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Housing policy still fragmented with weak measures for affordable and special needs housing
The BC NDP continues to deliver fragmented housing policy, addresses part of the problem part way. The changes represented in Bill 14: Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 and Bill 16: Housing Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 are far from the actions that are needed to support people renting in British...
Amendments to Police Act are far from transformation of policing in British Columbia
After 15 months of deliberations, hearing from more than 400 individuals and organizations, and 1400 survey responses, the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act, tabled an all-Party consensus report on April 28, 2024. The report was comprehensive and offered a plan for implementing the...
HEY BC NDP! Are there other corrupted grant programs?
By now you have likely heard about the scandal brewing involving a grant program administered by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. The allegation that has been sent to the Auditor General is that the government contractor was both adjudicating the grant applications, and...
Budget Estimates: Engaging Minister Cullen on docks in the Southern Gulf Islands
Navigating dock management complexities on British Columbia's coast is a multidimensional challenge for the provincial government. In the Southern Gulf Islands, balancing the post-moratorium backlog of pending dock applications, environmental concerns, and fostering collaborative relationships with...
MLA Column: Proposed legislation aims to protect firefighters and bear dens
I’ve sat on a lot of committees in my time as an MLA, including police act reform, freedom of information and privacy act reviews, and several hiring committees. Last summer, I participated in an all-party committee to look at how private members (all MLAs except cabinet ministers) could introduce, debate, and vote on bills or motions. Currently,...
Budget Estimates: Agriculture Minister excuses oil and gas running roughshod over ALR
For the past fifty years the BC NDP could be counted on to be the most vocal advocates of agriculture, specifically protection of the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) and the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). However, in my recent exchange with Hon. Pam Alexis (Minister of Agriculture) it has...
Bill 13: Amendments to allow First Nations communities to own and hold land
For more than 175 years, First Nations communities have not been able to own land in the name of their First Nation. The province is finally amending the Land Title and Property Law Acts to allow Indigenous communities to hold land as they determine is in their best interest. These changes while...
When is the health minister going to re-open Saanich Peninsula hospital emergency room overnight?
The Minister of Health, Hon. Adrian Dix, has stood in the legislature and talked about how he is spending billions more each year on the healthcare system. His budget has ballooned from $21 billion (2017/18) to $36 billion this year. My constituency email is full of stories from our constituency...
As drought grips British Columbia, why is energy minister prioritizing water/electricity for LNG?
The BC NDP government has their priorities wrong. While drought grips British Columbia the provincial government is prioritizing electricity and water for the fracking industry. In order for our province to meet CleanBC climate action targets requires electrification. Drought is causing tremendous...
Firefighters Protection Act: Taking preventative steps to protect firefighters from toxic compounds
British Columbia has been a leader in legislating presumptive clauses in the workers compensation system for firefighters that are diagnosed with certain forms of cancers. Rather than forcing firefighters to prove the cancer is a result of exposure from their workplace, we presume it is. It is a...
Regulating Artificial Intelligence in British Columbia elections
With a provincial general election just a few months away there is no discussion, or even a hint of a concern, about the potential impact that artificial intelligence and large language models on our democratic processes. As a demonstration of how powerful the tools are I created a simple prompt in...
Why does the BC NDP allow the fossil fuel industry spread misinformation about emissions?
You have probably seen the fossil fuel lobby advertising campaign with bright green bus ads and highway billboards making specious claims that BC NDP LNG will reduce emissions. It of course is nonsense. However, they are spending a lot of money promoting these misleading statements across the...
Is the energy minister going to allow BC Hydro to cut corners on transmission lines?
BC Hydro needs to build massive new transmission lines to provide electricity to the BC NDPs LNG industry in order for them to create the illusion that the fossil fuel industry is “net-zero.” In order to expedite the construction of the transmission lines BC Hydro doesn’t want to go through an...
