecutive year. We will continue to be the most competitive jurisdiction in the country from a tax perspective. We’re poised to eliminate our operating debt for the first time in decades. We have had our triple-A credit rating continually reaffirmed.

That’s what leadership is all about — the ability to invest in our social programs, the ability to invest more in education and more in health care, the ability to invest in the infrastructure that a strong economy needs to move forward. The ability to do all of that must rest, first and foremost, on the foundation of strong economic fundamentals.

I’m very proud of our government. I’m very proud of the vision that our Premier continues to espouse, as we saw in the throne speech.
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I will end by saying to the people of Kamloops–South Thompson that it continues to be a tremendous privilege to represent them here in the Legislature. They are hard-working men and women. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t thank them for the honour of being here on their behalf. Of course, I would also like to thank my wife, Chantelle, and my three little girls — Hannah, Sydney and Caitlin — for their enduring love and support of me as I continue to do what I believe is important, and that’s public service.

With that, I will yield the floor.

H. Bains: It is always a pleasure and an honour to have the opportunity, as I have always said, to stand in this House. Just being here is an honour for anyone — to have the experience, to participate in debates that matter to British Columbians.

Especially, I feel more privileged and honoured, actually, to be here. Looking at our history in British Columbia, Mr. Speaker, where people that look like us…. First the laws were…. They wouldn’t be even allowed in British Columbia. Those laws were made right here, in this House. Here we are, with the help of all those people that came before us, that worked towards building this province to be more inclusive, to be more fair, to be more just. As a result, many of us, starting with Moe Sihota back in 1986, followed him to these chambers and participated in debates that changed British Columbia for the better.

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I always want to thank those who came before us, who opened up these doors for us and who worked hard — many of those British Columbians out there who fought for a fair and just society. As a result, I am here, like yourself, Mr. Speaker. It is a real honour to be here and to represent, in this beautiful province, the people of the province in this House.

Having said that, I would like to go back to, I guess, our roots: our support, our families, who were behind us — in my case and, I’m sure, in the case of many of those who are here — our wives, our spouses, our partners, our children, our extended family members who helped us and showed faith in us in sending us here. In my case, I would like to say thank you to my lovely wife, Rajvinder; my son, Kulpreet; his wife, my daughter-in-law, Parveen; my daughter, Dr. Jasmeen Bains; and my two beautiful grandchildren, Rhianna and Brayden.

It’s a pleasure to have those types of people around you, who have been a bedrock for me all this time, and also my extended family members, who always stood by me. It wasn’t always easy to be in public life, but they stood by me, with me and supported me, and as a result, I’m able to represent my constituents of Surrey-Newton here. So I want to thank them all.

Our family went through a tough time in 2015. I personally lost two of my best friends — Darrel Wong, who I grew up with in the labour movement and who was president of our local union when I was vice-president, and Gordie McRae, who was vice-president when we were together in the IWA, Vancouver local. I miss them dearly. Darrel Wong left, untimely, and we really feel his loss in the labour movement.

Then we lost our beloved Arun last year. I miss his smile, and we miss him every day. I want to thank all those people who gave us the support during these tough times that is necessary for you to continue on. I want to thank the many members in this House who always send me a note of support and all those people out there who stood with us.

We’re a pretty strong family, and despite all these tough times, which we all go through from time to time, we will survive and continue on with the work that we do. I’m so proud about our family. It’s a huge family. We have in our family people from all walks. They are business people. They work in management. They are labourers. They are doctors. They are dentists, lawyers, teachers, accountants, farmers, office workers — you name it. Just like any other family, we have those. It’s been a pleasure to have such a strong family to rely upon day in and day out. I want to thank them all.

I am blessed with a great Surrey-Newton executive, along with my longtime friends and constituency assistants, Emily Zimmerman, Simrit Chhabra and Amber Armstrong. They’ve been with me ever since I got elected. Amber joined us a few years ago, but Simrit and Emily have been with me since 2005. Janis McDonald and her husband, Mike — Mike was president of my executive before this time. They both decided to move to the Island. I want to thank them so much for helping and supporting and building such a strong constituency.

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Now the current executive is led by Darrell Causey, Dal Benning, Simrit Chhabra, Amber Armstrong, Avneet Johal, Caroline Christiaens. They are great people to be around. When I’m here, when I’m not in the office, the constituency work goes on out there. My office work — with the help of Emily, Simrit and Amber, I don’t have too many worries when they are there.

I get so much positive response from constituents who have gone through my office and received such a friendly and supportive approach from my staff. I’m really happy at how we, together, can help those people who need help who come to our offices. It’s a great place to live and, I will say, great constituency people to represent.

Like my colleague from Green Timbers, who spoke earlier, my constituency almost matches hers when it comes to diversity and how engaged this community is. They participate in building this province and building our communities to make it better every day.

You know, when you go around…. All you have to do is go to many of those banquet halls that we have, Grand Taj, Bombay Banquet Hall, Bollywood, Punjab, Dhaliwal, Crystal, Mirage, Royal King, Crown Palace. There are a number of others. Any given day you go, even tonight — I challenge anyone — if you go into any one of those
[ Page 10388 ]
today, you’ll find that in one or two of those, there are people raising funds. They are doing things to help others.

Then you look around at all these South Asian community radio stations. No matter where the need is or where the call comes from — whether it’s from Pakistan, Philippines, Haiti, Nepal…. Or our local needs — a hospital needs an addition, a hospital needs to purchase equipment, our schools need help, Children’s Hospital in Vancouver needs help. Something is always going on, and that community is engaged every day.

I feel proud to no end that those are the people who actually go unnoticed in many cases. They simply are out there in the background. They do work, sell tickets or arrange these events. They do their work, and the money is collected, passed on to where the money is needed, and then they are gone and do their own work. I’m so proud to see so many of those people doing that kind of work.

I’m really happy that I am part of that community that is so engaged and that is so worried about improving and making the lives of all of us better lives to live and play and make a better community for all of us to enjoy.

I’ll tell you the extent of how engaged they are. I received a stack of letters from Princess Margaret School, and I will read you some of those letters about how worried these students are in high school. They worry about poverty in our community, in our society. You know, you can read those letters — and I’ll read some of those.

