Orders of the Day

Hon. R. Kahlon: I’d like to call continued response to the budget debate in the main chamber.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

Debate Continued

Deputy Speaker: I’d like to acknowledge the member for Richmond North Centre to continue her remarks.

T. Wat: Before the lunchtime, about the child care issue, I was talking about the funding gap between the provincial government and the federal government.

I was trying to remind the audience, which was watching live on the TV or on their cell phone, that the New Democrats are so far behind on delivering child care. They passed a cabinet order earlier this month to push millions of dollars in unspent federal funding to next year, because this NDP government hasn’t been able to use the money this year. No wonder the federal government prefers to attach strings to any funding it provides to core shared programs with the provinces.

Even the child care advocate Sharon Gregson said: “Thank goodness for the federal spending. There have been very minimal increases in the provincial spending.”

Sharon Gregson was instrumental in persuading the New Democrats to incorporate $10-a-day universal child care into their 2017 election platform. I mean, we have to give her credit for keeping on pushing this government.

She said now: “We need more $10-a-day, frankly, in every single community across the province. Right now, of all the child care that we have, only about 10 percent of it is operating at a $10-a-day site.”

[1:15 p.m.]

This is what this child care advocate, Sharon Gregson, said. Only 10 percent of all the licensed child care centres are operating at the promised $10-a-day universal child care. She said: “We’ve got a lot to do in the few years that are remaining in this ten-year plan.” There are only three years left.

Currently there are 146,000 provincially funded licensed child care spaces in operation, according to the service plan for the Ministry of State for Child Care released this week. I’m quoting all this from the government’s document. But only about 14,000 of those are $10 a day. That’s only 10 percent. The service plan calls for adding another 6,000 spaces over the next three years.

Well, in the unlikely event that each year met the $10-a-day standard, the New Democratic government would still be well short of the goal of universality. No wonder the Minister of State for Child Care had to change the promise from universal $10-a-day child care in 2017 and 2020 to something else recently.

Let me quote the Minister of State for Child Care. “We have a vision for all families to be able to access, on average, $10-a-day child care.” Just pay attention to the word “average.” It’s no longer universal. So convenient.

Universal is a $10-a-day space for everyone. Average means some people pay more than $10 a day and some people pay less through a separate, highly complicated system of provincial income-tested subsidies. Only this government knows the difference. They promised the universal $10-a-day care in the two election campaigns.

Let’s talk about the former B.C. Liberal government’s record on child care, as many of the members opposite have been so critical of what we have done. Let’s get the record straight here.

In June 2004, there were 67,034 licensed child care spaces. In June 2017, we had 110,823. You can see that the number of licensed child care spaces increased significantly in the former B.C. Liberal government until the NDP government took over.

The annual percent growth rate during this 13-year period was 4.44 percent, resulting in a total increase of 43,789 child care spaces. We spent $1 billion per year on early childhood development, child care and early learning, including support for children and youth with special needs and full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds. We made targeted investments to improve child care affordability for those who need it most.

Our child care subsidy program supported about 20,000 B.C. children and their families with the cost of child care each month. This is the B.C. Liberal record, just to put it straight in this chamber.

While the NDP government has reduced child care options for families…. B.C. United will fix it by focusing on results, outcomes, instead of announcement, reannouncement, reannouncement, over and over again, with­out any outcome. We will work with non-profit, public and private providers as crucial partners in delivering the support and access families need.

[1:20 p.m.]

As I said earlier, before lunch, I didn’t have child care prepared in my speech. But because of what I heard in the Minister of State for Child Care’s 30-minute speech, I had to respond.

Budget 2024, presented by this NDP government, falls far short of addressing our constituents’ pressing needs and exacerbates the daily challenges they face. In the heart of Richmond, which I’m proud to represent, the much-needed expansion of the Richmond Hospital has become a symbol of broken promises and fiscal mismanagement. Initially estimated at $861 million, this project’s costs have undoubtedly escalated due to continuous delay, yet the NDP government has allocated a mere $15 million so far, a stark contrast to the urgency and investment seen in other regions.

Use the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment project as an example. So far, a total of $141 million has been allocated, compared with only $15 million allocated to the Richmond Hospital redevelopment project. Promised shovels in the ground in 2021 have yet to materialize, with the project only beginning in late 2022.

Former Premier John Horgan promised in the 2020 snap election that the Richmond Hospital redevelopment project would be completed in 2024, and now the government says the completion date is 2031. Who knows? The completion date will be moved again. Just stay tuned. This negligence undermines our health care system and places an undue financial burden on taxpayers who deserve transparency and action.

Unfortunately, this isn’t unique to Richmond. Across the province, emergency rooms continue to close frequently due to staffing shortages. One in five British Columbians do not have a family doctor. There are a million people on waiting lists to see specialists. Maternity care is in crisis, and we are sending cancer patients to the United States for treatment because we simply don’t have the capacity to treat them within our system.

My late husband was suffering from cancer before he passed away in 2011. Thank goodness when he was undergoing his cancer treatment, we could just easily drive him to either Burnaby Hospital or the downtown B.C. Cancer centre. Thank goodness I didn’t need to drive him all the way to the state across the border for his treatment.

And who knows? So many people are waiting even to cross the border to the U.S. for their treatment. What a big difference between our B.C. Liberal government and this NDP government. Despite the seemingly constant announcements and reannouncements from the NDP over the past year, nothing is getting better.

What does Budget 2024 truly do to deliver better care for British Columbians? What does it do for Allison, who was told to consider medically assisted death because she wouldn’t get access to cancer treatment in time? What does it do for Loni, who was diagnosed with stage four adrenal cancer and had to wait ten months for treatment? What does it do for Sonia, who lost three litres of blood in the hallway of Langley Memorial Hospital while waiting for treatment following a miscarriage? As a woman, I can truly empathize with how she felt.

[1:25 p.m.]

Let’s keep moving. The promised racism hotline re­mains an unfulfilled commitment, even as our commun­ity reels from recent explicit acts of racism. This should have started during the COVID years, and I’ve been pushing for the operation of this racism hotline for the last several years, and the NDP government promised…. The current Premier, former Attorney General, at the budget estimates debate, promised to have it in place, but still it’s not in place.

This racism hotline, too, is essential for reporting and addressing hate incidents. As I said, it’s still not operational. I simply cannot understand. Neither can my constituents and those who do not speak English well. Despite our side’s, myself and all my colleagues and our leader, clear and pressing demand for its urgency. It’s a glaring omission in a province that prides itself on diversity and inclusivity.

As the B.C. United shadow minister for multiculturalism, anti-racism initiatives, arts and culture, I have been advocating for this initiative for years because I heard it so loud and clear from my constituents, from the visible minority community even beyond Richmond.

We also know that it’s not just the rise in anti-Asian hate. Antisemitism and other forms of hatred, under this NDP government, makes our neighbours feel unsafe. They have failed to keep people safe, whether that’s from toxic drugs or chaos in our street.

In the past few years, we have seen increasing violence and other crimes throughout the province. Numbers show that in 2022, there were 1,145 incidents of property crime in Richmond. Last year, this more than doubled to 2,405 property crimes in the city of Richmond. People deserve to both feel safe and be safe in their community, but this has not been the case.

Prolific offenders are committing a disproportionate amount of crime across the province, and this Premier’s catch-and-release justice system is putting them back into the street to offend again. We need a government that puts the rights of people to feel safe over the rights of criminals to reoffend.

Well, I have so much that I want to go on and on, but time is running out. Budget 2024 is a testament to missed opportunity and misplaced priorities. As a member of this Legislative Assembly for Richmond North Centre, I cannot endorse a budget that neglects the critical needs of my constituents and fails to lay the groundwork for a prosperous, inclusive future for all British Columbians.

It’s time for a change, a time to prioritize the well-being of our communities and ensure fiscal responsibility and truly invest in a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

R. Russell: I am disappointed our guests introduced are gone because I would love to speak a little bit about the nature of Buddhism, in terms of the relationship with this budget and the work that we do in this place.

Thank you for the opportunity to rise and speak in favour of Budget 2024.

Thich Nhat Hanh had a quote that I don’t have in front of me here, but it is about the idea that if we can see a cloud…. If you are a poet, you can see a cloud in this piece of paper. The logic he presented to defend that is the notion that without the clouds there would be no rain, and without the rain we would have no trees, and without the trees we would not have paper.

[1:30 p.m.]

I love the sentiment, because it is about looking deeper into the things that we are doing and understanding the connections between what we do and who we are and where we are, and our place in the world and how that relates to things around us, how we are connected to things around us.

There is certainly a sentiment that I have heard over the last few days, in the notion that we should respond to the challenges that we are facing around us by investing less in people and leaving people more on their own, making deeper cuts to the services that we provide, in the name of reducing the deficit. Those connections, that notion….

For example, we heard members of the B.C. Greens, a few days ago, talk about the seven-generations notion. I think it was the leader of the Greens who was saying that the seven generations are looking back three generations into the past, in what we have learned, looking at the generation we are in today, and looking forward three generations into the future, making sure we’re making decisions here and we’re taking action in this place here with that recognition of the future.

I really appreciate that sentiment. I appreciate the sentiment of what Schumacher in, I think, the mid-’60s re­ferred to as Buddhist economics. You know, you could make the connection to some of the work of Mazzucato’s economic insights: how are we delivering an economy based on value?

To me, the reason that I am here is to help advance that. The reason that I am happy to speak in favour of a budget such as this is because I feel like it recognizes those connections, it recognizes the value in our lives, and it recognizes the things that we have to invest in for people.

Similarly, the opening to the throne speech was a story about the end of the race, the competition — I don’t know this story well — between the 12 zodiac characters, animals. One of those animals is the dragon, as in the Year of the Dragon. Being the only mythological animal in the race, the dragon, you would assume, would handily come in first. Instead, the dragon came in fifth.

When the Jade Emperor asked the dragon, “Why did you come in fifth?” the dragon said: “Well, I saw a town that was in drought, and I needed to stop to make it rain. I saw a rabbit” — I think it was the rabbit — “stuck on a stick, and I had to be able to stop to help out the rabbit.”

I believe the Lieutenant-Governor’s rationale for using that story was the notion of being able to say: what matters to people is more than, sometimes, what is obvious, easy to count and easy to quantify. In that case, what matters is maybe helping people, as well as competing in the race. Maybe making sure that town had water and making sure that rabbit was safe was worth more than the dragon handily winning the race.

Schumacher, I think, in his initial exploration of what he termed Buddhist economics, talks about how much struggle he had grappling with this notion of the incompatibility of classical economics with what actually matters to people in the real world. That’s, again, why I am happy.

Why I’m making the connections to that body of thought, or those stories, is that we know — I think most of us would agree — that B.C. is a marvellous, marvellous place to live. That is due to an enormous number of things around us. The Minister of Health, this morning, spoke about the nurses that are coming to B.C. It’s why people want to be here, and it’s more than the simple metrics of success.

[1:35 p.m.]

So I like very much the spirit of our budget in being able to move us towards a place where we invest in people and we recognize the value in why we are in this place — which is about providing the supports to people in a way that matters to those people.

Similarly, I’ve heard, in the responses to the budget and for the Speech from the Throne, a number of comments around what I would interpret to be quick wins for a balance sheet, as opposed to investing in people. Certainly, from my experience, there’s always an opportunity to make decisions today that make a balance sheet look good but that cost a great deal when we look into the future or when we look at the impacts on people’s well-being, on people’s health, on people’s happiness. I am happy to see a budget that does that work of investing well in people.

As Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development, one of those examples, to me, would be connectivity. The B.C. government has made a very ambitious, I would say, commitment to give everybody in B.C., wherever you live, an opportunity to connect to high-speed Internet by 2027. B.C. — as certainly, my colleagues from rural B.C. and, I think, most of us in this place know — is not a geographically straightforward province. It’s enormously complex. That commitment is, I think, dramatic and commendable: to be able to provide everybody an opportunity to have access to high-speed Internet.

We have been doing that. I think we have been making enormous headway in that, and I’ve heard fantastic stories around this province. For example, I met recently, in Lheidli T’enneh territory, with the owner-manager of a gas station on the reserve there. Doug had great stories. What he talked to me about, what we were sharing and mutually getting excited about, was building things, building community and building inspiration among the youth in his community, building a reason for those youth to want to stay in that place or to come back to that place.

Much of that was tied to that opportunity to have high-speed Internet connectivity, whether that’s for personal relationships, for educational opportunities or otherwise. Those are the kinds of benefits that we see from investing in people. To drill a little deeper on the connectivity side of things, we have now seen a number of studies around the province — on the coast, in the southeast, in the Kootenays or in the North — and for every dollar that the government invests in connectivity, a very concrete infrastructure investment, we have seen that return manyfold in value to our communities.

Certainly, as somebody who is spending most of my time thinking about how we help communities around B.C., particularly rural communities, there’s the fact that we can invest a dollar from decisions here in this place in budgets like Budget 2024, and that dollar translates into seven times the economic activity in those rural communities. On a longer time frame, it might be up to 14 times that initial return on investment.

That is, not based on being able to see a cloud in a piece of paper but even based purely on the economic side of things, the math is very good, on the importance of investing in people to support their being able to do what they want to do.

The member for Nanaimo–North Cowichan and I spoke a day or two ago, I believe, around the costs of disinvesting, and of this argument I have heard in this place recently, that we should not be investing in health care and that we should not be investing as much in education. I certainly agree with his comment: we can’t afford not to. We can’t afford not to invest in these things.

It is not a discussion of: “Either we’re paying for something or not.” We have to also consider how much it costs us to not invest in people. I’m happy that we have a budget that does that effectively.

[1:40 p.m.]

Similarly, the member for Surrey-Panorama spoke about child care and the investments — a $1 investment in childcare being able to return $5 back into the community. Those are the kinds of investments that are important.

I feel like I’m getting really emotional. It has nothing to do with it. I’m not, as opposed to the Minister of Finance, going through menopause.

Again, those investments in people are really what matter, so I am happy to stand up and support a budget that actually does that, that invests effectively in people.

I appreciate the Minister of Finance’s comments. I’ll read a quote of hers, which is: “Wherever we live — city, town, rural or First Nations community — we all want a decent, affordable home, quality health care, help when we need it and a strong future full of opportunity for everyone.” That is the notion of what this budget, I think, is striving to deliver, and I’m happy to support it in terms of its delivery of such.

We look to…. In my own constituency, for example, in terms of some of the things that this budget helps deliver upon, I think a lot of us were certainly taken…. In terms of the apology that was delivered here a few days ago to the Doukhobor community, to the Sons of Freedom particularly, that’s the sort of work that we do in this place and what the budget, I believe, delivers that is important for people in a very real and visceral way.

Certainly, the stories that were shared at that event, the conversations that I’ve had over the last couple of years with that community and how they’ve been waiting for 71 years now to hear an apology in this place — it was dramatic to me, certainly, and moving to me. I applaud the work of the Premier and the Attorney General for taking the time to do that right.

We had a couple of really wonderful opportunities with the Attorney General, who came to our communities, who came to Castlegar and Grand Forks and delivered an apology to those communities. Those were powerful events and an indication of the kinds of action that this government is taking to support people in a way that matters. In a case like that, it is making sure we’re taking the time to right some of those historic wrongs as well as we can and help support those people to navigate the trauma that they have experienced.

I know from previous conversations, also…. The member for Kelowna West and I certainly have had conversations around the devastating impacts of the winter events of last month, as well as a year ago, in terms of the soft fruit industry in the South Okanagan, whether that be grapes, which is primarily our conversation, or other crops like cherries. Those industries are enormously important for our part of the world, for the southern Interior.

I have had conversations with dozens on dozens of grape growers, dozens upon dozens of wineries. Certainly, the sentiment that I hear on the ground there — from grape growers particularly, right now, but a lot of wineries as well — is a genuine fear and anxiety and distress levels that I have not seen before. I’ve heard conversations that touch on mental health impacts of these climate-related impacts on their livelihoods. That is devastating. It is heartbreaking. That’s the kind of situation where I feel like we really do need to make sure that government is in a position to figure out how to support those people.

[1:45 p.m.]

I have spoken before about the investments that we made about a year ago in terms of some of that perennial renewal programming. I’ve spoken about the investments of $27 million into the industry through insurance payments. But I think, certainly for those of us on the ground, we recognize we really need to do more to support that sector. Those are the kinds of investments in people that matter.

Again, when the Premier was visiting, he was certainly taken by conversations with those grape growers and with those winery owners and workers who…. As we sat in a parking lot, we could look around and we could see the devastation in their vineyards, and he could hear the loss in their voices. So he did acknowledge and recognize the importance of supporting farmers as part the backbone of our province’s economy.

For me, in the rural development context, working with communities across the province, one of the items that is top of mind, certainly, for a lot of us, is looking at, globally, the transition to a greener and cleaner economy and figuring out how we make sure we do that in a way that supports workers in our rural communities because, at the end of the day, that’s what we care about.

We care about our…. I certainly care about it. I know a lot of my colleagues in this place do as well. We care about: how do we support rural communities to be able to live up to their own expectations or to fulfil their potential?

