This past Tuesday, the BC Government officially launched the Emerging Economy Task Force. The BC Greens proposed the establishment of the Emerging Economy Task Force as a means of addressing how technology, innovation and global trends are changing business and society. This task force brings together key people who can identify the challenges we will face in the years ahead, and help us capitalize on the opportunities that arise.

The launch occurred at the offices of Minesense, a BC-based company that exemplifies innovation in the resource sector.

Below I provide the video and text of my remarks at the launch. I also attach the accompanying BC Green Caucus press release.

Video of Speech

Text of Speech

I’m delighted to join Minister Ralston and BCIT President Kathy Kinloch in announcing the launch of the Emerging Economy Task Force.

I can think of no better location that the offices of Minesense Technologies here in Vancouver for such an announcement.

Minesense’s real-time, sensor-based ore sorting technologies embody BC innovation at its finest and provide a perfect example of what’s needed for BC to emerge as a global leader in the 21st century economy.

The future of economic prosperity in BC lies in harnessing our innate potential for innovation and bringing new, more efficient technologies to bear in the resource sector.

BC will never compete in digging dirt out of the ground with jurisdictions that don’t internalize the same social and environmental externalities that we value.

We will excel through being smarter, more efficient, & cleaner.

This means that we not only export the dirt, but we also export the knowledge, technology and value-added products associated with resource extraction.

And that’s where companies like Minesense come in.

The BC Green Party originally proposed the establishment of an Emerging Economy Task Force as a key aspect of our 2017 election platform. It subsequently became an integral component of our confidence and supply agreement with the BC NDP.

We know that technology, innovation, and global trends are set to have significant impacts on our economy. While they present profound challenges they also provide incredible opportunities.

Take, for example, the increasing worldwide use of automated technology.

Automation could transform our workplaces and change the very nature of employment.

Studies estimate that half of Canadian jobs could be impacted by automation in the next decade alone.

In response to such changes, government needs to have a plan.

Many of the jobs that the next generation will be preparing for don’t even exist today.

And we are still on the cusp of witnessing the impacts that breakthrough technologies like 3d printing will have on our supply chains.

As the global economy changes, new opportunities are also created. But the advantages of these opportunities will flow to those who lead – not to those who follow.

The task force announced today will strategically help British Columbia as we embrace the new and emerging economy.

I’m delighted that the BC NDP Government recognized the importance of this initiative.

And I’m grateful to the remarkably talented individuals who’ve agreed to serve on the Emerging Economy Task Force. They bring a range of expertise and experience, from industry, business, and academia to the team.

They’ll play a critical role in helping us identify the challenges ahead, and advise on how to respond, and on how to capitalize on the opportunities that arise.

It’s truly an exciting time for innovation in British Columbia.

Thank you.

Media Release

Weaver welcomes launch of emerging economy task force
For immediate release
July 10, 2018

VICTORIA, B.C. – Today Andrew Weaver welcomed the launch of the Emerging Economy Task Force (EETF). The EETF was a key B.C. Green platform commitment and part of the confidence and supply agreement between the B.C. Green caucus and government.

“I am thrilled to join Minister Ralston to launch the Emerging Economy Task Force today,” said Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party.

“We know that technology, innovation and global trends are having significant impacts on our economy. These changes present both huge challenges and enormous opportunities for B.C.”

The EETF will analyse trends occurring in the economy, including technological change and global trends, and propose policy options for government to ensure B.C.’s continued economic success amidst these changes.

“The members of the EETF bring a range of expertise and experience, from industry, business and academia. Their analysis and advice will help us build a competitive advantage as we navigate this new type of economy.

“This task force is an opportunity to challenge how government typically thinks. Too often, governments don’t plan much into the future beyond the next election cycle. The Emerging Economy Task Force well help ensure government has the information they need to make informed decisions so that B.C. can succeed in the years ahead.”

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Media contact
Jillian Oliver, Press Secretary
+1 778-650-0597 | jillian.oliver@leg.bc.ca

Today I was afforded the distinct honour of giving a keynote presentation at Clean Energy BC’s Global Electrification Summit. I took the opportunity to take the audience on a journey from the past to the future — from where we were when Gordon Campbell was BC’s Premier, to where we went when Christy Clark was BC’s Premier, to where we are in this minority government guided by our Confidence and Supply Agreement, to where we can go, when we focus on our potential in the Clean Energy sector.

