Throne Speech response from Stikine's Nathan Cullen, highlights NDP approach to COVID and a range of regional themes in Northwest BC

Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen had one of the early speaking 
times towards comments on Monday's Speech from the Throne

This has been Response to the Throne Speech week at the BC Legislature, with government members and those from the Opposition either praising the blue print from Premier John Horgan, or tearing it apart and suggesting that they could do better.

Among the first to speak in defence of Horgan agenda ahead, was Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen, with the Minister of State for Lands and Natural Resource Operations  delivering  his tutorial on governance and highlight package of the government's plans from Smithers on Tuesday afternoon.

Now, today we are talking about the very recent Speech from the Throne, and I've heard a number of members from the opposition criticizing it for its lack of detail. For those unfamiliar with how parliament works and for how government sets out its agenda, the Speech from the Throne is the vision, the document that guides government over this period of time, the next while. The specifics — the plan, the funding, the programs, the initiatives — all come with the budget, which is also coming quite soon. 

And the story that our government is telling, the story we are grappling with, has been in the face of what has been an unprecedented pandemic, not just for British Columbia but of course for the entire world. The challenges that lie within the struggle that we've had over the last year or more have been far too numerous in a short speech to outline. 

Yet I think our experience here in Stikine has been instructive. We're a rural, remote part of the world, yet some of the challenges that we have faced over this past time, the economic, the social, environmental stresses that have come along with it, I think are emblematic of challenges faced by people all across British Columbia, whether they be living in downtown Vancouver or living more rurally and remotely, like we do. 

Now theres  a couple of broad areas that we can talk about today. The pandemic and our government's response to that — our efforts through the CDC and Dr. Henry's good work and the Health Minister's support. Also the economy and what the impacts have been in this unprecedented time of the health and safety measures that government has taken. 

And how we've accommodated, adapted and tried in our very best ways to be nimble, which was exemplified just last week in taking health measures to protect society, because we can't have a healthy economy without healthy people. As this pandemic has changed, it has forced us also, as a government and as a people, to change.

The Stikine MLA also used his time in the afternoon session to explore a few themes closer to the residents of his constituency, noting of some of the changes that have come to their part of the Northwest

I want to talk about the investments we've made in Stikine because oftentimes the expression "no hope beyond Hope" has been too often true in the past. Yet when I asked my team recently to pull together all of the investments, all of the efforts that we have made in our particular corner of the world, it's too long a list for me to go through in just half an hour, which is a good problem to have. 

I also want to talk about the social impacts, what has been happening for us at the community level and how the throne speech and the coming budget try to deal with some of those strains. 

Now we have a number of significant programs. What COVID has exposed…. As pressure is put upon a system, it exposes where the cracks are, exposes where the weaknesses are. I suppose, as a people, as a community, as a province and as a government, we can — under that pressure — either come together more as a people or divide further apart  

We've been seeing, generally speaking, a weakening of that together effort. I understand, and I mean this sincerely, the opposition in all legislatures has an incredibly important role to play holding government to account, asking the tough questions. Of course, they have their own partisan interests for themselves to one day form government.

There is a line there that can be crossed, and pandemics and this crisis have shown us when the opposition can play a constructive role and when, over time, that seems to have worn on some of my colleagues across the aisle. They're now slipping into the more unhelpful, traditional role of sniping for its own sake, of creating anxiety and fears in their criticisms that are sometimes unwarranted. 

I think, for the communities that I represent, the mental and social impacts of what this pandemic has exposed call upon all of us to be of our best natures, to be supporting people in giving as truthful information as we can, being critical when necessary and providing solutions when we are also able to do so.

The NDP Minister of State for Lands and Natural Resource Operations also touched on the current vaccine response to COVID. 

"We've just recently passed one million doses of vaccine that have been administered to British Columbians. This is an incredible effort. Of course, although the delivery has been shaky at times, we have to thank our federal partners for being able to deliver those vaccines from a number of different suppliers. 

We also have to take, again, the moment to thank the front-line service workers, those that are administering those vaccines, running those clinics, oftentimes in rural and remote places, not in their home communities, travelling great distances, staying away from home and trying to make sure that people are as safe as possible when receiving their vaccines. 

