Orders of the Day

Private Members’ Statements

FOOD SECURITY

J. Routledge: I rise to make a statement about food security. By that, I mean the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

I make this statement at my first opportunity after Canada Day, a day that even during a pandemic, we cele­brate by sharing food, a day when we celebrate everything Canadian, a day when we take pride in our international reputation for kindness, generosity and loyalty. But on this Canada Day in 2020, we find ourselves asking ourselves some hard questions about who we are as Canadians.

One of the questions I ask myself is: even though we live in one of the richest countries in the world, do all Canadians enjoy food security? I set out to answer that question, and I started with my own community of Burnaby North, a community known for its neighbourhoods of comfortable homes, soaring towers and stunning views. But even here, a food bank has been operating for some time.

I had a conversation with Simone Brandl, the program director of the North Burnaby Neighbourhood House, who runs the local food bank, and here’s what she told me. Food security emerged as an immediate and pressing issue for many Burnaby community members when the pandemic began in March. This was due to the fact that so many businesses had to close their doors during phase 1 of the pandemic. They laid off their employees.

Many of those employees were already living paycheque to paycheque because their wages were low or because their rents or mortgages were so high or because child care was so expensive or because of a combination of all of those factors. So when their paycheques stopped, they soon developed a serious cash flow problem.

If they had savings, they started to draw on them to buy the essentials of life. They racked up debt on their credit cards. Many of them were already in debt and soon maxed out their cards. Many could access federal and provincial programs, but there was still a gap. They turned to the food bank.

Simone told me that in April, the North Burnaby food hub distributed groceries to 411 people per week. Last week it was 3,154 people. One-third of them were children. In April, they distributed 3,800 pounds of food from the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. In June, they distributed 55,000 pounds of food. Special mention must be made of the Burnaby Firefighters Charitable Association, who have been transporting the supplies from the Greater Vancouver Food Bank warehouse.

Even more needed to be done to fill the gap, and with the leadership of the Burnaby primary care network, the community rallied. I myself was part of a network of people who began collecting donations of groceries, particularly fresh food like milk and eggs from our neighbours’ doorsteps, and delivering them to the Neighbourhood House. With donations of food from the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, the Burnaby school district and the firefighters distributed groceries to the 200 families identified in the school system as being food insecure. This service will continue over the summer.

Willingdon Church is producing about 400 meals per week with funding provided by their congregation. Retailers like Costco, Save-On and Safeway are donating food. Refood supplies healthy but imperfect fresh food that would otherwise end up in a bin. The Burnaby society for the prevention of homelessness serves about 180 breakfasts every Thursday morning. The city of Burnaby will continue preparing and serving 80 meals per week, at least until the end of September.

Speaking of food preparation, the pandemic opened yet another Pandora’s box, the one that so many seniors at home alone have been living in — seniors self-isolating to protect themselves from COVID-19, seniors who were too frail to prepare meals for themselves but were cut off from their social supports due to the pandemic.

[10:10 a.m.]

I am proud that our government moved so quickly to expand bc211 so that seniors living alone could call to arrange for a volunteer to buy groceries, pick up prescriptions and be the voice on the phone at a time of deep loneliness.

But Simone told me a story shared by one of those volunteers, who noticed that the woman to whom she was delivering groceries kept getting thinner and thinner. It turns out that she has osteoporosis. She can’t stand to prepare the groceries delivered to her. Now she is one of the recipients of 750 frozen dinners prepared every week by Willingdon community church and the Burnaby Neighbourhood House.

As businesses start to slowly reopen, our neighbours will be returning to work. Some of them will only be going back part-time. Many of them will still be living paycheque to paycheque and will still be paying off debts. Simone doesn’t see food security going away anytime soon.

In fact, where there were two food hubs in Burnaby before the pandemic, one in the north and one in the south, there are now nine. That includes one at SFU. Yes, during the pandemic, even university students were relying on the food bank to feed themselves. Classes were cancelled, they didn’t have student loans, and few summer jobs were available. As Simone sees it, community hubs are critical to food security.

Food security isn’t just a pocketbook issue. It’s also about accessibility. If you have to travel across the city, maybe with two little kids in tow, change buses three times, stand in long lines at the food bank, and retrace your steps back home — this time with grocery bags — this is not food security. The goal in Burnaby is to make food available discreetly in every neighbourhood, because protecting the dignity of those who rely on food banks to feed themselves and their families is an important part of food security.

Simone told me another story. One day, an older gentleman tapped on the door of the neighbourhood house. He needed food. He was in tears, not because he was hungry, but because he was ashamed. Here’s what he told Simone: “When I retired, I had to get a part-time job so I could make ends meet. I lost that job when COVID-19 hit. I am humiliated that I have to come here to ask for a handout. I worked for 60 years. I helped to build this province.”

No one should feel ashamed for asking for help in a crisis.

I. Paton: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold across our country, we are only now starting to realize the full impact and long-reaching effects it will have on our economy. What many do not realize is the dramatic impact that COVID-19 is having on agriculture here in B.C.

Farmers are experiencing unprecedented labour shortages; disruptions in the packing, processing and transportation sectors; and increasing domestic and international market uncertainty. These fears are resulting in difficult decisions about which crops to grow and whether or not to leave fields fallow for the upcoming season.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture cautions that these compounding challenges could result in a decrease in the amount and quality of food in grocery stores, and higher prices in the months ahead. To weather this storm, and to ensure the security and longevity of our local food system, B.C.’s agriculture industry must become more self-sufficient. As the old proverb goes, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Pre-emptively, B.C. should prepare for future interruptions in the international food supply chain, as COVID-19 has made us realize just how reliant we are on food imports. We can no longer rely on imports of meats, fruits and vegetables from other countries like China, the United States and Mexico. We need to incentivize the buying and growing of B.C. products. This can be done by utilizing more of B.C.’s Crown ALR land and transitioning it into better and more efficient food production uses. More homegrown vegetables under glass is also to be considered, as well as increased opportunities to butcher, process and package B.C. beef, pork, lamb and poultry.

Farmers and ranchers in this province have desperately been asking for the opportunity to establish more locally based abattoirs with D and E licences and provincial oversight through regular inspections. The time has come for B.C. livestock numbers to increase, and this will only happen when all parts of this huge province have access to local slaughter and processing facilities.

[10:15 a.m.]

Huge packing plants in Alberta, such as JBS and Cargill, certainly serve a needed role for our industry. However, more and more British Columbians are keen to purchase clean, healthy, locally raised beef that comes from a local farm that was humanely raised and humanely harvested.

Every crisis in our nation’s history has spurred innovation. Let’s utilize this opportunity to remediate and revive British Columbia’s agriculture industry. Now is the time to consider bold ideas rooted in new technological developments. Vertical farming, for example, could be utilized to maximize crop yields and reduce the carbon footprint.

Food security in this province should also mean family farm security and farm financial security. As farmers and ranchers begin to age out, it is imperative that housing on farmland be readily available to the next generation of farmers who would choose to carry on the family business with the right to work and live on the property with their parents, their grandparents or their siblings.

Recently B.C.’s new Food Security Task Force recommended a certain amount of ALR land be set aside specifically for agriculture industrial use. Shockingly, one of the four recommendations could result in the designation of 28,000 acres within the ALR for a new agri-industrial zone. The move has drawn criticism from many farmland advocates, including the chair of the ALC, who said that despite monthly discussions with the Agriculture Ministry, the ALC has yet to be meaningfully consulted.

Kent Mullinix, director of sustainable food systems at KPU, had this to add about the report: “The B.C. government is investing nearly nothing in the creation of a truly sustainable food system, in my opinion…. It is hugely disappointing to me that our leadership continues to hang their hats on the notion that further industrialization and globalization is what is called for.”

We also need to allow farm families to be creative and entrepreneurial in order to come up with supplemental income to support their farm operations. I get concerned when out-of-the box ideas like festivals, processing facilities, eateries, roadside stands and cafés are shut down by the Agricultural Land Commission. Agritourism is essential in this province. These activities should be encouraged, not regulated into oblivion.

Finally, if we are able to take control of our own destiny when it comes to the preservation of our food system, we must invest heavily in education programs. Let’s re-establish farming as a subject of inquiry in our schools and expand the offering of post-secondary programs in agriculture, horticulture and agronomy. Let’s raise up the next generation of growers, ranchers, greenhouse operators, hobby farmers and community garden enthusiasts.

The time has come for B.C. to diversify its agriculture economy to better equip future generations of farming. Agriculture has been labelled as an essential service during this crisis, and we need to ensure that it is treated as such for the good of all British Columbians.

J. Routledge: Thank you to the member for Delta South for his strong defence of local food production.

COVID-19 shone a spotlight on our social safety net, and it revealed a lot of the holes people have been falling through. Inadequate food security is a symptom of that.