I look to investments in our budget through a number of the programs, through something like CleanBC. But also, through the Ministry of Jobs, we have investments through, for example, the rural economic diversification and infrastructure program.

That is specifically earmarked to go out to those communities and say: “What do you need for your commun­ity, and how do we help you deliver that?” Whether that is a First Nations community, whether that is not, whether it is a non-profit, whether it is a local government or otherwise applying for funding, we figure out a way to try to help support them to navigate some of the challenges they’re facing.

Some of those funds are specifically targeted at communities that are trying to get out of or soften the boom-bust cycle of some of the natural resource economies. We see this huge potential in the space of that green economy — the CleanBC investments, for example. Federally, certainly, I’ve been reading around green industrial strategy development and opportunities there.

That’s the kind of work that we need to do in B.C. to support these rural communities — to make sure, in that seven-generation frame, that three generations from now, we still have a thriving forest industry, we still have a thriving mining sector. Investments in modernizing our forestry sector or investments in a critical mineral strategy for B.C. are the sorts of investments that, while we make them now, they will return benefits for decades to come.

I look also at programs like the B.C. manufacturing jobs fund, which is targeted at the private sector, and being able to say: “You know what? You have an amazing opportunity to advance some technology or to help in terms of your economic development in your community, and you need a little bit of help in terms of your company’s investment to get there.” That’s what the B.C. MJF is all about. It’s saying: “This is a great opportunity for the forest industry.”

I had an opportunity to meet, for example, with the Richply folks and celebrate some of the exciting work they’re doing in Richmond around developing plywood technologies. They are not only a benefit to the community; they also mean that we’re maximizing the value out of every tree that we are cutting in our forests. I think all of us can probably agree on the value there.

I looked at the budget around CleanBC and the $411 million that’s there for clean transportation, energy-efficient buildings and communities and a transition to a low-carbon economy. Those are the kinds of investments that place us as a leader on climate action and help us navigate our way towards our climate targets, even as, as we have seen in B.C., the population and the economy have grown significantly.

[1:50 p.m.]

Those are the sorts of choices we made that will help keep B.C. on a solid foundation to deliver those opportunities for decades to come and in the context of a cleaner economy and a cleaner environment that works well for people.

I tie that back to the conversation around Buddhist economics. That’s part of it — understanding the connections between these different things. If we’re investing in the right places, incentivizing in the right places, we are going to all be better off in the future.

That funding for CleanBC, for example, includes investments in the heat pump rebates for low- and middle-income households. It includes increased investments. So $30 million to expand the publicly accessible electric-vehicle-charging station network across B.C. And $20 million for active transportation, which is hugely important.

Importantly, I know, certainly for my colleague from Nelson-Creston, there are a lot of passionate people there that are part of the Youth Climate Corps, so very happy to see in the budget a contribution of $3 million to celebrate and advance the Youth Climate Corps, which is a non-profit for helping give youth opportunity to engage in action that we in this place….

Certainly, our government is taking action on so many of these levels. This is an opportunity to help support youth — see their opportunity to connect and engage in terms of climate programming across B.C. and in many, many different communities.

It includes, for example, $24 million in a new, made-in-B.C. critical mineral strategy. That’s the kind of opportunity where…. Certainly, for me, I have a mine like Copper Mountain mine in my riding just outside of Princeton. They have seen some pretty exciting investments in terms of electrifying their tram haul line and so on, fascinating stuff to see, certainly, on the ground — these massive, massive haul trucks that are running on an electrified system and, again, creating a better future for us.

Part of the conversation I was having with some of the leadership at the mine there was around what they see in terms of a market for low-carbon copper, for example. That’s really what they’re doing. They’re delivering a lower-carbon cost to extracting copper out of the ground and getting it in the market. The opportunities are huge there, but we have to take….

Government has to help create the system of supports. They’ll be able to identify, and we’ll be able to track, where those kinds of minerals are coming from and be able to help support the industry to move forward in a meaningful way in that kind of space.

Since CleanBC was launched in 2018, we’re up to, I think, now almost 23 percent of light-vehicle sales being electric. Thousands of rebates to make heat pumps more affordable across B.C. We see, certainly for me, an exciting, new energy framework with an emissions cap for oil and gas in terms of being able to say we’re happy to have this investment, but we need to make sure that it is good for our communities, that it’s good for the people of B.C. for years to come.

I will talk a little bit, I think, about the rural commun­ities and how we help support them. At UBCM in the fall, we heard the commitment from the Premier to work towards a rural lens, essentially, to say: “How do we make sure what we’re doing in this place works well for rural communities?”

The seniors advocate’s report was mentioned earlier today as well. We look to recommendations out of that kind of work to be able to say: “Okay, well, here are opportunities for us to do better, to help figure out how we support rural communities in a better way.” The Premier’s commitment to that rural lens, I would say, is one more step in that direction.

[1:55 p.m.]

At that point, also, government had released a document around good lives in strong communities, talking about, for example, the work in connectivity. The work that is done to help support those communities in a values-based way helps support them into the future.

The rural lens piece is part of the work, I think, in the future to be able to say: “How do we make sure that what we’re doing here recognizes, for example, the unique nature of rural communities?” I heard, for example, just last night in the conversation with some of the rural colleges, in conversation with one of the presidents…. He was talking about the work they’re doing in partnership with…. I believe it’s Peace River regional district that has made a commitment to help them advance their engagement on health care training.

Those sorts of things…. For those of us that live in rural places, everybody has their own creative ways of doing things differently. When you’re in a small community, that is important.

Part of the value of this budget, to me, is that through­out it, I see opportunities and the potential to help support those creative models to deliver what we all probably know we need to deliver. It’s going to look different in a community like Valemount. It’s going to look different than it might in a community like Smithers or Bella Bella. It’s making sure that we have the creativity in the tools and the structures behind it to be able to deliver those kinds of solutions for rural communities that actually work well for them.

With that, again, I come back to the story at the beginning, in terms of whether it is being able to see the cloud in a piece of paper or whether it is the story about the dragon and the active decisions to support people in that race — or support the rabbit, support communities.

Again, that’s why I’m happy to have a budget in front of us that recognizes how important it is to support people. And it’s the fact that we can look at that from an economic perspective and say investing in people matters, whether it is that every dollar invested in child care is returning five, whether it is the costs of disinvesting in health care supports or whether it is the long-term economic value in investing in connectivity.

Those are only the economic and quantifiable sides of it. I think, in reality, all of us in this place probably know many, many stories of people around us in our lives whose lives have been changed by the opportunity, for example, to have child care and be able to go….

For me, for example, it is stories from people that said: “You know, the opportunity to have child care meant that I could then get on track through conveniently free education opportunities in advanced ed, to be able to get on track to be an early childhood educator. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do, but I couldn’t do that until I had access to child care that was affordable.” It’s more than the economics. It is that value behind every one of the people around us and in our lives.

Again, I appreciate the opportunity to rise and speak in favour of what I see as a budget that is focused at working together and focused at investing in people and making sure we’re valuing the things that all of us in our own lives know that we care about, and we need to care about those things on a provincial scale as well.

S. Bond: I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the budget that was recently tabled by the NDP government. To no one’s surprise, my comments will certainly be in probably fairly stark contrast to the comments that were just made by the member opposite.

I don’t want to take the limited time we have to dwell on process, but I do want, for a moment, just to reflect on the fact that there continues to be a change in the way that the time in this Legislature is utilized, and that actually matters.

The opportunities for us to debate, examine the budget and throne speech and also legislation that has and will be tabled…. We’ve already seen bills tabled. It is fairly unprecedented, if not unprecedented, that we saw the throne speech and the budget speech in the same week in this chamber. In addition to that, we see a shortened session.

[2:00 p.m.]

Believe you me, I can remember the ongoing criticism by the members opposite when they had concerns about the amount of time that was available. It’s interesting that when government members were on this side of the bench, they had a lot to say about the way the Legislature operated.

Apparently, that was then, and this is now. Having ap­propriate amounts of time — not just to respond to the budget but also, as importantly, to go through the estimates process — is absolutely essential, particularly this year, particularly after the tabling of this budget.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

One of the things that I want to say right off the top is that government members have repeatedly gotten up and talked about it: “Oh, you know, there’s so much conversation about cuts.” Well, I can assure you that members on this side of the House absolutely know and understand that of course we need to support people. We need to make sure that there are top-quality services available for people right across the province.

Where we have a significant disagreement in this Legislature is about how those services get paid for and how those investments are made. There is one taxpayer. This government has made a choice. It is a clear one. You, the taxpayers of British Columbia, will bear the burden of paying for this budget. Not just you, but your children and your grandchildren will be on the hook for the budget that was tabled. In fact, if you look at taxpayer-supported debt per person, it will increase more than 150 percent.

Let’s look at the history of this government. It moved from $8,000 in 2016-2017; we’re talking about taxpayer-supported debt per person. Guess what. It will be over $21,000 per person by the time we get to 2026-27. The other thing we need to talk about — we certainly don’t hear a lot about that in this Legislature — is that when you are spending taxpayer dollars, we should remember that they are not government dollars. They are taxpayer dollars, hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

What matters? Results. You can spend all you want, but if the results are not making life better for British Columbians, we should have the courage to say that. This budget is about spending more and delivering less. The situation in our province, by every single measure, demonstrates that the government is failing to deliver. Whether it’s affordability, health, mental health and addictions, public safety or housing, the results speak for themselves. That matters.

Our province will rack up $22 billion in operating deficits over the next three years. Our debt-to-revenue ratio will reach 150 percent. Do you know what that means? Do you know what British Columbians need to understand? The province is taking on debt faster than it can take in revenue. Think about that for a moment: taking on debt faster than it can take in revenue.

How will the government generate revenue? Well, it’s pretty clear they’re going to rely on 32 new and increased taxes that they have put in place since 2017. Yes, you heard that correctly. It’s hard to keep track of the number, be­cause it keeps going up.

The chart that captures those 32 new and increased taxes is two pages long. I could read them off one at a time, but I want to get to critical issues that British Columbians are facing. Two pages of tax increases — that’s how this government is expecting to raise the revenue to pay for the services that British Columbians are experiencing — out of their very own pockets.

All the while, people are struggling to figure out how to feed their kids or put gas in their cars. If there’s one thing that you remember at all from my remarks — just one thing — I hope it’s this: hold on to your wallets. It’s a big province, and the government has the responsibility to govern for all regions.

[2:05 p.m.]

I was relieved to hear the word “rural” being mentioned in the previous comments, but I can tell you, Madam Speaker, that if you go through this budget, it is very hard to actually see rural and northern communities reflected in this budget at all.

As I travel throughout my riding and region…. Remember, I represent a riding that is virtually the size of Bel­gium, and it just got a little bit bigger. As I travel down Highway 16, Highway 97 and Highway 5, for example, people keep saying to me: “Does the government see us? Do they listen to us? Do they hear about us?” And I can tell you that this budget will give them zero comfort.

Let me give a few specific examples of that. Transportation, the movement of goods and people, is essential to a growing and thriving economy in British Columbia. That means you need highway infrastructure and investment. And of course we need to address the needs of a growing population in urban in British Columbia, but if you don’t have the networks in place to move people and goods, that is a major challenge.

Does this budget demonstrate an awareness of the need for ongoing investment or the need to improve safety? The stories that we hear, particularly along Highway 5, demand attention from this government. But in a single word — no. This budget does not reflect the safety concerns, the need for added passing lanes, whether it’s Highway 16, Highway 5 or Highway 97.

Does it address the issue of improving rest stops so peo­ple have a safe place to pull off the highways?

And I know, Madam Speaker, that you know all about those highways, too, with the large riding you represent.

All that and so much more — missing from this budget.

At a time when we have an overwhelming need for improved health care services in Prince George and the North more broadly, the budget was an enormous disappointment. After successive promises about a state-of-the-art University Hospital of Northern B.C., we see absolutely nothing about cardiac care or the project that has been on the desk of this Minister of Health since he was appointed in 2017.

Yes, there are early works. It is a parkade. But there is not one additional dollar or reference in the budget to a project that is essential to the health and well-being of people who live in the northern part of this province. All of us in this room know how long it takes to build a project of that magnitude — years and years. So we’re not even just talking about impacts in this budget year or the next two.

While UHNBC is always over capacity, it is crumbling. I am here to remind this Legislature that the staff at UHNBC are at the breaking point, and this regional hospital has zero dollars for the next phase. UHNBC is desperately in need of surgical, cardiac and mental health and addictions service enhancements. It is simply not good enough. Just ask the staff, the nurses, the doctors and the specialists how much longer they can hold on.

We have a crisis on our hands, and all we hear every day from the minister and from the Premier is: “Everything’s okay.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

We also recognize the enormous challenge the regional hospital districts are facing to try to come up with 40 percent of the funding for projects like UHNBC. There is one taxpayer. The price tag, if we ever get to move it into a budget…. I can assure you, under a change in government, that project will move into the budget. The price tag for the UHNBC acute care tower projects alone, for regional hospital districts, would be hundreds of millions of dollars. There is one taxpayer.

Mark my words that on the eve of the next election call, whenever that will be, there will be more promises, just like we’ve heard them in the last two elections, and I’m here to remind the government that at that point, no one will believe them.

[2:10 p.m.]

There are so many other issues. One would think that when we desperately need to add energy capacity, a geothermal project in the village of Valemount would be welcomed and supported by this government. It has literally been years. Mayor Torgerson of Valemount and now Chief Lampreau of the Simpcw First Nation….

Well, I can tell you that they continue to work hard to get this government’s attention. We’re not going to give up on that project. We need it to move forward with the financial support and the support of this government. It is needed, and it is deserved.

How can the government continue to ignore the opportunity to move ahead with, get this, a low-cost, no-carbon geothermal energy alternative for the village of Valemount and beyond? It is needed, and it needs to move ahead.

I want to also spend a bit of time on health care and the crisis we are facing in this province. I have tried to respectfully listen to the members on the government bench talk about this budget. But what is deeply upsetting, not just to me but to the people who contact us and say: “What are they talking about…?” There has been virtually no recognition of how dire the situation is for patients, for staff and for our system, more broadly.

I’ve had conversations with health care professionals in this province who tell us they are facing moral trauma. Yet every day we hear: “It’s okay. Nothing to see here.” The devastating part of that is….

I know every member in every seat in this Legislature is hearing from people every day. I got another email today, and I could barely read through it. People are desperately seeking help. They are in pain. They are on wait-lists. We know that every single person is hearing those stories. Yet do we hear them reflected? No, we don’t. What that does is…. It causes people to lose hope in the system. That is unacceptable.

Let me just contrast a recent example of how you get people moving. Yesterday we highlighted an order-in-council that this government passed to change the name of manhole covers. People understand that an order-in-council goes to cabinet. It means you take up cabinet time.

I don’t even want to discuss the OIC. What I do want to discuss is this. The members on the opposite side can chuckle, but let me tell you. It got people moving. We had staff from the Premier’s office and NDP MLAs out protesting the fact, all over the place, that we had the audacity to raise the fact….

Not one single person in my constituency, in more than two decades of service, has called my office desperately asking us to change the name of manhole covers. What they have said…. “Help me find a family doctor. Help me get off a waiting list. Help me get cancer treatment.” Instead, what do we get? Everybody — all hands on deck, the Premier’s office staff, NDP — calling us out.

Where are they when they should be calling out a broken health care system and standing up for the people who sent them here to Victoria? They’re getting the emails just like we are.

Maybe if British Columbians saw half of that energy expressed about the crisis in health care, they would feel…. People where we live would feel like maybe the government is listening to them and taking a moment to acknowledge the pain and agony — that is not an overstatement — that British Columbians are facing.

We talk about being here to represent constituents. Well, what about the constituents who don’t have a family doctor? Those who show up at a walk-in clinic only to find it’s at capacity or to be turned away.

Yesterday we also raised the story of Audrey. I didn’t see one person talking about Audrey’s story. But boy, the manhole covers sure got a lot of attention. Audrey stood in line day after day after day while she had pneumonia.

In fact, if the members want to question things like wait times at clinics, they don’t have to take my word for it. They can look at the recently released national data.

[2:15 p.m.]

Let me quote for the members opposite. The Medimap walk-in clinic wait time index found patients in British Columbia and Nova Scotia experienced the longest average wait times in Canada in 2023. On average, British Columbians had to wait more than double the amount of time to see a walk-in clinic compared to Ontarians. Yet you’d never know that was the case in British Columbia if you listen to the speeches and the answers of the Minister of Health. That’s national data.

We also continue to hear about the chaos in cancer care, people who simply can’t get access to the care that they need. In fact, things are so bad that people with breast or prostate cancer may need to be sent to Washington state to receive critical radiation treatment. Imagine this. You hear the word “cancer,” and one of the next questions is: “Do you have a valid passport?”

When I looked at the numbers related to how many people have undergone treatment outside our country…. The most difficult part of looking at that data related to the significant number of people who simply said: “No. I want to be treated closer to home, to my family and, at least, in my province.” Imagine being put in a position of having to make a decision that could cause you additional health risk simply because you wanted to be treated closer to home.

