Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued second reading de­bate on Bill 3.

Second Reading of Bills

BILL 3 — FINANCE STATUTES
AMENDMENT ACT, 2020

(continued)

J. Sturdy: We were talking before the break about building the economy, about having a plan and the concern I have about the fact that we don’t really seem to have a plan, and the importance of the public sector and the investments that government has made recently — supported, I think, in large part, by both sides of the House — but understanding that those services, be it in health care or education, don’t come for free.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

People and businesses pay for those services through their taxes. In order for this to be sustainable, to ensure that we don’t go back to the days of consistently paying operating costs with debt, we need healthy businesses that have the confidence to hire people, the confidence to invest in equipment and facilities, the confidence that investments in productivity will pay off.

For that confidence to be solid, to allow people to plan for the future, it’s imperative that they understand where their government is going, because businesses are buffeted by many things, I think, as we all understand, often outside of their control, and COVID is obviously a dramatic example of that. What businesses don’t need is to be sideswiped by government. This is what concerns me about this bill. The goal of this bill appears to be to further delay laying out a plan, delay sharing intentions with people, delay letting people know the nature of the framework that they are going to be operating in.

I really don’t see the need for this. The previous Minister of Finance anticipated a need to defer submission of a budget in the years following a fall election.

[1:35 p.m.]

This was canvassed extensively during last summer’s session, and our critics understood the need and recommended support for the measure, which was duly passed.

So what has changed? Well, we have a new Finance Minister. Perhaps she doesn’t expect to be up to speed at the same rate as her predecessor. This is unfortunate. It doesn’t serve the people of British Columbia, the families and businesses around the province that are increasingly desperate for measures, supports and guidance that give them the confidence that this government has a plan and is ready to act to help them through this devastating pandemic and beyond.

The bill before us will allow government to delay introducing the next budget for months, from typically the end of February to the end of April. A full month into the new fiscal and two months after what has been the practice for decades.

While it’s certainly easy to see how this bill will benefit government, it’s hard to see how it will benefit the people of British Columbia or the organizations that serve them. School districts around British Columbia, for example, will be at the point of needing to submit budgets to the ministry without knowing how much money they can ex­pect to receive.

Health authorities, at the front line of the COVID pandemic, will be well into their next fiscal in a year of crisis and pressure and demand and at a time when stability and certainty are incredibly important. They will have no idea how much money they will have to access, while they’re already 8 percent into their annual spend.

This is also true for every ministry across government. As much as $6 billion would have already been spent in a normal year, where budgets are made public in February. While they may not have been passed in advance of the end of the fiscal, it gives ministries guidance for what to expect. This is important, be it in the above-mentioned education and health care ministries, which comprise over half of the provincial budget, but also in ministries which rely on the summer season to get things accomplished.

I think, for example, of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and their need to act during a limited building season, to action safety improvements during a short construction window. Can contracts even be let or responded to in time for critical work to be done? Will contractors and bidders respond to this delay and that much-shortened construction season? Will they even respond, not knowing what jobs will be there? Will they, perhaps, take other opportunities?

As they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If you don’t know what the budget looks like, you don’t know what projects are going to happen.

I think of B.C. Parks, a very important entity in West Vancouver–Sea to Sky. There are 17 provincial parks in the riding, some of which are the busiest parks in British Columbia. These parks are under enormous pressure to manage visitation due not in the least to the fact that they’re exceptional places but also to the fact of their proximity to Metro Vancouver.

These parks saw a budget cut last year. Will this again be the future of B.C. Parks? How can park managers plan to make badly needed improvements? Will they get another $2 million slashed from their budget in this coming year? How can they plan for that? What can the response be? Well, I suppose they can limit access, limit services, limit maintenance or just close it down, like Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, one of the most iconic areas in the Sea to Sky, one of the prettiest places in the province. It has been closed for nine months. The government messaging is that it will be closed for the foreseeable future, including this winter.

If the B.C. Parks budget is cut again, it’s hard to imagine how B.C. Parks will react, although the proposal coming from government to date has been to start charging for day use in provincial parks. This has been floated as the future of Joffre. Given that there are many other busier parks in British Columbia and, certainly, on the south coast, it seems that this could be a plan for general implementation, even while it’s hard to square with making life more affordable for British Columbians.

[1:40 p.m.]

Regardless, even if they do plan on reopening Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, by the time the budget is presented and passed this coming year, it’s hard to imagine how B.C. Parks will have the time to action those needed improvements, much less hiring and training parks staff, especially the seasonal ones, which we understand have been woefully and inadequately trained to the point of WorkSafe coming down hard on B.C. Parks with provincial orders. There’s a limited time in any season for ministries like Parks to respond, and this bill will just ensure that they have less time, which does not set up anyone for success — quite the contrary, in fact.

From what we can see, this is a bill that will limit government transparency and accountability, while also delaying needed supports from getting into the hands of British Columbians. Christmas is coming, as we all know — an unusual Christmas to be sure, one unlike any other. It’s just a few weeks away. It’s a time that, typically, families spend together in celebration. We know this year is going to look very different.

We’re all being asked to make sacrifices for the greater good. What we are looking for out of government is confidence. We are looking for certainty. We are looking to this government for a plan, for reassurance that we can make these sacrifices and government will be ready to support us. Families and businesses need solutions and hope and an understanding that we have a collective vision for how we’re going to respond and recover together.

However, this Christmas the offer of government is just to suggest that the people of B.C. hold on a couple extra months. It will almost be summer before we know what the budget is proposed to look like and what the plan this government has for the people and businesses of British Columbia. All that government has to offer is delay. All they have to offer is that help is two months farther away. Honestly, that is not good enough.

The official opposition’s job is holding government to account and to try and ensure that government is serving the interest of the people of this province. Support and certainty and a hope and desire to see beyond what have been some of the most difficult times that British Columbians have ever seen is what the people of this province want and need.

Now, I’ve been working with the hospitality and tourism businesses in the Sea to Sky for years now. In fact, I have certainly been involved in and owned one. We all understand the cyclical nature of these businesses, and we are seeing unprecedented times.

Whistler once saw huge fluctuations in the flow of traffic over the course of the year. High season and low season made it very difficult to build capacity. The resort would be jam-packed and then empty. Staffing was incredibly difficult. Businesses desperately needed workers, and then overnight the resort emptied, and it was hard to carry those staff. Giving staff certainty and giving businesses certainty is a prime driver for the resort and the region. It’s good for staff. It’s good for owners, and it’s good for the guest experience.

Years ago work began on filling up those off-seasons. Conferences and events, Cornucopia, the Whistler Film Festival in the fall and the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in the spring. These type of events and others filled up the off-season, which kind of transitioned into what we call the shoulder season. Over the years, that shoulder season has shrunk and almost disappeared, up until this year. Especially with the recent travel restrictions, all bets are off.

This fall has been brutal. Hotels which would be running over 50 percent or 70 percent are near empty. Restaurants that would have been able to carry a full complement of staff through the fall and into the busy winter are empty and shutting down. Whether we’re going to have a busy winter again is an open question. In fact, I think, increasingly, we’re skeptical that that will be the case. Tour operators are all but closed. Storefronts are emptying. Independents are a vanishing breed, as the chains are the only ones with the capacity to survive, and even they are stretched.

[1:45 p.m.]

These are the type of people that want and need support right now, and we want to do everything in our power to get those supports into the hands of these businesses and people as soon as possible. It has been well understood and talked about broadly that the tourism and hospitality industry has been hammered over the last nine months, and the fact that government saw fit to form a task force acknowledges that. Yet to date, they really haven’t done anything meaningful to support the industry, beyond supporting marketing budgets. There’s nothing targeted to support tourism businesses, many of which are small operators who are desperate. This is beyond disappointing and reinforces the narrative that this government doesn’t have a plan.

This has all been emphasized in the final report of the Tourism Task Force, which became publicly available yesterday. Given that the generation of the report was, in fact, managed and written by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, with an assistant deputy minister who actually sat on the committee as an ex officio, it’s pretty rich that the current minister claims she only knew yesterday of its recommendations. That does, in fact, stretch credibility.

Mr. Speaker, I will provide you with an excerpt from the executive summary of the task force report, and I hope the minister finds this instructive:

“The pandemic has left the tourism industry in a precarious position. Many businesses are now facing closure as reserve funds and credit run out, and thousands of members of the workforce are unemployed. Funding is required NOW” — and that “now” is actually in capital letters — “to ensure that there is a tourism industry for the workforce and the visitors to return to.

“Our discussions with business owners and workers were productive, but many are feeling desperate. A large number of tourism operators and job holders have fallen through the cracks of previous and current relief programs. People love the industry and want to build careers in tourism but are worried there won’t be work for them when tourism recovers.”

Well, unfortunately, the best this government could do with this bill that we are discussing today is to tell the tourism and hospitality sector to “wait five more months until the budget is presented, and then we’ll see if there’s anything there for you.” I hope the task force comments don’t prove to be prescient — that by the time there is recovery, the businesses will have disappeared and the jobs along with them.

We’re going to raise some additional important questions and concerns during this bill’s debate and the committee stage that follows, because it does come as something of a package with the supplementary estimates that will follow and will allow the election payoff cheque. But we’re already beginning to see how things change.

To begin with, the government is asking for more money to increase the scope of the payment. Clearly, getting supports to as many people as needed is important, but it’s becoming pretty clear that this was made up on the fly during the election, and it’s now being shown how poorly designed it is.

The idea that this election benefit cheque will go to people based on their income from 2019 is bizarre. Businesses had a good year in 2019. It wasn’t great, but it was pretty good. This year is devastating, but that will not be considered in the provision of supports. Last year there were plenty of jobs. This year it’s a catastrophe. So those who need it most likely won’t be eligible. Was that an ill-conceived notion, I ask you? Well, I would say it’s worse than that. It’s perverse.

Looking specifically at Bill 3 rather than the estimates — as I mentioned, last summer the House amended this statute, already delaying the requirement to submit a budget to the House by a full month. This change took place last summer, for exactly the same reason they’re looking to change it again today. It was designed to give the Finance Minister more time to generate a budget in the case of a fall election. One would hope that that was a coincidence that such an amendment would be generated a mere month before the Premier broke trust with his partners and called a snap election, which they claim was only decided on in September, although that assertion does stretch credibility.

[1:50 p.m.]

However, if we accept that this was simply coincidence and this wasn’t a duplicitous government scheming to ditch their partners, it does reinforce the notion that there hasn’t been and isn’t now a plan in place, given that they got their wish, ditched their partner and then realized they needed more cover.

During the summer, when they claimed to need extra time to put forward a budget in the case of a fall election, government made the case that a new government would need to get up to speed and get a handle on the books. It was the same argument that was used for changing the election date from spring until fall so the Auditor General’s report would be available.

All of this may have merit if the government is changing out completely, but this is simply not the case today. In fact, we have essentially the same government that amended this legislation during the summer. Why do they now need more time? Why was it good enough then — and after all, they did propose it and put forward the legislation — but not good enough now? Could it be just simply poor planning?

The consequence is that by giving themselves a couple of extra months, much-needed pandemic supports and clarity on where this government is going are further delayed, and the hardest-hit sectors continue to flounder.

This is the only piece of legislation that this government is bringing forward in this short session. This is the reason that government has called us back, to avoid accountability, to give themselves the authority through special warrants to spend outside of legislative oversight, to spend billions of dollars without the House having a chance to debate and examine and hold them to account.

Government claims they need somewhere between $1.3 and $1.7 billion to pay off their election gift. Quite a range. But why do they now need $2 billion? That’s somewhere around $300 million to $500 million, just spare change, not accounted for, spend it as you like. Just expected, so it seems.

This government is manufacturing the authority to delay budgets and spend funds without legislative scrutiny and without oversight. The idea that they can cloak the province’s finances at a time when they should be striving to be as transparent as possible is disappointing. It should be a red flag for the future. Transparency and accountability are simply a slogan, or so it appears, and the Premier’s comments about limiting the opposition’s access to freedom-of-information requests just drives home the point. Disappointing, to say the least.

This is a time when, if we were truly in this together, the government would think it was time to share with the House our collective financial circumstances and together put forward a plan for the future. But the reverse seems to be true. This bill seeks the opportunity to spend $2 billion without saying what it’s for and then delay the inevitable reckoning with an additional month.

Should we be surprised that this government is twisting and turning and trying to hide its spending behind these special warrants and not be accountable for the lack of a jobs plan or a vision for our economy, either during this pandemic or beyond it? Well, given that the Premier has been talking about making life easier for the people of this province, it’s surprising that what we are doing is debating a bill that doesn’t make life any better for those impacted by this pandemic but does make life much easier for government.

Yes, this is disappointing. I look forward to committee stage of this debate and supplementary estimates.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Shuswap.

G. Kyllo: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and welcome to the chair and your new position.

It gives me great pride to actually speak today to the Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020. This is my first opportunity to rise in the House since the 2020 election, and I just wanted to give a few thank-yous to, first of all, the hard-working men and women of the Shuswap that supported me for a third term.

I want to thank you very much for continuing to put your trust in me to help represent the interests of those of you living and working in the Shuswap region.

I also want to give a special thank-you to my lovely wife, Georgina, my lovely wife of 32 years, my high school sweetheart; and my four daughters, Sarah, Brittany, Angela and Samantha; and our eight wonderful grandchildren, with No. 9 on the way. We do have another little boy on the way in February and are very much looking forward to his arrival.

[1:55 p.m.]

Obviously, this COVID pandemic has been extremely challenging for many families, including ours, as people feel a lot more isolated — my parents especially, Knut and Marianne Thomsen. My stepfather has COPD, so he’s been very concerned about COVID and the potential impact on his health should he contract the virus. There are many people that we’re all connected with and that have found this year extremely challenging.

I also just want to give a special thank-you to Brian Cowan, my riding association president, who worked very tirelessly on my last campaign, along with Linda Hawes, who also had a very supportive role — again, I’m just thanking them in their efforts to try and help me get elected for this third term — and without saying, the hard work of my constituency assistants, both Holly Cowan and Bonnie Gavin. The work of our office is so very important.

I often remind people that the office of the constituency of Shuswap is definitely non-partisan. I care not for your political stripe. Our job is to serve all members of the Shuswap, and the work of Holly and Bonnie goes a long way to helping us support the needs of Shuswap residents with many diverse issues, as we find especially in rural communities across the province.

Now, the reason that we’re here today speaking to this bill, the Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020, certainly appears to be ill-conceived, as expressed by many of my colleagues that have spoken before me. Just the fact that we are here in December session, I think, is reason for concern. As we know, it was the current government that, back in 2018, actually moved to put forward an amendment to a bill to actually move the fixed election date legislation from the spring to the fall of 2021. The scheduled election date that we had all anticipated was October 16 of next year.

It’s very unfortunate that in the midst of a pandemic, on the eve of a second wave of COVID infection rates surging across our province, the current government chose to cast aside the needs and the well-being and the interests of British Columbians for their own self-serving political interests. Now, this may very well sound like sour grapes, but I truly believe that all members of this House — and especially our Premier — once they have the opportunity to form government, should be governing for all British Columbians.

The health and well-being of our residents, our citizens and our job-creating businesses should be put at the forefront. I think it goes without saying that the levels of cooperation and collaboration that were actually achieved in the Legislative Assembly over this past year…. It was only back to March 23, I believe, when all parties came together to put the needs and interests of British Columbians at the forefront, to approve a $5 billion COVID spending plan, to give government the latitude so that they could actually get on with business on tackling COVID, as well as seeing that the health and welfare of both our residents and our businesses were put at the forefront.

The collaboration was very effective, as we saw as we moved into September of this year. Everybody was absolutely blindsided that the current government would cast aside the needs of British Columbians for their own self-serving political interests at a time when it was absolutely imperative that all parties, all elected members, work together collaboratively to help support our province in getting through this most unprecedented COVID crisis.

If you think about just the level of deficit that this government has taken on through this COVID period, initially we were told, back in August, that it looked like about a $12 billion deficit. Not nine days later, the Minister of Finance came back to advise that, oh, the $12 billion had now grown by a further $1 billion, to $13 billion.

[2:00 p.m.]

Now we have the Finance Statutes Amendment Act put before this House late in December, which actually contemplates an additional $2 billion in spending, taking us to $15 billion. The largest surplus that I believe the B.C. government has ever received was actually in 2017. That was by the previous B.C. Liberal government. That was only $2.7 billion.

So if we think about that for a second, that the level of the deficit, the level of debt that government is going into…. It’s going to be shouldered by our kids and our grandchildren at unprecedented levels, at $15 billion. Over six times the amount of the largest surplus that, I believe, has actually ever been recorded in the history of our province. These things are very concerning. You know, just the fact that we are here now in December for a very shortened session to debate only one piece of legislation, and that piece of legislation was something that was actually an election promise by the current government.

As much as I fully believe and fully support providing necessary supports where they’re needed for all British Columbians and for businesses, this is a little bit too little, too late. An election was not required for this level of support to be going out the door.

So why are we here? Was it truly in the best interests of British Columbians and businesses that are struggling to survive for us to be here and go through an election a full year ahead of the scheduled election date? Or was it in order to avoid the hard work that was before us?

For members that are listening at home, you may or may not necessarily know that government typically sits for about six months a year. We have a spring session, which consumes the months of February, March, April and May, and in most years, a fall legislative session, which is the months of October and November. So not only, by sending people to the polls, did we send the wrong message to British Columbians about COVID and the concerns that all British Columbians share; government also decided to postpone an eight-week legislative session, where many important pieces of legislation could have been put forward before the assembly, before British Columbians.

