Orders of the Day

Private Members’ Statements

DAFFODIL MONTH

M. Starchuk: Like many of us in the public, we’ve been contacted about the events in Ukraine.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

I wanted to take a brief moment to let people know there is a Service B.C. phone line set up now at 1-800-663-7867, with translation services in Ukrainian, Russian and 140 other languages, available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the evening. This will help people arriving from Ukraine and their families in locating and accessing the services they need, such as employment, health care, housing and education, and to coordinate British Columbians who want to volunteer or donate their time to help displaced Ukrainians feel welcome in British Columbia.

Dyakuyu.

Every year the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Campaign unites Canadians to take action for the nearly half of Canadians expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Two in five Canadians, 44 percent of men and 43 percent of women, are expected to develop cancer during their lifetime. Unfortunately, about one out of every four Canadians, 26 percent of men and 22 percent of women, are expected to die from cancer.

[10:05 a.m.]

The big hope of any cancer researcher for their work is to contribute to saving lives. Saving lives by helping people reduce their risk of getting cancer. Saving lives by catching cancer earlier, when treatments are more likely to succeed. Saving lives by making treatments more effective and gentler.

The research with donation funds has increased the understanding of what causes cancer and how to prevent it. This knowledge leads to effective strategies to help people reduce their risk so fewer Canadians hear the words: “You have cancer.” There has been significant progress in reducing cancer incidents and mortality.

Today we know more than ever before about what causes cancer, how it develops and how best to prevent and treat it. Despite the progress we’ve made, the number of new cancer cases continues to increase as a result of the growing and aging population. Between 2015 and 2030, the number of new cancer cases diagnosed is expected to increase by about 40 percent. Researchers estimated that there would be about 229,200 new cancer cases and 84,600 cancer deaths in Canada in 2021. This does not include the number of estimated new cases that doesn’t include non-melanoma skin cancer cases.

Based on the data from 2015 to 2017, the predicted five-year net survival for all cancers combined was 64 percent. This is up from 55 percent in the ’90s. More importantly, in the 1940s, the survival was only about 25 percent. Cancer mortality is decreasing over time. Since the cancer mortality rate peaked in 1988, it has decreased by 37 percent in men and 22 percent in women, between 1988 and 2021.

This is good news and shows that early detection and early treatment works. This is what researchers want to see, and that is why donating to the Canadian Cancer Society during the Daffodil Campaign is so important. Hope is more than a word. Hope is action. This Daffodil Campaign, help people affected by cancer and give hope life with your daffodil donation.

We heard the news from the Premier last week when he was diagnosed with cancer, and now we see his treatment has concluded and he’s back and ready to take on the challenges we all face in British Columbia. Today, on both sides of the floor, there are members who are currently undergoing treatment, and my thoughts and prayers are with them.

Knowing what is normal for you, to help notice changes in your body, is important. When you notice something that’s different about your body, like a new growth or a lump, increased fatigue or dramatic weight loss, it needs to be checked out right away. When cancer is found early, it’s often easier to treat.

From my personal circumstances, I belong to the 100-moles-or-more category, a very exclusive club. My dermatologist insisted on me getting some clinical photography done. That was over 30 years ago, and it provided me with a new photo album.

For those that are not familiar with clinical photography, it’s a pretty humbling experience where every inch of your body is captured on film. They suggested to me to shave my head prior to the photos, and no, that’s where I drew my line. Because of this photo album, I’m able to see different doctors, and they can see my baseline from over 30 years ago and maybe new moles or moles that have changed in shape. I will be returning later this year to have two more of those suspicious moles removed.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the new Surrey hos­pital and cancer centre coming to Surrey to meet the needs of a growing and aging population. The new cancer centre will include an oncology ambulatory unit, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, functional imaging, PET-CT, cyclotron and six linear accelerators.

[10:10 a.m.]

For some people that are living in the area, they will no longer have to have that long drive to somewhere else to get their treatment. Nothing adds to the stress like being stuck in rush hour getting to your treatment. Even getting stuck in traffic after your treatment is nothing to look forward to.

K. Kirkpatrick: Normally, if I was going to be making a response and I stood up and discovered, as I have today, that the second page of my notes is missing, I would really panic. But today I can tell you a little bit about some of my personal experience. I know a lot about this now, so I’m not going to panic.

When I looked out in my yard this past weekend, I could see the tops of the daffodils pushing their way through the wet soil. The rain was pelting down and the weather still cold, but there they were, nonetheless.

The first flower to bloom in the spring is the daffodil. It’s a symbol of strength, courage and even hope. This is the reason it’s the symbol of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Campaign. April is Daffodil Month, and I’m very pleased that we’ve taken the time to recognize that here today.

Every day more than 600 Canadians hear the words: “You have cancer.” On November 10 this last year, I became one of them. My goodness, I didn’t know that was going to come.

I know so many of my colleagues in the House have been impacted as well — themselves, a family member or a friend. The Leader of the Third Party shared last week her personal story of the impact of cancer on her and her family.

Since my diagnosis, so many people in this House have reached out to me, and constituents and people in the public, to share their stories and to share their support. It didn’t matter what side of the House everyone was on. We all come together with each other when we’re going through something like this.

The first Daffodil Days took place in 1957, and that was long before men donned their moustaches for Movember. In fact, it’s the longest-running Canadian charity event in history. Donors have provided more than $1.4 billion to cancer research since its inception. It’s because of research like that — and new equipment and new knowledge that we have in cancer research and diagnosis — that the story I have to tell is actually a very positive one.

I was diagnosed with invasive lobular cancer, and until I actually had a cancer diagnosis, I didn’t know what any of this stuff was. You go online, you talk to everybody, and you figure out what it is. But those who of you who have been impacted will understand what this is. Invasive lobular cancer….

I’m one of a select group of people in the world who also was diagnosed as triple-N. This is, apparently, a very, very rare condition that they don’t even have any research on. So this was, obviously, quite terrifying to me. But because of the research and their ability to diagnose this cancer at stage 1…. I was told that if it was even three months earlier, they wouldn’t have seen it.

It’s because of these amazing machines and the amazing people that look at the diagnosis or look at the outcome and the pathology that my pathology now shows no cancer. I’ve just finished my radiation, and I am one of the very, very lucky few that can say that this experience, if anything, has actually been a good experience for me, but it’s because my outcome is so positive.

One day I know that research will find the key to prevention and to a cure. When I looked around the waiting room at B.C. Cancer, I saw people of all backgrounds, of all ages, of all genders. I also understood that behind each one of them there was a family, a child, that were also scared and concerned about the journey that they were going through.

A friend of mine years ago told me a story about her own cancer diagnosis. I think that it’s worth sharing for us to think about this. When she told her friends and her colleagues at work, she was really surprised that a number of the people that she expected to reach out to her didn’t. The reason is because we’re scared. We’re anxious. We’re not sure what we should say to somebody. We’re not feeling comfortable about talking about cancer. But please remember that that is the most important time to reach out and to show your support for someone else.

[10:15 a.m.]

As we know, there’s a shortage of family care doctors in British Columbia. There’s also a shortage of radiologists and oncologists. We hope that more people will go into cancer research as their career.

I’d like to end by saying three things, and I’ll try to do it in 24 seconds — first, by wishing my dear friend Christina all of my love and support. I spoke with her only this morning to learn that she is battling a much more aggressive type of breast cancer and will have a much more difficult journey than I. So God bless you, Christina.

I give my sincerest thank-you to the people at B.C. Cancer and the Canadian Cancer Society and to those people who have committed their careers to helping people.

I’d also like to thank everyone here in the House and ask that everyone inside this House, and outside, take time this month to don a daffodil and to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you very much, Member. It’s great to see you back.

M. Starchuk: Thank you to the member for West Vancouver–Capilano and that awesome message. It’s awesome to get these good-news stories. Thank you for sharing.

I want to stress the point that donations to the Daffodil Campaign allow researchers to find new ways to treat, identity and prevent.

I’m going to talk about a profession I used to have. We know that firefighters deal with high cancer rates, heart issues and operational stress issues. I was on a Zoom call on March 7, during the British Columbia Professional Firefighters virtual lobby, when the Premier announced that they’ll be moving forward to add cancer presumptions for ovarian, cervical and penile cancers. We will also be lowering the minimum cumulative period of employment for cancers already covered, including testicular, colorectal and esophageal.

These are important changes that we’re making better to support our first responders. Having presumptive language for these occupationally recognized cancers allows the member and their family to concentrate on their battle against cancer instead of the battle against WorkSafeBC.

I assisted the professional and paid on-call firefighters in the province with their WorkSafe claims for over 20 years, so I know what it means to have these new additional presumptive cancers, changing the latency period, and what it means to all firefighters in B.C. It’s important that the government recognizes the occupational hazards firefighters face during each tour of duty.

I’d like to tell a personal story on how this touches myself and my family. The first time I ever walked into a fire hall, Fire Hall 10 in Newton, I visited Ken, Randy, Les and Pat. Ken died of occupational cancer. Randy died of occupational cancer. Les died due to a heart condition as a result of his occupation. Pat died of occupational cancer. I started my career with the same inferior equipment, the same smoke-eater mentality. I now consider myself a walking, talking, ticking time bomb.

This Daffodil Campaign please help the people affected by cancer, and give hope, life with your daffodil donation. Please visit cancer.ca, and donate. Your donations will fund the research needed to beat this horrible disease.

