British Columbia Hansard — Tuesday, September 1, 2009

H0901am-08

British Columbia — Debates (Hansard)

First Session, 39th Parliament o FFicial rePort o F Debates of the Legis Lative a ssemb Ly (hansarD) the honourable bill bari So FF, SPeaker iSSn 0709-1281 Tuesday, September 1, 2009 Morning Sitting Volume 1, Number 8

Pro Vince o F britiS h colu Mbia (entered c onfederation July 20, 1871) lieutenant -Go Vernor h is h onour the h onourable Steven l. Point, obc First Session, 39th Parliament SPeaker o F the leGiS latiVe a SSeMbl Y h onourable bill barisoff eXecutiVe council Premier and President of the executive c ouncil ......................................................................................................h on.

Gordon c ampbell Minister of State for intergovernmental r elations ....................................................................................................h on. n aomi Y amamoto Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance.......................................................................................................................... h on. c olin h ansen Minister of State for the o lympics and a ctn ow b.c. ....................................................................................................... h on.

Mary Mcn eil Minister of a boriginal r elations and r econciliation .....................................................................................................h on. George a bbott Minister of a dvanced e ducation and l abour Market Development ............................................................................ h on. Moira Stilwell Minister of a griculture and l ands ...................................................................................................................................h on.

Steve Thomson a ttorney General ...................................................................................................................................................... h on. Michael de Jong, Qc Minister of c hildren and Family Development and Minister r esponsible for c hild c are ............................................h on.

Mary Polak Minister of citizens' Services and Minister r esponsible for Multiculturalism and the Public a ffairs bureau ...........h on. ben Stewart Minister of c ommunity and r ural Development ................................................................................................................h on. bill bennett Minister of e ducation and Minister r esponsible for early l earning and l iteracy ......................................h on.

Margaret MacDiarmid Minister of energy, Mines and Petroleum r esources .....................................................................................................h on. blair l ekstrom Minister of State for Mining ................................................................................................................................................h on. r andy h awes Minister of environment .......................................................................................................................................................h on. barry Penner Minister of State for c limate a ction ...........................................................................................................................................h on.

John Y ap Minister of Forests and r ange and Minister r esponsible for the integrated l and Management bureau ........................... h on.

Pat bell Minister of h ealth Services ...................................................................................................................................................h on. k evin Falcon Minister of h ealthy l iving and Sport ...................................................................................................................................... h on. ida c hong Minister of h ousing and Social Development .................................................................................................................h on. r ich c oleman Minister of l abour ................................................................................................................................................................ h on.

Murray c oell Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General .....................................................................................................................h on. k ash h eed Minister of Small business, t echnology and e conomic Development ................................................................................ h on. iain black Minister of t ourism, c ulture and the a rts ...................................................................................................................... h on. k evin k rueger Minister of t ransportation and infrastructure ...................................................................................................................h on.

Shirley bond leGiS latiVe a SSeMbl Y l eader of the official o pposition ...................................................................................................................................................c arole James Deputy Speaker .................................................................................................................................................................................... l inda r eid a ssistant Deputy Speaker .............................................................................................................................................................c laire t revena Deputy c hair, c ommittee of the Whole .......................................................................................................................................... h arry bloy c lerk of the l egislative a ssembly...................................................................................................................e.

George MacMinn, obc, Q c c lerk a ssistant ..................................................................................................................................................................................r obert Vaive c lerk a ssistant and l aw c lerk................................................................................................................................................. ian D. izard, Qc c lerk a ssistant and c lerk of c ommittees ................................................................................................................................. craig h.

James c lerk a ssistant and c ommittee c lerk .................................................................................................................................... k ate r yan-l loyd Sergeant-at-a rms .................................................................................................................................................................................

Gary l enz Director, h ansard Services ............................................................................................................................................................Jo-a nne k ern a cting l egislative l ibrarian .......................................................................................................................................................... Peter Gourlay l egislative c omptroller ....................................................................................................................................................................... Dan a rbic

alP habetical liS t o F MeMberS a bbott, h on. George (l) ........................................................................ Shuswap a ustin, r obin (nDP) ................................................................................ Skeena bains, h arry (nDP) ....................................................................Surrey-n ewton barisoff, h on. bill (l) ............................................................................Penticton barnett, Donna (l) ................................................................ c ariboo-c hilcotin bell, h on.

Pat (l) ..................................................... Prince George–Mackenzie bennett, h on. bill (l) ...................................................................k ootenay e ast black, Dawn (nDP) ................................................................n ew Westminster black, h on. iain (l) ..................................................... Port Moody–c oquitlam bloy, h arry (l) ......................................................................burnaby-l ougheed bond, h on.

Shirley (l) ...........................................Prince George–Valemount brar, Jagrup (nDP) ................................................................ Surrey-Fleetwood c adieux, Stephanie (l) ...........................................................Surrey-Panorama c ampbell, h on. Gordon (l) .........................................Vancouver–Point Grey c antelon, r on (l) ..............................................................

Parksville-Qualicum c hong, h on. ida (l) ..................................................... o ak bay–Gordon h ead c houhan, r aj (nDP) ........................................................... burnaby-e dmonds c oell, h on.

Murray (l) ....................................Saanich n orth and the islands c oleman, h on. r ich (l) ............................................Fort l angley–a ldergrove c onroy, katrine (nDP) .............................................................. k ootenay West c oons, Gary (nDP) .........................................................................n orth c oast c orrigan, k athy (nDP) ..................................................... burnaby–Deer l ake Dalton, Marc (l) .............................................................. Maple r idge–Mission de Jong, h on.

Michael, Qc (l) .............................................. a bbotsford West Dix, a drian (nDP) ............................................................Vancouver-kingsway Donaldson, Doug (nDP) ......................................................................... Stikine e lmore, Mable (nDP) ................................................... Vancouver-kensington Falcon, h on. k evin (l) ..........................................................Surrey-c loverdale Farnworth, Mike (nDP) ............................................................

Port c oquitlam Fleming, r ob (nDP) .......................................................... Victoria–Swan l ake Foster, eric (l) .......................................................................Vernon-Monashee Fraser, Scott (nDP) ............................................................a lberni–Pacific r im Gentner, Guy (nDP) .........................................................................Delta n orth h ammell, Sue (nDP) .................................................... Surrey–Green t imbers h ansen, h on. c olin (l) ..................................................

Vancouver-Quilchena h awes, h on. r andy (l) ..................................................... a bbotsford-Mission h ayer, Dave S. (l) .................................................................... Surrey-t ynehead h eed, h on. k ash (l) ...................................................... Vancouver-Fraserview h erbert, Spencer (nDP) ..................................................Vancouver–West end h ogg, Gordon (l) ............................................................... Surrey–White r ock h organ, John (nDP) .......................................................................

Juan de Fuca h orne, Douglas (l) ..............................................c oquitlam–b urke Mountain h oward, r ob (l) ..................................................................... r ichmond c entre h untington, Vicki (ind.) ..................................................................Delta South James, c arole (nDP) .........................................................Victoria–b eacon h ill k aragianis, Maurine (nDP) ........................................e squimalt–r oyal r oads k rog, l eonard (nDP) ........................................................................... n anaimo k rueger, h on. k evin (l) ..................................... k amloops–South Thompson kwan, Jenny Wai ching (nDP) ...........................

Vancouver–Mount Pleasant l ake, t erry (l) .....................................................k amloops–n orth Thompson l ali, h arry (nDP) ..........................................................................Fraser-n icola l ee, r ichard t . (l) .......................................................................burnaby n orth l ekstrom, h on. blair (l) .......................................................

Peace r iver South l es, John (l) .........................................................................................c hilliwack l etnick, n orm (l) ........................................................k elowna–l ake c ountry MacDiarmid, h on. Margaret (l) ..................................... Vancouver-Fairview Macdonald, n orm (nDP) ....................................c olumbia r iver–r evelstoke Mcintyre, Joan (l) ..................................................West Vancouver–Sea to Sky Mcn eil, h on.

Mary (l) .................................................Vancouver–False creek Mcr ae, Don (l) ............................................................................. c omox Valley Mungall, Michelle (nDP) ..........................................................n elson-creston Penner, hon. barry (l) ............................................................c hilliwack-h ope Pimm, Pat (l) ..........................................................................Peace r iver n orth Polak, h on.

Mary (l) ...............................................................................l angley Popham, l ana (nDP) ...................................................................Saanich South r alston, bruce (nDP) ................................................................

Surrey-Whalley r eid, l inda (l) .............................................................................r ichmond e ast r outley, bill (nDP) .................................................................. c owichan Valley r outley, Doug (nDP) ............................................n anaimo–n orth c owichan r ustad, John (l) ........................................................................... n echako l akes Sather, Michael (nDP) ......................................... Maple r idge–Pitt Meadows Simons, n icholas (nDP) ...................................

Powell r iver–Sunshine c oast Simpson, bob (nDP) ...................................................................c ariboo n orth Simpson, Shane (nDP) .....................................................Vancouver-hastings Slater, John (l) ..............................................................boundary-Similkameen Stewart, h on. ben (l) ........................................................... Westside-kelowna Stilwell, h on. Moira (l) ...................................................... Vancouver-l angara Sultan, r alph (l) .....................................................

West Vancouver–capilano Thomson, hon. Steve (l) ........................................................k elowna-Mission Thorne, Diane (nDP) .................................................c oquitlam-Maillardville Thornthwaite, Jane (l) .......................................... n orth Vancouver–Seymour t revena, c laire (nDP) .................................................................... n orth island van Dongen, John (l) .............................................................a bbotsford South Y amamoto, hon. n aomi (l) ................................. n orth Vancouver–l onsdale Y ap, hon.

John (l) .............................................................r ichmond-Steveston liS t o F MeMberS bY riD in G a bbotsford-Mission .............................................................h on. r andy h awes a bbotsford South .....................................................................John van Dongen a bbotsford West ...................................................... h on. Michael de Jong, Qc a lberni–Pacific r im ..........................................................................

Scott Fraser boundary-Similkameen .....................................................................John Slater burnaby–Deer l ake ................................................................... k athy c orrigan burnaby-e dmonds ..........................................................................r aj c houhan burnaby-l ougheed ............................................................................ h arry bloy burnaby n orth .............................................................................. r ichard t . l ee c ariboo-c hilcotin ........................................................................Donna barnett c ariboo n orth ................................................................................ bob Simpson c hilliwack ...............................................................................................

John l es c hilliwack-h ope ...................................................................h on. barry Penner c olumbia r iver–r evelstoke .................................................. n orm Macdonald c omox Valley.....................................................................................Don Mcr ae c oquitlam–b urke Mountain .....................................................Douglas h orne c oquitlam-Maillardville...............................................................

