Fifth Session, 41st Parliament

(2020) OFFICIAL REPORT

OF DEBATES

(HANSARD)

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Afternoon Sitting

Issue No. 315

ISSN 1499-2175

The HTML transcript is provided for informational purposes only.

The PDF transcript remains the official digital version.

CONTENTS

Orders of the Day

Budget Debate

(continued)

B. Stewart

R. Leonard

T. Shypitka

B. Ma

D. Davies

J. Brar

D. Barnett

S. Malcolmson

E. Ross

Hon. R. Fleming

D. Clovechok

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

The House met at 1:33 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Orders of the Day

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

Budget Debate

(continued)

B. Stewart: I am proud to rise again to take my place in this House speaking about

the provincial government’s Budget 2020-2021.

[S. Gibson in the chair.]

I just want to recap a little bit about what I was speaking about

prior to the break. I want to pick up on the importance of exports and trade

and what has been happening not only in the past year, with a significant

downturn in terms of exports from British Columbia to the United States.

It’s down almost 3 percent, almost 4 percent to mainland China, 13 percent

to Japan and 12 percent to South Korea — our four largest trading

partners.

[1:35 p.m.]

I have to ask the question. In this particular situation, where trade

for a province like British Columbia with only five million citizens is so

paramount in terms of our ability to fund all of the wonderful things that

British Columbians have come to expect — the health care system, the

schools, the benefits that we provide to people that are less fortunate….

The situation really is that we have to keep that economy growing on a

trajectory that is not declining or wavering and falling behind.

I think that the issues in the past few weeks that we’ve seen here in

front of the Legislature just a couple of short weeks ago, where people were

protesting a particular development project in the province…. It’s well

documented. But of course, that’s spread across Canada. The paralysis of the

rail system has paralyzed ports like Prince Rupert, Vancouver, the South

Fraser docks, all of these important points of contact where commodities

from Canada flow out of, and no more importantly than British

Columbia.

More importantly, against the backdrop of all of this is the

uncertainty that has been created by the fact that we have people that are

not just part of the nation or the Hereditary Chiefs that are opposed to the

development of an LNG industry, but there are people that are supporting

that that happen to be from wherever — whether it happens to be

universities, they happen to be paid activists, they happen to be whoever

they are. The situation is that it’s well documented that those people are

not only in, maybe, denial or are opposed to any type of development to help

benefit places like Asia, where there is clearly a major shift, in terms of

the environment, by importing and using British Columbia clean natural gas.

The situation is that they’re stopping our trade with our existing trade

partners.

Now, I had a simple enough experience in 2013 as the trade

representative for British Columbia, meeting with the Premier as well as the

head of Mitsubishi, which has significant investments here in British

Columbia, in terms of their investments in terms of grain terminals and the

receiving of grain. It was a simple matter of rail not being able to get the

number of railcars to the Port of Vancouver that was slowing down their

commitments and the trading that they do — Mitsubishi being one of the large

global trading houses of commodities around the world. Their situation was

impacted by the fact that we were having issues with our rail service to the

Port of Vancouver.

Here we have weeks of shutdowns in major rail lines all across the

country, and we need to respect the fact that this is going to impact our

credibility in terms of the eyes of our customers, whether it’s Japan,

Korea, China, Singapore or India. I could go on to name many

more.

The answer to all of this…. On New Year’s Eve in Asia, offices were

being notified there — the 13 trade offices that I worked with and know well

and that know the differences in terms of their commodities. Thirteen

offices were shut down with basically 90 days notice. Over 70 people were

sent walking, and we’re losing those valuable people with the contacts and

relationships in a time when we have so much dependence in terms of our

global trade. I just can’t really understand that.

So here we are. We’ve cut that from the budget in an effort to save

about $5 million. There have been some suggestions that they can be

co-located within the embassies. I’ve worked with every one of those

embassies in every one of those countries, and I can tell the government

that that is a bad move. We used to do it. It’s one that we abandoned. The

reason that we did it is because it did not make sense from a commercial

enterprise business point of view. Mark my words: they’re going to regret

the decision that they’ve made on that.

What this budget shows is the NDP government’s complete lack of

understanding of the economy and how to build a growing economy to

underwrite the many lauded examples of what government can do to help

British Columbians.

[1:40 p.m.]

Since the NDP took office, we’ve seen successive taxes put on the

backs of employers and businesses. At the same time, the expenses have

increased by $11.4 billion, and up $14.95 billion next year. This is

downright suicidal.

I know that time is short, and I appreciate being allowed to speak on

this important topic. I look forward to estimates.

R. Leonard: It is my distinct honour to stand here today in support of Budget

2020-2021. I get up every morning, and I’m excited to be a part of this

government. I’m excited to be a part of a movement that is making life

better for British Columbians every day. We’re working hard to make life

more affordable. We’re working hard to make sure that people are getting the

services they need. Something that’s really critical to our future is that

we have good sustainable communities throughout British Columbia. I’m very

proud of the work that we’ve done over the last 2½ years, and this budget is

continuing to grow on our successes.

A couple of weeks ago the Premier made a comment in this House that

the responsibility of government is to move us forward, and this is a budget

that continues to move us forward. It is our responsibility to take each day

and make the best of it and to grow our beautiful province so that everybody

succeeds.

Another thing that the Premier has said in the past and continues to

say is that this province and our economy are fuelled by people, and

everything that we do is centred on people.

Speaking of people, I just want to take a moment to say that in my

job, every day that I go to work, I have the support of staff in this

beautiful building. I want to acknowledge that my current legislative

assistant is Cindy Tomnuk. She’s advancing and taking on more

responsibilities. And today is the first day that I have a new legislative

assistant. I’m sure that as he grows into the job and our relationship

grows, I’ll be very well supported by Quinn. He’s so new that I can’t even

remember his last name.

I want to acknowledge, too, that at home in Courtenay-Comox I have two

able constituency assistants who work hard every day to be the face of

government in the community, to help people through the issues that they

face and to make sure that the people in Courtenay-Comox know what is going

on. So my hands up to Leanne Rathje, who has been with me almost since day

one, and my current constituency assistant, who will not be with me too long

and also is moving up in the world, Matt Landry.

I also want to say thank you to my husband, who makes sure that I am

fed and watered, as he likes to say, and that I have clean clothes to wear

and that I’m packed and on my way to come down here to take up the

responsibilities of an MLA.

I want to also pay particular attention and pay tribute to our

Minister of Finance, because every year she has significant challenges. She

is steady at the tiller — one of the expressions that we’ve heard — and it

shows. It shows that she is thinking about how all these many pieces of the

puzzle fit together so that we can move forward.

I’m going to start by talking about something that we heard about last

year but is going to be implemented on October 1 of this year. That’s the

B.C. child opportunity benefit. We’re working hard to make life more

affordable, and this is a significant program that’s going to be rolling out

so that families who have one child in their family can earn up to $1,600 a

year. Two children will get $2,600 a year. Three children,

$3,400.

[1:45 p.m.]

That’s going to affect nearly 300,000 families in British Columbia who

are going to have more opportunities to put good food on the table, to have,

maybe, perhaps, a little bit of recreation time and grow a closer bond with

their families. It’ll give them opportunities to save to maybe go to school

once they finish grade 12. Those are the kinds of things that come with

these kinds of programs, remembering always that it is people who fuel our

economy. If we support those children today, tomorrow they’re going to be

our prosperous future.

This is just one of the programs that is building on what we’ve

already done in the last 2½ years. This year starting January 1, families

are saving up to $1,800 a year because they no longer have to pay MSP

premiums. That’s huge, because people suddenly can feel a little wiggle

room, and they’re not so much living paycheque to paycheque.

We’re also reducing child care costs. With the B.C. affordable child

care benefit, with the fee reduction initiative and with the prototype

centres that we have, families can save up to $19,200 a year. That, again,

is huge. We’re moving in the right direction to help families and to help

lift children out of poverty. We’re moving in the right direction, and it’s

showing.

I want to talk a little bit about housing. I had the privilege of

serving with the member for Vancouver–West End on the Rental Housing Task

Force. The work that was focused on renters is something that’s really

important to me. At home, when I was on city council for nine years, I sat

on many committees around housing. I helped initiate a housing task force,

because it was affecting our communities so much that we don’t have

affordable housing. The numbers of people on the street were growing — the

people who were visibly suffering from a lack of attention by the previous

government.

Suddenly, we’re starting to make a difference. In this past year we

opened up The Junction, which has 46 — maybe it’s 48 — housing units with

supportive wraparound services for homeless people. We have The Station,

which houses youth who are in need of housing. I thank the John Howard

Society, because they run both of those facilities.

We’ve also invested millions of dollars into the rental…. I can’t find

the name of it, but it’s a program where we are actually doing renovations

to a housing development that is housing people at a lower rent. It’s

something that…. For many, many years, they were not able to do any rehab on

that building. Now it’s happening and making the suites much more livable

and giving people a sense of dignity who live in the Ryan Road

apartments.

We also have a new initiative — this was just announced earlier this

month — with the HousingHub to provide low-cost financing to a developer

who, I’m very grateful, has come to my community and is building

middle-income affordable housing. We have people that work in our community

who can’t afford to live in our community, or they can’t find housing even

if they could afford it. So we need to find ways to move forward, and I’m

excited that the HousingHub continues to grow the opportunities for

developers to take advantage of such programs and to grow more housing for

more people who work and provide services in our community.

[1:50 p.m.]

I was told, “Well, maybe you don’t have the developers in your

community that can take on that kind of project,” but it’s happening. It’s

happening, and it puts a smile on my face when I know that the directions

that we’re taking are actually showing on the ground and making a difference

in people’s lives.

We already have, in the hopper, 23,177 units on the go. That includes

907 regional housing first program. These are the actual numbers. It’s not

money. It’s actual units in housing first.

And 679 for women in transition housing. This is important. This makes

a difference for children in British Columbia when the families are having

to escape violence, to have a place to go to and not be stuck at home in

that environment, or worse, homeless on the street.

We have 2,802 from the housing hub. We have the rapid response to

homelessness: 2,012. As I say, my community has benefited from that

one.

Deepening affordability fund. We have a housing project that opened

about a year ago called the Braidwood project. The costs were going up when

it was taking so long to build. It was going to impact the rents, because it

was 10 percent below market value. In fact, with the deepening affordability

fund, we were able to invest more into that project to make it more

affordable. We have 1,165 Indigenous housing fund units that are in

stream.

We promised so much, and we’re delivering. We’re not waiting ten years

in a ten-year plan to deliver. We’re delivering up front. We’re delivering

for the most vulnerable people in British Columbia first. I think that’s a

tribute to this government. I’m just really so proud to be a part of

it.

We also upped the ante for the affordable rental housing program.

That’s to the tune of 1,628.

Student housing. We need kids to get their post-secondary education,

because there is such a demand. You can support companies all you want, but

if you don’t have the workers, you’re not going to get anywhere. Many

students throughout British Columbia come from small places. They come from

far away. They come to centres where the colleges are, and they don’t have

access to housing. So we’re building 5,584 units now. Yes.

The supportive housing fund, 1,060. Community housing fund, 5,218. We

are starting to house seniors, families, single people. We are housing

youth. There’s a lot more to do, and this budget continues down that track.

We are not foregoing the help that’s needed today.

We do know that we have a global trade issue. We don’t live in

isolation. No man is an island. No province is an island. We actually have

to consider what’s going on in the world. We also have to consider what’s

gone on here with ICBC. But between the different pressures, the Minister of

Finance has managed to put together a budget that still sees…. It’s very

conservative and prudent to make sure that we don’t get ourselves into hot

water in the future, recognizing what the risks are and coming up with a

balanced budget. I’m excited by that.