UNDERSTANDING AFFORDABILITY

B. Banman: Today I rise to talk about an issue that affects virtually every single British Columbian. There’s not a single person in this province that has not felt the effects of the continuous and painful rising cost of virtually everything.

Well, maybe there’s one person that hasn’t been affected by the lack of affordability in the province. Just last week the Premier said: “I don’t understand this affordability stuff….”

Deputy Speaker: If I might, Member…. Member, if I might, I would commend to you reading the “Nature of Private Members’ Statements” in Parliamentary Practice in British Columbia. It’s not correct to target remarks at individuals in this House or groups in this House. It’s not a partisan time.

B. Banman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

For the vast majority of people in this province, affordability is getting out of control. Food prices rose 7.4 percent last month, the biggest jump in more than a decade. Beef increased a staggering 16.8 percent. Chicken was up 10.4 percent, and dairy products and eggs rose nearly 7 percent.

[10:20 a.m.]

It’s not just in our grocery stores and gas stations that British Columbians are paying the price but in affording a home as well. The average home price in B.C. has surpassed $1.1 million, up 25 percent in the last year alone. It now takes an estimated 36 years to save for a down payment on the average house in Vancouver, according to a National Bank report.

How are young families supposed to survive, let alone get ahead — or seniors, or students, or those that are on fixed incomes and social supports? The dream of home ownership or raising a family in a home and community within their budget is rapidly slipping out of the fingers of more and more of these individuals and families every day.

During an affordability crisis, a time when life is beyond unaffordable; when we’re reaching record-breaking prices left, right and centre; doing too little or too late is just not going to cut it for them. Giving people a one-time rebate and then claiming it’s paying the bills shows a true disconnect. People are struggling now, and $110 will pay for a tank of gas, maybe, but it doesn’t help pay for the bills. British Columbians soon feel as if they’re being left out.

The supports we give to British Columbians must go to the ones who need them the most. I can’t tell you how many emails and letters I received. I was shocked to learn that Tesla and EV drivers are going to receive the same gas rebate as rural families, who depend on their truck to get their children back and forth to school or get to and from work or have to travel a long distance. The money given to the EV drivers could be better put towards helping families who actually need it — children, students, seniors and many more.

This one-size-fits-all just doesn’t work. We need to put proper due diligence in our programs so that people who need government support don’t face unnecessary barriers and red tape. We need to do better.

Let’s move on to children, for example. British Columbians were promised $10-a-day daycare for all.

Point of Order

Hon. S. Malcolmson: Mr. Speaker, can I get your guidance on whether the member is following this House’s rules for private members’ time?

Deputy Speaker: I understand that would be a point of order.

Just to be clear, you can be strong on policy. You can make arguments. It’s where it gets to attacking one side or the other…. That’s where we go over the line.

I think the member has taken my guidance. Thank you.

Debate Continued

B. Banman: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That policy, that $10 promised for all, soon changed to $20 for some. Child care for school-aged children is being completely excluded, and parents are still waiting for years for a spot, if they get one at all. We need to do better.

That’s only one side of the equation when it comes to child care. The providers that are doing great work in our communities are also being left between a rock and a hard spot. They are facing higher costs to operate and a shortage of trained and qualified staff. The result of that is increased costs to the parents of the children.

It’s challenging if you consider that most parents must drive their children to and from daycare. Every trip is a struggle and a pain at the pumps, whether they go to a soccer practice afterwards or whether they have to go grocery shopping. British Columbians now face the highest gas costs in North America, and we need to do something.

[10:25 a.m.]

We need to do something to help people now. I urge this government to finally open its eyes and realize that this affordability crisis is not going away any time soon. We need to take action now. British Columbians deserve to stay here in British Columbia. They’re being forced to choose between paying for food or filling up their tanks. That’s the reality.

I hope that we as a House can wake up and start understanding that this affordability stuff is important. We need to do something about it now. People are, on average, within $200 of not being able to pay their bills. They need help now, Mr. Speaker. As a House, I think that we can do much better.

J. Sims: It’s a pleasure for me to rise in this House and speak today.

I think every one of us in this House knows that we are living through some very difficult and challenging times — from fires to floods to heat domes; to a COVID pandemic that has hit the world, not just here in B.C.; and, of course, now a war that is going on in eastern Europe, in the Ukraine. The world is feeling unstable and on the verge of a world war. Many times in a day, I think of the impact of all of that on our human psyche, on us and on our everyday lives.

Let me tell you: COVID disrupted the supply chains. There is no doubt about that. That affected pricing. We all know that, too. Now that we have this disability of what’s going on in Europe, that is also impacting our supply chain. So often, affordability factors are outside. The impact is coming from outside of the province and outside of the country as well.

Let me tell you: for many, many families, they have seen our government, all of us in this House, provide them with support over the last number of years.

I want to start off with child care. There are many families who are receiving $10-a-day child care. There are families who are paying $15 a day right now. There are families who have received money back in their pockets because of the subsidies that are available.

In my riding, Surrey-Panorama alone, over $13 million has made it back into the pockets of parents, and that has meant that that money is being spent locally as well. That does affect affordability, and it does affect what families can do.

We hear a lot about gas prices. I’m like many of you, when you go to fill up your tank. You see how much it’s costing, and you go: “Wow.” Then let us also focus on the oil companies and the corporations. The carbon tax may go up by 1½ cents, but the gas prices jump by six or seven cents. That kind of greed, during this period when there is instability…. Those fluctuations happen. None of us find that acceptable, and of course, we all want to do something about it.

I’m proud of the fact that we have an ICBC system that is once again viable. Not only viable, but people have money back in their pockets — not just once, not twice, three times. I know that the recent rebate might seem a bit small, because gas prices have gone up so much. But we have to remember that it’s not meant to pay for the total gas price at the pump. It’s the differential. It’s just a little offering to assist people who are suffering. So let’s look at it in those lines.

Then I think about the fact that there are other ways that life has become more affordable over the last number of years. First of all, people no longer have to pay their MSP premiums. That has meant that there is more money in people’s pockets to spend on other things.

[10:30 a.m.]

The fact that kids under 12 no longer have to pay public transit fees has helped. Those of us who live in Surrey and in the valley, we know how much families have saved by not having to pay at the tolls every time they crossed a bridge to come in. So removing of those tolls also added.

I look at the rental changes that were made, and that also meant that $1,000 a year less rent is getting paid, and that makes a difference as well, because of the limits and the caps that were removed.

One of the things everyone in this room should feel very, very proud of, and I feel very proud, is that by June we will have the highest minimum wage, at $15.65, in the country. That makes a difference.

Seniors received the first lift in decades, not enough, but a $50 lift. That makes a difference to those seniors.

I take a look at the lift that was made to the income assistance. Let me tell you. That makes a difference.

B. Banman: I thank the member opposite for her comments.

Quite frankly, we can’t accept too little done too late. British Columbians deserve to be supported and heard now, during this time. We can’t allow the voices of more and more British Columbians to be either dismissed or go unheard.

Affordability is an issue that we must tackle as a group head-on, not with inaction or secret regulations behind closed doors. All British Columbians need to help during this time and be part of the solution. This is an issue that is wreaking havoc on our economy, in our society and in our communities.

I encourage members of this House, for the government, to spend time outside of this chamber and speak to real, everyday people in communities like my own in Abbotsford or to the hundreds of displaced people from Lytton, to the small business owners in Fort St. John or to those in Vanderhoof or Kitimat, and then maybe we’ll have a better understanding of this affordability stuff and what’s going on.

Talk to the families who oppose the autism funding clawbacks. Talk to the families being pushed to the curb because they can’t pay their rent, to the families that have to get around in rural B.C. that do not have rapid transit. Being told to take a bus doesn’t work for them. Talk to the med students from Abbotsford that have to commute to UBC because there is no other medical school. Talk to the high school students who work part-time to have some independence and maybe help mom and dad, yet then find that half of their paycheque goes into their gas tank.

Talk to real British Columbians who won’t be getting pay raises. Then we’ll see if members of this House, this government, still struggle to understand what all this affordability is all about. I can assure you that these people — the businesses, families, suppliers, essential workers — all understand the lack of affordability all too well. It’s a shame that, at times, they feel as if their voices are not being heard by this House and this government.

SIKH HERITAGE MONTH

A. Singh: This month we celebrate Sikh Heritage Month. I’m filled with gratitude that I’m able to say a few words about that and about the faith in which I was brought up, and many of my formative principles find their inspiration.

Sikhs have a long and storied history in our province. It’s a story that’s intimately tied to the story of this province and its prosperity, from the day that the first Sikhs, part of a British Army regiment, landed on the shores of Canada to this day when we have eight members whose families hail from that spirituality sitting in this Legislature, in the government.

[10:35 a.m.]

It’s been a long journey, but any story that didn’t start with at least a cursive look at Sikhi — the religion itself, the spirituality itself — would be incomplete, so I’ll start there, at the beginning.

A monotheistic spirituality starting in Punjab with the teachings of Guru Nanak, the first of ten gurus or teachers in the late 1400s, it culminated with Guru Gobind Singh’s declaration of a distinct faith at the harvest festival of Vaisakhi in April. Many of you have witnessed the monumental celebration of Vaisakhi in the past in Surrey and in Vancouver. Unfortunately, we don’t have that this year, but looking forward to celebrating again next year. Sikhi has, as its most basic concept, equality and respect for all. These translate into gender, racial and caste equality.