I would encourage the members on the government bench to go and talk to some of those people and then come back to this chamber and speak up on their behalf. It is unimaginable that people in our province would have to face that as well as a cancer diagnosis. Every single one of us has heard from people who sit on wait-lists, feeling desperation as they wait for follow-up treatment for their best chance to beat cancer.

ER closures regularly happen in communities, and that often means it takes hours to get to the next community. A story summarized the situation as far back as 2022. If you count short-term closures in 2022, 13 ERs serving communities with fewer than 10,000 people were closed down for a cumulative total of more than 120 days of access. That didn’t include the long-term closures. Ashcroft, Chetwynd, Lillooet, Mackenzie, 100 Mile. The list goes on and so do the closures.

In fact, in Kitimat, the ER had a record number of emergency room closures, with the hospital being on diversion 44 times in 2023, meaning a 45-minute drive to the nearest hospital. In Merritt, the situation has happened so fre­quently that the mayor is calling for a refund, saying residents should not be charged for services they didn’t receive. All the while, day after day, in this chamber, we hear: “Everything is okay.”

Almost one million British Columbians have no physician or health care provider to provide longitudinal care. We know this. When you have continuous care with someone and then you have a relationship with that person, guess what happens. They are able to catch changes earlier. So perhaps we can avoid some of the absolutely drastic circumstances that people are facing in British Columbia.

Again, don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at a national survey and a recently released report by OurCare that says: “Primary care needs OurCare.”

Well, guess what. There is a huge glossy map. We have debates in this House every day about how many people have a family doctor. Let’s look at the numbers. I’m not allowed to use a prop, Madam Speaker, but I’ll assure you that the number attached in British Columbia is 27 percent. Not my words, the words of OurCare.

When you look at the impacts…. Think about the impacts of that if you do not have a family physician. You just go on to look at the report. It’s devastatingly difficult to read.

[2:20 p.m.]

It’s not just that. Health connect. We have people every day standing up in the Legislature touting the health connect program, encouraging people to sign up. Well, guess what. They sign up, and they sit there for years, not days, not months. They’re still on the list, waiting, losing faith in the system.

You have to look no further than the tragic loss of Sophia, a young woman who died in November, and whose mother has had the courage to speak up in order to drive change. Sophia and her mother did not have a family doctor, despite being on the health connect registry for three years. No wonder that British Columbians lose faith and give up, when all they hear is that everything is okay, and the minister reels off lists of statistics that simply do not reflect the reality of life for many British Columbians. We simply must do better.

This budget promises to spend a lot more, but it’s time for the government to get focused on results and acknowledge the circumstances for so many people in our province, because these continue to get worse.

I have to say, you know: nice try on the “first new medical school in 50 years” language that was so proudly touted by the Finance Minister. What that did was to imply that there was no new additional physician training capacity added. Yes, there may be a new medical school, technically, but it is simply misleading to imply that there has been no increase in medical training.

The Premier and the minister know full well that three new medical programs were added — Prince George, Victoria and Kelowna. While they’re not called a new medical school, they are and were new programs, training physicians, for the first time in the history of British Columbia, outside of the Lower Mainland.

Why do I know that? I know that because I am proud of the work we did. That was my first job as a cabinet minister: to deliver a new physician training program in Prince George and Victoria. I can’t begin to tell you what a difference that has made. To try to cloak the SFU medical school as some big advancement, well, I’ll tell you who should be embarrassed. The Surrey MLA should be embarrassed.

I will tell you what. When that medical school was announced, there was conversation that we would have the first graduating class in 2023-2024. Well, I would love to hear the rebuttal to this because, as we know, this budget says nothing, from a financial perspective, about that medical school.

It is time for the minister to stop touting that as an answer to the physician shortage in British Columbia. There is not even a hole in the ground, much less a graduating class. That is shameful. There should be a whole bunch of MLAs standing up over there, saying: “Where is the medical school?” There is not a line in the budget.

In fact, if you go to page 53, all it says is: “The province continues to plan and develop a new medical school.” There is not even a hole in the ground. So let’s get the wording right, at least. Let’s not try to pretend the solutions are on the horizon, because we know they are not.

I’m also going to raise, once again, in this Legislature, the issue of the provincial retinal diseases program. When I raised that in question period, I raised it because dozens of people had contacted my office. I will bet you dozens of people in this Legislature heard from them as well. The issue, as we know, is that letters are being received by people who are currently saving their vision. The minister’s comment was, and I’ll be fair to him: “It will continue.” That’s not the issue; it’s how it continues.

Specialists. For the members who aren’t aware of that issue, let me just tell you what the letter says: “Regrettably, the Ministry of Health, through the Medical Services Plan, has now proposed a 32 percent reduction in compensation to retinal specialists. With inflation and rising costs of facilities, equipment, supplies and staffing, it is simply not sustainable for retinal specialists to continue to participate in the program under these circumstances.”

[2:25 p.m.]

Here’s what a patient is hearing and seeing when they’re sitting in the office: the program will terminate on March 31. Now, I’m fully aware of the process of negotiation and how we work in the health care system. Let me tell you this: the minister needs to get on the phone and talk to the people who are working on this, to ensure — for British Columbians who are terrified today about potentially losing their vision and this program — that he gets it fixed.

It is not good enough to simply brush it off and say: “Oh, yes, it will continue.” What we want to know is that it will continue, that it will not be a financial burden for people who need that absolutely critical service and that we’re going to hold on to the specialists, whom we are now at risk of losing in rural B.C. and elsewhere.

I also want to quickly reflect on who else is left out of the budget. I’ll tell you, Madam Speaker: it’s seniors. The very people who built this province, the people who all of us…. I said at the care providers evening the other night: “Think about what it means to care for those who first cared for us.”

I would urge every government member to go find the report from the seniors advocate, the latest one. It’s called Resourceful and Resilient: Challenges Facing B.C.’s Rural Seniors. It’s one thing to say the word “rural.” It’s something completely different to recognize the challenges people face. We’ve known for a long time that there were gaps. This report quantifies it. Let me just read this.

“While I am inspired and heartened by the compassionate, community-minded nature of people who live in rural B.C., it’s clear they need more support. There needs to be a…cohesive plan developed that looks across all domains of healthy aging — housing, transportation, income, health care and community supports — and ensures that seniors, regardless of whether they live in rural or urban B.C., receive equitable levels of support to allow them to age well in their home communities.”

Isn’t that the least we should be doing for people who built this province? There is nothing, nothing, to deal with the issues that were outlined so incredibly well by the seniors advocate. We are grateful for her courage to call out those issues.

There’s so much more, but let me end with this. British Columbians are tired of feeling like this government simply does not understand how difficult life is for them. To stand in this Legislature and hear them repeat, over and over, that the government has British Columbians’ backs simply demonstrates how out of touch they are with the reality of the struggles that British Columbians are facing.

Promise after promise was made about housing, about child care. Boy, the latest data demonstrates just how badly a government can manage that file. Glossy brochures and election promises more than once have amounted to a litany of broken promises. Who can forget the big, signature promise: “Life will be more affordable under an NDP government”? Nothing could be further from the truth.

This budget delivers a staggering $8 billion deficit, the largest in the history of British Columbia. To put to rest all the people pointing fingers and talking about cuts, of course we need to invest in programs and support people, but by every measure, things are getting worse, not better. This budget confirms that government will continue to pour billions of taxpayer dollars into broken systems, just hoping “more of the same” is the answer. More of the same is not working; it will not work. It’s time for change and actions that British Columbians need and deserve.

Question of Privilege

(continued)

S. Furstenau: I rise again on a point of personal privilege. This is the third time this week I have had to stand up on a point of personal privilege in this House. This stems from comments made by the Minister of Housing and the Government House Leader on Monday, February 27, during question period.

[2:30 p.m.]

On that point, the House Leader and the Minister of Housing said: “Every single day I get up, as Minister of Housing, focused on making sure that everyone has an affordable place they can call home. I appreciate the member’s question, but every single measure we’ve brought forward to try to address this challenge — to get more housing built near transit, to get more housing built close to communities — has been opposed by the member across the way.”

I stood up on Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, I came to the House and indicated to the Speaker that that was factually untrue. It is false. Our voting record is available for anybody to see it, including the Government House Leader, who I should expect and all of us should expect to be upholding the dignity of this House.

Bill 22, the Strata Property Amendment Act: the B.C. Green caucus, including me, voted yes. Bill 43, the Housing Supply Act: we voted yes. Bill 44, the Building and Strata Statutes Amendment Act, 2022: we voted yes. Bill 26, the Municipalities Enabling and Validating (No. 5) Act: we voted yes. Bill 35, Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act: we voted yes. Bill 47, the Housing Statutes (Transit-Oriented Areas) Amendment Act: we voted yes.

We did, in fact, vote against two bills, Bill 44 and Bill 46. Bill 44 was introduced to this House late in the session. Time allocation was called on that bill, so we weren’t able to properly get through committee stage to understand every clause of that bill, as is our responsibility and our duty in here.

This is a bill that…. The government chose to release the report that they used to build that legislation on after the House adjourned in November. They did not uphold their side of the arrangement to treat this House and every member of this House with respect and to allow us to actually do our jobs on behalf of the people of British Columbia — to examine the legislation that is brought forward in this House.

So yes, there are two of the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight housing bills that this government has brought in that we did not vote for. But the words of the Minister of Housing very clearly state: “…every single measure we’ve brought forward to try to address this challenge has been opposed by the member across the way.”

Then the Minister of Housing stands up earlier this afternoon, and he says this. In response to my question of privilege, where I said I would like him to withdraw his comments, and I’d like him to apologize for misrepresenting our voting record, he said this: “…I highlighted the Third Party did not support certain proposals to allow construction of units near transit hubs….” Bill 44, introduced and passed earlier this parliament. That is not what he said. Now he’s misrepresented what he said.

On the day that we release the working group’s report and recommendations on how we improve the culture in this Legislature…. A huge amount of the conversation that went into that report and those recommendations, and the report itself and those recommendations, is focused on ensuring that every member elected here to represent the people of British Columbia is able to fulfil their role, is able to come here and work with purpose and work on behalf of the people who we represent.

When we have a government that has become habituated to calling time allocation on significant pieces of legislation — on not allowing proper debate to unfold, particularly during committee stage — and then we have a government that does not value the importance of transparency, of working across party lines when it comes to the House Leaders’ joint commitment to managing this chamber and this institution properly, and then when we have a Government House Leader who will not withdraw his incorrect comments and apologize for misrepresenting another member in this House, we are not making the culture in here better.

[2:35 p.m.]

The onus, the burden, of that responsibility of the culture of this place lies heaviest on the government. They have the most power. They have the power to determine how the chamber operates, what the schedule of debate is, what we are debating and when time allocation comes in. They have enormous power. There’s a huge responsibility that comes with that.

We are all here on behalf of the people of B.C. — all of us. We need to have the respect across this aisle for the work that we are doing and the respect for the things that we have said, the respect for our record.

When I have made it abundantly clear, and it is in the record — indisputably in the record — the Government House Leader needs to stand up, fulfil his responsibility as a House Leader, upholding the dignity of this chamber and this institution. He needs to withdraw his comments. He needs to apologize. He needs to demonstrate that he will put the well-being of this chamber, of this institution and of our democracy ahead of whatever personal grievances he might think he has, because he accepted the role of House Leader. That’s a serious role. I know that, because I’ve been a House Leader, and the House comes first.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member. The Speaker will take it under advisement.

Debate Continued

Hon. A. Kang: I am going to continue with the debate on the budget. As Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Minister Responsible for Immigration and Libraries, I am delighted to rise today in support of the budget speech that outlined a clear path to improve services and to make life better for British Columbians.

We know people are coming to B.C. in record numbers, and that’s not surprising. B.C. has some of the most liveable cities in Canada, and we need people to help meet current and future demands for doctors, nurses and teachers and to build homes, roads, hospitals and schools. But we also need to make sure that this growth is well supported and is thoughtful, so we have homes and infrastructure that British Columbia needs to ensure that people who come here have the tools that they need to succeed.

That is why our government is taking action, so people in B.C. can seize opportunities and build a good life and employers can find the people they need to help drive our economy forward and deliver the services that we all rely on. Together we’re tackling the biggest challenges and making sure our province is growing stronger every day so that people can grow and thrive now and into the future.

Actions on these commitments are front and centre of our government’s 2024 budget. Our government’s focus on housing, health care, public safety and a sustainable, clean economy will set British Columbians up for a prosperous future.

I want to express my extreme gratitude to all ministry staff and public service staff, who work tirelessly to help deliver the supports and services that make a difference for British Columbians so we can be proud of living here. I want to first thank my ministerial office in Victoria — my administrative staff — for keeping my schedules, making sure that we are responding to correspondence and, as well, making sure that I always have my notes with me.

I also want to thank the constituents of Burnaby–Deer Lake for entrusting me to be their voice in Victoria. Over the past few weeks, I have been holding chai chats and coffee chats and listening to people. What I have heard is that people, yes, are struggling, that we need better affordability, that we need more housing and that we need a school system that supports our students. This budget addresses just that.

I would also like to thank my family for being there as my support system, for always being there, listening to me, supporting me and feeding me.

[2:40 p.m.]

It is my minister’s job as Minister of Municipal Affairs to ensure that our work supports strong, healthy communities that are full of opportunity — communities large and small, urban, suburban and rural.

British Columbia is an incredible place to call home. As a recent B.C. Stats report confirms, our province is experiencing its highest population growth in 50 years. We need to be prepared to embrace all the opportunities that come with this growth.

I want to take a moment to recognize the work that B.C.’s local governments are doing. Thank you so much to all the mayors, regional chairs, First Nation leadership.

Our local governments are on the front lines of building our communities and bringing our communities together. From my three terms as a Burnaby city councillor, I know firsthand that building vibrant and healthy communities requires the support of the provincial government and that we are only stronger when we all work together.

The pandemic has certainly challenged every order of government, every region, every community and every person. We are not going to solve all these challenges overnight or in a few years, but we are resilient. We are resilient because we are partners, we are stronger, and we will be working together. I am so proud to be working with all the local governments and the mayors and to make a real and meaningful change for the people in our communities.

Our government’s Budget 2024 is making significant investments, which will improve the lives of British Columbians locally, to address the infrastructure and services where they live. Last year on February 10, I was proud to join the Premier and my colleagues to announce the new growing communities fund. This one-time $1 billion investment is helping local governments throughout B.C. to meet the demands of record population growth, aging infrastructure and economic downturns.

All 188 of B.C.’s municipalities and regional districts now have funds which they can use to address their own unique needs. It is helping to improve roads, support more affordable housing, build sewers and water pipes and deliver better recreation options for families. It is helping them address their unique infrastructure demands, prepare their communities for future growth and build amenities and services needed to support new home construction.

British Columbians want sustainable, fun and welcoming communities, and that is what our government will continue to do. We will continue to work hard to support local governments to provide that. We are just getting started.

In addition to the one-time growing communities fund, my ministry continually provides key assistance to help local governments sustain infrastructure for essential services in communities and households. These services include clean water, wastewater management, roads, green energy, solid waste management and disaster mitigation.

I know many local governments are feeling increased pressure as they are dealing with aging infrastructure that could cause damage to the environment and risks to public health. I want to say to local governments that we hear you, we are listening, and we are taking action.

In Prince Rupert, we heard that there was a critical need to replace the city’s water distribution system, ensuring that people and industries always have access to the water when they need it. The province supported this through a $65 million investment.

And in Richmond, the Iona Island wastewater treatment plant needs to be upgraded to improve wastewater quality and capacity for over 750,000 Metro Vancouver residents. This is a massive undertaking, and the province has pro­vided $250 million towards this project.

These projects are part of an overall historic $450 million provincial investment in critical community infrastructure. We’re also supporting clean drinking water, water treatment and greenhouse gas reduction through projects in 18 other communities. These include $650,000 to better protect people in Telkwa against wildfires, with a water system replacement; an upgrade to the wastewater facility in the district of Wells, through a $5 million investment; and ensuring Rossland has reliable drinking water and water infrastructure, through an investment of $1.3 million.

[2:45 p.m.]

Last year the Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness not only had a baby, but she also described the severe drought as a sleeping giant. It is hard for many of us to see a drought. We can still open a tap and take a shower, and it goes unnoticed until it’s too late.

I know that local governments and First Nations have been closely monitoring their water levels and that some communities have had to make some very tough calls on water restriction. That is why this year, through Budget 2024, we’re providing $50 million toward the purchase and installation of water metering in select communities to enable them to better conserve water by identifying leaks, establishing appropriate rates and educating users on their actual water use.

These combined investments are a step towards the right direction, as we work towards making B.C. an attractive place for people to call home. We know that an investment in infrastructure is an investment in people.

Through the collective work we’re doing with our federal counterparts in the investing in Canada infrastructure program, we continue to help communities provide the infrastructure and services that people need. Last year we supported dozens of projects across the prov­ince, injecting millions of dollars into our communities through this partnership.

Through the northern healthy communities fund, we are supporting many communities situated alongside major industrial sites to deliver the services they need for a growing population. Through our community gaming grant program, we’re helping thousands of non-profit organizations continue to carry out their valuable work across the province.