During this pandemic, we moved quickly to redirect resources. Volunteers donated time and money to catch those who were falling. Now as we carefully transition out of this health crisis, we can no longer count on community spirit to sustain food security. We require systemic solutions if we are to sustain food security for the long term. That’s why we introduced a poverty reduction plan. That’s why we’re investing in quality, accessible, affordable child care. That’s why we’re building affordable housing. And that’s why we’re raising the minimum wage.

The pandemic taught us that everything is connected, and that means paying attention when First Nations talk to us about the threats to their traditional sources of food.

In my opening comments, I shared some personal stories about people who called upon the food bank to make ends meet during the pandemic. Now I’d like to tell you about one of the people who donated.

Rosario is a health care worker. She was very apologetic that she didn’t leave out her donation when she said she would. She had to work and didn’t get a chance to shop. So the next day, after working 16 hours, she stood in line at Costco and bought a huge amount of groceries so that others who didn’t have a job could eat during the pandemic.

[10:20 a.m.]

As a front-line worker, Rosario was already doing her part to protect her community from COVID-19. She shouldn’t have to carry the entire community on her back. That is a collective responsibility, and as a society, we exercise that responsibility.

We honour the sacrifices of people like Rosario by mending the holes in the social safety net and by ensuring that there are no more gaps for people to fall through by putting programs in place that make life more affordable.

No one should have to choose between a roof over their heads or food on the table.

INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTED LEARNING

D. Davies: I rise in the House today to make a statement on independent distributed learning.

As I’m sure all members are aware, schools and communities have certainly faced some intense challenges over these past few months. COVID-19 has disrupted so many aspects of British Columbians’ lives that, certainly, our education system is no exception.

Before we dive in, though, I think it’s important to recognize the hardships that all schools across the province have had to endure. I’d like to take a moment to offer my sincere gratitude to all of the students, teachers, parents and support staff who have risen to this challenge and worked so tirelessly to ensure that this challenge that is facing us has been within the best interest of our children and that they continue to learn and grow under these incredibly trying circumstances.

Throughout this ordeal, we have seen the value and importance of the many tools and supports that are available for distant learning. These have been the key for our schools to overcome these hardships and to continue our children’s education. So it’s truly sad to stand in this House and discuss why many of these schools have had some of these supports taken away. Many thousands of students across our province depend on these.

Independent distributed learning helps provide distant learning for children who are faced with challenges that keep them from learning in traditional classroom environments. A large portion of these students attend IDL schools because they have diverse learning needs to overcome bullying, crises and many other traumatic situations. In fact, just over 40 percent of the students fit into this category.

Many of these children are from remote communities without access to schools, and IDL is the best option and often the only option. It’s truly disheartening to stand in this House and discuss why at a time when these programs have never been more valuable that funds have been stripped away from these students, without consultation with the schools and the teachers that operate these programs.

Schools and families have been blindsided by a decision and now have to face a turbulent and an unpredictable school year with a cut equal to $800 per student. This money that these schools and parents could have put towards additional supports, learning supplies and even extracurricular activities for these kids has vanished. For many, this cut will be the difference between students being able to stay in a learning program that works for them and being forced back into one that does not.

What makes this decision to slash this funding to IDL schools especially infuriating is that it seems to be a broken promise. I am glad, though, that the Premier himself did make a promise to the families that this government would not make any cuts to IDL schools. However, that is not the case. In fact, I have mentioned this letter numerous times in this House and in different proceedings. I quote the Premier: “We do not have any plans to change the existing funding for independent schools nor the legislation that governs this funding.”

Overall, we are here to talk about, in general, our economic recovery. That’s as we move forward. How is it best to invest in British Columbians, to keep people in the workforce, to keep our children learning and to put our province on a strong road to recovery? We have promises. And I quote again: “Investing in our children’s education is the best investment that we can make for our future economy and for the future of all people in this province.”

[10:25 a.m.]

Yet here we are with thousands of families wondering why they’ve seen the stripping away of millions of dollars in funding from students who are more dependent on these funds than any other child. Generally, I need to ask: how is this investing in our children’s education? How is this investing in the future of our province?

These schools have been blindsided, along with many teachers and families. There had been no warning, nor were they offered any form of consultation. Now there is no recognition or acknowledgement that any such cut was made.

We’ve analyzed the numbers. Any way you slice it, $12 million less going to IDL schools is a cut, and a cut is a cut. The fact remains that IDL schools are facing one of the most challenging school years with less supports, and it is the students who are going to suffer the most.

I’ve received hundreds and hundreds of letters from children across the province, from parents across the province and from schools across the province that are bewildered by how these cuts have been made. I’d like to read just a little bit of one of these letters here.

“We have four sons, two of which attended Nanaimo Christian School,” and she lists off the names of her kids, “and two attended a Christian online school. I gave up my career as a registered nurse to home-school our boys while they were young. It was a priority for our family that our boys had a parent at home and made the decisions based on a single income. I later recertified my nursing licence to go back to work casually. Our older sons went on to NCS for a couple years.”

However, for a variety of reasons, including increased medical issues with their son and a lack of individualized support system for their son, they continued with their IDL learning. The letter goes on to talk about how this has impacted their family and the sacrifices that they have made to ensure that the best possible option for their children was being met.

This is one letter of hundreds that are very similar and say the same thing over and over and over. This is going to impact families. This will impact our children.

R. Kahlon: First off, this is my first time to be able to speak, even in this different session that we have. It certainly feels weird to be sitting in my home and connecting to the Legislature, but it’s a privilege and honour to be here regardless.

As the member mentioned the challenging time we’ve had with COVID and as it’s my first time speaking, I wanted to thank everyone in my community. I want to thank all the front-line workers who’ve done an exceptional job to keep us safe and to keep things moving.

Today we’re talking about education. The member spoke about the tough time that parents are facing. So I think it’s important to say thank you to all of those parents out there who are struggling but have found ways to provide educational opportunities for their kids. Thank you to the educators who worked very hard to ensure that our kids continue to learn.

I know that not all parents decided to send their kids back to school when school opened, even though it was for a couple days a week. I know that I, personally — my family — was grateful. Having a young child go back for a couple days was a game-changer. So thank you to everyone that made that happen. Thank you to the teachers for being so accommodating.

I want to thank the member for bringing this motion today. I think it was the non-partisan portion of the morning, but I didn’t hear clarification from the Chair on that, so I’ll just share my remarks.

Most people would look at this topic of independent distributed learning and say: “Well, what is independent distributed learning?” In B.C., currently we have about 600,000 students enrolled in our K-to-12 system. Of that, we have approximately 14,000 students taking this independent distributed learning option in B.C.

[10:30 a.m.]

Distributed learning is a method of instruction that relies primarily on indirect communication between students and teachers, including Internet or other electronic-based delivery, teleconferencing or correspondence. Distributed learning provides another choice for learning within the K-to-12 system. Distributed learning takes place outside of the regular classrooms, typically when a student is at a distance from the teacher and the school building.

Students may opt for distributed learning when they live in remote locations due to, maybe, scheduling conflicts for required courses or sometimes because of learning preferences, like the member alluded to. Students in distributed-learning programs have increased flexibility in determining their academic schedule. School calendars are not bound by the same time and space as, say, the rest of the K-to-12 system. Students may also enrol at any time during the school year, except for a school year.

I think it’s important to note a couple of things. Currently independent distributed-learning schools are funded at the same rate as group 1 independent schools, which is 50 percent of the public school rate. So they’re funded the same as everyone else that’s choosing to choose the independent private school model.

It’s also important to note that the province runs an excellent public distance learning program. It’s tuition-free, and it’s available to everyone. So there are other options, as well, for those who choose to not want to go the traditional K-to-12 model. The province provides that tuition-free.

The member mentioned cuts. I think he said that “a cut is a cut is a cut.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking about right now, when we’re seeing historic funding for education, or perhaps taking a trip down memory lane to not too many years ago. But I think it’s important to highlight a few of those investments for the member that he made in his motion.

We are providing $6.6 billion to support students in 2019-2020. That’s $1 billion more than there was provided in 2016-17. For the first time since 2006, all 60 school districts saw an increase in funding for the 2019-20 school year. We’re seeing reduced class sizes, increased supports in classrooms and hiring 4,000 new teachers, special education teachers, psychologists and counsellors. We have invested over $1 million to train new specialist teachers.

When the member says that education is a key component of the COVID recovery, he’s right. We have been making historic investments to ensure that we’re not only prepared but that we continue to see great success in our education system. I can go on about new education assistants, over 1,000 of them hired. I can talk about the $2.7 billion over three years for replacement of schools and replacement and fast-track of seismic upgrades so that our kids are safe when they enter a classroom. I can talk about the $5 million in playground funds, but my time is running short.

