Contents

The House met at 1:33 p.m.

[The Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Introductions by Members

Korky Neufeld: It’s always rewarding to welcome constituents into the House, but especially when they’re also community leaders. So I’d like to welcome to the House Andrea Critchley, CEO of Abbotsford Hospice and Grief Support; and Miriam Bozman, board member of the Abbotsford Hospice Foundation.

Would the House make them feel welcome.

Susie Chant: Joining us in the members’ gallery this afternoon is His Excellency Jean Claude Kugener, the Ambassador of Luxembourg to Canada, who is here on his official visit to B.C.

He is accompanied by Charles Andrianalizah, economic attaché at the embassy. They are taking part in many meetings with the government officials today and tomorrow.

Would this House please make them truly welcome.

[1:35 p.m.]

Scott McInnis: I just want to welcome newly elected Chief Justin Davis and the delegation from Doig River First Nation. We had a good chinwag in the airport last night as well as a very productive meeting this morning.

Would the House please make Chief Davis and the delegation most very welcome today.

Hon. Spencer Chandra Herbert: Thanks to my colleague opposite. I too would like to welcome Chief Davis and the whole group from Doig River.

I look forward to meeting with you tomorrow, and, of course, former member Dan Davies as well.

I’ll give him a slight nod, but a bigger nod to the rest.

Thanks, everybody.

Statements

Cassie Sharpe Olympic Achievements

Brennan Day: With the Olympics wrapping up, I just wanted to give a big shout-out to Comox Valley’s own Cassie Sharpe, an Olympic champion and Canadian half-pipe legend. After a recent yard sale in Milan, her final run was sidelined, but this is her third Olympic appearance.

The whole Comox Valley and the entire country is behind you, wishing you a fast and full recovery.

Diego Cardona

Hon. Lisa Beare: We are very sad today in my minister’s office. We are losing Diego Cardona. He is moving on to work with IATSE, some of our wonderful film friends.

Diego started as an executive assistant to the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training in May 2019 and has gone through a number of ministries and a number of ministers.

Myself and the Minister of Agriculture are particularly sad to see him go, as he’s worked with passion and commitment in this building for years — helped with the film tax credit, built the film file. He has worked with child care advocates to grow and protect our child care system. We are truly going to miss him but are very excited for his new opportunities.

Thank you, Diego.

Introductions by Members

Harwinder Sandhu: I just want to acknowledge our beloved community members and friends Ryan Michael Sheepwash and Jeremy Robert Alexander. They just got married on February 14 in Puerto Vallarta.

This wedding was so special because both of them overcame lots of hurdles, like discrimination. Last year when they decided to get married, they got kicked out, facing homophobia and discrimination. So the Hilton Vallarta Resort did the right thing. They stepped in to show love over hate, and acceptance, and offered to cover their entire wedding.

Would the House please join me to wish Jeremy and Ryan a very happy a married life as well as their safe return home from Mexico, along with other Canadians.

Kiel Giddens: My boys experienced their first big hockey heartbreak yesterday morning, and I told them that they’d better get used to it, because we’re Canucks fans.

But I really want to give a huge congratulations to the men’s hockey team coach, Jon Cooper, from Prince George, who led the team to such a strong performance, and I congratulate all of the British Columbians who coached, who competed in this year’s Olympics, and give them a big round of applause from the House.

Reann Gasper: It is always a joy when we have members from our community visiting. Miriam Bozman wears many hats, but she is the executive director of the chamber of commerce in our community, serving our business community very well.

Would the House just welcome her again.

Statements

Grayson Ritzand
Athletic Achievements

George Anderson: Today I rise to recognize Grayson Ritzand, recipient of the Junior Male Team Athlete of the Year at the Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards.

Apart from being 6’5”, not as tall as our Premier…. In 2025, Grayson delivered an outstanding season, leading the Wellington Wildcats senior triple-A boys to the north Island and Island championships and a fourth-place finish at the B.C. provincial championships.

His leadership and performances earned him MVP honours at north Island and multiple tournaments across British Columbia, and he has been recognized as a provincial first-team all-star. Grayson represents the dedication, discipline and excellence of young athletes in our province.

Please join me in congratulating Grayson Ritzand on an exceptional year and a very bright future.

[1:40 p.m.]

Introductions by Members

Á’a:líya Warbus: I’d like to also welcome the B.C. Youth Council here, from our caucus. Members of the B.C. Youth Council are visiting and making their rounds with MLAs and leaders to ensure that youth voice is represented in democratic decisions.

Being involved with provincial and local politics to analyze and propose policies really promotes that the youth are both learning and being participants in the work that we do here as best possible and that we can understand some of the critical issues that are facing young people in the province.

I just want to highlight that they’re here. We’re very excited to see and hear from them and have the House give them a great welcome today.

Introduction and
First Reading of Bills

Bill 8 — Civil Forfeiture
Amendment Act, 2026

Hon. Nina Krieger presented a message from Her Honour the Lieutenant Governor: a bill intituled Civil Forfeiture Amendment Act, 2026.

Hon. Nina Krieger: I move that the bill be introduced and read for the first time now.

It is my pleasure to introduce Bill 8, the Civil Forfeiture Amendment Act, 2026.

Far too often, people are lured into gang life with promises of fast cars, glamorous homes and luxury goods. By going after property owned by high-level criminal organizations and individuals, B.C.’s civil forfeiture office undermines the profit motive behind unlawful activity and sends a clear message to organized crime.

This bill makes practical changes to reinforce the province’s ability to disrupt organized crime and money laundering. It strengthens litigation processes by requiring parties to fully disclose their claimed interests and by creating a streamlined default judgment process for uncontested cases. It expands timelines and dispute rules, enhancing response periods, clarifying deadlines and allowing relief for mail delays to reduce errors and improve access to justice.

The bill also introduces measures to lower costs and protect asset value, including a presumption of vehicle depreciation to allow earlier liquidation.

Finally, this bill updates notice and information-sharing provisions, adds safeguards for investigative powers and limits unnecessary discovery to prevent misuse of court processes.

Together these changes make the law clearer, fairer and more efficient while reinforcing the program’s role in disrupting organized crime and money laundering here in British Columbia.

The Speaker: Members, the question is first reading of the bill.

Motion approved.

Hon. Nina Krieger: I move that the bill be placed on the orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Motion approved.

Members’ Statements

Reconciliation and Residential
School Denialism

Debra Toporowski / Qwulti’stunaat: Today I want to speak about a serious issue that threatens trust and reconciliation in Canada, the spread of misinformation about residential schools.

Residential school denialism doesn’t usually deny the existence of these institutions. Instead, it distorts history, downplays abuses and questions survivors to protect the colonial legacies. This misinformation harms not only survivors and their families but all of us by obscuring the truth and delaying the healing our country still needs.

To stop this, we need truth-telling at the centre of education, teaching the full story, grounded in evidence and survivors’ testimony. Schools, workplaces and communities must create space for honest discussions about the residential school system’s legacy.

We also need to support Indigenous-led education organizations that counter denial directly.

Every person in Canada can play a role by challenging the misinformation when they see it, by learning from survivors and by refusing to amplify denialism voices.

[1:45 p.m.]

Public institutes and media outlets must apply standards of accountability, ensuring facts are protected from distortion. And as some have called for, we must consider strong measures to protect survivors from hate and denialism online.

Reconciliation depends on truth. Confronting misinformation is not only about correcting history; it’s about honouring those who lived it and ensuring their stories are never erased again, like my mother’s.

Zest Commercial Food Hub

David Williams: Today I rise to recognize a visionary initiative in my riding of Salmon Arm–Shuswap that contributes to our local economy and supports entrepreneurs. That initiative is Zest Commercial Food Hub in Salmon Arm.

Zest was made possible through the leadership of the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society in response to a very practical challenge facing many small food producers — access to low-barrier pathways to start or grow a food business without taking on unrealistic expenditures. Whether they are farmers adding value to their crops, small processors testing new products or entrepreneurs launching a food business, those barriers can be the difference between an unrealized goal or becoming a viable employer.

Zest addresses the challenge, providing access to a certified shared-use commercial kitchen, processing space, storage equipment and a collaborative environment. It supports food-makers at every stage, from start-ups to established businesses, allowing them to focus on what they do best — creating quality products, building markets and contributing to the regional economy.

The benefits of Zest extend well beyond the walls of the facility. It strengthens local supply chains. It supports job creation and enhances food security and resilience throughout the Shuswap and surrounding regions. We often speak in this House about economic diversification; local food sustainability; and practical, community-driven solutions. Zest is a clear example of those principles in action.

I ask all members to join me in recognizing the community leaders and the entrepreneurs behind the Zest Commercial Food Hub for their contribution to regional food production and the long-term economic health of our community.

Freight Transportation
Industry and Supply Chain

George Anderson: As Parliamentary Secretary for Transit, I recently convened a freight transportation round table bringing together leaders such as Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority, YVR, SSA Marine and others from across British Columbia’s supply chain, ports, rail, trucking, logistics, labour and industry.

What stood out was not just the challenge we face but the strength we have when our sectors work together, because moving goods is not the work of one industry. From longshore workers and truck drivers to mechanics, engineers, construction trades and logistics professionals, our freight system runs on people. Their work supports families, strengthens communities and sustains our economy, as I heard from the expertise of British Columbia’s skilled trades and workers who keep our economy moving every single day.

This is also a moment of growing uncertainty. Global trade is shifting. Protectionism is rising. Decisions beyond our borders, particularly in the United States of America, remind us that we cannot take stability for granted. If our supply chains are vulnerable, our economy is also vulnerable. That’s why collaboration matters. The message was clear that British Columbia must be more coordinated, more reliable and more resilient.

One year ago I called for a comprehensive port strategy, one that strengthens our gateways, improves connections across the province and ensures we are ready to lead. The work is central to our Look West approach, diversifying trade, strengthening our ties to Indo-Pacific markets and positioning British Columbia as North America’s gateway to the fastest growing region in the world.

[1:50 p.m.]

Resilience isn’t just about managing risk. It’s about building the foundation for prosperity. Because when we prepare for this uncertainty, we make a choice — a choice to build, a choice to compete, a choice to ensure British Columbia doesn’t just adapt to the future but that we help shape it. So if we act with urgency and work together, British Columbia will participate in the next century of trade and opportunity, and British Columbia will lead it.

War in Ukraine and
Art Exhibition in Kamloops
by Ukrainian Children

Ward Stamer: On the anniversary of four years of war in Ukraine and the incredible harm and destruction by Russia, today I rise to speak about The War Up Close and the children’s art exhibition, an exhibition that, at its heart, is not only about conflict but about courage.

First, I want to sincerely thank the organizers, volunteers, sponsors, community partners and every contributor who helped bring this exhibit to life in Kamloops last weekend. Your work has created more than a gallery. You have created a space for healing, for awareness and for hope. You have ensured that children’s voices are not overlooked. For that, we are deeply grateful.

When we look at these drawings from children in Ukraine, we certainly see difficult experiences. But even more powerfully, we see resilience. We see children who, despite disruption and uncertainty, still choose to create. We see bright colours breaking through black, dark backgrounds. We see hearts drawn beside family members. We see flowers growing next to damaged buildings. We see the sun rising. We see hope.

Children process the world through imagination. Through art, they reclaim control. When so much around them feels uncertain, a blank page becomes a place where they can express fear but also hope. They can draw not only what happened but what they believe is still possible.

Resilience in a child does not mean they have not felt fear or loss. It means they continue forward anyway. It means they show up in new classrooms. They make new friends. They learn a new language. They adapt and they grow.

Many Ukrainian families have found refuge here in Canada. In our communities, we have, firsthand, the strength of these young people. They contribute to our schools, our sports teams, our neighbourhoods. They carry stories of hardship, and yes, they also carry determination, creativity and optimism.

This exhibit reminds us that children are not defined solely by what they endure. These young artists are telling us: “We still are here. We still dream. We still believe in peace. We still believe in tomorrow.”

Let us celebrate the courage of these children. Let us support their healing. Let us be inspired by their ability to find light, even in difficult circumstances. If children can hold on to hope, so can we.

Vernon Winter Carnival

Harwinder Sandhu: Today I rise to speak about community spirit, about coming together when it matters most.

In the wake of the heartbreaking tragedy in Tumbler Ridge, our province is grieving, families are facing unimaginable loss, and communities across our province are holding one another a little closer. In moments like this, care and compassion must come first. While some may use tragedy to deepen divisions, Canadians are stronger together. We are at our best when we choose unity over anger, care over conflict, and love over hate.

Similarly, earlier this month on a drizzly Saturday afternoon, I joined my community at the 66th annual Vernon Winter Carnival parade. The community spirit of Vernon shone brightly as families lined the streets. This year’s theme was “Canada goes for gold.” Going for gold is about perseverance. It’s about teamwork. It’s about striving to do our best, not just individually but together.

The Vernon Winter Carnival, one of the oldest and most beloved winter festivals in our province, brings generations together to celebrate community and to create lasting memories. That sense of togetherness matters now more than ever.

I thank the volunteer board, hundreds of volunteers and sponsors who make this tradition possible, year after year.

The same spirit lives on in sports at the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Canadians once again rallied behind our athletes. From the slopes to the ice, Team Canada showed resilience and heart, bringing 21 medals home.

Vernon proudly cheered on our freestyle skier Elena Gaskell, and we continue to support Lucas Ball as well as Spallumcheen’s Ina Forrest, as she prepares for the Paralympic Games. In living rooms and community halls across this country, we cheer as one team.

May we continue to go for gold not only in sport but in how we support one another. May we continue to choose unity, care, compassion and love, representing everyone equally by being there for all in a very non-partisan way when people need us.

[1:55 p.m.]

Special Olympics Summer Games
and Program in Prince George

Kiel Giddens: It’s a privilege to recognize 40 years of leadership, inclusion and community through Special Olympics B.C. in Prince George.

Like several B.C. communities, Special Olympics programming came to Prince George in 1986. Since then, this organization has created opportunities for athletes with intellectual and developmental disabilities to grow, to compete and to belong.

Today the Prince George program supports 160 athletes across 16 sports, building confidence, friendships and independence. This impact extends throughout the northern B.C. region.

The Mackenzie program, operating since 2014, has also become a source of pride in our northern communities. We’ve seen extraordinary success stories, including Mackenzie athlete Pierce Northcott, who lifted an incredible 451 pounds at the 2025 B.C. Summer Games, breaking an unofficial world record in the deadlift. He was supported by his proud coach, Bryce Surgenor. Pierce’s performance earned him a spot on the 2026 Special Olympics Canada national team.

None of this happens without volunteers, coaches, organizers and families, who give countless hours to ensure every athlete has a place on the team. Their dedication over four decades is really the foundation of this success.

Last year Prince George hosted the Special Olympics B.C. Summer Games, welcoming 870 athletes from across British Columbia. Thank you to members of this House who did attend that event.

I had the honour of walking in with the athletes at the opening ceremonies. The pride and joy in that arena was something you could feel. Cheering on athletes and awarding medals with high-fives was one of my favourite honours in my term so far as an MLA.

Now Prince George has been shortlisted to host the 2030 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games, and our northern capital stands ready if awarded the bid.

To all the athletes who compete: you show us what courage looks like.

To the volunteers and families: this doesn’t happen without any of you.

Forty years strong and just getting started.

Oral Questions

Budget Provisions for
Long-Term-Care Projects

Brennan Day: The Minister of Finance said: “I think this budget is very supportive of seniors.” She has clearly borrowed the Premier’s joke-writer, but this is no joke.

This government is making it more unaffordable for seniors to age in place by hiking interest rates on property tax deferrals and expanding PST to include land lines and basic cable, while simultaneously cutting 1,200 long-term-care beds. Seniors no longer get to choose if they want to age in place in B.C. The government is making that choice for them.

To the Minister of Health: will you admit that because your government cannot manage its finances, you are now cutting long-term-care beds and home supports at the very moment demand for seniors support is set to skyrocket?

The Speaker: Members, all questions and answers are through the Chair.

Hon. Brenda Bailey: Budget 2026 protects what is most important to seniors — health care services that seniors depend on; investments to hire more doctors, more nurses. We’re making a $35 million investment over three years to continue to support independent living to help low- and moderate-income seniors stay in their homes.

I have explained, and I’ll explain to the member again, that when we have long-term-care beds coming in at an estimated $1.8 billion per bed, it is incumbent upon us to look at how to do this differently, cheaper and in a way that we can build more beds faster. That is the work that we’re doing to serve seniors.

The Speaker: Member, supplemental.

Brennan Day: I’m glad you brought up aging at home. Again….

The Speaker: Through the Chair, Member.

Brennan Day: Mr. Speaker, the press release that was sent out last Friday was a direct cut-and-paste of the ministry’s 2024 press release, almost verbatim. That funding is federal, as you well know. There is no new funding in this budget for seniors home care supports, just more broken promises.

It’s obvious to British Columbians that your government is out of ideas and out of our taxpayers’ dollars.

How can this government claim to have a plan for seniors when all it offers are recycled, two-year-old press releases, while cutting the care seniors actually need?

The Speaker: Through the Chair, Member.

[2:00 p.m.]

Hon. Brenda Bailey: We had a choice when putting this budget together to protect services or to make deep cuts that would hurt seniors, that would hurt British Columbians by cutting health care.

We know that that’s what the other side would do. How do we know that? Because the member for Fraser-Nicola said….

Interjections.

Hon. Brenda Bailey: Oh, I will read the quote.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members, shhh.

Hon. Brenda Bailey: “Health care, along with education, would have to take the brunt of these cuts.” We know what the other side would do.

On this side of the House, we are protecting services for British Columbians. We’re protecting health care. We’re protecting education. Budget 2026 does just that.

Claire Rattée: The Kitimat Valley Housing Society, which is run entirely by seniors, has spent over a year trying to build seniors housing in a community with no long-term-care capacity, where seniors are trapped in homes that are too large to manage or apartments that they physically cannot access.

They had to spend $18,000 on the mandatory audits that were required just to qualify for the community housing fund, not to mention all of the other money that’s already been invested into this project. They were relying on that funding to make the project viable. Now this government has cut $1.4 billion from that fund, effectively killing the seniors housing project.

Why did this government decide that housing for seniors in northern B.C. wasn’t a priority this year?

Hon. Christine Boyle: I want to start by thanking the member opposite. We had a good meeting at the end of last year, speaking about the important housing needs of her community. I know what a champion she’s been on that front, and we’ve been working together on solutions.

I am happy to have the opportunity to speak to the community housing fund, to be clear that the community housing fund hasn’t been cancelled. We continue, as a government, to do important work with housing providers and communities all across the province under that fund. Last year’s intake we have cancelled, and I understand the frustration of folks who applied for funding under that intake. But there will be future intakes.

There are, as we speak, 4,000 units under construction across the province that we as a government have invested in, working with providers and communities across the province, 2,000 homes and shelter beds opening just in the next three months. We as a government continue to take housing seriously and will continue to work with communities and partners to deliver.

The Speaker: Member, supplemental.

Claire Rattée: Effectively what I just heard is it’s not a cut, but it is a cut. It says right in the budget that $1.4 billion is being reallocated from the community housing fund.

This is money that non-profits and municipalities were relying on to be able to build housing, which is this government’s priority. It’s a provincial responsibility. This government hasn’t been keeping up with it, so now that work has fallen on others. So $1.4 billion that was promised to all of these groups that they were relying on. Like I said, lots of money has been invested into these projects already. They were strung along, and now that money has been cut.

I am glad that the minister brought up the meeting that we had in December. We met personally about this project specifically because there had been months and months of delays on it, and this group was wondering when they were going to hear something back, like I’m sure many of them throughout the province have been over the last year. The minister assured me at that meeting that a funding decision would be forthcoming. Weeks later the entire community housing fund is scrapped.

I have to ask: did the minister know in December that this funding was about to be cut and choose to string these hard-working volunteers along, or does she expect British Columbians to believe that she doesn’t know her own budget?

