Responding to the Premier’s Statement on the 75th anniversary of D-Day

May 31, 2019 By Andrew Weaver Comments are Off Issues Blog, Uncategorized

June 6th, 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the battle for Normandy. The Premier rose yesterday (the last day the Legislature sat before the anniversary) to deliver a Ministerial Statement to commemorate this historic event. I responded to this Ministerial statement and reproduce the video and text of this response below.

Video of my Statement

Text of my Statement

A. Weaver: I rise to echo the compelling words of the Premier. His passion and heartfelt words were very inspiring.

As we know, on June 6 it will be the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. D-Day was one of the most well-known and important events of the Second World War, and Canadians played a critical role in this pivotal campaign. It changed the direction of the war, but it came at a terrible cost.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched a massive attack, with 7,000 vessels being used, 4,000 bombers and 3,700 fighter planes. More than 450 members of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion were amongst the very first to engage the enemy forces. A few hours later, 14,000 Canadian troops from the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade would land on Juno Beach, braving heavy fire for the Canadian soldiers, who were successful in capturing their shoreline positions and who endured some of the worst fighting over the next several days of the Normandy invasion.

Canadians suffered the highest casualties of any divisions in the British Army Group during the campaign, and 359 Canadians died on D-Day itself. More than 5,000 would die in the ten weeks of fighting that followed. More than 13,000 Canadian soldiers were severely wounded during this time. Mental and physical injuries that many would carry for the rest of their lives also occurred. More than one million Canadians would serve in the Second World War, and over 45,000 would lose their lives.

I stand today in humble recognition of their sacrifice, and I ask all members of this House to never forget the freedoms we have and the society we have come to enjoy. But this has come at a high cost.

Estimates debate with the Premier on demand side measures affecting the price of gas

May 31, 2019 By Andrew Weaver Comments are Off Clean Technology, Economy, Issues Blog, Pipelines, Transportation, Uncategorized

On Wednesday of this week I rose during budget estimate debates for the Office of the Premier to ask a number of questions concerning demand side measures that affect the price of gas. Prior to me rising, the Leader of the Official Opposition had spent a fair amount of time accusing the Premier of somehow causing the recent rise in the price of gas. I was profoundly disappointed by the behaviour of the Leader of the Opposition. It appeared to me that he was more interested in trying to score cheap political points and finding gotcha moments than he was in trying to probe the supply and demand side of the price of gas.

When my turn came, I asked a series of questions to understand how the recent increase in the price of gas might have affected transit ridership, active transportation and the purchase or electric vehicles. The answers I received from the Premier were very clear — there has been a great effect.

Below I reproduce the video and text of our exchange.

Video of Exchange

Text of Exchange

A. Weaver: I’d like to start by saying I think it’s an important anniversary today. I believe it’s the two-year anniversary of the signing of our CASA agreement. With that I would suggest that this has been a rather unique time in the province of British Columbia with a minority government. I would suggest that the Premier would probably agree that the relationship has been fruitful, collaborative, at times challenging, without a doubt, but nevertheless, reaffirming the commitment that we made in CASA to work together.

That doesn’t mean we agree on everything. It means we that have a process to reflect upon our disagreements, and I would just like to canvass a few of the issues here. In particular, I’d like to start off with some of the issues with respect to the gas prices. I was listening with interest to the comments coming from the official opposition. I was somewhat flummoxed by the kind of apparent petro-stumping that I heard, and somewhat concerned that I did not perceive there to be a desire to actually support British Columbia in standing up for British Columbians, as opposed to supporting the gouging that is going on by certain elements.

I noticed that over the last few months, the Premier and this government have come up under fire, frankly, about the rising gas prices, and the official opposition has done what they can to try to distort the issue — frankly, to blame government — appealing to the worst type of populist politics.

I want to start my questioning by asking the Premier: what tools does he have to affect gas prices?

Hon. J. Horgan: I thank my colleague from Oak Bay–Gordon Head, the leader of the Green Party, for his questions and his interventions here today in the budget estimates for the Premier’s office.

Firstly, I’d like to say that we’re trying to find ways to bring down the cost of gasoline by talking to suppliers, finding ways to bring more supply into our region. That means talking…. Again, as I said to the Leader of the Opposition, we’re working on a plan that has not come yet to fruition, but I think in the next while, if I give it time, I’ll be held to that. But we’re working hard to try to find a way to increase our ability to affect what’s in the pipeline.

What we’ve been trying to do is work with the federal government, get an acknowledgment from our federal government, who now does own the pipe. Although they can’t dictate what goes into it, they have a bunch of mechanisms at their disposal to help us explain how the price went up so high and what we can do to bring it down in the short term.

But in the long term, the member will know, and he and I are both enthusiastic about this, we’re going to be moving away from gasoline in the first place. We want to see more people in electric vehicles. We’re putting in place, as he knows, incentives to see more people using electric cars. I drive a hybrid. You drive a full electric. We’re building charging stations right across British Columbia. I think we have over 1,500 now, or somewhere in that neighbourhood, right across the province.

We’re putting in place infrastructure to reduce the costs over the long term and also have a better environmental outcome. But that’s not happening today. Sorry, Member. The public expects, rightly so, that we will be doing what we can to do to bring on more supply so that prices can go down, so we can make that transition over a longer period of time.

A. Weaver: I concur. I accept the arguments brought forward by the Premier with respect to the ability to affect what’s in the pipeline. I found compelling the arguments that discuss the fact that in fact, the Trans Mountain was not about enhanced refined capacity. It’s all about increased diluted bitumen.

The Premier has referred to a multitude of things that could happen. One of the things that I have a concern on, and I’m going to frame a question in this regard, is that if we look back historically, virtually every year, as long as I have known, gas prices go up in the spring, and they come back in the fall.

The Premier will remember back in…. I forget. Whenever the Axe the Tax campaign was initiated by a previous government, it was during the summer months, right at the peak price, when there were record prices being set. The kind of rhetoric associated with that campaign kind of fell flat as the fall approached, because the price of gas came down.

My question to the Premier is: does he think it is prudent for a government to have a market intervention along the lines of what the member of the official opposition is stating, in light of the fact that essentially every year, we know that the price of gas goes down as we move out of the summer season, and in fact will fall naturally because of traditional supply and demand arguments and enhanced refining after, basically, the long weekend in September?

Hon. J. Horgan: I agree with the member’s premise, but this year seems to be, without any doubt, anomalous relative to others. That 40 cent increase, when only one penny a litre can be put to the carbon tax that we increased on April 1 — that is unusual. There is always an increase in demand during the travelling season. You and I have talked about that. I agree with you. But it’s never been that large. That’s why, when I asked my deputy minister about the margin question, the refining margin, why it had gone from 2½ cents to 24 cents, what happened there? And we did our best through inquiries to get an answer to that question, but we can’t compel people to testify. The Utilities Commission can, and that’s why we’ve punted the question over to them.

In the meantime, we need to continue to talk about how people can get out of their cars. That means investing in transit, which we’re doing in a big way, not just in the Lower Mainland but right across B.C. It means giving incentives to get off of fossil fuels and on to cleaner energy alternatives for our transportation needs. These are all long-term goals that we have in our plan, that you and I worked on together with the Minister of Environment as part of CleanBC. But for today, when people are looking at their summer season, they’re pretty unhappy about this, and I absolutely feel that and understand it. And we are trying to find ways to have temporary relief through mechanisms that we’ve been working on as well as coordination and cooperation from the federal government.

But you’re absolutely right: these cycles are traditional. And the Leader of the Opposition and his crew are saying that it’s a tax question, among others. That’s not the case. Do we have a significant amount of tax in our gasoline — federal transportation, TransLink and so on? Yes, we do, but that does not explain these wild swings, seasonal swings that you’ve suggested.

A. Weaver: I agree with the Premier. The refining margin in British Columbia seems to be out of whack with the rest of the country. I’m hoping that the B.C. Utilities Commission is able to explore this. I look forward to the results.

But on that note, I noticed that the official opposition was focusing on increasing supply, increasing supply, increasing supply. And at one point, they kind of walked away from that. They started introducing this kind of Marxist logic about introducing a price cap, which was just outrageous coming from a free market party. Unbelievable. I think they’ve walked away from this price cap.

Anyway, my question is on the demand side then. I suspect, knowing that, the last time we had some price hikes and the widespread move towards alternate forms of transportation, which did have a legacy effect…. I’m wondering if the Premier has any statistics about uptakes of electric vehicles, uptakes of transit ridership or uptakes of other modes of active transportation that have arisen as a direct consequence of the rising price of gas, and whether or not this has affected the demand side of the equation and whether or not, in fact, demand is dropping in British Columbia.

Hon. J. Horgan: I’m just asking if we can get the uptick in people using transit, because it will be significant. The member is quite right. In times of crisis, people modify their behavior. They do different things. They don’t go, maybe, out to the grocery store every other day. They wait, or they buy larger amounts so they’re not travelling as much.

But I can say, on our incentives to get people into electric vehicles, as you’ll know, we had to increase that budget three times last year, which means that there’s a big demand for people to get out of the lineup for gasoline and a big demand to get into the future, which is electric vehicles. Prices are coming down. They need to come down further so that more people can get into electric vehicles. But people are voting with their feet on this question, taking up the incentives that government is providing. The federal government is now involved as well. This is very good news.

Interjection.

Hon. J. Horgan: The transit numbers are coming. Because we’re short of time, perhaps I’ll just make sure that I can get those numbers to you and I can quantify the three increases. I think we had the budget number in February. We increased in September, Minister of Finance? And then again in November.

The money is available, which is unprecedented to have a program that you increase not once but twice during the course of that fiscal year.

A. Weaver: I just want to canvass just a little more on the gas prices. I think it’s important, because we had so much focus on the supply side and, I would argue, not enough focus on the supply side. The numbers I had heard I got from good sources. I’m hoping to confirm. I recognize that it may be a little outside the scope of the Premier’s estimates and be more into Energy and Mines.

I’ve heard that this year, upwards of 10 percent of all new vehicles in British Columbia have been electric, and pushing 15 percent in the last month. Can the Premier confirm these numbers, as to whether I’m in the right ballpark?

Hon. J. Horgan: The member is quite right. We’ve seen a continued increase in demand, and supply is now having challenges. Providers are having longer wait times to get vehicles. Actually, the member for Delta North managed to get his electric vehicle ahead of you. That’s because there is so much demand.

