Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio, Welcome.
Speaker 2: To Policy and Rights shows, Welcome to Policy that Human.
Speaker 3: Joys and in.
Speaker 2: Five four three two one, Welcome back to Policy and Writes.
Speaker 2: Here in Depictions Media Radio, I'm your host, Michael Cloggs.
Speaker 2: So in today's episode, what we we have uh statements
Speaker 2: from Doug Ford. We have uh Donald Trump putting the
Speaker 2: United States on high alert more or less he UH
Speaker 2: what what we were able to record from UH from
Speaker 2: his UH his talks was about UH Venezuela and how
Speaker 2: the United States, in the United States industry can use
Speaker 2: that oil and how they will ensure that the people
Speaker 2: of Venezuela benefit from that from that oil and how
Speaker 2: it is actually being used. The former governments were repressing
Speaker 2: the people from from the benefits of the oil and
Speaker 2: putting all of it into their own pockets, while ownership
Speaker 2: of the country belonged to countries like Russia and China,
Speaker 2: and the people of Venezuela were most simply but being
Speaker 2: abused and oppressed by an an Authoritainian government that was
Speaker 2: puppeted up by the two countries of Russia and China.
Speaker 2: So Donald Trump, as we know, sent troops in there
Speaker 2: captured the Venezuelan president and is now currently putting on
Speaker 2: trial for drug trafficking and other crimes against the United
Speaker 2: States and has now propped up the government with the
Speaker 2: with the United States taking control of its oil industry,
Speaker 2: he is going to make some claims about well, of course,
Speaker 2: remember his statement of drill Baby drill that he made
Speaker 2: in his inauguration that Venezuela is going to become the
Speaker 2: second country in the world in production of barrels of
Speaker 2: crude oil under his idea of drill baby drill. So
Speaker 2: we will hear that in a few minutes. We're also
Speaker 2: going to hear from the Montreal Institute of Global Security
Speaker 2: as they're talking about international or should I say trans
Speaker 2: national repression against well one members of the UH of
Speaker 2: the people who would be Chinese Canadian and the Chinese
Speaker 2: communities that exist in Canada, saying that the Chinese government
Speaker 2: is is using its past for for visitors to place
Speaker 2: threats against Canadian citizens in order to gain control of
Speaker 2: those communities and the economy they go along with them.
Speaker 2: They are also also there was a statement made by
Speaker 2: a ceases analysts that I'm going to read from the
Speaker 2: CBC website as He says that service has a large
Speaker 2: security screening branch, which already screened some citizens and immigration applications.
Speaker 2: He said it should screen visitors from China to reduce
Speaker 2: the possibility of the Chinese government agent's slipping in. The
Speaker 2: expert and public inquiry into foreign interference have pointed to
Speaker 2: China as one of the largest sources of transnational repression
Speaker 2: in Canada, with government agents engaging in activities like surveillance
Speaker 2: of members of the Chinese dysphoria, online attacks and threats
Speaker 2: against a family members back in China. So we do
Speaker 2: have a statement that the Montreal Institute of Global Security
Speaker 2: made in Ottawa in front of the press. So, but
Speaker 2: we want to get to our major topic of the day,
Speaker 2: which is the BC government released Budget twenty twenty six
Speaker 2: and Budget twenty twenty six open as it was put
Speaker 2: on the legislative floor. A Budget twenty twenty six opens
Speaker 2: the door for people to train for good paying careers
Speaker 2: and in skilled trades through two hundred and eighty three
Speaker 2: million dollars in new funding over the next three years.
Speaker 2: This will expand spaces for in demand trades programs, increasing
Speaker 2: the per seat funding to training centers, and enhance the
Speaker 2: BC Employer Training Grant to double apprenticeship seats by twenty
Speaker 2: twenty eight to twenty twenty nine. It also included a
Speaker 2: new four hundred million dollar British Columbia Strategic Investment Fund
Speaker 2: to help BC invest quickly in collaborative opportunities major projects
Speaker 2: as federal governments invest in Canada sovereignty. With that being said,
Speaker 2: it was also announced by the Federal Minister of Housing
Speaker 2: former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robinson that they're going to be
Speaker 2: fast tracked new housing projects in British Columbia. So wowhoo,
Speaker 2: new budget at work already. Okay, okay, So this is
Speaker 2: what the critics are saying about the budget. While it
Speaker 2: does a lot of things to support other areas such
Speaker 2: as the marine sector with shipbuilding and ship repairs and
Speaker 2: safeguarding what matters in turbulent times, budget Budget twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six protect the most critical services that people rely on
Speaker 2: every day through five point one billion dollars in funding
Speaker 2: to strengthen healthcare K through twelve, education is better supported,
Speaker 2: And yet they are talking about closing these at tumble Ridge.
Speaker 2: They have moved since I've moved portables in into the
Speaker 2: parking lot there and they're talking about closing down part
Speaker 2: of the school that we will be looking further into
Speaker 2: about why the school is in question. According to the
Speaker 2: Vancouver Province on February eighteenth, Budget twenty twenty six also
Speaker 2: includes six hundred and thirty four million dollars in new
Speaker 2: funding for K through twelve education over the next three years,
Speaker 2: including a one hundred and sixty seventy million dollar investment
Speaker 2: in classroom Enhancement Fund, which will result in more teachers
Speaker 2: for everyone. Debt is something that is extremely positive. The
Speaker 2: teacher to student ratio in British Columbia is still way
Speaker 2: too far off to support quality education and it still
Speaker 2: has needs needs to be fixed. They are also talking
Speaker 2: about a three hundred and thirty million dollars left Childcare
Speaker 2: BC will protect children, childcare services and families who rely
Speaker 2: on those services by maintaining lower fees and the spaces
Speaker 2: and support for operators and educators who achieve more over
Speaker 2: than next eight years. Budget twenty twenty six provides two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million in new funding and support and expansions.
Speaker 2: So back to what the critics are saying that while
Speaker 2: all this spend spend spend is happening that someone's got
Speaker 2: to pay for it. So Budget BC Budget twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six also comes with a number of tax increases for
Speaker 2: the residence of British Columbia. It is on the back
Speaker 2: half of it. So I invite everybody who is listening
Speaker 2: to this that check out and see what taxes could
Speaker 2: be increased. There is one particular story that also stands
Speaker 2: out where a gentleman who has lived a long number
Speaker 2: of years in Vancouver has has been hit with the speculator,
Speaker 2: this speculatory tax and has been fighting it. And it's
Speaker 2: because of his Asian background that he holds a I
Speaker 2: believe it dual citizenship and the speculator, the speculation tax
Speaker 2: that they British Columbia imposed, uh keeps reoccurring for him
Speaker 2: and he is currently he resides in the in the
Speaker 2: home in question that they are taxing and has been
Speaker 2: a permanent resident in that particular home for quite a
Speaker 2: number of years. So if we're talking about tax increases, well,
Speaker 2: property tax is one of the things that that would
Speaker 2: be top at the list. So what happens to people
Speaker 2: when the taxes start to become unaffordable for their homes anyway?
Speaker 2: So why don't we get started, And we're going to
Speaker 2: start off with Donald Trump and his statements about Venezuela,
Speaker 2: and we will hear from Doug Ford as he talks
Speaker 2: about new things that he has in mind for Ontario
Speaker 2: and the Montreal Institute for Global Security before we get
Speaker 2: into the budget speech that was delivered on the legislative
Speaker 2: floor in British Columbia.
Speaker 3: You're around, Yeah, I'm sorry. Where are you from Italy?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Nice place?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay. The first question, so what are you asking
Speaker 4: about Iran for?
Speaker 5: Well, if you can answer about Europe and what you've
Speaker 5: seen that European should do on Ukraine, and then a message.
Speaker 4: Well, look, Europe has been doing so much for Ukraine,
Speaker 4: but it hasn't been enough. And obviously that I would
Speaker 4: say that President Putin.
Speaker 3: Is not afraid of Europe.
Speaker 4: He's afraid of the United States of America has led
Speaker 4: by me.
Speaker 3: There's no fear of Europe.
Speaker 4: You know, Europe's fallen behind and Europe then JD said
Speaker 4: it very strongly. I don't know, took a lot of heat,
Speaker 4: but I didn't give them any heat. Europe is a
Speaker 4: different place, Europe is changing, Europe has got to get
Speaker 4: it sacked. Together. I love Europe. I guess I came
Speaker 4: from Europe essentially. I have my roots are in Europe,
Speaker 4: but Europe is a different place.
Speaker 3: They have to get their act together now.
Speaker 4: They said they have a great NATO leader and they've
Speaker 4: gone up to five percent from two percent GDP.
Speaker 3: That's a big step.
Speaker 4: But they have to be very careful with their immigration policy,
Speaker 4: and they have to be very because you know, I
Speaker 4: will just say, to be nice that there are certain
Speaker 4: places in Europe that are very important that are no
Speaker 4: longer recognizable. I'm being very nice, I'm being very diplomatic
Speaker 4: when I say that they are not recognizable. And they
Speaker 4: have to be careful on energy because they're putting windmills
Speaker 4: all over the place and losing a fortune.
Speaker 3: They're destroying their country.
Speaker 4: They're just destroying the beautiful landscapes, the beautiful everything there.
Speaker 3: By the way, in case you people don't know, I'm
Speaker 3: not much of a windmill person.
Speaker 4: I can proudly say, Doug that we have not approved
Speaker 4: one windmill since I've been in office, and we're gonna
Speaker 4: keep it that way.
Speaker 3: My goal is to not let any windmill be built.
Speaker 4: They're losers, they lose money, they destroy your landscape, They
Speaker 4: kill you birds.
Speaker 3: They're all made in China.
Speaker 4: And all you have to do is, you know, just
Speaker 4: about all of the windmills are made in China, the structures.
Speaker 4: All you have to do is say to China, how
Speaker 4: many windmill is.
