Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued debate on the budget.

Budget Debate

(continued)

S. Sullivan: I’m pleased to speak to this budget. It is said that budget is ideology without rhetoric. So I hope to parse the budget to identify ideology that requires our attention.

First of all, I’d like to say that I’m grateful to the citizens of Vancouver–False Creek for giving me their confidence in electing me to this august body.

[1:35 p.m.]

I’d also like to acknowledge my opponents that ran against me in the last election. I’d like to take a moment to thank Morgane Oger, who, as a transsexual person, made history with her strong showing. I have run in seven elections, and I have won them all. But the last one, I’ve got to say, was a little bit of a nail-biter, so I acknowledge her strong showing. Bradley Shende, a young tech entrepreneur who set a record for Green Party support. There were a number of others that also conducted themselves very finely. In my books, they are all winners.

I’d also like to acknowledge the First Nations, the traditional territory of the Coast Salish people here and in my riding.

I was successful in getting elected because of my co-chairs: Lou Cruz, Kristen Blake and Hasnain Raza. I also had a wonderful riding association board chaired by Farhan Lalani. I’d like to acknowledge the incredible work that all of those people have done through the last four years, and counting, to support the democratic process.

It was much easier for me to do what I needed to do knowing that my faithful assistant, Chris Garvey, was manning the office. I thank her for all her work. She is such a great resource for our citizens who need help.

[L. Reid in the chair.]

Most of all I would like to thank my incredible and amazing Lynn. I would definitely not be here without her. She recently raced her bicycle in the Whistler GranFondo, starting in Vancouver.

I must say I’m very offended that one of the members is leaving in the middle of my speech. [Laughter.] Oh sorry. I’ll let you go.

So she was racing in the Whistler GranFondo, starting in Vancouver. I’m very lucky that she is in such great shape, as she has been an incredible help to me.

We’ve all witnessed history in the last few months. The results of the last election put in motion some very unusual outcomes. I certainly would like to congratulate the new government. We are adversaries, but we are also all British Columbians. I think we want you to succeed as much as you do. If you do, that’s a great success for all of us.

I think we should also be grateful for the system of government we have inherited. It is quite a remarkable thing that the opposition — certainly, in many older and traditional cultures — is considered the enemy. In our system, which is a great innovation, the opposition is considered part of the government. It is, actually, an essential part of the government. It’s a government-in-waiting. We hope, on our side, that it’s a very short wait. But in any case, it is a system that has provided us stability and prosperity, and it has been flexible enough to accommodate much social change. We only need to look around the world to understand how lucky we are to live in this province under this form of government.

Now, in the majority of cases our system delivers a clear decision on who will be the government. This is one of the rare cases where there’s a kind of coalition. I think this is certainly something that we have to really think hard about, because there is an effort to change the system of governance. If that is something that does go through, we will see minority governments as the norm.

Right now we see this affecting our budget. We’ve had some discussion about the secretariat that would be required to mediate between governing parties. I suspect that would be enhanced and a much more important part of government if we do change to a proportional representation system.

[1:40 p.m.]

It does give me pause to look around the world and see proportional representation work in other countries. In some cases, it seems to work quite well. I do know that two months before our election, the country of the Netherlands went to the polls. To this day, they still do not have a government. The party that won second place is, quite clearly, a xenophobic party that represents some ideas that I certainly do not share. They’re committed to banning the Qur’an, closing down mosques and leaving the European Union. What has happened in that country is that no one can get to a coalition. There has been no way. They need at least four parties. That has not been possible, at least to this date.

I believe Belgium went through well over a year before they could get their government, in a coalition. In Germany, now an extreme right-wing party looks like it might become the third-largest party in their parliament. In Israel, small religious groups have forced religious legislation on that country.

As I say, in some countries it seems to work sometimes, and in others, it seems to have some serious problems. Will we have racists, a racist party, religious and ideological extremists, delivering their speeches in this parliament with public funding for the new parties? This could be as early as two years from now. If the referendum passes, I suspect the government would fall fairly quickly, and we’d have an election. We have to be very sober about this, especially in light of what’s going on in society, in technology, in methods of communication. I would certainly be very disturbed if we did have parties that were enabled because of a new change.

I’d like to, first of all, say that there are parts of this budget that I like, and I’d like to acknowledge the government for a balanced budget. I think that needs to be acknowledged and recognized. We shouldn’t take our economy for granted. It needs to be nurtured. I’d think an economy can be considered like a company. You need to focus on it. You need to nurture it. You need to do the things that are necessary. Any company that is considered just a source of quick cash will certainly not be a company that lasts into the future. I believe that it’s the same with our economy.

I want to make a couple of notes about my portfolio. I’m the critic for Housing. The NDP promised to build 114,000 housing units over ten years. That’s 11,400 per year, but this budget only commits to 3,700, a tiny fraction of that. I noticed the sum of 2,000 and another amount of 1,700 — of which some are container-type housing. Now, to stay on track, the government would need to complete 41,900 units over the next three years. According to our calculation, this would be somewhere in the ballpark of $5.6 billion over three years, just using the average cost of the units promised in the minister’s fiscal plan.

[1:45 p.m.]

Now, we know that the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a group that is highly regarded by the government, says the average cost of an affordable housing unit is $250,000. I’ve heard different numbers between $250,000 and $350,000. If we take the number of units allocated in this year’s budget…. If we take them out, that leaves 110,300 housing units left. At $250,000 a unit, taking the lower number, we come to a cost of $27.5 billion. That’s $3 billion a year, and that is certainly not in any budget that I’ve read here in the last week. So it is well outside the government’s finances.

I wanted to just make a couple of comments on the tax increases. Now, we’ve heard some…. There has been an incredible surplus that has been delivered to the government, and my sense of that is that it’s quite remarkable that this budget not only forecasts a very rosy picture, but it also has to take tax increases to actually make the budget balance. So that is certainly a concern.

Abandoning the revenue-neutral requirement of the carbon tax is a big concern. We were getting some pretty remarkable plaudits from around the world, and one of the things…. Certainly, having a carbon tax at all is a wonderful thing, and I note that our government went and actually had an election over that. It was opposed by members of the current government. But to see that the revenue-neutral requirement of the carbon tax is gone — to me, that’s an alarming development. It certainly was something citizens were pleased about, as I recall — that the overall tax burden would not go up with the carbon tax, that it was just a way of taxing things you don’t want and reducing tax on things you do want.

Raising the corporate tax rate from 11 to 12 percent. This certainly is going to be passed on to the consumers. And raising the personal income tax rate for individuals earning over $150,000 from 14.7 percent to 16.8 percent. This has been characterized — I know, in the previous government, our government — as a tax cut for high-income people. What actually happened was that when we first got elected in 2013, we needed to do some surgery to balance the budget. We decided to do that for two years through high-income earners. And then after we did balance the budget and were on a track for success, we removed that. That was characterized as a tax reduction for wealthy people. That’s not what happened at all. That was just returning them to the historic levels that they were at.

We’ve seen some major items in this budget that were already announced in our 2017 budget last February. Of course, I am pleased to see those have remained. The reduction of the MSP premiums by 50 percent and the reduction of the small business tax rate from 2.5 to 2 percent I think is a very positive move for our small businesses. The phasing out of the PST paid on electricity is very important for many, especially our rural areas, where businesses are really struggling because of this extra tax on electricity.

[1:50 p.m.]

Then, of course, the $3,000 non-refundable tax credit for volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers. Certainly, we have seen in the past few months incredible sacrifice and the incredible work that’s being done by our firefighters and search and rescue volunteers, who have done an amazing job of doing their best for the areas that have been hit by wildfire. I know it has been such a trauma for so many people that I’d like to think that this non-refundable tax credit is something that we certainly could do to support them.

Now, jurisdictions like Ontario and Quebec are paying a lot more money than we do because of their annual debt service costs. I note that there are a number of threats to our economy that may make the rosy predictions — bring them into question. On September 6, the central bank raised the prime interest lending rate by one-quarter of a point. That’s from 0.75 percent to 1 percent, and there has been talk for well over a year that this was going to be happening. And there is generally a concern that this interest rate will be raised in the near future. It is the first increase in seven years. That happened on July 12. Now it is expected that in October we’re going to see another rate increase.

Another risk that we have that our economy could be very affected by is the softwood lumber agreement and the changes to NAFTA. I don’t want to be the person who drops the T-bomb in this venerable House, so I’ll try to avoid that. But there are some trends in the United States that are very worrying, very concerning. Certainly, any changes to NAFTA will affect our economy. I do know some businesses that say that if there is a negative turn in the NAFTA regulations, they would have to move to the U.S. The majority of their business is there, and they would then be not viable in British Columbia. These are things we must be aware of.

Under the current legislation, the budget surplus has to go towards paying down the provincial debt, and the $2.7 billion surplus was applied to the debt. I would like to see some commitment that would continue this practice.

The current government has inherited a very successful and strong economy. It’s the best-performing economy in the country. This was confirmed by the Auditor General’s latest report, on August 22. Five consecutive balanced budgets — and I acknowledge the sixth coming here. A $2.7 billion budget surplus is just incredible, sort of in the…. Other provinces would just love to have this kind of problem.

The government has an ambitious spending plan, but half the balance sheet is missing. It’s without a plan to grow the economy, to grow revenues. Government is already lowering economic performance expectations. Employment growth will just be 1 percent from the 3 percent that the Auditor General confirmed. GDP is expected to fall from a 3.7 percent growth to just 2 percent over the next four years.

I must say that 3.7 percent is incredible. This is the kind of thing that you expect from these emerging economies. It’s the kind of growth that is not seen in the western world. I think it’s remarkable that British Columbians have been able to achieve that. Major credit-rating agencies, such as Moody’s and the DBRS, have already issued warnings that B.C.’s triple-A credit rating is at risk unless we can find additional sources of revenue.

I note that with the rise of the increase to the corporate income tax, we will now be at the same rate as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Another way of saying this is that we will lose our comparative advantage and become less attractive of a place to invest.

[1:55 p.m.]

Now, I wanted to make a couple of other comments on…. It does take hard work, and it takes discipline to balance a budget. We do need to be able to have additional revenue to pay for extra spending. I believe that what this budget represents is an aggressive spending plan. We’re going to see more spending, because there are a number of key items that were in the platform of the government that still haven’t been touched. I do, especially, think about my own portfolio, in the housing portfolio, noting the big disconnect between what has been committed and what is being put into the budget.

I believe that certainly with the last election, British Columbians did send a message — one of the reasons we’re sitting on this side of the House. People do want to see additional investment in some priority areas. I respect that, and I believe that is very important. But we also did not provide — I believe the citizens didn’t say — a blank cheque or “Let’s have endless spending.”

What I believe is missing in this budget is the other side. It’s the revenue side. How do we sustain the economy? How do we increase jobs? Certainly, from what we’ve seen by the cancellation or the uncertainty around major projects, we’re going to see that revenue not as optimistic as it once was. It’s attracting the investment and it’s generating revenue that is really the concern that I have on this budget. I believe that the efforts to increase spending that we’ll see over the next few years will show that we do have a lot of work to do in improving the revenue side.

I mentioned the carbon tax. Now, when I was watching some of the commentary around the world on our carbon tax…. The fact that we have been able to implement it when so many other countries and provinces have not been able to do that, I think, is a huge, huge success. And I think that we’re going to have real challenges from the fact that we’re now no longer making this revenue-neutral. I think that we need to respect the way it was brought in, the fact that we had an election over it. This was spoken about at the time — that citizens were willing to support it if it was revenue-neutral. But by reducing and removing that, we’re going to, I think, break faith with the citizens that have given us that ability to do it.

We have delivered to this government the best-performing economy in the country. Indeed, the current Finance Minister confirmed the fact from the public accounts that she released. Five consecutive balanced budgets — unheard of in the country. A $2.7 billion surplus. A triple-A credit rating — the only province, other than San Francisco, to enjoy this rank. And more importantly, a solid plan to keep taxes low, attract investment and grow the economy, and create jobs. I don’t see a jobs plan in this budget.

I’d like to make a few comments about some of the spending that was, certainly, under the Liberal government.

[2:00 p.m.]

In Budget 2017, we announced that there would be spending on health care, an increase of $486 million — an almost $500 million increase. That’s 2.5 percent over the previous year. We note that the health budget is getting close to 50 percent of our entire budget, and this is absolutely important for the citizens to have good solid health care and also to have a good solid education sector. We note that this, in the B.C. Liberal budget, was an increase of $256 million. That was 2.1 percent over last year. So already, with the B.C. Liberal budget, there were significant increases to both health and education.

Even in the social services sector, there was an increase of $137 million. That’s 3.3 percent. Health was 2.5 percent; education, 2.1 percent; social services, 3.3 percent in the B.C. Liberal budget.

We should also recognize that the interest cost actually decreased by $199 million, a $200 million decrease. That’s 7.1 percent over the previous year, and the reason is because we haven’t run any deficits over the past five years. We’ve been paying down the provincial debt at the same time. So just by doing that, we freed up $200 million for health, education and social services. I believe that the $200 million is something that we need to continue. We need to keep going in that direction. If we can continue balanced budgets, we will see the further decrease in interest costs, and this will result in more funding for our social services, our health and education.

There’s no guarantee that next year there will be a large surplus. I think this is one of the biggest concerns I have about this budget. Yes, it is a surplus budget, but I note that, in the B.C. Liberal budget, we had based our revenue on projections of a 2.1 percent increase in GDP. The current budget is forecasting 2.9 percent, a far rosier outlook, and that has resulted in a surplus — but just barely. If we don’t achieve 2.9 percent, which is very significant growth, we will not see a balanced budget.

The revenue, certainly from corporate tax sources, depends on our provincial economy performing in a healthy and supportive investment environment. Now, I’m concerned about the uncertainty that has been brought to the provincial economy because of the cancellation, or the discussion of the cancellation, of important projects. That uncertainty in itself reduces investment, reduces job growth and, ultimately, tax revenues. So just by bringing a level of uncertainty, we are seeing a negative impact on the economy.

R. Kahlon: It’s my pleasure to rise in favour of the budget. Before that, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathering on the territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. They’ve been custodians of this land for thousands of years, and I’d like to pay my respect to the elders, both past and present.

[2:05 p.m.]

I’d like to thank the member for Vancouver–False Creek for his thoughtful analysis. Perhaps we might not agree on the budget, but I appreciate his comments. Also, earlier I heard the member for Chilliwack end his speech with hoping us well, regardless of if he doesn’t agree with us. I think that people that are here in the House watching might hear disagreement all day, but it’s important for them to know that we actually do get along. We just don’t agree, necessarily, on how to get there. So thank you to both of you.

I want to start off by thanking the Minister of Finance. I think the opposition Finance critic spoke right after the budget and talked about how difficult of a job it is to be the Finance Minister and the challenges and the expectations that the public have for their particular needs. I think that the minister has delivered a very progressive budget that speaks to the people of North Delta and to the region.

That leads me to the people of North Delta. I want to thank them for giving me the honour of being their representative in this House. It’s an honour. I recall seeing numbers on how few people get a chance to be in this House, so it hits home. I’m grateful for it every day.

I would like to start off by thanking my family — my wife and my young son. I think he’s finally adjusting to the new reality of me not being home. Although he won’t be watching now, I’m sure he’ll watch for the first ten minutes when he gets home, until he loses attention and moves on. I want to thank my lovely wife. I can say confidently that she has made me a better person. I’m not sure if she’s that confident on the flip side, but I’m grateful for her support.

I want to start off by acknowledging my family and what it means for me to be here in this House to speak today. My parents came to Canada in the ’70s, and not with very much money. They soon realized, when they got here, that the expectations they had and the opportunities they thought they would have here weren’t necessarily here for them. Language issues, getting employment that paid a fair wage and many other factors made it really difficult for them when they arrived.

They made a decision that they would basically sacrifice their opportunities, their hopes and dreams to ensure that their kids would have a better life. So they struggled, washing dishes and working in various low-paying jobs, until my father got a good job at a mill. They struggled throughout the years to ensure that we had that, and it was my great honour to return all those years of commitment to represent Canada at the Olympics. Having them there meant a lot to me because, as a young parent now, I get what they went through to give us those opportunities.

What I learned from my parents was work ethic and commitment, and I put that into the election. I used my sporting background to create a disciplined approach to campaigning. I spent six days a week, minimum four hours a day, and knocked on doors. I have to tell you that the first few doors were difficult, so to speak. But it was fruitful, because I got a chance to talk to people in my community and learn about the issues that mattered to them and the issues that they wanted me to take forward. Many of them shared their goals, their hopes — their hopes for government, their concerns about government — and I carry that with me today as I speak about the budget.

My commitment, our commitment, to the people of British Columbia throughout the election was three main principles: making life more affordable, improving the services that they depend on and building a sustainable economy that works for everyone. I’m pleased to be here today to speak to a budget that I believe reflects those commitments.

[2:10 p.m.]

I’d like to start off with tolls. In the spirit of talking about the first few people’s doors I knocked on, I remember the first difficult door was a sign on a big truck that said, “Hands off my guns.” The garage door was open. It had a Confederate flag. I thought: “Oh my gosh. Should I knock on this door or not?” I did, and it was an amazing conversation. It was a small business man. He’s got a construction company, and he had about 15 employees. We talked about tolls. He shared with me that his company spends $28,000 on tolls a year, and he was talking about the heavy burden that that was putting on his bottom line.

For the context of everyone here, North Delta is a small community. I heard the member for Fraser-Nicola talk about how it takes her a complete day to cross her riding. I had to chuckle, because I can probably cross my riding in ten minutes. It puts things in context, except that we have a challenge with traffic. We have serious gridlock, so that ten minutes can actually be standing in one spot for 15, 20 minutes, in fact, sometimes.

When I heard the discussion from people on the doorstep about tolls and congestion, it really hit home. This gentleman said to me…. He summarized the toll situation as that the Port Mann Bridge has become the autobahn for the rich and desperate. He said it’s for the rich because most can’t afford to get over that bridge, so that leads them to other bridges in the area. The desperate is: a lot of people can’t afford it, but they take it anyways because they have no choice. I thought he summarized it quite well.

Nothing was more frustrating than going over, let’s say, the Pattullo Bridge, which I did frequently, looking over and seeing the Port Mann with barely any cars on it and being stuck on the Pattullo. That’s a frequent thing for folks in North Delta. We have serious congestion on the Alex Fraser, and we have serious congestion on the Pattullo.

What we’ve seen immediately is that since the tolls have been removed…. And I’m grateful to the Minister of Finance for making that commitment. What we’ve seen instantly is traffic levels drop both on Alex Fraser and Pattullo. People are starting to actually use the infrastructure that we spent millions of dollars on for getting over, and the heavy cost on one bridge is not offsetting the traffic on one. I think the Minister of Finance said in her statement that individual families were paying $1,500 a year; commercial were paying about $4,500, on average, a year. This gentleman that I spoke of earlier had a big burden on his company.

Generally, people in south of the Fraser felt that the tolls were unfair. We’ve been building infrastructure in this province, and in some places they have tolls — like people in the south of the Fraser — and in many places they don’t. So there was unfairness to it. Most people would say that they would be fine with an equitable solution that captures every part of Metro Vancouver, in particular, but they just didn’t like the idea of it being just targeted towards people south of the Fraser. Most of the people move out there and work in Vancouver because they can’t afford living in Vancouver. They’re being pushed out, and then they’re getting hit again. That was a major concern.

I was delighted by the announcement. It means great savings for residents in my community and communities south of the Fraser. Also, it means great savings for the business community that has truckers and workers who have to travel that and then they incur the cost. I think it was a great announcement. Coupled with our commitment to transit in the Lower Mainland, I think we can start addressing this traffic congestion. But this was a good first step.

MSP. I would say that after housing, MSP was the number one issue that I got on the doorstep. I met this elderly couple who invited me in. I was tired, so it was timely. I sat down with them for some time, and we talked about MSP and the challenge that they were facing.

They had just recently retired. Her husband was going in for an operation. They had some costs that were associated with that. Their income went down because of retirement, and all of a sudden, because their employer wasn’t paying MSP, now they’ve got this MSP bill. They were talking about how they were struggling. I’m sure members on all sides of the House have heard that.

[2:15 p.m.]

I’ve actually sat in this House and listened to most of the speakers. Not because I’m on duty, but more because I really want to hear people’s opinions and thoughts on these matters. Many have said: “Well, we were going to commit to doing this as well.” Well, all we’ve seen over the years is the doubling. To say: “We would have, could have….” Well, I say we should have eliminated this or at least cut them down in half a long time ago.

MSP hit folks in my community particularly hard, and I’m excited and I’m happy that the minister announced that on January 1 we will see MSP cut in half. That’s excellent. I think in the minister’s statement she said this will save couples $900 per year. “Individuals will save $450 per year. These savings are our government’s first step toward eliminating MSP premiums within four years. Regressive fees like MSP premiums are costly to families and costly to administer. We are also establishing the MSP task force to advise government on the best way to eliminate the MSP premiums and replace those revenues.”

I’m, again, grateful to the Minister of Finance for taking that step. It’s a commitment we made to the people of B.C., and I believe it’s the first step in getting to eliminating MSP.