Hon. Christine Boyle: I will stand up in this House any day and defend the serious work that we as a government have done on housing.

Mr. Speaker, 95,000 units delivered or underway in communities all across this province, where we’re supporting….

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh. Members, the minister has the floor.

Hon. Christine Boyle: Building women’s transition housing, community housing, seniors housing, supportive housing….

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members, please.

Hon. Christine Boyle: That is housing that continues to be delivered. There are projects, as I said, across the province, under construction, homes that people will move into in the next months and beyond.

[2:05 p.m.]

The members opposite have been clear that they would cut funding to housing. I know that because when they were on this side, they did just that — massive cuts to publicly funded and supportive housing.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members, order.

Hon. Christine Boyle: Members opposite have opposed supportive housing projects and shelters in their communities, badly needed projects.

We take this seriously, and we will continue to deliver in this budget and beyond.

Funding for Mental Health Services

Jeremy Valeriote: We desperately need to talk about our society’s mental health. For centuries, as we know, a conversation about mental illness was silenced by stigma. Of late, this conversation has been reconstituted so that when we talk about mental illness in this chamber, we’re often talking about involuntary treatment, incarceration and public safety.

True health comes from preventative care and proper diagnosis. True safety comes when all of us have access to the care we need and deserve — family doctors, specialists and psychologists, not just for those who can afford to pay out of pocket but for all British Columbians.

In 2025, this government promised in writing to expand coverage for psychologist visits under our public health system. The agreement, endorsed by the entire government caucus, stated that “this investment will benefit all British Columbians, including youth and children.”

My question is to the Minister of Health. When will this government break through the minor bureaucratic barriers and deliver on this major promise?

Hon. Josie Osborne: Thank you to the member opposite for the question. Mental health care is health care. This government is making record investments in early intervention, in prevention, in supporting children and youth in our schools and home settings.

This is the work that we were doing with the Green Party. Unfortunately, that agreement came to an end, and we no longer have the opportunity to continue to discuss the work that we have been doing to integrate mental health supports into our primary care system.

Already over 355 full-time-equivalents are embedded throughout the primary care system, because team-based primary care, including mental health supports, is part of the holistic care that people deserve. They deserve it when they want it, when they need it and to get it close to home. This government remains committed to that work.

We will continue to work with the B.C. Psychologists Association, and we will do that, unfortunately, with or without the Greens.

The Speaker: Member, supplemental.

Budget Provisions for
School Counsellors

Jeremy Valeriote: Thank you to the minister for the answer. I would argue that leadership and follow-through on child and youth mental health is lacking, and our children are paying the price.

In their 2024 election platform, this government promised a mental health counsellor in every school and an educational assistant in every K-to-3 classroom. This year’s budget includes a $167 million classroom enhancement fund that, while welcome — I’ll be fair — on closer inspection, only reflects caseload pressure from pre-existing obligations to teachers; is discretionary funding for school districts; and, sadly, is insufficient to match the size and the gravity of the problem.

In B.C., we have only one counsellor for every 700 students.

The Speaker: Question, Member.

Jeremy Valeriote: The North American average is one counsellor for 250 students. We’re not meeting the moment, and it’s harming our children and communities. British Columbian children deserve, at minimum, the continental average for school counsellors.

Budget 2026’s workplan includes scant details on how the classroom enhancement fund will be spent. What is the Minister of Education’s plan?

Hon. Lisa Beare: I want to thank the member for the question, because, year after year, our government has demonstrated how much we support our public education system through continued investments.

In light of very fiscally difficult times and a very difficult budget, our government made the commitment to the public, to our students, that we would continue to not only support public education but to increase our investment.

We continue to work with our partners all throughout the K-to-12 system on our commitments regarding education assistants and counsellors. We have a K-to-12 workforce table where we sit down with all our partners and plan that out.

That work is ongoing, and I thank the member for the question.

Burnaby Hospital Expansion
Project and Cancer Care Centre

Misty Van Popta: It’s not just long-term care on the chopping block with this budget. With ER wait times over 12 hours at surrounding hospitals, the government has labelled the Burnaby Hospital phase 2 project “TBC” — to be confirmed, to be continued, to be cancelled. If you don’t build the hospital, you don’t have to worry about keeping it open.

[2:10 p.m.]

Due to this government’s fiscal mismanagement, the urgently needed Burnaby Hospital redevelopment, phase 2, and B.C. Cancer Centre have been delayed indefinitely.

Why doesn’t this Minister of Infrastructure stand up for patients in B.C. and demand that this project get reinstated and give us a date?

Hon. Bowinn Ma: We’re proud of the investments that we have made in major capital infrastructure projects in the health care sector across the province. We have implemented and built and have underway the most number of hospital projects ever conceived in B.C. history.

That being said, there are projects that need more work done, and the Burnaby Hospital project is actually one of them. The project came in significantly over budget. We are wanting to work with the Fraser Health Authority to get those costs down so that we can continue to deliver the important infrastructure projects that British Columbians need, in a sustainable way.

Affordable Housing and
Community Housing Fund

Linda Hepner: The community housing fund was designed to deliver below-market homes. The minister is cutting thousands of those planned affordable housing units that are needed in a time when people can’t afford to pay for rent.

To the minister, how many low-income British Columbians and their families will be forced, god forbid, to seek out single-room occupancy to put a roof over their heads because of her cut?

Hon. Christine Boyle: Again, the community housing fund continues. Thousands of units are being delivered this year under that fund.

There was one intake of the fund that was cancelled, but the larger fund continues. We continue to do that work, including in projects in ridings of members across each side of the floor here. We are investing in affordable housing. We’re investing in social and supportive housing. We’re investing in women’s transition housing and more.

It’s true that there are some projects that are being re-paced. Some of them weren’t ready to go on the timelines they had initially planned. Some of them are longer conversations with local governments or the providers. We’re looking at that to protect the investments that have been made while we continue to deliver on our housing commitments.

Student Housing Project
at University of Victoria

Korky Neufeld: It’s not just housing. It’s not just health care. It’s not just seniors getting mothballed in this budget. It’s students as well. A student housing project at UVic originally set to be completed in three years has been postponed indefinitely, at least until 2034.

The housing crisis is a major problem for students here in Victoria. Rental prices are so high, many students have no option but to commute from Nanaimo every day just to attend classes.

Can the Minister of Post-Secondary explain why she has allowed the Finance Minister to cancel desperately needed student housing here in Victoria?

Hon. Bowinn Ma: We are proud of the $2 billion that we have committed to building student housing at post-secondary institutions across the province so far.

So far, 7,300 student housing beds have been built, with thousands more underway, including a project that we just recently completed in partnership with the University of Victoria as well.

We understand the disappointment that the University of Victoria may have on their second project, but we remain committed to working with partners to build student housing, and we look forward to doing that work.

The Speaker: Member, supplemental.

Korky Neufeld: Well, here are some numbers. At UVic alone, the number of requests for student housing exceeds the amount available as spaces by 2,000 each year. That’s each year. This government thinks it’s acceptable to postpone the project.

To the Minister of Post-Secondary Education, what does she have to say to the parents and students at UVic who will not be able to find housing due to her government’s fiscal incompetence?

[2:15 p.m.]

Hon. Bowinn Ma: The interesting thing about talking about student housing is that in the same amount of time that our government has built over 7,300 student housing beds across the province, the previous government built less than 100.

The idea that our government has not been champions of student housing over the last nine years is absolutely false. There have never been more student housing projects underway or completed in this province.

Child Care Plan
and Access to Services

Reann Gasper: Lisa Kemp, a mother, told CBC in the summer that she pays $1,900 a month in child care for her two kids.

But according to the minister, there are more than 17,000 $10-a-day ChildCareBC spaces, and we are on track to meet our spring 2026 target of 20,000 spaces. “On track to meet our target,” says the minister. “A three-year pause in enrolment,” says the budget. This is just one of many families being cut out of the chance to receive $10-a-day child care by this government.

Will the Premier admit that, due to his government’s incompetence, he has failed to deliver what he has promised to B.C. parents?

Hon. Lisa Beare: The member is just simply incorrect about everything in her question.

We have over 17,500 $10-a-day spaces that we are supporting in this province, and we have 156,000 other spaces that are part of our fee reduction programs. The level of investment that our government has put into child care is significant. We are supporting 171,000 families through one of our programs, either through free reduction, $10 a day, pilot programs, operating funding, you know…. The $10 a day is just one tool in the toolkit.

We have been hearing from our families, from our providers, from the sector and our stakeholders that there are structural challenges with the $10-a-day program. We know, in talking with our federal government and our provincial and territorial partners, that these same challenges are faced all across the country. The system has become inequitable. There’s a structural deficit in the funding formula, and it’s not reaching the families who need it the most within that program.

We have put a temporary pause on the entrance to $10-a-day programs. The families who are currently receiving or are enrolled in a $10-a-day program will stay in that program while we take a stabilization period, work with our partners and work with the federal government to develop a system that will meet families’ needs all across this province.

The Speaker: Member has a supplemental.

Reann Gasper: There are a lot of promises being touted by this government.

The money that is given from the federal government to fulfil the promise of $10 a day that was promised to B.C. parents…. The reality of it is that it is not being fulfilled.

To the minister, she can paint the brush about the different programs, but we are talking about $10-a-day child care in B.C. that is not serving nearly a decade since this government announced the program, and a whopping 10 percent of spaces in B.C. currently offer $10-a-day child care.

The suspension of the program comes just months after the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found, on child care: “B.C. is the worst performing province or territory in the entire country.” Former NDP Minister Katrina Chen says she believes that a three-year delay to the program would be too long if the government hopes to revive it.

To the minister, with little success over a decade, is a $10-a-day child care still a priority for your government, or can we expect it to be cut and become another broken promise by this government?

[2:20 p.m.]

Hon. Lisa Beare: Again, the member is just simply wrong in all her assertations.

There is no three-year pause. Obviously, budgets are done in a three-year cycle. I think that’s, maybe, where the three-year number the member is trying to find…. But no, we are putting a temporary pause while we reassess our child care sector, work with our partners…

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh.

Hon. Lisa Beare: …and continue to develop child care in a sustainable way across this province.

Our vision has not changed. We have always said that we want to provide quality, affordable, reliable child care for families all across this province, and that’s what we’re doing. We have families who pay zero dollars a day through our fee-reduction programs, those families who need it most. We have 171,000 families who are averaging savings of around $7,000 a year. That is significant. Only the Conservatives would take $7,000 a year back in the pockets of families across British Columbia and try to turn it into a bad-news story.

Our goal is to protect child care, to continue to invest in it, to work with our partners to find a sustainable model that works for all British Columbians and continues to support kids in every corner of this province, and we’re going to do that.

Funding for Autism Services

Rosalyn Bird: This government’s reckless spending and incompetence has led to yet another broken promise. We have parents and families all over this province upset about the cuts to autistic funding. We have had multiples make quotes in the news, including: “It is going to be a choice between feeding my family or accessing therapy for my kids.”

This government is going to cost families across this province thousands of dollars a year and not being able to access therapy for their families.

To this Premier, how does he sleep at night knowing he’s responsible for stripping the funding away from 10,000 families with diverse needs?

Hon. Jodie Wickens: I thank the member for the question. The transformation that we announced just a couple of weeks ago is a net-new investment of $475 million of new money to ensure that we are building a stronger and fairer system for children and youth with disabilities in this province.

I am a mom of a child with needs, an aunt of a child with significant disabilities. I have worked with hundreds of families in this province. There is a saying in the autism community, and it goes: “When you’ve met one child with autism, you’ve met one child with autism.” There are no two children in our province that are the same. No two children need the same types of supports.

These changes did not happen in a vacuum. They happened because of years of engagement. We invested $4 million to speak to experts, to parents and to service providers who told us that there were far too many children being left behind by the previous system.

This is an investment in our children and our youth and in their future. We are building a stronger, fairer system, and I’m happy to provide all the information to the members opposite.

Government Hiring of
Ministerial Staff and Consultants

Trevor Halford: To the Minister of Finance, how many political staff are currently in her office?

Hon. Brenda Bailey: I’ll be happy to get the exact number to the member following question period, but I think where the member is going is a question in regards to the GCPE. I know that this is an area that’s really important for us to talk about.

The GCPE is under fire right now from the other side, but, in fact, it’s really important to note that, first of all, levels are at the same level or lower than they were when the member’s previous government was in power and, secondly, that we have seen the importance of communication.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Member, please take a seat.

Minister continues.

[2:25 p.m.]

Hon. Brenda Bailey: We have seen fragmentation in the media landscape and the importance of us to continue communicating properly to British Columbians who need to know about the programs and services that are important for them.

The Speaker: Member, supplemental.

Trevor Halford: Oh, I don’t even know where to start. I’ll start right now.

I asked the Minister of Finance a very simple question: how many political staff does she currently have in her office? She thinks I’m talking about GCPE. We do need to talk about GCPE, but we’ll do that later.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell her that she has a chief of staff, a ministerial adviser, another ministerial adviser, another ministerial adviser and an executive assistant. No wonder the minister did not want to answer that question. I’d be embarrassed to answer it as well.

The fact is this. It’s not just the Minister of Finance that is entitled to her entitlements; it’s the person sitting next to her. It’s the Premier. If you look at the pattern of behaviour, and let’s spell this out….

Penny Ballem — $158,000 in consulting contracts in 2025, after she served as CEO of the Provincial Health Services Authority.

Craig Jones — special legal adviser, whose salary, after four years, we can’t even find out.

Larry Campbell — the Vancouver mayor, hired to investigate solutions on the city’s Downtown Eastside, at a cost of 100 grand for six months of work. That was done to replace Michael Bryant, who was fired after the Minister of Social Development didn’t even know a contract was executed in her ministry, for as much as $300,000 for six months of work, after he was fired from Legal Aid B.C.

We can go even further. Jim Sinclair, former head of the B.C. Federation of Labour, oversaw one of the worst times that we’ve ever had at Fraser Health — no health experience, yet he is chair of Fraser Health Authority. Go figure that.

Lisa Helps, former mayor, is then hired into the Premier’s office for the Premier’s housing solutions adviser.

Charlie Demers — $165 an hour to write jokes for the Premier.

We’ve got a Finance Minister who doesn’t even know who’s in her office politically, and we’ve got a Premier who will just hire his friends and insiders. No wonder this government wants to shut down the Merit Commissioner. I would be embarrassed too.

My question to the Premier is a simple one. How does the Premier look kids in the eyes when he’s cutting their autism funding, yet he holds himself to a different standard?

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh, Members.

Trevor Halford: You’ll be sitting in this desk one day, too, so don’t worry about it.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh, Members. Members.

Interjection.

The Speaker: Member.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members, shhh.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Member. Leader of the Official Opposition.

The Member for Richmond Centre.

Interjections.

[The Speaker rose.]

The Speaker: Members, what part of the instructions do you not understand? You have asked the question.

Interjections.

The Speaker: The question has already been asked, so stay quiet.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Are you interested in an answer or not?

[The Speaker resumed their seat.]

The Speaker: Mr. Premier.

Hon. David Eby: Thank you, hon. Speaker. I think the member, as a former political staffer, understands the crucial role that these staff play in government. Now, he wouldn’t have taken the job if it were a nonsense job.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh. Shhh.

Hon. David Eby: He understands that ministers attend multiple public events. He understands that there are significant demands on that role that require additional support, because he did that job.

I want to thank not just political staff from both parties that do that hard work, but I also want to thank the special advisers that have assisted this government in addressing some of the biggest challenges we’ve faced.

When you’re talking about someone like Penny Ballem, she is recruited by other provinces to assist them with their health care challenges. She has worked under both governments. She has run health authorities. She is the example that they use to denigrate the work of people who come in and work for government. I think it’s a mistake. Bringing in experts and asking for assistance will assist us in moving through these challenges.

But, hon. Speaker, I cannot forgive….

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members.

Hon. David Eby: I cannot forgive the ahistoric perspective of the other side of the House. As senior B.C. Liberals line up to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party, let me remind this House of the record of when they sat on this side of the House.

[2:30 p.m.]

With respect to student housing, in the same amount of time….

Interjection.

Hon. David Eby: Oh, sure you are.

In the same amount of time that we built 7,500 student housing units, they built 100.

They are upset with us ensuring that when we build long-term-care homes, they are built efficiently and effectively, but when they were on this side of the House…

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members.

Hon. David Eby: …seniors couldn’t even get one bath a week. They did not meet those care standards again and again. One bath a week for a senior, and they’re upset with us for driving down the cost of building new long-term-care homes.

Let me tell you about child care.

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members. Order, please.

Shhh.

Hon. David Eby: Parents were left to themselves on child care. It wasn’t seen as an economic program.

We brought it in. More women than ever before in the history of the province returning to the job market, able to work, driving economic growth here. Doubling the number of child care spots, over 100,000. Parents getting — never mind $10-a-day child care — free child care in our province that never had access to it, because they didn’t care.

I tell you, if they get on this side of the House, they will not care about parents or seniors or health care or anything because they have told us that what will bear the brunt is health care and education. They will bring those cuts as sure as I’m standing here, and we will protect British Columbians.

[End of question period.]

Petitions

Donegal Wilson: I rise today to table a petition on behalf of 754 residents of the South Okanagan.

The petition respectfully calls on the Legislative Assembly to urge the government of British Columbia to prioritize improvements to drinking water infrastructure in the South Okanagan.

Orders of the Day

Hon. Mike Farnworth: I call continued debate on the budget.

[Lorne Doerkson in the chair.]

Budget Debate
(continued)

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Members. We’ll bring the chamber back to order, where we will continue our budget debate.

Paul Choi: I would like to first acknowledge that I’m speaking on the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking People, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.

I would also like to take this opportunity to stand in this House for the first time this session and extend my deepest condolences to the people of Tumbler Ridge, who have faced unimaginable tragedies. My heart goes out to everyone, and my heart breaks for those families who have lost loved ones, who have lost friends, who lost neighbours.

I want to thank the dedicated officers of the RCMP and many others who are on the ground and responded immediately, without hesitation, to save lives. It is bravery in the purest sense of the word.

My thoughts are with Tumbler Ridge. We are with you, and we will continue to support you.

[2:35 p.m.]

I am pleased to speak today in support of Budget 2026.

This is not a budget written in calm waters. It is a budget written in a world of instability, tariffs, global uncertainty, high costs and economic pressures that are not unique to B.C. This is a budget about securing B.C.’s future. This is a budget that protects the services that British Columbians rely on while setting out a responsible path to declining the deficit.

As Chair of the Finance and Government Services Committee, I can say that this budget was not one of easy decisions. Our government is making careful choices to safeguard the things that matter most to British Columbians, like health care and education. But global uncertainty has introduced challenges here in B.C. and across Canada. This instability and the tariffs imposed by the American administration have put pressure on public finances.

The seriousness of this global situation demands a serious provincial budget that will deliver stability to British Columbians. This is what this budget represents.

Before I was elected, I served as a law enforcement officer. When police respond to a crisis scene, we don’t panic. We assess, we prioritize, and we protect lives first. This too is a budget that takes a deliberate, carefully considered approach. We hear time and time again how much British Columbians value and defend and depend on public services. That’s why we are protecting these services.

As Chair of the Finance and Government Services Committee, I have had the privilege of hearing directly from British Columbians in communities across this beautiful province — small business owners, seniors worried about long-term care, families concerned about child care costs, construction workers asking what their next project will be. What they told us was clear and simple: protect health care, protect education, protect affordability, use public funds responsibly. This budget reflects that.

Budget 2026 is a budget based in the difficult reality that B.C. is facing. We are forecasting declining deficits over the fiscal plan so that we can protect these services for the next generation. This will be achieved through targeted reductions in spending, as well as strategic re-pacing of capital projects. This is what fiscal discipline looks like. Every dollar is scrutinized.

In addition to protecting our valued public services, we’re keeping taxes low for working families. B.C. remains one of the provinces with the lowest tax for those working and middle income families. With increases to the B.C. tax reduction credit, more than 40 percent of the taxpayers will be paying lower taxes this year.

