Today I was afforded the opportunity to present to delegates at the 115^th Union of BC Municipalities Convention in Whistler. I focused my speech on the challenges and opportunities of global warming.

Below I reproduce the text and video of the speech. The sound quality in the video is not ideal.

Text of Speech

In the span of just a few centuries, Earth has made a transition from a past, when climate affected the evolution of human societies, to the present, in which humans are affecting the evolution of the climate system.

Today we are at a pivotal moment in human history; our generation will be responsible for deciding what path the future climate will take.

You and I, as elected officials, will either be complicit in allowing climate change to despoil our world – or we can lead the way and choose a new future.

Prior to becoming the MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head and the leader of the BC Green Party, I was an atmosphere/ocean/climate scientist, with a background in physics and applied mathematics at the University of Victoria. I was a Lead Author of four United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports.

When asked what I believe will be the most serious consequences of global warming I always reply with the same two answers. The first concerns the effect of global warming on the world’s natural ecosystems; the second involves global security and geopolitical instability.

I would like to speak to you about both topics, the first I will tackle as a scientist and the second as a politician.

I also want to acknowledge the challenging summer that many of you have had. I can only imagine how terrible it has been to have your communities threatened by fire. How exhausting, stressful, and traumatic it must be to be on front lines of a provincial state of emergency. I’m glad to see you all here today and grateful for the opportunity to speak to you.

In light of your experiences, I wont dwell on the topic of forest fires. You know better than anyone how serious, how costly and how uncontrollable they have become.

I will however, speak about climate change as clearly as I can. I do not aim to alarm, but need to emphasize the severity of the threat that lies ahead. We must speak about this issue in accurate terms that are often missing in government meetings, public discourse, and media coverage.

The fires of the past two summers were no surprise to the climate science community. Back in 2004, my colleagues and I published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters pointing out that we could already back then detect and attribute the increasing area burnt in Canadian forests to human-caused global warming.

We know that global warming will lead to increasing likelihood of summer drought. This in turn will lead to more and more extensive wildfires.

We know that precipitation extremes will increase and that flooding events will be on the rise.

The current state of BC’s climate is not “the new normal” as many have been saying this summer. Normal implies a plateau and consistency. We are not on a plateau; we’re on a steep trend towards increasingly extreme events. I’m sad to say, this is just the beginning and what is occurring worldwide pales in comparison as to what we have in store.

Over hundreds of millions of years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, together with global temperatures, dropped slowly as carbon was slowly stored in the sediments of the deep ocean and the great oil, gas and coal reserves of today. Yet in the matter of just a few decades, the carbon, drawn down over many tens of millions of years is being released back to the atmosphere. In but a single generation, humans are taking atmospheric conditions back to the age of dinosaurs.

Metaphorically, we are piling more blankets on an overheating planet. The hotter it gets, the more symptoms, if you will, humans will experience.

If global emissions do not start to dramatically decline in the next few years many millions of people, including British Columbians, will be at risk from heat waves, drought, floods, storms, and wildfires. Our coasts and cities will be threatened by rising sea levels.

Sadly, tomorrow, category 4 hurricane Florence will make landfall on the coast of the Carolinas. Yes the science community has warned that global warming will lead to an increase in intense hurricanes. Yes the scientific community has warmed that sea level rise coupled with storm surges will have devastating effects on coastal communities. But are our elected leaders in North America listening?

Many ecosystems, plants, and animals will face widespread extinction.

This isn’t new information. Scientists have been speaking out for decades. And therein lies the difference between global warming and many other environmental concerns. It is the scientific community — not so-called foreign funded environmentalists ‑ who have been ringing the alarm bells.

I recognize that some chose to listen to the charlatans who tell them what they want to here, but I can assure you that the concern within the global scientific community is very real and very profound.

We are on target to take ocean acidity levels into a realm for which there is no known analogue. Most of the world’s heritage coral reef systems, including the Great Barrier reef, will become extinct this century.