D. Davies: I want to thank the member for Delta North for his comments. I appreciate, obviously, that he does also recognize the diversity of children learning in our province and recognizes that key to IDL schools is that not every child fits into one box. Many of these children have tried public school systems — the brick-and-mortar schools as well as the public IDL — and it didn’t work for them.

He did list the numbers, how many students. It’s just a small percentage of these students that have chosen, and their families have chosen to do IDL schooling for their children as it works best for their child and their child’s outcomes. So why would we not continue to support this?

Both as a critic and as a former teacher myself, what has happened comes from great personal concern. But these aren’t just my concerns. These have been brought forward by teachers and parents, even students themselves, as I mentioned with my letters. When the announcement was made, as I mentioned, we received hundreds and hundreds of letters, emails and phone calls. There was no consultation done.

[10:35 a.m.]

One of the things that I did — which was a great success, and I’ve heard back from many people — is I hosted a live town hall, where parents and children could express their concerns and talk about how these impacts were affecting them. We had hundreds of parents and children on that call. In fact, there were so many that we had to break it up over two days.

We brought these concerns forward several times, including just recently during budget estimates, but there still has been no explanation as to why this has happened. In fact, we were told we had our facts wrong.

I want to talk briefly about…. The member for Delta North talks about a cut is a cut is a cut. Well, I just want to cover a couple of numbers. The standard per-student funding for IDL students from 2017 to 2020 was $3,843. This coming year it will now be $3,050, a difference of $793 less per student.

There is no other way to break it down, and the member could mention that. Families are going to receive $800 less in per-student funding. It is indeed going to have a significant impact on the parents and, most importantly, a significant impact on the children that are part of IDL.

Again, our children’s education is our greatest investment. It’s now more vital than ever, in this time of uncertainty, that we invest in our children.

Mr. Speaker, I see my time is done. I hope that there is some positive movement on this. With that, I’ll conclude my remarks.

COVID HEROES

J. Sims: I must say it really is a pleasure to be back in the people’s House doing business for the people.

I want to do a huge thank-you to the Clerk and to all the staff and the team here who worked together to make this possible. It means a lot, and I think to British Columbians, it means a lot. Much of the work you do is often hidden, but you put on a good show. Thank you for everything you’ve done.

Since the pandemic has begun, we’ve been hearing a lot about COVID heroes. My colleague from Burnaby talked about the heroes from her own constituency and her own city.

We know there is one name that comes to the front every time we think of COVID-19 heroes. That, of course, is our very own Dr. Bonnie Henry, who, I say, is probably being courted by many different places. She’s always on top of everyone’s hero list. Even my three-year-old great-granddaughter knows who Dr. Bonnie Henry is and has a picture of her in her room.

We celebrated the health care workers. At seven o’clock every night, no matter where you lived in B.C., you heard the shindig. My little Alliya even had a bell on her playhouse that she could go and ring when it got to be seven o’clock. We thanked all those who were deemed essential service front-line workers, whether they were the grocery store clerks, the bus drivers, those who worked in the hospital no matter what job they did and, of course, our long-term-care staff who were dealing with some of the most challenging situations.

We’ve seen on the news how many people have donated to the food banks. We’ve heard in detail about Burnaby — groceries delivered to seniors and meals to health care workers. Today I want to talk about some of those unsung heroes that are not only in Surrey-Panorama but, I would say, right across this beautiful province.

Who are they? Let me start by sharing stories about a few of them. They are the students, our young people who wanted to help out in their communities during the pandemic. They found creative ways to make a difference.

Stuti Sharma and Esther Zhang, grade 11 students from Semiahmoo Secondary, created the Learning Bridge, an online tutoring and mentorship program for students from grades 4 to 12, and all for free. They did not expect any payment.

Grade 12 student Fawzan Hussain from Fraser Heights printed hundreds of 3D devices for hospitals and care homes, including face shields, mask holders, door openers and glove removers.

[10:40 a.m.]

The students of essential workers at Adams Road Elementary in Cloverdale learned how to use ten 3D printers to make hundreds of face shields for front-line workers.

Students like Tavisha of Tavisha’s Helping Hands, a grade 9 student from Sullivan Heights Secondary who has spent hundreds and hundreds of hours sewing and selling masks and donating the profits to Surrey Hospital Foundation, St. Paul’s and B.C. Children’s Hospital.

Arshia Uppal, Jappun Dhillon, Lynton Nick, Riley Grim and Komal Sharma, young environmentalists who organized and hosted a virtual town hall to have politicians at all levels of government and ask us tough questions about a green and just recovery that includes everyone and doesn’t leave some people out. I had the pleasure of being part of the panel and was impressed by the breadth and depth of their knowledge, their passion and their self-confidence — the future leaders who are going to help to build a better world.

Student teacher Maria Fawcett, who won the Emily Longworth scholarship, a scholarship whose purpose is to make a difference in the community. Maria used the money for a project with a fifth-grade class placement at Sunrise Ridge Elementary. The entire class took pictures and made them into puzzles. You know what they did when those puzzles were finished? They took them over to the seniors homes in the neighbourhood, and they delivered thank-you letters to the local fire hall.

We know that this pandemic has had financial repercussions for so many people in our province and that there has been incredible pressure put on food banks. It has been inspiring to see individuals step forward.

Look at KPU’s institute for sustainable food. It has donated fresh food grown at their farm school to the Kekinow Native Housing Society and Pacific Immigrant Resources Society.

Rella Tees, Aman Chandi, Jasmeen Virk, Katherine Szabo and other Newton PLOT sharing garden members have been delivering care baskets filled with groceries to community members in need.

Restaurants who donated all of their perishables to shelters and food banks. The restaurants who have been preparing meals for hospital workers and the ones who are giving discounts to front-line workers.

The churches like Horizon, Relate and the Village who have helped provide meals for up to 33,000 people through City Dream.

Guru Nanuk, Ravidass Gurdwara, Dukh Nivaran Gurdwara and many others who have worked night and day to provide hot food and groceries for those in need, delivering as far away as to the food banks in Grand Forks and Revelstoke.

Countless volunteers adapting to the new COVID rules, including a 99-year-old who would come in — he’s now turned 100 — and volunteer and do work in the area of food prep.

Masjids and other religious institutions that stepped forward and gave back so much to their communities.

When students went back to school, school administrators, teachers and support staff worked overtime to develop a plan to bring schools to the students, to their homes. The plan was meant only to last for maybe a week or two, but as we know, the two weeks developed into a month, and a month developed into two months and three months. Very, very challenging times, but very important for those connectivities. A shout-out to everyone who works in the school system from those who go in to make the schools safe through cleaning to those who are the administrators.

Parents. I think we don’t take enough time to recognize the heroes the parents became during this time. They were not only doing their outside jobs, but they took on the added responsibility.

I will have more to say in a few minutes, Mr. Speaker.

N. Letnick: Thank you to the member for Surrey-Panorama for a great list of B.C. heroes all across our province. I would just like to add to that list.

First of all, to say that all the members that she talked about are heroes in my mind and heroes to everyone in the Legislature. But also, all five million or so British Columbians that listened to the advice and counsel of Dr. Bonnie Henry in making sure that they did what was necessary to flatten the curve.

[10:45 a.m.]

It’s because of all five million people in the province who took those seriously that we here in British Columbia are in a very good position to continue to expand our economy and make sure that people have jobs to go back to. I just want to give a big shout-out to all British Columbians for doing that.

To add to the great list of the member for Surrey-Panorama, I have a few more individuals I’d like to mention. Kelowna singers and songwriters, Jim and Kim Rhindress, have written a new song giving thanks to everyone working in the medical field during the pandemic. They have recorded the song “Health Care Heroes.” I would encourage everybody to go online and have a listen to it and watch the video of the health care heroes.

I have a UBC Okanagan student here in the Central Okanagan that dropped her books and donned medical gear through the COVID-19 outbreak. Ngan Nguyen Lyle was studying for an upcoming data science quiz when she got the call. Lyle is a master of data science student at UBC Okanagan and a medical doctor and was being summoned to return to work to support Interior Health’s COVID-19 response team. She says: “It wasn’t a tough decision.” She was following the outbreak in the media and started to realize that this was something extraordinary, so she was already thinking about calling former colleagues when she got the call herself.

With the support of her professors and her physician husband, Lyle returned to work full-time as a infectious disease doctor at Kelowna General Hospital in late March and took care of many, many of our patients. Having worked as an internal medicine resident during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic, Lyle had experience working in stressful environments, but this time it was different. She says: “It was incredibly challenging.” I can imagine. She was asked to help the infection control team, who had been working long days for weeks before she arrived, and they were exhausted.

