Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued debate, throne speech.

Throne Speech Debate

(continued)

S. Chant: I rise to continue my support of the throne speech this afternoon. When I spoke yesterday, I spoke about the misery, the mystery and the magic of the first two waves of COVID: the misery in the losses, the mystery in how to go forward and the magic of what people de­monstrated as the resilience grew. We’re now in the third wave, yet we’ve got another piece in the puzzle. We’ve got vaccines now, and we’re moving forward.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

I also wanted to thank the Minister of Health, Dr. Bonnie Henry and the Premier for their unwavering compassion, integrity and commitment to the people of B.C. as we work through the dual pandemics that we are dealing with.

So the next question is: how do we recover? How do we move forward? How do we put this behind us?

We need to commit to learning from this experience — recognizing and embracing the positive aspects, such as the rapid implementation of telehealth that we were discussing this morning with the rural health group. It has a spectacular applicability in a province as large and diverse as British Columbia, such as the realization by many that they can work productively and effectively from home, thereby regaining some significant quality time and reducing commuting congestion and emissions. I’ve seen so many more family groups out walking, bicycling, hiking together and heard from many families how dynamics have improved in a variety of ways.

We also need to take an inventory of the many gaps in resources and supports that have been revealed, or further widened, and work together as a society to fill them. An example that has become particularly apparent to me is what I call “the invisible population”: those people who, for some reason or another, remain in the home and are cared for by their family or caregivers. COVID has brought to light just how fragile the supports are for these folks and for their families, whether it is children with disabilities or young adults who have finished at high school and there is not further appropriate programming available or adults who live with debilitating onset of disease, such as ALS.

Our communities have demonstrated resilience and strength in so many ways, and our government is committed to maintaining and supporting this strength through investment in people, business, health and environment. This provides a very broad spectrum of work to be done.

Another area of work that needs to be addressed by us all is that rise of significant racism and acts of hatred which have escalated tremendously in the past year. Whether it’s speaking out or taking action, we all have a part to play when it comes to tackling racism. Initial progress has been made through creating Resilience B.C., a network across the province to respond to racism and provide anti-racism tools. Again, more work to be done.

Many of B.C.’s businesses have been hard hit by the pandemic. Our government is helping them adapt so that they can grow and hire and rehire. Access to grants and support in establishing online presence are just a couple of examples.

Also, projects, such as having some of our ecotourism companies help clean up our shorelines, have demonstrated innovation and an ability to adapt. Distilleries moved to making hand sanitizer as soon as it was recognized that a critical shortage loomed. Curbside pickup became an efficient part of shopping. In the year ahead, we will continue to support businesses while we build towards a more innovative, sustainable and inclusive economic future, one that also includes some of the many changes we’ve already made to do things better.

[2:45 p.m.]

As part of our plans to achieve economic recovery goals, our government will pass legislation to support the operations of an InBC Investment Corp., a strategic fund to help promising B.C. companies scale up, anchor talent and keep jobs and investment in home. I don’t know how many of us have seen the brain drain of people going to other provinces and other countries because the job that they are looking for isn’t available in their community or in their province. We need to stop that drain.

We’ve got many nurses who work out of country. We saw it in Ontario, where the nurses were going across to Michigan to work in the COVID and providing their work to other parts. We’ve got to stop that. We’ve got to make it so that our youth stay here and work here, and we’ve got to give them that opportunity. In order to help with that, the province is providing more than 5,000 youth and young adults across British Columbia with access to skills training and well-paid jobs through the almost $45 million StrongerBC future leaders program.

How do we increase affordability? There are a couple ways we could do that. How about cutting ICBC rates by 20 percent? How about expanding access to $10-a-day child care spaces? How about helping to get thousands more affordable rental housing across British Columbia and increasing disability and seniors income assistance, therefore putting more money into local economies? Those are some of the ways that we can help with affordability.

In health, we want to improve health care to ensure that we’re prepared for future health challenges, by fixing cracks in our long-term care that COVID-19 has exposed, by reducing our surgery wait times and building more hospitals and urgent primary care centres all across B.C. This week our Minister of Health indicated that our surgery times are going to be looked at again, because we need that time for other things right now in our third wave. However, this time, we’ve learned from wave 1 and wave 2 how to do it in a systematic and effective fashion so that we’re not increasing wait times. What we’re doing is managing it in a way that we never did before.

We have made permanent the largest-ever increase to income and disability assistance rates and the first-ever increase to the seniors supplement, which is a little different from our predecessors, who didn’t manage to change a lot of that stuff. Significant changes and im­provements in the provision of mental health services we have discussed in question period. A lot of work has been done; there’s still lots to go.

We want to make sure that we enhance accessibility, availability and the range of treatment options. One of the things that I think is really important that maybe we’ve been missing in some of our discussions — and I come from a place of health care — is that a lot of times we look at somebody and say: “Holy crow. They need help. How are we going to help them change the path that they’re on?” But they’re not ready for us to offer that help. We need to figure out different ways to offer that help so that it can be meaningful to them and to their families and support their families.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had parents of young adults say to me: “What do we do? How do we do this?” And we have to say: “They’re young adults. They have to make their own decisions. You can’t make decisions for them anymore.” That feels very wrong to a parent of young adults if they see something is endangering them. This is something we need to think about and figure out.

We also, of course, are having an intense focus on the opioid overdose crisis, with a multi-layered, cross-governmental approach.

COVID has also highlighted the importance of keeping people connected. The work our government has done and continues to do to increase connectivity in the province is helping to improve safety right across our province.

Making these connectivity improvements is also an important component of our government’s commitment to reconciliation as well. For example, the work on improving cellular connectivity along Highway 16 was among the Highway of Tears Symposium reports, 33 re­commendations aimed at enhancing safety for Indigenous women and girls. This recommendation from the symposium was echoed in the report from the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

[2:50 p.m.]

Our work to support reconciliation in B.C. also includes supporting Indigenous families and children in the province. I’m proud of our government’s decision to give a boost of $109 million, over three years, to foster parents, adoptive caregivers, family members caring for Indigenous children, and Community Living B.C. home-share providers — their first pay increase in a decade. As we continue to combat the disproportionate number of Indigenous children in the foster system, this is an important step in supporting those that are still there.

Too often economic growth in our province has come at the expense of our environment. In North Vancouver–Seymour, we’re lucky to have some of the most beautiful forests, mountains and streams in the province, including Lynn Canyon Park and Mount Seymour Provincial Park. Some of my constituents are bears and owls. North Van–Seymour is home to many organizations and individuals who recognize the full importance of sustaining and fostering our environment through a variety of active and proactive measures.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Seymour Salmonid Society, who work with the salmon hatchery in our headwaters, supporting the salmon stock and providing education in conjunction with our Indigenous colleagues, and also our North Shore Streamkeepers, who find and rehabilitate the many streams that have been affected by residential and commercial development. Seymour Mountain provides access to the outdoors for many folks from Metro Vancouver, and COVID has impacted the ability to absorb the numbers of people who want to climb, hike, ski, snowshoe. Again, accessibility is key.

I support our throne speech, as it shows the way to get beyond COVID, to get herd immunity established and recalibrate our lives so that we’re able to get on with being part of our family, part of our community and part of our society. I’m a proud member of a government that is committed to keeping B.C. and supporting B.C. in achieving that goal. We will keep working together as a province to keep ourselves and each other safe, connected and posi­tive.

At the end of my discussion, I would just like to make a brief shout-out to our interns, Kala, Arian and Rachel, who helped put together this response to the throne. I appreciate their help.

Thank you for the opportunity to support the throne speech.

T. Halford: I rise today to speak to the throne speech. I’ve actually got to speak to something first that’s a bigger priority for me, and that is to wish my daughter Sasha a very, very happy seventh birthday.

I know that members in this House from every party…. We all will make sacrifices, and they’re important sacrifices, but it is not just us making those sacrifices. Today I’m reminded that those that we love very, very much have to make sacrifices as well.

To Sasha, I say happy birthday. I say that I will see you soon, and I will come bearing gifts, maybe some flowers and some chocolates.

When I talk about Sasha and when I’m reminded of my other kids…. And I do have other kids. They’re boys, but Sasha is always the one that somehow ends up stealing dad’s heart.

I will say that we have a very, very important job to do. Whether we’re on the government side of the House or the opposition side of the House, we have the utmost responsibility to our constituents and to those in this province to do our level best to provide everybody with a better life. I say that with respect, and I have to say that I think this throne speech missed a part of that.

I think when we’re looking at where we’ve come from and where we’re going and that we’ve faced this global pandemic for over a full calendar year now, we must realize the amount of British Columbians that are struggling at all levels. We must realize the amount of British Columbians who have experienced loss, who have lost loved ones in this pandemic. And we must realize the British Columbians that have lost loved ones in our other pandemic that we’ve just been discussing on the sombre fifth anniversary of our opioid crisis.

[2:55 p.m.]

We owe it to all British Columbians to do our level best, when we’re in this House or when we’re outside of this House, to get up each day and pursue a better British Columbia. We need to ensure that we are striving to make significant investments in areas where we’re experiencing growth or areas where we’re experiencing extreme shortage. I’ll talk about a few of those areas right now.

When we talk about small business support and about the front-line workers that have been there for us from day one of this pandemic, it’s our obligation to be there for them. When we look at what we’ve done for small businesses…. When we came out of this election in October, many, many commitments were made. I think a lot of hope was given.

I remember setting up my constit office. I would usually do between five and ten meetings a day with constituents who were trying to get their economic recovery benefit. I understand the intentions of the government. I understand what they were trying to do. But it was that false sense of hope. I was talking to single moms. I was talking to grandparents. I was talking to an individual that just lost his job or lost his business. They said: “I can’t access this. I can’t access this grant.”

When we look at what we were doing for the small business recovery and how we stumbled getting that out, I think we can all agree that the last number of months have been incredibly difficult. The last year has been incredibly difficult for all British Columbians. But this throne speech was an opportunity to deliver. It was an opportunity to give British Columbians a better hope.

We talk about transportation. I was somewhat enthused to see that the Massey replacement was discussed. But it’s 2021. The previous government had already committed millions, hundreds of millions, of dollars to that project, which was put on hold. We’re back at square one. We're talking about it, but we are not seeing a shovel in the ground. We’re not giving families the relief they deserve in times of their commute.

Quite often I hear from parents. I know my colleague does as well. Whether it is a missed soccer game or whether it’s a missed appointment, a missed surgery, we have to view that as a failure to act. We have to view that as a failure on this government to prioritize the needs of British Columbians in my community and the neighbouring com­munities that depend on that transportation.

It gives little faith when we hear that the replacement for the Pattullo Bridge is further delayed. That gives us little comfort.

It gives us great strain when we hear that support for mental health is coming. “Be patient. Hold tight.” Well, for a number of families in British Columbia, they’ve run out of time. They’ve run out of patience. In some instances, lives have been lost. Now, I know that the intention of this government is to provide solutions and support for British Columbians in every community. But when we’re talking about parents having to make a choice between having groceries in their fridge or paying for their child’s counselling or psychiatric treatment, we’re missing the mark.

[3:00 p.m.]

Too often we talk about what we can do. We talk about what is needed. But this government has had a very, very difficult time in terms of executing what’s needed. I think we’ve seen that. All the intentions that this government has are well intended. But at the end of the day, it continues to miss the mark.

Now, I can say with confidence, as a dad of three, that there is no more important health in my child’s life than their mental health. We look at what our children have come through over the last year. Children have not been able to see their grandparents, on many occasions. They have not been able to play hockey, play soccer, have sleepovers, travel, see their cousins.

We understand why. I’m not making the argument that that’s…. We’re not making the argument that that shouldn’t happen. What we’re saying is that the toll that that takes on our youth is enormous. What my fear is, as an MLA and as a dad, is that we will see a tsunami of our youth needing mental health support. The two biggest fears I have are that the support is not there, in terms of counsellors and psychiatric treatment, and then the second is affordability.

British Columbians, many of them, are struggling to pay the bills. Many of them are struggling to pay their mortgages and pay their rent, so a $120, a $150, a $200 bill for mental health services, whether it’s counselling or psychiatric treatment, sometimes is enough to push them financially over the edge. Unfortunately, I think that’s happening more often than not. We, on both sides of the House, need to find a way to do better. We owe it to our kids to do better.

When we talk about youth and mental health, the other point I wanted to point out was that in my riding of Surrey–White Rock, predominantly a senior riding…. I’ve got a lot of senior citizens in White Rock, a lot of grandparents in White Rock, a lot of individuals and seniors that are on fixed incomes, that don’t have disposable income. When we’re talking about the economic recovery benefit that was committed to British Columbians, a lot of them were counting on that money for Christmas gifts. They were counting on money to pay the bills, pay hydro, pay rent.

It’s important that when we’re talking about our seniors, we also consider our seniors in terms of mental health. Our seniors are not able, in many cases, to access mental health via Zoom or Teams, which we are so accustomed to, as we can see here on the screen today. Many of the seniors in my riding don’t own a computer. This government references gov.bc.ca or this hub here, and the support there or this network here. I’ll tell you, in my riding, very few and far between seniors are able to access those supports online.

We in this House need to do a better job of supporting our seniors for mental health. When we talk about grandkids not being able to see their grandparents, there’s a pretty big flip side to that, and that is grandparents not being able to see their grandkids, or their own children, who many times they’re dependent on to get them to an appointment or to get them groceries or to talk.

In my riding, I really, really worry about the effects of mental health on seniors and the effects that they will feel on the limited budget that they have. I think that’s something that I am hoping, optimistically, this government will address in the upcoming budget.

[3:05 p.m.]

I grew up in a family where my parents both owned small businesses. My mom still does, in White Rock. She’s got a coffee shop, and it’s inside a curling rink. I’ve never curled before, but it’s inside a curling rink in White Rock. This has been the most difficult year, in terms of keeping that business open. I know that that story is not uncommon with the other thousands of small businesses that we all share in our own communities.

I ask ourselves, and I ask this government: in this throne speech, are we doing our level best to offer those businesses support? Are we communicating well enough with those businesses?

I think we need to do better. I know small businesses are struggling right now. We need to find ways to make sure that we can support them, in any means necessary. I know that in our house, we’re enjoying takeout a little bit more often than we’ve done in the past. But we need to find ways to support our small businesses that were there for us yesterday. We need to be there for them today so that they can be there for us tomorrow.

I also want to take the time to speak about some of the other issues that we’ve seen. We haven’t really talked a lot about it, but you know what? Every British Columbian right now needs a little bit of help, whether it’s financial help, whether it’s help in mental health, whether it’s help in transportation needs. Every British Columbian needs a bit of help.

I know it’s something that we…. Some jokes have been made about it, but I’ll give an example: a Netflix tax. Why now? When British Columbians are…. We’re asking them to choose to be at home. We are asking them not to travel. We are asking them to do the right thing and stay with their immediate family.

As a dad, I can tell you that I’m not sure I get through this without Netflix and Disney+ in my house with our three kids. It’s a challenge. It’s a challenge for a lot of parents. But to tax Netflix right now? Come on. We can do better than that. Do you think that’s what a parent needs right now — a tax on a streaming service? I don’t know. I find it a little bit disingenuous that when we’re trying to make life easier for British Columbians, we tax a streaming service, but okay.

We have our work cut out for us on a number of files. We talked about economically…. From a health perspective, we’ve talked about the affordability issues that we’re seeing with mental health that my colleagues raised today. I will put out a challenge, and I guess it will be kind of a direct challenge to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. On a file of such importance — and I say this with respect, because I do believe the minister understands how important the file is — we need a concrete, coherent, well-funded plan to address mental health and addictions. Full stop. That’s it. I think all members in this House can agree with that.

I can tell you that mental health was not an item that was talked about a lot when I was growing up. It wasn’t talked a lot in a lot of the houses that I knew growing up. I think it’s talked a lot — I hope it is talked a lot — in a lot of the houses in British Columbia today.

[3:10 p.m.]

When we’re talking about reducing stigma, when we’re talking about giving support and giving people a pathway to a better life, we need to hold up our end of the bargain. We need to do a better job, and we are not doing that. The intentions are there, the words are there, but there is not a policy or a plan in place that seismically addresses the gaps that we are seeing in mental health and addictions.

My challenge to the minister today is to commit to a plan that shows us that we are on a path to a better tomorrow — that shows the moms outside and the dads outside and the sisters and the brothers outside who have experienced devastating losses. I’ll be there to support it, if it’s a plan that addresses all the issues that we need to talk about.

When we are talking about mental health and addictions…. To the Premier’s point, there are more legs on that stool than what we’re talking about today. We need to ensure, all British Columbians, that we are taking the issue seriously. The only way to do that is to have a plan in place and to have it funded appropriately.

I am cautiously optimistic that is being considered for next week’s budget. I know that it was addressed in the throne speech, but this government has talked about mental health services for four years. I think we can all agree that we’re not in a better place today than we were yesterday.

As I wrap up here, I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to all of those people who have been on the front lines of this pandemic and who have put their lives on hold to better us and to protect us. Whether it’s firefighters, paramedics, police, grocery workers, doctors, nurses, there’s a lot of tired British Columbians out there. I think we’re all proud of them.

I ask you this: does this throne speech provide relief for them in a meaningful way, when we emerge from this pandemic?

J. Brar: I’m really pleased to respond to the 2021 throne speech, delivered in this House this week on Monday.

This throne speech outlines our work to put the pandemic behind us and our plans to build a strong recovery for everyone. Our government’s top priority is protecting people’s health and livelihoods as we accelerate B.C.’s vaccine rollout.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the toughest challenge we have faced in generations, caused an unprecedented health and economic crisis for the people of this province. British Columbians have come a long way by looking out for each other. We can finally see the final line in sight.