I mentioned the students, student housing. I want to talk about a new

program that this budget introduces, which is the B.C. access grant. We’re

going to see…. I sit on the Finance Committee, and we have heard, year after

year, from students all across the province, saying that they want upfront

grants. They want to be able to access university. They don’t want to be

denied that opportunity to move into the next phase of their lives, and

upfront grants, which is what the B.C. access grants stand for, are opening

doors. People are really excited.

[1:55 p.m.]

I just read one comment that said: “This has been my whole career as a

student, fighting for those upfront grants.” Up to $4,000 a year per

student. That’s going to affect 40,000 students. That’s making

progress.

What else do we have in our budget? We’ve got a lot going on. I

mentioned that we’re finished with MSP premiums. We also have to have

infrastructure if we want to see communities grow, if we want to support our

kids, if we want to see companies and businesses thrive. We need to have

schools. We need to have good roads. And we need to have hospitals. All of

those infrastructure needs are being addressed every year by this

government. We continue, in this budget ’20-21, to support new

infrastructure growth.

I think that perhaps the biggest issue that we’re facing these days is

people that are trying to get to work and still afford their insurance,

their car insurance. We, as has been said many times, inherited a dumpster

fire at ICBC, and the work is being done to change that system. We’re

changing that system in a way that allows people to still get behind the

wheel and get to work — every single British Columbian.

The changes are a long time coming. Other jurisdictions are doing it.

It’s exciting to know that we are joining into a system that is going to

take away that adversarial atmosphere, where people have to wait to get

their benefits or, if they have to, borrow from their lawyer so that they

can afford to get the care that they need. People are going to get the

service that they need when they’re in trouble from an accident.

I’m sure we all know people who have been in an accident. I’ve been in

an accident. My brother’s been in an accident. People are hurt every day.

Luckily, numbers are going down. But it still is a challenge, and it’s a

challenge that we need to meet, not only for the sake of the people who are

injured but also for our economy, because if people get the care they need

when they need it, they can get better and get back to work

sooner.

Sometimes things seem isolated from the bigger picture, but in the

end, it’s all part of the same movement forward that makes for a prosperous

province, not just for a few but for everyone. I’m proud to live in a

province and a country where we do care for our most vulnerable. I know that

as we move forward, we will be able to continue to help people who are most

in need, that we will be able to continue to make those investments and know

that as we make life better for those among us who are most in need, we’re

making life better for ourselves as well.

One of the things that I wanted to talk about was reconciliation.

There are a few folks who are…. I won’t even repeat it, but they’re saying

things that are very negative and suggest that we’re at the end of a road.

We’re not. We are at the beginning. Last year I was proud to be in this

House when we passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Act. I am proud of the mandate of each minister to introduce reconciliation

and the rights of Indigenous people into all of the corners of government.

Most of all, I’m proud that we are, in the face of difficult times, still

stepping up, stepping up to work to build the relationships to heal the

wounds of the past.

We can’t undo what has gone on in the past. But we can make strides to

build a fairer, more just community, one where each and every one of us has

a sense of pride in the other and in our differences and in our needs — that

we continue to look after each other, with the mind that everybody has

something to offer.

[2:00 p.m.]

It’s exciting that we are supporting the revitalization of Indigenous

languages. It’s fundamental to a person’s cultural identity.

We are funding housing that’s both on reserve and off reserve, because

people, where they’re at, need to be served whether or not they’re on

reserve. They can’t find housing, so they come into an urban centre where

there’s no housing…. Build it where they are so that those communities can

be stronger and grow together.

We are sharing gaming revenue so that First Nations governments,

themselves, can invest in their priorities, whether it’s health and

education…. Everybody deserves to have governance that reflects their needs,

their community. This a big step towards that. It is an exciting time, a

difficult time, and that’s what we’re here for: to face those challenges and

move forward.

As the Premier said just a couple of weeks ago, I’m excited by the

increased investments for climate action. We have a movement of young people

today who are afraid for their future. They’re afraid that they’re going to

step into the adult world and are going to face challenges like never have

been faced before. They’re afraid, and they want us to take

action.

People want it today. That’s okay, but the fact is that things take

time to change. It means taking those investments today to make for a better

future, and we’re doing that. We are working with all stakeholders, because

everyone has a

part in shifting the way that we do business, in shifting the

way that we think about the world as we try to clean up our act and try to

reverse some of the damage — also, to lower the risks, like we are seeing

with, let’s see, condo insurance. I think that’s a really direct example of

how climate change is impacting people in their lives.

We’ve got to make changes, and we’re doing that. We’re investing in

electric vehicles. We’re investing in electric chargers. We’re investing

in…. It’s not sexy, but it is something that makes a big difference in

people’s lives, and that’s retrofits, where you have better insulation, get

better heating systems and make life more comfortable, number one, but you

also help reduce our energy footprint and start to make a

difference.

My kids are doing things that I didn’t teach them growing up. But they

are cognizant of the impact of some of the practices that they grew up with

and are changing. They’re changing for the better, and they’re sharing that

with others. I think that’s the kind of action that the youth of today are

expecting of us: making a difference in our day-to-day lives and making a

big difference in the broader picture.

For me, the most important thing for those youth is to have a sense of

hope. That is what the CleanBC program gives those youth — a sense that we

have intention, we have purpose, and we have targets. We’ve introduced

legislation so that we’ve got our finger on the pulse at all times to make

sure that we are moving in the right direction and making the

differences.

I mentioned some of the risks that the Minister of Finance has had to

face in developing a budget. One of them is around the fact that we are not

an island, that we live in this global marketplace. We have taken the

initiative to become a leader in climate change action, and we are

continuing to have that dialogue. We can do all that we want in this

province — all that we want. We can have the cleanest province in the world,

but it’s not going to affect climate change if we don’t have those

relationships outside and try to make differences.

[2:05 p.m.]

That’s why some of our policies are reflecting that, making sure we

recognize that we live in the global marketplace and that there are other

pressures that we have to deal with to see that global shift that we need to

see around climate change.

What else have we got here? Just taking a quick peek here, I want to

talk about post-secondary just a little bit. I took a while to get into

post-secondary. I couldn’t make up my mind as a young adult. My kids had the

advantage of being able to go to school out of high school and make great

lives for themselves, but I know that not everybody has that opportunity.

They found their niche.

As one of the other MLAs was mentioning last night, he got a degree in

history, but that didn’t get him a job. He had to go and learn some other

life skills to succeed in the world.

We have great need in this province for people who are trained for

jobs like health care assistants, early childhood educators. We need people

working in STEM. We need more women working. We need to remove barriers.

That’s why I’m so proud of the child care initiative, but I’m also proud

that we are investing in post-secondary education, not only the student

grants, but also creating more space, creating the opportunities for kids to

get ahead and for our economy to be fuelled by more people who have the

skills that we need into the future.

So 900,000 jobs over the next ten years. That’s kind of a scary

figure, so making sure that we take on those challenges is important, and

we’re doing that. We’re continuing to build in this budget on what we have

done for the last 2½ years. We have a ways to go, and we’re not going to get

there in three or four years. You know, we have ten-year plans for child

care. We have ten-year plans for housing. We have challenges in terms of

timing to get things to completion, but they’re on their way.

We’re building hospitals. We’re building schools. We can’t do it just

by throwing money at it. We need skilled workers. We need skilled workers to

take the jobs on.

Some things get done really fast, because they are able to bring in

lots of workers and work fast. I think that’s what I was reading happened in

China when they needed to make facilities for all of the people who have the

COVID-19 virus. They just brought in armies, and suddenly these hospitals

were up and running. We don’t have that advantage unless we actually invest

in the workers of tomorrow.

So there are just a few things. We’re investing more in education from

K-to-12 — more teachers, more special education assistants. We are investing

in more schools. We’re investing in making sure that the kids of today get

the opportunities that they need to advance up into post-secondary and bring

the skills that we need in this province.

With that, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak

to the budget of 2020-2021. I look forward to the next few months as we go

through estimates and learn more of the details around how the budget will

roll out. I look forward to the stories that I know we’re going to hear that

are going to tell us all about how much the budget ’20-21 is making a

difference in people’s lives, how we’re a stronger province and how we have

a bright future to look forward to.

Deputy Speaker: As we continue debate on the budget, I recognize the member for

Kootenay East.

T. Shypitka: It’s an honour and privilege to speak to this fifth session of the

41st parliament in my response to the budget. I also want to give

congratulations to the Speaker.

This is the first time I’ve spoken to you in your new role.

Congratulations on that.

[2:10 p.m.]

A few other congratulations, as well, going out to my staff in the

Kootenays, in Cranbrook: Heather Smith and Christy Wheeldon, for keeping it

all real down there; Krystal D’Sa, my LA here; and Ryan Mitton and Doug

Secord, working in the bowels of the Legislature, so to speak, and doing the

good work that they do.

My family, of course — my wife, Carrie; my kids, Dustin, Allie and

Adam; my new daughter-in-law, Julie; and my new grandson, Hudson. And of

course, all 39,852 constituents of Kootenay East that I represent so

proudly.

I also want to recognize my aunt and my uncle Steve Shypitka, who just

celebrated their 60th wedding anni­versary on January 11. I wanted to

congratulate them on that, get that on the record.

Budget 2020 is a reflection of the past four throne speeches, and I

was really actually quite shocked that there have been four throne speeches

already. We’ve heard the promises that the government has made on those four

throne speeches, all sounding quite similar from one to the next. The budget

for 2020 is a reflection on how they intend to accomplish these

promises.

I wanted to just kind of first remind everyone, just to set up the

budget, what those promises were and how they’re going to answer those

promises with this budget. Now, one of the first promises that we heard — it

was kind of the flagship of the NDP’s campaign — was that on affordability.

The NDP was great at identifying an issue that we all struggle with. Nobody

can deny that affordability is a big issue, but actions are stronger than

words.

So far, after four throne speeches and three budgets, we’ve seen very

little action. You’d think this far into a term that you would start seeing

the fruits of your labour coming true, and we’re just not seeing it in

British Columbia right now.

So just to highlight some of that affordability issue, according to

Demographia International Housing , Vancouver is the second most

unaffordable housing market in the world. It’s something you really don’t

want to be top of the charts on, and in fact, we almost are No. 1. We’re in

the No. 2 spot. I hope we don’t get to see the No. 1 spot.

The NDP also introduced 19 new taxes when they first got on board.

That’s about $5.7 billion, I believe, to the taxpayer. We’re seeing that now

increased to 23. We’ve just seen four new ones being introduced. It’s

another layering of tax. I’ll get to those four additional taxes a little

bit later on. But like I said, these taxes are up from $5.7 billion per year

since the last government was in place. But with this budget, the NDP

haven’t yet done taxing again, and they’ll increase to about $8.8 billion by

If you want to put that into perspective, I guess, on how that affects

the average home person, it’s going to add an additional $2,400 a year, or

there around, per family in British Columbia. An extra $2,400 a year per

family, to me, seems it’s going in the opposite direction of making things

more affordable and, in fact, that it’s actually making things less

affordable.

We’ve heard lots of talk on the MSP and the elimination of the MSP.

We’ve also heard, linked with that language, that it was the largest tax cut

ever. I always struggle with that. We can applaud on the other side, and

let’s hear it. But it’s a tax cut…. That’s very misinforming. By definition,

a tax cut is eliminating revenue from government in the form of taxation in

order to alleviate taxpayers from the burden of taxation. But we didn’t see

that with the MSP.

Of course, it was eliminated, but it was replaced with the employer

health tax. As a matter of fact, it’s more of a tax burden to the taxpayer

in a trickle-down effect that’s going to affect businesses, organizations,

you name it — hospitals, health services, police and fire services,

municipalities. That all gets burdened back to the taxpayer in one way or

another. To say that this is the largest tax cut in B.C. history, I would

argue, is a very strong misrepresentation of what that actually

is.

