Third Session, 42nd Parliament (2022)
OFFICIAL REPORT
OF DEBATES
(HANSARD)
Thursday, February 10, 2022
Morning Sitting
Issue No. 144
ISSN 1499-2175
The HTML transcript is provided for informational purposes only.
The PDF transcript remains the official digital version.
CONTENTS
| Routine Business | |
Property Assessment Appeal Board, annual report, 2021 | |
| Orders of the Day | |
Throne Speech Debate (continued) | |
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022
The House met at 10:03 a.m.
[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]
Routine Business
Prayers and reflections: S. Chant.
Introductions by Members
Hon. J. Osborne: It gives me great pleasure today to introduce the mayor of Tofino, who is visiting us, Dan Law, and his daughter Jojo, all the way from Tofino. It was not that long ago that I think I sat pretty much in that exact space and was introduced here by the former MLA of my riding, Scott Fraser.
Dan has been living in Tofino since 1991. He has five incredible children, one of whom is here today with him. Dan has done what a lot of people do in small towns, and that is have a lot of different kinds of livings over the years. He’s been a nurse. He’s an artist. Now he is a local elected official.
Would the House please welcome Mayor Law and his daughter Jojo.
Introduction and
First Reading of Bills
BILL 3 — PROTECTED AREAS OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA AMENDMENT
ACT, 2022
Hon. G. Heyman presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant-Governor: a bill intituled Protected Areas of British Columbia Amendment Act, 2022.
Hon. G. Heyman: I move that the bill be introduced and read a first time now.
This bill contains amendments to the Protected Areas of British Columbia Act. These amendments continue the legislative work needed to maintain and improve B.C.’s protected areas system and includes adding important lands to existing parks, updating and improving legal descriptions and completing administrative corrections. The amendments will make additions to ten existing parks and modify the boundaries of two parks and two ecological reserves.
On an administrative note, I want to point out to all the members that copies of the official plans and mapped boundaries that depict the boundaries of most of the parks and ecological reserves in this bill will be posted on the B.C. Parks website for public and member review.
Mr. Speaker: The question is first reading of the bill.
Motion approved.
Hon. G. Heyman: I move that the bill be placed on the orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.
Bill 3, Protected Areas of British Columbia Amendment Act, 2022, introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.
Statements
(Standing Order 25B)
WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE
K. Kirkpatrick: When I was a girl and I was trying to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up, science wasn’t even a consideration. Never did a guidance counsellor suggest it nor anyone encourage my curiosity.
I don’t recall ever learning about Marie Curie, who won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, or the largely unrecognized Rosalind Franklin, who was the first to see the double helix shape, which is central to our understanding of DNA today. We did hear about Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla and many others. Despite women’s contributions to science and technology, they have seldom been recognized for their efforts.
Tomorrow, Friday, February 11, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is a call for full and equal access to and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls. Despite much progress and education, there is still work to be done in attracting and retaining women and girls in science.
Taking on the greatest challenges currently facing the global community will mean harnessing all talent. As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19 and the critically important climate crisis, the full and equal participation and leadership of women and girls in science is more important than ever. Although women are more likely to start a research career in science now than they were 20 years ago, they’re also typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and represent only 33 percent in national science academies. These glaring underrepresentations limit our ability to find inclusive, sustainable technical roles in science-based industries.
Roberta Bondar is often quoted. “When I was eight years old, to be a spaceman was the most exciting thing I could imagine.” So I ask us all to do our part and speak to young women and girls about science: how exciting math is, how cool numbers can be.
Help them be curious in how the world works and, like Dr. Bondar said, to imagine.
MLA VISIT WITH
NORTH BURNABY
BROWNIES
J. Routledge: Two weeks ago I was asked to speak to the North Burnaby Brownies. Brown Owl Meagan Campbell asked me to talk about what an MLA does, what do I like best about being an MLA, how could they get involved and why I ran for office. Hmm, how to convey all of that to 18 seven- and eight-year-old girls on Zoom.
I reflected on when I was a Brownie. I recalled the Brownie motto: “Lend a helping hand.” The wording has been modernized, and today, Brownies promise to do their best to be true to themselves, their beliefs and Canada. They promise to take action for a better world and respect the Brownie law, which is to be honest and kind and help take care of the world around us.
And it hit me: that’s what I do as an MLA. So that’s what I told them. I’m an adult Brownie lending a helping hand. And taking action for a better world is what we do here in the Legislature. We pass laws that help people, like creating more child care so both their parents can go to work and make enough money to go on a family holiday together and pay for dance classes and put delicious food on the table. Like building hospitals, so if they get sick, there is somewhere they can go to get better. And like making rules that you can’t be mean to someone because they look different or come from far away.
I asked them what they’re doing as Brownies to lend a helping hand. They told me they pick up litter in the neighbourhood. They also told me that the government needs to do more to save the planet. I have a feeling that the Finance Committee is going to hear from them in a few months with some concrete ideas about what we can be doing to up our game.
I told them that maybe being a Brownie is what started me on the path to becoming an MLA. We need more Brownies in politics.
Thank you to Brown Owl Meagan Campbell, Snowy Owl Sara Johnson and Little Owl Layla Lee. Twit, twit, twoo.
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES BY
WEST KELOWNA WARRIORS HOCKEY
TEAM
B. Stewart: I agree with the previous speaker. We need more Brownies in the Legislature.
As our nation focuses on Canadian hockey teams already making us proud at the Olympics, I want to take a moment to recognize the phenomenal hockey being played here at home, specifically in Kelowna West. We are the proud home of the West Kelowna Warriors, a BCHL team that not only turns out exceptional players and provides our cities with entertainment, but it also takes time to invest in our community.
The team is committed to serving West Kelowna and inspiring a new generation of people who are passionate about hockey. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, they started the minor hockey mentorship program, which had players attending youth hockey practices and working directly with kids.
With the start of the pandemic, rather than shutting down operations, the team decided to look outwards and find new ways to serve West Kelowna. They held the West Kelowna Community Night, in which they donated $10 to West Kelowna food bank for every order over $30 at 12 participating restaurants. The restaurants had a much-needed record evening with a total of 678 orders, resulting in a $6,780 donation to the food bank at a crucial time of need.
They planned a bottle drive in support of KidSport West Kelowna and collected $8,800 worth of bottles at Christmas. They provided food hampers to 120 West Kelowna families in need, and they supported numerous local non-profits with $40,000 in funds that they raised over the course of the pandemic.
You see, the Warriors are not just a successful hockey team that is sending 13 players with Division I NCAA scholarships but has produced six players that have gone on to the NHL, and with Tyson Jugnauth, the No. 1–ranked NHL draft pick this year, they are also a powerful force for good in our community.
Thank you to the Warriors for all you have done for West Kelowna.
JIM RYAN AND CHEAM LEISURE CENTRE
D. Coulter: On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, I was invited to celebrate the recently completed assessment of the Cheam Leisure Centre in Chilliwack. It received the gold certification from the Rick Hansen Foundation. City of Chilliwack is very proud of the gold certification of the Cheam Centre, but none of this would have been possible out a local hero: Jim Ryan. He advocated for and assessed accessibility of the Cheam Centre.
Jim suffered a spinal cord injury in March of 2016 that left him as a C4 complete quadriplegic. Following the accident, Jim spent over a year in the medical system learning how to survive and adjust to his new life. He had lost use of many of his abdominal muscles and had to relearn how to breathe, cough and swallow. Then came learning how to adjust to life as a quadriplegic, learning about medications he would have to take, how to live and operate in a wheelchair and navigate the world around him.
Throughout this entire time, Jim shared his story with the public and inspired others to overcome adversity and keep working the problem. He was recognized in 2018 with Coast Mental Health’s Courage to Come Back Award, and Jim has continued to keep moving forward and push the limits of what is accessible. Jim now works as an ambassador for the Rick Hansen Foundation and educates the public on accessibility issues and overcoming adversity. He is also a qualified accessibility specialist and works to assess buildings of all types for accessibility and offers solutions for retrofit, as well as initial building design.
He focuses on maximizing accessibility for the lowest economic cost in an effort to illustrate that accessibility does not have to be expensive. His goal is to make the world accessible to all and increase awareness of the daily challenges faced by those with disabilities of all types.
