Fourth Session, 41st Parliament (2019)
OFFICIAL REPORT
OF DEBATES
(HANSARD)
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Afternoon Sitting
Issue No. 208
ISSN 1499-2175
The HTML transcript is provided for informational purposes only.
The PDF transcript remains the official digital version.
CONTENTS
Orders of the Day | |
Budget Debate (continued) | |
Office of the Auditor General, Access to Emergency Health Services, independent audit report, February 2019 |
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2019
The House met at 1:33 p.m.
[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]
Orders of the Day
Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued debate on the budget.
Budget Debate
(continued)
J. Martin: It’s good to be back and resume my response to Budget 2019. The previous speaker, the Minister of Energy and Mines, used the word “beautiful” multiple times to describe the budget.
[R. Chouhan in the chair.]
When I think about beautiful, I think about the old Minter Gardens, and I think about an early sunrise over Victoria harbour or a big slab of brisket that’s been smoking all night. I usually don’t think about budgets as being beautiful, so I’m probably going to be using different adjectives for the next 20 minutes. But it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to respond.
No government begins its mandate with a clean slate. Every government incoming at every level of government in this country inherits what came before them with a previous government.
In 2001, the B.C. Liberals inherited the worst-performing economy in the country — runaway deficits, overspending, mismanagement, the poorest economy in Canada. In 2017, things were very different when a new government was formed after the election and some negotiations. That government inherited the best-performing economy in the country, impressive surpluses that were not being equalled anywhere in Canada and a robust plan for the future to keep B.C. on track.
Obviously, it’s much better to be in the position that the present government is in to inherit a very strong economy than it would be for the example I gave of the incoming government in 2001.
But a government can only survive so long on the merits of its predecessor. Sooner rather than later, this present government is going to realize that there is going to have to be some management of the economy in terms of investment, which has dried right up, and in terms of our natural resources, which are going in the wrong direction. Even by its own measure, the budget didn’t even mention the word “jobs” until about 20 minutes in — as though it’s an afterthought, and somehow: “Well, the previous government has taken care of that for us. We don’t have to worry.”
Whereas the budget had the potential of being a blueprint for the future and opportunity, what we saw was something quite disappointing. The budget 2019 continues the NDP’s charade of smoke and mirrors and games of the past 18 months or so. For instance, they introduced a speculation tax that has nothing to do with speculation. They introduced a school tax that has nothing to do with schools. They brought in a community benefits agreement that really only benefits one particular sector: generous donors of the NDP.
So a balanced budget. Kudos to the government. They did manage to do that. I don’t know that they’re going to be able to pull it off again, but a balanced budget is more than just simply having spending a little bit less than revenues. A balanced budget is much more comprehensive than that. It’s about making sure that the spending you commit to today, the promise you make today, can be paid for tomorrow.
That’s where the 2019 budget is on a very, very weak foundation. Have they taken risks into account? Are they confident that they can afford to pay for the promises that they continue to make in this House? In other words, is it sustainable over the long term — not over an election cycle but over the long term?
Governments come and go, but the province needs to persevere in a very strong and orderly fashion. I would submit, hon. Speaker, that this budget is not sustainable. You would think that maybe the Green Party could have worked a little bit harder in their negotiations with the NDP to get some concept of sustainability into the budget, but we haven’t actually seen that.
What we have seen is that this government is very quickly maxing out its spending and is making some very rich, very reckless predictions about the future, suggesting that in 12 months ICBC is going to be out of debt. That’s a bit of a stretch.
Housing starts, a key driver of our economy, are set to drop 25 percent. Resource revenues are set to fall 30 percent. B.C. is a resource province — always has been, always should be. Resource revenues are set to fall 30 percent.
Spending has skyrocketed, $13 billion. That’s 26 percent since the NDP took office 18 months ago. So what’s fuelling this rocket? Let’s look at what’s actually happening here. The NDP’s balanced approach is a “tax and tax some more, and spend and then tax again” budget. I long for the days of just the old tax-and-spend budget, but we’ve gone far beyond that.
British Columbians will be forking over an extra $1,100 in taxes over the life of this budget. This is very problematic to the government’s claim that it’s trying to make life more affordable for British Columbians, because while they’re repeating that mantra, at the same time, they’ve turned off the revenue-neutral component of the carbon tax to make it a simple cash cow. It has nothing to do with the climate. It has nothing to do with the environment. It’s just simply a tax on fuel, a tax on other parts of the energy sector that government puts into general revenue. It would be no different than any other particular tax.
The claim that, somehow, this is part of a climate change strategy, that this is about protecting the environment for our kids ended the day that the NDP government decided to cancel the revenue-neutrality component of the carbon tax. The only way I could ever support a carbon tax would be with that revenue neutrality in it. That’s long gone.
This government is extracting $6 billion over the next three years in new taxes. That’s money that comes out of the pockets of hard-working British Columbians every time they visit the gas pump. When you drive your kids to soccer practice, you’re sending money to the government. When you drive to work, you’re sending money to the government. When you take your family out for dinner, you’re sending money to the government.
The spin now is: “Be happy. You’re helping to fight climate change.” Well, those taxes are not going to do a single thing for the climate. The reality is that a mere 15 percent of the carbon tax is going to any effort to reduce carbon, and 85 percent — probably more — is simply just going to government coffers. It seems that the main role of the new carbon tax, the way the NDP has worked it, is to increase the NDP’s tax footprint.
There’s a double dip on the MSP and employer’s health tax this year. Well, that’s not just going to impact big, big corporations that can weather the increase. That’s going to affect everyone on every single purchase you make. Every service that you employ is going to cost more as a consequence of that.
Many small businesses are struggling to find a balance between paying the double tax hit and keeping prices competitive for their customers. Do they raise prices? Do they lay off staff? Do they start to cut back on their operations, or do they just shut down altogether? These are the challenges that small businesses are facing each and every day in this province.
Many municipalities having to deal with a new taxation are simply hiking their own taxes. Renters and homeowners will pay more so local governments can send more money to Victoria. Tax, and tax some more, and spend, and then tax some more again.
Why deliver today what you’re promising tomorrow? The NDP promised a child tax benefit that won’t take effect until 2020. So put it in the 2020 Budget. Despite the big spending promises, the NDP still haven’t delivered on the long-promised $400 rebate. Where is the poverty reduction plan we heard about? Universal $10-a-day child care? Where are they? They’re not in this budget.
Let’s get back to the concept of balance, a balanced budget. So far, we’ve seen an awful lot of taxes for British Columbians, and we’ve seen an awful lot of spending by this particular government. But what we don’t see is any commitment to sustainability over the long term. Much like the throne speech a few weeks ago, the budget has absolutely no plan to grow the economy. It has no forward-looking measures to drive the economy, to increase revenues, to increase jobs, to increase investment. There is nothing in there to stimulate the economy. There is nothing in there that is going to be preparing this province for a downturn which…. These things are cyclical, and it will happen.
Make no mistake. Growing the economy is critical. It is crucial. It is central to sustainability, both economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. Encouraging entrepreneurship and encouraging investment grows the economy. Show me anything in Budget 2019 that encourages entrepreneurship, that encourages investment in British Columbia.
A balanced budget should be about creating jobs. It should be about supporting business. It should be about driving individual and business spending. It should be about increasing revenues. It should be about building communities. It should be about laying the blueprint for a stronger tomorrow. Yet, the entire concept seems to have vanished under this particular budget.
There will be a downturn, possibly a global economic downturn. If you’re not certain about your job in the next year or two, you have to take a hard look at your spending and try not to commit to spending what you might not be able to afford if your situation changes. But when you’re this particular government, you can take a different approach — the ostrich approach, head in the sand. There are no problems. The money will keep flowing. The previous government has assured us of that. It doesn’t work that way.
B.C. depends on global trade. The reason British Columbia was so successful when every other place was struggling is because we diversified our economy. We diversified our trading partners. When the housing market in the U.S. went in the dumpster, we were able to withstand that because we had built ties in other parts of the world — in India, in Asia.
Well, that’s not taking place right now. There’s instability right now in U.S.-China relations. That will impact us. The Chinese economy, very possibly, is going to be slowing. The situation in Europe with Brexit threatens economic disruptions. What’s the plan from this government in that budget in that eventuality?
Here in British Columbia, this particular budget fails to do anything of note to buffer against a potential downturn or to promote areas of strategic growth in the eventuality of a shift in the economy. It’s a stand-pat budget. Everything’s fine. Don’t worry. We’re going to get through the next little while. It’s a stand-pat budget hoping that things get better so we can eventually afford all these things that are promised in the budget.
The thing is it’s not up to a government to determine what that future is going to look like with all of our global connections, with all of our trading partners, with all of the uncertainty that’s happening in other places around the world. At the end of the day, it will be taxpayers who will have to pay more taxes and will have seen more attempts by the government to come after their wallets, to come after their assets.
If you have a second home, you’re going to be taxed. Well, why not a second car? Tax them on that, on a second barbecue. Who needs more than one barbecue? Tax it.
Interjection.
J. Martin: My wife isn’t going to let me get another one. I’ll guarantee you that.
At the end of the day, British Columbians deserve a budget that creates opportunity for each and every one of them, rather than one that creates more opportunities for the government to extract revenue from the taxpayers. The best way for this government to get more money from taxpayers is to see more people earning bigger paycheques. They’re paying more taxes, and they’re happy to do so because they’re coming out ahead of it as well. Well, right now that’s not happening.
Budget 2019 is a stand-pat budget. It is, technically, balanced. That is due to the economy that they inherited. It’s not nearly as horrendous a budget as NDP governments have put forward in the past. I will not be supporting it.
I can tell you that in my previous profession, over 25 years, I had the opportunity to evaluate and assign grades to literally thousands of papers and reports. So I’m going to call on my expertise in that manner, and I’m going to give this budget an F-plus.
Hon. R. Fleming: It’s always a pleasure to follow a grilling from the member for Chilliwack.
I do appreciate the opportunity to respond to Budget 2019 this afternoon and talk about a number of areas where this will benefit and strengthen middle-class British Columbians, will invest in public services that have been long neglected and will help build a strong economy here in British Columbia that is sustainable for prosperity well into the future in B.C., because that’s exactly what this budget is all about at the top level.
It’s about maintaining the lowest unemployment rates that we’ve ever had in British Columbia, continuing to see job growth, continuing to see foreign investment confidence in British Columbia. After all, we’ve already had confirmed a $40 billion investment from the energy sector, the largest in Canadian history. There are other investments in the tech economy, in aeronautics, in all kinds of industries, whether it’s manufacturing or primary resource extraction, or whether it’s the dynamic service economy and the tourism economy in British Columbia.
The point, I think, for British Columbia that stands them well and in sharp contrast to the previous government is that we are finally starting to see balance. Not only is the budget balanced this year and for the next three years, but the spending priorities of government are finally balanced.
For years and years and years, who came first when the old government tabled a budget was those at the top, time and time again. We had corporate income taxes that were cut. We had earnings, an entire tier — the top tier of the income tax bracket in British Columbia — eliminated, which benefited the top 2 percent. Those were spending decisions, if you like, to forgo revenue that cost British Columbia hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.
It came at the neglect and expense of health care, of education, of never seeing, for example, a raise to the rate for foster parents and some of the other things that are long overdue and that are contained in the pages and pages of Budget 2019. This is about balance. This is about strengthening the economy where people actually live. This is about strengthening the paycheques, jobs and communities of British Columbians in every part of the province.
Before I go any further, I meant, at the top of my remarks, as other members have, to have taken this opportunity to thank some people who work for us and help us do our jobs in our constituencies. I have some new staff in my constituency office in Victoria–Swan Lake, and there are a number of people whom I want to thank, on the record, who’ve been doing amazing work helping my constituents.
Sheridan Hawse is a young woman who joined our staff very recently and really enjoys doing the casework, bringing results and helping people who have inquiries of our government. Christine Rousseau is my senior constituency assistant, who has been running the show there for the longest of my three staff. We have a young man named Greg Schindler, who is just finishing his university degree, working part-time for us, who really, really enjoys working with neighbourhoods and communities in my constituency. I want to thank all three of them.
I also want to thank somebody in my minister’s office. In fact — and I don’t want members to take this the wrong way — it’s her last day in my office. I do want to thank Andra Hahn, who’s my administrative coordinator, for just doing an incredible job of getting our office organized as we formed a new government, post July 2017. Andra has been an amazing person to work with. I have known her over many, many years. I was delighted to be able to hire her in my minister’s office, and I’m very, very sad to see her moving on to other opportunities.
Thank you, to all of those individuals I’ve just mentioned, for allowing me, certainly, to do my job in here. I know that members similarly rely on lots of good people to help them do their jobs.
Back to the budget. Look, what the opposition has had a hard time attacking in the budget is that this budget, writ large, makes life more affordable for middle-class British Columbians. It delivers on the government’s central promise — it was a central election issue — of how to make life more affordable in a province that had become increasingly expensive. In fact, parts of British Columbia are among the most expensive places to live and work in the entire world.
We saw runaway housing prices. We have talked in here about what some of those drivers may have been. We have talked about a government that failed to control money laundering and foreign purchases that were out of control. They denied that it was even a problem. How many years did we hear that for? There was no effective policy response.
As the member for Chilliwack was mentioning, governments inherit situations from the previous government. We inherited a very, very bad situation on housing affordability. There’s no arguing that.
We are starting to see some very good signs that are part of the context of the tabling of Budget 2019. For the first time in years, we have started to see the vacancy rate go up. That’s good for renters in British Columbia. In my community, 60 percent of my constituents rent the homes that they live in. More supply, more rental options for them, will moderate the skyrocketing prices we saw for renters.
We are starting to see, in some parts of the market, single detached homes having their prices at least not rise anymore — in some cases, to moderate slightly. This is good. We are starting to see that in the condominium market and all other types of housing. In other words, we’re moving in the right direction, finally, after seeing unsustainable growth.
Let’s face it. It was on the front page of world publications not too long ago. The Economist talked about Canada’s housing bubble in a special issue. I think it was just two or three years ago. We had six feature pages on how much risk the Canadian economy and the British Columbia economy was in, in particular from unresponsive governments.
Today we’ve brought in some policies, some tax measures, that are helping the affordability challenge around housing and turning this province around in the right direction when it comes to home ownership and rental supply. For that, we should be very, very thankful that not a minute too late, government has changed directions and is starting to get some positive results.
I also want to commend the Finance Minister for finding some ways to put money back into people’s pockets — the people that deserve it in B.C., the people who have seen their purchasing power eroded over many, many years. It’s easier to say than to do, but the Finance Minister has delivered on the biggest middle-class tax cut in a generation in this budget. We’re going to be eliminating the MSP. Now we’re bringing in the child opportunity benefit fund, which further puts money into people’s pockets and helps reduce child poverty. Those are significant achievements for a government, after all, that is only 18 months old.
I think what the opposition is really discouraged by is how much good news, how many commitments, we’ve been able to deliver in such a short period of time. It demoralizes them. There’s no question about it.
Interjection.
Hon. R. Fleming: I’m trying to get a reaction.
I think the other story about this budget…. It’s a triple play. First of all, it puts out the fiscally reckless dumpster fires that we inherited as a government. The member for Chilliwack did not mention this. We inherited an absolute, disastrous mess at ICBC, sliding off into the dirt — billions of dollars in losses, no plan to fix it. That’s what we inherited.
We had B.C. Hydro — the crown jewel of hydroelectric companies on the continent once upon a time — which had been treated like an ATM machine by the previous government, having hundreds of millions of dollars taken out as dividends to “balance their budget,” literally taken from ratepayers out of our province’s utility, unsustainable in the extreme. That has been fixed in Budget 2019.
Look, we have also been able to invest in services. That’s what the budget is about here in many areas. There were areas of neglect in every part of British Columbia, and people know what I’m talking about. They’re talking about transportation infrastructure that may have been announced but never funded. They’re talking about schools that were never built, health care infrastructure that was aging and that wasn’t getting done. Our government has made significant strides to do this.
Now, let’s not forget that the opposition was predicting — I don’t know if it was within months, weeks, minutes, days — an imminent economic collapse in British Columbia. If you think back to the summer of 2017, when the Lieutenant-Governor dismissed them to the opposition benches and allowed for the formation of a new coalition government, they predicted that B.C. would collapse, investment would flee, business would riot.
It hasn’t happened — quite the opposite. We have, today in British Columbia, economic growth that’s the strongest in the country, unemployment that’s the lowest we’ve ever seen, 4.7 percent. The province has maintained a triple-A credit rating from all three international rating agencies, and the budget, as I mentioned, is balanced this year and will be balanced in the next two years hence. Now, what bothers the opposition is that we’ve been able to do all of this — maintain strong economic performance, clean up their messes — at the same time as making record investments in things this province needs.
I want to go back to the Economic Forecast Council, because in the run-up to the formation of Budget 2019, they evaluated Budget 2018. One of the gentlemen — I forget which banking institution he was the chief economist for — actually credited Budget 2018, a year ago, with maintaining and expanding economic growth in B.C. He actually said that the GDP growth in the last fiscal year would have been an entire half-point lower had our government not invested record amounts in infrastructure, creating jobs, creating the infrastructure to allow the free movement of goods and services and grow the economy. That’s an independent economist.
Budget 2019 builds upon that short but very, very positive record that our government has established, and it does it by this. There is $20 billion in this budget that will build schools, that will improve roads and transportation networks and that will build hospitals in communities where, let’s face it, for 16 years they never did, even in communities that have only known Liberal representation. They failed to get things done. It will build college and university infrastructure, and it will support, through this infrastructure investment, the creation of more than 80,000 jobs over the next three years.
That is good news for economic growth, for job growth and for building the kinds of infrastructure projects that we need to improve our quality of life and our affordability of living in British Columbia over the next three years.
This budget, as I mentioned, launches a bold new initiative called the B.C. child opportunity benefit, which will put nearly $400 million a year back into the pockets of families throughout B.C. This is fantastic for kids and families. We all know that a number of our constituents have struggled with affordability. They have struggled to sometimes pay the bills, put food on the table. Certainly, they have struggled with paying for sports programs or dance or Scouts and Guiding activities — all of those kinds of things that are a part of life and the costs of raising families and kids.
That $400 million that goes back into the pockets of middle-class British Columbians is going to improve the quality of life and affordability of life for families right across British Columbia, and this is a bold, major new initiative in Budget 2019. So members who say proudly in this House that they’re going to vote against the budget are voting against putting $400 million back into the pockets of B.C. families that need it to make life more affordable for themselves and their kids.
We have fulfilled our commitment as a government — again, an 18-month-old government — to eliminate unfair MSP premiums. We are now part of the normal landscape of Canadian health care that no longer taxes people with the most regressive flat tax imaginable for access to health care. The premiums are gone in this budget, and we are now…. British Columbia takes its rightful place alongside every other province in the country that has moved towards an EHT-style system that B.C. has. It is fairer. For middle-class families, again, it eliminates $1,800 of a health care tax that came out of their pockets — or for single people, $900 a year. Very expensive. Very unfair.
The MSP was raised ten times. Budget year after budget year after budget year, they were addicted to this flat tax that taxed somebody making $40,000 a year the same as it did somebody who earned $4 million a year. I mean, it was the most failed right-wing, ideological tax scheme you could ever concoct, and I’m happy to say it is going into the dustbin of history in British Columbia thanks to Budget 2019.
We are eliminating interest on B.C. student loans through Budget 2019. I want to acknowledge my colleague sitting next to me here, the Minister of Advanced Education, for pushing this through the budget-making process. This is a much-needed bit of relief for students right across British Columbia.
Look, we all know that there is no greater investment that a person can make in themselves than their education — to get ahead in life, to invest in yourself, to invest in your skills and the career opportunities available to you. Sometimes government needs to help people be able to incentivize those kinds of decisions. High costs of student loans for those that needed to borrow to be able to afford their education, who didn’t come from wealth — it had become a burden.
The previous government across the way doubled tuition fees. The first thing they did when they became government in 2001 was they eliminated the B.C. student grant program, instantly transferring thousands of dollars onto student debt.
It is long overdue to take a step like this. And I’m happy to say that it’s not just…. An 18-year-old can’t just go and get a stereo, interest-free, or some other — I’m not going to say “frivolous” — consumption item. They can now get zero percent on the investment they make in themselves to take out a student loan, to take a trade or take a college program, a vocation or a university program in British Columbia. It’s long overdue, and that’s going to help transition many more young people to pursue their hopes and dreams in B.C.’s colleges and universities.
This budget also invests $902 million in CleanBC to meet climate commitments. Our government is sincere and ambitious in trying to achieve carbon reductions in our economy.
We need leadership in the world right now when it comes to climate change. There are paralyzed governments across the globe that do nothing to help the environment, that do not join with other nations and other states and provinces in an effort that we all must make together as humanity to turn around carbon pollution and the devastating effects that it’s having.
We see it here in British Columbia with wildfires and other weather-related disasters. We see it all over the globe. It is the leading cause of human instability in the world, and this budget commits nearly $1 billion of carbon tax revenue toward carbon reduction activities in our economy.
The member for Chilliwack had said that he doesn’t like carbon taxes that get spent on transit, on innovation, on energy efficiency and on carbon reductions. Well, we do on this side of the House, and it’s long time that we invested money in carbon reduction.
