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Housing legislation aims to increase supply. Will it?
Premier David Eby begins to move his housing agenda forward two new bills in the last week of session. Bill 43 aims to increase supply. However, significant questions remain about what kind of supply is being built. In addition to market housing supply, will these changes lead to affordable non-market housing such as...
Will Premier Eby scrap proposed changes to individual autism funding model?
For more than a year, families with neuro-diverse children have been demanding the Minister of Children and Family Development, Hon. Mitzi Dean, scrap a proposal that ends individual funding for supports and instead creates a hub model. The Minister has consistently told British Columbians that she is listening to...
Will Premier Eby increase income and disability assistance rates above the poverty line?
For a so-called progressive government to allow the provincial income and disability rates to languish $10,000 below the poverty line is totally unacceptable. The BC NDP government likes to tell a story about this themselves and the fact that they have allowed disabled people to continue to live in poverty is...
BC NDP adjust sitting hours (yet again) to accommodate chaotic legislative agenda
Well, I wish I could tell you different, however, the BC NDP continues manipulate the Parliamentary calendar to suit their sloppy management of their own legislative agenda. As a companion to my comments from earlier in November, here are the comments I made on November 21, 2022 in response to the Government House...
Changing the law is the first step in improving Indigenous child welfare in British Columbia
The good news is that the Ministry of Children and Family Development has taken the first step in improving Indigenous child welfare in British Columbia. As the Minister said in her introductory speech of Bill 38: Indigenous Self-Government in Child and Family Services Amendment Act, "this proposed legislation would...
BC NDP cancels four sitting days and democratic process
The BC NDP are carefully managing the entrance of their new leader Premier-designate David Eby, and they are cancelling important democratic processes to make it happen! Even though Mr. Eby won the leadership event weeks ago the province has been operating with maybe one, or two, Premiers. One Premier who essentially...
Changes coming to WorkSafeBC
Bill 41 makes seven key changes to the Workers Compensation Act to better support workers (detailed below). Five of these changes fulfil recommendations from the Patterson report; all of the recommendations work to bring BC in line with other Canadian jurisdictions. - This legislation establishes a more independent...
Update: Week 16 – 3rd Session, 42nd Parliament
ÍY SȻÁĆEL (Good Day), Welcome to my weekly update for November 6, 2022! Another busy week in the BC Legislative Assembly is complete and now we begin two weeks in the constituency before returning for one final week of the Fall sitting. As the Assembly does not sit on weeks with statutory holidays, we were scheduled to be closed for next week so...
Saanich Inlet: The place I belong to
The Saanich Inlet is a special place. It has fed countless generations of my family it must be protected. I rose and spoke to the importance of this place to my family and to the thousands of people who live around the inlet. [Transcript] SAANICH INLET The environmental degradation of the Saanich Inlet is personal....
Will the Minister review the Mental Health Act?
The Minister of Mental Health and Addictions has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a broken system of mental health services. At the centre of that is an outdated Mental Health Act. Several organizations such the Representative for Children and Families, the Ombudsperson, and several other community...
Active Vessel Management Program seeking public input until November 30, 2022
VESSEL MANAGEMENT CONSULTATION OPEN FOR PUBLIC FEEDBACK! For years the proliferation of deep-sea vessels using the Southern Gulf Islands as a parking lot has caused environmental and social challenges. We have heard stories of environmental degradation, excessive noise, light and greenhouse gas emissions negatively impacting the Salish Sea. For...
Will the Minister require an environmental assessment for Bamberton quarry?
My colleague Sonia Furstenau and I have received hundreds of emails from concerned citizens living around the Saanich Inlet about the proposed expansion of the Bamberton quarry. (Learn more at https://adamolsen.ca/2022/10/public-comment-open-for-bamberton-quarry-expansion-application) The fact that a proposal to...
MLA Column: Municipal candidates show dedication to community
With the 2022 local government and school district elections in the books, I want to raise my hands in gratitude to all our friends, family and neighbours who courageously put their names on the ballot for our consideration. Congratulations to all the newly elected and re-elected mayors and councillors in Saanich North and the Islands. I look...