Below I reproduce the text of my speech.

Text of Speech

Introduction

Thank you. It’s a distinct honour for me to be here and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak at Clean Energy BC’s Global Electrification Summit.

I entered politics via an unusual route. Prior to my election as the MLA for Oak Bay – Gordon Head (and subsequently becoming leader of the B.C. Green Party), I was Lansdowne Professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and analysis at the University of Victoria.

With a PhD in applied mathematics I’d spent 25 years working in the field of atmosphere/ocean/climate science.

I decided to seek election with the BC Green Party in 2012 as I could no longer stand by and watch the dismantling of British Columbia’s climate policies and leadership in clean energy innovation.

Over these past 25 years Clean Energy B.C. has been the voice of British Columbia’s Clean Energy sector and I am sincerely grateful for your contributions to our province.

The BC Green Party and I share your goal to support the growth of British Columbia’s clean energy sector and we will continue to do what we can to improve the regulatory and economic environments for clean energy production through our work in the B.C. legislature.

Clean Energy B.C.’s vision statement is to have British Columbia, Western Canada and the Western US all having access to clean, reliable, cost effective energy produced by the private sector.

It’s to see British Columbia leading the world in modelling a sustainable way of life.

That too is my vision for British Columbia, and the subject on which I would like to speak to you today.
Over the next 20 minutes I’d like to take you on a journey from the past to the future.

From where we were when Gordon Campbell was BC’s Premier,

to where we went when Christy Clark was BC’s Premier,

to where we are in this minority government guided by our Confidence and Supply Agreement,

to where we can go, when we focus on our potential in the Clean Energy sector.

Where we were, with Campbell

Last month I rose in the legislature to speak to Bill 34, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Amendment Act. The Act made a number of amendments to the original Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, which first became law on November 29, 2007.
Speaking to that bill brought me back to a very important time in my life. 2007 was the year in which the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — released its Fourth Assessment Report.

It was the fourth consecutive report for which I served as a Leader Author in Working Group I’s volume on future projections of climate change.

It was also the year the B.C. government, under the leadership of Premier Gordon Campbell, decided that acting on climate change was an opportunity that B.C. could not afford to miss out on.

Mr. Campbell recognized that the first piece of legislation needed prior to taking steps to mitigate greenhouse gases was to set a clear target for where we were heading. In doing so, he sent a signal to the market that B.C. was going to be a leader in the new economy.

He set the stage for the emergence of a clean tech sector, a renewable energy sector and created a climate that saw companies starting to invest in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

I had the honour of participating as a member of BC’s first Climate Action Team. We were tasked with coming up with interim targets for 2012 and 2016.

We recommended that government should seek to reduce emissions by 6 percent, relative to 2007, by 2012. And for 2016, we recommended an 18 percent reduction.

I sat in the legislative gallery as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act was introduced in 2007 and listened to Minister Penner speak to its purpose. I felt proud to be a British Columbian that day and told my climate science colleagues around the world to look at the example our jurisdiction was setting for the world.

In 2008, Mr. Campbell’s government developed and entrenched in law the Climate Action Plan. The Plan was, at the time, the most progressive plan to address greenhouse gas emissions in North America, largely due to its revenue-neutral carbon tax.

Government was on track. In fact, we made the 2012 target, thanks, in part, to the policy measures put in place.

Nevertheless, at the time we knew, and government knew, through their wedge analyses, that proposed policies alone were not going to take us to the 33% reductions by 2020 — let alone an 80% reduction by 2050.

More needed to be done.

But we were well positioned to meet the challenge because BC had emerged as a leader internationally in both dealing with the challenge and recognizing the economic opportunity associated with greenhouse gas mitigation.

Where we went, with Clark

But all of our successes started to be overturned when British Columbia’s provincial leadership changed.

In every year since the 2011 change of leadership, emissions have gone up.

Why? Because of the signal government sent to the market that our emissions reductions targets no longer mattered — that economic prosperity would be found in industries from the last century, and that they would help take us back there.

The BC Liberals under Christy Clark stifled clean innovation and introduced policies that further entrenched “dig-it and ship-it” oil and gas development.

And when the market no longer supported these activities, they doubled done by creating more and more subsidies in a desperate attempt to squeeze water from a stone.

The first crack in our wall of climate policies started in July of 2012 when then Premier Christy Clark excluded LNG from the Clean Energy Act. From there, the dismantling of policies became far more aggressive.