Diane Thorne c owichan Valley ................................................................................ bill r outley Delta n orth ......................................................................................Guy Gentner Delta South...............................................................................Vicki h untington e squimalt–r oyal r oads .....................................................Maurine k aragianis Fort l angley–a ldergrove ...................................................h on. r ich c oleman Fraser-n icola........................................................................................ h arry l ali Juan de Fuca .....................................................................................John h organ k amloops–n orth Thompson .............................................................t erry l ake k amloops–South Thompson ............................................ h on. k evin k rueger k elowna–l ake c ountry ...............................................................n orm l etnick k elowna-Mission .............................................................. h on.

Steve Thomson k ootenay e ast .......................................................................... h on. bill bennett k ootenay West ............................................................................ k atrine c onroy l angley.......................................................................................h on. Mary Polak Maple r idge–Mission .....................................................................

Marc Dalton Maple r idge–Pitt Meadows ........................................................Michael Sather n anaimo ......................................................................................... l eonard k rog n anaimo–n orth c owichan ......................................................... Doug r outley n echako l akes ..................................................................................

John r ustad n elson-creston ........................................................................Michelle Mungall n ew Westminster ..............................................................................Dawn black n orth c oast.......................................................................................

Gary c oons n orth island .................................................................................. c laire t revena n orth Vancouver–l onsdale ........................................h on. n aomi Y amamoto n orth Vancouver–Seymour ..................................................Jane Thornthwaite o ak bay–Gordon h ead ............................................................ h on. ida c hong Parksville-Qualicum ..................................................................... r on c antelon Peace r iver n orth ................................................................................

Pat Pimm Peace r iver South ...............................................................h on. blair l ekstrom Penticton................................................................................... h on. bill barisoff Port c oquitlam ..........................................................................Mike Farnworth Port Moody–c oquitlam .............................................................h on. iain black Powell r iver–Sunshine c oast ................................................. n icholas Simons Prince George–Mackenzie .............................................................h on.

Pat bell Prince George–Valemount ...................................................h on. Shirley bond r ichmond c entre ............................................................................ r ob h oward r ichmond e ast ................................................................................... l inda r eid r ichmond-Steveston .................................................................... h on. John Y ap Saanich n orth and the islands ........................................... h on.

Murray c oell Saanich South ................................................................................ l ana Popham Shuswap ...............................................................................h on. George a bbott Skeena .............................................................................................. r obin a ustin Stikine .......................................................................................

Doug Donaldson Surrey-c loverdale .................................................................h on. k evin Falcon Surrey-Fleetwood ...............................................................................Jagrup brar Surrey–Green t imbers ..................................................................Sue h ammell Surrey-n ewton ................................................................................. h arry b ains Surrey-Panorama ..................................................................Stephanie c adieux Surrey-t ynehead ...........................................................................

Dave S. h ayer Surrey-Whalley.............................................................................. bruce r alston Surrey–White r ock ....................................................................... Gordon h ogg Vancouver-Fairview ............................................. h on. Margaret MacDiarmid Vancouver–False creek ........................................................ h on.

Mary Mcn eil Vancouver-Fraserview ..............................................................h on. k ash h eed Vancouver-hastings ....................................................................Shane Simpson Vancouver-kensington .................................................................Mable e lmore Vancouver-kingsway..........................................................................a drian Dix Vancouver-l angara ............................................................. h on. Moira Stilwell Vancouver–Mount Pleasant .........................................

Jenny Wai ching kwan Vancouver–Point Grey .................................................h on.

Gordon c ampbell Vancouver-Quilchena ..........................................................h on. c olin h ansen Vancouver–West end ................................................................Spencer h erbert Vernon-Monashee ...............................................................................eric Foster Victoria–b eacon h ill .......................................................................c arole James Victoria–Swan l ake.........................................................................r ob Fleming West Vancouver–capilano ............................................................. r alph Sultan West Vancouver–Sea to Sky ........................................................

Joan Mcintyre Westside-kelowna ...................................................................h on. ben Stewart Party Standings: l iberal 49; n ew Democratic 35; independent 1

CONTENTS t uesday, September 1, 2009 Morning Sitting Page Orders of the Day Throne Speech Debate (continued) ......................................................................................................................................... 171 G. c oons h on. b. Stewart S. Simpson P . Pimm J. h organ

171 tueSD a Y , SePteMber 1, 2009 The h ouse met at 10:03 a.m. [Mr. Speaker in the chair.] Prayers. Orders of the Day Hon. M. de Jong: i call throne speech debate. Throne Speech Debate (continued) G. Coons: i, firstly, want to offer my sincere congratu- lations to you, hon.

Speaker, on your election as Speaker — you occupy a position that's historic, honourable and crucial for the civil conduct in here — and, also, to the members for r ichmond e ast and n orth island for their appointments. i know you will do, and you have done, a great job. i want to offer my congratulations to the government on their re-election. i want to offer sincere congratulations to my colleagues on this side of the h ouse for their re- election. but my greatest thanks are to the voters from the constituency of n orth c oast, to whom i owe a great deal of gratitude for their astounding level of support in the last election. of course, it wouldn't be possible with - out a large cast of those who worked on the campaign and supported me throughout.

Special acknowledgment must go to my spouse, l ois e lliott, who worked tirelessly and was there day and night ensuring that i was at the right place at the right time; my daughters, breton and h annah, who came home to Prince r upert to help work on the campaign. My daughter breton next week starts a full-time French immersion position at a rbutus Middle School. i'm looking forward to that, and i'm sure she is. h annah, my other daughter, is in her last year in commerce at unbc in Prince George. i'm sure proud of my kids, hon.

Speaker. [1005] i want to thank the many people who helped out on the election campaign, and obviously, not all who i can mention: my campaign manager Don Fordyce, Fred beale, erica r alston, Pauline Woodrow, Gina c larke, Dave Smith, Gloria r endell, a nn Strutt, k athy bedard, Joanne l arson — all from Prince r upert — Suzanne o 'n eil, Joan Sawicki, irene buchanan, brian l andy from the central c oast; from h aida Gwaii, k en r ay, Joni Fraser, Duncan and Jenny White. [l. r eid in the chair.] a nd thanks to the thousands of people that threw their support behind me, especially support from the first nations communities, those from the t simshian, h aida, the k itasoo, the n uxalk, the h eiltsuk, the o weekeno. i hope i can do them well. i recall, hon.

Speaker, Members, that four years ago l ieutenant Governor iona c ampagnolo in her throne speech noted there were 854 people who have enjoyed election to this h ouse in the rich tradition and history of the province. The latest count would probably be just over 880, a remarkably small number of people who have enjoyed the honour and privilege to speak in the l egislature and represent british c olumbians. We should be honoured to have that privilege with us today. n ow, if we go back to a few months ago, May 12.

Those on the other side called it election day, but i've heard from a lot of my constituents that it was decep - tion day. it was not an election. We look at the broken promises we've seen from this government over the last eight or nine years. Many, many broken promises, some of which are: deliver high-quality public health care services to meet all patients where they live and when they need it, 5,000 long-term care beds, better home support and home care, improved services for women and children, stop the expansion of gambling, make children the number one priority and devote adequate resources.

"e ducation is our top priority , because it's key to any healthy , prosperous society." a nother promise: "We won't sell b.c. r ail." We've seen what's happened with that — the raid on the l egislature and what's going on with missing e-mails. t otally outrageous. "We won't rip up contracts." a n open and accountable government. This is a quote: "My government is also committed to giving local governments more autonomy." We've seen what's happened under this government with local autonomy.

"We will restore consumers' rights to hydro rates that are independently set by the b.c. u tilities c ommission and not artificially inflated by government interference." What have we seen in this throne speech? The interference in this commission that looks after the public interest. The Premier's pre-election statement, "i can tell you this.

The deficit for 2009-10 will be $495 million maximum," turns out to be a fallacy, make-believe. a nother quote: "it will be necessary to run a temporary deficit for the next two years only, and by the third year we'll once again be back enjoying balanced budgets." broken promises. Y ou know, deceit. a decade of broken promises. a decade of deceit. a s we've heard in the last…. The Premier mentioned "brutally deceiving" as the speed and force came upon them in their unknowing budget synopsis.

These broken promises were equally brutally deceiving to british c olumbians with their speed and force. a former Premier out there, Vander Zalm, quoted this: "People have put labels on this: arrogant, deceitful lies. This type of thing does not go away."

british c olumbia Debates172 t uesday, September 1, 2009 a lso, the ex-Premier says he is skeptical about the contention that a decision to bring in an hS t was only made after last May's election. h e said that from his experience as Premier, it takes a long time to negotiate such a deal with the federal government and that it must have been in the works well before the election. h e quotes: "We have a government that's desperate for money and an economy that, contrary to what they are telling us, has not been well managed at all." a decade of deceit. a decade of broken promises. n ow, Madam Speaker, i need to look at some local issues before i get into this throne speech. o bviously, health care and education were promised to be exempt from the cutbacks from this government, and we're seeing the realm of what's happening in these areas. [1010] The highway of tears. r ecently in the news in the last week or so — up to 50 missing women on the highway of tears; 40 years, no suspects, no arrests. both levels of government must get involved to find out what happened and bring closure to the hundreds of family members.

We need more resources to put in. We need to fund the recommendations for the symposium that happened a couple years ago. We need to implement a reward system, and we need an inquiry into the missing and murdered young women. Paramedics. i've talked to many paramedics throughout the riding that i represent on the north coast and central coast and h aida Gwaii. Five months they've been on strike. it's a crisis situation, and in Vernon we have the Premier flipping a loonie at the paramedics and saying: "Don't spend it in one place." h ow arrogant of this Premier.

The current issues that we need to straighten out are the paramedic shortages, the working conditions, recruitment and retainment, compensation parity. in northern b.c. they're hit particularly hard. a s we look at their staffing, they're unable to attract new employees — looking at the high cost of the training — and the $2-an- hour pager pay is not competitive compensation. W e need action and a commitment from this government before any lives are lost. W e need a fair, negotiated settlement for our paramedics. i have to talk about fishing.

We've seen what happened on the east coast. a key component of the b.c. economy, especially in my riding and up and down the coast, is the fishing industry. Despite the current salmon crisis, fisheries are not even on the radar of this government. Their mishandling and disinterest in protecting our wild stocks over the past eight years is criminal.

So far the only thing this government has said over the salmon disaster is that it's a federal issue. c an you imagine a maritime Premier responding with such disinterest? l et's not forget the Premier, who once said his fourth great goal was to lead the world to the best fisheries management, bar none. n ow what does he have to say, or the Minister of the environment?

