Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued duress…. Address in reply to the throne speech.

Throne Speech Debate

(continued)

M. Bernier: Thank you to the Government House Leader for that. Bit of a chuckle before I get into my comments here.

Right before lunch, when I was speaking…. Maybe I’ll just try to capture a little bit about what I was talking about right before lunch, before I move into a different train of thought.

[R. Leonard in the chair.]

It was really around the struggles that we were talking about in the province of British Columbia right now with families — individuals in every corner of the province — on the management and the future planning, or lack thereof that it appears to be, that we’re seeing on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Look, I’m sure every MLA in this House — regardless of us in opposition, government, third party — are getting the same emails. I’ll tell you, the majority of the emails that I’m getting now start with: “I am vaccinated, but I can no longer understand the rationale for some of the decisions this government is making.” What people are asking for is a clear path forward — the data to be presented — so people can understand the rationale for the decisions that are being made.

People have spent the last couple of years — the majority of people — trying to do the right thing. I look…. Even in my riding now, I believe we’re up in the 80, 85 percent region now for being vaccinated. And the frustration that many people are facing now is….

[1:05 p.m.]

You know, we always talk about the goalposts moving. Well, with this throne speech, there aren’t even goalposts anymore. There’s nothing. There was nothing presented that would say to people: “This is what we’re doing as a government to get through the rest of the pandemic, so you can plan accordingly.”

What we’re asking for…. I know what most people are just saying is: “Look, show us the evidence. Show us the data. Explain to us now why these decisions are being made.” We’ve forgotten about the people, I think, in a lot of ways throughout this. People are asking these questions. “Do I get to go to my child’s graduation?” “Do I get to go see my loved one who’s in a care home, possibly dying?” The rules keep changing, and people don’t know.

From a business perspective, I continue to have a hard time explaining the rationale for some of the decisions this government is making, because government is not pre­senting the data. By that, I say a clear understanding of the rationale for the decisions they’re making. If you close down a gym, where is the information that explains why that’s the best thing to be doing? If you’re restricting the hours that a restaurant can be open or having to prove vaccination status to go into a restaurant….

All people are saying is: “Fine. I’ve been vaccinated, and I can go in there, but explain to me how this is now still solving a problem.” People deserve that information, because they no longer are trusting the Premier and this government when they just stand up and say: “Trust us.” They want to know. They deserve to know. People have been trying to do the right thing.

I’ll go back to restaurants and businesses. Again, I know I’m not the only one who is getting the cries in the office of “I’ve tried to do the right thing, I’m trying to follow the rules, and because of that, I’ve lost 40, 50, 60 percent of my revenue. Because of that, I’ve had to lay off 50 percent if not more of my staff.”

Because of that, we’ve got businesses around British Columbia that have actually not survived and have gone bankrupt and had to shutter their doors — unfortunately most of them, I would say, permanently, and because of doing that right thing, we have businesses that are on the brink — days, weeks away from having to make that decision of “can I afford to stay in business.”

They’re asking for clear direction from this government. If the government is going to continue on having restrictions that are going to affect businesses, then they need to understand so they can make a financial decision now, not dig a deeper hole and then, six months from now, have to go bankrupt with huge debts. That’s not fair.

It’s not fair for parents to have to be trying to decide now whether they’re going to be able to plan or go to a birthday, a funeral, a graduation. The reason why I say it’s not fair is because the government is not giving clear direction. That’s what people are asking for. Government owes that to them, and they should have the guts to say: “This is what we’re doing, and this is why we’re doing it.” They’re forgetting the latter part. They’re saying: “This is what we’re doing, but we’re not going to tell you why.” That’s why people are losing trust and getting frustrated.

Again, nobody will argue the fact that we’re all trying to do the right thing for the health and well-being of the citizens of this province. We know that’s what this is about. But if that’s truly what it’s about, then government needs to do a better job explaining what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, for the health and well-being of people.

You know, in the throne speech, again, there wasn’t a lot, but I’ll stay on a health care theme for a moment. As I mentioned in the first part of my speech, a throne speech is supposed to be about what we’re doing going forward, what the plan is, what the vision is, giving some hope for the people of British Columbia that yes, you elected the right party, because this is what we’re going to do.

Instead, this throne speech was: “You elected us, and we made a whole bunch of promises. I’m so sorry, but we didn’t actually fulfil any of them, but look how great those promises were.” This throne speech was unlike anything that I’ve ever really seen before. It was a backwards-looking throne speech, not a forward-looking throne speech. Really, it was all slogans, but, I mean, you go back to: “Oh, we’ve got all this great health care in our province.” In the middle of saying that, our health care system is literally crumbling.

[1:10 p.m.]

How can government say that, as one of the few things in their throne speech that was supposed to be optimistic? They said: “Look how great our health care system is.” To me, what that shows is how out of touch this government is with what’s happening on the ground. I’ve got a riding like mine that would hear a throne speech that says, “Look how great health care is,” and they’d turn around and say: “Have you not been listening?”

We have hospitals in my riding, and all over the pro­vince, that have been having to continually go into diversion. Women who were ready to give birth were told: “Sorry, you can’t come to the hospital. Go find somewhere else to go.” People who’ve been lined up for desperately needed surgeries were told: “Sorry, we’re cancelling them.”

Now, we can get into a debate at a later time on the cause and effect of what COVID has had on it. But that’s not what this about. This is about lack of understanding and lack of commitment to fix a problem.

Interjection.

M. Bernier: Well, I appreciate the member acknowl­edging the new hospital that I announced in Dawson Creek that got the ball rolling, and I’m really glad that the NDP haven’t cancelled that project. I will give them credit for that.

Interjections.

M. Bernier: I always appreciate to get heckled. Obviously, what that means is that you hit a sore spot, that they’re not able to fulfil any of their promises so have to dig up stuff from the past. I always really appreciate that.

I mean, really, when you go back to the narrative and the issue that we are trying to talk about…. I’ll get to the Minister of Energy and Mines in a second and all the failures and the problems we’re having in my riding with his ministry. But let me finish on Health first, before I jump into all the challenges that he’s having.

When you look around the province…. I want to speak specifically to my riding right now — hospitals on diversion, people not getting the basic care that they need and deserve, health care workers who are stressed out, who are having to go on sick leave, who are stepping away from the profession because of the stress, mental anxiety, that they’re going through because of shortages. This is nothing new because of COVID. This has been going on for years. I’ll acknowledge that.

This government has done nothing. They’ve been in government for five years, and every year they say: “We understand it’s an issue.” But they’ve done nothing about it.

We have a small community like Chetwynd that’s trying to survive with a hospital with two or three nurses who are having to work shifts and double shifts, who are having to face people in the community and say: “I’m sorry. I cannot work anymore right now. I’m exhausted.” And the hospital has to close down for a couple of days because of that. The health care workers don’t want to see that either. That’s not the profession they got into. But they need help.

We have families on waiting lists all around this province. All people were expecting of the throne speech is…. Don’t say how great it is when it’s not and we’re struggling. Say what you’re going to do to make it better. You can’t, as a government, keep saying there’s more to do when you’re not doing anything to begin with. You’ve got to start somewhere. Five years into a mandate, to start saying: “Don’t worry. We’re going to start governing….” Well, what have you done for the last five years? People are paying the price right now in the province of British Columbia.

Since I get heckled by the Minister of Energy and Mines, I think that really opens the door for me to really talk about some of the struggles in my riding. I’m one of the only places in the province, in the Peace region, where we have oil and gas development. It’s something that has been paramount for so long to bring revenue to the government, to employ tens of thousands of people in B.C., to ensure it helps communities grow and thrive. This government doesn’t even talk about it. Not only do they not talk about it, it appears that they’re putting every barrier in place to get rid of an industry that has helped build this province.

[1:15 p.m.]

The minister can chuckle all he wants. Maybe he’s not hearing from the same companies that I talk to in boardrooms in Texas and in Calgary who are saying: “Guess what. That $2 billion that we had planned to invest in British Columbia has now been moved to Alberta. Those 800 people that we had planned on employing this year through drilling and pipeline operations in the Peace region…. We hate to say that’s on hold.” The uncertainty that this government has created is scaring businesses away. There is no disputing that. There’s no argument there.

If the minister wants to stand up later and explain to me that all these companies who are publicly saying they’re moving out of the province or not investing…. If those companies are wrong…. This is not me saying it. These are the large corporations who employ and invest billions and billions of dollars in our province who are saying: “We don’t know if our investment is safe in British Columbia anymore. It is too uncertain to know that if we’re going to start drilling operations, this government may or may not even give us a permit to tie it in for gas to flow.”

You can look at the dollar figures that have diminished in the budget because of resource development, the revenue that comes to this government, that helps build schools, that helps build hospitals, and this government has walked away from it.

I plead to the minister to prove me wrong. Please get these people investing here. I want to see the people in my region working. I want to see more families moving to my region so they can have a job, afford to buy a house and continue on. But we’re not seeing that.

The government makes unilateral announcements about shutting down swaths of the back country in my region for sports access — whether it be hunting, snowmobiling, what have you — without listening to any piece of consultation that was given to them when they were finally, basically, forced to talk to people. They didn’t listen to anything.

We had snowmobile clubs that gave 500 hours of their time to give what they thought would be a compromise, to say: “Look, we can still operate here. We won’t go there because there are caribou or wildlife.” They were trying to find a compromise. I thought it was very respectful, the way that they were trying to approach the situation. What was disrespectful was how they were treated by government.

It’s no wonder, when you see things like that happen, that the fear that’s going across the resource sector, whether it’s oil and gas, forestry, mining, all for different reasons…. But the overall arching theme is: “We don’t know if investments are safe in British Columbia under this government. We don’t know what the forward-looking plan is to support us.”

Or maybe not. If that’s this government’s choice…. If they want to continue shutting down oil and gas development, if they want to continue reducing forestry operations, if they want to continue holding up mining permits, well, I guess that’s their choice. They are the governing body with a majority, but they also have to understand the consequences that has and be willing to stand up and face that and be accountable for those decisions. They’re failing to do the latter part of that.

Nothing really highlights more how people have been abandoned by this government than what we’ve seen over the last 7½ months with the people in Lytton. It’s appalling. I don’t know how members on the government side can look in the mirror when they say, “We’re doing everything we can to help the people of British Columbia,” when you have people, for 7½ months, who lost absolutely everything, who are living in hotels, living in friends’ basements, living in cars, living wherever they can find a place to basically stay alive and have been pleading to this government for help and support.

[1:20 p.m.]

The opposition member that represents that area has stood up in this House numerous times with emotional pleas, saying: “Help.” It’s not a political issue. This should be about helping people, people in a crisis.

I mean, we went through a heat dome. I won’t read into the record again the comments from our Premier and government of their lack of empathy towards people who suffered and lost their lives in the heat dome. We’ve had unprecedented floods and massive wildfire problems around the province this year that took communities by surprise, that had families and businesses lose everything. Government can say it’s unprecedented; I’ll even agree that a lot of that was unprecedented.

The difference is how a government handles a situation. You can’t keep using the words, “it’s unprecedented,” and then hide from it — that’s not leadership; that’s not governing — for 7½ months of waiting. Is it going to be eight? Is it going to be nine? Is it a year? We don’t know, because this government has given no hope to the people who have lost everything. We’re going to have conversations later. I know I can’t discuss a bill on the floor, but it’s around this exact issue of the misguided direction from this government, of what the priorities are.

I listened to the throne speech, even though I did see members nodding off. I understand why that would happen, because there wasn’t a lot of substance there to keep people awake. It’s interesting when you have a throne speech that’s full of slogans, where it’s a government patting themselves on the back for things they didn’t do. I find that very fascinating. It’s also a throne speech that was very silent, very void of acknowledging certain promises that they’ve obviously backed away from and that they don’t want to talk about.

We talk about affordability. Well, affordability is one of the huge issues. We talked about government saying that there’s more to do, yet they didn’t talk about the $400 rebate they’ve been promising almost every single year. I’ll give them credit. Maybe it’s supposed to be a big surprise that they didn’t talk about in their throne speech, because the $400 rebate is in the budget that’ll be presented here in just less than two weeks. I guess there’s still hope for the people here in the province, for this government to finally, after five years, come good on some of their promises.

One of the ones, I thought, was really interesting. Just a short year or two years ago this government talked about affordability and said that one of the hugest issues we need to tackle is cell phone bills: “We’re going to task somebody in this House, in government, to make sure cell phone bills are reduced.” Well, that never happened. Not only did it not happen — it’s surprisingly absent from the throne speech — yet it was such a pillar of: “This is what we’re going to do to make life more affordable.”

In the throne speech, it talked about “life more affordable” and tax reductions, but they forgot to mention: “Oh, by the way, we’ve increased or added 23 new taxes that mostly affect the lower and middle class in the province of British Columbia.”

Interjection.

M. Bernier: Is it 26 now? My apologies. It’s 26. Yeah. Realistically, it’ll be 30, probably, by the end of this year, the way it goes with this government.

We cannot tax our way to affordability. As we heard, we cannot tax our way to putting a roof over somebody’s head either. There’s a surprising epiphany that only took five years for some members of government to realize.

[1:25 p.m.]

I know I’m running out of time. I just want to, maybe, wrap up with this. People expect their government to govern; people expect their leaders to be leaders. These last couple of years have been challenging for everybody in this House, when we’ve all been trying to work together. We need to make sure, going forward, that we send a clear message to the people of British Columbia of what the intentions of this government are.

This government lost a massive opportunity to do that by putting forward a throne speech of nothings. There is a reason why almost every news outlet didn’t even cover the throne speech. There’s a reason why almost every news outlet said there was nothing there. It’s because there was nothing there. How is it fair — after five years of having a political organization governing, or pretending to govern, the province — to not give any hope to the people of B.C.?

People deserve better. People need to know what the direction is going to be. As I was talking about, people are really struggling and really suffering right now in the province, whether it be from COVID, whether it be from mental health and addictions. This, as we’ve seen, has been a huge, huge negative issue for this government because of the impacts that it’s had on people and families. Many of us lived through it with loved ones or with friends, yet hardly anything is talked about.

We need to start getting to what’s important for families, for the future of this province, for the next generation, because having a government that appears to be in a holding pattern on almost every issue is not going to help families. It’s not going to help people want to stay in British Columbia. It’s not going to help people prosper in this great province.

I know that in my riding, I’m constantly hearing of people and businesses that are now having to move to Alberta, which reminds me of the last time the NDP government were in power. I want to see those people stay here; I want to see those families stay here. We need to do a better job to ensure that happens, and I’m asking government to do a better job for the people of British Columbia.

Deputy Speaker: I want to recognize the member for Vernon-Monashee.

H. Sandhu: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s so great to see you.

I would like to begin my response to the throne speech by acknowledging that today I am virtually joining this session from the traditional Syilx territory of the Oka­nagan Indian Nations. I want to thank them for their stewardship of this land.

I always feel so grateful and humble to get the opportunity to represent one of the most beautiful constituencies, Vernon-Monashee.

I want to give a shout-out to the people of my constituency for doing such an amazing job of showing kindness to support one another during the difficult years — whether it was people helping vulnerable people during COVID, neighbours opening their doors to the people who were evacuated during fires, restaurants providing free meals, businesses like Vernon Teach and Learn putting up little kids’ care packages to give to evacuees, non-profit organizations ramping up their operations to support people in need, or communities getting together every evening to cheer on firefighters during fires.

[1:30 p.m.]

I had the opportunity to go there in the evenings with my son and my kids to show support. It was powerful to see how communities come together. I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who pulled together in order to help us to get through the difficult times of the last year.

I’d like to give kudos to our wonderful and hard-working staff at the B.C. Legislature for everything they do, whether it’s making sure we have both in-person and virtual access, for several other reasons, and for doing important duties to help us all.

I also want to thank my LA, Pavanpreet, for his ongoing support. It’s over a year now. He’s been amazing and so helpful.

I would be remiss if I did not, once again, thank my staff. I want to congratulate my CAs and proudly acknowl­edge, at the Vernon constituency office, Emily and Josh. It’s now well over a year since they both have taken this role, and they are doing a terrific job. Despite many challenges we had faced along with other communities, Josh and Emily worked tirelessly to support people — not only people from Vernon-Monashee. They also helped people from the neighbouring ridings when needed, especially during fires and even now, at times.

Thank you, both, for your dedication and enthusiasm you show every single day to work for the betterment of people and for being very responsive.

It’s been over a year since I got elected. As we know, the last year has been very difficult for people in B.C., as we faced many challenges due to the pandemic and, later, fires, a heat dome, floods and the ongoing opioid crisis. My heart goes out to the families who have lost their loved ones during these catastrophic events, the pandemic and to the opioid crisis. I know leaving a loved one and losing a loved one leaves agony and a big hole in our hearts that never heals and a void that can never be filled. I’ve been there. My condolences to each and every one of you.

That is why I speak in favour of this throne speech, because the work we do as elected officials should always focus on keeping people safe to prevent such losses and devastation. I am speaking to you to support this, and I will highlight some of the key areas — why I think this throne speech really focuses on people and focuses on the work we need, moving ahead. It plans to support people.

