When the BC Legislature’s Aboriginal Affairs Committee last met in 2003 for three minutes and it’s Education Committee last met in 2005 for a total of 12 minutes you know things have to change.

Yesterday, Vicki Huntington, Independent MLA for Delta South and I submitted a letter to the House Leaders of both the BC Liberals and the BCNDP calling for a renewed dialogue on how we can meaningfully improve the committee system in BC. This letter followed up on previous commitments from the government to begin a discussion on this topic.

A properly functioning committee can play an important role of scrutiny and oversight and provide a valuable role for backbench MLAs. Too often legislation is brought  forward without the time taken to gather input from MLAs and the wider public. One simple way we can ensure that our politicians are receiving the best possible information on the issues of greatest concern to British Columbians is through a reformed committee process.

There is hope that this conversation may amount to more than just words. Both the NDP House Leader and the Premier have expressed an interest in the previous fall sitting for a dialogue about reforming how our committee system operates.

The lack of committees was recently highlighted when the Official Opposition formed its own Opposition Standing Committee on Agriculture and Food, in absence of one actually sitting in the legislature. Vicki Huntington will act as the vice chair for this opposition led committee.

I think this highlights how broken the system is. We need to see a more collaborative and less confrontational approach to governance in British Columbia.

Please see below for MLA Huntington and my letter to the House Leaders.

February 5, 2015

Dear Minister de Jong and Mr. Farnworth:

Re: Meeting on committee reform

We are writing to arrange a meeting between the House Leaders and Independent MLAs to discuss mutually agreeable opportunities for committee reform. Due to scheduling difficulties we were unable to arrange such a meeting during the fall, but we are hopeful that the spring session will afford us with an opportunity to work together to improve our legislative committee system.

For your records, we have outlined a brief timeline of last year’s events relating to committee reform, and attached the relevant documents and transcripts:

• February 3, 2014: The Member from Delta South writes to the House Leaders to outline proposals for committee reform and suggest the House work together to find agreeable improvements.
• February 27, 2014: The Member from Juan de Fuca introduces the Standing Committee Reform Act, 2014.
• May 29, 2014: During estimates debate, the Member from Delta South asks the Premier to refer the issue of committee reform to the Parliamentary Reform committee. The Premier says she will consider the request in consultation with the House Leaders.
• June 13, 2014: The Member from Delta South writes to the Premier to follow up on her estimates request.
• July 30, 2014: The Premier says she has asked the Government House Leader to canvass the opposition “for input on areas for potential reform.”
• October 17, 2014: The Member from Delta South writes to the Government House Leader regarding a potential agenda for a meeting with the House Leaders and the Member from Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

We believe that all Members would like to improve our committee system. While we understand that the immediate interest of the House Leaders is on changing the estimates process, we urge consideration and discussion of the broader issue. We look forward to working with you both on this issue when the House resumes.

Sincerely,

Andrew Weaver, MLA
Oak Bay – Gordon Head

Vicki Huntington, MLA
Delta South

“If we sit down and talk about the problem together, maybe we can come up with some solutions” – Bernice Kamano, Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Speakers Bureau

Sometimes the most important conversations are the most difficult to have. However, those conversations become much easier when they occur in an open, compassionate and inclusive environment. And that is exactly the type of environment I had the honour of being a part of last night for my Town Hall event — Poverty and Homelessness: The Difficult Conversation. 

Before I delve into what was shared and what we learned last night, I’d like to once again offer my sincere thanks to Reverend Al Tysick for the time and work he put in to ensure that his family could make it to our event.  I’d also like to express my deep gratitude to Reverend Al’s family and friends for sharing their profoundly moving personal stories with us. To  our four wonderful panelists, I thank you on behalf of everyone in the audience for taking the time out of your busy schedules to offer us your valuable insight into the issue of poverty and homelessness. And special thanks to Cairine Green for graciously volunteering to moderate the evening. I am also blessed to be supported by truly incredible constituency and legislature staff and volunteers. Without their assistance, our town hall would simply never have happened.

