2017 Legislative Session: Sixth 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 20, 2017

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 41, Number 10

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

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017

The House met at 1:35 p.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Introductions by Members

J. Darcy: It is an enormous pleasure today for me to introduce a very special guest from my community, the New West Youth Ambassador Society. This is a group of youth volunteers who are out there in the community supporting everybody in the community at a whole lot of different community events — really, youth leaders of today and leaders of tomorrow.

I would like to introduce them to you. First, the coordinators: Lynn Radbourne and Bill Radbourne. With them is the guide dog Siku. This is the second and only time that a guide dog has been introduced in the B.C. Legislature and made it into Hansard. They’re very proud of that.

The youth ambassadors are Meghan Connor, Ben Osborne, Giselle Whittaker, Julie Ruggenberg, Cole Thiessen and Jonah Wright, and the chaperones are Victoria Henssler, Florence Earle, Barbara Palen, Linda Cooper and Rick Steinson. Their trip here has been made possible by the New Westminster Firefighters Charitable Society. Could the House join me in welcoming that this amazing group of young people.

I have one other introduction, probably the one the Health Minister’s also going to…. Okay. I’ll let the Health Minister go first, and then I’ll come in second.

Hon. T. Lake: Today, we’re very lucky to have joining us 19 guests from the B.C. Care Providers Association that represent 50,000 senior care professionals. They’re in Victoria today to celebrate their fourth annual B.C. Care Awards and also to celebrate today, February 20, being proclaimed Senior Care Providers’ Day in the province of British Columbia.

Tonight I will have the pleasure of presenting awards to the 2017 B.C. Care Award winners, including Mari Green from Beacon Community Services, Care Provider of the Year in home care; Bruce Devereux from Sunshine Coast–Powell River, the Good Samaritan Society’s Christenson Village, Innovation of the Year; Tom Crump from Surrey-Cloverdale, the Elim Village facility, for the Ed Helfrich Long-Service Excellence Award. I’ve saved the best for last — Tasia McLean Warren from my own riding of Kamloops–North Thompson, who works at the Hamlets at Westsyde. She is being awarded Care Provider of the Year in residential care.

Can everyone please join me in welcoming the B.C. Care Providers and their guests here today.

J. Darcy: On behalf of members on this side of the House, I’d like to join the minister in welcoming the B.C. Care Providers today. I want to also make special mention of the wonderful people I had the opportunity to meet with earlier today who will be receiving awards tonight.

These are the people who care for our seniors, for our frail elderly, 24-7, 365 days a year. They’re the unsung heroes and heroines of our health care system. Please join the minister and all of us in welcoming the people from the B.C. Care Providers today.

Hon. M. de Jong: In the gallery today, Mrs. Madelyn Craven is here. Mrs. Craven, for years and years, was married to Roy Craven. Roy Craven, before he passed away, was a lifelong educator and taught me math in high school. So on the eve of the budget, I plead with members, to the extent that they find the sums problematic, the equations not balancing or the decimals out of place, that the fault is mine and in no way Roy Craven’s.

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I want to welcome, and I know all members will want to welcome, Madelyn Craven here today.

As well, at least two former members are in the assembly with us today. Katherine Whittred was first elected in 1996 and served with distinction in this chamber until 2009. She represented Vancouver-Lonsdale and served in the cabinet of the province of British Columbia — as I say, with distinction. It’s great to see her here, along with Olga Ilich, who served in the government from 2005 to 2009, also in the cabinet, representing the folks from Richmond Centre.

I know they would want me to say, on their behalf, how proud they are to be attending a function that you are hosting, I believe this evening, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the achievement of the vote by women in British Columbia, and at the same time, honouring all women who have served with distinction in this Legislative Assembly. I know all members will want to make our former colleagues Katherine and Olga welcome.

K. Conroy: I, too, would like to introduce a former MLA to the Legislature. I don’t often get an opportunity to introduce guests, especially this one. I think he’s been here twice since I’ve been elected.

He’s a former MLA for Rossland-Trail and was the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries; the Minister Responsible for Rural Development; as well as B.C. assets and Crown land, the Columbia Basin Trust and the Columbia Power Corporation. He’s one of my greatest supporters, gives me all kinds of great advice and puts up with all the idiosyncrasies of this job. I think I can safely say he’s one of the few spouses that we have, for all of us here, that really, truly understands this profession.

Please join me today in welcoming my husband, Ed Conroy, to the Legislature.
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Hon. P. Fassbender: We often talk about people who leave the province of British Columbia. We know many are coming back. I have some very dear friends who left British Columbia to join their family in the province of Saskatchewan, and I am delighted that they are able to be here today in the House. Brent and Penny Kirkpatrick are joined by my wife, and I want to welcome them back to B.C.

We will always welcome you back.

I would like the House to make them feel welcome today.

D. Eby: It’s a great pleasure to introduce to the House my sister, who’s in the gallery today — my little sister. She’s only six feet tall.

Interjections.

D. Eby: Members, I hear some nervous laughter. Two Ebys in the same House are always cause for trouble. I’ll let you know if we get three or four in the same House. Today there are only two though, so you should be all right.

R. Sultan: It gives me great pleasure to introduce three individuals who’ve contributed enormously to the civic life of this province, the first being Nancy Farran. Nancy graduated from UBC, went into the investment business, joined RBC Dominion Securities in ’96 and currently is a vice-president and wealth adviser with RBC. Nancy is an active volunteer and has served the municipality of West Vancouver on the police board, on the financial advisory commission, on the finance and audit committee and on the Fiscal Sustainability Task Force. She is currently chair of the West Vancouver Community Foundation.

The next person I would be honoured to introduce is Dr. Audrey Sojonky. Audrey’s professional career focused on educational research and public policy analysis. She told me today that she did original policy work under the aegis of Minister David Anderson in Ottawa, where she got to know a little bit of the early career of our Premier.

She has had a long and successful record and board leadership in the community, serving as a director of the West Vancouver school board, the Vancouver Public Aquarium, the Vancouver Foundation, the Port of Vancouver, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Kay Meek Centre, the West Vancouver Memorial Library and, in her spare time, the West Vancouver Community Foundation.

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The third person I would ask to you welcome is Tiana Farran, who lived in West Vancouver in her earlier years, attended UVIC, got her bachelor’s degree in fine arts, never went back to the North Shore. She currently lives in James Bay and is admissions team lead at the Royal B.C. Museum.

Would the House please welcome these three distinguished women.

M. Mungall: Well, there is no shortage of good things that I could say about Jack and Bertha Smith, who are visiting us today in the Legislature. They are amazing volunteers in the Kootenays. They have contributed so much to British Columbia.

I could be here all afternoon telling everybody about all that they’ve done, but of course, I don’t want to get in the way of the most important business of the day — that cabinet waits for every day — which is question period.

May the House please make them very, very welcome and join me in thanking them for everything that they do for B.C.

D. Plecas: In the gallery today, we have two wonderful visitors from Abbotsford South, my constituents. The first is Stacey Somerville. She is a branch manager of Assante Capital. She is also a director of Abbotsford Hospice and a very, very important non-stop volunteer in our community.

We also have with her, her partner, Kevin MacDonald. He’s a videographer. If you’re someone who’s been in the media — interviewed by the news, filmed by the news — in Abbotsford, it was probably Kevin who did it.

Please welcome them to the House.

C. Trevena: In the gallery today is George MacPherson. He is the president of the B.C. Shipyard General Workers Federation. Mr. MacPherson really understands the concept of a jobs plan. He would like to see that B.C. ferries are actually built here in B.C., rather than jobs being shipped over to Poland and Germany.

I hope the House will make Mr. MacPherson very welcome.

A. Weaver: It gives me great pleasure to introduce three guests today, two of whom are constituents. The first is Ned Taylor — he’s a Reynold’s Secondary School student and the author of a petition I’ll be introducing momentarily — along with his father, Matt Taylor, and his friend Jordan Reichert.

I might say, for those of you are from Victoria, you will know that there is no such thing as two steps of separation from people. There is only one. It turns out that Ned’s sister was in grade one and kindergarten with my daughter and that his father’s sister went to high school with me and graduated in 1979 from Oak Bay.

Would the House please make them feel very welcome.

L. Throness: It’s always a pleasure to have family visit, and it’s a real honour to have my beloved brother, Lyndon Throness, and my sister-in-law Heather come all the way from Surrey to visit me today. Would the House please make them welcome.

L. Popham: Today, we have St. Joseph’s Elementary School visiting from Saanich South. Their teacher Mr.
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Mitch Zuback is here with 23 amazing grade 5 students. Please make them feel welcome.

D. Ashton: Thank you very much for the opportunity to introduce two people from the area I represent. First of all, Karla Kozakevich. Karla is the chair of the regional district of Okanagan–Similkameen. Karla lives in Naramata, home of the infamous and famous world-renowned Naramata Bench. Sorry, that was a bit of a tongue-twister for me, but I did get it out. And there was no wine at lunch.

Also, with Karla today is Ian Wilson, vice-president of Wildcat Helicopters, an incredibly innovative helicopter flight company based here in British Columbia and operating also in the South Pacific.

Could the House make them very welcome please.

D. Donaldson: I have a couple of quick introductions today. The first is Kerri Bassett, who is the director for the B.C. Association of Child Development and Intervention. She’s going to be attending the budget lockup in that capacity.

Kerri is also the executive director of the Bulkley Valley Child Development Centre located in Smithers. It serves an incredible region, all the way from Atlin to Vanderhoof. If you jumped in a car, it would take you 20 hours straight to drive that region.

She works hard, and she’s in Victoria to continue working with the provincial government on moving Project Pinwheel forward — their capital campaign.

I would ask the members of this chamber to join me in welcoming Kerri to the Legislature.

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For the first time in more than 35 years and the first time under this modern-day format, the Gitxsan women’s basketball team has won the All-Native Basketball Tournament women’s title in Prince Rupert on Saturday. The Gitxsan Mystics prevailed over the Haisla team from Kitimat, 56-46 in the final.

I was there, and it was nerve-wracking. The Haisla team got within two points in the third quarter. The Mystic showed what can be accomplished when you stick together as a team. Well done. Lugul um.

Would the House join me in congratulating the 2017 All-Native Basketball women’s champion, the Gitxsan Mystics.

Hon. B. Bennett: It’s my pleasure to introduce the parents of my chief of staff Eric Wallace-Deering, Gene and Kathleen Wallace-Deering. They’re up there somewhere. I’m not sure where they are, but you have a very fine son. Thank you for joining us today.

V. Huntington: I have two separate introductions I’d like to make today.

I, too, would like to welcome and join the member from Oak Bay–Gordon Head in welcoming Ned Taylor. Ned has been a tireless advocate for the welfare of egg-laying hens. The petition that the member from Oak Bay–Gordon Head will present today is testament to his commitment.

Secondly, I would like to introduce a good friend of mine, Antony Tsui, who has now for three years worked in my constituency office during the summers. Antony is in his final year at UBC — undergraduate, at least — and is accompanied by three other students, Liann Badiong, Lauren Badiong, and Stephanie Mah, all of whom are in the precinct today from the University of British Columbia.

Will the House make them all welcome.

N. Simons: I just want to add to the comments of the Minister of Health and my colleague from New Westminster to welcome the B.C. Care Providers and, in particular, Bruce Devereux, innovator of the year. The community is very proud of the work he’s done, and, of course, the arts community that’s been involved in his work is also lifted up by this recognition. I look forward to this evening where his accomplishments will be honoured.

J. Rice: I must concede here to my colleague to my left. It is long overdue that a team from his riding did take a championship in the All-Native Basketball Tournament.

However, I would like to acknowledge another team in my constituency. The Skidegate Saints took it for the sixth year in a row, I believe — the defending champions. It was a very close game with another constituency community, Kitkatla. It was neck and neck, sitting at the edge of your seat. With seconds on the clock, it was tied and went into overtime and, again with just seconds, the Skidegate Saints defended their championship. Thank you. It was a great All-Native Basketball Tournament.

Introduction and
First Reading of Bills

BILL M218 — INCREASING YOUTH
PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS ACT, 2017

R. Fleming presented a bill intituled Increasing Youth Participation in Elections Act, 2017.

R. Fleming: I move introduction of the Increasing Youth Participation in Elections Act for first reading.

Motion approved.

R. Fleming: It gives me great pleasure to reintroduce this bill, which, if enacted, would allow for the automatic registration of British Columbians at the age of 16 to vote when they are eligible voters at the age of 18. This preregistration will help improve election participation rates and remove barriers to participation in our democracy.
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In the last provincial general election, 18- to 24-year-olds had the lowest level of registration of voters and the lowest level of voter participation. A 2014 report to this House, from our independent Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Keith Archer, recommended that voter registration be lowered to the age of 16, as per this bill. This change was also previously recommended by the Chief Electoral Officer in 2011, prior to the 2013 general election. The effect of this bill would be to allow Elections B.C. to work with schools and B.C.’s driver licensing program to inform and register young people about the sacred and hard-fought right of citizenship in our country.

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Restricting voter registration to 18 years of age means that when youth become eligible to vote, they may have already left school and home and be very difficult to enumerate. Under this bill, youth would already be preregistered, and it would encourage young voters to take their civic duty to heart.

The evidence from other jurisdictions like Quebec suggests that measures like this see a significantly higher voter participation rate amongst youth. Youth in my constituency that I have consulted with have demonstrated unanimous support of this measure, as have non-partisan youth organizations like CIVIX, who endorse this measure.

I look forward to second reading and debate of this bill. I move that this bill be placed on the orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting day of the House.

Bill M218, Increasing Youth Participation in Elections Act, 2017, 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 M219 — RECALL AND INITIATIVE
AMENDMENT ACT, 2017

A. Weaver presented a bill intituled Recall and Initiative Amendment Act, 2017.

A. Weaver: I move that a bill intituled the Recall and Initiative Amendment Act, 2017, of which notice has been given, be introduced and read a first time now.

Motion approved.

A. Weaver: It gives me great pleasure to introduce this bill, which is designed to empower British Columbians so that their voices can be more effectively heard on environmental reviews of major projects such as oil pipelines.

If we are to re-engage British Columbians in our democracy, we need to actively seek their view on far more of what we debate in this Legislature. We also need to provide them with additional tools to hold their government to account. The Recall and Initiative Amendment Act is one such tool. British Columbians have lost faith in the federal review process, particularly as it pertains to oil pipeline proposals. The province has not listened to their voices.

This bill would offer British Columbians an opportunity to ensure that their voices are indeed heard. If an initiative were to pass under the proposed changes in the Recall and Initiative Amendment Act, it would require government to pull out of an existing environmental equivalency agreement for a particular project and hold its own made-in-B.C. review of, for example, a proposed heavy-oil pipeline.

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

Bill M219, Recall and Initiative Amendment Act, 2017, 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 M220 — ELECTION
AMENDMENT ACT 1, 2017

A. Weaver presented a bill intituled Election Amendment Act 1, 2017.

A. Weaver: I move that a bill intituled the Election Amendment Act, 2017, of which notice has been given, be introduced and read a first time now.

Motion approved.

A. Weaver: In this bill I’m introducing today, I would propose lowering the voting age to 16 in the province of British Columbia. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that the earlier in life a voter casts their first ballot, the more likely they are to develop voting as a habit throughout their life.

It’s also a common misconception that 16-year-olds are not as informed on and engaged in political issues as older voters. The research, however, says otherwise. These young citizens of British Columbia are old enough to drive, pay taxes and sign up for the military. In fact, the notion of taxation without representation is one that is not founded within our democracy. We require representation with taxation. Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and parts of the U.K. have extended voting rights to 16-year-olds, and it’s time that British Columbia did the same.

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

Madame Speaker: Hon. Member, was that No. 1 or No. 2?

A. Weaver: That was No. 1. I’m sorry. Thank you, hon. Speaker.
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Madame Speaker: No worries.

Bill M220, Election Amendment Act 1, 2017, 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)

SENIOR CARE PROVIDERS’ DAY

L. Reimer: It’s my pleasure today to recognize British Columbia’s senior care providers, including 19 members of the B.C. Care Providers Association who are joining us to mark the proclamation of today, February 20, 2017, as B.C. Senior Care Providers’ Day. Almost one-sixth of our population is over the age of 65, and the number of seniors in British Columbia is expected to rise to an estimated 1.4 million over the next 20 years, which means there’s a great and growing demand for the kinds of services our seniors care providers offer.

Already, thousands of British Columbians — our parents and grandparents, our friends and our neighbours — depend upon the compassionate, professional and generous care they receive from our senior care providers. These women and men work hard every day to improve quality of life for our seniors and ensure that their needs are met with the dignity and respect that they deserve. By holding the industry to recognized standards-of-care excellence and advocating on behalf of its members, the association has given a voice to our seniors and those who care for them.

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Today the association continues to provide valuable support to its more than 300 members as they carry out their important work in residential care, assisted living, home support and commercial care.

The proclamation of B.C.’s Senior Care Providers’ Day this year is a fitting tribute to the great work that our senior care providers do every day as they brighten the lives of our seniors and help to ease the challenges of aging. I hope the House will join me in showing our appreciation to the senior care providers we have here today, and to all of B.C.’s senior care providers.

MARINE CONSERVATION AREA
AND PROTECTION OF ORCAS

G. Holman: I want to revisit two related issues I’ve raised here before: the proposed national marine conservation area for the southern Strait of Georgia and its endangered resident orca population.

The south Salish Sea is one of the planet’s most productive marine ecosystems, home to more than 3,000 species. Parks Canada considers it the most at-risk natural environment in Canada, which includes our southern resident orcas threatened by water and noise pollution and diminished chinook stocks.

The now 14-year-old B.C.-Canada agreement on the NMCA and federal species-at-risk laws reflect our collective obligation to protect the Salish Sea and the orca. The consent and partnership of First Nations is also essential.

There is some progress on the NMCA. We now have protection targets for Canada’s marine waters, and newly hired Parks Canada staff are consulting with First Nations and re-engaging stakeholders in affected sectors.

The southern resident orca are still at grave risk, with recent deaths reducing the population to 78. Research by Raincoast indicates that the Kinder Morgan project may, in fact, extirpate the southern resident orca even without a major spill. The Steelhead LNG proposal in Saanich Inlet could be another ecological blow.

While we dither on protecting the orca and the south Salish Sea, we proceed apace with industrial projects. We must do better. For example, we could facilitate an NMCA through a reconciliation approach with First Nations to provide them immediate economic and cultural benefits, including, for example, protection of Owl Island, another Coast Salish burial islet in the Gulf Islands facing development.

We have a responsibility to protect the most endangered marine environment in Canada and avoid the destruction of its most iconic inhabitants. The path to fulfilling these obligations is through reconciliation and collaboration with First Nations.

VANCOUVER FOUNDATION AND
WEST VANCOUVER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

R. Sultan: Here are bits of wisdom. Chaucer said from little acorns, mighty oaks grow. Piketty said in the 21st century, wealth grows faster than economic output.

In 1943, a Vancouver woman named Alice MacKay passed away. She had saved $1,000 from her secretary job and wanted to help homeless women. Her will stipulated that only income, but not principal, be used. This attracted the attention of titans of B.C. industry: VanDusen, Ronald Graham, H.R. MacMillan, Kidd, Malkin, McHattie, Spencer, Williamson and Woodward. Today the Vancouver Foundation, which she started, has grown to over $1 billion and has dispersed another billion along the way.

There’s another acorn not yet fully grown. The West Vancouver Community Foundation — assets, $13 million. It is chaired by a wealth management expert from the Royal Bank, Nancy Farran, who sits in the gallery today. It supports community projects and scholarships in such categories as the North Shore 100 Women Who Care endowment fund and the aboriginal youth sport legacy fund, and a report card on the vital signs of our community.
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You might think investing money is the hard part and giving it away, easy. But my own experience at the McConnell Foundation suggests the opposite is true. Thank you to the benefactors and volunteers who show us how to both accumulate and disburse our wealth wisely to benefit everybody in our society.

TRI-CITIES MOMS GROUP

J. Wickens: Some people say that it’s moms who rule the world, and I agree. So many of the fearless advocates and social change makers I know are mothers who refused to accept anything but what was best and right for their children.

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Today there’s a lot of pressure on mothers: pressure if you’re a working mom, pressure if you’re a stay-at-home mom. Do you breastfeed or bottle feed? How many activities do you put your children in? How much screen time do your children have? I never realized how much pressure I would feel to do all and be all until I became a mom.

That is why it is so important for moms to have a community to lean on and get support from. The Tri-Cities Moms Group is an on-line group of over 5,500 moms in our community. This group has been instrumental in bringing moms together for support, advice and, sometimes, the social interactions needed that moms feel themselves alienated from once they have children.

Heather Hooten started the online group so that moms would have a place to ask each other questions and gain support. I often see her posting, at all hours, anonymous member questions for moms who don’t feel comfortable to ask those questions themselves.

The group has pulled together to raise funds for moms who find themselves in times of need. They have pub nights, Christmas parties, and this year they are having their very first Tri-Cities Moms Group retreat. I’m really sad that I can’t go.

The Tri-Cities Moms Group is a perfect example of women supporting women and finding a 21st-century way to address the pressures of parenthood. Thank you to all the tri-city moms who have spent so much time empowering this community and their fellow moms.

TREVOR McDONALD

J. Martin: Trevor McDonald, called Chilliwack’s most prolific music maker by the Chilliwack Times, was recently given a prestigious honour. During the 21nd annual Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards held last month, a special presentation was made to honour Trevor’s commitment to the community of Chilliwack. There, he was presented the Stan Rogers Legacy Award, sponsored by the Legacy Pacific group of companies.

It’s an award given annually, named after great Chilliwack business leader and developer Stan Rogers, who passed away suddenly in 2014. Stan was well known for his community involvement, and each year the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce honours someone who shares those values.

Trevor is a leader in Chilliwack’s art and culture scene, easily recognized as the emcee and entertainment organizer for the downtown Party in the Park, Canada Day festivities and numerous other events. Trevor uses his talent and his personality to improve our community. His love of Chilliwack brings people together working toward a common goal and encourages a sense of success and pride in every event he is a part of.

Through his amazing one-man show, he brings to life songs of ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and the ’80s and entertains at literally hundreds of public and corporate shows every year. His involvement in jam nights at numerous Chilliwack establishments has encouraged many other local artists, young and old, to share their talents as well. Many have gone on to perform in large and small venues all across the province thanks to Trevor’s inspiration.

When it came to organizing Chilliwack Senior Secondary School’s Hello, Goodbye Reunion, as the old high school was set to be demolished and the new state-of-the-art facility unveiled in 2013, of course it was Trevor at the centre of the action.