In B.C., we’re already leading in the strongest economy and recovery in Canada, and we need to continue our focus in the direction we’re moving. In the year ahead, we will continue to improve health care, fight climate change, make life more affordable and train our future workforce. We will be tying minimum wage increases to the rate of inflation while working with our post-secondary education to develop the talent B.C. needs over the next ten years. Thinking ahead of time, being proactive, is the key to filling that skill gap.

We will also continue with our historic expansion of child care in the province, creating more safe, affordable and nurturing spaces for kids so parents can pursue educational and career goals. Together these actions will ensure that business owners can find the staff, the skills they need so people in Vernon and in B.C. — in Vernon-Monashee and the surrounding communities — continue to support our local businesses. These businesses are the heart of our community, and I am glad that we are all working toward a better future for B.C.

New hospitals are being built, modernized and expanded throughout B.C. This includes Surrey hospital, Richmond Hospital. As members have mentioned, the Kamloops and Nanaimo cancer centres, which are in concept building. We are building many of the hospitals and hospitals that the previous government refused to build when they sold the land to developers.

It’s a reality. I know some members still get upset, but people need to know, when they complain about the lineups in Surrey Memorial Hospital and what’s happening now. They need to know what got us there. There is no more passionate person than somebody who has been in health care for over a decade and a half. They can tell.

[1:35 p.m.]

One can disagree. They can find these speeches empty, but there is so much opportunity. We just need to look at it.

I will be giving examples of how my community has benefited from some of the recent investment in all sectors — better housing, child care, mental health, recovery beds — that are made. They are made right here in Vernon-Monashee and many other ridings. I’ll be highlighting some of the work, because I know some members in the opposition are having a hard time seeing the positive outcomes and positive delivery — the impact these investments are having. Again, I’ll highlight the positive impacts that my community is having.

These important additions to communities are vital. Recently I took a tour at Vernon’s ambulance paramedic station. I learned that before 2017, they only had three ambulances. Now they have six ambulances, six duty cars and two spares. This is how the resources are being added.

They also were very grateful and happy with the Health Minister’s initiatives to add more services and improvement in Vernon and area. They are reassured that more supports will be in place as needed, as they felt supported since 2017, since our government became the government.

I want to acknowledge and thank front-line workers, including paramedics, doctors, nurses, therapists and care aides and many unsung heroes who often we forget to mention: our housekeeping staff; support staff, from dietary to lab techs; imaging staff; porters; administrative staff; and many more.

In the last couple of years, they have been so busy making sure, saving lives, helping people. Many health care workers recently, as we talked about, including my husband and community, accepted the redeployment to long-term-care centres in Vernon, with COVID outbreaks, and in Lumby. I want to thank them for showing their commitment to look after vulnerable people when they need it the most. I get to hear every day, from my husband and my older daughter, who also works at Vernon Jubilee Hospital in support services, about how these amazing health care workers have been working tirelessly.

I heard a previous member talking about the COVID guidelines being unclear or people not knowing where to go. I want to remind all of us that this new virus, which no one wanted or expected, is ever-evolving. It’s called novel. It’s a new virus, and it’s been with variants. We are learning about it as we go.

When we are frustrated about the changes or we want to plan our lives, including myself…. We all want to plan our lives ahead, but we are not there. I also want to remind the member that it’s not the government officials, including the opposition members, who make these decisions. We all know that we’ve given this authority to our health experts who are well versed in the pandemic and these situations: Dr. Bonnie Henry and her amazing team.

I agree. Some decisions…. Everybody may not agree, but they’re doing their very, very best to keep people safe. There is a reason we have the lowest per-capita mortality rate. But not seeing that every single person who passed away was somebody’s loved one.

Sometimes during the argument, our offices get emails, and I empathize with people who are exhausted. I want to remind them that every…. If sometimes they say this percentage is small, that percentage had somebody’s loved one. Those people are not just a number.

What we need to do: just be grateful, and be patient, and think about the health care workers, as I mentioned, including my family members who accepted, happily, the redeployment. We had a great discussion in the family — what do we do? — because we have an almost-six-year-old son at home who, at the time, didn’t have any shot. Now he’s got the first dose.

The impacts are on the older parents at home. We said: “Somebody has to do it, and let’s do it.” So there are people who are putting themselves in harm’s way to help save lives. That’s where we need to be grateful.

I am happy our government invested $900 million in the new funding for testing, contact tracing, personal protective equipment.

[1:40 p.m.]

I think I mentioned during my previous speeches that since COVID came, I personally worked from February until the end of November on a COVID unit. I know that, initially, there were a lot of concerns, a lot of worries, a lot of fear about what will happen. PPE was being locked to make sure…. People were taking away from the unit — not the staff. But there’s another story. But later, as the government invested, we got the PPE we needed. Not only that; we got the respirator masks, which are even way more effective than N95.

Government and Dr. Bonnie Henry and the team have been doing such a great job to support all of us, and we felt that. I still, as I said, get to hear every single day, every evening from two of my family members.

Some of these issues are…. We should put our politics aside and accept it if there are questions. I had questions. Minister Dix and Dr. Henry always answered those questions when in doubt and when constituents ask: “Why this decision?” Most of the times, those concerns are addressed in their briefing.

One day my daughter was saying…. By the way, she is doing her third year in microbiology, so she will be a microbiologist next year. She said: “These are, some of them, very simple questions, Mom. I wonder if some people who are frustrated even watch the briefing. If they did, it would help them a lot, and it’ll make sense. Some of the decisions will make a lot of sense.”

As I said, not every decision you might agree with, but it’s an ever-evolving virus, and their attempt is to keep people safe so we don’t have any more loss of lives. I wanted to share these thoughts.

I want to say that whether members of the opposition agree or not, what the reality is, is the historic investments to support health services, mental health initiatives have helped a lot of people. Yes, we need to continue to build on the progress, and that’s why we say we need to do more. Why? Because prior to 2017, under the B.C. Liberal government, we had no consistent supports or such investments in place. In fact, they closed Riverview overnight, which left hundreds of vulnerable people on the street with nowhere to go and no place to take care of them.

I chuckle when I hear members of the opposition talk like socialists, which is great, yet they have the track record of continuing to slash services, including privatization and chronic underfunding during their time as government, which left us with massive challenges that we’re trying to address.

Under jobs and opportunity, again, helping people for the jobs for the future — the generational commitments to develop the talent B.C. needs over the next ten years. As I said, moving forward not only in the job sector, infrastructure. We have had an urgent primary care centre in Vernon, an MRI in Vernon, which is helping lots of people to get quicker tests done, quicker diagnoses.

Before, we would have to send people to Kelowna, wait for the appointment. We were sending a nurse with them. We were calling another nurse to backfill. We were paying for an entire team. So I always say investments in people, upfront investments, save us a lot of money. And not only money, it saves lives, and it improves better quality patient care.

I also want to appreciate the initiative of our government moving forward on reconciliation by working on implementation of the Declaration Act and action plan drafted in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, and improving management of lands and resources by creating a new ministry to better support the goals of reconciliation, economic development and environmental protection. These are the actions that we are taking to have a meaningful reconciliation.

A previous opposition member was talking about health care, the challenges. I want to respectfully remind the member that over the last 17 years, working with two different health authorities before getting elected, in various health care settings, along with many of my colleagues, I have personally witnessed and lived through the massive health care cuts, austerity and privatization of their B.C. Liberal government.

[1:45 p.m.]

My LPN colleagues and many hospital support services staff in health care struggled financially due to massive 10 percent wage rollbacks under their B.C. Liberal government. So it seems pretty rich when I hear this, and I just sit back and think of the flashbacks of those times.

I am grateful that we are continuing on the path that we’ve created. There is nothing wrong with saying we have much more to do, because in order to fix the disaster and mess that was caused by chronic underfunding and privatization, it’s going to take time.

We are eagerly and continually working to make the difference and add those services. We’ve seen it, whether those services are hiring mental health substance use teams or opening up the safe drug supply sites. We have one in Vernon. I’m confident that having a dedicated group of people in this House will focus on working together, as all of us are here to serve our constituents and to make lives better.

Now I’ll touch upon child care. Our government’s commitment to expand our child care and early learning to create jobs, stimulate the economy, to make sure children can have the best possible start in life, is a much appreciated effort by many parents. I talk to many parents and I have a young child of my own. The nurturing care and investment…. Our government acknowledged that the early years of a child’s life leads to lasting and positive impacts. This also enhances their mental health from early on. Investing in child care is investing in B.C.’s future.

In B.C., thousands of families are already benefiting from $10-a-day child care. Our government has opened and plans to open hundreds of new child care centres. I think it’s over 300 child care spaces and more in Vernon and Coldstream, which is going to help many parents. Recently I got the opportunity to join the mayor of Coldstream and other local leaders to do their groundbreaking for Coldstream hall and child care centre, with 84 spaces.

When some members say: “Where are those spaces…?” We just need to look around in our own constituencies, and we’ll find them. We need to talk to parents, I agree. We are continuing to build on the promise we’re making. These 84 spaces in Coldstream are in addition to hundreds of other child care spaces that have been added to our communities.

During fall 2021, our government released a robust economic recovery plan, which is already supporting businesses. Tourism, farming and small businesses are some of the major contributions to our economy in Vernon-Monashee. Steps taken by our government to support our businesses through property tax cuts, deferred tax payments and B.C. Hydro rate relief and small and medium-sized business recovery grants during COVID was much appreciated. It helped businesses to stay afloat.

I do appreciate our government’s ongoing support to provide millions to child care providers, school boards and health authorities to help them deliver COVID-safe care and renovations to create more spaces.

Our government has also delivered hundreds of affordable and supportive and accessible housing units in Vernon. These have changed many people’s lives. I greatly appreciate the addition of, I believe, 464 or more affordable housing units in Vernon and area since 2018 — so merely within 3½ years — plus 100 units of student housing at the Okanagan College, Vernon campus. That investment is expanded to Salmon Arm with 60 units.

This is the first student housing of its kind ever. We never had any student housing in Vernon. Let alone, our government also invested in, I believe, 236 housing in Okanagan College campus in Kelowna, which we’ll probably never hear about from other members. I know during the announcement of this is when I learned that, and I did go to that Okanagan College campus during the last summer and got to hear more from the team there — and housing at the UBCO campus.

These are the initiatives…. The reason I’m highlighting…. Why can’t some members find these investments?

[1:50 p.m.]

These 100 housing units in Vernon will free up the housing within the town, which can go to individuals and families in need. I thank our government for paying attention to this long overlooked and ignored issue of affordable housing in Vernon-Monashee. Measures taken to address the long overlooked housing crisis, implementation of a speculation tax, which freed up approximately 18,000 houses for people to live. The foreign buyer tax was another tool and addressing money laundering in the housing market.

It’s important to know what got us here, and we need to work together to find solutions instead of talking about abolishing the speculation tax, protecting people buying homes in volatile markets by introducing a cooling off period on home purchases — another tool that our government is going to add in the kit in order to address the housing crisis.

At the end, I would like to remind everyone that once this pandemic is over, life will be back to normal. But people will remember how we make others feel and how we behaved or supported one another during these times.

Let’s be kind and understanding toward each other, regardless of our beliefs or political affiliation. Let’s not judge others or hate each other based on our own biases or for being disagreed with each other. Behind those beliefs or political affiliations, there is a human being whose journey might have been so tough, or maybe they are having a hard day, as we all do at times. Our kids are also witnessing these times and watching our behaviour.

Let’s try to have respectful conversations in order to understand each other better and to build bridges to end divisiveness, rather than attacking each other or being verbally abusive at someone, which we witnessed, who is just doing their job. Let’s remember that everybody is equally exhausted, as we all are. Yes, we all want this to end. None of us wish this pandemic. We need to show unity, kindness and understanding more than ever.

Once again I would like to end my speech with my favourite quote from John Mark Green: “Everyone has a history. What you do with it is up to you. Some people repeat it. Some learn from it. The really special ones use it to help others.”

I do hope that 2022 will be a kinder and better year for everyone. I do welcome the announcements and the progress that we’re making in Vernon-Monashee. People I talk to, they’re very appreciative. Recently I had the chance to attend a parade. My heart was full to see so much appreciation, clapping, shout-outs for the work we’re doing. I don’t take credit. It’s teamwork. It’s all of us, no matter where you sit. It’s all of us. Let’s continue to do the work. We are all here to represent people.

I would say the investments — what’s made or what’s not…. Sometimes we often forget in order to criticize, we are in that mode to forget to highlight the services people have that they can access. During fires, we noticed people came to our office from other areas. They didn’t know the services that were in place, because they were told there were no such services. My staff graciously connected them with the services. So we need to be mindful.

It’s okay. I know we all have jobs. Opposition has a job to criticize and highlight the gaps or what. I respect that. But it’s also okay to appreciate what initiatives are being taken, what services we have in place, so we can tell people and so people can benefit, rather than, when we as leaders, say there is no such thing. If I am standing here saying there is no daycare space in my community, there is no housing…. But those units that are built, people will never get to go explore the options to submit their applications.

Once again, thank you, everyone in this House, for doing the amazing job you do, no matter which side you sit on. Thank you to my staff. Thank you to the community of Vernon-Monashee. I would say thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak and share my thoughts.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Be kind to yourself and others.

[1:55 p.m.]

M. Morris: It has been mentioned a couple of times by my colleagues and, I think, probably by some commentators out in the media about how boring this speech was. I sat here listening and expecting, any moment now, that I would be invigorated and I would be enthused, but I wasn’t.

I mentioned this to one of my colleagues when I was leaving here. It reminded me more of when, years ago, somebody was trying to introduce me to some dietary biscuits. They were fat-free. They were gluten-free. They were sugar-free. It was like biting into air. I got absolutely nothing out of it. That’s the metaphor that I got out of this throne speech.

The throne speech is traditionally a visionary statement. It lays out the path forward for government and an opportunity for us in opposition to have a look and see what direction that government is going and see if we can help guide them in another direction, perhaps, or support them, depending on where they want to go.

As I heard a commentator say on Tuesday morning, this speech had very few forward-looking statements, and there was more time spent looking at the past. There is more time speaking about past commitments that have not yet been accomplished. I tend to agree with that.

In all the leadership courses I’ve taken and all the direction I’ve received from many good mentors over the years, true leadership articulates that vision for the future and establishes a path forward for everybody to follow. I was looking for a vision about, perhaps, better economic times, environmental stability throughout the province, a zero opioid death rate across the province, and perhaps mental illness treatment centres across the province. But I didn’t see any of that in there. No, this speech was not about finding a pathway.

I’ve said this before. I had a mentor inculcate this into my brain when I was getting into more senior leadership roles, and he said that by continually looking backwards at where you’ve come from, you will continually run into the obstacles of the future. I think they’re right, and we have a lot of obstacles in front of us. That is the importance of establishing the pathway of where we want to go and how we’re going to negotiate around the obstacles that we will certainly come across.

One of my mentors, Stephen Covey, talked about whitewater. When you’re heading down the rivers in the whitewater, you’ve got to look way ahead. You ‘ve got to make your decision long before you get to the rapids. Otherwise, you won’t make it down in one piece.

I’m going to focus a lot of my discussion on forestry. But before I go into forestry, I want to focus on a couple of other little things. One of them is that government talks about high employment, and that’s great. We all want high employment and, currently this province is experiencing some pretty good employment figures. But someday…. I don’t know whether this government is preparing for that. What happens when LNG Canada is completed, and those thousands of workers who are employed in the constructing that particular facility no longer have jobs in British Columbia?

What happens when the Coastal Gaslink project, which cuts through my riding and several other ridings in the province, is completed next year, and those workers are no longer employed?

[2:00 p.m.]

What happens when the Trans Mountain Pipeline extension gets completed in the not-too-distant future, and those workers no longer have employment? What happens with Site C, when that’s completed?

There was nothing in this throne speech that gave me any comfort as to how government plans on employing everybody once all these projects are completed — nothing. That’s problematic, because people plan on that.

You know, there are a lot of workers right now in construction, and it doesn’t matter what part of the construction they’re in, who know that they have an end date coming pretty quick. What are they going to do after that? They may end up having to leave this province if there are no other projects in the works and go somewhere else.

We just had another mine cancelled on us, through the environmental review process. That’s not going ahead. When we look at this government’s statements that they’ve made in the past about electrifying British Columbia, bringing more smart cars or electric vehicles online, more charging stations online, that only comes from the ground. That copper comes from the ground. The aluminum for our transmission lines that we’ll soon be hooking up to Site C comes from the ground. So we need to be pursuing these with vigour.

I once had a pretty good working knowledge with the Charter of Rights as a police officer. Of course, it came in, in ’82. I’d been a police officer for about ten years by that time. That really changed how we looked at things. But then as a senior manager in the RCMP, I also had to stay up to speed on the various court decisions that impact the Charter. We have done a tremendous job in this province and this country with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It came in, in 1982 but has had all kinds of challenges against it and definitions rendered through various Supreme Court of Canada decisions. I look at the decades of work that has been done defining section 35 of the Charter, Aboriginal rights.

The current haze that we see around this as a result of the UNDRIP, the piece of legislation that…. I remember when we discussed it, and it was voted unanimously in the House. But the minister confirmed several times during the debate on that particular statute that it had no force and effect in law, and it doesn’t. But one of the reasons I voted for it and, I’m sure, many of my other colleagues voted for it was that just about every article in UNDRIP or in the Declaration Act is covered off under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada — every single one of them — and, in fact, in a more fulsome way. That was established in 1982.

