VIDEO: Response to the Budget Update

Today I rose in the House to respond to the Budget Update 2017. While I do not support all the aspects of this budget, I am happy to be able to support it as I believe it takes important steps to addressing many of the critical issues identified to me by my constituents in Saanich North and the Islands and British Columbians from across the province.

[Transcript]

A. Olsen: Before speaking to the budget update, I’d like to once again recognize the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation for his statement last week in honour of the tenth anniversary of UNDRIP and for his government’s joint commitment with us to implement UNDRIP, the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a move towards reconciling our collective history here in British Columbia.
This commitment, in my mind, sets the tone for this budget and for everything that government will do over the coming months and years. The extent to which they live up to their commitment to breathe life into the words of the declaration will be one of the greatest measures of their legacy. Finally, we are at a threshold of real change in this relationship. There is a real possibility for true government-to-government relationships based on recognition and respect. The space that we occupy at this moment in time is truly historic, and it’s a time to embrace the opportunity before us.

This sense of change extends much further. We are living in a time of extraordinary change in British Columbia, both in scope and in pace. This budget update shows that our economy continues to enjoy strong economic growth, as measured by GDP, and this is undoubtedly positive. However, GDP does not tell the whole story of the health of our economy. It does not capture the changes we’re seeing in how our economy functions or the affordability crisis squeezing British Columbians.

While government policy has firmly been lodged in the 20th century, applying ideas of my late grandparents’ generation, the economy is rapidly changing. It’s hard to picture what our province and our daily lives will look like 20 years from now, or even in 10 years time.

Much of this change is due to technological advances. Automation is set to have effects on the structure of our economy and our workforce that we can only begin to imagine. There are huge challenges in this time of transition, but there are also huge and incredible opportunities.

To seize them, we must position ourselves at the forefront of the emerging economy. We must develop a long-term economic vision which moves beyond old ways of thinking. The B.C. Greens economic vision is to build resilient and prosperous communities. The notion that economic investment in this province only counts when it’s an investment in the resource sector is not reflected in our current reality, and it isn’t reflected in the emerging economy.

There are incredible opportunities to revolutionize the resource economy that built this province. Not the wholesale liquidation of our assets, as we’ve seen in recent years, but a thoughtful, well-informed, strategic approach, an approach that minimizes waste and invests in adding value right here in British Columbia. So I’m thrilled that this budget update included two items from our platform, the emerging economy task force and innovation commission, designed to build the future of our economy.

The emerging economy task force will look at the changing nature of business and how we can position B.C. to be at the forefront. The task of the innovation commission is to foster innovation in the emerging economy, not only in the tech sector but across sectors, supporting innovation in our resource sectors, such as forestry, for example.

Not only is our economy changing. The climate is changing in undeniable ways, which are already having wide-ranging effects on communities across British Columbia. Rural communities have seen the devastation of the pine beetle infestation, flooding and wildfires, just to name a couple of challenges that we face.

We are still going through the worst of the worst wildfire season on record, which has had devastating impacts on communities across British Columbia, and which our incredible firefighters and volunteers are still fighting. As we have seen in the communities, British Columbians are extraordinarily resilient, and we must do more to support them.

In the face of climate change, we cannot afford to stick our heads in the sand. It is a challenge that requires that we take bold action and we take it today. We were once leaders in addressing climate change, but sadly, we’ve become laggards. This is not good enough, not for now or for future generations.
On this front, I am thrilled to see meaningful action on climate change in this budget update, being taken through the increases in carbon tax. I look forward to future budgets, where the government will broaden the carbon tax to include forest slash-pile burning and fugitive emissions.

I hope that the work will not stop there and that this government will introduce measures to move away from the internal combustion engine on the roads by incentivizing and educating British Columbians to make the default choice the low-carbon choice. Through these and other steps, we can once again become a leader in addressing climate change.

In response to the changes we’re seeing across the board, we need to take bold, forward-looking action to foster resilience in our community and to enable us to seize opportunities that arise from change. We need to support people to be resilient.

To this end, education is the single most important investment our government can make in British Columbians. We said that we were going to make education the highest priority, that we were going to give our children, all of our children, the tools they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. I’m fully supportive, of course, of the investments announced in this budget update in education and, of course, the restoration of free adult basic education and English language learning.

But a strong public education system is only one part of the equation. Providing parents access to child care and mid-career retraining programs provides people with the ability to prosper and provides stability in our society.

I have two young children, both are now in public school. Ella, my daughter, just started kindergarten last week. She’s pretty cute, I have to say. For the past 10 years, I have been a work-from-home father. Emily and I decided that we were going to raise our children, and so that we have largely become a one-income family for that period of time. It is important that our government develop a child care and early childhood education program that considers parents who want this flexibility. When we design this program, we must do it with care and attention.

The increasing costs of child care weigh on the minds of so many and add stress to all the other factors making life less affordable, like access to safe and affordable housing near our work and near our families. We have less time to spend on the ball field and playing with our children, and that increases an empty, guilty feeling while we’re gridlocked in traffic.