In Canada, overall precipitation will increase, but it will come in fewer, more extreme events, interspersed between longer periods of drought. There will be an increased risk of flooding. And wildfire.

At the rate we are going, we are looking at between 20 and 50% of the world’s species, almost certainly including the iconic Fraser River Sockeye, becoming committed to extinction this century.

For BC the threat goes beyond wildfires and drought. Global warming is a threat to our economic well being.

Yes, climate change has some potentially horrible consequences. But there is an opportunity here too, and I think British Columbia is brave enough to seize it.

I have a vision for how BC can position itself as a leader in the 21st century economy, something that may look different for every community.

To start, BC has three strategic advantages over virtually every other region in the world.

1. The quality of life and natural environment allows us to attract and retain some of the best and brightest minds from around the globe — we are a destination of choice.
2. We have a highly skilled and educated workforce. Our high school students are consistently top ranked internationally. They are smart, well trained and they are ready to go to work.
3. We have access to renewable resources — energy, water, and wood — like no other jurisdiction. We have incredible potential to create a clean, renewable energy sector to sustain our growing economy.

To capitalize on these advantages, we need to start planning beyond the next election cycle. We need to focus on building a new economy that works for all of us — not just the privileged few. Policies must be based on principles and evidence, not political calculation and opportunism.

And governments must put people’s interests first – ahead of entrenched industry – because building healthy, safe, secure communities needs to be prioritized in a changing world.

Since the election my BC Green Caucus colleagues and I have been working closely with the NDP government to develop a clean growth strategy for BC —one that embraces climate policy as an economic strategy. Papers outlining the direction were released this summer and the first phase will start this fall.

The BC Green caucus and BC NDP both agree the development of a clean growth strategy must empower communities to identify and seize opportunities that are unique to their regions. You know your communities best.

It must be built in partnership with Indigenous peoples and bring the principles of UNDRIP into action. We will work with Indigenous communities to ensure that rights, title, lands, territories, culture, traditional knowledge and identities are protected by and included in BC’s clean growth.

I’m afraid there are no easy fixes. Dealing with global warming requires us to challenge ourselves to be bold and fundamentally reconstruct core structures of our economy and energy system.

There was a time and place where fossil fuels contributed much to human advancement. They effectively allowed us to transition our industrial practices, spur economic growth and lift people out of poverty in the western world. We can recognize the incredible value that those technologies and innovations had in that place in time, but acknowledge that we are now in a different time, with a transformed economy, and we have different sources of energy, and we need to keep progressing forward.

As such, BC Hydro needs to get out of the business of building mega power projects and focus on a new core mandate of matching consumer with producer of distributed renewable energy, while using its existing dams to stabilize load.

We need to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels.

If international leaders believe what they signed in the Paris Agreement they will know that the agreement translates into the following statement:

There can be no new investment in fossil fuel infrastructure that will last decades into the future.

That’s because you don’t build an LNG facility today to tear it down tomorrow.

We know the world has already warmed by about 1.1°C and we have another 0.6°C warming in store as we equilibrate to existing levels of greenhouse gases. The permafrost carbon feedback adds another 0.2° or so meaning we are basically hitting 1.9°C at a minimum.

There are no other options.

I know this can be a scary and overwhelming proposition. It’s a normal human reaction to resist change and instead try to preserve the status quo. But we know where that leads. We need to start – now, not next decade – to build a new way of life. It can be a shift that provides economic opportunities like the world has never seen.

Opec’s electric vehicle forecast grew by almost 500% last year: $11.5 trillion being invested globally in new power generation capacity between 2018 and 2050, with $8.4 trillion of that going to wind and solar and a further $1.5 trillion to other zero-carbon technologies such as hydro and nuclear.

By tackling climate change seriously, with carefully designed policies, BC’s economy can grow in new ways.

