Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: For the members who will be participating this afternoon, I call continued debate on the budget.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

Budget Debate

(continued)

R. Russell: I spoke yesterday of the long list of ways the province is helping Lytton to navigate their recovery, both with many millions of dollars and dozens of people helping their community.

I will be very clear that the member for Cariboo-Chilcotin’s comment about me “leading the recovery efforts for Lytton” is wrong, and his comments send the wrong message. Local communities know what they need far better than us in Victoria. I have lived this. So unless the community asks us to, we do not tell them what to do. We do whatever we can to support, to resource the needs that they identify as priorities. We believe we should support, not dictate.

Earlier this week, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and I had a discussion with Chief Gabriel of Penticton Indian Band. Central to his conversation were his concerns, shared by the entire Okanagan Nation Alliance, on the recent prevalence of racist behaviour in society and two specific events tied to the convoy protests.

Hopefully, we in this House are in consensus, and we all unambiguously agree that action to defuse and to diminish racism is part of the future we want to see. So I’m pleased that it’s a common thread through our budget.

We’re continuing to build upon other efforts underway to combat racism, including modernization of the Police Act, developing a K-to-12 anti-racism action plan and tackling anti-Indigenous racism in health care.

[2:30 p.m.]

Funding continues to support an anti-racism awareness campaign and provincial anti-racism network Resilience B.C. as well as more than 190 community organizations that are working to address racism and diversity in B.C.

This government is also engaging and working in partnership with B.C. communities to help draft anti-racism legislation to help to provide better, more equitable services, and to help to identify gaps in services to racialized communities. This is all part of how we help move the dial and advance our movement and action on anti-racism.

Official opposition seems to feel that inaction on issues fixes us forever in the current state we’re at. It is clear that didn’t work for them with their loss of 30,000 forestry jobs in rural B.C. under their watch of inaction. It’s also clear with the wicked problems of climate change or, indeed, racism.

In the context of racism, the member for Vancouver-Hastings described it very well yesterday morning: “We remember the Japanese Canadians who suffered many losses and how fear and racism can lead us down a path that destroys our ideals of equality and democracy. We reflect on the many casualties of wartimes to remind ourselves to hold strong to our values and the integrity of our democratic institutions.” That’s why our action matters: ideals like equality and democracy.

This budget and the economic plan and throne speech shine a light on the importance of helping people prepare for the jobs of the future. Of course, my lens on this is focused on the opportunities for our rural communities. Looping back to my introduction, employment in our rural communities goes far beyond just metrics. Employment helps give us some sense of identity as rural British Columbians. It provides hope and purpose.

Three weeks ago the member opposite from Prince George–Mackenzie asked an astute question about what happens when big projects such as LNG, CGL, TMX, Site C are done. Those are important jobs, 100 percent. How­ever, what I want for rural B.C., and the budget highlighted for me, is that we want a commitment to generational work to develop the talent B.C. needs for the future.

I look to the inspiring work of JERI, Advanced Education, Forests and exciting discussions I’ve had with our parliamentary secretaries for Technology, Skills Training, Fisheries. Merge that with the bold steps coming from our Minister of Environment that identified a road map to CleanBC and the goals therein, and what I see from this convergence is an ambition on the part of this government to skill up and inspire rural British Columbians to be leaders in markets that we know aren’t short term and don’t come with negative, long-term environmental price tags but rather will check the three boxes of economic prosperity, environmental health and social vibrancy.

This is a great example of how broken this old and corrupt narrative is about jobs versus environment. It’s simply not true upon any deep inspection of the situation. As the member pointed out, the traditional business models are short-lived. I hear an unfortunate lack of vision from the other members, the members opposite, about the future for rural B.C. If we do shallow accounting, these projects are great.

When my partner Christine and I are making decisions about our future, we don’t plan on a short-term cycle. We think about the impacts we have on children’s future. We think about our friends, our extended family and our community. We think about our health. We think about the impact on our environment.

I suspect that almost all of us in this House when making decisions that matter to us in our own lives, use some form of mental accounting that includes not just dollars and cents, but includes the social benefits and the impacts on our health or the nature of how our decisions impact our environment. This is how it ought to be in this House as well.

In any version of long-term proper accounting, inaction — looking at the long-term costs of inaction on climate, for example, as we have seen in spades in this last year, even if we set aside the indirect social and environmental costs, that inaction is an enormously expensive choice.

David Reay from the University of Edinburgh said: “Like taking a wrecking ball to a set of global dominoes, climate change in the 21st century threatens to destroy the foundations of food and water security, smash onwards through the fragile structures of human and ecosystem health and ultimately shake the very pillars of human civilization.”

Yes, I’m pleased that Budget 2022 builds on $2.3 billion in funding for CleanBC, with more than $1 billion in new funding for CleanBC and the road map ahead. There’s a lot more to do, but given where we are today, here and now, and where we’ve come from, I’m proud of the investments we’re making to build the scaffolding for more good jobs in rural communities, building upon clean and inclusive growth, including investing $289 million more in connectivity, bringing the total investment to half a billion. This will connect another 280 rural communities, bringing us to 800 remote, rural and First Nations communities connected by 2027.

[2:35 p.m.]

Establishing a new $76 million fund for local government climate action program to help local governments tackle these challenges ahead, $22 million over three years to improve the province’s forests’ ability to sequester carbon and expand the Indigenous Forest Bioeconomy Program, $15 million over three years for the BMP program. The farmers in the House will know what that means.

Advancing our circular economy by investing $13 million for further development of the circular economy strat­egy to remove more plastics from our waste stream. Providing $185 million to support forestry workers in communities. Focusing dedicated energy on watershed planning and on our resource stewardship so that we have healthy jobs and a healthy environment for generations to come.

Investing $25 million in clean tech innovation and partnership opportunities with the federal government to support CleanBC objectives. Increasing access to venture capital for clean tech investments for small businesses by providing a temporary top-up to the small business venture tax credit.

Providing $200 million for R and D and the life sciences sector or $25 million to clean tech innovation or $50 million to growing the manufacturing and agricultural sectors while continuing our commitment to ESG values and developing integrated marketplaces. Those are the kind of investments that do matter for rural B.C.

To borrow a term that one of the bright and impressive minds from EMBC used the other day, we need to set the stage for rural British Columbia to re-dream what our future looks like. We don’t dream in short-term political cycles. We dream for our families, for our friends and for our economies, for now and for the future, for generations.

I’m absolutely convinced that as we manage our carbon emissions to avoid incomprehensible future economic and environmental and social costs, we will see changes to our traditional resource industries that with some creativity and passion to create real jobs in rural B.C., we can build jobs that fit the dream that our communities want and need.

That future won’t be short term but will provide sustainable and desirable employment for our future loggers, fishers, miners and farmers, as well as the new and inspiring opportunities that await. We need to provide a foundation for redreaming what rural B.C. can and will be.

B. Banman: It is, indeed, a privilege to be able to get up in this House and debate the budget.

I am reminded, of late, of the struggles and perils my grandparents went through approximately 100 years ago when they escaped from Ukraine. They escaped Ukraine to the freedom of Canada. They escaped here and were always thankful that they could worship in the manner that they saw fit and that they could live in peace and provide for their families.

I heard your words today, Mr. Speaker. As a child, I don’t know that I could get my head around why people would go to war either. I think it’s one of those struggles that we have gone through every time there is a war.

I will get to the point, Mr. Speaker, but what’s important and what I hope you relay to your son is that discussion, argument — heated argument, in fact — is actually okay, that it’s actually important. Democracy itself, freedom itself, allows for that discourse. It allows for us to learn how to agree to disagree. It allows for us to try and express our concerns so that we can, perhaps, move someone’s thinking from here over to here.

[2:40 p.m.]

I remember, as a child, the arguments that were around the dinner table of my grandparents, as my aunts and uncles would debate politics. At the end of every family dinner, we would all hug one another, say we loved one another, and we looked forward to the next time.

I listened to my grandparents talk about the values of democracy, in particular in Canada. When it comes to this budget, there are many, many areas where I just simply do not agree with this government.

One of the things about democracy that is so incredibly important is transparency. In fact, good democracy demands lots of sunlight. It sanitizes it. Things should not happen behind closed doors, without it going onto the floor of this particular hallowed House, so to speak. One of the things that I find the most disturbing is the lack of transparency when it comes to spending the taxpayers’ dollars. I find it incredibly troubling. It’s a slippery slope.

Now the Finance Minister herself is giving herself, with­out the blessing of this House, without the discourse of this House, the authority to bypass the scrutiny of the Treasury Board. There’s an amendment to the Financial Administration Act that is proposed to enable the Treasury Board to delegate some of its functions to the chair or vice-chair of the Treasury Board. It’s alarming.

I am reminded — respectfully, the minister is sitting in the House — when it came to the FOI debate, that this government has now been awarded the most secret government in Canada.

Deputy Speaker: If I might just remind the member, our practice is not to comment on who is or who is not in the chamber. Thank you, Member.

B. Banman: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand corrected. Nonetheless, this government has been awarded the most secret government in Canada.

Furthermore, when it comes to enacting committees, I’ve heard the Premier talk about how we’re all in this together, how we need to be collaborative. I wholeheartedly agree. His actions, however, are 180-degrees the opposite direction. He refuses to enact many of the committees where we can have all members of this House, as is proper in democracy, to help come up with solutions in extraordinarily difficult times. We’ve gone through a pandemic, and we are now what many think is on the brink of World War III, and to not enact those committees is shameful and undemocratic.

The citizens of British Columbia did not elect one party into this House. They elected three. This is not: “We have more than you, so we get to do whatever we want.” Yeah, I guess you can, but then don’t thump your chest and say that you want us all to participate. It’s hollow. In fact, it just does not ring of the truth, because actions do speak louder than words. So far, it’s just words.

Much of this budget is words, words we have heard before in previous budgets. I call this the budget of broken dreams, the budget of over-tax, the budget of overspend and the budget of underdeliver.

[2:45 p.m.]

This government has been in power for half a decade. Yet every time challenged, they look in the rearview mirror and point: “Well, when that side was in power for 16 years….” Our citizens need people to look forward, not backwards, not in the rearview mirror.

Quite frankly, the mistakes of the past…. And every government will make mistakes. Nobody that I know of on the face of the earth gets it right 100 percent of the time. I’m reminded of my grandfather, whose heart was as tender as his hands, who would take me aside and say: “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” This budget, and under this government for the last half decade, has failed to fulfil its promises. The other thing that my grandparents taught me was to do what you say you’re going to do. They would often tell me to underpromise and overdeliver. Sadly, that’s not what this government has done.

It’s all fine and well to call a snap election during a pandemic, to say you’re going to make life better for those of low income and even middle income, to promise $400 to help out with rent, yet it hasn’t been delivered. I don’t know how anyone on that side of the House has the unmitigated audacity to think they stand on hallowed ground and higher moral authority when they can’t keep a simple promise of $400 to those renters who need it.

The NDP claims: “Hey, we are the champions of the lower-income and middle-income people. We are the cham­pions of the working Joe. We are here to help you. We’ll promise you this to get elected, but we’re not going to deliver.” Go ask renters how well they’re doing underneath the leadership of this government for the last half a decade. Rents have skyrocketed. In my area, they’ve gone up almost $4,000 a year.

Gas prices is another one. This government could, during extraordinary times, say: “Hey, you know what? We’re going to lower the gas taxes to make it more affordable, currently, right now, just so we can get through this together.” So that you can get to work. So that a single mom who has to decide whether she’s going to put $50 in her minivan or buy new clothes for her child….

What does this government decide they’re going to do in the budget? “Hey, here’s an April Fools’ joke. We’re going actually to increase the tax on gas by one cent a litre.” How does that sound like it’s helping the middle class and the poor? It’s not. It’s not in any way, shape or form.

They promised that they were going to build over 100,000 affordable housing. They’ve managed to get just a fraction of that.

Then I heard, with glee, actually…. I am a bit of a car fanatic myself. I grew up around many that were car enthusiasts, and when I listened to the member for Vancouver–False Creek talk about that she does her own oil changes, I thought: you know what? I would love to twist wrenches one day and discuss the common goal and bond that we have, which is that my parents and grandparents were car enthusiasts as well.

[2:50 p.m.]

Then she basically said that you’re closing a loophole to stop tax evaders — that this government doesn’t believe the price and the value you put on the vehicle that you bought. She used an example of where someone declared half of the value that they actually purchased it for and that this government was going to rake in a whopping $15 million.

Basically, what I heard was the member accuse the vast majority of British Columbians who buy a used car as being tax dodgers and evaders, that somehow they were cheating — it’s shameful — and that this government was now going to decide what they felt the value of that used car was going to be so that they could extract their pound of flesh from a poor single mom just trying to find a good deal on a used car. How is that helping the poor and the middle class? It’s not.

The real question is: why the heck is there a tax on a used car to begin with? You want to help them? Remove it. It has already been paid once.

I was looking on Facebook — you know, I’m a car guy — and it said: “Fun in the sun in ’71.” A Plymouth Cuda was advertised at just under $5,000 — total retail. That’s before you went in there and haggled for the price. That car would have changed hands many, many times. Under the current value of that car, you would actually pay more in tax than the original purchase price of the car.

How many times does a government need to collect a tax? It’s bad enough that we’re paying tax on tax, which is happening. Somehow we sit on that side of the House and say: “Hey, we’re here to help you.” That doesn’t sound like help to me. Go ask a single mom if that sounds like help to her. If the neighbour decides to give her an exceptionally good deal and says: “You know what? You’re a single mom. I’ll help you out. I don’t really need this mini van anymore, but you do. How much do you have?”

For those that think that doesn’t happen, it happens in my area fairly often. I am proud to say that Abbotsford is the most giving community in all of Canada.

Interjection.

B. Banman: Exactly right. As my colleague just said, you’re taxing goodwill.

There are car lots that will give away a vehicle to someone who is worthy. There are organizations who give away cars to someone who is worthy. Yet this government de­cided that somehow, that’s cheating.

Actually, you know what would be really good is if you paid too much for a vehicle, do you only pay the tax on what the average price of the vehicle is? I think not. This government wants its share of flesh. It wants its taxes. It wants to close that loophole. It doesn’t protect you if you’ve paid too much. It wants the tax on what is declared, and if they don’t think it’s high enough, you’re going to get penalized for hunting around and finding a good deal.

[2:55 p.m.]

This is a budget of broken dreams and lost hope. Under this administration, rents and the prices of homes have skyrocketed out of sight. Now, earlier, one of the members decided to blame the skyrocketing prices of homes on Chinese drug lords. In their passion to discredit the other side — this is why what gets happened in here matters — they discredited an entire race of people in the process. For those that scoff, it was in Vancouver that we saw a 700 percent rise in Asian hate crime.

Deputy Speaker: Sorry, Member. If you’ll just take your seat.

I recognize the Minister for Social Development.

Hon. N. Simons: I think that the words chosen by the hon. member opposite are inappropriate for this chamber, and I ask that he withdraw them.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Minister. Just let’s work on getting the best of each other, shall we?

B. Banman: I’ll take it under advisement, Mr. Speaker.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

B. Banman: The fact remains that more and more citizens are deciding that being able to own a home is out of their reach. More and more citizens are deciding that that dream is not ever going to happen.

In fact, one of their own members has stated publicly that they are probably the last generation that will ever own a home. British Columbians need more than that from their government. British Columbians actually want to know that their children can be successful. They want to be able to go out and get a good job, be able to have their dreams.

One of the ways I think is great is in skills training. This government has proposed some directions with skills training. Yet, as per normal with this government, they missed the missing link. How the heck are we supposed to have certified electricians if there isn’t anywhere to train them? How the heck are we supposed to have health care workers if we don’t even open up enough spots in the schools to replace those that are retiring, let alone add two?

Then, if you don’t happen to live in the Lower Mainland and you come from upcountry, you have to send your child to one of a couple of places where they can go get the education they need — if they can actually get in there to get their education. In some cases, it’s a ten-year process to be able to get that. No wonder we are losing hope. No wonder our children are questioning what we do in this House.

This government, rather than to listen to the opposition, doubles down, goes ahead and does what they want. That’s not good governance. That’s not listening, asking for us all to be in the same boat and looking for solutions. I have, and many British Columbians have, little hope that this budget is going to help the poor or the middle class. In fact, it’s only going to make their lives worse. There’s very little substance in here. Lots of words, but very little.

[3:00 p.m.]

Even when it comes to child care, $10 a day. You know what? I know a lot of single moms could do with $10-a-day daycare. Who wouldn’t? Yet it’s five years late and double the price.

It’ll be $20 a day. “No, no, no. We can’t keep our promise of $10 a day. We’re going to make it $20. Oh, and by the way, if you have a child now, by the time we get around to getting it actually off the ground, your child will no longer be old enough to need it.”

Then we have the opioid deaths, 6½ a day. We’re losing more people to opioids than we are to the pandemic, and there’s very little in this budget to help them. What is in the budget went to advertising and communications. What we need is a path to recovery. We need a way out for these people who are challenged in so many ways. We need a place for them. I don’t see that in this budget.

If your child has autism, this is actually going to claw back. Government is going to do what this side of the House does, which is government knows best, and take the ability for many parents who have found a way to help their child with autism. Now it will become this big bureaucratic mess. Mark my words.

This government, the NDP, says that they’re there for the downtrodden, for the weak and the middle class, but their actions and this budget speak much louder than that. It’s not for the people. It’s not. They haven’t delivered on most of the promises that they’ve made. I would suggest that instead of coming up with new taxes, new ways of extracting that extra pound of flesh out of people, that they go back to their original promises and try to fulfil those first.

The people of this province deserve a lot better than what they’re getting. I would suggest that this government, especially during these turbulent times, actually enact the committees that are here and that do great work. Unfortunately, the public sees the 30 minutes where we debate back and forth, and they never get a chance to see what actually goes on in the committees themselves.

The people on the other side are not enemies. They’re colleagues. We’re supposed to work together.

Interjection.

B. Banman: Again with the rearview mirror.

This is the history of this government….

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Members.

B. Banman: I would say to those that are chirping in the background: this is not question period.

I’ve got one of my own chirping in there. The two of them are going at it, but that’s, again, that healthy discourse that I was talking about.

If this government wants to make a difference, if it really wants to have something to be proud of, considering all that the world has gone through with the pandemic and all that the world is currently going through, enough with the partisan nonsense. Let’s start working together. Open up the committees. There is value to both sides. I learned it as a child watching my family over the dinner table. I think there are a lot of lessons that we could learn from my grandparents, who escaped, came here with nothing but what they could carry in their pockets and lived a very safe, beautiful, fulfilling life.

[3:05 p.m.]

Anyway, thank you. It’s been a privilege to be able to talk about this budget. I’d love to say I saw a lot in this budget that I approve of. Sadly, I do not, and I just cannot support this particular budget.

Hon. L. Beare: It is my absolute pleasure to rise in the House today to speak to Budget 2022 as the MLA for Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows and as the Minister of Citizens’ Services.

Before I begin my speech today, I do want to give a couple thank-yous and a couple shout-outs to my team. In my constituency office, we have Thyra, Hudson and Gabe, who are working hard every single day to serve the constituents of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, and I want to thank them very much for their work. We have Kate from my office as well, who is on mat leave right now, and just last night gave birth to a beautiful boy. It’s not my job to introduce that baby in the House, so I will let that be, but congratulations to Kate.

