Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: I call Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.

Throne Speech Debate

M. Elmore: I move, seconded by the Minister of Education, that:

[We, Her Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in session assembled, beg leave to thank Your Honour for the gracious speech which Your Honour has addressed to us at the opening of the present session.]

[10:05 a.m.]

I’m very pleased to rise and speak in response to the throne speech. I’d like to start by recognizing that we’re gathered on the traditional territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations here in Victoria, British Columbia.

I’d like to start by thanking the citizens of Vancouver-Kensington for their support in re-electing me to my third term as MLA for Vancouver-Kensington. It’s a great privilege to stand and speak in the House and represent folks from that great riding.

I’d like to also thank my campaign team for their hard work — volunteers and supporters who participated in the election — as well as congratulating all the members here who either found their way re-elected or elected in their first term. So congratulations to everybody for a hard-fought campaign. I also recognize the candidates who ran in Vancouver-Kensington — for the B.C. Liberals, Kim Chan Logan, and also for the Green Party, Simon Rear — who worked very hard and put in a great effort in the election.

It was a very close election right across the province. We know that. Certainly unprecedented, in terms of history. It’s this historic agreement that we were able to fashion with the Green Party caucus that allows us the opportunity to form the stable government that is pledged to work on behalf of all people.

In terms of the throne speech that we heard last week, it’s an opportunity to look at the direction that our government has set in terms of our vision — what we want to accomplish over the days and weeks and years ahead. I just want to reflect on that. Many of the themes that we heard in the throne speech were indeed what I heard on the doorstep in my community in Vancouver-Kensington over the course of the election.

In terms of going forward, I’m going to reference a number of the key themes that we heard in the throne speech that I also heard echoed on doorsteps in Vancouver-Kensington and, I would dare say, that many of my friends across the way in opposition also support. We reference back to thinking of the similarities that we have in the previous…. It’s been characterized as the clone speech.

I want to talk about what the main themes are that we heard laid out with respect to the direction of the government and that we want to undertake. Certainly, when looking at the priorities that were laid out in the throne speech, we have three main themes that we are undertaking: (1) to make life more affordable for British Columbians, (2) to improve public services, and (3) a sustainable strong economy that works to the benefit of British Columbians.

Those three themes were certainly very consistent with the stories and the comments that I heard in Vancouver-Kensington over the course of the campaign — and, I think, echoed right across British Columbia. Number one, starting with one of the most gripping and most intense stories that I heard and certainly made an impact, was just how much families were being squeezed and really feeling the crunch of affordability.

For example, let’s look at housing with respect to the housing crisis. When we look back, how is it that we came to such a crisis of affordability in our province? I think we have to put that in the context of the record of 16 years of the B.C. Liberal government and their policies that have brought us to this point.

Certainly, that was a consistent theme I heard right across the board from families, working families, students, seniors — just the dire straits that they were in with respect to difficulty of finding affordable housing, the difficulty of folks who work in Vancouver and the challenges of finding affordable housing — echoed by employers, with the difficulty and challenges to retain workers with the high cost of living.

[10:10 a.m.]

These were very heartfelt — the low vacancy rate for rentals and, also, the out-of-control rents in some areas, with just unprecedented increases. Really, a housing market that can be characterized as really out of control and just spiralling out of reach in terms of affordability for regular British Columbians.

That was a very consistent theme, and we see that as one of the priorities with respect to the Throne Speech — the neglect of 16 years of B.C. Liberals and really not making that a priority. Certainly, the Throne Speech laying that out with respect to making the commitment to making housing more affordable.

We heard that there’s the commitment to close the fixed-term loopholes on leases and to really close the door on unfair rent increases and also to increase the stock of affordable housing around the province.

That’s one of the problems. Certainly, we need a continuum — a comprehensive, affordable housing plan — to address this crisis. Not only in Vancouver but right across the province, from our urban centres to suburbia to our rural areas — this is what we need. And this is one of the key commitments that we heard in the Throne Speech — to bring forward and implement, to work on behalf of British Columbians and to address this very desperate need for affordable housing that we have.

I’m very pleased and heartened that we are undertaking this direction. Certainly, I know that folks that I’ve been in touch with have expressed their excitement at our government going down this path and making a commitment to address the affordability crisis in housing.

As well, I heard on the doorstep and, really, with respect to the crisis in affordability that the second largest expense that families have is child care. I heard the story of a local family. Both parents working very good jobs, professionals, but they had two kids, and they considered themselves lucky because they were able to find child care. But they were paying nearly $2,000 a month in a quality child care facility, and that, even for them, was almost out of reach. There’s just a great need for affordable, accessible child care.

The commitment that we heard in the Throne Speech to address a safe and affordable and quality child care system, implementing that and working to put that into place, certainly is a priority to address this crisis in affordability and lack of access to adequate child care. I’m very pleased that we are able to implement that.

With respect, as well, to affordability, we’ve got the crisis in housing — the dire needs that we’re seeing not only in Vancouver but, certainly, hearing out across Metro Vancouver and even across the province — and child care as well as rising costs. The commitment to address that full range of affordability that we’re seeing — brought on by 16 years of B.C. Liberal neglect on those files…. I’m very happy that in our throne speech, the government, with support from the Greens, is able to address these fundamental concerns and the reality of the experience of British Columbians — certainly in Vancouver-Kensington.

We also heard that, in terms of affordability, we are also going to be establishing the fair wages commission, which was a recommendation brought from the Green caucus to really look at…. This is a model that was successfully implemented in Australia to address the issue of what we’ve really seen under the 16 years — the development of a low wage, precarious employment for many British Columbians — and this principle to ensure that work should lift you out of poverty.

[10:15 a.m.]

This is a commission that will be struck to look at low-wage precarious employment and, in terms of moving forward, to ensure that if you work, you should be able to support yourself and a family. That, I think, is a fundamental principle that we are committed to addressing and undertaking.

We know, as well, just in terms of affordability, Vancouver-Kensington is a very diverse constituency. We have a lot of…. Certainly, Metro Vancouver and British Columbia are known for being very diverse and having many immigrant populations. Certainly, all of us, if we do not have Indigenous heritage, have come from another country. We know that issues of affordability do not hit everybody equally — and certainly disproportionately impacted. In the statistics of low wages and poverty, we know that it hits Indigenous people, racialized communities, women, youth, people with disabilities and seniors more intensely.

I’m very pleased that we have the commitment to implement a poverty reduction plan, and it’s been a long time coming. British Columbia is the only jurisdiction in Canada, the only province, that does not have a legislative poverty reduction plan. I’m very pleased that we are undertaking that commitment. It’s a great honour for myself to serve as the parliamentary secretary to ensure that we roll out and implement a legislative poverty reduction plan.

We saw the clear commitment to making a real difference and to really walking the talk with respect to making an impact on people’s lives. One of the initial announcements was to increase income assistance by $100 a month, and certainly, it’s not everything. It’s not the be-all and end-all, but at least, after ten long years of seeing no increases, we know that those who are most marginalized, who receive income assistance, who are people with disabilities who receive assistance, will see that in their first cheques, later this month in September.

That is the first step in the commitment, and there are many more that are coming with respect to how we implement and address this terrible situation of poverty. Certainly, when we see in British Columbia the opportunities that we have, there’s really no excuse with respect to our levels of poverty. So there’s a clear commitment to undertake a poverty reduction plan.

As well, over the summer, we know that we have experienced the worst wildfire season in history. Certainly, even though in Vancouver we had some days with weather advisories with respect to smoke blowing in from the Interior, it really doesn’t compare to the devastation that we’ve seen across the province. I just want to recognize that and also extend my support and recognition of the Wildfire Service and all first responders — and also to my colleagues across the way. Their communities have been impacted.

