Orders of the Day

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

Budget Debate

(continued)

G. Kyllo: I’m happy to continue my remarks with respect to Budget 2021. Just before we broke, I was sharing that one of the roles of the official opposition is to highlight where we feel that government has maybe misallocated, I guess, their spending priorities and to hold them largely to account.

As we look at Budget 2021, there’s a number of areas where I certainly feel that government has fallen well short of expectations and promises and commitments that were made to British Columbians, especially prior to and during the election of last fall. Specifically, we have a look at the failure to actually implement the $400 renters rebate. That was something that was announced back in the 2017 election, again in the 2020 election, yet this budget fails to show evidence of any spending priority to meet that lofty goal that government had provided to the electorate.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

As we look to the budget, there are a number of significant cuts — specifically, health authorities. Certainly not lost on any British Columbian is the significant challenge that we’ve seen on account of the pandemic and the exemplary work of health care professionals in meeting the needs of one of the single-largest pandemics and medical health emergencies we’ve ever seen in our province.

Interesting to see, though, that in spite of the pandemic, health authorities are going to see a $1.1 billion funding cut. That’s $1,100 million. I’m not quite sure how our government can square that priority with some of the most significant challenges that our health care system has incurred in the history of our province, yet a $1.1 billion spending cut.

School districts are also seeing about a $53 million cut. I know school district 83, which is largely in the Shuswap riding, has had significant challenges with trying to maintain their balanced budget, which is a requirement, largely, for school districts in the province. So seeing a spending cut at a time when school districts are really challenged is definitely concerning to myself.

[1:35 p.m.]

Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation is seeing a $5 million spending cut. The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which is largely responsible for issuing many of the permits — whether it’s a mining permit or a forest tenure cutting permit — have had a cut, also, of $41 million.

So definitely very concerning when you have a look at the fact that we’re incurring a very significant budget deficit this year. The deficit last year is approximately $5 billion less than initially anticipated. The funding dollars seem to be there, but there does not seem to be, I guess, the desire or willingness of government to even maintain services in some of these very important ministries.

You contrast that with the Premier’s desire to, actually, fund the Premier’s office. It absolutely astounds me that the Premier’s office has increased their budget allocation for their office by 36 percent — a 36 percent increase at a time when government revenues are largely on the decline. And they’re choosing to actually cut many of the other ministries that provide services that British Columbians rely on.

Just before the break, I commented briefly about one of government’s biggest commitments in the 2017 election was to improve affordability, largely around the affordability of housing for British Columbians. Despite pretty strong commitments by this government, they’ve absolutely failed on any initiatives that are actually increasing affordability of housing for British Columbians.

Of the 114,000 residential units that were committed to, by this government, to be built over ten years — that’s 11,400 units per year — again, failing miserably. In the last four years, only a small fraction — I believe it’s only around 4,000 or 5,000 housing units — have actually been completed. At the current rate of delivery on that promise, it’ll be likely closer to 100 years before the NDP are able to actually meet that commitment, which they made to voters across the province.

As we’ve seen, record-high housing prices, again creating significant challenges for first-time homebuyers or others that might be otherwise looking to enter the housing market. When we have a look at some of the significant commitments that government has made, they’ve largely failed in their ability to deliver that.

Now I just want to take a few minutes, also…. One of my critic portfolios is Labour. I spent significant time in the House over the last couple of weeks asking very specific questions of the Minister of Labour with respect to paid leave. Bill 3, which was just passed unanimously in the House yesterday, provides a provision for paid leave for employees that are looking to obtain their vaccination shots.

With respect to the Labour Ministry itself, the piece that I tried to highlight, and I’ll just share with British Columbians that might be listening here today, is the fact that, despite the pandemic being upon us for over 13 months now, the ministry was far from proactive in bringing forward legislation that would provide that necessary paid leave for workers that need to take time off in order to get vaccinated.

The bill could have been brought forward last summer. It wasn’t. It could have been brought forward in a fall legislative session, but government chose, instead, to throw us into a risky and unnecessary snap election.

As we advance forward into December, there was two weeks of sitting in this House in December. Again, the legislation was not brought forward.

Then we advance to this current, 42nd sitting of the parliament. We came back to this House on March 1, and again, the Labour Minister was not proactive and failed to bring forward this very important piece of legislation until just last Monday, April 19.

The unfortunate piece is that for workers that otherwise would have obtained their vaccination shot prior to April 19, there’s no funding available for them. Again, I think this just highlights the fact it’s a government that seems to be flying by the seat of their pants.

[1:40 p.m.]

They’re far from proactive, waiting till the last minute and then rolling through a piece of legislation. I canvassed significant questions in this House, trying to provide an opportunity for the minister to provide clarity for businesses and for employees across this province. Unfortunately, those requests were largely ignored.

Earlier today my colleague from Kamloops–South Thompson brought forward a question in this House, specifically looking to government with respect to another very significant commitment that was actually made to British Columbians by the current Premier. This commitment was made, initially, last spring, and that was a request for paid sick leave for workers in British Columbia.

I was very happy that the Premier, as well as the Minister of Labour, did commit and actually agree that any paid sick leave programs would not further burden employers in the province and that any costs associated with the provision of paid leave would not fall onto the backs of B.C. employers that are already struggling, largely, during the pandemic.

Yet despite the Premier making very significant commitments that regardless of whether the federal government was going to be there, the province would have a plan B — that should the federal government fail in providing a nationalized sick pay program, the current government would actually move forward with that. Yet not only have we not seen any legislation coming forward, but there’s no funding that’s been established or set aside in this current budget to give even the smallest of consideration to a paid sick leave program for Canada.

That’s specific to my critic role, as the critic for Labour, but I definitely have some significant concerns on the failure and the shortcomings of this government on actually coming forward and meeting some of the commitments that they had made, promises that they had made to British Columbians during the election.

Now, one of the things that I highlighted in my conversations, in questioning with the minister yesterday, was around the need and necessity of providing funding for businesses to help backstop any additional cost burden that may be put on to them. We know that businesses are struggling. We’ve had the most significant number of business failure rates in recent history over this last year. With the current travel restrictions, we can only anticipate that there will be further business closures.

As we look at heading out of the current pandemic and towards economic recovery, we need to make sure that we have a very competitive business regime in British Columbia. Businesses need to be able to compete with businesses not just across the street or maybe down the road but businesses in neighbouring jurisdictions — Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario — and other jurisdictions outside of Canada — the United States, as an example. It’s really important to provide a competitive opportunity for B.C. businesses to be on a somewhat level playing field in order to be able to compete with some of these other competing jurisdictions around the globe.

One particular area, when we talk about tax competitiveness, is the fact that B.C. has seen a significant amount of additional increased tax burden being placed on the backs of B.C. businesses.

If we look at the corporate tax rate in B.C., the provincial portion of the corporate tax in British Columbia is now 12 percent. But what’s important is that we need to look at how that compares to other jurisdictions. In our neighbouring province of Alberta, for example, it is only 8 percent. So the corporate tax rate in British Columbia is now 50 percent higher than it is in the neighbouring province of Alberta.

The United States’ tax rates are also significantly lower than British Columbia. So what we’ve seen under this current government is a continual erosion of the competitiveness of the tax structure in B.C., which puts B.C. businesses at a distinct disadvantage.

[1:45 p.m.]

The other tax that was brought in by the current government, despite making promises to British Columbians that the medical services premium was going to be eliminated…. Well, far from meeting that commitment to British Columbians, an absolute fail from my perspective, and rather than eliminating the medical services premium, they simply replaced it with a new form of taxation called the employer health tax, the EHT, which puts an additional $1.9 billion annually on the backs of B.C. businesses. Again, back to the competitiveness piece, our neighbouring jurisdiction of Alberta does not have an employer health tax.

As we look to recovery, it is very important that government give consideration to providing not just tax relief and supports through the pandemic, but also look at the broader picture about competitiveness. In order for B.C. businesses to thrive and for us to continue to create those all-important family-supporting jobs, it is crucially important that government, and our current government, give consideration to the impact of all of the various new taxes that have been put on the backs of B.C. businesses.

I was very supportive of the initiative of government with respect to Bill 3, which is the paid leave for those workers that are obtaining their vaccination. That’s admirable. I think that is definitely for the public good. However, saddling businesses with that additional cost…. In all estimations, I estimate it will be between $200 million and $300 million a year of additional new costs that will be put on the backs of B.C. businesses.

Government has the opportunity. They’re sitting on a little over $1 billion — call it their COVID recovery slush fund — that is yet to be allocated. Government has the funds that are already set aside and established, as a contingency reserve within this current budget, to provide that necessary cost relief so that businesses are not further burdened with additional legislative changes that just continue to put up and add additional costs onto the backs of B.C. businesses.

If we compare it to the way other jurisdictions around the globe might be dealing with the idea of paid leave for vaccinations, south of the border, the U.S. government is actually putting forward a program that will provide tax credits to offset those additional cost burdens that are going on to the backs of B.C. businesses.

I’m certainly concerned about our ability as a province to actually come out and be successful in creating those very important family-supporting jobs. I certainly would have thought that government also would want to provide those protections and to support what is the single largest source of revenue for government: personal income tax. Well, in order for that personal income tax to actually be generated, you need to have a job. Those jobs are largely created by the private sector, by moms and dads and families and entrepreneurs that are willing to take the risk and to actually provide that employment for British Columbians.

I certainly do hope that, as we continue with the sitting of the 42nd parliament, government gives some serious and thoughtful consideration proactively to how they might provide further supports and financial relief for businesses that are now being burdened with additional cost pressure and a very uncompetitive tax regime.

You know, it’s certainly not just concerning to myself but to businesses, even in the Shuswap. I shared the other day in my remarks that I was speaking to one elderly couple that were running a small business. What COVID has meant to them…. For this small business, COVID and the pandemic…. They didn’t just lose their business income. They also lost their personal income.

All of their nest egg for retirement is invested in this business. They don’t have some big, fancy pension plans to fall back on in retirement. For them, everything was in their business. They worked hard. They were diligent. They provided employment. Good employers. But they’ve not just lost their business income. Their personal income and now their entire retirement savings, which is invested in the small business, are at risk.

I think that if those watching from home just thought about that for a second…. The stress and anguish that that couple are under during the financial strain of the pandemic, and when they’re looking to government for relief, to have a government that simply chooses to put additional cost burden onto their backs…. That, I believe, is offensive. I’m certainly very concerned with the lack of spending priority in Budget 2021.

[1:50 p.m.]

M. Babchuk: I’d like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking people and the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.

I’d also like to say how remarkably proud I am to be standing here today representing the people of North Island and how incredibly powerful and humbling this beautiful building is.

This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to speak to a provincial budget, and I couldn’t be happier to address how it will affect British Columbians and, especially, the people of the North Island. This is a budget that, I believe, really connects with the people of the North Island constituency.

This budget truly speaks to British Columbians like myself. It supports people and their families through investment in things that make a difference in our daily lives, like child care, health care, education and supports for seniors and elders. It also supports those who have been hit hard in this pandemic, including women, young people and Indigenous communities, while addressing the needs of industries, like the tourism and hospitality sectors, that have been hit especially hard over the past year.

Nowhere have the ramifications of this pandemic been felt more deeply than on the North Island, a place traditionally reliant on resource-based industries as the economic driver for our communities, a place that is focused on economic diversification and has been transitioning to economic stability for many years now. Historic sectors like forestry, fishing and mining were impacted long before COVID-19 and have been further exacerbated by the pandemic.

Growing and thriving tourism and hospitality industries have nearly been decimated over the past year. With mill closures, a changing forest industry, a year-long strike, aquaculture in a state of flux, a lack of affordable housing and rentals, an opioid crisis and a global pandemic, I’m happy to see this budget, as it provides a beacon of hope for the people and the communities of the North Island.

Don’t get me wrong. Folks on the North Island are resilient. By prioritizing health and safety for our citizens; by offering new supports for people, businesses and communities; and through investments that support health and well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities, this budget will not only help the North Island to survive this pandemic but to flourish.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our government’s priorities have been to protect the health and safety of all British Columbians. I’d like to provide a quick snapshot of what this government has done to demonstrate its commitment to the people of this province. This government has invested over $10 billion in COVID-19 relief and recovery measures that have helped British Columbians with immediate restrictions and safety protocols and were implemented provincewide.

Pandemic pay was introduced for front-line, health and social service workers. The B.C. recovery benefit was implemented to provide a boost to millions of eligible British Columbians affected by COVID-19. Increased supports were made available for vulnerable populations. The small and medium-sized business recovery grant program offered some relief to our communities by making grants from $10,000 to $30,000 available to those businesses impacted, with extra supports for the tourism sector. And $68 million in relief and recovery measures was invested in the tourism industry in fall of 2020, with an additional $5 million to help local Indigenous and tourism businesses.

Our government worked in collaboration with B.C. arts and entertainment communities to develop a targeted recovery funding plan for arts organizations and event and entertainment industries that have been shut down and struggling to survive the pandemic. As part of the fall 2020 StrongerBC economic recovery plan, more than $35 million was invested in the arts and entertainment industry — over $22 million in funding provided through Amplify B.C. to support B.C.’s music industry over the next three years.

Budget 2021 continues the great work of supporting British Columbians in our recovery by committing $900 million for health-related COVID-19 management, like the vaccine rollout; $1.05 billion for support for people and businesses; $1.1 billion in reserve to support any unanticipated urgent health and recovery measures; and $200 million to prepare for economic recovery.

We know, once again, that tourism and hospitality industries are the hardest-hit sector in this province. As part of this budget, we will invest another $100 million to support tourism recovery, along with an additional $20 million earmarked for community destination development grants, for communities to prepare for future visitors through tourism infrastructure, like trails and airport improvements.

[1:55 p.m.]

My plea to British Columbians, though, is to follow the most recent guidelines and travel restrictions so that we can put this pandemic behind us, start to remove restrictions and see businesses open, hopefully, sometime in the summer of 2021.

This government is working hard to get vaccines in the arms of every British Columbian, with the end goal that people will be vaccinated and we might be able to return to some kind of normal.

Speaking of vaccines in arms, early on in this pandemic, a year ago to this day, the ‘Na̠mgis First Nation in Alert Bay was hit by this pandemic. An Elder contracted COVID-19 and was the first Indigenous person to pass away from this disease. Shortly after the Elder’s death, a cluster of COVID-19 cases was discovered on Cormorant Island, home of the ‘Na̠mgis First Nations and the small village of Alert Bay. A state of emergency was declared.

This is a small island with approximately 1,500 people, and the loss of that Elder was felt by the entire community. For the past year, that community, like all First Nations communities across this province, has been taking extra precautions to protect its residents from the risk of corona entering their tiny communities.

I’m happy to report that all residents on Cormorant Island have been vaccinated. In recent meetings with Chief Don Svanvik and with Alert Bay Mayor Dennis Buchanan, I have heard how grateful they are for the support they received from public health officials and the province of British Columbia. We know that health risks for Indigenous people are much greater than non-Indigenous people. I’m proud that this government prioritizes First Nations communities in its vaccine response.

The North Island constituency is a unique place in this province. It is anchored by an urban centre with several rural and remote communities. In fact, according to the B.C. electoral area map, it includes 33 First Nations bands that have all or some of their territories within the North Island boundary. For the past 15 years, I’ve worked with local governments on the Island, establishing and building working relationships with local First Nations, and I’m proud to be part of a government that has made reconciliation a priority from the very beginning.

In 2019, we became the first jurisdiction in Canada to pass legislation implementing the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to create a path forward that respects Indigenous rights and title. Over the past three years, we’ve invested in a number of projects that support that reconciliation, with North Island Indigenous communities, including support for community economic emergency plans for Homalco, Quatsino, Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’-Che:k:tles7et’h’ and Wei Wai Kum First Nations, a community energy plan for Kwakiutl First Nations and support for projects that harness the power and arts and culture to build healthy and connected communities.

Ours was the first provincial government to invest in on-reserve housing, meeting an unmet need for housing in Indigenous communities. We built six units of affordable housing for Indigenous Elders and families, for the Kwakiutl First Nation in Fort Rupert.

With Budget 2021, we are investing in activities that not only support reconciliation and the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities but activities that put that declaration act to work. The Connected Coast project will bring improved connectivity and cellular services to rural and remote Indigenous communities. This opens up the ability for our government to provide skills and training initiatives that will lead to long-term employment and economic growth for these First Nations communities.

On a personal note, I’m happy to see the $20 million investment or 400 additional seats in the Aboriginal Head Start program, provincewide. I say this because my grandsons are members of the We Wai Kai Nation and attend the Head Start program in their community at Quinsam Crossing. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with this program, but the Head Start program provides culturally relevant child care and early learning at no cost to Indigenous families, in partnership with the Aboriginal Head Start Association of British Columbia and the First Nations Health Authority.

Both of my grandsons have benefited from this experience and were receiving extra supports. My grandson, Jason, is autistic. He requires in-class supports as well as speech therapy and often help coping with sometimes overwhelming stimulated environments.

[2:00 p.m.]

Mostly, they have benefited from being connected to the community and close to their mother, who is one of only a small group of Wei Wai Kai members that are speaking their traditional language. She has not only helped develop language training for children at the Head Start program but is now being embraced by school district 72 and bringing an Indigenous language immersion program to all Indigenous learners. This warms my heart. We, as a family, are very proud of her.

Since last fall, I’ve been hearing from many North Island constituents who are feeling the weight of this pandemic. The isolation and stress have impacted people of all ages, affecting both their physical and mental well-being. Sadly, we’ve seen an increase in suicides among children and youth, including children from my hometown of Campbell River.

I would like to take this moment to extend my sincere condolences to the families of those young people who are no longer with us. There’s no greater pain for a parent than the loss of a child. I want those families to know that they are in my thoughts and supported by their community.

We’ve also seen the highest overdose rates since the opioid crisis was first declared an emergency five years ago this month — a crisis that has impacted all communities across the province. If nothing else, this pandemic has highlighted the need for strong health and mental health services and support for all British Columbians.

The previous Liberal government neglected this sector, and today we are seeing the impacts of this inaction. That is why we should be applauding Budget 2021’s investment in health and mental health care, including a $500 million investment to expand mental health and substance use services to connect people to their culturally safe and better effective care needs, the largest investment in mental health and addiction services in British Columbian history.

This government will also invest $97 million in a network of mental health support for youth through increased mental health funding for schools, new Foundry centres like the one that’s happening in my riding in Port Hardy and integrated child and youth support teams for more than 15 school districts; $51 million over three years to improve access to quality mental health services, including suicide prevention, eating disorder care and early psychosis intervention; and $14 million for the First Nations Health Authority to deliver mental health and addiction services to Indigenous people.

On a personal note, I’m happy to see the $7.8 billion in capital investments in new health infrastructure, including the Surrey hospital and the cancer care. I can, once again, reflect on my family’s own experience with this terrible and tragic disease. I don’t know any British Columbian who hasn’t either dealt with cancer themselves or a close member of their family.

Only two months ago my family lost my uncle to cancer. In January of 2020, my younger sister was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. She was 49 years old at this time. She is the strongest, most positive person I know and is fighting this with everything that she has. On April 13 of this year, she had her 51st birthday, and we continue to put up a good fight.

As I watch her go through the treatments, I am so grateful that she is in a community where the level of cancer care is exemplary, but not all British Columbians have access to this level of care and have to travel long distances. I am very happy to see the need for more cancer care centres reflected in this budget.

I want to say to my sister: “I love you so much. I am so proud of you. We will do whatever it takes, supporting and fighting by your side, as long as we get the results that we are looking for.”

I’m not just a sister. I’m a mother and a grandmother. I’m proud to see this government’s commitment to supporting families and investing in quality, affordable child care. Every investment in child care is an investment in our community and our economy. We know that when people are able to participate in the economy, it supports businesses, helps families and lifts children out of poverty.

[2:05 p.m.]

Since the beginning, this government has continued to make improvements to child care. In 2018, we introduced a $1 billion child care plan, the most significant investment in child care in B.C.’s history. This plan included funding for more licensed child care spaces and the affordable child care benefit and introduced a $2-an-hour wage increase for early childhood educators in licensed facilities.

With Budget 2021, the wage enhancement for early childhood educators will double from $2 to $4 an hour, bringing the median wage to $23 an hour, and will support approximately 11,000 early childhood educators in licensed care centres, encouraging better recruitment and retention in this sector.

Additionally, Budget 2021 will more than double the number of families getting $10-a-day child care, help almost 2,000 more families access supported child development and Aboriginal-supported child development programs, increase the hours of support for children already enrolled, support thousands of new child care spaces through the Childcare B.C. new spaces fund and invest an additional $20 million in health and safety grants to help alleviate the cost of keeping child care centres safe through this pandemic. Budget 2021 brings total child care funding to nearly $2.3 billion over this fiscal plan. I can’t ask for much more than that.

