Orders of the Day

Private Members’ Statements

GAS PRICES

L. Doerkson: We know that affordability is a critical issue in our province, one that is on the minds of so many British Columbians and is often discussed in this chamber. However, I find that too often people fail to understand the gravity and the severity of the situation and the current reality in British Columbia.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

For example, did you know that more than half of the people in our province say it is becoming harder to feed themselves and their families? According to the same survey from MNP, 53 percent of people say that it is getting increasingly difficult to pay for transportation. That’s up nine points since just last year. We are in crisis, and it is impacting everyone in British Columbia, but particularly our most vulnerable.

An area of particular concern is the rising cost of fuel. Here in British Columbia, we regularly hold the unfortunate honour of having the highest gas prices in North America. It’s staggering that we can let fuel get so expensive and do so little to address it.

Now, some people argue that these record-breaking gas prices are entirely the result of factors beyond our control. While world events have helped to contribute to the meteoric rise in prices over the last year, it’s important to note that B.C. continues to have disproportionately high gas prices and no meaningful relief.

[10:05 a.m.]

While gas prices in Vancouver averaged $2.42 a litre last week, prices in Toronto, Ontario, averaged more than 80 cents per litre less, at $1.60. Significant price discrepancies like this between B.C. and other provinces have been the reality for months, but if the blame for rising prices rested solely on global events, we would expect to see much more even prices across the country. While other provinces have taken steps to suspend certain fuel taxes when prices get prohibitively expensive, we have seen nothing of the sort in British Columbia, despite many calls for relief.

High gas prices are a problem for many reasons. There is, of course, the obvious fact that regular trips to the pump are getting more and more expensive. It really shouldn’t cost hundreds of dollars to fill a vehicle with gas, but that is now the case for many families. People shouldn’t have to choose between filling their car with gas or affording groceries or rent, but it is getting harder and harder to make ends meet.

Every day I see the impacts of high gas in my riding. In rural B.C, larger vehicles are common and often necessary for safety and for practicality. We drive longer distances, often in poor conditions, and therefore need a vehicle designed for those elements. I’m not sure when other members of this House have last filled a truck with a tank of gas, but I can tell you it is certainly not fun. Over the past year, it has not been uncommon for people in my riding to spend upwards of $200 on a tank of gas.

Now, for the average person, this is certainly an issue, but think about the impact that these prices are having on farmers and ranchers in my region and throughout the province. Not only does it make it harder for them to stay in business, it is tough to continue to provide the food that British Columbia residents need. It also means that food will probably get more expensive as those costs are passed on to consumers.

This leads to an important truth to realize, which is that rising fuel prices are not just a problem for people who drive cars. Earlier this year, when asked about what people should do in the face of rising prices, the Premier suggested that people should take the bus. This is unhelpful advice for a number of reasons.

The first is that it reveals the disconnect that too often exists from this building to the vast majority of British Columbia. So much of this province is deeply underserved by public transit. You can’t tell someone to simply take the bus in so many places throughout rural B.C., including Cariboo-Chilcotin, because no such bus service exists. Not everyone drives a gas-guzzling vehicle simply because they want to. Very often it is because they genuinely have no other practical choice.

The other problem with that type of advice is that it implies that the only thing high gas prices make expensive is filling up one’s own vehicle. In fact, high gas prices make everything else more expensive, from groceries to housing. Anything that depends on our supply chains costs more when fuel prices go up. Of course, those who have to drive regularly are most acutely impacted, but no one is immune to the rising cost of living and the consequences of skyrocketing fuel prices.

For months, my colleagues and I have brought the issue of gas prices forward in this House for discussion, and it has felt like our concerns have not fully been heard. Today I hope to see a change in this attitude, and I look forward to hearing from my government colleagues as to what is being done to address rising fuel prices.

Deputy Speaker: If I might remind the member, this is private members’ time. It is not the time of opposition versus government, but it’s the time of private members putting forward their arguments. Then we have others responding. The time for question period–style back-and-forth is, of course, later in the day.

L. Doerkson: Thank you for that advice, Mr. Speaker.

I’m actually through with my speech. Thank you very much.

J. Routledge: Thank you to the Member for Cariboo-Chilcotin for putting gas prices on our agenda this morning. British Columbians are anxious to know why gas is so expensive and what we’re doing about it, and I’d like to provide them with some answers.

[10:10 a.m.]

First of all, this current crisis has been decades in the making and is largely caused by decisions made beyond our borders.

The oil industry has been called an oligopoly. That is when a small number of companies own and sell most of the supply, and instead of competing with each other, they work together to mutually maintain profits. That’s why when there’s a fire in a refinery in Ohio or when water levels in the Mississippi River are so low that oil barges run aground on their way to the Gulf Coast or when Russia invades Ukraine, gas prices go up in lockstep everywhere.

We’ve been through this before. The first oil crisis occurred in 1973, when Arab states proclaimed an embargo on countries that supported Israel. Within a year, the price of oil went up 300 percent. It happened again in 1979, this time sparked by the Iranian revolution.

Our federal government tried to control the price of gas for Canadians. Remember Pierre Trudeau’s ill-fated national energy program? Remember when Petro-Canada was still a Crown corporation? Also, remember when Albertans proudly sported bumper stickers that hoped Eastern Canadians would freeze in the dark?

Gas prices have long been contentious. But why are gas prices so much higher in B.C. than the rest of Canada? Again, it’s supply and demand. It’s baked into our market-based economic system. Simply put, we don’t refine enough oil in B.C. to meet local demand. We import most of our refined oil from the United States and Alberta. There are 18 oil refineries in Canada. More than half of them are in Alberta and Ontario. The largest one is in New Brunswick.

There are two small refineries remaining in B.C., the Parkland refinery in Burnaby and the Tidewater refinery in Prince George. Together they produce only 30 percent of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel consumed here.

I say remaining refineries because there used to be a lot more of them on the Burrard Inlet. Petro-Canada, in operation since 1958. Shell Canada, since 1932. Imperial Oil, since 1915. All closed. Now, when a refinery in Washington shuts down for maintenance, our gas prices spike, and demand continues to grow. A record 100,000 people moved to B.C. last year alone.

Gas prices are only one component of a cost of living that has been higher here for as long as I can remember. One of the most hotly contested debates in the Public Service Alliance of Canada, convention after convention, in the ’70s and ’80s was regional rates of pay. For example, a skilled tradesperson working on a Canadian Forces base in Ontario was paid less than one doing the same job on a base in B.C. because the cost of living was so much higher in B.C.

What can the provincial government do about it? Some have urged us to remove the carbon tax. Alberta already tried something like that. When they discovered that the savings were being absorbed into profits, not being passed on to the consumer, they admitted defeat and reinstated the tax.

In B.C., we’ve taken a more structural approach. We recognize that gas prices are just one component of an affordability crisis. In the short term, we’re providing direct relief. We’ve lowered car insurance rates, we’ve provided ICBC rebates, we’ve removed the tolls on bridges, and we’re boosting the climate action tax credit and the B.C. family benefit.

Our long-term strategy is to incentivize British Columbians to reduce our reliance on volatile gas prices and fight climate change together. Rebates encourage us to purchase zero-emission vehicles. So do our investments in a network of charging stations. Right down the street from me, in Burnaby North, Parkland is rapidly transitioning to biofuel. Already it has the highest biocontent at the pump. They’re world leaders and are on track to meet 50 percent of B.C.’s renewable fuel goals.

The world is changing. Our climate is changing. So, too, must the way we fuel our vehicles.

L. Doerkson: Thank you to the member opposite for your contributions. This is certainly an important discussion. I had hoped for something different, and I think millions of British Columbians would have wanted to hear something else. But I certainly appreciate your thoughts.

[10:15 a.m.]

It has served to reinforce the idea that decision-makers in Victoria don’t understand that the daily lives and experiences of British Columbians…. People want to know that government is looking out for them, that they understand what people are going through and will take real steps to address the pressing issues. But there is a real feeling throughout B.C. that critical needs are not being met, from health care to affordability and everything in between.

I have heard from so many people who were deeply frustrated by the supposed gas rebate that the member mentioned and that, earlier this year, came from ICBC. People were upset that it was such a low amount, equalling only about a half a tank of gas for people in my riding. That full amount was given to everyone, regardless of whether they had an electric car or even needed to purchase gas on a regular basis. It also did nothing to address the underlying problems or the impact on our supply chains.

In situations like this, targeted relief is key. Over the past year, my opposition colleagues and I have made numerous suggestions of relief that could make a real difference in people’s lives. These measures included temporarily suspending the provincial gas tax and suspending the hidden import taxes on gas brought into British Columbia from Alberta — straightforward, economically sound and desperately needed steps that would help people right now.

Additionally, it’s important to examine exactly what is causing such high gas prices when we have examples of places, like the Sea to Sky and the Fraser Valley, which are not subject to many of the gas taxes applied in Metro Vancouver yet often have gas prices on par or well in excess of the Lower Mainland. It’s an issue that should be explored as we look for ways to provide relief during these challenging times. The simple truth is that far too many people in British Columbia cannot afford to live here right now. They can’t afford housing, they can’t afford groceries, and they can’t afford the price of gas.

As members in this house, we have a responsibility to hear and acknowledge the significant concerns of our constituents and take real steps to improve their lives. We know that gas prices are a critical issue for so many people right now. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all of us to take action and deliver much-needed relief.

POVERTY REDUCTION

B. Bailey: In March 2019, TogetherBC, British Columbia’s poverty reduction strategy, set a path to reduce overall poverty in British Columbia. After 16 years of government prioritizing those at the top and cuts to social safety nets….

