First Session, 42nd Parliament

(2020) OFFICIAL REPORT

OF DEBATES

(HANSARD)

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Afternoon Sitting

Issue No. 7

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

Second Reading of Bills

Bill 3 — Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020 (continued)

J. Sturdy

G. Kyllo

J. Tegart

A. Olsen

A. Wilkinson

R. Merrifield

B. Stewart

D. Davies

B. Banman

D. Ashton

K. Kirkpatrick

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020

The House met at 1:32 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Orders of the Day

Hon. M. Farnworth: I call continued second reading de­bate on Bill 3.

Second Reading of Bills

BILL 3 — FINANCE STATUTES

AMENDMENT

ACT, 2020

(continued)

J. Sturdy: We were talking before the break about building the economy, about

having a plan and the concern I have about the fact that we don’t really

seem to have a plan, and the importance of the public sector and the

investments that government has made recently — supported, I think, in

large part, by both sides of the House — but understanding that those

services, be it in health care or education, don’t come for

free.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

People and businesses pay for those services through their taxes.

In order for this to be sustainable, to ensure that we don’t go back to

the days of consistently paying operating costs with debt, we need

healthy businesses that have the confidence to hire people, the

confidence to invest in equipment and facilities, the confidence that

investments in productivity will pay off.

For that confidence to be solid, to allow people to plan for the

future, it’s imperative that they understand where their government is

going, because businesses are buffeted by many things, I think, as we

all understand, often outside of their control, and COVID is obviously a

dramatic example of that. What businesses don’t need is to be sideswiped

by government. This is what concerns me about this bill. The goal of

this bill appears to be to further delay laying out a plan, delay

sharing intentions with people, delay letting people know the nature of

the framework that they are going to be operating in.

I really don’t see the need for this. The previous Minister of

Finance anticipated a need to defer submission of a budget in the years

following a fall election.

[1:35 p.m.]

This was canvassed extensively during last summer’s session, and

our critics understood the need and recommended support for the measure,

which was duly passed.

So what has changed? Well, we have a new Finance Minister. Perhaps

she doesn’t expect to be up to speed at the same rate as her

predecessor. This is unfortunate. It doesn’t serve the people of British

Columbia, the families and businesses around the province that are

increasingly desperate for measures, supports and guidance that give

them the confidence that this government has a plan and is ready to act

to help them through this devastating pandemic and beyond.

The bill before us will allow government to delay introducing the

next budget for months, from typically the end of February to the end of

April. A full month into the new fiscal and two months after what has

been the practice for decades.

While it’s certainly easy to see how this bill will benefit

government, it’s hard to see how it will benefit the people of British

Columbia or the organizations that serve them. School districts around

British Columbia, for example, will be at the point of needing to submit

budgets to the ministry without knowing how much money they can

ex­pect to receive.

Health authorities, at the front line of the COVID pandemic, will

be well into their next fiscal in a year of crisis and pressure and

demand and at a time when stability and certainty are incredibly

important. They will have no idea how much money they will have to

access, while they’re already 8 percent into their annual

spend.

This is also true for every ministry across government. As much as

$6 billion would have already been spent in a normal year, where budgets

are made public in February. While they may not have been passed in

advance of the end of the fiscal, it gives ministries guidance for what

to expect. This is important, be it in the above-mentioned education and

health care ministries, which comprise over half of the provincial

budget, but also in ministries which rely on the summer season to get

things accomplished.

I think, for example, of the Ministry of Transportation and

Infrastructure and their need to act during a limited building season,

to action safety improvements during a short construction window. Can

contracts even be let or responded to in time for critical work to be

done? Will contractors and bidders respond to this delay and that

much-shortened construction season? Will they even respond, not knowing

what jobs will be there? Will they, perhaps, take other

opportunities?

As they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If you

don’t know what the budget looks like, you don’t know what projects are

going to happen.

I think of B.C. Parks, a very important entity in West

Vancouver–Sea to Sky. There are 17 provincial parks in the riding, some

of which are the busiest parks in British Columbia. These parks are

under enormous pressure to manage visitation due not in the least to the

fact that they’re exceptional places but also to the fact of their

proximity to Metro Vancouver.

These parks saw a budget cut last year. Will this again be the

future of B.C. Parks? How can park managers plan to make badly needed

improvements? Will they get another $2 million slashed from their budget

in this coming year? How can they plan for that? What can the response

be? Well, I suppose they can limit access, limit services, limit

maintenance or just close it down, like Joffre Lakes Provincial Park,

one of the most iconic areas in the Sea to Sky, one of the prettiest

places in the province. It has been closed for nine months. The

government messaging is that it will be closed for the foreseeable

future, including this winter.

If the B.C. Parks budget is cut again, it’s hard to imagine how

B.C. Parks will react, although the proposal coming from government to

date has been to start charging for day use in provincial parks. This

has been floated as the future of Joffre. Given that there are many

other busier parks in British Columbia and, certainly, on the south

coast, it seems that this could be a plan for general implementation,

even while it’s hard to square with making life more affordable for

British Columbians.

[1:40 p.m.]

Regardless, even if they do plan on reopening Joffre Lakes

Provincial Park, by the time the budget is presented and passed this

coming year, it’s hard to imagine how B.C. Parks will have the time to

action those needed improvements, much less hiring and training parks

staff, especially the seasonal ones, which we understand have been

woefully and inadequately trained to the point of WorkSafe coming down

hard on B.C. Parks with provincial orders. There’s a limited time in any

season for ministries like Parks to respond, and this bill will just

ensure that they have less time, which does not set up anyone for

success — quite the contrary, in fact.

From what we can see, this is a bill that will limit government

transparency and accountability, while also delaying needed supports

from getting into the hands of British Columbians. Christmas is coming,

as we all know — an unusual Christmas to be sure, one unlike any other.

It’s just a few weeks away. It’s a time that, typically, families spend

together in celebration. We know this year is going to look very

different.

We’re all being asked to make sacrifices for the greater good.

What we are looking for out of government is confidence. We are looking

for certainty. We are looking to this government for a plan, for

reassurance that we can make these sacrifices and government will be

ready to support us. Families and businesses need solutions and hope and

an understanding that we have a collective vision for how we’re going to

respond and recover together.

However, this Christmas the offer of government is just to suggest

that the people of B.C. hold on a couple extra months. It will almost be

summer before we know what the budget is proposed to look like and what

the plan this government has for the people and businesses of British

Columbia. All that government has to offer is delay. All they have to

offer is that help is two months farther away. Honestly, that is not

good enough.

The official opposition’s job is holding government to account and

to try and ensure that government is serving the interest of the people

of this province. Support and certainty and a hope and desire to see

beyond what have been some of the most difficult times that British

Columbians have ever seen is what the people of this province want and

need.

Now, I’ve been working with the hospitality and tourism businesses

in the Sea to Sky for years now. In fact, I have certainly been involved

in and owned one. We all understand the cyclical nature of these

businesses, and we are seeing unprecedented times.

Whistler once saw huge fluctuations in the flow of traffic over

the course of the year. High season and low season made it very

difficult to build capacity. The resort would be jam-packed and then

empty. Staffing was incredibly difficult. Businesses desperately needed

workers, and then overnight the resort emptied, and it was hard to carry

those staff. Giving staff certainty and giving businesses certainty is a

prime driver for the resort and the region. It’s good for staff. It’s

good for owners, and it’s good for the guest experience.

Years ago work began on filling up those off-seasons. Conferences

and events, Cornucopia, the Whistler Film Festival in the fall and the

World Ski and Snowboard Festival in the spring. These type of events and

others filled up the off-season, which kind of transitioned into what we

call the shoulder season. Over the years, that shoulder season has

shrunk and almost disappeared, up until this year. Especially with the

recent travel restrictions, all bets are off.

This fall has been brutal. Hotels which would be running over 50

percent or 70 percent are near empty. Restaurants that would have been

able to carry a full complement of staff through the fall and into the

busy winter are empty and shutting down. Whether we’re going to have a

busy winter again is an open question. In fact, I think, increasingly,

we’re skeptical that that will be the case. Tour operators are all but

closed. Storefronts are emptying. Independents are a vanishing breed, as

the chains are the only ones with the capacity to survive, and even they

are stretched.

[1:45 p.m.]

These are the type of people that want and need support right now,

and we want to do everything in our power to get those supports into the

hands of these businesses and people as soon as possible. It has been

well understood and talked about broadly that the tourism and

hospitality industry has been hammered over the last nine months, and

the fact that government saw fit to form a task force acknowledges that.

Yet to date, they really haven’t done anything meaningful to support the

industry, beyond supporting marketing budgets. There’s nothing targeted

to support tourism businesses, many of which are small operators who are

desperate. This is beyond disappointing and reinforces the narrative

that this government doesn’t have a plan.

This has all been emphasized in the final report of the Tourism

Task Force, which became publicly available yesterday. Given that the

generation of the report was, in fact, managed and written by the

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, with an assistant deputy minister

who actually sat on the committee as an ex officio, it’s pretty rich

that the current minister claims she only knew yesterday of its

recommendations. That does, in fact, stretch credibility.

Mr. Speaker, I will provide you with an excerpt from the executive

summary of the task force report, and I hope the minister finds this

instructive:

“The pandemic has left the tourism industry in a precarious

position. Many businesses are now facing closure as reserve funds and

credit run out, and thousands of members of the workforce are

unemployed. Funding is required NOW” — and that “now” is actually in

capital letters — “to ensure that there is a tourism industry for the

workforce and the visitors to return to.

“Our discussions with business owners and workers were productive,

but many are feeling desperate. A large number of tourism operators and

job holders have fallen through the cracks of previous and current

relief programs. People love the industry and want to build careers in

tourism but are worried there won’t be work for them when tourism

recovers.”

Well, unfortunately, the best this government could do with this

bill that we are discussing today is to tell the tourism and hospitality

sector to “wait five more months until the budget is presented, and then

we’ll see if there’s anything there for you.” I hope the task force

comments don’t prove to be prescient — that by the time there is

recovery, the businesses will have disappeared and the jobs along with

them.

We’re going to raise some additional important questions and

concerns during this bill’s debate and the committee stage that follows,

because it does come as something of a package with the supplementary

estimates that will follow and will allow the election payoff cheque.

But we’re already beginning to see how things change.

To begin with, the government is asking for more money to increase

the scope of the payment. Clearly, getting supports to as many people as

needed is important, but it’s becoming pretty clear that this was made

up on the fly during the election, and it’s now being shown how poorly

designed it is.

The idea that this election benefit cheque will go to people based

on their income from 2019 is bizarre. Businesses had a good year in

2019. It wasn’t great, but it was pretty good. This year is devastating,

but that will not be considered in the provision of supports. Last year

there were plenty of jobs. This year it’s a catastrophe. So those who

need it most likely won’t be eligible. Was that an ill-conceived notion,

I ask you? Well, I would say it’s worse than that. It’s

perverse.

Looking specifically at Bill 3 rather than the estimates — as I

mentioned, last summer the House amended this statute, already delaying

the requirement to submit a budget to the House by a full month. This

change took place last summer, for exactly the same reason they’re

looking to change it again today. It was designed to give the Finance

Minister more time to generate a budget in the case of a fall election.