Over a million people in B.C. have already received their first vaccine, with thousands more getting it every day. But as in a marathon, the final push is the hardest. The threat of a new variant means we must not let down our guard or give up on our layers of protection.

[3:15 p.m.]

Keeping people healthy and safe until we have crossed the finish line is our collective responsibility, and it is our government’s top priority. We are all in this together. People, businesses and health care workers have stood up to this challenge to help people of this province go through this difficult time.

I would like to thank Dr. Bonnie Henry and the Minister of Health for doing a remarkable job to keep our people safe and to sustain our economy in the best possible shape during this very difficult time. That will serve us as a springboard for a fast economic recovery after the pandemic is over.

I would also like to acknowledge the commitment of health care workers and other front-line workers that have helped keep British Columbians safe. The staff at Surrey Memorial Hospital have done a super job to deal with this unknown and extremely challenging virus.

Dr. Jaspinder Ghuman, an emergency room physician at Surrey Memorial Hospital, shared his experience in the Surrey Now-Leader newspaper on April 3, 2021.

“There was a ‘lot of fear’ when going into work during the first wave of the pandemic last spring….

“‘It felt like so long ago, but initially, when we first started, you thought, “Okay, yeah. This will be over in a few months, and we will be back to normal,”’ he noted.

“‘You can see the slow progression of the changes that were happening in the Surrey Memorial emergency room. We went from wearing no masks to then wearing masks when we saw patients to wearing masks all the time….’

“‘I haven’t seen my colleagues’ faces for almost a year, and we have so many new staff members in the hospital now. I actually have not seen their full face yet.’

“The last year, since the pandemic was declared in B.C., has been a ‘difficult year. There’s been a lot of ups and downs. We’ve learned a lot in the past year. It is difficult to go back into where we started from, but I think we’ve come a long way, even regardless of where we are now.’

“But now Ghuman said he feels safe coming into the hospital.

“‘It’s amazing how much we’ve learned about the virus over the past year that I feel safe. I actually feel really safe coming into the hospital. Everybody has a mask on. The risk of transmission is so low if both people have a mask on. I feel comfortable.’

“‘We’ve made so many strides to make the ER safe…. It’s a completely safe environment to come into, regardless if you have COVID or not.’”

This story tells us the challenges and sacrifices our health care workers have made and continue to make to keep us all safe. My sincere thanks to Dr. Ghuman and the other health care professionals at Surrey Memorial Hospital for providing the best care to the people of Surrey during this difficult time and for keeping us all safe.

This throne speech states that we will take action to help people now and create the conditions for a strong economic recovery that works for everyone.

[3:20 p.m.]

When the pandemic hit, B.C. was an economic leader in Canada. B.C. was among the leaders in employment growth across the nation. Four consecutive years prior to the pandemic, B.C.’s unemployment rate remained the lowest in Canada, at 4.7 percent. We had a triple-A credit rating. Budget 2020 was a balanced plan focused on the priorities of British Columbians. We were one of the country’s fastest-growing economies, with a low unemployment rate and steadily rising wages.

Despite the challenges of the last year, our strengths remain. B.C. enjoys abundant natural resources, is a gateway to Asia and has highly skilled people. We are already seeing positive signs for recovery. B.C. created 2,800 jobs in January 2021, and B.C. has seen nine consecutive months of job growth, bringing the employment numbers to more than 98 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

We understand that there’s more we need to do. We understand that. Later this month we will introduce a new budget that will improve health care, help businesses grow and hire and make record investment in infrastructure. Help is on the way.

Our focus from day one was on putting people first. That focus has not wavered during the pandemic, and we will continue through the recovery. When COVID-19 first struck, our government moved quickly to provide relief for renters, middle-class families, hard-hit small businesses and the most vulnerable people.

Our government was quick to provide a recovery ben­efit to the people in need. Families with a combined household income of less than $125,000 per year were eligible to receive $1,000. Families earning above that, up to $170,000, received payment on a sliding scale. Individuals earning less than $62,000 a year were eligible to receive $500, with those earning up to $87,000 eligible for a payment on a sliding scale. The emergency benefit for workers provided a $1,000 payment to people who lost their income.

A top-up of the B.C. climate action tax credit was pro­vided, up to an additional $451 in July for a family of four. A temporary rental supplement was provided up to $500 to reduce the cost of rent and ensure landlords continued to receive income. There was a three-month credit for B.C. Hydro customers who had lost income, an average credit of $477. All student loan payments were suspended until September 30. People receiving income or disability assistance were given a $300-per-month COVID-19 crisis supplement.

Our government also provided much-needed support to small and medium-sized businesses. We cut property tax bills for businesses by 25 percent, providing $700 million in immediate relief. An average urban business saved $5,600. We moved quickly to defer many business taxes until the end of September. This included the EHT, the PST, the tobacco tax, the municipal and regional district tax, the motor fuel tax and the carbon tax. Hydro bills were forgiven for three months for small businesses that were forced to close, saving an average of $363.

[3:25 p.m.]

We moved to enhance the commercial rent relief program, which provided a 75 percent reduction in rent for hard-hit businesses by preventing evictions of commercial tenants that could qualify. We allowed restaurants to purchase alcohol at wholesale prices, saving them up to 25 percent. We also provided emergency funding to support child care centres — over $150 million to support more than 4,500 child care centres.

The list goes on. There are more programs we offered to the people of British Columbia to go through this very difficult time. In fact, B.C. has delivered more direct help for people throughout the pandemic than any other province in the country. We understood from the very beginning that while everyone was affected by the pandemic, not everyone was affected evenly. We are all in the same storm, not in the same boat. So as we move forward towards better days, our government will make targeted investments to ensure the recovery does not leave people behind.

Local communities have been on the front lines of COVID-19, and our government has been there to support them from the start. Through the pandemic, we en­sured local governments could continue providing services and keep the people who provide those services working. As we turn towards recovery, investing in strong communities will be a key priority for us.

The upcoming budget will make record investment in infrastructure to keep people and our economy moving forward. Roads, bridges, rapid transit, as well as schools, hospitals and community centres will continue being built across the province. Training programs and community benefit programs will ensure these investments support good job creation where it is needed most. Projects like the Broadway subway, Pattullo Bridge replacement in Surrey and the Highway 1 expansion in the Interior will keep moving forward.

This throne speech also highlights the commitment to build much-needed infrastructure for the fast-growing city of Surrey. Finally, steps will be taken towards building the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, ensuring the line fully ex­tends to Langley, excellent news for the people of Surrey-Fleetwood.

A new hospital for the people of Surrey is also moving forward. We are building this hospital. The B.C. Liberals were never, ever serious about building a new hospital in Surrey. I’m not saying it; history speaks for itself. The B.C. Liberals sold a parcel of property near 152 and Highway 10 in Surrey that was acquired by the B.C. NDP government in 1990 for a new Surrey hospital. Our government made the promise to the people of Surrey to build a new hospital, and this throne speech specifically mentions that the new Surrey hospital is moving forward. That’s our promise.

We are building, in Surrey, the Pattullo Bridge replacement, the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, a new hospital and many, many much-needed schools that will be built in the near future.

[3:30 p.m.]

Many of B.C.’s businesses have been hard hit by the pandemic. Our government is helping them adapt so they can grow and hire. Many small businesses had to make the tough decision to close or reduce services to protect their workers and customers. From the outset, our government made it clear we would help small businesses and their employees get through it. Early on we cut property taxes, prohibited commercial evictions and forgave B.C. hydro bills, and we introduced incentives for businesses to hire workers and make new investments.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

In the year ahead, we will continue to support businesses that have been hard hit by the pandemic, while we build towards a more innovative, sustainable and inclusive economy for the future of British Columbia. Record investment in infrastructure will help support a resilient economy for B.C. by putting people to work and helping businesses get goods to market.

Investing in affordable housing and child care is part of the economic and development strategy because they help businesses attract and retain talent by lowering the cost of living.

Over the next year, we will take concrete steps to ensure British Columbia comes back from the pandemic stronger and more resilient. Steps will be taken to improve health care to ensure we are prepared for future challenges by fixing cracks in long-term care that COVID-19 has exposed, reducing surgery wait times and building more hospitals and urgent primary care centres all over B.C.

Just yesterday a Surrey non-profit organization known as PICS, or Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, had a very successful fundraising to build a di­versity village for seniors. It’s a completely new kind of senior care home, and it will be built in Surrey. It’s good news for the people of Surrey. PICS is moving very fast, working with the provincial government to make sure construction starts soon. My congratulations to the leadership and staff members of PICS for raising, I heard, over half a million dollars yesterday. A good job done there.

We will also take steps to make life more affordable by cutting ICBC rates by 20 percent, expanding access to $10-a-day child care spaces and helping get thousands of affordable rental homes. Steps will also be taken to support businesses with grants to help them build online stores and by supporting the InBC strategic investment fund, which will help promising B.C. firms scale up and keep jobs here.

Steps will also be taken to build more inclusive communities by developing B.C.’s first antiracism law, reforming the outdated Police Act and the legislation to remove barriers to accessibility for those with disability.

We will also protect the environment by reforming for­estry legislation, continuing to take action on recommendations to protect old-growth stands and improve waste management for plastic. We will bridge the digital gap with new investment to boost connectivity in more rural communities, build on progress made to bring better Internet to thousands of our households.

I feel proud to support this throne speech delivered this week in this House. That’s the best way, moving forward, in this province.

[3:35 p.m.]

I would like to spend a few minutes to thank the people of Surrey-Fleetwood, my team and my family. First, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to the people who have been part of my political journey. I exist in this House because the people of Surrey elected me as their representative five times. That is certainly a rare honour for me. Therefore, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to the people of Surrey-Fleetwood for giving me the opportunity and for putting their faith in me.

Huge thanks to my staff members, Navneet Kahlon and Deanna Fasciani, at the Surrey-Fleetwood office for their exceptional services to the people of Surrey-Fleetwood and their day-to-day support to me. I also want to thank Paige Falkins for her timely and extraordinary support to me on a day-to-day basis. Thanks to all members of the Surrey-Fleetwood Riding Association for their ongoing support to me for many, many years.

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

J. Tegart: It is a pleasure to stand in the House today and give my response to the Speech from the Throne.

The throne speech starts by acknowledging the passing of a number of British Columbians over the last year. I’d like to add my sincere condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one in the last year. Whether their passing was due to either of the two pandemics that are raging through our province or not, to lose a loved one under COVID conditions has been particularly difficult.

As an MLA, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to people who have shared their stories of what it was like to experience a loss during COVID. Not being able to be with the loved one who is sick. Not being able to advocate in a way that is comfortable and supportive. Limited opportunity to say goodbye. Not being able to be with family, to comfort one another after the death. Not being able to host and share a celebration of life of a person who meant so much to so many.

COVID has changed our lives. We have had to find new ways to mourn. It has not been easy. People say we are resilient, but it doesn’t feel very resilient on those sad, sad days that so many people are experiencing. We have a lot of citizens who are mourning, many all alone with limited contact with family. We need to support and care for those people in our communities.

Again, sincere condolences during this very difficult time. Not only are loved ones affected by the COVID changes; so are our front-line workers. To hear story after story from people on the front lines, who are trying their best to provide comfort and support at end of life — a special thank you.

As I listened to the Speech from the Throne, I must say that I was disappointed. This throne speech offered little help or hope for people and small businesses who are struggling right now, no plan to deal with economic recovery, unemployment or the worsening opioid crisis. The time for “trust me” has passed for this second-term Premier.

[3:40 p.m.]

British Columbians are facing rising case counts and the spread of COVID-19 variants. They’re worried about their heath and economic well-being. Government fails to put forward a real plan for recovery. Small businesses are struggling. Non-profits are worried about their futures. Parents are concerned for their kids. British Columbia has nearly 40,000 fewer full-time jobs than before the pandemic hit.

The government’s inability to get supports to those who need them most and its failure to put forward any economic recovery plan is putting the future prosperity of our province at risk. Government has a responsibility to be a leader and to guide our province through this pandemic and into our economic recovery at the other end. But by delaying vital relief, failing to implement policies necessary to protect and support B.C. families, communities and businesses, and taking actions that serve their own self-interests before the well-being of British Columbians, they have failed our province and the people they were elected to serve.

British Columbians were looking for hope. COVID cases continue to surge, and 53 percent of British Columbians today are $200 or less away from not being able to pay their monthly bills. We’re in a crisis. We’re looking for leadership. In a speech that should have laid out a path forward, I see very little to hang our hats on.

Responding to the throne speech gives each of us the opportunity to share information about the amazing areas that we represent. The riding that I represent is Fraser-Nicola. It starts south of Hope, goes to north of 70 Mile House, east to almost Kamloops, over to Gold Bridge and Bralorne outside of Lillooet, between Merritt and Princeton, and down Highway 3 to the U.S. border.

I have five nations, including Secwépemc, Nlaka’pamux, Stl’atl’imx, Stó:lō and Syilx; and eight municipalities; three regional districts; three school districts; two health authorities; and probably none of those agencies have common borders. Agriculture, mining, forestry, tourism are some of the main economic drivers in Fraser-Nicola, and it is support for the people of my riding that I search for in the throne speech.

I don’t think anyone in this chamber would have told you a year ago that we would still be living with a pandemic and be in the third wave of it. We left Victoria last March for spring break, thinking we would be back in session shortly. Little did we know. At first, it was a few weeks, then we’d get back to normal. Then a few months. Now we’ve been living with COVID for over a year. Many wonder when we will see an end. Or do we just need to adapt to the new normal?

In listening to the throne speech, I was looking for hope. I’m hearing from people in my riding who are COVID-weary. They have followed the rules. They have stayed apart. They have stayed home, and still the case numbers are escalating.

[3:45 p.m.]

The throne speech suggests we are in the final push of the pandemic. We’re at a turning point, and still the case numbers keep growing. As vaccinations roll out, people are extremely hopeful. But again, the numbers are not slowing down.

The Premier says he called a snap election in the middle of a pandemic so we could put politics behind us and B.C. could have a clear path forward. But it seems he can’t find a path forward, even with a majority government, and we only have to look at the history of the pandemic numbers to know what an impact that snap election had on where we are today with our pandemic.

The people I talk to are calling for more data. They want more transparency from government. They want clarity on the health orders, and government is not responding. Trust is earned, and this government needs to listen, to respond, and to be transparent about what is happening.

Businesses in my riding are hurting. As we all know, small and medium-sized businesses are the job creators and the backbone of our communities. Sadly, we’ve seen them shut down on a moment’s notice, pivot to respond to public health orders on demand, and try everything they can do to keep their employees working. Government has promised help over and over, but the botched small business support program has provided little relief. Programs that are bogged down in paperwork and bureaucracy are of small comfort to a business trying to keep their doors open and their lights on.

Yesterday in the House, government boasted about putting together a new program to support businesses during this circuit breaker stage. They claimed it only took a week to put it together. Well, if you could do it in a week, why the year delay in supporting businesses? Really? Businesses have been hurting for over 12 months. Boast about this program to the small business owner who just closed her business doors and is now facing the possibility of losing her home.

As we’re talking about those most affected during this past year, let’s talk about the impact of job loss on women and youth. The opposition has been calling for a specific job plan for women and youth, but there is no plan to be found. Women and youth were mentioned once in the throne speech — once — yet we know that those are the demographics that are most affected during the pandemic. It seems government is most reluctant to put a plan together or anything in writing, because they may be held accountable.

In my role as critic for Education, I looked through the throne speech, looking for action from government that is responding to the voices of concern in the education field. Throughout the pandemic, government has put a disproportionate amount of stress on teachers, educators, support staff and others in B.C. schools. Government has ignored many of the calls for greater COVID data-gathering and reporting.

[3:50 p.m.]

It is that data-gathering that helps build trust in the system. It helps parents and families make good decisions on the safety of their children and their families, yet government has not responded.

For months, government ignored school districts’ re­quests to give them the freedom to implement additional layers of protection against rising variants. We know, from our experience with COVID, that there are hot spots in the province. We know that there are strategies to deal with that, yet we tied the hands of people in charge of their local schools. We did not allow them to put protective measures in place.

Government also ignored calls for more widespread use of rapid tests in classrooms, for months. They also ignored the calls for mandatory mask policies, for months, only implementing after the rise of variants and the start of a third wave. Parents, school staff, school boards — anyone associated with the education system — continued to ask for data. The best data available came through Facebook, run by volunteer parents, with the information being gathered on a daily basis and shared with parents across the province.

Shame on government. It is your job to share that data and to ensure that it is accurate, timely and transparent. Thank you to so many parents who participated in ensuring that letters of transmission were sent in to the Facebook group and that that data was the most up to date that we could find.

Schools also receive mixed messaging. New school guidelines in late March announced new guidance, with recommendations that students from grade 4 up should wear masks while in school. Well, I don’t know about you, but “should” is kind of a little bit of an interpretive word. There was a great deal of confusion. Did it mean “must”? Can we enforce it? What would it look like in school? It created unnecessary confusion for students, staff and families, where they did not understand whether it was actually a public health order mandating masks or not. This shows the lack of direction and leadership coming from this government in their education plan.