From our youngest citizens to our oldest, I believe that I’m not too much different than many other British Columbians, who are not only supporting adult children and grandchildren but also elderly parents and in-laws — truly the sandwich generation. This budget speaks directly to people who are in this situation and addresses the needs of our seniors population.

Last week, after a year of no contact, my family was given the ability to connect with my 94-year-old mother-in-law, who is currently in a care facility in Nanaimo, a care home that has done a wonderful job of keeping its residents safe and healthy during this pandemic. I want to thank the health care workers of Wexford Creek for their perseverance during the pandemic, their caring nature and their family-like treatment of my mother-in-law when we couldn’t be there.

We know that to provide the level of service necessary, it has been a struggle, and we need to do better. Budget 2021 is doing that by providing thousands of new staff in long-term care facilities so that we can not only address the fatigue and workload of care providers but also so that we can guarantee care standards that our seniors deserve. I’m also proud to report that both of my parents are actively involved in our lives and living independently in Campbell River. And as they age in place, they are starting to require assistance in areas that neither myself nor my husband can provide.

My parents have been married for 57 years on May 16. They have travelled the world. They have raised children. They have worked and contributed to our communities their whole lives. And now that they are in their twilight years, they are looking to the future and concerned that services they require to continue their independent living may be limited.

That’s why I’m extremely happy to see that Budget 2021 includes significant investments to continue to strengthen B.C. health care so people know that help is there when and where they need it: $585 million to train and hire up to 3,000 new health care workers, $68 million to increase the number of care aides and community care providers to deliver quality home care to seniors in their daily living and $12 million to provide seniors with complex care needs from the comforts of their home. This speaks directly to the needs of people in the North Island and their families, mine included, and gives people like my parents hope that they can live independently and together for a lot more years.

Talking about seniors, one of the challenges that the North Island is facing is affordable housing for seniors. In fact, that’s a problem for everyone. Budget 2021 provides $2 billion in development financing through the HousingHub for government to work in partnership with communities, non-profit and private sector stakeholders to facilitate and create new rental housing and home ownership opportunities for middle-income British Columbians.

The province continues to build on its historic investments in housing — $7 billion over ten years, starting with Budget 2019 — and invests to create more social and affordable housing, providing funding to support the construction of 114,000 units, including 10,000 new housing units over the fiscal plan through grant funding to not-for-profit housing providers and $1.6 billion in capital investments.

[2:10 p.m.]

Currently I’m actively working with the Hardy Bay Seniors to advance seniors housing in Port Hardy. That has been identified as a priority as seniors choose to stay close to their families and not move out of these communities after retiring.

Just to change to a little bit of a different topic, many in this chamber know that I cut my teeth as a politician when I was elected to the school district 72 board of education in 2005. I became politically active over school closures in my area, and I was trying to hold the school board of the day to account for the processes in which they used.

Later I found out that it was actually the direction of the Liberal government of the day. For three terms, almost ten years under the previous Liberal government, I watched and advocated against what I considered to be a systemic dismantling of our public education system, with phrases like zero-based budgeting, school closures, funding model revisions and the removal of any recognition of fixed costs for boards of education.

Over that time, I can remember sitting in provincial council meetings and conventions for the British Columbia School Trustees Association, cringing at the thought of the next message that was coming from the minister of the day. As most of us knew, it usually meant that we would have to deliver extra government-mandated services to students, without extra resources to do so, or losing just a little bit more of our local decision-making autonomy with an unconsulted change at the ministry level.

The impact of the government from 2005 to 2014 left a full educational generation of children without funding levels required to keep special needs programming and educational assistants at the levels they need to be and educational programs competing against each other. Worst of all, it diminished the ability of local boards of education to reflect community-based priorities and exercise autonomy.

Over the last three years of the NDP government, we’ve seen significant investments in K-to-12 education, and in our riding alone, we saw an additional $13 million over and above the regular funding formula. These included playground equipment, upgrades to mechanical equipment and the hiring of over 60 new teachers — 51 in school district 72, Campbell River; ten in school district 84, Vancouver Island West; one in school district 85, Vancouver Island North.

Over the next three years of the fiscal plan, approximately $3.5 billion will be invested to maintain, replace, renovate and expand K-to-12 facilities. This year the province will invest $1.2 billion, over the length of the fiscal plan, to support growing numbers of students accessing B.C.’s K-to-12 education system and support wage increases for teachers and support staff. Funding will also support growing numbers of special needs students, English and French language learners and Indigenous learners.

The exciting part for me of Budget 2021 is that there is new funding to address the improved mental health supports in schools, expand early learning and on-site childcare opportunities and develop a framework to address racism and reconciliation. This brings the total budget for the K-to-12 sector to $7.1 billion, a number that I am proud to stand behind.

When I think about children, and particularly children on the North Island, I think about the pristine environment that we live in and our shared responsibility to protect it for our children, grandchildren and future generations to come. We must all work together to reduce the impact of climate change, and Budget 2021 provides a framework to continue our efforts to create a cleaner, stronger economy, with an additional $500 million invested in CleanBC to reduce emissions, create new opportunities and promote affordability in our communities.

B.C. will be well positioned for a stronger recovery. CleanBC rebates and low-interest financing are making energy-saving building improvements more affordable for all British Columbians. This is also working with industry to reduce emissions with cleaner technology and increased energy efficiency through the CleanBC program for industry, to which we’re providing $96 million in new funding for the reduction of emissions and to expand clean tech sector energy and global competitiveness.

Continued funding of $519 million over the fiscal plan will also help industries such as forestry and mining operations transition to low-carbon technology.

[2:15 p.m.]

Through Budget 2021, this government will invest $18 million for active transportation infrastructures — like bike lanes, sidewalks and multi-use pathways — and another $10 million to further develop policy to reduce the carbon intensity of fuel in developing the hydrogen economy in B.C.

One of the key issues in my constituency is the preservation of wild salmon. Wild salmon are an iconic species for North Island people and necessary for the survival of First Nations. Investments in initiatives that support wild salmon enhancement facilities, whether it’s building new facilities or expanding on existing facilities, are essential to the protection of these stocks from their continued decline.

Both the commercial fishing industry and the recreational fishing industry rely on the sustainability and enhancement of these stocks. It should come as no surprise that salmon are essential to our way of life on the North Island. I’m looking forward to working with everyone to increase wild stocks to the level that they have historically seen.

I consider myself an average British Columbian, and I can see the priorities of people like myself reflected in this budget. Budget 2021 offers support for everyday issues like better quality and more affordable childcare, better and more accessible health care, mental health supports in schools, investment in education and affordable housing, an increase in income and disability assistance and more supports for people who are most vulnerable or experience homelessness.

It’s my hope that all British Columbians can see their issues reflected in this budget and that it will help improve their lives. I want to extend my thanks to Minister Robinson and her team for all the hard work they have done, and I look forward to the implementation of all of the priorities in this budget.

Deputy Speaker: Please pass on my best wishes to your sister for a full recovery.

Also, a reminder to all members. We do not use MLAs’ names in the House. So “minister” would be fine. “Minister of Finance” would be good.

M. Babchuk: My apologies.

Deputy Speaker: No problem.

Surrey–White Rock, please.

T. Halford: I thank the member opposite. Any time that we’re able to bring in personal stories I think humanizes why we’re all here. I appreciate the words, specifically, on your sister. I wish her nothing but the best, and I’m sure you will have many more birthdays to celebrate with her.

I rise to speak on this most anticipated NDP budget. I see the theme of the budget is “A stronger B.C. for everyone.” Now, I’m not sure I agree with that. Maybe I can make a suggestion. Some of the words that I’ve used for this budget are: “Less for more. We will provide British Columbians with less, but they will give us more.” I think it fits.

Or maybe this one: “Big government. Bigger deficits.” That can work too. See, because at the end of this, what we always see with NDP governments — and it’s a pattern, and I think it’s a very unfortunate one — is, at the end of the day, you run out of other people’s money. That is something that NDP governments have never learned. I hope maybe this one is different, but based on this budget, I’m not optimistic.

Now, April 27 is always a special day in my heart, more of a sombre day. It’s five years ago to the day I lost my grandmother, Mudgie. I’ve talked about Mudgie in this House before. Mudgie was one of the reasons I got into political office. But Mudgie was a big, big believer in budgets. In my family — her name was Beverley — we called them “Budgets with Bev.” Mudgie always wanted to see what your budget was. How are you going to accomplish this? How are you going to make that happen? Her motto was: “Do not overpromise and underdeliver.”

I’m a little bit worried in this budget. On some things, we’ve overpromised, and on a lot of things, we are underdelivering on. I get that this was a very, very important budget for this government, as they emerged from their election in October. I said it was an anticipated budget because it was a delayed budget. Any time we hear the word “delay,” expectations get bigger.

[2:20 p.m.]

When a movie gets delayed, you’re thinking: “Oh, that’s going to be a blockbuster movie because they need more time.” I think people kind of thought that with this budget: “This budget is going to knock our socks off.”

We’re on a two-month delay. People are waiting for money. What is the plan here? I think they were a little bit underwhelmed. I’ve heard in my community that folks were very underwhelmed. I was underwhelmed.

Now, I get that this Minister of Finance does have a lot going on and a lot on her plate, with this budget. We as MLAs always take the opportunity to make sure that we are speaking to our local media, whether we’re in government or opposition, and that we are discussing the budget.

The Minister of Finance seems to have taken exception to some of the comments I and my colleague the member for Surrey South have made to our local media. I just want to go through them, because I’m a little bit confused. I’m a little bit at a loss. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t think I am, but I’m just going to take a look, because this has to do with the budget.

In an article from April 22 — it appeared in the Peace Arch News, which is my local paper and the local paper for the MLA for Surrey South — the member for Surrey South said: “Spending is going up at record rates, but it’s not coming here.” I agree with that comment. “The budget has completely abandoned the NDP’s commitments to Surrey. They’ve abandoned their commitment to eliminate portables. They didn’t meet that commitment, and now they have eliminated it” from the budget. “It doesn’t appear anywhere in the document.”

Well, I have three kids in the Surrey school district, two of which are in portables right now. So that statement seems to make sense and be accurate.

Here’s another one: “They don’t have money in the budget, except notionally, for the Surrey hospital that they’ve promised. They planned a completion for two different dates, which goes to show you how much planning has gone into it.”

That, again, is a comment from the member for Surrey South. I agree with that comment. I think it’s an accurate comment. There are two different completion dates in the budget. Now, that can be confusing to a lot of people. It’s confusing to me.

Let’s go on to the next one. This is a comment from myself: “One of the things that I really called for and will continue to call for is affordable access to counselling and psychiatric services.”

I stand by that quote; I think it’s accurate. I think that we’ve heard from a lot of families. We’ve heard from the Third Party that people are tapped out when it comes to affording mental health services. I think that’s accurate. We talk about wait times and how long it takes a child to get in to see a counsellor or a psychiatrist. We’ve had a heartbreaking example of a situation in Langford where a child was on a wait-list for months. When his family finally got the call to go see a psychiatrist, the call was too late. I think that’s accurate.

I said: “I know this government likes to pat itself on the back in terms of investment, but don’t forget that investment is over three years” — I’m talking about the investment for mental health and addictions — “and this year is actually one of the lowest-funded years, which is pretty disappointing.”

Now, we’ve heard from a lot of people, including the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition, when we talk about last year being the worst year on record for overdose deaths. Unfortunately, we are seeing it continue month after month, when we are seeing overdose deaths, so I take exception to this year being the lowest-funded year for Mental Health and Addictions.

I appreciate the fact that the minister took the time out of her schedule, a busy schedule, to phone our local paper and to dispute those facts. In her words, they were “untruthful.” Now, what did I just read that was untruthful? I’m confused by the minister’s comments. It’s also fairly irresponsible, but it is what it is at this point.

[2:25 p.m.]

I will say, when you want to talk about comments that are untruthful, how many times have British Columbians heard from this government that the cheque is in the mail? “Hold tight. We know you’ve got to pay your mortgage. We know you have to pay your rent. We know you have to pay your bills. The cheque is in the mail.”

Well, there must be a lot of cheques in the mail in my riding, because every time I do constituency work, it’s usually to do with a grant that’s been approved or it’s been an economic recovery benefit that a senior is struggling and struggling to get more information to the government because they cannot get the money that was promised to them by this Premier during his election.

At a time when we say “a stronger B.C. for everyone….” You know, in the words of my grandmother, my Mudgie: “Don’t overpromise and underdeliver. Do what you say you’re going to do.” If you make a commitment to British Columbians that they will have this economic recovery benefit by Christmas, do it. If you have grant applications out for businesses — for restaurants that are desperately trying to stay alive, meet their payroll, get patio space set up, purchase heaters — make those commitments. We have to pay our bills. Pay our bills. Pay your bills. The government has to pay the bills. “The cheque is in the mail” is not good enough anymore.

The government likes to talk about the number of jobs that it has created in this pandemic. We’ve got to be honest with British Columbians that those are government jobs: 60,000 positions in this government. I have to say that a classic sign of an NDP government is when government gets big and business gets small. The problem with that is that under an NDP government, big business becomes small business and small business goes out of business. We have to step up, we have to break that, and we have to stop that.

Now, a couple of noted vacancies from the budget. This government likes to talk a lot about standing up for renters. A twice-made NDP promise of a $400 renters rebate has magically vanished from this budget. It’s nowhere to be seen. In question period today, the minister stood up very proudly and spoke on the government’s expansion of $10-a-day daycare and how it was doubled. If I say to my wife: “Hey Holly, listen. You know, for this amount here, our goal is to have $1,000. I’ve only got $100. But listen, I’ve doubled it to $200. I still haven’t met my goal, but I’ve doubled it.”

You know, just be honest and be transparent. I think that’s what British Columbians want. I think that’s what British Columbians deserve. I get that there is a vulnerability in this House, and I get that there’s an uneasiness, especially with this Finance Minister, if she’s going to take the time and call a local paper and say: “My colleagues across the way aren’t being truthful. I want them to be truthful.” Well, nowhere there were we untruthful. We were accurate. I’m asking to you do the same.

If you’re saying you’re going to deliver for British Columbians on $10-a-day daycare, then do it. Don’t just say: “We’re doubling this; we’re doubling that.” You’re overpromising, and you’re underdelivering. Maybe that’s going to be the slogan going into the next election, because this one was kind of like: “Never let a crisis go by without taking advantage of it.” That, to me, should have been the slogan of the 2020 election, but it didn’t make it in there.

[2:30 p.m.]

I do want to talk on a file that is very close to my heart — I think it’s close to all members’ hearts — and that is mental health and addictions. When we talk about the global pandemic that we’re in and the world is experiencing, I think it has dramatically altered…. Well, it has altered everybody’s lives. It has. It has touched every life of every British Columbian. It has touched every life of every person on this planet.

We’re in two global pandemics. Well, we’re in two pandemics in British Columbia. The other pandemic we’ve been in since 2016, and it’s a pandemic where I’m struggling to find the light at the end of the tunnel, because every month we’re talking about numbers of overdose deaths that are growing and growing. We’re averaging losing five British Columbians a day to overdose deaths. That is too many.

I think we can all agree in this House that we need to do more. That’s something that the Premier said a few weeks ago when we recognized the sombre anniversary of how long this pandemic has gone on — five years. I think it’s something, on this side of the House, that we are very much committed to.

I will tell you this. I always find it distressing when I hear…. And I get it. We all have a job to do in terms of politics. But this issue shouldn’t be a political issue. This should be a commonsense issue where we come together to try and find a solution to save British Columbians who are dying en record masse — five British Colum­bians a day.

When I hear members from the government side get up and say: “There was nothing in place. We had to start from scratch….” Well, two things on that. The first thing: that’s just not accurate. I think that when you look at the five-year anniversary that we discussed a few weeks ago, at the time, it was the Minister of Health, Minister Terry Lake, who declared that we were in a pandemic.

It was at that time that we put in $100 million — immediately deployed it to help combat this public health emergency. It was at a time where we established the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, operating hundreds of additional treatment beds. We set up the Foundry network for youth.

Now, I get that it’s in everybody’s speaking notes that they had to start from scratch. That’s just not accurate. But the bigger problem I have with that is that this is not a new government. It is not a new government. This is a re-elected government that has had multiple years, five years, to deal with this issue — four years to deal with this issue. So every time I hear: “We had to start from scratch. There was nothing in place….”

Enough. We need a coherent plan from this government that deals with the overdose crisis. Right now what we’re getting is piecemealing here and piecemealing there.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

I can say it. I know this government is very proud to say that this is the biggest investment they’ve made in mental health and addictions. But let’s look at that for a second, because a couple of things, we need to pay close attention to.

The Premier states that he is very proud that his government created a stand-alone Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions. I was proud when that ministry was introduced. But I think we need to be very clear that this ministry doesn’t stand alone. It doesn’t. This ministry can’t stand on its own. This Minister of Mental Health and Addictions has a budget responsibility of $11 million. That is her responsibility in this budget — $11 million, $4 million less than the Premier’s office.

[2:35 p.m.]

In my riding of White Rock, I have roughly around a population of 20,000. The budget for parks and recreation in White Rock is bigger than the budget of Mental Health and Addictions for the province of B.C. That tells me that we have a problem with accountability. At the end of the day, what is this minister actually accountable for? Something I struggle to try and define is: what is this minister bringing in terms of value for this file?

Yesterday we had the unfortunate job to speak on an issue of recovery, where somebody in Interior Health made the comment that recovery is not effective. When we look at this budget and we look at where the government prioritizes recovery…. I’ll speak to that in a second. I, on this side of the House — and I think all my colleagues — fully disagree with that comment. Recovery is effective, and it is something we need to take seriously.

I gave the minister every opportunity to try and speak out against those comments that were made by a senior member of Interior Health, to no avail. Maybe that is why the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions has the responsibility that she does, with just $11 million in her budget. Maybe it’s comments like that that show this government that the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions isn’t up to delivering for British Columbians when it comes to mental health and addictions.

Now, I did speak, and I mentioned before that even the Third Party…. We spoke about the affordability issue for counselling and psychiatric services, not only for youth but for all British Columbians. And a lot for youth.

I have to say we need to do a lot better. This is something that was not addressed in the budget. It’s something that the minister continues to evade when the subject comes up. She says she had to start from scratch, that it was somebody’s else’s file and not her responsibility. Now we see….

Okay. Looking at your budget lines, I get the lack of responsibility. That being said, it’s got to be somebody’s responsibility when we are seeing British Columbians and our youth facing months and months for delayed services when it comes to mental health. We have to do better than that.

Part of the challenge is to say: “Okay. We want to do something. We want to help, and we don’t know what to do.” And what do we get from this government? We get a bingo card. They put out a bingo card on a Friday afternoon to say: “Hey, if you’re feeling blue, look at the card and try and see where you are.” Or we get a website. That was the other one too. We get a website that you try and navigate through to see if there’s a number that you can call if you need assistance.

We need support. We need resources. We need actual people that can help and deliver mental health services for every British Columbian.

In my riding of White Rock and South Surrey…. A lot of seniors live in my riding. That was one of the big challenges with the economic recovery benefit. They would phone, and they’d say: “I don’t have a computer. I don’t know how to use a computer. I don’t know how to apply for this money that I was promised during the election. What can you do?”

We would work with them, and we would get them through on the phone and everything like that. It was a cumbersome process. Again, everything since the election has been cumbersome. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. That’s exactly what we’ve seen from this government from day one.

I will say this. When you’re looking at the seniors in my riding…. A lot of them have phoned and said that they are struggling with their mental health. What do we say? “Well, have you gone to the mental health website? Have you tried the website? Have you tried the bingo card?”

[2:40 p.m.]

We need real solutions for real problems. This budget does not address that. It doesn’t. It falls short in many ways.

I know it’s a sensitive issue, but when we look at the transportation needs…. We look at the Massey Tunnel replacement. I put out a tweet, and somebody from the Premier’s office was really quick to jump on it and say: “It’s not accurate. It’s not accurate. We’re funding it. We’re funding the Massey replacement. We’re doing this. We’re doing that.”

I had to define the word “notional” and what the word notional means when it’s next to a line item. It’s means “existing only in theory or as a suggestion or idea.” So where’s the money, right?

This is something my colleague from Delta has talked about numerous times. The Massey Tunnel is one of the worst bottlenecks in western Canada, and there’s nothing that addresses that in this budget. Now, it’s something that the Minister of Transportation likes to talk about, but there’s not really much to talk about if you’ve got no money allocated to it. And I get that.