We are making further investments in core services. Budget 2026 is investing an additional $2.8 billion in health care over three years, including $2.3 billion to increase capacity to our health care services and systems, $131 million to support mental health and addiction treatment and $185 million to strengthen seniors care.

In our education system, we are investing $634 million in K to 12 over three years, including $167 million for the classroom enhancement fund to put more teachers, special education teachers and counsellors in B.C. classrooms.

We are absolutely committed to making our neighbourhoods and communities safer. That’s why we’re investing $139 million over three years in public safety measures. This includes $42 million towards initiatives to target repeat violent offenders and the new chronic property offenders initiatives. We are investing $73 million in our courts to support timely access to justice, recruit and retain sheriffs and move cases through the justice system faster.

These critical investments across health care, education, public safety and more will make a real difference in my riding in Burnaby South–Metrotown and across B.C.

These are investments that will help hire more doctors, nurses and health professionals in our hospitals and long-term-care homes. Investments that will put more teachers in our schools and help deliver a quality education to our kids. Investments that will double the amount of skilled-trades training in this province to provide new opportunities and good-paying jobs for young people. Investments that will help increase the sense of safety in our neighbourhoods so that B.C. residents and businesses have confidence and peace of mind.

[2:40 p.m.]

Not only are we investing in public services, but we are also investing in the projects that will continue to deliver results for British Columbians and the people of Burnaby. Across the province, we are building what communities need to grow: hospitals, schools, transit, roads and bridges. The capital plan invests $37.7 billion over three years and supports approximately 130,000 jobs.

In Burnaby, one of B.C.’s most diverse and dynamic cities, we are investing $68 million for a new, expanded Cameron Elementary to create 770 new student spaces and over $40 million for a brand-new francophone elementary school. We are making schools seismically safer and adding capacities at Brentwood Park, Stride Avenue and Kitchener Elementary. And we are incredibly proud of the seismically safer, $101 million Burnaby North Secondary replacement school that recently opened to 1,800 students.

Burnaby is a hub for the talent that drives B.C.’s economy. At BCIT, we’re investing over $150 million in the new trades and technology complex, adding 1,200 student seats and generating over 1,100 construction jobs. We also recently completed BCIT’s $144 million Tall Timber Student Housing project.

Over at SFU, we’re delivering phase 3 of the student housing, a $197 million mass timber building providing 445 beds and 160 child care spaces. This builds on the beautiful First Peoples gathering house. These projects take pressure off of Burnaby’s private rental market, helping everyone find an affordable place to live.

Finally, I want to highlight the monumental transformation of health care in our city. The Burnaby Hospital redevelopment and the new B.C. care centre represent a multi-billion dollar commitment. With two new patient care towers, a modernized emergency department, 399 beds and a state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre, people in Burnaby will get the care closer to home. This massive project is expected to create over 17,000 direct jobs and 8,500 indirect jobs. These are meaningful investments that British Columbians have been asking for, that British Columbians expect, and we are delivering.

As Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, I have spent many of the past months engaging with B.C.’s businesses, big and small, to hear from them directly about what they need. This work is practical and focused on key terms and goals: enhancing B.C.’s trade diversification strategy and our Look West goals to export around the world, engaging industry about real-world opportunities, deepening ties with key partners across the Indo-Pacific and supporting the people-to-people connections that make trade work.

Trade is one of B.C.’s great strengths, but we also know the risk of overreliance on a single market. In 2023, about 54 percent of B.C.’s goods exports went to the U.S. Tariffs and tariff threats on aluminum, steel, softwood lumber, autos and other goods have created unacceptable uncertainty for B.C.’s employers and workers. Our response is targeted and long term. We need to diversify markets, reduce barriers at home, move faster on major projects and back small and medium-sized exporters with hands-on support.

We are working every day to help B.C. businesses export their goods and services around the globe. B.C. has an abundance of what the world needs — from critical minerals, clean energy and sustainable forestry to world-class tech talents and innovations that can solve global challenges.

We have a global network of more than 50 trade and investment representatives in 14 key markets, including new representation in Mexico, Taiwan and Vietnam. These teams connect B.C. companies to buyers and investors every day.

We also have opened Forestry Innovation Investment offices in Vietnam and England to grow B.C.’s market share beyond traditional destinations. We have renewed and signed cooperation agreements that position B.C. in strategic sectors, with Gyeonggi province in South Korea, KOMIR on critical minerals, Japanese partners in clean transportation and a letter of intent with Karnataka, India, on life sciences and tech.

[2:45 p.m.]

Interest in B.C.’s advantages continues to rise, and trade missions are essential to capitalizing on this. These missions are absolutely crucial. They are sales calls for Team B.C.

Over the past two years, our delegations have showcased clean energy tech in Germany and Norway; focused on food security and critical minerals in Japan, Malaysia and South Korea; put B.C.’s tech on major stages in Europe; promoted life sciences in Boston; and positioned B.C. for investment at Climate Week in New York City. In January 2026, we led a mission to India to strengthen ties in responsible mining, forestry and tech.

The benefits of these relationships are practical. As part of our Look West goals to double exports to non-U.S. markets over the next ten years, companies get B2B meetings they cannot get on their own, and they build long-term relationships that turn into procurement and inward investments.

In Mexico, we are building relationships with aerospace, ICT and clean tech. In Taiwan, we are positioning B.C. as a low-carbon supplier. In Vietnam, our presence is opening doors for B.C. wood products and agrifood. These are new customers for B.C. exporters and new jobs right here at home.

Trade is not an abstract; it is about supporting businesses to reach new customers. This is why programs like export navigator matter, providing free one-on-one advisory support. In 2022, we added a technical specialist pilot so businesses can access the logistical and cross-border legal expertise that makes a first export deal possible. We’re also expanding proven partners like the trade accelerator program. The goal is simple: more B.C. firms exporting to more markets faster.

As B.C.’s representative at Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, I spent time speaking with American legislators and business leaders. Let’s be very clear. Tariffs are not theoretical. They are not a threat. They are real. I have sat across from state elected officials who agree that these tariffs benefit nobody. They harm working people and businesses on both sides of the border.

While diplomacy continues, our responsibility is here, right here at home. That’s why this budget invests $283 million in new funding to support our new Look West strategy for jobs and prosperity, doubles funding for SkilledTradesBC and establishes a $400 million B.C. strategic investment fund. This is not reactive budgeting; this is strategic positioning. We are diversifying markets and identifying new opportunities, and we are reducing our dependency on an unstable trading partner.

We are strengthening internal trade and breaking down interprovincial barriers. At PNWER, I have heard the same thing many times. Canada must knock down its internal trade barriers. Economic analysis suggests mutual recognition, where we agree to allow the sale of goods that are permitted to be sold in other provinces and territories, could increase Canada’s GDP by up to 7.9 percent. This is transformational.

In this, B.C. continues to be at the forefront of that work. We led the establishment of the Canadian mutual recognition agreement, and we continue to push for further reduction in trade barriers. We are advancing direct-to-consumer alcohol sales. Since the new B.C.-Alberta program launched in 2025, nearly 100 B.C. wineries have joined, and interprovincial wine shipments have grown sharply, proof that cutting internal barriers helps businesses grow.

Budget 2026 does three things. It protects core services, it keeps taxes among the lowest Canada-wide for working and middle-income families, and it sets B.C. on a disciplined path towards deficit reduction. It invests in skills, infrastructure, major projects, trade diversification, health care, seniors, children and working families, and it acknowledges uncertainty but does not surrender to it.

As Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, I will continue working to open new markets and create new opportunities for B.C. businesses. As B.C.’s rep for PNWER, I will continue to strengthen people-to-people relationships across our shared borders. As Chair of the Finance Committee, I will continue to pursue fiscal discipline. As MLA for Burnaby South–Metrotown, I will continue advocating for families who expect serious leadership in serious times.

[2:50 p.m.]

Budget 2026 is responsible, it is disciplined, and it is forward-looking. Budget 2026 is securing B.C.’s future.

Lynne Block: Today we are called upon to debate Budget 2026, a budget that has disappointed nearly everyone in this province who has looked at it closely. Experts have given it a failing grade, warning that it fails to address key economic and social pressures and that it places unfair burdens on those who can least afford them. For all its lofty language and carefully crafted talking points, this budget will hit ordinary British Columbians with higher taxes, delayed services and rising costs.

In the days since its release, we have witnessed spin, deflection and reassurances from government members, yet very little accountability for the real pain this fiscal plan will inflict on seniors, families and small business owners across the province.

Some in this NDP government will tell you this budget is a positive step, that it is necessary to fund essential services, modernize fiscal systems and respond to external pressures like U.S. tariffs. But let’s be clear. Tariffs did not create a $13.3 billion projected deficit. What did create this deficit? A lack of fiscal discipline, a failure to control spending, ignorance of basic economic prudence and a willingness to raise taxes at every opportunity. Blaming outside forces for the state of our economy is not leadership. It is evasion.

The NDP government often accuses us: “Well, when you were in government, things were worse.” We just heard it today in question period: “If you were in power, you would cut this, cut that.” But the fact is, and the truth is very simple, our Conservative Party has not been in government since 1933. I’ll repeat. Our Conservative Party has not been in government since 1933. We were in power from 1903 to 1916 and 1928 to 1933, nearly 100 years ago.

Let’s be clear. While we have not governed for 93 years. We have also never created a deficit of this magnitude, nor have we ever placed such an unfair burden on seniors, young families and small business owners. This budget is unprecedented in its reach and its impact, and it asks ordinary British Columbians to carry costs they should never have to bear.

The Conservative caucus has always stood for responsible budgeting, predictable taxation and strong investment in core public services. Yet this government repeatedly tries to cast aspersions that Conservatives would cut health or education or something, a claim that is nothing more than a red herring designed to distract from the very real hardships this budget imposes. It is not a reflection of our values or intentions. It is a tactic by a government flailing for cover, seeking to deflect from the negative outcomes of this budget.

This budget is not just numbers on a page. It is real lives affected — retirees strapped by compounded property tax deferrals, families squeezed by rising costs and limited supports and small businesses struggling under new tax burdens.

[2:55 p.m.]

Today I want to speak not only about the core three areas where this budget fails miserably — seniors, young families and small business owners — but also about the broader context of fiscal choices, priorities and responsibility. A society is judged not by the complexity of its budgets but by the dignity and opportunity it affords its citizens.

Let’s begin with a reality that every family feels at the grocery checkout, at the pharmacy and at the gas pump. Prices are up almost everywhere. Instead of meaningful measures to absorb those increases, this budget adds higher personal income taxes, pauses indexation of tax brackets and extends the PST to categories that hit households directly.

The PST is now applied to professional services, things like accounting, engineering, property management and even basic security services, turning everyday business expenses into additional costs that get passed on to families.

Young parents, retirees and those living on fixed incomes are not insulated from this. We are told this is necessary to fund services. But when families feel less secure, when every dollar must stretch further, when debt grows faster than savings, that is not a stronger economy. That is economic strain being shifted onto the backs of ordinary hard-working people.

What do we get in return? Delays to hospital expansions, long-term-care facilities delayed or paced slower, child care supports that can’t keep up with demand and housing initiatives that lack the funding necessary to make a dent in affordability. Investments in services are announced, but deliverables lag, and timelines stretch out while people wait.

This is not leadership through vision; this is leadership through apology. Nowhere is the disconnect between rhetoric and reality greater than in the treatment of our seniors. We are told there is $2.8 billion in new health funding over three years and $447 million in federal, not provincial, supports for seniors health services. But dollars on a line do not equal care delivered. At the same time, this budget increases taxes and expands the PST.

Seniors face mounting pressures. Long-term-care facilities are being delayed, slowing the construction that should already be underway and forcing older adults to spend longer periods in hospitals or at home without the supports they need.

Meanwhile, our aging population — I would call it a looming silver tsunami — continues to grow, bringing increasing demands for care, mobility supports and in-home services, which we are simply not prepared to meet.

On top of this, property tax deferment rates are rising from 2.9 percent to 6.9 percent, with interest compounding, meaning retirees who relied on these deferrals to stay in their homes will now see the amounts they owe escalate faster than they can manage. This could be deemed as usury on the part of this government.

Nowhere is the disconnect between rhetoric and reality greater than the treatment of our seniors. The Minister of Health stood before us stating that nothing is more important than our seniors, touting an additional $35 million to help them stay in their homes. But while one minister offers a small gesture of support, the Finance Minister is undermining the very stability of those homes.

This budget increases, like I said, the property tax deferral rates from 2.9 percent to a staggering 6.9 percent, 4 percent right off the bat. When asked to justify this, the Finance Minister showed a profound lack of empathy for seniors, suggesting that seniors should actually be thanking this government for the change.

[3:00 p.m.]

The minister callously dismissed the needs of retirees by claiming the program was being used by seniors who took that cheap funding and invested it to make money. This shows a chilling lack of understanding of the lived reality for most B.C. seniors, and I should know. My riding is predominantly seniors. They vote, by the way.

For many, accessing home equity is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is a survival strategy. These are seniors on inadequate fixed incomes who have been forced to tap into their equity just to pay their bills and supplement their rising costs of living so they can stay in their homes that they have spent a lifetime paying taxes on and living in.

To hear the Finance Minister claim that this massive interest hike does not affect one’s monthly spending is an insult to every senior watching their debt compound faster than they can manage. It is a cold, accounting-based perspective that ignores the emotional and financial weight of mounting debt on those just trying to hang on.

While the NDP ministers speak of care and compassion, their policies tell a different story, one where our elders are viewed as a source of revenue rather than a population deserving of dignity and protection. I wonder what this government’s parents and grandparents are saying to their MLAs. Is this how we should honour our elders? Is this how we reward our seniors for their years of service, their contributions to our society and the many sacrifices that they have made for their children and grandchildren?

I am appalled at the narratives being spun around this government’s treatment of seniors in our provinces. So I’d like to tell you a couple of stories.

I’ll call them Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They have lived in their rental apartment, same one, for over 30 years, and of course, it’s capped on their rentals. Mr. Smith was in the hospital for three months, and because he’d broken both hips, he needed a specialized wheelchair. The hospital would not allow him home. Three months he was in the hospital. Why couldn’t he come home? The specialized wheelchair was not allowed because he had old carpeting, original carpeting, in his rental apartment.

He was stuck, and nobody was helping him, not Coastal Health, nobody. So we got involved, my wonderful, terrific CAs in my office. Within one day, not only did we get the carpeting ripped out, new flooring in, but we also got the place painted. The problem was that they have new owners of this apartment building and new managers. They were willing to give them a beautiful new apartment that’s refurbished, at twice the rent. They couldn’t move. They couldn’t go home. So that is a happy ending story.

Another happy-ending story. I’ll call him John. John lived with his 100-year-old mother. In a wheelchair she was, and blind. She was also a veteran. They lived on the eighth floor of an apartment building, rental, and the one elevator of this older building was going to be refurbished. Well, it was going to take three months.

“No problem,” the owner of the apartment said, and the manager. “You can stay in your apartment for three months, and the caregivers can walk up and down eight flights of stairs.” Well, John didn’t want to see his mother treated like that. Neither would I. So we got involved.

The only thing…. When he came to us, he was beside himself. He said: “All I can find is eight days’ respite in a care home.” I said: “No problem. My CO and my CAs are going to bat for you. We will advocate for you.” And we did. We found him and his mom a beautiful place on the North Shore that he can get to by bus, and it’s for the rest of her life. He’s happy, and his mom is happy now. But that was thanks to the intervention of my constituency office and my terrific CAs.

[3:05 p.m.]

These two seniors’ stories have happy endings. But now, for other seniors in my riding and across the province, because of the new burdens introduced by this budget, there may not be happy endings. On fixed incomes with too few long-term-care homes available, ordinary seniors continue to face uncertain futures.

These are not isolated stories. They are real people whose security and dignity are threatened because this government has prioritized taxation and accounting over care and compassion. Those are the seniors who’ve been affected and will be affected by this budget.

What about young families? Young families are shouldering another kind of burden. While this budget does include initiatives — such as $34 million annually for IVF access, expanded mental health services for children and new disability benefits that help some families — the truth is that these are spot measures, helpful in certain cases but far from comprehensive solutions to the systemic challenges that families face every day.

This budget also raises the lowest provincial income tax rate, reducing take-home pay, just as housing costs, child care expenses and everyday consumer prices continue to climb. It does little to meaningfully increase affordable housing, their supports or rental supplements, leaving many parents struggling to find homes close to work and schools. While some child care funding is included, it remains modest compared with the scale of need, leaving families waiting, uncertain and under financial strain.

I’d like to tell you another story. I’ll call him Zachary. Zachary, when we met his parents, was 20 months old. Now, he has complex medical needs caused by something called infantile spasms, a rare form of epilepsy, continuing throughout each day. He needs constant support. His mom needed to go back to work just to handle all the costs, along with his dad. There was a three-year wait-list for him to get into care, so she couldn’t return to work. She had to stay with her son.

However, we got involved. Exciting news. Zachary has been free of seizures for six months, which is absolutely profound. Both parents are working, and they’re sharing the workload so that they can meet their bills and also that their child has either mom or dad at home. We’ve got them…. In September, he is going to be in a special daycare, which we’re very excited about. It’s one of the few on the North Shore.

Coming back to young families, we must ask: is this budget meeting the real needs of families, or is it offering small gestures while letting deep challenges go unresolved? Families want and deserve more than lip service. They deserve real affordability, real access and real opportunity.

Seniors and young families have been negatively impacted by this budget. Who else? Small businesses. Our small businesses — local cafes, shops, trades, services and studios — define our communities, especially mine. We don’t have big business. We don’t have industry. We have small businesses.

Small businesses were offered a few incentives, a temporary manufacturing investment tax credit, extended shipbuilding credits and no immediate changes to the small business rate. But those positives are quickly undercut by real negatives. The PST expansion directly increases operating costs for small businesses, as they are now required to pay sales tax on services that were previously exempt. On top of that, compliance and administrative burdens have risen, consuming both time and money that could otherwise be invested in growth and innovation.

[3:10 p.m.]

Meanwhile, higher personal income taxes and the pause on bracket indexation place additional pressures on sole proprietors, shareholders and entrepreneurs who report business income through their personal returns, further straining small business owners already working to keep their doors open.

Another couple of stories. Small business owners.

I’ve got a wonderful hairdresser. She’s magical. She’s single, a mom. Been single since her little girl was a little toddler. Her daughter she’s helping to pay through medical school right now. And this amazing woman…. There’s nobody else working in her salon. It’s her. She cleans up. She does all the hair-cutting, everything, answers the phone. She’s cheerful, and she’s lovely. But this is going to impact her negatively. She’s working as hard as she possibly can.

What about my local store that pays $20,000 a month for rent? A mom-and-pop store. They’re going into their savings right now. This is going to really, really negatively impact them.

What about my favourite little coffee shop, mom-and-pop again? They have been there for about 12 years now, and they raised their children there. They work incredibly hard, and they are struggling. They are always busy, but they are struggling because, since COVID, people haven’t come back. The times are really tough. It’s really impacting their business, so they are struggling. With this budget, they’re going to struggle even more.

Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. They create jobs, support neighbourhoods and give our towns and cities their character. Yet this budget does nothing to foster an environment where they can grow and thrive. It does not encourage entrepreneurship or investment. Instead, it burdens owners with higher taxes, expanded PST and rising compliance costs. On paper, it may appear generous in press releases, but in the lived reality of small business owners, it is harsh, restrictive and discouraging.

British Columbians are watching. They are not fooled by talking points, obfuscation and spin. They know what rising costs feel like, they know when services are delayed, they know when family members struggle, and they know where to place responsibility.

This budget is not just about paying bills. It is about priorities. It is about who we choose to support and who we choose to burden. In this budget, our seniors, our young families and our small business communities are being asked to shoulder more than their fair share.

