2011 Legislative Session: Fourth Session, 39th Parliament
HOUSE BLUES
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This is a DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY of debate in one sitting of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This transcript is subject to corrections, and will be replaced by the final, official Hansard report. Use of this transcript, other than in the legislative precinct, is not protected by parliamentary privilege, and public attribution of any of the debate as transcribed here could entail legal liability.
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DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(HANSARD)
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HOUSE BLUES
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011
Afternoon Sitting
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Throne Speech Debate
(continued)

G. Gentner: It is a real pleasure to follow the esteemed colleague from Kootenay East, and I'm certainly not offended. The esteemed member for Kootenay East once said that the HST was the best thing since powder skiing. I guess the 61 percent of his constituents who voted yes to extinguish the HST probably voted that way because they didn't like powder skiing.

I'd like, first of all, before I begin, to thank my family — the sacrifices they make. All members here have families who give up a lot of their private time for us to do our work in this Legislature. I'd also like to thank my friends and, of course, my constituents — the constituents who are not afraid to come to my office and talk to me about issues, have a cup of coffee and discuss everything from the HST to…. One of the biggest issues in my constituency right now seems to be education.

I also have the opportunity at this time to thank my staff — Sheryl Seale and, of course, Renee Poley — who do a grand job relative to all the casework and also put together something that we call the Matrix, a community directory that I challenge all MLAs to follow. This is an extensive directory put out by my office, which also lists a thousand businesses in my constituency, 60 percent of which, of course, are at-home businesses that pay taxes and are an essential part of my community and, through those taxes, pay for many amenities that support my community.

You know, it is great to be back. It's great to be here. I thought, having read the statements of the Premier, that there would be some reference in the throne speech to the view of axing the Senate. That was made earlier by her, but I guess someone told the Premier that (a) it's not in our jurisdiction, and (b) the Senate actually sits most of the time, while here in the Legislature it seems to be a convenience.

So 112 days is the time we've spent in this Legislature since the last election, about 900 days ago; 112 days — that's all we've sat here. You take away the half days, the Wednesday, and it really amounts to about 98 days. That's quite remarkable. But it's great to be back. It's great to be here.

[1440]
I know the Premier talked about the Senate and suddenly recanted it. But speaking of flip-flops, I was also expecting something in the speech about cigarette prevention. That's because last week the Minister of Health said that the province would institute a surcharge on MSP premiums for people who smoke, and 24 hours later the Premier said: "I think it is a slippery slope for government to start applying MSP premiums based on people's personal behaviour." We expected to see it in the throne speech, but it's obviously another flip-flop from the government that seems to be rudderless, hon. Speaker.

It's also great to see so many members, particularly on the opposite side, who are going to have a job for at least another 17 months. I wish some of my constituents in North Delta could have that kind of security. I know we have a place of work called BEL-PAR. Workers, my constituents, are worried about that, because some of the furniture they make for the school district or for the Ministry of Education is now being made somewhere in California. So I have some great concerns on the job front.

I also have to say that I'm really curious why we're even having a throne speech. I was sitting in my office last Monday when we began this, before all of the pomp and ceremony began. I looked across the way at the boutonnieres. The members opposite were wearing this wonderful floral display, and I thought about all the jobs it was creating, the jobs created by simply the throne speech itself.

You know, I was listening and sitting down in my office, and I heard the 15-cannon salute. There was lots of powder and lots of smoke, which is what we can expect from this government. It's typical when you talk about gunpowder, for example, which was used for bringing forward the throne speech — a mixture of sulphur and charcoal and potassium nitrate, all the natural resources to enhance our jobs. Yet again, like most of our natural resources, they go somewhere else, and the gunpowder came from somewhere else to introduce our throne speech.

When it comes to value-added jobs, it seems to be lost in this government. You know Hon. Speaker, the guns were blazing, and the marching band was playing. We had the singing of God Save the Queen, and by the third or fourth gun — the third sound, the fourth sound — we started having O Canada. A 15-gun salute — and where there's smoke, there's fire.

No, the thundering that tested the seismic order of this Legislature, the pomp, was really welcoming us all back. It's more, really, a question of firecrackers lit prematurely before Halloween, an explosion of happiness, of wonderment and delight. Or is it really a symbol of the detonating or the imploding of the B.C. Liberal government?

Didn't we have a throne speech last year, earlier? I know there's a reason for all this pomp, but wasn't it a little over the top? Like, what was in the throne speech? Nothing, nothing of any relevance. We've heard it before from the Liberals.

Budgets — let's talk about previous throne speeches. September 2005, we had the improved support for seniors. What has happened? We're still in chaos, relative to our support for our seniors. In 2006 we had a throne speech that concentrated on the children of B.C., and to this day we have the highest poverty rates in all of Canada. Disgusting.

