2015 Legislative Session: Fourth Session, 40th Parliament

HANSARD

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.

The printed version remains the official version.

official report of

Debates of the Legislative Assembly

(hansard)

Monday, November 2, 2015

Afternoon Sitting

Volume 30, Number

ISSN 0709-1281 (Print)

ISSN 1499-2175 (Online)

CONTENTS

Page

Routine Business

Introductions by Members

Ministerial Statements

Apprenticeship

Hon. S. Bond

S. Simpson

Statements

(Standing Order 25B)

50 th anniversary of B.C. Institute of Technology

R. Lee

Adoption

J. Rice

D. Plecas

Falls prevention for seniors

S. Robinson

Movember fundraising campaign participation by MLAs

S. Hamilton

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

S. Hammell

Oral Questions

Government record-keeping and policies on transitory information

D. Routley

Hon. A. Virk

J. Shin

B. Ralston

Missing Women Inquiry recommendations and government record-keeping

M. Karagianis

Hon. S. Anton

MRI waiting times

J. Darcy

Hon. T. Lake

Vancouver viaducts project and role of Transportation Minister

G. Heyman

Hon. T. Stone

D. Eby

Orders of the Day

Second Reading of Bills

Bill 42 — Electoral Districts Act (continued)

B. Routley

S. Fraser

Hon. S. Thomson

J. Darcy

S. Robinson

J. Martin

L. Popham

S. Hammell

J. Tegart

J. Rice

C. Trevena

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2015

The House met at 1:33 p.m.

[Madame Speaker in the chair.]

Routine Business

Introductions by Members

J. Tegart: I’m very pleased to have a visitor in the precinct today. Greg Blain is the Chief of the Ashcroft Indian Band. He’s a retired RCMP member, and he served six months in Afghanistan. Would the House please make him welcome.

L. Krog: Visiting us here today from Nanaimo is a very active and successful campaign worker in the campaign for Nanaimo-Ladysmith, for the federal NDP, who helped elect our new Member of Parliament, Sheila Malcolmson — our old friend Avery Valerio.

Hon. C. Oakes: It truly is my pleasure today to introduce four guests into the House. Here from the constituency of Cariboo North, we have David and Donna Campbell, considerable community volunteers who have done so much — successful business owners in our community as well. Joining them, from Abbotsford, are John and Laura Reemeyer. Would the House please help them be welcome.

R. Lee: In the Parliament Buildings today, we have three visitors from BCIT’s electrical foundation program.

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They are the instructor, Clarence Burlock, and students Paul Atienza and Mitch de Souza. They are here to demonstrate their projects to the kickoff of Apprenticeship Recognition Week. Would the House please make them very welcome.

Ministerial Statements

APPRENTICESHIP

Hon. S. Bond: Hon. Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly, I rise today to make a statement about apprenticeship, in fact. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Apprenticeship Act in British Columbia. In recognition of the value of apprentices and their employer sponsors across the province, we are very pleased to announce that this week has been proclaimed Apprenticeship Recognition Week in British Columbia.

As many of you know, and as I shared at lunchtime, B.C. has reached a tipping point, with fewer younger people entering the workforce than older people leaving it. Because of these retirements, as well as economic growth, B.C. is expected to have many job openings in the next decade. B.C. also has many major projects on the horizon, and apprentices are engaged across our diverse and growing economy in many areas. We saw some of them today, including construction, automotive, restaurant industries.

Apprentices are needed as ironworkers, electricians and pipefitters. That, of course, does not, at this point…. As we move forward, we have to factor in additional projects in the LNG industry and, obviously, Site C.

We want British Columbians to be first in line for these job openings and to make sure that they are on the right path and have the skills and training they need to succeed. The apprentices who are undergoing their training and the employer sponsors who hire, train and support them make an invaluable contribution to our province’s economy. They help us meet the current labour market demand. They build our capital projects, and they keep infrastructure, as well as services, running every day. Once these apprentices complete their training, they will become the future workforce and help shape our economic future.

Today we had a celebration in the reception hall. It was inspiring to hear from two former apprentices, Candace Whitney and Liam Kinders, who finished their apprenticeships and are now working full-time as a master electrician and a carpenter. I know that many members of the House were able to join us and meet the apprentices as well.

We want to encourage all members of the House to visit a local business that employs apprentices and thank them for supporting our growing workforce. They are a valuable part of training in British Columbia — training for the jobs of the future.

Madame Speaker: Responding to the ministerial statement, Vancouver-Hastings.

S. Simpson: I’m pleased to be able to stand and join with the minister and celebrate Apprenticeship Recognition Week. I think it is important. I think it is critically important that we recognize the role of apprentices and the critical role around skills training, as we move forward.

We know that the apprenticeship model in British Columbia has been on a bit of a rocky road over a period of time. There has been quite a bit of focus to try to correct that in the last couple of years. I think one of the big steps — and I want to acknowledge this — was the decision of the government to re-engage all the parties in the process. I believe that people who looked at the apprenticeship process in British Columbia would have seen that there were roles to play for educational institutions and for labour unions that had not been fulfilled in the last while. There has been effort to try to correct that, and I want to acknowledge that.

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I think the challenge we have going forward now, the most significant challenge, is to encourage employers to play a bigger role in fulfilling those apprenticeships. The classroom, the foundational piece of the apprenticeship process, is the least substantive in some ways. It is that time on the job which is probably 70 percent or 80 percent of the time that an apprentice plays a role. We know that there has been an effort to try to improve that and engage more employers in that process, but we need to do more to do that.

I want to acknowledge that the government took some steps. I believe that there’s more to be done to talk about the role that publicly funded projects play.

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I think we need to play a bigger role in our own public service in encouraging more and more apprenticeships directly in the government public service, whether it be local governments or the provincial government. There are challenges in front of us, but when all of that is said and done, this is a very important area of training and education.

It is an area that creates great opportunities for people who pursue those apprenticeships to be able to come out with a great skill set, hopefully with a Red Seal, and to be able to move forward and know and be confident that they will have the kinds of skills that can provide real, family-supporting jobs moving forward and that can meet the needs of our province as we move forward in a whole variety of areas and sectors where our workforce is aging, where demands are growing and where we need to make sure that we have a new generation of people coming up to fill those roles. And the apprenticeship program is fundamental to that.

I’m pleased to join with the minister in recognition of Apprenticeship Recognition Week. It is an important thing, and we should be celebrating it.

Statements

(Standing Order 25B)

50 th ANNIVERSARY OF

B.C. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

R. Lee: The British Columbia Institute of Technology, one of the largest post-secondary institutions in our province, has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Over the past 12 months, BCIT has created many legacies to mark this milestone. It has opened a new Motive Power campus in Delta to provide more opportunities for training in heavy equipment operation and marine mechanics. BCIT has launched the Centre of Excellence in Analytics, which develops such interesting projects as Goverlytics, which applies cognitive computing to analyze political information. BCIT has also established a centre for large-format imaging to be home for such a unique program in Canada as graphic communications technology management.

Just last month I had the opportunity to attend its Fab 50 celebration and one of the graduation ceremonies. It was impressive to see so many inaugural graduates coming back to the campus, not to mention the large reception and fireworks on one of those evenings.

Last Thursday the year-long celebration was closed with a gala dinner to support students in financial need and recognize the achievements of students, staff, faculty and alumni. Congratulations to Outstanding Student and Leadership Award recipient Lauren Lee, who has started her career in airport operations at YVR. Congratulations, also, to the Faculty and Staff Association Award recipient, Ralph Hargreaves, and Distinguished Alumni Award recipients Marty Edwards and Randy Smallwood.

The evening was highlighted with the recognition of two honorary doctorates, Dominic Barton and the COO of the Montreal Science Centre, astronaut Julie Payette, who delivered an inspiring speech. BCIT is well prepared to launch its next mission.

ADOPTION

J. Rice: Foster care has an expiry date. Whether it is 18, 19, 21 or 24, depending on province or state, at some point a young person who is in permanent foster care receives a letter from the government letting them know that they’re officially on their own.

An adoptive mother of a teenager, Aviva Zuckerman Schure, says:

“Yes, it is true that there are some wonderful foster families who stay in touch and support the young people who have lived with them throughout their lives. But this is the exception, not the rule. We should not depend on the luck one might have to be in a foster family where this may occur to ensure that someone has a lifetime connection to a family.

“When people say things like, ‘Why would you adopt someone nearly 18 years old? What do they need a family for?’ they are forgetting that families are for more than growing up in. They are for growing old with. They are a place to come home to during winter break at university. They are a place to go for Thanksgiving. They are someone to call when you are feeling sick. And they are someone to celebrate with when you get your first job.”

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November is Adoption Awareness Month, a time to celebrate adoptive families and raise awareness about adoption in British Columbia. It’s an opportunity to celebrate, promote, advocate for and have a conversation about adoption. It gives us the chance to raise awareness for the 1,000 kids in government care in British Columbia who are still waiting to be adopted.

Adopting a child may not necessarily mean adopting a child you don’t know. There are many forms of adoption, including families adopting family members, adoption by a step-parent or adopting a child in foster care.

It used to be that only married, heterosexual couples could adopt. In 1996, British Columbia adopted a new

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Adoption Act, which enabled same-sex couples to apply to adopt as couples, rather than separately, for the first time in Canada.

There is much work to do to achieve higher adoption rates in the province, but I would like to applaud the Minister of Children and Family Development for the lift that she provided in 2014 to improve adoption rates in British Columbia.

D. Plecas: As we’ve just heard, November is Adoption Awareness Month in British Columbia. It’s an opportunity for us to recognize the value of adoption and the continuing need for more adoptive homes for waiting children and youth.

Currently there are approximately 1,000 children in care who are waiting to find their forever family. These children are as diverse as the families hoping to adopt them. The awareness campaign this year will be encouraging future adoptive parents to consider adopting a children in their teens.

Many prospective families may not know where to start when considering adoption. A key part of raising awareness this month is to demystify the adoption process. Making the decision to adopt and committing to it is really the most difficult step. Once that decision has been made, there are a number of resources and supports available to help future adoptive parents answer questions. The Adoptive Families Association of B.C. offers both support before and after adoptions and help with recruitment.

More than 270 children were adopted this year. This is up 21 percent from the year before, but there are so many more great kids that need families. I encourage all members to learn more about adoption in our province.

FALLS PREVENTION FOR SENIORS

S. Robinson: One in three Canadians over the age of 65 falls at least once a year. A fall can be devastating for an older person. Falls can easily cause an injury that can compromise a senior’s mobility and, subsequently, their independence. It is estimated that seniors’ falls and injuries cost Canadians upward of $3 billion a year.

We know that in dealing with falls, prevention is the best medicine. In recognition of Seniors Fall Prevention Week, the first week of November, I’d like to remind all members of this House what steps to take to prevent falls in their own lives and in the lives of their families and of their constituents. Even if you’re not yet a senior, it’s important that we consider a few things to do to keep our homes safe for the seniors in our lives and to prepare for our own future.

Firstly, exercise. We know that if we are active in our younger years, it is easier to stay active in our later years. We know that exercise keeps us stronger, improves our balance and coordination, which ultimately lowers our risk of falling.

Our vision. We should get our vision checked at least once a year. The wrong prescription lenses or development of glaucoma can impair our vision, putting us at risk for a slight misstep that can lead to a fall.

Our medications. Do we have a care provider that is reviewing our medications regularly, ensuring that they’re not making us sleepy or dizzy or ensuring that, as we age, these medicines are adjusted accordingly?