Actually, in fairness to the Minister of Finance, that’s actually not one of the things she pointed out in the newspaper article, because I think she…. That’s a vulnerability there, and I completely understand that, but at the end of the day, if you’re going to commit to something, commit. If you’re going to commit to a new hospital in Surrey, commit on the right date. Don’t give us two dates. Give us one, and give us a realistic budget.

I really do worry about a few things. Like I said, I am a father of three. My wife and I do everything we can, just like everybody in this House, to provide for our family. For a lot of families right now, it is incredibly tough.

To the beginning of my comments, when I said…. It is a problem with NDP governments, and it’s one I don’t think an NDP government has ever learned from. I’ll say it again: “One day — someday, someday soon or someday in the future — you run out of other people’s money.”

When you pile up the deficit after deficit…. We understand that a lot of jurisdictions are in deficits right now, but a lot of jurisdictions have plans for what they’re doing with that money. I don’t see a coherent plan. I don’t see a plan for transportation in the Lower Mainland. We talk about it. We talk about SkyTrain extension; we talk about the Massey replacement; we talk about Highway 10. We talk about all these different things — Highway 1, where’s that? — but at the end of the day, we don’t have a plan.

To go back to the file that I speak about a lot, in terms of mental health and addictions, give us a plan. For a minister that doesn’t have the responsibility — it all exists in the Ministry of Health, so that minister is actually responsible for executing what’s in the budget — take the time that you have, and develop a plan.

We are in an overdose crisis right now. We have asked, time after time, for this government to give us something that we can all unite and get behind. Instead, we get piecemeal here, piecemeal there. The worst part is we get comments made. And the minister doesn’t even have the authority, or I don’t know, to stand up and discount the comments made when it comes to people in recovery.

I’m going to end it at that. I’m going to say that I am worried that this budget will overpromise and underdeliver. I think that’s clear. I’ve said that numerous times.

[2:45 p.m.]

I hope that this budget is an opportunity for this government to understand what British Columbians are asking from them, and that is for transparency and direct accountability. This budget has failed to do both those things.

K. Paddon: I’m happy to speak in support of Budget 2021.

I’m grateful to be doing so from the unceded traditional territory of the Stó:lō people.

I want to take a moment to express my gratitude. I have spoken once to a throne speech, but I need to take a moment.

As a newer MLA, it’s taken me a little bit to understand where my gratitude should be, sometimes. One of the things that I’m overwhelmed with is the support of the staff that works so hard for us. I do want to take a moment to just express my gratitude to my constituency assistant Lawrence, who works so tirelessly to support and address the needs of the constituents here in Chilliwack-Kent.

I’m really grateful for the dedicated work of the staff in the precinct as well, most notably: Cailin Tyrrell, who has found me in the building when I don’t quite know where I am; Devon Leathwood, who helps me with my words; Kaylee Szakacs, who makes sure I’m where I need to be, including here right now; and of course, our hard-working interns, Kala Bryson, Gabriel Martz, Rachel McMillan, Kate Olivares and Arian Zand. You all come to work every day, whether in-person or virtually, and give your all to make sure that we can serve to the best of our ability. So thank you.

I want to recognize what an honour it is to serve and represent Chilliwack-Kent. I’m overwhelmed by the trust and the confidence put in me by all of the communities in our riding. These are Chilliwack and Cultus Lake, Harrison Hot Springs and Agassiz-Kent, Rosedale and everywhere in between. It’s a beautiful riding, and I encourage you, once it’s safe, to come out and check it out, because you won’t regret the trip.

This budget, like any budget, can’t be all things to all people. I understand that. But this budget does build on our commitment to a stronger B.C. for everyone. The focus is not to leave anyone behind, so that we can all move forward together.

There is acknowledgment from the opposition that the Minister of Finance has “a lot on her plate,” as they characterize this budget as not blowing anybody’s socks off. It may be generous to understand that the minister has a lot to consider, but there seems to be a forgetting that all British Columbians have a lot on their plate, every single one. Everybody in British Columbia is focused right now on a common goal, although the path there may look different.

I don’t understand how, even now, the opposition still doesn’t get it. This isn’t about creating a blockbuster. It’s about taking care of the people during a pandemic and setting a path to a healthy and successful recovery for not only people but businesses, which are made up of people.

As I listened to the budget speech, I could hear the stories of people who have shared with me over the past months. I could hear the acknowledgment of where we find ourselves right now — still in the midst of a pandemic. I could hear the hope of where we’re heading. I heard the direction and the course that we have set for the future, while acknowledging that we need to continue to be agile, innovative and responsive now to the needs of our current dual health crises. We’re continuing to work through both of those.

This word is overused now, but it’s unprecedented. We have a focus, but it’s not the same focus as three years ago or, hopefully, three years from now. The one thing that remains consistent is that the focus has to serve the people.

I was also reminded of the Speech from the Throne, as I listened to the budget speech. My favourite sentence, if it’s all right to have just one: “…building an innovative, sustainable and inclusive economy with an eye to the post-pandemic world.”

[2:50 p.m.]

Now, it’s my favourite sentence for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is the words “innovative, sustainable and inclusive.” It triggers, for me, the conversations that I’ve had with students, as they’re looking forward to their futures, and what I’m reading in some submissions. Students are submitting applications for an equity and social change scholarship here in Chilliwack-Kent that I’m supporting. I’m just blown away and completely awed by how amazing these humans are.

We are living in a time where, for the last year, everything is hard. Everything is hard, and our buckets aren’t getting filled in the same way socially, emotionally, developmentally.

I’m reading applications from the graduating class here in Chilliwack-Kent, and I’m seeing students who are focused on others, who are focused on raising others up, not maintaining the status quo, not protecting only themselves and their friends. In this hard time, people are reaching out to raise others up, understanding that none of us rise unless all of us do. Those are not my words, and I know it. I’m just not sure who to quote at the moment. They’re embracing so much change rather than fighting it.

This is absolutely not to minimize the fact that the struggles and the stress and the anxiety that they’re living with right now — that everyone is living with right now — change everything. Yet I’m seeing these students take on leadership roles in traditional or non-traditional ways. I’m seeing them speak for each other. I’m seeing them open to conversations about mental health, to conversations about gender identity and intersectionality and to understanding their impact on others. Now more than ever, maybe we can come to a place where we understand our individual impact on others, as we’re separated in so many ways.

One of the other things that I thought of when the words around innovation and sustainability and inclusion came up was the arts. We are living history right now. It is our artists and our performers, our creators, who are going to be able to capture and speak a language that will be able to communicate what this looks like, what this feels like into the future. This is not only a sector — the arts. It’s a way of life, and it’s an outlet. It’s a way of healing and sustaining, and it’s a way of coming together.

One local organization here that serves youth, the Chilliwack School of Performing Arts, has had to completely pivot. They have been responsive to every health order. They have made adjustments not only based on what Dr. Bonnie Henry is guiding us to do but also in recognition of the youth that they serve and what those youths’ needs are. They continue to create, and they create new ways to create and connect. This is innovation. This is inclusiveness. You need both of those for anything to be sustainable and healthy, so I have to shout out to them.

They’re not alone. So many local artists are creating in ways that are completely original. They’re capturing this time, and they’re giving us an outlet. So I was incredibly proud of our government when we supported 13 arts and culture organizations here in Chilliwack-Kent, recognizing the importance of this sector, of this way of life.

With regard to inclusion, there are a lot of pieces of this budget, as well as the throne speech previous, that touch on this need for inclusion, this need for that framing. I know that our government has committed to inclusion and accessibility. I think that it’s important to pause and just recognize that there have been lessons hard-learned from COVID — lessons about inclusion, about old excuses that separate us that were based on habit. We have learned new ways to be productive. We have learned new ways to come together and innovate.

[2:55 p.m.]

Work production, work productivity have changed dramatically. Environments and attitudes that used to exclude, be it because of gender, be it because of ability level or disability or other intersectional identity issues…. We don’t ever have to go back there. I think that that’s really critical, and a lot of the investments made by this government and planned by this government acknowledge that we have come a long way, and there are more opportunities now than there were before with respect to how we approach work and inclusion and acceptance.

I’m excited to be part of a government that won’t fall back into old habits that were just done that way because it was the way it was always done. The pandemic has changed the world. It’s changed my world. I don’t know anybody whose world it hasn’t changed. Let this be a good thing that’s changed.

Stories of the last 13 months filled my mind as I read through the budget. The path charted ahead describes the priorities and the work that will be done here, in response to what we always serve first: the people of British Columbia. There is still a lot of work to do.

I know in Chilliwack-Kent…. I was going through the list, taking a look at the work that’s been done here in Chilliwack-Kent, just since the fall. It was exciting. I have to say, some of the highlights in this beautiful area…. Our government is partnered with Tzeachten First Nation and welcomed 23 new affordable rental homes through the Building B.C.: community housing fund. They’ve supported Indigenous communities and organizations to end gender-based violence through a project by Seabird Island Band.

We have the recovery benefit for individuals and families, and I hear every day from people who have told me: “This made a big difference. I needed this. It arrived just in time.”

We have improved forest service roads, providing access to different areas in our constituency. Our government has supported 16 local PACs and DPACs. We have the business recovery grant, which I’ll talk about in a moment, because this is a big piece of information from my area in Budget 2021. Capped fees for food delivery. We’ve doubled CleanBC home retrofit rebates. This is a really big issue. Locally, I’ve heard from several people who have said that this will make a difference. This helps with affordability.

Made $10 million investment to help persons with disabilities return to the workforce. For myself, I previously mentioned inclusion and accessibility, especially where work is concerned. This continues that. This can build on that.

The government has invested in 25 new micro-credential programs, including one here at UFV in Chilliwack-Kent. That’s going to be fantastic. Not everybody has time to commit to a long degree. Sometimes it’s those micro-credentials that will give people either a taste of that sector or the information that they need to get started.

They funded four local projects through B.C. community economic recovery infrastructure program. They’re investing in three large-scale school additions. Now, this is massive. Those are three schools where students will have classrooms instead of portables. That’s fantastic.

They’ve partnered with Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Society to provide 50 additional supportive homes and a 40-bed shelter. They’ve extended the rent freeze, capped future rent increases, and stopped illegal renovictions.

These all have a direct impact. All of these things that I’ve mentioned, I’ve heard from people about how this impacts their life.

The list goes on, and this is only since the fall. Budget 2021 addresses immediate challenges and builds a foundation for a strong recovery, with new investments in health and mental health services, business supports, affordable housing and child care, and helps to keep life more affordable for families.

[3:00 p.m.]

I’m also very excited about record levels of job creation and community infrastructure. This budget continues to build on the work and investments that we have made, and I’m proud to support it.

One way that our government is investing, especially here in Chilliwack-Kent, as well as across the province, is through the grants available to businesses impacted by the pandemic. In the Chilliwack and Kent area, there’s been over $1 million received by businesses. Now, this is money going to our neighbours, our business owners, that will help pay employees, that will take a little bit of pressure off the businesses. This is $1 million that is going directly to people we see in our community. They’re not faceless. They’re not numbers. That’s an incredible investment in Chilliwack-Kent.

In addition to this, we have a lot of people from around Chilliwack as well as Chilliwack-Kent. If you’re not familiar with our ridings, they’re inextricably linked. I’ll talk about the area generally for a second.

We have people championing our small and medium-sized businesses, and seeing the investment that government is willing to make, seeing the priority that government is making small and medium-sized businesses, has encouraged our communities to do the same. They’re matching that. They’re ordering takeout. They’re using patios. They’re shopping and buying and eating locally.

It’s a wave on social media. I’m seeing pictures all the time. So it’s not just what our government is investing. It’s what people are inspiring, because we’re recognizing that these are our neighbours and these employees are our neighbours. These businesses who give us so much as a community need us now. So it’s our turn to give back.

Now, like the flowers that are popping up — dandelions all over my backyard — I see newness here as well in Chilliwack-Kent. I see businesses that have opened up in the midst of COVID at various times, like the Corner Café in Agassiz, which, when you come to Chilliwack-Kent, is a must-try for anyone who loves pastries and crepes. Their croque monsieur is…. Well, just order it. You’ll be happy.

Another business is the brand-new TwoChiefs. According to their web page — there’s been a lot of attention on it lately — TwoChiefs is 100 percent Indigenous-owned, by Kirkland Douglas. Kirkland is a member of the Cheam First Nation from the Stó:lô Nation territory. He’s opened this business. The name “TwoChiefs” is in honour of Kirkland’s dad and grandfather, who both served as chiefs of their nation. Their teachings, he says, will guide TwoChiefs as a new brand. This brand features authentic designs by Indigenous artists, including local Nikki LaRock.

Our government is prioritizing business, and we can see it in the investments they’re making in our community and across British Columbia. We know the answer that people are wishing for right now — the answer that it’s over, that we’re okay now, right now, today…. We can’t provide that in this budget. But what this budget does do is it protects us as we get there together. There’s a light as we roll out the largest vaccine campaign ever. And when we’ve come through this, this budget lays out a plan for recovery. It sets us up to be able to carry on and to be stronger together.

As I mentioned before, not everybody will see every­thing that they want. We’re hearing from the opposition that there are big gaps. There are big things that they’d really like to see. It seems that it took a pandemic to inspire and hear from so many of the opposition as they rise to speak about where they see the needs of our most marginalized, our most vulnerable, the gaps in the areas that they previously didn’t seem concerned about, as they acclimatize to thinking about our most vulnerable, to noticing our most vulnerable.

Now that we’re in a situation where everyone is impacted rather than only the most vulnerable, it’s understandable that they may not completely understand the intersectionality and complexity of social issues and constructs that are being magnified by this pandemic.

[3:05 p.m.]

This can’t be fixed by a tax cut to the wealthy or a cash infusion from ICBC, and any oversimplification or siloing of these issues, making representations as though they occur in a vacuum, does significant disservice to British Columbia.

It is understandable that my colleagues across would be overwhelmed now, as the harsh reality of the pandemic also impacts them, where it’s no longer an accommodation for somebody else but rather their life as well. It’s easy to see how they might miss the vision of Budget 2021. This new world view can be overwhelming and scary — putting people first, protecting people’s health and livelihoods through this pandemic and into recovery.

There’s good news. British Columbians have been extremely clear that the values, ideas and priorities of our government are their values and priorities. Their voices and needs were heard as they chose B.C.’s most diverse, most progressive majority government ever. Why? I think it’s because our government has been focused on all British Columbians the whole time and has been working and will continue to work, as there is much to do on supporting British Columbians not only through this pandemic but into a more inclusive and innovative and sustainable future.

Budget 2021 continues to honour the immediate and future needs of British Columbians. This is why I support it. Thank you very much.

B. Stewart: It is an honour to rise in the House, as I know many of my colleagues, our colleagues, are not able to do that.

First, I want to thank everyone in this chamber for their work in this province. I think it’s important to reflect on the fact that we’re all here because we share a love for this province and because we want to make it better. We’re all here to give British Columbians a better life, though our ideas to move forward and heal from this pandemic differ greatly.

Unfortunately, it’s this difference that fuels this debate today. I believe Budget 2021 is a disappointing and lackluster proposal on how we move the province forward. It’s clear in this budget that the NDP are letting down British Columbians, as there is a lot of work to do. We all know that, and you acknowledge it. We are facing an unparalleled crisis, and this second-term NDP government has, I think, let down British Columbians, without a clear pathway forward. That’s what British Columbians asked for. That’s what you told them you were going to do in the October election.

All I can say is that this budget is about spending money in areas that, frankly, don’t all need to have the increases that are being proposed. Frankly, the things about economic recovery, the real substance and backbone of what creates an economy…. At a time when British Columbians are finally starting to think about a world on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that this government has no plan to secure a bright future. Instead of big ideas from this government, we’re getting big deficits and bigger government.

Spending and taxes. Well, there’s some déjà vu in this chamber, because we have all seen an NDP budget like this before. In the late 1990s — and perhaps many of the new members weren’t even in business or working yet — the NDP threw taxpayers’ dollars at problems, hoping it would resolve complex issues with a blank cheque. It didn’t work. Time and time again, we see the same thing. The fact that the deficits and the operating deficit were staggering in 2001, when our government took over and had to make adjustments — that’s what we don’t want to have to go through again.

Now after a snap election, which jeopardized the health and the safety of our society, the NDP are sinking back into their old ways. As my colleague said, there is spending widely and there is spending well. This government is not choosing to spend well. By the end of this government’s second term, the NDP will have added $10,000 of additional debt to every British Columbian.

[3:10 p.m.]

The total debt-to-GDP. I don’t know how many members know what that measurement is, but I know that when I arrived in this House, we had a debt-to-GDP that was around 17 percent. We had the ’08 financial crisis. We had all sorts of crises on all fronts, with people not knowing where the economy was. This budget forecasts a debt-to-GDP of 26.9 percent. I’m sure that the credit-rating agencies are going to have something to say about that in time.

Provincial debt is now at $103 billion. It doesn’t sound like much based on what the federal government is talking about, but the economy in this province is much smaller than the federal economy. The fact is that this budget in the last four years has grown from under $47.5 billion to where now we’re nearing $70 billion.

Just think about that. In four years, we’ve had that big an increase. It’s staggering. The debt is going to rise to $127 billion. Some of that debt is with…. Twenty-three new and increased taxes is what’s helping defray that. But for all of this debt, what are British Columbians actually receiving in terms of job programs, renter rebates, housing advancements, road improvements? Well, I’m sorry to say not very much. This government seems intent to spend a lot but give out less to people in need of support — more costs, less services — which is just a bad deal for B.C.

Now, we know in the last session, or the parliament, the government criticized about ICBC. We knew that there was a pandemic, and insurance companies across the country gave rebates because there was less driving going on. Now British Columbians are just starting to receive their cheques, the last in Canada, the last to be fully distributed in the country. It’s still nowhere to be seen for some, not to mention that some regular drivers are getting cheques just worth the price of the postage. Those who drive luxury cars are getting far bigger rebates.

To worsen the impact on drivers, the Premier’s long-awaited gas price relief is yet to be seen. Motorists have been paying higher prices or immense prices at the pumps for the last two years now.

The new Pattullo Bridge is still a four-lane bridge. Granted, it has safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists, but it’s still a four-lane bridge. It’s still at an early stage and has the same motor vehicle capacity over the current bridge. The situation is no better for those commuters in Tsawwassen and Delta, south of the Fraser, with the Massey Tunnel crossing. As funding is nowhere in sight, this tunnel will continue to be a headache for all.

No word on the final phase of BCAA’s worst road in B.C. Jim Edgson, former regional director and the head of the road improvement committee from 20 years ago, worked hard to get the first three of four phases. We’re still waiting for that final phase, to the Minister of Transportation. We would like to see that. Every day there are over 125 school children that drive on roads that are too narrow, confirmed by the Ministry of Transportation, that need to be improved.

Jobs. With high unemployment and the only jobs growth focused in on part-time jobs, the NDP still has no economic recovery or jobs plan. Why is there no incentive for businesses to try to hire people, to find ways to innovate? There are bright people out there, but we’ve come to a situation where we think that giving out money to the workers, etc…. I know that many of them have been hard hit, but we want them to be able to get back to where they have jobs and they can take care of themselves and not be on this treadmill where they’re just receiving loans or grants from the government.

What about the businesses? There are no new supports in the budget for people struggling right now that need to get help today. Despite the Premier’s promise of a made-in-B.C. solution, there’s still no paid sick leave. During a pandemic, which will be affecting British Columbians for the foreseeable future, this is unacceptable. There’s no new comprehensive funding for jobs and economic recovery.

I know we heard earlier today about InBC. I’m looking forward to more details on that. But I still believe that there’s still $1.1 billion of recovery funding that’s unallocated. We saw during the last year that we approved $5 billion on March 23, and then we came back and approved another $2 billion to add on to that and another $1 billion. Really, a lot of that money came out during the election, when businesses were shut down and failing earlier than that. I hope that that’s not what the plan is to do with that contingency.

[3:15 p.m.]

The only jobs plan seems to be the expansion of government, by 60,000 positions, with more than 40,000 private sector workers remaining unemployed. You know, if I was paying minimum wage…. I’m pretty certain that those government jobs are not minimum wage. I’m going to use the cost of roughly $30 an hour, which is probably more realistic, which is about $62,500 — 10 percent for benefits, the employer health tax and all the other things. That roughly works out, at a mere $68,400 per employee, to $4.2 billion per year.

That’s part of our spending plan this year. We’re going to increase taxpayer-funded employees. Granted, many may be needed, but at the end of the day, it’s a cost on the taxpayer. No word on how the thousands of jobs lost in the private sector are going to be recovered and how those workers will be supported.

