Orders of the Day

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

Budget Debate

(continued)

B. Stewart: I am proud to rise again to take my place in this House speaking about the provincial government’s Budget 2020-2021.

[S. Gibson in the chair.]

I just want to recap a little bit about what I was speaking about prior to the break. I want to pick up on the importance of exports and trade and what has been happening not only in the past year, with a significant downturn in terms of exports from British Columbia to the United States. It’s down almost 3 percent, almost 4 percent to mainland China, 13 percent to Japan and 12 percent to South Korea — our four largest trading partners.

[1:35 p.m.]

I have to ask the question. In this particular situation, where trade for a province like British Columbia with only five million citizens is so paramount in terms of our ability to fund all of the wonderful things that British Columbians have come to expect — the health care system, the schools, the benefits that we provide to people that are less fortunate…. The situation really is that we have to keep that economy growing on a trajectory that is not declining or wavering and falling behind.

I think that the issues in the past few weeks that we’ve seen here in front of the Legislature just a couple of short weeks ago, where people were protesting a particular development project in the province…. It’s well documented. But of course, that’s spread across Canada. The paralysis of the rail system has paralyzed ports like Prince Rupert, Vancouver, the South Fraser docks, all of these important points of contact where commodities from Canada flow out of, and no more importantly than British Columbia.

More importantly, against the backdrop of all of this is the uncertainty that has been created by the fact that we have people that are not just part of the nation or the Hereditary Chiefs that are opposed to the development of an LNG industry, but there are people that are supporting that that happen to be from wherever — whether it happens to be universities, they happen to be paid activists, they happen to be whoever they are. The situation is that it’s well documented that those people are not only in, maybe, denial or are opposed to any type of development to help benefit places like Asia, where there is clearly a major shift, in terms of the environment, by importing and using British Columbia clean natural gas. The situation is that they’re stopping our trade with our existing trade partners.

Now, I had a simple enough experience in 2013 as the trade representative for British Columbia, meeting with the Premier as well as the head of Mitsubishi, which has significant investments here in British Columbia, in terms of their investments in terms of grain terminals and the receiving of grain. It was a simple matter of rail not being able to get the number of railcars to the Port of Vancouver that was slowing down their commitments and the trading that they do — Mitsubishi being one of the large global trading houses of commodities around the world. Their situation was impacted by the fact that we were having issues with our rail service to the Port of Vancouver.

Here we have weeks of shutdowns in major rail lines all across the country, and we need to respect the fact that this is going to impact our credibility in terms of the eyes of our customers, whether it’s Japan, Korea, China, Singapore or India. I could go on to name many more.

The answer to all of this…. On New Year’s Eve in Asia, offices were being notified there — the 13 trade offices that I worked with and know well and that know the differences in terms of their commodities. Thirteen offices were shut down with basically 90 days notice. Over 70 people were sent walking, and we’re losing those valuable people with the contacts and relationships in a time when we have so much dependence in terms of our global trade. I just can’t really understand that.

So here we are. We’ve cut that from the budget in an effort to save about $5 million. There have been some suggestions that they can be co-located within the embassies. I’ve worked with every one of those embassies in every one of those countries, and I can tell the government that that is a bad move. We used to do it. It’s one that we abandoned. The reason that we did it is because it did not make sense from a commercial enterprise business point of view. Mark my words: they’re going to regret the decision that they’ve made on that.

What this budget shows is the NDP government’s complete lack of understanding of the economy and how to build a growing economy to underwrite the many lauded examples of what government can do to help British Columbians.

[1:40 p.m.]

Since the NDP took office, we’ve seen successive taxes put on the backs of employers and businesses. At the same time, the expenses have increased by $11.4 billion, and up $14.95 billion next year. This is downright suicidal.

I know that time is short, and I appreciate being allowed to speak on this important topic. I look forward to estimates.

R. Leonard: It is my distinct honour to stand here today in support of Budget 2020-2021. I get up every morning, and I’m excited to be a part of this government. I’m excited to be a part of a movement that is making life better for British Columbians every day. We’re working hard to make life more affordable. We’re working hard to make sure that people are getting the services they need. Something that’s really critical to our future is that we have good sustainable communities throughout British Columbia. I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done over the last 2½ years, and this budget is continuing to grow on our successes.

A couple of weeks ago the Premier made a comment in this House that the responsibility of government is to move us forward, and this is a budget that continues to move us forward. It is our responsibility to take each day and make the best of it and to grow our beautiful province so that everybody succeeds.

Another thing that the Premier has said in the past and continues to say is that this province and our economy are fuelled by people, and everything that we do is centred on people.

Speaking of people, I just want to take a moment to say that in my job, every day that I go to work, I have the support of staff in this beautiful building. I want to acknowledge that my current legislative assistant is Cindy Tomnuk. She’s advancing and taking on more responsibilities. And today is the first day that I have a new legislative assistant. I’m sure that as he grows into the job and our relationship grows, I’ll be very well supported by Quinn. He’s so new that I can’t even remember his last name.

I want to acknowledge, too, that at home in Courtenay-Comox I have two able constituency assistants who work hard every day to be the face of government in the community, to help people through the issues that they face and to make sure that the people in Courtenay-Comox know what is going on. So my hands up to Leanne Rathje, who has been with me almost since day one, and my current constituency assistant, who will not be with me too long and also is moving up in the world, Matt Landry.

I also want to say thank you to my husband, who makes sure that I am fed and watered, as he likes to say, and that I have clean clothes to wear and that I’m packed and on my way to come down here to take up the responsibilities of an MLA.

I want to also pay particular attention and pay tribute to our Minister of Finance, because every year she has significant challenges. She is steady at the tiller — one of the expressions that we’ve heard — and it shows. It shows that she is thinking about how all these many pieces of the puzzle fit together so that we can move forward.

I’m going to start by talking about something that we heard about last year but is going to be implemented on October 1 of this year. That’s the B.C. child opportunity benefit. We’re working hard to make life more affordable, and this is a significant program that’s going to be rolling out so that families who have one child in their family can earn up to $1,600 a year. Two children will get $2,600 a year. Three children, $3,400.

[1:45 p.m.]

That’s going to affect nearly 300,000 families in British Columbia who are going to have more opportunities to put good food on the table, to have, maybe, perhaps, a little bit of recreation time and grow a closer bond with their families. It’ll give them opportunities to save to maybe go to school once they finish grade 12. Those are the kinds of things that come with these kinds of programs, remembering always that it is people who fuel our economy. If we support those children today, tomorrow they’re going to be our prosperous future.

This is just one of the programs that is building on what we’ve already done in the last 2½ years. This year starting January 1, families are saving up to $1,800 a year because they no longer have to pay MSP premiums. That’s huge, because people suddenly can feel a little wiggle room, and they’re not so much living paycheque to paycheque.

We’re also reducing child care costs. With the B.C. affordable child care benefit, with the fee reduction initiative and with the prototype centres that we have, families can save up to $19,200 a year. That, again, is huge. We’re moving in the right direction to help families and to help lift children out of poverty. We’re moving in the right direction, and it’s showing.

I want to talk a little bit about housing. I had the privilege of serving with the member for Vancouver–West End on the Rental Housing Task Force. The work that was focused on renters is something that’s really important to me. At home, when I was on city council for nine years, I sat on many committees around housing. I helped initiate a housing task force, because it was affecting our communities so much that we don’t have affordable housing. The numbers of people on the street were growing — the people who were visibly suffering from a lack of attention by the previous government.

Suddenly, we’re starting to make a difference. In this past year we opened up The Junction, which has 46 — maybe it’s 48 — housing units with supportive wraparound services for homeless people. We have The Station, which houses youth who are in need of housing. I thank the John Howard Society, because they run both of those facilities.

We’ve also invested millions of dollars into the rental…. I can’t find the name of it, but it’s a program where we are actually doing renovations to a housing development that is housing people at a lower rent. It’s something that…. For many, many years, they were not able to do any rehab on that building. Now it’s happening and making the suites much more livable and giving people a sense of dignity who live in the Ryan Road apartments.

We also have a new initiative — this was just announced earlier this month — with the HousingHub to provide low-cost financing to a developer who, I’m very grateful, has come to my community and is building middle-income affordable housing. We have people that work in our community who can’t afford to live in our community, or they can’t find housing even if they could afford it. So we need to find ways to move forward, and I’m excited that the HousingHub continues to grow the opportunities for developers to take advantage of such programs and to grow more housing for more people who work and provide services in our community.

[1:50 p.m.]

I was told, “Well, maybe you don’t have the developers in your community that can take on that kind of project,” but it’s happening. It’s happening, and it puts a smile on my face when I know that the directions that we’re taking are actually showing on the ground and making a difference in people’s lives.

We already have, in the hopper, 23,177 units on the go. That includes 907 regional housing first program. These are the actual numbers. It’s not money. It’s actual units in housing first.

And 679 for women in transition housing. This is important. This makes a difference for children in British Columbia when the families are having to escape violence, to have a place to go to and not be stuck at home in that environment, or worse, homeless on the street.

We have 2,802 from the housing hub. We have the rapid response to homelessness: 2,012. As I say, my community has benefited from that one.

Deepening affordability fund. We have a housing project that opened about a year ago called the Braidwood project. The costs were going up when it was taking so long to build. It was going to impact the rents, because it was 10 percent below market value. In fact, with the deepening affordability fund, we were able to invest more into that project to make it more affordable. We have 1,165 Indigenous housing fund units that are in stream.

We promised so much, and we’re delivering. We’re not waiting ten years in a ten-year plan to deliver. We’re delivering up front. We’re delivering for the most vulnerable people in British Columbia first. I think that’s a tribute to this government. I’m just really so proud to be a part of it.

We also upped the ante for the affordable rental housing program. That’s to the tune of 1,628.

Student housing. We need kids to get their post-secondary education, because there is such a demand. You can support companies all you want, but if you don’t have the workers, you’re not going to get anywhere. Many students throughout British Columbia come from small places. They come from far away. They come to centres where the colleges are, and they don’t have access to housing. So we’re building 5,584 units now. Yes.

The supportive housing fund, 1,060. Community housing fund, 5,218. We are starting to house seniors, families, single people. We are housing youth. There’s a lot more to do, and this budget continues down that track. We are not foregoing the help that’s needed today.

We do know that we have a global trade issue. We don’t live in isolation. No man is an island. No province is an island. We actually have to consider what’s going on in the world. We also have to consider what’s gone on here with ICBC. But between the different pressures, the Minister of Finance has managed to put together a budget that still sees…. It’s very conservative and prudent to make sure that we don’t get ourselves into hot water in the future, recognizing what the risks are and coming up with a balanced budget. I’m excited by that.

I mentioned the students, student housing. I want to talk about a new program that this budget introduces, which is the B.C. access grant. We’re going to see…. I sit on the Finance Committee, and we have heard, year after year, from students all across the province, saying that they want upfront grants. They want to be able to access university. They don’t want to be denied that opportunity to move into the next phase of their lives, and upfront grants, which is what the B.C. access grants stand for, are opening doors. People are really excited.

[1:55 p.m.]

I just read one comment that said: “This has been my whole career as a student, fighting for those upfront grants.” Up to $4,000 a year per student. That’s going to affect 40,000 students. That’s making progress.

What else do we have in our budget? We’ve got a lot going on. I mentioned that we’re finished with MSP premiums. We also have to have infrastructure if we want to see communities grow, if we want to support our kids, if we want to see companies and businesses thrive. We need to have schools. We need to have good roads. And we need to have hospitals. All of those infrastructure needs are being addressed every year by this government. We continue, in this budget ’20-21, to support new infrastructure growth.

I think that perhaps the biggest issue that we’re facing these days is people that are trying to get to work and still afford their insurance, their car insurance. We, as has been said many times, inherited a dumpster fire at ICBC, and the work is being done to change that system. We’re changing that system in a way that allows people to still get behind the wheel and get to work — every single British Columbian.

The changes are a long time coming. Other jurisdictions are doing it. It’s exciting to know that we are joining into a system that is going to take away that adversarial atmosphere, where people have to wait to get their benefits or, if they have to, borrow from their lawyer so that they can afford to get the care that they need. People are going to get the service that they need when they’re in trouble from an accident.

I’m sure we all know people who have been in an accident. I’ve been in an accident. My brother’s been in an accident. People are hurt every day. Luckily, numbers are going down. But it still is a challenge, and it’s a challenge that we need to meet, not only for the sake of the people who are injured but also for our economy, because if people get the care they need when they need it, they can get better and get back to work sooner.

Sometimes things seem isolated from the bigger picture, but in the end, it’s all part of the same movement forward that makes for a prosperous province, not just for a few but for everyone. I’m proud to live in a province and a country where we do care for our most vulnerable. I know that as we move forward, we will be able to continue to help people who are most in need, that we will be able to continue to make those investments and know that as we make life better for those among us who are most in need, we’re making life better for ourselves as well.

One of the things that I wanted to talk about was reconciliation. There are a few folks who are…. I won’t even repeat it, but they’re saying things that are very negative and suggest that we’re at the end of a road. We’re not. We are at the beginning. Last year I was proud to be in this House when we passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. I am proud of the mandate of each minister to introduce reconciliation and the rights of Indigenous people into all of the corners of government. Most of all, I’m proud that we are, in the face of difficult times, still stepping up, stepping up to work to build the relationships to heal the wounds of the past.

We can’t undo what has gone on in the past. But we can make strides to build a fairer, more just community, one where each and every one of us has a sense of pride in the other and in our differences and in our needs — that we continue to look after each other, with the mind that everybody has something to offer.

[2:00 p.m.]

It’s exciting that we are supporting the revitalization of Indigenous languages. It’s fundamental to a person’s cultural identity.

We are funding housing that’s both on reserve and off reserve, because people, where they’re at, need to be served whether or not they’re on reserve. They can’t find housing, so they come into an urban centre where there’s no housing…. Build it where they are so that those communities can be stronger and grow together.

We are sharing gaming revenue so that First Nations governments, themselves, can invest in their priorities, whether it’s health and education…. Everybody deserves to have governance that reflects their needs, their community. This a big step towards that. It is an exciting time, a difficult time, and that’s what we’re here for: to face those challenges and move forward.

As the Premier said just a couple of weeks ago, I’m excited by the increased investments for climate action. We have a movement of young people today who are afraid for their future. They’re afraid that they’re going to step into the adult world and are going to face challenges like never have been faced before. They’re afraid, and they want us to take action.

People want it today. That’s okay, but the fact is that things take time to change. It means taking those investments today to make for a better future, and we’re doing that. We are working with all stakeholders, because everyone has a part in shifting the way that we do business, in shifting the way that we think about the world as we try to clean up our act and try to reverse some of the damage — also, to lower the risks, like we are seeing with, let’s see, condo insurance. I think that’s a really direct example of how climate change is impacting people in their lives.

We’ve got to make changes, and we’re doing that. We’re investing in electric vehicles. We’re investing in electric chargers. We’re investing in…. It’s not sexy, but it is something that makes a big difference in people’s lives, and that’s retrofits, where you have better insulation, get better heating systems and make life more comfortable, number one, but you also help reduce our energy footprint and start to make a difference.

My kids are doing things that I didn’t teach them growing up. But they are cognizant of the impact of some of the practices that they grew up with and are changing. They’re changing for the better, and they’re sharing that with others. I think that’s the kind of action that the youth of today are expecting of us: making a difference in our day-to-day lives and making a big difference in the broader picture.

For me, the most important thing for those youth is to have a sense of hope. That is what the CleanBC program gives those youth — a sense that we have intention, we have purpose, and we have targets. We’ve introduced legislation so that we’ve got our finger on the pulse at all times to make sure that we are moving in the right direction and making the differences.

I mentioned some of the risks that the Minister of Finance has had to face in developing a budget. One of them is around the fact that we are not an island, that we live in this global marketplace. We have taken the initiative to become a leader in climate change action, and we are continuing to have that dialogue. We can do all that we want in this province — all that we want. We can have the cleanest province in the world, but it’s not going to affect climate change if we don’t have those relationships outside and try to make differences.

[2:05 p.m.]

That’s why some of our policies are reflecting that, making sure we recognize that we live in the global marketplace and that there are other pressures that we have to deal with to see that global shift that we need to see around climate change.

What else have we got here? Just taking a quick peek here, I want to talk about post-secondary just a little bit. I took a while to get into post-secondary. I couldn’t make up my mind as a young adult. My kids had the advantage of being able to go to school out of high school and make great lives for themselves, but I know that not everybody has that opportunity. They found their niche.

As one of the other MLAs was mentioning last night, he got a degree in history, but that didn’t get him a job. He had to go and learn some other life skills to succeed in the world.

We have great need in this province for people who are trained for jobs like health care assistants, early childhood educators. We need people working in STEM. We need more women working. We need to remove barriers. That’s why I’m so proud of the child care initiative, but I’m also proud that we are investing in post-secondary education, not only the student grants, but also creating more space, creating the opportunities for kids to get ahead and for our economy to be fuelled by more people who have the skills that we need into the future.

So 900,000 jobs over the next ten years. That’s kind of a scary figure, so making sure that we take on those challenges is important, and we’re doing that. We’re continuing to build in this budget on what we have done for the last 2½ years. We have a ways to go, and we’re not going to get there in three or four years. You know, we have ten-year plans for child care. We have ten-year plans for housing. We have challenges in terms of timing to get things to completion, but they’re on their way.

We’re building hospitals. We’re building schools. We can’t do it just by throwing money at it. We need skilled workers. We need skilled workers to take the jobs on.

Some things get done really fast, because they are able to bring in lots of workers and work fast. I think that’s what I was reading happened in China when they needed to make facilities for all of the people who have the COVID-19 virus. They just brought in armies, and suddenly these hospitals were up and running. We don’t have that advantage unless we actually invest in the workers of tomorrow.

So there are just a few things. We’re investing more in education from K-to-12 — more teachers, more special education assistants. We are investing in more schools. We’re investing in making sure that the kids of today get the opportunities that they need to advance up into post-secondary and bring the skills that we need in this province.

With that, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak to the budget of 2020-2021. I look forward to the next few months as we go through estimates and learn more of the details around how the budget will roll out. I look forward to the stories that I know we’re going to hear that are going to tell us all about how much the budget ’20-21 is making a difference in people’s lives, how we’re a stronger province and how we have a bright future to look forward to.

Deputy Speaker: As we continue debate on the budget, I recognize the member for Kootenay East.

T. Shypitka: It’s an honour and privilege to speak to this fifth session of the 41st parliament in my response to the budget. I also want to give congratulations to the Speaker.

This is the first time I’ve spoken to you in your new role. Congratulations on that.

[2:10 p.m.]

A few other congratulations, as well, going out to my staff in the Kootenays, in Cranbrook: Heather Smith and Christy Wheeldon, for keeping it all real down there; Krystal D’Sa, my LA here; and Ryan Mitton and Doug Secord, working in the bowels of the Legislature, so to speak, and doing the good work that they do.

My family, of course — my wife, Carrie; my kids, Dustin, Allie and Adam; my new daughter-in-law, Julie; and my new grandson, Hudson. And of course, all 39,852 constituents of Kootenay East that I represent so proudly.

I also want to recognize my aunt and my uncle Steve Shypitka, who just celebrated their 60th wedding anni­versary on January 11. I wanted to congratulate them on that, get that on the record.

Budget 2020 is a reflection of the past four throne speeches, and I was really actually quite shocked that there have been four throne speeches already. We’ve heard the promises that the government has made on those four throne speeches, all sounding quite similar from one to the next. The budget for 2020 is a reflection on how they intend to accomplish these promises.

I wanted to just kind of first remind everyone, just to set up the budget, what those promises were and how they’re going to answer those promises with this budget. Now, one of the first promises that we heard — it was kind of the flagship of the NDP’s campaign — was that on affordability. The NDP was great at identifying an issue that we all struggle with. Nobody can deny that affordability is a big issue, but actions are stronger than words.

So far, after four throne speeches and three budgets, we’ve seen very little action. You’d think this far into a term that you would start seeing the fruits of your labour coming true, and we’re just not seeing it in British Columbia right now.

So just to highlight some of that affordability issue, according to Demographia International Housing, Vancouver is the second most unaffordable housing market in the world. It’s something you really don’t want to be top of the charts on, and in fact, we almost are No. 1. We’re in the No. 2 spot. I hope we don’t get to see the No. 1 spot.

The NDP also introduced 19 new taxes when they first got on board. That’s about $5.7 billion, I believe, to the taxpayer. We’re seeing that now increased to 23. We’ve just seen four new ones being introduced. It’s another layering of tax. I’ll get to those four additional taxes a little bit later on. But like I said, these taxes are up from $5.7 billion per year since the last government was in place. But with this budget, the NDP haven’t yet done taxing again, and they’ll increase to about $8.8 billion by 2022.