We’re so fortunate to have a citizen of Trevor’s calibre in our community. If you’re ever visiting Chilliwack, please be sure to check out his busy performance schedule and maybe congratulate him on his Stan Rogers Legacy Award recognition.

JOY COGHILL

G. Heyman: Later this afternoon, her many friends will celebrate the rich life of Joy Coghill. On January 20, B.C. and Canada lost a legendary actor, director, teacher and mentor. Joy was a trailblazer for actors and for women in the arts.

In 1953, Joy founded Canada’s first professional children’s theatre company, Holiday Theatre. Joy took pride that over half their productions were original, and the company was one of the first to commission new Canadian plays.

Generations of young people took lessons and the opportunity to express themselves onstage and backstage. I was one of many who found a creative channel for youthful energy.

Joy was the first woman artistic director of Vancouver’s Playhouse Theatre, where she commissioned George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, and initiated Stage 2 to showcase new Canadian playwrights. She was the first woman to head the National Theatre School’s English section.

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To watch Joy work was to see an inquisitive, experimental, energetic approach to theme. She brought new perspective to many roles, including the title character in Shakespeare’s King Lear. She played Emily Carr in Song of This Place, which she also wrote. In later years, she founded a company for older actors, Western Gold, and developed The Alzheimer Project.

Concerned that performing arts workers were often destitute in their senior years, Joy co-founded the Performing Arts Lodge as a residence that includes performance space.

Joy was honoured with the Order of Canada and a Governor General’s Award in Performing Arts. This Legislature appointed Joy to the inaugural B.C. Arts Council. Last November, Joy accepted the Union of B.C. Performers ACTRA Woman of Distinction Award.

Younger actors applauded Joy’s undiminished passion for theatre and film and her recognition that unions make performers’ lives better. Joy was passionate about both politics and community.

In her own words: “I really spent my whole life believing that the health of our nation depends on the health of the arts.”

Oral Questions

STAFFING LEVELS FOR SHERIFFS

M. Farnworth: Last year, we saw a record number of overdose deaths in the province of British Columbia. Yet just this past Friday, here in Victoria, an accused drug-dealing thug walked free because of a lack of sheriffs for the courts here in British Columbia.

Can the Attorney General tell this House how letting an accused drug-dealing thug walk free because of a lack of sheriffs is good for justice or keeps the public safe?

Hon. S. Anton: It is my priority and the priority of court services, of the judiciary, to make sure that courts run smoothly. And the vast majority of time in British Columbia, they do run smoothly.

Nobody wants to see the case dismissed. The member opposite doesn’t, I don’t, and the public certainly doesn’t. Nobody wants to see cases dismissed for what, in this case, was a technical reason, not a reason on the facts of the case.

But I think we do need to know a little bit more about the case itself. I’m informed that this was a case where the accused should have been in court on the Monday, failed to appear and came into custody during the week. The case was rescheduled later in the week — a late scheduling — so that on Friday morning, right at the time the court opened, the resources were not available right then. It did turn out that they were available just a short time later in the day, but they weren’t available right at that time.

That is not a situation that anybody likes, and that’s why we are increasing the sheriff resources in British Columbia, because my goal is to ensure that courtrooms are staffed and that cases go ahead appropriately around British Columbia.

Madame Speaker: Member for Port Coquitlam on a supplemental.

M. Farnworth: Well, we’ve just heard the Attorney General learn from the Finance Minister the fine art of gibberish.

The Attorney General can stand in this House and say that it was a technicality. It is not a technicality when an accused drug-dealing thug walks free in the province. It is a direct result of the choices of this government to ensure that we don’t have enough sheriffs in the province of British Columbia.

Five years ago, there were 500 sheriffs in this province. Now there are around just over 400. There were 35 in Victoria. Now there are just over 21. It’s because of those choices — a failure to put public safety first. It’s the reason this drug-dealing thug got to walk free.

My question to the Attorney General is: when and how is she going to fix this unacceptable situation?

Hon. S. Anton: As I said, it is my goal to make sure that courtrooms function smoothly and with the appropriate staff and staff as needed, especially sheriffs, throughout British Columbia.

That’s why we are, in fact, adding a second class of recruits this year. There are often 24 a year. This year there will be 48 — and over the next couple of years — so that we do have plenty of sheriff resources around the province.

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But as I said, this was a case where there were actually resources available a short time later. It was a late-scheduled case. But nobody…. As I said, I don’t want to see accused persons go free for a reason such as this, nor does the public, nor the whole court system. That is why we are working very hard to ensure that the right resources are in place at the right time in the courtrooms of British Columbia.

B. Ralston: The minister has tried to minimize the facts of this particular case, but let’s listen to what the judge in the case had to say. The drug dealer walked free. “A lack of provincial will to provide the necessary resources” — that’s what the judge said. A lack of provincial will to provide the necessary resources — not minimizing the facts but directly pointing at the government and at the minister herself.

It’s hardly a new issue. In January 2016, another drug dealer nearly walked away from a charge due to the lack of a sheriff. At that time, Dean Purdy of correction and sheriff services said: “It’s like playing roulette with security as well as the safety of the public.”

Knowing all this, and for all that time, why didn’t the Attorney General take action?
[ Page 13662 ]

Hon. S. Anton: As I said, we have taken action. There is an additional class of recruits going through the system this year and next. We will put more sheriffs into the system so that the courtrooms are ready to go as needed.

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Hon. S. Anton: We are tackling this in other ways as well by taking things out of courtrooms — in other words, freeing up court time. The impaired driving cases — 6,000 cases no longer going into courtrooms. The civil resolution tribunal. Very shortly, the minor small claims matters will no longer be in courtrooms. So we are freeing up court time in other ways so that when there are criminal cases that need to go ahead, the resources are there so that those cases can go ahead as needed in all of the courtrooms of British Columbia.

B. Ralston: We aren’t talking traffic tickets here. There are a number of high-profile cases involving gang members that have dragged through the courts for many years. These are people accused of vicious gangland murders, and they could walk free because of courtroom delays. This isn’t theoretical. In Alberta in October 2016, a first-degree murder charge was dropped by the court because of lengthy court delays, delays that are very common in British Columbia.

My question to the Minister of Justice: how many gang members and drug dealers will be let free before she takes action?

Hon. S. Anton: Last year, there were seven cases stayed because of delay. That’s out of about 60,000 cases in the system, for a sense of proportion. No one wants to see a case stayed because of delay, but let me assure the House that that number is down significantly over the years. The number has gone down steadily. The Jordan case requires that criminal cases be heard in a timely way. The criminal justice branch of this government is working very hard to make sure that our cases do go through in a timely way, because no one wants to see cases stayed because of delay.

As I said, in British Columbia — only seven last year. But it is being monitored very carefully, because nobody wants to see those cases stayed.

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Hon. S. Anton: None of those seven cases pleased anybody, and we are watching this very carefully to ensure that the number stays very low or to zero if possible.

WAIT TIMES FOR
HIP REPLACEMENT SURGERIES

J. Darcy: Lee Horn from Osoyoos has been living with excruciating pain for three years. He waited seven months for a CAT scan, almost an entire year then for an MRI, and then another very long wait in order to see a surgeon before he finally learned that he needed a hip replacement. It has been over 15 months since he got that assessment, and Lee still doesn’t have a date for his surgery.

Lee’s wife, Gaye, is in the gallery today. Will the Minister of Health please tell Gaye and her husband, Lee, if he thinks it’s acceptable that Lee has had to wait almost three years in excruciating pain to get his hip surgery?

[1420]

Hon. T. Lake: There is no question that a growing and aging population puts demands on the health care system here in British Columbia. We recognize that, in some parts of the province particularly, there are unacceptable wait times — in some cases for MRIs, in some cases for surgery.

We are working very hard to get to the people that have waited the longest. We infused $25 million into a surgical initiative last year on top, of course, of the hundreds of millions of dollars that we spend year over year on surgery alone — another $25 million, as well as an MRI program, including four new MRIs, and more procedures all around the province of British Columbia.

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

J. Darcy: The Minister of Health acts like it’s some kind of surprise that we have an aging population. We’ve known that for decades in the province of British Columbia, and the minister’s job is to be prepared for that. But the outrageous thing is that Lee isn’t alone. There are thousands more people like him who are waiting in pain for years. Because of this government’s failures, British Columbia has the second-worst — meaning the second-longest — wait times for hip and knee replacements in Canada.

This unacceptable wait has completely disrupted Lee and Gaye’s lives, and they’re unable to continue running the photo tour operation that they used to so much enjoy running in their community. Lee has been languishing in pain for 903 days — 903 days, hon. Speaker. Will the minister please tell Lee and Gaye when Lee can expect to get this surgery that he has needed for a very, very long time?

Hon. T. Lake: The reality is that between 2001 and today, the number of knee replacements has gone up 176 percent and the number of total hip replacements over 100 percent. That is outpacing the growth of the population. Cataract surgery is up 79 percent. Angioplasty is up 66 percent.
[ Page 13663 ]

We know, as the hon. member for New Westminster mentioned earlier today, that when people need emergency surgery, there are no waits, but we understand that there are some people waiting too long for some of these elective surgeries. We are working hard — 5,000 extra surgeries conducted with the $25 million from last year, another 5,000 extra surgeries this year. We will continue. You will see tomorrow, I’m sure, continued investment in the health care system in the province of B.C.

IHEALTH ELECTRONIC RECORDS SYSTEM
AT NANAIMO HOSPITAL

D. Routley: Last week we learned that the PharmaNet system was hacked. Patients’ personal information was put at risk for the second time in two years, and the best explanation the Health Minister could muster was: “In the age of data and cybertechnology today, this is a risk of the 21st century.”

On Friday afternoon, the minister’s inability to ensure that health care IT systems protect patients was on display yet again. On Friday, the CEO of Island Health told staff at Nanaimo Regional Hospital that they were going to cease using key elements of the minister’s new $50 million IHealth system because physicians said it was putting patients at risk — serious risk.

Can the minister explain why he waited so long to acknowledge that IHealth was putting patients at risk?

Hon. T. Lake: Well, in fact I didn’t wait. I went to Nanaimo. I met with the medical team at Nanaimo. I met with Island Health. We commissioned a report by Dr. Doug Cochrane, a B.C. patient care quality officer, who listed recommendations and a workplan. We set up an oversight committee. But it, despite best efforts…. I will say this, hon. Speaker. The physicians and the medical team at Nanaimo and the people at Island Health in charge of this project all have a common interest in making sure we get a product that delivers a single electronic health record for the people of the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital that keeps patients safe.

[1425]

There are a number of physicians at Nanaimo, as the member well knows, that still have some concerns, so we are working with them, with Island Health and with the doctors and other medical staff to ensure that this system remains safe for patients while those improvements are taking place.

D. Routley: In between the minister’s rhetoric, threats made against doctors and nurses, and all of this mess coming to the minister’s desk, patients are at risk. The people we represent are lost in the battle. They feel that the IHealth system puts patients in serious danger of receiving the wrong medication.

Finally, the minister has been forced to acknowledge that these health care professionals’ concerns are valid. Can the minister explain why he ignored the real concerns of doctors and nurses at Island Health for so long?

Hon. T. Lake: I’ll repeat: I did not ignore those concerns. In fact, I personally went and met with the physicians and other medical staff members at Nanaimo. I, along with my deputy, met with the Island Health board and the senior executive team last week.

There are varying views on this system. Dr. Cochrane did not recommend that the system be taken down while the improvements were made. Two other experts were brought in, neither of which made that same recommendation.

The important thing is that physicians and others at Nanaimo did not have the confidence in the system, so we have to work with them in a collaborative way to ensure that the member’s constituents and patients at Nanaimo are cared for, that the physicians and other medical staff that use the system have confidence in the system. We’re all going to work together to achieve that goal.

D. Eby: You just have to look at the record to understand the problems with what the minister is saying. It was May of last year when the doctors and nurses that were front-line went to the media and said that this system was producing medication errors. They were putting patients at risk. It was November of last year that this minister’s own report that he commissioned said that this computerized provider order entry system be “revalidated” to ensure it was safe. Yet where are we now? This minister shut down the system Friday of last week.

My question to the minister: how many patients were put at risk, and were any patients injured?

Hon. T. Lake: The system has not been taken down. There are physicians, 112 members of the medical staff association — I believe there are 175 members in total — that still had some concerns and asked for the computerized provider order entry system to be put aside while that revalidation occurs. Dr. Cochrane did not recommend that. Other experts have not recommended that.

We are going to walk through what that process looks like with the medical staff association and the members of the health care team in Nanaimo. If that is the best thing to do, we will do it. But we will ensure that that process does not endanger patient safety, and we will walk together in a collaborative way to accomplish our goal of one electronic health record for every patient.

Madame Speaker: The member for Vancouver–Point Grey on a supplemental.

D. Eby: Whether the minister says that the system was put aside or shut down, the fact is that doctors and nurses
[ Page 13664 ]
are going back to pen and paper. They said from the very beginning that this system is not safe for patients.

When they said that, the minister said to them: “I don’t have a concern about the structural integrity” of this system. Then after he got the audit, he hedged a little bit: “No one is doing this to a level that they were hoping to get with this, so this will all get us to a better place.” But we’re not in a better place.

The doctors and nurses are still worried about patient safety. The minister and his experts can say there’s no problem, but the people treating patients say that there are medication errors taking place. Again to the minister: how many patients were put at risk, and were any patients injured?

[1430]

Hon. T. Lake: The member, as he is wont to do, is putting words in my mouth. I did not say that Dr. Cochrane or other experts said that there were no problems with the system. They recognized that there were challenges with the system, but they did not recommend putting it aside while those revalidation processes occurred.

The reality is that people working at Nanaimo — a large number of people, a significant number — still don’t have the confidence that is necessary to go forward with the system. So we will walk with them to look at the process of setting aside the system and discover to what extent that will affect patient care. We’re going to do it in a collaborative, cooperative way. The member, I know, can think back to other challenges in electronic systems around the world.

This is a challenge, but we shouldn’t be daunted by challenges. We shouldn’t give up. We need to get to an electronic health record that provides a single patient record, for the safety and effective delivery of care in the province of British Columbia.

VANCOUVER COASTAL HEALTH AUTHORITY
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECT

M. Mungall: I mean, the minister ought to know that we don’t need to look beyond British Columbia’s borders if we want to see boondoggle after boondoggle after boondoggle. When it comes to IT systems, B.C. is notorious. The really troubling part in all of this…. No surprise, there’s a twist in another one of these B.C. Liberal stories of IT failures.

The troubling part is that after the minister’s $500 million Vancouver Coastal IT project went sideways and the minister fired IBM, he went out and hired Cerner to fix it. Now, that’s the same company that produced this system in Nanaimo that’s failing. So why on earth would British Columbians have any confidence that this minister’s repeated bad decisions — bad decision after bad decision — aren’t going to make things worse for patients in Vancouver Coastal?

Hon. T. Lake: I’m not sure I can match that community theatre performance, but let me tell you that Cerner was always the system being contemplated in the CSC program in Vancouver Coastal and PHSA. Across the globe, there are 5,400 hospitals and 45,000 physicians using Cerner systems. This isn’t a system that is new to the health care scene. In Canada alone, 34 health systems use Cerner-based computerized provider order entry. This is a well-used system. It has to be customized and tailored to our local hospitals. That’s what we’re all working hard to do.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR
FEDERAL HEALTH CARE FUNDING

S. Simpson: On December 22, the Health Minister had this to say about the accord with the federal government on health care. His exact words were that we’re “not going to negotiate a side deal.” Now he has cut a side deal, one that leaves B.C. short on health funding.

Can the minister please explain why he gave up on getting a good deal? Or did the Premier do the deal against his advice?

Hon. T. Lake: They are called negotiations for a reason. You actually have one side advocate one thing, one side advocate another. Here is where we were….

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Hon. T. Lake: The former federal government was cutting the Canada health transfer from 6 percent to 3 percent. That’s where we started. We — the province of British Columbia and other provinces and territories — advocated for a 5.2 percent increase. With the agreement that we’ve come to with Ottawa, we get 4.4 percent increases, which is halfway in between where we started and where we wanted to be. That’s often the result of negotiations. But I’ll tell you this. It means $1.4 billion more for mental health and substance use and home care and residential care in the province of British Columbia.

Madame Speaker: Recognizing Vancouver-Hastings on a supplemental.

[1435]

S. Simpson: Let’s repeat the minister’s other words of that day and time for him. As he said: “The offer — let me be clear — means that over a ten-year period, the share of federal funding for health care would decline.”

He then said that he would not participate in “a divide-and-conquer tactic with other provinces.” Then he gave up in less than two months and walked away from that process with other provinces, doing exactly that.
[ Page 13665 ]

Did the Health Minister give up on standing up for B.C. health care, or was he thrown under the bus along with the rest of British Columbians by the Premier?

Hon. T. Lake: The reality is that we had very intense negotiations with the provinces, territories and the federal government. It became clear that we needed to get to a place where we were putting the money into action on behalf of patients in the province of British Columbia. This deal gives us $1.4 billion over ten years….

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members, the Chair will hear the answer.

Hon. T. Lake: Thank you, hon. Speaker. This deal gives us money for mental health and substance use and, importantly, a national framework for opioid response and $10 million directly to the province of British Columbia to help us with the very real public health care crisis that we are facing. The members will see tomorrow how much and how important health care is to this government as we invest further in the care of patients in British Columbia.

CARE STANDARDS AT
SENIORS CARE FACILITIES

S. Robinson: The government today announced that today is Seniors Care Providers’ Day, and in the gallery are some of the front-line workers who do their best to take care of our parents, our grandparents and our loved ones. Unfortunately, this government isn’t giving them sufficient resources to provide the care that our seniors need.

Last year the seniors advocate reported that only 18 percent of our publicly funded residential care facilities were meeting the benchmark of 3.36 care hours per resident per day, and last year the Minister of Health said that they were going to do better. This year that same report showed that only 9 percent of those same facilities were meeting that benchmark.

Will the minister please tell the House why his government is continuing to fail seniors as we look after our most vulnerable citizens?

Hon. T. Lake: As I mentioned, the agreement that we reached with the federal government will provide additional increased supports for home care improvements in the province of British Columbia. Again, the members will see in the budget that we continue to increase the number of resources available for caring for our vulnerable seniors.

Our parliamentary secretary has been working closely with the office of the seniors advocate, with B.C. care providers, with other organizations around the province to ensure that the seniors here in British Columbia get the very best care, the care that they deserve.

Madame Speaker: Coquitlam-Maillardville on a supplemental.

S. Robinson: Well, responding about home support when, in fact, the question was about residential care not being properly funded is really, I think, very disrespectful to the people here in this gallery who are actually doing that work.

Now 91 percent of publicly funded facilities that care for our seniors don’t have the staff that they need. That’s 91 percent. This leaves those on the front lines with moral distress and frustration about not being able to provide the care that they know seniors need. Last year when my colleague asked about this, the minister said that staffing levels weren’t much of a problem.

When we asked about the 3.36 hours of care per day per resident, the minister said:”It’s not a requirement; it’s a guideline.” So this government believes that adequate care of seniors is just a guideline. Why is the minister allowing our vulnerable seniors to have less than adequate care, and when will he make quality care a requirement?

Hon. T. Lake: The 3.36 hours per resident per day is, in fact, a planning guide that all health authorities should be working to as an average across the health authority. Seniors aren’t widgets; they’re individuals. Their care should be based on an individual care plan based on their RAI score.

[1440]

In terms of home care, I’m sure the member will learn that if you can support people in their home with more home care supports, that reduces the demand on residential care. We are committed to our seniors in the province of British Columbia, and that means that we’ll continue to do the hard work necessary. Our Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors will continue to do that work.

We will continue to make investments and, along with the deal that we have signed with Ottawa, increase investments even further so that people can stay in their home — whether that’s their home, whether that’s assisted living, or whether that’s residential care — in a safe and appropriate manner.

C. James: I heard the Health Minister say that these are standards they should be working to. Well, it’s very clear that they aren’t working to these standards. Nine percent of facilities met the guideline — 9 percent, Minister. That is a vast majority of facilities that are not able to provide basic care to seniors.

My colleague from Victoria–Swan Lake and I held a seniors forum about three weeks ago — an overflowing
[ Page 13666 ]
room — and the issue of care for seniors came up over and over and over again. We had families in tears because they can’t get the kind of care that their seniors deserve. We had workers in tears because they aren’t able to provide the kind of care that they need.

This is clearly a pattern with this government. We heard the Minister of Children and Families last week say that she wouldn’t take responsibility for enforcing guidelines — and now the Minister of Health.

Why will the minister not ensure that these guidelines — and the facilities that need the resources for these guidelines — happen for seniors in every facility in British Columbia?

Hon. T. Lake: This government has invested all around the province in new residential care facilities. It wasn’t that long ago that you could not find any residential care facilities. We have changed that, and we’ve made important changes to the Community Care and Assisted Living Act that allow people to stay in assisted living longer.

I have heard today member after member on the opposite side stand up and say: “More resources, more resources.” Yet they stand in the way of every single piece of economic development…

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Hon. T. Lake: …that would flow resources into the services that government should be providing. They should be ashamed of themselves. They should be ashamed. They just say no, just say no to every piece of economic development. That’s, hon. Speaker, not what we should be doing in the province of B.C.

[End of question period.]

Petitions

A. Weaver: I’m very pleased to stand to present a petition against the use of inhumane cage confinement in the egg industry. This petition, which has over 33,000 signatures, was started and organized by Ned Taylor, a constituent who’s attending grade 12 at Reynolds Secondary School in Victoria.

In Ned Taylor’s words: “This petition stands firmly against battery cages, enriched cages and all other cages in the egg industry because chickens deserve to roam freely for their health and well-being. Battery cages are cages used in our egg industry that confine egg-laying hens for their entire lives. In these cages, the hens have no space to move or spread their wings, nor do they have a place to perch.”

Reports from Committees

Hon. M. de Jong: I have the honour to present the first report of the Special Committee of Selection for the sixth session of the 40th parliament.

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

Motion approved.

Hon. M. de Jong: I ask leave of the House to move a motion to adopt the report.

Leave granted.

Hon. M. de Jong: I move that the report be adopted.

Motion approved.

[1445]

Petitions

R. Fleming: I rise to present a petition to secure permanent funding for rural education, where the undersigned urge the government to recognize that all kids in B.C.’s public school system deserve secure, stable and predictable education funding and call on the government to invest in rural communities by properly funding our schools. I would note that the petition was brought to this House by somebody who’s in the gallery today, with your indulgence, Madame Speaker.

