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...
ÍY SȻÁĆEL (Good Day), Welcome to my weekly update for week four of the 2023 Spring legislative sitting for February 27 - March 3, 2023. It was finally budget week in British Columbia. Like every budget before, the government immediately frames it as the best budget that has ever been written, elevating the items they want in the headlines. The...
Last week the BC NDP government announced an investment of $500 million as an interim measure to keeping ferry fares affordable for BC Ferries users. This will greatly assist my constituents of Saanich North and the Islands who live, work, and recreate on the Saanich Peninsula and Southern Gulf Islands! I have heard...
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...
In Supplementary Estimates for the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, we are debating how Minister Murray Rankin is spending $75,000,000 of extra funding allocated from the Finance Minister. I don't dispute that the six agreements Minister Rankin chose to expediate are worthy. Indeed, it is likely...
Last year, then Interim-Leader of the BC Liberals Shirley Bond, and BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, called on the BC NDP government to empower the Health Committee to study the drug toxicity and poisoning crisis and make recommendations to the Legislative Assembly. The effort was entirely about de-politicizing the...
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...
ÍY SȻÁĆEL (Good Day), Welcome to my weekly update for week three of the 2023 Spring legislative sitting for February 21-24, 2023. It is hard to believe that following my criticisms of the second week of the Spring legislative session that I would be given reason to once again note the bewildering legislative agenda of the BC NDP. The third week...
In 2008, the Wild Salmon Advisory Council released a report about the future of Pacific salmon in British Columbia. In many respects it was redux of salmon strategies of the past. We updated the information and re-engaged the stakeholders and what we learned is that most of profit in fisheries in British Columbia goes...
As I have said repeatedly the BC Legislative Assembly does not function as democratically as it could. The entire agenda is controlled by the party with a majority of Members and that power has been used to shut out private members' from having the legislation they propose, debated and voted on. Significant reforms...
I stood as Third Party House Leader to speak in response to a Ministerial Statement provided by Hon. Anne Kang, Municipal Affairs Minister on the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. [Transcript] I rise today to offer just a few words to the ministerial statement eloquently provided by the Minister of Municipal...
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...
With the announcement of more findings of likely burial sites at the Alberni Indian Residential School, and the similar announcement in January at the St. Joseph's Residential School in Williams Lake, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, Hon. Murray Rankin, offered a Ministerial Statement about the...
When Melanie Mark was sworn in to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly following her by-election victory in February 2016 her family brought her into the assembly in a good way. Melanie was the first First Nations woman elected as a MLA and the first First Nations woman appointed to Cabinet. Today she announced...
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...
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...
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,...
In Members' Statements, I offered a few words to mark the passing of my uncle TEMOSEṈŦET, Dr. Charles Elliott. [Transcript] Today I stand to recognize and honour my uncle, TEMOSEṈŦET, Dr. Charles Elliot. Charles was the preeminent Coast Salish artist. When Charles started to walk his path of artistry 50 years ago,...
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...
Government House Leader Hon. Ravi Kahlon amended the standing orders, the rules which guide the operation of the Legislative Assembly, to switch the order of time for Private Members' motions and statements. These "debates" occur on Monday mornings. While this is a rather innocuous change the reality is that Monday...
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...
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....
In my 2023 Response to the Speech from the Throne I cover a variety of topics including Indigenous relations, housing, healthcare, climate action, biodiversity and ecosystem health. This is by no means a fulsome response to all the topics covered in the Throne Speech but I will highlight other aspects I did not get to...
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...