When I say “in a more fulsome way,” I go back to…. I was in charge of the Nass Valley RCMP detachment in the late ’80s. Frank Calder popped up for a visit one time, and I was able to have a chit-chat with him. Frank Calder was one of the first…. He was an MLA. He was an NDP MLA years ago, and then he became a Social Credit member as well.

He took a case to court in British Columbia, and it ultimately landed in the Supreme Court of Canada, the Calder case. That particular case from 1973 determined that Aboriginal land rights survived European settlement and remain valid unless extinguished by treaty or otherwise. That was an earth-shattering decision back in that particular time.

Then in 1982, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, section 35, came into force. In 1984, Guerin vs. The Queen was another monumental milestone case that addressed sovereignty of Canada on the lands. And 1990 was the Sparrow decision, confirming that the section 35 Constitution Act protected all Aboriginal rights that had not been extinguished prior to 1982.

Then in 1996 were ones that I started getting involved in as a senior manager. The Gladstone decision recognized that in order to reconcile the existence of distinctive Aboriginal societies within the assertion of sovereignty, limitations on some Aboriginal rights may be required.

[2:05 p.m.]

Then, of course, in ’97…. We heard the great tributes to Chief Delgamuukw yesterday in this House here. Again, that was one of the decisions that…. I think I had four briefings on that decision in one week, from the Department of Justice, from the RCMP lawyers, from the provincial lawyers and from the First Nations lawyers that were involved in that case.

Then we went on to 2004, which was another very meaningful case, which was Haida. I think my colleague from Skeena has talked about that case many, many times in the past. The Tsilhqot’in decision in 2014 was another one that distinguished Aboriginal title and a three-part test that was required to determine what Aboriginal title was. Then in 2017, the Ktunaxa Nation was another one that summarized just about everything. It was more into the consultation process.

These are all things that define what our Charter is and what it’s all about in a very meaningful and complete and fulsome way. Now, there are going to be more Charter challenges over the years, because that’s what our system’s all about — to clarify. Things change. Societies change. The courts take all that into consideration. All legislation in B.C. and Canada needs to be in compliance with our Charter.

I look at the statement that was in the throne speech that government’s working on their declaration action plan. I applaud them for that. I applaud them for the steps that they’re taking in involving First Nations in the discussions, in moving forward in the agreements that they have with the First Nations. But the Charter overrides that, and the Charter will guide that. We need certainty.

Now, on page 9 of the throne speech, government says: “The goal from the beginning has been to deliver better care, faster and closer to where you live.” They’re referring to health care. I’m assuming that they mean, when they talk about the beginning, that is when they assumed government in 2017.

My colleague from Peace River South brought this up when he was speaking about the hospitals being on diversion. Mackenzie hospital, in my riding, a small community. It used to be well over 6,000 people; now it is barely meeting the 3,000 mark. It’s been on diversion dozens of times in the last few years. Granted we have COVID, but it’s a hospital that is two hours’ drive from the nearest hospital, which is in Prince George. To have it diverted and the doors closed….

There are a couple of very tragic circumstances that have happened with the doors being closed and people having heart attacks and having to be transported by ambulance and no ambulance available. It caused a number of various issues there.

I have to think that if we have qualified health professionals working in the hospital…. Policy states that you have to have X number of people working on the floor at any given time, and if you don’t have that, then you have to divert to the nearest hospital two hours away. Well, if they are qualified, if we have a doctor and we have a nurse in there — maybe we’re supposed to have three nurses and two doctors; I don’t know what the numbers would be — surely to goodness, if somebody is possibly dying outside from a heart attack, somebody could help them.

That leads me to the other part of what I want to talk about. Northern Health is the largest health authority in British Columbia. It covers the most geography — three-quarters of the province. It is the only health authority in the province that doesn’t have any cardiac services — the only one. Anybody that does require those kinds of services has to be medevacked down to St. Paul’s or some other hospital in the province. Of course, that takes time.

I had a family member, my mother-in-law…. She’s passed away now, but she had a heart attack. She waited ten days in the hospital in Prince George, waiting to be medevacked down to St. Paul’s hospital for surgery to have stents put in. Then my wife and I had to drive back down and pick her up and bring her home again.

That’s part and parcel of living in the North and living in remote areas of the province here, but it still doesn’t discount the fact that we need to look at the Prince George hospital. We need to ensure that it’s got the same basic services that other major hospitals have.

[2:10 p.m.]

The Prince George hospital is a training hospital. University Hospital of Northern B.C…. We have the northern medical program, where we train our northern doctors and our medical professions in the North, and they stay in the North. We still don’t have enough.

It was subject to reconstruction in the late 1990s. We had a 400-bed hospital at the time, and it was reconstructed. We now end up with a 200-bed hospital. The operating rooms weren’t touched at the time. They’re 1950s-era operating rooms that don’t accommodate all the modern equipment that our surgeons need in order to do the job. So we need much bigger operating rooms.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

Our northern medical program needs to expand. Our nurses are burned out because we don’t have enough. We can’t recruit enough in the North. Down south, everybody enjoys the warmer climates we have in the Okanagan. They enjoy what the cities have to offer. Trying to attract them north is very problematic.

I think government needs to step up to the plate. There is nothing in the throne speech about this. To enhance the northern medical program, train more nurses in the North, more physiotherapists in the North, more occupational therapists in the North, more lab techs in the North so that they stay in the North to accommodate all the hospitals that we have. Whether it be Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Smithers, Terrace, Smithers, Prince George — it doesn’t matter where. We have got all kinds of room to accommodate our trained medical staff in those areas.

I could go on and on about a number of things — B.C. Ambulance and other things — but I think I’m going to talk a little bit about forestry now for the last ten minutes or so that I have left. It’s an industry in crisis right across our province. It has been for quite some time here now. I look at Mackenzie. Mackenzie started in 1968 with the creation of the W.A.C. Bennett dam, which supplies the water to turn the generators in Sites A, B and soon C. It supplies power to 40 percent or more of British Columbia.

Ray Williston, as the Forests Minister of the day, said: “We’ve got an opportunity here. We’ve got all kinds of wood up in this area here. We’re going to build pulp mills.” Three pulp mills were built in Prince George — a couple more in Quesnel, another one in Mackenzie — and lumber mills. The annual allowable cut went way up to accommodate all that. Mackenzie was a going concern. It was a municipal contract for the RCMP that I oversaw as part of my duties. It had a population of well over 6,000 people. The latest census has it hovering right around 3,000.

A couple of years ago one of the major licensees working in the area says: “I’m not going to cut any more dead spruce. My clients don’t want dead wood. They want green wood.” There was a number of other things that were involved in this process as well, but they ended up shutting down their mill — a modern mill. They had spent several million dollars modernizing it about 2010. They shut it down, putting several hundred people out of work. They’ve sold it. It’s being dismantled, and pieces are being shipped to different areas down in the States and other areas of the country.

That represents probably about $1½ million of annual revenue tax base for the district of Mackenzie that’s gone. Shortly after that, the Mackenzie Pulp Mill shut down, employing a couple hundred people. It permanently closed — $1.3 million in revenue to the district of Mackenzie.

The Premier put together a coalition of licensees to try to address all these downturns here a couple of years ago. That’s fallen flat. The coalition — I don’t know — must be nonexistent. I haven’t heard of anything happening there. I know the mayor, who is a great supporter of government, has been on the phone with the minister and the Premier and other people over the last few years. But there has been nothing that Mackenzie has been able to garner from this government to help it out in the time of crisis.

We have people that are out of work. We have the Mackenzie Counselling association, a group of great people in there, that are overwhelmed from work from people with anxiety and some of the other concerns that they have with losing that.

[2:15 p.m.]

Besides ignoring Mackenzie, the timber supply area has been hit significantly hard by the spruce beetle. That’s a midterm timber supply, but it’s been overharvested. I had complaints to me about five years ago that the southern portion of the Mackenzie timber supply area had been overharvested. I think part of the problem with the Mac­kenzie Pulp Mill is they can’t find fibre anymore. That’s a growing concern.

There are options. I don’t have enough time to get into the options here. This is something the government should be looking at. If the forest sector is going to fizzle in Mackenzie and other locations in British Columbia….

We have a townsite in Mackenzie with rail access that has access to a 24-inch natural gas pipeline that feeds all of British Columbia and into the northwest United States with natural gas that contains ethane, butane, propane — a number of liquids in there that can be extracted out of that pipeline. We have a proponent that says that he can take $2 million a day of product out of that pipeline and turn it into polyethylene, polypropylene, fertilizers that are sorely needed for our agricultural services.

We have brownfield sites in there, with these mills that are no longer working. We have three-phase power going into there. We have a railway going into there. We have highways going into there. We have people living there. I think it would be an excellent alternative.

Forestry is broken. You know, what I find a little bit puzzling is this government has not…. They’ve been in government now for five years. There is no definitive plan on fixing forestry. I heard the Attorney General this morning during question period going back in history and talking about the 16 years of the B.C. Liberals, when we were in government, and making some kind of comment about that.

I’d like to say that they were in opposition for 16 years, and not once did they come up with a plan on how they would change forestry. Not once did they look ahead to see what the problems were in forestry and have a plan ready to go when they took over government in 2017 to fix forestry. No, not one thing.

Here we are now in 2022, and they still haven’t completed what they need to do. All they’ve done is confuse people across the province. They have chased investment out of the province. Anybody that wants to invest in mining and forestry and natural gas — they’ve left. They’re not here.

What are they doing with forestry? We understand that something might be coming, but in the meantime, we’ve got communities like Mackenzie that are losing millions of dollars in tax revenue. We’ve got hundreds of people out of work. We have issues where old growth is being deferred from the harvest.

One of the major things…. I’ve driven around the province. I’ve driven around the timber supply area. The Prince George timber supply is the largest in the province. It provides 40 percent of the softwood for British Columbia, and I’ve been trying to find the wood. The chief forester set the annual allowable cut at 8.3 million cubic metres back in 2017, and I can’t find it. I’ve gone to the forest inventory folks and asked them to show me where it was, and it wasn’t there. So I think our forest inventory system is broken.

We have government now promising First Nations across the province access to volume that they are going to reallocate from some of the licensees. I don’t think that volume is there. I think a lot of these First Nations are being sold a bill of goods. They need to wake up and realize what is going on out there. I don’t think the forest inven­tory system has kept up with a lot of the different things that we’ve had out there with the spruce beetle, with the pine beetle.

There was a credit program that was in effect for British Columbia. If you harvested some wood and the logs, once they arrived at the mill, weren’t good enough or of the quality required for sawlogs to make into dimension lumber, they would be turned into chips or pellets or whatever the case would be for the pulp mills or wherever they were going to go. Then that forest company, that forest licensee was able to go and harvest an equivalent amount of green wood or suitable wood, and it didn’t come off of the annual allowable cut.

[2:20 p.m.]

I’ve heard calculations where the discrepancy, that delta between what the AAC was and what this credit program brought to bear, is probably close to 500,000 cubic metres, maybe one million cubic metres over the past number of years, just in the Prince George timber supply area by itself, which is pretty significant.

I want to talk quickly here about some of the problems associated to the amount of forest cover that has been removed in the province. This part is near and dear to me — the hydrological effect that we see on the ground.

I take the Chilako River in my riding as one of the examples. Back in the ’90s, government established that we could only have what they called an equivalent clearcut area equal to 20 percent if it’s a community watershed, 25 percent if it’s fishery sensitive, or 30 percent in the other watersheds. The Chilako River in 2011…. A private consultant had a look at it. It was 80 percent in 2011 already.

When I dug into that, it was because the farmers, the landowners, along the Chilako River where it entered the Nechako were being flooded out all the time from the spring freshets. They were enormous freshets. There was nothing left to hold them back.

Hydrological reports that I’ve read recently indicate that it takes 85 years for a tree to grow back to the point where the branches, and the canopy that it provides, provide the same level of shade or protection from the sun’s radiation that the old forest used to provide — 85 years. We don’t have 85-year-old wood in British Columbia. We started clearcutting in 1966 or so, 1965. We’ve cleared about ten or 20 million hectares of land, of forests in British Columbia. Our forests are only 50 or 60 years old at most, but most of them have been harvested in the last 20 years, and those forests are still quite small.

Government needs to have a look. Look at the hydrological impacts. Look at the Coldwater River. How much of that was forested? How much of that is clearcut in today’s terms? The Nicola River. Every major river that we have, every major watershed in British Columbia needs to be reviewed by this government in an urgent manner in order to determine whether or not there is sufficient ground cover to protect from the melt of the snow. Because that will impact our spring freshets, and that will have an effect on our emergency management across the province every spring. It will have an effect on our fires in the summer.

Those are the things that I was expecting to see in the throne speech, particularly after the last few years of wildfires that we’ve had across the province — particularly in the last few years of massive spring freshets and the damage that they’ve caused across the province. I know that government has commissioned a few hydrological studies that they haven’t released to the public yet in regards to the Quesnel timber supply area, in regards to the Merritt area, and I’d be curious to see what those reports say with regard to the threat and the risk that these particular areas have for British Columbians living in those areas.

Government needs to step up to the plate. There is a lot of work that needs to be done out there to protect British Columbians. I know there are some amendments coming to the Emergency Management Act for British Columbia. That won’t stop the flooding from happening. There are people out there that are still waiting for relief from the damages to their homes and their farms from flooding back in 2017. They still haven’t seen that yet. And from the fires of 2017 and 2018.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done out there, and I’m surprised that none of that was included in this year’s throne speech. It’s had very little mention, at least up until this point. Maybe government will surprise us in the coming days and weeks and months ahead of us as to what kind of action they’re going to take on that.

Mr. Speaker, government has a lot of work to do. We’re going to be encouraging them to get that work done as we move forward with this session.

B. D’Eith: I rise to speak to the Speech from the Throne, but before I speak, I did want to take a moment to give a few thanks.

I’d like to start with thanks to everyone in my constituency — every single person who has done what they needed to do during the pandemic. I know, having talked to so many people, that everyone is getting tired and frustrated. I just want to reach out to all of you and say thank you for doing the right thing, for getting vaccinated, for doing all of the things that Dr. Bonnie Henry has asked of us.

[2:25 p.m.]

I also want to thank, of course, Dr. Bonnie Henry and the Minister of Health, who literally have been working around the clock for two years to create policies to keep us all safe. I really think that’s important.

I also would like to thank all my colleagues in the House, particularly the new members, who really haven’t known anything other than being in the House during a pandemic. I just wanted to really say how appreciative I am of them, particularly, and how they’ve adapted to this really, really difficult situation and just seeing amazing growth in our members on both sides of the House. It’s been quite a challenging time for all of us as members. I wanted to thank all of you for everything that you’ve done. I really feel that a lot has been done.

Of course, I’d just like to take the opportunity, as well, to thank some of the people who have been helping me as an MLA in Maple Ridge–Mission. One of them is Alysa Huppler-Poliak, who has recently decided to move over to Vancouver–False Creek, which is wonderful, but she will be sorely missed, because we have an amazing team in Maple Ridge–Mission, and she was a very important part of that, so she will be missed.

Staying behind, and someone who will be stepping up to a more senior role as a CA, is Sunny Schiller and my long-term friend and other CA and also former campaign manager, Sophia Kreuzkamp, who continues to step up whenever needed and fill in the blanks. I’d also like to take a moment to thank my legislative assistant, Patrick Vachon, who’s done a wonderful job for me at the Legislature, especially during these difficult times.

Just so people know, who are listening, I was very honoured to be appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary for Arts and Film. One of the wonderful things when you’re parliamentary secretary is that you also get access to ministerial staff, and I did want to thank Diego Cardona, who has just been doing a great job for me, and of course the minister and deputy minister and all the staff at the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport for really working so hard during this period of time.

When I thank those people, I also think we need to look at the extended family and some of the key stakeholders that I’ve had the honour to work with over the last couple of years and particularly the last year as parliamentary secretary. One is Prem Gill and all of the staff at Creative B.C. — just an amazing organization, having adapted so well during the pandemic. Of course, the executive director, Brian Jonker, and the new chair, Dr. Stan Chung, and vice-chair, Dana Claxton, of the B.C. Arts Council, who are doing amazing work.

The executive director of DigiBC, Loc Dao. The executive director of the B.C. Alliance for Arts and Culture, Brenda Leadlay. She has done some amazing work as well. Of course, Music B.C., my old position, Lindsay MacPherson. It’s so wonderful to work with you, and thank you for everything you’ve done. Tracey Friesen and Liz Shorten from the CMPA, in film, and of course Peter Leitch and all the staff at MPPIA, who are also in the film sector. Heidi Waechtler, who’s the executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of B.C., and of course my friend Sylvia Skene, from the Magazine Association of British Columbia.

This is an amazing group of organizations that have done incredible work, especially during the pandemic, because many of the sectors have been the hardest hit, when we look at music or theatre. The film industry had to do an incredible amount of heavy lifting to come back, and they came back strong. It was just a real testament to see the resilience of our creative industries, our arts and our culture. Again, I’m very proud to be part of that.