Ms. Brenda Dorosz is here. She’s a long-time resident of beautiful Osoyoos. She is a locally renowned person for standing up and organizing to save Osoyoos Secondary School. Welcome to the House, Ms. Dorosz.

Madame Speaker: If you’re introducing, Member for Victoria–Swan Lake, in future, seek leave to make an introduction.

Reports from Committees

J. Martin: I have the honour to present the report of the Select Standing Committee on Parliamentary Reform, Ethical Conduct, Standing Orders and Private Bills.

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

Motion approved.

J. Martin: I ask leave of the House to move a motion to adopt the report.

Leave granted.

J. Martin: Thank you so much, Madame Speaker.

In moving adoption of the report, I would like to make
[ Page 13667 ]
a few brief comments. The report summarizes the results of the committee’s review of the practices and procedures relating to the referral and consideration of estimates by Committee of Supply and the establishment of select standing committees for the life of a parliament.

The committee affirmed the importance of the estimates process and felt that the careful consideration should be given to improving the estimates process in order to make it more efficient and effective for all members.

The committee also recognized the importance of parliamentary committees and agreed that select standing committees should be established for the life of a parliament, rather than on a sessional basis. Moving forward, committee members feel that continued deliberations on ways to adapt and strengthen the standing orders will serve the interests of members and further improve the efficacy of their work.

I would like to thank my fellow committee members, including the deputy chair, the member for Nanaimo, for their collaboration and their hard work during this process.

With that, I move adoption of the report.

Motion approved.

Motions Without Notice

POWERS AND ROLE OF HEALTH COMMITTEE

Hon. M. de Jong: By leave, I move that the Select Standing Committee on Health be empowered to continue their work, a two-part mandate identifying potential strategies to maintain a sustainable health care system for British Columbians and consider health care capital funding options.

This is work that the committee was engaged in under the previous sitting. The usual powers are provided to the committee to continue that work.

By leave, I would move the motion.

[That the Select Standing Committee on Health be empowered to:

1. Identify potential strategies to maintain a sustainable health care system for British Columbians; and

2. Consider health capital funding options.

In addition to the powers previously conferred upon the Select Standing Committee on Health, the committee shall be empowered:

a) to appoint of their number one or more subcommittees and to refer to such subcommittees any of the matters referred to the committee and to delegate to the subcommittee all or any of its powers except the power to report directly to the House;

b) to sit during a period in which the House is adjourned, during the recess after prorogation until the next following Session and during any sitting of the House;

c) to conduct consultations by any means the committee considers appropriate;
[ Page 13668 ]

d) to adjourn from place to place as may be convenient; and

e) to retain such personnel as required to assist the committee;

and shall report to the House as soon as possible, or following any adjournment or at the next following Session, as the case may be; to deposit the original of its reports with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly during a period of adjournment and upon resumption of the sittings of the House, the Chair shall present all reports to the Legislative Assembly.]

Leave granted.

Motion approved.

POWERS AND ROLE OF
CHILDREN AND YOUTH COMMITTEE

Hon. M. de Jong: Secondly, that the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth be appointed, and the mandate under which they have been operating is continued in this motion….

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Hon. M. de Jong: …as are the powers that will enable the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth to continue that work.

Again, by leave, I would move the motion.

[That the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth be appointed to foster greater awareness and understanding among legislators and the public of the BC child welfare system, and in particular to:

1. Receive and review the annual service plan from the Representative for Children and Youth (the “Representative”) that includes a statement of goals and identifies specific objectives and performance measures that will be required to exercise the powers and perform the functions and duties of the Representative during the fiscal year;

2. Be the committee to which the Representative reports, at least annually;

3. Refer to the Representative for investigation the critical injury or death of a child;

4. Receive and consider all reports and plans transmitted by the Representative to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia; and,

5. Pursuant to section 30 (1) of the Representative for Children and Youth Act, S.B.C. 2006, c. 29, undertake a comprehensive review of the Act or portions of the Act by April 1, 2017 to determine whether the functions of the representative described in section 6 are still required to ensure that the needs of children and young adults as defined in that section are met.

In addition to the powers previously conferred upon Select Standing Committees of the House, the Select Standing Committee on Children and Youth be empowered:

a) to appoint of their number one or more subcommittees and to refer to such subcommittees any of the matters referred to the committee and to delegate to the subcommittee all or any of its powers except the power to report directly to the House;

b) to sit during a period in which the House is adjourned, during the recess after prorogation until the next following Session and during any sitting of the House;

c) to conduct consultations by any means the committee considers appropriate;

d) to adjourn from place to place as may be convenient; and

e) to retain personnel as required to assist the committee;

and shall report to the House as soon as possible, or following any adjournment, or at the next following Session, as the case may be; to deposit the original of its reports with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly during a period of adjournment and upon resumption of the sittings of the House, the Chair shall present all reports to the Legislative Assembly.]

Leave granted.

Motion approved.

Orders of the Day

Throne Speech Debate

(continued)

J. Rice: I’m very honoured to rise today to speak to the throne speech. I’d like to start by recognizing my legislative assistant, Robert Hill, for his commitment to northern and rural issues and to ensuring that I get on the right plane at the right time.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Thank you, Rob, and thank you to my constituency assistants Kaeleen Foote and Carrie Thorpe, back in Prince Rupert, who are assisting record numbers of people with housing and affordability issues who are desperately trying to find resources to refer struggling families to.

[1450]

I’d also like to acknowledge my former constituency assistants, Alexie Stephens — or Lexi, as she is known — and wish her all the best in her new endeavours, travelling the world and experiencing the joy of being a new auntie.

There is too much influence of big money and politics and not enough commitment to middle-class and working families reflected in this throne speech. The throne speech is about the vision of the current government, yet the throne speech does not reflect the priorities of British Columbians, let alone my constituents in North Coast. How is this government going to make life more affordable for everyday people? When will this government take action to help our most vulnerable assets: our children?

The Representative for Children and Youth just released a report called Broken Promises. This title speaks to the B.C. Liberal record of governing for this province. This government has given a $1 billion tax break over the last four years to the top 2 percent in this province. Yet report after report demonstrates that we are failing in child welfare, and B.C.’s child poverty rate is higher than the national average.

There are still over 163,000 children living in poverty in British Columbia. At the current rate, it would take until the year 2053 to eliminate child poverty in B.C. We are still the only province in Canada without a poverty reduction plan. Children are dying in government care, like Alex Gervais, the latest victim of a failed priority of this government. While there is money to give away to those that need it the least, those like Alex suffer the consequences.

Not one word in this throne speech mentioned child care. Yet we have one of the worst situations when it comes to child care costs and availability.

There is scant reference to the key issues that are important to First Nations in this throne speech, when it’s a very important time in history in regards to aboriginal peoples’ rights. We have the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.

We’re no longer talking about recommendations here. We’re talking about calls to action. And the courts are telling us to do so in cases like Delgamuukw and Tsilhqot’in. There’s no mention of that. It took four years and the revelations that political staff in the Ministry of Transportation’s office were purposefully deleting emails about missing and murdered indigenous women to get this government to bring safe transportation for families who live along Highway 16, otherwise known as the Highway of Tears.

The throne speech does not touch on the staggering number of aboriginal kids in care — at 60 percent — even though they represent less than 10 percent of B.C.’s population. The recent children’s report valuing early intervention with indigenous youth as well as kinship care and cultural connections was absent from the throne speech.

The throne speech says: “In the coming weeks, your government will implement a new rural economic development strategy that begins with an unwavering commitment to get to yes on building projects that create jobs in rural communities — projects like Site C and LNG. Secondly, investments to create jobs through necessary infrastructure improvements.”

Well, I eagerly await this announcement. Just ask the city of Prince Rupert how it’s managing its infrastructure needs. Lead in the drinking water, a failing dam, no sewage treatment, crumbling roads and yet not one LNG agreement made with the municipality to support the supposed influx of workers from the coming LNG bonanza promised four years ago by the Premier. Nothing for Prince Rupert to prepare for industry, yet the burden falls to the city to support this industry.

In this throne speech, the government boasts about their jobs numbers. There’s certainly some evidence to say that while British Columbia is leading the way in job growth, we know that it’s actually not accurate when you think about the kinds of jobs that are being created. In fact, B.C. actually led Canada in growth of below-average-wage work over the last number of years.

When you have low-wage, part-time workers who can’t pay their bills, whose MSP is going up, whose ICBC is
[ Page 13669 ]
going up, then they’re falling farther behind. While the numbers may look good on paper, the economic reality in the homes and lives of real people is not as pretty.

The government boasts about low taxes, but what’s really interesting is that over these last 16 years under this current government, there have been significant tax cuts to personal income taxes, but they’ve been replaced with regressive taxes like MSP premiums and ICBC premiums.

[1455]

When you add up all the taxes that people pay — all of it: income tax, PST, MSP, fuel, property tax — the people paying the bulk of the taxes in this province are the bottom of our income earners. That’s an unfair burden to our lower earners in our province.

Who’s benefiting from all this? Well, it’s the wealthy. The top-earners are actually paying less tax — a lower effective tax rate than everybody else. We have an unfair system, where the tax burden is placed on the bottom earners.

When you call it a fee, it is a tax. It’s a regressive tax. Whether you make $400,000 a year or $40,000 a year, you’re still paying the same fee. This is simply not fair. The B.C. Liberals only include income taxes in their numbers, while ignoring MSP, Hydro, ICBC and more — hidden taxes that everyone has to pay. When you add those costs, B.C. isn’t the lowest in taxes. We have one of the highest costs of living. These increases cost the average family at least $1,000 bucks per year. That’s a $1,000 more.

A year ago the seniors advocate said 82 percent of care homes in British Columbia weren’t meeting the government’s own standards of 3.36 hours of direct care per day. The government said: “We need to do better.” But things have gotten worse, not better. Now it’s 91 percent of care homes that aren’t meeting that standard. In my own community, seniors are being woken up very early in the morning and often have to sit two, three hours before they’re able to eat breakfast. They’re not being toileted in time, and they’re suffering the incredible indignity of having to sit in soiled diapers.

In the Acropolis Manor in Prince Rupert, when it comes to bathing — something we all take for granted — it’s the first thing to go. Sometimes residents don’t get the one bath they’re allowed a week. Often the care aides are too busy. They’re overworked, short-staffed, and they don’t get to the bath. It could go two or three weeks or more before someone gets a bath in Acropolis Manor. There’s not one single mention of improving this kind of care for seniors in the throne speech, let alone improving the situation for workers that are being run ragged and burning out.

The throne speech stated: “Your government will work with B.C. Ferries to provide a new seasonal ferry service between Port Hardy and Bella Coola.” Well, the Premier announced this in September to be implemented in 2018 after scrapping it two years ago. Ferries are only mentioned in the context of tourism.

The B.C. Liberals ignore completely all those who live in coastal communities, who rely on ferries for work and the needed connection to services and their families. Just ask the people of Sandspit on Haida Gwaii how their economy is going or how easy it is to get their kids to school with the cuts this government has made to their ferry service.

Let’s talk about the prosperity fund. The government says: “World markets may go up and down, but bringing home the generational opportunity of LNG remains within reach because of the work that has been done in our province…. And your government has made a down payment for all of us. The British Columbia prosperity fund already has $500 million — a savings plan for the future and to pay down our debt.”

Let’s talk about broken promises with the prosperity fund. Broken promises include that it will contribute to making B.C. debt-free. In fact, under this government, British Columbians’ public debt has increased 45 percent, from $45.2 billion in 2011 to $63.5 billion today — the largest increase under any one Premier in B.C.’s history. That $100 billion from LNG will flow directly into the prosperity fund — another promise. In fact, the Premier has taken $400 million from MSP hikes and the overheated real estate market to create a pre-election slush fund.

Another broken promise: that the prosperity fund could help eliminate the sales tax. In fact, the government took $6.5 billion from PST this year. The prosperity fund will accelerate the paydown of B.C. Hydro and for the Port Mann Bridge. In fact, B.C. Hydro’s debt has grown from $11.7 billion to $19.5 billion under this government.

[1500]

The B.C. government has significantly scaled back their LNG expectations in this throne speech. The Premier promised British Columbians 100,000 jobs, an LNG plant up and running by 2015 and five by 2020. The Premier promised $100 billion prosperity fund and a debt-free B.C. None of those promises have been kept.

In the 2013 throne speech, LNG was to eliminate our debt, eliminate the PST, and create 100,000 jobs and a trillion dollars in economic activity. In 2014, the throne speech said that LNG was a chance, not a windfall. In 2015, the throne speech said LNG was still a generational opportunity but was barely mentioned otherwise in an effort to change the channel. In 2016, in the throne speech, the B.C. Liberals finally admitted that their timelines could not be met and whined that the government have done all that they can, but “global conditions are posing new challenges.” Although LNG…. “Success is not for quitters” was the change of the channel there.

This year, LNG needs “global markets to thrive, but unforeseen headwinds have created challenging conditions,” and reminding us that world markets may go up and down and that the very best they can do is insist that bringing home that generational opportunity of LNG remains within reach.
[ Page 13670 ]

Quite a change in tune since the 2013 throne speech’s grandiose promises.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

I’d like to wrap up by talking about education. The throne speech states, “Average per-pupil funding is now over $8,900, the highest ever, even with an increase of 10,000 students in the past two years.” Well, B.C.’s per-pupil funding is $1,000 lower than the national average. Since the time this Premier was Education Minister in 2002, B.C. has gone from the second-best-funded education system in Canada to the second-worst.

Again, I quote from the throne speech: “This government has worked with the Teachers Federation to achieve the longest negotiated settlement in history, ensuring six years of labour peace in our classrooms so that our children can learn without interruption.” Like this was some sort of fun picnic that the government had with the teachers. Not only did this Premier deliberately provoke a strike with B.C. teachers in 2012; she oversaw the longest school strike in B.C.’s history in 2014.

When the Premier was Education Minister in 2002, she illegally ripped up teachers’ contracts, taking away their right to bargain for class size and composition. For 15 years, her government spent millions to battle B.C. teachers in court. In the end, it took the Supreme Court of Canada less than 20 minutes to decide the Premier had it wrong all along. But now, a generation of B.C. kids spent their time in our public education system in overcrowded and undersupported classrooms because of this Premier’s decisions.

I’ll return to the theme of broken promises. The throne speech says: “To keep our students safe, your government has committed $1.7 billion in new infrastructure over the next three years and invested $1.3 billion in more than 160 completed school seismic projects, with more to come over the next three years.”

Well, in 2005, the B.C. Liberal government promised that all schools would be seismically upgraded by 2020. In 2015, they pushed that deadline back to 2025, and 2030 for schools in Vancouver. Before the last election, this government promised that 45 high-risk schools would be seismically upgraded by 2016.

The Premier is now using excuses, like low enrolment, to delay these necessary upgrades. As of January 2017, 118 schools haven’t even started to receive seismic upgrades that they muchly need. That includes the Prince Rupert Middle School, where students are waiting to be assessed, lack support from specialist teachers, have complex classroom compositions and are experiencing overcrowding, safety concerns in labs and shop classes and foods, especially. Secondary students can’t get all of the classes they need to graduate unless they complete on-line learning. Parents are outraged.

Let me return to the seismic upgrades. At Prince Rupert Middle School, parents, students and teachers need to see follow-through. Prince Rupert has three empty school buildings due to school closures to reach that so-called 95 percent capacity that’s required. The only middle school, PRMS, desperately needs replacement. Still, families are waiting.

[1505]

The building needs $8 million in seismic upgrades and $9 million just to upgrade the delayed building repairs. A new building would cost $22 million. I’m hearing parents’ concerns weekly. It’s dire. The building is sinking in the rear because it’s on a toxic dump site. Asbestos is still in the walls. Fumes from the sludge below are seeping into the classrooms. They used to dump the toxic sludge out, but after 1995, all the fish in the nearby stream died, so now it still festers underneath the students’ classrooms.

Now, WorkSafe did test the substance and deemed it safe to stay below the classrooms, but parents and teachers are questioning these fumes. They bubble up intermittently, and rooms need to be vacated. This is happening right now in Prince Rupert. They’re working with an air quality specialist, because parents don’t believe they tested the gases adequately. Staff and students are experiencing reactions, such as lung and asthma issues.

The school desperately needs replacement. The throne speech is quite vacuous and, I believe, failing everyday British Columbians, especially and most notably our children.

Hon. S. Anton: It’s a pleasure to be here to respond to the Speech from the Throne.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

I would like to start off by acknowledging some of the people in my life — my husband of 36 years, who is always my strongest support, and my children. I will mention the new members of my family, my new daughter-in-law Sarah and her son Austin, who became very welcome members of our family when she married my son Angus last September. We are, of course, thrilled with that.

I’d like to recognize as well my constituency staff — Tanya Tan, who’s on maternity leave, having had a little boy called Mason, and my staff Dawn Escobedo and Catherine Kwan.

Also my constituents from Vancouver-Fraserview. What a fantastic constituency I live in. I know many people feel this way, but I just always am thrilled at the number of people who come into our office who give us their opinions, who ask for help. And when we can help people and do something for them, it really is probably the most gratifying thing that any of us do. It certainly is for me.

I’m in a diverse community and a fascinating community. I love every minute of my job, both being minister and also being an MLA in my constituency.
[ Page 13671 ]

In Fraserview this year — very recently, as a matter of fact, on the ninth of January — we finally had the great moment of the groundbreaking of our seniors centre, which is a centre that’s been talked about for many years. The province put in $2½ million, including the $1.2 million that I was able to get for the centre to top up the provincial commitment. Now we’ve had the groundbreaking.

I’d like to acknowledge Lorna Gibbs, who is a long-time leader of that process, and also her friend and colleague, Keith Jacobson. Keith Jacobson, unfortunately, died of cancer last year. He’s much missed. Everybody really feels his loss at the time of this centre being built, recognizing his leadership for so many years in leading that project.

We’ve got school projects in the neighbourhood. All of these things that I’m about to talk about now, including the seniors centre, all come about because we have a strong financial position in British Columbia. We’ve got a balanced budget — now, tomorrow our fifth balanced budget. We’ll have our fourth surplus announced shortly. That strong financial position allows us to do the seismic upgrades that have been long committed to. Kingsford-Smith is getting a seismic upgrade, and Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary — just on the other side of my riding but serving my riding — is getting a brand-new school.

We put $2 million into Fair Haven United Church Homes to build a new 139-unit apartment building for low-income or affordable housing for seniors, just a block away from my constituency office, and the community is thrilled to have those 139 new units replacing about 50 old units. The German-Canadian home, a long-time, long-term-care home right on the south slope, has received the go-ahead from Vancouver Coastal to rebuild. That is thrilling news for them. They’ve been working very hard on that for many, many years.

[1510]

I have, in Vancouver-Fraserview, more co-op housing than any other riding in British Columbia. It was very welcome news the other day from our Housing Minister and announced by myself…. A certain group of those occupants at the co-op housing were going to be fairly disadvantaged by the loss of the subsidies. So we have been able to put $2 million in to help those co-op residents so that they can stay in their units without a big price increase. Those are all the kinds of things that having a balanced budget lets us do.

I would like to mention the Ross Street Temple, which is a historic institution in Vancouver-Fraserview. It started, actually, in Kitsilano in 1906, home of the Khalsa Diwan Society, which is the oldest non-profit Sikh society outside of India. They now make their home and form a real community in the Ross Street Temple.

They suffered a very significant and serious fire in 2016 and are working very hard. I really compliment the temple. The fire happened at midnight, and by three in the morning, they were operational again right across the road. It was a remarkable tribute to the resilience of that community and also a remarkable tribute to the importance of community to that community, in that they needed to get their kitchen up and running again so that they could continue providing meals to people, really without even a break, notwithstanding the terrible fire they had suffered.

Turning from my riding to my ministry, the Ministry of Justice, let me talk a bit about the things that the speech said and then how they apply to the Justice Ministry. Certainly, the Speech from the Throne reflects what a fantastic time it is to be in British Columbia.

No wonder nearly 60,000 people moved to British Columbia last year. This is a place where you can get a job, a family-supporting job. The statistics are so good for the province. We have the lowest unemployment in Canada. We have the highest rate of growth in Canada. We have the best health outcomes in Canada. These are all pretty good statistics, I’d say.

We have the best education outcomes, in some ways, in the world. Our students are the best readers in the world, and they’re top in many — science, math, and so on. Certainly, when I go to the graduations that I go to at Killarney high school and David Thompson high school, I see those students — in each case about 350 — walking across the stage. Those are students ready for the world. I feel so proud of them, and I know their parents, of course, are proud of them and their schools and their community. Our schools are doing an absolutely terrific job for them.

We have a diversified economy. We have a strong economy. It lets us do things like help people who really need help. I heard the member opposite, a moment ago, talking about a poverty reduction plan. Poverty in British Columbia, child poverty, has gone down by 50 percent in the last ten years, so 79,000 less children are living in poverty than lived in poverty in 2006.

That is a remarkable statistic, and that is a testament to the hard work that government does to make sure that we’re in a prosperous situation in British Columbia, that the minister does to make sure that families are looked after. We are in this position because government is in a strong financial position.

Part of the purpose of being in a strong financial position is so that we can look after people who need help. We need to do health care and education, and we need to help people who need more assistance To have all those children come out of poverty really is fantastic. That is not to say that the goal is over. We need to keep working.

On the Ministry of Justice, we were challenged some years ago to not just keep coming back and saying that we’ve got growth and we need more money. We were challenged to be innovative, and have we been innovative. When I go across the country, when I meet with my colleagues from across the country, there is more going on in British Columbia and we are doing more in British Columbia in innovation than you see in any other jurisdiction.
[ Page 13672 ]

We have, for example, the Justice Summits where all of the partners in justice come together in one room to talk about particular issues. Last year it was mental health and addiction. How do you look at those issues in the context of the whole justice system — judiciary, police, defence counsel, Crown counsel, service providers, health, education, and so on.

You put all of those people in the room and you come up with, first of all, some conclusions and, second of all, some challenges for all of us in terms of how to improve our overall justice system. It is a very excellent concept, and it’s turning out well in British Columbia.

[1515]

We have about $100 million in Justice that goes into programs for lower-income British Columbians. For example, Legal Services Society, which delivers what you might call the traditional legal aid — $74.7 million, and in addition, last year another $1.08 million from the federal government. On top of that, in the last three years, Legal Services Society was challenged to be innovative.

We have what we call the JITI projects, the justice innovation and transformation initiatives. We have four of those. The Parents Legal Centre, helping parents who are faced with child protection matters, helping them early to find a good resolution. We have the Family LawLINE. If you have a family issue, you have six hours of a lawyer’s time. You can take that six hours at different times — an accumulated six hours of advice. We have the criminal duty counsel, which supports early resolution of less-complex cases, and we have the family duty counsel, which gives advice and coaching to clients on how to resolve matters earlier and outside of court wherever possible.