Update: Week 15 – 3rd Session, 42nd Parliament
ÍY SȻÁĆEL (Good Day), Welcome to my weekly update for October 30, 2022! MLAs returned to Victoria for the third week of the Fall sitting of the Legislative Assembly. The BC NDP leadership event is now completed and former Attorney General, David Eby, has been confirmed to be the next Premier of British Columbia. We await his swearing in ceremony...
Unfunded inflationary pressures threatening public education system
I have been hearing about the challenges that school districts are facing managing the unfunded inflationary pressures that are piling up. Especially in districts of stable or declining enrollment newly elected school board trustees will be tasked with challenging decisions about what is going to get cut. The BC NDP...
Major changes to health professions and occupations to add oversight
I spoke to Bill 36: Health Professions and Occupations Act. It must be the heftiest, all 645 clauses, that has been tabled in my time in the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. This is new legislation comes out of the work of a steering committee created by the Minister of Health, Hon. Adrian Dix, and including the...
Ministerial Statement: Responding to the tabling of reforms to the child welfare system
Child welfare in British Columbia has long been a shameful part of our provincial history. As the Ministry of Children and Family Development Fact Sheet noted despite the reality that Indigenous people are less than 10% of the population, Indigenous children represent 68% of the children in care. The provincial child...
Slow response to primary healthcare crisis leaves constituents desperate
Despite Minister Adrian Dix’s claims he is addressing the primary healthcare crisis in British Columbia, thousands of my constituents in Saanich North and the Islands do not have access to a family doctor. The pace of Minister Dix’s response is creating a gap and the corporations are lining up to exploit it. While the...
Submit your feedback on boundary changes proposed for Saanich North and the Islands
In October 2021, the provincial government struck an Electoral Boundaries Commission to review electoral district boundaries and make recommendations with the goal of ensuring that the weight of all British Columbians vote is equal. Among the boundary realignments the Commission proposed adding six new electoral districts, expanding the...
Update: Week 14 – 3rd Session, 42nd Parliament
ÍY SȻÁĆEL (Good Day), Welcome to my weekly update for October 23, 2022! With the 2022 local government and school district elections in the books, I want to raise my hands in gratitude to all our friends, family and neighbours who courageously put their names on the ballot for our consideration. Congratulations to all the newly elected and...
Remembering former MLA and entrepreneur Clive Tanner
In September, former Saanich North and the Islands MLA and Sidney businessman Clive Tanner passed away. In my statement this week I stood to recognize Mr. Tanner and the significant contribution he made to our community and province. [Transcript] Today I stand to celebrate the life of a community leader and former...
Public comment open for Bamberton Quarry expansion application
UPDATE – November 4, 2022 My colleague Sonia Furstenau (MLA, Cowichan Valley) and I met with Minister of Environment and Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) officials on November 3, 2022 for an update. We learned that a request has been made for an Environmental Assessment of the Bamberton Quarry project and the EAO...
From a culture of secrecy to open government
This week, the report of the Special Committee to Review the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act that was published earlier this summer was officially table in the Legislative Assembly. As a member of the Committee, I had an opportunity to speak to the process and the contents of the report. As the...
PODCAST: Jonathan Morris, CEO B.C. Chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association
In this episode of The Public Circle Podcast, I connect with Jonathan Morris, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association, B.C. Chapter. He has worked in the sector for the past two decades and we start our conversation discussing how he got started and what he and the CMHA is doing today. We cover a variety of relevant topics including, • The...
Update: Week 13 – 3rd Session, 42nd Parliament
ÍY SȻÁĆEL (Good Day), Welcome to my weekly update for October 9, 2022! Firstly, I want to raise my hands in gratitude this Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you to my Constituency Advocates, Laura Parker and William Kelly for their incredible work on behalf of the people in Saanich North and the Islands. Thank you to the team in the BC Green Caucus...
Addressing Crises in B.C. requires humanizing and collaboration
Earlier this month, my colleague Sonia Furstenau delivered her first in-person speech to local government elected and administrative officials who were gathered for the Union of BC Municipalities convention (UBCM). Sonia and I were both previously elected to local government and have many friends in office in communities across the province. It...