They're sitting on their hands and showing how out of touch they are with people who are concerned with the fate of our wild salmon and our aquatic species. i need to mention homelessness, poverty and the unemployment spreading at exponential rates throughout my riding. c hild poverty. once again, we've been number one for five straight years.

There's a huge, growing gap between the rich and the poor in our province, and this throne speech has nothing to alleviate the facts that the north coast has the highest rate of social safety net dependence in british c olumbia and that the c ariboo has the second highest in the province. What's missing? n o mention of a poverty reduction strategy. n o focus on improving vital social services when they're most needed by the most vulnerable.

We've seen the start of the slash-and-cut model of this government — cuts already to vital services such as legal aid, libraries, literacy programs, student aid, housing, seniors services, mental health and addiction services and huge cuts to education. We're witnessing them this week. a long with the harmful sales tax, the most disadvantaged will feel the Premier's wrath. The Port of Prince r upert. on this side we've been pushing that the priority be the Port of Prince r upert.

The vice-president and chief economist for e xport Development c anada, in his keynote speech at the c anadian Port a uthorities conference in Prince r upert last week, said we should be in heavy investment mode for export infrastructure and for c anada's ports because the opportunity is so significant.

We've been given a window of opportunity to invest, and we can't get caught by what's to come. h e said part of that investment should be done in Prince r upert, and i look forward to the commitment from the throne speech that this "government will redouble its efforts to open up the…northern corridor with its massive potential." We'll find out today whether that commitment is there. The energy corridor. i picture the energy corridor as just an outlet to open up the tar sands.

The energy corridor basically means pipelines and tankers, and it means feeding the tar sands. a month or so ago, a couple of my colleagues and i took a trip along the tanker route from k itimat to h artley bay and saw the diverse, unique trip where these supertankers will have to go. [1015] i've been to meetings with Fort c hipewyan first nations' l ionel l apine, who talks about the toxic tailing ponds that can be seen from outer space. n ow the first nations of Fort c hipewyan, downstream, are developing rare forms of cancer. We don't want to see this develop, and we need to restrict tar sands development.

This gov- ernment's energy corridor is just opening up to colossal destruction, as far as the environment. h on. Speaker, i have to talk about ferries. There's going to be a review underway for b.c . Ferries, and there's

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 173 concern about the high compensation levels and admin- istration costs. The comptroller general's review. n ow, the a uditor General did a great review in 2006: A New Direction for British Columbia's Coastal Ferry System. The review has already been done. The a uditor General, the independent a uditor General of british c olumbia, recommended three things. e stablish criteria on how well the c oastal Ferry a ct is meeting its objectives at least once every four years. There are no criteria set for b.c .

Ferries, and this government now realizes it after six years of dismal failure of the c oastal Ferry a ct. a second recommendation: that the Minister of t ransportation do a comprehensive

summary report on b.c. Ferries in its annual service plan. The a uditor General realized that we needed transparency for the public and for Mla s. There needs to be accountability in this l egislature, and the auditor General has already said that. The third recommendation was to develop perform - ance measures related to quality of service. There are no performance measures out there for b.c.

Ferries. n o wonder it has fallen into such chaos. no wonder fares are rising and ridership is going down, and it's hitting vital tourism and businesses in ferry-dependent communities. n ow, other concerns that the a uditor General had were with the b.c. Ferry a uthority and the board of directors. They are answerable to no one, to no owner or shareholder. There's no accountability. The a uditor General has already stated that in his 2006 report. Maybe the Minister of t ransportation and the government should read that and develop criteria for the c oastal Ferry a ct to ensure that it meets the public interest.

The a uditor General is concerned with the monopoly position of b.c . Ferries and the commissioner, and the commissioner is paid for by b.c . Ferries. h e was concerned that there could be an issue with regulator capture, where the regulator, who is supposed to look after the public interest, identifies with the company versus being objective.

So the a uditor General had con- cern with the commissioner, who is supposed to look after the public interest. o n the website it says "public interest." i have talked to the commissioner, and he has said that he does not look after the public interest. h is number one priority is the financial sustainability of the corporation. t hat's why we're having a review, appar - ently, but i suggest that the government, as i said, look at the a uditor General's report and at least look at the recommendations. a gain, freedom of information. The a uditor General had concern that b.c .

Ferries is exempt from freedom of information. The alternate service providers or getting competition…. "Privatization is impossible," he said. So again, when we look at the governance of b.c. Ferries and how it has been directed, the a uditor General basically said that it's a hybrid model yet to prove itself. So i look forward to the review done, and hopefully, the recom - mendations and concerns of the a uditor General will be looked at. n ow, we look at the compensation level at b.c. Ferries.

We brought up the board of directors, who…. it was shocking to the members on the other side a year ago that they raised their compensation levels by 40 to 60 percent. Then we find out that we have a million-dollar man at the helm of b.c. Ferries. Shocking. a gain, they report to no shareholders, you know, so you can't compare his compensation with the private sector. The ceo makes $500,000 plus two bonuses: a 55 percent bonus for an annual incentive plan and a 55 percent long-term incentive bonus. So on top of his $500,000 salary, he has a 110 percent bonus.

This past year he only got 47 percent and 42 percent of his bonuses. h e missed out on about $100,000. We don't have access to why he didn't get it. i'm just wondering if the management at b.c. Ferries got their bonuses when the ferry sank and we lost two lives. but we don't have access to that. [1020] The only reason we have access to the salaries right now is because the c anadian Securities a ssociation demanded last December that they have to post it. We haven't known the salaries of b.c. Ferries, because they're exempt from freedom of information — no transparency, no accountability.

That's why we tried to put in a fair ferries act in 2008 — the ferries act that we put on the floor to increase the accountability, to require that the public interest was taken into account. We were going to roll back, in this act, the salaries of the directors. n ow the government's doing a review because they have concern about compensation levels. We didn't even know about the management and how outrageous their salaries were. We wanted to bring b.c.

Ferries under the authority of the freedom of information and require it to report annually to the l egislature — basically the same recommendations as the a uditor General. o bviously, in a riding such as mine there are major concerns with first nations. Just recently, to sum it up, i would say the first nations….

The u nion of b.c. indian c hiefs last week put out a press release saying: "c learly the Premier and his government have not acted honour- ably through the course of the so-called new relation - ship." They demand substance, not platitudes. a t the a ll c hiefs a ssembly, which i had the privil - ege of attending for the last day on Friday…. i was there with the bella bella band and then the h eiltsuk because of their Gladstone court case. For over 13 years they've been trying to have the governments act honourably on their right to commercial fishing as first nations, and it's still being tossed aside.

What the u nion of b.c. indian c hiefs last week said: "We call on the province of b.c. to immediately change

british c olumbia Debates174 t uesday, September 1, 2009 its deplorable conduct and fully implement on an hon - ourable basis our…title and rights." o bviously, nothing has changed since the b.c. l iberals and Gordon c ampbell put forth his 2002 racist and divisive referendum on treaty rights. Deputy Speaker: Member, you do know you refer to members by constituency name only. G. Coons: Thank you, hon.

Speaker. if we look at the throne speech, you know, the throne speech says we have been hit by seismic economic shifts that were unpredictable and brutally deceiving in their speed and force. a brutally deceiving seismic shift of $1.9 billion per year from businesses to families makes this Premier's hS t tax grab the biggest in b .c. history. We saw that tax cuts back in 2001 cost taxpayers $1.5 billion, with 8,000 people receiving 14 percent of the benefits.

The Premier's MSP premiums increase of 50 percent hit b.c. families with $450 million. it's difficult to find anything that comes close to the $1.9 billion per year hS t tax grab that we're going to see today. if we take the population of british c olumbia and divide it out into the tax grab, it means close to $428 per person, $1,800 for a family of four. h igh-income families will be paying less h St . Middle-income families are getting the hit. it's a regressive tax grab initiated by this Premier. The k elowna c hamber of c ommerce also had a concern with this, and i'll get into that if i have time.

What we see the hS t doing is hurting the average british c olumbian at a time in our history when the most vulnerable are already facing significant challenges. PSt exemptions were there for a wide range of goods that meet the public interest — books, magazines, clothing, smoke alarms, health-related items. Gone are the exemptions on hydro, heating, fuel, natural gas, telephone, internet, cable. entertainment has increased, whether it is coffee shops, membership fees, moorage, r V parks, golf fees, restaurant meals, museums, fishing charters, whale watching, hockey tickets.

The government wants us to become healthier, but gone are the exemptions on bicycles, health clubs, health equipment, dietary supplements. Gone is the exemption on school supplies, and gone are emission control devices for diesel vehicles and anti-idling devices. They want us to play a

part in global warming, but gone are the exemptions on fuel-saving devices on tractor trailers, electric motorcycles, home insulation, energy-efficient windows and so on and so on. Those with pets get hit, and when you die, there's a 7 percent tax on your funeral. [1025] n ow, there's a tax bulletin that was put out that is very misleading, a lot of misinformation and some deception. it was a tax bulletin put out last July by blake, c assels and Graydon.

They talk about a made-in-b.c . component of hS t , and this is a quote from their tax bulletin: "a s in ontario, b.c. has negotiated a number of unique 'made-in-b.c.' components to address issues raised by consumers, municipalities, charities, qualifying non- profit organizations, low-income families and the housing industry." There is no consultation. There is no input from anybody in this province. This government is railroading through this as part of their decade of deceit. Where would blake, c assels and Graydon law firm get this information?

Well, two Mla s — the member for Parksville-Qualicum and the member for Vernon-Monashee — talk about a made- in-b.c . solution. There is no made-in-b.c . solution. This was made in the Premier's office. n o consultation. n o input. a huge hit on those that can least afford it. The city of Prince r upert is against the harmonization tax. They're bringing forth a motion to the ubcM with their concerns on the hit to the most vulnerable. The b.c. chamber has put out information to their members that there are some sectors that are going to be negatively impacted, and chambers need to look at their members.

The k elowna chamber did, and their brief to the Minister of Finance on a ugust 5 says that despite the benefits, the chamber expressed strong dissatisfaction to the hS t . The feedback from their members was pre - dominantly negative. r espondents expressed concern regarding the negative impact. r espondents urged the provincial government not to implement the tax har - monization, and the predominant response to this question urged the k elowna chamber to oppose the tax harmonization. We look at a couple of the members — the members for k elowna–l ake c ountry and k elowna-Mission….

The k elowna-Mission member said that business people he has talked to "have been generally supportive of the hS t ." Perhaps he should read the brief to the minister and represent his members as well as the other members from k elowna. Perhaps they should do their homework and talk to their chamber members and read the brief that went out to the Minister of Finance. When we look at the chambers and the Premier and the Finance Minister, they base their information on the c.D. h owe report.