“We don’t need to come up with new solutions, they are already there. We need to get politicians and policy to enact the solutions.” – Bruce Wallace, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria

While the discussions last night may not have provided any new, groundbreaking solutions to bring an immediate end to homelessness and poverty in Greater Victoria, they did highlight the best practice solutions that already exist and what needs to be done to put them into practice.

Some of the key issues that were discussed by our panelists included:

1) systemic failures, such as lack of government strategies for ending homelessness (both nationally and provincially) and people falling through the cracks when accessing services that are in place;

2) structural issues, including low incomes, high rents and lack of affordable and supportive housing;

3) personal circumstances, such as mental health, unemployment and family situations. 

Research has found that best practice solutions to these issues include:

1) Housing First policies – like those implemented in Medicine Hat and Utah;

2) provincial poverty reduction plans – as has been proposed by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition;

3) increasing minimum wage – which is more than $8/hour below living wage in our region;

4) increasing income assistance – which hasn’t changed in almost 10 years despite inflation and higher living costs.

“Solutions are based on philosophies that don’t resonate with aboriginal people” – Bernice Kamano

Another important issue that was highlighted last night and that too often gets overlooked when discussing poverty and homelessness is the disproportionate number of aboriginal people living on the street. In Vancouver, at least 30% of the street population identify themselves as aboriginal. Meanwhile aboriginal people make up only 2% of the city’s entire population. Given these deplorable statistics, there is a clear need for services and solutions that address the unique needs and challenges faced by aboriginal people. But creating these solutions can only be done by giving the aboriginal community a voice when planning and making decision to eradicate homelessness.

To address this need, Bernice Kamano and Andrew Wynn-Williams, Executive Director for the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, shared with us the Coalitions current efforts to create an Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness. This new coalition would bring together both elected and hereditary chiefs and other members of the aboriginal community to examine the key issues behind and the solutions to the high rates of poverty and homelessness amongst aboriginal communities.

“I am a messenger for things I have learned from people, including many in the audience tonight” – Charlayne Thornton-Joe, Victoria City Council

While the presentations by the panelists proved thoughtful and informative, the true highlight of the evening was the open discussion that ensued afterwards. It is not often that you find yourself in an at-capacity lecture hall, discussing issues surrounding poverty and homelessness with those who are currently homeless, those working on the front lines to end homelessness, elected officials and other members of the community.

In an open-minded, inclusive and caring environment people were able to express their frustrations, share their stories and better understand what it means to live in poverty. Questions and comments were diverse and included inquiries about Guaranteed Livable Income policies, the need for affordable housing, the reliance on a charity model and use of emergency shelters as housing, and the costs to society of inaction versus action.

The solutions to these problems are not ones that any one person can provide. They require long-term planning, commitment and collaboration from non-profit organizations and all levels of government. However, that does not mean there is nothing that you as an individual can do to make a difference. One of the last questions that was asked may prove most meaningful to many of you: “What can average, everyday people do when faced with homelessness on the street?”

For the answer to this question our panelists directed us to the people in the audience that could respond to this question best — Reverend Al’s family. Their answer was simple and unanimous: be compassionate. Smile, say hello, have a conversation. Don’t act like they’re invisible. Treat them like you would anyone else you pass on the street, because we’re all just people and we all need to know that someone cares.

I made a commitment yesterday — a commitment to continue raising awareness and offering solutions to systemic issues of poverty and homelessness over the weeks and months ahead. And I promised that at our next town hall, we will come to you Reverend Al and family.

Photos Credit: Britt Swoveland

This is the sixteenth in our series of stories celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of youth in our community. These inspirational young adults are enriching our lives with their passion and commitment to the betterment of society.