That, of course, means that Detroit — I say Detroit as the amorphous auto sector — is changing their production plans because they see a change in the marketplace. We see that with the incentives that I talked about, and we’ll be able to provide those numbers to you in some detail afterwards. But there has been a steady increase in demand for non–fossil fuel transportation mechanisms, and I think that is all good news for us. That, of course, requires industry to recognize that, and they have. But because of these longer wait times, they realized they have got to build more cars faster.

A. Weaver: The Premier mentioned the member for Delta North, and I am very jealous. The member for Delta North and I both ordered Hyundai Konas. I did about three months beforehand. He got his about one month before, and mine isn’t even here yet. He was able to go to a dealer that actually ordered them proactively instead of reactively. The Premier is quite right. The supply for these vehicles is troubling.

I’m wondering, on the issue of demand again, to what extent the Premier has explored or with his office explored the work that was done, the report that was done on mobility pricing in the greater Vancouver area. I’m wondering if he’s had any thoughts about where government is going in terms of the issue of mobility pricing — whether or not they’re thinking of that in Metro Vancouver or not.

Hon. J. Horgan: Just on the previous question, May is not finished yet, as you know. So 15 percent of the vehicles sold in May were light-duty EVs. That is unprecedented, as the member knows, and speaks well for the future. I think gas prices are a part of that, absolutely. People are saying: “Well, this might be the time to make that leap.”

We’ve been reducing costs for people — reducing medical services premiums, eliminating them; eliminating tolls; reducing fees for child care. But then on the toll question, the reason we eliminated the tolls…. It was just one area, one piece of infrastructure. When other pieces of infrastructure were being built, there was no toll ascribed to them. And the federal government, of course, has a policy that they will not fund infrastructure that has tolling on it. That meant that the Massey project, for example, was solely on the back of the provincial government.

TransLink has established a mobility committee, and they’ve been working diligently, I guess, for quite some time now. They were supposed to report back in the summer of 2019. We look forward to hearing from the region, the densest part of the province, with what their plans are. This is going to be largely an issue to be dealt with by residents in the Lower Mainland. Of course, we need to work with TransLink, with the Mayors Council to make sure that any mobility program that comes forward makes sense to the travelling public and that it is not onerous.

A. Weaver: To explore this a little further, the Premier mentioned the issue of the Massey Tunnel replacement, and he’s referred to this recently. As an issue, of course, we support the Premier in this regard. The bridge was…. I just didn’t quite understand it; twinning of the tunnel was more sensible.

My question to the Premier is this. As government is exploring this option — and I understand they’re doing it through consultation — are they considering active modes of transportation in the Massey Tunnel as well? Right now you can’t really get across that south arm of the Fraser with bikes and walking. I’m wondering if that is in the cards for a Massey Tunnel expansion if it happens.

Hon. J. Horgan: Yes, it is, Member. I was excited last week when I learned that the regional mayors have come to a consensus that they need to work together to address the congestion problem at Massey. Both the member and I are Vancouver Island members, so when we enter into the Lower Mainland, our first introduction to the challenges of transportation is the Massey Tunnel. That’s our way off the island. Get off the ferry, go through the tunnel, and you’re on your way into Metro. So we’re very seized of that.

The Minister of Transportation is working on that. We’ve got a study underway that will include multimodal transportation. We don’t want to just have the same old, same old, but we need to find a way to get it done in a cost-effective manner. The federal government will participate provided there’s no tolling infrastructure. Now, how mobility pricing fits into that, I think, is a discussion for, I would expect, after the federal election in October. We’ll see what the outcome is there.

But we’re very much aware that we can’t just keep building infrastructure to move cars and trucks. I will also say that in Metro, transit use is 437 million boardings in 2018, up 7.1 percent from the year before. Again, that speaks to…. We have a population increase, of course, but more and more people are choosing to use public transit. We have a safe, effective means of moving people around in our metro area. It’s cost-effective. People like it. And more success will breed more success.

A. Weaver: Those are impressive numbers. Actually, 7 percent is far and above any population growth for Metro Vancouver, I would suggest. That’s actually quite good news. I thank the Premier for that.

I know that one of the other issues with respect to…. I believe the government campaigned on this. I know we did as well. It was exploring the ways to deal with the affordability issue and somehow to incentivize zoning or taxation policies to incentivize density around transit hubs. I’m wondering if government has any exploration into this area about tools that they might use at their disposal to incentivize the densification in urban areas around transit hubs, whether or not that’s being considered.

Hon. J. Horgan: We don’t believe that incentives are required, but we do know that coordination is. That’s why, when I formed the executive council, I put the member for Coquitlam-Maillardville in charge of Municipal Affairs, TransLink and Housing, so that we could put all three of those critical areas under one roof so that we could coordinate our transportation links with density, ensuring that municipal governments, local governments, were participating and understood our objectives, and we understood their objectives.

But when we designate a transit line, density will come to that. But the challenge then becomes: are neighbourhoods prepared for that? That’s where the municipal activity takes place.

We’re confident that these things will come together, but we are also looking at property taxes and how that’s affecting small businesses. That’s become very topical in the past number of months, and that’s part and parcel of zoning issues that become…. This is what is possible here. All of a sudden, the value of the land goes to the possible rather than the real. That has a negative impact on business and on people.

I will say, also, people are lining up and looking at me. City of Vancouver, 2017 — 52.8 percent of all trips were made by walking, cycling or transit. That’s up from 48 percent the year before. Again, a 4 percent increase in activity.

People are voting on these questions with their feet, literally — walking, cycling. Finding other ways to move around reduces their carbon impact, reduces their costs. I believe government’s role is to work as best as we can — and you agree with this — to put in place a framework that will work to get people where they want to be. It makes for a better society. It makes for better communities.

Impromptu statement on global warming and intergenerational equity

May 31, 2019 By Andrew Weaver 2 comments Economy, Environment, Issues Blog, Justice, Youth

Yesterday in the legislature I rose during Members’ statements to give an impromptu statement on global warming and intergenerational equity. The BC Liberals, as part of their petulant shenanigans during the last day of sitting of the BC Legislature, decided that they would boycott the two minute statements that occur everyday. As a consequence, several members scrambled to fill their normal speaking slots.

Below I reproduce the video and text of this statement.

Video of Statement

Text of Statement

A. Weaver: It gives me a great pleasure to rise, on this, the last day of the session, to deliver a two-minute statement.

Prior to coming up to the Legislature today, I did what I often do. I took a look at the seasonal climate forecast for this part of the world. The seasonal climate forecast for the summer of 2019 in British Columbia is this: extraordinarily high probabilities of higher than normal temperatures and dryer than normal conditions. What does that lead to? That leads to yet another suite of conditions that will lead to forest fires in British Columbia.

I remind members that back in 2004, Nathan Gillett, Mike Flannigan, Francis Zwiers and I published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters where we identified the fact that we could detect and attribute the increased area burnt in Canada of forest fires directly to human activity. Since that time, similar papers have come out for Siberia, for the eastern U.S., for Europe and elsewhere. We know that the increasing forest fires in our country is a direct consequence of global warming.

In fact, the science of global warming goes back to 1824, when Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was the first to recognize that the atmosphere was transparent to incoming solar radiation but was effective at blocking outgoing longwave radiation and kept the surface area of the planet warmer to allow life to flourish.

In 1861, John Tyndall, best known for his incredible sideburns, actually developed an amazing instrument that allowed us to detect the different radiative absorption properties of a diverse array of greenhouse gases.

In 1896, Svante Arrhenius, a famous Swedish Nobel laureate was the first to actually directly calculate the increasing warming associated with increasing carbon dioxide levels.

And in 1936, George Calendar was the first to make multi-century predictions as to what would happen as a direct consequence of increasing carbon dioxide.

In fact, the very first national assessment was done in 1979 — the year they graduated from high school — where Jule Charney from MIT was tasked with assessing what human contribution to climate change was. At that time, the best scientific estimate of the warming associated with increasing greenhouse gases was between 1½ and 4½ for a doubling of carbon dioxide. That number has not changed for 35 years of scientific research.

As we leave to the summer, I ask members to consider this. The question of global warming boils down to a single question. Do we the present generation owe it to future generations, in terms of leaving behind to them the quality environment that we were blessed with inheriting?

Intergenerational equity is the question — for those who make the decisions today don’t have to live the consequences of the decisions they made if the next generation will. I suspect those in the gallery, those children in the gallery looking down upon us today, would suggest that indeed it behooves us to put intergenerational equity front and centre in our decision-making.

BC Green bill aimed to protect tenants from “household violence” receives Royal Assent

May 30, 2019 By Andrew Weaver Comments are Off Children and Family, Community Blog, Housing, Issues Blog, Legislation, Media Release

Today in the legislature my private member’s bill Bill M206, Residential Tenancy Amendment Act, 2019 received Royal Assent. This bill amends the Residential Tenancy Act to provide tenants with the ability to end their fixed-term lease if staying in the rental unit is a threat to their safety or security. It broadens the somewhat constraining family violence provisions introduced by the B.C. Liberal government in 2015 and gives, for example, a tenant exposed to sexualized violence by a roommate or a neighbour the right to break their lease so they can move to a safer home.

Committee stage for the bill occurred yesterday. John Rustad, the BC Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes, was the official opposition critic. He asked numerous questions to clarify the intent of the bill. The Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing, Selina Robinson, was also available to provide answers to questions concerning the broader implications of the legislature. The bill passed committee stage yesterday and third reading today.

Below I reproduce the video and text of our exchange. I also append a copy of the media release that we issued upon passing of committee stage.

Video of Exchange

Text of Exchange

The House in Committee of the Whole (Section A) on Bill M206; R. Leonard in the chair.

The committee met at 3:29 p.m.

On section 1.

A. Weaver: Thank you to the member opposite for the questions that will be asked, and to the minister, who I’m here with too. I’m here to introduce the bill, M206, and to introduce my staff, who will be helping me out. Claire Hume is in the gallery there, along with Evan Pivnick.

As the Chair will know, this is rather a unique process. What will happen here, and what we went through with the benefit corporation, is that I may have to confer with my staff off in the gallery and the minister may confer with her staff. I, of course, am not allowed to confer with the ministerial staff, but I can confer with the minister. So it will be a rather interesting kind of dialogue and exchange here.