We’re also funding a historic revenue-sharing agreement with First Nations people in B.C. I’m very, very proud of this. There are so many things I could list that this government has achieved around the file of reconciliation, which is all our responsibility, as British Columbians, to achieve. Our government takes it very seriously.
We have a long list of accomplishments, but what I will highlight in this budget is that there is $3 billion of gaming revenue being shared with First Nations communities over the next 25 years to help them develop their economies, to help them do economic development projects in First Nations territories in British Columbia, to help First Nations people take their rightful place in the economy, which they have been shut out of for generations in B.C. — by sharing those revenue sources to pursue economic diversification in British Columbia. I’m very proud of that being a feature of this budget.
We have also made investments in mental health, particularly around children, youth and young adults. We are bringing this, in a very strong focus, under the Ministry of Education. I’m very happy to see that there are significant new resources, over the next three years, to do this.
To start the conversation, one of the first things I was able to do as the Minister of Education was to bring all 60 school districts together to have a mental health symposium. People have been talking for years about how young people were experiencing anxiety or, worse, self-harming themselves. The school system was ill-equipped to be able to identify this, to get them into contact with counsellors or whatever services they may need.
In Budget 2018, we announced the expansion of the Foundry program. Budget 2019 adds an additional level of support to have services that are school-based, that are coordinated with law enforcement, with health authorities, with child and youth mental health workers. I take my hat off to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions for her leadership on this file and the inclusion of $74 million in new funding to improve mental health and the well-being of children and young people across B.C.
Now, let me turn to my own ministry. Here’s another story that we inherited. After 16 long years, B.C.’s K-to-12 education system had gone from the second-best funded in the country to the second-worst. We had a government that picked fights with teachers at every opportunity it could. It litigated against them for 12 years in the courts. They presided over overcrowded classrooms growing right across British Columbia. And educators were disrespected, in every sense of the word, by their own government.
They failed to properly invest in schools. They left older schools with hundreds of millions of dollars of routine maintenance deficits, projects not done. They promised to seismically upgrade schools. They did not get good results; they failed to deliver. They didn’t build enough schools in fast-growing communities. I can think of Sooke, Chilliwack, Langley, Surrey. We know some of the districts that I’m speaking of where portables proliferated. The number of portables in Surrey, for example, doubled under their watch, under the previous government.
Again, we’ve inherited this situation as a new government. But rather than bemoan the cards that were dealt to us by the previous government and their neglect, we got on with the work. We knew what needed to be done, and we set to it immediately.
We have started to fix some of these problems they left behind. In just 18 months, I’m proud to say, we’ve already invested $1 billion in new school investments. That’s expansions, seismic upgrades, property purchases for future schools. The list goes on. We’ve approved three times as many seismic projects just in the last year compared to the three years previously. These projects have already created or will create 18,000 safer student spaces that will protect kids in the event of a major seismic earthquake event on our coast here.
We’re doing things differently. We’re seeing results by working closely with school boards and city officials in communities like Surrey. We’ve already approved $171 million of school investment in our short period of time as government, creating more than 2,500 new spaces. We have 7,000 new seats underway being constructed and designed or in the tendering phase right now in Surrey that will be available by the 2021 school year, and we have an opportunity now to do more even than that in Budget 2019.
To give you an illustration, had the government chosen our way of investing in schools, rather than their way, which was typically to have a photo op and not deliver on it, if they had allocated funds and got to work building 2,500 new seats in the space of time that we have done as a new government, there wouldn’t be a single portable in Surrey today. But we have to clean up that mess. We have to do it as quickly as we can.
We weren’t left with the benefit of any projects in any pre-planning stages or with funding attached to them, so we’ve had to start from square one. I have to say that working with the mayor’s office in Surrey, working closely with the superintendent and the board of trustees in Surrey, we are getting it done. And it’s not just Surrey. It’s communities throughout the Fraser Valley. Here in Sooke, as well, which is the fastest-growing district per capita. We will continue to do more, because Budget 2019 allows us to do more.
I’m also pleased to say that we fulfilled the playground equipment program last year that Premier Horgan had committed to parents. We’ve already announced 51 playground projects. We will have a similar number to announce this year. It is an annual program.
This is, as you will recall, help for parents and PACs at schools to not have onerous, ridiculously excessive fundraising goals and targets that were very, very difficult to achieve. I remember hearing about a school fundraising effort to have a new playground that took 12 years of bake sales and scrimping and saving to be able to achieve new playground equipment. That is ridiculous. There’s no surprise that was in a low-income area.
We as a new government have helped school communities and parent organizations — alleviated them from that kind of a fundraising burden with this new program. I’m delighted to see that it will continue in very strong fashion in this next budget. It will deliver playground equipment in all parts of British Columbia. Some of the members opposite have thanked me personally for some of the announcements that have been made in their districts, and I can tell them that there’s more good news on the way there.
We’ve hired 3,700 new teachers. The previous government fired teachers. We’re hiring them by the thousands in B.C. We have the smallest class sizes in school in generations. We’re building better supports for students throughout the province. We have an additional 1,000 educational assistants to help kids who have special learning needs do better in school and be successful.
We have addressed the shortages of some specialist teachers. For the first time, we’ve actually funded directly from the Ministry of Education new spaces in B.C.’s teacher education programs to bring teachers into high-demand areas. We want to help all parts of the province be able to successfully hire the teachers they need — rural, urban and suburban British Columbia. We are doing it, and we’re seeing a significant improvement there.
I have to say that one of the things, going into Budget 2019, that makes me very pleased as the Minister of Education is that we are starting to see student outcomes improve, especially in the areas where they have lagged for a long, long time.
Look, 20 years ago the province of B.C. started reporting on First Nations student outcomes, knowing that there was a problem, knowing that First Nations students were not well supported and eventually discovering a number of things. Having no cultural reflection in the school system, having no additional supports for First Nations learners did not help them achieve graduation like it was for other students. It has been a 20-year effort.
What I would like to say is that, with the additional resources, the additional teachers, the additional supports we’ve offered, we saw a 6 percent growth in the Indigenous graduation rate last year. That’s an 18 percent gain just in the last four years. Last year was the best of those four years. We have serious momentum in the school system now.
I think that we can actually say in the House that in a year, in the not too distant future, hopefully, we’ll be able to see students’ life chances at kindergarten, or when they start school, and their graduation rates be exactly the same for Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids. We are well on the way to doing that, and there are some school districts who have already achieved that, and they should be commended for it. Our budget will help continue to move in that direction.
To this end, we’ve invested $400,000 towards Indigenous training seats at B.C. universities. The percentage of Indigenous students does not meet the percentage Indigenous teachers in our school system, and we would like that to be more reflective. We would like to recruit the best and brightest in Indigenous communities to become role models and become influential teachers in their communities to further our efforts to help the Indigenous graduation rate.
One more point on Indigenization of education. I’m very pleased, as the Minister of Education, to have concluded what’s called the Tripartite Education Agreement, with the First Nations Education Steering Committee and the federal government. This is a national agreement that will bring in 100 million new dollars to benefit all Indigenous students in the province, whether they study in on-reserve schools, in district schools or First Nations independent schools.
This is a big deal. This is going to help First Nations communities invest significantly in educational excellence in First Nations communities around British Columbia. We’re the only province in the country that has a deal like this. I suspect other provinces are looking exactly at what British Columbia has achieved and will seek to replicate that. We are happy to provide them with the moral support to be able to do that with our federal partners.
I want to go over some of the specific funding areas in the education system, too, in my ministry. What we’re seeing here is the highest school operating and capital funding ever — full stop. This budget is very, very good for the K-to-12 education system. There are $552 million in new operating funding over the next three years. It will allow us to hire hundreds of additional classroom teachers, having hired thousands already. We will hire additional specialist teachers — like counsellors, teacher-librarians, special education teachers and ELL teachers.
We’ll hire more educational assistants to help diverse learners, no matter where they are in British Columbia, and we’ll provide more support to teachers who are teaching on call. The substitute teaching workforce is very, very important, and we will be investing in its development.
We also know that after nearly two decades of declining enrolment, the student population of B.C. is now increasing. This is good news. It’s good news, as well, that fewer students than ever before are dropping out of high school.
Here’s the context for this budget. With 18 months in government, we’ve seen enrolment increase by 3.2 percent in our time as government. We’ve seen funding for K-to-12 education increase by 17.1 percent. A school system that was starved and neglected for way too long. A workforce that was attacked and disrespected by the previous government for decades — dragged through the courts. The government rolled the dice and lost. Now it’s receiving a 17.1 percent rise in operating funds, which is long overdue. That has been achieved in 18 short months and will help B.C. students into the future.
The other story in this budget is that the three-year capital budget for the education system is now $2.7 billion. This is the largest investment in school infrastructure that we’ve ever seen. We need to invest. We have schools that were neglected that are seismically unsafe that we need to get at too. We have portables that we need to eliminate and give neighbourhoods and fast-growing communities — like Surrey, Langley and Chilliwack — real schools that anchor real communities. We need to ensure that old, outdated schools that have been neglected for a long time finally get the kinds of maintenance and expansions that they deserve.
We need to plan for the future. That’s why this budget also includes money in that $2.7 billion to acquire and buy new school sites.
Contrast B.C.’s safe harbour that is contained in Budget 2019 with what other provinces are experiencing in terms of instability. You look at the roller-coaster ride that the U.S. economy is on under an unstable White House. You look at what the Tory party has brought on to Britain through their reckless, disastrous Brexit plan — the Tory compatriots of the members opposite.
You look at the instability in certain European countries where growth is declining and joblessness is increasing. That’s not the story here in British Columbia. Unemployment is down. Spending on needed infrastructure is up. Strengthening the middle class with tax cuts, and giving relief to people in British Columbia is part of Budget 2019, and I will enthusiastically vote for it.
D. Barnett: Wow. I’m a little aged. I’m one of those ones that’s…. Probably they’re looking, over there, at the grey hair over here and saying: “Maybe you should move along.” But you know what? Those of us that have been around for a long time really understand financial matters. We understand budgets. We are so proud of the past 16 years and what we left on the table so that the new government would have an opportunity to carry on the good work that was done by this side of the House.
It is my privilege today to respond to Budget 2019 on behalf of my constituents in Cariboo-Chilcotin. Before I begin, however, I would like to take a moment to reflect on and acknowledge those who have enabled me to fulfil my role as MLA — my staff, both here in Victoria and at home in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. Thank you to my constituency assistant Bev Marks in the 100 Mile House office, who has been with me for six years, and to Toni Taylor in Williams Lake, who took over from Jenny Hoffman, who is now a full-time rancher, wife and mother. And, so importantly, I’d like to thank all of my constituents.
Cariboo-Chilcotin is very diverse and large, spanning over 44,000 square hectares. It includes three First Nations languages: Shuswap, Tsilhqot’in and Carrier. All of my constituents continue to trust in me to represent them here in Victoria. It is both an honour and a privilege.
Since 2017, many changes to the Cariboo-Chilcotin landscape have occurred. We all remember the 2017 wildfires, when nearly 30,000 residents from the Cariboo-Chilcotin and Thompson-Nicola regions were relocated. In response, the past government committed $100 million to the Red Cross, the feds committed $38 million, and another $28 million was donated by many of the wonderful people across the province and country who cared. Many are still suffering the trauma of the fires, and 2018, once again, caused more devastation on the landscape, destruction of communities and fear of the future for many in northern British Columbia.
I was sincerely hoping the 2019 budget would provide sustainable funding for fire mitigation, grassland restoration, fencing replacement, wildlife protection and assistance for the agriculture and forest industries. Wildfires have cost the government almost $1 billion over the last two years, yet the NDP has budgeted only $101 million.
Where did that number come from? Let’s see what Premier Horgan had to say. “Clearly, the traditional means of budgeting for fire season is laughable, and it’s not something that’s just developed in the last 13 months. It’s been going on for 30 years. Choose an arbitrary number, put it in the books, and hope for the best.”
That is an insult to 70 percent of the landscape of British Columbia and to all British Columbia. The surplus is already razor thin and could be burnt up by unpredictable fires in a flash. This is plain irresponsible.
This House often talks about climate change. From these conversations has developed a carbon that…. Over the next three years, this carbon tax will collect $6 billion from taxpayers. The price per tonne will rise to $40 this year and will eventually reach the $50 mark. As a result, the carbon tax is no longer revenue-neutral, as it was for many years.
As the price per tonne rises, the costs of gasoline, home heating, groceries and other goods and services for all British Columbians will rise, yet only $902 million has been allotted for clean energy plans, and most of the programs involved came from the previous Liberal government.
Further, why will only 15 percent of the carbon tax go to CleanBC? Where is the balance of the $6 million going? To general revenue to balance their budget. “Let’s look into the future,” says the government. But if things keep going as they are, I’m profoundly concerned by what the future will look like. Instead of giving British Columbians the prosperous future they want, this government’s budget and policies will chase private sector investment away.
They derelict their duties to the people on a hope that LNG will solve all. Now, I sincerely hope that the LNG project in northern B.C. becomes a reality. I sincerely hope the NDP will bring it home. But I also hope that the NDP government has not sold the farm in their negotiations with LNG Canada.
I also ask: where is the government’s transparency in their negotiations? I wish this secrecy wasn’t a trend, that British Columbians could be privy to some of the most important agreements of their time. Yet this seems to be what you get with the NDP. Public consultation is now, and seems like it will remain, a dream. But that isn’t because it hasn’t been requested.
Let’s be clear. Local governments, citizens and we, as the official opposition, have asked for open, public consultation on the caribou issue, treaties and land use negotiations with First Nations. No one is opposed to working on these issues, but open, public, transparent consultations to bring British Columbians together…. The closed-door discussions of the present government cause nothing but separation and division.
I’d like to turn my attention to another issue in Budget 2019: the Cariboo connector. I see only one item in the Cariboo-Chilcotin Highway 97 Williams Lake Indian Reserve to Lexington Road project. This four-lane 6.2 kilometres of highway project has been going on since 2012 and will be completed in the spring of 2019. This is not a new project. This is a project that is going to be completed, and the only one that I see.
[J. Isaacs in the chair.]
It was enabled by a great partnership between First Nations, the Williams Lake Indian Band, the private sector and the past provincial government. I am very proud of this project and how it will improve the days and lives of those who travel along it. But the government needs to get the entirety of this incredible, important project done. I ask: where in this budget is funding for the future of the Cariboo connector and rural capital maintenance projects?
Yet another profound problem with the budget has to do with the health and well-being of British Columbia. Issues like these really shouldn’t be put to the side in favour of a tax-and-spend agenda. Yet that is exactly what the NDP is doing as we enter the year of the double dip into the pockets of British Columbians.
For 2019, they have actively chosen to maintain collection from individuals for the Medical Services Plan at the same time as employers will be taxed to the same ends. The employer health tax makes things worse. It came without warning or mention during the NDP’s election campaign and, once again, without public consultation.
Municipalities are now forced to raise property taxes to cover the EHT costs. How does this make life more affordable for British Columbians? Certainly not for businesses of all sizes that will now get hit twice by the increased property tax in addition to the health care tax.
I wonder: how much income will this really generate? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Small business is big business in British Columbia. In many rural communities, the only businesses around for hundreds of miles are family-run small businesses providing food, clothing, services and jobs. Everywhere small businesses are helping their communities diversify, growing the creative sectors and finding new markets for resources and services.
Our small businesses are remarkably diverse, ranging from the family corner store to the self-employed computer programmer to the small lumber-milling operation, and the government of the day seems not even to notice, or at least their budget doesn’t.
Now, being on the topic of health, I can’t help but speak to the Williams Lake hospital. Some of you know it as the Cariboo Memorial Hospital, or perhaps you may not — as, according to the NDP, it deserves no mention whatsoever in Budget 2019. The former government announced upgrades in February 2017. Then the present government reannounced these upgrades one year later, in February 2018, yet the budget makes no mention of the promised provincial funding, which is expected to be around 60 percent of the $100 million estimated total cost.
That’s a lot of money — which, if actually delivered, would do profound good — yet it appears that the NDP government just doesn’t understand how important this project is. The hospital desperately needs more functional space, improved technology capabilities and an increased capacity to serve patients. Harkening back to the beginning of this statement, as we quickly move towards another wildfire season, redeveloped facilities would save lives. It’s about time that this project moved ahead — and fast. I will, of course, in estimates, ask the minister when it will be built.
Now yet another omission from Budget 2019. Our agriculture sector, which in the Cariboo-Chilcotin is mainly ranching, faces many challenges. Many of the 4,000-plus cattle ranches that operate in British Columbia are located in the Cariboo region. B.C. ranches occupy over five million acres of private land. They also have tenure on 21.5 million acres of Crown rangeland. In fact, two-thirds of the agricultural land reserve is owned by ranchers.
The industry supports our economy, as well as many family and community businesses. The total economic contribution of the industry is estimated at $600 million annually, and an estimated 8,700 persons are employed in the B.C. beef sector. However, the industry is facing many challenges, including an aging population and regulations.
In addition, over the past several years, wildfires, some of the worst in the history of B.C., have had a devastating impact on the ranchland. People lost their homes and buildings. Ranchers lost miles and miles of fences, and pastures used to sustain cattle through the summer and fall were all burnt up, with the tragic loss of prime grazing land, yet there’s nothing in Budget 2019 for them.
I was very pleased that the Minister of Agriculture was in my riding and at TRU University just two weeks ago so that students could give her their success stories on the program. I know her support for this program will help keep the funding going. The cattle industry has made a profound impact. I can only hope that government continues to recognize this.
Under the previous government, at the university in Williams Lake — where, I was grateful, the minister came — we launched the program three years ago, where students gain the expertise to build and sustain ranching enterprises within B.C.’s ranching community. The students go out and apply that knowledge to agriculture businesses in any region. This is the only such program in British Columbia, and the success stories are amazing. I hope the government does continue to support it, but I saw nothing in the budget.
I have a long-term care facility in my riding at which the hours were extended by the Ministry of Health, and we thank the minister for that. Yet there were no care aides or licensed practical nurses available to do the work. We have a university that needs programs to supply these workers who are so needed in rural British Columbia, in our seniors and long-term-care facilities.
I hope the NDP government will recognize that these lapses exist and address them. I thank the Minister of Advanced Education for coming to my riding and to the university. Hopefully, we will see some funding come from her ministry and from the Ministry of Health for these courses, which are needed not just in my riding but throughout British Columbia. Of course, I will ask, in estimates, how much and when.
Like in Budget 2018, but hardly even addressing rural British Columbia, Budget 2019 fails to bridge the divide between rural and urban voters. That’s why it surprised me that the NDP is now ready and willing to estrange urban voters as well — and has, through their speculation tax. That the government of British Columbia would introduce negative-option billing in 2019 is astounding to me. British Columbians who, for whatever reason, do not fill out the declaration form will end up paying substantially more tax than they should owe.
I had a constituent come to my office, whom I know quite well. I did not know he had a little apartment in Vancouver, due to health issues with him and his wife. I’ve never seen anybody quite as upset as this gentleman was. He had to fill out papers because they thought he was a speculator. He asked me to deliver a message to the Premier, but I can’t. At the end of the day the tax doesn’t actually address speculators; instead, it just taxes assets. On top of that, the declaration is unnecessarily invasive of people’s privacy.
Speaking of issues for rural and urban voters alike, the much-promised $10-a-day child care is nowhere to be seen. Only 2 percent of child care spaces in British Columbia are $10 a day. Further, the lottery system for daycare services really only benefits a few randomly selected communities, while many families are left behind, and the child care opportunity tax credit is still 20 months away. In the realm of child care — and most everything else, for that matter — there’s really nothing new in Budget 2019.
Let me temper my remarks, however, as there are a few bright spots in Budget 2019. I am pleased to see the rural development fund, for example, still there, which, I will gladly say, this side of the House initiated when, in government, I had the privilege of being the Minister of State for Rural Development. But what happens to rural development beyond 2020? Where will the fund go?
I am also pleased by the rate increases for foster parents. These will benefit some of the most deserving of people, who spend years loving and raising those who will soon be the difference-makers in our province. In addition, the substantial funding provided to much-needed child and youth mental health supports is fantastic. I would only say that it is important that this funding be disbursed appropriately throughout the province to those who need it.
Fundamentally, however, Budget 2019 returns to old NDP ways. There’s no jobs plan, no economic growth plan, no private sector investment plan and no tax competitiveness plan. The government is betraying its obligation to support British Columbians by abandoning the economic development which supports them.
Planned revenue will increase by roughly $6 billion over the next three years, some of which will be covered by the 19 new or increased taxes introduced by the NDP over the past two years since forming government. That is a per-capita increase of $1,100, or $2,500 per family, over the next three years.
Increased taxes will lead to increased food and fuel and pretty much everything you, as British Columbians, do and buy.
The NDP has clearly resorted to taxing and spending. But that taxing and spending doesn’t account for the possibility that the economy might slow. Resource revenue is already down by 30 percent, and housing starts will drop by 30 percent, as well, over the next few years.
Further, we must question whether ICBC can really be turned around in just one year. The Crown corporation is expected to go from a loss of $1.8 billion to a profit of $50 million in just one year? Benefits and expenses will be clawed back, including minor injury caps. Most importantly for all of us who drive, premiums will increase over 30 percent over the next three years.
