With the NDP Government delivering their financial plan for 2023 and beyond on Tuesday, Opposition members made use of Wednesday to offer up their views and respond to the themes of Budget 2023.
And among the first on the Opposition side to share some thoughts on Finance Minister Katrine Conroy's work was Skeena MLA Ellis Ross, who had a Wednesday afternoon speaking slot for the Budget debate.
Budget 2023. Uninspiring: a word that's getting thrown out there right now by the newspapers as well as critics from all the different programs across B.C. But it's not the first time we've heard this word.
A member of government actually used this word just a few weeks ago, and to hear this word in the context coming from a member of government was actually very discouraging.
Really, what the context was was talking about how uninspiring rural B.C. is, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
In February 2023, the B.C. Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development, minister of social housing stated that supporting our natural resources sector was "uninspiring" and a "vision for what rural communities were 100 years ago."
From that opening, the Skeena MLA touched on a range of issues, his early commentary providing for his shadow cabinet focus on energy issues noting of the uninspiring tone of the Budget when it comes to First Nation led LNG proposals.
What I find uninspiring…. Not only is it this Budget 2023, but what I find uninspiring are politicians and government officials that say things that are so condescending and disrespectful to B.C. citizens, because no matter where you live in B.C., we should be proud of who we are and what we do to make this province stronger for all of us.
We shouldn't be trying to divide British Columbia, whether we're talking about our societies or our communities.
Cedar LNG falls into this category, but also under the category of reconciliation and First Nations self-determination which, in turn, helps resolve poverty, children going into government care, Aboriginal imprisonment and suicide.
It is absolutely unbelievable that this NDP government approves the $40 billion LNG Canada project, with the largest tax breaks in B.C. history, but they're making the Haisla Nation, my band, grovel and beg for an overdue decision on Cedar LNG, which is only $3 billion, because it's complicated.
I was at the table, directly, at the LNG Canada negotiations, as well as the Chevron negotiations and the Cedar negotiations. I can tell you that by far, the Chevron project and the LNG Canada project were the most complicated negotiations I've ever had in my life.
Cedar is not complicated in terms of impact on the land, in terms of infrastructure that has to be built, but the benefits that are going to flow to the region, and First Nations specifically, are transformational.
Mr. Ross also noted how those projects were offering Economic reconciliation for the First Nations involved and that the Province has not done much towards helping those Nations achieve their self determination goals.
I've heard many, many speeches here, even today, talking about how somehow reconciliation was just discovered by the NDP government, and before the NDP came along, it never existed.
That is false. That is absolutely false.
In fact, if anything, the actions of this government are taking reconciliation back 40 years, to 1982, when section 35 of the constitution was first enacted.
And by the way, I am not a poor, dumb Indian begging for government help.
I never did. I never wanted government money. I never wanted more government programs. To insinuate this, in this Legislature shows how far the NDP government is behind the times.
First Nations want economic reconciliation.
They want to be engaged in the economy under section 35 of the constitution, as well as all the pursuant case law. Haida, Mikisew Cree, Gladstone — the tools are all there.
To ignore all this case law is to ignore the self-determination wishes of First Nations across B.C., if not Canada.
You only need to see Haisla and all the First Nations from Prince-George to Kitimat to see that this worked.
It worked from 2004 to 2017. Why are we ignoring it?
Not only are you uplifting a generation of people out of poverty, you're making B.C. stronger.
Another element of the Budget that the Opposition Liberal member noted was the Renter's rebate, which provided for some of his review on the day.
Back in 2017, we heard a lot about the renters rebate. And it was $400.
Six years later, we kind of got something in relation to that. But it's not the universal rebate that was promised in 2017. Like other NDP government promises, it comes with conditions.
The rebate will be in the form of a tax credit and will be based on income. And it won't be available till 2024. In 2024, renter households making under $60,000, hopefully, will receive the full credit of $400 a year.
So those making under $60,000, hopefully, will receive this tax credit.
Those making between $60,000 and $80,000 will receive some sort of indexed tax credit. It won't be the full $400. We don't know what the amount will be. We don't know what the details are just yet.
But here's the thing.
In 2017, when this promise was first made, the average rents in Vancouver were $1,236. In 2022, average rents are now $1,675.
The $400 tax credit barely keeps up with the rental increases from 2017 to today.
If you do qualify, if you do make less than $60,000 per household, then your credit…. Let's say you make $60,000 a year, and you qualify. Well, that equates to $33.33 a month that comes through in a possible tax credit, saying that there are no more conditions.