A home assessment. About half of the falls in Canada happen at home, and there are a few things we could do to make our home safer. We should make sure that our walking areas are cleared of shoes and papers and all that stuff that we could trip on. We should also make sure that any throw rugs are securely fastened to the floor. We should also minimize having to use a stepstool — even me — that often, and make sure that the stuff that we need is easily in reach. We should install grab bars in our bathrooms by the toilet and the tub or shower. And seniors should wear shoes, both indoors and outdoors, to avoid going barefoot or wearing slippers, which could lead to a greater risk of falling.

No one likes to slip and fall. These are a few things we can do to make sure we are all safer.

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MOVEMBER FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

PARTICIPATION BY MLAs

S. Hamilton: Madame Speaker, if you noticed a distinct lack of facial hair on this side of the House today, you’d be correct in assuming that we are now in the month of Movember. Twenty-three government MLAs have deliberately exposed parts of their visage that have not been seeing the light of day for quite some time. As a matter of fact, our Premier took considerable pleasure in personally mowing down the facial hair of a number of furry-faced MLAs in support of raising awareness for men’s health issues.

Originally intended to draw public awareness and raise money to fight prostate cancer, Movember has grown in scope and participation to a worldwide movement that has now raised over $174 million in the past 11 years.

This year the hon. member for Shuswap is doing his part by issuing a very special follic challenge to his fellow members of the government caucus to support the Movember campaign in Canada. The public response to this team challenge has been nothing less than hair-raising.

As of today, a total of 70 people have joined the MLAs in this challenge, and the team now ranks sixth — in sixth place — on the national team-leader board in Canada. This team is well over halfway to its fundraising goal of $10,000 in just the first few days of the campaign. No longer is it balanced on a razor’s edge.

As the member for Delta North, I am proud to join this team challenge, as you can see, to raise money in support

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of Movember. I’m confident that our team effort will do more than pay lip service to the cause. It won’t be a close shave. We intend to mow down and brush off the competition and win by more than a hair’s-breadth.

If anyone in the House has any doubts of our success, they can shave them for another day after the Movember campaign finally draws to a close.

ATTENTION DEFICIT

HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

S. Hammell: Well done.

Last month was ADHD Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness and supporting people living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD is a condition characterized by symptoms such as inattentiveness, impulsivity and hyperactivity.

Both children and adults can have ADHD. However, the symptoms always start in childhood, and then 60 percent of those children carry the illness into adulthood. ADHD affects our children’s education achievements. As a former teacher, I know the toll it can take on a child and their family. Yet it takes 18 months to get a diagnosis, and half of the ADHD kids never do receive treatment.

Unfortunately, there are virtually no supports for adults with ADHD. Yet, like other mental disorders, ADHD increases costs to our criminal justice system, and it has a huge impact on our health budget, especially when it goes untreated. Adults with ADHD may have trouble managing time, being organized, setting goals and holding down a job. Many fall into substance abuse and self-medicate for their condition. They have lower occupational status and less job stability.

However, like most of us here, they are smart, intense, hard-working, creative and funny. After having the issue highlighted last month, let’s work together to help and support those people who live with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Oral Questions

GOVERNMENT RECORD-KEEPING AND

POLICIES ON TRANSITORY INFORMATION

D. Routley: Last week the Premier and the Minister of Citizens’ Services tried to explain the inexplicable with respect to this government’s culture of deceive and delete. This government’s view of the world is that the decision they stick on a press release is the only official record of government. Everything else is transitory and is deleted.

[1355]

Unfortunately for the minister, repeated rulings by the Information and Privacy Commissioner disagree with him. In her 2014 report, she said: “Given the importance of the work by senior-ranking officials within the Office of the Premier, it is difficult for the average citizen to understand how any such individual could not have a number of e-mails over a two-day span that were of importance and needed to be kept for future work.”

My question is for the minister. If John Dyble, the head of the public service, kept no records on an issue as important as the Health firings as far back as 2012, what kind of example does that set for the people who work under him?

Hon. A. Virk: Let me speak broadly, first of all. Government is absolutely committed to openness and to transparency. I’ve made it absolutely abundantly clear. The expectations of what documents need to be retained and what documents need to be submitted are also abundantly clear. All are expected to meet legislative requirements.

I’ve also made it abundantly clear that a former privacy commissioner, a well-respected individual, is going to be engaged by government. Those terms of reference are going to be released. We’re going to seek guidance. We’re going to seek advice on how best to enact those recommendations and to report on that publicly.

Madame Speaker: The member for Nanaimo–North Cowichan on a supplemental.

D. Routley: Mr. Loukidelis, being one of a succession of commissioners to this House who have reminded the government of its duty to keep documents, will only point further to the fact that this government has failed to do so.

A 2013 FOI package on how staff plan international trade missions for the Premier paints a clear picture about what senior civil servants have learned from Mr. Dyble with respect to recordkeeping.

In an October 2012 e-mail to staff, Christine Little, the former executive of strategic policy and performance, outlined exactly how you keep records in a B.C. Liberal government. She said: “Hi, everyone. Just wanted to let you know that Dave spoke to John Dyble about the India submission yesterday, and John passed along his thanks for the quick turnaround and great work that was done.”

It sounds like a group of dedicated public servants working hard. But she goes further, “In the meantime, please delete all drafts…

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

D. Routley: …of the materials. E-mail correspondence should be treated as transitory.”

My question for the minister: why are senior public servants, working on projects under the direction of Mr. Dyble, deleting important public records?

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Hon. A. Virk: The Privacy Commissioner has come out with a number of recommendations that are asking for examination, that are asking for legislative changes, that are asking for technical, operational changes and recommendations.

As such, Mr. Loukidelis has been engaged. His terms of reference have been made public, and I will clarify those as we speak. We’ve also committed that his recommendations are going to be public for all to see how we can strengthen FOI in the province of British Columbia.

J. Shin: In her latest report, the commissioner said: “What this investigation makes clear is that it is a record’s content and context that determines whether a record is transitory or not.” In other words, e-mails are a critical part of the government’s records because they tell us how government makes decisions.

Today we are presenting yet another example of a senior public servant, working under the direction of John Dyble, deleting documents and e-mails by labeling them transitory. There’s a culture of delete in this government, and it starts right at the top.

To the minister, why is he allowing senior public servants to delete important government records?

[1400]

Hon. A. Virk: The member is simply incorrect and reading off her script. The transitory record

schedule approved by….

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members. Members, the Chair will hear the answer. We will wait.

Columbia River–Revelstoke.

Hon. A. Virk: It’s clear the members don’t want it hear the response.

The transitory schedule, as approved by…. An all-member committee of the Legislative Assembly approves those record retention schedules. Transitory records are those, if I may read right from the act, that are “convenience copies,” “unnecessary duplicates” and “working materials and drafts.” Those items that are government records I fully expect to be retained, and I expect those to be available. But the members are attempting to confuse the issue — that e-mails are records of government work, and they’re not.

Madame Speaker: The member for Burnaby-Lougheed on a supplemental.

J. Shin: It’s not my script. I’m looking at the staff’s e-mail. It says: “In the meantime, please delete all drafts of the materials, and e-mail correspondence should be treated as transitory.” That is what we are reading right here. It appears that at the command of Mr. Dyble, senior officials in government have taken to labelling records as “transitory” for the express purpose of being able to delete them.

Ms. Little’s November 2012 correspondence shows that staff are following Mr. Dyble’s example. The e-mail starts with the words “transitory notes below.” Guess what. Not surprisingly, the note below is deleted.

The Minister of Citizens’ Services is responsible for how the act is enforced, so again to the minister, why is he having staff delete important public records?

Hon. A. Virk: I draw the member’s attention to B.C. government’s transitory records and the

schedule 102901. It clearly differentiates transitory records and where they are. Transitory records — once again, and it’s verbatim — are “convenience copies….”

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Just wait, Minister.

Please continue.

Hon. A. Virk: I will read verbatim. Transitory records are “convenience copies,” “unnecessary duplicates” and “working materials and drafts.”

B. Ralston: In another e-mail, Ms. Little once again reveals how this government uses the term “transitory” to delete public records. In a second November 2012 e-mail, Ms. Little writes: “Transitory for cabinet. Vera advises that Treasury Board has agreed to these changes. We already did the high-level strategy as part of the last TB submission. Just need to review and tweak.”

Her only reason for calling the attached documents transitory is so she can delete them. As a result, the record of how the marketing strategy for the Premier’s trade mission to India was developed — how it evolved, what issues were considered and rejected — was destroyed. All we are left with is the version that was stuck on the press release.

My question is for the minister. Why is he allowing staff to delete important public records?

Hon. A. Virk: I think the member reads the response in the words he uses. “Drafts,” “convenience copies,” “unnecessary duplicates,” “working materials” — that is contained within the words that the member uses. If those documents are indeed drafts or working materials, convenience copies or duplicates, the transitory record schedule, approved by an all-member committee of this House, has determined those to be transitory.

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If these members across don’t have faith in the fact that their members were engaged, have them say so.

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Madame Speaker: The member for Surrey-Whalley on a supplemental.

B. Ralston: Perhaps the most telling misuse of the label “transitory” is revealed in an April 2012 e-mail from Ms. Little. In a note to a colleague, she writes: “Hi. When you’re done the budget, can you send me a copy, please? Transitory information only.”

My question is to the minister. When did the budgets for taxpayer-funded programs become transitory documents instead of important public records?

Hon. A. Virk: When an individual does an FOI request for government records, the appropriate act is applied. There are exemptions, of course — 13 different areas of exemptions under the act. Information is returned to the requesters.

Once again, if there are key government documents, those key government documents are restored within ministries, and those are available within FOI requests. The flawed assumption, which continues to be perpetrated, that every e-mail becomes a government record is wrong.

MISSING WOMEN INQUIRY

RECOMMENDATIONS AND

GOVERNMENT RECORD-KEEPING

M. Karagianis: Here is something that’s not flawed.

Today West Coast LEAF released its annual report card on this government’s compliance with the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Once again, it has found that the B.C. Liberal government is failing women, especially aboriginal women and girls.

The government’s grade on missing and murdered aboriginal women actually dropped from last year’s low of D to, this year, an all-time low of F because of their lack of accountability. Not only has the government been deleting e-mails, but they have decided that they no longer need to even report out on their failure to fully implement recommendations from the Missing Women Inquiry.

My question is to the Justice Minister. Can she please tell us what steps she is taking to rectify this utter lack of accountability?

Hon. S. Anton: Violence against women and children, violence against aboriginal women, is completely unacceptable. The 67 women who went missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside…. That is a tragedy that continues to resonate in Vancouver and British Columbia.

We had a commission. The commission issued 63 recommendations. Under the leadership of this government, we have substantially completed or work is substantially underway on all of the themes in that report. We have reported out on those, and any time the member wishes to ask, we will report further.

We have given a compensation fund for all of the children of the missing women. We have got significant improvements to policing, which I’ve mentioned in this House on a number of occasions. We have significant supports for vulnerable women — a long list of them. We have new legislation. We’ve got missing-persons legislation. We have missing-persons units in police departments. We are increasing safety along all of our northern highways.

Those recommendations in that report were taken extremely seriously. We’ve been working with partners, stakeholders and different branches of government to make the lives of women safer in British Columbia and to ensure that we deal with all of the recommendations in that report. As I’ve said, we have taken every theme of that report and are working on them or have completed them.

Madame Speaker: Esquimalt–Royal Roads on a supplemental.