If you want to put that into perspective, I guess, on how that affects the average home person, it’s going to add an additional $2,400 a year, or there around, per family in British Columbia. An extra $2,400 a year per family, to me, seems it’s going in the opposite direction of making things more affordable and, in fact, that it’s actually making things less affordable.

We’ve heard lots of talk on the MSP and the elimination of the MSP. We’ve also heard, linked with that language, that it was the largest tax cut ever. I always struggle with that. We can applaud on the other side, and let’s hear it. But it’s a tax cut…. That’s very misinforming. By definition, a tax cut is eliminating revenue from government in the form of taxation in order to alleviate taxpayers from the burden of taxation. But we didn’t see that with the MSP.

Of course, it was eliminated, but it was replaced with the employer health tax. As a matter of fact, it’s more of a tax burden to the taxpayer in a trickle-down effect that’s going to affect businesses, organizations, you name it — hospitals, health services, police and fire services, municipalities. That all gets burdened back to the taxpayer in one way or another. To say that this is the largest tax cut in B.C. history, I would argue, is a very strong misrepresentation of what that actually is.

Despite the efforts to claw back spending, government expenses are still over budget by about $550 million. They are big numbers, and people should be concerned about that. Over $1 billion in infrastructure projects promised in 2019 are now on hold. That was from the Q2 highlights from last December.

[2:15 p.m.]

Spending with this government is up $11.4 billion per year since the last government was in place. Even though it sounds like a catchphrase, “tax and spend,” we’re seeing high rates of taxation and record amounts of spending. So it’s not a catchphrase. It really is the truth here in British Columbia.

The other big promise that came out that we don’t see reflected truly in the budget here was the promise on affordable housing. In the last election campaign, they promised 114,000 affordable homes in ten years. I remember when that announcement first came out. I was actually on the campaign trail. I was in Fernie, and I was debating against a colleague that was running for the NDP party, and he blasted this out in the middle of our forum. This was brand-new news. I hadn’t heard about it, but I quickly got out my calculator, and I figured out, on the average, about $289,000 per affordable home. At 114,000, that was going to be in excess of $30 billion.

I was quick to contest against my colleague and say: “Where is that costed? Where is that costed in the NDP platform that you’re going to miraculously come up with over $30 billion for affordable housing for 114,000 people?” He couldn’t answer, and to this day, the government can’t answer.

We have seen, in the last fiscal three years…. By calculation — it’s 11,400 per year — we should see roughly around 35,000 affordable homes in place right now, but we’re well shy of that mark. In fact, we’ve only got about 2,400 homes to show for it. I’m not condemning those 2,400 homes; we need them. But it’s a very light effort in the big promises that the NDP made, and I just need to shed the light on these facts. We’re here to keep government accountable, and these misrepresentations — I believe they’re misrepresentations — should be highlighted.

To address the housing crisis, our party has always said to increase the supply through free enterprise — you know, provide some incentives to move the market in a positive direction — but what we’ve seen here so far is just the opposite. The MLA advisory 2019 Year in Review states: “Many larger-scale developments took a pause…​with less than 4,000 concrete presale units released in 2019, compared to over 12,000 in 2018.” So that’s a decrease of — I don’t know — 75 percent, I guess. Yeah, this is a 75 percent decrease.

Housing starts were down 40 percent last month. Prices in greater Vancouver and even in Kootenay East are going up. Strata councils are in crisis mode, as we’ve heard from many members here, as they watch their insurance premiums skyrocket — in some cases, over 400 percent. That’s a lot. That’s a big jump, and with no warning. This is according to the Insurance Brokers of B.C. Affordability — it’s a big question mark.

Speaking of housing, renters make up much of the marketplace, as we know. What about the $400 renters rebate we heard about? That was another flagship promise from this government, and it’s no longer…. It has evaporated. It’s not in the budget anymore. It’s gone. Houdini would be proud, but the people of British Columbia certainly aren’t.

That was a key initiative, and once again, I think we shouldn’t just glaze over these broken promises. We have to really highlight them. I got in some pretty heated debates over these promises, and I really didn’t have a lot of answers, other than saying: “I don’t know how they’re going to do it.” Now we’re finding out that they don’t either. So it’s just about credibility.

On the renters rebate, you look at Vancouver, the single mother. Or it may be in Kootenay East somewhere. It’s a good idea, but unfortunately, it’s not happening. It’s gone now.

The other one. Let’s talk about the $10-a-day daycare. This was huge. I don’t know if I should say this or not, but I almost got into a physical fistfight with a constituent who was absolutely choked that I was going to stand in the way of $10-a-day daycare. He actually pointed his finger in my chest, slammed me and said: “How dare you get in the way of $10-a-day daycare for my family? You’re trying to stop that.” Once again, like with the affordable housing, I threw up my hands up. I said: “I don’t know where it’s costed. I don’t know how they’re doing it.”

[2:20 p.m.]

Well, let’s look at the facts. Only 2,500 daycare spaces have been provided, which represents about 2 percent of the total space. This is just a pilot project. It’s ending in the end of March, March 31. But I’m sure they’re going to pick up the slack on that. They’ve got to. They’re in a situation now.

So those folks that got this $10-a-day daycare, I’m happy for them. I truly am. I’m happy for them. But as some of those recipients, benefiters, of this $10-a-day daycare have said, publicly: “It’s like winning the lottery.” It truly is like winning the lottery. Two percent will get it; the other 98 won’t. When you’re sitting in a jurisdiction or a community and your neighbour is enjoying $10-a-day daycare and you’re on the same income level, or maybe less, and you’re not…. Maybe you should have bought a few more tickets, I guess.

What about softwood lumber, forestry in British Columbia? This was another thing that rings really true to my area. In 2017, the then member of the opposition for Langford–Juan de Fuca, now the Premier…. He flew into the riding, into Cranbrook, with video entourage in hand, made a straight beeline to the Galloway mill and, on his white horse, said he was going to be the champion for softwood lumber. He was going to take his fight to Washington. He was going to make sure the forestry industry was going to be intact.

Since then, the Galloway mill has now closed. It’s been rebought. It’s going to be repurposed. I wish them all the best of luck, and I think they’ll do a good job. But meanwhile, there are 38 people that are not working.

We just had a meeting in Washington not too long ago, last week or two, with, I believe, five or six Premiers that went from across Canada to Washington. The only one that was missing was the Premier from the province that produces more softwood than any other province in the country. That was the Premier of British Columbia. He wasn’t on that road trip.

Once again, locally broken promises, provincially broken promises. I think people should see what is happening here.

Getting to the lumber piece of it a little bit more, the forestry sector has done a nosedive. Nobody can contest that — 6,000 people out of work, longest labour dispute in forestry history. People are hurting big time. People are losing their homes. Their equipment is being hocked. For some of these people in rural, remote areas of British Columbia, where are they going? How are they supporting their families? More than 100 curtailments in the last year — eight months, nine months — ten permanent and indefinite shutdowns. That was just in 2019 alone.

One of the ministers said: “It’s not a crisis.” I think it was the parliamentary secretary said that there are too many mills. It’s more or less just a big shrug and: “Oh well, things will kind of fix themselves, I guess. It’s not our fault. We can’t really control global demand.” And: “We can’t touch stumpage rates, because that is going to interfere with” — I don’t know what you call it — “our agreements with the U.S.”

It’s just a shrug. There has been no support. There has been no people, really, on the ground to reach out to the communities. Even just to offer a sympathetic hug or anything like that would have been nice — for the minister to actually go and take the heat. “Let’s work it out. How can we help?”

What they did? They took the rural dividend fund away to help support. This was a big, big deal for a lot of rural communities. In my community alone, Ktunaxa Nation built a gas station with that rural dividend fund — $100,000 they got. It’s improved the community. It’s given them a service they all really needed. Now that’s gone.

[2:25 p.m.]

To make it worse, I believe it was the ministerial assistant or…. I can’t remember. They actually had the audacity to call the rural dividend fund a slush fund. Called it a slush fund. I looked up the definition of a slush fund, because we use that term kind of loosely every once in a while.

Wikipedia says: “A slush fund, also called a black fund, is a fund or account that is not properly accounted, such as money used for corrupt or illegal purposes, especially in the political sphere. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitimate purposes.” The Cambridge Dictionary says that it’s “an amount of money that is kept for dishonest or illegal activities in politics or business.”

Interjection.

T. Shypitka: Is that a fair representation of what a slush fund is? Yeah. I mean, what a disconnect. That’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. That’s a big deal for us in rural B.C. It trickles down all throughout the province.

Instead of addressing the issue, we are one of the highest-cost producers in North America for softwood lumber. We simply just cannot compete. Stumpage rates, fiscal policy, carbon tax, EHT, regulation — they’re all there. “Death by a thousand cuts” couldn’t be more appropriate for what we’re seeing in the lumber industry right now.

These are just a few of the many broken promises that we’ve heard through four throne speeches now, in a row, and three budgets. Budget 2020-21 ignores a big chunk of it.

I would also like to take a little bit of time to see how that relates to my own riding — the budget. In my opinion, rural B.C. was provided a lot of lip service by making statements such as — these are quotes that I took from from the throne speech: “fixing the housing market.” Well, at the same time in Kootenay East, we are seeing an increase in homelessness, and we’re seeing certain housing and transitional care projects halted due to political optics.

What I mean by that…. I’ll give you an example. In 2014, I was elected to city council, and I was on a community council for homelessness and transitional care. I won’t name the name of the organization. They don’t need the publicity for it. But it’s well known. We made a plan to put some transitional housing in place, wraparound services, all the good things that we need in the community. It was going to provide about 30 beds. It was going to be $5 million plus.

We worked on it really hard. We got the money, we got the land, and we got the zoning. Everything was ready to go. This was right around election time. A change of government. Things were ready to go. We held our breath, and we said: “Well, we hope the new government will recognize what work we’ve done.” We got a note back, and they said: “It’s a go.” I remember high-fiving the proponents and saying: “Right on. We got it. That’s excellent.”

A month later it came back with a caveat: we must provide a safe injection site. Harm reduction has to be on site in order for this to go ahead. Well, this was an abstinence-based, faith-based project. They can’t do that.

We tried to find different ways of either busing people daily to another site to bring them back, all kinds of things. “No, it has to be on site.” That’s hard to swallow, when you’ve worked that hard and you see the need that’s there — for government to use politics to make a decision on something like that. It was a done deal. That’s a lot of people that are now not provided that service.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Statements such as “improving health care closer to home….” I heard that in the throne speech — “improving health care closer to home” — when in the East Kootenays, we were being denied access to Alberta and government insists we travel to places like Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria. I can give you a million stories here on this one. We have people that are in remote….

[2:30 p.m.]

People think the southeast corner is actually not really remote. It’s right by the U.S. border, right by the Alberta border. But we’re surrounded by mountain passes on two sides of us, and on the third side, it’s fairly wide open. That goes to Alberta, and it’s very easy to travel to. It’s not impeded by the same problems that you see, to the west of us and to the north of us, on mountain passes.

Of course, we’ve got a lot of support. When you’re talking about family support, it radiates from where you live. The farther out you get, the less family support you have. It’s really important to have that.

We had one lady. She was pregnant and had twins, and she needed help. They said that she was going to have to go to Vancouver to get it. This was in late November or early December, and there was just no way she was going to drive — pregnant 27 weeks — to Vancouver through six mountain passes in the middle of winter. We worked really hard, and thanks to my constituency assistants, we did finally get her to Calgary. But there were many others that haven’t succeeded like that.

We really need to recognize our access to health care in remote areas. We do hear about the northern bus and how they can get people around. But Greyhound has been cancelled since the NDP got in, and those types of transportation are now gone.

Statements that families are saving money, when all reports suggest the opposite. I just talked about 6,000 British Columbians out of work in the forestry industry. A lot of those were affected by the curtailments at the Canfor mill in Elko.

There were statements that B.C. is investing in more police support to keep people safe, when we’re seeing illegal blockades endangering people’s lives and well-being. We saw what happened here a couple of weeks ago during the throne speech. I want to send my respects to the staffers and the members of the House that had to endure some of the taunting that they went through.

I got a video, from my office, of six or seven staffers walking down Menzies Street with about — I don’t know — 20 or 30 people behind them spitting, yelling and banging drums. People that work here don’t deserve that type of treatment. Nobody does. I can handle it myself, but for the people that work here day in and day out, I apologize for what you had to go through.

There was also a statement proclaiming that a lot more daycare spaces were being created. Yet staff shortages in our area are resulting in the closure of existing facilities.

For the third budget in a row, there was nothing from this government on funding for proper wildlife management or biodiversity. This really cuts to the bone of rural B.C. It’s totally unacceptable. I don’t want to make this a partisan issue. Wildlife funding has been flatlined for 40 years.

We put no value on wildlife. We put value on lumber, timber, oil, gas, agriculture. But we don’t put any kind of value on wildlife. We need a holistic plan that’s going to recognize it, with biodiversity and ecosystem restoration. It’s a big deal. And maybe that’s why it’s not in the budget, because it costs some money. We don’t have any money to spend, and once again wildlife is left out. I wanted to point that out to all the wildlife stewards of the land out there.

I’d also like to clarify some of the other misinformation that some people seem to think. I come from an area that has a lot of hunters, a lot of fishers, a lot of recreators. That’s part of the lifestyle. That’s part of the reason why we live in the Kootenays — to enjoy these things. When it comes to wildlife management, people always seem to be quick to call out hunters as being some kind of a barbaric creature that wants to kill animals. It’s the furthest thing from the truth. You really have to recognize the culture that’s within hunting communities.

They are, by far, the strongest conservationists you’ll find anywhere. They’ll do more for wildlife than anyone in this room, bar none. They’ll be the first group of people to rescue a herd of elk that broke through a frozen lake. They’ll be the first ones to clean up a campsite or the first ones to report a poacher. It’s a very strong community. They respect wildlife. They want to create good atmospheres and good environments for wildlife. We need to rely more on these stewards to come up with our decision-making. That’s what I say about a holistic plan.

[2:35 p.m.]

I think we need three things. We need, obviously, funding — an independent agency that can take in the funding for it. We need regional management, people with boots on the ground that can make those decisions — not Victoria. We need science-based decisions. The decision to cancel the grizzly hunt was purely non-scientific, purely social licence–based. It was an emotionally based decision that was to appease people on the Lower Mainland, because they don’t understand the rationale of predator management in areas such as the Kootenays. I know it’s a sensitive issue, but people have to understand it. We have to talk about it.

When you have a carrying capacity that’s exceeded in an area — the grizzly bears are too many — you can manage it in two ways. You can either manage it in the back country — take out a couple of dominant boars and let things kind of happen like that — or you can manage it in the low country, in the front country, where COs, or conservation officers, will shoot them in school yards and throw them in the dump. That’s what happens to them.

It’s like our forest management practices. You can either do prescribed burns in managed forests in a responsible way, or you can wait and let it build up — like we’ve done over the last 70, 80 years — and have these horrific firestorms that we’ve had for the last two years, some of the worst ever in our history. It’s about managing, and predator management is a responsible way to manage wildlife. People have got to understand that.

My critic role is with mining, something I definitely have fallen in love with in the three years that I’ve been the Mines critic. Salt-of-the-earth people who just want to just work hard are an important part of our economy. It’s one of the four cornerstones, as a matter of fact. You walk down the hallways here, and you’ll see fishing, forestry, agriculture and mining. You’ll see the pictures up here in the hall; they’re beautiful pictures. Mining has been a cornerstone of our economy since day one. It still is to this day. In this day of transition, when we’re going to a low-carbon economy, mining is more important than ever.

We’re in a really exciting time in mining, but some folks call it a sunset industry. They say it’s dying like the dinosaur. I heard the member, a few minutes ago, talk about it. “We’re investing in electric vehicles. We’re investing in electric chargers,” I think, is the exact quote she said. Well, where do you think it’s coming from? It’s coming from the ground. We’ve got to dig it up. We’ve got to mine it.

I come from an area that has four of the top five mines in British Columbia, up in the Elk Valley. Teck Coal has the biggest coal deposits in Canada out there — metallurgical coal. I’ve got to make that clear. This is steel-making coal. This is to make steel. This to make electric vehicles and electric charging stations and wind turbines.

It takes about 150 tonnes of metallurgical coal to make a wind turbine. We need these things. We need to have a process free of bureaucracy, free of red tape. We need some regulation. There’s no question. We want to be responsible. I think we are. I think we’re probably one of the most responsible jurisdictions anywhere in the world.

I mean, we could push our demand somewhere else if you want to shut it down. We could push it to Russia, or we could chase it to China, Venezuela or Congo. They might want to take up the slack a little bit. Why don’t we keep it here? Why are we so opposed? We don’t we give ourselves a high-five every once in a while and say: “Good job, guys”? Let’s be leaders here. Let’s lead the green economy with British Columbia products. But we see protests. We see misinformation on what mining actually is.

I was at a science fair once. The theme of the science fair…. It was for kids from grade two to six, I believe. They were supposed to make a little display on what they wanted to see the future look like. A lot of it was solar farms and wind turbines. They’d have a red circle around a mining truck, or a smokestack in the background with a big X on it. Beside it, they would have this wind turbine with a big green circle around it. I asked the kids: “Do you know that you need that to make that?” They had no clue.

[2:40 p.m.]

I see I’m almost out of time, and it’s too bad. I had some really good stuff to say there. But this budget doesn’t represent the promises made, so I can’t support the budget.

B. Ma: Thank you to the member opposite for his comments. I am pleased to rise and take my place in speaking about the budget for 2020. I love the slogan A Stronger B.C. for Everyone. Budget 2020 — a balanced plan to keep B.C. moving forward.

I want to congratulate the Minister of Finance for, once again, putting forward a balanced budget. I know that it’s not easy at all. There are so many wonderful investments to invest in, so many wonderful ideas. It is a very rare occasion when somebody in my community comes up to me or another MLA comes up to me with an idea that requires money that isn’t worth investing in.

The desire to say yes to everything obviously can’t be something that a Minister of Finance ought to do. I think she’s being a fantastic steward for the province, and I want to thank her very deeply for the incredible work that she is doing to make sure that B.C. maintains a very balanced approach, a very fiscally responsible approach within government as well.

I also want to thank all the folks, as many other MLAs do.

Deputy Speaker: Member, this House will be recessed for five minutes.

B. Ma: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

The House recessed from 2:41 p.m. to 2:44 p.m.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

B. Ma: I’ve never had very much confidence in my public speaking abilities, but I have to say I’ve never quite cleared a room like that before. Thank you so much for allowing me to take my place again.

Before the break, I was about to…. Like many MLAs, I’m here because of many people around me who support me.

[2:45 p.m.]

I’m very grateful to all of my staff, my constituency staff, back in North Vancouver. There’s Mack, Shawn, Michelle, Julia and Nic. No, they’re not all full-time, but I’ve had the pleasure of working with all of them over the last year or so. I couldn’t do any of the work that I do for my community without them.

I’m also very grateful to my volunteers, both the non-partisan office volunteers that come into my constituency office to support the work we have there as well as the partisan volunteers who support my work outside of the office as well.

Like most MLAs, I know that this work is very challenging for family members. In fact, it may be one of the toughest parts of this job — to be away from family for so long, to not be able to be there for important dates like birthdays and other celebrations and to always be working, day and night, all seven days of the week. So I want to be very clear that I’m so grateful to my family and, in particular, my wonderful partner, who supports me in every single way that a partner could possibly support a person.

I want to say happy birthday to my grandmother, who just turned 90 years old this year. That’s right — just as spry and feisty as ever. Of course, the community who elected me to come here to serve them…. Well, I know that I’m working very hard for my community, but I hope that I am doing work that they can be proud of each and every day.

The reason why I became an MLA really came down to, well, a lot of things. But a big part of it was watching my extended family, my friends and their families struggle to make ends meet. The issue of affordability has been so poignant over the last many years, and it has been spoken about a lot in this Legislature by both sides of the House. It is not an easy issue to tackle — absolutely not — but I believe that our government has been making a lot of important steps, important and big steps, towards improving affordability for people. We’re also improving the services that people count on, while building a sustainable economy that we can be proud of.

Just in North Vancouver alone, we have been able to benefit or will be benefiting from the Lions Gate Hospital acute care tower. We just opened up a new urgent primary care centre. The UPCC has opened above my office, on the second floor of 221 Esplanade, and thousands of people are already making use of it. They have an X-ray right on site.

I get so much good feedback from people who have visited the UPCC. I heard a story of a mother whose child became very ill one evening not being sure about where they could take him, because they were very concerned for him, but it wasn’t quite a life-threatening situation. Normally, they would take him to the emergency room, because that would be the only option available to them. But instead, they learned about the UPCC, and brought him to the UPCC as well, where he was seen and treated within an hour. That same trip over to Lions Gate emergency room would have probably eaten up many hours of their day. So many family members have expressed to me their gratitude for this new service, so I want to thank the Minister of Health for that.