On my ministry team, I would like to truly thank Kass, Korleen, Kari, Lisa and Shay for all the hard work they’re doing to help all British Columbians access the services that they need under the Ministry of Citizens’ Services. I really want to give a congratulations to the Minister of Finance and her team, who have put together a fantastic budget that invests in the people of British Columbia and builds an even stronger B.C. here.

I do want to also acknowledge that we are on the traditional territories of the Songhees and the Esquimalt First Nations, the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ people.

I’m going to begin my budget speech by, of course, acknowledging the challenges that we have all been faced with over the past few years here in British Columbia. These are challenges that none of us could have imagined. I want to thank every single person in B.C. for the incredible resilience that you have shown. It has been incredibly humbling to watch all the stories unfold across the province. I want to share my sincere thanks for your support and your kindness to one another during this time.

Our government, through our budget, has made investments in people. We’ve made investments in health care, child care, connectivity investments. We’re investing in Indigenous, rural and remote communities. We’re investing in affordable housing. It’s all these important building blocks that have supported British Columbians through the pandemic and will help see us in through the recovery.

As we begin to see the COVID-19 restrictions lift and we begin to return to a sense of normal, some may argue that we should roll back these investments and cut support programs, but I believe that approach would hurt those who are trying to get back on their feet, and it will slow down our economic recovery.

With Budget 2022, we’re building an even stronger British Columbia. We’re making life better for people because we’re investing in our economy.

We’re investing in the environment. We’re investing in our social strengths here in the province. We are, through the budget, supporting bold actions to fight climate change to protect people and communities from climate-related disasters. We’re helping with the cost of living by reducing child care costs, and we’re delivering a comprehensive approach to respond to and prevent homelessness. We make investments needed to close the digital divide and grow an inclusive and sustainable economy. We continue to strengthen the public service that British Columbians rely on.

Now, we’re going to continue to respond to the effects of the pandemic. We will be building on our strengths to prepare us for the challenges as well as the opportunities of tomorrow.

I am incredibly proud of the work being done around the province around affordable, accessible, quality child care, especially in my home of Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows. As the mother of a small child myself, I know firsthand how important it is to have access to accessible, affordable, quality child care. Since launching Childcare B.C. in Budget 2018, we have been working towards our vision of child care as a core service to families that want it and when they need it and at a price that they can afford. More families in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows now have access to child care, as we have funded an additional 363 spaces in my community since 2018.

[3:10 p.m.]

With Budget 2022, we’re saving families more money, as we move closer than ever to our planned $10-a-day child care. Average fees are being reduced in half, and we know that we are increasing training seats for early childhood educators, and delivering 40,000 new licensed spaces in the next seven years. This is transformational to families that need it.

We are further assuring more certainty and reliability of child care by moving it into the Ministry of Education. This will better support children and families with the transition into the kindergarten-to-12 system and ultimately make life easier for parents. This is great news. This is a fantastic move for families.

Now, one of the things we hear a lot on in my community, as well, is the need to strengthen health and mental health services across communities — not only mine but all across the province. We know that investing in people means supporting their health and their mental health wellness. Budget 2022 commits $3.2 billion over three years to build an even stronger health and mental health care system for British Columbians.

It includes funding for new urgent and primary care centres, speeding up emergency response times, supporting First Nations primary care centres and bringing services closer to the home. We’re also continuing to fund Pathway to Hope, which is a $500 million investment to improve mental health and addictions care across the province. That’s half a billion dollars invested in people to improve their mental health.

We are improving how we prevent and respond to homelessness with better supports for youth in care — more rent supplements, integrated supports and 20 new complex care sites around the province to support people with the most complex needs. I stand here today very proud of our government, that Budget ’22 is addressing the increased risk of homelessness faced by former youth in care by improving how we support the thousands of young adults aging out of government care by providing $35 million over the next three years to care for these youth up to the age of 27.

One of the most important and impactful pieces of our budget is reversing cuts that were made two decades ago by the members opposite, by supporting survivors of sexual assault and by providing core funding to approximately 50 community-based sexual assault response organizations across the province to support victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The safety and the well-being of all people depend on taking action to help end gender-based violence and sexualized violence. We know that service providers that deliver care, services and supports after sexual assault cannot continue to be funded by unpredictable grants.

Work to support survivors of sexual assaults means we must recognize the needs of experienced and compassionate, community-based services that deserve stable annual funding when they do their work. That’s why Budget 2022 includes $22 million over three years to support the survivors of sexual assault and gender-based violence. This will include stable annual funding of over $10 million for community-based sexual assault response services to support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, starting in 2023-2024.

This might not be the largest announcement within the budget, but I truly believe it is one of the most impactful. It’s one of the pieces I’m hearing most on from the members in my community. It’s these investments, this recognition of the damage that was done in the past and how we are fixing it and taking action, that resonate in my community. I am so proud that we’re able to support the survivors of assault through these investments.

We are building a stronger environment for our future, and we are fighting climate change, through our CleanBC plan. This Budget 2022 is making strong investments to fight climate change and secure a low-carbon future for B.C. Budget 2022 makes more than $1 billion in new investments through CleanBC and the Roadmap to 2030 to make clean energy transportation the more affordable option for people and businesses to support industry, to decarbonize our economy and to provide funding to help local governments reduce emissions.

[3:15 p.m.]

This could begin an entire other 30-minute speech on its own — the investments that we’re doing in CleanBC and how we are fighting to protect our environment and fight climate change within the province. I know other people will focus more on that piece. I’ll save another 30-minute speech on that one, because I want to talk about something very important for my community and my neighbouring communities. That’s protecting people and communities from climate-related disasters.

Now, we have all experienced the changes across our province over the past year, whether it be wildfires, the heat dome or the floods that we experienced this fall. Climate-related disasters have challenged British Columbians and reinforced the need for action.

My community was one of those communities hit by flooding, as well as neighbouring communities all around me. To witness the resilience of these communities, to witness the resilience of my community and how everyone banded together to support those impacted, was absolutely inspiring. We know we need to do more to make a change, which is why that $1 billion investment into CleanBC and the Roadmap to 2030 is so important.

I don’t think that we can talk about these disasters and not take a minute to thank all of the hard-working members of the public service who stepped up to help British Columbians through all of these disasters. Within my ministry, we have Service B.C., and their offices played an integral role in delivering services to the people and businesses during the pandemic and the catastrophic weather events. I am proud of their support to help British Columbians.

During the recent flooding events, Service B.C. was able to stand up the flood response centre and support callers by connecting them with vital information on financial support, road updates and essential travel orders. Between mid-November and the end of January, flood response web content was viewed over 400,000 times, and the Service B.C. flood response centre received 5,000 calls. Each of those calls is a person, and each of those people needed help in a time of crisis. The valuable public servants who support us every single day were there for them.

Budget 2022 includes $2.1 billion to support the recovery of communities as we build back better from recent disasters and to strengthen our defences to make sure people and communities across B.C. are protected from future climate-related disasters. This will make a difference to my community. This will make a difference to those neighbouring communities and all across the province — those affected by wildfires, by floods, by heat domes.

When the flooding hit, our digital experience team, known as GDX within government, liaised across government ministries, including emergency management B.C., Environment, Transportation, and Agriculture to develop timely and action-oriented updated content for not only the website but for the call centre scripts and for the information that we were providing to citizens.

We made sure that those 5,000 people who called had the most up-to-date, informative, valuable information they needed each time they called. Between mid-November and January 26, 2022, the web content was viewed, as I said, over 400,000 times.

This is important. This is great work from the public service, again, to ensure that the government of British Columbia is there for people when they need it.

Our government has a vision, as well, for our economic future. When we talk about recovery, we talk about our economic future and what that looks like. We need to make sure that we are investing in growing sectors. We want an inclusive, sustainable and innovative economy that works for everyone. So Budget 2022 is making strong investments to ensure that people across B.C. are poised to benefit from sustainable economic resource development today and into the future.

[3:20 p.m.]

Now, this includes investing in growing sectors like life sciences and supporting the recovery of sectors that continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Very true and near and dear to my heart — like tourism, the non-profits, the arts and culture sector, the music sector. As the previous Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, I know how important this investment is in building a strong economy but also in building vibrant communities.

Another one of these investments that…. Just like the investment into sexual assault centres — again, not one of the bigger investments that’s talked about within the budget but, to me, truly one of the most impactful. One of the reasons I ran in 2017 was my connection to education. I was a school board trustee. Every single day I saw firsthand the impacts that education had on our society, including adult basic education.

One of the cuts that the previous government made was to cut funding for adult basic education. This was a service that people needed to get a hand up, to get that step up, to help better their lives, to maybe get that next job, to continue their pathway towards a better future for them and their families. It was such a cruel and vicious cut to cut funding from adult basic education. It’s one of those moments that inspired me, in 2017, to put my hand up and say that this isn’t how it needs to be, that we can change this. I can change this. We can make a difference.

I was thrilled, in 2017, when one of the first things we did, as a government, was reverse those cuts and restore funding to adult basic education — to give people a hand up instead of keeping them down. Budget 2022 meets the growing and important demand for that adult education with an additional $21 million over the next three years for graduated adult programs.

I get emotional when I talk about this, because it is truly, again, not one of those big shiny things we talk about in a budget, but it makes such a difference in those people’s lives who are affected, in those families who want to make a difference, who want to do better and are trying to better their future through education. I’m so thrilled that we are able to support that.

I talked about some of those smaller pieces making a bigger difference, but here’s one of those bigger pieces. I’m thrilled to talk to it, because it actually is part of my ministry, and that’s connectivity.

Connectivity is foundational to economic recovery. It has become integral to absolutely everything we do in today’s world. We know, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, how important it was to be able to access Google Classroom and continue your education online; how important it was to be able to talk to your doctor and use telehealth to be able to continue on your health journey; how important it was, when we were socially distanced from one another, to be able to connect with your families, all across the province.

Not everyone had the same access to those services as I am fortunate to have. It is one of those pieces that is a powerful socioeconomic driver that supports the delivery of services. It supports the delivery of economic recovery. It’s something that people count on.

I am so proud to say that we are continuing the work that we’ve done since we formed government. To date, we have invested $190 million in connectivity. We are adding another $289 million to connect another 280 First Nations and rural and remote communities to high-speed Internet. That makes our total investment in connectivity over half a billion dollars. This is a significant acceleration in our commitment to close that digital divide, to help communities who don’t have access to this vital service be able to participate in the economy, be able to access those services they need and be able to stay connected with their loved ones.

[3:25 p.m.]

We know connectivity is also foundational to reconciliation. Connecting all First Nations with high-speed Internet aligns with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and is included as 4.27 in the DRIPA draft action plan. It states that we need to ensure “every First Nations community in B.C. has high-speed Internet services.” We already, as a government, have committed, through the draft action plan, to connecting First Nations across this province.

Feedback has been consistent on the draft action plan, best captured by our Coastal First Nations, who said: “All DRIPA outcomes for the 2021-2026 actions are reliant on Internet access and affordability.” This is key in almost every aspect of implementation, and I look forward to continuing that important reconciliation work.

Budget 2022 also invests in rural economic supports. I mean, you can count connectivity as one of those big ones, but we’re building a stronger British Columbia by making life better for people in rural areas. We want to make sure they have the connectivity they need to succeed in that post-pandemic economy.

We’re investing $27.4 billion in building infrastructure everywhere across the province. That includes schools, hospitals, housing, transit, highways and bridges that are needed for growth all across this province so that we can have economic strength, so that the entire province can participate in our economic activity. This is a record level of spending for capital projects, the highest ever here in B.C. I know it will help deliver those services that people need while supporting 100,000 jobs across the province.

There are so many more pieces of Budget 2022 that I am extraordinarily proud of, and I know I’m going to get the ability to talk about them over the next year as we implement these pieces of our budget. I’ll take my place here — I thank you so much for the time — because I know I have colleagues waiting in line who also want to share the good news to their communities of how this is going to affect British Columbians. Thank you for the time.

D. Ashton: I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the minister. I might not be giving you what you just asked for if I’m one of your colleagues in the House. You just had mentioned that there might be some good words coming. I’ll keep them tepid and say that there are some issues that we face in here together for all British Columbians.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

Real compassion and benefits to the citizens of British Columbia are really contingent, in my thoughts, on B.C. remaining competitive, healthy and productive. With this budget cycle, we, the citizens of British Columbia and future citizens — our children, our grandchildren and people, immigrants, that come to British Columbia — are going to owe over $120 billion.

Remember, growing up, $1 million was so much. You thought about it. I remember when the lottery started, and it was, like, $1 million — the 6/49. Now it fluctuates between $1 million and $10 million or $12 million.

We owe $120 billion at the end of this budget cycle. My god, that’s a lot of money. But a day of reckoning is coming. A day of reckoning is coming for all British Columbians. This is going to cause all of us to suffer, even much more than what many are suffering today.

It’s an honour to be able to talk to the budget. Before I get into the budget, there are a couple of people that I would just like to say thank-you to. Maybe it should be done when we’re talking about the throne speech, but very quickly, I have three individuals that work with me hand in hand: Susan, Rudy and Dick.

Those individuals make such a difference to all the people in the area that I’m so fortunate to represent. It’s actually called Penticton, but I always say from Penticton to Peachland. The area is Peachland, Summerland, Penticton, Naramata and all the points in between. Those individuals, no matter what causes bring people to our offices, bend over backwards to make and, hopefully, help those individuals come to some resolution on their troubles.

[3:30 p.m.]

I have to say this. They have always had and, hopefully, will continue to have a very good working relationship with the ministries that are represented in the area that I represent, but also, through myself, there has always been an open door with the current government, where I’ve had the opportunity to take some of those issues directly into ministerial staff and sometimes to the ministers in the hallways. I have to say that makes a huge difference.

There are a couple of individuals that had mentioned some comments yesterday. I just want to direct, quickly, to the member for Vancouver–False Creek, a lovely young lady that had made some comments yesterday about health care and, specifically, hospitals…. I would just like to assure her that this current government had nothing, zero, to do with the initiation and the construction of the Penticton Regional Hospital financially. I was incredibly fortunate to be on Treasury Board, with many of my peers on this side of the House. That decision was made. That was implemented. That construction is well underway and, actually, almost finished.

It has made a huge difference to the people of the Penticton area. That hospital casts a huge shadow out past Princeton, almost over to Greenwood, down to Osoyoos in the south and, I would say, up as far as and maybe including parts of Peachland, although Peachland sometimes does go to Kelowna.

It’s made a big difference. But one of the interesting things that the member for Vancouver–False Creek might not realize is that we — and I look at yourself, Madam Speaker — outside of Hope, north of Hope, east of Hope, pay 40 percent of the costs, the capital costs, of those health care facilities that are built. In the Lower Mainland, zero. The citizens are responsible for zero percent.

That’s another tax that goes on. It comes on our regional district bills. It’s a capital cost. It’s not only when you go to build a new hospital; it’s when the health authority comes and asks you for additional capital improvements. We, as the taxpayers of the region that I represent and everybody outside of Hope represents, are responsible for 40 percent of those capital costs. It’s an additional burden, a substantial additional burden.

I really think that if the government wants to make a fair and equitable landing for all of us in British Columbia…. They did it with those that cross over that beautiful new bridge in the Lower Mainland. They’re doing it with the new construction of the Pattullo Bridge, where there’s no cost to the residents down here, none. I would like to see a fair and level playing field where we don’t have to pay, in the Interior and northern British Columbia, additional hospital costs. It is a factor in affordability for many people.

One other thing — Surrey. Great. Beautiful, new emergency facility attached to the Surrey hospital. Beautiful. I got the opportunity to see it. It’s gorgeous. But let me tell you something, folks, the gentleman that has his name on it, a huge contributor, both business, financially…. A huge contributor to many needy causes in British Columbia has his name on that emergency centre. It cost him $1.5 million to put his name on that centre.

It cost him, also…. I’ll retract that, not a cost. He issued a challenge for 50 percent. Here it is. “I’ll put up $1.5 million, and somebody else has to incur the debt and make the contributions up for another $1.5 million, a total of $3 million for the Surrey emergency centre.”

Well, I can tell you about a gentleman in Penticton, a man that has been a huge contributor to our economies, a man that is such a benefactor in his life — in the Oka­nagan, in the North. He paid $8 million to have his name put on the Penticton Hospital. What a difference. Another inequity that takes place.

I just hope the government realizes that there are a lot of things that happen outside of the Lower Mainland that affect individuals a lot more than they do down here in the Lower Mainland. I would just, personally, like to be able to see an opportunity where there is a balance.

[3:35 p.m.]

Before I carry on a little bit, Madam Speaker, I would just like to extend a quick thanks to the Minister of Transportation. You, yourself, have experience, and the people that you represent saw incredible climate issues that took place with the flooding. That flooding made a difference to an awful lot of people. They affected the highways — Highways 3, 7 and, more importantly, Highway 5, to me, the Coquihalla, and what it did.

I know that everybody got together to make a difference to try and get those highways back up and running. Again, I have thanked him personally, but I’d like to thank him publicly. And I would like to thank his staff and thank the ministry staff and thank all those people that pulled machinery off of other jobs to be able to get that highway back open again.

You know what I have to also say? It wasn’t done with CBAs. It was done where we all worked together. We didn’t specialize or select an entity or entities of a workforce. Everybody got together and made a difference. I just hope that that’s a good learning experience for the government, because you don’t need to specify and select who should do work in this province and who shouldn’t do work in this province. The Coquihalla refurbishment and the Coquihalla emergency opening proved that we can all work together and we can all make a big difference in it.

Please, to those MLAs that are in the gallery here and that are represented at your caucuses, bring that up. Mention it. Just say it. I just look, and I hear the Premier of the province in the last couple of days where we should all be working together…. We should all be trying to do things to make it better for the people of British Columbia. There’s a perfect example. Let’s not be selective. Let’s all work together and make through some real big changes that are coming forward.

Back to the budget. Disappointed isn’t the right word, but I’d hoped for a lot more. I’d really, really hoped for a lot more for all British Columbians in this current budget. A government that unfortunately has been renowned — not only this current government, but previous New Democratic governments — for taxation. I think we’re up to 25 now? Or 26 new taxes since the NDP government got into place?

Again I’m going to state that I’m talking about the government. I’m not talking about individual members of the government. I’m talking about the government collectively — those visible here in the chamber and those that that are operative behind the scenes for the government and trying to bring some of these things forward. This is not the time. It is not the time for additional taxes.

The taxes now…. I think they’re more of an irritation for people. A tax for online marketplaces and all that. I’ve always said to everybody to please shop local first. I’ve spent a lot of money — pushing to a lot of the people of British Columbia’s money — to shop local first. Let’s do our best. Let’s support our local businesses and our local individuals first of all, but there is a tax on online purchases.

There’s a tax on used cars. You know, it was interesting today. I see the Auditor General brought forward something that the government in their property purchases got a good deal. There was an assessment, if I remember correctly, of about $220 million of purchases that had just taken place, and the government’s total expenditures were $200 million. Hmm. No new tax on that kind of thing. Although the government doesn’t pay, but let’s talk about fairness and equity.