I encourage the House to clap for Jim.
DOUGLAS TREATIES AND W̱SÁNEĆ PEOPLE
A. Olsen: This February 14 marks the 170th anniversary of the agreement between the first British Columbia governor, James Douglas, and my ancestors, the SIÁM of the W̱SÁNEĆ people. Some history books tell a story that these treaties were land sale agreements, that my S¸ELELW̱ÁÁN gave up our homelands for just a few blankets. The W̱SÁNEĆ tell a different story.
James Douglas was a corporate man, starting at 16 with the Northwest Co. before landing a top job with the Hudson’s Bay Co. The meeting between Douglas and the heads of our W̱SÁNEĆ families that led to the pre-Confederation treaty was to air out two grievances: a dispute over timber harvesting near Cordova Bay and the murder of a messenger boy travelling between two W̱SÁNEĆ villages. The W̱SÁNEĆ took offence to the loss of our relative and the intrusion into our territory and responded with a war party of four canoes.
The historical and ongoing conflict on the land over resource extraction is part of our oral history. The written version of the Douglas treaties does not account for the linguistic and cultural elements, the context that is shared through the oral tradition.
The X’s on the papers — those signatures — were also understood differently. To the W̱SÁNEĆ, those X’s represented crosses, thinking it was a sign of sincerity and honesty, the sign of their god, the sign of the highest order of honesty.
And 170 years later, those treaties are still the only agreements between the W̱SÁNEĆ and Canada, and while this provincial government acknowledges the treaties exist, they do not acknowledge the beneficiaries of those agreements that enshrine the rights to hunt and fish as formerly.
Unfortunately, the conflict on the land in these territories continues. X’s on papers reflect the desire for sincerity and honesty. They continue to be signed with the hope of good faith. The people sitting in these seats, well, we come and go.
Only when the story written and the story shared from one generation to the next are the same story will we deserve to pat ourselves on our back for a job well done.
VERNON WINTER CARNIVAL
H. Sandhu: Hon. Speaker, so good to see you and everybody back.
Recently on a sunny Saturday morning, I had the privilege and honour to participate, for the first time, as an MLA in the annual Vernon Winter Carnival parade. It was heartwarming to see so many people being so happy, excited, cheering on and clapping with enthusiasm. This flagship event kicks off one of my community’s oldest and most beloved traditions.
For the past 62 years, the people of Vernon-Monashee have looked forward to this seasonal event, where generations of families and people of all ages come together in this wonderful community celebration which this year is hosting 100 events over ten days.
Given the challenges we have faced over the past two years, coming together as a community is more important than ever. In these times of struggle and uncertainty, people of Vernon-Monashee put aside differences and came together in celebration.
I want to take the time to thank the hard-working volunteers who have made this all possible, for gracefully navigating and adapting to each new wave of this pandemic and continuing this tradition in a safe and healthy way. Without their countless hours of planning, dedication and tireless efforts, the Vernon Winter Carnival would not have been possible.
I would like to ask members of this House to please join me to thank these amazing volunteers and our community for demonstrating what is possible when we work together for a common goal by putting our differences aside.
Oral Questions
HOUSING PRICES AND
ACTION ON
AFFORDABILITY
M. Bernier: For years, the NDP have scapegoated foreigners. They’ve unleashed a blizzard of taxes that have done absolutely nothing around housing affordability.
The NDP has said that increased taxes actually would help solve the affordability crisis, but now they’ve been forced to talk about basic economics: “No tax policy is going to put a roof over someone’s head.” That’s not me saying it this time. It’s actually the Minister of Housing, who has finally agreed that this is an issue.
After five years of the NDP’s failure on this file, housing prices are now at an all-time high. The NDP has basically just given up on the middle class in the province of British Columbia.
Will the Premier finally admit today that he has failed to deliver on his housing promises?
Hon. D. Eby: I would like to welcome the new critic for Housing to the job. I am very glad for a question on housing.
Our government has been doing a lot of work on housing, as the member knows. I think rightly we brought in demand-side measures on international money in our housing market, on people who are leaving homes vacant, not renting them out, using them as investments.
Now, I understand that the other side of the House disagrees with that. They think people should be able to use homes as investments. In fact, they just elected a speculator as leader of their party. We have some differences there, but where I don’t think we have differences is around the need for more housing in our province.
Our province is incredibly successful in attracting people from other provinces and other countries to come and move here. We have a 94 percent increase in interprovincial migration of people coming to B.C. We have a 200-percent-plus increase in people from other countries coming to B.C., because B.C. has a successful economy that works for everybody.
Now, with that success come challenges. We need to build the housing for the folks who are coming. We’re on the right path. We have the most new housing units registered since 2002, since B.C. started collecting data on this — 53,189 starts, of which 12,899 are rental. We have a lot more work to do.
Mr. Speaker: Member for Peace River South, supplemental.
M. Bernier: Well, what I’ll agree with is that they have a lot to do, because they’ve done nothing to help the middle-class people actually afford and get into a home.
I mean, the member for Chilliwack, last year, in one of his first speeches as an NDP member, even said and admitted…
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members, let’s listen to the question, please.
M. Bernier: …that he will be, probably, in the last generation in the province of British Columbia to own a home.
Interjection.
Mr. Speaker: Be quiet.
M. Bernier: That shows how much attention this government is giving to this most important issue for the people of British Columbia, when they, themselves, have basically abandoned the policies, abandoned the idea of home affording for people in the province of British Columbia.
Interjection.
M. Bernier: Look, the minister can stand up and say all he wants. The facts are the facts.
People are not able to afford to get into homes in British Columbia — the highest increases we have ever seen for home affordability. Now we have parents like Sandra McMullen and Conan O’Dell from Saanich, right here in the Premier’s backyard, who are unable to afford a place. In fact, they’re being kicked out this Saturday because they can’t afford a place, right in the Premier’s backyard, to rent.
What is the Premier going to do for Sandra and Conan and for other people, other families and other young people in the province of British Columbia that can’t afford to get into the housing market under this government?
Hon. D. Eby: This is a really serious issue, and I appreciate the member asking questions about this. But I mean, it’s not like he just came here from outer space. He was there when the other side of the House committed to 26,990 housing starts for this year, a number that our government has doubled.
He was there, and the leader of their party was there, when they only built 160 units of housing for students over 16 years. We’ve got 5,000 built or under construction right now. We’ve got more than that at one site. We’ve committed…
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members.
Please proceed.
Hon. D. Eby: …to 114,000 affordable housing units…
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members, the question was already asked, so please be quiet and listen to the answer.
Hon. D. Eby: …of which half are either complete or under development.
We know what they did at Little Mountain. They bulldozed affordable housing and left it as vacant lots for big donors. We know how they ran housing. We’re doing it differently, and we’re doing the work.
S. Bond: The Minister of Housing can stand up and spout numbers all he wants. It has taken him five years to figure out that there’s actually a supply side to the housing crisis in British Columbia. In fact, rumour has it that he’s actually meeting with some organizations to figure out what exactly he should be doing about supply. Maybe he should have thought about that previously.
Let’s look at this government’s track record. Let’s just look. The NDP have allowed the housing crisis to balloon all over British Columbia. Well, the minister can shake his head, but let’s look at this.
In Langley, for example, a detached home is up 43 percent in one year. That’s this minister’s record. In Surrey, average prices are up over 40 percent in one year. The biggest Surrey increase is in north Surrey, up over 51 percent in one single year.
While housing costs skyrocket all across the province and, particularly, in Surrey, what do we hear from the MLAs from Surrey? Nothing. They’re sitting there in silence as the dream of home ownership becomes the impossible dream.
To the minister, when is he going to stop with the empty rhetoric and actually put some measurable outcomes in place?
Hon. D. Eby: I was the Housing critic. I sat on that side while this side of the House, when the B.C. Liberals were in power, let the housing market get out of control with international money, empty homes. And 18,000 people are now living in homes, which were previously vacant — because of our speculation and vacancy tax, which they opposed.
Now, we had to drag them to the table about measuring international money in our housing market: “Oh, don’t worry. It’s not a problem. We won’t help you build that wall.” Some 18 percent of the homes in Richmond sold to international buyers; 16 percent in Burnaby. Once they got those numbers, then they rushed in a tax, trying to do something at the tail end.