The real message in there is that we are living in, if not in the richest country in the world, one of the richest provinces in the world, and we still have so many children living in poverty. That’s what they are telling us. I think, before I do anything else, I will go into some of those letters and show you how they feel about what we can do and what we should do. I will name some of those students who have sent us these letters.

They are, I think, under the leadership of the teacher, Fernanda Luvisotto. I hope I am pronouncing the name correctly. The letters are from a number of students.

[1720]

Here’s a letter from Zainab McIntosh, Eakam Dhami and William Guintu. This is what they have to say.

“The reason for this letter is to inform you about the current state of poverty in our province. We believe that if our municipal and provincial governments raised minimum wage and welfare and created a stable poverty reduction plan, then the statistics of 1 in 5 children living in poverty should change to a much lower statistic.”

They go on to say:

“Without a plan, many British Columbians are living in hardships of acquiring of money to fund their daily lives, therefore being classified as the ‘working poor.’”

They go on to say that the amount of social housing and increased access to this type of housing…. It is believed that it could be reduced by creating an amount of social housing and increased access to this type of housing.

“Furthermore, welfare should not only increase but also should become more accessible. Currently welfare has a long wait time, involves too much paperwork and is not easy to access by those living in poverty.”

These three students put together this letter.

Here’s a letter from Akansha Raju and Mobeen Faiz. They’re saying:

“We were alarmed to learn that British Columbia has had the highest poverty rate in Canada for the past 13 years. The richest 20 percent of the citizens have 75 percent of the wealth, whereas the poorest 20 percent have zero percent of the wealth. These are very troubling facts and show the inequality between people living in B.C.

“British Columbians are known to be very generous, yet about 169,420 children are living in poverty. We provide much charity, including food and clothing donations, and provide homeless shelters. However, we do not issue justice.”

That’s the letter from those two students.

Here’s a letter from four students put together — Kirajneet Phull, Sharnvir Sodhi, Ishreet Sra and Simran Gill. They say this.

“We want B.C. to have a poverty reduction plan put in place so that we can reduce the provincial poverty rates. Currently the government is spending $9 billion a year to keep people in poverty by putting up more and more soup kitchens and food banks when you can put a poverty reduction plan in place by putting in $4 billion a year. We think that our government is focusing on charity, not justice. Food banks and clothing drives are band-aids. They will help but won’t fix the problem.”

That’s from those four students.

Here’s a letter from Karman Uppal and Deeksha Thapar. I’m reading only parts of their letters. I hope that if they’re listening and watching, they are not saying that I’m not reading their letters entirely. I am not because I have so many letters and so much to talk about in half an hour.

Here’s a part of the letter by Karman Uppal and Deeksha Thapar.

“We need change in British Columbia, and the way that we can get there is by developing and implementing a comprehensive B.C. poverty reduction plan. For example, one impact of poverty in B.C. is the impact and costs associated with poor health. Poverty makes people sick due to inadequate finds to buy food needed to live healthy lives.”

Here are Nanaki Dhaliwal, Gabriel Ferrer and Priya Dhariwal. This is what they have to say.

“Our first concern is that the minimum wage is incredibly low. It is not adequate to those who rely on this low income and are being affected by this problem. We would like to see a raise in minimum wage by an amount that will allow people to be able to live their lives with satisfaction and no concerns. Our second goal is that we would like to have a poverty reduction plan. Although B.C. is a very giving province, we are the only province lacking a poverty reduction plan.”

Again, they talk about spending $9 billion in charity, but not enough…. They talk about that it would only take $4 billion to put up a real poverty reduction plan.

Here are Avery Dean, Kailey McCormack, Zianab Haq, Vita Dervari.

“We’re students from Princess Margaret Secondary School trying to spread awareness on how B.C., sadly, doesn’t have a poverty reduction plan that we so desperately need.

[1725]

“In our leadership class, we read a story about a single mother who was living in poverty in B.C. with her two children. She had finished off her bachelor’s degree and was $60,000 in debt. She
[ Page 10389 ]
was living off $6 a day to provide food for her and her children while still having to pay for bills and other essentials needed to survive. Eventually, a church in her neighbourhood donated some money to her, which helped her to start paying off her debt, and she is now recovering from poverty.”

These are children. They should be concentrating on education. They are so passionate about what goes on in our community, in our society. I say thank you very much, all of you, for thinking about everyone else in our society, trying to make their lives better and trying to convince us in this House to come up with a poverty reduction plan.

Rachel Reed and Lavleen Walia actually put together a chart here showing how much money this person gets, where the money goes and what is left for them. They said that at minimum wage, $410, working…. That’s what they make — $410 before taxes, working 40 hours. Subtract $61 a week for tax; $349 is the money left over. Then from there, $700 for a one-bedroom apartment; $200, food for a month; $180, cable and internet; $40, phone bill; $130, monthly bus pass; $30, hydro bill; and they are left with $4.14 a day, based on these monthly expenses, to spend on clothing and entertainment.

Can you believe this? There was a lot of work done by these students, and I say thank you very much, Princess Margaret. Thank you very much, all of you students, for bringing this issue — very, very important issues to us — to our attention. This is where decisions can be made. This is where those lives can be changed by and with the stroke of a pen.

If we had a real poverty reduction plan…. And I agree with all of those students. We do need a poverty reduction plan. Other provinces have it, with goals and targets and timelines. Those with targets and timelines are succeeding in reducing poverty in their provinces. We are the only ones that don’t have it. Therefore, we continue to stay at the bottom as far as poverty reduction and the poverty rate in our communities are concerned.

Also, we have a number of issues with all the stuff that our community and the people living in the community do — raising money, as I just mentioned before, and working and helping out each other. The students are engaged. But we do have very serious issues that we need to deal with, and that’s why I’m standing up again and bringing those issues here.

I talked about crime this morning, and I will talk about that a little later in more detail. Education is another area that I want to talk about.

Everyone who lives in Surrey, even the elected members from that side, understand the need to invest. Capital investment is needed in our Surrey schools. We have 7,000 students with their education in portables right now. How do you justify that when you’re talking about billions of dollars announced here, billions of dollar announced there? Our school board, the ad hoc committee that engaged many of the people in the community, such as Surrey Board of Trade, city hall, students, the parents, the teachers….

They put an ad hoc committee together, and they have been lobbying this government for almost ten years now, but to no avail. Very little money was given — maybe to deal with one-third of our needs — but more students are coming, the district is growing. The population of our students is growing in Surrey school district year by year — 1,000 new students this year — and they end up in portables.