We’re also seeing improvements and investments into public education and secondary schools. We’ve got the Argyle Secondary School replacement, which was funded — with much difficulty, I understand — under the previous government. But we’ve also fully funded Handsworth Secondary School’s replacement, which I know the community is looking forward to, and seismic upgrades at Mountainside Secondary.

I’ve heard from a lot of my community members that they’re looking forward to a new elementary school that hasn’t been committed to yet. But I know, in my conversations with the Minister of Education, that he’s heard, loud and clear, how important a new elementary school in the riding of North Vancouver–Lonsdale is.

[2:50 p.m.]

We have seen quite a boom of child rearing, I guess, in the community. We’ve got a lot of young kids entering elementary school, and we do see some pressures that weren’t there just a couple years ago. It’s a big part of the…. Well, to be honest, it’s probably a good problem to have in that it means that the city is thriving, that more families are moving towards the city centre, especially at a time when the rest of the North Shore is actually hollowing out because of rising housing costs. So I’m looking forward to continuing my work for a new school, a new Cloverley elementary school.

Now, transportation continues also to be a major issue in the North Shore, probably the top issue — another major issue, of course, being climate change, which we’ll get to later on. When it comes to transportation, people every day tell me about how difficult it is to get from A to B. On a near daily basis, we are seeing congestion on the highways that spills out into the local roadways. On a near daily basis, there are incidents on the highways, as well, that need to be cleared.

I mean, generally speaking, when people are trying to move from A to B, when they’re trying to commute in their daily lives, most people who drive can handle a little bit of congestion, a little bit of volume and a little bit of extra time when they’re driving to and from. But — and this is a big but — it has to be predictable. When there are incidents on the roads and incidents on the highways that cause backups that last for hours, it is impossible to plan for commutes like that.

I’m really grateful to our government for all the work that they have been doing over the last year — several years, actually — to improve incident-clearing responses. That included a new contract for maintenance services on the North Shore, which is producing results.

Of course, there’s a lot more to do. Much of what has been discussed in this budget here, for Budget 2020, of course continues the incredible work that we have been doing in supporting public transit infrastructure through­out the region.

The North Shore has already seen benefits from some of that public transit infrastructure. SeaBus sailings have been increased by up to 33 percent during peak hours. Instead of every 15 minutes, you’ll see a sailing every ten minutes during peak hours. We’ll also be welcoming a brand-new SeaBus this summer, and I know that all members who represent communities on the North Shore, on both sides of the House, are looking forward to that.

We’re also looking forward to the new Marine-Main B-Line that travels between Phibbs Exchange over to Park Royal. That will be coming into place, and it will be becoming operational in April. At the same time, in the same month, we’ll also be welcoming a new express bus over the Second Narrows Bridge that connects Metrotown to Phibbs Exchange without any stops in between; and at the same time, a new shuttle to Capilano University, between Phibbs Exchange and Capilano University.

All of this work couldn’t have been done without the incredible partnerships that we’ve built over the last two years. Through the integrated North Shore planning project, also known as INSTPP, we’ve been able to bring all levels of government involved in transportation on the North Shore together around the same table in order to produce a unified transportation plan for the region. It’s been an incredibly successful initiative.

I’m just realizing now that I use the word “incredibly” a lot, so I apologize for that. I’ll try to find some different adjectives to use going forward. But it is a really…. Fantastic is another…. That is an incredible adjective, fantastic.

Interjection.

B. Ma: Splendiferous. I’ve not used that one. It’s been a splendiferous partnership between municipal governments, provincial governments, the federal MPs that are around the table. We’ve got the port authority, we’ve got the two First Nations involved and, of course, TransLink as the regional transportation authority — all working around INSTPP.

INSTPP, which was completed back in 2018, produced a suite of recommendations that all of these governments have now been working on together to implement over the last year, and it will continue forward in the future.

[2:55 p.m.]

The next iteration of INSTPP is called Next Step, NXSTPP. It doesn’t stand for anything, because I couldn’t figure out the acronym. I just decided that Next Step made sense. Your first step is to get everyone in step, and your next step is to do the next steps of what INSTPP recommended. That will be led by Mayor Mary-Ann Booth of West Vancouver. I’m grateful to her for standing up to fill that role.

One of the recommendations from the INSTPP report was to study a rapid transit connection between Lonsdale city centre and downtown Vancouver. I’m so excited that we were actually able to launch that study last year. The province is in partnership with the district of North Vancouver, the city of North Vancouver, the district of West Vancouver and the city of Vancouver, and they are now undergoing the first technical feasibility study into a rapid transit solution for the North Shore ever.

It actually is also the first serious look into a third fixed link across Burrard Inlet since the 1960s. That’s, of course, the first fixed link of any kind. In this case, we’re focusing on rapid transit. But back in the 1960s, they probably would have focused more on vehicle traffic.

There’s still much more to do, but we look forward to being able to share the results of that study — or at least, parts of the study — shortly.

Now, aside from transportation and recognizing that there’s still a lot more to do on transportation, housing continues to be a serious issue on the North Shore. So I’m glad that Budget 2020 continues its focus, government’s focus, on improving housing affordability. On the North Shore, we have already been able to benefit from some of the investments that have been made in previous budgets. For instance, the Kiwanis housing society project for seniors — 106 very, very affordable units — just broke ground a couple of months ago.

I know that oftentimes when community members hear “affordable” housing, they think: “Well, $1,800 a month for a one bedroom or a studio is not affordable.” I totally agree, which is why I’m really grateful that the money that this government puts towards affordable housing projects and affordable rental projects includes the community fund….

To be honest, I don’t remember the exact name of the fund. But there’s a housing fund that funds projects with a specific rent-ratio requirement. So basically, out of the entire project, 30 percent of the units are below-market rental, which I understand can be quite a big range. But 50 percent of the units are rent-geared-to-income, which means that the rent actually fluctuates depending on the household income of the family that lives there, and that is crucially important. It means that those families in those units will never have to pay more than 30 percent of their income in order to have secure housing.

Then the last 20 percent of these units are slated for those requiring deep subsidy. Deep subsidy would include clients of disability and income assistance. That means that, for them, rent in these units is as low as $375 a month, and that is incredible. I don’t personally know of any units right now in my riding…. Maybe there are some, but it’s not common at all to find units for $375 a month.

Having said that, even with these new projects underway out on the North Shore, it’s not enough, quite frankly. We need so many more units. There are so many people who are struggling to make ends meet. I meet with seniors, low- and middle-income families and individuals all of the time who express how worried they are about not being able to survive the next rent increase, about what happens if they are evicted because their landlord wants to take back the unit or if the building is redeveloped, and they can’t find anywhere else to go.

That’s why Budget 2020’s continued focus on building the housing that people need is exceptionally important. I support that very, very deeply. There’s so much more work to do. There is so much good work that has already been done, but there’s so much more work to do. I know that on the North Shore, the three municipalities are actually actively working on additional projects with B.C. Housing. I look forward to being able to share more information about that when they get to a point where we can actually talk about it publicly.

[3:00 p.m.]

I mean, on housing and affordability, I think it’s also important to acknowledge that families of all income ranges suffer from challenges of affordability, and it’s not just those family members. I mean, in my community, in the city of North Vancouver, the median household income is about $67,000 a year, which is actually lower than the provincial average. People don’t often know this about a riding like North Vancouver–Lonsdale, because the sense of the entire North Shore is that it is a very affluent area. It is true that there is a lot of affluence in the North Shore. But in the riding that I represent, specifically, there are also a lot of struggling families.

But again, it’s not even just those who you might classify as low- or middle-income earners. Even higher earners are struggling to find a place on the North Shore because housing costs are simply so high.

I do want to acknowledge one piece that I’m certain — well, I know — has been brought up quite a bit, and that’s around taxes, income taxes. I’m really grateful that under Budget 2020, building on the work of Budget 2019 and Budget 2018, this government has been able to, overall, reduce provincial taxes on the vast majority of families. So families making less than $100,000 a year, for instance…. Even they will enjoy reductions of general income taxes. Of course with the elimination of MSP premiums, that has lifted a huge burden off of families that used to have to pay MSP premiums, especially, in particular, seniors and individuals as well.

But I do acknowledge that there is a tax rate increase for individuals who earn above $220,000 a year. I want to acknowledge it because I know that nobody likes to pay more tax. While half of the increased revenue will be brought in by people earning over $1 million a year, I do also want to acknowledge that individuals making $220,000 a year are not necessarily millionaires themselves, yet they will also be contributing more to our society through this tax.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s a very good wage — nearly four times more than the median household income in the city of North Vancouver. But it’s important to acknowledge that the real wedge in inequality these days has actually more to do with property ownership and how long ago you purchased your home when it comes to the average household wealth, or the wealth that the average household has. It has a lot more to do with property ownership than wages.

So tackling inequality requires progressive income taxes but also measures like the speculation and vacancy tax, which takes into account the percentage of worldwide income that families are reporting here in B.C.; the additional school tax on homes over $3 million; and the actions that this government has made in order to lift the veil on hidden ownership, which is sometimes used by property owners to hide from taxation authorities.

All of that work is really important, and it all works together in order to try to reduce the inequality that we see here, the extreme inequalities that we sometimes see in our province and around the world as well.

I want to talk briefly about child care, because it’s come up a few times now. I actually have a pilot project, one of those $10-a-day pilot project daycares, in my riding. The families who are fortunate enough to have children there have told me the most incredible stories. Magnificent stories — I’m still looking for other words other than “incredible.” But they’ve been able to tell me how much $10-a-day child care has changed their lives. It is a program worth expanding.

Of course, not everybody has $10-a-day child care yet, but currently in B.C., over 20,000 families are, in fact, accessing child care for $10-a-day or less, and tens of thousands more families are benefiting from the thousands and thousands of dollars of child care subsidies that have been rolled out over the last two years.

[3:05 p.m.]

There was one family that I met. Her children are grown now. But she is a single mother of four teenagers, household income of $40,000 a year. The stories that she tells about how difficult it was for her to actually to find a safe place for her children to be while she was out making wages in order to put food on the table are just harrowing. Every day she would leave her children, wondering if they would all be safe, wondering whether or not she had done the right thing and wondering whether there were other more extreme options that she should be considering.

One of the things she expressed to me was how grateful she was that other families in B.C. who are now in her situation, with younger children, won’t have to worry the same way that she did.

Now, are we done the work around child care? No, of course not. We’ve only just started. It’s been about two years, and there is a lot more work to do. But again, it is a valuable program that is changing lives, that is good for our economy, because we’re getting people back to work. That’s really good when we’re actually suffering from a bit of a skilled labour shortage in our industries right now.

I’m also very excited about the child opportunity benefit, which will kick into gear this fall. We had announced it, I believe, about a year ago. But the implementation took a little while because we needed to work with the federal government on changing up how…. I guess it’s a tax thing. I won’t get into it right now. But through the child opportunity benefit, we’re expecting to be able to lift even more families out of poverty.

I’ve got this wonderful little highlights book here. Let’s see. I can flip over to the page about the child opportunity benefit to make sure I have the numbers right. So starting October 1, 2020, nearly 300,000 families are going to be able to benefit from the new B.C. child opportunity benefit, which is a tax-free payment for families with children under 18 years of age. Families who are eligible for the child opportunity benefit will be able to receive this funding every single year while their child is under 18 years of age.

These new monthly payments will help families with basic necessities like food and clothing, further reducing child care costs and making opportunities like sports and arts possible. Under this program, families with one child can get up to $1,600 a year, families with two children can get up to $2,600 a year, and families with three children can get up to $3,400 a year. This is in addition to the child care subsidies that they are eligible to apply for.

So as a reminder, there are three affordability programs. There’s, of course, the pilot project that I mentioned, of which I have one in my riding. There’s also the child care fee reduction program that reduces child care fees by up to $350 per month. That is not an income-tested program. It actually just depends on the agreement that the child care provider has with government. Then the third program, which is an income-tested program, offers a subsidy of up to…. Oh, I want to make sure I have this right. I believe it’s $1,250 per month per child, depending on your income. Those families making less than $45,000 a year are eligible for the full amount, but families making up to $111,000 a year are also able to benefit. So it actually is quite a large range for a social program providing subsidies based on income.

Oftentimes when people think about social programs providing subsidies based on income, they expect the cap-out amount to be quite low — $50,000 a year for your entire family household or so forth — but this is actually substantially higher than that.

I know that I’m running short on time here. I don’t see the green light coming on, but I do want, before I run out of time, to touch base a little bit more about CleanBC. In Budget 2019, B.C. invested, put in, $1 billion in order to help CleanBC meet its targets. Now, one year later, in 2020, we’re actually increasing that by nearly 40 percent. It’s an incredibly important investment as well.

[3:10 p.m.]

I mean, all of these investments are important. But we can see what’s happening across the country, across the world with young people rising up, talking about how the old ways of doing things aren’t good enough and that we need to be doing more in order to save our planet, to save their futures and to basically leave future generations with an environment that is much better than the one that we inherited. We’ve been hearing this from young people from all across the world, and it’s imperative that we actually listen to them.

Now, CleanBC is an excellent economic environmental framework. It is the most aggressive climate action strategy in North America right now. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, really, what B.C. is doing is the absolute minimum that every single province, every single state, every single country should be doing. So we need a CleanBC for every province across the country, and then all of us need to do even more after that. But in the meantime, I am very pleased with the work of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. I think that he has really, really put his back into this work and brought B.C. to the head of North America in terms of climate action.

Is there more to do? Absolutely, as there is more to do on all of the topics that I have discussed today. That’s why I’m so pleased, so honoured and humbled to be able to stand here in these chambers to lend my voice, so grateful to be able to lend my voice around the government caucus table and to do the work that it will require, that my community requires of me in order to try to make their life better.

I know that I’m not perfect. I know that I have lots to learn. But I’ve been learning a great deal from all my colleagues and also from my colleagues across the way. I see the member for Skeena there, for instance. I actually am very grateful — I have expressed this earlier — for what he brings to this room. I’ve learned a lot from him. I’ve learned a lot from the Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. I’ve learned a lot from the Leader of the Third Party around issues relating to Indigenous people, issues relating to reconciliation.

I don’t think I ever believed that I could learn so much in such a short period of time, and I have every single person in these chambers to thank for that. With that, I’ll take my place and allow someone else to speak for a while.

D. Davies: It is my pleasure today to rise and give my response and a little debate on this unaffordable budget.

Before I begin, though, I’d like to start by thanking all of the constituents of Peace River North for giving me the honour to represent them in this great place.

In the face of this government’s, again, grossly unaffordable budget…. It is lacking so much for the people of my riding. I take this responsibility to represent them more seriously than ever. As their representative, I will take whatever action I can to make sure that I can help provide a stronger and brighter future for not only constituents today but future generations to come, to make sure that the communities of North Peace are brighter for all of us.

I want to, first of all, thank my family — my wife, Erin; my son, Noel; and my daughter, Hana — for the motivation and inspiration that I get from them to be here. As well, I do draw a lot of inspiration from my children in guiding me, because I do a lot of this for them. I do a lot of this for this next generation that is coming up to make sure they do have a bright future with hope and prosperity.

I must thank my constituency staff: at my office in Fort St. John, Tamara Wilkinson, as well as my auxiliary staff, Jamie Ross; at my Fort Nelson office, Kim Eglinski and auxiliary Julie McNeice. I’d also like to recognize all of the folks here in Victoria that do a great job helping us out: Nick Heinemann, Dion Weisner, Sam Burgess and Stephanie Marshall-White.

Peace River North has a variety of industries: oil, gas, forestry, agriculture, mining, tourism. These industries are all well-paying industries that support families. They are the backbone of the economy of British Columbia and the backbone of Peace River North. They are an integral part of our way of life in the north.

[3:15 p.m.]

Unfortunately, that is why this budget is so troubling to me. I do feel that the future of British Columbia, which is really, I’d say, the envy of Canada and the strongest province, is being threatened right now. It seems as if it’s this government’s plan to keep making big promises while doing nothing. These promises cannot be sustained, and they are not being sustained or followed through on. Combined with declining revenues, no real job creation incentives and topped off with — we’ve heard this over and over again — 23 new taxes, it means trouble for the northeast and for all British Columbians.

You know, this throne speech gave me very little reason to be optimistic this year. It was read, I guess, two weeks ago now. I opened up the throne speech with this. If I had to choose a word to describe this throne speech, it would be “empty.” If I could choose more, it would be “vague, void, lacking substance.” It shows little regard for rural British Columbians. But I will use “empty.” That is what I opened up the throne speech for. I see now, as we have this budget that has been presented and that we’re talking about today, that it fits in just lovely with that comment. It really worries me.

What was supposed to outline the government’s vision for the province has actually left very little vision at all. After almost three years of the NDP failing to keep big election promises, people across the province continue to hear empty words and see no action from the Premier in this 2020 budget. Daycare, the $10-a-day daycare; the renters rebate; portables in Surrey; just general affordability — these are just to mention a few of the promises that were made and that have yet to be kept.

The Premier told the people of B.C. they could expect decisive action on affordability and climate change. We have not seen that. He told them we could expect significant improvements on housing and child care in the province, and an open and transparent government. We’ve seen anything but that. Budget 2020 confirms that this Premier has no intentions of keeping these promises that he made almost three years ago. Most of them have been completely abandoned.

It’s another tax-and-spend budget — or, I should say, a tax, tax, tax-and-spend budget. There’s no real plan — this is what really worries me — to grow British Columbia’s economy and let people get ahead. The only real source of revenue that we see in this budget is a deep interest in the taxpayers’ pockets. There’s no private sector jobs plan. There’s no plan to meaningfully grow the economy.

For any of these promises that have been made, they’re destined just to be a fancy flash in the pan. Even the name of the budget, “A stronger B.C., for everyone,” seems more like a mean-spirited joke, in my opinion. Hiking taxes means ratcheting up prices, at times when many communities are falling, already, on hard times. “Making life more affordable” is something we hear from government. We hear it over and over again. It is the furthest thing from the truth.

I’ve talked about no growth in the economy. Oil and gas, forestry, mining and even agriculture are facing challenges. Think about that. Let that sink in. There’s no real talk of growing British Columbia’s economy in this budget. These sectors I mentioned are the lifeblood of this province — extremely important to Peace River North and really, of course, the whole province. As I mentioned, North Peace has an incredibly diversified economy with incredible potential. Despite the steep price tag that this budget has presented, my biggest worry is: where are my children going to see a future in a resource sector that covers almost 90 percent of British Columbia?

[3:20 p.m.]

Fort St. John is often, typically, associated mostly with the oil and gas industry, which is no doubt very important to the residents as well, as it does contribute a significant amount of revenue to the province. But we also do have a forest sector, which I will admit is struggling, like many others are around the province. As well, we do have the largest agricultural region in the province. We have approximately 1,800 farms, which produce $100 million annually, including 90 percent of B.C.’s grain and 95 percent of B.C.’s canola. Also a big producer of livestock — the largest bison herds in the province, as well as llamas, alpacas and wild boars.

But this budget, just like last year’s, seems a little scant on agriculture issues. More regulations that, in essence, are regulating farmers out of farming. I have many people that have come into my riding and wondered how they were going to continue farming, how they were going to pass their farm on to their kids. That is a travesty.

Burdening farmers with regulations and taxes is going to do much more harm than it is good, certainly in my riding of Peace River. The North Peace can claim the historical and current centre of B.C.’s oil and gas industry, but the harder you make it for resource industries to flourish, the more likely it is that people are going to move elsewhere. We’ve seen that already happening — people moving elsewhere, people leaving British Columbia to seek better opportunities in other parts of the country.

It goes back to not demonstrating growth in the economy, which we don’t see in this budget. The resource sector has been ignored. British Columbians already have very little left in their paycheque once they’re finished. I’m worried that if we don’t see an increase in our resource sector — a boost in forestry, oil and gas, mining — how are we going to pay for our hospitals, our schools, roads and bridges? Taxes are not the way to go.

Interestingly, here’s a little foreshadowing. The ministries that are responsible for mining, oil and gas, forestry — which are the money-making ministries, the ministries responsible for these industries that create revenue — have all been significantly cut. Now, what is that sending out to anybody who wants to invest in British Columbia? Almost $70 million has been cut from Energy and Mines. Nearly $106 million from the forestry budget, FLNRO’s budget — that’s nearly 11 percent of their budget that has been cut. What kind of a signal are we sending?