I became so frustrated with the direction Ms. Clark’s government was taking B.C., that I ran for office and was elected in 2013.

I felt it was my job to ensure that there was a voice, and a party, that was going to stand up to the government on this issue and try to get government to once again commit to the climate leadership.

Unfortunately, the generational sellout continued, culminating in 2014 with the Greenhouse Gas Industrial Reporting and Control Act, where the Legislature repealed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act from 2008.

All of this was done with the promise that LNG would make British Columbians rich and give the B.C. government a significant new revenue stream. This just hasn’t materialized.

Indeed, despite government doing everything in their power to position B.C. with a booming oil and gas economy, we have seen massively decreasing revenues to B.C. from increasing gas extraction.

What the data shows is quite shocking – while gas production has gone from 25 billion cubic metres in 2001 to over 50 billion cubic meters in 2016/17, royalty and land lease revenues to the B.C. government have gone in the opposite direction, from a record $2.4 billion in 2008/09 down to only $139 million in 2015.

Not only are we not getting paid for this public resource, we are literally paying companies to take it from us.

In 2009, B.C. collected $1.3 billion in natural gas royalties.
Last year, we collected a mere $152 million. Measured as a share of the value of oil and gas production in B.C., royalties collected by government has fallen from 44 percent in 2008 to just 4 percent last year.

In 2009, B.C. earned $39.90 in royalties for every 1000 cubic metres of natural gas. In 2017 it was $2.95.

This is a dismal return on the resources that are being extracted from our province.

We are literally giving away more gas for less money while barrelling past our climate commitments. That’s race for the bottom economics at its worst.

While we became sidetracked with developing an LNG industry and expanding our oil and gas production, other jurisdictions began to emerge and surpass B.C. as climate action trailblazers.

In 2016 leaders around the world signed the Paris accord, which committed signatories to reduce emissions and keep global warming to below 2 degrees relative to pre-industrial levels.

This agreement laid out, in the starkest terms, the choice facing the global community.

We’ve already warmed by 1.1 degrees with another 0.6 degrees in the cards if we do no more than maintain atmospheric greenhouse gas levels at present values.

Add to this, another 0.2 degrees or so from the permafrost carbon feedback and we have a commitment to about 1.9° warming already in store.

The Paris accord essentially translates to this: effective immediately, we must turn the corner and stop investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure that will continue to be around for decades to come.

That’s because of socioeconomic inertia. We don’t build an LNG facility in Kitimat, for example, today to tear it down tomorrow. We build it to last 40 to 50 years. We build it to last past our 2050 greenhouse gas reduction targets.

The scientific community is clear, the international community is clear, much of the business community is clear: we need to make the right choice of investments today because they will affect tomorrow.

Which brings us to where we are now, with our confidence and supply agreement in the present minority government.

Where we are now, with CASA

CASA – the confidence and supply agreement – underpins B.C.’s minority government. It is an agreement to work in good faith, with no surprises, with the B.C. NDP.

CASA has provided the B.C. Green caucus with an opportunity to champion key aspects of our economic platform, and the ability to work closely with government on priority issues like climate policy.

From our perspective, these two files are largely one in the same.

For example, we included two key pieces from our 21st century economy platform in the CASA agreement to help us seize economic opportunities in the emerging economy.

The first piece is the Emerging Economy Task Force.

We proposed the Emerging Economy Task Force to enable government to adapt and respond to changes on the horizon.

We need to modernize government so that it is considerably more responsive to technological innovation.

The Emerging Economy Task Force is looking to the future, identifying emerging trends & advising government on how to maintain our competitiveness & achieve prosperity amidst these changes.

The second item from our platform integrated into CASA is the Innovation Commission (now Innovate B.C.) as well as the appointment of an Innovation Commissioner.

The innovation commissioner serves as an advocate and ambassador for the B.C. technology sector in Ottawa and abroad, to enable B.C. companies to more easily tap into existing federal programs and build key strategic relationships internationally.

I’m confident that both of these initiatives will bolster and grow key sectors of our economy.

Since government was sworn in last July, I have had regular meetings with the Environment, Minister George Heyman, to discuss BC’s climate plan.
Over the past few months, our senior staff has been meeting weekly to further these goals.

I know the Minister cares deeply about this issue and I’m impressed by the expertise of the public service supporting his ministry.