Part of my mandate letter was to work with arts and culture to ensure that there was proper funding during the pandemic for relief and recovery. I’ve got to say that it’s also part of my mandate to make sure that when we return, we’re actually more resilient than before, as part of Stronger B.C., and actually building better when we come back. A number of steps were taken, because we took a lot of time to talk to folks. In February to November of 2021, we had consultations with the creative sectors, including CMPA and Live Nation Canada.

[2:30 p.m.]

We also talked to all of the festivals, including B.C. Music Festival Collective and MPA-Canada and DigiBC. In May of 2021, we did consultations around Amplify B.C., and I was able to lead a program there, where we consulted. We had 17 meetings and met with nearly 100 people, including the FPCC, First Nations and Music B.C.

This really resulted in programs and initiatives that actually were able to show that we were able to adapt quickly to what the industry needed. The same thing went with the performing arts and regional roundtables which I led in June and July of 2021. We had many meetings. We had 67 performing arts organizations and 19 regional meetings, with over 160 organizations participating. The point here is that it’s important to listen.

As with many ministries and many parliamentary secretaries, I really have to give credit to the very hard work that has been done to make sure that we do a few things. Some of the things I heard were…. In the restart and recovery, we need funding for that. Things that we noticed during the pandemic…. Moving into the future, as we noticed in the throne speech, we need to have some paradigm shifts in how we do things. That means looking at our infrastructure, looking at equipment but also looking at things like equity, diversity, access and reconciliation. These are all really important themes moving forward.

Also, it’s important to mention that the minister met with the major studios — Netflix, Sony, Walt Disney, HBO, NBC and CBS. That is really important, because they bring millions and millions and millions, billions of dollars of revenue to British Columbia.

From listening to all that, in addition to the federal funding, there was quite a bit of funding that went out through the B.C. Arts Council. There was an extra $44 million in recovery money, and $35 million from StrongerBC was reallocated from the base budget and $4 million for an infrastructure program. These funds supported arts and arts organizations during the pandemic.

Also, in June of 2020, Amplify B.C. was pivoted to provide operating and innovation support for the live music sector to make sure that we would have our venues and our festivals and our associations and our musicians. We got input from, as I said, over 160 stakeholders in that.

One of those things that we were able to do was a $750,000 Showcase B.C. microgrant program that gave $500 to emerging artists and $2,000 to established artists for live streaming. This was very, very well received and very important at a critical time, when artists were not able to play live, and still aren’t.

We were really fortunate in April 2021 that Amplify B.C. was actually renewed for three years. That means that, moving forward, in this throne speech, we actually are already funded for the next two years. This will really help in continuing the recovery that we’re doing.

Another important thing that was actually…. One of the reasons that I ran in 2008 was the cuts to arts and culture and cuts to the creative industry. One of the things that was cut was the B.C. Film domestic film production budget. It went from $5 million to zero. We were really, really pleased to bring back $2 million for domestic production. That’s really, really important for the domestic film production.

Also, we renewed the book publishers tax credit for five more years. These are all forward-looking initiatives that will help create stability moving forward.

There have also been some really targeted funds. There was the COVID-19 closure relief grant that was announced, between $1,000 and $20,000 for those organizations that were closed recently, during the PHO orders. There was also a fairs, festivals and events recovery fund that gave up to $250,000 for festivals. Consider what festivals have had to go through over the last couple of years. It’s unbelievable.

Now we’re beginning again to do this outreach. Moving forward, as part of our commitment as a government, we are going to go out again to the arts community and review the updates and things that have been done and build, as we’ve said, better, have more diversity, more inclusion, with an eye to empowering the arts so that the arts can be a vehicle to help with true reconciliation with Indigenous people.

[2:35 p.m.]

Our government has shown an incredible commitment to arts, culture and the creative industries during the pandemic and will continue to support this amazing sector that contributes $5 billion in GDP and employs over 100,000 people a year. One of the things that’s important to know is, as part of this support, I’m working as one small piece of the whole government, and I’m focusing, of course, on arts, culture and the creative industries.

Of course, the same level of attention and care is being put into all the other ministries. We’re actually able to see plans right across ministries that support people during this important time. Part of that — and I alluded to it earlier — is how important everybody in British Columbia was to getting vaccinated.

I think if we look at how we’re leading the country with one of the strongest economic recoveries, that has so much to do with people doing the right thing and getting vaccinated. Now it’s quite incredible how many people — over 90 percent of people — are vaccinated in British Columbia. It’s quite a testament to everyone. But it also shows how important public health is to our economy. In fact, the steps that were taken have really helped our economy to continue to thrive.

Deputy Speaker: Member, by agreement, I think we’re going to move on to the next order of business. If you wouldn’t mind reserving your place. We would love to hear more of your response to the throne speech, but I believe we’re going to move to another bill at this point, as agreed by government and opposition.

B. D’Eith: My apologies. I wasn’t aware of that.

Deputy Speaker: Not a problem. I was just made aware of it myself.

B. D’Eith: I move to adjourn debate and reserve my place to speak again.

B. D’Eith moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. B. Ma: I call second reading of Bill 2, intituled the Municipalities Enabling and Validating (No. 4) Amendment Act, 2022.

Second Reading of Bills

BILL 2 — MUNICIPALITIES ENABLING
AND VALIDATING (No. 4)
AMENDMENT ACT, 2022

Hon. J. Osborne: I move that the bill now be read a second time.

I’m pleased to rise in the House today to speak to this important piece of legislation. I’m honoured, as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, to be tabling a bill that supports the village of Lytton following the devastating fire of June 30, 2021. As a result of the fire, Lytton lost the majority of its records and all server backups, including full copies of bylaws that support the governance and administration of the village. This bill represents one of the next steps our government is taking to support the village and its residents.

As everyone in the chamber knows, bringing forward legislation is no small endeavour. I am thankful for the skills and expertise of the staff in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and across government who make this work possible. Bill 2, the Municipalities Enabling and Validating (No. 4) Amendment Act, 2022, or MEVA, is an important piece of legislation to support Lytton as they work through the task of re-establishing a full suite of bylaws for their governance and administration.

These legislative amendments will provide the village with the legal certainty to move forward with their governance, operations and recovery, including the repealing and replacing of bylaws where there is currently uncertainty about the content of those bylaws. These amendments will clarify that Lytton may repeal and replace lost bylaws for ten years.

We know that Lytton has worked hard to recover and itemize as many bylaws as they can, but we cannot fully anticipate situations or challenges regarding the bylaws that may yet still arise. For that reason, this legislation provides flexibility with the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council regulation-making authority to waive, exempt or modify legislative requirements for the adoption of specific bylaws if Lytton is unable to meet the requirements for a particular lost bylaw. This regulation-making authority may be used more than once and will be considered on a case-by-case basis upon request by Lytton.

Finally, the amendments will also enable the validation of actions taken under bylaws lost in the fire. This amendments will only come into force at a later date if this is required. The validation of actions is intended to be applied only if necessary.

For example, if Lytton identifies that they have taken actions or decisions under a bylaw that was lost in the fire, but they had not yet repealed or replaced the bylaw, and only so long as the action or decision was taken in good faith.

[2:40 p.m.]

We have also been attentive to the requirements of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act as we have developed this legislation. As a result, we have notified area First Nations about the proposed amendments — in particular, the Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council, which includes Lytton First Nation. Future consultations with Indigenous peoples will be taken as necessary for specific bylaws that require the proposed Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council regulation authority.

We know that the village operates as a regional service centre for the 1,500 members of the Lytton First Nation and the eight neighbouring Indigenous communities in the Thompson-Nicola regional district. Our government is committed to supporting a successful rebuild of Lytton to support the entire region.

We recognize that the situation in Lytton continues to be incredibly difficult for the residents of Lytton. That’s why our government is continuing to take the necessary steps to support Lytton with their recovery.

Yesterday we announced that Lytton will benefit from $8.36 million in new funding to help council sustain core village operations and fund significant wildfire response costs, and $6.26 million of that funding will immediately help Lytton respond to the challenges of high wildfire response costs and severely reduced revenues. And $2.1 million will support the village’s core operations so they can focus on planning, recovery and rebuilding, rather than revenue generation, over the next three years.

This bill, along with the new provincial funding, will provide Lytton with the tools and funding they need to recover as quickly as possible. But these actions build on our ongoing supports for the people of Lytton. Since day one, we’ve ensured that emergency support services were available for Lytton residents, and to date, we’ve provided over $6 million in ESS funding to ensure that individuals and families had access to temporary housing and meals. We’re ensuring that this support continues through the work of the Canadian Red Cross.

In addition, we’re funding numerous staff positions focused on temporary housing, local government recovery, safe return and re-entry and financial and in-kind support. Staff across government, including those in my ministry and emergency management B.C., have and will continue to work to support Lytton as they move forward with recovering and rebuilding their community.

Last December we announced $1 million in funding for economic recovery and operating funding to ensure that municipal wages continue to be paid and that the funds are available to support the village’s economic restart.

My colleagues and I continue to be in close contact with Mayor Polderman, and we will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that the village and its residents are supported. I know that recovery can’t happen fast enough for the people of Lytton, and our government will be there and continue to be there as we tackle this together.

I’m sure that all members of this House recognize that this legislation is a critical next step to support the village as it moves forward with recovery and rebuilding. I hope all members in this House will join me in supporting Bill 2.

With that, hon. Speaker, I want to thank you and all members of this House. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues in the continued debate today on the second reading of this bill.

D. Ashton: I appreciate the minister’s comments.

I rise today to speak to this bill, which we understand will help the village of Lytton repeal and rescind bylaws, as well as create new ones, something that has been a challenge following last June’s devastating wildfire, which caused so much devastation, including to the village records, servers and backup servers. That is a point that we have to think about in the future.

Just before I start at this, I would like to thank the minister, her ministerial staff, research staff and other MLAs that were on the call with myself and her ministerial staff. It’s greatly appreciated, when we’re dealing with bills like this, to have that opportunity to have a ministerial briefing. It does make a difference.

I would like to say I was raised in a family with a golden rule. We had a lot of rules in our family, but the number one rule in our family was the golden rule: you always treat people how you like to be treated. So I would like my peers in here and maybe those that are listening out there to ensure that I am not talking about individuals directly, but I am going to be expressing my frustration, and more importantly, the frustration that all of us have heard from the people of Lytton about the ongoing delays. So, please, I would just like that to be taken under heart.

[2:45 p.m.]

I would also like to say that fire has touched our family. My mom was 15 years old, lived on the farm in Leaso, had to ride her horse to school every day. I’m starting to date myself. My mom is 96 years old. She quit working at 83 years old, in our family business. But she came home from school one day, and the house was gone — gone. All that was left was the barn.

She now has an opportunity…. She’s in a home in Summerland, and she has a chance to reminisce. Thank God, touch wood, she still has her mind, and she knows all of us and that. But she does have a chance to talk about it, especially after the fires that we experienced in the Okanagan. Touch wood, in our area nothing happened to habitats or to livestock. But it did happen just north of me, in another peer’s riding — again, for the West Kelowna side.

My mom reminisces and tells me that she had nothing. She had nothing before 15 years of age. Absolutely nothing. Every memory that she had, every picture that was in the house — everything you can think about as a child that was written down, pictures that were taken, or drawings or paintings — was gone. That’s why my heart goes out to the people of Lytton.

On the business side of it, we had two business fires, not caused by us. One in Trail was started three buildings away from us, and it took us in the onslaught. Another one in Nelson started above us, with a dentist’s office and a plumber, and it took professional offices. It took another business beside us, and our business. Nelson is my peer across the way. It’s a beautiful community. You opened the door, and you could look at the stars. You could look at the dirt in the basement. That’s it. It just took everything, and it takes forever to recover.

Those fires were about ten years apart. For a business, we were fortunate. We had additional stores. But it still took the wind out of our sails for a long time. I can relate personally to what those businesses in Lytton are going through.

I do have questions. Many of the people in Lytton have questions about why it has taken so long, not only so long just to bring this bill forward, but so long to get them back in their homes, so long to get them back to a place that they’ve called home forever, most of them. What they would like to know is that since the fire occurred on June 30…. It was more than seven months ago — 225 days ago as of tomorrow.

We had a fall session. We were here in September through November. I’m just curious. I ask this to government — why it has taken so long to get this bill brought forward.

I was so incredibly fortunate. I started off as a councillor in Penticton after all of the other adventures that I had done in my lifetime and was able to get into the regional district, along with my peer from Boundary-Similkameen — a similar position. I enjoyed it thoroughly and also became a mayor.

I fully realize how powerful MEVA can be. I can see the benefits and had the experience of being able to see those benefits. But what I want to make sure, in my discussion and to government, is…. MEVA legislation allows government to do a lot, especially local government. We cannot forget those people that were affected in that Lytton area. We cannot forget that Lytton has an elected mayor and council.

We cannot forget that there is also a very decent Aboriginal population — very nice people, and a wonderful chief, I’ve been told — around that area who we have to take into consideration. I know that might be on the federal side, but we — all of us in here, with UNDRIP — have taken a step in the right direction, a long overdue step in the right direction. We have to be able to work together.

That’s a two-way street, and that’s what I ask. It’s that we all put our collective heads together. No matter what we represent in this House or what party we represent or what our thoughts are, we all have to work together to get those people in Lytton back into their homes or into their new homes that, hopefully, are going to be created very quickly in the future.

[2:50 p.m.]

It does surprise me. I’m going to come back to stating this, and this is not at any individual MLA. But government has not had a good track record on this. I would just hope that the inexcusable delays in getting supports to the people of Lytton — who, again, have lost everything — are expedited to the best of everybody’s ability.

For so many people in that community, getting back into the community that they loved and getting back to a place where their home was and a place where those memories were…. Yes, they’re going to be distorted, those memories and that, but Lytton will rise from the ashes. Trees will come back. Families will come back. Opportunity for friendships will come back. But it’s got to start, and in my opinion, it should have started earlier.

Again, I would just state that I think government has mobilized to address a bureaucratic matter, where I think this could have been done quicker, and I think that a lot of other things could have been done in Lytton and the Lytton area to get people back. Bureaucracy can help in a lot of ways, but it can also hinder, and the people of Lytton do not need anything else that is going to hinder them in getting back to their communities.

I would like to say, also, that there are priorities that I think the government has to address. To focus right now on burnt paperwork, which is awful in a lot of ways, but not as much as helping people to get back in…. I had said when I started this conversation it was something to think about. Nobody…. What do they say? It’s an exact science, the past? Boy, there are a lot of communities, mine included, where I call home, where I’m sure hoping that we keep our records and backups in two different places.

Poor Lytton. Not having that backup, again, has enabled the government to bring forward MEVA legislation — or, hopefully, bring MEVA legislation forward — to give them the opportunity to recreate a lot of those bylaws, etc., that are missing at this point in time because of the fire. I think it will be a lesson well learned for many communities, in this province and elsewhere, that recordkeeping is incredibly important. Let’s not put all our cards in one basket — i.e., not all our paper in one premises.

I have had several calls from individuals that are actually from Lytton but that are housed in Penticton right now. Again, my hat is off to all of the agencies, including government, that took the response to get people in with a roof over their heads, but these people have told me that they just want to get home. Home, to them, is that Lytton area. So I’m really, really hoping that the government will step forward with rebuilding a portion of Lytton.

I really hope that the government, working in unity with those that are required to move the debris, working in unity with those in the surrounding area — i.e., our dear Aboriginal friends and partners, I hope, in this — will ensure that.

Yes, this may be a site deemed of archaeological interest on it, but it’s also a place that people call home. The band lost homes. I think what we have to do is really work together to ensure that we can get people in as quickly as possible, while being prudent and diligent, ensuring that appropriate measures are taking place archaeologically, and also ensuring that the debris and the contamination from the fire is addressed properly so that people can come back to their community safely.

I’ll say again that I think there’s a lot of good work being done on the ground at this point in time, but we’ve got to get up out of the ground. We’ve got to get that construction underway. I would like to say that I’m not the only one. I know the insurance companies had pegged a figure of approximately $78 million, but it’s my understanding that the Insurance Bureau of Canada has said these costs have increased to over $100 million due to the delays.

[2:55 p.m.]

As we all know, the cost of building is going up and up. With our forests — my peer was speaking before about the problems in the forests these days — the cost of lumber probably isn’t going down. So as we create and hope to help re-create Lytton, the quicker that we can get there, the better it is.

Some may have seen that I had posted a picture, with the approval of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, that showed a picture from Fort McMurray and a picture from Lytton, six months apart. Fort McMurray was well underway with construction — homes almost in completion stage — whereas in Lytton, fences preventing people from getting to their properties are still there. I understand they’re apples and oranges — again, because of some of the situations that the people of Lytton are having to deal with.

It just goes to show you that if the will is there, there is the opportunity to get people back into their homes a lot quicker. I’m not singling anybody out here. We, collectively again, have to ensure that we are going to do everything, starting immediately, to speed this process up, to get this underway, so that people can get back into their houses, back into their homes and back into their businesses.

We have talked…. I apologize. I may just be dry. If I could excuse myself for one half a sec.

My peer is looking at me. No, I don’t have a sore throat, and no, it’s not a COVID cough, so there you go. It’s the emotion. I mentioned my mom.

I can only feel for those people that have lost everything and what that toll is, because it’s your dwelling every day. Where the individual is staying in Penticton is a very nice place, a hotel. But a hotel room isn’t a home. It’s like for us here, where many of us — myself included, earlier on — stay in a hotel. It’s difficult. You’re coming, and you’re going, and it’s not a place that you want to call home.