Deputy Speaker: Member, it is private members’ time. Let’s try to limit the back-and-forth, in terms of criticizing each other. Let’s be focused on the arguments, rather than arguing with each other.

Please proceed.

B. Bailey: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll adjust accordingly.

In 2016, B.C. was well behind the rest of Canada in regard to poverty rates for all populations, child poverty and for seniors.

This strategy wasn’t a wish list. It’s an aggressive strategy, with teeth. It has legislative targets, timelines and accountabilities. Specifically, legislative targets are to reduce the overall poverty rate by at least 25 percent, and child poverty by 50 percent, by 2024, as compared to the base rate of 2016. Government will prepare annual progress reports by October 1 each year that describe the actions taken, progress made and accountability.

An independent advisory committee was appointed to advise the minister, with representation from all around the province. It includes advocates, experts, Indigenous people — people with lived experience. The committee includes a letter in each of the annual reports, outlining their views on progress made and progress required going forward. The 2021 report was tabled on October 5 in this House by the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.

Also, as required by law, the strategy is to be updated at least every five years, with the next one due March 2022. Engagement to refresh the strategy will start later this fall.

Let’s get into what the 2021 report revealed. Of course, 2020 was an extremely difficult year for many British Columbians. From the opioid epidemic to a poisoned drug supply to COVID-19 and labour difficulties, climate events and global supply chain interruptions, the challenges just kept coming.

[10:20 a.m.]

While it remains true that many are suffering and much more must be done, and despite these national and international trials, some indicators in this time frame are positive. In Canada, poverty lines are based on Stats Canada market basket measurement of consumption needs, or the MBM, which is revised every ten years based on current consumption patterns. It was last revised in 2018.

In B.C., the poverty rate among all persons in 2016 was 16 percent. The legislative target, 75 percent of that rate, is 12 percent. By 2019, that rate had dropped already to 11.9 percent. The legislative target was met. In 2020, the poverty rate among all persons dropped even further, to 7.6 percent. The child poverty rate in B.C., that of persons aged 18 and under, was 17.4 percent in 2016. So the legislated target, half of this rate, is 8.7 percent. By 2019, the child poverty rate had dropped to 7.3 percent. Again, the legislative target was met. In 2020, the child poverty rate dropped even further, to 5 percent.

These changes in poverty statistics were life-changing, not just numbers, for hundreds of thousands of people. Between 2016 and 2020, almost 400,000 British Columbians moved out of poverty, including more than 100,000 children.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, we must acknowledge that there are reasons to be encouraged but also reasons to be concerned. There are still far too many people living in poverty in this rich, rich province of ours. Secondly, poverty does not affect all people equally, and more work is needed in partnership with Indigenous peoples, since they continue to experience higher rates of poverty compared to non-Indigenous peoples as a result of racism, discrimination and the ongoing legacy of colonization.

If we look at the progress made and reported on in the 2019 report, where the objective of decreasing poverty for all persons was accomplished, this data is largely free from dramatic swings in economics and world affairs. The result is linked to the work done, and it’s encouraging to see that determination and well-targeted programming had the desired results. It shows that without the pandemic and war, our work to reduce poverty was working.

The large reduction you see in the 2020 report — all persons, from 11.9 percent to 7.6 percent, and child poverty to 5 percent — while very exciting on first blush, is impacted by additional factors. The report goes into this in some depth. Both the federal government and our government had robust policy responses to the income loss associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and these are a significant reason that poverty rates declined so markedly in 2020. Consequently and unfortunately, these reductions are likely to be temporary, because these pandemic responses have now largely ended.

Yet as we know, based on the results seen prior to 2020, our programs are having impact. New programming in this time frame included making the largest-ever permanent increase to income and disability assistance rates, doubling the seniors supplement and expanding its eligibility to reach 20,000 more seniors, making public transit free for children 12 and under, increasing the minimum wage to over $15 an hour, introducing five days of paid sick leave for workers, providing new protections to prevent illegal renovictions, continued investments in child care and additional support for youth aging out of care.

In sum, according to the most recent statistics from Stats Canada in 2020, B.C. has again exceeded its initial targets to reduce poverty. While those numbers reflect real impacts on people’s lives, these results trail. We know that this year’s global inflation, the continued treatment of our homes as a market for wealth generation, and the end of many COVID benefits will impact our progress.

This government is serious about making things better for everyday people, and while we have begun to make progress in reducing poverty, our challenges are greater now than they ever have been. There is so much more work to do. These reports show us what’s working and what more must be done.

[10:25 a.m.]

D. Davies: Thank you to the member opposite for bringing this important issue forward today, especially on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. I am pleased to rise in the House to reflect on this issue, deeply important to many thousand British Columbians.

Poverty is a problem that affects citizens around the world and involves more than just money and income. It is a complicated and very multifaceted issue that affects individuals with different capabilities and overall well-being. Access to education, health, justice, family and community supports, and a voice in institutions are all-important to developing sustainable livelihoods. The challenges for British Columbians are growing, as they face the ever-growing affordability crisis, as many are seeing cost of rent, housing, gas, food and many other of life’s basic amenities skyrocket.

We’ve heard over and over again that 42 percent of British Columbians are one paycheque away from complete insolvency. To make matters worse, these health and economic impacts have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable members of our communities — seniors, people on the brink of poverty, people that are living with disabilities and those who are immunocompromised and have been unable to work during the pandemic.

Many of these British Columbians rely on steady, reliable income, both federal and provincial assistance, to help pay for things that they need: rent, gas, utilities, groceries and the other many things that we need just to carry on our lives. More importantly, these British Columbians depend on an open and transparent consultation and notification from their governments about any changes, so that they can plan accordingly around their budgets.

It means the difference between paying rent or missing a rent cheque, buying groceries or going hungry, meds or no meds, and it impacts many other pieces of the budget. You can obviously understand, Mr. Speaker, why there was shock and disappointment recently when many folks saw their disability cheques and income assistance reduced without warning. This puts more pressure on people who are already facing financial stress and increases the likelihood that they could fall into poverty or head deeper into it.

In the worst-case scenario, often those who fall into poverty end up homeless and on the street, as life has become unaffordable. The latest coroner’s report revealed that while homelessness has increased, there has been a 75 percent increase in deaths among those who are unhoused, which is unacceptable. Homelessness has increased, and that means further lives are being put at risk. Understanding the dangers that come with life becoming more unaffordable, we must concentrate our efforts on industries that can help people avoid such risks.

We also need to recognize the importance and value of a strong economy, which helps fund many of these services and the needs of our most vulnerable citizens. A strong resource sector is a key part of this, to create not only jobs but also stability in our beautiful province. Important job creators and revenue generators in this province must continue. They’re very important industries like forestry, natural gas and mining. These effective policies can maintain high productivity in our natural resources for a high return on the assets for British Columbians, to help lift people out of poverty.

Many individuals who live in rural areas depend on natural resources. The B.C. natural resource industry creates large amounts of direct revenue for the provincial government, which can go toward health care, education and the other critical social services that we, as citizens, need and expect. British Columbia must recognize the integral role that our natural resources play in the provincial economy and increase investment in the sector to develop this revenue generation, so that the province can invest this back into people.

As poverty continues to be widespread in our province, we must continue to work on reducing it, in every way that we can, to ensure the success of all British Columbians. While there has been progress made in the effort to reduce poverty, there is still much to do.

I do encourage fellow members to join me in thanking all of those people who work tirelessly every single day to lift people out of poverty, to help people, to help British Columbians. We must recommit ourselves to eradicating poverty in our lifetime.

[10:30 a.m.]

B. Bailey: Thank you to the member opposite for his thoughtful comments.

When discussing poverty reduction, one of the most impacted groups of British Columbians are those aging out of care. The late Katherine McParland, a beloved youth advocate and founder of A Way Home Kamloops, described youth aging out of care as a superhighway to homelessness. She once described that as a foster child…. Of her friend group of 30 former youth in care, 27 were living on the street.

Extending the age that youth age out from 19 to 21 is one of the most important anti-poverty changes we’ve made in this government. Former youth in care say that this is a huge change for young people in the foster care system, as it gives them the time they need to figure things out.

“I think I could have had a lot more support with my mental health, and financially,” says Dayna Chapman, a peer navigator with A Way Home Kamloops. Dayna lived in 11 different foster homes since she and her sister entered the system in 2004. She says she finally found a home with her last set of foster parents when she was 17. “I finally felt like I had a family, like I had a sense of belonging.” But she describes what happens next. Her social worker came a couple of months before her 19th birthday and let her know she’d have to find her own place.

Darien Johnson entered the government care system relatively late, when she was 16 years old. For Darien, it was being assigned a youth care worker that she says was the best thing that ever happened to her. In Darien’s view, assigning a youth care worker to foster children should happen right away.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development is adding 80 more transition workers to the system as part of the 2022 B.C. budget. Unconditional income supports of up to $1,250 a month for a whole year will be available for young people aging out of care. This is huge, and the fact that they are unconditional means that youth can work and add on to this base support. Youth who were in foster care can have their tuition waived and can access grants to help with post-secondary living expenses.

Again, these are huge, life-impacting changes. More assistance with housing costs, accessing youth transition workers, better medical benefits, free education and life skills programming will be available until age 27.

Darien says the extension on aging out of care is great, but for her, it’s having life guidance that’s the most important aspect. She says: “It doesn’t matter what age you’re let out of care. You’re still going to be floundering and figuring these things out on your own. I’m glad there are going to be more supports for youth as well.”