Interjection.

A. Weaver: Well, we can feed the member opposite some questions if he would like to see some, as well. No.

Anyway, I’d like to start by moving the amendment that’s on the order papers.

[SECTION 1, by deleting the text shown as struck out and adding the underlined text as shown:
1 Section 45.1 of the Residential Tenancy Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 78, is amended (a) in subsection (1) by adding “and section 45.2” after “In this section” and by adding the following definitions:

“~~occupant~~household violence” means violence that has adversely affected a tenant or an occupant’s quiet enjoyment, security, safety or physical well-being or is likely to adversely affect those if the tenant or occupant remains in a rental unit, including

(a) physical abuse of the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant, ~~or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant,~~ including forced confinement or deprivation of the necessities of life, but not including the use of reasonable force to protect oneself or others from harm,
(b) sexual abuse of the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant, ~~or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant,~~
(c) attempts to physically or sexually abuse the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant, ~~or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant,~~
(d) psychological or emotional abuse of the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant, ~~or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant,~~ including

(i) intimidation, harassment, coercion or threats, including threats respecting other persons, pets or property,
(ii) unreasonable restrictions on, or prevention of, the financial or personal autonomy of the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant, ~~or the dependant of the tenant or other occupant,~~
(iii) stalking or following of the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant, or the dependant of the tenant or other occupant, and
(iv) intentional damage to property, and

(e) in the case of ~~a child~~ an individual under the age of 19, direct or indirect exposure to violence against the tenant or ~~other~~ occupant;, or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant. , and

“occupant” means an individual, other than a tenant, who occupies a rental unit. ,

(b) by repealing subsection (2) (a) and substituting the following:

(a) if the tenant remains in the rental unit, the safety or security of

(i) either the tenant or a dependant of the tenant who lives in the rental unit is or is likely at risk from family violence carried out by a family member of the tenant, or
(ii) either the tenant or an ~~other~~ occupant ~~or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant who lives in the rental unit~~ is or is likely at risk from ~~occupant~~ household violence; ., and

(c) by adding the following subsection:

(5) For certainty, a reference in this section or section 45.2 to “occupant” includes a dependant of a tenant or occupant, if the dependant occupies the rental unit.]

On the amendment.

A. Weaver: That amendment to section 1 has been on the order papers for quite some time. If we look at section 1, if we start with that, in section 45.11 of the Residential Tenancy Act, we’re proposing the addition of two new terms to be used exclusively in sections 45.1 and 45.2. What you’ll see there is that, as currently written, 45.1(1) lists and defines the following: family member, family violence, long-term care and long-term care facility. To that list, in the amendment, we’re proposing the addition of “household violence” and a clarifying definition of the word “occupant.” Again, these terms are as defined for use in sections 45.1 and 45.2 of the bill only, not throughout the rest of the act.

“Household violence” is defined using the same definition that currently exists for family violence and the same definition we had in the first draft for “occupant violence.” Recall, a lot of this good work was done by the previous administration in 2015 when they brought in a bill to actually address tenancy and family violence.

In our case, instead of only applying to violence perpetrated by a family member, it’s expanded to capture violence, in general, associated with the home, perpetrated by a non–family member, such as a neighbour or a roommate, for example, as well. We’re also proposing the use of the definition of “household violence” as follows.

“‘Household violence’ means violence that has adversely affected a tenant or occupant’s quiet enjoyment, security, safety or physical well-being or is likely to adversely affect those if the tenant or occupant remains in a rental unit, including (a) physical abuse of the tenant or occupant, including forced confinement or deprivation of the necessities of life, but not including the use of reasonable force to protect oneself or others from harm, (b) sexual abuse of the tenant or occupant, (c) attempts to physically or sexually abuse the tenant or (d) psychological or emotional abuse of the tenant or occupant, including (i) intimidation, harassment, coercion or threats, including threats respecting other persons, pets or property, (ii) unreasonable restrictions on, or prevention of, the financial or personal autonomy of the tenant or occupant, (iii) stalking or following the tenant or occupant, or the dependant of the tenant or other occupant, and (iv) intentional damage to property, and” — for the final — “(e) in the case of an individual under the age of 19, direct or indirect exposure to violence against the tenant or occupant.”

The reason why that’s important, of course, is that the violence may be to a child who’s not actually on lease, but the child’s parent may actually be an occupant in the household.

“Household violence” is proposed as an amendment here to replace “occupant violence,” as written in my original bill that was in our binders because of the feedback I received from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and their legislative drafters. There was a concern that using “occupant violence” could be confusing because of its overlap with the term tenant. For example, a tenant is an occupant, but an occupant is not necessarily a tenant. I’m sure the member opposite will be asking some questions about the process that led up to the amendments that came today, and I look forward to answering those, if those question arise.

The concept of a tenant is used extensively throughout the Residential Tenancy Act as well as in the Strata Property Act, but they can have slightly different interpretations depending on the context, so we decided it would be better to choose a new term all together. And when I say we, it is in consultation with the legislative drafter that we worked with for several months on this file.

The word “household” was chosen because it is a term that refers to people who reside under one roof, which works nicely to capture violence associated with the house. I also like the term household because it reflects the fact that after a crime, one’s residence is often no longer a home and, certainly, no longer a safe home.

The other amendment members will note, in the definition here, is a tightening of the household violence subsections and the addition of an “occupant” definition. In the first bill we had, we wrote this. It said: “of the tenant or other occupant, or a dependent of the tenant or other occupant,” repeated in each line. This was viewed to be burdensome. An example of that was: “physical abuse of the tenant or other occupant, or a dependant of the tenant or other occupant.” This starts to sound like a bit of a mouthful.

So what we did, again, from feedback through the ministry staff and their legislative drafters, who are separate and different from our legislative drafter…. They made a recommendation to simplify it by just saying “tenant or occupant.” And in the definition subsections, we added some lines there to clarify that “occupant” means an individual who occupies the rental unit, including dependents of the tenant or occupant who live there.

I recognize this sounds like a mouthful of words, like tenant, occupant and household, but again, we’re working very carefully and closely with the legislative drafter that we had access to, and then we had feedback from the legislative drafters associated with the ministry. And after several iterations, we came to this in the legislation. The policy intent remains of the original one, but it’s better organized now, so I think this is a good change as it makes the section much more readable.

Finally, I’m proposing we replace the term “child” with “individual under the age of 19”. Again, that’s for clarity reasons to ensure that people understand we are talking about youth, not adult children.

There are a couple more changes in section 1(b) in the amendment. We’ve also made a change there, based on the feedback again from the ministry and the legislative drafters that they have access to, about the clarity matching with the existing language. I am proposing again in this amendment that we add in the word “either” to the start of 45.1(2)(a)(ii) to match the family violence section above. The family violence section exists, and it was brought forward by the B.C. Liberals in 2015.

Again to match the simplifying change made to the previous definitions section, I’ve amended 45.1(2)(a)(ii) to just say “tenant or an occupant,” instead of listing out “tenant or an other occupant or a dependent of the tenant or other occupant who lives in the rental unit.”

Finally, in section 1(c), we introduced an amendment there to add a new subsection, section 1(c) of this bill. This “For certainty” subsection pairs with the language simplification changes detailed previously to clarify the section 45.1 and 45.2. The term “occupant” includes the dependents of the tenant or occupant who live in the rental unit. This was an important thing that we were missing — that, in fact, “occupant” could include the children of a tenant there, and that children may not actually be on title, but certainly they’re living in the domicile. We’ve added the subsection instead of listing the same information every single line.

With that, hon. Chair, I thank you for allowing me to share these initial comments with the members in this room.

J. Rustad: This is an interesting process. I actually didn’t have the opportunity to go through the bill that came through earlier, and there have been very few bills that have gone through. I guess….

Do I ask the question of the member moving the bill…?

The Chair: You may.

J. Rustad: Aha, yes. And then the minister may then at that point, if she so desires, enter into a few questions. Like I say, it’s an interesting process because, as a Legislature, we don’t tend to move forward private members bills. The process tends to be, if a private member’s bill comes forward, government adopts it if they want to move it forward and then moves it as a government bill. So this is unique, and it’s actually one of the things I think that’s kind of, much as I find being in opposition on, exactly to my taste.

The current circumstances have allowed for a few of these types of situations to come forward, so it is an interesting process. And I want to congratulate the member in terms of bringing this forward and through this and obviously working through the secretary. There must have been some discussions and process that would’ve gone on with government in terms of the ability to bring this forward.

I guess maybe just an initial question, if I may, to the members. As you move this bill forward, as this process has developed, how did that conversation…? How did that work actually go on between…? And I realize that’s not in a section of the bill, but I’m curious, right?, in terms of how that work actually went on between government and the process that went on to go back and forth in order to actually draft the bill and have it come forward.

A. Weaver: First off, I wish to acknowledge that, in fact, the previous government did do precisely what the member did in the case of a couple of my private members’ bills. The government recognized that they supported the intent, and they brought in their own bill — and credit to government for doing that. So there has been precedent, but it has not been done this way. It’s kind of unique this way.

Both the minister and I will answer because we have different perspectives. It’s a very unique process here. We do not have access to the ministry staff or the ministry legislative drafters. However, government, for the first time, as far as I know, or if ever, for a very long time, has given opposition members access to legislative drafters. We have access to a legislative drafter who we have got our amendments and worked our bills through.

The process that came is that my staff and I developed the concept that we wished to be put into legislation. We went to our legislative drafter. We had a back-and-forth between our office and the legislative drafter until we got what we believed was a good first draft.

What we will see is that draft that appeared on the order papers. Government was looking at that then. Government staff, government lawyers, government legislative drafters had a look at it, and they made recommendations to us from their perspective, because our legislative drafter and their legislative drafters are not even allowed to talk to each other in this process. There are very distinct processes.

Our legislative drafter worked with us exclusively. Their legislative drafters looked at it and gave recommendations to us. We then discussed it amongst ourselves, staff and me, and the staff would go back and forth with the legislative drafter. We’d put forward some ideas, and then we got some recommendations back. There was a bit of back-and-forth in terms of recommendations.

Government…. At no time did their legislative drafters insist or require that we change anything. At all times, all they did was make recommendations that our legislative drafter took to make recommendations to us. It was a back-and-forth process.