When all of a sudden, somebody…. I’ve only owned one brand-new car in my entire life. I’ve always bought used cars. That’s how I was brought up. But if I wheel and deal and do my best to get a good deal on a vehicle…. Now all of a sudden, it seems that if I take it in to get it registered and somebody opens…. I think we call it the Blue Book or Black Book. It’s blue in the States and black up here. I can’t remember — one or the other. All of a sudden, they open it up and say: “Oh no, Mr. Ashton. You paid X, where we show it should be X plus. So we’re going to charge a tax on that.”

Whoa. Hang on a minute here. I’ve done my best to get a good deal on it. I’m not a person, ever, that is going to forge something on a document of a fictitious price that I paid.

[3:40 p.m.]

There are more ways to check to see that a person actually paid what they’re stating they paid other than to look in a book and say: “Here’s an average price. We’re going to tax you on that.” I just really wish the government would take a look at it. As some of my peers have said, this is going to affect people that probably need every one of those pennies, that really need that help of those additional funds instead of it going to the government. They would prefer and probably need to keep it in their pocket for their own expenditures.

Home heating systems. Boy, if you live in a temperate climate like Victoria or you live in a temperate climate like the Lower Mainland, that’s great. But let me tell you, it got darn cold in the Okanagan again. I know for a fact that heat pumps don’t work in these lower temperatures. To have the opportunity of having a gas furnace….

As a matter of fact, I put a gas furnace in a year and a bit ago, a brand-new furnace, because my other one was getting old. I was being proactive. It was six and tax…. You know, I would have paid another $400 or $500 almost in taxation on that. Why? I’m just trying to keep my house warm for my kids when they’re home. Please, take a look at this, government. This is a regressive tax on the people that you actually claim to represent on it.

I really hope that they also take a look at how long it is now taking…. We’ve heard the government talk about the opportunities that they want to bring forward to protect homeowners from skyrocketing prices and to try to make British Columbia more affordable.

I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve heard rumours or I’ve seen printings of 35, 36, 37 years now to come up with a home, for the down payments, and to be able to get into it. I look at…. By the way, other than a bit of my working career, I’ve lived in the same house since 1963. For me, it would be a massive challenge, even today, without the sale of my property, to move to something else.

I would really hope that…. The government has said that we’re going to be taking a look at this. I think there are lots of ways, through the Minister of Municipal Affairs, to have a look at this and to work…. Not heavy-handed but coming from municipal politics.

I think there’s lots of opportunity for the provincial government and for municipalities and regional districts to work together to lower some of the obstacles and some of the costs that transpire for new construction and new development. Development isn’t a bad word. I’m not talking about speculation. I’m talking about individuals that put an awful lot of money forward to create new properties.

I think, if I’ve heard correctly, Kelowna, just north of me, is the fastest-growing municipality in Canada. There is a lot of development up there. Development is not a bad word. Those individuals are making a big difference.

Again, as I go through a quick list, some of the things…. You know, mental health. Mental health requires a lot more investment. It needs to be done through the Ministry of Health. It needs to be done through the Ministry of Mental Health. It needs to happen sooner than later.

One thing that I would like to see and that I’ve heard the government talk about — 20 new facilities that possibly will be created in the years coming forward, in two or three years. It’s about the opportunity to bring those that have incredible mental health challenges, probably some because of drug addiction, etc., into a safe harbour and try to get them the supports that they need.

In my opinion, those facilities cannot have an open door. Those facilities have to be able to have those individuals remain there and ensure that they are treated properly, are helped properly and that they’re not preyed upon again when they have the decision to come and go or go out. There needs to be some formal period of stay that needs to be agreed upon. If they don’t have the capacity themselves to agree on that, then it needs to be done through the judicial system or it needs to be done through another government agency.

I had a young lady phone me — today is Wednesday — from a care home in Penticton, in tears. She’s a single mom. Her daughter is now out in the workforce. She came out at lunchtime in horror to see that her car had been damaged severely on both sides, along with four other vehicles all parked in the same proximity, by an individual that has terrible challenges.

[3:45 p.m.]

That individual that owns that vehicle and the other four individuals are now responsible for the deduction on those cars, and it wasn’t their fault. I am going to put a direct appeal in to the minister, the Attorney General, to say that in circumstances like this, where we have individuals that don’t have the ability themselves to make good cognitive decisions and that have done something like this, it shouldn’t be at the cost and the penalty of those that have suffered the damages.

I hope somebody in the minister’s office is listening. I’d love to have them come and talk to me, and I’d love to have the opportunity to introduce them to the individuals that this took place with.

This is one of the issues, and this is not an isolated occurrence. This is an occurrence that is taking place, similar occurrences, all through British Columbia. I think what we need to do collectively…. We need to work together to try and get help to these individuals that need it. Yes, there have been lots of roofs put over people’s heads, but the services aren’t there. I would hope through the budget process that the current government takes a look at this and tries to get additional funds in so that these people would have the ability to have some additional help and to try and make a difference in their lives.

As we get down to the deficit, it’s my understanding that currently the government is forecasting a $5.5 billion deficit, which includes $3 billion in contingencies — $3 billion. That’s a lot of $400 rent promises that could be fixed. And $3 billion can contribute to a lot of those 20 facilities that are pledged; $3 billion can go a long way to additional health that’s required in some of the fastest-growing areas in British Columbia, including the Lower Mainland, including Surrey. It’s an awful lot of money. I hope — and I’m just going to be frank — it’s not keeping powder dry for the future, possibly another election in the close future where it can be doled out for election promises. I’m just being upfront and frank.

That’s money right now. It’s a contingency. It’s money that should be going…. Yes, I know there’s damage from the climate issues that we faced over this past winter. There’s going to be some extremely large costs on the Coquihalla, on the highways, Madam Chair, through your area, what happened in the Abbotsford area. There are an awful lot of things that that money could be put to good use for, and I really, really hope that it is done quite quickly.

You know, there are a few minutes left. My peers have gone through very well and talked directly about some of the issues and some of the things that they’ve seen in the budget. As a kid growing up, my dad always…. Because of our stores and when I had the fortune to travel with my dad, one of my favourite things, and he always let me do it, was to stay awake and watch the Johnny Carson Show. That tells you how old I am.

Then there’s the Dave show, and Dave had a list. This isn’t Dave’s list, but this is my list about some of the things that I think the government could have done better and should do better. Under Dan’s list, I’m going to start off. Number 10 — the new emergency program is set to be tabled in the House in the fall of 2021. It was postponed again until spring 2022. It’s now been postponed again until fall 2022. The Emergency Program Act is something that this province needs, and it needs it a lot quicker than what is being proposed.

An Alert Ready system. We don’t have one. Those across the border from Abbotsford in the United States have one. It’s my understanding that they could hear the flood warnings coming from the Sumas area, but we didn’t have that. If we had had that early warning system in place, it would have saved the government probably a whole bunch of money.

Small business. Small business has faced massive delays and red tape in COVID. I know that people have been trying to help, but there isn’t enough. You know, there were gyms that they said were going to be eligible for lockdown grants, and it turned out they weren’t. Grant programs have come with a lot of red tape, and I really think that small business relief and some of the circuit breaker grants need to be addressed a lot quicker. I really do.

[3:50 p.m.]

There are an awful lot of people…. I come from private business. I can tell you that in our 16 stores, if I had to have gone through the COVID situation, I’m not so sure that we would be functioning and have the finances to carry on. Retail was literally destroyed on it.

The benefit packages for COVID recovery, which is No. 7…. To me it’s let’s get the cheques out. Let’s get those people that some are saying are ineligible for support…. Let’s get those cheques out. I know that they were promised for Christmas. They never arrived.

Site C. We all know that Site C is required if we’re going to electrify our province’s vehicles. Coming from municipal government, the costs are incredible, absolutely incredible, to municipalities. I want to see Site C. It is going to make a huge difference. I think, if I remember correctly, B.C. contributes one-half of 1 percent to the pollution of the world. Let’s try and knock that down, but for right now, we have the capacity. We have unbelievable opportunities with hydro. Let’s get that up and running.

I have a gentleman in Penticton that built some equipment for Site C. He keeps getting delayed and delayed because the project gets delayed. Here’s an individual that had a whole bunch of money that he put out, and Hydro is saying: “Hold on a minute. We’re coming for you.” But in the meantime, he’s having to carry those capital costs of construction.

The heat dome. It was an incredibly unfortunate incident. It’s an unfortunate incident that we have to address and make sure that it doesn’t happen again. We had a warning. There was a terrible loss of life — just under 600 people in British Columbia. If we do get the warnings from the meteorologist, let’s make sure that we’re ready for it and that we allow those people that could be affected ample notice to ensure that we don’t lose those types of lives again.

The Lytton wildfire. You’ve heard me speak about this here before — No. 4. Please, government. Please, let’s get these people back into their homes. We have people staying in Penticton from that fire, still. So please, let’s work with a concerted effort. If it involves B.C. government, involves the federal government, involves First Nations, let’s collectively sit down and work together immediately to get those people back in so that they can recover what they’ve lost and not in the sense of material, but recover a place that they call home. Lytton is a huge catchment area. Let’s get these people back in, and let’s get Lytton rebuilt.

Overdose deaths — terrible what’s been going on. I can remember a member from the NDP government, when they were in opposition, like this, waving her finger continually about these deaths.

Interjection.

D. Ashton: Not waving her finger? Oh yes, she was. She was pointing across the aisle like that, Member — yes, she was — about how we weren’t paying attention.

Well, you know what? We all are not paying attention. Opioid deaths are going through the roof, and we, as government — both the government in place and the government that used to be government — need to work together and make a big difference. Opioid deaths, drug deaths don’t need to be happening.

Building houses and building affordable housing units. I know that numbers have been passed round, and there were some fictitious numbers, as far as I’m concerned, being passed around. If I remember correctly, 170-plus units were built in Penticton during our tenure of government — just in Penticton. We had the minister at the time, Minister Coleman…. I think I can say it, because he’s not in here anymore. He had to step forward. We did create the units. Then more services were required, and we had to do that.

Let’s make a difference, collectively, and do our best to ensure that we do get those roofs over those people’s heads.

I hear 5 percent of the 100,000 plus that were promised of affordable housing units…. Let’s get those in, please. I’m asking the government. Let’s get the red tape out of the way. Let’s work together with the municipalities, not like this with the municipalities. Let’s get these places put in place, and let’s get these people housed, but let’s get the supports in there.

Massey Tunnel. Boy, we could have used a Massey Tunnel. We could have used a Massey Tunnel sooner than later. We had a bridge that was planned for $900 million plus, if I remember correctly, under budget. There are a lot of people that commute. I can’t answer for that area, but let me tell you something, government. In Penticton, 42 percent of the people that voted in the last election voted NDP.

[3:55 p.m.]

If it’s a similar balance south of the Fraser, government is just making them mad. So I would just ask the government: let’s get together. Let’s make a difference on it.

I have a few quick minutes left. We have disaster recovery. Again, I’ve spoken about Lytton. We have the secrecy, the cone of silence where we’ve heard…. Or code of silence, as somebody wants to say. Let’s open this up. I had the incredible opportunity to work on PIPA, the Personal Information Protection Act. Let’s not make government close in. Let’s open government up. It belongs to the people here.

One of my pet things that I would like to see is the autism funding. Let’s install it back, bring it back. Let’s bring it back so that those kids…. Those little kids and I…. I was so fortunate. For six years or seven years, I was on the board of an autism facility in Penticton. I’m so fortunate, touch wood, that our family didn’t face the issue that many of those families are facing.

There is an opportunity for government to step forward. There is an opportunity for government to listen to the people that are out there saying that the direction that they’re going is wrong. Let’s get together and make sure that we do take the right direction. Let’s make sure that the government is listening to those people, and let’s get those kids looked after. Let’s get them looked after right now.

We come, at the last minute, to affordability of driving. I commute back and forth. I cannot believe how much it costs now to fill my gas tank up coming back and forth to Victoria by driving. I’m lucky. I can afford it, with my salary here, but there are an awful lot of people that can’t afford what’s going on.

We have an opportunity to work together on that, and I would really hope that the government steps forward and does make a promise come true. They had said years ago that they would take a look at this, and they would take a look at this to ensure that it was fair and equitable, while keeping their climate considerations in place. But I got to tell you. When you start outpricing people, it’s an issue.

My last comment is…. I can remember, a long time ago, when the government of the day was the government back then. In 30 seconds…. The government of that day didn’t do things right and didn’t follow through with what they said. They were reduced to two individuals in here. History repeats itself.

To my friends on the other side — and please don’t nod your head — listen to the population out there. Listen to the people out there. If you don’t, there could be a day of change coming a lot sooner than you think.

S. Chant: I appreciate this opportunity to address the members of this House on Budget ’22-23.

Before I begin my remarks, I would like to acknowledge that I’m currently working and staying on the unceded lands of the Songhees, Esquimalt and Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking people and that North Vancouver–Seymour, my riding, where I live, work and learn, is in the Coast Salish territory, specifically the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to work with these Indigenous communities.

I would also like to thank Ireland Bellsmith, caucus intern, and Jakub Hoffman, a grade 10 work experience student in my constituency office, for their contributions to this discussion.

I think British Columbia’s story will always reflect, somehow, on the years that were spent in the COVID pandemic, the challenges that were faced and compounded by climatic disasters and an overdose crisis that has daily deaths. Throughout this time, and going forward, the people of the province rely on the government through representation and advocacy to meet the challenges head-on, ideally in a proactive fashion. This is what Budget ’22-23 will do, through recognizing what is needed and preparing to meet those needs in a broad spectrum of ways.

I and my community are looking for the same things that people and communities throughout B.C. are looking for — a home, food on the table, a meaningful job and the ability to spend time with my friends and loved ones. All of these things need to be affordable, reliable and safe.

This budget looks at strengthening our society overall, promoting positive growth in the economy going forward, all the while ensuring that the environment is being cared for and remediated to deal with climate change.

[4:00 p.m.]

Additionally, in keeping with the government’s commitment to UNDRIP, the Indigenous leaders and communities throughout the province continue to be integrated in an ongoing component of planning and implementation of legislative process.

In my throne speech reply, I laid out how the cycle of support works at municipal, provincial and federal levels, starting with a high-level outline of the aspirations, needs and priorities of the people of British Columbia, as brought forward through their duly elected representatives, which are reflected in the throne speech, and then reviewing the resource plan that will be used to address those priorities, which is where we are at now with the release of Budget 2022.

How can anyone argue against investing in people, with the intention of improving day-to-day life now and in the future? We all want to finish up COVID, sort ourselves out and resume a life that is not overshadowed by the spectre of an out-of-control disease — things that we used to be able to predict, like Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Hanukkah and other traditions with specific time frames, celebrations, foods and activities. We want to be able to do those things again freely, and we will, in time.

This budget helps us move towards that time, because it’s aimed at supporting people where they are at currently and toward a stronger and better future. At the core of this budget is care for people. Even through the pandemic, British Columbians have found ways to stay engaged with their communities and support each other. This budget aims to amplify that resilience by providing British Columbians with the services, care and opportunities they need to continue to move forward with strength.

The investments outlined in Budget 2022 will em­power British Columbians through strengthening critical public services, making them more accessible, inclusive and affordable to people. This budget recognizes what people care about and invests in people and their families by prioritizing child care support services, health care services, mental health services, housing and climate change management.

As a nurse, a wife and a parent, I deeply understand the importance of accessible and affordable quality care and what that means for those we hold closest to us. This budget prioritizes the quality of care in many ways. From introducing new health care facilities across the province to improving access to affordable and culturally-based inclusive child care, this budget puts the health and wellness of British Columbians first. Whether people need urgent care, primary care, cancer treatment or mental health and addictions support, these services are becoming more accessible and deliverable with this budget.

In North Vancouver, we are very fortunate to be watching as our community hospital becomes updated with a new acute tower that will provide better patient care units, with improved infection control and current technologies implemented. Paul Myers, a local businessman, contributed $25 million to this project to get it to the point that it could be started and go forward. It also has the capacity to establish one-stop health care with outpatient clinic space and room for specialists.

Our Car 22 service hours went from two days a week to five days a week, where the police now have a clinician available to go with them to calls that need those specialized mental health skills — skills which may well change the trajectory for an individual and for the people around them. An urgent primary care centre is now available as an alternative to the emergency room, and the Foundry is open to youth seeking mental health support.

These are all things that have been established over the past few years, so why reference them when talking about Budget 2022? It’s because the budget, every year, provides the foundation to start or continue projects and initiatives that make life better for everyone.

The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of British Columbia say that the budget puts $10-a-day child care back on track. Not only will continued reductions in child care fees empower families across the province, but by providing more licensed child care spaces and increasing the training seats for early childhood educators, parents can trust that affordable, accessible and quality child care is here for them.

[4:05 p.m.]

Budget ’22 also progresses towards enhanced support for children with neurodiversity and other needs, by creating accessible family connection centres within our communities. This adopts an inclusive needs-based approach for these children and provides parents with assurance that their children can receive care and support that works for them, when they need it, while moving towards a definitive diagnosis.

Understanding the needs of our youth is essential to strengthening our society. Empowering our youth through engagement, active listening and instilling inclusive support services tailored to their needs are all essential components of building a stronger B.C. together. With these values in mind, I am confident in the investments outlined in Budget 2022 that focus on our youth. The decisions will empower our youth today and for years to come.

As a former foster parent, I’ve been exposed to the needs of many vulnerable youth, and providing this type of care has allowed me to understand just how impactful support to youth in foster care really is. I have seen kids who have aged out of the care system and are at a loss as to how to transition fully into the life of an adult.

This can lead to serious repercussions, such as homelessness, predation of the individual, substance use or abuse, suicidality — not to mention the loss of forward momentum that is so, so very important to establishing self, whether through work experience, post-secondary education, travel or other means. All of these things are not easily achieved by 17-year-olds, let alone those who no longer have a family base.

Out of these many proactive projects that the budget includes, improving support to youth in care up to age 27 truly emphasizes the values of our government, a government that puts people first and ensures that support is available for those who need it most.

As it is for youth in care, the risk of homelessness is a reality for many individuals with complex care needs. Proactively, this budget includes funding for new rent supplements and new complex care sites throughout the province, key investments that advance stability and offer security and inclusive care to those that need it.

More than anything, we care about the safety and quality of living of our constituents. This month I plan to attend the opening of a new apartment building in my riding that has been put up alongside a recently renovated, subsidized seniors building that is owned and operated by the Kiwanis. The new building will be subsidized, providing 106 homes for low- and moderate-income older adults. Kiwanis has put up a number of buildings on the North Shore over many years, striving to meet the needs of our seniors and others. They work in partnership with our government.

This affordable housing option is just one of the many new affordable and quality living spaces being set to provide more accessible, stable and permanent housing for British Columbians. These ventures are particularly brilliant because they also facilitate opportunities for enhanced partnerships that include support and infrastructure attuned with the needs of the community. Everybody deals with housing needs, and these empowering housing investments will provide the people of our province with the support, certainty and confidence they need to cultivate more stable and affordable futures.