That’s not our way. We are not rushing solutions. We’re acting quickly and responsibly. We were elected to address housing, and 114,000 affordable units is what we committed to. We are delivering those. People are moving in today.
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members. Members, listen to the answer, please.
Hon. D. Eby: Now, I understand this makes the other side uncomfortable, because they were the ones who created this problem that we’re fixing.
Mr. Speaker: Leader of the Official Opposition, supplemental.
S. Bond: Well, the person who’s uncomfortable in this House should be the minister, who took five years to actually figure out that there’s a supply side to the argument. That’s what this minister should be uncomfortable about.
Let’s be clear. They have not done one single thing to help a family that has the dream of a new home in British Columbia. In fact, it’s gotten worse. This minister…. All he’s done is look for scapegoats, trying to score cheap political points. That’s what his record is. Families in British Columbia are paying the price.
Velma and her partner Darcy, their six-year-old daughter, Lydia, and their two dogs have been living in Hotel Zed in Victoria while trying to avoid homelessness. They can’t find an affordable place to live under this government, and they have until the 16th until they are out of options.
Maybe the minister can stand up in this answer, speak to Velma and maybe explain to her why they are struggling to find a place that’s affordable for her family to live in.
Hon. D. Eby: The reason why this family and many families are struggling to find affordable housing is because for 16 years…
Interjections.
Hon. D. Eby: …the previous government, the B.C. Liberal government….
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members. When a question is asked, let’s have the courtesy to listen to the answer, please.
Continue.
Hon. D. Eby: The previous Liberal government believed that the market would solve the housing problems, and it didn’t. Government has to build affordable housing. That’s why we’ve committed to building 114,000 units; that’s why we’re delivering it.
While the other side was in government, homelessness tripled. They had 2,000 supportive housing units in development or under construction. We have now over ten times that amount. In 16 years, they built 130 units of student housing.
What have we done, hon. Speaker?
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members, order, please.
Hon. D. Eby: We’ve capped….
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Order.
Minister, just be quiet.
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: We are using the really precious time in the question period, so please have some order.
The minister will continue.
Hon. D. Eby: Imagine passing a bill, hon. Speaker, for tenants that says we’re going to establish an enforcement unit to protect tenants and landlords against bad actors and then never funding that enforcement unit. That’s what the other government did. We actually funded that unit to protect tenants and landlords.
We capped rent increases to inflation. We froze rent increases to zero percent during the pandemic. We provide tenants protection from being renovicted — things that the other side wouldn’t even contemplate to protect tenants. And now they stand up and say they’re in favour of affordability and protecting tenants. Are you kidding me?
COVID-19 TRANSMISSION AND
FACE MASKS IN HEALTH CARE
FACILITIES
S. Furstenau: The World Health Organization states that COVID can spread “in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor sittings, where people tend to spend longer periods of time. This is because aerosols can remain suspended in the air or travel farther than conversational distance. This is often called long-range aerosol or long-range airborne transmission.”
My question is to the Minister of Health. Does he agree with the World Health Organization that COVID is an airborne virus?
Hon. A. Dix: I think the member will know that from the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Henry, our public health teams and the Ministry of Health have consistently advised people that outdoors is safer than indoors, that we need to take specific action to ensure that people are protected indoors. That’s why we’ve had all of the measures that have happened over time, including a mask mandate that continues to this day, including the B.C. vaccine card that continues to this day and will continue for some months to come. That includes other public health measures to limit capacity and to limit transmission.
Consistently over that time, that has been the case and the advice, because outdoors is safer than indoors, and this question has been repeatedly answered by Dr. Henry in that regard: that we have to continue to take the steps necessary to protect one another and to protect people’s health in a global pandemic. That’s what we’ll continue to do.
Mr. Speaker: Leader of the Third Party, supplemental.
S. Furstenau: It’s strange to me that we can’t just have the simple phrase: “COVID is an airborne virus.” It matters because the policies and protections that the minister speaks of are moved by this recognition of it being an airborne virus. N95 masks, standards for ventilation, air filtration and measuring air quality indoors are appropriate responses to an airborne virus.
Clear information, knowledge and protections made available to citizens are essential in a pandemic. Yet in B.C., health care workers and patients in hospitals have been denied access to the most basic tool for an airborne virus, which is an N95 mask.
My question is again to the Minister of Health. Will he commit to ensuring that British Columbians indeed have access to the protections that help reduce and manage an airborne virus, including N95s?
Hon. A. Dix: Consistently, from the beginning of the pandemic, officials in the Ministry of Health, our health care teams — have made extraordinary efforts to make sure that our health care workers have the PPE necessary to protect themselves. We have currently, for example, 7.7 million N95 masks.
Interjection.
Hon. A. Dix: Well, we receive a contribution from the Opposition House Leader.
Those are in place because it’s absolutely necessary to have a stockpile of masks well into the future, a lesson that was well learned when international supply lines were interrupted and traditional suppliers were unable to provide those masks in March and April of 2020.
We’ve made an extraordinary effort to ensure that the PPE is available to keep our health workers safe and that it is used with the guidance of those who are expert in the area, in public health, to do so.
I think that is the right approach. It’s an approach that has protected health care workers, that has been guided by public health and that demonstrates our commitment to support health care workers — a commitment that has been demonstrated in our support for those workers, in long-term care and assisted living, in acute care and in the community from the beginning of the pandemic through a number of measures that I think are overwhelmingly supported by British Columbians and by members of this House.
ICBC SALE OF MEADOWOOD PLACE
AND CONSULTATION WITH
MATSQUI FIRST NATION
M. de Jong: For years, the government has tried to explain and blame rapidly escalating housing costs on foreigners and foreign money. We heard another version of that here this morning.
More recently, confronted by the fact that the data simply doesn’t support that assertion, we have heard the government and the minister point to supply as a problem — which is good news, actually, because it means we might finally be getting to the root of the problem.
There’s one assertion that the NDP government has maintained consistently throughout the years: that people who buy real estate merely for the purpose of holding it as an investment are engaged in a nefarious process, are bad. They’re engaged in the evil enterprise of real estate speculation. We heard the Minister of Housing assert something along those lines again just a few moments ago.
So imagine how surprised 220 families at Meadowood Place in Abbotsford were when they learned, just before Christmas, that their homes were being flipped for a quick profit by their landlord, the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia.
Will the minister confirm that ICBC purchased these 220 homes in January of 2020 only to flip them a year and a half later for a significant profit? In short, will the minister confirm that ICBC, a wholly owned Crown agency, is engaged in precisely the kind of real estate speculation that he and his colleagues have regularly and roundly condemned?
Hon. D. Eby: I do think it’s a problem when people buy residential property and homes as an investment rather than as a place to live. I don’t think it’s a problem when large institutional investors build things like purpose-built rental housing.
These are important distinctions. I am not surprised to hear a member that owns eight properties bring a rounding, powerful defence of real estate speculation to this House.
Let me just say that ICBC was asked to support an effort by Citizens’ Services in relation to the Matsqui First Nation to facilitate them in buying some property for the purposes of developing, among other things, affordable housing. ICBC supported that effort. I can also advise the member that, to the best of my knowledge, ICBC owns no residential property currently.
Mr. Speaker: Member for Abbotsford West, supplemental.
M. de Jong: Lots of glossy brochures. ICBC marketed these homes as a major development opportunity — 220 affordable family homes being marketed by a Crown agency, this government’s agency, as a major development opportunity.
There are 220 families at Meadowood who would like to know what that means for them. They’re calling my office.
What guarantees did the government and ICBC secure for those 220 families presently residing at Meadowood that they won’t be evicted from their homes to facilitate redevelopment of the lands being flipped by this government?
Hon. D. Eby: Those families, along with all families in British Columbia that are renting, are protected by the changes we made to the Residential Tenancy Act to protect tenants. Now, these are protections that the other side knew, when they were in government, were badly needed. They watched tenants being evicted from their homes for redevelopment, and they didn’t act, because they had other priorities.
When the other side actually had housing owned by B.C. Housing, the social housing provider, they sold those properties off. The worst example of that was the Little Mountain site, where that site was bulldozed and left vacant by the private developer that they sold it to. Those families were displaced from that site. So with all due respect to the member, I will take no lessons from him about displacement.