This is what the NDP has promised, and this is what part of their budgetary foundation relies on. Wildfires and other unexpected events, in addition to devastating the Interior, could wipe out the very thin surpluses.
Finally, there are public sector contracts that have yet to be negotiated. I am convinced that budget B.C. leaves B.C. vulnerable to circumstances beyond our control.
Taking all of this into account, thank goodness the past Liberal government left this province with strong economic foundations, a hefty surplus and low unemployment. What a misdemeanour it is for this government to say that this budget is making life more affordable for British Columbians. Perhaps for a few friends of the NDP, but not for your average British Columbian.
I certainly cannot support this budget, nor can I or will I support any budget that includes no jobs plan, no growth and no investment in rural British Columbia.
S. Thomson: I seek leave to make an introduction.
Leave granted.
Introductions by Members
S. Thomson: Thank you. My apologies for interrupting the process for the next speaker.
Madam Speaker, I’d just like to introduce…. In the introductions earlier this morning, the presidents of the colleges were recognized, who are in the precinct today and visiting with government. I had an opportunity to meet with them.
One who wasn’t introduced at the time was Jim Hamilton, who is the president of Okanagan College in Kelowna, with campuses in Vernon, Salmon Arm and Penticton as well. Jim does a great job of leadership at the college — a great institution in our communities. I’d ask the House to make him welcome to the precinct today.
Debate Continued
A. Kang: Today I am rising to speak in support of Budget 2019. And in the spirit of reconciliation, I want to acknowledge that we are on the unceded territories, traditional territories, of the Songhees, the Esquimalt people, who have lived here before us, and I thank them for giving us the ability to meet and work on their land.
As the MLA for Burnaby–Deer Lake and as Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors, I am honoured to rise today to speak on behalf of my constituents and seniors all across British Columbia — those who have bestowed their trust upon me and those who I have pledged to serve with all my heart.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have played a major role in my life and supporting me during my time here. I would like to thank my CAs, Apollo Chung and Felix Liang; as well, my LA, Gurbrinder Kang; as well, my executive and everyone who volunteers and works in my office; the work experience youth who are from Moscrop, who have done a fabulous job for their work experience; and the community volunteers and the community partners that I have.
I especially want to thank my parents and my family for being there for me. I especially want to take some moments to just thank my parents here. They are the ones who kept giving me life and instilled in me the value of giving back to the community.
Ever since I was young, I volunteered alongside my father, who is now a retired United Church pastor. My father is the one who taught me the passion of giving back to the community. This explains one of the reasons why I love standing up in the Legislature almost once every week to pray for the opportunity that is offered, to pray for sincerity of our services, dignity as representatives of the people and unity as one legislative body of many members with a diversity of opinions.
Life as an immigrant back then was very challenging, but we still refer to our life back then as the good old days. The challenges of adjusting to a new country, learning new languages, finding a new home, making new friends, starting a new career and starting one’s life all over again — these challenges never stopped my parents from giving their time to helping others.
As a pastor’s kid — that’s what I was called, a PK — my parents constantly reminded me that life is a gift. Life is a privilege. And with this life is a responsibility of giving back in any way, small or large.
At the end of the day, at its dawn, it is not about what we have achieved. We come to this world with empty hands, and we will leave this world with empty hands. It is about what we can do to help others and make the world a better place than we were given. It is what we have done to lift up others and what we have done to give back.
I carry this in my heart all the time, whether I’m a teacher, whether I was a city councillor or whether I’m a Member of the Legislative Assembly.
So, Mom and Dad, thank you so much for raising me up to be who I am today, and thank you for your wisdom and guidance.
I share this story today because my upbringing helped shape my dedication and my service to my community, and it helped shape my career as a teacher and a politician. I believe that government is the voice of the people and that government should be making people-centred policies and working to make life better for its citizens. It is one of the reasons that I began my service in politics, first as a Burnaby city councillor and then as a Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Burnaby–Deer Lake.
I want to help improve the services so much needed by the people on a day-to-day basis, and I want to improve the confidence of those who have bestowed their trust in me to serve them. I want to do what I can to keep our province moving forward as we all work together to build a better B.C.
It has been 18 months since I was newly elected. It has been a little bit over a year since our New Democratic government has been here. And it has been three balanced budgets that continue to put us on the path of building a better B.C. for everyone.
Budget 2019 works to ensure that everyone has the opportunities they need to succeed. This is a government about the people of British Columbia, and with another balanced budget presented by the Finance Minister last week, we are making a strong statement that everyone in this beautiful province is our priority.
Before becoming a politician, I was a teacher. I began my teaching career as a piano teacher and then as an elementary school teacher. I love teaching. I was also a teacher of special ed and intermedia. So a lot under my belt. I still love teaching. It’s something that I have great passion for, and it’s something that comes very naturally to me.
I am who I am today also because I had teachers who cared about me and who taught me, not just about academics and books but about life. A wise Japanese saying inspires with the words: “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” Nobody inspires us like great teachers can. They seem to come along just at the right moment, at a time when we need them the most. Teachers are caring, thoughtful and inspirational. Everyone loves teachers.
Oh, but we can’t say the same for politicians. Not everyone loves politicians. In fact, most people don’t like politicians. The term “politician” carries a connotation that is often derogatory and uncomplimentary, suggesting that a person of that status is in the job for their party, cause or their own advantage.
A little story I want to share. While I was in high school, in English class, I vividly remember the chapter where the class was studying English literacy terms. We were taught the word “oxymoron,” which is a figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each other. The textbook example that we were given was “an honest politician.”
While the boys in the class broke out in laughter at the mere thought of “moron,” I furrowed my brows and frowned at the example. I tried to make sense of the example. At the age of 16, I couldn’t understand why the two words “honest” and “politician” contradicted each other. I kind of see now, but I hardly believe that’s always the case.
My teacher, probably seeing me abnormally quiet and staring into space, called me out and asked me if I would like to give another example. I was surprisingly startled and just coming out of deep thought. Oxymoron. So I blurted out what I thought would be a witty remark. I said: “What about smart teacher?” What happened after that is another story for another time.
What I’m trying to tell with this story about oxymoron and honest politician is that over the history of time, people have lost faith in politicians that they have elected to represent them. Many people feel left behind. People feel that their needs are not being met, and their interests are not being served by their government — that politicians say one thing during elections but never follow through. Many are disillusioned by the political process and do not come out to vote, leaving those decisions up to others. The choices of the past hurt people and left communities behind.
Our government, the New Democrat government, is making different choices and working to make life better for people. Making life better starts with choices that we make today — from affordability to providing services that work for people, from creating a sustainable economy to a CleanBC. Our government is fixing the problems of the past and making progress on the things that matter most to the people of British Columbia.
The first thing I want to talk about is health care. I work very closely with the Minister of Health, and I admire all the work that he’s doing. The throne speech underscores our government’s work to provide better, faster access to health care in all corners of the province.
Part of the commitment includes improving care to seniors so that they can access co-ordinated primary care services and receive more hours of direct care in residential care homes, and family and friend caregivers can get more support that they need through increases to respite and adult daycare programs.
During the election, I spent many hours on the doorsteps talking to people and listening to constituents about their needs and their concerns. Since being elected, I have not stopped. I continue to spend my weekends visiting and knocking in different neighbourhoods, meeting people on their doorsteps. I want to make myself accessible to my constituents, whether it’s on doorsteps, whether it’s in my constituency office or whether it’s in the community, attending events.
One of the things that I hear is that many British Columbians still struggle to find a primary care provider. Our government knows how hard it is for people to find a doctor. Many people are still struggling with this. But Budget 2019 invests more than $1.3 billion in total health spending over three years, which means more doctors and more nurses and shorter wait times for you and your families. This investment includes supports for the B.C. Children’s and Women’s Hospital to provide services to women, children, newborns and families.
This investment will also support the B.C. Cancer Agency and provide for new drugs to be covered under PharmaCare. This is in addition to the $3.8 billion that has been provided in the past budget, Budget 2017, for services for seniors across the continuum of health care, expanding team-based care, improving affordability of prescription drugs for low-and middle-income individuals.
Our government knows that the people of Burnaby have been waiting for a long time, and the people of British Columbia have been as well. So we are increasing access to primary care. As part of our strategy, we are shifting our focus to team-based care by bringing together doctors and nurses and nurse practitioners and other health care professionals to create community networks of care — primary care networks, including urgent primary care centres and community health centres.
These will be implemented to coordinate care and improve access for people of all ages. This will help to make sure British Columbians, including those with medically complex problems or our frail seniors, will gain timely access to specialized community services.
Our government is also addressing the shortage of primary care providers by providing funding for up to 200 new general practitioners, 200 new nurse practitioners and 50 clinical pharmacists and other care providers over the next three years. We have been talking and listening to the people of British Columbia, and we are doing something about this.
We are making it easier to find family doctors or a nurse practitioner. As a result, we would experience more doctors and more nurses, and there would be shorter wait times and we would be able to have our health needs looked after. I think these are big changes that, over time, will have a profound effect on our health care system.
Not only do I stay connected to constituents on doorsteps; I also have the pleasure of visiting many senior groups and community groups across B.C. I’ve heard from many families, especially families with seniors, that they are concerned about the long wait times for surgeries. One individual described her situation like this: as if her life was put on hold while she waits for that call. This is no way for us to live. This is no way for seniors to live and no way for people who are waiting for surgery to live.
That is why our government launched the B.C. surgical and diagnostic imaging strategy. Under this plan, we are working to increase the volume of surgeries performed in B.C. to reduce wait lists for specific procedures and keep waits for other procedures from growing. More procedures will be performed this year, including hip and knee replacement surgery, dental surgeries and other surgeries.
As one of the ways to make this possible, we’re opening five hip and knee replacement programs throughout B.C. We have already announced four of them — at Vancouver General Hospital, at Burnaby Hospital, at the University Hospital of Northern B.C in Prince George and at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria.
I want to take a moment to talk about seniors, as this is my portfolio and this is something that I’ve been working really hard on with the minister and with my community. As the Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors, I deeply care about the seniors in our community. We all have senior parents. We all have grandparents or a neighbour who is in their elderly age.
Our government’s budget is about the people of B.C., young or old. A better future for British Columbia should be available to all of us. By improving health care services, we can give seniors the dignity and peace of mind they deserve. We can make sure that people have the support they need to succeed.
We know that more than one-fifth of B.C.’s population is over 65, and the number of seniors is expected to rise from 833,000 to 1.4 million seniors in the next 15 years. This growth is an incredible opportunity for society. I say this with most optimism, because with more seniors in our province, it enriches our community with an opportunity to learn from one another, to live full and involved lives.
It also calls on us to confront the very real challenge of providing significantly increased levels of care. Our government is committed to addressing this challenge.
I deeply and sincerely respect seniors and elders in our society. I have neighbours and friends and community partners who are seniors. My parents and relatives are seniors. My grandfather is a senior, and he is turning 94 years old this year and still living at home with the support that we’re able to give him. Even though they may be seniors in years, they have the youthful spirit of a hummingbird.
As Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors, I have been speaking to senior advocates and visiting senior care homes. I find that our seniors are filled with such wisdom, such jokes that I have heard so often. They’re still coming back, being still funny. But seniors are important to us, because of their long, accumulated knowledge and experience and wisdom.
Over the past year visiting different senior homes, I had a good chat with one of the seniors. Her name is Wendy Yu. I would learn about life experiences and practical experiences, such as being reminded that we should always be kind to others and always give back to the community. This advice might seem pretty obvious, but sometimes we just need a reminder or two now and then.
While I was speaking to Wendy, who is now the young age of 96…. She’s very active — still dancing, still teaching other people what she knows, still teaching other people English and being part of an orchestra. I asked Wendy: how does she keep herself going, and how is she still able to be so involved? She told me that we all live once and pass through this world just once. But between the times when we open our eyes to the time when we close our eyes, it is called life. So she tells me to make the best of it, for all of us and be the best to everyone for every moment you have.
That is why our government is investing in seniors, so that we can keep these wise words flowing, that we can keep our conversations going and continue to learn from our seniors. We want our seniors to retire with dignity. When our seniors are in care, I want them to be able to take a bath for more than once a week and be able to get the care and attention needed when they need basic care or to use the washroom when they need to.
For way too long, under the previous government, too many B.C. seniors were denied personal care, comfort and dignity. Past surveys and reports reflect that nine out of ten care homes previously did not have enough staff and that seniors didn’t get the support that they needed and the help that they need to stay in their own homes.
Staff who care about seniors at B.C.’s residential care homes do a great job, so I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you. Thank you for everything that you’ve been doing and the patience and passions that you have for our seniors. I know that, because I have visited many facilities over the time that I have been an MLA.
When residential care homes are understaffed and overstretched, everyone loses. Our goal is to make sure the resources are in place to deliver quality senior care and the quality of care seniors need and deserve every day. Around the province, we are improving residential care homes by restoring the hours of care seniors need after years of cuts. Almost 270,000 more direct care hours have been added to support seniors and people in long-term care. More hours make sure seniors are getting the care they need and deserve.
This year an additional 1.2 million hours of care will be added all across facilities. The Health Minister and I are working hard every day to make sure our seniors are receiving enough care through increasing care hours. We’ve already significantly added more care hours for patients by converting part-time and casual to full-time. Taking care of staff and care providers is one of the steps to taking care of our seniors.
By 2021, seniors will receive an average of 3.36 care hours per day. Over 300 part-time and casual health care aides have already been converted to full-time, and now we have another 500 to follow this year. We are putting action into our promises — our promises to take care of our seniors.
Not all seniors are requiring a care home or long-term care. Many seniors choose to live independently, and many seniors are renters. Renters, young or old, deserve greater security. Understandably, the stress of rent increases, renovictions and unfair leases can leave renters, and especially senior renters, feeling unsure about where they will be living the next month. This is no way for anyone…. This is no way for a senior to live or retire.
Budget 2019 is expanding benefits to seniors living independently by increasing the amount that they receive through Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters, otherwise known as SAFER. The SAFER program will be offering an average of $930 per year. This investment combined with lifts to the rental assistance program, which is called RAP, represents a $106 million increase over three years in making housing more affordable for people with lower incomes.
When we invest in infrastructure projects to help keep British Columbians moving, we also keep in mind our seniors. As my colleague’s previous…. Maybe after my budget response, they’ll mention more about the modernizing of our infrastructure. But for my purposes, I will be speaking to this in respect to seniors.
Budget 2019 sees an investment of $21 million for B.C. Transit to expand bus services in 30 communities around the province and make improvements that are needed so much to help seniors and people with disabilities in both rural and urban communities access transit services.
When I have conversations with seniors about transportation and lifestyle, they often reflect back to their good old days when ferry fares were more affordable or even free. They tell me stories of their adventures to the Sunshine Coast and their frequent visits to Victoria.
They would say: “We often have days when, you know, us old pals had nothing to do and nowhere particular we had to be, so we hopped on the transit, took the ferry, strolled along the Legislature and hung out in Victoria’s downtown. That’s what we did.” A small group of them would board the ferry to Victoria, enjoy the sea breeze and the beautiful ocean view, order a cup of coffee, enjoy the breakfast and play cards or read magazines. It is their way of enjoying a local cruise on the ferry.
In Budget 2019, we are making life more affordable by continuing the freeze on ferry fares for major ferry routes, reducing fares on small routes and keeping ferries free for seniors, Monday through Thursday. This is also part of a commitment to making life in coastal communities more affordable. When we announced this last year, many seniors visited my office, and they said: “Thank you. Thank you so much for providing that local cruise back to us again.”
Next I’d like to touch on the topic of education. I have two children enrolled in the Burnaby school district, and I have also been a very proud Burnaby school district teacher. I strongly believe in the principle of education as a vehicle for social mobility. Education is a right. It is not a privilege. It is a right for every child to have a good education in British Columbia.
With this government’s budget, we are giving the students back their right that has been taken away, bit by bit, for far too long in the past years. A quality education should not be accessible only to the wealthy and privileged, but it should be accessible to everyone. For the past ten years as a teacher, I saw an entire generation of students being left behind as they went to schools with overcrowded classrooms and inadequate resources, and many schools were in need of seismic upgrades.
As part of Budget 2019, we are investing $2.7 billion to maintain, replace, renovate and expand K-to-12 facilities over the next three years. There will be at least eight projects across B.C., but I want to specifically name one school that is in Burnaby. Burnaby will be welcoming a new seismically safer school for Burnaby North Secondary students, and this is good news for us all. As well, we are creating 5,500 new student spaces throughout B.C. to help to move kids out of portables and into classrooms.
I remember the first three jobs I had as a school teacher. Being a music and resource teacher, guess where my classroom was. In a portable. It was especially difficult as a teacher to be in a portable while pregnant and having to go to the washroom at all times, as well as looking after the safety of students who were going from the portables into the main building to access the washroom facility or go back to their classrooms to get resources that they had forgotten to bring to the portable.
As well, many schools will be receiving support funds for new or upgraded playgrounds, which is a part of healthy living development for our young children. This was celebrated with the PACs, and this was celebrated with the school community. I know a lot of communities have been working really hard to fundraise for a playground, some for many, many years, and still have not gotten their playgrounds replaced.
Budget 2019 will also be delivering over $550 million in additional support for our public education system. As a resource teacher for students with special needs, I have seen the struggles of students with special needs and their parents and families not getting the help that they need immediately. Within the $550 million is an increased investment of $50 million for the classroom enhancement fund. This fund also includes hiring more than 5,000 new teachers.
I have been really busy this weekend and speaking with lots of people about what they thought about Budget 2019. On this particular occasion, on a Friday afternoon, after a pro-D day in Burnaby, and perhaps across British Columbia, I was speaking to a teacher. His name is Mr. Cockram. Mr. Cockram told me that his elementary school was one of the recipients of the classroom enhancement fund. His school has now added two new divisions, which means two new classrooms and two new classroom teachers, and built four new resource rooms to better support students who have additional needs outside of their classroom learning.
Mr. Cockram said: “With our classroom composition language restored by the courts, here in Burnaby, we now have more supports for students and more manageable classes.”
As a mom and a former teacher, I believe that no investment is more important than a quality education, and I am proud that we are keeping our promises to invest in our children, their education. This year students, parents and teachers can continue to look forward to a better school year.
Next I’d like to talk about student loan interest relief. This has been a really huge topic in my community, because I work a lot with youth and young workers and young students. Going back to my community last weekend, I had a chance to engage in a meaningful conversation with youth in high school and in college. I talked to them at length about the budget report. I was surprised I actually had their attention for that long. But I brought up the good news that our government is eliminating interest from all British Columbian student loans, and they were extremely happy.
All B.C. student loans will stop accumulating interest as of February 19, 2019. What would that look like to a student? Well, for a student with a $28,000 combined federal and provincial loan debt, it will save approximately $3,300 in interest charges over ten years of repayment period. This is great news for low-income students who rely on student loans to finance their education and often end up paying thousands of dollars in interest more than students whose family can afford their educational costs. So this was quite applauded and well received by the students that I was talking to.
Very well received also was the B.C. child opportunity benefit. Last week, after the budget speech, I received a call from Brad, a very excited father, who has two young kids, one five years old and the other one ten years old. He lives in my constituency, and he called me. He was very excited about the B.C. child opportunity benefit program. He asserts that our government is in touch with the everyday family and that we understood the challenges of hard-working families.
There are so many bills to pay, and sometimes there are unexpected expenses that just throw life off balance — for example, an illness, an accident, a divorce. He appreciates how helping with this most important item of family expenses levels the playing field for his children and other children in British Columbia.
As the mother of two children, both of whom have phased out of the support they got from the early childhood tax benefit, I would like to particularly emphasize this new benefit program. Our government believes that every child should have the opportunities they need to succeed and to work towards their full potential, and that is why, in Budget 2019, we’re expanding the current early childhood tax benefit into a new B.C. child opportunity benefit. And opportunity is the key word there.
D. Ashton: Before I start my comments on the budget, there are a few people I would like to thank and recognize. First of all, many, many thanks to the people of Naramata, Penticton, Summerland, Peachland and the areas in between that have allowed me to represent them in this wonderful institution of democracy. I don’t take the position lightly or the responsibilities that go with it, and whether you voted for me, didn’t vote for me or didn’t vote at all, I and the wonderful staff at home…. We’re here to help, just like each and every one of the other MLAs in this House, I’m sure.
The incredible staff on the front line at home in Peachland — I call Penticton Peachland; it’s actually just called the Penticton riding — are Sue, Dick and Rudy. These individuals make such a positive difference for all that seek our offices for advice or help.
Downstairs, a young lady by the name of Shala runs our office. I share that office with several other elected peers. Shala rules the roost with a thundering velvet hand. I don’t know how she does it, but all the requests always get done. So, Shala, thank you very, very much.
Also, the volunteers in the constituency that not only help at election time but are there day in and day out to respond to the requests for information or are there to give direction. They have the ears and the feet on the ground and are the ones front and centre with many of the issues that we all face here.
I get the information, as many do, firsthand, and that can make an incredible difference when you are talking to your peers in the House and/or ministers of the government to seek leave and help for those individuals that do have some concerns about direction and problems that they face in their day-to-day lives.