Budget ’22 also reflects our government’s commitment to lasting and meaningful reconciliation through building relationships and prioritizing investments that support Indigenous peoples and their communities. These commitments to respectful reconciliation will be realized through investment that makes space for active listening, proactive action and partnership with Indigenous communities and leaders — partnership in the work of the new Declaration Act secretariat, where funding is going towards coordination of reconciliation efforts that will ensure that all provincial laws align with the UN declaration.

[4:10 p.m.]

It’s partnership with communities to continue the work to combat racism and address the systemic discriminatory barriers that still disproportionately impact Indigenous people — in the justice system, the health care system, the child welfare system and the education system, to name a few; and partnership with the First Nations Health Authority to establish 15 First Nations primary care centres that focus on Indigenous health priorities. Again, this puts safe, inclusive and accessible care for people at the forefront so that the Indigenous people can receive culturally safe services and supports they need when and where they need them.

These investments will allow for further meaningful consultation and collaboration with our Indigenous partners, providing continued space for the recognition, honour and respect of Indigenous voices, their distinct languages, experiences, legal traditions, cultures, practices and stories. This budget reflects our dedication as a prov­ince to embrace these voices, integrate them into the development of the social institutions and create space and opportunity for safe and inclusive care that does not tolerate anti-Indigenous racism or discrimination of any kind.

The new Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship has been established, with a clear mandate of working with Indigenous governments and organizations in developing new visions and policies for land, water and resource management. Part of this work will be to ensure that these policies are consistent with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

Delivering thousands of new, licensed child care spaces in the next seven years will provide families with assurances that they are able to select the quality care that works for them. It also facilitates more jobs and employment in the broad range of vocations that are predicted to be available in the coming years. Parents can make decisions about work, school and life, knowing that their children have a safe, affordable and appropriate place to learn and thrive.

Of course, we always also need early childhood educators to work in these daycares and to pay them a living wage so that they can continue in that work. Moving child care into the Education Ministry strengthens the commitment to the full spectrum of support for children and youth.

This will also speak to our province’s need for skilled tradesworkers throughout our economic sectors. As a strong society, we depend on skilled tradesworkers to construct our communities, work in our industries and keep them going day after day. I am proud of the proactive approaches this budget provides towards strengthening and expanding our labour force here in British Columbia.

There is an important step that has been taken to restore funding that was withdrawn long ago. Re-establishing critical funding for sexual assault service centres across B.C. will provide much-needed and ongoing support for the courageous survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Crucially, this funding makes critical crisis response, counselling, reporting mechanisms and proactive and medical services more available and accessible to survivors and ensures that they can access consistent, safe, inclusive and empowering supports for their mental and physical well-being.

In talking to the survivor of a sexual assault, I heard the following. These are her words.

“To be perfectly blunt about the benefits of sexual assault centres, without them, many of us wouldn’t be here today. More and more sexual assault survivors are speaking up because someone before them had the courage to speak up, and it gives hope that people are listening.

“However, the current system cannot keep up with the demand. Wait-lists are so long to see a counsellor that some are waiting years for support — or never get it. Survivors need counsellors to talk about trauma. They need a safe place to come together and feel supported.”

Of 100 police-reported sexual assaults, 43 percent are charged, 21 percent go to trial, and 12 percent result in conviction. And 100 percent of survivors should be able to access a sexual assault centre as part of their healing. Sexual assault remains on the rise in Canada and in B.C.

Many survivors have no desire to engage in a long and emotionally draining legal battle before the courts. If they are lucky enough to get to the court, sexual assault centres will sometimes have a court handler who will go and explain everything going on in the court process and help wipe away tears while the survivor is reliving the most horrific moment in detail out loud to a room of complete strangers.

[4:15 p.m.]

These big emotions — the anger, the sadness and the frustration — don’t go away at the end of the day. Survivors carry that with them everywhere they go. Trauma centres and counsellors help survivors manage these emotions and a lifetime of triggers from everyday things that most people won’t even think of.

Survivors need to feel supported in helping navigate the trauma they have endured. Sometimes the trauma comes up months or years after the incident and comes up in unexpected ways, affecting relationships, lifestyle, work, physical and mental health. Trauma centres help to navigate this process.

When these centres aren’t functioning or available, survivors have limited options to turn to. Mental health continues to suffer. Many survivors struggle with depression, anxiety, low self-worth and self-esteem and sometimes substance issues. They need to feel safe and protected. Sexual assault centres provide that service.

That is what a sexual assault survivor spoke to me about.

Budget ’22 speaks to the resourcing of sexual assault centres across the province that will be there to provide that safe, protected place that survivors can go to for initial care and ongoing support — again, ensuring that the right care is available at the right time in the right place, not months or years later or if at all. Sexual assault centres can provide the specialized care that survivors need in the moment, rather than the generalized chaos of an emergency department that may or may not have the time, capacity or expertise to provide compassionate care while also securing and transmitting evidence of a crime.

The mental health of British Columbians is not only important, but it’s an absolute priority. Mental health struggles and needs have been amplified by the pandemic. However, it is an area that was long neglected.

The precarious nature of the toxic drug crisis and the poisoned drug supply in our province is severe, and tackling this crisis requires us to look at the foundation of the struggles that British Columbians are experiencing and providing proactive responses. To name a few: investments in stable housing, fighting the climate crisis, improving wages and job security, bettering our health care system and improving access to affordable child care are fundamental actions that will ultimately support the quality of life and mental health of British Columbians.

Without a doubt, the concern and care for people’s mental health guides the choices made by this government. As a result, mental health services and care options are being expanded for individuals of all ages.

For post-secondary students, the province has integrated mental health supports online for free, with services such as Here2Talk, which provides free virtual counselling and support for the mental health challenges that face our students. The budget also continues to invest in the mental health of youth and adults through Pathway to Hope, a step that prioritizes access to affordable counselling, addiction services, child development supports, culturally safe services and more.

The message is clear. Social investments outlined in this budget will make people’s lives better and create a better and stronger future by enhancing accessibility, prioritizing inclusivity and acting proactively. This budget maintains our government’s focus on care for the people of British Columbia and will allow individuals, families and communities to move forward with strength and confidence.

B.C. has done well relative to other parts of the country in terms of our economy throughout the pandemic. This budget continues to invest in the people of this province in a whole variety of ways, including providing ongoing support to ride out COVID; creating climate-resilient and responsive mechanisms that can anticipate, mitigate and support recovery from natural disasters; investing in B.C.-based businesses that are creating our future; and ensuring that accessible post-secondary education and training is available to ensure that we have a strong, effective workforce. All of this and more, including a strong, ongoing commitment to meeting our emission targets.

Meaningful reconciliation is woven throughout the fabric and work of this government, through health, emergency management, education, justice, communications, industry, natural resource management and many other areas identified in ongoing discussions with Indigenous communities.

Investments will be made in the areas of life sciences, agriculture, environmental stewardship, clean technology, apprenticeships and skilled-trades training. Health care providers to staff our long-term care, assisted-living and home care services, to ensure that our more vulnerable get the care they need, when and where they need it.

[4:20 p.m.]

Crafting community benefit agreements for key capital projects to increase employment opportunities for underrepresented groups and enhance the construction workforce. Continuing to support adult education with dedicated funds as well as maintaining the tuition-free adult literacy training programs. Re-establishing trades certification in ten of the electrical, mechanical and automotive trades. These are some of the areas that Budget 2022 supports.

In my riding, there are several well-known places that a cell phone won’t pick up, Wi-Fi won’t work. It doesn’t matter if you have data or not; you can’t access it. However, it’s easy to move back to a fully connected space and carry on with what you wanted to do. In a variety of areas of our province, that lack of connectivity is yet to be resolved, but it will be.

Further communication connections will be established over the next five years to more than 280 communities, getting high-speed Internet in place to enhance health care access, increase education choices, facilitate working remotely and access the virtual marketplace.

This budget maintains the momentum of the ten-year housing plan with the goal of affordable housing being built and available. Working with non-profit housing providers to construct mixed-income housing and supporting low-cost financing are two strategies that will continue to add to the housing stock.

In spite of the effects of the last two years in pandemic mode, B.C. still has economic sectors that are growing. Life sciences — over 2,000 companies doing research and making discoveries, employing over 18,000 people. It’s continuing to be viable employment and an economic opportunity. Substantial grants are invested in their work.

Mining continues to play an active role in resource development, using the stringent lens of environmental care and climate management.

Our tourism industry, much of which pivoted during the pandemic to provide service to British Columbia while the tourists were not coming, continues to receive recovery support, as do many of the non-profit organizations as well as the arts and culture sector, all of which have struggled significantly to remain viable.

I believe we were all happy to see the allocation of funds towards the safe restart of fairs, festivals and events. I am certainly looking forward to attending the Vernon tattoo in July this year, as I also anticipate being able to attend many of the local events in my riding.

In support of the work toward managing old growth and revitalizing the forest management practices, Budget 2022 has earmarked funds to transition affected workers and communities — available strategies such as short-term employment, education and skills training, partnerships that create jobs reflected in a diversified economy or community infrastructure jobs. There will also be retirement bridging programs established. Again, all of this work centres around people and providing support where and when it’s needed.

The environment continues to be an urgent and diverse concern, one which has garnered agreement from all sides that we need to do more in our efforts to remediate past damage and slow the trajectory of climate change.

I have the good fortune to have a grade 10 student from one of the local high schools who is doing work experience in my office. When asked what his thoughts were, Jakub was very clear. “We are headed into a future of climate change that will only ever get worse. We can diminish this by rapidly changing to meet the goals we set for ourselves and the goals given to us by leading scientists around the world. Of course, we’re not alone in this battle, but we can and must be prepared for what we face in our near future and the great efforts we must undertake to be prepared for what’s ahead in the long term. We know that climate disasters like the ones we faced last winter and summer are only going to get worse. So we must do more.” Grade 10.

Jakub, thank you.

We saw more fires and massive flooding with significant damage to livelihoods, properties, infrastructure and supply chains. The heat dome took the lives of vulnerable people. New high- and low-temperature records were set. Climate change is here, it’s real, and it behooves all of us to respond in a concentrated effort to reduce our emissions and carbon footprint both individually and collectively.

The low-carbon economy investment to expand the low-carbon fuel standard, an emission cap on natural gas utilities — both are significant strategies that are included in Budget 2022.

A variety of initiatives will be going into play to support cleaner transportation methods, energy-efficient buildings and industry decarbonization.

[4:25 p.m.]

Additionally, emission reductions will be enhanced in communities and land-based activities through initiatives in partnership with municipalities, forestry management and agricultural activities.

Increased capacity to reduce, reuse and recycle through further investments in the circular economy strategy. Investing in clean tech innovative technologies and opportunities. All of these actions — and they are all actions — will bring B.C. closer to the goals of climate change management.

The other thing that this budget speaks to is the protection of people and their communities from future climate-related disasters. This focuses on supporting communities and rebuilding critical infrastructure so that we are better prepared for future events, designating both operating and capital funds for disaster prevention, response and recovery to ensure that support is available when and where it is needed. This includes moving the B.C. Wildfire Service to a year-round model that will focus on prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery as a continuous cycle.

Funding for a climate preparedness and adaption strategy will include, but not be limited to: expansion of climate monitoring, establishing climate resilience initiatives, developing extreme heat response plans and expanding the river forecast and provincial floodplain mapping program.

I see the budget as a comprehensive document that speaks to the needs of a population that want to recover so much of what has been lost over the last two years. Not only recover but begin the move forward into a future that offers the opportunity of increased prosperity — prosperity that we can all share.

I fully support Budget ’22 and thank all those involved for the thought, time and collaboration that was taken to create and present it.

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the member for Columbia River–Revelstoke.

D. Clovechok: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s an absolute pleasure to see you sitting in that chair.

It’s not only my pleasure today, but my duty, to rise in this House and speak on behalf of my hard-working, mountain-loving constituents back in Columbia River–​Revelstoke. When I speak, I speak for them as best as I can with my voice. We’re all so proud of our riding that is about the area, same size, of Switzerland.

I want to take this opportunity also to recognize my colleagues back at home and in Kimberley and in Revelstoke. Siobhan Staplin and also Chelsea Meulendyk, who do such an amazing job on my behalf when I’m in this House and on my behalf when I’m not. I really want to thank them for that, and this work doesn’t work without them. I also want to thank all the staff here that help us on our side of the House. They are truly amazing as well, and we’re such a collaborative team. I just want to say thank you to them as well.

I’ve had the opportunity now, for several years, to hear different budgets from the folks across the aisle, and I’ve got to say that this is, given the things that are going on in our province today and our world today, likely the worst I’ve ever seen. I think it should come as no surprise.

It’s a budget from a government that was voted to be the most secretive government in Canada. The reason that I mention that…. It’s a moniker that is actually carried through in this budget because of the lack of transparency. It’s a big secret. It’s a mystery. We’re not really sure about why that is. Lots of platitudes. Nothing in there but repeated promises from a Premier that has done that for five years.

I really want to underscore the five years, because I’m going to come back to that. That number is really important, so I’m going to come back to that in a little while. Trust me, in my constituency, in my riding, this behaviour of untruth has not gone unnoticed, and so many of my constituents and my friends are livid. They’re very alive to the fact that there are extreme differences between the words that are in this budget and the actual deliverables and actions that have not been delivered.

[4:30 p.m.]

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

We all know that COVID has created challenges far beyond what anyone could ever have imagined, and today there’s this time of uncertainty when the future is uncertain. I know my constituents, as well as most other British Columbians, need hope and a plan to tackle the big issues that we face in this province, because they’re monumental. The key word there is “plan,” and I’ll come back to that.

When I see this budget, what I see immediately is more tax and uncertainty. In this budget, I don’t find…. There’s little hope around affordability issues — the rising cost of housing, the rising cost of gas and the rising cost of groceries. I was just up at the grocery store here the other night. People were sifting through, trying to find the best specials, and so on and so forth. It’s expensive. It’s gotten way more expensive in this province. It’s hurting people.

Little hope for affordable daycare, and I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a while. Little hope when it comes to the safety of friends and family who may be struggling with either mental health or addictions or both. Little hope for finding a really good job, keeping their small businesses open after COVID. Little hope of finding a family doctor. One of the biggest issues in my riding that I hear about is: “We can’t find a family doctor.”

Let’s talk about affordability. With all due respect, since the NDP has taken power, since 2017, I think there have been around 26 new taxes that have been imposed on my constituents. Just in this budget alone, it has introduced three more taxes, one to collect PST charges on Facebook Marketplace or eBay. They say it’s going to collect about $100 million. Well, I tell you what. During the COVID pandemic, had it not been for those platforms, people wouldn’t have been able to get anything. The stores were shut. Now they’re going to tax that. That comes out of people’s pockets.

They did that to Netflix. I know that one of the members across the aisle, from Vernon-Monashee, the other day had mentioned Netflix wasn’t that important. Well, had it not been for Netflix and COVID, people wouldn’t have had any entertainment at all. I was surprised to hear that from that member, with all due respect, with her background.

New rules for private used-car sales. This is an interesting one, I’ve got to say. If you get a good deal on a car, that’s a good thing. There’s a negotiation that goes on here. You’ve got to remember that these cars, used cars…. Not everybody can buy a new car. I don’t buy new vehicles. I don’t. I buy used vehicles, for a variety of reasons. But if you buy a used vehicle, you’re going to get taxed on that now.

I want to humanize this to some extent. A single mom with two kids — I’m using this as an example, because I know of a mom with two kids — finds a van on Craigslist for around 10,000 bucks. That’s not a bad deal if you look at it, from a dealership’s perspective even. It’s a great deal. The Black Book says it’s worth $12,500. So the Black Book versus the deal. The mom is going: “Well, that’s a good deal for me. It’s great.”

Now, with this new tax, they’re going to go to that Black Book, and they’re going to say to that mom, “You’ve got to take the $12,500 cost because that’s the actual cost the Black Book says it is. Instead of the $10,000, we’re going to tax you on that $2,500,” which is 200 bucks, give or take — 175 or 200 bucks.

When you think about that from a single mom’s perspective, what could $175 buy? Some new shoes for the kids? Some more food for the kids? Maybe some skating lessons. That’s going to affect people’s bottom line, and it’s an unfair tax.

I was absolutely shocked when one of the members across the aisle actually alluded to the fact yesterday that people who buy used cars are trying to scam the system, that they’re actually trying to evade taxes and be fraudulent. I was absolutely appalled when I heard that in that context and reference. I know that that member has hundreds, if not thousands, of people in that riding who buy used cars. I don’t know how well that will bode in the next election.

[4:35 p.m.]

Also, people buy used cars. I have a good friend of mine who has never been formally trained as a mechanic, but right from high school, he had an aptitude for vehicles. He would fix these vehicles. Let’s say you go and buy a car that’s got a bad muffler. There’s a head gasket that needs to be replaced or a timing chain. Most people don’t know how to do that. Well, he did.

One of the things that he would do for neighbours is… He’d fix it for free, just for parts. No charge, just parts. That could be a goodwill tax, if you will. Now, if he did that today, in this province, then those repairs that he made for free would actually be taxable. So it doesn’t make a whole bunch of sense.

I guess what insults the buyer the most about this is that these cars have already been taxed at least once, maybe twice, as they’ve been flipped over and over again. It’s almost like double- or triple-dipping on these vehicles.

The thing that, I think, frustrates me the most is that it has an effect on middle- and, especially, lower-income people, who tend to buy more vehicles that are used. As I say, it doesn’t really matter what income bracket you are. I don’t particularly buy new vehicles either. If you don’t believe me, you just need to look at page 91 of the budget. It’s very clear. It says: “Individuals involved in private vehicle transactions” — this is out of the budget — “are more likely to be low to medium income.” So why would you do that to low- to medium-income people? It doesn’t make any sense.

We see new taxes at a time when we see people shifting their buying habits, again, in grocery stores. They’re looking at brand items, cheaper cuts of meat to make their grocery bills less and their dollars last. More taxes despite the Premier’s promise, during the last election, that there wouldn’t be any more. I’ll quote him. “Our plan does not include any new taxes…. We have no intention of raising new taxes.” A broken promise, another one.

You know what, Mr. Speaker? I reflect back on my late dad. One of the lessons he taught me…. He said: “When you make a promise….” I can hear his words ringing in my ear right now. “When you make a promise and you give somebody your word, it’s your bond. It’s your honour.” Because of these broken promises, I don’t find a lot of honour in this budget. There’s no honour there. Broken promises.

I’m not sure, again, why the Premier is doing everything possible to decrease affordability for those on low and middle incomes in this province, knowing that about 53 percent of British Columbians are now around $200 away from insolvency. What does that mean? That means if something comes up…. A car breaks down. Something comes up. There’s a flood in your basement. You’re done. You’re baked. Yet we have more taxes.

You recall the Premier’s 2017 election, when we were talking about rentals in this province — a $400 rental rebate. Five years later — there it is again: five years — no rebate. What do we hear? “Well, we’re getting to it.” Five years later. Yet that side of the House claims to be the champion of renters.

How has life changed for renters in the past five years? Well, the stats will tell you that they’ve actually gotten worse, and life has become more unaffordable. In fact, the B.C. Rental Project gives B.C. a C grade. “Their strategy has been to pile on regulation and taxes,” which has forced many rental providers out of the market. The tax that was brought forward that protects renters — I’ve been a landlord, and I know how important it is to protect your renters — has actually chased landlords out of the rental market.