Mr. Speaker: Member for Abbotsford West, second supplemental.
M. de Jong: With all due respect to the minister, his comments will be of more interest to the 220 families who are now left in an uncertain situation because a Crown agency, a commercial Crown corporation, has been involved in the real estate speculation business, which he and his colleagues condemn weekly, monthly, on a regular basis.
ICBC is a Crown corporation. I heard the minister refer, a moment ago, to the Matsqui First Nation. ICBC owned this property for a year and a half before it decided to flip it. I presume the minister agrees that the obligations to consult and accommodate First Nations around the disposition of Crown land apply equally to commercial Crown corporations like B.C. Hydro and ICBC.
Can the minister describe for the House what consultation took place with the Matsqui First Nation around this parcel of land and, specifically, the details of any accommodation that was negotiated with the Matsqui First Nation?
Hon. D. Eby: To the best of my knowledge, Citizens’ Services was approached by Matsqui First Nation. They were interested in acquiring a third site for the purposes of affordable housing and other priorities of the nation. Citizens’ Services approached ICBC to support that effort of the Matsqui First Nation in acquiring that site through accommodation paid through, among other things, the sale of this property.
I can advise the member, to the best of my knowledge, that ICBC is not, as he alleges, engaging in real estate speculation, that they don’t own any residential property for the purposes of investment currently and that their investments are managed by BCI — which I think the member understands, as well, is independent of government for good reason.
I do appreciate his questions, but this facilitated the purchase of a site by Matsqui for the purposes of more affordable housing, and the tenants on the site are protected by the Residential Tenancy Act protections that this government put in place and that government did not.
REDEVELOPMENT OF
ALMA BLACKWELL HOUSING
COMPLEX
P. Milobar: Well, the 220 people or families that live there feel it’s a home, feel it’s their residence, and they feel ICBC owns it, because when you look, it very clearly says “owner, ICBC,” which is a Crown.
The reason, perhaps, the 220 families are little bit less at ease with the minister’s “just trust us; everything will be right with the world” attitude is because the NDP are demovicting another 46 families from the Alma Blackwell residence in Vancouver through their own community housing fund.
Charles is a 15-year-old who lives there with his family, and he says he’s not going to be able to stay in Vancouver and he’s scared of losing his school, which I think we can all agree, at 15 years old, would be a pretty traumatic time to have to move because the government is forcing you to.
These families say that after the affordable housing they live in is demolished, the NDP are going to rent it back to them at twice the price, at $3,250 per month.
Why is this minister demovicting families with kids like Charles and doubling their rent, and is that what these 220 families can look forward to as well — doubled rents?
Hon. D. Eby: The member…. This is the second question he’s asked me, by the way. He made similarly outrageous allegations in the last question he asked me. He never gave me a chance, and he never corrected, on the record, his allegations last time.
First of all, with respect to the building, you heard the member from Abbotsford say that it was owned for a year and a half. It was purchased in 2010, so that’s simply inaccurate.
With respect to the former House Leader, he stood up and asked me a question. He alleged that we had provided $16 million in low-interest loans to a development in Merritt where the developer was supposed to build affordable rental housing units and that that actually decreased the number of affordable rental housing units that were going to be built at that site.
I looked into it. I was concerned. I believed him when he stood up in this place. In fact, the city council approved a building with no affordable housing in it, and our loan actually did manifest in a significant number of affordable units at the site.
Now he asks a question about a redevelopment of a site not owned by government, owned by a private housing authority, a private housing society. They are redeveloping because it’s a leaky condo. It was built in 1986. It can’t be kept.
We’re going in and we’re doubling the number of affordable units. All the tenants are guaranteed a right to return at rent geared to income. If their incomes are higher, the rents may be a little bit higher as well, but it will be rent geared to income, and they’re guaranteed a right to return. B.C. Housing is working with them on interim housing.
His outrageous allegations in this place…. He needs to fact-check before he stands up.
Mr. Speaker: Member for Kamloops–North Thompson, supplemental.
P. Milobar: Where to begin. Imagine if the government….
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Members. Order.
P. Milobar: Imagine, if you would, if we had a government that actually gave information in a timely fashion so that fact-checking could be done as well. Imagine if you had ministers that weren’t sending out emails on decision notes ahead of actual decisions. Imagine. Just imagine what type of a government that would be, in terms of transparency.
It’s interesting, though, the deflection the minister is trying to engage in. The bottom line is that for Charles’ family, his rent is doubling. His rent is going up to $3,250, and they will be evicted because they can’t afford that, regardless of what the minister wants to say. It’s their community housing fund that is enabling this demoviction to happen.
Lindsay O’Shea doesn’t believe the minister’s excuses. She and other families have been forced to file an FOI to try to get some facts out of this government, to learn the truth about why they’re being demovicted from their home as well, because as we know, this government doesn’t want to actually share proactively any actual meaningful information to residents.
So far, B.C. Housing and the minister have hidden from the media and have not responded to the FOI request.
When will the minister stop hiding all the information and give these families the documents and answers they deserve without them having to go through FOI and paying whatever fee this minister may have another decision out in the background waiting for?
Hon. D. Eby: I’ve written two separate letters outlining this to the tenants who have written to me. I’ve directed B.C. Housing to meet with them and to work with the housing society to make sure that tenants have this information.
I did an interview yesterday with Global about this. I don’t know why he’s saying I’m hiding from the media. This member makes outrageous allegations that are not true. He scares families. The families have a right to return at rent geared to income. That is fair. We are doubling the number of affordable housing units on the site. That is better than they ever did. And we are redeveloping a building that is a leaky condo from 1986, in partnership with a private housing society.
I don’t know what the member’s problem is with this, but I do know that he just apologized — and I accept it — for his inaccuracies.
REBATE FOR RENTERS
S. Cadieux: I mean, I can understand why renters in this province are concerned with the minister’s answers, because in 2017, there was a promise of a renter’s rebate of $400 a year. That same promise was made again in 2020. Neither promise has been kept. Oh, quelle surprise.
As more and more people are priced out of the housing market, the pressure on renters is continuing to grow. The average rent in Vancouver is over $2,500 a month, up $356 from 2018. This is $4,272 more per year, or 16½ percent. Any relief from the Premier’s promise to renters is nowhere to be seen.
Does the minister ever plan to keep the Premier’s promise to renters?
Hon. D. Eby: I’m sure the member will remember when the previous government allowed rent increases beyond the rate of inflation. I’m sure she’ll remember that. She’ll remember when this government changed that and that that had a meaningful impact for renters in terms of the annual rent increases they face.
That policy change, for a family renting a two-bedroom apartment in Abbotsford…. If the previous government was still sitting on this side, that family would be paying $750 a year more in Abbotsford. They’d be paying $930 more a year in Kelowna. They’d be paying $1,000 a year more in Burnaby.
With their rent increase policy, they would have buried families. So to hear questions now…. Apparently the member is in favour of support for renters. Wouldn’t it have been nice, when they were sitting on this side of the House, for them to have done anything for renters?
[End of question period.]
Motions Without Notice
APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE
ON REFORMING THE
POLICE ACT
Hon. M. Farnworth: I seek leave to move a motion to appoint the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act. The full text of the motion has been provided to the other two House Leaders.
Leave granted.
Hon. M. Farnworth: I move:
[That a Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act be appointed to examine, inquire into, and make recommendations to the Legislative Assembly on the following:
1. Reforms related to independent oversight, transparency, governance, structure, service delivery, standards, funding, training and education, and any other considerations which may apply respecting the modernization and sustainability of policing under the Police Act (R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 367) and all related agreements.
2. The role of police with respect to complex social issues including mental health and wellness, addictions, and harm reduction; and in consideration of any appropriate changes to relevant sections of the Mental Health Act (R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 288).
3. The scope of systemic racism within British Columbia’s police agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, independent municipal police and designated policing units, and its impact on public safety and public trust in policing.
4. Whether there are measures necessary to ensure a modernized Police Act is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), as required by section 3 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (S.B.C. 2019, c. 44).
That the Special Committee undertake the above examinations as it deems appropriate with regard to relevant reports, studies, and examinations.