Now, I seem to recall debate in this House in regard to a delay in the budget and assurances from government that there would be little impact on those who depend on government for their budgets. Well, I can tell you that the people I’m talking to in the education system are sharing, with me, very grave concerns about the delay in the budget and the fact that it has pushed back budget consultations, public consultations, and made it very, very tight for deadlines around staffing, around programs, around cuts that may have to be made within budgets.

[3:55 p.m.]

Because of that two-month delay, we again have confusion within the system. The disorganization of this government is creating another layer of uncertainty for teachers, parents, staff and administration.

The other concern that I’m hearing from parents and schools is that $242 million came from the federal government to help our public education system to ensure safety during COVID. School boards have been asking: is government going to continue that funding? That funding went towards PPE. It went towards additional staff. It went towards additional cleaning. It also went towards ventilation upgrades for clean air in schools.

There’s been no word on whether that will be continued. If it’s not continued, school boards will have to do a lot of work to find that money, because September is not going to look that different than the schools we’re in right now. They know that we’re going to still need safety protocols in our schools. How will it be paid for? Those questions are unanswered.

I notice that this throne speech also has a lot of old promises in it, but one of the ones that is missing is the elimination of the Surrey portables. That seems to be an election campaign promise that is on every platform that the government has run on — certainly since I’ve been an MLA — since 2013. Not a word in the throne speech.

I searched to see if there was any additional funding or any talk of hybrid learning, because I think one of the things we’ve learned during COVID is that kids learn in different ways. For some of our students, hybrid learning has been very successful. Parents have been asking for options. I found nothing in this throne speech that talks about that.

This government also did a cut of 20 percent in the funding for independent distributed learning in May of 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, at a time when parents were asking for options. Is that 20 percent going to be replaced?

What about youth mental health supports? Students’ social development has been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many students in kindergarten in September, they will have spent 18 months in isolation. I’ve had teachers talk to me and say: “How do we prepare for that?” COVID has impacted students of all ages at crucial points in their academic and social development. We’ve had many talks in this House in regards to stories shared by parents who have grave concerns about their 13- and 14-year-olds and the impact of COVID.

The restricted student access to vital supports that schools offer has affected their academic and social growth. There is no doubt about that. A great many parents and a great many professional staff are talking about what happens when we come out at the other end of the pandemic. Government has painted their plan for student mental health supports in broad strokes, but there is no mention of what investments they are going to make to put our children on the path to heal and grow after the pandemic.

[4:00 p.m.]

Our young people have had a year of incredible disruption. I think so many of us can think back to our high school years and how important those years were in cementing friendships, in developing good habits for learning, in connecting with adults in a meaningful way and in celebrating successes.

How many of our young people have not had a graduation? How many of our young people are worried about scholarships? About university next year? About whether they will qualify? I think we have no idea what the impact has been, and I think we’re going to be very surprised, as we come out of COVID, what impacts we’re going to see in the system and on individuals.

When I look at this throne speech, I also look for promises that will help people in my riding. I searched through­out the throne speech to identify support for issues that have been brought forward to government from my riding. I searched for the rural dividend, a program that so many small communities depended on for seed money to start projects in their area.

Forestry. Barely a mention, certainly no plan. Mining is so critically important in my riding, hosting Highland Valley Copper and good jobs for young people in our area. Barely mentioned, again. Agriculture. Food security has become so incredibly important during COVID. People have become so aware of where their food comes from. Is there a plan?

Tourism. Our small businesses that count on tourists are struggling. They need a plan. They need stability. They need leadership from government. They employ our young people, and they are hanging on by a thread.

I’ve talked about flood relief in this House many times, about the effect of wildfires and a challenging spring freshet. I see nothing in this throne speech about being proactive with climate change and with the effects that we’re going to see this spring and beyond.

Child care spaces. That’s an old promise. The $10 universal child care, nowhere to be seen. The $400 rental re­bate is missing in action. Seniors housing.

“Disappointed in the throne speech” is an understatement. I was looking for hope, for a plan to pull us out of the pandemic, to give people a vision for where government would like to go. We got platitudes and old promises that the government has not fulfilled in its four years in government. At a time when we need bold, new ideas, this speech fell flat.

We have one more opportunity to show British Columbians where government would like to go. Being an optimist at heart, I’m hopeful that budget day will be that day and it will address the gaps that are so obvious in this throne speech.

It is always a pleasure to respond to a throne speech in this House. It is such an honour to serve the people of Fraser-Nicola.

I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

[4:05 p.m.]

Hon. M. Rankin: It’s always an honour to stand in this place and speak on behalf of the good people of Oak Bay–​Gordon Head.

I want to start by saying how fortunate I am to live and work in the territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, from whom I’ve learned so much over the years. I acknowledge that debt of gratitude to them today.

As the Lieutenant-Governor said on Monday when she delivered the Speech from the Throne, for the last four years, this government has worked to go beyond those important land acknowledgements to really forge new partnerships with the Indigenous peoples of our province. Working together I believe we are advancing the meaningful reconciliation and the work of decolonization that we are here to do. I’ll say more about that in a moment.

Also, as I rise, I want to say thank you to Butch Dick for his powerful opening on the second session of the 42nd parliament of the province of British Columbia.

I have three goals today, if I may, in responding to the Speech from the Throne. First, it’s the tradition in speeches from this throne to start, as the Lieutenant-Governor did yesterday, by celebrating and commemorating important residents of our province who’ve passed away over the past year. I want to start, if I may, with a tribute to a friend and neighbour and great British Columbian who passed away over the last year.

Secondly, I want to speak directly in response to the Speech from the Throne by amplifying some of the key messages and foreshadowing other matters that will come forward in the days to come.

Thirdly, I want to speak about the work underway in my ministry, as I have the honour of serving as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and the privilege of spearheading an all-of-government response to the challenge of our times — namely, reconciliation.

Her Honour began her Speech from the Throne on Monday by acknowledging the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the age of 99. This was a remarkable person, much loved in my community for his devoted service, not just in support of Her Majesty the Queen, but to the broader community. Fundamentally, Prince Philip was a public servant in the best sense of that word.

I’m here to salute another public servant, one of the many who live and work in my community of Oak Bay–Gordon Head and who quietly go about their work, literally, to serve the public. Paul Geoffrey Jarman was one of those devoted public servants. During the pandemic, we’ve come to remember, perhaps more than in ordinary circumstances, the vital work of our public servants. Allow me to tell you a little bit about one of them.

Paul Jarman passed away last year on October 26, on the day of his choosing. Paul died peacefully with the love of his life, Ruth Wittenberg, by his side. Ruth was his partner and spouse of 40 years and is with us today in the gallery.

Paul was a neighbour and was also a great friend. After moving to Victoria from his home in Edmonton, he articled and then joined the legal services branch of the Ministry of Attorney General. Paul practised primarily environmental and resource law for 35 years until he retired in 2011.

Almost immediately after that retirement, sadly, Paul was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, which is bone marrow cancer. But that didn’t stop him from enjoying life to the full. Ruth and Paul managed to travel around Russia, South America, Asia and Europe.

Paul was an early adapter to the world of e-bikes. I followed suit shortly afterward. He adapted and adjusted without complaint to his new circumstance and remained focused on quality of life. Then he was diagnosed in Sept­ember with pancreatic cancer. But his spirit never wavered. He made decisions about end of life with courage and determination.

[4:10 p.m.]

At law school, Paul was part of a community-based legal services group, helping disadvantaged or underfinanced individuals, attending at city cells and advising on rights of detention, Provincial Court trials, etc. He had a great sense of fun, a wicked and dry sense of humour that never descended, however, into cynicism.

Richard Fyfe, the Deputy Attorney General for the province, recalls Paul’s involvement in high-profile matters, including the Chilcotin justice inquiry and the Kemano completion project, with his encyclopedic knowledge of environmental law, on which he drew regularly to ensure that government was able to fill its obligations and still move forward with projects in the public interest.

The Hon. Judge Brian, a former Deputy Attorney General, spoke of Paul in these terms: “He was patient, calm and professional at all times, skills that served him well as a senior lawyer, dealing with the uniqueness of B.C. politics and the ever-changing client group in the bureaucracy. Paul was always the calm at the centre of the storm, with a broad smile and eternal wisdom born of many years of keeping clients and governments on the straight and narrow.”

Now, I can attest to that sense of fun. In the 1980s, Paul tells the story of having been dispatched by the provincial government to Salt Spring Island to advise the then-chair of the Environmental Appeal Board that his services were no longer required.

Apparently, to confirm that a certain herbicide was environmentally benign, the former chair had famously drunk the herbicide in public and proclaimed that it had no effect whatsoever on his health. Paul calmly explained to the chair that there might have been a conflict of interest there, and there may be problems with optics. For his efforts, Paul was appointed the interim chair of the Environmental Appeal Board, during which time he wrote a very useful report with reform proposals that were subsequently implemented.

Colleagues from the AG’s ministry, and from government generally, recall Paul’s dry wit and his demeanor during what he used to call the “flap du jour,” his deep knowledge to recall facts and details and consequences of past decisions and his role as a mentor.

Let me conclude by referring to a young lawyer who worked with Paul in his division in the ministry. She said this:

“Paul was a true and stalwart mentor to me over the years at the branch, and then afterwards during his retirement. He was always possessing of a sincere kindness. My parents were immigrants and didn’t speak English very well. They were introduced once, and from then on, whenever Paul would see them passing on the street, he would go out of his way to stop, greet them each by name, shake hands and chat for a few minutes. To immigrants of a certain generation, this courtesy was enormous.”

Throughout this pandemic, we have been constantly reminded about our public servants. Paul was simply one of the best. He did his work with grace and humour but always in the best interests of the Crown and honouring the Crown — the duty to honour the Crown. He cared deeply about justice and Indigenous Peoples and lived his professional life with their interests in mind. Paul Jarman will be deeply missed and always remembered.

Now I want to turn, secondly, to the Speech from the Throne itself, which, of course, represents a road map — like any Speech from the Throne would be — of what the government intends in the years to come, and especially during the next session of this parliament. But this can be a road map like no other.

There couldn’t be an ordinary Speech from the Throne because of the COVID-19 emergency that’s turned all of our lives upside down. But we never must forget that there were two pandemics going on. There was the COVID pandemic, and the shadow pandemic of which we’ve heard so much today, the opioid overdose crisis that has devastated so many families across our province.

It’s telling that we lost 1,400 British Columbians to COVID-19, but lost over 1,800 to the overdose crisis since the pandemic began. As we have heard today, this marks the fifth anniversary of the declaration of a public health emergency in that regard, and so many people have been affected by this, so many families.

[4:15 p.m.]

We all know someone who has been affected by this directly or indirectly. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that there has been a disproportionate number of those British Columbians who were Indigenous who suffered in this way, or workers whose back injury led to an addiction, or people next door who suffered as a consequence of depression or otherwise and found themselves in these circumstances.

I salute my friend Judy Darcy as the first Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, and commend my current colleague the member for Nanaimo for grappling with this scourge head on.

The COVID pandemic has touched us all. We’re so fed up — I know I am — with not being able to see our families in different parts of the province or the country, having to work remotely, not working at all in some cases. The terrible impact on my community of Oak Bay–Gordon Head has been felt, of course, in the hospitality sector, the tourism sector generally and in so many other sectors.

Many of my constituents are seniors, and they talk to me about their sense of loneliness, their frustration and despair. Others, young families, talk about the financial stresses that the pandemic has brought upon them. And young people, of whom the member for Fraser-Nicola spoke not long ago, and the special challenges facing them. I think we see in the generation that is coming along the effects of this pandemic in higher rates of depression and anxiety that we are now, at last, talking about openly. I believe that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but no one would have predicted that it would’ve been so long a tunnel.

We all have our heroes during the pandemic. My hero is my sister Joyce Rankin, who is the clinical manager of Street Health in downtown Toronto, where she provides long-term and intensive care management support for people in the downtown east end of Toronto who are struggling with mental health issues and are either homeless or precariously housed. She runs the Out of the Cold program in central Toronto and has done for many years. Add COVID to the mix, and I simply don’t know how Joyce copes or how so many others that are health care workers on the front line are coping during this difficult time. I believe that those people have built the foundation upon which our community currently rests.

I don’t forget about grocery store workers or truck dri­vers. I don’t forget about the farmers who kept food on the table for us and the truck drivers who brought it to us and the grocery store workers who made it possible for us to stay well during these difficult times. I will never forget the school teachers, the child care workers, those working in long-term-care facilities, all of whom have faced unprecedented challenges. And the beleaguered first responders, of whom the Premier spoke earlier today — our firefighters, our paramedics, our police services. These are the people we depend on every day for our well-being.

The Ministry of Health and our talented public health team have calmly tried to address the new variants of COVID-19, and Dr. Penny Ballem and her team are running the largest mass immunization program in our history.

British Columbians get that there’s no playbook for a pandemic. Some armchair quarterbacks will challenge the decision that this team makes from time to time. That, of course, is their absolute right in a democracy. Constructive criticism and adaptation will only serve to improve how we tackle this crisis.

One opposition party said in a release after the throne speech: “Our leadership is simply not measuring up in addressing the pandemic.” Another opposition party said that this throne speech “offered little help or hope.” Others will decide whether that critique is helpful in this crisis, but I believe, and the vast majority of people in my community tell me, that they also are grateful and trust the talented public servants who are helping us extract ourselves from this unprecedented crisis.

I’m so happy that more than a million people have now been vaccinated in our province, at least with first dose. I only wish we had a more dependable supply of vaccine from our federal partners, but we will get through this together. I’m confident and optimistic that we will.

[4:20 p.m.]

Vaccination, of course, is centrally important to our eco­nomic recovery. Before the pandemic, I was so pleased that this government balanced every budget since its election in 2017. That’s what Tommy Douglas did in the Prairies for so many years.

Before the pandemic, B.C. was a fiscal and economic leader in our country. We were one of Canada’s fastest-growing economies with low unemployment and steadily rising wages, and we still have all the ingredients we need to usher in a very robust recovery. We’ve got a diversified economy. We have a very educated workforce. We’ve got a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. We’ve got clean technology. We’ve got natural resources. We are so blessed in British Columbia.

Thanks to CleanBC and our government’s commitment to justice and human rights for Indigenous people, I believe that we can seize the trillions of dollars of investment opportunity out there represented by what The Economist magazine has called the ESG revolution — environment, social and governance. People are increasingly looking to where they can put their capital which aligns with their values.

These ESG standards are being used around the world with increasing force and effect. ESG typically includes relationship with Indigenous peoples. The environment word, of course, speaks to all of the things that a particular company is doing, or a jurisdiction is doing, to address the crisis of climate change, for example. British Columbia has a strong competitive advantage in this new world of post-ESG revolution.

As ESG becomes a leading guidepost for investment, jurisdictions with strong ESG track records are well positioned to attract international business and investment. We should all be doing a lot more to champion that advantage that we have in this province. We’re the only jurisdiction outside of Bolivia that has adopted and made the law of the land, with universal support in this place, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, a fundamental human rights act for the Indigenous peoples of our province. CleanBC gives us another competitive advantage. We’re the only jurisdiction to set sectoral targets.

These are things that investors around the world have noticed and will continue to notice. Perhaps it is a bit cheeky of me to say this, but I think I would call all of this “the B.C. advantage.” Last week I told the B.C. Business Council just that. I believe that there is an emerging consensus on this point, and I do not think we do enough to promote that.

As the Lieutenant-Governor said, our province has seen months of sustained job growth and currently has the highest job recovery rate in our country. Under new safety guidelines, our B.C. film and TV production has bounced back stronger than ever.

Now, I was so pleased last week to announce that the province, following up on a commitment made during the election, is investing $150,000 at Camosun College to assist it in providing a lease on its Interurban campus and help with doing an expression of interest for a film production company to come and create what everyone in our community says is the necessary catalyst to make this Hollywood North, Vancouver Island–style. That is a film studio, a sound studio, so indoor production can occur on feature films and television productions and the like.

What an opportunity for students at Camosun College to be able to learn from the very best people actually in the business. What an opportunity for all the people who are working in this sector, this clean economy, to come and work — the carpenters that are needed for set design. Even students who want to learn how to do screenplay from the English department will have opportunities if we can pull this off.

[4:25 p.m.]

Now, the province has only put the ingredients there. Now it’s up to the private sector to respond. But I can tell you that Sherri Bell, the president of Camosun College, who is retiring at the end of this year and to whom I pay tribute, has been solidly behind this. The mayor of Saanich has likewise been extremely supportive of this. This could be a game-changer for the south Island. That’s just one example of how we’re trying to diversify our economy further and deal with people who have been left behind during the pandemic.

The tourism sector and the hospitality sector have been very hard hit. We all know that. We’re going to put in place the supports to help them get back on track. We need to ensure that our charitable organizations and the not-for-profit sector are also supported so they can help the people and the communities where they work and play.

I want to say a little bit more about the non-profit sector. I did some research, and I’m surprised to say that — I think this figure will surprise many — British Columbia has more than 29,000 non-profit organizations in the health sector, environment, agriculture, education, social services, recreation, cooperatives and the like. It provides a range of essential services to our communities, and the sector contributes $6.4 billion to B.C.’s GDP and 86,000 jobs, three-quarters of whom are women. Volunteer hours are estimated at six billion.

More needs to be done to ensure that that is seen as a sector. We talk about our small business sector, etc., but this is a sector that deserves to be understood as such. I’m very proud that our government is the first in Canada to have established a Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development and Non-Profits. My friend the MLA for Vancouver-Hastings has been given this very important responsibility.