It has been a pleasure to be working with them and I’m optimistic about what we can accomplish collectively.

The B.C. Green Caucus and government both agree that a meaningful climate plan will require careful planning, innovative ideas, and a new economic vision for how B.C. will prosper in a changing and challenging world.

We agree the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples need to be front and centre as we chart a course forward.

Rights, title, lands, territories, culture, traditional knowledge and identities must be protected by, and included in, B.C.’s clean growth strategy.
We want to create a strategy that will treat reducing greenhouse gas emissions as an economic priority and a key driver of our plan to create sustainable jobs and log-term prosperity.

We know responding to the challenge of climate change is both an intergenerational opportunity and responsibility.

I am working directly with the BC NDP to ensure a climate plan is put together that doesn’t simply show a plausible pathway to meeting our targets – but drives a return to the vision of a clean 21st century economy.

We have one of the best public services in the world and for a long time they have had the policies ready to get us there.

What has been missing is political leadership. This minority government must – and will – show that leadership.

I’m hopeful, but still wary of our starting point and the strength of the status quo.

In preparation for this speech, I reread parts of The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery – one of the books said to have inspired Mr. Campbell’s climate action ambitions.

In it Flannery writes; “Climate change is difficult for people to evaluate dispassionately because it entails deep political and industrial implications, and because it arises from the core processes of our civilization’s success.”

I think that speaks to the crossroads many governments face today.

Despite the new opportunities we’re presented with in B.C., some fractions of the B.C. government are continuing to entertain the dream of exporting LNG and are continuing the natural gas giveaway started by the previous administration.

Acknowledging that we need to transform our energy systems, with a plan for our environment, our economy and our communities – and that a climate action strategy is also an exciting economic strategy – is a big step. But it is not enough.

And that is where you come in: Where we can go, working in partnership with the Clean Energy sector.

Where we can go, with Clean Energy

If we are to meet our legislated targets – we will be doing so with clean energy — likely following the lead of people in this room.

In that regard, B.C. is setup to succeed. From our access to cheap, renewable energy, to our educated workforce, to our innovative business community, to the quality of life we can offer here, together with British Columbia’s natural beauty, we have an opportunity to develop our Province into one of the most prosperous jurisdictions in the world.

Our challenges are too big, and the consequences too profound, to ignore this opportunity.

We stand to gain by building on the expertise that our neighbours have already developed in these areas. And yet, there is still so much room to grow in this sector, to improve upon current technologies and policy innovations.

We need to learn from what has worked for our neighbours, and craft them into a “made in B.C. approach” that respects the unique characteristics of our economy, our environment and our energy needs.

The approval Site C was a terribly disappointing decision for me because I believe small-scale, distributed energy projects are the way of the future for B.C. and that we should fundamentally change the mandate of B.C. Hydro.

B.C. Hydro should no longer be the builder of new power capacity.

Rather, it should be the broker of power deals, transmitter of electricity, and leveller of power load through improving British Columbia power storage capacity.

Let industry risk their capital, not taxpayer capital, and let the market respond to demands for cheap power.

We need to optimize support for clean energy development, including grid storage for community or privately generated power and work with neighbouring jurisdictions to expedite the phase out of fossil fuel powered electricity generation.

The future of economic prosperity in B.C. lies in harnessing our innate potential for innovation and bringing new, more efficient technologies to bear in the resource sector.

B.C. will never compete in digging dirt out of the ground with jurisdictions that don’t internalize the same social and environmental externalities that we value.

We will excel through being smarter, more efficient, cleaner and by working together to solve our problems.

This means that we not only export the dirt, but we also export the knowledge, technology and value added products associated with resource extraction.

To get a fair value for our resources that deliver maximum benefits to our communities, we need to get smarter and more strategic when it comes to embracing innovation.

Government should be doing more to support these initiatives and create fertile ground for a sustainable, resilient, and diverse economy.

We should be using our boundless renewable energy resources to attract industry, including the manufacturing sector, that wants to brand itself as sustainable over its entire business cycle, just like Washington and Oregon have done.

We should be setting up seed funding mechanisms to allow the B.C.-based creative economy sector to leverage venture capital from other jurisdictions to our province.

By steadily increasing emissions pricing, we can send a signal to the market that incentivizes innovation and the transition to a low carbon economy.