That any information or evidence previously under consideration by the Special Committees appointed by order of the House on July 8, 2020, December 9, 2020, and April 13, 2021, be referred to the Special Committee.
That the Special Committee have the powers of a Select Standing Committee and in addition be empowered to:
a. appoint of its number one or more subcommittees and to refer to such subcommittees any of the matters referred to the Special Committee and to delegate to the subcommittees all or any of its powers except the power to report directly to the House;
b. sit during a period in which the House is adjourned, during the recess after prorogation until the next following Session and during any sitting of the House;
c. conduct consultations by any means the Special Committee considers appropriate;
d. adjourn from place to place as may be convenient; and
e. retain personnel as required to assist the Special Committee.
That the Special Committee report to the House by April 28, 2022; and that during a period of adjournment, the Special Committee deposit its reports with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, and upon resumption of the sittings of the House, or in the next following Session, as the case may be, the Chair present all reports to the House.
That the Special Committee be composed of the following Members: Doug Routley (Convenor), Garry Begg, Dan Davies, Rick Glumac, Trevor Halford, Karin Kirkpatrick, Grace Lore, Adam Olsen, Harwinder Sandhu, and Rachna Singh.]
Motion approved.
Tabling Documents
Hon. D. Eby: I rise to table the 2021 report of the Property Assessment Appeal Board.
Orders of the Day
Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.
G. Kyllo: I seek leave to present a petition.
Interjections.
Mr. Speaker: Hold it.
Because we have started other business of the House, we’ll take this petition next week, Monday.
[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]
Throne Speech Debate
(continued)
T. Wat: It is my pleasure to take my place in this year’s throne speech debate. I rose yesterday in this House to honour the lunar new year and spoke about how this is a time of renewal to plan, prepare and look forward to the year ahead. The throne speech shares some similarities with the lunar new year in this way. Both take place in February, and both traditionally are a time to look ahead to the future and help map the road forward.
You can understand my confusion and disappointment then as I read over this year’s throne speech. This speech seems to be looking behind us more than looking ahead. We see government reminiscing about old actions and achievements, some of them many years old. In the few times it does look ahead, we hear recycled promises from old throne speeches that this government has failed to carry out — addressing affordability, supporting British Columbians through the pandemic and putting British Columbians first.
This is now a government deep into its second term, and it has fundamentally failed to deliver on so many of these commitments. British Columbians are tired of the flowery language and recycled messaging found in these throne speeches. They are looking for real action — action that will bring concrete and measurable outcomes to British Columbians and tackle the challenges our communities are facing today. People want to see a plan to tackle housing affordability, as housing prices reach record highs in Metro Vancouver and across the province.
They want a jobs plan to address the growing labour shortages and recover the full-time and private sector jobs lost in droves over the pandemic. They want to see government deliver on their 2017 promise of $10-a-day child care so families can confidently return to work without fighting for years to find affordable child care options.
Our local communities are doing their part to support families and build a skilled labour force to meet the ever-growing demand in the coming years. I was so pleased to learn of a new collaboration in my beautiful riding of Richmond North Centre. Metro Vancouver has built an arts and entertainment industry that has become a staple of both our economic and cultural identities, and Richmond is doing its part to help provide skills training to allow British Columbians to pursue their dreams of a career in this incredible field.
Opportunities to learn the skills needed to enter the game development, visual effects and animation industries will be expanded and enhanced by a new collaboration between Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the Centre for Entertainment Arts. Nearly 300 students will be transferred from Vancouver to Kwantlen, in Richmond, in May. The university aims to steadily increase the number of seats it can offer, increasing the number of people skilled enough to enter Metro Vancouver’s growing video game, visual effects and animation industry in above-entry-level positions.
Just as our community businesses and organizations are doing their part to support British Columbians through the many challenges of these few years, our province has a responsibility to support our business and community organizations. They want to see action that shows people that government is there for them in their darkest moments, especially after a year filled with heatwaves, wildfires and floods, which brought so many dark moments for so many of us.
While we have some good news in the post-secondary education sector, many other community institutions have suffered and even shut down due to the lack of assistance amid the pandemic. One of them is the Richmond Curling Club. The club has been having a really rough ride in the past two years. A combination of the pandemic closure plus their ice plant failing, and ultimately decommissioned, left them with no alternative but to transfer title of their facility to the city of Richmond last July in an effort to save the club from permanent closure.
With the Omicron surge, the number of curlers willing to return fell short of a reasonable number to justify opening this spring. They have made the decision to postpone opening until September now. This is really heartbreaking because so many people had worked so hard to get them to this point. To see it pushed further to the fall was so disappointing.
This government has faced strong criticism for its sluggish and restrictive approach to getting supports out to businesses and organizations. Not only are sporting venues hurt by lack of assistance, but many small businesses in the tourism sector have closed down or are on the verge of failing. According to the latest tourism resiliency report, a majority of accommodation activity, hotel and resort, food and beverage, retail sales and rental businesses continue to either be closed or operate at a reduced capacity.
The B.C. tourism industry is a cornerstone of our economy. It contributed $20.5 billion to B.C.’s GDP pre-pandemic and is also responsible for creating the excitement and appreciation of our great province that millions of visitors experience during their trips to our many destinations.
The challenges for our tourism industry are far from over. This minister and this government must present a clear plan on how they intend to support our tourism sector and lead it into a post-pandemic B.C. so we don’t lose this key contributor to our economy for good.
The pandemic was not the only challenge our tourism industry and our province faced throughout the year. It breaks my heart to think of how many British Columbians are still working every day to try to recover their businesses, their livelihoods, their homes and their lives that were lost to the climate disaster of 2021.
From the floods in Merritt and the Sumas Prairie to the wildfires that destroyed the town of Lytton to the heatwave that claimed hundreds of lives — disproportionately among those most vulnerable members of our community — it is truly mind-boggling to think how many British Columbians are still desperately waiting for the promised supports. Residents of Lytton are still anxiously waiting for any kind of progress from government to rebuild their homes, yet Lytton or Merritt were not even granted a mention in this throne speech.
Yesterday we all witnessed the release of the latest B.C. coroner’s report on illicit drug overdose deaths, which confirmed the sheer magnitude of the pain and loss that the opioid crisis has brought to our province in 2021: 2,224 people died. Six families lost a loved one every day in B.C. It is almost too difficult to describe the grief and sadness that has resulted from a crisis that is only worsening year after year.
Year after year in its throne speeches, this government has continuously promised that this will be the year where we will see definitive action, that we’ll finally bring those in need the wraparound supports and pathways to recovery so many are so desperate for.
British Columbians, who are facing an increasing, deadly drug supply, shouldn’t be facing months-long wait-lists for treatment due to limited beds and unaffordable, privately run services. To provide a handful of beds through the province and offer condolences month after month is far from the action British Columbians are looking for. It is a fundamental failure to provide the care and treatment British Columbians have now been desperately waiting for, for years.
Meanwhile, hon. Speaker, we have also seen this pandemic bring out the worst in many. It has brought out hatred and ignorance that’s being perpetuated against British Columbians of all colours and backgrounds — people who don’t deserve what they have experienced. We saw incidents of racism and hate crimes perpetuated against Canadians of Asian heritage skyrocket in B.C. towns and communities. We saw headlines that label Vancouver “The Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital” of North America.
These incidents are far from over. They’re occurring across the province each and every day. In Vancouver’s Chinatown, two historic lion statues outside the Chinese Cultural Centre were vandalized again just days after lunar new year. The white statues were defaced with bright blue and red paint.
The Sun Yat-Sen garden was recently vandalized with graffiti, like we have seen happen to so many gardens, art centres and cultural landmarks throughout the province.
These growing incidents of racism and sentiments of white supremacy are not solely being carried out against Asian Canadians but British Columbians of all identities and backgrounds. It has been absolutely shocking to see the spike in incidents of anti-Semitism and religious hatred too.
Last October in Richmond, a female student was harassed by her classmate. They had drama class together. As a result of her disclosure of being Jewish, her classmate deemed it appropriate to begin yelling, “Free Palestine,” at her when he passed her at lunchtime. There was never a discussion about the politics between the two. RCMP was involved, but the police officer explained that this is not a crime and is considered a political issue and that the main issue was bullying and harassment.
