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Thursday Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen provided a defence of the
NDP budget from this week |
The introduction of the British Columbia Budget for 2021 on Tuesday has been the focus for much of the discussion this past week at the Legislature and Thursday offered opportunity for Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen to speak in defence of the NDP government's financial blue print for the years ahead.
The MLA participated in the Sunday Session remotely from his Smithers office and offered up a number of highlights from Finance Minister Selina Robinson's presentation of earlier in the week.
"It is an honour and privilege to stand here today and address Budget 2021, in which our government — as all budgets do, our government in this document, in this plan — outlines our values, what we believe to be important, setting out to British Columbians what our priorities are and what our plan is for the coming year.
Now it's been said once, but it bears repeating: these are more than challenging times for all of us, including for our government — for our ability to address the problems and challenges not just of today, but also to seek out the opportunities that British Columbians recently elected us to office to do.
Now it does bear mentioning that, of course, this is the first time in B.C. history that a New Democrat Premier was re-elected to office. I think, in large measure, it was this government's ability, in the last session, in the last sitting of the House, to be able to manage through incredibly uncertain times — challenging times for all of us — but also to see and take advantage of those opportunities that are so important for us as a province and in our individual communities. And I think Budget 2021, in its broad strokes and its specific efforts, continues that legacy forward for British Columbians."
The Stikine MLA compared the Tuesday document to how he viewed those of the past from the BC Liberals and how the NDP approach is working people over the wealthy.
Now too often, in previous governments under the Liberals and whatnot, this was a very insulated process, in which the very wealthy and the well-connected were always given access to the Finance Minister — to the Premier's office — where their list of demands were always front and centre in the government's thinking, and also came front and centre in the government's spending initiatives through various budgets.
I can recall those dark days here in the Northwest when Liberal budgets would come down, and entire swaths of our community would be cut out. Not just deep cuts to civil servants, which, in the end, turned out to be a cutting off your nose to spite your face exercise, as resource development couldn't happen — as consultations were abrupted, because we just didn't have the staff.
To those who are not wealthy and well-connected — those working-class British Columbians, those on the lower end of the economic scale — just couldn't get the attention of the then-government, and we see the contrast and the difference here today ...
Now, one of the most important things for any of us to do as elected people is to work our best each and every day to represent the people who sent us to work. In Stikine, being such a large and remote part of the province in some instances, it is often felt that we don't have our voices heard. And when I looked through this budget, I find item after item, program after program, where the needs of small communities, the needs of rural and remote communities, of Indigenous communities are heard time and time again.
And this is through the efforts of those communities, of those advocates who say: "Working people matter. Rural British Columbia matters, and we just need a partner in Victoria in the provincial government who can work with us to take on the challenges that we have, which we can enumerate, and also seize those opportunities."
Mr. Cullen took a pause from the topic of the Budget for a few minutes to make note of the ongoing work on COVID by health care workers across the province and to offer his own shout out of support to the North Coast and the recent success found from the vaccination program in Prince Rupert.
"Of course, it's been in the news just recently…. The community of Prince Rupert, which my friend from the North Coast represents, had some incredibly difficult times. There were outbreaks that, despite the best effort of local officials and the community abroad, were very difficult and challenging to contain. The decision was made by our health authorities and by Dr. Bonnie Henry's office to go in and vaccinate in an all of community approach.
The results have been incredible. And these results matter not only, of course, for the people of Prince Rupert and Port Edward and the communities surrounding those two centres, but, I would argue, for the entire province. Because when we see the vaccination rates go up in Prince Rupert and we see the hospitalization rate drop consistently, we know that they work.
So for those that are having concerns or doubts, it is fine to do some research. The Internet can be a dangerous place for that type of research. Find reliable sources. Do the research yourself. And understand that the risks of COVID-19 and the variants that we now see are so much greater than the infinitesimally small risks that have been identified through some of these vaccines.
That if offered a vaccine, go and get it. It keeps you safe, your family safe. Eventually, it will be the path out of this difficult time that we've been in for more than a year now.