We owe it to the people of this province to demand more — more accountability, more compassion and more responsible leadership. We cannot settle for excuses or for passing the burden on to those least able to bear it. We must do better. We can do better, and we must remind each other, loudly and clearly, that a government’s job is not to hide behind tariffs or deficit figures but to build a province where dignity, opportunity and fairness are the rule, not the exception.

Deputy Speaker: Members, I’m going to recognize Abbotsford South because we see him online with his hand up, but I would warn the member that if it’s to speak to the budget, I’ll be going to Surrey-Guildford next.

Member, can you tell us?

Bruce Banman: It is to speak to the budget, Mr. Speaker, so I will wait my turn.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you very much. We’ll call on you following Surrey-Guildford.

Garry Begg: It’s an honour today for me to speak to this House about the budget, which helps and outlines our government’s plan to build a stronger, better B.C. to help British Columbians get through these very challenging times.

As has been said many times, all of us here in this amazing province have endured years unlike any other — the fires, the floods, the global pandemic, economic instability.

[3:15 p.m.]

Now that we’re in recovery, we have been building the strongest economic recovery in Canada, and we’ve demonstrated that we can accomplish as much as we can when we work together.

Donald Trump has truly changed the new world order. There is much to be done, but we now know that there are many brighter days ahead.

I think it’s important that we pause for a few moments to consider the dark days that are now happening in Europe, where a brutal dictator is engaged in a brutal war in Ukraine and millions of people are fearful every day for their lives. All of our lives are impacted in some way by this war, and I’m proud to say that I stand with all others in this House to condemn in the strongest possible way the egregious and unlawful intrusion into Ukraine.

It’s important that the people of Ukraine know that they are in our thoughts and prayers and that we will, in whatever way we can, provide whatever is needed to protect them and to support them.

There is much suffering around us and all over the world, and we must be mindful of those who have so much less than we do.

It would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to salute the good folks of Surrey-Guildford who have honoured me by sending me here to represent them as their MLA in this House. And to my support at my office in Guildford. It’s the dedicated; talented; enthusiastic; and, some would say, long-suffering constituency assistants who every day support me through their hard work and desire to also help the residents of Surrey through their efficient and effective work at my constituency office in Guildford. They’re amazing advocates for all of the people who avail themselves of the services provided by my office there.

So to Ben and Candy and Tanveen, the newest addition to my staff: thank you. The residents of Surrey-Guildford are well served by your personable and understanding, helpful demeanour.

For those of you who don’t know, Surrey-Guildford is located in the northeast corner of the city of Surrey. The Fraser River surrounds the northern edge of the community, with Whalley to the west, Langley to the east. The southern border jogs down 96 to 88 Avenue.

This speech that I’m talking about today centres on what has been a core principle of what this government is all about. We believe in putting people first. It highlights our government’s plan to support British Columbians dealing with the everyday realities of their lives. It is, by its design and intent, an aspirational document that points to a brighter tomorrow for all of us. It is this government’s plan to tackle the big challenges now and build a stronger, more secure future for everyone.

The message is simple yet profound. In a time of uncertainty and challenges, our government has your back.

Now, there are alternatives. Some would say that we should be pulling back, cutting services and making people pay out of their pockets for things like private health care.

That’s not the choice that we have made or will make. We’re putting the surplus back to work for people. We believe that taking that action today will build a much stronger tomorrow. We’re helping people with costs by introducing new measures to help everyone and targeted support for those hardest hit, including those with lower incomes and families with children.

By far the biggest source of anxiety for people in British Columbia right now is the rising cost of living. B.C. is the best place in the world to live, but that also means it’s expensive to live here. Global inflation and long-lasting impacts of the pandemic are not only making things harder when you pay for gas and food and housing. But we’ve already taken significant action to help put more money back in your pocket.

[3:20 p.m.]

I want to take a few moments to talk about the people of Tumbler Ridge. My heart goes out to everyone in that beloved community, especially those who have lost loved ones. My thoughts are with the entire community, who are experiencing heart-wrenching grief and tragedy.

We are also thankful for the work of the hard-working first responders — the policemen, the emergency service workers. All of them acted to protect students as best they could. These dedicated British Columbia workers have steadied their commitment in the most frightening times. Their commitment reflects the very best of who we are in B.C.

British Columbians are not alone. Support and love have poured in from across Canada and from people around the world. Counsellors are there, on the ground, helping the community members and local leaders. The school district and so many others have been tireless in their efforts to support the entire community.

Our government will always continue to help to surge support into Tumbler Ridge, including counselling services, health resources and community assistance. Again, this government and our support will remain there as long as it takes.

To return to the budget, it’s important that we understand that in a world of economic uncertainty, we have to make careful choices to protect what matters most. In doing so, we will secure the future of this province. Since I’ve been in government, over the past eight or nine years, we’ve built, already, a strong foundation that people can depend on.

Hospitals, schools, roads, transit, housing and clean electricity are being delivered to support communities and good jobs across B.C. We made these investments while guiding people and businesses through extraordinary challenges — again, a global pandemic, devastating floods and wildfires, and now a direct attack on our economy and our sovereignty by our neighbour closest to us in the south.

When we came into this problem, we came from a position of strength. Our economy stayed resilient, and a low debt-to-GDP ratio gave B.C. the capacity to respond when it mattered the most. That work is what now is making a difference. Major job creation projects are moving forward. We have more family doctors than ever before. Rent prices are dropping, from their peaks, and everyday costs are eased through the B.C. family benefit, more affordable child care and lower car insurance rates.

This budget defends those gains. It is a tough economic reality that we face with clarity and vision. Global uncertainty is slowing growth everywhere. High costs, global instability and volatile commodity prices are putting pressure on our public’s finances. We, I think, have to be realistic and definitive in the choices that we make in these circumstances. I believe that Budget 2026 makes disciplined choices to protect what people care about the most.

Our priorities are clear. Protect core public services like health care and education, keep B.C. as one of the lowest-taxed provinces for working families, and reduce the deficit responsibly over time.

To achieve this, we’re taking three key steps. We are going to make the public sector smaller and more efficient so that more dollars can be used wisely.

[3:25 p.m.]

We are going to pace infrastructure projects carefully, delivering them efficiently without driving up costs, and by generating new revenue, while taking action to grow the economy and secure the long-term impact on major projects.

At the same time, we continue to invest in B.C.’s future, doubling trades training, supporting major job creation projects and ensuring that families and communities benefit from what we have built. Budget 2026 is serious work for seriously critical times. We’re focused on what matters most — protecting services, keeping taxes low for working families and strengthening B.C.’s finances for the long term.

I think it’s important that we highlight, as well, that we’re strengthening health care. It’s $2.8 billion more over three years, including $2.3 billion to increase capacity in the health care system, $131 million to support mental health and addictions treatment, $185 million to strengthen seniors care and $102 million for in vitro fertilization.

In fact, we’ve secured $447 million in federal funding to support services for seniors and $653 million to expand public coverage for free medication for diabetes and enhanced coverage for hormone replacement treatments to treat menopausal symptoms. We are securing the economic future of this province.

It’s $283 million over three years to support commitments made through Look West, including $241 million double funding for SkilledTradesBC over the next three years to train more people for good jobs here in B.C.; $30 million for highly qualified professionals and $12 million to enhance the employer training grant to double apprenticeship seats by 2028-2029; $400 million for a new B.C. strategic investment fund to seize opportunities for economic collaboration with the federal government.

More than $40 million to build on progress made in streamlining, permitting and increasing capacity across the natural resource and tourism sectors. In 2025-2026, $50 million in provincial and reallocated federal funding to support the forestry sector.

We are creating a more efficient public sector. This province is committed and has committed to addressing our challenging fiscal situation through workforce reductions and reviewing program delivery through Budget 2026 with nearly $3.5 billion in savings over a three-year fiscal plan and targets to reduce the greater public sector workforce by 15,000 full-time equivalents over the fiscal plan — $2.8 billion in additional savings. Of these 15,000 FTEs, 2,500 will be in the public service.

We’re supporting education across the province. Before I run out of time, I want to highlight what we’re doing in Surrey in particular. Surrey, as all of you know, is the fastest-growing place in the province. Our future is very bright, but we have great needs, as do other areas of the province.

The Surrey school district’s 2025-26 capital plan submission requested over $5 billion in capital funding. They will get 19 additional projects, 26 new schools, two seismic upgrades and 24 site acquisitions.

[3:30 p.m.]

Budget 2025-26 does not provide any new funding for major capital projects, but existing projects with significant cash flows will continue over the next three years, including Fleetwood Park Secondary, an addition; Clayton Heights Secondary, an addition; and Grandview Heights, an addition that has not yet been announced.

The health authority. Surrey, of course, is building a brand-new hospital, and that is going to continue. Existing projects with significant cash flows over the next three years include the Surrey Memorial Priority Actions Projects, the renal hemodialysis centre, MRI expansion and others. Of course, as I mentioned, the new Surrey hospital and B.C. cancer centre.

The Road to Recovery funding envelope The site acquisition for that is underway. And a secure care funding envelope. Site purchases there are complete, and our business planning is underway.

In post-secondary, Surrey has been underserved for years. We are continuing in this budget with student housing and dining at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the interim School of Medicine at Simon Fraser University and a permanent school of medicine at Simon Fraser University.

I think it’s important, in ending, that we look at this budget as it is meant to be. It is an aspirational budget that looks forward. I know that the future is bright. I know that if we continue along the course that has been set for us, that future will continue.

Bruce Banman: It is always an honour and pleasure to speak to the chamber, albeit in this case, remotely.

I, too, would like to take a moment to express my condolences and heartfelt support for those in Tumbler Ridge right now and throughout the province and to thank the first responders, teachers and individuals that sprang to help when Tumbler Ridge went through that horrific time. My heart just goes out to all of them.

I would like to talk about this current budget. There’s not a lot of good news here. Quite frankly, I was listening to the member prior speak about it, and I’m wondering if we’re even reading the same budget. There’s not a lot to cheer about in this.

I think that Marc Lee, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives senior economist, kind of puts it best when he says, with regards to this budget, that they definitely seem to manage to, and I will use the word, “tick off” everybody. I would say that that’s pretty accurate.

This budget, in my opinion and in the opinion of many, is an assault on seniors. It’s an assault on working families, especially the working poor. It’s definitely an assault on small businesses; children, especially those with autism; women; and, as I mentioned, the working poor.

I think it’s worth noting that, to begin with, when this government inherited the finances of this fine province, they had a $6 billion surplus. They have managed to blow that, and we are now looking at a $13 billion deficit. Unlike the Olympics, this is not a record to be proud of, not in any way, shape or form.

[3:35 p.m.]

Now we are looking at, in addition to a record deficit…. I think a lot of people at home don’t really, perhaps, comprehend that there is the deficit of this year’s budget. To put that in perspective for them, I would say it’s like a monthly budget.

When you get hit with or mismanage your money, you end up with a monthly shortfall. Then that shortfall continues into the next month if you don’t make accommodations for it and adjust for it. Then it adds up until you end up with, at the end of the year, a huge debt. Not just a deficit for the month, but you end up with a debt.

We’re now looking at a record debt that’s projected to reach $182 billion this year alone, by the end of this year. It’s tripled over the last decade. It has reached the point where the interest alone….

Governments are like anyone else. It’s like if you go into a…. If you have misspent your own household budget, if you’re lucky, you have either a credit card or a line of credit that you can dip into, or you have saved money. As I said, this government actually had saved money, where they were going to have a $6 billion surplus. They managed to blow through that.

What happens, though, when that debt starts to accumulate and accumulate, it’s literally like having a credit card where all you can do is just pay the interest on it. We’re not talking about paying the actual principal that has been borrowed. We’re now looking at….

The interest alone is counted at almost $9 billion, and that works out to $1,500 per British Columbian by 2028-29, which is up from $532 that every British Columbian owned back in 2016 and ’17.

Now, it would be one thing…. Sometimes there’s that old saying that you’ve got to spend money in order to make money. In this case, in government’s case, we’ve got to spend money — the government will tell you — in order to make things better. I just heard the last speaker talk about how much better things are. No, they’re not. I honestly don’t know what he was reading from and what he was using.

Let’s go over the things that matter to British Columbians.

Crime is worse. We see it every day, be it random violence attacks, repeat violent offenders, the crime we see on our streets. As a matter of fact, it’s at the point where our downtowns are decaying.

I spoke to someone that came back to Victoria and had not been here for ten years. Someone took them to Pandora, and they broke into tears and cried because they did not recognize the city that they’d left. They were so shocked that they broke into tears. That, sadly, is not unique to Pandora. You can see that in every city, virtually, in British Columbia. Some have, in fact, declared a state of emergency. It was so bad.

When things start to get bad, what do people do? Well, if they can, they look for somewhere else to go. They leave, and that’s exactly what’s happening. Our population is now declining. When people leave to look for a better future…. It’s mainly our youth that are leaving, which are our future — everything from doctors to engineers to plumbers to bus drivers. That is our future, our youth.

When people start to leave, your economy then starts to decay even faster. And exactly what would happen is…. Jobs are disappearing. When the jobs start to disappear and the people start to disappear, so do those that are looking to invest.

[3:40 p.m.]

Why would you open up a business when businesses are closing down, and you start to see more and more and more vacant spaces in your downtown cores?

Investment is also fleeing, and not just in businesses. Investment, as we have seen, is leaving our forest industry. It is not coming to the mining industry. In fact, there are 24 mines that want to open up today in British Columbia but can’t because they’re mired in red tape, and it takes on average 15 to sometimes 20 years for a new mine to open up. That works into billions of dollars of revenue not only in the general economy but in direct revenue and royalties into the provincial government to actually help with the very deficit.

I’d have to ask: “Does this budget actually improve the lives of British Columbians?” It’s certainly not making life more affordable in Maple Ridge. It’s not making my constituents in Abbotsford feel safer, and it’s actually not making them safer. It certainly doesn’t make schools in Surrey. It doesn’t solve the horrible issues with regards to portables and stacking portables that we have in Surrey. Surrey, once yet again, gets treated like second class.

This budget is a disaster. You cannot continue to spend more money than you have. You cannot continue to treat businesses and add expense after expense on them and then expect them either to stay open or find other places to go do business.

I talked to a lot of businesses. Many of them have an exit plan because they have to. When I talk to most of them, they say to me: “You know, Bruce, I stay here because this is my home. I was born here,” or “I immigrated here. I have sentimental reasons as to why I stay here because I love it so.” But sadly, now they’re looking at: “I’m going to be forced to move if I am to continue to do business at all.”

This is what happens when you spend money as if it doesn’t matter. A lot of people think that all governments can just print more money. Well, no, you can’t. You can’t just continue to spend more money than you have and expect it to end well. It does not end well ever.

If you listen to those within the financial industry, let me give you a couple of quotes. “It’s another fiscal disaster for British Columbia,” says Tegan Hill, who’s the director of B.C. policy studies for business in Vancouver. “The cost alone to service the debt is $9 billion. How on earth is any credit rating agency going to look at this and not do another downgrade to British Columbia?” That comes from Bridgitte Anderson, from GVBOT’s CEO.

Let me expand on that for a minute. What Bridgitte is saying is, and I don’t think that people truly understand the significance of this, governments get a really good rate to borrow money. Why? Well, because they can tax people, and they have a way of getting their money.

It’s not like if you sell a car and someone stops making the payments on the car. You’ve now got to go and try and find that car, and you hope that you can find it and recover your loss. Governments can just continue to tax people more, so those that loan money have a tendency to look upon them favourably and give them a better rate than what I can go get to go buy a car or a house, as an example.

[3:45 p.m.]

However, there is an interest rate that has to be paid, and British Columbia has already had its credit rating downgraded, and that means that the interest rate goes up. For those of you, it would be the difference between a line of credit, which would be prime plus 2, let’s say, or prime plus 3, versus a credit card, which would be up in much, much higher interest rates. What that means is that you have less money because you’re now paying more interest. You have less money to actually spend on the things you need, like health care.

One of my colleagues talked about this, and the NDP are doing their best to spin it, because all they got right now is spin, because they’re out of gas when it comes to this budget. What my colleague was saying is when the interest rates start going up, when you lose your credit rate going down, when the third most expensive thing is paying interest only on the debt, it’s only a matter of time until all of the ministries take the brunt of that mismanagement of our money.

It means that we are now spending more on paying interest than we are in a household. It’s like you’re spending more on interest than you are to buy groceries or keep the lights on. You can’t just keep getting more and more credit cards. Sooner or later, somebody comes knocking on the door and says, “Give me the keys to the house. You can no longer afford to live here,” because you don’t have the money to pay the basics anymore because you’re just paying interest.

This is where the mismanagement of this NDP government has put British Columbians. We’re now at the point where the interest costs more money than the multitudes of ministries that we have in this government. There are only three that actually require more money than the interest. If the interest continues to go up, you can’t just say: “No, let’s make a deal.” Sooner and later, it’s going to be No. 2, and then it’ll be No. 1. Everything else suffers as a result of that.

The debt-servicing charges cost B.C. taxpayers $24 million a day. If the credit rating goes up, and the more you borrow, that number is going to rise. So $24 million a day.

You wonder why you got potholes in your roads? Because $24 million a day goes to interest. You wonder why your kids are stuck in portables? Because $24 million a day goes into interest. You wonder why the tunnel hasn’t been built or a bridge hasn’t been built or why we can’t afford a whole bunch of other stuff? It’s because $24 million a day is being spent on interest. When this government inherited a $6 million surplus in the budget, we were on the right direction. Sadly, we are no longer there.

There has been a 90 percent increase in spending over the last decade. It’s not like money went up 90 percent. There’s been a 90 percent increase in what we spent over the last decade. Where does it start to come home? Well, if you are an employee of the government, 15,000 of you are going to lose your jobs as a result of this budget. That can’t be good news. The interest payments are now the third-highest expenditure for government, and as a result, people that work for the public sector are going to start to lose their jobs.

Also buried in this budget, I have to point out, is a Merit Commissioner that quietly, secretly, disappeared. Only in NDP la-la land can this happen. On the same day that this Finance Minister announces quietly, buried in all of the fine print, that the Merit Commissioner is going to be decommissioned — fired, in other words — the committee makes an announcement that they recommend that the Merit Commissioner should receive payments for the next three years — in other words, be kept on the budget. Left hand and right hand not really talking to one another, it would appear. It’s comical, but it’s not funny. It’s sad.

[3:50 p.m.]

The Merit Commissioner is there to make sure that insiders aren’t hired. I can tell you what. If the Conservative government were to try and pull this off, and we will become government, the NDP would be screaming at the top of their lungs of how rotten this is because we’re going to hire nothing but insiders. Yet when they do it, I guess, “Do as I say, not as I do” seems to be the rule of the day.

Then they wonder why they are continually, by journalists, announced that they’re the most secretive government in Canada. Well, it’s because they do sneaky stuff like this. Again, if things were getting better, that would be one thing. But they’re not. Affordability is not getting any better under this government. People are working harder and harder, but they don’t feel like they’re getting further ahead.

Families are stretched by the cost of living. You know who said that? It was the Minister of Finance, the one that’s responsible for this mess. She is the one. Working families are having to work harder, they don’t feel like they’re getting further ahead, and they’re being stretched by the cost of living. It lies in her lap — the NDP government and her.

How did they respond? Here’s the problem. When you spend more than you have, and the people start to flee, and investment starts to flee, what happens to the economy? The economy starts to shrink, and it gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Yet your interest payments remain the same. So now the only solution that we have is to dig our hands deeper into everyday, hard-working British Columbians’ pockets. That’s exactly what this government has done.

There is a $1.1 billion tax increase on working families — $1.1 billion. There’s a $500 million provincial tax increase with those in the lowest income tax bracket. If you are in the lowest income tax bracket, on minimum wage, the government just put an extra half-percent on your taxes that you are not going to be able to spend. Like buying groceries wasn’t bad enough. At the end of the month, you just got a half-percent pay cut.