I want to say, as my colleague the MLA for Fraser-Nicola just spoke so powerfully about a few moments ago, a little bit about the impact of the pandemic on our youth, just as they start their careers. You know, during the pandemic, youth unemployment reached 29 percent, over 15 percentage points above the provincial average. Now, in my community, I have Camosun College, the University of Victoria and the Canadian College of Performing Arts. What the province has just announced is so important to them.

The province announced that more than 5,000 youth and young adults across the province will have access to skills training and well-paying jobs through the almost $45 million StrongerBC future leaders program. Training for in-demand jobs to get fulfilling careers. Opportunities for stable, good jobs that can change the direction of a young person in these difficult times. Training, internship, job co-ops — jobs in the growing tech sector, environment, natural resource positions. These are some of the things that will be tailored through this program.

I see that the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy is creating up to 180 opportunities for young people to help tackle the problem of marine pollution, plastic pollution in our coastal communities. And an investment of $5 million in the clean coast, clean waters program aimed at youth employment. More will be said about that in the next few days. Positions in parks. Positions in the conservation officer service and the like.

To confirm the government’s commitment to youth in B.C., the MLA for Nelson-Creston has been appointed the Premier’s special advisor on youth. She will serve as the point person for young people across government, providing a platform for them to engage directly with the province.

There is so much to say on the economics aspect of this crisis that I don’t quite know where to start. A lot will be said, of course, in the budget that will be coming up very soon. Improvements in health care, opportunities for business to grow and hire, record investments will be announced in infrastructure and the like to get B.C. back on track and — to use that perhaps hackneyed expression, which I still like — “build back better.”

[4:30 p.m.]

You know, there are going to be a number of things that are already making life more affordable for British Columbia. I am thinking of the government’s cutting of ICBC rates by 20 percent, expanding access to $10-a-day child care spaces and helping find affordable rental housing. These are all things that are happening.

I’m very proud that our government is going to introduce an antiracism law, reform the outdated Police Act and, perhaps so important to so many people in my community, create legislation to remove barriers to accessibility for those with disabilities. Those are many of the things that we have announced and will be doing in this session of parliament.

I would like to turn to the third point I wanted to raise in this debate. That is simply to talk about my role as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. I would be remiss if I didn’t start by acknowledging the excellent work done by my predecessor, Mr. Scott Fraser, and all the relationships that he built across the province, which I have inherited.

I returned to this work, having been a treaty negotia­tor in the past and having served as a lawyer for Indigenous people, for companies and for governments across the country. It’s been wonderful to see the commitment that is being made to reconciliation in a way that frankly did not exist when I was doing that work previously in the province.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

I need to say that the declaration act is, first and foremost, an enormous achievement of everyone in this place. I was not here. I take no credit for it. I have the honour of trying to implement it, to put meat on the bones of commitments that every single MLA in this place made, solemn commitments to what is, at bottom, a human rights law.

I couldn’t be prouder of the work that our government is doing in trying to advance meaningful reconciliation. We’re revitalizing Indigenous languages. We’re trying to improve child welfare legislation so more children can rightfully remain with their families and communities. The hard work has only just begun.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that the pandemic has exposed some pre-existing systemic gaps — yes, indeed, racism — in some aspects of our community. A report, as you know, called In Plain Sight shone the light on aspects of that problem in our health care sector. But housing and other basic services must be addressed as well.

We hope we can, as well, in the future, share our deci­sion-making and prosperity with the Indigenous Peoples in whose territory so much of our wealth has been derived and who have been stewards of those territories since time immemorial.

I want to acknowledge the strong, strong response from First Nation leadership to the COVID crisis. They’ve managed an ever-changing situation and kept their members safe. They’ve committed to do whatever they can to navigate this crisis, and we’re working together with the First Nations Health Authority and Indigenous leaders to ensure that their people remain safe.

There’ve been some challenges. No one would deny that. But there has been, as well, an unprecedented level of coordination and cooperation between governments and First Nations as we go through this emergency together. I think that in itself is a concrete example about how we’re addressing reconciliation together head-on.

I think the prioritization of vaccinations for Indigenous peoples in this province speaks to our changing relationship. With vaccines now administered to all First Nation communities and more than one million British Columbians overall, there’s every reason to think things are going to improve soon for all of us.

The Premier has made it clear through mandate letters binding upon each and every minister that reconciliation is a critical part of our journey together. There are important discussions about economic recovery after COVID that are currently underway, as well, with Indigenous leadership to ensure that participation is for all, not just for some, that prosperity is for all, not just for some.

[4:35 p.m.]

There’ve been huge differences in the years since I was first negotiating treaties on behalf of British Columbia. I now have the honour of serving in this role. I do so with a sense of real optimism.

There is a need to do so much more. I don’t really know, in the time available, to catalog those challenges, trying to get our federal partners to work closely with us…. We do have a spirit of collaboration there that has been also, I think, quite inspirational. We’ve got to get down to the real work and talk about things like revenue-sharing and other aspects of prosperity that we will work on together.

In conclusion, let me just say, as the Lieutenant-Governor did in concluding, that last year has changed us all in this province in ways we never could have imagined. We are at the end of this marathon. We’re tired, but we’ve got a solid foundation upon which to build. We are resilient. We will get through this together.

R. Merrifield: I am honoured to rise today in the House, representing the people of the Kelowna-Mission riding. I am very excited to brag about the Okanagan, but today I’m going to focus more in on the throne speech and all that was contained within it for my constituents.

I listened to this throne speech with far more intention than I have previously. As a recently elected member — newly minted, as the Premier pointed out — I took notes, scribbling away. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I was definitely looking for something.

Then it hit me. I was looking for hope. I was looking for the silver lining — that which would inspire me to continue to endure, that which would push my efforts forward into more positivity.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it. Not because I didn’t want to, but because it wasn’t there. I believe in hope, in optimism, in finding the silver lining, in knowing that tomorrow is going to be better than today. I have been called naive, Pollyanna, and referred to as an eternal optimist. I’m okay with all of that. I’m going to unapologetically look for hope, because we need it.

The largest health crisis of our history, this pandemic has changed how we live, how we socialize, where we go, when we go, how we work, who we work with, who we see, how our families interact and how our health is, in general. We need hope for today, to get us through — hope that says that we have a government that knows where we are at and how difficult this has been.

When I didn’t find hope for tomorrow, well, I was thinking that surely, then, this must be about hope for today. But it wasn’t. I didn’t hear a government that was confident about how we were going to get through this pandemic today any more than I heard about a way forward for tomorrow, or next month, or next year.

Recently I watched a webinar with Dr. Theresa Tam. In it, she talked about how the pandemic has showed us where we should have done more, how we should have been prepared as a society, how we should have shored up the inequities within our society through legislation. Really, it’s shown us that we should have been more serious about these certain aspects. She argued that had we done more, we would be farther ahead as a country through this pandemic. She also pointed to these gaps and said that we must do more now to make sure that the lessons of the pandemic are not lost.

The impact of this pandemic showed gaps in our system. We saw that not all were impacted equally. This crisis widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots greater than any time in the last 50 years. Furthermore, it also increased inequality within our society not just economically, but within our health and our well-being. We know this.

So who are the ones most impacted by this pandemic? Youth, women, visible minorities, Indigenous, small businesses, non-profits, our artists, our culture, our agriculture, our tourism, and this list gets longer as the days and the weeks go on.

[4:40 p.m.]

Dr. Tam’s message is not unique to Canada, at a national level, but rather could easily be applied to all of B.C. What are we learning in this pandemic? How do we take those lessons forward into recovery and resilience, and then prosperity?

Resilience in a society requires two different things. First, equitable and great health care. Secondly, a strong and innovative economy. Unfortunately for us all, the pandemic has hit and injured both of those aspects.

How do we move forward under such odds? With this throne speech, I kept an eye out for any attempt to answer or respond to these two questions. I couldn’t quite understand why the NDP government is patting themselves on the back during this time. Then I realized that maybe they don’t truly understand what parts of our economy are being falsely propped up by federal grants and money, and which ones are truly thriving. When you look closer at those numbers, I think that there would be less, far less, to be proud of.

Yes, there are warning signs and signals, but the NDP have wanted to congratulate themselves on an increase of part-time jobs and jobs in the public sector. Wait, that is taxpayer money buying jobs. But B.C. is down on full-time jobs and jobs in the private sector — over 40,000 jobs less, to be exact — which means that the government is getting less done and spending more of our taxpayer money to do it.

There was nothing new in this throne speech for the small and medium-sized businesses in B.C. We are not out of the woods yet, but there was no plan forward. There was no hope in this plan for them. Small and medium-sized businesses don’t have months or weeks. Most of them barely have days of reserves. This sector, though, is the key to a healthy, resilient and innovative society and economy. And this is not a small number in B.C. B.C.’s economy is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses, with 99.8 percent of our businesses being small or medium-sized.

Sit with that for a second — 99.8 percent. This means that out of the 185,000 businesses, only 324 of them in B.C. are not small or medium-sized. To make matters worse, while these businesses were drowning, this government threw out a mere $330 million lifeline. Had it fully been distributed, which we know it has not yet been…. If I put that into context, it’s about 2 percent of the deficit amount — the $15 billion deficit. Not the full budget, just the deficit. Two percent of $15 billion is all that 99.8 percent of the businesses in B.C. were eligible for but did not even receive.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not about the approximately 185,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. This is about the 93.5 percent of employees that work for these businesses. That’s who we are supporting — the people. This government only put 2 percent of the deficit funds toward the 1.5 million British Columbians that work for these businesses — towards their jobs, their employment.

Is that support? Is that hope? But that, even, was in the last throne speech, not this one. What did the NDP government add to this one? What could the small and medium-sized businesses find in this throne speech? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

So much for the economy. What about the plan forward, the restart, the reactivation? How about something that gives us vision or hope? Nope. Not a thing.

Typically, a government would spend infrastructure dollars to help to stimulate the economy, because if you’re not going to support the businesses, well, at least stimulate the economy. But this NDP government has changed the law so that only those projects that benefit 15 percent of construction workers in the province are able to bid on those infrastructure dollars.

[4:45 p.m.]

So 85 percent of our incredible construction workers in this province are being told that they can’t work on B.C. projects unless they join one of the Premier’s handpicked unions. That makes sense, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t. It’s just another example of how this government is getting less done and spending more of our taxpayer dollars to do it.

Then I looked at the other aspect of resilience, which is health care — equitable and great health care. While we are getting through the pandemic, our health care is at risk. Our front-line workers are exhausted. Our systems are strained. We don’t have the resources that we thought we did. We are failing those with other health concerns outside of the pandemic, and we’re doubly failing in those that are. Then layer on, on top of all of that that our mental health has never been this bad. Our mental health — the stress, the strain that we have all endured — is off the charts.

Let’s look at some of the health concerns that are not related to the pandemic and at how they’re faring right now. Well, the NDP has been celebrating getting through the wait times of the surgeries that were put on hold. It doesn’t mention how much strain that put the system under, or the nurses or the specialists that are literally on the brink. In fact, one of them described to me that we are on the verge of implosion. It doesn’t actually address the issue of wait times, which have only gone up under the four years of NDP government. It has become worse, not better.

How about the support of our front lines through this time — all of these evening and weekend surgeries? Our ICU staff and anaesthesiologists — how are they faring? How about the intensivists? Now let’s move on to cancer care. How were our wait times there? Spoiler alert: the worst in history. How about our new investments into cancer care? Have we fallen back on that? Have we asked our oncologists how they are doing, having to protect vulnerable patients through a pandemic and a cancer tsunami? Have we thought about the one in two — the 50 percent — of British Columbians who will contract cancer and how to give them better outcomes without costing more money?

How about our digital program? Did we use the lessons of COVID and the registration system to innovate? Or did we have to give a blank cheque to IT to create a system that can’t be used for anything else?

How are we doing at supporting those with chronic disease? How about the type 1 diabetics? Did we listen to their business case for using different glucose monitoring systems? Or did we disregard the parents — of the two-year-old, the six-year-old, the 12-year-old, the 17-year-old — who have to get up every four hours to prick their child’s finger and make sure that they’re not going comatose or having a seizure? How about ALS, ME, heart and stroke? Which one should we discuss next?

How about we talk about the human capacity in our health system? Our nurses, our physicians, our administrators, our assistants — how are they doing right now? How are they feeling right now? How are we supporting them in the coming months, in the coming years? How much capacity do we need to add to the system to make it truly work? How many training spaces have we added, in the last four years, for nurses, physicians or nurse practitioners? I hate to be the spoiler. None.

If we don’t start getting serious about our health care system, it’s going to implode. If we don’t start looking at the whole health, British Columbians will get sicker. How is this government supporting the whole person? I ask: what, in the throne speech, said anything about preventative medicine?

[4:50 p.m.]

British Columbians want care that allows them to live and live well, to be active and enjoy their families, their friends and our incredible nature. We need a completely new approach to how health is delivered and to what outcomes we measure.

We need technological advances to give us better data and information so we can treat patients to a higher level. We need fully integrated care with care quarterbacks to make sure that things are not missed and that we have advocates. We need campuses of care where the whole person is seen, the whole person is treated, not just for some but for all, where preventative is valued as highly as treatment and the work done on mental and emotional health is as valued and as important as our physical. We need more health care professionals who can advocate for patients and deliver the absolute best care possible.

If we want to be the best in health care and deliver the best outcomes, we need to make sure that every dollar is spent wisely and is going to where it should be. We need to be figuring out how to optimize every budget dollar of health care. How can we make those dollars go farther or capture them for our residents of B.C.? How do we get our outcomes to stop sliding?

We’re not creating a system where the absolute best care is possible. We need to breathe sustainability into this system and make sure that we are properly utilizing the public’s resources and meeting every patient’s needs.

What did I find in the throne speech? Well, there was a mere mention of reduction in wait times. But wait, that was promised even four years ago. What’s happened in four years? Oh wait, it’s gotten worse, not better. Even before the pandemic — pre-pandemic numbers to three years previous — we were worse off as British Columbians.

I also saw a promise of building more hospitals and urgent care facilities. This is the same promise that was back in 2017 — still hasn’t been in the budget yet. And urgent care facilities. Well, we’ll talk about urgent care facilities, because they actually spend more dollars than what it costs us to see the same number of patients through a GP.

Were there other supports to health in the speech? No, there weren’t. There were accolades that this government gave themselves but nothing else concrete.

Now let’s talk about mental health. Today was a sober, sober day. I don’t need to remind us of all of the deaths, all of the overdoses or the homeless issue that all of our communities grapple with. Are we doing a better job than we have before? No. We are not.

How about the funding of the four pillars approach: harm reduction, prevention, treatment and enforcement? I hear lip service, but where is the actual funding — treatment beds, early intervention in our school, anything? Nothing in the throne speech.

How about the increase to the amount of counselling? Have we allowed counselling practitioners to be regulated under this government? No. They received a rejection letter just a few weeks ago. Wait times for pediatric psychiatry are through the roof. Fifty-five days gets bantered about as the average, but I have constituents besides themselves trying to get their children to see a pediatric psychiatrist, struggling to help their children through one of the largest mental health epidemics in history. But sadly, we don’t have any in Kelowna. So 55 days is not what they’re waiting. They might be waiting forever.

The B.C. Liberal government started the Foundry centres over ten years ago. I had the privilege of opening one of the very first. I am so proud of that work that we did and that we continue to see success — incredible facilities staffed by absolutely extraordinary people. But now their capacity is simply overwhelmed. The pandemic is only exacerbating this fact.

[4:55 p.m.]

Two-thirds of our youth are struggling with mental health issues. What have we done for them — a hotline? Did we provide therapy? How about a lifeline? How are we supporting their families?

We have a government that has failed the youth, failed to miss the signs of warning and now is blaming them for the state they find themselves in.

Worse yet, this government is failing to acknowledge its own failures to take accountability. The opioid deaths. The massive increase in homelessness. The failure to support cities with complete wraparound facilities and care. Failures to keep contracts where they should be with counselling services for thousands, instead of being relegated to a few in the health authority — fewer counsellors seeing fewer patients but spending the same amount of money, which means, again, that the government is getting less done and spending more of the taxpayers’ money to do it.

B.C.’s mental health is struggling, yet the NDP government continues to congratulate themselves on creating a ministry with less funding than the Premier’s office.

Let’s review what we know of the throne speech so far.

Economic recovery? No. Health care focus? No. How about just mental health focus? No. Support for our youth? No. Plan to improve our public health data collection? Don’t even get me started on this one. Just repeated. All we had was repeated, recycled promises that have already been broken and programs that don’t work. More of our taxpayers’ money doing less and getting less done.

But wait. “It’s all about the people.” That is what the throne speech said. Who are these people that you speak of? Phrases like: “We’re going to make it a little easier.” But for whom? And child care? Child care spaces are closing, being put on hold, as the providers can’t afford to subsidize child care spaces on behalf of government. It’s just no longer feasible.

So who is life easier for? Who is it less expensive for? I assure you that when the government spends more, the money comes from one place: taxpayers. We in this place must not forget that there is one taxpayer, and that taxpayer has seen 23 new taxes put in place over the course of three years. Still the throne speech says: “Lives of British Columbians are easier.” For whom? The hardest-hit in the pandemic? Women? No. Failed promises on child care. We have only 10 percent of what we were told that the NDP would deliver — 10 percent. Oh wait. That was in four years, so it was 2½ percent per year.