My children — one in Whitehorse taking criminal justice at Yukon College and another one here in Victoria at the University of Victoria, who’s trying to do his best to become a veterinarian…. Chantal and Coleton, I love you both dearly. As your grandfather said: “Keep your face to the sunshine, the wind at your back. Set your eyes on your future and shake it for everything that it’s worth.” I know you’re both doing that, and again, keep up the incredible good work that you’re doing.
Again, just before I start, there was an incident in Penticton — or just north of Penticton at Summerland — about three weeks ago, where a part of the hillside gave way at a particularly difficult section of the four-lane highway that goes between Summerland and Greata Ranch. I would really, really like to thank the highways ministry staff in Penticton and the contractors that have gone above and beyond to address this rock slide.
These individuals have been working in incredibly inclement weather. If we look here in Victoria, what the Victoria people have gone through, well, you can times that by ten — not 100 like the north, when I’m looking over at a peer from the north end of the province. But the weather has been awful, and these individuals have been working on that slide by hand, because it was too dangerous to get machines up there, and doing an incredible job to get the highway reopened.
Together with the highways ministry and the ministry staff at FLNRO, they were able to open two alternative routes, one on each side of the valley, to try and facilitate the vast amount of valley traffic that came to a dead standstill. These roads that were opened up were logging roads. They weren’t perfect by any stretch of the meaning, but they saved an awful lot of time by having to divert around Highway 33 or head over to Princeton and go up and join onto 5 and come back down into West Kelowna by Gorman’s Mill.
Again, I would like to thank the staff in both of these ministries, and I really hope that the Minister of Transportation will give all the accolades that these individuals deserve and to the contractors. All I can say is: “Well done, folks. Without you, we’d really be in a pickle in the valley.”
I also would like to thank the Finance Minister at this point in time for taking up budgetary items that were brought forward from the Finance and Government Services Committee. This committee, in my mind, hears every year directly from the citizens and then puts forward those ideas in a report that is presented here in the Legislature. It was very enlightening to see that some of these requests were granted.
Many thanks to the MLA for Maple Ridge–Mission, who happens to chair the committee, and the other members of the committee that are on it. It’s a bipartisan committee. It’s a committee that works very, very well. I look around here and see some other members that are on it and have been on it. We all work very hard on that committee with the uptake and trying to ensure that those that do present are represented in the report. Again, many thanks to the Minister of Finance for bringing those ideas forward and helping fund in some way some of those ideas.
I would like to recognize all the MLAs that sit in this wonderful Legislature. You know, we are all here representing all the citizens of British Columbia. It doesn’t matter what political party we affiliate ourselves with; we look at everything through a democratic eye. Whether you’re a Green or a Liberal or an NDP — part of the government — in my opinion, we each do our job pretty decently, and I think the people that we represent should be proud.
The MLA for Burnaby–Deer Lake brought up an oxymoron about politicians and the perception of politicians, but I wish the people of British Columbia could spend some time here, not only to see the good debate that goes back and forth at various times during the day but also to see the cooperation and collaboration that takes place inside this chamber to make life better for all.
That’s something that I think isn’t reported enough through the media sources that the people of British Columbia should really be aware of. Again, to my peers — not only on this side of the House but on that side of the House and the Green members that aren’t here: thank you for your time and efforts that you put forward representing the people of British Columbia.
Last but definitely not least, I look around here at the wonderful staff, not only those that are present in this House today but those who are out in the hall, those that help us in our offices and those that help run this incredible building. Without them and the incredible job that they do, this institution wouldn’t be functioning to the ability that it functions.
To each and every one of you, I personally want to say: thank you. Keep up the good work. I don’t know how you do it with the long hours that you put in here, but you’re always there at a person’s beck and call if something is needed. Once again, on behalf of myself and, I’m quite sure, all the MLAs in here: wonderful, wonderful job. Thank you.
The 2019 provincial budget, in my mind, is a budget that I don’t think quite addresses the concerns of the constituents of Penticton and the area that I represent. We were sitting back and waiting for some of the promises that were made, in the 2017 election, by the current government. They’re halfway through their mandate at this point in time. I really thought it was a good, bold platform of promises that they had put forward two years ago. To be frank, I’d really hoped that they would deliver on a lot. To their credit, they have delivered on some but not all. Some of the real eye-catchers that were in there — $10-a-day care and $400 renters rebate — we haven’t yet seen.
Coming back again to what was said about the hypocrisy that has a tendency to come forward in political discussions, I think that if you do put forward something, you should follow through with it. I would ask, under consideration, that all of us, when we do make a speech in here or a political promise, do our utmost to deliver it within a reasonable time frame. I ask my peers on the government side of the House, when you do make a promise to the people of British Columbia, that you do follow through with it as quickly as possibly you can.
One of the things in this budget is the spending. I’m a well-known, staunch, fiscally responsible, financially accountable individual that has a huge social conscience. I’m really, really worried at this point in time about the direction that is being taken. It’s one thing to lay out a bunch of issues that you would like to see addressed; it’s another thing to deliver on those.
This province, this country and pretty well all of North America has enjoyed a very good ten-year run and a very strong economy, but it’s coming to an end. I’m not an economist; I’m down-to-earth. My family owned a chain of retail stores. We valued every day that we were able to carry on a good business. We looked after the pennies, and the dollars followed.
Right now it’s somewhere here at the top of the bell curve. I don’t know if we’re on the uphill side still or sliding over the top and on the downhill side, but the economy is changing. Not only is it changing in Canada, not only is it changing in the United States, but it’s starting to change here in British Columbia. I really hope that there’s money that is being put away for the future. That needs to be addressed.
I hope that the government, through their policies of taxation that we’ve seen, will start winding that back. At some point in time here, we are going to be facing a real downturn in the economy, which, I hope, doesn’t last too long. People are taxed out. Whether it’s from the federal level of government, the provincial level of government that we’re so ably proud to be able to serve in, the municipal or the regional, governments have a tendency to stick their hands in people’s pockets — in my opinion, too much.
Yes, there’s an opportunity, fair and balancing, that can be done through taxation systems, but at some point in time, people are going to say: “Whoa, enough taxation. Leave me something in my pockets to be able to look after my family — not only now but into the future.” I really think that some of these policies that we’re seeing coming forward have an inertia attached to them that is going to bind us up, especially if the economies do turn down. There’s going to have to be some adjustment because, in my opinion, people are going to be saying: “Enough taxation.”
And spending. You know, there has been a terrific enhancement of spending. One part of me says: “Good for you.” There was a very nice surplus left by the previous government — and a strong economy, not just based here in British Columbia but based across Canada. B.C. has been very fortunate, compared to other parts of Canada. It’s approximately a 26 percent lift in spending. A lot of that has been accomplished by additional taxation. I think that we had better be a little bit careful as we go into the future here. In my opinion, there are some storm clouds on the horizon. I think that needs to be addressed.
There are all kinds of issues that have been brought up around the speculation tax — some in a meaningful way and others in a not-so-meaningful way. There are 1.6 million British Columbians that have to prove that they’re not guilty of speculation. They’re counted as speculators until proven innocent. I don’t think that’s fair. Underneath the guise of a speculation tax, I hope, I assume, that there is something a little bit more innocuous that is being held back.
I’m not in favour of this speculation tax. I am not in favour of the opportunity of taxing wealth or taxing inheritance. You know, that money stays in the system, and it keeps going on and going on. It perpetuates what we’ve been so fortunate to have here in British Columbia. I really think government should be very careful when they start trying to attach it.
There’s a gentleman by the name of Paul Sullivan, one of the renowned property tax specialists in British Columbia. In just the downturn that we’ve felt so far, there has been approximately $10 billion in home equity wiped out. Now, to government’s credit, they are trying to address some of the things that have caused some issues, but I think the broad brush that they have used is hurting a lot of other people.
I have to think about people that I know that have gone out and purchased their first property or moved up into another property and are quickly finding themselves — if not at this point in time, very quickly — to be seen underwater, as far as their equity in the property that they own. That’s one of the issues that I think governments have to be a little, tiny bit careful of.
You’re not just trying to curb speculation. What you’re doing, in effect, is affecting the price points that people have, as I said a little bit earlier, of equity in their homes. It’s not just making “luxury” homes cheaper. What you have to do is to address the people in this province that are trying to get into their first home, their starter home. When they get into it, the last thing in the world that they need is to have a lot of equity disappear.
Whether it’s one year’s, two years’, three years’ or five years’ financing, they’re going to have to justify, at some point in time, the value that they have in that house in equity. If it’s wiped out in a bit of a downturn, that can cause them a lot of problems.
I would also like to talk about some forms of fiscal policy that have been shown by the current government, in the taxation and the spending. The slim balanced budget has been projected on future revenue based upon the economy that we have — taking into consideration some of the growth that the Finance Minister has been able to ascertain by some pretty talented individuals in this province. But we’re still at the whim of what may or may not be happening federally and, especially, in all of North America. So I think we have to be a little, tiny bit careful about the direction.
[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]
I just hope those in the government are listening. You know, growth is slowing, housing starts are down, and there are 19 new or increased taxations that have taken place since the election of the government. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen…. I could stand to be corrected, but in this budget, I don’t see a lot that’s focusing on growing the economy or attracting investment to British Columbia.
B.C. has been so fortunate. It’s a province of haves, not have-nots. Our economy is based on a province that has a terrific amount of assets. Not only human assets but also assets in the ground, whether it’s the oil and gas industry, the mineral industry, the lumber industry and, as I said first of all, the human assets that B.C. has. I think we have to be very careful how we engage in addressing the issues that government needs to put forth in their mandate and also what it would require to do the balance of letting people do what they need to advance their own lives.
I think a lot of foresight needs to be reassessed. Again, I sure hope, but I have not seen in the budget that there are any plans for future downturns. Again, I don’t think a downturn is that far away.
As I said a little bit earlier about my fiscal upbringing and all that, I’d have trouble…. My dad always brought me up that the best pillow is a clean conscience, and I do sleep pretty good at night. But I would have a bit of an issue if I was in the government looking forward and saying: “Okay, here’s what we’ve done to date. Here’s what we want to do. How can we do this?” Again, the taxation window is, I think, getting a little bit steep for most people in British Columbia.
I really think the members of the Third Party, the Green Party, here in the House would have a problem with…. I think sustainability is front and centre of what they like to see, and I think that they have a bit of difficulty in seeing the direction. I hope that they would be a little bit more vocal on some of the direction that the government is taking.
The carbon tax is an issue. It was brought in by a previous government. It’s been re-emphasized with the current government. There’s a lot of money going forward and a lot of money to be utilized in the future. We all want to leave British Columbia and Canada and North America and this whole earth a better place for our kids and the future generations. We don’t want to just look at one or two or three or four. We want to continue to look into the future, that we do make a difference for those that are coming forward.
As I said, there’s an awful lot of money being collected over the next couple of years. And the amount of money that I’ve seen being put forward for initiatives that are going to make British Columbia a better place to live, with the environment, is not an amount that, in my opinion, should be. It should be more, especially when that cash is being brought forward under the guise of a carbon tax to make British Columbia a bit better place.
To my friends in the Green Party, it was a PR referendum that went through. In my opinion, I think that you’re unshackled now, and you have the opportunity to bring forward, to speak the truth and have the power to fight for your principles. You are a partner of the government. You have a good say in the government. You have the opportunity to say no and to not demand but to work forward on concessions. I hope that you would exercise that authority to ensure that more of this money that is being collected through a carbon tax is being put to the right uses, which is for the future environment that we want to leave British Columbia and a better environment than what we have right now.
I would ask that you take a look at this, not only the Green Party but also the members of government, the members on my side of the House, and take a look at the flag that has been raised on this. Let’s see if we can come up with something collectively that’s going to make everybody happy.
That’s one thing I hear in this House on a continual basis — working together. I can’t think of a better thing to work together on than the future of this province for the next generations.
Environmental concerns sometimes don’t ring well with some people, but all you need to do is look at other places in the world today that haven’t respected their environment or respected what goes on around them. That’s why a lot of them actually, I think, come to British Columbia, because it’s such a wonderful place to live.
Again, on the spending, there’s a substantial increase in spending. I said approximately 26 percent, approximately $13 billion. God, as a kid growing up…. Some of you here will remember the dollar bills. I do remember reading that if you stuck a dollar bill end to end to end, one billion would reach the moon. That will give you an idea about how much money a billion is.
There is $13 billion of additional spending coming forward. A lot of it’s going to good places — don’t get me wrong — but I think care should be taken, because a lot of it’s being borrowed. That is one of the things that we have to be cautious of.
Balancing budgets. I really think that the onus is on a government to balance its budget and not to pass it along. The employer health tax is one. In my small community of Penticton, which I call home, even though I live outside of its boundary, a 1 percent tax increase is being directly attributable to the employer health tax. It’s my understanding that here in Victoria, it’s a 2 percent increase, and I think I heard something on the radio the other morning about X amount of police officers that may lose their jobs in some form of balancing that Victoria is having to do.
There is an opportunity for government, in my opinion, to do some balancing and rebalancing, where this taxation level just does not go on to another level of government, which in turn has to pass it on to their citizens — in a little bit the form of a broader brush. But it’s still a taxation on individuals.
I’ll come back to what I said earlier. I think a lot of individuals are getting taxed out at this point in time. It doesn’t make life more affordable. That is something that I know many of the members on that side — well, all the members in this House — would like to see for people — to make life more affordable, to be able to enjoy the beautiful province and cities that we live in here in British Columbia.
I come back to $10-a-day care. I would ask that if it’s something that is going to transpire…. You’ve made the promise, government. Please deliver it. We on the Finance and Government Services Committee heard this on a continual basis, how it will change people’s lives. It was brought forward in an election. Now it’s time to do it. It’s been almost two years. Please, government, you made the promise. Let’s bring it forward.
I think people in the province of British Columbia have listened to the talk of the current government, and I’m not so sure that this budget is delivering on what was promised or what could be delivered. I really, really hope that the government will reconsider how they plan to tax individuals in this province and what they plan to do with the money.
I don’t think that a short-term gain is what the people of British Columbia want to be utilized with their money. They want governments — whether it’s municipal, regional, provincial or federal — to take a look at the long term. Put the actions and the plans in place for long-term sustainability so that everyone can enjoy the benefits that governments are able to put forward.
To me, again, just touching on it…. I know I look at what’s happening — I’m a voracious reader — in China these days, in the United States these days, what’s happening in Canada and, unfortunately, now what’s happening in British Columbia. I really think that at some point in time here, there’s going to have to be some sober second thought in the government about the future.
I had the opportunity, when the current government was in, to be in Treasury Board, to see the requests coming in from various ministries and to have to be part of an entity that could say yes or no. That entity, at least in my tenure, was always looking forward and doing the things that could be best done going forward.
I think that the government of British Columbia currently can do better. I would ask them, not only on my behalf, not only on behalf of many in this House at this point in time but, most important to me, on behalf of all of the citizens that we represent: make it fair. Make it balanced. Give us the opportunities that you promised or that you have put forward. Let’s make sure that everybody is included in this rise that the government would like to see. Let’s just make sure that the money that is acquired is spent wisely — not just, as the nice young lady, the nice peer of mine, from Burnaby–Deer Lake said….
Let’s not carry on that entity of politicians being assumed to be spreaders of untruths all the time but spreaders of information that is only political. Let’s make sure that everybody can enjoy the benefits that this province provides, in a fair and equitable way.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. Thank you to each and every one of my peers for allowing me to stand.
Again, to my kids, keep up the good work. You don’t want to follow in my footsteps; you want to go a different direction.
Hon. G. Heyman: It’s an honour to take my place in this debate on this budget.
First of all, I want to begin with some acknowledgments and some recognitions. Let me start by acknowledging my family — my immediate family and my extended family — that offer me support in myriad and countless ways, whether it’s moral support, whether it’s physical support, whether it’s helping me, as everybody’s family in this place does, balance the competing demands of work in this chamber — of policy development, of getting around our community and of still having the important, personal lives we all need to lead in order to stay in touch.
I also want to thank the many staff with whom I have the honour of working. First, in my constituency office, my constituency assistants, Nadja Komnenic and Lisa Dekleer, as well as my part-time constituency assistants, Nicholas Bragg and Donalda Greenwell-Baker. There is a reason that people in the community of Vancouver-Fairview feel that if they have an issue, it will be addressed, and that if they have a concern, their voice will be heard. It is the empathy and openness and knowledge that all four of these wonderful staff bring to their jobs on behalf of all British Columbians.
I also want to thank the staff — my ministerial assistants, Caelie Frampton and Eveline Xia, as well as the administrative staff in my office, Kirsten Neilson and Ashley Drew — for managing the demands that come with a ministerial office and doing it with a sense of humour, and offering me support on the long days, which we all need.
I also want to thank the people of Vancouver-Fairview, the constituents and, as the member for Penticton said, not just the ones who voted for me but all of them. All of them taught me on the doorstep, in our conversations, whether it’s during an election campaign or a casual visit, about the issues that they think about every day. The issues that they think about every day are the issues that we need to think about every day and the issues that should inform the budgets that we develop as government and that are debated and voted on in this House.
They are clear. They are appreciative of the challenges. They are often very appreciative of the things that government accomplishes for them, even when they come to the office with a different issue or a complaint. Whether they are small business people, whether they are students, whether they are parents, whether they are health care workers, whether they are teachers, they bring a perspective that we, as legislators, need to listen to and that we benefit from listening to. They keep us honest. They help inform the things that we make priorities.
I also want to thank, beyond Vancouver-Fairview, the people of British Columbia.
I was listening to the member for Penticton speak. I know, for all of the last term, the member was the Chair of the Finance Committee. I was a member of that committee for three years, along with the current Finance Minister, and we annually heard from British Columbians.
It is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone who has served on a Finance Committee and travelled the province to hear from British Columbians not only about what they need to make their communities strong and healthy but about the challenges they face as individuals or as small, non-profit organizations in trying to cobble together the funding to provide important services, whether it’s supporting women who’ve been victims of violence, women and children; whether it’s advocating and supporting literacy programs; whether it’s streamkeepers or conservation organizations; whether it is teachers or administrators of the school system, or parents or students who let us know what’s needed, what they experience on a day-to-day basis…. It is difficult to ignore the issues they bring forward.
They talk about what they do to promote the arts in their community, what they do to promote amateur sport in their community, what they do to make sure their community has the infrastructure that’s needed to be healthy. What often struck us on the committee — and I’m sure current members of the committee experience the same thing — is the amount of work that British Columbians in every community do on a volunteer basis, or over and above their daily job, to make their communities a better place.
To support people who are trying to get established. To learn literacy skills or come back from a health issue or from a difficult time in their life or from having made a couple of mistakes or from overcoming certain challenges. To become productive members of the community to the greatest extent that’s available to them as individuals, while also getting the support that they need. They teach us much. They contribute much. They are what makes British Columbia great.
That’s why it is such a pleasure and an honour to speak to this budget. I recall listening to the Finance Minister’s speech introducing the budget, listening not only to the elements of the budget but to the narrative that wove the budget together, that began with a local community and ended with a local community. For most people, that’s where they spend most of their time. That’s where they place most of their focus.
What I heard and what, I’m sure, the member for Penticton also heard was many of the issues that have been raised by people repeatedly in communities around this province — in Finance Committee public meetings but also on the doorstep and also with people who attend our constituency offices — the little things that would make their life better.
When I meet with people in my constituency, they talk to me very, very clearly about the struggles they face on a day-to-day basis to make ends meet and how a little thing like support with child care would make it so much easier for them to have a few extra dollars to spend on their kids, a few extra dollars for recreational activities that are educational for their children or that just mean that they don’t have to wring their hands at night wondering if they’re going to be able to make ends meet and pay the bills.
How they struggle to deal with the cost of living — endless lines of people over the last few years have come to my office to talk about housing challenges or the challenges they worry about for their kids or that they face as renters. Whether it was Joanna who came to my office to talk about how she and all of the fellow tenants of her building, who had lived there for years, were all of a sudden being confronted with a proposed 35 percent rent increase….
That was allowable under the rules that existed before this government closed the loopholes and changed the rules and made life safer for people who wonder from month to month if they’ll have a place to live and, if they do find a place to live, if they can afford that place.
Sean and the group that he put together from his heritage building in Vancouver-Fairview, who one by one, were being picked off by questionable proposals for renovation that either made their lives intolerable or resulted in renovictions…. The kinds of pressures that were put on people who didn’t have the skills or experience or knowledge of the law to withstand them — these are the kinds of issues that got raised with me, with my colleagues and, I’m sure, with members on the other side on a regular basis.
Issues of housing. Issues of affordability. Issues of justice. Issues, particularly for renters, of being able to have a place to live that they could afford, where they felt like the playing field wasn’t tilted drastically against them. Those are the kinds of issues that we have addressed with legislation, with funding dedicated to housing, with measures to slowly but surely turn around the housing crisis that British Columbians and, in fact, many Canadians, whether it’s in big cities or small communities, identify as one of the single greatest challenges they face.
The members opposite and others have talked about child care, as we have. We have, incrementally over time, made substantial contributions and investments in building a child care system through reducing fees; providing more money for people, for parents, in their pockets; supporting child care workers; increasing the number of child care spaces; and working on building, step by step, a holistic system that can provide affordable, accessible child care.