Competitiveness. I have talked about competitiveness in my throne speech…. We have heard lots of talk about competitiveness. We are last on the continent when it comes to competitiveness. Yesterday was Mining Day. Probably everybody in this House had a presentation by the folks from the Mining Association. It should be a time to be celebrating an incredible resource, as my colleague from the Kootenays…. Kootenay south? He had talked about mining being one of our founding industries here in this province. But there’s grave concern in that industry, as there is in other industries.

I heard an interesting word yesterday while we were meeting with folks: regulatory complexity. Regulatory complexity is killing investment in our province. I couldn’t agree more. I could not agree more. We’ve seen this complexity. It isn’t just in B.C., but we’re probably number one in the country.

We saw the Teck Frontier mine being put off yesterday. Unfortunately, we see some members on that side of the House celebrating this, celebrating this multi-billion-dollar investment in our country, an investment that would have had an incredibly positive impact on British Columbia.

[3:25 p.m.]

Of course, Teck is a British Columbia company, employing thousands of people across the province, many in Vancouver. We have a member, Vancouver Lonsdale, applauding this as a win. I see a tweet from David Suzuki today — a win.

What kind of message are we sending to the investment community that we want to come here? Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s oil and gas, mining, forestry. What kind of message are we sending to the world? These capital dollars can go anywhere else in the world. But when we have members of the government applauding these multi-billion-dollar opportunities that get turned down, that is a shame.

I just want to mention a little piece out of this pamphlet we got from the mining association yesterday, and it’s quite interesting when you look at the positive impact to the Lower Mainland. These are the mining companies that are located…. There are 55 companies in North Vancouver — mining companies or people associated with the mining industry companies. Vancouver has got 485 companies; Burnaby, 104 companies; Richmond, 110; and the list just goes on and on.

It’s an incredible impact. If I were holding a pamphlet from gas companies and forest companies, it would be very similar. These resource companies truly are the foundation of this province and provide an unbelievable amount of opportunity for all British Columbians.

In the northeast, it gets cold. It gets really cold. I flew home, not the last time, but two weeks ago. I left here, and I think it was about 9 degrees. I arrived back in Fort St. John, and it was minus 24. We’ve had a cold winter this year. January was probably one of our coldest winters on record. We hovered around minus 30, with a couple of minus…. Actually, I think Prince George beat us out as probably one of the coldest places on the continent — 50 degrees below zero or some ridiculous number like that.

We were 40, and it was locked in there for two weeks. My furnace I don’t think shut off the entire two weeks that we were at that temperature. I’m going to be blessed with an increased carbon tax coming up on April Fools’ Day. I wish it was a joke, but it is not — $45 a tonne coming up in January, and it’ll be up to $50 next year.

You know, I’ve had lots of people…. I can attest to it, because I get a PNG bill as well. I think PNG is only kind of up in the northeast. There are only a couple of spots they’re at. But I get my gas bill, and I usually have to make sure I’m sitting down when I open that envelope up at my house. And this is just an example. This is probably not a good example to use. But I look at the consumption charges of the natural gas itself. It comes in at 14 bucks. Then I go down to the carbon tax: $75.60.

We are penalizing and continuing to increase this penalty for those of us that live in the interior of B.C., especially up in the north, that must use this natural gas to heat our homes. We don’t have a choice. Well, we could go with electricity, but then we would be having to take out a loan to probably just pay for our heating bill.

Additionally, I live in a vast region — I’ve said it many times in this place — almost 170,000 square kilometres. Many people have to drive out, in the resource sector, great distances. I know people that drive two hours a day just to get out to their worksite. Even for me, when I travel in the riding, I’m five hours to drive to Fort Nelson and nine hours to drive up to Liard or up into Muncho Lake.

[3:30 p.m.]

We see nothing but costs going up — the cost of fuel continually increasing. We’re penalizing people that are already hurting and trying to survive through a tough environment. We can’t afford these mass tax increases. We cannot afford them.

This government has dragged its feet on the softwood lumber dispute, three years now. We’ve heard recently…. I think it was five Premiers that went to Washington to talk trade and to talk about the softwood lumber. Where was our Premier? He wasn’t there.

[S. Gibson in the chair.]

You know, for communities like Fort Nelson, this is a situation that just keeps getting worse and worse. I mean, this community as well as all the other communities in the north that I represent — Taylor, Fort St. John, Hudson’s Hope — are all heavily dependent on the resource sector. The town of Fort Nelson is getting really hit. You know, there are hopes of a forest industry returning. But I’m not too sure if that can happen with the inaction on the Forests file.

There’s an amazing natural gas reserve in the Northern Rockies. But I’m not too sure if that will ever be realized, because this government seems blatantly opposed to any oil and gas initiatives.

I think this is a story that will become more common, not only in the north but across the province, unless the government comes up with a solid jobs plan to help out these communities. Part of this job plan is going to need to be looking at how we can incentivize, how we can make British Columbia competitive again so that companies will come and invest in towns like Fort Nelson. Many things that we talk about here…. A robust resource sector is critically important to funding projects.

I just want to take a second to talk about roads up in the northeast, up in my area. I talked about the size of my riding, and many people have to go to work on rural roads. Whether you’re hauling logs, whether you’re going out to access a well, whether you’re going out to your farm, many people live on these roads and use these roads every day.

In this budget, we didn’t see, or I haven’t seen, any real investment in the north, in the northeast. We’re trying to get a bridge. I appreciate that the government is doing some consultation this year on replacing the Taylor Bridge, but no long-term plan of what that looks like — some time frames on the Taylor Bridge. We do hear about other bridges in the Lower Mainland but nothing about the Taylor Bridge, no advancement and no major mention other than the money that is given annually anyways on improving the rural roads in the northeast.

We have roads in communities like Baldonnel where school buses can’t access and pick up children because the roads are in such disarray, especially with the thaw coming. Emergency vehicles cannot get to these homes if there’s an emergency. I’ve written the minister numerous times, on these roads, to come up with some sort of funding, but nothing.

British Columbians aren’t getting ahead. Life is less affordable than it has ever been before. This budget is basically being balanced on the backs of hard-working British Columbians, and it’s not fair. Twenty-three new or increased taxes in just shy of three years.

[3:35 p.m.]

I haven’t even mentioned the Netflix tax. That’s the one that I believe the member for Langley had mentioned, talking to some folks. That’s the one tax my parents talk to me about and their friends are talking about, the streaming tax. Talk about reaching into pockets. You want to watch Netflix. I mean, it’s very expensive to go out and watch a movie. A lot of people have these streaming services. In fact, I’d be probably safe to say everybody has a few of them in their house — Disney+, Netflix, Crave, NHL channel. I’m sure my friend from Chilliwack has probably got the WWF Channel. I think there’s probably a WWF Channel.

Interjection.

D. Davies: There is? There you go. Or the How to Barbecue Meat Channel. It’s all taxed now. Just tax that. Enough with the taxes. We need to have a different plan. That plan is not in the 2020 budget.

Unfortunately, there’s no idea of how to even create jobs. Every single economic indicator right now in Canada is pointing in the wrong direction for this province. That is a startling sign. Whether we’re talking job losses in seven of the last eight months…. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

Life is not getting more affordable for British Columbians. I guess I have a question. Are you getting ahead under the NDP? I know that many folks in my riding certainly are not. This budget, if anything, is an ominous sign of hardship in the resource sectors and the communities that they support and all the communities that I represent in Peace River North.

The tax increases only serve to worsen this hardship, and there doesn’t seem to be any plan to move past it through a jobs plan or growing the economy. This government needs to do better. It is deeply frustrating….

Interjection.

D. Davies: Member, I’m sure you’ll have an opportunity here next to talk.

It’s deeply frustrating to me, to the people that I represent that they, apparently, aren’t planning to do anything for my children’s future as we move forward.

It’s been a pleasure to be able to deliver some remarks on this budget. I certainly will not be supporting the budget, as, to me, it threatens the north. It threatens rural communities. Until we see that changing around, I have grave concerns as we move forward. With that, I will conclude my remarks.

J. Brar: I am pleased to speak to you today about Budget 2020-2021, which is all about the work we are doing together to build a stronger B.C. for everyone. I will come back to the Budget 2020 debate in a couple of minutes.

First, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to people who have been part of my political journey. I exist in this House because the people of Surrey continue to elect me — a fourth time — as their representative. That is certainly a rare honour for me and for my family.

Therefore, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to the people of Surrey-Fleetwood for giving me the opportunity and for putting their faith in me. My heartfelt thanks to my two staff members Navneet Kahlon and Deanna Fasciani at the Surrey-Fleetwood office and Gurbrinder Kang in the Victoria office.

[3:40 p.m.]

They are exceptional people and doing excellent jobs serving the people of British Columbia and assisting me on a day-to-day basis.

Last but not least, thanks from the deep inside of my heart to the love of my life, my friend and my beautiful wife, Rajwant Brar; to my daughter, Noor; and my son, Fateh, for their unconditional support to me.

Coming back to the budget, Budget 2020. Budget 2020 is good for the people of Surrey. The people of Surrey have made a lot of progress during the last 2½ years, and Budget 2020 is our plan to keep Surrey moving forward. We are putting the people of Surrey first and making different choices than the previous government.

The B.C. Liberals made choices that benefited the top 2 percent of wealthy people, and they forced the middle-class families to pay more for everything. They failed to build the much-needed infrastructure and improve services to meet the needs of our fast-growing community. B.C. Liberals left the city in a big and ugly mess, and we are fixing the damage their choices created and investing in the problems facing families in Surrey today.

There are good things happening in Surrey, and we want everyone to be part of it. We have, indeed, made huge progress in the city of Surrey, bigger than the last 16 years, in just 2½ years.

Interjections.

J. Brar: Members are heckling on that side. Just listen to me, what I’m going to say, and you can challenge that. Let me tell you what we have accomplished in just 2½ years, if you’re ready to listen.

We eliminated the tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and Golden Ears Bridge, saving a driver who commutes every day approximately $1,500 a year. B.C. Liberals, the members talking on the other side, forced the people of Surrey to pay the tolls when they were in power.

We have eliminated MSP, saving individuals around $800 and families up to $1,800. B.C. Liberals are planning to bring MSP back. They’re planning to bring MSP back.

Interjections.

J. Brar: At the last B.C. Liberal convention, they passed a resolution to bring MSP back.

We have committed 40 percent funding for the mayors’ vision, which includes SkyTrain in Surrey. The B.C. Liberals refused to fund SkyTrain during their time.

Interjections.

J. Brar: Yes, you did. You can challenge that too. You did.

We are building the Pattullo Bridge. That was completely ignored by the B.C. Liberals for 16 years. Nothing was done.

We have eliminated the interest on B.C. student loans, making education affordable for our students. B.C. Liberals failed to do it. In fact, tuition fees went up, in some cases, about 300 percent during their time. That’s what happened.

We have built a new urgent primary care centre in Surrey to reduce the wait times.

[3:45 p.m.]

We have funded the construction of 7,200 new seats in the first 2½ years, and that is equivalent to about 12 new elementary schools. The B.C. Liberals only funded one school in the last four years, between 2013 and 2017.

Interjections.

J. Brar: You can challenge that. But these are the facts.

We have opened 160 modular supportive housing units to address homelessness on the Whalley strip.

Interjections.

J. Brar: I know it’s hard for the members on the other side to listen to this because they hadn’t done anything to improve the city of Surrey for 16 years — anything. I can put my record against their record any day.

We have also funded over 1,200 child care spaces in Surrey during the last 2½ years, and the list goes on. Clearly, Surrey made huge progress during the last 2½ years under the NDP. Budget 2020 is our plan to keep Surrey moving forward.

Budget 2020 is providing funding for three new elementary schools and one new secondary school, and five existing schools will get funding for seismic upgrades and for building additional student seats.

B.C. Housing is providing $29 million in capital funding to build a 130-unit transitional housing project located at 9810 Fox Glove Drive in Surrey.

Surrey hospital. We are moving forward on a new Surrey hospital. This hospital is full steam ahead, with the concept plan approved by the Treasury Board and with the….

Interjections.

J. Brar: Just wait for what I’m going to say. Just wait. Listen. Listen to what I’m saying. You will have the opportunity.

The business plan is currently under development. Land has been acquired beside Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Cloverdale. Once the business plan is completed, a dollar figure can be attached in the government capital plan.

Members on the other side, particularly members who have served in cabinet, know exactly what the process is. They know exactly what the process is. The final cost is expected to be between $1 billion and $2 billion. We are building a new hospital in Surrey. That’s going to happen.

But let me tell you their story. In 16 years, the B.C. Liberals were never — never, ever — serious about building a new hospital in Surrey. Never. History speaks for itself.

Interjection.

J. Brar: I am telling you. The B.C. Liberals delayed the Surrey hospital. Particularly, the Leader of the Official Opposition delayed the new hospital in Surrey. As the Minister of Citizens’ Services in 2013 and ’14, he sold a parcel of properties near 152 and Highway 10 in Surrey that was acquired by the B.C. NDP government in 1990 for a new hospital.

In fact, in 2005, Gordon Campbell held a campaign event at that site, promising to the people of Surrey to build a second hospital. But the B.C. Liberals delayed their promise for years, and then permanently abandoned the idea in 2014 when the Leader of the Official Opposition, now the Leader of the Official Opposition, sold this site.

[3:50 p.m.]

It is very, very interesting to note that the Surrey Liberal MLAs remained silent and continued to refuse to stand up for the people of Surrey. They were silent when the land was sold. They were silent when the project was sold. They never said a word. But now somehow the hospital has become important to them, including the member for Richmond-Queensborough, who somehow has some interest in Surrey. He said not a single word when they cancelled this project.

Instead of accepting responsibility for their actions, these MLAs, including the Leader of the Official Opposition, are constantly misinforming the people of Surrey, about the budget and about the new hospital, on a Punjabi radio program. That’s what they’re doing. They’re spinning the news. That is misleading. That’s misinformation. The B.C. Liberal leader repeatedly and deliberately provided false information to the listeners on RedFM a few days ago.

Interjections.

J. Brar: I know that it’s hard for them to listen to this whole thing. I know that it’s hard. Look at the misinformation….

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, can we have order, please.

J. Brar: When the B.C. Liberal leader repeatedly and deliberately provided false information to the listeners on RedFM a few days ago, he claimed there is nothing in the provincial budget for the residents of Surrey: “Well, the word ‘Surrey’ was mentioned once. The budget document is a definitive document that is used by the Finance Ministry. It’s used by the bankers. It is a statement of the financial spending for the next three years. There is not one single word about Surrey schools, Surrey SkyTrain, or Surrey hospital in the budget.”

He said these words on RedFM. Mr. Speaker, look at this. This is very interesting. I know it’s painful to listen to this. Look at this: in a space of 20 seconds, the B.C. Liberal leader provided false information four times — four times. No one can break that record of the Leader of the Official Opposition.

False information No.1: “Surrey was mentioned only one time in the budget.” That’s what he said. The reality is that Surrey was mentioned six times on pages 2, 11, 15, 43, 49 and 50. Surrey is also mentioned five times in the budget speech. The members know that.

False information No. 2: “There is nothing for Surrey SkyTrain.” The reality is that we have committed to 40 percent funding for the mayors’ vision, which included SkyTrain in Surrey and a SkyTrain extension. Budget 2020 includes the expansion of the SkyTrain fleet and upgrades to stations and facilities in Metro Vancouver — page 44.

False information No. 3: “There is nothing for Surrey schools.” The reality is that Budget 2020 provides funding for three new elementary schools, one secondary school and five existing schools — funding for seismic upgrades and for building additional seats in schools.

False information No. 4: “Surrey hospital is not mentioned.” The reality is that the Finance Minister mentioned Surrey hospital specifically in the budget speech.

[3:55 p.m.]

Someone has said: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.”

Interjections.

J. Brar: People said: “That’s right.” That’s what they’re doing.

Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, the member on the other side…. The people of Surrey will never believe the misinformation being provided almost every day by every member to the people of Surrey. You know, people will challenge it.

Interjections.

J. Brar: Well, keep listening. Keep listening.

Now, members are talking about promises. I don’t want to go there, but I’ll go there. These are the members sitting on that side. They promised to the people of British Columbia, in 2013, you know what thing? A debt-free B.C., a $100 billion prosperity fund. Where is that? Zero dollars for prosperity funds, and the debt was more than it was before, under them. That is their record. I can go on, on that one, if they want.

The people of Surrey know that we have done way more than they had done in 16 years, in just 2½ years. Budget 2020 is about making life more affordable, improving services people count on and creating good jobs and opportunities in every corner of the province of British Columbia. We cannot go back. We need to keep moving forward. There is more to do. Now, B.C. has the best economy. The member who spoke before me was very concerned about the economy, because in 16 years, these members said to the people of British Columbia that they were the only ones who knew how to run the economy.

Well, let me tell you some facts about the economy. Our economy remains the best in the country. B.C.’s labour force and labour market was a source of strength last year. Employment increased by 2.6 percent in 2019, with a total of 65,400 net new jobs created, of which 45,700 were in the private sector. B.C. was among the leaders in employment growth across the nation last year. For the fourth consecutive year, B.C.’s unemployment rate remained the lowest in Canada, at 4.7 percent, in 2019. Those are the facts.

B.C. is projected to be among the top in real provincial GDP growth, ranking in 2020 and ’21 well above most of the provinces, and we have a triple-A credit rating. Budget 2020 is a balanced plan focused on the priorities of the people of British Columbia. I know it’s painful for them to listen to this, but that is a fact.

Infrastructure money. Budget 2020 projects historic investments in infrastructure. Budget 2020 projects a record level of three-year capital funding to expand and sustain provincial infrastructure over the three-year plan. This includes capital investment in schools, hospitals, roads, transit and housing. That will benefit communities across the province and support a sustainable economy for everyone.

[4:00 p.m.]

Over the next three years, our capital spending will total $22.9 billion, helping to create well-paying jobs in communities throughout the province; ensure access to services people depend on, like health care and education; and support our trade corridor and businesses to keep goods and people moving. Work on the approved projects in our infrastructure plan is expected to support over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction.

Budget 2020 continues investment in affordable housing. Making housing more affordable also remains a key priority for government in Budget 2020. We’re working hard to tackle the housing crisis by addressing speculation, closing loopholes and cracking down on fraud, making renting more secure and building more affordable homes for people across the province of British Columbia. We put our Homes for B.C. plan in place in 2018 to work with partners to build 114,000 affordable homes with a historic investment of $7 billion over ten years. This plan will create more than 54,000 jobs.

Budget 2020 makes post-secondary education more affordable for students. Over the next decade, more than 860,000 new job opportunities will open up across B.C., and more than 75 percent of these jobs will require some post-secondary education and training. With new opportunities in every region, it is critical that British Columbians have access to the training and education they need to benefit from B.C.’s momentum.

Last year in Budget 2019, we eliminated the interest from all new and existing B.C. student loans. We did that. Budget 2020 takes the next step in making life more affordable for B.C. students. A new needs-based, up-front B.C. access grant will remove barriers to education and provide support for students to complete their studies. The new grant will benefit more than 40,000 students in B.C. attending public colleges and universities.

Budget 2020 provides funding to create more child care spaces. In 2018, Childcare B.C. was launched to bring affordable, accessible and quality child care to families across the province. In less than two years, government has funded more than 10,400 new licensed child care spaces and has helped parents save thousands of dollars through the affordable child care benefit and child care fee reduction initiative. Investment for our total child care program funding will reach a record-high $2 billion over the next three years. The growth in child care funding will continue to create thousands of child care spaces, reduce costs for parents and support the workforce that our kids rely on.

Budget 2020 provides the new B.C. child opportunity benefit to parents. As announced as part of Budget 2019, government will implement the new B.C. child opportunity benefit this fall. This will help to make sure that children in B.C. have the opportunity to thrive. The benefit provides a tax-free payment, putting more dollars in the pockets of low- and middle-income families, with benefits as high as $1,600 a year for the first child and higher benefits for larger families.

[4:05 p.m.]

The new benefit provides support until your children turn 18, with families receiving up to seven times over your child’s lifetime — up to $28,000 for one child and up to $40,000 for two children. The child opportunity benefit is a historic investment that puts more dollars in the pockets of middle-class families.

Budget 2020 also provides historic funding for K-to-12 education. Kids in British Columbia deserve the support needed to set them up for future success. High-quality K-to-12 education has been a priority for this government from the very beginning. We are improving our schools to give our kids a better start. We have hired 4,200 more teachers and 2,000 new education assistants, and we have announced more than 80 capital projects for building and expanding and upgrading schools — 80 capital projects.

We have also opened 100 new playgrounds. The funding the Liberals had completely denied to the parents…. But we have provided that funding. We have opened 100 new playgrounds, benefitting over 25,000 children. Budget 2020 provides the Ministry of Education with $339 million over three years to continue to support the K-to-12 education system. This brings the total investment to over $20 billion over the fiscal plan for education.