It is through meaningful investment in the private sector that we can see economic stimulation. Invest in the sectors B.C. wants to see grow — small businesses, green technology. We know we have CleanBC, and the minister is here.

Tourism. What about that? Today I’m seeing all sorts of reports from different associations, etc., and an industry that just does not know how they’re to get through to even the end of May, with this current lockdown — the cancellations, the road closures and all of those things that we have heard about in the recent week.

The bottom line is that this is an industry that needs clear help to get out of this, because they’re losing their businesses. Real people hire real people. Invest in the private sector now — tourism, restaurants and small business. Maybe temporary PST relief. Something that is novel, to incentivize people.

And 85 percent of the construction workers are being told that they can’t work on B.C. projects if they’re not part of the CBA’s labour hiring policy. That has been very unconstructive for many of the organizations in my particular riding. They’ve actually had to terminate relations with other unions, just so that they can do CBA agreements.

We’ve seen this idea of investments work in previous years by previous governments, such as the innovative clean energy fund, a $50 million fund out of the carbon tax that we brought in to government — 2008. This fund was designed to support the province’s energy and environmental priorities, but it also was new, clean, innovative technology. We saw all sorts of examples of that, and the fact is that I think that that’s one area that I’m sure the minister will be thinking about or has thought about.

Since 2008, the ICE fund has committed more than about $104 million to support pre-commercial, clean energy technology projects, clean energy vehicles, research and development, energy efficiency programs. Where are these type of innovations and creative investments in Budget 2021? Not to be found.

It’s now more important than ever that the NDP comes up with a jobs plan to help restore the health of the economy. Not doing so means workers, families and businesses will continue to pay the price for NDP incompetence. The B.C. Liberals were calling for a private sector jobs plan — a jobs plan that included women and youth — and that’s still missing.

Let’s talk a little bit about housing. Many British Columbians, young and old, are being forced to rent at exorbitant housing prices across this province. You all know that. The bottom line is every single community in this province is in crisis, with high rents and higher housing prices. Every community from Fernie to Lake Country, Victoria to Chilliwack to Prince George, beyond Dawson Creek, and countless other communities across this province are feeling the squeeze, as housing continues to be considered a commodity by this government.

We have heard of the promises of affordability from the NDP’s promised $400 renters rebate. Well, that really wouldn’t mean very much today, considering that rents have gone up by $2,500 on average in the city of Vancouver. I just don’t think that it’s appropriate and responsible to make promises like that, that have gone unfulfilled. Look at the $500. Look at how much effort it took to get that out in December, with all of the promises. It’s difficult to just roll this money out, when you don’t have a plan.

[3:20 p.m.]

I think that one of the things, to just put a perspective on affordability…. A yearly three-zone pass at TransLink is now $2,124. These renters that didn’t get the grant have seen their annual travel budget sink away into rent increases alone in only four years.

As far as home ownership, this ship has more than sailed for countless British Columbians. It’s not on our watch. We were blamed — the fact that it was foreign buyers. We put in a foreign buyers tax in 2015, a tax of 15 percent. The number of foreign buyers last year was a mere 1 percent in British Columbia. They’re not the problem. The problem is supply. The B.C. Real Estate Association says that the average B.C. home price is up 20.4 percent, year over year, in March 2021, with no plans from the government on how we work with municipalities. How do we find those solutions?

I know that there have been announcements made by the minister. But the situation is: how are we going to get to affordable housing? You can’t choke off supply with the delays that municipalities are putting in front of the private sector to actually build real housing and get supply happening out there.

There is a report I saw yesterday that housing ownership during the pandemic crisis has grown from a mere 3 percent up to 27 percent. That’s how many people believe that they want to own. Interest rates are certainly very attractive, but the housing prices are staggering. In our hottest housing market, the prospect of home ownership is going to take a mere 34 years to save for the down payment for a typical Vancouver home. It’s out of reach. It’s not affordable. Add on to that student loans, transportation costs, an individual’s and family’s worth of expenses. There’s no hope there.

There’s no action on the red tape in local housing development. Unnecessary zoning is forcing people to live further and further on the outskirts of desirable urban centres. We need to build infrastructure. I know that there are lots of promises, but we’ve got to get it built. These skyrocketing costs are spurred, at least in part, by the diminishing supply. We’ve had this government for nearly four years, and one of the results is the lowest supply of homes since 2000, a 21-year low, dating back to the previous NDP government. I wonder if this is a coincidence.

The NDP have introduced $2 billion for the HousingHub to support the construction of middle-class homes. But without a contingency plan, who can say whether this is a wise investment for government to be making? Is it going to help new families finance the new homes, or is it going to become a boon for government budgets?

For some, the rising cost of housing is compounding with the helpless situation they face with the ever-increasing strata insurance costs. I know that we’re going to hear more on that later this year to see if we can get more competition in the market. The bottom line: this government took power during a pandemic by promising affordability, yet nearly everyone is paying more. That’s not just this election; that’s the previous election. The Premier can question that and stand up and talk about the tolls. But at the end of the day, it’s costing more to live in British Columbia, not by a little bit but by a long shot.

What is worse is that all of this unaffordability is actually the basis of the NDP’s budget. This government is using extreme wealth gathered through the property purchase tax — a tax that they used to oppose and scrutinize — to throw money at problems, rather than creating a comprehensive post-pandemic plan.

Yesterday in this House, we talked a bit about the opioid crisis. Last year 1,724 people died from drug overdoses. The first two months of this year were on track, at 320 people in the first two months, to exceed 1,900 British Columbians losing their lives to that.

More has to be done to address the health aspects of drug addiction. Governments must fund the four pillars of recovery: harm reduction, prevention, treatment and enforcement. More treatment beds, stepped-up prevention, early intervention in our schools are the measures we must take to ensure proper mental health and addiction care in B.C. There must be a full spectrum of care to ensure effective and accessible treatment in recovery programs.

[3:25 p.m.]

What’s frustrating in this budget and the overdose prevention funding is that only $15 million is going to the overdoses. Despite a $500 million, three-year plan to invest in mental health, the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions still has a budget of $13 million, which is still smaller than the Premier’s increased budget of $15 million.

Yesterday the minister confirmed that 195 new treatment beds are funded, but that’s not enough. Leading up to the 2017 election, we had opened 500 mental health and recovery beds. It is a growing problem because of the opioid crisis, and I understand that there seems to be limitations. But we have to put a full-court press on this.

This budget’s investment in mental health and addictions is not enough, and we have contradicting reports from health authorities saying what’s good and what’s not good. This government isn’t prioritizing this pressing and timely health issue. We need to do more. Health authorities are seeing the capital cut from their budgets of $1.1 billion. What does that signal? What’s the message that health authorities are getting, or where is that being replaced?

Families are struggling to find family doctors that are taking patients. Others are scrambling to learn that theirs is retiring. B.C. trains about 288 physicians per year, and of that, 40 to 50 choose family practice for their residency, but only about 15 percent choose traditional family practice. That was just reported in the Times Colonist, and 750,100 people in the province today are without a family doctor. That’s about 15 percent of B.C.’s population.

Now I’m either privileged or maybe not so privileged to have one of the new urgent and primary care facilities open up in West Kelowna, but it has restricted hours. It’s open from four to eight during the weekdays and on weekends. They’ve been told not to open to compete with doctors, yet they’re supposed to be there to help with both mental health and these other things. It’s not working to relieve the pressure at hospitals, like Kelowna General, and in the other communities where they are.

It’s obvious that there’s a shortage or funding issues with those urgent and primary care facilities. However, I have heard extremely good reports of the one that’s located in downtown Kelowna. I hope that they’re all better funded.

British Columbians are still being left in the dark when it comes to COVID-19 data, confused even further with this Premier’s shoot-from-the-hip attitude in terms of shocking travel announcements days before the details are available. Come on, man.

We all have questions, and our being open with the data is the only way going forward. It’s a step that government needs to take immediately for the benefit of all British Columbians — transparency. Invest in health. Stop cutting health authorities’ funding. Be open and honest with British Columbians. These are the simple asks that the NDP are incapable or unwilling to respond to.

Lastly on health, I want to bring up one issue at Okanagan College. I know a former colleague who served in this House for Kelowna, Cliff Serwa, asked about a sizeable amount of private money that’s been raised for a health centre at Okanagan College. The college was divided in 2005 into UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College. It has been a great success — over 10,000 full-time students that are at Okanagan College and their many campuses.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

More importantly, that’s from a base of less than 3,500 in 2005. The university has eclipsed the numbers by all measurements. It’s been a great success. But the health care centre is necessary for the health and well-being of the thousands of students that attend Okanagan College in Kelowna every day.

We also should be looking at the promise for an additional medical school — right? — the second medical school. I know we have the distributed program at UNBC, Victoria and Kelowna, but we need more. We’ve got to make certain we’re training doctors in communities. We’ve got to do that.

I want to just conclude on this that budgets require planning and an understanding of what future effects the spending will have on the province. This is a road map for businesses, for the population, to know where they’re going.

[3:30 p.m.]

There’s a lot of money sprinkled around, a lot of big numbers and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, people are looking for leadership. They want their government to help bring them along to a conclusion, where they’ve regained their jobs.

Think about the fact that the tourism sector I mentioned a minute ago, the special event companies…. They don’t have any idea when the COVID lockdown that they’ve been under for 14 months now is going to open up so that they can book a wedding or they can even plan on a wedding, even with a reduced size.

Now I know that it’s early days, but I think we’ve got to look at when the full vaccination is complete — according to Dr. Henry, by sometime at the end of June. We need to be able to give certainty. That’s what this budget is supposed to be all about: providing certainty. What incentives are there for businesses which are financially struggling already? I know that there are the exceptions, but the reality is that businesses, restaurants, tourism, special event companies, all the activities that people love to come to British Columbia for, are sitting there closed down until the end of May. What’s the reopening plan for them?

I mean, I know that the circuit breaker grants have been extended. That’s not enough for businesses that have hundreds of employees. Look at the ski hills that were shut down early because of the COVID outbreaks. I don’t disagree with that, but the bottom line is: how do they reopen? How do they get ready for that? What about the restaurants that have been shuttered, for maybe months, because of the fact that they haven’t had the opportunity to have that?

This is not enough for businesses that have been so impacted. Those businesses are the ones that raise sales tax revenue on not only food, but liquor. They create all sorts of an economy — jobs where people pay income taxes to help pay for the things that we all have come to expect. What about the employer health tax? How many people do you think are employed in the tourism and restaurant and hospitality industry? There’s no money coming in for their wages at the present time. That’s a lot of tax revenue that’s missing.

The situation is going to get worse unless we get back to business. How many businesses right here in Victoria are shuttered — closed, for-lease signs? I’ll bet you that one in three stores downtown are closed. I’ll tell you what. I don’t know what the future is going to be like for downtown Victoria. It was a vibrant community. I know that the cruise ship industry is part of that; not only that, but having people come across.

We need to make certain that there is a return to regular business. Lots of people have lost their entire life savings on the businesses that they opened up with the hopes that they were going to be able to create something that was going to be the best.

I just wanted to make certain we look back at what happened in the 1990s. We can have a budget, and we can spend all this money, but we were in first place back in 1990. We went to last place by 2001. That’s where we were economically. We cannot go back there. If the NDP are going to spend this much, they need a plan to stimulate the economic activity and job recovery for the private sector. They need to plan to balance the books and avoid future service cuts.

We were criticized for the service cuts. Everybody liked to think that we were being mean. They were unattainable in terms of revenue. I think that we need to make certain we keep that in mind.

Rather than take ownership for their inherent shortcomings in this budget, their governance, the NDP has blamed everything and everybody but themselves. They have blamed the third wave of COVID on the millennials, warning them not to blow it for the rest of us. They have blamed the previous government how many times? How many times have I heard in this House? How many years were we here? How many balanced budgets did we have? What did we turn over in 2017 to this government? Almost $3 billion of contingencies or money that wasn’t spent.

These excuses only go so far. British Columbians are fed up. They’re fed up with COVID. They’re fed up with the fact that their tax dollars…. Their grandchildren are the ones that are going to have to pay for some of these deficits. We’re looking at deficit forecasts of $9.7 billion for 2021, $5.5 billion for the next year, $4.3 billion…. A quick summation is just under $20 billion. And $20 billion? That was the budget in 2001 or right around there. Think about that. That’s in three years.

Accountability is important. Leadership is important. We need that. That’s what this budget is about.

[3:35 p.m.]

I know the minister is excited by some of the things. I don’t disagree that she should be excited, but I think that we should be looking at some of the people that are looking for this. What about people that are quoting, in terms of recent quotes that have been brought out…?

Canadian Federation of Independent Business: “The B.C. budget provides little for small businesses hoping to see additional supports to bridge the economic recovery.” The budget missed the “opportunity to help businesses through the immediate and current crisis and provide a plan to help them to recover long term.”

What about the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade? “This budget doesn’t include a lot around new funding for economic recovery.” Same message. “What is it going to set us up for, for recovery in the long term, to ensure that we have a competitive, globally, post-pandemic…? We didn’t see that vision.”

When we talk about competitiveness…. We cannot be a province where we think that we can layer on all those costs onto our businesses here and expect them to compete in a global market. British Columbia is a trading province. It has resources. It manufactures. It has technology. But it has to be competitive. You have to look at the competition. So that’s what we’re looking for.

When it comes to this, I sincerely hope that this government will move forward with the openness, transparency and accountability for their own actions that people deserve. After failing to get the COVID relief to families, botching supports for small businesses, ignoring financial and COVID data transparency, we don’t have as much hope for that.

At a time when people are looking for optimism and light at the end of the tunnel, British Columbians deserve so much better than this disappointing budget.

P. Alexis: I would first like to acknowledge that I come to you from the unceded and ancestral territory of the Stó:lō people, including the Kwantlen, Leq’á:mel, Matsqui, Sema:th and Sq’èwlets territories.

It’s my pleasure to rise today to address and wholeheartedly support the provincial government’s budget for 2021. If the throne speech was the vision for the future of this province, this budget is the blueprint for not only its implementation but its success.

I would like to thank my colleagues for their hard work and commitment in guiding this historic document over the finish line. I would also like to thank my constituents who have reached out to make their ideas and concerns heard ahead of the budget’s publication. Finally, I want to acknowledge my staff for their diligence, support and much-needed camaraderie each and every day.

As you all know, the world has changed dramatically since the province released its last budget — which, actually, I had the privilege of being present for — not least of which, economically. Through the pandemic, B.C.’s real gross domestic product declined by an estimated 5.3 percent in 2020. As the recovery continues, B.C.’s real GDP is forecast to grow by 4.4 percent in 2021 and 3.8 percent in 2022, reaching pre-pandemic levels by next year.

We’ve delivered a budget projecting a deficit of $8.1 billion for the ’20-21 fiscal year. That is far less than previously anticipated, which was $13.6 billion. A steadily declining deficit is projected over the next three years, beginning in 2021-2022. To achieve this is a balancing act of responsibility and ambition, of attention to the needs of the present without sacrificing the promise of the future. I’m proud to say we have met, if not exceeded, this standard.

We can’t talk about the future without talking about the pandemic present. This budget has $3.25 billion in pandemic and recovery contingencies for the year ahead. That includes $900 million for health-related COVID-19 management like vaccine distribution, testing and contact tracing and expanding flu immunization and screening for COVID-19 at long-term-care homes, which will be crucial for the seniors of Abbotsford-Mission.

[3:40 p.m.]

Further investments include $1 billion to support people and businesses, $200 million to prepare for economic recovery and $1.1 billion in reserve to support any unanticipated and urgent health or recovery measures.

The government is also spending $585 million to train and hire up to 3,000 people as health care workers, $45 million to address systemic racism against Indigenous People in the health care system and $500 million over three years in new funding for mental health and addiction — the largest investment ever made in this field.

Further, this pandemic has shone a light on the fact that access to affordable, quality and inclusive child care is not simply good social policy; it’s vital to B.C.’s economy. We have seen historic investments in the first three years of Childcare B.C., our ten-year plan to deliver universal child care to B.C. families. We are continuing to improve access to child care, which supports our economic recovery by creating more opportunities for parents, particularly women, to go back to work or school and gives kids the best possible start.

Over 35,000 children have received child care for $10 a day since its launch. Further, the child care budget for 2021-2022 has tripled, compared to just four years ago. Childcare B.C. is getting a $233 million increase over three years, on top of the base budget. This builds on our unprecedented level of investments, made since we started our Childcare B.C. plan.

Budget 2021 doubles the number of $10-a-day child care spaces, continues to build and expand centres to create more spaces and provides 400 more culturally relevant child care spaces for Indigenous families. We’re adding 75 more child care centres in the province’s $10-a-day program, which will increase available spaces to 3,750 over the next three years.

As well, we’re pleased to introduce wage enhancements for approximately 11,000 early childhood educators across British Columbia. In last year’s budget, a $2-per-hour wage boost was announced, bringing the median wages to almost $23 per hour. This year B.C. is doubling that enhancement, bringing ECE median wages to almost $25 per hour.

As a former educator, I want to take a moment to recognize our province’s early childhood educators. What a wonderful service they’ve provided to Abbotsford and Mission, and how crucial this boost in their pay will be for them and their families. This year has been beyond tough, and you worked tirelessly to keep child care centres open and keep our children safe and secure.

When I was a school board trustee, we were forced to close schools due to a lack of funding, support or, in some cases, belief in the importance of public education. What a disaster for those communities, and what a burden for those children. What a long way we’ve finally come.

Safety and security remain paramount to our duty of care as a government. So for the first time ever, B.C. is increasing the seniors supplement, which will support 80,000 residents. Shockingly, this is the first increase to that supplement since it was introduced in 1987. As well, income and disability assistance will increase by $175 a month.

Another area of our beautiful province that required much-needed attention was our parks and tourism industry. Earlier this week the province announced it would increase funding for parks by $83 million over three years. This new funding will mean that the capital budget for parks will increase by 57 percent, while the operating budget will go up an average of 22 percent for each of the three years.

Part of that investment will go to adding 100 new campsites through the province each year, starting in 2022. As the elected representative for one of the most beautiful places in a very beautiful province, I’m sure that my constituents, who love camping, will welcome the opportunity to re-engage with the outdoors once the time is right.

[3:45 p.m.]

Funding will also be invested into supporting the local tourism industry as it recovers from the pandemic — and for local recreation.

In the budget, $30 million has been set aside to support initiatives in communities marking B.C.’s 150th anniversary of entry into Confederation. As well, $100 million will be set aside to support tourism recovery, including $20 million for community destination development grants for local communities.

Tourism is a crucial business for our province, but it’s certainly not the only one. We have committed $800 million in both new and currently ongoing supports to businesses in B.C., to continue our pandemic recovery.

I’ll list them: $150 million to support the increased employment incentive tax credit; $35 million to help B.C. farmers keep temporary foreign workers safe from COVID-19; $10 million over three years to expand the domestic market for B.C. products; $235 million in PST savings for businesses to invest in and select equipment and machinery; $195 million in funding to continue the small and medium-sized business recovery grant program; over $700 million in commercial property tax reductions for the 2020 calendar year; over $300 million to support child care providers; $70 million for the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program; $60 million in other targeted emergency financial relief, including park operators, tourism organizations, local sports organizations, the Royal B.C. Museum and the B.C. Pavilion Corp.; $31 million that will allow liquor licensees, such as restaurants, bars and tourism operators, to purchase beer, wine and spirits at reduced wholesale costs.

One industry that I want to recognize is restaurants and hospitality, which, I know, have been hit hard. I’ve spent many Saturday nights visiting different spots to eat in Abbotsford-Mission, and I hear the struggles of the proprietors.

I’m delighted to review the highlights of our support for them here: supporting 14,000 businesses with more than $50 million through the circuit breaker grants — of course, we did hear of the program expansion, yesterday, from the minister; helping restaurants, bars and tourism operators with liquor licences purchase beer, wine and spirits at wholesale liquor pricing permanently; issuing a temporary cap on fees charged to restaurants by food delivery companies to 15 percent, so restaurants can keep operating online, with more people eating from home; hiring hundreds of tourism and hospitality staff laid off through the pandemic, to support B.C.’s immunization plan as non-clinical staff at immunization clinics throughout the province.

While our businesses have struggled, many of our renters and the unhoused have also struggled mightily in the face of the crisis. Housing in the province remains a significant challenge, one that cannot be resolved overnight, in the face of years of neglect and laissez faire shoulder shrugs. However, this government is presently on track with our ten-year plan to build the types of homes people need, while simultaneously working to stabilize a market that has become a widening playing field of affordability.