We can add judges and courtrooms forever that cost an awful lot of money, or we can figure out ways to take things out of court that don’t need to be in court. If you can resolve family matters out of court or you can find a mediated solution or a solution between the parties, that is a better solution than going into court and having a court-imposed solution.

That’s Legal Services Society. Then on top of that, there’s another $30 million spent on justice services, including 21 family justice centres, three justice access centres — Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver. We’re looking at adding a fourth.

We have the family maintenance enforcement program, which is a program that gets support for families from a spouse who may not be that keen on paying it. The family maintenance enforcement programs make sure that money is paid. Last year they collected $211 million, which was transferred to the family recipients. In the last 26 or 27 years, that program has reached and received, on behalf of families, $3.45 billion. That’s a very successful program and very well received, of course, by the families who are having trouble getting the maintenance that they are due.

Those are things that we do in terms of legal services and legal aid. At the same time, we do things to take matters out of court, such as the immediate roadside prohibitions so that 6,000 impaired driving cases a year no longer go into a courtroom. That saves a lot of court time.

Really transformational, we have the civil resolution tribunal coming. The civil resolution tribunal is the world’s first on-line dispute resolution tribunal, the only one in the world that is tied into the public justice system. Right now it’s hearing strata disputes, and shortly, the small claims disputes will go into that tribunal.

The strata disputes…. Everyone in this room, if they don’t live in a strata, has a friend who lives in a strata. We all know that strata disputes have been the kinds of dispute that can go on for a long time and can cause real grief in the strata. How have we been able to change that? By creating a dispute resolution tribunal for those strata disputes. That is the civil resolution tribunal.

You can go on line and see the first set of cases that have now been decided, have been adjudicated. You can see the kind of pressure it has relieved on those stratas that have been involved, the kind of solutions that they’re able to give to strata owners. It is a remarkable transformation of justice, the civil resolution tribunal, and as I said, the first in the world.

I feel very proud of that, and I really compliment all the people who have worked so hard on it, including our partners in justice, who have helped us along the way with their thinking about it, with their critique, with their assistance and with their advice.

At the same time, of course, we are a growing province, so we have got court expansion. The Surrey law court expansion is underway right now. We just very recently announced $157 million for a brand-new Abbotsford courthouse. Anyone who has seen the courthouse in Abbotsford anytime recently will know that it is desperately in need of replacement. To Abbotsford, this is a very welcome announcement that was made — a brand-new courthouse.

[1520]

We have physical, we have new programs, and of course we have technical. We have Court Services Online. Now 24-7, you can search civil and criminal court files, and you can e-file documents. Again, this is extremely helpful to people.

The court administration transformation suite streamlines citizens’ services and decreases court appearances. Of course, we are making increasing use of video appearances for bail matters, for example, for court appearances which are more routine — a date setting, for example. The accused, if he’s in custody, does not necessarily need to come from in custody all the way to the courtroom and all the way back again. That can be done now through video appearances.

We’re steadily increasing that around the province because it is so useful and transformational — a very great
[ Page 13673 ]
saving of people’s time and resources and a very beneficial addition to our justice system.

Let me talk now a bit about First Nations and justice. This is a real emphasis for everybody in the justice system. A couple of issues that are really significant…. It was referred to a moment ago. We have about 7,000 children in care in British Columbia. About 4,200 of them are First Nations. That is a statistic that so many people across the justice system are working to change.

We had the Ed John report, talking about children in care. Through the Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, we had a family gathering last year which put a lot of people together and a lot of heads together on this issue. We’ve got the Parents Legal Centre, which was one of the legal services initiatives that I just described. We’ve got a commitment by government. We’ve got a commitment by First Nations, and we have a commitment by the courts. All of those entities are working together to change that dynamic of having so many aboriginal children in care.

For example, something that has happened recently is that in New Westminster, I was honoured to attend the new opening of the aboriginal family court conference, which takes elders and looks at this child who may be going into care and tries to find a better solution. Is there a solution for that child with family members? Is there a solution for that child in their community?

It is that kind of creative thinking — through the courts, in this case, and partners in justice — that is being replicated all around British Columbia, to think of better ways, better solutions than simply taking children into care. It is a universal desire to change the dynamic which I just described.

Similarly, in criminal justice, again, aboriginal people are overrepresented. There are solutions such as First Nations courts. I had the honour of visiting the First Nations court in Kamloops the other day and watched as the elders gave their advice and guidance to the man who had just pleaded guilty, to help him not come back again.

Criminal justice is the field where we don’t want our customers to keep coming. The best solution of all is when you can find a solution so that the person understands what they have done and is able to stay out of the criminal justice system after that. That’s certainly the goal of the First Nations court. It’s very admirable — the one in Kamloops that I saw the other day. There are several of them — New Westminster, Duncan, North Vancouver. Again, it’s a model that’s being looked at with interest around British Columbia.

Then another part of my ministry, of course, is our legal services lawyers, who work very closely with the Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation to find ways of reconciliation around British Columbia. It’s very active. Matters are underway in terms of land issues, resource issues, working together with First Nations partners to achieve reconciliation and to achieve economic stability for First Nations around British Columbia.

I will mention one other file that is my responsibility, which is the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, the national inquiry which is getting underway. We’re working through — staff in Public Safety and through myself as minister — ways of working with the inquiry to ensure that British Columbia is a full participant and is a participant as is needed by the inquiry, because we all want good results from that inquiry — good, positive, constructive results.

[1525]

There are so many families in British Columbia and across the country who have lost women — missing, murdered and unknown fates. That is a source of grievous distress and ongoing distress to those families. I really am very interested in the inquiry and very hopeful that it can come up with some positive solutions and some things that not only help those families but help the issue going forward so that other families do not have to suffer in the same way.

I think that, in summary, what I can say is that the focus in British Columbia, as described in the throne speech…. The focus on prosperity — on building a strong economy, on diversity in the economy, on being careful with how you deploy your resources and deploying them wisely — has been extremely beneficial to the Ministry of Justice.

It has led to the kind of innovation which is not seen across the country but is seen here. It is being watched with interest from around the world.

I would like to compliment all of the people in the Ministry of Justice who work so hard to make that innovation happen. And I would like to thank our partners in the community. There are so many people who put their heads together when these new initiatives come along — to make sure that they’re good initiatives and that we have good advice on them. Those are people who give freely of their time and their energy and their long experience to make sure that the products we build in British Columbia are good ones.

The Speech from the Throne outlined the success that British Columbia is having fiscally, and I know that in all of the different ministries, there is success happening. There are fantastic results. British Columbia really is a very good place to be right now — the strongest jurisdiction in Canada in so many different ways. I’m very proud, as I said, of my riding of Vancouver-Fraserview and very proud of my ministry, the Ministry of Justice, in how both of those benefit from having the kind of strong economy and the secure tomorrow that was outlined in our Speech from the Throne.

G. Heyman: It’s an honour, once again, to rise in this House to respond to the Speech from the Throne and to talk about the different reality that my constituents in
[ Page 13674 ]
Vancouver-Fairview, and British Columbians across the province, experience from the rather rosy and one-sided picture presented by the government, government ministers and the throne speech. I’ll also talk about the great features of my constituency and the great features of my constituents, but it is important, I think, to talk about the reality of their needs, the reality of their experience, versus the rosy picture that we’ve heard over the last few days.

First, I want to begin, as the throne speech begins, by talking about people who have passed over the course of the previous year. Earlier today, in a two-minute statement, I was able to pay tribute to a great British Columbian, a great artist in British Columbia, a great woman, a great role model, a great mentor, a great actor and a great teacher: Joy Coghill. It was an oversight that she was not captured within the mentions of important and great British Columbians whose passing we mourn over the last year.

Joy Coghill was a recipient of the Order of Canada, as well as a Governor General’s Award in the performing arts. She was appointed by this Legislature to the inaugural B.C. Arts Council. In her over 90 years of life, she broke ground for women across Canada and across the world. She was the first woman to be the artistic director of B.C.’s then foremost theatre company, the Playhouse Theatre Co. She was the first woman to head the English section of the National Theatre School of Canada. She was a woman who was the author of many firsts.

She was also a woman who was passionate about her province, passionate about what she called the voice that politicians — and she preferred progressive politicians — could bring to debate in this province about the issues that face us all. She was passionate about the community.

[1530]

In her later years, she found new ways to contribute by, as she aged, engaging older actors in performances and by founding a theatre company especially for actors in their senior years. Called Western Gold, they created a production called the Alzheimer Project, which became the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary.

Joy Coghill was an amazing woman, an amazing teacher, a woman that I was proud to call a friend. Her celebration of life is happening as we speak, in Vancouver. Many friends from many generations are paying tribute to an amazing British Columbian today, and I’m pleased to be able to add my voice to them.

I also want to take a moment to say thank you, as this is the last session of this parliament, to the many staff I’ve had the privilege of working with in my constituency office as well as in the Legislature. My first two constituency assistants, Ashley Fehr and Jared Hagglund, both of whom have left my office to move on to other opportunities, helped me get my office off the ground.

Together, we learned the ropes of representing constituents in many facets of their interactions with government. In their attempts to find justice as they dealt with public and private institutions, the exigencies of everyday life or simply wanting some information, they helped me reach out. They helped to organize town hall meetings and community forums in which we engaged residents of Vancouver-Fairview on issues that were of importance to them — whether it was child care, education, seniors care or housing. And the list goes on. I’m proud to know them. I’m proud to call them friends.

I also want to recognize another constituency assistant — who has been with me almost from the beginning but not quite — Reamick Lo, who is now the anchor and the senior constituency assistant in my office. She does an amazing job, organizes and makes sure every administrative detail is taken care of. When I’m in the office and I listen to her interactions with people who come in — often people who are very troubled, very anxious and very stressed out — she brings a sense of calm and focus to the issues they bring forward and gives me good advice and works with me to attempt to find resolution.

Finally, there are two new constituency assistants who’ve joined me in my office in recent days. One of them joined me three weeks ago: Lisa Dekleer. She has quickly learned the ropes of the job, is organized and ensures that I feel no sense of holes in the office that have to be filled. She specializes in community outreach and engagement, but I have watched her be totally on point in terms of dealing with constituents who are stressed, troubled and seeking advice.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

Beginning just today is my newest constituency assistant, Sean Phipps, a young man who came highly recommended. When I talked to the people that he’d been working with but who had run out of money to keep him going on the contract, he got the highest of praise as a quick learner, somebody who worked well with people. When I talked to him in the interview, it was obvious that he was looking forward to the opportunity to be part of the community of Vancouver-Fairview, to learn about Vancouver-Fairview’s issues and to help represent the community office, which we have on West Broadway, to people in the constituency.

People know that they had a place to come if they had an issue, that they had people to talk to if they needed help and that there was a good interface with government. I look forward to continuing my work with Reamick, Lisa and Sean.

[1535]

Also in this Legislature, I’ve had the opportunity, as we all have had, first of all, to work with many of the interns who come in for sessions to help us with research, to get us information, to help prepare us for estimates and to watch them learn and grow as they come here for a real-time political experience and learn what happens behind
[ Page 13675 ]
the scenes in this place that informs and helps us have intelligent and, hopefully, intelligible debate and discussion in this Legislature.

I’ve also worked with a number of research assistants and communications assistants over the almost four years of this term, most of whom I am no longer working with. But I do want to thank them for their help and recognize the contributions they made to helping me get acclimatized, to helping me learn how to address certain issues — whether it was spending estimates, private members’ bills, motions or whether it was simply communicating the issues that I was bringing forward.

Derrick Harder was a rock in my early days, as I dealt with TransLink. Lindsay Walton was tremendously helpful on issues of technology and the green economy. Jeff Dean and Kenn McLaren worked with me for brief periods of time on parts of my files.

Jennifer Jones and Jon Robinson both worked with me on the environment file. And many people have helped us out on both the research and communications side — Jen Holmwood, Marielle Tounsi, Ed May. I know I’m going to forget somebody here, and it’s really not my intention to do so.

Their help has been tremendous, and I want to thank them all. I hope to see them back here shortly after May.

Let me talk a little bit about my constituency, a place that I’m greatly privileged to represent. Vancouver-Fairview is somewhat unique in Vancouver. It straddles the east side of the city as well as the west side. There are older areas of working-family neighbourhoods. There are other neighbourhoods that are quite wealthy. And close by those neighbourhoods that are thought of as wealthy are actually a number of strata buildings as well as rental buildings where people have made their homes for many years.

There are single-family dwellings. There are, as you go back from the street in many of the areas in the heart of Vancouver-Fairview, developments that give great expression to the attempts of Vancouver to densify in a way that keeps the character of the community. There are many areas that used to be single-family homes that now are a series of townhomes.

Of course, Vancouver-Fairview is home to many, many students. We see a high turnover of renters in the areas of Fairview that, at one time, were affordable and, unfortunately, are becoming less affordable over time. But they bring a vibrancy.

There are students, young families, young professionals and seniors. Many others call Fairview home, whether it’s the western edge of Mount Pleasant, the Fairview Slopes, the South Granville neighbourhood or the Cambie village. It’s a vibrant constituency that I’m pleased and honoured to represent.

It is, in some ways, an interesting challenge to represent because there is no central core to the constituency. There are several cores, whether it’s the burgeoning Main Street corridor — with many people moving into new homes, as well as new businesses and restaurants starting up — or the Broadway corridor, with a history of small businesses and also a history of great congestion, as we wait for transit improvements to come. It is also home to the Cambie village that I mentioned — the area of business that, of course, went through such turmoil during the construction of the Canada Line but has made a great recovery — and the areas of South Granville, with another range of shops.

It is a vibrant area. There are art galleries. There are art galleries on the north side of Broadway; artists’ co-ops, which I’ve spoken about in this Legislature; many, many health research organizations in the cluster that’s near the hospital that employ many people in cutting-edge technological research to make our lives better; animation studios, post-production studios. The list goes on, and it makes the community vibrant.

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As I said, it’s a vibrant community, but it’s not a community that is not feeling difficulty, is not feeling pressure, is not feeling the pressure of decreasing affordability that we have seen grow incrementally over the 16 years of this government.

No matter what this government says in the throne speech, life is not so rosy for most British Columbians. Even British Columbians who consider themselves comfortably middle-class are struggling. Let me talk about some of the ways in which that is true.

A few months ago my colleague the member for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant and I co-hosted a housing forum in the constituency. I think we were both amazed that on a hot, sunny Saturday in spring the room was packed and overflowing. What we heard was story after story about the difficulties faced by renters, faced by people who were hoping to own a home — a home in an area in which they worked, in which grew up or in which they were currently living — and just see it become a pipe dream, a chimera floating out of attainability, floating out of reach.

Renters have been moving out of my constituency as rents escalate. I have had young families, parents of young families, come into my office and tell me that despite the fact that they both earn significant professional incomes, the hope of owning a home in the area near where they live and where their children are planning to go to school or are going to school…. They cannot hope to afford a home.

That’s wrong. It is hollowing out my constituency. It is hollowing out our city. It is creating stress and despair for people, whether they’re struggling with high rents that eat up far too large a proportion of their income or whether they’re struggling with mortgages and dreading the inevitable rise of interest rates that may put them over the tipping point of being able to afford the home they’ve got.
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I was going door to door a couple of weeks ago, and I knocked on the door of a young man who came outside and asked us to keep our voices hushed because his infant was having a nap. He talked about how much he loved the neighbourhood. He’d grown up as a child and a teenager just a few blocks from where he lived in Vancouver-Fairview.

He said: “We’re renting here. The rents are getting unaffordable. I’m not sure we can stay. I know there’s no way I can ever afford to buy a home here, as much as I would love my children to grow up in the neighbourhood in which I grew up, near where my parents made their life. I can’t see us ever being able to afford that.”

There’s just something wrong with that. Housing is important. We all need homes. Our economy in the city depends on people who work in our city being able to find a home. I’ve had tech entrepreneurs in Vancouver-Fairview talk to me at length about their difficulty both attracting and retaining employees who can’t afford to live close to where they work. When they decide it’s time, they get married or start a young family. They move out to the suburbs, where it’s marginally more affordable. But then it’s a long commute.

We haven’t had the investment in transit in the last five years that we need, that everybody in Metro Vancouver recognizes we need. It has been delayed and delayed because of this government’s refusal to work with the mayors to fund the needed transit improvements and then culminated by putting up a ridiculous referendum that everybody knew would fail, that was intended to fail.

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It was a cheap election trick and put off the funding measures that we need to build transit to create livable communities and reduce congestion, for both quality of life and our economy. It’s costing the economy. Despite what this government likes to say about being all about building the economy, it costs the economy. Congestion costs the economy over $1 billion a year.

This government stood by and did nothing while foreign speculative money — not people who hold foreign passports or people with foreign nationalities who wanted to come here, live here, work here and pay taxes here, but foreign speculative money — took Vancouver real estate from being about affordable places to live to being a place to park money, much of it suspect money, as an investment.

It’s driven the cost of housing in Vancouver through the roof. This government, as with so many other things, simply sees a gaping wound and tries to throw a band-aid on it at the last minute before an election.

This weekend we saw the government commit a one-time infusion of cash, of pre-election cash, into the education system to make up for the significant shortfall of money for student resources, student materials and per-student funding that has grown since this government took office in 2001 and the current Premier was the Education Minister.

I’ve had conversations with constituents in Vancouver-Fairview who have looked at me and expressed incredulity that the Premier could say, following the Supreme Court decision that finally gave a definitive decision…. That the stripping of teachers’ contracts that took money out of the school system, that took away class-size and composition limits, that took away the learning opportunities for a generation of school children…. That her attitude to that was: “Finally, we can get on with properly funding the school system.”

The Premier was the author of the problem. We have gone from the second-best-funded education system in Canada to the second-worst-funded education system, and all this government can do is have fun with numbers and say: “We’ve never put more money into education than we have.” It is not true in real terms because it doesn’t account for inflation or the actual students who need the money to learn, the resources to learn, the materials to learn.

What we need is a real commitment to funding education, not band-aid commitments to get this government through an election. It won’t work. It will not work.

We have seen cuts to adult basic education that is necessary for so many people who do not have high school graduation, who have emigrated to this country in order to contribute productively to our economy and pay taxes — which will pay back the supports they get from this government. We have seen mean-spirited and shortsighted cuts in funding to that program.

For students going to post-secondary, we have seen tuition increases. We’re the only province in Canada without grants.

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We see a shortage of people graduating with the necessary tech skills to fill the jobs in our burgeoning tech sector, so the sector, understandably, is looking for talent from outside of British Columbia, while young British Columbians choose, on the one hand, whether to get the education they need to get the good job that can support them and their families in the future, or whether they’re willing to graduate with well over $30,000 in student debt in a province that has the highest student loan interest rates in Canada — to actually be willing to think if they can carry that into their early working years.

We owe young people in this province much more than that. We owe our economy more than that. We owe the employers in this province more than that. We can do better. We need to have a long view rather than a short-sighted view, and this government, apparently, does not have it.

As I mentioned, a lot of seniors in Vancouver-Fairview and seniors across the province have been struggling. A year ago we put on a forum to discuss the needs for home support and home care and to talk to people about what their experiences were of availability.

We had, as a guest, the seniors advocate, Isobel Mackenzie, who gave a very informative presentation.
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We had a presentation from a person living with disability about their difficulty receiving home support, and we had a presentation from a home support worker, who talked about how the cuts in her per-client hours made it almost impossible for her to do more than breeze in and breeze out — barely has a chance to monitor the health and well-being of some of the seniors in her care.

Most tragically, we heard seniors, people with disabilities, people living with people with disabilities talk about how difficult it was to get the care that people needed to stay at home, to participate in their community, to get out of the home, to be safe, to have nutritious meals, to have the health care system notified if they needed medical attention.

This government thinks it’s more important to give tax cuts to the richest British Columbians, who never even asked for it, of $250 million a year, instead of offer supports to people who need our help if they have a disability or seniors who have given their lives to building this province.

It’s not good enough. That’s why this throne speech paints a fake picture of British Columbia. We are not doing well. We’ve lost 30,000 forestry jobs. Outside of Metro Vancouver, the economy is not doing well. Communities are shrinking. Without the booming real estate market — the out-of-control real estate market, which in and of itself is a huge problem — the growth in B.C.’s economy would be nowhere near the levels that this government takes credit for.

If they want to take credit, as they should, for making homes in British Columbia — particularly in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island — unaffordable, they should look British Columbians in the eye and say: “It’s our fault.” But it’s not a credit to the government; it’s a mark on their record.

Let me simply close by saying there are some areas in this throne speech which merited no mention but which should have. There was no mention of the need of seniors for home support or the failure to provide the residential care that they were promised and which they need. There was no mention of kids at risk, despite the fact that report after report after report — based on the tragic deaths of Alex Gervais, Paige Gauchier, Nick Lang, Isabella Wiens, Carly Fraser — has pointed out the need to do better. Instead, this government says, “We will do better,” and does nothing. In this throne speech, the government could not even bring itself to say anything.

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There is nothing in the throne speech about protecting workers who face the risk of hazardous injury or death on the job. There is nothing in the throne speech about instructing the Workers Compensation Board — WorkSafe B.C. — to put energy and bodies into enforcement of and compliance with regulations.

Instead, what we see is small operations get administrative penalties. Large operations, often foreign multinationals, get a slap on the wrist. They continue to get order after order, citation after citation, while workers die, suffer serious injury, and their complaints to WorkSafe B.C. that regulations are not being followed fall on deaf ears in terms of any meaningful penalty to these companies.

Let me close by saying that British Columbians want a government that does more than pay attention to, take money from and deliver gifts to the well connected and the wealthy. People in British Columbia want a government that is on their side, in their corner, going to bat for them. People want a government that will pay attention to building an economy and jobs that work for them in every corner of this province, instead of polarizing British Columbians between choices of a modern, diverse economy, renewable energy, a clean economy and environmental protection.

This government has not delivered what British Columbians need. This throne speech doesn’t fix that. This throne speech simply highlights the many areas — from seniors’ care to children’s care to education to housing to meaningful action on climate change — in which this government has failed to deliver anything but a reduction in services, a reduction in resources, misleading British Columbians about environmental protection and painting a rosy picture that they hope will get them through the election in May. It won’t be enough.

British Columbians want somebody as Premier, want a government, that’s on their side. We’re ready to give it to them.