Robert MacDonald

During the 2012/2013 academic year, Claremont High School established an innovative new educational program through its Institute for Global Solutions. As noted on the Saanich School District (SD63) website, the Institute provides a “project-based curriculum [that is] designed to equip students with tools and experiences to address the unprecedented environmental and humanitarian challenges of the 21st century –from poverty reduction to climate change and urbanization to sustainable energy.” Now in its 3rd year, the Institute for Global Solutions draws students from across the Capital Regional District to Claremont. Robert MacDonald is one of those students.

In October of last year, I gave a presentation to one of the Global Studies classes at Claremont. As I was leaving the class I bumped into Robert, a confident and articulate young man who teacher Mark Neufeld remarked, “you have got to meet”. Mark proceeded to describe how Robert was recently elected president of the Claremont student council but subsequently declined citing another candidate as a better choice. Needless to say, my curiosity was piqued. And so, Judy Fainstein and I decided to interview Robert to learn more about this remarkable young man.

Now in his Grade 12 year, Robert grew up in Victoria and attended Cordova Bay Elementary and Royal Oak Middle School.  In addition to excelling academically, Robert is involved in a diverse array of other activities including, but not limited to, musical theatre, the Pursuit of Excellence Program (which he terms “the club for keeners” and is linked to the Duke of Edinburgh award program) and student government.

As alluded to above, Robert had a fascinating foray into student government. He joined three other students in seeking the presidency of school council as he believed that “there were a number of issues at school [that] were not being addressed.” One was the lack of change room space for the Claremont Sports Institute of Excellence and their highly regarded lacrosse program. Another involved his concern over declining school spirit; one of his ideas was to revamp the school house system.

During their election campaign, candidates were required to make separate speeches to students in each of grades nine through twelve. Robert recognized that in order to win, he needed to offer a unique speech — one that differentiated himself from his competitors — that was catered to each grade. He chose to use humour in his delivery, admitting that some of his jokes stirred up a fair amount of controversy. After his second speech, Robert had what he described as a “crisis of conscience”. He realized that he’d crafted his speeches with what he thought students wanted to hear, not what he wanted to say. After some reflection, he took a different approach in his speeches to the Grades 11 and 12 classes. This time he focused on praising the positions and views of all candidates and went so far as to suggest that students explore their merits as well prior to voting. But in the end, Robert won the election because of his exceptionally strong performance in the Grades 9 and 10 polls. Robert felt that he had won for all the wrong reasons and that the student in second place “deserved it more than me”. He worked hard to eventually convince her to accept the role and Robert is now content serving as her Vice President.

Claremont’s Institute for Global Solutions is a perfect fit for Robert. He’s described by Mark Neufeld, a founding teacher of the program, as a “very clever student that challenges himself and his teachers. He questions the world around him and seeks solutions. He has great potential to be a major contributor to our transition to a clean energy future”. Robert says he is inspired by Mr. Neufeld and adds, “I think like him and see the need for big changes in this world”.

Robert loves acting and musical theatre and has performed in school productions of Legally Blond, 42^nd Street and most recently as 2nd male lead in Grease playing “Kenickie”, where he had a solo performance of the song “Greased Lightning”. He’s also extremely active in sports, including snowboarding, cross country, race walking (finishing 10th in the Provincial Championships last year) and this year he has started curling on the school team. He describes himself as very social in nature and enjoys spending time with friends.

Ever since he was young, Robert’s family has acted as a host for a diversity of international students. These incredibly positive experiences inspired him to become involved in the school’s International Student Peer Advisors Club; last year he was its president. Club members assist international students academically and coordinate events and gatherings to help them fully integrate into the school community, tasks that Robert finds particularly rewarding.

Outside of school, Robert belongs to the Vancouver Island Pointing Dog Club. His family raises Brittany Spaniels and he enjoys the occasional outing to go bird hunting. He lists his hobbies as running, snowboarding and ice skating (his father used to perform in the Ice Capades and is still active in the local skating community). Robert somehow manages to also hold down a part time job as a Sales Associate at Peppers Grocery.