When you look at the charts that they have prepared — Surrey school board — you’re looking at over 300 portables in Surrey in the next two or three years. We are already there now. That was their prediction a few years ago. We’re already there — 300 portables in Surrey.

I heard some disturbing statements from the other side, the government side: what’s wrong with those portables? They think they’re fine. Well, they are not fine for those students, and they’re not fine for those parents.

[1730]

We attended a district parent advisory committee only a couple or three weeks ago. I’ve got some letters here, and I can read to you what they think about this government’s lack of leadership, lack of plan to deal with overcrowding in our schools — not only just the building but the very basics. They raise the issue of the very basics that the students need for their daily education.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

They have to raise money. They have to fundraise for the basics for students, the needs of the students in those classrooms. Teachers are paying out of their own pockets so that the students can have the education that they need and deserve. But this government is sitting quietly, and they think everything is fine out there.

That’s not acceptable to people in Surrey, and that shouldn’t be acceptable to anybody, regardless of which party you belong to, which side of this House you sit on, because education is one area through which you can actually decrease inequality in society. It probably is the only way you can work toward equality in the society.

Whether you are washing dishes somewhere or you’re a CEO of a bank, if your children have the same opportunity to get the best education possible and all opportunities to upgrade their skills and education, they both will have the same earning power when they finish their schooling and go into the workplace.

That’s how you reduce inequality in society. But no, not this government. They have neglected that area for so long.

Then you take a look at public transportation. I’ve been listening and watching this government. I could go back. It was September 2010. The current minister for TransLink was there, representing one of the communities, from Langley at that time. The Premier of this province signed a memorandum of understanding that they would work together to find a long-term, sustainable funding formula. What happened to that? What hap-
[ Page 10390 ]
pened to that agreement? I just wonder.

Then SkyTrain. The Evergreen line was built after a lot of delays. The promise was that the extensions to Surrey would be next. What happened? They would find a funding formula, according to that MOU. What happened to the funding formula? “No, no. Now that it’s your turn, Surrey, you have to decide how you want to pay for this. You have to decide how you pay for this. We’ll put you through a referendum.”

Was there a referendum when Port Mann was being built? Is there going to be a referendum for the Massey Tunnel? Well, why, when it comes to the Surrey extension of the public transportation…? “You must decide yourselves, people of Surrey, Langley and Delta, how you want to pay for this.”

That wasn’t a question when the Expo Line was built, when the Evergreen line was built, when the Millennium Line was built — no. But when Surrey’s turn comes: “No. You decide how you want to pay for it.”

I think it’s not acceptable. It’s not only that we are missing out on opportunity. It is a bad economic policy as well. We’re losing out on huge potential — huge potential. There’s lineup after lineup now. You look at the Pattullo Bridge. You look at the Alex Fraser Bridge — lineup after lineup.

Interjections.

H. Bains: To the Minister of Transportation and especially the Minister of Technology, the facts don’t matter to them at all. They just want to stand up and chirp away, make up the facts as they go. Make them up as they go.

Anyway, the facts are the facts. It’s not going to change because they try to ignore the facts.

Let me say that people are still waiting for when we will get the extension into Surrey of the SkyTrain or LRT. They’re still waiting.

[1735]

We have subdivision after subdivision in Langley, Cloverdale, Surrey and Delta. They have no bus service to them. No bus service. And you know what? Another million people are moving into the Lower Mainland within the next 20 years. Another million. You know what? Most of them will be, according to Metro Vancouver, coming to the south of Fraser and northeast sectors. Both of them lack services right now to service the population that we have today.

It just shows a lack of vision, lack of seeing past today, as is the case with this government. And you know what? We will be running behind further and further if this bunch continues to rule this province. It is going to be a travesty.

You take a look at other areas that we need to deal with. Post-secondary education. This is how we train our population, our future workers, and give them the opportunity to upgrade their skills and training so that they can compete with the best of the world.

In south of Fraser, we have almost half of those operating, on a per-capita basis, when you look at how many post-secondary education seats there are compared to the population. We have maybe 11 percent. There’s only 11 or 12 percent. That is a result of the 11 or 12 percent participation rate in the university colleges for students coming out of high schools from that region, whereas the provincial average is about 24 percent. There is something wrong there, and this government needs to pay attention to that area.

I will talk about…. Probably, I’ll save this. My time looks like it is running out. I’ll save some of the real good stuff for my budget speech, and then maybe we could talk about how the lack of vision by this government is hurting British Columbians every day.

Crime — I talked about it this morning; I touched on it — continues to go up. I hope that the Minister of Technology has gone since this morning and checked some facts, because he had no clue. They still bury their heads in the sand to say that the crime is going down in Surrey. I don’t know. Where does he live?

RCMP statistics are clearly indications that all of the Criminal Code offences are going up, quarter over quarter and year by year, and they don’t see any relief in sight. That’s why it’s a dangerous, dangerous situation, where people will start to lose faith in our crime-fighting strategy. They will lose faith in our local police. That is not the way to run our province.

My time runs out. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I’ll have more to say later.

Hon. S. Bond: It’s a pleasure to be able to rise in the House once again to address the throne speech. I have to admit that one of the things I appreciate about when people make their response to the throne speech or the budget speech is there’s a commonalty that occurs where you learn a little bit about people’s families and about their ridings and about the things that really matter to them. I think that’s an important thing — that we take the time to listen to one another in those areas.

It’s also a time where it demonstrates where we agree to disagree in this place about the pathway to what is important for British Columbia. There are always conversations about how important education is, how important health care is. It’s about the pathway you take to ensure that British Columbia is the best place that it can be.

I’m delighted to continue to represent the people of Prince George–Valemount. Despite having been here for a fairly significant period of time — I think we’re approaching 15 years now — in a variety of cabinet portfolios, I never feel less excited about the important work that we need to do, the work that needs to be accomplished and, certainly, the opportunities for success that each new year brings and each throne speech brings.

[1740]

We know that the throne speech actually also reflects on the lives of some very significant British Columbians, those who we have sadly lost. For me, this year there were two important personal reflections — at least two — that were noted in the throne speech. It’s hard, when you’re sitting at your desk and the names are read, and you think about the lives of people that you care about that have passed on.