Lyle worked most days on the KGH COVID-19 floor, supporting staff who were caring for patients with confirmed or suspected infection due to the virus. She also supported staff in the ICU and emergency departments. She also worked in a somewhat investigative role, reviewing virus case files and addressing questions and concerns brought up by staff. Again, to her and everyone else that has participated in this in the Central Okanagan, congratulations. Thank you so much for being heroes.

I want to briefly talk about other heroes throughout the province. Global News is doing a little bit of inquiry, asking people to send their heroes to the staff at Global News. You can find out how to do that by googling globalnews.ca/news. Look for the opportunity of nominating your own hero, someone who you believe, locally or provincially, has been a hero in your mind through this pandemic.

A few examples from people who have already submitted names are Alanna Ebl Best. Alanna is not only an intensive care nurse at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver. She’s also a survivor of two primary cancers in the past two years. She returned to work in the ICU one month into the pandemic after being off work to receive and recover from her treatment.

Her friend Christy Baker says: “Alanna is one of the bravest, strongest, determined women I know, and because she not only works in the medical system, she has also received her treatment in the system, which in return makes her such an outstanding health care hero during the pandemic.”

We have Melissa Jimmie. Melissa Jimmie is nominated by her mother and is currently working as a care aide. Since the outbreak at Holy Family Hospital — she’s been working there — Melissa says every person she works with is important in the roles they perform. She is eternally grateful for her supportive manager, nurses and many other co-workers. When she’s not working, Melissa helps others in the community and goes over and above as a health care worker, auntie, friend, sister, girlfriend and daughter. Melissa puts other’s needs before her own, and her mom says she’s awesome.

The list goes on and on — Lynne White Pacholok. We have Maria Devesa, Samantha Olson, Jane Jallard, Lara Anderson and so many others. I would encourage people if they know of a specific person that they want to nominate as a health care hero or a hero through COVID, have a look at the Global list and add to your own.

J. Sims: Let me carry on with doing a shout-out to everyone who’s been doing such an amazing job and becoming COVID heroes in every corner of this province.

I want to do a special shout-out to our grads. They’ve been through the schools. The pandemic was hard on everyone, but for them, they really felt cheated out of their big events — their graduation ceremonies and their prom parties.

[10:50 a.m.]

I want to say they have been creative and so have schools, and I’ve seen some amazing celebrations. Congratulations to all the grads.

I want to do a shout-out to the taxi drivers who worked throughout the pandemic. They went anywhere. They went to the homes where they knew there were outbreaks because they knew that essential service providers needed to be picked up. They did not ask: “Have you been inside? Have you been in touch with anybody?” They carried on, doing their part. A number of them that I talked to said it was their job. If the nurses and doctors and front-line workers were going in, they felt they had to do their part. So a big thank-you to them.

A big thank-you to the business community, which not only donated cash to many good causes during this time but also — some of them, like London Drugs — provided space for small retailers to sell their stuff because they were closed. Save-On Foods and Canadian Tire sold Girl Guide cookies, the largest fundraiser of the year for that organization. Army and Navy donated truckloads of food. Moving Forward, a counselling service that expanded their services to free virtual counselling, just did an outstanding job. Women like Kiran Saluja and the women in the Sewing Army and Meera Gill in Our Global Village, between them, donated over 25,000 masks, and some of you have been the recipients of some of those.

Mr. Harris Niu in South Surrey arranged a donation of 300,000 medical-grade masks to British Columbia. The Surrey Philippine Independence Day Society could not celebrate. Guess what they did. They organized a blood drive. Pride organizers like Martin Rooney didn’t give up on celebrating Pride this year. They went ahead and organized a wonderful online celebration. Caregivers and foster parents are heroes because during this time they didn’t have respite. During this time, single parents and foster parents had extraordinary pressure on them. You know what? They stepped up to the plate, and they did an amazing, amazing job.

I would also like to say that the true heroes throughout all of this have been our kids — whether it has been the very little ones or the ones who are graduating out of school — because they demonstrated for us optimism, resiliency and to be kind. They exemplify what Dr. Bonnie Henry says: “Be supportive; be kind.” Let us celebrate the goodness in British Columbia.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

T. Stone: It is a great pleasure to be back here once again in the Legislative Assembly. Here in British Columbia, affordability has been a central focus of conversation for years. Indeed, we have spoken at great length, in this House and outside of this House, about the importance of improving affordability for the people of British Columbia, and yes, we’ve debated the various methods of reaching this common goal.

Perhaps one of the most discussed affordability issues has been that of housing affordability. While much has been said about the need to improve housing affordability, sadly, it’s getting worse for many British Columbians. The price of housing in greater Vancouver is up 4.6 percent over the last three years. It’s up 8.2 percent in the Lower Mainland, as a whole, during that period of time. It is no easier for someone to purchase a home in Vancouver today than it was three years ago. In many ways, it’s more challenging than ever.

We have watched in the past year as another major threat to housing affordability has indeed exploded in British Columbia. That is the crisis involving skyrocketing strata insurance. Over the last few months, there has been a reported 50 percent average increase in strata insurance premiums, including triple-digit increases in deductibles. For those who have worked hard to scrape together enough money to buy a condo or townhome, these fee increases are a devastating and unexpected blow.

[10:55 a.m.]

I have repeatedly heard horror stories of 800 percent and, in some cases, even 1,000 percent increases in premiums, or deductibles that have risen by literally $100,000 overnight. This kind of sudden increase would be difficult for anyone to deal with. However, a large percentage of those living in strata housing across our province are seniors or people on fixed incomes. So such dramatic increases would jeopardize their ability to make ends meet and, in some cases, jeopardize their ability to even remain in their homes.

On top of these rising costs, the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic has added another level of difficulty and uncertainty for many British Columbians. This is an issue that touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the province. Nearly half of all Metro Vancouver residents live in strata housing. There are over 30,000 strata corporations in our province, so we cannot just sit by and let this crisis escalate.

Since the issue first came to light, I and my colleagues in the official opposition have been working to support those who have been hard hit by increases in their premiums and deductibles. Earlier this spring I even introduced a private member’s bill that would have taken some initial steps to help mitigate this crisis, including the creation of a water damage prevention program to provide financial incentive for preventative maintenance.

After waiting for some time for a government response to these measures, we then wrote a letter to government offering more suggestions. These dozen suggestions were straightforward, commonsense steps that the government could take to provide relief to those at the centre of this strata insurance crisis.

We proposed that government implement a temporary tax holiday on the 4.4 percent insurance premium tax applicable on strata property to leave these dollars in the pockets of strata owners. We also suggested a temporary extension of the property tax deferment program to enable strata owners who have faced extraordinary additional expenses related to soaring strata insurance costs to defer a portion of their property taxes. Solutions like these, that would provide immediate financial relief, are absolutely vital to supporting condo and townhome owners and ensuring that people do not lose their homes.

In addition to these financial measures, we also suggested a number of changes to the Strata Property Act. We suggested mandatory education and training programs for strata councils, with particular emphasis on risk mitigation. We suggested a review of the B.C. building code. We suggested a requirement that the B.C. Financial Services Authority make public the data and the information it is gathering from insurance companies so that we all — strata owners and, indeed, all of us — can better understand the current climate of rapidly rising strata insurance costs.

We believe that these steps would help to address the crisis in the long term, eventually bringing rates back under control. It has been our hope to see our ideas thoughtfully considered and, yes, perhaps even a few of them adopted. After many months of waiting, the government did finally bring forward some ideas recently. Unfortunately, missing from the government’s strata insurance action plan is any form of financial relief for condo and townhome owners.

Thousands of people are facing financial hardship as a result of rising strata insurance rates, and they don’t have years to wait for rates to stabilize. They need financial support, and they need it now. I hope that we will see this kind of response soon, because hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are depending on the government to take swift action to provide financial relief.

S. Chandra Herbert: First off, I want to thank the member from Kamloops for apologizing to LGBT British Columbians for an ad purchase his constituency office made next to advertising opinions that argued that LGBT people shouldn’t exist in a sense, with conversion therapy being a focus to try and disappear them, in a sense.

[11:00 a.m.]

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

I really want to acknowledge…. Sometimes in politics, people just hope problems go away. He took it head-on and said, “No, it was wrong,” and that it didn’t align with his values. So thank you to him for doing that.

Housing affordability. Members will forgive me if I didn’t look back through the first speeches I gave in 2008 and then the speeches I’ve given in this House every year since. I looked through, and there’s a clear message: government needs to act.