Budget 2020 provides $1 billion additional funding for health care, making sure people can get health care when and where they need. Health care continues to be a key priority, with over $1 billion in additional funding over the next three years. This builds on previous investment we have made to give people faster and better access to the day-to-day health care services they need.

We are opening new urgent primary care centres in B.C. In communities across the province, seniors are benefitting from better primary care, home health, long-term care and assisted living. People are getting the surgeries and diagnostic procedures they need faster. Wait times for hip and knee surgeries are falling. And the number of MRIs being done each year has increased by over 23 percent. We are also improving access to PharmaCare by reducing or eliminating deductibles for 240,000 B.C. families with net income under $45,000.

In the last two years, we announced investment for 13 new hospitals. Thirteen new hospitals — that is historic. I know that’s why the members on the other side can’t see that this is going to happen. There’s more and more to come.

I would like to conclude by saying that I am very, very excited to support Budget 2020.

D. Barnett: On behalf of my constituents of the Cariboo-Chilcotin, I am pleased to provide some thoughts on the 2020 provincial budget. I would like to begin by giving thanks to the staff of this institution. First, security staff have had extra duty over the past few weeks, and they deserve our thanks for exercising patience and careful restraint. My thanks also to the staff in all ministries, who spent many days, I’m sure, preparing a so-called balanced budget under guidance from the Ministry of Finance.

[4:10 p.m.]

On this side of the floor, I want to say thank you to our opposition caucus staff, including legislative assistants, research officers and our communications department. My deepest appreciation, also, to my highly dedicated and very caring constituency assistants in 100 Mile and Williams Lake. Finally, thank you always to my constituents, who have been heavily impacted by flooding, mill closures and the fallout from two record wildfires in the past few years.

We were hoping for some relief in this budget, not only for the Cariboo but for all of rural British Columbia. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, many are being heavily impacted in a negative way by this budget. They are being impacted by this government’s policies, and they are facing an increasing burden of regulations and red tape.

As a matter of fact, whenever a member on this side of the House raises legitimate questions about a policy or action by the government, like clockwork, we are always met with a partisan reply. All we hear on this side of the House is: “Sixteen years of uncaring rule by the B.C. Liberals.” Well, 16 years when the previous government was in power, and the biggest tax cuts in the history of the province were brought in.

We slashed B.C.’s personal income tax rate across the board by 25 percent. That was easy to do after the dismal decade of the 1990s and year after year of tax increases and fudge-it budgets from the NDP. By paying less tax, the previous government made life more affordable for 16 years, but this government has brought in no less than 23 new taxes or increased taxes in less than three years.

In the 1990s, I was a mayor. My fellow local governments were begging the Minister of Forests with help with the outbreak of mountain pine beetle. At the time, pine beetle could have been mitigated — maybe not totally contained, but mitigated. Yet the NDP government of the day said: “We can’t log in class A parks.” Well, the pine beetles did not pay any attention to park signs, and the rest is history. Due to inaction on the part of the NDP, pine beetles spread like wildfire. The Minister of Forests at the time also cancelled a timber licence in the Chilcotin, which shut down Carrier Lumber, devastating communities throughout the region.

Last week’s budget, which is a tax-and-spend budget, contained little hope for people in my region. As a matter of fact, the budget was delivered more than a week ago, but I’m afraid that very few British Columbians really took notice. They may have heard about a few tax increases, such as the new soda pop tax and the new tax on Netflix, but what overshadowed budget day was the very large presence of 1,000 forestry workers who appeared on the front lawn of the Legislature.

We are talking about hard-working people and their families who have been devastated by the worst crisis in the forest industry in over 40 years. They were here to send a clear message to government: the rising costs of production, coupled with falling timber prices, have created a perfect storm of devastation for forestry workers and their families and communities.

Many of the people who showed up on the front lawn of the Legislature were among the 3,000 forestry workers and contractors that suffered through the strike at Western Forest Products. Nearly eight months long, this was the longest strike action in the history of the forest industry. Both the company and average forest workers were well aware that negotiations were at a standstill. People begged the provincial government to act, yet the NDP chose instead to sit on their hands and do nothing to offend their union bosses.

[4:15 p.m.]

This is unacceptable. When two parties arrive at a standstill, government has an obligation to act. Workers were having their trucks repossessed. People couldn’t afford to make mortgage payments. Marriages broke up. Earlier this week, I described how people took matters into their own hands. Volunteers put together a mobile food bank, Loonies for Loggers, just to help people cope. Again, we’re talking about hard-working people and proud people. The volunteers knew they had to park on side roads, because many of those in need didn’t want to be seen accepting help in a time of need.

And what did this government do? Nothing. It is obvious that the NDP no longer represents ordinary working folks, nor do they care for what happens in rural British Columbia. In order to come up with some kind of response to the crisis in the forest industry, the NDP tore apart existing programs and invented an early retirement program. If the government truly believes it’s helping the situation by cancelling existing programs for their $69 million early retirement program, guess again.

I heard the parliamentary secretary bragging about the fact that they have received 500 applications. Well, that’s just great — 500 people being told to wait and sit on their hands to find out if they are eligible. This is nothing to brag about. There are thousands more out of work in the forest industry. Just spend an hour in one of my constituency offices in Williams Lake or 100 Mile House. My assistants will tell you that your program is not working. If you are a forest worker on the coast, you are out of luck, because only Interior workers qualify. How’s that for fairness?

The problem is that most people still want to work. One of the programs the NDP cancelled in the name of this $69 million program is the rural dividend fund. This represented $25 million that went to rural communities every year to assist them with diversifying their local economies. Over 300 local government applications were applied, and they were told that help is not here. So sorry — you are not a priority for this government. That was last year.

Budget 2020 doesn’t seem to even mention the rural dividend fund. As a matter of fact, those in the forest industry, including many in my riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin, were looking forward to seeing a comprehensive plan to save the forest industry. Did we see that in this budget? No, not a single new dollar. Instead, what we got was a Forests Ministry that had over $100 million cut from its budget. That’s right — an 11 percent drop in ministry financing because this government has broken the bank.

As a matter of fact, this budget is so weak and with such a small surplus projected that British Columbia will likely see the NDP sink into deficit financing once again. That is likely to happen this year in the 2020 fudge-it budget. That’s why the B.C. Forestry Alliance is calling on the government to implement a working forest. They are not asking for much. The B.C. Forestry Alliance is calling on the provincial government to protect the current harvestable land base and establish a working forest that will sustain the forest industry now and in the future. As a matter of fact, the B.C. Forestry Alliance gathered 8,000 signatures from ordinary British Columbians who want nothing more than to ensure a predictable and long-term fibre supply.

The B.C. Forestry Alliance wants long-term solutions for a struggling industry. But that takes leadership. And in the face of all the closures of the Port of Vancouver, railway lines, bridges and highways, there has been no leadership from this Premier or the NDP government. They let the forest industry down. Now this government is afraid to offend the protesters they aligned themselves with in opposition to Trans Mountain.

[4:20 p.m.]

British Columbians deserve better. Where are the new regional forest strategies this government has been working on for a year or so? People need answers, answers to questions like: how much money was wasted on caribou consultations? How many land agreements has the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources been working on for protection of caribou?

This Premier held a press conference last year and admitted that the lack of consultation on caribou was “my bad”. So to cover his tracks, the Premier called upon the former MLA and cabinet minister Blair Lekstrom to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. In good faith, Mr. Lekstrom crossed the province and developed 14 recommendations last June. Finally, people thought they would be listened to.

With much fanfare, the Premier praised Mr. Lekstrom for all of his hard work, and then nothing happened. Despite promises to engage the public and hold meaningful consultations, the Premier simply ignored all 14 recommendations. As a result, Mr. Lekstrom quit in frustration, and this government just quietly went back to closed-door discussions that the public rejected in the first place. Yet another example of the NDP writing off working people in rural British Columbia.

When it comes to buying votes in the Lower Mainland, they have a million bucks to hand out for free tickets to the symphony, but when it comes to helping families heal from an eight-month strike at Western Forest Products or when it comes to helping forest workers get back on their feet in the Cariboo-Chilcotin or when it comes to showing a little leadership in the face of the worst forest crisis in over 40 years, don’t expect anything from this government.

One thing this government does not and never will understand is how business works. The new employer health tax, increased carbon tax, income tax: 23 new and existing tax increases — all have assisted in shutting down our forest industry.

All these new and increased taxes affect everyone, from businesses to industry to major employers and, yes, the consumer. Every time an increase to business, consumer prices go up. I ask the government: is this what you call making life more affordable for British Columbians?

Daycare — $10-a-day care for all families, a last election promise. Well, once again, a broken promise. Private and non-profits are losing staff due to a poorly conceived government funding model for daycare.

The Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resour­ces shows no growth in resource industries. With a province full of minerals and opportunities for First Nation communities, we see no projected growth.

We also see land use issues dealing with reconciliation, but no transparency or public consultation. This is having a direct impact on investment.

To be fair, we do see the health care budget increase, as it should. With aging populations, new research and technology, this is a necessity, and capital is always a necessity. I especially look forward to a shovel in the ground in 2021 for the Williams Lake hospital. There are many needs in my constituency, yet we are not getting the answers we need at budget time.

Many ranchers are still suffering from the floods last year in the Cariboo, but where is the help? I would advise this government and the Minister of Agriculture that the ranching industry needs help, but what do we get? Budget cuts to the Ministry of Agriculture. We are looking at a slowdown or even a recession. Does this mean more cuts to agriculture?

What about all those NDP promises made in the past? Are these subject to cuts also? What is in this budget for seniors? Seniors are struggling more than ever, yet we don’t see anything in this year’s budget.

What about transportation? There are many needs for rural infrastructure, and all we get are budget cuts to the Transportation and Infrastructure budget.

[4:25 p.m.]

B.C. is still an economic leader, but this tax-and-spend government is weighing the economy down. As a result, we are heading to deficit financing in budgeting as though B.C. was in the midst of a recession. All we have are broken promises.

A $10-a-day daycare is now a pipedream for many that will never happen. How about the $400-a-year rebate for renters? Another broken promise.

This government keeps saying: “We are making life more affordable for British Columbians.” But I can tell you this. They are making life more affordable for some British Columbians: for those that don’t have to make a car payment anymore, for those that don’t have to make a mortgage payment anymore, for those that don’t have to make payments because they have lost everything. That is the only way that this government is making life more affordable for British Columbians.

British Columbians deserve better. British Columbians deserve the best. Therefore, I will not be supporting Budget 2020.

Deputy Speaker: We’ll be continuing debate on the budget, and I recognize the member for Nanaimo.

S. Malcolmson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good to see you in the seat.

Let me begin just briefly by highlighting some of the affordability measures that have been extremely prominent. I’m going to talk mostly about the good work that this government is doing that will influence people in my riding of Nanaimo.

Let me just run through. Here’s one scenario. A family of four earning $70,000 could save nearly $30,000 by virtue of the work that this government has done already. The B.C. access grant could save up to $3,500 for post-secondary students in programs of under two years. The B.C. child opportunity benefit, up to $1,300 a year. Elimination of the medical services premium — we were the last province to actually still charge this to people. This is going to save British Columbians, a family of four, up to $1,800 a year.

Student loan interest removal. A typical student who graduates with about $28,000 in combined B.C. and federal student loans will save $2,300 in interest over a ten-year repayment period. The affordable child care benefit, up to $14,000, close to $15,000, per year for this family. The child care fee reduction initiative, up to $4,500 per year. If the family is fortunate enough to be able to buy an electric vehicle, up to $6,000 saved when purchasing an electric vehicle and saving approximately $1,500 a year in gas. If they want to buy a heat pump, up to $2,000 to replace a fossil fuel heating system. Just a snapshot of what we’ve been able to do in just 2½ years that makes life significantly more affordable for British Columbians. It’s making a difference.

I’m pleased to speak about the third budget of this NDP government. It’s all about the work that we’re doing together to build a stronger B.C. for everybody: putting people first, making life more affordable, improving services that British Columbians depend on, creating good jobs and opportunities that will benefit the whole province.

There is more to do; there is no doubt. We have spent a lot of time undoing the damage from 15 years of cutting taxes for people at the top and cutting services for the rest of us. But we are building it back, and the economy is strong as a result.

Employment grew in 2019. B.C. is among the leaders in employment growth across Canada. Our unemployment rate remains the lowest in the country. Our economy is forecast to be stable and resilient, despite challenges with global economic downturn and trade challenges, which affect British Columbia particularly — but still strong. Private sector forecasters expect our economic growth to rank at the top of the provincial rankings in the year 2020 and among the top in 2021, well above most other provinces. So we want this good economic news to be shared by all, to be felt by all.

[4:30 p.m.]

In my riding, in Nanaimo, in particular, those successes are uneven. We’ve got people in deep poverty and people in deep need, so we are working hard to fill in those gaps.

We’re continuing to build on the actions of the previous two budgets, building the homes people need; increasing access to quality, affordable child care spaces; and providing even more resources in this budget to improve learning environments to make sure that kids succeed.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

We’re providing additional investments that are sorely needed to continue to repair and build back up our health care system. We’ve been tackling wait times and surgeries. We’ve been increasing access to MRIs, thereby reducing time waiting for diagnoses and surgeries and taking better care of our loved ones. We’re seeing results from this, and there’s more to do.

Over the next ten years in our province, we are going to see 860,000 job openings in health care, early childhood education, skilled trades, tech and much more. We’re putting colleges and universities within reach for more people and ensuring B.C. companies have access to the skilled talent that they need.

We’re building infrastructure to be able to support all these projects. This budget this year projects record levels of three-year capital spending to expand and sustain that provincial infrastructure on which our province runs. This includes capital investments in schools, hospitals, roads, transit and housing that will benefit communities across the province. Work on all these projects that are approved in our infrastructure plan is expected to support over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in B.C.

In Nanaimo specifically, capital investments in this budget this year include adding 12 classrooms to Nanaimo’s Hammond Bay Elementary School. That’s an additional 295 seats. This is almost $15 million of provincial spending. I lobbied hard for this a year ago. I was there when the Minister of Education came. The gymnasium was full of parents and kids that were celebrating this move. I’ve been visiting these classrooms in portables. The previous government closed schools in our district because of funding cuts. We are building them back up, and that was a really good day.

We’re also rebuilding the Nanaimo correctional facility. This is a huge budget item: $157 million approved in this budget. It’s going to maintain the current 190-bed capacity. It will also add a jail for women on Vancouver Island — deep disruption to family connections when women from Vancouver Island have to be housed on the Mainland, so I’m very encouraged by that move.

There is fantastic cultural programming. I was just talking to my friend former Snuneymuxw chief John Wesley, who heads up the cultural program for men. This expansion will create more space for their work. John Howard Society’s Guthrie program is doing incredible work with their therapeutic community. There’s nothing else like it in the province, and they are a major part of the redesign of this rebuilt jail.

I want to take a minute on the budget side to talk about transit. My friend Mayor Aaron Stone from Ladysmith and a Nanaimo city councillor, Tyler Brown, expressed concerns to me about transit spending in the budget. It is true that there’s $2 million less in this budget than there was the year before. That is still…. The budget is $119 million for B.C. Transit, but the important thing is that public money has been going towards building B.C. Transit’s surplus. It’s now at a level of $42 million. So our signal to B.C. Transit is that that was public money; it cannot be sat on.

This is something that the previous government really did a lot — built up surpluses which, in effect, starved the public of public services that they badly needed. So we are designing a plan with B.C. Transit that they will start spending that surplus. We can’t afford to have it sit.

Public transit remains a top priority for us. We’re spending billions on it. No service is cut. All of the expansion that was planned still goes ahead.

[4:35 p.m.]

Poverty reduction is another significant…. It’s a deep need in Nanaimo, a deep need provincewide and a recommitment in this budget. I really appreciated the Finance Minister saying in her budget speech: “We understand that when the door to opportunity closes one too many times, people can lose hope. A little support can be life-changing.” So we are doing that: building on our poverty reduction plan, which is a commitment to cut child poverty by 50 percent and to cut overall poverty by 25 percent by the year 2024. This is an all-of-government plan and a ten-year poverty reduction plan.

Another piece of this was announced in the budget. We are now increasing earnings exemptions for people receiving income and disability assistance. This will give people a chance to increase their household income, to remain connected to the workforce and build up the kind of valuable workplace experience that can lead in the end to good-paying jobs and build strength and connections in the community.

The Nanaimo Association for Community Living is a fantastic job-training group in my community, and I’m very proud of their work. After years of cuts that hurt people most in need, this budget is providing new funding for children in care and adults with diverse abilities.

There are so many other pieces that will fit into this poverty reduction strategy of ours. Child care is a cornerstone. When we can help women, in particular, afford to get to work, they can enter the workforce and bring more family income in.

Our new commitment to domestic violence leave. We did add previously, a year ago, domestic violence leave as a provision. This is something that the Minister of Labour led on. It started with the NDP in Manitoba and has moved across the country. This budget funds this as paid leave. It can make all the difference to anybody fleeing a sexually violent situation to give them that time to be able to find a new place for their kids and get settled and then be able to return to work.

The child opportunity benefit is a huge boost to families, to lift people out of poverty. Supports on disability, on income assistance — again, as I said, removing that barrier to be able to get paid employment.

Creating work. I was so encouraged to see the reopening of the WorkBC office in Nanaimo. They are working in partnership with about six different community organizations, not just helping people find jobs but coaching them so that they succeed, that they retain those jobs. They sometimes stick with some of their clients for two years. It’s incredible work, and it’s changing lives.

The minimum wage. The tuition waiver, the education access grants. We know how much student debt was hindering affordability and putting people in poverty. All these changes are adding to our poverty reduction strategy. We’re also funding local governments to set up poverty reduction tables. We’re making progress. Just today federal statistics were released for British Columbia. They indicated deep decreases in child poverty, in seniors poverty and overall poverty. There are more details to come, and our minister will speak directly to that.

I do want to flag, though, that there is an increase in poverty among single men. That’s certainly something that we see in my community, in Nanaimo. I imagine that it has some roots in the opioid crisis, which has hit us very hard, and in the mental health crisis. That, I think, reflects what we’re seeing and feeling in our communities, and we’ve got a lot more work to do.

Making housing more affordable is a key priority of our government. We’ve been working hard to tackle the housing crisis, addressing speculation, cracking down on fraud, making renting more secure, and building 114,000 affordable homes, with a historic investment of $7 billion over ten years. The building itself will create 54,000 jobs. It will also strengthen local businesses by giving their employees the stability of housing that they need, so that employers can better attract and retain staff. Over the first two years already, 23,000 homes are completed or underway in nearly 90 communities.

We’ve limited the yearly allowable rent increase to the rate of inflation, just 2.6 percent for 2020, and we’re giving more support to families and seniors so that they can afford rent through the rental assistance program and the SAFER grant. That’s the Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters.

[4:40 p.m.]

A few things that are new on the housing front in this budget that we’re debating now. As part of our ten-year plan, we have an extra $1 billion, assigned over three years, which will support construction of new low- and middle-income housing. This will include housing for seniors and Indigenous people and families.

We’re also providing an additional $56 million for 200 new units of supportive modular housing. Nanaimo has supportive trailer housing. It’s not the modular housing that was put in place everywhere else, just because we had some difficulties with municipal approvals in the previous local government’s term of office. But if we look at Parksville and Port Alberni, some of our neighbouring communities, we can see how well this can work if it’s planned in advance.

We also have a new homelessness navigation centre offer. It’s only going to be offered to two communities within this budget year, but I certainly see the need, and I’ll be lobbying hard for Nanaimo to be the candidate.

To return to the speeches across the aisle, the B.C. Liberals have been claiming that nothing is being done to increase housing supply. It’s just not true. The stats don’t bear it out. For the second year in a row, the Liberals’ own numbers show that housing starts are higher than they were under the NDP, and the province is on track for 58,000 more housing starts over five years than during the term of the previous government.

Back to affordable housing. So far in Nanaimo…. I’m going to do a better job this year about highlighting the work that is underway. We have got construction underway right now for affordable housing. The one on Estevan Road — this is the amazing Brechin United Church development, 74 units.

At Rosehill Street, M’akola and Vancouver Island Mental Health Society are building 23 units for adults with mental health diagnoses, addiction and cognitive challenges.

Buttertubs Drive. A big expansion of the seniors affordable housing there, another 159 units.

Uplands Drive. We’ve done a bit of media promotion on this already. This is a Nanaimo Association for Community Living project, 28 units.

Three more are in the development stage but not yet under construction, I don’t believe, and more to come this year.