The minister and I actually…. I don’t think we talked about this. It was all done between staff and legislative drafters through staff. In the end, I put the amendments that we came to agreement through our legislative drafter via our staff to the ministry staff, to their legislative drafters. There was some chord of recognition that we felt comfortable we had addressed their recommendations. Government, at this point, pointed out to us that they felt supportive of the intent and this bill, and we put the amendments on the order paper. As you can see from the order paper amendments, they’re extensive, but they’re not substantive. They’re extensive in terms of changing the definition of “occupant violence” to “household violence,” shortening language and also reflecting upon the issue of the children who may be associated with a tenant who is in the house.

The process was…. It actually works. It was interesting navigating it. It worked very well. We had a very good relationship with our legislative drafter. The interaction was good, and it led to where we are today.

But I don’t know what happened on the ministry side, so I’m going to appeal to the minister to see what happened there.

Hon. S. Robinson: Being part of a government that’s doing things differently is really important to me, because I think at the end of the day, for our government, it really is about: what do people need? Here was a private member’s bill that came forward, and it was…. This piece of legislation sits in my ministry, and it became a discussion around: “Do we, as government and do you, as minister, agree with this direction?”

It fits within our focus and our frame in terms of what we’re aiming to do, which is to make sure that people’s homes are safe for them, and this strengthened a piece of legislation that the previous government did. So from our perspective, it was: “Shall we work with them in order to deliver this? This is something they want to deliver.” It was like: “Okay. What’s the process?”

I think it was created as we went along, in terms of identifying how to best move forward. There was regular feedback. It would go through the Green caucus, and then it would come down through staff. They would do their work, and it would come back up to the ministry. But really, I want to acknowledge staff from the residential tenancy branch who have been absolutely outstanding in helping to co-create a method for bringing forward a private member’s bill so that it would work, and here we are today.

A. Weaver: Just one clarification to my words. I think I used the word “recommendation.” I think feedback would be a more appropriate word. I tried to do recommendation with the understanding that at no time did they require us to implement. It was really a point of feedback, so I thank the minister for using that word.

J. Rustad: Like I say, I’m fascinated with this process, because I’ve moved forward a number of private members’ bills, and I had never really even thought about actually trying to figure out if we could do this jointly with the ministry. Of course, when you’re opposition, it’s a little different in terms of the process of going through.

I’m curious. If I could, I’m really kind of curious: why weren’t they able to have the legislative drafters involved in it? I get the government…. I’ve used legislative drafting as well and having people made available to help with drafting a private member’s bill. I get that, but what I don’t get is why there needed to be the division. That doesn’t seem to make sense to me, so if I could just ask for some clarity on that.

Hon. S. Robinson: I will do my best, because it’s not my area of expertise. I am going to assume that this may have something to do with the AG’s office in terms of when you work with government versus not and how supports happen and play out. But I can do my best to get a more specific answer for the member.

Again, we need to, I think, remember that this is brand-new. We’re all sort of feeling our way around how we can do this in a way that might be more efficient. I think there are some learnings that we’re doing around how we can do this more efficiently. But this was the process that was set up as best we can, given this was brand-new.

So in using the existing structures and trying to adapt and adopt a new way of delivering good legislation, we’re feeling our way as we go through. This was a process, and I expect that there’ll be some ongoing conversation about: are there ways that we can make that work better?

J. Rustad: I want to thank the minister for that answer. Having been in government not that long ago, I fully recognize that government resources need to be spent on government activities. There’s definitely a line. There’s even a line with private members within government, let alone private member within opposition or within…. Well, I guess, officially, you’re opposition.

So I get there’s that sort of challenge on that, so that’s an interesting point. I guess I’ll need to find a way to think about that in terms of how those resources are spent. Because I do think there are some ways to able to be more efficient in terms of how we can move forward private members, which I think, quite frankly, can add some value to the work that everybody does within the Legislature.

I commend you in terms of finding a way through this and working on this. I’d love to be part of a conversation about how we actually extend that out to making it, perhaps, even more efficient in the future through what that does.

In terms of the process and the back-and-forth, I am a little curious. The member, obviously, had gone out and talked to a number of groups and would have been through some sort of engagement process before coming forward with this sort of bill. I’m just wondering if the member, in coming up with the suggestions in here, could perhaps talk a little bit about the process that he went through in terms of input that would have led to this and bringing forward this bill.

A. Weaver: Two things. First, to address the member’s comment about the process, I think I’d just like to give an example, just for illustration, in case people are watching.

Yesterday, the member for Shuswap brought forward an amendment to Bill 30, the labour code. That amendment had been prepared by legislative drafters that were made available to government. Because the amendment was actually put and developed in a manner that was consistent with legislative language from all acts, it was something that produced a very strong amendment that allowed our caucus to support the amendment brought forth yesterday.

I think the minister’s government deserves a lot of credit for making available to opposition members legislative drafters. I think the members of the official opposition as well as our Green caucus have taken advantage of that.

With respect to the process, the two main groups that we consulted were the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia and West Coast LEAF, where LEAF is the Legal Education and Action Fund, both of which are extensive advocacy groups and both of which were very actively involved and also consulted by the B.C. Liberals in 2015 when they developed the family violence provisions in the act that we’re extending.

Again, it was a similar process. We reached out to them and asked them. They’re extensively involved in ensuring that, basically, we’re moving on a path towards ending violence. They were the key people in terms of a broader engagement for us — in terms of how we were getting a sense of what the issues were. They provided us some examples of why this is important.

J. Rustad: I do, actually, have a fairly keen interest, although I didn’t get an opportunity to speak in second reading to this. Spending time as the minister for…. At that time, it was called Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation. I mean, there’s significant violence in homes, both within Indigenous communities but also outside of Indigenous communities.

I have worked closely with the women’s shelters in my riding, trying to get support. Through that process, I’ve talked with them about a number of these things. Women fleeing violence, in particular, is a significant concern. The idea…. In terms of this stuff, I think it’s good to be able to have these definitions in there.

There are, obviously, some pretty unique situations that happen, certainly, in my riding, unfortunately, and in many other ridings. Having had a chance to talk with many family members and many people, particularly in a session I did with the families of the missing and murdered women from along Highway 16 as well as around the province, when we did a gathering, I had a chance to hear many stories and components around it.

I guess the question on it…. Many of those issues, of course, aren’t dealt with in here. Those are issues that are in other pieces of legislation. Certainly, when it comes to tenancy, many people found themselves trapped in situations. They didn’t know where to go. They didn’t know what to do. They’re in…. Whether it’s verbal abuse, sexual abuse, violence or these types of things, it becomes a very…. It’s a pretty challenging issue, particularly for First Nations. I mean, it’s a very challenging issue with that.

That’s why I’m asking…. The groups that you mentioned, obviously, are very connected with that and those parts of it, particularly from that perspective of people living in these situations on reserve. Did you get any feedback or components around that as part of how you developed this bill?

A. Weaver: Thank you to the member for that very important question about consultation with broader Indigenous communities. What we did, as I mentioned, is go through the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia and West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund. These are two organizations that have extensive experience working with Indigenous and other marginalized communities where we accept that some of these problems that we’re trying to deal with are often amplified.

One of the things that I think is important to also add here is that when the former government brought in the family violence legislation in 2015, they created a very fine suite of regulations attached to it. They spent a fair amount of time extensively consulting more broadly to, in particular, come up the types of people who may make a family violence confirmation statement.

The idea here, as you’ll see in the legislation, is that there are certain professionals that are able to make family violence confirmation statements. They’re individuals that…. For the purpose of this discussion, the two key aspects of that are an employee of “(i) an aboriginal organization who is responsible for duties as a family support worker, executive director, aboriginal court worker or aboriginal justice worker, or (ii) a first nation or the Métis Nation British Columbia who is responsible for providing support or services in respect of children, families, justice, housing, or health.”

Our approach to this was to go to the advocates who have extensive experience working with communities, both Indigenous and other communities, to seek their extensive advice, and also to recognize that government previously had done extensive consultation in terms of setting up the regulatory environment. And we, as you’ll see in the legislation, agree that this is a very good foundation.

In fact, we believe that the section (o)…. In part 7, “End of Fixed Term Tenancy,” section 39 of that, called “Eligibility to confirm risk of family violence” in the residential tenancy regulations, section (o), “an employee of…,” is very fine language that gives Aboriginal communities the ability to use local support workers or court workers or justice workers or the Métis Nation to actually be the person making the statement to allow for the lease to be broken.

Hon. S. Robinson: I do have an answer to the member’s previous question about the use of legislative drafters. And it’s about the client’s listed privilege that the legislative drafters…. The client is the government, not the opposition. Everyone has their own relationship, so that’s why it’s set up the way it is. So the drafters — their client is the Third Party. That’s the frame, and that’s why it’s broken down the way it is.

I also wanted to make mention…. The member asked and commented specifically about Indigenous women. We know that the risk for Indigenous women is significantly greater than it is for other women. That’s why our government has taken a number of steps around, first of all, significant funds for women and children fleeing violence.

I was just in Penticton, for example, opening up homes for women, and the stories that I heard were quite astounding. In fact, there was one woman in particular who told the story of her husband just locking her out with their infant son and not having any place to go and so was grateful to have the opportunity to set up a home so she can raise her child.

The other thing that we’ve done, of course, is housing on and off reserve. That really just gives people, certainly, a home where their community is. That was a significant announcement. We’re still the only province to have done so. Again, we know that when there are multiple families living in a home on reserve, people are crowded. There’s terrible overcrowding, and we need to find a way to deliver the kind of housing that people on reserve need. So our government is doing our part to help relieve some of that burden.

J. Rustad: I actually want to — as an opposition member, sometimes you don’t often get a chance to say this very much — thank the minister for the investments in that. When I had the portfolio for over four years, obviously, with the stories, with the circumstances, I’m appreciative of anybody, any government that has an opportunity to step up to the plate and to be able to help address these situations. Some of those particular circumstances that people had enough confidence to share with me were pretty horrendous, and so anything that can be done to help try to alleviate and change those circumstances I think is good.

To that end, that’s why I particularly asked the question around engaging on the Indigenous side, because the numbers are significantly higher than they are in the general population, so for making changes, we want to make sure that it can work effectively for a population that really needs it.