Again, I would say that — the ministry is introducing this bill saying that the government has been listening to the people and the village needs — I think the people of Lytton need a lot more than MEVA legislation at this point in time. They need the help that this government, this House, this Legislature and the government entities can give them. It’s really time that we step forward with that.

I know that the bill is a step, and it’s a step in the right direction, but again, I’m going to say that this bill could have taken place a lot earlier, and it may have expedited some things a little bit quicker. I know that there are a few technical elements to the bill, and I look forward to exploring these in committee stage with the minister. We’ve always had a good rapport, especially with the ministerial staff, and I think that there will be a few questions — good questions — about why this is being brought forward and how this bill will progress in the future.

This bill is coming forward for a ten-year period — a ten-year period. I just hope that our words that we say here, the minister’s good words and my peer’s words…. I’m sure that with the government having other MLAs stand up and talk, those good words get quickly forgotten in this place. Ten years from now, while MEVA is still in place, I hope those issues that are brought up in this Legislature will have been remembered or at least looked at.

I think MEVA, again, can be in good hands. It can be a very good process for getting things done quicker, without a lot of input from the public on it. But we, here in this Legislature, are here because of input that we have put into the public in our past careers, and we stay here with the input that we give back to the public on a continual basis. When we don’t, I can assure you that there’ll be a few empty chairs in here — mine, probably, included.

I know that there are more steps — they may be bigger steps — that have to be taken by this government. I really, really hope that this government understands the value and understands what it means to the contributions that, hopefully, they are bringing forward to get people, I know, in here.

Lytton was a commerce…. It was an economic hub. It was a crossroads to many people. Some 2,500-plus people in the area counted on Lytton. The business people in there know to maintain it, not only for the people of Lytton but the people of the surrounding Aboriginal lands, the people that are crossing through Lytton all the time. These are their livelihoods.

[3:00 p.m.]

[R. Leonard in the chair.]

I really think that government has to realize that the loss of the businesses in Lytton that has taken place has affected farmers. It’s affected ranchers. It’s affected tourism operators. It’s affected all kinds of professionals throughout the valley. It’s affected many that we don’t even realize today.

Madam Speaker, nice to see you in the chair. It’s always a pleasure.

I would ask that this government take some steps immediately, not only with MEVA legislation — and I know that that’s a bill that we’re discussing — but we’re also discussing the livelihood and the homes of the people from Lytton.

In my opinion, the theme of too little, too late…. By the way, I greatly appreciate the money that has been put forward by the government and the recent announcement by the minister that it’s going to help to facilitate this. But a lot of that money is going into government organizations.

The people of Lytton and area will say, respectfully: “That’s great. We can do this, and we can build a new city hall, and we can keep our councils working. But I” — not me, personally — “as a citizen of Lytton want to get back to my property. I want to start the process of getting my home back to what I remember. I want to start the process of getting my memories back from where I probably raised my kids or grew up or moved to Lytton, to enjoy my livelihood and especially, maybe, my retirement.”

To me, less talk, more action is needed, and that should start today. I want to thank the minister for bringing this forward, but I would also like to ask the minister to use everything in her power. I would also like to ask every member of the government — right here, who I’m looking at, plus the seats where everybody else is busy in their offices but, hopefully, listening to the TV — let’s all put our collective hats together. Let’s all work for the people of Lytton. Let’s get them back into their homes. We cannot forget about the other calamities that have taken place. Let’s do the same for those people.

Thank you very, very much. Let’s get a distinct timeline for Lytton. Let’s keep to it, and let’s keep our noses to the grindstone.

I reserve my opportunity in the future, during committee stage, to ask lots of pertinent questions about the MEVA bill.

A. Olsen: Thank you for the opportunity to speak to Bill 2, the Municipalities Enabling and Validating (No. 4) Amendment Act, 2022. I’m just echoing the comments of my colleague from Penticton.

I think that it is important to recognize that it’s been 225 days since we first heard the reports on the radio of a very fast-moving fire. It’s unknown what the ignition point was. Lots and lots of unknowns. Listening to the radio, to the terrified residents of Lytton and the surrounding areas as they were being evacuated — scattering, literally, in all directions…. It’s been 225 days since that fateful day for Lytton, British Columbia.

We now see a bill that comes forward that will help the local government of Lytton deal with some of the tragic results of that fire. I also am a former local government elected official, as are many members that populate the seats of this chamber now. I could not imagine if this incident happened in the community that I was elected to represent. It would be absolutely terrifying.

As a local government official, I am thinking back to how I would respond to that. I don’t know that we come equipped with the skills to be able to address something as devastating as an entire town burning to the ground. I have sympathy for this provincial government in the effort, which is a monumental effort, in rebuilding a town that, in a few moments, ceased to exist in its built form.

[3:05 p.m.]

Clearly, the citizens of Lytton don’t feel that their town ceased to exist. It’s part of who they are. A lot of pride. I know a lot of people from Lytton and just how disruptive, of course, this is.

I can’t help but think back to the fall session of this Legislature, seeing the emotion and the words of our colleague from Fraser-Nicola and trying to put into perspective how I, as a member of the Legislative Assembly, would represent the citizens of a town that burned to the ground. Very clearly, it was weighing heavy on our colleague, and that should be of no surprise. Frankly, I think that we, as MLAs, deal with much smaller issues than this one.

To hear the member for Fraser-Nicola repeat day in and day out in question period — 90 days, then 100 days, 120 days, and now we’re at 225 days — pleading with this provincial government to take more speedy action than they have taken….

This legislation that we look to today — and will be debating over the next couple of days here in second reading and, as well, at committee stage — begins the process of the administrative aspects of being able to start to rebuild the town. It allows for bylaws that are completely in ashes, frankly. For the community to start to put those back together again, recognizing that…. As my friend from Penticton said, it is prudent to ensure that records in all of our communities are in more than a single place. This is a lesson, I think, to be learned from that.

Municipal permits. The ability to actually start to get a building permit and, once it’s been approved, to start to rebuild your home or your business — this bill is indeed an essential step. But I do have to echo the comments that have been made previously in this debate. I have to ask similar questions as to why a bill of this nature did not come forward in the fall session. We spent six weeks in this House debating legislation. This would have been a welcome bill at that time.

I will be asking the government questions. I’ll be asking the government, through the Minister of Municipal Affairs, what the delay was to this piece of legislation that’s in this bill that’s in front of us now. I think it is also important for us to recognize that while this has happened one time in the recent history of this province, we have to begin preparing for the inevitability of more severe weather events in the future due to climate change.

While we will be in a kind of responsive mode here, 225 days after the event has passed…. Certainly, I can only say that from the position that I’m in. I don’t think the resi­dents of Lytton would suggest that the instance has passed. They’re still living very much in the middle of it. But it is a lesson for this provincial government to learn, that we are going to need to become more proactive in our preparation for severe weather events and for the more severe impacts of those weather events.

While we move to pass Bill 2, the questions, of course, remain. What are we doing in order to ensure that should an incident like this occur again, we are more prepared to act in a more expedient manner?

[3:10 p.m.]

I think it is also important to note that…. And it must be the frustration that some residents of Lytton would be feeling. Just a few months after the fire in their community took their community, we had significant floods. Many of the residents that were displaced from Lytton were displaced again because of the floods, whether they were in Merritt or elsewhere in the region. I have to, I guess, raise my hands to those people who have been displaced multiple times, and I can only share love with them to hope that they are continuing and are doing well.

We also watched a huge amount of infrastructure — the Coquihalla, Highway 3, Highway 1 — get washed away in the floods. It must have been frustrating for the displaced people from Lytton to watch as every single effort was taken to reconnect. I want to raise my hands to all of the crews that were working on that, to the ministry and to the government for making those connections, once again connecting the Lower Mainland with the rest of Canada.

However, I think that what we’ve seen here are two very different responses — a response that is now 225 days in the making before we see this bill, and the announcement that the Coquihalla had been reopened. So I need to make the connection, because I think it’s important that British Columbians see their government prepared, acting to become more prepared than perhaps we have considered necessary in the past and, as well, that we are consistent in the delivery of our response to communities.

There’s no doubt that the highway infrastructure connecting the Lower Mainland with the rest of Canada — and I would say the rail infrastructure as well — is critically important to our economy. But so is the town of Lytton, and the residents of Lytton need to know that. No matter what we say in this Legislature, no matter what members of the government say in this Legislature, no matter what is said in press conferences about the response, ultimately, the people of Lytton and the rest of the residents, our constituents, in British Columbia will evaluate the government’s work based on the actions.

I think it’s important that we say the words in this House and we say the words in press conferences but that we follow those up with the appropriate level of action so that the people of Lytton can see that we do indeed take the grave situation that they face very seriously.

I will be asking questions in committee stage, as they come up, if my friend from Penticton doesn’t ask them before I get the opportunity to. I look forward to the passage of this bill and to the expedient support and rebuilding of the beautiful town of Lytton. With that, I’ll take my seat.

R. Russell: Thank you to both of the members opposite for their comments. Personally, I appreciate leaving the partisanship out of it and recognizing that this is a shared challenge that we are all facing together to try to help the community of Lytton navigate this situation that they are in and the disaster that they have faced.

It’s my pleasure today to rise and speak in favour of Bill 2, in order to help establish the legislative framework for the community of Lytton to rebuild their library of bylaws. As many of you know, our Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and myself were asked by the Premier to help serve as policy liaisons for the village, working directly with Mayor Polderman and council to help to support that community when they encountered obstacles in their path of navigating recovery.

One of those obstacles that the village has identified and made clear to us is the need to have some help navigating that re-creation of that suite of bylaws for the village, because as, of course, we’ve heard, those bylaws have all gone up in smoke.

[3:15 p.m.]

I appreciate the frustration, as well, that the member for Penticton highlighted, and I want to reassure him and the House that that frustration is shared by, I think, all of us, and there is a great number of people on the government side of things and in the civil service trying remarkably hard to help this community, however they can, to navi­gate that.

I certainly have a bit of experience. As the member shared some personal stories, I have some experience as well, having been in a different but similar unprecedented disaster and trying to help a community navigate recovery. That, for me, was a flood that covered over 300 kilometres of riverfront evacuations and lakefront evacuations in my current riding. That was in 2018. We’re four years on now, and we are still in the thick of recovery. So just to make sure, part of the process of recovery is recognizing that it is not fast. That is frustrating for everybody, but it is a reality of how recovery works.

I would say that part of what I think is very important — again, based on that experience for myself as well as Lytton — is recognizing that local governments are really at the heart of recovery. And that’s — for myself, certainly — a model that I think is extremely important, because most of us that have had any experience in local government recognize that local government really knows the community best and understands the nuances of how to navi­gate through recovery.

In this case, to address a couple of the questions that were raised, among the myriad and very long list of other tasks that the mayor and council and village staff have been working to work through on behalf of their community, one of those tasks has been trying to recreate and restore their suite of bylaws. So we needed to make sure that that community had space and room to work through that process.

They have since made it clear to us that they need more support for that process. They’ve identified a need for a little more agility for council to be able to rebuild that bylaw library, including their regulatory administrative bylaws, their land use rules for building and zoning, and so on. That’s why this legislation is in front of us today.

Again, I would say that certainly, having navigated some of this myself, I feel like I can empathize with some of the difficulties that this community is facing and some of the challenges that the mayor and council are facing. I would say that we’ve heard from not just mayor and council but other community leaders in the village of Lytton and the surrounding First Nations communities about just how fatiguing and challenging it is to lead a community through recovery, through such difficult times. As I’ve mentioned, it always takes longer than we might hope.

I would also recognize that doing recovery properly takes an enormous amount of trust. It also takes a lot of strong community partnerships. It takes unity, like the member for Penticton mentioned. And certainly — not the least of which — it takes dedicated and strong leaders, like we’ve seen in Lytton and the surrounding area.

I would ask the House also to recognize and applaud those local leaders for the work that they’re doing, because it is relentless and exhausting and lonely work that Mayor Polderman, his council and the local Chiefs are doing. It is exhausting. We’ve heard that directly from those folks.

As the member for Saanich North and the Islands mentioned, those of us that put our hands up for local government…. We didn’t step into that equipped with the tools to navigate anything like this. It is something that is placed upon us as leaders. So again, recognize and make some space and appreciation for the hard work that that local council is doing.

These amendments to the Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act provide, in a way that’s specific to the village, the tools to allow them to rebuild that suite of bylaws. Once passed, this bill will ensure that the community and the village have the legal ground necessary to take important actions towards rebuilding.

[3:20 p.m.]

Legislation like this clears the way for those local leaders to be able to focus on the vital recovery work that they have in front of them to work through.

I would say no one navigating a recovery like this wants to be slowed down by administrative friction. So this bill helps eliminate a little more of that friction for those local leaders and helps the community speed up, hopefully, that path to recovery.

I would also flag…. Yesterday we announced that the province will be providing more than $8 million to Lytton in new funding to support the village in recovery and ongoing operations. There were some comments earlier about what the government has been doing and is doing. So that, hopefully, will address that to some degree — more than $6 million to help Lytton respond to the challenges of the costs of navigating wildfire response and recovery as well as the challenges of just cash flow in a community like that and severely reduced revenues.

And $2.1 million will also support the core operations so that the village can focus…. Instead of on revenue generating in the next few years, they can make sure that they can really focus on planning, recovery and rebuilding, which is, again, critical for them to be able to move forward effectively.

This announcement from yesterday adds on previous support that the province has been providing. Again, it’s not all dollars, but it is the staffing support that becomes especially important in, I would say, rural communities. The province has funded more than a dozen positions in the village’s recovery team. That’s the sort of investment….

Really, again our role is to help support that local government navigate through this process as best as we can. So those kinds of investments or coordination of debris removal and housing supports to residents are the sorts of supports that I think that are particularly important.

I think we want to ensure to the House and the village residents that we’re here for Lytton. We’ll continue to work closely with the local leaders there to figure out what they need to help navigate this process going forward. This bill today is just one more step that we are taking to help make that process a little more fluid and a little less challenging for them.

B. Banman: I’d like to thank those that have gotten up and spoken, on behalf, to this Bill 2. As has already been mentioned, this is basically a housekeeping bill for the village of Lytton because of the wildfires and destruction. It helps with their recordkeeping, their bylaws and being able to move forward.

I stand up today not on behalf of myself so much as I do for my colleague from Fraser-Nicola, who, as we know, can no longer speak to bills. My colleague got up many times and said: “It’s day 90. It’s day 120.” Here we are on day 225.

I was a mayor and on council. Like many of us, I cut my teeth on local politics. I want to tell you that if I was the mayor of Lytton right now, I think that my hairdo would be reflective of some of my colleagues that are in the room right now, because I think I would have pulled most of it out by now. Yes, I know. It would be that frustrating as a mayor.

I’d also like to say that I, too, went through a fire. My family lost their business to a fire. It was a moving and storage company. As it would happen, we were building our dream home. All of our belongings got lost in the fire in addition to the business. I know how devastating it is to go through a fire.

[3:25 p.m.]

Thankfully, I did not lose my home, and there were certain things that we had because we were living in a trailer at the time. But I understand the heartbreak.

I also grew up rather rural. What many of those that live in larger communities don’t understand is how interdependent communities such as Lytton are — that connection to your neighbours, that connection to your friends and how vital that is. They didn’t just lose their homes. Their friends have scattered into the winds as they try and find places to live, to weather through. One of the most frustrating things about this is that they can’t really get anything permanent, because we’re going to rebuild. It drags on, and it drags on, and it drags on.

My question that I have is…. This bill should have been before this House in week 7, not month 7. As was mentioned, Fort McMurray was already starting to return. As was mentioned, we’ve already rebuilt much of our major infrastructure that was washed away in record time because we decided that was a priority.

This government has decided that the people of Lytton don’t seem to be as high on that priority list. That’s how it feels to them. This government talked in its throne speech about having your back. I’ve slept on a hide-a-bed. Go ask these people how their backs are doing and how they feel, where that bar comes across the middle of it.

Seven months of living with a friend. Seven months of living in a hotel that is not your home. Seven months of waiting. It’s not as if we did not have time to discuss this bill during the last session. We rediscussed and debated the throne speech because of the bungling to be able to put bills in front of this House.

Does this really say that the people of Lytton are a priority? This could have been handled. It’s basically housekeeping. It’s not that contentious.

We waited, and we let these people go through a winter without the hope of rebuilding. We let these people go seven months as they watched the price to rebuild increase by millions and millions of dollars. From $78 million, the insurance companies are now estimating it will be over $102 million. There is a certain limit that insurance companies say: “I’m sorry. This is the maximum we can go.”

This lies in our hands, the hands of this House, because we have not made them a priority. We made the Coquihalla a priority. We made Highway 1…. We made things a priority, but not people. But I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised, because, sadly, this government’s track record stands for itself when it comes to getting things done.

The people of Lytton still can’t go home. As a matter of fact, they’re barricaded from going home. There is a fence that says: “Don’t bother.” It took weeks for them to be able to actually go back and see what was not left of the city that they love, of the place that they call home.

[3:30 p.m.]

This is skewed priorities. We’re talking about paperwork. We’re talking about getting $8 million to a city to rebuild a city hall. What’s the point of having a city hall if there’s no one there? The priorities are skewed.