I did want to reflect for a moment on one of the names in the throne speech, Ben Meisner. Many people in this chamber would know him. He was fierce in his love and his passion for his community, for his province. He also did some pretty tough interviews. In fact, in his life as a journalist and a reporter and all of the things that he did, there were people who would choose not to actually do interviews with him, because he asked really tough questions.

I can certainly remember some events that would be considered grilling, at the least. But Ben is missed. I know that he loved his wife, Elaine, and I know how deeply she misses him. He was a larger-than-life person in our community and our province. I know how much he loved being a bencher of the Law Society. There were many who were quite surprised when Ben was appointed, and yet he took his pragmatic, passionate view there, and he made a difference. I know that it meant a great deal to him.

We do reflect on that in the throne speech — the passing of Ben Meisner, someone I’m sure many people in this House have had the opportunity to either be interviewed by or read his work over the years.

The other reference was to a very tragic circumstance in one of my communities in a beautiful part of British Columbia — an avalanche that tragically claimed the lives of five snowmobilers on January 29. One of the things we know in many parts of British Columbia, the sledding or snowmobile industry is a really important part of the winter economy. That’s certainly true in the Robson Valley of British Columbia. It’s always with a great deal of sadness that communities and families have to face circumstances like the ones of the people of McBride. Our search and rescue teams, our paramedics, our first responders and just the people of McBride — they rallied to support these sledders that were survivors and also made sure they comforted those who had lost others.

I’m extremely proud of the people of the Robson Valley. It’s a very small community and region, and yet they responded in a very big way. The efforts that they made were courageous, and they certainly showed a great deal of skill in the search and rescue process. I was very pleased to see that effort recognized in the throne speech. I know that that will mean a great deal to them.

It does remind us, however, that all of us need to be aware of the risk involved in the backcountry activities in our province, and we need to be ready. This beautiful province that we call home has so many outdoor activities, backcountry activities, that we celebrate and that we support, but tragedies like this remind us of the resilience and strength of people and also the need to be ready and to be prepared.

I want to also, as others have, recognize the incredible family that I have. I’m very blessed to have a fantastic husband, the person who is there dropping me off at the airport and picking me up at the airport every single trip. That, for us, means every week. We’re at least 500 miles away from home. The only times he missed was when he was undergoing open-heart surgery, and I forgave him for that. He had a period where he couldn’t drive. Those are the only days over the last 15 years that my husband hasn’t been there, literally, waiting for me or dropping me off on my way to my job. I very much appreciate that about him.

Our children. Obviously, Chris and Christina, and Trevor and Melissa, are very important — our daughter and son and their spouses. Then, of course, the two most active participants in our lives are grandsons Caleb, who has just turned six, who adores hockey, and Cooper, who’s about to turn four. All of us recognize that part of the reason we’re here doing the job we’re doing is for Caleb and Cooper and all of the future leaders and the generations that will inherit British Columbia.

[1745]

As we talk about the part of the province that I represent, I am so grateful to work with elected officials in my communities, whether it’s Prince George, Valemount or McBride, with mayors and council, with regional district representatives — all of whom are passionate about the places that we live and are working hard to create a better quality of life. The leaders of the Lheidli T’enneh, Chief Dominic Frederick, the constructive working relationship we have with them….

It’s just incredible to see how dedicated the team of people we work with is, including our federal MPs as well, working together to look at how we can improve circumstances in northern British Columbia. I’m very appreciative.

School board representatives as well, I should mention. My colleague and I met with them just recently — so impressed with their efforts to work hard to create quality opportunities for students in our school district. Very grateful for all of those things.

It’s been a big year, the last year in Prince George. We celebrated Prince George’s 100th birthday — an amazing centennial. We had the opportunity last year to host the Canada Winter Games. In fact, just this past weekend, we celebrated the one-year anniversary. It was great to be in the plaza with artists and musicians and First Nations and fireworks and all of those things — an unbelievably successful event. That simply would not have been possible without the incredible volunteerism that Prince George is well known for.

We had literally over 4,000 people wearing green jackets — the symbol of volunteerism during the Canada
[ Page 10392 ]
Winter Games. It was great to see them back in the plaza this past Saturday night as we gathered to celebrate how incredible our community is and what a fantastic job they did hosting the first Winter Games that have been hosted in British Columbia. They did a remarkable job. I want to recognize the Canada Games team and all those people who made that possible.

One other highlight which was incredibly important. Many of us in the House enjoy hockey. I’m very blessed. We have great teams in our community from our Cariboo Cougars right on up to our Cougars, Spruce Kings, our Timbit teams who play on the weekends. It was really fantastic to watch the Mac’s Tournament. Those who would follow hockey know that the Mac’s Tournament in Calgary is a very high level, incredible hockey tournament.

I’m very proud of the fact that the triple-A midget women’s Northern Capitals won the Mac’s Tournament in Calgary on New Year’s Day. They defeated teams from right across western Canada on their way to a perfect record and outscored their opponents 18-4. That team continues to make us very proud, and we want to recognize and congratulate them on that very special accomplishment.

Just last month in Prince George, my colleague the Solicitor General hosted our 13th annual Natural Resources Forum. It was really interesting too. We weren’t certain what to expect, considering the climate of low commodity prices. But to a person, the people who attended the forum, the people who participated in the forum, were optimistic and recognized that by working together and figuring out how we get to yes, we can keep B.C.’s economy growing, strong and diverse.

Just one example. In 2014, B.C. forest product exports were $12.4 billion — 35 percent of all goods exported from British Columbia. It’s interesting — again, this isn’t meant to be critical; it’s just a fact that we have different views in this chamber about how we get to an outcome that is the best it can be for British Columbia — that on this side of the House, we have had a plan that we have put in place. We have been absolutely driven, over the last more than a decade, to focus on our fiscal fundamentals and make sure we have British Columbia working as best we possibly can.

Yes, that has meant difficult decisions. It has certainly meant times where we couldn’t say yes to every demand that people had. But it’s so difficult to argue with the place that British Columbia finds itself in today. While we could argue in the House about, “Well, we’re sixth in this, and we’re fifth in that, and we’re second in that,” it’s not just members on this side of the House that are saying how well British Columbia is doing. It’s actually banks. It’s actually Stats Canada. It’s actually people who have an interest in looking at factual and third-party type of information.