Despite the efforts to claw back spending, government expenses are

still over budget by about $550 million. They are big numbers, and people

should be concerned about that. Over $1 billion in infrastructure projects

promised in 2019 are now on hold. That was from the Q2 highlights from last

December.

[2:15 p.m.]

Spending with this government is up $11.4 billion per year since the

last government was in place. Even though it sounds like a catchphrase, “tax

and spend,” we’re seeing high rates of taxation and record amounts of

spending. So it’s not a catchphrase. It really is the truth here in British

Columbia.

The other big promise that came out that we don’t see reflected truly

in the budget here was the promise on affordable housing. In the last

election campaign, they promised 114,000 affordable homes in ten years. I

remember when that announcement first came out. I was actually on the

campaign trail. I was in Fernie, and I was debating against a colleague that

was running for the NDP party, and he blasted this out in the middle of our

forum. This was brand-new news. I hadn’t heard about it, but I quickly got

out my calculator, and I figured out, on the average, about $289,000 per

affordable home. At 114,000, that was going to be in excess of $30

billion.

I was quick to contest against my colleague and say: “Where is that

costed? Where is that costed in the NDP platform that you’re going to

miraculously come up with over $30 billion for affordable housing for

114,000 people?” He couldn’t answer, and to this day, the government can’t

answer.

We have seen, in the last fiscal three years…. By calculation — it’s

11,400 per year — we should see roughly around 35,000 affordable homes in

place right now, but we’re well shy of that mark. In fact, we’ve only got

about 2,400 homes to show for it. I’m not condemning those 2,400 homes; we

need them. But it’s a very light effort in the big promises that the NDP

made, and I just need to shed the light on these facts. We’re here to keep

government accountable, and these misrepresentations — I believe they’re

misrepresentations — should be highlighted.

To address the housing crisis, our party has always said to increase

the supply through free enterprise — you know, provide some incentives to

move the market in a positive direction — but what we’ve seen here so far is

just the opposite. The MLA advisory 2019 Year in Review states:

“Many larger-scale developments took a pause…​with less than 4,000

concrete presale units released in 2019, compared to over 12,000 in 2018.”

So that’s a decrease of — I don’t know — 75 percent, I guess. Yeah, this is

a 75 percent decrease.

Housing starts were down 40 percent last month. Prices in greater

Vancouver and even in Kootenay East are going up. Strata councils are in

crisis mode, as we’ve heard from many members here, as they watch their

insurance premiums skyrocket — in some cases, over 400 percent. That’s a

lot. That’s a big jump, and with no warning. This is according to the

Insurance Brokers of B.C. Affordability — it’s a big question

mark.

Speaking of housing, renters make up much of the marketplace, as we

know. What about the $400 renters rebate we heard about? That was another

flagship promise from this government, and it’s no longer…. It has

evaporated. It’s not in the budget anymore. It’s gone. Houdini would be

proud, but the people of British Columbia certainly aren’t.

That was a key initiative, and once again, I think we shouldn’t just

glaze over these broken promises. We have to really highlight them. I got in

some pretty heated debates over these promises, and I really didn’t have a

lot of answers, other than saying: “I don’t know how they’re going to do

it.” Now we’re finding out that they don’t either. So it’s just about

credibility.

On the renters rebate, you look at Vancouver, the single mother. Or it

may be in Kootenay East somewhere. It’s a good idea, but unfortunately, it’s

not happening. It’s gone now.

The other one. Let’s talk about the $10-a-day daycare. This was huge.

I don’t know if I should say this or not, but I almost got into a physical

fistfight with a constituent who was absolutely choked that I was going to

stand in the way of $10-a-day daycare. He actually pointed his finger in my

chest, slammed me and said: “How dare you get in the way of $10-a-day

daycare for my family? You’re trying to stop that.” Once again, like with

the affordable housing, I threw up my hands up. I said: “I don’t know where

it’s costed. I don’t know how they’re doing it.”

[2:20 p.m.]

Well, let’s look at the facts. Only 2,500 daycare spaces have been

provided, which represents about 2 percent of the total space. This is just

a pilot project. It’s ending in the end of March, March 31. But I’m sure

they’re going to pick up the slack on that. They’ve got to. They’re in a

situation now.

So those folks that got this $10-a-day daycare, I’m happy for them. I

truly am. I’m happy for them. But as some of those recipients, benefiters,

of this $10-a-day daycare have said, publicly: “It’s like winning the

lottery.” It truly is like winning the lottery. Two percent will get it; the

other 98 won’t. When you’re sitting in a jurisdiction or a community and

your neighbour is enjoying $10-a-day daycare and you’re on the same income

level, or maybe less, and you’re not…. Maybe you should have bought a few

more tickets, I guess.

What about softwood lumber, forestry in British Columbia? This was

another thing that rings really true to my area. In 2017, the then member of

the opposition for Langford–Juan de Fuca, now the Premier…. He flew into the

riding, into Cranbrook, with video entourage in hand, made a straight

beeline to the Galloway mill and, on his white horse, said he was going to

be the champion for softwood lumber. He was going to take his fight to

Washington. He was going to make sure the forestry industry was going to be

intact.

Since then, the Galloway mill has now closed. It’s been rebought. It’s

going to be repurposed. I wish them all the best of luck, and I think

they’ll do a good job. But meanwhile, there are 38 people that are not

working.

We just had a meeting in Washington not too long ago, last week or

two, with, I believe, five or six Premiers that went from across Canada to

Washington. The only one that was missing was the Premier from the province

that produces more softwood than any other province in the country. That was

the Premier of British Columbia. He wasn’t on that road trip.

Once again, locally broken promises, provincially broken promises. I

think people should see what is happening here.

Getting to the lumber piece of it a little bit more, the forestry

sector has done a nosedive. Nobody can contest that — 6,000 people out of

work, longest labour dispute in forestry history. People are hurting big

time. People are losing their homes. Their equipment is being hocked. For

some of these people in rural, remote areas of British Columbia, where are

they going? How are they supporting their families? More than 100

curtailments in the last year — eight months, nine months — ten permanent

and indefinite shutdowns. That was just in 2019 alone.

One of the ministers said: “It’s not a crisis.” I think it was the

parliamentary secretary said that there are too many mills. It’s more or

less just a big shrug and: “Oh well, things will kind of fix themselves, I

guess. It’s not our fault. We can’t really control global demand.” And: “We

can’t touch stumpage rates, because that is going to interfere with” — I

don’t know what you call it — “our agreements with the U.S.”

It’s just a shrug. There has been no support. There has been no

people, really, on the ground to reach out to the communities. Even just to

offer a sympathetic hug or anything like that would have been nice — for the

minister to actually go and take the heat. “Let’s work it out. How can we

help?”

What they did? They took the rural dividend fund away to help support.

This was a big, big deal for a lot of rural communities. In my community

alone, Ktunaxa Nation built a gas station with that rural dividend fund —

$100,000 they got. It’s improved the community. It’s given them a service

they all really needed. Now that’s gone.

[2:25 p.m.]

To make it worse, I believe it was the ministerial assistant or…. I

can’t remember. They actually had the audacity to call the rural dividend

fund a slush fund. Called it a slush fund. I looked up the definition of a

slush fund, because we use that term kind of loosely every once in a

while.

Wikipedia says: “A slush fund, also called a black fund, is a fund or

account that is not properly accounted, such as money used for corrupt or

illegal purposes, especially in the political sphere. Such funds may be kept

hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitimate

purposes.” The Cambridge Dictionary says that it’s “an amount of

money that is kept for dishonest or illegal activities in politics or

business.”

Interjection.

T. Shypitka: Is that a fair representation of what a slush fund is? Yeah. I mean,

what a disconnect. That’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. That’s a big deal for

us in rural B.C. It trickles down all throughout the province.

Instead of addressing the issue, we are one of the highest-cost

producers in North America for softwood lumber. We simply just cannot

compete. Stumpage rates, fiscal policy, carbon tax, EHT, regulation —

they’re all there. “Death by a thousand cuts” couldn’t be more appropriate

for what we’re seeing in the lumber industry right now.

These are just a few of the many broken promises that we’ve heard

through four throne speeches now, in a row, and three budgets. Budget

2020-21 ignores a big chunk of it.

I would also like to take a little bit of time to see how that relates

to my own riding — the budget. In my opinion, rural B.C. was provided a lot

of lip service by making statements such as — these are quotes that I took

from from the throne speech: “fixing the housing market.” Well, at the same

time in Kootenay East, we are seeing an increase in homelessness, and we’re

seeing certain housing and transitional care projects halted due to

political optics.

What I mean by that…. I’ll give you an example. In 2014, I was elected

to city council, and I was on a community council for homelessness and

transitional care. I won’t name the name of the organization. They don’t

need the publicity for it. But it’s well known. We made a plan to put some

transitional housing in place, wraparound services, all the good things that

we need in the community. It was going to provide about 30 beds. It was

going to be $5 million plus.

We worked on it really hard. We got the money, we got the land, and we

got the zoning. Everything was ready to go. This was right around election

time. A change of government. Things were ready to go. We held our breath,

and we said: “Well, we hope the new government will recognize what work

we’ve done.” We got a note back, and they said: “It’s a go.” I remember

high-fiving the proponents and saying: “Right on. We got it. That’s

excellent.”

A month later it came back with a caveat: we must provide a safe

injection site. Harm reduction has to be on site in order for this to go

ahead. Well, this was an abstinence-based, faith-based project. They can’t

do that.

We tried to find different ways of either busing people daily to

another site to bring them back, all kinds of things. “No, it has to be on

site.” That’s hard to swallow, when you’ve worked that hard and you see the

need that’s there — for government to use politics to make a decision on

something like that. It was a done deal. That’s a lot of people that are now

not provided that service.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

Statements such as “improving health care closer to home….” I heard

that in the throne speech — “improving health care closer to home” — when in

the East Kootenays, we were being denied access to Alberta and government

insists we travel to places like Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria. I can give

you a million stories here on this one. We have people that are in

remote….

[2:30 p.m.]

People think the southeast corner is actually not really remote. It’s

right by the U.S. border, right by the Alberta border. But we’re surrounded

by mountain passes on two sides of us, and on the third side, it’s fairly

wide open. That goes to Alberta, and it’s very easy to travel to. It’s not

impeded by the same problems that you see, to the west of us and to the

north of us, on mountain passes.

Of course, we’ve got a lot of support. When you’re talking about

family support, it radiates from where you live. The farther out you get,

the less family support you have. It’s really important to have

that.

We had one lady. She was pregnant and had twins, and she needed help.

They said that she was going to have to go to Vancouver to get it. This was

in late November or early December, and there was just no way she was going

to drive — pregnant 27 weeks — to Vancouver through six mountain passes in

the middle of winter. We worked really hard, and thanks to my constituency

assistants, we did finally get her to Calgary. But there were many others

that haven’t succeeded like that.

We really need to recognize our access to health care in remote areas.

We do hear about the northern bus and how they can get people around. But

Greyhound has been cancelled since the NDP got in, and those types of

transportation are now gone.

Statements that families are saving money, when all reports suggest

the opposite. I just talked about 6,000 British Columbians out of work in

the forestry industry. A lot of those were affected by the curtailments at

the Canfor mill in Elko.

There were statements that B.C. is investing in more police support to

keep people safe, when we’re seeing illegal blockades endangering people’s

lives and well-being. We saw what happened here a couple of weeks ago during

the throne speech. I want to send my respects to the staffers and the

members of the House that had to endure some of the taunting that they went

through.