Since 2018, more than 26,000 new housing units are built or are in progress throughout British Columbia. We’ve improved security for renters by improving the Residential Tenancy Act. We’ve reduced the maximum annual rent increase and closed the loophole that landlords used to get around rent controls. Further to that burden for so many people in British Columbia this year, the current rent freeze will remain in place until 2022.

We’ve increased the foreign buyers tax to 20 percent. We’ve introduced the speculation and vacancy tax, which targets empty properties in high-demand areas and has helped put homes back on the rental market. This is doing exactly what it was set out to do. We’ve created the land owner transparency registry to end hidden ownership in real estate. We’ve cracked down on tax evasion in condo presale assignments.

[3:50 p.m.]

We need to recognize that this pandemic has laid bare many cracks in our system, for many vulnerable people. In my riding, I’ve spoken to many people struggling during this pandemic with their mental health, especially young people. There are no easy solutions, but there’s work that can be done to correct the neglect that so many felt before.

This budget represents the largest mental health investment in British Columbia history. We will continue the expansion of mental health and substance use supports to better connect people to culturally safe and effective care. As well, we are investing $500 million in new funding over the fiscal plan to expand mental health and addiction services.

We’re building a better network of mental health supports for youth through a $97 million investment that will deliver much-needed assistance, including the mental health in schools program; by expanding the number of integrated child and youth teams from five to 20 across British Columbia by 2023-2024; and by supporting more school and community-based multidisciplinary mental health and substance use services and supporting and expanding the number of Foundry centres. A topic that both the member for Maple Ridge–Mission and I have heard a lot about from concerned constituents.

We are expanding the First Nations Health Authority’s ability to deliver mental health and addiction services to Indigenous Peoples by $14 million. We’re building 195 new substance use treatment and recovery beds throughout the province to help more people get on a path to recovery. We’re investing $61 million to improve access and quality of mental health services, including expanding eating disorder care and better access to suicide prevention services and early psychosis intervention.

B.C. is growing quickly, and my constituency and the rest of the Fraser Valley are absolutely booming. Infrastructure investment will, therefore, be crucial. With a record $26.4 billion capital plan, Budget 2021 is making a historic investment in major infrastructure to deliver the critical services people count on as communities grow, keeping B.C. a desirable destination to work, study and to live.

This record capital spending over three years is $3.5 billion higher than Budget 2020, with infrastructure recovery investments in the areas of health, education and transportation. Overall, capital investments are anticipated to create over 85,000 jobs, including direct construction jobs, as well as indirect jobs, such as off-site employment at suppliers.

Crucially for my riding, where the trades are a massive source of employment, the capital investments also include more apprenticeships and training opportunities in local communities, in particular for Indigenous Peoples, women, people with disabilities and other traditionally underrepresented groups who want to build a career in the skilled trades.

That one speaks to me. As a former mayor of Mission, I created a team to seek out and engage with women to consider non-traditional sectors of employment. COVID-19 slowed us, but I’m proud to be part of a government that wouldn’t let such a goal be stopped. All together, these investments will allow the province to build back better, create good-paying jobs, provide economic stimulus and form the foundation of B.C.’s long-term prosperity for generations to come.

Budget 2021 includes $3.8 billion in total capital spending over the next three years by post-secondary institutions throughout the province. Investments in priority projects will build capacity and help meet the province’s future workforce and economic development needs in key sectors, including health, science, trades and technology. A significant portion of this capital investment is funded through other sources, including foundations, donations, internal sources, revenues generated from services, and federal funding.

I began this defence of our budget by observing that we, as government, must perform a balancing act between responsibility and ambition. But ambition doesn’t always mean building more highways or paying ECE workers across the province a better wage.

[3:55 p.m.]

The last point I want to reference is a small note from the budget, one that may get lost in the talk of big plans made and billions spent. Through this budget, starting in September, youth aged 12 years and under in the province won’t have to pay to take the bus, SeaBus or SkyTrain. The free fare includes rides on both TransLink and B.C. Transit systems.

That might seem like a small thing, but we must remember the people who count on public transport: the families who travel, the parents pulling their children on the bus to get to the grocery store to beat the Saturday rush, and the kids running to catch the last morning bus so as not to be late for school.

It’s not just about convenience. It’s remembering that real people count on these services and benefit from them, but at a cost. By helping ease that cost ever so slightly, we remember that the decisions we make about how this province is managed have real-world consequences for working people. That’s how a government differentiates itself from its predecessors.

As always, even in a budget with such heavy text and an endless stream of numbers and charts and projections about the future of this great province, the real work is in the small details. This budget envisions the big picture and recognizes the small details. Both matter very much to the people of British Columbia. Both will be crucial as we go forth into a brighter, more equitable and more prosperous post-pandemic future.

J. Sims: It’s my pleasure today to rise and speak in support of this budget. As everybody knows, even in our own homes, we sit down, we take a look at our income, and we plan a budget. We set goals, and we set priorities. We say: “Okay. These are the essential spendings. This is what we would like. This is in our hope package, so to speak.”

Government, just like us, when we’re setting our own budgets…. There isn’t a magic room where money is printed. The money that is spent, that gets built into the budget, is money that is deducted from people who work, from our business community. It comes from our taxation system. We’re so lucky to live in a country where we have a progressive taxation system, whereby we collect taxes in order to provide services across the board.

Now, it would be foolish of me to say that there were not inequities that have developed over the years between different groups of people in B.C. There have, and COVID has highlighted what those differences are. But what I’m really feeling proud of is that our government has had the courage — because it does take courage — to put forward a budget that not only supports and tries to reduce and address the inequities but also looks to the future at the restart, at the rebuilding, that we all must do.

It is not a surprise that we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Every British Columbian, every Canadian and people around the world are living the impacts of this pandemic. This pandemic has taught us the importance of our health care. When I used to speak from a different House, in Ottawa, I used to talk about our universal health care as being the jewel in the crown of Canada. I think, throughout this pandemic, we have all acknowledged how fortunate we are to have the health care system we do have.

We’ve also realized that this same health care system needs some love and support. Because of that, the amazing work being done by the minister pre-COVID accelerated during the COVID pandemic in order to bring about those improvements. This budget continues to build on those investments that had already started.

[4:00 p.m.]

We know that at the outstart of this pandemic, the people we were worried about the most were our parents and grandparents. It was our seniors. As the pandemic’s first wave came, we saw the devastating impact in our nursing homes and on seniors across the board. Immediately, the government stepped forward and put systems in place to try to address that — longer care, more workers just going to one site instead of multiple sites, but also the increased hours of care that became so critical, making sure that there were PPEs there, and when the vaccinations came, prioritizing for vaccinations in those hot-spot areas.

Just like now, we’re looking at different hot-spot areas. But that’s what governments do or families do. In our families, when we have a budget and we decide some things are going awry over here, in order to address those, we readjust our budget and sort of say: “Okay, this needs special attention.” In that same way, we gave our seniors homes…. We gave the care that they needed, that extra loving attention that was needed, and we benefited from that. Every British Columbian benefitted from that.

The vaccine went into those hot spots, and now our seniors can have visitors. Almost every one of us has a senior in our lives who either lives in a home and we haven’t been able to visit or who has been in a seniors home. My mother was in a home, and it was very, very difficult, not being able to visit her, for us. So you can imagine the pain there was for her as well. So prioritizing those hot spots for the vaccine was really, really critical.

What I’m really pleased to see in this budget is continued investments into seniors and into elder care and making sure that we fill up the gaps that we needed — a system that had been broken by years of neglect and cuts. It takes time to rebuild. This is a good time to do a shout-out to those amazing staff who work in our seniors homes and go into people’s homes to support seniors. I want to do a huge, huge thank you to them.

Health care. I’m going to try to stick to health care for a little bit, because it’s an area that interests a lot of us. There is major investment in this budget on health care. I’ll talk about that as I get on to it a little bit later. I’m not going to start throwing out billions and billions of dollars, because as anybody knows, once you get beyond a few hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars, for most of us, once you say one billion or two billion or five billion, there is a kind of a haze that comes into our heads. But this government is spending billions of dollars into making life better for British Columbians and into restarting the economy. We’re proud of that.

What I want to focus on for a few moments is what it means for Surrey. I hear so much that nothing is being done by this government for Surrey, especially in this last week. I want to read into the record the health care investments that are seen in this budget for Surrey.

A new Surrey hospital and cancer centre. That’s a big project — $1.6 billion, even though I wasn’t going to mention the dollar amount. The scope of this project is huge. It includes beds; emergency department; medical imaging department that includes computer tomography, CT, and magnetic resonance imaging, MRI; surgical suite; pharmacy; laboratory; and academic space. The new cancer centre will include oncology, ambulatory care unit, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and functional imaging, including PET/CT, cyclotron and space for six linear accelerators, five equipped at opening. The scope of the project also includes a child care centre — that touched my heart: a child care centre — and underground and surface parking.

[4:05 p.m.]

The new hospital will be designed to achieve zero on-site carbon emissions and will be one of the first hospitals to achieve this status in Canada. This is something every person — it doesn’t matter which side of the House you’re sitting on — should be standing up to celebrate. I know my colleague across the way knows how badly a second hospital is needed in Surrey.

This hospital will be open for patients by 2027. I know you’re going to say: “Well, why is it taking so long?” Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker. If you try to build a house in Vancouver or in Surrey, it takes you two to four years if you’re just starting off with a piece of land, and sometimes even longer.

We’re not talking about a house. We’re not even talking about an 8,000-foot mansion. What we’re talking about here is a hospital with a state-of-the-art cancer unit built right in there. And the project will be entirely completed in 2028. By the way, that includes landscaping and final painting. That is very specific, but despite this, I’ve had colleagues go on radio and in the media and keep saying: “Where is it in the budget? We can’t see it.” And I’m thinking: “Am I reading the same budget book that my colleagues are?”

For their attention, I do want to point out which page this information is on. It’s on page 9, page 50, page 56 and page 59. So let’s put to rest the mythology that is being spun to scare people and to misinform them by saying that this hospital is not in the budget. This hospital is in the budget.

I want to remind this House that it was people sitting on that side of the House that sold the land that a previous government, NDP government, had bought where a hospital was going to be built, and the previous Premier from the other side actually went and made a couple of announcements and had press conferences at that site. It happens to be in my riding.

What’s going up there now? Condos, townhouses and more retail space. I am not saying that housing isn’t welcome, but what I am saying is that land got sold at a loss, at below-market value, and if we’d had that land when we formed government, even if that side had never planned to build a hospital, we would be much further ahead by now.

Building a hospital isn’t a two-minute thing. First, the health authority has to do a concept plan. Once the concept plan was approved, then it went into a business plan. And now that the business plan is done, it will go into procurement. Once the procurement is completed, it’s shovel in the ground, and the building starts. That is the process that has been there, I would say, for quite a few decades, and that is the process that has been accelerated.

I want to do a huge shout-out to the Premier and to the minister for their commitment, their absolute commitment with dollars in the budget, to building that second hospital in Surrey. Not only that. I have been amazed by how many urgent care centres have sprung up in Surrey — our nurse practitioner centre in Cloverdale, which I had the pleasure to go and tour. We’ve had, I would say, more mental health services. A culturally sensitive counselling centre opened up for drug and opioid counselling.

I could go on and on, but I decided that I really wanted to put the record straight where the hospital is concerned. I really appreciate the opportunity to do that.

[4:10 p.m.]

You know, Mr. Speaker, Surrey, which had been neglected for 16 long years by the previous government, is getting a lot of investments from our government, not only now but in the previous iteration as well — when was the last election? I’ve almost forgotten — before 2020, as well, from 2017 to 2020.

I want to talk about a subject that’s close to my heart, and everybody knows it is. That is schools. If there is one area that I think I’ve always said government needs to make a priority, that is our kids. And we cannot make our kids and our economy — because they’re both interrelated — a priority unless we invest in quality child care and quality public education.

Once again, I’ve heard, only as recently as this week, a colleague from Surrey going on local radio. I don’t have the exact quote, so I’m going to paraphrase it. “Liberals build. NDP does not build.” I heard that, and I thought: “You know what? If you’re going to tell such a fib, then at least be able to back it up.” Once again, I’m hearing a lot about: “There is nothing in this budget for education. There is nothing in this budget for schools.”

Once again, let me reiterate what is in the budget, what is in the budget for Surrey. I’m not talking about the whole province, because, as you know, I’m from Surrey-Panorama, and I wanted to keep the focus on Surrey today. Here goes a list. Some of it is in ridings of this side’s MLAs, and some of this is in the ridings of MLAs from the other side. There is no favouritism here.

South Newton area elementary, a new elementary school to provide 655 student spaces, with a neighbourhood learning centre, $43.9 million. Sunnyside Elementary, an additional 250 new student spaces. I’m not going to keep reading out the millions. Ta’talu elementary, site 207, a new elementary school to provide 655 student spaces, with a neighbourhood learning centre. Morgan Elementary, an additional 190 student spaces will be built. K.B. Woodward Elementary, an addition of 240 more student spaces. Prince Charles Elementary, seismic upgrade. White Rock Elementary, an additional 195 student spaces. Queen Elizabeth Secondary, seismic upgrade.

That is just what’s in this budget. I haven’t even read into the record yet what we managed to do between 2017 and 2020, which was quite a lot. Just to be sure, this is in the budget. It is there. If you’re not sure of which pages to find that, I’m more than happy to help.

We also know that infrastructure, not just in Surrey but across B.C., had been neglected by the government for 16 years. We know that investment in infrastructure is not investments just in bridges and roads and railroads. It is an investment in people. It does two things. It grows good-paying jobs, but it also provides an infrastructure for our economy to flourish and for our people to move, which also has economic and health implications as well.

The Pattullo Bridge. No need to say. I can remember a previous Premier, her stiletto heel going through the bridge as she was being given a tour. It is in pretty bad shape. It keeps getting patched up, but we are replacing that. Once again on radio in Surrey B.C., it was said: “There are no plans to build the bridge. There is no money in the budget.” Let me tell you where the money is. Pages 52, 53 and 59. That’s where the money is. The Pattullo Bridge is being replaced. It’s an expandable bridge, as the infrastructure on the New Westminster side grows, which makes common sense.

[4:15 p.m.]

You don’t build something without building some of that flexibility for our growth. But at the same time, you have to be respectful of the infrastructure that needs to be developed on the other side. It will provide a safe and reliable crossing for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, and will add to the network of connections between Surrey and New Westminster and the rest of the Lower Mainland. It will meet current seismic and road design standards.

Once again, something we are very, very proud of. All of these projects are going to create good-paying jobs. Good-paying jobs. These are not jobs that are going to be removed. The money is going to be spent in our communities, and we’re very, very proud of that. The capital projects will support our trade corridors and support our businesses. And you know something? We’re going to do this without charging tolls. This is a bridge that is not going to have a toll on it.

As you know, when I first became an MLA, there were two bridges with tolls on them, and a third one planned with a toll on it. What surprised me, when I did my homework, was that there was another bridge built about the same time — it was built in Kelowna — that didn’t have a toll on it.

I was very happy, by the way. I wasn’t saying that that bridge should be tolled. I was happy that bridge didn’t have a toll on it. But it seemed unfair — I would say more than unfair, unjust — to have tolls on two bridges in the Lower Mainland, impacting people south of Fraser and, I would say, those who come into the Lower Mainland as well.

Mostly, what it meant when those tolls got removed…. Families in my riding came and were telling me how many hundreds of dollars they were saving. Not a year but per month. That is what good governance is about — what it means to put together a budget that looks at the needs of people.

I always forget how quickly half an hour goes. I haven’t even really started on my budget speech and the highlights of everything else I wanted to talk about. Let me just talk about child care for a bit. I think all my life, women in my age group — and many a lot younger, many a lot older, many of them my mentors — have been advocating for child care. Not as a social good, which it is. Not as something that is good for kids, which it is, but as something that is good economics.

It is good economics when any government spends on child care. There is sound research — and if any of my colleagues would like me to point them to that, I can — where every dollar invested in child care can get you anywhere from $3 to $5 back. That happens a number of ways.

It happens, freeing up parents to be able to go back to work and to live their dreams and proceed with their career. It happens because our children get quality care from trained professionals, and the savings to education and then health care are there. But those are not even factored into these savings. People re-entering the economy, new child care centres being built, more staff being employed, all those taxes — all that comes back into the system, and the productivity level goes way up.

As a mother, I can tell you how painful it was when I would have to leave my one-year-old. My one-year-old would be sick. What do you do with a sick one-year-old if you don’t have family? Remember, I was a new immigrant. I didn’t have an extended family living all around me at that time. Fortunately, I had friends who helped out.

If you’re worried about your child when you’re at work — whether the child is healthy — if you’re not sure about the surroundings they’re at, you’re not as productive at work. Employers will say that productivity goes up when parents have security about their child’s daycare. A parent feels secure when they know that they are in good child care, with early child care educators who have been trained to look at brain and emotional and social development and are working with them.

[4:20 p.m.]

We keep talking about all the wonderful work we’ve done in child care right here in B.C. and in Surrey.

I want to tell you that I was really, really happy when I saw that in my riding, for example, in Surrey-Panorama alone, parents have received close to $11 million back. That isn’t money that’s gone off to the Canary Islands. That is money that is going into the community, money that people have freed up, that people are then spending back in their communities, maybe not as much now because of COVID but certainly before that.

Child care is absolutely critical. I’m proud of the work that the minister did in the previous iteration of this parliament and the work that she is doing right now. I’m also happy to see the feds step up to the plate and make a commitment to child care, because I now know that we will be able to move at a much faster pace.

When we’re talking about education, I have to also talk about post-secondary. Post-secondary, as we know, was neglected and, I would say, horrifically underfunded, so much so that we saw the damage that it did. But the damage that we saw the most was the damage it did to the trades area. While I was a high school counsellor, I watched a vibrant apprenticeship program that was decimated, and we’re paying the price for that today.

I’m glad that this government has done and continues to invest in this budget in growing a diverse group of workers. I’m also pleased so see that we are investing in connectivity to make sure that people in every corner of this province have the access not only to education and to health care but also to trade as well.

I saw firsthand the difference connectivity made to a small, small community in the north. What it did was when everything else died down in the community, it allowed them to open up tourism and bring in an income. We know that’s not possible right now, but that will happen.

I also want to congratulate the Premier and the minister on their vision at restart B.C. It is visionary, I will say, visionary because it’s there to support the current industry, small and medium-sized businesses, especially the tourism industry. There is no government that could do enough to fill up the hole that’s been created by COVID. What we’re doing is triaging and helping people to survive and breathe until we get to the end of this marathon.

A huge, huge thank-you to them for the investments there but also for the investments into the technology sector and into growing new sustainable jobs that are so needed in this province and growing our green economy.

The minister in that area, even before he became an MLA, was a very loud and passionate voice for our environment. We can be doing many things. One thing we’ve learned is that unless we address our health care and, I would say, similarly, unless we address our environmental challenges that face us, a lot of other things we do could be for naught. I want to commend the work that has been done by the Environment Minister in this area, as well, in order to grow the green economy and make sure that we have electrification happening at a very, very fast pace.

The magic in all of this is…. It is not magic, but the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Over the last month, when Canada released its numbers for rebounding economies, which was the economy across Canada that was leading the way in rebounding to pre-COVID types of employment days? We still have a long way to go, but we have a foundation. We have a foundation where we are focused on a very diverse economy.

During this economic rebuilding, we cannot leave some people behind. That’s why…. Recently we’ve seen the issues of racism that have come to the front. We have to address those. How do we address those? Yes, we can address those in policy, but we also have to address those in the way we train people, how we train people from our diverse communities, how we respect the different cultures, not tolerate them, how we respect them and are inclusive of everyone.

[4:25 p.m.]

It also means making sure that as we train the next generation of workers for our diverse economy, that diverse economy has in it the diversity of our population. The diversity of our population, just as it needs to be reflected in this House, needs to be reflected at every level of government, whether it’s elected, whether it’s jobs, appointed, whichever way it is.

In the same way, we need to look to industry and the private sector and ask them and push them to break through that glass ceiling so that we do have the kind of equity that my children and my grandchildren demand. They’re no longer asking. They are demanding that it’s their right. Their grandparents might have come to this country thinking: “Oh, we’re so lucky to have what we have.” We are lucky to have what we have, but these are kids who were born here.

Whether you were born here or whether you came here yesterday or whether you came here 100 years ago, a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. For every Canadian child, every child that is born in Canada, that lives in Canada…. Whichever way they have arrived here, every child needs to have every door open to them in an equitable way so that they can live their dreams.