Income and disability rates. Again, I think many members of this House will agree — and have had constituents come to them regarding this issue. I’d say the most remarkable conversation in the election was with a woman who was hearing-impaired and non-verbal. I didn’t quite know how to start the conversation. She brought the notepad out, and half an hour later…. We had this amazing conversation, half an hour. I realized how poor my handwriting was, trying to communicate to this woman. In the dialogue, it was about income and disability rates.

She expressed how hard it was for her and her husband, who also was struggling, to survive on the rates. She spoke about the ten-year freeze and how the costs over ten years have continuously gone up and the impact of that on her life. This was all exchanged over a notepad and pen. I’m grateful for having some of those stickies that were on my pad. I keep them here as a reminder of who we are here to represent.

Again, I was struck by her comments — ten years, lowest rate in the country. This $100 per month increase and the increase to the amount of the exemption, I believe, is a good step to helping people who, I think, are the most vulnerable in our society. I think everyone in this House will acknowledge that there is much more to do, but I think it’s a first step, coupled with a much-needed poverty reduction plan.

I mean, it’s unbelievable to me that we are the only province in Canada that does not have a poverty reduction plan. I can’t understand why it is that we can’t even step forward to have a plan to address poverty in this province. I know some people would rather not acknowledge that poverty exists, but it’s a reality, and I’m grateful that we’re getting at that.

Housing. No one in this chamber can go to an event without having this topic come up. Housing comes up everywhere. I remember I was at a social event, and this topic came up. They said: “Well, what are you guys going to do about housing?” We started discussing what the possibilities were on housing. One gentleman stopped me and said: “You guys are talking about buying a home.” He said: “The majority of us are not even in a place to think about buying a home. We’re talking about just how we’re going to make rent.”

Those kinds of comments really hit home — how housing affordability is such a major concern and how for many the idea of owning a home is so distant. It’s sad that it’s gone that way. I worked in banking for seven years. I still recall this one family of six people who came to me to apply for a townhome they were going to buy for $280,000 — I had to tell them that they couldn’t afford it; six of them couldn’t afford it because of their credit card debts, and so on, and so forth — and how heartbroken they were that with their incomes, they couldn’t qualify for a townhome.

That was many years ago, so we’ve seen this housing crisis coming for a long time. This is not something that just happened overnight. This has been happening over years and years and years.

[2:20 p.m.]

I think this is a good start from our government, to make the first step toward addressing this. I think the Finance Minister said: “Over $200 million in capital investment to help build over 1,700 affordable rental units across this province to assist low- and moderate-income renters, seniors, adults with mental health challenges and developmental disabilities.”

I’ve heard members from the other side say: “Well, you haven’t solved the housing crisis. You haven’t built all the houses and you haven’t done all this.” Well, it’s been two months. I think this is a good first step. I’m confident the Minister of Housing is very much on top of this issue and is actively engaging with co-ops and other people in the private sector, as well, on how we can get to the solution.

There is no way this can be done without the private sector, so it’s important to engage them on solutions that they believe also can help solve this crisis that we have. From early conversations I’ve had with folks in the private sector, many of them do have proposals. I believe they’re meeting with the minister responsible for housing. I look forward to more things coming down from that.

I would like to take a moment and speak about English language learning and adult basic education. In order to build a sustainable economy, we must ensure that the workforce is ready to take those jobs. I think it was the Minister of Advanced Education who shared with us numbers — 35 percent drop in enrolment when the fees came in. That is massive.

Those aren’t just numbers. Those are people who all of a sudden had their hopes shattered. They thought that education would have given them the opportunity to advance further in their careers. For them to be all of a sudden hit with this massive bill and struck with the idea that they will be stuck where they are forever…. It’s just amazing to me.

We have many new immigrants who come to this country. They come to this country with skills like, I would say, my parents did. They didn’t have…. My mom was fortunate enough to have a program, back in the day, that actually supported her in English. She came with no English. She actually only finished up to grade 10, and there was a community group that offered her the opportunity to learn English. Again, we talk about individuals who are facing this, but we’ve got to think about their families and what those opportunities mean for their families.

I hope that because of the announcement by the Minister of Advanced Education, there will be a lot more success stories that we can point to because of it. Again, I want to thank the Minister of Advanced Education for making that one of the first commitments from her ministry. I think it speaks to her commitment to ensuring that people have opportunities to advance. So again, thank you for that.

I think that it’s also important to acknowledge that our economy is changing. You talk about English language learning, but our economy is changing. So when folks who work in traditional industries need to retool themselves and find ways to participate in this new economy…. We need to be able to provide supports for those people to bridge from where they’re working to other opportunities. Again, another reason why I think that that announcement was well received.

We lowered the small business tax from 2.5 percent to 2 percent. I was sharing this story about my family and my mother. I think the one piece I forgot to mention was that when she came to this country, she washed dishes in a restaurant here in Victoria called Scott’s diner. She would work all night washing dishes.

When my dad got laid off at the mill, they sent us to India. I lived in India for four years, because they couldn’t afford to keep us here. During that time of the struggle, my mom bounced around at various jobs and finally got a decent-paying job. She was a member of the Hospital Employees Union, worked as a caretaker and, over the years, started saving up some money.

[2:25 p.m.]

I’m proud to share that, 20 years later, my mom ended up buying that restaurant where she used to wash dishes. So my family owned that restaurant for a decade here in Victoria as I was growing up. I learned quickly how to wash dishes, become a prep cook, run the till and handle complaints. There weren’t many, because my mom’s a pretty amazing cook, but nevertheless, you have to be able to handle that.

Interjection.

R. Kahlon: That’s right.

So I understand the stresses of families, of small businesses. When times were good, we were stressed if they were going to be good tomorrow. When times were bad, we were stressed because we were worried about tomorrow. That’s the life of many small business people in B.C. and across the country. I very much get it.

The reason I say that is that I heard a couple of members from the opposition speak about small business and their experience, but they were implying that only they understand the pressures of small business. So the reason for me to raise this is that there are many people in this House that represent different parties and different views who come with that experience and that knowledge of small business and the stresses that small businesses face.

No party here has the sole ownership of ideas. Ideas can come from all parties. I look forward to hearing some of the announcements that I’m sure will be coming very soon to support small businesses, but a drop in the small business tax is certainly a good first step to addressing that.

I go back to that gentleman that I met early on. I did end up seeing him again on the weekend. That’s why it’s top of mind. He said: “Well, what are you guys going to do about small business?” I reminded him that we had dropped the small business rate — 2.5 percent — which saves him money. I asked him if he paid his employees’ MSP, and he said he did. I said: “Well, you’ve got a saving now that you were paying your employees.” He got a lower small business tax, he got a saving on MSP and now he’s not paying tolls, so I think he is pretty well taken care of on that piece. I think that’s something that we should all be quite proud of. Again, thanks to Minister James, in the budget, for that.

Phasing out PST on electricity. This is a piece, particularly, that I’m delighted about, because the Minister of Finance had obviously done lots of consultation, and this was one of the recommendations from the previous government’s tax competitiveness group. Combined with the MSP tax cut in half — I believe that it’s coupled together — it’s good for business.

It’s not very often you read an article in the Vancouver Sun that has major labour leaders and leaders from the business community speaking about the same issue in the same way. I believe there was an article written by Steve Hunt from the United Steelworkers and Tom Sigurdson for building trades with leaders from the business community about why we should cut this, phase this out — what it means for employees and what it means for the employer at the same time.

I think it was a good move by the Minister of Finance to include that. I think it was nice to see her taking advice from all people, from all sides of the House, and ensuring that we put together good policies that work for this province.

The innovation commissioner and the emerging economy task force. The innovation commissioner is to support innovation, business development and the technology sector and appoint an innovation commissioner with a mandate to be an advocate and ambassador on behalf of B.C.’s technology sector in Ottawa and abroad. The emerging economy task force is to address the changing nature of business over the next ten to 25 years. The task force will be charged with developing a made-in-B.C. solution that will keep our government and our policies thinking about cutting edge.

The reason I find this quite remarkable is that what I’ve heard consistently over the years of working with the business community and talking to business leaders is that this is what they want from their government. They don’t want the government just to be thinking two years down the road. They want our government to be thinking ten, 20, 30 years down the road, thinking about where the economy is going, thinking about what that means with innovation and what that means for the changing dynamic of our workplace.

[2:30 p.m.]

This is what they want. They want to be assured that their government is ahead of where even they are. I believe this is a strong initiative, put forward by our colleagues from the Green Party and embraced strongly by all of us. I think it will remind the business community that we are thinking there. It will also remind those who represent workers in this province that we are starting to think about workers and thinking about what the future of employment looks like in this province.

We had also made a commitment that we would be improving services. I think we’ve heard all members in this House speak about the fentanyl crisis and how all our communities are affected by it. This issue does not affect just one party’s community. It affects everybody in this House and their constituents.

Just in Delta, last year we had six overdoses in 30 minutes. That was quite remarkable. It sent a chill through my constituents. We had several meetings, town hall meetings and others, to speak to people from Delta police, from fire, school board. They were all involved in how it is that we can collectively support our folks through this. I’m delighted that the Premier has put a minister in place that is solely dedicated to addressing this and mental health. It will go a long way to bring together all the services that are provided in this province, bring them together in one ministry, giving one minister responsibility to pull all those pieces together.

I remember reading the story in the local paper of Stacey Dallyn, who talked about her 18-year-old son who died of an overdose and how they struggled to find a bed. Here was a young man who was ready to get help, and they couldn’t find a place for him to go. They did try, when he was 16, to go to the U.S. and put him in a private home. He got a little better, and when he came back, he relapsed. Hearing her heartbreaking story about trying to find another home in B.C. and not being able to…. It was truly heartbreaking. It still stays with me.

I think that it’s one of those issues that I know, certainly, the new minister is looking at carefully. If a person comes forward and says they need help, it’s our responsibility as a government, as a caretaker, to be there to help. I’m grateful for that announcement from the Premier.

K to 12. We’ve made that substantial announcement of dollars that will go to K to 12 in this province. It has been a long time coming, I think I can fairly say. My son is entering grade 2, and I remember when he went to kindergarten. The teacher sent home a letter to us saying: “We have a problem. Can you all send an additional two boxes of tissues because we have none left?” I thought to myself: “Here we are in the richest province in the country — I’d say the richest country in the world — and we do not have enough tissues to provide to our kids.” It was a shame. It’s $681 million of investment, and I’m grateful for that.

I think I see the green light. In closing, I would like to thank the Minister of Finance for all the work she did on this budget. I would like to thank all the members in this House for listening to my thoughts in a respectful manner. I didn’t get any heckling from even my own side, which is always a nice thing.

We’re in an era of cooperation, and I believe that no one party has the monopoly on good ideas. It’s an opportunity to work together and make B.C. a better place. I thank you and look forward to the next speaker.

[2:35 p.m.]

S. Gibson: A privilege it is to be able to speak to this House today on Budget 2017, representing the wonderful people of the Abbotsford-Mission riding. I always remind people that the Abbotsford-Mission riding is the first riding in British Columbia, alphabetically. I’m just privileged to be able to represent constituents in probably one of the most beautiful areas in our province. And it’s an honour to be here.

I want to acknowledge, first of all, some of the people that have made it possible for me to be here — my family, my wife, Joy. Many of us, on both sides of this House, know that we leave family members behind. I talked to a colleague across the floor just the other day about that. We leave our loved ones behind to serve in this democratic institution here in our province. We love to do it, but it’s sometimes sad to leave folks behind. I have two daughters, Shari-Anne and Alisa.

I was going to note that my oldest daughter just moved into her first home in Yarrow, in the Chilliwack riding, represented here by our member from Chilliwack. I’m privileged to be able to go and visit them. They lived in an apartment for a number of years in Vancouver, very close to city hall. Being able to help them out a little bit and to be able to buy a home in Yarrow…. It’s still expensive, but watching those three little grandsons, Sammy, Lars and Felix, running around in the front yard is kind of a neat feeling. That’s kind of good news, to be able to see that.

A lot of folks allowed me to be here and helped me in my efforts. I want to acknowledge just a few of them here today. I don’t want to leave anybody out, particularly, as I probably will. Folks like Colin Reimer, Rick Zacharias, Abe Neufeld, Andrea Lindgren, Colette Squires, Don Stahl, Danny Plecas, Mark Duyns, Dave Maples, Kristina Kobes and so many more. These are just folks that have helped me along the way. Brian Gaudet — a big note of thanks to him, so much, for the work that he’s done for me.

I have a lot of folks behind me. I really count it an honour to have them supporting me as I continue to serve, now beginning my second term here.

I want to also acknowledge my staff in the constituency office in Mission. Jean and Joyce — they work really hard for constituents. We’re on the main road in Mission, and folks come in all the time with issues working with different government agencies. Jean and Joyce do such a wonderful job taking care of them.

I’m proud of the valley. I had the privilege of teaching at UFV for many years. We have four campuses throughout the Fraser Valley. I had my own manufacturing company in Abbotsford, a small company with 13 employees. That was a real privilege.

I say sometimes — not always jokingly — that every MLA should, at some point in their life, have to meet a payroll. I tell you, when you have your own business…. Some of you are nodding. It’s tough when you have your own business, right? There were times that I barely had enough to pay myself. We had all our employees and our rent and our forkliftrentals and our pickup truck leases and everything else and the taxes and WCB premiums. And hopefully, there was a little left for me at the end of the month to put some food on the table.

Our riding is crossed by the river. The river cuts through it. I often say that if they made a movie about my riding, it would be called A River Runs Through It. The Fraser River is the most important fisheries river in North America. When I’m back in the riding, I get to drive across it regularly. It’s a majestic place to live, and I certainly encourage those of you who haven’t been out there lately to come on out. We’re pretty friendly out in the valley. That’s the way we are out there. I’m proud just to call the Abbotsford-Mission riding my home.

This is the first budget put forward by this new government. You can kind of see the direction. It’s sort of a trajectory we watch for, on this side of the House, having been government for so many years and really having been what I would characterize as stewards of the taxpayers.

I think all of us on both sides of this House…. I think my colleagues here from Delta South and Kootenay East would also agree, and all the folks along this side would agree that we’re stewards. Our role is to take what we’re entrusted with and allocate it as most correctly and most thoughtfully as possible. I think that we on this side of the House are a little more cautious that way and a little more sensitive.

I want to acknowledge my colleague from Abbotsford West for the fantastic work he did over the years as being probably the top Minister of Finance in this country, acknowledged by his peers when he went to conferences and that kind of thing.

[2:40 p.m.]

Producing a balanced budget year after year — it’s tough. I had the privilege of serving on Treasury Board for my full four-year term, and wow, it’s a big deal to be able to balance that budget the way we did. We had to say no to a lot of things and be very scrupulous in the way that we managed the funds that were entrusted to us by our taxpayers. We don’t want to negatively impact the public in any way without showing some kind of balance to that, because, after all, we’re hearing a bit about tax increases. We’ll talk about that in just a minute.

Health care and education spending — huge priorities for us, and I think, in fairness, to our colleagues across the floor as well. There are always pressures, pressures from all sides. I think we can even relate to that if we look at our family situation — always pressures from different things. You can’t do everything you’d like to do.

That’s my challenge really, personally, from the heart. I encourage our members from across the way there to be careful, be cautious. Remember, it’s not your money. You’re spending somebody else’s money. It’s tempting sometimes, because the financial situation is so healthy right now, to spend a lot more than perhaps you should. Just a personal observation. We need to spend within our means.

I was sharing here with my colleague just a moment ago. I grew up in a home that was…. My dad had a pretty average job. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. I think we only went for one vacation. I didn’t really know any different. I didn’t have that sort of entitlement thing: “Are we going to Disneyland?” We watched the Disney Channel on TV. That was about as close as we got. I’m kind of conscious of that.

Some of you know I served on Abbotsford council for a number of terms, quite a few terms, as a matter of fact.

Interjection.

S. Gibson: Thank you for noticing. I appreciate that. It’s nice to have fans on the other side. The member for Surrey-Whalley is always there for me. I appreciate that.

One thing you were conscious of on council…. For those of you that served in local government, what’s the big different between local government and provincial? You can’t what? You can’t run a deficit. I mean, it’s simple, right? You can’t do that, and you know that from your experience. The folks here that come out of local government, we’re pretty cautious about spending — quite a bit more cautious.

I had the privilege of first getting elected to Matsqui council. Nobody remembers Matsqui anymore. In ’95, Matsqui and Abbotsford amalgamated to the single community of Abbotsford, which is now the fifth-largest community in British Columbia. I had the privilege of serving on there for a number of terms and also on the FVRD board of directors as well. I want to acknowledge Alec Niemi, Al Stobbart and Ray Boucher, who are regional directors in the FVRD, which I represent, in the unincorporated area in my riding. It’s called the Abbotsford-Mission riding, but if you go just east, you’ll find some beautiful country — beautiful horticulture, dairy farms, blueberries. It’s unincorporated area, as it goes towards the area of Harrison Lake.

We’ve got a lot of hard-working people in our province, and they’re looking to us to take care of them. That’s what they’re looking for — providing services, yes, but with funds that they can afford. How we manage those dollars is critical. We want to avoid waste and redundancy. I think, increasingly, as our new government takes shape and figures out the political landscape…. You turn to discover it’s not quite as easy as it’s been criticizing us over the years. You suddenly realize you’ve got to be pretty careful.

We’ve seen some tax increases. A little bit troubling. It’s interesting. They’re increasing taxes at the same time they’re inheriting an incredible file of funds that we left for you because of our good stewardship. It seems ironic, a little bit. Surprising that they would raise taxes. Isn’t that kind of surprising?

Interjection.

S. Gibson: I thought so too.

We see an increased corporate tax rate, from 11 to 12 percent. We see an increased personal income tax rate for those making more than $150,000 per year, from 14.7 percent to 16.8 percent. Kind of quietly doing that. Of course, it’s going to generate funds so they can share it around a little bit.

We see the removal of the revenue-neutrality requirement for B.C.’s carbon tax. That’s going to have quite an impact on the price of gas, as we know.

We even see cuts to children’s arts and fitness tax credits. That’s kind of surprising. That seems almost like the opposite of what I expect from them. It’s probably just a mistake.

When government raises taxes, it means less money for British Columbians. In this case, it will cost more for British Columbians to heat their homes, enrol their kids in extracurricular activities or just drive them around to their various soccer games and hockey games.

Interjection.

[2:45 p.m.]

S. Gibson: Yep, and canasta in your town there.

These tax hikes take place after the NDP inherited the best-performing economy in Canada. People all over Canada said, “You guys rock.” We were a bit humble, but we didn’t deny it. We didn’t deny it. Not only did they inherit a province that leads the country in economic growth, job creation and youth employment, but they inherited, as I mentioned, a $2.7 billion surplus — better than anybody expected. How cool is that? Pretty exciting.

Interjections.

S. Gibson: Yeah, thank you. And thanks for those nurturing comments from across the floor there.

These tax increases are taking place in a time of remarkable economic growth, which makes me wonder: if the NDP can’t support their spending with the economy as it is now and with a surplus of nearly $3 billion, how will they be able to sustain it? That’s the concern I think a lot of observers…. You’ve probably seen some of the articles about that. People are worried about the sustainability that this government has.

No matter how well it’s managed, the economy fluctuates, right? The economy fluctuates. So I encourage our colleagues across the floor. Be very careful. Be cautious. Right now we’re faced with significant external economic pressures, protectionism. There are a lot of issues internationally that could affect the economy — softwood, etc. The new government has based their budget on the presumption that our economy will continue to grow at the same remarkable rate. It’s not going to happen. It’s something that can’t be taken for granted.

They also claim to be undertaking other tax measures that will help make life more affordable. Let’s go through a list of these. They’re kind of interesting.

Cutting MSP premiums in half. Very original.

Reducing the small business tax rate by half a percentage point, from 2.5 to 2 percent.

Phasing out PST on electricity. And introducing a tax credit for those volunteers who keep us safe through search and rescue, and fire response.

Wow, those are really cool ideas. Very good. They sound kind of familiar. I wonder where I saw those before. I think I know. We already proposed them. Wow. Who was it? A student once told me that originality is concealing one’s sources. I’m not sure if that applies here. I don’t know that. I’m just tossing it out.

They were already proposed. The money is already there in the budget. It’s nothing new. But these tax hikes are new. To suggest that tax cuts in some areas counterbalance tax hikes in other areas just isn’t accurate. It’s worth mentioning what isn’t in the budget, despite new revenue.

You made a lot of promises. These folks made a lot of promises, and promises are really special. We love promises, don’t we, folks? Let’s have a look at the promises and see what’s going on here. Here we go.The NDP promised…. Let’s have a look here.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

S. Gibson: They’re getting so excited hearing about the list, they can hardly contain themselves. It’s a captive audience I think we have. For instance, the NDP promised to eliminate interest payments on student loans. Now, I’m one of the critics for Advanced Education, so of course this brightens my heart. I’m encouraged. Let’s have a look at that. Is it mentioned in the budget?

Some Hon. Members: No.

S. Gibson: Oh. I’m feeling a bit bad for these guys. I sense there’s a hurting mood over there. The member for Surrey-Whalley is looking rather distraught.

Okay. The NDP campaigned on giving college- and university-skilled graduates a $1,000 completion grant at the end of their programs. That must be in the budget.

Some Hon. Members: No.