M. Karagianis: The minister knows that, in fact, the government has not completed all of the recommendations and is no longer reporting out on them. It’s no wonder that the B.C. Liberal government doesn’t want to report out, because they’re doing such a terrible job on this.

I’d like to quote from the report. In response to the urgent recommendations to implement a public transportation system along Highway 16, the province “has created an informational website” — which, of course, fails to meaningfully improve safety for indigenous women. It goes on to discuss how the government has intentionally deleted e-mail records related to the issue of violence along Highway 16 to avoid disclosing them.

Again, to the Minister of Justice. Why is this government hiding from accountability on this issue?

[1410]

Hon. S. Anton: We have reported out, and we will continue to report out on the work that we have been doing. There was a discussion even this week around the missing-persons legislation, on the importance of following up with that legislation, of the regulations that come from that legislation. The discussion was an illustration of how we are continuing to work on this file, continuing to publicly work on it and to involve stakeholders.

That incident in British Columbia when 67 women went missing from the Downtown Eastside, as I said earlier, was a terrible tragedy. It continues to resonate in British Columbia. We are determined to take that report seriously. We have taken that report seriously.

We are working on every single facet of it, including, yes indeed, the recommendation that transportation on all northern highways be safer. Indeed, there are many, many things that have been done, including cell phone

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coverage, better policing and public transportation, because this government is determined that vulnerable women be safe in British Columbia.

MRI WAITING TIMES

J. Darcy: Last week the official opposition revealed that patients in Fraser Health are waiting as long as a year and a quarter for medically necessary MRIs. But the reality is that thousands of other patients are also waiting unacceptably long times to get absolutely necessary medical procedures.

The government’s own clinical benchmark says that no patient should have to wait more than two months for an MRI, but Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care’s figures reveal that they are only meeting this standard in 13 percent of the cases.

Our health care system has the capacity to do something about this and shorten the wait-list. Why does the minister feel it’s acceptable that patients across the Lower Mainland have to wait as long as a year or more to get a medically necessary MRI?

Hon. T. Lake: First of all, I don’t think it’s acceptable. We have to do better. We have long wait-lists for MRIs, even though we are doing three times as many as we did in 2001. The reality is that we do need to do better. I will say, however, that if a physician feels there is an urgent need for an MRI, it will be prioritized and that patient will be seen. But the fact is that we need to do better on MRIs.

One of the things we need to do better, working with physicians in the province of British Columbia, is put an appropriate lens on this procedure. Many imaging procedures are done when it’s questionable whether or not it should be done in that order. So we are going to ensure that we have a provincial MRI strategy, that we put an appropriate lens on it, because as the member says, our wait times are unacceptable, and we will do better.

Madame Speaker: The member for New Westminster on a supplemental.

J. Darcy: Well, once again the minister blames everybody else instead of taking responsibility himself. The minister claims that urgent or emergent cases do get the attention they need, and the minister knows that that’s not the case. Vancouver Coastal and Providence Health Care’s own figures show that patients who are classified as so urgent that they need an MRI within seven days are waiting an average of 40 days, and some are waiting 117 days for an urgent MRI.

According to the B.C. society of radiologists, we’re talking about patients with tumours that could be benign or malignant, or patients who will require treatment for prostate cancer, among others. That is simply not acceptable. Surely we can do better than that in the province of British Columbia.

[1415]

This minister wasted tens of millions of dollars on a Health IT boondoggle with IBM, money that was taken directly out of patient care. Why didn’t he instead invest in reducing wait times for patients that urgently need MRIs?

Hon. T. Lake: I vehemently agree with the member opposite. We can do better. We have to do better.

Even though we have tripled the number of MRIs done since 2001, the reality is, with an aging population, a growing population and the technology that changes, we need to do better. I’ve asked our ministry to work with all of the health authorities on a provincial MRI strategy, ensuring that we work with radiologists and expert clinicians to understand the appropriateness, to make sure that this technology is being used appropriately and that we’re not seeing redundancies in imaging, whether it’s x-rays, whether it’s CT scans and then MRI.

We need to do better, and we’re committed to doing better.

VANCOUVER VIADUCTS PROJECT AND

ROLE OF TRANSPORTATION MINISTER

G. Heyman: It didn’t take the Transportation Minister more than a day to create confusion by pouring cold water on the city of Vancouver’s decision to remove the Georgia and Dunsmuir Street viaducts.

He said: “Nothing is a done deal here with the viaducts…. I’ve checked with my officials. It’s been a couple of years since there were any serious attempts on the part of the city of Vancouver to reach out to PavCo, which owns and operates B.C. Place.”

Clearly, the minister has not done his homework. In fact, there have been extensive meetings and discussions between the city of Vancouver and PavCo. Between April 2014 and late September 2015, there have been eight — count them, eight — meetings between the city and PavCo on this issue.

My question to the minister is this: is he just making this whole story up? Or did he and his staff triple-delete the e-mails and briefing notes from these meetings?

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members, the Chair will hear the answer.

Hon. T. Stone: Look, no one is pouring cold water on this particular project from the city of Vancouver. Rather, we believe on this side of the House that it’s very important that there be appropriate discussions, meaningful discussions, discussions that include getting right down into the technical aspects of what is being proposed here.

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PavCo has, we think, some very valid concerns with respect to access to and from B.C. Place. We want to make sure that those concerns are heard and that they’re factored into the plans. There are concerns with respect to soil remediation. There are concerns with respect to access to the new St. Paul’s Hospital. There are concerns with respect to TransLink’s major road network and just overall traffic flow in and out of the city of Vancouver that, at the present time, is facilitated in part with these viaducts.

We’re committed to sitting down and working with the city of Vancouver to work through a myriad of concerns, which we think are going to be critical to the success of this plan.

Madame Speaker: The member for Vancouver-Fairview on a supplemental.

G. Heyman: I thought the minister was just falling into his old habit of saying no to whatever suggestion was put forward by the city of Vancouver to relieve congestion or actually make it a better place for the citizens. The minister also said the other day there have been no meaningful technical discussions about access to B.C. Place, and he repeated it again in this House. The minister is deliberately trying to change the channel on his e-mail scandal by creating confusion on the viaduct issue. There have, in fact….

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Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Just wait.

Members, the Chair will hear the question.

Minister. The Chair will hear the question.

Please continue.

G. Heyman: Perhaps the Minister of Transportation should actually read his e-mails before he triple-deletes them.

The city of Vancouver has produced many comprehensive technical studies on all aspects of the issue regarding viaduct removal, including an 88-page report called Event Management Strategies , which is specific to the very question of access to B.C. Place and Rogers Arena.

Why is the minister inventing an issue where none exists? Is it just a sad attempt to deflect attention and avoid accountability for his and his staff’s repeated and reckless destruction of public documents?

Hon. T. Stone: We certainly do not need to be lectured on this side of the floor as to the meaning of no. We hear about it every single day of the week from the members opposite. No to the Port Mann project, no to the Sea to Sky Highway, no to the SFPR, no to Trans-Canada improvements, no to this, no to that, no to everything.

I will repeat…

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members.

Hon. T. Stone: …what I said last week and what I said a moment ago. There have been no meaningful discussions between PavCo and the city of Vancouver — meaningful technical discussions that are going to be required to make sure that this project is done right.

Unlike the members opposite, we do not take our orders from the city of Vancouver. Our obligation is to ensure that the interests of all British Columbians are looked after with any project of this magnitude.

D. Eby: Eight meetings, four technical reports, including an 88-page technical report on accessing these venues. The minister continues to make incorrect statements about the state of negotiations between PavCo and the city of Vancouver.

At the time he was telling the media these incorrect statements, he was under fire for heading a ministry where a senior staffer was under RCMP investigation for his role in the triple-delete scandal. Not only that, the minister was out telling the media how proud he was that he triple-deletes his own e-mail records.

Now, the evidence shows that the minister has simply made up a controversy involving PavCo and the city of Vancouver. Clearly, he is doing so to conceal — change the channel on — his own involvement in the triple-delete scandal and the scandal of his ministry being under RCMP investigation.

Will he apologize to the hard-working bureaucrats at the city of Vancouver…?

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members. Members.

Please continue.

D. Eby: There were many people involved in these meetings. Many thoughtful people prepared these technical reports. They did so carefully, to protect the interests of people across the Lower Mainland.

Will the minister apologize to those people who worked so hard for trying to change the channel at their expense?

Hon. T. Stone: Look, as I said earlier, we don’t control the timing of council decisions that are taken by the city of Vancouver. The city of Vancouver actually received a letter from PavCo several days before council took their final decision, outlining a number of concerns that PavCo believed, to that point, had not been adequately considered by the city of Vancouver.

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I quote from the letter dated October 19, from PavCo to the mayor and council in Vancouver. “Among the

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key issues impacting PavCo are maintaining acceptable operating and event access for B.C. Place and the new Vancouver urban resort, residential development on area 10C, soil remediation, design of the relocated Georgia Viaduct ramp and construction of parking beneath, First Nations consultation, Pacific Boulevard and other street designs and traffic planning.” In addition to that, there are some other issues that we want to make sure are also part of the consideration for moving forward.

I have said it several times, and I will say again that we are committed to sitting down with the city of Vancouver and having these technical discussions so that we get this project right.

[End of question period.]

Orders of the Day

Hon. M. de Jong: I call continued second reading debate on Bill 42.

Second Reading of Bills

BILL 42 — ELECTORAL DISTRICTS ACT

(continued)

[R. Chouhan in the chair.]

B. Routley: Just to recap where I was at when I last spoke, we were talking about the history and the impact in the Cowichan Valley on First Nations people.

Cowichan Tribes currently has about 4,600-plus members. They are the largest single First Nations band in British Columbia. About half of their members live on reserve. The Cowichan First Nation has a relatively young population, with a large percentage of the population under the age of 35. They have seven traditional villages that together make up Cowichan Tribes. They are also a group of the Coast Salish people, historically connected to the Cowichan Valley region.

Now, just a little bit more about how the Cowichan Valley communities are interconnected not only by the history of the railroad but by the forest industry and agriculture. Many of the issues that are still going on today are certainly impacted by our history, not the least of which is the coal baron, Robert Dunsmuir. He was not only the Nanaimo coal baron, as he was remembered. He also was an MLA, and he was a member of the B.C. provincial Legislature. He was also interested in owning a railway project and in the province’s coal reserves.

The fact that Dunsmuir was a member of the provincial government that was making the railway deal aroused some suspicion and concerns about corruption. So dare I say it? Jiggery-pokery was alive and well back in the 1800s.

Dunsmuir did have three partners, who incorporated the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, with Dunsmuir as their president. He was the owner of one-half of the shares. The company estimated that it would cost $1.5 million to construct the railway.

Well, when I was reading that history, I could hardly believe that number. When you consider the capital costs of something like Site C being $9 billion, to think that they were going to build a railway for $1.5 million is an amazing feat.

In 1883, the British Columbia government signed a contract with Robert Dunsmuir and his son, James, to build the railway between Esquimalt and Nanaimo, in exchange for the grant of land that amounted to 800,000 acres, or 323,749 hectares, of land — a lot of it right from here up to Nanaimo and, certainly, on the east coast of Vancouver Island.

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A huge area in exchange for…. Plus, they also got a cash grant of $750,000 from the federal government, which was involved in that deal.

The railway was also given a massive amount of old-growth forest, and the grant amounted to almost 10 percent of Vancouver Island. That’s just for the E&N land grant. It also included — I found, interestingly — all known coal deposits. Taken together, all the land grants to the E&N railroad from 1884 to 1925 amounted to 20 percent of Vancouver Island.