If we do nothing else while we’re in this House, it behooves each and every one of us to help our children open doors and fly and live their dreams. Not our dreams, their dreams. Let us be the wind below their wings and help them to rise and be the magic they can be, to be the B.C., to be the Canada we can be that is rid of racism and inequities.

N. Sharma: I just want to start by saying I’m coming to you from the unceded territory of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam people, and I’m grateful for that.

I want to take a moment to welcome Ezra Bloom to my constituency office. We’re so excited about the energy and experience they bring. I also want to take a moment to thank Jackie Tsaur for being the sole CA for so long and holding down the office and responding to the constituents so well and Ali Hassam for helping us with our tech needs. I know Vancouver-Hastings has a great team, and they’ll be serving the community well.

It is an honour to offer my words of support for Budget 2021. Budget ’21 is a budget that puts people at the centre of our COVID recovery. It also invests in building a strong future for all people of B.C. This budget invests in the most vulnerable, in housing, in child care, in addressing climate change, the opioid crisis and health care and in protecting those impacted by COVID as we move towards a recovery.

These are the issues that people face in my community, and they have a partner in government to help make it better. We’re in the middle of a third wave of this pandemic, and every day we hear about the impacts of this pandemic on families, businesses and communities. People have given so much, and now they’re being asked to sacrifice more as we all do the work of bringing our transmission numbers down.

There are so many stories of resilience, where government supports like those in this budget have allowed people to innovate and to pivot. In my community, one example is Zee Zee Theatre. It’s run by Cameron and his partner, David. Zee Zee Theatre produces theatre that provokes and inspires, that fosters common understanding and empathy across our diverse human experiences. They focus on amplifying those voices that are on the margins.

When COVID hit, they had to shift because, of course, they could not have live theatre productions anymore. They received grants and shifted their production to virtual shows. Not only did they pivot and receive government support that helped them. They shifted their focus to [audio interrupted] global anti-racism [audio interrupted]. They received a multicultural grant for this work recently and have an online virtual human library that addresses bringing better anti-racism work and equality to B.C.

[4:30 p.m.]

I’m happy to say that they are now planning a return to the stage next year, as our vaccination plan rolls out, and have been supporting artists throughout their community throughout that. Just one example of the resilience, ingenuity and creativity that British Columbians have in our province, where we as a government have been there to support them through this difficult time.

The other day I met a constituent who owns a live event company called Scene Ideas Inc. You can just imagine the impact this pandemic has had on him and his business.

He told me that during the first month, they discussed whether or not they would have to shut down, whether all their dreams of building up their business would have to be put to an end. Instead, they pivoted.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

They started by supplying and producing PPE and donating it to non-profits and those community organizations that needed it. Then they started supplying PPE to other businesses and producing lawn signs — the ones that you may have seen all around the community, saying: “Be kind, be calm and be safe.” They also told me how important the government supports were during this critical time. Soon, it’s all of our hope that they will return to live events. I’m sure, just like many of you out there, we’re all desperate to go back to doing that.

Their story inspired me with the resilience of British Columbians, the creativity and the ingenuity that they have taken to get us to this stage of the pandemic. It’s just one example of how our choice to invest in the ingenuity, resilience and compassion of people in B.C. when they need it will have huge dividends.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the non-profit sector in B.C. Every day I have the opportunity to meet with non-profits who have risen to the occasion, meeting higher community needs and delivering programs to those in need, all under the current restrictions that COVID has forced upon us. They’re a large employer in B.C., employing over 86,000 people, mostly women. Their contributions are unmeasured, but they do contribute an estimated $6 billion a year to our GDP.

They’ve also responded to higher needs in their community, like Battered Women’s Support Services, who reported a 300 percent increase in calls from women that were stuck at home with their violent partners and in need of help. They responded via 24-hour hotline that was there to serve the women in need and provided new, innovative ways for them to reach out to have support.

We know, as a government, that if we support the non-profit sector, we will be supporting strong and resilient communities, and our budget provides supports in different ways to the sector, although there is more work to do. They’re an important sector to our economy.

Budget 2021 is focused on the province’s response and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. That means protecting the health and safety of British Columbians, supporting people and businesses and doing the important preparation work to get us ready for the economic recovery that’s in place. It also has a contingency to support time-limited COVID measures for those people that may be in need as a result of the public health orders.

Of course, the best thing we can do to get us back to normal is through our vaccination plan. This budget includes support for the largest-ever vaccination program in B.C.’s history to ensure that British Columbians across the province receive this vaccine.

I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge all of the hard work for those people that are working on the front lines delivering vaccines and for British Columbians for stepping up. It might be the greatest act of solidarity of all of us together, for all the over one million British Columbians that have received their vaccine and I know millions more that will in the next coming weeks.

This budget also invests in critical health care, including cancer care and urgent primary care centres. That’s like the one that’s opened up in my community. I’ve had a chance to visit the centre, and I’ve seen, since opening the door, the impacts that it can have in connecting people with primary care in their communities. I know that this is going to expand in East Vancouver, and I’m really looking forward to that further investment in health care in my community.

Everybody knows and has experienced the toll that this pandemic has had on mental health, particularly youth. I’ve heard, in my office, about young people being impacted by the losses that they’ve suffered during this pandemic and feeling more isolated. I’ve also heard from parents and families that are telling us that when they need the support for mental health and for substance abuse that their young people have, they need it quickly.

This budget invests $40 million, and that’s directed just at youth care. That will mean 350 new support workers. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact that those 350 workers can have on supporting the mental health of young people across this province.

[4:35 p.m.]

This budget includes the largest investment in history into mental health and addictions support. That’s more than $4 billion in funding for health and mental health. Every day we hear about the impacts of the opioid crisis, and we mourn the loss of life in families across B.C. Although I know we have more work to do to save every life from the toxic drug supply, people can know that their government is committed to making it better.

I just want to spend a moment to also talk about child care. So 3½ years ago we had a Minister of State for Child Care that put the time and energy into building a universal child care program. We’ve made some significant investments over those years, including the Childcare B.C. plan, which was initially a $1 billion investment.

I know that the child care story starts decades before that, including my own constituent, Sharon Gregson, who’s been one of the vocal advocates for $10-a-day child care across the province, and many other women who stood on the front line to every government to advocate for $10-a-day child care not only for the impacts that it would have on women, but also the economy and it being a vital service that was needed across the province. Their advocacy paid off, through the Minister of State for Child Care and the Childcare B.C. plan, and continues to this day.

Under this budget, we will grow our impact, how it’s already benefited many families in B.C. We funded over 26,000 new child care spaces, and thousands more will be funded every year through the new spaces fund. It provides not only investments in creating new spaces but also on the important early childhood educator — those educators that support our children during their child care needs.

They’re some of the most amazing people, and they’ve really stepped up during this pandemic. We need to make sure that they continue to be paid a better wage for the work that they do. That’s why this includes money to increase their wage enhancement, which is much needed.

Most importantly, I heard from so many families, when we initially launched the $10-a-day pilot’s universal child care prototype program across B.C., of the significant benefit that it had. It was amazing. We had tears, the day that they were launched, because families were saving thousands of dollars every year that they could put towards some of their other needs in an already unaffordable and very expensive area, sometimes, in Vancouver.

This budget will include an expansion of those pilots, which will mean even more affordability for parents across B.C. It also includes 400 new spaces for Aboriginal Head Start, which will provide culturally relevant child care for Indigenous families.

Something I hear about a lot in Vancouver-Hastings is housing. We’ve worked hard to tackle housing speculation. We put a rent freeze in during COVID, but there’s still much more work to do. Under our 30-point plan, we have a plan to build 114,000 affordable homes over ten years; 26,000 have been completed or are underway, to date.

I’m really proud of the very innovative programs to do with housing that are under this budget, including the HousingHub, which builds on the success, already, of this innovative program to actually invest in housing as a government. This budget will provide $2 billion in additional financing to expand the HousingHub program. It will help create 9,000 new homes for families over the next three to five years. I know we can’t stop, when it comes to tackling the housing affordability issues in B.C., but also, British Columbians can know that their government is stepping up and investing every day in the things that will bring down housing prices and provide more homes for families.

I have a lot of people that come to my office, particularly young people, that are concerned about climate change and what their future looks like and will look like. As a parent, I think about that also, every day. I had a meeting not long ago with the Sustainabiliteens, who are organizing constantly and helped with the climate march to try to ensure that their future is a different one than the projections under the rising emissions and the impacts predicted through climate change.

CleanBC is our plan to build a cleaner, more sustainable future, and this budget includes an additional $506 million in new investments to reduce emissions. That would be a total of $2.2 billion over five years. It also includes investment in innovative ways, like investing in transit, so that people can choose less carbon-intensive transport options, and free transit for kids under 12, to help encourage people to use transit and make it more affordable for families that are doing so.

[4:40 p.m.]

We also have $500 million in a strategic InBC fund. This is another example of innovation in our province. That’s a $500 million strategic investment fund that will invest in triple-bottom-line investments. They will not only have financial returns for B.C., but they’ll support social, economic and environmental objectives of our government. That means that the CleanBC plan and the province’s economic strategy to transition into a lower-carbon economy will be supported by this substantial investment.

We all know that we need to transform our economy and move away from fossil fuels and their emissions to secure a future for our children. I’m proud to be part of a government that’s committed to doing so and every year is increasing investments through this budget to get there.

Another really important commitment of this government is reconciliation. This budget has reflected the importance that we show in this. It’s a cross-government priority, and it includes funding to achieve some of the specific reconciliation needs of First Nations across the province and to act on legislation and policy that will help us get there.

I know we have a lot of work to do, particularly when it comes to the racism that exists in so many awful ways in our society. The In Plain Sight report was an example of how our health care system needs to be…. Racism in that needs to be addressed, and that’s something that we know we need to do to get to a road to work toward reconciliation, and it’s long overdue.

We are also helping those that are most vulnerable in our society. We, as a government, are committed to reducing poverty in this province, and we have a plan to do so. Budget 2021 invests in the largest permanent increase in income and disability assistance rates ever, the largest in history.

Every day in our constituency office, we hear about the benefits that increasing our disability assistance rates would have on people that are entrenched in poverty. Such an important improvement, and I know there’s more work to do, but I’m grateful for that investment and those that are the most vulnerable in my riding. That also doubles the seniors supplement rate. That’s the first increase in the history of this program.

I also know that homelessness in my riding is an issue, and people that have insecure housing. I’m really proud of the investments that our government has made, over time, especially during this pandemic, to help with decampments in Strathcona, but also to invest in hotels and spaces that will be with us for a long time. We will continue to support people experiencing homelessness, with more than 3,000 temporary shelters and hotel spaces for those experiencing homelessness, and all those wraparound supports that are needed for people to stay housed.

All of the work we’re doing is under our plan to reduce poverty in this province. We’ll continue to invest in that, and this budget shows that we will be making progress over the next three years. We’ll continue to reduce the overall poverty rate by 25 percent, and the child poverty rate by 50 percent by 2024, which will have a huge impact on so many people across this province and in my riding.

This budget also includes important investments in infrastructure. I already mentioned investments in transit, but I’m happy to say that the Chief Maquinna School will be seismically upgraded in my riding. I know that a lot of parents have been advocating for seismic upgrades for a long time. We look forward to those improvements in my riding.

It has been a tough year for so many people. Every day more British Columbians are vaccinated, and we move closer to returning to some kind of normal. As we continue to stand to fight COVID in B.C., British Columbians can know that their government will be there for them, protecting their health, rolling out vaccines and investing in the things that will make life better as we recover.

British Columbians are resilient. I see it every day in Vancouver-Hastings. We are a community of creative, progressive people who care for each other, who have showed up for each other during this pandemic and who have pivoted and been resilient in providing services, keeping their businesses open and continuing to stay healthy during this pandemic.

I know that recovery won’t happen overnight, but Budget 2021 shows that we will continue to support people now and in the future. That’s something that people can count on, in this government.

[4:45 p.m.]

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the Member for Boundary-Similkameen.

R. Russell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know exactly how to do this job. I’m new here, but I’m learning fast and I like challenges. I know that I do like budgets, though, and I’ve got my hands on the estimates book, and that was happy times for me, because I was able to really dig into the guts of what this budget means to us, what it shows us and where we’re going.

As one of the previous speakers mentioned earlier today, if the throne speech represents the vision for us going forward, the budget really is the blueprint in terms of how we’re going to get there. I enjoy digging into the details of really putting our money where our mouth is, so to speak, in terms of showing what we’re going to do and how we’re going to invest in getting those things done. So I’m proud to stand up in front of the House today to support this budget.

Before I move into that support, I’d like to acknowledge that today I’m joining you from the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ people, the Songhees and the Esquimalt, although typically, I have my boots on the ground back in the territory of the Nsyilxcen-speaking people.

I was trying to determine what my lens would be today for discussing this budget, and I needed to step back in order to do that, to really determine why I’m here in the first place. Why did I put my name forward to represent the people of the Similkameen Valley, the South Okanagan and the Boundary?

In brief, I would say, it’s because I want to help them. I want to be a force for good and an agent of positive change. I want to help improve our well-being in the southern Interior — really, for all of rural B.C. and for the province as a whole. This captures, I would say, and weaves through many aspects of our lives. It’s health care for rural communities. It’s improved forest management. It’s climate action that actually matters to us. It’s education, both for ourselves and for our communities.

I started doing that work through science. I initially started as an ecologist, a sustainability scientist. Then that spilled into working on decision-making — how people, how communities and how societies make decisions, whether explicitly, intentionally or not. Then I decided that I wanted to do something that had a little more impact on real people and then the science. So I started working instead, then, in the non-profit sector, particularly around agriculture, in trying to work to support agricultural producers and organic producers.

In turn, that spilled into local government work, which I learned that I loved — I hadn’t known — and I ended up working in the regional district model, which is a model of local governance that I certainly have grown to love. Through that, I ended up working with local government associations and then with UBCM, realizing, really, the power of that collective voice.

I realized that much of my most satisfying times there were when I was across the table, in the last few years, from the provincial government, actually getting good work done, which is part of why, then, I realized that maybe it was the opportunity and the time to put my name forward to move into provincial politics. And here I am, thanks to the hard work of a whole lot of people.

I will also take this opportunity to thank my new staff in my community office, Sarah Dinsdale and April Lebedoff. They have been patient with me while I learn the ropes of this new position and really are an indispensable asset to me. I think I’m lucky to have two such professional and productive people at my side while we help determine what our future looks like for this new community office with a new MLA and new staff.

There are some challenges there, certainly, a lot of friction in terms of figuring out how we do this job that none of us has done before. There are also some pretty wonderful opportunities in terms of being able to reimagine and define what we want this to look like and to make it a success to ourselves and to our communities.

[4:50 p.m.]

Back to the budget. What’s on top of my priority list? Why am I here? What are those issues that I feel like the southern Interior most needs and most wants to see in a budget such as this?

After the time that I spent on the campaign trail, I think that a big part of that is procedural. It’s not sectoral; it’s not topical. It’s really changes to process. To explain that a little more, I borrow a quote from Desmond Tutu, which I like a lot, and I’m sure you will hear it again before my time here is through. “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

That’s the sort of work that I want to do. That’s why I’m here. That’s the kind of procedural change that I really see woven throughout this budget, in terms of changes to how we do business that really help people avoid falling into the river in the first place — whether that river may be opioid toxicity, climate action that we need to engage in or otherwise.

There’s a very long list of issues that I’m eager to see us move on, and I’m happy to see, within this budget, supports outlined and, again, money behind the behaviour that we want to see delivered here.

One of the things that I have discovered recently is our service plans. As we say, if the budget is in fact the blueprint for how we’re going to deliver upon that vision, the service plans really help us. They might be the way-finding signage along the way. They’re the process to help us identify whether we’re going in the right direction when we’re in the middle of that path.

The overarching themes of this budget. I certainly am a strong supporter of the notions of putting people first, lasting and meaningful reconciliation, equity and anti-racism, a better future through fighting climate change, and a strong, sustainable economy that works for everyone. I really discovered that the service plans, for me, are some concrete deliverables, and I look forward to seeing, watching and being involved with how they progress. I will mention a few of these things.

For example, looking at the service plan for the Ministry of Agriculture, I see that goal No. 1 in that service plan is to “strengthen our provincial food system and B.C.’s food security” and that within that is an objective to “improve living and working conditions for farmworkers.” That is top of mind for so many of my constituents and something that I’ve heard over and over again for years — for the last decade, frankly. I’m happy to see that flagged and identified as the top priority.

Another goal is to “position B.C. as a leader in regenerative agriculture practices and agritech.” I’ll come to speak a little about my parliamentary secretary role, but this is the sort of focus, on our government’s part, that really champions rural development, in my mind, in a way that diversifies our rural economies and brings that vibrancy into those rural communities. Especially as we see a shift in some of the traditional resource extraction industries, that diversification becomes critical.

Another objective is to support the development of agritech to promote regenerative agriculture practices, stimulating growth and development of those new technologies — again, a quantifiable metric that we’ll watching, to see if we’re able to really deliver on these positive investments in rural B.C. and diversify these economies for the sake of rural British Columbians.

I will also touch on the service plan for Mental Health and Addictions, which is top of mind for all of us, I know. I think that at times it becomes interpreted as essentially a rural issue. Certainly, from looking at the coroner’s report data, looking at the trajectory of how we’re doing with opioid deaths across this province, it is very clearly a rural issue as well as an urban issue. Per capita, it does not play favourites there.

[4:55 p.m.]

The No. 1 goal for the Mental Health and Addictions service plan is to accelerate our response to that crisis. It is a positive thing to see that that is front and centre. I will read out objective 1.1, which is: “People at risk of overdose can access essential life-saving overdose prevention interventions that include harm reduction services, separating people from the toxic drug supply through…prescribed safe supply, reducing stigma and connecting people to care and treatment.”

That’s the sort of action that rural British Columbians and my constituents in the Boundary-Similkameen and South Okanagan really want to see. We’ve heard a significant amount of conversation about that in the House. In my riding in particular, we know how important that is. I hear from my constituents regularly about how important that is, and I’m thrilled to see that.

Part of that process is really captured here, in the next goal, in one of the objectives there, which is to deliver mental health and addictions services and supports that are “designed, coordinated and delivered using a whole-of-government, cross-sector approach to remove barriers to mental health and well-being.” This is the sort of direction that really pleases me to see. It’s one of these things, in rural B.C., I think, that is more important than in other places — that cross-sectoral approach.

Again, whether we’re talking about mental health and addictions, as the case is here, or whether we’re talking about climate action, these are big, sticky problems. We need to be sure, in order to tackle these things, that we are taking a whole-of-government approach that really cuts across those silos or those boundaries of our traditional ministries. So I’m proud of these service plans that, in my mind, really are a representation of where the budget itself is taking us and how we’re going to get there.

There’s lots more to read in these plans, which I won’t go through. I just will highlight one more, and that is Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. That is, again, close to home for me. Goal No. 1 is “economic benefits for all British Columbians, with strong and resilient rural communities.” The number one goal of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development is really a stronger British Columbia, which is the kind of overarching, broad focus that I’m happy to see.

Again, underneath that, objective 1.1 of this service plan is: “Strengthen rural community economies, support recovery and build resilience to economic disruption.” That’s the sort of thing, I think, that we all know. In rural B.C., we know, deep down, that’s what we need to figure out how to do. We see some great examples on the ground in small towns and in larger towns in rural B.C., where they really are moving away from a traditionally risk-averse economy that’s focused on natural resource extraction and instead trying to determine how we do this best.

How do we attract the creative sector into these rural communities? How do we market the quality of life that is possible and likely in these rural communities, to really strengthen those — the quality of life, the well-being — and build an economy, in these rural communities, that is going to be resistant and resilient to the future challenges that we see — economic challenges or challenges like this pandemic that we find ourselves within? I’m pleased to dig into those service plans, because it really shows us how we’re going to get to where we want to go.

Over the last few days, sitting here, I’ve heard a number of challenges from the other side of the House around some pretty specific details of these budgets. I find, in terms of fact-checking or looking into these things, that this big blue book, full of estimates, is what I’ve been going to, when I hear some of these challenges, to decide: “Okay. Well, is this real? Are there actually cuts to some of the services, which I’m hearing, or it has been suggested, are happening?”

[5:00 p.m.]

I’m happy to report that — at least from my understanding, from the information at hand for me — I see quite the opposite from what I’ve been hearing.

I look at things like Advanced Education, and I see increases to the estimates for things like educational institutions and investments in post-secondary institutions. I look at things like Citizens’ Services, and I see — of course, again, close to home for me — massive increases in the budget allocated for connectivity across this province, something that, clearly, all of us in the House, the opposition included, have voiced again and again is near and dear to all of us, seeing that development happen in rural B.C.