These changes to end the superhighway to homelessness will profoundly impact youth who have been in care. They create a pathway for folks to build the life that they deserve.

TIMELY ACCESS TO
MEDICAL IMAGING SERVICES

K. Kirkpatrick: On October 1, I was invited to an event with the B.C. Radiological Society for the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It featured the stories of breast cancer survivors and health care professionals with the goal of encouraging people to take charge of their health and to advocate for better access to medical imaging and early detection.

I understand, Mr. Speaker, that members of BCRS are actually tuned in today, this morning, to hear what I’m going to say.

I’ll read a quote from Dr. Yong-Hing. “We all work as hard as we can, but there are not enough ultrasound technicians, not enough ultrasound machines, not enough breast radiologists. There just isn’t enough capacity.”

It’s because of that meeting that I chose the topic today of timely access to medical imaging.

Patients and physicians rely on medical imaging for diagnosis on a wide range of medical conditions. Medical imaging is an essential part of the entire health care continuum, and we all deserve timely access to it. A few months of waiting makes a huge difference in cancer treatment. The longer the delay, the more likely cancers are identified at a more advanced stage, which will be more difficult to treat and with less chance of success.

One in eight women is expected to develop breast cancer during their lifetime, and there are a lot more than eight women in this House. So I know this personally impacts a number of us and our families. Of those diagnosed, one in 30 will die of it.

I was surprised to learn that 85 percent of women diagnosed have no family history of breast cancer. I also learned from the BCRS event that wait-lists are putting patients in British Columbia in crisis mode for medical imaging. This is especially concerning for individuals needing breast and colorectal cancer screening.

[10:35 a.m.]

Something that stood out for me also in hearing from radiologists, which I think is worth sharing, is…. It’s estimated that four in ten cases of diagnosed cancer are actually preventable with the right lifestyle.

Here are a few things I learned that you can do to reduce the risk of cancer later in life. Quit smoking or don’t start. Protect your skin and eyes from the sun with high SPF sunscreen and UV protective glasses. Maintain a healthy body weight with a balanced diet and regular exercise. Get up and move every single day. Limit alcohol consumption as much as possible. Basically all the things that we already know that we should and shouldn’t be doing. Now we have even more motivation for our lifestyle changes.

Now back to imaging. I have shared my own story many times now about how very lucky I am that early detection…. I went for my mammogram as soon as I got that B.C. Cancer letter reminder. So early detection is absolutely critical.

What I haven’t talked about was the stress and frustration of actually trying to get booked for my MRI. It felt like the Hunger Games. I couldn’t get the surgery until the MRI. I couldn’t get the MRI. I was going on a wait-list. It was at least a month, and I might have to go at three o’clock in the morning to Abbotsford, which is not particularly close to North Vancouver. Until I experienced this myself, I didn’t understand the difficulty in accessing medical imaging in B.C., and I didn’t understand the actual stress that it put on a person’s life.

Now, I heard a story last month on CTV which really resonated with my own experience. Three months after Kristina Tanner was told she needed a biopsy to determine if she had breast cancer…. The procedure finally happened this week. But the wait for the 69-year-old Vancouver resident, whose mother died of breast cancer three years ago, had been stressful. “It’s very upsetting because it’s always hanging over you,” she said. “You can’t help but think: ‘What if it’s spreading as I speak?’” Those are exactly the thoughts that I had.

Timely imaging services save lives by detecting cancers when they’re small and allowing less toxic, gentler therapies to be used with fewer and less severe side effects. In the case of screening mammography, it leads to a 25 percent reduction in advanced-stage breast cancers and a 41 percent reduction in mortality. However, here in B.C., radiologists like Dr. Yong-Hing and Dr. Gordon are sounding the alarm about the long wait-lists that we have for hundreds of thousands of patients who need medical imaging in this province.

In September, the B.C. Radiological Society sent an urgent letter to the Health Minister. I quote from it. “We fear for the tsunami of cancer cases, including those initially detected at stage 2 and above, that may be coming to B.C. because of delayed access to medical imaging.”

They’re asking to work with the province to address this urgent issue. Specifically, radiologists are asking for four things. The first is to deal with the critical shortage of medical imaging technologists. A health human resources solution must be developed to train, recruit and retain technologists.

The second is the need for new equipment to keep up with the demand and a long-term capital plan to invest in innovative technologies.

The third concerns the delayed access to breast imaging, as radiologists call for action to reduce wait times for breast biopsies and supplemental imaging for patients with a high risk.

The fourth is the need for additional funding to cover overhead costs for community imaging clinics, some of which are at risk of closing and reducing services due to costs, which could all lead to further delays and longer medical imaging wait times.

H. Sandhu: I would like to thank the member for West Vancouver–Capilano for sharing her thoughts.

Our government deeply cares about well-supported public health care. Our government’s values and stands on health care are the reason I’m standing here today.

My own family lost a loved one in 2010 due to the lack of services, resources, delayed diagnosis and inaccessibility of life-saving treatment. Our tough journey started in 2005 and ’06. It took more than two to three years for my first husband to finally get access to diagnostic tests and treatment. By then, it was too late.

[10:40 a.m.]

We didn’t have a cancer centre in Prince George at the time. The closest cancer centre — and from Terrace, too — was Vancouver, costing us thousands of dollars for each medical trip we had to make. I then continuously saw too many people having to go through the same challenges when I was working in health care. Therefore, I can empathize with the patients and families who have to go through similar challenges.

Our government has been constantly investing in health care to fill previous gaps and to strengthen the system. In May 2020, our government made a surgical renewal commitment to catch up on the surgeries that were postponed due to COVID-19 and significantly increased the number of surgeries performed above pre-pandemic levels. Government committed an initial $250 million to achieve this goal. In Budget 2021, our government committed $495 million over three years to support surgical and diagnostic strategies, and in Budget 2022, our government committed to a further $300 million over three years to address wait-lists for surgeries and scans.

On May 10, the Canadian Institute for Health Information released a report for surgery, diagnostic imaging and other procedures during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report shows that B.C. was one of the top-ranking provinces in performing surgeries and delivering MRIs and CT scans, and all this happened despite us having to deal with the pandemic and other crises.

For cancer surgeries, B.C.’s performance improved compared to 2020 and was mid-range when compared to other provinces. In radiation therapy, B.C.’s performance saw 88 percent of patients start their treatment within the first-four-week target. For MRI, wait times went from fifth in the country in 2018 to second in 2021. For CT, wait times went from sixth in the country in 2018 to third in 2021.

Benefits of these investments are being seen in my own constituency of Vernon-Monashee at Vernon Jubilee Hospital since we got the new MRI. From 2020 to 2021, 7,700 exams were performed — an average of 720 exams per month. Local patients now only wait for a few days, and a few weeks in some cases, depending on the surgery and their diagnosis, rather than months, which was the waiting period in 2019. Patients are appreciative that they no longer have to travel to Kelowna or other jurisdictions, and now we don’t have to send the entire patient transfer team along with the nurse to Kelowna.

Steve from Vernon and his family shared his story with me. Steve was diagnosed with colon cancer a few months ago. For Steve, it took nine days from the time of his diagnosis to surgery, and he received exceptional care.

There is no doubt that the pandemic affected the health care system, which interrupted services, and we face challenges. Therefore, we continue to invest heavily in the health care system. These investments are vital. Our government is committed to invest more and recently announced B.C.’s health human resources strategy to address these challenges so everyone can get the timely access to the care they need and our health care workers can feel supported, because they have been working too hard, for too long during this pandemic and opioid crisis.

We are also creating more training seats to meet professional needs, whether it’s in the nursing field or other health care professions, and we are looking ahead. This is taking proactive action so nobody falls behind and everybody gets the care they need and deserve.

K. Kirkpatrick: Thank you so much to the member opposite, who I know, with her experience in health care, certainly understands the issues and challenges that are happening.

As someone who has benefited from medical imaging services, I can’t stress enough the importance of listening to these serious concerns raised by B.C.’s Radiological Society. These issues that they identify have led to significant backlogs and pushed over-burdened medical professionals out of the field, and this has further exacerbated the delay. As radiologists have pointed out recently: “Delays in medical imaging cause delays in diagnoses, specialist referrals, surgeries, medical treatments, cancer care and more.”

[10:45 a.m.]

So it’s essential that the province collaborates with these professionals to develop specific solutions to address the issues, as such a dire situation is absolutely heart-wrenching and unacceptable.

Now, bear in mind that the letter from radiologists came only one week after 200 specialist doctors called attention to the crisis in specialty care, just in this past September. It’s estimated that one million patients are waiting to see a specialist in British Columbia. In these doctors’ words: “Our entire health care system is crumbling. Not enough is being done to improve specialist patient outcomes or shorten overcrowded wait-lists. If we do not work together to find solutions, specialty care in this province is going to erode even further.”

In B.C., just 20 percent of cancer patients are able to see an oncologist for the first consult within the recommended two weeks, compared to 75 percent in Ontario. Some people wait for months. Now, B.C. does not make publicly available these data, which are shared with BCRS by people working in the system.

Our health care professionals desperately want to provide care to patients, but they’re exhausted and demoralized in every part of B.C.’s health care system. As doctors and specialists are burdened with overhead and operating costs, B.C. needs an action plan, through genuine consultation, to relieve the pressure on health care workers. Doctors are asking to increase doctor training spaces, reduce barriers for internationally trained physicians and encourage more team collaboration.