Then it’s expected that another $600 million will happen because they…. The cost of living goes up, so it’s not like they raised the tax bracket with the cost of living. No, no, no. No, we can’t do that, because we need to somehow dig our hands deeper and deeper because of our financial mismanagement, because of the NDP. So they froze it. Well, that means that as inflation goes up, and your pay rate goes up, you’re going to pay more and more as well.

You know, this government is great at using things to get people to vote for them, like — oh, I don’t know — say, a $400 rent rebate that, at the end of the day, by the time you calculated all the deductions, nobody really got. They also promised $1,000 for a grocery rebate as a tax deduction for British Columbians. They got that. So instead, what do you get? No you’re not getting your rent rebate or your grocery rebate. You’re getting a tax hike, because they’re also now going to expand the PST, the provincial sales tax.

What are they going to do? Well, if you’re at the point where you need to make your own clothes, you’re going to have to pay PST on that. For those that can’t afford to buy a new pair of shoes and are going to have their old ones repaired, you’re going to have that. You might as well get ready. It’s a good thing that most people are not using cable anymore, I guess, because there’s going to be a tax on that as well. That will predominantly hurt seniors.

If you have a land line — in parts of this province, cell phones do not work — you’re going to have to pay PST on that. If you are a small business that is in construction, you’re going to have to pay it on engineering fees. There’s a whole host. If you’re a small business and you’re using a bookkeeper…. Well, you’ll now have to do that. That’s another extra tax on that.

[3:55 p.m.]

None of this is good. This government has just lost total common sense and touch with common, everyday, hard-working British Columbians.

But some of the most insidious is what they’re doing to our seniors. Seniors, if you are living in your home…. And this government…. There is no place in long-term-care facilities because they’re shutting those all down, and there are six long-term-care delays when we really need them. There’s a care delay in Abbotsford, Campbell River, Chilliwack, Cottonwood, Delta, Fort St. John, Squamish. The list goes on. Now you’re forced to stay in your home, but, hey, the good news is we’ll let you defer your taxes.

A lot of people signed up for this, and now this government says: “Oh, you guys are cheating. You’re borrowing…. You’re using that money to make more money over here, so we can’t have that. No, no, no. You guys are all a bunch of scam artists.” It must be nice to be a senior being called a scam artist, basically.

What do they do? You could defer your property taxes, and you paid prime minus 2. Well, this government said, “No, no, no. Enough of that. We’re going to make them do prime plus 2,” which is a 4 percent increase. So it went up to 6.9 percent, and they’re going to compound the interest. We’re talking about thousands and thousands of dollars’ difference for some seniors. It’s going to force them out of their home. Seeing as how there are no long-term-care facilities for them, I don’t know where they’re going to land.

Everywhere you turn on this…. Small businesses, which are predominantly the backbone of our economy…. Surprisingly, it may come to interest some of those…. Women are the ones that are now opening up the most small businesses. Everything is going to be harder on small businesses. It’s a full frontal attack on women entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Nearly two-thirds of B.C. business owners tell us now they would not recommend starting up a business today in British Columbia. That comes from Ryan Mitton from CFIB. He’s the director of legislative affairs for B.C.

We know when I go into the…. I could go on and on. With natural resources, there are cuts to that — $400 million from the Forests budget. They promised us 15,000 forestry jobs in 2022, yet they lost 30,000. The NDP have no plan for the forestry. There are just endless reviews. Even after a forest fire, they can’t get out of their own way so that forestry companies can get in there and harvest this valuable timber before it rots. They don’t know how to do it. They’re incompetent when it comes to this.

We’ve got one of…. I don’t know what the Forests Minister does other than go around and take photo ops and brag about what he’s getting done and blame it all on Trump, but he can’t seem to get any jobs going in the forestry sector.

In agriculture, the backbone of mine, there’s actually going to be a $16 million cut to agriculture between 2025-26 and ’26-27. As a matter of fact, agriculture…. I have a report here from the B.C. Agriculture Council, and they say “the budget is disappointing.” B.C. Agriculture’s Jennifer Woike: “British Columbia currently ranks last among other provinces in operational funding for agriculture.”

Here where we’re trying…. They talk a big talk about Trump, but when it comes to our own food security, they’re actually cutting it. We are now on a five-year rolling average. B.C. is last place, at 3.4 percent, compared to other provinces for funding agriculture. We’d have to raise our spending 25 percent to catch up with New Brunswick, which is currently in ninth place.

This is a bad budget. It helps no one. It hurts small families. It hurts seniors. It hurts the poor. It hurts those with mental illness. It hurts those trying to get into a hospital. It hurts cities. It helps absolutely no one. This government, this NDP government, should hang its head in shame, in absolute shame, for having the audacity to present a budget as bad as this to this House.

[4:00 p.m.]

It is reflective of a government that has lost its way. It is filled with ideology instead of doing the job of actually making lives better for British Columbians.

If their goal was to destroy the economy and cause our youth to leave, well, hands off; consider it a job well done because that’s what you’ve accomplished. This budget is a slap in the face to every single British Columbian — those that are still here. I don’t imagine the trend of people leaving this province is going to turn around with a budget that is this bad, that is this ill-thought-out and that punishes the working poor. Shame on them. Shame on them.

I don’t know how they can look at themselves, knowing that they’re reaching into the pockets of seniors, people on minimum wage, and autistic children that are just trying to find their way in life.

This budget helps no one. It is no wonder it got a D for its report card by the Vancouver Board of Trade. It is beyond reprehensible. We deserve much, much better than this. We really do.

With that, I will conclude my remarks, and I will urge the government to do better. Families are depending on us. Our economy is depending on this. Everyone’s depending on this. It’s time that it straightened up and actually fixed things instead of making them worse.

George Chow: I rise to speak in support of Budget 2026.

I’d also like to acknowledge the lək̓ʷəŋən People, the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, upon whose territory we are gathered today, and to thank them for sharing these lands.

Like my colleagues who have spoken before, my heart goes out to everyone in Tumbler Ridge, especially those families who have lost their loved ones. My thoughts are with the entire community that has experienced such devastating tragedies. We are grateful to the police and the school staff who acted quickly to protect students the best they could.

About Budget 2026. In a world of uncertainty now, Budget 2026 makes careful choices to protect what matters most and to secure B.C.’s future. For this, I’d like to thank the Minister of Finance for her diligent and hard work in Budget 2026. It’s not an easy task.

Over the last eight years, we have built the foundation for a strong province. Hospitals, schools, roads, transit, housing and clean electricity are being delivered to support communities and good jobs across British Columbia. We made these investments while guiding people and businesses through extraordinary challenges: a global pandemic, devastating floods and wildfires and now direct attack on our economy and sovereignty by our neighbour to the south.

We entered this period from a position of strength, though. Our economy stayed resilient with a low debt-to-GDP ratio that gave B.C. the capacity to respond when it mattered most.

That work is making a difference. Major job-creating projects are moving forward. More family doctors are practising in B.C. than ever before. Rents and prices are coming down from their peaks. Everyday costs for British Columbians are eased through the B.C. family benefit, more affordable child care and lower car insurance rates. This budget defends those gains.

We are also facing a tough reality ahead. Global uncertainty is slowing growth everywhere. High costs, global instability and volatile commodity prices are putting pressure on public finances. We have to be realistic and disciplined about the choices ahead.

[4:05 p.m.]

Budget 2026 makes disciplined choices to protect what matters most. Our priorities are clear: protecting core public services like health care and education; keeping B.C. to be one of the lowest-taxed provinces for working families; and reducing the deficit over time, doing it responsibly.

To achieve this, we are taking three key steps. Make the public sector smaller and more efficient, so that more dollars reach the front lines. Pace infrastructure projects carefully, delivering them efficiently without driving up costs. And generate new revenue, while taking action to grow the economy and secure the long-term impact of major projects.

At the same time, we continue to invest in B.C.’s future, doubling trades training, supporting major job-creating projects, and ensuring families and communities benefit from what we have built.

Housing has always been a top priority for our government, and we have been very clear about that. Over the past eight years, we have introduced a number of incentives to build housing, and we’ll continue to address the housing crisis in B.C.

Through Budget 2026, our government is adjusting the pace of some housing investments. This includes reallocating nearly $1.4 billion across the fiscal plan, while maintaining government’s overall unit targets over a longer period of time.

Of this, government is reinvesting over $900 million to support demand for existing housing services and programs, including increased funding for non-profit housing operators, assisted-living supports for seniors and people with disabilities, and supporting thousands of new below-market homes through the attainable housing initiative partnership with the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Nations.

Even as the pace of housing investment is being adjusted, capital investment in housing remains at a historically high level. We’re still investing heavily in new housing and increasing funding for existing housing operations. In fact, Budget 2026 housing investments are nearly five times what they were in 2016, when the opposition was in power. This demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the homes people need.

The facts are that since 2017, the province has delivered, or is in the process of delivering, more than 95,000 homes in communities throughout B.C. For example, in my riding of Vancouver-Fraserview, we have completed 600 new housing units, with 272 units that are ongoing. Because of the new supply — not just because of that, of course — the average asking rent has fallen 4.7 percent, compared to this time last year.

We are also taking care of renters. Since 2017, when we took power, the province has taken other actions to help strengthen supports for renters, with the renters tax credit, which provides $400 per year to low- and moderate-income renters, individuals and families; and tying the annual allowable rent increase to inflation, at 2.3 percent for this year, 2026, which is down from last year’s allowable increase of 3 percent. Increasing rental supply through actions like this will help rein in the rents.

Also, we did this by implementing the speculation and vacancy tax — which is a tax to encourage people renting out their homes; it’s not to punish property owners — protecting tenants by deterring and preventing bad-faith evictions and reducing the tenancy-dispute hearing wait times by two-thirds in the last three years.

Our actions strike a balance between protecting renters from increased living costs and ensuring that landlords can confidently rent their units, keeping rental units on the market for years to come.

[4:10 p.m.]

We also devote a lot of effort in terms of seniors care. My riding of Vancouver-Fraserview has the highest number of seniors living in the city of Vancouver. Seniors, of course, comprise 20 percent of our population in B.C. They helped build B.C. to what it is today, so it’s certainly important that we look after our seniors.

We are continuing to invest in services and supports for seniors through Budget 2026 and bringing more than 5,000 care home workers under the public sector collective agreement. This way, strengthening the workforce and promoting high-quality and reliable care for seniors…. Because it’s not just bricks and mortar that help seniors; it’s actually the people who take care of them. And in order to achieve the standard that we set out, which is 3.36 hours per person per week, we need to have care workers with the skill and the commitment to their job.

We have also completed five long-term-care facilities in communities across B.C., in Nanaimo, Colwood, Vancouver, Richmond and Cranbrook. And we have devoted $35 million over three years for Independent Living British Columbia. This funding will continue to support rental housing and services to low- and moderate-income seniors and people with disabilities who require some assistance to live independently.

We have secured $447 million from the federal government to support health care for seniors including treating complex conditions outside of hospitals and improving the quality and safety of long-term-care facilities. The province is committed to expanding long-term care availability to meet the needs of the aging population. In fact, our capital plan maintains construction of over 1,100 long-term-care beds, an important first step in addressing the current need, but we also must build long-term-care beds in a financially sustainable manner.

As you have heard today during question period, the Minister for Infrastructure has been reviewing long-term-care construction and exploring options to ensure that we are best-positioned to meet the needs of B.C.’s seniors and their families. In order to do that, I think….

As an engineer, I’m keenly aware that our construction industry is very important to the economy of British Columbia. It comprises 15 to 20 percent of our GDP. We have been devoting a lot of effort into skills training in this budget so that we could not only build housing, and also, we could build major projects, which is important for trade diversification and bringing in revenue for the province.

Budget 2026 was created at the time of heightened economic risk with global markets and trade relationship changing, and we must chart a path forward to secure our economic future. The landmark investment in trades training ensures B.C. has a skilled workforce needed to deliver on our economic priorities from housing and infrastructure to clean energy and emerging technologies.

Our effort to increase apprenticeships is working. In 2024-25 nearly 17,000 people registered as apprentices, bringing the total number of apprentices in B.C. to nearly 50,000, the highest in our province’s history. And in trades training, we are working with SkilledTradesBC and B.C. Building Trades, as well as post-secondary institutions, industry and trainers to strengthen the trade system by expanding access to trades training and helping employers access the skill force they need.

Increasing per-seat funding to stabilize the trades-training system, reducing long wait-lists for critical industrial trade, ensuring fast access to training, continuing to implement skilled trades certification, beginning with crane operators — that’s a focus of a lot of our industrial safety program, the crane operators — and ensuring workers can move easily between the industry as the opportunity evolves.

[4:15 p.m.]

You see that we are working very hard with this B.C. Budget 2026, and it’s not an easy task, like I said. It’s serious work and in serious times. We are focused on what matters most, protecting services, keeping taxes low for working families and strengthening B.C. finances for the long term.

Donegal Wilson: I rise here today as the MLA for Boundary-Similkameen. It is truly a privilege to represent the people of my region here in this House.

It has been shocking to me that this side of the House and that side of the House seem to be reading a completely different document throughout this whole thing. I’m kind of astonished by it.

The people in my region work hard, we care deeply about our communities, and we simply want a government that is responsible with both their trust and their tax dollars.

This is my second year delivering a response speech in this House. I’ll be candid. It is disheartening to stand here again reviewing a budget that does not reflect the needs and realities of the people of Boundary-Similkameen.

Over and over again, I hear the same thing. People have lost faith in their government and its ability to navigate the challenges ahead. They are tired of political spin. They are tired of talking points. They are tired of feeling like no one is listening, and I agree. So my remarks today are not about theatrics; they are about accountability. My job as opposition is to examine the numbers, examine the outcomes and hold this government to account.

On budget day, I sat in this chamber and listened to the Minister of Finance take victory lap after victory lap about the hard work she had done. Somehow, in 45 minutes, she failed to acknowledge the elephant in the room — that this budget added more than $13 billion in new operating deficit to our books for British Columbia. If that is not spin, I don’t know what is.

Since this budget was introduced, my office has been flooded with emails and phone calls. These are not angry calls. These are worried calls. They’re fearful calls. They’re people that are concerned about their future. People are afraid because they see climbing debt, and they don’t see a clear plan to turn the corner, and this document does not have it. They hear the messaging, but when they see the numbers, the two don’t match.

For weeks, British Columbians were told that tough decisions were coming, that hard choices would be made, that fiscal discipline would be restored, and then this budget arrives with a projected deficit of over $13.3 billion for this fiscal year coming up.

But that deficit number alone doesn’t tell the full story. People keep asking me why the numbers don’t add up. How does a $13.3 billion deficit translate into roughly $26 billion in debt in a single year? The answer is this for my constituents: the province reports capital spending separately from operating spending.

Yes, we have roughly $13.3 billion in operating deficit, but we also have another $13 billion in capital borrowing that we’re adding to our debt, meaning that this year alone, we’re adding more than $26 billion to our debt. Over the three-year forecast period, this government’s taxpayer-supported debt climbs to over $189 billion, an increase of approximately $72.5 billion in just three years. That is the credit card we are building.

What makes it more concerning is that it is accumulating with no plan forward. Even by ’28-29, the deficit remains projected at approximately $11.5 billion for British Columbians, still billions more than where we stand today, which was a record deficit. It’s not this House that will ultimately carry it. It is the generations to come. This is the legacy we are leaving — a massive credit card bill.

In our households and our businesses, we know that debt has a cost. In the government’s own financial forecast, interest is projected at almost $6.4 billion this year, an increase of roughly $1.3 billion in one year alone. That now represents 6.2 cents of every dollar collected by the province, and by ’28-29, 8.2 cents of every dollar will go to our debt. At the same time, our debt-to-GDP ratio approaches 40 percent.

That is not insignificant. That level of debt exposure increases the risk of credit downgrades, and when that happens, borrowing costs will increase further.

[4:20 p.m.]

We understand this at home. We understand that in our business. When your debt outpaces your income, lenders view you as a higher risk. The higher the risk, the higher the interest rate. The higher the interest rate, the harder it becomes to get ahead. It becomes a self-fulfilling cycle, and these forecasts do not include the possible downgrades on our credit rating.

And that $6.4 billion in interest payments? That money doesn’t build a hospital. It doesn’t open an emergency room. It doesn’t create new long-term-care beds. It does not fix the riverbank in the Similkameen. It does not upgrade Highway 3. It does not strengthen the wildfire resiliency of our communities. It simply services debt.

To the people of Boundary-Similkameen, I’m sorry, but this budget does, in fact, have none of these things for us. No identified investments in schools, nothing for our hospitals, no new long-term-care beds, no water mitigation measures and no highway upgrades coming for Highway 3.

Let me put that into perspective in another way. If we combine the operating budgets of the Ministries of Agriculture, Forests, Mining, Water and Land, Housing and Municipal Affairs, Emergency Management, Environment and Parks, Jobs, Tourism, Labour, Energy, the Attorney General, Citizens’ Services, Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Infrastructure and Transportation — 16 ministries responsible for economic development, housing and infrastructure, resource management, rural support, environmental protections and disaster resilience across our province — their total combined operating budget is just over $6.2 billion, not even our interest payment, for those 16 ministries.

Imagine what even a portion of that $6 billion could do for my region. We could repair the Kettle Valley Rail Trail in Princeton. It has recently been announced that we are losing the section between Princeton and Brookmere, and the province has approved $20 million to deactivate the trail and lose that economic driver for the community of Princeton and Tulameen at the same time where we’re supposed to be pivoting into new tourism opportunities, away from being dependent on the resource sector. At the same time, we are not going to invest in that recreational infrastructure.

In Princeton and Tulameen we could fix our water mitigation. All the residents sat there in December in our flood event and watched the rivers rise. We have no dikes. All we’ve got is $100,000 to study the problem. We need to get them fixed. Tulameen’s dike is considered orphaned. Nobody is responsible. Nobody can do any work. The whole community is at risk, and that lies with this province.

Osoyoos needs $73 million for a water treatment facility so that they don’t have to drink brown bathwater in their sinks. Oliver needs repairs to their agricultural ditch. It is the primary water service for the community of Oliver. Kaleden needs a water treatment centre to bring their water up to the new standards.

Keremeos needs a new well. Hedley needs a new well. The new health standard has lowered the thresholds for arsenic. Their well is now exceeding the thresholds, and they have water that is impotable to drink. In Grand Forks, we have many projects that could be funded with just that money.

This is the lost opportunity that our cost of borrowing is creating, without a plan to get out. Debt is now one of the largest line items in the provincial budget. If debt servicing was a ministry, it would be the third-largest ministry in British Columbia. Let that sink in. The third-largest ministry. Only Health and Education would be above them. To me, that is not fiscal strength. This is a warning signal.

To further illustrate the imbalance in this budget, I will quote directly from Budget ’26, page 29, where it says: “Over the past ten years, public sector job growth has increased by over 40 percent, including more than 80,000 FTEs since 2020.” That’s 80,000 new people in the public service. “This has significantly outpaced economic growth and general population growth.”

It took them five years to understand that? It’s mind-boggling to me that the plan calls for reducing the workforce by 15,000 workers over the next three years while simultaneously claiming that front-line workers and service delivery will be protected. So where were the 15,000 workers? If they’re not in the front line and service delivery and we’re able to eliminate those positions without affecting front-line services, what are we paying for?

[4:25 p.m.]

We have to conclude that those 15,000 positions were either not needed or not delivering front-line services.

I also am a little skeptical about the reductions occurring at all, when only 7 percent are projected in the current upcoming fiscal year, 28 percent the next year. We’re going to do 65 percent of that workforce reduction in ’28-29, an election year. I highly doubt that the cuts are going to happen in ’28-29.

This is a government that has not consistently kept its promises. British Columbians will remember the $1,000 grocery rebate that was promised during the election and then not delivered.

Last week I could hear accountants across the province collectively yelling at their TV screens, not only because 7 percent PST has now been added to their services. But when they heard the minister stand in this House and claim this is a balanced budget, I could hear them yelling. That is not the math I was taught in school, and no business or municipality or school board would consider a $13.3 billion debt a balanced budget. In fact, many of those cannot even deliver a deficit budget.