As I mentioned, there are 188 local governments across B.C. that have done incredible work to build our province to what it is today. I appreciate the enthusiasm that they have shown for working with our government. I want to thank all the local leaders that I have met over the past several weeks who have really helped to inform our government’s work.

The minute I became Minister of Municipal Affairs last year, I hit the road, and I made sure that I visited as many communities as I could. I had the opportunity to meet and visit many local governments across the province to hear directly from them about their priorities and their needs in their communities that they serve.

Several months ago I had the opportunity to meet with communities on Vancouver Island, from Lake Cowichan to Ladysmith, Nanaimo to Lantzville and Campbell River. I was given an enormously warm welcome from these communities.

In October, I visited Williams Lake to announce the construction of a water treatment plant that will provide the community access to safe and healthier drinking water, thanks to an investment of more than $24.3 million. This was made possible through a joint investment between the government of Canada, the government of British Columbia and Williams Lake.

In December, I visited the city of Kimberley to an­nounce funding for their new wastewater treatment plant. The new plant will replace the aging pollution control centre, built in 1967, which is located in a flood-prone area.

While it takes time and there hasn’t been time to meet everyone, the development of these relationships is crucial to moving projects forward and delivering results for people in their communities.

I am so proud of the work that my ministry is doing and the support that my government is giving local governments to support strong, healthy communities that are full of opportunities. That is why, through Budget 2024, we’re providing the local governments represented through the Northwest B.C. Resource Benefits Alliance with $250 million over five years. This funding will support asset management and construction of infrastructure such as roads, water, sewer and other amenities needed to create livable communities.

[2:50 p.m.]

We’re not the only ones who are excited about this announcement. Mayor Sean Bujtas, from the regional district of Kitimat-Stikine, said that this investment “will go a long way toward making our communities in the northwest more livable.” And Mayor Herb Pond from the North Coast regional district called this funding a “game-changer” for all of our communities.

Thank you so much to all the co-chairs for all your advocacy and your work throughout the years. I’m excited to see how the northwest communities use this funding to make real differences for people in the region.

I am also the minister responsible for immigration, and I’m also a proud immigrant to Canada. One of the drivers of this increased demand for infrastructure and growth projects comes from immigration. When I first started in this role, people would often ask me why the immigration portfolio is also part of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Communities understand the valuable education and skills and experience that newcomers bring to our province, contributing to our richness and the strength of our province.

Local governments have told us about the gaps they’ve identified in our workforce. We listened, and we’ve taken action. The B.C. provincial nominee program, or the B.C. PNP, lets the province attract and retain the right people to meet B.C.’s workforce needs and grow B.C.’s economy. We’re focusing on nominating more skilled workers for our care economy and are attracting talent from all around the world.

As a result, from 2022 to 2023, we’ve seen an almost 100 percent increase in early childhood educator nominees and a 224 percent increase in health care occupation nominees. B.C. PNP now gives more priorities to people with a job offer and work or study experience outside of Metro Vancouver, so more areas of the province can benefit from the talent, skills, experience and opportunities that newcomers bring with them.

We are already seeing the benefits of these changes. In Kamloops, B.C. PNP staff are working with organizations like Venture Kamloops to attract international talent. As a result, they’ve seen more people applying for work and being matched up with local employers. My ministry will continue working with local governments to encourage immigration to your communities, to all of our communities to help ensure that supports are available once newcomers arrive. We have listened to what local governments have been saying and have added construction to the prioritized occupation list for people applying for the B.C. PNP.

There is no stronger example of our cooperation in action than in B.C.’s response to support newcomers who face crisis abroad. It has been two years since the invasion of Ukraine. We saw settlement organizations and ordinary, everyday British Columbians work together to support more than 20,000 Ukrainians’ arrivals, as well as newcomers from Afghanistan, from Pakistan, and those entering from Roxham Road.

We saw that more was needed to support these individuals and families that want to call B.C. their home. We want them to be successful here. We want them to feel that services are here to support them. So as government, we again took action.

I’m thrilled to share that as of April 1 this year, we are launching two new and expanded programs to better support temporary residents, naturalized citizens and refugee claimants in their social and economic integration journey. The combined funding for these programs is $25.5 million annually, quadruple the amount of the previous program.

These investments will allow community service providers to provide enhanced support to more newcomers in our province. I look forward to celebrating this boost by visiting some of the many newcomer services and newcomer service providers across the province soon.

I’m also the minister responsible for libraries, and I love my libraries. I know many of us, if not all of us, love our libraries. Libraries have grown with us as we have grown with libraries, and being a previous teacher, libraries have a very, very special place in my heart.

In addition to visiting local governments in their communities, I have also been visiting their libraries. They remain a trusted source of books, magazines, newspapers and digital information.

[2:55 p.m.]

Today they are also so much more. Libraries are community hubs and offer a range of programs as diverse as the communities they serve. Libraries offer a range of programs, such as Lake Country’s libraries. They offer a free seed library program to increase food security and food literacy in their community. Terrace’s library has 3-D printing workshops. Surrey’s library provides a recording studio that people can use to produce their own music. Just this week I was able to visit the Bob Prittie Metrotown library, in their grand reopening of new spaces, for more readers and people of all ages, for programming.

I’m just so proud to see how our libraries are modernizing. Over the past few days, many local elected officials have expressed to me the important role that libraries play within their communities. I hear them loud and clear, and the province is taking action to ensure that we’re investing to help B.C. public libraries keep pace with changing needs.

We’re going to continue to work collaboratively with all local governments, with First Nations and with the non-profit sector to create opportunities for people so that B.C.’s bright future is shared with everyone, not just a few. Our government will continue to be listening, continue to be working, and continue to take action.

D. Davies: I’m certainly happy to take my place and provide some comments on the 2024 budget — a sad, sad budget, I might add. I could probably go back and print off my last five or six budget speeches. In fact, I did think about it, just out of pure…. You know, it’d be much quicker. But this one…. They keep getting worse.

Budget after budget keeps getting worse, and this one is, by far, the one that scares me the most. It scares me the most because I worry about the future of this province. I worry about my kids. I worry about my kids’ kids and how we’re going to provide any kind of light at the end of the tunnel. At a time, though, when British Columbians need that light at the end of the tunnel, peo­ple desire and actually need to see some sort of hope…. That is a significant part of what role the government plays: providing that hope.

I’d like to talk a little bit about the throne speech, but due to a complete change in procedure, we don’t really have the opportunity to talk about the throne speech. The throne speech and budget, those are really critical documents by government that lay out a plan for the year and that provide that hope and pathway for British Columbians — a roadmap, if you will.

From a throne speech that really said nothing to a budget that is a spend, spend, spend-with-no-results kind of a budget, it is clear that there is no plan by this government to provide a prosperous future for British Columbians.

Affordability in this province has never, ever been as bad as it is now. I know that every single person in this chamber — at their offices, at their local coffee shops; it doesn’t matter where you come from in this province — are talking about the challenges with affordability.

A majority of British Columbians are $200 away, every month, from not being able to make their rent payments, not being able to provide groceries, or having to choose between rent or prescriptions, rent or groceries. “What are we cutting this month?” Life has never been more unaffordable than it is right now under this NDP government.

[3:00 p.m.]

Before I start into my budget speech, I do want to thank, first of all, all of my constituents in Peace River North for giving me the opportunity to represent them in this place. It is truly a privilege. I know it’s a privilege that all of us share as we come here and do this business on behalf of our constituents.

I want to thank my constituency assistants Natasha Scott and Susie Keeler, who are both in Fort St. John, and Kimberly Eglinski, who is in Fort Nelson. They’ve all been fantastic. Being the face of the Legislature in our local communities, certainly over these past few years, has not been an easy job, and I want to give a shout out to them.

Also to my legislative staff. As all of us know, and lean on, they make our world here so much better and easier as you move forward. So, Wendy King, Kevin Franceschini and Parnian Taheri — thank you to all of them that make, again, this much easier here to do our jobs.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

This is the seventh budget that we’ve seen by this government come through here, spending much, much more than ever before — and I’ll cover that here shortly — and delivering less than ever before. Quite backwards, actually. What has improved? You can go out on the streets and ask people: “What has improved in seven years? Has health care improved? Have crime and disorder on our streets improved? Has affordability improved?” And the list goes on, and the answer is no.

We have been, over the past number of years, left with a long list of NDP failures, whether we’re talking about housing or health care, streets. In fact, health care is so mismanaged in this province that that no one is trusting this government to help them out. I know people up in my riding, and we are situated…. And my colleague in Peace River South….

We are hearing stories that we should never hear. That I feel better if I’m going to go just across the border to Alberta to seek my emergency treatment because the wait lists are shorter there, the emergency times are less. That is something we should not be seeing. British Columbians should not have to, out of necessity, be travelling that extra time just to go to another jurisdiction because they don’t feel they can get the same medical services here in British Columbia.

We’ve seen the out-of-control spending, in fact, and this isn’t new. COVID is when this government first started deficit spending, and we don’t argue that. COVID certainly was an interesting time, and I would be hard-pressed to probably find any government that didn’t do some deficit spending during COVID times.

But we’re now going into year 4, almost, post-COVID, and this budget is posing an $8 billion deficit. It’s actually hard to even fathom what $8 billion looks like. As a former school teacher myself, I used to always have to do those big numbers and put them into something that people could imagine. You look at a single piece of paper, and if you were to stack those papers all up, eight billion sheets of paper, it would be over one million metres in height. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of paper.

Interjections.

D. Davies: Yeah, they are supporting forestry if that were the case.

[3:05 p.m.]

If you were to work an eight-hour day, that would actually be 761 days to do eight-hour days…. Actually, it’s going to take almost that long to probably pay the debt off.

A plan to make life more affordable is our plan, the B.C. United plan. We actually have a plan to make life more affordable, making investments, encouraging an environment where other people want to invest in our province, returning to a world-class health care system that we had under then B.C. Liberal, now B.C. United, government.

I know it has been circulated around, and I know members on the other side don’t like seeing it, but actually, when our Leader of the Opposition was the Health Minister, it was on the front page of the Vancouver Sun. British Columbia had the top medical system in the country.

I would argue we’re near the bottom on the continent now in regards to our medical system. But it’s not for lack of money. We’ve heard the Minister of Health today. “We’re throwing money. We’re throwing money, billions of dollars, billions of dollars, spending, spending, spending.” But we’re getting worse results. There’s a huge disconnect there, and we see this across the board in all areas of spending. Whether we’re talking the $8 billion deficit now or the doubling — well, over doubling now — of our provincial debt, we’re getting worse results.

British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, almost 150 years ago now. I know we’ve heard this in here before, but I like to say it because it really sets the stage for reckless spending by the NDP government.

In that 150 years, it took the province of British Columbia…. Or it took 150 years to gain $50 billion in total debt over that time. From 2017…. What happened in 2017? Oh yeah, an election happened. The NDP became government in 2017. From 2017 to now, in just around seven years, they’ve doubled what has taken 150 years to do. And over this budget cycle, I think there’s another $64 billion of debt coming.

My great-great-great-grandkids cannot afford what the NDP are doing today. Might even need a couple more greats into that. It is unbelievable — the level of reckless spending that this government is doing with no care and concern about the future of British Columbia. It’s a race to the bottom.

We have seen this over and over again. It’s almost like we’re trying to compete with the federal government who can gather the most debt. There is a direct link. There is a direct link with debt and deficit spending with inflation, with affordability.

Again, I go back to…. You walk into any A&W in any small community. This is what people are talking about in these communities — how broke they are, how they can’t afford X, Y or Z. It goes directly into this reckless spending.

Interjection.

D. Davies: Good thing I am a fiscal conservative, be­cause we need fiscal conservatism in this government, which I don’t think we’re going to see, sadly.

I wouldn’t want to compare the past with now, because the past…. We just have to look at the past. It was much, much better. Whether we’re talking deliverables on health care, whether we’re talking affordability, whether we’re talking an economy that was tickety-tick-tick, it is not happening right now.

I don’t know if tickety-tick-tick is a word, but it sounded good. If I heard that from my engine in my truck, I wouldn’t be happy.

[3:10 p.m.]

My goodness. It scares me. It scares me for my children. It scares me for the future of all of our children here that just the debt-servicing is around $5 billion. One of my colleagues down here…. I can’t remember who said it. It’s the fourth-largest ministry by budget, if it was a ministry — the debt-servicing ministry.

What could you do with $5 billion that is just basically going toward servicing our debt? That’s a lot of schools. It’s a lot of hospitals. The Taylor Bridge, that would…. We could actually four-lane it, and that’d be a nice bridge up. We could even cover it, heat it. So $5 billion dollars is a lot of money, but it is money that British Columbians are only seeing pain for, because it is just paying off or servicing our horrendous amount of debt.

In Budget 2024, we do see some little things that are going to frizzle out here. There is a little bit of money thrown here and there for 2024 to help out some people, organizations. I wonder what’s happening this year where they’d be kind of just throwing money out to these different organizations? Maybe there’s an election this year, because there’s certainly no sustainable wins for British Columbians.

Again, B.C. United does have a different approach. We do have a different approach. We understand that taxpayers right now are stretched to the absolute max. We have put solutions forward. Cutting provincial fuel tax. That is something that would have immediate savings to moms and dads driving their kids to different events.

Or trucking. Up in our neck of the woods, everything is trucked up there. All of our produce, our goods, you name it, is trucked. The cost of that fuel goes directly onto the cost of everything that we consume. So a 15-cent tax break on the provincial gas tax is a huge savings for all British Columbians.

Removing the PST on used vehicles, giving a break to people who need it the most: middle-class folks that are buying a used vehicle.

We’ve committed to removing the carbon tax on home heating. I was going to…. I apologize. I actually had printed off my natural gas bill, and it hurts. It is the…. Okay, there’s a few that I don’t like getting in my mailbox, but that’s certainly one that I dread getting: my natural gas bill.

Interjection.

D. Davies: I don’t get one of them. Yeah, see? I don’t get those rebates. I’m just out, out, out. So this is…. I am actually one of…. Almost everybody who lives up the North…. I have no choice.

I know the previous speaker was talking about the heat pumps: “They’re wonderful. Pat on the back.” They don’t work in Fort Nelson when it’s 50 below. They might help, but you still need a natural gas heater. You’re still going to need a forced air furnace. Or in Fort St. John. Three weeks of January we were locked in at minus 40 in Fort St. John. The whole northeast, actually the whole province, was cold during that time.

And the carbon tax was just a givin’ ‘er. We’ve committed to removing that tax, the B.C. United.

I’ve said this before. I’ve lost count now. I think my colleague from the Kootenays there printed off this: 32 new taxes and fees by the NDP government have been implemented since 2017. The increases in carbon tax doubling here over the next number of years.

[3:15 p.m.]

Property taxes increase. Income tax increase. Corporate tax increase. ICBC unlisted premium. ICBC learner pre­mium. Sugar drinks. The pop tax. The Netflix tax. Different tax brackets created. FOI fees. Fossil fuel. Home heating equipment tax. Used car sales tax. The marketplace tax. The list goes on and on. It’s like the story of Robin Hood, except the government is the prince out there stealing the money from people trying to get by day by day. I guess that makes us the Robin Hood, doesn’t it? Sort of.

I have to wonder, just to talk briefly, about why the tax, the tax, the taxation, the taxation — hitting British Columbians over and over and over again. We can’t give any more. British Columbians can’t give any more. I know the folks up in my region can’t give any more.

At the same time, we have a government that is slowly shutting down our resource sector. They don’t support oil and gas. They don’t really support our forest industry. How many mills have shut down? We don’t support mining expansion in this province. We don’t even support our agriculture community. These are things that generate revenue for British Columbians.

When you start kicking that out the door, all the NDP have is tax. That’s all they have. British Columbians are leaving British Columbia in record numbers for greener pastures. I’m not making that up. It’s in their budget book. I think it’s five consecutive years of losses to other jurisdictions, mostly, I’ll say, Alberta.

I certainly know up in the Peace River South riding, we have people that are looking to move to Alberta.

Interjection.

D. Davies: Myself and my colleague for Peace River South. I maybe didn’t put an “and” in there.

So these are people we need. These are tradespeople. These are professionals that we need. Often when you have one person leave, a spouse leaves with them. Kids leave with them. We need to turn the ship around. Budget 2024 is still on a crash course. There’s no end in sight. I’m going to run out of time here.

Health care. Where do I even start? It is the one thing…. I can only talk from my office. I presume most other members here…. The number one complaint that I get in my office is around health care, people coming in.

People sitting across my desk crying, completely emotionally drained, because either they themselves cannot get the medical attention they need or it’s a family member. The British Columbia wait times are the worst on the continent, or is it in Canada? I think it’s in Canada. No different in my region. People can’t access specialists in rural B.C. or anywhere for that matter. And no family doctors. We just heard my colleague from Prince George–​Valemount — 26 percent of British Columbians do not have a family doctor.

When you don’t have a family doctor, and you have a critical incident in your life — a disease, whether that be cancer or something else — that could be a death sentence. I have a number of people in my riding right now that don’t have family doctors, that are dealing with a critical illness, and they can’t get help. Sadly, many of them look to MAiD for an easy way out because of a government that’s failed British Columbia, failed our health care system.