For ten of my 12 years of being an MLA, I pointed out issues. Actually, I guess, the entire time of being an MLA, I’ve shown areas — in the Residential Tenancy Act, Strata Property Act — in terms of affordable housing, subsidized housing, in dealing with homelessness. It’s been one of my principal preoccupations. I’ve got to say that I see more happening now in the last two years than I did in the previous ten. Maybe I’m more effective now, or maybe I have seen a team of people working together as a government to achieve great change in a way that I never saw before.

It’s great to see the member from Kamloops offering some ideas around affordability and insurance on strata. I’m glad that the government has acted on some of the ideas he and other folks have brought forward and that the government has developed themselves, because we need action on strata insurance to bring down the rates. Clearly, that’s one of the challenges we’ve seen emerge.

But it wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t seen speculation, money laundering and property values shoot through the roof, as we did over the previous ten years when the government actually took pride in the fact of how expensive housing was, when our Housing Minister said people complaining about housing affordability issues just got up and whined. That was the former government. The Premier of the day said if people had challenges with housing affordability in Vancouver, they should just move.

Those were the values that the other government, the old government, brought to this view. I’m glad to see a reformation. Somebody has found that housing affordability really does matter and is bringing the issues and ideas to government. I know we agree, certainly as the government, but as New Democrats, as MLAs, we know the challenge facing our constituents in the past and how it’s continued to be a challenge.

Now, there have been some great changes. I can speak to the rental changes, of course. There used to be the day I would bang on the doors of government, saying, “Why are you making people take 100 percent rent increase? Why are you making them either be evicted or face 150 percent rent increase?” and the government said: “Well, that’s just fixed-term tenancies. Too bad. That’s something that continues.”

We stood up. We stopped that practice because people were being harmed. I know some members on the other side want to go back to that route, but I’m hoping that the evidence shows that you don’t put people in that bad position again.

Of course, we had the geographic area rent increases. We had 2-percent-plus-inflation rent increases all under a former regime in this province. We got rid of those because those were harming housing affordability.

I think we’ve seen more rental under construction now and more housing under construction now for middle- and lower-income people than we saw in the previous 16 years. It’s a drop in the bucket, for sure, because we’ve got a crisis that has built over so many years. But it’s making a real difference with long-term commitments.

The number of constituents that I know who are happy with those investments…. In fact, constituents who are homeless as well, who’ve turned their lives around and got into housing, have full-time jobs and are living great lives now that they wanted to live because of the housing we’ve brought in so far.

I thank the hon. member again for putting forward some ideas around insurance and, in particular, strata insurance. I will leave the auto insurance out of this question. But that’s for another day. We’ve got so much more to do.

I’m so grateful for the Buchan Hotel we just purchased in the West End and for many other hotels — in my case, for women’s supportive housing, which we need in the West End and, indeed, across the province. We’ve got so much more to do, and I’m so excited to be part of making these changes. I thank the member for offering some ideas as well.

[11:05 a.m.]

T. Stone: I do want to acknowledge and thank the member for Vancouver–West End for his thoughtful response. I am glad that he and I and, indeed, all of us in this Legislature can acknowledge and do acknowledge how important housing affordability is in British Columbia, even though I think that we do, on some points, disagree on the most impactful strategies to employ in order to achieve housing affordability for British Columbians.

I think that one very vital way that we need to be thinking about housing affordability is not just about taking measures to make it more affordable for folks to rent or buy a home but also to take steps to ensure that renters can stay in their homes, to take steps to ensure that homeowners can keep their homes.

Today, unfortunately, the strata insurance crisis is putting more and more people, both renters and homeowners, at risk of losing their homes, whether it’s because the cost of rising fees is making it impossible for them to make ends meet or because their strata building has been denied insurance altogether. Unfortunately, these worst-case scenarios are becoming more common across the province.

Last week the Leader of the Opposition and I had the opportunity to engage with hundreds of British Columbians who live in strata homes across this province. We focused on these very issues that are driving insurance costs up. We did this during a virtual town hall.

Some of the stories that we heard were absolutely gut-wrenching. One woman spoke about how her building was suddenly denied insurance after decades of her living there, simply because of its location. Another spoke of an 800 percent increase to her fees, which she says will nearly bankrupt her strata. We even heard from a non-profit housing society that saw their premiums jump from $18,000 to $200,000 in a single year.

These kinds of massive and sudden increases are being seen around our province. What those impacted need is for government to provide financial relief — and quickly. Now, as I mentioned earlier, long-term solutions are certainly important and a much-needed piece in the response to this crisis. However, there can be no long-term solutions if we do not provide financial relief in the short term.

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched everyone in this province in some way, and for many, it has affected their livelihoods and their financial stability. The last thing that people should be worrying about right now, on top of everything else, is the cost of their strata insurance. I certainly hope, as do the thousands of strata owners across the province, that the government takes action, and takes action very quickly, to provide that much-needed financial support.

Hon. A. Kang: I ask that the House consider proceeding with Motion 5 standing in the name of the member for Surrey-Guildford.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed with Motion 5 without disturbing the priority of the motions preceding it on the order paper.

Leave granted.

Private Members’ Motions

MOTION 5 — ANTI-RACISM

G. Begg: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The motion I speak to today is:

[Be it resolved that this House unanimously condemn racism in all its forms and commit to building a more inclusive province through anti-racism.]

I think, at the outset, it is important that we understand what we mean by racism. Individual racism refers to a person’s racist assumptions, beliefs or behaviours and is a form of racial discrimination that stems from conscious and unconscious personal prejudice. It is connected to and learned from broader processes and is supported and reinforced by what we know as systemic racism, which is why it is important to understand systemic racism and how it operates.

It broadly falls into two subgroups: institutional racism, which is racial discrimination that derives from persons carrying out the dictates of others who are prejudiced or of a prejudiced society; and structural racism, which is inequalities rooted in the systemwide operation of groups, that excludes substantial numbers of members of particular groups from significant participation in major institutions.

[11:10 a.m.]

Systemic racism, then, is often defined as racial bias embedded within an institution or system. A recent analysis in the National Post put it this way: “…systemic racism is not about individual attitudes. It is about how society works. Good people can participate in systemic racism.”

During the past few weeks, we’ve all been inundated by American television coverage of acts of violence in the United States against racial groups and institutions. But this is not just a United States problem. Systemic racism is a serious problem here in Canada and in British Columbia.

Some of us are now learning what those who have experienced racism have known for a long time: we need to do better. We all know that we need to do better at challenging our own biases and prejudices, and we all need to do better at understanding the different forms that racism can take. We all need to do better at challenging systemic racism, to make sure our public institutions are safe and just places for everyone.

Some forms of systemic racism may be more explicit or easier to identify than others. We all know, for example, about the Indian residential school system in Canada and the pain and anguish that it caused to our Indigenous Canadians. But did you know that in 1940 anti-immigration sentiment here in B.C. led to a head tax of $500? The British Columbia government collected $33 million, which is over $300 million in today’s terms.

There was also the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the entry of virtually all Chinese immigrants for 24 years. Although migration into Canada for most countries was controlled or restricted in some way, only Chinese people were singled out completely for entering on the basis of their race.

During World War II, Ukrainian Canadians were branded as enemy aliens. In 1914, the Komagata Maru incident occurred in which 376 people from India were detained on a ship for two months and then denied entry into Canada.

During World War II, the Canadian government ordered all persons of Japanese racial origin to be removed from the restricted zone, within 100 miles of the coast. Their homes and properties were confiscated, and they were interned in the interior of the province.

These and countless other examples of systemic racism and the stories of racist incidents that continue to emerge are deeply troubling. Individually, we need to continue to challenge our own biases and prejudices, and we need to do better at understanding the different forms that racism can take. As a society, in order to make sure our public institutions are safe and just places for everyone, we need to first acknowledge that systemic racism exists in these institutions.

As a government, we’re committed to building a prov­ince that is safe and welcoming for everyone. This goal must extend to our classrooms, our law enforcement, our hospitals, and our communities. We’ve taken some steps to try to tackle these issues, but there’s a lot more to be done. We’re pushing as hard as we can for a national approach to fight systemic racism. We would greatly benefit from a federal program and a federal initiative so that all provinces together can make this a national campaign.

Across our government, we’re working with community leaders and organizations to find ways we can work together to combat systemic racism and discrimination in our province. Standing here in this House today and merely talking about this issue is the easiest thing to do. We will all, I am sure, speak eloquently and sincerely about how much we abhor the problem, and we will all seek to be held up as champions for change, and we may use Twitter and Facebook to further promote ourselves and our views.

Hon. Speaker, it isn’t enough to just talk about it. We must believe in it. It isn’t enough to just believe in it; we must work at it.

T. Wat: I rise to speak on the motion: “Be it resolved that this House unanimously condemn racism in all its forms and commit to building a more inclusive province through anti-racism.”