What do we do? We regurgitate something new. We're going to call it families first.

In 2007 we had a throne speech that was all about housing — how the housing starts were going to bolster the economy — and here we are today. You know, housing is in the ditch. Then in 2008, on the back of a Premier's napkin, we came up with something called the climate change. What a joke that has become. In 2009 the recession was starting. We had the "building stability and confidence" budget and throne speech — increased taxes. It didn't happen. Instead, we are running a deficit over the next five years.

[1445]
In the following throne speech, 2010, it was "building on the momentum of the games." Well, what a joke that turned out to be. Where is that stimulus? Where is it? We also had in 2011, this spring, the need for a prudent, cautious, far-sighted budget and throne speech, and we learned that the CEO of B.C. Ferries has these huge, exorbitant salaries.

So the status quo is still there. It currently exists. Who wouldn't want to admit that? The B.C. Liberals. But I dare not call them B.C. Liberals anymore. It isn't a throne speech by the B.C. Liberal government. No, it's the Premier's party's throne speech. I mean, they're changing names sort of like Teddy Roosevelt did with the Moose Party. No, I think it was called the Bull Moose Party. But we're not going to talk about bull here in this Legislature. No, no — not at all.

We're here because we didn't have an election. We are here for a throne speech instead. There is very little in this throne speech about the environment. You know, I'm sad to hear that the member for Chilliwack-Hope is no longer going to run, but he's doing great work in the view of the incineration file. I didn't see that in the throne speech — about how the asthmatic conditions up the valley are going to now, perhaps, change. What a real shame.

He did really good work on the Species at Risk Act, but I think it's the B.C. Liberals that are at risk, the B.C. Liberals that should be red-listed. They're the ones that need protection. They are the species, I think, that are dying.

B.C. Liberalsaurus — I think that is what we should call it now. Forget the new name of the party. It's attacked by a new malignancy called B.C. Conservatitis. It's taking them on. That is why the band played on, that's why we didn't have an election, and that's why we have this phony throne speech.

The Premier really doesn't have a mandate for the throne speech. I guess we did have an election. It was called the HST, an election and subsequent polling that show the B.C. Liberalsaurus can't fight against its own induced political climate change. Lots of guns and lots of smoke on Monday.

In today's Vancouver Province the editorial said the following regarding the throne speech: "The legislative program is nothing more than a patchwork of disconnected, off-the-cuff trivialities rather than a serious vision for the province and its citizens." That sums it up. That's what this throne speech is.

Let's talk about the HST. The government has spent over two years defending the HST, and the public has lambasted this government's position and handling. The government believed that father knew best, and what we have today is a lack of trust.

Where is the plan to execute, to move on with the people's mandate and finally get rid of the tax? This throne speech prides itself on families and on jobs. But why does it not move quickly to not only restore trust but restore the economy and give families consumer room to enhance the retail economy?

Regarding the housing market, where is the movement to remove the HST on housing sales and material to get the market moving again and create real jobs?

Jobs. Remember the 2007 throne speech and the budget for 2007 — "building a housing legacy"? Oh, the accolades, the promise. Yet we had more smoke on Monday, regurgitating something that has already failed. No action on the HST — therefore no jobs.

Why is it taking so long? Here's what the Premier said regarding quick turnarounds. "You know, when I talk about change, one of the changes people are going to see in government is we are going to move fast." That's what the Premier said. She said that as a newly elected leader of the party. "We will move fast." And here we have an HST that's mired in slow controversy.

I guess the B.C. Liberalsaurus is a clumsy, awkward animal. It can't move according to the political change.

[1450]
Regarding housing, there is no way buyers are willing to wait for change. We need jobs now. We have empty subdivisions that sit with foundations poured and that are ghost towns. In North Delta we have infill lots that sit idle. Throughout British Columbia thousands upon thousands of workers could be working today if the B.C. Liberals could adapt and become swift.

Framers, electricians, plumbers and drywallers sit waiting. Retailers with building inventories are stagnant. We want jobs, so let's start the wave. Let's not wait for 2013.

You know, in my community we have a store, Home Hardware. It was there for 20 years. It shut down. It shut down a month ago.

The throne speech talked a lot about jobs. I quote: "Education and skills training should allow…British Columbians to earn a living in their own town. We are establishing regional workshop tables with seats for community, industry, First Nations and labour representatives to collaborate."

Since the Industry Training Authority was created in 2003, labour has not had a seat at the table. The government has yet to address many systemic issues with the ITA as identified in the Auditor General's report of 2008.

The budget this government is currently working under has cut the funding for the ITA, the training authority, by $3.3 million. It talks about the need for skilled workers and how they're going to come forward with all this training. Well, obviously, if you don't have the budget, the throne speech is all fluff.