L. Reimer: It’s a pleasure to rise on behalf of my constituents of Anmore, Belcarra, Port Moody and Coquitlam in reply to the Speech from the Throne.

Before I begin, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all my wonderful staff I’ve had here in Victoria over the past term: Katherine, Sunil, Simran, Amninder, Rhiannon, Doug Secord, Jennifer. They have supported me immensely whilst I’ve been here, in Victoria, and also back in my riding. I also want to thank Prim, Melissa and Lorne for always being there for us members.

As well, staff in my extremely busy constituency office are also a huge support. Thanks goes to Isabel, Vicki and Mary, who have been with me for the past four years. They’re constantly adjusting schedules, rushing to complete things and keeping me on track. In addition, they provide wonderful service to my constituents. I’ve had many commendations from constituents about the service that they provide.

In addition, I want to thank the staff at the Ministry of Community, Sport and Culture Development, where I’m parliamentary secretary, for all their support as we pass the most comprehensive local government election reforms in more than 20 years and have spent the last four years liaising with our many wonderful local governments.

Most of all, I’d like to thank my fabulous family — my husband, Les, of 35 years; my wonderful sons, Gord
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and Bill. I’m so pleased and happy and thrilled for my son Gord, who is being married on June 10 to a lovely, wonderful young woman. I also want to thank my mom, Norma, for the sacrifices that she’s also made that allow me to well represent my constituents. Without their support, my chosen path would not have been the pleasure or the success that it has been.

We’ve a number of vibrant communities, both large and small, in my tri-city riding, including Anmore and Belcarra, which are both villages; Port Moody, which is a small city; and Coquitlam, a larger city. We have a dynamic history. We have important historical architecture; beautiful scenery, where the mountains meet the water; and a highly diverse, multicultural community that welcomes people from all over the world to come and live and work in one of the most beautiful places on earth, British Columbia. We’re known for many things in my region.

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In 2013, Port Moody celebrated its 100th birthday. The year, my first as representative, was marked with many special events, with Col. Richard Moody, a.k.a. Dr. David Spence, and his lovely wife, Mary Moody, played by Donna Otto, in attendance at those events. Interestingly, during my term in office, the Royal B.C. Museum acquired a collection of Moody photos.

Port Moody is a city of the arts and is blessed to have the Port Moody Arts Centre, a vibrant hub for both artists and those who appreciate art.

In 2016, Coquitlam reached a significant milestone. We celebrated the city’s 125th anniversary with the Kaleidoscope Festival, a true reflection of Coquitlam’s community. While 125 years is somewhat young by world standards, it is worth mentioning that Canada is marking its 150th anniversary in 2017, and that means Coquitlam has been a part of our country almost from the beginning.

As a matter of fact, Coquitlam traces its roots back to the Coast Salish people who have inhabited the banks of the Fraser River for centuries. It may interest you to know, hon. Speaker, that the name Coquitlam comes from the Coast Salish word kwikwetlem, which means “red fish up the river” — an acknowledgment of the importance of salmon in Coast Salish culture and traditional way of life.

Our Kwikwetlem First Nation has supported our community from the beginning. I’m so pleased that their artwork is exhibited in our Evergreen line stations. They have also been gracious hosts to the Coquitlam council and, more recently, after our art dedication blessing ceremony, to both our Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and to me as MLA.

Coquitlam has evolved from a humble agricultural and lumber town into the place that we know today. It is my home, and I’ve had the privilege of serving for two terms on its city council and now as its MLA.

Quite recently Coquitlam was recognized as the bear-sighting capital of B.C. In 2013, there were over 1,200 black bear sightings reported in the region. As you can imagine, our abundant bear population makes the likelihood of human and wildlife conflicts a fact of life. But through community effort, the residents of Coquitlam have taken the initiative and educated themselves on how to reduce the potential for wildlife conflict. They recognize that it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure that bears don’t have to be destroyed for public safety.

To that end, the city of Coquitlam is the first city in Metro Vancouver to be designated a bear-smart community. It joins eight other towns and cities in British Columbia, including Kamloops, Squamish, Lions Bay, Whistler, Port Alberni, Naramata and New Denver. I can assure you, hon. Speaker, that achieving bear-smart status is no easy task. Coquitlam spent more than a decade to reach this goal. This includes successfully implementing all 50 recommendations in the bear hazard assessment; creating and actively enforcing a variety of bear-smart bylaws; establishing a new city-wide, wildlife-resistant solid waste management system; and developing and implementing an extensive outreach program designed to educate the public about how they can reduce bear conflicts.

Ultimately, it requires whole communities to address the root causes of human-wildlife conflicts. While there are a number of factors at play, the one that we have the most control over is the human factor, and that begins with everyone becoming bear-aware and reducing animal attractants. While we can’t completely eliminate all conflicts, we must pledge to remain bear-aware at all times, including winter.

No one knows it more than the urban wildlife coordinator for the city of Coquitlam, who is now retired, and that is Drake Stephens. As a member of Coquitlam city council, I had the opportunity on many occasions to work closely with Drake, especially on educating members of the public to coexist well with wildlife. Starting out just as a concerned resident, Drake began by handing out his own letters to people with messy garbage. While some called Drake Stephens the bear whisperer, he is known throughout the community for delivering hundreds of school workshops.

There are many more heroes who also make the Tri-Cities a great place to be. These include the members of Port Moody Branch 119 of the Royal Canadian Legion. When the legion started out in 1931, 11 veterans of the First World War decided to form a branch. They had no money, no property and no building, but they had a great deal of determination and received a charter that same year.

Their first meetings were held in the basement of the Port Arms Hotel, which is now more commonly known today as the Burrard Public House. It was not until 1951 that the branch had enough money to purchase a property on 2513 Clarke Street. But after 65 years and with a failing roof, the time came last year to rebuild and redevelop. The old building is now being replaced with
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a brand-new structure that will be reopening in mid-2017, called the Strand. We’re all looking forward to its completion.

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Also among our local heroes are the members of the Coquitlam Search and Rescue society. I’ve always been deeply impressed with the high level of commitment Coquitlam SAR volunteers show and their willingness to place their own safety at risk in order to help others.

Last June I was pleased to announce $100,000 in funding for Coquitlam SAR as a part of the province’s one-time commitment of $10 million to benefit the B.C. Search and Rescue Association. This funding came in addition to a special one-time grant of $10,000 to purchase ten new digital radios for Coquitlam SAR operations.

Later on in the fall, I had the honour of participating in the official launch of the new mobile command centre. This latest acquisition will extend the reach of Coquitlam SAR volunteers and provide them with modern, state-of-the-art technology that will help to save lives.

In order to further show our appreciation for the level of commitment shown by the approximately 2,500 women and men of our search and rescue teams and our province’s 4,500 volunteer firefighters, we also recently announced our intention to include a new $3,000 tax credit for search and rescue volunteers as well as volunteer firefighters in tomorrow’s budget.

Subject to legislative approval, this non-refundable tax credit will be available to individuals who volunteer 200 hours or more to their organization. This tax credit will match the existing federal tax credit and could provide as much as $601.80 in tax relief for volunteers every year.

Search and rescue volunteers respond to more than 1,400 incidents each year, and in 95 percent of the cases, lost and injured people are rescued within 24 hours. Coquitlam search and rescue volunteers are a part of this team, and they deserve our gratitude. It’s an honour to be able to recognize them here today.

I would also like to recognize another special member of our community. Hazel Postma recently retired from Douglas College but not before leaving a tremendous legacy.

Some of Hazel’s achievements during her time at Douglas College include tripling investments to the Douglas College Foundation; hosting the Lights on the Lake Christmas Festival at Lafarge Lake from 2005 to 2010 and fundraising more than $100,000 in the process; establishing the Envision Financial capacity-building project, which matches Douglas business students with not-for-profit organizations that need assistance with business and marketing plans, volunteer management, event planning and social media outreach; being nominated for the New Westminster Business Leader of the Year award in 2014; and receiving the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for her community service. If you’ve ever taken the Evergreen line, you can thank Hazel for having the final stop named after Douglas College.

I would also like to mention here about the sad passing of the former president of the Port Moody Arts Centre, Ann Kitching. She was a wonderful community leader. Ann was known for being a feisty and good-humoured person who had boundless energy. She was a Freedom of the City recipient and contributed hugely to the culture of Port Moody. She was skilled in bringing people together and will be remembered for her community activism, especially in the field of arts and, more recently, for opening a drop-in senior’s centre.

It’s thanks to people like Ann that the Tri-Cities has been an active and thriving arts community. This year the Port Moody Art Association celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special art exhibition. The Golden Moments Show highlights the work of more than half of the members of that association. This spring the Port Moody Art Association will award its first scholarship to a graduating student who intends to pursue post-secondary studies in the arts.

As a further part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the Port Moody Art Association will also hold its annual art show at the Port Moody recreation complex that is expected to attract hundreds of art lovers from around Metro Vancouver.

Coquitlam is no stranger to playing host to crowds. Last September we hosted the 55-Plus B.C. Games, welcoming over 3,200 athletes, coaches, officials, fans and volunteers during the course of the games.

I’m proud to say that Coquitlam did an absolutely fantastic job of showcasing our community to the province, and I’m sure we left a lasting impression on all those who participated. These games prove that age is no barrier and it is possible to stay active throughout life.

Our government strongly believes in promoting a healthy, active lifestyle for everyone. We’re proud of the fact that B.C. has the best health outcomes in the province and glad to see events like the 55-Plus B.C. Games showing just what that means.

Other big events in our community recently included the Chinese lunar new year celebrations, hosted by the Tri-City Chinese community association.

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It was a great showcase of the multi-cultural community that we have in the Tri-Cities. There were fabulous performers, colourful garb and talented artists.

I also had the opportunity to attend another lunar new year event hosted by the Canada Shandong Chinese Business Association. It was an indication of the growing trade relationship between China and British Columbia. For its part, the Canada Shandong Chinese Business Association has been creating and maintaining a platform for local business and companies from Shandong, China, to communicate and interact with each other. Their work is a great reminder that our strength as a province lies in
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our people and the fact that we have one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world, which allows us to have contacts that reach around the globe, giving us an economic, as well as social, edge.

Our government is committed to supporting that wonderful multiculturalism we see in our communities. In Coquitlam, recent investments in organizations such as SUCCESS have helped multicultural seniors connect to the community with English and technology lessons, as well as a welcoming orientation to the Canadian lifestyle. Our social diversity makes us stronger as a community, and supporting older British Columbians from diverse backgrounds is a big part of that.

Naturally, schools are also an important part of our strong communities. I was pleased to take part in some recent announcements. One was last fall with the start of construction of the new $20.5 million Smiling Creek elementary school. It will create 430 new student spaces, a neighbourhood learning centre and a state-of-the-art gym. It will be a great addition to the growing community on Burke Mountain.

The government is also investing $33 million into the replacement of Minnekhada Middle School. The two-storey school will be built on the same site as the old facility but in a different location. The school will feature a neighbourhood learning centre with a gym that includes a full-sized basketball court, as well as a performing arts stage that connects to a multipurpose room.

In addition to making these investments, the Coquitlam school district has also completed 18 seismic mitigation projects. There are three more seismic projects under construction in my own riding. Both Moody Middle School and the construction contract for the building of Banting Middle were just awarded to Yellowridge Construction.

I also had the pleasure of attending the opening of Eagle Mountain Middle School in Anmore and have been thrilled to see their students enjoying the wonderful education that they are receiving.

Our purpose is to ensure that students have a safe and reliable environment in which to learn. We don’t want that learning to stop, though, when our students leave secondary school. Eighty percent of the almost one million job openings we expect in our province by 2025 will require some level of post-secondary trades training. As a result, we’re making significant investments in trades training through our B.C. skills-for-jobs blueprint.

This year, in Port Coquitlam, we invested more than $192,000 in the Electrical Joint Training Committee to help students get training as electricians in one of the highest-in-demand occupations in our province. This funding, announced last summer and coming through the Industry Training Authority, will support 96 electrician trades-training seats through to March 31 this year at the Electrical Joint Training Committee’s Green Skills Campus.

It was also my pleasure to be involved in advocating for a women-in-trades mentorship program. Last year, the Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training announced, at the B.C. building trades conference, a $400,000 grant for this purpose.

As these students receive their training, we’re providing support to already certified electricians so that they can advance their skills by receiving training in the installation and maintenance of electrical vehicle charging stations.

Our government announced an additional $50,000 in funding to Port Coquitlam’s Electrical Joint Training Committee to subsidize course fees for their EV infrastructure training program. By supporting this training, we’re helping to ensure the quality and standardization of EV charging infrastructure, while also encouraging the development of green jobs.

Through measures large and small, our government is committed to making investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was a pleasure for me to present a Green Star Award to a Hyundai dealership for meeting and surpassing targets for the sale of electric vehicles. I had the opportunity of driving one of these vehicles, and they’re very quiet and smooth-running.

One of our large measures in this area recently was the construction of the Evergreen line, providing low-emission transportation for up to 70,000 passengers every day by 2021. I had the honour of participating in the Evergreen extension’s official opening late last year. During construction, the Evergreen extension, its stations and public plazas created an estimated 8,000 direct and indirect jobs. That’s amazing.

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The 11-kilometre extension runs fully separated from traffic, linking to Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain system. It provides a fast, frequent and convenient connection from Coquitlam to Burnaby, all in approximately 15 minutes. Along the way, the Evergreen line project was responsible for environmental enhancements, including building fish and riparian habitat, removing invasive plants and planting more trees.

This $1.4 billion rapid transit infrastructure project is now an essential component of B.C. on the Move. Our ten-year transportation plan is delivering more public transit choices to commuters. We’re connecting people with their jobs, education, health care and families throughout the Lower Mainland.

With the addition of the Evergreen extension, Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain system is the longest fully automated rapid transit system in the world. I can assure you that the Evergreen is a major hit with commuters and will shape the life of our community for years to come, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier this month, no one in the Tri-Cities wanted to travel much of anywhere, however, as we got a real blast of winter that left behind a lot of snow. After the rains that
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followed, there was a lot of water left to drain. Fortunately, there was no extensive flooding, but it always remains a concern. In 1948, Coquitlam experienced a catastrophic flood when the Fraser River burst its banks, causing the loss of human life, destroying 2,000 homes and forcing 16,000 residents to flee.

That’s why I was pleased to announce this year that the B.C. government was contributing $7.65 million to the city of Coquitlam for its flood mitigation program. Upgrading the Coquitlam dike will help protect prime agriculture land, properties and homes along the Pitt River. As a government, we take flood protection seriously, and this funding is a part of a $50 million allocation program aimed at flood mitigation across the province.

With such great people, wonderful community events and significant investments improving quality of life more and more all the time, there’s no doubt that Tri-Cities is becoming the place to be for British Columbian families. But families aren’t the only ones who want to be here.

I recently took part in the grand opening of the first Shinhan Bank branch in western Canada. Shinhan Bank is one of Korea’s leading banks, and the B.C. branch is a testament to the strong confidence Korea and the world have in B.C.’s economy. This is an indication that international investors are coming to British Columbia because they know that we are a safe harbour for investment.

But as we heard in the Speech from the Throne, there is no one single key to our success. There are a number of factors that make British Columbia the leader in job creation and economic growth. International investors are always attracted to jurisdictions that are stable and have their own finances in order, jurisdictions that boast a triple-A credit rating that allows us to borrow for those important projects at an attractive interest rate so that we have more money left over to spend on those things that matter.

Governments that pile up huge deficits and burden future generations with mountains of debt are definitely not seen as desirable places to invest. Our Finance Minister has delivered four balanced budgets in a row, and tomorrow a fifth one is on the way. There are few jurisdictions in the world that can match the strength of our fiscal track record.

In a world of economic uncertainty, B.C. has established itself on solid economic footing, and investors know it — investors like the Shinhan Bank and the members of the Canada Shandong Chinese Business Association that I spoke of earlier, who are drawn to our attractive business environment here in British Columbia.

We’re seeing the results of our prudent fiscal management across the province, and we’re certainly seeing it in my beautiful riding of Port Moody–Coquitlam, including Anmore and Belcarra. It’s one of the reasons why British Columbia is the leading economy in Canada right now, and it’s a big reason why it will continue to be a leader into the future.

Thank you, hon. Speaker, for the opportunity.

N. Simons: I’m pleased to take this opportunity to respond to the Speech from the Throne. I thank the members opposite for their comments and my colleagues for their comments. They’ve helped me figure out what the best approach is to deal with this rather empty speech. But we have other things to talk about, which is a good thing.

I’d just like to acknowledge, first of all, the people who help me in my constituency. Kim Tournat and Maggie Hathaway are doing a wonderful job addressing all the concerns that come to my office.

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I have to tell you, under this government, there’s no shortage of people coming to us with requests for assistance, whether it’s access to justice or whether it’s difficulties with a government program, like the Ministry of Children and Families, or with disability rates. They come to our office, and they look for assistance. We do our best under difficult circumstances to assist them to overcome their challenges.

I get to represent, I guess, one of the most beautiful ridings. We all say that. It’s true. The Sunshine Coast….

Interjection.

N. Simons: Well, the best thing about my friend opposite…. The best thing about his riding is the view of mine, as they all know. Across Howe Sound, you can see the beautiful mountains. I can see Port Coquitlam from my kitchen.

The beauty of the riding and the wonderful creativity and hard-working people — I think that pretty much sums up the people of the Sunshine Coast. The First Nations there — the Shishalh Nation, the Sliammon Nation, the Squamish Nation — all consider lots of parts of the territory within their traditional territory. It’s a pleasure to work with them. I appreciate their commitment to making our communities better. I think that’s ultimately the goal of all of us in public office.

I have to say that I started off today doing the prayer, which is not something I often do. But I got to quote my great-aunt, who was a missionary. She was actually a doctor and a surgeon, and she graduated from Dalhousie in 1929. I know that today we’re recognizing the 100th year of getting the vote for women, and I think about my aunts. Both my great-aunts were medical doctors graduating in the ’20s. One of the meditations she wrote was to be love, to live love and to give love.

I thought about those words as I stood up here to think about what I was going to say to this government. I’m going to do my best to be as friendly and as positive as possible. I do think that there are, obviously, good things in
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British Columbia. We have a lot to be happy about, a lot to be proud about. There have been, obviously, some good things happening over the last 16 years — sometimes because of some government intervention, and sometimes because they haven’t. But ultimately, we’re all here to try to improve the lives of citizens and to ensure that we steward the resources and the beauty of this place for future generations. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’m sure some of my colleagues are here as well.

So in addition to thanking the local governments, the regional district governments, Islands Trust governments, the people who try and make sure that we have checks and balances on the reach of government…. I thank them for their commitment.

I also want to thank my partner, Slim Milkie, country musician. We’ve got a gig coming up. Watch out for that. He stands by me and is a strong supporter.

I also want to thank my family — my brothers and sisters, all five of them — for the support they give me. They’re not a political family, necessarily, and they kind of roll their eyes at what I do sometimes, but ultimately, they support me in my efforts to represent the people of the Sunshine Coast.

Now, I know that this government likes to take credit for pretty much everything good that happens, including the weather, but in reality, we have to remember that when this government talks about their investments in schools, in hospitals and in infrastructure, that money is our money, and it’s being redistributed. It’s how they’re redistributing that money that I sometimes have concerns about. Sometimes they like to claim that it’s their money. When you hear MLAs stand up and say, “I was proud to announce that I got this amount of money for this project” or “I got that amount of money for that project,” let’s just remember that it’s the people of this province, from all parts of this province, who are helping to build a school here or helping to ensure that a courthouse stays open there or making sure that we have all of the necessary services in our communities.

With that in mind, I like to think about some of the successes of the Sunshine Coast. I’m sure I would have been invited to the openings, had I been a member on the government side. I’m sure I would have been invited to cut a ribbon or to make a speech or to have a piece of cake for the openings of various projects on the Sunshine Coast. I don’t mind that I’m not invited. I don’t mind that the government likes to keep out the local MLAs when there are projects or activities that involve government expenditures.

[1625]

It’s a little bit offensive to most people who think that they’ve elected somebody to represent their voice. I do that, I’m sure, quite well. If I’m not invited to be part of the cake-eating, ribbon-cutting, champagne-toasting crowd, that’s okay.

However, I would also like to point out that despite the fact that I’m an opposition MLA, the upper and lower Sunshine Coast have benefited from some of the public money reinvested into our communities. Since I’ve been elected, we’re going to have two new ferries. Not both of them were built here — one of them was built in Canada, in British Columbia; one of them was built overseas — but they’re new ferries, and they’re going to help us continue to connect with the rest of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. The Island Sky and the Salish Orca are about to arrive.

We have new elementary schools. We’ve got Westview Elementary in Powell River and Gibsons Elementary in Gibsons — wonderful schools. I remember that I did actually have a chance to say some words to an assembly, and I reminded the kids that their parents had paid for those schools. It was their parents, the wealth of our resources, that paid for those schools. They’re our schools, and we invest in our schools because we believe in the importance of public education. We believe in the importance of giving people the tools they need in order to do well in our society, to do well in all aspects of their lives — physically, mentally, emotionally well. That’s why we invest in schools.

The hospital in Sechelt, formerly known as St. Mary’s Hospital and now called Sechelt Hospital, had a major upgrade. We recognize the people of British Columbia and the sacrifices that are made to invest in these public institutions, into these public facilities.

Two new long-term-care facilities did open on the Sunshine Coast. Both are serving people who are unable to live at home, whether they’re seniors or have other reasons that they need to be in long-term care. Willingdon Creek Village and Christenson Village are both important places in our community where families get together and visit with loved ones in a good atmosphere, where workers are well respected and taken care of, where they provide care to seniors and others in a way that meets the standards of our community. For that, we’re grateful. We’re grateful for the investment of public money into our public institutions.

As well as those major institutions, we’ve also had money through the Island Coastal Economic Trust, through the gaming grants. Groups and organizations in the area I am proud to represent have fought for and succeeded in getting funding for the programs that make our communities what they are — whether it’s the International Choral Kathaumixw festival every two years, the international writers festival in Sechelt or the PRISMA orchestra academy in Powell River.

There’s a Festival of the Rolling Arts in Sechelt. That’s cars — the rolling arts. The B.C. Bike Race comes to the Sunshine Coast because we have the best single-track bicycling in British Columbia. I know I’m going to not necessarily have unanimous consent on that or agreement on that, but it’s money from all of us.

As a collective, as British Columbians, we invest in what’s necessary in all our respective ridings. I think we
[ Page 13683 ]
sometimes have some differences in priorities, in how fast expenditures have to be provided and how we collect revenue. Those are the differences that distinguish us, one from the other, in this House. They’re not really that huge, but they’re big enough to raise concerns when we see certain aspects of our society that are in need of government attention.