Robert has his sights set on becoming a politician sometime in the future because “I want to change the system”. And Robert has a plan to get there. To commence he will obtain an undergraduate degree in political science and economics. Then he will study for a degree in law so that he can start his own corporate law practice “with a cool lobby”. He has already identified intellectual property law as a primary area of interest. He wants to start off in Toronto, work on Bay Street, subsequently practice in New York and earn a good salary. Yet Robert wants to eventually return to Victoria. He is a man with a plan. When asked why he wants to become a lawyer Robert immediately quipped “I gotta get into law school as I want five kids”.

During the summer of 2014, Robert attended a 3-week youth summer program at the University of Toronto, where he learned about corporate law, civil litigation and criminal law. He really enjoyed staying in student residence at university and having the opportunity to visit the Ontario Provincial Court. He told us “Toronto opened my eyes to possibilities for the future”.

In his somewhat casual manner and with his self-deprecating, yet infectious, sense of humour, Robert told us confidently that his life goal was to “make the news” and “take the panhandle back for BC”. Not sure what he meant by the latter, Robert explained that the Alaskan Panhandle was historically part of Canada (and has been the subject of dispute since 1821).

Robert impressed us as an honest, forthright and ambitious young man. He says his friends would describe him as eccentric and non-conformist. But we would describe him as passionate, innovative, creative and a future leader — someone with a sense of direction and purpose. We’re confident that Robert will continue to challenge societal norms and endeavour to break down barriers to change. He’ll make an outstanding ambassador for Claremont’s Institute for Global Solutions and mark our words, we’ll be reading about him on the front page of the Globe and Mail in the not too distant future.

Earlier today  the BC Government released its long awaited Independent Expert Engineering Investigation Review Panel Report on the Mount Polley Tailings Pond breach. This Panel was empowered to investigate and report on the cause of the failure of the tailings pond facility that occurred on August 4^th, 2014 at the Mount Polley Mine. In addition, they were asked to provide recommendations about how such an incident could be avoided in the future.

It’s important to note that while the panel was asked to point to the cause of the breach, it was restricted from assigning guilt or impeding two other ongoing investigations.

In their conclusions, the panel determined that the “dominant contribution” to the failure was the design of the tailings dam. The design failed to take into consideration key geological issues with the foundation. This was referred to by the panel as the “loading of the gun”. What “pulled the trigger”, and ultimately caused the breach, was the construction of a downstream slope at too steep an angle to account for the weakness in the tailings pond’s foundations. Essentially the wall of the tailings pond could not support the load being placed on it, and gave way without any warning.

This report’s contribution goes far beyond simply identifying the cause of this specific breach – it contains a number of important recommendations, which, if enacted, will go a long way towards improving the safety of how mines handle their tailings.

According to the expert panel, tailings pond technologies, such as those implemented at Mount Polley, have not fundamentally changed in the past one hundred years. Yet, alternatives to conventional tailings ponds exist and have been successfully implemented in other jurisdictions. The question is: why are these other technologies that have been shown to reduce the risk and impact of tailings failures not standard practice in B.C.?

Going forward, we need to do more than simply look at updating new standards of practice and technologies. We also need to explore how the technologies and practices that we have been using – and that were used at Mount Polley – were allowed to fall behind in the first place. One of the key lessons contained in this report is that a thorough safety analysis should come before a conversation about the economic viability of a mine. The government has announced that a number of new mines will be opening over the next few years. In my opinion, it’s critical that proposed new mines are developed within the the scope of recommendations contained in this report.

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Bill Bennett, has committed to a number of initial steps that will explore whether other tailings ponds are at risk of failing due to similar causes that led to the Mount Polley breach. However, there has not been enough clarity about the steps government is taking to look to address the underlying issues that have allowed BC’s mining practices and technology to fall behind best-practice standards.