S. Gibson: Oh. Another promise where the budget is silent. Normally, silence is golden, but it doesn’t apply here.

They pledged to cap tuition rates. That’s a pretty good one. That’s comforting, I think, for many students. I taught students for many years. They would be comforted by that. They’ll probably be calling to thank you. Apparently not. It’s not in the budget. Uh-oh.

[2:50 p.m.]

They vowed to invest heavily in scholarships, creating a new graduate studies excellence program fund. That’s hopeful. I think we’re turning the corner here. Let’s have a look. It must be in the budget. Not in the budget. If the NDP plans to fulfil these pre-election plans, we wonder — on this side — how much it’s going to cost. Pretty reasonable question, I think.

And that’s not all. They promised — now, we’ve heard a lot about this — the universal, $10-a-day daycare. Wow. Now, that’s a big promise.

Interjections.

S. Gibson: Oh, it’s coming. Let’s see here. I wonder if any of us will be here. Will any of us be here when this arrives? By then, $10 will be worth $3.

They promised a $400 annual renters rebate. How’s that going? A rollback on ferry fares. That sounds dangerous. That’s going to make the ferry tip, isn’t it? A rollback. A freeze on hydro rates. You know, these guys…. You guys are amazing.

Hey, remember that movie Promises, Promises? That was a bad movie too.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

S. Gibson: Netflix doesn’t even offer that movie.

There were so many significant promises, and they’re going to be expensive to keep up.

Now, the NDP’s junior partner, the B.C. Greens — how’s the support going?

Hey, we believe in transparency in this House. Why don’t you guys share it with us right now?

Interjections.

S. Gibson: Yeah, they’re struggling. We get it. It’s okay.

Deputy Speaker: Members, through the Chair.

S. Gibson: The body language gives it away.

There is a lot of unclarity. There are a lot of problems with this government, because we just don’t know where they’re going. They’re making all kinds of promises and then, unfortunately, not living up to them. This doesn’t make the people of British Columbia feel very confident about these folks. We get worried that, somehow, you folks are floundering. It’s sad. And we feel sad for you. There’s some empathy over here, okay?

Another thing that’s not mentioned, which applies to my area…. And a lot of us have agriculture, right? We have a lot of agriculture. No mention, hardly any mention, of agriculture. I’d like to know why. I’d like to know why. Low priority with this government.

You probably don’t even know strawberries are grown in British Columbia. Yes, they are. Blueberries are grown in British Columbia. Yes, they are. Raspberries. Cranberries, right? They’re grown in the Abbotsford-Mission riding. Come on out and see it. Those of you who live in urban, grey urban, you need to get out and smell the flowers.

No mention of agriculture, just in passing — it’s so sad. We need this government to take agriculture seriously. Very important, the agrifood and seafood sector. In fact, in 2016, thanks to some of the hard work of the minister over here and others, exports reached a new high of $3.8 billion, an increase of $300 million. Can we keep that trend up with these folks? I don’t think so. I’m quite concerned.

A lot of lack of detail. I think the budget was kind of thrown together, and here’s the evidence. The NDP needs to find a way to balance both sides of the budget. What about Site C and LNG? How is that going? Wow. Thousands of people depending on that for their future.

Infrastructure, transportation — do you care about those people?

[2:55 p.m.]

And what about investments in ridings throughout out province? I was privileged. My riding — I was able to find a lot of funding, help my people out. I hope that’ll continue.

Phone me. I can give you some ideas about the Abbotsford-Mission riding. Give me a call.

Fraser Valley regional district, all our ridings — we need the attention of this government. I’ve got beautiful communities in my riding — McConnell Creek, Clayburn, Matsqui, Deroche, Dewdney, Lake Errock and many more — beautiful little communities. I’m wondering if this government cares about them.

Interjection.

S. Gibson: Yeah, yeah.

I believe this government has lost touch with the rural area of our province, in many cases. Isn’t that right? They’ve lost touch with the rural area of our province. It’s so sad. We need to keep our….

Interjection.

Deputy Speaker: Powell River–Sunshine Coast.

S. Gibson: The only way that we’re going to keep this economy moving is if we replace it with this group here.

So B.C. is the greatest province in Canada. We know that. We’re proud of it. But we’ve got to nurture it. We’ve got to look after it. Don’t overspend. Don’t overpromise, as you’ve just done. I just made a list here. You’re overpromising. Has anybody here worked in sales? Put your hand up on the other side. It’s okay. Has anybody here worked in sales? Just put your hand up.

Deputy Speaker: Member, through the Chair.

S. Gibson: This is called overpromising and underdelivering.

Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Deputy Speaker: All members will direct their comments through the Chair.

J. Routledge: I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are meeting on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen people, including the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. I thank them for their generosity in letting us conduct our business here.

I would also like to thank the people of Burnaby North for trusting in me to be your representative, but more importantly, for trusting in yourselves and in each other that together you could make a difference. I am so honoured to be standing here to speak in favour of this budget update, which is already beginning to make such a difference in the lives of the people in my community.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

I wish my parents were still alive to witness this moment. I’m here today because of the example they set and the values they taught me. My parents were simple people who used simple words to express simple ideas — love, fairness, justice, mutual respect, community, family, hard work, joy.

My parents had a good life, but it wasn’t without struggle. They met during the Second World War when they were both enlisted in the Canadian army. In fact, my mother was the first person in her tiny Ontario farming community to enlist. She didn’t actually get to finish high school until she was in her 40s, yet the war taught her that she had a place in history and that she could make a difference in the world.

As a child, I was encouraged to fiercely debate current events around the dinner table. I was encouraged to have strong opinions and to state my opinions, but only if I could back them up with facts and never use them as weapons to make others feel bad. Even during the age of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, my parents believed that I could be anything I wanted to be, even though I was a girl. They gave me the confidence to be the first person in our family to go to university, but it was low tuition fees and interest-free loans that made it possible.

[3:00 p.m.]

Though they suffered from debilitating illnesses and stressful working conditions, my parents always found the time and the grace to give back to the community. As a Little League coach, as a Girl Guide leader, as a church elder. Those were the people who set me on the path of public service, but there are so many more who helped me along the way. I particularly want to thank my husband — who believed I was a leader long before I even believed it myself — for being so wise, so strategic and so compassionate.

I want to thank my son and his wife, who are raising two amazing children, who, at nine and 12, already give me reason to believe that when it’s time for their generation to take the reins, our shared future will be in good hands. I know that when they get home from work and school tonight, my family will be watching a recording of this speech and cheering me on.

I want to thank my community of friends and neighbours near and far. Some I’ve known almost all my life; some I’ve met recently. Brothers and sisters in the labour movement, comrades in the social and environmental justice movement, many of whom played leadership roles in my election campaign, all of whom helped me find my political voice. I wouldn’t be here without you.

During and since the election, I’ve heard many versions of the same story. After 16 years of B.C. Liberal neglect, life here has just gotten too hard. Not only has life become too expensive; it’s become exhausting — long commutes, constantly organizing fundraisers to subsidize the kids’ schools, waiting on hold for critical services, juggling two or three minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet.

Before May 9, I met far too many people who had simply given up on politics. Some told me they were overwhelmed by their lives and couldn’t keep up with the news. They told me they didn’t feel competent to vote. Others had stopped voting or never even started voting, because they didn’t believe it would make a difference.

Like Curtis, a young First Nations father of two. We met on the street during the election. Curtis told me he had never voted, didn’t see the point, that nothing ever changes. I asked him what he thought of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. He told me he was opposed to it. I said: “So is the B.C. NDP, and if we form government, we will do everything in our power to protect our environment, protect our economy and thousands of existing jobs.” So he said he’d vote.

I am proud to say that one of our first actions as government was to announce that we would join the legal challenges and that not one shovel would be put in public land until the province fulfilled its duty of meaningful consultation with Indigenous people concerning this project and outstanding provincial environment management plans were completed.

Curtis, you did make a difference.

So did Julena. I know you worked hard to convince members of your community to get out and vote, many of whom did so for the first time. You told me that the new spending we had committed to improve the education system and help children succeed was a relief to you as a grandmother.

Skye, I’m relieved that after years of waiting, your little boy has finally been diagnosed and that new money in the education system in Burnaby means he will now get the classroom support he needs to thrive.

Soon after the election, I was contacted by a young man who rents an apartment on the eighth floor of his building. He told me that one of the elevators in his building had been broken for two months and that both of them stopped working two weeks ago. He was particularly worried about his elderly neighbour who was essentially trapped in her apartment. Not only that, the mail wasn’t being delivered, and tenants had to go to the post office to pick it up.

[3:05 p.m.]

Luckily, this young man grew up in a union household, so he knew the power of organizing. Within hours of him posting notices inviting fellow tenants to a meeting, the elevators were fixed and mail delivery was reinstated. Sadly, this kind of story is all too common.

I was also contacted by a senior, who’s been on the B.C. Housing waiting list since 2011. In the meantime, she lives in substandard housing, and her landlord refuses to undertake repairs. She did file a complaint with the residential tenancy branch, but it remains unresolved. It just shouldn’t take so much work to get your landlord to treat you with respect and dignity.

Our government is going to invest $7 million in new funding over the next three years to improve the residential tenancy branch. We are sending a clear message to landlords and tenants alike. With more resources, more complaints will be resolved more quickly.

Furthermore, we are committing to invest $208 million over the next four years to support the construction of more than 1,700 new units of affordable rental housing. These kinds of units are desperately needed in communities like ours, in Burnaby North.

Let me tell you about Tiffany and Tobias. They live in a beautiful but small condo in my community, and they just had their second child. They want to stay in the neighbourhood but need another bedroom, and they just can’t find anything that they can afford. To make matters worse, Tiffany calculates that when she returns to work, her take-home pay will be $30 after she has paid for child care.

Speaking of child care, I met a young man during the election who came to B.C. from Quebec. Amiel told me that, as a child, he had personally benefited from $10-a-day child care. It was Quebec’s system of universal, affordable child care that permitted his single-parent mother to work and support her family.

I know that it’s going to take a lot of work to implement $10-a-day child care here in B.C. As a member of the child care working group made up of ministers and government MLAs, I am eager to get started. I look forward to talking to parents, child care professionals and other stakeholders to make sure we get it right. Child care is an investment in our shared future.

I was recently contacted by the founder of a biotechnology company in Burnaby. Let me quote what he wrote.

“We have been profitable and employ ten people. Most are scientists who are well compensated. Nevertheless, the incessant and irrational increases in real estate are having a destabilizing effect on the company, as founders are contemplating taking capital out of the company to buy houses before they rise still further.

“I hope you realize the profound effects these irrational house price increases are having on allocation of capital. Instead of capital being allocated to start and sustain businesses, including those in the knowledge economy, enterprising people are allocating capital to invest in houses. Swapping and speculating on houses will not grow an economy and create jobs. The ability to attract and retain talent is impaired, and young people taking on huge mortgages at the precise time in their lives when they should be taking risks to establish new enterprises is lamentable.”

This constituent went on to attribute the housing crisis to the previous government’s unwillingness to curb speculation. I am proud to say that our government will act to close speculation loopholes and reduce tax fraud and money laundering in the B.C. real estate industry.

The Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, skyrocketing costs of housing, no child care — these were the issues that came up most frequently on the doorsteps of Burnaby North during the election, and at the bus stops, in the parks and the coffee shops. But they weren’t the only issues the voters raised with me. They asked us to increase funding to the education system, to improve the transit system, to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and we are working on all of those priorities.

I am so proud to be part of a government that is moving quickly to make life more affordable for the average person in Burnaby North, to invest in the services they need and to create a sustainable economy for everyone.

[3:10 p.m.]

My commitment to the people of Burnaby North is anchored by something that happened a couple of days before the election happened on May 9. My team and I were handing out material at one of the SkyTrain stations. It was early morning. Travellers were in a hurry. They weren’t really interested in engaging. But this one guy rushed by, and he called back to me. He said: “I already voted for you. Don’t let me down.”

I’ve been haunted by that encounter ever since. I’m happy to say that right after our throne speech, this guy — I’ve since found out his name is Waldo — tracked me down on Facebook to say: “Thank you. Keep up the good work.” Others have reached out to tell me it’s a good start. I agree with them. It is a good start. But there is so much yet to do to create a better B.C. for the people who have been left behind for the last 16 years.

It won’t be easy. We’ll be questioned for daring to suggest that we can bring in affordable child care; for daring to suggest that those at the top in our province can pay a little more; for suggesting that creating good, family-supporting, long-term jobs goes hand in hand with protecting our environment. We will be questioned for daring to hope. I am confident that hope is exactly what the people of Burnaby North want. That is what they voted for on May 9.

I’d like to conclude by returning to the story of my parents. They sacrificed their youth to go to war to save the world — literally. They did it with the expectation that their generation was creating a better world, a better life, for future generations, and they did. The postwar years were a period of unprecedented prosperity in British Columbia. It saw the introduction of important social programs like health care, pensions and unemployment insurance.

In the years immediately following the war, my father-in-law was an unemployed single parent. He wasn’t able to care for his four children, and his only option was to put them in an orphanage. But then, after four years, he got a good union job, with benefits, at Fraser Mills. He purchased a lot, he built a house, and he was able to bring his children home. He worked there for more than 30 years and was able to retire in dignity. But Fraser Mills doesn’t exist anymore, and the good, family-supporting jobs, like those in so many other foundational industries, have disappeared. The social safety net my parents’ generation worked so hard to knit together has come unravelled, and the sad part is that the growing income gap, the growing rate of child poverty and the reversal of the fortunes of so many British Columbian families didn’t happen by mistake.

It happened as a result of deliberate choices made by the B.C. Liberal government. It happened because of their blind trust in an economy that only works for those at the top. I am proud to be part of a government that rejects dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest economics. I’m proud to be part of a government that is choosing to invest in people. The voters of Burnaby North called for it. Our budget update supports it.

L. Larson: Unfortunately, I will not be as entertaining as my colleague from Abbotsford-Mission was, and I’ll apologize for that right now.

I would like to take this opportunity, as many of my colleagues have, to thank the people who have worked so hard in the background to support me in my position as MLA for Boundary-Similkameen. My CAs, Colleen Misner and Patt Vermiere, demonstrate every day their patience and empathy working for the constituents. It’s probably a good thing that they live in wine country. My riding association president, Everett Baker, who touches base with me every day, is quick to keep our board and members informed of constituency activities. My family, my three daughters and four grandchildren, ranging in age from four to 20. Of course, my number one fan, my husband, Larry, for 47 years has demonstrated extreme patience and calm in what seems like continuous chaos.

[3:15 p.m.]

I am honoured to represent an incredibly diverse riding: 17 distinct communities, two regional districts and three school districts. I am pleased to take my place in responding to the budget that government has tabled.

Like all of my colleagues, I have been proud of the disciplined approach to budget management that has been our focus for the last four years and that has resulted in balanced budgets and triple-A credit ratings. I’m sure this is boring to many, and as voters, many appeared to not care about balancing the budget or paying down debt with the same level of enthusiasm that we did.

However, I believe that the majority of British Columbians do care about the stability that those balanced budgets have afforded all of us and do not want that to change. B.C. did not become the number one job creator in the country by raising corporate taxes. It has been number one because we have maintained a competitive advantage over other jurisdictions by creating a tax environment that allowed the companies to grow and hire more people — people that became taxpayers themselves.

Those large businesses and companies will probably stay for a while under the new higher tax regime, but they won’t be expanding or growing their businesses or adding more employees. They will go into a holding pattern for as long as they can before they begin to downsize and lay people off.

Some members of government have sung the praises of the Port of Prince Rupert expansion and other areas of the tech sector that have recently expanded, forgetting that those businesses’ plans for growth are decisions that take months and sometimes years to become a reality and were developed under the certainty of the corporate tax regime at that time and a government that welcomed investment.

New investors from outside B.C. will also wait and watch the performance of this government. There are other places in the world that will appear more welcoming and will be actively competing for those investments. Capital is mobile. Investors choose where they will invest from the signals they are getting.

The carbon tax is just one of those deterrents to investment. B.C.’s revenue neutrality on the implementation of the carbon tax won it recognition from the United Nations for environmental innovation, returning that tax to the families, industries and businesses that paid it to put it back into their businesses and retain their competitiveness.

Now it is just another tax burden, which not only industry but all British Columbians will be paying as it is added to everyday purchases like gas for your car. The average household will see a 17 percent increase in the carbon tax charged on household expenses. Some tax credits will be maintained, but the majority of the burden of tax will be carried by all British Columbians.

The Liberal government plan was to comply with the climate action mandate, raising the carbon tax as required but offsetting it with reduced PST and other tax credits. This government needs those tax revenues and many more to offset some of their spending commitments.

Under the banner of improving affordability for those living on the Lower Mainland, the rest of the province will bear the burden. The removal of tolls on Lower Mainland bridges will shift that debt to taxpayer-supported debt. While people who used to pay those tolls are happy at the moment, they may sing a different tune when the carbon tax is added to their costs of fuel and any savings are quickly eaten away. Everyone will pay.

The downgrading of our credit rating is also looming as the capital debt rises and more interest will have to be paid by the province. Again, there is only one taxpayer.

All estimates for revenues over the next three years in this budget are based on an assumption that the investment climate in B.C. will stay the same, and that investors will be willing to pay higher taxes just for the privilege of working in B.C. That is an extremely naive and blind way to build a budget.

For all of us in rural British Columbia, instead of building a bridge between urban and rural, this project further divides us. The rural dividend fund, which has created economic activity in every corner of this province, is gone. There is no rural budget or plan to sustain rural communities.

[3:20 p.m.]

There is no jobs plan. Without jobs, there are no taxpayers. The creation of over 200,000 jobs in the last three years is reflected in the surplus in the budget that was left to this government. Already this government has eliminated the possibility of thousands of jobs by taking the Massey Tunnel replacement off the table and has created uncertainty for 2,500 taxpaying workers at Site C.

Where is the money going to come from in the years ahead to fulfil the promises made by this government? All of the investments that were part of the spring Liberal budget were possible because there was a plan to continue to grow the economy, a plan based on revenues that had a reasonable certainty of happening. This budget is moving ahead, over the next three years, with a $1 billion shortfall expected, $1 billion to be added to your taxes.

We all recognize the value of education, but unlike some of the members opposite, I don’t believe that my grandchildren — one who is in radiology; another who will graduate soon, moving into an apprenticeship in refrigeration — have been denied a good education. Quite the contrary. They and all their friends are experiencing more opportunities in careers for the future than ever before, and they are well prepared for the challenges. They have all been educated in rural British Columbia.

The budget increase in education reflects the court’s decision on classroom composition but does not lay out a plan for anything outside of the Lower Mainland. While schools all over B.C. now have the mandate to add classrooms and teachers, rural parents and school boards have already identified the difficulty in attracting teachers to rural British Columbia, no matter what the enticement might be. There are not enough teachers to fill all those spots, and the Lower Mainland will absorb all that are available, just another example of the lack of a rural economic plan. Only healthy, thriving communities are able to attract new teachers.

For the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of being involved with the Select Standing Committee on Health. Many professionals and non-professionals, individuals, organizations and volunteers presented their ideas on improving health care in British Columbia to the committee, and a report was tabled in the Legislature last spring. There were recommendations in all areas of health care, many directed at supporting local health care centres, as well as seniors, and more training and support for the professional caregivers who keep all our medical services functioning every day and, certainly, many innovative ideas on how to improve rural health care.

My local hospital struggles with staffing for 24-hour emergency and was hoping for some changes to the model of compensation they currently work under, one of the key recommendations in the report. There does not appear to be any of the health budget allocated to these recommendations.

Health care has always been the largest budget and continues to be. The increase, however, is directed to the opioid crisis, not to the wait-lists or seniors or the many other areas of health that need to be addressed. While there is mention of the need to better support seniors to live in their own homes longer, there’s very little budget to see that through.

There are items in this budget that have been well received by the public as positive. The small business community welcomed the lowering of the B.C. business tax from 2.5 percent to 2 percent. That was a Liberal campaign promise. But I’ve been a small business owner, and success is not based on just low taxes but, rather, on the economic activity surrounding that business — the family-supporting jobs that provide the paying customers for the business, the investment in housing and infrastructure that makes the community a desirable place for people to live.

This budget also promises the reduction of MSP in January 2018, also a Liberal promise, and the removal of PST from electricity bills for business, another Liberal promise. Promises with an economic plan enable those reductions to be made without raising your taxes. Those promises will make a difference to affordability for everyone.

Then there are the NDP promises that are in this budget — raising corporate taxes, raising taxes for all wage earners over $150,000, raising the carbon tax without tax credit offsets. These promises will not make life more affordable for anyone.

[3:25 p.m.]

Perhaps the bigger story about the budget is what is not in it. The number one promise of this government during the recent election was affordable daycare — specifically, $10-a-day daycare. It’s a concept not thought through from a funding perspective, but promised over and over again — a promise that had voters excited and willing to vote for the NDP, just for that one promise.

Add to that the promise to renters of a $400 tax rebate each year that is also no longer on the table. There is no mention of financial relief for students, either. It comes back to a lack of fiscal competence that would allow anybody to make promises like that without a financial plan to pay for them.

We can all agree that when the economy is strong, more should and can be done for those who need it most. It is the ability to sustain those increases with a plan that does not put the province’s financial health at risk. That is the most important part of any spending budget. There is no economic plan, no job creation plan. This is about spending, and raising taxes to pay for it.