The concept of doing seva, or working for others, lifting everyone around you with you and not letting anyone be left behind, defending the rights of those that are most vulnerable to live without hate and without fear, and with love and courage — these are all principles that define Sikhi and its spirituality, many concepts that also align with the principles of the government today.

You see this in times of crisis, where gurdwaras in the communities, as recently as the floods, have banded together to reach out and to be of service to the community. These core principles have led to the resiliency and strength that you find in the community today, a resiliency and strength tested often in the over 100 years since we have been here.

The diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated in June of 1897 in England. It’s at this time that Sikh regiments from the Commonwealth procession came to Canada as part of ongoing celebrations. Popular history records Kesur Singh, a risaldar-major in the British Indian Army as credited with being the first Sikh settler in Canada. He was amongst that group of Sikh officers who had arrived in Vancouver on board the Empress of India in 1897.

The Sikh pioneers originally worked in lumber mills and the logging industry, as well as on farmlands and with Chinese migrants in the railway. Unfortunately for these men, their wives, children and families were not allowed to join them because of restrictive government immigration policies. A personal note: many of them came via Hong Kong, which also happens to be my journey.

By 1902, Sikhs were all along the west coast. At that time, borders were somewhat porous then, and the community had settled along much of the west coast — Oregon, Washington, all the way to California. They had formed what is known as a Khalsa Diwan Society, which would later go on to open the first gurdwara in Vancouver, on 2nd Avenue, in 1908. It would become a gathering place for the community.

As I said, this is very much a story of adversity and resilience. Initially, very little thought had been given to the Sikhs arriving, but by 1906, there was increasing racial tension. In March 1907, B.C. Premier Bowser introduced a bill to disenfranchise all natives not of Anglo-Saxon parents. That April, Sikhs and other South Asians were also denied the right to vote. South Asians would be barred from that political process in Canada for the next 40 years.

It was also in 1907 that the Bellingham riots occurred in Bellingham, Washington. A mob of 400 to 500 white men, predominantly members of the Asiatic Exclusion League, rounded up hundreds of Sikh lumber mill workers, beat them in the streets and then forced them out of town. Because of the proximity to Canada, to the border, this scene of violence was repeated in Vancouver just a few days later and became known as the anti-Asian riots of Vancouver.

Shortly thereafter came the federal regulations of the one continuous passage journey, but the community was not deterred, and the Khalsa Diwan Society trudged on to establish gurdwaras all over B.C. In 1911, the Abbotsford, Victoria and Fraser Mills Sikh temples were built, along with New Westminster and Golden.

The New Westminster gurdwara, being in Queensborough, a part of the constituency that I represent, had its roots in the Sikh workers who worked in the Fraser sawmills. Bishan Singh, a worker there, opened up his home at 344 Boyne Street to hold congregations. Gurdwara Sukh Sagar is still located adjacent to that site and encompasses it.

That story of resilience is shown Mayo Singh and Kapoor Singh and their founding of the lumber town of Paldi on Vancouver Island and, of course, in the voyage of the Komagata Maru and how the community came together to fight indignities and injustices.

Immigration restrictions were eventually lifted, a lot due to the part that the Sikh-Canadian soldiers had played in the First World War. Over the next few decades, in British Columbia especially, the community grew, mostly working in the logging towns and mills along the Fraser and on the Island. They continued to fight for enfranchisement and to resist the racism that they faced. This culminated in South Asians getting the right to vote on April 2 of 1947, another milestone whose 75th anniversary we commemorated over the weekend.

It would still take decades before the real fruits of enfranchisement were realized. They were here in British Columbia with Moe Sihota being the first Sikh elected to any provincial or federal parliament, having been elected with the NDP in 1986 and going on to be the first Sikh cabinet minister in any province in Canada and again with Sindi Hawkins in the ’90s being elected as the first Sikh woman in the Legislature in British Columbia.

[10:40 a.m.]

I, along with my other colleagues, am indebted to those that came before us.

The names and the stories go on, too many to be named here. But if you want to know more, there are numerous resources out there, including the Sikh Heritage Museum. Visit their website. It’s an incredible, incredible resource. There’s also the Ross Street Gurdwara museum — again, an incredible resource, with lots of photographs and lots of things to see — and of course, in Abbotsford, the historical Abbotsford Gurdwara and the museum that adjoins it. There’s some very, very, incredibly rich history there.

Today what we have in British Columbia is a vibrant community that is represented from the Lower Mainland to the most remote parts of British Columbia, where gurdwaras abound; media is available in the Punjabi language, whether it be radio or television; and Sikhs are visible in all walks of life. I often wonder what those pioneers that faced so much adversity would think. I believe that they would be amazed and proud of the fruits of the steps that they took.

M. de Jong: What a great place to pick it up. What would they think, those pioneers who arrived in the latter part of the 1800s and the early 1900s — all of the adversity, all the challenges, all the discrimination — were they able to stand here today, as the member for Richmond-Queensborough points out, and look at what the perseverance, hard work and tenacity has accomplished?

People ask me frequently what the best thing is about this job that I’ve had for a while. I say it’s the opportunity to learn.

The example that I generally give is the one that the member and this House are commemorating today — the opportunity to learn about Sikhs, Sikhism and Punjab, where the religion was founded and derives from. I grew up, and live, in a part of the province with a very strong Sikh heritage, in Abbotsford. As a kid, you’d walk into a friend’s house and you’d go: “Who is in that picture of that old fellow on the television set? What is akhand path? What is that book that looks like a Bible and is revered?”

The opportunity, over time, to learn about these things and to learn about the founding of a relatively young religion by Guru Nanak, walking through northern India, preaching tolerance, equality and belief in God, at a time when there was great persecution taking place in India between Islam and Hinduism. Here we are, a religion now of some 30 million or 40 million adherents all over the world, most particularly here in Canada and in British Columbia.

I’ve been lucky to be able to visit some of these places — the Golden Temple, the magnificent Golden Temple. The first time I really, really got a flavour for the essence of Sikhism was in 1999, when I travelled for the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Khalsa. I went to Anandpur Sahib, another remarkable place in the world. People are very fortunate if they get a chance to see it.

The powerful, dramatic story of Sikhs and Sikhism in British Columbia, as the member has correctly pointed out, commencing with the arrival of the first pioneers and the terrible ordeal they struggled with, the discrimination…. The insults and the pejorative terminology, besides being very insulting, must have been very confusing, because they weren’t Hindu. To be insulted by reference to a part of the world that they weren’t from…. They weren’t from Pakistan, mostly — although a few, certainly, prior to partition, were.

[10:45 a.m.]

Through the perseverance, the re-acquisition of the right to vote that had been taken away from them…. The member correctly points to the Komagata Maru, which this House has recognized and apologized for. Its symbolic value, when one thinks of all of the individual insults and incidents of discrimination that can’t be recognized and can’t be apologized for, is representative, in many ways, of that.

The contribution of Sikhs in this country to two world war efforts is only now becoming acknowledged in a meaningful way.

The member — I thank him.

I urge others to visit some of these places like the historical temple, gurdwara, in Abbotsford. Live and breathe the history. Celebrate a people and a religion that have made such an incredible contribution to the building of our country.

I began by talking about learning Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh, wondrous teacher. It’s a lesson that we can all profit by.

A. Singh: Thank you, Member, for that.

With liberalized immigration policy in the 1960s and ’70s, Sikh immigration grew dramatically and spread across Canada. There are Sikh communities now in every province in Canada. Canada’s 2011 census showed Punjabi to be the most spoken immigrant language in this country. Several Canadian Sikhs have served as federal Members of Parliament, as cabinet ministers and also as representatives and ministers in several provincial legislatures, most notably ours.

As I stated earlier, Moe Sihota was the first Sikh to be elected to a provincial legislature, and then Sindi Hawkins was the first Sikh woman to be elected to this Legislature. Justice Wally Oppal — the first Sikh to be a judge of the Court of Appeal.

I wanted to name some of these names: Baltej Singh Dhillon, the first Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer to be allowed to wear a turban. Lieutenant-Colonel Harjit Singh Sajjan, becoming the first Sikh to command a Canadian army regiment in 2011 and then becoming Minister of Defence.

Sikhs have flourished in Canada and in B.C. in every role, but there’s still much to do. People often ask me why we celebrate these months, like Sikh Heritage Month or Black History Month. It’s not only to commemorate the struggle and achievements of those that have come before us and to celebrate the community, but central to the concept of Sikhi is also to carry all of us together and to stand up against injustice. We may have come a long way, but there is much to do.

The racism that sparked the Bellingham riots or the discriminatory practices of the early 1900s did not disappear. It has transformed itself. As we have seen the erosion of people’s belief in civic institutions and in science — in fact, largely masterminded and fuelled by extreme conservative thought — we have seen that racism come to the forefront, whether it be the rise in anti-Asian hate that we saw in the pandemic, or the stagnant mumbled hate and open vitriol as we implement policies to reconcile with this country and this province’s relationship with Indigenous people.