The side circumstances, of course, that come from not having a safe environment, not having a safe…. Whether it’s issues within family, related family members or others is…. Sorry. I get kind of emotional in talking about this, because it is such…. I mean, it’s quite remarkable when I think back on some of the stories, and I wish there was a way I could actually share some of those stories more publicly, simply for the reason that more people need to hear about these things. But they’re not my stories to tell, so I can’t go off and talk about that.

In terms of this act, in terms of the changes that are brought forward in the household violence and that side of things…. I’m thinking particularly about the occupant violence. Sometimes there can be blurred lines around that. I’m just wondering. Are you satisfied in terms of how that’s defined? Or do you think there’s any potential loopholes that could come, given the circumstances? Often, in a situation on reserve, there can be multifamilies. It can be overcrowded. There can be situations that can lead to these sorts of challenges that this bill, hopefully, is designed to try to address.

A. Weaver: In section 1, article 1, there’s a very key word here. That is the word “including.”

There’s a definition of “household violence,” and it says this. Let me get the version that’s as amended just so I can ensure that I don’t mess it up. As amended, if the amendment passes, it would say: “…means violence that has adversely affected a tenant or occupant’s quiet enjoyment, security, safety or physical well-being or is likely to adversely affect those if the tenant or occupant remains in a rental unit, including….” Now, the key word there is “including,” because by using the word including, it provides a list of situations covered by the term “family violence,” as is also used in the definition of “family violence.”

Now, family violence, of course, exists in the existing bill. That was what was brought forward by the B.C. Liberals and passed with the support of the House in 2015.

We’ve built upon that. The law is kept inclusive of a range of situations that could fit the broader intent, rather than explicitly specifying which situations would be covered and risking unintentionally excluding — by having the word “including” and giving a list of examples but recognizing that there may be some that, down the road, others might find that might have not been covered within the actual “including.”

This is precisely why it’s so important to move towards the regulations, which I touched upon earlier. Again, these regulations in the existing act were brought forward after extensive consultations by the previous government with reference to the family violence provisions. In those extensive consultations, in which Indigenous communities were included, it was very important and critical to ensure that the experts who could provide the testimony were relevant to the communities on which the violence was occurring. So we commend the previous government — we’ve done this several times — for really extensively canvassing the type of professionals who should be involved in making recommendations with respect to breaking a lease.

The Aboriginal components in there are carried forward into this legislation. So we believe that it’s inclusive. We believe we have the right regulatory framework in place already.

However, under section 3 of this act, you’ll see that there’s a time period proposed to be amended. The idea is that government may go through a consultation process and find that there are some other examples that we might have to consider. So the regulatory environment that is enabled here would also allow government to come up with some other examples as the civil service does their work, if they find some. We’re confident we’re capturing it.

Again, just like in 2015, in speaking with members at the time, I think we build legislation. If gaps are found down the road, I’m certain, based on the support we’ve seen on this type of thing, we’ll get to fixing it collectively.

J. Rustad: I actually wasn’t too sure how the process is, if the minister needed more time, whether I had to get up again or whether it was wait for the minister. Like I say, it is fascinating to watch.

Anyway, I want to thank you for that answer. I am happy that I see the wording here using “including.” Including is good, because that means it’s not excluding — right? — if there’s something that wasn’t necessarily in that list. That is helpful in terms of moving through.

I’m just curious in terms of how that sort of situation comes about. If somebody is there for a period of time that may not be a tenant, so to speak…. It may just be somebody in the thing. How is that dealt with and associated with this bill?

A. Weaver: To address the question, there is in the amendment a definition of the word “occupant.” It’s a clarifying definition. It means an individual other than a tenant who occupies a rental unit. I’ll come to that in a second.

Now, if we, then…. What does “occupy” mean, and what does “occupant” mean? Well, “occupies,” as used in the definition of “occupant,” has the ordinary meaning here. It’s commonly used in the Residential Tenancy Act, as it is, and also in the Strata Property Act, as it exists in statutes, to describe someone who lives in the unit. However, these amendments do not cover violence towards guests or visitors.

If someone is considered to be an occupant as to the regular meaning in use already in the Residential Tenancy Act and the Strata Property Act, they’d be covered. However, a guest, someone who’s, perhaps, visiting you for a couple of days, would not be considered an occupant. They would not be covered under the act, based on the normal use of the words “occupant” and “occupies.”

J. Rustad: I’m curious about that, just in terms of occupant — I apologize; I don’t have the definition here in front of me — and what length of time before someone changes over from being a guest to being an occupant.

The reason why I ask, of course, is because…. You can get some very interesting situations that happen and that I’ve heard, particularly with Indigenous communities but in other communities. You may have a situation where a brother or an uncle or a friend is being invited to come in and stay for a while, and a while turns into, potentially, many months. So I’m just wondering how that works.

A. Weaver: I don’t want people to change the channel at home. We want to give them something to listen to, as the minister is consulting.

I just wanted to address the member’s questions about process. Anything that’s with respect to the bill, I will try to address as best I can. I am unable to go and talk about the broader implications.

This particular question refers to a time with respect to the regular use of the word “occupy.” That reflects the use in the Residential Tenancy Act and the Strata Property Act, which requires the minister to speak on that behalf. So she will answer this question.

Hon. S. Robinson: And I have an answer. We have third-party verifiers, and they make that determination. Each situation is unique. It’s based on the existing regulations, and that’s the process that has been developed and that’s being used.

J. Rustad: I want to thank both members for the answer. And you can see, as I’m working through and thinking about the situations, I’ve got a number of situations where there has been this. These sorts of issues have been raised in my office, which is why I’m asking specifically about these. That’s one thing about being an MLA. Particularly in a rural area but, really, in all areas, your office tends to get engaged in many, many different circumstances. So the clarity on that is helpful. I’ve had people come in and ask: “How do I deal with this situation?” Anyway, that part is good.

Just a little bit of follow-up in terms of when you go through the list. One of the things that’s in here that I kind of wondered about was where it talks about stalking or following a tenant. Is there a measure, or is there a process that has a reasonable sort of fairness perspective in terms of what that would constitute?

Hon. S. Robinson: Well, I’m not going to wait for any other member, because I’ve got an answer.

Interjection.

Hon. S. Robinson: And he can have another answer. We’ll see if it’s the same answer.

Staff tell me that it’s consistent with the Family Law Act. They just took it right from the Family Law Act, and they’ve imported it into this act so that, as government, we’re consistent.

A. Weaver: And I can provide some value-added commentary to the minister’s response. In fact, there is a criminal definition of “stalking.” The offence of criminal harassment or stalking generally consists of repeated conduct that is carried out over a period of time and which causes those who are victimized in these ways to reasonably fear for their safety. The criminal behaviour does not necessarily result in physical injury. So there is actually a criminal definition of stalking, and as the minister mentioned, this is consistent with the family violence act.

J. Rustad: I appreciate that. That’s good. You know, in one of the communities that I represent, there have been cases where information has come forward and has not actually been able to play out because of circumstances, whether it’s proof or otherwise. That’s why I’m sort of asking about that in terms of where that line may be. So that line is the same as it has been in the other laws. That’s good.

I kind of assumed that would be the case, but I just wanted to make sure — not so much on the stalking but just on the following side — because you do get these situations where sometimes a family member or friend or perhaps somebody who used to be a friend will make an accusation and base it on various components. You never know. Sometimes those accusations, of course, don’t follow through in terms of getting to a place where somebody is actually held accountable for that sort of thing. Like I say, that’s why that was one of those things that stood out for me when I went through the bill, and I just wanted to be able to have the clarification around that.

I’m trying to think through the amendment that you had, in the situation that I’ve outlined. So it is not exclusive. It’s inclusive in terms of the process going through. There will be regulations or the potential for regulations to be made through this process. Is there going to be a process in terms of those regulations similar in terms of engagement and discussion? Once again, obviously there’ll be lots of people that’ll be very interested in this component. There are many groups that are engaged in and concerned on this side. I’m just wondering how that process will go through so that people don’t have a sense of there being an exclusion or something that might be missed.

Hon. S. Robinson: We would absolutely consult and perhaps build on the work that’s already been done and undertaken in order to make sure that we can cover off as much as we can as part of the regulation. It’s really important that we consult with these groups and others so that we are as inclusive as possible and that we can make sure that this works.

Because at the end of the day, it really is about the people, the people that find themselves in dangerous situations and in frightening situations or in unsafe situations. We want to make sure that they have the ability to get to safety, and this is another way to do that. So we want to make sure that we’re as broad as we can be. Consultation is a key component of developing these regulations.

J. Rustad: I’m glad to hear that. That’s an important piece. Just curious as well, though, in terms of issues of mental health — these types of things that can happen that can sometimes be viewed from one perspective but may not be because of the situation. I’m just wondering how that plays into the definitions and the process that is outlined here in the bill.

A. Weaver: I’m wondering if we might get some clarification from the member as to what he means with respect to the issue of mental health? Is the member asking about what would happen if a tenant was undergoing a mental health crisis? Or is it about a perpetrator who may have mental health issues or an occupant who may have mental health…? We’re a little unclear as to what the member is meaning with respect to mental health.

J. Rustad: I was referring to an occupant or a tenant that may have a mental health situation that could create an environment that may not necessarily be threatening or otherwise but may be perceived that way — and just how that sort of thing would be handled.

A. Weaver: Thank you for the clarification. In the section 1 definitions, there is something there that talks about “(d) psychological or emotional abuse of the tenant or…occupant.” Let’s suppose hypothetically that there are two people sharing a lease. Let’s suppose they’re two students and they have a two-bedroom condominium and they’re both on the lease. One of the students suffers some mental illness that makes the other student feel very unsafe.

The other student has the ability to go to the third-party validators, such as counsellors, mental health professionals, psychiatrists to seek an opinion as to whether or not this would allow them to break the lease. If they get third-party validating certification, they would be able to break the lease because of a perceived threat under section 45.1(d) with respect to “psychological or emotional abuse.”

Or it could actually be a worry about a threat of violence. Let’s suppose, hypothetically, there was a concern that a student with you stopped taking medication with respect to schizophrenia or something like that. You might imagine that might you feel unsafe on a lease, and a third-party validator would allow a person to break a lease. We believe it’s captured in the existing definitions.

J. Rustad: I’m chuckling a little bit. This is obviously a very serious issue. But the first thing that came to mind, of course, was Big Bang Theory.

Interjection.

