Issues & Community Blog - Andrew Weaver: A Climate for Hope - Page 182

I had the privilege of participating in The Annual Celebrity Carwash at Our Place, again this year.  The event, termed Splish Splash 2014, was designed to raise awareness of homelessness in our region and funds to support their meal program.

Our Place is a safe location that offers hope and a sense of belonging to our region’s most vulnerable citizens though their programs and services. It was wonderful to see so much support for this year’s event. The line up of cars kept the washers busy all day!

Thank you to the many volunteers who came to help out this worthy cause and thank you to the leadership provided by the Board and Staff of Our Place Society.  Special thanks to City of Victoria Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe who was instrumental in organizing this event.

Shown with me in the photo banner above Murray Rankin, MP Victoria and Ryan Windsor, Central Saanich Councillor.

Media Statement: September 7th 2014

Government Leadership Lacking in Teacher’s Dispute

For Immediate Release

Victoria B.C. – Yesterday’s announcement by Minister of Education Peter Fassbender rejecting BCTF’s proposal to seek binding arbitration in their ongoing labour dispute demonstrates a clear lack of leadership, an inability to compromise and their fundamental lack of support for public education.

Teachers, students and parents face a second week shut out of classes with absolutely no end in sight. By suggesting binding arbitration, a position Andrew Weaver recommended at the end of August, the BCTF opened the door to finding a deal.

“The government campaigned on reaching a 10-year deal with teachers; they campaigned on putting families first; they campaigned on hyperbolic promises of wealth and prosperity from LNG. But they’ve failed on all three fronts” said Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay Gordon Head. “It’s become clear to me that the government’s campaign promises were nothing more than empty rhetoric. British Columbians deserve better”.

The government’s position that resolution will only be achieved through negotiation belies the fact that over two months have passed with few, if any, substantive talks between parties. Even mediator Vince Ready has pointed out that both sides are too far apart on substantive issues for mediation to proceed.

In response to the Minister’s statement that the BCTF proposal “was another empty effort to give parents and teachers a false hope that there is a simple way to resolve the dispute” Weaver notes that “binding arbitration is a time-tested means of ending labour disputes.” To this Weaver adds “the fact that the government dismissed it suggests that they are not interested in reaching a fair settlement”.

If the government were serious about ending the strike then rather than rejecting binding arbitration out-of-hand they could have agreed to it provided there were no preconditions. Together the government and the BCTF could then have appealed to the Chief Justice of the BC Supreme Court to appoint an arbitrator.

In yesterday’s statement Minister Fassbender claimed that “the BCTF leadership is trying to avoid having the tough conversation with their members about what is realistic and achievable at the bargaining table.” Weaver counters that “in fact it is the government that is trying to avoid having the tough conversation with British Columbians about what it takes to make education of those who will be the drivers of tomorrow’s economy a priority”.

“It is time to end this strike. It’s time to stop playing politics with our children, teachers, and parents” said Andrew Weaver “and it’s not only educators, support staff and families who have lost confidence in this government, there is tangible public anger out there. It’s time for Minister Fassbender and Premier Clark to do what is right, to do what is clearly in the public interest, and to agree to what is really the only fair solution to ending this strike: binding arbitration.”’

Media Contact

Mat Wright – Press Secretary Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3385
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca

Media Statement – September 5th, 2014

Andrew Weaver Welcomes BCTF call for Binding Arbitration

For Immediate Release

Victoria B.C. – Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head and Deputy Leader of the BC Green Party welcomes the call today from the BC Teachers Federation for binding arbitration in the ongoing education dispute.

“It’s time to resolve this dispute and get our children back into the classroom,” says Andrew Weaver. “The signs are clear that mediation isn’t working; we need another way to bring the two sides together. Binding arbitration is a perfectly reasonable request. The government will look entirely unreasonable if they do not agree”.

Andrew Weaver called for binding arbitration on Sunday after talks with Vince Ready broke down, leading to another week of strikes in a dispute that has already stretched on for months.

The announcement today from the BCTF offers a realistic, fair and practical means of ending the ongoing labour dispute.

Together, both the BCTF and the government could apply to the Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court to appoint an arbitrator. Schools could be reopened as the arbitration process progresses.

“I have been inundated with emails from parents and teachers from all over British Columbia” notes Andrew Weaver, “it is clear to me that most British Columbians from all corners of this province would support the call for binding arbitration”

Media contact

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

This post is part of an ongoing series in which MLA Andrew Weaver will be sharing key information from inside the National Energy Board hearings on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline proposal. 