The Finance Minister lists in this budget the internal and external factors that put the budget at risk — uncertainty in global economic activity; assumptions underlying revenue, specifically from Crown corporations; potential changes to the federal transfer allocations; utilization rates for government services; and external trade forces such as softwood and NAFTA.

Despite the recognition of those potential downturns in the economy, there is no plan to support continued economic growth. No plan to create jobs. No plan to attract new investment, but rather, a deterrent to new investment with the raising of corporate tax, which has removed British Columbians’ tax advantage over other jurisdictions.

Adding to that uncertainty is the elephant in the room, a Green elephant. The secretariat that manages this partnership and the rules enabling it to function are not clear. What promises have been made to keep this government functioning? What will the costs be to taxpayers for those commitments? As has been publicly stated by the leader of the Greens, the NDP campaign promises are irrelevant. So what is relevant, and what will that cost us all? While there is, admittedly, some shared philosophy on affordability in this partnership, the actions proposed appear to be in dispute.

Already there is uncertainty in the investment community, as financial warnings have been sent to this government after only a few short weeks in office. A credit-negative label — an acknowledgment that the government will be challenged to maintain its spending without a credit downgrade and the need to further raise taxes. A downgrade in our current triple-A credit rating will result in millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money being needed to pay rising interest rates. That likely probability is not factored into this budget.

My colleagues and I will continue to remind the people of British Columbia that this government inherited the best economy in Canada — five balanced budgets, triple-A credit ratings, number one in job creation and growth and the lowest individual tax rates. British Columbia is an economic leader in this country and deserves to stay there.

L. Krog: As the walrus said to the carpenter: “The time has come to talk of many things.”

Interjection.

L. Krog: The comment of the Member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head I find almost inspiring.

Well, let’s start with some basics. Firstly, I, too, want to acknowledge that for this — the major speech of this session that’s allotted to all of us, the chance to speak to the budget or the throne — that we are gathered on the traditional territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt peoples.

[3:30 p.m.]

As someone who says with great pride that he’s descended from colonists who came here in the 1840s, I think that I particularly need to acknowledge that because of the role that my family and its history played in the contact between First Nations and the Europeans who colonized this area, which is a difficult part of our history and which hasn’t been mentioned much today or in the preceding days by the B.C. Liberals, who have chosen to address their remarks to the throne speech.

This government has said very clearly — very clearly — that the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples is going to be at the heart of what we do. With great respect to those who now sit in the opposition benches, that wasn’t always the case. That is going to be one of the hallmarks of this government.

I hear from the other side constantly that we’re anti-job in the NDP, that we’re not going to grow the economy, that we’re going to tax and spend. The world is going to end in a whirlwind of debts someplace, if you believe the B.C. Liberals. Instead of acknowledging right off the bat that if British Columbia’s economy is to continue to improve and remain strong and be strong — if it is to do that — particularly for the people who actually work in it — who work in their mines, who work in their small businesses, who provide the services, who care for our elderly, all of those people — then it needs to recognize that we will do so most successfully in cooperation with those who have occupied this land since time immemorial. That is crucial to all of this.

Now, I also, obviously, want to thank some people, in my constituency in particular, who can take — how shall I say — depending on one’s perspective, either credit or responsibility for my re-election to this place as the member for Nanaimo.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

I want to thank, firstly, Joyce Scotton, who managed the campaign and never describes herself as a campaign manager but refers to herself as a coordinator. She had a most distinguished career working in public service for our Member of Parliament T.C. Douglas, for Premier Pawley of Manitoba, for Premier Blakeney of Saskatchewan and for various other politicians over the years. She headed an amazing team that secured victory in Nanaimo for the NDP once again.

I want to pay my compliments to Paris Gaudet, who was the B.C. Liberal candidate chosen by the Premier, who worked very hard and, I think, understands now better than many people do that getting to this place is not always easy. It places great demand on your family life, and the longer the campaign goes on, the more you start to reflect and recognize how important family is.

For those of you who have children or grandchildren or a spouse or someone you love and are new to this place, let me remind you: at the end of the day — I say with a certain amount of cynicism — when you leave here, that’s all you’re going to have left unless you’re long enough to get a pension and then you’re going to hand that over to them and say: “That’s your compensation for not having had me in your presence and in your life for all these many years.” That is the reality of politics.

But having said that with a touch of cynicism, I also want to reflect on the fact that the opportunity to serve in this Legislature and the opportunity to serve your constituents and be elected to this place at all is a great and incredible honour. I know that members opposite — and some of them are nodding now — understand that intimately, particularly those who have been here a while and understand the sacrifices that their family has made.

So I want to say thank you to Joyce and the team who got me elected, but I want to say thank you to my family, as well, because they have endured my absence on many occasions when I should have been present, just as those who have been newly elected here are going to face the same issues with their own families.

I just want to say a few things about what’s happened here today as I’ve been watching. Now I understand what the opposition must feel like. It reminds me of the characters in a Victorian novel. We’re over here, and they’re over there. They’re living in reduced circumstances and ours have improved considerably. I know that that’s a hard thing to swallow, but it’s like my first boss at the Chevron would have said to me: “It’s character-building.”

I’m sure it will be character-building for the B.C. Liberals as they spend the next 4½ years in opposition, struggling away, criticizing the government and remembering the good old days when they were on this side of House with enormous numbers and could do whatever they pleased.

[3:35 p.m.]

We still have a rather silly electoral system where, as Nathan Cullen puts it so eloquently, “you can get 40 percent of the vote, over 50 percent of the seats and 100 percent of the power, and that’s the way it is.” Well, that’s the way it was for a while, but it’s this government, on this side of the House, supported by the B.C. Green Party, that’s actually going to give British Columbians an opportunity to bring into being an electoral system that reflects the face of British Columbia and the desire of voters to be heard in this place.

By those voters, I don’t mean the heads of large corporations. I don’t mean the wealthy folks who populate the BMW and Mercedes-Benz dealerships, who get a Rolls-Royce in the driveway once in a while. I’m talking about the British Columbians who work hard year in, year out, pay their taxes and wonder why that party kept taking, for so long, so much money from wealthy individuals and from powerful corporations — and not just British Columbia corporations. They’re not even patriotic. They took it from out-of-province corporations. No end to it, and for their perfidy, there they sit, condemned in the seats we formerly occupied for 12 long years.

I am in the midst of reading a wonderful, wonderful biography, which I’m sure many of the members have read.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: It’s Richard Gwyn’s biography of Sir John A. Macdonald…

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: The member for Nanaimo has the floor.

L. Krog: …a founding prime minister of this great country who faced such difficult tasks in trying to persuade this country to come together and form Confederation. There’s a lovely line. Oh, it just struck me so well. I know the members are anxious to listen. It’s from Kipling’s Recessional. When I look across, I can only think how perfect it is: “Lo, all our pomp of yesterday, Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!” Oh, the destroyed cities. Here they sit, collapsed, driven from government, wiped out and confined to the opposition benches. Oh, it is a wonderful sight indeed. It is a wonderful sight.

I can stand here today and say with great relish: “I’m a former member of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” — a former member. Let them assume…

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: …with grace and enthusiasm that mantle…

Deputy Speaker: Members, wait for your turn, please.

L. Krog: …for at least 4½ years, thwarted in their dreams and plans of acceding again to the seat of power.

I appear to have excited the members on the other side. I’m delighted to do so.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: Some of them made a few comments during the course of their remarks. I made a couple of notes here. I was particularly impressed by the remarks of the member for Vancouver–False Creek. He talked about the jobs plan. The Liberals still talk about the jobs plan.

I looked high and low for many years, and I never actually saw the plan. They talked about it. It got repeated in speeches, but was it contained in a nice little booklet somewhere — the jobs plan? Now, the jobs plan appeared to be taking credit for every job created in British Columbia instead of acknowledging it was the good consumptive habits of British Columbians and the paycheques of the workers that drove the jobs in this province.

Look, either government helps create jobs or it doesn’t, but you can’t have it both ways. I used to listen with relish when they were on this side of the House, telling me how they were creating jobs at the same time that they said only the private sector creates jobs. I never understood that. So I listened with delight to the member for Vancouver–False Creek.

Now, of course, it appears we’re going to have to suffer for at least six months or a year listening to the B.C. Liberals taking credit for the economy. I’ve got to tell you…. If the economy takes a downturn in the next six months, are they really going to blame us for it — six months in government?

[3:40 p.m.]

There’s an old saying that New Democrats are simply Liberals in a hurry. Well, happy anniversary. We’ve been government for nine whole weeks today. It takes nine….

Interjections.

L. Krog: The member for Penticton said: “What have you done to date?”

Here, Member. I beg of you — through you, hon. Speaker — just to listen. This was just the press release of August 11. We hadn’t even done three weeks.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

L. Krog: We’d stood up against Kinder Morgan. We’d restored the Human Rights Commission. We eliminated tuition fees on adult basic education. We announced that children in the care of the province would get free tuition in post-secondary education. We sent Site C where it should have gone: for an independent review by the B.C. Utilities Commission. And we increased social assistance rates for the poorest and most vulnerable in this province. We even had the good sense to acquire the Waneta dam as well. And then we established a Ministry for Mental Health and Addictions. That was by August 11.

The member asked a question. I give him an answer. Why isn’t he clapping?

Then there was the member for Abbotsford-Mission. Now, I have great affection for the member for Abbotsford-Mission for a whole series of reasons, none of which need explanation on the floor of this House. But I will say this. His speech, although incredibly amusing and witty and charming, was in fact a great recitation of complaints about the NDP government, nine weeks old, not having spent enough money.

He complained: “Where is it in the budget for low tuition? Where is it in the budget for universal health care? Where is it in the budget for this? Where is it in the budget for that?” My goodness. I thought he was going to walk across the floor and grab my seat and stand up and give the speech from the government side. It was amazing.

I realize now that our attitudes weren’t shaped by years of being members of the B.C. New Democratic Party. Our attitudes were shaped simply by our placement on that side of the House. If they stay there long enough, not only will we achieve proportional representation; we will have the most cooperative government in the history of British Columbia, because we’ll all be singing from the same song book.

Right now they’re begging us to spend more money. They’re begging us. It comes up in every speech. I love it. It is music to my ears to hear that.

Interjection.

L. Krog: Oh, promises, promises.

And the member for Boundary-Similkameen….

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members, let’s hear the member for Nanaimo.

L. Krog: The member for Boundary-Similkameen said, I think, quite wisely — I wouldn’t say profoundly — that this budget is about spending and raising taxes.

Now, I know that the concept of raising taxes on the wealthiest British Columbians is anathema to that group of people. But I’ve got to tell you, as I mentioned in this House the other morning…. You know all those folks who were sleeping in the doorway of my constituency office? Guess what? I think they’re okay with raising taxes on the people who make more than $150,000 a year. They happen to think that’s pretty good public policy. They can see the connection between taking a little bit of money…. And it is. If you make $200,000 a year, you know what you’re going to do? You’re going to pay a whole $1,000 more income tax in a year — a whole $1,000 out of your $200,000.

But the people in my doorway — they get it. They understand that you might take that $1,000 from one of those rich folks, and you might actually give that $1,000 — actually, it’s $1,200, a $100-a-month increase, to be precise — to one of those sleeping in the doorway.

Now, hon. Speaker, I’ve got to tell you that I’m a person of some faith. I know there are many members of faith on the other side. There are some on our side. I’ve said it dozens of times in this House, that line in the Bible: “Easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” What’s wrong with taxing people who are already well off to give some to the most vulnerable?

[3:45 p.m.]

Is this a problem? Is it a problem? Is this a bad thing? Of course not. It’s something this government’s proud of doing — after 16 long years of denying the poorest in this province an opportunity.

I can’t help but reflect on what I said earlier about all the announcements made by August 11. That was just by August 11. Then we have the budget, and it’s a budget update. Let’s be blunt about this. We’re six months through the fiscal year. I know that may come as a surprise to members opposite, but actually, the budgetary year runs from April 1 to March 31. We’re halfway through the year.

What have we done? We’ve decided that a government that works for people is a good thing. It’s what we promised in our campaign. There’s nothing shocking about it. We’re trying to make life more affordable for British Columbians, not for the wealthy British Columbians but for those who need it the most. We’re supporting….

Interjection.

L. Krog: The member for Nanaimo–North Cowichan says: “I think they want you to spend more money again.” Well, we may have time for that.

I guess I just want to say, after nine weeks, would the members opposite please just have the patience to wait until the budget in the spring? Give us a little chance to even get the offices staffed up and lay out some planning.

Surely, after the fiasco of Site C — not sending it through the proper process — this party and this opposition, of all oppositions, would have learned the good sense of going through appropriate processes to ensure that the public’s money is wisely and well spent — and not spent on what I will call projects to support the ego of their former leader, who I notice isn’t here anymore, or, alternatively, support their friends who they’ve made enormous promises to.

After 16 years of bad choices and neglect, you have now in this chamber a government, sitting in Victoria, trying to do its best for the majority of British Columbians. I am so delighted — so delighted, as I look at the Minister of Education, the member for Victoria–Swan Lake — to know that at least some of those parents who have been coming into my constituency office will finally have the funding in the classroom that their children need so that those children, too, can have an opportunity to succeed.

The member for Boundary-Similkameen talked about how well her family was doing. I congratulate her. I say that quite sincerely. I’ve been fortunate myself — very fortunate. Our children have done fine, and I’m sure my grandchildren will do fine, but they are, in essence, the children of privilege. Let’s not kid ourselves. The minute you walk into this place, depending on whatever your salary is, compared to most British Columbians, you’re in the top 5 percent or more of income earners — top 10 percent, for sure; maybe even top 5. You’re already doing well. The people who get into this place, by and large, tend to be relatively successful.

We aren’t the majority of British Columbians. The majority of British Columbians… No, they’re not sleeping in the streets, but a lot of them are struggling paycheque to paycheque. They are trying to find hope for a future. Some of them, cynically, are probably waiting for their parents to pass on to the other side so they can get enough of an inheritance to put a down payment on a house somewhere. It’s a sad state of affairs.

Now, I don’t blame that on the B.C. Liberals. There are market forces. There are all kinds of things that impact on it, but one has to be realistic about the effect of public policy.

When you keep the minimum wage down, when you keep assistance rates down, when you give tax breaks to the people at the top, when you allow tuition to rise to extraordinary rates, when you don’t take steps early on when, clearly, we’re going to enter a speculative real estate market that allows significant foreign investment that drives up the price of housing…. When you do all those things, there are consequences.

It’s not shocking. One doesn’t have to have a PhD like the member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head. You don’t have to be a math whiz. Gosh, you don’t even have to have adult basic education, although they stopped that too. All you have to have is good old common sense.

[3:50 p.m.]

After 16 years of this approach to public policy, there have been consequences. And the consequences are: vulnerable at the bottom are worse off than they ever were before, a shrinking middle class and a growing class of people at the top for whom life has been very good. It’s been very good indeed.

So I come back to it. What has this government done already to help those people? Guess what. Yes, the Liberals are going to take credit for it because they promised it too, only when they started to realize their electoral fortunes were fast shrinking. Eliminated half of the MSP premiums, committed to raising the minimum wage, increasing social assistance rates, engaging in an extensive capital investment program.

Oh, I’m going to hear from the members: “You cancelled the Massey bridge.” There is a time to step back and just acknowledge that if you’re going to spend that much money, don’t you think you should have a real plan? Don’t you think you should have an overall plan that meets the needs and recommendations of all of those local politicians who live every day with that gridlock?

I don’t live with that gridlock. I get to drive down the Island Highway. Oh, that’s right. When the NDP were in power, we built the new Island Highway. I don’t have to worry about it directly, but the local mayors, the people there, want a transportation plan that works for them. They want it done in a way that least impacts the environment, that doesn’t take farmland out of production in a world ripe with damage from climate change.

This government has taken the right steps. This government is taking a thoughtful approach to major projects. It’s what this government — this opposition, rather…. It’s hard to get used to be being on this side. It’s what this opposition…. If they had done so, they might still be sitting over here instead of sitting over there.

I grew up in an era — I’m not that old, not much older than many of the members here; some of you are even older than me — where the expectation was that public education was there for you, that university and college tuition wasn’t that significant, where the minimum wage actually had real purchasing power.

I’ve said it here…. I think I say it every budget speech. In 1991, when I was first elected into this place, sitting in the seat over there — where the member for Kootenay East sits now, the farthest corner of the province — I was the farthest corner of the government caucus. I’ve only managed to get over here so far, but I’m working on it.

The minimum wage in 1991, in order to have the purchasing power it did when I was getting it in 1969 and ’70-71, should have been $11 an hour. I enjoy the advantage of a decent minimum wage, more union jobs, a thriving forest industry that has been so damaged by the policies of this government, let alone the world marketplace, but we’re not going to go into that too deeply. I had every advantage, and I am conscious of it. What we on this side of the House want for our children and our grandchildren are the opportunities, or something akin to it, that were given to our generation, to my generation.

That is not achieved simply by saying that the economy is in great shape and that the Mercedes-Benz dealerships and the BMW dealerships are all prospering. It happens because you make provision to ensure that they get access to education. It means you don’t make adult basic education a charge. It means you make it free. It means you control tuition. It means you work toward giving grants to students to complete their programs. It means you put money into public education.

It means you put money into hands of people who aren’t going to stick it in an RRSP and invest it abroad, who aren’t going to spend it on a vacation somewhere. You stick it in the hands of people who are going to spend in the local economy and generate jobs and economic activity right here at home. You do it in a society that respects the First Nations who occupied this land from the beginning, and you do so in a society that respects the environment.

[3:55 p.m.]

We don’t have to go into long examples, as we look south to what’s happening in the Caribbean, if we look at what’s happened in the interior of this province this year, with devastating forest fires that have, for some, irreparably ruined their lives — irreparably. For many others, it’s set them back years, decades. We don’t have to look far to understand the consequences of climate change.

So as we work through an agreement with the B.C. Green Party, we are conscious of our responsibilities. What this budget does is address those responsibilities to the First Nations of this province, to those who care about the environment, to those who want to protect the Salish Sea, to those who want to ensure we have a vibrant forest industry that is renewable, to ensure that we generate electricity in a way that damages the planet the least.

As we move towards the kind of society that British Columbia is becoming — with great respect to politicians everywhere, much of it on its own, and in spite of the policies of governments of every stripe…. But where government has a role, government should play that role, not for the few, but for the many. That’s the great difference, I would suggest, between that side of the House and this side of the House. What does that mean? It means you invest in people. It means that we are investing in a sustainable future. It means you’re putting people first by improving the services that they rely on.

As the member for Delta North said in his remarks, talking about the small businessmen…. I whispered to him, and I’m sure it wasn’t picked up by Hansard, when he talked about this businessman who’d seen his premiums for the Medical Services Plan for his employees cut in half, seen the elimination of tolls, seen a reduction in the small business income tax rate. I muttered the word “jackpot.” Jackpot. He’s already seeing it, just as his employees will see it. The people who are in receipt of social assistance will see those benefits. It is the benefits of a change in public policy. Whatever else we may say, if you don’t change governments every once in a while, society stagnates. What we have in this chamber today, for good or for ill, depending on your perspective, is the results of an election.

Now, I’m tempted to say, and I shouldn’t say it…. The members start to quake when I make a remark like that. But there’s an old line about governments and underwear, and that is that they both need to be changed fairly regularly. We’ve finally seen a change after 16 long years. And I just….

Interjection.

L. Krog: My friend from Prince George, for whom I have great affection, has pointed out that it says: “Thanks to our partners.”

Well, let me just say if it’s thanks to our partners, then absolutely we believe in building partnerships in British Columbia, building coalitions, building a new electoral system that allows for partnerships to be successful and working towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

I am delighted to be on this side of the House and so happy to see the members over there getting a valuable experience in their political education.

J. Yap: It’s my honour and privilege to join in the debate on the budget. Before I go into my comments and thoughts on the NDP budget, I just want to start out by saying a few words of thanks for those who have made it possible for me to be the MLA for Richmond-Steveston, a great honour.

First of all, my family. I want to thank my wife, Suzanne, and my daughter, Lisa, my new son-in-law, Seungjoo, and my son, Michael. Their love and support means all the world to me.

I also want to thank my constituency office team, led by Paige Robertson, my loyal and great constituency assistant, who is my face and presence in the community, as well as a great adviser; also, PoWah Ng, who also works in my constituency office — a great support to me and to our team. I want to thank my…. So many to thank, but I’ll….

[4:00 p.m.]

I’m sure, Mr. Speaker, you encounter this too. You don’t want to name names specifically, but I feel I should at least mention, among my team, the riding association which has supported me all these years — my riding president, Ray Holme, and my two riding vice-presidents, Daniel Baxter and Michael Chiu. Thank you for your friendship and support.

To the people of Richmond-Steveston, thank you for the true honour of being re-elected, for a third time, to my fourth term representing them in this great House, the House of the people. This was a hard-fought election — the May 9, 2017, election — and I’m truly honoured that the voters of Richmond-Steveston felt that they would give me their confidence to represent them and to speak for them here in this House.

Turning to the budget, I wish I could give a commentary on what’s in the budget. But rather, I’m forced to focus on what’s not in the budget. For the people in my riding, there’s a lot missing.