Certainly, it’s been — I can’t imagine — a very big challenge and, certainly, a long road ahead. I’m just thankful that even though it was a very big crisis, no lives were lost. There’s a lot of rebuilding that needs to take place, so certainly a very trying time. But certainly, count my support in terms of assisting in those efforts, and also the government. We recognize that. So certainly, a big challenge, but I think this is an example where, working together, there’s a need to ensure that we support British Columbians overcoming this great challenge in terms of our wildfire season.

We know we are also in the midst of an unprecedented epidemic with respect to overdoses with the opioid and fentanyl crises. Certainly, the commitment to address that from our government…. Striking the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions is a big recognition, and there really needs to be an emergency response taken to address this epidemic.

[10:20 a.m.]

The commitment from the government is clear on that. And certainly, the challenges ahead are…. We need to address it as an emergency and as a crisis. I’m very pleased that we have struck the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions to address these concerns.

Certainly, we need to turn that around. We’ve seen that fentanyl has taken…. Last year 978 people died due to overdoses. It’s 876 in the first seven months of this year, so we’re looking to surpass that. I know from experience that the devastation and the impact cut right across communities, all walks of life. I know families who’ve been impacted by this terrible scenario. So that’s an important commitment.

One of the biggest issues in any election are services and, certainly in Vancouver-Kensington, the issue of education. We really saw unprecedented participation and support and motivation from parents and families who have kids in the school system. In my first two terms, that was one of the files I was most active on, with respect to keeping our neighbourhood schools open.

Visiting all of the schools in Vancouver-Kensington, this was a consistent theme that I heard from parents: the concern for adequate funding for our education system, which had been neglected by the B.C. Liberals. So the commitment in our throne speech is to ensure that we restore proper funding to schools to give students the resources and supports they need — not just because we’re mandated to by the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada but because it’s a sincere commitment. That’s well received.

There’s a lot to do, and it’s a first step with respect to repairing our public education system, which has been so underfunded for 16 long years. That’s a big task.

I’m very proud, as well, of our commitment and the government’s move to ensure that students and individuals have access to free adult basic education and English language learning. I have, just down the street, the South Vancouver education centre, which provides many courses for adult basic education and English language learning.

The record is that the funding was cut and fees were imposed, which created a big barrier for individuals who wanted to upgrade their skills either to complete their grade 12 or to ensure that they were able to pursue college and university courses. This is one of the commitments that the government has taken to ensure that British Columbians have access and the ability to pursue post-secondary education. This will make a big improvement in people’s lives.

I met with a number of young people who were impacted by that, and I know that enrolment has increased this term. So that’s a commitment that we’ve taken to address and improve services for British Columbians, not only to address the overdose crisis but with respect to education in our public school system — adult basic education, English language learning and right across the continuum, as well, in terms of our post-secondary education.

We’ve taken the first steps, and we heard in the throne speech the intention to lay that out and move forward and really regard our education system across the continuum as a real foundation in terms of success and prosperity for British Columbians here, which really anchors our economic success as well.

We know that the issue of transportation is also key, and a commitment to improving infrastructure, ensuring that we have more access and better transit, more buses and more service hours, is also key.

[10:25 a.m.]

Of course, the third theme with respect to helping to build a strong and sustainable economy…. We saw, not only heard, in the throne speech…. We know that the Premier went to Washington and travelled to Ottawa to advocate on behalf of our interests — working on a softwood lumber deal and also ensuring that our trade relationships are improved to ensure that we have a market and that we are able to support our traditional economies, the forestry sector, and ensure that it becomes a world-class leading sector in our economy.

That’s our vision. We heard that laid out clearly in the throne speech. It reflects what I’ve heard on the ground in Vancouver-Kensington. I think it’s also with the expectation that British Columbians have a government that’s going to work for them, that listens to them, that ensures that life becomes more affordable and that they have public services that they can rely on, that the economy is strong and sustainable, that it works for them and that people benefit from the economy.

This is the commitment we heard from the throne speech. I’m very proud to support it, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak. I’m going to conclude my remarks there and take my place.

Hon. R. Fleming: I rise to second the motion by the member for Vancouver-Kensington that: “We, Her Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in session assembled, beg leave to thank Your Honour for the gracious speech which Your Honour has addressed to us at the opening of the present session.”

For too long, families in British Columbia have been left behind. They’ve been left behind by rising costs and fees making life unaffordable; a government that raised, for example, the medical services premium health care tax ten times during their time in office; a government where longer waits for health care and overcrowded classrooms became the norm for public services right across this province; a province where part-time, low-wage insecure jobs and barriers to getting a post-secondary education, including adult basic education, became a poverty trap that presented a barrier to far too many British Columbians struggling to get ahead.

As the throne speech laid out earlier in this session on the opening day, our government is making different choices. We are putting people first. Our throne speech sets out a vision and our plan for a better B.C. It’s time in this province to fix the problems facing British Columbians by putting people first and making life better for families everywhere in this province.

It starts by investing in people. That was the theme of the budget we had presented by the Finance Minister yesterday. That was the commitment to British Columbians in our throne speech last Friday. Choosing to invest in people means we’re investing in a strong, sustainable economy in British Columbia. It means we’re investing in the social capital of this province, which is the recipe for success all over the industrialized world.

It means we’re putting people first by improving the services they need and making their lives more affordable, which is critically important when you listen to the anxieties of middle-class British Columbians and working families in the province. They want and need a government that gets it and that cares about making life more affordable for them. That’s why we’re delivering on our promise to improve the services that people count on and to create good jobs for people throughout B.C.

Equal access and opportunity are at the heart of our approach to education. We’ll continue to focus on student success and achievement. We want to ensure that no matter where they live or what their family or personal circumstance may be, all children in this province get a chance in life with the best possible start. That’s why we’re committed to lifting people out of poverty through stronger social programs and a higher minimum wage. We want to make sure students have a strong start by investing more in early childhood education and by making child care more affordable and accessible.

This year will be no different. Two in five children will arrive in our school system in kindergarten deemed “not ready to learn.” Far too many of those kids are ones that never had any formal contact with quality child care in our province.

[10:30 a.m.]

Our commitment as a government is to boost economic success in this province, to raise people out of poverty, to raise the social and living standards in this province by making bold investments in early childhood education. That will be a feature and a legacy for this government in years to come.

Families are struggling in our communities, and these families have children in our schools. Those children deserve the same opportunities as every other child, and public education is the single greatest lever that we have to help people and improve their chances to do well in life.

That’s why I’m so proud that one of our government’s first actions was to announce an end to tuition fees for adult basic education and English-language-learning programs in B.C. The previous government’s decision to impose tuition fees was a disaster: a 30 percent enrolment drop immediately — shutting people out of the doors of upgrading their high school certificates to then get into career programs, to then get into trades and training opportunities, to get into advanced education of every kind.

[L. Reid in the chair.]

That says it all about the failed approach of the previous government — that they targeted people who were struggling to do well by their families, to lift themselves out of poverty, to get out of insecure employment and to get into a career that would lift their families and feed their children and build a better life for themselves in our province.

We’ve abolished tuition fees in adult basic education because it’s the right thing to do and because it pays all of us, every taxpayer in British Columbia, the greatest dividend that we could possibly produce. We’re reopening those doors of opportunity, and every British Columbian now in that situation can go back to school free of charge with no tuition fee barriers.

I’m also proud, recently, of an announcement our government made that young people leaving foster care will now have free access to tuition at all 25 of British Columbia’s post-secondary institutions. Young people in care are the least likely to attend higher education in B.C. They do not complete high school in anywhere near adequate numbers.

Our government believes that those in the care of this government need to be helped so that they can successfully transition to adulthood and lead productive, successful lives, not languish at the margins of our economy in situations of neglect but take their rightful place and have the opportunities that other British Columbians have. So we’re clearing a path to their success in this budget.

That’s just a start. In terms of my ministry, it’s time to put our kids first. We’ve had years of cuts and confrontation, and the message to all of those who interact in their daily lives with the school system is: those days are over. It’s time to invest in schools, invest in classrooms and a better future for our children.