First, going through the c.D. h owe report, i noticed a term that i had to keep coming back to, and that was that the difference is "statistically insig - nificant." That basically means that there's an equal chance that the implementation of the hS t could have prices go up or go down. n othing is proven. So from this flawed report, we are being pushed this hS t . This report was lessons on the a tlantic provinces.

We need to recognize that in the a tlantic provinces, when they implemented their hS t , their taxes went down 4 percent, and the restaurant industry was not impacted by the hS t to the degree that is happening here.

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 175 a lso, when we look at the c.D. h owe report, it says: "…the possibility that reform was regressive and that it raised average prices for low-income households.

From the c .D. h owe report, Michael Smart says: 'i conclude that the hS t reform had a mild, regressive impact in the a tlantic provinces. it hit shelter, clothing and footwear for those that can least afford it.' a nd that's when it was a mild, regressive effect, even though those in the a tlantic provinces had their taxes reduced by up to 4 percent, and a key component of the report: '…in the absence of detailed infor- mation on the pattern of effective taxes in the r St , the retail sales tax, of the provinces today, we cannot determine whether further harmonization would also be regressive.'" [1030] it's a nothing report that we're basing our push towards hS t on. it's just ludicrous.

The Progress board of british c olumbia said that the hS t would be mildly regressive. l ower-income british c olumbians could see declines in real income as prices rise. basically, it's a tax grab. in this decade of deceit it's just ludicrous that we're pushing this forward. if we look at what happened with the forestry indus - try in the throne speech — basically, forestry gets a zilch. n othing new. Just all re-announcements. n ot even the same focus on the culture of wood that we saw in the last throne speech.

Y ou know, nothing. n othing addressed the cD t money that has to come to forest workers. a nd the broken promises and the deceit that happened as far as promising workers work and initiatives to push for - ward as they've lost their jobs in the forest industry. n o mention of the pension plan that was announced in o ctober 2008 and then re-announced in the last throne speech. l egislation was supposed to come forward and be developed in 2009. n othing. once again, nothing on worker safety. n othing on forestry workers.

Federal dollars have run out, and the province has done virtually nothing — virtually nothing — to help the forest industry and the hard-working forest workers in our province, the tens of thousands that were laid off under this government's decade of deceit. We go into issues. The throne speech.

We talked about the b.c. u tilities c ommission. n ow we have specific direction: interference into the public interest of british c olumbians. n ow, as a friend of mine — and i quoted this one other time — a senior, reminded me a couple weeks ago of an appropriate Franklin D. r oosevelt quote. h e said: "Governments can err.

Presidents make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the coldblooded and the sins of the warm - hearted on different scales. better the occasional faults of government that lives in the spirit of charity than the consistent omission of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference." i believe british c olumbians recognize the difference between those members on that side of the room and the members on this side of the room.

We will continue to look after the struggles and the initiatives and the dreams of british c olumbians, and we will look after the many, versus looking after the few. That is a commit- ment from this side of the h ouse that we will hold this government accountable, and we will be forming the next government in the next four years. Hon. B.

Stewart: Madam Speaker, it's an honour to be here today, and thank you very much. t oday is the first time for my opportunity to rise in the h ouse and speak about the Speech from the Throne. h is h onour the l ieutenant-Governor has once again delivered an excellent speech with much-needed vision for our future generations during these tough economic times.

While the speech is noteworthy for its honest acknowledgment that b.c. has been hard hit by the economic crisis, it highlights the government's unwavering commitment to strengthen the economy, create jobs and provide all british c olumbians with a good standard of living. The consistency with which this government has deliv- ered on its promises over the last eight years is shown through in this throne speech — fiscally conservative, making the right decisions in terms of providing change when needed, bringing in the hS t . The speech urges us not to give up on the future.

Despite today's challenges, there is still room for optimism. in less than six months our province will be welcoming the world as we host the 2010 o lympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The o lympics have already created many jobs and opportunities. a lot of effort has already gone into building venues for the games, improving our transportation infrastructure and, as well, bringing in many much- needed facilities on time and on budget. [1035] Soon people from all over british c olumbia will be dedicating their time to help set the stage for world-class games that will last in many people's hearts and minds for the years to come. i am just as ready and excited as the people in my constituency, Westside-k elowna, to welcome the world. i had an opportunity recently to open up the new Spirit Square in the new district of West k elowna, and i have to say that there were a lot of proud individuals to finally call this area, that was once rural, a community. it's a big part of the o kanagan. i want to just describe, for members in the h ouse here, a little bit about the riding that i represent.

First off, i think most people would recognize the fact that it's the home of the o gopogo, and i think that that's often forgotten — N'ha-a-itk, as the Westbank First n ation people would call the lake monster that they often referred to in the early days. The city of k elowna as well forms part of the riding, as well as the Westside unincorporated area where we recently had the tragedy of three significant firestorms this year — all at the same time, all human-caused and preventable. These human-caused fires not only

british c olumbia Debates176 t uesday, September 1, 2009 impacted the lives of many people, but 10,000 people were evacuated in a very short order. a s a member of the government and a representative in the l egislature, i think we have to be proud of the fact that the people that were the volunteers and the workers that came to work during the fires — and how quickly they came together — can't often expect or prepare for the magnitude of what an evacuation in the matter of a few hours actually brings with it.

Some of the people that came together that were leading this…. i have to give special credit to the emer - gency social service people on the ground, being there firsthand and watching thousands of these people stream into the Mount boucherie complex, headed by beryl itani, the eSS director in the c entral o kanagan. Jason Johnson, the cao of district of West k elowna had first-hand experience at having to lead this battle. brent Watson, the emergency program coordinator in Vernon, was working on the n orth o kanagan fire, up at t errace Mountain.

Jason brolund, the deputy emergency program coordinator, and r ene blanleil, our fire chief in k elowna, was the emergency program coordinator of corD. These people helped lead an army of people to a satisfactory conclusion.

We were fortunate in a matter of several days to be able to stop the fire on the Westside from…. a nd mitigating the damage to only a few structures…. but most importantly, we were able to preserve a very important economic asset in the com - munity, the Gorman brothers sawmill, which really was an accomplishment for our firefighting teams. i think that to see a fire that started literally at 2:30 in the afternoon and by 5:30 had already jumped across the highway and surrounded the mill…. We'd evacuated about 6,000 people by that point.

Those statistics speak for themselves. it's amazing that we don't have loss of life from a situation like that. e arlier in February this year i was in a ustralia, and i was in an area in the Y arra Valley and was caught in a similar firestorm that resulted in a much different outcome. h undreds of people were killed staying in their homes, not being able to flee the fires. of course, the firefighting efforts there are quite different — fighting grass fires and the type of fuel load that they have. i can tell you that experiencing it firsthand and having to leave an area without anything but the shirt and clothes on your back is something that won't be soon forgotten.

The other things come a lot easier when you have to replace your clothes, passports, airline tickets — when you're only a traveller, let alone a lifelong history of photographs and all your family belongings. it's great to see that we had a great outcome in West k elowna, in the three fires that were there. a nd the leadership by the council was outstanding — the people that i had a chance to meet with in the fire control centre. i don't think anybody can quite appreciate what it's like to go into an empty high school where there are hundreds of these people coordinating everything from weather to where the fire is going in a particular direction, to making certain the bills get paid and making certain that the firefighters get fed and are housed. [1040] So that's one side of it. of course, there are all the other people that are up in the planes and helicopters working to try to contain things.

So i think the h ouse owes them their debt of gratitude for what they're doing still today. o n the economic front, i know that members opposite may find it difficult to believe that the hS t may be a positive in terms of what it's providing, but having come from a business that has a value-added manufactured component, i can tell you, speaking firsthand from the days of the regressive former federal manufacturers sales tax that was embedded in the cost of every single product that we used to produce, to the GSt …. i don't think that i was one that was openly welcoming GSt , but having gone through it and the simplification of the process and understanding how simple it is from a small business perspective….

Y ou have to imagine that in those days i was doing the books, supervising the winemaker and running a farm. The reality was that i wasn't that sophisticated. i didn't have an accountant and all those things. Frankly, i figured it out, and i still paid the PS t at the same time and dealt with the farm goods list.

So i'm looking forward to it. i know the people in my region that are in value-added agriculture and tourism. believe it or not, this year the o kanagan is still benefiting in our region from increased tourism, even with all of the negative things that are going on. i think that, as much as many people have talked about the negative things that are happening, the reality is that there are positive things. People that are thinking positively about what's going on out there in their businesses, etc., are being rewarded by that.

We have a wonderful neighbour, a nthony von Mandl, who owns a facility that is second to none in the world. i have seen them at Mission h ill e state winery. a n aerospace industry in our riding run by barry l apointe that was built from just a guy that loved to fly planes…. n ow he's got, like, 350 employees and literally state-of-the-art…. Does work all around the world.

Think about the embedded PSt in every plane. i've been out there, and barry has shown me the technical diagrams and engineering that go into map - ping out every single component and structure in an airframe. it's unbelievable, the amount of expertise. it's a great relationship that he has with bcit , having an on- site training facility there. in agriculture we've got some of, really, c anada's finest, right in the o kanagan. Some of them that are in my riding are John and Maria byland. i think that most people, if they don't know of them, know their

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 177 plants because they're sold around the country, in n orth a merica. a lthough they're facing tougher times with the u .S. market, they have been significantly rewarded by their consistency in what they do. i guess the other people that i'm hearing good things about and that are enthusiastic about the hS t are people like the Gormans, who have a mill where they sell value- added timber all across the world. They've opened up new markets. originally, they sold about 80 percent of their product into the u .S., prior to this economic downturn.

They've found new markets. They've still got their 325 people working. They're working flat out, and the bottom line is that they've opened up new markets in places like Vietnam, Pakistan, c ambodia, iraq, a fghanistan. i said: "Well, what about c hina?" They said: "Well, the market's too big." These other markets they're well established in. The reality is that there is economic opportunity out there. We need to take an approach that is proactive to being marketers of some great wood products outside of british c olumbia, and we're going to do that in this next four years.

What i see in the o kanagan and in my riding is the fact that people are pulling together to create jobs, to strengthen our economy. We've seen, with the recent housing upturn, the fact that there still seems to be an interest in people wanting to relocate to the o kanagan. Part of the reason that they're relocating there has been that this government has added significant improve - ments, regional additions. a much-needed replacement for the floating bridge in l ake o kanagan was completed a little over a year ago and today is providing excellent traffic flow.