Whether it’s minor things like a recognition of pre-existing rights and wildlife management that, from what I understand from my colleagues, has gotten an incredible amount of hate as a response; or glass ceilings that still exist for minorities in board rooms or the judiciary or even in parliament…. Even in parliament here, we celebrate the rise in diversity. And there has been a rise, and the steps taken have been great. But looking around, we still do not represent the true diversity of our province in this House. We commemorate these days and months so we can be reminded that we have to be ever vigilant to protect the civil rights of all of us that have been so hard won.

Sikhi is like that. It pushes people to do better — not only to take care of each other but to stand up with love and courage against injustice. These are the reasons why we recognize and commemorate these important days.

RELIEF FOR RENTERS

J. Sturdy: Today I rise to speak to an issue of growing concern, both in my community and throughout British Columbia, and one that needs to be addressed across a broad spectrum. Today we’re facing an affordability crisis in this province, and the cost of renting a home is skyrocketing.

[10:50 a.m.]

Since 2017, over the term of this NDP government, renters in British Columbia are, on average, paying $2,856 more per year. In one of my communities in Squamish, renters have experienced double the average increase. Since 2017, the average annual rent in Squamish has increased by an astounding $5,760 per year. Similarly, renters in the Tri-Cities and the district of North Vancouver are paying $4,500 a year more.

Principally, we’re facing a supply issue. I have to say, it’s nice to see that the Housing Minister has finally pivoted away, from evil foreign buyers to lack of supply….

Deputy Speaker: Member, Member. We are not going to target poisonous attacks on other members. That’s not part of the rules.

J. Sturdy: It was….

Deputy Speaker: Member, you’ve been here long enough. You know what this time is. This is not partisan-attack time, targeting individual members with spurious claims. If you want to make a charge, there are other aspects in this House to do that. This is not one of them. So I ask you to please refrain from partisan attacks on individual members of this House, and follow the rules.

J. Sturdy: I’d like to compliment the Housing Minister on understanding, appreciating and moving forward on the idea that it’s lack of supply that is a principal driver on the housing shortage.

The average vacancy rate in British Columbia is 1.4 percent, which is down 1 percent since last year. In Surrey, the vacancy rate is an astonishingly low 0.6 percent. In the last year, almost all communities in the Lower Mainland experienced a decrease in vacancy rates, except for Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and the Tri-Cities, the only communities to have a vacancy rate above 2 percent — which is astonishingly low as it is.

With such a limited supply, it’s not surprising that rent has gone up. UBC professor and housing economist Thomas Davidoff says that the increase in the vacancy rate is bad news for renters. Davidoff says: “Usually vacancy rates and rent prices move in opposite directions. When there are more landlords looking for tenants, they tend to need to lower rents, and when there are more tenants chasing a small number of apartments, then rents tend to rise.”

This is basic economics. Prices are sky-high because we have extremely low supply, while demand continues to increase. We live in an incredible province, and it’s no wonder that British Columbia attracts people from across Canada and around the world. However, this increased demand is putting pressure on our rental housing market. In the last financial quarter alone, we saw 23,000 people move to this province from other provinces and countries. We need this migration into B.C., because it’s integral to addressing our labour shortage and supporting our provincial economy. However, we must ensure that this talent has a place to call home.

If we want to encourage young people to build their careers and establish families in this province, we need to provide alternative or affordable housing opportunities for them. Without affordable housing, young British Columbians will take their talent elsewhere and build their lives where their money will stretch further, so that they don’t have to spend the majority of their paycheque on rent.

What do we see instead? We get a C grade from the B.C. Rental Project, because regulations and taxes have driven rental providers out of the business. B.C. also, unfortunately, has the highest rate of evictions — one in every ten renters. With such low vacancy rates, renters facing evictions are finding, increasingly, that they have nowhere to go.

After they were evicted, Fraser Hamilton and two of his friends found a three-bedroom home in Vancouver for $3,000 a month. This was best he could do, since renting alone was simply not realistic. Fraser says: “I love Vancouver, but a lot of the time it doesn’t feel like it loves me at all. I would love to stay here for the rest of my life and to have my own place, but even being able to afford renting a place by myself seems like a pipedream.”

[10:55 a.m.]

Unfortunately, Fraser is not the only one who feels this way. While the dream of home ownership is increasingly unattainable, so is finding an affordable place to rent. Renters need relief today. We need to improve our rental market so that it’s fair and transparent for both renters and rental providers. Most importantly, we need action now to relieve the pressure on our rental housing market. It is not simply about getting more housing; it’s also about getting the right type of supply to address B.C.’s affordability crisis.

Low-income households have an even more difficult time finding affordable housing. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says that only one in 1,000 units in Metro Vancouver is affordable to households with the lowest incomes — one in 1,000. Less than a quarter of purpose-built market rental units in Metro Vancouver are affordable to households earning less than $48,000 a year in annual income.

Government continues to say that they’re building more and more affordable homes, but the numbers suggest that only 5,000 homes have been completed, out of 114,000 promised. Additionally, the government has promised a $400 annual renters rebate, multiple times, which has yet to be seen. Even when we look at that, $400 is — what? — 40 percent of a bedroom price for one month. To be clear, the renters rebate that should have materialized is actually just a bit of a stopgap, and it really won’t solve the problem.

I think we can all agree that British Columbia is a wonderful place to live. But this comes with the obvious caveat that you need a home to actually live in. The future of our province rests on this House’s ability to take action and to support affordable housing now.

K. Paddon: Good morning. I am very excited to rise to speak to relief for renters.

When I think of relief for renters, I think of my neighbours in Chilliwack-Kent. I think of the Facebook posts that I see where people are looking for roommates or where people are looking for a place because they’re struggling and having a hard time. I also think of landlords who are trying to navigate in a way that serves their family and serves the family that are renting their place.

Folks and families across our community are looking for safe, comfortable, stable rental homes that they can afford for themselves and their families. There is no doubt that there is a challenge across the province with the cost of housing, and that is felt acutely by our renters.

Helping renters has been and continues to be the priority, I think, of everyone in this room. That includes building up the supply, keeping the costs low, improving renters’ rights and working to develop a renters rebate. Staff in the Ministry of Finance, I know, are continuing policy development, working on a renters rebate, because we need to get this right.

While this work proceeds, there has been a lot of work done to support renters in the immediate term. There was a 2 percent cut from the maximum annual rent increase allowed in B.C. — a change that is currently saving families in B.C. about $1,000 a year from what it could have been without that cut. In March 2021, B.C. also announced a partnership with the federal government to provide $517 million, over ten years, to help people in need who aren’t eligible for existing rental assistance programs.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

Government has also closed a fixed-term loophole that some landlords had used to get around rent controls and has added more than 18,000 units back into the rental market through policies like the speculation and vacancy tax. There have been changes to stop unlawful renovictions. There has been a strengthening to the financial penalties for landlords who evict tenants in bad faith, and changes have been made that give, to tenants who must vacate, four months notice, allowing additional time to find alternate housing. There’s the creation of a compliance and enforcement unit to investigate complaints of serious or repeat offenders in these areas, which can impose monetary penalties.

[11:00 a.m.]

B.C. was one of the only provinces in Canada to provide direct supports for renters during the pandemic, offering rent support in the early stages of the pandemic, a rent freeze in 2020 and 2021, an eviction ban and a repayment plan that gave people more time to pay unpaid rent.

The province continues to take action to meet the need for more rental supply, through a ten-year housing plan by making record-level investments in new housing that people can afford to rent or buy, with more than 32,000 new homes underway or complete across the province after the first four years.

The commitment remains to implement a renters rebate that will support renters and be income-tested.

There are signs that things are improving. We’re also seeing an increase in rental units, backed by CMHC data, which can be attributed, in part, to government’s policies.

The work that has been done is substantial, but there is no doubt that even with all of these actions, the issue is not solved, and we cannot let up. As we continue to work and accelerate the commitments, we know we will continue to see progress.

It’s a challenging topic, Madam Speaker, as I know, like many in this chamber, I have close friends and family directly impacted by the cost of renting as well as the rising costs of so many things, which is why, despite there being no magic wand, I am grateful that we are tackling affordability on so many fronts at once to offer as much relief as possible, to remove as many barriers and extra costs as possible, be it eliminating tolls or eliminating MSP premiums, reducing the cost of child care, removing interest on student loans, decreasing the cost of car insurance or increasing different kinds of income.

All of these ways of reducing costs for British Columbians add up to real, everyday impacts. We aren’t done, and I understand that the relief can’t come soon enough. I know that my team and I come to work every day focused on the issue of housing, of rental availability and costs, and all the opportunities we have to help with affordability so that British Columbians, my neighbors, can have an affordable place to call home.

J. Sturdy: Thank you to the member opposite. I think we do all agree that relief can’t come soon enough.

One of the items that the member mentioned was a capping on rents. I’m glad she brought that up. While government has capped rent increases at 1.5 percent for all landlords in British Columbia for last year and this year, they unfortunately haven’t done the same thing for themselves. A rent-setting policy for tenants who live on Crown land is based on a percentage of the assessed value of the property. In the last year, tenants on Crown land have seen rent increases of up to 300 percent — not 1.5 percent, 300 percent — because of booming property values in places like the Sea to Sky.

Jennifer Smack from my riding of West Vancouver–Sea to Sky says: “I have lived on Crown lease land for 18 years. When we moved here in 2003, my annual lease fee was $1,500. Three years ago, because of the proximity to the booming real estate market in Squamish, my lease fee went up 266 percent. I don’t understand how government can increase rents from $8,000 to $20,000 in a single year, especially during a pandemic.”