The funding could be transferred to municipalities across the province so that they might have the resources to deal with their aging infrastructure and growing transportation barriers.

Yes, we should be investing in trade skills, as described, for example, under the B.C. jobs plan.

But we should also be investing further in education for 21st century industries like biotech, high tech and cleantech. It’s critical that we bring the typically urban-based tech and rural-based resource sectors together.

Similarly natural gas has an important role to play, but we should use it to use in our domestic market and explore options around using it to power local transport.

Global investment trends are being driven by the world’s shared Paris commitments, predicated on the fact that keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius is far more cost-effective than dealing with the effects of a temperature rise above that level.

This shift presents a significant opportunity for B.C.’s economy.

Our province is well poised to bolster its leadership in the cleantech sector – we have a strong competitive advantage in the building blocks required to foster a knowledge-based economy.

In Closing

I am truly excited about the prospects that lie ahead for this minority government. I am working every day to ensure that this government embraces the opportunity in front of it. British Columbia has so much to offer and we can and should be a leader in the new economy.

The years ahead will require all of us to come together to look for areas where we can be partners – to drive the innovation that will enable us to conquer what lies ahead. I don’t doubt many of solution we need will come from the people in this room.

Thank you all again for having me here today to speak with you. And for all your work to build a better future for our province.

Yesterday in budget estimates for the Ministry of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources I took the opportunity to question the Minister on the status of BC Hydro’s clean energy Standing Offer Program.

The exchange is very illustrative of the problems I have been trying to raise with respect to the direction BC Hydro is taking. The decision to proceed with Site C has led BC Hydro to essentially grind the Standing Offer Program, and the BC NDP PowerBC Better Plan, Brighter Future  energy and jobs campaign plan, to a halt.

Below I reproduce the text and video of the exchange.

Text of Exchange

A. Weaver: Thank you to the member for Surrey–White Rock for her line of questioning and the minister for the answers that we’ve been receiving. Very interesting.

I had a number of questions on the standing offer program that B.C. Hydro has ongoing. As the minister will know, the standing offer program for wind developers, at least, requires $1 million of investment over two years and over two years of studying permitting work to be done prior to the project achieving an electricity purchase agreement. The requirement for this up-front investment was done with the explicit intent of reducing program costs for the Crown, and when the BCUC approved the standing offer program, the BCUC stated that developers could expect to be offered an EPA if the project meets all the eligibility requirements and must be willing to incur the cost to prepare an application.

As the minister will know, the standing offer program was suspended in August 2017 with no warning. Despite that Hydro might suggest that…. Its only warning to industry was that there would be changes to price and volume of the SOP projects, not that the criteria itself would change or that the program would be completely redesigned. As the minister will know, developers that continue to invest in their products accepted that there would be changes to price and volume.

Hydro also implied that IPPs should have read market signals that there was an oversupply of energy and therefore infer that the standing offer program was a risky investment. However, the B.C. government legislated that the authority must maintain the standing offer program, and there was no indication the program would be suspended or cancelled or that there would be a change in the eligibility requirements.

There have been some recent public statements by the minister suggesting that there will be significant changes to the standing offer program and that there will be a First Nations focus. I have a number of questions on this. First, if this suspension leads to a material change to the policy, then is this suspension not actually a cancellation, because the new program is a different product?

Hon. M. Mungall: I appreciate the member’s question is: if this program doesn’t come back, isn’t this ultimately a cancellation? But I wouldn’t be able to say that at this time. Where it is at, as the member knows, is that it’s on hold. What is going on is…. A review was first started in 2016, and we’ve talked about that. That was attached to the rate revenue application and so on.

Industry was informed at the time, in 2016, that a review was taking place. That included the SOP, and of course, part of that was: well, does B.C. Hydro need the power? Do British Columbians need the power? So now review, review, right? Governments love to do these things.

With this government’s, the new government’s, review of energy procurement, as mentioned earlier, as part of the review that we just started in March, we’re looking at energy procurement, and if the SOP is a good program to continue on with. There’s been no decision one way or another at this time.

A. Weaver: The B.C. government legislated that the authority must maintain the standing offer program. When B.C. Hydro proposed the original SOP review, they set precedent for a review period length for prospective SOP participants, thus ensuring that important conditions such as price and eligibility would not change suddenly while they were preparing their projects.

Why wasn’t this put into practice for the recently announced review?