Speaker 3: You have in China? So far, they're not able to
Speaker 3: find any.
Speaker 4: They use coal, and they use oil and gas and
Speaker 4: some nuclear, not much, but they don't have windmills. They
Speaker 4: make them and sell them to suckers like Europe and
Speaker 4: suckers like the United States.
Speaker 3: Before they are the worst form of.
Speaker 4: Energy, the most expensive form of energy, and in eight
Speaker 4: years they're rotted out.
Speaker 3: Anyway, go take a look at.
Speaker 4: Palm Springs, California, and take a look at what that
Speaker 4: looks like. It looks like a junk yard, a junk
Speaker 4: yard of steel. So we don't approve, and I've told
Speaker 4: my people we will not approve windmills. Maybe we get
Speaker 4: forced to do something because some stupid person in the
Speaker 4: Biden administration agreed to do something years ago. We will
Speaker 4: not approve any windmills in this country.
Speaker 6: On Venezuela, is it ultimately more important to you to
Speaker 6: establish stability there or democracy there?
Speaker 4: Well, you're talking about maybe the same thing. I mean,
Speaker 4: you're talking about stability or democracy. No, No, to me,
Speaker 4: it's almost the same thing. We want stability, but we
Speaker 4: do want democracy. Ultimately, it'll be democracy. Peter, I have a.
Speaker 5: Policy question, President Trump. But I'm having a hard time
Speaker 5: seeing here. I see the American flag lapel pin. What
Speaker 5: is the other lapel pin?
Speaker 3: Somebody gave me this? You know what that is? That's
Speaker 3: called a happy Trump.
Speaker 4: And considering the fact that I'm never happy, I'm never satisfied.
Speaker 4: I will never be satisfied until we make America great again.
Speaker 3: But we're getting pretty close, I'll tell you what. This
Speaker 3: is called a happy Trump. Somebody gave it to me.
Speaker 3: I put it on. Thank you.
Speaker 5: And the policy question, how much money are you thinking
Speaker 5: of giving people in Greenland to get them on board
Speaker 5: with a possible US.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might
Speaker 3: talk about that, but right now, we are going to.
Speaker 4: Do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,
Speaker 4: because if we don't do it, Russia or China will
Speaker 4: take over Greenland and we're not gonna have Russia or
Speaker 4: China as a neighbor. Okay, I would like to make
Speaker 4: a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we
Speaker 4: don't do it the easy way, we're gonna do it
Speaker 4: the hard way.
Speaker 3: And I'm a man, and by the way, i'm a
Speaker 3: fan of Denmark.
Speaker 4: Too, i have to tell you. And you know they've
Speaker 4: been very nice to me. I'm a big fan. But
Speaker 4: you know, the fact that they had a boat land
Speaker 4: there five hundred years ago doesn't.
Speaker 3: Mean that they own the land.
Speaker 4: I'm sure we had lots of boats go there also,
Speaker 4: but we need that because if you take a look
Speaker 4: outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there
Speaker 4: are Chinese destroyers and bigger there are Russian submarines all
Speaker 4: over the place.
Speaker 3: We're not gonna have Russia or China.
Speaker 4: Occupy Greenland, and that's what they're gonna do if we don't.
Speaker 4: So we're going to be doing something with Greenland, either
Speaker 4: the nice way or the more difficult one.
Speaker 3: Please go ahead, Ben President.
Speaker 5: Why is it so important to you to own it
Speaker 5: when you have a military presence there which you could
Speaker 5: expand to affect security.
Speaker 4: Because when we own it, we defend it. You don't
Speaker 4: defend lisas the same way. You have to own it.
Speaker 4: And you know, with a nation, look at what happened
Speaker 4: with Obama, with that horrible deal they made with Iran.
Speaker 4: It was a short term deal. It was like a
Speaker 4: nine year deal. Countries can't make nine year deals or
Speaker 4: even one hundred year deals. Countries have to have ownership,
Speaker 4: and you defend ownership. You don't defend Lisas. And we'll
Speaker 4: have to defend Greenland. If we don't do it, China
Speaker 4: or Russia will not gonna happen. We are not gonna
Speaker 4: have And I like China, I like Russia. I love
Speaker 4: the people of China. I love the people of Russia.
Speaker 4: I get along very well with President Putin.
Speaker 3: But I'm very disappointed you respond to that. In two
Speaker 3: weeks there was an amazing report. The amazing and the
Speaker 3: most amazing thing is.
Speaker 4: Government jobs are way down, and yet the employment came
Speaker 4: employment or the employment numbers are very good. We've gotten
Speaker 4: rid of tremendous numbers of federal job government jobs. Nobody's
Speaker 4: ever seen anything like it, and yet the employment numbers
Speaker 4: are very good.
Speaker 3: They're really getting better.
Speaker 4: But now we have all those people to work in
Speaker 4: the private sector for a lot more money. I think
Speaker 4: that's one of the very big things. The other thing
Speaker 4: is at five point four percent. And remember this is
Speaker 4: after we had a shutdown, and that shutdown had an
Speaker 4: impact because the concept of the shutdown, even though it's
Speaker 4: before people knew we were going to be shutting down,
Speaker 4: a lot of bad things happened. And by the way,
Speaker 4: on January thirtieth, you may have another shutdown. We'll see
Speaker 4: what happens. But I think the numbers, Caitlin, were really amazing.
Speaker 4: Look to think about five point four percent. Nobody thought that.
Speaker 4: They thought it was going to be two percent. And
Speaker 4: you know what it is, it's tariffs. And it's also
Speaker 4: November fifth. We had a great election, a great, great election.
Speaker 4: Our country was dead one and a half years ago
Speaker 4: and now we have the high honest country anywhere in
Speaker 4: the world.
Speaker 3: And I hope you guys were impressed.
Speaker 4: Five point four percent and we haven't even really transitioned yet.
Speaker 4: There's no reason it can't be much much higher than that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yours shop, can you respond to the manufacturing.
Speaker 3: Let's give see it in a chance.
Speaker 4: You know, I've been fighting so hard to get back
Speaker 4: into the mainstream.
Speaker 7: Mister president, you posted some numbers actually in truth social
Speaker 7: last night people saying you posted the job data early
Speaker 7: when you're supposed to obviously share it till the next morning.
Speaker 8: Did you do that on?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: No, I don't know if they posted them. I said,
Speaker 4: post them whenever you get a chance.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: They gave me some numbers. When people give me things,
Speaker 4: I post them. But the numbers, the numbers are amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Please.
Speaker 9: How does the administration plan to distribute the money from
Speaker 9: the Venezuela oil sales? Is it obviously you say it's
Speaker 9: going to go into these controlled accounts. Would it go
Speaker 9: back to Venezuela and direct payment? Is it going through
Speaker 9: these goods? How do you plan to do that?
Speaker 3: Well, we want to make sure that Venezuela that can survive.
Speaker 4: You know, Venezuela needs money, and we're going to make
Speaker 4: sure that they get money.
Speaker 3: And we're going to get money, and the.
Speaker 4: Oil companies are going to make something for the work
Speaker 4: they do and they're going to get back their money.
Speaker 4: We're devising a formula, but it won't be so much
Speaker 4: of a formula. It's going to be what they need.
Speaker 4: We're gonna take care of what they need. There'll be
Speaker 4: plenty leftover. We're gonna have a lot of money left over,
Speaker 4: and the money leftover is going to the United States
Speaker 4: of America and the oil companies are going to be
Speaker 4: very happy.
Speaker 3: Yeh.
Speaker 9: The administration offer a backstop to these oil companies for
Speaker 9: like financial guarantees, some sort of backstop if the country
Speaker 9: did destabilize again.
Speaker 4: That's a very interesting question. Using the word backstop, I
Speaker 4: haven't heard that word in a long time. That was
Speaker 4: at the Wharton School of Finance. That lesser. That's a
Speaker 4: good term. We are to use it more often. I
Speaker 4: hope I don't have to give a backstep. I'm just look,
Speaker 4: these are very smart people. The smartest people are not
Speaker 4: only an oil in business. These are the biggest companies
Speaker 4: in the world sitting around this. They know the risks.
Speaker 4: I mean there are risks. We're going to help them out.
Speaker 4: We're going to make it real easy. They're going to
Speaker 4: be there for a long time. We're going to be
Speaker 4: there together for a long long time. And they're going
Speaker 4: to be taking the oil and they're going to be
Speaker 4: bringing oil prices down. They're going to make a lot
Speaker 4: of money. They're going to get their money back. They're
Speaker 4: going to be safe. The people of Venezuela are going
Speaker 4: to be big beneficiars, and the United States of America
Speaker 4: is going to be a big beneficiary for what we've done.
Speaker 4: And you know, one other thing I might say, it's
Speaker 4: also very big for national security because again, just like Greenland,
Speaker 4: we can't have China or Russia occupy Greenland, we can't
Speaker 4: have China or Russia occupy Venezuela. And if we didn't
Speaker 4: do what we did, China or Russia would have been
Speaker 4: in Venezuela. I think I can meet with mister Chevron,
Speaker 4: so let me ask you they would have been there
Speaker 4: if we didn't do this.
Speaker 3: Do you agree with it?
Speaker 10: They certainly have a lot of economic interests in country.
Speaker 3: There's absolutely no argument about that. They were trying to
Speaker 3: be there.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, we had a Russia I guess
Speaker 4: sort of semi I called a semi Russian ship yesterday
Speaker 4: that we took over and Russia decided not to defend
Speaker 4: that ship against us. It's a big movement. The ship
Speaker 4: was loaded up with oil and we took the oil
Speaker 4: and it came out of that port. But Russia would
Speaker 4: be there or China would be there, and we want
Speaker 4: them to be there for a different reason.
Speaker 3: We want them.