J. Rustad: Oh, you did? Okay. I’m sorry. I won’t go there, Minister, but that’s okay.

My apologies, Madam Speaker. This is obviously a very serious issue in terms of it. A little bit of humour as we go through this process is always nice to be able do, but I certainly don’t want anybody taking it out of context in the seriousness of the issue.

In terms of going through, it looks like this has gone through and been able to capture the circumstances certainly that I have run across in my time and privilege of being an MLA and certainly the issues that I’ve dealt with as being minister and the kind of things that would…up.

I’m happy to see that is in place. I don’t think I have any other questions on section 1.

A. Weaver: I just want to formally acknowledge how important I think it is to bring humour into discussions like this, so I appreciate the candour. It is a very serious issue. I agree with the member. But when the member referred to Big Bang Theory, it brought back just as many memories to me too. So thank you for that reference.

Amendment approved.

Section 1 as amended approved.

On section 2.

A. Weaver: Thank you for the patience of the member opposite as I introduce an amendment to this section. The amendment to section 2 has been standing in my name on the order paper for quite some time, a couple of weeks now.

[SECTION 2, by deleting the text shown as struck out and adding the underlined text as shown:

2 Section 45.2 (1) (b) is amended by adding “and, if applicable in respect of household violence, the occupant and the occupant’s circumstances” after “the tenant’s circumstances”.~~the following subsection:~~

(4) If the regulations do not provide for the making of a statement under this section in relation to occupant violence, a person’s authority under this section to make a statement in relation to family violence is deemed to include the authority to make a statement in relation to occupant violence.]

On the amendment.

A. Weaver: What the amendment does is as follows.

The original intent of section 2, Residential Tenancy Act, section 45.2 in my bill was to extend a person’s authority to make a confirmation statement in relation to family violence to include the authority to make a confirmation statement in relation to household violence as well. The amendment still accomplishes that policy goal but, again, with different language that aligns with the feedback that we received from the ministry.

Instead of specifying that if the regulations do not provide for the making of a statement under the section in relation to household violence, a person’s authority under this section to make a statement in relation to family violence is deemed to include the authority to make a statement in relation to household violence.

My staff have talked extensively with ministry about adjusting section 3 to build in the time necessary to consult and adjust the regulations directly, which would make this section as I originally drafted it essentially redundant.

We accepted that, and this amendment text is added to the end of section 45.2(1)(b) to clarify…. Is that an l or a 1? If it was written as an l, I can assure you that a few years from now, there’d be a very fine legislative drafter who would pick up the error, and we’d have a misc stats bill, because we actually changed one of those recently — an l to a 1, or vice versa.

In this amendment, the text is added to the end of section of 45.2(1)(b) to clarify that for household violence the occupant and occupant’s circumstances can also be considered by the third-party validator when they are evaluating the tenant’s situation.

For example, if your roommate or child is attacked by your neighbour, even though it is not specifically about you as the tenant, it is reasonable to expect you may need or want to leave for a safer home. Here the amendment is clarifying, tightening and ensuring that it’s inclusive as well.

J. Rustad: I have no real concerns on the amendment. The amendment’s fine.

I’m actually just curious, once again, about the process with the legislative drafters, just that process that went on and how that came about. I understand the legislative drafters’ job is to put forward that, but I’m just wondering: wouldn’t there be a better way, so that wouldn’t have to go back…? I just want to ask a little bit about that process and how it came to this amendment of change.

A. Weaver: We’ll go through the process. It’s very similar to the previous process. Of course, we put the bill, through that process that I won’t really go through, onto the order papers after we consulted with our legislative drafters. It’s at that point that ministry staff and ministry lawyers and ministry drafters were able to see what we entailed, and they provided feedback.

One of the things we did there is we felt that the regulatory environment that was brought in place by the former government associated with family violence was very strong. We wanted to ensure…. We felt that that language and that regulatory environment could carry right across into household violence. So what we did, initially, is ensure that if government didn’t come up with a regulatory environment, this one would fill in. We would ensure that there was a default, which, in essence, was what was already on the books applicable to family violence.

However, my understanding, in consultation between staff, was that government agreed that the regulations that had been brought in place by the former government were very strong. And they believed that it was a foundation on which to build, as opposed to one to replace. We accepted that, and we thought this was no longer necessary and hence redundant and so removed that by simply clarifying.

It was really a process of us putting the bill on the order papers; the government looking at it, providing us feedback; us responding to that feedback; a discussion about the importance of the regulatory environment brought forward by the previous government; and agreement by both government and the Third Party that these were the foundations, not something to be removed. So the text was redundant.

J. Rustad: I want to thank you for that explanation. Just procedural question, if I may. I’m just wondering. We talked about this a little bit before. Do you actually have to have it on the order papers as a bill before the ministry’s legislative drafters can look at it, or is it possible to provide a draft through a process? I’m just wondering if it has to actually be on the floor before you can get that input.

A. Weaver: Our procedure that we identified was we tabled, at first reading, the bill. I stood at first reading and tabled the bill. It was that time that was government’s first time seeing the bill.

Because of the fact that our legislative drafter that we have access to cannot — because of, I guess, client privilege — interact with the government legislative drafters, the communication between them did not occur until after…. Well, it really never occurred directly between them. Our communications only took forward once our bill had been tabled at first reading.

It was the feedback and ongoing discussions with ministry staff and our staff that led to the amendments put on the order paper a couple of weeks ago. That was us. And it was only at that period that we knew what the feedback from their legislative drafters was relative to our legislative drafters.

I tend to agree that maybe there are other processes involved, but this seems to have worked. I mean, it seemed to have worked well. It was very collaborative. It was very consultative. It was very rewarding, actually, to get the feedback. And honestly, I think that having a diversity of views on the same piece of legislation and feedback from a multitude of legislative drafters led to a tighter and better piece of legislation.

J. Rustad: I agree with the member, actually. I think the process going…. The question I had, though, was just whether or not there was another way to do that, whether or not there was a way to be able to provide the minister with a draft copy to potentially look at and whether or not there was any potential to do some of that work. Not that it can’t be done this way. Obviously, this can be done, and this bill can be moved forward, and the amendments can be brought forward and this kind of stuff. But I’m just wondering if there was a way to be able to have that collaboration sort of as a process before it was officially on the floor, just from a technical perspective.

Hon. S. Robinson: Well, I suppose one way that could have been done more efficiently is to introduce it as a government bill, right? And then we’d just have government legislators we’d bring it by. The intent of the bill still is kept whole. This was a different exercise and a different understanding and agreement that this would be a private member’s bill. Again, because we have this division of solicitor-client privilege, it’s about keeping it separate because the legislative writers work for government. Government is the client. And they can’t work for both opposition and…. That why it’s separate.

But I don’t disagree; maybe there is another way. I don’t know. Like I said, this is the second time that we’re doing this, this session. But the most efficient way, I think, is for government to say: “Well, let’s just pull it into a number of changes that we’re doing. Let’s just add it in and continue the consultation. Is this the intent?” But we only use one set of legislative writers, drafters, who’d do it, and that would be the government drafters. Of course, they have the history. They’re most familiar. They’re special folks. The Residential Tenancy Act — they know it well. They know how it interfaces with all the other acts. So that would be, certainly…. Just have government do it, and use resources a little bit differently.

J. Rustad: Thanks to the minister for that. That’s why I was just wondering. I guess if it had come forward from a private member who asked the minister to have a look at it, in order to do that, it would basically have had to become a government bill. That is unfortunate, of course, because there’s a lot of work and effort that goes into it from a private member, whether it’s the Green Party or other members of the House, right? And the recognition, obviously, needs to be there or wants to be there — right? — in terms of that work. You’re working hard on behalf of constituents on issues that come up. I get that.

Okay. I just wanted to understand that better in terms of why that couldn’t have happened that way. So I really appreciate taking that question and providing an answer.

Amendment approved.

Section 2 as amended approved.

On section 3.

A. Weaver: I thank the enthusiasm from government members who are….

Interjections.

A. Weaver: On this point I’d like to also move an amendment that’s on the order paper. You’ll notice that the section 3 amendment has been on the order paper for a couple of weeks.

[SECTION 3, by deleting the text shown as struck out and adding the underlined text as shown:

Commencement

3 This Act comes into force ~~on the date of Royal Assent.~~ by regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council or on the date that is one year after the date of Royal Assent, whichever is earlier.]

On the amendment.

A. Weaver: This may seem to be somewhat unique, and it is unique in the B.C. context to amend it as such. But this type of commencement language is actually quite common with bills in the Senate federally — in particular, opposition bills — and the federal parliament.

We have a very different process federally for debating private members’ bills than we do provincially. We’re kind of learning it here, as we move forward, provincially.

The idea here is that…. We recognize that government needs to take some time to reflect upon the regulatory environments and do some consultations. That will take some time. The one year is a backstop. This is an important issue. It’s a very important issue for a large number of people. So the one-year backstop means that government has a full year — we believe that’s entirely reasonable — to bring it into force, to do the consultation and to make any regulatory changes. That’s why we have the backstop at one year. Otherwise, it’s just an order-in-council, which is a typical thing that we see on most bills here in British Columbia.

J. Rustad: I think it’s probably the first time I’ve ever stood up and asked a question about commencement.

Interjection.

J. Rustad: Exactly. It’s a dawning of a new age.

Actually, I am curious about this. I have never seen this in the years that I have had the privilege and honour of serving my constituents and of being in here debating bits and pieces of legislation. I’ve never seen one that has had the either-or, a one-year sort of thing.

I guess I could see, in the potential situation where you didn’t want to lose the bill or have the bill kind of get hung — maybe there’s an election or a change of government or these types of things — having that in there. I also, of course, see it’s implemented by regulation or through an order-in-council, the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council.

I guess the question is…. The bill, as it is…. There’s regulation that can be created and put in place, obviously, and that needs to be put in place. There’s consultation and work that will be done around that. Why is there a need, then, to actually have the division here, as opposed to just having it passed upon royal assent?

I’m just wondering…. If it’s passed by royal assent, the government still has the ability and the need to be able to go forward and create the regulations and the process that’s happening. So I’m just wondering why that was put in.

A. Weaver: From our perspective, we felt we wanted to give government the time to develop the regulatory environment. It’s more difficult for us, as an opposition caucus, to know exactly what’s entailed in terms of the regulatory environment. Our worry, by putting it at royal assent, is we would have not given government that time.