Interjection.

J. Yap: I’m glad the Minister of Labour is listening intently.

There’s a lot for this government to answer for. This has been canvassed during the last few days of debate. Most notably, the Massey Tunnel replacement project, which many, many people in Richmond, in my riding, were looking forward to. We know there’s no money allocated towards this project in the budget. The official reason is that the B.C. NDP want to study it further. They want to study it further, despite the fact that there have already been five years of planning and consultations on this project, and three rounds of public engagement.

Then we find out that replacing this aging seismic safety risk, which is the worst traffic bottleneck in British Columbia, isn’t a priority at all for this government. There is an internal NDP document that’s proof that they have no intention of resolving this issue. The document, as has been referred to, is clear. It says: “Platform prep 2017. This is what bold looks like. We build the Vancouver and Surrey rapid transit projects, rapid buses across the North Shore from Port Coquitlam to Maple Ridge and through Vancouver along Hastings Street and 41st and 49th avenues. That is, we’ll implement the Mayors Council vision. We’ll pay for this, instead of replacing the Massey Tunnel.”

This is unacceptable to people in Richmond, south of the Fraser and surrounding areas, as 80,000 people get stuck in this traffic bottleneck every day. That includes commuters trying to get home to their families after a long workday and commercial truck drivers trying to get to the ferries, to the U.S. border or to local industrial parks, trying to get out goods to market. Instead, they’re sitting in traffic, idling — which isn’t ideal for our environment or for these drivers’ quality of life, when it takes them twice as long to do the things that they need to do.

The tunnel is also a huge seismic safety risk. Anything over a magnitude 7.0 would likely make the crossing unusable, for who knows how long, in an emergency situation. What about the hard-working men and women in emergency services, who are trying to rush people to hospital in Vancouver or Richmond, or the patients sitting in those ambulances waiting for care? All of these folks have been waiting for years for a solution, and their hopes have been dashed by this government. Not only that; they were misled into believing that a solution would be forthcoming. But this internal document shows that the NDP has been hiding its agenda and always planned to kill the project.

That’s unacceptable to families in my riding, who would rather spend time together, instead of having mom and dad stuck in traffic for far too long each day. I should note that the bridge project, which that side of the House is killing, would save rush hour commuters up to 30 minutes and would help move goods worth $25 billion a year more efficiently. As we know, Highway 99 is a key corridor for provincial and national economic development.

[4:05 p.m.]

Also missing from the NDP budget was any mention of Richmond Hospital. This is despite the fact that back in February, the member from Juan de Fuca and current Premier, along with some of his candidates, came to Richmond and publicly threw their support behind a new acute care tower for the hospital. So where is the support now?

Richmond Hospital has been serving our community tremendously well for 50 years, but the years have taken a toll. Upgrades and improvements are needed to ensure the highest quality of care for patients. The medical professionals, staff and volunteers, who do such a great job with what they’ve got, deserve access to the best tools and equipment possible to achieve that goal.

Those are the folks who this government has to answer to. They are the ones out fundraising, as we speak, for a new tower, because September, this month, is Community Cares Month, one of the Richmond Hospital Foundation’s most important fundraising drives. These are the people who heard the pledge made back in February and assumed it was genuine. Yet we see no mention of Richmond Hospital in the budget.

The funny thing — actually, I wouldn’t call it funny; it’s disappointing — was that the pledge was followed up with a news release where one of the NDP candidates actually chastised the previous government for giving the community a bridge instead of a hospital, referring, of course, to the George Massey Tunnel replacement project. Well today, the people of Richmond are being told they’re not getting either one. No hospital. No bridge.

I should note that the local community paper, the Richmond News, was also underwhelmed by the NDP budget, saying it “provided few additional details on how the government plans to improve life in Richmond.”

There are plenty of other promises made by the NDP that somehow didn’t make it into this budget, like $10-a-day daycare, a $400-a-year renter’s rebate, elimination of interest payments on student loans, $1,000 completion grant for college and university grads, $5 million to restore provincial parks and hire more conservation officers, $10 million in arts and culture funding, a rollback on ferry fares, a freeze on hydro rates — all that missing. Even their commitment of 114,000 units of housing over ten years doesn’t seem possible when you consider that this budget only mentions the 1,700 new units already announced in February’s budget, as well as 2,000 units of modular housing.

I guess promises really don’t mean much to the NDP, but they mean a lot to the people of Richmond and beyond.

It’s astounding to me that the NDP are hiking taxes to the tune of nearly $1 billion over the next three years when you consider all of these things have been left out of the budget. Even with a $2.7 billion surplus, a triple-A credit rating and the strongest provincial economy in the country, this Finance Minister no longer has any more room for spending following her September budget update.

If they do intend to keep these promises, how will they pay for them? Will further tax increases be forthcoming? That’s a question that a lot of British Columbians are asking, and I don’t think many of them will be pleased to see these tax increases.

Organizations like the Fraser Institute are already expressing concerns. They said: “Many of the new tax policy changes will undermine B.C.’s attractiveness as a place for investment, entrepreneurship and top talent.” The Fraser Institute continues: “Put simply, the personal income tax hike will make B.C. less competitive for attracting and retaining highly skilled workers such as entrepreneurs, business professionals, engineers and scientists, as the evidence shows higher tax rates play a role in the decision-making of high-skilled workers on where to live and work.”

Indeed, these measures chip away at B.C.’s competitive advantage. We have to wonder why the NDP is moving in this direction, given the enviable financial position B.C. has been in for some time.

Why do we need to hike corporate tax from 11 percent to 12 percent or raise the personal income tax rate for individuals earning over $150,000 from 14.7 to 16.8 percent? Or remove the revenue-neutrality requirement for the carbon tax that will leave British Columbians on the hook for steep increases at the gas pump and higher heating bills for their home.

[4:10 p.m.]

Even eliminating the children’s arts and fitness tax credits…. Why is this all necessary, given that the NDP has inherited the number one economy in Canada, with GDP growth last year of 3.7 percent; five consecutive balanced budgets; a healthy $2.7 billion budget surplus; a triple-A credit rating, which helps B.C. enjoy a lower cost of borrowing than most other provinces in Canada; record employment — among the lowest unemployment rate in Canada; and more than 250,000 jobs added since the B.C. jobs plan was put in place? Maybe it’s because they have no real plan to grow jobs and the economy to pay for all of their expensive promises.

It appears half the balance sheet is missing. The budget the NDP has put forward reveals numerous items on the expense side, but nothing on the side of revenue to help pay for it all. That is a huge concern to me, to the people of British Columbia and to the people of my riding. It means that our positive financial position is in danger of being eroded, and that will send a signal to the rest of the world that B.C. is closed for business.

We know that international investors value governments that are stable and have their fiscal house in order. Balanced budgets make it possible to keep taxes low, which is also attractive to investors and generates even more economic activity. Furthermore, businesses will attract the best talent if employees pay less income tax. On the flip side, governments that pile on huge deficits and burden future generations with mountains of debt are definitely not seen as desirable places to invest.

We see further warnings about the NDP’s budget from credit rating agency DBRS, Dominion Bond Rating Services: “At this time, British Columbia continues to have one of the strongest credit profiles of Canadian provinces and is not at immediate risk of a negative rating action. However, this fiscal policy direction reduces flexibility within the credit profile and suggests that social and programmatic considerations are likely to trump deficit reduction if the province’s fiscal plan is challenged by an economic correction.”

Another concern from DBRS: “The current fiscal plan suggests the province’s DBRS-adjusted debt burden will rise slightly to 17.9 percent of GDP this year, up from 17.6 percent as of March 31, 2017, which is consistent with the double-A-high rating.” One final caution from DBRS: “While the NDP’s platform committed to maintaining balanced budgets, the government may be challenged to do so, given the extent of its policy commitments. DBRS believes that the province may require further revenue measures to fund its ambitious social agenda.” Further revenue measures. That’s code for tax increases, as we all know. We have to ask, where is all this money going to come from without a concrete plan to grow jobs and the economy?

On the subject of jobs, there are thousands of them at risk because of the choices of this government. Earlier, I talked about the George Massey Tunnel replacement project. The cancellation of that project by the NDP will be a loss of 9,000 construction jobs and 4,500 to 5,000 additional permanent jobs to be created by 2045 through increased economic growth driven by that project. We have 2,600 workers at the Site C dam who are worried for their future and 10,000 construction jobs also on the line with that project. As the government takes legal action to stop Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project, thousands of those jobs are at risk there too.

Not only is the NDP creating uncertainty for international investors, it’s creating worry and fear here at home as well. These are good-paying jobs that put food on the table for thousands of families. We want to keep people here, not send them out of province to look for work, as is what happened in the 1990s when the NDP were in government; 50,000 of them left British Columbia, in fact, in that time. That’s because B.C. in the ’90s was last in Canada for private sector investment and dead last in job creation.

[4:15 p.m.]

Unemployment during that dismal decade peaked at 10 percent in 1992 and remained above 8 percent until the year 2000. For every new mine that opened, two closed. Mineral exploration virtually disappeared, resulting in 5,000 job losses. And in the 1990s, under the NDP, B.C. saw eight deficit budgets and six consecutive credit downgrades. We had the highest income taxes in Canada and, as has been referred to by some of my colleagues, B.C. became a have-not province.

Do we want a repeat of all that here in B.C.? Certainly not. That’s why it’s imperative that this government have a plan in place to grow our economy, because we don’t want a province that nobody wants to invest in and where no one is working. My fear is that the new government is just a repackaged version of the same old NDP. Promise everything under the sun in order to win votes, but then completely fall flat when it comes to not only fulfilling those promises but finding responsible ways to pay for those promises.

The people of British Columbia, in every corner of this province, work hard to provide for themselves and for their families. They deserve access to the best services, like world-class health care and education, convenient and safe transportation options, access for opportunities and the ability to have a good-paying, stable job. What they don’t deserve is to have poor planning and poor fiscal management eliminate the ability for them to provide for themselves and their families.

I sincerely hope that before the NDP unveil their February budget, they do some serious thinking about the power and influence they now have in people’s lives here in British Columbia. Raising taxes and driving away investment is not what the people of British Columbia voted for, and I hope the members on that side remember that.

M. Dean: I would like to acknowledge that we’re here today on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples of the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations. I also want to acknowledge their commitment and that of the new NDP government to implementing the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. I also want to thank elders in my community for their guidance and their blessings, especially Shirley Alphonse.

This is my first speech here in the Legislature, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me in my journey getting here. My daughter — she’s my inspiration, and I really appreciate her tolerance of my work and my calling, as it takes me away from home on this really important business. Of course, I also really appreciate my husband, her dad, who takes care of her and who also teaches her full-time and is, in general, a super dad.

I’m really humbled to be here today and to be able to honour the work of my predecessors, who have worked so hard on behalf of our community and who’ve set the standard and the legacy for me to step up and step into today.

Frank Mitchell, Moe Sihota and Maurine Karagianis worked tirelessly on behalf of British Columbians over decades. I know that they’re watching the work of our current government with pride and celebration and appreciation for the work that has been achieved in just two months. I’m indebted to them, and I want to acknowledge my deep appreciation for their mentorship and their friendship.

I admire the integrity, determination and expertise of our Premier, Minister of Finance, cabinet and caucus that have brought us to this milestone with such success already and built on the work of all our colleagues for decades.

I’m also truly indebted to my team of support who have worked with devotion to our community and helped to make sure that we had a successful and smooth transition: Jayne Ducker, Lawrence Herzog, Andrew Barrett, Mo Mitchell-Starkey, Rob Hill, and the list goes on. And we have a community of wonderful volunteers whose support is invaluable and profoundly appreciated.

[4:20 p.m.]

This is a wonderful opportunity for me to say thank you to my community, who have sent me to this position, and in my duty, I will serve everyone in our community to the very best of my ability.

I want to sincerely acknowledge the First Peoples and traditional territories in my constituency, including the Esquimalt, Songhees, Scia’new and T’Sou-ke First Nations, and my appreciation for their partnership, which has already been demonstrated. It’s very important to me that our new government will be demonstrating our commitment to the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples and fulfilling our duties in the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Already, in this budget update, we’re investing in programs to reduce inequality and structural disadvantage, and we will build on our commitments. I’m proud to take my place in the Legislature and to respond to this budget update. In the short time I have here today, I’m going to highlight some of the measures in the update that really help the people that I represent in Esquimalt-Metchosin.

People in the community, across the region and, indeed, in this province will know that I have been advocating for our community for many, many years. Having lived here and served our community for over a decade, I’ve observed significant hardship and a very concerning trend that has been increasing over time, particularly the last 16 years.

I’ve seen huge growth in our community, yet at the same time, there have been cuts in services. I’ve seen how issues in the community have become more complex, have needed more timely intervention and more intense responses, rather than improve. To put it bluntly, I’ve seen too many preventable tragedies in the community, and I’ve read too many critical reviews that teach us the same lessons that need to be learned. These issues are the result of choices and policy decisions made by the previous B.C. Liberal government.

Well, now we’re in the position of a new government that is making fresh decisions and holds a different standard in relation to British Columbians. This government is here to serve the people of British Columbia — all the people of British Columbia — and this budget update is an important first step in delivering this pledge to the people of British Columbia. I have so much admiration for our Finance Minister, who has in such a short time pulled together a budget update that is starting at last to reflect the priorities of all British Columbians. I absolutely support this balanced budget update and its commitment and dedication to the people of British Columbia.

This is a vitally important update for my community and the people who have been caught in the affordability crisis and struggle to access services that they need. After 16 years of bad choices and neglect, resulting in cutbacks and skyrocketing costs, my constituents in Esquimalt-Metchosin are in urgent need of help. This budget update will make life more affordable, improve the services my constituents count on, build the economy and help make their lives better.

At the top of the list of needs in my community is housing. I’m pleased to see that this budget update addresses that in a substantive way. Construction of new units of affordable rental housing and modular supportive housing units are fantastic announcements that will help in so many ways. We need to increase the capacity and the stock of housing options for families so they can find the home they need.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that a single mom of three was asking for help, as her home had been sold and she’d been given an eviction notice. She’s a self-determined woman who had proudly cared for her children alone for years. She only came for help as a last resort after she had exhausted all options, ending with the culmination of an open house for a rental option which 17 other families were viewing. She left without hope. Well, now the plans of the new government give her and her children hope.

We know the housing crisis affects everyone, and especially the most vulnerable. Everyone needs housing and shelter that is not only affordable; it must also be secure, safe and stable. My constituency includes a large number of rental properties, and I’ve been hearing from the community for a long time that the situation has reached a crisis of skyrocketing rents and unprotected renovictions.

[4:25 p.m.]

People reach out to my office, anxious that their mobile home or rental unit or whatever shelter is going to be taken away from them. There are plans across my constituency of developers knocking down units to build more modern units in increased numbers but displacing so many low-income people — seniors, single parents and families.

The addition of units in our communities will help alleviate the pressures renters and families are facing by adding more available, affordable, supportive rental units. We will also close loopholes that put renters at risk and address this with urgency, with investment in the residential tenancy branch. This will help to tackle the backlog of casework that has been building and ensure that there will be a more immediate response. I am proud to stand with a government that is getting started on a comprehensive plan to make housing more affordable for people and to close speculation loopholes. These are initiatives that will begin to address some of the extreme pressure points in our housing sector.

Along with measures to address housing needs, our government is turning its attention to poverty reduction. For years, I’ve been hearing and observing directly how the impact of the policies of the B.C. Liberals of increasing hydro rates and MSP premiums has caused hardship for families. I have seen increased use of food banks, bus pass programs and clothing exchanges.

I joined up with local teachers and community members to work with the local food bank to increase access to their services. Teachers led this work because they were so concerned about the increasing number of children and youth coming to school hungry every day. It was over five years ago that a youth in the community told me about many other youth and friends that she knew who were sleeping rough in our community. This situation has not improved.

I chose to move here. I sacrificed my life in the U.K. to come here to B.C. I very quickly learned about the child poverty rate and was so disappointed. I have been continuously disappointed to see a lack of progress in all of the dozen years that I have lived here. So I am very proud to see a commitment to a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy for B.C., which is long overdue, by our new government.

The new government has already started with some measures to address poverty, such as the increase in social assistance rates and an increase in the earnings allowance for people with disabilities. Our new government took quick action that directly affects the lives of many vulnerable people and the poverty trap people get caught in. I know these measures, straight away, not only start to lift individuals out of poverty; they also demonstrate the importance of making sure that people live with dignity and that their self-determination is respected.

People with disabilities in my community tell me the earnings allowance is very important to them, that they want to be able to help improve their own lives and lift themselves out of poverty. It is the commitment of this government and our Finance Minister to the quality of life and to putting people first that underpins this budget update.

It is not only the need to address the gap of no increases over the past ten years. For example, my constituents have been facing the burden of ever-increasing MSP premiums for years. They are very pleased to see a significant cut in MSP premiums, by half. That will save families up to $900 a year. And there’s more to be done.

Yes, to help pay for the new spending, our government has chosen a path that is fair. We are asking people at the very top to pay a little more. Top income earners received a tax break under the previous government. We’re reversing that decision, and those earners will pay an additional 2.1 percent on income over $150,000. It’s fair that everybody should pay their share.

We’re increasing corporate taxes by a modest 1 percent, keeping us competitive with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. At the same time, I know that small businesses are vital to the economic well-being in my community. I’m particularly pleased to see a reduction in the small business tax rate, from 2.5 percent to 2 percent. Small businesses, like others, will benefit also from the removal of the provincial sales tax on electricity. It will help B.C. businesses compete, while also encouraging a transition to low-carbon energy sources, like electricity.

[4:30 p.m.]

My constituency is full of small businesses, family-run businesses, unique and antique. We have modern businesses, innovative businesses, nationally exclusive businesses. We have century-old businesses and home businesses. A rich and diverse range of thriving businesses. They want to be not only competitive but also environmentally sound and sustainable for the long term.

These measures support them in their efforts to make a living, a contribution to the economy, and to take care of their families. The budget update supports our plan for building a sustainable economy with family-supporting jobs — jobs that are sustainable and in communities, not camps.

We need to look to the future, and I’m really excited to see the creation of an innovation commission that will be both an advocate and an ambassador for B.C.’s tech sector. Greater Victoria is a tech hub, and these are the jobs of today and tomorrow — good-paying, family-supporting, low-carbon-footprint jobs that are sustainable now and into the future.

The emerging economy task force will be focused on developing made-in-B.C. solutions. It will look at how government can encourage innovative and sustainable industries to drive economic growth in B.C. in the 21st century. These are very important initiatives for my community and for the jobs of tomorrow.

Some other measures in this update also impact our community for the future, such as the $20 million in new child care investments that will increase our spending on early childhood development and child care to $330 million this year. This additional funding will support 4,000 new badly needed child care spaces provincewide.

This has been an ever-growing need in my constituency. Esquimalt-Metchosin is a very fast-growing community, and we’re seeing a lot of new families right across our constituency, particularly in West Shore, and in our school districts.

Schools are facing pressures of increasing enrolment, so I’m really pleased to see our government adding $681 million over the next three years to help our kids get the education they deserve with smaller class sizes, more resources and the supports that they need to succeed. This is an investment in our future. We have to turn around the legacy of 16 years of lack of investment in our education system.

I attended the high school graduation of Esquimalt High in the summer. Those students had graduated from a schooling system that had been underfunded since their first day in grade 1. These students and graduates are our future. They will build our economy and society, and they deserve the best education system.

All the demand means that we need more teachers, and the funding is being provided to hire over 3,000 teachers. On the facilities side, capital funding of $50 million will help improve schools, create safer learning environments and provide additional spaces for children and staff.

We have one of the fastest-growing school districts in our community of Esquimalt-Metchosin, and I hear regularly from students and parents that they want good quality classrooms so they can get the best education and fulfil their potential. In spite of having a new high school built, Royal Bay, it had portables on site the day that it opened. The plans of our new government to invest in the capital needed in our education system will reduce portables and ensure that we’re planning effectively for the future for our children.

I’m also very pleased to see additional funding to our health care system to alleviate some of the pressure points being felt in our hospitals and clinics. Victoria General Hospital is in my constituency, and I know that the nurses, doctors, diagnostic technicians and support staff do an amazing job with the resources they are provided. However, I also hear continuously of the concerns about long wait-lists and lack of access to GPs.

A young dad with his daughter needed medical attention and went to the closest walk-in clinic last winter. There, he was told that it was closing, and he had to go to another one further down the road. He got there, and that second clinic said they could take no more clients that day and referred him to a third clinic, where he waited for four hours for treatment.

[4:35 p.m.]

He said to me: “However you do it, just make sure we don’t have to suffer like that again.” Well, the plans of our new government are a response to his hope and expectation that his government will be helping him and his family and building a responsive health care system.

Of course, there is another tragedy in our health care system, and I’m proud to say the budget update of our Finance Minister is tackling that. My community, like many others in the province, is struggling with pressures brought by opioids and addiction. Indeed, some areas of my community suffer from a disproportionate pro rata rate of deaths from overdoses, tragedies of individuals using drugs alone and not getting help when they have overdosed.