We will introduce policies that help our industries become the cleanest in the world, while supporting the development of innovative climate solutions and sustainable prosperity. It is only by harnessing our strategic advantages and advancing a clear vision of a thriving economy and climate leadership that go hand in hand that we can accomplish the challenges in front of us.

We must inspire British Columbians to get involved in building this future for our province – one that sees us once again become leaders on climate policy.

We can prosper in a time of crisis. But it requires us to be honest with ourselves.

In your work and mine, it is important we keep the spotlight on the stark and alarming reality of climate change, and not to get lost in the everyday bustle or the fog of November’s rain.

The time for “yes, but” arguments – yes, but other people emit more, or yes, but other industries are worse or yes, but BC is small and this is a global problem – has passed.

We now need “yes, and” arguments. Yes, other people emit more, yes, other industries will always be worse, and yes, BC is small when compared to the world. And, yet, we still need to do our part.

And collectively we must change the way we think. Rather than doubling down on the economy of the last century and giving away the farm in a desperate attempt to land an LNG investment in Kitmat, why aren’t we doing everything we can to get Tesla to invest in a Giga factory there?

Rather than bemoaning the loss of several hundred hypothetical jobs in building a pipeline, why aren’t we doing everything we can to build our manufacturing sector in light of our boundless access to renewable energy, particularly in places like Terrace — on the rail line between Prince Rupert and Chicago — the gateway to Asia and the Eastern US.

As much as we may wish, we don’t have jurisdiction over the world. But we have influence here in B.C., where we live. And that is important.

We need to work together on this. We need to involve every community, every leader, every party, every sector, every industry, every institution, and every good idea. We need everyone to look at the area they have influence in and think about how they can make positive changes in the context of a warming world.

As I heard Chief Maureen Thomas, of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, say a few weeks ago, “we need to come together and find a way to ensure our future generations can enjoy this world to the extent we do… [we must ask ourselves] Have I done enough to ensure the fondness of my grandchild?”.

I believe that our children and grand children will ask us one of two questions when they look back at the beginning of this century.

It will either be: “How could you let this happen?”

Or, if we choose a different path, they will ask: “How did you solve this problem when so many said you couldn’t?”

To be a climate scientist one must be an optimist. Frankly, I’ve found it helps you survive politics too. I am convinced my children will one day ask me the second question. And I will answer:

“We prevailed because we worked together. We saw the threat and we knew we had to deal with it.”

It will take great political courage and leadership to change the direction of the world — Society will have to change, technology will have to change. But embracing change is an exciting opportunity for innovation.

I believe we can do it. And I hope you do too because as I said in my opening:

You and I, as elected officials, will either be complicit in taking a wrong turn, or we can lead the way and choose a new path for our communities, for our province, for Canada and for the world. It has to start somewhere, why not here?

Thank you again for your time and all that you do for B.C.

Video of Speech

Over the last week, I have been following the news that Ontario has decided to cancel its basic income pilot, only one year into what was supposed to be a 3-year project.

I am saddened by the decision made by the government of Ontario, for a number of reasons.

I was, of course, looking forward to learning from Ontario’s pilot project, which would have provided a wealth of evidence about the effects of basic income. Ontario was leading the country in assessing the impacts of this policy, and their project was being watched around the world. They were tracking changes in employment, health, education, food security and housing, as well as community-level effects in Lindsay, with independent assessment by university researchers.

Before Ontario, the last pilot in Canada took place in Dauphin, Manitoba, over 40 years ago. This pilot illustrated some very promising results: in just 3 years, hospital visits were reduced by 8.5%.
Researchers attributed this marked decrease to lower levels of stress in low income families, which resulted in lower rates of alcohol and drug use, lower levels of domestic abuse, fewer car accidents, and lower levels of hospitalization for mental health issues.

In deciding to cancel the pilot, Ontario, and our whole country, has lost a significant opportunity to learn about the effects of basic income and to be on the leading edge of exploring this policy.

