Join me on Substack and Subscribe The Saanich Inlet used to bubble with life. Eagles perched in giant firs towering above the shoreline watching the herring boil. The seabirds feasted from the surface while the winter springs fed from below. Ducks, gulls, and grilse were plentiful, and the sandy beaches spouted with telltales of healthy...
Join me on Substack and Subscribe The public safety system in British Columbia is at a crossroads. For more than a year, the all-Party committee on Reforming the Police Act listened to the public, experts, and police stakeholders. In April 2022, we tabled a bold plan for change—only to see it shelved by the former minister. Now, with Hon. Garry...
Join me on Substack and Subscribe Fellow Canadians, I know we are stunned right now—whatever we collectively thought might happen following the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States of America (47)—it probably was not as extreme as this feels. There is a lot on our minds as we tend to a fractured Canadian identity. For it to be...
At the end of the day there will be a new MLA-elect for Saanich North and the Islands. So much has happened in the decade since I first started trying to get elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. Now I step back, as someone new steps forward. It was a tremendous honour to represent our communities and this beautiful territory. I...
As the salmon go, we go! It is why I have spent so much time on salmon policy. As the industry is proudly depicted in a mural in the rotunda of the Parliament buildings it has become an example of the boom and bust economy that is the tradition of the British Columbia economy. Boom and bust. That’s...
In final Budget Estimates exchange of the Spring 2024 session I reconnected with public safety minister and Solicitor General, Hon. Mike Farnworth. After several years of advocating for independent oversight of the BC Conservation Officer Service I received the clearest answer to date and it...
We often think that democratic reform is limited to proportional representation. However, as I have seen how the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia functions over the past seven years I have seen how undemocratic it is. The processes that have evolved over the years serves the majority...
The BC NDP have perfected “talk and log”. Minister of Environment, Hon. George Heyman, has consistently disagreed with the premise of my questions. If you were to view the world through his rose coloured glasses you would see a fantastical uptopia. What seems to escape the Minister is while he is...
As an MLA I often confront my relationship to power. I remember back to just a few days after I was elected in 2017 into the position often referred to as “the balance of power” I was asked about this in an interview on CFAX 1070. The question was something like, “how does it feel like to have the...
Despite their rhetoric, the BC NDP government is failing to meet the operational needs of school districts across the province. The BC Teachers Federation is advertising calling on the province to develop a human resource plan, acknowledging our children with the greatest needs continue to be let...
British Columbia will spend more than $500 million to ensure the World Cup is a profitable venture for the FIFA. The cost of hosting the World Cup In Vancouver has already doubled in two years and we still have two years until we host the seven soccer games. Former Premier John Horgan described the...
We have consistently heard from nurses, and the BC Nurses Union, that nurse-to-patient ratios are far from acceptable. Recently, the union surveyed their members. In a media release they highlight, “on a monthly basis, a staggering 81 percent of nurses say they experience verbal and/or emotional...
As the industrialization of the Salish Sea proliferates and overlapping authority of many governing bodies create bureaucratic gridlock, my duty to this territory will never stop. Now more than ever we have a much greater need to protect this fragile ecosystem and restore it to its once abundant...
The health minister Hon. Adrian Dix and Island Health have both known that the Saanich Peninsula hospital requires significant operational and capital investments. Residents of the Saanich Peninsula have always stepped to support their hospital but with a recent story about cockroaches in the...
I continue to be extremely concerned for the most insecurely housed people in British Columbia. While the provincial government has been aggressively making changes to zoning, the volume of non-market housing being constructed and securing the deeply affordable rental units. In budget estimates...
For decades the judicial branch has been strongly encouraging the legislative and executive branches of government to address aboriginal title through negotiation, agreement, and legislation. The approach of the provincial government has been to litigate. This has resulted in the lawyers in the...
In February 2021, I published a blog post celebrating the British Columbia coastline. It was a response to former Premier John Horgan’s editorial proclaiming that a “made-in-BC shipbuilding strategy” was on its way. There was nobody in a better position to make it happen. I wrote, “if this is the plan, let me know how I can help.” Four years...
For the past several years we have heard from the BC NDP government of their investments in education and childcare. At the same time, I have heard from my constituents and education professionals in Saanich North and the Islands the opposite. We are not seeing the results of the massive...
The BC NDP don’t want to confront the reality that their environment minister Hon. George Heyman has full control of the BC Conservation Officer Service (BC COS). As it is laid out in s. 106 of the Environmental Management Act, the service is “under the direction of the minister.” His colleague,...
I suspect the Environment Minister has not updated the Organic Matter Recycling Regulation (OMRR) over the past 15 years because of the cost. Cost of updating sewage treatment facilities to improve the quality of biosolids or safe disposal. Unfortunately, Hon. George Heyman has maintained grossly...
The Surrey policing transition has been fumbled from the beginning. Public safety minister Hon. Mike Farnworth has allowed politics to lead the policy and the result has been expensive and unnecessary. Now the RCMP union President Brian Sauve is stating publicly that the Minister has issued...
After many years, and several attempts, the Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber will make one final flight from its home on Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, BC, landing on the Saanich Inlet before being moved to the B.C. Aviation Museum where it will be a permanent attraction for the Saanich Peninsula...
For the fourth time I have introduced a private members bill to amend solitary confinement policy. The bill prohibits a person from being held in solitary confinement if they are pregnant, at risk of harm or suicide, have a prescribed disability or require medical observation. The bill requires the...
For decades Indigenous child welfare has been in the hands of the provincial government. Their policies have disrupted families, separating children from their parents and extended family, and had devastating consequences. In 2022, the province made large changes through Bill 38: Indigenous...
There is an important teaching that once you start something that you must finish the work. In 2018, the provincial government invested $50 million in Indigenous language revitalization. It kickstarted and reinforced Indigenous language preservation and teaching. These funds were critical for...
The BC NDP continues to deliver fragmented housing policy, addresses part of the problem part way. The changes represented in Bill 14: Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 and Bill 16: Housing Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 are far from the actions that are needed to support people renting in British...