I’d like to end by saying thank you to the radiologists that helped me, the B.C. Cancer clinic on the North Shore, where someone was able to recognize an unusual and hard to find image, North Shore Imaging as well as the radiologists at Lions Gate Hospital who figured out what the heck it was.

I apologize. I’m going to have to say this before I end. You can never trick a radiologist, because they can always see right through you.

INVESTING IN HEALTH SERVICES

A. Singh: Very good, my friend. That was apt.

Mr. Speaker, when one thinks of Canada and British Columbia, one of the first things of pride that comes to mind is our health care system. No doubt there are stressors on the system that lead to tragic situations. We can always improve, in any situation, and we’ll always strive to do so. Our government has done so for the last few years.

My friend spoke very eloquently about the investments we’ve made in medical imaging and the steps that we’ve taken over the last few years. No doubt, with the dual epidemics, over the last few years, there has been immense stress put on this system and the people that work within that system. But it’s still a system that we should have pride in, that we should work, all of us, together to make better.

Many here, and my friend spoke of this, have had firsthand experience with the health care system in their greatest time of stress — some friends across the hall, the Premier, myself included. A cancer diagnosis is a frightening thing, as are many other diagnoses. Like many British Columbians, you want the care to start immediately, as did I — that day, that hour, no delay. For me, as for many others, it didn’t. There was a wait to get the full diagnosis and another wait for the treatments.

That wait creates anxiety, understandably. It’s an anxious situation to be in, and that anxiety is greatly heightened. I chose to trust that I would be taken care of in this system. I chose to trust the oncologist. That trust was justified, as I stand here, post treatment from stage 3 colorectal cancer, feeling pretty good.

My experience — and it might not be yours — has been quite phenomenal in this health care system. Everybody deserves that care and compassion that they need at the time that they need. I got that.

We all recognize that the system has been stressed. When we speak about stressors…. They don’t just come from the dual epidemics, from COVID and from the opioid epidemic, but they come from a systemic underfunding of the health care system and an undervaluing of the people who work within that system.

Our government is as committed to health care as it ever was. It’s part of our DNA, essentially. That’s why we have been investing in health care ever since 2017. My friend eloquently spoke about that. Improving care for people in British Columbia is central to the choice that we make as a government.

That’s why earlier this month one of the many things that we did is…. We launched a health human resources strategy to optimize the health system, expand training and further improve recruitment and retention. As our Minister of Health said, we’re taking the next step in increasing access to public health care for people in British Columbia.

[10:50 a.m.]

Since 2017, we’ve taken significant actions to improve and increase access to health services, from performing a record number of surgeries to increasing our workforce by over 20 percent and adding more health-related education seats to post-secondary institutions.

We have made important progress. We know that people are facing real challenges right now, and there is much more work to do. This strategy will guide our next steps in building a strong, resilient public health care system for now and for the future. This strategy will support patients who rely on the public health care system by adding more doctors, nurses and health sciences professionals by adding more new education and training seats.

The strategy essentially focuses on four key areas: retaining, fostering healthy, safe and inspired workplaces; redesigning the system, balancing workloads and staffing levels to optimize quality of care by optimizing scope of practice; recruiting, attracting and onboarding workers by reducing barriers for international health care workers — we did that earlier this year with the internationally trained nurses — strengthening employer-supported training models, enhancing learning programs to support staff.

This is a multi-year strategy with several actions already having started. Immediately, we started to act, including adding 40 new undergraduate medical education seats and up to 88 new residency seats at UBC. These will be phased in throughout the province, beginning in 2023.

Beginning October 14, actually beginning this last weekend, pharmacists have been given the power to adapt and renew prescriptions for a wider range of drugs and conditions. These changes will, for example, help patients dealing with mental health and substance use disorders, and they’ll help those patients who don’t have a regular primary care prescriber to access the medications they need.

The Ministry of Health is also working with the College of Pharmacists of B.C. on regulations that will enable pharmacists to further prescribe for minor ailments and contraception by spring of 2023, a few months away.

New regulations will enable paramedics and first responders to provide a broader range of services to better care for their patients during emergencies. Many more actions will be announced in the coming weeks and months, with additional steps in the following years.

Health and human resources has been a key priority for this government. This is where we hear the most about extreme stress. This strategy and the actions set out within it will build on this foundation.

Since 2017, we have committed more than a billion dollars to support health care workers and increase access to health services for British Columbia. We’ve added 602 new nursing seats and 322 additional allied health–related seats to the public post-secondary institutions. We’re providing bursaries for existing health care workers, streamlining the process for internationally educated nurses to enter the British Columbia health system.

We’ve welcomed more than 38,000 new workers to the provincial health system during the past five years. I’m going to repeat that number: 38,000 new health care workers to the provincial health system. In addition, 250 net new paramedic positions throughout B.C. have been added.

Interjection.

A. Singh: Numbers don’t lie. Facts and numbers don’t lie, my friend.

In addition, 250 new net paramedic positions throughout B.C. have been added, many located in rural remote and First Nation communities, where they are needed.

We also offered — a few weeks ago announced — an investment of $118 million in stabilization for funding for family doctors with the Doctors of B.C. There’s also work being done to expand the number of people who will be entering and graduating from UBC’s school of medicine, in addition to work being done to open a second medical school in Surrey with Simon Fraser University.

You know, I could go on and on about all of the investments in health care that we’ve done, but I’m going to give my friends a little time to answer. Then I’ll come back with an answer to that.

T. Wat: With one million British Columbians on a wait list to see a specialist doctor; the country’s longest clinical wait times here in B.C.; one in five British Columbians without a family doctor; closed emergency rooms; unavailable ambulances; a tsunami of cancer, according to B.C. radiologists, due to the time it takes to get imaging; and so many other countless failures in our health services, they are letting people down.

[10:55 a.m.]

Investing in our health care is not just a necessity, but an obvious step that we should see more from our government. More importantly, I think, we have seen that throwing money at a problem doesn’t always fix the issue. It’s about good, effective government that takes bold action in a timely manner to address the people’s needs.

We saw this with the failed urgent primary care centres, UPCCs, which have been unable to address the primary care crisis in our province, where instead we have investments that are not giving taxpayers the benefits that were promised to them.

Deputy Speaker: Excuse me, Member. Sorry.

Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

Hon. S. Malcolmson: Mr. Speaker, we urge you to repeat the advice you’ve given to members on both sides of the House this morning about what is constituted within the definition of private members’ time.

Deputy Speaker: I don’t believe that’s a point of order, and the Speaker is quite capable of doing his job. Thank you, Member.

Please proceed, Member.

T. Wat: I respect the sentiment brought forward by my neighbour in Richmond, the member for Richmond-Queensborough. However, I think he and I know very well that people in Richmond and everywhere else in the province need more than just words and promises. They expect action and results. The members opposite who, like me….

Deputy Speaker: Member, I would encourage you to also look at Standing Order 25A. It’s pretty clear that we don’t target other members for opposition, suggesting they failed, suggesting anything about them. The minister just made that point. I chose not to pursue it, understanding that you would understand your job. So please do your job in a way that follows the rules of this House.

T. Wat: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your advice. I will do so accordingly.

We just hear many promises and announcements. British Colombians have heard from this government, and I just want to emphasize….

Deputy Speaker: Member, this is not partisan time. I’ve warned you once, and then you chose to ignore my advice and continue down what is a partisan track, not effectively pursuing the rules of 25A in this House, the standing orders. If the member is going to continue on a partisan track, we’ll have to end it here, but I’d prefer to let you continue speaking if you can focus on following the rules of the House. Thank you.

T. Wat: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your guidance.

Every single day I hear about how this health care system is letting my constituency down, and I know that all of us can relate to that. How much worse does reality have to get?

We need to answer those like William from Richmond, who says:

“I went to the emergency room at Richmond Hospital a few weeks ago, and after more than seven hours, we didn’t get the chance to see any doctor. The nurse told me the doctor was busy, and the entire emergency department only had one doctor. The nurse also told me that the new urgent care centre in Richmond closed earlier than their original proposed closing hour because they are short of doctors. We were there at 8 p.m. and stayed till almost 4 a.m. No doctor showed up at all.”

Or how about Agnes, also from Richmond, who had to wait at a UPCC for over five hours because her family doctor was too busy to see her immediately.

The reality is that these situations are far, far worse for many British Columbians that are waiting for treatment, diagnosis and help with even more serious and dangerous situations. Instead of a light at the end of the tunnel, they witness a system that continues to worsen.

When the emergency health care services are unable to treat an emergency or an urgent primary care centre is unable to act in urgency, we know we have a health care system that needs more than just investing. It needs a plan and bold action and not the delays, announcements and blaming that we have seen recently.

Our doctors, nurses and all those that put so much work into keeping British Columbians healthy need more support from this government. Those who rely on this system are counting on promises being kept.

[11:00 a.m.]

A. Singh: I spoke earlier about stressors. They don’t come just from the two epidemics that we’re in right now. They come from a systemic underfunding of the health care system and an undervaluing of the people who work in that system. This is in direct answer to my friend’s contentions on the other side.

For a long time, many cuts were made to the system.

J. Sturdy: That’s a lie.

A. Singh: That’s not a lie. Many customers in the system….

Deputy Speaker: Member for West Vancouver–Sea to Sky, please withdraw. I ask you to withdraw immediately.

J. Sturdy: I withdraw that comment.

Deputy Speaker: That’s unparliamentary language that’s not to be used in this House.

Please proceed, member for Richmond-Queensborough.