We are less happy, less productive in what should be the most productive years of our careers. This is not good for community, and it’s not good for our economy. I am a strong advocate for supporting parents supporting their children. That is why I am excited to work with the government thoughtfully to develop child care and early childhood education programs over the coming weeks and months.

Child care, early childhood education, public education, adult basic education and post-secondary are all critical components to providing British Columbians the education that we need to succeed in the 21st century. Another critical aspect of this are much-needed investments in programs that support workers to retool for a changing economy.

Losing a job to a machine is a scary prospect. This morning, I read an article about SAM. SAM is a semi-automated mason. Yes, even the masons are being replaced by robots. SAM can work about three times faster than a human. Humans lay about 300 to 500 bricks per day. SAM lays between 800 to 1,200 bricks per day. As automation accelerates and people undergo more work transitions, we need to support people to shift gears and retrain mid-career as the final component of supporting life-long learning.

My generation will have more than a dozen jobs in a career. My late grandfather, just one. Providing people with life-long learning opportunities supports their resilience as individuals as an educated, skilled and agile workforce is essential to the resilience in our economy.

This time of economic change also means that we need to support British Columbians through providing greater income security. This is particularly important as the economy changes rapidly, and our old version of the social safety net is failing too many.

I support the increases to the welfare rates of $100 a month that this government has implemented. However, we must also ask, is our current welfare system the best tool to provide income security for British Columbians in the 21st century?

This is why we pushed for a basic income pilot to test whether basic income might be a better tool to provide health, wellness and employment outcomes for British Columbians. I’m excited to see the government move on this file in the full budget in February.

This time of change that we’re living through extends to our politics. This minority government presents an historic opportunity to do politics differently in B.C. and to craft better policy as a result. We are still learning what this looks like.

It’s an exciting time, and I truly believe that this government has the potential to become more than the sum of its parts. We can all make things better through working together and through holding each other to account.

This extends sincerely to the Liberals. As the government for 16 years, you are an immensely important voice in holding government to account and on sharing your expertise and making sure government is serving British Columbians in all regions of the province.

We are all different parties, and we all have different points of view. The goal isn’t to agree all the time. To borrow a line, we must be able to disagree without being disagreeable.

We all share a common commitment to British Columbians, and if we keep this commitment at the forefront, our disagreements can provide a gateway to crafting better public policy. More voices will only ever make policy stronger. We need to rebuild trust in government. All of us in this House have a shared responsibility to do this.

This summer, I heard a lot about the balance of power. I recoiled when I was asked about this. Our government is made up of 87 members. We all got here exactly the same way. Yes, we have the power to make laws and regulations, but there’s much more to it than that. We share a responsibility to all British Columbians to work collaboratively to develop and strengthen public policy focused on increasing the quality of our communities, our lives, our economy and our environment. But unfortunately, this House has become more about power — ruling over British Columbia rather than governing our province.

We have to do better. We have to stop making promises at election time that feed the desire to rule British Columbia and focus on governing our great province. When this place is reduced to a debate about who holds power, when we do not all equally share the balance of responsibility, we stop serving the people of British Columbia and start serving our banners, our colours and our parties. I do not accept a balance of power. I only accept my share of the balance of responsibility on behalf of my constituents in Saanich North and the Islands and all British Columbians.

I’m troubled by the promises to remove bridge tolls, I have to say. This was a political decision based on the desire to scoop up votes on either side of the bridge without properly analyzing how we’re going to pay for it or how it fits into our transportation or climate strategies. I do not believe that this is how sound public policy should be made.

At the Saanich Fair this past Labour Day weekend, I fielded so many questions from Vancouver Islanders who said: “Well, what about ferry fares? What about us?” They saw right through the decision to remove tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears Bridges. Decision-making like this quickly becomes a race to the bottom. It exacerbates the very problem that we’re trying to fix.

During recent town halls on all the Gulf Islands, I was asked about lowering or removing ferry fares, the critical connection for Gulf Islanders to the rest of British Columbia. My answer may have been unacceptable to some, but I believe that it was the responsible one. Decisions about ferry fares need to be based on careful analysis.

Are the ferries to the Gulf Islands too expensive? Are Gulf Islanders unfairly carrying more of the cost of their highways than others in British Columbia? I think the answer is yes, but rather than making this a political decision that may have consequences in the near future, it is responsible to take more time now to understand the current situation so we can make a more informed decision in the coming weeks.

I am disappointed, and I share the disappointment of my constituents, that B.C. Ferries was pretty much overlooked in this budget and in the throne speech. Let’s not forget that B.C. Ferries connects people to their homes and approximately 30 percent of our provincial economy. To all the Gulf Islanders and the people living in ferry-connected communities, I will be a strong advocate for you. I look forward to working with the Transportation Minister to address this issue in the very near future.

I have heard, in every community I have visited, British Columbians’ exasperation about housing. This is a canary in the coalmine for the provincial government which has been largely ignored. Governments talk about housing units. They do not talk about homes. I think we need more talk about homes, because they’re different than housing units. Homes are the places where people live, where families grow up. Homes are the cornerstone of stable, resilient communities.