The new widening of h ighway 97 to six lanes all the way through to h ighway 33. [1045] a hospital that's a regional hospital providing unbeliev- able care. h aving worked in the hospital foundation for a number of years, when we built the Southern interior c ancer c entre, i can tell you that this hospital has gone from one strength to the next, offering cardiac care in the next 12 months, and soon will have some of the most important improvements in health care providing in the province. i'm looking forward to that, joining up with the other improvements in different hospitals such as Surrey, a bbotsford and other solutions like Fort St.

John, which is getting a new regional hospital. The other thing this government has done is it has dealt with some of the ongoing social housing issues. We're fortunate that there is a very willing council in the city of k elowna, led by Mayor Sharon Shepherd, to deal with issues of mental illness and homelessness. The real- ity is that we have several projects — one complete, one under construction, another one proposed and a third one that is awaiting funding in the c entral o kanagan.

We're looking at the improvements that that will bring stability into those people's lives. i got into this role of thinking about being in politics because of a friend who is often well known in the h ouse here. it's former Premier bill bennett, who was a mentor in terms of what he provided to the province and what he gave back to the province.

My father and my granddad were great mentors in terms of bringing me up, in terms of making certain that you always contributed where you could, worked hard. i just felt that i'd reached a point in my career where it would be suitable to contribute back. i have a lot of experience in volunteer work, although this is the first time i've been elected, and i'm pleased to be here. i'm really here to continue the sound financial decisions that this province has been making over the last eight years. balanced budgets, reinvigorating the economy through sustainable actions and leaving behind a legacy for future generations are what my goals are to be here. i have to just thank some of the people that got me here. it wouldn't have been possible without l inda e dser, my campaign manager; Jan Smyth; John byland; c olin cruickshank; and Joe Maciel. t oday my office staff, c heryl Doll and k athleen Mansfield, are fielding all of these tough questions that are raised in this h ouse every day, while i maintain the role of being Minister of citizens' Services, r esponsible for Multiculturalism and the Public a ffairs bureau.

The throne speech has emphasized this government's dedication to improve and further develop a new relation- ship with first nations. o ne of the important ways we are doing this is by supporting first nations in their efforts to close the gap that exists between aboriginal people and the rest of the province when it comes to broadband connectivity. i know that this is a discussion that has gone on for a long time in this h ouse.

People sometimes don't really understand what it takes. i have to say that a partnership between t elus and the Ministry of citizens' Services that helped undertake getting a point of presence into most communities in the province has been completed. a s such, i'm happy to announce that 123 of 203 first nations today have broadband connectivity. n etWork b.c., which is a responsibility of citizens' Services, will continue to work with first nations to connect them and help provide a better outcome in terms of health care, business and economic opportunities. i had a fortunate experience to be in k amloops at the start of a ugust. i was there over the long weekend.

The native dancers and the groups that they brought in from all over n orth a merica had an all-night powwow and a dancing competition. i can tell you that being in our trailer up there in the hills, etc., it certainly added a different element to it in terms of our experience and seeing how they came together, working to retain their culture. More importantly, a week later i visited with the a ll n ations t rust c o., led by r uth Williams, who are just

british c olumbia Debates178 t uesday, September 1, 2009 in the process of signing an additional agreement with a service provider to help bring on more and more of those first nation communities. [1050] The key today is not just broadband connectivity.

We need to have the ability of having the industrial-grade connectivity there to provide service for health services through nurse practitioners in some of those very remote communities. one of our essential goals in the delivery of the services that we provide in citizens' Services is to make certain we improve that. t oday 92 percent of the citizens in british columbia have internet access.

W e foresee in the next short order that with the money that this government is committing to further resources for n etW ork b.c ., we should be able to bring that up to just under 98 percent of the entire prov- ince connected. i think that's an outstanding achievement. These improvements are not always easy.

These are for communities that are under a hundred people in size. i have to tell you that a community is defined as a com - munity that has a health care, a school or a library. of course, we're working very hard on getting that to 100 percent, although in some cases…. h aving recently been in the northeast of the province to see firsthand what some of these challenges are, i think that we're going to have to find different alternatives through satellite in some of these communities, where it just doesn't make sense to be able to do this. i can also tell you, from that recent trip where i looked at the service that we're providing throughout our Service b.c. offices, that the government greatly values its employees. i come from a company that had a very strong employee culture, and i can tell you that the dedication and the hard work that the public service is doing here in british c olumbia are second to none. in fact, our latest employee engagement survey shows that over the last couple of years employees are increasingly satisfied and proud of their work here in the government of british c olumbia.

The b.c. public service has twice been named one of b.c.'s top 50 employers. We're recognized around the country as having one of the top public services. We take pride in trying to make certain that our staff are able to engage and talk to their management team and to make certain that they have a way of connecting with us. i've seen firsthand and encouraged staff to get onto the government's employee engagement website called SParc, which i'm sure many of you are familiar with. it's resulted in great interaction since just December of last year.

While we recognize this as a challenging time for gov- ernment, we are working hard to make certain that the b.c . public service remains one of the best places in this province to work and have worked hard to keep up with layoffs and keep workforce reductions to a minimum. it is our goal to protect jobs in order to maintain the delivery of services which contribute to a good quality of life for all british c olumbians. on multiculturalism — another file that i've been given the opportunity, with my hon. colleague here Dave h ayer — we have an opportunity to improve and build on something that is extremely important. h aving come from a family that immigrated to the o kanagan at the turn of the century, i can tell you firsthand that the o kanagan was built with many people that came and worked hard and succeeded and today are very successful business people in that community.

They continue to provide throughout the province of british c olumbia. e very year we welcome new british c olumbians from all over the world to our province to work and live, and this makes b.c. one of the most multicultural provinces in c anada. t wenty-eight percent of the population of british c olumbia is from regions outside of c anada. a s Minister r esponsible for Multiculturalism, i am proud of this government's efforts aimed at addressing racism and discrimination in british c olumbia and building communities that embrace multicultural diversity. immigration and cultural diversity play major roles in the economic and social development of our province. it is critical that communities around the province are prepared to welcome and help new immigrants integrate.

We do that through Welcome b.c. We have a great staff at the multicultural and inclu - sive communities office, working with the a dvanced e ducation Ministry in distributing and helping these people get established in british c olumbia.

We're working hard to make certain that the delivery of services comes in the languages that they are familiar with to help get them integrated into the community. [1055] We encourage b.c. communities to support and promote multiculturalism and address racism. n ew cross-government funding has gone towards building a provincewide culture of inclusion that accepts and embraces differences.

The embrace b.c. program, which was recently announced by the member for Surrey- t ynehead this summer, is just one example of how this government will support diverse groups and sectors in promoting multiculturalism and eliminating racism to create welcoming and inclusive communities. i believe this government will find ways to help british c olumbia prosper and provide a safe and healthy lifestyle for themselves and their families. i will make it one of my highest priorities as Minister of citizens' Services to listen to the citizens of british c olumbia, because their ideas will help shape our decisions during the current global economic crisis and beyond.

We must work together to find solutions to problems during these challenging times. it's interesting that the member for n orth c oast was supporting iPP projects yesterday. i thought it was inter- esting that they're starting to see the benefits of some

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 179 of the projects that this government has initiated, and i look forward to their continued support. i am proud to be part of this government, and it is my wish to do my part to continue to make british c olumbia the best place on earth to work and live. S.

Simpson: it's great to have the opportunity to respond to the throne speech and to have this chance to speak a little bit about the comments made last week by the l ieutenant-Governor on behalf of the government about the direction and where the government's going. [c. t revena in the chair.] i guess the first thing, though, that i want to say is that i certainly want to thank the people of Vancouver- h astings for returning me as their representative. it's a great privilege and an honour to represent the people of Vancouver-hastings. it's a community where, largely, i grew up, and it's always great to have the opportunity to represent the place where you grew up and where you've spent most of your life. it's a community that obviously has a number of challenges. it's one of the poorest constituencies in the province in terms of income. it's very diverse. a bout 40 percent of the constituency is c hinese-speaking as their first language, and it has the largest urban aboriginal population in terms of straight numbers of any constitu- ency in british c olumbia.

So it is a unique constituency. it's a constituency that has those challenges. it also, of course, has interesting aspects. The working port.

Much of the working port is in my constituency, in the Port of Vancouver, which creates both opportunities and sometimes challenges as well. it's a great place to represent, and i'm very privileged and humbled by the opportunity to be here again on behalf of the people of Vancouver-hastings. a s with all the members elected here, i certainly want to thank the people who helped in my election. i had a lot of great people who came together to help put me here, and as most all the members in this place would agree, i'm sure, for what we do or don't do, it's other people who play the biggest role in getting us here and many times, in terms of our staff, also play a role in keeping us here. i do want to thank c heryl and Dan and John and Wendy, who played key roles as manager and financial agent, strategist and my campaign chair. a lso, brenda and r achel are my constituency assistants — brenda t ombs and r achel Garrick, who work in my office and do a remarkable job. r eally, without them, i certainly couldn't do the job that i do and couldn't do the work that i do. i'm very indebted to them for everything that they do. [1100] of course, again, as the members who have been here for a while and as the new members, i'm sure, are learn- ing quickly, there are challenges for family that come with doing this job, in terms of being away from home, in terms of the demands on your time, in terms of how they end up having extra challenges sometimes and burdens put on them because of what we do in this place.

So to c ate and Shayla…. i'm very indebted that they are patient with me to be here and do this job. i love them dearly, and i thank them for their patience and for the little slap they give me every once in a while when they think i need it. That's always good, too. t alking about the election, i think that in the election on May 12, we learned some things. People said: "o h, it was an incumbents' election in large part." Most of the incumbents were returned. it was the new seats that brought new members, and a couple of small changes outside of that — but largely an incumbents' election.

People talked about the turnout. i think that's an issue that we need to concern ourselves with here. We had a turnout that was at record lows, and we need to ask our- selves, as elected representatives here, why that occurred and why, in many constituencies, we just didn't get the turnout that should happen. The places where the turnout was significant were some of the contested seats like in Delta South. it was a fairly high profile race there, and the turnout was a little more significant. but in many of our seats, i think, we find that the turnout is down over the last election.

There are people, pundits and others, who talked about that, and they said that people weren't inspired by either one of the parties. i suspect there's something to be said for that and that that's part of the reason people didn't turn out.

We've heard from the electorate in many ways, and they've given us, i think, some better insights over the last while as to what occurred. i think, and this is something that we all need to be quite concerned about, that what we mostly learned from the election, from that turnout, from the com - ments from many voters and the comments that we've continued to hear from people on talk shows and in our offices — i'm sure i've heard them, and i would hazard to guess that every other member has heard them — is a growing level of cynicism, a growing level of cynicism about politics and, more importantly, about politicians.