It certainly is unfair to Crown land renters, which is why I continue to push this government and encourage them to tie maximum Crown land residential lease increases to the same limits that are applied to every other landlord in British Columbia. The province should be holding itself to the same standards as it sets for all other landlords.

There are numerous things that we could do, as well, to make life more affordable for British Columbians, and certainly, rent affordability is one of them. We have been, as I mentioned earlier, promised the $400 annual rent rebate. I’m glad to hear the member talk about getting it right. After five years, one would hope we could get it right. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing that shortly, but unfortunately, we haven’t seen action to date.

According to CMHC, residents of greater Vancouver would have to work a total of 198 hours per month in order to maintain their housing costs at 30 percent of income. That means greater Vancouver residents would need to work an additional 48 hours a month to keep it to 30 percent. In Victoria, it’s an additional 12.6 hours a month, and this is on top of the already 150 hours that people need to work, which is what’s considered full-time work.

[11:05 a.m.]

British Columbians cannot keep up, and it is time we as a House worked together to create solutions now.

Hon. S. Malcolmson: Hon. Speaker, I ask that the House consider proceeding with Motion 7 standing in the name of the member for Abbotsford-Mission.

Deputy Speaker: Members, unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed with Motion 7 without disturbing the priorities of the motions preceding it on the order paper.

Leave granted.

Private Members’ Motions

MOTION 7 — GOVERNMENT
PLAN FOR ECONOMY

P. Alexis: I move:

[Be it resolved that this House support B.C.’s new economic plan and this Government’s work to build an inclusive, sustainable and innovative economy that works for people.]

Today I want to acknowledge that I am speaking to you from the traditional territories of Lekwungen People, the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.

We’re all here with a single purpose. Each and every one of us wants to make life better for our constituents. Throughout the pandemic, we have taken care of people, and we’ve learned that by doing so, we have seen more positive outcomes than negative ones. It only stands to reason, then, that if we continue along this path of taking care of people’s needs, our economy can flourish.

Mariana Mazzucato, founder and director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose said: “Building a stronger and more productive economy while…tackling social inequalities and…a climate emergency are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they must go hand in hand.” I agree. A stronger and more productive economy means building back better in the Fraser Valley.

The events of 2021 have made us more appreciative of how precious the valley is to us, and to all British Columbians, for that matter. Yes, we’re known for our abundant farmlands, but climate change means we may not be able to rely on the traditional amounts of rain or sun to grow our food.

Recently we have made changes to the agricultural land regulations allowing vertical farming as a use on agricultural land. This innovative process makes use of alternate forms of energy and reduced water to produce food. B.C. has more than 150 agritech companies, many of which are in the Fraser Valley. By investing in more innovative practices, B.C. will be well positioned to become a leader in the agritech sector, while ensuring provincial food security and protecting the farmland that really defines places like the valley.

Another feature of the Fraser Valley is the growth we’re experiencing now. I’m proud to be part of a government that continues to invest in infrastructure necessary to support that growth, which allows local economies to prosper.

My community of Mission experienced aging infrastructure, in the form of a sewer pipe that could have caused a significant environmental disaster. Can you imagine a catastrophe of this magnitude along with everything else we endured in 2021?

Fortunately, I am happy to report that on Tuesday, February 22, the last of the one-kilometer-long pipe was dragged successfully from Abbotsford to Mission, and the entire project is due to be complete by next week. The investment from our government means that we can indeed sustain growth and begin a path of prosperity.

[11:10 a.m.]

Finally, I would like to touch on the necessity of inclusion in our economic plan. The Fraser Valley is no stranger to a homeless population.

I’m grateful that this government has made the creation of homes and supportive services for those needing a helping hand a priority. On April 1, the Minister Responsible for Housing visited Abbotsford’s existing supportive homes and shelters, and we discussed the complex care beds that will be introduced shortly. This new, fully funded initiative will help those with more than one issue who need attention and support.

By investing in our most vulnerable populations, true economic prosperity can be achieved. I’ve touched on the elements of inclusion, sustainability and innovation as ingredients to a successful economy, and I have provided local examples. However, I’m positive that this is not just a local phenomenon.

Our government has used a very simple principle to ensure economic prosperity.

P. Milobar: I rise to speak to the motion in front of us. I think it’s important, when we look at the motion, to really break it down.

There’s the new economic plan. It can be interpreted in several different ways. It could be the budget that we are currently debating in these chambers and in other chambers in this building over the next month and a half or so.

It can also be the plan that was presented by the Jobs Minister not too long ago. That plan was short on detail, short on measurables and short on a way to actually see a clear path forward for the private sector. In fact, that plan’s corner piece of it all was actually a new building at BCIT. A new building that will actually take five years, at best, to complete, out of a ten-year plan. A new building that then would see students go into it who would take another two to three years to be fully accredited and to be able to join the workforce.

Why that’s important is…. This is supposed to be a plan that’s addressing the gap of one million jobs over the next ten years in British Columbia, yet their centrepiece of this plan is something that the first graduate won’t be out of for seven to eight years from now. That would be 13 years since this government first took office that we would see any tangible expansion of training opportunities.

If we look at the economic plan in terms of this existing budget that we’re debating and the sustainability of things, moving forward, that simply just doesn’t exist. We have no plan to get out of deficit spending. You cannot deficit spend forever as a government, any government. We have no plan…. And the budget backs this up. There was no plan on that private sector expansion in a meaningful way of employment.

When you see things in this budget like an expansion of the public service by 35 percent since this government took office — which now balloons the public service from 380,000 people to 500,000 people on the payroll — you start to whittle down who actually has that ability to generate the tax revenues to pay for everyone.

Now, this isn’t to say that the public sector doesn’t play an important role and that we don’t need to have public sector employment. We absolutely do, but it has to be in balance and in sync with what’s going on in the private sector. The two need to be compatible with each other.

One would think that over the course of a pandemic, when you hear that 120,000 public sector jobs have been created…. That’s because it’s been COVID-related and pandemic-related. Yet we see a net loss of 8,000 health care jobs in that same time frame. We were not hiring. We were not putting a net benefit into the health care system in the middle of a pandemic. We were hiring everywhere but that.

When I see the motion talking about a sustainable and innovative economy, unfortunately both on the plan that was released by the Jobs Minister and the budget that is supposed to interconnect the two…. Let’s remember that the budget is over the next three years — which they presented, their spending plan. That’s government’s idea of how they’re going to move forward. There just simply is a disconnect between what the government, once again, is saying in words and what they’re actually delivering in practice.

[11:15 a.m.]

That really comes to the core of it all. The inability to actually deliver what is being talked about by this government is shocking. The government will continue to talk about 30,000 of their housing units, but they always make sure there’s the caveat of “underway” — not actually having people living in them. People looking for a home actually need a home to live in, not a theoretical house that might be built sometime in the future.

There are only 5,000 housing units in five years that actually have people living in them; 2,000 of those were actually started under the B.C. Liberals. This government has actually built and has people living in 3,000 homes in five years in a ten-year housing plan. That’s simply not good enough.

Same with child care, $10-a-day child care for a sustainable economy. It’s nowhere to be found. Six years later, six budgets later, it’s now doubled in price, not for all the spaces. It’s built solely on a truckload of federal dollars being pumped into the system, not the provincial initiative.

The words always sound great out of this government. The deliverable, the execution, is sorely lacking, and it has for five years, six budgets now. So as much as I would love to see a sustainable plan and an actual way forward, we don’t actually see that happening in practice. That’s why it’s disappointing, to say the least, when we see these plans come forward with no discernable direction forward.

R. Glumac: It was great to hear from the opposition. Their economic plan, once again, seems to just be: “Cut services.” That’s just not good enough.

Our economic plan has two main goals. It’s inclusive growth and clean growth. It takes on the challenges of tackling inequality, of tackling the challenge of meeting our climate commitments and leads all of British Columbia to a positive, sustainable future.

It achieves this through six missions. They’re called missions because they’re in reference to Mariana Mazzucato’s book, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. Mariana is a world-respected economist and has worked with our government in drafting this economic plan. In this book, she argues that the greatest challenges of our time need to be taken on with the same bold and inspirational approach as the moon landing.

The first three missions that we’re talking about regarding inclusive growth are (1) supporting people and families, (2) building resilient communities and (3) advancing true, lasting and meaningful reconciliation with Indige­nous peoples. These three missions set a number of key actions.

As we know, over the next ten years, there will be an estimated growth in jobs in this province of over one million jobs. To fill these jobs, our government is adding 2,000 new tech seats to our post-secondary institutions. We’ll create more programs to support workers, First Nations and communities through economic transition; provide more graduate scholarships; expand training for health care workers; and, also, build a $140 million, world-class trades and technology complex at BCIT.

We’ll also be accelerating investments to connect rural communities to high-speed Internet so that all communities in B.C. can get access to the same digital economic opportunities. With 98 percent of all businesses in B.C. being small businesses, we are also developing a small business diversity and inclusion action plan. To help ensure that our investments in economic growth are grounded in reconciliation, we’re co-developing an Indigenous-led agency focused on Indigenous economic development.

The final three missions are related to clean growth. The first one: meeting B.C.’s climate commitments. The second: leading on environmental and social responsibility. And the third: fostering innovation across our economy. Together, these three missions set actions to strengthen growing areas of our economy.