[1750]

For example, we’ve heard everybody on the other side being critical of British Columbia, where it stands in terms of leading the economy. We should be clear. British Columbia is expected to lead the economy in Canada both in 2016 and 2017. That doesn’t happen by chance, and it’s not something that people on this side of the House are just saying. That’s exactly what economists across the country are saying.

One of the things that we have concentrated on that has allowed us to find ourselves in that position is making sure that our economy is as diverse as it possibly can be. We don’t celebrate the….

Interjection.

Hon. S. Bond: I think the member opposite chastised us for making comments in the last round. I guess we’re not sticking to that rule at the moment.

We don’t celebrate it — the difficulties that others are facing, including our neighbours to the east of us. In fact, they are facing some very difficult circumstances. You don’t have to ask me about them. You simply have to ask economists.

We should just look at the number of provinces that have a balanced budget. As of tomorrow, we’re in a pretty unique club when it comes to balanced budgets in Canada. In fact, it’s likely we will be the only jurisdiction in this country with a balanced budget. Now, the others can argue about that and suggest that’s not important, but there are some pretty significant reasons we want to make sure we have a balanced budget. And we’re going to work to make sure that it’s not just four in a row. We’re going to make sure that it’s five in a row. As we look at how that’s possible, we look at the kinds of things….

Why it matters is because that’s how, eventually, you get to enhance programs. That’s exactly how we get to make sure we have top-level funding in education. Whether it’s health care, our outcomes are the best in the world.

We have an incredible opportunity in British Columbia, as we have worked very hard to make sure that we maintained a triple-A credit rating — again, something that few jurisdictions in the country are able to talk about. Also, when you look at the kinds of initiatives that we’ve put in place, you simply have to look at how we’ve put together a plan that looks across sectors.

We recognize, and we are completely prepared to recognize, that natural resources will always be the heart of what we base the economy on in British Columbia. We are a resource-rich province. We need to look at how we develop those resources in a responsible way. It’s not about the economy or the environment. It’s about both. We recognize that. That’s always an important consideration.

But it’s also about tourism and technology. It’s also about film. It’s also about looking at clean technology. It is about looking at mining and all of those other things.
[ Page 10393 ]
We simply have to look at the record that we have currently in British Columbia.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Order. Order.

The minister has the floor.

Hon. S. Bond: That’s all right, Mr. Speaker.

Let’s talk about some of the elements of the jobs plan that we launched four years ago. We hear regularly about the need to create jobs in British Columbia. We couldn’t agree more. The way you actually do that is by saying yes to economic development, inviting attractive investments here to British Columbia and growing jobs in the province.

Let’s look at where we are in terms of the number of people working in the province today. We’re never satisfied with the total. We want to see more and more British Columbians have well-paying, family-supporting jobs. That’s why we work hard every single day to make sure that we’re attracting that investment and saying yes to development and investment in the province.

Let’s take a look at where we are today. Today we have more than 2.3 million British Columbians working in this province. In fact, that is at record levels of employment in British Columbia. We also, according to Stats Canada — the StatsCan Labour Force Survey — created 50,000 new jobs in 2015 and led the country. Now, we might want to have arguments from the other side about that, but they could call up the StatsCan labour force group and then talk to them about those numbers.

[1755]

We’re also looking at the other aspects of the jobs plan when we look at sectors of the jobs plan. We look at tourism. We look at tech. We look at a number of other sectors.

The throne speech is about laying out a road map for where we’re going. It is future-looking. What you need to be able to do to actually have a sound plan is have an economic foundation that allows you to create an environment that is welcoming to business and investment in the province.

Looking at the totality of the work we’ve done. Three consecutive budgets maintained a triple-A credit rating. We have among the highest small business confidence numbers in the province, in the country. At the same time, we’re working extremely hard to reduce red tape — not the red tape that people on the other side talk about, which deals with health and safety and occupational health and safety. Of course that regulation is necessary and important.

But there are other things, and we’re going to continue to look for ways — to reduce those barriers — that allow people to do the things they need and want to do in this province. Again, we have an outstanding record of that in the country, and we’re going to continue to focus on that.

Let’s turn our minds to tourism for just a moment. Perhaps what we can do is look at some of the statistics. A new study was released just recently, in fact, that looks at the history of growth in the tourism sector over the last decade.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

In fact, when you look at the last decade in British Columbia, the B.C. Stats study would tell us that there has been a 38 percent increase in tourism revenue over the last decade. We’ve seen the GDP grow, which contributed $7.1 billion in 2014. That’s actually a 4.3 percent growth, year over year.

The tourism sector grew more rapidly than the entire B.C. economy. Over 127,000 people were employed in tourism. That is a 2.2 percent increase over 2013. We also saw that there are more than 19,000 tourism-related businesses in B.C., and over 17,000 of those businesses are small businesses. Our total number of international overnight visitors to British Columbia from January to November was up by 7.7 percent over last year. And the numbers continue.

The really interesting part of the statistics, when you take a look at it, is that our numbers typically would be higher in the summer months, in that particular time frame in the province. The good news is that right into November this year, we’ve seen very, very strong tourism numbers. We expect that to continue.

We certainly are appreciative of things like looking at direct air flights from other countries. That makes an enormous difference. We saw a spike, for example, in the number of tourists coming from France because we had a direct flight that is now coming into YVR during a period of time. That is making a difference in terms of our numbers of tourists from France.

But let’s not stop there. Let’s talk a little bit about B.C.’s technology and innovation sector. The jobs plan has included all of these sectors, eight sectors, from the beginning of our thinking, working our way to make sure that there are strong numbers in each one of those sectors.

We look at, for example, the revenue from technology and innovation in the province. It was $22.3. billion, up 6.2 percent in 2013. You look at total exports — again, significant increases. Over 86,000 jobs in the tech sector. In fact, when you look at the employment numbers, approximately 4.4 percent of B.C.’s workforce is actually employed in the technology and innovation sector.

One of the reasons we’re working very hard to ensure that we create a place where tech companies feel they can survive, thrive and get bigger is because the salaries, the wages, in the tech sector are about 60 percent higher than the average wage in British Columbia. So it’s really important. Those well-paying, family-supporting jobs that we can attract in the tech sector are critical to looking at
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why British Columbia is projected to lead the economy in 2016 and 2017.