One would hope that that was a coincidence that such an amendment would

be generated a mere month before the Premier broke trust with his

partners and called a snap election, which they claim was only decided

on in September, although that assertion does stretch

credibility.

[1:50 p.m.]

However, if we accept that this was simply coincidence and this

wasn’t a duplicitous government scheming to ditch their partners, it

does reinforce the notion that there hasn’t been and isn’t now a plan in

place, given that they got their wish, ditched their partner and then

realized they needed more cover.

During the summer, when they claimed to need extra time to put

forward a budget in the case of a fall election, government made the

case that a new government would need to get up to speed and get a

handle on the books. It was the same argument that was used for changing

the election date from spring until fall so the Auditor General’s report

would be available.

All of this may have merit if the government is changing out

completely, but this is simply not the case today. In fact, we have

essentially the same government that amended this legislation during the

summer. Why do they now need more time? Why was it good enough then —

and after all, they did propose it and put forward the legislation — but

not good enough now? Could it be just simply poor planning?

The consequence is that by giving themselves a couple of extra

months, much-needed pandemic supports and clarity on where this

government is going are further delayed, and the hardest-hit sectors

continue to flounder.

This is the only piece of legislation that this government is

bringing forward in this short session. This is the reason that

government has called us back, to avoid accountability, to give

themselves the authority through special warrants to spend outside of

legislative oversight, to spend billions of dollars without the House

having a chance to debate and examine and hold them to

account.

Government claims they need somewhere between $1.3 and $1.7

billion to pay off their election gift. Quite a range. But why do they

now need $2 billion? That’s somewhere around $300 million to $500

million, just spare change, not accounted for, spend it as you like.

Just expected, so it seems.

This government is manufacturing the authority to delay budgets

and spend funds without legislative scrutiny and without oversight. The

idea that they can cloak the province’s finances at a time when they

should be striving to be as transparent as possible is disappointing. It

should be a red flag for the future. Transparency and accountability are

simply a slogan, or so it appears, and the Premier’s comments about

limiting the opposition’s access to freedom-of-information requests just

drives home the point. Disappointing, to say the least.

This is a time when, if we were truly in this together, the

government would think it was time to share with the House our

collective financial circumstances and together put forward a plan for

the future. But the reverse seems to be true. This bill seeks the

opportunity to spend $2 billion without saying what it’s for and then

delay the inevitable reckoning with an additional month.

Should we be surprised that this government is twisting and

turning and trying to hide its spending behind these special warrants

and not be accountable for the lack of a jobs plan or a vision for our

economy, either during this pandemic or beyond it? Well, given that the

Premier has been talking about making life easier for the people of this

province, it’s surprising that what we are doing is debating a bill that

doesn’t make life any better for those impacted by this pandemic but

does make life much easier for government.

Yes, this is disappointing. I look forward to committee stage of

this debate and supplementary estimates.

Deputy Speaker: I recognize the member for Shuswap.

G. Kyllo: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and welcome to the chair and

your new position.

It gives me great pride to actually speak today to the Finance

Statutes Amendment Act, 2020. This is my first opportunity to rise in

the House since the 2020 election, and I just wanted to give a few

thank-yous to, first of all, the hard-working men and women of the

Shuswap that supported me for a third term.

I want to thank you very much for continuing to put your trust in

me to help represent the interests of those of you living and working in

the Shuswap region.

I also want to give a special thank-you to my lovely wife,

Georgina, my lovely wife of 32 years, my high school sweetheart; and my

four daughters, Sarah, Brittany, Angela and Samantha; and our eight

wonderful grandchildren, with No. 9 on the way. We do have another

little boy on the way in February and are very much looking forward to

his arrival.

[1:55 p.m.]

Obviously, this COVID pandemic has been extremely challenging for

many families, including ours, as people feel a lot more isolated — my

parents especially, Knut and Marianne Thomsen. My stepfather has COPD,

so he’s been very concerned about COVID and the potential impact on his

health should he contract the virus. There are many people that we’re

all connected with and that have found this year extremely

challenging.

I also just want to give a special thank-you to Brian Cowan, my

riding association president, who worked very tirelessly on my last

campaign, along with Linda Hawes, who also had a very supportive role —

again, I’m just thanking them in their efforts to try and help me get

elected for this third term — and without saying, the hard work of my

constituency assistants, both Holly Cowan and Bonnie Gavin. The work of

our office is so very important.

I often remind people that the office of the constituency of

Shuswap is definitely non-partisan. I care not for your political

stripe. Our job is to serve all members of the Shuswap, and the work of

Holly and Bonnie goes a long way to helping us support the needs of

Shuswap residents with many diverse issues, as we find especially in

rural communities across the province.

Now, the reason that we’re here today speaking to this bill, the

Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020, certainly appears to be

ill-conceived, as expressed by many of my colleagues that have spoken

before me. Just the fact that we are here in December session, I think,

is reason for concern. As we know, it was the current government that,

back in 2018, actually moved to put forward an amendment to a bill to

actually move the fixed election date legislation from the spring to the

fall of 2021. The scheduled election date that we had all anticipated

was October 16 of next year.

It’s very unfortunate that in the midst of a pandemic, on the eve

of a second wave of COVID infection rates surging across our province,

the current government chose to cast aside the needs and the well-being

and the interests of British Columbians for their own self-serving

political interests. Now, this may very well sound like sour grapes, but

I truly believe that all members of this House — and especially our

Premier — once they have the opportunity to form government, should be

governing for all British Columbians.

The health and well-being of our residents, our citizens and our

job-creating businesses should be put at the forefront. I think it goes

without saying that the levels of cooperation and collaboration that

were actually achieved in the Legislative Assembly over this past year….

It was only back to March 23, I believe, when all parties came together

to put the needs and interests of British Columbians at the forefront,

to approve a $5 billion COVID spending plan, to give government the

latitude so that they could actually get on with business on tackling

COVID, as well as seeing that the health and welfare of both our

residents and our businesses were put at the forefront.

The collaboration was very effective, as we saw as we moved into

September of this year. Everybody was absolutely blindsided that the

current government would cast aside the needs of British Columbians for

their own self-serving political interests at a time when it was

absolutely imperative that all parties, all elected members, work

together collaboratively to help support our province in getting through

this most unprecedented COVID crisis.

If you think about just the level of deficit that this government

has taken on through this COVID period, initially we were told, back in

August, that it looked like about a $12 billion deficit. Not nine days

later, the Minister of Finance came back to advise that, oh, the $12

billion had now grown by a further $1 billion, to $13

billion.

[2:00 p.m.]

Now we have the Finance Statutes Amendment Act put before this

House late in December, which actually contemplates an additional $2

billion in spending, taking us to $15 billion. The largest surplus that

I believe the B.C. government has ever received was actually in 2017.

That was by the previous B.C. Liberal government. That was only $2.7

billion.

So if we think about that for a second, that the level of the

deficit, the level of debt that government is going into…. It’s going to

be shouldered by our kids and our grandchildren at unprecedented levels,

at $15 billion. Over six times the amount of the largest surplus that, I

believe, has actually ever been recorded in the history of our province.

These things are very concerning. You know, just the fact that we are

here now in December for a very shortened session to debate only one

piece of legislation, and that piece of legislation was something that

was actually an election promise by the current government.

As much as I fully believe and fully support providing necessary

supports where they’re needed for all British Columbians and for

businesses, this is a little bit too little, too late. An election was

not required for this level of support to be going out the

door.

So why are we here? Was it truly in the best interests of British

Columbians and businesses that are struggling to survive for us to be

here and go through an election a full year ahead of the scheduled

election date? Or was it in order to avoid the hard work that was before

us?

For members that are listening at home, you may or may not

necessarily know that government typically sits for about six months a

year. We have a spring session, which consumes the months of February,

March, April and May, and in most years, a fall legislative session,

which is the months of October and November. So not only, by sending

people to the polls, did we send the wrong message to British Columbians

about COVID and the concerns that all British Columbians share;

government also decided to postpone an eight-week legislative session,

where many important pieces of legislation could have been put forward

before the assembly, before British Columbians.

All members would have had an opportunity to actually move forward

on legislation, bills, new laws that would actually be of benefit to

businesses and all British Columbians. But instead, that was all cast

aside. That was punted — now we’re understanding — until the spring of

next year, not because it was in the best interest of British Columbians

or that it was needed. Solely because the current government felt that

they would put their own political self-serving interests ahead of the

rights and the needs and the well-being of British Columbia

residents.

One can’t think about that without actually being very concerned

about what this government stands for. Are they in it for all British

Columbians? Are they in it just for themselves?

So let’s have a look just at some of the specifics of the bill. As

my colleague the member for West Vancouver–Sea to Sky recently shared,

it was the fact that back in last August, during the legislative

session, the Minister of Finance actually put forward, in another

previous bill, to actually extend the deadline for providing the budget

to British Columbians by 30 days in the instance of an election

year.

If we think about this for a second, I can fully appreciate and

understand that, should there be a change of government, there very well

could be the need for an additional 30 days of time for a new government

to get their feet under themselves and to actually have a better

understanding of the fiscal picture of our province.

That is not what happened. The NDP returned themselves to

government. So even the 30-day extension, I think many could argue, is

not necessary. Our Premier himself shared with British Columbians that

the election was not going to unduly delay the service of this great

province and the service of government. Well, we know that that is

categorically false. The fall legislative session was cancelled. We lost

two full months of time to debate new bills, new legislation that would

actually be to the benefit of all British Columbians.

[2:05 p.m.]

Just earlier today a bill was tabled by my colleague for

Surrey–White Rock to look at capping commissions for restaurants. Now,

the restaurant sector has been one of the hardest-hit sectors in the

entire province. The restaurant industry has been asking since last

spring for a measure to cap commissions — which currently are upwards of

30 percent for many of the different online applications for food

services — at 15 percent to provide an opportunity for businesses,

primarily the restaurant sector, to actually be competitive, to hang

on.

What has happened? We didn’t see any movement. Interestingly

enough, the Ontario government found time and found need to support the

restaurant sector and put legislation in place last spring. Washington

state, just south of the border, also had the good interest to actually

move forward with the legislation in the summer to cap the actual

commission rates for many of these online services — again, to provide

some form of relief and support for a sector that has been the hardest

hit of most any sector in the entire province.

But this government chose not to move forward with any legislation

that would actually be supportive of the restaurant sector in the fall

of this year. And in this December session, not a hint, nothing

forthcoming. So when we look at this bill that’s before us that’s

looking at extending the provision of the budget update, not just by 30

days but by 60 days — an additional 30 days — I think we all have to

kind of question: when will we even be back in the

Legislature?

Is government actually considering maybe postponing the sitting of

the Legislature by a further two months to allow them to actually get

their budget in order to present to British Columbians? If that’s the

case, many of these struggling small businesses that are looking for

that lifeline certainly are not going to get any support in the

foreseeable future from this government.

Other pieces of legislation that certainly could’ve been looked at

and brought forward — again, to help the tourism and the business sector

in the province — would include additional reductions in red

tape.