B.C., as we know, is a world leader in mass timber and has more mass timber buildings per capita than any place in North America. Our government is strengthening this opportunity by creating a mass timber action plan.

We’re also establishing an ESG centre of excellence to promote environmentally friendly and socially responsible goods.

B.C.’s fast-growing life sciences sector is another leading sector that employs over 17,000 people. Our government will further strengthen B.C. as an international life sciences hub through the creation of a life sciences and biomanufacturing strategy.

Also, manufacturing is B.C.’s second-largest contributor to GDP for goods-producing industries and employs over 167,000 people. Our government will grow this sector through the creation of an industrial and manufacturing action plan.

[11:20 a.m.]

Our government will also establish integrated marketplaces to help connect local clean tech companies to fulfil the needs of other B.C. companies. To help move goods as efficiently as possible across the province, our government will develop a goods-movement strategy.

Our agriculture, seafood and processing sectors employ more than 64,000 people. With the creation of an agritech sector of excellence, B.C. can become a world leader by helping companies in these sectors scale up.

Finally, to help identify new trading opportunities and pivot away from single markets, our government will develop a trade diversification strategy.

The StrongerBC economic plan is bold and it’s far-reaching. It sets a bright path for a clean economy that works for everyone in British Columbia, and I’m proud to support that path forward.

C. Oakes: A goal without a plan is just a wish. A roadmap without coordinates leaves you driving in circles. The NDP’s so-called economic plan, which took five years to get us to this point, is an obvious example of just this.

At the cornerstone of any economic development plan should be a workforce readiness tied to labour forecast. As members of this House have mentioned, there will be nearly one million job openings in the next decade, with over 80 percent of those jobs requiring some kind of post-secondary education.

The NDP economic plan talks about these new actions that are being taken by the government. I heard from the member just now about all of these plans that are coming forward.

Here’s a plan that should have been the foundation of the economic plan, the Future Ready: Skills for the Jobs of Tomorrow plan, mentioned in this really lovely, colourful brochure. But here’s what the government did not announce: this jobs plan isn’t actually completed. Another detail that the government has failed to share is the fact there has actually been no additional operating funding put into the post-secondary education sector.

We have an economic plan based on a Skills for the Jobs of Tomorrow plan — which, to be clear, five years in to a ten-year plan, is still not complete — and there is no additional money for operating in the budget to actually support the operations of our post-secondary education institutions to fulfil those job openings, which we all know will be needed.

All signs of this roadmap are deeply troubling. Under the NDP, British Columbia has not only become more and more unaffordable…. Let us talk about this economic plan, which has left young people, who can no longer afford rent, let alone buy a house…. Metro Vancouver has the lowest vacancy and highest rents of any metropolitan area in Canada with at least one million people, but the government’s promised renter rebate is nowhere to be found.

Kind of like those tech seats that the member opposite was talking about. We keep hearing these seats being announced, but unless you can actually put somebody in a seat that is actually created…. What is that?

Housing supply also hits a record low, and the average home price in B.C. has surpassed $1.1 million, up 25 percent in 2021 alone.

Parents can’t afford accessible or affordable child care despite promise, year after year, by this government of universal $10-a-day child care. In fact, the government has made it cost prohibitive for private sector child care providers, which deliver half of the total child care spaces in British Columbia, to operate, purely based on ideology. Families end up paying the price for this.

Communities across this province, and commuters, are faced with the highest gas prices and the highest gas taxes in North America. The government’s so-called $110 relief plan is not even enough to cover one tank of gas for a minivan.

Let us talk about our health care sector, the health care sector which is on the verge of collapse. We’ve heard, time and time again, people desperately calling for more support for our health care sector. One would imagine that a government — and it would be a part of the economic plan — would understand the need to be investing in the training of health care professionals.

As part of the NDP election platform — another flashy, lovely, colorful brochure — they said that they would build a medical school in Surrey. So where is it? Where is the plan? Where is the budget to build that medical school in Surrey?

[11:25 a.m.]

How do any of us attract people into our province and into our communities if we do not even have basic services? This government has lost touch with reality and the challenges that real people are facing today. They keep patting themselves on the back, being a champion of everything but delivering on very little. This government has not shown the leadership that families, workers and small businesses need to cope with the fundamental changes brought to the economy by the pandemic.

I do agree on one thing — that of all British Columbia’s many advantages, our most important asset is its people. It is clear from this plan that the people of B.C. have been abandoned by the NDP government. Making promises is not the same as making progress.

Stop making life more unaffordable. To the NDP, come up with a real economic plan.

B. Anderson: I’m happy to speak in support of this motion today.

For too long, governments have been focusing exclu­sively on economic indicators like GDP, which merely measures the size of the economy and misses out on how the economy is impacting the environment and how it is working for people. Today members of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented the third and final part of the most definitive assessment of the climate crisis, focusing on how to mitigate its effects. The future is bleak unless we decarbonize our economies quickly. There are no jobs on a dead planet.

Our CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 and our StrongerBC plan provide a framework to create a low-carbon economy that works for everyone. The province will continue to measure and report on GDP, and, starting with our StrongerBC plan, we will also measure internationally recognized well-being indicators like affordable housing, post-secondary training and poverty reduction, as well as GHG emissions.

Rural communities are critical to the economic success of British Columbia. Traditionally, the economy of the Kootenays has primarily been resource-based — forestry, mining and agriculture. While resource extraction still represents a component of rural economies, they are diversifying. Diversification helps to manage volatility and to provide a more stable path for equitable growth and development.

The Creston Valley is the agricultural hub of the Kootenays. Our government invested half a million dollars into the development of Creston’s food hub. The food hub will increase locally made, value-added food and beverage options, benefiting the people, helping the region’s producers expand and creating local employment. Our government is partnering with local organizations to leverage the community’s potential so that they can thrive and be resilient.

I am delighted that B.C. is the first province to explicitly incorporate regenerative agriculture into its food and farming policies. Regenerative agriculture encompasses practices that support soil health, sequester carbon, reduce erosion, help buffer the impacts of extreme weather and also reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, while producing healthier crops with higher levels of phytochemicals and micronutrients. Regenerative agriculture is the future.

For too long, we have allowed logging companies to log unsustainably. Our government is committed to a paradigm shift in forestry to ensure that the forestry industry is sustainable for generations to come while protecting critical ecosystems and preserving old-growth forests.

In the Kootenays, logging has always been a part of the economy. However, diversification and innovation are key. Kalesnikoff, which is a multigenerational family-owned business, has recently completed North America’s most advanced vertically integrated multispecies mass timber facility. Through their state-of-the-art plant, they are innovating traditional building practices and revolutionizing construction methods in North America.

By replacing steel and concrete for sustainable wood products in construction, we can move our society towards a low-carbon future. Their mass timber products can be seen in buildings across North America, including universities, child care spaces and housing, like the newly built SHARE affordable housing complex in Nelson, which received funding through B.C. Housing. Organizations like Kalesnikoff are helping to ensure our economy is strong, diverse, resilient and sustainable.

[11:30 a.m.]

The pandemic highlighted that access to Internet speed is critical to ensure people can access health care, continue working, attend classes and connect with loved ones. In rural B.C., only 40 percent of rural communities and 38 percent of Indigenous communities have access to high-speed Internet. Through the connecting British Columbia program, our government is improving connectivity in communities like Boswell, Argenta and Ymir. Access to high-speed Internet is critical to helping rural communities diversify their economies.

The Kootenays has become a rural tech hub. The Kootenay Association for Science and Technology, established in 1998, developed the Nelson Innovation Centre, and last week we announced that the village of Kaslo received a provincial grant of nearly $1 million for their innovation centre. We’re attracting tech businesses in the Kootenays like Traction on Demand. Tech businesses would not be able to establish themselves in rural areas like Nelson if not for the connectivity that our government is investing in. Connectivity is critical to helping rural communities diversify their economies.

In closing, rural communities across British Columbia are benefiting from….

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

M. Bernier: It’s, I think, an honour to stand today, but I’m a little surprised with the motion that was put forward into this House by the NDP members. I mean, look, they want to talk about the new economic plan, but the main question would be: what plan?

When we look at what this government has put forward right now, it’s basically giving no direction, no forward-looking opportunities for the province of British Columbia. In fact, I know we’re not allowed to use props, but looking through a copy of B.C.’s economic plan, I think the plan itself is really just a prop. It’s not a plan. When you look at it, it doesn’t really talk about growing the province. It doesn’t talk about the future of what we need.

This government has stood up and said they’re going to be running deficit after deficit after deficit in this province. The Minister of Finance has stood up and said it could take up to ten years before this NDP government finds their way back to trying to balance a budget. The way you balance a budget, the way you grow the economy is by making sure you have stability, that you have confidence in the province so people will invest, so people will come here, so people will thrive, so people will make sure that we have family-supporting jobs.

Hardly anywhere in the economic plan do we see this government talk about what actually builds the province. There’s really nothing in there around forestry. There’s nothing in there around oil and gas.

Interjection.

M. Bernier: The member can laugh. If he wants to point to where it’s in there…. Even the minister himself and the NDP have talked about the fact that they’re attacking forestry, that they’re going to be losing jobs and that mills will be shutting down.

I looked through this, as well, to look for where we really will be highlighting the agricultural sector for rural British Columbia. Up in my region, we have almost 50 percent, in the Peace region, of the ALR land in this province — nothing in the economic plan that’s going to help grow and support and sustain an economic industry for rural British Columbia.