I’m grateful that our government is getting to work on the fentanyl emergency, with $265 million allocated to provide much-needed supports and services. These would be across the spectrum of need from immediate interventions, crisis management and recovery to prevention and early support. This is desperately needed in my community after years of cuts in services and a lack of investment in our rapidly growing community.

The wait time for child and youth mental health services in West Shore is 12 months. Not only do families tell me they won’t bother referring, neither do the local professionals, so youth have been falling through the cracks. This system creates preventable tragedies. The commitment of $25 million to the new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions shows the commitment of the new government to these youth in need in my community.

By creating a new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, our government will be better able to provide the strategic leadership to develop a coordinated mental health and addiction system. I have confidence that this plan will address the service gaps and needs in communities across B.C. Vulnerable people in my community will not fall through the cracks in the future and will receive services they need when they need them. As the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions says: “Ask once; get help fast.”

I remember a young woman from my constituency who suffered through her childhood. As an early teen, her mom was killed by her dad who then killed himself. In spite of being a victim of such tragedy, she nevertheless built her life with resilience. She stood up against domestic violence. She resisted drugs. Eventually she took her one daughter with her to live on her own. As a young adult and a single mom, she recognized she needed some support. She needed help to recover. She approached a local counselling agency. She was entitled to counselling paid for by the province. She was ready to attend counselling sessions. She would organize her life to fit in around this.

She was ready for the journey of healing from her trauma, yet she could not find resources. Her community had experienced such cutbacks that local counselling services had not been able to survive. Those who had were under such demand that their wait-lists were so long it was not even ethical to take her details. This young woman needed counselling in that moment, and there were no services available.

Well now, she is hopeful. She’s hopeful that there will be investment in services that promote the health and well-being of people like herself and will enable people like her to achieve her potential as an individual, to keep her job and to be the best mom she wants to be.

This budget update takes critical first steps to build a better B.C. It starts by investing in people. Choosing to invest in people means we’re investing in a strong, sustainable British Columbia. We’re putting people first by improving the services they need and making their lives more affordable.

As the Premier has been saying: “Help is on the way.” I’m proud to support this budget update.

[4:40 p.m.]

J. Isaacs: It’s an honour and a privilege to rise in the House today to represent the constituents of Coquitlam–Burke Mountain. Rising today is something I don’t take for granted. It’s a responsibility afforded to me by my constituents — constituents who, throughout many months of door-knocking during the last election, I got to know very well. I want to thank them for expressing their views in an honest and constructive way.

Before I begin speaking about the budget, I’d like to thank my new legislative team here in Victoria: Elishia, my legislative assistant; Dion, my research officer; and Sean, my communications officer. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Linda Matthews, my constituency assistant, who, along with her family, have done and continue to do amazing work within the riding. All of these staff members are invaluable to the work we do as MLAs, and I’m grateful for all their effort and dedication on my behalf and on behalf of my constituents.

I’d also like to thank my family and my husband, Joe, in particular, and my two sons, Josey and Justin, for their support and encouragement.

I’d like to also congratulate the Minister of Finance for her appointment. I’m sure she realizes the importance of her position and the responsibility she has to all British Columbians. The gravity that her decisions will have on our province stretches far beyond the short term and will have serious implications for British Columbians today and for generations to come.

Coquitlam–Burke Mountain is a special place within this province, filled with long-time residents, many new families and a mix of culture, diversity and sports. Coquitlam celebrates this diversity through festivals and tournaments that enrich this community and expose us to new traditions and perspectives and allow us to cheer on our favourite home teams.

The riding has grown a lot in the last few years, in both size and stature, and our sense of community has also grown. In fact, this year Coquitlam also celebrated the 125th anniversary of the city itself, in concert with Canada’s 150th year. Thanks, in part, to the previous government, the people of Coquitlam now have the option of getting out of their vehicles and riding the SkyTrain to work or to events around Metro Vancouver. Ridership has surpassed over 30,000 riders per day.

Local businesses and community events are also seeing the benefits of the Evergreen Line, as it provides a new connection into Coquitlam, bringing new opportunities for economic development and growth in our city. Canada Day at Lafarge Lake, for example, continues to attract more people from outside of Coquitlam each year.

Home is where I can walk to local restaurants like Urban Gate grill to purchase the most delicious Iranian food and then walk down the block to Legend House to enjoy northern Chinese and dim sum. There are many more restaurants and specialty shops that Coquitlam enjoys — and as we can see, continued growth. It’s for these reasons, and for many more, that I am thankful that I can call Coquitlam home for the past 33 years.

As I said, one of Coquitlam’s strengths is its diversity. As I get more opportunities to interact with my constituents, I realize that their concerns are equally as diverse. Many of the young adults, parents and grandparents that I met are concerned about jobs. They’re concerned about housing affordability, education, health and senior care and daycare. Others were worried about transit and the rising cost of living. A lot of new immigrants to our riding are concerned over the availability of services that would provide them opportunities to give their children a head start.

I listened to personal stories from business hopefuls, who are worried about job insecurity and are looking for a government that will work to support them in their business ventures — business people who have taken on real business risks, such as signing a rental lease for the space that they need to conduct business, paying the utilities every month.

Heat and electricity cost money. Investing in inventory — these are the items that they need to sell in order to assure success in their business. The human resources costs, the money that has to be generated each and every month to meet payroll obligations and taxes — not to mention additional costs, such as professional fees, business licences, permits and insurance.

[4:45 p.m.]

There are real costs to running a business. Whether you’re creating a job for yourself or you’re creating a job for someone else, it will cost you money to start a business, and it will cost you money to manage the growth of a business.

For almost every employee hired, there is a family standing behind that family that is relying on that business to make sure there is no interruption to their paycheque.

So 85 percent of businesses in B.C. are small businesses. Many of them have put in a lot of hours and taken on a lot of financial risks. At the end of the day, there is often not a huge margin of profit. Sometimes, there are even losses.

It’s not just the business owners who are worried. It’s also the employees of the business. I hear this concern a lot. Employees that have finally saved enough money for a house have been out house shopping, and after weeks of searching and working with their mortgage lenders, they have found just the right place that they can afford, just the right place for them to raise their family. Now they’re uncertain.

Their uneasiness is apparent in their line of questioning. Is it the right time to buy a house, or should we wait? Should we go ahead with the mortgage, or should we wait? Should we put the kids in hockey school or wait? Should we buy a second car or wait? Should I start my own business that I’ve always wanted to start, or should I wait?

My constituents understand the importance their vote made in the past election. Many were hopeful that their vote would help give clarity to their concerns and questions and allow them to move forward in making personal and business decisions.

My constituents knew that their futures would not be best represented and their hopes and dreams would not be achieved by the next government taking on more debt. They knew that passing on costs to future generations was not a prudent response to their worries. They knew from their own experience that taking on additional and unnecessary debt was not a path that they wanted to go down. So when I see the current government taking this very approach, it astounds me, and it astounds many of my constituents.

This government’s response, by way of the budget update, to the questions my constituents are posting is creating even more uncertainty. As someone coming from the financial sector, it’s hard for me to support a budget that poses so many risks to business owners and their livelihoods.

People start businesses — whether it’s a restaurant, a barbershop, a small boutique or a home-based business — so they can begin to build equity. They do it in order to create a livelihood for themselves and their family and, as many successful business owners will tell you, to give back. They don’t start a business with the intention to go bankrupt, and they don’t start a business as their way of giving money to the government to spend recklessly.

There are many successful companies in my riding and all around the province in which individuals have created wealth and equity. This is no easy task. Many start-up business owners can expect hard work and sacrifice — hours upon hours, often seven days a week — time away from their families and loved ones and no sight of any holidays. When they finally achieve success, the first thing many business owners will do is pay their success forward and give back. They give back voluntarily by supporting the work of charities and non-profit organizations in their communities.

I know many businesses in my community that sponsor almost every single gala. They support non-profit events, the food bank, sports teams and students that are raising funds for a field trip. They support our community, and their monetary contribution allows these groups to put on those galas and those events so they can raise money for their cause — to help sports teams, fund the tournaments and provide the opportunity for students to get to their field trips. They step up time after time.

It begs the question: why is this government not standing up for them? Why isn’t this government stepping up for business owners who have taken on the business risks? I have to point out that I’m not just referring to new businesses.

[4:50 p.m.]

There are many business risks that established businesses also face. They have to plan on how the emerging economy will change the way they’re doing business, and some will be at risk. If you are not moving forward, you are moving backwards. Successful business owners are well aware that there are inherent costs to move their business forward, and they have to make sure that they remain competitive in an ever-changing environment.

I know from my experience that the reason for the many success stories throughout our province is due to strong fiscal planning. When starting one’s business or finding a business to be a part of, one must create a plan and analyze all the risks. One must give consideration to the costs of inputs and the return of investment. This is a crucial first step.

One needs to calculate inventory costs, permits and salaries, and any prudent business person knows they need to analyze indicators — the current economic outlook, the projected growth trends, industry-specific forecasts, regulation and policy, domestic and global opportunities, potential increase in interest rates and tax hikes, trade markets. They have to project where these markets are headed in one year, three years and five years. It’s from this point that one can decipher which factors and potential indicators will impact their business.

Established businesses need to be able to foresee changes in the market that may change the way they do business in the future, like technological and sustainability practices. The outcome from these analyses will tell the business planner to be prudent in certain areas and how to best maximize the desired outcome. It can alert them to the types of risks or sacrifices that they will need to take in order to realize their goals. Where will the revenue come from? How can the expenses be controlled?

But as economies cycle up and down, surprises will come. Trade relations may sour. Natural events like the wildfires that we have unfortunately borne witness to throughout the province this summer may rip through and devastate our cities and towns — and all without warning. We have been told, and we are awaiting both a 100-year flood and a potential earthquake, and we know wildfires will become more commonplace.

Industries and businesses face unexpected risks because of external factors that are beyond their control, and there are many challenges that will be out of our control. There may be a change in interest rates and taxes. Both will incur negative consequences. It’s more important now than ever that our government foster entrepreneurship and champion small businesses. I look at the growth in my own riding of Coquitlam, and I can see that it is due, in no small part, to the many small businesses that are now thriving there.

This government needs to continue to provide the necessary economic conditions that will allow business to continue to flourish. That is why it is great to see that the budget includes a reduction in taxes to small businesses. Despite this tax cut being introduced in our February budget earlier this year, we applaud the minister for her decision to maintain this cut in this current budget. This cut leaves more money in the pockets of entrepreneurs, and it gives them more peace of mind and the ability to worry less.

Part of the budget in February included cutting PST on electricity, and I am pleased to see that this was enacted in the new budget also. However, the future is, unfortunately, not all rosy. We know that the costs for other inputs will be going up significantly, not least of which will be the additional $5 per 30 tonnes of non-revenue-neutral carbon tax, which will excessively raise the price at the pumps and the cost to heat our homes and our businesses.

People are now going to be paying up to nearly seven cents extra per litre of fuel. Fuel is a constant for many businesses and, of course, many residents. I had this conversation many times at the door, and people were worried that these extra costs will impact their day-to-day activities.

[4:55 p.m.]

If a business is successful, like every business hopes to be, it gets penalized for its success. With this budget’s corporate tax increase, every dollar over $500,000 is taxed at 12 percent. Many businesses are operating at very low profit margins, and any tax increase will have an impact on the business.

When eliminating bridge tolls leads to an immediate credit warning by Moody’s and jeopardizes the triple-A credit rating that B.C. has rightly earned over the years, there is an impact. Investments are harder to garner, as investors begin to steer clear and wait to see what happens.

What this budget does more than anything else is to create uncertainty. It adds more potential for risk. I can tell you that the more variables and the more assumptions that are relied on, the less viable the plan. Uncertainty is not a friend of the young entrepreneur or the aspiring tradesperson.

This budget squanders a $2.7 billion surplus without providing any confidence. The Auditor General confirmed that under this plan, employment growth will see just a 1 percent increase, though just six months ago, with the previous budget, employment growth was projected at 3 percent. Six months ago the Auditor General also confirmed a 3.7 percent increase with the budget devised in February. Now it’s barely expected to rise above 2 percent.

This budget increases spending without attracting investment or ensuring future growth. The George Massey Tunnel replacement project has been cancelled for what can only be described as politically driven negligence. We have uncertainty over Site C and the 2,200-plus workers who have been put in limbo. And the 10,000 more jobs that are set to be created doing construction will now also have to wait.

We also know why the Pacific Northwest LNG project in Prince Rupert was cancelled: uncertainty. A member stood up last week and criticized the previous government for having too many project announcements. But which announcements have we seen from this government that would give anyone in this province a reason for confidence?

Yet today the Minister of Finance is the envy of many throughout this country. She and her government have inherited the best-performing economy in the country, a fact that was confirmed by the current Finance Minister. Five consecutive balanced budgets. Triple-A credit rating, the only province other than Saskatchewan to enjoy this rank. More importantly, a solid plan to keep taxes low, to attract investment, to grow the economy and to create jobs. A plan that created an environment that people could rely on, where businesses could thrive and British Columbians would profit.

Instead, despite all of the benefits this government inherited, this budget confirmed our worst fears — that the NDP would replace stability with uncertainty. The fears will intensify, and the hard workers of our province that this government claims to represent are being given the short end of the stick. They have to sit on the sidelines and wait.

I worry about lost opportunities, the loss of economic immigration to B.C. — people who came here for the opportunity to work and succeed. I worry about the lost opportunities for young people who were on their way to build their careers — buying their first homes and planning their families. Instead, they now have to worry that their hopes and their dreams will have to wait. The economic prospects were bright here on the west coast, and the government had created an environment that fostered ambition, whether it was in the tech industry, trades or film, or the dream of owning your own business and one day giving back.

[5:00 p.m.]

The reason I have the opportunity to stand before you today is owed to the trust vested in me by the constituents of Coquitlam–Burke Mountain. I have been given a mandate to hold this government to account and to ensure that the best interests of all British Columbians are represented. I will stand for young people, parents and grandparents and businesses large and small. I will stand for a better future for all British Columbians.

[L. Reid in the chair.]

R. Leonard: Hon. Speaker — and I get to say that whether it’s a man or a woman Speaker — it’s a great privilege for me to stand here today in support of the Minister of Finance’s first budget update that puts people first, investing in people over special interests and the top 2 percent for the first time in over 16 years.

Speaking of people first, I’d like to first take the opportunity to thank the people in my life who are truly the reason that I am standing here today. First, to my husband of nearly 40 years. Ron helped toughen me up to face the harsh realities of living a very public life. He has never stopped believing that I could be the change that I wish to see in the world, and he continues to take such good care of me as I travel this path.

To my children, whose entry into this world put the fire in my belly to move from supporting those who seek change to taking up the charge myself, to make change so that the next generation would be left a better world. I could not have continued this journey without their unwavering support. I’d know I’d be on the wrong path, and they’d let me know.

Although my parents and most of my family elders are no longer in this world, I want to acknowledge that they instilled in me a sense of purpose to work for the common good, to create a just and caring world that nurtures body and soul and which sustains all living things.

I would also like to acknowledge some special friends, sisters in spirit as well as brothers, who through many, many decades have propped me up, sharpened my ability to take a position and defend it, sometimes over drinks, and who, above all, believed in me. At the risk of missing names, I can’t miss this opportunity to express my gratitude to some of the most important people in my life: Jane Smith, Mary Sutherland, Ian Mass, Lynn Van Meer, Barbara Price and Carol Neufeld.

Sorry. I’m getting a little emotional here. It’s important to have good friends.

There are many mentors whom I’ve had the privilege of knowing and learning so much from — mentors and heroes all. Most of them…. Well, all of the ones I’m going to mention have passed, but they will never be forgotten, strong women and the occasional man. Ken Stoker, Melda Buchanan, Karen Sanford, Thelma Oliver and Gwyn Frayne — all local people that I have come to know in the Comox Valley. And, of course, Jack Layton.

Earlier in this debate, the Minister of Health quoted from my favourite Tennyson poem, “Ulysses.” I beg forgiveness for not listing all of my benefactors, and I trust that my gratitude is summed up in this one short line from that poem: “I am a part of all that I have met.” Thank you to all who have touched my life. You’ve made a lasting impression.

I did say that it is a privilege to be representing Courtenay-Comox here today. This election has certainly been one for the books. I want to acknowledge the commitment and the hard work of the Conservative, the Green and the Liberal candidates on their robust campaigns, which helped make us all the best that we could be. We are a diverse community in Courtenay-Comox. Our needs are as varied as our opinions, and that has shown through, right through to today.

[5:05 p.m.]

After a 28-day campaign, which we all went through, the final hours of the vote count seemed endless. On May 9, I was ahead by nine votes. Yes. Some people called me Landslide Leonard. I moved from cloud nine to lucky 13 when the recount was finished, and by the end of the long-awaited absentee ballot count, right down to nearly the last minute, I became the 41st NDP MLA, to help form this 41st government of British Columbia.

My election was of the variety that makes very real our democracy, proving to the electorate that every vote counts. You have no idea how many people have come up to me and said: “I was one of the nine.” I thank you, all the voters, who had faith in me, faith in our platform and faith in our leader.

I’m eternally grateful to all the faithful friends I’ve gathered along the way — the supporters who worked the campaign, those who contributed to the election fund and those who brought their creativity, skills and talent to the effort to bring in a government that will put people first and end 16 years of bad choices and neglect.

I have thanked my family and lifelong friends and mentors. I can’t miss giving a huge shout-out to the men and women who have long held the shared values of the B.C. NDP and served on the local constituency association through thick and thin. They’re the true champions in this election triumph. There is no end of daily tasks to keep a vision alive, and their dedication has been monumental. Their commitment to the new way of doing government is worth noting every day.

As we move forward, transitioning to a democracy that better reflects the will of the people, we start with a minority government, working with respect across party lines. This is alien territory in B.C., but we are committed to finding areas of common ground, to provide government that better reflects the diversity of this great province.

Before the electoral boundaries were changed for this election, my community was the Comox Valley. A lot of people were unhappy with the artificial boundary split of our community. However, there’s always a silver lining, and today our valley is served by two MLAs in the seat of government. I know it was the hard work of the campaign and our message of putting people first that helped overcome the odds in Courtenay-Comox. We also now have the benefit of the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation as a welcome addition to the political landscape of our little patch of Vancouver Island.

I want to give thanks today to my support staff back home, Leanne Rathje and Tasha Page, who are amazing as they serve our community with great heart and ability. They, too, have been well supported by more seasoned assistants to wend their way through the host of agencies and programs that touch the lives of our constituents.

I’d like to take a moment to share one very important motivation for me to pick up the gauntlet, as I said earlier, to be the change I wish to see in the world. We are being subjected to the ugly face of racism, in frightening ways, these days. It started south of the border, and we have seen that being Canadian provides no immunity to the incitement to hate.

I’ve been inspired by the life and work of our own Rosemary Brown, who was an MLA here in the Legislature. If you wander through the halls, you’ll see photographs and pictures of her. Of course, she was known for her own brand of fierce feminism, and she was also fearless in articulating the particular Canadian brand of racism that she experienced. She famously said, “To be black and female, in a society which is both racist and sexist, is to be in a unique position of having nowhere to go but up,” and 40 years later, the need to rise up is urgent.

That’s why I’m proud that we have taken the first steps to constitute, once again, a Human Rights Commission. We need to create an atmosphere of welcoming and inclusion. We need to face our intolerances and condemn violence in language and in deed. We truly need to become the society that we would like to be.

[5:10 p.m.]

We know, too, that we face the history of our treatment of First Nations and the mandate that has been put before every minister — to work towards the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations, to adopt and implement the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous people, the need for us to move forward and work on the inquiry for murdered and missing Indigenous women. These are just the first steps of creating a better society, the one that I want to leave to my children.

A budget update in an election year, such as this, is challenging, and I’m encouraged by the quick action that the Minister of Finance has taken to build on the budget set in February and to take the first steps in a new direction to put people first in all that we do.

The 16-year mantra of the previous government rang hollow to voters. They’d been living too long with deficient education funding, a lack of affordable child care, a stagnant minimum wage and income and disability assistance program, and service cuts — an affordability gap created by the choices of a government that was blind to the hurt that it was causing. These were the harsh realities, as well as a lack of focus to adequately address climate change or to grow sustainable communities throughout B.C., that brought us to today’s new direction.

It has been hard to witness the loss of hope of younger generations as they have been doomed to a bleak tomorrow, falling far short of the prosperity of their parents and grandparents, as the Liberals’ old way of doing business left them behind. I’m excited to be a part of the new era of hope and aspiration that has come with our new government.

I was most grateful to the Minister of Finance for drawing immediate attention to the challenges from the wildfires that have been all-consuming in community after community in the interior of B.C. and in fighting the wildfires to the tune, so far, of $600 million. It is a critical expenditure because, as the minister said, in these tough times, British Columbians and their government stand with their communities and with their neighbours.

The grief over devastating loss is very real. I’d like to acknowledge the tears shed as community after community hit by the fires was named for the record. I even understand the desire to lash out in the face of feeling helpless against this monster force of nature. I wish to turn our minds, though, to the fact that while property losses and habitat have been devastating, thankfully not one British Columbian’s life has been lost. The value of the professionalism and expertise of emergency management B.C. cannot be overstated.