All members would have had an opportunity to actually move forward on legislation, bills, new laws that would actually be of benefit to businesses and all British Columbians. But instead, that was all cast aside. That was punted — now we’re understanding — until the spring of next year, not because it was in the best interest of British Columbians or that it was needed. Solely because the current government felt that they would put their own political self-serving interests ahead of the rights and the needs and the well-being of British Columbia residents.

One can’t think about that without actually being very concerned about what this government stands for. Are they in it for all British Columbians? Are they in it just for themselves?

So let’s have a look just at some of the specifics of the bill. As my colleague the member for West Vancouver–Sea to Sky recently shared, it was the fact that back in last August, during the legislative session, the Minister of Finance actually put forward, in another previous bill, to actually extend the deadline for providing the budget to British Columbians by 30 days in the instance of an election year.

If we think about this for a second, I can fully appreciate and understand that, should there be a change of government, there very well could be the need for an additional 30 days of time for a new government to get their feet under themselves and to actually have a better understanding of the fiscal picture of our province.

That is not what happened. The NDP returned themselves to government. So even the 30-day extension, I think many could argue, is not necessary. Our Premier himself shared with British Columbians that the election was not going to unduly delay the service of this great province and the service of government. Well, we know that that is categorically false. The fall legislative session was cancelled. We lost two full months of time to debate new bills, new legislation that would actually be to the benefit of all British Columbians.

[2:05 p.m.]

Just earlier today a bill was tabled by my colleague for Surrey–White Rock to look at capping commissions for restaurants. Now, the restaurant sector has been one of the hardest-hit sectors in the entire province. The restaurant industry has been asking since last spring for a measure to cap commissions — which currently are upwards of 30 percent for many of the different online applications for food services — at 15 percent to provide an opportunity for businesses, primarily the restaurant sector, to actually be competitive, to hang on.

What has happened? We didn’t see any movement. Interestingly enough, the Ontario government found time and found need to support the restaurant sector and put legislation in place last spring. Washington state, just south of the border, also had the good interest to actually move forward with the legislation in the summer to cap the actual commission rates for many of these online services — again, to provide some form of relief and support for a sector that has been the hardest hit of most any sector in the entire province.

But this government chose not to move forward with any legislation that would actually be supportive of the restaurant sector in the fall of this year. And in this December session, not a hint, nothing forthcoming. So when we look at this bill that’s before us that’s looking at extending the provision of the budget update, not just by 30 days but by 60 days — an additional 30 days — I think we all have to kind of question: when will we even be back in the Legislature?

Is government actually considering maybe postponing the sitting of the Legislature by a further two months to allow them to actually get their budget in order to present to British Columbians? If that’s the case, many of these struggling small businesses that are looking for that lifeline certainly are not going to get any support in the foreseeable future from this government.

Other pieces of legislation that certainly could’ve been looked at and brought forward — again, to help the tourism and the business sector in the province — would include additional reductions in red tape.

What about for the struggling forest sector? We’re one of the most cost-impacted, or highest-cost, jurisdictions in North America for forestry. The forest industry has been asking for overhaul of the stumpage rates in our province, but again we’re not seeing anything as far as any supports or proposed legislation from this government. The opportunity for moving forward with that legislation this past fall certainly was kicked down the road by this current government and their self-serving interests of going into an election and casting aside the collaboration and cooperation that had actually been evidenced here in the Legislature.

We only have to hope, because government certainly has been less than forthcoming on providing any information to British Columbians on what supports are coming. Now, this may feel like a big bucket of cold water being dumped on those of you that may be listening. But I’m extremely concerned about our province and the state of economic affairs. People are struggling. The small business sector is hanging on by a thread. They need a lifeline from this government, and they’re not receiving it.

You know, for many of our small business owners…. I think many people may think of the big corporations and have the thought: “Oh, they’ve got deep pockets; they can just dig a little deeper.” The largest segment of our business sector, our economy in the province, is the small business sector. For many of these small mom-and-pop shops, family-owned businesses, it’s not just their source of business income; it’s also their personal income. It’s also their entire life savings, in many cases, and their retirement income.

I was talking, back in the spring, to a couple in their early 60s. They built up their business over a number of years. They were looking forward to the opportunity of one day actually selling their business, with the hopes that they could have a decent retirement income to carry them through their retirement years. And not only are they struggling with not having the business income; their personal income has been impacted.

[2:10 p.m.]

For them, for many of the supports that have been made available, they found that they weren’t eligible. So not only have they lost their business income and their personal income; they’re also hanging on, not sure that they’ll actually be able to continue to operate and potentially losing their business entirely, and with that, having their entire retirement savings absolutely wiped out.

When you have conversations with people that have worked hard to create jobs across our province, truly are job creators, and see the callousness of this government and the lack of attention to their needs, it’s nothing short of frightening.

Now I spoke just about some of the supports that government could be undertaking in a fall legislative session, had they not cancelled it. But also, we have to have a look at some of the other significant impacts that COVID has had, not just on our health care workers, our ambulance attendants and paramedics, but also police services. When we see high levels of unemployment, we see increased rates of crime. We see increased rates of domestic violence. We see increased rates of drug and alcohol dependency. The opioid crisis is ever-present. Upwards of five individuals a day are dying in our province.

Yes, the current government takes great solace in having, for the first time, a Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. But when you actually dig below the surface and actually have a look at what has actually been done…. Do we see increasing supports for mental health in our province? No. Constituents in the Shuswap certainly are indicating something very different.

When you have a look at a minister, with the sole responsibility for mental health and addictions, where is the benefit? What are British Columbians seeing that’s actually improving the quality of their life? Are they getting the supports that they need? Are they able to actually have a bed to go to or a treatment centre to check themselves into? I’m not seeing any increase at all.

As much as the government may tout all of the work they’ve done around mental health and addictions, the statistics tell a very, very different story. So again, when there was an opportunity, during a fall legislative session, to move forward bills or laws that would provide supports for those that are losing their lives at unprecedented rates, the current government decided it was time to go to the polls, not looking out for the best interests and the well-being of British Columbians but for their own self-serving interests.

We look at tackling crime. Crime rates are at an all-time high. I’m hearing from members in the Shuswap community that crime rates are up significantly. They are struggling with increasing caseloads but not with in­creased budgets.

It was only a few short years ago that the current government, through their ill-intentioned employer health tax, put a significant amount of additional wage burden right on the backs of our RCMP forces across the province and did not even make them whole by providing additional funding. So these police forces across our province are having to do much, much more with fewer dollars.

When we have a look at the opportunity of the $5 billion additional COVID recovery fund that was put forward by all parties of this Legislature last spring, where are the funds flowing to those services that actually require them the most, that most British Columbians rely on, on a daily basis? I’m certainly not seeing them in the Shuswap, and that causes me a great deal of concern.

When we look to, again, the mean-spirited nature of this fall election, folks at Elections B.C. were also put at a significant disadvantage. I know that many do not….

Deputy Speaker: Sorry, Member, if I might just draw your attention to…. We’re speaking to Bill 3, the Finance Statutes Amendment Act. Thank you.

[2:15 p.m.]

G. Kyllo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As we have a look at the Finance Statutes Amendment Act, basically, the purpose for it is to extend the budget timeline. So I think it is absolutely prudent to bring to the fact that the only reason we are even having this bill presented to us this week, in this legislative session, is because of the fall election. Had we not had an election last fall, we would not be here today, and we would not be debating this specific bill. So the relevance of the fall election is absolutely paramount, in my mind.

You know, what’s interesting…. And certainly don’t just take my word for it, for those of you who might be listening from home. Even Vaughn Palmer, in a recent article, was quoted by saying: “All teamwork and collaboration came to an abrupt end when…” — the Premier — “called a snap election in September. He claimed it was necessary to end ‘political bickering’ and ‘instability’ that was not evident to anyone but himself.” These aren’t my words. These are the words of Vaughn Palmer.

It goes on to say: “There followed five weeks of campaigning and another five weeks when Horgan mostly avoided the news media while working on a makeover of the cabinet and government.”

So was that necessary, and is this bill necessary? I certainly do not see the need. There are very important other pieces of legislation that we could be debating here in the House that would actually be of service and a benefit to British Columbians.

I might also draw to the attention of viewers at home that members of the government side are not responding to this particular bill. So we must ask ourselves, if this was such important legislation, if government was wholeheartedly behind it, why would their members be choosing to sit in silence and actually not even respond to this very important bill that is a focus of our attention here today?

Now, with respect to the funding supports that need to go out, as I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m certainly in support of any supports that can go out to help British Columbians that are struggling through this very unprecedented time.

But was this ill-conceived? The Premier himself noted during the election that it wasn’t front and foremost in their election platform. It was something that they came up with on the fly. Well, apparently, in the last six, eight weeks since the election, there’s been very little work done to actually develop the means or mechanisms in order to find ways of developing, to put these funds into the hands of those families that are most in need.

The Finance Minister indicated that they will be using 2019 tax return data to determine who will be eligible and who is not. It just seems absolutely ludicrous that we would look to income levels of individuals in 2019 and use that as a litmus test, the measuring stick by which we would determine who’s eligible in 2020.

COVID arrived on our doorsteps earlier this year. People that have been impacted by COVID will have had their incomes decimated in this current fiscal. They are going to be negatively impacted and not have the ability to apply for these funds because they were gainfully employed in 2019. If these funds truly were intended to be targeted to those that are most in need and most deserving of some financial help with this government, just that criteria alone makes this entire exercise absolutely ludicrous and very difficult for anyone to support.

I think that most British Columbians would agree that those that are in need, need the supports. But that is not the way this bill is laid out. It will largely cut out and potentially exclude many British Columbians that have had their incomes negatively impacted this year from COVID because they actually were gainfully employed in the previous fiscal. That is just wrong.

[2:20 p.m.]

Now, when we have a look at the economic recovery plan — or, I would say, probably the lack thereof…. I was very fortunate, from 2013 to ’17, to serve as the parliamentary secretary to the then Minister of Jobs, Tourism, Skills Training and Labour and had responsibility for B.C.’s jobs plan. It was a very focused initiative, and it was certainly the focus of the previous B.C. Liberal government to focus on how we could grow the economy and create jobs across the province.

With a strong economy, with more people employed, we would end up with more tax revenues ultimately coming to government. With that, the government would have the necessary funds to meet all of the mounting challenges and needs and support services that British Columbians rely on.

But what have we seen since this current government came to power in 2017? There is no jobs plan. The hope that we had back in the spring, when the current Premier appointed himself as the chair of the COVID Economic Recovery Task Force, has not really paid any dividends for British Columbians. The task force was meeting. They pulled together, I believe, 20 different individuals from across the province to sit on the task force. But the single sector that was hit the absolute hardest from COVID, the tourism sector, did not have any direct participation on the Economic Recovery Task Force.

You’ve got to just kind of shake your head and think about that for a second. The segment of the economy that was hardest-hit from COVID did not have a seat directly at the table of the Economic Recovery Task Force. British Columbians sat and waited and waited and waited for anything to come forward. What do we see in mid-September? Finally, a COVID recovery, only $300 million. Out of a potential $1.5 billion, about $300 million was identified through this COVID recovery task force.

Not six days later, government decided to pull the pin and call a snap election, double-crossing the agreement they had with their Green Party partners. So businesses were sitting and waiting. At a time when all shoulders needed to be at the wheel, everybody needed to be pulling together for the support and benefit of all British Columbians, what happened? Government basically got shut down for a full two-month period.

How does this tie back to this bill that we’re debating today? Again, this is unnecessary. This was not needed. There were many other pieces of legislation that would have been of significant benefit to all British Columbians that we should have been working on. Here we have a government with no jobs plan, businesses that are struggling to wait, business sectors and industry organizations that have made recommendations to government on some very small, incremental measures that could be undertaken to support them during this COVID pandemic, and what do we see? Sleight of hand by this government, kicking the can down the road. No time for you.

But hey, we’ve got time to fulfil a political promise that was made to British Columbians just a short 60 days ago.

So am I concerned? Absolutely. It’s not just for me. I’m fine. I’m worried about my kids and my grandkids and the hard-working men and women of the Shuswap that are finding themselves in unprecedented times, concerned about health, concerned about job security, concerned about how they are going to make it and survive until next spring.

With that, I will take my seat and look forward to further debate during committee stage.

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the member for Fraser-Nicola.

J. Tegart: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is good to see you in that chair, and congratulations.

I virtually rise in this House today to speak to Bill 3, Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020. But before I speak to the bill, I, like others before me, would like to take a few minutes to thank the people who have been key to me being here in this chamber today. I speak of those I serve, the constituents of Fraser-Nicola. I’m honoured to be serving on their behalf in a third term. I take my responsibilities very seriously, and I promise to do my best to ensure that their voices are heard in this House.

[2:25 p.m.]

I would like to thank my family — my children, grandchildren, siblings — who have been by my side through every one of my elections, supporting me and enabling me to do the work I am so passionate about. They are the people who provide that extra encouragement, the unconditional love and the support, even though the job often takes time away from those you love most.

On those days, when you’ve been away on the road, on the phone, in a meeting, at an event, you only have to look into the eyes of the children to know why this work is so important and who you do this work for. It is to build a better British Columbia for those future generations.

I’d also like to thank my campaign team. When the Premier decided this snap election in the middle of a pandemic was a good idea, my team was there, ready to do what needed to be done. They worked tirelessly under unusual circumstances to ensure that we were successful. COVID plans were in place. The top priority was to keep everyone safe and healthy, and we hit the ground running. Thank you to each and every one of you. You are the heart of an election team, and your support means everything. To my constituency staff, Lori, Melisa and Etelka, thank you for your commitment to service to the constituents of Fraser-Nicola.

With that support and commitment from my family and team, I find myself in this House, ready to join in the debate today of Bill 3, the Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020. In the middle of a pandemic, when numbers are going up, when Dr. Bonnie Henry is asking citizens of British Columbia to limit their travel, when the message is stay home, this government decides that there is business that is so critically important to the people of British Columbia that they have to call back the Legislature.

Bill 3 is the only bill the NDP government has tabled this session. The government called back the House to deal with this one bill. I don’t know about you, but my expectation of government priorities at this time is that the business of the House would be focused on pandemic issues. So let’s take a look at Bill 3.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

Let’s try to understand how it helps people during this pandemic. Let’s try and understand how it gives people hope for the future. Let’s try and understand why it is so important to pass at this critical time, in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic. This government tables a bill that has nothing to do with COVID-19. You would’ve been right to expect that the recalling of the Legislature would be focused on support for citizens of British Columbia who have been most affected by this pandemic. I certainly know that that was my expectation, but no. Not one single hint in Bill 3 that we are in a pandemic. Not one single hint that people are losing their jobs.

[2:30 p.m.]

Not one single hint that our seniors have been in lockdown for ten long months, that families are not allowed to see each other, that schools are open but staff and parents are feeling unheard and ignored. Not one single hint in this bill that business communities are being gutted. Not one single hint in this bill that non-profits who support vulnerable populations cannot fundraise and are considering whether or not they have a future. Not one single hint about front-line workers who are burnt out and stressed to the max. No, when you look at Bill 3, you wouldn’t know that there’s a pandemic and that British Columbia’s numbers are going through the roof.

Let’s take a look at what Bill 3 is about, why Premier Horgan and his government had to deal with this bill immediately, why it is so important to the lives of British Columbians. Bill 3 extends the deadline for presenting the provincial government budget and the main estimates for 30 days. It also allows for special warrants to be authorized for the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year, meaning no legislative approval will be required.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This bill is important — but only to the Premier and his government. It takes away budget transparency at a time when the public is demanding and deserving of more accountability in spending. It allows absolute authority to delay the budget and spend funds without legislative scrutiny.

Let me remind this House and the members opposite that our job as MLAs is to ensure that taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are being spent appropriately. The way we do that is through transparent processes that share the vision of government and the budget of government.

In my mind and in the minds of many members on this side of the House, this bill undermines the integrity of a transparent budgeting process and the accountability that comes with that process. This bill should concern every citizen of British Columbia and every MLA in this Legislature. If government thinks this is such an important bill, I ask: why has not one MLA from the government side of this House stood up to explain, to convince, to debate Bill 3? You ran for office. You ran to represent. It is time to stand up and be counted.

I want to speak to the bill and the changes being proposed from my role as opposition critic for Education. Before I begin, I’d like to say congratulations to the new Minister of Education. I look forward to working with her, and I also look forward to hearing her speak to this bill and explain to us what effect it would have on her ministry and those within it.

[2:35 p.m.]

In my past, I have served many years as a locally elected school trustee. I am absolutely passionate about our education system, the focus on students and their learning outcomes. I’m also passionate about building trust in the education system. I believe that one of the building blocks of trust is an open and transparent budgeting process.

I would like to ask both the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Education: what modelling has government done to understand the effect of putting off tabling a provincial budget 60 days? What effect will it have on all ministries, but in particular on the Ministry of Education? I would remind them that the education system has done an incredible job during these very difficult times.

I’m hearing, as I’m sure government is hearing, from parents, teachers, support staff, administrators and anyone who is interested in education. They are expressing their concerns as they continue to keep our school doors open.