It’s not just parents and families and children who will benefit from this. It’s our economy. That’s why the business community for years…. Among the issues that they have raised for our government — and, I’m sure, for the previous government — was the need to ensure that we could have active participation of trained and productive parents in the workforce in British Columbia to meet their labour needs and how child care was such an important part of that. The taxes that would be generated by the economic activity would ultimately pay back the expenditures.
It’s not just doing something that makes people feel good. It’s doing something that both the business community and local communities need in order to have healthy economies, well-cared-for children and better lives for parents.
The fee reductions led many parents to come to my office and talk about how, finally, they didn’t have to worry about how they could afford to place their child in child care or whether it actually made better economic sense for one or the other of the parents to quit their job and take care of the child full-time and try to balance the budgetary pressures that come with that. Those aren’t the kinds of choices that people should have to make.
I’m proud to say that under the guidance of the Minister of State for Child Care, the Minister of Children and Family Development and the work that the Finance Minister has done on our budget, it is increasingly — every year, incrementally — a choice that parents do not have to make because affordable, accessible child care is coming to them. In many cases, it has come to them. In other cases, it is coming to them in a thoughtful, careful manner that will increase the availability of the program, lower the cost of the program and ensure spaces are available for children and families over time. We are moving, frankly, quite quickly on that.
The budget takes a number of other measures. I could probably talk for a long time about what all of those measures are. I just want to choose a couple of them.
For years at the Finance Committee, we heard about the challenges faced by caregivers and, in particular, by family caregivers and the inequities that existed. When we have people who are giving of their time to care for vulnerable individuals, they need to be treated with respect.
That’s why it is so important that family-based caregivers looking after children will see their support payments increase by $179 per month starting April 1. That’s the first increase in a decade — in a decade.
I’ve also heard repeatedly from students about how they have to choose between staying in school and getting the education they know they need to get a good job — and businesses know they need in order to get the labour force they need to help propel B.C.’s economy to new heights and diversity…. But they wonder if it’s worth incurring the massive debts that come with student loans.
The fact that the Finance Minister announced that, effective budget day, there would be no more interest on student loans in B.C. is huge. For us in this place, many — not all of us — went to school at a time when tuition fees were lower, summer jobs were plentiful, and we could complete our education and go on to good jobs and make the money to pay off debts that were much smaller. We may not fully grasp the enormity of what a friend and former constituent of mine told me about graduating from university with a $100,000 debt. The interest on that debt alone was a challenge, let alone the principal and the ability to pay it off.
The elimination of student loan interest is substantial, as $2,300 is an estimated saving for a student over a ten-year period. That is significant. It will make a difference for people.
We need to recognize that in the context of a budget that is balanced, has surpluses and provides for a range of services that British Columbians need, we are also ensuring that people who have needs — which can force them into making choices that can impact not only their lives and their ability to earn a living over their lifetime but also the ability of the B.C. economy to thrive — have been addressed by this budget.
Whether it is the investment in hospitals and urgent primary care centres; whether it is the largest middle-class tax cut in British Columbia history with the elimination of the medical services plan, effective 2020; whether it is the spending on child care; whether it is the benefits that are being offered to children and families through the B.C. child opportunity benefit, a huge and substantial investment in family affordability, this budget makes a difference to people where it matters: in their home communities, in their households, in their educational opportunities, in their early education opportunities and in the ability to get their head just a little bit above the waterline.
It’s a huge investment in families — a welcome investment in families — and investments that address very directly the issues that were raised with me by countless parents, students and others who were worried about the future and just saw no response to the needs they raised year after year.
I want to spend a few minutes talking about an issue that I and my ministry are responsible for. That is the issue of addressing matters of the environment and the great challenge that we face in addressing climate change. But I want to preface this by saying that it’s the assumption of our government that it is not a matter of choosing between sound economic development and a prosperous British Columbia and taking action on climate change.
In fact, we’re convinced, as many economists and many in the business community are, that we can and must do both together: develop a modern, diversified, clean, technologically supported economy — including in our resources, including in emission-intensive industries — that is coupled with clear, measurable steps in a climate action plan to reduce emissions to meet our legislative targets over time and in an orderly manner.
I go back to what I learned in my constituency office. At the end of last year, I had a visit from about 35 young students. Many of us will have heard in the news in the last couple of weeks about a young Swedish student, a 16-year-old young woman named Greta Thunberg, who started the notion of a climate strike of young people to bring the attention of all of us to the need to take action to address climate change, not just for their future but for everyone’s future and for all of our lives today. She has been fearless in speaking truth to power and raising the issues that are of concern to young people everywhere.
These very articulate young people came to my office on a Friday, as part of the student strike for climate, to meet with me and to talk to me. I was pleased to spend some time answering their questions. They were thoughtful questions. I tried to give thoughtful answers. I tried to give them a sense of how we were planning to deal with the climate challenge in British Columbia to give them some hope. But I also urged them to get involved, to keep talking to adults, to keep talking to elected officials, to keep talking to all of us about the need to be bold, the need to have courage and the need to be thoughtful and persistent in the actions we take.
In December of last year, we brought forward our plan, our climate action plan and our economic vision for British Columbia’s future called CleanBC. It contains clearly delineated measures in a number of areas: transportation; energy efficiency in commercial, public and residential buildings; changes to industry to reduce emissions over time that will bring us to our 2030 target.
We have modelled 75 percent of it. We will, over the next 18 to 24 months, release incrementally, as we model the remaining 25 percent of reductions in very specific areas that were named in the plan so that British Columbians can see we’re serious, can see that we’re acting with purpose and can see that we will, and are on a plan and a track to, meet our emission reduction targets for 2030, 2040 and, ultimately, 2050.
We’re hearing a lot in other parts of Canada and the United States that actions on climate are hurting the economy. I would argue the opposite. I would argue that when I meet with business people, they’re pretty clear that climate change is an issue that must be addressed and they have a role in addressing it. They understand that part of that is putting a price on pollution. That’s why we have a carbon tax. That’s why Gordon Campbell, when he was Premier, brought in the carbon tax. That’s why, after six dormant years, we decided to raise it incrementally.
While raising it, we are raising also the rebates to families. Low- and moderate-income families will be eligible for up to $400 a year in carbon tax rebate, rising to $500 a year in 2021.
We also understand that what we want the carbon tax to do is to incent emission reductions, not to make it impossible for people or businesses to spend money on emission reductions.
That’s why we’re working with B.C.’s emissions-intensive trade-exposed industrial sectors to design the CleanBC program for industry that allows for rebates, on a sliding scale, for businesses that meet or come close to the world-leading emissions benchmark in their sector and also to take part of their carbon tax and invest it in a fund that will be used to apply existing and, ultimately, new technologies to ensure that our resource industries are as clean as they can be and that we provide them with stability, efficiency, productivity and profit so there can be jobs for British Columbians now and in the future.
We are spending $107 million to help British Columbians switch to cleaner transportation. We are also funding new charging stations, training and research. This not only reduces emissions; it makes life more affordable and comfortable for families, the same as investing in energy efficiency in people’s homes. Ultimately, it reduces emissions. Ultimately, it frees up electricity for use in other purposes like electrification of industry. Also, it makes those homes increase in value. It makes them more comfortable. Most importantly, it makes the energy and heating and cooling costs for British Columbians far, far less.
This is a plan that will make life better for British Columbians, more affordable for British Columbians, that will support our industries, that will help build a modern, strong and diversified economy and ensure that we can continue to be among the leaders that demonstrate to the rest of the world that not only is it time for climate action, not only is climate action and reduction of emissions an imperative, but it is important. It is important for our healthy economy now and into the future, and we will all benefit from it.
I just want to close by saying it’s an honour to be part of a government that brings in a budget that makes life better for British Columbians, makes life more affordable for British Columbians, addresses the very real needs that British Columbians have repeatedly told us, as individual legislators and on the Finance Committee, that they need to see addressed in their communities. It’s also an honour to be part of a government that produces a budget that does invest in jobs, that does invest in diversifying the economy, that does support business just as it supports communities and people around British Columbia.
This is a prudent budget. This is a budget that has growth forecasts below the Economic Forecast Council’s forecast. This is a budget that has contingencies built in. This is a budget that ensures that if there are changes to the forecast that are made, this is a budget that has room for needs that arise or exigencies that occur. Commentators have said that.
The business community. Whether it’s on the climate plan or CleanBC, whether it’s on the provision of child care or investment in housing that they, the business community, identified as among the greatest impediments to business growth in B.C., they see that we’re acting on their priorities. They see a balanced budget. They see prudence. So do British Columbians. British Columbians see us meeting the needs they’ve identified. They see us building a better B.C. through CleanBC for their children and grandkids while we’re taking care of their jobs today.
That’s why I am so proud of our Finance Minister for bringing forward this budget, and I will be proud to stand and vote for it. I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to speak and to take my seat.
S. Thomson: I’m very pleased to rise today to take my place in the debate on the 2019 provincial budget. It’s an honour to stand and to continue to represent the riding of Kelowna-Mission. I want to thank all the constituents for their continued support and engagement in the riding and in doing my role as MLA representing that area.
I had a chance, when I responded to the Speech from the Throne, to thank my family and our constituency assistants. So I probably don’t need to belabour that again, other than that I’d better thank them again or else they will notice the fact that I didn’t. So thanks to my family for their continued support, and thanks to Nan and Janice at the constituency office for all that they do to continue to help and support our constituents on a daily basis.
As we’ve all commented in this House, they do a great job. They’re on the front line in our offices, the first point of contact in many, many cases, and they do a great, great job for all of us and all of our constituents.
Budget 2019 is a budget that I think we can look back on a little bit now, after a week has passed and we’ve had a chance to digest a lot of what’s in it. I do want to start with acknowledging, in my view, some of the positives in the budget, some things that I know are important to constituents in our community.
I like the rate increase for foster parents and home-share providers. I’ve had the opportunity, in the riding, to meet on a number of occasions with organizations and groups, like Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, and heard about the great work they do and the pressures that they have and some of, in their view, the inequities between their situation and, generally, foster parents and things. These changes are, I think, going to be received very positively, both by those organizations and those parents.
The elimination of the provincial component of the student loan interest, on accruing interest and new student loans, is again a positive step. I have a son who’s in second-year engineering at UBC Okanagan. He’s managed so far, through both technical college and heading into engineering at UBCO, to avoid having to take out a student loan. All the credit to him for being able to do that. It’s not quite the same situation for his partner, who is in nursing at UBC Okanagan. I know this step will significantly help her and many other students who find themselves in that situation, where they do need to take the loans out in order to get their education.
The funding for the child and youth mental health supports that’s in the budget is funding that, I presume — I think it’ll become clearer as we go into the estimates process — will support and continue to build and expand on the Foundry model for youth mental health supports, a model that was initiated by our government. I’m pleased that the minister has secured the funding that’ll allow that program to continue and to be expanded into other communities.
I’ve met with the Foundry in Kelowna, with the multidisciplinary team that is there, seen the work that they’re doing. I’ve met with many of the people who have accessed that support. The numbers and the stories of success that are being achieved through that model are really impressive. It is making a difference. I think the model that we initiated is the right approach, and continuing to build on that is a positive step.
These are a number of the positive aspects of the budget, but there are some real, serious concerns, mostly because this budget, while balanced, is really balanced on widely panned expectations that the economic momentum from the years of sound fiscal management under the B.C. Liberals would continue, despite the about-face that the NDP has engaged in.
No new government in history has had such a stellar financial situation to start with, when they came in, than this government. They inherited the best-performing provincial economy in Canada, a surplus, a triple-A credit rating after five balanced budgets in a row — a pretty enviable position to come into. With all of that in mind, what have they proposed for B.C.? It can be summed up, essentially, in two words: taxes and spending.
Despite promises of making life more affordable, they’ve levied greater taxes. With less than a year in power, government has increased taxes by $8 billion — $5.5 billion in the 2018 budget alone. Despite the promises of making life more affordable, taxes implemented are over $1,100 for every taxpaying British Columbian and over $2,500 per family over the next three years.
Despite promises of making life more affordable, an increased carbon tax without a revenue-neutral model means that British Columbians will be paying more to drive their vehicles to work, to take their children to hockey practice, to heat their homes in the winters. The lack of revenue neutrality means that that revenue can’t be used to find ways to reduce emissions or help make other aspects of life for British Columbians more affordable.
The budget was supposed to consist of a lot of affordability measures for all British Columbians. The reality is that the tax increases targeted people and small businesses that this government thinks can handle the financial burden. It’s clear that they’re out of touch with the people they claim to support. Taxing family-owned businesses, important local employers, bastions of our communities across the province, is not the way to make life more affordable.
Forcing these businesses to lay off workers or raise prices is not the way to make life more affordable, as I said. Surprising these family-run businesses, non-profits, even school boards and municipalities with new taxes, like the employers health tax, is not the way to achieve those objectives, nor is it the way to grow our economy.
We’ve seen so many very real examples of where this is taking place — tax increases, property tax increases at the municipal level that are having to be passed on now because of the employer health tax, taxes that are being applied to businesses, to not-for-profit organizations, to child care facilities. All of those trickle-down impacts of that tax are really countering the mantra or the approach of affordability that is supposed to be the foundation of this budget.
I can look at a very specific example in my riding, just to demonstrate how this is impacting. This is a note I received from my constituent, who has sent me the note and the information on it. It starts out:
“Today I received a letter from my daycare, stating that they are increasing their fees because the cost of eliminating MSP fees is being placed on small businesses. Therefore, they are passing the cost on to families. My family does not pay MSP. My benefits are covered through the hospital and the health services agency, but now we are being burdened with this additional cost because we’re not paying MSP, so that it can be free.”
Then the letter that the daycare centre received from government…. As you know, because of the child care fee reduction initiative, any changes to child care fees must be first approved by the province before they can be introduced. The facility, the daycare centre, has advised:
“We applied for this increase last fall and now have received approval. Included below is the portion of our approval letter from the province.”
To highlight the approval, it says:
“Your facility’s employer health tax costs fall under the following eligible circumstances — a sudden or unexpected increase, pressure outside the control of the provider that impacts the facility’s ability to remain operational. The expenses incurred as a result of the implementation of the employer health tax are determined to be bona fide, material and unexpected. Therefore, your fee request has been approved.”
Here we have a situation where, on the one hand, the government talks about wanting to make child care more affordable. We’ve seen that they haven’t achieved their objectives of moving to $10-a-day daycare. On the other hand, they’re implementing a tax that is directly impacting those facilities.
Those facilities are having to apply to the government to increase their fees to parents, increasing the costs. There’s recognition, on the government’s part, that the reason was the employer health tax and that it was “bona fide, material and unexpected.” Hardly the way to build confidence in that sector and those facilities when you, on the one hand, talk about the importance of it and then, on the other hand, implement policies that result in unexpected increased costs which you then have to pass on to the families.
This budget also makes no effort to grow the economy. It expects things to remain just peachy. As has been pointed out by many, no jobs plan, no plan to build on our foundation of natural resources. In fact, the budget projects a 30 percent drop in natural resource revenue. We know that there are winds of uncertainty in major economies, and there are very real concerns around whether this budget protects British Columbia from that fallout in those slowdowns either here or in the global economy.
The spending spree that the NDP are engaged in is simply unsustainable, and in spite of all the spending, we see that many key initiatives that the NDP promised to deliver back in 2017 are notably absent — things like the $10-a-day child care and the $400 renters rebate, hallmark promises in their platform, in their campaign, that are not being delivered on.
We see, instead of paying down debt, increasing debt. We now have a situation where we’re going to be dealing with nine ministries, who have come back in with supplementary estimates over $350 million in spending, having to go back, get approvals and bring that through the process to spend more than the budget approvals that were taken through the estimates process and approved here in this House last year.
We’ve reached a little under the halfway point in their term and, as I said, still no sign of those promises like the $10-a-day child care and the $400 rebate and others. We’ve seen an approach that really, in our view and in my view, doesn’t address many of the affordability issues.
They’ve done it in a way that they portray as doing that, particularly around tackling housing affordability with things that sound good, like the speculation tax and the school tax. But sadly, the school tax that has been put in place doesn’t go to schools, and the speculation tax fails to address the issue of speculation in our real estate market.
Instead, it labels out-of-province Canadians as foreigners and forces 1.6 million British Columbians to prove they’re not speculators. They’re speculators until you take the steps to identify that you’re not. And some very real concerns around the amount of personal information and everything that needs to be provided in order to do that.
We know that a year ago, when it was introduced, constituents — people in my riding and in my neighbouring ridings in Kelowna–Lake Country and Kelowna West — were up in arms and very, very concerned about the impact that this was going to have on our region. We received, city hall received and my colleague from Kelowna West received hundreds and hundreds of letters about people worried about the harmful effects of this ill-informed, ill-considered approach.
We’ve led the charge, through West Kelowna, Kelowna and Langford, in looking for municipalities to have an exemption from this during the process. The Finance Minister said she heard their concerns. The partners in the NDP and the Green Party appeared to also understand the concerns that were being brought forward by the municipalities — the impact it was going to have on housing starts, the impact it was going to have on projects.
We’ve seen projects cancelled in the process, and we’re continuing to see that downturn in housing starts, a downturn in the construction industry. The speculation tax is a big part of that consequence and what we’re currently seeing now.
The Green Party had their chance to end this ill-informed tax, to send it back to the drawing board. They could have done that, but they didn’t. They caved in the process with the agreement around some of the conditions.
The Minister of Finance refused to allow the provision for municipalities to opt out, and now we’re having this negative-billing implementation process around a tax that was ill-informed to start with and now is becoming even more problematic and more ill-informed in terms of its implementation.
The impacts are real. I listened carefully to the comments of the Minister of Energy and Mines when she was making her comments on the budget. She expressed…. I think her word…. I’m not sure exactly the words, but I think it was like surprise about how concerned we are about the speculation tax and how it’s working. Why were we raising all of these concerns about it?
In some respects, I think it might be easier to say that when you come from an area and represent a riding that is not part of the designated area. I wish that minister would come in and sit in our constituency office and meet directly with the families that are being impacted by this — the very real stories of the impact on people’s life plans, on their savings, on their retirement plans, on their succession planning for their children.
These are not people who are speculators. These are not people who have vacant homes. These are properties that are being used for very legitimate family reasons. They’re now being labelled and classified as speculators and having to pay this additional tax.
I got a letter from some constituents, seniors. They live in Kelowna. They have a condo in Sidney. It’s part of a seniors complex in Sidney. It’s not glamorous. It’s over 30 years old, over 30 units. It has rental restrictions in it. They worry about where that provision is going.
These people work very hard in our community in dealing with people at risk, with the vulnerable community, particularly in the opioid overdose challenges that are in the community. They volunteered for over ten years in helping people with active addiction and addiction recovery and faced very personal and stressful challenges.
[R. Chouhan in the chair.]
They bought this condo as a place to have a retreat and a place to get away and recharge. They go about a week a month — come down to this community in Sidney. Something that was very manageable in their situation. Now all of that has been put at risk. They are wondering how they’re going to manage this, with the imposition of the speculation tax on it and being considered speculators, when that is the furthest thing from what they were planning and how they were managing their life.
We have so many other examples of that, very real and personal examples of where the approach — to tax assets and to tax your planning and to tax your future…. It’s direct, it’s real, and it is not addressing the issue of speculation in the housing market. We were hoping — and I was hoping — that we might see some adjustments in this budget that recognized that, maybe some stepping back from it.
We look into the budget now. Even the direct reporting lines for the speculation tax revenue are now rolled into general revenue. I wonder whether that’s because they don’t really want to show exactly what is collected or not collected when we see the implementation. But very, very real concerns.
To have the Minister of Energy, as I pointed out, question why we raise these concerns and question why we are so concerned about the impact of this…. Really, I think, needs to be able to sit down and meet and talk directly with those families that are being impacted….
So lots of concerns in the budget. We need a budget that grows the economy. There’s no plan in this budget. We had to wait 20 minutes into the budget speech before we heard the mention of jobs growing the private sector economy.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce has stated that business confidence has plummeted, with the number of businesses that believe government supports them dropping by half over the last two years. With no actions to stimulate this investment or private sector growth, the business confidence will fall even further.
The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce said in their assessment of the budget…. This is from President Carmen Sparg, speaking at a chamber budget recap breakfast last Wednesday morning:
“While many of the 2019 budget tax initiatives are tied to laudable goals like housing affordability and the B.C. child tax benefits, it’s not working. It’s part of a trend to increase taxes on businesses. These tax increases on business will hinder their ability to invest and grow and ultimately hire more British Columbians. Government needs not only to see what’s ahead, but also what is around the corner. Are the storm clouds gathering?”
I think that’s the very significant issue and concern that we are dealing with in this budget. A continued approach to taxation; increases in spending; the taxation impacts; the double-dipping on the employers health tax, taking $2.89 billion from B.C. taxpayers — all of those things are going to have that cumulative impact.
Businesses are struggling to find a balance between paying the double tax hit and keeping prices competitive for their customers. Municipalities, as I pointed out, are hiking property taxes to cover the new employer health care costs downloaded on them by the province. In a sense, they’re balancing their budgets on the backs of homeowners and municipalities by transitioning this new tax into increased property tax.