As well, the Minister of Finance reiterated the broad support that was found in February for a small gesture of gratitude: a $3,000 non-refundable tax credit to acknowledge the bravery and dedication of volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers, numbering more than 1,600 today. People need to have faith in those who serve and protect, including those who will be tackling future wildfires. It is our job to support the infrastructure that is relied on to do the best job possible, and it is important that the public has confidence in the system, to know that our communities will come back after a wildfire has ravaged the landscape.

That’s why we need to support the minister’s plan for a capital investment to upgrade wildfire infrastructure and invest in protecting communities with wildfire risk reduction, reforestation and wildlife habitat restoration. Building homes in the aftermath of the wildfires is one challenge, but we also have another long emergency that we can no longer ignore — the crisis that has been with us for years, and it continues to grow. It is the emergency of affordable housing. In times of plenty, the previous governments squirrelled away revenues rather than investing in affordable housing and creating a British Columbia that works for everyone.

[5:15 p.m.]

As the years of neglect rolled on, the crisis has grown. I’m proud that the Minister of Finance has put forward a plan to begin investing in our citizens who are most in need, with funding for 2,000 modular homes so that many without a home can quickly have a roof over their heads and the supports they need. We’re going to invest in 1,700 new affordable rental units for low- to moderate-income families.

In my community, we recently — well, I think it was actually a year ago — had a report released. The incidence of domestic violence had increased over 200 percent. It is no accident that the lack of affordable housing, a safe place for people to be able to go, is married to the fact that people are experiencing domestic violence at such a rate.

The fact is, too, that we don’t have the stock. We simply did not have the investments being made over the last 16 years in creating affordable rental stock. Women are also the lowest paid in our society, by and large, so affordable housing is critical for them to be able to escape the circumstances that result in so much violence. That’s one of the reasons I’m looking forward to swift movement by the fair wages commission, to see the raise in the minimum wage. I can’t tell you the breadth of support on the streets of Courtenay and Comox to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour — grandparents, youth, struggling families.

The reality really hit home when I was at a grade 9 class this spring. I saw the firm nodding of these young heads at the notion of having to choose between paying rent or buying groceries, of paying for hydro or getting the prescriptions that make the difference between health and sickness, between working or being buried in poverty. It was very real for the children in this community. The hope that sparked in their eyes at the very idea of what it would mean to their families, with a $15-an-hour minimum wage, gave wind to my sails to fly forward to support them.

I look forward to seeing doors open with the opportunities for those who have been disadvantaged by the barriers put in place by the previous government over too many years — free tuition for adult basic education and English language learning. I’ve met people in Courtenay-Comox that have told me their stories of how they have been so stopped in their tracks by the tuition that was reintroduced by the Liberals in previous years.

One young woman was struggling to lift herself up out of poverty after years in foster care. She was just a wisp of a woman, with teeth that needed a lot of care, but she had hope that if this government got into place and we had free tuition once again, she would have an opportunity to get ahead — a family that would have been crippled by the debt in trying to help their adult child get ahead.

Through it all, I look forward to seeing more and more people succeeding in their endeavours and sharing more equitably in a prosperous and thriving British Columbia.

My community of Courtenay-Comox is a very special place. I was born in France, and I moved all over Canada — my father was in the military — but I’ve lived 27 years in one place. I know that I’ve found home, and it is a great place. It’s not just the vistas of sea and mountains, the rich fields and the lush forests, but it is what seems to bring out the best in people. I have to say that it is the people of Courtenay-Comox that make it such a great place to call home.

People care about their environment there, and they’re actively engaged. They’re working with one another to protect, enhance and restore valued eco-assets. People care about their neighbours and, again, are actively engaged in joint efforts to make life better for those in need.

[5:20 p.m.]

We are also a very diverse community. Although seen as a growing retirement community, there are many new faces coming on the scene — young agrarians, innovators in the tech sector, artists. The sense of possibility in the new economy is very real in Courtenay-Comox, which is why I’m excited to see the creation of an emerging economy task force, the fair wages commission and the appointment of an innovation commissioner.

There are so many first steps that are putting us on a new path to put people first and address affordability, restore the services that people deserve and create good-paying jobs in a sustainable economy. After 16 years, we have to be patient and know that the way forward is uncharted, with a minority government and with electoral reform unfolding to improve our democracy.

Our Minister of Finance has been prudent, taking care in the face of unknowns brought on by global challenges, by national challenges and by challenges at home. But make no mistake. The values that brought us to this place endure. That’s why so many initiatives have moved forward so quickly. After 16 years, there are countless ways that people’s lives have improved already — the sense of hope and the aspirations of a province of people who know that there is a future for them.

I thank you very much for the opportunity to share my support, and I hope that this House will join me in supporting the Minister of Finance’s budget. It will bring a breath of fresh air to British Columbia and give us a new day.

R. Sultan: I’m pleased to comment on the NDP budget update of September 2017. I want to compliment our new Finance Minister, who, on relatively short notice, jumped right into the complexities of the finances of this vast and varied $50 billion enterprise of the B.C. government — not an easy assignment.

Less admirable is the new government’s clear intention to raise taxes and shift focus away from job-creating infrastructure. We are seeing early signs of the dismantling of the foundations of our prosperous economy, which grew an astonishing 3.7 percent last year. Those sorts of numbers are seldom seen.

We are seeing an erosion of the fiscal discipline which had been on its way to eliminate the cumulative operating deficits of past governments. We’re seeing credit-rating agencies raise warning flags. While the government promised to lower our cost of living, we are seeing an increase in the taxes we pay on the gasoline we put into our cars, the fuel which heats our homes and, as we learned yesterday, even, indirectly, a new tax on our votes.

So this is the new world. I shall comment on three dimensions of the government’s financial plan: housing, education and language.

First, housing. On housing, the NDP’s election platform proposed to build 114,000 rental, social, co-op and owner-purchased homes through partnerships over ten years. They said: “We will work with all levels of government, First Nations and the not-for-profit and private sectors to secure land and build needed housing.” I note that private comes fourth on their list. Their political platform went on to say that these homes will “range from supported social housing to quality market rental housing.” As an aside, again, single-family homeowners seem to have been cast adrift somewhere.

[5:25 p.m.]

The NDP also said they will be “removing unnecessary rules that prevent universities and colleges from building affordable student housing.” Now, that latter point could be interpreted as this government giving university and college housing administrators authority to independently negotiate the financing of student housing. They would surely love to do that. I’ve even talked to many of them about it. But is the Treasury Board of this government to become a rubber stamp?

While we should acknowledge the merit of having more government-backed financing in the student housing area, many, including the Auditor General, I think will be fearful of the new authority of their institutions triggering a reckless expansion of provincial debt, because that’s what it would be.

There’s much here for the housing sector, the private housing sector in particular, to digest. One, how many units are to be built? Well, annual B.C. housing starts have been running in the range of 38,000 a year. If the government is to play a major role in creating an additional 11,000 units annually, which is what the arithmetic implies, that’s close to a 30 percent increase in housing starts. Remember that number — a 30 percent increase in the housing starts. We assume it’s an increase, because we hope they will be in addition to, rather than in lieu of, homes built by the private sector. Otherwise, we will still have a huge supply issue, and we surely do.

Two, how much will it cost? The budget lays out immediate plans for construction of 3,700 units, at a total cost of almost half a billion dollars. That works out to about $135,000 a unit. Multiple-dwelling units in Vancouver currently cost between $300 to $350 per square foot to build, which implies these units would have about 400 square feet of living space. That happens to be the size of my own bachelor pad just up the street, where the fold-down bed doesn’t quite obstruct me opening the refrigerator door. I’m not sure, however, if I’m quite ready to start my next family in that particular dwelling.

The third question is: how much capital are we talking about in total? Well, based on these metrics, the NDP plans to invest over $15 billion of housing capital over ten years. That, as a reminder, is equal to about 1½ Site Cs, a project itself described as being the largest public infrastructure project in the history of British Columbia.

Number 4. Oops, we overlooked one other small item: the land upon which to build. Now, I was very intrigued by recent comments in Burnaby Now by the MLA for Burnaby North, who said: “It’s too early to know how many modular housing units for homeless people Burnaby will receive.” To which I would vehemently add “or is willing to receive,” because the NDP mayor of Burnaby has, for years, stoutly resisted all efforts to locate any — and I stress the word “any” — social housing, homeless shelters, group homes or recovery centres anywhere in his community, and I doubt the ascension to power of his cousins in Victoria today will make him change his mind.

Now, the NDP mayor of Vancouver is perhaps a little bit more amenable. At least he tends to show up for the photo ops. But land acquisition costs could easily double all of the numbers I’ve been quoting. Let me repeat that. The land costs could easily double the numbers I’ve been talking about. So let’s call the government’s plan as potentially the equivalent of three Site Cs, as one very rough, back-of-the-napkin estimate.

Another comparison. Consider the headline in the Globe and Mail this morning: “Federal Liberals Will Dole out $11.2 Billion over a Decade for Their Housing Strategy.” Justin is swinging into action — across all of Canada, of course. “Pikers,” we should say: “Our government is planning to spend more than that, even ignoring the cost of the land, right here in British Columbia.” Go back to the drawing board, Justin.

[5:30 p.m.]

Lots of luck, government bench, with your plans to expand our public debt by about one-quarter and have government spend billions to create thousands of socially desirable housing across the Lower Mainland. But of course, it’s quite crowded. Have you actually tried Oak Bay as an alternative? That might be worth considering.

Interjections.

R. Sultan: Well, that’s also a good idea.

Interjection.

Deputy Speaker: Through the Chair.

R. Sultan: Meanwhile, we note some internal inconsistencies. Table 1.5 on page 11 of the government’s own budget document actually projects a 30 percent — wait for it — decline in housing starts over the next two years. So it seems the budget’s plan for a 30 percent change in housing starts could be accurate. The only thing wrong with it is the sign. It could be a negative percentage, if we believe the government’s own forecast, not a positive one.

So much for housing. Let’s turn to education, a second broad topic — very important. Again, there seems to be some dissonance here. Having had our knuckles rapped by the Supreme Court of Canada, we learned it’s not a very good idea to just rip up contracts.

Interjection.

R. Sultan: True enough.

So we swallowed hard and sat down with the school boards to work out a new, much higher level of staffing in our schools, based on, incidentally, a job definition circa 1998, but that’s a minor issue. I know it rankled some when we said we were proud to increase education spending. But, hey, an increase is an increase, regardless of the reason. The new government saw what we were doing and claimed credit for education spending increases too. These were the increases the previous government had already begun to implement. Like many initiatives of the previous government, the NDP clasped them to their breasts and proclaimed them to be their own.

I’m thinking of the reduction in MSP premiums by 50 percent, the reduction of the small business tax credit from 2½ to 2 percent, the phase-out of the PST on electricity and the $3,000 non-refundable tax credit for volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers — all of them B.C. Liberal initiatives announced last February, not NDP initiatives announced just now. Their photocopy machine was working overtime. That’s for sure.

Education spending is going up sharply, and it’s mostly an increase in the wage bill. It’s not due to building new schools — yet another promise broken.

Here we have a political party which promised to eliminate the portables in Surrey, but then, as Lori Culbert of the Vancouver Sun wrote: “In fact, Monday’s budget committed less money this fiscal year to capital spending on the K-to-12 system — $635 million — compared to the amount the Liberals pledged in the February budget: $687 million.” This awkward fact — the NDP’s lowering capital spending on schools — did not inhibit the new Minister of Education from taking pride in the fact that the B.C. NDP will boost education spending by $681 million over the next three years, which is about what the B.C. Liberals planned to do all along.

So we see here a public tug-of-war, if you stand back and look at it, over who gets credit for what the Supreme Court ordered both of us to do.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

R. Sultan: Language. For my third area of comment, I would like to draw your attention to what I perceive to be a distortion, if not a debasement, of the English language. How upsetting. I refer to table 1.2 of the September 2017 Budget Update and compare it with the template of the 2016 update of the previous government. Table 1.2 summarizes adjustments to the annual budget, taking into account recent changes in policy and outlook. Thus, the most recent table incorporates adjustments made by the NDP. There is virtually the same layout; the printer didn’t really have to change much. But it changed some of the labels.

The B.C. Liberal report had two major headings: “Revenue changes” and “Expense (increases) decreases.” The NDP version of the same report had two headings also: “New revenue measures” — they didn’t mention those were tax increases — and “New priority investments.”

[5:35 p.m.]

Wow. We talked about expenses; they talked about investments. I view this small change in words as a big insight into the NDP mind. Expenses are now investments. Voila. For further insight, I give you page 1 of their update report, with the telling phraseology under what they title “new funding allocations,” where it says: “School districts to improve education outcomes by implementing the final B.C. Teachers Federation settlement.”

So the formula for improving student output is quite elementary: simply spend more money on the inputs. Oh, if life was only so simple. Therefore, I think I will go down to the White Spot and invest in a ham sandwich. I think I will improve the quality of my apartment, all 400 square feet, by accepting with enthusiasm the landlord’s 25 percent increase in my rent. Achieving excellence is really quite simple. The NDP has a marvellous way with words.

In conclusion, I hope executive council will take my remarks as a constructive contribution to how they can improve their next, probably blockbuster, full budget in the spring, because there’s considerable unfinished business. At that time, I believe they will have had time to figure out how and when they will implement their treasure trove of other ideas, including $10-a-day universal daycare, $400-a-year renters rebate, elimination of interest on the student debt, $1,000 completion bonus for students simply finishing college or university — which will no doubt boost enrolment, grades and graduation — rollback of ferry fares and freeze on hydro rates, etc.

My own constituents, I would point out for the benefit of my friend opposite from Oak Bay, will also be very keenly interested to learn whether the government intends to implement their Green partners’ plan to solve the house price crisis in my riding by taxing the sale of the highest-end homes with a tax modestly adding up to 42 percent if it involves a non-resident buyer. That should put a damper on those pesky real estate disrupters — send 42 cents of every sales dollar to Victoria with love. It will certainly get the attention of international markets.

To sum up, if this government thinks it can actually work its way through its overstuffed Santa Claus bag of promises without reckless escalation of our debt, their computer seems to be wired differently from mine. Their present budget will be their easiest. Future ones, much less pretty.

S. Chandra Herbert: Just a quick note to the previous speaker. If he is truly facing a 25 percent rent increase, it is because of legislation that the B.C. Liberals put in place to make it more unaffordable for people, legislation that needs to be changed. If he’d like an advocate, I know a few. I could certainly help him face up to the 25 percent rent increase that his government made possible, unfortunately, for far too many in this province, pricing people out of B.C.

I’d like to thank the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, the Songhees and the Esquimalt, whose traditional territories we do our work on here. I’d also like to thank and acknowledge the Musqueam, the Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh, whose territories I get to live on in the West End, and of course Coal Harbour and Stanley Park as well, where they lived for millennia.

I want to thank my constituents for putting their faith in me, advising me, critiquing me, pushing me, prodding me and urging me to do all I can to represent their interests. As we all know, we can only do the best we can, and when we get good advice and good support, we do our jobs even better. I know that there’s much that I always have to learn. I am not perfect, by a long shot. I thank them.

[5:40 p.m.]

I want to thank my family, in particular, for helping keep me on a good, even keel, for the most part, and kicking my butt when I need it. It’s that kind of thing that makes life worth living — family, friends, constituents, your neighbourhood, your home. I love the community I live in, and I’m so blessed to have so many good friends and such incredible family, with my husband, Romi, looking after our incredible little guy, Dev, now seven months old and delighting our world every day.

It gives me incredible delight to speak in support of this budget and in support of this new government. It’s a great day. Change is finally afoot. In my time in this House and in the 16 years that the B.C. Liberals were government, I found that I was losing hair. My head was getting flatter from banging it against the wall again and again and again in seeking assistance for my constituents and having been told numerous times: “No. No. No. There isn’t a residential tenancy issue. There isn’t a rental crisis. There isn’t a homelessness crisis.” Housing? “Oh, it’s actually pretty affordable,” the former ministers would tell us.

Thank goodness the B.C. public agreed that that wasn’t the case, that we did need a change. Thank goodness that we had strong partners in the Green Party as well, willing to make change, willing to heed the call for a change, heed the call for a new kind of government — a government that approaches problems with openness, with honesty, with humbleness and humility, realizing we don’t always have the best solutions and realizing that there are good ideas from everyone.

Maybe I’m naïve. But a couple of months ago in July, when I was sitting on the other side of the House, I heard all the members now on that side of the House talking about how they were so willing to work together. They just wanted to work with us. New Democrats and the Green Party — they had great ideas, if only we could work together. Wow. How a month, two months, being forced to work here in September has changed things for that side now that they’re on the opposition side.

Apparently, all the things that they said they loved about us are now all the things they say they hate about us. It’s really rather unfortunate. I’m still willing to listen to that call that was strong, I believe, particularly amongst new MLAs — their willingness to try and do politics differently. I hope that’s genuine.

I hope that being in opposition doesn’t beat your heads down so hard that you can’t open your minds and open your hearts to try that back-and-forth. That’s how this place should work. It hasn’t worked that way for 16 years. It hasn’t worked that way for far too long. There are good ideas in each and every one of you and each and every one of your communities. I really, really want us to take the shackles off, tell that old guard that they should take a pause, listen to the new folks and reach out to work together. It’s time.

Unfortunately, we’ve had a real challenge over the 16 years. I harken back to 16 years ago when this government was first elected, when the B.C. Liberals were first elected and the New Democrats were not. Well, I was entering university, and my tuition fees over that time more than quadrupled. That was the kind of government we had. Add more burden on those who don’t have a lot, and slough the burden off those who have the most. Let the rich get richer and everybody else suffer. Unfortunately, that was the kind of government we had.

But you know, that day has passed. The rocks are being taken out of the shoes. The rocks are being lifted off the backs of the general public who, for too long, carried the burden of trying to just get by, as the government told them: “No, you can’t have anything except for increases in your MSP, except for cuts to your health and education programs that you rely on, except for the highest personal debt loads in Canada, except for the highest personal housing costs in Canada and except for some of the lowest wages in Canada.”

That’s the record of the B.C. Liberal Party, and it’s a record that needs to change. We need a government that will finally look after the people that we are sent to look after. And I’m so glad to be part of that government.

So what does that mean? What does putting people first mean? Well, it means that we actually look after people, not corporations who pretend to be people for tax purposes. We look after people first, the voters that sent us here, not just those corporate entities that lined the pockets and gave corporate donations to try to elect their corporate party.

[5:45 p.m.]

No, it’s about the people, those who do not often have a strong voice, who are not often able to hire lobbyists to kowtow at fancy cocktail parties that the government used to put on. No, it’s about the people. When I think of the people, I often think about who has the most power, who is struggling and who might not be heard. Because we as a government are elected to represent all the public, not just the loud-voiced, not just those used to getting their way, not just those entitled who feel that it’s their government, but everybody. Even those who may not vote. Even those who go: “Well, they’re all the same.” We have to work for each and every one of them.

In my community, who are those folks who may not vote? Who are those folks who may vote but think that we’re all alike? Who are those folks who’ve lost faith that their government will ever do anything for them?

I go out every year — in fact, every couple of weeks — and talk to the people who are sleeping on the streets. People whose numbers have quadrupled under the watch of the former government. We had homelessness spike to massive numbers while the government kept saying: “Well, we have anecdotes to show that, no, it’s not the case.” Unfortunately, we have homeless camps in communities all across B.C.

It was the first thing I raised when I entered this House, and I’m raising it again today because I’m glad that we have a government willing now to take immediate action — 2,000 new modular units to help get those people off the street, to get them into homes, to get them the support they need so that they can start a life again.

I’ve worked with so many people who’ve been on the streets — to get into housing. We’ve helped them get into housing. It’s been hard. You have to find some sort of secret password sometimes to get into housing, because there just was none of it, and it’s very hard to find a place. But once in a while, we found a place, and they would get in. Their lives would change. Many of them are now employed. Many of them are now active members in our society, not sitting on the street but trying to help people get off the street.

It’s incredible what you can do when you take that kind of action. But it’s also the things that our government is now doing, like creating a Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, looking at the fact that we have a mental health crisis in this province and looking at the fact that we have an addictions crisis in this province. For a long time, it was: “Addictions? Well, that’s just a personal failing.” There was a moralistic tone from far too many people saying: “Just don’t do it, and somehow you’ll be fixed.”

That hasn’t worked in any jurisdiction where they’ve tried it. No, you have to realize that there’s a health issue here, an addiction issue, a mental issue and often a societal issue, as well, that we have to work on together to help solve.

A ministry that is dedicated to actually creating a mental health system. One of our top doctors in the province was asked: “Can you tell me about the gaps in our mental health system?” What did he say? He said: “You’d have to have a system first, in order to be able to acknowledge that there are gaps.”

Unfortunately, in B.C., we’ve not had a mental health system, and the number of people presenting on our streets and in our communities with mental health crises continues to grow because of it, and not just because of that but also because of the fact that we’ve not treated addictions seriously. Sometimes people try and self-diagnose, and they end up in that spiral for just some of those reasons, along with poverty. And the list goes on.

What do we do? What else do we do? This is where I get so excited because you can see the opportunities ahead of us. I can see that this budget update hasn’t solved all crises in six weeks, as the opposition seems to suggest we should have been able to do. Six weeks to get a big start is pretty good. This government had 16 years and didn’t hardly get anything done on many of these issues.