Again, as I’ve said, a lot of that land is now in private hands between two major forest companies. TimberWest and Island Timberlands own the majority of that private land. Many Island communities and First Nations in the region have been impacted by this historical deal. That’s why I mentioned it.

Now I want to give you an overview of why the community of interest makes sense in the Cowichan Valley. If you’re driving north and you head over the Cowichan Valley, starting at the first sighting of Saanich Inlet, when you’re driving up the Malahat, that starts my constituency and includes the fire hall and, of course, the trailer park and the community that surrounds the top of the Malahat area.

Then, coming down the Malahat, you pass Bamberton on your way to Mill Bay. Nearby Mill Bay…. By the way, I’ll get to that in a minute. Mill Bay was, in fact, a mill community. It was started by a mill that is no longer there and burned down many times. Originally, Mill Bay was a milling community.

Shawnigan Lake was on the rail line, on the way heading up to Nanaimo at the time. Shawnigan Lake became one of the stopovers. Cobble Hill — same thing. That became an area where there was a telegraph line. Cowichan Bay village is on Cowichan Bay, of course. That village is loved by…. Everyone in our community likes to spend time, particularly in the summer, to go down to Cowichan Bay, which is known as an eclectic community all of their own.

Duncan is seen as a central hub of all of the communities in the Cowichan Valley. To the west of Duncan is

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Lake Cowichan. Then there’s Mesachie Lake, which is on the south shore of beautiful Lake Cowichan, about a 28-mile-long lake. Also on the south shore is Honeymoon Bay. Then you drive on up over the hill to Caycuse, which is fondly remembered as Camp 6, one of the longest-standing logging camps, more than 60 years in the history of British Columbia.

Then, when you go further around the lake on the north shore, you come to Youbou, which used to be an old mill town — in fact, where I worked in the Youbou sawmill years ago. However, east of Duncan are Maple Bay and Genoa Bay. I also want to talk a little bit more about them.

Mill Bay — I’ll give a little more information about that — was established in the 1860s, 20 years after Victoria was founded. Many of the settlers in the Mill Bay area arrived in 1862, when the HMS Hecate came to the Cowichan Bay area from England. According to the written records and the history, the standard payment for settlement of land in the area was two blankets.

Mill Bay was the location of a power generating station for Henry Shepherd’s sawmill. He was an American industrialist who came up and started a mill in Mill Bay. It was the hub of the industry in the area at that time. Logs had to be dragged by oxen, in the process called skidding, to get to the mill at that time.

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Shawnigan Lake currently has a population of about 8,000 people living in the village. It’s a popular rural home and recreation destination. Its population typically doubles during the summer, as the lake and village are summer vacation spots for many residents of Victoria.

The history is that in 1883, construction of the railway line between Esquimalt and Nanaimo began. Prior to that, Shawnigan Lake was largely a wilderness area, and only supplies were delivered by a weekly steamship to Cowichan Bay. Back in 1886, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald travelled to Shawnigan to personally hammer in the last spike at Cliffside.

With the new influx of supplies and visitors, Shawnigan Lake quickly grew. A mill was started — here’s another forest industry connection — in 1890 by a former E&N Railway employee. By 1900, the other main industry was tourism, with two hotels being built on the shores of Shawnigan for visitors who would take the train up from Victoria.

Shawnigan Lake’s forest industry closed in the mid-20th century due to both the loss of the mill…. It was destroyed by fire — for the third time, I might add. Portions of the mill can still be seen in Shawnigan’s Old Mill Park area, which is right on the banks of the lake.

Next I want to turn to Cobble Hill. There’s some debate about why the place was named Cobble Hill, but the Cobble Hill settlement was identified in 1879, as the telegraph was installed on the way from Nanaimo to Victoria. Then the telegraph lines were moved to the railway, and a telegraph office was built in Cobble Hill. By 1913, a telephone was installed in a hotel. A bank and a barbershop were built, along with the community hall.

Cobble Hill has the oldest agricultural fair on Vancouver Island. The Cobble Hill Fair is now celebrating 115 years in 2015. Events include pancake breakfasts, home baking, livestock shows, equestrian events, handicrafts and refreshments. Again, ever since becoming an MLA, I’ve been there every year, and I’ve seen the Minister of Agriculture there. Again, thank you for being part of that. It’s always a good place to go and feel that you’re part of the community.

Cowichan Bay village is a picture-perfect community located on the oceanfront on the west side of Cowichan Bay, with stunning views and sunsets. It has got many cottages, shops and restaurants that are built on stilts over the water’s edge and spectacular scenery. Birdwatchers come to explore Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre, where the great blue herons nest in trees and over 220 species of birds can be found.

This is a maritime centre, with historic artifacts, a boat festival, a regatta during the summer. You must come and try the local bread and cheese. Now we have the prawn festival, which is another new and improved event. It is a wonderful time to be had by all there in Cowichan Bay. So if you get a chance and you hear about the prawn festival, please join us.

The population in Duncan is 4,932. It’s actually a very small city. When you consider that it’s the smallest city…. It’s only 0.8 square miles. It’s the smallest city, in fact, in the nation.

I’m very proud of our little town of Duncan. Whenever I want to feel nostalgic, I go downtown and look at the old city hall, which is a brick building, and all of the other brick buildings and the walk downtown that looks so familiar. I remember going to old Parnell’s meat market, when I was just a little boy, for a pot roast. I’m sure I’d have to save up for one of those now.

The community is named after William Chalmers Duncan, who had a farm named Alderlea just outside of Duncan. In August 1886 — here’s the railway again — the Esquimalt to Nanaimo railway opened, and no stop had been scheduled at Alderlea for the inaugural train bearing Sir John A. Macdonald and Robert Dunsmuir.

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However, at Duncan’s crossing, the levellest crossing near the Alderlea farm, a crowd of 2,000 people had assembled around a decorated arch. The train came to an unplanned halt, quite literally putting the Duncan area on the map.

Duncan’s tourism slogan is the City of Totems. The city has 80 totem poles around the entire town, which were erected back in the 1980s. I still see tourists today walking around our beautiful community and following the printed footsteps on the cement to see all the totems. Really, we are very proud of our First Nations people. Duncan

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does have the largest First Nations community. We’re honoured that Cowichan Tribes are the traditional First Nations band and part of the Coastal First Nations people.

In all of my meetings with their elders, I’m always reminded how amazing our history really is and how incredibly engaging our First Nations people are in terms of being friendly with us — even after all of the history, when you think about it. They never saw land the same way that we did when we came from, mostly, European countries. We didn’t think about ownership the same way at all.

Duncan is home also to the B.C. Forest Discovery Centre. Before the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute, Duncan and the whole Cowichan Valley were a thriving lumber centre in British Columbia. Again, a lot of that has changed. A lot of the businesses…. I think about all of the mill closures, like what happened with Youbou, the old mill just up the road. It was called the Nanoose Forest Products mill, but it was actually…. A lot of people from the Cowichan Valley worked at both Crofton and up Chemainus way. Those mills are gone, and the logging firms are gone.

Anyway, Duncan is the unofficial capital of the Cowichan Valley, with a fertile crescent of rich farmland, lush vineyards, our heritage Cowichan River and scenic back roads to the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island.

Now I want to go up to Lake Cowichan. The population is 2,974. It’s a town located on the east end of Lake Cowichan by Highway 18. It is well known for things like swimming, kayaking, boating, as well as, of course, the tubing that is partaken in by visitors from all over the Island and other parts of the world who come to Vancouver Island to tour on that river.

S. Fraser: I’m happy to take my place in the debate for Bill 42, this second reading of Bill 42. It’s wonderful. Second readings are great in many ways because it allows all of us in this House, from both sides, to speak quite broadly on the subjects within the bill. What better subjects to speak so broadly on than our own constituencies and how they might be affected through the implementation of Bill 42?

I must say, just for the record, that I haven’t heard anyone in this House speak against Bill 42. I would suspect that we’re going to see this one pass in a resounding way as true consensus is achieved on a piece of legislation in this place. It does happen, and it will happen, I think, on Bill 42. People should realize it does happen more often than not, and that’s heartening too.

Just as an explanation, I will read from the explanatory note at the beginning of the bill to put it in context for those who might have just tuned in. Bill 42: the bill “gives effect to the resolution of the Legislative Assembly approving the report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission entitled British Columbia Electoral Boundaries Commission Final Report — September 24, 2015.”

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Now, as we’re referring to the Boundaries Commission’s report, just again a bit of background on that. The Boundaries Commission is empowered…. It’s not the same commissioners. They are chosen. They’re appointed every, I believe, eight years. They do a reassessment of the boundaries within the provincial jurisdictions in British Columbia.

We have 85 seats in this House right now. Before 2009, there were 79 seats. That was the last time the Boundaries Commission did their job, and that was an increase of six seats. This time around, the Boundaries Commission have determined that there will be a requirement of two seats added to the 85 seats we now have here.

It may cause some challenges within this chamber itself. I’m not sure where the other two seats will go. I mentioned this in the motion where we had a chance to speak on this earlier. For those watching, the aisleway here used to be straight, and based on my understanding of old parliamentary history, the rationale for the distance between these two different sides in the chamber here were that they have to be two sword-lengths apart.

I’m not sure how that works with this reconfiguration, but someone very clever is going to have to figure out where we will put two more seats in this place. And then, as future boundaries commissions come forward, I think we’re going to have to be looking at something a lot more creative to try to see how we can be able to fit more MLAs here as populations grow or shrink. That is the main qualification for changing boundaries within the mandate of the Boundaries Commission.

I am very honoured to be the MLA representing Alberni–Pacific Rim. Previously, it was known as Alberni-Qualicum — 2005, before the previous Boundaries Commission’s changes came into place. Now with Bill 42, Alberni–Pacific Rim would be known as Mid Island–Pacific Rim.

So I will have to get used to that — changes like that. That’s business cards. That’s signs on constituency offices. It’s stationary. All those things are required, of course, when you change the boundaries.

My understanding is that these boundaries do not change until after the next election. So if I am fortunate enough to be the MLA in the new riding with the implementation of Bill 42, it would mean a substantial change for myself, if I am the MLA, or whoever else might be the MLA if I’m not.

I should reflect on this. On Vancouver Island, this is the largest change being anticipated of any constituency on Vancouver Island, and it’s one of the largest changes in British Columbia — a significant change for Alberni–Pacific Rim becoming Mid Island–Pacific Rim.

I’m going to describe the layout of my constituency in some detail, but first, I’m going to just give a bit of a broad overview.

The constituency itself, Alberni–Pacific Rim, incorporates the west coast of Vancouver Island through Clayoquot Sound and Barkley Sound to the south — a

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magnificent stretch of coastline. It includes lots of Nuu-chah-nulth communities — rich fishing histories in those communities, all of them — and then the municipalities of Tofino, Ucluelet and Bamfield just south of Barkley Sound. Vibrant communities, coastal communities that come together. I will discuss that a little bit in the near future too, but suffice to say that these are places that are near and dear to me.

There are challenges for an MLA. There are challenges to get around in these areas in communities like Hesquiaht communities in the north part of Clayoquot Sound, Ahousat further south — a big community. These are communities that are not available by road transportation. They’re only available by water — water taxi, private boats and floatplanes, of course.