Fort Nelson even…. We’re talking emergency rooms. Fort Nelson just recently was on diversion.

[3:20 p.m.]

I don’t want to downplay other communities, but this happens. We hear this all the time. Chetwynd, I know, has been on diversion multiple times. But when Fort Nelson goes on diversion, it’s 500 kilometres away. This isn’t just an hour drive to get to the next emergency. If it’s something serious, quite likely that person is not going to make it.

We have been working with the Ministry of Health for a long time to try and get medevac services. There’s even Villers Air up in Fort Nelson that’s been trying to get an ad hoc service and provide the ministry…. “Hey, I have a plane up here. It meets the requirements.” We can’t even get the government to use them. Instead, they’ll put someone in an ambulance and send them five hours down the road. If you’ve ever driven the Alaska Highway north of Fort St. John in the winter, you never know what you’re going to expect.

Our health care system is crumbling at all levels. Yet the minister and government tend to think: “No, we’re doing great. We’re doing this. We’re meeting all these expectations.” I don’t understand. It’s like that little GIF with the dog sitting at the table. Everything is burning down around him, and he’s saying: “No, everything is fine here.” It’s not.

I have not talked to one British Columbian — not one British Columbian — whether in my riding or if I’m here in the Lower Mainland, that says: “God, we have a fantastic health care system.” Said no one, because it’s not true. It’s a shameful medical system, and it’s because of this government’s mismanagement.

I do take my hats off for all the people that work in our system doing the best they can with the limited resources they have. Thank goodness we have great people in our system that are doing the best they can to deliver the best they can. But this government needs to do more in supporting that.

You know, we just heard recently, I think it was in question period today, about the retinal surgery, even. I have a lot of seniors in my area that have written to me. I don’t have permission to use their names, so I won’t use their names. But a couple of them are worried —”If I don’t get this, I will go blind” — because of a decision by this government to cut 32 percent out of the provincial retinal disease treatment program, which is jeopardizing predominantly seniors to receive this life-changing surgery that they need.

Mental health and addictions — again, one of our worst crises to face the province of British Columbia, and it’s getting worse year after year. The more the government tries to do what…. I don’t know whether you’re talking about the failed and reckless decriminalization experiment or otherwise, but the numbers keep getting worse. It’s that definition of insanity: keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Well, people are dying.

This government has developed a system in this prov­ince to keep people in addiction, not to move them to recovery. There’s very little prevention even happening. B.C. United is going to change that. We have already brought forward a plan to focus on recovery, on getting British Columbians better, supporting them, holding their hand along the journey as they heal.

I’m totally running out of time here.

Public safety is another issue. I just hosted a crime and disorder town hall at the Lido Theatre. Full house. People from all walks of life came out that are concerned. This is in Fort St. John, a small rural town. People are worried about walking down the street — not at night, daytime — because they don’t feel safe.

[3:25 p.m.]

Businesses are shutting down because they cannot afford anymore to have a window smashed out or people walking out with shopping carts full of whatever. Our justice system, our catch-and-release justice system, just whirlwinds them back out. “That’s fine. You’re good.” Then they go out and do it again. Back in front of a judge. Back out, do it again. Back in front of a judge. It’s on and on.

People are done. All criminals need to be held accountable. And it’s these little petty crimes that are breaking our businesses, that are shutting down — many of them in my riding — which impacts employment. People can’t work. Our downtowns are getting worse, because this government is failing British Columbians.

I could talk so much more about the 140,000 public sector employees that this government has hired over seven years, the massive loss in the private sector, no supports for persons with disabilities. In fact, I have a note here from one of the advocates. It basically says: “Nothing for persons with disabilities in this B.C. Budget 2024. I’ve given up hope with this party. That’s it. No more.”

We have been hearing from home-share communities. Nothing new for home share. These are people that are about to walk away, leaving many of our vulnerable with nowhere to go.

The electric car farce, talking about electric cars.

It is shameful. It is an absolute shame that the NDP government has put forward such a budget.

Deputy Speaker: Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. [Applause.]

Hon. N. Cullen: Thank you to my colleagues. Well, I haven’t said anything yet. You’ve got to wait to see if I happen to say anything worth applause.

It’s a real pleasure and honour always to stand in this place.

As I was about to rise, I got sent a note from a friend in Ottawa on the passing of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney just recently. We knew each other only in passing. I know his daughter better. Also, as a son of Irish immigrants, we were at least able to agree on the value of the Irish community here in Canada. I did greatly respect him for his tenacity as Prime Minister in this country.

We can find space in politics, I think, where, while we find disagreement on issues and policies, we can also find humanness in our endeavour to try to represent people. And he did in his level ways.

So Godspeed to him and condolences to his family on behalf of the government. I think I could, perhaps, speak on behalf of the Legislature. In his passing, in a proper Irish way, we’ll raise a glass to him later tonight.

It is my distinct pleasure to stand and represent, speaking of representation, the good people of Stikine. The northwest of our beautiful province is, in my somewhat biased view, a distinctly beautiful place. The riding I represent is the largest in this place. It extends all the way from the bottom of Hungry Hill just after you leave Houston if you’re coming from Prince George, through beautiful Telkwa and Smithers, through Wet’suwet’en country, through Gitxsan country and the Hazelton on through Stewart, on our very coast, right up against the Alaska border. And then it extends all the way up Highway 37 to the Yukon border.

Then up past through Yukon, if you come back into British Columbia, you get to visit Taku River Tlingit country, an absolute gem in the community of Atlin. Just by coincidence, today and yesterday we were meeting with representatives of the Taku River Tlingit, who are doing a remarkable job in both defending the territory for conservation interests but also lifting up economic opportun­ities for their community and for the broader community in the very most northwest corner.

[3:30 p.m.]

Today I am talking about the budget, and the budget is, of course, much like any family’s budget. It’s a set of decisions and choices that one makes in terms of what to invest in, where to place the dollars that are precious and need to be respected always.

For the past seven years that this government has been in office here in British Columbia, there have been some significant investments in some places that, I think, have borne some important fruit for us as a people.

There are some within our politics that say that you can’t invest in services and infrastructure and have a vibrant economy at the same time, that the two are somehow diametrically opposed. I fundamentally disagree with that assertion. I think a strong infrastructure system — good rail and highways, good schools, good hospitals and a strongly supported public service delivering the services in health care and education that we need — is integral to the vibrancy and health of our economy.

B.C.’s economy has been remarkably durable and resilient. Typically, they say that if you want three opinions, ask two economists. But last year and leading up into last year, economists were in total agreement that B.C. and Canada — in fact, the world — were definitely headed into a recession. The economy has shown itself to be much more resilient than that. In fact, that did not take place.

It’s not to say that there aren’t industries and sectors, and individuals and families, who struggle. There are a number of headwinds for many of the families that I represent in the northwest. Then the discussion becomes: what do you do to support them?

One of the interesting nuggets in the facts that come from Statistics Canada is that 100,000 women in B.C. have entered the workforce over the last number of years. The economists who study this have said that one of the leading factors, though not the only one, is access to affordable child care.

One of the things we heard from the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, the B.C. Business Council and others was support for what is inherently a social program: affordable child care. That might seem unusual to folks — normally the B.C. chamber might be advocating on questions of taxation or other questions about industrial support — but it was clear that without a good, strong, diverse, affordable child care system, there were many, women in particular, who were unable to enter the workforce. That is changing, and it is growing each and every month.

Now, child care is an interesting example of what this government inherited seven years ago: an infrastructure and service deficit. The government, as it had been formed 16 years prior to that, had rejected an affordable child care program that was in place. There hadn’t been investments in child care at all since then.

In standing up a good system, it’s not just about spaces, and it’s not just about building new centres. It’s not just about training, hiring and retaining new staff and paying them properly. It is not about just those things; it is about all of those things together. That takes time, and it has taken us time.

I’m so proud when I get to visit the child care centres in Stikine, Telkwa, Smithers and Hazelton. We opened a new one in Gitwangak, a First Nations community, just a little while ago, which is unusual.

Usually provincial governments — as you know, Mr. Speaker — don’t implicate themselves within so-called reserve lands for First Nations. But on investments, both in child care and in housing, this government, under the former Premier and this current Premier, has said that we’re not going to observe those lines that were put in place and remain in place under the colonial Indian Act. Where there are needs and where there are investments that should take place into housing and child care, we are going to do that.

We just recently opened one in the village of Witset, a Wet’suwet’en village right next door to my community in Smithers. What’s beautiful about this and, I think, a real core of the investment and opportunity is that as part of these new child care centres being opened in First Nations villages, there’s an inherent incorporation of Elders into the child care system.

Every morning, when the kids are sitting down for cookies, orange juice and all those good things, the Elders come into the child care centre not just for cultural and other types of lessons but on language. The language is being incorporated right from the very foundations.

As I said, B.C.’s economy has performed remarkably well. It’s one of the top performing economies in Canada, adding 70,000 jobs last year alone. This is incredibly good news, as we have also lifted up, and just did again this week, to have the highest minimum wage, a minimum wage that had been frozen for years and years under the previous government.

[3:35 p.m.]

It’s a bit striking to hear them talk about affordability when there wasn’t a lot of compassion for those earning the minimum wage in our province. While costs were going up under the previous government as well — cost of living, rent, all of those things — it just didn’t seem all that interested. It wasn’t that they didn’t seem…. They weren’t all that interested in affecting those who were earning a minimum wage. Our government believes differently than that.

We have also seen one of the most significant population growths this province has ever seen in the last number of years. I know opposition has its role — it’s meant to be, hopefully, always thoughtfully critical of what’s being proposed — but sometimes it does cross a line.

If you’d listen to the opposition speeches on the budget and the state of the nation, the state of the province, B.C. was just a terrible place, from listening to the opposition, yet people continue to come here in significant and record numbers, because there’s opportunity here. They see the opportunity for themselves and their families. They’re not just coming from neighbouring provinces, not just from the United States but from all around the world. We are great beneficiaries of the brightest and best, from around Canada and around the world, who choose to make B.C. their home.

Does that popularity come with challenges? Of course it does. Of course it does, particularly when, as our government did, we inherited a deficit and debt with respect to infrastructure and with respect to services. We’ve heard again and again — and the stats don’t lie — that even while B.C. was growing under the previous government, the government was actually in the process of eliminating nursing spaces while our population was not just growing but aging. That’s not smart government. That’s not anticipating what’s to come.

If your population is growing, if your population, on average, is aging, then you need to invest in things like training more doctors, training more nurses, training more people who can work in long-term-care facilities to make sure that those long-term-care facilities are at a standard of basic safety that we would all insist upon if we were having our elders enter them.

It’s a tragedy. I heard previously, in some speeches, opposition members talking about the need to respect the generations that built this province, yet for years — while having the authority to just insist upon basic standards of decency in our long-term-care facilities — the previous government chose not to do it.

One would have to guess as to why not. A lot of those facilities were run by private operators. Some of those private operators, under the previous Wild West rules of fundraising in this province, were allowed to, and did, make significant donations. That’s a shame.

We have also seen record housing being built in this province. Do we need more? Absolutely, but no one is suggesting that this government has not put virtually every tool imaginable into the toolbox for municipalities, for those who are building the housing, for the developers to be able to build more housing — to have greater concentration, greater density, and to not simply have single-family units be the predominant housing structure, particularly in our cities. All of that has been changed.

Those are seismic changes, I would offer. This is a state shift with respect to the opportunity and the ability to build more housing for the people that we seek to serve.

On capital projects — these are the schools, the hospitals, and the roads. This is the basic infrastructure, some of it not so sexy: the sewers, pipes and all of the things that keep our cities and communities safe and healthy. There’s a record $43 billion over the next number of years, in this budget, to do exactly that.

The reason I know that this is popular is because when we cut the ribbon on those hospitals, schools and road expansions and they happen to be in colleagues’ ridings across the way, they celebrate them, too. They know their regional districts; their municipalities have been desperately crying out for these.

The infrastructure is aging. If you look at the history of our province, much of it was put in place after the Second World War. Many things age well — fine wines and other things — but infrastructure does not. It was coming due 15, 17, 18 years ago. Previous governments decided to kick that can down the road, and the infrastructure got worse.

By the way, it got more expensive to do. We know the cost of building anything in B.C…. Anybody who wants to put up a shed, never mind build a new SkyTrain station, will tell you that things have gotten increasingly expensive over the last number of years.

I want to talk about Stikine, the place I represent. As I said, I’m a little biased, but it is my job description — and I take it on proudly: to think about the investments that we can make and will make and have made in the place that I represent.

[3:40 p.m.]

This is a very beautiful place. It is also a place of very proud communities that have contributed literally billions and billions of dollars to both provincial and federal coffers over the many years because we are predominantly a resource-based part of the world.

Those living in the urban centres might not always appreciate it. But one single mine of some significance — of which we have many, with some more to come — can contribute billions of dollars in taxes, never mind the good-paying wages for folks that don’t all just live in the North. They live right across this province.

We have seen…. I did this analysis, and I wanted to make sure it was accurate. Looking at the average family of four living in the northwest, with one child in child care, the decisions that this government has made have saved that average family $17,000 last year, this year and will again next year. That’s the biggest single middle-income tax cut in our province’s history, which was getting rid of the MSP.

I chided a friend earlier who was making a speech and worried about bills that he was opening. Well, one bill he doesn’t open, nor does any British Columbian, is a bill from the government for a medical services charge, an extra tax on top of paying your provincial taxes, which the previous government imposed. We eliminated it. It was worth significant amounts of money. The affordable child care, I talked about.

The absolute disaster that we inherited at ICBC — I mean, a disastrous state of affairs, often referred to as a dumpster fire. We’ve, in fact, cleaned up ICBC so it’s a functioning, operating public insurer again and have been able to freeze rates and return back money to those who drive in our province. That’s just a night-and-day shift from what had existed before.

Hydro — money returned back there. As well, the B.C. family benefit program, which is a little north of $2,000 for the average family now in my riding, every year returned back cash in hand.

This is an important one. I know that the B.C. chamber and, I believe, the B.C. Business Council talked about this. We changed the employer health tax threshold. This was significant. This was something clearly asked for. So now 90 percent of the businesses in this province no longer have to pay an MSP contribution. That can be significant for the small and medium businesses that make up the vast majority of employment opportunities in our community and that are absolutely the backbone of our economy.

There is a sense, when I look around the northwest, of the ability of what sometimes relatively small investments can do and what more significant investments can do, not just for us in our region but the entire province.

We’ve seen the impact of the 6,000 new nurses that we’ve brought on in this province. We have a primary health care centre that was opened in Smithers now servicing hundreds of people who are unattached, not with a doctor.

We have seen the expansion…. This might seem like a small thing, but on a day-to-day level, it saves the system a lot of money, saves people a lot of time, and it was most intuitive. I don’t know why this wasn’t done before — allowing pharmacists to renew prescriptions.

I don’t know if you’ve gone through the experience, Mr. Speaker. I kind of hope not. But if you have…. You get a prescription from the doctor saying you need this for some time. It might go for two months or a month or three months, and you need to renew it.

Under the old system, you had to go back to the doctor, sit in the waiting room, take up time, get your blood pressure checked, temperature checked. “How is everything going? How is the medicine working out?” Then you get a scrip again to renew. You can go down to the pharmacy and then have the same conversation with the pharmacist: “How are you doing? How is the medicine working?”

Who is often the expert? I would argue…. I mean, doctors are experts, of course. They prescribed it. But who’s the expert in terms of potential complications, interference with other drugs? Well, it’s the pharmacist. So why not enable the pharmacist to do that? I checked with my pharmacists in Smithers, asking them how that’s going. They said it’s amazing, but they’re busier than they’ve ever been. They’re a bit exhausted.

We’ve got so many folks coming in, taking advantage of this. I think every one of those people that comes in and uses a pharmacist’s services that way is one less person who’s phoning their family doctor, going in to the primary health care centre, taking up their time and the doctors’ time and the nurses’ time to do something that is now being done by walking down to the pharmacy. How much better is that? I hope the Ministry of Health is doing some analysis on the savings on that, because it’s outstanding.

Plus the 700 new docs that we brought on. These are doctors that have come from overseas and then come back into practice. I talked to two docs two weekends ago, family doctors. The previous payment and salary system had not really been affected in 15 years.

[3:45 p.m.]

They renegotiated a new contract with us, essentially, and paid them better and allowed them — and this is critical for small communities — to enter back into family medicine, increasing the pool significantly in the small towns where they live and making life better for all, not just for all the doctors in that community.

They all now have, per doctor, fewer patients and a better quality of life for doctors. This is one of the reasons we were losing them: too many patients. It’s also, of course, improving life and quality of life for those patients.

Now, the Minister of Municipal Affairs was up earlier. I want to congratulate and thank her for one of the most significant parts of this budget for us in the northwest and for small towns across the region, of which there are many. The Resource Benefits Alliance was a program long argued by our municipalities and regional districts, a sharing agreement.