The budget is technically balanced in its presentation, but a balanced budget has to do much more than just that. As we all know, it takes careful calculations and analysis — growth trends, assessment of risks. Have the members opposite taken all the risks into account? Can we be confident that you can afford tomorrow what you’re buying today? The spending outlined in this budget really draws that into some question.
I think it’s a little bit like reading a novel or a script that’s written by two different writers with two different understandings of their characters. On one hand, we’ve got one writer or one crafter of it who is optimistic, looking forward in that way but lacking much of the understanding of economies and what’s happening around. And we’ve got another writer who is in possession of all the facts and figures and can see future trends and is expressing significant worries. I think that the problem with this budget is that the two authors appear never to have really spoken to one another.
Because we can see the storm clouds on the horizon. We can see the global forces. And as this government embarks on a tax-and-spending spree, it’s sending the wrong signals. I think it’s setting up a disappointing precedent for anybody who wants to come and do business in B.C. and contribute to the economy. I think we are going to see these challenges continue to develop and manifest themselves in the months ahead as we move into the fiscal year.
I think I have outlined the concerns. I’ve commented on some of the positive aspects that I see, but flagging and identifying some very real concerns in some of the projections that are in place — very serious concerns about the increases in spending, the increase of tax impacts, the long-term sustainability of the approach. We’ll be watching very carefully how that develops.
I do want to comment on one very specific issue in our community. We’ve got some great things going on in our community with our institutions, with our airport, with our tech sector, with some of the development in our community. But one area we looked at carefully and were disappointed to see and need to flag and put on the record….
We’ll certainly expect that either myself or my colleague from Kelowna–Lake Country will be raising this in the estimates for the Minister of Education — the real need for capital funding for the replacement of Rutland Middle School, an aging school that has some very, very significant challenges, accessibility challenges. We have been working for a long time to find the model and the approach to have that school replaced. Enrolment pressures are in the school, so a real need there. As I said, we’ll be looking to continue to advocate for that in the estimates process.
I’ve been very pleased to have had the chance to provide some comments on the budget. I look forward to the continuing of debate. But on the basis of what we have here, certainly on behalf of my constituents, I will not be voting in favour of the budget because I think it really is setting us up for very significant future problems.
Hon. H. Bains: It is a pleasure — indeed, it is an honour — to stand here once again in this House to speak in favour of Budget 2019.
Before I do that, there are a few thanks and acknowledgments that I would like to pass on. First, I want to start by thanking my wife, my family. She’s been rock solid — unwavering support not only when I started in my political life here but even before that when I was a union official. She’d take care of the children and take care of the business at home while I was out most of the time doing my business. I just can’t thank her enough.
Then my family: my children and my inspiration and my source of energy, my two grandchildren, Rhianna and Brayden. Those are the people that I look at when I get up in the morning that give me the drive for why we need to make changes, the positive changes are part of the government that we’re making here today. Then my extended family — my brothers, my cousins, my nephews, my nieces — and my constituency executive.
Over the years, they have been rock solid not only administratively but also financially, managing the Surrey-Newton constituency, which I think I would say is probably one of the best in the province. They deserve a lot of accolades for the work that they do because of the commitment that they have. They don’t take that as a job but as a commitment.
Then I want to thank my constituency assistants. Jasmeet Sangha — many times she’s working alone in that office, taking care of all of those who come to our office about their issues and helping them navigate through sometimes very tough cases. Emily, my EA, and Karen, Michael and Jack, who are my assistants here, try to keep me focused and make sure that I understand my file. They are successful most of the time in that area. They do work hard, and I just want to say thank you to them.
I want to thank my colleagues, as well, in the House. This is a place where you learn a lot, you argue a lot, and you disagree a lot. But I think there are a lot of times when we do agree with the one basic fundamental that we are all here to help British Columbians make this province a better place for British Columbians, not only for today but for generations to come. So I just want to say thank you, and thank you for the opportunity to rise and speak in support of this budget.
I want to say that I support this budget because this budget also speaks directly to our government’s priorities and passions. We are exactly that — passionate about making our province a better place for all British Columbians. It’s not just the wealthy and well connected but everyday citizens who get up in the morning, pack their lunches, go to work, send their children to school. They work hard, fight for their rights at their workplaces, their health and safety, come home, take their children to games, cook, sleep, get up in the morning and do it all over again. They pay their taxes, obey the law.
Those are the people that we are passionate about, to make sure — that’s what we are here for — that they get the support that they need. It’s making life better for every British Columbian, from all corners of the province, who simply wants and needs a helping hand to make life more affordable so that they can afford to do more themselves, whether that is to afford rent or save enough for their first home, to eat a bit better or to afford to send their child to college.
We have seen what happens when government loses sight of their purpose, when they don’t put people first. Our government is about making distinctly different choices, choices based on priorities — different priorities and priorities that put people’s needs first. This budget is about making life better and creating opportunities. Making life better starts with the choices we make today, because budgets are all about priorities. It is about government’s priorities. The 2019 budget builds on commitments we made last year, and I’m so proud to reflect on the progress we have made and the promise of progress yet to come.
The budget includes concrete actions we’re taking that will make real and meaningful differences in the lives of British Columbians. Affordability continues to be our number one priority because it continues to be a huge challenge for many in our society. No matter how hard people try, it often seems impossible to get ahead. That’s why our Budget 2019 is focused on reducing costs and increasing support for British Columbians while fostering a growing economy and creating opportunities for all to prosper from it.
We want to restore a sense of hope for families. That’s why we continue to make significant investment in making life more affordable for people raising children. At the centre of this budget is the B.C. child opportunity benefit, which directly returns nearly $400 million a year to parents in B.C. For families with one child, that represents as much as $1,600 a year, increasing to $2,600 for two children and $3,400 for three children. And that goes till age 18. It used to be that the benefit ended at age six.
The benefit will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and their families, with the largest support going to those with the greatest need. We’re also fully eliminating Medical Services Plan premiums for all British Columbians, saving families as much as $1,800 a year.
With these initiatives, families of four earning $80,000 a year will pay up to 43 percent less tax than under the previous government. This represents the largest tax break, tax cut, for middle-class working people in this province in the province’s history. We are also investing $85 million to support children in care by increasing support payments for foster parents, adoptive parents and extended family members caring for these children, because we recognize the important work this support network plays in raising some of our province’s most vulnerable children.
As all our children grow and graduate, we want to help them start their working lives on the right foot. Today students coming out of schools and universities with undergraduate degrees walk out of those institutions with something like a $35,000 average debt. That is a disincentive for anyone to go for higher education. That is in spite of the fact that of all the jobs that will be created in this province, 82 to 85 percent of those jobs will require some kind of college or post-secondary institution degree or diploma. There is a serious disincentive.
We are helping in that area as well. That’s why we’re eliminating interest on British Columbian students’ loans effective immediately to help reduce the burden of debt these young graduates leave school with. Whether it is young children or young adults we are investing in, it is an investment in future generations, and that matters deeply.
Society is always judged on how it treats its most vulnerable. I can assure you that Budget 2019 is striving to meet that test. For a second year, we are increasing income and disability assistance rates, adding $50 to an individual monthly bank balance. To someone that is struggling to pay rent and put food on the table, this $50 is a world of difference, because people need help, more solutions, fewer barriers. That’s why we’re also investing $26 million into income and disability assistance programs to help people, better support.
Another area where help and solutions are needed, where barriers must be eliminated — and that’s a huge contributing factor to affordability — is housing, which grew to crisis proportions under the watch of the B.C. Liberals. I hear about the struggles people have to find affordable housing almost daily in my constituency — renting or buying. It is completely heartbreaking, and it is wrong, especially when we are living in one of the richest countries in the world, one of the richest provinces in Canada.
That’s why we’re introducing the homelessness action plan with a $76 million investment to help purchase land that will bring the number of modular homes up to 2,200. I need to add that the problems we inherited, like the housing crisis and affordability crunch, were not created overnight and cannot be fixed overnight. But be assured we are systematically addressing the problems. They are being fixed. This particular budget goes a long way toward delivering on both short- and long-term solutions.
Paramount to a better quality of life for families, and overdue for a fix, is also the problem of classroom overcrowding that was previously ignored. We have made a record investment in smaller classroom sizes, better school structures and more student support. Over half a billion dollars is going to schools in Budget 2019 so they can deliver quality education to our young people.
In Surrey alone, there are 12 school projects, expansions or new schools being built right now, approved to the tune of $300 million. This is promising news to 7,000 students that we inherited in portables because of the neglect by the previous government, who refused to build schools when they knew the population growth was continuing.
Let me just add that delivering better services that people depend on also started with caring for and investing in people’s health. We are investing $4.4 billion over three years to expand and upgrade hospitals, equipment and information management systems to make sure that patients have the quality care that they deserve and, as well, to hire more family doctors, nurse practitioners and clinical pharmacists so there’s greater access to medical health for the ill and injured.
We are providing $105 million over three years to support the life-saving cancer care services of the B.C. Cancer Agency, expanding B.C.’s Fair PharmaCare program by $42 million so that we can improve the health outcomes of British Columbians, eliminating deductibles for our seniors on PharmaCare for those who are making $45,000 or under and investing in seniors care and hundreds of new beds, more diagnostic and treatment options.
Because we know that early intervention in mental health leads to better outcomes, we’re also investing $74 million in a new mental health initiative for children, youth and young adults. We’re also increasing support for an additional $30 million, for a total of $608 million to help tackle B.C.’s drug overdose crisis, because one death is too many, and as we all know, there have been far too many tragedies suffered from the opioid epidemic.
There is another sweeping epidemic, a disease of destruction that has wiped out species, is destroying natural habitats and poses a significant risk to future generations, and that must be addressed. It is called climate change. Climate action is the defining issue of our time, and our government is working with the B.C. Green Party caucus to create CleanBC, a road map that will help us to move towards clean, renewable energies and build a vibrant, low-carbon economy.
Over $902 million investment in CleanBC will reduce air pollution and save families money through continuing the clean energy vehicle program, offering incentives for energy-saving home improvements, offering programs to help communities transition to cleaner energy sources. CleanBC will create opportunities for people, businesses, communities, while ensuring a cleaner, better future for everyone, because our government not only has a duty to people who elected us to foster a better future for our province, but we have a duty to our children, our grandchildren, who will inherit the world from us.
What allows us to make investments in families and health care and environment is a government model based on firm financial underpinnings. Our government continues to demonstrate that a balanced budget does not need to come with sacrifices to services or accounting principles, like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
We are proud to have eliminated the operating debt for the first time in 40 years, and while Budget 2019 makes an historic investment in people, it also balanced the budget in all three years of the fiscal plan, with surpluses of $274 million in 2019-20, $287 million surplus in 2020-21 and $585 million in ’21-22. We are working to make sure that all British Columbians have the tools they need to get ahead at every stage of their life, no matter where they are starting from.
Because of our broad focus, we expect to capitalize on opportunities from many sectors around the province — from forestry, mining, fishery, agriculture and tourism — while the budget outlines our plans to support our traditional resource-based industries, making sure they also support the people involved in them, through increased partnership with Indigenous people as well as good jobs for local workers and proper benefits for communities.
At the same time, B.C. recognizes the potential to be a global centre for technology and innovation. We are supporting 2,900 science and tech spaces at the colleges and universities and pursuing partnerships with the state of Washington to help promote trade, grow the region’s tech economy and improve transportation connections between us.
It is an exciting time for our economy and for our province, and I’m so proud to be part of a government — that we are moving in that era of great times.
Likewise, it is an exciting time to be Minister of Labour. I’d just like to give some highlights of my ministry. The 2019 budget resonates strongly for my constituency and my ministry’s own priorities, the work we have been doing over the past 18 months and the work still to come.
To improve the delivery of services that people count on, Budget 2019 provides approximately $14 million over three years to support the modernization of the employment standards branch. This includes $4 million this coming fiscal year and an additional $5 million in the following two years. This increase will allow us to make significant improvements to services for workers and employers, to improve the complaint resolution process and be more proactive in enforcement activities and to provide greater access to information so workers and employers understand what they need to know.
The B.C. Liberals closed half of the employment standards branches in 16 years. They cut staff levels in half and reduced the employment standards budget to an unsustainable level. My ministry can now make long overdue changes to better resource and restore confidence in employment standards for workers and employers in our province by providing timely, accessible and reliable services, by improving fairness for both workers and employers and returning balance and fairness to workplaces.
The 2019 budget also supports the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act, which we introduced last fall and was passed unanimously in this House. Temporary foreign workers can be vulnerable to corrupt employers and recruiters. Because they sometimes lack knowledge, language skills and support systems, it can be difficult for foreign workers to get help. The new legislation allows us to license recruiters and register employers who hire temporary foreign workers. It allows us to proactively audit and inspect businesses and to take enforcement action when recruiters or employers are taking advantage of these temporary foreign workers in B.C.
Work is already underway to begin the on-line licensing of foreign worker recruiters. Soon the employers will be able to register as well. The legislation provides new checks and balances. No longer will recruiters secretly charge illegal fees for jobs and withhold wages. No longer will workers be bullied or intimidated by employers who threaten to deport them, because B.C. will no longer ignore complaints. In fact, we will no longer have to wait on a complaint. With the checks and balances comes increased compliance and proactive enforcement and stiff penalties for non-compliance.
I firmly believe, and my government firmly believes, that regardless of your immigration status, if you’re working in British Columbia, you enjoy the same rights and protections as any worker. We will ensure that that happens through the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act.
My ministry also is looking at the Employment Standards Act, which is long overdue for modernization. Workplaces have changed significantly over the past 25 years with how work is structured. But our minimum standards haven’t always kept pace with the changes that impact workers. Globalization and technology and the evolution of precarious work has resulted in fewer protections and benefits for workers. We need to restore and strengthen our minimum standards and raise the bar for better work conditions.
Workers and employers rely on employment law to know and understand their rights and to reflect their changing needs to ensure workplaces remain fair and efficient. In addition, workers rely on government to protect and enforce those rights. We are engaging in consultations before tabling amendments this spring, while also working to transform the employment standards branch to make it more modern and more responsive.
Coming full circle, if I can, as I mentioned earlier, the 2019 budget addresses affordability as one of the biggest challenges we face today. Affordability depends on support and services, but it also depends on fair wages and people that work. For many that make minimum wage, affordability means whether or not you can make ends meet with every single paycheque. It can mean choosing to pay rent or choosing to buy groceries.
That’s why we established the independent Fair Wages Commission in 2017 to advise the government on approaches to raising the minimum wage — but with increases that are regular, measured and predictable. The Fair Wages Commission has now completed a substantial part of its mandate and will be wrapping up this work this year.
In Canada, one of the most affluent countries in the world, and in B.C., one of the healthiest economies in Canada, there are still far too many working poor. It is simply unacceptable that anyone who will work full-time still struggles in poverty. All British Columbians want and deserve family-supporting wages.
To help to lift people out of poverty, we have established a fair and predictable path towards reaching a minimum wage above $15 an hour, while abolishing discriminatory, lower liquor-server wages by 2021. These increases are measured, reasonable, and they provide the predictability and certainty that the businesses need.
In the past year, B.C. wages have grown by over 4 percent, the highest in Canada, and with that, people’s quality of life has increased too. Critics have said that we will lose jobs, yet unemployment rates in B.C. remain the lowest in the country. You’ve heard some of those arguments here today, and you will continue to hear those arguments from my friends on the other side — that if you raise minimum wage, businesses will leave the province, and there will be job loss. It’s all fearmongering, and most of the economists have agreed that it is nothing but fearmongering.
Affordability and good-paying jobs depend on a thriving business climate as well. That’s why we secured $800 million in business tax reductions, with a partner in the federal government, to help boost our competitiveness. That’s why we cut small business corporate income tax rates by 20 percent. That’s why, as of April this year, we eliminated PST on non-residential hydro rates, which of itself is $150 million annual cost saving to B.C. businesses.
What this boils down to is a government with a distinct and different approach, based on a people first priority and the firm belief that a good government doesn’t have to come at the cost of a good life lived by everyday British Columbians.
As I said earlier, there are no silver-bullet solutions guaranteeing a fast remedy for many of the challenges we are presented with. We are a government that inherited big problems. Fixing them will not be easy, and it will not be as fast as I would like to see, but we are committed to finding sustainable solutions, solutions that best serve the people of this province. For 16 years the B.C. Liberals only helped their friends and their donors. They lost touch with British Columbians.
I believe that the path outlined in this year’s budget truly illustrates that we are helping make life better for all British Columbians. It illustrates different priorities and choices than the previous government and different fundamental principles of putting people first and making life better for them. I believe that the budget is working and the results are showing, as our economy leads the way and the people’s lives are improving.
This budget invests in everyday people and their communities — in workers, employers, in a strong economy and competitive business environment. It invests in strong foundations for youth in primary, secondary and post-secondary education; in jobs; in traditional resources and emerging technology sectors; in better health care for patients, health care workers and seniors; in our path towards true and lasting reconciliation with First Nations; in community infrastructure; and in the global community fight to protect and restore our environment, through CleanBC.
We are investing, in the simplest of terms, in people and the services people depend on all across the province. For that, I am proud of our government and our record and our vision that was set out in this budget. I couldn’t be prouder when I saw this budget delivered by our Minister of Finance.
Also, a clear message in this budget is that workers in this province and the employers in this province know that they have a government that respects workers. They value the work that they do. They respect and care for their health and safety.
What they have been experiencing in the last 16 years — there was disrespect towards the workers. There was the time when their health and safety regulations were gutted and their benefits for injured workers were eliminated.
That has all turned around, because we have different priorities. Those were their priorities. We respect workers. That’s why we’re bringing these changes. We have just started. Can you imagine what will be coming in the next two to three years?
With that, I will take my seat. It was a pleasure. It is always an honour to stand here and speak my mind about what British Columbia is and what our direction is all about.
L. Larson: I’m pleased to be able to add my response to the budget speech. As this is my first opportunity to speak this session, I will start by thanking those people who support me every day in my responsibilities to my riding: my constituency office staff, Colleen and Patt, who face each challenge with good humour, doing their best for myself and our constituents and also supporting each other.
I’m also extremely grateful for my family, who, though they can’t always understand what motivates me to do this work, never waiver in their support for what I do — my husband of 48 years, Larry, and my daughters, Marnie, Donna and Lynnet, and their families, who are always letting me know how much they care, though now it’s through texts not phone calls.
A special thanks to my riding president, Everett Baker, for all he does to help me to keep in touch with those who support me in my riding.
I will, as usual, start with my thoughts on the past year of events in my riding of Boundary-Similkameen, as all of government had a role to play in responding to the unprecedented floods that occurred in the riding and the recovery efforts that are still ongoing.
While fires created havoc in my riding four years ago, the impact from the floods of 2018 was far greater. From Princeton to Christina Lake and the entire South Okanagan, there was not an area that did not feel the impact of the floods. While the greatest impact on residences was experienced by the people of Grand Forks, with hundreds of homes either destroyed or damaged, there was also damage to residences in greater Princeton; Keremeos; Cawston; the Lower Similkameen First Nation; the towns of Osoyoos, Oliver and OK Falls; and the rural areas of Willowbrook and Twin Lakes.
The water was relentless, from overflowing rivers and lakes to groundwater issues that still continue today. The regional district of Kootenay-Boundary and the regional district of Okanagan-Similkameen were the government bodies in charge of the emergency response to the flooding and, for many months, continued to staff their centres and respond to calls for help.
They did an incredible job with limited resources considering the challenges of a flood of this magnitude and the physical size of the areas that they were responsible for. I want to thank them again for all their hard work.
Emergency management B.C. was also very quick to respond to the initial disaster, with immediate support for the RDOS and the RDKB in getting help to the impacted areas.
I’d like to thank the parliamentary secretary for EMBC, the member for North Coast, for her efforts to assist and for the many visits she made to the areas impacted by the flood, and also the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, who allowed me time to meet with him on issues as they arose, for individuals and communities, after the initial disaster. It is true that natural disasters are non-partisan.
Now we move forward, but life for hundreds of people in the Boundary-Similkameen will never be the same again. Many of those who have lost their homes are now waiting for federal support, in addition to provincial support, to receive buyouts or relocation money to start again. For the most part, residential requests are manageable.
However, businesses and agriculture that were impacted did not fit into any accepted criteria for financial assistance. The budget makes no mention of a change in how disaster financial assistance will be administered and who is eligible for assistance or what new moneys would be dedicated to developing long-term plans.
It became apparent that there needs to be better communication between ministries after the initial disaster — a more coordinated response and better communication to do the huge load of work in recovery, which is still ongoing and will take years to complete.
Many businesses in the Grand Forks downtown area have been unable to reopen and since the beginning of the flood last May have had no source of income. The grant being administered through the Red Cross for business owners is most welcome, but the business owners have had to rely on their own unlimited resources to feed their families and have been unable to support any staff during this time frame.
Recovery is also hindered by a shortage of skilled labour to do renovations and rebuilds. Disaster financial assistance, under its current criteria, does not apply to businesses, including campgrounds, rental properties, motels, etc.