Speaker 4: Do people agree in particular China, they need a lot
Speaker 4: of oil. Russia doesn't need so much, but Russia was
Speaker 4: there anyway. But I assume you agree that China would
Speaker 4: like to be doing a lot of business there by
Speaker 4: buying oil. And I want to just tell President She
Speaker 4: had President Putin, but more so in this case, President She,
Speaker 4: because they do need a lot of oil. And we
Speaker 4: are open for business in the United States and we
Speaker 4: are open for business in Venezuela.
Speaker 11: Right, All, good afternoon, everyone, and hope everyone had a
Speaker 11: great family day weekend. Probably gonna get in trouble on
Speaker 11: my team, but I'm going off topic here for a second.
Speaker 11: I got so many people wanting to go to shopping malls,
Speaker 11: and Yorkdale would have been packed. Sure, we would have
Speaker 11: been packed. Mississauga out of Mississauga, Square One would have
Speaker 11: been packed. And I always say everyone deserves arrest. Right,
Speaker 11: take your holidays. But there are a whole bunch of
Speaker 11: people that want to get that little extra overtime getting
Speaker 11: paid double time and a half. They get their regular
Speaker 11: statutory eight hours and then they get another time and
Speaker 11: a half or anything that they work. So even if
Speaker 11: someone's making twenty dollars an hour, now you get to
Speaker 11: go in and make fifty dollars an hour, but that
Speaker 11: would be up to companies to decide, but that would
Speaker 11: probably add close to a million working hours that people
Speaker 11: can pocket. So just throwing that out there, we'll look
Speaker 11: into it and find out how realistic it is. I know,
Speaker 11: the Eaton Center was open and people in the suburbs
Speaker 11: are saying, why do I have to go downtown? Why
Speaker 11: can't I go to Yorkdale? But it would have been
Speaker 11: packed yesterday. But anyways, it was a great, great weekend
Speaker 11: and we worked, at least I did. I worked on
Speaker 11: the weekend. There was no family day for myself, just
Speaker 11: returning calls, listening to people right off the hop. I
Speaker 11: got a lot of calls from students about oh SAP
Speaker 11: and there were interesting calls. I returned everyone with a
Speaker 11: standard statement, but I wasn't getting hundreds. I was getting thousands,
Speaker 11: but I get quite a few all the time, and
Speaker 11: trying to just explain that, you know, the situation that
Speaker 11: Ontario was facing wasn't sustainable any longer. Were putting in
Speaker 11: by next yearn billion dollars a year into our colleges
Speaker 11: and universities. I want to reminded a lot of the
Speaker 11: students that you know, I fought for them for seven
Speaker 11: and a half years, not letting universities in college raise tuition,
Speaker 11: and I don't think anyone had a problem with that,
Speaker 11: but I was getting massive pressure from the sector to
Speaker 11: do that, and finally we did it, and then OSAP
Speaker 11: as well. That created a problem when federal government cut
Speaker 11: off foreign students coming in, so it really hurt a
Speaker 11: lot of colleges and universities. I support the students our
Speaker 11: number one selling feature when companies come from around the world.
Speaker 11: I'm always saying we have the brightest and best students,
Speaker 11: the brightest and best colleges in universities in the world.
Speaker 11: But when you're in the hole two point five billion dollars,
Speaker 11: it wasn't realistic. Now we've brought the middle of the pack.
Speaker 11: We're still giving MOROSAP loans, then BC and Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Speaker 11: I think we're equal to Manitoba. So I'm always there
Speaker 11: to support it. But I mentioned to the students you
Speaker 11: have to invest in your future into in demand jobs
Speaker 11: because a lot of the students, I'm not one to say,
Speaker 11: you know, like you're picking basket weaving courses and there's
Speaker 11: not too many baskets being sold out there, Go into healthcare,
Speaker 11: go into trades, go into jobs of the future. Focus
Speaker 11: on stems, science, technology, engineering, and math. Those are where
Speaker 11: the jobs are. And then we're accountable to the taxpayers too.
Speaker 11: They want to know the courses see students are picking,
Speaker 11: and that the taxpayers are paying, that they're actually going
Speaker 11: to graduate and move forward in that sector that we need.
Speaker 11: So I'll always be there to invest in colleges and universities. Again,
Speaker 11: I think this year or coming here will you have
Speaker 11: the seven billion dollars. There's three billion more than the
Speaker 11: previous liberal government. And so I'll continue supporting and fighting
Speaker 11: for students even though we're probably upset right now. But
Speaker 11: I've heard some nightmare stories on the other side as well,
Speaker 11: about kids going out there buying fancy watches in Cologne
Speaker 11: and not needing it, and families making two hundred grand
Speaker 11: getting their kids' education. That doesn't fly with the taxpayers.
Speaker 11: I'll tell you that right now. Focus on jobs, because
Speaker 11: you're number one area you should focus on. Once you graduate,
Speaker 11: you got to get a job. And a lot of
Speaker 11: times kids will graduate and figure out, oh, well, there's
Speaker 11: no basket manufacturing. I should maybe pick something else. Focus
Speaker 11: on jobs of the future, and you will have a
Speaker 11: job when you come out of college or university. Just
Speaker 11: had a meeting with the foreigner former governor of Missouri.
Speaker 11: He is head and I'm gonna just read this off.
Speaker 11: She's a president of American Automotive Policy Council and former
Speaker 11: governor and that's Governor Blunt from Missouri. So I, you know,
Speaker 11: built her case and he wasn't disagreeing that we have
Speaker 11: to get this mc A U s m c A
Speaker 11: deal done or kuzma, uh, you know, get it going.
Speaker 11: I think the Prime Minister did a great job with
Speaker 11: Janis Charret. I've never met her, but I've heard glowing
Speaker 11: comments about her. So she'll she'll lead the team. I'm
Speaker 11: happy for that. But we have to make sure we
Speaker 11: get this done as soon as possible because the uncertainty
Speaker 11: around the world, it's not good for anyone's economy. So
Speaker 11: those are Those are a couple items. I'll open it
Speaker 11: up to any questions.
Speaker 12: Are you talking about repealing Family Day holiday?
Speaker 11: What were you getting? Oh no, not repealing everyone. I
Speaker 11: love that. The only one good thing the Liberals ever
Speaker 11: did is bring in Family Day.
Speaker 3: That's it, all right?
Speaker 12: So what were you getting at that.
Speaker 11: All I'm getting at is should be the option number
Speaker 11: one of the people that work in the retail sector
Speaker 11: and not be forced, and we would cover them to
Speaker 11: make sure there's no ramifications. But there's a ton of
Speaker 11: people out there that want to earn fifty bucks an hour,
Speaker 11: that are making twenty bucks an hour and getting double
Speaker 11: time and a half. They want to put a shift in,
Speaker 11: and I think it would I know what would add
Speaker 11: to our GDP And we'd give probably upwards to a
Speaker 11: million working hours that people might not otherwise do. There's
Speaker 11: so many people right now that had to work family day,
Speaker 11: no matter if it's our healthcare workers or police or firefighters, paramedics,
Speaker 11: people that work in the eat and center, people that
Speaker 11: work in the small stores. I'm going to throw it
Speaker 11: out there, and nothing's guaranteed. Talk to the retail council.
Speaker 11: I'll talk to the big ones. You know all the
Speaker 11: food retailers, be at the WALMARTSLA Shop, you know all
Speaker 11: of them home depots. I wanted to go to Home
Speaker 11: Deepot yesterday it was closed.
Speaker 3: Yeah as.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 11: If I didn't speak up, I'll tell you we wouldn't
Speaker 11: get we wouldn't have anything. It's twenty three million dollars
Speaker 11: that we were able to get off. And I want
Speaker 11: to thank Crown Oil by the way for sitting down
Speaker 11: and negotiating. I kept saying, you know, day after day,
Speaker 11: every time I came out, please help me, help you,
Speaker 11: and they finally came to the table. And you know,
Speaker 11: for the people in Ambersburg, they're getting about roughly half
Speaker 11: a million directly dollars for investment in creating new opportunities
Speaker 11: for companies to come here, and as well another half
Speaker 11: a million over to Windsor Essex that falls into that jurisdiction.
Speaker 11: And we've mentioned to my Minister of Economic Development, Amisburg
Speaker 11: is the highest priority right now because we have so
Speaker 11: many inquiries from around the world. Make sure you showcase
Speaker 11: that great community, showcase the people, and hopefully we're going
Speaker 11: to be able to fill that empty building. Well, I
Speaker 11: know that quite a few of them went down to
Speaker 11: the Silantis plant. I want to thank Stlantis. They're adding
Speaker 11: seventeen hundred jobs and I know quite a few of
Speaker 11: them went down there. I think there's still sixty could
Speaker 11: be wrong, sixty people that haven't found employment, But those
Speaker 11: are sixty people that need to pay their rent or
Speaker 11: pay a mortgage or put food on the table. So
Speaker 11: we're going to support them. And then we have some
Speaker 11: provincial investments that we're going to announce over the next
Speaker 11: month or so down there that will create more good
Speaker 11: paying jobs. So I just want to protect those those
Speaker 11: folks down there that lost their jobs and bring new
Speaker 11: jobs in.
Speaker 13: You're twenty three million dollars, Yeah, percent of it is
Speaker 13: actually going to be spent in and around members comparison
Speaker 13: Well Company to Scarborough Company Toronto and companies in eastern
Speaker 13: Ontario getting more money.
Speaker 12: How does that fear.
Speaker 13: To the workers who who lost their lots some of
Speaker 13: them were.
Speaker 11: Yeah, well they retired. Plus there's about sixty people left over,
Speaker 11: uh that may not have a job right now. But
Speaker 11: we're gonna go in and put more investments, be it
Speaker 11: the half a million dollars directly and then another half
Speaker 11: a million into the windsor Essex. Plus we're gonna put
Speaker 11: all forces of economic development to bring in more opportunities
Speaker 11: for the people. And then on top of that, we
Speaker 11: have a couple of announcements that we're gonna make down
Speaker 11: there that will help more people get employed after those announcements,
Speaker 11: So I think, well, uh, the ideal situation was to
Speaker 11: keep grown Royal there. They made their decision, but again
Speaker 11: it goes back to if I didn't u that twenty
Speaker 11: three million, they wouldn't get anything at all. And that
Speaker 11: was my rationale right from the get go to see
Speaker 11: investments here in Ontario as much as we as much
Speaker 11: as we can.