[Mable Elmore in the chair.]

I can tell you the people of Boundary-Similkameen disagree that that is a balanced budget. Over the last 15 months, I have met with business owners, farmers, foresters, health care workers, municipal leaders and families across my riding. There is not one sector that feels stable and supported.

The common themes are clear: bureaucracy that slows investment, goalposts that move, permits delayed, banks tightening lending because confidence is down, people unsure if they truly even own the land they live on and industries planning for survival instead of expansion. Those are not indicators of an economy on the verge of thriving. This budget reflects an attempt to manage decline, not reverse it.

The government speaks of protecting health and education. I agree that these are core values of British Columbians. But status quo funding only works if the system is stable today. In Boundary-Similkameen, it is not stable today.

In Grand Forks, the community took on the capital and operation of its doctors clinic just to keep it open. Now the local tax dollars meant for roads, recreation and municipal services are redirected to cover that provincial shortfall.

In Keremeos, our emergency room is open from nine to five on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That is 24 hours a week — not a day; 24 hours a week. It has been 1,575 days since I’ve had overnight emergency coverage in Keremeos. That is ludicrous. And even with those limited hours, we only have one ambulance on shift frequently.

This past weekend Princeton’s emergency room was also closed, and patients were redirected to Oliver. Princeton participates in a virtual physician emergency coverage pilot program, yet even with that virtual coverage in place, it could not maintain service. With Keremeos also closed, residents were sent to Oliver, another emergency room struggling to stay open.

For residents of Princeton, for those in the room, Oliver is an hour and a half away from Princeton on winter roads that frequently have black ice along the river between Princeton and Hedley.

We have other communities in my riding, like Oliver, that are exploring temporary housing options to recruit doctors — again, another cost borne by the municipality. This is not a failure of doctors, nurses, paramedics or front-line workers. They are doing everything they can to work within a broken system. They are stretched beyond thin. But while this budget protects the status quo, it does not provide that meaningful shift in trajectory that rural health care requires.

I’m going to switch to talk a little bit about long-term care. We know British Columbians need 16,000 additional beds by 2036. Yet families in my riding are waiting. They’re waiting in hallways and hospitals. They’re waiting in homes for months.

In my own circle of friends, I have a friend who has a spouse who is in Princeton, another friend whose mother is in Oliver and another friend whose father is in Kelowna. Those are hours of driving, spouses left alone, families rearranging their lives to make sure those loved ones feel loved and supported, creating a lot of emotional and financial strain. There’s nowhere in my community for them to go.

[4:30 p.m.]

At the same time, seniors aging in place now face property tax deferment interest at prime plus 2 percent. Compounded monthly, that is a 4 percent increase in this budget. Higher borrowing costs mean less money available for their care, because they are deferring that until they sell their houses to pay for their long-term care. That money is going to come out of that budget they have available when they need to get that care. This is more pressure on a system that has nowhere for them to go besides stay at home.

I do want to turn to the Premier’s message. The Premier has repeatedly stated that the solution is to get the economy going. I agree. We need to get it going, but the numbers must match the rhetoric. This is not a budget that shows the economy is going. It doesn’t show a forecast of significant growth in the next three years.

The government’s own forecast shows real GDP growth of 1.3 percent in 2026, rising to 1.8 percent and then 1.9 percent in subsequent years. Even those figures are accompanied by cautionary notes that global things could impact those. That is very modest growth at the best, and it is not an economy that we are investing in to get going.

In forestry, the words and the numbers do not align. Short-term stumpage deferrals are not reform. They are not the fibre certainty that the sector is looking for. They are not tenure modernization. They are not long-term stability. They move debt from one column to another, 11 months down the road. It does not change the profitability of their company today.

When Interfor in Grand Forks curtailed their operations last fall, it had impacts everywhere in the community. It was the grocery store, the mechanic, the hockey association, the local hairdresser. The municipality was even planning how their taxes were going to be impacted by this change.

Thankfully, the mill was able to open on one shift, and they’re working to try to keep that shift going. They were looking to this budget for a clear plan that was going to restore prosperity to them. Instead, they see $5 million to transition workers out of the forestry sector. We see declining stumpage fees in revenue — significant declines, may I add. This budget does not provide them the future that they were looking for. A small amount of transition funding does not replace an industry.

We have the ability to get out of the way and allow these businesses to be successful in rural B.C. That $5 million will not sustain one mill town that loses their mill, let alone address the thousands of forestry jobs that have been lost and the three mills that have closed just recently in the last three months.

This government speaks frequently about climate change and extreme weather events, yet the emergency management and climate change budget remains stagnant. It is clear that we are not planning for that future where we know these events are going to happen.

In Tulameen, again, I will bring up that we have an orphan dike where we cannot protect the community and nobody is authorized to do work on it. The FireSmart programming appears to be gone. I am looking forward to estimates to have a good conversation about that.

What this means is simple. People in Tulameen, Princeton and Keremeos will continue watching the river every time rain is forecast. We have freshet coming. The event in December did significant damage to the dikes in Tulameen. We have not been able to repair them or have any funding or permissions to repair them.

That freshet creates a real urgency for the community of Tulameen, but for whatever reason, we’re going to continue to study it, we’re going to do engineering and we’re going to discuss it, but we’re not going to implement those changes.

We also used to maintain those riverbeds. We used to dig them out, dredge them out, so that we could make dikes not quite as high. We didn’t have to have as much flood mitigation measures. We no longer do that. We need to figure out how to protect our communities and what is more important.

I know my communities don’t have the ability to tax themselves under these multi-million-dollar mitigation needs. The community of Princeton will not be able to afford the $63 million they need to fix their water problems in Princeton. They need a partner. They need implementation. They need certainty. Every time I bring it forward to this government, all I hear is that the federal government hasn’t come to the table. I appreciate that, but I think this budget could have indicated that we want them to come to the table and worked on that.

[4:35 p.m.]

British Columbia should be the richest province in Canada. We have the resources. We have the people. We have the geography. We have the world-class tourism. But prosperity does not happen by accident. It requires planning. It requires discipline. It requires coordination across ministries.

My riding is not asking for anything special. My riding is asking for alignment. They’re asking for prevention instead of reaction. Don’t wait until the river is bursting the banks to run out there and do the work. We’re asking for implementation instead of endlessly studying the problems and doing forestry reviews, water mitigation studies. Do something. We need work. We need fiscal discipline instead of mounting debt.

I have invested the majority of my time since coming into this role educating myself — boots on the ground, kitchen tables, small businesses, stakeholder meetings, touring mills, mines, woodlots, wildlife federation meetings, everything I can find to educate myself on what we need to make B.C. better. I need to understand the barriers, I need to understand the risks, and I need to understand the opportunities. I believe this government isn’t doing that boots-on-the-ground work.

This budget is disconnected from what’s happening on the ground in British Columbia. The last speaker spoke about how life was more affordable. Well, it’s not more affordable in the Boundary-Similkameen. I can assure you the people of Boundary-Similkameen don’t feel supported.

I’ve done this work because when we form government, I want to be ready. And we will form government. We are going to be ready with a plan. We’re going to be ready with relationships and partnerships. We’re going to be ready with a path to prosperity that restores confidence, stabilizes our sectors and ensures that British Columbia can deliver the services its people deserve. This is the difference between rhetoric and readiness. That is why this budget falls short.

For me, I will not support a budget that creates generational debt with no plan to turn the tide. This is not the legacy that I want to leave for future British Columbians. This credit card debt that we are accumulating is going to be impossible, almost, to undo, and the trajectory we’re on is only going to get worse.

This is not the legacy I want to leave for future generations, and I hope that this government rethinks their Budget 2026 and refocuses their priorities.

Deputy Speaker: Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.

Hon. Spencer Chandra Herbert: Thank you, hon. Speaker. Well, it’s good to be here. It’s good to see you. It’s good to see colleagues of all political stripes here today. We’re here talking about the budget.

I’m glad to be here on the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking Peoples, the Songhees and the Esquimalt. I want to acknowledge the good work of Chief Sam and Chief Thomas and their councils who work hard to represent their peoples.

I also want to thank the good people of Victoria who have us here, and indeed all British Columbians who have tuned in, who care about their province very deeply, who care about budgets and what we do with their money. I want to acknowledge them.

It’s an honour and it’s humbling to be able to stand here today as an MLA for Vancouver–West End and Coal Harbour, and as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation as well.

As I address the budget, I will speak a bit around the ministry role. I’ll speak a bit about the vision for the future and about what I think we need to do, some of what we’ve done right and somewhere we’ve got more work to do. One thing I’ve learned through my time in this House is that no matter who’s on the government side of the House, the government has a hard job to do. We as citizens expect them to do that hard work, expect us to do that hard work.

We also know that offering suggestions, offering help, is something we all need. There’s a choice that you can make in how you address problems, and I’ve made this choice in my constituency. You can choose to always say, “Everything’s wrong,” and say, “This is never good enough, and it’s never going to be able to do what you say it’s going to do,” or you can also look for the positive.

Recognize where there are challenges but recognize that things can get better and do get better. Indeed, when we put our efforts and our minds together, we get better outcomes. That’s my positive upbringing.

I thank my parents. I thank my teachers for telling me to look for the sunny side and look for the opportunity to make things better. That’s something that I’ve always tried to do in my work here in the House and will continue to do that.

[4:40 p.m.]

If you want to change something, volunteer. That’s something I was raised with at an early age. Get involved. Don’t just point fingers and complain, but get involved with suggestions and solutions to lead to that better world. Really, right now we need that better world, some would say, more than ever.

Now, I’m sure that’s rhetoric that’s been used many times. Every speech is more important than the last one. But right now, when our country…. I don’t remember a time — and I’m not that old; I’m getting older — when our country was under as much of a direct assault from our neighbours.

Our neighbours to the south…. The certain occupant in that White House has decided that our country doesn’t matter and should be rolled over, should be subsumed, should be disappeared and is taking direct economic assault around the world. It’s a real problem. That’s put us, a lot of people, with real concern for our futures. Of course, when you’re worried about your future, you hold on tighter. You’re worried about…. You don’t know what tomorrow will have. That has economic impacts in all sorts of ways.

In that time of turmoil, when we see war around the world, where we see climate impacts, where we see confusion, concern, there’s a choice you make. In a time of fear, you can choose to go inward — everyone outside is an enemy; everyone is somebody we should be upset about — or you can choose to try to unify, to reach beyond, to listen in, to dig deeper, to look at difference and to try to understand it.

I think that’s what we as British Columbians need to do — to think bigger, think broader, lean into difference, lean into diversity. Instead of pointing fingers — “that person’s not like you, so be afraid of them” — in fact, we need to understand each other.

I worry right now. At a time of turmoil, we know that, often, it’s possible, to other people…. We see that more and more, unfortunately. We’re seeing some try to use First Nations against everyone else. We’re seeing this try to pitch us against First Nations people or First Nations people against us.

We are all British Columbians. We all have to work together. None of us is going anywhere. So we need that to end. We don’t need this us and them, pointing: “You’re better.” “You’re worse.” “You’re trying to give this.” “You’re trying to take that.” No. We need to be going: “How do we work together to get the best for our communities?”

When a First Nation prospers, it’s not at the cost of their neighbourhood. It’s at the benefit to their community.

I just want to be clear that our words have power. In this House, I’ve heard members make statements that suggest that First Nations are somehow lower or different or shouldn’t be considered. I’ve just got to say that we’ve got to stop that, because our words matter. Everybody….

Interjection.

Hon. Spencer Chandra Herbert: That’s not true?

Sorry, no. I do believe that First Nations matter and that we do need to make sure that we’re all together on this. If the member herself is upset with that, then she can state it. But I….

Interjection.

Hon. Spencer Chandra Herbert: Okay. Sorry. I was speaking specifically about a certain member who represents a party called OneBC, but if the member thinks I was talking about her, then I’ll let her think that. That’s not what I was saying.

If the member is wanting to go down this route, she can explain it, but I wasn’t talking about her. If she wants to debate with me, she can. But that’s not what I said. So there’s that.

Hon. Speaker, I hit a nerve, and I wasn’t trying to intend to hit a nerve. I was trying to say that we need to work together with First Nations people, not pit us against each other. So let’s be clear about that.

Sometimes…. We’ve heard in the press today the suggestion that we should be worried about transgender people. We should be worried about immigrants. We should be worried about all of that. I’ve got to say again: let’s put a clamp down on that. We’ve got to look to unify, unify the province, come together in times of difference and difficulty, not pit each other neighbour against neighbour.

I’ve got to be clear. Whether you’re a Conservative, a Green Party member, a non-believer, a New Democrat, whatever, you all have valuable ideas. You all have things that can add to bettering our province when we look to better our province.

We also all have things that can divide us and separate us and make us fight each other by trying to see past each other and trying not to hear each other’s arguments. I would just ask that in this time of tension, we try to have some patience and try to listen and learn from each other. That will lead to a stronger B.C. for all of us.

Now, it’s a fiscally challenging time. It’s an emotionally challenging time, culturally challenging time, environmentally challenging time. The times are challenging, but I’m sure if you go through the rolls of Hansard, you’ll find members using the same discussion about challenging times, and it’s the most challenging time ever.

We all live in our own universes. We all live in our own places. So for each one of us, that may be the truth. We know it’s been hard before. We know it’ll be hard again. The mark of a good government and mark of a good MLA and, I think, of a strong society is if we try to do that by bringing each other and raising each other up.

[4:45 p.m.]

Now, this budget…. I can say specifically that I’m proud of this budget, and I’m proud of it for a number of things. It’s because we’ve had a track record now where we’ve seen housing costs come down. Budget investments in housing, record investments in housing have brought budget costs down, rental costs down, cost of housing down.

In my community, our investments in mental health and our investments in public safety have brought crime down. We’ve seen it in our streets, and we see it in the numbers. Those are investments that are paying off.

Sometimes governments are criticized. They never do anything, never get anything right. Well, when you invest, you do see outcomes. In this case, we’re seeing housing costs down, crime down and, I’ve got to say, the lowest taxes for low- and middle-income people too, because we got rid of things like the MSP. Again, it’s about affordability, getting people investments, getting people the money to do things and making their lives better.

More new hospitals and health facilities in our province than ever before.

Major transit investments — Broadway SkyTrain, SkyTrain out to Langley. You know, these used to be pipe dreams. These were dreams that people talked about for a long time, but no government has ever invested in them. We’re seeing those make…. They’re digging. They’re building. They’re underway. Hospitals. Housing. Transit. Public safety.

I had a good meeting today. We were talking about QMUNITY. I know I’m doing a bit of a meander through the budget, but I had a good meeting with a constituency organization, a B.C.-wide organization, QMUNITY. This is an organization that works with LGBTQ — queer, gender-diverse, two-spirit — individuals to ensure that they have safety, that they be valued, that they have their lives recognized as being important members of our society when, too often, hate gets directed their way.

They’re building a new community centre right in the heart of downtown Vancouver, and our government has invested in that community centre. It has invested in the housing, so there’s going to be low-income, affordable housing above that community centre. It’s coming along big, underway, looking great.

Again, the power of investments. This is something they’ve talked about since the 1980s, early ’80s — the need for an accessible community centre. They fundraised. They did all sorts of work, tried to convince the former government of the day. It took many, many more years. Didn’t get anywhere. But having a government that understood the need for that centre of safety at this time…. Those investments have been made, and we’re getting over 150 new units of housing and a safe community centre for the community with support for expansion to find more ways to support others.

Now, some will say: “What about child care?” Well, 58,000 new child care spaces — that’s pretty big. When I talk to constituents, they share their value for those spaces. They share how much that is improving their lives as well.

Budgets can seem kind of esoteric sometimes, but I just wanted to share some very specific benefits that are coming out of this budget before I move on to other areas that I think are going to need some focus as well.

Of course, the question gets asked: “How do you make those investments? Where does the money come from?”

I’ve got to say that we’re benefiting because of future thinking in terms of how we embrace the natural resources of this province. Six new mines, or expanded mines, in the last 15 months — that’s incredible.

My constituency has, I’d say, probably the most mining offices in the world per capita, in Vancouver–West End. They’re right around the edge of Coal Harbour there. I am sure my colleagues in Vancouver-Yaletown would argue that no, no, no, there are more in their riding.

All that being said, when you open a new mine in any part of British Columbia, that benefit is felt throughout all of British Columbia. I think many people don’t understand that enough, but that’s helping us pay for new programs, helping pay for education, helping pay for schools, helping pay for all the things that British Columbians want.

I know everyone in this House will point to things we’re not doing enough of while at other times saying we’re spending too much. Sometimes I guess that’s the benefit of being in opposition. I’ve done it. Argue you’re not spending enough but also argue that you’re spending too much. You’ll hear that sometimes within a sentence. Let’s just keep that in mind. If we’re going to argue for more, we have to remember that that comes from somewhere. We can’t say we want more while also demanding that we want less.

We’re seeing growth in tourism. I shout out to my former Tourism Ministry. Much love for those folks. I’m looking forward to seeing their continued growth in B.C.

[4:50 p.m.]

All of these things that I’ve mentioned, I’d say, tie in very closely to my ministry because Indigenous communities, First Nations communities, are leading the way on so much of this work, leading the way in mining. I think of Tāłtān and the work that we’ve done with them and the work that they’re going to continue to do to support their community, the region, the province through their work with Skeena Gold, through their work bringing billions into this province.

It’s not just that, of course. It’s Red Chris mine. It’s other projects there. I think of, up and down the Fraser Canyon, the number of new tourism opportunities that are coming about because of Indigenous investments up and down the coast, in the far north, in the southeast. Tourism growth is again….

These are investments from Indigenous communities where they’re also ensuring that they’re talking about the stories of the land. They’re sharing their stories, their peoples’ stories, their rich history going back thousands of years, histories and stories that need to be told more of, because I’m concerned that there seems to be an ahistorical period we’re in now where we don’t recognize that B.C. has unfinished business to do.

There seems to be a suggestion that we can just blow past First Nations and do it ourselves, forget that we need to work with government to government. It’s wrong. It doesn’t work. It never has worked. It’s kind of a return to Trutch, a return to a belief that we as governments say, “You don’t exist anymore. Your rights don’t exist,” and then they’re gone and we can just steamroll our way ahead.

That’s not how it works. It’s never worked in B.C. So to suggest, as I know some colleagues have suggested, that we could just extinguish the rights and argue that we have extinguished First Nations — it doesn’t work. The courts have been clear since at least Calder, if not before, that that’s not something B.C. has the ability to do.

What do you do? You work together. As I said at the beginning, you lean into the conversation, as we’ve done with Tāłtān, as we’re working with.... Well, I could go through the 206 different nations that we’re working with in different ways, each in a different path, each with its own beliefs, values, culture, because we need to recognize that title.

We need to recognize that history. We need to recognize that culture, cultures, those languages. In this budget, we’re continuing our investments in Indigenous languages, because it’s very difficult to speak to who you are as a people if your language has been taken from you. And we know that residential schools were designed in part to take that language, to take that language away.

I want to be clear, because, again, we have had some MLAs suggest that residential schools were good things that didn’t happen. No worries there. They’re very clearly, and this is work that we continue to do in our ministry, places of trauma. They were places designed to take the languages away, so investing $15 million each year in the First Peoples Cultural Council so we can support language revitalization is incredibly important.

The federal government has their role to play too, of course, and certainly working with the federal minister to try and get a better allocation for how languages are funded in Canada, given that B.C. has more language diversity than all of Canada in that sense. We’ve got some of the most diverse languages and threatened and endangered languages in all of Canada. But if you invest in those languages, you invest in a culture. You invest in a world view. You invest in support for sovereignty, support for independence, support for Indigenous collaboration, because you’re showing respect.