It is clear by this legislation, which does not once mention education, that this government fully intends to ignore the calls by teachers and staff for greater support and consultation in our education system. The BCTF and parents have called for smaller class sizes and stricter mask mandates to reduce COVID-19 risks in school. Yet there is no mention anywhere in this legislation of extra PPE or additional health and safety supports for our schools.

This government is coming under fire for ignoring parents’ calls for greater transparency in reporting. COVID data and outbreaks in schools are incredibly important to know about for our parents. There is absolutely no mention in this bill, this very important bill. While we know that 560 or so schools have had exposures, this government has not been forthcoming in the amount of COVID-19 transmissions that have occurred. This government is also facing criticism from teachers for leaving them out of the consultation process when deciding not to extend the winter break to give students a chance to isolate at home until case numbers decline.

Parents and students are stressed. Teachers, administrators, support staff are stressed. Any discussion within the education system needs to be inclusive and transparent, and it needs to reflect what is actually happening on the ground. Requests for hybrid learning have been ignored. This is a government that cut funds for distance learning in the quiet days of July 2020.

I want the Minister of Education and the Minister of Finance and the Premier to reflect on the fact that we are one-third of the way through this school year. What we’re hearing from the education system is incredible stress, incredible fear that a child will be sick. We need to support the people who are delivering education to our children in order to keep our schools open and a safe place for them to work and for children to learn.

I ask the Finance Minister: explain to us what the ripple effect of a two-month delay in budget will be. I ask the Minister of Education: explain to us what the ripple effect will be on education budgeting.

[2:40 p.m.]

School boards are committed to open and transparent processes. It might be something this government could learn from them. In order to have trust in their system, they go out to the public, and they consult. It builds confidence in the system. It builds trust in the system. It builds respect in the system.

To see Bill 3 and what the government is trying to do here just absolutely amazes me. We have come a long way in transparency, and this is taking us back to the 1990s. With the new measures in Bill 3, what will be the expectations of the Minister of Education from an already overworked and overstressed system? More uncertainty. More work. No clear path to a budgeting process that has worked very well for many, many years in public education.

Many of my colleagues have talked about situations in their ridings, about what the impact of COVID is and their disappointment in what this bill isn’t. I share those concerns. I’m hearing from businesses in my communities that don’t think they’re going to make it to Christmas.

For those of you who are unaware of where the Fraser-Nicola riding is, we did the 2017 wildfires. We lived through the 2018 wildfires. We’ve had floods. Now we have COVID. Most of our businesses are small mom-and-pop businesses. Most of my communities are rural and very small. I’m concerned about the sustainability of our small communities as businesses board up their windows because they cannot afford to pay their rent.

As my colleague that spoke before me said, it is not just their business income. It is their life. Many of our small business owners keep their doors open because of their commitment to their staff. They understand that those staff members depend on their doors being open in order for them to be able to survive. They will often go without pay in order to keep their staff coming to work.

Where is the compassion in this government that claims to care about the working person? Where have you been? We’ve been waiting since the spring for programs, for assistance, for a lifeline, particularly to our small businesses. If you consult any more, there will be nothing to consult about. They need your help. They’ve been willing to give you input. They need to be heard, and their ideas need to be reflected.

[2:45 p.m.]

Here we are, at the Legislature, in a session, in the middle of a pandemic. And what are we talking about? We’re talking about a bill that means nothing to people on the ground. It means nothing to people who are wondering how they’re going to buy presents for their children for Christmas. It means nothing to the business owner who only has enough rent for December.

I see no sign of hope. I see no sign of assistance. I see no compassion for the people who make British Columbia work. This government claims to have been supporting British Columbians every step of the way. Well, I would like to suggest to Premier Horgan and his government that you’re out of step with what’s happening on the ground in British Columbia. Where’s your COVID plan? Where’s your hope for the people who are most affected?

When I heard that one of the criteria for the assistance would be based on your tax return for 2019…. I want the Finance Minister to tell me how that’s going to help my constituents, who were all working in 2019 and are now out of work for ten months. How is that going to help those people on the ground in my communities?

What little relief is being offered continues to be de­layed, continues to have conditions that most can’t apply for and assumes that everyone has the ability and the infrastructure to actually apply for them online. I would like to remind government that I have many places in my riding that are so rural they actually don’t have cell coverage, never mind Internet.

A one-time payment is a one-time solution. It’s a band-aid — not that it won’t be welcomed, not that it won’t assist people. But what is your long-term plan? Where is the structure that we can all buy into, move it forward and be committed to? Ten months in and no plan. Ten months in, and businesses are closing their doors. Ten months in, and grandma hasn’t seen her grandchild or her daughter or son. What we’re doing every day counts. Another day without a visit. Another day without a plan. Another day without my doors open as a business.

I’m telling you: every day counts, and you are right on the edge of too little, too late. When people think about government, they want compassion, they want caring, and they want leadership. They want to know that you have the best interests of everyone in British Columbia. The people I’m talking to — that is not how they’re feeling. If you’re hearing something different, then I would encourage you to actually stand up and participate in this debate. I am hard-pressed to understand why anyone would sit through this, during this incredibly important time, and not say a word.

[2:50 p.m.]

The people of British Columbia elected each and every one of us, and they expect to hear from us. Stand up. Be counted. Be loud. Be the voice that they expected.

People in my riding are hurting. People in my riding are waiting for a lifeline from your government, and I’m telling you that we don’t have until after Christmas to wait. We’re hurting, and we’re not the only ones. If you take the time to talk to people in your ridings, they are hurting too. Their voice needs to be heard in this House, and you need to step up and share your stories with all of us.

The only way we can get through this is by working together, even though I have a hard time with trust after the goodwill that was shared during COVID was used to call a snap election. There are a great many new faces across the way. I think there is goodwill, and I’m certainly hopeful to hear from each and every one of the members across the way on what’s happening in their riding and how we can work together to move this through.

But I’m telling you that Bill 3 is not the way to do it. I am extremely disappointed that this government thinks that Bill 3 — one bill, doesn’t mention pandemic anywhere — is the reason we all needed to come together.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I think we are in unprecedented times. I encourage every member in this House to use their voice, and I think it is so important that we do the business of the people of British Columbia in a respectful and in a sharing way. I am disappointed so far in the lack of participation. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.

I would like to end by acknowledging all of the front-line workers who have been so critical during this pandemic. I understand how tired you are. I understand your commitment to the work you do. I wish all of the families across British Columbia a happy Christmas. You know, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not the train. So stay safe, stay healthy, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you to the member for Fraser-Nicola.

Just a reminder that the use of proper names for MLAs is not the order of business.

I’d like to, at this point…. The Chair recognizes the member for Vancouver-Quilchena.

A. Wilkinson: Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the chance to speak, but was there an understanding that the member for Saanich North and the Islands would be going next.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you to the member for Vancouver-Quilchena.

If the member for Saanich North and the Islands wishes to speak now, the floor is yours.

A. Olsen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Congratulations on assuming the big seat at the front of the House here.

Just to let the member for Vancouver-Quilchena know, I’m not going to be speaking for long, so perhaps he need not go too far away from his computer.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to stand and speak to Bill 3 and to just, I think, share some of my serious concerns that I have for this bill as well as for the content of this bill, or should I say the picture that this bill paints for British Columbians. And that is one of a government that was simply not ready to govern, one that earlier this fall….

[2:55 p.m.]

As we left this place in the summer, the Premier pulled the House down around him, took this House down, a House that was working in a minority situation, working collaboratively with one another, and the very premise of that election was based on this notion that it would be better for the government to go it alone, the government to do this alone. Also, British Columbians were told that in fact the only way to govern through this pandemic was for a majority government, for a strong majority government. British Columbians were led to believe that there was a plan in place to govern.

As we’re learning now, as Bill 3 is put in front of us, we find — and it’s some of the major concerns that I have for this — the government is now asking this House to give itself an extension — 30 days, 60 days — to give it the ability to create the space that it needs, perhaps, to develop the plan that should have been in place. In fact, British Columbians, when they went to the polls back in October, were led to believe that there was a plan, that it was the perfect plan, that only one party could deliver that plan, and the request of British Columbians was to deliver the majority government so that that plan could get rolled out.

Indeed, the former Finance Minister was left here to be caretaker of the business of this place while we were away, out on the hustings, in the middle of a pandemic snap election. Yet we come back here and find that now there’s this grant for an extension — this request for a delay that apparently nobody wants to talk about. I think that my colleagues in the official opposition have articulated it clearly enough. I don’t need to emphasize it any further.

The concern that I bring to this debate, the concern that I think British Columbians need to consider for themselves, is that they were led to believe — we were led to believe — that in fact, there was a grand plan, a perfect plan, one that only one party could deliver, yet here we are needing a couple months more to be able to develop that plan.

Under duress, right before the end of the year, right as British Columbians are trying to consider how they’re going to be celebrating alone, we are now going to be extending and delaying the delivery of that plan for British Columbians. I find that to be very troubling. It’s less what’s in this bill and more about the story that this bill is painting for British Columbians, if you just kind of dig under the surface.

While we’re in this place right now…. Most of us are in our homes — living rooms, kitchens, home offices — in this unique hybrid session at the beginning of December. While we’re in this place debating a delay — or at least, we’re debating the delay; members of government aren’t really debating this delay — to give the government more space to do the work that it needs to do, British Columbians aren’t being afforded that same experience. For British Columbians, the bills are rolling in. They don’t get to just call up the people who they owe money to and ask for an extra 30 or 60 days, to just say: “Well, we need more time. That plan that we told you we had didn’t really work. We need more time to be able to pay the bills.”

What this comes down to for me is a question about trust, a question about confidence. What message is this sending to British Columbians? After the Premier stood in front of British Columbians over and over again throughout the election campaign and said, “We’ve got this. Give us this responsibility. We accept this burden,” now the very first act is to say: “We’re not quite ready for it. We need you to give us more time. We need you to give us more space.”

[3:00 p.m.]

This is the very first act, and this is eroding the trust that British Columbians will have in this institution. When we stand up and say we’re ready and prepared to get something done, we should be ready and prepared to get something done. It’s really unfortunate.

I have, and my colleague has, serious concerns about the message that this sends about the preparedness of this government, the trust that we can put in this government and the confidence that we can put in this government that they’re able to deliver on what they say they’re going to deliver on.

Big, grand promises were made for the last couple of months. In fact, British Columbians were told there will be no delay to the services and to the program delivery throughout this election. This election that we had last fall wasn’t going to unnecessarily delay anything.

We learned through the election that in fact, it did indeed delay the rollout of the $1.5 billion that we were sitting in this House giving the government the ability to spend and that they didn’t spend right up until one week before that election. In fact, they used that $1.5 billion plan, or that $1.5 billion set of expenditures that they had organized throughout the summer, as basically their first campaign platform announcement at a local brewery here in Victoria.

They used the money that British Columbians were contributing to their own recovery and to their own success for the political opportunities as a political campaign stop. It was egregious, and it took all summer to determine how that money was going to be spent.

Then, during the election, because we were in an election, British Columbians couldn’t get answers from their government, businesses couldn’t get access to the funds that they were promised from their government, and there were indeed delays.

Now we’re learning the government is going to vote themselves another delay, further eroding the trust that British Columbians can have in their government. They stand up and say there’s going to be no delay, yet we are going to be four, six months down the road of delays.

It’s this story, this picture that’s being painted here with this Bill 3, that is really troubling for me, that I have serious concerns about, that our caucus has serious concerns about. I needed to stand and put on the record the very serious concerns that we share about the message that this is sending in the very earliest days of this government about their level of preparedness after making bold promises that they were ready and willing to accept the burden of this job on their own.

Well, British Columbians gave it to them, and now they’re seeing that the very first bill, the very first act that’s put in front of us for debate, is one that says: “Well, actually, we weren’t quite ready. We’re not quite ready to deliver like we promised we were, so now we need an extra number of days for that.”

With that, I’ll take my seat, but I want to express the very serious concerns that I have about the message that this is sending British Columbians.

HÍSW̱ḴE SIÁM. Thank you.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you to the member for Saanich North and the Islands.

Just another reminder to members that we don’t use proper names of MLAs in the House.

A. Wilkinson: First of all, I should be giving recognition to the three individuals who have taken on the role of Speaker — obviously, the member for Burnaby-Edmonds as the Speaker himself, the member for Vancouver–West End as the Deputy Speaker and you as the Assistant Deputy Speaker. We thank you for taking on the task, and we look forward to your wise and reasonable governance of the House.

Now, all of us owe many thanks to the volunteers and supporters who made our election possible, especially those who are newly elected to the House. We congratulate every one of them, of course, for joining those of us who’ve served in the House previously.

It’s an onerous task. It carries responsibilities, not just to the people who elected you in the riding but also to the wider five million people in British Columbia. We take on these roles because we seek to be part of the governance of the province. Those who are fortunate enough to be on the winning side in the election form government, and they choose the executive council.

[3:05 p.m.]

But the caucus on each side is critically important to provide guidance to members of the executive council and to serve in this House as the wider conscience, as the vehicle, as the conduit for ideas and information from the entire province of British Columbia to the governing executive council, commonly known as cabinet.

We have to examine why we’re here today and why we’re debating this bill. The government was successful in the election. We all know that. They have formed a majority government. With the majority comes an onerous obligation to use the majority wisely — not to use it in a self-serving manner, not to use it in a way that is going to be onerous for the people of British Columbia but in a way that serves the public interest of all of British Columbia. That is the task this government must take on now.

Yet we find ourselves summoned to Victoria, some of us doing it from our residences or offices on this hybrid mode, to debate a bill that is purely self-serving for this government. It has no benefit for the people of British Columbia whatsoever. There has been no effort whatsoever on the part of the executive council to demonstrate why this would help the people of British Columbia, and sadly, very sadly, we see the members opposite — the private members, the NDP caucus members — who are ashamed to stand up and speak to this bill.

Whether they’ve been told not to stand up or whether they simply feel that they are too intimidated to stand up is an open question. But the fact remains that their inability to speak to this bill in any way whatsoever is a source of some shame to the rest of us, because we are summoned to this chamber to serve the interests of the people of British Columbia. We do not see that happening with this bill in any way, by any member of the NDP caucus.

Government is about building and earning trust. It’s about maintaining the trust of the public. We saw that prior to the election, where our party decided, in March, that we would adopt the concept that we would fight the virus and not each other.

We cooperated with this government for six solid months. We did not carp on about testing rates. We did not get into debates about regional opening and closing. We did not go on about school closures and about the need for disclosure of information in schools. That did not come up, because we decided that it was our responsibility to the people of British Columbia to work with the government for the betterment of the people of British Columbia during this COVID pandemic.

We saw the Green Party do it in their own way. They had their confidence and supply agreement. That was their way of cooperating with the NDP minority government to make it possible to govern British Columbia effectively. We can disagree about the contents of the CASA agreement, and we can disagree about the results, but the fact remains that it was about building trust between the Greens and the NDP.

Sadly, we saw the trust that we had invested in the NDP minority government in September, and the trust that the Green Party had invested in the NDP minority for three years, tossed to the wind in September. It was a complete abrogation of the public trust in the middle of a pandemic which has threatened British Columbia and the rest of the world in ways that have never been contemplated before.

This was a start of a pathway to cynicism — a self-serving pathway, a pathway that means that the NDP have now decided that they will serve their own interests. The Legislature can be written off, basically, as a vehicle, because their own private members aren’t prepared to stand up and speak. It’s a muzzling of the democracy of British Columbia that’s happening this week and next. We will do our part to fight it by standing up and speaking proudly on behalf of the public interest of British Columbians.

That takes us, sadly, back to the last era of NDP majority government, where the financial credibility of this province was torn to shreds — the fudge-it budgets, the unreliable budget dates, the budgets that bore no correlation to actual government spending. This record was reflected in British Columbia’s bond ratings. It was reflected in British Columbia’s borrowing costs. It was reflected in our credibility. It was also reflected in our economic performance, as British Columbia literally went from first to last in Canada, with the highest marginal tax rates in the country, by the time that the NDP were defeated in 2001.

[3:10 p.m.]

There was then a concerted effort, a major initiative, to re-establish credibility with the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act. It was a critical piece of legislation that provided that the officials in the Ministry of Finance would provide uniform, reliable reporting to everyone — to the citizens of B.C., to the institutions that lend us money when we need it and to the Legislature of British Columbia. It was part of an overall package — fixed election dates, fixed budget dates — taking away the arbitrary decision-making power of the Premier of the day.

What do we see this week? We see a return. We see a return to that high-handed, arrogant, self-serving behaviour of NDP majority governments. We can only hope that this is a flash in the pan, a spurt of bad judgment, a small window of bad faith that is being exhibited by this executive council under this Premier.

Accomplishing the credibility of things like fixed election dates and fixed budgets with highly reliable budgetary information is no small task. Yet we see it being slowly corroded and now accelerated by this government.

There are no initiatives on the table. We’re in the biggest crisis since World War II in our province, yet we have seen no real initiatives to deal with it, other than deferring to public health officials, which has generally been appropriate. But in terms of the function of the other 20 ministries in this government, in terms of the function of this House and in terms of the function of the economy of British Columbia, we see exactly that — nothing to show to the people of British Columbia.

There has been no fiscal update. There has been a secretive approach to the finances of this province, which is completely inappropriate and has no real basis in necessity. It is simply politically expedient now that the NDP have a majority government.