Speaker 12: On the new national defense production strategy that Prime.
Speaker 6: Minister Carne announced this morning, have you had a briefing.
Speaker 6: Do you have any idea how and where an Ontario
Speaker 6: manufacturers could gain from this?
Speaker 11: Yeah, they weren't specifying. And again I've been promoting making
Speaker 11: sure that we invest here in Ontario building ships here
Speaker 11: at the Ontario Shipyard, for one example, light arm or
Speaker 11: vehicles at General Dynamics in London, and probably the other
Speaker 11: seven hundred defense companies we have here in Ontario to invest.
Speaker 11: But the key is, you know, we can talk about it,
Speaker 11: make it happen. They need to make things happen. They
Speaker 11: need to make sure they send the message of certainty
Speaker 11: to General Dynamics along with Ontario Shipyards. Un just picked
Speaker 11: those two because they're pretty large employers. But we need
Speaker 11: to make those investments. And I've been advocating for the
Speaker 11: defense sector, especially the Defense Bank that would create thirty
Speaker 11: five hundred jobs. There's only one place to put the
Speaker 11: Defense Bank. That's here in Toronto.
Speaker 14: Everyone.
Speaker 15: My name is Kyle Matthews. I'm executive director of the
Speaker 15: Montreal and Suit for Global Security. We're here at the
Speaker 15: Parliament of Canaday to launch a new report on transnational
Speaker 15: repression in Canada, a threat to democracy and public safety.
Speaker 15: What we've seen across the world, democracies are targeted by
Speaker 15: authoritarian states, suppressed diaspora groups, surveil diaspora groups, threaten their
Speaker 15: loved ones back home, and spy on fellow Canadians. And
Speaker 15: we're here to present this report, a detailed report on
Speaker 15: the subject of transnational repression in Canada, documenting which diaspoorg
Speaker 15: groups are targeted, which countries, most notably led by China
Speaker 15: and Russia, but others as well that are engaging in
Speaker 15: a form of interference in Canadian society. One of the
Speaker 15: key things Canada led during the G seven is presidency
Speaker 15: led and made transnational repression one of the key aspects
Speaker 15: of foreign policy and collaborating with the G seven. So it's
Speaker 15: coming from Cana's leadership of the G seven that we
Speaker 15: launched report and ask for other countries G seven member
Speaker 15: countries to work with Canada because this is a threat
Speaker 15: that's increasing. It's a threat that's becoming more pronounced. And
Speaker 15: in the United States, with the government change there, we've
Speaker 15: seen a cutting of funds to all the key organizations
Speaker 15: that study transnational oppression, that can monitor what was happening,
Speaker 15: nefarious actions online and looking at what authorities in these
Speaker 15: closed authoritari states we're targeting. So we've lost that ability
Speaker 15: to track and monitor transnational pression. We need to build
Speaker 15: up capacity. We need to have more funds coming to
Speaker 15: Canadian society groups to do the research that is no
Speaker 15: longer being in Washington.
Speaker 3: So this is an.
Speaker 15: Opportunity for Canada, with France, Germany, Italy, it's other G
Speaker 15: seven partners to make this both a foreign policy priority
Speaker 15: and a domestic priority. So that being said, I just
Speaker 15: want to remind everyone that the Hogue Commission came out
Speaker 15: last year and it stipulated that there is wide scale
Speaker 15: foreign interference happening in Canada, but it also stipulated that
Speaker 15: transnational repression was one of the key issues that came
Speaker 15: out that she heard from Canadian diaspora groups and it
Speaker 15: really Justice Hogue felt that it was one of the
Speaker 15: most underreported threats to Canadian democracy. So we're here today
Speaker 15: to present this report that's available on our website MAGS
Speaker 15: Institute dot org, and to really give guidance to both
Speaker 15: government and society about what can be done and what's
Speaker 15: happening to diaspora groups across this country of ours. I
Speaker 15: would now like to turn to my colleague Marie Lamanche
Speaker 15: to give some comments. As the author of the report,
Speaker 15: give some comments in French.
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Speaker 15: Merci Marie men Now I'd like to invite Miggs's senior
Speaker 15: fellow Pilgerski, former CISIS and Public Safety of Canada official
Speaker 15: to and and as co author of the report, to
Speaker 15: make some comments.
Speaker 17: Thanks came Merce Marie. As Kyle mentioned, I spent thirty
Speaker 17: two years in intelligence here in Canada with CISIS and
Speaker 17: with the Communication Security Establishment. Now weile transnational repression and
Speaker 17: foreign interference. It's not something that I worked on. It
Speaker 17: was more counter terrorism. I'm well aware of the investigations
Speaker 17: that my former colleagues with those organizations are involved with
Speaker 17: to uncover the nature of T and R in Canada.
Speaker 17: The extent of it, the actors are involved, and I
Speaker 17: think it's important to remember that when we think of
Speaker 17: T and R, we think of some, as Marie mentioned,
Speaker 17: some traditional actors, like the Chinese and like the Russians.
Speaker 17: When Marie and I were doing the research for our paper,
Speaker 17: we found out that it goes well beyond that. There
Speaker 17: is Algerian transnational repression here in Canada, whereby their people
Speaker 17: from the Algerian diaspora, part of the Cavilia community, they
Speaker 17: are seeking some sort of independence or some kind of
Speaker 17: autonomy within Algeria, who are being pressured by the Algerian
Speaker 17: government not to say anything about it. And as we're
Speaker 17: speaking here in February of twenty twenty six, you've all
Speaker 17: been watching what's happening in Iran with the mass riots
Speaker 17: and the attempts to overthrow the regime. I've spoken to
Speaker 17: Irani Canadians who regularly receive threats to not raise what's
Speaker 17: happening Iran here in Canada, to not protest against their regime,
Speaker 17: and I think Marie did a great job of outlining
Speaker 17: the types of threats that these people face, everything from
Speaker 17: online harassment. Women are receiving sexual threats. And that's bear
Speaker 17: in mind that we've had assassination plots, one of which
Speaker 17: was successful here in Canada out in British Columbia a
Speaker 17: couple of years ago of a SEAK activist by agents
Speaker 17: of the Indian government. I have a former colleague, a
Speaker 17: very senior Saudi intelligence official I met many years ago,
Speaker 17: and a Saudi hit squad was sent to Canada in
Speaker 17: the late twenty tens to assassinate him as well for
Speaker 17: things he was standing against the Saudi regime. Therefore, it's
Speaker 17: really important that and as Marie and I write in
Speaker 17: the report, t and R is a widespread phenomenon, as
Speaker 17: Kyle has mentioned through Geese having leadership, but are Canada
Speaker 17: has pointed that out let's not narrow or focus on
Speaker 17: one or two nations.
Speaker 8: It goes right across the border.
Speaker 3: The next part, I guess is.
Speaker 17: What are we going to do about it? And as
Speaker 17: somebody who worked in intelligence, my simple recommendation is that
Speaker 17: we've got organizations that are looking into these threats. My
Speaker 17: former colleagues at CEASES look under a transnational Pression Intersection
Speaker 17: to be the CEASES Act. So t and R is
Speaker 17: a subset of foreign interference, they're collecting intelligence, they're corroborating
Speaker 17: the intelligence, they are providing intelligence and decision makers, and
Speaker 17: I think it's incumbent on the government to take that
Speaker 17: intelligence seriously. The whole inquiry pointed out quite starkly that
Speaker 17: a lot of intelligence on Chinese interference in our elections
Speaker 17: and through tn R was ignored for reasons I won't
Speaker 17: get into. So it's important that if we're going to
Speaker 17: deal with T and R, and as Kyle and Marie mentioned,
Speaker 17: this is a very sort of broad band approach to
Speaker 17: what to do about T and R, but at a minimum,
Speaker 17: the government has to remain informed on who the actors are,
Speaker 17: where they are and what they're doing. Marimentioned police stations. People,
Speaker 17: they go all the police stations that that's yesterday's news.
Speaker 17: No it's not yesterday's new's because they're still here. And
Speaker 17: so we have the intelligence services, we have the RCMP,
Speaker 17: the investigates under their own legislative mandate. So let's take
Speaker 17: the information that we are being gathered by the professionals.
Speaker 17: Let's sure that it's being read, that it's being consumed,
Speaker 17: so that the actions that Canada and in sharing with
Speaker 17: our g seven partners as well, can be as best
Speaker 17: informed as possible, so that the policies and actions that
Speaker 17: we can take are based on the best information and
Speaker 17: therefore the greatest possibility of success in preventing You'll never
Speaker 17: eliminate T and R, you can certainly get to a
Speaker 17: point where you can minimize the effect of it, because,
Speaker 17: as Marie said, diasporas are suffering, and we are a
Speaker 17: nation of diasporas, and we want to make sure that
Speaker 17: those diasporas feel that they can function. They can vote freely,
Speaker 17: they can voice their opinions freely, they can express their
Speaker 17: own views on their regimes back home without fear of
Speaker 17: any kind of violence to them or to their families.
Speaker 17: So the information is there, let's do our best to
Speaker 17: use it.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 18: I call on Member for our pceers sow to leave
Speaker 18: the house in prayer or faction.
Speaker 10: We begin our proceedings today with heavy hearts. The community
Speaker 10: of tumblr Ridge and our province have suffered an unimaginable
Speaker 10: tragedy that defies words we hold in our thoughts. The
Speaker 10: families whose lives have been irreparably changed, the parents whose
Speaker 10: homes will never be the same, and the children whose
Speaker 10: lives were cut short far too soon. As this Assembly
Speaker 10: begins today, we renew our commitment as members of this
Speaker 10: Assembly to honor our promises and turn our words into actions.