In my past, having been involved in the social service sector for many years — child protection, alcohol and drugs, justice, social assistance, working with people with disabilities — I can see, quite closely, in close proximity, some of the failures of this government’s priorities.

[1630]

Now, something I’ve heard probably way too often in here is that their side keeps trying to fearmonger about this idea of taxes that we’re interested in — that we want to raise taxes. It’s sort of like when they used to say: why don’t we like children? There were all sorts of strange comments coming from that side of the House. I’ve got to remember that I’m trying to be really friendly here.

The tax fearmongering is one that bothers me, because it belies the reality of what’s happened over the last 16 years. That is that every single fixed fee — like B.C. Ferries fares, MSP, ICBC, Fortis, Hydro — all of those fees, those regressive taxes, have gone up substantially. The people who benefited the most from this government’s tax cuts have always been the richest people in our province. I’ve got nothing against rich people in this province. I don’t think that they have anything against paying more to ensure that we have a society where there’s a sense of fairness.

Now, I don’t know how often members of this cabinet go to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and see some of the effects of poor government policy, quite frankly. When they walk through the streets and see homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness and despair…. We know that for every individual on the street in Vancouver or anywhere else where they’re homeless across this province, there are family members who are concerned.

Our society needs a government that will take the concerns of all citizens seriously and that will try to develop at least some public policy to address the challenges that we have. The problem with this government is that they are almost exclusively focused on ensuring that their friends pay less in terms of taxes.

The people that they’re closely connected to, the corporate sector…. They have as little what they call burden — of what I would call contribution to society — the burden that they have to bear in order to ensure that our society is one where there’s fairness and where there’s dignity and where there’s an ability to succeed.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Now the problem with the tax cuts that they implemented in the early 2000s, which took about $2 billion out of our annual revenue, is that they have managed over 16 years to hollow out our social support networks, and we’re continuing to see the cracks. We’re continuing to see that our system of looking after each other is eroding. I think it’s important. Maybe this is an ideological difference here, but I think that part of government’s role is to ensure the redistribution of revenue from resources.

I have to say I live in a constituency that has a thriving forestry sector, a strong forestry sector. We have pulp and paper, two mills. We have quite a bit of aggregate and limestone quarries. We have independent power projects. We contribute a lot to this government’s revenues. We contribute a lot in terms of royalties and such.

I’m not saying that because we pay so much we should get it all back. I’m content knowing that there are schools built in rural parts of this province, that there are roads that are cleared of the snow that they get. I was going to say that we don’t get a lot of snow, but this year is a bit different. I’m fine with the idea that the province collects on all of our behalf and distributes on all of our behalf. But sometimes I look at the people making decisions about our money, and I go: “Wait a second. That’s a waste of money.”

[1635]

If government focused less on concerns about raising taxes as much as we are concerned about their waste of money, maybe we’ve found a way to talk. You know, $66 million was spent over six or seven years on trying to rejig the child welfare system. Studies show that it didn’t really produce anything — $66 million. It was almost a vanity project. We’ve seen millions of dollars going into projects that are really just…. It’s hard to describe them in any other way than just sort of favours to people who are friends to government.

I mean, just for an example. I’m not sure how many of them have been inside of a correctional centre recently, but we pay about $205 per night for every individual incarcerated in the provincial jail system — about $205. Now, I have a particular…. There’s a fellow I know, who I’ve known since he was little, who’s in jail again for about three months and who suffers from addiction issues. We’re paying 200-and-something bucks a night for him to stay in jail. Maybe sometimes you have to pay that much, but upon his release, when he is given a bus ticket, he’s given a bus ticket to the place where he committed his last offence, and he’s given 50 bucks — 50 bucks and a bus ticket.

Now, if this government thinks that our correctional system is going to be successful warehousing men, for the most part, who have various issues, whether it’s social issues, health issues, addiction issues, poverty issues, trauma issues, child welfare experience issues…. If you think it’s a good investment to pay 200 bucks a night and then give them 50 bucks, no support and a bus ticket to the location of his last offence…. If you think that’s fiscally responsible, not to mention ethically responsible, I don’t know how I would get through to you.
[ Page 13684 ]

I’ve spoken about this issue before. I’m concerned about the level of violence in our prison system, but the answer isn’t to put signs on the wall saying: “No fighting.” The answer is to give people in prison an ability to upgrade their skills, upgrade their ability to deal with day-to-day issues in their lives and give them an opportunity to become upstanding citizens in our community. We don’t give up on people. But when you warehouse them for 205 bucks a night and expect them to be successful when they get out because they’ve got a bus ticket to the place of their last offence, we’ve got a problem.

Many of these men don’t have places to go, and this government deregulated the places where they go now. So they go into these recovery homes, where there’s a fellow maybe collecting all of their welfare cheques and giving them all a room but no programs, no services, no oversight, no standards. And we expect…. Maybe we don’t expect the revolving door to stop. Maybe we’re counting on the revolving door to continue. I don’t like the idea of that. I think we can do better.

Let me just talk about child welfare for a minute. This is what got me into this place in the first place. In 2004, I was asked to review the death of a child, a toddler from Port Alberni. This little child…. Ultimately, she died. She was killed by her uncle, and the government asked me to review. The government asked me to review what were the circumstances surrounding that child’s death.

The government and the First Nation agreed with my selection as the reviewer. I appreciated that, and I took that job very, very seriously. I’d worked in child protection for many years. It was my first director’s review.

What I found was shocking. It was troubling. It was disappointing, disturbing, partly traumatizing, knowing that it didn’t have to happen that way.

[1640]

Now, what government had done in 2002, which this minister seems to forget, maybe because she wasn’t here…. But in 2002, this government cut 12 percent from the MCFD budget, the Ministry of Children and Families budget. They cut 12 percent within a year of getting into office.

They had to cut taxes first. Then they had to justify it. They had to be able to balance the books, I guess. Cut taxes, cut services to vulnerable children. It seemed to work, in their view. It didn’t work out that well.

Rules were changed. Policies were changed. Nobody paid much attention. It was chaos and confusion. And 55 percent of the ministry’s budget — which was for audit and overview, oversight and standards — was cut.

We had a ministry that had just gotten back onto its feet after the Gove review. I’m sure that there are members over there who remember the Gove review, which was to examine the death of Matthew Vaudreuil.

When people on that side of the House were on this side of the House, they were yelling at us. They were yelling at the government of the day. You know what the government of the day did? They didn’t deny it like this government does. They didn’t say: “No, it’s not a problem.” They didn’t say: “It wasn’t my responsibility.” They didn’t say: “I can’t take responsibility for the decisions of social workers.”

When the NDP was in government, they decided they needed to look into this, and deeply. Did they ever. They found ways of improving the child welfare system that were well underway. They weren’t all good ideas, but most of them were good. They focused on strengthening families. Every single positive change that happened in child welfare came to an abrupt stop in 2002 when this government cut 12 percent from the MCFD budget.

What was galling in the throne speech, absolutely galling, was the statement that they were going to begin the discussion about indigenous child welfare. They were going to begin the discussion about indigenous child welfare in British Columbia. What an absolute low that is. That is absolutely unbelievable — that that could be said.

The discussion with First Nations on child welfare has been an ongoing one, and it was going well until 2002, when this government, first of all, decided to have a referendum on the rights of First Nations people, and then they basically cancelled all efforts of First Nations to acquire autonomy over child welfare. I happen to know. I was the director of a child welfare agency at the time.

From Sherry Charlie to Alex Gervais, this government has neglected a generation of children. A generation of children has not been able to benefit from support services to their parents, from interprovincial transfers when they need to go find a home with their auntie in Quebec, for example. This government has neglected to care for the most vulnerable children in this province, and it is a generation of children. They’ve neglected those children. They have denied the importance of reducing poverty by saying that all they have to think about is getting a job. That, unfortunately, doesn’t cut it.

I think that on that basis alone, if I could convince everyone I know…. On that basis alone — their neglect of vulnerable children in this province — they don’t deserve to be back in government benches. They don’t deserve it.

Children don’t vote, and marginalized people often don’t vote. People in poverty often don’t vote. That’s what this government is counting on. They want to make sure that only their friends get out. They want to make sure that we can have an ugly campaign, and people will just want to give up on it all and maybe not turn up at all. But I hope that every single person who is affected by decisions made in a stressed out, overworked, understaffed office in this province says: “Enough is enough.”

If this minister is not responsible for the decisions that social workers make, she is entirely responsible for the conditions in which those social workers have to make the most difficult decisions. That is something the minister should take accountability for. It’s not a personal thing. It’s her. It’s caucus. It’s cabinet, their priorities.
[ Page 13685 ]

We have less money. We have fewer social workers in the child welfare system than we had in the past. That’s not because this government thinks everything is going well. Their audits show things are not going well.

[1645]

How many opportunities do you have to put a child’s life back into some sort of state of equilibrium? If you have 16 years…. You should at least have one generation. Children are living in poverty in this province, and poverty is often the common denominator in many of the cases of child welfare. I’ve worked in wealthy communities and in impoverished communities, and there’s a difference.

In 16 years, Sherry Charlie to Alex Gervais, what have we learned? Report after report after report. And you’re going to tell me you’re going to give us a tax cut? You know whose back that tax cut is on? Does the government know that when they come out with their tax cuts, we’re going to be thinking about Alex Gervais and his auntie in Quebec, who wasn’t allowed to talk to him because there wasn’t a social worker available to hook them up?

There is a massive shortage of social workers in this province, and the result of that is there’s neglect happening to children in this government’s care. If this government was a real parent and I came along and saw the way they were working with these children, I would have apprehended the children from the government.

No excuse. Absolutely no excuse. We’ve had Justice Gove. We’ve had Justice Hughes. For what it’s worth, we’ve had the Plecas report. All of them say there need to be more resources in child welfare. Every tax cut this government offers tomorrow, in order to make everybody smile…. It’s not going to work.

It’s not going to work because children aren’t the only ones neglected by this government. People on disability got their bus passes taken away last year and had them given back this year. Think about people on disability. We’re not going to forget that. Think about the seniors who are sitting in acute care for months and months and months. One gentleman in Sechelt got out of his chair and tried to climb the ladder to the roof. He hadn’t been out in over a year. And you’re telling me we’re looking after the public services of this province, and they have nothing to spend hard-earned taxpayers’ money on? I think seniors are worth it. I think children are worth it. I think people on disability are worth it.

It sometimes gets pretty infuriating, actually. We don’t sit close to the levers of power, but we see the people that do. We know that they have decisions to make, and we know that they’re considering their priorities. We know that those priorities have not been children in this province. It has not been people with disabilities in this province. It has not been seniors.

It has not been the homeless. Can you imagine the Premier coming to Powell River and announcing a homeless shelter? For the first time in history, we need a homeless shelter in Powell River. And she can boast about that? Sechelt has 25 people in their homeless shelter. We didn’t have a homeless shelter five years ago. And this government wants to give us a tax cut? I’ll benefit from the tax cut most likely, but you can have it. People I know…. People in the same income bracket as me and higher know that there are important programs and services that need investment.

It is investment. You laugh at investment, but it’s investment in the future. This morning one speaker after the other laughed at the idea that child care wasn’t an investment. It’s all a tax burden.

D. Bing: On behalf of my constituents in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, it is a pleasure and an honour to provide my comments in response to the Speech from the Throne during this sixth session of the 40th parliament. I can assure you that even after being in this place for four years, I never take lightly the responsibility that we have as elected officials to listen, to stand up for our constituents and to speak on their behalf in this place.

[1650]

Before I start, I would like to thank my amazing wife, Helen, for allowing me to serve our community as the MLA for Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows. As all members know, spouses and family members make many sacrifices and pay a huge price in lost family time to support our careers in public service. Since being elected, Helen and I have spent a lot of time apart, and I’m very grateful for the support she provides.

I would also like to mention that Helen is working her very last week and retiring on Wednesday. She has loved being a dentist for 40 years, and her patients are like a large extended family, so I know she’s feeling wistful about retirement. I’m sorry that I cannot be with her at a retirement dinner on her last day. Thank you, Helen, for your encouragement and support.

I consider myself to be rather fortunate to live in British Columbia. In this province, we have the leading economy in the country. In British Columbia, we have the lowest unemployment rate in the country. In B.C., we have had four balanced budgets in a row, and a fifth one is on its way this week. We enjoy a triple-A credit rating that is the envy of jurisdictions all over North America and, indeed, all over the world.

We have a diversified provincial economy that is developing rapidly, with industries and new customer bases that didn’t even exist a few years ago.

We have a growing population, because more and more Canadians want to live, work and raise a family in British Columbia. Why? Because we are a land of opportunity, but we didn’t get here by accident or by mistake. It is because this government has taken a deliberate and conscious approach to governing with fiscal discipline.

Naturally it is fair to ask why it’s important to control the public purse and keep the budget balanced every year.
[ Page 13686 ]
It is a matter of our future. It affects our ability to choose what kind of future we want. Governments run into trouble when spending gets out of control and a greater share of the annual budget is required to pay down the debt. Deficits become structural, and government then has no other option but to raise taxes just keep up with the interest payments. That is unsustainable, and it is the wrong way to run a government.

We do not want to burden future generations with public debt simply because the government of the day lacks the ability to control spending. And we don’t want to burden today’s taxpayers with higher and higher taxes because of a lack of fiscal discipline. We want to keep taxes low and let the middle class choose what to do with their hard-earned money, and we want to keep life affordable.

My riding consists primarily of two distinct communities — Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Both are vibrant and historic communities that are experiencing the effects of rapid growth sweeping through the Lower Mainland. Statistics Canada recently released numbers indicating that the Lower Mainland has grown by 6.6 percent since 2011. This brings the regional population to 2.8 million people; a total of 4.6 million across the province.

This increase in population also increases the demand for housing, which in turn makes housing even more expensive. This makes Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows more attractive places to live, but it also puts pressure on the local housing supply.

The key to improving housing affordability over the long term is creating new supply. To that end, the government is acting to help the market respond to increasing demand for homes. The province’s commitment to housing action is driven by six key principles: (1) ensuring the dream of home ownership remains within the reach of the middle class, (2) increasing housing supply, (3) smart transit expansion, (4) supporting first-time homebuyers, (5) ensuring consumer protection and (6) increasing rental supply.

In order to ensure the dream of home ownership remains within the reach of the middle class, the government has taken firm action. This includes the implementation of a 15 percent property transfer tax rate applicable to foreign entities buying residential real estate in Metro Vancouver. The additional property transfer tax rate of 15 percent applies to purchasers of residential real estate who are foreign nationals or foreign-controlled corporations.

The additional tax took effect on August 2, 2016, and applies to foreign entities registering their purchase of residential property in Metro Vancouver, excluding the treaty lands of the Tsawwassen First Nation. This tax is helping to manage ongoing demand in residential real estate while the housing market responds by building new homes to meet local needs. It is important to note here that revenues from the tax will also help fund affordable housing.

[1655]

Since the 15 percent additional property transfer tax came into effect, the rate of foreign investment has slowed and is becoming more consistent with the rest of the province. While it is still too early to measure the long-term effects of the tax, the latest data indicates that it is having the desired effect of cooling down market speculation.

While we do want to reduce the influence of foreign buyers, it is also important not to discourage people who want to make B.C. their home. We believe that people should be able to come to B.C. to work, pay taxes and contribute to our economy. We want to make sure B.C. continues to attract highly skilled workers in the tech sector and others who come here and create more jobs. Sectors like the tech sector and others need to draw on expertise from around the world in order to compete, flourish and create more jobs for British Columbians.

Overall, the additional tax has been effective. It will continue to apply to speculative foreign investment that can distort the residential real estate market in Metro Vancouver. But now that the additional tax has effectively cut back the excessive demand we were seeing last year, we are now in a position to make the adjustments necessary to keep attracting highly skilled workers.

Another measure the government is taking includes bringing in a luxury tax of 3 percent on the portion of a home’s value over $2 million. We are investing that revenue from the 3 percent tax into the newly built home exemption. This program can save purchasers up to $13,000 in property transfer tax on purchasing a newly constructed or subdivided home worth up to $750,000. A partial exemption is also available for qualifying homes valued up to $800,000.

This exemption will provide an estimated $75 million in property tax relief for new construction. Between February 17 and December 31, 2016, because of the newly built home exemption, more than 9,100 families saved an estimated $7,400 on their newly built homes. Total savings to families — $67.8 million.

Like the first-time-homebuyers program, applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. However, this program is available to buyers regardless of how long they have lived in British Columbia. The exemption is available to first-time buyers and previous homeowners alike.

The newly built home exemption will have a significant impact on creating a greater supply of starter homes that young families are looking for. Naturally, we are collecting new information from buyers to help assess the impact of the additional property transfer tax on Metro Vancouver’s real estate market.

But we also realize that our efforts at the provincial level can be significantly enhanced by reaching out to other levels of government. In particular, we are working with the federal government to identify strategies to strengthen the information-sharing amongst various
[ Page 13687 ]
levels. Our purpose is to prevent tax evasion and money laundering in real estate.

As I mentioned earlier, we also have the first-time-homebuyers program. It reduces or eliminates the amount of property transfer tax B.C. residents pay when they purchase their first homes. Currently, the threshold for the first-time-homebuyers program is $475,000. This exemption can save first-time buyers up to $7,500 when purchasing their first home. In addition, a partial exemption applies to homes valued between $475,000 and $500,000.

The first-time-homebuyers exemption helped more than 19,000 families buy their first home this year. In total, these families saved more than $79 million in property transfer tax.

Another existing measure that British Columbians can take advantage of is the property tax deferment program. This is a low-interest loan program that allows qualifying British Columbians to use the equity in their homes to defer all or a portion of the annual property taxes on their principal residence. Deferment is available to B.C. homeowners who meet the program’s criteria and who are 55 years or older, are a surviving spouse or are eligible persons with disabilities.

The program also allows homeowners to financially support a dependent child and defer their property taxes, helping families during the years when household costs would typically be highest. Taxes can be deferred for any year that the homeowner lives in the home and continues to qualify for that program. Accumulated deferred taxes and interest must be paid when the home is sold or transferred.

[1700]

Currently, there are about 44,000 homeowners registered with the program. On average, homeowners taking advantage of this program are deferring about $3,000 in property taxes per year.

In working with other levels of government, we work closely with the city of Vancouver on their concerns of empty houses. The city of Vancouver proposed suggestions to address a problem of concern to many British Columbians, particularly inhabitants of the city, as it relates to housing — that is, the availability of rental accommodation within the city of Vancouver.

In a special summer session, the government passed amendments to the Vancouver Charter to enable the city to establish and administer a tax on vacant homes. We did it in such a way that creates an incentive for owners to offer long-term rentals and thereby increase the availability of rental accommodation in the city of Vancouver.

We also want to increase our focus on consumer protection. To that end, we significantly strengthened consumer protection in B.C.’s real estate market through increased oversight and accountability of real estate licensees. The point of regulation is to protect the public. This includes ending self-regulation of the industry and the practice known as shadow flipping.

The real estate industry had the privilege of self-regulation for ten years but failed to demonstrate responsible action. In response, the government appointed an independent advisory group which outlined 28 recommendations, and the government accepted all 28 recommendations.

It has taken the following actions. It established a dedicated superintendent of real estate, who has taken over the council’s regulation and rule-making authority to help restore consumer confidence. It reconstituted the Real Estate Council with a majority of public interest, non-industry members. It implemented the recommended penalties, as well as increased fines, for unlicensed activity and other offences. It allowed for commissions for licensees engaged in misconduct to be taken back to council.

It made the managing broker responsible for ensuring the owner of the brokerage does not engage in the business of the brokerage if the owner is not a licensee. And we are analyzing the issue of dual-agency representation and determining the best path forward to balance consumer protection with ensuring those living in remote areas still have access to representation.

These actions are helping to restore fairness and transparency in the real estate sector. Our overall goal is to protect British Columbians when they’re making one of the most important family investments of their lives: the purchase of a home.

One of the more innovative measures the government is taking is the B.C. home owner mortgage and equity partnership program. Thanks once again to a balanced budget, we are in a position to help qualified buyers take that initial first step into the real estate market. The B.C. homeowner mortgage and equity partnership program is designed to help British Columbians establish a nest egg and ensure the dream of home ownership remains in reach for families.

We know that saving for a down payment can be hard for first-time buyers. That is why, through the B.C. HOME program, the province is investing $703 million over the next three years to help an estimated 42,000 B.C. households enter the market for the first time. After the first five years, homebuyers begin making monthly payments at current interest rates.

We are already seeing results. First-time homebuyers are taking advantage of the new B.C. homeowner mortgage and equity partnership program, with more than $1.1 million in loans that have been conditionally approved since application opened on January 16, 2017. More than 250 applicants are approved, and British Columbians are now on the way towards purchasing their first homes.

Sixty-seven of the successful applicants have entered into a contract of purchase and sale for a home and have received their B.C. HOME partnership loan approval letter. Again, the B.C. HOME partnership program was
[ Page 13688 ]
created to assist eligible first-time homebuyers who can afford the cost of home ownership but need help to enter the market by matching the amount they have already saved for their down payment.

Ensuring the dream of home ownership remains within reach is a key part of our approach to housing affordability. This includes increasing housing supply, smart transit expansion, supporting first-time homebuyers, ensuring consumer protection and increasing rental supply.

Another advantage of balanced budgets is our ability to chart the course of our own future and respond to the needs of British Columbians. Affordable rental housing is one such need, and there are two programs that come first and foremost.

[1705]

First is the provincial investment in an affordable housing program announced on February 12, 2016. The province announced $355 million for construction and renovation of more than 2,000 units of affordable rental housing. These funds will be distributed over a five-year period, and government will be working in close partnership with non-profit housing organizations to deliver this housing.

In addition to this historic announcement, in September of 2016, the B.C. government announced an additional $500 million for the investment in the housing innovation program, another historic first that will create approximately 2,900 units of affordable rental housing. A total of 53 projects have been approved for funding, representing a $437 million investment.

This will result in the construction of 2,400 units across the province. These new units will represent a mix of new housing that will be developed to meet the needs of a wide variety of people in communities throughout the province. These will include low- to moderate-income renters, seniors, youth, students, adults with developmental disabilities, aboriginal people, and women and children.

In my own riding of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, we are benefiting from the government’s affordable housing program. Just before Christmas, I was pleased to announce $11 million for approximately 80 new units of affordable housing in Maple Ridge. B.C. Housing will be partnering with the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows/Community Services to develop the project plans and ensure proper rezoning.