A. Singh: We see the result of that undervaluing even today, even after we’ve spent the last five years….

Interjections.

A. Singh: It’s not partisan. I’m explaining why the system is stressed. It’s stressed because you underfunded it for 16 long years.

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Order. Order, Members. Order.

[The Deputy Speaker rose.]

Deputy Speaker: Members will come to order.

Member for West Vancouver–Capilano…. West Vancouver–Sea to Sky.

I apologize to the good member for Capilano.

If you can’t hold your tongue, then I would ask you to leave the chamber. It’s your choice.

[The Deputy Speaker resumed his seat.]

Deputy Speaker: Proceed, member for Richmond-Queensborough.

A. Singh: So some facts. In 2009, the then Minister of Health forced health authorities…

Interjection.

A. Singh: You wanted facts. You wanted facts. And you called me a liar.

Interjection.

Deputy Speaker: Members. Members.

A. Singh: …to absorb $360 million in funding cuts. That’s not a lie.

Interjection.

Deputy Speaker: Member for Richmond-Queensborough.

Interjection.

[The Deputy Speaker rose.]

Deputy Speaker: Members.

Member, please.

Members, we are not going to continue this conversation. It seems like either side right now is unable to take a deep breath and find a way to follow the rules of Standing Order 25A. I’d ask the members to please review it.

We’ll try again next week when you come back. Hopefully, you’ll have learned the rules by then, Members. Thank you.

[The Deputy Speaker resumed his seat.]

Deputy Speaker: We’re going to proceed to the next order of the day.

Hon. K. Chen: I ask the House to consider proceeding with Motion 20, standing in the name of the member for Surrey South.

Deputy Speaker: Members, unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed to Motion 20 without disturbing the priorities of the motions preceding it on the order paper.

Leave granted.

Private Members’ Motions

MOTION 20 — COMMUNITY SAFETY
AND ROLE OF JUSTICE SYSTEM

E. Sturko: I move the motion:

[Be it resolved that this House support safe communities for British Columbians by ending the current catch-and-release justice system.]

Across our province, people are being violently attacked, having their businesses looted and their property damaged by a small but prolific group of chronic repeat offenders. Some of these offenders are racking up hundreds of police calls for service and dozens upon dozens of criminal charges.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

Many of these recent incidents have been shocking. A security guard viciously beaten. A woman violently attacked by a stranger in the lobby of her apartment. A food courier stabbed in the throat by a stranger as he tried to deliver an order. The list goes on.

What has been most shocking is how quickly these same individuals are then released into the public, where they continue to put safety at risk. The situation is even more confounding when one learns that often the accused person has a significant criminal history, previous criminal convictions for violent crimes and failure to abide by their release conditions.

In 2019, the federal government received royal assent on Bill C-75, legislation introduced with the intent of modernizing Canada’s justice system. One of the sections of Canada’s Criminal Code amended by Bill C-75 is with respect to granting bail. It requires that judges use the least restrictive forms of bail possible unless there is just cause. Just cause is used to describe the statutory grounds that justify pretrial detention of an accused. They’re laid out in our Criminal Code as flight risk, public safety and public confidence in the administration of justice.

Madam Speaker, you can see that even with Bill C-75, Crown prosecutors can present evidence in court that articulates the just cause for remanding dangerous people into custody.

[11:05 a.m.]

Earlier this year exasperated mayors sent a letter addressed to our former Attorney General pleading for action on the issue of prolific offenders who are causing chaos and assaulting people in their communities. Mayors called for more community courts, reassessing of the B.C. Prosecution Service’s charge assessment guidelines, more resources for prosecution services and stricter bail conditions.

Even with the knowledge that Bill C-75 had amended considerations for bail, and even with the knowledge that chronic repeat offenders were causing significant harm across B.C., the former Attorney General, the member for Vancouver–Point Grey, failed to act. He saw no fault in the federal legislation. He didn’t announce a trip to Ottawa. His replacement, our current Attorney General, balked at the idea that there was a problem at all. He dismissed concerns over violent attacks, tweeting on social media that it was all anecdotal rhetoric.

Perhaps it was their failure to believe mayors, or to believe the police, or to believe the victims of crime, or even to believe that there was a problem at all. Maybe that’s why they didn’t implement any of the mayors’ suggestions. Instead, they commissioned a study. After months and months, when the results of that study were met with underwhelming support, they decided to blame the federal government.

The NDP has now finally acknowledged that there is a problem with their catch-and-release justice system, and now they’re trying to pin it all on federal legislation. Our Attorney General, who used to be the federal MP, celebrated Bill C-75 when he worked in Ottawa, saying: “The bail reform provisions are exemplary, and requiring that the least onerous form of bail be imposed is a good thing.”

Now under fire for the disastrous impacts of his government’s catch-and-release system and C-75, he has changed his tune. To avoid responsibility, the Attorney General is touting that he voted against Bill C-75, but there’s much more to the truth. In fact, he voted against Bill C-75 because he felt it wasn’t lenient enough.

During my time as a police officer, I’ve had to face the victims of crime and tell them that the one that hurt them — the one that upended their lives, the one that filled them with fear — was back on the street. I had to tell business owners — look in their face and tell them — that the one that looted their store, that robbed them, that defaced their buildings with graffiti and smashed their windows was back on the street.

It’s time for this government to face British Columbians and see the pain that their failed catch-and-release system is causing. British Columbians are losing faith in their justice system. It’s time to scrap this government’s catch-and-release policy and immediately direct Crown prosecutors to seek remand for prolific offenders who continue to pose risks to public safety.

G. Begg: Thank you to the member for this resolution. Welcome to the House.

The resolution is: “Be it resolved that this House support safe communities for British Columbians by ending the current catch-and-release justice system.” For context, it’s important to acknowledge that this issue is not confined to British Columbia. It is widespread in every province.

Just last week our Attorney General and Solicitor General were in Halifax, along with their counterparts from across the country, to discuss this very issue. At that meeting, they heard that the issues of repeat offenders and violent-stranger attacks are a major concern across Canada — an unintended consequence of Bill C-75, and subsequent Supreme Court decisions, that has made it extremely difficult to hold violent offenders in custody while they are awaiting trial.

As important is context in this discussion: in other words, the origin, here in British Columbia, that got us to where we are today. What were the factors that led to this urgent situation in our province?

For decades, under successive Liberal governments, British Columbians have witnessed the erosion of social services for the most vulnerable in our communities — the closure of Riverview and the neglect of our families, friends and neighbours with mental health needs; the neglect of hard-working and contributing members of society struggling with addiction; the Indigenous communities and residents in remote communities with limited access to government and public programs; the neglect of people simply trying to keep up in areas of housing, accessible post-secondary education or vocational training. The list goes on.

[11:10 a.m.]

The net result of decades of Liberal neglect has been an increase in the criminalization of the mentally ill, the addicted and those who did not benefit from the Liberals’ rewarding of the most wealthy and privileged in our province. The vicious cycle that is corroding the fabric of our society is not the politically motivated and convenient catch and release; it is the failed neglect-and-forget approach from the past few decades.

Our government proposes to change that — to address the source of the concern rather than score cheap political points through a cruel, shortsighted and cynical critique of our system of justice. This government is requesting that Ottawa urgently explore options at the bail stage to better manage repeat violent offenders, while ensuring that we continue to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people and marginalized communities in the criminal justice system. Ministers Rankin and Farnworth raised this with their federal counterparts, who acknowledged the seriousness of this issue across the country. We’re hopeful that we can work together to come to a national solution.

B.C. will continue to act at the provincial level to strengthen enforcement and expand mental health and substance abuse treatment to break the cycle of reoffending. And because of B.C’s advocacy, we’re hopeful that we’ll see swift federal action to resolve these unintended consequences at the federal level as well.

These new B.C. Liberals claim to be reuniting or uniting B.C., and they complain of catch and release. Shame on them. Shame on them for blaming the hard-working police, prosecutors and other justice system partners who are trying to dispense fair and proportional justice to many accused who have fallen through the Liberal holes in our social safety net. By the time too many of these victims of Liberal neglect get to the justice system, the system has already failed them. Keeping all of them imprisoned is contrary to law and not a wise use of taxpayer funds.

We must invest in addressing the underlying drivers of these cycles of repeat offending. We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem. Absolutely, the most violent and hardened criminal elements should be dealt with swiftly to maintain public safety and security in our neighbourhoods, but we’re throwing good money at bad by addressing crime on the back end.

We will address the Liberals’ legacy of neglect and stop trying to arrest our way out of this. “Catch and release” is simply an election slogan. It is neither sensible nor a viable solution to the real problems British Columbia faces. If the Liberals want to unite behind more than an election slogan, we invite the parties across the aisle to join us…

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

G. Begg: …in laying the foundations for investment in the root drivers of low-level criminality.

Deputy Speaker: Member, thank you.

I would kindly remind the member that it is inappropriate to use names in the House. We use titles.

R. Merrifield: Well, I’d like to remind the MLA for Surrey-Guildford that British Columbians don’t really care about context. They care about today. They care about what’s not happening today. They care about crime today. They care about feeling safe today, and they care about what has not been done over the last six years of this NDP government.

Metropolitan Kelowna’s crime rate in 2021 was the highest in Canada, according to Stats Canada data, which shows almost double the rate than in other B.C. metropolitan cities. In December 2021, Kelowna RCMP identified 15 people who had 1,039 negative contacts with police in the first 11 months of 2021. That’s about three contacts with police every two weeks for each of them.