We should be helping these people rebuild and recover. Fort McMurray was already moving back by now, yet we get jeering from the other side of the room. I guess it’s humorous over there. It’s not humorous. It’s laughable, but it’s not humorous — the ineptitude, the lack of caring, the lack of action. This has to become a priority, ladies and gentlemen.

Not a thing has been rebuilt — not a thing. Not one permit has been given out, and here we are talking about paperwork. It kind of brings a whole new message to: “Hi, I’m here from the government. I’m here to help you.” This kind of help they don’t need. What they need is help rebuilding. What they need is to remove the bureaucracy and the red tape and for us to put as much emphasis on them as we did on restoring the Coquihalla Highway.

There’s good work being done by the people on the ground. I know that we have the best of intentions, but our best, if this is our best, sadly isn’t good enough. It’s shocking and disheartening to see how little has actually been done. Here we are, month 7, talking about being able to reproduce photo copies and bylaws and being able to change the bylaws so they can actually get work done — month 7.

This is a hub of this area. It’s a place where people gathered at the local watering hole, at the local hardware store, at the feed store. It’s where they got their mail and where they shared celebrations, where they pulled together, where they squabbled together. We’re talking, at month 7, about bureaucratic paperwork.

I know the emotional toll that my family went through in the fire. And I think unless you’ve actually gone through that…. I appreciate the comments from my colleague from across the way. I think unless you’ve gone through a disaster such as this, you don’t know what you’ve never been through. These folks are tired, they’re angry, and they’re losing hope. They’re in despair, and they don’t see a lot of hope coming from this House.

If this is what the minister has put as “This government is listening to the village and its needs,” it sound to me as if it’s a little tone deaf. What they need are shovels in the ground. What they need is to have rebuilding start. It should have happened months ago. So you’ll have to pardon me if I join the people of Lytton and find it hard to believe.

They just heard a throne speech that was full of words once again, where it was overpromising yet failing to deliver. This is a classic example of words and failing to deliver, failing to seek any urgency whatsoever and failing to do anything to help these people to get back into their homes.

[3:35 p.m.]

This government can say it’s listening all it wants, but I don’t know that it’s hearing a darn thing. The people of Lytton don’t feel heard. They feel abandoned.

The bill’s a great step. The money is a great step. I think you would have seen this side of the House applauding it had it happened at week 7, not month 7. Like I said, there was opportunity in the last session, where we were rehashing the throne speech, that we could have actually done this. It was a simple piece of paperwork that this House would have been in full agreement about. Yes, there are a lot of technical elements to the bill, and we will explore some of them. But that committee’s work should have been happening already, not now.

I guess part of why this is so personal to me…. Not only is it the fire, but I’ve got farmers that went through devas­tating floods. If this is an example of what they have to look forward to…. I don’t know. I think we can do better. In this region, 2,500 British Columbians relied on this area. What we have said by waiting this long is that those 2,500 lives just don’t seem to matter. That’s what our actions or lack of actions have said to them.

This government, sadly, up till now has been taking steps where it’s too little, too late. We have the best of intentions. We all want to help them. For heaven’s sake, make them a priority. I think that my colleague from Fraser-Nicola would say it’s time for less talk and more action. It’s time to get people home. In this case, the clicking of ruby slippers ain’t going to make it happen. We need more than wizardry and magic. We need actual common sense — shovels in the ground, boots on the ground, people helping.

We saw Canadians from across this country rush to help Fort McMurray after their devastating fires. Lytton will be long forgotten. We have missed the opportunity for that same type of response of Canadians to come. We need to make this a passion. We need to make it a priority. This government has to show that the people of Lytton, the people of Merritt, the people of Sumas Prairie actually matter, that they mean something, that they stand for something.

I know I am being tough, but I want you to ask yourselves: have we done our best? Have we? Is this the example of how things are going to go through? Is this an example of how we’re going to deal with climate emergencies, how we’re going to deal with emergencies of all kinds? In my own riding, days after the floods is when we decided we were going to declare a state of emergency. Well, that’s helpful.

These people are feeling the same. They want to rebuild, they want to go home, and we are standing in their way. We can do better. We have to do better. We have to act faster. So I implore you to hear the people of Lytton, to hear the voices of Merritt. Bring them home. Get the red tape out of the way.

[3:40 p.m.]

If we can rebuild the Coquihalla Highway in record time and beat ourselves on the chest with how great a job we did…. Aren’t we all here to help people? Isn’t that why we all got elected? It’s to actually help the people that we represent.

We have failed Lytton up until now. Let’s get going. Let’s get it done, please.

J. Rice: We recognize the devastation in Lytton continues to be incredibly difficult for the residents of the village. I want to reassure residents that we’re committed to working with the Lytton council and community to support their recovery.

That’s why our government has introduced legislative changes that will allow the Lytton council to repeal and replace bylaws that were destroyed in the wildfire. Once passed, this bill will give Lytton the legal standing necessary to move forward with rebuilding the community. It’s an important step that will have a huge impact on mitigating future bumps on the road to recovery.

We also announced yesterday that we’re providing $8.36 million in funding to support the village with its ongoing operations and recovery. This funding will support fixing the water and wastewater systems, legal and governance issues, recovery consultation, debris removal, environmental and archeological remediation and more. And $2.1 million of this funding will support the village through three years of core operations, so they can focus on planning, recovery and rebuilding instead of having to generate revenue. This funding is in addition to the $1 million we provided the village in December.

In my role as recovery liaison to Lytton’s council, along with my colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development, I take part in regular town halls with the community and work closely with Lytton’s council to address issues as they arise to help speed up recovery efforts. I’ve seen and heard about the challenges that Lytton is up against.

I want to thank the Lytton mayor and council and local First Nations leaders who welcomed me to their community recently. I appreciated meeting you face to face and seeing for myself the devastation you had experienced. Your leadership is commendable.

Now, I understand it’s difficult to feel progress when you cannot necessarily see significant improvements to the environment. People are understandably frustrated with the slow process of recovery. I want the people of Lytton to know that I hear you and that I see you. You are not alone.

I want to assure Lytton that we’re here to support them in the recovery and rebuilding, and this funding and legislation will do just that. Recovery in a disaster of this scale will be a long road, but know that we’ll be here for you as we walk down that road together and build back even stronger.

M. Bernier: I appreciate some of the comments I’ve been hearing so far today around Bill 2. I’ll echo some, but I think it’s really important to highlight…. Even though we have questions here, this is not about trying to politicize an issue. This is about trying to help people.

I do find it interesting. I actually find it very interesting when the member before me, who is supposed to be one of the leads on this, says: “We’re with you. We hear you.” The problem is we’re 7½ months into this. Those are speaking notes that should have been 225 days ago. Those are the comments people wanted to not just hear but actions they wanted to see on the ground 7½ months ago.

Now, when you have the bill in front of us right now…. I don’t know. I don’t think there is going to be lot of argument about the bill per se. It’s not about the intent of this bill, which is actually to try to help mayor and council and the community after this crisis.

[3:45 p.m.]

I, myself, like many people who have spoken before me, was a councillor and a mayor as well, for my community. I’m thankful that my community never had to go through this. I can only imagine, as an elected official, a locally elected official, the stress and the trauma that you’re going through on behalf of your constituents, having to feel their pain with them, having to go through the same devastation with them.

As a former mayor and councillor, I do want to thank all of those who are involved and future mayors and councillors that might be part of elections coming forward for Lytton and other areas.

I know, as a mayor, that I wouldn’t be asking for token platitudes, token dollar amounts coming to me to rebuild city hall. I’d be saying: “The last thing I need is a city hall if I don’t have a city.” What are we doing to help people? What are we doing to help families? I mean, we’re hearing of the incredible, saddening stories of people all around the province, through natural disasters, but I don’t know of any community that has been completely wiped out like Lytton.

I had the privilege, and I’m hoping many people in this House have had the privilege, of going to Lytton many, many times. I can tell you what an amazing community it was and hopefully will be again. The sense of community. The sense of pride that the people who live there had. It was an amazing, welcoming area, which gives testament to the families and the people who live there and the tone that they set for their community. All we hear from most of them is: “We want to get back to that. We want to get back to being a community, being with our friends, being with our families.” Being, hopefully, back at their jobs.

Nobody in here, I think, is going to say you snap your finger and it happens overnight, but we’ve heard today of some of the stories of places like Fort McMurray where, within six months, houses were being built, people were moving in. We’re 7½ months, and government is finally acknowledging: “Oh yeah, there is a community in B.C. that burnt down. Maybe we should do something about it.”

I’d be curious to know, over the last 7½ months, how many ministers, the Premier, how many members of the government side have actually gone there, have actually spoken face to face with the families, have actually looked at the devastation with their own eyes, not just through a television screen. Maybe that would have put a little bit more sense of urgency into what needs to take place to help the people there.

As also was mentioned…. I assume and hope that members on the government side would appreciate not only the devastation but the role and job of the MLA for Fraser-Nicola and the emotional pleas that she brought to this House as the representative for that region, on behalf of the constituents that she represents but as somebody who is living through it herself in that area. I can only imagine.

Unlike some of the stories I’ve heard today from people who have gone through personal loss with fires, I’ve been very thankful and hopefully never have to go through that, and I never have been through that. So I can only use the terminology as…. I can only imagine what these people are going through. I have to understand what they’re going through, through the stories I hear, through the pleas and the outcries for help that I’ve heard, the stories that the member for Fraser-Nicola, representing that area, has brought to this House. I wonder if everybody has heard that. I hope they have.

[3:50 p.m.]

Then the question comes to: “If government has heard this, why has nothing happened?” God forbid we ever have another large natural disaster like this in the province of British Columbia. Yes, every year we go through issues with fires and floods and other disasters that hit the province. But as I said earlier, in my response to the Speech from the Throne, it is government’s job to govern.

It’s government’s job, when crisis happens, to show leadership and to help the people they represent find a path forward and a path through this. After 7½ months, to bring forward this bill, Bill 2, which, as I say…. I’m looking forward to some of the committee stage conversation, but on its surface, obviously, it’s important as a step to help Lytton and the people of Lytton.

I do find it interesting, though, that the first bill or the first real piece of substance to help them is almost like a paper-pushing, bureaucratic style of support for the community.

I know that, as a former mayor, any time you pass a bylaw, the bylaws have to be given to the government, so they’re here in the building somewhere. That’s an obligation under legislation that municipalities have to follow. So as far as digging up and having the historical data needed, well, that should be a couple of clicks of a button, and we can find that for them.

From a going-forward perspective for a community, obviously, having some supports in this crisis situation is important. I can support that. But after 7½ months, where has the leadership been to actually help the people — the people who are suffering, the people still living, as I say, in hotels or in cars or in a friend’s basement?

The hope they’re looking for is at least acknowledgment. To stand up and do a speech in the House, as government has done, to just say, “We hear you; we see you,” that is kind of cold comfort to people who are suffering — for people who genuinely are looking to their government for help.

I guess the point that a lot of us are trying to make is that we appreciate the fact that government was not responsible for the fire. But government is responsible for how they act and deal with a situation after crisis. That falls on the plate of government. That falls on the decision-makers to do their job. That falls on cabinet.

As a former minister of the Crown myself, I cannot believe — and if it has happened, they’re not talking about it — that one of the first pieces that would have been on an agenda for cabinet after something like the devastating fire of Lytton….

You would think that as a cabinet member, the first thing you’d be talking about is: “What are we going to do in this situation of crisis? What’s our plan? How are we going to help the people in that area?” But we heard nothing. We heard a little bit of: “So sorry that this happened to you.” But that’s not what people want to hear from their government.

In closing, just on this bill, again, I think it’s important that we’re starting to see something take place. Did it take too long? Yes. Could it have been done a long time ago? Yes. Is there anything else, really, accompanying this for the people themselves, not just the bureaucratic systems? No.

That, to me, is where government is falling short. I would have loved to have seen a bill 2 that’s helping the historical and go-forward issues to help the municipality and a bill 3 of changes that are going to be made to make sure, in a crisis situation, that government is there to help them.

[3:55 p.m.]

I know we have to wait two more weeks for the budget to be presented here. Thankfully, it’s not delayed like it was last year. I know there are going to be a lot of people — and this is not opposition — who are struggling to figure out what tomorrow looks like and are going to be waiting to see if this government acknowledges them, at the very least, with some sort of financial support in the budget. They deserve that; they need that.

I guess what we need to do is ensure that this issue is top of mind, continues to be talked about, because the people of Lytton deserve that, and they deserve our government, this House, to show them every piece of support we can so they can get back to the lives that they want to get back to.

J. Sims: It is a pleasure to rise in this session to speak to this very important piece of legislation that is before us.

We’ve heard some very moving speeches, and words are not enough. I absolutely agree with my colleagues. The devastation we saw in Lytton — no amount of words is going to provide comfort to the people who lost everything. Not only did they lose their village, their little township, but also they lost a lot of the memories and their history. We all know how important that is, especially as we get older and we look back over our lives. We want to go through our old pictures, some of the things we have acquired. But here is a community that saw absolute devastation during the heat dome that we experienced.

Let me also acknowledge the fact that I don’t think there’s anybody out there right now who could be a denier about climate change after what we have experienced in B.C. The devastating fires. The horrendous number of deaths during the heat dome. Heat like I have never experienced in the Lower Mainland before. Followed by, of course, what happened in Lytton, where a whole town was decimated. Then the floods followed and then, of course, all the freezing temperatures we’ve had since then.

It seems that we’ve been on this kind of cycle of one natural disaster after another. During these times of natural disaster, it is the job and responsibility of those who are elected to step forward and provide support. It is the job of governments to make sure that we look after those who go through these horrendous experiences firsthand.

A lot of us watched the fire in Lytton on TV. It was, in many ways, heartbreaking and unbelievable. You almost felt it was a scene from a movie. For weeks afterwards, we wondered what happened. How did the fire start? What was the genesis? While we were doing all of that, the people of Lytton left their town, left behind their pets, left behind their memories, and they were dislocated. They had to go to family members or to neighbouring communities. A huge shout-out to British Columbians in neighbouring communities who did step forward and provide support, emotional as well as physical.

I’m proud of the work that the government did during that period, because it’s very important for governments to do that. But when you have the kind of devastation that Lytton did, I think everybody realizes it was days and days and days before anybody could even go back in to make an assessment of what had happened. An investigative team after another went in. Slowly, people started to go in to look at their own households to see what had happened there, or where their homes used to be.

[4:00 p.m.]

I was reminded, at that time, of a terrible sadness. I actually had the pleasure, in my previous role, when I visited Lytton with the federal government. We stood at the railway station and stood on that engine that was the pride of Lytton, painted red. We talked about the importance of connectivity and made a pretty major investment to improve the connectivity in the Lytton area — in order to grow its economy, to ensure that health care could be improved — as well as the personal uses of our connectivity, of our fast-speed Internet.

I remember walking around Lytton, because I’d got there a little bit earlier, and visiting the local café, having lunch there, talking to the people and then meeting with the local leaders. There was an incredible amount of pride. Their pride itself hasn’t been shattered, but what they were proud of has been decimated, and now starts the stage of rebuilding.

I am proud that our government has put forward an additional $8 million to support the village in its recovery and ongoing operations. We know that during this time, the municipal government is not collecting moneys from the residents who are not there or not occupying their houses. This will help Lytton. You know, $8 million will help them to respond to the challenges of the wildfire response costs and the fact that their revenues have been so decimated. Let us not underestimate that.

The $2.1 million will also support the village’s operations. We know that there is work still to be done while the core operations are being supported, because they don’t want to have none of their staff getting paid, and therefore…. Nobody can work for free forever. We want to make sure that their staff stays there, is with them and is helping with the rebuilding. This part of supporting the cooperation is a critical part in the recovery and rebuild because that’s where the energy is going to be. It’s not going to be into how we create more revenue right now.

In many ways, it’s like when you come home, and where your home was standing, there is nothing there, or there is rubble. Where do you start? Where do you start? I want to say to the people in Lytton and to their leadership that British Columbia watched in shock, as did the rest of Canada and the world. As the Premier said, this government will have your back and has your back.

As you go through this, it would be hard for me to say that I know what you’re going through. I cannot even imagine the pain you must be feeling individually as you go into Lytton and you drive up there. Not only are you looking at what’s happened to your own home, but you’re also looking at what has happened to your neighbours’ homes. You’re also looking to see what has happened to your landmarks.

As you rebuild — and rebuild you will — some of that history is going to be hard to capture. The losses that individuals have experienced as a result of loss of contents of their homes, as well as their homes, are going to cause incredible amounts of pain and are going to be there with you for a long, long time. I think that at this time, you need to know that no matter which side of the House MLAs are sitting on, our focus is to be able to support you.

I’m proud of the work this government is doing. This is not the time to try to do one-upmanship. It’s very, very difficult to even think about something like that when we’re looking at the misery that people are experiencing, and the trauma. We do have to make sure that that trauma, the support for dealing with that trauma, is also available.

[4:05 p.m.]

As you know, our government has been providing ongoing support to individuals, as well as to the municipality. The funding of the staff positions has focused on…. This is temporary funding. There’s going to be local housing. Temporary housing is going to have to be put up. You can’t have people doing that commute every single day, because it is quite a commute from local communities.