That level of cynicism has been driven and reinforced, unfortunately, by the way that the government has con - ducted itself. if we look back, we can look at any number of issues that reinforce that. before the election we had a Premier, a Finance Minister and a government that told us a number of things. First of all, everybody agrees that we have this global economic situation that we're facing, but the b.c. government….

This Premier says: "i'm a great economic manager, so we're only going to have a $495 million deficit, much lower than anybody else." i think a lberta was projecting at that time about $2.5 billion; the federal government number was huge. but

british c olumbia Debates180 t uesday, September 1, 2009 the Premier, reinforced and supported by the Finance Minister, goes on to say that it's a $495 million deficit, maximum — no more; that's it. n ow, the government will say, and i've heard the Minister of Finance say on a number of occasions, "Well, that was the best information that we had from the 12 advisers" that we continue to hear about. but that's information that he got heading into a February budget. n ow, there was an awful lot of time and an awful lot that occurred between the time that budget got put on the table and the time we actually got to the election.

What we've never heard this minister say is…. What advice did he get? What advice came from the ministry during that period of time around the changing circum- stances? Why did the minister and the Premier, or any other minister on that side, not see fit to be forthright with the people of british c olumbia about the changing circumstances that we faced in this province in eco - nomic terms? That's why i don't think….

We had nobody talking — certainly, people who are not necessarily friends of this side of the h ouse — who believed that $495 million number, whether we had the h elmut Pastricks or the Jock Finlaysons or others saying: "This number is not real." [1105] We're talking billions, not hundreds of millions, of dollars in terms of a deficit, and what the government is telling us is either a fabrication or it shows a serious lack of insight into fiscal management, or a combination of the two. it could be a combination of the two. but the government continued to maintain that position.

Then right after the election — in a nanosecond after the election in political terms — the government says: "o ops, excuse us. in fact, we're talking billions, not hundreds of millions." a nd for all the hand-wringing that the Premier does, whether it's on Bill Good or wherever it is, the reality is that the number went up four, five, six times — who knows? We'll know in a few hours here when the budget is brought down.

That reinforces the cynicism that british c olumbians have, because they saw in this a government that told them one thing about their abilities and about the circumstances of our province and then flipped in such a significant way only a few weeks later after the election was secured. There is no shortage of british c olumbians — a majority of british c olumbians, i am sure — who feel that they were duped by that. but you know, that could be a matter of fiscal manage- ment.

So i think some people would say: "Well, maybe they really didn't know what they were doing." h owever, when you look at other areas, you see something different. Y ou see a government that's flipped in a dramatic way. before heading into the February budget, hon. Speaker, we had a government, we had a Finance Minister, we had a Premier that were embracing the notion of stimulus — the approach that pretty much every other government is taking.

What they said is that the way out of this financial and fiscal challenge is stimulus and that we are going to put dollars on the table, largely for capital, which makes sense because you don't want to sustain ongoing oper - ating challenges if necessary, but we're going to have a stimulus package. That's what we're going to do to deal with this, because what the Premier, what the Finance Minister were telling us is that it's important to protect jobs. it's important to protect economic activity, so we're going to build some things.

Then, because the government has so badly misman - aged the economic situation in terms of its ability to deal with the realities of what this deficit were…. From $495 million before the election, not a penny more, and $495 million during the election — we had the Premier, days before election day, spouting the same number — to all of a sudden this multi-billion-dollar situation….

So we now have a government that's spinning in a degree of sort of financial chaos, desperately trying to push that number down at any cost for a short-term resolve to get that number down. by doing that, they are compromising what most economic thinkers will tell you is needed now, which is a level of stimulus. That's what we were told by this government before the election, by this government in February when they introduced the February budget. We now have a total reversal, it looks like, on our hands in terms of what we're going to see this afternoon. We're going to see cuts.

We've seen cuts, and we've seen cuts in silly, silly places — absurd cuts. l et me give you an example of that, hon. Speaker. We saw the elimination of the leaky-condo program. n ow this is an absurd cut. Y ou have a program that puts about 2,500 to 3,000 people to work a year fixing leaky condos, that provides loans — not grants — to people who lack the ability to borrow so that they can get their homes repaired. Y ou protect their asset; you put people to work. it's a loan program that cost the government about $8 million a year in lost interest, because it was an interest- free program.

Most of this was paid for previously by the $750 a unit that was put on new construction. [1110] So you have this program. The government kills the program. The last time i heard, i know that the c ondominium h ome o wners a ssociation had identified about 35 buildings that are sitting in the queue right now that should be getting repaired but won't qualify for this. it's up in the air as to what happens to those people who live in those buildings. Some will be able to borrow. They'll have the ability. Many won't. So we don't know what happens to those buildings.

They eliminate this program. n ow, what would be better for a stimulus plan than, in fact, to have said: "That's the kind of stimulus project that we're going to do. We're going to continue that

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 181 leaky-condo program, we're going to continue to repair people's homes, we're going to continue to put construction workers to work in a market where new construction isn't happening, and we're going to do this through loans to make this work"? if the government had said, "um, because of the fiscal situation, the financial situation, we're not sure we can continue to have this be an interest-free plan.

Maybe we're going to have to talk about the interest rate that people pay on these loans," that might have been a reasonable discussion to have. but to just eliminate the program, a program that's successful, makes no sense at all.

That's the kind of chaotic reaction that we got from this government to this deficit situation that they created — not in terms of creating the global problem but in terms of making claims about the state of the deficit prior to the election, continuing to hang onto those claims right up to election day and then flipping shortly afterwards to a much, much larger number that has put the credibility of this government, this Premier, this Finance Minister in serious question. So they're now desperate to deal with that number. Well, that makes no sense.

The leaky-condo program is just one of those programs that raises questions about this total 180-degree flip by the government in terms of whether stimulus is the answer or other things are the answer. That creates cynicism. n ow, the most cynical of all things in terms of the eyes of the public, of course, is what the government did with the hS t . This is a government that told us continu- ally…. Ministers and the Premier told us continually — the past Minister of Small business, who was visiting with us the other day — that it's absolutely not going to happen.

Past Finance Minister c arole t aylor said: "n ot on my watch. a bsolutely not going to happen, this harmonization." They were opposed to it. n ow, of course, during the election the r estaurant a ssociation asks the questions of the parties. a ll the par- ties — the two major parties, certainly — say: "W e're not going to do it." a nanosecond after the election is over the government, in fact, is doing it.

The reality is that nobody, excepting the people sitting on that side, seriously believes that this government put this deal together in a matter of a couple of weeks with the federal government — a deal that is as complex as this. Particularly when one of the biggest…. The government has two arguments for doing this. The first one is $1.6 billion, and they're cash hungry, for obvious reasons, after they've dug themselves this hole over the financial situation of the province. They're cash desperate. Some $1.6 billion is waved in front of them, so they jump at that. i understand that.

The other part of this, of course, is that they say ontario is doing this, so we need to follow ontario. h owever, ontario talked and said they were going to do this in January. They introduced it in a budget in March. This Finance Minister wants us to believe that he didn't have any discussions about this issue from the time in January that the indications came out of ontario that it would in fact be proceeding in ontario. That causes levels of cynicism in the electorate, because it's not believable. The people of british columbia don't believe it. They think they were misled.

They believe they were misled, and they believe they were misled by a gov- ernment that didn't want to talk about that issue during the election, that knew full well what their intentions were if they were re-elected but that didn't want to talk about it because they would have lost the election. [1115] W e've heard all this talk on the other side about leadership, and we've heard this talk about tough decision-making — all this talk.

Well, if it was sincere talk, if it was serious talk, then this government would have had the courage of its convictions to have put the issue of the hS t on the table during the election, made it an election issue and fought the election partially on that issue. That would have been the leadership and the courage of conviction that — after the fact, after flip-flopping on the issue — this government now calls leadership. There is no leadership in what this government did. There's no leadership at all.

What we had was a misrepre- sentation of intention, and we now have the situation that we face today, where the cynicism of the public is through the roof. i saw this Finance Minister and that, and i understand they were able to truck out, after a couple of weeks of scrambling or whatever, a long list of senior corporate leaders to say the hSt is a good thing.

For those companies that those people represent and that they work for and that they collect their very sig - nificant salaries from, it is a pretty good deal. it's a good enough deal that it takes $1.9 billion of the corporate tax load and shifts it onto consumers, onto small business people, onto seniors and onto communities. it shifts it onto non-profit organizations. it shifts it onto people in housing. it shifts it onto workers. So there's no surprise that those folks think the $1.9 billion moving over is a pretty good deal.

What we didn't see this minister or this Premier able to do was to walk out a group of people who work for a wage, of seniors, of others like that, and sit them down at a table to say how the hS t was such a good thing for them. We know, and we've heard a lot over the last few days, about the r estaurant a ssociation and that industry and the impacts on that industry and how negative that will be. in my critic area, h ousing and Social Development, we have another key area on that, and that's housing. What we've seen with housing…. i had a discussion the other day with the u rban Development institute.

The u rban Development institute is an organization that represents the interests of large developers — large residential developers, largely.

british c olumbia Debates182 t uesday, September 1, 2009 They say their members, their supporters, about 250,000 people, work or are linked or connected to that industry, and they're very, very concerned about this. What they said to me, and they're crunching the num- bers now….

They said: "h ere's an example of the prob - lem. a bbotsford. on a $600,000 home in a bbotsford that is new construction and a $600,000 home, pretty much the same home but a resale, the difference there — for somebody who takes out a mortgage and buys one of those homes — in the cost of those homes is in excess of $60,000 by the time you pay that mortgage out, because of the hS t ." That's what Maureen enser and the u rban Development institute tell me. They have a list. They've gone to every community in this province and looked at the numbers, and they can identify those numbers.

They call it over $60,000, the difference you'll pay on a conventional mortgage because of the cost of the hS t . This is at a time when — what? — last week, earlier this week it's announced that we've seen the collapse of new residential construction in the l ower Mainland. l ots of people doing repairs, lots of people doing renovations. That's where the construction is. but new construction is down 60 percent. So people aren't build- ing new, as it is, because of the state of the economy.

We hope that will turn around. but how on earth anybody could believe that doing what this government has done with the cost of housing, particularly new construction, is in some way going to be beneficial to keep most of those 250,000 people who work in this industry working is beyond me. a partment owners. The apartment owners association has written — i know they've written the minister — and said they get their usual, their traditional — what? — 3 percent a year, whatever their allowable rent increase is.