We look at the oil and gas sector, something that has been paramount in helping grow this province. We all look at the paintings in the rotunda of all of these resource sectors that have built this province and which help us build hospitals and schools and infrastructure. If we do not have a plan, if we do not have a way to support these industries, we will not have the resources needed to grow our province.

If we look right now, we have billions and billions of dollars, which have been publicly announced, that are being removed from British Columbia and going to Alberta and the United States. Almost every single company says it’s because they do not have confidence in British Columbia — in the investments in this area.

A plan without substance is nothing. We have seen British Columbia, over the last five or six years, become the worst jurisdiction in North America when it comes to affordability. This government has talked about all these glossy promises of how they’re going to fix this, and they have done nothing.

[11:35 a.m.]

Renter’s rebate — disappeared. Rent skyrocketed to the point where it is actually the highest it has ever been. We have the worst housing market now in all of North America. You look at the average price of a home in the Lower Mainland — average price — it’s exceeded now about $1.2 million, just for an average home. And this government has done nothing. When you look at rent going up by almost $3,000 a year, this government has done nothing.

To have a motion in front of the House asking us to support this new economic plan that they have…. It’s pretty hard to support something that is actually not going to do anything to help people, to make life more affordable, to instill confidence in investors in the province of British Columbia.

The members need to put something in front of this House that actually shows some direction, actually shows some leadership and shows why this House should support something. That’s not in this plan. That’s why as the opposition, it is our job to make sure we continue highlighting all of the failures of this government and the reason why the people of British Columbia are struggling and only $200 away from being able to pay their bills each month. That’s not the province that we should be bragging about, and this government needs to do better.

J. Brar: I’m pleased to rise in this House today to support the motion introduced by the member for Abbotsford-Mission that this House support B.C.’s new economic plan and this government’s work to build an inclusive, sustainable and innovative economy that works for everyone. People of British Columbia deserve an economic plan that tackles the challenges of today, while growing an economy that works for everyone.

I have seen the critique from the members from the other side, but under the B.C. Liberals, B.C.’s economy was only working for the top 1 percent wealthy and well-connected people. Kevin Falcon and the B.C. Liberals gave massive tax breaks to the top 1 percent and forced others to pay for those tax breaks by cutting services people depend on and by increasing MSP premiums, B.C. Hydro rates, ICBC rates, tuition fees. And the list goes on.

Let me give you some facts. As Finance Minister, in 2012, Kevin Falcon increased car insurance rates by 11 percent. As Transportation Minister, he put tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and Golden Ears Bridge, costing families up to $1,500 a year. Now Falcon says removing the toll bridge was “terrible public policy.” He also increased MSP premiums by 6 percent when he was Health Minister in 2010 and by 4 percent when he was Finance Minister in 2012. And the list goes on.

Our StrongerBC plan is to build an economy that works for everyone, because an economy built for everyone is an economy built to succeed. It builds off our strong economic recovery and moves B.C. forward by setting out to tackle two of our biggest challenges at this time: inequality and climate change. Our government understands that people are the economy and that growing the economy cannot mean leaving people behind.

Today B.C. is a national economic leader, and our StrongerBC plan provides a framework to create a low-carbon economy that works for everyone. As a first step in this plan, the province is investing $136.6 million to build a new state-of-the-art trades and technology complex at BCIT Burnaby campus. The new campus will ensure future students have access to the best tools, instructions and equipment needed to meet the demand for an estimated 85,000 new trades jobs expected over the next ten years.

[11:40 a.m.]

Along with this complex building at BCIT, other key actions under this plan include training British Columbians to succeed in the jobs of tomorrow, accelerating the timeline to connect all B.C. communities to high-speed Internet, creating opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs, expanding domestic manufacturing capa­bilities and building more resilient B.C. businesses by expanding access to global markets.

This plan is built with the belief that an economy can grow and thrive while investing in two core issues of this time: inequality and climate change. Members from the other side have been speaking, and I just want to say — I understand I have been here for a long time — the B.C. Liberals’ economic plan always has been to give more and more to the wealthy and well-connected, believing that the wealthy and well-connected will make life more affordable for the people of British Columbia. That is what their economic plan has been. Give me a break. It didn’t work before. It is not going to work again.

R. Merrifield: Over the weekend, I had the honour of attending an event hosted by Peter Boyd at Your Independent Grocer, raising funds with Maple Roch and the Red Cross for aid efforts in Ukraine.

As Peter and I were talking, he spoke of how price-conscious his shoppers have become over the course of the last six months — in particular, but over the course of the last few years — how they were having to buy less, because they simply couldn’t afford it, and his efforts to put those less-expensive items at the highest-seen shelves to help people during this really difficult time.

The cost of living is a huge concern, which is why we need and, as the member for Surrey-Fleetwood said, we deserve a strong economic plan now more than ever. A strong economy will have a high rate of economic growth. But B.C. is predicted to fall from first to third this year in growth, while it will also have low and stable inflation, which we all know B.C. does not have. And it will also have low unemployment. But this is propped up right now by public sector jobs adding $11 billion of costs to the taxpayer every single year in B.C.

What other aspects of a strong economy should there be? Rising exports, improved productivity, increased investment. This one is interesting, because the RBC provincial forecast has B.C., right now, sixth out of ten provinces in new investment dollars. It will also have falling government borrowing.

What does a strong economy do? Why do we deserve a strong economy? Well, because it gets higher average incomes with better standards of living; lower unemployment; lower government borrowing; improved public services with higher economic growth, leading to higher tax revenues, which enables the government to spend more on public services, such as health care and education, but without going into further debt.

Money can also be spent on protecting the environment. With higher economic growth, a society can devote more resources to promoting recycling, the use of renewable energy.

It also promotes investment. Higher investment increa­ses the scope of future economic growth, creating a virtuous cycle of economic growth and investment.

A great and strong economy also increases research and development. High economic growth leads to profitability for firms, enabling more spending on research and development. This can lead to technological breakthroughs, such as improved medicine and greener technology. Also, sustained economic growth increases confidence and encourages firms to take risks and innovate.

Economic development. The biggest factor for promoting economic development is sustained economic growth. Ultimately, a strong economy creates a decline in absolute poverty.

[11:45 a.m.]

These are the reasons that we don’t just want a strong economy, we need a strong economy. The private sector should be the engine of growth and innovation, while the public sector should create the stable circumstances for these businesses to thrive. But instead, this government is doing the exact opposite and killing businesses with a death of 1,000 cuts through taxation increases, increased uncertainty, increased costs and increased bureaucracy.

Bridgitte Anderson, the CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, said: “The pandemic has been challenging, especially for small and medium-sized firms struggling with lower sales, increased debt and higher costs. We believe a long-term economic strategy also needs to focus on tax reform, regulatory policies and the overall cost of doing business — issues the business community has long championed.”

How is this plan from the NDP the answer for that? There’s a lot of planning to plan in the plan. We’ve waited five years for the NDP government to plan to plan or recycle strategies and statements from before. Where’s the action on small and medium-sized businesses? Where’s the reduction of red tape? Where is the reduction of taxes? Where is the child care to support a labour force? How about a housing plan that works to increase business competitiveness? How about, instead of moving in a direction that actually makes sense, we help those businesses in need? Instead, this is taking us to economic oblivion.

K. Greene: There is a lot of change underway in the world, and the pace of change is accelerating. There are global trends driving this change: technology, inequality and climate change.

With respect to climate change, it is recognized that we need to transition to net zero by 2050, just 28 years from now. Globally, capital shifts to sustainable businesses are accelerating, because investors see the risk to their funds if climate change progresses unchecked. There are no jobs on a dead planet. The investment community has an expectation that soon, corporations will have to disclose climate risks and mitigation plans on their regularly filed disclosures, and as a result, they’re seriously evaluating their business models to find climate solutions.

Technological changes can have profound impacts on entire industries. Think for a moment about what has happened to camera film or telephone operators. British Columbia can be positioned well to take advantage of these major changes, or be left behind. Adapting and embracing change is the path to success, because change is an opportunity to do things better.

Traditionally, women and other equity-deserving groups are not included in new economic opportunities when there is technological change. Remember those telephone operators? We are making deliberate plans in StrongerBC to be inclusive, so there is economic opportunity for all.

The economy has to work for everyone, not just make the extremely wealthy even more wealthy. That’s why it’s important to measure the success of our plan with indicators beyond GDP, because success isn’t limited to economic value alone. Traditional measures of the economy will be supplemented with well-being indicators like affordable housing, post-secondary training and poverty reduction.

More and more governments around the world are measuring economic progress using a broad range of social, environmental and economic metrics. For example, OECD produces the Better Life initiative, and it’s based on 11 key indicators to compare the well-being of countries. The United Nations created a blueprint for a more sustainable future for all, and it includes 17 sustainable development goals that can be adopted for use at city, territorial or national levels. New Zealand’s national budgets now include indicators to measure well-being.

For those who are not familiar, ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. Applying ESG standards is good for society — there are benefits for us all — and also helps reduce economic risk, because activities which have the potential to harm the people, the planet or shareholders are avoided.

The world is facing considerable challenges: unequal economic benefit, climate change and rapid technological change. To meet the challenges facing society today, StrongerBC is aligned to support inclusive growth, so that everyone can benefit from a growing economy, and clean growth so that we can have a healthy economy for generations to come.