The evidence from all over the world is that the best way to build a strong economy for today and tomorrow is to invest in the success of our kids. As the throne speech makes clear, we’re doing that by making education a top priority of our government. We’re investing in children, who will enjoy smaller class sizes, more individual time with teachers, more resources for special needs learners in our system, better supports for each and every child in every corner of B.C. That’s what the budget laid out yesterday, that was the throne speech commitment from our government, and that’s the direction we’re taking the education system in the province of B.C. this day forward.

We fulfilled our promise to fully fund the agreement with the B.C. Teachers Federation to hire 3,500 teachers in classrooms all over British Columbia — the greatest single hiring of new professional teachers in our school system in generations. To put it this way, we’ve got enrolment growth projected at 4,200 new students all over the school system this year and 3,500 new teachers. So for almost every new child coming into the school system, enrolling in kindergarten, we have a new teacher in the school system. That is an absolute sea change on the kinds of discussions we were having with the previous government.

Let’s think back to what September typically was like in terms of the conversation we had around public education in schools. We’re talking about things today that are so markedly and dramatically different than past Septembers.

[10:35 a.m.]

Let’s just go over the last five years. September 2012, not far back to recall. What was the discussion of the day? Education cuts being imposed on school districts right across British Columbia. Teachers being laid off and fired. Support staff positions disappearing. Class composition limits exceeding government guidelines in 15,000 individual locations. And a government — let’s not forget — that in 2012 was actually found by the courts, by sworn testimony, by neutral civil servants to have been ordered to deliberately provoke a strike for political gain in advance of the 2013 election.

That’s the kind of abuse that our school system was undergoing just five years ago. That’s the kind of stuff that this government was up to — deliberately conspiring to provoke a strike to create a political wedge issue. They used the school system as a wedge instead of using it as it properly should be, which is as an economic investment tool for the long-term prosperity of this province. That’s what we’re going to do as government.

September 2014, even more recent — think about what we were talking about in British Columbia then. Families were in the middle of the longest school disruption in B.C. history. It’s September 12 today. Schools would be shut down for a further three weeks from where we are today, in that September 2014 period — 550,000 kids and their families locked out of school. That was where we were just a few Septembers ago in the province of B.C., dramatically and markedly different from where we are today.

Let’s not forget September 2016. Almost the most recent occasion for the opposition on the other side, when they were in government, to lay out their vision for education. Let’s go back to Budget 2016, because it is such a recent memory. What did the government do when they had their opportunity to present a budget to this chamber, as we did yesterday? They ordered $50 million of new cuts into a school system that had already declined from the second-best funded school system in Canada to the second worst.

The Premier said: “Oh, the system can handle $50 million more cuts. There’s low-hanging fruit in our school system.” You know what that unleashed? I’m sure the members opposite will remember this, because it happened in their communities too. Forty new school closures were on the block. Just 18 months ago we were talking about rural British Columbia — in most cases — in some cases losing their only school in those communities.

That was their budget opportunity to do something different. That’s their record in government. That’s where we’ve been over the last 16 years, and that is where we cannot afford to be anymore if this province is going to be successful in the years ahead.

Let’s talk about the conversation we’re having now this September. I mentioned three examples of three years prior. Now we’re talking about a different set of problems. Nothing ever is entirely smooth in a school system, as you know. There are always timetabling and adjustments happening every September. What we’re talking about now is: how do we hire enough teachers fast enough in enough parts of the province so that we can have more learning resources given to our kids so that they can do better in the school system?

We’re talking about discussions with superintendents. How can we resource the education system so that the next 15 percent of kids who aren’t getting through school successfully can do so? How do we get past the complacency where we’re stuck at an 80 percent graduation rate, when we know that that means one in five kids really isn’t getting through school and they’re limiting their life chances? That’s what we’re talking about today.

We’re talking about: how do we reduce class sizes in the crucial early learning years from K to 3, and what kind of benefits can that bring to our society? This is an exciting time for parents. They’re coming back, and if they’re enrolling their child into kindergarten for the first time, it’s an entirely different conversation in public education today than it was just a year ago or two years ago or, quite frankly, for the last 16 years.

This is a government that isn’t fighting teaching professionals and others in the school system and fighting parents. This is a government that is working with every single stakeholder in the public education system to make it better. That is the difference, in a nutshell.

[10:40 a.m.]

It hasn’t even been 60 days. I’ve mentioned some of the things that we’ve already begun. We’ve abolished adult basic education tuition fees. We’ve sought to work with children in care so they can graduate and get into post-secondary education. We’ve brought in a budget just yesterday with $681 million of stable, predictable funding, fully funding enrolment growth and not leaving school districts in the lurch to make cuts elsewhere in their system. That is unprecedented. I’ll wait.

I heard a very confusing response to the budget yesterday that said: “Maybe these investments aren’t worth it. Maybe you’re spending too much on the education system. Maybe British Columbia was just doing fine when it was the second-worst-funded school system in Canada.” You know what? It wasn’t. You know what? That kind of complacency was taking us down a path that we reject. And you know what? British Columbians rejected it too.

Our government is also laying the groundwork to speed up the pace of investments in seismic upgrades and other needed capital projects right around B.C. The fact is that our children need to learn in schools that are both welcoming and safe, and there are far too many schools in this province that need to be seismically upgraded. Only 164 out of 346 have been completed.

In Richmond, only three out of 24 schools are seismically safe. That’s what was done, or how little was done, in 15 years. We want to get to work right away with school boards to meet an ambitious timeline so we can get schools upgraded and made safe for students and staff much more quickly.

Let’s remember 2013. In April, the Premier said: “Nothing is more important than the safety of our kids.” This was right before an election, April, and the election was in May. Weeks after the election, in July, the Premier stood in front of the cameras again and said: “The new timeline is no longer 2020 for seismic upgrades. In some parts of the province, it will be 2030.” She completely abandoned the commitment she’d made only weeks before while she was campaigning in an election — abandoned weeks after the election was finished.

Now, we’re doing things differently. We made commitments in the election. We’re getting to work with districts that need seismic upgrades. We’re setting timelines that are ambitious and achievable. That, again, shows what a sea change we’ve seen in public education and in the attitude of our government versus the record of that previous government.

We’re looking at how we can expedite replacement projects and find ways to improve capital approval so we can cut the wait times from green light to groundbreaking. It shouldn’t take six or seven years to build a new elementary school in this province.

Saskatchewan just opened 19 elementary schools. It took two years to build every single one of them, on time and on budget. That’s a province of a million people. How can Saskatchewan do that? How can Calgary build 13 new schools opening this year, and British Columbia is languishing with a record of underinvestment in schools that are needed in fast-growing communities right across British Columbia? We’re going to fix that sorry state of affairs, because kids shouldn’t spend their entire learning career in a portable in British Columbia.

We want to make sure that our children are receiving an education that will let them thrive in this ever-changing 21st-century world, and that’s why we’re allocating resources to implement the new curriculum in B.C. schools. The new curriculum focuses on building a lifelong love of learning and resiliency in our children so they can learn many skills and develop the core competencies to be successful in life.

We know we have a very good education system in B.C., but we can make it a great education system. One change we must make if we are to call ourselves great in the years ahead is to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. Indigenous people in British Columbia do not have the success in schools that non-Indigenous kids have.

We’ve gone through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The calls to action are clear about how we must do better, how we must respect First Nations culture in our school system. Those are significant inclusions in the new curriculum, but it’s going to take work, it’s going to take effort, and it’s going to take partnership to be able to drive better results.

[10:45 a.m.]

We shouldn’t ever, ever be complacent about First Nations students not achieving in our school system. We must strive to do better and better every day. That’s what the Auditor General instructed this Legislative Assembly to do. That’s what the federal process on residential schools has urged us to do.