I look at public schools, and I see increased investment in our public schools — significant increased investment. I look at Environment, and I see substantial material increases to the investment in climate action. I see significant material increases, enormous increases, to CleanBC and our ability to really lead the continent in terms of how we’re navigating down this path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It goes on and on. I know that I’ve just scratched the surface there, but I’m happy to see that, when I do see these challenges to services that do matter to me, in each case, when I’ve gone to pursue that to determine what that actually looks like, in fact, the reality is there are increases to those budgets. The accompanying service plans indicate to me that those increases in those budgets are being delivered in order to support a service plan’s set of objectives and goals that I really care about and that will increase those services. That was reassuring to me.

I’m going to speak a little bit about my parliamentary secretary role specifically. I was thrilled to be asked by the Premier to help serve rural B.C. by acting as the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development. We know, I think, how important rural B.C. is for this province, and I’m genuinely thrilled that this position now exists to ensure that the lens of what rural B.C. needs is being represented.

Again, back to that mention from mental health and addictions…. It needs to be cross-ministry. It needs to be cross-sectoral. And it really needs to be a whole-of-government approach. My role as the parliamentary secretary is to help make sure that lens is on the programs and policies that we are delivering and to help act as a service and go-between so that the needs of rural B.C. can be heard by our government and that the programs and policies of our government have appropriate kinds of communication and engagement back with rural B.C.

My mandate letter there aligns well with those fundamental tenets of our budget, clearly, in terms of putting people first, lasting and meaningful reconciliation, equity and anti-racism, a better future through fighting climate change and a strong and sustainable economy that works for everything, everyone. And maybe everything.

It also includes specific focuses — for example, on connectivity. We’ve heard over and over again how important this is for rural B.C. Clearly, I think it is important for rural B.C., especially so, I think, in rural B.C. more than, potentially, in other areas because of the way that it is intertwined with all of our other service deliveries.

For example, the day after tomorrow, my father has an appointment with a neurologist. Historically, even a few years ago, that appointment would take me a day. My father and I would have to get in our vehicle. We would travel to a community a couple hours away in order to attend an appointment. Then, of course, we’d have to eat there. We’d end up having to travel home. It would be a day of both our times in order to attend, let’s say, a 15-minute appointment, maybe a 20-minute appointment.

[5:05 p.m.]

Now, because of good connectivity and in part because of the nature of COVID expediting telehealth opportunities, that 20-minute appointment will take us 20 minutes instead of taking all day and a significant amount of financial investment to get there and back. Those are the sorts of reasons why connectivity matters for rural B.C.

Recently the rural health network of B.C. did a study demonstrating that an average specialist’s appointment costs rural British Columbians over $2,000 to get to and from a specialist’s appointment. That’s because of the costs that are incurred if you’re living in northern B.C. and have to travel to a place like Prince George or, worse yet, travel to Vancouver in order to seek that assistance.

Connectivity helps both directly reduce those costs…. It helps reduce the time burden for things like that and really is central to quality of life and making sure that rural British Columbians can thrive and operate in the way they want to in the place that they choose to live.

I’m thrilled to be part of that process with the Ministry of Citizens’ Services, and I certainly would thank the team there. It’s been a pleasure getting to know them, and they’re doing a fantastic job of helping navigate a very complex process in the delivery of connectivity and this overwhelming task of connecting all regions of B.C. to high-speed Internet. Likewise, I would thank the minister herself and her crew for working tirelessly to help make this a reality.

Another part of my mandate is to work with the Minister of Labour to guide the establishment of a new worker training and job opportunity office. I look forward, again, to this cross-ministry work to really represent what rural B.C. needs.

Of course, part of that rural development mandate is much broader and simply focused on how we engage with our rural communities and make sure they’re getting what they need, especially in communities that are hard hit by changes to the forest sector and really needing to focus on that diversification of their economies. So I look forward to that.

I look forward to working with other ministries, whether that be the Ministry of Agriculture or whether that be Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, to really develop that innovation and diversification in those industries, using tools such as the circuit breaker program that was announced recently, or digital bootcamp, where 30 percent of that funding is designated for rural B.C. organizations, or opportunities like the small business grants that we see that really, I know, are making a world of difference in some of our rural communities.

I have some more local notes I was going to speak to. I will skip most of them. I’m proud to see, for example, issues such as Vermillion Court…. This is a seniors housing facility in Princeton. I’m happy to see, after a lot of work on the part of our government and B.C. Housing, that we’ve managed to help provide a solution there that provides those people with hot meals 365 days a year. This was an uncertainty that those residents certainly were uncomfortable with, and I’m happy to see and happy to be a part of that solution and happy to be a part of a government that’s helping work towards that solution.

I’ll speak briefly to Sickle Point. Sickle Point is a sickle-shaped little piece of the shoreline on Skaha Lake of significant concern to the community that lives around it. They were worried that it was going to be developed. It’s an ecologically high-value site sitting on the western shore of Skaha Lake near Kaleden. There’s been a huge amount of energy from that community dedicated to the protection of that site as a community asset.

The property was up for a foreclosure sale. The Penticton Indian Band had made their desire to see the site undeveloped very clear and their recognition of the cultural and ecological value of the site very clear as well.

[5:10 p.m.]

The site was called — I won’t try to pronounce it, I don’t think, because I won’t do it justice — “A place to land or park a canoe” and was used by their people as a camp and resting area, according to Tim Lezard, the lands and natural resource portfolio holder for the Penticton Indian Band.

This was a great example of a number of different stakeholders or interested parties, including the Penticton Indian Band; the regional district; and the electoral area director, Subrina Monteith; the MP for the area; myself as the MLA for an area. Everybody came together to try to help the local community, in particular the Save Sickle Point Committee, to navigate to a solution for this place.

It has been a long, complicated process, but I will say thanks to that committee and their endless work. I would say tireless work. It seems like the frenzy of activity that was culminating last week has ended well, potentially, for those community members that want to see it protected, with a new investor coming to the table to help purchase that site. Again, huge thanks to Subrina Monteith, the Penticton Indian Band and that local committee for the work that they’ve done there to help dedicate their time to try and protect and preserve that site.

There’s much more that I could say. I will mention one other topic that has come up a few times in this House and has been, to be honest, the one thing that has made me most frustrated in my time as an MLA to date. In question period, we have heard some challenges around Pathways in Penticton. Penticton is not in my riding, but Pathways is, or was, part of the service delivery system of care that my constituents did rely on. I’ve heard again and again from my constituents how valuable that service was that Pathways delivered to them.

The part I find challenging. Interior Health made a decision to bring that model of care in-house. It was really, I think, clearly justified with logic about how they feel this is going to be able to deliver better wraparound, whole, holistic care for those people that need that care. It will allow for intakes, for example, to be all week long, instead of a few hours a week.

The challenge I had was that the questions really implied that the services were being cut, which is not the case. While I certainly have an enormous amount of respect for Pathways and will continue in conversation with other MLAs as well as with our MP and with Interior Health about if there are opportunities to help maintain a role for Pathways in those communities…. But even that care provision is not stopping.

I understand the theatrics of question period. I can appreciate the value of the theatrics. I certainly appreciate the value of having an opportunity to ask hard questions, but not when the artillery in those questions becomes the well-being of our residents.

I want to be very, very clear that those mental health and addiction services are still in those communities. Those services are there. They’re changing, and change might be hard. But they’re changing with an understanding that they will expand the opportunities and extend the services that are available and, really, offer more of that wraparound care for those people that really need it.

Again, I want to just take this opportunity to compliment Pathways for the work that they’ve done in the community for the last 40 years but also recognize that the services are changing and expanding. They’re not changing and disappearing. That becomes, I think, especially critical — that our constituents are fully aware of and comfortable knowing that this government is there for them, particularly with investments in mental health and addictions that have not been seen historically.

[5:15 p.m.]

I’m really proud of that. As I think most of you know, that mental health and addictions piece is very near and dear to my heart, certainly. With that, I will say thank you for listening. I’m proud, again, to be part of a government that has a budget that really invests in cross-ministerial solutions that are going to make life better for my constituents and rural B.C.

M. Starchuk: I rise in the House today to respond to Budget 2021.

The budget puts the people of British Columbia first. This budget is the playbook to get British Columbians out of this pandemic safely. Budget 2021 builds on the progress the British Columbia government has made, creating a cleaner, stronger economy for everyone through CleanBC by investing an additional $506 million to reduce emissions and create new opportunities and promote affordability.

These investments in low-carbon economy and emission reductions are key to positioning B.C. for a strong recovery. As I mentioned in my throne speech response, we are seeing entire fleets of companies changing over from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles. This province has had a huge increase in the new electric light-duty vehicle sales, the highest rate in North America. B.C.’s zero-emission vehicle sector contributes approximately $600 million to the provincial economy. We have more than 54,000 electric vehicles here in B.C.

The province continues to invest in the transition to cleaner transportation by making electric cars more affordable, investing in charging stations and shifting to renewable fuels. Budget 2021 includes $130 million for zero-emission vehicle incentives, electric charging stations, technological development and electrification of school buses, ferries and government fleets.

Budget 2021 investment brings the total funding of CleanBC to nearly $2.2 billion over five years. This includes $94 million in Go Electric program rebates for purchases of zero-emission vehicles, charging stations, and supports the commercialization of heavy-duty vehicles. A PST exemption on electric bikes to encourage more active transportation will save British Columbians an estimated $7 million annually. As — what I’ll call myself — an avid cyclist of approximately 3,500 kilometres a year, I’m not quite ready to give up my pedal-power bike, but it’s nice to know that this is in the budget.

We have just passed the five-year mark of the opioid overdose crisis, and I would like to express my condolences to the families of those who have passed from an overdose. The pandemic has added to the difficulties around these overdose deaths.

I want to thank all of the front-line workers and agencies who have been responding to the people who were in overdose states. I recognize the staggering number of over 7,000 lives lost during this five-year period. I also recognize the work of these front-line workers who have reversed thousands of overdoses with the use of naloxone that was delivered by those front-line workers.

The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions has been working diligently to address the issues around the overdose crisis, and the 2021 budget will see the largest mental health investment in B.C. history. Through a Pathway to Hope, government began a long-term plan to transform B.C.’s mental health and substance use system. The dual health emergencies of COVID-19 and the illicit drug toxicity have taken an immense toll.

[5:20 p.m.]

Budget 2021 invests $500 million to continue to expand mental health and substance use services to better connect people to the culturally safe and effective care they need — $330 million over the fiscal plan to provide a full spectrum of substance use treatment and recovery services, 195 new substance use treatment and recovery beds in communities throughout the province to help more people get on a path to recovery.

When I was a Surrey councillor, I saw the overdose crisis from the beginning, from a different lens. We were working with our health authority in addressing the need for a supervised consumption site in the north end of Surrey. All of the documentation that was going back and forth at that time never mentioned the word “recovery.” It was not until the beginning of 2018, with the new B.C. government in place, that the word “recovery” had finally surfaced.

I’d spent two years as the city of Surrey’s chief fire prevention officer, and I spent four years as a councillor working on drug and alcohol recovery systems. I’ve seen where we were, and I see where we are headed. We are headed in the right direction.

Budget 2021 identifies the plan to build a new hospital in Surrey, and it’s an exciting week for the people in Surrey. Our budget allocates $1.66 billion to move the new Surrey hospital and cancer centre forward. The business case has been approved. Planning and procurement is moving forward. We’ll break ground in 2023, and it’ll be open for patients in 2027. Yes, in 2027, we’ll see the doors open.

The hospital will take the pressure off Surrey Memorial and help get people faster care that is closer to home. For cancer patients, it’s going to be a full, state-of-the-art cancer centre that includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy and diagnostic equipment that will help in those treatments. What it will mean is that people don’t have to go over a bridge for their cancer treatment.

As a former firefighter, I understand how cancer affects people. I have to go back to the very first time that I entered a fire hall and the crew that I met. None of them are alive today. So when we talk about cancer and how it affects families and people and friends, I know it firsthand. I know what it’s like to have to be in traffic, to go into Vancouver, to sit there, receive your treatment, get up from that, get somebody to take you home, and then start the recovery. With the new cancer centre coming to Surrey, that scenario of that full travel day will no longer exist. It’s a big moment.

After the B.C. Liberals sold off the land in 2014, a lot of people were angry, and they were wondering if this day would ever come. When I was on city council, I remembered how many people were strongly opposed to the rezoning of that land that the B.C. Liberals had sold off. I remember speaker after speaker coming forward and saying it’s a hospital that we need. Now we get 168 beds, and that’s a huge expansion. But it’s not just about the beds. It’s about the emergency room and the specialized units, like a cancer centre.

When we brought this forward, we talked about how much money that this was going to cost, but the B.C. election platform only allocated for $300 million for the second hospital. We’re spending five times that. I think the B.C. Liberals insulted the people of Surrey twice, by selling the hospital lands in 2014 and by pretending $300 million could build a full hospital for a community like Surrey. We’ve committed to do this, and we’re getting it done.

Budget 2021 sees the steps that will be taken towards building the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, ensuring that the line fully extends into Langley. The transit budget includes funding for this, and it’s found on page 23 of the budget. There’s a line item that’s called “transit infrastructure,” with $749 million there, over the three-year life of the plan. Of that, $376 million is set aside for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain. That $376 million is the first little bit, just for starting the planning work and getting the whole business plan process going.

[5:25 p.m.]

Our financial commitment is there. We’re funding 40 percent of the project, and now we’re just waiting for the federal government so we can finalize the government. This is no different than the federal government’s commitment to the previous phase 1 of the project. The B.C. government has taken the lead role to ensure this line is built all the way to Langley in one phase.

Along with the SkyTrain to Langley, Budget 2021 will see free public transportation for children 12 and under. As I said in my throne speech along that line, there are a lot of young families with young children that can benefit from this. There are 340,000 children 12 and under all around the province, and they’ll be able to ride public transportation free in time for classes this September. Families in the TransLink service area will save up to $672 a year for each child that uses a monthly pass, and families in communities that are served by B.C. Transit could save up to $400 a year.

With regards to education, Budget 2021 speaks to that greatly. In the three years from 2017 to 2020, there were 17 new schools and/or additions or seismic improvements in Surrey. In the years from 2014 to 2017, there was only one new school, so I’m pleased with the work that my government is doing with regards to schools and keeping up on the demands of the growing population that we have here.

We’re adding 500 spaces in Clayton Heights high school to meet the growing demand in Clayton. In my riding, we’re opening up Maddaugh Elementary, that will have 460 spaces for kindergarten to grade 7 students. This will alleviate the pressures at Katzie and Hazelgrove Elementary Schools.

The one thing that Maddaugh Elementary has…. It is implementing before- and after-school care programming. This will assist young working families who may struggle with getting to work at the same time as getting their children to school. Those types of scheduling matters for working families will have a solution with these new schools.

We’ve made investment in Surrey schools a priority with nearly $450 million announced for new and expanded schools, seismic upgrades and land purchases for future schools. Projects are being approved at triple the speed compared to our B.C. Liberals. These investments are helping to open 9,600 new student seats between 2018 and 2025. This includes three new schools and two expansions opening this school year. The B.C. NDP government’s 2021 budget includes billions in investments in Surrey and Langley.

The members from the opposite are providing quotes from the media when facts are in the budget. To repeat a quote they make in the local newspaper and state that it’s accurate serves what purpose? The facts are not difficult to find in Budget 2021. The Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension can be found on pages 28, 52 and 53. The new Surrey hospital and cancer centre can be found on pages 9, 50, 56 and 59. And the continued investments and new expanded schools are found on page 47.

Budget 2021 is helping B.C. businesses throughout the pandemic and recovery. So $35 million to help B.C. farmers keep the temporary foreign workers who are supporting B.C.’s crop harvesting safe from COVID-19. And $10 million over three years to expand the Grow B.C., Feed B.C., Buy B.C. strategies, to strengthen and expand the domestic market for B.C. products. A PST exemption on all capital investments in select equipment and machinery, a tax support to help businesses pivot or upgrade operations that are open for submissions continues until September 2021, with an estimated 110,000 incorporated B.C. businesses that are eligible.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

And $195 million in funding to continue the small and medium-sized business recovery grant. Through discussions with the business community, the program is now easier to access, and more businesses are eligible.

[5:30 p.m.]

When I take a look at the small business recovery grant, it reminds me of one business where the owner is in my riding. They have a restaurant and catering business. Like everybody else during the pandemic, they were struggling to make ends meet. Through the applications, through one of the accountants in my riding, they were able to make that application, get the grant and continue on with their business. They are thriving greater than ever before with their takeout service as they pivot during this pandemic.

There are many things that are inside of this budget that affect all of B.C. But right now, the ones that affect my riding the most are SkyTrain, the Surrey hospital and schools. For whatever reason, the members from the opposite side are trying to obscure what’s really taking place. The money is inside of the budget. It is clearly accounted for, and it is all going to be delivered.

I look forward to when SkyTrain comes to my area, where we can jump on it and get ourselves into Surrey centre, New Westminster, Burnaby or all the way to downtown Vancouver. I’m looking forward to the day that the hospital is open, where if a resident requires treatment or help, the doors will be open. I look forward to the expanded spaces in our school system that’s coming to my area. The people of Surrey-Cloverdale have been neglected far too long, and now we have all of these wonderful things that are coming and that excite me so much.

I support Budget 2021 in its entirety. It looks out for the people of British Columbia as we recover from this pandemic. I support the forward-thinking of the 2021 budget and look forward to making life better for all British Columbians.

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know if we remain vigilant that we can get out of this pandemic safe and with a plan to get to where we need to be. This concludes my remarks on the 2021 budget.

Hon. M. Dean: To start, I’d like to acknowledge that I’m speaking to you today from the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking people, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations and also Scia’new Nation. I’m so honoured and privileged to do my work and to live here on these lands as well.

I am so humbled to be able to speak in this House in support of Budget 2021. From the beginning, COVID-19 has challenged British Columbians in ways we could never have imagined, but every day people and businesses across the province are working hard to fight the virus and get life back on track. As more and more people get vaccinated, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. But we’re not there yet. Budget 2021 is about keeping everyone safe as we do get more people vaccinated, and it’s also about creating the conditions for a strong economic recovery.

I want to say thank you to everybody in Esquimalt-Metchosin for doing their bit and making sure that we protect our neighbours and our elders and we keep transmission low in our community. I want to say, especially, how tough it is for Indigenous communities and nations in my community because of the history of colonialism and the history of sickness brought by settlers.

Budget 2021 will continue to support people, businesses and communities. I want to talk about the diversity of all of those elements in Esquimalt-Metchosin. In particular, I want to recognize that Victoria General Hospital is in View Royal, in the constituency of Esquimalt-Metchosin. So we have many, many health workers and hospital support staff who live in our community and who are putting themselves out there on the front line, and who are getting so exhausted because of all of the pressures on our health service at the moment.

I remember visiting the hospital in very early 2020 and hearing about the Hospital at Home program and how wonderful it is that, in spite of the pandemic, we have now been able to accelerate rolling out Hospital at Home. The heart of that was actually designed in the Esquimalt-Metchosin constituency, in Victoria General Hospital. We will continue to invest in health. This pandemic shows us how important it is to keep everybody in our community healthy.

[5:35 p.m.]

We’ve also been making sure we take care of high-risk environments as well. I have a federal prison in my constituency, so it’s really important that we make sure that we identify where we have [audio interrupted], for example.

I also have a post-secondary institution, and they had to pivot. Now, they already had a methodology that included a lot of online learning, and I know how successful that’s been. I’m an alumni from Royal Roads University. They really had to pivot, and I’m just so proud of how our government has continued to support post-secondary institutions and support students, as well, through this pandemic.

I want to say a special thank you to the service agencies who provide services across Esquimalt-Metchosin: Surrounded by Cedar; Pacific Centre Family Services Association; Esquimalt Neighbourhood House; Children’s Health Foundation; all of the agencies that are working in the hub that is the West Shore Child, Youth and Family Centre. They pivoted.

Their front-line workers already provide so much service and put themselves out there for people in our community. On top of their own emotional labour, on top of whatever their own family situation was, they then pivoted, recognizing that the vulnerable people that they serve are also facing increased burden, increased stress and strain. Our government has supported them in being able to do that and will continue to do that.

I also have an agency that serves wild animals in my community as well: Wild ARC. Again, they’ve had to pivot, but they’re still continuing to take care of wild animals across the whole of the region.