ITA has failed this. The Red Seal program has collapsed because of this notion of modular training. High-skilled sector workers have told us in Delta…. We have a huge industrial area in my community. They've told us that they can't find the skilled workers. They have to train themselves.

You know, there's a lot of snorting going on over on the other side, but really, that is a species that cannot adapt to changing times.

We're talking about jobs. In the throne speech it talks about the B.C. jobs plan and through which the B.C. jobs plan has now changed the name of what the government has been proposing — the foreign trade zone into the international trade zone.

Jobs in my community are somewhat port-related. But what's happening here is that the supply chain industries are good jobs in support of the Asia-Pacific. What the government is proposing is a free trade zone, a state within a state that's going to have its own regulations, its own authorities, its own deregulation of labour standards and environment, and less corporate taxes.

Now, I only want to talk briefly…. The Premier has said and the throne speech says: "We will reach out to help B.C. companies entering Asian markets. We will be better equipped to welcome foreign investors through a new hosting and business development program. The Premier also will lead a provincial trade mission to…China this fall to build and strengthen relationships forged over the past decade and to identify opportunities for the next" decade.

Yet HD Mines, a joint venture recently formed between the Huiyong Group of mines — this is from China — has six months to bring workers to Tumbler Ridge before the LMOs expire. Now, HD Mines near Tumbler Ridge has already received permission to hire 92 foreign workers from China for their proposed coal mine — trained in China. So where are the jobs for British Columbia? You're bringing this investment from Asia, but the foreign workers are coming from China. Is that the new job plan for British Columbia? That is the job plan.

The province is responsible for enforcing labour standards, but we know what's happened. We know what's happened to the forest tree farmers up at Columbia, you know. They were scammed by labour contractors. We know what happened to the mushroom workers. They weren't protected.

The second pillar to the throne speech of the B.C. job plan is "making sure that the right connections are in place through investments in smart infrastructure. Building Canada's Pacific Gateway will continue to be a massive project, performed hand in hand with local governments."

Local government — what a joke. There's a freeway running through my community. There was no consultation. They're just ramming this thing through. They've put a new alignment that's supposed to go somewhere down by the river. They're now pushing it up in the back doors of a community that had no choice but to buy into it.

[1455]
You know, it goes on to say: "Our province has a special duty to ensure that marine ports and airports linking Canada to Asia and the rest of the world are the best they can be. The government is making significant new investments…at Deltaport."

What are those investments? It's going to be an international trade zone, foreign trade zone — deregulation, zero taxes, on and on. That's the blueprint behind the throne speech. And what are we seeing here? I quote some of the language. The foreign trade zone will need "guest workers" to survive. They're not calling them foreign workers. They're calling them guest workers.

So where are these jobs for British Columbians? The temporary workers program is alive in B.C. with little protection for those workers. The Sauder school of economics has referred to this so-called international free trade zone as a race to the bottom. So those are the underpinnings of what this throne speech is all about.

Now, on the health front the throne speech talks about helping families. But as the government states: "Families can extend beyond bloodlines to one's support network of friends and mentors. How we define them is a personal choice." A personal choice. Tell that to the challenged adult who, at the age of 18, moves from one ministry to the next.

How we define families is a personal choice. But what about the elderly grandmother whose children unfortunately are on the street — they're addicts — and she has no support? She's part of a family, but her position in mainstream society may not fit the criteria. Her husband is gone, but she still has to pay the bills. Define the family.

Take the case of Verna, 98 years old, in my community. Privatized health care workers won't even make her a pot of tea because they are afraid that her son might take a sip. Yeah, that's what is going on out there. Home care has been privatized. And the other part of it is that the son has a part-time job trying to make his way through it all. It's jeopardized, because the scheduling is not meeting the needs of his mother.

We're seeing the continual loss of Meals on Wheels, and therefore a lot of seniors are forced to take care outside the home into assisted living, costing us more money.

Let's talk about health care, families and jobs. There is nothing new in the throne speech regarding health care. All the comments are simply reiterations of past commitments. The expansion of Surrey Memorial Hospital was announced before the 2005 election by the then Premier, who said shovels would be in the ground by 2007. The expansion has been re-announced countless times by B.C. Liberalsaurus.

Oh, and let's not forget the former Minister of Health's commitment in June 2010 that by 2015 there would be a doctor for every British Columbian. Currently the BCMA estimates that a quarter of a million British Columbians don't have a doctor even today. Families and jobs, and the hatchet job in home care.

The private sector jobs — probably the end of our health care system, as we know. In Delta we had something called Delta Home Care, a non-profit. It used to be small and community-based. Delta Home Support Services was changed over a year ago, reduced the number of organizations. They had control of a budget. Home used to be excellent. Delta was a community-based system. It was contracted out to Saint Elizabeth and to Comcare and now over to Riviera, where we're seeing a great loss of jobs.