What about for the struggling forest sector? We’re one of the most

cost-impacted, or highest-cost, jurisdictions in North America for

forestry. The forest industry has been asking for overhaul of the

stumpage rates in our province, but again we’re not seeing anything as

far as any supports or proposed legislation from this government. The

opportunity for moving forward with that legislation this past fall

certainly was kicked down the road by this current government and their

self-serving interests of going into an election and casting aside the

collaboration and cooperation that had actually been evidenced here in

the Legislature.

We only have to hope, because government certainly has been less

than forthcoming on providing any information to British Columbians on

what supports are coming. Now, this may feel like a big bucket of cold

water being dumped on those of you that may be listening. But I’m

extremely concerned about our province and the state of economic

affairs. People are struggling. The small business sector is hanging on

by a thread. They need a lifeline from this government, and they’re not

receiving it.

You know, for many of our small business owners…. I think many

people may think of the big corporations and have the thought: “Oh,

they’ve got deep pockets; they can just dig a little deeper.” The

largest segment of our business sector, our economy in the province, is

the small business sector. For many of these small mom-and-pop shops,

family-owned businesses, it’s not just their source of business income;

it’s also their personal income. It’s also their entire life savings, in

many cases, and their retirement income.

I was talking, back in the spring, to a couple in their early 60s.

They built up their business over a number of years. They were looking

forward to the opportunity of one day actually selling their business,

with the hopes that they could have a decent retirement income to carry

them through their retirement years. And not only are they struggling

with not having the business income; their personal income has been

impacted.

[2:10 p.m.]

For them, for many of the supports that have been made available,

they found that they weren’t eligible. So not only have they lost their

business income and their personal income; they’re also hanging on, not

sure that they’ll actually be able to continue to operate and

potentially losing their business entirely, and with that, having their

entire retirement savings absolutely wiped out.

When you have conversations with people that have worked hard to

create jobs across our province, truly are job creators, and see the

callousness of this government and the lack of attention to their needs,

it’s nothing short of frightening.

Now I spoke just about some of the supports that government could

be undertaking in a fall legislative session, had they not cancelled it.

But also, we have to have a look at some of the other significant

impacts that COVID has had, not just on our health care workers, our

ambulance attendants and paramedics, but also police services. When we

see high levels of unemployment, we see increased rates of crime. We see

increased rates of domestic violence. We see increased rates of drug and

alcohol dependency. The opioid crisis is ever-present. Upwards of five

individuals a day are dying in our province.

Yes, the current government takes great solace in having, for the

first time, a Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. But when you

actually dig below the surface and actually have a look at what has

actually been done…. Do we see increasing supports for mental health in

our province? No. Constituents in the Shuswap certainly are indicating

something very different.

When you have a look at a minister, with the sole responsibility

for mental health and addictions, where is the benefit? What are British

Columbians seeing that’s actually improving the quality of their life?

Are they getting the supports that they need? Are they able to actually

have a bed to go to or a treatment centre to check themselves into? I’m

not seeing any increase at all.

As much as the government may tout all of the work they’ve done

around mental health and addictions, the statistics tell a very, very

different story. So again, when there was an opportunity, during a fall

legislative session, to move forward bills or laws that would provide

supports for those that are losing their lives at unprecedented rates,

the current government decided it was time to go to the polls, not

looking out for the best interests and the well-being of British

Columbians but for their own self-serving interests.

We look at tackling crime. Crime rates are at an all-time high.

I’m hearing from members in the Shuswap community that crime rates are

up significantly. They are struggling with increasing caseloads but not

with in­creased budgets.

It was only a few short years ago that the current government,

through their ill-intentioned employer health tax, put a significant

amount of additional wage burden right on the backs of our RCMP forces

across the province and did not even make them whole by providing

additional funding. So these police forces across our province are

having to do much, much more with fewer dollars.

When we have a look at the opportunity of the $5 billion

additional COVID recovery fund that was put forward by all parties of

this Legislature last spring, where are the funds flowing to those

services that actually require them the most, that most British

Columbians rely on, on a daily basis? I’m certainly not seeing them in

the Shuswap, and that causes me a great deal of concern.

When we look to, again, the mean-spirited nature of this fall

election, folks at Elections B.C. were also put at a significant

disadvantage. I know that many do not….

Deputy Speaker: Sorry, Member, if I might just draw your attention to…. We’re

speaking to Bill 3, the Finance Statutes Amendment Act. Thank

you.

[2:15 p.m.]

G. Kyllo: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As we have a look at the Finance Statutes Amendment Act,

basically, the purpose for it is to extend the budget timeline. So I

think it is absolutely prudent to bring to the fact that the only reason

we are even having this bill presented to us this week, in this

legislative session, is because of the fall election. Had we not had an

election last fall, we would not be here today, and we would not be

debating this specific bill. So the relevance of the fall election is

absolutely paramount, in my mind.

You know, what’s interesting…. And certainly don’t just take my

word for it, for those of you who might be listening from home. Even

Vaughn Palmer, in a recent article, was quoted by saying: “All teamwork

and collaboration came to an abrupt end when…” — the Premier — “called a

snap election in September. He claimed it was necessary to end

‘political bickering’ and ‘instability’ that was not evident to anyone

but himself.” These aren’t my words. These are the words of Vaughn

Palmer.

It goes on to say: “There followed five weeks of campaigning and

another five weeks when Horgan mostly avoided the news media while

working on a makeover of the cabinet and government.”

So was that necessary, and is this bill necessary? I certainly do

not see the need. There are very important other pieces of legislation

that we could be debating here in the House that would actually be of

service and a benefit to British Columbians.

I might also draw to the attention of viewers at home that members

of the government side are not responding to this particular bill. So we

must ask ourselves, if this was such important legislation, if

government was wholeheartedly behind it, why would their members be

choosing to sit in silence and actually not even respond to this very

important bill that is a focus of our attention here today?

Now, with respect to the funding supports that need to go out, as

I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m certainly in support of any supports that

can go out to help British Columbians that are struggling through this

very unprecedented time.

But was this ill-conceived? The Premier himself noted during the

election that it wasn’t front and foremost in their election platform.

It was something that they came up with on the fly. Well, apparently, in

the last six, eight weeks since the election, there’s been very little

work done to actually develop the means or mechanisms in order to find

ways of developing, to put these funds into the hands of those families

that are most in need.

The Finance Minister indicated that they will be using 2019 tax

return data to determine who will be eligible and who is not. It just

seems absolutely ludicrous that we would look to income levels of

individuals in 2019 and use that as a litmus test, the measuring stick

by which we would determine who’s eligible in 2020.

COVID arrived on our doorsteps earlier this year. People that have

been impacted by COVID will have had their incomes decimated in this

current fiscal. They are going to be negatively impacted and not have

the ability to apply for these funds because they were gainfully

employed in 2019. If these funds truly were intended to be targeted to

those that are most in need and most deserving of some financial help

with this government, just that criteria alone makes this entire

exercise absolutely ludicrous and very difficult for anyone to

support.

I think that most British Columbians would agree that those that

are in need, need the supports. But that is not the way this bill is

laid out. It will largely cut out and potentially exclude many British

Columbians that have had their incomes negatively impacted this year

from COVID because they actually were gainfully employed in the previous

fiscal. That is just wrong.

[2:20 p.m.]

Now, when we have a look at the economic recovery plan — or, I

would say, probably the lack thereof…. I was very fortunate, from 2013

to ’17, to serve as the parliamentary secretary to the then Minister of

Jobs, Tourism, Skills Training and Labour and had responsibility for

B.C.’s jobs plan. It was a very focused initiative, and it was certainly

the focus of the previous B.C. Liberal government to focus on how we

could grow the economy and create jobs across the province.

With a strong economy, with more people employed, we would end up

with more tax revenues ultimately coming to government. With that, the

government would have the necessary funds to meet all of the mounting

challenges and needs and support services that British Columbians rely

on.

But what have we seen since this current government came to power

in 2017? There is no jobs plan. The hope that we had back in the spring,

when the current Premier appointed himself as the chair of the COVID

Economic Recovery Task Force, has not really paid any dividends for

British Columbians. The task force was meeting. They pulled together, I

believe, 20 different individuals from across the province to sit on the

task force. But the single sector that was hit the absolute hardest from

COVID, the tourism sector, did not have any direct participation on the

Economic Recovery Task Force.

You’ve got to just kind of shake your head and think about that

for a second. The segment of the economy that was hardest-hit from COVID

did not have a seat directly at the table of the Economic Recovery Task

Force. British Columbians sat and waited and waited and waited for

anything to come forward. What do we see in mid-September? Finally, a

COVID recovery, only $300 million. Out of a potential $1.5 billion,

about $300 million was identified through this COVID recovery task

force.

Not six days later, government decided to pull the pin and call a

snap election, double-crossing the agreement they had with their Green

Party partners. So businesses were sitting and waiting. At a time when

all shoulders needed to be at the wheel, everybody needed to be pulling

together for the support and benefit of all British Columbians, what

happened? Government basically got shut down for a full two-month

period.

How does this tie back to this bill that we’re debating today?

Again, this is unnecessary. This was not needed. There were many other

pieces of legislation that would have been of significant benefit to all

British Columbians that we should have been working on. Here we have a

government with no jobs plan, businesses that are struggling to wait,

business sectors and industry organizations that have made

recommendations to government on some very small, incremental measures

that could be undertaken to support them during this COVID pandemic, and

what do we see? Sleight of hand by this government, kicking the can down

the road. No time for you.

But hey, we’ve got time to fulfil a political promise that was

made to British Columbians just a short 60 days ago.

So am I concerned? Absolutely. It’s not just for me. I’m fine. I’m

worried about my kids and my grandkids and the hard-working men and

women of the Shuswap that are finding themselves in unprecedented times,

concerned about health, concerned about job security, concerned about

how they are going to make it and survive until next spring.

With that, I will take my seat and look forward to further debate

during committee stage.

Deputy Speaker: Recognizing the member for Fraser-Nicola.

J. Tegart: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is good to see you in that

chair, and congratulations.

I virtually rise in this House today to speak to Bill 3, Finance

Statutes Amendment Act, 2020. But before I speak to the bill, I, like

others before me, would like to take a few minutes to thank the people

who have been key to me being here in this chamber today. I speak of

those I serve, the constituents of Fraser-Nicola. I’m honoured to be

serving on their behalf in a third term. I take my responsibilities very

seriously, and I promise to do my best to ensure that their voices are

heard in this House.

[2:25 p.m.]

I would like to thank my family — my children, grandchildren,

siblings — who have been by my side through every one of my elections,

supporting me and enabling me to do the work I am so passionate about.

They are the people who provide that extra encouragement, the

unconditional love and the support, even though the job often takes time

away from those you love most.

On those days, when you’ve been away on the road, on the phone, in

a meeting, at an event, you only have to look into the eyes of the

children to know why this work is so important and who you do this work

for. It is to build a better British Columbia for those future

generations.