I want to say a special thank you to our military community, to our military families. Deployment continued in spite of the pandemic. What that meant was that, for military families, the members had to quarantine for two weeks on top of the time that they were away from their families on deployment. Members who have been on more than one deployment have had to do that quarantine more than once. So I think we should all say thank you to all of our military personnel and to their families for their continued commitment and dedication.

I’ve also been keeping in touch with our businesses across the community, as well, and many of them have pivoted very safely. Some of them have actually increased their capacity and increased their revenues, and that’s because of their innovation and because they’ve created a new business model and because of the support and commitment of our community and people in our community, who know how important it is to shop local and to support local businesses. Budget 2021 continues to provide support for businesses and for our economic recovery as well.

We also have an award-winning farmers market in Esquimalt. It’s a regional attraction, and again, they pivoted. They followed the provincial health orders, and they were able to continue, which is good for the vendors, for the growers, for the farmers, as well as for the local community to be able to support local production and to be able to buy healthy food and locally produced food for their families.

I want to say thank you to everybody on the front line, people in the stores…. When I go and do my grocery shopping, I’m always asking people at the checkout: “How are things? How are the other customers? How are you doing? How is your employer supporting you and all the other front-line workers as well?” We are so grateful for people continuing to go out to work and continuing to keep our community running and keep our community functioning.

In Esquimalt-Metchosin, we have five fire departments, three police departments and two school districts. I want to say thank you to everybody in all of those service areas as well. From the largest high school on Vancouver Island, which is in Royal Bay, to our small little rural elementary school here in Metchosin, everybody I know has been doing their bit.

For me, it’s a wonderful experience, if I’m ever able to do so, to drop my kid off at school. When you drive in, they have a special way of helping the parents come in and drop their kids off. All the teachers are out there, including the principal and the vice-principal. They all have masks on. Sometimes they have socks on, sometimes not. They have really cold feet.

[5:40 p.m.]

They’re all lovely. You can tell, behind the masks, they’re smiling. They set up the school day in such a good way by welcoming all the kids and making sure that all the kids are feeling safe and secure going into the school environment as well.

Even across the rest of my constituency, I have other institutions like Pearson College and Brookes Westshore school. The staff who work there are part of our community as well, and they contribute to the fabric of our community. I want to say thank you to everybody who makes up our wonderful, diverse and coastal community.

I will continue to work hard to make everybody in our community proud of me as their representative in this House. Of course, I couldn’t do that without my constituency staff — Nubwa Wathanafa, Jared Butcher, Kristina Leach — and my research and communications officer, Anmol Swaich. I also want to thank all of my ministry staff and all of our staff in the ministry, who support children, youth and families across the whole of the province.

For my ministry, Budget 2021 builds on the progress that we’d already been making to support better outcomes for children, youth and families in our province. Indeed, my ministry’s budget is growing by $169 million this year, which brings the total ministry budget to more than $2.3 billion.

Before 2017, the Ministry of Children and Family Development would see budget after budget with no significant increases, and earlier in the 2000s, we saw really significant cuts. That lack of investment in this area of supporting children and families and the vulnerable families in our community was one of the reasons why I was motivated to run and to get involved in provincial politics.

I’m happy to say that now our government is doing things very differently by investing in B.C.’s children, youth and families. We’re going to continue to build on the investments that we’ve made in the last four years by supporting families to stay safely together, by continuing our work towards a universal child care system, ensuring that children and youth with mental health challenges have access to the supports that they need, ensuring that young adults transitioning from government care are set up for success, and improving supports for families of children and youth with support needs.

In fact, this year’s budget includes more than $34 million to address the increased need for services, including autism supports and medical benefits, and to better support children and youth in care and those with support needs. It includes an increase of more than $2 million for provincial deaf and hard-of-hearing services. That is the first significant lift in over ten years, and it includes over $20 million to expand child and youth mental health services as part of the Pathway to Hope. We’re also further increasing support for year 4 of our Childcare B.C. plan and providing a much-deserved wage increase for social service sector staff.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

These investments will continue to support people through the pandemic, while also investing in a brighter future for everyone. We believe that all children and youth should be supported to have safe, secure and happy lives and to fulfil their potential. My ministry is committed to making this a reality for all young people in British Columbia.

A big part of this commitment is reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous children and youth in care. We’re working in partnership with Indigenous communities to change the child welfare system. We’re working with individual First Nations and the federal government to sign agreements that will ultimately see the nations exercise their inherent jurisdiction over child and family services, and we have boosted the monthly rate given to eligible extended family caregivers.

These strategies are helping to keep more children out of care and to keep them connected to their families, cultures and communities, and it’s making a real difference for families across British Columbia. We are seeing the lowest number of children and youth in care in 30 years, and the lowest number of Indigenous children in care in over 20 years. We’re expanding opportunities for children and youth to make important cultural connections, including culturally specific supports like connecting to knowledge-keepers and participating in sweats and Elder-led healing services, supports or circles.

[5:45 p.m.]

This year we’re providing an increase of more than $9 million for supports for children in care and more than $13 million to support out-of-care arrangements. These types of care arrangements provide supports so that children and youth can be safely cared for by family. It’s another way that we help children and youth in care stay connected to their culture and community which, as we know, ultimately ensures much better outcomes for those children and youth.

We know that there’s much more work to do, because Indigenous children and youth are still overrepresented in the child welfare system. We’ll continue working to address this overrepresentation. We remain committed to helping families stay together whenever and wherever possible.

Now, we also know how critical it is for young people to have a network of caring, loving supports to help them to be successful. This is especially true for young adults who are transitioning out of government care and into adulthood. Through a variety of programs and partnerships, we offer resources that help young people in and from care with additional life skills, mental health, rehabilitation, education, and financial supports. Youth and young adults in our care deserve to feel supported and safe, especially as we continue to navigate this pandemic.

We know that housing and employment are key supports that young adults need to transition safely from care. Although we have made strides as a province to keep opportunities available to young people, we know that they often still face uncertainty and barriers.

I am so happy, though, that we have extended some emergency measures for another year, until the end of March 2022. This is allowing youth in care who turn 19 to stay in their current home until they can move safely and transition to independence.

Up to September this year, young adults will have the additional flexibility in accessing the agreements with young adults program. This program helps cover the cost of things like housing, child care, tuition and health care while young adults go back to school or attend mental health programs, rehabilitation or vocational or life skills programs. These extended measures allow young adults to take part in a wider range of life skill programs and cultural learning options, including online programming, and with fewer required hours of participation per week.

For the first time, young adults using the emergency housing supports who are eligible for the AYA program can apply for both programs at the same time. Now, I remember, just a few months ago, meeting virtually with some young people who had taken advantage of this emergency measure and were still able to stay at home.

Of course, the emergency measure was coming up to the end of its time, and that created a lot of anxiety and a lot of worries for those young people. I heard from them how important it was to continue those emergency measures. So it was wonderful to be able to confirm later, for them, that we extended them all the way through to the end of March next year.

One of the first things Premier Horgan did when taking office as Premier was to introduce the provincial tuition waiver program. Since the program launched in 2017, we have seen a huge uptake: from 189 students in 2016-2017 to 1,565 youth as of March 2021.

While the success of this program should be celebrated, we know that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on students throughout B.C. But the provincial tuition waiver program continues to provide essential support to some of the most vulnerable in these challenging times. Critically, it ensures that tuition costs are not a barrier to post-secondary education. It really has continued to provide access and support for post-secondary studies for former youth in care across the province during this pandemic.

[5:50 p.m.]

We’re also building on our commitment to help children and youth with support needs. Can you imagine? We all know that this past year has been hard for everyone, but if you already had the stress and strain in your family of taking care of a child or youth with support needs, the added burden and strain of this pandemic has been really significant and made life so much more challenging.

In the past year, we have adjusted our services to make sure that we’re able to respond to the feedback that we’ve received from families to be able to ensure that they are able to provide the care that they want to, of course, for the children and youth in their families. At the start of the pandemic, we introduced the emergency relief support fund, which provided a direct payment of $225 a month to help eligible families.

We’ve heard from so many families about how important flexible funding and additional funding has been. There is a single mom with one daughter who told us that she was able to, because of the funding, self-isolate, order groceries in and pay for a virtual respite program as well.

More than 4,300 families have accessed supports like these. The use of respite funding in a flexible way is something that families have told us so often has been really beneficial for them. Imagine if you’re not able to access respite care, but you can use that funding to alleviate some of the stresses and strains in your own family. For example, one family bought a new freezer. That meant that they were able to stock up more. The pressure of going out shopping was reduced for them.

Another family used their funds for meal delivery service. Another family used it for housekeeping services. We really wanted to show that we wanted to respond to what families were telling us was helpful and, again, that has continued. Those emergency measures for the flexibility of respite funding have been extended as well.

We’re also continuing with the temporary admission process to the At Home Program for the medical benefits as well, which helps to ensure that families continue to receive benefits, without the need for reassessment.

We will continue to accept virtual assessments from the B.C. Autism Assessment Network, because we recognize the challenges that still exist when it comes to accessing in-person assessments. What’s really important is making sure that families have access to services and trying to reduce those barriers to them actually getting supports and services that they need, especially during this pandemic. These measures are going to stay in place until March 2022.

On top of this, we have continued to invest in services that support families and help children achieve their full potential. Budget 2021 includes a $13 million increase for children with support needs and their families. That includes the $2 million for deaf and hard-of-hearing services which, as I said, is the first significant boost to the program in over ten years, even though the need for these services has been increasing for years.

We’re showing that we’re listening to families. This funding will actually help families have access to language development and quality intervention services. Again, we know that early intervention makes such a difference.

On top of the $13 million, Budget 2021 also includes over $4 million for staff recruitment and retention at community agencies that serve these children and families.

We know that many children and families are struggling, and we need a system that better meets their unique needs. That’s why we’re working to design a new service framework that will improve services and make it easier for children, youth and families to get the supports they need at the right time, in the right place and in the right way.

As we work to shape this framework, we must listen to the voices and experiences of the families we’re trying to help. My new advisory council will help to ensure that these voices are heard. The members on the council represent a real diversity of ethnicities and experiences, and they’re from all areas over the province. We’re having our first meeting next week, which I’m really excited about.

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

Hon. M. Dean moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: Members, we will wait to hear from Her Honour. When she arrives, we’ll be continuing. The House will be in recess for ten minutes.

The House recessed from 5:55 p.m. to 5:56 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor is in the precinct. Please remain seated while we await her arrival.

Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor requested to attend the House, was admitted to the chamber and took her seat on the throne.

Royal Assent to Bills

Clerk of the Legislative Assembly:

 

Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2021

In Her Majesty’s name, Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor doth assent to this act.

Hon. J. Austin (Lieutenant-Governor): As always, I will just thank you all for your wonderful work and for the conscientious and thoughtful approach that you bring to everything you do together. It’s good to see you all. I hope you’re all taking really good care of yourselves, because our province needs you.

Thank you all so much. Be well, and stay safe. See you soon.

[6:00 p.m.]

Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor retired from the chamber.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

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

Budget Debate

(continued)

Hon. M. Dean: With the ongoing pandemic and new concerns around variants, this does continue to be an anxious, uncertain and challenging time for many people, including children and youth. Given the added challenges that COVID-19 has created, our young people need access to mental health supports and services now more than ever. This is especially true for those who are racialized or struggling and those whose families have been adversely affected.

That’s why we expanded access to mental health supports within weeks of the start of the pandemic and work to support students to safely return to school. Children and youth are at the forefront of a Pathway to Hope, B.C.’s road map to create a comprehensive system of mental health and substance use care that works for everyone.

For too long, youth were not served when they needed mental health supports. Kids in my community, before 2017, had to wait a year for any contact. We know that early intervention and prevention can stop small problems from becoming much more debilitating and significant further down the road. The earlier we provide supports, the better the outcome.

Well, we’re doing things differently. This year we’re increasing funding for child and youth mental health services by over $20 million. This increase includes more funding to further expand integrated child and youth teams in communities throughout the province. These teams provide children and youth who are struggling with mental health challenges with tailored wraparound care delivered by a multidisciplinary team. We know from too many reports into too many tragedies that we have to deliver a collaborative model to be successful.

We’re also providing an increase of $4.5 million for step-up, step-down services. These are critical services that provide a pathway for young people who are experiencing severe mental health or substance use challenges to get the targeted supports they need and to transition back to their community when they’re ready. These services help to get children and youth out of hospitals sooner and into community-based care, where their unique needs can be met. This can sometimes be the difference between life and death for a young person in distress.

[6:05 p.m.]

The increased funding also includes more than $2 million to enhance early childhood intervention services offered by community agencies. These enhanced services support children up to the age of six who may be experiencing challenges with their mental health or social and emotional development. Families have access to family support social workers, behavioural consultants, infant development consultants and infant mental health clinicians. Again this is a multidisciplinary team that works together to make sure that young children are getting on the right track as soon as possible.

I only have a couple of minutes left, and I have a lot to say about child care, so I’m not going to get it in. I know that my colleagues will be able to talk about it as well. I want to shine a spotlight on how important child care is — and especially universal, good-quality, affordable child care — to our economy and to our success as a society moving forward.

This pandemic shone a light, a really bright spotlight, on how important good-quality, universal, accessible child care is to a thriving economy and to us getting out of this pandemic as well. It’s also absolutely critical to us for closing the gaps that exist and that we know are out there between men and women, between racialized and non-racialized and Indigenous and non-Indigenous. We can actually close many, many gaps by providing universal, good-quality, affordable child care.

In my community, parents used to commute for child care and then commute for work. We’re closing those gaps. We’ve made a lot of commitments, and we’ve had a lot of success as well. We’ve created over 26,000 spaces of new licensed child care in the last three years. As we move forward, it’s going to be absolutely critical to our success and our recovery from this pandemic as well.

I only have a minute just to finish up. I appreciate the opportunity of being able to talk about what’s going on in my community and also the services, the planning and the resources that we’re able to deliver because of Budget 2021. We’re able to actually make a difference in the lives of children and young people, especially in the lives of vulnerable children and young people.

Our budget invests funding and is also closing gaps that exist in our society at the same time. We’re bringing better, more affordable services to every community. We’re building a stronger B.C. for everyone, and Budget 2021 is our plan that will keep the province moving forward.

British Columbians can’t afford to turn back. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and our budget sets us on a trajectory to be successful in coming out of this pandemic and making sure we don’t leave anybody behind.

Thank you. Haychka.

Hon. N. Simons: It’s a real pleasure to be back in the chamber and to have an opportunity to discuss Budget 2021. It’s the first budget that I get to speak about as a member of executive council.

I just want to acknowledge how honoured I am to be the minister responsible for Social Development and Poverty Reduction, an area of the social service sector that is dear to my heart and that I hope to be able to fulfil in a way that improves the lives of British Columbians. I thank the Premier and I thank my colleagues for the support and the trust they have in me. I just wanted to start with that acknowledgment.

I would also like to say how proud I am to represent the beautiful constituency of Powell River–Sunshine Coast, the home of the Coast Salish Nations, including the Squamish, shíshálh, Tla’amin, Klahoose, Homalco and others, shared territory since time immemorial, and to acknowledge the leaders of the community.

The mayors, the Chiefs, the hegus and all those who contribute to the betterment of their communities and do their best to ensure that public policy at every level — municipal, First Nation, Islands Trust, regional districts, municipalities and local government — are all working toward the betterment of their communities, improving the lives of those who they’re responsible for as well as the environment in which they find themselves.

[6:10 p.m.]

I would also like to acknowledge the hard work of my constituency assistants, Rob Hill and Kim Tournat. Kim has been working with me since 2002, when I worked with the shíshálh Nation. Rob has been working with me for a couple of years and was just elected two days ago in a by-election as a school district 47 school trustee. So congratulations to him.

Public service is always important. If you find a way to be able to contribute, public service is one way to do so, elected office or otherwise. The work that people do in our communities is appreciated.

I think that appreciation has become more in focus in the last year, as we have collectively addressed a threat that has, in one way, brought us all together. A common concern, a common fear, a health crisis that knows no borders, knows no boundaries, knows no class, knows no gender.

One that we as a community have taken up a struggle against, in a way that shows our strengths, shows our ability to respond. One, I think, that British Columbians can feel secure and strong in knowing is being led by people who are experts in their fields. People who are committed to good public policy based on science, based on evidence that has demonstrated their skills.

It’s also the first time that I have had an opportunity to welcome new members into this chamber. It seems like not that long ago that we had an election. An election that, I think — some may disagree — was one that definitely resulted in an expression of confidence in our management of the economy and of the province leading up to the election and subsequently has proven to be a good choice for the people of the province. I want to just congratulate all those who have been elected, all those who have served, and acknowledge the challenges that we have in our jobs, serving the people who we do.

This budget, which addresses some of these issues that we’re faced with, is a historic budget. It’s the first time that we’ve put forward a budget that has to address a situation that our province hasn’t had to face before. Because of that, it’s unusual. It’s unusual in many ways but not in its reflection of our concern for the people of the province, making sure that we support people.

Those people represent our economy. Those people represent our social service sector. Those people represent our health sector. They represent those in private business, those who deliver food, those who work in restaurants. This is a budget that is addressing the needs of British Columbians, from whatever sector they come from.

I’m particularly proud of the fact that the province has increased income assistance and disability assistance rates for the thousands of British Columbians who are in receipt of those funds, to help them through difficult times, to help them live a life that they can live in dignity. I think that the record increase — the single largest increase to those programs — reflects our principal values of ensuring that people are looked after, whatever circumstances that they are in.

I’d also point out that the seniors supplement, which was introduced in 1987 at $49, has been increased for the first time, and now is at $99. I’ll round it up to $100.

I think that the thousands of British Columbians who benefit from these will also be reflected in the benefits to their communities. When we have people who are secure, when people have enough income to leverage their ability to provide for their families, I think we’re doing the right thing for communities.

[6:15 p.m.]

I would just like to also to point out that this $175 increase was the third increase that our government has introduced since 2017. In total, the increases to income assistance and disability assistance are $325 a month.

In this role, I’d say…. My job will never be done. My job will be one that addresses issues as they come up, addresses historic issues as they’ve appeared before. That just serves to encourage me and my colleagues to develop policies and legislation, indeed, in fact, to address those issues.

I’m really proud of the fact that I can be a part of a government that sees poverty reduction as an important goal — poverty elimination, ultimately. We’re working, through TogetherBC, on a plan with specific targeted goals and measures to ensure that we’re meeting those goals. I would say that looking after people in our communities is the key responsibility of ours as elected officials.

I’d like to just mention how…. I acknowledge the difficulties people have faced during this pandemic, which has been with us for over a year now. Everyone has had their own individual experience with this virus, their families and extended families and friends. Their lives have been changed. I would say temporarily changed. Events and opportunities for being together have been missed. They’ve gone by.

There is a collective sense of mourning for those opportunities missed, for the funerals missed, for the weddings postponed, for the celebrations of births, for the many ways that we as a society create bonds with each other. I think recognizing that there has been this fraction, this chasm, in a way, that has separated us…. That will be healed. That will be healed by people of the community. Not by government but by people in the community.

Our role as elected members is to essentially do our best to ensure that the healing happens in a good way. I think the way we decide how to spend money for the province is a reflection of that, a reflection of our desire to heal some of the wounds, to tie together the pieces that have been ripped and to bring back to one our community as British Columbians, as Canadians.

I’m really pleased that our budget does that. I’m proud of the fact that it invests in reducing poverty. I’m glad that there are strong supports for businesses. I’m proud of the fact that we have higher support for businesses per capita than any other jurisdiction, but I would encourage other jurisdictions to provide similar support. It’s not about being the best at it. It’s being responsive to the needs of our communities.

British Columbia, as a province, has stayed as open as possible, with as many safeguards in effect, with great leadership from the public health and from the Ministry of Health. That just needs to continue as we go through this continued difficult time.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There are vaccinations coming to our communities. I think that as long as we focus on getting across the finish line — we don’t lay back, and we don’t let up — we, as British Columbians, will show each other that we’ve been capable of overcoming the challenges that we’ve faced as a province, as people in Canada and as members of this civilization, as this is a worldwide epidemic.

I’m glad that the budget touches on the most important issues facing British Columbians, those that have been expressed in our communities and those that have been relayed to the people who make these decisions. People are first. We put people first.

[6:20 p.m.]

The principles of our government also include the importance of working on equity, which I’ve mentioned already, working on anti-racism, fighting climate change, having a sustainable economy that, indeed, does work for everyone. The investments that we’ve seen through this budget reflect that.

I’m going to go into some detail on them, as long as Mr. Speaker allows me the time, although, I think, at this point, it’s appropriate to move adjournment of debate. I will continue with my comments at the next opportunity.

Hon. N. Simons moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. R. Kahlon moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 6:21 p.m.