As I outlined earlier, we have a lot of natural resources that come out of the northwest, but of course, most of those municipalities don’t capture any of the taxes that take place. The mines, the forestry, the pipeline projects that have gone on exist outside of their tax base. Yet the impact in services, in roads, in infrastructure, of course, falls on those small communities.

Now, there is a proud history that I would offer. Just a small history lesson. Previous NDP governments, a generation back and then sometime back after that, did this type of revenue-sharing twice before. One was in the Columbia Basin Trust, which was established to help communities who were impacted by the significant dams that were going into that region and gave them access to revenue each and every year to be able to build up the economy, diversify their economy and recognize that there’s an impact.

Then, to my colleagues in the northeast, the Fair Share agreements and the evolutions of those were started by an NDP government for the exact same principle. We knew there was opportunity in the northeast, and there was a number of jobs being created, which definitely benefit local community. But the amount of revenue coming towards Victoria needed to be shared back.

Those communities, when you look around them and you look at their infrastructure — their swimming pools, their roads, their libraries — they’re not bad, given some of the small or remote communities that are represented there. If you ask them how they paid for it, a significant amount would have come from the sharing agreement that went back into those northeast communities. We’re just a sharing government by nature, so it was logical in the northwest, arguing the same principle.

If it was good in Columbia Basin, if it was good in the northeast, certainly there’s some logic to follow through in the northwest, because our opportunities in mining, in the port development — and the list goes on — are important to us. We cannot become just glorified camps. Our communities need to be vibrant places where people want to bring their families and be based out of when they’re doing all of this work.

The Resource Benefits Alliance and the $250 million attached to that — these communities are going to do outstanding things with it. They are going to leverage this money in ways…. Northwest communities know how to leverage money to make investments that are desperately needed with respect to all those things that I mentioned before.

There was $100 million in a previous budget, which is now fully implementing, for policing services in a lot of our small and rural communities. Policing budgets can occupy a lot for any municipality, but particularly for smaller or mid-sized municipalities — 5,000 to 10,000, 15,000 people — they can occupy a huge amount of the local budget. We knew that there was a policing need within the northern communities, within rural communities, and our government put money in there.

I’m so excited this spring — it’s not in my constituency, but it’s one over, and it’s a place we go often — to be able to finally open the new hospital in Terrace. There’s a new hospital being built in Fort St. James. There are other hospitals down in the Cariboo that are being built. It’s good, and one of the reasons it’s good…. Not only do these communities deserve it and need it, but it shows that when we’re making infrastructure decisions, we’re not making it through a partisan lens. I hope that’s generally celebrated in our province.

I can take people to other provincial budgets, and you overlay the electoral map with where the investments go. They mirror each other, because the government is putting their finger on the scale and saying: “Only will we spend in ridings that we happen to represent right now.”

I’m proud that this government has said that we are going to take the advice of our experts — our health care and our education experts — and say: “Where are the schools needed? Where are the hospitals needed? Let’s do those, regardless of how people cast a vote in the previous election.” We might take this as common in the last seven years. This is not common in democracies, and in less-free democracies, usually there’s something else.

[3:50 p.m.]

A very important announcement the Premier made at the Natural Resources Forum, which was very warmly received…. There’s a highway that stretches up through the North, all the way from Highway 16, which is finally, this summer, going to have cell service right across, due to investments from us, the federal government and the private sector. This is an enormous benefit for safety.

This is the so-called Highway of Tears. This is not a name that we associate with any pride but acknowledge in terms of the missing and murdered women, children and boys that have gone missing on this highway. One of the things that the calls of action have consistently asked for is the ability to have the safety of a secure cellular network.

Extending off of Highway 16 is Highway 37. It takes you, starting in Gitksan country, all the way through Nisg̱a’a, all the way north into Tahltan, and finishing up in Kaska, the Taku River Tlingit area. The Premier announced at the resource forum that we’re going to fix this highway after many, many years.

The reason why we need it: safety. The highway can be quite precarious. I’ve driven it more than a few times. It’s also because the resource companies have come forward and said, in collaboration with First Nations, that this is an important investment for them and the many multiple billions of dollars that they’re seeking to put into the B.C. economy.

This is smart economics. This is smart budgeting when you say: “We’re going to take some money. We’re going to fix a key piece of infrastructure, and what it will do is enable more good things to happen.”

One of the greatest advocates for this is a group called the Tahltan Industry Working Group. We met with them just recently. This is all the major mining companies operating in Tahltan territory alongside the Tahltan First Nations government. The central government is advocating with industry at the same time, at the same table, and they’ve come to agreement about where those investments need to happen.

This path of economic reconciliation is incredibly im­portant. I would say this as Minister of Water and Lands. There are some really important things happening with respect to economic reconciliation in this budget. One small — well, relatively small…. Important to the community is the Cowichan weir. As we face times of unprecedented drought and floods and the impacts on our watersheds, people are looking for investments to be done smartly.

Not only is the $14 million we’re putting towards that weir going to help the farming community, First Nations and people who care about wild salmon; the model with which it has been arrived at is important for people to pay attention to. I hope it’s a model that gets replicated across B.C., because the First Nation has sat down with the local government, with the farming community and with other stakeholders who have interests in this watershed and done the work together, made the proposal together and made the stewardship of it together.

This is such an outstanding model, and the $14 million we are putting in is going to be more than matched by our federal partners. I always like taking money in from Ottawa for good things. We know that the $1.3 billion we’re putting aside in this budget for mitigations on flood, the $154 million added to the wildfire services for better equipment, a new depot in Prince George and the year-round work of the B.C. Wildfire Service….

To all my friends in rural B.C. and suburban and urban, we saw one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating, fire seasons last year. It impacted our economy. It impacted our communities. It impacted the psychological well-being of even those that were on the edge of the fire. We saw what happened in West Kelowna, and the communities are too long to list.

We’re looking at the snowpack numbers. At the beginning of each month, we released new snowpack numbers, and they’re not good. We knew that this was going to be a precarious year. This is a cycle, plus the impacts of climate change. It means that we’re not getting enough snow in our mountains right now. The farmers — I met with the B.C. Cattlemen’s today — are saying the same things. Very concerned.

I’m so happy the Minister of Agriculture was able to lift up $83 million into this budget to work with farmers and build the infrastructure to keep the land wet longer. This is a fundamental principle in mitigating droughts. It’s the ability to have the reservoirs, the dams, the small dams farmers can build and maintain not just for their own agricultural purposes. We know wetting the land and keeping it wetter longer when the rains do come helps lower the risk of wildfire and drought. I have to say the B.C. Cattlemen’s and the agriculture community broadly have been outstanding in this conversation.

Perhaps I’ll end at this point and say that the tripartite nature agreement…. We, the federal government and the private sector came together. We’ve raised more than $1 billion for conservation in this province. This, happily, is maybe one of those few issues that crosses over most every partisan line that I’ve seen. People deeply love this province, and one of the reasons we love it is because of its beauty and because of its wild spaces.

[3:55 p.m.]

We know we’ve had impact, after generations, on some of our watersheds that need to not only be protected but actually need to be restored. Well, that ain’t free. That takes quite a bit of money and time, and I’m finding support from the B.C. Wildlife Federation, the Cattlemen’s Association — you just go down the list — the Mining Association and, of course, the environmental groups that are concerned with this, Ducks Unlimited, for this conservation effort.

It not only does great things for future generations to come. It also is building the partnerships between First Nations and non–First Nations people, between those that care about the place for generations or are newly arrived. This is work that we do together. We pass on the place better than we found it.

The watershed security fund is going to be critical. We’re looking for more support from our federal partners. When we restore the watersheds, we are able to take on things like unmitigated droughts and floods and the fires that so often accompany them.

There’s more to be said. These are good conversations to have, to listen to the other side, where their criticisms lay, to be accountable. Picking up the debts that existed before we took government with respect to services and infrastructure means that we have to pay through these things. We have to restore back and make our economies and our communities more resilient.

The B.C. economy is one of those most resilient econo­mies. The hard-working business community in this prov­ince is adaptable. They want a clean economy, they want one based on reconciliation, and they want government to be a partner in that action.

I’m very proud of the work that we’ve been able to do with them to try to keep life more affordable for British Columbians everywhere.

R. Merrifield: I have the privilege today to rise and speak on behalf of the residents of my riding in Kelowna-Mission.

The Okanagan is known for so many things. Our beautiful views, our fantastic lake, the skiing, the golfing, great people and, of course, our bounty of fresh fruits and veggies, wine. We’re generally a really happy group, but after seven years of this NDP government, our happiness has turned to frustration, worry and despair.

What has changed in the last seven years to wipe the smiles off our faces? Record food bank use. Crime and chaos in our streets. And 13,000 dead to overdose. People suffering with mental illness, their trauma on full display on our streets. The highest rents in all of Canada, in a province with the highest housing prices, not just in Canada but in North America. No family doctors. Long wait times, the worst in Canada, at the walk-in clinics. Highest inflation in Canada — we’ve outpaced Canada 11 out of 14 months — paired with the highest gas prices and the highest gas taxes in North America.

I’m on my feet today to discuss why. Why do we find ourselves in this state? Well, look no further. Budget 2024.

A government that has had seven years in power. This is not a new administration. This is not a new government. They didn’t just get here. They have been at the controls of our province for 7½ years. All of the issues that I just spoke of I specifically chose because all of them have happened under their watch.

Let’s talk about the budget. NDPs and budgets. It’s almost an oxymoron. After driving our provincial deficit to a record $8 billion, spending money like it grows on trees in an orchard….

I should be up here listing all of the great things that we’re receiving. But here’s the thing. Despite all the money that has been spent, the results are damning. Nothing is getting better. We are at the bottom of the results list on every list in Canada.

We need to talk about where our money is going and what we’re really getting in return. Nothing is working.

[4:00 p.m.]

The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result. This government believes that in spending more, they’re going to somehow get a different result than the last time they spent more. News flash: after 7½ years of spending more, we have had horrific results. It’s like paying for a first-class ticket and somehow ending up in the back row that doesn’t actually go backwards and recline.

Let’s just start. Let’s begin with our health care. Our health care system, under the NDP, is like a dinghy with a gaping hole. Billions are poured in, yet the wait-lists for surgeries stretch longer and longer. Our outcomes are horrific.

Our seniors, the treasure of our society, are marooned on islands of neglect, waiting for care that seems as mythical as mermaids.

The brutal state of our health care system starts with­out a doctor. I don’t even have a doctor; my doctor retired three years ago. I’ve called every clinic around, trying to find one, but everyone says: “I’m so sorry, but I’m just full.”

The minister indicates that we’ve fixed the issue, miraculously, by displacing the 708 doctors and putting them into GP positions. Nothing is fixed. He claims that 230,000 have had a new GP assigned, but there have been 250,000 new arrivals into our province just last year. So nothing has been fixed.

These 708 doctors are just transfers. There has not been a single medical school space created by this NDP government in 7½ years, despite the promises. So you transfer the issue, taking doctors from one part of the system and entice them to another, which leaves a deficit of hospitalists in our hospitals and a deficit of geriatric specialists in our long-term-care facilities — which we heard about the other night at the B.C. Care event — but they have not opened a single new space for more physician training.

This government has announced and reannounced the new medical school at SFU so many times that I have stopped counting, yet there’s no allocation for that new project in this budget. Three years from now we’re going to be in exactly the same place that we’re in today. So we’re continuing to fall behind with this NDP government.

Another example: our wait times for cancer care are the worst in Canada. Our numbers on the percentage that actually get treatment, in the time frames required for care for chemotherapy and radiation, have been in free fall under this government. They have slid by 20 percent over the course of the last six years. Hidden in that statistic are people dying, waiting to see an oncologist, to actually become a part of that statistic. Waiting to begin treatment is no longer the first wait-list you have to get on. It’s waiting to get to see an oncologist.

This government has known about this but hasn’t done anything about it. Take a constituent of mine, Mel, a gorgeous 43-year-old mother of two. I’m just going to read from her email to me, with her permission:

“The situation for care, cancer care specifically but certainly not limited to it, is abhorrent here in the province. They are taking lives in their hands with their lackadaisical attitudes about getting those departments staffed properly.

“I had a cancerous thyroid and opted last week to go for a full thyroidectomy in Tampa, Florida, at a personal cost of over U.S. $25,000 for life-saving surgery for my thyroid cancer, rather than wait to hopefully, eventually, get my name called off the wait-list and risk my cancer spreading while I waited.

“This is absolutely unacceptable. How is this even allowed to happen in what we call a developed nation? I am fortunate in that I could financially afford to leave the country to obtain the surgery in the U.S. in a timely manner, but the majority of people here in our province who need these cancer surgery treatments cannot do what I did.

[4:05 p.m.]

“That is what makes me so angry. No person should feel like they might just die while they await treatment because the proper resources are not in place to see that they receive care in a timely manner. Cancer is a disease that grows, often quickly, and must be treated swiftly to avoid metastasis.

“I often feel so hopeless about the health care in this city, and this issue has me feeling sad and hopeless for our future.”

When I asked her if I could read this out today, she said: “Please do. Please do. I’m so angry I can’t even see.”

She’s now trying to get the required testing done to make sure her cancer has not returned and has been told that because she sought cancer care outside, she is not eligible for these.

But this isn’t the only one. I could read dozens and dozens of stories, hundreds of stories, women who didn’t get diagnosed until it was stage 3 and 4 because they didn’t have doctors; surgeons telling patients that they removed the tumour but require chemo and radiation and will be put on a wait-list for an oncologist, a wait-list for a wait-list.

The doctor that told me about this said: “Do you know that there’s a wait-list for the wait-list?” That doctor looked at me and said: “I want the minister to have to talk to these patients, to see their tears, knowing that the majority of them won’t live only because they didn’t get the care they needed.”

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

We read these stories in the media. We know these peo­ple because they’re our neighbours And this NDP keeps spending more money and gets worse results. Shame.

I had an oncologist come and talk to me. At first I thought: “Oh, he wants to talk to me because he wants to talk about how we can increase orthopedic surgeries.” No. He wanted to give me statistics about how many of his patients, as they waited for their hip and knee surgeries, had become so addicted to painkillers that he could no longer operate on them, patients addicted to pain­killers. That’s the NDP record, and it’s wrong. Get them the surgeries.

What is the NDP spending more money on — more administrators, more vice-presidents, more bureaucracy? A bloated system of manager after manager with no one to make a decision? Shame.

In this latest budget, the NDP has once again missed the mark on addressing the core issues plaguing our mental health care system.

Mental health care. Their solution? Distributing drugs as a panacea, relegating countless individuals to a life shackled by addiction. It’s not just a failure; it’s a capitulation.

I surrender to the idea that we cannot or, worse, should not strive for a future where treatment and recovery are the cornerstones of our approach to mental health. And yes, we have proof in the budget, proof that this is their solution.

What is the proof? Only 2,200 beds are funded. Where are the other 1,400 beds that were mentioned in the throne speech? They’re not funded. Where is the treatment for those that need it? Where is the hope of a drug-free life?

Do you know how many treatment beds Alberta has? It’s 9,000 for a population that is the same as B.C.’s. So let’s be clear. The crisis we face is not one of resources. It’s a crisis of priorities.

While 13,000 of our people, our residents, our British Columbians have died in the last seven years, the NDP pours funding into programs that maintain the status quo, their addictions.

[4:10 p.m.]

And they neglect the transformative potential of comprehensive treatment options that offer not just relief but hope, hope for those struggling with addiction.

This government’s approach is not just flawed. It’s fundamentally defeatist. It sends a message that we’ve given up on fighting for a better future for our most vulnerable. We’ve given up. Not acceptable.

Instead of relegating our citizens to a cycle of dependency, we should be investing in mental health services that prioritize recovery and rehabilitation. We should be expanding access to treatment programs, not just doing what this budget does. We should be championing a model of care that empowers individuals with the tools and support they need to rebuild their lives.

Better is possible. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it, where sons and daughters return to their families, where men are back working, with restored relationships, where addicts find hope and those with mental illnesses find healing. It is possible. But it’s not with this government.

Affordable housing. Seven years ago and then almost four years ago and then two years ago and then, well, this last week the NDP promised an oasis, a paradise of affordable homes for all. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

We haven’t gotten it. We haven’t even gotten close. With­out the federal government CMHC programs, we would not be anywhere near the number that this government likes to brag about. In fact, we’re only at about 15 percent of the number they promised us 7½ years ago.

In the last seven years of this NDP government, British Columbia has descended into the worst housing crisis in all of Canada. I’m not even going to call it a crisis anymore. Let’s call it a nightmare. A dubious distinction that highlights their inability to manage one of the most critical issues facing our province today.

The numbers speak volumes. Skyrocketing prices, a rental vacancy rate that’s virtually non-existent and a first-time-homebuyer market that’s more fantasy than reality.

The average home price in our province has spiralled out of reach for the average family, making the dream of home ownership a recurring nightmare. Let’s be honest. The dream of home ownership is dead in this province. It took seven years to kill it, but it’s dead.

When the member from Chilliwack said it, I actually thought no. He made a mistake. He didn’t mean to say that this is the last generation of homeowners. Surely, he made a mistake. But no, the NDP have successfully killed the dream.