When we look at film and the TV industry…. You just have to walk down the street of many communities. Whether it’s Victoria or when you look at even communities like Kamloops, Prince George — there were areas in the Interior — and certainly in Vancouver, there is a lot of activity going on in the film sector. When we look at the total production spending in 2013-2014, it was $1.45 billion and 248 projects.

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You simply have to talk to the industry. The studios are full. Digital visual effects, all of those pieces in the creative sector are doing extremely well. In fact, pretty much there’s not a lot of space left for productions, because the film sector is booming in the province.

One of the great things about how it’s working is the fact…. If you look at Victoria, for example, they had the highest number of productions that they’ve had in some time. Again, working constructively with the film sector, we’ve managed to look at the issues that were a challenge here in Victoria, and they’re seeing the benefits of more productions taking place here on Vancouver Island. And why wouldn’t we? It’s a fantastic part of British Columbia, a great place for people to do that work.

One of the things we do know is that as we see the economy grow and as we see the demographics that we have in British Columbia…. We have an aging demographic. As we look at the job needs as we move forward, not only are we dealing with the issue of economic growth and how we’re going to manage those numbers in terms of British Columbians working, but we’re also dealing with that aging demographic.

We’ve actually reached a tipping point, where more people are retiring from the workforce than younger people are entering it. You can imagine that with that growing imbalance, it is absolutely essential that we look at creative and innovative ways to train, that we look at giving opportunities to First Nations in particular, who are currently under-represented in the workforce, as are women.

We want to make sure that we are working as diligently as possible and as creatively as possible to find ways to include people in British Columbia’s workforce. We’ve done a great deal of work with First Nations across the province as we sort out how we can be more culturally relevant, how we can create a better opportunity for success for First Nations individuals.

We’ve had some really great success stories. Is there more work to be done? Absolutely there is.

We have committed significant funding, for example, for First Nations and aboriginal training — $30 million over a three-year period to work with First Nations to have them be partners in how those programs are designed, to ensure that there is a higher success rate. We know that 50 percent, just about — it’s in the very high 40s — of First Nations youth are actually under the age of 25. When you look to the workforce of the future, we recognize that First Nations must be critical partners in dealing with the labour market demands that we’re going to have.

One of the projects that we have been working on across ministries in the government is the whole B.C. skills-for-jobs blueprint. Again, it’s part of that larger picture that says that when you have a strong, growing and very diverse economy, you have to make sure that you understand the province you live and work in. Where are the needs; where are we going to have the vacancies today and tomorrow; and how are we going to manage to actually fill those jobs, first and foremost, with British Columbians?

We’ve had a number of initiatives working across ministries. A particularly successful one, one that’s been very much appreciated across the province, is the Find Your Fit tour. It visits schools and communities right across the province.

It’s a chance for young people and decision-makers, those people who influence young people’s lives, to come and understand, first of all, the labour market data — what does British Columbia look like today? What is it going to look like in five years, ten years? Where are the job demands going to be? — so that we can find a better fit for students and for their families as they look to the careers that they will be choosing in the future.

It’s been fantastic to see the reception. Literally thousands and thousands of students and families and communities have seen that program. We’re going to continue to see it move across the province in the months ahead.

We’ve worked very hard to line up our education system and our training program as we allowed data and labour market data to drive the decision-making. It’s been work that’s been carried on. We’re now leading some of the working groups across the country as we see that kind of focus on making sure that our programs match the needs and the demands that our province has.

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We spend over $7½ billion in education and training each year throughout the education system, when you start in kindergarten and move right through to post-secondary. We want to use a portion of those dollars to line up against exactly what the labour market demand needs are moving forward. I have to say that the constructive and innovative work that’s been done by post-secondary institutions across the province has been fantastic. They have been working very hard, looking at how their programs meet that test. How do we actually make sure that the programs students are being offered line up with the demands that we have in British Columbia? That’s been an incredibly important part of the strategy.

We’re also very concerned about apprenticeship in the province. We want to make sure, as we build our pro-
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jects in the province, that there are apprentices on those projects.

We have also been working to encourage the federal government to contemplate looking at a similar program to what we have here in the province, where now public infrastructure will require there to be apprentices on those projects. We believe that when you’re investing public dollars, that’s exactly what should happen. On one of our recent visits to Ottawa, that certainly was a discussion that we engaged in, and we will continue to do that in the months ahead.

We’ve also looked at: how do we support students who want to be apprentices? We’ve now got in place apprenticeship advisers at the Industry Training Authority. We have 15 of them. Six of those advisers focus very tightly on supporting apprentices from aboriginal communities.

We also have contracts for 46 targeted skills-training programs right across the province. We were very pleased to highlight some of those the other day in the work that’s been done in communities right across the province. There have been some fantastic partnerships, private and public, looking at industry partnering with post-secondary institutions.

I know that what is absolutely critical in the days ahead is that there be a strong strategic plan, making sure that we continue to look at a diverse economy, not relying on one particular sector, which is why we’re seeing such fantastic numbers in the film industry, in tourism, in technology, in clean tech. You just have to look across the province, to look at the forest sector, to….

Interjections.

Hon. S. Bond: Madame Speaker, I can tell you this. I would be delighted to see the members opposite stand up today and unequivocally support the efforts to bring an LNG industry to British Columbia, but I know that’s not going to happen any time soon.

We’re going to continue to work hard. That’s why we get to deliver tomorrow our fourth consecutive balanced budget. That’s why we’re leading the country in economic growth. That’s why we have a triple-A credit rating. That’s why provinces across the country are looking to British Columbia as we lead the country today, in the future and, hopefully, in 2017.

K. Conroy: I appreciate the opportunity to rise to take my place to speak in response to the throne speech.

Before I respond, I want to take a minute, once again, to thank the constituents of Kootenay West. I want to thank them for the honour they have bestowed on me, as I am humbled and honoured to be able to represent each and every one of them in this Legislature. I am reminded of how fortunate I am every time I attend a city or village council meeting; go to an event at schools or colleges; have meetings with groups or individuals; tour mills, plants or offices; or just drive through the beautiful scenery from one end to the other of my constituency.

I’m an incredibly lucky person. Not only is my constituency absolutely beautiful; it is full of amazing people. Again, to all of you, thank you. Thank you for everything you all do in your own ways to make our region such a remarkable place.