This is not the first time that I have called on this House to stand in solidarity and condemn racism in British Columbia in all its forms. Tragically, recent events, both within and outside of our province, have shed light on the many forms racism can take.

[11:15 a.m.]

Properly, the Black Lives Matters movement has brought so many underlying issues into the forefront that are even present here in B.C., including racial profiling against African Canadians and other minority groups.

The spike in racially motivated attacks against British Columbians of Asian heritage has shown our province the very real dangers that misinformation and stigmatization play. The recent investigation opened up to address allegations of racial profiling in our health care system, particularly towards Indigenous people and communities, highlights that racism is taking place in every aspect of our society and is being experienced by every culture and minority group in our province.

Racism is not a new issue for our province, and there is no easy way to eliminate generations of racial discrimination. The only solution is for each and every one of us to stand in solidarity and affirm our position that racism has no place in B.C. in any way, shape or form.

The only way to fight ignorance is through education. We must ensure that our education system properly highlights our history of racial discrimination. That’s why the Leader of the Official Opposition, in a letter to the Premier on May 19 following an increase in racist incidents against Asian Canadians, called on the government to develop more educational tools and resources for the K-to-12 education curriculum to combat racism and educate students about the contributions of Asian Canadians to British Columbia.

We must properly recognize not only the hardships and challenges that our ethnic communities have faced and continue to face in B.C. but also celebrate the fantastic contributions they have made to our province’s economy and cultural identity. The government must continue to invest in programs and cultural centres that honour our minority groups and their vibrant history in B.C.

The Chinese-Canadian community is still eagerly waiting on this government to fulfil its promise to establish the Chinese-Canadian museum. The Minister of State for Trade told the media at the announcement in November last year that detailed plans of the museum would be available early this year. Half a year has passed. We still have not heard anything from this government. British Columbians deserve a detailed plan for the Chinese-Canadian museum and a clear timeline for completion.

Funding to multiculturalism and anti-racism programs must be increased. This government must also continue to work in close consultation with regional governments and municipalities to ensure that instances of racism and hate crimes are identified and met with the appropriate consequences.

This government must ensure local police forces have sufficient resources to respond quickly and fully to investigate hate crimes and racist incidents. This government must ensure that the Attorney General’s Crown prosecution service treats racist incidents as a priority for charge determinations and prosecutions.

This government also needs to recognize that instances of racism occur as much in our public institutions as outside of them. We must ensure that appropriate checks and balances are in place to enforce our zero-tolerance policy towards any forms of racism. A hotline must be created for British Columbians to report such incidents.

As tragic as it is that racism is still such a prominent issue in our province, it is comforting to see that members on all sides of this House continue to stand in solidarity and show British Columbians that together we will continue to work every day to make our province a place that welcomes and celebrates the people of all cultures, heritages and backgrounds.

R. Singh: It’s my honour to speak in favour of the motion brought in by the member for Surrey-Guildford. We know the incidents of the last few weeks have brought the issue of racism to the forefront.

[11:20 a.m.]

I remember a lot of times that people would tell us that in Canada, we don’t have the similar situation as we have in our neighbouring country. But we all know that the systemic racism issue is as much prevalent in Canada as it is in the U.S. I’m very glad that we are discussing this issue and looking to resolve and find solutions to it.

The member for Surrey-Guildford has already mentioned the colonial history of Canada — how our Indigenous populations were colonized; how they are still, to this date, being racially attacked; and how they are suffering, even at this time. Also, with the visible minorities, our history tells us of the Komagata Maru, what happened with the Japanese Canadians or the Chinese Canadians.

All these years we have been talking about that and remembering those incidents. There have been apologies made, but what we need to do today is not just talk but bring the changes into our system. The systemic racism exists.

We have seen the movements about Indigenous Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter. It’s important to recognize that these movements are not just happening. These are not activists gathering in the streets and making noise. There’s an issue. There has been an issue of systemic oppression that they have experienced for so many years, and now they want the change that this society requires.

I’m very proud. As I said, systemic racism exists here. The first step that needs to be taken is to acknowledge that. A lot of times we try to brush these issues and say: “No, people are just assuming this is happening. This is not a reality. Canada is such a multicultural, such a tolerant, such a peace-loving country.” We try to put these things under the rug, try to belittle these things, try to even not believe the people who are coming up with these incidents.

I can say, for myself, being a woman of colour, that I have experienced systemic racism, not just in a black-and-white form but in very micro-aggressive ways. I’m not the only one. I can say that for so many of my compatriots, who have gone through…. Some people have the courage to speak about it. Some people are so scared to even spell it out.

As I was saying before, I’m so proud that our leaders, especially the Premier of British Columbia, are acknowledging it. Every time when we see the Premier speaking, he shows his agony and says how hard it is for him to see these things coming to light, acknowledging that systemic racism has existed, not just in Canada but in British Columbia, for so many years.

I think that is the first step to make the change. When we see our leaders speaking about it and acknowledging it, that’s when there’s a will within the system to make the changes that are required, the same changes that have been brought up with government policies. Be open to the changes that people are looking for, for so many numbers of years.

I would also like to acknowledge the work my colleague the member for Delta North has done in the last three years. He has been talking to people all over the province about racism. He was the Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism. He could have just stuck with the multiculturalism part, but he had this foresight. He knew that racism exists and that our government and our province need to do more to tackle it. That’s why he did so many town halls and discussions with the stakeholders and was able to build up Resilience B.C., the hub that would tackle these issues.

Five minutes is a really short time to talk about this issue. I’m sure we have started that conversation, and we will see the results coming up very soon too.

[11:25 a.m.]

S. Thomson: It’s an honour to rise. It gives me great pleasure to join in the response to this motion, to join my colleagues in the House on the motion that’s been brought forward by the member for Surrey-Guildford that this House condemn racism in all its forms and commit to building a more inclusive province by taking action to address racism.

It’s very interesting when you start to think about this, and I reflected back on some recent experiences and past experiences in providing some comments today. Just this past weekend I did a little mini road trip from the Okanagan here over into the Slocan Valley and went and visited the Nikkei memorial in New Denver, the memorial to the internment of Japanese Canadians, and the sites in New Denver and Kaslo and Lemon Creek and that part of our history.

It got me reflecting, as well, and thinking back, as a young traveller in Europe in the very early days of my visit to Auschwitz and the tremendous, lasting impact that that had on me at that time and continues to this day.

I think back about being a very young boy, growing up on our farm in Kelowna, where we had Chinese labour as part of the workforce on the farm. I know that my father always treated the labour with tremendous respect, because he was a great man. But I know that the conditions that they worked under and lived under on the farm at that time were not conditions that would be acceptable today. It just shows where we’ve come from and how much we have to continue to do.

Here in Kelowna, we’re currently dealing with the very disturbing incident with the young nursing student at UBC Okanagan. All of these experiences make you reflect on where we’ve come from and what we need to continue to do. Clearly, as the other members today have all stated, there is much more we need to do.

It’s important for all of us to recognize and call out explicit acts of racism as they happen. But we also need to recognize that the issue is very complex, because it’s all about systemic ways that implicit biases oppress minorities and create additional barriers for them to overcome. We need to continue to work on those.

It’s about educating people to understand the true history of how minorities have been treated throughout times and the intergenerational effects that continue to have an impact. My hope is that one day our efforts will result in a society where we see more than just the surface and instead seek to understand how past injustices have shaped people’s circumstances and world views.

We must let principles of compassion and understanding guide the way we interact with people and the policies we develop. Members of this House are here to serve the needs of British Columbia, and recognizing that this is a real issue here in our province is just the first step. It’s impossible to deny that racism exists in our province when we hear about the rise in acts committed against people of Asian descent since the pandemic began.

It’s up to all of us to do what we can to tackle the issue and make sure our strong, unified opposition to racism is engrained in everything we do in this chamber and to consider the impact of our decisions on the society’s most vulnerable and underrepresented groups.

We have to work to create a society where there is no place for racism and all British Columbians feel safe and protected. All parties need to come together to put forward ideas and collaborate on what steps we can take in this House to resolve the discrepancies that exist. It’s going to take continuing work, and we can start by taking actions today that will change the way racism is viewed, reported and brought to justice in our province.

We can start by ensuring that we’re teaching our children in public schools about the history of minorities and their incredible contributions to society. This will help them become compassionate and caring adults. Treating these issues seriously with the gravity that they deserve will send a message that there’s absolutely no tolerance for racist behaviour in our province.

These steps are just the beginning. It will be a long process, but we have to start somewhere. We have to treat this issue with the urgency it deserves. It should take our combined, collaborative efforts to work for meaningful change to make sure that we have a province and a country that is inclusive, caring and open to all.

[11:30 a.m.]