There is an offender in Kelowna who, since 2016, has generated 346 RCMP files and received 29 convictions for property crime and assault offences. This person has no-go conditions pertaining to 11 businesses yet is known to be routinely released with conditions and continues to reoffend.

[11:15 a.m.]

There has also been a 118 percent increase in the time taken by the B.C. Prosecution Service to review files from the police, then taking longer to conclude those files, approving charges less often, with fewer cases going to court and fewer people found guilty.

I am worried, not just as a member of this House but as a mother that has to constantly worry about the safety of her children; a mother who has had hundreds of kids, teens and young adults through my house as friends of my five kids and as kids of my friends; a mother who has four high schools, nine elementary schools, five middle schools of children in my riding alone.

The catch-and-release justice system continues to cause growing concerns not only in my community but across others in British Columbia. It must be addressed on a wider scale to keep people safe and ensure that our cities and towns are places where businesses can thrive and families can live without fear. Right now that is not the reality for many in this province.

During the election in 2020, a young man came up to me with his parents at a meet-and-greet to ask me a question. He was incredibly polite. He was so well-prepared with this written-out question. He was 12. He asked me what I was going to do for the homeless people. When I asked him, “Why this question?” he said: “I ride my bike with my family downtown, and I feel so bad for them on the streets, but I’m also afraid of them.”

Our kids don’t feel safe. Businesses have staff that don’t feel safe. Women won’t work downtown anymore. Countless times MLAs have risen to speak on prolific offenders, often informed by their constituents, and since then, in every corner of the province, the problem has worsened.

Our province’s current catch-and-release style is not working, and it will take every level of government working together to bring about real change. This is a significant problem, and it’s very clear that this is not simply a matter of individual failure or responsibility but of systemic failure. Our system is not built in a way to truly address situations like these, and we’re seeing the widespread impacts of these structural issues.

There is so much more to do. With this being such a major problem, we need more than just promises. We need more than just announcements. We need results today, and this begins with the government stopping the catch-and-release justice system that it still continues to stand behind today. The government should take action and address this issue.

H. Yao: Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the motion moved by the MLA for Surrey South. Before I start, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to everyone who put their names forward and participated in the 2022 municipal election. Thank you for your courage to take on the challenge and your willingness to be vulnerable and transparent in the hope to serve British Columbia. I also want to congratulate everyone who has been elected. I look forward to working with you in making British Columbia a better place for all.

British Columbians deserve to feel safe, and repeat offenders should be held accountable. Our Attorney General and Minister of Public Safety were in Halifax last week for federal-provincial-territorial meetings with Ministers of Justice and Public Safety across the country on this very issue. One of the major concerns shared was the issue of repeat offenders and violent-stranger attacks across Canada, an unintended consequence of federal Bill C-75 and subsequent Supreme Court decisions that have made it extremely difficult to hold violent offenders in custody while they are waiting for trial.

B.C. is requesting that Ottawa urgently explore options at the bail stage to better manage repeat and violent offenders while ensuring that we continue to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people and marginalized communities in the criminal justice system. We need to work together to come to a national solution.

[11:20 a.m.]

Our provincial government is also committed to continue, at our provincial level, to strengthen enforcement and expand mental health and substance abuse treatment to break the cycle of reoffending. That is why we brought in a 37-year-plus police veteran and an expert in criminology and public health to give us advice on what we can do, as a province, to put a stop to these criminal acts.

First, our government is committed to bringing back the cancelled repeat offender management programs that were initially introduced in a pilot in 2012. The programs demonstrated that participants reoffend 40 percent less during the first year of the follow-up period when compared to their criminal behaviour prior to their involvement in the program. The program also reduced reoffending rates for property crime, violent offences, drug- and alcohol-related offences. Participants use health services, housing and other social services more and have fewer negative conflicts with police and spend less time in custody.

Second, our provincial government also expanded funding for services for at-risk youth, child protection and family development, youth mental health and prevention supports, and mental health services for health authorities. Our provincial government added new peer-assisted care teams for people in a mental health crisis; new complex care housing for people who need a higher level of care, including mental health or substance use challenges.

If you want to be tough on crime, we must also be tough on the root causes of crime. We are determined to break the cycle of reoffending to keep people and communities safe.

Third, in 2019, our provincial government created new community transition teams at five correctional facilities to provide support in mental health and substance use treatment, connecting with psychiatric, clinical and specialized support and assistance, finding housing and more. This team works, and they are filling a critical gap in a transitional period from prison to community.

Our provincial government is expanding the team to every provincial correctional facility and expanding the services offered, and additional team members now includes social workers, nurses, peer support workers, Indigenous patient navigators. Hiring is already underway, and a new team will be launched by the end of this month. After all, the treatment and support people get in the weeks after leaving a correction facility are critical to people’s success on breaking the cycle of reoffending.

Our provincial government also significantly increased resources for prosecutors by increasing the budget by 30 percent since 2017. For the victims of this crime, our provincial government also funded 400 victim services across the province to help British Columbians.

We share British Columbians’ frustration with repeat offenders and violent stranger attacks. We understand some suggestions for the Attorney General to direct the B.C. prosecution services to take a different approach. Although the Attorney General has been examining our options, provincial direction cannot change or override the Criminal Code of Canada or a Supreme Court decision. The fundamental challenge lies within the constraints of the federal laws. B.C. is advocating for our federal government to address this issue nationally.

I know I’m running out of time, so thank you, hon. Speaker, for the opportunity to speak.

B. Banman: I today rise not only in support of the motion brought forward by the member for Surrey South, but also demand an end to the constant anxiety and fear of being the next victim that is felt by people in our communities thanks to this government’s appalling catch-and-release program. It’s not just individuals and communities that are frustrated with this catch-and-release justice system, but also the very police forces that we entrust to protect us from these threats to our neighborhoods.

Abbotsford Police Chief Mike Serr, who leads a fantastic and efficient police force in my riding of Abbotsford South, said that despite their ability to catch offenders, his officers are super frustrated that arresting repeat offenders seems to lead them to simply being released back into the communities to commit more crimes. He said that prolific offenders are one of the biggest threats to the city of Abbotsford, something that the members of this House know applies pretty much everywhere across B.C.

There seems to be a stark disconnect between the realities on the ground and the words coming from the members on the opposite side of the aisle as their new Attorney General, supported by caucus members, continues to proclaim ridiculously that their so-called solutions are working.

[11:25 a.m.]

I, like most British Columbians, question what exactly is working when you cannot go a day without hearing about another random attack, a violent attack, committed by someone who has already had interactions with the police, while the Attorney General talks about how arrests are futile — futile — to curb crime. No different from the lack of action by the former Attorney General of this government as well.

Thirteen urban mayors desperately asked the provincial government to impose stricter control for repeat offenders while focusing on regaining public confidence in the government’s ability to administer justice. As a former mayor, I sympathize with these new and returning mayors and councillors who will continue to try to contend with the phone calls and this issue. However, under this lax attitude shown by this government, their job is only going to be made that much more difficult. Maybe it’s time for this government to stop pretending like they cannot take action and listen to their own experts.

The LePard-Butler report, which was commissioned by the former Attorney General and then quietly released on a Saturday morning when nobody was really paying attention, clearly points out how the government can take action today — actions that do not violate the independence of our judicial system. The report points out the importance of listening to the informed and experienced-based issues and solutions brought forward by police, municipal and other community-based organization personnel.

Why is this government not listening? Why are they not following the advice of that panel that they requested? British Columbians deserve better. Commissioning the report was the former Attorney General’s long, long overdue response to the 13 urban mayors’ letter to government. Now, with the report finally being released, this government adds more salt to the wound by picking and choosing what it likes to talk about and hear from the LePard-Butler report.

In late September, the Abbotsford police swiftly arrested another prolific repeat violent offender that robbed a gas station with a sword. With a sword, Madam Speaker. You heard it right. And Sgt. Paul Walker of the Abbotsford police department reiterated that many of these incidents are “repeat offenders being continuously released back into our community.”

The current system is not working, and it’s about time we changed our approach. When the same 12 people in Nanaimo have 1,300 interactions with police in one year alone — according to the letter from the Mayors Caucus — you know that this is not an isolated issue but rather a provincewide crisis. The importance of addressing measures that impact crime levels in the long term cannot be overstated.

What people need to see is the results on the streets now. The people of Vancouver spoke loudly last night. They cannot wait for this government to do something tomorrow when they feel unsafe and vulnerable and scared today.

Much more needs to be done. So how about we start with ending this government’s catch-and-release criminal program and implementing the ideas in the in the LePard-Butler report?

B. D’Eith: Unlike the opposition, our government takes violent attacks and repeat offending very, very seriously. People have every right to feel safe in their communities. We’re strengthening enforcement, and, unlike the former government, we’re tackling the root causes of criminal activity.

The opposition says we’re not tough on crime, but that’s simply not true. Just like we tackled money laundering, something the other side wilfully ignored, we’re tackling other criminal activities. We have significantly increased resources to prosecutors. We’ve increased their budget by 30 percent since 2017. The old government increased it by less than 1 percent. We’ve opened new courthouses. We’ve increased provincial police officers.

But we acknowledge that there are issues with the bail system in regards to repeat offenders. The opposition knows that Crown prosecutors and justices in B.C. rely on federal laws, regulations and guidelines in regards to bail and sentencing. The province can’t change or override the Criminal Code of Canada or the Supreme Court of Canada decisions.

[11:30 a.m.]