I’d also like to thank my campaign team. When the Premier decided

this snap election in the middle of a pandemic was a good idea, my team

was there, ready to do what needed to be done. They worked tirelessly

under unusual circumstances to ensure that we were successful. COVID

plans were in place. The top priority was to keep everyone safe and

healthy, and we hit the ground running. Thank you to each and every one

of you. You are the heart of an election team, and your support means

everything. To my constituency staff, Lori, Melisa and Etelka, thank you

for your commitment to service to the constituents of

Fraser-Nicola.

With that support and commitment from my family and team, I find

myself in this House, ready to join in the debate today of Bill 3, the

Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2020. In the middle of a pandemic, when

numbers are going up, when Dr. Bonnie Henry is asking citizens of

British Columbia to limit their travel, when the message is stay home,

this government decides that there is business that is so critically

important to the people of British Columbia that they have to call back

the Legislature.

Bill 3 is the only bill the NDP government has tabled this

session. The government called back the House to deal with this one

bill. I don’t know about you, but my expectation of government

priorities at this time is that the business of the House would be

focused on pandemic issues. So let’s take a look at Bill 3.

[N. Letnick in the chair.]

Let’s try to understand how it helps people during this pandemic.

Let’s try and understand how it gives people hope for the future. Let’s

try and understand why it is so important to pass at this critical time,

in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic. This government tables a

bill that has nothing to do with COVID-19. You would’ve been right to

expect that the recalling of the Legislature would be focused on support

for citizens of British Columbia who have been most affected by this

pandemic. I certainly know that that was my expectation, but no. Not one

single hint in Bill 3 that we are in a pandemic. Not one single hint

that people are losing their jobs.

[2:30 p.m.]

Not one single hint that our seniors have been in lockdown for ten

long months, that families are not allowed to see each other, that

schools are open but staff and parents are feeling unheard and ignored.

Not one single hint in this bill that business communities are being

gutted. Not one single hint in this bill that non-profits who support

vulnerable populations cannot fundraise and are considering whether or

not they have a future. Not one single hint about front-line workers who

are burnt out and stressed to the max. No, when you look at Bill 3, you

wouldn’t know that there’s a pandemic and that British Columbia’s

numbers are going through the roof.

Let’s take a look at what Bill 3 is about, why Premier Horgan and

his government had to deal with this bill immediately, why it is so

important to the lives of British Columbians. Bill 3 extends the

deadline for presenting the provincial government budget and the main

estimates for 30 days. It also allows for special warrants to be

authorized for the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year, meaning no

legislative approval will be required.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This bill is important — but only to the

Premier and his government. It takes away budget transparency at a time

when the public is demanding and deserving of more accountability in

spending. It allows absolute authority to delay the budget and spend

funds without legislative scrutiny.

Let me remind this House and the members opposite that our job as

MLAs is to ensure that taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are being spent

appropriately. The way we do that is through transparent processes that

share the vision of government and the budget of government.

In my mind and in the minds of many members on this side of the

House, this bill undermines the integrity of a transparent budgeting

process and the accountability that comes with that process. This bill

should concern every citizen of British Columbia and every MLA in this

Legislature. If government thinks this is such an important bill, I ask:

why has not one MLA from the government side of this House stood up to

explain, to convince, to debate Bill 3? You ran for office. You ran to

represent. It is time to stand up and be counted.

I want to speak to the bill and the changes being proposed from my

role as opposition critic for Education. Before I begin, I’d like to say

congratulations to the new Minister of Education. I look forward to

working with her, and I also look forward to hearing her speak to this

bill and explain to us what effect it would have on her ministry and

those within it.

[2:35 p.m.]

In my past, I have served many years as a locally elected school

trustee. I am absolutely passionate about our education system, the

focus on students and their learning outcomes. I’m also passionate about

building trust in the education system. I believe that one of the

building blocks of trust is an open and transparent budgeting

process.

I would like to ask both the Minister of Finance and the Minister

of Education: what modelling has government done to understand the

effect of putting off tabling a provincial budget 60 days? What effect

will it have on all ministries, but in particular on the Ministry of

Education? I would remind them that the education system has done an

incredible job during these very difficult times.

I’m hearing, as I’m sure government is hearing, from parents,

teachers, support staff, administrators and anyone who is interested in

education. They are expressing their concerns as they continue to keep

our school doors open.

It is clear by this legislation, which does not once mention

education, that this government fully intends to ignore the calls by

teachers and staff for greater support and consultation in our education

system. The BCTF and parents have called for smaller class sizes and

stricter mask mandates to reduce COVID-19 risks in school. Yet there is

no mention anywhere in this legislation of extra PPE or additional

health and safety supports for our schools.

This government is coming under fire for ignoring parents’ calls

for greater transparency in reporting. COVID data and outbreaks in

schools are incredibly important to know about for our parents. There is

absolutely no mention in this bill, this very important bill. While we

know that 560 or so schools have had exposures, this government has not

been forthcoming in the amount of COVID-19 transmissions that have

occurred. This government is also facing criticism from teachers for

leaving them out of the consultation process when deciding not to extend

the winter break to give students a chance to isolate at home until case

numbers decline.

Parents and students are stressed. Teachers, administrators,

support staff are stressed. Any discussion within the education system

needs to be inclusive and transparent, and it needs to reflect what is

actually happening on the ground. Requests for hybrid learning have been

ignored. This is a government that cut funds for distance learning in

the quiet days of July 2020.

I want the Minister of Education and the Minister of Finance and

the Premier to reflect on the fact that we are one-third of the way

through this school year. What we’re hearing from the education system

is incredible stress, incredible fear that a child will be sick. We need

to support the people who are delivering education to our children in

order to keep our schools open and a safe place for them to work and for

children to learn.

I ask the Finance Minister: explain to us what the ripple effect

of a two-month delay in budget will be. I ask the Minister of Education:

explain to us what the ripple effect will be on education

budgeting.

[2:40 p.m.]

School boards are committed to open and transparent processes. It

might be something this government could learn from them. In order to

have trust in their system, they go out to the public, and they consult.

It builds confidence in the system. It builds trust in the system. It

builds respect in the system.

To see Bill 3 and what the government is trying to do here just

absolutely amazes me. We have come a long way in transparency, and this

is taking us back to the 1990s. With the new measures in Bill 3, what

will be the expectations of the Minister of Education from an already

overworked and overstressed system? More uncertainty. More work. No

clear path to a budgeting process that has worked very well for many,

many years in public education.

Many of my colleagues have talked about situations in their

ridings, about what the impact of COVID is and their disappointment in

what this bill isn’t. I share those concerns. I’m hearing from

businesses in my communities that don’t think they’re going to make it

to Christmas.

For those of you who are unaware of where the Fraser-Nicola riding

is, we did the 2017 wildfires. We lived through the 2018 wildfires.

We’ve had floods. Now we have COVID. Most of our businesses are small

mom-and-pop businesses. Most of my communities are rural and very small.

I’m concerned about the sustainability of our small communities as

businesses board up their windows because they cannot afford to pay

their rent.

As my colleague that spoke before me said, it is not just their

business income. It is their life. Many of our small business owners

keep their doors open because of their commitment to their staff. They

understand that those staff members depend on their doors being open in

order for them to be able to survive. They will often go without pay in

order to keep their staff coming to work.

Where is the compassion in this government that claims to care

about the working person? Where have you been? We’ve been waiting since

the spring for programs, for assistance, for a lifeline, particularly to

our small businesses. If you consult any more, there will be nothing to

consult about. They need your help. They’ve been willing to give you

input. They need to be heard, and their ideas need to be

reflected.

[2:45 p.m.]

Here we are, at the Legislature, in a session, in the middle of a

pandemic. And what are we talking about? We’re talking about a bill that

means nothing to people on the ground. It means nothing to people who

are wondering how they’re going to buy presents for their children for

Christmas. It means nothing to the business owner who only has enough

rent for December.

I see no sign of hope. I see no sign of assistance. I see no

compassion for the people who make British Columbia work. This

government claims to have been supporting British Columbians every step

of the way. Well, I would like to suggest to Premier Horgan and his

government that you’re out of step with what’s happening on the ground

in British Columbia. Where’s your COVID plan? Where’s your hope for the

people who are most affected?

When I heard that one of the criteria for the assistance would be

based on your tax return for 2019…. I want the Finance Minister to tell

me how that’s going to help my constituents, who were all working in

2019 and are now out of work for ten months. How is that going to help

those people on the ground in my communities?

What little relief is being offered continues to be

de­layed, continues to have conditions that most can’t apply for

and assumes that everyone has the ability and the infrastructure to

actually apply for them online. I would like to remind government that I

have many places in my riding that are so rural they actually don’t have

cell coverage, never mind Internet.

A one-time payment is a one-time solution. It’s a band-aid — not

that it won’t be welcomed, not that it won’t assist people. But what is

your long-term plan? Where is the structure that we can all buy into,

move it forward and be committed to? Ten months in and no plan. Ten

months in, and businesses are closing their doors. Ten months in, and

grandma hasn’t seen her grandchild or her daughter or son. What we’re

doing every day counts. Another day without a visit. Another day without

a plan. Another day without my doors open as a business.

I’m telling you: every day counts, and you are right on the edge

compassion, they want caring, and they want leadership. They want to

know that you have the best interests of everyone in British Columbia.

The people I’m talking to — that is not how they’re feeling. If you’re

hearing something different, then I would encourage you to actually

stand up and participate in this debate. I am hard-pressed to understand

why anyone would sit through this, during this incredibly important

time, and not say a word.

[2:50 p.m.]

The people of British Columbia elected each and every one of us,

and they expect to hear from us. Stand up. Be counted. Be loud. Be the

voice that they expected.

People in my riding are hurting. People in my riding are waiting

for a lifeline from your government, and I’m telling you that we don’t

have until after Christmas to wait. We’re hurting, and we’re not the

only ones. If you take the time to talk to people in your ridings, they

are hurting too. Their voice needs to be heard in this House, and you

need to step up and share your stories with all of us.

The only way we can get through this is by working together, even

though I have a hard time with trust after the goodwill that was shared

during COVID was used to call a snap election. There are a great many

new faces across the way. I think there is goodwill, and I’m certainly

hopeful to hear from each and every one of the members across the way on

what’s happening in their riding and how we can work together to move

this through.

But I’m telling you that Bill 3 is not the way to do it. I am

extremely disappointed that this government thinks that Bill 3 — one

bill, doesn’t mention pandemic anywhere — is the reason we all needed to

come together.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I

think we are in unprecedented times. I encourage every member in this

House to use their voice, and I think it is so important that we do the

business of the people of British Columbia in a respectful and in a

sharing way. I am disappointed so far in the lack of participation.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.

I would like to end by acknowledging all of the front-line workers

who have been so critical during this pandemic. I understand how tired

you are. I understand your commitment to the work you do. I wish all of

the families across British Columbia a happy Christmas. You know, there

is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not the train. So stay

safe, stay healthy, and thank you for the opportunity to speak

today.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you to the member for Fraser-Nicola.

Just a reminder that the use of proper names for MLAs is not the

order of business.

I’d like to, at this point…. The Chair recognizes the member for

Vancouver-Quilchena.

A. Wilkinson: Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the chance to speak, but was there an

understanding that the member for Saanich North and the Islands would be

going next.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you to the member for Vancouver-Quilchena.

If the member for Saanich North and the Islands wishes to speak

now, the floor is yours.

A. Olsen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Congratulations on assuming the big seat

at the front of the House here.

Just to let the member for Vancouver-Quilchena know, I’m not going

to be speaking for long, so perhaps he need not go too far away from his

computer.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to stand and speak to Bill 3

and to just, I think, share some of my serious concerns that I have for

this bill as well as for the content of this bill, or should I say the

picture that this bill paints for British Columbians. And that is one of

a government that was simply not ready to govern, one that earlier this

fall….

[2:55 p.m.]

As we left this place in the summer, the Premier pulled the House

down around him, took this House down, a House that was working in a

minority situation, working collaboratively with one another, and the

very premise of that election was based on this notion that it would be

better for the government to go it alone, the government to do this

alone. Also, British Columbians were told that in fact the only way to

govern through this pandemic was for a majority government, for a strong

majority government. British Columbians were led to believe that there

was a plan in place to govern.

As we’re learning now, as Bill 3 is put in front of us, we find —

and it’s some of the major concerns that I have for this — the

government is now asking this House to give itself an extension — 30

days, 60 days — to give it the ability to create the space that it

needs, perhaps, to develop the plan that should have been in place. In

fact, British Columbians, when they went to the polls back in October,

were led to believe that there was a plan, that it was the perfect plan,

that only one party could deliver that plan, and the request of British

Columbians was to deliver the majority government so that that plan

could get rolled out.

Indeed, the former Finance Minister was left here to be caretaker

of the business of this place while we were away, out on the hustings,

in the middle of a pandemic snap election. Yet we come back here and

find that now there’s this grant for an extension — this request for a

delay that apparently nobody wants to talk about. I think that my

colleagues in the official opposition have articulated it clearly

enough. I don’t need to emphasize it any further.

The concern that I bring to this debate, the concern that I think

British Columbians need to consider for themselves, is that they were

led to believe — we were led to believe — that in fact, there was a

grand plan, a perfect plan, one that only one party could deliver, yet

here we are needing a couple months more to be able to develop that

plan.

Under duress, right before the end of the year, right as British

Columbians are trying to consider how they’re going to be celebrating

alone, we are now going to be extending and delaying the delivery of

that plan for British Columbians. I find that to be very troubling. It’s

less what’s in this bill and more about the story that this bill is

painting for British Columbians, if you just kind of dig under the

surface.

While we’re in this place right now…. Most of us are in our homes

— living rooms, kitchens, home offices — in this unique hybrid session

at the beginning of December. While we’re in this place debating a delay

— or at least, we’re debating the delay; members of government aren’t

really debating this delay — to give the government more space to do the

work that it needs to do, British Columbians aren’t being afforded that

same experience. For British Columbians, the bills are rolling in. They

don’t get to just call up the people who they owe money to and ask for

an extra 30 or 60 days, to just say: “Well, we need more time. That plan

that we told you we had didn’t really work. We need more time to be able

to pay the bills.”

What this comes down to for me is a question about trust, a

question about confidence. What message is this sending to British

Columbians? After the Premier stood in front of British Columbians over

and over again throughout the election campaign and said, “We’ve got

this. Give us this responsibility. We accept this burden,” now the very

first act is to say: “We’re not quite ready for it. We need you to give

us more time. We need you to give us more space.”

[3:00 p.m.]

This is the very first act, and this is eroding the trust that

British Columbians will have in this institution. When we stand up and

say we’re ready and prepared to get something done, we should be ready

and prepared to get something done. It’s really unfortunate.

I have, and my colleague has, serious concerns about the message

that this sends about the preparedness of this government, the trust

that we can put in this government and the confidence that we can put in

this government that they’re able to deliver on what they say they’re

going to deliver on.

Big, grand promises were made for the last couple of months. In

fact, British Columbians were told there will be no delay to the

services and to the program delivery throughout this election. This

election that we had last fall wasn’t going to unnecessarily delay

anything.

We learned through the election that in fact, it did indeed delay

the rollout of the $1.5 billion that we were sitting in this House

giving the government the ability to spend and that they didn’t spend

right up until one week before that election. In fact, they used that

$1.5 billion plan, or that $1.5 billion set of expenditures that they

had organized throughout the summer, as basically their first campaign

platform announcement at a local brewery here in Victoria.

They used the money that British Columbians were contributing to

their own recovery and to their own success for the political

opportunities as a political campaign stop. It was egregious, and it

took all summer to determine how that money was going to be

spent.

Then, during the election, because we were in an election, British

Columbians couldn’t get answers from their government, businesses

couldn’t get access to the funds that they were promised from their

government, and there were indeed delays.

Now we’re learning the government is going to vote themselves

another delay, further eroding the trust that British Columbians can

have in their government. They stand up and say there’s going to be no

delay, yet we are going to be four, six months down the road of

delays.

It’s this story, this picture that’s being painted here with this

Bill 3, that is really troubling for me, that I have serious concerns

about, that our caucus has serious concerns about. I needed to stand and

put on the record the very serious concerns that we share about the

message that this is sending in the very earliest days of this

government about their level of preparedness after making bold promises

that they were ready and willing to accept the burden of this job on

their own.

Well, British Columbians gave it to them, and now they’re seeing

that the very first bill, the very first act that’s put in front of us

for debate, is one that says: “Well, actually, we weren’t quite ready.

We’re not quite ready to deliver like we promised we were, so now we

need an extra number of days for that.”

With that, I’ll take my seat, but I want to express the very

serious concerns that I have about the message that this is sending

British Columbians.

HÍSW̱ḴE SIÁM. Thank you.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you to the member for Saanich North and the

Islands.

Just another reminder to members that we don’t use proper names of

MLAs in the House.

A. Wilkinson: First of all, I should be giving recognition to the three

individuals who have taken on the role of Speaker — obviously, the

member for Burnaby-Edmonds as the Speaker himself, the member for

Vancouver–West End as the Deputy Speaker and you as the Assistant Deputy

Speaker. We thank you for taking on the task, and we look forward to

your wise and reasonable governance of the House.

Now, all of us owe many thanks to the volunteers and supporters

who made our election possible, especially those who are newly elected

to the House. We congratulate every one of them, of course, for joining

those of us who’ve served in the House previously.

It’s an onerous task. It carries responsibilities, not just to the

people who elected you in the riding but also to the wider five million

people in British Columbia. We take on these roles because we seek to be

part of the governance of the province. Those who are fortunate enough

to be on the winning side in the election form government, and they

choose the executive council.

[3:05 p.m.]

But the caucus on each side is critically important to provide

guidance to members of the executive council and to serve in this House

as the wider conscience, as the vehicle, as the conduit for ideas and

information from the entire province of British Columbia to the

governing executive council, commonly known as cabinet.

We have to examine why we’re here today and why we’re debating

this bill. The government was successful in the election. We all know

that. They have formed a majority government. With the majority comes an

onerous obligation to use the majority wisely — not to use it in a

self-serving manner, not to use it in a way that is going to be onerous

for the people of British Columbia but in a way that serves the public

interest of all of British Columbia. That is the task this government

must take on now.

Yet we find ourselves summoned to Victoria, some of us doing it

from our residences or offices on this hybrid mode, to debate a bill

that is purely self-serving for this government. It has no benefit for

the people of British Columbia whatsoever. There has been no effort

whatsoever on the part of the executive council to demonstrate why this

would help the people of British Columbia, and sadly, very sadly, we see

the members opposite — the private members, the NDP caucus members — who

are ashamed to stand up and speak to this bill.

Whether they’ve been told not to stand up or whether they simply

feel that they are too intimidated to stand up is an open question. But

the fact remains that their inability to speak to this bill in any way

whatsoever is a source of some shame to the rest of us, because we are

summoned to this chamber to serve the interests of the people of British

Columbia. We do not see that happening with this bill in any way, by any

member of the NDP caucus.

Government is about building and earning trust. It’s about

maintaining the trust of the public. We saw that prior to the election,

where our party decided, in March, that we would adopt the concept that

we would fight the virus and not each other.

We cooperated with this government for six solid months. We did

not carp on about testing rates. We did not get into debates about

regional opening and closing. We did not go on about school closures and

about the need for disclosure of information in schools. That did not

come up, because we decided that it was our responsibility to the people

of British Columbia to work with the government for the betterment of

the people of British Columbia during this COVID pandemic.

We saw the Green Party do it in their own way. They had their

confidence and supply agreement. That was their way of cooperating with

the NDP minority government to make it possible to govern British

Columbia effectively. We can disagree about the contents of the CASA

agreement, and we can disagree about the results, but the fact remains

that it was about building trust between the Greens and the

NDP.

Sadly, we saw the trust that we had invested in the NDP minority

government in September, and the trust that the Green Party had invested

in the NDP minority for three years, tossed to the wind in September. It

was a complete abrogation of the public trust in the middle of a

pandemic which has threatened British Columbia and the rest of the world

in ways that have never been contemplated before.

This was a start of a pathway to cynicism — a self-serving

pathway, a pathway that means that the NDP have now decided that they

will serve their own interests. The Legislature can be written off,

basically, as a vehicle, because their own private members aren’t

prepared to stand up and speak. It’s a muzzling of the democracy of

British Columbia that’s happening this week and next. We will do our

part to fight it by standing up and speaking proudly on behalf of the

public interest of British Columbians.

That takes us, sadly, back to the last era of NDP majority

government, where the financial credibility of this province was torn to

shreds — the fudge-it budgets, the unreliable budget dates, the budgets

that bore no correlation to actual government spending. This record was

reflected in British Columbia’s bond ratings. It was reflected in

British Columbia’s borrowing costs. It was reflected in our credibility.

It was also reflected in our economic performance, as British Columbia

literally went from first to last in Canada, with the highest marginal

tax rates in the country, by the time that the NDP were defeated in

[3:10 p.m.]

There was then a concerted effort, a major initiative, to

re-establish credibility with the Budget Transparency and Accountability

Act. It was a critical piece of legislation that provided that the

officials in the Ministry of Finance would provide uniform, reliable

reporting to everyone — to the citizens of B.C., to the institutions

that lend us money when we need it and to the Legislature of British

Columbia. It was part of an overall package — fixed election dates,

fixed budget dates — taking away the arbitrary decision-making power of

the Premier of the day.

What do we see this week? We see a return. We see a return to that

high-handed, arrogant, self-serving behaviour of NDP majority

governments. We can only hope that this is a flash in the pan, a spurt

of bad judgment, a small window of bad faith that is being exhibited by

this executive council under this Premier.

Accomplishing the credibility of things like fixed election dates

and fixed budgets with highly reliable budgetary information is no small

task. Yet we see it being slowly corroded and now accelerated by this

government.

There are no initiatives on the table. We’re in the biggest crisis

since World War II in our province, yet we have seen no real initiatives

to deal with it, other than deferring to public health officials, which

has generally been appropriate. But in terms of the function of the

other 20 ministries in this government, in terms of the function of this

House and in terms of the function of the economy of British Columbia,

we see exactly that — nothing to show to the people of British

Columbia.

There has been no fiscal update. There has been a secretive

approach to the finances of this province, which is completely

inappropriate and has no real basis in necessity. It is simply

politically expedient now that the NDP have a majority

government.

The purpose of this bill? To delay introducing the next budget.

There was already a month delay that the NDP granted themselves last

summer, and now we see that they’re trying to extend it. This will mean

that we have over a year between the last budget in February of 2020 and

the next budget in the summer of 2021. It will limit government

transparency. It will delay the needed supports going out to our sectors

in the community and in our business sectors that are desperately in

need of some government guidance.

The people of British Columbia are entitled to know what the plan

is. Let’s not forget that last summer economic recovery plans were put

out in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta by mid-July. We still

have nothing, nothing at all to guide the people of British Columbia as

to where their future lies.

We’ll fight the virus, but we’ll be holding this government to

account on how they fight the virus from now on because we no longer

trust this government at all. We will also have to be very scrupulous in

examining the behaviour of this government on financial matters, given

this complete betrayal of the public trust that’s demonstrated in this

piece of legislation. All we have so far from this government, in terms

of that economic recovery, is some vague expectation it’ll happen next

year. That does precious little, does nothing, for the tens of thousands

of people who have lost their jobs.

Employment rates have recovered somewhat because, as shown in the

newspaper the other day, the person who used to be a flight attendant on

WestJet is now working at Amazon or driving an Uber car. Those are not

things to be ashamed of. That’s good, hard work, but it doesn’t pay as

much as their prior employment.

COVID has knocked the stuffing out of so many sectors in our

economy: tourism, hospitality, airlines, restaurants. We all know the

fate of these businesses that are struggling to stay alive, struggling

to keep credit, struggling to keep any employment at all going in their

sectors. What are they relying upon? Federal support programs. In the

province of British Columbia, there has been nothing under this NDP, and

there will be nothing under this NDP majority government until there’s a

new budget. That now, apparently, is five months away.

We are going to see a wave of bankruptcies roll through our

communities this winter. There’s an

article that has come out in the

Vancouver Sun this afternoon about the west side of

Vancouver. The reporter, very appropriately, interviewed both me and the

Attorney General, who represents Vancouver–Point Grey.

[3:15 p.m.]

The essence of the story is: what has happened that has generated

waves of business closures down Broadway, 10th Avenue, Dunbar Street and

elsewhere, in one of the most prosperous parts of Canada? Why are all

these businesses going broke? It’s a long story in terms of population

change, online shopping, a change in the number of children around and

an older population group that purchases less as they build out their

home life.

Property taxes are a major feature. We have put forward proposals

repeatedly for split assessment on business taxes so that they’re not

paying for the air space above their single-storey building. That has

been ignored by this government.

The thing that has turned the corner is COVID. It has driven so

much revenue out of those businesses that the community fabric is

starting to unravel. There are numerous businesses going broke in my

riding and the Attorney General’s riding as we speak. Storefronts

shuttering, the brown paper going up behind the glass, and no sign of a

return to employment. This is gutting the communities we live in, in

what, as I said, is one of the most prosperous corners of this

country.

That tells us a lot about the lack of response from this

government. Perhaps this government — in a kind of ruthless; hard-nosed;

and, ironically, right-wing way — is saying: “Oh well, that’s Darwinism

and business. These places were designed to fail anyway.” That is not

what government is for. Government’s job is to assist businesses like

this to weather the storm and to make sure they can return to prosperity

after COVID.

There is a horizon now for COVID to come to an end, now that

vaccines are being deployed. We all know it’s going to be a long

journey, probably into August or September, before there’s any kind of

return to normalcy. It could be as long as a year from now, or even

more, depending on the efficacy of the vaccine and the willingness of

people to take it.

The point remains. We cannot just write off hundreds of thousands

of people in the province of British Columbia by saying: “Too bad.

Nothing could be done.” Many things can be done. Many things were

discussed during the election and were also raised by the Premier’s

economic recovery team, which was constituted last May.

In frustration, the three major agencies that were part of that

Premier’s team put out their own reports at the end of July because they

were getting no response from this NDP government. They have had no

response since then. The Business Council of British Columbia put out an

extensive report on July 29 which pointed out dozens of things that

could be done, yet nothing has happened.

Just a few examples. Accelerate private sector investment to

kick-start the economic recovery. Extend tax remittance deferrals for

businesses significantly affected by the pandemic. Quickly find

additional spaces for child care. Make B.C. a top tier location for

investment in the forest sector. Introduce Nexus-style regulatory

approval systems for qualified operators. Protect the industrial land

base in Metro Vancouver. Support rapid re-skilling. That is critically

important and needs to happen now. Address uncompetitive personal taxes.

Boost investment to strategic digital infrastructure. Encourage the

growth of technology-focused small and medium-sized firms.

The list goes on and on and on. Nothing has been done by this NDP

majority government — not even a signal that things will happen. That

means that these organizations lose face. Why were they encouraged to

participate and advise the Premier if he was just going to ignore them?

It was a stalling tactic. It was a way to buy time. It was a way to open

a window for a snap election so this government could form its NDP

majority.

Think about it. What’s the goal of getting elected if you’re not

going to do anything? The goal of elected office is to act in the public

interest, to do things that are exciting, to make British Columbia a

better place for everyone, to put a smile on people’s faces. Why are we

here for this two-week legislative sitting? None of that is

happening.

What is happening is that the NDP majority are seeming to cement

themselves into office in a condescending and, essentially, abusive

fashion to the democratic process by dismantling the structure of what

became the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, by getting rid of

fixed election dates, by getting rid of fixed budget dates. What does

that do for the thousands upon thousands of people who are looking

forward to the bleakest Christmas that they can remember? It does

nothing for them except delay the prospect of hope.

[3:20 p.m.]

We also know that the government members on the other side — that

is, the backbenchers, many of whom are newly elected — have been cowed

into silence. We just have to look around the legislative chamber and

see dozens and dozens of NDP members doing nothing. They’ve been told

they’re not to speak to this bill.

Perhaps some of them even made their own decision not to speak to

this bill because they can recognize a power grab when they see it. They

can recognize a misuse of the democratic process. They must be saying to

themselves on the screen, in the chamber: “Why did I take this job on if

it’s just to grab power and protect the few people on the executive

council? Do I have no autonomy, no agency, no ability to represent the

public interest?”

Do those NDP members have no ability whatsoever to stand up and

make their own decisions? Perhaps they’ve been cowed into silence in

their caucus meeting, because this is part of the master plan to build

out the power and authority of this NDP majority and do exactly what

they did in the 1990s, which is protect their own interest at the

expense of the public interest.

But think about this. This is no ordinary time. We’re in a

pandemic. We as legislators have an overwhelming obligation to the

public good. That’s why we worked with the government for six months to

try and make sure that we were protecting the well-being of British

Columbians during this dreadful epidemic. This bill does nothing for the

people of British Columbia, yet we can see that the NDP are hoping that

no one will notice. We’re in the middle of the pandemic, and there’s a

lot of news about the vaccine coming out, and this bill will hopefully

escape public notice. It will not escape public notice. We’re already

getting the feedback on what a high-handed, arrogant, controlling

government we now have sitting in Victoria under the NDP.

There’s the excuse that is being trotted out that the civil

service couldn’t be ready in time after an election to put together a

budget on the normal schedule. I think I am the only person in this

chamber who has served as both a deputy minister and as an elected

member. I went through five budget cycles as a deputy minister. The

deadline is mid-December for all submissions. Those were prepared months

ago and would have been tweaked according to the election

outcome.

But let’s remember that this is a continuation of an NDP

government, so very little in those budgets will have actually changed

by now. There is simply no excuse whatsoever for delaying this budget

date into April. It should be in the middle of February, as it was

required under the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act, which is

now being gutted by the NDP in what is clearly a naked power

grab.

Let’s look at the government budgets. The Ministry of Health

spends close to $3 million an hour every day, every week, every month,

all year. That goes into health services which are delivered in British

Columbia to everyone. The Ministry of Education spends about $30 million

for every instructional day in the classroom. All of those amounts are

preset and won’t be changing. Those are the baseline expenditures of

government, and those two ministries amount to more than half of

government spending, just the two of them.

What needs to be changed? What needs to be tweaked? What can’t be

adjusted by the regular budget date? The answer is the NDP simply want

more power, more authority, more control, and the public interest and

transparency be damned. This is not the way a democracy should be

functioning.

This is not a new government. This government should be in control

of its budgetary circumstances and know where it’s going. Either there

is no plan, which appears to be the case, since it’s now four months

overdue, at least, and we still see nothing in terms of a plan for

tourism, for hospitality, for the restaurant trade…. These businesses

are imploding, as I said earlier, yet what we see is nothing coming from

Victoria in terms of any kind of credible plan until April.

[3:25 p.m.]

It’ll be far too late then for thousands of family businesses,

which will have failed by then. That is a huge and structural and

fundamental abuse of the public trust.

With a budget of $60 billion, this government should be in a

position to provide guidance to all those businesses as to what they can

expect so they can plan, so they can know where they’re going, so they

can know if help is on the way or if they should, perhaps, pack it in or

at least figure out how much money they’re going to have to have to

survive. Instead, there is nothing.

The tourism industry rightly asked for $600 million of support

back in the summer. What they got instead was a consultation process,

and they are starving. We saw on the news last night that the Capilano

Suspension Bridge fully decorated itself for Christmas, fully employed

all the students and part-timers who were going to be working there over

Christmas. Now they’re shut down. What can they expect from this

government? They don’t know. Clearly the answer is nothing.

This abuse of the public trust is fundamental. It comes in terms

of torn-up agreements like the CASA agreement with the Green Party. It

comes with the false hope that was given to the tourism sector earlier

this year when they were engaging in their efforts to convince the

government to do something immediately for the summer tourism session,

which was completely written off. The lack of trust extends to election

dates, which have now been twice changed, first in the bill which gave

the NDP an extra six months, till November 2021, and then in terms of

the NDP just calling a snap election in a power grab.

We now have budget dates being changed. All of this is designed to

retain and expand the power of the government of the day, the NDP

majority that sits in the chamber today. Government requires trust. The

reason Canada functions so well is that people respect the law. They

respect their hunting licence restrictions. They respect the fishing

limits. They respect the ways they’re asked to behave and conduct

themselves by the public health officials. This is a high-trust

environment, which is what makes it such a successful nation. Yet when

we see the leadership of our nation, of our province, acting in a

high-handed, self-serving way, it means that trust is being

abused.

We saw it even in the election campaign, where the NDP sought to

divide British Columbians into what was so crudely described as “us” and

“them.” The good people and the bad people.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

That does not build trust. That defines the enemies of the

government of the day, and that is wrong, because everyone in British

Columbia has to feel that they are trusted, that they are represented by

their government and that they can trust the leadership in their

society. When we see the degradation of that trust in a bill like this

in a completely unnecessary legislative sitting that accomplishes

nothing for the people of British Columbia, that public trust fades

away.

All of us have to remember constantly that we can only govern with

the consent of the governed. We do that with elections. But they are not

just a once-in-four-years window in public opinion. They are a

crystallization of four years of acquired public trust and four years of

consent of the governed. You cannot just blow these things past the

electorate and hope they won’t notice because there was a vaccine

announcement yesterday.

It is not acceptable for this government to hide, to suppress the

truth and to pretend to be transparent when in fact this government is

doing nothing more than leading the public down the path toward the kind

of arrogant, high-handed, inept government that occurred under the last

NDP majority government.

The members elected to this House should be serving with pride,

and it’s hard to see how any of the private members on the government

side, the backbenchers, can be proud of what’s going on in this

Legislature in these two weeks. It’s an attempt to suppress

transparency, to avoid the truth, to pretend that the civil service

isn’t ready for a budget and to fail in that duty that is owed to the

public.

[3:30 p.m.]

It’s fair to say, and it goes without saying for the most part,

that leadership is defined by the ability to govern fairly. High-handed

behaviour, arrogance, is a sign of weakness. It is not a sign of

strength. Sadly, in this first sitting of the Legislature since the

election, we are seeing a government show its weakness.

In our society, which depends on trust, we cannot allow this

government to unravel that public trust with this kind of completely

unjustified approach to changing budget dates, to changing the approach

to governance and to dismissing the public interest in favour of the

interests of the NDP majority. It is time for this Legislature, this

parliament, to start serving the public in the midst of the deepest

crisis it has faced since World War II. We implore this government to

wake up and start to serve the public interest rather than their

own.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for the time I’ve been

granted and thank you for indulging me without interruption.

R. Merrifield: When I was nine years old, I wanted a Discman. I loved to sing,

and I had a little bit of a love affair with the New Kids on the Block.

I could sing almost every single song of theirs. With this new Discman,

I could take my music wherever I wanted to. It was mobile.

I also was quite the wizard on roller blades and wanted

desperately to have my own pair. Imagine how far I could go, how fast I

could be, on my in-line skates, Discman in hand, and my amazing New Kids

on the Block in my ear. I had to have it. But being only nine, I didn’t

have the money to get one, so I went to my parents and asked.

You know what they told me? To build a budget and let them know

how I was going to make enough money to afford it. They taught me the

value of money and of having a plan. You know why? Well, because my

parents — a pastor and a teacher — were trying to raise a family of six,

and they knew the value of money. They knew the value of dollars. They

knew that in order to have enough to take care of our family’s needs, as

well as have enough to take care of those in need, they needed to make

every dollar count. They taught me and my siblings fiscal

discipline.

In the great recession of 2008 to 2010, my industry was decimated

by the financial crisis. Suddenly, businesses all around me were

faltering. As a young 20-something year old, it was really difficult to

watch friends go bankrupt. You see, when people think of a business

going bankrupt, they think: “Oh too bad, so sad, it’s a business.” But

it’s not just a business. I watched as those businesses declared

bankruptcy, as tens and hundreds of people went without paycheques. But

also, I watched as marriages faltered, as homes were lost and as lives

were decimated.

Rather than simply charging forward, I started to review my

business plan, the expectations of those around me. I tried to talk to

others, and I built a plan with a budget. Otherwise, I would have gone

bankrupt as well. In this, I learned the value of resilience.

When COVID first hit, every organization that I was a part of went

into overdrive: contingency plans, emergency meetings, changing budgets

day over day; not month over month, not year over year, not six months

over six months — day over day. In this, I learned that in crisis you

need to expedite plans immediately. There is no time to waste, and those

hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands who are relying on you

need a plan.

Why do I share these stories? It certainly isn’t so you can just

all get to know me better. It is to show that the best way to have a way

forward is to have a plan and a budget. I learned that in the middle of

crisis, you need all the voices around the table, to see all of the

angles and to make decisions wisely.

[3:35 p.m.]

Doesn’t the government want to have fiscal discipline and make

every dollar count? Don’t they want to build a resilient province? Don’t

they want to make decisions wisely? Why are we stuck in planning

exercises and, in six months of nothing, taking not just the normal

amount of time to make decisions, but asking for extra time? That is

exactly the opposite of what should be done in a pandemic

environment.

The Premier got up on Tuesday and declared that we would work

together. How disingenuous that the very first bill after this

declaration was to not work together, because that is exactly what this

bill does. It makes sure that the NDP government doesn’t have to work

with us for another six months.

But that’s not where the lack of integrity ends. It’s not genuine

to say that this is COVID relief and then base it on 2019 tax returns.

How is it going to — and I quote from the Premier’s Twitter account —

“those that need it the most…”? How can it be called COVID relief? We

didn’t have any effects of COVID in 2019.

But not only will British Columbians not have money in their bank

accounts, as promised, before Christmas, but I think that far more

disturbing is that there is no plan for recovery after Christmas. This

COVID relief is supposed to go to 3.7 million British Columbians, as

we’ve heard. But we haven’t heard how many of that 3.7 million get a

latte, or $10 or $50. We haven’t heard a statistic based on how many

will actually receive the full value of the relief.

How do I tell the person that lost their income, the family that

doesn’t know how to pay rent — never mind Christmas gifts — that this

money isn’t coming? And why? Because they worked so hard in 2019, before

a pandemic.

People have lost their jobs. Restaurants are about to close.

Businesses are on the brink. We have moms and dads who don’t know where

they’re going to pay rent from. The promise that this government has

made is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, and the commitment to

collaboration and the commitment to actually working together is nothing

more than empty words.

One other thing that my parents taught me: talk is cheap. Action

is everything. So why wouldn’t a government, the largest spending body

in the province, want to have a budget when going through the largest

global event in history, affecting more British Columbians and more in

the world than ever before?

Well, I thought about this, and I came up with a couple of

solutions. One, maybe they have something to hide. Two, maybe they don’t

believe in accountability. Three, maybe they don’t know what’s going on.

Four, maybe they don’t know where the money is. Five, maybe they don’t

want the British Columbians to know what they’re doing. Six, maybe they

don’t believe in democracy. Seven — well, we already know this one is

true — they don’t want to work together.

This is the longest — as you’ve heard from so many of my

colleagues — that B.C. has gone without a budget or a fiscal update

since the ’90s, when the NDP government were last in power. Why? Why do

boards, companies and families produce budgets and financial plans?

Well, they do so to get ahead. They do so to know where they’re going.

They do so to produce accountability.

During a pandemic, how could any government want to delay what

will be the largest economic recovery plan needed in British Columbian

history? Every organization I know operates with a plan — a plan

forward, a budget and financial reporting. I don’t see any reason why

the government cannot do the same.

[3:40 p.m.]

I heard speeches from the government on light, on hope, on a way

through, on a way forward. Where is that now? This is no way to run a

province. This is no way to get through a pandemic. The health crisis

that Dr. Henry has gotten us through is only part of this

crisis.

If I could liken it to this: a funeral, a death of a loved one.

That first, initial month is where everyone is around and where you’re

surrounded by loved ones and kind words, etc. After that month is over,

it simply becomes echoes in empty hallways where that loved one once was

and remembrances on special days or holidays or celebrations where their

presence is lost.

British Columbia is going through a traumatic time, and this is

only the beginning. There are going to be other echoes in our hallways.

There’s going to be a crisis of jobs, especially low-income earners,

women and minorities. Does postponing the budget help them?

There’s going to be a crisis of the economy. How does postponing

the budget help this? Spoiler alert. It doesn’t. How does postponing

this budget help long-term-care facilities and all of the seniors that

live within them? It doesn’t. How does it help us with our mental health

and addictions issues? It doesn’t. How does it help with housing? It

doesn’t.

We have asked British Columbians to sacrifice so much, to change

their lives, their spending, their giving, their habits, their

relationships, their work lives, their clothes, their futures. My email

in-box, my phone and my texts are filled with people asking, “Is it

real? Have we cancelled Christmas?” to which I’m responding: “Yes, we

have.” How can we, when we’re asking for so much from British

Columbians, not get it together as government to give them a plan, an

accounting of massive dollars spent and a plan of how we’re going to

move forward?

This is not a new government. This is the same government with

more power. And now they can do less of a great job? One extension. Hmm.

Okay. Two extensions. What? Two extensions is the equivalent of two

months, which is 20 percent of the budget. It’s $12 billion.

B.C. deserves better. B.C. deserves accountability. In order to

have that, we need to have transparency and reporting.

The Premier touted that this was going to be the most transparent

government in history. In fact, he started working on this

accountability crusade ten years ago, in 2010. I’m going to quote him

critiquing the government of that day by saying….

“While we applaud these individuals for their contribution to

public policy, we nonetheless believe that they should have conducted

their deliberations in a manner that is more transparent and

documented,” Horgan wrote. “These are fundamental issues that have

generated a great deal of debate in British Columbia.”

Here’s the good part. “A mature and responsible government would

see this as an opportunity to bring the message to the people rather

than to frame the message in a closed door session.”

Andrew MacLeod, just two days ago, picked up on this and wrote,

with the headline: “NDP Government Backs Off Pledge to Cut Government

Secrecy.” “Parties favour stronger access to information laws, says

advocate, until they win power.”

Where are the promises of transparency now? Where is the

accountability of government? It’s nowhere.

Health authorities. How are they supposed to plan, to create

accountability, to have a forward-looking trajectory? We keep talking

about the ministerial mandate letters, but this is only one part of the

system. Each organization within that ministry receives those mandate

letters and receives their own mandate letter. Then the board signs off

on that mandate letter.

[3:45 p.m.]

The executives work and build the workplans, and they need to know

the budget. How can they know what they’re doing? How can they know

where they’re going to go? It takes accountability away from the entire

system. Can they just go back to government and ask for more money if

they run out? This is how waste occurs and how we erode

accountability.

This bill has attached $2 billion to it. Let’s think about that

number for a moment. That’s almost as much as the entire Interior Health

Authority budget for a full calendar year. Think about that — 800,000

residents of B.C. can get health care for $2.48 billion, almost the same

amount as what’s being asked for in this bill.

But every year the health authorities have boards that sign on the

line of the financial statements that are created by the executives of

the authorities and are audited by an arm’s-length accounting firm and

then are published on websites for all of us to read. You know why?

Well, on the Interior Health Authority’s website, it says: “We are

accountable to the public we serve.” That means: “We are committed to

informing you about how we plan to deliver services to meet the needs of

our communities, as well as reporting on the services and resources” —

also known as money — “provided to meet those needs.”

We’re going to ask all of the agencies within a ministry to

actually provide accountability. But they can’t, because they don’t have

the budget. Really.

Let’s take the act that they’re asking for an amendment to — the

Budget Transparency and Accountability Act. The member for

Vancouver-Quilchena did an amazing job of talking about the history of

this act. And in doing my own research, I don’t take this act lightly.

It’s over 20 years old, brought into being so that light could be shone

on the financial accountability of government, so that we wouldn’t have

the inconsistencies that brought about fudge-it budgets of the

1990s.

Here we are again wanting to change the financial accountability

of the government negatively in a time when organizations and families

across B.C. are being asked to tighten their belts, get more accurate,

make better plans and operate to budgets just to survive through this

pandemic.

Government needs to lead. Government needs to plan. Government

needs to have budgets. Government needs to create economic stimulus.

Government needs to take care of its citizens. Government needs to

invest. All of this is part of resilience.

I referenced Health. The government has created an amazing service

plan for Health, but I ask you…. Objective 1.1: a primary care model

that provides comprehensive, coordinated and integrated team-based care.

How is that going to be accomplished without a budget? It won’t

be.

Objective 1.2: improved health outcomes and reduced

hospitalizations for seniors. Oh, wait. No — not until May.

Improved health outcomes, reduced hospitalizations for those with

mental health and substance abuse issues. No, no. You know what? Let’s

table till May.

Timely access to appropriate surgical procedures. Again, let’s

just wait until May.

The vaccine is here this week. That is incredible. But we have a

rough year ahead of us. This is far from over. And as I described

before, the echoes of the pandemic are yet to be felt.

[3:50 p.m.]

We have another year of waiting for life to return to some form of

normal. We have another year, minimum, of trying to keep businesses

alive. Families have another year of trying to make ends meet. We’ve got

years of uncertainty ahead of us, yet we’re going to go for half of a

year without a plan or a budget?

“Trust us,” government says. Should we? They broke their agreement

with the Third Party. They called an election a year before they had

agreed to. They broke a collaboration. And now they want us to agree to

changing the very act that keeps them accountable with a “trust

us”?

Should we trust a government that hasn’t paid front-line workers

their pandemic pay since July? Should we trust a government that didn’t

get the budgeted dollars out the door this summer? Should we trust a

government that betrayed the trust of a collaborative agreement of this

very House in order for personal political gain?

Should we trust a government that told British Columbians that the

election wouldn’t change anything or delay anything? As we’ve heard, it

delayed everything.

Should we trust a government that told us that it was going to be

$500 or $1,000 a person but now it might be $10 or $5 or nothing or is

based on last year’s hard work? Should we trust a government that

doesn’t even know how much it’s going to cost? Estimates are $1.45

billion, but now $1.75 billion, but let’s ask for $2 billion just in

case. That’s an extra $300 million.

We need answers now because we need hope now, not in six months.

When our quality of life is down, when we are not with our family at

Christmas, when our businesses are about to be closed, we need hope now.

Not in six months. Not when we’ve lost our job. Not when we’ve missed

our surgery time. Not when our housing affordability has further eroded.

Not when we’ve lost our mental health or, worse yet, lost those we love

to mental health issues. Not once we’ve lost our hope.

The social, economic and emotional echoes of this pandemic have

only started to be felt. The whispers need and will become a movement,

and the movement is a cry for help. Santa Claus promised to come to town

and give British Columbians a present. It was going to be just like St.

Nicholas, who would give gifts to everyone. But as I look at this, it

isn’t a present. Maybe you’ll get something, except you need to write

Santa a letter to make sure you’re eligible for the gift that was really

based on last year’s performance.

But here are the letters I’m getting: “I’m a teacher, and I’m

scared to go to work. Please, please don’t have the kids come back right

away, as many of them will still be infectious from all of the holidays

that I hear them speaking about.” And another one: “Please help the

restaurant industry. I have invested so much in my business, and now in

keeping people safe, but at only 50 percent capacity with 30 percent

driver fees, I just can’t make ends meet. Please help us.” And another

one: “I am a mom, and I want to work, but I can’t. My child can’t go to

school because of all of the exposures, and now I can’t make money. But

I did last year. Will I qualify?”

[3:55 p.m.]

Santa isn’t coming to town. He’s not even half coming to town. So

really, this time, it isn’t a present. It really and truly is just a

lump of coal, and this NDP government just told British Columbians that

Santa isn’t real.

Democracy is about the people and is for the people, and I am a

diehard believer in democracy. But this budget delay is not about the

people. This budget delay and this bill are just about a government that

is either lacking competence or just doesn’t want to play nice in the

sandbox. But it’s really not about the people at all.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker, for your indulgence of

time.

Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Member.

Recognizing the member for Kelowna West.

B. Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and congratulations to yourself and your

colleague on your recent appointments, the member for Kelowna–Lake

Country being the assistant deputy. I know that you’ll be, I’m sure,

sitting through much of this discussion. Hopefully, some of this rubs

off on the members that are watching from your caucus.

I know that many of our members are certainly exercised in their

remarks in terms of how they feel about the government proposal on Bill

3 to come forward as if this is simply an ability for the government to

spend the money that they promised during the pandemic election, of

which…. I hate to say it, but I don’t think it’s really getting to the

heart of the issue of where money needs to be delivered to people that

have been impacted during this crisis.

As I look around British Columbia, and as I see reports on the

news and see many businesses boarded up…. Let alone the changes that

they had to put up with until just a few weeks ago…. Now they’ve been

told that even the restaurant industry, which bent over backwards due to

the isolation and all of the things that were necessary to just try to

keep a few of their staff operating, really has to be just households

that can meet and come to a restaurant.

I know that earlier today there was an introduction by one of my

colleagues about limiting the delivery costs for simple things such as

delivery of foods from restaurants. This is both so that it works both

ways. The restaurants can possibly survive and get things out and make

certain that the customers will continue to order.

I think about the challenges that the government has faced in

these past nine or ten months. I think that probably people have given

them a lot of latitude. Our members have given a lot of latitude and

support.

Immediately after the declaration of the public health emergency,

we resumed sitting. We approved, in one day, an unprecedented additional

$5 billion for the government to be able to meet these obligations where

they felt. In the descriptions, there was some of that money for health

care and contact tracing and, of course, there were all sorts of other

anticipated costs. But a big part of that was also for people who had

their businesses and who were counting on the fact that the government

was going to try to find a way to help them out.

Now, I know that a lot of things that have been done by the

government have been essentially around people that rent in homes or

apartments — rental freezes — and on many of the other fronts that were

adjusted by government. But on the business side, there’s been very

little recognition of the fact that their costs…. Albeit that there was

an ability to defer taxes, I would say that it’s been very

little.

I don’t think that people or members in the government really

appreciate and understand how difficult it is to make ends meet in a

business. I know from having a business. I worked in a business. I

created one. I have 200 or more staff that work in the business I

created.

[4:00 p.m.]

Without financial planning, it is very difficult for us to know

with any certainty that we can meet our obligations, whether it’s our

new and increased cost as an employer with the employer health tax or

whether it’s wages, the changes in all of the other myriad of taxes that

have increased in the past just over three years. I mean, the budget of

February of 2017 was south of $48 billion. That’s the cost of running

government with all sorts of commitments to increase benefits to the

provincial taxpayers. I say that meaning everybody that lives in

homes.

Now, I’m not certain that it addressed everything. But if we look

at what’s happened over the past three budgets, we’ve seen an over 30

percent increase, from $47.5 billion to over $60 billion in spending. We

add into that the $15 billion that has been reported — but we haven’t

seen any details — and that’s going to put an almost 80 percent increase

in the provincial budget since February of 2017. I mean, that number in

itself is staggering.

We know these are unprecedented times. But I guess, really, at the

end of the day, we delivered many budgets within the period of time we

were in government on the basis that we were creating a budget that we

could live within and very rarely were there circumstances…. In 2008,

with the financial meltdown, we still balanced the budget on March 31 of

2010. It wasn’t a large surplus. But then we were faced with the fact

that there are these delays, because income was delayed — and income tax

that the government counts on.

There are all sorts of people in the Ministry of Finance, as our

former minister outlined in his role as formerly the Finance Minister,

that spend an awful lot of time forward forecasting and looking at the

impacts of these things. Well, can you imagine what it’s going to be

like for a business filing its 2020 tax returns, and what, if any, taxes

they can let alone be obligated to pay? What do they have to pay it

with? In a lot of cases, they’ve been limping along with either loans or

loan guarantees.

Frankly, between both the federal and the provincial governments,

the programs for small business have been absolutely dismal. I think

that when it comes to people in sectors like the tourism and hospitality

industry, frankly, there just hasn’t been any commitment by this

government.

I go back to the estimates of the minister in the last session. We

talked…. We didn’t get any answers about how they were going to cope

with COVID back in March before we adjourned the House on March 6, and

the fact that the minister was expected to give a better update on her

budget when we resumed estimates back in July and August. The fact is

that they never gave any answers.

Frankly, we had $1½ billion set from that March 23 emergency fund

to help businesses get through this economic recovery — the fact that

the government held that money until the last possible minute to be able

to come up with, kind of, not a very helpful economic recovery plan. I

mean, frankly, they seem to have left the business community, the people

that are going to pay the taxes that are going to pay this money back,

because we’re on borrowed time here….

Let’s go back a little bit and down memory lane. In 2001, when the

NDP government was tossed out, 77 seats to two, they were running a $4

billion a year structural deficit in operating. That means we had to

borrow money to pay back the extra money they were spending. It

essentially led to the fact that we had to cut services in order to be

able to…. Either we increased taxes, which we had already seen during

the ’90s, where the province had gone from first place to last

place….

The situation was that we ended up with a province that was now

classified as a have-not province. We were getting transfers from the

federal government and the other have provinces just because of the fact

that we didn’t seem to be able to get our financial house in order in

comparison to the rest of the country.

[4:05 p.m.]

Those deficits were finally just retired, the structural operating

deficits, just as we moved the budget in February of 2017 — paid the

last installment, according to the former Finance Minister, on that

deficit. Really, that limits our ability to invest in all the things

that this government wants to promise and is continuing to spend money

on blindly.

I say that in my new role as Housing critic. The amount of money

that has been put into projects without the accountability that deserves

to be accounted for, $125 million plus in purchasing motels and hotels

to put shelters up across the province, etc. They’re all sorts of

homeless shelters that are important, but the bottom line is that

they’re going into these places and not even providing the wraparound

care. They’re not listening to council members and communities that have

plans, that want to work with the ministries involved. They want to make

certain that their plans are helpful in terms of making their

community.

So there is all of this new debt that’s been taken on by

ministries such as Housing, and there needs to be some checks and

balances. We can’t do it all. We want to find good value. I’m sure that

the people at B.C. Housing no less want to find good value in terms of

what the expenditures are that are being put out by

government.

I have to say that I’m a little bit appalled about some emergency

shelters that went up just last January actually — that’s when they

opened — in my riding. In a period of just about 40 days, the shelter

for about 40 people cost over $600,000 to operate on a temporary basis.

I mean, it’s appalling to think that that’s seen as necessary and good

value. I just think that we’ve got to come up with better taxpayer value

when it comes to everything that we’re doing.

We talk a lot about the extra spending. This government has added

23 new or increased taxes since it took over, and it’s increased the

spending, as I said, over 30 percent. With the deficit we’re facing now,

that actually adds up to an 80 percent increase. I mean, it’s

unsustainable. It requires that we actually do have some

plans.

Part of what our job is in opposition is to ask the right

questions so that we can be effective opposition. The collaboration that

was executed up until the pandemic election was where we could have

easily worked together through committees in terms of how to invest that

$1.5 billion, but no, we were going to study it with some other people

that really don’t have the business experience to come up with

recommendations, let alone a government that accepts the

recommendations.

The bottom line is that the collaboration that the member for

Kelowna-Mission just mentioned, the promise that the Premier has made

about how collaborative…. It has been collaborative. Our former Health

critic bent over backwards to make certain we supported this government

every step of the way.

And here we are today, and we’re looking