I can assure you that 80 new units of affordable rental housing will make a difference in the lives of many families in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows.

I have so far outlined the measures that the provincial government is taking to make the dream of home ownership possible, as well as the record investment into affordable rental housing. But we must also address the complex issues associated with those without a home.

I have spent a great deal of time and effort to address homelessness in Maple Ridge, along with my colleague the hon. member for Maple Ridge–Mission.

A few weeks ago we hosted a community meeting to listen to concerns about homelessness in Maple Ridge. The meeting was well-attended — almost 600 people — and many people had the opportunity to have their voice heard and to express their views. Hundreds of people filled out comment cards or emailed us with their opinions.

Following extensive consultation and the gathering of the community feedback, we arrived at a multi-pronged approach to address the issues of homelessness in the area. We will be moving forward with the following.

B.C. Housing and the Fraser Health Authority will partner to establish an intensive case management, ICM, team to serve the community. ICM is a team-based model of care serving individuals with severe substance use disorder who may or may not have concurrent disorders and/or mental illness. These individuals face complex challenges related to health, housing and poverty, and face barriers in accessing existing health or social services.

The province will provide funding for an additional 30 overnight shelter spaces at the Maple Ridge Salvation Army to ensure the most vulnerable members of the community have a place to sleep and the opportunity to connect with support services. The target population will be people transitioning out of the RainCity temporary shelter. These extra spaces will be open for six months.

B.C. Housing has informed RainCity Housing that, as part of the closure plan for the temporary shelter at 22239 Lougheed Highway, new intakes will end, effective March 1. A curfew will also be implemented at that time. B.C. Housing will be meeting with RainCity, the RCMP and the city of Maple Ridge to discuss implementation of the closure plan.

B.C. Housing will work with the Fraser Health Authority and non-profit partners to assist those currently in shelters in Maple Ridge, with services provided through the ICM model, including rent supplements for more stable housing in the private market.

The province remains committed to providing $15 million in capital funding towards a permanent shelter and/or supportive housing program. We will form a community committee to identify an appropriate location.

As I mentioned earlier, the province has committed $11 million for a new development at 11907-228th Street to be operated by the Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services society. This building will provide 80 units of affordable housing for seniors and families. An additional $1 million has been committed through the provincial investment in affordable housing initiative to the Iron Horse, a safe house for vulnerable youth, which will operate in Maple Ridge.

[1710]

In terms of the long-term use of 21375 Lougheed Highway, discussions will take place between the province and the city on the future uses of the site, such as affordable housing for seniors or families. The province
[ Page 13689 ]
has also announced that Coast Mental Health has taken over as the new operator for Alouette Heights, a supportive housing development that provides 46 units of supportive housing.

The province will provide $252,000 for up to 40 rent subsidies for the ICM team to ensure access to affordable housing with dedicated supports. Fraser Health will work in close collaboration with the ICM team to provide comprehensive wraparound services. The increased rent subsidies and the supports provided by ICM teams will help at-risk individuals with obtaining longer-term housing solutions. I look forward to continuing my work in the community to make Maple Ridge a better place for everyone to live.

There are a number of other important developments that my constituents will welcome. Most recently I was pleased to announce a new MRI machine is coming to Ridge Meadows Hospital. This is great news for patients and residents because we will have greater access and more timely service closer to home. Patients at Ridge Meadows Hospital can expect treatment earlier because of our ability to diagnose faster, which will significantly improve with this new MRI unit.

As a trained health care provider, I know that advanced medical imaging is an indispensable tool and will lead to better patient outcomes. Health authorities will also provide more evidence-based guidance to physicians to help them order the best type of scan to meet each patient’s specific medical needs.

Local residents are also welcoming a third ambulance being added to the existing fleet of ambulance service that is dedicated to Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows. I will continue to work with the Provincial Health Services Authority and B.C. emergency health services to monitor service and identify where further improvements may be needed.

Just this last summer I was pleased to announce improvements to the Lougheed Highway. After receiving a lot of feedback from the community, I lobbied hard for much-needed safety improvements. As a result, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has started design work to install a median barrier on a 6.6-kilometre section of Highway 7, stretching from 240th to 272nd streets. This section of highway is four lanes and undivided, and the median barrier will be placed along this segment to improve safety for the travelling public. Once installed, a centre barrier will improve safety on this busy stretch of highway by preventing head-on collisions and other crossover incidents.

In addition, the ministry is working closely with the city on a future plan for improving safety and mobility on the Haney Bypass. This includes the intersections of 222nd Street and Kanaka Way. A range of design options have been developed, and they are currently being assessed for effectiveness.

I’m also pleased to announce that students, parents and teachers at Westview Secondary School in the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadow school district, district 42, will see a revamped and refreshed school, thanks to $468,000 going to the district under the province’s school enhancement program.

As part of Child Care Month in B.C., last May I was pleased to announce $500,000 under the B.C. early-years strategy for the Katzie Cultural Education Society. This would create 68 new licensed child care spaces for families in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. These spaces include 16 child care spaces for children up to 36 months, 16 child care spaces for children ages three to five, 16 preschool spaces for children aged three to five, and 20 child care spaces in a group setting outside school hours and on non-school days. These new spaces will support families in the Katzie First Nation and build on what they’ve already accomplished by establishing their early-years centre.

In conclusion, I wish I had more time to talk about all the exciting things that are happening in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows. Let it suffice to say that we have made tremendous progress over the last four years, and I’m looking forward to making more things happen if the good people of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows will honour me with a second term after the upcoming provincial election.

[1715]

K. Corrigan: This is probably, or may be, the last time I get up to give any kind of substantive speech in this chamber, so I’m certainly going to thank a few people. It’s a little bit bittersweet, because it’s been a great eight years in many ways.

I want to thank three people that have worked very closely with me over the last several years. They are Cate Jones and Isaac Vallee, who are my constituency assistants — Isaac for the last three years and Cate pretty well since the beginning of when I was elected. She’s been a wonderful person and a wonderful friend as well as an amazing constituency assistant with a lot of knowledge, history and compassion for the people that we work for in the constituency. I also want to thank Heidi Reid, who has been my assistant here in the Legislature for several years.

I have to say what a wonderful staff we’ve had in the NDP caucus, from the researchers to the legislative assistants to the administrators. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve been privileged to work with all of them.

This building as well. We spend so many hours down in the legislative dining room. We have great staff down there who look after us and have become friends, and I’ll miss all of them.

And in this chamber as well — people who make sure that we have water all the time and who have looked after and made sure I have the most comfort for my back in various situations. It’s been great working in this place as well.
[ Page 13690 ]

I am going to spend a good part of this speech talking about my community. I love Burnaby. My husband, Derek, and I moved there…. I’m a little emotional. Derek and I moved there in 1977, when I’d just finished second-year law school at UBC.

Thank you to the member from the Kootenays for the Kleenex.

He had just finished law school and was doing his articles with Burnaby–Deer Lake resident Jim Lorimer, who had been Minister of Transportation for the Dave Barrett government. So there’s a long connection with this place in our family.

Burnaby has been our home ever since. It’s been a great community to raise our four wonderful children, Sean, Darcy, Patrick and Kelsey, who all now have wonderful partners as well — Leanne, Natalie, Kaylee and Amin. As I announced last week, we are now welcoming wonderful grandchildren into the mix.

Okay, enough of the personal stuff. I can’t take it anymore, and I’m sure you can’t either. And my old friend from White Rock, as well, who I have known a long time….

G. Hogg: Can I give you a hug?

K. Corrigan: Can you give me a hug? No, you can’t take any time out of my half-hour. I’ve already wasted about five minutes. You can give me a hug later, Member, and I’ll tell them how great you are at making margaritas.

Communities are rich and intricate tapestries, and I’m so proud of the leaders of my community who recognize that there must be balance to have success. There must be balance in many different areas in order for a community to thrive. Those leaders include Burnaby city council. I’m very proud of the work that Burnaby city council has done, and my husband, who has served 30 years in public life — 15 as a city councillor and 15 as mayor.

Something that the council and school board recognize as well is that in order to be successful, a community must have a balance of social, economic and environmental strength, capacity and resiliency. I’m very pleased that in my years on the school board — nine wonderful years there as well — the school board and the city worked closely and cooperatively on many projects, like the city funding FieldTurf fields at city high schools or that the city of Burnaby reserved land for schools, which was necessary, since the B.C. government has refused to plan for schools in growth areas.

[1720]

I’m not just talking about balanced leadership in local government but in leaders across all sectors, including, for example, the business community with the Burnaby Board of Trade led by CEO Paul Holden.

I want to recognize that in our community of Burnaby — Mr. Speaker is also from Burnaby and has been my colleague the last eight years as well, and I really appreciate that friendship — we’re also so lucky to have so many non-profit organizations that make our community a much better and more inclusive place to live.

I know I can’t talk about them all, but I’m going to mention a few — organizations like Burnaby Neighbourhood House, Kingsway Imperial Neighbourhood Association, Burnaby Family Life, Burnaby Community Connections, the Burnaby Hospice Society, the Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion; a variety of seniors organizations, like 55+ at Bonsor, the Community Centred College for the Retired, Burnaby Seniors Outreach Services Society; and multicultural organizations and societies, like SUCCESS, MOSAIC and the Immigrant Services Society.

So many of those organizations rely on volunteers, and our community would not be nearly as successful — and I’m sure that’s true of every community around this province — without volunteers enriching the fabric of our communities. The soccer coaches and the teachers who volunteer after school to coach teams; those volunteering for some Burnaby events, like the Seniors Games, the World Junior Taekwondo Championships; volunteers helping seniors, helping families. These are all people who are willing to give to their community to provide opportunities and help that would not otherwise exist.

The fabric of a community is strong if everyone works together and in the public interest. There can be differences of opinion as to how to do things or what the priorities are, but everyone must believe that the public good and the public interest is paramount for communities to thrive. It’s why it has been so disappointing to have a provincial government over the last eight years, and before that, that neither respects nor works well with local governments and communities and instead has been high-handed and autocratic rather than cooperative.

There is nothing in this throne speech that causes me to believe that the B.C. Liberal government has any intention of working with communities, the engines of much of our economy, and there’s nothing to make me believe that the paramount interest of this government is to work for the public good. I haven’t seen that happen. Instead, we seem to have a B.C. Liberal government and leadership for whom it is all politics, all the time.

The government loses credibility. I look at the statements in the throne speech where so many things are said that are so completely unrelated to the facts. Here’s an example. How about the claim that “for the first time in 40 years, children born in 2021 will no longer be asked to pay for the burdens that our generation has placed upon them”?

When this government took office in 2001, the provincial debt was about $34 billion. It is now almost $66 billion. It has doubled. The provincial debt has doubled over that time. Investment in infrastructure, investment in people in this province — I don’t have a problem. But to suggest that the debt is going away — that we’re going to
[ Page 13691 ]
have a debt-free B.C., that LNG is going to be the saviour — and slap it on the side of a bus while at the very same time doubling the debt of this province is disingenuous. It makes this government lose credibility.

[1725]

The annual interest cost in the year ending March 31, 2016, was $2.9 billion, or $245 million per month, at an extremely low interest rate, so to suggest that somehow the group of people across the aisle from us are our economic saviours is simply ridiculous. What kind of alternate universe are the B.C. Liberals in?

When you add on to that the contractual obligations that this government has piled up, future contractual commitments made over the next 30 or 40 years, mostly for privatized institutions and infrastructure like hospitals and so on, where they have locked our children…. Talking about burden on our children, they have locked our children and sometimes our grandchildren into paying for contracts that have privatized our services, losing flexibility and paying for profits that go out the door or out of the country, and yes, burdening our children and grandchildren with billions of dollars of payments a year.

The contractual obligations were $52 billion in 2009 and have now almost doubled to $100 billion. Of that $100 billion that we owe, $75 billion is owed from 2022 and beyond, which is pretty ironic. It rings a bell. I believe that $100 billion is the amount that the B.C. Liberals promised we were going to see in LNG royalties, just before the last election — so $100 billion that we were going to see in royalties, as opposed to $100 billion that we have piled up in contractual obligations. I’m sorry, but the credibility of this government when it makes this throne speech just isn’t there, as far as I’m concerned.

In the category of broken promises, I want to spend some time talking about Burnaby Hospital. The throne speech said that there’s going to be an expansion. In fact, there was a Global News story announcing several hundred million dollars which turned out to be completely inaccurate. That’s what it would cost if it ever were going to happen, but it never will under this government.

Because this may be my last chance, I want to put the recent history of Burnaby Hospital on record. The reason I want to do that is that I want to demonstrate why I do not believe that Burnaby Hospital will ever get built under this government, despite promises. There have been repeated promises to build Burnaby Hospital, and they all come right before an election. Then nothing happens.

Burnaby Hospital is where my children were born, where my parents died, where my new twin grandsons were born three months ago — and looked after, by the way, by the very professional staff in the neonatal intensive care unit for a few weeks. Burnaby Hospital has served our community for decades. Dedicated staff and volunteers have made it special, but the hospital has been neglected and is in desperate physical condition.

Shortly after this Liberal government was elected in 2001, a government report was completed called A Master Plan for Burnaby Hospital. It recommended and said there desperately needed to be a rebuild of most of the hospital because of its age. The two oldest buildings date back to 1952 and the 1960s. Only the third tower, the 1970s tower, is okay. Because of seismic deficiency, in fact, they basically said that the oldest wing would fall down in any kind of earthquake at all. That report from 2001 was shelved and ignored.

Conditions for the patients in Burnaby Hospital are poor. In 2012, frustrated medical department heads wrote a letter to the CEO of Fraser Health that warned of a “significant, serious and sustained problem” with C. difficile, including 84 patient deaths.

[1730]

I haven’t talked about this publicly, but my mother was one of the people that died from C. difficile in that time period of C. difficile at Burnaby Hospital.

The doctors pointed directly to the “aged hospital infrastructure” — that is a quote — as a major cause of those deaths. When the then-minister — now Minister of Finance, then the Minister of Health — announced a citizen consultation committee to be headed up by two Liberal MLAs, the present MLA from Burnaby North and Harry Bloy, with citizen co-chair Pam Gardner, I and others expressed deep concerns that its formation was politically motivated and that it might not act impartially.

Our concerns were well founded. Leaked documents made it clear that the consultation committee was part of a B.C. Liberal Party strategy to win seats in Burnaby. You can understand why a promise in yet another throne speech is met with some skepticism by residents of Burnaby.

A December 2011 three-page document outlines how the Liberals planned to use Burnaby Hospital as “the issue we can win Burnaby–Deer Lake on, re-win Burnaby North and Lougheed.” The document says: “Only Burnaby Hospital can deliver a new seat, Burnaby–Deer Lake” — taking out the member for Burnaby–Deer Lake, since I’m not allowed to say my name — “and helping us keep two tight swings, Burnaby North and Burnaby-Lougheed.” The document was written by Pam Gardner, the same person who was appointed to the supposedly impartial citizen committee, who was a Liberal insider, and Liberal operatives Brian Bonney — some people will be familiar with that name in this chamber — and Mark Robertson.

This letter was sent to government and apparently approved, because it was then put into motion. It outlines a plan for the Premier, the Minister of Finance and the member for Burnaby North to tour the hospital, followed by the launch of a committee chaired by Gardner and including the Liberal MLAs for Burnaby North and Lougheed and a doctor who was described to be on side with the Liberal plan.
[ Page 13692 ]

After the tour, the document said, they would hold a press conference “to announce that PCC” — the Premier — “will rebuild Burnaby Hospital or look into what the community wants. This would keep the issue ours without committing dollars and buy us time to do some polling and confirm this is a winning issue.”

The committee would serve another purpose as well. “Once more, if we can introduce a second-generation Chinese doctor candidate for Burnaby–Deer Lake to champion this issue, it would help seal the deal.” One of the suggested candidates, I won’t say his name, was appointed to the committee, but he didn’t end up actually being the candidate doctor. Dr. Gu did. The document repeatedly reinforces that the objective of the plan is for political gain rather than addressing the health care needs of a community.

A series of leaked emails from September 2012 indicate that political manipulation continued on in the operations of the committee. For example, Pam Gardner promised that the report writer, a past president of the Liberal Party of B.C., would divert blame for the neglect of the hospital from the Liberal government to the Fraser Health Authority.

The report was published in November of 2012, about six months before the election. It had some good information and recommendations in it, but unfortunately, the whole thing was so politically tainted that the report’s credibility was entirely undermined.

As an aside, the city had called for a new hospital to be built on the Willingdon lands owned by the province, but instead, those lands were sold to a private developer.

In March 2013, another high-level master plan was completed, and the Liberal 2013 election platform said Burnaby Hospital is underway or in progress. It has never, never been included in post-election service or fiscal plans. There is no money for Burnaby Hospital.

[1735]

Let’s hop forward a little bit. What’s happening in the run-up to this election? In May 2016, a Global story reported that the government of B.C. and Fraser Health Authority had announced a major expansion and upgrades to Burnaby Hospital to the tune of $622 million. All there is, is a concept plan. There is nothing. There is no money. There is no capital plan. There is no business case. There is nothing. It was an entirely political announcement.

This government has used Burnaby Hospital as a political football for years, and in the end, they’ve done nothing about rebuilding the hospital or building a new hospital. Burnaby Hospital was cited as a future project in last week’s throne speech.

Every four years before an election, the B.C. Liberals make promises or pull political stunts around Burnaby Hospital because they think it’s going to win them seats. But for 16 years, nothing has happened, and people have died as a result. I don’t believe there’s any intention to rebuild our hospital now, and the people of the third-largest city in this province deserve a new hospital.

I mentioned Brian Bonney. He’s a Burnaby resident, or he was. He has had a long but not very illustrious career in our community. He was rewarded with a job within the Liberals. Currently, unfortunately though, as a result of that, he is awaiting trial, charged with criminal breach of trust in connection with his work in 2011 and ’12 as a senior staffer for government outreach to the multicultural community. I did say awaiting trial. The trial, I understand, will take place well after the B.C. election. What a surprise.

It makes you wonder how many other Liberal political operatives have been placed in the B.C. civil service over the years. Of course, there was George Gretes, who broke the law in getting rid of FOI emails and then lied under oath about it.

The worst thing, and why I’m talking about this lack of credibility and why I talk about my concerns about Burnaby Hospital and broken promises and more and more broken promises, is an article that Vaughn Palmer wrote on that. I believe it was Vaughn Palmer. I hope I’ve got it right. He says:

“But a long line of critics, most notably B.C.’s freedom-of-information commissioner, say the real problem is a pervasive culture of avoiding transparency within the government’s political arm, a lack of ethical leadership by the Premier and a small army of mostly young political loyalists whose futures are tied to the success of the party and, despite working in taxpayer-paid positions, consider it their top job to protect their ministers.”

These are not people that are working in the public interest. I won’t even go into Laura Miller, B.C. Liberal campaign director waiting for trial. How can people of this province trust this government, believe what they have to say, what they promise in the throne speech and what they are going to promise in the budget tomorrow with a history like that?

The Deputy Premier said about Laura Miller, who’s waiting for trial after being charged in Ontario with breach of trust and two other criminal code offences over the alleged destruction of documents in 2013…. I guess I am going to talk about her. The Deputy Premier said: “This is a pretty old case. This is not really our issue.” Having a campaign director with three pending criminal charges is not an issue? I guess it isn’t for this government.

Recently, very recently, speaking again of apparent government lack of concern, for the appearance if not the substance of conflict and malfeasance, a New York Times article dubbed British Columbia the “Wild West of Canadian political cash,” pointing out that the Premier got a stipend that has amounted to $300,000 for raking in tens of millions of dollars from corporations and rich donors.

[1740]

As the article put it: “Personal enrichment from the handouts of wealthy donors, some of whom have paid tens
[ Page 13693 ]
of thousands of dollars to meet with her at private party fundraisers.” She was embarrassed into ending the stipend.

But the article says: “What it says…is money talks and votes don’t.” He says: “My overall conclusion is that this is a government that repeatedly made decisions not based on what was in the public interest but what was in their political interest.” As George Gretes, the person who was charged and convicted, said: “We will do whatever it takes to win.”

The same Deputy Premier who thinks it’s fine to hire a campaign director with three pending criminal charges said that the New York Times article is “laughable.” The B.C. Liberals are laughing. They are laughing at the people of B.C. They are laughing at you and me because they don’t care what they think, no matter what they say three months before an election.

They don’t care if it’s a government devoid of embarrassment or concern for the people of this province. It may sound naive and idealistic to members on the other side of the House, but I believe that without ethics and integrity, you have nothing.

I believe I just have a few minutes left, and I want to talk about a couple of other things. As I’ve said, I was a school trustee for nine years in Burnaby and really enjoyed that. And I was very privileged to have been named the post-secondary spokesperson for the official opposition for the last few years. To be able to speak up on education in both of those capacities has been a real privilege.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

I do believe that education is truly the great equalizer, but not only that. It’s the surest route to economic prosperity for a province, and every child, rich or poor, deserves a good education. We know that public schools and universities and colleges are some of the best investments governments can make. Strong public education ensures that students from every background have the opportunity to succeed. It is truly the great leveller.

So again, it is disappointing to me that we have underfunded and undervalued education in this province. We have fallen, as others have said, from the second-highest investor in education to the second-lowest. At the universities, we have provided and funded less and less of the university system and asked students to pay for more and more, particularly international students.

We have the highest interest rates in the country on student loans. We have the highest student debt. We have gotten rid of free adult basic education.

I see that my time is almost up.

It has been one of my greatest disappointments that we do not fund education. It has been a great disappointment that nothing has happened on Burnaby Hospital. There have been many good things, but there have been many disappointments as well.

I want to just tip my hat, as well, to the labour unions of this province who stand up for people, not only for their members, for fair working conditions and wages. They also stand up for everybody else in this province to make sure that there is fairness and equality.

I, finally, want to thank — and I’m going to get choked up again, but I’ve only got a minute, so I can’t — the women of the B.C. NDP women’s caucus. They have been the most wonderful friendships, and they are the most strong, which I’m not being right now. They are such a strong and wonderful group of women who consistently stand up for the women of this province, and I want to thank them for that.

D. Plecas: It is my pleasure to rise today to speak in support of the throne speech. I do so honoured to be representing my community of Abbotsford South.

I want to spend some time today discussing an issue that is top of mind for many of my constituents, and that is the topic of agriculture.