So we’ve got those communities coming down in the Tla-o-qui-aht territory, another Nuu-chah-nulth nation. That actually is right where the district of Tofino sits. And then, further south of that, past Esowista, which is another Tla-o-qui-aht community by Long Beach, we get into the district of Ucluelet and the First Nations communities there, Nuu-chah-nulth communities: Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation and the Toquaht First Nation.

And then there’s the Broken Islands Group and the Alberni Inlet that comes into the city of Port Alberni. Across the Broken Islands Group, moving south, we get to the town of Bamfield — the Huu-ay-aht First Nation — and just below that, Pacheedaht.

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So it’s a vibrant part of the world. It’s a part of the world that attracts people from all over. And that, my constituency…. I will go back to those communities to some extent. But that community — if we go further east from there, there’s a large

section of land that is not really inhabited by anyone. They are still traditional territories. They overlap to some extent, and those are being addressed. But if you’re taking Highway 4, you’re basically along the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations territory.

Then, as you come in over Sutton Pass, which is the high point on that

section of highway, you come into the Alberni Valley at Sproat Lake. That’s sort of the centre of the current riding as it stands — that’s Alberni–Pacific Rim.

My office, as the MLA, is in Port Alberni, which is the most geographically accessible to all portions of the riding. It’s not perfect; that’s for sure. But you need an anchor location to actually justify a constituency office. Certainly, a small city, the city of Port Alberni, fits into that category.

It’s a great city. It has a rich logging history. Forestry has been the makeup of that great town. It was two cities, actually. It was Alberni and Port Alberni, and they just had their centenary celebration just recently, just a year ago. We got to learn more about the history of the Alberni Valley.

The forest industry has been in decline. Changes that have come about with government policies and such have meant that a lot of the timber is leaving the valley. It’s by ship and by road. It’s interesting to note that Port Alberni used to have the highest per-capita incomes of anywhere in British Columbia. I’ve heard that corrected to anywhere in Canada. It is not that many decades ago that that was the case. We’ve seen a lot of job loss in the region.

We’ve seen a city that’s so vibrant — the town that pulls together so well. Port Alberni, in the Alberni Valley, is reinventing itself. It’s looking at a diversified economy. It has incredible trail systems.

I’ll touch on some of the changes that have come about recently in Port Alberni. But, again, looking at the broad view of what the current situation is in Alberni–Pacific Rim before Bill 42 changes come in, the riding then goes, they call it, over the hump on Highway 4 — again moving eastward on Vancouver Island. You go through Cathedral Grove, which most people know is after.

There’s Cameron Lake that follows that — beautiful scenic lake. I would just give everyone a warning there. If you are going by on a warm day in the summertime and jumping in Cameron Lake, just be wary. This lake never seems to warm up. There’s a thermocline at about four inches, and it’s teeth-cracking cold always — beautiful, deep, deep lake.

Sproat Lake, on the other side of Port Alberni, warms up very quickly. It’s not nearly as deep, and it’s a magnificent place to swim. The water temperature is perfect. I have gone in Cameron Lake, and I will do it again. But, oh, boy, is it ever…. It wakes you right up.

If we move past the Alberni Valley, moving further east, we have Whisky Creek and the Errington-Coombs area. This is a really eclectic area of my constituency of Alberni–Pacific Rim. Agriculture is a big part of the economic makeup here. There are farms and ranches and hobby farms. As in the Alberni Valley, which has very fertile land also, agriculture is one of the mainstays.

Tourism is a mainstay too — the areas like Coombs. Most people who know the areas on Vancouver Island recognize Coombs. It’s sort of a free territory for business, open markets, goats on the roof. People love that area, as do I. It’s a wonderful place to go and have breakfast. There are some great restaurants. There are lots of great markets there. If anyone’s watching — it’s a bit of travel boost here — go there. It’s worth it.

Then further east, on the east side of the Island, Alberni–Pacific Rim no longer has Qualicum Beach, which used to be part of the riding that I represented before the Boundaries Commission the last time around did their changes.

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I do pick up the east side of the Island. I go north of Qualicum Beach, so that starts at Dashwood, lighthouse country, Bowser and Deep Bay — the coastline along the east side of the Island as well as that whole west coast of the Island.

I am so fortunate as an MLA to be able to represent such a great mix of communities, of geographical features and of the people there. One thing about the people

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— the issues are different in different areas of my riding, but Alberni–Pacific Rim, the strength of the communities there, is inspiring in many ways.

Now, Bill 42 would change this substantially. The substantive change is on the east side of Vancouver Island. Alberni–Pacific Rim currently, as I represent it, ends just north of Rosewall Creek, which is just past Deep Bay. Actually, it’s pretty much the border where the Comox regional district begins. The proposal in Bill 42 is that the riding, the constituency, would continue north past that point into the Comox regional district, which it currently does not. That makes up towns like Fanny Bay and Buckley Bay and Union Bay and Royston. In between that, there is a ferry system that goes to Hornby and Denman islands. Those would all be incorporated into the constituency.

Our very adept ferries spokesperson has reminded me that this is a key issue on the island — the access to the ferry. It’s a ferry-dependent community. There have been substantial changes made, and there seems to be some controversy around those changes, too, as far as the cable ferry that’s being implemented there.

Whoever will be representing that constituency following the next election will no doubt be dealing with some of those issues. They need to be up on them, and they need to be aware that these are not luxuries. The ferry system in British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, on the coast — not just Hornby and Denman islands — is a critical piece of infrastructure. They are critical for social reasons, for cultural reasons and for economic reasons in this province.

Moving north past Denman and Hornby islands and north of Royston, the proposed boundaries would then move along to incorporate the town of Cumberland. This is a larger community. Of all of the communities that would be incorporated into the new riding, Cumberland is the largest.

I would submit that whoever is fortunate enough to represent the new riding, which is Mid Island–Pacific Rim and which then would incorporate all of these new communities that are currently in the Comox-Courtenay constituency provincially, whoever is the MLA after this next election, I would recommend that the MLA ensure that another constituency office be located there. It would form an anchor with a population base that would justify that, and it would ensure that there would be a proximal office representation for the people of that region.

I would just like to touch on the rationale that the Boundaries Commission has given for proposing these changes to greatly increase the size of the riding that I currently represent into the new riding, from Alberni–Pacific Rim to Mid Island–Pacific Rim. This is on page 117, for those who are watching that do have a copy of the Boundaries Commission’s recommendations.

This is their final report, and that’s what has informed this bill that we’re discussing now, that I’m in the middle of discussing. So Comox Valley and mid-Vancouver Island.

“In recent years, the Comox Valley electoral district has shared the same boundaries as the Comox Valley regional district. However, the population of the Comox Valley has now outgrown a single electoral district. At 22 percent over the provincial average, Comox Valley is just within the plus or minus 25 percent population range” — which is one of the mandates for the commission — “but is projected to exceed it by 2017.”

So an area that’s growing.

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“Therefore, we determined that we must address this issue now and propose boundaries that provide more effective representation by reducing the population within the district. The current Alberni–Pacific Rim electoral district is by far the smallest electoral district on Vancouver Island by population. It is 18 percent under the provincial average and is projected to grow more slowly than the provincial average in the near future.

This is the key part that I think is important for why the Boundaries Commission has made these quite radical changes to the boundaries of Alberni–Pacific Rim, soon to be Mid Island–Pacific Rim.

“To provide more effective representation for both communities the boundaries between the two districts are altered to assign some of the population of Comox Valley to the other mid-Island electoral district. While the majority of the public input from the Comox Valley requested we not make any changes to the current electoral district, it was also emphasized that if we were to make changes, the communities of Courtenay and Comox would be best served in the same electoral district.

“Our preliminary report proposal to include Cumberland in Mid Island–Pacific Rim was not well received by a number of those who provided input. However, we continue to believe that the inclusion of Cumberland in Mid Island–Pacific Rim will provide more effective representation for both communities. With its sizeable population, Cumberland will act as an anchor community for the eastern portion of the district, similar to the role that Port Alberni plays for the central portion and Tofino and Ucluelet play in the west.”

Now, again, just for those watching, that is the rationale for the Boundaries Commission’s proposals in their Electoral Boundaries Commission report that has informed this Bill 42 that we are discussing in second reading now.

I am mindful of the concerns raised by those in Cumberland and region about the difficulties there. It is with that in mind that I will be meeting with the mayor of Cumberland later this month and also the regional district chair — meetings that they have requested and that I welcome. Certainly, it will become part of our discussions as we move towards the 2017 election.

Just a couple of things about the people of this region. My understanding is that in second reading we have a little bit of latitude here, so I’m going to use that to take a bit of bragging rights. I feel that I’m the most fortunate MLA in this place. I know others feel the same way. Bill 42 is changing a riding, a constituency, in a way that I, as MLA, find certainly challenging, but I also find it exciting. I just want to touch on a few — just do a few jumps around the riding as it stands.

I’m going to go right to the centre of it right now, Port Alberni. We have an organization there known as Literacy

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Alberni. This goes to what the people are like in these different communities. Literacy Alberni has just won a prestigious recognition. The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., puts awards out each year to recognize outstanding achievement in literacy practices and programming. We have challenges in mid-Island around literacy issues, and it’s so important for people to be able to overcome those challenges. Literacy Alberni does that for the whole central Island.

This recognition…. There was a shortlist on the Literary Best Practices, 2015, Library of Congress award list. The executive director of Literacy Alberni — that’s Charmead Schella, a wonderful individual — was brought over to Washington D.C. for four days to celebrate with contemporaries from around the literacy world — literally around the world. She just got back a couple of days ago.

There were 17 organizations around the world recognized from 17 different places, and Literacy Alberni was the only Canadian organization to receive recognition this year from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Literacy Alberni was written up in a high gloss Library of Congress Literacy 2015 publication with 16 other best-practices organizations around the world.

For the awards, Charmead presented a five-minute presentation on best practices, and those best practices are being recognized and applauded by the rest of the world. I congratulate Charmead Schella and all of those involved with Literacy Alberni.

[1505]

That’s the kind of organization that has developed to deal with the challenges of the region. Challenges of the region — I have to touch on this. Many of these communities are marine communities. We live on an island, and the expansion, with Bill 42, will increase that. Of course, Hornby and Denman Island are very much…. It’s all about the Salish Sea and the Strait of Georgia. These are marine communities that live by the sea, live with the sea on the west coast. This is a wild, powerful place — all the communities along Clayoquot Sound and Barkley Sound. It’s a huge attractant to so many people and has been for decades.

Last Sunday we had a tragic event. The largest whale-watching vessel on the coast tragically was flipped over by a rogue wave, and 27 people went in the ocean. Five died. One is still missing, presumed dead.

I’ve spoken about the tragedy already. The communities that are represented now in Alberni–Pacific Rim and will be, following the changes with Bill 42, also as part of the new riding of Mid Island–Pacific Rim…. Tofino is where the vessel was from — Jamie’s Whaling Station. The communities in Ahousat and Opitsat and, of course, the people of Tofino — everybody in the region came together in the epitome of community, breaking down all barriers and doing heroic deeds to try to help those in the most desperate of situations, being in some of the coldest water they’ve probably ever experienced and where the survival time is very short.

I want to acknowledge and applaud everyone in those communities for doing what they do and for what they did. I would submit that the Ahousaht First Nation, who…. The first response came from them. There were fishermen, luckily, in the area. But, whoa, there should be a school opened there for first responders and marine rescue. This is the heart of the coast, where Nuu-chah-nulth and First Nations communities can make all the difference in marine safety.