High-quality K-to-12 education has been a priority for our government since the beginning of our term in office because we know that kids in B.C. deserve the supports to set them up for future success. We’ve hired 4,200 more teachers, 2,000 new education assistants. We’ve announced more than 80 capital projects for building, expanding and upgrading schools. This means more support for students with diverse abilities and needs, as well as enhanced learning environments.

We’ve opened 100 new playgrounds, benefiting over 25,000 kids. This budget provides the Ministry of Education another $339 million over three years to continue to support the K-to-12 education system, bringing the total investment to over $20 billion over our fiscal plan.

In this year’s budget, a new capital add for Nanaimo is the Hammond Bay Elementary School, 295 seats so that kids can learn and play in a good environment.

Over the next decade, more than 860,000 new job opportunities will open up across B.C., and more than 75 percent of those jobs will require some post-secondary education and training. It’s critical that we invest in colleges and universities and new training spots so that British Columbians can get access to all the work that’s coming up ahead, between all the different things we’re building.

Vancouver Island University alone, in Nanaimo — here are some of the investments that we’ve brought into place already. There’s $215,000 for the new Centre for Innovation in Fish Health, a major demand. When we need to test viruses in fish — a hot topic on the coast — we now have an independent facility. That can be done in cooperation with Indigenous partners that are taking the lead on fish health and fish farms in other areas.

There’s $4.9 million for 1,300 new trade seats; $2.6 million for grad scholarships; $9.5 million for the marine, automotive and trades complex expansion, a fantastic facility; and $17½ million for the new health and science centre, also a fantastic facility.

Hands raised to the Minister of Advanced Education for all the work. It’s just fantastic to walk around on campus and see how things are moving so fast.

[4:45 p.m.]

B.C.-wide education and skills training are opening doors for thousands of British Columbians that were shut out before. The tuition waiver program, now with 1,100 students who were formerly in care, was, again, first introduced at Vancouver Island University. We just did it because it was the right thing to do. One of the very first actions of this government was to make this provincewide. It’s changing lives.

Removing interest on B.C. student loans. Investing in the Industry Training Authority to make sure we move the dial for underrepresented groups in the trades — women, Indigenous and youth, in particular.

Now here’s another win. On Valentine’s Day, the Premier received about 700 Valentine’s Day cards from student unions across the province. Vancouver Island University Students Union in Nanaimo was one of them. Here are some examples of the valentines that the Premier got.

“I love this province and can’t wait to contribute to it. However, financial barriers are making it next to impossible. Grants and improved financial aid would leave me less burdened and burned out at the start of my career.” That’s Alex in geography.

Ali in nursing wrote: “I never had the chance to receive grants. Now I am thousands of dollars in debt with no light in sight. Please, please, please help others to not end up in my current situation.”

Anouk in science writes: “We would love a grant program that makes sense for students. Put your heart into it.”

The B.C. Liberals deregulated tuition fees. Then they killed the tuition grant program. A whole generation was compromised and put into debt, and barriers were put up to their education and their success. B.C. was the only province in the country not to have a grants program for people that needed help going to college and university. So the win on budget day, which was just the best, was to build in this B.C. access grant.

This is how it was noted by B.C. Federation of Students chairperson Tanysha Klassen. She said: “The B.C. access grant will help students access not only four-year programs but certificate and diploma programs that are key for many aspects of the workforce.”

This is going to support low- to middle-income students when they need it most. It’s needs-based. It’s upfront. It’ll remove barriers to education and provide support for learners to complete their studies. Students will receive up to $4,000 a year to help with the cost of programs leading to a degree.

The student union at Vancouver Island University said it’s “a big win” for students and activists who have been calling for grants not loans for many years. “Congratulations. Thank you. You are changing lives.”

Making sure people can get health care when they need it, where they need it continues to be a key priority, with over $1 billion in additional funding over the next three years announced in this budget. This builds on previous investments that we have made to give people faster and better access to the day-to-day health care that they need. We’re opening new urgent and primary care centres in communities across B.C. Nanaimo has one of them. Seniors are benefiting from better care, home health, long term care, assisted living and respite services.

People are getting the surgeries and diagnostic procedures that they need faster. We’re not all the way there yet, but we’re moving in the right direction. Wait times for hip and knee surgeries are falling. The number of MRIs being done each year has increased by over 23 percent. In Nanaimo, we’re running one MRI 24 hours a day — what a concept. That’s increased huge access, and we’re building a second.

We also improved access to PharmaCare by reducing or eliminating deductibles for 240,000 B.C. families with net incomes over $45,000.

In the last two years, we’ve announced investments for 13 hospitals, with more to come so people in every corner of the province get the high-quality care they need.

I’ll say that the biggest shortage that we have is human resources. Nanaimo is short 20,000 family doctors. We don’t have the care workers that we need. We don’t have the nurses and the nurse practitioners we need. We are creating more seats. They are getting trained up, but it’s going to take a couple of years for them to get out and into the workforce.

So people that are still waiting, I thank you for your patience. Those of you who are willing to step up and to be part of the workforce, thank you for being willing. And those that are holding down the fort and are overworked and have been doing a lot of heavy lifting in the health care system for a very long time, we’re very grateful for your work. We’re very lucky in Nanaimo to have such people.

A couple of ways that already we’ve been able to build back up health care in Nanaimo, specifically, previous budgets. Redeveloping Nanaimo’s intensive care unit — that’s $17.3 million of provincial funding.

[4:50 p.m.]

This was identified in 2013 to the previous government as the worst ICU in the country. They failed to act on it, and we are. It’s being built. A steam boiler replacement for Nanaimo Regional Hospital — $11 million. A new MRI machine for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital — $3.3 million.

I’m talking with a lot of community members about what else Nanaimo Hospital needs and what we need in our region. I agree with you: we need more supports. We are working together to find what’s the most likely to win on funding. We’ve got a lot of really good ideas, and I’m grateful to all of the community advice. Anybody that’s got advice for me or has identified gaps, please write me emails. It really helps my work.

Together with Indigenous people, we’re working to build a more prosperous future with revenue-sharing, delivering affordable housing, supporting language revitalization and having the care of children in Indigenous communities, where it belongs. We’ve got a commitment to share provincial gaming revenue with First Nations. That’s estimated to be $3 billion over the next 25 years. It’s already starting to flow, and it’s already making a difference. This budget affirms those commitments and pro­vides additional funding to support improved cultural inclusion within our social and justice systems.

We’re in a very tough time right now with a lot of pipeline controversy and protesters right in front of the Legislature, which, in many ways, I celebrate. To have climate action and such visible support for reconciliation is something that we have waited, some of us, our whole lives for.

I just want people to know that in the community, I’ve been asked by Snuneymuxw to keep focused at home. We’ve got a ton of work to do. That is what I’m doing. As you can see, there’s a lot for us to do right here at home, and that’s where we’re focused: on the things that we can change right now.

A final piece I want to talk about is the CleanBC program to act on climate change and protect the environment. We are, in Budget 2020, building on the initial investment by providing an additional $419 million over the next three years. That brings funding to nearly $1.3 billion over four years.

We’re about to meet our electric vehicle target. We’re just on the verge of meeting it. We thought that we weren’t going to hit it until 2025, so we’re five years early. We’re putting new funding in to support the Go Electric B.C. program to build efficiency of schools, universities, colleges and hospitals. A lot of action has been previously announced on helping people to make the switch and tightening emission controls.

When this government was first elected, we set out a plan that would have people at the heart of it — that we would be able to measure. Are we making a difference in people’s lives with housing, with health care, with education? To improve those services, to make life more affordable, to create more opportunities — we are starting to see progress.

We have heard quite a lot in debates. The opposition is saying that families are going to be paying more taxes under the NDP. I just want to flag that if you are not paying the corporate income tax, the employer health tax, the luxury homes tax, the speculation tax and the new personal income tax bracket on the very top 1 percent, then you are not paying more tax. The Liberal arguments also ignore economic growth and inflation. In reality, a family making $80,000 is paying $2,350 less than they were in 2016-17 under the B.C. Liberals.

It’s interesting, because we did see great, deep tax cuts under the previous government. They looked after their own friends. They used those…. It all came on the backs of people that needed services the most. The deep poverty and the long wait times for hospital access. All of the pieces — the housing crisis, the homelessness crisis — they all originated from tax cuts at the top and cutting services at the bottom. That’s not our approach. We’re not going to do it.

[4:55 p.m.]

I want to finish by saying to my partner Howie: you are an incredible spouse, and I’m so fortunate to have your support. To my mom and dad, who cheer me on every chance they get, and my brother and sister: I’m so lucky to have you in my corner. My amazing staff team. Darcy Olsen, you are a superstar in every way in my constit office. Zoey Heath, I’m so glad to be working with you. Pam Cooling has now moved to another MLA’s office, but you really got me going the first year. Thank you. And Noah Mitchell is about to leave the legislative precinct here. I’m really going to miss him, but he’s been a solid support here in the Legislature for my first year as an MLA.

In closing, Budget 2020 is about building on the progress we’ve made on affordability, on new investments in the services people need, in the training programs that help people get ahead and in action on the environment and climate change. It’s a budget that keeps building on the work that we have done in the past two years. We’ve got a lot more to do, and together we will do it.

E. Ross: It’s actually a pleasure. In all the time I’ve been here, I’ve never actually thanked the people that brought me here. I’ve never actually addressed the constituents of Skeena, let alone the members of the Haisla Nation, the Nisga’a Nation, the Gitselasu people and the Kitsumkalum. I’d really like to thank them, because it’s been quite a journey to get here. Because I am not a politician. I’m not even educated. I’m just a regular band member that just, by some stroke of luck, was kept out of the social issues, for the most part, that plague Aboriginals all across Canada.

So I was honoured when I was asked to run for my own village council and was elected and found out that there is a whole pile of Aboriginal issues that have to be addressed. I was also honoured when I got asked to run for chief councillor and then got elected — surprised, but still honoured.

But taking on the bigger role to represent the riding of Skeena has been surreal. It goes beyond being an honour, because now 30,000 to 40,000 people want me to represent Skeena and put Skeena on the map and actually address some of the issues that are happening in Skeena right now. So it’s with great pride that I take my place in response to the 2020 B.C. budget.

We’re going through great change in Skeena due to the growth in our local economy. It’s been steady over the years, especially when you talk about the mining outside of our riding that affects Terrace, and we’re talking about the forest and range agreements that actually included First Nations in the forestry industry 12 years ago. That actually helped it. But it’s LNG that really has made our economy explode, and it has provided opportunity for all walks of life, not just Aboriginals. Everybody from all across B.C. and Canada are coming to Skeena for a job, whether it’s directly with the LNG project or some of the businesses that are popping up that are servicing the LNG project.

Just as a history lesson, I was there from day one, when the first LNG project was proposed in Kitimat in 2004. In looking at the history of it, it wasn’t the first time. Back in the ’80s, LNG facilities were proposed for Kitimat as an import to bring in LNG to Canada. In fact, the original LNG project in Kitimat was actually proposed as an import facility. The original proponents of that industry were actually, at our request, urged to change it to export. For that, we had to change the environmental certificate that they had already applied for.

Over the years, my band council wanted to know more and more about the impacts. So we participated in environmental assessment. We actually helped develop the Aboriginal rights and title case law process with the provincial government and the federal government to determine how we address rights and title. How do we breathe life into section 35? But we also talked about what to expect in terms of the impacts that LNG will have in our communities and how we mitigate them.

So we travelled all across B.C. We went up north. We went all over the place to talk to First Nations and say: “How do you do this?” We couldn’t get an answer, because nobody had ever experienced this before in our lifetime. Nobody had ever thought about a $40 billion project to export LNG. So we were really on our own.

[5:00 p.m.]

The last people I talked to were the people of Fort St. John and Dawson Creek — my colleague from Dawson Creek and Peace River South. Mainly, what they told us is that there’s really nothing you can do about it. You’ve got to take the issues as they come along, and you’ve got to react to them. Then the issues will be that the rent will be increasing. The retail jobs will start to have pressures on them. Nobody will want to have those low-level retail jobs.

For a band like mine, it was impossible, because we were broke. We didn’t have any political clout. We didn’t have authority. It was hard for us to think about how to mitigate the impact. Having no money really affects a lot of your decision-making. So basically, what we did is we decided to concentrate entirely on making sure that these projects were successful, because everything else we had tried had failed to get our people out of poverty.

The impression that I got was that we’re just going to have to take the issues as they come along, and then we’re going to have to go out and find help. Or, if we get the revenues, we’re going to have to address the issue on our own, which is what my band is doing.

For instance, there’s a housing shortage all across B.C. There are rental shortages. My band actually pursued the idea of building our own apartment complex on reserve. It was actually something I lobbied my own council for, because I knew that the revenues were going to come in. They have been coming in for the last seven years. As I saw our bank accounts growing, I really, strongly encouraged our councillors and our people to start putting that money towards the issues that we saw, both historic as well as issues that were coming up.

It’s interesting that when you are a broke band council under the Indian Act, you’ve got to beg for money. You’ve got to lobby years and years and years to get enough money to renovate your rec centre. Even if that’s only like $200,000, it’ll take you years to get that money out of federal and provincial governments. So I refused to do it.

When I proposed a $15 million apartment complex in our community, I was surprised when my council approved it. They could see that we were going to have the revenues and that we could actually amortize it over 20 years. It actually changed our whole approach to helping ourselves.

But all those plans we put in place were stalled when LNG Canada stalled their FID, including our sports complex. But when LNG finally announced their FID, our band council put all of those plans back on the table. To my surprise, success breeds success. The provincial government offered to help my band with the apartment complex. So $15 million, and the provincial government offered to do 50 percent of the funding.

Back in the old days, we would have spent ten years finding that funding and begging and filling out applications and spent the next 20 years filling out reports. Not anymore; independence is a great thing. This is just one of the stories that happens when you support First Nations that support economic development. It comes back to B.C. society and Canadian society. It comes back tenfold, and it’s not just First Nations.

By the time I was a young man, there was actually no economy. The Eurocan pulp and paper mill shut down. The methane facility shut down. Forestry was going through a bad time. There were really no jobs. I was going from job to job to job, to welfare, to unemployment insurance. It’s why I fought so hard for an economy. Anything that came down the pike — investigate it, research it, and find out whether or not you support it.

There were a lot of projects we didn’t support. But it all came down to whether or not there was a balance of environmental issues versus social, versus economics. There were a lot of projects that didn’t make the cut. But we also understood at the time that we’re talking about a bigger picture here.

We’re talking about Kitimat, the Kitimat townsite itself. If they don’t succeed, we’re all going to suffer, because that’s where all the services come from — the hospital, the government services, the swimming pools, the entertainment, you name it. That’s why the people of Skeena fought and lobbied so hard for the replacement of Mills Memorial Hospital.

[5:05 p.m.]

When I was chief councillor, I was asked if I could join the effort to lobby to replace the Mills Memorial Hospital, so I did. I went and toured the hospital three times. I used to go to that hospital at times. My family used that hospital a few times. I was surprised at how run-down it was.

When the B.C. Liberals came to town one year, and they said, “Yes, we’re going to make a commitment to replace the hospital,” I thought: “We’re on a great path. We’re on a good road. We’ve got to keep it up.” It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. It was actually the people of Skeena that relentlessly kept up the lobbying effort. It was them. They actually brought in First Nation chief councillors to come in and tour it and join the fight. So all the First Nation leaders came in from all the surrounding areas, toured the hospital and said: “Yes, we need this.”

After 2017, when the B.C. Liberals won the election but lost the Legislature, it only made sense to keep up the fight. Given what was coming to Skeena in terms of LNG, a lot of different areas were going to have impacts that would need assistance — from corporations, provincial government, federal government. So it was very gratifying for me to go back and congratulate all of those people back home when we saw Mills Memorial Hospital in the five-year capital plan of this 2020 budget. I congratulated all of those leaders for all of their work. Some of those leaders aren’t even with us today.

I know we’ve got to keep an eye on it. We’ve got to ensure that it goes through the process. I understand that. So there are a lot of eyes watching the process now. But what is even more gratifying is that I was assured that the community benefits agreement would not be applied to this hospital. This is good, because you have an emerging population of Aboriginals that find it really tough to get into unions nowadays. Like, they can get into unions, but my experience was that anybody that gets in there starts at the bottom.

I’m all for First Nations joining in on infrastructure projects, no matter what it is. Make it easier for them. That’s the best thing that we can do to resolve poverty — get them a job. And if it’s a meaningful job, a sustainable job, even better. It’s why a lot of us up in Skeena continued and will still continue to lobby the government, not just for the hospital but for infrastructure projects. Because the impact is coming.

In light of the RBA discussions, the revenue benefit alliance discussions, I know it’s a problem. I know it’s an issue in terms of how you share revenues with 22 municipalities from Haida Gwaii to Kitimat. I know it’s a problem. But in terms of First Nations impacts, there’s already a method there that talks about the amount of impact versus what will equate to the amount of consultation and accommodation.

Seems to me that most of the impact of the LNG project, specifically, will impact Terrace and Kitimat the most. Terrace is a hub. Kitimat is a terminal. We’re going to see the most impact, definitely. Other communities will have an impact of pipeline construction, as well as the trucks going by their communities on a daily basis, if not weekly.

There is a formula there for First Nations that First Nations agreed to, and it’s covered in case law. It seems to me that it only seems practical to use that same formula for what we’re talking about for revenue sharing. I do understand that when we’re talking about revenue sharing, the idea behind it is to share revenues from all resources, not just LNG. But LNG is the story of the day.

In terms of the infrastructure and the demand that’s going to be placed on us, we’ve already had a number of issues already being resolved. The Haisla Bridge — that’s the bridge that actually connects the townsite to the industrial site. That bridge is probably 50, 60 years old and not up to standards for the trucks and the traffic that’s coming. The federal announcement to actually replace that bridge was welcomed. It was another issue that my band, along with the district of Kitimat, lobbied for, for years. It’s nice to see that success breeds success. But we’re not done.

[5:10 p.m.]

There’s been a grassroots movement to create a dementia care unit in Kitimat, and they’re doing it as a pilot in Kitimat, for which I’m grateful. Northern Health has actually agreed to take it on as a pilot program. But they’re actually going after corporate donations, and they will be looking for provincial partnerships. Basically, everybody in Kitimat wants to keep their parents and their grandparents in their communities. They don’t want to see them shipped off to Prince George or Smithers or Rupert, and they don’t want to see these elderly couples separated. So it’s a great program.

I expect them, at some point, to come here and ask about the budget and whether or not there’s enough money there to support this program, because it’s a great program. Our First Nations people really want our Elders to stay home. For the most part, we keep our Elders inside our communities, but non–First Nation communities are not like that. They’re more spread out.

I mean, that’s one of the benefits of living on reserve. One of the benefits — not all — is that we become a close-knit community, and we’re looking for ways to look after ourselves.

This is important, to address the impacts coming. Skeena is now becoming one of the major economic drivers behind B.C.’s economy, just because of the LNG initiatives. I mean, a $40 billion investment. Then right behind that, you’re talking about a $20 billion investment for KLNG. You’re talking about a $1 billion investment for Cedar LNG. You’re talking about a $1 billion investment for PTE, which is basically propane.

It took a lot of work to get here — 15 years of hard work, of consultations and accommodation, which actually equates to reconciliation. That’s the goal: reconciliation. Every community from Prince George to Kitimat, including one community down channel, the Gitga’at, participated in these processes. So it’s quite disturbing to find out that the member for Nanaimo said that she supports the protests.

I support protests, as long as you don’t obstruct anybody’s way of life. It actually defeats the purpose of reconciliation when you block ports, when you block railways. Then the people that depend on those goods and services, who have no idea about rights and title and have no idea about LNG, can’t get to the hospital. This is not the way to get to reconciliation. If anything, it’s setting us back 20 years, because there’s going to be a lot of animosity, only because 99 percent of the story isn’t being told.

Nobody wants to hear about the 15 years of hard work that elected chiefs and councils did from Prince George to Kitimat. Nobody wants to talk about that. In fact, for the reconciliation definition…. I mean, I can’t believe nobody has really gone back to the direction that was laid out in case law. You’ve got to address rights and title, but you’ve also got to address reconciliation.

Reconciliation is that you’ve got to do whatever you can to accommodate First Nations’ interests. Everything you can; you’ve got to go above and beyond. But you’ve also got to make the decision, on the part of the Crown, that acknowledges the larger society. That’s what case law says. That’s the definition.

Guess what. That larger society? Aboriginals make up that larger society too, because aboriginals enjoy the hospitals. We use the highways, the social services. We use all of it. We depend on it. We go grocery shopping. We’re wearing the clothes — even the glasses, for some of us who can’t see anymore. This is reconciliation.

If you go the opposite way and you encourage protesters and listen to 1 percent of the story and listen to them say reconciliation is dead, without listening to the band councils that did 15 years of hard work, you’re going to set us back. Not just Aboriginals — Canadians. Nobody wants to see us go 20 years back in time.

