We were pleased to see a good turn out for our Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Town Hall on Seniors and Health Care held on March 29th at the Oak Bay Recreation Centre Sports View Lounge. We were fortunate to receive a very informative presentation from Isobel MacKenzie, who was appointed as the BC Seniors Advocate two years ago. Isobel brings over 20 years of experience working with seniors in home care, licensed care, community services and volunteer services. Isobel led BC’s largest not-for-profit agency, serving over 6,000 seniors annually. It is clear that Isobel is passionate and dedicated to her work. Her presentation was very well received and those in attendance were given an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the important work undertaken by her office.

There are five mandated areas under the responsibilities of the Office of the Seniors Advocate (“OSA”):

• Health care
• Housing
• Transportation
• Income support
• Personal care

The OSA is an independent office of the provincial government and has several key functions, including analyzing, reporting and monitoring systemic issues that affect seniors. The OSA makes recommendations to government for change and provides information and referral to seniors and their families.

The OSA produces reports, including recently published BC Residential Facilities Quick Facts Directory (March 2016) and a report on Monitoring Seniors Services (January 2016).

More information about the OSA, including programs and subsidies for seniors is available at their website. The office can be reached by phone Toll-Free at 1-877-952-3181 Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 4:30pm (except statutory holidays) or by Email at: info@seniorsadvocatebc.ca

Translation services are available in more than 180 languages.

We will be featuring an interview with Isobel MacKenzie in an upcoming MLA Constituency Report, airing on Shaw Cable April 30, 2016 (8:30am) and May 1, 2016 (10:30am and 3:00pm).

Our sincere thanks are extended to Isobel for participating in our town hall.

Media statement: March 31, 2016
Andrew Weaver responds to Vancouver School Board budget shortfall
For Immediate Release

Victoria B.C. – Today Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, commented on the Vancouver School Board’s budgetary shortfall and the challenges facing public schools around the province.

Yesterday Premier Clark told the CBC’s Audrey McKinnon that the province can help BC’s public school system by growing the economy and attracting more people to live here.

“Fundamentally the BC Liberal’s have it backwards. A quality education is not the luxury of a strong economy. A quality public education system is what builds a strong economy”, Weaver noted. “The Premier has all these hypothetical conditions about a growing economy that she thinks must be met before her government will adequately fund public schools. This is short-sighted and puts our province’s economic future in jeopardy.”

“This budgetary problem has its roots in the Liberal’s 2002 shift from block funding to per-student funding, of which we have the second lowest rate in the country. The change was brought in when Christy Clark was the Minister of Education from 2001 to 2004.”

“The situation in Vancouver is further compounded by the BC Liberals’ irresponsible economic policies that have made affordability a huge issue in this city. People cannot afford to raise families here. The government cannot wait for other people to move in and solve the problem –  they need to step up at support the school board.”

– 30 –

Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca

On March 18 and 19 I toured the Kamloops region to learn more about the issues facing Kamloops residents. I will be writing further about my visit in the near future but in the meantime, a Letter to Kamloops this Week was recently published. This letter gives an overview of the visit. I reproduce the letter below.

Letter to Editor of Kamloops This Week

Green leader learned a lot about Kamloops in visit to city

Editor:

Media Release: March 29, 2016
Andrew Weaver calls for a moratorium on horizontal fracking in B.C.
For Immediate Release

Victoria B.C. – Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, says that a new report linking hydraulic fracturing and increased seismic activity highlights an immediate need for the province to adopt a moratorium on horizontal hydraulic fracturing until there is a better understanding of its risks.

“I am calling on both the government and the official opposition to join me in supporting a moratorium on horizontal fracking in British Columbia,” says Weaver. “Other jurisdictions, like Quebec, New York, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, have already suspended the practice and B.C. should follow suit.”

The study, set to be published in the journal of Seismological Society of America, surveyed seismic activity in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin over the last 25 years and found a direct link between induced earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing in BC and Alberta.

“I am calling for a moratorium on horizontal fracturing in B.C. until we establish scientific certainty on the risks it poses,” says Weaver. “Earthquakes, groundwater contamination, fresh water use, sour gas leaks, environmental degradation and terrain modification, are all concerning side effects of fracking and they warrant comprehensive and cumulative scientific review.”

In the last decade drilling in B.C.’s Northeast has increased dramatically. Every year there are hundreds of new natural gas wells drilled in the province.

“Last year we saw a 4.6 quake caused by fracking in the Fort St. John area,” says Weaver. “Now we have the scientific evidence showing a clear link between fracking and earthquakes, but we really have no idea what the risks of this increased seismic activity amount to. We are flying blind.”

“The BC Green Party has consistently called for a moratorium on fracking in our province. To continue to allow horizontal fracking in B.C. is irresponsible in light of mounting evidence.”

– 30 –

Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca

Reference:

Atkinson, G.M., D.W. Eaton, H. Ghofrani, D. Walker, B. Cheadle, R. Schultze, R. Shcherbakov, K. Tiampo, J. Gu, R. M. Harrington, Y. Liu, M. van der Baan, and H. Kao, 2016: Hydraulic Fracturing and Seismicity in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin Seismological Research Letters, 87(3), doi: 10.1785/0220150263.

Today I was in Vancouver meeting with a number of business leaders in British Columbia’s creative economy. My colleague Matt Toner (Deputy Leader of the BC Green Party) and I took the opportunity to visit with opponents of the proposed Site C dam who were camped out in front of BC Hydro’s downtown Vancouver headquarters.  It quickly became apparent to me that what is happening there qualifies as perhaps the most under-reported story of 2016.

Those who have been following my work over the last few years will know that I have frequently spoken out against the reckless disregard of energy economics exhibited by the BC Liberals.

Whether it be the fiscal folly of moving forward with Site C, the risking of British Columbia’s triple-A credit rating, or the lost opportunities arising from proceeding with Site C (including geothermal or wind), I have been arguing for almost three years now that proceeding with Site C makes no economic sense.

Let’s be clear. The BC Liberals are moving forward with the construction of the Site C dam exclusively because they want to ensure that LNG proponents have access to firm power so that they might use electricity-driven compressors in their liquefaction process (the so-called “cleanest LNG in the world”). For example, on November 4, 2014, BC Hydro and LNG Canada signed a power agreement that ensured taxpayer-subsidized power for the LNG industry in BC. But of course, as I have been pointing out for more than three years now, there will be no LNG industry anytime soon in BC due to the global glut in natural gas and plummeting prices for landed LNG in Asia.

As the BC Government strives to “Get to Yes” on an electricity generation project that no longer has any buyers, they have turned to Alberta. Yet Alberta has said they are not interested in buying BC’s excess electricity and the Trudeau government pointedly excluded funding for BC-to-Alberta transmission line infrastructure in the 2016 budget.

While the shenanigans of our political leaders in British Columbia play out, a remarkable young woman, Kristen Henry, has stepped up to draw attention to the negative consequences of moving forward with Site C.

I had the distinct honour of meeting with Kristin today. Kristin is in the 11th day of a hunger strike against the Site C dam. Stop and think about this for a minute. Can you imagine eleven days without food? Have you heard about this in the local media? I suspect not.

Kristin is an articulate, passionate and highly educated young woman who has literally put her life on the line in an attempt to draw attention to the reckless folly of proceeding with Site C.  She is extremely concerned about Site C’s violation of indigenous treaty rights, its effect on food security, and its reckless economics. While the mainstream media may not have drawn attention to her remarkable achievements, rest assured, her efforts have had a profound impact on me.