I got a video, from my office, of six or seven staffers walking down

Menzies Street with about — I don’t know — 20 or 30 people behind them

spitting, yelling and banging drums. People that work here don’t deserve

that type of treatment. Nobody does. I can handle it myself, but for the

people that work here day in and day out, I apologize for what you had to go

through.

There was also a statement proclaiming that a lot more daycare spaces

were being created. Yet staff shortages in our area are resulting in the

closure of existing facilities.

For the third budget in a row, there was nothing from this government

on funding for proper wildlife management or biodiversity. This really cuts

to the bone of rural B.C. It’s totally unacceptable. I don’t want to make

this a partisan issue. Wildlife funding has been flatlined for 40

years.

We put no value on wildlife. We put value on lumber, timber, oil, gas,

agriculture. But we don’t put any kind of value on wildlife. We need a

holistic plan that’s going to recognize it, with biodiversity and ecosystem

restoration. It’s a big deal. And maybe that’s why it’s not in the budget,

because it costs some money. We don’t have any money to spend, and once

again wildlife is left out. I wanted to point that out to all the wildlife

stewards of the land out there.

I’d also like to clarify some of the other misinformation that some

people seem to think. I come from an area that has a lot of hunters, a lot

of fishers, a lot of recreators. That’s part of the lifestyle. That’s part

of the reason why we live in the Kootenays — to enjoy these things. When it

comes to wildlife management, people always seem to be quick to call out

hunters as being some kind of a barbaric creature that wants to kill

animals. It’s the furthest thing from the truth. You really have to

recognize the culture that’s within hunting communities.

They are, by far, the strongest conservationists you’ll find anywhere.

They’ll do more for wildlife than anyone in this room, bar none. They’ll be

the first group of people to rescue a herd of elk that broke through a

frozen lake. They’ll be the first ones to clean up a campsite or the first

ones to report a poacher. It’s a very strong community. They respect

wildlife. They want to create good atmospheres and good environments for

wildlife. We need to rely more on these stewards to come up with our

decision-making. That’s what I say about a holistic plan.

[2:35 p.m.]

I think we need three things. We need, obviously, funding — an

independent agency that can take in the funding for it. We need regional

management, people with boots on the ground that can make those decisions —

not Victoria. We need science-based decisions. The decision to cancel the

grizzly hunt was purely non-scientific, purely social licence–based. It was

an emotionally based decision that was to appease people on the Lower

Mainland, because they don’t understand the rationale of predator management

in areas such as the Kootenays. I know it’s a sensitive issue, but people

have to understand it. We have to talk about it.

When you have a carrying capacity that’s exceeded in an area — the

grizzly bears are too many — you can manage it in two ways. You can either

manage it in the back country — take out a couple of dominant boars and let

things kind of happen like that — or you can manage it in the low country,

in the front country, where COs, or conservation officers, will shoot them

in school yards and throw them in the dump. That’s what happens to

them.

It’s like our forest management practices. You can either do

prescribed burns in managed forests in a responsible way, or you can wait

and let it build up — like we’ve done over the last 70, 80 years — and have

these horrific firestorms that we’ve had for the last two years, some of the

worst ever in our history. It’s about managing, and predator management is a

responsible way to manage wildlife. People have got to understand

that.

My critic role is with mining, something I definitely have fallen in

love with in the three years that I’ve been the Mines critic.

Salt-of-the-earth people who just want to just work hard are an important

part of our economy. It’s one of the four cornerstones, as a matter of fact.

You walk down the hallways here, and you’ll see fishing, forestry,

agriculture and mining. You’ll see the pictures up here in the hall; they’re

beautiful pictures. Mining has been a cornerstone of our economy since day

one. It still is to this day. In this day of transition, when we’re going to

a low-carbon economy, mining is more important than ever.

We’re in a really exciting time in mining, but some folks call it a

sunset industry. They say it’s dying like the dinosaur. I heard the member,

a few minutes ago, talk about it. “We’re investing in electric vehicles.

We’re investing in electric chargers,” I think, is the exact quote she said.

Well, where do you think it’s coming from? It’s coming from the ground.

We’ve got to dig it up. We’ve got to mine it.

I come from an area that has four of the top five mines in British

Columbia, up in the Elk Valley. Teck Coal has the biggest coal deposits in

Canada out there — metallurgical coal. I’ve got to make that clear. This is

steel-making coal. This is to make steel. This to make electric vehicles and

electric charging stations and wind turbines.

It takes about 150 tonnes of metallurgical coal to make a wind

turbine. We need these things. We need to have a process free of

bureaucracy, free of red tape. We need some regulation. There’s no question.

We want to be responsible. I think we are. I think we’re probably one of the

most responsible jurisdictions anywhere in the world.

I mean, we could push our demand somewhere else if you want to shut it

down. We could push it to Russia, or we could chase it to China, Venezuela

or Congo. They might want to take up the slack a little bit. Why don’t we

keep it here? Why are we so opposed? We don’t we give ourselves a high-five

every once in a while and say: “Good job, guys”? Let’s be leaders here.

Let’s lead the green economy with British Columbia products. But we see

protests. We see misinformation on what mining actually is.

I was at a science fair once. The theme of the science fair…. It was

for kids from grade two to six, I believe. They were supposed to make a

little display on what they wanted to see the future look like. A lot of it

was solar farms and wind turbines. They’d have a red circle around a mining

truck, or a smokestack in the background with a big X on it. Beside it, they

would have this wind turbine with a big green circle around it. I asked the

kids: “Do you know that you need that to make that?” They had no

clue.

[2:40 p.m.]

I see I’m almost out of time, and it’s too bad. I had some really good

stuff to say there. But this budget doesn’t represent the promises made, so

I can’t support the budget.

B. Ma: Thank you to the member opposite for his comments. I am pleased to

rise and take my place in speaking about the budget for 2020. I love the

slogan A Stronger B.C. for Everyone. Budget 2020 — a balanced plan to keep

B.C. moving forward.

I want to congratulate the Minister of Finance for, once again,

putting forward a balanced budget. I know that it’s not easy at all. There

are so many wonderful investments to invest in, so many wonderful ideas. It

is a very rare occasion when somebody in my community comes up to me or

another MLA comes up to me with an idea that requires money that isn’t worth

investing in.

The desire to say yes to everything obviously can’t be something that

a Minister of Finance ought to do. I think she’s being a fantastic steward

for the province, and I want to thank her very deeply for the incredible

work that she is doing to make sure that B.C. maintains a very balanced

approach, a very fiscally responsible approach within government as

well.

I also want to thank all the folks, as many other MLAs do.

Deputy Speaker: Member, this House will be recessed for five minutes.

B. Ma: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

The House recessed from 2:41 p.m. to 2:44 p.m.

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

B. Ma: I’ve never had very much confidence in my public speaking abilities, but I

have to say I’ve never quite cleared a room like that before. Thank you so much

for allowing me to take my place again.

Before the break, I was about to…. Like many MLAs, I’m here because of

many people around me who support me.

[2:45 p.m.]

I’m very grateful to all of my staff, my constituency staff, back in North

Vancouver. There’s Mack, Shawn, Michelle, Julia and Nic. No, they’re not all

full-time, but I’ve had the pleasure of working with all of them over the last

year or so. I couldn’t do any of the work that I do for my community without

them.

I’m also very grateful to my volunteers, both the non-partisan office

volunteers that come into my constituency office to support the work we have

there as well as the partisan volunteers who support my work outside of the

office as well.

Like most MLAs, I know that this work is very challenging for family

members. In fact, it may be one of the toughest parts of this job — to be away

from family for so long, to not be able to be there for important dates like

birthdays and other celebrations and to always be working, day and night, all

seven days of the week. So I want to be very clear that I’m so grateful to my

family and, in particular, my wonderful partner, who supports me in every single

way that a partner could possibly support a person.

I want to say happy birthday to my grandmother, who just turned 90 years

old this year. That’s right — just as spry and feisty as ever. Of course, the

community who elected me to come here to serve them…. Well, I know that I’m

working very hard for my community, but I hope that I am doing work that they

can be proud of each and every day.

The reason why I became an MLA really came down to, well, a lot of things.

But a big part of it was watching my extended family, my friends and their

families struggle to make ends meet. The issue of affordability has been so

poignant over the last many years, and it has been spoken about a lot in this

Legislature by both sides of the House. It is not an easy issue to tackle —

absolutely not — but I believe that our government has been making a lot of

important steps, important and big steps, towards improving affordability for

people. We’re also improving the services that people count on, while building a

sustainable economy that we can be proud of.

Just in North Vancouver alone, we have been able to benefit or will be

benefiting from the Lions Gate Hospital acute care tower. We just opened up a

new urgent primary care centre. The UPCC has opened above my office, on the

second floor of 221 Esplanade, and thousands of people are already making use of

it. They have an X-ray right on site.

I get so much good feedback from people who have visited the UPCC. I heard

a story of a mother whose child became very ill one evening not being sure about

where they could take him, because they were very concerned for him, but it

wasn’t quite a life-threatening situation. Normally, they would take him to the

emergency room, because that would be the only option available to them. But

instead, they learned about the UPCC, and brought him to the UPCC as well, where

he was seen and treated within an hour. That same trip over to Lions Gate

emergency room would have probably eaten up many hours of their day. So many

family members have expressed to me their gratitude for this new service, so I

want to thank the Minister of Health for that.

We’re also seeing improvements and investments into public education and

secondary schools. We’ve got the Argyle Secondary School replacement, which was

funded — with much difficulty, I understand — under the previous government. But

we’ve also fully funded Handsworth Secondary School’s replacement, which I know

the community is looking forward to, and seismic upgrades at Mountainside

Secondary.

I’ve heard from a lot of my community members that they’re looking forward

to a new elementary school that hasn’t been committed to yet. But I know, in my

conversations with the Minister of Education, that he’s heard, loud and clear,

how important a new elementary school in the riding of North Vancouver–Lonsdale

is.

[2:50 p.m.]

We have seen quite a boom of child rearing, I guess, in the community.

We’ve got a lot of young kids entering elementary school, and we do see some

pressures that weren’t there just a couple years ago. It’s a big part of the….

Well, to be honest, it’s probably a good problem to have in that it means that

the city is thriving, that more families are moving towards the city centre,

especially at a time when the rest of the North Shore is actually hollowing out

because of rising housing costs. So I’m looking forward to continuing my work

for a new school, a new Cloverley elementary school.

Now, transportation continues also to be a major issue in the North Shore,

probably the top issue — another major issue, of course, being climate change,

which we’ll get to later on. When it comes to transportation, people every day

tell me about how difficult it is to get from A to B. On a near daily basis, we

are seeing congestion on the highways that spills out into the local roadways.

On a near daily basis, there are incidents on the highways, as well, that need

to be cleared.

I mean, generally speaking, when people are trying to move from A to B,

when they’re trying to commute in their daily lives, most people who drive can

handle a little bit of congestion, a little bit of volume and a little bit of

extra time when they’re driving to and from. But — and this is a big but — it

has to be predictable. When there are incidents on the roads and incidents on

the highways that cause backups that last for hours, it is impossible to plan

for commutes like that.

I’m really grateful to our government for all the work that they have been

doing over the last year — several years, actually — to improve

incident-clearing responses. That included a new contract for maintenance

services on the North Shore, which is producing results.

Of course, there’s a lot more to do. Much of what has been discussed in

this budget here, for Budget 2020, of course continues the incredible work that

we have been doing in supporting public transit infrastructure through­out

the region.

The North Shore has already seen benefits from some of that public transit

infrastructure. SeaBus sailings have been increased by up to 33 percent during

peak hours. Instead of every 15 minutes, you’ll see a sailing every ten minutes

during peak hours. We’ll also be welcoming a brand-new SeaBus this summer, and I

know that all members who represent communities on the North Shore, on both

sides of the House, are looking forward to that.