The youth? No. Government went so far as to blame their behaviour for higher case counts, despite the fact that they have been working in the highest-transmission jobs and communal-living environments like roommates and rentals. They’re the highest users of transit and most likely to have just lost their jobs. They’ve also attended Zoomiversity, missed some of the biggest celebrations of their lives, like graduations and weddings, and they have missed one of the biggest seasons of their emergence — their lives with friends, growing, becoming, emerging.

How do I know? I have five kids, ages 19 to 25. I see firsthand what this pandemic has done to them — wrecked a season of their life where they should be in some of the biggest celebrations. And we wonder why they’re struggling with their mental health. We wonder why two-thirds of them have mental health issues right now. But I heard the NDP government say that they’ve done enough. In fact, they were congratulating themselves on how great of a job they’ve done.

[5:00 p.m.]

If I stop to look at the pandemic, do we have optimism with how this government has gotten us through? Do I hear celebrations from the community? I hear fatigue. I hear confusion. I hear anger. I hear difficulty. I hear a loss of momentum, a loss of mental health, a loss of friendships, distance in families, businesses going under, a loss of vision, a lack of progress, of community, a loss of understanding of where we are going from here, exhaustion, disillusionment.

I say to British Columbians: I have heard you. In the pit of my stomach, I have heard you. In my sleepless nights your voices echo in my head. Today I stand with every British Columbian who says: “Enough.”

What did we get from this throne speech? We got a chaotic shotgun approach of recycled promises that, in four years, haven’t been delivered on. You see, just like Dr. Tam said, this pandemic didn’t create the gaps; it showed the gaps that exist. It was the light in a dilapidated building that suddenly turned on, showing all the leaks, the cracks and the voids.

This government should have done better previously. They had three and a half years to do better. They ran on doing better in 2017 and again in 2020. The government needs to get us through this pandemic with supports, then move to stimulus, but not chaotic stimulus, not favouritism stimulus, not blundering along. Thoughtful planning — thoughtful, deliberate planning for all British Columbians equally, together.

So the throne speech was disappointing. There is no planning behind it. There is no plan behind it. There is no long-range focus on a unifying vision. There is no rallying cry. Is that because in having a plan, in publishing a plan, you create accountability? Something that this government has not wanted to do. Is it because it would have to be less haphazard, less reactionary, less subjective? We can do better. No, no, no, no. We must do better.

Some would say I’m a dreamer, an idealist. I would say yes. Yes, I am. I am a woman who believes wholeheartedly in my community, in my city of Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley, in B.C.

I believe in who we are and our potential, in how we need to move forward together, in our entrepreneurial spirit, in the collaborative nature of who we are. I believe that we are innovators and capable of altering the trajectory of future generations positively. I believe that in the Okanagan, as well as in B.C., we are a living laboratory for innovation and progress and for the pursuit of solutions to problems.

This throne speech shows us that our trajectory is going in the wrong direction, because it was full of promises that have already been broken, programs that haven’t worked and just was a lot about spending more of our taxpayer dollars on getting less done.

In short, it is a throne speech about nothing. Much ado about nothing at all. We, as British Columbians, deserve more than nothing. We deserve hope. Thank you, hon. Speaker, for allowing me this time.

R. Leonard: It is a great privilege to rise in this House today to address the throne speech that was delivered earlier this week, as we start a new session that anticipates a new budget for the upcoming year.

It is an exciting time for me, after having spent a previous term of office with a minority government and to be in a place with a whole bunch of fresh new faces, with new ideas and new energies and new skills and a lot to live up to.

[5:05 p.m.]

I have been so impressed with the folks that have come on board and are so eager to help British Columbia be­come a better place for all of us.

I want to acknowledge that I stand here, we gather here, on the lands of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking peoples, the Song­hees and Esquimalt First Nations.

I want to recognize that at home it is the K’ómoks First Nations and the territories of a proud people who I am very proud that we are working hard to serve in a better way and create a place where we have shared decision-making and shared prosperity and that everybody gets to participate in the recovery that’s going to be coming our way. It’s coming our way, but it’s going to become more fulsome as we all get through this pandemic together and come out stronger.

The throne speech began, as usual, with memorials to lost souls of people of note in British Columbia and beyond, of course, with the passing of Prince Philip. It’s an amazing life that someone can lead for 99 years and every day be able to be contributing to the globe, not just to themselves and their families but to the country and to the whole globe.

I’m also reminded that everybody who is lost leaves behind loved ones. Amongst those great names that were mentioned, I wanted to particularly raise my hands up for the life of Kim Manton. I had not met a more bubbly personality, somebody who had the strength of her convictions and an ability to just take life by the horns and lead you along to better places. I truly do miss her. It will be a long time before we see someone with that kind of energy again.

I’d also like to acknowledge some folks that have just recently passed in my community who also served in different ways. Ardith Chambers passed away in January. She was a community activist that I saw as always part of a whole. She was with the Glacier Grannies with the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and you would always see her serving meals at fundraisers or doing that sort of thing. She raised a fabulous daughter, who was at her side when she passed earlier in this year.

I would also like to recognize Heather Kennedy-MacNeill, who worked with my husband in mental health and addictions until they both retired. She was an activist in the community who worked very hard on LGBTQ issues, environment, social issues. She was just constantly involved in her community. She will be missed, both by her husband, Murray, but also by the greater community.

Bent Harder I met as a cycling enthusiast. He was 94 and passed away earlier this year. Those kinds of personalities that can persevere, even into their 90s, to make a difference — it’s just an inspiring privilege to have met them and to have made their acquaintance.

A woman who was a strong NDP organizer, who was involved in my life in my very early days of party politics, Liz Woods, passed away also. She was surrounded by people who supported her because she had inspired them through the years.

Finally, the most recently, Wayne Bradley, who was an activist who could always…. Well, I made reference to him as raising Cain. He was one to always be that creation of a little bit of — what’s it called? — cognitive dissonance, where you just need to keep questioning to move forward.

[5:10 p.m.]

All of those people will be missed, along with, in the rest of British Columbia, all of the folks who have lost their lives to COVID-19, over 1,500, and the over 1,800 people who have died from the overdose epidemic. And then the multitudes of people who have died from cancer, to all manner of disease and debility.

My heart goes out to every single person who has had to endure it, that loss, through this pandemic. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, they say, and I hope that people carry the love that they had for the folks that they’ve lost and feel stronger for it.

I wanted to mention…. Earlier this year I got to listen to Chris Hadfield as a keynote speaker for the Alzheimer Society. He spent half a year up in space and had to live his relations with his people virtually. Nobody else had done that before the pandemic. He did it, and he was speaking about how it changed him.

On his return, they pulled him out of the capsule, and it looked like he was being born again. He said that he came out of there, and at that moment, he knew that it wasn’t just him that had changed but that his world had changed. All of us in the world had changed. He likened that to where we are — to recognize that we are changed by this pandemic. It isn’t all in a bad way.

This morning I had the joy of walking here to the Legislature. I walked through a field of metaphors. It was a strange morning. One of them was a sidewalk that had some grinder come along. Between the slats, it had been ground down so that it was a smooth and level crossing, particularly valuable for people in wheelchairs and people who don’t lift their feet high enough. It was a reminder to me that as time goes on, nothing stays the same. Things change, and we shift.

I got to the pond, and there was a beautiful red flower growing. Then there were some beautiful yellow flowers. Well, they’re flags, and they’re an invasive species. As much as we try, sometimes, to make things better, unwittingly, things don’t go so well.

Then I got to the corner and crossed the street. I could smell the fresh cut of grass. The landscaper had just started. He hadn’t even gotten through a full swath of cutting the grass when the sprinklers went on. I was reminded that timing is everything. With all the best of intentions, timing is everything. We just have to remember that things take time. We do have to work together to make sure that things come out the way we hope they will.

The last thing that I saw was a red heart that was painted on a public works cover — you know, with the workings underneath that allow us to live clean and healthy lives here in the capital region of about 400,000 people, thanks to public health.

Speaking of timing, it’s a great time for us to be alive. Public health brought us sanitation, brought us sewerage, brought us clean drinking water, brought us the ability to start to control diseases in different ways and brought us vaccinations. I want to express gratitude to our public health system, which has been at the helm to guide us through this past year plus of dealing with something that nobody has dealt with for generations.

[5:15 p.m.]

I would also like to say that I’m grateful to live in a time where many vaccines could be developed inside of a year. That certainly wouldn’t have happened ten years ago. It wouldn’t have happened 50 years ago. We live in a time where we should be grateful for that.

I would like to also say that I’m grateful to the people and to the communities who have come together in such great ways. We’ve risen to this challenge, and we are able to embrace and keep safe all those around us. We just have to remember to keep on doing that.

I also want to say that I’m very grateful for Dr. Henry and her team, as usual. It is such a privilege for to us have someone with that wealth of knowledge, with that broader vision and with the ability to bring us all alongside.

She used a term in one of her media availabilities when the variants of concern were starting to grow. There has been more pressure on the health care system. The concern was around the increasing workload. She used the term “whelmed.” She says they’re not overwhelmed, but they’re whelmed. I had to look it up. I’ve never heard anybody use the word “whelmed.” Well, it’s a nautical term, a marine term, for…. The boat is kind of at the level of the surface of the water. It hasn’t been overwhelmed, but we’re close.

It was an acknowledgment of the stress and the strain that the people on the front lines, who are making sure that we come out of this alive, are faced with. It just was a great reminder to me that we need to continue to do all that we can, not only to keep each other safe, ourselves and each other safe, but also to keep our health care system safe.

At the end of the day, we still need those nurses and doctors and other health care professionals to come into work every day. It may very well be that those of us who have stopped banging our pots and pans should maybe come back to that and remember that they are still so very necessary today, as well, as much as they were a year ago.

We have a throne speech that is looking at the next year ahead and how we’re going to make our way through times that we still are not entirely certain about. We know that we’re making great strides with the vaccination. Over a million people have been vaccinated, but we have these variants of concern.

We have a new normal that we have to try and adjust ourselves to. We also have a government that is looking at how we can help people and support them through these tumultuous times as well as look to the future with that hope and determination that we will come out of it and we will come out of it stronger.

There are three guiding principles that are involved in this throne speech. One of them is around those supports and for recovery. It’s also around reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. It’s been mentioned how this room was filled with everybody, excited to support legislation that would enshrine the human rights, the rights of Indigenous Peoples. There was a lot of pageantry and a lot of ceremony. It was wonderful, but it’s not anything without action.

We are on a path to see action, to really embrace that active participation, that partnership, that will bring that shared decision-making and the shared prosperity that is everybody’s right here in British Columbia and which has been denied for so long. We’ve done so many things to start us down that path, with language revitalization and various different actions that have taken us down the road of reconciliation. There is so much more to do, and that’s where we are headed as a cornerstone for all that we do.

[5:20 p.m.]

The third principle is tackling the climate crisis. We have such an opportunity here, as we basically are reinventing ourselves to embrace the future in a direction that will help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, give us new ways of living on this planet so that we can succeed, and we can show the world — because we have one of the most ambitious climate action plans in North America — how to do it and to remain globally competitive. I’m excited that with those three cornerstones, we are able to build a stronger future.

Of course, we have always recognized that our biggest strength is our people. Whether they’re entrepreneurs or innovators, whether they go to work every day and work hard to look after our children, to do surgeries…. Whatever it is that we have taken on in British Columbia, we do it well. We are working hard to support people.

We also know that there’s a lot of struggling that’s going on, and it’s disproportionate. We are working to address that, as well as making sure that we keep our public services alive and supportive, because they’ve proven to be so critical to help people get through this pandemic. Of course, when we get to that good place, when we are seeing our economy recovering, we are mindful that we want to get back to balanced budgets so that we can make sure that we grow even better.

I think I have mentioned all of those things…. I think the piece that…. I actually cut it out of the newspaper. It was one of the first ads that came out, where Dr. Henry is wearing her mask and she is saying that this is like a marathon, and that last mile, that final push, is the hardest. To me, it just inspired me immediately to say: “Okay, this is where we’re at now.”

We’ve got the other…. We’re in a tunnel. We see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re still in the tunnel. We have to keep remembering that. People are getting sick. Families are getting sick. These are still dangerous times, and we need to recognize that. It’s hard when the enemy is invisible, but it’s here. It’s not just in Surrey; it’s everywhere. I know that some people wanted to know where exactly it is — who exactly is sick.

Dr. Henry has been very clear about keeping everybody safe and protected, and not letting us get into that place where we can start blame games, or starting to treat people with intolerance. These are important pieces for us to re­member, when we say, “Okay, it’s everywhere,” and treat yourself and treat everybody to the best protection that you can muster. It is a collective responsibility, and it is our government’s top priority, to make sure that we do everything we can to keep people safe.

Before the pandemic, we were economic leaders in Canada. We had the lowest unemployment rates, and we had steadily rising wages. On June 1, we’re going to have the first minimum wage of $15.20 an hour, something that I heard about for so many years.

[5:25 p.m.]

When we formed government, that was, I think, one of the initiatives that had the strongest support that I had ever witnessed — from grandparents who were having to look after their children’s children because they couldn’t afford child care, young people who were having to work three different jobs just to try to make ends meet, people who were having to live in crowded conditions because they didn’t make enough money. Raising the minimum wage is one of the ways that we make life more affordable, along with bringing other costs down.

Through it all, British Columbia is the most beautiful place. I think of my community, and I look at our snow-capped mountains and the forests. I look at the agricultural fields and the animals that are grazing there. I look at the blue sea and know that we have so many resources, and we have so much ability to have a very diverse economy. This is one of our biggest strengths, and it will endure through this pandemic.

We are also on the gateway to Asia. There are all kinds of global opportunities for us, and those don’t go away either. Once the pandemic is over, we have to be poised to take advantage of that. As we look to the future, we know that we need to do more. We have done so much, but we need to do more to improve our health care system. We need to help our businesses grow and thrive, and we need to make record investments in infrastructure. And that is the plan going forward.

What have we done to invest in people? Well, when the pandemic hit, we were quick to bring relief for renters, for middle-class families, for the hard-hit small businesses and for the most vulnerable. There is no room for us to leave anyone behind. “We are only as strong as our weakest link.” This is something somebody once said to me. If one of us isn’t making it, we are all failing. Making targeted investments to help people, making sure no one is left behind — these are important principles for all the actions that we undertake.

Communities. I grew up all over because my dad was in the military, and I found home in the Comox Valley. I just love my community. I hear people…. They get excited: “Oh, yeah. I love Courtenay, with their beautiful 5th Street. It’s just a gorgeous street. I love the high street in Comox overlooking the water.” There’s so much more in terms of our communities, and there is that pride of place. That is what helps keep us going and keeps us supporting each other.

We’ve participated in helping prop up those communities with the Canada-B.C. restart program so that our communities can continue to provide the services that people need and to make sure that we are all set for that strong recovery that’s coming. With the infrastructure investments that we are making, we’re going to keep seeing people moving. We’re going to keep seeing the growth that we need to see in this beautiful province, where we want to have every corner being prosperous.

We’ve worked hard to help small businesses and their employees to get through, with cutting property taxes, with prohibiting commercial evictions and forgiving hy­dro bills.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

I’ve talked in the House previously about some of the investments that have really helped businesses in the early days. We continue to bring forward programs that have been adjusted to make sure that more and more people with the businesses that are their livelihoods are able to continue to exist. They’ve pivoted, and they’ll be poised to grow even further when we get through the pandemic.

[5:30 p.m.]

Also, arts and culture — that’s the soul of our communities. There are so many great things that happen in Courtenay-Comox. We have film festivals. We have music festivals. We have a number of cultural centres with arts and theatre, and all of those organizations deserve and are getting the kind of support they need. It’s all blending together with creating more inclusive communities. It can be an exciting time, to see how resilient people can be. Resilience is the key for us getting through this.

We’ve had lots of experience in the last few years with what it means to be resilient, with wildfires and floods, and now we have a pandemic. People are rising to that. We, as a government, are rising to it. The gaps that we are seeing…. We’re taking care of business, in the sense that we are recognizing those gaps. We are taking it head-on to start to address it, to invest in things like training and hiring and honouring long-term-care workers, health care professionals, early childhood educators — all of the things that we know will help us move forward.

We’re working on reducing surgery wait times and building hospitals and urgent and primary care centres. That’s not going to stop. We are on a roll to provide the health care services that people really, really need.

We’ve worked to make life more affordable with reductions to ICBC rates, to give back funds to people who didn’t drive their car during the pandemic. We’re working really hard and see a future with thousands more rental units being built to provide support to the missing middle. These are people who are working in British Columbia and helping us have a strong economy, so they deserve a safe, secure and affordable home.

I’ve talked about a lot of different things about the environment. I’d like to talk a little bit about our climate action, our CleanBC program that is intending to make sure that we…. We were supposed to get to 10 percent electric vehicle usage in British Columbia by 2025. We’re at 9.5 percent. We’re almost there. We will beat that target. We are working to make sure our transit fleets and heavy-duty vehicles have reduced greenhouse gas emissions. We set targets that make us accountable and also help us to maintain our global competitiveness. Those are really important things for us to continue to remember and to drive forward innovation for made-in-B.C. solutions.

We also are working hard on reforming our forestry practices. This is a province that was built on forestry. We can always do better. We know that there are challenges, and we are meeting them head-on. As I said at the beginning, with First Nations being the first step out, we will continue to work to bring solutions to the challenges that we have with reforming forestry practices.

We’re also working on, of course, marine debris. If I’m going to talk about forests, I’m going to about the oceans too, and making sure that we have all of that action moving forward.

I’m happy that the digital divide is being resolved, as we move forward with hundreds of kilometres of new Internet service. I think that the notion that we have a bright future is very real, that hope and opportunity will prevail.