But what has struck me the most in the last week since the news of cancellation are the individual stories coming out of Ontario, from those enrolled in the pilot, whose lives are deeply affected by this decision.

So many stories have highlighted how people’s lives changed once they began receiving basic income. These stories have highlighted, too, the substantial human cost to cancelling this pilot part way through, when thousands of people had made plans and decisions on what they thought was stable ground.

Some participants in the pilot decided to attend college for the first time, or returned to school, to pick up the skills needed for meaningful employment or to start a new career. Others began living independently, or found secure accommodation for the first time. For some, it was the newfound ability to afford healthy food and other small things to improve the quality of their lives, and the lives of their children. Others used the income to pay down long-standing debts.

Many spoke about the reduced stress they felt, the ability to plan into the future instead of worrying only about the day-to-day, and a feeling of greater independence and dignity.

Many participants in the program were working, but still couldn’t afford the necessities of life and make ends meet.

One individual who was part of the pilot wrote to me highlighting the impact that basic income had on him and his family. Despite both working, he and his wife had amassed a significant amount of debt, which they struggled to pay off as they tried to provide for their children. The program, he said, was allowing them to pay down their debt and do more with their children. Most importantly, he said, he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel to better days, for him and his children.

In his words, “this program … gave people that really needed hope a lot of hope for a brighter future.”

These individual stories speak to the promise I believe basic income holds – as a better way to support people as they navigate the economic challenges of the 21st century. Recent years have seen disproportionate increases in part-time and contract work. Wages have stagnated while the cost of living in our cities has spiralled out of control. Meanwhile, studies estimate that half of Canadian jobs could be impacted by automation in the next decade alone. We proposed exploring basic income in B.C. because we believe that government needs to have a plan for the changes on the horizon.

The experiences of people in Ontario has made me see even more strongly the need to do serious work exploring this policy. I have previously written a four part series (Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV) outlining why I think basic income is an idea that we need to explore in BC. Establishing a pilot project formed a key aspect of the Income Security component of our BC Green 2017 election platform.

We’re forging ahead in BC with our expert committee, an expert panel comprising three distinguished researcher that launched last month and is studying how basic income could work in BC. This committee is the first step towards fulfilling a government commitment under CASA to pilot basic income in BC.  I am hopeful that the committee’s work will provide the evidence that governments need to decide how to proceed – not only here in BC, but across Canada.

In this time of change, as we grapple with the challenges we face today and on the horizon, policymakers have a responsibility to plan for the future, and to make decisions that will give their citizens the best possible chance to pursue their dreams and to achieve success. In a country as wealthy and as compassionate as ours, that’s the goal our leaders should be working towards.

Today I had the distinct honour of providing the opening remarks at the Reimagining Masculinities Conference 2018 held at the University of Victoria.

As noted on the conference website:

ReImagining Masculinities is cultivating meaningful conversations about healthy, non-violent masculinities. Our hope is to inspire empathy, action, and self-reflections through conversation, education, and awareness.

Online streaming of the conference is also available.

Below I reproduce the text of my opening remarks.

Text of Opening Remarks

Opening statement – Reimagining Masculinities

Thank you everyone for being here today to explore an issue that isn’t often discussed in such a public setting.

I’ve been given the opportunity to say a few words about Reimagining Masculinities and as both a professor at UVic and MLA for this riding, it is my absolute pleasure to do so.

Please keep in mind that I teach climate science rather than gender studies, but I will do my absolute best.

This conference is such an accomplishment, not only because of the topic, but because of the breadth of talent represented as well.

Paul Lacerte has many fans in the legislature who are proud to wear their moosehide campaign pins and I hope everyone here today will pledge to get involved.

We could surely all benefit from more poetry in our lives and I know Councillor Jeremy Loveday will show that politicians can have a way with words.

The links between Tanille Geib’s Healthy Relationships workshop and Allan Wade’s analysis of colonial masculinities show just how complex this topic really is.