It is easy for British Columbians who don’t experience these incidents and attacks to think and feel this way. But our Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Black, South Asian, Indigenous communities and British Columbians of all cultural minorities will tell you the profound and long-lasting impacts that these hurtful events can have on their psyche and their personal identity.
We have often talked about the impact of this pandemic on British Columbian’s mental health. I can tell you from personal experience that dissonance does not always come from the fear and stress of the pandemic alone. It is a feeling that is dreadful beyond words, to realize that there are people in this province, in our own towns, in our neighbourhoods who hate you and wish to inflict harm upon you because of how you look, how you talk or where your parents, your grandparents or even your great-grandparents come from.
British Columbians have turned to this government for definitive action to curb the spread of such horrible incidents and eliminate hate, intolerance and racism in B.C. We need to bring in more resources to educate our students to show them the incredible harm these growing sentiments of hate and intolerance have on us as individuals and as a community.
We need tools, programs and resources that give people experiencing racism a place to turn to, a place where British Columbia can identify and report acts and incidents of racism and hate. Just like there are tools to fight the pandemic, there are tools to fight this growing wave of racism and intolerance that this government has refused to use.
We have yet to see the promised legislation for race-based data come to fruition. We called for a racist incident hotline to help ensure racialized British Columbians feel no barriers in reporting hate crimes. Last April this government announced they would be introducing this hotline. Yet a year later we have not seen any progress. What is happening there?
What about the Chinese-Canadian museum? We have spoken so many times in this House about how such a cultural landmark will help Chinese Canadians feel that their contributions to the foundation of this province are not ignored or forgotten.
This government has promised time and again that progress is being made, but has dragged its feet announcing funding and a plan to put shovels in the ground. There are so many promises absent in this throne speech.
Thanks to this government’s track record, British Columbians don’t have confidence that the promises that are in it will actually be carried out.
It is time for this government to stop leaving its throne speech promises on the shelf only to dust them off for next year’s document.
We certainly hope this year we’ll see this government bring more substance and action to the year ahead than we have seen in the years and previous throne speeches, because the time for words is over. The time for action is now.
Hon. M. Dean: It is a real honour to stand today in the House to speak on the Speech from the Throne.
I’d like to start by recognizing that I’m speaking today on the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ people, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.
In my role as the MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin, I represent Esquimalt, Songhees and Scia’new Nations. I take that work very seriously, as I do in representing all of my community, but our government is absolutely committed to reconciliation, and every day, the work that we do must embody reconciliation, in everything that we do.
I’d like to thank my constituency assistants, who are both working remotely today, Jared and Nubwa. They are amazing, and we have wonderful team meetings. I know that they work with people in my community in such an empowering way, and they offer such wonderful support to people in my community. They do that everyday, day in, day out.
We have people who are still struggling because of issues that really mounted up from early 2001, as we saw so many cutbacks in my community. The community is growing so quickly as well. We just saw some figures come out very recently of increases — really fast, year-on-year increases as well — of population in my community, so it’s really important for us that we’re working with community, identifying where that growth is and making sure that we not only have the physical infrastructure but also the social infrastructure as well, so I thank them.
I thank my staff in the ministry office here as well. It’s such an honour to be the Minister of Children and Family Development. After 30 years of working in the field, I really feel that this is a privilege and an honour for me, where I can bring skills and knowledge and expertise that I have built up over a long time. I want to say thank you to Paula and Ashley and Jo and Kaitlin and Nicole, as well, who take such good care of me.
We have a little visitor every now and then into the offices, a little four-legged friend with a long tail. I’d rather it didn’t visit anymore, so I’m not going to welcome it here today.
I want to thank my family as well. My daughter Pandora…. She is only 11. Well, I should say she’s 11 and a half. She phoned me on Tuesday afternoon, and she just said, “Hi, Mommy. Just wondering how your day is going,” which broke my heart. It just was so supportive, and she does that. Because of the pandemic, I’ve spent so much more time working at home, and even two years in, my family still finds it difficult to see that there is a “Please do not enter” sign on my office door.
However, she has really, much more, understood the work that I do. Of course, I have spent more time with her, which is the most valuable thing. But it’s given us more opportunity of talking about the work that I do, and she has more interest in it. It isn’t just that I leave home crazy super early in the morning and don’t see her, and then get home just before bedtime. We were there together, and she could come in and meet some people as well, so long as it wasn’t super confidential.
I want to thank my community as well. My community is just such a wonderful and adorable place to live, place to run a business, place to make friends, place for walking and hiking. I do a lot of cycling. We’re so blessed to be right by the ocean and have such wonderful nature. We have so many trails, where I live, and so many parks. I think there are still parks in my community that I haven’t discovered yet. I’m still blessed with discovering parks in Esquimalt and Colwood and View Royal and Metchosin that are probably municipal parks, and they’re just really beautiful.
Of course, local people know how to find them and where to get to them as well, whereas people from the region will come to some of the larger provincial or CRD parks, maybe. But we can literally — as can many people in my community — walk out of our front doors and find a beautiful walk and beautiful community, and people are always so friendly and supportive as well.
It has been a really difficult time. We’ve had two years now of this pandemic. I’m sure everybody here knows many people who have actually suffered, in different ways, from the pandemic. We’re still facing the challenges, but we have come a long way because British Columbians have followed the advice; British Columbians have stepped up. Today more than 90 percent of people aged 12 and older are double-vaccinated. Boosters and pediatric vaccines are being rolled out across the province, and we have one of the highest vaccination rates in North America.
I can’t tell you — I’m sure you all know — how welcoming and supportive the professionals are when I go and get my vaccines. There are people who have been delivering front-line health care services for 50 years and have been moved away from what their previous work was and brought in so that we can roll out this amazing vaccine program.
The last time I went for my booster, they’d started the pediatric vaccine rollout, and there were coloured pictures done by children that had really reassuring messages on them saying, “It doesn’t hurt,” “It doesn’t take long,” “It’s really not that bad,” and “Be Brave” — all these messages for the other kids that would be coming in. It was really uplifting.
The pandemic isn’t the only challenge that we’ve been facing in the last year. We have the twin crises of the pandemic and the opioid crisis, the poisoned drug supply. That has been so damaging and traumatizing. There have been so many tragedies, and that continues.
Also, we have had to reckon with the traumatizing evidence of unmarked graves on what used to be called residential school sites. Of course, we’ve had to deal with the impact of the climate crisis. We’ve had wildfires, heat domes, floods and mudslides and so much more of the impact of those as well. These impacts have taken a real toll on our communities. Often it’s the most vulnerable that are impacted, and sadly, quite often it’s the same people impacted as well.
I think about the families whom we serve through my ministry. There are many families who are struggling on a day-to-day basis anyway because of the patchwork of programming that’s available for children and youth with support needs, for example. They’re under a lot of strain already, and the pandemic has really added to that strain for families who are especially struggling. It has gone on for two years. That’s a cumulative effect.
I want to recognize the emotional burden as well. For example, many of my staff have been concerned for their own families, maybe for their elder relative or for own children, and at the same time for the vulnerable families whom we serve, knowing that the pandemic has impacted the most vulnerable in the most significant way. We still needed to be there to offer that support.
I want to say a big thank-you to ministry staff, DAA staff — Delegated Aboriginal Agencies staff — the community social service sector and all of the community agencies whom we work with and whom colleagues of mine work with as well, because they have been out there supporting families and communities as we’ve tried to navigate this pandemic, knowing that it has impacted people differently.
We are focused on supporting people through these challenges as a government, so we provided financial assistance for damaged homes or businesses to help support people after the devastating floods and mudslides last year. We supported businesses affected by the emergency health measures through the COVID-19 closure relief grants, and my ministry provided health and safety grants to assist child care providers.
We know, in Esquimalt-Metchosin and across the province, how important it is to make sure that front-line workers and essential workers could continue to get to work, deliver services and enable people to get their groceries. Child care and supporting child care to support those front-line workers are absolutely critical.
We know that children and youth have also been affected by the pandemic in terms of their mental health. Mental health challenges have increased for children and youth — not just the prevalence but the severity and the early age of onset of issues as well. So we’re doing a lot of work with our Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions to support the Pathway to Hope.