I will just finish with what Chris Hadfield had to say. We are in a new world. It is a changed world, and one thing that we should all learn is that we need to have patience and to make space for imperfection. Enjoy the rest of the speeches on the throne speech.

[5:35 p.m.]

I. Paton: It’s an honour to have the opportunity to respond to the Speech from the Throne here this afternoon. For me, it’s an absolute privilege to speak on behalf of the people of Delta South, who continue to entrust me with the important job of bringing their concerns and aspirations for our community here to Victoria. It’s a role I don’t take lightly, and I thank my constituents deeply for their support as I strive to represent them the best I can.

It’s really the first time I’ve had a chance to speak since October 24, since the election. I didn’t do so during the two weeks in December. At this time, I would just like to thank some people that really helped me out through the past election and my staff, of course. My two CAs in my office in downtown Ladner are Taylor Grant, a great young man that’s a brilliant CA, and a great young lady by the name of Michelle Pici. I’d also like to thank, of course, my wife, Pam, who is very interested in provincial politics and what I do. She acted as my financial agent for the past election.

Of course, my mom, Marge, who’s 93 and still living on the farm in a house across the driveway from us. Between Pam and my mom, they keep an eye on the farm and keep things rolling while I’m out of town here in Victoria.

To my election team that helped me out so much…. My election leader was Dylan Kruger. Of course, Taylor Grant helped him out as well. Some great volunteers I had, with names such as Rachel Loif, Spencer Fair, my daughter Jamie, who helped out with door-knocking, Will Zylmans, Ken Corey, Vince Kruger, Dylan’s dad, and my sign guys, Wolfgang Seida and Brad Cornell. Thanks to them.

While I’m at it, I also wanted to thank all the great people in Delta that keep us safe and keep us getting groceries at the store. Thanks to our police department, the great Delta police department, our great fire department, union 1763, and all the paramedics that do all the great work for us, in the past 14 months, especially during COVID-19. Our hospital staff, our medical staff, our dentists, our caregivers, the people working in our grocery stores, our restaurants, our processing plants that bring us all our vegetables and the meat and the beef and the poultry. These people had to go to work every day to keep us eating, keep food on the grocery store shelves.

Even the janitors that work in all these buildings. The outside municipal workers for the city of Delta. Of course, people in the trucking industry. I give so much credit to the truckers that are still moving throughout this province for the last 14 months during COVID to keep products moving and getting to the ports and getting to our grocery stores.

I was really looking forward to hearing this throne speech to gain some insight into our government’s plans for our province’s recovery. Many, many things remain unpredictable in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. All British Columbians are feeling stressed and anxious yet again, as a third wave of the virus grips our province.

Perhaps most stressed are B.C.’s business owners and their employees. We know that small businesses are often family-run. We know how hard these entrepreneurs work, often seven days a week, to stay viable, and that was before any pandemic came along. They have been begging the government for support, pleading for help so they don’t have to close their doors, so they can continue to serve their customers, so they have a legacy to pass on to their kids and their grandchildren.

Unfortunately, in 2020, they found a Premier more willing to call an unnecessary election than fast-track them that support. It was last March that all parties came together to approve funding for an economic recovery package. The government sat idly by for months and months in­stead of doling out the needed support that businesses, communities and British Columbians were expecting. The Premier fumbled to try and reassure the business community that the election wouldn’t slow down the process of getting those funds into the hands. We all know he was more focused on getting re-elected and grabbing power than he was on the well-being of our economy and the people that drive it.

[5:40 p.m.]

My goodness, my goodness, the promises and promises that I’ve heard since I became an MLA over here, in May of 2017: the promises of $10-a-day child care, of 24,000 new child care spaces, of 114,000 affordable housing units, the promise to eliminate portables in Surrey, the $400 rental rebate and then the legislation that got put forward that was actually broken.

The fixed election date was supposed to be a year from the date we had, on October 24. It wasn’t supposed to be for a year. Then we see the fixed date for the budget, which has been changed and broken. Then we see the deal that was made with the Green Party, which was broken — promise after promise. How can we go forward with someone and a party that keeps breaking these promises?

Then the election gift, where they took money that we brought forward in March of 2020 for COVID relief. They used that as an election ploy to give everybody $500 in this province, and they’re still having trouble even getting that money out the door. The time for “trust me” has long passed for this Premier. Most promises in the throne speech are simply refurbished versions of broken promises from the previous speech in 2017.

The government small and medium-sized business recovery grant program has been botched from the start. Businesses came forward in droves to tell us that the application process was too complicated and cumbersome, the eligibility criteria too restrictive. Many of them just gave up trying to get some help. Recognizing this failure, the government has tried a few times to correct its mistakes, but more than a year after the funds were unanimously approved by all parties, far too few funds have actually got to the businesses that need them.

In fact, they have shown that it’s a tremendously difficult chore to hand out $340 million to struggling businesses. They’ve even struggled to get their $500 election Christmas present out the door. It’s almost like a person at the door with a bag of candy having a devil of a time handing out free candy to children at Halloween. Like, why should that be a problem? How can you not get out $340 million to the people in this province that needed that money?

Nonetheless, the province has refused to further streamline the process and ease the strict criteria to a level that would help get those funds out the door quicker. They displayed this in what they announced — another initiative — as the circuit breaker business relief grant. They touted the fact that the process for this grant was streamlined. Well then, why couldn’t they do it for the small and medium-sized business grant if it’s so easy to streamline something? They can do it, but they just won’t do it.

Worse than that is the fact that they didn’t put new moneys into this new grant program. They took funds out of the other grant program that they’d already bungled, gave it a new name and called it a day. To me, it shows the complete lack of faith they have in their original program, even though they’ve claimed repeatedly that the small and medium-sized business recovery grant is getting tremendous uptake. If that were true, they wouldn’t be taking funds out of it to repurpose for a new program. They know it’s a failure, and they’re showing it without actually saying it.

B.C. businesses deserve better. If the government has no confidence in its own programs, how can business owners and workers have any confidence in this government? Businesses need real help, and they need it right now. Not only do they want government to make it easy and efficient for them to access vital funds so that they can keep operating; they want to hear a vision for the future, which, to them, probably looks pretty bleak right now. Unfortunately, this throne speech lacked any vision or plan for the future. It’s disappointing to these hard-working entrepreneurs who are scrambling to stay alive and who are desperately trying to find new ways to stay afloat.

You know what, Mr. Speaker? Even in the face of their own adversity, they’re reaching out to help others in the community who are struggling. There’s plenty of evidence of this in the agricultural industry, which is near and dear to me as a third-generation dairy farmer: farmers helping farmers, farmers helping neighbours, and farmers helping in their community. For example, I’ve been connecting with local farmers and making deliveries of fresh potatoes to the South Delta Food Bank in Ladner over the past year. At a time when farmers are worried about the future of their operations, they’re still giving of their time and products to those in need.

[5:45 p.m.]

I want to thank six large potato growers in Delta, with probably the best potatoes you will find anywhere in western Canada. The Guichon family in Ladner, Brent Kelly Farms, Rod Burr Farms, Cory Gerrard and Swenson Farms, Ryan Lundstrom and Blake Lundstrom and the Bates Bros. Farms are all donating on a weekly business so that I could pick up 300 pounds of potatoes and take it to our local food bank.

I have to give a special thank-you to the many hard-working volunteers at the food bank as well, including my buddy Joep, the general manager of the South Delta Food Bank. They continue to provide to our local community during these uncertain times, and for that, we are grateful.

As I say, farmers continue to give back to the community despite their own fears and worries for the future. They have a lot to be concerned about, not only due to COVID-19 but to ongoing issues that I’ve raised here in the House and outside of it on their behalf. Sadly, we haven’t seen much movement on these concerns from the government, and this throne speech doesn’t give me much hope that we’ll see any action in the near future. I will use my time to remind the House of some of the issues related to this file.

One huge concern has to do with the Trespass Act. We have a number of mostly medium- to large-sized family farms that are being targeted by activists in this province. They are fearing for the safety of their animals as well as their own personal safety, as their properties have been swarmed by trespassers.

I’ll give you a couple of examples. One is Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, the Binnendyk family. The other is in Agassiz, where Julaine and Johannes Treur run Creekside Dairy. It’s a 70-milk-cow dairy farm, and they’re currently transitioning to organic milk production. They’ve put a lot of care into what they do. It’s not just a wonderful lifestyle that they have chosen for themselves; it’s a passion that gets them out of bed at 4:30 in the morning each and every day. They also have five children who are experiencing this amazing lifestyle. I know it, because I’ve lived it too.

Imagine this family’s reaction when they began to face harassment online. These are just people trying to make an honest living, giving back to their communities and feeding our province. Where is government to ensure that they are protected and supported through legislation? Looking at other jurisdictions, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario have made great strides on this issue, while our government continues to sit on their hands. This is a concern for all farmers and their families, their properties and their livestock.

Trespassing is wrong in any circumstance, as it is an affront to private property and people’s security. How­ever, when you add in livestock to the mix, you create an entirely new issue. This is now messing with farmers’ livelihoods, the well-being of animals and, frankly, our province’s food security. This government has been so keen to dictate how farmers operate, through shifting legislation of Bill 15 and Bill 52, yet it is unable to come to consensus and decision about something as simple as making it more punitive for individuals to interfere with farmers and their work.

How could we forget the current Agriculture Minister as well as the Attorney General and the Minister of Public Safety, who made promises at the annual Agriculture Day at the Legislature, where they stood before a large crowd of farm representatives in the Grand Pacific hotel ballroom and said: “We’re here to tell you all that we’re going to fix the legislation and make it more punitive for people to trespass on farmers’ property in this province”? Myself and the member for Abbotsford West also brought up this issue during estimates last summer, where again the Minister of Agriculture confirmed that she has done little to move forward with any sort of legislation.

I ask, at a minimum, to jolt the minister’s memory: where is the action on this? Why does this government seem insistent on making it more challenging for our province’s farmers to do their work? Farming is so enriching and character-building, and it also is a very thankless job at times. I wish that there were more evidence from this government that it truly cares and is willing to take bold steps to support our farmers.

A main focus in my emphasis on supporting farmers is that it also promotes food security. Biosecurity is so important, with so many precautions taken to prevent the movement of disease-causing agents onto our farms in B.C. The truth is that we also need to incentivize both buying and growing products in British Columbia. We cannot have trespassers coming onto our farms when we have ultimate biosecurity on poultry farms, on hog farms, on dairy farms and in greenhouses. We cannot have strangers suddenly storming into these businesses, bringing in harmful diseases and agents to these farms.

There is an opportunity to give farmers more ways to maximize their sources of revenue as well in this province. This includes expanding the butchering, processing and packaging of B.C. beef, lamb, pork and poultry. This will give ranchers and small-scale producers the option to increase livestock numbers and have access to local slaughter and processing facilities.

[5:50 p.m.]

This would provide a new opportunity for the industry, as more British Columbians are eager to purchase local, homegrown and humanely raised and harvested beef pro­ducts in this province.

Currently there is a severe lack of proper processing facilities, abattoirs and cut-and-wrap facilities. More needs to be done to reduce wait times and licensing approval so that we can support this industry here in B.C. But all we’ve heard is a proposed: “Maybe we will do it. It’s planned for later this year. So stay tuned, livestock producers.”

I was on a standing committee for agriculture in 2018. Think about that. That was a long time ago — 2018. We flew all over this province as a standing committee, and we met with farmers and ranchers and abattoirs and people in the business. We came out with a 40-page report that is sitting, collecting dust. Nobody has yet done anything with the proposals in the report that we made to get more abattoirs, more people back in this province raising livestock again that we used to see many, many years ago. But they’re not doing it anymore, because it’s too difficult to find someplace to harvest those animals and to make a dollar at what they are doing.

If it follows the schedule and comes out in the fall, well, it delays changes for another year, given that the fall is an incredibly significant time for slaughter to take place so that animals aren’t fed all winter and so that people can stock their freezers. The reality is that these folks need help now. We need to put a stop to all these delays and get moving on some real decision-making.

Food security also has a lot to do with financial security, providing new avenues for the younger generation of farming families to carry on the family business. Farm families need to be supported in their efforts to expand their businesses and create supplementary sources of in­come to support their farm operations.

One of the worst ways to dissuade the next generation of farmers from carrying on this line of work is through government red tape and simply denying out-of-the-box ideas that can revolutionize the industry. Agritourism is an essential part of this province, and the government has seen to it that they actively want to eliminate it. Creative and entrepreneurial ideas such as festivals, processing facilities, eateries, roadside stands, gleaning societies, cafes and other farm-to-table options have been shut down by the Agricultural Land Commission. These are types of activities and ideas that expand and move the industry forward, yet the deliberate actions of this government seem set on regulating them to death. More than ever, the unique entrepreneurial spirit is needed.

That is why, last year, I introduced the Home-Based Food Act, a straightforward bill that would allow individuals to sell food products that have been prepared in their home kitchens, as long as they have the appropriate FoodSafe certification and a local business licence. The bill was designed to support greater opportunity for farming families and those who want to find new ways to share their farm products. However, unfortunately and dismissively, the government did not bring it to second reading.

There are people throughout the province who would love the opportunity to sell fresh-baked goods, fruits, veggies, jams, jellies, beef jerky, and so much more. My bill would have removed these barriers to allow individuals and families to supplement their income and give British Columbians access to a greater variety of fresh, local food. I hope that something equally progressive and farmer focused is on the horizon from this government, but I am reluctantly optimistic given this government’s decisions so far. COVID has shown us that we must be adaptable to change and open to trying new avenues of business, so I do hope this government will clue into this and shift its opinion on the matter.

I will say that I’m glad to see the return of non-food vendors to farmers markets for this season. They had been banned from participating due to public health orders relating to the pandemic. This was very damaging from a financial point of view. These vendors add so much to our farmers markets, offering unique items like jewelry, beauty and wellness products, flowers, leather goods, seeds and home decor. The stall fees they pay are also significant in helping to keep these markets operational in the first place. And meanwhile, food vendors were able to operate using the same health and safety measures we’re all using everywhere these days — handwashing, etc.

I was pleased to write a letter to the minister as well as advocate publicly for non-food vendors to be able to return to the markets — following those important measures, of course. I was thrilled by the news that they will indeed be making their return as the farmers market season gets close to launching into full swing. They are thrilled as well. These markets are an important way for them to showcase their wares and provide for themselves and their families.

[5:55 p.m.]

We know farmers markets make wonderful contributions to our communities and to our local economies, so it was good news all around for that.

I plead and I plead with my colleagues sitting in front of me that this province needs to certainly make de­cisions as soon as possible about the great country fairs all over this province, and the rodeos and the high school rodeos. All these things bring economy and bring excitement to small towns all over British Columbia. Sometimes this is the biggest excitement of the year — the fair or the rodeo or the farm auction or any of those good things that we do out in rural B.C. It’s important to get some answers right away.

Of course, as a former 4-H member, young people in this province that are involved in 4-H cannot wait for their local fair to take place in the summertime so they can take their 4-H project out for competition.

Moving on to other agricultural issues, I want to point out that one of the gifts that farming families give their children is a hands-on education, yet I’m sure if you were to go to any elementary or secondary school in B.C., the curriculum on farming would be at best a history lesson on the feudal system or how serfs rotated crops. Where is the emphasis to create interest and intrigue in farming? How are we going to encourage and inspire new farmers to take over?

We need to re-establish farming as a subject of inquiry in our schools and expand post-secondary programs in agriculture, horticulture and agronomy. My kudos go out to two groups in Delta. Delta school district 37 implemented what is called an academy. It’s the first one in B.C. It’s a farming academy, where kids actually went to an elementary school that was closed, and they spent time there each day. They learned about farming under the guidance of Mr. Mike Schneider, who is also in charge of what’s called Project Pickle. He goes around to every elementary school in Delta and teaches kids how to plant cucumbers and carrots and different things and move forward to the pickling progress.

This is necessary if we want to ensure that there is a new generation of farmers in B.C. This is the best way to ensure that a whole new crop of growers, ranchers, greenhouse operators, hobby farmers, community garden enthusiasts are there to support our province in the future.

But it’s not just about that. Young people can learn about agriculture not to necessarily become a rancher or a farmer. There are so many opportunities in agriculture with research, with people that become nutritionists, for people in the livestock industry. People that become experts in agriculture that are in the banking industry. People that are consultants in agriculture. People that are involved in genetics and the AI industry. And of course, sales. Nowadays, you have to be extremely brilliant with education just to sell robotics and farm equipment to farmers. It’s not like the good old days where a retired farmer of any kind could walk onto the yard and sell you a tractor.

As you can well see and hear, agriculture is near and dear to me, and I try my best to get that message across to everyone in this House who does not come from the background that I do. Many people are unaware of the challenges and regulations around farming and the best use of land.

One of the issues that remains unresolved to this day is around the need to protect roughly 600 acres in Brunswick Point in Delta. You’ve heard me ad nauseam talk about this in question period. Last year I introduced a private member’s bill that asked the government clearly to keep the fertile lands of Brunswick Point in Delta as agricultural land. Its fertile soil is great for crops, and it also provides habitat and feed for millions of migratory birds. It is in the best interests of the community in Delta’s agriculture base for this farmland to remain as a public heritage asset to not only support the natural environment but also feed our population.