Agriculture also took a big hit in the Similkameen and the Boundary. Orphan dikes that had been in place along the riverbanks for more than 70 years were destroyed, and hundreds of acres of farmland is now covered in gravel and debris from the river. Much of that agricultural land is not recoverable. While orphan dikes are not new, the issue needs to be addressed before the next flood. And there is no disaster financial assistance for agriculture either.
With consecutive years of disasters in B.C., it would be prudent to fund these issues appropriately. Many of the owner-operators of businesses in Grand Forks and farmers throughout the region will not return to normal operation, and that will have a negative effect on the greater economy of the entire region. Dozens of these businesses have closed permanently, as their buildings have been condemned, and until new construction happens, there will be many holes in the downtown area.
Some residents and business owners have moved permanently to other communities, making an economic recovery even slower. The city of Grand Forks now has a diminished tax base but will still have to support infrastructure. The Boundary communities will need support from all levels of government for the foreseeable future.
The budget focused on who to give funding to and not necessarily on support for the employers and employees who supply that money to government.
Agriculture received one paragraph in the budget speech. The Minister of Agriculture has expressed many times in this House her passion for agriculture and food security for British Columbians, but there is a disconnect between the minister’s passion and the government’s priorities as outlined in the budget.
It is the farmers themselves that need support to stay in business. Already the recent minimum wage hike is causing grave concern. In a speech at the annual BCFGA meeting in Penticton, president Pinder Dhaliwal talked about the many challenges facing fruit growers in B.C., with the rise in wages creating a tipping point for the profitability of their members.
They worry about continuing support for the temporary foreign worker program and the seasonal agricultural worker program. The employer health tax now rests on their shoulders also. The only bright spot mentioned at the AGM was the continuation of the replant program that the previous Liberal government brought in.
Looking ahead, the watershed throughout the province, and my riding particularly, needs to be managed to anticipate both floods and drought conditions. When the fire devastates the land, flood follows. The flow of water could be controlled at the source with the cooperation of First Nations, the provincial government and local authorities. And some very intense work needs to be done to clear the debris and gravel from the stream beds before the next flood hits. Dedicated funding is necessary to support watershed issues. The budget makes no mention of funding to do the much-needed work in our watersheds.
Again, there’s nothing in the budget about our forests and the need for more supports to better manage the threats from fire, flood and pests so that the forest industry in British Columbia can remain viable and continue to provide the local sustainable jobs that support our rural communities. While a coast forest sector revitalization initiative was announced in January, there is no mention of how forestry in the rest of the province will be supported by this government.
On education, the budget speech repeated the same promises from a year ago, and progress on those promises is not even measurable. A comprehensive rural education consultation took place in 2016-2017. To date, the report has mostly been ignored by this government.
Teachers, school trustees and local parents all provided their ideas and insights into how to ensure that the standard of education of students in rural British Columbia was equal to that of the Lower Mainland.
Many of the issues identified were similar in all areas of education provincewide, but many were unique to rural and First Nation communities. Attracting educators, transportation for teachers and students, access to local facilities and continuing education supports for rural teachers were just a few of the concerns expressed. There is no mention in the budget speech of support for rural education.
Another concern that was not addressed was the transportation corridors outside of the Lower Mainland. We are fortunate, in my riding, to have major highways in good repair and well maintained, but the majority of residents do not live beside the highway, and our secondary roads are in poor condition. The decision about which roads get repaired or not rests on the shoulders of our local regional governments and taxpayers, in partnership with our local department of highways, who, with limited budgets, must decide the winners and losers each year.
Major industries that support this province — like oil and gas, mining and forestry — are not situated on major highways, and the British Columbians who work in those industries need safe transportation to and from their homes and workplaces.
In addition to road conditions and safety, last year rural British Columbia lost Greyhound bus service, and despite meetings with the highway minister months before, there was no help or interim transportation solution. While some major highways retained some service through another carrier, most of the small communities in my riding are still without transportation options or have very infrequent, unreliable service.
The carbon tax is another tax that affects those who have no option but to drive their own vehicles, another burden for rural British Columbia. It appears that a rail service to our neighbours across the border is more important than transportation for the rural taxpayers of British Columbia. There’s no acknowledgment of this rural issue in the budget.
In suggesting in the throne speech that cell phones should be more affordable for British Columbians and then ignoring in the budget speech those who do not have cell phone service shows this government’s ignorance of issues in rural B.C. Might I remind the government that there are still many areas of the province of British Columbia without cell phone service at all, including many large geographic areas of my own riding. Surely the priority would be getting cell phone service to everyone first, before trying to reduce the costs of service to those who already have it.
There are no plans to increase the number of jobs in British Columbia, and it is the people who work and pay taxes that supply the money that supports the health and education and all the spending of all the ministries. We have lost jobs in B.C. under this government, and there is no plan to create more jobs, attract investment and build the economy.
Under the current policies of this government, debt will only increase as more money is spent on projects that benefit only a small percentage of citizens, without a plan to replace that spending with new revenue — revenue from new jobs, not from creating new taxes for those who currently work hard paying the taxes or taking more from those who create the jobs that we so desperately need to support the British Columbia economy.
It is commendable that there is a desire to settle First Nation issues, as mentioned, and rights of title on the land base is in crisis in the central Cariboo and other parts of British Columbia. Collaboration is mentioned in the throne speech, but the action of this government has picked winners and losers in Indigenous communities also. The policies they are promoting are not targeted to support all First Nations in B.C. but focused on those who support the ideologies of this NDP-Green coalition in their efforts to prevent pipelines through their territories and resource development.
There are many First Nations in the north who are working in partnership with industry to create jobs and to move our natural resources to market.
Where is the support in the budget for some of the First Nations initiatives, those who are involved in green energy, like run of river and wind power? Those are being threatened by this government’s new direction in green energy.
There’s nothing here to encourage investment, nothing to encourage job creation. Eighteen taxes in the last year that are either new or have increased under this government are making life more unaffordable for every one of the people who are paying those taxes.
The pool of B.C. workers who can afford to pay all those taxes is shrinking. Who is government making life more affordable for? This budget offers nothing for the majority of the tax-paying people of the province of British Columbia and is therefore not supportable.
Hon. D. Donaldson: I’m very pleased to take my place here in response to the budget speech. I will be referring to a number of matters, perhaps, and definitely presenting a different view from the member for Boundary-Similkameen on a number of points but also supporting her on a number of points around the initiatives to support communities like hers, who have gone through some pretty drastic disasters from natural causes like wildfire and flooding.
I want to start off by saying that I’ve been in this Legislature for ten years now. It has been over ten budgets. Without any partisanship, I must say this is the most impressive budget I have ever witnessed, from the aspect of being able to see that there are targeted specifics that will make a difference in people’s daily lives in this budget. At the same time, this budget advances large, visionary subjects as well.
This government is doing this and the budget is doing this while addressing affordability and services and supporting a strong, sustainable economy and, in addition to this, displaying exemplary financial and fiscal management. The budget is balanced. There are surpluses in the next three years of $274 million, $287 million and $585 million over the next three budget cycles.
Our debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest since the 2008 financial crisis, and we’re the only province with a triple-A credit rating from all three major international rating agencies. As many members know, that makes a difference on interest payments and investment certainty as well.
I’m going to talk about the budget in relation to three areas — the impact it has on people living in the constituency that I represent, the constituency of Stikine; the impact from the budget uplift to the ministry I represent, Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development; and the impact that this budget has on the province from the perspective of the government as a whole. I’ll start off first with some of the targeted specifics that will make a difference in people’s lives on a daily basis.
First, it’s important for me to introduce and acknowledge the work that my constituency assistants do, both in the Smithers office, Shelley Worthington, and in the Hazelton office, Julie Maitland. We are a constituency that is large and with various population centres, so it’s important to have two constituency offices, something that was never done before in Stikine.
The reason I want to acknowledge their hard work is that many of the budget items that I’m going to discuss as targeted specifics will make a difference in the lives of people who come in to our constituency offices looking for a way forward and finding it difficult in their daily lives.
I’ve noted, in some of the punditry on this budget, as well as in some of the comments that I’ve heard from the opposition side, this notion of no big announcements in this budget. Well, you know, announcements in this budget that put food on people’s tables, that allow parents to buy new shoes for their kids, that have the ability for parents to perhaps buy a winter coat for their children are big announcements.
That’s addressed directly in this budget. For example, the B.C. child opportunity benefit is being increased by almost $1,000 per year, up from $670 a year to $1,600 a year — also expanding that child opportunity benefit up to 18 years old. So for parents with one child, up to $1,600 a year. For two children, $2,600 a year. For three children, up to $3,400 a year. This is a big announcement.
When parents come into our office and discuss with the constituency assistants, or if I’m meeting people on the street in Hazelton or Smithers or any of the other fine communities in Stikine, many are struggling with putting food on the table. Not only food on the table but having to make horrific choices between paying hydro bills…. Many of the residences in the area I represent use a combination of wood and electric heat, and because of choices by the previous government around B.C. Hydro, their hydro bills are very high.
Making the choice between food and paying hydro is not mythology. I’ve had people talking to me about having to make those choices.
This B.C. child opportunity benefit is not a small deal. It’s a big announcement that will make a big difference in people’s daily lives. It also goes fundamentally to addressing the issue of child poverty, because when you’re talking about the child opportunity benefit, you’re talking about families that are living in poverty and, therefore, children who are living in poverty.
This goes a long way to addressing that, giving people a leg up and just, as I said, being able to buy a new pair of shoes. You know, kids grow quickly. Shoes are incredibly expensive, and there’s tremendous pressure for kids to fit in at school and in their peer groups. Just being able to go year to year, to be able to buy new shoes, is an incredible cost for parents.
[J. Isaacs in the chair.]
I also want to say there was another big announcement in this budget when it comes to income and disability assistance rates. It’s the first meaningful increase, other than the one that we instituted in Budget 2017, in ten years. It means another $50 a month. Since we’ve been elected, there’s been a $150-a-month increase in income assistance. That translates to a single individual on income assistance having their rates increased by 25 percent.
That is a big announcement because it means, again, putting nutritious food on the table. It means, perhaps, being able to pay for a telephone so that if people are looking to keep connected to family members or looking for employment, they can pay for a telephone, whether it’s a cell phone or a land line. These are big deals, and those are big announcements for the people of Stikine and across the province who are needing this kind of assistance to have a leg up on things.
The budget also noted…. Another big announcement was in higher education, eliminating interest on B.C. student loans. I can’t describe how many times I heard this when I was part of the Finance Committee for three years, touring the province. We had many representations from students about the crippling debts that were accrued as those students pursued post-secondary education.
In fact, on average, it could save students $2,300 in interest rates over a ten-year period if they’re coming out of post-secondary training with a debt of $28,000. And $28,000 isn’t necessarily a big number. There are lots of students who are coming out with much higher debt than that.
This eliminating of interest on student loans is long overdue. It’s a great assistance for students, again, coming out, trying to get a leg up and trying to get started on their lives.
This is not the first time we’re attempting to address the issue of higher education and access to higher education. In last year’s budget, we also had the provincial tuition waiver program for English language learning, for adult basic education and for former youth in care. This budget builds on all those three areas by eliminating the interest on B.C. student loans.
Those announcements in last year’s budget also made a huge difference. In my area, the announcement around adult basic education was a phenomenal change for people — the fact that they didn’t have to pay for adult basic education. Many people, for a variety of reasons, weren’t necessarily successful in their teens at high school and, therefore, either discontinued or took jobs. And now they’re finding, later in life, that they need high school graduation in order to continue with higher education and benefit themselves through better jobs.
The tuition instituted by the last government on ABE was an impediment, and a really serious impediment — sometimes $1,700 for an adult looking to find their high school graduation through ABE — so that was a well-received announcement. It’s the foundation that we built on for eliminating interest on student loans.
The whole concept is simply access to post-secondary education so people have the ability to acquire skills and jobs and pick themselves up to a better degree in life. So when I hear from pundits and some people on the other side about no big announcements…. Those are three of many examples that clearly demonstrate the difference between this budget and budgets under the previous government.
We’re making changes, targeted changes, that will make a difference in people’s lives — differences around child poverty, differences around nutritious food and meaningful increases in income and disability assistance, differences in creating easier access to post-secondary education. That’s the people that this budget and much of this budget is focused on, and that’s why I’m extremely proud about those targeted specifics.
I’ll now move on to another area. Why I find the budget was the best I’ve ever seen is that not only were there targeted specifics that’ll make a difference in people’s lives, a major difference; it was also addressing a larger vision. We’ve had, in B.C., some major warnings. We’ve had droughts in areas of the province that had never seen droughts. We’ve had droughts that have created differences in ecosystems.
I think about Vancouver Island and the continuing droughts that Vancouver Island has experienced and the impacts that’s had on western red cedar on the east side of the Island. I think about droughts in areas that you’d never expect, like the northwest through the north central part of the province that was experiencing level 4 drought conditions this past year in a huge swath that would normally be associated with more of a coastal climate, on the west end of that zone, and still wetter areas in the eastern part of that central zone.
We’ve had wildfires. I don’t have to remind members here of the impacts of wildfires over the last two years. We had the biggest wildfire season ever in 2017, followed up by the biggest wildfire season ever in 2018 — 2.5 million hectares, between those two years, of forests impacted by wildfires.
We’ve had extreme weather. The member for Boundary-Similkameen who just preceded me talked about floods in her constituency, Grand Forks. The year before that we had flooding all through the Okanagan.
We’ve had impacts, in a larger sense, of what the changing climate and changing weather patterns have meant to salmon returning to our streams. The north Pacific has become warmer. Predators have moved further north. The food chain has changed.
All of these issues relate to climate change and our responsibility to take action in our own jurisdiction around climate change. That larger vision, as well as the targeted specifics of the budget that’ll make a difference in people’s lives, was also addressed in the budget presented to this Legislature in CleanBC.
CleanBC is a commitment to addressing climate change and carbon emissions in our jurisdiction. It’s our responsibility. It’s everybody’s responsibility. It wasn’t simply a notion; it was an allotment of $902 million over the next three years. That is a huge announcement — the most significant addressing of climate change and making differences in people’s daily lives.
You know, $41 million over the next three years in CleanBC is to make energy-saving improvements more accessible and affordable. I’ll give an example of that. For members who live in colder constituencies — I see a few on the other side who are well aware of this — you’ll go by someone’s house, maybe your own house even, and you’ll see icicles dangling from the roof over areas where heat is escaping from homes.
Oftentimes that’s in areas where there are windows or doors. Certainly, in my house, it’s windows and doors where you see a lot of the icicles forming. Icicles form when it gets to 20 below. It warms up, there’s some melting, and 20 below again. In many of the places where the members in this chamber right now live, there are 20-below conditions.
Part of CleanBC, part of that $41 million over the next three years, is a program of up to $1,000 to upgrade windows and doors to be better insulated. It’s a recognition that heat loss means that there’s more energy consumption in residences. If you can cut down on that energy consumption, you can cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. I know that many people, in rural areas especially, will be very pleased about a $1,000 program to upgrade windows and doors.
There’s also, under that $41 million over the next three years under CleanBC, $2,000 to replace a fossil fuel heating system with an electric air-source heat pump. Again, that’ll be a welcome addition to people in northern areas. Many people in northern rural areas use a combination of electricity or natural gas. Some are still on propane and oil. An electric air-source heat pump can cut down on fossil fuel use and, again, address the bigger issue of greenhouse gas emissions.
Also under CleanBC is a program where people will be able to access up to $6,000 a year on the purchase of zero-emission vehicles. Zero-emission vehicles were met with some doubt when they first came out, for northern areas especially, where distances are large. There’s the question of whether electric batteries would remain fully charged in the cold conditions throughout the year.
I remember being up in Dease Lake, and it was minus 35. I was out in a parking lot to unplug my car, which wasn’t a zero-emission vehicle, and as I was wrestling with the extension cord to unplug it from the block heater, the extension cord snapped in two. So it was pretty darn cold. But I did see, and I’d heard about this person, one person up there driving a Prius. I talked to them, and sure enough the ability of zero-emission vehicles to function properly and function well in cold climates, such as in rural areas in B.C., is now proven.
The ability to save up to $6,000 on the purchase of a zero-emission vehicle is not simply something that’s attractive to people in urban areas, but it’ll be attractive, and is attractive, to people in rural areas as well, especially as we see advances in technology around light-duty pickup trucks and zero-emission vehicles as light-duty pickup trucks. That technology is going to be here quite soon. We’re seeing prototypes, and by 2020, we’ll see one coming on the market. Those are attractive vehicles for people living in rural areas.
Again, the idea goes back to the bigger vision that we have a responsibility to address actions that will address climate change in B.C. for all those reasons I talked about to start off this section.
Importantly, there’ll be $20 million under CleanBC for new public fast-charging stations and hydrogen fuelling stations. Of course, that’s a welcome addition for the northern rural infrastructure, when there are long distances between towns and also, possibly, between facilities where you can recharge your zero-emission vehicle.
Finally, there’s a lot under CleanBC to talk about. But I want to leave time for talking about the great budget uplift to my ministry, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. But I’ll finish off. One more highlight under CleanBC is the $15 million that is being invested this year to make sure remote communities are supported as they switch to cleaner energy.
There’s a community in my constituency as well as a number throughout the province who are still on diesel generation — remote rural communities. That obviously is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. The $15 million — part of that will be to assist those communities to switch to cleaner energy. That’ll be a welcome event for those communities as well.
I want to move on to some of the budget announcements that relate to the ministry I represent. Before I do that, I wanted to acknowledge that it’s a huge ministry from a very large budget — but also a lot of employees, both part-time and full-time, around all parts of the province. Close to 5,000 people work within the ministry, and the ministry touches on every area of the province.
To keep that running well, we have many people within the bureaucracy but also the team that I deal with within my office directly. I just want to acknowledge ministerial assistants Tim Renneberg, Kenn McLaren; my executive assistant, Tristan Jones; and directly within the office, the administrative coordinator, Lisa Silverio and the administrative assistant, Sandra Purdy. Without their help, it would be next to impossible to organize and run such a major, major ministry.
There’s lots to touch on, and in such a short time, regarding the budget and its implications in the ministry I represent. But the one part I’d like to start off with is a 58 percent increase in the wildfire management budget. That equates to $111 million over the next three years. Just think about that for a second. A 58 percent increase. It’s a $37 million a year increase. This is a recognition not only of the amazing work that the B.C. Wildfire Service does but also a recognition of wildfires’ behaviour and characteristics becoming much different and much more difficult to manage.
That increase will address our No. 1 priority, which is public safety when it comes to fighting wildfires and also getting to fires sooner, addressing them sooner and ensuring that the public is safe. That’s the No. 1 priority. That infrastructure is protected is another priority. That critical infrastructure, such as communications and electrical transmission lines and highways, is the No. 3 priority.
That 58 percent rise in the forest wildfire management budget will do a number of things. I’ll touch on a couple of them in the short time I have. We’ll see an increase of type 2 contract firefighters, adding up to 80 of that type of skilled firefighter, bringing the total that we have up to 160. We’ll also be able to lengthen the time that we can contract those type 2 contract firefighters from 80 to 100 days for an operating period. It’s often important to have people ready to go. By lengthening the ability to have the operating period up to 100 days, we can have these people on standby and ready if the fires aren’t burning at the time but will be burning into the future.
We’ll also be able to use that 58 percent increase to integrate the use of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and increase the length of the firefighting aircraft contracts. We’re going to extend those, especially for the Fire Boss skimmer group, from 100 days to 120 days. This is important support. Air support alone does not put out fires — it takes ground support as well as air support — but they’ve become an integral tool to fighting fires, especially the Fire Boss skimmer group.
We’re also going to add five additional medium-lift helicopters under a long-term contract for the 2019 fire season. Also, some other important areas: we’re going to increase access to technology, including tablet computers in the field and unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, all under the 58 percent increase in funding. That’s important, and so is prevention.
We have allocated a $60 million program now, under this budget, called the community resilience initiative program. Unlike the previous program under the previous government, which wasn’t 100 percent funded, it allows 100 percent funding for communities to address fuel management within their municipal boundaries and a whole host of other fire safety activities that can be accessed.
I know communities really found this an attractive program. It was announced, and now it’s fully funded in this budget, at $60 million — $20 million for the current fiscal year, and $20 million and $20 million over the next two years. The program is oversubscribed already, but the first round of grant recipients will be announced very soon. I know it’s an appreciative audience.
We also have the forest carbon initiative, an additional $13 million, under this budget, which relates to prevention as well. That money allows us to capture equivalent in and maximize the federal contribution to the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C.’s $150 million fund that we set up. Together with the federal funding and the extra $13 million that we’ve put in this year, that’ll add up to $290 million over the next three years.
It’s called the forest carbon initiative, because it’ll allow us to address forest health issues in the forest, to go in and clean up areas that have a lot of coarse, woody debris and standing timber that’s no longer merchantable, to replant those forests and replant areas that were burned in previous seasons — to increase that program as well. This is boots on the ground, actual people being employed in communities to do that.
I see my time is rapidly coming to an end here, and there’s so much more to talk about on the job front. We’re investing $3 million this year in order to create and implement the coast forest sector revitalization program. That’ll mean more jobs in forestry, in the coast sector, to address the decline over the last decade and a half that we saw under the previous government. There’s also an $800 million contribution for advanced depreciation for investment in capital. That could relate to new mill investment as well.