Despite promises and announcements, the NDP has failed to deliver any meaningful change. Their approach has been a patchwork of half-measures that have failed to address the root causes of the crisis. As a result, too many British Columbians are facing the harsh reality of housing insecurity, with no hope on the horizon.

The lack of affordable housing options isn’t just a statistic. It’s a daily struggle for thousands of our residents, impacting their quality of life and their future prospects. The NDP’s failure to tackle this issue head-on is a failure to the people of this province.

We cannot continue down this path of inaction and mismanagement. It’s time for a change, a time for solutions that will provide real hope and real homes for the people of British Columbia. But this budget? This budget is more of the same.

On housing. They’re predicting that housing prices are going to go up, and housing starts are going to go down. I think they’re right. Why? Because nothing they’ve done has resulted in any meaningful change.

Overspending on ancient buildings that deliver dribs and drabs of housing is not going to change the tide. Continually adding taxes and restrictions to home building and home ownership…. Then they wonder why the cost of housing is going up.

Now, I can see the looks of confusion over there on that side. So let me explain a very basic concept. Whatever you tax costs more, and with all of the added taxes to housing, housing most definitely costs more. In the words of our leader, if you want to make housing more affordable, you have to make it less expensive.

[4:15 p.m.]

There’s an entire generation that’s going to leave B.C. Leave so that they can afford to buy a home. Leave so that they can afford to have a family. Leave so that they can have better health care.

What about the swirling whirlpool of affordability and cost of living that the NDP keeps promising? The NDP solution is like throwing little trinkets of gold into the ocean and hoping that somehow it stops the tide. Groceries, gas, life essentials. All spiralling out of reach, while the NDP just keeps throwing more money into the sea, hoping to quench the thirst of a drought-stricken province.

In the face of an escalating cost-of-living crisis, the NDP’s tax-and-spend approach has proven not just ineffective but downright damaging to the hard-working families of British Columbia. It’s clear as daylight. Their policies have directly contributed to making life so unaffordable that British Columbians are planning to leave and have left, according to their own budget.

We’ve watched our inflation rates soar above the national average, a testament to the NDP’s failure to control costs and protect British Columbians’ wallets. While Canadians across the country are tightening their belts, British Columbians are forced to notch ours even tighter, thanks to a plethora of new taxes and fee increases that bleed us dry.

A Netflix tax, soda tax, fuel tax, carbon tax. I could list all two pages of the taxes. It’s death by a thousand taxes, 32 in total. And what do we have to show for it? Services that don’t keep pace with the taxes collected and families that are increasingly finding it impossible to make ends meet.

We do not have child care. Today we have 10,600 less spaces than 2019. This amazing universal child care plan that we’ve heard about for almost eight years…. Only 10 percent of families are getting it. The rest of British Columbian families? Well, I have families paying the equivalent of a mortgage payment for a $750,000 home for their child care spaces. That’s if you can even find them. Sixty percent of British Columbia families cannot find child care.

You know what the result of this is? The statistics are out there this week. Birth rates are down because couples don’t want to have children anymore. They can’t afford to, and they can’t find child care.

This is wrong. The tax-and-spend merry-go-round has real consequences. Our neighbours, our friends, our family members are voting with their feet, leaving British Columbia for other provinces where the promise of affordability and opportunity isn’t just a campaign slogan and a shiny, glossy brochure.

This NDP government has done what previous NDP governments have done. They have abandoned industry, punished businesses and lost great-paying jobs in favour of growing government and bloating bureaucracy. Mills closing, companies leaving. Fifty percent of restaurants today are losing money, the highest percentage ever.

We have a huge issue. But in yet another display of their chronic disconnect from the realities of entrepreneurship and economic growth…. The NDP, again, has missed the mark in supporting the backbone of our economy, our businesses.

As we sift through the pages of this budget, it’s so obvious that the concept of support, in the NDP’s eyes, is nothing more than a buzzword. Where there was an opportunity to really champion innovation, to reduce red tape, to incentivize job creation, there lies, instead, a void filled with empty promises and recycled rhetoric.

[4:20 p.m.]

Let’s talk facts. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which represent the lifeblood of our economy, navigating through an already labyrinth regulatory environment, were looking for a lifeline. But they received, instead, a pat on the back and a nudge towards some hurdles that they’ve been attempting to clear for years. Tax breaks, simplified regulations, real incentive for growth — absent, all of them.

Larger industries, those that have anchored our economic ship through these stormy seas…. They’ve been left adrift with no significant measures to address the unique challenges they face or to leverage their potential for further economic contribution. It appears that the NDP’s vision for economic recovery is to hope on a wing and a prayer, rather than to implement a strategy that would ensure robust growth and prosperity.

In this budget, the NDP has not only failed our businesses but also failed every citizen who relies on a thriving economy for their livelihood. And they failed our next generation, who no longer dream of building their life in B.C.

The message sent is clear: innovation, hard work and entrepreneurial spirit are not priorities worth supporting. This budget is not a plan for recovery. It’s a roadmap to stagnation. Our businesses deserve better. Our people deserve better. It is time for change, and that change cannot come soon enough.

For example, this budget has now cut animation companies from the regional and distant location tax credits. This is going to cost Kelowna and the Okanagan over $50 million of direct and indirect GDP contribution and hundreds of jobs. The decision to exclude animation productions from these tax credits unfairly penalizes animation companies based in regional areas such as the Okanagan.

Over the last ten years, the animation sector in the Okanagan has seen impressive expansion, becoming a key driver of job creation and economic growth in the area, specifically in the tech sector. But despite this, the decision to omit animation productions from regional tax incentives poses a significant threat to the viability of these companies and detracts from our advancement. This government claims to not have cuts in their budget. This is a large one, and this is going to cost my region greatly.

Whether it’s the government adding new business-paid sick days, new holidays that businesses have to cover, em­ployee health tax, higher taxes, higher wages, higher rents, higher property taxes and having supports taken away, it’s no wonder that businesses are leaving the province for better opportunities.

Public safety, the beacon of any society, has become obscured by the fog under the NDP’s watch. Under their watch, we’ve seen an uptick in crime rates across our prov­ince, leaving families to question the safety of their neighbourhoods, parks and playgrounds, picking up needles before their children can play or not allowing their children to go to the parks at all. Picking up needles before the kids will play. Needles.

Yet in the face of this growing concern, the NDP’s re­sponse has been woefully inadequate. It’s time for a reality check. Public safety should not be a luxury. It’s a necessity. A government that takes action to reinforce our justice system, ensuring that it is swift, fair and deterrent rather than the Premier’s catch-and-release system of justice….

This week I received a phone call from a parent whose 11-year-old had been assaulted sexually in a bathroom by a predator that roamed the streets of Kelowna without notice to the community.

[4:25 p.m.]

What I told this parent was: “Go public. Get to the media, because the media, at least, will tell everyone about the situation.” Shame. Shame.

We need a government that listens and responds to the concerns of its citizens, not that puts our 11-year-olds at risk, not just dismissing concerns and the result of their public safety ideological experiments. It’s a failure.

I would love to talk about new initiatives for our environment. But there are none, so I can skip right over that. This budget is chock-full of nothing but recycled promises and programs that haven’t resulted in any reduction in emissions — less reduction in emissions than any of the rest of Canada.

I’d way rather take my last few moments to talk about the behemoth lurking beneath the waves, the NDP’s fiscal kraken, an $8 billion deficit monster. It’s not just lurking. It’s attacking. It’s threatening to drag the entire ship down into the abyss of debt, where future generations are going to be chained to the oars of repayment, rowing tirelessly against a tide of fiscal irresponsibility.

It’s $4.1 billion this year, $5.7 billion by the end of this budget per year. What could we do with $5.7 billion a year? It’s 60 percent of the entire school budget — 50 new high schools, 140 elementary or 40 new Rutland middle schools. We could build five new hospitals, new roads and do so much more than just pay interest.

M. Dykeman: That’s a tough act to follow. I hope I’m as riveting.

It’s a privilege to stand in the House today to speak to Budget 2024. I just wanted to start off by saying that British Columbia is one of the most amazing places to live. People are moving here. They want to start families. They want to raise their family here.

What’s great about British Columbia is that we have so much to celebrate. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada. We are a leader in growing jobs and wages for working people.

Although we’re an economic leader, we do recognize that people are facing big challenges. We know that with high interest rates, inflation and a slower global economy, that presents challenges. What we do know, and what we have learned — and it’s been demonstrated over the last few years — is that we can’t go it alone to make things work. We also recognize that picking investment over austerity measures to tackle economic uncertainty through these investments is the way to go.

The people’s challenges do not disappear when an economy slows. Their challenges are just there. So without those investments, you’re not going to actually grow the economy. You’re actually going to see a reverse.

We know that people are what build communities. We know that by investing in people, by investing in programs like health care, education and economic drivers, that’s how you grow a strong economy in British Columbia. That is why British Columbia is in the position that it is.

We have seen that our economy posted modest growth. We know that it’s the third-strongest economy in Canada. We know that we have seen…. Essentially, the posted modest growth has been softened by higher interest rates, slowing domestic and global economic activity. But we know that here at home, the investments we make, make a big difference in the lives of people every day when you take an opportunity to talk about some of those that we’ve seen in my riding and also throughout British Columbia.

In terms of health care, in this budget, we’ve seen that there’s $2 billion towards health services. We know that when you take action to strengthen health care, that allows families to get the care that they need when needed.

[4:30 p.m.]

We know people want health care that they can count on, and that’s why, with our growing communities and with our aging communities, with doctors and nurses re­tiring, we’ve had to invest in recruiting, training and supporting thousands of new staff, strengthening cancer prevention, supporting seniors to live at home.

And $3 billion in this budget has been invested in the three-year capital plan for hospitals, new long-term care facilities, more acute and cancer care facilities throughout the province. Over $2 billion in additional health care funding over three years has been put in to help deal with wait-lists, to hire, train and retain nurses, doctors and other health care staff.

Budget 2024 is also building on some really important initiatives, like the Road to Recovery model of care, with $215 million to sustain new and existing addictions treatment and recovery programs. Our capital plan also includes funding to support treatment and recovery beds across British Columbia and working towards expanding the Red Fish model. Those are all important investments that make a difference every day in people’s lives and are where we see measurable change to help support people experiencing a wide range of challenges.

In terms of another important investment that we know delivers significant economic returns is in the area of child care. Within my riding, Langley East…. I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled to represent that community. I know I stand up and talk about it a lot, but I had the privilege of raising my two children, who are adults now, in that community. My son is in his 20s and in third-year university, and my daughter is off in university in England. She just moved there this year, and she’s just turned 18.

I had the privilege of raising my children in this community that has such a strong rural foundation. Langley has proud agricultural roots, but also has this growing urban core. Through the time that I’ve had the privilege of serving, you know, in the school board and volunteering in my community, I watched the community grow and grow. So the hospital…. When I first was elected, we had a wonderful announcement. We had a new MRI centre and an expanded emergency room.

People want to move to Langley. It’s part of the Metro region, and it’s such a welcoming community. They want to move there because of all the opportunities that exist within that community. Watching that grow, I also noticed that so many young families have moved to the area with children, and when child care is not available, that presents a problem. It’s an investment that is so important because it really attracts families to come and grow and continue to build such a sense of community.

I was looking at the numbers recently in my riding. The investments in child care programs — like the new spaces fund, start-up grants and maintenance fund programs — from 2018-19 to 2023-24, are a little over $65 million. That is such a massive investment.

I’ve had the opportunity to tour some of those centres and hear the stories of the difference those centres have made in people’s lives and how excited they are to have these lovely child care centres that really become part of the community there. Seeing the really welcoming environments that are created in there has really been a highlight of my time in office.

What that’s resulted in, by the program that we brought in, was a total amount of $35 million, nearly $36 million, going back to parents from 2018-19 to 2023-24. And with the operating funding, the new spaces fund and the start-up grant spaces, once again from 2018-19 to 2023-24, we’re talking, like, 500 spaces. It’s huge. The $10-a-day spaces make such a difference for parents.

The early childhood wage enhancement has been $1.69 million, and that is massive; 314 ECEs have received that wage enhancement every month.

[4:35 p.m.]

Great jobs have been created and new opportunities for families to have care within their community for their youth, making it so that they’re able to return to work when they choose to and have care close to home.

Those are investments that are so wise, because we know when the economy is being challenged from a wide range of reasons around the world, the support families need, the opportunities families need, those don’t change, so investing in that actually helps grow our economy.

Now, in terms of education, I just wanted to quickly talk about — it’s, as you know, one of my most favourite topics — investments in school, something that was grossly neglected in the years I was on school district, with the previous government, watching lands be sold. It’s been so refreshing to see investments in schools, something that we’ve had to wait for catch-up because there had been years and years of no investment whatsoever.

In addition to Peter Ewart Middle School, which pro­vided 275 more students for a total of 900 spaces for children at the school that I’ve talked about before, we’ve seen Richard Bulpitt Elementary receive a six-classroom modular expansion. It provides space for 150 more students at the K-5 elementary level, which is a $9 million project.

Now, with expansions, that’s something that I’ve heard people ask before: why are you expanding schools as opposed to building new schools? It’s not a choice. It’s the necessity that…. There are two competing challenges. We need more schools in our communities, but we also need more spaces quickly.

When you’re looking at a situation where the growth of the community is so fast, and you need these spaces, you don’t have the length of time it takes to build a new school. Building a new school takes a period of time, and it’s dependent on many factors, from availability of people to work on the site to approvals to planning to getting everything going. Then there’s just the time it takes to build something.

The expansions of schools are able to be done in a much quicker way. Doing an expansion of a school where we’ve had a lot of pressure, like Langley Secondary, for instance, the additions providing 300 more seats for students…. That project total costs $29.8 million, and it’s expected to be completed in 2025. Richard Bulpitt is one that will be able to be… That expansion will be able to be completed in a much shorter time period than building a new school.

Also, our community is very excited to have northeast Latimer elementary coming very soon, which is expected to be completed in 2025. That’s a new 555-seat elementary school in Langley’s Latimer neighbourhood. That will include, also, a neighbourhood learning centre, which is, once again, such a fantastic investment for building communities because it offers services like child care to benefit families in the broader community. That’s a $51.9 million project.

Communities growing quickly, young families…. These school spaces are needed, and additional classes are needed too. So as I was saying earlier, you know, you need this quickly, but you also need to address the fact that we need both, sort of a multifaceted approach to addressing very, very fast growth.

When you look, also, at how much our community is growing, that means that there are real stresses on infrastructure. I’ve talked in the House before about how exciting it is with the Highway 1 to 264th to Mt. Lehman Road expansion in the Surrey SkyTrain project, which is getting underway, and looking at how those investments will help people get to work faster, get home to their families quicker, sit in traffic less, have opportunities to get around in a better way. With the transit, it’ll allow for more environmentally sound options for getting around our communities.

Those investments are investments that take some time to build, but they are there, and they are important foundations to growing communities, and wise investments be­cause they help move goods, they help people get to work, they help people want to open up more businesses because there are more options for people to come and shop. Those are wise investments that not only benefit socially, but they also benefit economically.

[4:40 p.m.]

On that note, I wanted to talk about the other investment I have been so excited about watching unroll: the investment our province made in the B.C. manufacturing jobs fund, which was $180 million.

One example is the E-One Moli Energy global manufacturing of lithium-ion cell products. It’s employing 450 people in Maple Ridge. Those types of investments in manufacturing, things that are made in B.C., employing lots of people, pay in long-term dividends. They help grow communities. They have people move to the province, a little closer to these opportunities for green-tech manufacturing.

That’s just one project that’s benefiting from those types of investments. We’ve seen investments in small businesses. We’ve seen investments, like I said, in the manu­facturing jobs fund, growing agriculture. All of these approaches — looking through the lens every day of how we can grow our economy while also supporting people to ensure that they have the best environment, the best opportunity, the best social supports — are why I’m so proud to get to stand up and speak to the budget.

That’s the type of multi-faceted investment that needs to take place. It’s just like our housing. We know that everybody wants to find a place that they can afford and where they can build their life in the communities that they love. Looking at BC Builds, a $950 million investment, that’s focused on increasing the amount of housing for middle-income people and families.

It’s looking at it through an innovative lens by addressing what sort of underused lands are available, how we can speed up timelines, ensure that construction financing is affordable — what are the barriers? — and work with partners to provide those houses in a desirable community where people want to live. This massive investment is new funding in 2024. It allows the ministry to collaborate with both B.C. Housing and other stakeholders to figure out how best to support it.

That’s really exciting, because we know that that need has been there. This project looks at an innovative way to help increase the supply of housing and ensure that people are able to find more homes faster.

I know I only have about 15 minutes left, hon. Speaker. On that, I wanted to take a moment for a great segue from BC Builds to a bit about some of the things I’ve seen in my parliamentary secretary role that relate back to budgets.

Talking about understanding how important it is to leverage our partners. In my time of having the incredible honour of serving as the Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development and Non-profits, I get to talk to non-profits in every possible sector, from the non-profit that somebody runs from their house, where they’re really super passionate about dogs, to the massive non-profit that’s serving either nationally or provincially. Typically, I have the privilege to talk to the provincial ones.