The purpose of this bill? To delay introducing the next budget. There was already a month delay that the NDP granted themselves last summer, and now we see that they’re trying to extend it. This will mean that we have over a year between the last budget in February of 2020 and the next budget in the summer of 2021. It will limit government transparency. It will delay the needed supports going out to our sectors in the community and in our business sectors that are desperately in need of some government guidance.

The people of British Columbia are entitled to know what the plan is. Let’s not forget that last summer economic recovery plans were put out in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta by mid-July. We still have nothing, nothing at all to guide the people of British Columbia as to where their future lies.

We’ll fight the virus, but we’ll be holding this government to account on how they fight the virus from now on because we no longer trust this government at all. We will also have to be very scrupulous in examining the behaviour of this government on financial matters, given this complete betrayal of the public trust that’s demonstrated in this piece of legislation. All we have so far from this government, in terms of that economic recovery, is some vague expectation it’ll happen next year. That does precious little, does nothing, for the tens of thousands of people who have lost their jobs.

Employment rates have recovered somewhat because, as shown in the newspaper the other day, the person who used to be a flight attendant on WestJet is now working at Amazon or driving an Uber car. Those are not things to be ashamed of. That’s good, hard work, but it doesn’t pay as much as their prior employment.

COVID has knocked the stuffing out of so many sectors in our economy: tourism, hospitality, airlines, restaurants. We all know the fate of these businesses that are struggling to stay alive, struggling to keep credit, struggling to keep any employment at all going in their sectors. What are they relying upon? Federal support programs. In the province of British Columbia, there has been nothing under this NDP, and there will be nothing under this NDP majority government until there’s a new budget. That now, apparently, is five months away.

We are going to see a wave of bankruptcies roll through our communities this winter. There’s an article that has come out in the Vancouver Sun this afternoon about the west side of Vancouver. The reporter, very appropriately, interviewed both me and the Attorney General, who represents Vancouver–Point Grey.

[3:15 p.m.]

The essence of the story is: what has happened that has generated waves of business closures down Broadway, 10th Avenue, Dunbar Street and elsewhere, in one of the most prosperous parts of Canada? Why are all these businesses going broke? It’s a long story in terms of population change, online shopping, a change in the number of children around and an older population group that purchases less as they build out their home life.

Property taxes are a major feature. We have put forward proposals repeatedly for split assessment on business taxes so that they’re not paying for the air space above their single-storey building. That has been ignored by this government.

The thing that has turned the corner is COVID. It has driven so much revenue out of those businesses that the community fabric is starting to unravel. There are numerous businesses going broke in my riding and the Attorney General’s riding as we speak. Storefronts shuttering, the brown paper going up behind the glass, and no sign of a return to employment. This is gutting the communities we live in, in what, as I said, is one of the most prosperous corners of this country.

That tells us a lot about the lack of response from this government. Perhaps this government — in a kind of ruthless; hard-nosed; and, ironically, right-wing way — is saying: “Oh well, that’s Darwinism and business. These places were designed to fail anyway.” That is not what government is for. Government’s job is to assist businesses like this to weather the storm and to make sure they can return to prosperity after COVID.

There is a horizon now for COVID to come to an end, now that vaccines are being deployed. We all know it’s going to be a long journey, probably into August or September, before there’s any kind of return to normalcy. It could be as long as a year from now, or even more, depending on the efficacy of the vaccine and the willingness of people to take it.

The point remains. We cannot just write off hundreds of thousands of people in the province of British Columbia by saying: “Too bad. Nothing could be done.” Many things can be done. Many things were discussed during the election and were also raised by the Premier’s economic recovery team, which was constituted last May.

In frustration, the three major agencies that were part of that Premier’s team put out their own reports at the end of July because they were getting no response from this NDP government. They have had no response since then. The Business Council of British Columbia put out an extensive report on July 29 which pointed out dozens of things that could be done, yet nothing has happened.

Just a few examples. Accelerate private sector investment to kick-start the economic recovery. Extend tax remittance deferrals for businesses significantly affected by the pandemic. Quickly find additional spaces for child care. Make B.C. a top tier location for investment in the forest sector. Introduce Nexus-style regulatory approval systems for qualified operators. Protect the industrial land base in Metro Vancouver. Support rapid re-skilling. That is critically important and needs to happen now. Address uncompetitive personal taxes. Boost investment to strategic digital infrastructure. Encourage the growth of technology-focused small and medium-sized firms.

The list goes on and on and on. Nothing has been done by this NDP majority government — not even a signal that things will happen. That means that these organizations lose face. Why were they encouraged to participate and advise the Premier if he was just going to ignore them? It was a stalling tactic. It was a way to buy time. It was a way to open a window for a snap election so this government could form its NDP majority.

Think about it. What’s the goal of getting elected if you’re not going to do anything? The goal of elected office is to act in the public interest, to do things that are exciting, to make British Columbia a better place for everyone, to put a smile on people’s faces. Why are we here for this two-week legislative sitting? None of that is happening.

What is happening is that the NDP majority are seeming to cement themselves into office in a condescending and, essentially, abusive fashion to the democratic process by dismantling the structure of what became the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, by getting rid of fixed election dates, by getting rid of fixed budget dates. What does that do for the thousands upon thousands of people who are looking forward to the bleakest Christmas that they can remember? It does nothing for them except delay the prospect of hope.

[3:20 p.m.]

We also know that the government members on the other side — that is, the backbenchers, many of whom are newly elected — have been cowed into silence. We just have to look around the legislative chamber and see dozens and dozens of NDP members doing nothing. They’ve been told they’re not to speak to this bill.

Perhaps some of them even made their own decision not to speak to this bill because they can recognize a power grab when they see it. They can recognize a misuse of the democratic process. They must be saying to themselves on the screen, in the chamber: “Why did I take this job on if it’s just to grab power and protect the few people on the executive council? Do I have no autonomy, no agency, no ability to represent the public interest?”

Do those NDP members have no ability whatsoever to stand up and make their own decisions? Perhaps they’ve been cowed into silence in their caucus meeting, because this is part of the master plan to build out the power and authority of this NDP majority and do exactly what they did in the 1990s, which is protect their own interest at the expense of the public interest.

But think about this. This is no ordinary time. We’re in a pandemic. We as legislators have an overwhelming obligation to the public good. That’s why we worked with the government for six months to try and make sure that we were protecting the well-being of British Columbians during this dreadful epidemic. This bill does nothing for the people of British Columbia, yet we can see that the NDP are hoping that no one will notice. We’re in the middle of the pandemic, and there’s a lot of news about the vaccine coming out, and this bill will hopefully escape public notice. It will not escape public notice. We’re already getting the feedback on what a high-handed, arrogant, controlling government we now have sitting in Victoria under the NDP.

There’s the excuse that is being trotted out that the civil service couldn’t be ready in time after an election to put together a budget on the normal schedule. I think I am the only person in this chamber who has served as both a deputy minister and as an elected member. I went through five budget cycles as a deputy minister. The deadline is mid-December for all submissions. Those were prepared months ago and would have been tweaked according to the election outcome.

But let’s remember that this is a continuation of an NDP government, so very little in those budgets will have actually changed by now. There is simply no excuse whatsoever for delaying this budget date into April. It should be in the middle of February, as it was required under the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, which is now being gutted by the NDP in what is clearly a naked power grab.

Let’s look at the government budgets. The Ministry of Health spends close to $3 million an hour every day, every week, every month, all year. That goes into health services which are delivered in British Columbia to everyone. The Ministry of Education spends about $30 million for every instructional day in the classroom. All of those amounts are preset and won’t be changing. Those are the baseline expenditures of government, and those two ministries amount to more than half of government spending, just the two of them.

What needs to be changed? What needs to be tweaked? What can’t be adjusted by the regular budget date? The answer is the NDP simply want more power, more authority, more control, and the public interest and transparency be damned. This is not the way a democracy should be functioning.

This is not a new government. This government should be in control of its budgetary circumstances and know where it’s going. Either there is no plan, which appears to be the case, since it’s now four months overdue, at least, and we still see nothing in terms of a plan for tourism, for hospitality, for the restaurant trade…. These businesses are imploding, as I said earlier, yet what we see is nothing coming from Victoria in terms of any kind of credible plan until April.

[3:25 p.m.]

It’ll be far too late then for thousands of family businesses, which will have failed by then. That is a huge and structural and fundamental abuse of the public trust.

With a budget of $60 billion, this government should be in a position to provide guidance to all those businesses as to what they can expect so they can plan, so they can know where they’re going, so they can know if help is on the way or if they should, perhaps, pack it in or at least figure out how much money they’re going to have to have to survive. Instead, there is nothing.

The tourism industry rightly asked for $600 million of support back in the summer. What they got instead was a consultation process, and they are starving. We saw on the news last night that the Capilano Suspension Bridge fully decorated itself for Christmas, fully employed all the students and part-timers who were going to be working there over Christmas. Now they’re shut down. What can they expect from this government? They don’t know. Clearly the answer is nothing.

This abuse of the public trust is fundamental. It comes in terms of torn-up agreements like the CASA agreement with the Green Party. It comes with the false hope that was given to the tourism sector earlier this year when they were engaging in their efforts to convince the government to do something immediately for the summer tourism session, which was completely written off. The lack of trust extends to election dates, which have now been twice changed, first in the bill which gave the NDP an extra six months, till November 2021, and then in terms of the NDP just calling a snap election in a power grab.

We now have budget dates being changed. All of this is designed to retain and expand the power of the government of the day, the NDP majority that sits in the chamber today. Government requires trust. The reason Canada functions so well is that people respect the law. They respect their hunting licence restrictions. They respect the fishing limits. They respect the ways they’re asked to behave and conduct themselves by the public health officials. This is a high-trust environment, which is what makes it such a successful nation. Yet when we see the leadership of our nation, of our province, acting in a high-handed, self-serving way, it means that trust is being abused.

We saw it even in the election campaign, where the NDP sought to divide British Columbians into what was so crudely described as “us” and “them.” The good people and the bad people.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

That does not build trust. That defines the enemies of the government of the day, and that is wrong, because everyone in British Columbia has to feel that they are trusted, that they are represented by their government and that they can trust the leadership in their society. When we see the degradation of that trust in a bill like this in a completely unnecessary legislative sitting that accomplishes nothing for the people of British Columbia, that public trust fades away.

All of us have to remember constantly that we can only govern with the consent of the governed. We do that with elections. But they are not just a once-in-four-years window in public opinion. They are a crystallization of four years of acquired public trust and four years of consent of the governed. You cannot just blow these things past the electorate and hope they won’t notice because there was a vaccine announcement yesterday.

It is not acceptable for this government to hide, to suppress the truth and to pretend to be transparent when in fact this government is doing nothing more than leading the public down the path toward the kind of arrogant, high-handed, inept government that occurred under the last NDP majority government.

The members elected to this House should be serving with pride, and it’s hard to see how any of the private members on the government side, the backbenchers, can be proud of what’s going on in this Legislature in these two weeks. It’s an attempt to suppress transparency, to avoid the truth, to pretend that the civil service isn’t ready for a budget and to fail in that duty that is owed to the public.

[3:30 p.m.]

It’s fair to say, and it goes without saying for the most part, that leadership is defined by the ability to govern fairly. High-handed behaviour, arrogance, is a sign of weakness. It is not a sign of strength. Sadly, in this first sitting of the Legislature since the election, we are seeing a government show its weakness.

In our society, which depends on trust, we cannot allow this government to unravel that public trust with this kind of completely unjustified approach to changing budget dates, to changing the approach to governance and to dismissing the public interest in favour of the interests of the NDP majority. It is time for this Legislature, this parliament, to start serving the public in the midst of the deepest crisis it has faced since World War II. We implore this government to wake up and start to serve the public interest rather than their own.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for the time I’ve been granted and thank you for indulging me without interruption.

R. Merrifield: When I was nine years old, I wanted a Discman. I loved to sing, and I had a little bit of a love affair with the New Kids on the Block. I could sing almost every single song of theirs. With this new Discman, I could take my music wherever I wanted to. It was mobile.

I also was quite the wizard on roller blades and wanted desperately to have my own pair. Imagine how far I could go, how fast I could be, on my in-line skates, Discman in hand, and my amazing New Kids on the Block in my ear. I had to have it. But being only nine, I didn’t have the money to get one, so I went to my parents and asked.

You know what they told me? To build a budget and let them know how I was going to make enough money to afford it. They taught me the value of money and of having a plan. You know why? Well, because my parents — a pastor and a teacher — were trying to raise a family of six, and they knew the value of money. They knew the value of dollars. They knew that in order to have enough to take care of our family’s needs, as well as have enough to take care of those in need, they needed to make every dollar count. They taught me and my siblings fiscal discipline.

In the great recession of 2008 to 2010, my industry was decimated by the financial crisis. Suddenly, businesses all around me were faltering. As a young 20-something year old, it was really difficult to watch friends go bankrupt. You see, when people think of a business going bankrupt, they think: “Oh too bad, so sad, it’s a business.” But it’s not just a business. I watched as those businesses declared bankruptcy, as tens and hundreds of people went without paycheques. But also, I watched as marriages faltered, as homes were lost and as lives were decimated.

Rather than simply charging forward, I started to review my business plan, the expectations of those around me. I tried to talk to others, and I built a plan with a budget. Otherwise, I would have gone bankrupt as well. In this, I learned the value of resilience.

When COVID first hit, every organization that I was a part of went into overdrive: contingency plans, emergency meetings, changing budgets day over day; not month over month, not year over year, not six months over six months — day over day. In this, I learned that in crisis you need to expedite plans immediately. There is no time to waste, and those hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands who are relying on you need a plan.

Why do I share these stories? It certainly isn’t so you can just all get to know me better. It is to show that the best way to have a way forward is to have a plan and a budget. I learned that in the middle of crisis, you need all the voices around the table, to see all of the angles and to make decisions wisely.

[3:35 p.m.]

Doesn’t the government want to have fiscal discipline and make every dollar count? Don’t they want to build a resilient province? Don’t they want to make decisions wisely? Why are we stuck in planning exercises and, in six months of nothing, taking not just the normal amount of time to make decisions, but asking for extra time? That is exactly the opposite of what should be done in a pandemic environment.

The Premier got up on Tuesday and declared that we would work together. How disingenuous that the very first bill after this declaration was to not work together, because that is exactly what this bill does. It makes sure that the NDP government doesn’t have to work with us for another six months.

But that’s not where the lack of integrity ends. It’s not genuine to say that this is COVID relief and then base it on 2019 tax returns. How is it going to — and I quote from the Premier’s Twitter account — “those that need it the most…”? How can it be called COVID relief? We didn’t have any effects of COVID in 2019.

But not only will British Columbians not have money in their bank accounts, as promised, before Christmas, but I think that far more disturbing is that there is no plan for recovery after Christmas. This COVID relief is supposed to go to 3.7 million British Columbians, as we’ve heard. But we haven’t heard how many of that 3.7 million get a latte, or $10 or $50. We haven’t heard a statistic based on how many will actually receive the full value of the relief.

How do I tell the person that lost their income, the family that doesn’t know how to pay rent — never mind Christmas gifts — that this money isn’t coming? And why? Because they worked so hard in 2019, before a pandemic.

People have lost their jobs. Restaurants are about to close. Businesses are on the brink. We have moms and dads who don’t know where they’re going to pay rent from. The promise that this government has made is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, and the commitment to collaboration and the commitment to actually working together is nothing more than empty words.

One other thing that my parents taught me: talk is cheap. Action is everything. So why wouldn’t a government, the largest spending body in the province, want to have a budget when going through the largest global event in history, affecting more British Columbians and more in the world than ever before?

Well, I thought about this, and I came up with a couple of solutions. One, maybe they have something to hide. Two, maybe they don’t believe in accountability. Three, maybe they don’t know what’s going on. Four, maybe they don’t know where the money is. Five, maybe they don’t want the British Columbians to know what they’re doing. Six, maybe they don’t believe in democracy. Seven — well, we already know this one is true — they don’t want to work together.

This is the longest — as you’ve heard from so many of my colleagues — that B.C. has gone without a budget or a fiscal update since the ’90s, when the NDP government were last in power. Why? Why do boards, companies and families produce budgets and financial plans? Well, they do so to get ahead. They do so to know where they’re going. They do so to produce accountability.

During a pandemic, how could any government want to delay what will be the largest economic recovery plan needed in British Columbian history? Every organization I know operates with a plan — a plan forward, a budget and financial reporting. I don’t see any reason why the government cannot do the same.

[3:40 p.m.]

I heard speeches from the government on light, on hope, on a way through, on a way forward. Where is that now? This is no way to run a province. This is no way to get through a pandemic. The health crisis that Dr. Henry has gotten us through is only part of this crisis.

If I could liken it to this: a funeral, a death of a loved one. That first, initial month is where everyone is around and where you’re surrounded by loved ones and kind words, etc. After that month is over, it simply becomes echoes in empty hallways where that loved one once was and remembrances on special days or holidays or celebrations where their presence is lost.

British Columbia is going through a traumatic time, and this is only the beginning. There are going to be other echoes in our hallways. There’s going to be a crisis of jobs, especially low-income earners, women and minorities. Does postponing the budget help them?

There’s going to be a crisis of the economy. How does postponing the budget help this? Spoiler alert. It doesn’t. How does postponing this budget help long-term-care facilities and all of the seniors that live within them? It doesn’t. How does it help us with our mental health and addictions issues? It doesn’t. How does it help with housing? It doesn’t.