Not only does it not keep up with the rental costs from the last five or six years, that's not going to even help with what renters are facing today. We've just got to be mindful and watch as the details come out here to make sure that this full amount is achieved for those making $60,000 or less per household.
By the way, if you make over $80,000 a year, you do not qualify at all.
If you make over $80,000 a year … You've got to remember that for the average renter in Vancouver, you have to make at least $130,000 a year.
So this announcement doesn't do anything for anybody that's trying to make $130,000 year in a household.
But we'll be watching.
Health care was also a focus for the presentation on the afternoon, with the Skeena MLA noting of the many challenges facing the Ministry, from ambulance wait times, to emergency room closures, Doctors closing their offices and nurses quitting their positions due to lack of staffing.
Ambulance wait times. Emergency rooms closing. Doctors leaving. Public health nurses quitting their jobs to join the private sector and then coming back to do the same work they were doing as a public health nurse and making more money with less stress.
Think about that for awhile. I really don't know to say to this when people are talking about our public health system, the national health care system — that you're having private nurses coming into our facilities and making more money.
I don't blame the nurses for doing this.
They're overworked. They're stressed, pulling double shifts, and then they see a private nurse coming in making more money than them. And they're doing even more work.
The public health nurse is doing even more work, so it just makes sense that they quit their public health job and go work for the private sector and come back and do the same job with more money.
On top of this, when you're talking about emergency rooms closing down, you're talking about a shortage of doctors and nurses.
We're still seeing clinics not opening or clinics with wait-lists so long that you have to line up before the clinic opens if you even want to have a slim chance of seeing a medical professional.
On the theme of Doctor's closing practice, the MLA noted of the volume of doctors who have closed their practices in Terrace and cited one such instance from the fall and a letter that was forwarded to patients at the time.
Dear patients,
I'm writing to inform you that I will be closing my practice October 31, 2022.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a new physician to take over my practice, largely due to the state of affairs of primary care in this province.
I encourage you to consider advocating to your MLA for change, as I fear that the loss of family doctors will only continue if the system continues to treat family physicians the way it currently does.
That passage would eventually lead to what will likely be the most controversial element of Mr. Ross's presentation from Wednesday, when he issued a call for the government to bring back public health workers that are unvaccinated, noting how he views the system in near collapse and that having the trained professionals back at work would ease some of the challenges currently in place.
Like many others that…. You know, I did what I thought was right during COVID, but we're not over COVID. I understand that, but we are facing a collapsed health system.
And we have a doctor shortage, a nurse shortage, health care worker shortage.
What doesn't make sense to me is that this government is not willing to bring back health care workers that are unvaccinated. That doesn't make any sense.
This government is willing to bring back B.C. Ferry workers who are unvaccinated, and why?
Because they have forced a number of recent sailing cancelations. That's the reason. It's got nothing to do with health. The fleet is running on overtime.
And that's just the recipe for burnout. We've been seeing this for months.
That's what Eric McNeely told CTV news. Unless there are some real fundamental changes taken quickly, it's going to be difficult.
You could say the same thing about doctors and nurses.
Substitute the fleet and put in doctors and nurses.
Doctors and nurses are running on overtime, and that's just the recipe for burnout. We've been seeing this for years. Unless there are some real fundamental changes taken quickly, it's going to be difficult.
The government also lifted vaccine mandates for federal employees and domestic travellers and international travellers.
So lifting vaccine mandates is okay for B.C. Ferry workers, travellers, transportation sectors, federal employees, but it's not good for our health care workers in the midst of a collapsed health care system with a shortage of doctors and nurses.
You've talked about everything in terms of how to address that but refused to bring back unvaccinated health care workers.
Myself, personally, put 100 percent faith in a health care worker who knows what a communicable disease is and how not to contract it and how not to spread it, regardless of vaccination status.
I can tell you that I got terribly sick twice over the holidays, and three times I went for COVID testing.
I wasn't even allowed in the building until I got a COVID test.
And once they saw I was negative, they sent me into emergency. I saw two nurses and a doctor.
When I went into the hospital, I can tell you, and this goes for my family and friends as well, I had a lot of questions. But I did not have one single question of whether or not the nurse or the doctor was vaccinated.
I didn't care, because I trust doctors and nurses.
My family and friends trust doctors and nurses.
The only ones that don't trust doctors and nurses are this government.
If it's such a crisis, bring them back.
You can review his full presentation to the Legislature
from the Chamber minutes and the video archive, the Skeena MLA's commentary for the session starts at the 4:40 PM mark.
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