[5:15 p.m.]

The member for Nanaimo also talked about revenue-sharing. That is great for the bands that need it. In fact, in the original forest and range agreement that we signed with the provincial government, with a number of other First Nations, about 12 years ago, there was a volume of wood that was actually directed towards First Nations, but there was also revenue-sharing.

That was the first time my band had ever seen any money. I know that the agreements have changed today. They’re not the same amounts. But the first payment that we ever got from the provincial government under the B.C. Liberals was $700,000 annually for five years. That was the most money we’d ever seen in our lives. We thought we’d made it. That was all the money in the world. In fact, the first time that I went up to pick up one of the cheques from our forestry operations in Vancouver, I had no idea I was picking up a cheque for $150,000. I was stressed out the whole time going home to give it to our finance department.

Those days are forgotten, because now my band really doesn’t need the Indian Act. It doesn’t need it. We don’t talk about it, because the whole world has opened up under economic development. Now we can take that money that we’re gaining under economic development, and we can spend it any way we like. We’re not dictated by the Indian Act.

So it’s really disheartening to see people are supporting the protesters. As for the protests going on outside right now, outside of the Legislature, they’ve got a fire out there. You can smell the smoke in the air. They brought propane bottles. They asked for naloxone. Good for you. It sure beats the protests that were here one week ago, two weeks ago. I mean, nobody is going to pity us, as MLAs, that we can’t get to work. We’re politicians. We expect that kind of abuse. But this is the Legislature.

This is the B.C. Legislature. This belongs to the people of B.C. So these protesters that blocked access to and from this Legislature…. You’re actually blocking the citizens of B.C. from accessing their institution. Everything that B.C. depends on, the standard of living — it all comes from this place. The laws that we make actually affect people’s lives. And for the most part, it’s been a good life. So I don’t agree with protests based on misinformation. I definitely don’t support protests that block people from coming into their own Legislature. That’s not right.

The member for Nanaimo also talked about poverty reduction. I’ve got a tremendous amount of experience in that area. I tried everything as chief and council to reduce poverty, and nothing worked. It dawned on me that if you’re going to depend on government to reduce poverty, you’re not going to do it. It’s not going to work, because basically poverty reduction means a strong economy. If you want to reduce poverty and get those people into those jobs, if you develop a strong economy…. That’s not what I’m seeing here, apart from LNG.

As for training, been there, done that. Under the Indian Act, with no economy, we spent a lot of our treaty money training people, and then they turned on us. Once they were done with training, they asked where their jobs were, and we told them: “Sorry. There’s no job. You’re going to have to leave our territory.” So it discouraged them from taking any more training. “Why the hell did we go to school for two years, then?” So we dropped it.

Reducing the welfare list — another one of our poverty reduction plans with no jobs. That was painful. Now we don’t have a poverty reduction plan in Kitimat because everybody is working. They’re making good money. This is what happens when you don’t fearmonger the private sector or tax them to death to the point where they leave.

I mean, really, that’s what you’re seeing now: this attack on the private sector by the NDP government, especially on private sectors that normally get us through the tough times, like forestry and tourism. We keep adding all of these rules and the Environmental Assessment Act, which actually provide more red tape and bureaucracy.

[5:20 p.m.]

Cutting back the tourism industry. The tourism sector funding got cut by $110,000 in this year’s budget. The creative sector funding decreased by $200,000 in this budget. The sport sector funding, which I am a full supporter of — I support any kind of sport — got cut by $400,000. Transfers to Destination B.C. decreased by $1.2 million. And arts and culture — they got cut by $638,000.

Now, most likely there are some British Columbians that are not going to listen to this and not going to care. But it’s going to be a death by a thousand cuts if you do this right across the private sector. If you keep doing this and then the Canadian economy crashes — for a number of reasons; you know, too much bureaucracy, all of the private sector moves to Alberta, or worse yet, they move to the United States — then you’re really going to need a poverty reduction plan. It’s probably going to be the same one that we tried to develop while we were chief and council.

You can only push the private sector so far. Yet there are so many organizations, businesses, First Nations, that are trying to build up the private sector. They’re trying to build business opportunities. You only have to look at the Kitsumkalum band that is in the Skeena riding, neighbour to Terrace, B.C. They have, in their own right, opened up a quarry in partnership with CN Rail. It’s an amazing arrangement. They built it up a few years ago. This is a First Nation in a partnership that doesn’t want to shut down Canada. They’re not blockading the rail, because the rail is actually key to their future. They are in the B.C. treaty process. They are under the Indian Act, but they’re branching out.

If they do branch out, it’s only going to strengthen our riding. It’s only going to strengthen B.C. If they do export their product to overseas, it’s going to strengthen Canada. But they need help, especially when it comes to infrastructure, that actually B.C. owns, in terms of bridges and highways. They’re asking for help. It’s a good project. It benefits everybody. The local economy benefits from $20 million of goods and services bought by this First Nations band for their quarry.

The first phase that Kitsumkalum is proposing…. They’re going for bank financing for $2.6 million to fund phase 1. That is an incredible statement to make as a First Nations. It’s not very often when you see these smaller bands saying: “I’m going for a bank loan, and I’m going to pay it back over X number of years based on the revenues that I get from my projects, from my business opportunities.”

That is an incredible story. I never even heard of this until rights and title became a reality, and that started being translated into business opportunities. So Kitsumkalum is hoping that there’s room in B.C.’s Budget 2020 for phase 2 and phase 3. But it’s not just B.C. they’re going after. They’re going after Canada too.

Here’s something that we need to talk about in terms of a partnership. You can lift First Nations out of poverty. You can put them on the road to independence. As well, you can strengthen B.C. It diversifies the economy of Terrace, and it has, actually, a relationship with Prince Rupert, where the port is.

When you talk about this attack on the private sector in B.C…. Tax them. Raise the fees. Give them a bureaucracy under the Environmental Assessment Act and force them out. And no economy. I know that situation too well, because I come from an Indian reserve that had absolutely no economy. It’s not fun.

[5:25 p.m.]

We definitely do not want to go back in time. We do not want to force out the private sector. They’re the ones that are keeping our communities together. The private sector is the one that allows us to have the opportunity to keep our kids from leaving our towns in search of jobs, in search of a life. You give them a choice to stay home close to their family, and we get to visit our grandkids. That’s part of my selfish motive in that equation. But a lot of people in Skeena like this idea, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. In fact, if anything, for the LNG project happening right now, I get a lot of non-Aboriginal grandparents coming up to me, thanking me because their kids moved home with their grandkids.

It’s a tough choice, and that’s what these leaders of our municipalities and our First Nation communities had to balance. How much do we do this in terms of the environment versus the economy, in terms of the future of our communities? It’s a very tough choice to make. But it’s getting tougher, and this budget is making it even tougher, not just for Aboriginals but for our communities and the private sector.

The tax burden alone in the budget of 2020 is proposed to climb from $28.2 billion to $36.9 billion in 2021-2022. This is not affordability, not when you think about how this translates to $4,700 per household. This represents a 31 percent increase in five years. That’s not affordability, and affordability was a key promise in the NDP campaign to get elected.

There was a running joke in native politics. It used to be, based on the idea….

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

E. Ross: Is that it already? Are you kidding me? I’ve still got lots more to go.

Hon. R. Fleming: I thank the member for Skeena for yielding the floor to me just as he was getting into stride. I do appreciate that. He was just getting warmed up.

It’s a pleasure to join members on all sides of the House to speak today in strong support of Budget 2020. This is a budget that serves our province well because it is a document, a plan, that has a very clear eye on the future while being very much grounded in the needs of today in communities like the one that I’m privileged to represent, Victoria–Swan Lake. This budget is very clearly focused on the health, the social wellness, of all British Columbians, no matter where they live in our province.

I think the context for the budget is one where we can be very justifiably proud of where B.C. is positioned, not only within Canada but within the global economy. This is a jurisdiction that has a strong financial track record. We have the lowest unemployment rate in the country. We tabled this budget and debate it here today knowing that our economy is expected to continue to be among the top in terms of provincial real GDP growth ratings in both 2020 and 2021.

The Finance Minister, my good friend the MLA for Victoria–Beacon Hill, will have tabled, with this budget, the third balanced budget in a row since we have formed government. We have maintained surpluses in this budget to prepare for the unexpected. We have clearly demonstrated how to effectively invest in people, in both their education and their health and wellness, without ever sacrificing fiscal responsibility.

I again want to pay tribute to my colleague the Minister of Finance, the member for Victoria–Beacon Hill, for showing how it’s done as a Finance Minister in this country, how to be both prudent and progressive in leading a compassionate government that is investing in people in British Columbia, people that need it, and investing ourselves as a prosperous and sustainable economy and jurisdiction.

I think that we have proven our detractors wrong at every turn, in terms of the revenue and expenditure choices that we’ve made in government that have already demonstrated a strong record going into Budget 2020, in terms of good decisions that have been made that are already paying strong dividends in our province. I’ll speak to that later on.

What I think is most remarkable is that we have been able to achieve so much in so little time — 2½ years.

[5:30 p.m.]

[S. Gibson in the chair.]

We inherited a system of government where so many areas have suffered, in some cases, 16 years of neglect, where students and families waited for new schools — waited and waited. They waited for seismic upgrades that had been promised and re-promised and put in photo ops and never arrived. They’ve waited for mental health supports and for affordable child care. We inherited an Insurance Corporation that insures all drivers which was an absolute “dumpster fire,” to quote the Attorney General.

We’ve been able to chart a path forward in this budget to fix all of these things. We’re starting to see the fruits of the strong effort by ministers and members of government, in coalition with our CASA partners, to address all of those needs in our community that had gone without a sympathetic government for so long.

I want to say, as the Minister of Education, that I’m pleased to see how many touchpoints there are in this budget for children and their families, throughout Budget 2020 — whether it’s a sizeable lift in overall funding to the education system, an opportunity hand up for low- and middle-income students through new grants for post-secondary education students, or more investments in capital projects, building new schools and hospitals in our communities, or whether it is smart new tax policies that are introduced in this budget, such as removing a PST exemption for food and no longer applying that to sugary, carbonated beverages. This is something that has been urged by policy-makers for decades.

Given the emerging research and link to childhood diabetes and obesity, it makes sense to not allow a tax exemption for those sorts of things that have negative health consequences for young people, for society and for the health care cost burden that comes with them. Instead, we’re supporting young people, and we’re supporting brighter futures for them tomorrow by making investments that are much needed today. We know that access to a quality education lays the foundation for a solid future. We know that we have to build the leaders of tomorrow today by investing in them at the earliest age.

That’s why for kids that are transitioning from high school to post-secondary education and careers beyond that, one of the highlights of Budget 2020 is the B.C. access grant. This is a game-changer for a lot of British Columbians who come from families that struggle to make ends meet, to stay in the middle class — kids who don’t come from money and whose parents were unable to save for the cost of post-secondary education.

What our government has done is introduce a grant that will significantly address the financial burden that falls on those families — sometimes costing us in talent, in bright young minds who simply avoid going to college or university because they find the debt burden too daunting. What this grant will do is provide up to $4,000 to help with the cost of tuition for more than 40,000 students in British Columbia from low- and middle-income-earning families.

The grant is also going to support our economy by allowing a pathway for young people to get into occupations that support our labour market priorities as a province. We do not have enough skilled trades in our province. The previous government failed to move the dial on those that were involved in completing apprenticeships. Those are jobs that should go to British Columbians first, that should be opportunities for young people, that should provide hope and opportunity for young people — and they don’t.

Whether it’s skilled trades or early childhood educators, this access grant will now bring relief to 40,000 students and their families. That is tremendous progress. We know that 75 percent of all jobs require post-secondary education or training. We also know that there’s something like 860,000 job openings over the next decade for British Columbians. What the Education Ministry is able to do with the significant new resources in this budget is that we are able to set up young people for success long before they’re ready to get into post-secondary education or even, indeed, to plan for that.

[5:35 p.m.]

When you look at the new curriculum, which is lauded and studied internationally today and is available in British Columbia…. It’s designed to help students develop the skills and competencies that they need for the 21st-century world of work. It’s a student-centric, flexible program that is also something that teachers appreciate — and everybody involved in the school system.

What we’re doing to enhance the improvements that have come with the new curriculum that is now in its first year at the secondary school level but is many years old in the K-to-9 part of the school system is we’re developing and deepening a career strategy. This is a real gap that was missing in B.C. for a long time.

How do we ensure that students who graduate from high school, and in greater numbers, have the skills, attitudes and abilities to reach their career goals? How do we prepare students for a successful life? How do we contour the new graduation program to help students move more seamlessly forward to rewarding careers that help them raise a family and be able to afford and build a life right here in British Columbia?

That is a significant responsibility for the Ministry of Education that I think was neglected over the previous decade and a half. It has to be more intentional. It has to be a big conversation that involves everybody that has a hand in that, whether it’s industry, post-secondary education providers or everybody involved in the K-to-12 school system. We’re doing that. I’m very happy to be able to say that, and I’ll have more to say about that on another occasion, here in the House and publicly.

I also want to point to education investments that we’re making for children of a very young age. I want to talk about some of the early childhood investments that we’re making, some of the child care spaces that government is funding. But let me point to what is the most significant new tax measure in this budget that will help alleviate and move kids and families out of poverty as well as strengthen and stabilize the middle class. This is a big deal. I’m speaking specifically of the new B.C. child opportunity benefit. When you combine this with the fee reduction initiative for licensed child care spaces, there are some families that are going to save up to $20,000 a year in their expenditures.

Now, when you look at what makes life expensive here, where the affordability challenge was completely abandoned and ignored by the previous government, child care is one of the biggest expenses that people have. Also, how do you put money back into the pockets of families who are struggling to get by, who can’t afford, maybe, some of the extras that are really essential for kids to live healthy and active lives? It costs money to go to sports. It costs money to take music lessons. It costs money to be engaged and active youngsters in communities.

The benefit of this new, expanded child opportunity benefit is that it doesn’t just apply to kids to six years old. As we know, as any parent in this House can tell you, kids don’t get less expensive after the age of six. They get more expensive. This benefit now follows a child to the age of 18. That is going to help middle-class and low-income families tremendously in British Columbia, beginning later this year when that benefit becomes available.

I want to also point out that in less than two years, our government has funded more than 10,400 new licensed child care spaces, with another 22,000 on the way over the next three years, through the creation of the childcare B.C. new spaces fund. There are 28,000 families currently benefiting from the $10-a-day child care program. In my ministry, we’re also working closely with our colleagues in MCFD to create new child care spaces on school grounds. In the majority of the new and replacement schools we’ve announced, space has been included for neighbourhood learning centre.

This has been the top priority. Where we have neighbourhood learning centres — or NLCs, as they’re called in the jargon — the top priority is child care spaces. Just since September 2017, given the scale and pace of capital investments that we’ve made, which are long overdue in the school system, in communities right across British Columbia, our combined ministries have approved over 2,600 new, high-quality child care spaces on school sites, in addition to the 32,000 spaces that already exist on school grounds in British Columbia.

[5:40 p.m.]

That’s progress, and Budget 2020 guarantees that the momentum we’ve built since September of 2017 continues over the next three years and beyond. Safe, affordable licensed child care gives parents and guardians the peace of mind they need to go to work or school. It’s something that they need to be able to rely on, and Budget 2020 delivers on that in a big way.

After more than a decade of neglect, we’re also investing in services that people desperately need, including record investments in the education system. I want to speak to these, probably for the majority of my time, this afternoon — what people need to know out there, who have waited for a long time to have a government that gets it and that understands that investment in education is an investment in people, opportunities and sustained economic prosperity.

Budget 2020 builds on the investments that we’ve already made. Budget 2020 invests nearly $2.2 billion more for B.C. schools than the last budget that the old government tabled in Budget 2017. This budget will help us continue to invest more in schools and, in total, Budget 2020 increases funding in the education system by $546 million over the next three years. In total, Budget 2020 includes more than $20 billion of investment in our school system over the next three years.

Within that allocation, there is tremendously good news for parents as well. I’m specifically speaking of parents who have special needs children. Since we were sworn in as government, we have increased the envelope of special needs education funding by 30 percent over the previous government. Now, that’s significant in and of itself. Budget 2020 sustains and enhances that even further.

We have looked at other students where their needs are greatest and their funding was neglected under the previous government. Indigenous students are one such group of students ignored by the previous government. We’ve increased funding for Indigenous students by 29 percent — a 29 percent increase for Indigenous education. We’re proud of that. Budget 2020 builds on that.

In total, as of this year, with the tabling of Budget 2020, since September 2017, the funding for education has gone up 19.4 percent in British Columbia for education — 19.4 percent. What does that mean in real terms? It means that funding has gone up by $1,900 per student in the province of British Columbia in just 2½ years. While we know that 16 years of neglect can’t be fixed overnight, an awful lot has been done in 2½ years that was long, long overdue.

Let me put in context what 19.4 percent new investment in the education system means. Let’s contrast that with what other jurisdictions in Canada have been investing. The average, over the same time period as our 19.4 percent new investment, was 5 percent new investment. In other words, British Columbia is investing in the education system at almost four times the pace of the Canadian average. That’s long overdue. That’s how you address neglect and underfunding of an education system. You do it. You move fast, you move quickly, you do it sustainably, and you keep the momentum rolling.

As we celebrate these historic investments, we’re reminded that nothing is more important than helping a kid reach their full potential in life. We’re committed to removing barriers that stand in the way of student success, of kids having the opportunities they deserve. That’s one of the reasons why we engaged in a historic consultation with the school system, all 60 districts. We had 350 education stakeholders participate in government’s funding model review in the education system. We heard, loud and clear, that vulnerable children needed more attention in our school system and that often they lacked the supports, in previous years, that they deserved to have.

I’m pleased to say that in Budget 2020, for the first time, one of those groups of vulnerable students that has not been served well historically in the school system — I’m speaking specifically about B.C.’s children and youth in care — will now have a new supplemental funding category to address their specific needs and to increase their student success in our school system.

[5:45 p.m.]

I think it’s an embarrassment to have to repeat the statistic, but in some districts and in some years gone by, kids who were in the care of the ministry have an abysmal 35 percent graduation rate in our school system. We are letting them down. Previous governments had no special resources attached to kids who obviously have very different needs than other kids. We’re going to fix that. We’re going to begin to move the dial significantly and work with our school district partners to ensure that kids in care have the same opportunities in life as kids who are not in care. Budget 2020 allows us to begin that critical path forward.

There is also money in the budget, in the Education Ministry envelope, for helping kids who have mental health challenges. We’ve heard loud and clear that that is an area of critically important focus, and we have already made a number of announcements, with my colleague the Minister for Mental Health and Addictions, that pertain to the school system. We have some innovative pilot projects out there, in the field, with school districts.

We are also going to adjust the funding allocations that support things like trauma counselling, things like school breakfast and lunch programs and additional supports in classrooms for kids that need it. I think, writ large in the school system, we also want to work with all our partners to recognize that mental health issues and early intervention are critically important. We’re going to support that as well, in a better way, going forward.

We’re also expanding our ERASE strategy, which is a very important program. It’s not a new program, but it’s a greatly expanded program, under our mandate. It now covers a comprehensive gang prevention program. It speaks to mental wellness programs for students, parents, educators and kids of all sexual orientations and gender identities. It’s about making schools safer, more welcoming places. It’s about educating parents — to look for the signs that their kid may be facing stress and anxiety — and reducing the stigma, so that it’s okay to ask for help when you need help. Budget 2020 will support those very successful efforts.

In its entirety, Budget 2020 represents something very significant: infrastructure investment like we’ve never seen in the province of British Columbia, infrastructure projects that are greatly needed — $18 billion worth of work, 100,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction in B.C. communities, as supported by our governmentwide infrastructure investments.

Inside that record level of infrastructure investment, almost $2.8 billion is directed towards new and expanded schools, seismic upgrades, maintenance and buying properties to plan ahead and build schools in areas of high growth. That’s what we’re going to do over the next three years. This is a significant enhancement over where we’ve been historically in the province. It’s why we’re already able to make seismic investments at three times the pace of the previous government. We have 41 seismic projects in the field right now and 25,000 safe seats — to protect kids, staff and teachers in the event of an earthquake — being built right now in British Columbia.

Budget 2020 allows us to maintain that triple pace over the previous government and get more and more seismic projects begun and completed, as well as building schools that are needed in Surrey and other quickly growing communities around British Columbia. We have to be aggressive, because every child deserves to live, work and study in a school that is appropriate, to not languish, in their learning careers, in portables.