We have asked British Columbians to sacrifice so much, to change their lives, their spending, their giving, their habits, their relationships, their work lives, their clothes, their futures. My email in-box, my phone and my texts are filled with people asking, “Is it real? Have we cancelled Christmas?” to which I’m responding: “Yes, we have.” How can we, when we’re asking for so much from British Columbians, not get it together as government to give them a plan, an accounting of massive dollars spent and a plan of how we’re going to move forward?

This is not a new government. This is the same government with more power. And now they can do less of a great job? One extension. Hmm. Okay. Two extensions. What? Two extensions is the equivalent of two months, which is 20 percent of the budget. It’s $12 billion.

B.C. deserves better. B.C. deserves accountability. In order to have that, we need to have transparency and reporting.

The Premier touted that this was going to be the most transparent government in history. In fact, he started working on this accountability crusade ten years ago, in 2010. I’m going to quote him critiquing the government of that day by saying….

“While we applaud these individuals for their contribution to public policy, we nonetheless believe that they should have conducted their deliberations in a manner that is more transparent and documented,” Horgan wrote. “These are fundamental issues that have generated a great deal of debate in British Columbia.”

Here’s the good part. “A mature and responsible government would see this as an opportunity to bring the message to the people rather than to frame the message in a closed door session.”

Andrew MacLeod, just two days ago, picked up on this and wrote, with the headline: “NDP Government Backs Off Pledge to Cut Government Secrecy.” “Parties favour stronger access to information laws, says advocate, until they win power.”

Where are the promises of transparency now? Where is the accountability of government? It’s nowhere.

Health authorities. How are they supposed to plan, to create accountability, to have a forward-looking trajectory? We keep talking about the ministerial mandate letters, but this is only one part of the system. Each organization within that ministry receives those mandate letters and receives their own mandate letter. Then the board signs off on that mandate letter.

[3:45 p.m.]

The executives work and build the workplans, and they need to know the budget. How can they know what they’re doing? How can they know where they’re going to go? It takes accountability away from the entire system. Can they just go back to government and ask for more money if they run out? This is how waste occurs and how we erode accountability.

This bill has attached $2 billion to it. Let’s think about that number for a moment. That’s almost as much as the entire Interior Health Authority budget for a full calendar year. Think about that — 800,000 residents of B.C. can get health care for $2.48 billion, almost the same amount as what’s being asked for in this bill.

But every year the health authorities have boards that sign on the line of the financial statements that are created by the executives of the authorities and are audited by an arm’s-length accounting firm and then are published on websites for all of us to read. You know why? Well, on the Interior Health Authority’s website, it says: “We are accountable to the public we serve.” That means: “We are committed to informing you about how we plan to deliver services to meet the needs of our communities, as well as reporting on the services and resources” — also known as money — “provided to meet those needs.”

We’re going to ask all of the agencies within a ministry to actually provide accountability. But they can’t, because they don’t have the budget. Really.

Let’s take the act that they’re asking for an amendment to — the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act. The member for Vancouver-Quilchena did an amazing job of talking about the history of this act. And in doing my own research, I don’t take this act lightly. It’s over 20 years old, brought into being so that light could be shone on the financial accountability of government, so that we wouldn’t have the inconsistencies that brought about fudge-it budgets of the 1990s.

Here we are again wanting to change the financial accountability of the government negatively in a time when organizations and families across B.C. are being asked to tighten their belts, get more accurate, make better plans and operate to budgets just to survive through this pandemic.

Government needs to lead. Government needs to plan. Government needs to have budgets. Government needs to create economic stimulus. Government needs to take care of its citizens. Government needs to invest. All of this is part of resilience.

I referenced Health. The government has created an amazing service plan for Health, but I ask you…. Objective 1.1: a primary care model that provides comprehensive, coordinated and integrated team-based care. How is that going to be accomplished without a budget? It won’t be.

Objective 1.2: improved health outcomes and reduced hospitalizations for seniors. Oh, wait. No — not until May.

Improved health outcomes, reduced hospitalizations for those with mental health and substance abuse issues. No, no. You know what? Let’s table till May.

Timely access to appropriate surgical procedures. Again, let’s just wait until May.

The vaccine is here this week. That is incredible. But we have a rough year ahead of us. This is far from over. And as I described before, the echoes of the pandemic are yet to be felt.

[3:50 p.m.]

We have another year of waiting for life to return to some form of normal. We have another year, minimum, of trying to keep businesses alive. Families have another year of trying to make ends meet. We’ve got years of uncertainty ahead of us, yet we’re going to go for half of a year without a plan or a budget?

“Trust us,” government says. Should we? They broke their agreement with the Third Party. They called an election a year before they had agreed to. They broke a collaboration. And now they want us to agree to changing the very act that keeps them accountable with a “trust us”?

Should we trust a government that hasn’t paid front-line workers their pandemic pay since July? Should we trust a government that didn’t get the budgeted dollars out the door this summer? Should we trust a government that betrayed the trust of a collaborative agreement of this very House in order for personal political gain?

Should we trust a government that told British Columbians that the election wouldn’t change anything or delay anything? As we’ve heard, it delayed everything.

Should we trust a government that told us that it was going to be $500 or $1,000 a person but now it might be $10 or $5 or nothing or is based on last year’s hard work? Should we trust a government that doesn’t even know how much it’s going to cost? Estimates are $1.45 billion, but now $1.75 billion, but let’s ask for $2 billion just in case. That’s an extra $300 million.

We need answers now because we need hope now, not in six months. When our quality of life is down, when we are not with our family at Christmas, when our businesses are about to be closed, we need hope now. Not in six months. Not when we’ve lost our job. Not when we’ve missed our surgery time. Not when our housing affordability has further eroded. Not when we’ve lost our mental health or, worse yet, lost those we love to mental health issues. Not once we’ve lost our hope.

The social, economic and emotional echoes of this pandemic have only started to be felt. The whispers need and will become a movement, and the movement is a cry for help. Santa Claus promised to come to town and give British Columbians a present. It was going to be just like St. Nicholas, who would give gifts to everyone. But as I look at this, it isn’t a present. Maybe you’ll get something, except you need to write Santa a letter to make sure you’re eligible for the gift that was really based on last year’s performance.

But here are the letters I’m getting: “I’m a teacher, and I’m scared to go to work. Please, please don’t have the kids come back right away, as many of them will still be infectious from all of the holidays that I hear them speaking about.” And another one: “Please help the restaurant industry. I have invested so much in my business, and now in keeping people safe, but at only 50 percent capacity with 30 percent driver fees, I just can’t make ends meet. Please help us.” And another one: “I am a mom, and I want to work, but I can’t. My child can’t go to school because of all of the exposures, and now I can’t make money. But I did last year. Will I qualify?”

[3:55 p.m.]

Santa isn’t coming to town. He’s not even half coming to town. So really, this time, it isn’t a present. It really and truly is just a lump of coal, and this NDP government just told British Columbians that Santa isn’t real.

Democracy is about the people and is for the people, and I am a diehard believer in democracy. But this budget delay is not about the people. This budget delay and this bill are just about a government that is either lacking competence or just doesn’t want to play nice in the sandbox. But it’s really not about the people at all.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker, for your indulgence of time.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

Recognizing the member for Kelowna West.

B. Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and congratulations to yourself and your colleague on your recent appointments, the member for Kelowna–Lake Country being the assistant deputy. I know that you’ll be, I’m sure, sitting through much of this discussion. Hopefully, some of this rubs off on the members that are watching from your caucus.

I know that many of our members are certainly exercised in their remarks in terms of how they feel about the government proposal on Bill 3 to come forward as if this is simply an ability for the government to spend the money that they promised during the pandemic election, of which…. I hate to say it, but I don’t think it’s really getting to the heart of the issue of where money needs to be delivered to people that have been impacted during this crisis.

As I look around British Columbia, and as I see reports on the news and see many businesses boarded up…. Let alone the changes that they had to put up with until just a few weeks ago…. Now they’ve been told that even the restaurant industry, which bent over backwards due to the isolation and all of the things that were necessary to just try to keep a few of their staff operating, really has to be just households that can meet and come to a restaurant.

I know that earlier today there was an introduction by one of my colleagues about limiting the delivery costs for simple things such as delivery of foods from restaurants. This is both so that it works both ways. The restaurants can possibly survive and get things out and make certain that the customers will continue to order.

I think about the challenges that the government has faced in these past nine or ten months. I think that probably people have given them a lot of latitude. Our members have given a lot of latitude and support.

Immediately after the declaration of the public health emergency, we resumed sitting. We approved, in one day, an unprecedented additional $5 billion for the government to be able to meet these obligations where they felt. In the descriptions, there was some of that money for health care and contact tracing and, of course, there were all sorts of other anticipated costs. But a big part of that was also for people who had their businesses and who were counting on the fact that the government was going to try to find a way to help them out.

Now, I know that a lot of things that have been done by the government have been essentially around people that rent in homes or apartments — rental freezes — and on many of the other fronts that were adjusted by government. But on the business side, there’s been very little recognition of the fact that their costs…. Albeit that there was an ability to defer taxes, I would say that it’s been very little.

I don’t think that people or members in the government really appreciate and understand how difficult it is to make ends meet in a business. I know from having a business. I worked in a business. I created one. I have 200 or more staff that work in the business I created.

[4:00 p.m.]

Without financial planning, it is very difficult for us to know with any certainty that we can meet our obligations, whether it’s our new and increased cost as an employer with the employer health tax or whether it’s wages, the changes in all of the other myriad of taxes that have increased in the past just over three years. I mean, the budget of February of 2017 was south of $48 billion. That’s the cost of running government with all sorts of commitments to increase benefits to the provincial taxpayers. I say that meaning everybody that lives in homes.

Now, I’m not certain that it addressed everything. But if we look at what’s happened over the past three budgets, we’ve seen an over 30 percent increase, from $47.5 billion to over $60 billion in spending. We add into that the $15 billion that has been reported — but we haven’t seen any details — and that’s going to put an almost 80 percent increase in the provincial budget since February of 2017. I mean, that number in itself is staggering.

We know these are unprecedented times. But I guess, really, at the end of the day, we delivered many budgets within the period of time we were in government on the basis that we were creating a budget that we could live within and very rarely were there circumstances…. In 2008, with the financial meltdown, we still balanced the budget on March 31 of 2010. It wasn’t a large surplus. But then we were faced with the fact that there are these delays, because income was delayed — and income tax that the government counts on.

There are all sorts of people in the Ministry of Finance, as our former minister outlined in his role as formerly the Finance Minister, that spend an awful lot of time forward forecasting and looking at the impacts of these things. Well, can you imagine what it’s going to be like for a business filing its 2020 tax returns, and what, if any, taxes they can let alone be obligated to pay? What do they have to pay it with? In a lot of cases, they’ve been limping along with either loans or loan guarantees.

Frankly, between both the federal and the provincial governments, the programs for small business have been absolutely dismal. I think that when it comes to people in sectors like the tourism and hospitality industry, frankly, there just hasn’t been any commitment by this government.

I go back to the estimates of the minister in the last session. We talked…. We didn’t get any answers about how they were going to cope with COVID back in March before we adjourned the House on March 6, and the fact that the minister was expected to give a better update on her budget when we resumed estimates back in July and August. The fact is that they never gave any answers.

Frankly, we had $1½ billion set from that March 23 emergency fund to help businesses get through this economic recovery — the fact that the government held that money until the last possible minute to be able to come up with, kind of, not a very helpful economic recovery plan. I mean, frankly, they seem to have left the business community, the people that are going to pay the taxes that are going to pay this money back, because we’re on borrowed time here….

Let’s go back a little bit and down memory lane. In 2001, when the NDP government was tossed out, 77 seats to two, they were running a $4 billion a year structural deficit in operating. That means we had to borrow money to pay back the extra money they were spending. It essentially led to the fact that we had to cut services in order to be able to…. Either we increased taxes, which we had already seen during the ’90s, where the province had gone from first place to last place….

The situation was that we ended up with a province that was now classified as a have-not province. We were getting transfers from the federal government and the other have provinces just because of the fact that we didn’t seem to be able to get our financial house in order in comparison to the rest of the country.

[4:05 p.m.]

Those deficits were finally just retired, the structural operating deficits, just as we moved the budget in February of 2017 — paid the last installment, according to the former Finance Minister, on that deficit. Really, that limits our ability to invest in all the things that this government wants to promise and is continuing to spend money on blindly.

I say that in my new role as Housing critic. The amount of money that has been put into projects without the accountability that deserves to be accounted for, $125 million plus in purchasing motels and hotels to put shelters up across the province, etc. They’re all sorts of homeless shelters that are important, but the bottom line is that they’re going into these places and not even providing the wraparound care. They’re not listening to council members and communities that have plans, that want to work with the ministries involved. They want to make certain that their plans are helpful in terms of making their community.

So there is all of this new debt that’s been taken on by ministries such as Housing, and there needs to be some checks and balances. We can’t do it all. We want to find good value. I’m sure that the people at B.C. Housing no less want to find good value in terms of what the expenditures are that are being put out by government.

I have to say that I’m a little bit appalled about some emergency shelters that went up just last January actually — that’s when they opened — in my riding. In a period of just about 40 days, the shelter for about 40 people cost over $600,000 to operate on a temporary basis. I mean, it’s appalling to think that that’s seen as necessary and good value. I just think that we’ve got to come up with better taxpayer value when it comes to everything that we’re doing.

We talk a lot about the extra spending. This government has added 23 new or increased taxes since it took over, and it’s increased the spending, as I said, over 30 percent. With the deficit we’re facing now, that actually adds up to an 80 percent increase. I mean, it’s unsustainable. It requires that we actually do have some plans.

Part of what our job is in opposition is to ask the right questions so that we can be effective opposition. The collaboration that was executed up until the pandemic election was where we could have easily worked together through committees in terms of how to invest that $1.5 billion, but no, we were going to study it with some other people that really don’t have the business experience to come up with recommendations, let alone a government that accepts the recommendations.

The bottom line is that the collaboration that the member for Kelowna-Mission just mentioned, the promise that the Premier has made about how collaborative…. It has been collaborative. Our former Health critic bent over backwards to make certain we supported this government every step of the way.

And here we are today, and we’re looking at a piece of legislation that frankly does four things that are fundamental to a democracy. I guess maybe that’s something that we’ll discuss a little bit later on, about whether that is important to the government, that they actually value democracy.

They’re talking about eliminating or limiting budget transparency. The former Finance Minister from Ab­botsford West mentioned that the whole reason for that act to come into place was because of the fact that we had a situation previously — I’ll go into some detail on that — that really required that the public deserved to have the insight.

The media. What are they doing about this? Are they actually looking at this? Maybe they don’t have the qualifications. Maybe they don’t understand how to read the budget without titillating details that maybe are one-liners. But I think that there is enough expertise out there and experience from some of them to really drill down into this.

What happened in the 1990s? Are we looking at repeating that? Is that where we want to go? Is that what people in the media want to be reporting about? Some of the things that took place — the scandals and the silliness and the things that…. Frankly, that’s the reason that the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act was brought in.

[4:10 p.m.]

Frankly, the public has lost or forgotten about what that all meant. You’ve already come back and said that you needed extra time. I concur with the member for Vancouver-Quilchena, who was talking about his five years as a deputy minister and how it took time to have everything prepared in December. I can honestly remember, as we moved into the 2010 budget cycle and I was being asked, as one of the ministers, to come back and find simply $100 million in savings, just to be able to make certain that we’d balance the budget by the end of the year.

I mean, it was difficult, because everything was already happening, but we did it. We balanced the budget, and we made certain that we brought in the next budget, which was a forecast deficit. But we ended up beating that and bringing it back into a balanced budget, because we did the right things to try to make certain that we’d carry people, carry businesses along to where they were resilient and solvent.

We haven’t really seen anything. I mean, in the summer session, we gave an extension already that was required. We also gave…. If the fact that there was an early election for some reason…. It makes you wonder how much planning goes into that. Well, I’m sure that there’s a bit of that. But at the end of the day, there hasn’t been a financial report for a long period. People are expecting…. What happened with those quarterly reports? Are they just sitting in draft form, sitting on the minister’s office desk? I’m sure that people in the Premier’s office well know where things are.

I mean, we’ve moved from the balanced budget back in February to a deficit of about $5 billion and now increased to $15 billion. When is enough going to be enough? I guess that’s the bottom line. You know, you can hide behind that, but at the end of the day, there shouldn’t be a dollar spent without accountability behind that.

I know that when it comes to estimates this year, we’re going to expect greater accountability. We’re not going to get the dismissive answers that we got in some of the estimates last year by the former Minister of Tourism in terms of not answering the questions that were being asked about how they were going to help the tourism industry. What were they going to do with the money?

There is a tool that’s there that hasn’t…. It could have been used for this spend that they wanted to make. They could have just used special warrants and made an exception, without having to call the House back during this pandemic, especially during the lockdown. We have the public health officer saying: “Stay in your bubble unless it’s essential work.” I know that this is essential work, and we’re working hybrid legislative sessions. But still, some of you are in the House, having to face one another in the hallways and work with the staff there.

I think the situation is that in Bill 3, what I see is an awful lot of latitude. That gives the government, really, spending authority — not unlimited — through the calculation and formula that they’ve described, up to a third of operating and capital expenditures, up to a third of the previous year’s approved capital expenditures for all of the things, including debt and other debt servicing, to be able to operate. So does that actually mean that we’re kind of looking at really delaying past April? Is that a possibility? I mean, with the majority that the government enjoys, maybe the fact is we’re not [audio interrupted] on the path where we were back in the ’90s.