Marine safety has to be part of any MLA’s job in addressing representation on Vancouver Island — certainly anywhere along the coast and the north coast too. Hartley Bay First Nation there was the first, again, to respond and took great risks to themselves to deal with trying to help people that were in peril. So I put a plug in for…. This would be probably as much to the federal government. Boy, oh boy, if there was going to be a good thing to do to help the safety on the coast, it would be to involve First Nations, who are often the first on the scene anyway. We must learn from this tragedy.

Touching on a few other parts of the riding, on the west coast. This will be the same before and after Bill 42. Tofino has the hospital. It’s a 1956 vintage — another plug, again. It needs to be replaced. The Health Minister probably could make note of that. The people that work there are second to none, and they showed that in the tragedy that recently unfolded with the capsizing of that whale-watching vessel.

Tofino got the hospital. Ucluelet got the high school. The hospital is actually the hospital for Tofino, Ucluelet and five different First Nations communities, Nuu-chah-nulth communities, on the west coast.

The high school in Ucluelet takes up both the district of Tofino and the district of Ucluelet population and provides the high school education for everyone in the region — unless you go farther north into the community of Ahousaht, which I’ve just been discussing. There is a great high school there also. The current elected chief for Ahousaht, Greg Louie, was the former principal of that high school in Ahousaht — a magnificent new building. It’s very impressive.

We’ve got families moving into the area. There has been, really, a baby boom in the area too. It’s a growing community and a strong community, as I’ve always mentioned. All those communities work well together.

[1510]

Over in the Alberni Valley — I talked about the necessary diversification of the economy there with the downfall of the forest industry, where value-added doesn’t seem to be happening anymore to our trees. But Mayor Mike Ruttan and the council are very aware and are now working on diversifying that economy.

We have a university that is unique in the world, which was just established several years ago in Port Alberni. This House, in another unanimous vote of support, brought in a bill that recognized that university and accredited that

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university. It’s Pacific Coast University for Workplace Health Sciences. Its curriculum and its programs are being adopted all over the world. I think 17 or 18 nations in the world have adapted their plans for disability management and for back-to-work strategies to get people who have been hurt in the workplace — to make sure that they can still be a big part of society. The United Nations has also adopted everything they’re doing, too.

I want to applaud Wolfgang Zimmermann, the president of that university. He was actually the moving force to help make that a reality. The rest of the world, again, is looking at this area — central Island. Mid Island–Pacific Rim is getting the attention of the world.

As the boundary changes come in following the next election and we see the communities of Buckley Bay and Union Bay and Fanny Bay and Royston, and Hornby and Denman islands and Cumberland all coming together as part of the new Mid Island–Pacific Rim riding — constituency — I think we’re going to see an exciting mix. This addition, while being challenging, will be a wonderful opportunity for communities to learn more about themselves and each other and to be stronger for it.

This bill, Bill 42 — as I’ve indicated already, and I believe that it applies to all of us in this House — I will be supporting. I have been speaking in support of it.

I thank the Boundaries Commission, the three commissioners, for doing their work. It’s not easy. There’s pressure. Sometimes there’s pressure from MLAs to try to change things in the boundaries. Sometimes that’s a good idea, and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it could be construed as being something that might be of political benefit in an election, based on where support bases are.

The Boundaries Commission, when they came up with their report that informs this Bill 42, had to wrestle with all of those competing interests. I think they did a great job. There will be challenges, sure, but one of the things that we learned in this place is how to overcome challenges and how to develop as MLAs to do representation. This time it’s representation by population.

Thank you to the Boundaries Commission, and thanks to everyone who’s listening.

Hon. S. Thomson: It is a real pleasure and an honour for me to be able to take my place and speak to Bill 42, the Electoral Districts Act. I want to again, as many members have expressed here, thank the commissioners for their work and their report and their recommendations. I know, as many have spoken, that it was a difficult job, ensuring that they find the balance so that we know that British Columbia is effectively represented in both urban and rural areas. I think they’ve done an excellent job, and I think that’s reflected in the fact that all members of the House are supporting the bill and that we are adopting the recommendations as they have been provided to us.

As I’ve been listening to some of the comments and discussion on the bill, I’ve enjoyed quite a bit of it. A lot of people talked about some of the history of the province in their comments. That’s actually been quite interesting and a learning experience, in some cases, to learn some of the history. I really appreciated that.

[1515]

I appreciate the comments from the member for Alberni–Pacific Rim, who just spoke. While he and I may disagree on some things, I can tell him that I wholeheartedly agree with him about Cameron Lake and the temperature of Cameron Lake. I share a cabin on Cameron Lake. I’ve plunged into that lake many, many times and gone through the thermocline and into those cold, cold temperatures. I can tell that you that he is exactly right in his comments on Cameron Lake. It’s a beautiful lake and a beautiful part of the province.

It’s quite easy, I think, for us in the Kelowna ridings, the three Kelowna ridings, to get up and support this because, essentially, our ridings have stayed the same. There’s no change to the boundaries in our ridings, in the three ridings in Kelowna. The ridings that people currently know and understand will be those that are maintained in the adoption of the bill and the adoption of the report.

We are dealing with one minor change. It’s a name change for the riding of Westside-Kelowna, which will be now known as Kelowna West. I think that people understand the rationale for that. One little side benefit to all of that is when we’re looking at spreadsheets and analyzing numbers and everything like that, which we always do, now all three Kelowna ridings will be listed together. We will have Kelowna-Mission, Kelowna–Lake Country and Kelowna West all together on the sheets.

Now we won’t have to go look at the two up here and then go all the way down to the bottom of the list to the w’s to find our partner riding to look at and compare those numbers. Just a little side benefit that will make things a little easier.

Essentially, as I said, the ridings are as we know them, and I know that our constituents support that. The way we treat our ridings in Kelowna with the three ridings, the boundaries are somewhat…. We don’t operate and conduct our activities in terms of representing the area and the region, in particular, in relation to the boundaries. We operate very much as a team approach to the three ridings in Kelowna. We meet regularly as the three MLAs representing the riding with the interests and the issues that span the boundaries and cross the boundaries in the riding. We do that on a regular basis. We share issues.

In some respects, we deal with individual constituents, but, in many cases, our offices will sometimes deal with a constituent who’s not necessarily in our riding. They may have taken the time to come into our office. They don’t know. My office is downtown in Kelowna. West Kelowna — Kelowna West, which it will be known as — is across the lake and across the bridge. Sometimes that’s a bit of an effort for some constituents to go across there to do that, so we don’t stand on the boundaries or the representation.

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We look at trying to do the best service that we can for the constituents and citizens, and we will deal with their concerns and share information across the boundaries and across the ridings. It’s very much a team approach, and essentially that’s for the region with our three ridings.

Really, it’s how we manage the Okanagan as well, with our Okanagan caucus. We deal with the regional issues collectively on behalf of all of the regions from the border in South Okanagan all the way up through into the North Okanagan. Boundaries are important to ensure that people know they have a representative and who it is, but we take a very collective approach in trying to ensure that we do the best job that we can for our constituents and for the riding. My riding, Kelowna-Mission — 582 square kilometres — is a great riding to represent.

[1520]

At the risk of alienating my fellow MLAs who share the boundaries in the ridings, I will say that it…. You know, Mission — the south Rutland, the benchlands up above Kelowna, east and south Kelowna — is a great part of Kelowna. But I think, probably, collectively the best thing to say is that Kelowna is a great part of the province, a great area, and we’re really proud to represent it. And the Okanagan region is one of the nicest areas of the province, and we get to represent both our ridings, the community and the region. I’m very humbled and remain honoured every day to be able to do that.

If you look back at some of the history in the riding — if you go all the way back — the riding, before 1903, used to be called Yale-East. It was a huge riding. It covered all the Okanagan, across to Yale and parts of that area. In 1903, the riding was changed, and it was brought in to be called the Okanagan riding. For the 11th, 12th and 13th elections in British Columbia, that was done under what was called the Okanagan riding.

There is a person that is well known in British Columbia history that represented that big riding. His name was Price Ellison. He won those elections, starting in 1903 all the way through to 1912, four elections, and the largest valid voter turnout in that time frame was 2,400 votes. Things have certainly changed. People will also remember Price Ellison, I think, as being the minister at the time in government who went with the surveyors who laid out and established Strathcona Provincial Park, the first provincial park in British Columbia. So lots of history there.

In 1916, it was split into two ridings, North and South Okanagan, for representation there. We all know of the great history of that area — Kelowna and that riding there being the home of Premier W.A.C. Bennett and then followed by Premier Bill Bennett, representing the ridings. We all know the great legacy that Premier W.A.C. Bennett has left for British Columbia — B.C. Ferries, B.C. Hydro, the hydroelectric power dams in British Columbia — a huge contribution to the growth and the development of British Columbia — bringing in Okanagan Lake Bridge across Okanagan Lake.

I can remember that very well, when that bridge went in. I can remember, as a very young child, going across Okanagan Lake on the ferry at the time, delivering hay across to the Paynter farm in West Kelowna. One of the great treats of doing that trip across on the ferry was the fact that we got to stop at the Westbank store and have a five-cent ice cream cone as part of the reward for travelling across and riding in the front seat of the truck delivering hay.

I can remember when delivering the hay, still to the same Paynter farm in Westbank or West Kelowna, when I first got my driver’s licence and was able to take a load of hay out across on my own. Across the bridge, going up Bridge Hill, I lost the whole back load of hay onto the highway. It stopped traffic, and I had to clean up all the load of hay and everything and get it back on the truck.

Luckily, in those days, transportation wasn’t nearly as heavy on the bridge as it is currently, and it didn’t create a major problem. But that was a little bit of trying to having to go and explain to my dad that the first time I’d been allowed to deliver a load of hay on my own, just after getting my licence, I’d lost the load on the road going up Bridge Hill.

The legacy and the approach that we get to continue to represent in the Okanagan — the history and the home of free enterprise in British Columbia, the spirit and ethic of hard work, taking risks, making significant contributions to the economic development of the province — continue to be the ethic of the citizens of Kelowna and the region. We’re proud to continue to represent that.

[1525]

My riding, is a compact riding in some sense. I know there have been discussions in the House here around the work that MLAs in more rural and remote ridings have to do to continue to represent all of the interests across their riding. I’ve had the chance, with the responsibilities that I’ve had in government, both in Agriculture and in Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, to be able to travel around the province and visit many, many of these communities across the province, with colleagues and as part of my role.

I just have to say that I really respect the work that they do. That’s why it’s so important that in the adoption of these recommendations in this legislation, we continue to ensure that rural ridings have the representation — and effective representation. I know that all MLA s who represent those ridings do a great job under challenging circumstances, in terms of being able to get out and about and around their ridings.

In my riding, I could drive across the riding in half an hour, walk across the riding from corner to corner in probably a few hours and on a bicycle in probably a couple of hours, if I did that. It is one of the pluses, I guess, in having a riding as we do, to be able to engage and get out and around the riding. It’s certainly less challenging than many of my colleagues on both sides of the House, in terms of representing their interests.

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It was interesting. I just had a recent chance to practise walking across the riding and everything like that, getting ready for the next couple of years ahead. I had the chance to…. I walked across a country. It was more than a riding. I walked coast-to-coast across the country, in England. That was lots of….

Interjection.

Hon. S. Thomson: Yeah. It wasn’t Canada; it was across the U.K. To walk right across the country — that was good practice, trying to get in shape for the next round, and it gave me lots of practice for walking significant distances across my riding now.

Doing that experience, I may have to have a visit to our health system. My knee, with old rugby injuries, got pretty stressed when we were going up and down over stone stiles and up and down over the crags across the middle of England. But a great experience and a good challenge in looking ahead to getting out on the doorsteps and across the riding.