Of course, we’ve extended the rural dividend program into year 3, the next year out — the $25 million rural dividend program that many communities count on for fantastic projects that make their communities more attractive, more livable and also more economically viable.
I’ll just finish off there by saying the part of the budget that involves co-creating legislation to implement the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous people was announced in the budget. That will be something. It will be a visionary effort, something that’s going to create more certainty in the province and something that I’m so looking forward to.
To conclude, the budget was the best I’ve ever seen as an MLA over the last ten years. It is something that has targeted specifics that’ll make a difference in the daily lives of people, as well as looking after the larger picture, the visionary picture.
S. Gibson: Thank you all for the welcoming accolades here in this House. It’s always a privilege for me to rise here on behalf of my constituents of the beautiful Abbotsford-Mission riding. I just want to acknowledge those that have made it possible for me to be here today, having been elected first in 2013.
I want to, first of all, thank my wife, Joy, who has put up with me in politics. This is my 38th year in elected office, local and provincial.
My wife, Joy, had the most important job I think you can have anywhere. She was a first-grade teacher. She would get the kids at the beginning of the year that couldn’t read or write. At the end of the year, they can read or write. It’s probably a much more important job than being an MLA, frankly. We need MLAs, but being a first-grade teacher is a very important job.
She’s understanding. I’m away a lot, for many weeks at a time, here and elsewhere. Fortunately, she does always welcome me back. That’s encouraging, I think.
My two daughters. Our youngest daughter, as some of you know, is a special needs young woman and brings challenges to our family that are quite stressful at times. Our oldest daughter lives in Yarrow, in the Chilliwack riding. She moved there last year. She was living in an apartment near city hall in Vancouver. It was so small, you had to go in the hallway to change your mind.
She and her husband and her three boys — we got them to move out to Yarrow, which was a real treat. They’re probably a 15-minute drive. I’ve run out there a few times. It takes me about two hours and 15 minutes to run to Yarrow from my place in Abbotsford.
It’s a thrill to have them close by and to see those little boys grow up — ages eight, five and three. I suspect the youngest will not ever get his own clothes. It will all be hand-me-downs.
I want to acknowledge my wonderful constituency assistants, Jean and Joyce. Somebody, an assistant of another MLA, once told me that it’s your CAs that get you re-elected. I can’t help but agree, in many ways, with that assertion.
Jean and Joyce look after the office admirably. The office is on the main street in Mission. It’s got great visibility, and they’re there all the time. They look after constituents admirably. Many folks come in with issues relating to ICBC, WorkSafe and all of the various ministries and social agencies. Jean and Joyce spend a great deal of time, I would say, ministering to them.
Interestingly, I use that word with some choice, actually, because my assistant Jean was a former pastor of a church. A lot of those counselling skills and those values she brings to the office. People tell me so frequently. They appreciate her very much.
Of course, the staff here in Victoria — LAs, research, communications — all do so much to make my life more pleasant and look after me here in Victoria. I’m sure all colleagues can similarly share their experiences.
Representing the residents of Abbotsford-Mission is a real privilege. I always realize what an honour it is. I want to just enumerate. People sometimes think: “Well, you’ve got Abbotsford and Mission.” But it’s made up of many smaller — in many cases, bucolic — communities: Hatzic Prairie, a beautiful area; Ridgedale; Matsqui Prairie — the member for Abbotsford West knows the Matsqui Prairie very well, having grown up there; Deroche, a pretty little community, a lot of farming; McConnell Creek; Dewdney. Some of you will remember Dewdney if you’re driving from Mission out towards Hope.
And beautiful residential communities like Eagle Mountain. If you’re driving out the freeway and you look up on the hills there — above Whatcom Road, rather — you can see Eagle Mountain. Sumas Mountain. The entire Sumas Mountain is in my riding. And interestingly, although there are four gravel pits on the Sumas Mountain, there is a very significant wildlife population. In fact, we just recently had a bear in our backyard. We live on the flanks of Sumas Mountain. There are bobcats, deer, raccoons and possibly a remnant population of elk.
It’s a pleasure for me to represent constituents because people are so encouraging in my riding. Yes, there are tensions. People don’t always agree. But I have found people to be very respectful and very honouring to me.
Just a reminder. If you’re coming down from the Interior and you live in Metro — I’ve been speaking to a number of people here that live in the Metro area — make sure you pull in on Whatcom Road. That’s where most people pull in to get gas because they don’t want to pay the big dollars that you folks have to pay all the time in Metro. Just a little tip there. I know some of you are watching your budgets quite carefully.
I want to just really commend my constituents for their hard work. I can’t help but admire people today who are willing to start a business, have a farm. One of my supporters, a guy who I admire incredibly, has a big red-pepper greenhouse operation, and he also grows orange and yellow peppers. It’s 50 percent red, 30 percent orange and 20 percent yellow. That’s his formula. And most of his peppers go to the eastern U.S.
We have lots of small businesses, small farms in our community. Small businesses are the backbone of my riding and virtually every riding, I believe, even in West Van–Capilano. A lot of small businesses, people working out of their homes or their garages, contribute tremendously to our economy.
I had the privilege of owning a small plastic fabricating company with 13 employees, so I know the challenges of meeting a payroll. It’s often very, very tricky, but the rewards can be very significant if you work it right.
I am very concerned with this government’s budget, and I’m going to focus on that now, hon. Speaker. Thank you for allowing me to make those introductory remarks.
I believe this government is putting, really, no recognition under the economic viability of our province, and it’s provided no strategies whatsoever for economic growth and protection from the volatility of the global market. Any of us that look at the business magazines or the international press, I think, would agree it’s a very volatile market out there, and this government appears to be isolating that from the reality.
I can tell you the previous governments — the ones that I was involved in, especially the last term, because I came on in 2013 — were very conscious of that. At Treasury Board, we were very conscious of the fact that things can change very quickly, and I think we see that if you read magazines like The Economist and others.
Producing a balanced budget — congratulations. But it’s really based on an inherited economic viability that we left behind not that long ago. We’re encouraged, of course, on this side of the House that this government, apparently, is taking that seriously.
Interjections.
S. Gibson: Thank you for those…. We’re getting some positive comments over here on the other side. I just want to say thank you very much for those.
The government has committed to expensive promises with very little regard for the taxpayers. The cushion is small, and I am worried, as are my colleagues as well.
We can quickly have unforeseen events. The minister has mentioned the devastating wildfire season. You’ve got to plan for these.
Now, the economic clouds are looming. If this was a film noir movie, those clouds would be grey, dark grey economic clouds on the horizon. Resource revenue down about 30 percent. That’s a lot. Loss of government revenue thanks to fewer housing starts. How ironic is that? This is the government that said: “We’re going to boom up housing starts.” Apparently not true. Optimism that is hollow is really not welcome, in my view.
The predicted growth of B.C.’s economy is far outpaced by spending. Lots of spending going on. It’s easy to spend the money. We all love to do that. The problem is: how do you do it in a way that is prudent and respectful of the taxpayers? Certainly, the people I talk to in Mission and Abbotsford worry about this government. They come up to me and say: “I’m worried.” Well, I don’t blame them. I don’t know what to comfort them by, other than to say: “Let’s make some changes as soon as possible.” And we’re willing to do that.
Spending has increased by 26 percent since the NDP took office, or $13 billion, while B.C.’s GDP is expected to increase by only 2.4 percent. That’s not a good formula. That’s not a good ratio.
The public is concerned. I’m sure you’re getting the phone calls and meeting the same people on the street that we are on this side of the House. They’re not comforting you. Many of them are calling, saying: “What’s going on?” You need to listen to your constituents.
This budget fails to protect our province’s economy and the residents from economic downturn. There’s a lot of instability out there.
Instead of encouraging and supporting the construction of housing, which is one of the keys to a vibrant economy, the government has punished British Columbians, labelling them as speculators. There’s a whole kind of pejorative mood to much of what this government is doing. Homeowners on Vancouver Island and across the Lower Mainland….
Let me ask you a question. Is Abbotsford-Mission a part of the speculation tax? What do you think? Yes, it is. I didn’t even get an answer. I don’t think the folks even know what communities are in or which are out.
Interjections.
S. Gibson: Thank you for that compliment. I appreciate it. I’m getting some good comments over there from the other folks. I like it.
Homeowners on Vancouver Island and across the Lower Mainland, including Abbotsford-Mission, have received those notices from the NDP. They’re kind of irritating. People say that to me. “These are irritating.”
I want to ask: how many of you government MLAs have not received any criticism of the way that this was handled? Not one phone call, not one letter, not one email, not one text message being grumpy about this? How come we’re the only ones that get them? I think not.
Homeowners have been asked to file a declaration asking for all kinds of personal information. Social insurance number. Why do you want that? Email address. And the deadline is looming. It’s coming up pretty quickly, and if you don’t do anything, then you’re going to pay the highest tax rate, right?
Remember cablevision — Shaw Cable or Rogers? Some years ago they would say to you: “If you want to have the children’s bowling channel and the Swedish cheesemaking channel, do nothing and you’ll get those two channels.” That was sneaky. This is also a little bit sneaky, in my view. I don’t want to say it too critically. I would say sneaky, but a very gentle sneaky. I don’t want to be too critical here. But people have phoned you, and they’ve been criticized.
A 0.5 percent assessed value of property in 2018, 2 percent in 2019 and each year after. So this just rolls along, rolls along — nice gravy for the government. The homeowners in the affected regions will have to repeat this invasive process every year.
Did anybody think about this? When people in the government were sitting in caucus and somebody suggested this, surely somebody must have said: “You know what? This sounds kind of goofy.” “Oh no, it’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it.”
Well, if it had come to our caucus, I think we would have said: “Hold on now.” But over there, people are just more submissive, I guess. And it’s good to have loyalty. I think that’s a good thing sometimes.
Homeowners in affected regions are going to have to repeat the process. Now, the government claims to be going after speculators, but it’s targeting 1.6 million British Columbians in that government process — that confusing one. Will this deter speculation? Have you been reading in the media? No. It doesn’t do anything, really, other than making people really grumpy. Not a good move for government.
Just want to give you a tip, just an idea: don’t make voters grumpy. Just a thought. We’ve learned that over here. That’s because true speculators are exempt from this tax thanks to a loophole that says an individual doesn’t have to pay the tax if they buy and sell a home within one year. Okay, that’s thoughtful.
Now, homeowners can avoid paying the tax if they qualify for more than one of 30 specific exemptions. I would have liked to have been in that meeting when they came up with that list of exemptions. “Here’s one.” Okay. “How about this one?” Okay. People were writing down in crayon and felt pen and stuff. “Well, we’ve got 30 now.”
The problem is that you’ve got to apply for these. It’s quite a complicated process. You’ve got to show paper. Spousal separation. That’s a pretty personal thing. You’ve got to tell all about that. Long-term medical treatment. You’ve got to reveal all kinds of personal information about yourself.
I would say this: the main concern about this legislation, apart from what I’ve mentioned, is that it’s very intrusive. We’re private people, as Canadians. We like to keep things close to ourselves. We don’t want to share a bunch of personal information. This is intrusive — or obtrusive, if you like.
Despite the government’s grand claims about this tax, their own budget paints a grim picture, a depressing picture, of housing affordability. As far as housing starts, that’s a key indicator. How’s it going?
Oh, we’re getting a good comment here. How are the housing starts this year?
Interjections.
Deputy Speaker: Members. Members.
S. Gibson: A 17 percent drop projected for this year. Unbelievable. A 17 percent drop.
Interjection.
S. Gibson: The member across is agreeing with me. I like the way he’s agreeing with me. Whenever he speaks, I know he’s agreeing with me. And 10 percent next year and the year after. Thank you. He’s quieting down a bit there.
To sum it all up, that’s a 30 percent decline from 2017 to 2022. That’s tragic.
Interjection.
S. Gibson: Thank you.
When the government MLAs get together in caucus, why doesn’t somebody bring that up? Who’d like to? Somebody put up their hand. The more conversational guy. He’ll do it.
So 50,000 housing starts over five years. That’s sad. This does nothing to help the shortage of supply facing prospective homeowners and renters. It’ll do nothing to improve affordability.
This government has identified affordability as a cornerstone of the budget, but even driving a vehicle will become less affordable under this government. ICBC rates are set to increase. What’s the percentage over the next three years? So 10 percent? No. How about 15 percent? Or 20 percent? It’s 25 percent. That’s huge. That is shocking.
It’s ironic. I think it’s always ironic. You know why the NDP started ICBC way back in the ’70s under the Barrett government. Why did they start it? To keep ICBC rates low for the average driver. Now I’m given to understand that ICBC rates, insurance, are the highest in the country. Is that right? I think so. Highest in the country with the lowest payouts. How ironic is that? And it’s the government insurance. It could be a problem here. Could be a problem.
I guess the government caucus is going to be discussing this. Way to go. I’m looking forward to that.
Increase the price of gas — the result of the carbon tax. Wow. That’s changed dramatically since we brought it in. In the Lower Mainland, residents will be paying close to the highest gas prices in North America, maybe even the highest.
Come out to my riding. Come on out, folks from Metro. You’re always welcome to buy your gas in the Abbotsford-Mission riding. You’ll appreciate the hospitality, and if you go in and tell them you know the MLA for Abbotsford-Mission, they’ll take extra-good care of you.
Now, the carbon tax will pull in how much — $6 billion for government over the next three years? Is that right? Unbelievable. When I read that, I thought no, but apparently, it’s true. Because this tax is no longer revenue-neutral, which is kind of a nice phrase. I think that’d be a good name for a rock band, Revenue Neutral. This money would be going straight to government, right?
The government has justified increases with their promises. Remember their promise that these revenues will be used towards green initiatives. However, what percentage of the money is actually going into green initiatives? Anybody?
Interjections.
S. Gibson: Yeah, let’s have a look at that. Oh, 15 percent. My colleagues are right: only 15 percent. What’s the rest going in for? Hmm, I wonder. General revenue, the big pile of general revenue. What a shocking departure.
Now, when you’ve got higher gas prices, people are going to pay more for gas — commuters, families taking their children to lessons and school. It’s going to be sad, always paying more. Is the tax going up in Metro? I heard that it is, as well. It’s also going up. The poor folks in Metro. Thank goodness I live in the Abbotsford-Mission riding; I feel really blessed. High gas prices inflate the cost of goods and services. Remember that the delivery, the trucks have got to pay more, so they have to pass that along to consumers.
What about agriculture? The member for Delta South is a great advocate for agriculture. I appreciate some of the material that he’s presented here. What’s going on there? Nothing much of anything. It’s a key industry for my constituency as well. We’ve got blueberries, raspberries, very significant poultry, hogs, chickens and beautiful farmland, yet even though we’re number one in agriculture, this government doesn’t seem to have much caring for agriculture.
There’s a little increase, a $5 million increase in the budget of the ministry, which was disappointing, but no money towards the Agricultural Land Commission, even though this government is tinkering with the land commission. They’re changing it, with very little consultation.
Agriculture is one of the heartland economies that we have. In the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Kelowna, the Kootenays and up north, we need to further agriculture. This government pays scant attention to agriculture. I don’t know whether we have very many MLAs in the government from agricultural areas. I’d be interested in knowing about that. But lots of new enforcement rules are coming in: “Let’s bring in more regulations.” Not much on agriculture; that’s disappointing.
What about double-dipping? Don’t we have double-dipping this year? Businesses are going to pay what? The increased minimum wage, higher carbon tax and double-dipping on the employer health tax, right? I don’t think anybody planned that. In fact, when somebody asked that question, I got the impression that the Minister of Finance was a bit surprised at the question: “Oh, right.” In fact, B.C. taxpayers are looking at 19 new or increased taxes since the NDP took office less than two years ago, an extra $1,000 each, or $2,500 per family. This burden will not help families. This is not a family-friendly budget.
We always developed over here…. We were always conscious of families, supporting families, which is why we had the highest….
Interjection.
S. Gibson: We had the lowest unemployment rate in Canada, right? We had the lowest taxes for middle-income earners. Remember that? We prided ourselves on that.
What’s happening on that side? “Let’s spend more money. That’ll be the solution.”
Interjections.
S. Gibson: Yep, we’re getting some good…. Hon. Speaker, I’m getting some really great encouragement.
Deputy Speaker: Members. Members.
S. Gibson: Shame on you for upsetting the Speaker like that.
Looking at the broader economic picture, the provincial debt is expected to grow from $67 billion to what? Let’s guess. So $67 billion to — what — $75 billion? No. How about it? What do you think? You guys help me out here. Is it $82 billion?
Now, we have an economist in our caucus. That’s troubling, isn’t it?
Interjections.
S. Gibson: That’s a lot of money. Yeah, that’s a “b” on there. That’s over $14 billion, and $10 billion of that is supported by taxpayers. Now, B.C.’s debt-to-revenue ratio is approaching 90 percent under this fiscal plan. What’s troubling about that? Well, I had the privilege of serving on Treasury Board for my term as a government MLA. If you start messing with that too much, what happens to our rating? It goes down.
Currently we have a triple-A credit rating, which you folks — through you, hon. Speaker — have inherited from this side of the House. You’ve inherited something wonderful: a triple-A credit rating. Now, some people over there think a triple-A is a baseball team. No, this is the way we evaluate credit.
What does it mean for the average British Columbian? Well, we all know what happened in Ontario. It’s one of the reasons why Doug Ford became Premier. It was because the Liberal administration, a different kind of Liberal, of that province was profligate. I think we’d agree with that. They came in, and they’ve been cutting, doing some serious cutting.
If you have a really low credit rating, what happens is that you pay more when you borrow. Remember when you were a kid and you got that first car loan? You probably paid prime plus 5 or 6. Then you got older, and you got more secure, right? Then you paid prime plus 1 or whatever. You can tell the credit rating of an individual by how much they pay for money. It’s the same principle with government. A credit downgrade would mean higher government borrowing costs.
Here’s something you sometimes forget. If you’re paying extra for the interest on borrowing to the bank — fair enough; they’ve got to protect themselves — there’s less money left over to buy stuff that you need, right? So I want to encourage this government to guard that triple-A credit rating. If it looks a little nervous, give us a call. We can help you with that. Driving up project costs and really powering a cycle of provincial debt….
Now, we know over here — we’ve mentioned it quite a bit in the House — that project costs are already on the rise, thanks to the NDP’s so-called community benefits agreement. What’s that a euphemism for? That’s a euphemism for favouring government-friendly unions. They get exclusive access to public sector contracts. When I first heard that, I didn’t think that would even be permissible, except maybe in eastern Europe or something.
For all the government’s creative new taxes, this budget is missing key initiatives. There is nothing here about the widening of Highway 1. It was already announced. Everything was going nicely from 208 to Whatcom, and then to 264 as well. Nothing has been done on that. It’s a tragedy; it’s unsafe. People are spending more money than they need to on fuel. Also, truckers are lamenting the tragedy of how much time they have to spend on the highway. The highway was built in 1962. It’s got the same number of lanes since 1962. So it’s very troubling. It is dangerous, and we’re waiting.
[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]
By the way, there was something missing from the budget. I don’t know what page it’s on. It was the $10-a-day daycare. I couldn’t find that. I just wondered about that. Now, the NDP announced a new child opportunity benefit, but it won’t come into effect till 2020. I’m not sure why that was mentioned so early. Another thing that was missing…. It’s probably a mistake as well, and I couldn’t find it. Maybe somebody could help me with that, a government MLA. The $400 renters rebate that you promised last year — I couldn’t find that. Maybe it’s hiding there somewhere.
Housing starts are declining — it’s a tragedy — fewer construction jobs, less revenues, competitive business is struggling. Employer health tax is not appreciated at all. It’s troubling.
I want to say this also. As the Advanced Education critic, with my colleague from Surrey South…. We noticed very little in there. I will acknowledge that phasing out interest for student loans, I think, generally was well received. As you know, I taught university for many years. I’m sure if I’d walked into the class and said, “You don’t have to pay interest on your student loans,” they’d have loved me as their instructor. I will acknowledge that, but not much else.
I don’t see any capital improvements. There are a lot of universities and colleges that need some help there — no capital.
We need to support our universities and colleges. I don’t see the government doing that particularly well. We need to support them to create the work environment. We’re going to need a lot more young people with college education, a trade, university education, graduation. This government doesn’t seem to be really that enthusiastic about that.
I want to just say that this budget is a real disappointment to me, I think to all my colleagues. It’s such a shame. You guys could have done a much better job in listening to your constituents. You’re balancing the budget on the backs of taxpayers, and the tragedy is you’re not planning for the future.
I regret very much that this government has chosen to be shortsighted with this budget. I just want to say I’m going to be opposing it, and I trust all my colleagues will also oppose it.
Hon. S. Robinson: Noting the hour, I’d like to move adjournment of the debate. I’d like to reserve my place.
Hon. S. Robinson moved adjournment of debate.
Motion approved.
Tabling Documents
Mr. Speaker: If I may take a moment to table a report. I have the honour to present a report intituled Access to Emergency Health Services from the Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia.
Hon. S. Simpson moved adjournment of the House.
Motion approved.
Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until Wednesday — that is, tomorrow, February 27 — at 1:30 p.m.
The House adjourned at 6:22 p.m.
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