I think that we all have a special obligation, given that the education system — which has been the recipe for inclusion and success for so many communities that have come and built a life through different waves of immigration, for example, in the province of B.C. — was actually a place of humiliation and degradation for our First Nations people.

In the 21st century, education in our public education system must be a place where we liberate First Nations people to be successful and take their rightful place in our communities, with economic development opportunities that are equal to non-Indigenous people. That’s the commitment of our government.

The new First Nations history curriculum develops full course offerings in Aboriginal languages. There are more than 64,000 Aboriginal learners in B.C., and their education should embrace and reflect their unique heritage and help strengthen and preserve their culture. That’s a commitment we’ve made.

This is a government that works for people and with people. One of the first things I did as Minister of Education was to reach out to all 60 school board chairs across B.C. to find out what’s working and what’s not. I’ve also made a commitment to building a new relationship with educators across B.C. That will be a relationship built on respect. Instead of fighting with educators, our government is actually willing to listen.

Already, the reaction to the throne speech from educators has been in sharp contrast to previous speeches. The B.C. Teachers Federation says: “Students and schools finally get the throne speech they deserve.” The B.C. School Trustees Association is similarly appreciative of the new tone that this government and our Premier have set in terms of our goals around public education.

I can tell you that it’s one thing to set the right tone. It’s one thing to go about the hard work of building successful relationships based upon respect. But I am so proud of the budget yesterday, because it actually lays out significant actions, concrete investments, real things happening in our school system — all 1,500 schools across the province, across our 60 school districts — to create what the sector and what parents have been telling government and the province to do for years: “Create a stable, predictable funding environment. Don’t leave my kid in the lurch every single year. Deliver on commitments around special education. Make sure that every kid is able to have a chance to succeed in life. Make sure that our public education system is leveraging every advantage, socially and economically, to compete in this fast-changing world.”

We have a throne speech, and yesterday we had a budget that puts those principles, those ambitions, into a set of concrete steps that our government will begin to take immediately.

I thank you for the opportunity to respond to the throne speech this morning.

R. Coleman: Madame Speaker, I’m glad to see you there. Over the past 20 years as an MLA for Langley, mainly for Fort Langley–Aldergrove and recently, in just this election, a riding now renamed as Langley East, it’s been an honour to stand up in this House, an honour to appear to respond to dozens of throne speeches. Ironically, probably just myself, yourself and the official opposition House Leader have the experience on both sides of this House.

I’ve always considered it an honour to respond in this House and to speak — the opportunity to respond on matters of this House. People in this House, for the most part, are people who have honour and honesty and who are here for all the right reasons, for their constituents.

Before I start, I want to also, obviously, thank the people of Langley East for their support, particularly the two people in my constituency office who have always done a great job on behalf of British Columbia, Jenn and Kim, and the people in my office here in Victoria.

[10:50 a.m.]

Obviously, if you’ve been doing this for 21½ years, you’ve had to have had a little bit of support from your family. My wife and I celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary on August 31, and we’re gifted with two children. [Applause.] Imagine. I guess that is an applause line in today’s society. But anyway, we’re gifted with four grandchildren and, obviously, two great children.

I’ve always believed that British Columbians look to a legislature for a bright vision for tomorrow. I’ve always believed that the responsibility of the House is to leave the next generation of British Columbians better than it found it. I think we’ve all worked to accomplish that in the last number of decades, as I’ve watched people do their jobs in this House, and I believe and I hope we could do it again.

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of my speech, I really do have to recognize the people that have been sitting out on the front lines of this province doing things like evacuations. It’s police, fire. It’s businesses that actually stayed open so the gasoline could be there for a truck to move goods and services and people to evacuation centres across B.C. It’s people like law enforcement, our firefighters — people that do this job for us.

It’s also the small businesses that actually step up and do things for British Columbia, and First Nations who have put their lives on the line not just to protect their villages and their territories but also sent people to other areas of B.C. with equipment and people to actually fight this scourge.

Now, I have a unique perspective on this. In 2003, when I was Solicitor General, I was the first person in history to declare a provincewide emergency. The provincewide emergency gives extended powers to the person in charge of emergency management in B.C. so they can move any piece of fire equipment from anywhere in the province to go take care of British Columbians.

It can actually do all kinds of things that are within the power of the government to do — do things like, for instance, in Kelowna…. When we couldn’t do it, we were actually prepared in Kelowna, in the fires of 2003, to bulldoze ten half-million-dollar houses to try and get a fire line. We couldn’t get in because of all the lookie-loos up at the highway. We couldn’t get the equipment up; therefore, we lost 350 houses.

The reality is this: this particular year has been very difficult. As far as loss of life, we are lucky. As far as loss of people’s homes, it is very difficult when you lose something that’s so important to you. The loss of time with your family — the disruption, the times you might have got this summer where you’d be able to sit at the lake or enjoy each other’s company — was lost.

But as all that was going on, there were people stepping up. We heard a couple of examples yesterday — an example of a small business in Kamloops that’s been giving meals to people on vouchers. Now, I’ve been in business. I know what it’s like to meet a payroll. I know what it’s like to meet a payroll and pay my own rent. I know what it’s like to make that significant investment of capital to take the risk to hire people and build my business.

No business in this province should be pushed to the brink of bankruptcy or receivership simply because the government has not paid the bill to them. I don’t think a First Nations community, the Nazko, should be waiting for a half-million-dollar payment so they can pay their people their bills and the rent on their equipment. It’s shameful. And it’s because it’s shameful that I feel an overwhelming responsibility to hold this new government accountable for the way they intend to leave our next generation and for how they are treating the people of this generation who have actually stood up for British Columbians.

The result I see of what’s going on, on the other side of the House is a reckless approach to our economy. I think that most members of the Legislature would agree that British Columbians sent a message that they wanted to see an additional investment in some priority areas. The budget we presented in 2017 did that.

It’s interesting to sit in the House and have somebody take credit for a $3,000 tax credit for first responders, volunteer firefighters and search and rescue guys when it was in a budget in February, and you’re taking credit for it today. My message on that would be, “Get your own ideas” — right? Get your own ideas of what you want to do for the province of British Columbia, because I’m not seeing it here in what I see today.

[10:55 a.m.]

I do see some things. I also know that there are things that concern me. The one thing that we’ve done to build a triple-A credit rating and investment for British Columbia is to be a place that is a harbour for strong investment, for the creation of jobs and opportunities for the province of British Columbia.

In 60 days…. There have been billions of dollars now sitting on the sidelines going elsewhere in the world because they’re not going to invest in British Columbia. I’ll tell you why: because of too much uncertainty. The uncertainty is around a number of things. I know for a fact that this letter that I have on my desk here, which was sent to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on March 10, 2016, was sitting in a boardroom of five major companies trying to make a final investment decision on a project that would have brought tens of thousands of jobs to B.C.

These guys needed something from British Columbia. They needed support to be able to get a permit that shouldn’t take four years but 12 months so they could change the location of a jetty. The risk of time was so significant, in the billions of dollars, that they put that project on hold. By the way, the letter opposing the project to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency — written on March 10, 2016, that was on the table — was signed by the now-Premier and the now–Minister of Environment.

The actual opposition to things like Kinder Morgan sends an international message not just about investment. No, no. It sends another message — that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which is responsible for the best environmental processes in the world…. This NDP government will not accept those processes or that decision-making — a statutory decision made by the federal government after bureaucrats put in tens of thousands of hours looking at everything from fisheries to routing to First Nations relationships and everything else, backed up by an environmental back-up assessment by the British Columbia government and also signed off by statutory officers.

They’re saying today that our environmental processes in this country are no good if they come to British Columbia. If another federal permit is issued on a mine, on a riverway, on a highway or anything else that takes place in British Columbia…. These people here have said they don’t support that agency. They don’t support the environmental assessment, and they’re prepared to go take on, in the courts, a project that’s been approved by a very, very rigorous approach.