Well, they want another 3 percent or 4 percent to cover their costs because of the hS t and what those costs will do in relation to the hS t . So there's another cost. [1120] We saw a piece in the newspaper yesterday or the day before from the c ondominium h ome o wners a ssociation talking about the increased costs related to condominiums. of course, the strata fee itself doesn't go up, but what they've identified is the whole range of services, particularly in larger condominiums — a hun - dred units or more — that will increase the costs by a gain in the 4 to 5 percent range for people living in those stratas.

So in situation after situation, we see the costs for consumers going up. We know small businesses that are labour-intensive are concerned because they're not going to see a benefit out of this necessarily. There's all the talk about prices coming down and that, but that's theory. We'll have to see whether it happens, but i wouldn't hold my breath to see those prices come down. So we'll have to see how that works. Y ou know, one of the members down the way talks about the Maritimes. Well, the Maritimes is a place where they dropped the rates on the taxes.

So we have this situation where we're going to again stifle economic opportunity, certainly in the short- to midterm, with this tax. There's no question about that, no question about that at all, and at the worst possible time to do it, when the economy is in the situation it's in. We have here a situation where we have growing cyni- cism, and the cynicism is faced on the inability, for very good reasons, for the public to believe the utterances of this government.

The sad thing you're going to see, and it will be well placed, is that we're going to see a budget in a couple of hours here, and my guess is that whatever those numbers are, people are not going to be confident that they can believe those numbers either. Y ou have a government with a serious credibility prob- lem, and they created this through their own conduct during the election — the l iberal Party — by not being forthright with the people of british c olumbia about the state of affairs and about where they were going.

Y ou know, i can think back — it's another example of that — to last year, the year we've just finished out, and i don't know how many times sitting in this h ouse we heard the Finance Minister or other ministers pulling out their briefing books and spouting off about how great the economy was in british c olumbia, about how well we were doing in comparison to everybody else, about how fine things were. of course, what we know is that when we actually saw the balance of accounts at the end of the year that the a uditor General had dealt with, we were ninth in economic activity in the country, second-to-last among provinces —not first, not second, not third as the gov - ernment would have liked us to believe, but ninth — and that our economy was unravelling last year. of course, it only really came to light when an independent authority took their pencil to it, did the analysis, and then put it on the table at the end of the year.

That increases the cynicism as well. i would note that that number, of course, came out after the election as well, to show that the economy, in fact, was in dismal shape last year, held up somewhat by what happened to be the one sector, which was the housing sector, which at that time was doing pretty well. it held up pretty well, certainly, in the populated areas. i mean, the rest of the province has been in disarray for years in terms of the beetle and other issues related to the forest community.

What we really saw was this false economy that was keeping the illusion alive, but when the numbers were actually crunched by independ- ent authority, we found out that we were not in near the condition that this Finance Minister and this Premier would have led us all to believe. but those numbers didn't come out until after the election.

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 183 So the cynicism runs high, and it runs high for very good reasons. The higher the cynicism goes, the lower the credibility of this government falls because of lack of believability of this government on pretty much any issue. i want to talk a little bit about my critic area and a couple of parts of my critic area.

The first is housing. [1125] i've talked about the leaky-condo situation and the h omeowner Protection office and what was going on there, an important piece of work that was going on there that has now been set aside by this government in what is a nonsensical way that makes no sense. We also know that the government has done nothing around poverty reduction — a critical issue in this province. Many other provinces are taking it on. This province is silent on it. With the highest levels of child poverty in the country for six years running, that's unacceptable. n othing being done for families and housing.

These are issues that need to be addressed.

Finally, we're waiting to see this budget this afternoon, but the issue that is on the table today and will be on the table for the foreseeable future, i believe, is the integrity of the government, the believability of this government and whether the government has been forthright with the people of british c olumbia. a ll indications to date, over the last number of months, particularly in this year, is that it's very suspect as to whether the government could meet any of those standards around integrity, around forthrightness or, in fact, around fiscal ability and management — the government that says they know how to manage. a t every turn, we see a government that's stumbling, making silly decisions and chaotic decisions and putting the lie to the question about whether management, in fact, is there. i'm pleased to have had the opportunity to speak to this. i look forward to hearing from other members, and i do look forward to seeing the budget here in a couple of hours.

P . Pimm: First of all, i'd like to say, Madam Speaker, that i'm very humbled to be standing here before you in this h ouse. a s a young man growing up i had no idea or dream that i'd ever be standing in this wonderful building, this wonderful setting, representing the fine folks of Peace r iver n orth. i want to introduce my wife, Jody, and my mother, Josephine, who are in the gallery with us again today. Mom and Jody flew down from Fort St. John to be here for the throne speech, and i'm very happy to have them here for my first speech in the h ouse.

Without the support of your family, this job would be absolutely impossible to take on.

That being said, i want to thank my wife, Jody, for all the support that she's given me to this point, and i want to apologize to her upfront for all she's going to have to put up with during my years as an Mla. i want to acknowledge and thank my mother, for without her and how she persevered while i was grow - ing up as a teenager, it wouldn't have been possible for me to be here. i also want to acknowledge my children, Jennifer, k risti, Matthew and Shane, who have all been very supportive throughout this process. i want to thank my group of supporters that worked with me through - out the entire election process. i want to thank Patty Murray and John l ocher, who were the first to try to persuade me to run for this office, and Shirley Viens and John bacso who persevered until i agreed to put my name forward. i also want to thank John bacso for being my financial agent and his wife, Diane, who worked so hard to keep my financial infor - mation accounted for properly. i want to thank my con - stituent assistants, Gayle c lark and Jennifer Wilkinson, who look after the majority of the day-to-day issues that keep my office functioning properly. i also want to thank my la , k aty Fairley, who keeps me organized and teaches me the ropes here in Victoria. i want to thank t im Morrison, my communications offi- cer, and Marc c hawrun, my research officer, and all of the rest of the staff in Victoria that make my life a whole lot easier. i'd love to mention by name all of my supporters, but i don't want to miss any names, so i just want to say thank you to all of them. i definitely want to say a great big thank-you to all of my b.c. l iberal supporters that elected me to this office. n ow, besides my wife and mother, most of you don't have any idea who i am or what my background is, so i'm going to take a stab at rectifying that so we can get this relationship off on the right foot. i spent my early years as a youngster growing up in my hometown of Fort St.

John, where i was born and raised. i did as most youths do in our area. i played minor hockey, minor baseball and golf at a relatively high level that allowed me to be part of many teams that repre - sented our community and province over the years. [1130] a s in the case of most youths and adults in our great region, everyone tends to work extremely hard and to play at least that hard or harder.

This being the case, i certainly did not see politics in the future for Pat Pimm. i eventually survived my childhood and, like most in our region, went to work in the oil and gas fields and married at the young age of 21 years. i had two beautiful daughters, Jennifer and c hristie, who are now 27 and 25 years of age. i've always been involved in my community — spent four years as president of my l ake Point Golf and c ountry club, three years as junior chairman prior to that, two years coaching minor hockey, nine years as coach and director of girls minor baseball, minors fastball, as the kids were growing up. in 1993 i was elected to Fort St.

John city council, which i served on for twelve years. During that same period of time i was also busy get - ting myself elected to the board of directors for british

british c olumbia Debates184 t uesday, September 1, 2009 c olumbia Golf a ssociation. i sat as a director for ten years, from 1993 to 2003, where i represented zone 8 north, which is the entire area of the province north and east of the r ocky Mountains. During this period of time as director of bc Ga, i was fortunate enough to secure the hosting of the 2003 b.c. amateur golf championship in Fort St.

John and the 2003 b.c. junior championship in Dawson creek. a s you can see, it didn't leave much time to keep my golf game in much shape. in 2001, i met my beautiful bride-to-be, Jody; and her two children, Matthew, 23, and and Shane, 21. We were eventually married in 2005.

So 2005 was a great year for me, not only to get married; i also purchased my part - ner's shares in my company. obviously, with all my new commitments, i didn't have much time left in my busy schedule, so i made the decision to step down from local politics and to not run in the 2005 election. a fter four years of being away from politics, our area Mla , the h on. r ichard n eufeld, accepted an appointment to the c anadian Senate. This came as a surprise to me and many more, as we thought Mr. n eufeld would rep- resent our interests in Victoria forever.

When i stepped down from city council, i'd left the door open for a possible return to politics at some point in my future. a lthough you never know if your timing is going to be right or wrong, my wife and i and family decided that we would take a chance and throw my hat in the ring for the nomination of the b.c. l iberals and eventually the election. it's an extremely large decision that i did not take lightly. it's not easy for a businessman to pursue political dreams without a lot of preparation, and this decision had not really been part of my thoughts at all. it wasn't until several of my constituents got in touch with me and explained their reasons for wanting me to represent their interests at the provincial level that i finalized my decision to run in the election. i have always been willing to tackle the tough issues that face politicians, and i've never had a problem making the right decisions, even though they weren't popular ones at the time. i knew that we were going to be faced with some tough economic times, and i had several close friends ask why i would want to be part of the government in these kinds of times.

My answer was to those people: "Y ou need to have strong people making decisions during tough times so that you're able to make the easy and popular decisions when the economy gets itself back on its feet." The most important thing we must keep in mind — we must focus on keeping our economy as strong as we can during these poor economic times. The economy is what drives this great province and this great country.

Without a strong economy, we don't have jobs, we don't have revenues to support core services such as health care and education, and i know that we're going to have to make some tough decisions that are not going to be popular. h owever, if they're the right deci - sions to put you in the strongest position to come out of the recession the quickest, then that's where i believe we have to be. When i got involved as Mla for Peace r iver n orth, i knew that i was following in the footsteps of a great man that i'm very proud to know. i knew that i'd have an extremely large job to try and fill his shoes.

Senator n eufeld is a friend of mine and somebody that i respect immensely. i feel very blessed that i'm able to draw from his abundant knowledge as time moves us forward. Mr. n eufeld represented our area for 18 years as Mla, and i for one believe that his achievement deserves some sort of medal. i take off my hat to anyone that shows that kind of dedication to serve the good portion of their life representing their constituents. i can only hope that i'll do a good enough job to earn a similar respect that my predecessor earned for himself.

The biggest reason that i let my name stand to represent my constituents was that i felt i was the right person with the right background to make the right decisions for the people of Peace r iver n orth. i have a clear understanding that not all the decisions that are going to be made are going to be popular. [1135] i don't have a problem with that, as long as i know that the decisions are fundamentally the right ones to make. i want to be that person that can work with our area councils to bring their issues to the larger picture, to work on their behalf to see their communities thrive and prosper.