Where I live, we are struggling to find homes for renters. Why? The homes that used to be rental homes are now Airbnb homes. Why? The owners of those homes didn’t not like renters. They didn’t like the enforcement that this government was putting on and taking away their rights.

[4:40 p.m.]

They switched them over to Airbnbs, and they’re making a ton of money. They’re taking that product right out of the market for a simple reason. Because of the rental legislation that was put forward by this government.

When you are looking at a low rental in my area, I would say the mirror that you’re looking into is an NDP mirror. I can factually tell you that there are virtually no rentals in my riding, and it’s problematic. It’s not only problematic for workers. We can’t find workers — every business in my riding is looking for workers; I think there were about 500 jobs available in Revelstoke just the other day — because there’s no place to live. There’s nowhere to live.

Housing prices have soared. A modest, three-bedroom home in Revelstoke with a really nice lot, fairly close to the ski hill — not a lot of renovations, three bedrooms, one bathroom — is going for $900,000 plus. It’s unaffordable. It is time for the NDP to provide real solutions for this growing disaster. It’s a supply issue, and they’ve got to address that issue.

Then there are the small businesses. The majority of businesses in my riding are small business owners. When I look through this budget, there’s no support to help them today. There’s no relief for key competitive issues facing businesses. The employers health tax. Despite other provinces taking action to reduce theirs, ours continues, hurting small businesses that have struggled throughout COVID.

No action on split assessment, which means that more local shops will be driven out of the communities as housing prices skyrocket. That’s what I referred to, in terms of Revelstoke. No relief for energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries, which provide great jobs and stable revenue for the province. People need real help. They need it now and they need support now.

Workers and families, their kids and their businesses will continue to pay the price if the NDP continues to travel down this road in what I think is a very incompetent way. What we need is a defined private sector jobs plan and a jobs plan for all communities, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous. These are missing in this budget. There’s no jobs plan.

I want to refer…. That’s why I said “five years.” It has been about five years since this NDP government took power. Mr. Speaker, I’m going to be using this, not as a prop, but I’m actually going to be reading from it as part of my presentation, just to make you aware of that.

In 2011, the B.C. Liberals set out a direction for this province. There was a business plan — if you’ve been in business, you understand this — with objectives, targets, strategies, measurement tools, key performance indicators — everything that a business plan should have. We set that business plan in action. Five years later we measured it. Five years later this document was put forward — a five-year update on the B.C. jobs plan — something that the NDP doesn’t have, except for anecdotal information. It set ambitious targets.

I’m just going to read a few things that we measured. We knew we’d hit the mark. There are some things where we weren’t hitting the mark, and we changed our strategies on that. Signs of success. In 2011, we were third in economic growth in this country. By 2016, we were first. In 2011, we were ninth in job growth in this country. In 2016, we were first. The unemployment rate. We were fourth in Canada. In 2016, we were the lowest in Canada.

Some of the key accomplishments were in our business plan, which we measured and which were indicated through our budgets, woven through and into our bud­gets. One of my biggest favourites…. I know that at that time, for Premier Christy Clark, it was one of her directives and her favourite initiatives.

[4:45 p.m.]

I read from this document. It says: “B.C. continues to help single parents on income and disability assistance become financially independent through the single-parent employment initiative.” That initiative was oversubscribed. Thousands of single moms and dads took part in that program — oversubscribed. It paid their tuition, paid their rent and paid their daycare. It was a hand up, not a hand­out, and it was very successful. We set that as part of our goal in 2011, and we measured it with a plan.

Rural economic development was another focus that we had. What we discovered is, under the first intake of the rural dividend program…. We created a rural dividend program of $9 million for communities that could apply through that program — very, very successful.

We found that we were successful in programs for people with disabilities.

Agrifoods, foods. We’d set a target in 2011, and in 2016 we knew that the value of agrifood and seafood shipments to South Korea had risen 63 percent, from $33 million to $54 million, since the launch of the Canada-Korea free trade agreement in 2015. That’s an accomplishment.

That’s part of 16 years of success, folks. That’s what success looks like, successes in forestry and international education. We increased the number of international students in B.C. by 40,000 in ’16, or 44 percent, since the launch of the B.C. jobs plan in 2011. Lots of those students stayed and worked here, in British Columbia.

The list goes on and on here. We updated the municipal and regional district tax, which provided — one of the members across the way will know that — for local tourism marketing and projects. We did that. It was in our budget. We were one of the most successful provinces, if not the most successful province, in Canada at that time.

Also, as part of the $30 million Aboriginal skills development fund, the province invested $10 million more to support community-driven skills training to prepare Aboriginal, Indigenous people for LNG opportunities.

The reason I read through this document, and the important point that I’m trying to make, is that I truly believe that the folks on the other side want to do well by British Columbians — I believe that; I really, truly do — but they don’t know how. They’ve got ideas, but you have to formulate a plan and put it into a business plan with something that you can measure. I don’t see anything about that measurement here.

What about kids in this budget? I remember in 2017, during that campaign, the $10-a-day daycare. The opponent that I had, a fine gentleman from one of my commun­ities, was really hyping up the $10-a-day daycare. It didn’t win the election for him. That was five years ago. What do we have today? Nothing. Now it’s going up to $20 a day. I mean, next year it might be $30 a day. We just don’t know.

It’s not just about spaces. The folks across the aisle talk about spaces: “All these spaces we’ve created.” You can have as many spaces as you want, but if you don’t have instructors, if you don’t have ECE teachers, you’ve got nothing. I haven’t seen a lot of growth in that area, as well. So $10-a-day daycare in 2017, and now it’s up to $20 a day.

One of the things that breaks my heart that is not in this budget deals with kids with autism. Parents of children with autism continue to be ignored, frankly, in my humble opinion, by this government. There’s insufficient funding to manage the transition to a hub-based service model. I don’t purport to be an expert on this at all, but despite clawing back individual funding from more than 25,000 children with autism and their families — families in my riding and their kids that have autism — there’s just $40 million added funding for children and youth with support needs in this year’s budget.

[4:50 p.m.]

This government has no ears. I know that they’ve been there, because I stood there with them. Yet nothing in this budget that helps them, nothing in this budget that recognizes those voices. I say shame. I say shame.

The housing crisis continues to deepen year after year. It’s deepening every month. It’s every day, and there’s no end in sight and, most frighteningly, no solution. Lots of words but the same old, same old. No action. Success is measured by action. Success is measured by tangible results, and there’s nothing but antidote.

The National Bank report estimates that it would take 36 years, 432 months, to save for a down payment on a typical Vancouver home. Well, you think of Vancouver, where I live, and it’s a massive city. My riding is remote rural. I live rural myself. When you think of Vancouver, you think of this big city. You think about 36 years. Well, it’s not that far off now for the kids that I represent. It’s expensive.

Prices since COVID have been driven to the ceiling in the valleys that I live, from Revelstoke to Kimberley. Affordability is not there. It’s not there in housing. It’s not there in food. It’s not there in gas. We don’t have electric vehicles where I live. Well, that’s not true. We do. That’s actually false. We have a few of those vehicles. The member across the way, I think, might even have one of those, and I applaud him for that.

Here’s the thing. When winter hit this year and we had this severe blizzard, people got caught in Kootenay National Park and couldn’t get out of Kootenay National Park because of the rerouting of the Trans-Canada Highway. I’m going to thank the minister in just a minute, so I’m not picking on you. I’m actually going to give you some credit here today. The ones that were being towed out of the park were electric vehicles because they sat there for 13 hours.

Interjection.

D. Clovechok: Oh, that’s a fact. That’s a fact. You can talk to the RCMP about that if you want.

In any event, there’s not a lot there in terms of affordability on that.

Gas prices. What we know is that the cost of living is up in B.C. over 4 percent, and gas prices are higher than ever. The fact that fuel taxes are going up in this budget — the highest in the history of British Columbia….

The Premier said the other day: “We’re going to look at whatever tools we can to make life more affordable.” Well, how is this more affordable? How is this more affordable? I was just shocked by this, because I have a lot of respect for the Premier. Then he turns around and says: “If you can’t afford gas, take a bus.” Where I live, we don’t have buses. We don’t have transportation. Talk about tone deaf to the needs of rural B.C.

Let me quote from a mom. Actually, my colleague earlier on used this quote, this morning during question period, about the gas prices and the comment of the Premier: “Sure. I’ll pile all of our four kids on the bus tomorrow and somehow get them to the respective schools on time, and then I’ll carry my ten bags of groceries on that bus and try to get them home.” It doesn’t work. It’s a punitive tax, and the government controls a lot of those taxes.

I want to talk a little bit about…. I know I’m getting close to the end of my talk, but I want to talk about a couple of things, and that’s wildlife management. I come from a place that used to be known as the Serengeti of ungulates. I’m a hunter. I elk hunt every year. I didn’t get one last year. I couldn’t find one. Experienced people that I hunt with, who have hunted as long as I have, couldn’t find one.

[4:55 p.m.]

There were two meetings in Cranbrook with distinguished biologists. The late Dr. Val Geist, who was from here in Victoria, talked about this. The numbers are declining all over this province. It’s habitat, and it’s water, and it’s a symbiotic relationship.

I am actually really thrilled to hear that there’s this new ministry that has been formed across the aisle. I am very excited to hear that. I have nothing but respect for that individual who has become that minister, and then the FLNRORD Minister has my equal respect. I look forward to working with both of them on the wildlife issue.

Right now it’s a…. It’s not this government’s fault. There has not been a government since the 1950s that has taken this seriously. But we have got to work together on this. The Premier always says that we need to collaborate. Well, here’s something that we can collaborate on.

The bighorn sheep in Radium are under stress because of vehicles. This is where I’m going to thank the Minister of Transportation. His staff, all the way back from Ron Sharp to Katie Ward right now, have been absolutely amazing to work with. I want to recognize them and the efforts that have been made and the money that has been spent on trying to save these sheep. So to the minister: I want to say thank you for that, and I look to continue to work on this project with you and other ministries.

Rural health care. We need more rural transportation — nothing in that budget. Access to health care. Access to a family doctor. Access to Alberta. I have been working on that since…. I met with the Alberta minister three times before COVID hit. We’ve got to start looking at some of these things that deal with rural British Columbia.

I’m almost out of time.

It’s clear that fighting unaffordability for people — really, in this budget — is not the priority of this government. But making life more affordable…. The Premier and his cabinet ministers…. A $40,000 and $20,000 bump in their pay — god, I just don’t know how they can do that at a time when British Columbians are being hit with higher housing costs, higher rents, higher fuel costs. And the list goes on.

In short, I could go on and on, but I can’t. I think this budget is shortsighted. It’s divisive. It’s irresponsible. As such, I cannot support it.

Hon. R. Fleming: Thank you to the previous speakers who have participated in the debate. There have been very interesting comments on all sides about their communities and the aspirations that the communities have that are realized by budgets, in part. I’ve found it very interesting.

As I take my place somewhat later in the debate around the budget, at this stage, I also would join with colleagues on all sides of the House who have expressed stories from their constituents, many of whom are part of the 1.3 million Canadians who are connected to their Ukrainian heritage and relatives and others who are living through war in Europe, a war that grows worse by the day, according to many of the reports.

Of course, it’s very difficult to think of anything else, when you hear the lies at the United Nations being told by Russia that civilians aren’t being targeted, yet we see, with our own eyes, kindergartens, universities, apartment buildings being blown up by an illegal invasion that shredded the very core of what international law means.

Of course, we are here in a well-functioning democracy, being able to trade ideas and in whatever tone we choose with the freedoms that we enjoy here. And we have an aspiring democracy, which has made considerable progress over three decades, in the Ukraine under attack.

I begin my remarks just by saying thank you, in part, to the Ukrainian Cultural Centre, which is a magnificent building that has been — for seven or eight decades, anyway — on the 2800 block of Douglas Street in my constituency. A very vibrant place. Obviously, you can imagine how they are buzzing and brimming right now as they raise funds and people coordinate communicating with loved ones and relatives through time zones at all hours.

[5:00 p.m.]

They did this community a huge favour in expressing their outrage and their want to join with Canadians of every type by organizing a massive rally here on Sunday — appropriately, at the Legislative Assembly, thousands of people on the front lawns.

That was something I was very pleased to participate in. I know that everybody who attended did as well. They felt the strength of being part of millions of people in all parts of the globe that day demonstrating against Putin’s war and calling on western countries to do a number of things that they have since done — and this was just a few days ago — that have imposed very, very strict sanctions on Russia.

Right now it’s about the democratic world making the price of this disgusting, cowardly gamble by Vladimir Putin fail. I will leave it there, except to say that I know we are all so impressed by the heroism of the Ukrainian people who are defending themselves and their cities as we speak.

I will move on to give some thanks where the previous speaker left off, and that is to all of those that were involved in a massive and immediate recovery effort after the atmospheric rivers and the storms that hit British Columbia on November 14 and 15 destroyed so much of our infrastructure — in fact, cut us off from the rest of the country for a period of time.

I can’t thank enough, or express my appreciation ade­quately enough, those who worked tirelessly to reopen our highways, who immediately set to work, after the damage was surveyed, to go about fixing it. This includes organizations like the B.C. roadbuilders and their companies, trade unions, First Nations, the engineers, the suppliers that were all involved in supporting that rapid effort.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible work that’s taken place by staff in my ministry. They’re very humble. They don’t get the credit, but I know that all of the roadbuilders and the workers that were involved in that — and Transport Canada, which we were working with primarily through the federal government, and NRCan and TMX and everybody — will say that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure staff have worked just as tirelessly as anybody else on that recovery.

They really played a valuable leadership role, and they often maybe didn’t get enough credit for that. But that really happened the moment the atmospheric river event occurred, and I think it exemplified the best in the public service, which we can be proud of here in British Columbia — just seeing that level of performance in a crisis.

They were out on the highways at all hours, meeting with Indigenous communities and local residents whose access was cut off, when they were obviously in a very heightened state of anxiety, seeing their property damaged and being isolated and wondering where food and water would come from. Again, thanks to the MOTI staff that led and coordinated that response. Boy, did it ever pay off, too.

These professionals working with the roadbuilding community achieved something that was seemingly im­possible. I speak specifically about the reopening of the Coquihalla Highway about 35 days after it was destroyed in so many segments and parts. Thankfully for everybody in British Columbia — I think it’s the relief we needed — it happened. It reopened five days before Christmas, which I think was beyond the expectation of almost everybody. Again, thanks to all of those that were involved in those efforts.

Those efforts, of course, are continuing. Just today, I’m really happy to see that Highway 11 between Mission and Abbotsford reopened. It sustained a lot of damage from the atmospheric river event, and it’s reopened.

Of course, we’ve made connection with Lytton. There is much work to do in the Fraser Canyon in the year ahead, and I really look forward to working with all of the partners. We have really come together to talk about the supply chain, to talk about goods movement, to talk about what resilient infrastructure means in an era of extreme weather events like we’ve seen with the heat dome and the extreme storms of November. We have to account for that, and we have to work to make sure that our province’s economy and our communities are safe from events that previously were just not part of how we forecast, and today they are.

[5:05 p.m.]

I’m pleased to also just talk more generally about a budget that continues to put British Columbians in the lead of social and economic recovery from the pandemic. This has been a very difficult two years. I think the finish line is in sight, if I’m interpreting our public health officials and Dr. Bonnie Henry and others correctly.

We have amongst the lowest unemployment rates on the continent and some of the best economic rebound and recovery anywhere in the OECD. That is a testament to companies that worked so well during the pandemic to maintain business and services that they provide and working with public health officials to be able to keep economic activity going. I want to say a few things about the school system as well, and how well British Columbians have performed in very difficult times — at times when our knowledge of the pandemic and the virus was limited. I’ll maybe get into that later.

I’d like to touch upon a few things that are important to my region, my constituency, that are in the budget that maybe are illustrative of broader investments of provincial importance.

I am really, really happy to see investments in this budget that are new and announced, including the University of Victoria, which will begin constructing an engineering and computer science building expansion shortly — 500 new seats for that program.This is something that our government has worked with the tech sector on. We know, when we talk about one million job openings by the year 2030, that the tech sector is a critically important part of that employment opportunity horizon for young people here on the South Island.

This is going to be a fantastic building. It will use mass timber technology, which is an industry that we’re trying to grow as we transform secondary manufacturing and derive increased value from our forests here in B.C. So it will be a great display and yet another public building using that technology. Of course, it will be built to the highest environmental performance, too. This is something that our CleanBC program supports more broadly, which is continuing to show leadership on clean energy technologies, including clean building performances, as part of our ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gases. So that’s happening at UVic.

Similarly, there’s a project that I have been proud to work with colleagues in government on, and it’s specific to my constituency. That is a brand-new Cedar Hill Middle School, which is part of the seismic mitigation program. But in this case, the business case will support building a brand-new school that will be the right size. It will be, again, leading edge in terms of its environmental performance. It’s great to see that be announced in this budget.

It follows up on probably one of the largest seismic projects ever undertaken in the province, and that’s at western Canada’s oldest high school, Victoria High School, not too far from these buildings, which is ongoing. It’s a very active, busy construction site right now, and it follows up on the newly completed seismic upgrade to Braefoot Elementary.

I say this because I know that we have a lot of new worries and a lot of new public issues that we deal with on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. But certainly, on the safety of our students and preparing, in this case, for the earthquake that could affect our coastal communities, it requires us to invest in these public buildings so that they’re left standing should an event like that happen. It was a very, very slow pace that we were at in the early part of the new century and right up until we assumed government. It’s wonderful to see, in these communities, the backlog of seismic projects being addressed, including in my own community.

Housing projects. I’ve heard some of the members say: “Where is the housing?” I have over a dozen housing projects that I can think of that are just part of Saanich and Victoria, not even including the entire region — hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new units of family housing and supportive housing to get at the homelessness crisis that we inherited. Seniors housing is being built, and affordable market housing.

The HousingHub program, which had $2 billion of lendable capital added to it recently, is really attracting the attention of the development community here, which is great to see. Land is being acquired and set aside for future housing projects.

[5:10 p.m.]

I tell you, we have seen nothing like this for a very, very long time in my region. In fact, the last non-profit family housing project that was built in my constituency prior to 2019 was completed in 2001 by the previous government. That project began in 1999. It’s called Tillicum Station. You wonder why there is a difficulty for renters and affordability of rent when, for 15 years, there was almost nothing happening on the family housing side, in terms of building non-profit housing.

We have lots of non-profits coming forward now that they have a government that has ambitions and wants to build housing and has programs. We’ve got legion halls. We’ve got non-profit housing societies. We’ve got school districts divesting land that could be used for affordable housing. We’ve got churches and other denominational organizations coming forward and saying: “Look, our congregations are shrinking, and we want to repurpose church buildings for affordable housing.” It’s wonderful to see the interest, and this budget will sustain and keep building momentum on new housing.

There are a lot of transportation projects here that are part of the south Island transportation strategy that I’m very proud of as well. We have a Highway 17 improvement at Keating coming. There’s a new transit queue-jumper program at Mt. Newton, in the member for Saanich North and the Islands’ constituency, that will be part of the rapid bus network and strategy on that highway system.