We made an announcement not too long ago about a $60 million stronger community services fund. You really couldn’t have a better name for it than “stronger community services.” As with BC Builds, health care and child care, we know that when we work together with people, with organizations, with passionate folks, we build a stronger province. Those partnerships are what make us so strong.

We saw that during COVID. We saw that in partnering with non-profits that could go in and figure out where that support was needed. They were on the ground every day and were more nimble and able to do that. We knew all along, everybody knows, that non-profits do important work, but it was really amplified during that period of time.

The $60 million stronger community services fund was meant to target organizations working with vulnerable folks. We know non-profits typically work with the most vulnerable populations in our communities, and the programs they deliver are so important, including housing, health care and child care.

[4:45 p.m.]

When you work with non-profits and you partner with people, the economic benefits also, in addition to the social benefits, are so profound. We know that non-profits are such significant employers. There are so many people employed in that sector throughout the province, and the work they do is really instrumental to those specific communities.

The non-profit needs in the North are not the same as in the south and whether you’re urban or rural. That fund really looked at, and was a demonstration of, how important and valued we know our partnerships to be.

I know I only have a few minutes left to wrap up. What I wanted to mention in closing was that cutting services to people — not working with non-profits, for instance — and saying, “Hey, go out, fundraise” or “Well, we are not investing in more schools” or “We need to cut this program related to health care or education” or “We’re not going to invest in the economy,” doesn’t make the situation better. It makes the situation worse. Those needs are still there. They’re just not being supported.

You know, I used to live in Ottawa. I remember the time of pink slips and running shoes. At no time in history were austerity budgets successful in building or strengthening economies. At no time were they useful in actually moving forward to help people.

Interjection.

M. Dykeman: Hon. Speaker, I believe I have ten min­utes left. Maybe the other member could wait for a minute.

Where I’m going with this is this budget — I’m proud to stand up and speak to it — looks at those principles and says: “No, we’ve made a choice. Our choice is to invest, not to cut.” We’ve made a choice to invest in people, economies and communities. We have chosen to recognize the important needs that are out there. We’re going to invest in those. If we do that, we build a stronger British Columbia, and we do it together, by addressing poverty, addressing complex needs and coming together to deliver services.

That choice is why I’m so proud to be part of this government and to be able to stand up and say: “Yeah, we’re investing in education, in child care, in health care, in non-profits that deliver services, in transportation infrastructure and in manufacturing.” We’re attracting people to come to this incredible province, which they already want to come to.

We’re going to help support them to build this province so that our economy is even stronger. We see that with the economic outlook. Now, as I said earlier, 2023 posted modest growth. It was softened from high interest rates and other factors — like slowing global economic activity, geopolitical and climate-related disruptions — but our economic growth is still expected to rise in 2025 to 2.3 percent and be supported by steady employment and wage growth gains, in customer spending, solid investment acti­vity and higher exports as global economies recover from the slowdown.

This isn’t the time not to continue to build that province by investing in a budget that ensures that our province is ready and our people are ready to continue to do the work that they’re doing, to continue to grow our economy.

Our economy certainly is in a place where we are strong, and we are a provincial leader in this country. We know that we can’t just cut services and leave people to fend for themselves. We need to continue to invest and ensure that our small business sectors are set up for success and that people are set up for success.

[4:50 p.m.]

I know I see that every day in my community of Langley. Our investments make a huge difference, whether it’s investments in grant support to organizations like Langley Meals on Wheels, which deliver food services programs for seniors and ensure that there are programs to help that community to access services they need, or whether it’s expanding the emergency room at the hospital or ensuring that we have the schools we need. I’m proud to say our government certainly recognizes the importance of supporting people to grow our economy so that it is stronger than ever before.

Thank you, hon. Speaker, for the opportunity to stand up today.

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the member for North Vancouver–Seymour.

S. Chant: Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity to speak again to a budget that speaks to people of British Columbia.

It actually frightens me to hear the anger and divisiveness I hear in this chamber. It’s difficult to hear people putting everything in the worst light that they possibly can, weaving together things to make a place that is so wonderful sound so awful. I can imagine being a guest up in the gallery, and, if I was from somewhere else and was listening to some of the things that our colleagues are saying, I would be frightened to live here.

On the other hand….

Interjection.

S. Chant: I’m sorry, did you want to add something to my discussion? Okay, thank you.

On the other hand, I know many, many people who love to live in British Columbia. I also have had the opportunity to travel to various parts of the world and speak with other travellers and other people that live in other parts of the world, who say: “Wow. You live in the best place. You really do. It has so much to offer. It has resources. It has people. It has a democratic and stable government. It’s in a country that is strong and positive. It’s in a country that values people.” That’s the B.C. that I know and understand.

When I hear from constituents, sure, everybody’s got problems. Absolutely. Affordability is tough. Living is tough. Finding somewhere to live is tough. There is no question about that. But if you were living in other parts of the world, you’d find the same thing. So how do we make that better?

That is what our budget is about: making it better. Making it so the people that live here have some ways to establish, maintain their lives. Making ways that they can find places to live, find jobs that work, help others, make contributions, work together.

We’ve seen communities work together in so many different ways. They do such a good job, and we need to celebrate that and lift that up and recognize it and not keep coming back and portraying our province as somewhere awful to live because we’re just all going to leave. No, we’re not. People don’t want to leave this province all the time.

Sure, there are people going for family reasons or because, perhaps, it’s more affordable for them somewhere else, or they have links somewhere else. That’s the way the world works. We all move around. Well, some of us. I always come back. I’ve lived in other parts of the world. I’ve lived overseas. I’ve lived in a number of different places. I’ve worked in a number of different places.

When I look at our health care…. Okay, I will admit I have a strong bias. Our health care has progressed. It has gotten better again. It went through a dive. It really did. It went through a horrible, horrible dive.

First of all, it kind of got gutted for a while. That was tough. I was a nurse during that time. I was fortunate. I retained my work, but colleagues around me did not.

[4:55 p.m.]

I had been nursing for a long time, so I was “senior.” I’m still senior. I’m still a senior casual nurse. Every once in a while, I show up, and everybody goes: “Are you still here? That’s remarkable.”

Our health care took another horrible hit with this thing we called a pandemic. That just did dreadful things. It made us face so many things we’d never faced before, made us make decisions that nobody should ever have to make. Around the world, we saw bodies in refrigerator trucks because they got hit so badly. We saw ice rinks being morgues. We saw all sorts of things that happened around the world with COVID.

B.C. had a tough time with COVID. You are absolutely right. It was tough. We had times when we were locked down, when only some of us were still going to work. I was one of those people still going to work.

I was right outside the COVID unit in my office. We had times we had to plastic over our door when we were bringing clients through that were highly contagious. I had to support other nurses that were scared to go home because they were scared they might take COVID home to their families. They came and stayed with me and my husband because we were prepared to support them.

The health care system took a hard hit that time too. I met a nurse in Prince George that I’ve known for a long time. She’s a rock. She’s an incredible critical care nurse, an incredible nurse.

Where had I met her? I’d met her while I was guiding. I’d met her while we were at SOAR. SOAR is a camp that British Columbia hosts for international Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers to come to Canada, to come to British Columbia and enjoy parts of the world.

At SOAR, we are very lucky. We have 3,000 girls in tents. It is lucky, I promise. We have 1,000 women with them, supporting them to learn how to do different skills and to enjoy different activities and to see what British Columbia has to offer.

At SOAR, I had met this woman, this nurse from Prince George. I’m like other people. Sometimes I went as a guider and took my unit. A couple of times I went as medical staff. When you’ve got 3,000 kids under tents, and they’re doing stuff like kayaking and rock climbing and all sorts of weird and wonderful things, guess what. You need a medical staff, big time.

You also need a medical staff for the women. We had challenges. We had somebody taken out by a thunderstorm when her tent gave her a massive concussion. That was an interesting night. You never know how to run a golf cart as an ambulance. It’s tricky.

Anyway, moving right along. When we were at SOAR, and we had all these girls, we had nurses and doctors. This one nurse was our second in charge, and nothing fazed her. She was a critical care nurse, spectacular.

Two years later I’m up in Prince George, and I gave her a call. You know: “Let’s have a visit.” So we met, and she came with her grandson. We walked along beside the river, and it was lovely. It really is pretty in the confluence of rivers up there.

I said: “So, how’s it going? How’s it going at work?” She said: “I haven’t been to work for eight months.” I’m looking at her, because she’s not a person that can’t work. She just isn’t.

She took leave from work during COVID, when she basically went in one shift, and she started to cry, and she couldn’t stop crying. They’d been over census for a long, long time. There were more people than she could work with. She couldn’t stop crying, and she couldn’t work. She’d been off for eight months, and she was thinking about whether she’d go back to work or not.

[5:00 p.m.]

Those are the nurses that have had a big hit, and they’re not alone. All of our health care system took an incredible beating, took an incredible hit during COVID. I am surprised, quite frankly, that we’ve got as many as we did once COVID started to recede.

We got the vaccinations in, so that was great, but we still didn’t have a lot of staff, and it was still pretty tough. However, this past year it started to turn around.

You can’t rebuild a system just like that. It takes a while to train clinicians. It takes a while to credential clinicians. It also takes mentorship once people are on board. That’s another thing that we have to think about. All these folks that we’re training need people to help them and support them when they first get into work.

As a young nurse — oh dear, this is a long time ago — I was very fortunate. I had people all over the place to keep me in line. I can remember a charge nurse one night. I’m racing to get to some kind of emergency down the hall. And she says: “You will not run in my hospital.” And I’m like: “Okay, how am I supposed to get there in a hurry?” “You will walk with purpose, because when you run, you frighten people. It scares people.” I had that. I’m lucky.

Now we have a challenge, also, that we have young nurses working in units where they’re short-staffed and are trying really hard to make it work, and the senior nurses aren’t necessarily there anymore. We’ve got to take care of those nurses. One of the ways we’re doing that…. We’ve got new contracts out where we are taking care of those nurses and the other clinicians in the units.

There was a big problem with anger in emergency wards, where people are coming in and getting violent, and sometimes it was anger. Sometimes it was drug-induced or substance-induced — big, big problem, lashing out. Clinicians are not designed to deal with violence. None of us are. Nobody is.

Now we’ve got a system in place where those units are being managed better. The security is there. There are people to deal with the challenges that come with people that are so angry or so frustrated or so frightened or so drug-addled or so substance-addled that they lash out, and their only way of coping is hurting somebody else.

As my wise friend from Vancouver–Mount Pleasant has said, hurt people hurt others. That’s what we’re seeing a lot of now. We see it in a whole bunch of different places. We see angry, frustrated, distressed people.

But we’re turning that around. We’re getting there. It’s not easy work. It’s not cheap work, and it’s not work that does itself. It’s work that needs resources. It needs money. It needs people, and it needs the will of the government and the will of policy to support it, to get done.

That’s what this budget provides. It’s providing funding towards people, funding in education, funding in health care, funding in housing, funding in mental health and addiction.

Of course, there’s my favourite, as my friend over here said. I’m the Parliamentary Secretary for Accessibility. I am so fortunate to be in that role because I can actively see the progress that we are making towards making a more accessible and barrier-free province.

It’s quite remarkable, what I have heard from different entities as we get out to talk to them, to find out how we can make things better. How have they made things better already? What have they done already to make things better? People look at something and go: “Hmm, it shouldn’t be like this. It should be different. It should be better. There are ways to make it better. What do we need to do to make it that way?”

[5:05 p.m.]

Hmm. Do we remove a barrier? Do we put something else entirely in place? Do we add something? Do we take something away? How do we make things better? How do we advocate better?

Our legal system has been enhanced so that families are getting better representation, so that people who didn’t have a voice before are being able to have a voice and have somebody listen to them and work with them and work to bring their needs to the surface so that they can be dealt with and managed.

I’ve got a friend who took years raising her kids, paying for education, making sure that they had everything. Her husband chose to leave the country rather than help support her and her kids. That’s changing. He’s going to be providing something back. She has done the work. The kids are doing well. He’ll be held to account, and that’s important.

It’s important that we understand that this province has so much to offer. Every one of us that stands up says that their riding is the most beautiful and the most wonderful and the most industrious. I know, I know. We have this conversation often about who’s got the most beautiful riding.

I have to acknowledge my riding. For me, it is the most beautiful, and it is the most wonderful. I have lived there a long time. I know lots and lots of people there. In my sojourn as their MLA, with the honour that they’ve given me of electing me to this position, I have learned so much more about my community.

I have learned about the multitude of organizations that are there and that reach out to people to help. Canadian Mental Health has offices situated there. I’ve got the North Shore Disability Resource Centre just down the road. I’ve got the community resource centres.

I’ve got the folks that are wanting to help settle families as they move into Canada, perhaps from places where they have had to leave and come to Canada with nothing. They come to British Columbia. They come to our communities. There are open arms there saying: “How can we help? How can we help you settle in?”

The settlement workers in schools amaze me. They meet the kids. They work with the kids. They meet these children who have no English. They may speak many other languages. They work with them, and slowly but surely, you see kids that are frightened and withdrawn and self-isolating start to feel safer and start to open up a little bit more and start to play. Sometimes they might even say something.

I was talking to a group of grade 5s the other week, talking about all sorts of things. I was doing my usual digressing into different topics. All of a sudden a little boy stood up and said: “I don’t understand what you’re saying. How will I learn this?” I went, “Oh, I’m sorry,” and tried to figure it out. Then the librarian who was hosting me came and said: “He actually only speaks Spanish. That’s the first time he has actually spoken to somebody in the classroom environment right here.”

Fortunately, there was somebody there that could speak to him and say: “We’ll get this information to you. Don’t you worry. We’ll help you.” Then we found out later that he wanted to tell his family what I was saying. Where he had come from, nobody said anything about safety.

[5:10 p.m.]

They were never safe. They lived in a compound with bars and weapons and things to try and keep them safe from the very place that they lived and the very people that they lived around. They’d come to Canada, where he was now safe. He wanted to be able to tell his family. That was good.

This budget allows us to keep going, to make B.C. a place where people are safe, where they have reliable health care, where they have reliable education, where mental health is slowly but surely coming back from fragmentation into a comprehensive program that looks at all the aspects.

My colleague here spoke the other day very carefully and very effectively about the need, in mental health, for a place for people who have chronic mental health problems, where they are able to live, to some extent, within a structured and regulated environment. They need the flexibility and the support in order to keep managing and keep going and make it so that they can have a life. We’re slowly but surely making sure that those opportunities become available and that there will be and are places to live. They’re coming.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Our budget needs to be able to support those things. It’s like all of us. If you’ve got a budget, you try to invest it in the best places possible. I don’t see how you can argue against investing in health, investing in education, investing in mental health, investing in strengthening the legal system and strengthening family support, investing in AccessibleBC and all those other things that this budget contributes towards.

I don’t want to finish speaking without saying to the peo­ple of North Vancouver–Seymour…. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here, for allowing me the privilege of interacting with a very passionate and purposeful group of people that want to make B.C. the best it can be.

I want to say thank you to the folks in my constituency office, who try very hard to keep me on track and who set up so many different things so that I can learn more and meet more people.

Stephen Tweedale just started with me as my full-time constituency assistant. He is well versed in politics and policy. I appreciate his wisdom in finding things and keeping me abreast of things as they happen and explaining who people are when they come to visit me so that when I speak to them, I know where to start. I know some things so that I can maybe be helpful.

I thank Michael Charrois, who has been with me since before I was elected. He works in my constituency office sometimes and sometimes is an actor and sometimes is training kids as actors with the Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby. He is just marvellous in keeping track of the grants and the money that’s available for agencies and entities within our area to use.

I want to say thank you to Adele Wilson, who just started with me. She retired last year from being the CEO of the Parkgate community association. She knew every non-profit on the North Shore and many others outside. Parkgate provides services from cradle to grave.

Adele is an extraordinarily knowledgable person about our community. She retired from there a year ago, and now she’s helping me part-time. I truly appreciate her roots in our community and the people she’s able to contact and advise of the various grants and other things that we have to offer.

Last but not least, I’m very grateful to Eli Mallin, who is my constituency assistant. He is managing my social media as well. I truly appreciate his skill set because I will never get to that level of skill. He’s really grand at that.

[5:15 p.m.]

The other people that I want to say thank you to are the folks in this building that support us: the legislative staff, the caucus staff. They do a marvellous job of making sure that we are where we’re supposed to be, when we’re supposed to be — which is a tricky job sometimes — and also in keeping us abreast of the information that we need to have and in helping us work through things and make sense of things. That’s appreciated as well.

I would like to also say thank you to the various people that are kind in mentoring those of us that are still relatively new members. It’s appreciated, because there’s so much to learn. I will continue to learn all the time, which is fortunate. The folks that I have met here and the people that have supported all of us, in continuing to learn and working on creating an environment that is good to work in, are also greatly appreciated.

I think, Mr. Speaker, at this point, I will….

Noting the hour, I move adjournment of the debate.

S. Chant moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

Hon. N. Sharma moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

The Speaker: This House stands adjourned until ten o’clock Monday morning.

The House adjourned at 5:16 p.m.