Speaker 10: For the people of tumblr Rich and for everyone throughout
Speaker 10: this province.
Speaker 8: We will remember them.
Speaker 18: Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to begin our proceedings
Speaker 18: today by acknowledging that we are privileged together on the
Speaker 18: traditional territory of the Lukangan speaking people, the Songies and
Speaker 18: Esquire Martinations. We honor and respect their enduring stewardship of
Speaker 18: these lands and the wisdom, culture and traditions which are
Speaker 18: so generously shared with our community and province Musium, and
Speaker 18: also on behalf of all the members of this lestlative family,
Speaker 18: I would like to welcome all the guests, friends, family members,
Speaker 18: everyone to.
Speaker 8: This session today.
Speaker 18: Thank you for being with us, Madam Clerk.
Speaker 6: Orders of the day.
Speaker 8: Thank you, Honorable Speaker. I call address and reply to
Speaker 8: the speech from the Throne.
Speaker 18: Member for a piece of result.
Speaker 10: I move, seconded by the Member from West Vancouver, see
Speaker 10: the sky that we His Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects.
Speaker 10: The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Session assembled beg
Speaker 10: leave to thank your Honor for the gracious speech which
Speaker 10: your Honor has addressed to us at the opening of
Speaker 10: the present session. I would like to continue with my
Speaker 10: remarks if I made misters speak, is.
Speaker 19: Thank you.
Speaker 10: To the people of tumblr Ridge. Exactly one week ago,
Speaker 10: our community changed forever. The English language does not contain
Speaker 10: words with enough impact or strength to begin describing the
Speaker 10: wake of last week and the impact that it has
Speaker 10: had on our community. This is an event that describes
Speaker 10: that defies description. I cannot imagine that any language, past
Speaker 10: or present would contain words sufficient to even begin approaching
Speaker 10: description of the loss and pain that you are feeling.
Speaker 10: What the parents are feeling, what the children and teachers
Speaker 10: are feeling, what siblings, grandparents, friends and neighbors are feeling.
Speaker 10: I am at a loss to provide words as guidance
Speaker 10: to what the future may look like. As your MLA,
Speaker 10: I am accustomed to standing in this house and speaking
Speaker 10: with certainty.
Speaker 8: Today I stand here humbled by grief.
Speaker 10: The fabric of your community has been torn, And make
Speaker 10: no mistake, difficult times far ahead.
Speaker 8: The path forward will be steep.
Speaker 10: There will be pain, There will be days when the
Speaker 10: weight feels unbearable, and it will never be the same.
Speaker 10: Your community will never be the same. Time will pass,
Speaker 10: but you will remember. The classrooms will feel different, the
Speaker 10: streets will feel different. But I have witnessed a tenacious
Speaker 10: spirit within you. For the past week, I have been
Speaker 10: in Tumbler Ridge. I've stood with families whose worlds have
Speaker 10: been shattered. I've sat in silence where there were no
Speaker 10: words to offer. I've attended gatherings where grief filled every
Speaker 10: corner of the room. I have seen neighbors hold each other,
Speaker 10: each other up. I have watched first responders and teachers
Speaker 10: show courage while carrying their own sorrow. Loved ones, friends, neighbors,
Speaker 10: even strangers have shared hugs, tears, and handshakes, sometimes with
Speaker 10: no words spoken at all.
Speaker 8: In these darkest moments, I saw strength.
Speaker 9: I saw love.
Speaker 10: I saw a community refusing to let tragedy define who
Speaker 10: it is. We will repair the fabric of this community,
Speaker 10: but survivals cars will remain.
Speaker 8: Ones that you do not have to hide. And that
Speaker 8: is not weakness, that is proof that you have endured.
Speaker 10: Just know this, This community will move forward, not because
Speaker 10: the pain disappears, but because the people of Tumblr Ridge
Speaker 10: are resilient and because you care for one another. Be
Speaker 10: assured that we in this place of honor, will be
Speaker 10: with you at every step of the way. I will
Speaker 10: remain with you in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
Speaker 10: I will continue to push my colleagues in this house
Speaker 10: to support you and to ensure that the mental health
Speaker 10: and all other supports that your community requires will be
Speaker 10: there just today, but long into the future.
Speaker 8: To the parents, my heart breaks with you. To the
Speaker 8: children you are not alone. To the first responders and teachers.
Speaker 10: Who saved lives, and the healthcare workers, thank you for
Speaker 10: your courage in the most unimaginable of circumstances. To the
Speaker 10: people of Tumblr Rich, please find peace where you can
Speaker 10: lean on one another, hold one another close. And to
Speaker 10: the beautiful children who have left us in light, we
Speaker 10: will remember you in this house. Your names will be
Speaker 10: spoken here today, they will be honored here. They will
Speaker 10: never be forgotten. We will walk this path together. Tumblr
Speaker 10: Ridge is strong, Tumblr Riche is not alone.
Speaker 18: Member for our us, friend coours to sky.
Speaker 20: Thank you, honorable Speaker. I arise a second the motion
Speaker 20: from the Member for Peace Rivers South, and if I may,
Speaker 20: I would like to briefly share my thoughts on Friday,
Speaker 20: Honorable Speaker, I visited Tumblrridge along with provincial and federal colleagues.
Speaker 20: We went to share the community's grief and offer support
Speaker 20: and solidarity from every corner of Canada. Spending the day
Speaker 20: in the community was both both somber and emotional. I
Speaker 20: met residence in mourning, but with their heads held high.
Speaker 20: It's an uncomfortable role being unable to offer tangible relief,
Speaker 20: but making the only contribution I could offer, absorbing as
Speaker 20: much grief and sadness as I could and taking it
Speaker 20: as far away from Tumblr Ridge as possible. Mister Speaker,
Speaker 20: Tumblridge is a community that exemplifies the fabric of our nation, dignity,
Speaker 20: solidarity for one another, selflessness. While tragedies struck this small town,
Speaker 20: love prevails and I see a community united and committed
Speaker 20: to one another. It's been said, but important to restate
Speaker 20: gratitude and appreciation for the courage and dedication of first responders, teachers,
Speaker 20: school staff, RCMP, Northern Health and local community services from
Speaker 20: the elected representative president. I was heartened to see true
Speaker 20: cross partisan unity in the face of tragedy. For this,
Speaker 20: I want to convey my deepest gratitude and respect to
Speaker 20: the Prime Minister, the Premier, the leader of the Opposition,
Speaker 20: the Member for Peace River South who has carried this
Speaker 20: heavy burden, and the mayor. They took on the heart
Speaker 20: wrenching work of sitting with those who lost loved ones.
Speaker 20: It's essential that all of us helped carry the weight
Speaker 20: of this pain and the memory of lives lost too soon.
Speaker 20: The Treaty Eight Nations guiding wisdom and heartbeat of drums
Speaker 20: was grounding and essential to begin the process of healing.
Speaker 20: Grieving is a group process, and ceremony helps us overcome
Speaker 20: pain and heartbreak. I arrived in Tumblrridge wanting to help.
Speaker 20: I left with the result to do better for my constituents,
Speaker 20: for my daughters and my family, for my community, and
Speaker 20: for BC. Because we sometimes forget that life can change
Speaker 20: in an instant. No family should have to live through
Speaker 20: a tragic event like this. Within this chamber and beyond,
Speaker 20: we can resist the temptation to divide and lay blame.
Speaker 20: We can carry forward the unity showing in Tumblr Ridge.
Speaker 20: Do our jobs well and with full hearts, learn from
Speaker 20: this tragedy and honor the victims, their families, and the
Speaker 20: people of our great province. To the people of Tumblr Ridge.
Speaker 20: We grieve with you and we stand with you. Thank
Speaker 20: your honorable Speaker.
Speaker 18: Drove official apposition.
Speaker 14: Thank you, mister Speaker. Mister Speaker arrives to support the
Speaker 14: motion that is before us today.
Speaker 12: Speak to it now.
Speaker 14: Heart goes out to the children, the educators, every family,
Speaker 14: friend and neighbor affected by the tragic events and tumble Ridge.
Speaker 14: As a father, it breaks my heart to think of
Speaker 14: the children whose lives were cut short and the terror
Speaker 14: that they felt at that time. Twelve families and loved
Speaker 14: ones those who were lost.
Speaker 8: I want you to know.
Speaker 14: That I in this entire house are grieving with you.
Speaker 14: All of British Columbia is grieving with you, Canada and
Speaker 14: the rest of the world is grieving with you. At
Speaker 14: this time, our focus should be on remembering the young
Speaker 14: lives that were taken.
Speaker 8: These were children.
Speaker 14: Like our own, with hobbies, friendships, hopes, dreams and plans
Speaker 14: for the future. And they were deeply, deeply loved and
Speaker 14: they deserve to be remembered. A Tumbleridge secondary twelve year
Speaker 14: old Zoe Benois lost her life. Zoe loved art, playing
Speaker 14: with her siblings, and was known to have a wonderful
Speaker 14: exceptional singing voice. A Bell Mwansa Junior was twelve years old.
Speaker 14: He came to Canada from Zambia with his family in
Speaker 14: twenty twenty three. A Bell played soccer and he was
Speaker 14: a great soccer player with an even better attitude. He
Speaker 14: excelled at science and he wanted to be an engineer,
Speaker 14: and his mom told that many times he would ask
Speaker 14: and say to ask his parents, are we staying? We're
Speaker 14: going to make Tumblr Ridge our home? He would ask
Speaker 14: his parents that, and that afternoon, the last message.
Speaker 3: That he gave his dad.