We’re also looking forward to the new Marine-Main B-Line that travels

between Phibbs Exchange over to Park Royal. That will be coming into place, and

it will be becoming operational in April. At the same time, in the same month,

we’ll also be welcoming a new express bus over the Second Narrows Bridge that

connects Metrotown to Phibbs Exchange without any stops in between; and at the

same time, a new shuttle to Capilano University, between Phibbs Exchange and

Capilano University.

All of this work couldn’t have been done without the incredible

partnerships that we’ve built over the last two years. Through the integrated

North Shore planning project, also known as INSTPP, we’ve been able to bring all

levels of government involved in transportation on the North Shore together

around the same table in order to produce a unified transportation plan for the

region. It’s been an incredibly successful initiative.

I’m just realizing now that I use the word “incredibly” a lot, so I

apologize for that. I’ll try to find some different adjectives to use going

forward. But it is a really…. Fantastic is another…. That is an incredible

adjective, fantastic.

Interjection.

B. Ma: Splendiferous. I’ve not used that one. It’s been a splendiferous

partnership between municipal governments, provincial governments, the federal

MPs that are around the table. We’ve got the port authority, we’ve got the two

First Nations involved and, of course, TransLink as the regional transportation

authority — all working around INSTPP.

INSTPP, which was completed back in 2018, produced a suite of

recommendations that all of these governments have now been working on together

to implement over the last year, and it will continue forward in the

future.

[2:55 p.m.]

The next iteration of INSTPP is called Next Step, NXSTPP. It doesn’t stand

for anything, because I couldn’t figure out the acronym. I just decided that

Next Step made sense. Your first step is to get everyone in step, and your next

step is to do the next steps of what INSTPP recommended. That will be led by

Mayor Mary-Ann Booth of West Vancouver. I’m grateful to her for standing up to

fill that role.

One of the recommendations from the INSTPP report was to study a rapid

transit connection between Lonsdale city centre and downtown Vancouver. I’m so

excited that we were actually able to launch that study last year. The province

is in partnership with the district of North Vancouver, the city of North

Vancouver, the district of West Vancouver and the city of Vancouver, and they

are now undergoing the first technical feasibility study into a rapid transit

solution for the North Shore ever.

It actually is also the first serious look into a third fixed link across

Burrard Inlet since the 1960s. That’s, of course, the first fixed link of any

kind. In this case, we’re focusing on rapid transit. But back in the 1960s, they

probably would have focused more on vehicle traffic.

There’s still much more to do, but we look forward to being able to share

the results of that study — or at least, parts of the study —

shortly.

Now, aside from transportation and recognizing that there’s still a lot

more to do on transportation, housing continues to be a serious issue on the

North Shore. So I’m glad that Budget 2020 continues its focus, government’s

focus, on improving housing affordability. On the North Shore, we have already

been able to benefit from some of the investments that have been made in

previous budgets. For instance, the Kiwanis housing society project for seniors

— 106 very, very affordable units — just broke ground a couple of months

ago.

I know that oftentimes when community members hear “affordable” housing,

they think: “Well, $1,800 a month for a one bedroom or a studio is not

affordable.” I totally agree, which is why I’m really grateful that the money

that this government puts towards affordable housing projects and affordable

rental projects includes the community fund….

To be honest, I don’t remember the exact name of the fund. But there’s a

housing fund that funds projects with a specific rent-ratio requirement. So

basically, out of the entire project, 30 percent of the units are below-market

rental, which I understand can be quite a big range. But 50 percent of the units

are rent-geared-to-income, which means that the rent actually fluctuates

depending on the household income of the family that lives there, and that is

crucially important. It means that those families in those units will never have

to pay more than 30 percent of their income in order to have secure

housing.

Then the last 20 percent of these units are slated for those requiring

deep subsidy. Deep subsidy would include clients of disability and income

assistance. That means that, for them, rent in these units is as low as $375 a

month, and that is incredible. I don’t personally know of any units right now in

my riding…. Maybe there are some, but it’s not common at all to find units for

$375 a month.

Having said that, even with these new projects underway out on the North

Shore, it’s not enough, quite frankly. We need so many more units. There are so

many people who are struggling to make ends meet. I meet with seniors, low- and

middle-income families and individuals all of the time who express how worried

they are about not being able to survive the next rent increase, about what

happens if they are evicted because their landlord wants to take back the unit

or if the building is redeveloped, and they can’t find anywhere else to

go.

That’s why Budget 2020’s continued focus on building the housing that

people need is exceptionally important. I support that very, very deeply.

There’s so much more work to do. There is so much good work that has already

been done, but there’s so much more work to do. I know that on the North Shore,

the three municipalities are actually actively working on additional projects

with B.C. Housing. I look forward to being able to share more information about

that when they get to a point where we can actually talk about it

publicly.

[3:00 p.m.]

I mean, on housing and affordability, I think it’s also important to

acknowledge that families of all income ranges suffer from challenges of

affordability, and it’s not just those family members. I mean, in my community,

in the city of North Vancouver, the median household income is about $67,000 a

year, which is actually lower than the provincial average. People don’t often

know this about a riding like North Vancouver–Lonsdale, because the sense of the

entire North Shore is that it is a very affluent area. It is true that there is

a lot of affluence in the North Shore. But in the riding that I represent,

specifically, there are also a lot of struggling families.

But again, it’s not even just those who you might classify as low- or

middle-income earners. Even higher earners are struggling to find a place on the

North Shore because housing costs are simply so high.

I do want to acknowledge one piece that I’m certain — well, I know — has

been brought up quite a bit, and that’s around taxes, income taxes. I’m really

grateful that under Budget 2020, building on the work of Budget 2019 and Budget

2018, this government has been able to, overall, reduce provincial taxes on the

vast majority of families. So families making less than $100,000 a year, for

instance…. Even they will enjoy reductions of general income taxes. Of course

with the elimination of MSP premiums, that has lifted a huge burden off of

families that used to have to pay MSP premiums, especially, in particular,

seniors and individuals as well.

But I do acknowledge that there is a tax rate increase for individuals who

earn above $220,000 a year. I want to acknowledge it because I know that nobody

likes to pay more tax. While half of the increased revenue will be brought in by

people earning over $1 million a year, I do also want to acknowledge that

individuals making $220,000 a year are not necessarily millionaires themselves,

yet they will also be contributing more to our society through this

tax.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s a very good wage — nearly four times more

than the median household income in the city of North Vancouver. But it’s

important to acknowledge that the real wedge in inequality these days has

actually more to do with property ownership and how long ago you purchased your

home when it comes to the average household wealth, or the wealth that the

average household has. It has a lot more to do with property ownership than

wages.

So tackling inequality requires progressive income taxes but also measures

like the speculation and vacancy tax, which takes into account the percentage of

worldwide income that families are reporting here in B.C.; the additional school

tax on homes over $3 million; and the actions that this government has made in

order to lift the veil on hidden ownership, which is sometimes used by property

owners to hide from taxation authorities.

All of that work is really important, and it all works together in order

to try to reduce the inequality that we see here, the extreme inequalities that

we sometimes see in our province and around the world as well.

I want to talk briefly about child care, because it’s come up a few times

now. I actually have a pilot project, one of those $10-a-day pilot project

daycares, in my riding. The families who are fortunate enough to have children

there have told me the most incredible stories. Magnificent stories — I’m still

looking for other words other than “incredible.” But they’ve been able to tell

me how much $10-a-day child care has changed their lives. It is a program worth

expanding.

Of course, not everybody has $10-a-day child care yet, but currently in

B.C., over 20,000 families are, in fact, accessing child care for $10-a-day or

less, and tens of thousands more families are benefiting from the thousands and

thousands of dollars of child care subsidies that have been rolled out over the

last two years.

[3:05 p.m.]

There was one family that I met. Her children are grown now. But she is a

single mother of four teenagers, household income of $40,000 a year. The stories

that she tells about how difficult it was for her to actually to find a safe

place for her children to be while she was out making wages in order to put food

on the table are just harrowing. Every day she would leave her children,

wondering if they would all be safe, wondering whether or not she had done the

right thing and wondering whether there were other more extreme options that she

should be considering.

One of the things she expressed to me was how grateful she was that other

families in B.C. who are now in her situation, with younger children, won’t have

to worry the same way that she did.

Now, are we done the work around child care? No, of course not. We’ve only

just started. It’s been about two years, and there is a lot more work to do. But

again, it is a valuable program that is changing lives, that is good for our

economy, because we’re getting people back to work. That’s really good when

we’re actually suffering from a bit of a skilled labour shortage in our

industries right now.

I’m also very excited about the child opportunity benefit, which will kick

into gear this fall. We had announced it, I believe, about a year ago. But the

implementation took a little while because we needed to work with the federal

government on changing up how…. I guess it’s a tax thing. I won’t get into it

right now. But through the child opportunity benefit, we’re expecting to be able

to lift even more families out of poverty.

I’ve got this wonderful little highlights book here. Let’s see. I can flip

over to the page about the child opportunity benefit to make sure I have the

numbers right. So starting October 1, 2020, nearly 300,000 families are going to

be able to benefit from the new B.C. child opportunity benefit, which is a

tax-free payment for families with children under 18 years of age. Families who

are eligible for the child opportunity benefit will be able to receive this

funding every single year while their child is under 18 years of age.

These new monthly payments will help families with basic necessities like

food and clothing, further reducing child care costs and making opportunities

like sports and arts possible. Under this program, families with one child can

get up to $1,600 a year, families with two children can get up to $2,600 a year,

and families with three children can get up to $3,400 a year. This is in

addition to the child care subsidies that they are eligible to apply

for.

So as a reminder, there are three affordability programs. There’s, of

course, the pilot project that I mentioned, of which I have one in my riding.

There’s also the child care fee reduction program that reduces child care fees

by up to $350 per month. That is not an income-tested program. It actually just

depends on the agreement that the child care provider has with government. Then

the third program, which is an income-tested program, offers a subsidy of up

to…. Oh, I want to make sure I have this right. I believe it’s $1,250 per month

per child, depending on your income. Those families making less than $45,000 a

year are eligible for the full amount, but families making up to $111,000 a year

are also able to benefit. So it actually is quite a large range for a social

program providing subsidies based on income.

Oftentimes when people think about social programs providing subsidies

based on income, they expect the cap-out amount to be quite low — $50,000 a year

for your entire family household or so forth — but this is actually

substantially higher than that.

I know that I’m running short on time here. I don’t see the green light

coming on, but I do want, before I run out of time, to touch base a little bit

more about CleanBC. In Budget 2019, B.C. invested, put in, $1 billion in order

to help CleanBC meet its targets. Now, one year later, in 2020, we’re actually

increasing that by nearly 40 percent. It’s an incredibly important investment as

well.

[3:10 p.m.]

I mean, all of these investments are important. But we can see what’s

happening across the country, across the world with young people rising up,

talking about how the old ways of doing things aren’t good enough and that we

need to be doing more in order to save our planet, to save their futures and to

basically leave future generations with an environment that is much better than

the one that we inherited. We’ve been hearing this from young people from all

across the world, and it’s imperative that we actually listen to

them.

Now, CleanBC is an excellent economic environmental framework. It is the

most aggressive climate action strategy in North America right now. That’s the

good news. The bad news is that, really, what B.C. is doing is the absolute

minimum that every single province, every single state, every single country

should be doing. So we need a CleanBC for every province across the country, and

then all of us need to do even more after that. But in the meantime, I am very

pleased with the work of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. I think

that he has really, really put his back into this work and brought B.C. to the

head of North America in terms of climate action.