Consulting with British Columbians

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline is the question of whether there has been adequate consultation with British Columbians and with First Nations. Ultimately, this question is so critical that in many cases, it will have to be decided by the courts.

Indeed, Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal is already facing a number of court challenges from BC First Nations. They argue that they were not adequately consulted. They further argue that the company did not fully consider their opinions when they were consulted.

Trans Mountain is already caught up in similar legal action from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation. The Tsleil-Waututh position is that the Federal Government has failed to consult with them about the pipeline proposal.

British Columbians have been clear that for any company to build an oil pipeline, it must first earn a social license for the proposed project. And earning that social license starts with consultation. I therefore spent quite a bit of time unpacking Trans Mountain’s consultation efforts in my first round of questions to the company.

Guidelines for Community Engagement

As a part of their consultation process, Trans Mountain defined guidelines for community engagement. These guidelines were generally referred to as the “scope” of the engagement process. They set  boundaries and limitations for what was to be done during consultation.

Here is the scope of engagement for the project:

1. Determining the scope of the environmental and socio-economic assessment (ESA);
2. Identifying potential mitigation measures to reduce environmental and socio-economic effects;
3. Identifying potential benefits associated with the Project;
4. Routing alternatives where it is not practical to follow the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline System right-of-way.

Finally there was also a guide to future consultations that stated:

“Future consultation plans will include providing communities with information on pipeline integrity, safety and emergency response; a topic that has been raised in many communities”.

Breaking down the Guidelines

The first thing that hits you after reading this, is that all the guidelines for engagement assume that the project will be built, regardless of what people say. They simply ask about how the project should be built, not if it should be built. Why didn’t Trans Mountain ever ask people if they thought the pipeline should be built in the first place? Is that not a fair question?

When I asked Trans Mountain about this in my first round of questions, they replied by saying that the scope of their engagement does not limit them from going further to consider other issues.

While that sounds great in theory, in practice it is very problematic.

The whole reason scope exists is to provide limitations on what can be considered. For example, Trans Mountain refuses to answer questions about climate change and the Alberta tar sands during the hearing process. They say such questions are outside the scope.

The fact is, you can’t have it both ways. Trans Mountain cannot continue to refuse to answer questions because they are ‘out of scope’, but then claim that they can consider anything, regardless of whether or not it is ‘in scope’.

I think you will agree that it’s critical that questions about what falls inside or outside of scope are adequately addressed now, in order to properly evaluate how consultation was conducted.

An inclusive and transparent engagement process that is accessible to all British Columbians is the only way large industrial projects are going to be able to proceed in British Columbia.

Today I have the honour of speaking at a rally for public education (video below).

More than a thousand teachers and parents rallied at the Legislature on September 2nd calling on the BC Government and the BC Teachers Federation to get the deal done and start the school year. This was meant to be a day where teachers were greeting their new classes and preparing for a complete academic year, but with a squandered summer and no signs of bargaining in the near future, schools remain closed.

Speech at the Legislature Rally

The level of funding allocated to our public education system depends on the priorities of the government. Spending on health care has remained a priority since 2000, ranging between 7 and 8% of provincial GDP. Education funding as a percentage of the provincial GDP has declined from a high of about 6.4% in 2001-2002 to an estimated low of about 5.0% in 2014-2015 (a decline of about 22%). If British Columbians deem education to be as important as I do, surely this drop needs to be rectified.

In terms of student achievement, our public education system ranks as one of the best worldwide. Every three years the Programme for International Student Assessment evaluates the performance of students internationally in three subject areas: mathematics, science and reading. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada further breaks down the Canadian results on a province-by-province basis. British Columbia consistently performs extremely well. In 2012, for example, British Columbia was the top Canadian province in reading and science and was second only to Quebec in mathematics. In fact, British Columbia students even performed better than students from the much touted education system in Finland in reading and mathematics. While Finland scored slightly ahead of BC in science, the difference was statistically insignificant.

The success of our students is due, in large part, to the quality, professionalism and dedication of our school teachers, administrators and support staff.

Without a labour deal that addresses the main concerns of teachers, who battle daily to support their students, we risk losing not only a substantial portion of this school year but also the exceptional standard of education that we have come to be so proud of.

It is time to once again make education a priority in British Columbia.