Since we have formed government, we’ve invested $270 million in new schools, expansions and seismic upgrades in Surrey alone. In the Surrey school district, I’m pleased to say, the pace of project approvals under our government has tripled over the record of the previous government. That’s why today the combined level of projects already approved and under construction or in pre-construction will build 7,300 new student spaces in real schools, in real neighbourhoods in the community of Surrey, and we’re not even done yet. We have nine more projects, in Surrey alone, in the planning process right now.

It takes a long time to catch up from 16 years of neglect. It takes time to reduce the inventory of portables that doubled under the previous government. But with 7,300 new seats underway….

Interjections.

Hon. R. Fleming: Oh, I hear a member from Chilliwack. He’s mugged his face at two photo ops for 1,900 new school spaces in his community alone.

[5:50 p.m.]

Member, I hope you’ll accept our invitation and come out to the next one in your community as well. It took you guys getting thrown out of government to get schools in Chilliwack, and that’s a fact.

We will continue to catch up on the school construction fund and build this renaissance of school investment with Budget 2020 over the next three years.

Let me speak to some other things that have been very well received that Budget 2020 sustains as well. Could you believe it? The previous government not only underfunded and failed to seismically invest in schools; they didn’t even invest in playground equipment. We created a $5 million annual playground equipment fund that has been wildly successful. It has built 101 playgrounds in communities right around British Columbia, including the member over there from Abbotsford. Kids are happy in his district. Go out and see the new playgrounds. There’ll be more announced this year, the year after that and the year after that.

You know what? People in Abbotsford or Victoria…. The parents don’t have to fundraise $150,000 to build a playground. The reality is that most of them could never do that. They didn’t come from communities that had a capacity to do that. We will continue to support those investments.

Now, let me speak a little bit to CleanBC and the $400 million investment in our climate action plan that will help people and businesses, businesses in my community, transition to a more efficient, low-carbon economy, both at home and at work. This additional investment in Budget 2020 brings the total investment to $1.3 billion over four years. This makes British Columbia the official leader in tackling climate change and reducing a clean economy in our country. The CleanBC program for industry will reduce emissions by 2.5 million tonnes of CO₂ by the year 2030.

Now, I’m pleased to say that the Ministry of Education, in this budget, will play a significant role in CleanBC and tackling climate change. We are tripling the capital funding to school districts through the carbon-neutral capital program. It will grow from $5 million annually to $17 million. That will allow for energy retrofits and carbon reduction initiatives in schools right around British Columbia that will help our province’s mission to reduce carbon pollution and reach our emission targets.

I think it’s pretty exciting for the school system. They are ready for it. They embrace it. Who knows? Even in some communities, we can involve students who are looking at engineering and STEM science careers — to be involved in energy management and carbon reduction planning right in their own districts, being a part of these amazing investments. It will, in some cases, mean solar panel installations, heat pumps and renewable energy. Those are the kinds of things that are going to be supported by the new carbon-neutral capital program fund.

Budget 2020 also reaffirms our government’s commitment to work with Indigenous people to build a brighter future for all of us in this province, a true and lasting reconciliation with Indigenous people. That’s really at the heart of what we’re doing in the education system right now. Our government has listened to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls for action. We have passed UNDRIP legislation. We have worked in the school system for many years now and continue to work with our Indigenous education partners to ensure that Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are part of the curriculum and part of the school system at all grade levels in our school system today. That will continue with Budget 2020.

We’re investing in Indigenous teacher-training seats. Indigenous people have been historically underrepresented in the teaching profession, and we’re trying to fix that. We are investing in curriculum development at B.C. universities so all students can benefit from the traditional knowledge of Indigenous people. We’ve added a new professional standard for B.C. educators that requires them to be familiar with and respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada.

I’m also pleased to say that Budget 2020 includes a tripartite partnership with First Nations in British Columbia, with Ottawa, the federal government, and with British Columbia to bring in $100 million new investment over the next five years for kids, mostly living on reserve, in communities right around British Columbia who are part of our school system.

[5:55 p.m.]

This will fund things that have previously been a barrier to Indigenous kids getting an equal education to non-Indigenous kids, including basic needs like transportation, getting to and from school for kids who live a longer distance from their school.

The BCTEA, or Tripartite Education Agreement — we’re the only province in the country with an agreement like this. We hope it becomes a pathway for other provinces and territories to also move forward on. But I am proud to say that in the province of British Columbia, we have equity in terms of the funding that federally supported schools have that are on band reserves with district schools in the province of British Columbia. We’re the only province to have achieved that level of equity, and Budget 2020 cements that achievement into our fiscal plan.

We also are hiring more teachers. As you know, we have hired 4,200 in British Columbia over the last two years. So 700 of these are special education teachers. Nearly 200 of them are teacher psychologists and counsellors. A lot of school districts have met their hiring requirements under the Supreme Court decision. But Budget 2020 is going to increase that even further, by $98 million over the next three years, to hire even more teachers in British Columbia, because we have some in-demand teaching positions in British Columbia that need to be supported.

That’s what Budget 2020 allows us. It means that teacher education programs will be available for more special education, French-speaking, Indigenous teachers entering the classroom, and we will have more to announce on that in the very near future.

Listen, I do want to speak, lastly, to housing, because I know my time is limited here. The government’s housing program has directly created, in my community, almost 3,000 new homes. It is fantastic to see, whether it’s 800 new residences being built at the University of Victoria right now or whether it’s housing near my constituency office in my community for Indigenous women fleeing domestic violence or whether it’s low- and middle-income housing projects in my constituency and around this region.

We are delivering on housing affordability in this community. It has long been an area that we have required attention to if we’re going to tackle homelessness, if we’re going to give families a roof over their heads, if we’re going to keep kids from sleeping in cars and all kinds of things that we have seen in our communities for way, way too long.

We’re engaging the non-profit housing sector in a way that we have never done before. Our government has a 2½-year record of signing agreements, breaking ground, building housing projects. Budget 2020 is going to enable us to keep that momentum in my community and communities right around British Columbia, no matter who their MLA is. I am proud of that as well.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to the budget this afternoon.

D. Clovechok: It’s a pleasure to stand here today. I’m honoured to rise to speak to Budget 2020, which I will not be supporting — for good reason, as I will point out.

Every time I rise in this House, it’s always at the forefront of my mind and my thought and my comments — the amazing people in Columbia River–Revelstoke who hired me to be their voice in this place. I want to talk a little bit about my riding, to give you an understanding of who we are and what we do, so that you can better understand how this budget is negatively impacting us. It’s a remote, rural riding with immense geography, about 38,000 square kilometres. It includes four mountain ranges, the headwaters of the mighty Columbia River and an overall landscape that is truly awe-inspiring.

On a good driving day, it takes me five hours from Kimberley in the south country all the way up to Revelstoke, which is in the northwest part of the riding, through the ranching and farming communities of the Columbia Valley and passing through Canal Flats, Fairmont Hot Springs, Invermere, Radium, Edgewater, Spallumcheen, Brisco, Parson, Nicholson, through the town of Golden, Donald, into the Rogers Pass and eventually into the city of Revelstoke.

It’s populated with hard-working mountain people who believe that it’s the best place in the world to work and raise our families and just to enjoy the surroundings and activities that come from where we live. We have an economy that’s focused on tourism, forestry, agriculture, mining and a really powerful and new, strong, emerging tech industry there as well. We’re really excited about that. We’re proud British Columbians, proud Canadians, with strong values. I’m profoundly blessed to live and represent these families that I call my neighbours.

[6:00 p.m.]

I also want to recognize my family, especially my wife, who is in this business as well. She’s the regional director for area F for the regional district of East Kootenay. They’re all so supportive of me doing this work and accepting of the time away that this job requires. They’re amazing, and I’m blessed by them.

I also want to thank my volunteers back at home, who are in the hundreds, for all they do. I wish I could name each of you, but I can’t, given my time here.

I also want to recognize and thank my colleague Rachel Loganberg, who’s my CA. She’s in our Kimberley office every day, taking care of business while I fulfil my duties here in this House. She is truly, truly amazing, and I’m so grateful for what she does.

Also high on my appreciation list are all of the political and legislative staff who help us here on a daily basis in Victoria. Thank you to Hannah, Stephanie, Stu and Parveen and everyone else. I can’t thank you enough, and know you are awesome.

Last and not least, I want to recognize my constituency office landlord in Kimberley, Danny Carmichael, who we’re very proud to work closely with in the creation of the first constituency office in B.C., and perhaps Canada, that is net zero. It’s completely powered by solar, an accomplishment that was so proud and celebrated a few weeks ago. When it comes to addressing climate change, if we all do something, then something gets done.

The presentation of the provincial budget should be a time that should inspire people, a time that the public, who we all work for, can find hope and encouragement for their future, the success of their families and the success of this province. It’s a time when all parties should have the confidence to nod and say together that we can make this happen because it makes sense for all British Columbians.

I’m a very positive person by nature. I honestly wish I could stand here today and say that the 2020 budget is inspiring. I wish I could say it defines the pathway to hope that we had all hoped for. I wish it was a template for things that put people first. But I just can’t say it, because in my humble opinion, it’s none of that. This budget could be a Seinfeld episode, the budget about nothing.

I’m not alone in believing this. Even the headlines say different. Let me take a quick minute to read a few. “In her third full budget, Finance Minister Carole James delivered an underwhelming effort containing few surprises.” “With the economy gearing down, Minister James found herself with little manoeuvring room.” “Regrettably, Budget 2020 fails to tackle the weaknesses that threatened the foundations of the province’s long-term economic prosperity.” “Overall, Budget 2020 is a disappointment. It contains little that will strengthen the province’s economic fundamentals or improve its competitive position over the medium term.” Not my words. Words from the public.

So no surprise that I will not be supporting this budget. Let’s see how it actually ripples down and affects the people that I represent, the people that hired me to be here. Let’s talk about affordability.

I saw a cartoon in the paper the other day with the Premier holding someone by the ankles and shaking them as all the change fell out of their pocket. That’s the affordability this government is actually giving British Columbians: tax, tax, tax, tax. Let’s talk a little bit about that.

The NDP have raised tax revenues by over $3,025 for each household in British Columbia. Total taxation will rise over $4,667 for each household by 2022, by the way, projecting another couple of years. I can foreshadow this. A lot of them will still be here in two years, but they’ll be back over on this side.

Taxation is up $5.7 billion per year since 2016-2017. Spending is up $11.4 billion per year since 2016 and 2017. The government overspent by $550 million just last year. Over $1 billion in infrastructure projects promised in 2019 have been delayed. The NDP have introduced four new taxes, totalling number 23. A Netflix tax. I mean, tax people’s entertainment and TV. I’ve got people in my riding that can’t afford cable. How they watch TV is Netflix. Now they’re going to have to pay more for it.

A soda pop tax. Seriously. Then they have introduced the employer health tax, and yes, even an air tax. Let’s talk about the employer health tax for a minute, which is not only misleading but, in my humble opinion, is one of the most regressive taxes that they’ve put forward.

[6:05 p.m.]

They brag about eliminating MSP, but it’s not been completely eliminated. Eliminating MSP for people is something that was a good thing. I supported that. We supported that when we were in government. We did the same thing. But they shifted that tax now to small businesses. These people, these colleagues of mine on the other side of the House, are not business-friendly, especially to small business. Small businesses, larger businesses are owning this tax. This is a tax to replace the MSP.

We’ve got ski hills that are paying up to $200,000 in employer health taxes. That’s coming off their bottom line. We’ve got restaurants that are paying $20,000 to $30,000. That’s coming off their bottom line.

You know how it affects people where I live? It affects their jobs. You can only charge so much for a pizza. One of the business owners of a restaurant told me. He said: “I’ve got to get back into my own business because I can’t afford what this tax is creating for me. It means I’m going to have to lay off at least one or maybe two people that are full-timers in my business.” That’s how it’s affecting people where I live.

As is the case in so many places in B.C., affordable housing is a huge issue in Columbia River–Revelstoke — affordable housing that people can either buy or rent.

In the NDP election campaign, they promised $400 in rental assistance to British Columbians. The reality…. It’s disappeared. It’s a broken promise. Do they think that people are going to forget this broken promise — renters who are desperately seeking somewhere to live?

I’m proud to say that I’m a landlord. I continue, by choice, to invest some of my money in real estate for rental purposes. The key word there is “invest.” It’s an investment for me. I also am very proud of the fact that I’m a really good landlord, and I’ve had amazing renters. There are bad renters, and there are bad landlords.

The process that they’ve come up with in terms of the Residential Tenancy Act…. I think it’s really important to protect your renters. I think the reality is that there are unforeseen consequences that have happened because of this. I can argue that in many cases, that NDP legislation is actually hurting renters.

I’ll give you an example. In one of my cities that I represent, I know a particular individual that owned a house and three condos. Four people lived in their house, a rental. Six people lived in the condos, two each in the condos. When the legislation around renting came out, when those leases came up, she didn’t renew them. She sold the house, and now the three condos are Airbnb. Basically, what’s happened is that this legislation evicted ten people in a housing market where there’s no housing. That’s the consequence that has happened.

The folks over there continue to talk about their housing investment as a record in B.C. history. They have promised 114,000 affordable homes in their campaign, yet their performance to date is nothing less than abysmal.

Vancouver has the second-least affordable housing in the world.

Housing starts are down 40 percent in B.C. That’s a drop of 1,278. They’ve only built 2,400 new affordable housing units — at a promised 114,000. I heard the other day that if they continue at that rate, it would take them 100 years to build what they’re trying to build. They’re not going to be here in 100 years.

Nothing to increase housing supply. Instead, NDP taxes are causing project cancellations. I can tell you that where I live, the uncertainty that’s in this province right now…. In one of the little villages that I represent, a developer and the investors that were going to build a very, very nice development have pulled out because of this government and the uncertainty around leaving them with nothing.

Child care. Campaigning on $10-a-day…. I remember campaigning during that time. My opponent was touting the $10-a-day care. It was a big issue. People need daycare, not only the hard-working entrepreneurs but to attract other people into our communities. Well, where is it today? It’s a fail. They’ve completely abandoned the $10-a-day care for those who need it or, in their words, want it.

[6:10 p.m.]

It’s simply a pilot project with about 2,055 child care spaces, where they pick winners over losers.

The greatest problem in child care is the shortage of early childhood educators, and there’s nothing really there in the budget for them. You can create all the spaces you want, but if you don’t have the people to teach the kids, you’ve got nothing — $10-a-day daycare fail.

Wildlife. I am absolutely appalled with this budget. There’s nothing. There’s not a word in this budget about wildlife, and it’s one of the greatest resources that we have in this province. Not a word about wildlife and growing wildlife populations. Not a word. Appalled.

I don’t blame the NDP for the situation that’s in the wildlife. This has been going on since the ’50s. But they’ve been in government for 2½ years, and they have done absolutely nothing to address the declining numbers of ungulates where I live in the Kootenays — elk, deer. Nothing. They’ve done nothing. That is absolutely appalling. It’s at critical mass. When you look at states like Montana, like Wyoming, like Idaho, like Colorado, who have programs that work…. This government sits on its hands when it comes….

Then there’s the caribou. They hired Blair Lekstrom to come in and figure it all out. Well, he did, because Blair’s that kind of guy. But when he gave his report — 14 points — completely ignored by this Premier because he’d already made up his mind. Now they’re heralding it as the blueprint for all of B.C. Well, the people I represent in Revelstoke…. We have caribou there. The snowmobile industry brings in $23 million a year into Revelstoke. Those snowmobilers are hard-working people, and they’re responsible people. What’s that effect going to have on them? We don’t know yet.

Transportation. Tell me one thing that you can put your finger on that the folks over on the other side — one thing in 2½ years — have actually built in transportation. Tell me one thing.

This province thrives when every worker has equal opportunity for employment, and to move and restrict that in any way should be seen as discriminatory and simply not in the best interests of British Columbians. Yet this government claims it’s proud of one of those initiatives where it’s picking winners and losers again, friends versus rivals, and the program is called the community benefits agreement.

This name, community benefits agreement, serves only to benefit a small group of handpicked unions that they’ve decided that they want to work. It’s little more than a payback, using tax dollars to building trade unions that have donated them millions of dollars since 2005.

They’re not just discriminatory. Projects have escalated in terms of costs. The Illecillewaet four-laning highway project near Revelstoke was first announced in 2015 under our government, initially budgeted at $35 million. At that time, the scope was a 2½-kilometre four-lane highway stretch. Now, 2½ years later, under this government, this minority government…. In February 2019, the project was reannounced with a reduced scope and an increased cost to taxpayers of $22.3 million, directly attributed to the community benefits agreement.

Same thing with the Trans-Canada Kicking Horse project — $150 million over budget, $30 million attributed to the community benefits agreement. So 30 million extra dollars to the taxpayers. Then there are the issues associated with it from traffic closures, policing, wildlife mortality, and I’ll get into that a little bit.

But here’s the kicker. Under the community benefits agreement, they’ll tell you: “Oh, this is a wonderful idea, because we are going to train apprentices in the province of British Columbia.” As an ex-college guy, I support apprenticeships. Yet when I talked to the colleges, as recently as yesterday…. When I talked to the presidents of the colleges in the region, not one of those presidents have been talked to about creating apprenticeship positions or spaces. When is that going to happen? The project is supposed to start in the spring. Not one conversation about apprenticeships yet. Maybe at the end of March.

[6:15 p.m.]

Rural health care. I am really pleased to see in this budget money that is allocated for health care. I think it’s a positive for this budget — absolutely. I give credit where credit is due. That’s how I work. However, rural health care is taking it on the chin yet again.

Let’s talk about where I live. Transportation is the number one issue around health care where I live. People can’t get around. They can’t get from Golden to Cranbrook to the regional hospital there. B.C. Transit cuts which are now in this budget…. Any hope that we had asked for, for an additional day or two for the B.C. medical bus that goes from Golden to Cranbrook, is gone now — no hope of that at all. How are seniors going to get to Cranbrook?

Access to services in both British Columbia and Alberta. Alberta has shut the door, for many reasons, to some of my constituents. There’s no reason for that. Our constituents are being asked, our seniors are being asked, to travel in the wintertime over the Rogers Pass, which was closed more this winter than it was open. Travelling across the Rogers Pass to get to a ten-minute oncology appointment in Kelowna…. It’s nonsense. Rural British Columbia is not being serviced.

I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with one of B.C.’s leading oncologists, based out of Kelowna. I asked him, straight up, about rural medicine around oncology: “Are our rural patients’ outcomes on par with those outcomes in the city?” The answer was: “No, they’re not.” So rural health care — big deal. Nothing in there for our seniors.

Public safety. They talked about public safety. I’m a big supporter of the RCMP and police members. Rural policing for me is a really, really important thing. They talked about that in their speech, yet you look at the numbers. They cut $10½ million out of the RCMP budget last year. It’s more about just hiring a few members. On average, rural B.C. has been shy of about 100 members a year. In order to train those members, when you factor in administration, training and equipment, it’s about $200,000 per member.

Well, do the math. In order to bring the complement of rural policing up to where it needs to be with 100 members, that will cost $20 million. I will be very interested to see what kinds of figures come out of that rural policing commitment when they cut $10½ million last year. It’s going to take them $20 million to get up to where it should be this year. I don’t think it’s going to happen. I sure hope it does, because we certainly need more members out there.

Mental health and addictions. I want to recognize the member on our side from North Vancouver–Seymour. She is doing an amazing job highlighting mental health and addictions. We hear a lot of talk about mental health and addictions on the Lower Mainland. And if it’s happening here and if it’s successful, I’m happy if it’s true.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Rural B.C. is desperately trying to find solutions without the help of government in many cases. I want to recognize the people in Revelstoke, the Revelstoke mental health and substance use collective project — Stacie Byrne, who’s very much involved in that — and in Golden, Davene Dunn and others who are working on addiction and homeless issues — so proud of them. They’re doing it without help, and they’re on top of it.

I continue to meet with my rural constituents who are struggling with mental health challenges. They are brave and they’re courageous people who are working so hard on their journey back to wellness. The lack of psychiatrists and counsellors, however, is a problem. Where’s the money for that?

There is no talk in this budget…. They talk about a diverse economy. They talk about supporting a B.C. for everybody. It’s so vague that it’s hard to really understand what they’re talking about. A chicken in every pot, an economic opportunity for every British Columbian, but there’s no economic plan There’s no defined economic plan. There’s no defined jobs plan. Tax, that’s their revenue stream — not an economic stream.

Minimal mention of mining.

Tourism. They cut $3½ million out of the tourism budget. I don’t know what business school they went to, but when you have an entity that’s tracking in the right direction, you don’t disinvest. You invest in it. So $3½ million — that’s really good economics.

Noting the time, I’ll reserve my right to speak again tomorrow and call for adjournment of debate.

D. Clovechok moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. G. Heyman moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 6:20 p.m.