We are moving forward on improvements on Highway 1 out to West Shore, which will be part of the rapid bus system that the capital regional district and our government have agreed to work on together. There will be transportation-oriented development in our region, on properties that B.C. Transit currently owns, that will, again, promote affordable housing, child care services, job creation, by having retail and other commercial uses at that facility. That’s great to see, and I know that’s happening in regions right around the province.

Broadly speaking, I’m proud of this budget because a lot of governments around the world, unfortunately, have really taken their eye off the ball when it comes to fighting climate change. We’re boldly moving forward on commitments that we’ve made.

I am proud to see child care costs continuing to be addressed in this budget. It’s incredible to think where we were five short years ago. Do you know what the investment was in child care in Budget 2016, the previous government? It was $220 million. The budget before us today…. I’m only going to quote the provincial component, because we have leveraged federal support for the idea of $10-a-day child care, which is, I think a feather in the cap of the province of B.C. and, I think, Quebec as well, which has endeavoured to build universal child care. It’s $1.219 billion.

We have multiplied investments in child care six-fold in five budget cycles, and it will grow from there. By the end of the three-year service plan that we’re discussing, it will be at $1.7 billion. Again, these are provincial figures. The federal government contribution will be added to that. We are moving, in actual fact, in a few short years, to where progressive countries like Sweden and Denmark, that are lauded around the world for their child care systems, took 40 years to build, quite frankly. We’re building our system out as rapidly as we can, and the federal investment will only help. The affordability gains for constituents are incredible.

Child care used to be called the second mortgage you had to pay, in my community. It was not $10 or $20 a day, as I hear members opposite complain about. It was $80 a day or $70 a day if you could get a space. If you had two children or three children, you’re paying one provider, maybe, $1,400, and another $1,600 or up to $1,800. These are real prices for daycare just a few short years ago. We have put, literally, thousands and tens of thousands of dollars back into working families’ pockets, depending on how many kids they have. This is incredible in terms of promoting affordability.

[5:15 p.m.]

It’s no longer a second mortgage. It’s an affordable daily fee for comprehensive, high-quality child care. We’ll keep building on that, and this budget supports it.

I’m very pleased on the health care side, obviously, coming out of a pandemic — $3.2 billion in additional funding, $875 million in pandemic recovery funding.

I’m very pleased that the number one issue for my constituents around getting in connection with a family doctor is being worked on, and I want to commend the Minister of Health for this. He has set up a local working group in Island Health on this very matter. It is, of course, supported by the primary care networks and the urgent primary care centres that are opening here, but the strategy that is evolving aims to put about 125,000 people in this region into a primary care network to have contact with a family physician.

The investments in, if I heard the minister correctly, 362 entry-level medical residency positions in this budget. There were 134 seats in 2003, so we’ve nearly tripled the amount of doctors that we annually enter into our medical training programs. This is going to help a lot. It’s not going to come good immediately.

This is a problem that is 20 years old. I applaud the international medical graduate program for some of the innovation that the Minister of Health is also doing to help with this shortage problem. I want to work on that. I think across party lines everybody has an interest, where there are doctor shortages in our community, in doing that. But I’m happy to see that there are resources in this budget to do exactly that.

Let me talk a little bit about some of the things that, in broad strokes, are in my view very impressive about this budget. The vision is an inclusive and clean economy. It’s anchored by my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, pre-budget plan, the StrongerBC economic plan for B.C., which is laser-focused on narrowing the skills gap that we have in our province.

Growing things, as others have pointed out: the life sciences; manufacturing, which is hugely important in my region and parts of B.C.; agriculture, rebounding and creating new growth in food products and supporting B.C. farmers. Expanding and diversifying the construction workforce is a huge part of it, which is very important to my ministry. And tackling carbon emissions is hugely important and supported by this budget in terms of the low-carbon fuel standard and a number of initiatives that my ministry is leading around electric vehicles, including heavy-duty vehicles moving towards electrification.

I think it’s really important that this budget has reflected on recent events as well, so to move towards a proactive year-round B.C. Wildfire Service model is also very important. Very necessary, I should say. Supporting communities, preparing for climate disasters through the new community emergency preparedness fund is forward-thinking and proactive. I know that local governments and Indigenous governments will eagerly work with our government in doing so. Strengthening B.C.’s defences, as well, through the climate preparedness and adaptation strategy is also vital work that is funded and resourced in this budget.

We need to make sure that the three years covered in this budget are ones where we succeed in building back stronger. Everybody is going to try and rebuild their economies. We need to do things for tourism, for example, when travel resumes in a normal way. We need to continue to help businesses that have, in some cases done reasonably well or quite well under the pandemic, but those that were hanging on that need to recover and continue to listen to them and work with them.

I know that a huge part of providing an economic bump though is the employment and benefits that come from infrastructure projects. I’m very pleased how much activity is happening in this budget related to my ministry: $8 billion over the next three years to build the infrastructure of the future that we need that will develop our economy, get goods moving more quickly and expand trade opportunities. And, of course, get people travelling in their daily lives in a cleaner and a greener way.

[5:20 p.m.]

Some of the landmark projects that are now underway include the Broadway subway, the Fraser River tunnel and the Pattullo Bridge project over the Fraser as well. An extraordinary project that I had the privilege of looking at just before omicron was a thing was Highway 1 through Kicking Horse Canyon, which is simply breathtaking in terms of how important that part of the four-laning to the Alberta border is. It is about 30 percent commercial traffic.

The Surrey-Langley SkyTrain. COVID timelines sometimes confuse the mind, but it was only last July that the Prime Minister, the Premier and I confirmed the federal government’s $1.3 billion commitment to the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain. We’re looking for every opportunity to accelerate that project.

We’ve already committed to building it in one phase, which will save hundreds of millions of dollars that can be put towards other transit improvement projects in the region or other transportation projects in the province. It’s more efficient. It will be completed two years earlier by taking provincial leadership and leading the project in one phase all the way out to Langley.

We will continue to provide the certainty that our transportation authorities, including TransLink, need in order to rebuild their ridership and plan for the future. So that 40 percent cost-sharing of any future infrastructure, which has induced the federal government to match us…. Don’t forget. When we came into office, we were at 33⅓ and 33⅓. This is alleviating some of the tax burden on local regions and allowing us, quite frankly, just to do more of the things we ought to do.

When you look at those two projects combined, the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain and the Broadway subway…. By the way, I think I heard the new Leader of the Opposition saying: “I can’t find any projects anywhere.” There are seven active construction sites on the Broadway subway corridor right now. You want to go see thousands of people working good jobs, building the infrastructure of the future? I suggest it’s just a short hop, skip and a jump from North Van. He can go look at that.

Between the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain and the Broadway line project, two projects in action right now, we are adding 24 percent to the SkyTrain network. Now, I was a kid when the first one opened, in the early ’80s. To think that in this five-year window, we will expand by 24 percent a network that was begun over 40 years ago is good progress. We need more of that. But it’s also a testament to the fact that we are building the transit system of the future for a dynamic Metro Vancouver region that is going to promote affordable housing, transit-oriented development, child care, job centres, all of those things.

Broadway subway, by the way, is one of the busiest corridors in North America. Currently it has 110,000 boardings just using bus — or pre-pandemic it did — and 300,000 boardings will be possible. It’s one of the largest job corridors and clusters in the province.

Can you imagine what a modern rapid subway system that will go from VCC-Clark to Arbutus in 11 minutes will do for employers to locate jobs and to provide the kind of livable density that people in Vancouver are craving? Quite frankly, it’s transformational. So is the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain. I’m very, very pleased to see those moving forward, as I am with the toll-free George Massey crossing. I’m very pleased to see that project moving ahead.

We’ve awarded contracts recently. We’ll have more to say in the very near future about portions of the tunnel replacement program, including the Steveston interchange. This is exactly what the people of Richmond and Delta were looking for.

This congestion relief cannot come soon enough, I know. We’re doing everything we can to make sure that, having now picked the right project for the region, the one that people wanted, we get it done as fast as we can — including the First Nations who were at the announcement last August, standing by my side, committing to work on the project and pledging their support, which I think spoke a lot. They spoke on that day, and their words were very well appreciated in terms of their ongoing engagement and partnership in building that project.

The other area of congestion relief that I know needs to be addressed in the Fraser Valley is Highway 1. We were reminded about how important that stretch of highway is when seven kilometres of it were underwater for weeks at a time following the flooding.

[5:25 p.m.]

I am happy to say that the project to widen Highway 1 between 216th and 264th is going to get underway this spring. It will add HOV lanes and add to the capacity of that road network. It will allow us to add innovative transit service. It’s, of course, a precursor to the next segment, which will be between 264 and Whatcom. Planning funding for that is included in this budget as well.

We’re also well underway with the Pattullo Bridge replacement. This is an important project that will be in service in 2024. It’s progressing very well. The member for Surrey applauds that. Indeed, it will provide incredible connections for Surrey — vast, improved efficiencies for how the different highways interact, on the Surrey side in particular, and also the traffic flow on the New Westminster side.

What’s important to stress is that that aging infrastructure, which was certainly nearing the end of its life span, had no replacement plan before we became the government. It’s now going to be completed in a couple years from now, which is very, very important. It will be, again, toll free. We’re not creating a geographic tax for people who happen to live on the affordable side of the river. We’re not doing that. Expandable to six lanes, which is great. Again, based on listening and consulting with the region and the local governments who are our partners in infrastructure replacement, because you get more done when you work together.

I think we even heard the member for Kamloops–South Thompson say that when he expressed some regrets in one of his interviews after government changed hands — that they didn’t listen to people. In the end, it didn’t really make things move faster. Forcing stupid referendums and delaying projects was not a good idea. But now we have six major projects in the works. That is fantastic.

We’ll continue to build things like…. I think I heard the member talking about EV charging stations — 10,000 by 2030. We’ll continue to work and install that kind of infrastructure. We will continue to make sure that we electrify and help electrify our ferry system in terms of climate leadership on our coast.

There’s so much good news in this budget. I could go on, as the member from the Cariboo wished he could go on as well. I share that sentiment. But I will take my place in this debate and thank you for the time to say a few words on some of the highlights of the budget.

M. Elmore: I’m very honoured to take my place and rise and speak on behalf of folks in Vancouver-Kensington, and also in my role as the Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Services and Long-Term Care.

I’d like to acknowledge that I’m speaking from the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.

I’m pleased to rise and speak in favour of our budget, Budget 2022, which makes a strong commitment to supporting people. I want to start my remarks and just acknowledge that many members from all sides have referenced the really ground-shaking and fundamental change to the global order. The terrible assault in Russia’s illegal invasion and war on the Ukraine has really shaken the world, I think — just an unprecedented, aggressive action. Certainly, the first… It really broke the Cold War, kind of, truce in Europe and really unleashed just a terrible attack on the Ukrainian people.

I join all members of the House and, I think, the world, which stands in solidarity against this blatant act of aggression, this terrible violation of human rights and violation of the Geneva Convention, where we’re seeing civilians targeted. A reported over 2,000 civilian casualties, including children, thousands injured.

[5:30 p.m.]

Bombs and missile strikes attacking residential areas, the use of illegal weapons — cluster bombs and vacuum bombs — into Ukraine. Really stand strongly in repudiating that terrible war and, also, recognizing the strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people who are resisting and, really, taking up arms defending their country, defending their homes, their families, their country and democracy.

Our government has taken steps to convey our solidarity with the Ukrainian people — halting the sale of Russian liquor products, from being sold or imported; donating $1 million to the Red Cross; working with the federal government, in terms of additional sanctions; also looking at B.C.’s land-ownership registry for Russian oligarchs.

It continues, just terrible devastation and really brings into stark contrast and a reminder and an appreciation of our democracy that we have here in British Columbia. I stand strongly in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and every day, we’ll look to support the community here, as much as we can support the people of Ukraine through this terrible time.

I want to talk about our budget, Budget 2022, and start and address seniors. We know that our budget really prioritizes and continues to build on the foundation that our government has committed to — investing in people, the services people rely on; building and strengthening communities; strengthening environmental protections; and, also, ensuring we build a sustainable economy.

I want to talk about how seniors are supported and valued in terms of our budget. We know that we are in the midst of still wrestling with the impact of two health care crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and also the poisoned drug supply, and that seniors have really borne a terrible price through the pandemic.

Coming out of the pandemic, we know that there is a lot to be rebuilt. There is a lot…. People have suffered terribly. Seniors have been isolated. Seniors and families have been isolated. It’s really fallen onto staff, particularly in long-term care and assisted living, who have really taken up the brunt in providing that support. So just a recognition to all those staff, those care providers, professionals in assisted living and long-term care and also to the families and friends who have really suffered along with them and gone above and beyond and really provided just important and critical support for seniors in our long-term-care sector.

We know that 4 percent of seniors over 65 years old live in assisted-living or long-term-care facilities, so the majority of our seniors in British Columbia live independently at home. Our government recognizes that, and there is a national and international trend, in terms of ensuring that we support seniors to live healthy and live in community as long as possible, live in their homes, and our budget reflects that, in terms of that continuing, ongoing support.

I want to just mark that March 1, yesterday, the B.C. government proclaimed the B.C. Seniors Care Providers Day in recognition of the nearly 50,000 workers who take care of B.C. seniors every day. Also, really a special occasion, the declaration coincided with the eighth annual B.C. Care Awards of the B.C. Care Providers Association. I attended. The Minister of Health attended. The member for North Vancouver–Seymour was there, and a number of members from both sides of the House as well.

Really an opportunity to recognize the great work that folks in the sector have done to support seniors. I want to thank the organization, appreciate the eighth annual B.C. Care Awards and recognize the award recipients, because I think they really hold up and really exemplify great dedication and commitment to the sector. I also thank the B.C. Care Providers Association, which organized the awards.

[5:35 p.m.]

The award winner, Maria Fain, was in the long-term care category, under the B.C. Care Provider of the Year. She’s a health care aide from Brookside Lodge. Courtney Merrells won in the assisted living category. She’s a general manager for Parkside Community. Christine Clark won in the home health category. She’s a personal care worker at Bayshore Home Health.

The Ed Helfrich Long-Service Excellence Award was won by Dave Cheperdak, the retired CEO of Broadmead Care society. Safety champion was Ionel Prodan, a maintenance worker with Victoria Heights, the Good Samaritan Society. And the inaugural Family Champion of the Year Award: Lynda Steele, who many of us know, a radio and TV broadcaster. This award was to recognize a family member or beloved companion for their role in supporting seniors in the continued care sector.

It was a very touching event and really inspiring to hear the remarks from these award winners and to meet them and hear their experiences — difficult challenges that they’ve faced in their work but really their commitment in terms of providing care and support and that companionship to seniors. Under COVID, when there were restrictions and family visits were limited, they were often the only point of contact for these seniors. Really, what came across, I think, from them is really centring seniors in terms of their quality of life in long-term care. That was very heartening, and I appreciate hearing from them.

In terms of the sector, when we look at the commitments of our government with respect to Budget ’22 supporting seniors, I think it’s important to understand the context in terms of what we’re coming out of over the last two decades and the last five years in this current budget in terms of looking to provide the important support for seniors. We know that, certainly, over the last….

A particularly important piece that’s being brought in is the repatriation of workers into the sector. We know that in 2002, the previous government had contracted out and fired these workers — dietary workers and housekeeping workers. It was a long nearly 20 years to repatriate them and bring them back into the health authority.

These workers…. We heard from them themselves in terms of being reunited with the health care team. So critical in terms of ensuring that they feel supported and that they’re part of the health care team and that their wages are raised and that they had a pension for the work that they’ve done, the critical work on the front lines, taking care of seniors. It’s nearly 20 years of that — this generation of workers who lost out on benefits, who lost out with low wages and who dedicated their lives but don’t have a pension for their retirement.

I participated in a number of these repatriation events marking those workers coming back into the health auth­orities. Our budget continues to support that, and there’s a commitment to bringing those workers back in. Initially, the first wave is coming in through Vancouver Island, and then we’ll have more across the province. That is a critical commitment.

We also made a commitment to ensuring that we raise care standards in all care homes across B.C. We know that through previous cuts…. We made a commitment to elevate to 3.6 hours of care per resident day provided, and we should hit that across the board. This is across the sector, so public, private and health authority care homes. We’re on track to meet that mark by this year, 2022. Funding continues for that to ensure that we have a minimum of three hours of direct care a day and a number of hours allocated for either therapeutic or recreational support for residents in long-term care. So that’s an important commitment.

[5:40 p.m.]

Also, in terms of the sector, long-term care, we need to…. Of course, workers are so key to ensure that seniors are cared for and that they’re part of a family. During the pandemic, we brought in the wage levelling to ensure…. We had such disparity. The system had been so broken up by underfunding through previous years. The benefit of wage levelling continues. The commitment, as well, to single-site orders or paired sites continues. That’s really contributed towards an increased quality of worklife, which we’ve heard from workers is such a benefit and also such an improvement in terms of the quality of care for seniors in their care homes.

Health care resources are also a big…. There’s a big need for that. We have a commitment to creating more training for care aides and community health workers. That continues as well. We’re looking to ensure that we have adequate staffing on hand to ensure that seniors are supported.

Our project, the health career access program, to recruit 3,000 entry-level health care workers in long-term care has been very well received. There’s a real need for workers right across the sector and right across the province. We’ve nearly met that. That’s to ensure that health care support workers are recruited and supported with education and salary supplements to support them. They’ll come out with a health care aide designation, a certificate, at the end of that.

Our government is continuing to support the majority of seniors to live healthy lives in their community. We have a number of programs to support seniors. During COVID, we had an innovation brought in — the safe seniors, strong communities program — which partnered with the United Way and, many of you know, across the communities, brought in volunteers to provide support with non-medical services. As of last year, we had over 15,000 volunteers deliver over one million services to over 31,000 seniors. That’s a very positive program.

We also have Better at Home, which supports seniors in their homes. Seniors are also supported by improving our access to primary care networks, the expansion of our urgent care centres and ensuring that they have the support in the community.

Our government has also updated and released our seniors guide, including adding nine languages to the translations to make that more accessible to seniors. That’s very popular.

We also are continuing to build and expand affordable housing, which we’ve heard is a big need — really needed across the province, in particular, for seniors. We have a number of projects that we’ve completed since 2017. We’re continuing our commitment now. There are a number that have been committed from the previous government. Currently we’ve completed 26 designated seniors housing projects since 2017, and we have an additional 24 dedicated seniors housing projects underway right across the province in all communities to really address and support the need for affordable housing for seniors.

In addition, we have the Shelter Aid For Elderly Renters, SAFER, program — this is for seniors, nearly 25,000 seniors, who are in the private market to support them with their rents; and also the rebate for accessible home adaptations program, to allow seniors and people with permanent disabilities to renovate their homes. The commitment to those programs continues.

A really important partnership, in terms of our healthy aging program, is with our community-based seniors services right across the province. This includes seniors centres, neighbourhood houses, community centres, community coalitions, ethnocultural organizations and multi­service profit agencies. They’re an important component in terms of providing that support.

[5:45 p.m.]

Often there’s a challenge in terms of…. We see that there’s the changing nature of society — that families are becoming smaller and neighbours don’t necessarily know each other as well. So it’s important to partner with these community organizations that really provide that network and have that presence in the community. They really have the heart to deliver these services.