As I said, the boundaries…. We operate very much as a team approach in the ridings. Previous to this, a couple of adjustments ago, the boundaries were slightly shifted. So it’s good to see the ridings boundaries stay as they are. People know them and understand them, currently.

The last revision took me living out of my riding. I live just outside my riding. It took me about 100 yards out of my riding. I’m in the member for Westside-Kelowna’s riding. She’s my MLA.

The member for Kelowna–Lake Country lives in my riding, and I get to be his MLA. So he’s the one problem constituent that I have on a regular basis. But it’s a very, very collective, collaborative approach in terms of working on behalf of all of the community.

[1530]

While we treat them as regional assets in our approach, my riding is home to Kelowna General Hospital, the new cardiac centre, the UBC medical centre that’s part of that, the cancer centre. Okanagan College is in my riding, the great college that’s providing so much support and work on the trades, the second-largest trade institution in British Columbia.

I also have about ten out of the 30 wineries in the Okanagan that are in my riding. A significant portion of the tree fruit industry is up on the benches. The history of the tree fruit industry that built the Okanagan is a significant part of the riding I represent. We work very closely with the tree fruit sector and the agriculture sector in British Columbia in making sure that we continue to have a strong future for the agriculture sector in British Columbia.

We have a burgeoning technology sector in Kelowna. Parts of that are in my riding, but a significant portion of it in the downtown, around the new innovation centre that we have invested in — again, lots of positive activity and positive growth in the riding. When you look at the population projections for the area, for our three ridings, they kept it balanced. We continue to see population growth going forward, so we’re looking forward to continuing to represent the area.

A creek called Mission Creek runs through the middle of my riding. One thing that I’m very, very proud of…. Our family came to Kelowna in 1892, settled in Kelowna. We’re the fourth generation on the same farm that we settled on with the creek that runs through. I can remember as a young child having the creek spill over into our farm, flooding the farms a lot. The creek was diked to prevent that.

On the dike now is what we call the Mission Creek Greenway, which is 26 kilometres of linear park that runs right from the lake all the way up through the riding, up into Gallagher’s Canyon. My mother was the driving force behind establishing the linear park as president of the Friends of Mission Creek. That will be a great legacy for her, to have led the initiative and led all the fundraising to ensure that we have this recreational corridor that runs right through, all the way through the riding.

It is heavily, heavily used by bikers, by walkers, by joggers, by horses — a multi-use linear pathway. It is such a great asset to our community. I just want, on behalf of all of the constituents of the region, to thank my mother publicly here for that vision and being able to ensure that we continue to have that as an asset in the community. It’s going to be a great legacy for her.

I’m very pleased to join with others in the House here to support the bill. Again, I want to thank the members of the commission for all their hard work. Their report has flagged ongoing challenges and ongoing concerns that we will need to deal with in the future as the next commission does its work.

We have our boundaries set for the next — for 2017 and 2021. I’m very pleased that it appears that it will be unanimously supported and that there’s recognition that they did very good work, trying to ensure that they have the balance and to ensure that there is effective representation across the province, balancing off those rural issues and population demands.

I think we, as all members of this House…. Our role is to ensure that we try to provide the most effective representation we can for our constituents and for our communities and for our regions. We do that within the context of the recommendations that they have made around who we get to represent and who our constituents are.

[1535]

I know that we all want to ensure that we work with our constituents, listen to their concerns, bring forward their concerns and focus on those opportunities in our regions and our communities that will help build a lasting and secure future for all of our citizens and all of our constituents. It’s a great riding to represent. I look for-

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ward to continuing to work on their behalf and look forward to the passage of this bill, Bill 42, which will bring in those recommendations, adopted as the commission has recommended to us.

With those comments, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I very much appreciated the opportunity.

J. Darcy: I am pleased to take my place in the debate on the bill to implement the recommendations of the Electoral Boundaries Commission review. I’m very honoured to represent the constituency of New Westminster and to be able to speak a little bit about that today and about what the changes mean for New Westminster.

In the case of many other constituencies, MLAs have spoken eloquently and passionately about the present and the history of their constituencies. In the case of New Westminster, there are some very significant changes. I will say right up front that some of those changes, while completely understandable, are also sad ones, heartbreaking ones for my community and for myself as their MLA.

We all know that the Electoral Boundaries Commission had a very, very difficult task. What they’re doing is trying to ensure the most effective and the most balanced representation across the province, reflecting urban communities and rural communities, the size of the constituencies and making sure that not very many constituencies deviate very much from the averages that have been established. Most of the other changes are fairly minor ones. In most cases, they’re quite minor. In the case of New Westminster, not so much.

I have to say that there is a real honour and a beauty to be able to represent an entire city — one city, one community, one city council, one school district, social agencies, community agencies that all work very closely together, faith organizations of all sorts that engage people in the community, businesses, the local chamber of commerce, the various business improvement associations, the trade unions.

It is very much New Westminster — one integrated city, one integrated whole. That makes it…. People come together. They work together so closely on every issue facing our community. It means that it is a real joy and honour to represent New Westminster as an entirety.

I mentioned that the changes that are happening to the constituency of New Westminster are significant, and indeed they are. I fully appreciate — a tough job for the commission. You know, numbers are numbers, and they had to do something about numbers. But I just want to reflect for a moment and ask my colleagues to reflect for a moment on how these numbers actually play out in our case.

The commission said — and, historically, I gather this has been the case — that the population of any constituency should not deviate from the average by more than about 25 percent, except in the cases of constituencies designated as rural constituencies. That average is 53,119 people. The commission decided: “You shouldn’t deviate from that by more than 25 percent.”

Well, 25 percent more than 53,119 people brings you up to 66,399 people, and the population of New Westminster is just over 67,000. So we’re just over by a whisker, over by a few hundred people, and that meant that part of the constituency needed to be moved to another riding and to create a couple of new ridings in the Lower Mainland south of the Fraser. Understandable, but very sad nonetheless — heartbreaking, in fact, I would say.

[1540]

There has always been — I won’t say from the beginning of time, but since there were constituencies in the province of British Columbia — a constituency of New Westminster. In fact, in earlier days, the constituency of New Westminster included all of the Fraser Valley.

Now, we don’t have such expansionist goals any longer. We have grown. We were a small city. We’ve grown up. We don’t have the ability to grow out, obviously, but for the very first time, Queensborough, which has been an integral part of our city and our constituency from the very beginning, will no longer be part of the electoral district of New Westminster.

You’ve heard me say before, as have my colleagues, that New Westminster is, in fact, western Canada’s oldest city, incorporated in 1860. It was the first capital of British Columbia. There are some people in my community who wish that those days had never changed when the capital of the province — the newly merged colonies — went across the pond.

It is a city that is both steeped in tradition as well as moving very boldly into the future — lots of change happening — and I want to come back on that. We have, I believe, a long and honourable history of representation in this Legislature from the time that the constituency and, in fact, the province were first created.

In addition to being the last, the most current, in a long list of Members of the Legislative Assembly, we have also had three Premiers who have come from the constituency of New Westminster. John Robson, the founder of the British Columbian newspaper, which published from 1861 till 1983, was from New Westminster, was a Premier, and Richard McBride as well as Byron Johnson.

The city has been known for many things through its history, including the national success of its lacrosse team. Now, I know that the member for Juan de Fuca took great delight in showing the Mann trophy and having the Mann trophy being presented in this place to the Victoria Shamrocks, but I do want to say that the national Lacrosse Hall of Fame resides in the city of New Westminster, and we have certainly held that trophy over many, many years.

I’ve mentioned that New Westminster is the oldest city in Canada, established in 1860. New Westminster, as many of you know, also gained the moniker “the Royal

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City,” dubbed as such by Queen Victoria. The fortunes of the city have ebbed and flowed over many years, but today New Westminster continues to be a vital hub in the Lower Mainland, with parklands, waterfront views and historic charm. Many buildings were destroyed in previous great fires, but there has been incredible development and redevelopment, and it is a very, very important centre in so many ways in the Lower Mainland.

Royal Columbian Hospital is the largest hospital in the Lower Mainland, serving residents from Burnaby to Hope — a regional trauma centre, in addition to serving the community of New Westminster, and a major referral center, specializing both in trauma, obstetrical care, cardiovascular and critical care.

Douglas College is one of the largest colleges in the Lower Mainland, with over 10,000 students in credit programs, also providing non-credit community response to over 24,000 adults who participate in part-time vocational or personal enrichment programs, and with a very strong orientation towards social services, health sciences, business and university transfer students.

Our small businesses are indeed the backbone of our economy. I made a statement about this just a couple of weeks ago. We have literally thousands of small businesses in New Westminster if you count the ones that have a visible public presence, a footprint, as well as those home-based businesses. I have taken the opportunity of Small Business Month also to go around and visit many of them and present awards — congratulating them for awards that they’ve won in the Royal City Record ’s Readers Choice Awards.

We have a strong local economy and a community that’s built upon a rich heritage.

Interjection.

[1545]

J. Darcy: And we have an Army and Navy. How could I forget the Army and Navy on Columbia Street?

When I spoke many months ago — one of my first times speaking in this House — on the issue of the Pattullo Bridge and the need for a regional transportation plan, the Minister of Transportation pointed out to me in the corridor that, in fact, he spent his formative years in New Westminster, and he had fond memories of purchasing flip-flops at the Army and Navy store, which still sits proudly on Columbia Street in downtown New Westminster.

I did venture at the time, when the minister mentioned to me that he bought flip-flops, that that perhaps explains some of the flipping and flopping in policy that we’ve heard from the Transportation Minister. But today we are discussing the Electoral Boundaries Commission report. Therefore, I dare not revisit that earlier conversation.

In addition to the Army and Navy are many excellent restaurants. Our city council, a progressive and forward-looking city council, has created a new park, the Westminster Pier Park, that one day will extend all the way to Coquitlam, no doubt, and hook up with parks in those communities.

Wait For Me, Daddy is an iconic photo by a Vancouver Sun reporter that filmed a young boy, a five-year-old boy, reaching out for the hand of his father as the troops marched down 8th Street in New Westminster on the way off to fight fascism in World War II. That photo made its way around the world at the time. That iconic photo has now…. There was an historic opening last year of a statue in downtown New Westminster symbolizing that.

We have the annual Hyack Parade, the May Day festival and the Justice Institute, a very significant employer and institute in our community.

The New Westminster Farmers Market. I have photos up on the wall in my constituency office of the farmers market, going through the ages where there have been farmers markets; also of some of the historic canneries — some of them Japanese-Canadian canneries, some of them aboriginal fisheries and canneries.

We have RiverFest. We celebrate everything there is to celebrate about New Westminster. There’s barely a weekend that goes by without a community festival of one sort or another. It’s also a community that’s really rich in the arts. I think it rates the sixth-highest per capita in the country, about the number of artists in our community.

All in all, New Westminster is a really wonderful community with very distinct neighbourhoods, of course. Also, it’s very much united and very much coming together as one, especially for people in our community in their time of need, such as when we had a couple of fires — one about a year ago and one a couple of years ago. Everybody comes together to support one another.

Communities like Sapperton, like Massey Victory Heights, like Victoria Hill — where I live — uptown, downtown, Queens Park, Glenbrook, Moody Park, West End, Connaught Heights, the Quay, the Brow of the Hill. No doubt in my quick scribbling down of neighbourhoods, I may well have missed some.