Is there more to do? Absolutely, as there is more to do on all of the

topics that I have discussed today. That’s why I’m so pleased, so honoured and

humbled to be able to stand here in these chambers to lend my voice, so grateful

to be able to lend my voice around the government caucus table and to do the

work that it will require, that my community requires of me in order to try to

make their life better.

I know that I’m not perfect. I know that I have lots to learn. But I’ve

been learning a great deal from all my colleagues and also from my colleagues

across the way. I see the member for Skeena there, for instance. I actually am

very grateful — I have expressed this earlier — for what he brings to this room.

I’ve learned a lot from him. I’ve learned a lot from the Minister of Advanced

Education, Skills and Training. I’ve learned a lot from the Leader of the Third

Party around issues relating to Indigenous people, issues relating to

reconciliation.

I don’t think I ever believed that I could learn so much in such a short

period of time, and I have every single person in these chambers to thank for

that. With that, I’ll take my place and allow someone else to speak for a

while.

D. Davies: It is my pleasure today to rise and give my response and a little debate

on this unaffordable budget.

Before I begin, though, I’d like to start by thanking all of the

constituents of Peace River North for giving me the honour to represent them in

this great place.

In the face of this government’s, again, grossly unaffordable budget…. It

is lacking so much for the people of my riding. I take this responsibility to

represent them more seriously than ever. As their representative, I will take

whatever action I can to make sure that I can help provide a stronger and

brighter future for not only constituents today but future generations to come,

to make sure that the communities of North Peace are brighter for all of

us.

I want to, first of all, thank my family — my wife, Erin; my son, Noel;

and my daughter, Hana — for the motivation and inspiration that I get from them

to be here. As well, I do draw a lot of inspiration from my children in guiding

me, because I do a lot of this for them. I do a lot of this for this next

generation that is coming up to make sure they do have a bright future with hope

and prosperity.

I must thank my constituency staff: at my office in Fort St. John, Tamara

Wilkinson, as well as my auxiliary staff, Jamie Ross; at my Fort Nelson office,

Kim Eglinski and auxiliary Julie McNeice. I’d also like to recognize all of the

folks here in Victoria that do a great job helping us out: Nick Heinemann, Dion

Weisner, Sam Burgess and Stephanie Marshall-White.

Peace River North has a variety of industries: oil, gas, forestry,

agriculture, mining, tourism. These industries are all well-paying industries

that support families. They are the backbone of the economy of British Columbia

and the backbone of Peace River North. They are an integral part of our way of

life in the north.

[3:15 p.m.]

Unfortunately, that is why this budget is so troubling to me. I do feel

that the future of British Columbia, which is really, I’d say, the envy of

Canada and the strongest province, is being threatened right now. It seems as if

it’s this government’s plan to keep making big promises while doing nothing.

These promises cannot be sustained, and they are not being sustained or followed

through on. Combined with declining revenues, no real job creation incentives

and topped off with — we’ve heard this over and over again — 23 new taxes, it

means trouble for the northeast and for all British Columbians.

You know, this throne speech gave me very little reason to be optimistic

this year. It was read, I guess, two weeks ago now. I opened up the throne

speech with this. If I had to choose a word to describe this throne speech, it

would be “empty.” If I could choose more, it would be “vague, void, lacking

substance.” It shows little regard for rural British Columbians. But I will use

“empty.” That is what I opened up the throne speech for. I see now, as we have

this budget that has been presented and that we’re talking about today, that it

fits in just lovely with that comment. It really worries me.

What was supposed to outline the government’s vision for the province has

actually left very little vision at all. After almost three years of the NDP

failing to keep big election promises, people across the province continue to

hear empty words and see no action from the Premier in this 2020 budget.

Daycare, the $10-a-day daycare; the renters rebate; portables in Surrey; just

general affordability — these are just to mention a few of the promises that

were made and that have yet to be kept.

The Premier told the people of B.C. they could expect decisive action on

affordability and climate change. We have not seen that. He told them we could

expect significant improvements on housing and child care in the province, and

an open and transparent government. We’ve seen anything but that. Budget 2020

confirms that this Premier has no intentions of keeping these promises that he

made almost three years ago. Most of them have been completely

abandoned.

It’s another tax-and-spend budget — or, I should say, a tax, tax,

tax-and-spend budget. There’s no real plan — this is what really worries me — to

grow British Columbia’s economy and let people get ahead. The only real source

of revenue that we see in this budget is a deep interest in the taxpayers’

pockets. There’s no private sector jobs plan. There’s no plan to meaningfully

grow the economy.

For any of these promises that have been made, they’re destined just to be

a fancy flash in the pan. Even the name of the budget, “A stronger B.C., for

everyone,” seems more like a mean-spirited joke, in my opinion. Hiking taxes

means ratcheting up prices, at times when many communities are falling, already,

on hard times. “Making life more affordable” is something we hear from

government. We hear it over and over again. It is the furthest thing from the

truth.

I’ve talked about no growth in the economy. Oil and gas, forestry, mining

and even agriculture are facing challenges. Think about that. Let that sink in.

There’s no real talk of growing British Columbia’s economy in this budget. These

sectors I mentioned are the lifeblood of this province — extremely important to

Peace River North and really, of course, the whole province. As I mentioned,

North Peace has an incredibly diversified economy with incredible potential.

Despite the steep price tag that this budget has presented, my biggest worry is:

where are my children going to see a future in a resource sector that covers

almost 90 percent of British Columbia?

[3:20 p.m.]

Fort St. John is often, typically, associated mostly with the oil and gas

industry, which is no doubt very important to the residents as well, as it does

contribute a significant amount of revenue to the province. But we also do have

a forest sector, which I will admit is struggling, like many others are around

the province. As well, we do have the largest agricultural region in the

province. We have approximately 1,800 farms, which produce $100 million

annually, including 90 percent of B.C.’s grain and 95 percent of B.C.’s canola.

Also a big producer of livestock — the largest bison herds in the province, as

well as llamas, alpacas and wild boars.

But this budget, just like last year’s, seems a little scant on

agriculture issues. More regulations that, in essence, are regulating farmers

out of farming. I have many people that have come into my riding and wondered

how they were going to continue farming, how they were going to pass their farm

on to their kids. That is a travesty.

Burdening farmers with regulations and taxes is going to do much more harm

than it is good, certainly in my riding of Peace River. The North Peace can

claim the historical and current centre of B.C.’s oil and gas industry, but the

harder you make it for resource industries to flourish, the more likely it is

that people are going to move elsewhere. We’ve seen that already happening —

people moving elsewhere, people leaving British Columbia to seek better

opportunities in other parts of the country.

It goes back to not demonstrating growth in the economy, which we don’t

see in this budget. The resource sector has been ignored. British Columbians

already have very little left in their paycheque once they’re finished. I’m

worried that if we don’t see an increase in our resource sector — a boost in

forestry, oil and gas, mining — how are we going to pay for our hospitals, our

schools, roads and bridges? Taxes are not the way to go.

Interestingly, here’s a little foreshadowing. The ministries that are

responsible for mining, oil and gas, forestry — which are the money-making

ministries, the ministries responsible for these industries that create revenue

— have all been significantly cut. Now, what is that sending out to anybody who

wants to invest in British Columbia? Almost $70 million has been cut from Energy

and Mines. Nearly $106 million from the forestry budget, FLNRO’s budget — that’s

nearly 11 percent of their budget that has been cut. What kind of a signal are

we sending?

Competitiveness. I have talked about competitiveness in my throne speech….

We have heard lots of talk about competitiveness. We are last on the continent

when it comes to competitiveness. Yesterday was Mining Day. Probably everybody

in this House had a presentation by the folks from the Mining Association. It

should be a time to be celebrating an incredible resource, as my colleague from

the Kootenays…. Kootenay south? He had talked about mining being one of our

founding industries here in this province. But there’s grave concern in that

industry, as there is in other industries.

I heard an interesting word yesterday while we were meeting with folks:

regulatory complexity. Regulatory complexity is killing investment in our

province. I couldn’t agree more. I could not agree more. We’ve seen this

complexity. It isn’t just in B.C., but we’re probably number one in the

country.

We saw the Teck Frontier mine being put off yesterday. Unfortunately, we

see some members on that side of the House celebrating this, celebrating this

multi-billion-dollar investment in our country, an investment that would have

had an incredibly positive impact on British Columbia.

[3:25 p.m.]

Of course, Teck is a British Columbia company, employing thousands of

people across the province, many in Vancouver. We have a member, Vancouver

Lonsdale, applauding this as a win. I see a tweet from David Suzuki today — a

win.

What kind of message are we sending to the investment community that we

want to come here? Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s oil and gas, mining,

forestry. What kind of message are we sending to the world? These capital

dollars can go anywhere else in the world. But when we have members of the

government applauding these multi-billion-dollar opportunities that get turned

down, that is a shame.

I just want to mention a little piece out of this pamphlet we got from the

mining association yesterday, and it’s quite interesting when you look at the

positive impact to the Lower Mainland. These are the mining companies that are

located…. There are 55 companies in North Vancouver — mining companies or people

associated with the mining industry companies. Vancouver has got 485 companies;

Burnaby, 104 companies; Richmond, 110; and the list just goes on and

on.

It’s an incredible impact. If I were holding a pamphlet from gas companies

and forest companies, it would be very similar. These resource companies truly

are the foundation of this province and provide an unbelievable amount of

opportunity for all British Columbians.

In the northeast, it gets cold. It gets really cold. I flew home, not the

last time, but two weeks ago. I left here, and I think it was about 9 degrees. I

arrived back in Fort St. John, and it was minus 24. We’ve had a cold winter this

year. January was probably one of our coldest winters on record. We hovered

around minus 30, with a couple of minus…. Actually, I think Prince George beat

us out as probably one of the coldest places on the continent — 50 degrees below

zero or some ridiculous number like that.

We were 40, and it was locked in there for two weeks. My furnace I don’t

think shut off the entire two weeks that we were at that temperature. I’m going

to be blessed with an increased carbon tax coming up on April Fools’ Day. I wish

it was a joke, but it is not — $45 a tonne coming up in January, and it’ll be up

to $50 next year.

You know, I’ve had lots of people…. I can attest to it, because I get a

PNG bill as well. I think PNG is only kind of up in the northeast. There are

only a couple of spots they’re at. But I get my gas bill, and I usually have to

make sure I’m sitting down when I open that envelope up at my house. And this is

just an example. This is probably not a good example to use. But I look at the

consumption charges of the natural gas itself. It comes in at 14 bucks. Then I

go down to the carbon tax: $75.60.

We are penalizing and continuing to increase this penalty for those of us

that live in the interior of B.C., especially up in the north, that must use

this natural gas to heat our homes. We don’t have a choice. Well, we could go

with electricity, but then we would be having to take out a loan to probably

just pay for our heating bill.

Additionally, I live in a vast region — I’ve said it many times in this

place — almost 170,000 square kilometres. Many people have to drive out, in the

resource sector, great distances. I know people that drive two hours a day just

to get out to their worksite. Even for me, when I travel in the riding, I’m five

hours to drive to Fort Nelson and nine hours to drive up to Liard or up into

Muncho Lake.

[3:30 p.m.]

We see nothing but costs going up — the cost of fuel continually

increasing. We’re penalizing people that are already hurting and trying to

survive through a tough environment. We can’t afford these mass tax increases.

We cannot afford them.

This government has dragged its feet on the softwood lumber dispute, three

years now. We’ve heard recently…. I think it was five Premiers that went to

Washington to talk trade and to talk about the softwood lumber. Where was our

Premier? He wasn’t there.

[S. Gibson in the chair.]

You know, for communities like Fort Nelson, this is a situation that just

keeps getting worse and worse. I mean, this community as well as all the other

communities in the north that I represent — Taylor, Fort St. John, Hudson’s Hope

— are all heavily dependent on the resource sector. The town of Fort Nelson is

getting really hit. You know, there are hopes of a forest industry returning.