We also are prioritizing the important role of First Nations families and communities, because seniors and Elders play an important role. We are following on and committed to implementing the recommendations of In Plain Sight, the report that found that Indigenous health practices and knowledge are not integrated into the health system. So we continue to move forward with that commitment, and those are important commitments.

In terms of elder abuse, we know that that’s a challenge, so we are continuing to fund and expand funding for the community response network, which is a great network of organizations right across the province. These are folks that are integrated in the community, on the ground — individuals, organizations, agencies — often from health authorities, not-for-profit, police, that work together at the community level to promote a coordinated community response to adult abuse and neglect. They do terrific work, and they’re continuing to expand. I want to thank and appreciate them for the great work that they do, the important work that they do.

We also know that there’s an important need for new beds and investment in infrastructure. That’s the part of our budget that has the largest infrastructure commitment in the history of British Columbia. Included in that is a commitment to new public beds and a commitment towards ending multi-bed rooms in long-term-care home. That continues to be underway.

As well, we’ve heard that there was a question of what’s in the budget for seniors. There are very clear commitments, and in addition, we’ve also doubled the amount for the seniors supplement, which hadn’t seen an increase over ten years — so from $49 to nearly $98, $99. That seniors supplement for low-income seniors has been doubled.

In addition, in terms of supporting seniors, we have funding in health care to support timely access to surgeries and services, like MRIs, and improve ambulance wait times and response times by hiring front-line staff. These are particularly some of the issues — as well, a commitment for $100 million in the fiscal plan from the community housing fund to help create mixed-income rentals faster, which will also benefit low-income seniors.

I want to talk, as well, about…. Those are clear commit­ments in terms of supporting seniors in our budget, but our budget continues to build on the foundation of our commitment to invest in people, to support services that people need, in recognizing that we’ve come out not only.… We’re still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the midst and in the grips of the terrible poisoned drug supply.

We’ve come out of, certainly, the last number of years, really seeing firsthand the impact of climate change and climate disasters. The previous speaker, the Minister of Transportation, outlined a number of the steps dealing with the damage to infrastructure, building back better and building back with more resilient infrastructure. Certainly, that’s an important commitment.

I want to speak, as well, to some of the aspects, in particular, that benefit — that I’ve heard from folks in Vancouver-Kensington. Certainly, the issue of child care resonates. Speakers have mentioned that after rent, child care was often the second-largest budget item for families. Our commitment to continue to build a quality, accessible and affordable child care system continues.

[5:50 p.m.]

It’s not something that we can do overnight, but we’re certainly making progress towards that, and our commitment continues. It’s something that we have to build on. We’ve invested over $2 billion in the first three years and continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars.

Parents have saved hundreds of millions of dollars to date through fee reductions and benefits. We’ve funded nearly 26,000 new spaces, the fastest creation in B.C.’s history. There are a number of components in terms of addressing child care as well. We need spaces. We need affordable spaces. We need to ensure that fees are supplemented. We need to ensure that early childhood educators…. There are spots. There’s been expansion for them to be trained as well as a wage supplement for early childhood educators, often one of the lowest-paid…. All these components as well as bursaries for students pursuing a career in child care.

In addition, the Minister of State for Child Care has done a great job in supporting child care centres, with $320 million over the pandemic to support 4,500 child care centres. The efforts to continue to build and expand our child care commitment, partnering with the federal government, continues, and those are important commitments.

We know, as well, that in terms of addressing some of the challenges we see…. Besides child care and costs for families, we know that the expansion and access to health care through our new urgent and primary care centres is critical. I’ll be joining the opening of a centre in South Vancouver, I believe next week — coming soon. That’ll be appreciated, certainly, in my community.

We also have a commitment to expand First Nations primary care centres through B.C., in terms of our commitment around reconciliation. We also have a very aggressive approach to dealing with our homelessness crisis and are rolling out a complex care housing model, which is the first of its kind, to over 20 sites throughout British Columbia.

Those are important commitments, and we look forward to that to really make a difference to supporting folks who have multiple issues, either with mental health issues or addiction issues, to ensure that they’re supported with housing and also have medical supports and counselling supports to support them where they haven’t been successful in previous housing options.

When we look at moving forward, what do we need to do to be able to adapt to the changing climate? Our commitment to being able to respond to climate-related disasters by moving the B.C. Wildfire Service to a proactive, year-round model is going to be key and, I think, an important commitment to looking at how we manage our forests around the year, not just during fire season, when the fires are raging.

When I was a student, I was a forest fire fighter. Many, many students fulfilled those roles, but we need professionals who will stay year round and also do the work that’s needed to partner with communities, partner with First Nations in managing our forests and also being proactive in terms of dealing with wildfires.

We know, as well, that a strong economy and opportunities for British Columbians are going to be key. We have a number of folks expected to retire in the baby boomer age cohort, estimated up to one million jobs over the next few years. That’s going to require British Columbians to have opportunities we’ve expanded. I’m very pleased with our B.C. economic plan, which is looking to ensure that British Columbians are trained with the skills and have the opportunity to fulfil those roles. Certainly that’s appreciated from folks in Vancouver-Kensington.

[5:55 p.m.]

I know that our commitment continues, as well, to provide opportunities to British Columbians to reduce fees to make it more affordable. It’s been referenced, as well, that our government gave free tuition to adult basic education, which is important in terms of ensuring the continuity to support young people to complete high school; to support them for different circumstances; to be able to, if they need to complete adult basic educa­tion, go on to post-secondary. So really looking at that continuum of opportunity and support through our post-secondary system is crucial, and a real commitment towards British Columbians.

We know, as well, that there are challenges ahead. British Columbians, working together, will…. We’ve persisted. British Columbia enjoys one of the highest vaccination rates across Canada and also, really, around the world. It’s been a tough go. I’m looking forward to it opening up. We went to the first event with the B.C. care providers awards. So looking forward to more activities.

I know that businesses are also appreciating that. Businesses have been very hard-hit, as well. In Vancouver-Kensington, the South Hill Business Improvement Association and the Victoria Drive Business Improvement Association have been very active in supporting local businesses. Our government remains committed to our Buy B.C. and also Shop Local initiatives, so really seeing the benefits of those programs, as well.

I see that I’m coming to the end of my time here. I just want to start to wrap things up. It always goes…. It just flies by, in terms of speaking about the budget.

I’m really pleased about our continued commitment, ensuring that we take steps to address affordability issues, support public services for British Columbians, take steps to ensure that we’re proactive in meeting the climate emergencies that are coming our way. Also, really looking to the future, in terms of ensuring that British Columbians have opportunities in our future economy, which is based in innovation. We’ve had, also, a recent announcement of, really, the increase in our life sciences sector, which is a real centre for innovation. That’s really the future of British Columbia.

I’m very proud to speak in favour of the budget, proud of the work that our government is doing, proud of the work that I’m involved in, supporting seniors. I look forward to continuing that great work every day. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to the budget.

Deputy Speaker: The member for Coquitlam–Burke Mountain seeks leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

F. Donnelly: I just want to indulge the House with a member of our community, my community of Coquitlam, who is in the gallery. Adel Gamar is with us. Adel is from Coquitlam. He’s got a lovely family. He is the CEO and co-founder of GLG. He’s a leadership coach. He’s an adjunct professor at UBC’s Sauder School.

He’s also extremely active in our community. He is the chair of the board of governors at Douglas College, and he’s also a member of the chamber of commerce. He’s extremely active.

I just ask the House to welcome Adel Gamar.

Deputy Speaker: Indeed, welcome.

Debate Continued

Hon. M. Rankin: It’s an honour to represent the people of Oak Bay–Gordon Head as I respond to Budget 2022.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

I would be remiss, however, before I begin, if I didn’t follow the lead of my colleague from Vancouver-Kensington and acknowledge the terrible suffering of the Ukrainian people. The whole world is watching. I can tell you that there are hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians that are glued to their TV sets, to their screens, to their newspapers, watching the atrocities that are occurring in all different parts of that wonderful country.

[6:00 p.m.]

I have a great personal connection, my spouse. Her family is of Ukrainian descent. I can tell you that there is a lot of concern throughout my riding, and of course, throughout my family, as in so many families across British Columbia.

I had the honour to attend a rally this past weekend here at the Legislature with the Ukrainian-Canadian community, in a sense of solidarity that we haven’t seen around this place for an awfully long time. It was very, very moving to be part of that. A number of my constituents were there as well, and I’m so proud to represent them.

I think it’s a truism in politics — attributed to the famous Tip O’Neill, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives — that all politics is local. So perhaps you will forgive me if I initially address, in my remarks, matters affecting my community of Oak Bay–Gordon Head and, in the second part of my remarks, turn to my role as Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and address the issues in the budget that affect that ministry and the Indigenous population of our province.

I represent a unique riding. It consists of Oak Bay, yes, but also a part of Saanich and a part of the municipality of Victoria. There are so many things in this budget that affect them — capital projects and other matters I want to talk about today. I’m very, very proud. I like to say that I am the ambassador for the University of Victoria and the ambassador for Camosun College in this place. There’s so much in this budget…. [Applause.]

I see that I have a proud University of Victoria graduate with me today and, of course, another member who hails from Gordon Head, another critically important part of my riding. I appreciate their support, because there’s so much here that they should support. This budget is going to make an enormous difference in so many areas that I don’t know quite where to start.

Let me start with the meeting I had last week with the president of the University of Victoria, Mr. Kevin Hall, and the mayor of Saanich, Fred Haynes. At that meeting, we were talking about medical technology, and we were talking about our economic plan, just what we’re doing on medical technology and the fact that this budget is putting real money to build on a matter of strength in our economy — things that can create jobs for the future, help solve some of the medical challenges that the whole world needs.

Here we have people who are poised to do that, right in my community. Why do I say that? Well, the president of the University of Victoria is a Canadian who went to Australia and was responsible for taking a steel town, Newcastle, and turning it into a medical technology hub. The mayor was saying: “This sounds great. How can we do that?”

Combined with our government, there’s great interest in trying to bring that together in our community. I’m confident that that’s going to occur. Just as, of course, some enormous medical strides have taken place at the University of British Columbia, we have — to use the expression — the same ecosystem here in Victoria that’ll help us along the same path. I’m very, very proud of that work.

I want to start my remarks, perhaps, more on the environmental side, because I follow in the footsteps of my friend, the former leader of the B.C. Green Party, Dr. Andrew Weaver — who has, I think, shown international leadership on the issue of climate change. He has, of course, supported enthusiastically our initiatives on climate change, including the Roadmap to 2030.

One of the things in this budget that…. It builds on a $2.3 billion funding for CleanBC that’s happened to date but adds more than $1 billion in new funding for CleanBC and for the Roadmap to 2030 — initiatives, of course, that Dr. Weaver was proud to help the government create.

What does this mean on the ground in Oak Bay? Well, I may have this figure wrong, but I believe we have the highest concentration of electric vehicles, ZEVs as they’re called, anywhere in Canada. I know British Columbia has the highest, but I’m told that per capita, Oak Bay has the highest. I can’t guarantee that is true — put that on the record — but you sure see a lot of them around the streets of Oak Bay and Saanich these days. With that, they have provided some significant exemptions from PST for people who purchase these electric cars, zero-emission vehicles, effective now and until 2027.

[6:05 p.m.]

There’s a motor fuel tax exemption for use of hydrogen, should that be increasing in use in internal combustion engines, to encourage more hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. There has been $79 million in the budget to continue the go electric program to provide rebates for electric vehicle charging stations.

Now, I pause there. I had a very old Subaru. In fact, it was 20 years old when I sold it and gave it to the SCRAP-IT program. I got a little bit of a rebate. I also was successful in getting a rebate from B.C. Hydro to install a charging station. So I myself have joined the ZEV revolution. We now have our very first electric car. It is incredible. I just want to say to those watching: if there’s an opportunity to convert, it’s just extraordinary.

The government is encouraging that behaviour through PST exemptions, through help with the SCRAP-IT program and through the kinds of things I mentioned in terms of creating a charging station. All this is to the good, and all that is made possible through the work of this government.

I also am a person who likes to bike to work. We have made grants totalling $30 million to local governments to improve active transportation infrastructure like bike lanes and multi-use pathways. People in our community are so proud of the Lochside Trail and the Galloping Goose Trail. It’s a world-class destination for bike tourists now. I hear of a lot of people coming here. There are bed-and-breakfasts that are built around that infrastructure that we’re creating.

Now, I’d be the first to admit that not everybody in Victoria is a great fan of the bike lanes in downtown. I would lie to you if I said that they were universally applauded by taxi drivers and drivers at large. However, if you do bike to work, they have changed people’s lives. To be able to bike at any time of the day and not encounter a car, which is my experience in biking to work with my e-bike, is just extraordinary.

I go along a street which is virtually devoid of cars. It’s a new street, Richardson Avenue, that has been turned largely to biking. Then I hit Vancouver Street: all bike lanes, all the way to the Legislature, just a tiny little bit where I’m not totally separated from cars. If more people were aware of just how revolutionary that is — how there’s no concern anymore about being hit by a car — I think more people would take advantage of this enormous infrastructure that our government is supporting through these kinds of grants that are in the current budget. I salute the city of Victoria for what they’ve done to make that happen.

I am very, very proud of the part of the budget that deals with our climate change commitments. I know I could talk a lot more about the $1 billion plus in new funding and what difference it will make in so many areas, such as clean buildings and the PST exemption on heat pumps. I didn’t want to do that. I simply wanted to say that there is a lot of anxiety in our community. I’ve had a parent come who identified for me a serious anxiety among the younger generation — her children are in high school — due to the fear about what’s happening to our climate.

Can there be anyone in British Columbia who doesn’t believe in climate change after we’ve seen what happened in the wildfires and the flooding, etc.? We know we have lots of work to do, but we also have a government that’s committed to work in that direction. We will continue to do what we can to make this planet just a little bit safer and to relieve some of that anxiety that, as I say, I know many, many of my constituents are facing.

There’s something else, before I forget, that I really wanted to address: the fact that we have, in this budget, restored funding to 50 sexual assault centres. I was a Member of Parliament for seven years, and I worked closely with the people at the Greater Victoria Sexual Assault Centre. Currently, the executive director is Elijah Zimmerman. They do incredibly important work.

People need to be aware that in 2002, the former B.C. Liberal government eliminated core funding for sexual assault centres and community-based victim assistance programs, like rape-crisis and violence-in-relationships programs. This government has made a different choice. This government has restored funding for 50 sexual assault centres in this budget, and I could not be prouder. That is making a difference, a real difference, in women’s lives.

[6:10 p.m.]

We have some serious problems in Oak Bay–Gordon Head, like any other part of the province, but one of the serious problems, if I were to catalogue the most frequent issues that come to my attention in my constituency office, is concern about access to medical professionals. It’s concern about access to GPs. It’s concern about access to nurses and nurse practitioners.

We are trying to do things differently. This is a problem that is multifaceted. Anybody who tells you they have a magic bullet to solve this problem is not telling you the truth. It’s multi-pronged, and it will take a comprehensive strategy to address it. Our government is doing that.

I think most fair-minded British Columbians would say our Minister of Health and Dr. Bonnie Henry and the public health team have done extraordinary work in navigating us, I hope, soon, to the end of this world pandemic. I think that’s something British Columbia should be proud of. Our economy didn’t suffer nearly to the degree of other provinces, and that’s a fact. Yet at the same time, we’ve managed to get wait times back from surgeries to where they were before.

We’ve really come through this with glowing colours, and I think a certain amount of credit must be given to our Minister of Health and all of the hard-working health care professionals that have collaborated in that regard. But we have so much more to do. We have an aging population. We have people moving here from other parts of the province, other provinces of Canada and, of course, from abroad. We need to continue to invest in making our health care system the world-class system that it is.

I have never met a constituent — and I represent Royal Jubilee Hospital as well — either in my role as Member of Parliament or, currently, as MLA for Oak Bay–Gordon Head, who hasn’t had extraordinarily positive things to say about their experience in the cancer centre and at the Royal Jubilee Hospital. We have world-class doctors there. One of the best cardiology centres around. We have a cancer centre that is doing cutting-edge, international work in aspects of immunology and other cancer care treatment.

We also have dedicated health care workers, and I would be remiss if I didn’t this take this moment to say what every British Columbian I know believes — that we have some of the best workers and the most compassionate, dedicated health care workers in the world that work here. What they’ve done in getting us through this pandemic — I hope that’s the correct grammar to use — is extraordinary. We all owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.

In this budget, even though 40 percent or so of it’s dedicated to health care, we’ve added another $3.2 billion over the next three years to build an even stronger health and mental health care system for British Columbians. So it’s gone from $23.8 billion to $27 billion by 2024-2025. We’re building hospitals. We’re building urgent and primary care centres, including six on Vancouver Island and an additional ten by 2024-2025.

We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to be able to meet the needs of the aging population and new arrivals in our community. There is nobody denying that challenge, but we’re facing it head-on with these urgent and primary care centres, in an effort to attract more general practitioners and nurses.

I had the opportunity to sit down in my house just last week with Dr. Alex Kilpatrick, who is a recent graduate practising medicine here in the community. He was just trying to explain to me all of the multifaceted reasons I referred to why finding a GP is so complicated at the current time. But he’s optimistic. He believes things are going to get better.

One of the things we did was create 620 new nurse seats in our B.C. colleges. What that means to my riding is five new nurse practitioner seats at the University of Victoria, and 16 new seats at Camosun College. These are the things we’re making, step-by-step, to make lives a little bit better. To my constituents who may be watching, I acknowledge the problem. I know it’s a significant one, and we’re working hard to deal with it. I hope we have some specific news about that in the weeks to come in my riding.

Capital infrastructure is a significant part of this budget. I think I’ve said how proud I am of the University of Victoria. It’s become a world-class institution. I’d like to say how good it has gotten since I left. Taught there for many years.

[6:15 p.m.]

I was so proud to go with the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training to the University of Victoria to provide a cheque, a cheque for $90 million. Not the kind of cheques I give out every day, I admit. It was actually the minister who gave that cheque. I was there to simply smile and observe with pride the fact that $90 million was given for the expansion of the engineering and computer science building and the construction of a new engineering laboratory building, supporting 500 additional tech-related seats for students in computer science and the engineering program. I can tell you how revolutionary that is for the University of Victoria.

Everybody knows that 80 percent of the new jobs that will be created in our economy will require some kind of post-secondary education. The ecosystem — which is what the tech world uses to describe what happens when you create an investment like that. Then students go off and become start-ups, and then they work in companies. Sadly, they sometimes sell their business for billions of dollars and move away. We’re trying to stop that from happening.

The success stories in Victoria are legion in the tech sector. Many of those people got their start at the University of Victoria in computing science or in other programs.

The owner of a start-up called FreshWorks is a student who came from India with his friend. They slept on beds in student dormitories. They ended up in just like tiny little apartments, paying little rent in basement suites. They got a start, got a degree in business, and they went into the start-up business. These apps. All about apps. They’ve created apps all over the world. They’ve taken that business, and they have a big building in downtown Victoria. I think they have 40 different nations represented in their workforce. That started at UVic.