That’s pretty important in a world that for a long time did not show that respect. I think about this House and some of the decisions made and some of the decisions that could’ve been made. If we’d continued the work of recognizing treaty that James Douglas began, we would be in an incredibly different place today than we are.

I think about the work the Nisg̱a’a…. We celebrated 25 years of treaty with Nisg̱a’a. Huge, huge celebration; huge, huge investment; huge, huge growth in that community and education in how children are being taken care of in terms of how their health care system is improving, in terms of economic development. They are lifting the region because they were no longer denied the ability to participate in the economy in a way that our laws had banned them from being able to do.

That’s something we need to continue to do and do more of. This budget will continue to support treaty-making, something that I think we need to value in a way that we haven’t, perhaps, in the past in this House. We need to do more treaties. We need to do them faster. We need to be more innovative. We need to be more respectful of working nation to nation.

[4:55 p.m.]

This year I’m looking forward to the introduction of, at least this spring, the Kitselas treaty up in the North, in the Skeena region, up near Terrace; and, of course, the K’ómoks treaty here on the Island. We’re working towards finalizing the treaty with the Te’mexw Treaty Association. Kitsumkalum — of course, working for introduction on that one in the fall.

We’re finally getting movement, and I just think about how over 16 years maybe there were eight treaties. If we do our work now, we can more than meet that goal in just a few years and then continue. We’re on a path, and it’s a good path. It’s a hopeful path, a path of certainty, a path of respect and a path of togetherness, and I think we need to, as legislators, insist on that path, a path of respect, not a path of saying we can’t work with First Nations.

I know that my colleagues have argued that we should pause or stop or halt — they’ve used a variety of words — making any agreements with First Nations until the Supreme Court rules on Quw’utsun. Well, that’s a recipe for economic disaster. I don’t know how you can say, on one hand, that we should have certainty and government’s getting it wrong on certainty but then, on the other hand, argue that we should stop working with First Nations people because that will somehow lead to certainty. It won’t. It will lead to economic chaos.

Again, I would urge members: let’s take the emotional tone down. Let’s sit down and try and work this through together, nation to nation, in a respectful path that understands rights and title issues, section 35; that understands the powers that the province has, the role of the federal government and the role of the nations themselves to lead that future together.

It’s a brighter future when we do work together. It’s been deeply disappointing to see political games played with a group of people who’ve been waiting over 100 years for this place to finally acknowledge their existence, to finally acknowledge that they have rights, humanity, culture and the ability to stand for themselves, that it’s not up to us to lord over but to work together, shoulder to shoulder. It’s about respect.

Budget 2026 enhances that work. It gives us more room to move in terms of working with nations in a respectful way.

To be clear, because I don’t want anybody to try and take a clip of my speech and try and make it sound like it says something different, when we work with nations, we work with nations to acknowledge lands, to acknowledge culture, to acknowledge sovereignty, to acknowledge language, to acknowledge how we work together. Also, when we talk about lands, it’s on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis.

I say that because there are those who try to suggest, and I’ve heard people say it from this House, that oh, we’re just trying to give away your home, and oh, there’s no certainty to your title because that government has decided to give it away to the First Nation.

Well, the nations, when they hear that, they get upset, rightly so, because it’s fearmongering on their behalf. It’s fearmongering because it’s just not true. We’ve always approached property rights as a willing-seller, willing-buyer, and that continues to be how we approach that work here.

Also, we need to acknowledge that the unfinished business of our province is that some of our colonial forebears did not do their work well. They did not work with nations. Even though they knew certain parcels of land were village sites, they did not acknowledge them. They sold them. They sometimes sold them to relatives. And we’re dealing with that impact today. We all are.

I think we need to approach that with honesty. It’s not because of some sneaky NDP thing. It’s because of a Joseph Trutch thing. It’s because of a Richard Moody thing. It’s because of colonial forebears who thought that they were better than First Nations people, who didn’t acknowledge the Royal Proclamation of 1763, who didn’t acknowledge that we actually have a common humanity that has to have respect.

I think of some of the Premiers that stood in this House and the way they treated Nisg̱a’a when they first came in the late 1890s. They treated them as if they were animals. That’s the history that we’re dealing with, and its echoes reverberate even still today.

But there’s another history, one that we can embrace. It’s a history of respect.

[5:00 p.m.]

I think back to James Douglas and what he tried to do through his treaties, the numbered treaties here on Vancouver Island, where they respected rights and title. They respected village sites and farm sites. They respected fishing rights. They said: “We’re both here together. We’re going to find a way to live together.” Unfortunately, that path was not followed for 100 years plus after that. It took until the 1990s, when we finally had the creation of the Treaty Commission, and that worked. But I’m going into history.

I’m sure maybe some members may want to hear it; some members may not. Some members may know it. Some members should know it. Certainly, I would urge members, if you haven’t had the chance, to pick up former cabinet minister George Abbott’s book Unceded. It’s an important history for this province that hasn’t been told very well. He Moved a Mountain, the history and story of Frank Calder, is another very valuable book which has taught me a lot about this place that we all call home.

I may have gone a little bit more philosophical than I wanted to, but I’m just thinking that there’s a weight on my shoulders, and I think a weight on a lot of us right now, around how you build a better future in a time of turmoil, conflict; in a time when people are trying to tear each other down; in a time when we’re in a social media age where you’re not sure if what you’re reading or what you’re watching is even true anymore, whether or not the clip you see of somebody doing something is an AI deepfake or if it’s actually the truth.

I guess I lean on what we hopefully all share, which is a common humanity, which is: how do we take care of each other? How do we follow the golden rule? How do we try to leave the world a little bit better than we found it?

For me, that’s about relationships. It’s about leaning into honesty, respect, care, thinking about generations to come and thinking that, yeah, it might feel hard today, and some days it does feel very hard, but if that hard work we have to take on today makes the load a little lighter for our children and our grandchildren, then we must do it.

This is a government focused and willing to do the hard work, willing to take the chances, to take the risks, to lean into relationships, like we did with Haida, like we’ve done with many others, to build that better future, to have that hope for a better tomorrow.

As I mentioned at the beginning, when you make investments as government, sometimes it takes a while to see the impacts. But I can say with great pride that the investments that we’re making in housing are making a real difference. The investments we’re making in public safety are making a real difference. Investments in education, in child care, early childhood education are incredibly valuable. You’re seeing people with hope who were shut out before.

Our investments in human rights, in supporting our abilities to be fully who we are in all our wonderful diversities — not, as I hear some arguing, that we should target SOGI, LGBTQ people. “Don’t talk about them anymore. Put them back into a closet somewhere where we don’t have to see them in our schools.” That’s deeply disturbing, and the fact that it’s getting public pickup by leaders, or so-called leaders, in the party across the way is concerning to me.

It shouldn’t be that way. We’re stronger together. We can have our debates, we can have our disagreements, but when it comes to targeting people for who they are as a class, as a race, that’s a line too far. We’re stronger together when we listen to each other, lift each other up and celebrate our diversity in all its incredibleness.

We live in an incredible province, one that is challenged, just as all Canadian provinces now are challenged, as government, just as all governments around the world are being challenged right now, in a time of incredible change. But I know the one true thing that really holds true — for me, anyways — is that we’re better together and we’re better when we’re united. That means not always agreeing, but we’re united in the common cause to build that better future together.

I want to honour and acknowledge every member who does their part to put those differences aside where we can, to reach across the aisle, so to speak, to reach to the neighbour that maybe they have a disagreement with or someone they have a challenge with and try and find a better path together. I don’t always get it right, and I’m sure I won’t. But I will say, as the late Premier John Horgan would say, I’ll do my level best. And that’s all you can expect from me.

[5:05 p.m.]

Gavin Dew: Every budget tells stories, even when it pretends it is just numbers. Usually, the stories come with names. The government gives us a Gord, a Rachel — people who fit neatly into a paragraph, people who show the hopeful side of a policy choice, characters meant to reassure us that the plan works. The system is there. The future is secure.

Today I want to introduce one more character. She’s a character, too, a budget character, but she’s the kind that never makes it into the glossy paragraph, the kind that shows you what happens when the assumptions in the speech hit the reality on the ground. Let’s call her Ruth.

Ruth is 85, a Kelowna widow, the kind of person who still says, “I’m fine,” even when she is clearly not fine. She lives in the same little home she and her late husband built their life around. The porch has the worn spot where he used to sit with his coffee. The hallway has the pencil marks where their kids’ heights were measured, year after year.

Her whole life is in that house, and these days that house is not just home. It is her last line of defence. Ruth is on a fixed income. She’s not out there living large. She counts, she cuts, she cancels, and she makes do. To keep her home, she has used the property tax deferment program. It was the only way she could stay put without becoming a burden on her kids.

She did what seniors are told to do. She played by the rules. But under this budget, the rules change in a way that lands like a gut punch. Ruth relies on that deferment program, and now it is going to cost her dramatically more in home equity every single year because government increased the interest rate by 4 percent and made it compound.

Ruth doesn’t talk like an economist, but she understands compound interest just fine. She understands it the way you feel it, not the way you calculate it. She understands it as home equity disappearing faster every year. She understands it as the inheritance she’d hoped to leave her kids and grandkids being quietly shaved down while she is still alive. She has always wanted to leave something behind, not for herself but for her family — a little safety, a little start. Now she feels like she’s watching it leak away.

Then her health starts to slide, not in one dramatic moment. In a slow, grinding way. She needs long-term care — not someday, now — but she can’t get a bed. There’s a shortage, and everybody in the Okanagan knows it. Families are living it; seniors are living it. And instead of speeding up overdue long-term-care projects, this budget hits pause on six overdue projects, including Cottonwoods in Kelowna.

Ruth is stuck in the worst in-between place — not well enough to be on her own, not able to access the care she actually needs. She does what desperate people do when the system has no landing pad for them. She goes to the emergency room at Kelowna General Hospital.

Before she goes, Ruth sits in her living room and looks around at what she can cut next. She turns off her basic cable, not because she wants to. Because she has to. She can’t justify paying more, 7 percent more, just to watch the evening news and a couple of old shows.

Then she reaches for the phone — the 7-percent-more phone. Not her cell. Her land line, the one she’s had forever, the one she trusts, the one that works when she’s flustered. She calls her daughter. “Sweetheart,” she says, “I need you to drive me to the hospital.”

[5:10 p.m.]

Normally, she would call her son. He would be there in a heartbeat; he’s that kind of person, the kind who shows up. But she doesn’t call him, because her son owns a business downtown, and lately he’s been working extra shifts just to keep the doors open. Not to expand. Not to hire. Just to cover the theft and vandalism damage that keeps piling up. Broken windows. Damaged doors. Stolen inventory. Constant repairs. Constant stress.

In Ruth’s story, there’s a reason for that. She believes this government pushed a reckless decriminalization experiment that left too many people on the street in addiction and crisis, including people with acquired brain injuries, people who need help and are not getting it. In her eyes, this government has taken people who are suffering, left them on the sidewalk, and then acted surprised when downtown businesses start living behind locked doors and security cameras.

Her son is stretched thin. He can’t always leave the shop. He can’t always leave his staff. Now, to try to reduce damage and theft, he hires private security because the police can’t keep up. Now he’ll be paying more for that, too. It’s 7 percent more in PST just to protect the business he already built. While government talks, family pays.

Ruth’s daughters arrive. They drive to KGH. They park. They walk in. Ruth has her little bag, a bottle of water, a sweater, a list of medications written neatly in pen. Then she waits for hours. She watches gurneys roll by. She watches nurses sprint past with the look people get when they’re juggling too many crises at once, spinning plates. She hopes not for comfort, just for a spot, just for a bed. Sometimes she’s hoping to see a doctor.

Sometimes she’s just hoping for a bed in the hallway. But the hallway beds in emergency, all 12 or 14 of them on a given day, are full too. Full of seniors who should be in long-term care. Full of people in mental health crisis. Full of people coming down off drugs because we still don’t have enough detox, rehab and recovery. Ruth sits there hearing the same government language she’s heard before. Plans, strategies, re-announcements. We’re working on it. Mandatory care beds, they say. Again, they re-announce. Again.

Ruth looks around that emergency department, and she thinks: “If this is working, why is this still happening? If the plan is real, why are seniors in beds in hallways? Why are there 12 or 14 beds of permanent hallway health care in emergency and another 35 or more hallway beds spread around this hospital tower? If the system is there, why does the emergency room feel like the waiting room for everything?”

Here’s the part that makes her furious, in that quiet, old-school way where you don’t raise your voice. You just feel it settle deep in your bones. This is not only about shortage. It’s also about choices. At Kelowna General Hospital, more than 50 beds’ worth of space in Centennial tower is sitting there empty, unfinished since 2013. Two floors of hospital space not serving patients while people wait for hours hoping for a bed in a hallway.

Ruth can’t understand how that is acceptable. How can you have people lined up in hallways and have two floors sitting empty? Storage for boxes. How can you tell the public the system is under strain while hospital capacity, the capacity that was built, the capacity that’s sitting there waiting to be opened, is literally locked behind closed doors?

She sits there watching the system improvised around a bottleneck that does not need to exist, thinking this, this is not a staffing problem alone. This is not a demand problem alone. This is a follow-through problem.

Because Ruth is Ruth, she brings something to do. She pulls out her knitting needles and her yarn. She starts knitting a scarf for her grandson Tommy. That knitting yarn will cost her 7 percent more because this government can’t find anything they don’t want to tax. She pulls out her knitting needles. She starts knitting a scarf for her grandson Tommy.

[5:15 p.m.]

Tommy is the apple of her eye. Tommy just finished a diploma in accounting. Ruth has been bragging about it to anyone who will listen. She has that glow in her voice when she says his name.

Tommy has a job offer waiting at a big accounting firm — a real start, a real footing, something that could become a career. But even that good news feels fragile now, because Ruth is hearing what everyone else is hearing. Businesses are tightening, firms are cutting, and offices are consolidating. She worries that his offer might get rescinded, and they’ll start shutting down offices and hiring people in Alberta or in Ontario instead. That’s what a $500 million a year PST hike on professional services does to our economy, and that’s what it does to people like Tommy.

That’s the part that nobody puts in a budget line, the part where families stop believing the future is solid. So Ruth keeps knitting, stitch by stitch, in an emergency room hallway, a grandma making something warm while everything around her feels colder.

In the middle of that, she thinks about the yarn in her lap. Even this small comfort gets pinched, because the government just decided to tax her an extra 7 percent for her yarn — 7 percent. That’s what the government members opposite are bragging about in their speeches — that they taxed old ladies 7 percent on yarn to knit with.

It’s not the size of the tax that stings. It’s what it says. It says even the small things that help you cope, even the tiny rituals that keep you connected, even the scarf for Tommy, the grandson you adore, are now just another line item to squeeze to pay for the Premier’s $400 million slush fund.

That’s Ruth, a budget character who does not fit in a tidy paragraph — an 85-year-old widow trying to stay in her home, watching her equity shrink faster every year, because the deferment program she relies on has become dramatically more expensive; unable to access a long-term care bed, because there’s a shortage and overdue projects like Cottonwoods get pushed back again; forced into the emergency room at Kelowna General Hospital, waiting for hours in hallways till they overflow, because we have not built the capacity we need and we have not delivered the treatment and recovery system people were promised; thinking about more than 50 beds worth of space in Centennial tower are sitting empty while patients line the corridors all over the hospital; turning off her cable and paying more for basics; calling her daughter on a landline that costs more, because her son is stuck working extra shifts at a downtown business that can’t catch a break, and soon even the private security he hires to protect it will cost more too; and knitting a scarf for Tommy whose bright future now comes with a question mark attached.

Ruth is not asking for the moon. She’s asking for a government that stops balancing its choices on the backs of seniors and families. She’s asking for long-term-care beds to exist when people like her need them. She’s asking for a health system that does not treat emergency rooms like the waiting room for everything. Right now, Ruth is doing what our seniors always do. She’s hanging on, and she should not have to. That’s Ruth. One character, one storyline, one way to translate a budget into something you can feel.

Budgets are not lived by characters in a speech. They’re lived by real people in real communities in real time with real consequences. Before I rattle off what is wrong with this budget, line by line, I want this House to hear in their own words what British Columbians are saying about it.

“The B.C. government’s disastrous fiscal position has led to higher taxes, the last thing British Columbians need,” says Tegan Hill of Business in Vancouver. Bridgitte Anderson, the CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, put it plainly when she looked at the debt costs in this budget. The cost alone to service the debt is at $9 billion. How on earth is any credit rating agency going to look at this and not do another downgrade to British Columbia?

[5:20 p.m.]

For people in Kelowna, this budget is full of question marks. When will we get the infrastructure improvements we need to keep pace with the growth this government keeps pushing us to deliver? When will we get the improvements that have been talked about for years, like the Highway 33 Clement extension, a new bus depot and the transportation and servicing upgrades we need to unlock the economic development potential of our airport and the lands around it?

When will we get more Crown prosecutors, when charge approval rates have dropped dramatically across B.C., and especially in Kelowna, by 42 percent?

When, if ever, will this government invest in opening up the underutilized Alder penitentiary for mandatory care? If they won’t do that, then when will they at least put prolific offenders in jail, stop cycling them through the same broken revolving door and get them the help they need?

These are not abstract questions. These are the questions that show up in the real world, in stolen property, in boarded-up windows, in emergency rooms, in seniors waiting for care and in a community that is tired of being told to be patient while the problems get worse.

That brings me to the implications of this budget for business, because this budget was not just another disappointing year in a long line of disappointments. It was a turning point. It was the moment the business community stopped hoping this government would eventually find its footing, stopped assuming the next budget will be the one that finally puts growth, competitiveness and affordability at the centre of decision-making.

We have seen that loss of faith in black and white with the unprecedented D grade for this budget from the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. They’ve never given a D before.

But it goes deeper than a report card. It’s the mood on the shop floor, in the back office and at the kitchen table where owners are doing payroll at 10 p.m., wondering how much longer they can keep this up. Listen to what small business is saying.

“This budget’s tax increases make B.C. a less competitive place to do business,” says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Small businesses are telling us that it’s simply too costly to grow right now, and new taxes, like adding PST to professional services, don’t help. Too costly to grow —that is a brutal sentence for a province that needs growth just to pay for the promises in this budget.

And here is the most damning line of all, because it should scare anyone who claims to care about jobs. “Nearly two-thirds of B.C. business owners tell us they would not recommend starting a business today,” says Ryan Mitton of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business — not recommend starting a business today.

Think about what that means. It means the dream is dying. The ladder is getting pulled up. The next generation of employers is looking at British Columbia and saying: “No, thanks.” Now let’s connect that to what this budget actually does.

This budget includes a major tax increase aimed squarely at the services businesses use to operate, grow and comply. The government is expanding the PST onto professional services, and it is forecast to pull about half a billion dollars a year out of small business. Half a billion dollars a year taken out of the small business economy. Not out of some abstract place — out of cash flow, out of hiring plans, out of expansion plans, out of inventory, out of the cushion that keeps a business alive when the unexpected hits.

Here’s the cruel irony. Small businesses in Kelowna and across British Columbia are already paying for the consequences of disorder. They’re paying for vandalism, smashed windows, stolen goods and constant repairs. Now this budget adds insult to injury, because when a small business owner hires private security to stop the bleeding, this PST expansion means that private security costs go up by 7 percent too, so even protecting your storefront becomes more expensive. It’s a tax on survival.

While all of this is happening, the Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth is cutting support for small business and economic development at a time when we have five straight quarters of negative business growth in the most recent reporting we’ve seen. Think about how backwards that is. When the economy is struggling, you don’t make it more expensive to do business. You don’t tax the tools business needs to navigate regulation, manage finances and expand. You don’t cut the very supports meant to help communities attract investment and create jobs. But that is exactly what this budget does.

That is why this budget is not just a fiscal problem. It’s a competitiveness problem. The Business Council of British Columbia said it plainly. We’ve got about $4 billion in the budget in tax increases, and that’s really concerning because the private sector is already very, very weak. When the private sector is weak, you don’t pile on costs and then act surprised when investment slows down and jobs move elsewhere.