Hon. M. Mungall: I’m sorry, in the conversation I just had with staff, if I’ve missed and forgotten some of the member’s question. I’m sure he’ll remind me if I don’t get everything that he was hoping to get answers for.

Where things are at is that this government — and I know the member opposite and all members of the House as well — wants to make sure that rates are fair for British Columbians and for customers of B.C. Hydro. Whether they’re direct customers — they pay a B.C. Hydro bill — or, in my case, Nelson Hydro. We buy power from B.C. Hydro, as the city of Nelson does — and passes it on.

For all the B.C. Hydro customers, we want to make sure that rates are fair and affordable. Part of that issue is ensuring that we’re not purchasing power that we’re not able to then disperse at the time that that power becomes available. So we want to make sure that we have enough power for British Columbians, recognizing that we are able to sell on the spot market around North America, but then there’s the price that you get on the spot market that you also have to consider. So we want to make sure that we’re not putting an undue burden onto the backs of ratepayers by having more power than we’re able to disperse at the time at which we need it.

I hope that that’s making sense. For example, an IPP comes on line next year, but we actually have a surplus of power, perhaps, next year. So that would actually impact rates, because we’re obliged to pay that contract.

A. Weaver: Coming back, as I initiated with my questions on this topic, I noted that the SLP program required wind developers to invest $1 million over two years of the study permitting. Many wind developers have invested this money.

My question to the government, then, is how do they see this liability to companies who have made the required investment, sometimes with their own money, and have no program to participate in, in light of the fact that they were told that the program would exist, that they were required to make this investment and that they would get an electricity purchase agreement, although the price itself had not been set at that time?

Hon. M. Mungall: Ultimately, the impact on companies and the investments that they put in will depend on the outcome of the review. However, there are two things that B.C. Hydro has to balance in this.

One is obviously impact to ratepayers if we start purchasing power that we’re not going to need right now or in the immediate future and the risk that private investors take in the private market. Ultimately, B.C. Hydro is responsible to ratepayers, not to private investors in the private market.

A. Weaver: Thank you, and I appreciate the answer, but I would suggest that the government is responsible to both. I would suggest that the rules were put in place for investors, investors played by those rules and the rules changed and now the investors are left with a loss.

I would argue and suggest that government has accepted a potential liability through changing this program, particularly in light of the fact that the argument that the minister just put forth doesn’t hold water because the minister and her government recently approved continuation of the Site C dam to produce power for which there is no demand. So I’m sorry — the answer is quite unacceptable to me.

Nevertheless, let me continue. Was the minister aware that on March 14, 2018, the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced the launch of the low-carbon-economy challenge? In particular, is she aware that this $500 million initiative will fund projects “aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving energy and creating green jobs”? And that $162 million of that will be available to B.C. ?

Hon. M. Mungall: Yes. We are aware of the low-carbon-economy challenge and the fund associated with it. We’ve actually been able to access it.

The fund is going to be able to…. It’s contributed to other programs, but within this ministry specifically, it’s contributed an additional $12 million toward our building energy retrofit partnership, which will help communities across B.C., obviously, reduce carbon emissions associated with the built environment.

A. Weaver: Thank you, hon. Chair. Again through you to the minister: is she aware that the federal Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna chose Vancouver as the location to make the announcement for the program and that on that very same day, B.C. Hydro announced it would be further diminishing the standing offer program by suspending those applications already accepted into the program by B.C. Hydro, with only a few exceptions? And if so, why did B.C. Hydro do this?

Hon. M. Mungall: Yes, those two announcements were made on that day. It was purely coincidental, however. There was no purposeful reason why both of them were made that day. It’s just how things roll out sometimes.

A. Weaver: Purely coincidental but profoundly ironic.

I’m wondering if the minister is aware that some of the projects were already engaged in the B.C. Hydro interconnection process.

Hon. M. Mungall: The interconnection process is obviously part of the broader process in the standing offer program. The reason why it’s there is that it looks at the longer-term viability of connecting with that particular project. Sometimes projects go ahead, and sometimes they don’t. That’s just the broader, for people’s information. But, yeah, the ministry was aware that there were projects that were in that process at the time of the announcement on March 14.

A. Weaver: I’m just wondering if the minister could please provide two numbers. The first number is: what’s the accepted total megawatt capacity of accepted applications in the standing offer program? And the second number is: of this total megawatt capacity, how much is within the interconnection queue?