I could go on with a dozen examples like this. It’s not just about students and the quality of the experience they have in learning the skills of the 21st century right here in Victoria; it’s what they do to take it beyond that and to make jobs for others and to attract workers from all over the world to this wonderful part of the planet. As I say, I could go on and on with stories, but I always find FreshWorks to be one that gives me goosebumps to think about.

In addition to the engineering school, we also have in Education the Cedar Hill Middle School, where 575 students will attend a new LEED gold-level middle school through the seismic mitigation program. That will support, I think, a $46.5 million investment into the greater Victoria school district’s investment of $3.6 million. It’ll be completed in 2025. Just outside the boundaries of my riding, I have to acknowledge that, but I was so excited about that, I had to get it out there.

At Camosun College, we’re investing, helping them with creating a sound stage for a film studio that will be put on the Interurban campus of Camosun — something we promised during the campaign. I remember how excited people were in the film industry.

The fact is, I’m told, that if you don’t have a film studio to do inside shots, you can’t take advantage of all that work that is going to Vancouver. Nothing wrong with that. But to do movies and made-for-TV productions and Netflix and all of that, if we have a sound stage, we can get a share of that work here in Victoria, which creates many, many, many jobs, as you know. That work is under way. The municipality of Saanich is excited about supporting it from a land-use point of view, as are the workers who, of course, will benefit in so many different ways.

Now, I have to say one other thing, Madam Speaker, at the University of Victoria, if you’ll forgive me if I dwell on this. You know, we have created 621 net new beds for two student-housing buildings at the University of Victoria. I encourage people to go around the Ring and see this amazing new building. Passive solar. Environmental standards that are remarkable.

I have to say that this is about choices, creating these kind of housing initiatives on our campuses. The former B.C. Liberal government decided they could not do this. It was explained to me that the universities are what are called GREs, government reporting entities, that have to show up on the books. If you build student housing on a university campus, on the balance sheet it looks like a liability.

[6:20 p.m.]

Therefore, the government was so concerned over all those years about their balanced budget that they wouldn’t take that risk, even though there is a captive market of students who are there. Money is going to come immediately, and there’s little…. If there’s any risk, I don’t understand what it would be, but they were still reluctant.

In 16 years, if you can believe this, the B.C. Liberals built only 130 beds of student housing. We created 5,800. We are creating 5,800 student housing beds that are currently constructed or underway, and 621 of them are in my riding, at the University of Victoria. That is about choices. Those facts are unassailable.

I would like to turn now, if I may — I don’t want to take the entire time talking about my constituency, but I explained at the outset why I felt that was the appropriate way to proceed — about the commitments that are made in Budget 2022 for Indigenous peoples. One of things that the government, members of all sides of the House, committed to was the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, an historic commitment that was achieved in December 2019.

One of the things that was in my mandate letter, which has been delivered now, through this budget, is the creation of a secretariat — $12 million-plus over three years to deal with the alignment-of-laws issue that is a commitment in section 3 of the Declaration Act. That work is underway, and that secretariat will soon be staffed in order to do that important work. It means aligning laws that are currently on the books — for ex­ample, the Heritage Conservation Act has been around for a long time and is the subject of great controversy — as well as all the way from existing laws to new laws, new bills that are coming forward.

How can we effectively engage as required by the new law in a way that involves cooperation and consultation with Indigenous peoples? The secretariat will help us along that journey, the first time in Canadian history that that has occurred. I realize the federal government is now embarked on a similar journey.

There are so many other things in the budget. Our budget for the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation increased, but there were also things like First Nations primary health care centres that were created. Up to 15 of these are contemplated in the budget to be created in consultation with the First Nations Health Authority.

There was also funding for Indigenous-led emergency management in First Nation communities. I think most people acknowledge that First Nation communities are disproportionately impacted by our flooding and the wildfires that have occurred and the climate emergency. So their involvement in emergency management is critical, so $90 million has been provided in community grants in 2021-2022 to complete FireSmart initiatives and fuel management activities to make communities safer. I am confident that’s going to make a significant difference.

Speaking of climate change, Indigenous-led climate change initiatives are also contemplated in the budget, with up to $83 million to expand climate-monitoring networks, support Indigenous-led initiatives to build climate adaptation capacity and to develop an extreme heat res­ponse framework. There is much more of that in the budget for those important initiatives.

The Aboriginal Head Start program, building on what happened in the last budget, is an investment of $11 million to support this program, which provides culturally based, inclusive child care, early learning and family bonding opportunities for Indigenous children.

One of the things that I think is really important…. There are 204 First Nations in British Columbia, many of them living in remote communities, as you well know. Connectivity is so central to their future. I’m so pleased that $289 million in new funding has been provided over the next five years to address the important issue of expanding high-speed Internet access throughout the province, much of which will, of course, benefit Indigenous communities that are remote. So I was very, very pleased.

[6:25 p.m.]

I had an opportunity to spend some time today with the First Nations Leadership Council. I was talking to Robert Phillips of the First Nations Summit, who said about this particular initiative that it was something that would make a significant difference to his world. I was so grateful that he spoke out publicly about that. He said, among other things: “We’re talking a lot of laws and legislation that happens every year, so I think this will help with the capacity to move things along.”

I want to say that he said, specifically about this critical investment, that it was something that…. He said: “I used to live in Kamloops, and…you’ll be driving on a highway to the reserve. You watch the bars on the cellphone going from four to five to one…if you’re lucky. So I think this high-speed Internet and cell service is so important.” I couldn’t agree more. He said that these critical investments will help the prosperity of all. I thank him for that initiative.

Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations welcomed the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, he said, which has committed resources toward economic rebuilding and recovery and reconciliation. He characterized it as a good beginning. I’m not suggesting it’s the be-all and end-all, but it’s obviously a step in the direction we all want to take toward reconciliation. There is so much there that will make a difference to Indigenous lives.

I singled out the issue of connectivity because I do know how important that will be.

I can’t help but circle back to the University of Victoria one last time, when I say that $46 million over the fiscal plan period is being available to deal with Indigenous justice centres and also creating a national centre for Indigenous laws at the University of Victoria, where $27 million will be provided to help the Fraser law building become the world’s first joint degree in Indigenous legal orders and Canadian common law as well as the Indigenous law research unit.

This is an enormous, enormous achievement. It’s never been done before. Some said that it was not a sensible thing to do. I think that’s been proven wrong already. Connecting two different legal orders with the legal scholarship that exists at the University of Victoria, the world-class expertise that is there, I think will make a great difference in terms of the alignment of our laws. The fact that this centre is at UVic is a source of enormous pride in my community.

I mentioned Indigenous justice centres, but $12 million is being provided to continue digitizing justice services that started during COVID. The idea is to deal with online traffic court, virtual bail and even a virtual justice centre, as we move with the times in that regard as well.

I could talk about the implications of the budget for housing, for skills training — some of the forest initiatives were there — for early childhood education, for health care and for economic development.

I just want to say, by way of conclusion, we have come an awfully long way. We have an awfully long way to go. This journey toward reconciliation won’t be solved in one year or one budget. But I think a fair-minded reading of this budget would demonstrate that there’s a significant commitment — all of government, everyone’s mandate letter — to address the serious gaps in outcomes for Indigenous people and to try to put us in a better place as we go forward as a province.

I think the budget, in my community, has already made an enormous difference and will continue to make an enormous difference as the investments I described, the capital projects, bear fruit over the next few years. I’m very, very proud to be of a government that’s making different choices than the government before and, I hope, will continue to move us to a better place as a community.

Hon. A. Kang: Thank you so much to the previous speaker, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, for spending 20 minutes of his 30-minute budget speech to really talk about how wonderful advanced education is. It is certainly a topic that I am very, very passionate about. The wonderful things that are happening in his community, with the University of Victoria and Camosun College, with trades…. It is just so fantastic. I’m happy to be standing in the House today to share that excitement with everyone.

I would like to recognize that I am speaking today on the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋin̓əŋ-speaking peo­ple, including the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations.

[6:30 p.m.]

I speak in support of Budget 2022. I am heartened by the uplifting vision of my constituents and colleagues and the vision that we have for British Columbia in this budget. That positive vision, coupled with the care and commitment to supporting and strengthening our communities, is defining us. We can all agree that British Columbians have endured and persevered, stepped up and continue to show that we are strong and we are resilient, and we are strong because of our diversity.

I’m honoured to be part of a government that is deeply dedicated to supporting British Columbians through hard times. I’m equally honoured to be part of a government that is deeply dedicated to supporting British Columbians as we continue to lay a foundation of a prosperous and brighter future.

Budget 2022 is about making life better for all British Columbians and strengthening their prospects in a strong economy that is fair and just, with equal opportunities for all of us. That is why there is funding for many things, which includes more economic recovery initiatives, more public post-secondary capital projects and seat expansions, more health care–related education, more micro-credentials and skilled trades certification. I am so proud of all these initiatives and so many, many more.

I will begin by talking about my constituency and the city that I represent, Burnaby–Deer Lake. Budget 2022 provides record capital spending levels that will strengthen B.C.’s economic recovery and support new opportunities across the province. By building environmental, social and economic planning directly into capital investments, we are ensuring a future where all British Columbians have the opportunity to thrive.

Over the next three years, total capital spending will create one million well-paying good jobs and create employment opportunities and apprentice training opportunities across British Columbia. As the MLA for Burnaby–Deer Lake, I’m proud to be able to continue to advocate on behalf of my constituents to make their lives more affordable. I’m proud that our government will be spending $6.7 million in Burnaby to build 61 new affordable homes for individuals, low-income families, seniors and seniors with disabilities.

I’m also happy to see that in this budget, it provides $22.3 million of investment into a Burnaby school that I know very well, Stride Avenue Elementary School. This will support students and communities and will create and support 161 jobs.

Health care matters to all of us. Budget 2022 delivers for Burnaby residents’ New Vista long-term-care facility. I know New Vista long-term-care facility does great work for the seniors in the community, and I want to say thank you so much to New Vista. This facility reaffirms our commitment to seniors and will provide them better care.

As well, when we look at transportation in Burnaby, we have four transportation corridors — the Metrotown station, Edmonds station, Brentwood station and Lougheed station. We have built livable, walkable communities around these community hubs. Our government understands how important these hubs are. Our government understands how important transportation is to everyone living around the area.

I am so happy to see this budget provides for upgrades to improve services and increase station capacity at the Brentwood SkyTrain station to meet the needs of users and the growing community that we see there. This is exciting news for Burnaby, and this is very exciting news for everyone who loves to shop at Brentwood Mall as well.

This budget also provides for and supports students and strengthens the foundation that this government continues to build for post-secondary institutions. Just a couple of weeks ago, to meet the growing demand for skilled tradespeople in B.C., our government announced $136.6 million in funding for the BCIT trades and technology complex. This is something that we’re really excited about. This project will modernize the tools and learning spaces for more than 20 trade-related programs, serving thousands of students each year.

[6:35 p.m.]

We know how important trades are to British Columbia, as they build British Columbia and offer the services that we need. As the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training, I am very excited by the work that my ministry is doing. I’m excited to continue delivering results that make a positive impact and keep the future of our province safe, supported and successful.

B.C. has some of the highest-quality post-secondary institutions and programs in the country. I am just so proud of the achievements that our post-secondary institutions offer. Our government is supporting this and supporting them by investing in new and expanded buildings on their campuses throughout the province to solidify our collective future opportunities.

With $1.9 billion in planned capital expenses in the post-secondary sector over the next three years, our government can and will deliver high-quality educational experiences to students in our province while ensuring that they can live and learn near home. For many years, B.C.’s post-secondary institutions were unsupported, with the needs of staff, faculty and students unmet and remaining unmet for far too long. But our government is doing things differently.

Our budgets have turned a large ship to the right direction. And now with this budget, we can move full steam ahead. I am just so proud to be the Minister of Advanced Education to support the learning of our future learners, our future workers, and for those who want to upskill and re-skill themselves — providing them that opportunity.

Together with post-secondary investments, Budget 2022 will help us meet our goal of adding 8,000 new student beds by 2028. While the former government only built 130 student housing beds in their entire time in office, we’re doing things differently. We’re investing in student housing so that they have a place they can call home, so that we can provide affordability and accessibility throughout their educational lives.

We are a government that acts, and our numbers show that. New student housing can be found at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with 533 new beds, Coast Mountain College in Terrace with 108 beds, College of the Rockies in Cranbrook with 100 beds, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby with 386 beds and UBC Okanagan in Kelowna with 220 beds.

More student housing is on the way: UVic with 621 beds, as the minister previously said, BCIT with 469 beds, Okanagan College with 376 and Selkirk College with 148 beds. We’ll continue to work on the successes of building student beds and making sure that education is affordable and accessible for students.

These are just some of the successes, and there are more to come. We have already funded more than 6,000 student beds throughout British Columbia, as our post-secondary institutions as our partners. I am proud that we’re bringing affordability back to the province and relieving pressure from the rental markets. This is a government that knows how to act and has a budget that reflects the values of British Columbians — like reconciliation.

Our government is committed to reconciliation, and that commitment extends to the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training. We are supporting the building of culturally sensitive spaces in our post-secondary institutions. And when we talk about student housing, many, many of the student housing capital projects have Elder suites inside. We see beautiful Indigenous art. We see culturally sensitive spaces for Indigenous students. And that’s just one of our commitments.

We’re also removing barriers so Indigenous learners can have more opportunities, better experiences and can complete post-secondary education and skills training. We’re investing in Indigenous language revitalization and working to implement the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

We are investing in the provincial tuition waiver program for former youth in care and expanding its eligibility to ensure that they have access to all 25 public post-secondary institutions and Native Education College. We’re also increasing program capacity, ensuring more students can access the programs they are interested in. We’re also increasing….

[6:40 p.m.]

These are only a few programs that I’ve mentioned, and there are more programs. I’m looking forward to sharing more of these programs and the stories that students share with me in the days to come and the benefits that they also would bring to our students here in British Columbia, as well as Indigenous peoples.

Now, next I’d like to talk a little bit about our expansion in nursing. COVID-19 has reminded us how vital our health care system is and how essential nurses are. I want to, first and foremost, say thank you to all the health care workers and thank you to the nurses, doctors and front-line workers for all the work that they have been doing during the pandemic.

Our health care workers, provincewide, have played a very critical role in caring for all of us through the most challenging times that we have seen in many of our lives. Our government’s highest priority is supporting British Columbians’ health care workforce.

We’ve recently announced that we’re adding 604 more nursing seats on top of the 2,000 seats that already exist. We’re also training more health care assistants through the health career access program, an innovative work-integrated learning partnership with the Ministry of Health.

I’ve had the opportunity to speak with students who are enrolled in this program. They talk about how excited they are to work, to learn and to earn at the same time; the opportunity that it is for them, to be able to access this program without the burden of having a very heavy tuition; as well, all the subsequent endeavours that they can do with this particular program — that they can begin contributing back to their community, work in long-term-care homes, eventually becoming an LPN.

They were all very excited, and they were hoping that this funding would continue, because they know their friends also want to be a part of this program. As of January 2022, close to 2,500 workers are in training or have been trained through this program since its inception. Budgets are about choices, and we are working to ensure workers get good-paying, steady work and that British Columbians get the care that they need, when and where they need it.

Another key part of building a secure future for British Columbians is providing our children with the best start in life. High child care costs can rob children of early learning opportunities and keep parents from pursuing a job of their dreams and providing for their families. I want to take this opportunity to thank all early childhood educators — I know I’m stumbling a little bit — because I remember how wonderful my child care providers were to my two kids. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to be a full-time and working mom as well.

Early childhood educators are skilled professionals who care for children at the most important time of their lives. Quality child care can’t be delivered without them, so thank you so much to all the child care providers out there. That is why our work to build a strong, high-quality child care workforce continues.

Over the last three years, we have doubled the number of available seats for people to train for the vital work of nurturing early childhood learning and development. As part of this plan, we have created 1,150 new spaces for early childhood education students. We’re also working towards improved training and wages for early childhood educators.

Next I’d like to talk about our tech and trades, something that I’m very passionate on and very proud of. The new labour market outlook offers a very exciting picture of our future. It is a go-to resource for British Columbians seeking career opportunities and also for businesses in our diverse and innovative economy. It is hopeful because we expect more than one million job openings throughout B.C. by 2031. That’s just in the next ten years. Nearly 80 percent of these jobs will need post-secondary education or training. We are ready, and we are committed to providing British Columbians with affordable, accessible and relevant post-secondary education.

[6:45 p.m.]

The labour market outlook has projected that education and health care, as well as technology and trades, are high-growth, high-demand and high-opportunity areas. We are committed to ensuring that learners are equipped to meet and seize these job opportunities within the next decade. Like our nursing and early childhood education investments, we are working on adding more tech-related seats and new training seats for current and aspiring tradespeople.

Our post-secondary system produces world-class talent that supports a booming tech sector and opens doors to good-paying jobs and a diversified economy. We know that there are so many young people who want to be part of this opportunity, but we also know that there are others who would like to re-skill and upskill, and be part of this economy.

Before 2017, there had been no significant investment in tech spaces for more than a decade. Our government set out to invigorate the sector and are succeeding. We launched a graduate student scholarship fund. We continue to provide awards to inspire a new generation of women to pursue tech careers, and we continue to add more tech spaces. In 2021-22, we funded more than 2,600 student spaces in tech programming at institutions throughout the province, and we will reach a total of 2,900 funded tech-related spaces by 2023.

Equally important are our tradespeople. By 2023, B.C. can expect approximately 85,000 new job openings for workers in trades occupations. This is another piece of exciting news. Tradespeople are building British Columbia, making our province even stronger and even better.

Just a few weeks ago the province provided an additional $5 million to the Industry Training Authority, the ITA, so that more trades workers across B.C. can start an apprenticeship or upgrade their skills. This funding supports apprentices re-entering or completing apprenticeship training in the mechanical, electrical and automotive trades included in the skilled trades certification. This funding supports the hiring of five additional apprenticeship advisers, and this will now be a total of 25 across the province.

This is good news. This is good news for people who want to enter the trades. This is good news for people who want to be supported and complete a trade. This is good news for British Columbia. Our economic resilience is dependent on this future workforce, which is why our government is keen on making sure that people can access skills training and complete their apprenticeships.

We also want tradespeople to be able to count on having good, family-supporting jobs with good pay and steady work. We’re improving training and securing trades jobs through a new skilled trades certification system. A skilled trades certification system closes the skill gaps between our tradespeople and those in other provinces. It means that our tradespeople will have the credentials they need to get their next job, because we know that the downtime between projects means high vulnerability. It means lost wages. It means tough times for families.

As the Minister of Finance mentioned, preparing B.C.’s workforce is a generation-defining challenge and an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to fortify a healthy economic plan for British Columbia through long-standing jobs that pay well. With more than $20 million dedicated toward implementing it, skilled trades certification does just that.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

In conclusion, I take my job as the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training very seriously. I approach it with passion, with pride and with my utmost dedication. My ministry will continue to listen and work with students and other sector partners. We’ll continue to work towards a strong and bright future, using resourcefulness, dedication and an attitude of servitude.

I’d like to close by thanking all the post-secondary students, the staff, the faculty, all our industry partners, all the partners that we have there, who continue to collaborate with us and with each other to make our sector one of the finest that there is.

With that, I will take my place.

Hon. A. Kang moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. M. Rankin moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 6:50 p.m.