Then it brings me to Queensborough, which is the part of the community that very sadly will no longer be part of New Westminster.

Queensborough, as I’ve mentioned earlier, has been part of our city and part of our constituency since the constituency was created. It was originally called Lulu Island in the 1890s. There’s still a Lulu Island. Queensborough is located at the east end of Lulu Island, with some very famous dikes that were built by Alexander Ewen and Donald McGillivray that united the community after two major floods.

Queensborough continues to be a very tight-knit community to this day. Lots of shopping in Queensborough, diverse flavours of the local cuisine. You can unleash a kite and play to your heart’s delight in one of the parks or green spaces, catch some air at the BMX and skateboard

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parks, rent a bike, ride the shoreline, and also head to the Starlight Casino, if you’re so inclined. Dine in style, grab a drink, play the slots and see a show. I’m not a gambler myself, but it is certainly a pastime enjoyed by many people in the community.

[1550]

Queensborough was the name originally chosen by the Royal Engineers that founded New Westminster. Originally, in fact, Queen Victoria designated Queensborough as the name of the capital of British Columbia. It never really took place — it switched to New Westminster — but it says something about how central New Westminster is, indeed, to the community.

It is, historically, home to lumber mills, home to canneries, as I mentioned. Also, it’s a place where new immigrants to our community could find more cheaper lots and establish family homes. Many of those early groups built their own cultural halls, their own churches and different mutual aid societies. The first ratepayers association in Canada, in fact, was created Queensborough back in 1911 — a group that continues to operate to this day — the Queensborough Ratepayers Association.

Those successive waves of immigrants included Japanese Canadians, Chinese Canadians, Sikhs, Italians, Greeks, Slovakians, Ukrainians and Finnish people. Today the descendants of many of those earlier waves of immigrants continue to live there and are joined, as well, by newer and younger families who have moved from elsewhere in the Lower Mainland or from other places around the world.

A thriving arts community. A group called Artists in the Boro do exceptional work, and I want to do a shout-out to them. I recall about a year and a half ago attending their exhibition. I came home and had a whole lot of new pieces of artwork to put on the wall of my constituency office, where I like to feature the local artists. They really produce some of the best artwork.

Today Queensborough is home to many groups from many countries around the world, some of whom have been there for generations, with the Punjabi community being the most populous amongst them and the Sikh gurdwara being a gathering place for people of the Sikh faith. Also, the gurdwara plays a remarkable role in the community, engaged in so many different charitable works, both in New Westminster and also across the Lower Mainland.

They are joined today by people from the Philippines, from China, from Korea, Fiji and many other places. And the issues in Queensborough, of course, are the same as for the whole entire city of New Westminster. They want a new high school built. They want a New Westminster Secondary School. It’s over 65 years old. It is falling apart. Everyone, including families who live in Queensborough, want that new school built.

They’re concerned about wait-lists at Royal Columbian Hospital. They’re concerned about inadequate home support for seniors, about affordability of housing — we have a high percentage of renters in our community — and about the cost of child care. They’re concerned about protecting the Fraser River and the salmon. They’re concerned about good jobs.

They’re concerned about what we call the three Ts: traffic, transportation and transit. Let me repeat that: transit, transportation and traffic. They absolutely want and need a new regional transportation plan.

My office, which does, I believe, really exceptional casework…. I want to do a shout-out to my constituency assistants, Nadine Nakagawa and Michael Cheevers. They serve the needs of people throughout the city of New Westminster — 67,000 people in six square miles, very densely populated, unlike many of the constituencies other people have spoken of. But we work very, very hard to advocate on behalf of everyone who works in my community.

I want to share with you, in the few minutes that I have left, the thoughts expressed by several of my constituents about this change. Some accept that’s inevitable, that if it didn’t happen this time, it would happen next time because we are a growing city. We grow up. Our population does continue to grow. We grow up because we’re already densely populated. But it is a very sad moment, a turning point and a significant one.

Charan Singh Pooni writes:

“I moved to Queensborough in 1998 when I purchased my home. I’ve watched my grandchildren go to school in this community. I’m a resident of New Westminster and also was the president of the seniors society for 14 years. I’m currently a member of the 50-plus society.” So are many of us, I dare say. “I attend the temple, which is the core of my community. I do not want the boundaries to change as I moved to New Westminster to live in New Westminster and not any other city.”

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Kamachi Shigeaki writes:

“I was born in Steveston and lived in east Richmond. I’ve lived in Queensborough since 1950 after moving to the Interior during the war,” relocated with so many Japanese Canadians. “Up until the ’60s, even living in East Richmond, there was a stronger link with New Westminster. Kids went to school in Queensborough rather than in Richmond. I believe that Queensborough should remain part of the New Westminster boundary.

Because the closest area in Richmond is underdeveloped, it would make more sense for the boundary to include more of Richmond, up to the railroad tracks.” Very, very specific views. “Even right now,” it says, “the people in East Richmond come to the Queensborough Community Centre and feel very much a part of this community.”

Amrik Sangha writes:

“My name is Amrik Singh Sangha. I moved from India to Queensborough, New Westminster, in 2002. My son and family moved here in 1996, and I have joined them. My families and friends have all lived in Queensborough since we all arrived from India. I am part of the 50-plus club…”

I guess some of the fellows at the 50-plus club got together to express their points of view.

“…at my local seniors centre, the Queensborough Community Centre. I attend the temple in Queensborough, proud to live in New Westminster. I don’t want to be linked with Richmond or any other boundary.”

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Avtar Disanjh lives in Queensborough and says:

“I arrived in Queensborough from India in 1961. This is my home and my community. I attend the temple and community centre here.”

There’s a common theme here.

“My family has lived here since as far back as 1906. I vote in New Westminster, and I hope it stays that way. I don’t agree that the boundaries should be changed. A political…”

I’ll leave out the partisan part of that. He expressed some partisan points of view, but I will leave those out in the interests of a non-partisan debate.

Mr. Shagur Dhaliwal, a very, very dear friend said:

“I live in New Westminster, lived in Queensborough since 1967. I am a director of the 50-plus club at the Queensborough Community Centre and use the temple. We want to stay as part of the community because we live here. I raised my children here. I don’t think it’s good for the community to change the boundary.”

Ronny Nicolasora writes:

“I’m writing in support of maintaining the current boundaries of the New Westminster constituency. I’m a proud resident of New Westminster, living in Queensborough, and feel strongly that our community is represented well within the New Westminster constituency.”

Thank you, Ronny Nicolasora, for those kind words.

“Queensborough residents attend religious services in New Westminster, send their children to New Westminster Secondary, conduct their shopping in the city, look forward to taking

part in community celebrations and festivals within New Westminster. We identify New West as our community, and many of us rarely even enter the city of Richmond.

“When the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission considered removing Queensborough from the rest of New Westminster in their review, the community uproar caused them to amend the proposed changes and keep the city together.”

I think these folks were hoping that would happen again.

“New Westminster residents are proud to have a common provincial constituency and to have our elected provincial representative represent the community with one voice. I hope the provincial review will recognize the unique importance of keeping our community together in the electoral boundary review process.”

The points of view that I’ve just shared with you, while they were the overwhelming majority, were not the only points of view. It was not unanimous. Alan McNulty writes:

“The commission’s solution of uniting Queensborough with Lulu Island is the best option of all options available to the commission. I’ve lived in east Richmond, Queensborough and now New West for the past 16 years. Queensborough and East Richmond are contiguous, evolving their own identity closer to Richmond” — in urging the commission to stay the course.”

Martin Eady writes:

“While my preference is to keep all of New Westminster riding together, we must recognize the democratic reality that the population of the riding now exceeds the permitted maximum level.” It is indeed the case. “In my view, the most reasonable way to divide the riding is at the Fraser River — the majority of the city on the north shore of the river and Queensborough on the south shore.”

Finally, Alysia MacGrotty writes:

“I would prefer that the electoral boundary be kept the way it is, though I understand that it must follow a formula based on maximum number of residents. If you must tamper with New Westminster’s boundaries, I suggest the cleanest division would be the Fraser River.”

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I think the sentiments from my community are clear. Having said that, I certainly do understand that the commission had an extremely, extremely difficult job to do, dealing with competing interests, conflicting interests — urban-rural, population size. In this case, it means that it would appear that Queensborough will no longer form part of the New Westminster constituency.

I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to express profound regret and sadness that the wonderful people of Queensborough will no longer be part of the constituency of New Westminster. It has been an incredible honour to serve them, together with the rest of my community, which extends…. Well, there’s a popular blog in town called Tenth to the Fraser, which is meant to extend across the island to the other arm of the Fraser River. Now the constituency will indeed be Tenth to the Fraser.

I want to assure the people of Queensborough — who will still form part of the city of New Westminster, whose children are still served by the New Westminster school district 40, who are still served by the hospitals and the residential care facilities, Douglas College and so many of the fine institutions and businesses that make up their community — that I will continue as the MLA for New Westminster, for most of New Westminster, and continue to advocate on their behalf on all of those critical issues on which they share a community of interest with the remainder of the people in the city of New Westminster.

Thank you. I’ve certainly enjoyed the opportunity, even though with some sadness, to take my place in this debate.

[R. Lee in the chair.]

S. Robinson: I am pleased to take my place in the debate on second reading of Bill 42, looking at the electoral boundaries. I listened with real big ears to some of what my colleagues had to say about their communities. As the minister had said when she introduced this bill, this is really an opportunity for us to talk about our communities, to talk about our constituencies, to talk about the neighbourhoods and the businesses and the people that make up British Columbia.

While sometimes here in this House, debate — around policy issues, particularly — can drone on a little bit, there is something very vibrant and very exciting to hear in everyone’s voice as they talk about their communities. I believe that everybody in this House really does love their community. They’re committed to it and understanding every little corner of it. It really comes alive as part of this debate. I’ve quite enjoyed listening to many of my colleagues here in this House.

I’m pleased to take my place here today to talk about Coquitlam-Maillardville and talk a little bit about the history of this community and about the nature of the neighbourhoods and the nature of the people who live there, looking at how it has evolved over time and maybe

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even to take a look at what the future might look like for Coquitlam-Maillardville.

To just set the stage, Coquitlam is a funny-shaped sort of community. I listened to the member for New Westminster talk about…. She has a whole city and has represented that, and there’s loss for her. Coquitlam is quite a large city and hasn’t been whole for a very long time in terms of the electoral boundaries. Coquitlam is shaped like a funny sort of hourglass, with the north side sitting above Port Coquitlam and the south side sitting between Burnaby and Port Coquitlam — one on the west side and one on the east side — and then New West down below.

Coquitlam-Maillardville is the south part of this funny-shaped hourglass. It is what I call old Coquitlam. It is the historical heart of the city. It’s about 30 square kilometres. I’ve certainly heard some of the members here in this House talk about how difficult it is to travel around some of their rural regions. They have to take planes, or they have to drive for hours in order to visit some of their constituents. I can easily ride my bike around Coquitlam-Maillardville, and having run a couple marathons, I can even say I can run around Coquitlam-Maillardville. It’s just 30 square kilometres — certainly far less of a distance than a marathon.

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It’s contained and quite suburban in nature. That provides some familiarity and some comfort, in a certain way of being, as a city.

Now, what’s really interesting is that Maillardville itself was the historical heart of Coquitlam. It is certainly contained in Coquitlam-Maillardville, but there are other neighbourhoods that are part of the constituency. We have Austin Heights, which is where my office is located. When you come up from Maillardville, which is right on the Fraser River, and just move up the hill, you get to the top or the p