But I’m not too sure if that can happen with the inaction on the Forests

file.

There’s an amazing natural gas reserve in the Northern Rockies. But I’m

not too sure if that will ever be realized, because this government seems

blatantly opposed to any oil and gas initiatives.

I think this is a story that will become more common, not only in the

north but across the province, unless the government comes up with a solid jobs

plan to help out these communities. Part of this job plan is going to need to be

looking at how we can incentivize, how we can make British Columbia competitive

again so that companies will come and invest in towns like Fort Nelson. Many

things that we talk about here…. A robust resource sector is critically

important to funding projects.

I just want to take a second to talk about roads up in the northeast, up

in my area. I talked about the size of my riding, and many people have to go to

work on rural roads. Whether you’re hauling logs, whether you’re going out to

access a well, whether you’re going out to your farm, many people live on these

roads and use these roads every day.

In this budget, we didn’t see, or I haven’t seen, any real investment in

the north, in the northeast. We’re trying to get a bridge. I appreciate that the

government is doing some consultation this year on replacing the Taylor Bridge,

but no long-term plan of what that looks like — some time frames on the Taylor

Bridge. We do hear about other bridges in the Lower Mainland but nothing about

the Taylor Bridge, no advancement and no major mention other than the money that

is given annually anyways on improving the rural roads in the

northeast.

We have roads in communities like Baldonnel where school buses can’t

access and pick up children because the roads are in such disarray, especially

with the thaw coming. Emergency vehicles cannot get to these homes if there’s an

emergency. I’ve written the minister numerous times, on these roads, to come up

with some sort of funding, but nothing.

British Columbians aren’t getting ahead. Life is less affordable than it

has ever been before. This budget is basically being balanced on the backs of

hard-working British Columbians, and it’s not fair. Twenty-three new or

increased taxes in just shy of three years.

[3:35 p.m.]

I haven’t even mentioned the Netflix tax. That’s the one that I believe

the member for Langley had mentioned, talking to some folks. That’s the one tax

my parents talk to me about and their friends are talking about, the streaming

tax. Talk about reaching into pockets. You want to watch Netflix. I mean, it’s

very expensive to go out and watch a movie. A lot of people have these streaming

services. In fact, I’d be probably safe to say everybody has a few of them in

their house — Disney+, Netflix, Crave, NHL channel. I’m sure my friend from

Chilliwack has probably got the WWF Channel. I think there’s probably a WWF

Channel.

Interjection.

D. Davies: There is? There you go. Or the How to Barbecue Meat Channel. It’s all

taxed now. Just tax that. Enough with the taxes. We need to have a different

plan. That plan is not in the 2020 budget.

Unfortunately, there’s no idea of how to even create jobs. Every single

economic indicator right now in Canada is pointing in the wrong direction for

this province. That is a startling sign. Whether we’re talking job losses in

seven of the last eight months…. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

Life is not getting more affordable for British Columbians. I guess I have

a question. Are you getting ahead under the NDP? I know that many folks in my

riding certainly are not. This budget, if anything, is an ominous sign of

hardship in the resource sectors and the communities that they support and all

the communities that I represent in Peace River North.

The tax increases only serve to worsen this hardship, and there doesn’t

seem to be any plan to move past it through a jobs plan or growing the economy.

This government needs to do better. It is deeply frustrating….

Interjection.

D. Davies: Member, I’m sure you’ll have an opportunity here next to talk.

It’s deeply frustrating to me, to the people that I represent that they,

apparently, aren’t planning to do anything for my children’s future as we move

forward.

It’s been a pleasure to be able to deliver some remarks on this budget. I

certainly will not be supporting the budget, as, to me, it threatens the north.

It threatens rural communities. Until we see that changing around, I have grave

concerns as we move forward. With that, I will conclude my remarks.

J. Brar: I am pleased to speak to you today about Budget 2020-2021, which is all

about the work we are doing together to build a stronger B.C. for everyone. I

will come back to the Budget 2020 debate in a couple of minutes.

First, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to people who have been

part of my political journey. I exist in this House because the people of Surrey

continue to elect me — a fourth time — as their representative. That is

certainly a rare honour for me and for my family.

Therefore, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to the people of

Surrey-Fleetwood for giving me the opportunity and for putting their faith in

me. My heartfelt thanks to my two staff members Navneet Kahlon and Deanna

Fasciani at the Surrey-Fleetwood office and Gurbrinder Kang in the Victoria

office.

[3:40 p.m.]

They are exceptional people and doing excellent jobs serving the people of

British Columbia and assisting me on a day-to-day basis.

Last but not least, thanks from the deep inside of my heart to the love of

my life, my friend and my beautiful wife, Rajwant Brar; to my daughter, Noor;

and my son, Fateh, for their unconditional support to me.

Coming back to the budget, Budget 2020. Budget 2020 is good for the people

of Surrey. The people of Surrey have made a lot of progress during the last 2½

years, and Budget 2020 is our plan to keep Surrey moving forward. We are putting

the people of Surrey first and making different choices than the previous

government.

The B.C. Liberals made choices that benefited the top 2 percent of wealthy

people, and they forced the middle-class families to pay more for everything.

They failed to build the much-needed infrastructure and improve services to meet

the needs of our fast-growing community. B.C. Liberals left the city in a big

and ugly mess, and we are fixing the damage their choices created and investing

in the problems facing families in Surrey today.

There are good things happening in Surrey, and we want everyone to be part

of it. We have, indeed, made huge progress in the city of Surrey, bigger than

the last 16 years, in just 2½ years.

Interjections.

J. Brar: Members are heckling on that side. Just listen to me, what I’m going to

say, and you can challenge that. Let me tell you what we have accomplished in

just 2½ years, if you’re ready to listen.

We eliminated the tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and Golden Ears Bridge,

saving a driver who commutes every day approximately $1,500 a year. B.C.

Liberals, the members talking on the other side, forced the people of Surrey to

pay the tolls when they were in power.

We have eliminated MSP, saving individuals around $800 and families up to

$1,800. B.C. Liberals are planning to bring MSP back. They’re planning to bring

MSP back.

Interjections.

J. Brar: At the last B.C. Liberal convention, they passed a resolution to bring MSP

back.

We have committed 40 percent funding for the mayors’ vision, which

includes SkyTrain in Surrey. The B.C. Liberals refused to fund SkyTrain during

their time.

Interjections.

J. Brar: Yes, you did. You can challenge that too. You did.

We are building the Pattullo Bridge. That was completely ignored by the

B.C. Liberals for 16 years. Nothing was done.

We have eliminated the interest on B.C. student loans, making education

affordable for our students. B.C. Liberals failed to do it. In fact, tuition

fees went up, in some cases, about 300 percent during their time. That’s what

happened.

We have built a new urgent primary care centre in Surrey to reduce the

wait times.

[3:45 p.m.]

We have funded the construction of 7,200 new seats in the first 2½ years,

and that is equivalent to about 12 new elementary schools. The B.C. Liberals

only funded one school in the last four years, between 2013 and 2017.

Interjections.

J. Brar: You can challenge that. But these are the facts.

We have opened 160 modular supportive housing units to address

homelessness on the Whalley strip.

Interjections.

J. Brar: I know it’s hard for the members on the other side to listen to this

because they hadn’t done anything to improve the city of Surrey for 16 years —

anything. I can put my record against their record any day.

We have also funded over 1,200 child care spaces in Surrey during the last

2½ years, and the list goes on. Clearly, Surrey made huge progress during the

last 2½ years under the NDP. Budget 2020 is our plan to keep Surrey moving

forward.

Budget 2020 is providing funding for three new elementary schools and one

new secondary school, and five existing schools will get funding for seismic

upgrades and for building additional student seats.

B.C. Housing is providing $29 million in capital funding to build a

130-unit transitional housing project located at 9810 Fox Glove Drive in

Surrey.

Surrey hospital. We are moving forward on a new Surrey hospital. This

hospital is full steam ahead, with the concept plan approved by the Treasury

Board and with the….

Interjections.

J. Brar: Just wait for what I’m going to say. Just wait. Listen. Listen to what I’m

saying. You will have the opportunity.

The business plan is currently under development. Land has been acquired

beside Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Cloverdale. Once the business plan is

completed, a dollar figure can be attached in the government capital

plan.

Members on the other side, particularly members who have served in

cabinet, know exactly what the process is. They know exactly what the process

is. The final cost is expected to be between $1 billion and $2 billion. We are

building a new hospital in Surrey. That’s going to happen.

But let me tell you their story. In 16 years, the B.C. Liberals were never

— never, ever — serious about building a new hospital in Surrey. Never. History

speaks for itself.

Interjection.

J. Brar: I am telling you. The B.C. Liberals delayed the Surrey hospital.

Particularly, the Leader of the Official Opposition delayed the new hospital in

Surrey. As the Minister of Citizens’ Services in 2013 and ’14, he sold a parcel

of properties near 152 and Highway 10 in Surrey that was acquired by the B.C.

NDP government in 1990 for a new hospital.

In fact, in 2005, Gordon Campbell held a campaign event at that site,

promising to the people of Surrey to build a second hospital. But the B.C.

Liberals delayed their promise for years, and then permanently abandoned the

idea in 2014 when the Leader of the Official Opposition, now the Leader of the

Official Opposition, sold this site.

[3:50 p.m.]

It is very, very interesting to note that the Surrey Liberal MLAs remained

silent and continued to refuse to stand up for the people of Surrey. They were

silent when the land was sold. They were silent when the project was sold. They

never said a word. But now somehow the hospital has become important to them,

including the member for Richmond-Queensborough, who somehow has some interest

in Surrey. He said not a single word when they cancelled this

project.

Instead of accepting responsibility for their actions, these MLAs,

including the Leader of the Official Opposition, are constantly misinforming the

people of Surrey, about the budget and about the new hospital, on a Punjabi

radio program. That’s what they’re doing. They’re spinning the news. That is

misleading. That’s misinformation. The B.C. Liberal leader repeatedly and

deliberately provided false information to the listeners on RedFM a few days

ago.

Interjections.

J. Brar: I know that it’s hard for them to listen to this whole thing. I know that

it’s hard. Look at the misinformation….

Interjections.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, can we have order, please.

J. Brar: When the B.C. Liberal leader repeatedly and deliberately provided false

information to the listeners on RedFM a few days ago, he claimed there is

nothing in the provincial budget for the residents of Surrey: “Well, the word

‘Surrey’ was mentioned once. The budget document is a definitive document that

is used by the Finance Ministry. It’s used by the bankers. It is a statement of

the financial spending for the next three years. There is not one single word

about Surrey schools, Surrey SkyTrain, or Surrey hospital in the

budget.”

He said these words on RedFM. Mr. Speaker, look at this. This is very

interesting. I know it’s painful to listen to this. Look at this: in a space of

20 seconds, the B.C. Liberal leader provided false information four times — four

times. No one can break that record of the Leader of the Official

Opposition.

False information No.1: “Surrey was mentioned only one time in the

budget.” That’s what he said. The reality is that Surrey was mentioned six times

on pages 2, 11, 15, 43, 49 and 50. Surrey is also mentioned five times in the

budget speech. The members know that.

False information No. 2: “There is nothing for Surrey SkyTrain.” The

reality is that we have committed to 40 percent funding for the mayors’ vision,

which included SkyTrain in Surrey and a SkyTrain extension. Budget 2020 includes

the expansion of the SkyTrain fleet and upgrades to stations and facilities in

Metro Vancouver — page 44.

False information No. 3: “There is nothing for Surrey schools.” The

reality is that Budget 2020 provides funding for three new elementary schools,

one secondary school and five existing schools — funding for seismic upgrades

and for building additional seats in schools.