[1745]

But before I do, I’d like to spend some time discussing the current enviable state of our wonderful province. B.C. is in a unique position, as we currently lead the country in many ways. In 2011, we were third in Canada in economic growth, and now we’re leading the country. In 2011, we were ranked ninth for job creation. Again, we’re now leading the country. In 2011, we had the fourth-lowest unemployment rate in the country, and now we have the lowest unemployment rate in the country. In fact, December was the seventh consecutive month that B.C. has had the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

The economic success of our province has allowed our government to reinvest in British Columbians. In fact, our government has been carefully focused on passing along the benefits of a strong economy back to all British Columbians. That is why, for example, British Columbia has the lowest middle-class tax rates in Canada. That is why we are making record investments in health care, education and programs. It’s also why we have been able to make record investments in infrastructure like roads, airports, ports, schools and hospitals — investments that are made easier because of our strong fiscal record.

It’s a record that allows us to maintain a triple-A credit rating and lower borrowing rates. The results are incredible. For example, in terms of health outcomes, we are ranked amongst the best in the world. In terms of student outcomes, we are ranked No. 1 in the country and, again, among the best on the planet.

British Columbia is an island of economic stability in what has been — for other provinces and, certainly, for countries everywhere — unpredictable and turbulent economic times. Even so, our government has been reliably delivering a balanced budget for four years in a row, with a fifth to be presented by our Finance Minister just
[ Page 13694 ]
around the corner — tomorrow. It can only be described as remarkable.

Our ability to control our finances has made our province a safe harbour for global investment. This has generated even more economic activity for our province and all sectors that make up its economy. In fact, in the last five years, we have seen an 18 percent increase in capital investment, up to $78 billion annually. Clearly, the results of our balanced budget policy for British Columbia are paying off.

In the next four years, we’re going to eliminate our operating debt for the first time since 1975. It’s just incredible. We are able to talk about doing something which hasn’t happened in over 40 years. It all signals our economic confidence to investors all over the globe and to business owners all across British Columbia. Our government intends to build on this success so we can continue creating more long-term, high-paying and secure jobs for British Columbians.

A core priority for our government is to diversify, grow and strengthen the economies of every region in this province. A big part of our diverse economy, of course, is our booming agrifood sector. Day in and day out, over 55,000 farmers, ranchers, fishers and food processors work around many regions of our province to grow, catch, process and deliver some of the world’s best-tasting and highest-quality foods for British Columbians.

I see this activity firsthand because agriculture is a big part of the local economy in my riding of Abbotsford South. I’ve had the privilege of meeting many of my constituents who are growers, producers and processors of the foods that feed the wonderful people of this province. Over the years and during my time as representative of Abbotsford South, I’ve spoken to them about their passion for the land, their product and their contribution to our way of life.

[1750]

Overall, the agricultural industry has just reached a milestone in agrifood receipts, last year topping a whopping $12.3 billion. That was almost 6 percent more than the year before, which was also a record year. Many farmers are earning more, with net cash income last year rising over 33 percent over the previous year.

We’ve seen records surpassed in honey production yield, to nearly four million pounds. Sweet cherries: a production increase of 22 percent higher than the previous year, which was at 14,000 tonnes. A record year in hectares harvested of asparagus, beets, cauliflower, field tomatoes, greenhouse peppers, cucumbers and more, and also records in cattle, milk and chickens.

In 2014, B.C. producers led the nation in sales of blueberries, cranberries, sweet cherries, raspberries and apricots, with 17 of B.C. crops ranked second in national sales, including floriculture products, nursery products, grapes and more.

With our long shoreline, we’ve also led the nation in sales of salmon, halibut, rockfish, skate, dogfish, hake, tuna, wild crabs, farmed clams, oysters and scallops — and all of this in an environmentally sustainable manner that not only meets and exceeds standards but also attracts buyers from around the world who are especially hungry for clean, safe, nutritious and high-quality food and drink to consume.

This growing demand has propelled our exports to record levels of nearly $3 billion, with the U.S.A. consuming two-thirds of that and China coming in at No. 2, at $264 million. Our government will continue to support and expand this important industry for the benefit of those men and women working in agrifoods; for all British Columbians, who enjoy over 300 commodities harvested; and for the many people in over 150 countries to whom we export.

If I may talk for a moment about my role as Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors to the Minister of Health. In meeting with seniors and seniors’ groups, one of the things I commonly hear is that they value their independence. They want to stay at home as long as possible. But they also want to make sure the proper supports are in place to help make that happen, and we do too.

The province is committed to providing a full range of services and supports to enable a high quality of life for B.C. seniors. It’s not just about living. It’s not just about basic needs. It’s about enhancing the quality of life for every senior in this province as near as possible.

This is especially important because, as we all know, we have more and more people becoming seniors. We already have 750,000-plus people in British Columbia over the age of 65. The estimates are that that will grow to 1.4 billion within the next 20 years.

In fact, new data from Statistics Canada shows now that seniors are outnumbering children in this country. This is something that will impact the health system, impact the cost of that system, and government is preparing. By planning ahead, we can help ensure our aging population continue to live healthy, engaged lives.

We invest substantial resources to support seniors health care. For those who might not know it, we spend approximately $10,000 per year on average for every person in the province over the age of 65. That climbs to spending $25,000 per year for individuals who are over the age of 85. We spend $67,000 per year for people who are in residential care. It’s a substantial investment, especially when you consider that we have more than 32,000 publicly subsidized residential care, family care, assisted-living and group home care beds in the province.

In the 2014-15 fiscal year, health authorities reported spending over $2.8 billion on home and community care. Government has provided $31 million in funding, including $5 million in 2016, to enhance and support the Better at Home program. Better at Home is a non-medic-
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al home support program that helps seniors with simple day-to-day tasks so that they continue to live independently in their own homes.

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The province funds the program, the United Way of the Lower Mainland manages it, and services are provided by non-profit agencies at 67 sites throughout the province. Many of these sites serve more than one community. Better at Home services may include light housekeeping, grocery shopping, visits and transportation to appointments.

Government has also introduced legislation this spring, I’m proud to say, which means better care options and added protections for those in assisted-living residences. We recognize that the needs of people in assisted-living residences can vary, and they require more flexibility to stay longer in this more home-like setting. Again, it all reflects our commitment to better in place, Better at Home.

We introduced amendments allowing assisted-living residents to remain and access a variety of care. Not only do we support seniors in staying in their own homes as long as possible, but we also want to make communities accessible and senior-friendly, and I’m proud to say we’ve done that on a number of fronts.

We also want to make sure that we keep our communities accessible to the next generation, to the young families who want to build stable, secure lives for themselves by purchasing their own homes and setting down roots. That is why our government has introduced the B.C. HOME partnership program, a program that will help first-time buyers with what is often the most difficult part of securing that first home — coming up with the mortgage down payment. We are partnering with first-time buyers to match the amount that they have saved for their own down payment — up to $37,000 or up to 5 percent of the purchase price of their home.

The no-interest, no-payment loan will lower monthly costs for the first five years and help ensure that housing in British Columbia remains affordable. In doing so, we are working to ensure that the dream of buying a home does not stay just a dream for British Columbians. These new young families will have an important role to play in taking up the torch and bringing our communities into the future, building on the successful foundations established for our seniors and by our seniors.

If I may conclude by returning to the topic of seniors, I think it’s important for all of us to remember that it is seniors who helped build this province, and they deserve our heartfelt gratitude and respect. This diverse group of people has varying needs which must be recognized, protected and represented. The province is committed to providing the services and supports that enable a high-quality of life for all seniors, and I hope I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s not just about basic services; it’s our strong commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all seniors.

Most importantly, though, I look forward to hearing from our seniors. I welcome them to share their perspectives and concerns so that together we can create a health system that continues to be responsive to their needs, the needs of all British Columbians.

J. Wickens: I’m happy to stand in the House today to speak a little bit to the throne speech and some of the comments from members opposite.

Before I get to that, I just have to say hello to my husband, Brian, who’s probably making dinner right now. I know that he’s watching. And Troy and Adrianne, I hope you’re being good at home without Mommy there. I’ll FaceTime you later.

Really, when it comes to the throne speech, there are a couple of things that I just want to bring to light for my colleagues in the Legislature. You know, I’m often taken aback a bit when I’m called a politician, because I still don’t feel quite like a politician. Often when I hear things and when I’m experiencing things in this Legislature, it’s a little bit from the lens of not being in politics for very long. I’m very new to it and thinking about things a little differently.

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When we have things like the throne speech and the budget speech, what I like to do is I like to look at it through a critical thinking lens. There are a number of definitions for critical thinking. But for me, what it is, is it’s taking a statement or an idea…. It’s about being open-minded about it but evaluating it based on evidence and lived experience. I often reflect about others’ experiences and ask myself: what are the reasons that I’m agreeing or disagreeing? What is the context that I understand this in?

There are many things in the throne speech that I believe — when you put them through that critical thinking exercise and when you put them into context — don’t quite paint the rosy picture that this Liberal government would like us to see.

My experience, before I was elected, in advocacy and working with families in my community, really, was that people in positions of power like to cling to stats and stories that help them keep the status quo. They often like to make downward comparisons and have people kept in positions that they’re in and just be thankful for what they have.

I have to make a couple comments about our Deputy Premier’s comments last week when he was speaking to the throne speech, because I was quite surprised, actually. There were some comparisons of British Columbia and Nicaragua. We were told in this House that we should be thankful for where we live. British Columbia is a beautiful place, and it’s a wonderful place to live.

I want to give our Deputy Premier some context for his comments. In Nicaragua, rent for an apartment in city centre is $300 a month. Outside of city centre, it is $177 a month. For eggs, $1.81.
[ Page 13696 ]

So when our Deputy Premier stands up and says that people with disabilities in British Columbia should look at Nicaragua and look at the rates of social assistance that they have and compare them to what people are getting for a year….

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, the Chair would like to hear the speech.

Continue, please.

J. Wickens: The point is that….

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

J. Wickens: You know what? The member is actually quite right. I’ve never been to Nicaragua. I’m not privileged enough in my life to have travelled the world. I haven’t been there. Sorry, hon. Speaker.

Deputy Speaker: Through the Chair.

J. Wickens: The point is that when we make downward comparisons, what we’re telling people is that their lived experience is not important. What we’re doing is we’re devaluing the experience that they’re having in British Columbia.

This economy is not working for all British Columbians right now. There are people that are struggling, and there are people that are having a horrible time in this province. It is our job, as elected officials, to listen to those people in British Columbia and try and make life better for them; not make downward comparisons.

One of the things that I recall from the throne speech was that there was quite a bit of discussion around liquor reform.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, the Chair would like to hear the speech.

Please continue.

[1805]

J. Wickens: We heard a bit about liquor reform in the throne speech. I don’t have a problem with liquor reform, but the challenge that I have is that we hear more about liquor reform than reform addressing the needs of children in this province, and that I just don’t seem to understand.

We spent this morning talking about child care. The members opposite, time and time again, called what we have supported in regards to child care a “scheme.” Taking care of our children and our most vulnerable, to the members opposite, is a scheme.

We heard time and time again: how are we going to pay for our plan? Well, I just want to talk a little bit about some of the government spending that we see from the members opposite. I can talk about the billion-dollar tax cut for millionaires. There’s a place where we might be able to find money. We can talk about the fact that the political ad spending from this government has more than doubled recently.

And actually, when we talk about ad spending….

Interjections.

J. Wickens: I know they want to talk about a time when I was in kindergarten. I’m not interested in it.

The doubling of our political ad spending. My kids, actually, when we’re watching TV…. My children, my seven-year-old and 11-year-old, moan during the news because there are at least five political ads on TV from this B.C. Liberal government. It is reckless, and it is unnecessary.

We’ve got half a million in private jets for our Premier. Paying for photographers. We’ve got a 50 percent increase in communications for the government. But we can’t afford to provide safe, reliable, affordable, accessible child care for the children in the province of British Columbia.

I also want to talk about some of the other things that were said in the throne speech.

Interjections.

J. Wickens: I’m getting people really riled up in the House. I must be saying something that’s hitting a chord there.

The throne speech says B.C. is first in creating jobs in Canada, and more British Columbians are working than ever before. Context — I want to put a little context around that. We have seen the slowest wage growth in Canada. So yes, people are working in British Columbia, but they are working in part-time, precarious, low-paying jobs.

We have seen almost the highest working poor in this province. Half of British Columbians live paycheque to paycheque. We have the highest household debt. I’m not making this up — half of British Columbians living paycheque to paycheque. You know where that came from? That came from the Canadian Payroll Association. Household debt — $60,000 for every man, woman and child, according to the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia. That’s not me. Highest household debt.

We have the worst housing affordability for young people, for people in general. We have the highest rate
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of working poverty, and we have the highest amount of people relying on payday loans ever.

So do we have low unemployment? Yes, but in context. Everything is about context.

We’ve also, in this speech, heard about B.C. having the lowest taxes for middle-class families. Context, again. Let’s talk about all of the fees families have seen. We’ve got….

Interjection.

J. Wickens: Well, fees are taxes. They’re hidden, regressive taxes, and I’d like to talk about all of the fees that families have seen increases in. Increases in MSP, up 24 percent since 2011. The prosperity fund — where did that come from? Hard-working families and their MSP.

Hydro increased. ICBC increased. We’ve got ferry fares increased, bridge tolls increased, camping fees, tuition fees, highest student debt and highest student loan interest rates. We’ve got the second-highest child care costs.

[1810]

They want to talk about taxes for middle-class families? Those sound like a whole lot of regressive taxes to me, a whole lot of regressive taxes. We don’t want to make life easier for families by providing affordable child care or raising minimum wage or eliminating MSP.

Let’s talk a little bit about B.C. education: “Students rank first in the country in outcomes.” I want to talk a little bit about the experience inside our schools, because it’s not just about stats. It’s about what our kids are going through in the classroom. You know what? I want people to really think about what their school experience was like when they were in elementary school. What were the things that they had the privilege to have when they were going to school?

There are a couple of things that our kids don’t have a privilege to have anymore. First, and this might surprise people: janitors. When I was a kid, there was a janitor in our school all day long. There was a janitor at night. There was a janitor cleaning up, making sure our schools were clean and safe for our children. You know what? Today there is no janitor in my child’s school. If a child is sick or something breaks, that doesn’t get cleaned up. That doesn’t get fixed until later on. It’s okay for the members opposite that our children are going into schools that aren’t cleaned properly because we don’t have janitors in our schools.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members, please. Members.

Please proceed.

J. Wickens: When I was a child, my parents did not have to fundraise for every single little thing that I got in my classroom. Add that to another fee that families have to fork out for today in our society. Every time I turn around, I need to pay for something else. We’re fundraising for field trips, for computers in the classroom, for all kinds of things for our children.

I don’t often talk about my own child’s experience, but I have a child with special needs in this public education system. We started this year out with four students, in his classroom, with autism. There wasn’t even one full-time educational assistant in that classroom. Parents have to fight every single year to get their children the support that is required for them and that they need to access their education. It happens all the time.

Context. We can talk all we want about outcomes. We can talk all we want and paint the rosiest picture that we want for British Columbia, but what’s happening in our communities, on the ground and in our classrooms is a different story.

They talked about child poverty in the throne speech. I want to give a little story about child poverty, because it’s a story that affected me, and it’s quite eye-opening. We know that we have one in five children in British Columbia living in poverty, and I think that that is shameful. In a province as beautiful and rich as ours, one in five of our children is living in poverty.

I was at a gala. We all, in this House, get to go to galas quite often. I was at a gala a couple of weeks ago. It was a gala giving awards to businesses and non-profits in our community. One of the non-profits got an award at this gala for the incredible work that they do in our community — great work.

One of the things that this non-profit does in the community is provide backpacks for children. They provide backpacks filled with food for children, and they give those children those backpacks on Friday, because for the entire weekend, those children are going to go out without food. They know that those children are going to go home, and they are not going to be given a meal.

So this charity comes forward and provides them with a backpack filled with food. When did it become common and when did it become okay that we have children in this province that go an entire weekend without food?

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That’s something that we’re supposed to just not be so negative about, I guess. We’re not supposed to talk about those negative things.

I lie awake at night thinking about the fact that there are children that go an entire weekend without food, and every single person in this House should be lying awake as well. It is unacceptable. It is shameful. I cannot believe that in a province as rich as ours, this is what we have going on.

There are things that can be done to make life better for British Columbians. There are things. We can create cohesive plans, plans that pull things together for people, that create a better B.C., that build a better B.C.

I’m losing my voice, so I’m going to end soon. But I just want to say that there are good ideas from all political
[ Page 13698 ]
stripes. And it would be nice if I felt that since I’d been elected, there was real, good bipartisan work that I could have been a part of. It’s an election year, so it doesn’t surprise me that I didn’t get to see much of that.

But we have people in this province that are counting on us. We have people in this province that are really struggling, that life isn’t rosy and rainbows and butterflies and unicorns for. It is our duty as elected officials to work every day — together, regardless of what our beliefs politically are — to make things better for the people of British Columbia.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Hon. T. Stone: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to take my place in this debate on the throne speech.

I want to start off by acknowledging and thanking the people of Kamloops–South Thompson, one of the terrific constituencies that many of us in this chamber have the honour of representing. The communities of Kamloops, Chase, Pritchard, Westwold, Monte Lake, Knutsford, Cherry Creek and Savona — it’s a really nice blend of the urban centre in Kamloops, the majority of the city of Kamloops, as well as some interesting and growing and vibrant rural communities adjacent to the city of Kamloops.

I’m very fortunate to work with some outstanding people: Mayor Peter Milobar and council in the city of Kamloops; Mayor Rick Berrigan and the council with the village of Chase; the Thompson-Nicola regional district, chaired by John Ranta — all really good people, in addition to the folks that serve on the Kamloops school district, SD 73.

I want to take a moment to thank the constituency staff that have done such a great job to serve the people of Kamloops through our constituency office — in particular, my constituency assistants Becky Blixrud, Pat Nagy and Leah Caldow. They do a terrific job. They’re the face and the voice of our office, and I certainly couldn’t do what I do without the support of them back home.

Of course, I also want to take a brief moment to acknowledge and thank the great friendship and partnership that I have had for the past 3½ years with the member for Kamloops–North Thompson, the Minister of Health. He’s an individual who has served in this chamber for 7½ years in a number of different portfolios, a gentleman that has been a really good friend and mentor and partner with me as we have worked hard to serve the people of Kamloops and the Thompson valleys.

Of course, like many before me here, I would not be able to do what I do without the support of my wife, Chantelle, and my three little girls, Hannah, Sydney and Caitlin, who put up with having me away a lot. Although recently, I’ve been home a bit more, and they were actually quite happy to see me head back down on my way to Victoria on this last trip. I’m not sure what that says.

Kamloops and region is growing. The latest census puts Kamloops just over 90,000 in population. We finally have broken that 90,000 mark. The greater Kamloops area is now well over 100,000.

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The average housing price, though, is still very affordable at just over $400,000. That gets you a great, affordable place to live in Kamloops.

We’re home to Canada’s most comprehensive university, Thompson Rivers University, from trades to law and everything in between. With over 10,000 students now studying on campus, there’s been a huge expansion in programs and seats, capital construction. The most recent capital project announced recently is the new and coming industrial training and technology centre, a $30 million investment at Thompson Rivers University.

Of course, it’s the tournament capital of Canada in Kamloops as well. We’re the host to any number of phenomenal championships and sporting events, everything from hockey to curling to baseball and everything else you can imagine.

The economy in Kamloops is doing very well. We have historically low unemployment in Kamloops, hovering in that 5 to 6 percent range. People are moving to Kamloops in record numbers. They’re coming from other parts of British Columbia in part due to the extraordinary affordability of Kamloops and the terrific quality of life and the standard of living that we have there. But they’re coming from other parts of the country, and they’re moving to Kamloops in significant numbers.

New businesses are starting up in sectors right across the economy. Mining, forestry and ranching continue to be the stalwarts of our local economy, and they’re holding their own. But other sectors, emerging sectors, are really doing well. Film. Kamloops is in the top five locations across British Columbia. The tourism industry is booming, as we know, right across B.C. That has certainly been the case in the Thompson region as well.

The technology sector is something that I know a little bit about, being a technology CEO formerly myself for a number of years. We have seen explosive growth in the technology sector in Kamloops. We’ve surpassed the 100,000 jobs number provincewide, and as we know, these jobs pay about 75 percent higher than the B.C. average wage. That has certainly been the case in Kamloops as well.

When I left my company four years ago to seek public office, there were about 12 tech companies in Kamloops employing about 200 people. Today there are about 1,450 people working in the technology sector across about 160 different tech companies. Quite extraordinary growth, and it’s projected to continue to grow in the years ahead.

I’m thinking about companies like Streamline Technologies, which has gone from zero to 35 employees in less than a year and is projecting 100 employees within six months. They do fleet tracking, vehicle automation
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and ERP for the trucking sector — world-class technology that they’re selling around the world. Lightship or Hummingbird technologies or iTel — on and on the list goes of very innovative companies based in Kamloops.

Of course, the wine industry in Kamloops is growing. I was proud over the last year to get the Kamloops Wine Trail signs up and to encourage and promote the local industry there. I was also very proud to be part of government’s efforts to get B.C. wine on grocery store shelves. The Save-On grocery store in Kamloops carries a wide selection of B.C. wines, including wine from Kamloops wineries. Very excited about that, and we’re going continue to fight for our wine industry in British Columbia.

Also, I would take the opportunity to acknowledge a few individuals that have been doing some exceptional things in Kamloops and some really interesting and exceptional accomplishments. I think of people like Trudie BonBernard, who was awarded the Medal of Good Citizenship recently for the work that she does in Kamloops with the St. John Ambulance therapy dog program.

When I think of the big heart that Kamloops has, I think of people like Ron and Rae Fawcett, who are philanthropists in Kamloops — business owners as well — that are really giving back to the community. Their latest award is a $1 million gift for the Rae Fawcett Breast Health Clinic at Royal Inland Hospital.

I think about people like Corinn Bell, who is the latest QC recipient in the city of Kamloops. She’s been acknowledged for her exceptional contributions to law and mediation in British Columbia. And John Zubak, who recently won the Adam Chowaniec Lifetime Achievement Award at the Startup Canada Awards.

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Mike Miltimore, who has a company called Riversong Guitars. They’re now building custom guitars and exporting them all over the world. Their fastest-growing market is China. They were honoured to actually build custom guitars for the Duke of Cambridge and Prince George. They were given as official gifts on behalf of the province on their recent visit. That’s quite something.

I think about the Century Farm Award that I presented recently to Harold, Shirley, Cody and Tamara Turner of the Turner Ranch in Pritchard, acknowledging their contributions to agriculture and ranching in the Kamloops area.

With that, noting the hour, I do reserve my right to continue my comments in response to the throne speech at a later date.

Hon. T. Stone 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 6:26 p.m.

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