Now, that’s the one piece. The other piece is the 6,000 or 7,000 jobs it would bring. That’s the other piece. But the worst piece is this. The partners — international, whether it be China, Japan, the U.S., Canada — are sitting there saying: “Well, this is not a place to invest. We can’t invest money if we can’t understand and depend and believe in the process of approval.” The process of approval is considered some of the most onerous and difficult in the world, and the NDP actually want to oppose any project just because they don’t like it. That’s the only reason. It’s certainly not because of environmental and First Nations and those things, because those things have been satisfied in this approval.

What else we saw yesterday in the budget — and in the throne speech — was to really address the spending plan with, arguably, no consideration for how to pay for it. So let’s let British Columbians know one little thing: the tolls came off the bridges. People liked it.

If you’re a trucker in British Columbia, if you’re a taxi in British Columbia, if you’re a commuter in British Columbia, your price of gas is going up because of the change in how the carbon tax will be managed in B.C. From no longer being carbon-neutral, it’s coming out of your pocket. People in Pouce Coupe, up in Quesnel, 100 Mile, Williams Lake, Prince Rupert, Campbell River, Nanaimo, Victoria are all going to pay for the infrastructure that Lower Mainlanders will drive on from now on.

They’re going to take it out of your pocket from all of those areas, including the Fraser Valley and all the way up through the Interior of B.C. to the Okanagan, and they are going to pay for the infrastructure in the Lower Mainland, because they have taken the tolls off the bridge.

[11:00 a.m.]

Now, it would be nice if they took the tolls off but showed us a way to really pay for it or to actually suck it into the fact that they’ve got to put it in their operational budget. But to artificially just go out and raise the tax so we can now take money out of the pocket of every British Columbian because we had a campaign promise to take the toll off — wrong. Wrong, because the people in the interior of British Columbia and across this province and Vancouver Island — whether it be forest industry, or whatever the case may be — are working hard every day to make ends meet.

To throw this on the backs of the people of the province of B.C., who have come through the worst wildfire season in history, who are wondering how their businesses will operate if they can get them back open again, who had their whole communities evacuated — the clothing store, the gas station, the convenience store, the grocery store…. Every single little operation in town has lost that revenue, that opportunity to do business. And then to wake up today and find out the government of B.C. is so not interested in them, that they’re just going to put more tax on their gas and they’re going to just take that money and invest it — not where you pay it, but where they think that they want to spend it. Wrong.

They’ve laid out this aggressive spending plan — $1 billion in tax increases over three years. And then they want to say they want affordability for families — $1 billion in tax increases over three years. Who do you think that impacts? If you raise the personal income tax, if you change things around on how you tax people, the money comes from somewhere.

British Columbia has the lowest marginal tax rates on the continent for people making $109,000. What’s good about that? If Microsoft or Google or any other company wants to come here and build a server farm, or if somebody wants to invest in B.C., they can tell their people that it’s an advantage to go work in British Columbia. It’s an advantage to be here to take a job. And the reason it is, is because your tax, your threshold of what you have to pay, is all there for you to look at.

But somebody just changed that. Now, you’re a corporation who is deciding to invest in B.C., who is going to invest in B.C., and yesterday they raised the corporate income tax to 12 percent. They know it’s just the same as Alberta and Saskatchewan. We don’t want to be the same as Alberta and Saskatchewan. We want to be better than Alberta and Saskatchewan.

What have they done? It deters investment. Investment means jobs. So on one side, you’re saying you want to be good for families. The families that want long-term, self-sustaining family jobs have just found out that the very people that would invest in B.C. to create those jobs have been told: “You’re not welcome here.” That’s what happened here. They decided they’re going to tow on the back of something, and they’re going to do the same thing as they did in the past.

There was an old adage back when I first got here. In B.C. at the time, if you wanted to have a small business in British Columbia, deal with a government that overtaxes it, and they’ll tax it down to where it becomes a small business, because that’s all they’ll be able to do to function in it.

People in B.C. need to know that the door is closing on any environmental assessment on a mine. The door is closing on any environmental assessment on LNG. The door is closing on any environmental assessment on anything you want to do in this province, because we have a government that does not respect the environmental assessment of this country — that actually opposes a permit that’s been issued by our senior government.

It’s a classic “borrow from Peter to pay Paul.” And the classic “borrow from Peter to pay Paul” means that over time, it becomes a reckless discharging. What happens is you discharge one debt by incurring another. But if they don’t cover, what happens is the shell game comes back and bites you, and you end up with more debt for your GDP. You end up with unsustainable financing. And what you then need is this: to tax people even more. It becomes a downward spiral that takes away any opportunity for innovation, any opportunity for future thinking and any opportunity for success.

We’re going to lose our competitive advantage. And that makes our investment climate less attractive, so people will put their money elsewhere.

[11:05 a.m.]

See, the thing is that significant increases in business and personal taxes don’t just affect a board table of a company. They affect investment and the money that comes in to build the business, but it also affects kitchen tables.

When you decide to put another tax on and not make it revenue-neutral to reduce other taxes, like they’ve done…. By the way, that was the reason B.C. won a UN award for the revenue-neutral carbon tax. Maybe they’re going to send it back to the UN, because now you’ve lost that part that was so important — a standard for other people, other jurisdictions in the world, for United Nations to follow. They flushed that yesterday.

As we became a beacon of fiscal management over the time that we were, which made us resilient in the face of some significant economic hardships across the country and over the past decade — and still performing at No. 1 — we have been proved to be the envy of the nation.

However, don’t expect that to last, because the price of the Port Mann Bridge…. It’s now becoming a mortgage payer for the Golden Ears Bridge, by the way, which wasn’t even a government debt. It was TransLink’s debt. We effectively take over their mortgage and watch the debt-to-GDP in this province, which wasn’t totally exposed yesterday in this budget, go like this. The debt-to-GDP was 15.4 percent. It took 16 years to get it from 23, 24 percent down to that, to balance the budget and start paying down debt. These guys across the House will do that, I predict, within a year. We’ll be downgraded to our triple-A credit rating…. Maybe even before a year is up.

I’m worried about a number of things, because when you’re the envy of people and you can sit across from people, internationally, and convince them of opportunities in B.C., I’m worried. But there’s something else I’m worried about. I mentioned a minute ago about the environmental assessment and how this government opposed an opportunity for Pacific NorthWest LNG and then expected, for some reason, they would make a decision with confidence in the government. They didn’t. But I don’t understand that.

The market tells us the need for this will be there. The U.S. is ramping up. The economists say the U.S. is going to become the leading exporter of LNG because B.C. is going to be killed by the change in government — for an opportunity.

More importantly…. I don’t know why the members of this House don’t understand this, but I’m going to say it again because I’ve said it in the past. I negotiated pipeline benefit agreements, benefit agreements for First Nations and the government to government relationship for the last three or four years. The Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council, the Lax Kw’alaams, the Metlakatla, the Kitsumkalum, the Tsimshian nation, the Haisla — all who look at today with a lot of frustration and sadness. When government says — and you’ve heard the narrative in the speeches in this House over the years — that First Nations don’t support economic development, you need to go to Lax Kw’alaams. You need to go to Metlakatla.

You need to go to the small First Nation that takes you an hour and a half by gravel road, up near Fort St. James, and go into the community and talk to the people. You need to see the abject poverty that they live in. You need to see the water and sewer systems that don’t exist at equality. You need to see substandard housing. You need to talk to the youth and find out they’re sitting with 60 percent unemployment. You need to talk to the leaders who are looking for a vision for their future.

They were desperately hopeful for success on this file — desperately hopeful, and they signed up. They support it, and they will continue to support it and believe, in the long run, that it’ll come to their community. But they know it won’t because of any support from the other side of this House.

But to tarnish that hope, you said loud and clear you don’t support them or the project. You don’t support that they want to come out of poverty. You don’t support that they want economic development. You don’t support the fact they want to have a future for their children and their grandchildren. You’ve got to listen to the elder that I saw speak in Lax Kw’alaams one day. He talked about when he started fishing 60 years ago, yeah, you could walk across the back of the fish.