N. Simons: It’s an honour to be able to speak to this issue.

I’d like to acknowledge that I’m speaking from the territory of the Tla’amin Nation up in the Powell River region.

I want to say that this is my first real opportunity to acknowledge the people of the Sunshine Coast and the people of British Columbia on their successful efforts to follow the strategy set forward by our provincial health office and the Ministry of Health. We continue to apply that strategy, and it’s continuing to flatten the curve and help keep British Columbians safe.

I’d also like to acknowledge that I see the member for Surrey–White Rock. It’s nice to see her face again in the House. Welcome back. It’s just nice to see her after a difficult health challenge.

I also want to just thank the member for Surrey-Guildford for this motion. It’s a timely motion, one that comes amidst world-jostling events: the pandemic and this renewed societal awareness about the impacts and the existence of racism in our societies. I think our decision to address this from a very practical perspective, based on the emotion that comes out of witnessing racism in our communities, is an approach that will serve us well to identify and address the parts of the system that perpetuate the discrimination and racism that exist in our communities.

I don’t think we should be afraid of that discussion. I don’t think we should be defensive when we broach the issue. I think, in fact, that our responsibility as legislators is to look at the facts and assess them and make decisions that are in the best interests of the people of the province.

I used to teach a course at Simon Fraser called “Minorities in the Criminal Justice System.” During the course, which I taught a few times, we talked about a number of interactions of the criminal justice system with minority groups, obviously. The curriculum of the course covered a few significant events that I think were symbolic of the larger issues of racism in our society. They included the story of black Nova Scotians in Africville, a subdivision, or a neighbourhood, that was essentially bulldozed. It was an African-Canadian community that was very cohesive and strong. They suffered at the hands of the state — the systemic racism that was part of the state.

We’ve seen and we’ve heard from my colleagues about racism around the treatment of Asian Canadians. We’ve heard a little bit about the Doukhobor situation. The Indigenous communities of British Columbia and Canada have and continue to face racism.

I remember one story, the first interaction of the police with the Inuit of the Mackenzie delta, the story of Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, the two hunters who were arrested for attempted murder. It was just an early story of the convergence of cultures and the demonstration of racism within our justice system.

One story, the story of the Japanese Canadians, I think, is one that needs emphasizing in particular as we continue to discuss how recent consultations have resulted in plans for making strong efforts to prevent similar situations from happening. On the Sunshine Coast — I spoke of this a few years ago — just about 75 years ago or more, Sunshine Coast residents of Japanese descent were loaded onto a Union Steamship and sent to Hastings Park, later to be dispersed further east. To personalize this and to make it part of our own communities is part of the process of overcoming the racism.

[11:35 a.m.]

Fifty-one those Japanese Canadians were from the Powell River region, where I speak from now. Six were from Egmont, ten were from Pender Harbour, eight from Sechelt, 44 from Wilson Creek, nine from Gibsons and one from Port Mellon. These were families that were integrated parts of our communities. We suffered when the racism that existed in our communities resulted in such tragedy for those families.

J. Thornthwaite: I rise today in support of the motion denouncing racism of all kinds. All members of this House can stand united in opposition to all forms of hate, violence, intolerance and bigotry. It is truly regrettable that we even need to have a motion in this House. However, since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have also seen a significant rise in racist incidents here in British Columbia. I appreciate the opportunity today to clearly denounce such heinous actions, which do not represent who we are in my community or as a province.

All members of this House, regardless of political strife, have a collective responsibility to address racism in our communities. We have a role to play — to encourage the sharing of different cultures, religions and views; to teach compassion, respect and understanding; and to not return the hate, particularly on social media.

On May 19, the Leader of the Official Opposition wrote a letter to the Premier and to British Columbians speaking of a path forward so that we can continue to work towards a more inclusive province. The key pillar to that letter — and to the path forward, I believe — is education.

Hate and racism are learned. Kids don’t start out as racists. We need to teach our children to develop tolerance, acceptance and respect for all people, no matter their race, religion, background or sexual orientation. More educational tools and resources for the K-to-12 education curriculum, to combat racism, homophobia and bullying, are still necessary in today’s social environment. We’re also suggesting creating a hotline to report racist incidents in B.C. and to increase funding to multiculturalism and antiracism projects.

In this regard, millennials are often far more accepting than baby boomers of the differences among us. Perhaps my generation has to get it together and follow young people’s lead on the respect and celebration of those differences. When discrimination and hate raise their ugly heads, we must uniformly condemn them. We can take action today as well, by collectively taking small steps that make a difference when everyone is united. We need to read history so that we don’t repeat it. We need to educate ourselves. Let’s concentrate on inclusion. Let’s celebrate our differences and our shared values, both within this chamber and beyond.

We all want a multicultural society that builds bridges, not walls, between communities. We want a province where we encourage the celebration of different cultural traditions. Let’s look at our shared basic values, such as human rights, gender equity and opportunity for all. That’s a society that future generations should inherit and live in. We have an example to show right here. It’s a society that I certainly hope for, for my kids. We each have a responsibility to help us all get there.

M. Elmore: It’s great to be here, back in the precinct, and to see all my colleagues healthy. Thank you very much. I’m very pleased to stand and speak in favour of the motion from the member for Surrey-Guildford: “Be it resolved that this House unanimously condemn racism in all its forms and commit to building a more inclusive province through antiracism.”

We know of, in the context of COVID-19 — certainly, my office has heard it here in B.C. — an increase in anti-Asian attacks, an increase in hate crimes. Also, COVID-19 has really brought to the forefront and sparked a global movement against anti-black racism. More folks at home viewed that very grisly and brutal video of the death of George Floyd. When we look at and understand what the roots of institutional, structural racism are, it’s really is a global issue.

[11:40 a.m.]

We have to look back at how it originates from the transatlantic triangular slave trade. We know that goods were traded from Europe to Africa to purchase slaves. Slaves were transported to the Americas to use their labour to produce tobacco, sugar, cotton and coffee, which were again traded back to Europe. It went from Europe to Africa to buy slaves, slaves to the Americas.

Really, that slave labour created those profits to lay the foundation for our present-day world economy. It’s helpful to understand how institutional and structural racism, which we’re talking about today, really is a global issue.

We know that there’s a history of slavery in the United States. Canadians, when we talk about slavery, may be familiar with the Underground Railroad, where slaves crossed over from the United States into Canada. Many Canadians are unfamiliar about our history of slavery.

Viola Desmond, on the $10 Canadian bill, was Canada’s Rosa Parks. Viola took a stand against segregation in a Nova Scotia movie theatre in 1946, ten years before Rosa Parks’ historic bus ride in Alabama. Viola Desmond had to travel to New York for beauty school because, as a black woman, she wasn’t allowed to attend school in Nova Scotia.

We have over 200 years of slavery in Canada. It was officially banned in 1833. Two-thirds of those early slaves were of Indigenous ancestry and one-third were of African descent. The majority of them served as house servants and farm labourers.

The history of systemic racism in Canada…. We’re familiar with the colonization of Indigenous people’s lands, the impact of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, missing and murdered women, among many others. We’ve heard colleagues also mention the legal and social restrictions of Chinese workers, the 1885 Chinese head tax, the 1923 Chinese immigration act, South Asian immigrants blocked from emigrating in the 1908 Continuous Journey Regulation and the 1942 internment of Japanese Canadians, which resulted in the forcible relocation and seizure of properties and businesses.

Currently, today, we see the impact of institutional, structural racism in not only race for racialized and Indigenous people but also when you factor in gender and class and people with different disabilities. We see disproportionate opportunities in terms of income, higher unemployment, increased victims of hate crimes and underrepresentation in leadership positions.

Taking a stand and bringing an end to centuries of structural racism here in British Columbia, I’m very proud that our House unanimously adopted legislation recognizing the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples as a framework for reconciliation. We’re sharing gaming revenue. We have an Indigenous justice strategy, dedicated funding for Aboriginal friendship centres and an Indigenous law degree program, which is the start.

We have the B.C. Human Rights Commissioner — in 2018 — which is an independent office and has a role for a proactive education mandate. It has been mentioned by other members in terms of going forward. We have the call, as well, for racialized data across the government of British Columbia so we can be informed, in terms of what the areas are that we need to implement to really address and get at these deep-seated roots.

As well, we have an ongoing challenge. The temporary foreign worker program, a national program, really characterizes a labour apartheid system which entrenches racism and inequality. Many of those workers — domestic, farm, low-wage workers — hearken back to the roots of racism and slavery in British Columbia.

Those are challenges that remain. I join with all members of the House to take a strong position to bring an end to racism in British Columbia.

J. Yap: It’s my pleasure to rise today as the MLA for a diverse community, which has witnessed a rise in hate crimes over the last few months, to speak on this motion in support of recognizing that this House condemns racism in all its forms and commits to building a more inclusive province by taking real action to address racism.