Speaker 14: Was that he would be able. Could you please pick
Speaker 14: me up from church after school? Takaria Lampert So her
Speaker 14: parents told us. Tiki Torch was twelve years old. She
Speaker 14: leaves behind seven brothers and sisters and they will miss
Speaker 14: her immensely. She was the middle child and she was
Speaker 14: the glue that held that family together. Her family remembers
Speaker 14: her for her jokes and love of making others laugh,
Speaker 14: also her love of the K pop demon hunters. Kylie Smith,
Speaker 14: also twelve. She left to draw paint and had dreamed
Speaker 14: of attending art school in Toronto, a city that she
Speaker 14: had just visited, and attended a Blue Jays game with
Speaker 14: her family she wanted to become an artist. She was
Speaker 14: also a figure skater who began performing when she was
Speaker 14: three years old. And I'll note many in this house
Speaker 14: are aware Kylie and Tiki were the best of friends.
Speaker 14: Ezekiel Schofield was thirteen years old and was an avid
Speaker 14: hockey player who played us a forward for the tumblr
Speaker 14: Ridge Raptors, and he will be remembered. My visit to
Speaker 14: tumblr Ridge this week was something I don't think anybody
Speaker 14: in this house could ever comprehend, and I am so
Speaker 14: I am so grateful that we were able to lean
Speaker 14: on our colleagues at such a difficult time. There is
Speaker 14: sorrow in that town today and tomorrow and for a
Speaker 14: long time ahead, but there is also strength, friends, neighbors
Speaker 14: and loved ones supporting one another, Colleagues from across the
Speaker 14: aisle supporting one another. I also want to recognize the
Speaker 14: first responders, educators and students. Some of those students, by
Speaker 14: the way I just mentioned their names, who acted so
Speaker 14: courageously and their stories will be told.
Speaker 8: They need to be told.
Speaker 14: It was them that stepped forward in the midst of chaos,
Speaker 14: and the first responders, the educators and students, they saved
Speaker 14: lives make no mistake, they saved lives. The road ahead
Speaker 14: will be long. As Tumblrridge begins that journey, this province
Speaker 14: will stand with them, and we will remember those precious
Speaker 14: little lives that we have lost, and we will support
Speaker 14: a community forever change.
Speaker 8: Thank you, mister Speaker, Mister Premier.
Speaker 12: Thank you, honorable Speaker.
Speaker 6: I'd like to thank my colleagues Member for Peace River South,
Speaker 6: House Leader for the Green Party, the leader of the Opposition,
Speaker 6: for their words today and for joining me and remember
Speaker 6: for Peace River South inviting me into his constituency in
Speaker 6: tumblr Ridge, and for us standing together with the families,
Speaker 6: and it meant so much to the community. We put
Speaker 6: aside our differences and stood together, and I'm grateful for
Speaker 6: the opportunity to do the same today. Today, honorable Speakers,
Speaker 6: importantly remember the people were lost and whose lives were
Speaker 6: forever changed by this horrific tragedy. Shanda Aviagana Durand was
Speaker 6: an educational assistant. I think most members of this House
Speaker 6: will know the important work that educational assistants do. She
Speaker 6: was no exception. In fact, she was exceptional. She worked
Speaker 6: at tumblr Ridge Secondary School, dedicated her days to helping
Speaker 6: young people learn, grow and feel supported and her self
Speaker 6: sacrifice in her actions on the day of this horrific
Speaker 6: event likely saved the lives of three children. In the library,
Speaker 6: we're holding Maya Gabella, just twelve years old and her
Speaker 6: family in our heart. She's in a hospital room, critical care.
Speaker 6: Pray for her healing, Pray for her family and friends,
Speaker 6: and for her quick recovery. Thinking of Paige Hokstra, nineteen
Speaker 6: years old, recovering after being seriously injured. The events of
Speaker 6: that day, I met so many people in Tumblr Ridge
Speaker 6: who knew and loved Page. Her resilience and the care
Speaker 6: surrounding her speak to the deep love of family, friends
Speaker 6: and community. We were in Emma Jacob's just eleven years
Speaker 6: old child whose life was taken in the home where
Speaker 6: this tragedy first unfolded, This loss of the heartbreak in
Speaker 6: the community. The words cannot capture and them It's Mom
Speaker 6: Jennifer Straying thirty nine years old, who also died in
Speaker 6: her home, leaven Behind, provount.
Speaker 8: Grief for all who loved her.
Speaker 6: Speaker of these are the students, family members, the community members.
Speaker 6: There are the strength of Tumblr Ridge and whose absence
Speaker 6: will be felt across Tumblr Ridge. In our entire province,
Speaker 6: to their loved ones, to their families, their friends, to
Speaker 6: everybody in tumblr Ridge, we offer our heartfelt condolences and
Speaker 6: our commitment to continue to work for them in the days, weeks,
Speaker 6: some months to come. With that, Honorable Speaker, I reserve
Speaker 6: my right to continue and now move adjournment of.
Speaker 18: You heard the motion to during the debate all those
Speaker 18: in favor SAI oppose motion carried Mister of Finance.
Speaker 12: Honorable Speaker, I move that this House at its next sitting,
Speaker 12: resolved itself to this session to a committee to consider
Speaker 12: this supply to be granted to his Majesty.
Speaker 18: You heard the motion all those and favors AAI oppose
Speaker 18: motion carried Mister Finance.
Speaker 12: Honorable Speaker, I have the honor to present a message
Speaker 12: from her honor the Lieutenant Governor.
Speaker 18: Her Honor the Lieutenant Governor transmitters chair with estimates fifthcal
Speaker 18: year ending March thirty first, twenty twenty seven, and supplement
Speaker 18: to the estimates fifthcal year ending March twenty first, UH
Speaker 18: twenty twenty seven, and I recommend the same to the
Speaker 18: Legislative Assembly.
Speaker 12: Mister honorable Speaker, I move that the said message and
Speaker 12: the estimates accompanying the same be referred to the Committee
Speaker 12: of Supply.
Speaker 18: You heard the motion, all those favors say, I oppose
Speaker 18: motion carried, mister Honorable Speaker.
Speaker 12: I move seconded by the Honorable Premier of British Columbia.
Speaker 12: As the Speaker, do now leave the chair for the
Speaker 12: House to go into the Committee of Supply. I would
Speaker 12: like to begin by acknowledging the La Congan speaking peoples,
Speaker 12: the Songies and Esquimalt First nations upon whose territories we
Speaker 12: are gathered. Mister Speaker, I present this budget with a
Speaker 12: heavy heart. People throughout the province and across the country
Speaker 12: are grieving the terrible tragedy in tumblr Riche You've just
Speaker 12: heard very powerful words spoken in this House, and I
Speaker 12: thank my colleagues. We think about those whose lives have
Speaker 12: been changed forever, and we more in the precious lives lost.
Speaker 12: We more in the future they were supposed to have,
Speaker 12: the dreams they never got to achieve. British Columbians are
Speaker 12: standing with everyone impacted by the servit Fic tragedy, and
Speaker 12: we will do everything in our power to support people
Speaker 12: through this dark time. It feels very out of sync
Speaker 12: to continue with the business of government. But we do,
Speaker 12: and today I present Budget twenty six twenty seven, and
Speaker 12: we do so holding the people of tumble Ridge in
Speaker 12: our hearts and in our thoughts. Mister Speaker, This past
Speaker 12: year has been incredibly challenging. One year ago we witness
Speaker 12: the launch of an unprovoked and unjustified trade war at
Speaker 12: the hands of our closest ally the trade war and
Speaker 12: rupture of the world's order continue to have ripple effects
Speaker 12: that are being felt around the world. This budget is
Speaker 12: different from our past budgets because this moment is different.
Speaker 12: We are in a period of sis, serious fiscal pressure.
Speaker 12: Global uncertainty is slow in growth, Commodity markets are volatile,
Speaker 12: the housing market has cooled, and at the same time,
Speaker 12: costs are rising for everything from health care to building infrastructure,
Speaker 12: and British Columbians are feeling it too. Families are stretched
Speaker 12: by the cost of living. We must be disciplined, focused
Speaker 12: and honest about the choices ahead. We must assume this
Speaker 12: pressure on our revenue is the new normal and operate accordingly.
Speaker 12: And in this budget we have done that. Our priorities
Speaker 12: are clear, protect and improve core public services that people
Speaker 12: rely on, like health care and education, keep b C
Speaker 12: one of the lowest taxed provinces for middle and working
Speaker 12: class families. Reduce the deficit responsibly over time while protecting
Speaker 12: what's working. And to achieve this, we are taking three
Speaker 12: key steps. First, we will make the public sector leaner
Speaker 12: so more dollars reach the front lines. Second, we will
Speaker 12: pace infrastructure projects carefully, delivering them efficiently without driving up costs. Third,
Speaker 12: we will make changes to generate new revenue while taking
Speaker 12: action to grow the economy and secure the long term
Speaker 12: impact of major projects. This is about making careful choices
Speaker 12: now to avoid more difficult choices later, mister Speaker. Over
Speaker 12: the last eight years, we've built the foundations as strong
Speaker 12: province depends on hospitals, schools, roads, transit, housing and clean
Speaker 12: electricity are being delivered to support communities and good jobs
Speaker 12: throughout British Columbia. This was done at a time when
Speaker 12: the BC economy was being hit simultaneously by numerous disruptions,
Speaker 12: a global pandemic, soaring inflation, devastating wildfires and flooding, and
Speaker 12: now an unprovoked trade war. We entered this period from
Speaker 12: a provisient position of strength, with one of the lowest
Speaker 12: debt to GDP ratios in the country, and this gave
Speaker 12: us room to absorb shocks and to invest. We were
Speaker 12: able to deliver income support ICBC rebates and affordability measures
Speaker 12: when it was needed most. Our government delivered the BC
Speaker 12: Family Benefit to help with the costs of raging children.
Speaker 12: We cut childcare fees in more than half. Car insurance
Speaker 12: rates were dramatically reduced. These measures helped to ease the
Speaker 12: hit on households. Today, housing costs are coming down from
Speaker 12: peak levels. Rent prices are falling faster here than anywhere
Speaker 12: else in the country. Children are learning in new schools.