One of the other things that’s in here — and it strikes me as being kind of unusual that it would be in this bill, for its intended purpose — is about the homeowner’s grant. I do have to wonder about the homeowner’s grant, because there’s an obsession by the government that home ownership, for some reason, has become something for only the most wealthy. Or it’s people that have come here with perhaps illicit funds, or they’re hiding things, etc. We’ve seen that with the introduction of things like the speculation tax. I mean, the purpose of it, as claimed, was that where communities had less than a 2 percent vacancy rate, there would be a speculation tax to open up and create more available space.

[4:15 p.m.]

Well, we know that in some communities — I know I’m in one of them — they’ve demonstrated that they’ve increased the supply. The vacancy rate is well below 2 percent now, and the fact is that they continue to build, and at an astronomical rate, more rental accommodation. There are still no answers.

In the recently adjusted and accelerated UCBM meetings…. It was one of the meetings where the former Finance Minister was unable to attend as previously scheduled, and accelerated, as I said. The situation is that there’s no answer for the city of West Kelowna on their request about this money, other than the fact that the deputy minister, who now is in the Premier’s office, said: “We’ve allocated. We’ve decided that we’re going to spend that money on infrastructure for housing in your community.” That wasn’t the deal at the start.

The mayors had their meetings. The whole idea was that when they met with the former Finance Minister, it was to make certain that there were some guidelines and certainty around that. She did, with the Greens’ support, agree to having those annual meetings. But frankly, they’ve been really…. What we heard in September, before the snap election, the COVID snap election, was that they were not able to tell us that information at the time.

I do want to kind of go back to…. This appears to me to be a transfer of responsibility, an increase in red tape, an increase in bureaucracy. Local governments have been collecting the information and the forms, subject to audit, for homeowners’ grants, for as long as home­owners’ grants have been around. The increase, in terms of the rural homeowner grant, the seniors grant, the veterans grant, the persons-with-disabilities grant…. All of that documentation has always been subject to the fact that it could be scrutinized by the provincial government and clawed back.

Of course, we’ve seen, recently, other things that are being added. In this bill, there are all sorts of increased regulations that, to me, are making things way more complicated. They’re creating red tape that is difficult to justify because it increases costs both at the municipal level, as well as at the provincial level, with the so-called grant administrator. I think that when I read these increased regulations….

It talks about regulations in section 22:

“(a) respecting applications for grants and the information, authorizations and verifications that must be supplied in support of an application; (b) respecting the approval or disapproval of applications for grants; (c) respecting reports in relation to grants approved by the grant administrator and in relation to real property taxes; (d) respecting the application or payment of, or other dealings with, grants or amounts or equivalent to grants; (e) respecting any other matters for which regulations are contemplated by sections 20 and 21.”

I see that this is kind of more of the regulations that this government has anchored itself in. It believes in an approach that is increased regulation, top down, we know best. The bottom line is that it’s excluding municipalities, and frankly, even since this bill was introduced the other day, I’ve talked to the city. The city tells me that they’re already having problems currently because of the fact that there has been this overlap. Last year, there was the inclusion or having to have a social insurance number before you could do this. It went online. It precluded people in rural British Columbia that don’t have access to the Internet. They either have to drive into a Service B.C. office….

You can imagine how difficult that’s been this year, with COVID and all the regulations and which offices…. Service Canada shut down. Service B.C. stayed open. I think that the situation is that just by putting these things online doesn’t mean everybody has access. What about the seniors that don’t have the computer literacy to understand and navigate all of these regulations? Frankly, as they get older, they come in expecting to find somebody to help them.

In talking to the financial administrator here at the city today, they’re telling me that they now have this two-way conversation with the province before they can actually administer the homeowners’ grant, and then they actually have to go back. They can’t accept the payment until everything, all the utilities, are settled and they get the green light from the province. The process currently is far from seamless. What I see in this bill is increased regulation, more Big Brother.

[4:20 p.m.]

Frankly, I wonder if the situation…. Maybe I should speculate. Maybe this is the end of the homeowner grant. We’re going to see a reduction. We’re going to end the rural homeowner grant. We’re going to end the homeowner grant, or we’re going to cut down, because we need that money. “You’re a homeowner. You don’t deserve to have those grants.” Maybe that’s part of the span of control that people are looking at in government or contemplating in government.

On November 30, we had the B.C. Land Owner Transparency Act go into place. It is all about the narrative that the people that have properties in British Columbia are somehow…. They’ve acquired it through illicit means. They’re not to be trusted. That’s what it is.

I know that the government will say: “Well, we want to bring in accountability.” Well, let’s go back to Bill 3. We’re talking about accountability here.

Let’s go back in the history of where the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act came in. Let’s go back to the very first years of when the NDP or the CCF members were sworn into government, back in the Barrett administration. We had the little problem in Nanaimo, the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society, with 64 charges being levelled against the former Finance Minister. The fact is that this whole transparency was not something that was particularly common.

I have to say that when I look at where we seem to be going…. We saw the continuation of that particular member and his role in government back in the early ’70s right into the 1990s, with the last Premier, who was unceremoniously charged with essentially giving a gaming licence and a casino licence to somebody that was accused of getting it not through the process that was up there in March of ’99.

I think that when it comes to those types of…. Those are two of many different, I would say, incidents that the government should be careful of. The bottom line is that if you tread on that whole business of transparency and accountability with the public trust, you will end up losing their confidence, and that will be the end of the people’s trust in what you’re bringing into government.

I think that, as mentioned earlier, this bill really looks like another naked power grab. I just don’t understand it. I can’t comprehend how it is the fact that we can do this. We don’t want to be accountable. The bottom line is that the people that are the golden goose, if you want to say, are the ones that are being penalized because they can’t actually get the information.

We’ve heard about all the people, the organizations that will be impacted if there’s a delay in terms of the budget. I just don’t see that there’s the necessity to do that. I think the situation really is that people, taxpayers, have got accustomed to the fact that once per year there’s a throne speech and there’s a budget brought out. If we go back to the 1990s, where it was at the whim of the government when they were going to do things and hide behind whatever it was that they felt was kind of their slogan, whether it was fast ferries or something else like that…. The situation is that the government needs to have transparency and accountability. That’s what the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act is meant to bring.

I think that this clearly shows that there really isn’t a plan. We’ve offered to help. We’ve been collaborative. We have lots of people that bring different diverse backgrounds, etc. I’m sure that a committee could look at some of these things on economic rebuilding and helping both the people that work for businesses and businesses. We could be collaborating on that, but I don’t think that’s what we’re seeing here.

We’re seeing a way of hiding. “We’ll go back into the cabinet offices, and we’ll do what we think is necessary. We know better.”

Anyways, I want to conclude my remarks by thanking everybody that is working in the buildings. I know that the people that are in government, who are expected to deliver all this information, are loyal, hard-working and really do want to do the right thing.

[4:25 p.m.]

I’m sure that they’re just as frustrated by the fact that this kind of shortcut or U-turn, or whatever, is something that I’m sure many of the deputy ministers or people in the Ministry of Finance are not particularly happy about. They’re accustomed to working under these deadlines. The province and the public expect accountability, and that’s what we’re asking for as official members of the opposition.

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the member for Peace River North.

D. Davies: Thank you, hon. Speaker. I’ll join in with everybody else and congratulate yourself, as well as our colleagues and the Speaker, as well, on your election to these great positions. It is appreciated. I’m, again, sure you will do an incredible job and appreciate the work that you do.

As this is my first real speaking engagement since the election, I’d first of all just like to take a moment to do a few thank-yous. First of all, the voters of Peace River North for their confidence and for placing their confidence and trust in me to be their representative in Victoria. Again, not a job that any of us take lightly and all of us take with enormous pride in our own respective areas.

I’d also like to thank my family for allowing me to do the people’s work here. All of us have family that we lean on, and I certainly want to thank my wife, Erin, and my two children, Hana and Noel, for often seeing me absent, out and about, doing what I need to be doing. I’m sitting here tonight in my constituency office debating something. Well, I’ll get on to that here shortly.

I’d like to thank some of my campaign team for their incredible hard work: Tom Whitton, Sean Blankenship, Justin Jones, Donna Greenway, Matt Gray, Chuck Fowler, Marco Schwab, Ben Wall, Michael Modesti and many others that stepped up. All of us here in this House had teams that work with us. We understand the value that they give, and I would certainly like to extend my deep, heartfelt thanks to all of them that helped me get here to be their representative for Peace River North.

I’d certainly be remiss if I didn’t include my constituency assistants. Again, I know I’m speaking to the converted here, other than the ones maybe listening online that aren’t a member. Our constituency assistants do incredible work for the constituents in my riding and all the ridings across the province. I want to thank Tamara Wilkinson and Kim Eglinski, both who do an incredible amount of work for the constituents here in Peace River and the northern Rockies.

Glad to rise here today and continue discussion around Bill 3, the Financial Statutes Amendment Act, I think a bill that we will look back on — I would say many years from now, but maybe not so many years from now. And maybe some of the folks across the aisle will also be looking back on it and saying: “What were we thinking?”

I’d like to paint a little picture of the past, though, to kind of set up where we’re going. Being elected in 2017, sitting in the Legislature this past year, things were going well. We had a functional minority government, the Green Party, with the CASA agreement, working with the NDP. Things were going well. It was functional. We were managing the pandemic. We were managing the business of the province of British Columbia, making sure that things that needed to be done were being done. I believe, and I know the Green Party also believe, that things were going well.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

There’s a lot of stuff to do in the middle of this pandemic, from the medical aspect, dealing with the virus itself and keeping our province moving forward. That was, unfortunately, until the Premier had to, I guess, create a story to fulfil a power and a desire to form a majority government. To do that, he needed a story. The easiest one was that there was dissension between the NDP and the Green Party. The NDP needed a mandate. They needed the full set of keys to the province to lead British Columbians out of the pandemic.

[4:30 p.m.]

We heard that, whether you follow the government’s Twitter, the Premier’s Twitter account or just read in the newspaper. It was in there regularly, especially in the early days of the election and leading up to the election.

The NDP needed a mandate to lead British Columbia out of this pandemic. They could only do it with a majority, which I find is quite interesting, as the NDP being proponents of proportional representation. Again, a sense of hypocrisy coming through, as now they must have a complete majority to move forward — so interesting point there.

Well now, Mr. Premier and the NDP now have the keys to the province. British Columbians are waiting for your guidance. They’re waiting for your leadership to use those keys. Unfortunately, looking at Bill 3, in the short session of just two weeks that we are here in December, I think you’ve got the wrong set of keys. Rest assured members, ladies and gentlemen of the public, that this bill, Bill 3, is not a bill that will benefit the residents of British Columbia. It will not. This is a bill that will only benefit government. It will only benefit government by allowing more time for them to operate under a veil of darkness.

In fact, since the election and the swearing in of the new cabinet, the narrative of this government is: “We need to have a short session to pass COVID-19 relief. We’ve got work to do. Let’s get healthy.” I’ll read just — I mean, it doesn’t take very long. A quick search on any search engine and you can find article after article that talks about…. I’ll read this one by Tom Fletcher. The Premier has scheduled a short session “to begin December 7, the main business being to get spending authorization for his promise for a round of pandemic relief payments.”

Borrowing the $1.4 billion to pay most households the $1,000 to a family and $500 to an individual, a promise made by the Premier in the recent election campaign. “Payments would be then added” — and this is just a bit more of the commentary by the writer of this piece — “to B.C.’s ballooning deficit, forecast to be headed towards $12.8 billion for the fiscal year that ends March 2021.”

It’s funny. You know, sometimes when you print off these web-related news articles, they’ll do a little related story. Right in the middle of this one — “B.C. records deadliest day of pandemic,” on November 18. I think my colleague from Abbotsford yesterday made this parallel. I think a lot of these numbers of cases have come from this reckless election that we’ve had, allowing and demonstrating to British Columbians that we can let our guard down. I think that is something that we will look back on, and it will be something that the government will have to be responsible for.

We all came here — at least we in the opposition — with the understanding that we would be debating questions, and tough questions. I mean, we are opposition. That is our role as opposition, to debate bills, hold government to account, and we would be asking questions around the COVID-19 benefit.

Well, the surprise we got a couple days ago when Bill 3 was presented in the House…. Bill 3, the Finance Statutes Amendment Act…. The Budget Transparency and Ac­coun­tability Act. I was surprised. I know many of my colleagues were also surprised. This bill actually has very little to do with the COVID benefit and more to do with being non-transparent and not accountable to British Columbians. That is a problem.

[4:35 p.m.]

The bill before us isn’t really about people. In fact this benefit, the $1,000 and the $500, could have actually been done without a session. Government had the ability to do that without even calling all of the MLAs into session, many there in Victoria, many of us home. They could have done it without this.

What the government is really asking, and asking of British Columbians, is that they be given the opportunity to delay the budget to the end of April. This is after we’ve already — and my colleagues have already talked about this, and I sat in the House when this was done — indulged the previous Finance Minister, who had already asked and been given 30 additional days, an extra month, following the unlikely event of an election. The unlikely event. In other circumstances, when you hear the words “in the unlikely event,” you don’t expect that event. I think we knew that the writing was on the wall. But we did indulge, and the House approved a 30-day extension to the budget.

So here we are, in opposition, debating this. “Debate”— I say that kind of tongue-in-cheek. We have yet to see anybody from across the aisles, the figurative and not so figurative aisles, stand up and actually debate this. This debate is a one-sided debate. Opposition is taking all the wind here on this. I would really like to see some of the NDP members stand up and maybe chime in their thoughts on this debate, which is really just a big long story that’s being carried on by a number of us opposition MLAs.

Anyways, here we are debating this. I want to focus on, well, just the title of this bill. I alluded to it a minute ago — the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act. Let’s look at a little definition, because I think government has misconstrued the definitions of “transparency” and “accountability.” Again, I encourage you to look them up.

This is from Webster’s. Transparency is “operating in such a way that is easy for others to see what actions are performed. Transparency implies openness, communication and accountability.” It refers to “accessibility of knowledge, technology and other resources; the transparency of action; the permeability of organizational structures; and the inclusiveness of participation.” Well, I guess we do have an opportunity to participate here in this one-sided debate.

Let’s look now at the accountability piece. Remember, it’s the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act. Here’s accountability, because I think government may have misconstrued what that means with this bill, so this is a lesson for government.

“Accountability. In ethics and governance, accountability is answerability, blameworthiness” — I like that word — “liability and the expectation of account giving.

“In governance, accountability has expanded beyond the basic definition of being called into account for one’s actions. It is frequently described as an account-giving relationship between individuals. A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s past and future actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct.”

[4:40 p.m.]

Interesting. When I look at these two definitions, A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s past or future. Well, A in this case is government, and I don’t think government wants B to know what is going on. That is why there is this push to move the budget — two months now — beyond what would normally be accepted. Not only are they asking that, but we’ve also had the ask….

The quarterly update. I know this has been talked…. I don’t want to belabour this question, but it is absolutely shocking when we have a government that is, first of all, asking: “Hey, we want to push out the budget a couple of months now, but we also don’t want to let the residents know how bad things are with the government’s finances.” This is what the quarterly updates are.

We’ve always had quarterly updates. It’s normal — well, at least since the 1990s. I don’t want to…. Sixteen years…. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the 1990s…. We’ve had quar­terly updates since our party came into government in 2001. That shows British Columbians a level of transparency. Good news or bad news, it is the right of British Columbians to understand the state of affairs in the province’s finances.

I just did a little search on the good old Google. Every other province has delivered upon their quarterly update — even Saskatchewan, just before they went into their election; November, Ontario; September, Manitoba; Al­berta just did theirs; and so on, and so on. I’m speechless as to why the province of British Columbia, under the NDP government, is not doing a quarterly update. I want to know, because not only am I an MLA, but I’m also a resident and a taxpaying resident. I think it is my right, as a resident of this fine province, to understand the state of affairs and the finances in this province.

So I’m a little upset; actually, I’m a lot upset. I’m a lot upset that this quarterly update is not coming. I’m a lot upset that we’re debating pushing the budget out again. I’ve worked a lot, and I still work, in the non-profit sector. I’ve worked in many of those organizations that rely on government funding to deliver the services that we, now more than ever, are going to be relying on having them deliver to the residents of British Columbia. There are a lot of people out there that are needing these services more than we ever have before. These organizations are going to be relying on a timely budget, not a budget that’s pushing a couple more months.

You know, I worked in my former critic role, talking to school districts around the province. I think my colleague earlier — the new critic — also had talked about that. It’s basically speaking around…. School districts rely a lot on having…. They’re already struggling, trying to get their budgets all lined up and getting things delivered to students as needed. They’re on tight times. Now we’re pushing that out two more months? I don’t know how school districts are going to be able to manage that. Post-secondary institutions are the same. Many organizations are the same.

I digressed there a little bit from my notes. At the end of the day, what this is really doing is delaying supports that need to be delivered out to British Columbians. in a time when they need it the most. Christmas is just around the corner. I want to sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, wish everybody an incredibly merry Christmas — it will be a holiday season that’s going to be much different than we have seen ever, certainly, in a couple of generations — and to thank British Columbians and Canadians for their commitment to bend the curve in this pandemic.

[4:45 p.m.]