[11:10 a.m.]

He said: “You know what? LNG wasn’t here then. You can’t blame them. But these kids” — he points across the front row of grade 10, 11 and 12 children from the school, in the gym that day — “need a future, and we need to stand up for that future.” That’s an elder of a First Nation, saying to people: “Make this change. Try and make this happen for our children and our grandchildren.”

I’m concerned about the 2,600 hard-working individuals on Site C. They’re waiting to hear whether they will have a job to go to or tell their families they lost their jobs because this government is trying to pull the plug on their livelihoods.

Now, that’s not just people in northeast B.C. It’s 40 people from Nanaimo, eight people from Campbell River, eight from my own community of Langley, seven from Sooke, over 20 from Victoria — over 150 people on Vancouver Island alone. Site C is probably one of the largest employers of really good, high-paying, family-supporting jobs on Vancouver Island, and the whole Island MLAs are going to turn their backs on those people in their communities.

Look at Prince George and the rest of the province and see how many jobs are at Site C and what they’re doing to support families. It concerns me.

I’m worried about our ironworkers. There’s a reason there’s a bridge in Vancouver called the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge. These guys actually helped build British Columbia. When we announced the bridge, they said: “That’s our bridge. That’s what we do. We’re the ironworkers. We build bridges.” Somebody says: “Well, we’re going to go have a review.” No, he cancelled it. It’s not in the budget. There is no capital in the budget for this bridge.

So you did send the message to people that you don’t care about two things: them getting back in the workforce, work to their families, and increase of economic activity, because you move goods and services better. Those two things alone should be a reason alone to do the bridge. But it also means the trucker’s stuck in there for hours and cannot make the same amount of living he could if he had free flow of goods. It also means that one of the worst gridlocks in the country will continue to have people idling for hours a day, putting GHGs into the atmosphere, with a government that says they have an environmental agenda, which is: “We don’t care about that. We just care about the fact that we want to shut down a bridge, and we want to make people pay from the pump for everything else we do.”

It’s sad that in just two months, business confidence in B.C. has gone from the highest in the country to the near bottom. It’s really a dark day for those who have worked hard to build the engine of the B.C. economy to what it is today. I’ve met with major bankers, both internally and externally in Canada, since I got elected this spring. Since the change of government, since the Kinder Morgan thing with all the stuff that’s going on, and Pacific NorthWest LNG and knowing that letter was there all along and ignoring the federal process, they’ve made it clear to me. A whole bunch of money got parked offshore. It isn’t being invested in British Columbia because they do not trust the economic performance, the stability or the interest of this government to actually attract money to create jobs. It’s sad.

Even the current Finance Minister confirmed that it’s a fact that our economy is the best-performing economy in the world when she released the public accounts on August 22. While she was doing it, she was preparing a budget to make sure we didn’t have that in the future. There won’t be five consecutive balanced budgets. There won’t be a $2.7 billion surplus. There won’t be a triple-A credit rating and, more importantly, a solid plan to keep taxes low, attract investment, grow the economy and create jobs.

It was because you had that that you were able to do what you did, by increasing spending in health care and education. Budget 2017 announced last February that spending on health care increased by $486 million, or 2.5 percent over previous years, and the Finance Minister chortled about how much she’s putting into health care. That’s what was in the budget in the spring of 2017. The increase to the education sector, 2.1 percent — Budget 2017. Social services sector increase, 3.3 percent — Budget 2017. Interest costs decreased by $199 million, over 7.1 percent the previous year, because of our triple-A credit rating.

If you lose that, you’re going to find $199 million somewhere, because you’re not going to have it. They’re not going to lend you the money to build your projects and your schools and the things you think you’re going to do at the same level.

[11:15 a.m.]

These were priorities of a government that prioritized a balanced budget. It’s hard work, by the way. Sometimes you get glitches, like in 2009, when the world downturn came. We had to find a way to actually not have a deficit budget, but to have a plan to get back into balance because there was such a downturn. That can happen, by the way, any time. Right now, if you look at the increased interest costs that are going across this country, I’m concerned about that too.

We have proudly avoided deficits. Our public accounts tell you that. We thought it was important. But we always had to be ready to weather an economic storm. If you go out and spend beyond your means for a few years, and the next thing happens, an economic storm comes, you’ll be hooped. So will the people of B.C. So will every single family that has to pay higher taxes. Sound financial management isn’t about being optimistic. It’s about believing in what our children should not have to do, and that is to carry a debt burden to them from our generation. It means preparing to weather a global economy that demonstrates highs and lows.

I think this new government has quickly realized that it is not easy to make promises and not easy to always deliver. When you see a minister of the Crown and the Premier of the province at a fundraiser sidling up to criminals in British Columbia who are donating to them, you’ve got to wonder what the priority might be around public service or public safety. Take a look at the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General’s budget, and you’ll know something’s still going on — that I used to heckle once in a while to the NDP — and that is that the love affair with the criminal on behalf of the NDP continues.

They’re not going to prioritize where they need to spend the money. They’re going to prioritize where they think their voter will like the money. But I can tell you, in Surrey and in Vancouver, where these gang things are going on that we’ve invested millions of dollars on, you’d better be investing some money there, because they told you clearly that they wanted you to step up on that file. We did it, and you’ve got to continue to do it. You can’t back down from doing it.

So what’s missing here? There is something missing here. I’ll tell you what’s missing. First of all, this grand announcement, going into a campaign, a commitment to child care, where they once promised $10-a-day daycare. When they did that…. There was no new money in the budget, by the way, for this. No new money. The people of B.C. need to know they’ve been misled on $10-a-day daycare. But they also said it would take them ten years, so they’ve got nine more years to go.

They said they were going to increase spaces, right? But the spaces they’ve increased are already in the budget. Interesting. They also promised to immediately spend $170 million on their child care ramp-ups on this. Good. But you know, it was already in the budget.

The government also said that they would spend $400 for renters’ rebates. Just last Friday the Premier said this — the $400 renter rebate would be in the budget. Guess what. It’s not in the budget. They also promised a ferry freeze. They also promised a hydro freeze. Not in the budget.

[11:20 a.m.]

This is the one I get the biggest kick out of, because I know the file pretty well. They promised 114,000 units of housing over ten years. That’s 11,400 units a year. Yesterday they reconfirmed what was in the budget: 1,700 additional new units from 2017, in February, and 2,000 units of modular housing.

Now, I always knew they couldn’t do this one. Just look at the number of housing starts here in B.C., and you know that 30 percent of the housing starts can’t come because government can get it done. They are opposed to any private-public partnerships in doing this — for social housing mixed with market housing. They made that very clear last summer, when they attacked the minister at the time. And they are going to come up short, in the tens of thousands of units, in just the first three years.

Where is it coming from? It’s not in the budget. It’s not in the forecast, so there won’t be 11,400 units of housing built each year for the next three years. There will be 2,000 modular and 1,700 over three years elsewhere — already, by the way, figured out. It takes years to zone land. It takes years to deliver it. To make this commitment last year was probably, to me, the one really glaring, substantial mistake in their promises to British Columbia, because they knew, and I knew, they couldn’t deliver.

The challenge is this: how many billions of dollars would it cost you to fulfil the promise? Well, if you just fulfilled the first promise, for the next three years, you need to borrow over $6 billion. You will need almost $1 billion in operating costs per year for the next 30 years. If you tried to fulfil the entire province, you would bankrupt yourself. It would be a higher capital budget than hospitals and schools, right?

And no partnerships. Don’t want to have a partnership with a company that might be able to supply some units at an affordable price integrated into a rental building. So, as you go forward, you’d better, maybe, restate that promise. Because right now, it’s just one big fat misleading thing the people of British Columbia thought you were going to do, and you’re not going to accomplish it.