Speaker 12: We've created twenty three thousand, five hundred new seats, with
Speaker 12: another twenty three thousand, five hundred on the way. People
Speaker 12: are receiving treatment in fourteen new and improved hospitals, with
Speaker 12: twenty more coming. They're also accessing healthcare in forty one
Speaker 12: new urgent and primary care centers, with five more to come.
Speaker 12: Rapid transit projects like the Surrey Langley Skytrain extension and
Speaker 12: the Broadway Subway project will get people to the places
Speaker 12: they need to go faster, Mister Speaker, A lot of
Speaker 12: progress has been made to improve life and to bring
Speaker 12: down costs, but we know that many families are struggling.
Speaker 12: People keep working harder, they don't feel like they're getting
Speaker 12: further ahead. The cost of everyday life keeps going up,
Speaker 12: especially at the grocery store. This year, we will bring
Speaker 12: forward legislation to ban the property controls that restrict businesses
Speaker 12: from selling fresh food near grocery stores, spurring more competition
Speaker 12: and getting food prices down. We are also introducing legislation
Speaker 12: to make it easier for businesses to move goods and
Speaker 12: provides services across provincial borders. Barriers between provinces that complicate
Speaker 12: trade make it harder to process food locally, which limits
Speaker 12: competition and a game drives up prices. By strengthening supply chains,
Speaker 12: making the food we eat here at home, and allowing
Speaker 12: more competition across provincial lines, we can address some of
Speaker 12: the structural reasons for high food costs, Mister Speaker, This
Speaker 12: budget is also about facing our fiscal reality with clarity.
Speaker 12: As times change, so must our approach. VC's economy has
Speaker 12: many strengths, but it also has many big challenges. We
Speaker 12: must make strategic choices about where we spend our resources.
Speaker 12: Were scrutinize government spending and ensuring as many dollars as
Speaker 12: possible reach the front lines in classrooms and in emergency rooms.
Speaker 12: When it comes to our fiscal position, Budget twenty twenty
Speaker 12: six reduces the deficit over time, carefully and thoughtfully. So
Speaker 12: how do we achieve this? We do it through making
Speaker 12: disappoint decisions. As many families make careful decisions to keep
Speaker 12: their household finances in order, so too must we. We
Speaker 12: have begun a multi step process to adjust government spending
Speaker 12: to respond to the fiscal reality we face. This includes
Speaker 12: reducing operational and administrative costs and saving on contracting, hiring,
Speaker 12: and travel. We're continuing a hiring freeze in the public service.
Speaker 12: We've launched reviews across the public sector at health authorities,
Speaker 12: through post secondary institutions, and through clean BC. Budget twenty
Speaker 12: twenty six continues this work. This means reducing staff levels
Speaker 12: across the public sector by fifteen thousand full time positions
Speaker 12: over the next few years. We are making careful decisions
Speaker 12: about where these reductions will take place. We will protect
Speaker 12: our vital front lines services in areas like health care
Speaker 12: and education, while reducing bureaucracy and administration. We are also
Speaker 12: adjusting the pace of our capital plant to protect our
Speaker 12: ability to deliver projects over the long term. This is
Speaker 12: not about stopping. We will continue to outpace other provinces
Speaker 12: in per capita investments in schools, childcare centers and transit.
Speaker 12: We will keep opening new hospitals and will break ground
Speaker 12: on a permanent home for SFU's Medical School in Surrey
Speaker 12: this year. This is about adjusting the pace of some
Speaker 12: of the things we want to do so that we
Speaker 12: can do what we need to do to secure BC's future.
Speaker 12: Under our government. BC is among the lowest taxed provinces
Speaker 12: in Canada for working in middle class families, and this
Speaker 12: budget doesn't change that. We made the right choices to
Speaker 12: cancel the carbon tax and to bring down housing costs,
Speaker 12: keeping more money in people's pockets. But the reality facing
Speaker 12: every province is the same. Growth has not kept pace
Speaker 12: with the cost of delivering public services. If we want
Speaker 12: to protect healthcare, schools, childcare and the services that people
Speaker 12: rely on, we need to rebuild a stable and sustainable
Speaker 12: revenue base. And that's what Budget twenty twenty six does.
Speaker 12: It makes careful tax changes so we can protect services
Speaker 12: and avoid deep cuts while keeping BC competitive. People earning
Speaker 12: under one hundred and forty nine thousand dollars will continue
Speaker 12: to pay the lowest personal income taxes in the country.
Speaker 12: Budget twenty twenty six includes a change to the first
Speaker 12: income tax bracket of about half a percentage point. Will
Speaker 12: offset the extra costs for lower income earners by increasing
Speaker 12: the BC tax reduction credit. We're also updating some household
Speaker 12: related taxes, some housing related taxes. Those with homes above
Speaker 12: three million dollars in value will be asked to contribute
Speaker 12: a little more. The property tax deferment program is being
Speaker 12: changed to help those who need it most, and the
Speaker 12: vast majority of homeowners see no change, mister Speaker. These
Speaker 12: are careful, considered choices at a time of global uncertainty.
Speaker 12: Budget twenty twenty six is about protecting what matters most
Speaker 12: and building on PC's strengths, mister Speaker, because we refuse
Speaker 12: to balance the books on the backs of families. The
Speaker 12: path forward is clear. Grow the economy and grow it
Speaker 12: with urgency and purpose. When more people are working, when
Speaker 12: wages are rising, and when investment is landing in our communities,
Speaker 12: families are better off and government has the resources to
Speaker 12: protect the services that people count on. British Columbia starts
Speaker 12: from a position of strength. We have abundant natural resources,
Speaker 12: clean and reliable electricity, and ports that connect us directly
Speaker 12: to the fastest growing markets in the world. Most importantly,
Speaker 12: we have people who are hard working, entrepreneurial and ready
Speaker 12: to deliver on the world stage. That strength is already
Speaker 12: translating into real results. New minds in LNG projects are
Speaker 12: reaching final investment decisions, major projects are advancing capitalists choosing BC.
Speaker 12: We're determined to make that growth work for people. That
Speaker 12: means training, new training opportunities, more pathways into good paying jobs,
Speaker 12: and a clear plan to ensure that British Glemions are
Speaker 12: first in line for the opportunities ahead. Over the next
Speaker 12: twenty four months, BC is projected to be the second
Speaker 12: fastest growing province in terms of GDP in Canada. Our
Speaker 12: job is to turn that momentum into lasting prosperity and
Speaker 12: to build a stronger, more self reliant economy that works
Speaker 12: for everyone. Mister speaker, this is how we build that strong,
Speaker 12: secure future, a future with whoms you can afford, jobs
Speaker 12: with good pay, health care when and where you need it,
Speaker 12: an economy that works for everyone, not just the few.
Speaker 12: To deliver on that future, we need to start with
Speaker 12: a strong foundation for growth. We need to move more
Speaker 12: projects ahead faster, invest in skills, training, and improve BC's
Speaker 12: position as a desirable place to invest. In moments like this,
Speaker 12: British Columbian snow, we can't just sit back and hope.
Speaker 12: We must build because building is how we protect our future.
Speaker 12: And to build we need power, clean, affordable, reliable power,
Speaker 12: and we're ready to step up. BC Hydro's twenty twenty
Speaker 12: five call for power drew nearly double the targeted energy,
Speaker 12: with fourteen proposals totaling over nine thousand, one hundred gigawatt
Speaker 12: hours a year, enough to power about nine hundred thousand homes.
Speaker 12: The North Coast Transmission Line is a nation building project
Speaker 12: that will deliver keen energy, clean energy to power port expansions,
Speaker 12: LNG facilities and mines, and it will be built in
Speaker 12: true partnership with First Nations. It's grounded in recent agreements
Speaker 12: that reflect shared decision making, shared benefits, and in some
Speaker 12: cases co ownership. Once operational, it is expected to contribute
Speaker 12: nearly ten billion dollars per year to g d P
Speaker 12: and generate nine hundred and fifty million dollars a year
Speaker 12: in revenue. It will create almost ten thousand direct jobs
Speaker 12: per year on average, and reduce emissions by about two
Speaker 12: to three million tons of carbon dioxide per year. This
Speaker 12: line creates the certainty companies need to make final investment decisions,
Speaker 12: and it ensures opportunity translates into jobs and lasting benefits
Speaker 12: for local communities. As our trade mission to Asia last
Speaker 12: year made clear, growing economies also need access to energy.
Speaker 12: They are looking for BC's LNG to meet energy demand
Speaker 12: and support the transition to a cleaner economy. Our LNG
Speaker 12: has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world
Speaker 12: thanks to electrification. Six major LNG projects are complete, underway
Speaker 12: or reaching final investment decisions this year. We're doing all
Speaker 12: of this in partnership with First Nations, moving projects forward
Speaker 12: with confidence and with clarity. Mister Speaker, with certainty on power,
Speaker 12: mines can move from concept to construction. Last year, we
Speaker 12: saw a record breaking seven hundred and fifty million dollars
Speaker 12: invested in mineral exploration in BC. For too long, mining
Speaker 12: projects were tied up in delays and inefficient processes. We
Speaker 12: have made significant progress on speeding up approvals. In twenty
Speaker 12: twenty five, almost thirty five percent more exploration permits were
Speaker 12: issued than an twenty twenty four. We also reduced timelines
Speaker 12: for major mine applications by thirty five percent. Let me
Speaker 12: give you an example of what that looks like on
Speaker 12: the ground. The Mount Milligan copper gold mine expansion near
Speaker 12: for Saint James had its permitting times cut in half.