We’ve heard that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I even got a little bit of a jump in my step when I heard that the vaccine has been rolled out. It’s exciting. It’s a positive piece of news that all of us need. That is our gift. We can’t necessarily be with a lot of our close family members, but the gift that we did receive is that the end is in sight.

Another gift which I think British Columbians were hoping for is some clear direction on where the province is going in regard to managing this pandemic and managing British Columbia’s economy. Small businesses, tourism — there isn’t an industry out there that isn’t struggling right now.

There was a plan presented. There was $1½ billion given in our summer session. People are still kind of dismayed that there have been no real, solid commitments made in that regard or moving forward. Of course, we had an election in the middle of that, which put everything on hold. Then we had almost another month after the election. We’ve been down for two months right now in British Columbia, when we could have been having a regular fall session in September or October, debating things that really matter to British Columbians right now. Unfortunately, we didn’t see that.

Here we are now, in this odd two-week session, debating a bill that is basically asking the government to have no accountability or transparency to the British Columbian people. It’s something I cannot support. What are you hiding? That is my question. It’s a question that I’ve been asked over and over again by many constituents, by business owners, by people in industry: what is going on?

I see my time is already winding down. As I mentioned, when we were all called to this two-week session, we figured we’d be here debating a pandemic recovery piece. I’ve just talked for 20-some-odd minutes, 23 minutes. I haven’t even talked about the recovery piece. All I’ve talked about is this veil of darkness that the government wants to keep themselves in. That’s wrong.

Let’s talk about the relief piece, which, again, just a quick search on either the Premier’s Twitter feed or any news outlet…. Everybody is going to get a thousand bucks if you’re a family, or you’re going to get $500 as an individual. It’s pretty much the election promise — a honey trap, almost. Sounds really good when you say it like that. It gets everybody stuck in there. “Let’s put a little X beside that $1,000. Boy, I can hardly wait to get that or my $500.” Then you start reading the fine print there, and you realize it’s not going to be that easy. It’s not going to be….

What did the Premier say here in his report — the $1.4 billion? Now I think they’re asking for $2 billion. That’s another question, but I’m going to run out of time here. Maybe one of my colleagues will ask about that. Well, they already have. Where’s the rest of the money? Show me the money. Where is the rest of the money going? That’s what British Columbians want to know.

Talking about the recovery piece, the COVID relief…. My colleagues have done a great job at that, already bringing this forward on this issue.

[4:50 p.m.]

Folks up in Peace River North have been fairly busy until this year. Things have slowed down. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in Grande Prairie just had the largest auction in history: almost 4,000 pieces of equipment in that auction. I would guess probably a third of those pieces of equipment were from the northeast. That’s a lot of people that aren’t working right now. That’s a lot of people that have lost their jobs because of this pandemic in 2020.

They were working in 2019. So why in tarnations would the government want to use the 2019 tax return to base this relief on? It makes absolutely no sense, and I hope it is something that the government will take into account, moving forward.

You know, I still chalk this up…. It’s a promise that they really didn’t intend on keeping anyways. I think that’s why they’ve put a number of these caveats in place. No different than the $10-a-day daycare. It’s nowhere to be seen. The $400 renters rebate — anybody seen that? No. Surrey portables being removed — another promise never delivered on. And 114,000 housing units to be created. Hmm. How purely aspirational.

No intentions, I don’t think, on delivering on these promises, just like I don’t think there’s any intention of getting this COVID payment out to — I think I heard one of the ministers say today — up to 90 percent of British Columbians. Not in its present form. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

You know, the hon. Premier has talked a lot about how we need to be fighting this pandemic and we need to build back economic recovery. He’s asking for British Columbians’ support to get us back on the right track. It’s very hard, when you see what has been laid out in Bill 3, to really trust that the government is there for British Columbians and there to get us back on the right track. Right now it does not look that way.

I’ll close my remarks here. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I truly believe that our summer…. I’m an optimist. My milk glass is half full. I truly hope that our summer coming up will be relatively normal. By the holiday season next year, we will look back on this time that we’re all in right now as a horrible dream.

I truly want to thank all of the front-line workers. I know that many have not had days off or taken holidays and are out there giving 150 percent every single day.

My deepest condolences to the families that have lost a loved one over this pandemic. We will get out of this. We need to ensure that we stay together and we stay strong.

Check in on family members. Check in on your friends. These are going to be hard times over the next couple of months. These are going to be hard times over the next couple of weeks. That is a present I’m sure anybody would appreciate — a phone call. “How are you doing?” I really encourage everybody to reach out and tell others to reach out and check in with your friends and loved ones.

With that, I’ll take my place. Thank you very much for the time. I look forward to listening to my other colleagues.

B. Banman: May I bring seasons greetings and merry Christmas on behalf of Abbotsford South.

[4:55 p.m.]

I would like to clarify one thing. I guess my backdrop has confused a couple of people out there in Twitterville. I guess Whoville finds almost anything to post on. We are not from the North Pole. This is just a backdrop, and I am, in fact, from Abbotsford South. I have done my best, however, to make sure that Santa knows, and I’ll try to keep them off the naughty list for them. I’ll do my best.

That being said, I’m here to speak on Bill 3. But before I do that, I want to congratulate all of the new MLAs. I also want to talk to not only the new MLAs, but also the seasoned MLAs, and I want to explain why I chose to run. I think we have a lot in common that way. We chose to run because we all have a desire to serve. We all want to do what’s best by our constituents — not just the ones who voted for us but all of them. We all want to make life better for every single British Columbian that we possibly can.

In this season, the season of goodwill, I think it’s important for us to focus on that. This is a season of magic. It’s a season where anything is possible. This is a season, also, of joy. But magic, when I was young, was something that I enjoyed doing, like many of us when we were younger.

I just received some tragic news last night that a very dear friend in England tragically passed in a car accident, and a magic deck of cards that I gave him is still in the household. My heart, at this time of year, is a bit heavy. Magic is a bit of sleight of hand. It involves some distraction and some tricks, sometimes some smoke and mirrors. But this season is magical itself.

I’m also known for wearing ties that are of this season. This is not a prop. This is actually, in fact, my Grinch tie, which I coincidentally put on. I hope you don’t consider that to be a prop.

I want to talk, and I’d love to be happy to talk about this bill. Unfortunately, there’s not much to talk about. There’s not much to it.

You know, a few weeks ago when we were in the height of campaign…. I’m sure those that, in the height of a pandemic and this magical time…. I think there are those of us new MLAs right now that have a lot that we share with those that missed a graduation, missed a wedding, or missed a significant celebration of some kind. As I sit here at home, like many of my colleagues that I see on Zoom, it’s bittersweet.

I would like to bring it…. I may be not be the only one to think of it, but it didn’t have to be this way. Had we waited till when the election was supposed to have been called…. And there was no reason to call this election, because all the parties were working together. They were working diligently together because, during a pandemic, that is what the people expect. I was proud of the job that was going on. Yes, they had their squabbles, but there was no reason to call this election when it happened.

Now, many of you may not know I’m also a doctor, doctor of chiropractic. I took a little bit of epidemiology. I do not profess to be an epidemiologist. But as was mentioned by more than one of my colleagues, it’s not a coincidence that the numbers started to rise after this election.

[5:00 p.m.]

We got people to get together inadvertently. It’s not the only reason, but I, in my heart, think that it was a contributing factor. It was not intentional, but it could have been avoided.

A pandemic, in my opinion, is not the time to shut down government. It’s a time where we roll up our sleeves, we get to work and we do the job on hand together, united. We can have our squabbles, like a family, but we put our differences aside, and we get the job done on behalf of those that we swore to serve. Sadly, that did not happen. Sadly, this government chose to call an election in the middle of a pandemic, because their numbers were high. Let’s be honest about it.

I’m a doctor. I follow trends, signs, symptoms. I look at and I listen to the story that the patient tells me. I am also the critic for Citizens’ Services, which deals with FOIs and transparency. This Premier is on record saying that the political party FOI requests are not important. That is one of the most troubling statements I have heard in a long time. If it’s not important to the opposition, is it not important to the press? Is it not important to individuals? It is a troubling trend, a trend of distrust.

Trust was broken when the agreement between the parties was ripped up. Trust, for me, has been broken when I hear these words — that FOIs are not important, according to the most powerful person in British Columbia. It’s troubling, it’s wrong, and it’s out of step. I will do what I can to ensure that I hold that account and I reverse that trend, because the citizens deserve it. Above all else, we need transparency in government, no matter who it is that’s at the helm.

For those of you who are new MLAs, I’d take a look at this bill. For those of you that are seasoned: during the campaign, did you think that you would be forced to sit on your hands and then vote to cut those families with children with special needs? Is this what you stand for? Is this what we stand for? Did you think that you would be voting on a bill that would slash those with disabilities by 50 percent of what they got at a time when they need it most?

During a pandemic, did you think that when this Premier announced that everyone was going to get up to $1,000 because of the pandemic, those that lost their jobs after the pandemic, which had nothing to do with 2019, would find that they’re left out in the cold? This truly is the winter of despair for them. This is not a jolly nor merry Christmas for them.

I know the intent was to make sure that those whose lives have been turned upside down by this pandemic, those whose jobs have been lost…. They are predominantly women — women who are predominantly single mothers, who overwhelmingly have service industry jobs, who live on the poverty level. Those are the statistics. We all know it. We never intended to hurt those people, but that’s exactly what this is going to do.

[5:05 p.m.]

I qualify, if I choose, for this particular response and this particular $1,000 upgrade. I have no intention of applying for it, because I will leave that to someone who truly does need it. I don’t. I have a roof over my head. I eat three meals a day if I wish, and life is okay. I’m not rich. I’m not poor. But I have not gone hungry, and that puts me better than most of the world.

This bill that is now here, that I have heard nothing on from the opposition…. For those of you that are new, is this what you expected, to sit there and say nothing? I think not. Small businesses are left out in the cold. I have a few small businesses in Abbotsford.

A name I shall leave alone, because I don’t want to embarrass them — they mortgaged their house to open up their dream restaurant just before the pandemic. They don’t know if they’re going to be able to hang on. A cycling spin shop is worried that they can’t even apply for any subsidies because that’s been cut off after the good doctor decided that this was too high of a risk. I’m not criticizing the good doctor.

Where’s the help for these businesses? There is no plan. There is no economic recovery whatsoever. So the very intention of what I believe this bill wanted to do has failed miserably. It is not going to do what was the original intention.

For the Finance Minister to say not only that she needs more time, but to make and mock about a $5 latte, was inappropriate. It was insulting, and she needs to apologize. She can do better. I worked alongside her. She also knows that extending this budget to April will drastically upset school boards and municipal governments. They have to have a plan and have to have a budget. It is inexcusable.

If I was in her place, I would suggest strongly that she put this massive majority to work. Many hands make light work. How many have been asked to help? This can be done if they want to. They just would rather not. They would rather hide in the darkness of winter. They would rather leave people out in the cold. I am not being face­tious about that. It is a cold, hard fact that many of the most vulnerable people, because of the new restrictions, do not have access to warmth at night because there are shelters that cannot house them anymore.

Is this what you want to vote for? Is this what you expect this side of the House to agree to? To turn our backs in the wet and the cold to those who are most vulnerable? I don’t think that’s what you want. I am begging you to rethink this, to have a look at this. There’s enough within there that can see that this plan…. This ship no longer has a rudder. It’s headed in the wrong direction.

This is the season of goodwill. Work with us. We’re not the enemy. We may be your adversaries at times, but we are not your enemy. We all want what is best for the citizens of British Columbia. This bill does nothing. It does not achieve those goals, and by delaying this, during the middle of a pandemic, almost six months will go by before government can do its business. That is not good enough. The people of this province deserve more. They deserve more at any time, any other time, but especially during a pandemic. It’s heartless. It’s cruel, be it unintentional or not.

[5:10 p.m.]

I was elected, I think as we all are, to want to do right by the citizens of this province. It is time for the Premier to put away the sleight of hand, the smoke and mirrors, and to stop the bad magic and turn on the good. At this time of year, we need to pull together. We need to be in the same boat, moving in the same direction. This bill does none of that.

Speak up, my colleagues. Let’s hear what you have to say about this. You have a right to be heard within this House, albeit virtually or inside the House itself. You will have to answer to your citizens. Do you want to explain why you said nothing as mothers could not buy their children Christmas gifts? To heck with a $5 latte. They’re worried about feeding their children come Christmastime.

Is this what we are? Is this what we’ve become? We have become so jaded, so partisan that we allow our egos to get in the way of doing what’s right? We will have to answer to the citizens on why we sat and did nothing, why we forced people to go to an election during a pandemic, why we allowed mothers and children to go without at this time of year.

Santa isn’t coming this year for many. They’ll be lucky to eat, this time of year. Sometimes the toughest and most difficult thing to do is to admit that we messed up, we made a mistake. “This is not what we wanted. This is not what we intended.” This bill does not serve the needs of our most vulnerable in society.

I can tell by the looks on your faces that you know what I’m saying is the truth. You know what I’m saying is right. If this was your mother, if this was your sister, would you be able to look at them and say: “I did my best”? I don’t think we can. This bill falls short.

Then special warrants were brought up by my very seasoned colleague of Abbotsford West. Special warrants are only to be used in very special times. It’s a way to hide from transparency. This is not the time for lack of transparency. If anything, this is the time for increased transparency.

This is a time where we need to work together as a team. We’ll have our differences. We’ll have our fights. But at the end of the day, if we don’t work together as a team, those who need us the most will go without. This will become the winter of discontent.

I am sure that when this was called, the Health Minister was known to say that we will be having an election during a pandemic now or a pandemic a year from now. I would like to think that the Health Minister did not know that a vaccine was this fast around the corner, because normally it takes much longer. But a vaccine is here, thankfully. Thankfully, it’s here, and hopefully, we will be out of this pandemic soon.

[5:15 p.m.]

But now is not the time for pettiness. Now’s the time, more than ever, that we need to be transparent, where we need to work together and where we need to say: “Stop. This did not achieve the goal. It misses the mark.” To sit there in silence? I’m sorry. It lacks courage, and I find it shameful, especially during the Christmas season, the season of goodwill and the season, supposedly, of peace.

This is not a merry Christmas. This is not where the Grinch’s heart becomes three times too large. This is a bitter, cold, heartless bill that does nothing for those that need it the most, for those that have lost their jobs. I don’t know how it went wrong. It doesn’t matter how it went wrong, how it missed the mark. But tomorrow, or Monday, there is time to fix this. But you need to speak up.

If you won’t speak up in this House, where we’re supposed to have full debate, I beg of you to speak up in caucus. It is your duty to serve the people of this province, your constituents. Tonight, before you put your head down in your warm bed, with a belly full of food, have a good look in the mirror and ask yourself: “Would my parents be proud of me right now?” You know what the answer is going to be.

Ask yourself: “Can I do better? Can we work collaboratively together? Is the opposite side of the House bringing a few flaws that we had not considered?” I sit around a municipal table. In addition to that — during a pandemic, I will add — there are going to be many byelections that will cost cities across this province moneys that need not have been spent, based on the timing of this election. Cities are struggling under the burden. School districts are struggling under the burden of how to get through this pandemic.

If this is what the 42nd Legislature is doing to start off with, with this kind of pathetic partisan politics, where we can’t talk to one another, where we can’t listen to one another, help us all. Help us all. Where is the decency? Those that depend on us deserve a heck of a lot better than this. You know I speak the truth. The games need to be put aside. They sincerely do. Listen to us. Debate with us. Let’s, together, find solutions to this.

This is worse than not having a solution at all. Hiding in the dark, staying silent as the cold winds blow. I beg of you, on behalf…. Put our own stuff aside. There are those out there in the middle of this pandemic that are doing their part. They are not getting together for Christmas. They’re doing their bit. They’re doing what’s asked of them. Are we doing what’s asked of us? I don’t think we are, if this is how this is going to start.

[5:20 p.m.]

I want to respect all of my colleagues in this House. We all signed up to do what’s right by those that voted for us and those that live in our ridings. So I would say to you: “Let’s get together, let’s get to work, let’s roll up our sleeves, and let’s make the citizens of this province proud. Together we can get through this.”

We’ve heard Dr. Henry talk about it. Be safe. Be kind. Where’s the kindness in this? Where’s the safety? I encourage you to seriously do some soul-searching as to whether or not this hits the mark or even comes close.

To those with families that have disabilities, to those that have children that have learning disabilities, is this what you thought you were signing up for, a 50 percent reduction here, not helping those that lost their jobs, that lost loved ones, that are having to care for their parents because they were scared of them being in a home? I re­ceived that call.

The vaccine is on the way. Let’s work together, let’s be kind, and let’s be collaborative.

I hope, moving forward, that this does not set the tone for the next four years, because right now this bill reeks of partisanship. The Premier, the Health Minister and the Finance Minister have some explaining to do, as do the rest of us if we don’t improve upon this bill that sits before this House.

I may be new, but I think those of us who are new expected a little more. My heart is heavy today, not just because I lost a very dear friend but because I don’t see a lot of hope this Christmas with this bill. I see no hard work in the days ahead. I see hiding, and I see a lack of transparency. We need to do better than this.

Deputy Speaker: I thank the member for Abbotsford South and recognize the member for Penticton.

D. Ashton: Thank you, hon. Speaker. First of all, my best wishes and congratulations to you as the Assistant Deputy Speaker to the Deputy Speaker and to our new Speaker. I look forward, over the next period of time, to working collaboratively with you, and I know that the three of you will do the incredible job that is demanded of you in the people’s House in Victoria. So once again, congratulations.