Local government recovery. Not only did people lose their homes, but the local government lost their infrastructure and lost a lot of their records, and they’ve got a lot of work to do. How do you plan for a safe return and a re-entry? It’s not like we can flick our fingers and Lytton is going to be standing up again, the way it was before. It will never be the same.

The government has also provided, previously, $1 million in economic recovery and operating fund support, as well as $6 million in emergency support service funding. That was given to the Canadian Red Cross to make sure that meals and housing support were there for people when they needed it.

To the people of Lytton: Lytton was a gem. It was a gem that was hidden, but I can tell you that those who lived there had a lot of pride. I know that as you work through to rebuild your gem, it will not be the same. For many of you, it’s going to be a very painful time coming up. But after the devastation, rebuilding will take place, and once again, as our Premier always says, we, the government, have your back, and British Columbians will have your back.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to speak. The difficult times ahead bring some opportunities, but there are huge, huge emotional challenges ahead.

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the member for lovely Kelowna West.

Good to see you again, Member.

B. Stewart: It’s good to see you back here too. I look forward to you visiting Kelowna West when the opportunity permits.

I have to say that I appreciate the legislation and the efforts that Bill 2 contemplates in terms of the effectiveness of trying to help local government be empowered to be able to rebuild. It’s not just the existing bylaws, but it’s more about the timeline until 2031 — June 30 — being able to have some latitude, as well as retroactively not having any liability for things that council may have done since the fire happened on June 30.

I think that the bill is likely to get reasonably swift passage. However, it begs the opportunity for opposition to speak about that. I know that Lytton was one of the first communities that was levelled by the fire that came through, but they weren’t the only community.

We saw these fires continue. They proceeded up through the Fraser Canyon. They started in the Nicola Valley — the White Rock Lake fire — and it touched other communities that are not incorporated, that are not as big. They’re not, maybe, seen individually as historic. They’re all important. Monte Lake. Paxton Valley. The north end of Westside Road. My particular riding. We lost 85 structures just in that area, let alone that we had other fires, where we lost structures, in West Kelowna. So it has happened in a number of cases.

I think that what has been discussed today are the things… I remember the evacuees. They didn’t even know where to send them because, of course, there were fire orders all over, and they were directed to an ESS centre in Kelowna, at the Salvation Army. I went down and met with the evacuees. It was a small number, but they were still looking.

[4:10 p.m.]

The alliance of the Canadian-Chinese communities came together and brought up supplies. Lots of people wanted to help out. Everybody was devastated. We all sat in disbelief that an entire community could be lost, especially knowing its history. We lost two lives, and the fact is that the other approximately 300 people, etc., lost everything. They lost their livelihood. They lost their homes. The situation really is one of concern.

How do we approach this? What is the best approach to deal with things that we have set up?

I don’t really believe that EMBC, when it was originally contemplated, set up and structured, etc., imagined the devastation that not only the summer of 2021 but the fall…. Then yesterday’s news forecast about a large wave that was registered off the coast at Ucluelet, on Vancouver Island. I’m thinking: the minister is from Tofino. What would happen to her community in Ucluelet if something like this happened, and it came in and wiped out their entire infrastructure? Where would we start? What would be…? I mean, it could be other places up in the north end of the Island and stuff like that.

I’m not saying that we have to do that, but we have to do a better job at responding to this. I know, having sat around…. And I know many of the people that work in that ministry. The minister has been very cooperative in terms of discussing things, but the real issue that I have is this devastation, which is not of the magnitude of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the MacArthur plan, the Marshall plan in Europe and stuff like that. They were there to rebuild something, and it was all sorts of things — infrastructure that was damaged, whether it was bridges, roads, water, those types of things.

The reality is that they had to move on a scale that was multi-pronged, and they needed the reality to be able to move things and re-establish trade and things like that. Well, this community and the other ones, the ones that are in the MLA for Fraser-Nicola…. Look at Merritt. I mean, how many disasters does it take for one riding in British Columbia to get the attention, where we don’t have the focus and attention…? I mean, it’s a scale that has not been…. It’s unprecedented, but we don’t have the attention, based on what we’ve seen so far. This is a very important step in rebuilding the municipal operations.

I’ve been to that community probably a hundred times. I’ve been there, and I’ve always wondered what the airport up on the top, above Highway 1…. I’ve been to the Fraser Canyon, where Bernie Fandrich and his family have Kumsheen river rafting. I have been to the facilities in there, the Chinese museum, gone through town. I remember the torch relay in 2010 and being in that community and watching people come through and the excitement of that.

It’s not a big town, but it’s connecting people. There’s a small ferry that connects across the Fraser. It’s the convergence of two rivers, the Thompson and the Fraser, but across, there are all of these other people that are counting on supplies and the connectivity. The farms that are along there…. I know that the roads…. It has been disruptive. But at the end of the day, I just don’t believe that we have the attention and the focus and the spotlight on this.

I mean, I can’t help but think about your riding, where you have a barge that’s been pushed up on your beaches in your riding, and now some people are talking about: “Let’s keep it as a landmark.” I’m not quite certain I subscribe to that, but anyways, I think the fact is that we need to be able to act decisively. I know that there’s the red tape and bureaucracy, and that’s probably in the park board’s hands. I don’t have any idea.

However, when it comes to this community, they need accommodation. They clearly list in the recovery report for Lytton that most or all of the businesses and government agencies and services in Lytton downtown were destroyed by the fire. There are some core businesses that need to become operational as soon as possible, including those of health services, medical clinic, pharmacy, groceries, the general store, village office and more.

[4:15 p.m.]

I think about the tourism. I don’t know if many people even know that there’s this geotagging that goes on in that area for people to go out and explore. It’s a form of tourism that I discovered in my travels through there. I would often go through Lytton on my way to Highway 99 and head up over to Whistler. I have to say that one of the things about it is that I was intrigued by the people’s attention to trying to draw tourists to their area — the restaurants, places like Pavilion. We were in Lillooet, and we were over there probably about two years ago when the slide went into the Fraser River. There were all sorts of challenges for the fisheries.

More importantly, what we do need to do is bring a spotlight and a focus to this part of British Columbia. Everybody has been devastated by COVID. But what about the opportunity to create tourism in this area? A rebuilding of Lytton — quickly, decisively, getting the residents back…. People will want to go there because something happened. The fact is that it gives the opportunity, that decisiveness, that preciseness that people are looking for.

The fact that they rediscover…. I’m sure many people, with all the road closures, have driven Highway 99 when they never really knew…. They thought: “Well, doesn’t that just end outside of Pemberton?” No, it doesn’t. It goes through Mount Currie and goes over to Lillooet. You can go to Cache Creek. There’s a lot to discover out there.

The situation is this paralysis that we have because we’re so interested in getting all of the things organized. In this report here, it talks about surveying. I know that there were assessments by First Nations about historical issues and stuff like that. But I think that the fact that…. There is the airport. I doubt it’s being used very much these days. What’s to say that accommodation — work camps or something like that…?

I mean, we’re building housing all over British Columbia for people that don’t have shelters. Yet in my riding, in Kamloops, other places that have accommodation, we’re housing the 300-plus residents from Lytton, and they should be in their home. They should be able to go there. They should be able to get the basic essentials and help in the rebuild, help build things, and be there on the ground. They’re not. They’re hundreds of miles away.

I think that the member for Abbotsford South — I hope I got that right — was talking about sleeping on a friend’s couch, a hide-a-bed. I can’t help but think about how uncomfortable that is. That probably would be better than staying months in a hotel. Most of the motels or hotels that people have wouldn’t even have a kitchenette where you could prepare your own meals.

I met people at that evacuation centre that were First Nations that came there. What about their community and their traditions, etc.?

It seems to me that we could do more. There should be no limit to the costs that we are willing to invest in this community, Monte Lake, Paxton Valley and even North­west Side, where people, through no fault of their own, have lost everything.

Tonight there’s a meeting going on at the Central Okanagan regional district to talk about the wildfire recovery efforts in that particular area. It took literally months to get the water system back up and safe to use because they’d stressed it to the maximum. But more importantly, the people are just trying to get the debris cleared. They’re trying to get permits to build even what they had. And if they had insurance, they’re just trying to get that covered.

Now, I watched a video just recently about Lytton, and the Insurance Bureau of Canada says that the usual policies are two years from the time of the loss. That means that these people are 17 months to be rebuilt unless they get an extension. Now, that might be possible, but that’s if they had insurance. What about the people that lost everything and had no insurance?

This is a disaster that’s beyond a single house fire. It’s beyond somebody having something in their garage they shouldn’t have had, propane or something like that. This is way beyond that. And it’s beyond DFA, the disaster financial assistance, which has a cap of $300,000, as we heard earlier.

Rebuilding costs. We all know that they’ve been escalating rapidly. It’s not going to be any different in a community so far away without the resources of a building supply and the tradespeople and all of those things.

[4:20 p.m.]

They are up against the wall on this, and I think it’s incumbent on government to really take a much bolder action on this.

I mentioned the minister and her community. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in Tofino or Ucluelet. I have relatives that grew up in Ucluelet, and I can only imagine what it would be like to have a community that most people…. Well, they have now visited Pacific Rim National Park, but in the days when I was there, it wasn’t even a park.

I think that it is important. I see on the website in the council meeting they had yesterday in Lytton, talking about debris removal starting in March. But we have to move in a decisive, forthright manner and give these people the confidence.

The member for Fraser-Nicola has been talking about the number of days where the communication has not really been very clear. I can imagine with the 300 residents, people that are scattered around British Columbia, how are they getting the information? How are they getting communicated with? That’s probably one of the worst things that happened during the wildfire season this year is that communication was so difficult.

I met twice a day in some cases with B.C. Wildfire Service, and I’m getting briefings and trying to ask questions and trying to help. The real problem, now that the fires are out, is everybody that didn’t lose anything or isn’t affected has kind of thought: “Well, the fires are out. Next season is next season.” That’s not the way it is. These people deserve better from their government. It’s taking a tremendous emotional toll on them.

I think that the situation is that we, all of us, are expected to be accountable to the citizens in Lytton as well as these other areas that I mentioned. I know that people are tired outside of the buildings here for other reasons. But these people actually have a reason, and they do expect that there is this decisiveness. I don’t know who that should be, but I would say that we need to kind of move ahead on that.

I’d like to think that after this debate on this particular bill, the government will introduce further actions to help improve and excite the rest of British Columbia, because we’re going to rebuild Lytton. We’re going to start the tourism industry. You’re going to be able to go to the Chinese museum. You’ll be able to do geotagging, and you’ll be able to go and visit the member for Surrey-Cloverdale’s former community. I say that meaning that I didn’t know that until the Torch Relay went through Lillooet, and I found out that she’d grown up there.

Anyways, I look forward to further discussion on this bill. I thank the House for your time today.

J. Sturdy: Mr. Speaker, 2021 certainly was a tough year. It was referenced yesterday. We all acknowledge it: tough. It was COVID, emergence of variants, debris flows, floods. I do want to take the opportunity right now to actually acknowledge the four people who died just a few kilometres past my farm on the Duffey Lake Road in that fall event. Another tragedy.

Of course, the impacts of floods all around the province and the Fraser Valley, Princeton, Merritt, Nicola Valley…. It’s an area that I’m very familiar with. I, as I mentioned, live in Pemberton, and we travel frequently through this area on the way to the Okanagan to get agricultural supplies and fruit and that sort of thing. So we’d often travel that Duffey Lake Road, get to Lytton, left to Cache Creek as the member for Kelowna West mentioned. Or south on Highway 12 — magnificent road. Hopefully, as the member mentioned, it will be something that we’ll encourage people to do in the future when Lytton does get rebuilt.

[4:25 p.m.]

The drive from the Duffey, obviously, and then down Highway 12 and along the Fraser River to Lytton up to Spences Bridge, Nicola and Nicola Valley, Merritt, the connector and into the Okanagan is an amazing drive, and it’s just not possible right now. It’s a shame. I think it’s important that we do focus on this and rebuild.

Then of course there’s the issue or the emergency that we dealt with in addition to the floods, and that was the heat dome, which precipitated the reason that we’re here today talking about this particular event. This is an event, the heat dome — hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people died, people that didn’t really receive any warning, unfortunately — where, as I’m sure others have mentioned, we would have liked to have seen a public notification, a warning, activated. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Other jurisdictions did. We didn’t. Hopefully, that’ll not be what the future holds, although it’s true that’s what we did see in the fall.

Is it fair to compare actions here to other jurisdictions? Well, I think it is fair. I think it’s reasonable, and I’m going to make some comparisons later. Lytton, during that event, obviously felt…. A catastrophic event is what it’s fair to say. I understand that 60 percent of that community was destroyed, that two lives were lost and that many people lost everything but their lives — their whole lives. It’s hard to imagine.

The community I live in is also subject to some of these same types of risks — floods, debris flows, rock avalanches. We lived through the Meager rock avalanche a number of years ago, which adds and continues to add risk to the community, as 400,000 cubic metres a year of sediments enter into the river and fill up the river channel. Effectively, we’ve gone from a one-in-200-year flood protective structure to a one-in-50-year just over the last ten years as the carrying capacity of the river drops or is reduced.

Wildfire is something that we certainly have experienced in the Sea to Sky and in Pemberton. It’s an issue that communities all around the province have to face. I guess it really wasn’t anticipated that this type of event can happen. Well, it is anticipated, but have we acted on it? Have we been as proactive as we need to be? I guess when I mention anticipation, it really is around this particular bill. I hadn’t thought about the idea that we might lose all of a community’s records — it is a bit new — and that’s exactly what happened in Lytton.

In this case, I think this legislation is apt. It’s appropriate. We’ll certainly have questions in committee stage on the specifics of it, but it’s important that we are set up to respond and rebuild. The rebuild of a municipal legisla­tive framework from the ground up is something I hadn’t really thought about, but clearly, it’s a herculean task and incredibly complex.

I suppose in some respects, it does provide a unique opportunity as well. I recall from my time in local government in Pemberton some of the legacy bylaws in my community that really were written in a different time and a different era. Some of them, I was informed in no uncertain terms, were very much unenforceable. I recall one we did have. We had a 9 p.m. curfew bylaw for everybody 16 and younger, and I thought: “Oh well, there’s an opportunity.” I was told that, yes, it was still on the books, but it was not something that was going to be acted on anytime.

[4:30 p.m.]

I guess you could debate whether that particular bylaw was a good idea or not, but obviously, there’s no point in reproducing this kind of legislation. Starting from a blank slate, while daunting, can also provide opportunity and avoid the mistakes of the past and design a modern and forward-thinking framework that will support this community into the future and, in many respects, may even be helpful to other communities as they devise legislation using best practices.

The potential for good is there in this respect. But given the scope of the challenge, certainly one hopes that there is support coming from the province, both in developing a legislative framework but also in supporting and rebuilding this community.

Clearly, that support has been…. I think it’s generous to say slow. It’s more than slow — 225 days since this community was devastated. We really don’t seem to have made a whole lot of progress. You have to wonder why it’s taken as long as it has.

It’s been pointed out in earlier remarks: couldn’t this have been introduced last fall so the community could get on with this work? Seven months is how long it’s been. We had a fall session where we resorted to debating the previous spring’s throne speech, when we could have been doing something a little more productive, like work on this type of amendment.

It certainly doesn’t build confidence that this government has people’s backs, which is a term I’ve heard repeated again and again. Yet again and again, we also talk about delay. Seven months has gone by where residents of Lytton have seen virtually no progress on rebuilding their community.

People who live in Lytton, whether for a short time or they’ve been there their whole lives, are dispersed, displaced, evacuated and with no real plan or path on how they’re to return. They continue to live on couches, in hotels, with friends til if and when they’ll ever be able to return home. Will it never be their home again? Really no idea.

Nothing to date has been rebuilt in Lytton. Debris has not even been cleared. Not a single permit has been issued. “Delay” seems to be the watch word.

As delay after delay compounds the time to recovery, it also compounds costs. The insurance industry has previously estimated the cost of recovery to be assessed at approximately $78 million, but because of all the delays, they’ve had to renew it and update those cost estimates. Now they say that due to the delay, costs have escalated to over $100 million. That’s to date. Where are we at in another six months or another year?

It’s not just money, though, although this is a huge issue. It’s an enormous issue. But what about the cost to families? It’s taking an enormous emotional toll on people — the uncertainty, the fear of the future. They’re tired. They’re frustrated. They’re depressed. What about their jobs? How have their jobs been affected? What about their kids? School? What does the future hold?

Government says they’re listening to the people and taking action, but actions speak louder than words, and it’s pretty hard to believe. The actions of government have comprised principally excuses, until yesterday with the tabling of this bill.

[4:35 p.m.]

On the other hand, I was at a briefing in the fall with the Insurance Bureau of Canada. They said two things that really struck me. The first was that delays in rebuilding not only cost money, more money, but they fear that the community will actually dissipate and really never recover, because people move on. They find jobs in different places. Their kids get ensconced in other schools, and they just never return.

The Insurance Bureau’s experience is that after a while — and we are getting to more than a while — people take insurance payouts and they never return. That would be devastating to Lytton, because the people are the community. Delays, continued delays and uncertainty could ensure that Lytton never recovers and rebuilds.