One of the most important comments in the report is the statement that that in order to achieve zero failures, incremental changes will not be sufficient. This critically important report provides guidance to both government and industry as to how tailings should be safely handled now and into the future using 21st century technologies and practices. It’s imperative that both government and industry act upon all the recommendations of this report.

I will be writing further on this topic in the coming weeks.

As part of our series on poverty and homelessness we asked people to consider sharing a story about their experiences. Sharing these stories serves as a reminder that poverty and homelessness are not a choice. It’s important for us to end the stigma and stereotypes that are too often associated with these issues. Each of us has followed a different path from the past to the present. Yet some of our paths have been rockier than others.

This week we are pleased to offer the fifth of these stories. We are grateful to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Victoria for providing it to us. St Vincent de Paul is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of any person who needs their help.

Rosalie’s Village Spring Start

After almost 7 years of planning, Rosalie’s Village, a Saint Vincent de Paul (SVDP) housing project for homeless women and children, is expected to begin construction in March 2015. Inspired by the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child” the concept of this project is to provide housing and accessibility to the many services the CRD offers to vulnerable women and children. Working with many partners builds community and the confidence to move forward.

The vision is two-fold: to make available safe, affordable housing for young mothers with small children on their journey to independence and the transition into market rental housing; to offer a home to older women coming out of various homeless/at risk situations until they qualify for appropriate seniors housing. Needs assessments reveal that this type of housing is much needed in the CRD. It is estimated the region needs at least 250 supportive housing units and 1,500 affordable/low-market units.

Rosalie’s Village will be a 42 unit housing project which will include an infant/toddler daycare with capacity for 37 children, priority given to residents of Rosalie’s Village. This daycare, Mary’s Place, will provide secure childcare so that their mothers can focus on bettering their lives and those of their children through education and employment. It is difficult to break the cycle of poverty, but it has been identified that finding a home is integral to success along with access to childcare, education and employment. Giving young mothers a ‘hand-up’ will affect subsequent generations in achieving a good standard of living. The children of Mary’s Place will be able to attend free of charge to the mothers through the federal day care subsidy and a top-up provided by Saint Vincent de Paul.

In addition to donating the land, the Society is committed to raising $1.2 million dollars toward this project. To date the Society has raised over $700,000 toward that goal. Pacifica Housing and M’akola Housing will assist with intake and referrals. Other partnerships include the District of Saanich, Capital Regional District, The Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, CMHC, BC Housing, Joe Newell Architects and M’akola Development Services.

In order to achieve the goal of transitioning to independence, several programs will operate from Rosalie’s Village. There will be resident support workers who will develop a plan with each tenant to map out a road to independence. This will be a case managed agreement between the Society and the tenant and may involve attending high school or college or beginning a career path. Placement and the transition to seniors housing for the older women will also be done with the assistance of the resident support workers. As well there will be a Social Concern Office in the building where tenants can access services include work training programs, women’s day programs, life skills training, an income tax program etc. All of the foregoing services are already funded by the Society through donations and sale of goods at the six Victoria area thrift stores.

The Society has almost 100 years of experience providing support to those in need through home visits throughout the Capital Regional District. In fact, SVDP is celebrating its 100th anniversary of service on Vancouver Island in 2016. Our home visitors would extend this support to assist the tenants of Rosalie’s Village, offering a variety of supports including the donation of food and clothing and advocacy in accessing local services.

The Society is counting on the support of Victoria residents and accepts donations in person, by phone, by mail, or over the Internet. More information is available on the Rosalie’s Village website: http://www.rosaliesvillage.ca/ 

Rosalie’s Village web site is www.rosaliesvillage.ca  

Our Society web site is www.svdpvictoria.com 

We also have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ssvpvancouver?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Spreading awareness also really helps and “I Support Rosalies” buttons are available and can be ordered through our administration office at 4349 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC Canada (250) 727-0007 or info@svdpvictoria.com