[11:50 a.m.]

To enjoy inclusive growth, we need to reduce barriers to participation, as in our StrongerBC economic plan. Women and families benefit from quality, lower-cost and accessible child care and better wages for early childhood educators.

All equity-deserving groups benefit from raising the minimum wage, good apprenticeships and more post-secondary seats in high-demand fields. StrongerBC includes support for Indigenous post-secondary institutes and skills training, and we’re already making tremendous progress connecting rural and Indigenous communities to high-speed Internet.

The tragedy of the commons is something that I think about quite often. It describes how the benefit of the commons, a pasture, accrue to individuals with their healthy livestock. But the negative effects, the degradation of the pasture from overgrazing, accrue to society. Eventually, the degraded pasture doesn’t even support the individuals who originally profited.

The old way of doing business is that negative effects are externalities and not included in a company’s statements, but really, environmental degradation and social costs affect us all. We just can’t afford the old way of doing business. ESG priorities ensure holistic action on the things that matter and measure progress accordingly. What gets measured gets done.

StrongerBC is a comprehensive and transformative economic plan and dovetails with CleanBC to ensure a thriving economy for our province’s future. I support this motion because our economic plan ensures that British Columbians will see the benefit of the transition to new opportunities. Most importantly, families across B.C. will benefit from a sustainable economy that is inclusive and works for them, not just those at the very top.

T. Stone: I’m pleased to rise today to speak to this motion which actually sounds good when you read it on paper. Obviously, as businesses continue to cope with the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, I think all British Columbians would expect that government would deliver a plan that builds an economy that works for all British Columbians.

That’s certainly what we, as the opposition, were hoping for as well, but that’s not what we have seen from this government. That’s not what we see in their so-called economic plan. As many of my colleagues that have spoken before me here this morning have indicated, it’s a plan that does not address the significant increase in the cost of living that British Columbians are struggling with, those affordability challenges, largely exemplified in housing, gas prices, grocery costs and so forth.

It’s certainly not a plan to address investor confidence and what more government can do with the levers and the policy options it has to attract more investment here to British Columbia. It certainly is an economic plan that doesn’t speak to tax relief for struggling small businesses. It’s a plan that really doesn’t focus on getting British Columbia back to a balanced budget at any point, not even within a ten-year time frame at this point. Speaking as someone with a background in business, I can certainly say that this is not a recipe for success, for long-term durable growth.

How do we monitor and measure the plan’s success over time if there are no targets and outcomes? Previously, the member for Richmond-Steveston referred to it: “What gets measured gets done.” The problem is: there are no measurements in this economic plan. We’re starting to wonder if this government deliberately leaves them out because they know they won’t achieve them. This is a government that seems intent on recycling old promises or making plans to make more plans — again, plans for plans. That’s certainly exemplified in this so-called economic plan.

Back in February, Fiona Famulak, the president and CEO of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce said: “The government’s plan lacks the detail of how the desired outcomes will be delivered, along with the costs associated. Until more information is made available, StrongerBC is an aspirational vision.” I couldn’t agree more.

Just last Thursday — this is interesting — Prof. Mariana Mazzucato released her report on the government’s economic plan. Now, I’ll remind this House that when the government brought in Ms. Mazzucato on board as an adviser, the Jobs Minister said: “Your theories and approaches to economic development align with those of our government.” So imagine our surprise when Professor Mazzucato levelled some pretty serious criticism at the government, with one of her main concerns being that their economic plan doesn’t include concrete targets.

[11:55 a.m.]

Her report, again, from last Thursday, said: “It is vital that concrete targets and objectives are attached to each mission area to ensure that success or failure can be monitored and assessed.” She went on further to say: “An important next step for B.C. will…be to turn the existing mission areas into concrete missions with well-defined targets” — that are measurable and time-bound — “to ensure that progress can be monitored effectively.” She also said: “A siloed approach to policy-making continues to stifle cross-sectoral innovation and limit progress towards tackling grand challenges.”

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

This is the adviser that this government brought in at great cost; $350,000 of taxpayers’ money to bring this adviser in, and this is what she had to say about this government’s economic plan. The question now becomes: will this government listen and make the adjustments needed to better assure British Columbians that rebuilding and growing our economy is a priority? Frankly, I’m not that optimistic that that will happen.

When it comes to listening, this government’s track record speaks for itself, whether it’s making sudden changes, seemingly out of nowhere, to individualized funding for children with support needs; not listening to the slew of businesses or business organizations and municipalities that want to see tax relief — the split-assessment tax relief being one example; or creating InBC — the government’s half-billion-dollar high-risk venture capital scheme that’s not subject to FOI, that has no business plan, no investment criteria, no scorecards and will report out on progress every five years; or numerous pieces of legislation that are light on detail, with decisions made later in regulation rather than being debated thoughtfully in this House.

I could go on and on, but I’m running out of time. If there ever was a time for this government to start listening, it would be now. This government should listen to the chorus of voices urging government to ensure its economic plan is updated with concrete targets, so progress can be monitored and measured. Imagine that, Mr. Speaker.

R. Russell: On Friday, as I drove through the flood-ravaged farms near Princeton, I found myself thinking about: what is important to the kids in the back seat of my car? What’s important to the farmers whose wheel lines were tangled and twisted with trees and debris from November’s floods? Thinking about the books of yesterday’s boom-bust development were balanced, with financial and envi­ronmental costs on today’s shoulders.

We’ve heard two different takes on economic development in this House today. One sees the few profit at the expense of the well-being of many. The other, as we’ve heard from this side of the House, is a version of economic development that makes sense to people, looking at a vision for our future that is steeped in financial successes that expand and bolster inclusion, financial successes that support thriving rural communities, financial successes that are rooted in actions that improve the health of the envi­ronment around us and support the environment that supports us.

In corporate worlds, the recognition of what matters to shareholders, and in this case, what matters to the people of British Columbia, is called ESG, environmental, social and governance. To boil it down, it means that when we set a vision for what success means to us in our economic plan, we look at all the factors that matter to us as humans: our pocketbooks, no doubt, but also our health, our envi­ronment and our social vibrancy.

Decades ago acquiring data was a limiting factor. In that world, GDP was a great proxy for development success. Now, capacity to filter and analyze the data around us is the bottleneck. We can estimate what really matters in our economic systems, not simply the cash that trades hands but also proper indicators of our collective well-being. This matters because, presumably, all of us in this House care about development because of a shared desire to improve well-being.

Capital is critical to growth. I think we all also agree on that. The lens that we take on that capital may differ. In my past work, I learned how some economists recognize a much broader suite of capital types, not just financial and built capital but also the role of natural capital, social capital and human capital. In this context, it’s easier to see that if our economic vision is forward-thinking and good for British Columbians, then it can’t rely on balancing the books of financial capital by eroding social, human and environmental capital.

Even more exciting than that, we see that indeed there are synergies between these forms of capital. If we are able to provide more support for growth of our social, human and natural capital, we see growth in financial and built capital and, most importantly, sustainable growth that benefits the many, rather than providing the few with more at the expense of many.

How are we doing? As the member opposite pointed out earlier, we’re number one in the country. That probably speaks pretty well to how we’re doing so far. There are too many examples to do justice in the time I have left. Look at projects like InBC, just mentioned — a strategic investment corporation investing in B.C. businesses with a focus on triple bottom line.

[12:00 p.m.]

Or agriculture, the ministry’s work on food hubs, Feed B.C., spin-off business development that brings increased economic multipliers with more dollars being spent in our rural communities. Increased food security, increased food safety, resilience and resilient farm economies and environmental health, because these producers in our small communities are rooted in place.

Or mining. As the minister mentioned in this House in February, we have international CEOs referring to B.C. as a tier 1 jurisdiction to invest in because of our regulatory regime and the stability created by our respect for envi­ronmental and Indigenous rights. Look at the growth we’ve seen recently in the mining sector to support clean tech mineral development in B.C.

Or forestry. We’re witnessing a shift from volume driving our decisions to value. Mass timber, as an example pointed out earlier…. We get jobs and money and consume less to get us there. Structurlam in the South Okanagan or in Kalesnikoff, as mentioned — these are good professional jobs in a growing sector.

Or landscape-level planning, reducing the risk of cumulative impacts taking us across our environmental tipping point, improving our ecosystem’s ability to soak up freshet. Floods may be great for GDP, but they are devastating and awful for real people. We’re showing how investments in natural capital and respect can boost financial capital.

Our Parliamentary Secretary for Non-Profits, our Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equality, our Parliamen­tary Secretary for New Economy, our Parliamentary Secre­tary for Technology — these are the kinds of huge opportunities for rural B.C., by helping build the scaffolding that allows people and communities to thrive.

Just this morning, while touring the Point Hope shipyards, the owner there spoke explicitly about his work to avoid the feast-famine dynamic of business development so that their company could provide household-supporting, good jobs now and in the future. That’s good development for B.C.

Dr. Jane McGonigal, a bright mind in game design, put it well in their work: “We want to see a virtuous feedback cycle, an upward spiral.” This is what our economic vision looks forward to and helps build for B.C., an upward spiral for the people of B.C. That’s what we’re working to support with this economic plan.

R. Russell moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. S. Malcolmson moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 12:02 p.m.