As the vaccine numbers have been increasing, of course so too have the variants. This is such an incredibly challenging thing for our public health officials, for us as a government and, I would argue, for us as a province. If it had just been the original COVID-19 disease in its original form, many of the experts have told us, much of that has come under control. 

The variants that have shown up in British Columbia have certainly challenged and stressed a system that was already challenged and stressed, and people are adapting. This falls into a context — the previous speaker from the opposition did mention this in passing — that we are in fact dealing with two pandemics. It cannot be overstated that we as a province have had an opioid crisis of people succumbing, through their addictions, to a poisoned drug supply that has killed hundreds and hundreds of British Columbians — more, in fact, than COVID itself has."

Economic themes also made for some of the narrative to his presentation on the afternoon both the positives and the negatives being felt across the province and the Northwest.

"For too long, British Columbia has seen governments that were so focused on one industry or a couple of hand-picked industries and only doing it the way it was always done — not innovating, not investing, not taking those risks alongside the private sector to make sure that our industries had multiple legs to stand on, not simply one. Coming from rural British Columbia, I have seen the boom-and-bust economy, and both ends of it are actually quite terrible. 

Of course, you prefer the booms over the busts, but even in the booms, housing prices go quickly out of control, as we've seen in too many communities. You can't get people to work for you, because there are just too many jobs and not enough workers. Then the cycle inevitably ends. The anxiety, even in the boom times, can be felt by those in the business and the larger community. Then the bust comes. People leave their houses. Houses go underwater, as they're called, of less value than the person paid for it originally. 

We need to stabilize that economy to have the diversity, to have the range of different experiences and opportunities for people coming through, so that we are not reliant on a price that is set on the New York Stock Exchange or the mercantile exchanges but is something where we have various opportunities.  If one sector takes a downturn, we have other things to rely upon."

Mr. Cullen also took note of a recent achievement announced by North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, that of the additional funding towards improved communication access along Highway 16 the Highway of Tears.

"Just recently, my colleague from the North Coast, MLA Rice, was able to join with various ministers and announce, successfully, cell phone service all along the highway that will be put in with our partners in Shaw. This is going from Prince George all the way to Prince Rupert. Folks that don't know will have to get out their maps. But I know that colleagues know just how long that stretch of highway is. 

We know, beyond the benefits of having cell phone service in 2021 for business and just for our daily way of life, the essential service that has become with being connected. As a safety measure alone, we know how critically important this is to provide assurance and insurance for those who are getting into a car with someone they hope is a friend. It turns out they're no longer feeling safe. They are able to stay in contact with the outside world. 

Hopefully, and I know all colleagues share this sentiment, we will no longer refer to Highway 16 as the Highway of Tears because young women and girls, particularly young Indigenous women and girls, are kept safe by all of us in all of our efforts to make sure that these unbelievably heart-wrenching stories are no longer just taken as the way it is, as they were for so many years."

Another key element that the MLA approached was the need for the government to pivot in response to events of the last year. 

"No government has ever claimed to be perfect, and nor do we. Yet I have seen the vast majority of British Columbians of all political persuasions and partisan orientations more often come together than pull apart. This might not have even been a conscious decision. But as we sit in this critical moment, more than one million vaccines coming now into our province, our government is laying out our vision through this throne speech and, next week, through the specifics in the budget implementation and how we're going to go through this, that we can further the efforts we've made to build B.C. back stronger.

We've had to pivot and change and adapt things that we didn't think were adaptable. I didn't actually think a legislature could be held virtually. I didn't think it would work, and I do prefer meeting in person, as I know many of my colleagues do. 

But finding ways to adapt everything in our society, the way we educate our children, the way we think about our health care, the importance of long-term care and building that program up to take care of our elders in a better way"

The full address can be reviewed from the Legislature archive page here 

While a video presentation of Mr. Cullen's salute to the Throne speech can be viewed from the Legislature Video archive starting at the 4:15PM mark of the Tuesday afternoon session.

For more notes on the work of the Stikine MLA in the Legislature see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.