We do intend to hold this government to account — not for what they’ve done now, not for what they’re doing tomorrow, but for what they did in the past to stop investment in British Columbia. There are too many people that need too much.

If we don’t learn to understand how we can integrate First Nations into our economy, with jobs and opportunities for the young people, we are going to let down a generation of young people — generations of young people looking for opportunities.

Interjection.

R. Coleman: I know the junior member from the Green Party, and the NDP, is heckling me over there, but he doesn’t want to understand how important this is to the province and people in poverty.

Go there. Go to some of these communities, hon. Member. Go there, and sit down across the table. I know you haven’t been to any one of the ones that I talked about in my speech today — not one of them. I know that, because I know all the chiefs. I know all the chiefs, and I’ve talked to all the chiefs, and they’ll tell me the truth.

As we go through the next number of months and we hold the government to account and we proceed to an election, I think that a couple of things will come out. A deal was made not to the benefit of all British Columbians; a deal was made to not deliver for British Columbians on promises that were made to them. We will stand up as an opposition and hold the government to account, but we’re going to do it because we care.

We care about this young fella that I met, who was 17 years old, up in Prince Rupert, from Lax Kw’alaams. He said to me: “I’m in my second year of training. I’ve got a job. I am so happy. This is the best thing to happen. My friends are in training. They’re getting the opportunities.” Why? Because a deal was made to put training in as benefit agreements for those communities.

I think of the grandmother that talked to me at my barbecue last weekend and said: “I don’t want to see what happened when I was a mother. I don’t want my children leaving B.C. because there are no jobs here. It’s what happened before.”

[11:25 a.m.]

She said: “You have to do something. You have to stand up to these people, because you have to remind them that they can’t do it to us again. We lost a generation of our children, and as a result, our children getting into relationships elsewhere in the world, our grandchildren being close to us so we can have a family and have that love and enjoyment of our children and our grandchildren…. These people are going sell out our province again.”

We’re not going to let that happen.

Hon. J. Sims: First of all, let me say what an honour and privilege it is to rise in this House of the people as an elected MLA for Surrey-Panorama. I want to congratulate each and every MLA in this House who has been voted for and sent here to this House to carry out the business of the people. It is an awesome responsibility. It’s daunting, and it invites each and every one of us to work together to do what is the very best for British Columbians right across this province.

I, particularly at this time, want to thank all the volunteers, the voters and supporters in Surrey-Panorama for entrusting their faith and trust in electing me and sending me to this House. I want to acknowledge my family and their support, because without that support it would be difficult for any one of us to serve in this House.

As I was sitting here, getting ready to rise and speak for the first time, I was thinking: “What an amazing country and province we live in.” Here I am, born in India, and at the age of nine, moved to England — didn’t speak a word of English — and emigrated to Canada once I became a teacher, and I am now standing in this House representing Surrey-Panorama. That is truly a testament to the great province we live in, to the diversity and to the multiculturalism that we have here and, truly, to B.C. being a land of opportunity, no matter where you come from. How proud I am, on this side of the House, of the diversity that is reflected in people who have been elected to represent British Columbians — and is reflective of that diversity.

I rise today to speak in support of the throne speech and to make a comment on it. What was truly moving for me, as I heard the throne speech, was that this was a throne speech for the people. This represented a government that was going to be making different choices, and those choices were going to be about the people of British Columbia being front and centre in the decisions that the new government would be making.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

For 16 long years, I personally, and British Columbians, witnessed a government that was very distant from British Columbians in many ways. There were many people, hard-working people, who felt they were working harder than ever, longer hours, and falling behind, with the public health care system and the education system feeling starved, and a lot of people feeling that the so-called booming economy was not benefiting them in their everyday lives. Everywhere I went, I heard from people how much harder things had gotten over the last number of years.

This throne speech reflects the three pillars that the Premier laid out in that pre-election period about making life more affordable, improving services that British Columbians rely on, and growing good jobs and a sustainable economy.

[11:30 a.m.]

For those of you who know me, I’m a teacher, and a very proud teacher. I think it’s one of the most amazing professions. You learn so much. People always say: “Teachers teach kids.” My experience has been that the students I have taught over the years have taught me so much and are responsible for me being here today. They inspired me to get out there and get engaged politically to make a difference.

As I look back over the last 16 years…. I was actually in this House, sitting up in the gallery, when legislation was brought down to strip duly negotiated collective agreements and remove learning conditions from students — so much so, to the point that even language that referred to the evacuation of special needs students in case of an emergency were removed.

It seemed like such a draconian piece of legislation. I can still remember the Education Minister of the day saying to me: “It’s not going to be that bad.” But parents and teachers know that for 16 years, they have lived and experienced the cuts and more cuts and more cuts.

My two grandchildren, twins Jacob and Jessica, entered the public school system — they graduated this year, by the way, a proud moment for this grandmother — and they spent their entire educational years in a public system that had been damaged, where the opportunities were fewer for kids. All that was done by the previous government.

This throne speech is in the right direction. This is a government very unlike the government that was here before. This is a government that believes that public education is fundamental to a parliamentary democracy or to a free world or to a democracy — all of those. It’s fundamental to a parliamentary democracy to have an educated and literate population.

It is also an investment in kids. It’s not money wasted. It pays back dividends for years and years — in savings to our health care, in improvement in the kind of economic contributions that can be made, in savings in our law enforcement and incarceration. Education is an investment. It has an economic base. But also it’s good for our kids, and it’s good for our communities.

I believe that the previous government failed our kids. I know that my grandchildren, as they went through high school, had fewer opportunities than my son and daughter had when they went through the school system. That’s not the way it should be. So I am so proud. I have talked to so many teachers and parents who are feeling uplifted and elevated and optimistic, for the first time in 16 years, that there is some relief and that we are actually going to have….

I’m going to go and talk about Surrey-Panorama a little bit — Surrey itself one of the fastest-growing cities. By the way, it didn’t grow overnight. We have known about this for decades. A fastest-growing city, yet we have over 7,000 students sitting in portables. Well, we have a government now that is committed to building real classrooms and getting kids out of portables and into real classrooms.

[11:35 a.m.]

The reason that all those kids are sitting in portables — and even more will be sitting in portables right now — is because schools can’t be built in a couple of months. It’s because the previous government failed to keep up with the school-building that needed to be done in Surrey and other districts right across this province — that is an abject failure on the part of that government — and abandoned cities like Surrey and other school districts where you have students sitting in portables for too long.

With the restoration of the language and a government that is fully funding the Supreme Court ruling, we’re going to have teachers in classrooms, in schools that will be able to deliver learning assistance and support for students with special needs. I am telling you that this is such a good step, and it feels great.

Secondly, living in Surrey and knowing the importance of English language learners, I’m so proud of this government that has restored ELL and taken away the costs that were attached to it. That seemed to be a very mean-spirited thing that was done by the previous government. It makes me feel proud that we are going to support those who need the extra help in English so they can be more productive, so they can participate fully in our society, so they can make better economic choices and go on to take part in either the trades or go on and enter post-secondary education. In whatever pathway they choose, they will have greater opportunities. That’s what we should be all about.

I also want to say that to remove the tuition fees for students, for adult learners who don’t…. I can tell you that after that announcement, everywhere I went in Surrey, somebody came up and said: “Thank you.” I had a young mother who said to me: “Jinny, I can now go back to school. I had to drop out because I couldn’t afford the fees.” I’ve talked to young men. I’ve talked to some who are not so young, who are saying: “Now we have the chance to go back, get the course work we need, so then we can choose a career pathway.” It could be into nursing, could be into plumbing or could be into whichever pathway they choose. All those are absolutely amazing steps that have been taken.

Let me now talk to you a little bit and share my excitement around the tolls being removed. I’ve heard a lot of criticism from the other side about the tolls today. Let me tell you I had nothing but jubilance expressed to me in my riding and anywhere else I went in Surrey or in the Lower Mainland.