Early intervention teams support those young children with emerging mental health issues before they reach school age. There are services in Okanagan-Similkameen that began in the fall, and services are now beginning in Coast Mountains and Richmond. A total of 20 communities by the end of ’23-24 will have those services.
Step-up, step-down services for children and youth with more serious mental health and substance use problems are also increasing throughout the province. From my previous experience and connections with front-line workers here in community, I hear about a lot of youth who are being groomed, exploited and taken into very dangerous situations and who then become reliant upon drugs, addicted to drugs and then exposed to the toxic drug supply as well.
Integrated child and youth teams will deliver wraparound mental health and substance use supports. Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows began offering services last year, in May 2021, and Comox Valley will begin offering services this March 2022.
From my own experiences of working on the front line, I know that this model is the best way to serve children and youth. I know that we need integrated services for children and youth to provide the best services for them and their families — multidisciplinary teams, as we have been seeing, for example, in urgent and primary care centres, delivering primary care.
EASE and EASE at Home are helping educators and parents teach everyday anxiety management and coping skills. These resources are now being translated into several languages, including French, Chinese and Punjabi.
We’ve also increased supports to youth transitioning from care to adulthood. We extended the temporary housing measures. That means that youths can stay in their home safely past the age of 19.
We heard directly from youth. They told us, for example, that they need access to a mobile phone to be better connected to family, friends and relatives, to do school work and to access online supports.
Especially during the pandemic, what we heard from youth was that they wanted to stay connected. They needed to stay connected to their community, to their family, and when the pandemic had restrictions about travel and about people being together, that connectivity needed to be enabled for them. So last year my ministry ensured that every youth in care had access to a cellphone and a data plan free of charge.
We made the agreements with young adults program more flexible to better support youth where they are at. I remember speaking to a group of youth — obviously, on Zoom. They were very articulate, and they presented extremely well about how important it was that we’d had these temporary measures so that they hadn’t been anxious about having to lose their home. We were speaking to them, about this time last year, because the measures were going to expire at the end of March, and of course, they were beginning to get anxious.
We don’t want to increase anxiety. With youth, especially youth who have been in care, we need to provide supports for them, not be causing anxiety that could be retraumatizing. Their advocacy was excellent. We didn’t need convincing. We knew that it was the right thing to do for these young people. We extended those measures to the end of March 2022, and there is much more we can do to support young people transitioning to adulthood and from care, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of this work very soon.
My ministry has also been hearing from families with children and youth with support needs. We’ve been hearing from families for years that the patchwork of programs does not serve all children and youth with support needs and leaves many children and youth behind. Services are often locked behind a diagnosis. The problem with that, as well, is that you might not get the diagnosis. Even if you do, you’ve already had a delay. You’ve already had to wait one year, two years, before you get a diagnosis and have not got supports in that interim time. So we need to move towards a needs-based system.
I also have heard from families who tell me that even if they have a diagnosis and they are able to access funding, in many parts of the province there are no services. They’re not able to get services that they know that their children and youth need.
Other parents I hear from tell me that it is just overwhelming. They don’t want to be a caseworker for their child and youth. They want to be a mom. They want to be a dad. They want to be a grandparent. There’s a strain of all the administration and finding professionals and creating a package of care for their child and youth. And they say they want help.
Moving towards this new system of a framework of child and youth support needs creates that system of help, where a family can go to a family connections centre and can explain the issues that they observe with their child’s development. Based on what the goals of that child are, the workers at the centre will allocate a key worker and then will be able to work with the family and co-create a plan and a package of services that are going to meet the needs of that youth and child and be there and offer support as that child grows and as those goals change as that child grows up and achieves their goals and help support and change and adapt where that is needed as well.
We have also heard from the independent Representative for Children and Youth that we need to move to a needs-based system. She has written at least three reports exposing the lack of a system currently, at the moment, and how different children, with or without a diagnosis, with a different diagnosis actually end up receiving different services.
Well, we need to make sure we move to a needs-based system. What that means is we identify what the needs of the child and youth are and we find the services to match. The planning of those services is in partnership with the family. Those services will be culturally safe and trauma-informed and accessible and inclusive.
In fact, even an all-party select standing committee of this Legislative Assembly also has written a report and had done consultation with families, which the ministry has also done, and also recommended moving to a needs-based system for supporting children and youth with support needs.
We are going to be continuing our engagement with service providers, with families, with advocates, with the community social services sector, with community agencies, with Indigenous partners and Indigenous rights holders as well. We have a long way to go.
The implementation of the provincial rollout is in two years time. We have a long time to do really good, meaningful and thorough engagement with everybody who is impacted and make sure that that transition is successful for all of those children and youth. They all have unique needs, and all communities have unique situations and unique needs as well.
We need to make sure that a local community agency who understands the needs of the community is able to deliver the family connections centre services. Those services might not just be at a centre but, especially for remote and rural communities, will be delivered using outreach, using in-home services, probably using satellite offices, for example, and virtual services as well.
When I was delivering services here on the south Island, we did that exact thing to be able to make sure that services were available in more remote communities. We partnered with other agencies and created a model of a multidisciplinary team with different workers from different agencies, including public health. We would have our workers out in different communities for one or two days a week in a shared space, so it was non-stigmatizing. We found that people were able to access the services with much improvement.
As I mentioned earlier on, reconciliation is a priority focus for our government and, for my ministry, it is an absolute top priority. We know that government and the Ministry of Children and Family Development has been overinvolved in the lives of Indigenous children and youth and Indigenous families. So Indigenous children and youth are overrepresented in the child welfare system and in the care system.
As I mentioned earlier on, in this context, Indigenous communities also point to the residential school system, as it was called, and the retraumatization of communities because of the recent findings as well. There is an association made between the overrepresentation of children and youth in the child welfare system and those colonial, traumatizing, harmful histories as well.
The really damaging and harmful colonial history is seen to continue to this day. This is a fundamental issue that we absolutely need to change.
My ministry is working with Indigenous people towards Indigenous communities exercising their inherent jurisdiction over child welfare. Each community will want to do that differently. We have many different pathways. We are engaging in conversations with some nations now, but all of the tables and circles are at different stages of development. There are opportunities under provincial legislation and now, with the new federal legislation, there’s the opportunity for exercising jurisdiction through a tripartite coordination agreement.
We’re hearing from nations about how they want to exercise jurisdiction. It’s not just about exercising jurisdiction. It’s also about what services will be delivered, how they will be delivered and who they will be delivered by as well. We are having those conversations with rights holders to be able to reach those agreements and to find a pathway forward for that transitioning and that implementation and for seeing Indigenous nations exercise their jurisdiction.
This is a key part of our government’s overall work to build on the passage of the Declaration Act and the action plan that has been drafted in consultation that informs our response to the act and our action under the act as well.
My ministry has written a letter of commitment to First Nations Leadership Council. We’re going to continue to work with them. It is really important that we work with rights and title holders, as well, to transform all of the ministry’s systems. Policies that the ministry makes have an impact out in the field and on the lives of children and youth.
We need to make sure that if we’re working on policies, we do that in consultation as well. As we transform services — as we transform the way that we deliver services — we need to be doing that in partnership, because it all has an impact.
We’re also, as I said, working to really address that overrepresentation of Indigenous children and youth in B.C.’s child welfare system. We have been focused since 2017 on keeping families together and keeping kids connected to family, to community and to culture. Today we have the lowest number of kids in care in 30 years and the lowest number of Indigenous kids in care in 20 years. We have done that by changing provincial legislation.
We changed the legislation so that MCFD workers are able to talk to and share information with Indigenous communities. That means that when any significant action is going to be taken with regard to the life and circumstances of an Indigenous child or youth, then the ministry will go and talk to their community. They will say: “Look, we have this concern. We think there needs to be some action taken. Do you have someone in the community who can step in and offer help and offer care and offer support and supervision?”
Many other families and community members have stepped up and said: “Yeah, we want to keep this Indigenous child or youth in our community. We will step in.” It might be an auntie or a relative or a community leader.
By increasing the rates for out-of-care carers to be on par with foster carers, we have really significantly changed the number of Indigenous children and youth in care. We have seen a 69 percent increase in the number of children and youth in out-of-care arrangements since 2018. As of December 2021, we are ensuring that more Indigenous children remain connected to family and community.