I know that my bill never made it on the floor, which is a true shame, but I am still hopeful that progress can be made on this issue. Brunswick Point, which is Crown land and in the ALR, should have a farm-use or conservation covenant. It should be sold back or leased to the original farm families in Delta or other farmers in order to keep it for the best use and to remove any worry of it moving to industrial use, which we are, unfortunately, seeing with rapid growth of Amazon-type warehouses right next door at TFN. I hope to see movement on this issue soon. It means a great deal to our community.

Speaking of movement, I want to speak about the lack thereof: the issue of housing in the ALR. I continue to be inundated with messages of frustration from farmers who are waiting for this government to fix its flawed Bill 52 and create more residential flexibility on the agricultural land reserve.

[6:00 p.m.]

I’ll remind everyone that this bill that the government rushed through was without adequate consultation with farmers, although feedback was gathered after the fact and compiled in an intentions paper. Farmers have been waiting nearly a year for word on whether any of those potential changes will actually come to fruition.

Recently the minister sent out a quiet announcement outlining some changes, which she says are coming, but she’s simply delaying things again, kicking the can down the road a little bit further. Her news release says government expects to detail new rules. What does “expects” mean? To me, that type of wording still leaves a lot of peo­ple hanging.

Truly, the lack of clarity on when the government might allow more residential flexibility in the ALR is causing a lot of financial and emotional stress for farmers. They need concrete answers and action from this government. They need to be able to make plans and not suffer any more financial hardship.

Secondary homes on farms are so important. There is a housing shortage in this province. There are people that want to be small-scale farmers that need that second home that grandma and grandpa can live in to help pay for the property they purchased. The large-scale farms have hired help, they have grandma and grandpa as well, sons and daughters that want to continue on, on the farm.

How can they be told that they must commute to the nearest town and live in an apartment, when someone owns a farm that could be 100 or 300 or 600 acres in size but there’s only one house allowed on the farm? This is just wrong. We need young people that want to become farmers and follow in their parents footsteps to be able to live on that farm.

Finally, as I move away from the issue around agriculture, I want to touch on one of the most important issues for the people of Delta. You may have guessed it, and some of you may have actually experienced it: it’s the George Massey Tunnel. I am, of course, talking about the ongoing, frankly awe-inspiring delays related to the tunnel replacement. This is truly becoming a bit of a joke, as the completion marker moves further and further away and motorists suffer in traffic more and more.

Our previous government had it sorted out. We had a plan; we had funding; we had a timeline. And a replacement would have nearly been complete about a year from now. We had all the engineering studies done. We had all the sand brought in — 600,000 tonnes of sand. We had a company moving all the hydro lines to be able to go over the river when the new bridge was built.

We had all the piles that were there, that are still sitting on the side of the highway. All the piles had been tested to see that they would support the new bridge. Instead, this government decided that wasn’t good enough and motorists didn’t need to experience reduced congestion for another decade. On top of this, the unnecessary election prompted all of the work to come to a halt as the province went to the polls.

So where are we today? Three and a half years after this government cancelled our former government’s plan to replace the aging and seismically unsafe tunnel with a bridge, virtually nothing has been done. Instead of sticking with the more innovative bridge plan, which would have fewer environmental impacts, this government seems intent on reliving the 1950s by plunking another concrete tube in the Fraser River. By the way, he’s totally against it. The Chief of Tsawwassen First Nation was the only person on the mayors task force that stood up and said: “We do not want a concrete tube in the bottom of our Fraser River on the edges of Delta.”

In this latest throne speech, the government insists that the Massey Tunnel replacement continues to be a priority. What the heck does that mean: “continues to be a priority”? I have no idea.

All in all, the people of British Columbia want more from this government. They are counting on support. They are counting on effective leadership, and they’re counting on this legislative session to bring them some hope. This is a time for decisive action. The people, businesses and future of British Columbia are in need. This government must bring forward some real ideas, backed by real investments that will support everyone in this province.

However, given the actions and decisions of this Premier to stall financial aid, for his political aspirations, I would be lying if I said I was not worried that this government is up to that task.

R. Russell: It’s a pleasure to be joining you today from the sunny southern interior with my boots currently firmly on the ground here in the traditional territory of the Nsyilxcən-speaking people. Limləmt for the privilege. Thank you.

Last Sunday my partner and I took our kids to soccer practice, and I was struck by the realization there that youth soccer is a bit of a microcosm of this current world we find ourselves in, at least in the sense of the dedication of people from all corners of our communities to help keep us afloat in this shared storm we find ourselves within.

[6:05 p.m.]

As a coach myself for the last eight years, Sundays used to be a time for social connection and youth development in various school fields across the region covered with kids, parents, errant soccer balls and general revelry. Things are very different now, with coaches being tasked with keeping kids engaged without games and the goal of creating drills that don’t involve getting more than two metres close to one another, which is no small feat.

I now look around, and I know that the invisible energy that keeps these kids engaged and active comes from all corners of our community. It comes from the formal organization, of course — the board and the manager, all those people that make it work. These children wouldn’t have the chance without them, and my hands go up to them.

It really does, as the adage goes, take a village. The coaches that I saw on Sunday are city managers. They’re regional district building inspectors. They’re school teachers. They’re generally champions of the community. They all come together, not for themselves but to help build a vibrant, rural community that cares for our children. It feels as though the pandemic has exhausted pretty well all of us, yet we still are surrounded by people willing to dig even deeper to find even more energy and dedicate that back to their community.

Our champions are woven throughout our communities — those people stocking shelves in supermarkets or growing greens to support our local food systems, those people creating safe service delivery plans in local governments and, certainly, the teachers, support staff and child care providers that are nurturing the emotional well-being of our children in these difficult times.

Her Honour said in her speech: “From the daily sacrifices made by front-line essential workers to the small businesses that have endured countless obstacles, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who have helped us come through it.” But let’s be clear that that gratitude is due to nearly all of you — all of us — for putting our shoulders to the wheel together to help get us through this pandemic.

Earlier today in her reflection and prayer, the Minister for Mental Health and Addictions read a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and I excerpt just a few lines:

Again the chance
to do the work,
which is to look in,
to touch the pain
but not become it.

Let’s recognize that we ask so much from so many who request so little in return. In so many cases, our counsellors, our physicians, our educators and so many more do this all day long, and they do even more to help support our communities after they leave work.

We know that COVID has been devastating for so many British Columbians. I mentioned previously in this House how I think that part of our challenge ahead is to be cognizant and aware of some of the gems that we find among the rubble that is left in the aftermath of the pandemic.

I like reading between the lines. On Monday, we heard the Lieutenant-Governor say: “In the year ahead, your government will look carefully at public service innovations that came about during the pandemic, with an eye toward maintaining those elements that offer greater efficiency and make life more convenient for people.” These are some of the gems.

I must say that when I hear this, my mind goes between those lines to chaos and complexity theory. I’m always happy to have the opportunity to speak to such concepts in this House.

Part of the concept of complexity theory is that if we put together a bunch of independent parts, the behaviour of the system emerges, sometimes unpredictably, from their interactions. In turn, in these complex adaptive systems — which we are one of and we operate within — there is a phase of restructuring and recreation that is born from challenge and adversity and deep destruction. A Boeing 737 doesn’t reorganize and rebuild after it is challenged or broken. A socioeconomic system does. Disruption provides an opportunity to reimagine how we do business.

As was mentioned by the Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, the receding tide of COVID has and will expose cracks in our systems; however, it has also exposed opportunities. Just earlier today some of us had the opportunity to hear from the B.C. Rural Health Network with some concrete examples of such creative and positive disruption, virtual health delivery being one of them. They complimented our government on the agility that was shown to rapidly adapt to a system of health care provision, more effectively getting care to people who need it and simultaneously getting people to that care.

Examples like this abound — the potential to rebuild, reimagine and recover in a way that leaves us more resilient and more sustainable and more well off than we were. But it will take energy from all of us and from our professional public service, and I sense that there is a keenness and eagerness to tackle this task ahead of us.

[6:10 p.m.]

Now I’d like to talk a little bit about silo-breaking, something that wasn’t spoken explicitly to in the Speech from the Throne but I think is a clear thread woven throughout this government’s vision and, frankly, is a big part of why I put my hand up for this job. It’s a recognition that to work effectively, we have to move beyond the traditionally siloed nature of how we have historically done business. This is one example of the process of recovery that is so important for allowing our rural B.C. communities to really maximize their opportunity to meet their true potential.

We need to resist that pull of simplicity and reductionism and put a lot of energy into this cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary work to get things done that really matter for our communities and actually build back better. In rural B.C. especially, this is critical, and evident in most of our small communities.

Another example is the paradigm shift in forestry to move from a process driven by a single-value focus on fibre volume to really embracing a vision of a sustainable forest sector that works well for our communities. This means paying attention to fibre volume, but it also means paying attention to employment and local economic energy. It means celebrating and making decisions that advance our environmental values. It means building systems that help support Indigenous self-determination. This is an expansion of the values that we know should be central to our decision-making. I’ll come back to forestry later.

I like quotes, so I share some words from a thinker that had a massive impact on the evolution of all of our thinking, Charles Darwin: “It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us.”

I like this picture that Darwin paints, and I think it serves us well as we navigate the challenges outlined in the throne speech. We can’t understand the insects without also understanding the plants, and to know the birds, we need to know the worms. I’ll refrain from extrapolating the metaphor around the worms any further.

Recovery presents to us the requirement to break down those artificial constraints, work beyond reductionist systems and build back better, as was outlined in the speech. Similarly, we need to recognize that doing this work well is and will be hard. It demands a great deal of energy from our professional public service and a certain amount of patience while we determine how to best work through this more complex and more genuinely productive landscape without such a reliance on traditional, conceptual or operational silos. I see and hear a clear sense of passion from our government to tackle this difficult work, and I’m proud to be a part of the team to help build a better future.

Many examples exist of this cross-cutting work throughout the throne speech, which makes clear the recognition that our work is not well contained by these silos. The dedication to addressing inequality and discrimination cuts across these traditional categories, including plans for B.C.’s first anti-racism laws and reforms to the Police Act. Similarly, it’s clear that this government cares about reconciliation in a way that we haven’t seen previously. The work that started with DRIPA continues to form a bright and constant thread throughout the work of this government, cutting across ministries and programs with a vision to a future of true partnership and shared decision-making.

As was mentioned just earlier this afternoon on “the ESG revolution” — the environmental, social and governance revolution — by the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, we’re apparently the only jurisdiction outside of Bolivia to embrace UNDRIP in this way. I’m proud of that and look forward to what’s ahead.

Further, we look at the commitment to climate action with our renewed commitment to CleanBC, North America’s most progressive climate action plan, with movement to clean tech, electric vehicles and more. These cut across the traditional bins of our regular business. These cross-cutting initiatives are important, of course, and necessary, but the more familiar work remains essential as well. So I’ll turn my attention to some of the content explicitly within the throne speech.

Schools. My kids walk to school every day into a space full of educators, assistants, caregivers and beyond. These people carry all the stress and anxiety of a daily routine with our province’s children to champion the well-being of these little people’s lives regularly, without recognition, and then go on to put in even more hours after work to help coach these kids and provide some more brightness into their days — all that on top of whatever life is throwing at them at home and personally in their own lives. Again, I think that we can never be thankful enough for these champions in our communities.

[6:15 p.m.]

The Hon. Lieutenant-Governor spoke to this where she noted:

“The success and stability of B.C.’s safe school reopening is a testament to the extraordinary collaboration and commitment from all of our education partners. Everyone pulled together in the best interests of our kids.”

She carried on:

“…teachers and educational assistants, principals and vice-principals, clerical workers, custodial staff and school bus drivers, superintendents, trustees and parent advisory councils.

“Your government has worked closely with all stakeholders and with the federal government to provide nearly $290 million in new funding for school boards.

“…your government will continue making investments that will keep our schools safe and classrooms well supported.”

I’m happy to be a part of that support for our schools, our education system and for all the champions within that.

The province also committed to addressing issues with health care: issues with long-term care, surgery wait times and access to urgent care and hospitals. As was said on Monday: “Four years ago your government set out to deliver faster, more personalized health care, closer to home. While much has been accomplished, there’s a lot more to do.”

Rural health care is something of a different beast than it is in urban centres. That’s why I’m privileged to have representatives from the B.C. Rural Health Network in my riding, a dedicated group that is focused on coming to the table to help us ensure that rural British Columbians get the attention they deserve with constructive conversations about what we need to change to meet rural B.C.’s needs. I mentioned earlier that ensuring that we can more effectively get care to the people who need it and simultaneously getting people to the care they need — these aren’t easy challenges — is a creative, sticky problem that I look forward to helping lean into.

Five years ago today, as we have heard a number of times earlier, on April 14, 2016, provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act due to the significant rise in opioid-related overdose deaths reported in B.C. We know this is central to all of our communities, especially so for myself in rural B.C. “People everywhere are experiencing increased anxiety, stress and depression.”

I’m happy to see a commitment to new investments in the Pathway to Hope plan to improve mental health and addictions care. Since some seem unclear on what that plan entails, I thought I’d touch on some of the high-level points of that plan: increasing access to affordable counselling and support, including grants to non-profits; launching integrated child and youth teams connected to schools; opening more Foundry youth centres; expanding First Nations–run treatment centres; expanding intensive services for children and youth, including day programs for mental health and addictions treatment upon hospital release; new family care home spaces with clinical care; supporting early childhood social-emotional development. These are all critical steps in our pathway to care.

Likewise, we heard more this morning about our efforts to end the criminalization of simple drug possession. As Premier Horgan stated: “Criminal prohibitions are ineffective in deterring drug use, and criminalization of drug possession directly leads to both individual and systemic stigma and discrimination that prevent people from seeking services.” These are the kinds of changes I look forward to seeing continued energy dedicated to, to really recognize the complex nature of these challenges and the need for a diverse toolkit to ensure people get the help they need and want.

Economic recovery. Even in normal times, it takes skills and tenacity to run a successful small business, faced with thin margins and an ever-changing marketplace. The pandemic only compounded these challenges with new ones that none of us could have expected.

We heard that earlier this week. The Honourable Lieutenant-Governor went on to say: “Your government’s res­ponse to the uncertainty has been to listen to those on the front lines, ready to respond and adjust, as required.” The supports that we have seen flowing from our government to help ease the blow of this pandemic on our small business community are reassuring to me. I look forward to further efforts to really embrace the opportunity to help diversify and nurture our rural economies. I know that that’s on the horizon.

We’ve heard dedication to create conditions for a strong recovery to help grow businesses. The plan includes grants for those looking to expand online presence, and we heard that “…this session, your government will introduce legislation to support the operations of InBC Investment Corp. This new strategic fund will help promising B.C. companies scale up and anchor talent, keeping jobs and investment at home in British Columbia.” This is the kind of ambitious, creative attention to economic vibrancy in our communities that I’m thrilled to see moving forward and proud to be a part of.

[6:20 p.m.]

Again and again I hear — and I’m sure I’m not alone among the MLAs around the province — how important basic infrastructure is for our local municipalities and electoral areas. We heard: “As we turn towards recovery, investing in stronger communities will be a key priority. Budget 2021 will make record in­vestments in infrastructure to keep people and our economy moving.” These investments will help both create communities, more resilient and more sustainable, and will help reduce future disaster risk. Another triple win.

Forestry. The throne speech made it clear that this government will propose new measures to increase access to fibre for communities, First Nations and small businesses in the industry. This is not just important for our forests; it’s important for the resiliency of our communities and for keeping options available for our rural families.

I read: “Land management practices will be updated to improve forest stewardship and emphasize environmental protection. The forest sector will be supported to move from volume to value, using innovation to improve management, support communities and generate economic opportunity.” All of this while continuing to simultaneously improve forest stewardship and emphasizing environmental protection. This is a good example of how we are tackling the tough challenges of addressing the real complexity of these issues for the benefit of all British Columbians.

Old growth is obviously a good example of this. We heard the Lieutenant-Governor make clear that “your government will continue to take action on the independent report on old growth, which recommended important new protection for remaining old growth stands not already protected.” This government made a commitment to take action on all 14 recommendations within that old-growth report.

While we all, I think, recognize and acknowledge the complexity of old growth, there is a fundamental para­digm shift that is on the horizon of how we manage our forests. The necessity for this was made clear by Al Gorley and Garry Merkel. I take this opportunity to reiterate some of the foundations of what that report recommended.

It recommended a paradigm shift to move from management of timber subject to constraints to management for ecosystem health. It recommended a paradigm shift from the notion that old forests are renewable to old forests are not renewable, in many cases.

Likewise, a shift in paradigm from the fact that old forests can be created through agriculture methods to old forests are the result of complex landscape interactions. A shift from the notion that forests exist to provide value to us as humans to the notion that forests have intrinsic value for living things. Finally, a shift from the notion that forests can be fully understood to a recognition, I would say, that forests and ecosystems will never be fully understood.

This is the nature of the kinds of changes that I’m proud to be a part of helping move forward. These are the changes that will allow us the opportunity to be introspective and to determine how we best structure and build upon these guiding principles, engaging with the people that know and work the land. How do we work with these core drivers to build a successful and critical forest industry that supports our rural B.C. communities in a sustainable way for today and for generations to come, economically and socially and environmentally?

These principles don’t lend themselves well for easy sound bites, but they matter. This is hard work. This is difficult work. But the time is right for us to address these issues that haven’t received the attention they deserve.

What will this look like? There is a great start outlined in this same report. I’ll take the time to read out a diagram. I’m not allowed to use my props, so you’ll have to just imagine a tree. At the base of that tree, in the earth, there are roots. The roots are guided by the heading: “Guiding principles.” Under that, we see a list of a focus on ecosystem health, using scientific methods, involving the public, maintaining local flexibility, fostering a paradigm shift and managing for multiple benefits. These are the kinds of underlying guiding principles that will structure this thing that we build going forward.