I want to thank my two CAs, Elaine Whitehead and Edena Brown, for everything they do for me. I am truly grateful to both of them.

I talked to my husband briefly before I was going to do this speech, told him I was doing my throne speech. It’s been the 11th one he’s watched me do, and I said: “If you don’t manage to make it, I understand. Cows are calling.”

He also said he was phoning my mom and dad and telling them that I was speaking tonight. He said they were going to try to watch me. So I just want to say thanks to my mom and dad, Ben and Ingeborg Thor-Larsen, for their 58 years of support. Their love has been incredible. I just love you, Mom and Dad. Thank you.

I told people I was heading to Victoria last weekend as the House was starting to sit. I told them that I was coming and that the throne speech was going to be up last Tuesday. Everyone said, “Let’s hope we get some good news,” or asked if I thought we would actually get some good news. I thought: “Well, let’s hope so, folks. Let’s hope so.”

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Did we? Well, I’m sorry to say to all the folks that asked that we didn’t. In fact, I was struck by the amount of embellishments that the throne speech presented, by the lack of reality being presented by a government and a Premier who seem to think that they can just spout the same exaggerated statements and that people are going to keep accepting them for fact. I mean, really — the insinuation that 100,000 jobs will be or would be or have been created by this government when we know the reality isn’t even close to that.

There is a growing group of people in our area who are now unemployed — people with mortgages to pay, kids to feed and no jobs on the horizon. They asked what happened to the LNG promised three years ago. What happened to all the jobs they promised? And a number of them have actually been told that they will be heading back to Alberta. In spite of this government’s misinformation about Alberta, there are still jobs there. And quite a number of the people in our area that thought they would have jobs in B.C. are heading back to northern Alberta.

Again, they’ll be away from their families, not there for school meetings, hockey games, cuddles at night or bedtime stories. But they tell me that at least they will pay the bills. And they’re heading off to Alberta.

It makes me wonder how members of this government can keep repeating this misrepresentation about all these jobs with a straight face and know that it is, in fact, just that — misrepresentation, repeated again and again.
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Then there is the prosperity fund, funded by nonexistent LNG. I wish it was funded. The fact it is even in the throne speech again is laughable. I wish, I wish we had a prosperity fund or a legacy fund. I wish the previous government had had the courage to invest in our province and the country the way Norway does. I know the member for Nanaimo also referred to this — the way Norway actually has invested in their own country and people.

They didn’t cower down to foreign oil companies. They didn’t say: “Here, take what you want and pay what you want.” They stood up to companies, and now they have one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world.

A child born today in Norway has a pension plan when they retire. A student has their education paid for as long as they are attending, from early childhood right through to post-secondary, all because the government had the foresight to invest in themselves.

Instead, a child born today in B.C. could end up living in poverty as, once again, our province ranks right up there as one of the highest in the country when it comes to child poverty.

Also, B.C. kids can look forward to some of the highest student debt for post-secondary education — a great legacy to leave our children and grandchildren in this province.

Norway didn’t create their fund the way the Liberals are creating their so-called prosperity fund. They didn’t take money away from taxpayers. They took money that was invested in their country by foreign corporations, by royalties paid for their resources. They got something in return.

In Norway, foreign oil companies didn’t run away from the higher royalties. In fact, they made money and continue to make money from their investments in Norway.

Not like our government. They are actually giving our money away. They’re giving our natural resources away. It’s amazing, really, when you think of it. They’re giving the LNG — our natural resources — to foreign companies, begging them to come and develop our LNG at minimal royalties. And they still can’t get a company to commit.

LNG was going to be a saviour to all of us. And yet, we still don’t have an operating plant, not even a shovel in the ground. Has there been exploratory work? Sure there has. But what have the results been? Still no committed LNG projects in our province. It begs the question: what more will this Premier and this government offer companies to entice them to come and build here in B.C.?

What we do have in B.C., though, is an empty promise of a prosperity fund that has no prosperity in it, that was supposed to have billions or trillions socked away in it. What’s the balance today? Well, that would be zero. A big fat zero. Nothing.

Yet we continue to hear the rhetoric about this nonexistent prosperity fund. But now it’s actually going to finally get some funds. But where from? Again, from the pockets of taxpayers in this province.

Isn’t it ironic? The very cost of the latest increase to the medical services tax will bring in about $100 million this year, and that’s exactly the amount that’s going to be used to establish the so-called prosperity fund.

It begs the question: prosperity for who? Certainly not the hard-working taxpayers in this province, who are tired of being gouged by this government, whether it’s MSP or B.C. Hydro or ICBC or more cost for services. Like kids. Nowadays, kids have to bring reams of paper, stacks of paper, to school as part of their school supplies. When did that ever happen in the past? Never.

And what about “Debt-free B.C.”? How’s that working for people? We have the largest debt ever in the history of this province under this Premier’s watch.

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What did we get in the throne speech? Now they’re saying that we have the “opportunity to eliminate the operating debt in four years.” This is an incredibly serious retreat from the 2013 debt-free B.C. commitment, which was to eliminate the total debt within 15 years, or by 2028 — the direct operating debt. Well, it currently stands at $7.7 billion.

The B.C. Liberals…. This government would have to accumulate $7.7 billion of operating surpluses every year for the next four years to eliminate it by 2020. Not very likely.

B.C.’s total debt has gone up by $9 billion since this Premier used the term “debt-free B.C.” in the 2013 throne speech — from $55.8 billion as of March 31, 2013, to $64.8 billion by the end of this fiscal year alone. The latest fiscal projections show total debt continuing to increase each year, reaching $69 billion by 2018. Well, that’s quite a legacy to be proud of for our children and grandchildren.

In promises detailed in the 2013 campaign, the B.C. Liberals said that they would eliminate B.C.’s total debt, including the B.C. Hydro debt, the B.C. Ferries debt, the Port Mann Bridge debt. Heck, bring it on. Any debt that they had was being eliminated.

How is that working for the people of B.C.? Well, it’s not. Not only has the debt not been eliminated, or even a glimmer of hope in the future it will be eliminated; it has grown — grown under the Premier’s watch.

Another interesting item in the throne speech was the commitment on trade. I don’t believe anyone in this House would speak against trade, as long as it is, in fact, good for the people of the province. I hope that this government is going to do everything in its power to ensure that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is, in fact, good for B.C.

