It has been 25 years since the British Columbia government did a comprehensive update of the Mental Health Act. In 2021, the BC NDP made a record investment in mental health programs and services. However, the Act governing them is outdated and based on ideas and values from a previous generation. Another Act that...
Both the BC NDP and BC Liberals support gas liquefaction for the export market. However, a growing body of research is showing that fracking, the process to extract gas from the ground, causes significant harm to human health. Indigenous communities, children and pregnant people are disproportionately impacted by the...
Services for adults with eating disorders across the province are delivered by health authorities with one exception - Island Health. For some inexplicable reason those services are delivered by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. For years, the services have been inadequate but during the pandemic the...
Large corporate institutional landlords, known at real estate investment trusts (REIT), are purchasing rental apartments at a shocking rate. In many cases, they are renovicting the tenants and dramatically increasing rents. This is another example of the financialization of housing and it is putting many renters...
Nearly 1,000,000 British Columbians do not have access to a family doctor or team of primary health care practitioners. More are notified each day that their doctor is retiring or shutting down their practice due to exhaustion and frustration. There is a lurking threat that the BC NDP is doing nothing about, large...
When the consortium of multi-national corporations decided to invest in LNG Canada they only approved half the project (2 trains). They government regulatory process had approved them for 4 trains. Now they are looking at the possibility of growing their investment to the full 4 trains. The problem for the BC NDP is...
I followed up my previous question to Hon. Katrine Conroy (Minister of Forests) about her defense of the aerial spraying of glyphosate on B.C. forest lands. Ultimately, the food security that the provincial government talks about does not include Indigenous practices of hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild foods...
The BC government continues to use glyphosate and other poisons to clear forest lands of unwanted vegetation. Unwanted only by the forest industry. The species that this government is killing are the same species that Indigenous Peoples have harvested, and continue to harvest, since time immemorial for food and...
Following the tabling of the Declaration Act Action Plan, I rose in Question Period to ask Premier John Horgan how his BC NDP government can justify the expansion of fossil fuel extraction and liquefaction infrastructure knowing the human rights violations, environmental and Indigenous rights. In my follow-up question...
In the 2020 election the BC NDP promised to make contraception free for all British Columbians. As a cisgender male, free or near-free condoms are widely available, vasectomies are covered by MSP, however for women, trans-men and gender diverse people, getting prescription contraception requires a visit to a medical...
With housing costs soaring in British Columbia the BC NDP's market driven for-profit affordable housing is not working. Affordable housing is out of reach for many British Columbians. The BC NDP flagship housing program is called the Housing Hub, it invests $2 billion worth of public money in market rental...
We learned this morning that Coastal Gas Link (CGL) and Trans Mountain Pipelines have purchased steel pipe manufactured by Envraz PLC, a company owned, chaired and run by Russian oligarchs. It is an important question and in the my delivery of my supplemental I unfortunately missed the main point, thinking and talking...
In Budget 2022, the BC NDP government invested $12 million over 3 years to create the long-awaited Declaration Act Secretariat to better organize the provincial reconciliation efforts. That budget though will just cover the salaries and administration of the office. We know that government funds its priorities and so...
I continued my questions to the Minister of Children and Family Development asking why she continues to ignore families who want the government to maintain individual supports while investing $25 million this year in building a hub system that has failed in Ontario instead of investing it directly in the families in...
Will the province protect threatened species like the old growth specklebelly lichen? Well, it does not appear the BC NDP have any clear plans to protect endangered species. A couple of years ago Hon. George Heyman abandoned an initiative to develop biodiversity legislation, and if the response from the Minister of...
Hundreds of thousands of British Columbians do not have a family doctor. Despite the BC NDP working on this issue for the past five years with little success, there is a potential for big-tech to entirely disrupt our universal primary health care system. I continued the BC Green Caucus line of questioning asking...
The Minister of Health knows that solving the family doctor crisis is a priority of my constituents. With more than 800,000 British Columbians, 15,000 in my riding, we are now seeing growing inequity in access to a family doctor and comprehensive primary health care. I asked Minister Adrian Dix whether he believes in...
Despite promises to embrace a new journey of reconciliation with Indigenous Nations in British Columbia, the provincial BC NDP government continue to act like a 19th century resource colony. In order to preserve Crown and corporate interests, the BC NDP government maintain a policy that utilizes Court injunctions to...
It appears that Hon. Murray Rankin, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation believes the long-standing conflict over the Coastal GasLink pipeline currently being built in the Wet'suwet'en territory, is the result of "tension and division" among the Wet'suwet'en people. Let's be clear, the fully-armed RCMP...
For weeks now Minister of Children and Family Development (MCFD), Hon. Mitzi Dean, has been defending her decision to change the funding model for children with autism and other neurodiverse conditions. I have asked her a few questions on this issue (here and here) and raised it again in the context of Indigenous...
Three weeks ago, the Minister of Children and Family Development, Hon. Mitzi Dean, announced an overhaul of funding and supports for children with autism and other complex neurodiverse needs. Other than suggesting the BC NDP would adopt a hub model for service delivery, Minister Dean offered few other details. Parents...
I have heard from hundreds of British Columbians over the past few months deep concern about a perception that the RCMP, our provincial police service, is not accountable to the provincial government. We have witnessed an increase in police violence, the videos have been shared widely on social media. British...
The housing crisis continues to impact millions of British Columbians. In recent weeks, I have asked the BC NDP government how they are going to address the crisis in the housing market. Today, I inquired about the out-of-control rental market. The problem is growing quarter-over-quarter and now we see rental listings...
Condoms are free and accessible and vasectomies are covered by MSP. However, prescription contraception is not covered. As Access BC writes, "free prescription contraception increases equality, improves health outcomes, and saves people and the government money!" The BC NDP made a commitment for free contraception in...
Sonia Furstenau and I have been asking the BC NDP government about their approach to solving the housing crisis in British Columbia. Each Minister who has responded to our questions have pointed to programs they have implemented in the past four years. Despite all the billion dollar programs I continue to hear how...