When I consider toxic masculinity, it is not hard to make connections to the events that we hear about every single day.

Whether it’s disgraced actors or the tragedy in Toronto, the MeToo movement has highlighted just how big an impact toxic masculinity has on all of us.

It’s possible that until recently a lot of men may not have realized the extent of abuse that women have always had to deal with.

On the other hand, I want to avoid the idea that the only role men can play in the movement is of the accused.

This conference is a prime example of the role that men can play in addressing this problem, and it’s something that I have always tried to do as an MLA.

Through collaboration with the previous government, I was able to ensure that legislation passed to require all universities and other postsecondary institutions in British Columbia to implement comprehensive sexualized violence and misconduct policies.

My hope was that survivors of sexualized violence on campus would be better supported by their schools, and that the process would be more transparent for all involved.

Based on our initial consultations it appears as though this has been the case. I thank Kayla Phillips, who has been working diligently in our BC Green Caucus as a legislative intern.

She has been spearheading our efforts to determine the effectiveness of the legislation that we introduced two years ago.

I was also able to introduce and get implemented a law that banned employers from requiring their employees to wear high heels which had been a problem particularly in jobs like serving where women have traditionally been subject to high levels of sexual harassment.

While it has not righted all wrongs in the industry, I have spoken with many women who are happy to no longer fear losing their job for refusing to wear painful footwear.

This conference also highlights the importance that intersectionality plays when considering toxic masculinity. This is not simply an issue of masculine men and feminine women, but a whole spectrum of those with varying identities impacting their own experiences.

I encourage anyone involved in tackling toxic masculinity and its effects to think outside our standard binaries for innovative solutions, such as we have here today.

I would like to thank hosts Scott Thompson & Steven Hao as well as the organizers, including Nick Sandor, for asking me to speak today.

I’d now like to introduce Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South and Parliamentary Secretary for the Status of Women, Terry Duguid.

Terry’s appointment in this role is a great example of how the status of women in Canada is not a responsibility that rests solely with women, and the part that everyone has in addressing it.

While Terry can’t be here in person, he can tell you more about his role through this video:

I’m also lucky enough to be joined by MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin, Mitzi Dean. Mitzi was recently named Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity in BC and it’s hard to imagine a better choice for that role in the legislature.

Before her election last year she had spent many years advocating for women and children in various parts of the world and with the U.K.’s largest child protection charity. She now brings that experience to share with you today.

Today in the Legislature I rose to pay tribute to Elliot Eurchuk, a former constituent, who tragically died from an accidental overdose of opioids at just 16 years of age.

Below I reproduce the video and text of the short tribute.

Video of Tribute

Text of Tribute

A. Weaver: Today I rise with profound sadness to convey my deepest sympathies to the family of Elliot Cleveland Eurchuk, who tragically passed away on Friday, April 20, from an accidental overdose of opioids at just 16 years of age.

Elliot and his family are constituents, and Elliot was a grade 11 student at Oak Bay High School. He loved sports, hiking, books and hoped to study medicine in the future. He was known for his wit, humour and profound kindness.

I cannot imagine the grief his family and friends are experiencing. His school and our collective community are grieving together with his family.

His parents, Rachel Staples and Brock Eurchuk — Brock, a longtime friend of mine, who I graduated from high school with — have bravely spoken out to tell their story and warn other youth and parents about the danger of prescription opioids.

Every day in British Columbia we are losing youth in our communities. The B.C. Coroners Service reports that the number of overdose deaths among ten- to 18-year-olds almost doubled, from 12 in 2016 to 23 in 2017. One life lost is truly heartbreaking, yet the scale of this emergency could hardly be articulated in a way that respects and reflects the grief felt around B.C.

To Elliot’s parents and family, please accept my sincere condolences for your tragic loss. I’m sure I speak on behalf of all my colleagues in this chamber when I say that our thoughts and prayers are with you at these difficult times.