[5:25 p.m.]

Then there’s the part that should make every employer in this province sit up straight. Despite all of that, this budget sets aside a $400 million slush fund so the NDP can interfere even more in our economy to pick winners and losers in accordance with their political and ideological preferences and their desire for photo ops, not to create the fundamental conditions for investment, like lower costs, faster permitting, reliable infrastructure and a justice system that works and creates community safety.

Instead, it is command-and-control economics, government deciding what should be built, where it should be built and who should get help based on what the Premier thinks is right, not what the market will actually support.

Here are the accountability questions this House should be asking, because if government is going to create a fund like this at a time like this, the bar for transparency should be sky-high. Who decides which projects get the money? What are the published criteria? What is the target return for taxpayers, and how will it be measured? What reporting will be public, and how often? What’s the conflict-of-interest screen? What is the definition of success, and what is the definition of failure? What happens when it fails? Who’s accountable?

We’ve already seen what happens when this government cannot even bring itself to publish clear performance targets for basic service delivery. In the Infrastructure service plan, one of the key targets for on-time and on-budget delivery was simply listed as “to be confirmed” in the ministry service plan. To be confirmed. That’s what they’ve got for on-time, on-budget. They’ll figure it out. They’ll make a plan one day, eventually, someday.

When government can’t even commit to a target for delivering projects on-time and on-budget, why should anyone believe a new $400 million slush fund will be managed with discipline, transparency and results?

Here is the uncomfortable question that real investors ask when they see a fund like this. What does it say about our investment climate when the government has to subsidize major projects to make them happen?

Why does this government keep bragging about the disproportionate share of federally designated major projects that are in British Columbia when another interpretation is that they have obstructed and delayed more projects than any other jurisdiction and now they need a special account to rescue the ones that have survived the process and have survived them?

If the province was truly competitive, if the investment climate was strong, if confidence was high, we would not need a $400 million slush fund to coax projects across the finish line. We would have a government that makes it easier to build, easier to hire, easier to invest and easier to grow.

Instead we have a budget that hikes taxes while the private sector is weak, that creates a new pot of money so government can lean in even harder and try to micromanage outcomes. That is not an economic plan. That’s a warning sign.

There’s a word we do not often say in this House, but it’s the word that decides whether any of these promises are even possible: productivity. A province cannot tax its way to productivity or to prosperity. A province cannot regulate its way to prosperity. A province cannot announce its way to prosperity or photo op its way to prosperity. Prosperity is built when private capital takes risks, when entrepreneurs start companies, when employers scale up, when workers become more productive and when investment actually stays here.

This budget pushes in the opposite direction. When you pile on costs, add new taxes, expand the PST onto the professional services businesses rely on and create a climate of uncertainty, you don’t just slow growth. You send a message, and the market answers that message quietly and ruthlessly. Investment does not argue with you. It just quietly leaves. To quote a former NDP Premier: “Capital is a coward.” Investment leaves, and so do people.

The entrepreneurs who would have started the next business here, hired the next apprentice here, created the next jobs here look at the costs stack, look at the uncertainty, look at the erosion of safety and order, and they decide to build somewhere else. They go to Alberta. They go to Ontario. They go to the United States. They take their energy, their risk appetite, their capital and their hiring plans with them.

That is how you end up with a province that feels busy, feels expensive, feels stretched but is not actually getting ahead. That is how you end up with a province where the next generation, like Tommy, start their careers by looking out of province, because that is where the opportunity is.

[5:30 p.m.]

Here is the hardest part for government to admit. This is not just about the economic math. It is about trust. It’s about competence. People can handle tough decisions when they believe that government is competent, when they believe the plan is real, when they believe timelines mean something, when they believe accountability exists and when they believe that government can execute.

What businesses and families see in this budget is not competence. They see reannouncements. They see re-paced projects. They see timelines pushed out. They see “to be determined” where certainty should be. They see an emergency room system that is treated like overflow is normal while hospital space sits unfinished. They see long-term-care projects delayed again while seniors wait. They see new taxes layered onto basic life and basic operations while government creates new funds to pick winners and losers and make photo ops and announcements to make the Premier look and feel good while Rome is burning.

The people stop believing, not in politics but in delivery. They stop believing that government can do the basics well enough to justify taking more. And once that trust breaks, the consequences don’t stay in the Legislature. They show up in investment decisions, hiring decisions, expansion decisions and family decisions. That is what this budget risks most of all — not just higher taxes, not just higher debt, but a province that loses the confidence of the people who actually build it.

That brings us to the unavoidable question, the one British Columbians are asking with more urgency every single year. With higher taxes, record debt and record deficits, where has all the money gone? Just a few years ago this province posted a surplus of more than $5 billion. Now the deficit is projected to climb past $13 billion and debt to reach $182 billion.

The debt is not just a future problem. It’s a right-now problem, because interest is the new megaproject. Debt service alone is around $9 billion, and it’s on track to exceed spending in almost every area of government except health care and education. An 8.2 percent interest bite — 8.2 cents on every single dollar.

When families hear that and then they hear government telling them they need to pay more, they do not hear prudence. They hear surrender. The Premier will argue this budget was inevitable, that global turmoil left government no choice, that this is what responsibility looks like.

That does not hold up, and that does not square with the reality that this government has been in power for nine years. They’ve made the decisions that brought us to where we are. Even the Globe and Mail editorial board recently argued that British Columbia does not have a revenue problem and that the pressure is coming from irresponsible spending.

That is the point. This budget was not inevitable. It reflects choices. This government, this Premier, this Finance Minister, every single member opposite…. This government chose higher taxes on the things families and businesses actually use. This government chose weaker accountability. They chose to hold themselves to a lower standard. They chose to push out timelines, call it progress and think that they could spin it away. They chose to normalize hallway medicine, long waits and broken systems while telling people to be patient.

British Columbians deserve a budget focused on real results, delivered on time and on budget, with clear targets and public accountability. Instead this budget delivers higher costs today and a bigger bill tomorrow. If the government wants to know why people have lost faith, it’s because families like Ruth’s do not live in talking points and reannouncements. They live in the consequences.

[5:35 p.m.]

Hon. Jagrup Brar: I was listening to the member speaking before me with interest. I just want to make the comment that B.C. is actually the best place to invest.

In mining alone, there are 27 projects in waiting. And that’s not my list. That’s the B.C. Mining Association list. That’s not mine. That is $50 billion investment into this province and 10,000 good family-supporting jobs. That’s what B.C. is at this point in time, my friends. B.C. is the best place to invest in mining and other projects.

I’m really proud to stand up in this House to talk about Budget 2026, which makes careful choices to protect what matters most and secure B.C.’s future.

It’s wonderful to be here this afternoon on the territory of lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking People.

I will come back to the budget speech in a couple of minutes, but first I would like to convey my sincere thanks to the people of Surrey for electing me six times as their representative. That is a rare honour for me and my family. My heartfelt thanks to the people of Surrey-Fleetwood for giving me the opportunity and putting their faith in me. I exist in this House because of them.

Special thanks to my two staff members in the Surrey-Fleetwood office, Priyanka Mehta and Maseeh Dlir, and my staff in the Victoria office. They are exceptional people and doing excellent jobs serving the people of British Columbia, assisting me daily to solve a constituency matter and permit a new mine or expansion.

Last but not least, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to the love of my life, my friend, my trusted adviser and my beautiful wife, Rajwant Brar; my daughter Noor Brar, who recently graduated from UBC school of medicine; and my son Fateh Brar, who recently entered at UBC Sauder School of Business.

Your love, strength, unwavering support mean everything to me, and I am forever grateful to walk this journey by your side.

Coming back to the Budget 2026, in a world of uncertainty, as we all know, Budget 2026 makes careful choices to protect what matters most and secure B.C.’s future. Over the last 80 years, we built the foundations a strong province depends on. Hospitals, schools, roads, transit, housing, clean electricity are being delivered to support communities and good jobs across British Columbia.

We made these investments while guiding people and businesses through extraordinary challenges — a global pandemic, as we all know, devastating floods and wildfires, and now a direct attack on our economy and sovereignty. We all know that.

We entered this period from a position of strength. Our economy stayed resilient, and a low debt-to-GDP ratio gave B.C. the capacity to respond when it mattered most.

That work is making a difference. Major job-creating, mining and other projects moving forward, faster than any other province, in British Columbia.

More family doctors than ever before. I know they were there for 16 years. I know the ratio. There were one million people at that time without a physician.

[5:40 p.m.]

Rent prices dropping from their peaks, everyday costs eased through the B.C. family benefit, more affordable child care and lower car insurance rates. We all know what happened to ICBC under the B.C. Liberals. It was in debt for over a $1 billion, and we fixed it. We fixed it, and we gave a 20 percent rebate to every driver in the province of British Columbia. That is about $400 per driver.

This budget defends those gains. It also faces a tough reality with clarity. Global uncertainty is slowing growth everywhere. It’s not only British Columbia. It’s not in other provinces. It’s everywhere on the globe. High costs, global instability, volatile commodity prices are putting pressure on public finance.

We must be realistic. Yes, you can stand up in this House with slogans and say all those kinds of things. This is a very serious time, and we must be realistic and disciplined, very disciplined about the choices ahead.

Budget 2026 makes disciplined choices to protect what matters most. So our priorities are clear. Protect core public services like health care, education, public safety. Keep B.C. one of the lowest-taxed provinces for working families. B.C. is the lowest-taxed province in the country with working families, as we speak.

And reduce the deficit responsibly over time. To achieve this, we are taking three key actions. Make the public sector smaller and more efficient so more dollars reach different lines. Pace infrastructure projects carefully, delivering them efficiently without driving up costs, because that’s very important. And generate new revenue — that’s very important to grow the economy — while taking action to grow the economy and scale the long-term impact of major projects.

At the same time, we continue to invest in B.C.’s future, doubling trades training, supporting major job creation projects and ensuring families and communities benefit from what we have built.

Budget 2026 is serious work for serious times. We are focused on what matters most and protecting services, keeping taxes low for working families and strengthening B.C.’s finances for the long term.

Now I would like to talk about my ministry, the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals. I had the opportunity to become the Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals about 14 months ago.

Reflecting on my first year as Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals, I have seen the vital role this sector plays in shaping the path ahead. And 2025 began with a constant stream of threats from across the border, yet we remain steady, moving forward with confidence, rising to every challenge and delivering strong results.

Over the past year, we have worked together with industry and our counterparts from across the country to respond to global challenges in a way that protects the interests of all Canadians. On the world stage, we showed that Canada and B.C. have so much to offer, not only through our valuable resources but through our unity, our respect for the land and our ability to build meaningful, lasting partnerships.

Our efforts are working. In 2025, B.C. saw mineral exploration expenditures totalling an estimated historic high of over $750 million and a projected mineral production value of $16.4 billion.

[5:45 p.m.]

We remain a global mining and critical mineral hub, with approximately 1,000 mining and mineral exploration and development companies headquartered in the region — 40,000 employees in the mining sector. These are pretty good family-supporting jobs with an average salary of $130,000. Eighteen big operating mines, two world-class smelters and 280 mineral exploration projects. Lots of economic activity is going on in the mining sector.

By 2040, new and expanded critical mineral projects could represent an investment opportunity of $44 billion. And the proposed Anglo Teck merger and its headquarter location to Vancouver signals global confidence in B.C. mining.

We’re not stopping there. Looking ahead, we will continue to listen, collaborate and work hard to secure B.C.’s position as one of the world’s leading mining jurisdictions, while building a stronger, more resilient future for all British Columbians.

I know the opposition has been speaking about this, but I want to clearly state here that as part of Budget 2026, my ministry will receive a budget lift of $3 million to support our move to fixed permitting times. There will be $1 million to provide extra staff and a further $2 million to support the mineral claims consultation framework, shortly known as MCCF.

This funding will build on efficiencies already created, which includes almost 35 percent more exploration permits issued in 2025 than 2024, reducing timelines for major mine applications by 35 percent, a record-breaking investment of more than $750 million in mining exploration.

Our government is also dedicating up to a $1 billion-dollar loan guarantee program to support equity ownership for B.C.’s First Nations. This positive step helps create pathways for First Nations towards more inclusive participation in the economic benefits of mining and other projects.

[The Speaker in the chair.]

This reflects our commitment to valuing First Nations as true partners and advancing a more collaborative, inclusive approach to a shared prosperous future.

I also want to acknowledge that dedicated, hard-working people are at the heart of the mining and mineral exploration industry. That’s why Budget 2026 opens the door for more British Columbians to train for in-demand skilled trades, getting good family-supporting jobs needed to help B.C. become Canada’s economic engine.

A total of $283 million in funding includes $241 million to double skilled-trades funding over three years; $12 million over three years to enhance the employer’s training grant, helping double apprenticeship seats by 2028-29; $30 million to train highly qualified professionals by adding specialized streams to existing programs, including engineering, geology, computer science, biology and aerospace.

Last month my ministry was proud to announce that we will be the first jurisdiction in Canada to have fixed permitting timelines for mineral exploration. The first province in the country.

[5:50 p.m.]

The mineral explorers play the most critical role in building new mines. It is exploration work that finds, proves and develops projects of the future, because every major mine starts with exploration.

That’s why it is important for us to continue advancing our regulatory framework, ensuring that we provide a clear, efficient path for industry to grow and thrive. So beginning in April 2026, exploration permits will be processed within 40 to 140 days, depending on the complexity of the proposed activity.

Factors will include consultation with First Nations, the size and complexity of the proposed project, the extent of ground disturbance and other variables. This will be achieved through a combination of improvements, including clear, upfront guidance, system changes and process transparency.

We are also introducing a new, permanent escalation process, so it will not just stop there. We want to make the system completely accountable, because we truly believe in providing certainty to the industry. That’s the key to bringing more investment to the province and to starting more mining projects in the province. So in these actions, we are fulfilling our pledge to introduce fixed permitting timelines for B.C.’s vital mineral exploration sector while still protecting the environment and respecting reconciliation with First Nations and will drive even further investment in the booming mining industry.

The new fixed permitting timeline fulfils a mandate commitment and will build on efficiencies achieved to date. Since 2022, the regional permitting backlog has dropped by 75 percent for mineral exploration. They are not just numbers. They are backed by real, concrete examples.

For example, Shaft Creek, Teck Resources Ltd., 112 days processing time. A large-scale advanced exploration project, just 112 days.

Newmont, 95 days processing time. A large-scale advanced exploration project surrounding Brucejack mine, just 95 days.

DUKE project, Amarc Resources Ltd., 71 days processing time.

Kemess project of AuRico Metals Inc., Centerra Gold, 97 days processing time.

These are real numbers, and nobody can deny these numbers. We are showing strong progress, thanks to this budget. We will have the support needed to make B.C. the best place to explore and mine. B.C. is actually already the best jurisdiction for mining and mineral exploration.

Last year we identified four major mining projects as priority projects, ensuring that government processes do not hold up decision timelines. The results are already evident. This summer, the Teck Highland Valley Copper expansion, one of our priority projects, received its environmental assessment certificate and all required permits.

I want to convey my sincere thanks to the minister sitting on my right for her exceptional work to issue the environmental assessment certificate, because that’s a very complex job, and that is a very important step to issue a mining permit to a mine.

Highland Valley Copper represents an investment of $2.4 billion, a $2.4 billion capital investment to extend the mine life by nearly 18 years, creating 200 new jobs and expanding the workforce to 1,500. Again, these are very good, family-supporting jobs, where the average salary is $130,000.

[5:55 p.m.]

Last month we proudly announced the expansion of the Mount Milligan copper-gold mine near Fort St. James. Another priority project, the mine expansion will bring a projected capital expenditure of up to $400 million, will support 574 existing jobs and will extend the life of the operation by seven years, up to 2037.

We also permitted the reopening of the Eskay Creek mine, a historic underground mine, as a new open-pit gold-silver mine near Stewart, B.C. It’s anticipated that the project will create approximately 1,000 construction jobs and more than 770 jobs during the operation. The mine involves a projected capital expenditure of $713 million, as estimated during the environmental assessment process, and is expected to generate approximately $1.19 billion in provincial revenue — only from one mine.

Nationally the inclusion of the Red Chris expansion and the critical minerals conservation corridor initiative on the federal priority project list is an important recognition of the significance of B.C.’s critical minerals sector to Canada’s future.

As you can see, hon. Speaker, we are following our ambitious agenda closely. We are living in an extraordinary era for the industry, and we are seizing opportunities for the benefit of all. B.C. is geologically rich and produces or has potential to produce 22 of Canada’s 32 critical minerals. These minerals and metals are essential to fight climate change and to develop clean technology.

In today’s world, the global economy needs a reliable partner who can offer not only critical minerals but also a stable and predictable investment climate, grounded in strong environmental, social and governance standards. That’s what British Columbia is doing.

As part of my mandate, and in partnership with other western jurisdictions, we signed a memorandum of understanding, committing to develop a western Canadian critical minerals strategy. This strategy will maximize the west’s opportunity to grow its mining and processing capacity in critical minerals and showcase that the west can truly be Canada’s economic engine.

None of this progress happens in isolation. That’s why I look forward to working with our industry partners, First Nations and the public to support a thriving mineral exploration and mining sector. This is a great industry doing great work for B.C., and we are deeply committed to growing it at every stage.

In the end — I know I have six minutes left — I will briefly talk about….

Interjection.

Hon. Jagrup Brar: Yeah, the member says “more.”

In the six minutes left, I would like to briefly speak about the city of Surrey. You know the city of Surrey is the fastest-growing city in the province and in the country. When we say “fastest-growing,” of course, it needs infrastructure; it needs more services to people and all that. This has been going on for more than two decades or even more.

I know there was another party in power for 16 years, sitting in this House, and I just want to briefly compare what they did and what we are doing in the city of Surrey as we speak. They refused to build the….

The Speaker: Minister, I would like to ask you to adjourn the debate, because we have to deal with a deferred division which was called earlier today. It’s six o’clock now.

Hon. Jagrup Brar moved adjournment of debate.

Motion approved.

[6:00 p.m.]

Second Reading of Bills

Bill M226 — Motor Vehicle
Amendment Act (No. 2), 2025
(continued)

The Speaker: Members, earlier today during private members’ time, a division was requested on second reading of Bill M226, Motor Vehicle Amendment Act (No. 2), 2025. Pursuant to Standing Order 25, that deferred division will take place now.

[6:05 p.m. - 6:10 p.m.]

The Speaker: Members, the question is second reading of Bill M226, Motor Vehicle Amendment Act (No. 2), 2025.

Motion approved on the following division:

YEAS — 78
Lore	Blatherwick	Dhir
Routledge	Elmore	Toporowski
B. Anderson	Neill	Osborne
Brar	Krieger	Davidson
Parmar	Sunner	Beare
Greene	Wickens	Kang
Begg	Arora	Higginson
Sandhu	Lajeunesse	Choi
Rotchford	Chant	Phillip
Popham	Dix	Sharma
Farnworth	Eby	Bailey
Kahlon	Chandra Herbert	Whiteside
Boyle	Ma	Yung
Malcolmson	Gibson	Glumac
Shah	G. Anderson	Chow
Morissette	Loewen	Kindy
Warbus	Halford	Wat
Banman	Hartwell	L. Neufeld
Van Popta	Dew	K. Neufeld
McInnis	Valeriote	Botterell
Paton	Day	Chan
Toor	Hepner	Giddens
Dhaliwal	McCall	Wilson
Block	Stamer	Gasper
Tepper	Mok	Brodie
Chapman	Bird	Luck
NAYS — 7
Kooner	Clare	Bhangu
Maahs	Kealy	Armstrong
	Williams

The Speaker: Pursuant to Standing Order 84A(1), the bill stands committed to the Select Standing Committee on Private Bills and Private Members’ Bills.

Now the motion to adjourn the House.

Hon. Mike Farnworth moved adjournment of the House.

Motion approved.

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

The House adjourned at 6:15 p.m.