We're very fortunate in Peace r iver n orth in the fact that we have a good, strong industry in the oil and gas sector. We're very proud of the fact that our industry pro- vides so much to the well-being of this great province. W e also have a great farming industry and forestry that is still alive and surviving through these tough economic times. We're very fortunate in our area to have enough diversity that allows our area to continue to move forward during these tough times.

We all know that we need the price of natural gas and oil to rebound so that we can get the confidence back into the industry, so that the oil and gas companies will continue their ongoing exploration, not only for themselves but also for the future of the region and the province of british c olumbia. We're extremely proud of the two largest natural gas plays in the province. both the h orn r iver and the Montney developments are going to be very instrumental to the future of our area and to the province.

These two developments have taken the reserves of natural gas for our area from less than 15 years to over a hundred years for the future of british c olumbia. These great plays don't come without some costs and issues that come along with them. Y ou must have strong communities with good infrastructures to accommodate the growth that is going to come along with the expansion

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 185 of the industry. o ur communities must be attractive enough to attract employees to the area who will stay and be part of those futures. a t the present time the oil and gas industry is required to import a large portion of their employee base from other areas because they just do not have the amenities in our communities to attract employees to move to the region and stay. one of the things i'm going to be working on over the next four years is a constituent-building program for the n orth Peace. i want to expand my area association to include all the areas of my region and to reach out to the industries and associations to become part of my team. i think this is going to be very important for the future of my area. i want my constituents to feel like they're going to be part of the solution for the future. i'm going to be spending a fair amount of time developing this trust for the future of the north Peace. i want my constituents to know that i am available, that i am going to work hard on their behalf.

We all know that we can't achieve every result that you want, but we also know that when you work as a united group, you'll have much more success than if you're butting heads every inch of the way.

We know that one of the largest complaints in our area is that we have a lot of out-of-province licence plates that appear to be working in our area, while many of our own locals are sitting at home. i want to work with the ministry and the industry to help continue to keep our local residents with as many employment opportunities as possible while keeping our industry competitive. i believe that we should be encouraging these out-of- province companies to locate to our area, to use as many locals as possible and to encourage their employees to move to the province and get them onto the provincial tax roll. i believe that the province could definitely benefit from this strategy. one of the major concerns i hear from my agriculture industry is that they're very, very concerned they may be put in a position that they could lose a grain elevator that's absolutely imperative to the future of their industry.

This issue is that there's currently a grain elevator in Fort St. John. it's a relatively new version, built in the mid-1980s. it's a concrete grain elevator. it's in relatively good condition. it's been shut down by the current owner for about a year and a half now, and they're not going to reopen that facility as they're moving to larger terminals on the a lberta side of the Peace. The elevator owner currently has a lease that will soon end, and they'll be asked to restore the land to its ori - ginal state, which means they'll have to destroy the ele - vator and remove it from the property.

This would be an absolute shame, as the only other elevator in our area was built in 1960 and is nearing the end of its life. if the newer elevator is destroyed and the older elevator ends up being shut down, our farming community would then have to haul their grain to either the South Peace or to the larger terminals in the a lberta area. n either one of these solutions make any sense, nor are they acceptable. The agriculture industry — it's hard enough in this day and age. it's absolutely unacceptable to put this additional burden on their farming community.

So i'm happy that the throne speech identifies that the agriculture industry needs to be maintained. i'm certainly going to make every effort to work with our agriculture industry in our area to make that happen. [1140] it's very refreshing to see the province's first wind farm now operational in the South Peace. i believe that we must continue to move forward with support of our wind energy projects, as the throne speech indicates. i believe that we must make the necessary moves to provide the ability to get the wind energy to market. i also think that we must work on bringing the stability that will allow the investors to have the confidence to invest in this area. our region has world-class winds.

What that means is that the winds are not so strong as to present problems to construction, but they're strong enough and consistent enough to sustain a good supply of energy for the future. in order to bring the investors to our province, they must know that we're going to stand with them so they know that when they invest in the industry, they're going to have an opportunity to see a return in the future. We certainly all know that the issues surrounding first nations are an ongoing work in progress.

My opponents brought up their opposition to the reconciliation act on several occasions throughout the election period. i have many feelings around first nations issues as well, but i must tell you that i don't think anything positive can come from industry and/or the province having to go to court every time an issue arises from first nations. The province and the industry have spent millions of dollars in the courts over the years. a t the end of the day, most of the federal courts have awarded in favour of first nations.

So i think it would be very silly to con - tinue down that avenue, as it's not positive for anybody. i believe we must settle with first nations so that we can bring consistency and confidence to the industry, so that we can move forward in a progressive manner. i think we've already moved forward in a positive way in our area with the development of eba agreements that are in the process of being developed — and some that have already been developed. i believe that as the Mla for the n orth Peace, i must work hard to help achieve certainty for the first nations and for all of our communities in our area.

The other major issue that my constituents are very concerned about in my region is the Site c hydro pro - ject that the province and b.c. h ydro are looking at for future energy solutions for the province of british c olumbia. This project has been on the books for at least 30 years, and i think it's great that there's a process

british c olumbia Debates186 t uesday, September 1, 2009 underway to resolve this, one way or the other. i believe that the consultation process is a good process. i know that a lot of my constituents think this is a done deal, but i've continually told my constituents that the process is going to establish all the pros and cons of the project. i definitely believe that the province of british c olumbia should be energy self-sufficient so that we can keep the cost of our energy at a reasonable level. i don't think that we should be forced to purchase dirty, coal- powered energy from a lberta or to run the burrard plant when our peak demands cannot be met. i'm certainly not in favour of nuclear energy at this point in my life. i believe that we must look at all our clean energy sources, such as wind, run-of-the-river projects, bioenergy and hydroelectric projects. in fact, i believe that the province of british c olumbia should be very seriously considering not only being energy self-sufficient, but we should also pursue the possibility of being an energy supplier to the rest of the world, if the opportunity presents itself. i think that there is a marketplace available for british c olumbia that could be every bit as lucrative to the province as the oil and gas industry is. a s far as Site c is concerned for my area, i've been a resident of Fort St.

John all my life, and i certainly know the beauty and the environmental issues that are associ- ated with a project of this magnitude in our area.

That's why i told my constituents that i'll be looking forward to seeing the results of the consultation process so that i can have an opportunity to evaluate the project for myself, based on facts, research and input from stakeholders. if i feel that the research and consultation supports Site c, then that's where i'll support. i'll be supporting Site c . but if the report and recommendations come back in the negative, then that's where i'll be found. o ne thing that i'll guarantee my constituents is that if the govern - ment moves forward with Site c, i'll be fighting very diligently for benefits for the residents of our region and for the communities within our region that are going to be affected by Site c. i know that there are some concerns around the newly announced hS t . if i did not believe, in my own mind, that this was going to be an extremely valuable move to help strengthen our economy, i wouldn't vote for it.

That, however, is not the case, and i can honestly say that i don't see the negative that people are talking about. [1145] i know that nearly all the businesses in british c olumbia are coming out in support of h St , with a few exceptions.

The restaurant industry is one that is in opposition, but they also suggested that they'd be devastated when the no-smoking law was initiated. i think that they've been at least as strong since that occurred. i believe that this will be similar, and if more people are working, more people will be dining out. i know that when our Finance Minister is going to be working, he's going to continue to work with folks that have come out in opposition to try to show them the benefits and to try to come up with solutions to satisfy their issues. if you understand the input tax credit system like i do as a small business man, i truly don't know how any business could not support this type of tax. a provincial tax was an antiquated tax that was far overdue to be revamped. i know that as a business owner, i'll feel pretty good when i drive off the dealer's lot with a new vehicle. i pre- viously paid 7 percent PSt . n ow that it's all in h St , that money will come back to me as an input credit. it will be extremely great for heavy contractors that would have paid PSt for the trucks and heavy equipment.

They'll now get that PSt back as an input credit. i believe, in my heart, that this is one of the things that will go a long way to levelling the playing field for our area contractors.

The main thing that you must remember in all this is that when industry is strong and competitive and willing to invest in their future, it means that there are going to be jobs. if we can do anything to help the struggling forest sector and put people back to work, it will be in their best interest. it will be a whole lot easier to pay a little bit of hS t on your services when you're working rather than when you're not. i haven't heard many people talk about the $230 that each person under the threshold of $25,000 will auto - matically be rebated to offset hS t costs.

That will be $460 per household for most low-income senior couples. it will mean that the low-income single mother with a family of three will receive $230 for herself and for each one of her children. it could be as much as an additional $920 to offset her h St costs.

These are just a couple of the benefits that will put cash directly back into the hands of those who need it the most. i must say that i'm very happy to see that the list of sup- porters is growing daily, and the latest list looks a little bit like this: the business c ouncil of b.c., the b.c. c hamber of c ommerce, the institute of c hartered a ccountants of b.c ., r etail council of c anada, b.c . t echnology industries a ssociation, c anadian Manufacturers and e xporters, Mining a ssociation of b.c., c ouncil of Forest industries, b.c . t rucking a ssociation, b.c . r oad builders and h eavy c onstruction association. c oast Forest Products a ssociation, n ew c ar Dealers a ssociation of b.c., b.c. c onstruction a ssociation, b.c. pulp and paper steering committee, t ruck l oggers a ssociation, Motion Picture industry a ssociation of b.c., Greater Vancouver Gateway c ouncil, r ailway a ssociation of c anada, independent c ontractors and businesses a ssociation of b.c., c anadian a ssociation of Petroleum Producers, a ssociation for Mineral e xploration b.c., even the n ew Media b.c.

Surely they can't all be wrong. in closing, i must say that i am happy at the direction this throne speech has taken us. i think it has laid out what the future looks like. i know that doesn't sound

british c olumbia Debatest uesday, September 1, 2009 187 overly positive to some folks, but for the majority, i think it is positive relative to the tough times that we've been facing and are going to continue to face in the next months ahead of us. i know that there is going to be some belt-tightening to do, and i'd say to anyone that wants to listen that these aren't the worst times we've ever faced. i know that i survived the bust in the early 1980s, when people were losing their homes nearly daily. i saw my mortgage at the time go from 11 percent…. When i renewed the mortgage, it had gone to 21 percent.

My mortgage more than doubled as a result. n ow, that's the kind of thing that can bankrupt people and businesses alike. We haven't seen that this time, and i don't think we will. i think we're very fortunate to live in this beautiful province, and i know that if we manage this right, make the tough decisions, we'll be in a position to come out stronger on the other side. [1150] Deputy Speaker: Member for Juan de Fuca. J.

Document details

Collection	British Columbia — Debates (Hansard)
Citation	H0901am-08
Type	hansard
Volume / chapter	H0901am 08
Language	en
Format	pdf
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	dc963cf13b6f64d72b853068bea3ea39b02c3b05

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