Our Attorney General and Solicitor General can and are working hard to get their federal counterparts to do the right thing, revise bail provisions and protect the public from repeat and violent offenders. The opposition understands these jurisdictional issues, but they’re choosing to mislead the public in regards to this matter.

In fact, the Attorney General and the Solicitor General were in Halifax last week with their federal counterparts to discuss this very issue. They spoke of the unintended consequence of the federal Bill C-75 and the subsequent Supreme Court decisions that have made it extremely difficult to hold violent offenders in custody while they’re awaiting trial. They asked Ottawa to urgently explore options at the bail stage to better manage repeat offenders while ensuring that we continue to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people and marginalized communities in the criminal justice system. We’re hopeful that Ottawa will actually do the right thing here.

Our government also, as was pointed out, commissioned the LePard-Butler report on repeat offenders that was released in September. This report had some very important findings and recommendations. In particular, it recommended there both be increased enforcement and get to the root of the crime. Let me quote. “The provincial government must invest significantly in addressing the systems-level issues that contribute to offending, including systemic racism, poverty, inadequate health services, food insecurity and housing unaffordability.”

Well, in fact, we are spending billions of dollars on affordable housing, half a billion dollars in the budget for mental health and addictions, developing an anti-racism policy, increasing the number of health care and mental health professionals and instituting complex care in communities. We’ve increased disability rates. We’ve increased the minimum wage. We’ve eliminated MSP premiums to help fight poverty. These are all getting to the root causes of the crime. There are also recommendations for action.

There are three that we’re acting on immediately: bringing back the repeat offenders management program that the old government cut in 2012 — this program was proven to cut repeat offenses by 40 percent — increase offender engagement with housing, health and addiction services; and reduce the number of times they have encounters with the police.

We’re also creating a provincial committee to coordinate service planning for people with complex health needs that come into contact with the law and creating a First Nations Justice Council pilot project in the Prince George Indigenous justice centre.

Now, another root cause, of course, is mental health and addictions. When the Leader of the Opposition was in cabinet, they made significant cuts to mental health supports, including deep cuts to at-risk youth, cutting child protection and family development by $185 million and $35 million for youth mental health and prevention services. And $360 million was cut to health authorities in 2009, resulting in reducing and eliminating of mental health services at a scale called “staggering” and “incomprehensible” by the executive director of Coast Mental Health in Vancouver. Our government is expanding funding for these services.

Unlike the hyperbole and hysteria of the other side, we’re taking a measured approach to continue to act at a provincial level to strengthen enforcement and to deal with the root causes of these offences. We’re confident that the work of our Attorney General and Solicitor General will result in the federal government doing the right thing.

M. Lee: This morning, of course, we’re asking this government to do the right thing. This is why the member for Surrey South has moved this motion today. I rise to support that motion.

It seems like every day, there’s another story in the news about repeat offenders who commit serious crimes yet are consistently released back out onto the streets where they’re at a high risk to reoffend. This trend is making people feel scared, vulnerable and anxious about making it home safely.

This isn’t just happening in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. We’re seeing statistics from so many other cities across our province, where the same group of offenders continues to have repeated interactions with police in numbers that just don’t make any sense.

We know that with this government’s catch-and-release system, this trend is only going to continue, as a lack of enforcement of bail conditions, no-charge assessments and a lack of clear policy directives from this government to keep repeat offenders off the streets put people at risk.

[11:35 a.m.]

Just a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver’s Yaletown, a woman was followed into her apartment and violently assaulted by a stranger. The offender was caught by bystanders, charged with assault and uttering threats and released soon after from custody. This man was subsequently charged with two sexual assaults, committed months before this incident.

This is one of the many examples of how repeat offenders known to police are continually slipping through the catch-and-release system and putting innocent, law-abiding British Columbians at risk. This is just one example of how repeat offenders are being released almost immediately after they are caught committing offenses.

Clearly, no matter how many examples we can show this government, they need more. How else do you explain to the young woman who was struck with a pole while walking down the street in downtown Vancouver by a man who was shouting racial slurs that this man was the same person arrested about a year ago after stalking another woman in Vancouver’s Chinatown? How do you explain to this woman who is a person of Asian descent, living in the North American city with the highest levels of reported anti-Asian hate, that this same man was caught and released last year and is now, once again, released on bail?

This person, who violated his probation several times, has over 30 convictions, and now, two very public and violent incidents later, has been granted bail. Barely two weeks, and this man walks the same streets that he did leading up to these violent and unprovoked attacks.

As with this case, we must remember some of the most vulnerable groups who are impacted by this government’s catch-and-release system, putting repeat offenders back on the streets. We know that repeat offenders are more likely to target Indigenous people, those who are facing poverty or mental health issues or those who are racialized. This needs to end.

British Columbians deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods, in their homes and on the streets. Instead, they feel anxiety, fear and worry. The first step that this government needs to take is to acknowledge that this soft-on-crime approach is not working. I must say, Madam Speaker, hearing the members on the opposite side talk about it this morning, they’ve got their heads buried in the sand. It’s all talk. We need for this government to take action, not blame others. We need this government to take responsibility, not give empty words.

This government must look at the LePard-Butler prolific offender report, which the former Attorney General commissioned in this matter. That report recognizes “the great distress that exists in many communities in B.C. caused by those who offend repeatedly, the impact on confidence in the administration of justice and the emboldening effect that appears to have been created among many individuals who offend repeatedly.”

When you have 40 repeat offenders being responsible for 6,385 negative police contacts in Vancouver, and with four people a day in Vancouver being subject to violent random attacks, the public certainly loses confidence in our justice system. This report makes it clear: “The B.C. Prosecution Service does, when demonstrably justified, create policy to provide guidance to assist its prosecutors with decision-making.”

We need to have an end to this government’s catch-and-release system, with greater enforcement of bail conditions and clear policy directives from this government to keep repeat offenders off the streets. I call on this government to support this motion and bring an end to the catch-and-release system. It’s hurting people, instilling fear in our communities and undermining public confidence in our justice system.

J. Brar: I’m pleased to speak to the motion before this House today. We believe that people deserve to feel safe in their communities and that repeat offenders should be held accountable. We share people’s concern and frustration with repeat offending and violent stranger attacks.

This is a major concern across Canada that requires actions at the provincial level, as well as at the national level. That’s why we are taking actions at the local level and working with the federal and provincial counterparts to find a national solution to this national problem.

The opposition, on the other hand, talks a lot about this issue now, when they’re sitting on the opposition benches. But their record while they were in government for 16 years tells a completely different story.

[11:40 a.m.]

There was a pilot program in place to prevent repeat offending that had promising results, a 40 percent reduction in repeat offending. Instead of making that program permanent in 2012, the previous administration cut funding for that program, known as the repeat offender management program. That is their record.

Our government, on the other hand, reached out to police and experts to give us advice on what we can do as a province to put a stop to these criminal acts. We are taking action on the recommendations made by the police and experts to make a difference on the ground. We are strengthening enforcement.

Listening to police chiefs, we are bringing back the repeat offender management program, which the old government cut. In this program, a multi-agency team did individualized monitoring and enforcement to prevent people from reoffending. It reduced reoffending by 40 percent in the first year. We also significantly increased resources for prosecutors and have increased their budget by 30 percent since 2017.

Unlike the old government, the real old government, we are addressing the root causes of crime. That includes new peer-assisted care teams for people in a mental health crisis, new services to support people coming out of correctional facilities, new complex care housing for people who need a higher level of care, including mental health and substance use challenges.

We are also advocating to find a national solution for this national problem. Our Attorney General and Minister of Public Safety were in Halifax last week for federal-provincial-territorial meetings with the ministers of justice and public safety from across the country. They heard that the issue of repeat offenders and violent stranger attacks is a major issue across Canada. It’s not only in B.C. but across Canada, an unintended consequence of the federal Bill C-75 and a subsequent Supreme Court decision that has made it extremely difficult to hold violent offenders in custody while they are awaiting trial.

B.C. is requesting that Ottawa urgently explore options at the bail stage to better manage repeat violent offenders. The B.C. Attorney General and the Minister of Public Safety raised this with their federal counterpart, who acknowledged the seriousness of this issue across the country. We are hopeful that we can work together to come to a national solution.

We will continue to act at the provincial level to strengthen enforcement and expand mental health and substance abuse treatment to break the cycle of reoffending. Because of B.C.’s advocacy, we are hopeful we will see swift federal action to resolve these unintended consequences at the federal level as well.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity for me to speak to this motion.

M. Bernier: Look, people in British Columbia don’t feel safe, plain and simple. And why don’t they feel safe? Any time you turn on any news outlet, any station, any TV news right now, what you hear is about all the violent attacks. The top stories all the time are how people are being victimized on the streets. They’re being harassed, and they’re being targeted, even in their own homes.

What’s frustrating is…. We’ve heard nothing from this government, really, that seems to be acknowledging the issues and the challenges that are being faced by people in British Columbia right now. In fact, when you listen to their commentary, you would swear that the NDP was just elected a week ago, because all they talk about is what’s happened before their time.

I remind them that they’ve actually been in government for over half a decade. Obviously, they don’t want…. I mean, I feel bad acknowledging they’ve been in government for half a decade, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that they’ve done nothing. Maybe that’s why they sit in this House and try to pretend that nothing’s happened over the last years, because absolutely nothing has happened over the last half a decade to help people.

[11:45 a.m.]

In fact, when I listened to the member before me from Maple Ridge–Mission talking about hysteria from this side of the House…. I want to remind that member that the hysteria is not from this side of the House. That hysteria is from individuals, from families, from people in British Columbia who are frustrated with the lack of actions in dealing with public safety from this government.