Over the last few months, we have seen a steady rise in despicable racially motivated attacks in British Columbia. Yet we have also seen people take to the streets all over the world, as well as here in our own province, to demand that we do better as a society and to demand change.

I understand firsthand how racism can divide people and communities. While it’s important for all of us to call out explicit acts of racism when they happen, we also need to recognize that the issue is much more complex.

[11:45 a.m.]

It is about educating people to understand the true history of how racial minorities have been treated throughout time and the intergenerational effects that continue to have an impact.

My hope is that one day our efforts will result in a society where we see more than just a surface and instead seek to understand how the past has shaped people’s circumstances and world views. We must let principles of compassion and understanding guide the way we interact with people and the policies we develop.

The members in this House are here to serve the needs of British Columbians, and British Columbians have made it clear what they need right now. Recognizing that this is a real issue here in our province is just the first step. It is impossible to deny that racism exists in our province when we hear about the rise in acts committed against people of Asian descent since the pandemic began. It’s up to us to do all that we can to tackle the issue and make sure our strong, unified opposition to racism is ingrained in everything we do here in this chamber.

We all have to work to create a society where there’s no place for racism and all British Columbians can feel safe and protected. We need to come together to put forward ideas and to collaborate on what steps we can take in this House to address the discrepancies that exist. It’s going to take our continued work, but we can start by taking simple actions today that will change the way racism is viewed, reported and brought to justice in our province.

This can start by ensuring that we are teaching our children in public schools the history of racial minorities and their incredible contributions to society. This will help them become compassionate and caring adults. Treating these issues seriously and with the gravity they deserve will send a message that there’s absolutely no tolerance for racist behaviour in our province.

These steps are just the beginning. We will continue to treat this issue with the urgency it deserves. Outside of the House, I hope that we will all practise what we preach and take action in our day-to-day lives to set an example — to have those difficult and uncomfortable conversations with others as they arise. It shouldn’t take racial minorities losing their lives or a pandemic for us to feel empowered to take action.

J. Rice: Diversity is part of British Columbia’s identity and one of the province’s greatest strengths. The harsh reality is that many in our community — Black, Indigenous and other people of colour — face racial discrimination as part of their daily lives.

I’d like to share the words of my friend Ayla Brown, who clearly explains how prevalent systemic racism is. She reminds those of us in places of privilege how important it is for us to speak up and use our power for positive change.

This is from a Facebook post in February of 2018. The Globe and Mail had published a highly criticized article about a murdered 15-year-old girl, which read: “Tina Fontaine Had Drugs, Alcohol in System When She Was Killed: Toxicologist.” The Globe rightfully received a lot of criticism and letters to the editor for its coverage of the Tina Fontaine case.

On this, Ayla writes:

“As a light-skinned native person, I rarely experience overt racism. People read me as white, and that gives me a lot of privilege. I self-identify, but that rarely changes first impressions. People often ask me: ‘Not to offend you, but how native are you?’ I’ve answered this question in a thousand different ways, none of which satisfy my non-native questioners.

“Here’s the thing, though. As racist viewpoints have become less socially acceptable in general, overt racism has become less of an everyday occurrence. What hasn’t disappeared is implicit racism and systemic racism. The media is one place where implicit and systemic racism can actually be seen.

[11:50 a.m.]

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

“Academics have studied print and digital media and proven that stereotype-reinforcing language and imagery are widespread in regards to every identity that isn’t white. We aren’t being sensitive. It’s real. What’s more frightening to me is that the media is really the only place where you can see systemic racism.

“The bigger problem is that implicit and systemic racism exist in every system in our society. That means that native children are being discriminated against in the education system, in the child welfare system, in the health system and every other system they come into contact with. It means that native people — my sisters, brother, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunties, uncles, grandmas and grandpas — are being discriminated against every single moment from the time they are born until the time they die.

“Our systems are built on the foundation of colonialism. Every Canadian system was built to privilege white male land-owning identities. That means if you deviate in any way from that identity, you have to struggle to overcome these systems every day.

“Now, let me be clear. This systemic discrimination is not applied equally to every identity. The more your identity deviates from the white male landowner identity, the more systemic racism you face. To borrow a metaphor from Sherman Alexie, there is a skyscraper of privilege, and Indians live in the basement of it. If you are an impoverished native woman, you live in the furnace room.

“We have not changed our systems — in particular, our legal system, the foundation of all of our other systems — to reflect our welcoming, mosaic Canadian identity. That means that our systems are still racist and discriminatory. That’s why it’s okay to report on a 15-year-old girl’s toxicology report instead of the fact that her body was tied in duvets and thrown into a river. That’s why these facts are important parts of the case. That’s why we believe the justification. That’s why we aren’t outraged that her vulnerable status as a foster child isn’t splashed all over the headlines, but her toxicology report is. Of course Tina had intoxicants in her system. She lived in the furnace room in the basement of the skyscraper called privilege, and the system forgot she was there.

“So no, I’m not going to write a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail, who lives in one of the highest floors of the skyscraper called privilege, because he’s never been in the furnace room of the basement of the skyscraper. I’m so proud of the organizations that have pooled all their collective power and privilege together to send these letters. Keep fighting the good fight, and if you live somewhere outside of the basement of the skyscraper of privilege, send a goddamn letter. In that letter, gather up all of your markers of privilege and power and use them as weapons to begin to open the doors.”

Thank you, Hon. Speaker.

E. Ross: When it comes to racism and race, I have always been in an odd situation. Being born and raised on reserve as a light-skinned, green-eyed kid and now with no hair, I’ve had to deal with both sides of the race question.

In my own community, on my own reserve, I had to be treated almost like a non-native, and I basically had to fight those that treated me that way. But in a non-native community, I had to represent the natives. So I got to see both sides of this equation. There are many natives in Canada that are in my same situation. I presume there are other minorities in the same situation.

The only real advice I got from my dad, in terms of the treatment, was to stand up for myself and fight back, fight for those around me who were suffering in the same manner. The sad reality is that every minority has their own ugly past and injustice and racism that continues to affect them to this day. Most of the incidents presented to me, and those I read about, upon analysis, seem to originate from fear and ignorance.

I believe, like most do in this House, that to address the issue of racism in our communities is to focus on education. We need to promote understanding and collaboration instead of teaching intolerance or taking sides. We have to find a solution. We have to find a common ground. We must acknowledge the true story of our past so that we can build a better future.

We need to recognize that while we may have come a long way here in Canada and B.C., we have to keep improving ourselves in order to improve the world in which we live. To achieve this shared goal, racism cannot be a political issue. It should not be approached with a divisive, us-versus-them attitude or mentality. This is not the meaning of tolerance.

[11:55 a.m.]

Across party lines, we can all unanimously condemn all acts of racism, both implicit and explicit. We can take real steps towards a better society, such as treating racist incidents seriously in our legal system, creating a system for reporting racist incidents and increasing funding to multiculturalism and antiracism programs. These simple and achievable calls to action can provide meaningful differences to tackle a problem that affects so many minorities, not just in Canada but all around the world.

The fundamental question we must ask ourselves as we aim to move forward with positive change is: why does our society think and respond the way we do? When we reach a common understanding of how we got to where we are today, we can then agree on the best path forward.

Those of us who sit in this chamber have the power to take action in this province to address the issues that affect racial minorities. It’s not good enough for us to simply talk about making a commitment, condemning racism and moving on to the next issue, when the people of the province have placed their trust in us to do more.

B.C. is a melting pot of all kinds of people from different ethnic backgrounds, religious backgrounds, all types of backgrounds. In our diversity, this is where our strength lies. Standing together against intolerance and divisiveness, in turn, gives everyone an equal opportunity to succeed.

No doubt about it. We’re going to make mistakes, face criticism and feel uncomfortable along the way. But if we are willing to embrace this discomfort, we have the opportunity in this chamber to lead the change.

In closing, in 2017, when I became an MLA, we decided to put up a billboard on the Kitimat-Terrace Highway. It had a picture, but it needed some words. It didn’t take long for me to decide on which words I wanted to see up on that billboard. One of my beliefs actually came from reading rights and title case law. In one of the judgments, the judge said that we’d better reconcile our societies, because, let’s face it: none of us is going anywhere.

This was in relation to Aboriginal rights and title case law in terms of reconciliation, very wise words when that judgment came out ten years ago. I took that belief and tried to understand what it meant in the larger context. Slowly, I started to understand it.

We are all in this together — wise words years ago, and in today’s context, even more wise and even more fitting.

With that, Mr. Speaker, if I may, I move that we adjourn this debate and break for lunch.

E. Ross moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. A. Kang moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 11:58 a.m.