So to the people in Prince Rupert, to the people in Port Ed and Haida Gwaii and all of those coastal communities, thank you for showing up. For all the volunteers that made that community-wide vaccination possible, thank you for your efforts.
What you did is an example, not just to each other, but to the larger population here in British Columbia of what is possible, what that light at the end of the tunnel actually looks like, and that hope is coming. And I look forward to being able to visit my many friends on the North Coast when it is safe to do so once again."
When he returned to the financial themes, the Stikine MLA relayed his notes of the many investments that the NDP government has put in place across the province, investments made in housing, once again taking note of Prince Rupert.
"Yet our government has decided, for good reason, that those investments still matter.
Not only did we do affordable housing in Prince Rupert; we also did it in Kitimat. Not only are we building hospitals in Surrey and Richmond and other places; we're building them in Terrace and Fort St. James. And that matters, because when British Columbians elect their government, they want a government that works for all British Columbians.
I am one who firmly believes that the moment the election is decided, the moment voters have made their determination, it is incumbent upon the government of the day to do our best to put aside the partisanship and the partisan interests of specific places and times and opportunities and seek the projects and identify the investments that are best for the province writ whole. And I think investments like those schools and those hospitals and those affordable housing places across B.C., across northern B.C. in particular, do us all well.
I also very much appreciate the caution and precaution in this budget to look at making sure that there's money set aside, contingency funds, that if things that we can't predict — because who could have predicted what we've been in for the last year? — come forward, that we have some room to manoeuvre, that we have budget available to us to be able to go into without any great shock or surprise and draw from to make sure that the supports for communities, for businesses and families are there to go forward."
The Cullen overview also focused on infrastructure spending, child care initiatives, early childhood education, funding for health, mental health concerns, reconciliation and a range of other areas of note, as well as to review some of the recent spending across Northwest British Columbia.
"It's just impressive to watch Mr. Speaker, what a government can do if it has the priorities and the values that reflect best the people of this province, that take the brightest ideas, the best ideas and push them forward and push them up to the highest offices in the land – the Premier's office, the finance minister's office – that, we can advocate for….
Here's a couple last examples in the time I have remaining.
Through the connecting British Columbia program, the infamous Highway of Tears --which is just a couple hundred metres from where I stand right now – the highway that we have walked on, that I have walked on with so many families in tragedy and sorrow because so many young women and girls have gone missing, predominantly Indigenous women and girls.
That one of the things that we've known for years is that these huge gaps in cell service on this highway between Prince Rupert and Prince George are one of the things that have added to the insecurity, to the threat and to the risk.
We're going to cover that highway entirely with support from the federal government and Rogers to be able to make sure that along that stretch of road, the phone is going to work. That those predators will not be covered by the darkness of having no cell service and that we're going to connect those communities together and at last.
Money for the local ice rink here in Smithers means so much. Half a million dollars for one of the local trails. $9 Million into Dease Lake to allow for an airport enhancement so that they can safely do medical evacuations from one of the most remote parts of our province.
Almost half a million of dollars into the Atlin Historical Society to build up and nurture their historical parts. $35 million into a local school at Walnut Park, a new build. $22 million into Coast Mountain College for dorms, $13 million more for a library. $450 million for the Terrace hospital, $160 million for the hospital in Fort St. James in the Causney territory, and highways all across the land, making this province a better place."
The wrap up to his near thirty minute address was to note that the work was not finished and that the government had much ahead to take on, with the budget serving as the starting point.
Can we do more? Of course, we can. Will we do better? Yes, absolutely.
And to my colleagues across the aisle, it's fine to hold government to account and proper, in the role, to criticize, but also to acknowledge what's being done here.
That so many people are going to rely on the efforts we are making in this budget to make their lives safer, to give them a better sense of hope, to get us through this crisis that we've been in for so long and to come out better for it, more unified, stronger, with a more diverse and cleaner economy, lifting each other up, making sure we don't leave people behind simply because they don't have access to the corridors of power.
This is what this budget represents — that hope and that promise for the future.
I support it wholly. I encourage my colleagues to do the same, and I look forward to the rest of the debate.
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