At the base of the trunk of this tree, it is listed: “B.C.-Indigenous government-to-government relationships.” It’s a key principle upon which the rest of this structure is built. Then on the trunk, we have the core drivers of public engagement and provincial policy on old forests and an implementation plan.

[6:25 p.m.]

Then going forward, a whole suite of products and outcomes that relate to healthy ecosystems, effective management and public support. These include things like updated targets and guidelines, integrating provincial local goals and priorities, updated classification inventory, transition planning, transition support, inclusive stable governance and many more.

These are the kinds of core fundamental principles that change the nature of how we look at our forests. These are the kinds of complex realities that we acknowledge we need to embrace to build a better, sustainable and functional future for management of our forests for generations to come.

Again, it won’t be easy, and it clearly won’t be simple. But I think I can probably speak for most of us in this House that we didn’t put our hands up for simple and easy. We put our hands up, or at least I did, for better.

Technology. The throne speech outlined plans for bridging the digital divide through investments in technology in rural, remote and Indigenous communities especially. We’re moving towards coverage across hundreds of kilometres of new cell coverage on B.C. highways to make life safer for our remote highways and the people travelling upon them. We’re helping over 4,000 of our businesses pivot to a stronger online presence with the launch online program.

The Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation spoke earlier this week to the fact that tech companies are seeing more and more of a blossoming presence in rural communities. The nature of this work is indeed changing, and this is the diversifying energy our rural communities are looking to, to help build resilient and strong rural economies for the future.

We’re enabling this transition and the diversification of our communities by investing heavily into connectivity in our rural communities. The Premier gave me a mandate, as Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development, to work with the Minister of Citizens’ Services in an effort to connect all regions of this province to high-speed internet — a tall order that I’m happy to take the challenge of, moving forward.

In terms of topics, I will touch briefly on homelessness and housing before I wrap up. As was mentioned in the Speech from the Throne, this pandemic has exposed some of the cracks in our system most clearly — for example, the challenge of homelessness in our communities.

Those without a home or even shelter have found themselves in often even more difficult situations during this pandemic, and this government has made an unprecedented investment over the last few years and going forward in thousands of new units yet clearly embraces the notion that homelessness remains a critical issue that government is determined to confront head-on. There’s plenty more to do, but we’re well on our way.

To conclude, let’s look at the actions and let’s look at the budget for 2021 to demonstrate the dedication that this government has to make life better for British Columbians, not just the wealthy and well-connected but for all of us in all corners of rural B.C., as well as within our urban centres.

As the Lieutenant-Governor said earlier this week: “This budget will choose to help people now and create the conditions for a strong economic recovery that reaches every British Columbian.” She went on to say: “It will make health care better, while creating new opportunities for people.” Ultimately, I would add that this will position British Columbia to come back even stronger once we start to wave goodbye to this pandemic as it disappears in the rearview mirror.

I’m happy and privileged to be here and really sincerely look forward to being able to work with my new colleagues from all sides of the aisles to help build a bright future for British Columbians.

Deputy Speaker: Just a reminder to all members again, the second day in a row. According to standing orders, we do not use proper names. Premier is fine; the rest is not.

Also, if you’re using your phone to speak on, you should leave the chamber. If you’re at home, that means turn off your camera, please.

Thank you very much for your cooperation. I appreciate that.

S. Furstenau: Hon. Speaker, as we respond to this throne speech after what has been for so many a year of sacrifice and loss, I think what British Columbians need at this moment is a shared sense of common purpose, not only for navigating this third wave of COVID-19 but for a more just and equitable future.

[6:30 p.m.]

We need to recognize the responsibility this government has to address the multiple, overlapping crises we face, in addition to COVID-19, from the drug toxicity crisis to the existential threat of climate change.

What I think B.C. needs right now is a clear sense of where we want to get to as a province and how we’re going to get there together. What B.C. needs right now is courageous leadership, not just tweaking the status quo. With this throne speech, the government is choosing the latter.

I’ve been reading some interesting books lately: Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, George Monbiot’s Out of the Wreckage and Rutger Bregman’s Humankind. All three of these books have really interesting takes on the role that stories play in what makes us human and the role that stories play in defining the realities that we live in. All of them also identify research that shows that, ultimately, humans are cooperative by nature.

I think we can reflect on this in our own experiences and our own lives. We can look at, for example, a year ago, at the beginning of this pandemic, the willingness, the enthusiasm that we had to come together, to take care of each other, to make sure that we were doing our best for our neighbours, for our friends and, ultimately, for people we’d never meet.

Yet the story that we often have, which dominates our political realities, is a story of competition. Everyone is for themselves. This long-standing story, this very old story now, has really dominated western politics for about 40 years. “You’re in it on your own. Government should just get out of the way, and people should just learn to take care of themselves.”

This story has been told for the last 40 years. We’ve watched inequality grow. We’ve watched our mental health worsen. We’ve watched our communities become frayed at the edges. We’ve seen homelessness rise. We’ve seen crises become the dominant way that we exist.

Part of this old story, this story that we’ve been listening to for so long, is that government’s job is to serve the economy. If we can just get the economy working, then the economy will take care of people. The economy is a construct.

I think we need a new story. I think we need a story that says: “We need to build an economy that will serve us. We need to build an economy, and in the building of that economy, we put the well-being of people at the centre of our efforts.”

I want a new story. I want a different story. I think a lot of other people want a new story as well.

A year ago we were talking about building back better. We were talking about a green and just recovery. We were talking about this moment that we were in, with this global pandemic, and we were not going to let things go back to the way they were before. We were not going to let things go back to the conditions that created exactly the outcomes that we have right now.

Yet in this throne speech that we heard earlier this week, it was almost like the pandemic was something to acknowledge at the beginning, and then we just go back. It may as well have been a throne speech from 2019. It didn’t really recognize that we don’t want to go back to how things have been, back to the ways that got us here.

One thing we could do to change the story is we could measure things differently. We could measure what we actually value. We could use genuine progress indicators, rather than GDP, to measure our economy. That way we would know if the economy is actually serving the people.

[6:35 p.m.]

Right now the GDP measures one thing: just how much goods and services are moving around. It doesn’t measure our environment. It doesn’t measure the health of our people. It doesn’t measure whether our institutions are ser­ving us. It doesn’t measure our social fabric. It doesn’t ascribe any values, negative or positive, to the transactions that go into the calculation of GDP. Environmental degradation or a disaster, depletion of resources, growing inequality — the cost of these are not factored into the calculation of GDP.

Calculating genuine progress indicators adjusts for inequality, recognizes inequality is a negative impact to our society. GPIs add the value of nonpaid work — parenting, volunteering, housework — things that we all do but that we ascribe no actual value to in our economy, which is astonishing really. I mean, consider the value of volunteering in our communities, and we don’t think that has any value when we measure it when it comes to our economy.

GPIs add the value of service from infrastructure, both built and natural. A watershed is valued for the service that it provides of clean drinking water, not just the value that it could offer to a timber company if those trees were cut down.

GPIs recognize the value of time and leisure. GPIs subtract the costs of crime, subtract the cost of long-term environmental degradation, air pollution, water pollution, ozone depletion, noise pollution, loss of farmland, loss of forests, loss of wetlands. I think we could all recognize that the impacts of those losses, or of those effects on us, are negative to our economy and to our lives and to our society. Yet GDP…. Well, if a forest is turned into timber, that’s good for GDP. We’re not going to measure anything else about that forest.

I think if we want a new story for our province, we do need to measure things differently, and we can. Other countries, other jurisdictions, have introduced GPIs. We have some in B.C., but they don’t really inform a lot of our policy and decision-making.

What else in this story do we want to tell about B.C.? How about B.C. is a province where everybody has a place to live? Let’s start there. Every child has enough food to eat. Everyone has an opportunity for quality education, lifelong learning. Let’s keep building from there.

I think about this a lot. I imagine what it would feel like, not just for me — for people I know, for people in this province — to have a government say: “First and foremost, we’re here to make sure that you, your children, your elders, your neighbourhood, your community, your town, your city…. We’re here to make sure that the conditions to thrive exist.”

I think we owe it to young British Columbians and to future generations to seize this moment and to not let all the sacrifices of this past year go by and amount to nothing, to revert back to a little tinkering on the edges, to status quo.

People want to hear from us what’s possible. They want to feel inspired by a vision for the future that gets us that sense of common purpose again, that we can actually look at individual sacrifices because it contributes to a greater common good, that if my neighbour is doing better, that’s good for me. If there’s less inequality, that’s a better society for us to live in.

[6:40 p.m.]

I don’t want to have a future where we just sort of say we are going to passively allow things to get worse year over year, where we’re resigned to the fact that a world devastated by climate change, inequality and lack of biodiversity is just the future that’s coming. We’re going to make ourselves a bit more resilient for that, but we’re not going to stand up in this moment that we have and say: “No, that’s not the future we want to build.”

In fact, that’s what we do in here. That’s our job. We build the future. Every decision we make shapes the future. More than ever, we need — I need — a government that will step up to meet the urgency of this moment, with a clear vision and a bold plan for what is possible.

We hear about the work this government plans to do on the edges, but what we don’t hear is a recognition that we need a realignment of how we look at the whole picture. For over four decades, we have heard politicians and governments talking about taking care of the economy. And where are we? A destabilizing level of inequality, an alarming concentration of enormous wealth into fewer and fewer hands, a climate emergency that governments want to look away from but that will not be ignored, with seasons that are now marked by floods, droughts, wildfires and vicious storms.

This throne speech doesn’t outline a plan to address the gaping holes in mental health care or tackle the housing affordability crisis in a deeply meaningful way. The speech says that “government will pursue its goal of a province where everyone has access to a safe and affordable place to call home.” However, the only specific promise that is made, to that end, is to make investments “through Budget 2021 to help get thousands of ‘missing middle’ rental homes built throughout the province.”

There’s no mention of any action to cool the market for real estate. Housing has shot out of control in cities and towns across B.C., even more so in the past year, leaving more British Columbians than ever shut out of owning a home or finding an affordable rental in their community. This level of housing unaffordability will hollow out communities, as it has already, if it’s allowed to continue. There is very little sign from this government that they’re going to take action to turn that around.

On mental health. The throne speech recognizes the impact of the pandemic on our mental health. It says: “People everywhere are experiencing increased anxiety, stress and depression.” This is true. There is no indication that this government is going to move to take action to support people’s mental health in this time of crisis in a way that ensures that everybody gets that help when they need it. We urgently need accessible and consistent mental health care. We’ve been advocating for including mental health treatment under MSP but so far not seeing a lot of willingness from government to act on this critically important issue.

I was also profoundly disappointed to see no mention of a green recovery in this speech. The section in the speech on CleanBC and climate action was last, almost like an afterthought. The word “climate” is mentioned exactly once. In the speech, we were promised that the government will create good jobs while tackling the climate crisis and protecting the environment. An afterthought.

To say that this is an inadequate approach to addressing the challenge of climate change feels like an understatement. We cannot afford to view climate action as an afterthought. We cannot see it as being something opposed to job creation, as if creating jobs and taking action on climate come at each other’s expense.

Again, this is the old story. “We have to choose. We can have jobs or the environment. We can have jobs or climate action.” I don’t believe that story. It’s the opposite. If we take ambitious climate action to green our economy and support workers as we do so, this investment and innovation driver would be a huge job creator. It would create jobs that aren’t unhealthy either for the workers or the environment.

[6:45 p.m.]

Tackling the climate crisis and ensuring a just transition for workers must be at the centre of our investments and our recovery plan, if we are serious about addressing the greatest challenge of our time.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

It’s not just us saying we can do more and must do more at this moment. In other parts of the world, from small jurisdictions right here to other countries, governments are unveiling their ambitious plans to do better for their societies as they build back from COVID-19.

South of the border, President Biden has unveiled an economic recovery plan that has climate action and a just transition at its centre. His plan is predicated on re-imagining and rebuilding a new economy. This plan recognizes climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our time, and over the next ten years, the plan proposes to invest $10 trillion into infrastructure, all aimed at reorienting the American economy and making it more resilient to future shocks.

Other examples. Denmark is spending 18.4 billion kroner — €2.5 billion — to renovate 72,000 social housing units, with another 11.5 billion kroner that will serve future renovations until 2026, with the focus on green transition.

New Zealand is spending $1 billion to create environmental jobs focused on pest and weed control, biodiversity projects and conservation, with a goal of saving 4,000 native species that are on the brink of extinction.

Amsterdam, Brussels and, right here in B.C., Nanaimo are cities that are adopting doughnut economics as the economic model to recover from COVID, with a goal of ensuring that nobody falls short of life’s essentials, from food and water to social equity and political voice, while ensuring that we don’t break down the earth’s life-support systems, such as a stable climate and fertile soil.

Amsterdam has targeted a 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030, implemented measures to make it easier for residents to consume less and pushed for construction companies to build with sustainable materials.

Iceland is preparing to issue green treasury bonds as part of its recovery plan. Sturla Palsson, director of mar­ket operations at the Central Bank of Iceland, put it this way: “We have to be second to none in terms of the demand that we put on ourselves to preserve nature, the environment and sustainability.” Iceland has also strengthened its pledge to the Paris Agreement by raising its 2030 emissions-to-cut targets to 55 percent of 1990 levels rather than 40 percent.

Hawaii released a feminist COVID recovery plan in 2020, with recommendations for everything from ending the gender pay gap to using federal loans to bolster critical social services.

We in B.C. could be among the world leaders in our pandemic recovery, recognizing that this is a moment to seize, a moment when so many of us see that continuing to do the same things and expecting different outcomes really isn’t a plan that we should accept any more.

While COVID-19 continues to feel all consuming, we need government to prepare for the future. That’s the job. We need the NDP government to outline a far more ambitious plan for an equitable COVID recovery that is built on climate action, a just transition and building a more equal society in which everybody’s needs are met, our natural systems that we rely on for our health and well-being are protected and our communities are safe, vibrant and connected. That’s the B.C. I want to be part of building.

We owe it to young British Columbians and to future generations to seize on this moment and not let all of the sacrifices of this last year amount to nothing. People want to know what’s possible. They want something to inspire them, something to rally their efforts around — a shared vision of a future that is healthier, more equitable and more hopeful.

[6:50 p.m.]

Now, more than ever, we need a government that will step up to meet the urgency of this moment with a clear vision and a bold plan for our shared future.

A. Singh: I rise — I guess metaphorically, because I am sitting, of course, like many of us are — to speak in support of our government’s throne speech.

I acknowledge that I work and live on the traditional lands of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt and Kwikwetlem peoples.

My riding is quite unique. It straddles two different cities, Richmond and Queensborough in New Westminster.

It warms my heart today to be able to stand here and respond to the throne speech and speak in support of it. Of course, I am in support of all the things that the new government, our government, has done over the past few years. I’m really proud to stand with a government that governs for all of the people of British Columbia and that cares about those that are most in need, as well as the rest of us.

I just heard my friend, the Leader of the Third Party. She spoke about a story about taking care of people. I think she may have missed part of that story in the throne speech, because that’s what I heard. I heard about a government that has spent the last few years tirelessly working for everyday people. I would submit that it’s indisputable that people, regular British Columbians, are better off under this government than they have ever been. The environment is better off, health care is better off, and people in health care are better off. People are feeling better, even in these hard times. That’s a true measure with which we gauge value.

I’ll speak about the throne speech in a bit, in a moment, but I have to pause and just state that I am literally baffled at the collective amnesia of the opposition when they speak about pretty much anything, be it health care to mental health to services for people, even to support for small farms and abattoirs.

Our friend from Delta South spoke at length of how hard it is for a small farmer with livestock to survive and of the bureaucracy that they face in bringing their livestock to market. I understand that, and I feel for them. I understand that, but I’m amused, because it was our friends from across the room who brought in regulations in the late 2000s that all but decimated these small farm producers and rewarded their wealthy and well-connected friends with the large abattoirs and the large slaughterhouses. Again, collective amnesia. But enough of that.

We learn new things every day. I learned something from that same friend from Delta South — that I could and should speak about those and thank those that have helped me in my journey here. I want to do that. I’d like to do that, which is perfect, because I’m noting the time. I think I can get that in before I reserve my right to speak tomorrow.

Firstly and foremost, my partner and my wife, Katrina Molson, and my child — my baby daughter, a toddler — Lennox. I’d like to thank them for…. I wouldn’t be able do any of this without them, without the support that I feel and the love that I feel from them.

Kelly Sather, Gurveen Dhaliwal, Brent Calder and Raymond Liens, who worked tirelessly in my campaign office during my campaign. My friend Chuck Puchmayr, who has always been there for me. Many of you will know him, because he used to sit in these halls many years ago. Sherrill Gullickson, who is my constituency assistant. Ronnie Nicolarosa and Jaden De La Torre. My friend Sahib Thind.

Many of you will know Sahib Thind. He’s the president of the Prof. Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation, and he has joined us on many occasions in the Legislature. That’s the organization that fought, for many years, for an apology for the wrongs that South Asians faced by doing the Komagata Maru voyage. It’s the organization that got the apology in the Parliament in Ottawa. I’m very proud to have him as a supporter.

Noting the hour, I reserve my place to continue speaking at the next debate and move adjournment of the debate.

A. Singh moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. D. Eby moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.

The House adjourned at 6:55 p.m.