This is about making life more affordable. There was something, fundamentally, that needed to be addressed. Only two bridges in all of British Columbia, only two pieces of infrastructure, had a toll on them. Even a kindergarten student would give you the nod test and say that was not fair.

Why should only people south of the Fraser have two tolled bridges? For me, this whole issue was about equity. We do not have a toll on the bridge that was built in Kelowna. We do not have a toll on the Sea to Sky Highway. So why a toll on only two bridges? We need to come up with a plan and a strategy — and it’s being worked on — to address infrastructure and the gridlock and environmental issues. You have to first address the inequity that existed.

[11:40 a.m.]

I noticed that once the tolls were removed…. Just think about the impact that had on the average family. I talked to one family that told me that there were four people who lived in that house. Three went to work; one went to school. They couldn’t car-pool, and there was no usable public transit that would get them there in a reasonable time, without having to spend two or three hours in public transit either way, so they have to cross that bridge.

For each person, it’s about $1,500. Imagine what four people are paying. That is going to make a huge difference to them. It’s going to make a huge difference to the young lady who is going to school. It’s going to make a difference to the young man who’s just started his new job and is maybe trying to save a little for a house or a better car. It’s going to make a difference to the parents because it’s freed up some money for them. That tolling announcement is huge, and it has a big, big impact.

For post-secondary education. It was a very, very emotional moment for me when the minister of post-secondary education made the announcement about removing tuition costs for kids in care, as a mother and a grandmother. We have heard the stories of children who age out of care and the lack of supports that exist. This is the right thing to do. It’s long overdue. It’s the right thing to do, so it makes me so proud to be able to support this throne speech and the budget that followed.

This is just the beginning. As you know, this is not a new budget. It’s a budget update. There will be other times.

For those of you who know me, as I said, I’ve been a teacher. I’ve taught at almost every grade level, including at university, but most of my time has been spent with grades 8 to 12.

Everybody who knows me knows how much I abhor violence of any sort or any type. I live in Surrey. I’m so proud that, in the throne speech, our government is making investments and is working with the city, the schools, the RCMP and the municipal government to make sure that we build safe and inclusive communities, because there is nothing more critical to any citizen than their own safety. It’s a responsibility of governments at all levels to ensure that we do have safe, inclusive communities.

Like other municipalities, other ridings, the fentanyl crisis is very, very real. The number of deaths, as we all know, has increased, and I’m very, very pleased that this government has recognized that we have to start addressing the roots as well as dealing with the crisis we have now. They are willing to make investments. We have a brand-new ministry that is going to have as its total focus how to address mental health and the current crisis we have and have a seamless system to deliver services to those suffering from mental health and addiction issues.

Addictions are an illness, so we have to deal with those who are addicted. Also, we do have to start looking at the root causes and addressing many of those areas as well.

We know that affordability is a huge issue. We hear of the growing number of people who are homeless. I’m pleased to be sitting with a government that is actually taking serious steps on the affordability issues, especially around housing, not only to address those who are homeless, but also to assist and start looking at building affordable housing.

[11:45 a.m.]

This is where our government will work with the federal government and with the municipal governments to ensure that we use the resources of the three levels of government to address this very, very serious issue. We have seen the prices of housing skyrocket in the Lower Mainland, and we’ve had a government who’s basically turned the other eye while British Columbians are very, very worried about their ability to buy a house. For those of us who have a house right now, yes, the value went up. But all of us have children and grandchildren, and we’re very, very worried about how they are going to be able to go out and afford to be able to buy a house.

Our government knows that housing is fundamental to addressing the affordability issue. But tied with it also is raising our minimum wage. There isn’t anyone in this House sitting on that side or on this side who can tell me that the current minimum wage is one that anybody can survive on in a comfortable way.

I’ve always believed that if someone gets up in the morning, goes to work, works hard, does a full week of work, they should be able to earn enough money to put a roof over their head and food on their table, to be able to clothe themselves and to maybe take an occasional holiday. That should be fundamental when we’re looking at addressing the wage issue. I am so pleased that we do have the fair wages commission, because that fair wages commission will take a look at all of these issues. In the meantime, our government is committed to raising the minimum wage, and we are taking steps to do so.

The issue of child care. My children are grown up, but I do know — I’ve talked to many, many people, and I can remember the struggles I had — that for many parents, for many young professional parents and for those who want to enter the job market, one of the biggest barriers is affordable child care.

We have to have a long-term plan to address this issue, because this is an economic issue. There is sound research out of UBC, University of Toronto and European countries that shows that for every dollar you commit to child care — publicly funded child care, quality child care — you get a $3 return. We know that those investments in early childhood are very, very important. But also what it means is you open doors and opportunities for the parents to look at improving their education and for getting back into the workforce. All of that has to be a major concern for all of us, and we have to address that.

Transportation. We’re often hearing about the gridlock that occurs. Let me tell you, living in Surrey, we know exactly what that is like. Going down King George Boulevard sometimes can take me just as long as it does for me to drive all the way into Richmond, and that’s a very short drive.

Once again, we have a government that is going to work with the municipal government, with the mayors and TransLink and with the federal government when we look at infrastructure investment and really look at removing our gridlocks and helping people move.

Once again, we know that investment in public transit is not only good for the environment. It’s good for people’s mental health, and it actually improves productivity at work. There is sound research once again to support that. If you’re not actually sitting behind wheels, swearing for two or three hours because the car isn’t moving very fast.… You’re going to be in a much better mood when you get to work if you haven’t had to do that. Just imagine how much happier workers are going to be when they get to work when we actually have them moving in a fairly reasonable manner.

[11:50 a.m.]

Mr. Speaker, let me also tell you that people have to fight for their rights, and some people have their rights protected. We had a government, which is now sitting in opposition, that actually dismantled the Human Rights Commission here in British Columbia. I was so pleased to see in the throne speech that B.C. — which that party made the only province in Canada without a human rights commission…. It was actually very, very disturbing. I’m very proud that this government is committed to re-establishing a human rights commission. That is good for all of us.

We have a government that is also committed to fighting inequality and discrimination in all its forms. No longer do British Columbians who are new here feel that they have no avenue to address some of the issues that they face. That is a big thing.

Growing decent-paying jobs was a major part of our platform, and it’s our major focus. As much as we know that the people sitting in opposition are going to talk about the economy, let me tell you that a lot of people I talked to talked about jobs — precarious job growth, lots of part-time jobs, lots of people who were working two or three jobs. What our government is focused on is growing jobs in the natural resource industry, in technology — clean jobs — and in the green energy sector.

This is not rocket science. We have seen from other jurisdictions how rich this area is. All it needs is investment from government and to open and remove some of the barriers that could be there. That is what our focus is going to be on. How do we utilize our natural resources in a sustainable way? How do we grow decent-paying jobs, not just in one part of the province but in every corner of the province? That is a commitment that this government has made.

For that commitment to be real, I am so proud of the relationship we are building with the First Nations. Last week I had the privilege of taking part in the First Nations leaders conference in Vancouver. As a matter of fact, every member from this side of the House was there. I also saw a few other members there as well.

It was the beginning of a dialogue — not a brand-new dialogue, because lots of dialogues have occurred, but a beginning of a dialogue with a new government that is committed to building firm, sound, respectful, nation-to-nation relationships to grow the economy so that it benefits each and every British Columbian.

From the meetings we had — the meetings that some have called fast dating because there were so many different meetings to be had; we were changing our meeting partners every 20 minutes — what I heard from people when I was in Vancouver, from the First Nations community, was how good they felt, how much respect there was in the room and the optimism that they felt in coming to the table to talk with us.

Our government is really, really looking forward to that. We have a commitment to UNDRIP, and we have a commitment, also, to honour the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations.

Hon. J. Sims moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. M. Farnworth moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until 1:30 this afternoon.

The House adjourned at 11:55 a.m.