In April, I responded to Bill 11 and supported two amendments proposed by the Official Opposition which would've prevented party leaders from having more power in our elections. [Transcript] A. Olsen: Speaking to the amendment, I appreciate the member from the official opposition for raising it. It’s a concern that we...
In March, the House debated Bill 13, the Pay Transparency Act. While important, the legislation does not go far enough. What B.C. needs is pay equity. The following exchange took place during committee stage, where I introduced several amendments in an attempt to make this bill more meaningful and bring our province...
Today, the Legislative Assembly passed Bill 18, the Haida Nation Recognition Act, marking a historic moment for our province and its journey towards reconciliation. We were honoured to be joined in the House today by several members of the Haida Nation, who have worked tremendously hard to see this day come. It was...
The addictions treatment system in this province is failing to meet the needs of British Columbians. A lack of public treatment beds has forced hundreds of desperate families to turn to costly, unregulated private facilities to try to help their loved ones. This is unacceptable. Private facilities are the wild west of...
On Tuesday, I had the chance to speak to Bill 12, the Intimate Images Protection Act. This critical piece of legislation makes it unlawful to distribute, or threaten to distribute, intimate images without consent. The Bill includes provisions allowing survivors to seek monetary damages and have their images removed...
This week, I spoke to Bill 15, the Vital Statistics Amendment Act. Bill 15 will remove the requirement for sex to be on a birth certificate and allow people over 12 to receive care without needing confirmation from a psychologist or a doctor. While there is more work to be done, these are important steps forward that...
Last Tuesday, I spoke to Bill 13, the Pay Transparency Act. While this Bill makes moderate steps forward, pay transparency alone does little to change the discrimination women and other marginalized people face at work. What we need in BC is pay equity. The cost of not addressing pay inequity is borne by women. They...
In Budget 2023, the BC NDP announced a new output-based pricing system (OBPS) for large industrial emitters, which would exempt those who pollute the most from paying the carbon tax up-front. After surpassing a to-be-determined emissions threshold, industrial facilities would be forced to pay a fixed rate on their...
On Wednesday, I introduced private member’s Bill M218, the North-Island Coast Development Initiative Trust Amendment Act. If passed, this Bill would get rid of the $60-million cap on funding for development trusts, and allow the government to provide the North Island Coast Development Initiative Trust the $150 million...
This week, I rose to speak about Bill 11, the Elections Amendment Act. This Bill provides necessary updates to our electoral legislation, bringing our laws in closer alignment with how modern elections operate. Bill 11 will ensure protections against deliberate disinformation, broader recognition of the use of online...
Yesterday, my colleagues and I debated Bill 14, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, which removes outdated, gendered language from more than 200 pieces of legislation. For far too long, our province's laws have been written, debated, and passed without the diversity of British Columbians in mind. This Bill makes...
Simply, Budget 2023 feels more like an update to Budget 2022 than the transformative legacy that Premier David Eby could have delivered. Along with the multi-billion dollar surplus that the BC NDP government is rushing to spend by the end of this fiscal year, and the new budget starting on April 1st, Premier Eby had a...
February 15 & 16, 2023 were terrible days in the legislature for David Eby's BC NDP government. I have been deeply concerned about how the provincial government has mismanaged the legislative calendar and agenda for months now. I've written about it several times. (BC NDP Must Stop Undermining Democracy and Trust...
The British Columbia government is making the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a statutory holiday. It was recommended that governments created a day for truth and reconciliation which the federal government did two years ago. In my second reading speech I outline the importance of this day as an opportunity...
I introduced several pieces of legislation, including repealing the $10 fee for freedom-of-information (FOI) requests, protecting bear dens, and banning prolonged solitary confinement in corrections facilities. These pieces of legislation are aimed at making British Columbia a more transparent and safer place to be...
As we get to the last week of the Fall sitting, the BC NDP government tabled amendments to the Strata Act to remove rental and age restrictions. This was a recommendation of the Rental Housing Task Force I participated in in 2018. This recommendation has not been acted on until now. It was one of the more contentious...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Currently there is no province wide protection for bear dens. While they are protected on Haida Gwaii and in the Great Bear Rainforest, and some protection by logging companies for the vast majority of the province bear den habitat is vulnerable to logging. The private members bill that I tabled today corrects that,...
Today, I tabled legislation to ban the use of prolonged solitary confinement in provincial correctional facilities for both adults and youth. Solitary confinement is defined by the United Nations (UN) as any confinement, seclusion, or segregation of individuals for more than 22 hours a day without meaningful human...
In the first Bill addressing climate change since the BC NDP got their majority government, the Low Carbon Fuels Act is upgrading the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act (2008). With 37% of the greenhouse gas emissions in British Columbia coming from transportation, our pathway to meeting our greenhouse gas reduction targets...
For decades labour policy has lurched back and forth. This is a result of a legislative assembly previously split by two establishment political parties, BC NDP and BC Liberals, aligning as pro-labour and pro-business respectively. This has not benefited workers or business owners. Neither of these entrenched "sides"...
In Bill 16, the provincial government is seeking to give the British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority the power to purchase land to allow for more transit-oriented developments. This is a positive change that has the potential to create more deeply affordable housing near transit routes. With inflation...
Bill 12: Property Law Amendment Act is the legislation promised by Minister Selina Robinson (Finance) last Fall to introduce a “cooling off period” which government is now calling a “Homebuyer Protection Period.” This Bill is another example of the BC NDP using enabling legislation to give them the power to create...