Introducing changes to gendered language in ICE-T Act
Last Fall, while we were debating changes to the North Island-Coast Development Trust Initiative Act I asked why the Minister ignored requests from the Island Coastal Economic Trust to remove gendered language in their law? Hon. Brenda Bailey, Minister of Jobs and Innovation stated it was an...
Bill 7: Social Development and Poverty Reduction Statutes Amendment Act (2024): Entrenching poverty
The BC NDP has long promised that as social democrats they will stand up for the most vulnerable people in the province. They always point to how terrible the former government was as a way to distract from their record. This government is not seeking to eliminate poverty but rather reduce it and...
Bill 5: Child, Family, and Community Service Amendment Act (2024): Compliance with Court ruling
Following a Court of Appeal ruling that a section of the Child, Family, and Community Service Act, made in the Fall 2022 intruded to far into personal privacy the Minister has until April to make the change to comply with the decision of the court. [Transcript] A. Olsen: Thank you for the...
Introducing Wildlife Protection Act (2024): Protecting Bear Dens in British Columbia
For the third time I introduced a Wildlife Amendment Act to afford protections for bear dens in British Columbia. Premier David Eby has mandated his Minister of Water, Land, and Natural Resources, Hon. Nathan Cullen, to protect biodiversity, this includes ensuring bears have a sage place to den,...
Why is the Minister failing to cover costs of basic grave markers for low-income British Columbians?
While the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction pays the funeral cost of the lowest income British Columbians, they will not pay for a basic grave marker. It makes little sense. For more than a year the Ministry has defended the indefensible that they are burying people in unmarked...
Why does health minister fail to meet agreed nurse-patient ratios? Why is he privatizing healthcare?
The healthcare system is failing British Columbians. Yet, the finance minister continues to hand the health minister billions of dollars in an expanded budget. Last year, the health minister Hon. Adrian Dix signed an agreement with BC Nurses to ensure there was a safe patient-nurse ratio. He still...
Housing is a human right and our policy must start with the most vulnerable in our society
I have asked the BC NDP government multiple times if they believe housing is a human right. First, they suggested access to shelter was a human right, then last Fall the housing minister agreed. In this two-minute statement I outline the actions I believe represent a government that is approaching...
Budget 2024: $89 billion budget piles on debt while BC NDP fails to demonstrate strategic thinking
The BC NDP have tabled an $89 billion dollar budget. The largest in British Columbia history. With it comes a $7.5 billion dollar deficit. The largest in British Columbia history. They have double the provincial debt since taking office. While I believe this would be defensible if British...
Does the housing minister feel it’s appropriate for middle-income earners to subsidize housing of higher wage earners?
With the BC Builds program, essentially a recycled HousingHub that the BC NDP announced in 2018 they have reclassified middle-income for a household from $50-100,000 as it was in the former program to $84-191,000. The BC NDP have offered little relief for people making under $84,000 and so the...
BC NDP populated Aboriginal Affairs committee that they consistently neglect
The Select Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs is required to be populated by the government at each new session of the Parliament. However, government has failed to call the committee take advantage of the fact that all political parties are represented and it could be a good opportunity to...
Will the Minister of Public Safety demand accountability from the RCMP C-IRG?
In Question Period, I asked the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Hon. Mike Farnworth about accountability for the RCMPs Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG). Minister Farnworth suggested that when there are incidents that are described in the courts of discrimination and...
Celebrating resilient communities on the Saanich Peninsula
In this statement I celebrate the 2024 BC Business Awards most resilient communities. First place goes to the District of Central Saanich and second place to the Town of Sidney. I’m thrilled that the Saanich Peninsula has taken the top two spots on the list. Congratulations to Mayors Windsor and...
Land Act: Are the BC United embracing regressive policy of denial of First Nations rights and title?
Two weeks ago the BC NDP quietly launched a public consultation on proposed changes to the Land Act. While I have been publicly critical of the way Minister Nathan Cullen introduced the initiative, I am deeply disappointed by the response of the BC United who decided to re-embrace their former approach that is eerily reminiscent of their...