Speaker 12: This expansion supports the existing five hundred and seventy four
Speaker 12: jobs and as much as four hundred million dollars in
Speaker 12: projected capital spending. Centera Gold CEO told us that this
Speaker 12: was a strong example of what can be accomplished when governments,
Speaker 12: first nations and industry worked together in support of responsible
Speaker 12: resource development. I know how important it is for businesses
Speaker 12: and government to work together. We heard that permitting times
Speaker 12: were creating problems for the industry. We listened and we
Speaker 12: fixed it. In January, our government announced new fixed permitting
Speaker 12: timelines and an additional three million dollars to expedite approvals
Speaker 12: in the mining industry. Budget twenty twenty six also includes
Speaker 12: more than forty million dollars over three years to address
Speaker 12: urgent capacity needs, reduce duplication, and slash the permitting backlog.
Speaker 12: On top of that, we're introducing new tax credits to
Speaker 12: align regulations with the federal government and continue to support
Speaker 12: our mining industry. With all of these exciting projects moving forward,
Speaker 12: it's no question that we are on the cusp of
Speaker 12: a huge demand for skilled people. Mister speaker, this is
Speaker 12: where we are making some of our biggest investments, because
Speaker 12: investing in young people is investing in our future. Budget
Speaker 12: twenty twenty six includes two hundred and forty one million
Speaker 12: dollars in new funding over three years to train people
Speaker 12: for in demand skills and higher wages. This will address
Speaker 12: weightless increase per seat funding and expand skilled trade certification.
Speaker 12: That means more spots will be available within the next
Speaker 12: two years for people to train for these high paying,
Speaker 12: in demand jobs. I think about people like Gord, who
Speaker 12: had been working in an Amazon warehouse, earning twenty dollars
Speaker 12: an hour moving boxes. He did some entry level training
Speaker 12: on welding and got some jobs out of that, and
Speaker 12: then did the next level, and the next, and eventually
Speaker 12: got his red seal. Now Gord earns more than one
Speaker 12: hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, and his life's
Speaker 12: been transformed by the opportunity that Trade's training gave him.
Speaker 12: For young people trying to make ends meet. A new
Speaker 12: high paying job provides security, financial freedom, and an opportunity
Speaker 12: to build a life in their community. For communities, it
Speaker 12: means the wealth generated circulates and multiplies locally, supporting local businesses.
Speaker 12: All of this from a high paying, for litle job.
Speaker 12: As the economic engine of a more independent economy, British
Speaker 12: Columbia needs to have an attractive business environment for investors
Speaker 12: and entrepreneurs. I believe that investing and growing in BC
Speaker 12: is one of the smartest and safest decisions inters can make.
Speaker 12: Look at Photonic, a quantum technology company based in Coquitlam.
Speaker 12: Founder doctor Stephanie Simmons said she started her company in
Speaker 12: BC because it's the best place to recruit top tier
Speaker 12: quantum talent and leverage local academic research. With its new
Speaker 12: approach to quantum computing. Photonic has raised three hundred and
Speaker 12: seventy five million dollars since twenty sixteen. In fact, it
Speaker 12: just had one of the largest quantum technology finances ever
Speaker 12: announced in Canada, raising one hundred and eighty million dollars
Speaker 12: in its latest investment round. The federal government has been
Speaker 12: clear that provinces must participate financially to access federal stimulus funding.
Speaker 12: That's why Budget twenty twenty six commits to allocating four
Speaker 12: hundred million dollars to a special account so that we
Speaker 12: can quickly capitalize on federal funding opportunities. This could leverage
Speaker 12: billions in federal stimulus funding and private sector investment. This
Speaker 12: funding is critical to building a strong, more secure future
Speaker 12: for the people of BC, mister speaker. Another critical part
Speaker 12: of building a stronger, more secure future is getting the
Speaker 12: most value out of our natural resources. Our manufacturers have
Speaker 12: the skills and expertise to do just that by processing
Speaker 12: and refining are made in BC materials into something even
Speaker 12: more valuable. There are nearly twenty thousand manufacturing businesses in BC,
Speaker 12: employing more than one hundred and seventy thousand people, and
Speaker 12: the sector is expected to grow by another fifty thousand
Speaker 12: jobs in the next decade. That's more people like Ted.
Speaker 12: He's the founder of Spearhead Timberworks in Nelson, who I
Speaker 12: met when I visited his business. He has an incredible
Speaker 12: operation specializing in designing and fabricating architectural timber and steel.
Speaker 12: Spearhead received seven point five million dollars from our Manufacturing
Speaker 12: Jobs Fund, which will help them add state of the
Speaker 12: art product lines and increase capacity to fabricate the complex
Speaker 12: high value timber projects using BC wood. A new Manufacturing
Speaker 12: and Processing Investment tax credit will help manufacturers like TED
Speaker 12: invest in productivity and innovation so they can continue to
Speaker 12: do what they do best. Some of our largest manufacturers
Speaker 12: are in the maritime industry. BC's maritime sector is the
Speaker 12: biggest in Canada, employing more than forty four thirty four
Speaker 12: thousand people, and there are more opportunities on the horizon
Speaker 12: as the federal government increases defense spending. Through the Looquest strategy,
Speaker 12: we're aiming to secure thirty five percent of federal defense
Speaker 12: vessel contracts in ten years, and to do that, shipbuilders
Speaker 12: need more support. Budget twenty twenty six extends the Shipbuilding
Speaker 12: and ship Prepare Tax Credit. This credit supports employers hiring
Speaker 12: shipbuilding and ship prepare apprentices, securing a sustainable future for
Speaker 12: the industry. We're also supporting innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs by
Speaker 12: updating the Scientific Research and Development Tax Credit to align
Speaker 12: with federal changes. It's by supporting our innovators, our manufacturers,
Speaker 12: and our businesses that we continue to move be Se forward. Speaker,
Speaker 12: I hope you're not streaker. Is there something we don't know,
Speaker 12: mister speaker, mister speaker. A strong economy is about more
Speaker 12: than statistics and forecasts. It's about taking care of people.
Speaker 12: It's about creating the wealth. We need to improve and
Speaker 12: protect vital services. And when it comes to vital services,
Speaker 12: healthcare is at the top of the list. It's also
Speaker 12: facing big challenges. Demographics are shifting, healthcare workers are retiring,
Speaker 12: the cost of providing care is increasing. Our government has
Speaker 12: been working hard to make sure that British Columbians can
Speaker 12: access the care they need when they need it. A
Speaker 12: lot of progress has been made. For one, we're building
Speaker 12: the workforce of tomorrow. This summer will welcome the very
Speaker 12: first class of medical students to the new s FU
Speaker 12: Medical School in Surrey, and in the year ahead we
Speaker 12: expect to break ground on the school's permanent home. We're
Speaker 12: starting to see results that matter. Every day, hundreds of
Speaker 12: people in BC are getting a phone call or email
Speaker 12: letting them know that they have a new family doctor
Speaker 12: or nurse practitioner. This is in addition to the hundreds
Speaker 12: of maintenance and renovation projects to modernize and upgrade hospitals
Speaker 12: throughout our province. These projects represent the largest investment in
Speaker 12: healthcare infrastructure in BC history, but we know there is
Speaker 12: still much more to do. We must remain focus on
Speaker 12: protecting what we've built and delivering better, faster healthcare for people.
Speaker 12: This spring, as part of a national Pharmacare agreement, BC
Speaker 12: will provide enhanced public coverage for both men apostle hormone
Speaker 12: therapy and a wide range of diabetes cation and devices.
Speaker 12: We are also continuing to fund in vitro fertilization treatments
Speaker 12: so people can start a family. But we also know
Speaker 12: that the system cannot simply keep doing the same things
Speaker 12: and be sustainable over the long term. Let us be clear,
Speaker 12: privatization or a US style two tier system is not
Speaker 12: an option for British Columbia. We must always be in
Speaker 12: a place where we can take care of each other,
Speaker 12: no matter how much money someone has, and that's why
Speaker 12: your government is making responsible choices to reform care, not
Speaker 12: to cut or privatize it. A comprehensive review of health
Speaker 12: authorities is identifying administrative duplication and redirecting savings to the
Speaker 12: front lines, and since the review began, eleven hundred ministrative
Speaker 12: positions have been eliminated, closed or love vacant, and the
Speaker 12: savings are be invested in frontline patient care. Responsible choices
Speaker 12: also mean earlier intervention so people can get help before
Speaker 12: they end up in hospital. It means bolstering community based
Speaker 12: services so fewer people depend on emergency care. Because British
Speaker 12: Columbians deserve a healthcare system that they can rely on
Speaker 12: today and into the future. Mister Speaker, every baby born
Speaker 12: in BC is something to cherish. Becoming a parent is
Speaker 12: one of the biggest adventures and most rewarding chapters that
Speaker 12: many of us will ever take. We know that finding
Speaker 12: affordable childcare can be a worry for new parents, and
Speaker 12: we've been working hard to make it easier for families
Speaker 12: to access affordable, high quality childcare close to home. Since
Speaker 12: twenty eighteen, families have accessed nearly fifty eight thousand new
Speaker 12: licensed care spaces throughout bc. BC's childcare affordability programs are
Speaker 12: saving families an average of seventy two hundred dollars per
Speaker 12: year on childcare costs and helping people access childcare when
Speaker 12: they need it. Most people like Rachel. Rachel's a single
Speaker 12: mom who was laid off right after she returned from
Speaker 12: maternity leave. Finances were extremely tight, and she was considering
Speaker 12: pulling her child out of childcare to make ends meet.
Speaker 12: But a phone call to the Affordable Childcare Benefit Line
Speaker 12: changed everything. Rachel learned she was eligible for six months
Speaker 12: of childcare subsidy while she searched for work, and she
Speaker 12: got a new job. Her childcare is, her child is
Speaker 12: still in childcare, and she no longer needs the subsidy.
Speaker 12: That's what these programs are about, providing people like Rachel
Speaker 12: with the support when they need it and where they
Speaker 12: need it. Budget twenty twenty six invests three hundred and
Speaker 12: thirty million dollars over three years to protect the progress
Speaker 12: that we've made and to stabilize the childcare services that
Speaker 12: people rely on.
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