If I can take a moment, I would like to thank the individuals that have allowed me to come back to Victoria, albeit by Zoom tonight. I would like to say thank you to each and every one of them in the communities that I so proudly represent — Naramata, Penticton, Summerland, Peachland and the rural areas in between.

I want to thank you for your trust in me. My promise to each and every one of you, whether you voted for me or whether you didn’t vote for me or didn’t vote, is I’m here, along with the incredible individuals that I work with in our offices, temporary in Peachland and Summerland and Penticton, to help each and every one of you in any way we can.

I look forward to the opportunity of a good working relationship with the new government. I look on screen and see many faces that I’ve had the honour and the opportunity to work with over the past couple of terms, and I see a whole bunch of new faces.

[5:25 p.m.]

I look forward to that same opportunity of being able to work in collaboration and cooperation with you for the benefit of each and every citizen in this incredible province that we all call home. I would say that we all have to remember our place and our respect for those citizens and do the utmost possible for each and every one to ensure that their lives are better in any way that we can make a difference. I’m quite sure that each and every one of us will do our best in trying to do that.

I would also like to thank those that were directly involved in the last election, individuals that have been around me and been friends of mine for years that stepped forward and helped to ensure that the possibility of another term was probable. Through family, through friends, through individuals — I won’t mention names — that have made a huge difference in the last three elections to ensure a success, I cannot thank you enough.

I would also like to thank the individuals that stood up to run against me. You know, each and every one of those individuals, in their own way, cared about the communities that they wanted to represent and bring forth their ideas. It was an absolute honour to be able to work with you collaboratively in many of the opportunities that were given to speak publicly together. I really do want to thank you for stepping forward, because the position that I’m fortunate enough to hold has made an incredible difference in my life.

I know in the future that many of you may step forward again. I sincerely wish you the best of luck. Because, mark my words, when the opportunity presents itself…. Unfortunately, some of the people that I see on the screen right now haven’t had that opportunity, but when you first walk into the people’s house with the 87-plus people that are in there that are elected around the province and the incredible staff that are there, you’re in awe of the opportunity that is presented to yourself to make a difference to those people. I sincerely wish in the future that some of you will be as successful and have that opportunity.

Ladies and gentlemen and my peers in the Legislature, today I am stepping forward to make a few comments about the bill that is in front of us. I’m glad to see and have watched, as many of you have over this period of time, to see the difference of opinion that has been presented. I am remiss in not being able to hear from the official government MLAs, and I really sincerely hope that in the future, before this bill comes to a vote, we can hear your ideas and hear why this is being brought forward at this specific time.

You’ve heard from my peers directly about some of the concerns that we have at this point in time of why this is coming forward and why there is a delay in a budget that is not only required for the province within a specified time — the extension that is being asked for — but is required by a lot of other people in the province. People have to make plans. Whether it’s a school board, whether it’s a municipality, whether it’s a business waiting to see what’s going to happen — new taxation, less taxation that’s coming forward — people need to know. People need to know more this year because of this darned pandemic that is really causing some grave concerns around the province.

I look at the communities, again, that I represent and some that I don’t, the trials that people are going through at this point in time, just trying to survive. Unfortunately, I’m seeing more and more and more papered-up windows, and I’m seeing closed stores. I’m seeing restaurants that are operating at such a small capacity. I see families and know families that are struggling on a continual basis, trying to stay ahead of the curve in any way they can and trying to do the things that the province and the good ministerial staff in the province and the good doctor that we’ve heard so much about over the recent times are suggesting or demanding that be done. But they’re trying to survive.

I don’t want to see this continue. What we have to do is we have to step forward and do everything possible to ensure that these individuals, whether they’re employed, whether they’re unfortunately not employed or whether they’re employers…. We have to step forward and help them in each and every way that we can.

[5:30 p.m.]

In the last election…. It’s unfortunate. It’s one of the things that seems more and more prevalent these days, that there are promises made and promises not being kept. One of the promises that we’re discussing today is a contribution to families, of a relief of approximately $1,000, depending upon levels of income for a family and up to $500 for single individuals.

If and when this comes, probably it’s going to be too late for many people, but it’s going to be something that they are going to need, and it’s something that we need to address as quickly as possible. But we want to ensure that while we do it, we’re not challenging the health of others in the province, also, just because they don’t qualify, because of — if I remember correctly — their income from 2019.

The pandemic has changed dramatically people’s own financial ability and financial opportunities. We need to consider everybody in this. I really, really hope that the government will take it under consideration that 2019 taxable income isn’t going to cut it for people that are so, so affected by this.

For each and every one of us, whether you’re new or old, we have our opportunity of salary. We have the opportunity to maybe make sure that those in our families have a good Christmas this year. But there are so many people I know…. The noise that you hear, people’s nails sliding down the walls, is forthcoming. I just hope that each and every one of us ensures to remember that, especially at Christmas time.

I would be remiss — and I’ll interrupt for half a second — that today is a very special day for many people in the world. I would take this opportunity to wish Hanukkah sameach and chag sameach to each and every one of those celebrating tonight. I hope that you have the opportunity to be with your immediate family.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

I do miss not being in Victoria tonight to help out in lighting the menorah. I really hope that we do remember, for those celebrating today, how special this is. If you do come across somebody that is in celebration, please wish them the best.

One of the other things that has been brought forward is about the opportunity that was presented by the government for pandemic pay for those out on the front line. It is disturbing to me that this hasn’t been followed through completely. I have been not deluged, but I have had nu­merous, numerous calls from people. Some I know; others I don’t. I will qualify it that my mother is 96 years old, coming up in April, in a home, and the people do their darndest to look after her — not only her, but all the other residents. They haven’t been able to receive their pandemic pay.

What I understand is that…. I will call them “facilities.” In these senior centres that are run by the various health authorities — in my area, Interior Health — it’s my understanding that they’ve received their pandemic pay, where those that work in a place where it is either for-profit or not-for-profit have not received it.

That pandemic pay means an awful lot to these individuals. Many of them — I can speak from experience of where my mom is — are being asked to run back-to-back shifts, literally working around the clock, because there’s no additional help. Working through their days off. Not being able to take holidays or having the holidays refused because of the shortness of staff — not only because of the pandemic that we’re facing but because of consequences of them not being able to work, if they have a part-time job, at different homes to help those seniors and those loved ones that need their assistance on a continual basis.

I would ask the government to not only consider what you’re asking for in this bill, but let’s ensure that a promise that was made before, for that pandemic pay to each and every one of these individuals, comes forward before Christmas. You do have the opportunity.

Not to dwell on something, but there was another promise about a rental subsidy of $400. Again, I will not belittle it, but I would just ask that the government and those responsible consider that promise again that was made and bring that in. It will go a long way for so, so many people. Each and every one of us knows people that are struggling. There are an awful lot of people out there that a $400 rent subsidy at this point in time will make a huge difference.

[5:35 p.m.]

To get on, I would just like to say that the support for children and youth, as reported by the representative — if I remember correctly, it was called Left Out — is urging the province to reinstate supports. I would hope that that transpires.

It’s being seen, at this point in time, as a clawback for those with disabilities, whether it was intentional or an unintentional consequence. Again, to the government, please reconsider that. There is a young gentleman that I know in Penticton that fights against some of the disabilities that he has on a continual basis. He’s in the community. He’s active in the community, and he works whenever he can. He has phoned me on numerous occasions to say: “Listen, it’s not a lot of money to some, but it’s an awful lot of money to me.”

So a direct request to the party of government. I will put it through yourself, Mr. Speaker, to the Premier of the province. Please, please reconsider this. I can’t help but remember the cries of frustration that came, when the party that I am involved in and the current government, when they were in opposition, about some of the issues that they felt were unjust, and the cries of indignity were never stopped. It’s a shame, I would think very much a shame, that they would do the same. Sober second thought, I really think, needs to be taken on that.

I come from an area — as many of you know, the Okanagan — of incredible tourism at all times. It’s four seasons here. It used to be peaches and beaches, as we knew in Penticton, but it’s spread into the shoulder season. The wineries and the new cideries and the breweries have made a huge difference to the travelling public coming through here. The ski hills and the four season opportunities that the Okanagan has presented to many. Whether you’re from Alberta or whether you’re from the Lower Mainland or the north, there was a time when many, many people congregated in the Okanagan for a vacation.

It didn’t happen as much this year, unfortunately, and the tourism business is really, really struggling at this point in time. Again, I would ask the government to take a look at how they can help. How can you step forward and ensure that these businesses survive?

Unfortunately, it’s not just in the Okanagan. I take a look at Vancouver, one of the main cities, Victoria — you know, if we walk up Government Street when we’re in Victoria and take a look at the businesses that are struggling along there. They base much of their income on tourism. Tourism is incredibly important for British Columbia, and again, I would just ask that you take a look at this and take a look at how you as the government can step forward and make a difference.

Along with tourism, restaurants. We all have our fa­vourite restaurants that we used to attend on a regular basis. To be frank, I don’t really remember. I’ve probably only been out a few times since the pandemic, and they have been more of a necessity than anything else.

These individuals that I know…. The neighbour right behind me owns an incredible restaurant in Penticton, and, yes, they’ve been proactive in trying to do things. They actually moved their kitchen and their processing facilities to the front because with the building that they have, the windows slide open. They’re able to serve the public safer that way. Because of the requirements of seating, they can’t actually even really bring people into the restaurant anymore. So they’re doing their best with outside tables and serving the public to pick up their meals to take home for their families. I have to say they’re being quite proactive.

But as we’ve heard today, there has been a note put forward by the Liberal Party to take a look at capping some of the delivery charges. We need to take a broad-spectrum look at everything that’s happening. Again, I would ask the government…. This might be something to consider that might go a long way for those in the restaurant business.

I would ask also of the government, with Christmas being so close, that we consider those people that are locked in and shut in that don’t have the opportunity and don’t have families. I would ask my peers around the table, in the Legislature, to ensure that we do our best to be out and proactive to ensure that somehow those people are recognized.

[5:40 p.m.]

One of my peers before had said a call can make all the difference from each and every one of us to people that we know that are maybe in a home or in the hospital or those that are going to be spending Christmas by themselves because family can’t come home at Christmastime. Again, this is just something that can make a real difference in people’s lives: the support that we can do.

I would like to say that during the pandemic and right before the election was called, I was proactive in advertising — because the newspapers were feeling the pinch — about doing our best to shop locally, to remember those merchants in the main street, the side streets and even in the malls, where there are not corporate chains in the mall. I’ll even give it to the corporate chains, because they do hire local people. If we do shop locally, it’s those individuals that work there or the store owners that make a difference in our communities.

Whether they’re providing donations for youth soccer or youth hockey or dance for the kids or whatever, those donations are still being requested by the organizations, although it’s a little bit slower right now because of some of the restrictions of the pandemic. It’s these individuals that are really going to make a difference in that community atmosphere that each and every one of us experiences in the communities that we live in.

Financial relief. I have talked about it a little bit here tonight. There are many people that are not going to have a job in the new year. I can feel it. Maybe you don’t know, but our family was involved in retail throughout the province. I can literally walk into a retail store — my entire life has literally been based around retail — and feel the pulse of that store. I can tell you that when I am out in the community — in my community and in other communities in the area — as an older retailer, you do walk down the side streets and down Main Street and have a look in the stores or stick your nose in just to see how things are going.

Boy, it’s going to be tough out there, folks. It’s going to be incredibly tough. This is probably going to be one of the worst Christmas seasons for anybody in retail, and I can say that it is only going to get worse in the new year. This is the time when people stock up the accounts and squirrel that money away to carry them through January, February and almost in March, before the traffic starts up again. That’s not happening this year. Those big boxes or where the people are going online are making a difference, but a lot of those companies don’t make those contributions to our community.

I would just ask you to think about that in the future, to think about it as government, if you can make a difference. I think there are many things that have been put forward today and that will be put forward in the next few days of this discussion, where there are some good ideas.

Again, I would go through the Speaker and ask the Premier directly, and his staff: “Reconsider, sir. Reconsider some of the ideas that have been brought forward by some very learned people on this side of the House and that can make a difference. You are a party of the majority. You are a party that has the opportunity now to make a difference. Make a difference in the right direction, because it is going to be imperative.”

My predecessor was here from Penticton. I will never forget how he told me, having had the opportunity to work in Finance: “All of a sudden, the staff will come in. Two weeks ago or three weeks ago, they’d said everything was fine, that everything was looking good. Well, all of a sudden, that big hole can appear, very quickly, if it hasn’t already appeared.” Maybe that’s some of the reason that we’re asking for the delay in here. But it will turn on a dime, and I would just suggest strongly that government has the opportunity now to step forward and try and make a difference to each and every one of those individuals out there.

Please, to the Premier and the government of today: take some of the ideas of some of the people that have been speaking over the last day and will speak again going into next week. Take some of these ideas forward. Please take them forward, because there are some very good suggestions that will make a real difference to an individual.

Before I close, I would ask the government to look at one more thing — I’m not sure where this is going: the homeowner grant is part of Bill 3. Again, with the shortness of cash available, I’ll make you a bet that there are people that are going to be looking at deferring their taxation on the property that they own personally, as a homeowner. I’m not quite too sure what’s involved in this change of regulations, other than that it looks like they may be asking for more and more information. I hope that doesn’t slow the process down.

[5:45 p.m.]

Again, tread lightly on this. That homeowner’s grant saves a lot of people. It saves a lot of people when they get old, they’re close to retirement and they don’t have a lot of income. As one of my peers said: “What’s the matter with owning the home?” They’ve worked their whole life to have that asset, and that asset is, 99 percent of the time, usually passed along to family. But there is going to probably be trouble this year with it. Please do not make it more onerous for people to have access to that opportunity of deferral.

I hope that British Columbians will take heed that the pandemic has caused a lot of things in the province to be taken out of government’s hands, but the government has the opportunity to make a difference. Once again, to each and every one of you that sit on the government side: please consider your actions and the opportunities that are presented to you in government.

I personally look forward to working with each and every one of you. I look forward to the opportunity of working again with my peers and yourselves in the Legislature that I had the experience to work in when I first came there — the hall of the people, the government of the people and the legislation of the people. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you.

Once again, if you have a minute to thank those people on the front-line staff — whether it’s a grocery that you deal with all the time, whether it’s somebody in a bakery you deal with all the time, whether it’s just somebody in a store — just appreciate the fact that those people are putting themselves forward.

I cannot and will not be remiss in not saying the same about teachers. You know, those teachers are up front and centre these days, trying to educate our children and others’ children and bring them forth in a world today which is going to be probably totally different than what you and I have grown up in over the last…. Don’t forget them, please, during this traditional holiday season.

Last but not least, before I wish a merry Christmas to all, please accept my — and I’m quite sure everybody in the Legislature’s — condolences to those that have lost somebody to this terrible virus that we’re all facing. There’s going to be a sad time this Christmas with a lot of people that are alone or are missing those loved ones, where they can’t see their loved ones because they’re in a home or, unfortunately, they passed this year. Let’s think about them.

To each and every one of you, I want to wish you a very merry Christmas. I look forward quickly to meeting you on a personal one-to-one basis, with six feet between us at this point in time and a mask on. During the happy season, I would ask you to stay very, very healthy but to once again, remember those less fortunate, because each and every one of us has the opportunity in our fiscal position or financial capacity to probably make a difference during this Christmas. Thank you very much. I look forward to some more comments on Bill 3. Have a good evening.

K. Kirkpatrick: I’m glad to rise today for the opportunity to speak to a bill for the very first time in this House. I get to debate a bill that will have a substantive impact on British Columbians in the midst of this second and dangerous wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve never seen a debate like this, because no one seems to be speaking on the other side of the House. I don’t understand why anyone from government hasn’t gotten up to speak to the merits of this legislation.

I will start by saying that I don’t understand why we’re here. In this, the NDP’s first piece of legislation in this session, I don’t see anything that deals with the issues that real British Columbians are experiencing right now. Rather than coming here to look for ways to support small business, the hospitality sector, teachers, front-line workers and the families of children and youth with special needs, we’ve been called to Victoria because this NDP government does not appear to be able to account for its finances.

I want to talk about small businesses in my community. I’m going to share my own experience because it gives me great empathy for what they’re going through today. I had my own small business in the late 1990s. I started it, and I put everything I could into it. I took a mortgage on my house — I actually get emotional when I start to talk about this — and 9/11 happened. I remember the day that the phones stopped ringing, and I think about…. That was only a blip in the economy compared to what these poor small business people are dealing with right now.

[5:50 p.m.]

We’re here to talk about pushing back a budget and not dealing with those dramatic issues that people running businesses are having today. It just doesn’t feel right to me. This bill that you brought us is very concerning. From what we can see, this is a bill that will limit transparency and accountability while delaying needed supports and money getting into the hands of British Columbians that need it.

The bill before us will effectively allow government to delay introducing this next budget until the end of April of next year. The NDP government already came to this House to ask for an amendment to delay this budget for 30 days, and now government returns to the House to ask for yet another extension of 30 days.

Mr. Speaker: Noting the hour, Member.

K. Kirkpatrick: I reserve my place to continue, and I move adjournment of the debate.

K. Kirkpatrick moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. M. Farnworth moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until December 14 at 10 a.m.

The House adjourned at 5:51 p.m.