A new contract for the Fraser Health Authority, Riviera — Surrey, North Delta, New West, Burnaby — a huge U.S. corporation. It's changed, and the wheels are now falling off the system — and the loss of jobs. Scheduling is based now on profit and therefore will change with no respect to the client needs.

So we're talking about family. Yes, but this side believes in only one family, and that's the needs of the corporate family. Riviera-operated home care is run like a franchise and is losing their workers. There are no performance audits regarding the organization scheduling, and the accounting department and the call centres are located in Toronto.

No supervisor to check out the scene. It has been so depersonalized. Everything is automated — voice mail. Patients are in need. These are patients that need real need. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Lots of turnover. Loss of morale.

[1500]
Now, workers only get a few gloves at a time to commute to their different homes. That may be good. They have to go back and forth on their own time to get the medical gloves. Think of that.

It's all right, I suppose, if the gas attendants are going to fill their cars. That means more jobs for them. But the system is falling apart.

Delta Home Care used to be locally controlled, could talk and persuade and get them going relative to their personal needs. Now there's no local control. It's understaffed, and the people there are overworked. Training has decreased, and scheduling is dispatched on availability and not on personal care needs.

There was one person, a lady in my constituency, who needs range of motion in the morning — she has MS — to get going, but it's all rescheduled. Sometimes she's lucky that that person comes, and when the person comes, the person's untrained.

The Premier better redefine family and the notion that all jobs come from the private sector, because if you have no oversight, no compassion, you have no family or any healthy workplace.

Now I'm going to conclude by talking a little bit about the throne speech and its reference to bullying. It states: "Important anti-bullying policies in our schools will be expanded to include a comprehensive training regime, on-line reporting tools and advanced threat assessment tools and protocols."

Anti-bullying is necessary, but so are so many other things, as well, in our curriculum. We have to re-enhance physical education, for we're seeing children who are becoming obese. The arts have been cut. We need creative minds. Today we have over 16,000 classes that have over 30 students or more than three IEP students.

On the anti-bullying, I held many forums in my community over the years. I have a real good understanding what it means. Anti-bullying is going to be part of curriculum, which is wonderful, but let's not forget what the slogan is. "Bullying stops here."

Bullying stops right in this House. The Premier has been touting an anti-bullying agenda but has yet to take action to protect the victims of bullying across the province. Victim service has been cut to the bone.

The budgets…. You know, it's all now up to Crown prosecutors. They have very little resources. If you're lucky, you have the local police, which may give you some assistance.

But who is the bully? "Bullying stops here." What is it called? IhateJohnCummins.ca? I'm sorry. Ican'ttrustJohnCummins.ca”? Unprincipled? Can't trust? Hate ads, negative ads? Who's calling the kettle black here?

"A new beginning. A new start. We're going to have no negative advertising." But this province, the provincial government, is going to run an anti-bullying campaign, and it's got its own cyberbullying going on at the B.C. Liberal website. Go check it out. That's where the bullying really starts.

Under the municipal auditor general, also mentioned…. Our provincial Auditor, in his last report, said that the government's own bookkeeping is unacceptable — accounting errors, information not auditable or misleading.

We've seen what happened with the massive creative bookkeeping with the Olympics, the megaproject not cited as part of the deficit, and now we have a government that's extolling the need for a municipal auditor general, when our own Auditor General says that for a government that strives for transparency and unaccountability, its own recordkeeping is "unacceptable." It's pointing fingers.

Let's define the municipal auditor general, define who interprets, because some of the most compelling arguments by the Auditor General go unheeded by its own government.

In conclusion, the throne speech proves that the Premier's plan is largely an exercise in repackaging existing plans and programs, heavy on self-promotion and light on real action. This is a government, frankly, that is out of gas. It's out of ideas. It's regurgitating the old, having spent the past two years completely consumed by the debate on the HST.

[1505]
I want to describe what this government is. I'm going to give you these words. "More and more, it's abundantly clear" — in the approach of this government, or of this leader opposite — "that…positions are simply not credible, and it shows that she has no real plan for our province, our economy or our families. On these significant issues, the public wants certainty and clarity, not more doublespeak and misdirection."

That was from the current Minister of Education on February 2, 2011, during the B.C. Liberal leadership…. So we knew. Even on that side most of the members had projected where we're going to go with the leadership of the current party.

This is a budget that lacks clear job targets. It leaves vital investments in people out of the equation. It fails to offer anything for many sectors, such as forestry, tourism, communities and the green economy.

In conclusion, Hon. Speaker, I'm hopeful that in the next six or seven weeks we'll get some substance when we debate the throne speech further and what it really means, debate some of the bills. Let's get onto the real job here in making this province work.