Hon. M. Mungall: Sorry about the delay to the member.

What’s the megawatt capacity of accepted applications in the SOP? For the standing offer program, it’s 137 megawatts. In the micro standing offer program, there are two megawatts. To answer the second part of his question, all of those projects — so therefore, all of those megawatts — are at varying stages in studying interconnection, so it’s the same number.

A. Weaver: My understanding is that 59 megawatts of the 137 are much further along in that process than the 137 itself.

With that said, I’m wondering if the minister could then briefly, in summary remarks, comment on the status of the following projects: the Nahwitti wind project in Port Hardy, 14 megawatts; Babcock Ridge wind project in Tumbler Ridge, 15 megawatts; Canoe Pass tidal project in Campbell River, two megawatts; Little Nitinat River project in Port Alberni, five megawatts; the English Creek hydro project in Revelstoke, 5.8 megawatts; the Fosthall Creek power project in Nakusp, 15 megawatts; the Sarita River project in Bamfield, 5.3 megawatts; the MacKay Creek project in Revelstoke, and I do apologize to Hansard who are trying to get this down here, 5.2 megawatts.

The East Hill project of my good friend from Kootenay East, in Cranbrook, a solar project, 15 megawatts; the Sukunka wind project of my good friend here from Peace River South in Chetwynd, 15 megawatts; the McKelvie Creek hydroelectric project in Tahsis on Vancouver Island, 5.4 megawatts; Newcastle Creek hydroelectric project, Sayward, 5.3 megawatts. Again, coming to the riding of my good friend from Peace River South, the Wartende wind project and the Zonnebeke wind project, both of which are 15 megawatts in those.

What is the status of these projects that have been approved and are sitting in the standing offer program?

Hon. M. Mungall: All of the projects are on hold, with the exception of the Sarita River hydro power project. They have been sent a draft energy purchase agreement, a draft EPA. The Sukunka wind energy project in Chetwynd is currently pursuing an electricity purchase agreement. Sorry. They are not. We are. B.C. Hydro is pursuing an EPA negotiation with the project. That’s the same result for the Zonnebeke wind energy project, also in Chetwynd. And the last one that is not on hold but unfortunately has been rejected is the McKelvie Creek hydroelectric project.

A. Weaver: Thank you, hon. Chair. I’m wondering if….

Hon. M. Mungall: Can I just ask…? Would you like a written copy of that?

The Chair: Members can redirect comments through the Chair, please.

Hon. M. Mungall: Mr. Chair, I’m just wondering if the member would like a written copy of that, if that would be helpful for him.

A. Weaver: That would be very helpful, and I do appreciate the response and the offer.

On this topic that I’m wondering about, hon. Chair, through you to the minister, if she’s aware that the Rocky Mountain solar project in Cranbrook has formed a B.C.-based research and innovation consortium that includes the UBC engineering Clean Energy Research Centre, the SFU chemistry department, the Natural Resource Council of Canada, Ballard Power, Schneider Electric, Iona Miller, Avalon Battery and others.

Hon. M. Mungall: B.C. Hydro wasn’t aware that RMS was forming a B.C.-based research and innovation consortium. They didn’t put that in their application, in their SOP application. That being said, ministry staff have been able to meet with several of the partners within this consortium and learned about it through those meetings. That’s my understanding.

A. Weaver: The Rocky Mountain solar project, as the minister will know, is the only solar project that’s gone through the standing offer program. They plan to build a living lab facility site that will focus on advancing next-generation energy solutions, in partnership with those organizations that I previously mentioned. As the minister may know, connectivity through the transmission line is not that difficult in light of the fact that it goes right through the property of the proposed solar facility in the Cranbrook region.

I’m wondering. Again, I’d like to suggest that the Rocky Mountain solar project is exactly the type of project that is being looked for under the low-carbon economy challenge that I spoke about earlier, and particularly, the clean growth fund that demonstrates a commitment to creating diversified clean energy. It ensures that we have reliable power, it promotes research R and D in the province, it helps establish B.C. as leaders, and it’s being supported by investor capital, not ratepayer-supported capital.

My question, then, is: what is the government doing to attract and retain a clean energy sector here in B.C., and in particular, whatever happened to the B.C. NDP PowerBC better plan, brighter future program they touted in the lead-up to and during the last provincial election campaign?

Hon. M. