Fourth Session, 42nd Parliament

(2023) OFFICIAL REPORT

OF DEBATES

(HANSARD)

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Afternoon Sitting

Issue No. 271

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 8 — Real Estate Services Amendment Act, 2023

(continued)

P. Milobar

Hon. G. Heyman

Question of Privilege (Reservation of

Right)

P. Milobar

Second Reading of Bills

Bill 8 — Real Estate Services

Amendment Act, 2023 (continued)

Hon. B. Bailey

J. Sims

Hon. S. Robinson

A. Singh

D. Routley

B. D’Eith

E. Ross

H. Yao

R. Russell

Hon. N. Cullen

M. Dykeman

N. Simons

Hon. J. Whiteside

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2023

The House met at 1:32 p.m.

[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]

Orders of the Day

Hon. R. Kahlon: I call continued second reading of Bill 8.

Second Reading of Bills

BILL 8 — REAL ESTATE SERVICES

AMENDMENT ACT, 2023

(continued)

P. Milobar: It’s disappointing. It looks like we’ll have Bill 8 and Bill 7 for

the government to filibuster for two days now, with no new legislation

being introduced today.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

I’m just going to pick up on my comments on Bill 8. This is a

government that has billed itself as 100 days of action, a Premier that

couldn’t wait to get started. In fact, we had to see somewhat of a

jerry-rigged leadership race, as he just needed to get going and get on

with the work for the people of this province.

Here we are on day 95, three weeks into the legislative session —

a shortened legislative session, at this government’s hand — and we have

dealt with nothing but housekeeping amendment bills. Frankly, that’s

what Bill 8 is.

In a normal year, with a government with a full legislative slate

on their docket, this would have been part of the miscellaneous statutes

amendment bill, which was Bill 3. That was passed last week. That

was the day, just to refresh people’s memories, when the ministers

responsible for various sections of that bill couldn’t be bothered to be

in this House to answer questions around that bill.

Now, the Minister of Environment was, and I appreciate that he was

here doing his job on the sections of that miscellaneous statutes bill.

But there were a great many other ministers that were affected by that

bill that weren’t in the chamber. As a result, the bill just went

through.

[1:35 p.m.]

We’re going to hear today that the opposition does not oppose this

bill. The speaker previous made it sound as if there was some

pre-emptive debate going to need to be happening to try to convince and

strong-arm the opposition to agree with this bill. We fully support this

bill. We recognize this bill for what it is, a housekeeping

bill.

I’ll be our only speaker to this bill. Unfortunately, what we’re

going to hear today is more and more filibustering on Bill 8 instead of

substantive types of things that are actually on the order paper.

They’re all private members’ bills, but the government could call

those.

For the viewers at home, I know the previous Speaker gave a lot of

latitude to people on the floor on this bill, so I thought maybe I’d

just take a minute to fill people in on the process of what got us here

today, as we discuss Bill 8. Again, Bill 8 is literally a two-sentence

bill — two sentences.

Now, typically on a Thursday, the government likes to introduce

legislation when they have a full chamber because they like to be proud

of where they’re headed with a piece of legislation. So that would

normally happen on a Thursday at ten in the morning. This bill wasn’t

introduced then because, apparently, at ten in the morning on Thursday,

it wasn’t ready yet.

Instead, on Thursday, at one o’clock, right after lunch, is when

it was introduced, when the government became aware that they weren’t

going to be able to filibuster their own bill — that being a bill around

the statutory holiday on September 30. And they would’ve had nothing for

us to come back to this chamber to work on today.

So at 10 a.m., a miscellaneous bill wasn’t even ready to be

introduced to this chamber. At one o’clock, it’s introduced, and now

today we’re going to hear from member after member after member,

probably for several hours, about how critically important this bill

is.

This bill changes one person on the board of the real estate

services board, one person. It switches out a government rep for someone

on the British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association. That’s it. The

function of the association will be the same. The funding source of the

association will be the same. In fact, they will have more latitude,

more freedom away from government, to make decisions on how they would

like to spend their money on what projects they would like to

do.

We don’t take issue with any of that. We don’t take issue with the

good works they do. In fact, I do believe my good colleague sitting

behind me was the previous chair, the CEO, of this exact organization.

So to suggest that this side would have any concerns over this bill is

laughable in the extreme.

This is day 95 of the Premier’s 100 days of action. We had Bill 2,

which was a bill around a statutory holiday that everyone acknowledges

is part of reconciliation, part of UNDRIP that this House unanimously

supported, that the federal government had already supported, that other

provinces had already supported. Yet somehow we were getting admonished

by the other side that we weren’t spending hour after hour after hour

talking about a bill that we all supported on a concept everyone

understands, that being a statutory holiday and the significance of that

day.

That was one bill. That was the second bill introduced, actually.

Then we had the miscellaneous statutes bill. That was the bill the

government ministers couldn’t be bothered to show up for to actually

answer questions on. Yet we’re admonished by this side that we’re the

ones not trying to do our job and take it seriously.

Then we had Bill 4, the pension fund, which closed a loophole on

legislation that this government messed up three years previously. We

didn’t object to that bill. It was basically a housekeeping bill taking

care of a piece of legislation that had an obvious flaw in it, based on

a court ruling. We didn’t oppose that.

Then there was the Municipal Affairs bill. Once again, that was

about as long as this bill. There were no issues with that bill

whatsoever. That’s what gets us here today.

Oh, wait. I’m sorry. There was Bill 5. The government, when they

introduced it, made it sound like it was a housekeeping bill as well.

But in fact, they were going to dictate to their government lawyers what

union they could or couldn’t belong to, and they have now been forced to

withdraw that bill from legislative debate because they messed it up so

badly.

So that’s why we’re on Bill 8. Again, for those watching at home

who probably didn’t catch the first part or for those in the gallery,

I’m going to read verbatim Bill 8, because I have 20 minutes left, and I

bet you I won’t even be down to the 19-minute mark when I’m

done.

[1:40 p.m.]

“His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the

Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, enacts as

follows:

Section 91 (1) (

e) of the Real Estate Services Act,

S.B.C. 2004, c. 42, is repealed and the following substituted:

“(

e) one member appointed by the British Columbia Non-Profit

Housing Association.

Section 93 is amended

“(

a) in subsection (1) by striking out ‘, and’ at the end of

paragraph (

a) and by repealing paragraph (b), and

“(

b) by repealing subsection (2).

“Commencement

“3 This Act comes into force on the date of Royal Assent or

March 31, 2023, whichever is earlier.”

That was only 36 seconds, word for word. It took 36 seconds to

read that bill in its entirety in this chamber, and we are going to be

subjected to hours of irrelevant, off-topic, so-called debate in this

chamber today by members like the previous member to me. He literally

just read from the website, it appeared, of project after project after

project that the Real Estate Board has supported over the years that has

absolutely nothing to do with this bill. This bill is about the makeup

of switching out one member for another.

As for the dire implications, as the Minister of AVED is trying to

make it sound like and the previous speaker was trying to make it sound

like, let’s be honest: there are not going to be any dire consequences.

This association has been operating fine for decades. It’s still

operating fine. It will keep doing the great work it does. It’ll keep

distributing money for great projects on a wide range of issues around

this province.

So we don’t take issue with the bill. We take issue with the farce

that this government is making of this chamber, the incompetence. And

yes, it’s incompetence. There’s no other word for it.

This bill, in normal days, would have either been part of Bill 3,

the misc stats bill, or it would have had the minister speak…. It’s

shocking she even spoke for 12 minutes. Usually on a bill like this, the

minister would have spoken for about three. The opposition would have

got up. We would’ve spoken for a few minutes. We would have said,

pre-emptively, a couple of questions we might have for committee stage,

and the bill would have moved on.

Now, my colleague from Abbotsford tried that with Bill 3. He told

the government exactly what he was going to ask, which ministers we’d

have questions for, what those questions were even going to be. And the

government’s response to that at committee stage was…. Other than the

Minister of Environment, their other ministers chose to not show up for

work, couldn’t be found in this building somewhere. Apparently, it’s

difficult to track them down, despite how many staff are watching on TV,

not just in this building but around the province.

It’s incompetence. The member for Burnaby North might want to draw

a different parallel to that word, but plain and simple, that’s what it

is.

We don’t take issue with the changing out of a government member,

appointed member, to be a member now of the British Columbia Non-Profit

Housing Association. But let’s not try to oversell this if you’re the

government, for the next 3½ or four hours, or whatever it’s going to be,

trying to make the public think that the opposition isn’t doing their

job because we’re not going to put up speaker after speaker after

speaker to speak to this kind of to drivel of legislation. The public

deserves better.

How many tens of thousands of dollars did it cost to send all of

us here this week? Just let that sink in, if you’re sitting at home

right now. And the best we have today procedurally are Bill 8 and Bill

7, which is also a misc stats bill. It’s housekeeping, actually, by the

minister’s own words, to “address minor legislative, interpretive and

technical issues.” — the minister’s words, not mine. That’s the next

bill after this one.

[1:45 p.m.]

Here’s the thing for the people at home as well. We have Bill 8

today, maybe Bill 7 today, hopefully, which means the government

tomorrow…. When we sit until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, the only two pieces

of legislation they have to work on tomorrow, as well, because they

didn’t introduce anything today, are Bill 7 and Bill 8. If that’s not

the height of incompetence, I don’t know what is.

I don’t give the new Government House Leader a pass because he’s

new. He’s been in this chamber long enough. He was a staffer in these

buildings. His staff are the same staff the previous House Leader had

advising him. The Premier was the Attorney General in this House for 5½

years. Surely he knows how this place is supposed to work.

In fact, the Premier used to be the head of LRC, which vets

through and makes sure the legislation is ready to go. Do you know who

the new head of LRC is? Well, I know that the chair is over in the

corner. The current House Leader is the head of LRC. So he doesn’t get a

pass because he’s new. We’re three weeks in.

Maybe a case could be made at the end of last week for still

getting a pass. How the heck do you go through a long weekend after the

debacle of Tuesday, where we all rose at one o’clock or 1:30? So we rise

at 1:30 on a Thursday. We don’t get back here until Tuesday because of

the long weekend, and the government still has no other legislation to

bring forward?

At the start of this session, we were told there’d be 25 bills of

consequence. This is Bill 8 — they have all been housekeeping — on day

95, the Premier, a man of action.

Madam Speaker, that’s about as much time as I’m going to take on

this bill. We do look forward to committee stage. We will have a couple

of clarifying questions for the minister, as we always do, because we do

take our jobs seriously.

I guess the one last point I’ll put out, to the public more so: if

there’s any doubt, as you’re listening to the ridiculous debate you will

undoubtedly hear today…. I use the word “debate” loosely. We call it

debate in this House. Anyone watching at home is going to view these as

speeches, because that’s really what they are.

Usually if a bill comes forward and the government feels that it’s

even remotely consequential, the opposition gets a briefing. I was the

Environment critic for several years. The Environment Minister always

made sure I had a briefing. Even on a housekeeping bill like this, I

would have had a briefing. We actually reached out to the government for

a briefing on Thursday afternoon — radio silence.

Now, fundamentally, that’s not a huge problem, because this is

just a housekeeping bill. You can read, literally, the two sentences

over 36 seconds, and you can pretty much figure out what’s going to be

accomplished. Every step that the government has taken with this bill

says that it’s a housekeeping bill. It is meant to just do a quick,

slight change to a board. Nothing, fundamentally, of the operation of

that board is going to change.

Instead of the government acknowledging that today, get ready,

folks at home. You’re going to be subjected to hour after hour of the

most ridiculous statements you’re going to hear, because this government

doesn’t have their act together.

Boy, I sure look forward to Bill 7 coming forward. That has all of

15 clauses in it, also with no briefing.

H. Yao: If you don’t mind, I seek leave to make an

introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

H. Yao: Thank you, everyone, for the enthusiasm. I do want to take a moment to

introduce Richmond Secondary School’s grade 10 social studies class, right

now up in the gallery, including their teacher, Cindy Ho.

I just want to say thank you, guys, so much for coming. We do a lot of

really important, great work in this chamber, and we hope all you guys can

watch it, enjoying every moment of it. As I mentioned earlier, it can be a

bit dry. I thank you so much for taking the time in visiting

Victoria.

Please, everybody, join me in welcoming this lovely class of grade 10

students.

Debate Continued

Hon. G. Heyman: Hon. Chair, I regret the fact…. Oh, I see the member for

Kamloops–North Thompson is still in the House. I note with

interest….

Interjection.

Deputy Speaker: Who’s in the House and out of the House is not appropriately

stated.

Hon. G. Heyman: I apologize and withdraw.

[1:50 p.m.]

Hon. Chair, I note, with interest, that the member for

Kamloops–North Thompson spent much time following this morning’s debate,

in which…. The member was very quick to criticize the member for

Coquitlam–Burke Moun­tain for supposedly straying from Bill 7 when

in fact…. I will hope to demonstrate, in a few moments, exactly why the

statements of the member for Coquitlam–Burke Mountain were absolutely

relevant to Bill 7 and, in fact, are at the heart of why Bill 7 is

important.

Deputy Speaker: I’d remind the minister we’re on Bill 8.

Hon. G. Heyman: Bill 8. Thank you for the correction.

I note that the member who spoke previously to me spent much of

his time speaking about things that had nothing whatsoever to do with

Bill 8 but, in the course of those comments, referred to Bill 8 as

“drivel,” referred to statements in support of Bill 8 as “ridiculous.”

Those are both quotes. I find that regrettable and

disrespectful.

It’s disrespectful because the purpose of Bill 8 is to recognize

and to put in place a mechanism to allow the Real Estate Foundation of

B.C. to continue to do some very important work that it could not do

without this amendment. That is the work to do with watershed

restoration and health, which the member for Coquitlam–Burke Mountain

was referencing.

It is not appropriate to describe the words in a bill,

how­ever short, which are going to recognize and support the

important work of the Real Estate Foundation — important work that

supported First Nations, that supported young Indigenous people in

reconnecting with the land, their culture and their traditions, which I

will speak to in a little bit as well — as “drivel” or statements that

we are going to make in support of that as “ridiculous.” It’s just

simply not true.

We now have a Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

Prior to that, responsibility for much of water rested with the Ministry

of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

It was in my capacity, as the then minister, that we

conceptualized and introduced the healthy watersheds initiative. In

order to do that and to fund it, we needed a reliable third party that

could take the important funding that went to watershed rehabilitation

and work to ensure watershed health and all of the social, environmental

and economic benefits that come with that. That partner was not solely

the Real Estate Foundation but primarily the Real Estate

Foundation.

The work the Real Estate Foundation did, the relationships it

established, the accountability it had for its work with government, the

thoroughness with which it undertook a range of projects and worked with

a number of local watershed coalitions and Indigenous partners was

simply remarkable.

They were ready to hit the ground running with the money that was

provided. They did hit the ground running, and I want to talk about that

in a few minutes, notwithstanding the fact that the member for

Kamloops–​North Thompson thinks to speak of such things is, in

some way, ridiculous.

I would submit that the communities, the volunteers, the watershed

coalitions, the Indigenous nations, the First Nations and Indigenous

youth who are part of the healthy watersheds initiative would not find

the words ridiculous or the work of the Real Estate Foundation

ridiculous or support for the work of the Real Estate Foundation, in

this House, to be ridiculous or drivel. It simply isn’t.

Let me just point to one thing that the Real Estate Foundation

did, beyond the actual watershed projects, that I found

remarkable.

[1:55 p.m.]

The Real Estate Foundation, working with its partners, did and

provided to government an analysis of the success and the engagement of

a whole range of projects which they had sponsored and initiated, and

put in place governance structures for, with the funding that was

provided for that purpose by government. They were the only organization

with whom we worked that really did this successfully, which is not to

criticize the other organizations. We didn’t ask for it to be done. They

did it on their own.

What they did was an analysis that showed that the projects that

have the highest level of involvement and collaboration with First

Nations and Indigenous youth were the most successful. I’m not surprised

by that. We shouldn’t be surprised by that, but it is extremely useful

information to have. It means a lot.

What this bill, Bill 8, does is ensure…. When we can make the

change that we, as government, saw was needed to address the issue that

was raised….

The Real Estate Foundation, as its current governance structure

dictated, must be considered as part of the government reporting entity

and, therefore, could no longer be the recipient or the administrator of

funds to support the healthy watersheds initiative or potentially a

range of other initiatives that the Real Estate Foundation might take on

in their tremendous work in many communities around British Columbia —

not just with water but with many, many other projects that have great,

positive community benefits and impacts.

What this bill does is allow the relationship between the

government of British Columbia and the Real Estate Foundation to

continue, with the Real Estate Foundation being a trusted partner that

can be responsible for projects with funding provided by the government

of British Columbia. That’s important. They have demonstrated their

competence, their commitment, their absolute understanding of the need

to be respectful of and to work with First Nations, to give

opportunities to Indigenous youth.

These things cannot be overstated. To talk about these things is

not ridiculous. It’s not drivel. It is at the heart of government

seeking partnerships and relationships to do work that is needed in

communities throughout British Columbia on behalf of the people of

British Columbia.

That is what this bill does. It allows us more tools and more

opportunity to work with a trusted partner, through making the changes

contained in Bill 8, to do work that matters for the people of British

Columbia. I know the opposition is not interested in hearing about the

projects, but I think the people of British Columbia are.

We went through a very difficult period of time with COVID-19,

especially the first months. People lost jobs. People were scared.

People were isolated.

It provided an opportunity, in looking at the people who suffered

the most from the economic impacts and job losses, young people not that

much older than the students who are with us in the House today,

Indigenous youth — we’re trying to fix that with economic reconciliation

— who have traditionally and chronically not had the employment

opportunities of others, to give them a chance to do useful work, to

make a living, to feel connected to the land, to make a difference in

their communities.

I am going to talk about a couple of examples that took place in

the healthy watersheds initiative and which Bill 8 will allow to

continue under the exemplary guidance, implementation, responsiveness

and accountability of the Real Estate Foundation of British

Columbia.

The Kwikwetlem First Nation trained four full-time resource

guardians to enforce conservation regulations. They restored

environmentally compromised sites. They monitored development activities

to protect archaeological, environmental and cultural assets with ten

jobs. One project.

[2:00 p.m.]

The Sunshine Coast regional district, under the regional watershed

management planning umbrella, worked with the shíshálh Nation and the

Squamish Nation and their community members, as well as other local

governments, to develop a regional watershed management plan that would

outline the actions needed to protect watersheds within the

region.

The Kwakiutl First Nation is addressing large-scale active erosion

in the Dła̱xsiwè River by designing

and implementing fish habitat restoration measures. These measures will

help to stabilize the channel and restore salmon-spawning rearing areas

in the lower river and estuary. It did create eight jobs and provided

on-the-job training.

The Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance, in partnership

with the Carrier Sekani First Nations, de­veloped, implemented and

managed, and are continuing to do so, a First Nations–staffed water

monitoring and data management system. Once operational, the system will

be used to centralize, analyze and share up-to-date water monitoring

data collected on the Endako River to support informed decision-making —

18 jobs.

I know that the members opposite don’t want to hear about these

projects. They think it’s a waste of time. They may think the words are

ridiculous. They may think the legislation that is before the House,

Bill 8, that will allow the Real Estate Foundation to continue to do

this work in partnership with our government and with the people of

British Columbia in the interest of communities, in the interests of

First Nations around the province, in the interests of watersheds that

are so critical to us….

They may think that is drivel. I do not. I do not believe the

people of British Columbia think it’s drivel. I do not think the Real

Estate Foundation thinks it’s drivel. The Real Estate Foundation is

eager to do this kind of work and the other kinds of work the Real

Estate Foundation has done for years.

Our people, British Columbians, through our government, need

trusted, responsible, accountable partners that can oversee important,

broad-based clusters of projects like the healthy watersheds initiative.

We should all be proud of that in this House.

I’m surprised that the member for Kamloops–North Thompson, who has

identified himself as the only opposition speaker to this bill, couldn’t

even take two minutes, two minutes of his speech, to say a single good

word about the work of the Real Estate Foundation, the importance of the

work that the Real Estate Foundation did with the healthy watersheds

initiative in supporting reconciliation.

It astounds me, and the members opposite can say that we are

simply running the clock on Bill 8, but it’s not true. It is important

that British Columbians know the difference that is made by

organizations like the Real Estate Foundation, the difference it makes

in the lives of Indigenous youth.

I had the opportunity to tour several sites where watershed

initiative projects took place, in my capacity as then minister

responsible, and I remember the enthusiasm of the local volunteer

watershed coalitions, who talked about how they had dreamed of the

opportunity to do the work they were doing that would restore waterfowl

habitat, that would clear out invasive species, that would protect

rearing grounds and channels used by fish, that would support healthy

fisheries in the future.

They also talked about how a healthy watershed…. Some of the work

they did actually provided escape routes for water that might otherwise

flood, that in fact did flood throughout the Fraser Valley, that caused

devastation when we had atmospheric rivers throughout the Fraser

Valley.

[2:05 p.m.]

The work of the healthy watersheds initiative, supported by the

Real Estate Foundation, has made a difference. It will make a

difference. We can count on it making a difference, because it’s work

that needs to be done. I’m sure the members opposite would not expect us

to return to the days where government did everything, government

managed everything, government hired everyone. What we need is respected

and trusted partners to do this work.

The other thing I remember from my visit and my conversations with

some of the workers on the healthy watersheds initiative projects….

Again, this is attributable in large part to the Real Estate Foundation

making a point of establishing good relations, respectful relations,

with First Nations, actively seeking workers who are Indigenous

youth.

I talked to some of those youth. They talked about what it meant

to them to do that work. They talked about going back to their

communities and talking to Elders about the work they were doing and

hearing the stories of what the watersheds had been like before they had

been subjected to various forms of development that harmed them, and

what it meant to restore those, what it meant to the culture of those

First Nations — the traditions, the stories that are attached to the

values that healthy watersheds support.

They were very clear. It was incredibly meaningful to them. It was

meaningful to them because it put them back in touch with their culture,

their Elders and their communities. In a number of cases, I spoke to

young people who were going to take their experience working on the

ground — hard work, in some ways repetitive work but very close to the

ground — and turn that experience into a motivation to seek higher

education in biology or in other sciences that could bring them back to

their communities to help plan that kind of work, to help design that

kind of work and to help ensure that kind of work would be done on

behalf of not just First Nations communities but communities around

B.C.

The Real Estate Foundation is not the only organization in British

Columbia that does this kind of work or is a trusted partner. I don’t

mean to imply that. But when we had the kind of experience that we had,

the accountability that we saw with the Real Estate Foundation, the

analysis they did without being asked, to demonstrate how effective

engagement with Indigenous people was in ensuring that the projects

accomplished the goals they were meant to accomplish….

I think anything we can do with Bill 8 to give recognition to the

work of the foundation and continue that valued relationship based on

the experience they already have in running healthy watershed initiative

programs at a time when we are working with First Nations, with

communities and with people around the province to try to take long-term

permanent action to protect watersheds through the watershed security

strategy and fund…. They are an important partner. We need to empower

them to continue to be an important partner.

That’s what Bill 8 is about. That’s what speaking to Bill 8 is

about. Speaking to Bill 8 is about respecting the Real Estate

Foundation’s work, respecting what they did for British Columbian

communities, respecting the engagement they had with Indigenous peoples,

respecting the Indigenous youth and others who participated in the

program and helped rehabilitate important watersheds around British

Columbia. That’s what Bill 8 is about.

It’s really that simple. That’s why sometimes all it takes is a

bill with a very few number of words to accomplish a lot of good

throughout British Columbia. And I’m proud to stand here today to speak

in favour of Bill 8, in favour of the Real Estate Foundation, in favour

of the work that the foundation has done. I know that my colleagues on

this side of the House share that pride and also want to shine a

spotlight on that good work.

[2:10 p.m.]

Question of Privilege

(Reservation of Right)

P. Milobar: I’d just like to rise and reserve my right to a point of

privilege.

Deputy Speaker: Before we go on, the Chair has given considerable leeway to the first

two speakers this afternoon. I would like to remind people in the House that

under Standing Order 40(3): “No Member shall be irrele­vant in

debate.” I would like members to keep that in mind as we debate Bill 8 and

be aware that I will be watching for relevance.

At that, I will recognize the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development

and Innovation.

Debate Continued

Hon. B. Bailey: It’s my privilege to stand and speak in support of Bill 8, the

Real Estate Services Amendment Act, which removes the Real Estate

Foundation of B.C. from the government reporting entity in order to

better deliver on their mandate. This has been operated at arm’s length

of government until 2016, when changes to the foundation’s governance

model brought it into the government reporting entity. Bill 8 is

correcting that. Following review and consultation, it was determined

that there was really no rationale to keep it in the entity. It would be

far more effective were it removed.

As my colleagues have highlighted, the Real Estate Foundation of

B.C. is a key player in helping our prov­ince work towards

building a sustainable and inclusive economy, objectives that are

extremely relevant to my ministry. This bill will help better position

the Real Estate Foundation to deliver on its mandate and continue its

important work and restore its arm-length relationship to

government.

Under the government reporting entity, they were limited in

regards to government supports that they could garner — federally, for

example. Bill 8 corrects for this. It allows them to be a trusted

partner in delivering important programming to the people of British

Columbia, so it is worth rising and speaking in support of this

bill.

I, too, would like to highlight some of the great work that the

REFBC does to help people and the environment of our province. They work

hard with numerous organizations throughout our province to protect our

economy and our environment. Bill 8 is a way of ensuring that this work

can continue and, in fact, accelerate. They’ve awarded hundreds of

thousands of dollars to organizations to help protect and restore

watersheds, as has been previously discussed.

I do also want to just draw attention to this particular aspect of

their work, again, which is going to be supported by the changes in Bill

8. They work with the Black and Indigenous Design Collective. This is

really interesting work. The Black and Indigenous Design Collective —

they’ve worked to build a mentorship program to help support young

people from the Musqueam, the Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh First

Nations pursue post-secondary education and career opportunities in

urban design and planning.

I’m particularly excited about this work of the Real Estate

Foundation, because I’ve seen some of it playing out in my community of

Vancouver–False Creek. When we have people from different backgrounds

contributing to design and to what a city looks like and how a city

operates…. It’s very important to have these different

perspec­tives. Indigenous and Black youth having the opportunity

to train as city planners and to train as designers and to have that

kind of impact — that’s really important work that the Real Estate

Foundation has supported.

I spent this weekend at the winter arts festival. Great examples

there of Indigenous collaboration. Many people probably saw B.C. Place

lit up with Debra Sparrow’s beautiful digital weaving. That’s an

example. There were many other examples.

If a person were to go to Canada Place, they could look at a

beautiful Indigenous painting on the wall of Canada Place and unlock

aspects of it with their phone and have an AR experience, allowing them

to walk into the art and see how the Indigenous creators have utilized

different aspects of that painting to tell their stories. I think this

is very important work, and we’re really excited about the opportunity

to have further collaborations with the Real Estate Foundation in order

to do this incredibly important work.

[2:15 p.m.]

Not only does it have an impact in places like in my riding, but

the work that this organization is doing, particularly in regards to the

Black and Indigenous Design Collective, really aligns so strongly with

UNDRIP, which we all, together, passed here in this House and recognize

the importance of.

So many, many alignments not only with UNDRIP but also with our

StrongerBC economic plan, supporting sustainability that works for

everyone — again, work that is very much aligned with the Real Estate

Foundation and supported by Bill 8.

The Real Estate Foundation awarded over $1 million this past fall

alone to 18 organizations who are working on applied research, public

education, policy and law reform, advancing sustainable, equitable and

socially just land use and real estate, with a view to upholding

Indigenous rights and title and racial equity and justice.

A couple of further examples of this work, which, again, is

supported by the changes we’re making in Bill 8, which removes the Real

Estate Foundation from the government reporting entity. Some of the work

that’s happening at BCIT, the B.C. Institute of Technology…. They’re

working with local governments to measure their carbon footprints and

review the ecoCity footprint tool. I spent a little bit of time playing

with this tool myself. It’s a very, very interesting and powerful tool,

and it aligns with the climate equity goals.

The ecoCity footprint tool enables cities to understand and to

lighten their ecological and carbon footprints. It does this by

illuminating how much energy and resources, energy and materials, are

being used and how much land and sea area are required to produce the

goods and services that are being consumed within any given community on

a given year. That’s pretty profound work, and I think that the

opportunity to drive forward further funding opportunities for this

foundation that’s clearly doing such important work is relevant and

important for us to speak to.

Again, Bill 8 provides the Real Estate Foundation the opportunity

to seek additional funding to continue this important work. Our

government has partnered with the Real Estate Foundation in the past to

implement the healthy watersheds initiative. I know many have spoken

about this, so I won’t spend too much time on it, Madam Chair, as per

your request.

It’s a program supporting reconciliation and environmental

stewardship. The funding of $20 million, along with an additional $30

million in 2022, is helping to protect and restore key areas throughout

the province. It has also created good and sustainable local jobs for

First Nations and community in B.C., and this is really a profoundly

important goal. We know, historically, that the First Nations

communities in British Columbia haven’t always had the same access to

opportunities, and it’s a very important correction that our government

is very devoted to making. These are some of the examples that this

organization will be able to continue with, thanks to the changes that

are being made in this bill, in Bill 8.

With that, I will complete and take my seat.

H. Yao: I, again, apologize, asking the chamber to entertain my

request for leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

H. Yao: I want to take a moment to, again, recognize Richmond Secondary

School’s grade 10 social studies class, led by Adil Khan. I just want to

take a moment to welcome them to our lovely chamber. Thank you for taking

the time out of your busy

schedule to really visit us and watch how

democracy works.

I’m asking the whole House and everybody in here to please

put your hands together and welcome the group.

Debate Continued

J. Sims: It’s really a pleasure for me today to rise in this House and

speak on the Real Estate Services Amendment Act.

Before I get to that, I do want to say how it’s always a delight

for me when we get visitors in these hallowed chambers. But my absolute

delight always happens when we get young people visiting from our

schools, because I know, as part of their curriculum, they are learning

about us, their civic responsibilities, but also about civic government

and the different levels of government.

[2:20 p.m.]

Welcome to this House. It isn’t always this empty. You missed

question period today, but I’m sure you will go home and watch it. I’m

hoping the students from Richmond will have a wonderful visit here at

the Legislature today.

I’ve heard a lot of concern about the amount of debate on this

bill. What I will say is this bill only started to be debated this

morning after question period. So for me, this is just the beginning of

a debate. When we get elected back in our ridings, we get elected so

that we can come here and speak to legislation, either for or against,

and therefore provide input to the minister and for everybody else in

this House.

Madam Speaker, you will agree with me that when we debate

legislation, and we are debating Bill 8 today, we learn so much from

other speakers. I know today my eyes were opened by my colleague who

spoke earlier this morning. My colleague from Coquitlam–Burke Mountain

brought his passion for the fisheries, for the oceans, for the watershed

and related that to Bill 8, and I learned a lot from that.

Just now, listening to the Minister for Jobs and Economic

Development, she actually looked at this bill from the angle of her own

ministry. With that, she gave me the opportunity of looking at that

legislation with a different lens than I had looked at it previously.

With that, my understanding of the legislation and the impact it has and

of this organization, the Real Estate Foundation, has grown, and I think

that’s a good thing. So I think debate is very, very

important.

But I will agree with a previous colleague when he sort of said

there is no debate. Well, since I have been elected to this House, since

2017, I can say I have only ever heard speech, speech, speech, speech.

So that format has not changed. As many of you know, I came from the

House of Commons in my previous life where there was actually debate

happening, where you actually had a chance to respond to somebody

speaking on an issue and vice versa. There was backwards and

forwards.

So I do agree with my colleague there that often what we hear in

this House is the opposition and those in government and the

backbenchers, everybody, getting up to put forward their perspectives,

and that’s what we’re doing on this bill. Nothing has been changed for

this bill. It’s just the common practice of this place.

I have sat in this House, and I have sat in the House of Commons

as well. Sometimes when debating, a few words can take days and days

because those words are significant. I know from having negotiated many,

many collective agreements that a comma in the wrong place, a period in

the wrong place, a capitalization and starting a new paragraph can

change the intent when it comes to

interpretation.

I think when we pass legislation in this House it

be­hooves…. It’s our outright responsibility to make sure that the

legislation is crafted in such a way to avoid that kind of confusion in

the future and ending up in all kinds of places. But also, it behooves

us as elected members, when we are debating in this House, to give every

piece of legislation the serious attention it deserves.

[2:25 p.m.]

I don’t ever articulate it this way, but when I don’t agree with

what somebody is saying, I would never call that drivel in this House.

What I would call it is a different perspective. When you have different

perspectives, and I know things get emotional, it behooves us to remain

respectful and to use our words properly.

We have young people who sit here and who are here to learn about

our democracy. They’re going to learn the importance of the Real Estate

Services Amendment Act from many of us today.

First of all, up to 2016, this piece of legislation was not a

reporting entity. It was not a reporting entity. In other words, it

wasn’t working under the same kinds of obligations, nor did government

have the final say.

I know that might not have been the practice. But when you read

the words, the legislation prior — and that’s why this amendment was

there — gave government the kind of control the government didn’t want

and the foundation didn’t see helping it in its work.

What we’re going back to…. This is not like going back to the

future. This is like going back to prior to 2016. This bill will now

read the way it did before 2016.

What it will save the Real Estate Foundation…. It actually will

give them the leeway to do a lot of their work in a far more proactive

manner than they have right now. For example, the changes that were made

in 2016 and then perpetuated in 2021 — I’m not pointing the finger at

either side of the House; I’m saying that’s the way it happened —

actually made it difficult for the foundation to administer grants or to

receive grants.

A foundation, as we know, relies on the generation of revenue in

different ways. One of those is the interest they’re earning from the

deposits that are made. I won’t go into that in too much detail. The

second is by attracting grants because people like the work that they

are doing.

This piece of legislation will now make it easier and help the

foundation to overcome the challenges they had in dealing with and

administering those government grants. I think that’s a good thing. I

think the young people sitting up there will agree with me that it is a

good thing when a foundation can start receiving grants and can start

doing more projects that will help to protect whether it’s our

watersheds, our waterways or many other things.

Madam Speaker, you will agree with me. I know my grandchildren and

my children are far more knowledgable and far more committed, at times,

to saving our planet. They realize the importance of things like

watersheds, of our fisheries and of our landscape.

There are other organizations, as we know, that are sort of sister

organizations to this foundation. Those are the Law Foundation of B.C.

and the Notary Foundation of B.C. And you know what? They’re not

reporting entities.

All we’re doing is we’re bringing some…. We’re doing some

streamlining. That’s what this will do. That streamlining will take

place.

This legislation didn’t just fall out of the sky. There was a

consultation. There was a review. I know I’ve had a couple of people

talk to me about it. I didn’t know about it at the time, what this

legislation meant. They think it’s a good thing.

Today, when I look at the amazing work that the Real Estate

Foundation of B.C. does, I’m in awe. I just have a list of a few of

their projects. I’m not going to stand here and read every one of those

projects into the record, though I will say that I would like to

highlight some.

[2:30 p.m.]

Once again, it relates back to Bill 8. Bill 8 is changing the

reporting requirements. Because it’s doing that, it is now going to

allow the foundation to receive grants and do more of the good work that

they are already doing. As I went through this — and I know that my

colleagues have read out some of these, so I’m not going to — I was

taken aback by the diversity of the projects funded by this amazing

organization. That now has had a few useless, I would say…. A newly

added…. It only happened in 2016 that they were shackled in some way.

Those shackles are being removed.

Let’s call it what it is. This is allowing a foundation to go out

and do its good work without unnecessary and unwarranted interference

from government. Even though it was there on a technicality, on paper it

is still the government who have the final say. They don’t have to come

to government for approval. Though, of course, they do have to work

within a framework that exists for foundations.

I looked at the grant that was given to the Chilako River

demonstration project. The Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance

was the lead. This is what it did. Now, the Upper Fraser Fisheries

Conservation Alliance is actually implementing a riparian and floodplain

ecosystem restoration project on the Chilako River.

You know what, Madam Speaker? For some, that might just appear —

poof! — drivel. Useless. But I have spent a lot of time kayaking down

different rivers or walking along different rivers or swimming in

different rivers. I don’t think there is anybody in this room today, in

2023, that would disagree how important it is for us to protect our

floodplain ecosystem.

That grant is going to make a huge, huge difference not just for

now but for future generations. How does it link back to “why Bill 8?”

Because Bill 8 is now going to allow the foundation to receive more

grants. The more grants that come, guess what happens? Then, more work

gets done. That work, if it is anything like this, is absolutely amazing

work that we need to see happening. As I said earlier, we need to be

taking a look at that more and more. I have always been of the view that

governments do lots of great work, but it’s our foundations, it’s the

volunteers and it’s the NGOs right around this province and across many

sectors that do absolutely stellar work to augment the work we do from

here.

I just want to say that it is a privilege to serve as an elected

official in this province or anywhere, I would say. We are some of the

luckiest people on the planet that we live in a democratic society.

Right now, when we look around the world and see what is happening to

women and to minorities, I think it brings up a whole new respect for

our democratic structures. I’m proud to be an elected official right

here in B.C., where we are taking the time to discuss legislation that

is going to enable a foundation to do more work in order to save our

planet — more work so that we and our children can have a more, I would

say, predictable future.

[2:35 p.m.]

We should never take that lightly. Legislation and the debating of

it is not an inconvenience. It’s not about: “How much time does it

take?” I think, and I’ve always believed this, on any piece of

legislation, every single member in this House should have the right to

stand up and speak. I will always, always value the times that I get to

get up and speak, and not only speak for myself but speak for the

constituents in Surrey-Panorama and, I would say, many others as

well.

Some people would say this is a very unusual piece of legislation.

Governments usually like to control things. That’s the theory that many

people have out there. So why is it that this government is actually

willing to give up that control by passing this legislation?

This foundation is an established foundation that has been working

at odds with other foundations very similar to it, has had to adhere to

a whole new set of rules. They don’t have to do that anymore because of

Bill 8. Because of Bill 8, our government is also showing that it’s not

about control. It’s about doing the work.

We have been in this House…. I believe this is the third week —

though, I’m often reminded, as a teacher, when you first started your

summer break, you kept thinking: “Oh my god. I’ve got all this time.”

And when you were back at school, on the second day, you felt: “Have I

been away? Has there ever been a break?” In many ways, being at this

House is like that, because we all get so busy.

We have been back at this House for a very short time, and we’ve

seen quite a bit of legislation passed through this House already. That

has happened because we’re all, both sides of the House, committed to

our democratic structures and are committed to democratic

debate.

I’m not a person who believes that anybody should be forced to

stand up and speak on any legislation. But if you want to speak on

legislation, then I believe you should take the opportunity, and you

should not have that taken away from you.

It has been with delight that I stood here today, and I’ve been

speaking on this legislation. I see that the young people have gone. I’m

sure when they get back, they will try to analyze what all these heads

sitting in this room were trying to debate. But I’m hoping they left

here — I’m almost glad they were not here during question period; it was

never my favourite to bring students to — thinking: “We have elected

people on both sides of the House who are taking the time to debate

important legislation.” In this case, as we know, it’s Bill

There is one more project that I wanted to draw attention to

today, because as I was going through these notes, it really struck my

fancy. It may not be a huge project, but it’s the one that the young

people, if they were in this room, would really, really relate to. They

would really relate to it. That is the capacity-building project for

water leaders through learning and development.

The lead organization, of course, was the B.C. freshwater

initiative, or MakeWay, and the grant amount was almost half a million

dollars. This initiative, a project of MakeWay, provides tailored

training, peer learning — this is like gold to a teacher’s ears, right?

— and coaching support to Indigenous and non-Indigenous water leaders in

communities that are leading on innovative approaches to watershed

management, governance and security.

[2:40 p.m.]

This project supports ten jobs. To me, what I love about this

project is it’s about getting people ready to carry on this work, giving

them the training they need to do the work to protect our waterways and

to create water leaders for the future.

This relates back to Bill 8, again, because this is the work that

the foundation does, and that foundation is now going to have the

ability to bring in more grants, to give out more grants and to increase

this work. I’m certainly hoping, if they’re listening to this

scintillating debate in this House today, that the foundation will

really focus in on training youth — our future generations, our future

leaders — to take the lead on a lot of this work. For those of us with

children and grandchildren, we all know how much we can learn from

them.

As I was saying earlier, I met my colleague from Coquitlam–Burke

Mountain first in 2011. He has been a passionate advocate, activist, for

the protection of our waters, our fisheries. When he speaks about our

watersheds and the protection of our watersheds and the protection of

our species, it comes from his core. What he explained to me — I talked

to him about it, because I knew his passion — is that Bill 8 will now

allow the foundation to do more of that kind of work. And that, to me,

is absolutely amazing that we as elected officials in this House are

playing a role whereby a foundation can expand its work in a huge way

but also is doing the good work to protect our Mother Earth.

I don’t think anybody on either side of the House would disagree

with me how the fight for our planet, the fight for our waterways, the

fight against climate change, the fight against the heat domes we’ve had

— all of those things don’t happen in isolation. They are

interconnected.

So the protection of our waterways plays an absolutely critical

role when we talk about the atmospheric floods we experienced or the

heat dome that we had. So if we look at Mother Earth as a whole, this

foundation is playing a critical role in addressing some of that work,

though I’m sure our minister and all the ministers and government are

working very, very hard to make sure that we’re doing that work as

well.

I could speak for a lot longer on this legislation, because I have

many stories to tell from the students in my class­room when I

government to be able to discuss, to debate and to hear from each other.

My appeal to every one of my colleagues is, as we take

part in debate in

this House, let us give each other the respect to hear what we say, not

to sort of imply other things. I believe we can do so much better for

the people of British Columbia when we work together.

Just as we’re talking about Bill 8 right now, you will also

notice…. You know, Madam Speaker, in this House, it’s very difficult to

isolate things into little silos. When I think about Bill 8 and how we

are all in agreement about the changes that are here, I experienced that

same magic in this House when we faced one of the worst pandemics that I

could ever imagine in my lifetime. We all came together, and a lot of

the politics disappeared out of our discourse, because it was the right

thing to do.

[2:45 p.m.]

Back to Bill 8, Madame Speaker. I could see you sort of thinking

it’s getting into COVID, but really, the relationship sits, because

that’s when we did work together. We were in agreement. We stood in this

House and spoke.

I would invite my colleagues who are comfortable speaking to get

up and speak and say what you like on this legislation. I know the

opposition supports the legislation, so please stand up. Stand up and

tell us what it is you like about this, what these changes mean. From

that, I might learn something, just as I learned something from the

Minister of Jobs and Economic Development. I learned things from almost

every member who spoke in this House.

This is not about one side having all the answers or having all

the speeches. One of the other things, as I said previously, is I

absolutely believe in the right of elected people to get up and speak on

legislation that is being debated. If you as a member of this

Legislature decide you do not want to speak on this legislation — Madam

Speaker, back to Bill 8 — then I will say that is your right not to

speak on Bill 8, but it is not your right to stop me or anybody else

from speaking on Bill 8, and that is what I am saying.

Interjection.

J. Sims: For my colleague, I have spoken for a lot longer than until 6:30

on one piece of legislation, and you can actually google that and listen

to it if you have the stomach.

Getting back to this Bill 8 again, I want to say that this piece of legislation may be

small in the number of words that are being changed, but it is

significant. As I was saying….

I don’t know if you were in the room. I’ve got a colleague who

keeps saying it’s one clause. I’ve sat at tables where one comma in the

wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So words matter,

where they are matters, and it’s because of that, that this bill

matters.

This bill is here to remove the Real Estate Foundation from being

a reporting entity, to remove the invisible so-called shackles that are

on the foundation. It removes their lack of ability. It enables them to

take grants and administer grants and do more things that they need to

do. And it does all of that with just a phrase.

So if you look at it as just a phrase, yes, it’s a phrase, but few

words have shifted the international political scene. And what I’m

saying is this piece of legislation…. It is few words, but they’re

significant words, and the public that’s out there deserves to have

discussion and debate so that they understand what we are debating, what

legislation we are dealing with and what it means.

If we in this House look at Bill 8 and say that we all agree and

nobody speaks to it, that is disrespectful to the millions of British

Columbians, and it’s disrespectful to democracy. Even when we agree on

issues, we stand up and we give our perspectives. Sometimes there’s

overlap, but sometimes we may be voting for a bill for different reasons

than the others. But the public has an absolute right to hear

debate.

With that, Madam Speaker, I am going to say I wholeheartedly

support this legislation and invite my colleagues to stand up and give

their perspective.

H. Yao: Again, I’m seeking leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

Introductions by Members

H. Yao: Thank you, everyone. Today I want, again, to take a moment to welcome

another class here from Richmond Secondary School, a grade 10 social studies

class, led by Candis Keirn, bringing her class, watching us and how

democracy works.

[2:50 p.m.]

As our previous speaker mentioned very clearly, we’re here as elected

officials to represent our constituents, and we want them to hear where

their elected officials stand on different positions.

I will take a moment to welcome you guys to witness history in the

making. Remember, every decision made in this chamber matters to every

British Columbian.

Please, I want every member here to welcome this grade 10 social

studies class.

Debate Continued

Hon. S. Robinson: I have to tell you how thrilled I am. I want to thank the member

for Richmond South Centre for introducing folks from my alma mater, from

Richmond High. Go Colts.

I am thrilled that you are here because one of you could, at some

point, be here. I never anticipated, when I was a Richmond High student,

back in the old building — the one that got taken down — that I would be

standing in this chamber years later. So any one of you could be here. I

want to thank you and welcome you to the people’s House.

I rise not only to congratulate the Richmond Colts, who are in the

House, but I want to speak to Bill 8, the Real Estate Services Amendment

Act. I want to appreciate the member for Surrey-Panorama, who talked

about removing shackles and what that means with this particular

bill.

Removing the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, which was

established in the mid-’80s, from the government reporting entity…. This

bill allows them more freedom, and it gives them an opportunity to

deliver more of what they do.

I think we need to acknowledge and understand what it is that the

Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia does. I am assuming that the

members of this House might know, but I am sure that the Richmond Colts,

who are in the House, probably don’t know and most people who are

watching from home don’t know. So it is relevant for us to explain what

it is that this particular bill does.

Now, the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia operated at

arm’s length from government until 2016. Then there were changes made to

their governance model that brought it into the government reporting

entity. In the subsequent time, with consultation and with discussion,

we learned that it really didn’t make sense to have it as part of the

reporting entity and that they would have more freedom and more

flexibility outside the entity.

We are now changing the legislation. That’s what we’re doing here.

We’re changing the legislation. That gives them more flexibility. It

allows them to work a little bit more like the Northern Development

Initiative Trust or the Fraser Basin Council or the Law Foundation.

These are other organizations in our province that have the freedom to

receive grants, receive resources, to do good works on citizens’ behalf

that can be focused.

The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia is a philanthropic

organization, which means that they take donations and they write

grants. Their goal is to advance sustainable, equitable and socially

just land use right across British Columbia. So understanding that they

help protect the land…. These are how the real estate industry uses

resources and gives back.

I was talking with my colleague here, the Minister of

Transportation. We were talking about the ways in which realtors and the

real estate industry support communities, right? I am sure that in all

of our communities and, perhaps, in Richmond, there are, perhaps, ball

teams or hockey teams that are supported by realtors. They do the

Coldest Night of the Year, lots of them. They participate in many

meaningful ways.

Here’s another way in which, as a body, they come together to help

take care of our communities. They do some really outstanding work.

That’s why it’s important that with Bill 8, we give them as much freedom

as possible — as my colleague from Panorama said, removing the shackles.

I really like that way of thinking about what we’re doing here with Bill

8. It’s giving them the freedom they need to deliver on all of our

behalf.

Now, I do think that in recognizing what the Real Estate

Foundation does, it’s important that we help each other understand. The

other thing that I heard from the member for Surrey-Panorama…. She was

talking about learning from each of her colleagues, about the ways in

which we understand this important piece of legislation.

[2:55 p.m.]

With my lens, in understanding how important this piece of

legislation is, it really is about how we’re training up youth. As the

Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, my emphasis in

my ministry and my responsibility is making sure the young people we

have in this gallery, the Richmond Colts who are here with us — that

they are ready when they go into post-secondary education, because 80

percent of all the jobs going forward will need some sort of

post-secondary education, and that we are helping prepare them for the

jobs of the future.

I want to say that by passing Bill 8 and giving the Real Estate

Foundation of British Columbia the freedom to do its work and hire young

people to help heal the land in ways that they’ve been doing, it helps

me deliver on my mandate. It helps government deliver on our mandate. It

helps these young people who are here witnessing this find opportunities

to try new things, to try new skills, to learn how to heal the

land.

It’s all because we here in this chamber are taking the time to

make sure that the Real Estate Foundation can deliver on its mandate.

That is good for the people who are in the gallery, and it’s good for

people right around British Columbia. That’s why I’m very proud to stand

on my feet and talk about the ways in which the Real Estate Foundation

continues to make a difference in our communities.

I do have a story in my own relationship with the Real Estate

Foundation. I got to know them really well as an organization when we

were in what I would say were the throes of COVID. I remember meeting in

my colleague’s office as we were trying to figure out, through COVID,

when people were losing their jobs, when we had industries….

Restaurants were closing up, and we were really worried about

young people in particular, and First Nations as well, where people

weren’t working. We were trying to figure out how we get people working.

How do we make sure that they can do things that we need done in British

Columbia, where we can help people pay their bills but also teach them

new skills as well as form new relationships and work outside? Remember,

we were pretty anxious about working inside.

The healthy watersheds initiative, which was a project of the Real

Estate Foundation…. They presented it to us. Their initiative is about

restoring rivers and streams, protecting salmon habitat, managing water

flows, collecting data, watershed mapping and sustainability planning.

These were all the things that they were very interested in.

As I talked about how Bill 8 will free up the Real Estate

Foundation to do its important work, I really came to respect how they

were talking about doing these things that are so integral to protecting

our land. They also wanted to hire and train local young people. That

was their focus.

We have young people here in our chamber today. I want them to

know, and I want everyone at home to know, that the Real Estate

Foundation, through its healthy watershed initiatives…. This was a key

area. They wanted to protect and restore critical freshwater ecosystems.

They wanted to help communities adapt to climate change.

Now again, we know that climate change is here. We’ve seen it with

heat domes and with flooding like we’ve never seen before and forest

fires in Madam Chair’s own community. So doing that work is absolutely

critical, and the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. absolutely gets it.

They understand what needs to happen.

Freeing them up to do more of this important work is good for

everybody. It’s good for everybody because it also creates jobs. It

protects our drinking water and strengthens our relationships with First

Nations and with Indigenous-led organizations as they partner

to­gether with all of the above to deliver for all of us. That’s

why this bill is here before us.

How can we get the most out of this incredibly important

organization that has been shackled by a piece of legislation that was

written in 2016? It is really important that people at home and in the

gallery understand what it is that we’re trying to do here.

I do want to acknowledge that one of the projects that they did in

in my community was with the Kwikwetlem First Nation, on whose territory

I call my home. It’s where I have raised my children, and I am grateful

for the wonderful stewardship that they have for those lands.

[3:00 p.m.]

I want to say, as the folks from Richmond leave: safe travels

home. Enjoy the rest of your visit here. Say hi to my alma mater, will

you, please?

Where I make my home now, ten people got experience. Ten people

learned about conservation regulations, learned how to restore

environmentally compromised sites, learned how to monitor development

activities to protect archaeological, environmental and cultural assets.

That is a real gift to all of us.

[S. Chandra Herbert in the chair.]

Their traditional territory stretches all the way to the north arm

of the Fraser. For me and for everyone in their territory, it means….

Protecting that watershed and having the Real Estate Foundation involved

in that, recognizing that realtors, who help sell homes and help us buy

homes, are contributing to the land use — that’s responsible

stewardship. This bill before us….

Welcome, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the chair.

That, to me, is so critical in understanding why Bill 8 is so

important.

I was curious about some of the other projects. I want to say….

When we were putting together how to give young people work that would

heal the land, it was in the middle of COVID. We wanted people to be

outdoors. It felt safer, and it was safer.

There were 60 pre-identified projects that the B.C. Real Estate

Foundation, in their collaboration with the healthy watersheds

initiative, was able to identify. They were able to just roll with it.

They were able to get people working within days of receiving their $27

million in stimulus funding, which our government delivered.

To me, having the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia

available as a partner to government and available in a way that they

have the most flexibility is what we want. Passing this legislation

is….

I’ve heard that members all support it. They say that. We haven’t

heard from all members, but that’s okay.

I think understanding, from the various aspects…. It’s really

critical for British Columbians to understand why we need to do what it

is that we need to do. When I took a look at some of these…. I was

actually blown away with some of these projects. The quality is so

significant.

There’s one with the Islands Trust, working with First Nations and

other community groups to develop and implement a freshwater

sustainability strategy to guide resource allocation for freshwater

projects. We know that fresh water, on Saltspring Island, is an issue.

It’s a signi­ficant issue. So they had a project, which supports

31 jobs, that includes restoration work in protected areas on

Salt­spring Island and programming for Indigenous

youth.

I think about what we would call the triple-word score, in terms

of how the Real Estate Foundation, when it has as much flexibility as we

can give it…. We have removed the shackles, as my colleague from

Panorama describes. By removing their shackles, they have this

flexibility and fluidity, pun intended, to do this work. They can bring

in youth, who we know need experience. They can work with Indigenous

communities, where we are committed to economic reconciliation, where we

can heal the land. We can make sure that we are becoming more

climate-resilient.

All of these things are really very critical. That’s why I

completely support this legislation.

I also want to talk about the foodlands corridor restoration pilot

project. This was led by the Rivershed Society of British Columbia.

They’re piloting the development of a foodland corridor that restores

sustainable food systems to the Fraser watershed. It’s implemented in

partnership with local First Nations, farmers and ranchers. Again, this

is another example of the triple-word score, as we call it.

[3:05 p.m.]

We also heard, during the flooding, about food resili­ence

and supply chain challenges. When you have an organization like the Real

Estate Foundation of British Columbia and their ability to adapt and

respond when there are issues…. Unshackling them so that they can

respond allows them to work to their fullest.

This piece of legislation that is before us gives them maximum

flexibility. It allows them to do these sorts of projects where we’re

talking about food security. This is good for British Columbia. That’s

another example of why Bill 8 is so important to government and why it’s

so important to all British Columbians.

Now, there are a couple of projects in Squamish that I want to

speak to. The Squamish River Watershed Society is leading two different

projects. One is in partnership with the Squamish Nation and Fisheries

and Oceans Canada.

I want to speak about how having the Real Estate Foun­dation

of British Columbia unshackled and able to work in partnership and get

grants from government…. Taking them out of the reporting entity gives

them maximum flexibility to respond. It allows them to form these

partnerships — if they weren’t shackled — that they might not be able to

form. So unshackling them with this legislation, passing this

legislation, allows them to form these sorts of

relationships.

Again, fascinating that in this particular project, the watershed

society, the partnership with the Squamish Nation as well as Fisheries

and Oceans Canada…. What they’re doing is restoring spawning grounds in

the upper Elaho River. It involves removing additional obstructions at

previously cleared sites, implementing innovative monitoring techniques,

assessing impact. Five jobs are connected to this one.

When I think about passing Bill 8…. Removing this organization

from the reporting entity allows them to have access to grants that they

previously couldn’t receive. It allows them to, again, continue to

deliver not just for youth, not just for training, not just in

partnership with First Nations, not just for healing the land but also

for working with the federal government, right? So again, pulling

everybody together.

The other one is also really interesting. That’s about restoring

fish passage and access over 300 hectares of habitat in the Squamish

Estuary. This one supports 26 jobs, and that’s meaningful

work.

If I could speak to meaningful work for just a moment, about how

having a partner in the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, how

this amendment in Bill 8 frees them up to be a partner in a completely

different way and what it means to be able to provide these jobs that

are meaningful jobs, to be able to sit back and say: “I did

that.”

I’m thinking about young people. They were just here in the

chamber. To know that after 12 weeks, 16 weeks, 30 weeks of being

outside, of healing the land, you get to take your gloves off, take off

your rubber boots and point to changing an estuary.

In fact, I had an opportunity to go see one of these projects last

summer. I was out in Langley and talked with the people who had jobs

through the healthy watersheds initiative and what it meant to them.

Some of them were choosing careers based on their experience of working

in the watershed.

Think of that. Here we have the Real Estate Foundation of British

Columbia. They’re an independent, philanthropic organization. Their goal

is to advance sustainable, equitable and socially just land use across

British Columbia. They work throughout British Columbia. They have been

a reporting entity because the legislation changed back in 2016. As a

result, they don’t have the kind of flexibility to maximize what they’re

able to do. We have this important piece of legislation before us to

allow them to maximize all the things that they can do.

[3:10 p.m.]

Part of them maximizing is giving young people the opportunity to

get in the muck, to learn from experts, to learn from those biologists,

to learn about what it means to do that work, to feel good about it.

Then they say: “You know what? I think I see a career for myself around

sustainability, around biology, around being a forestry technician,

around working with the Streamkeepers in my community, because I think

that’s really valuable.”

I think that’s something we can all be proud of. I think investing

in these sorts of projects gives people real-life examples — hands-on,

so to speak, but it’s feet-in, hands-on — in understanding what it means

to deliver. I think changing this legislation that we have before us, in

Bill 8, gives more young people the opportunity for real-life examples

of what it means to do meaningful work that changes the future for the

better.

There’s one more project that I want to talk about that I think is

absolutely fascinating, the Cowichan River. Cowichan Tribes is a lead

organization, and they’re performing extensive work to rehabilitate the

Cowichan and Koksilah rivers. They’re focusing on sediment management

and habitat rehabilitation.

The work involves removing 90,000 square metres of sediment across

six sites, repairing the hatchery and old Southside Dikes, excavating

and reactivating side channels, monitoring of sites for flood and

drought management. Again, we know what happens with climate change and

the risk of flooding, and the impacts. It supports 41 jobs, and it’s an

integral part of Cowichan Tribes’ five-year river management

plan.

I want to speak for a moment about reconciliation. Again, it’s

more than triple-word score. I’ve talked about triple-word score, and we

know what that means when we say triple-word score, but it’s more than

that. It’s reconciliation in action. I want to acknowledge the Real

Estate Foundation of British Columbia and their commitment to

reconciliation. Bill 8 really serves as a way to help the Real Estate

Foundation of British Columbia do more reconciliation as

well.

This project that I mentioned with the Cowichan Tribes, that’s

really about working in collaboration, side by side, with Cowichan

Tribes to heal the land, to heal their soul, to heal the spirit. My

hat’s off to the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia and their

healthy watersheds initiative because that’s what this really is about.

That’s what Bill 8 is about. It’s about recognizing a fabulous

foundation in our midst, a fabulous organization that just delivers so

much.

I would say, really before…. They’ve been around a long time, but

it wasn’t until COVID, when they came to us, as government, and said:

“Listen. We’ve got 60 projects ready to go.” We needed to move on a dime

because we wanted to keep people working and delivering on behalf of the

people of British Columbia. The Real Estate Foundation really rose to

the task. They said, “We can do this,” and they have delivered. Passing

Bill 8, making sure that they are unshackled to be their best selves, is

absolutely critical, I think, to maximizing what we have as a treasure

here.

Again, I think about some of the other jobs just around the

province, the other work that they have been able to deliver. I want to

mention the B.C. Investment Agriculture Foundation. They’re working with

farmers, First Nations across the province to protect and preserve

critical riparian habitats on agricultural land. The Farmland Advantage

program helps farmers identify natural values of their land and provides

the tools needed to conserve them. It’s 48 jobs.

I think about the future. I think about job security. I think

about youth going into agriculture. Here’s this opportunity to learn

more about what’s possible. Again, we should be thanking the B.C. Real

Estate Foundation and their work for helping to deliver this program.

Think about what more they can do with the passing of Bill 8 and how

much more we’re going to get from this organization.

[3:15 p.m.]

I’m in awe of their work. There are a couple more that I want to

read into the record, because I think they’re really fabulous

opportunities.

This one is with the B.C. Wildlife Federation. They’re developing

a Wetlands Workforce — this is in collaboration with First Nations and

conservation organizations — to restore, to stabilize and to monitor

B.C.’s wetlands. We know how critical they are to the environment and

that we need to improve the wetland inventories, management and

decision-making. This project is going to support over 100 jobs, and it

will provide training for workers in wetlands ecosystem enhancement

protocol and wetland inventory.

To me, that’s what Bill 8 is about. It’s about making sure that

this organization, which can deliver these kinds of projects, can

deliver these kinds of projects for us. They are ready. They are ready

to do it.

By passing Bill 8, by unshackling them, by taking them out of the

government reporting entity, they will be able to do so much more. That

to me is what this is about. It’s about making the best that we can of

an existing treasure. It’s going from gold to platinum, giving them the

freedom to do what it is that we need them to do.

There are many more projects, like I said. There are 60 of them

that were pre-identified a number of years ago, $27 million in stimulus

funding during COVID, and they have been delivering on these

projects.

I want to urge everybody to take a look at the healthy watersheds

initiative. It is available online. They have testimonials from young

people who have learned so much from the partners, learned so much from

First Nations, learned so much from the experts who are delivering these

programs.

Again, Bill 8, the Real Estate Services Amendment Act. By passing

this bill, we’ll be able to provide the Real Estate Foundation of

British Columbia the absolute ability to do even more. That’s what this

is about, because good things should be celebrated. Getting folks to do

more of what they do best is really what our government is

about.

I look forward to hearing what more I can learn from other

speakers on this bill.

A. Singh: Thank you to the minister and to my friend from Surrey-Panorama,

who spoke earlier. I like that, the “unshackling.” She spoke of the

importance of explaining what we do here.

That really is sort of at the core of what we do here. It’s not

only making legislation but being able to explain it to our constituents

— especially the importance of explaining why we’re doing this,

especially on bills that we agree with, on things that we want to pass,

initiatives that we want to support and process through.

What Bill 8 does: it’s a really simple bill. I’ll go to it again,

because I think as legislators, one of our roles — for the thousands of

people who are watching this right now on CPAC, or whatever it’s called

— is to explain legislation, to explain how this place works, and then

to explain how that has an impact on the outside world. Because it does.

Everything we do has an immense impact on British Columbians, on their

lives, and more specific pieces of legislation will have specific

impacts on a person’s life.

My friend the minister spoke about all the jobs that are created

through just this one healthy watersheds initiative — life-changing for

some people, right? What Bill 8, the Real Estate Services Amendment Act,

does is that it unshackles, as has been spoken before, the Real Estate

Foundation of B.C. from having to report to the government entity, in

order to better deliver on its actual mandate.

You know, it’s not unusual. The foundation has been around since

1985, and was not a government reporting entity until some changes in

2016, when changes to the foundation’s governance model brought it into

being a government reporting entity.

[3:20 p.m.]

Following review and consultation with stakeholders, it’s been

determined that that probably was not the best move. Maybe it was the

best move for that time period, but it’s better to leave the foundation

as an arm’s-length entity. That’s what, again, Bill 8 does.

It’s really simple, three sections. The first

section repeals…. In

the original act, the Minister of Finance would have a board member that

was appointed to the board of the Real Estate Foundation. What

section 1

does is repeal that, and it appoints one member from the British

Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association. That’s really important as

well. I’ll come back to that, why that’s important. Then just some minor

housekeeping things. Again, this act will come into force when it

achieves royal assent on March 31, 2023, or earlier.

Taking out the board member that’s put in by the Minister of

Finance and substituting that with the board member that’s put in by the

British Columbia Non-Profit Housing Association…. The British Columbia

Non-Profit Housing Association is an incredibly important foundation

here in British Columbia. What it is, is an association of non-profit

housing that promotes affordable housing. Again, a very important

mandate for our government here and very important for the work that

we’re doing.

Affordable housing and housing has been an issue that will remain

with us for some time. What this does is place a really important

stakeholder onto that Real Estate Foundation board. What that will do is

aid the foundation in better delivering on its mandate, which I fully

support.

What is the Real Estate Foundation? It’s a philanthropic

organization formulated under the Real Estate Services Act. As I said,

it wasn’t always part of the government reporting entity. It was brought

in a few years ago. It has been operational for a couple of decades.

It’s established. It has been operating at arm’s length for all of those

years and doing some incredible work.

What happened when the foundation was brought in and made a

government reporting entity? Well, there were a few different things

that happened. One of the biggest ones: it made it more difficult for it

to receive and administer government grants. That may not have been the

initial purpose, but what it did was, essentially, as my friend has

said, shackle what the organization could do. It shackled and prevented

the organization from getting some of the grants that would help it

fulfil its mandate.

Generally, an organization should only be taken into the arms of a

government reporting entity if there is a compelling public interest to

do so or a compelling policy reason for the government to have some

control over it. There really is none. In fact, the opposite is true.

The foundation works better as an arm’s-length foundation.

The administration has some tests that it uses, that it applies to

whether an organization should be a government reporting organization.

Is it in the public’s interest to do so? Should the government have some

control over it? The Real Estate Foundation didn’t pass those tests, so

it makes complete sense for Bill 8 to be here and for the Real Estate

Foundation to be unshackled from the government, as it is.

Really, the foundation receives very little funding from the

government, and it doesn’t deliver programs and services directly

connected to the government. It’s a philanthropic organization, so it

has its own separate purpose, and it has its own separate…. The real

estate community funds it separately from the government. Again, it does

receive some government funding, but very little, so the government has

really, ideally, very limited interest in controlling the foundation’s

operations and finances, apart from how a small amount of the public

funds are distributed for the purpose of that grant.

[3:25 p.m.]

That can happen anyway, because whenever a grant is distributed or

the government gives out a grant or an organization gives out a grant,

there are conditions at­tached to that. You can attach conditions

to that, and that’s essentially…. You don’t need to have the Real Estate

Foundation of British Columbia essentially acting as an arm of

government to be able to do that. Funds can be disbursed to it, and it

can administer those funds and disperse those funds based on the

pre-conceived conditions that are there.

It’s also inconsistent with the government’s approach on oversight

of other organizations that look very similar to the Real Estate

Foundation of B.C., organizations like the Law Foundation of British

Columbia and the Notary Foundation of British Columbia, which share a

very similar structure and whose revenue is also derived from interest

earned on deposits held by financial institutions.

Just to explain to the, again, hopefully thousands of people out

there listening on television, for example, when a lawyer’s client or a

notary public’s client comes in and retains a lawyer, they give them

money. That money goes into a trust account. What generally happens,

unless it’s really, really large sums of money, is that that money goes

into what’s called a pooled trust account.

Whenever you hold money…. Sometimes that money will be in there

for months. Sometimes it’ll be dispersed out right away, but normally

it’ll be in there for months and months, sometimes years. There’s

interest that a bank will pay on that. But because it’s a pooled trust

account, you don’t just have the money of one client. You have the money

of hundreds of different clients, possibly.

How do you separate that out and give it back to the clients? What

happens with pooled trust accounts, and the interest, is that that

interest is given, in the case of lawyers, to the Law Foundation to be

used for philanthropic purposes, to do things like advance access to

justice. Same with the Notary Foundation.

It’s very similar with real estate. Real estate agents have pooled

trust accounts where…. For example, if you buy a condominium, you might

put $50,000 or $10,000 down as a deposit on that. Until the whole

transaction is complete, that money sits there in that bank account. For

the time that that money sits there in that bank account, it gains

interest. It gains money. That interest is given to the Real Estate

Foundation. That’s where the bulk of the money that the Real Estate

Foundation of B.C. gets comes from, and it disperses that.

The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia does some

incredible work, so the Real Estate Foundation should also be eligible

for government grants to do things. We’ve spoken about the healthy

watersheds initiative. That’s a phenomenal example of one of the

initiatives where the foundation is perfectly situated to do that kind

of work and where it should receive that funding.

I’ll come back to the non-profit housing example in a bit. Again,

they’ll be on the board, and hopefully we will see, in the next couple

of years, in the next few years, some phenomenal ideas coming from the

non-profit housing board. I think part of their organization also deals

with the Co-operative Housing Association of B.C. I may have gotten the

name of that organization wrong, but organizations that really deal with

housing, deal with affordable housing and advocate and push for

that.

I see a lot of positives coming with the replacement of the board

member from the Ministry of Finance with a board member from the

non-profit housing sector. I think that’ll be not only good for the Real

Estate Foundation of British Columbia but good for British Columbians in

general. Housing and affordable housing remain one of the most difficult

issues of our time, as we all know. We talk about it a lot

here.

Again, one of the examples of government money that the foundation

did get and was able to disperse in an incredible manner was $27 million

of stimulus funding during the pandemic, during COVID. It was part of

our British Columbia economic recovery plan.

[3:30 p.m.]

Our government provided $27 million in stimulus funding, as my

friends have spoken of before, for more than 60 pre-identified projects,

in communities across the province, to deal with watersheds and deal

with the health of watersheds and really progress and move that forward.

This is called the healthy watersheds initiative.

If anyone wants to go and have a look at what it actually is, you

can go onto the website: healthywatersheds.ca. There’s a whole

explanation there. You can also see the investments that are made, the

projects that are there. You can also go onto refbc.ca/impactinvesting

to see the list of different projects that the Real Estate Foundation of

British Columbia has invested in.

These are all basically…. The healthy watersheds initiative was

basically grants that were given to support project teams working to

restore rivers and streams to protect salmon habitat, to manage water

flow, to collect data, conduct tests on the water to conduct a watershed

mapping and to aid with sustainability planning. Through these projects,

many teams were hired. Local workers were trained who had been

affected….

Deputy Speaker: Just reminding that we are, of course, on Bill 8, so always bring

your remarks…. We’re talking about Bill 8.

A. Singh: Yes, absolutely.

What Bill 8 does is it allows the Real Estate Foundation of

British Columbia to do more initiatives like that, to be able to apply

for more government grants like the healthy watersheds initiative.

Again, what being part of a government entity and being part of…. Having

to be a government reporting entity, the foundation wasn’t able to apply

for many, many grants.

So this is some of the incredible work that the foundation was

able to do even though it was still a reporting entity. By unshackling

it, not only will it be able to do work like this, like work under the

healthy watersheds initiative, but it will also be able to do…. Again,

with the Non-Profit Housing Association of British Columbia being part

of the board members, I anticipate — and I think I’ll be right on this —

that we’ll see a lot more work being done in the housing

sector.

What the watershed initiative did is it protected and restored

critical freshwater ecosystems to help communities adapt to climate

change, create jobs, protect our drinking water, strengthen

relationships with First Nations and Indigenous-led organizations. As

you know, everything that we do in this government, we have an eye to

reconciliation and an eye to how it affects our First Nations. What this

does…. The way that the foundation was able to get this money and

disperse it really is a testament to that.

Again, there were over 60 organizations that were funded and

helped by the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia. One of them

was the project to maintain and reclaim ecosystems at Burgoyne Bay

Provincial Park. I was there a few weeks ago in my role as parliamentary

secretary. I got the chance to visit Saltspring to take Dave the dog on

a walk through Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park.

There the foundation dispersed $160,000 to the Stqeeye’ Learning

Society to blend traditional stewardship knowledge and historical data

to reclaim and maintain ecosystems around Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park.

There is an Indigenous name for this. I do not want to mispronounce it,

so I’m not going to do that.

The project is going to be engaging and educating community

members, particularly Indigenous youth. This project will apply

traditional law, knowledge, look at the cultural practices that honour

the interconnectedness of ecosystems. This project supports eight jobs,

$160,000 to support eight jobs.

[3:35 p.m.]

Again, by unshackling the foundation from government oversight,

from being part of a government reporting entity, the foundation will be

able to apply for many more grants that assist in this sort of work.

There are so many organizations and so many…. I’m going to read through

a few of those.

For example, almost half a million dollars, $453,000, were given

to the B.C. freshwater initiative, the MakeWay Foundation. This is for

building water leaders through learning and development. This is part of

the B.C. freshwater legacy initiative, and it’s a project of MakeWay. It

provides tailor-made training, peer learning and coaching support to

Indigenous and non-Indigenous water leaders in communities all over

British Columbia that are leading on innovative approaches to dealing

with watershed management, watershed governance and security.

Again, as we saw the impact of the heat dome, the atmospheric

rivers and just climate change in general, British Columbia’s pressured

watersheds are going to be a place that we have to really recognize how

precious they are. We have to learn how to steward them into the

future.

This project itself will support ten jobs and will also enable

sharing, learning between different organizations in different regions.

People working in different regions, people working in different

organizations will be able to share their knowledge and their systems of

how to protect watersheds and how to make good decisions.

This is incredible work. Again, this is part of government

funding. But the Real Estate Foundation, the majority of its funding

comes from that interest that comes from its pooled trust

accounts.

The foundation also already does a phenomenal amount of work, good

philanthropic work, but what the bill does, again, and I’ll repeat those

words again, is it “unshackles” the foundation and allows them to apply

for more government funding that really just aids and helps it in doing

better work and more of this incredible work.

They’ve been able to administer the healthy watersheds initiative

in an incredible way. I mean, I can’t even imagine the administration

that goes into the 60 different organizations that have gotten this

funding.

Another great project, the Glen Urquhart Creek riparian stream

course and wetland habitat restoration. This is led by the Comox Valley

Project Watershed Society. It’s a small amount of money, $50,000, right?

But that $50,000 will support 12 jobs that involve installing in-stream

habitat features, reconnecting catchments to the wetlands and removing

invasive species. The Comox Valley Project Watershed Society is doing

this in partnership with Ducks Unlimited, a conservation organization,

and the K’ómoks First Nation.

Another grant, $180,000 for the Ahousaht First Nation, which is

restoring Anderson Creek watershed to revitalize spawning habitat for

chum salmon, really important to the nation itself and to protect the

community’s drinking water, right?

We often hear about communities that don’t have access to drinking

water the same way that other communities do. Helping watersheds and

really looking at…. Water is a scarce resource, and it’s going to be one

of those things that our society is going to be faced with more and

more.

What Bill 8 does is, again, it unshackles. My friend from

Surrey-Panorama, again, spoke about the importance of explaining why

sometimes these bills are so small, or an order-in-council or something

is so small, that it seems meaningless. You know: “Why are we talking

about it?” Well, the importance of talking about this is to show how, by

removing it as a government reporting entity, by doing this, by that

unshackling of it, it’s able to do more of the good work that it already

has done.

Remember, this is with money that is a very small, tiny portion of

what the Real Estate Foundation actually has from the rest of it —

amazing work done at a very critical time, during the pandemic, done

with a small amount of grants.

[3:40 p.m.]

I saw this. Working with the Koksilah watershed sustainability

planning with the Cowichan Tribes — half a million dollars, again — and

working with “community partners to gather data and scope options for a

water sustainability plan for the Koksilah River watershed.” You know

that there have been some problems there in recent years. Summer flows

have been exceptionally low at times when demand for water — domestic

demand, agricultural demand and industrial uses — is the

greatest.

What this project does is it includes technical work and analysis

to support sustainable long-term land and water management so the water

flows can be restored for fish and water users. This project, again,

supports 12 jobs.

In the Comox Valley, the Comox Valley Project Watershed Society,

$700,000 for restoration — again, unshackling from government oversight

so that it can apply for more grants so that it can do more good work

like this. The Comox Valley Watershed Project Society, in partnership

with the K’ómoks First Nation and the city of Courtenay, is dismantling

and restoring the Kus-kus-sum former sawmill site on the Courtenay River

to its native estuary, salt marsh and riverside forest, taking an area

that has been impacted by human activity and restoring it.

Restoration of this site will benefit at least nine fish species,

145 bird species and 281 plant species. Just the first phase of this

project will support 40 jobs.

I can only imagine the expansive scope of the work that the

foundation can do, not only with its own funds but with funds that it

previously wasn’t able to apply to or get, grants that it wasn’t able to

get from the government because it was a government-reporting

entity.

More amazing work: $435,000 to the

kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nation. It’s on

its resource stewardship program. This is in the Lower Mainland. It’s

hiring and training four full-time resource guardians who will enforce

conservation regulations, restore environmentally compromised sites,

sites that have had impact, and monitor development activities to

protect our archaeological, environmental and cultural assets. It’s ten

sustainable jobs in that organization in that area.

What government does…. Government actions always are about a

choice, and here we were faced with a choice of do we leave this

organization that doesn’t really need money from the government…? Do we

leave this organization shackled and unable to apply for these

government grants? Or do we unshackle it and let it apply for these

grants that can work symbiotically with other work that it’s already

doing? Because the Real Estate Foundation already does an enormous

amount of amazing philanthropic work in British Columbia.

What Bill 8 does is it allows it to further that work and to

compound all of the good work that it’s doing by getting government

grants and doing work that our government is in line with. We know that

climate change is upon us. We know that we need to protect our

watersheds. We know that we need more affordable housing. And hence this

is where the new board member…. Again, we haven’t seen what will happen,

but I have great faith and I’m excited to see the direction that the

foundation will take with that.

Just going back to the watershed initiative — something we have

concrete evidence on how the foundation was able to use government

grants. Again, Bill 8 will unshackle it so it can get more government

grants.

Small one: $40,000 for the Alberni-Clayoquot regional district.

The regional district was replacing a pedestrian bridge and replacing

abutments on the log trail at Platzer Creek. This project supports nine

jobs, and it addresses erosion and safety. In addition to addressing

erosion and safety, it’ll also improve water flow in a critical

salmon-bearing stream.

[3:45 p.m.]

Fresh water has always been an issue, especially on our Gulf

Islands. Part of the watershed initiative: $245,000 to the Islands Trust

to work with First Nations and community groups to develop and implement

a freshwater sustainability strategy to guide resource allocation for

freshwater projects.

This project will support up to 31 jobs. It also includes

restoration work in protected areas on Saltspring Island and programming

for Indigenous youth. Not only are jobs being provided, not only do

these grants help in actually addressing an immediate issue, but you’re

training people. You’re training the future leaders. You’re training

people to work in the jobs of the future — climate-related

jobs.

Again, really important…. One of the things we saw during the

pandemic was food scarcity, and food security has really come to the

forefront. Another example — $820,000 given to the Rivershed Society of

B.C. This is part of the foodlands corridor restoration pilot project.

What the Rivershed Society of B.C. is doing is piloting the development

of a foodland corridor that restores sustainable food systems throughout

the Fraser watershed — really, really important to be able to do that,

especially with what we’re seeing with drought down south, where the

majority of our food comes from.

This project is being implemented in partnership with local First

Nations, farmers and ranchers — just another example of what this

incredible organization can do with government grants. Again, what Bill

8 does is it unshackles this organization so that the organization is

able to apply to a more diverse number and types of grants to do the

amazing philanthropic work that it already does. We’re just adding to

that.

I won’t say much more about this, except that I’m in full support

of Bill 8.

D. Routley: It’s with pleasure that I get to rise today to speak in support of

Bill 8, the Real Estate Services Amendment Act.

It’s with pleasure because of the many points that have been

raised by other speakers. I want to embellish on some of those and bring

them around to a local context for the constituency that I represent.

But it’s in that context that this bill is most important to my own

experience, in that Bill 8 supports an organization that is partnering

with First Nations in the region that I work in to restore habitat

around the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers.

Anything that can make more impactful the work that’s being done

there is a huge plus, and Bill 8 is that. Bill 8, in fact, augments the

work that’s already been done. To describe what’s happening in the

Cowichan Valley is to describe a collaboration between the First Nations

who are traditional caretakers of these watersheds and the other

communities that have grown around those watersheds, depend on those

watersheds, including their industry.

Anything that happens in this House that impacts that environment

is an important issue to me, and Bill 8 does. Bill 8, in fact,

unshackles one of the partners in that equation and allows them to do

greater work and have greater impact. So that’s very

important.

The Cowichan River is a heritage river, one of, I think, only five

or seven in the province. It has a wonderful history. Elders in Cowichan

will tell you about piloting their canoes, barely touching the water

over top of the salmon that were running in the river.

[3:50 p.m.]

Of course, that’s much reduced now, and one of the elements of the

work that’s being done that’s supported by the Real Estate Foundation of

B.C. in the Cowichan watershed, and therefore empowered by this bill,

Bill 8, is to cooperatively manage flows that are directly and severely

impacted by climate change. There is a weir on Cowichan Lake, which

stores water in the lake and then adds to the flow in the river during

low-flow periods. Those low-flow periods happen to coincide with periods

of time when the salmon are making their way up the river.

It comes to the point, almost annually, where members of these

groups, supported by this work, supported by this bill, will in fact

take pails and salmon fry that are stranded by low flows in,

essentially, puddles in the gravel deposits of the river and walk them

upstream to put them further up on their journey towards their spawning

grounds.

This is really dire in its consequence for the salmon runs of the

Cowichan Valley, of the Cowichan River. The work that’s being done,

partially through this, is to, in one case, remove huge gravel deposits

that prevent the flow of water at those crucial times.

I’m sure you’re not familiar, Mr. Speaker, but the Cowichan Valley

basin is, in fact, below sea level. So there’s a lot of time in the year

where there’s a reverse flow, and that causes flooding. This kind of

work is crucially important to the entire valley — to the agricultural

base of the valley, to the fish that I’ve mentioned, to First Nations

and their right to carry out their traditional gathering on the river,

to all the communities, but also to the Catalyst pulp mill.

When I was first elected in 2005, the Catalyst pulp mill was very

proud of the fact that they were using about 70 percent less water than

they had in the past to produce almost twice as much product. Well, now

they’re down to less than 10 percent, more than a 90 percent reduction

in demand on the river. Not only have they achieved that amazing

achievement, but they’ve also done it while they have worked in

cooperation, collaboration, with the First Nations in the area, with the

local communities and with the Department of Fisheries to manage the

weir in the favour of the fish and the river and to put at risk their

own ability to operate, in favour of the habitat.

This is a multi-pronged effort that involves every local

government, all First Nations, all people in the community, farmers, all

working together to support the Cowichan River. Every little thing they

do is important. Every bucket of fry that they carry up that river is

important to the river and to the people.

Anything that happens in this House that helps those partnerships

and empowers those partnerships, like Bill 8, is important to me. I feel

an obligation to stand up here and remind members of that and inform

members. Although we might think that making the ability of an

organization like the real estate federation of British Columbia more

capable of accepting funds and then directing those funds to these kinds

of projects…. It’s something we need to support in this House. That’s

why I support Bill 8.

Interjection.

D. Routley: I’m sure the bill will get called. I’m glad it wasn’t before I had

a chance to stand up and speak, because to the people of Cowichan, this

is a really important issue.

My partner’s family are realtors. They owned a real estate

business. They sat on the Real Estate Board of British Columbia. They’ve

been members and active in this organization. They’re proud of the work

they do, and they feel connected.

I feel as though we’ve gotten to a point where reconciliation is a

north star of government in British Columbia. It is also the business

and the focus of our entire province. Every single one of us, no matter

what our role is in the province, has an important…. It’s important that

we all accept that reconciliation is our job.

[3:55 p.m.]

I look at these partnerships, and I look at the titles of some —

the real estate federation of B.C. and their website, impact investing.

This is the definition of “impact investing.” This is taking relatively

small investments by government and donations by people and turning them

into massive impacts for the environment and for community and for

reconciliation. This bill helps maximize impact, maximize the impact of

these investments, maximize the impact of these partnerships. Bill 8 is

something that helps empower that.

The Real Estate Foundation of B.C. was a government reporting

body, and that prevented it from certain activities or ability to action

certain partnerships. That, to me, is something that should be changed,

because it is through these partnerships that we realize our goals as

communities, as people, as a province. Again, Bill 8 goes a long way to

supporting that.

The great work that has been done by the Real Estate Foundation of

B.C. through their work with community and the healthy watersheds

initiative, in particular, is so important. It, again, is an

illustration of collaboration and using challenges to meet the goals

that we have — accepting challenges that face us and even vex us as we

try to move forward as communities and turning those into strengths. I

believe that every good entrepreneur needs to live by the motto that

every bump needs to be a boost. You have to turn every challenge into

what fuels you.

The challenge of climate change and the challenge of

reconciliation are fueling partnerships throughout our province,

throughout our communities. With foundations that otherwise…. We might

not traditionally have expected that we would see reconciliation values

and climate change values present themselves through organizations like

the Real Estate Foundation, but they are. If Bill 8 does anything to

help empower that building of partnership, those collaborations, then

Bill 8 needs to be supported.

The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia is a philanthropic

organization. It works to advance sustainable, equitable and socially

just land use across B.C. I have to say that as a relative of a number

of realtors, I can look to so many of their organization’s efforts and

see that same commitment to local community, local economy and even to

reconciliation.

They look to us to take every measure possible to empower that

effort, and Bill 8 is an empowering piece of legislation. It was a

partnership with the provincial government during COVID that had the

Real Estate Foundation step up with the healthy watersheds initiative

and take $27 million of funding and turn that into real benefit for

people. That partnership took workers who were impacted by COVID-19

restrictions and empowered those people to do the work of restoring

these watersheds.

Not only are they then empowering these partnerships in that work,

but they’re exposing people to work that they probably had never done

before. I would not be jumping too far ahead of myself here to speculate

that there will be some of those people who have found new paths, new

career paths, new interests and new commitments within themselves to

these very important issues.

Again, if Bill 8 can help empower that kind of realization, then

Bill 8 certainly needs to be supported. Bill 8 will support initiatives

like the healthy watersheds initiative, which of course is an economic

stimulus program in its inception, in that it’s using the efforts and

labour of workers who have been impacted by COVID restrictions. But it

goes much further than that. It takes what was a temporary challenge and

converts it into a permanent benefit for our communities.

[4:00 p.m.]

Any measure that we can take…. I don’t care whether it’s holding

the keys for somebody who’s doing a little job on the river or standing

in this House, supporting a bill that empowers those partnerships. Every

little piece matters, and this bill is a piece of that.

As I look through the healthy watersheds initiative grants, I see

that they support project teams that restore rivers like the Cowichan,

like the Koksilah. They protect salmon habitat, manage water flows,

collect data and conduct watershed mapping and sustainability

planning.

It’s surprising that in a maritime province, with so much history

of salmon being a foundational species in our province, so little is

really known about salmon habitat and the challenges that salmon face.

It’s only in recent years that there have been these efforts. But again,

whether it’s people carrying salmon fry in a pail from a puddle in an

all-too-dry Cowichan River up to further their journey to their spawning

grounds, or Bill 8 empowering these partnerships, all of these things

matter.

All of these things come together, just like every person who

carries a pail, every person who works in the Cowichan Watershed Board,

all the different organizations that contribute. Every little thing they

do is important. Cleanup days on the river are important, and Bill 8

will go a long way to helping propel those kinds of partnerships even

further than they’ve gone already.

This work in Cowichan will restore critical ecosystems that have

been challenged by increased residential development, increased

industrial demand and, of course, the biggest effect, the climate change

effects that we face.

[J. Tegart in the chair.]

This bill will help empower relationships that add resilience to

our community through climate change adaptation. Bill 8 helps empower

partnerships that are resonant with the values of British Columbians,

who believe in reconciliation, who want to see community-led efforts to

support all of those values and those goals. This is reconciliation in

action.

But in order to do that work, we need many different forms of

support. The support of the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. is integral

and important to that work. So empowering it, facilitating it, improving

its ability to make those partnerships work is a good thing for the

communities that I represent.

I looked at some of the projects, and I’ll just mention a few that

have local relevance in the mid-Island region. Up in the

Alberni-Clayoquot regional district — which is neighbour to the Nanaimo

regional district, part of the area that I have the honour of

representing — there’s a grant amount of $40,000. The Alberni-Clayoquot

regional district, with that money, is replacing a pedestrian bridge and

repairing abutments on Log Train Trail at Platzer Creek. Now, this

project supports nine jobs. It addresses erosion and safety. It will

improve the water flow in another critical salmon-bearing stream, and it

will improve tourism values.

I look at how Bill 8 is, in fact, helping empower a partnership

with the Islands Trust freshwater sustainability strategy. That’s a

grant amount of $245,000, which will employ up to 31 people. It will

include restoration work in protected areas on Saltspring Island, which,

of course, is nearby the constituency I represent and is part of the

Islands Trust. There are several Islands Trust islands jurisdiction in

the constituency I represent. Those would be Thetis, Gabriola, Mudge, De

Courcy, Texada.

[4:05 p.m.]

Then you can look towards the Islands Trusts and the good work

they’ve done and see that they are empowered, in fact, by so many

different service agreements with different organizations, the Real

Estate Foundation of B.C. now being one of them. If we can help empower

that work with Bill 8, then we should help empower that work with Bill

I look to the Clayoquot Sound watershed recovery initiative, which

is in the central Island area and, again, has an integral reconciliation

value — in that the Central Westcoast Forestry Society is working with

Hesquiaht, Ahou­saht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations to restore

critical salmon populations in Clayoquot Sound by reconstructing a

rearing habitat. These are really important local projects that have a

provincial scope in the end, both in reconciliation and in habitat

restoration, and they depend on a number of different sources of both

energy and funding.

If there’s one aspect of that that we can help empower, just one

little piece, it is to make more effective partnerships and — as the

Real Estate Foundation names its program — impact investments, to

increase the impact of that investment. That is a good thing, and we

need to support that.

I look to the city of Port Alberni — a grant amount of $195,000,

which will support 15 jobs in decommissioning its wastewater treatment

lagoon and restoring the area as a natural tidal marsh. Well, that’s a

permanent benefit that has regional consequences, and it requires

collaboration and partnership. Those things don’t happen by themselves;

they happen when they’re empowered. Bill 8 empowers that kind of

partnership.

Then I’d look to Glen Urquhart Creek, a riparian stream course and

wetland habitat restoration. That’s in the Comox Valley. It’s a little

further out of the mid-Island, but it’s at the tip of the region, a

$50,000 grant that will support 12 jobs. The Ahousaht First Nation is

being supported in the Anderson Creek restoration, which will support

nine jobs. That’s another project of great benefit to the local