The Montney Play in northeast BC is Canada’s largest potential source of greenhouse gas emissions and the sixth largest in the world. By approving new LNG projects in this area, the BC NDP has locked BC into the fossil fuel economy for decades. While industry propaganda promotes LNG as clean energy, we can’t escape...
The Community Industry Response Group (C-IRG) is an RCMP unit that's been accused of unlawful use of force, arrests, detentions, & assaults. They are facing several lawsuits and an internal investigation for misconduct. And still the BC NDP is allocating them $36M. C-IRG was created in 2017 to support the...
Today, I asked Premier Eby to provide British Columbians with his definition of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. He chose not to answer. Instead, Minister Heyman showcased a fundamental misunderstanding of what scientists have been saying for years. When Premier Eby took his oath he said “we cannot continue to...
Last week, the IPCC released a report delivering a final warning, stating rapid and drastic action are required to keep global warming below the threshold of irreversible damage. The week before, the BC NDP gave another LNG project the greenlight to move forward. This government approved Cedar LNG, claiming the...
Since they formed government the BC NDP has consistently misconstrued promises as actions. They promised for five years to address wage inequity and to deliver free contraception. They finally delivered on the contraception promise but instead of pay equity, British Columbians get pay transparency which is not good...
On Friday March 3, 2023, Hon. Mike Farnworth, British Columbia Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister, visited Salt Spring Island with me. We met with the local RCMP detachment and Salt Spring Fire to learn more about the challenges they face maintaining public safety in the community. In addition, we attended...
With billions of dollars being invested in addictions treatment and recovery, and the BC Liberals proposing the privatization of the industry, it is clear that at the very least the BC NDP should make sure we are collecting data so we understand the scale and scope of the problem and needed response. In addition, we...
Even though the Environment Minister tried to deflect responsibility, let's be clear, the lack of species-at-risk and biodiversity protections in British Columbia is not the fault of First Nations. It was a decision by the BC NDP to scrap the process they started more than five years ago. Even if they want to blame a...
I followed my question on Tuesday, with another on the topic of re-capitalizing the Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICE-T). In her response to my initial question, Minister of Economic Development, Hon. Brenda Bailey pointed to the $33 million REDIP (Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program) as an...
The Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICE-T) has been an important economic initiative supporting communities on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast since it was formed in 2006. Originally capitalized with $50 million dollars (+ $10 million added in 2017) the trust was created as a "spend-down" model. This means that...
For the past week my colleague Sonia Furstenau and I have been asking about resource development, specifically liquefied natural gas (LNG). In this question, I switch from primarily a climate focus to what plan the BC NDP government has for the 18,000 people working on the four mega-projects (LNG Canada, Site C,...
The BC NDP have an LNG problem. They have committed to meet our 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emissions targets. They have continually promoted the CleanBC climate action plan, calling it "world-leading" and "award winning." They know that the first half of the LNG Canada project currently being built in Kitimat barely...
The Saanich Inlet continues to be threatened by the industrial expansion of a quarry at Bamberton. Despite Minister of Environment, George Heyman's suggestion the environmental assessment (EA) process is working as it should, the only reason and EA is even being considered is because the Saanich Inlet Protection...
As the Coastal GasLink Pipeline construction continues across Northern British Columbia reports of the operators flouting environmental and cultural regulations continue to be made public. As the infractions pile up and the penalties amount to less than a rounding error, Coastal GasLink has just turned the B.C....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Coastal GasLink pipeline controversy continues as the BC NDP allow the company to drill and blast under the Wedzin Kwa (also known as the Morice River) while it is full of spawning salmon. The company faces a host of compliance issues with environmental regulations, meanwhile the Minister of Environment and...
In my first Question of the Fall session I asked Minister of Forests, Hon. Katrine Conroy about the growing controversy surrounding the wood pellet industry. Journalists in both the United Kingdom and here in Canada are investigating the claims of the British Columbia government and Drax, a large multinational...
The Gwa’sala-‘nakwaxda’xw Nation are in the process of taking back jurisdiction of child welfare as per federal legislation. They have been attempting to get access to historical information from the provincial Crown governments Ministry of Children and Family Development but have been consistently blocked by the BC...
The BC NDP have long claimed to be the only party that speaks for workers. Increasingly we are seeing they cannot back up their claims. They have failed to protect educators and healthcare workers from COVID-19 and as the climate crisis is causing more and larger wildfires, British Columbians who work outdoors will...
As we approach the one year anniversary since Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir (Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc) announced the preliminary findings of 215 graves of children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School I stood and marked the occasion in a response to a Ministerial Statement delivered by Minister Murray Rankin. This...
The BC NDP need to get their priorities straight. They announced an $800 million new Royal BC Museum, when millions of British Columbians are struggling to keep up with the increasing costs of basic needs like food, transportation and housing. And, for months British Columbians have been demanding the BC NDP address...