It is an agreement that was cobbled together in secret by a federal government desperate to get it passed before they were gone. Are we even sure now that this agreement will be good for B.C.? I worry about it.

We know that under free trade agreements generally, our country cannot limit the export of commodities, like raw logs or natural gas, unless they have a specific exception. We would have to guarantee an exception is
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requested if, in fact, we want to ensure that our logs, for instance, could be utilized here in B.C. to reopen sawmills that closed due to lack of fibre or use those logs to redevelop a robust, secondary remanufacturing sector that we once had in B.C. Now, those were good jobs, and those are gone.

Let’s look at those numbers. Let’s look at some real numbers: 33,000 fewer forestry workers working in this province today. And 150 mills have been shut down. Seven million cubic metres of logs have been exported, logged and shipped overseas for other countries to mill, utilize and process into products — products that are then used in their countries or sent back here for us to buy.

What do we get out of those logs? Only the jobs to log them. All of the other benefits of those logs are garnered by the country they are sent to. Forty percent of all coastal logs harvested are exported, and then we get mills shut down or not operating at full capacity.

Then there’s also our water. Well, everyone knows about Nestlé, a multinational company worth billions. One of their plants is right here in Hope, B.C. For the princely sum of $2.25 per million litres, Nestlé takes our water and sells it bottled. Now, the CEO of Nestlé, in fact, is the chairman of the World Water Council, where their mandate is to save water and that water should be a right. He justifies his bottled water by saying that they are, in fact, the first company to always be there in an emergency. What irony.

He gets our water for a steal and can be a magnanimous CEO in times of emergencies. There is some discussion about the process of selling our water for what it is worth and concerns about the various free trade agreements that have been signed or will be signed.

The reality, though, is that this foreign company is doing very well using our resources. Are we really getting the value for it? Will that be a topic of discussion with the TPP? Will this government ensure that we have those exceptions that are needed so that we can control our own destiny, can have a say in what happens to our natural resources for the benefits of jobs here in B.C. and not in foreign countries?

Let’s hope this is not another example of this government giving away our resources at a cost to our province and our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

[1820]

Let’s talk about that future. Education — what was there for education in the throne speech, for the students of our province? School district 20 is facing its largest budget deficit in its history, $1.3 million in 2016-2017, and the people in the area feel that that can be attributed directly to the Premier and this government.

Here are just a few of the reasons why people believe that. B.C.’s compliance branch auditors are clawing back every penny of special education student funding possible from at-risk students. They said some of our children shouldn’t have been getting special ed funds — that those kids whose principals, teachers and parents all recognize as needing extra help, well, they didn’t meet the criteria, and the district needs to pay the government the money back.

Those kids? Do they still get the extra support they need to succeed? Well, the school board has said yes. They are not going to be responsible for not ensuring kids don’t get the help they need to succeed. It’s an awful dilemma that this government has put school boards in, and it is indeed shameful.

The percentage of classes with four or more students with special needs has nearly doubled over the past decade to one of every four B.C. classrooms. In any given class, teachers work with an incredible range of kids, each with unique skills, challenges and needs. But when the resources aren’t there to support those needs, everyone’s learning suffers. Last year more than 16,000 B.C. classrooms had four or more children with special needs, and nearly 4,000 had seven or more.

B.C. has lost nearly one-quarter of our specialist teachers over the past 15 years — 22 percent of ESL teachers, 24 percent of special ed teachers, 37 percent of teacher-librarians. B.C.’s treasury branch is permanently holding back over $50 million of much-needed holdback funds from school districts. And then teachers were forced to go out and spend over $1 million in the courts to restore illegally stripped contract language, language that was stripped by the Premier in 2002 when she was Minister of Education.

Since 2002 B.C. has lost the equivalent of 3,500 full-time teachers. The government’s spin on funding is that it has increased since 2002. But the fact is that the increase has not kept up with basic increases in cost and inflation, and B.C. is now second-to-last — second-to-last; there’s another statistic we didn’t hear from the former speaker — in per-student funding in Canada and is providing $1,000 below the national average per student.

Interjection.

K. Conroy: I can keep going? Good. Thank you. It’s good to keep going.

Andy Davidoff, who’s the president of the Kootenay Columbia Teachers Union, is also a passionate advocate for education in our area. It’s not just us talking about it; it’s experts in the school system who are saying that there needs to be a change in how the government funds education. He actually said that the….

He called on the government to follow the recommendations of the legislative Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. He said to me: “Isn’t the majority of the people on that committee Liberal MLAs, the Premier’s MLAs?” The call was for B.C. to invest in public education so we can restore smaller classes and provide the right education and support to meet the unique strengths and challenges of each of our students. Each of our students, every one of our students in the
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school districts in this province needs to have the support to make sure that they are successful.

There are also concerns in Osoyoos. They had over 1,000 people pack a gym the other night to say they don’t want their schools shut. Two schools are looking at being shut in Osoyoos — the secondary as well as the elementary school — and both former mayor Stu Wells and current mayor Sue McKortoff spoke up in support of keeping these schools open. We had Michelle Nehring, president of the Osoyoos secondary PAC, saying the impact that the closure would have on the students. Brenda Dorosz, the chair of the citizens group Save our Schools, or SOS, delivered a well-researched presentation pointing to administrative savings the school district could make instead of closing schools.

The reality, though, is the lack of commitment to education in this province that has school boards struggling with decisions like this, that has communities railing against their trustees who have to make these decisions when it’s a lack of commitment that falls squarely on the shoulders of this government. I think former mayor Stu Wells, himself once a school trustee, put it best when he said that the closing of the schools shouldn’t be left to the board, but instead the Education Minister and the Premier should have to come to our community and explain why these schools should have to be closed.

It’s divisive politics at its worst. This government makes cuts, and then leaves the school boards to clean up the mess.

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

K. Conroy: The meeting in Osoyoos was supposed to end at nine. It went till 10:30 at night because so many people got up and said: “We want this decision not to happen.” They want to work with their school board not against their school board, in spite of what this government does to them.

I’m noting the hour and thinking that the Speaker is…. Yes, so I’m going to reserve my right to finish tomorrow. I’m enjoying this conversation. It’s unfortunate that I can’t finish tonight when the minister is in the room, but I will finish it tomorrow.

K. Conroy moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. T. Stone moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 6:25 p.m.

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