False information No. 4: “Surrey hospital is not mentioned.” The reality

is that the Finance Minister mentioned Surrey hospital specifically in the

budget speech.

[3:55 p.m.]

Someone has said: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe

it.”

Interjections.

J. Brar: People said: “That’s right.” That’s what they’re doing.

Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, the member on the other side…. The people of

Surrey will never believe the misinformation being provided almost every day by

every member to the people of Surrey. You know, people will challenge

it.

Interjections.

J. Brar: Well, keep listening. Keep listening.

Now, members are talking about promises. I don’t want to go there, but

I’ll go there. These are the members sitting on that side. They promised to the

people of British Columbia, in 2013, you know what thing? A debt-free B.C., a

$100 billion prosperity fund. Where is that? Zero dollars for prosperity funds,

and the debt was more than it was before, under them. That is their record. I

can go on, on that one, if they want.

The people of Surrey know that we have done way more than they had done in

16 years, in just 2½ years. Budget 2020 is about making life more affordable,

improving services people count on and creating good jobs and opportunities in

every corner of the province of British Columbia. We cannot go back. We need to

keep moving forward. There is more to do. Now, B.C. has the best economy. The

member who spoke before me was very concerned about the economy, because in 16

years, these members said to the people of British Columbia that they were the

only ones who knew how to run the economy.

Well, let me tell you some facts about the economy. Our economy remains

the best in the country. B.C.’s labour force and labour market was a source of

strength last year. Employment increased by 2.6 percent in 2019, with a total of

65,400 net new jobs created, of which 45,700 were in the private sector. B.C.

was among the leaders in employment growth across the nation last year. For the

fourth consecutive year, B.C.’s unemployment rate remained the lowest in Canada,

at 4.7 percent, in 2019. Those are the facts.

B.C. is projected to be among the top in real provincial GDP growth,

ranking in 2020 and ’21 well above most of the provinces, and we have a triple-A

credit rating. Budget 2020 is a balanced plan focused on the priorities of the

people of British Columbia. I know it’s painful for them to listen to this, but

that is a fact.

Infrastructure money. Budget 2020 projects historic investments in

infrastructure. Budget 2020 projects a record level of three-year capital

funding to expand and sustain provincial infrastructure over the three-year

plan. This includes capital investment in schools, hospitals, roads, transit and

housing. That will benefit communities across the province and support a

sustainable economy for everyone.

[4:00 p.m.]

Over the next three years, our capital spending will total $22.9 billion,

helping to create well-paying jobs in communities throughout the province;

ensure access to services people depend on, like health care and education; and

support our trade corridor and businesses to keep goods and people moving. Work

on the approved projects in our infrastructure plan is expected to support over

100,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction.

Budget 2020 continues investment in affordable housing. Making housing

more affordable also remains a key priority for government in Budget 2020. We’re

working hard to tackle the housing crisis by addressing speculation, closing

loopholes and cracking down on fraud, making renting more secure and building

more affordable homes for people across the province of British Columbia. We put

our Homes for B.C. plan in place in 2018 to work with partners to build

114,000 affordable homes with a historic investment of $7 billion over ten

years. This plan will create more than 54,000 jobs.

Budget 2020 makes post-secondary education more affordable for students.

Over the next decade, more than 860,000 new job opportunities will open up

across B.C., and more than 75 percent of these jobs will require some

post-secondary education and training. With new opportunities in every region,

it is critical that British Columbians have access to the training and education

they need to benefit from B.C.’s momentum.

Last year in Budget 2019, we eliminated the interest from all new and

existing B.C. student loans. We did that. Budget 2020 takes the next step in

making life more affordable for B.C. students. A new needs-based, up-front B.C.

access grant will remove barriers to education and provide support for students

to complete their studies. The new grant will benefit more than 40,000 students

in B.C. attending public colleges and universities.

Budget 2020 provides funding to create more child care spaces. In 2018,

Childcare B.C. was launched to bring affordable, accessible and quality child

care to families across the province. In less than two years, government has

funded more than 10,400 new licensed child care spaces and has helped parents

save thousands of dollars through the affordable child care benefit and child

care fee reduction initiative. Investment for our total child care program

funding will reach a record-high $2 billion over the next three years. The

growth in child care funding will continue to create thousands of child care

spaces, reduce costs for parents and support the workforce that our kids rely

on.

Budget 2020 provides the new B.C. child opportunity benefit to parents. As

announced as part of Budget 2019, government will implement the new B.C. child

opportunity benefit this fall. This will help to make sure that children in B.C.

have the opportunity to thrive. The benefit provides a tax-free payment, putting

more dollars in the pockets of low- and middle-income families, with benefits as

high as $1,600 a year for the first child and higher benefits for larger

families.

[4:05 p.m.]

The new benefit provides support until your children turn 18, with

families receiving up to seven times over your child’s lifetime — up to $28,000

for one child and up to $40,000 for two children. The child opportunity benefit

is a historic investment that puts more dollars in the pockets of middle-class

families.

Budget 2020 also provides historic funding for K-to-12 education. Kids in

British Columbia deserve the support needed to set them up for future success.

High-quality K-to-12 education has been a priority for this government from the

very beginning. We are improving our schools to give our kids a better start. We

have hired 4,200 more teachers and 2,000 new education assistants, and we have

announced more than 80 capital projects for building and expanding and upgrading

schools — 80 capital projects.

We have also opened 100 new playgrounds. The funding the Liberals had

completely denied to the parents…. But we have provided that funding. We have

opened 100 new playgrounds, benefitting over 25,000 children. Budget 2020

provides the Ministry of Education with $339 million over three years to

continue to support the K-to-12 education system. This brings the total

investment to over $20 billion over the fiscal plan for education.

Budget 2020 provides $1 billion additional funding for health care, making

sure people can get health care when and where they need. Health care continues

to be a key priority, with over $1 billion in additional funding over the next

three years. This builds on previous investment we have made to give people

faster and better access to the day-to-day health care services they

need.

We are opening new urgent primary care centres in B.C. In communities

across the province, seniors are benefitting from better primary care, home

health, long-term care and assisted living. People are getting the surgeries and

diagnostic procedures they need faster. Wait times for hip and knee surgeries

are falling. And the number of MRIs being done each year has increased by over

23 percent. We are also improving access to PharmaCare by reducing or

eliminating deductibles for 240,000 B.C. families with net income under

$45,000.

In the last two years, we announced investment for 13 new hospitals.

Thirteen new hospitals — that is historic. I know that’s why the members on the

other side can’t see that this is going to happen. There’s more and more to

come.

I would like to conclude by saying that I am very, very excited to support

Budget 2020.

D. Barnett: On behalf of my constituents of the Cariboo-Chilcotin, I am pleased to

provide some thoughts on the 2020 provincial budget. I would like to begin by

giving thanks to the staff of this institution. First, security staff have had

extra duty over the past few weeks, and they deserve our thanks for exercising

patience and careful restraint. My thanks also to the staff in all ministries,

who spent many days, I’m sure, preparing a so-called balanced budget under

guidance from the Ministry of Finance.

[4:10 p.m.]

On this side of the floor, I want to say thank you to our opposition

caucus staff, including legislative assistants, research officers and our

communications department. My deepest appreciation, also, to my highly dedicated

and very caring constituency assistants in 100 Mile and Williams Lake. Finally,

thank you always to my constituents, who have been heavily impacted by flooding,

mill closures and the fallout from two record wildfires in the past few

years.

We were hoping for some relief in this budget, not only for the Cariboo

but for all of rural British Columbia. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In

fact, many are being heavily impacted in a negative way by this budget. They are

being impacted by this government’s policies, and they are facing an increasing

burden of regulations and red tape.

As a matter of fact, whenever a member on this side of the House raises

legitimate questions about a policy or action by the government, like clockwork,

we are always met with a partisan reply. All we hear on this side of the House

is: “Sixteen years of uncaring rule by the B.C. Liberals.” Well, 16 years when

the previous government was in power, and the biggest tax cuts in the history of

the province were brought in.

We slashed B.C.’s personal income tax rate across the board by 25 percent.

That was easy to do after the dismal decade of the 1990s and year after year of

tax increases and fudge-it budgets from the NDP. By paying less tax, the

previous government made life more affordable for 16 years, but this government

has brought in no less than 23 new taxes or increased taxes in less than three

years.

In the 1990s, I was a mayor. My fellow local governments were begging the

Minister of Forests with help with the outbreak of mountain pine beetle. At the

time, pine beetle could have been mitigated — maybe not totally contained, but

mitigated. Yet the NDP government of the day said: “We can’t log in class A

parks.” Well, the pine beetles did not pay any attention to park signs, and the

rest is history. Due to inaction on the part of the NDP, pine beetles spread

like wildfire. The Minister of Forests at the time also cancelled a timber

licence in the Chilcotin, which shut down Carrier Lumber, devastating

communities throughout the region.

Last week’s budget, which is a tax-and-spend budget, contained little hope

for people in my region. As a matter of fact, the budget was delivered more than

a week ago, but I’m afraid that very few British Columbians really took notice.

They may have heard about a few tax increases, such as the new soda pop tax and

the new tax on Netflix, but what overshadowed budget day was the very large

presence of 1,000 forestry workers who appeared on the front lawn of the

Legislature.

We are talking about hard-working people and their families who have been

devastated by the worst crisis in the forest industry in over 40 years. They

were here to send a clear message to government: the rising costs of production,

coupled with falling timber prices, have created a perfect storm of devastation

for forestry workers and their families and communities.

Many of the people who showed up on the front lawn of the Legislature were

among the 3,000 forestry workers and contractors that suffered through the

strike at Western Forest Products. Nearly eight months long, this was the

longest strike action in the history of the forest industry. Both the company

and average forest workers were well aware that negotiations were at a

standstill. People begged the provincial government to act, yet the NDP chose

instead to sit on their hands and do nothing to offend their union

bosses.

[4:15 p.m.]

This is unacceptable. When two parties arrive at a standstill, government

has an obligation to act. Workers were having their trucks repossessed. People

couldn’t afford to make mortgage payments. Marriages broke up. Earlier this

week, I described how people took matters into their own hands. Volunteers put

together a mobile food bank, Loonies for Loggers, just to help people cope.

Again, we’re talking about hard-working people and proud people. The volunteers

knew they had to park on side roads, because many of those in need didn’t want

to be seen accepting help in a time of need.

And what did this government do? Nothing. It is obvious that the NDP no

longer represents ordinary working folks, nor do they care for what happens in

rural British Columbia. In order to come up with some kind of response to the

crisis in the forest industry, the NDP tore apart existing programs and invented

an early retirement program. If the government truly believes it’s helping the

situation by cancelling existing programs for their $69 million early retirement

program, guess again.

I heard the parliamentary secretary bragging about the fact that they have

received 500 applications. Well, that’s just great — 500 people being told to

wait and sit on their hands to find out if they are eligible. This is nothing to

brag about. There are thousands more out of work in the forest industry. Just

spend an hour in one of my constituency offices in Williams Lake or 100 Mile

House. My assistants will tell you that your program is not working. If you are

a forest worker on the coast, you are out of luck, because only Interior workers

qualify. How’s that for fairness?

The problem is that most people still want to work. One of the programs

the NDP cancelled in the name of this $69 million program is the rural dividend

fund. This represented $25 million that went to rural communities every year to

assist them with diversifying their local economies. Over 300 local government

applications were applied, and they were told that help is not here. So sorry —

you are not a priority for this government. That was last year.

Budget 2020 doesn’t seem to even mention the rural dividend fund. As a

matter of fact, those in the forest industry, including many in my riding of

Cariboo-Chilcotin, were looking forward to seeing a comprehensive plan to save

the forest industry. D