In fact, on education, one of the things that is crucial to our future economic viability…. What did it take to get investments in education? A Supreme Court decision, the Supreme Court telling this side that they shouldn’t tear up contracts, as my friend across the way acknowledged earlier. I’m glad he’s acknowledged that now, but it sure took millions of dollars in legal fees to get there and 16 years of underinvesting in classrooms and teachers struggling with overcrowded classrooms without the resources they needed to make sure our kids did their very best.

Who suffered in those circumstances? It was often those kids with special needs, with English as a second or third language, with new immigrants coming to our communities, who fell through the cracks that began to gape wider and wider over the years of refusing to invest properly in our education system. Well, that’s done.

We now have a government that believes in investing wholeheartedly in education, because unless you invest in our kids, you have no future. I’m very proud that our government’s investing more in education, and one of my personal projects that I’m working very strongly on in the West End and Coal Harbour is building a new elementary school in Coal Harbour.

It’s an incredible project, and I know that, with continued work, we will get it built. When I used to talk to the former B.C. Liberal Education Ministers — and I’ll say ministers because there were numerous of them that I raised this issue to — they said: “Well, too bad. No, we can’t build it there, even if it’s a great project. You’ve got other problems in Vancouver. We’re not going to work on that.”

[5:50 p.m.]

It was as if because Vancouver elected New Democrats, we were shut out of any sort of investments. Thankfully, we have a government that is working hard to ensure that every community where they have need is actually responded to, not just those within a certain political party.

Coal Harbour elementary school will allow us to…. I still don’t understand why government refused to do it, because the great thing is the city already had the money to build child care above it. The city already had the money to build over 40 affordable housing units above the elementary school as well. So it’s a triple win. When we get to finally get that elementary school built, it will have the kids streaming in, it’ll have affordable housing, and it’ll have child care — three things that are in desperate, desperate need in my community. It’s a beginning. We’ve got to keep at it.

It’s about vision. Do you believe in education, or do you believe in: “Somehow, just sink or swim. It’s up to you”? Well, we on the New Democrat side believe you’ve got to work together. You’ve got to look out for each other. That’s how a community prospers — not, “Too bad. You’ve got no money. Well, too bad. Your education, your health care, your housing is not going to be worth even talking about,” which unfortunately seemed to be the case for too long.

One area that also excites me around education is adult basic education and English language learning. We have many immigrants come to our great province — many, many immigrants. They want a good shot at life, too, and we want them to succeed, because when they succeed, we all succeed. They are our neighbours. They are our friends. They are our family.

When the former government cancelled support for adult basic education and English language learning, we heard from so many people who were finding their futures go up in smoke. They couldn’t afford the education. They were working a minimum-wage job, struggling to feed their families, struggling to find child care, struggling to even find a place to live. They could no longer improve their lot in life. They couldn’t get ahead. They couldn’t look out for each other in the way that we would hope they would be able to. In a cruel-hearted budget manoeuvre to disinherit these people from a good future, the former government decided that was the thing to do.

Well, you know what? That was wrong then. It’s wrong today. I’m so proud of our government for investing so that people can actually finally afford the adult basic education they need, and English language learning. It’s the right thing.

My community has real challenges in health care. We have some of the fewest doctors, some of the highest need for doctors. We used to be promised that everybody would have a family doctor two years ago. Well, that never happened. Our government has now committed to urgent care facilities so that people can get in, get the help they need when they need it and that they can actually be seen by doctors, by nurses and by a continuum of health care providers. Again, it’s that team-based approach, as opposed to: “Might makes right. If you’re rich, you succeed. Everybody else suffers.” It’s about looking out for our community and looking out for each other. We’re working on that, and I hope that we’re going to be able to land urgent care facilities in downtown Vancouver, because the need certainly is there.

I’ve also heard many times from small business folks who go: “Well, we’re all struggling to make ends meet.” With incredibly high housing costs and, at the time, with the cost of MSP — because it kept going up under the former government — they didn’t know what to do.

Well, we’re responding. Many small businesses support their employees by paying their MSP costs. We’ve decided that we think that MSP needs to be cut by 50 percent and eliminated altogether in the next four years — 50 percent in year one, and eliminated by the end of the mandate. It’s an incredible amount of money that we have to work on, but it’s also a huge shot in the arm to the economy, because the people — often, it would be the middle- to lower-income people who struggled with this — can actually reinvest that money in the economy. Small businesses can reinvest it in their small businesses.

It’s not just that. We’re also going to be lowering the small business tax rate from 2.5 percent to 2 percent. That’s just a sign of support for small businesses in our economy because they are so important for our future.

There’s more. It’s a budget update, produced six weeks after the NDP was able to finally form government, after the other government was voted out in a confidence vote. There’s more to come in February. I know that, and I know, certainly, our Finance Minister is working hard to help translate what was our election platform documents into reality, in terms of the public finance and budget.

Child care. Certainly, that’s one big area that we need to continue our advocacy and our work on. The $10-a-day child care is hugely important. I had constituents beating down the door, saying: “We can’t find a space.” When we would raise it in the past, we were told: “Well, no. There’s just no money for it” and “No, it’s not a priority.” I think, in fact, a former Liberal used to call it a luxury. Well, no, child care is not a luxury — daycare, as I think they often called it.

[5:55 p.m.]

Child care is incredibly important, so that people can participate in the economy. Many small business people I know have not gone back to work because they can’t afford the child care in this province. We need those people at work. We need their brains, their ideas and their entrepreneurship at work. Universal, affordable child care will do that.

It’s going to take some time. I don’t think anybody doubted anything different. When you’ve had 16 years of one government making it difficult to do, it’s going to take more than six weeks to solve it. News flash to those over on the other side, who are really disappointed, all of a sudden, that we didn’t get $10-a-day child care done in one budget update: it’ll take some time. But then I’m not sure if they really support it, because they also talked against it. It’s kind of hard to tell whether they’re coming or going on that one. All I know is that my constituents want child care, and they want it yesterday. They wanted it 16 years ago, and we’re going to work each and every day to deliver it.

Another thing that’s happened is we finally have a government willing to fight climate change. We have a government willing to actually take the steps needed to reduce carbon pollution so that we, in our future, are not in the chaos zone — as much as that’s already coming to us because of our previous generations’ and the current generation’s refusal to really take the steps needed.

It’s my generation and future generations who will have to deal with that impact. It could be worse, or it could better. We could be facing real, real chaos or just sort of chaos. I don’t know about you, hon. Speaker, but I’d rather have sort of chaos and action today to drive down greenhouse gas emissions than continual hot air from the former government, as they drove up greenhouse gas emissions. I’d rather have us drive emissions down now, invest in transit, invest in our buildings so we’re not pumping out the gas, burning up the gas to pollute the atmosphere to heat our homes. Actually insulate the places.

It’s an interesting idea. Governments have thought about it, and so has the private sector for many years. But when you’re a government that has their climate action plan rewritten by the oil and gas lobbyists, as the fellows over on the other side did, well, little surprise that we didn’t get anywhere. It’s a good reason, of course, why we’re banning big money in this House, but that’s for another day, and that’s not the bill I’m speaking to. I look forward to my chance to comment on that one later.

Action on climate change. What else are we going to get action on, now that we have a new government actually willing to work for the people and not just corporate lobbyists? We’re going to get action on inequality and affordability.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

For too long, we’ve had homelessness spiralling out of control. We’ve had people living in poverty, unable to eat, getting sicker because they can’t afford food. We’ve had folks on disability, again, in the same boat. Every year we were told, “No. Those people can’t…. We can’t do it. We won’t do it,” meanwhile giving hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks to the super rich — over time, adding up to billions of dollars, I’m sure.

Well, we’re going to get a poverty reduction plan. We’ve increased the earning exemption for folks with disabilities. We’ve given an immediate $100-a-month increase to folks on assistance. It’s a start, but we really need to make sure that these folks have a good strong future, that they can be part of the community. That’s what they want too. I think that means respectful work with folks, rather than treating them as some sort of second-class or third-class or even fourth-class citizen, as seemed to be the way for far too long in this province.

I’m excited that we have a government willing to invest in arts and culture and acknowledge that important role in our community, in terms of our health, and invest in the creative economy as well. More to come.

I’m going to finish my remarks here. There’s more to say, but sometimes — as I learned in theatre — it’s best to leave a little bit of a mystery. It’s best to keep ’em guessing because then they want to hear you more, rather than hear the politician go on and on and on, as we’ve heard much too much of lately.

They say sometimes — or maybe it’s my own slogan now — that in politics, the longer you’re elected, the longer you tend to talk. I’d rather start and shut it down now, because it’s been nine years so far. I’m certainly loving it and loving the opportunity to make a difference for my community.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. Thank you to all the members from the bottom of my heart. I may disagree with you vehemently sometimes, but I know that you want what’s best for your constituents, even if I disagree about how you get there. We’re all in this together, I believe, and I hope we start to act more like that, as opposed to warring camps throwing weapons at each other across the floor. I think, in the end, we can do so much together.

[6:00 p.m.]

As we saw a couple of months ago, that side did have the opportunity and, certainly, did say the words of wanting to work together. I really hope that they go back and read their speeches from back then. That’s what they said then. I took them at their word then. I hope that they will start to take that at their word now.

I’m honoured to have this opportunity and thank the Speaker. I will be voting, with much pride, for this budget.

D. Clovechok: I’m honoured today to rise to speak to this budget that has been tabled in this House. As the member elected to represent the good people of Columbia River–Revelstoke, I consider it an honour and a privilege to speak on their behalf. From Revelstoke to Kimberley, it takes me over five hours to drive the riding, one of the largest in British Columbia, with some of the most unique and most beautiful scenery anywhere in this country.

Before I dive into my budget response, I want to take a few minutes to recognize and thank a few people. I want to recognize the members opposite. We share one thing in common, and that is that people asked us to be here on their behalf. That is an honour. We share that in common.

First of all, I want to thank all my riding association and the 100-plus volunteers who worked so hard for years so that we could stand here today. I want to recognize and thank all of the voters who understood that putting a check mark by my name meant a better future for the people of Columbia River–Revelstoke. You stand here with me today.

For those who did not vote for me, well, I made you a promise — and this side of the House keeps its promises — that I would represent you and your issues no different than any others. You stand here with me today too.

To my friend and mentor Bill Bennett, who gave 16 years of his life to this riding, to this province and to this House, I say thank you. Your uniqueness and grit were only outpaced by your intelligence and passion you had for your people. Also, a sincere thank-you to Bill’s wife, Beth, who gave up so much so Bill could serve British Columbia.

I want to thank my colleagues, my two constituency assistants: Rachel Loganberg in Kimberley and Stacey Brensrud in Revelstoke. They are professional and amazing millennials who are serving our constituents, standing in my place when I am standing here.

To my family. My wife, Susan, who is the incoming president of the B.C. Chamber Executives Society. Yes, I am proud of her. And my three kids and my four grandkids. I’ve got two granddaughters and two grandsons. My son-in-law who is the starting goalie for the Minnesota Wild and always enjoys beating the Vancouver Canucks. I say thank you so much for your love and for your support.

To my Piikani Niitsitapi Blackfoot elder, Leonard Bastien: I thank you for your ongoing and daily prayers, and I am proud to be member of your family, the Weasel Traveller family. You stand here with me today.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the women and men who ran and continue to run towards danger during this unprecedented fire season. Your dedication and heart will be forever appreciated by those you served. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the Cariboo-Chilcotin for four days. I had the honour to meet firefighters from Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and our First Nations. Shoulder to shoulder, they created a global community, a global village, with a common goal: protect British Columbia.

Over the course of these visits…. I have been up there twice now. I spent nearly a week with the good people in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, talking to concerned constituents who have been affected by the forest fire and in my role as Tourism critic.

I have seen the economic disaster that they have on their hands, with my own eyes. During my time there, I met with incident fire commanders, the Canadian military, RCMP members, conservation officers, forestry professionals and firefighters from all over the world. With them, I was able to view the devastation that people there live every day and get a deeper understanding of the challenges that they faced. Burned homes and businesses; dead animals, in ditches, that were burned beyond recognition because they could not escape the flames; and scorched earth — visions I will never lose.

The consensus that I received from these front-line professionals was that they do not feel that they were or are getting the right support. Yes, without question, the money that is being put forward, so far, is appreciated. But they and I agree that this government needs to stop throwing pennies at a disaster that needs dollars. We need this government to step up — step up right now and start to deal with this economic recovery from forest fires in a profoundly different way.

It’s going to take multiple ministerial cooperation to achieve this. It’s going take us all.

Interjections.

[6:05 p.m.]

D. Clovechok: Six hundred million? We’ll take that.

In the Cariboo-Chilcotin, there are people that have beautiful, pristine lodges that are empty. That is understandable, given the fire situation that has been there. But what is most concerning is that there are no bookings for now or for next season. So if you look at their books year on year — or even their bookings, year on year — you can see that their regular inflow of bookings just aren’t there. Most of their bookings that would come from international sources have not come in, and they’re in dire straits.

I met with a man — 70 years old, about 6 feet 6, 300-some-odd pounds, crying like a child because his life is destroyed — and his wife. That’s the visuals that we saw up there.

Interjection.

D. Clovechok: Unprecedented. You’re correct.

Some of the smaller businesses have lost upwards of $30,000, which has had a huge impact on their operation, families and lives. One of the larger tour operators said at the end of July, the business was down $400,000.

The damage is obviously not limited to just the Cariboo-Chilcotin. As many of my colleagues have said and stated in this House, the economic impact of these fires are felt all around rural British Columbia. Columbia River–Revelstoke is a great example. In the area where I live, in the Columbia Valley, tourism numbers are down in a year that was supposed to be the banner year of all tourism, Canada 150, but the highways are all closed because of fires. Our valley is filled with smoke because of fires. Forty minutes from my home, one of the largest fire complexes, the Whiteswan complex, is burning still today.

No one was coming to our major resorts. One of our major operators in our valley, just in July, reported to me that they lost $100,000, a massive amount of money. They ask: “Where is the support of the government to inform people that we’re still open for business, that we’re not on fire and the smoke really isn’t that bad?” That’s a fair question.

To help people like the ones I’ve just mentioned, my co-critic, MLA Stilwell, and I wrote a letter to the Minister of Tourism asking for additional funds for the Kootenay tourism association and the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association so they could do some additional marketing to help recover some of the lost business. It took the minister two weeks to agree to provide the money. I’m very thrilled to say and grateful that she did that. Yes.

Here’s the twist. From what we understood, the money that’s been allocated is not new money. It’s money that this government has taken and moved from Destination B.C. The $600,000 that the government committed is appreciated by all of those that are affected, but it’s not new money. In reality, it’s a drop in the bucket when you look at the scale of the devastation that has occurred in all of these areas in rural B.C.

My colleagues and I have met with dozens of tour operators in Columbia River–Revelstoke, Kootenay East, Thompson-Okanagan, the Shuswap. And the list goes on. Members on this side of the House know the impacts that these fires have had on these regions. But we have not seen a shred of a plan to help these people, beyond funding front-line forces.

With all that being said, I want to recognize, personally, the Tourism Minister, who was able to visit the Cariboo-Chilcotin for a day. Although the minister was not there for very long, she was present and talked to people in the communities, and that made a difference to those people. Her being there was appreciated.

The member for Langford–Juan de Fuca should take a lesson from his minister and actually spend some real time in these areas and talk to people, rather than just coming for a selfie with the Prime Minister of Canada.

To the members on the other side of the House, let’s get rid of the smoke and mirrors. You inherited $2.7 billion. Let’s use some of that money to actually help some people.

Rural British Columbians have always carried our weight. That is just who we are. We work hard, and we’re proud that we were able to contribute to the success of this province. In many ways, we have been the big driver when we talk about economic success. But when I talk to constituents across rural British Columbia and constituents in my riding, what I hear is that they are tired of being the ATM machine for the Lower Mainland without seeing any return on their investment.

[6:10 p.m.]

When the rest of the province is in trouble, we are always happy to help. Now that we are in an economic crisis, this government is nowhere to be seen, and that is not acceptable. In my humble opinion, this budget, honestly, is failing rural British Columbians. My question and the question that my constituents and front-line professionals are asking: when are you going see a long-term recovery plan from this government?

There had been some talk about a four-pillar approach to recovery, but at some point, you need to start pouring some concrete to form those pillars. All we have right now are words. This government is long on words and short on process. There are people who are defined by their hard work, integrity and their ability to keep their word — give their word and keep it. Yet the things that the NDP promised in their election campaign, promises that were, over and over, campaigned for in my riding — nowhere to be found.

Again, no mention of a $400 rental assistance, which would have helped people in my riding, $10-a-day universal health care, full elimination of MSP premiums. The list goes on and on and on, promises that fell short.

An Hon. Member: Wait for our budget.

D. Clovechok: Yeah, well, we’re waiting.

These are all expensive promises that the NDP made to voters, and they did not keep their word. Promises that they may or may not intend to keep, depending on the wishes of the junior partner over here.

Interjections.

D. Clovechok: Well, I just like it. Regardless of the people’s political beliefs, they expect honesty from elected officials, and they expect transparency.

Mr. Speaker: Member. Member, please be seated.

D. Clovechok: They expect a government that will tell them what their plans are and how they’re going to pay for it. But on both halves of….

Mr. Speaker: Member. Member for Columbia River–Revelstoke. Please, if I might ask you to withdraw your comment.

D. Clovechok: Which comment was that?

Mr. Speaker: The comment regarding the member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head.

D. Clovechok: Did I make one? Well then, I withdraw it. My pleasure. A slip. Rookie mistake.

Mr. Speaker: Thank you, Member.

D. Clovechok: Now we’re left without a timeline for a number of the NDP key platform promises, not knowing when or how they’ll ever be implemented. And with no plans to continue growing our economy, how will this NDP government pay for the plans they’ve implemented now, never mind the promises they have left to implement?

The NDP inherited an economy that was the envy of Canada. In fact, the economy is — or was — performing so well that they inherited $2.7 billion. Nobody ever got that before. No one. In fact, they inherited a triple-A credit rating, the highest rating possible in North America, which is at risk already because of the members that are sitting across.

A move that will rarely, if ever, affect my constituents is the bridges, yet we’re going to pay for them. There is no denying that the books were in order for this new government. Despite this, we’ve already seen tax hikes from the NDP just to pay for their initial promises. But beyond raising taxes, we have no idea of how the government is going to sustain their spending. This budget has no mention of expanding trade with Asia or anywhere else, for that matter.

Helping to diversify our economy and prove our resiliency. The government has made it clear that they won’t support job-creating projects like the George Massey Tunnel replacement, Kinder Morgan, LNG — jobs that are taken away from British Columbians. Opposing these projects, they are taking jobs away from rural British Columbians, and that’s who I speak for, on behalf, today.

Then there was the visit from the member for Langford–Juan de Fuca. He came to Cranbrook after the election. Never saw him during the election. Came after the election. He came out after a few photos and proclaimed: “I am the voice of the Kootenays.” That voice has been pretty darn silent since that plane left Cranbrook. And we’re okay with that. However, this budget says more than he ever could. It says loud and clear that the only people that this government is interested in helping are those in the Lower Mainland, and this is not acceptable.

To the members on the opposite side of this House: stop playing party politics with the lives of British Columbians. Now is not the time to play the blame game. It’s time for action. This budget has very little to do with the concerns of people in Columbia River–Revelstoke.

The member for Langford–Juan de Fuca campaigned for the Trans-Canada Highway: “We will expedite the building and the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway.” No mention in the budget. Not a mention.

They campaigned on increasing conservation officers. We need a conservation officer in Revelstoke. They promised. Their candidate promised that if they were elected, they’d get one. Well, he didn’t get elected.

[6:15 p.m.]

No mention in the budget. It was a priority during the election, but it doesn’t appear to be a priority today. There’s absolutely no mention whatsoever of wildlife management in this budget. Prior to the election, over 300 people visited our region — non-partisan meeting — to figure out the best way to deal with wildlife management in my region. At this meeting, there were people from all political backgrounds and many who weren’t even affiliated with political parties. By the end of that meeting, we all agreed that we needed to have a focused, non-partisan, full view on long-term wildlife strategy. We had funding for it. Where’s the funding in the NDP budget? Nothing. Not a word in that budget.

The people in rural British Columbia are wondering: why would you want to make us pay for your bridges? I heard a member opposite today who said in one of her speeches across the side here that she met with somebody today who was paying $1,200 a week for tolls. But now what she’s done is she’s taken that and shifted it to rural British Columbia. So now we’ve got to pay for bridges we’re never going to drive on. Not acceptable to rural British Columbians. I’m sorry.

The members across keep telling us: “Put people first” and “A B.C. for everybody.” I don’t think so. This budget screams: “I’m sorry. If you’re beyond Hope, there is no hope.”

As the elected member for Columbia River–Revelstoke, I stand here today as a very proud representative of the people who elected me to fight for their rights and to fight for rural British Columbia. As a result of that, I stand here today in complete disappointment of this budget that’s tabled.

Mr. Speaker: Member, noting the hour.

D. Clovechok: Noting the hour, I think we should continue. [Laughter.]

Noting the hour, I recommend that we adjourn the debate.

D. Clovechok moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. L. Popham moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until 1:30 tomorrow.

The House adjourned at 6:17 p.m.