The second thing that really struck me was — and I think it’s actually been mentioned by others — that six months after the Fort McMurray fire, the community had already been partially rebuilt. Well, we haven’t even begun to remove debris, let alone rebuilding the town.

The people of Lytton need hope. They need to see some progress. Bill 2 is a necessary start, but it is scant and slow. What the people of Lytton need from this government is a clear and articulated path forward for this community. Lytton needs a plan for the future, a timeline for recovery and for rebuilding and the confidence that it will be acted on in a timely way.

As I say, I think that we’ll see. We’ll have some questions in committee stage. I think we have general support for the idea of this that’s put forward in this amendment, but I think it also makes sense, as well, at the same time, to think about the resilience of communities all across British Columbia, big and small. I think what happened in Lytton highlights what could happen to other places.

I think about my experience in living in Pemberton and living through various floods and other natural disasters and then watching, in the fall, what happened in the Fraser Valley and thinking that, but for a slight move in the jet stream, that could have been our community. We could have been in the same situation.

It’s important that government spends some time thinking about what the emergency management plans look like, what the resiliency of small and medium-sized, especially, communities look like and whether plans are in place to adapt, to respond, to ensure that we minimize any type of repeat of issues like this.

I hope, going forward…. I know we’ve got a couple of weeks until the budget speech. I certainly hope that we see that government has turned its attention to flood protection, to fuels management for interface wildfires, to debris flow mitigation and monitoring. All these issues are critical to communities right across the province, and there isn’t necessarily the capacity or the ability to respond in a way that I think we all understand needs to take place.

With that, I thank you for your time.

P. Milobar: It gives me pleasure to rise to Bill 2. I do wish, though, unfortunately, that Bill 2 was dealing with something other than the devastation of Lytton. I think, as we’ve heard today, it truly is tragic circumstances that we see, that have unfolded in Lytton from the end of June to now.

[4:40 p.m.]

It is interesting to me that the first piece of real legislation or amendments that we’re dealing with, with Lytton, does not come to this House until seven-plus months after the fire.

If this is the key to restoring Lytton — something as simple, frankly, when it comes to government, as record management, record storage bylaws which everyone would have known by July 1 had been wiped out by the fire — and it took us 7½ months to see it in front of this chamber, Lord help us with all the other things that need to happen to rebuild that community.

That is, I think, the fundamental problem the residents of Lytton are having right now with the hollow words they continue to get from this government when it comes to trying to rebuild their lives in Lytton. Absolutely, the local government side of the equation needs help. It needs resources. It needs help with bylaws. That’s a given. But the residents, the people that live in those homes that that municipality serves, need help as well.

Again, if it took 7½ months for the government to get to this stage of recognizing that, that’s worrisome. Lytton, as a town, does not have much of a population. Lytton, as a town…. Its municipal council relies heavily on working with the regional district government for the provision of services to the town residents, as well as the outlying areas.

I know this well, because the headquarters of that regional district is in Kamloops, not next door to Lytton. It’s quite a ways away. Their resources are stretched. As we saw, they were dealing with fires. They’ve been dealing with floods. They’ve been dealing with all manner of issues around their regional district — a large regional district. It’s about 45,000 square kilometres.

They absolutely want to try to help the local government of Lytton. They want to help the local residents of Lytton and the surrounding residents, but they have no actual jurisdiction inside the boundary of Lytton. But they’re a much larger form of local government than the Lytton municipal government would be.

Everything we hear from this government, when it comes to natural disasters in the outlying areas, in the smaller communities, seems to be that they think it’s a government the size of Surrey or Vancouver or even Kamloops that has resources at its fingertips to access — that the mayors have a trained fleet of engineers and other types of workers at their disposal to re-engage in different areas to help their community, as you would see if a disaster hit a Kamloops or an Abbotsford or a Surrey.

These small towns don’t have those resources. Their big budget discussion some years is if they add an extra public works person to the payroll. That usually adds about a 2 percent tax hike to the property bill if they add one more staff member. They simply don’t have the resources.

To take 7½ months to have a bill come forward that could have easily been here when we were here in the fall…. I’ll point out that we were still here in, I believe, November. That was four months after the fire, four months after realizing that their city hall and all the records contained within would have burned to ground. Now, granted there was no rush by government to get in there to clean up everything, as we’ve seen, so perhaps they only found out the records were destroyed.

That’s why residents are angry. That’s why they’re tired. And I want to be very clear. That’s why we’ve had several speakers get up and speak today — because the people of Lytton feel like this government is not listening to them. Despite all their flowery words, that’s what the people are saying.

We need to be their voice for them in this chamber, and we’re going to continue to do that. The member for Fraser-Nicola has made it very clear time and again in this House. Well, today many of her colleagues made sure those voices were raised as well, because they need to be.

[4:45 p.m.]

I want to be extra clear. We’re not delaying this bill one second. This bill was introduced for debate yesterday. Today is the first opportunity to debate that. I will be our last speaker, to ensure that the minister can close the bill out today and we can move it forward into next week so that we are not the problem of delay. And we’re not prepared to give this government the chance to point, for one second, the finger back this way and say we have delayed anything in regards to Lytton.

After 7½ months it’s very clear where the delay has been, if you live in Lytton. Lived in Lytton, because most people right now are feeling they’ll never get back. Most people still don’t have their site cleaned, because they’re still figuring out what to do with the debris. There are, unfortunately, fires in all sorts of buildings in this province on a daily basis. It doesn’t seem to take 7½ months to figure out what to do with that debris. But in Lytton’s case, its debris is special. Even that can’t be solved.

Most people’s insurance claims have a two-year clock on them. I don’t know how many people in this chamber or watching have ever had to deal with an insurance company. They’re fair, but they sure follow the letter of those policies. Two years is what you get for most of them to rebuild. Seven and a half months in already and not one building permit has been issued for a residential structure to be rebuilt. People can’t even get people in there to start looking at how to get plans drawn to start moving through the process.

Although this is a good step forward and, as I say, although we are not standing in the way of this, we’ll certainly have a lot of questions when we get to committee stage on this bill — again, not so many that we delay it. But taking an appropriate amount of time within today’s window of time to make sure those voices around Lytton have been heard in this chamber, I think, is appropriate, and I think it’s important.

You look forward, and you think: “If it takes 7½ months for this government to acknowledge, essentially, that records were burned in a city hall that was wiped out 7½ months ago, how much longer is it going to take to get the proper resources into that community, the proper supports?” People in that area are doing all they can to try to move forward. The local staff within the municipality are doing all they can to try to move forward.

We remember, from the other side, talk about what people want to get paid. Frankly, that whole speech on this bill made it seem like the member thought this whole bill was about providing a couple million dollars to Lytton for its operations. It’s unfortunate that if members from the government side are going to speak to this bill, they don’t even appear to know what the bill is for.

I have no doubt the minister knows what the bill is all about. I have no doubt that other ministers know what the whole bill is about. I just wish that some members of the government side, if they’re going to speak about the tragedy that has befallen the residents of Lytton, actually understood what it is exactly we are talking about here today, within this bill.

A self-congratulatory pat on the back and talking about the fact that Lytton doesn’t have the ability to collect property taxes so that’s why we gave them money — so some of their staff could get paid, 7½ months after a fire razed their community — I think is pretty cold comfort, not just to residents of Lytton but just about everybody, if that’s what this government feels is having people’s back. If that’s the proud accomplishment after 7½ months — that something like a couple million dollars to help fund civic operations is the cornerstone of accomplishment…. But that would explain why this bill, addressing a lack of bylaw access, essentially, took 7½ months as well.

Of course, people would have expected that help to come to the municipality. The Premier said, right after the fire: “Anything and everything that needs to be done for the people of Lytton will be done.” He forgot to put the little asterisk about a timeline to that. I think an average person would have reasonably expected that that meant in a timely fashion — within a few months.

[4:50 p.m.]

You look at the photos, pre– and post–Fort McMurray fire — what Fort McMurray looked like five or six months later. The amount of houses that were built. They looked like actual new subdivisions back again, like you would see in most growing cities. Here we don’t have debris removed from people’s homes, and we have the clock ticking on insurance claims.

That’s the difference of a response. That’s what I think people thought when the Premier said they’d have their backs. What he meant by a timely response is not 7½ months to get to basically a bureaucratic side of the operations. This is okay if it’s running in concert with other things happening at the same time. People on the ground aren’t saying that. They aren’t seeing it in practice. They need to.

They’re living in Kamloops. They’re not happy, and understandably so. They’re being cut off by some of their insurance in terms of living-out expense and things of that nature. But silence. Instead, we get a stunning revelation from a member of the other side that a town where all the houses have been burnt isn’t going to collect property taxes this year. What a deep, thoughtful understanding of the problem from government.

I have news for that member. The biggest worry of the residents of Lytton, the mayor of Lytton and the councillors of Lytton wasn’t whether or not they’d be able to send out property tax bills this year. I know the government that loves to tax everything only worries about how they’re going to tax, but for the residents in Lytton, that’s not their big priority in life. They want to get back to building their community back up. They want to get back to building their homes.

Again, we need to see real, tangible action. Like with most things with this government, we actually need to see a plan, maybe with an actual set of deliverable dates in it that they can be held accountable to for a change, instead of a finger-pointing exercise. The simple reality is that a community of that size does not have the operational capacity, and it never will — it doesn’t matter where it’s located; all the best intentions in the world — to deliver the type of recovery that is needed. It simply doesn’t have it.

Lytton is an important waypoint, as well, for all the surrounding communities. It’s an important spot of commerce. That’s why a town of its size had a hospital — only a few beds, but it was a hospital. I know. I was on the hospi­tal board when we funded it. In the Interior, 40 percent of the cost from local government goes to pay for hospitals. It was an $8 million hospital at the time, and $2 million came from the region.

Our region looks out for each other. City of Kamloops residents paid, at the time, about 60 or 65 percent of the hospital taxes. There was about $1.2 million from Kamloops that went to Lytton to help build that hospital — unanimously, no debate — because that’s what our region and our community do, our broader region. We look out for each other.

That’s why I’m standing up here today, right now: to look out for them. It’s to try to get somebody on government to take them seriously, to try to get somebody on government to actually take action and move forward quickly, before all their insurance claims run out. Then we’re into a whole other mess. If people have to start trying to figure out what each and every single word of the Premier means in the middle of a devastating fire event like this, when he says he will have their back and they will rebuild, essentially, no questions asked…. We’re sitting here 7½ months later, looking at a paperwork bill.

[4:55 p.m.]

I don’t know what people should expect of any promise this Premier makes on anything. The scale and the order and the magnitude of the cost of the rebuild to the overall provincial coffers is a rounding error for a town the size of Lytton. The scope and the scale and the devastation to each of those individual families are incalculable.

For a government that claims to be all about the people, it sure seems to me that it matters where the people live and in what density they live. When you have a community that very clearly needs provincial help…. I’ve already explained how our regional district looks out for each other on the regional, local scale.

I don’t think, on something like a fire of this magnitude, that it’s unreasonable for that community to think that maybe the broader provincial community of people would actually have their backs, as the Premier said they would, when, again, the overall dollars we’re talking about are a rounding error in the overall provincial government, especially when you consider that the fire started in this ending fiscal year.

We’re coming into another fiscal year. At this rate, we’re going to be in three fiscal years, which means we’ll have budgeted and spent $220 billion of taxpayers’ money in that three-year period.

We have a member from the government talking about how wonderful it is that they provided $2.3 million — with an “m” — because they won’t collect property taxes. That’s what I hope the government starts to actually think about. That’s why you hear about things like a rural-urban divide: because the response and the lack of response simply are not acceptable. It needs to change.

This bill, frankly, should not have taken 7½ months to get to this chamber. We’ll have questions for it. As I say, we’re not holding it up one second. It’ll pass today. It’ll go through committee stage the first opportunity it gets here, but we’re going to have a lot of questions for it, even when that happens.

We’re sure as heck going to have a whole lot more questions on behalf of the people of Lytton, moving forward, to make sure that their voices aren’t forgotten in this chamber and that this government does what’s right for a change and actually takes care of the people they profess to be the government for. With that, I thank you for the time, and I look forward to the government actually taking meaningful, timely action to support Lytton and the surrounding residents.

Hon. M. Farnworth: I know that the Minister of Municipal Affairs, who has this bill, is on her way down here to finish the reading of the bill, so I just want to take a few moments to respond to the member’s comments, because I do think that it is important to put some things on the record.

I appreciate the comments and the opposition in terms of Lytton and the situation that the residents there face, because it is frustrating. Whenever anybody goes through a calamitous event, such as the residents of Lytton have, it is important that they know that government does have their back. That has been the fact since this terrible event took place.

I want to make it clear that this particular piece of legislation is just one component. It’s one component that the village of Lytton needs, in terms of its recovery. But there is so much more that they need that has, in fact, been taking place right from the beginning, when we provided each of the residents, the households, with the $2,000 and assured them that the supports they need in terms of being able to have their rent paid and food paid would be in place and have been in place. It is in place for as long as they need it.

[5:00 p.m.]

The government has put forward and helped — assistance in terms of staffing out of government ministries to assist them in identifying what needs to be happening in terms of the recovery.

Streets. The streets have been cleared. We’ve made it clear to residents in the community of Lytton that the debris clearance…. The province will ensure that those costs are not borne by them. That’s been extremely important in terms of being able to move forward. The village of Lytton, working with the TNRD, was coordinating the ability to remove debris.

Let’s not forget the challenge faced in terms of the closure of Highway 1. We’ve made it clear that once that highway was cleared, that debris then would be able to be removed faster.

There is a lot that is currently underway, so to somehow suggest that nothing is happening is wrong. Recovery takes a long time. It’s not something that happens overnight. The member talks about Fort McMurray and insurance. Well, two years later they were still having…. Recovery still takes a long time, even in Fort McMurray.

We are going to rebuild Lytton. It will be taking place. Commitments have already been put in place. The civic infrastructure is going to be rebuilt. The RCMP have already indicated that they will rebuild their police station there. The medical services building is going to be rebuilt. Physician services have already been supplied through the clinic on the First Nations reserve. There has been an agreement with the federal government to pick up the cost of First Nations who are living in the community of Lytton, in terms of rebuilding their communities.

We’ve been working with the community to identify which properties are insured and which ones are not insured. We’ve been working with the community to understand exactly how it is they want to rebuild. That’s one of the reasons why this bylaw is so important, because it is going to allow them to do that.

I understand frustration — that people want to get back in their homes. We want them back in their homes too.

I’m glad the opposition is going to support this bill, but to stand up and to somehow say that this bill is the only thing that has taken place in terms of recovery, that government has forgotten about Lytton, that government is making decisions based on the size of a community, is absolutely wrong. That is completely and totally wrong.

We know the importance of the community of Lytton. We want it rebuilt, and it is going to be rebuilt. That’s why we’ve been there putting forward money — so the community can operate. They don’t have to worry about: can they pay those operational bills? It allows them to focus on the recovery, which is what they want to do.

Is there a lot of work still be done? Absolutely. There is a lot of work to be done. There is short-term work that is underway, but there is also medium-term and long-term work.

The idea that the opposition wants to put forward — to somehow say that, well, guess what, recovery all needs to be done by now — is not the case. It will take time, but we will be there with the people of Lytton to make sure that that recovery happens, that they are supported in that process, as we have been doing. And it is my expectation that, with the passage of this bill, this will be a concrete step that is going to allow them to do that.

I know my colleague the Minister of Municipal Affairs has some closing remarks to make.

With that, I will take my seat.

Deputy Speaker: I’m seeing her rise, and indeed, she does have closing remarks.

Hon. J. Osborne: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to all the members who have spoken here today. I look forward to continued discussion in committee stage.

With that, I’ll move second reading.

Motion approved.

Hon. J. Osborne: I move that the bill be committed to the Committee of the Whole House to be considered at the next sitting of the House after today.

Bill 2, Municipalities Enabling and Validating (No. 4) Amendment Act, 2022, read a second time and referred to a Committee of the Whole House for consideration at the next sitting of the House after today.

Deputy Speaker: I would like to put the House into recess for a short period, and we will be then joined by the Speaker.

The House recessed from 5:05 p.m. to 5:08 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Question of Privilege

(continued)

Hon. L. Beare: I’m taking my chance to respond right now.

The members opposite have misrepresented what was said in this House and the correct steps that were taken in regards to implementing the fee. Bill 22 enabled the creation of the fee. It did not set the fee. This was done through regulation, and cabinet could not and did not approve the application fee regulation until after the bill received royal assent, which occurred on November 25.

While interim approvals are given at many points in the process of preparing materials for final minister decision, no decision is final until the OIC is approved by the minister and subsequently by cabinet. It is a matter of public record that I approved the OIC with the application fee amount after the bill had received royal assent on November 25 and that it was approved by cabinet on November 26.

The application fee amount includes consideration of what I heard from stakeholders, the opposition, the public, the media, while the bill was progressing through the House. My commitment in the House was that I was listening to feedback. The quotes raised yesterday by the member support that. My commitment to listen has been met, and as I’ve outlined, no final decision could have been or was made regarding the application fee amount until after royal assent.

Thank you, hon. Speaker, for your consideration. Please note I will table some documents.

Hon. M. Farnworth moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

Mr. Speaker: This House stands adjourned until Monday, 10 a.m.

The House adjourned at 5:10 p.m.