Today in the legislature we debated Bill 6 – Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2018 at committee stage. As I mentioned earlier, this bill provides new, extended and more flexible maternity, parental and compassionate care leave provisions that would meet or beat standards set across Canada.

As stated in the BC Government news release issued with the introduction of the bill, it:

“will provide up to 104 weeks if a worker’s child under 19 years of age dies under any circumstances — a significant addition to the three days of unpaid bereavement leave currently available.”

What was unclear to me is the extent to which the extended bereavement leave would be applicable in the tragic examples of still birth or late term miscarriage.

To seek clarification, I posed a couple of questions to the Minister of Labour during committee stage of the bill. He made it clear that the extensions do not apply to existing provisions already in the act. Nevertheless, I got the distinct sense that he was open to consider exploring this in the future.

Below I reproduce the text and video of our exchange.

Text of Exchange

A. Weaver: I have but one question, dealing with section 4. It’s with respect to 52(4) and the leave request in death of a child.

First off, please, let me commend government for bringing this forward. It’s overdue, and it’s well received. I do appreciate this legislation.

With that said, there are two aspects that I was wondering if the minister has had time to think about. Number 1 is stillbirths. The bereavement that a family can actually feel from a stillbirth is profound. The question is, does this legislation take into account stillbirths? Number 2 is late-term miscarriages. Again, knowing people who have suffered through late-term miscarriages, a child can be very recognizable, and funerals can happen, and bereavement is very, very real and long-lasting.

My question to the minister is: would this legislation cover compassionate leave for both cases — of stillbirth and late-term miscarriages — where bereavement leave is sought?

Hon. H. Bains: The stillbirth part of the leave we haven’t changed. It still is under the old act.

What we are dealing with through this act is a child born, dies or disappears. So 52 weeks — 104 weeks. But that part on stillbirth, we haven’t touched and we haven’t changed.

A. Weaver: Further to explore this then. Is there existing legislation that the minister can appeal to that would take into account a request for bereavement leave that falls under the term of late-term miscarriage. Again, let’s suppose a very sad and unfortunate event occurs, and at seven months, a miscarriage occurs.

Is there legislation that would allow the mother or the father or parents to actually seek bereavement leave using existing law — that is, that would be changed, like this, to have an extended period of time?

Or, with the case of stillbirth, it might be slightly different. I recognize that that might be covered by existing law. But if the minister could expand upon these for me, that would be helpful.

Hon. H. Bains: The existing act says this: an employee is entitled to up to six additional consecutive weeks of unpaid leave if, for reasons related to the birth or the termination of the pregnancy, she’s unable to return to work when her leave ends under subsection 1 or 2.

So there are certain coverages under the current act. But what we were talking about this new act of child death or child disappearance, we weren’t dealing with stillbirth or termination.

A. Weaver: I do appreciate that, and I thank the minister for bringing that forth. As we move forward, I recognize — and I hope the minister and the ministry recognize — that this is an issue that I think, frankly, should be treated similarly, that of stillbirths and late-term miscarriages. They are very real children and very real bereavement that occurs. If a baby were born and were to die one day after birth, then that baby would be subject to a different length of period of time than a baby who happened to be born within a stillbirth.

Maybe, as we move forward, the ministry might think about exploring this because I know many personal cases, and I’m sure members here also know personal cases, where the very real bereavement and unpaid leave is taken but protection for that is important.

Hon. H. Bains: Member, thank you very much for your point — well-taken.

As you know, these are the changes, as I said earlier, that are to match the EI benefits changes that the federal government brought in. There are parents that can take advantage for the period that they are entitled to the EI benefits.

But I must tell you that I’m working to look at the larger piece of the Employment Standards Act. There are a number of consultation pieces going on. B.C. Law Institute is one of them that is doing it. They will looking at a number of different areas to bring our employment standards and employment laws to the modern days and the changing world of today.

I think you can expect that we will be talking to you a lot more and others to make sure that we bring those laws up to date.

Video of Exchange