The member is absolutely correct. The rationale for a year is…. Again, it comes from the federal Senate and the federal parliament. It’s very common there for private members’ bills to have that clause. The idea there is exactly as the member identified. If government…. Let’s suppose, hypothetically, an election happened. Let’s suppose there’s a change of priorities, and this falls on the back burner. The one year, actually, is a backstop there.

We just wanted to give government the time to do the background. That was really the rationale for why we did it. I think it’s a part of collaboration. We didn’t want to force them into something. We wanted to allow them to reflect upon it and bring it in, in a timely fashion. There is an element of trust there. I recognize that. But we also have the one-year backstop.

Hon. S. Robinson: I have a couple of responses to the member’s question. The first one is we need to remember that this is about people. Yes, it’s a piece of legislation that the member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head worked really diligently on with his staff. I want to thank them for their work. We need to make sure that…. What does it mean for people?

The concern…. When you bring in on royal assent, people think it’s already in place, when, in fact, the regulations haven’t even been formed, and there’s still some work to be done. So this is a way to say: “We’re not quite there yet. It’s a law, but there are still some regulations. In order to make sure that everybody understands how to use this, we need to make sure that we have the regulations.”

I know that there was some discussion about the one year and the regulation. I can appreciate wanting to make sure that there’s a backstop, but we’re committed, as a government, to make sure that we have the pieces in place for these people who find themselves in untenable situations. That’s what this is about.

We keep going back to: so what does this mean for people? By doing it on royal assent, the concern is that people will think that it’s raring to go. We haven’t really fully built it out yet, and we need the time to do that.

J. Rustad: Thank you, both, for the answer in regards to that. It is a little different to see. I actually want to thank staff and the member for bringing this thing forward, and government for recognizing its importance and bringing it forward, too, because it is about people.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I get quite emotional about this issue because of all of the experience, all the things that I’ve had an unfortunate opportunity to hear about and to be involved in and see. So thank you for the work on this thing. Certainly, if there’s anything I can do, as you’re developing regulations and bringing this thing forward, I’d be happy to be engaged and involved in it.

Hon. S. Robinson: I want to thank the member for his questions. I’m assuming that he doesn’t have anymore.

I want to thank my staff, Wendy, Tyann and Greg, for being here. I know it wasn’t easy for the two staff groups because it took a lot of bodies to figure out how to make this work. What I’m most proud of is that we always kept people at the centre of it — “Who is it we’re talking about? What is it they need from their government, broad government?” — in order to deliver for them. So I want to thank the people that are sitting behind me, the people who are sitting at the end here, for their hard work in bringing forward good policy.

A. Weaver: In the spirit of that, I would be remiss if I were not to thank both the minister and her staff for working with us on this, the member for Nechako Lakes for his line of questioning, and of course, my amazing, incredible staff, Claire and Evan. Claire really put her heart and soul into this project, and I think what we’ve seen here is a testament to the good work that she does. Thank you to everybody for bringing this forward.

The Chair: Although everyone has made their concluding remarks, we still have a couple of votes here.

Amendment approved.

Section 3 as amended approved.

Title approved.

A. Weaver: I wish to thank the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast for his enthusiastic ayes.

With that, I’d like to move that the committee rise, report Bill M206 complete with amendment.

Motion approved.

The committee rose at 4:47 pm.

Media Release

B.C. Green PMB Passes Committee to Expand Protections, Support Survivors
For immediate release
May 29, 2019

VICTORIA, B.C. – Renters who are victims of violence at their home are one step closer to being able to break their fixed term lease and seek safety after the B.C. Greens’ Private Member’s Bill amending the Residential Tenancy Act garnered broad tripartisan support from NDP and Liberals when passing committee stage today.

“No one should be forced to live in close proximity to their perpetrator – this bill supports survivors,” said B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver. “We are building upon the good work of the BC Liberals in 2015, when they added the family violence provision with support from the BC NDP. This bill, drafted in consultation and cooperation with the legislative drafters, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and House, and stakeholders like West Coast LEAF and Ending Violence Association of B.C., expands on existing provisions to insure that all victims have the same rights. It gives, for example, someone who is sexually assaulted by their roommate or neighbour the right to break their lease so they can move somewhere safe.”

There are approximately 60,000 incidents of sexual and domestic violence in British Columbia each year, according to Ending Violence Association of British Columbia. That equates to more than 1,000 incidents per week.

Selina Robinson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and her staff in particular were instrumental in assisting with seeing this legislation through the drafting process and making it before the House.

“Everyone should feel safe in their home,” Minister Robinson said. “The Province is proud to support this bill as it aligns with government’s commitment to take a stand against violence. Our government is also committed to strengthening protections for renters and recent improvements to the Residential Tenancy Branch are ensuring renters get the help they need, when they need it.”

“B.C. Green Caucus believes updating current legislation or drafting new bills to advance protections for women and other vulnerable groups is simply good governance,” said MLA Weaver, “whether it’s workplace protections like the 2017 bill preventing employers from requiring select employees to wear high-heeled shoes in the workplace, or in 2016 when I brought for the Post-Secondary Sexual Violence Policies Act. Earlier this week, our caucus introduced legislation to ban the conversion therapy among minors in B.C. These types of human rights protections are nonpartisan issues that the B.C. Green caucus is proud to unite the parties around.”

This is the second Private Member’s Bill from the BC Greens to pass third reading this session. The caucus made history earlier this month with the passing its first ever PMB in the province’s history and the first PMB from an opposition party to pass in decades. The Greens also positioned the province as a leader nationally with that legislation by making B.C. the first province to formally provide a legal framework for businesses committed to pursuing social and environmental goals to incorporate as benefit companies under the Business Corporations Act.

Quick Facts

A number of House amendments were moved by MLA Weaver at committee stage to accommodate feedback received from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and legislative drafters.
The bill amends the Residential Tenancy Act to add “household violence” to the existing family violence and long term care provisions.
“Household violence” was proposed as a House amendment in committee stage to replace “occupant violence” as written in the original Private Member’s Bill because of feedback that suggested “occupant violence” could be confusing given its overlap with the term “tenant.” For example, a tenant is an occupant, but an occupant is not necessarily a tenant.
Regulations specify which expert professionals and practitioners are authorized to provide third-party confirmation for victims who need to end their fixed term lease: police, listed medical practitioners, counsellors, First Nations support workers, victims support workers, etc.
Having regulations that extend verification powers beyond law enforcement is vital as not all survivors will be able or willing to involve police. In cases of domestic violence, risk of injury or death can actually increase if a violent partner learns their spouse has contacted police or is planning on leaving.
The bill is intended to protect anyone who lives in the household whose safety, security, or physical wellbeing has been adversely affected by violence associated with the rental home, including but not limited to: physical, sexual, or psychological abuse, threats of physical or sexual abuse, or exposing a child directly or indirectly to violence.

-30-

Media contact
Macon McGinley, Press Secretary
BC Green Caucus
+1 250-882-6187 | macon.mcginley@leg.bc.ca

Calling for a closer look into construction industry labour code policy

May 28, 2019 By Andrew Weaver Comments are Off Economy, Jobs, Legislation, Media Release, Social Development

Today in the BC Legislature we continued our debate on Bill 30: Labour Relations Code Amendment Act, 2019 at committee stage. Recall from my second reading speech, this bill amends the labour relations code to make a number of changes to enhance protections for workers and implement the recommendations of an independent expert review panel.

During debate on section 6 of the bill, the BC Liberals proposed an amendment concerning when and how raids can and should be allowed for. In particular, their amendment to section 6 was designed to bring the government’s proposed changes more in line with the recommendations of the independent panel.

Supporting evidence-based policy that restores protections for workers and ends pendulum swings in the labour code have been priorities for the B.C. Greens.

My colleagues, staff and I engaged numerous stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding about the forces at play and concluded — as did the panel — that construction labour law is particularly unique. Because of these unique challenges, which include the transient versus stationary nature of the work place, we believed that it was essential to not simply pass Bill 30 legislation and move on. The construction industry and its workers deserve a thorough review; this hasn’t happened since at least 1998.

The B.C. Green caucus is in strong support of creating an independent panel mandated to address the unique realities of the construction sector, and to expand upon the recommendations of the current Labour Relations Code Review Panel. Until such an independent review is conducted, we felt it was prudent to follow the advice set out by the current review panel, and therefore supported the amendment (which allowed it to pass – see vote above). If a deeper dive identifies challenges with this, I hope that all members of the House would be prepared to support additional changes. We have heard loud and clear that there are numerous questions that remain unanswered and want to ensure a process is established that can get politicians objective analysis and recommendations to act upon.

More than anything, BC Greens believe that the legislation, which passed committee stage today, will go a long ways towards ending the ideological labour code tug-of-war that has been allowed to dominate labour code policy in BC for the past 30 years. We believe it will bring fairness, certainty and stability back to the labour code.

The BC Liberals also introduced a second amendment to section 8 of this bill that we could not support (for reasons outlined below – see vote to the left) as we believed it strayed from the intent of the independent panel’s recommendation.

While this bill took up an enormous amount of our caucus and staff time, I personally found the debates to be an excellent example of how the BC Legislature functions at its best. At all times, and at all stages of the debate, the decorum in the chamber was one of mutual respect. It was clear that Harry Bains, the BC NDP Minister of Labour and the opposition critics were passionate in their views but respectful in understanding the difference of opinions in the room.

I look forward to working with both government and the official opposition to further advance a labour policy review for the construction sector.

Below I reproduce the video and text of my speeches to the two amendments. I also provide a copy of some brief rebuttal remarks I made after the Minister of Labour spoke. At the end of this post, I reproduce the media statement our office released after the passage of the bill.

Videos of Committee Stage Debates


1st Amendment	Further Remarks

2nd Amendment

Text of Speech in Support of 1st Amendment

A. Weaver: I rise to take my place to speak to the amendment that was brought forward by the member for Shuswap.

As we know, Bill 30 is a unique piece of labour legislation. It’s one of the first pieces of labour law that has received the broad support of members in this House.

Over the last 30 years, we’ve watched as labour policy in this province swings back and forth like a pendulum as government changed and as ideological fights play out. Putting an end to these pendulum swings, which create instability and division, was essential for our caucus. We further believe, as a caucus, in supporting evidence-based policy that ensures the protection of workers.