We’re making some progress, but we still have a lot more to do. All of our next steps need to be done in partnership with Indigenous peoples, with delegated Aboriginal agencies, with rights and title holders, with First Nations Leadership Council and with Indigenous communities. All of our work needs the be done in partnership.
We know that we had a child care crisis when we formed government in 2017, and the pandemic has revealed how important it is to have a system of child care. Our government is building a new social system for the first time in years in Childcare B.C. We are absolutely committed, as a government, to ensuring that all families have access to accessible and inclusive child care.
I just want to say thank you so much to the Minister of State for Child Care. She is a wonderful colleague to work with, and she is so passionate and has done so much work on this file.
It’s just a joy to see, not just in my community but across the province, the introduction of so many more child care spaces and hearing from parents who had been struggling and had been on a wait-list for such a long time that they’re able to find a child care space — what that means for them, what that means about their choices about returning to work, what that means for how they feel about the quality of that child care, and the stimulation and development that they know their child is going to get in that setting.
Of course, with the pandemic hitting as well, we knew that child care was absolutely critical, so we worked very quickly and tirelessly to support child care providers through the temporary emergency funding. We delivered $320 million to 4,500 operators. We have distributed 250,000 rapid antigen tests to providers throughout B.C., and recently we provided $20 million in one-time grants to help providers with health and safety costs.
Today tens of thousands of parents are saving up to $1,600 a month per child through the affordable child care benefit and the child care fee reduction initiative. If you add on top of that the child care opportunity benefit, as well, we’re really making life more affordable for families.
The last round of funding is going to expand $10-a-day sites by doubling existing spaces. We are further expanding Childcare B.C. centres for a total of 12,500 $10-a-day spaces by the end of this year. What that means is not just the relief for families and the affordability for families. That is leaving dollars in the pockets of parents in their local community. So parents in Esquimalt-Metchosin have more funds for them to be able to spend at the farmers market, at the corner store, at the coffee shops.
We have many coffee shops who have actually done well and been well-supported by our community during the pandemic, and food-serving businesses as well, doing takeout at times during the pandemic when that was the safest way for them to serve our community. Thank you to everybody in Esquimalt-Metchosin for supporting all of our outlets and local businesses.
Finally, we announced in the throne speech that we’re moving the responsibility of child care into the Ministry of Education this year. This transition reflects and responds to the advice from the child care sector since the launch of Childcare B.C. in 2018. It aligns with approaches that are taken by other province and territories as well.
Through this transition, I just want to express my gratitude to the Minister of Education and the Minister of State for Child Care, and all the staff and all the work that has gone on to make this seamless, as well, and work in the best interests of children, youth and families. We know that it’s not going to have a significant effect on service delivery and operations immediately. It’s possible to do this gradual transformation, but it’s been a real honour doing that cross-ministry work as well.
As we do this really important work in my ministry — we’re doing so much work — I raise my hands to all of our staff, all of the executive, all of our administrative supportive staff, all of our front-line staff and our contracted agencies, as well — Delegated Aboriginal Agencies, everybody who is delivering services to children and youth in British Columbia, especially vulnerable children and youth. I really appreciate the work that everybody does, and especially what people have been doing during the pandemic.
I know that the best way to support children and youth is through collaboration and through listening — listening to families; listening to people who are delivering services. It’s essential that we follow the values of “Nothing about us without us.” I want to say a big thank-you to children and youth and families who have shared their stories with me, with colleagues and with staff. Those stories are helping shape ministry services.
We are working to improve services for everyone that my ministry serves: youth transitioning to adulthood; children, youth with support needs and their families and keeping Indigenous children and youth out of care and safe with their families and connected to their communities and culture.
Again, I want to say thank you to everybody who is doing this work. It is absolutely critical, and I really appreciate everybody’s dedication and commitment. We’ve made so much progress. Families have benefited, especially vulnerable families, as we have made sure that we give priority through this pandemic to ensuring that supports are there, especially for vulnerable children and families.
There is a lot more to do. That was clear from this throne speech. It lights the path forward, and I look forward to supporting children, youth and families to live and grow and be safe together in the coming year.
M. Bernier: I appreciate the opportunity to stand up in the House and take my place to talk about the throne speech. Maybe first I’ll just give a shout-out to all of the constituents, the people from my riding of Peace River South, one of the furthest areas, districts, away from Victoria.
Understandably, I want to give a shout-out to the frustrations that so many of them are feeling right now, feeling like they’re not being heard by this government. When decisions are finally made, many of the people up there feel that those decisions are not being made in the best interests of people in rural British Columbia and, specifically, up in the Peace region.
Let me get into, maybe, my first comments. I don’t think I’ll have time to get through all of them at this point. Let me start with the throne speech itself. What is a throne speech — the purpose of a throne speech? I think, as we all know, what it should be about is laying out a path forward. It’s about giving a vision. It’s about trying to instil hope for the people in the province that we all collectively represent. That’s what it should be.
Unfortunately, one of the challenges I think that most of us are having…. I’m finding even the members on the government side are struggling, in a lot of ways, to point to specifics in the throne speech that are actually new about trying to give a path forward to help people of British Columbia. There was very little in it. There was 25 pages of some kind of script put on paper that was read out, but there was no substance. That is what is paramount — what should be there for this House. But for the people in the province of British Columbia, what is that vision? What is the path?
It shouldn’t be about regurgitating five years of slogans and promises that have never been fulfilled. In fact, almost every single member on the NDP side, during any speech they do, through every answer they give, through any commentary, it’s always: “There’s lots more work to do.” Well, of course there’s lots more work to do when you haven’t really done anything to begin with.
It’s been five years of this government. They continue to try to act as if they were just elected, and they’re brand new. And now: “We’re just going to start governing.” What have they done for the last five years?
I mean, housing and affordability has become one of the most paramount, one of the largest issues that the people in this province talk about and that they’re facing. This government continually talks about it being an issue. Yes, we recognize it. Yes, there’s more to do. But they haven’t followed through with almost any single commitment or promise to try to make things better, to try to make things more affordable, to try to help the people here in the province of British Columbia that are struggling.
One of the main points that I want to get to first on this, when I talk about no path forward and no vision, is talking about COVID-19, talking about the challenges that we’ve been facing now for over two years in this province. I heard nothing in this throne speech that would give any rise to optimism for our business sector, any hope for families that are struggling to maybe keep their jobs, businesses that are on the brink and some who have already paid the ultimate sacrifice by having to go bankrupt, lay off their staff because of the challenges that we’ve faced in this province.
[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]
I think it’s important to say we’ve, collectively in this House, tried to work together to do the right thing for the health, well-being and safety of the people in British Columbia. But when do we stand up and say: “Okay, we’ve done what we can. Enough is enough.” What are we doing to help the people in the next stage, which is actually a recovery, an economic recovery?
It’s a family recovery. I mean, we look at how people, how families, how loved ones have suffered over the last few years through this pandemic, how the mental health of people has been tasked, how people are struggling. Where was the vision? Where was the hope? Where was the path?
We’re seeing in other provinces…. And I’ll get to this in a little bit when I come back later. We’re seeing in other provinces that they’re understanding that we need to move to a different perspective, a different level of restrictions or no restrictions. All I’ve been asking for and all we’re asking for is: what’s the plan here? Where’s the data to support the decisions that are being made?
I’ll get into that a little bit more when I take my place again after the lunch break, because I know it’s an issue that’s very important to many people in this province that are trying to understand the decisions that are being made, that are trying to do the right thing and support the rules that are put in place but are also asking: “What’s next? Where do we go from here? Where is the path out of this?” Where do we see ourselves not in a year from now but, I’m talking, like, in a month from now or next week? What is the plan?
With that, hon. Speaker, I will reserve my place in the debate and move adjournment of the debate.
M. Bernier moved adjournment of debate.
Motion approved.
Mr. Speaker: Government House Leader.
Hon. A. Dix: Thank you very much, hon. Speaker. It’s good to see you.
We’ll see everyone back after the lunch hour. I move the House do now adjourn.
Hon. A. Dix moved adjournment of the House.
Motion approved.
Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until 1 p.m.
The House adjourned at 11:53 a.m.