We need to hear those stories, and we need to share those stories. This government needs to acknowledge the problems that they have created and that they’re not doing anything about.

Let me explain, obviously, and put it into context. Crime and disorder in our communities have gotten worse under this catch-and-release program of this government. In fact, violent crimes have increased 30 percent under the NDP.

Last year alone we had 11,000 major crime incidents in British Columbia. Major attacks, people being victimized — 11,000. In fact, while we’re sitting in this House today debating it, there are another four or five people who are being attacked in the province of British Columbia, while the NDP want to pretend that nothing’s going on in the province. Here in Victoria alone…. Last year there was almost a 50 percent increase in sexual assault and violence on women.

This government wants to pretend nothing’s happening. They want to deflect and try to blame everybody else for their half a decade of inaction on this file.

One of the increases we’ve seen, also, is a 75 percent increase in the rate of no charge assessments. Catch and release. People aren’t even being charged half the time. And guess what. I will say there’s one decrease that this government can take credit for, and that’s a 26 percent decrease in the number of accused being approved to go to court.

We’re trying to stand up not only for the people in the province who are being victimized but for the RCMP who are getting frustrated, trying to do their job and not getting the support from this government. I mean, it’s no surprise, when the former Attorney General wrote a book about how to sue the RCMP. That, in itself, should show the lack of support that this NDP government has for not only the RCMP but for dealing with crime and the issues we have in the province of British Columbia.

Look, this has to be dealt with. I know that the NDP members are probably a little sore right now. When you looked across the province this weekend, after the last municipal election results, where almost every NDP slate that was endorsed or supported by the NDP members went down to defeat and were not re-elected…. I think that’s because…. We’ve heard from the people in the province of British Columbia that they are absolutely sick and tired of blaming. They’re sick and tired of excuses. What they want from this government, finally, is some action.

People deserve better.

Interjection.

M. Bernier: Maybe I’ll remind that member. If he goes back to his office, I hope there’s a mirror in there, and he can finally look in it. He’s obviously not acknowledging it.

People deserve better. People deserve to be safe. People deserve to enjoy their communities. They deserve a government that’s actually going to take action so people can feel safe. They haven’t had that to date. It’s about time this government ends the catch-and-release program and starts putting the interests of people first.

A. Walker: I agree with the previous speaker that people deserve to feel safe in their homes — I appreciate the claps already — and to have confidence in the criminal justice system.

The member for Kelowna-Mission started off with: “People don’t care about context.” I think the people of this province do care about context.

There’s a history to this file. In 2004, the B.C. Liberal government Attorney General launched the street crime working group. It was a group of 15 criminal justice stakeholders. They spent a year to put together a report. It had some very clear actionable items, one of which — I will give full credit to the members of the other side — was the foundation for the Vancouver downtown community court. That has shown huge success for members of the Downtown Eastside.

Most of the other elements of that report were left unactioned, to the point where the Vancouver police department followed up with two reports of their own, called Lost in Transition and Beyond Lost in Transition, documenting the need for increased mental health and social resources to respond to the unmet needs resulting in significant burdens on police.

[11:50 a.m.]

What did the B.C. Liberals do after receiving this report? Shortly thereafter they closed Riverview Hospital. They released many of these patients into community, but they promised that there would be psychiatric treatment available for these individuals. We now know that that treatment was dramatically underfunded, and it was under capacity. Things got worse.

Again, continuing with the context here. In 2013, Darryl Plecas ran and led a blue ribbon panel of experts, trying to get to the bottom of how to manage repeat offenders in British Columbia. The recommendations were fairly far-reaching, one of which was a recommendation to fund and to continue the repeat offender management program, which saw a 40 percent reduction in recidivism for those who were part of this pilot project.

We have a quote here from the member for Abbotsford South who says: “Why is government not listening? Why are they not taking their own advice?” Well, when government of the day received this report, they did not action that. The panel, the pilot project, the repeat offender management program, was scrapped, even though it showed tremendous success. But not only that. They cut funding for children protection and family development by hundreds of millions of dollars. They cut youth mental health and prevention supports, and most galling — $360 million dollars in cuts to health authorities, eliminating or reducing mental health services all across this province.

We can do better, and we are doing better. Since forming government, we have invested in mental health supports, funding youth who age out of care, providing housing to people all across the spectrum, from complex care housing all the way through to market housing, because we know that investing upstream, with a focus on improving fundamental social and economic structures, is critical to improving health and public safety sustainably.

This program and all of our progress has, indeed, seen challenges. In 2016, government recognized the challenges with the drug toxicity crisis in our province, leading to significant increases in acquired brain injuries and, of course, the challenges that that has in our communities. COVID-19 meant that many who relied on in-person services, both mental health and addiction treatment services, lost access to those services.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Of course, the federal law, Bill C-75, introducing the principle of restraint, significantly altered the way that we handled cases. But we are committed to working with the federal government. Just recently the Public Safety and Solicitor General Minister and the Attorney General have met with their federal counterparts to try to address some of these unintended consequences. We have invested in peer-assisted care teams which, on the North Shore, have redirected almost 500 calls away from police and were able to deal with these challenges in our community.

In my community, we have a program called Guthrie program, which is run by the John Howard Society. It is seeing a 40 percent reduction in recidivism. This is very similar to the community transition teams that we have rolling out all over this province. We are making incredible efforts to invest in the mental health of people in our communities, and it is showing significant results.

I have a quote here from an officer in Oak Bay. He says that the offenders that are committing crime because they have an addiction issue, maybe mental health or trauma…. “Property crime is so far downstream from where the money has to be invested, but we police wear it when the failures of all upstream systems make it to us. We own the responsibility for poor interactions with mentally ill persons, but it’s 1,000 problems upstream that weren’t dealt with.” We are listening to officers. We are acting on our report, and we are working together to solve these problems.

M. Morris: I find it truly amazing that the Attorney General and the Minister for Public Safety have to travel all the way across Canada to eastern Canada and plead with the federal government to change the law so that the NDP can abandon their catch-and-release program. We don’t need to change the law, despite Bill C-75. Here’s what the law says today about judicial interim release. For those who are curious about it, it’s section 515 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

It says, “the justice shall, unless a plea of guilty by the accused is accepted, make a release order in respect of that offence, without conditions,” but it says: “unless the prosecutor, having been given a reasonable opportunity to do so, shows cause, in respect of that offence, why the detention of the accused in custody is justified or why an order under any other provision of this section should be made.” It’s clear that prosecutors do have the authority to present to the judge the information that the judge needs to make a determination to hold that individual in custody.

[11:55 a.m.]

Why is this happening? Bill C-75 came out in 2019. Do we have enough prosecutors to deal with the pressures that this has put on our prosecution services? I don’t think the Attorney has made those adjustments yet. Overworked Crown counsel, burned-out Crown counsel and too many first appearances for all these repeat offenders add to the problem. By the way, there are four occasions, under 515, where it says: “unless the prosecutor shows cause.” It puts the onus on the prosecutor to make sure that the judge is seized with that information.

Subsection (5) of 515 states: “Where the prosecutor shows cause why the detention of the accused in custody is justified, the justice shall order that the accused be detained in custody.” So the justice has the authority under the Criminal Code.

Subsection (10) states: “For the purposes of this section, the detention of an accused in custody is justified only on one or more of the following grounds: (a) where the detention is necessary to ensure his or her attendance in court.” You’ve got to show up in court. If there’s a track record for that individual not showing up in court before, this is something that the prosecutor needs to be bringing to the attention of the judge.

The second one: “(b) Where the detention is necessary for the protection or safety of the public, including any victim of or witness to the offence, or any person under the age of 18 years, having regard to all the circumstances including any substantial likelihood that the accused will, if released from custody, commit a criminal offence or interfere with the administration of justice.”

There we’ve got another condition: “(c) If the detention is necessary to maintain confidence in the administration of justice, having regard to all the circumstances, including (i) the apparent strength of the case, (ii) the gravity of the offence, (iii) the circumstances surrounding the commission of the offence.” Again, the prosecutor has ample authority under this act to present to the judge.

Under the heading “Proceedings respecting failure to comply with release conditions” — that’s a problem right across this province here. We have seen the administration of justice offences skyrocket right across the province here.

This section covers that. “When an accused appears before a justice in any of the circumstances described in subsection (2),” the justice has to hear the matter. It’s matters referring to a release. If an appearance notice has been issued by a police officer for breaching probation — or an undertaking, whatever the condition is — then he can appear in court. However, maybe Crown counsel won’t approve that charge, and that individual won’t have to appear in court after all.

The Crown counsel, though, can lay a charge against an accused for a contravention referred to in subsection (a), and the prosecutor seeks a decision under this section. There’s nothing precluding the prosecution from charging somebody with the administration of justice offence and having them prosecuted under there. There are powers under the Criminal Code, as well, for the judge to ensure that he records the proceedings of the event so that there’s a record of it. If a justice does release somebody and they recommit a crime again, even though that justice has been seized with the information, perhaps an appeal should be in order.

As you can see, the B.C. Prosecution Service has the authority to show cause to the judge that a prolific offender should be held in custody. The B.C. Prosecution Service has the authority to prosecute a prolific offender with the above-noted administration offences, and a judge has the authority to make an order to hold the prolific offender in custody. The only thing preventing the B.C. Prosecution Service from doing so is the Attorney General’s advice.

M. Morris moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. K. Chen moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 11:59 a.m.