In this regard, the work of the expert review panel was essential. They made balanced and thoughtful recommendations as to how we could and should update our labour code in the province of British Columbia.

The amendment before us today, brought forward by the member for Shuswap, addresses one of the very few areas where what the government brought forward in the legislation before us differs from what the panel recommended.

Over the last few months, my colleagues, staff and I engaged with numerous stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding about the various forces at play in this issue of labour policy. What we learned through extensive consultation engagement is that construction labour law in the province of British Columbia is particularly unique. Yet my colleagues and I know that we are not the experts.

What rose from our engagement is the realization as to how essential it is to not simply pass the legislation, as is amended, and to move on from these issues, but rather to take the time to look deeper into construction labour law.

There are a number of challenges facing the construction industry that we firmly believe need to be explored further, including, of course, the question raised in the amendment before us concerning when and how raids can and should be allowed for. The panel itself acknowledged that there are construction-specific issues that relate to the changing labour code.

The B.C. Green caucus understands the profoundly unique nature of the construction industry. There are a number of examples that can be given. We know, for example, that in public sector unions or public sector sites, often people are in the same place for their job — on the construction site. We know that safety is often front and centre in deliberations on the site. We know that workers move from site to site to site. We know that is a very different type of working environment than, say, a stationary environment where you work in the same place.

We understand the special challenges that exist. We understand that there are unions like CMAW, like IUOE and others who actually are end-to-end project unions. We know, also, that present rules within the B.C. Federation of Labour do not allow unions to raid other unions in the Federation. So in the spirit of fairness and openness and transparency, this, to us, must be collectively addressed.

We understand that the construction sector needs a review. We understand that changes need to be there. But we also understand that the terms of reference of the panel precluded them from singling out this sector to actually provide a separate report and suite of recommendations for the construction sector.

In our view, we accept the numerous voices that told us that what they were seeing — whether you’re a representative from a union like CLAC or a union like IUOE or a union that wasn’t in the building trade, represented by the B.C. Fed — is that they’re looking for a fair and level playing field.

That is exactly what we’re looking for, one that’s grounded in evidence, not in ideology.

I come to this again, and I say this. IUOE, an end-to-end organizing union — let us suppose, hypothetically, that they go to a construction site and recognize that on that construction site, the workers there are being represented by an additional union, and that environment is not safe. Or, perhaps, there’s a multitude of unions. The IUOE, right now, is prohibited from raiding into those areas, if said unions there already are members of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Now I come to the nurses’ union, when there was concern within the licenced practitional nurses with respect to them being represented by the health employers union. The concern was such that the licensed practition nurses felt that they would be better represented by the nurses’ union. A raid happened. The response, of course, was that the nurses’ union was kicked out of the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Is that fair? Is that actually what we’re aspiring to, here in the province of British Columbia? No. I think we’re aspiring to fair and transparent workplaces — that is, fair for all, not just for the chosen few and not just for those who have stood forward and actually have stronger influence, perhaps, with government than others.

That is why we are calling on the government to undertake a comprehensive, independent review of the construction sector, in addition to supporting the amendment before us now. There does not appear, in British Columbia, to have been a comprehensive review of this industry since 1998.

Now I’m not counting the kind of — what I would argue is a very one-sided — so-called review that occurred in the early 2000s, when the Liberals took over back then, because the building trades weren’t invited to the table. I’m not accounting a self-reflective review that’s also happened.

A proper fundamental review of how labour policy should be applied in the construction sector, I think, is long overdue in this province, because we know that in other provinces in the country, like Ontario, there are a hybridization of labour laws — one that treats stationary workplaces and one that treats transient workplaces or places where you’re not on the same site every day. We cannot expect the same labour policy to apply to stationary and transitory workplaces. The fact that we’re trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole, to take bits and pieces of what the independent expert committee has recommended, is troubling to the caucus, because we appeal to experts for our advice.

We know, and we understand, and we heard from the construction sector that many of the sweeping changes that have been brought historically hurt that sector. We appreciate that. We understand that. We heard that. That is why we urge the government to commission a further sectoral review of labour laws in the construction sector. We support an independent review. We support a timely independent review, one with short time frames and one that looks at the unique realities of this sector of the economy and expands on the recommendations of the current labour relation code review panel.

In my view and in my caucus’s view, by doing this, we can ensure that we bring forward policy to this table that does create a fair, balanced, level playing field, grounded in evidence, not ideological or historical positions. I think, ultimately, that’s what most workers want. They want the opportunity for a fair and open workplace.

Until such time as this separate review can take place, we felt it was prudent to follow the advice set out by the current review panel and, therefore, support the amendment to ensure its language is reflected in this legislation. If a deeper dive identifies challenges with this, I hope that all members of this House would be open and prepared to support additional changes. Our caucus is. We’ve heard loud and clear that there are numerous questions that remain unanswered and want to ensure that a process is established that gets politicians objective analysis and recommendations to act upon.

More than anything, we believe, as a caucus, that we must end this ideological tug-of-war that has been allowed to take place in our province for far too long. It is not about union versus employer. It is not about worker versus employer. It is about doing what’s right to create a fair and balanced work environment for all workers in British Columbia. I think that that only will happen if we actually target this industry with a separate, independent, thoughtful review of the construction sector.

Further Remarks to 1st Amendment

A. Weaver: I just wanted to rise and address a couple of the comments there. I do appreciate the minister, and I think we’re very well served in British Columbia by the minister, who is very fair and open with his deliberations and so forth. I would say that, in listening to the minister’s speech there, he said a few things that were flags to me.

He talked about the fact that this was stopping workers from having a right to…. It does no such change. What we’re saying is that the expert panel recommendations were there as a suite. They were not there to pick and choose. We recognize and we’ve supported all of the recommendations. The important successorship changes — we supported that. In this particular case, what we’re saying is that we don’t think the expert panel did the work that needs to be done to carve out the construction sector and to look at that independently.

Now, the minister has suggested that he has the solution. That’s his view, and that’s fine. It’s his prerogative to have that. Our position is that we don’t have that information. We don’t have that information on which to make a decision in this area, because I suspect that the construction industry would have a lot more that might have to change if we actually went to a review.

I honestly don’t think the construction industry, in the province of British Columbia, has been served well. I don’t think they’ve been served well for many, many years. I come back to the issue that, if there are many sites, those will be represented by a multitude of other unions. But if you are a trade union — a building trade — you cannot raid into those unions. The minister says that that’s their right. It is their right, but it’s also our right as British Columbians to ensure that the playing field is level.

This is not about trying to create an us versus them — us versus CLAC or us versus Unifor or us versus the nurses. This is about recognizing that labour law must represent the diversity of views that are out there and be inclusive and respectful and grounded in evidence that will probably not get what everyone wants but builds forth to a policy that we can actually grow from, as opposed to a pendulum swinging back and forth.

That is one of our singular objectives: to ensure stability, consistency and certainty. We’re not convinced, and certainly no evidence was put for us, that with the change to the summer months, in fact, that will be maintained with an annual, as opposed to the existing recommendation within the panel.

With that, I’ll take my place.

Text of Speech against 2nd Amendment

A. Weaver: I rise to provide support to the minister with respect to his views on this amendment. We understand where the official opposition is coming from. On page 18 of the expert report — as the minister said, it is a superb report — the experts state as follows: “A successor union should be able to apply to the board to have a collective agreement reopened, and the board should have discretion to grant such relief in extraordinary circumstances, having regard to its section 2 duties. This would permit the exercise of this discretion where, for example, terms of the collective agreements are clearly inferior to the norm in the sector.”

The words there were contained in the preamble leading up to the formal recommendation. As the minister pointed out, we believe that in fact the expert panel were, in their recommendations, very thoughtful in terms of the exact usage of language. Were we to add the words “extraordinary circumstances” into the recommendation, I would suggest that this is actually going a step further, because the panel was actually quite careful in not using the words in the actual recommendation.

With that, I will take my place, noting that we will not support this amendment.

Media Release

B.C. Green Caucus Calls for Closer Look Into Construction Industry Labour Code
For immediate release
May 28, 2019

VICTORIA, B.C. –Supporting evidence-based policy that restores protections for workers and ends pendulum swings in the labour code are priorities for the B.C. Greens, and the expert panel’s recommendations should be expanded on to address the unique challenges presented by the construction industry.

“My colleagues, staff and I engaged with a number of stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding about the forces at play and have concluded- as did the panel- that construction labour law is particularly unique,” B.C. Green party leader Andrew Weaver said. “Because of these unique challenges, we believe it is essential that we do not simply pass this legislation and move on. The construction industry and its workers deserves a thorough review, which it hasn’t had since at least 1998. The B.C. Green caucus is strongly in support of a panel mandated to address the unique realities of this sector of the economy, and expands on the recommendations of the current Labour Relation Code Review Panel.

“Until such a time that a separate review, one more focused on the challenges of the constructor sector, can take place, we feel it is prudent to follow that advice set out by the current review panel, and therefore support the amendment to ensure its language is reflected in the legislation. If a deeper dive identifies challenges with this, I hope that all members of this House would be prepared to support additional changes. We have heard loud and clear that there are numerous questions that remain unanswered and want to ensure a process is established that can get politicians objective analysis and recommendations to act upon.”

The B.C. Green caucus supports other significant provisions of this legislation, which take important steps forward to better protect workers and ensure balance in workplaces. These include:

Extending successorship provisions to protect workers in building cleaning/janitorial services, security services, bus transportation services, non-clinical health care services, and food services;
Improved access and protection of collective bargaining;
Removing education as an essential service.

“More than anything, BC Greens believe this legislation will go a long ways towards ending the ideological tug-of-war that has been allowed to destabilize the province’s labour code for the past 30 years.”

These amendments are necessary adjustments to existing labour law, but there is more work to do to address the other fundamental challenges facing the economy.

“Unfortunately, what continues to be missing from the conversation is a focus on how we can adapt our labour laws to support people grappling with the changing nature of work,” Weaver said. “From increases in precarious, gig-based jobs, to the increasing use of contractors instead of employees, British Columbians are dealing with huge changes to job stability and income security, and our laws aren’t keeping up.”

The B.C. Green caucus consults with government to improve fairness for workers and ensure balance in the workplace as part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement.

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Media contact
Macon McGinley, Press Secretary
B.C. Green caucus
+1 250-882-6187 |macon.mcginley@leg.bc.ca

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