In my opinion, your home is a rock, we have much stronger social outcomes, and economic and environmental outcomes as well. When you feel vulnerable in your home, when it is on the sand, then everything else is less stable, and that is when desperation sets in.

From what I have seen so far, desperation has set in for many British Columbians, and it’s from across a vast socioeconomic spectrum. We can immediately address housing affordability issues — the leaky bucket — by plugging the holes. But we ultimately need public policy that is about more than just plugging holes. We need to address the integrity of the bucket. It is pretty clear to me that the former government used the runaway housing market to cash in on their strong-economy rhetoric when their promises around natural gas did not come to fruition as planned.

Housing is too important to the stability of our society to be playing political games with. I support this budget’s investment in affordable housing, but I want to push further. I want us to dig deeper. In my opinion, we are not going to solve the problems of housing affordability by simply endlessly increasing inventory. British Columbia is blessed with an endless supply of demand from people who want to live in our beautiful province, from all across our country and all across the world. We must take bold action to curb the rampant speculation in our housing market, which is turning our homes solely into commodities.

That said, we must do this with caution. Many British Columbians are banking on the value of their homes for their retirement. So this is the fine line that we are walking. Homes define a community, and communities define a province. The unwillingness of the previous government to tackle this issue head-on is breaking our communities, and it is breaking our province. I sincerely hope that this government will show itself willing to treat the roots of this issue, to truly tackle the housing affordability crisis gripping our province. I will be working with them, going forward, to ensure that meaningful action is taken.

We are having some fundamental discussions in our communities about governance. In my riding alone, Saltspring Island has had a long debate on incorporation. On the Saanich Peninsula and in greater Victoria, it’s amalgamation. A referendum ended Saltspring’s incorporation debate with residents choosing the status quo. A report recently released identified ways that greater Victoria municipalities could work more closely together. While these initiatives addressed the immediate question at hand, nothing has changed.

Communities make a province. And how those communities are working together managing those fence lines and their connections across the fence lines ultimately is what defines who we are as a province. It is our duty to make sure that government is serving the people and that they are ultimately in control of their governance at the community level and at the provincial level. When public debate about incorporation or amalgamation exists, it is a sign that the communities are not feeling well-served by their governance structures, and we have a duty to act.

Housing, transportation, business — all exist in community. If the community governance is not working, if we cannot effectively build sewage treatment systems or effectively negotiate better transportation and transit options because it is unclear what fence lines we are responsible for and what fence lines we are tending to, then the governance structure needs attention.

The provincial government has a critical role in addressing this. Those conversations will start with this new government next week at the Union of B.C. Municipalities. I look forward to working with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Parliamentary Secretary for TransLink to address these issues in future budgets.

To sum up, there is much in this budget that I fully support. I’m thrilled that this budget update includes the emerging economy task force and the innovation commission — the two B.C. Green ideas out of our platform, designed to build the future of our economy and enable us to seize exciting opportunities.
I welcome the increases to the carbon tax announced in this budget. This is the first of a number of steps that need to be taken to take meaningful action on climate change, enabling B.C. to once again become a climate leader.

I am fully supportive, of course, of the investments announced in this budget in public education and the restoration of free adult basic education and English language learning.
I’m excited to work with the government to thoughtfully develop child care and early childhood education programs over the coming weeks and months.

I support the long overdue increase of welfare rates by $100 a month. But we also must take a step back and ask a more fundamental question than if our welfare rates are adequate to support the fundamentals of a decent life — which, of course, I don’t believe. They’re still not. We must ask whether our social assistance system needs updating to adapt to the 21st century. To help us answer this question, I look forward to the introduction of a basic income pilot in the full budget in February.
There are also items in this budget that I disagree with.

The removal of bridge tolls stands out. It’s the result of a political calculation done to win votes without properly analyzing its impact on the government books or its place within our transportation and climate strategies.

I’m disappointed, and I share the disappointment of my constituents, that B.C. Ferries was pretty much overlooked in this budget. I will advocate for all of the Gulf Islanders living in ferry-connected communities, because this issue hasn’t been taken seriously enough.

And while I welcome the investments in affordable rental stock and modular housing for homeless in British Columbia, we must address the root of the housing affordability crisis and take bold action to curb speculation and close loopholes in our real estate market while maintaining an understanding that people have invested a lot in their homes. Housing is too important. It’s too fundamental to the well-being of British Columbians and to the health of our communities, to the health of our province, to only take action on the sidelines of this crisis. We must face the housing affordability crisis and the many challenges facing us in B.C. head on.

We are in a time of change in B.C. As we navigate it, we must at all times be thinking: what do we want our communities to look like today and tomorrow. How do we want to shape our future? Going forward, we must embrace a vision for the future of our province that is hopeful, that brings new opportunities and rejects the premise that we are divided. Through making smart, unbiased choices based on the long-term vision for B.C., we can seize the exciting opportunities arising out of our changing world. We can build a province where British Columbians enjoy a high quality of life for generations to come. HÍSW̱ḴE. Thank you.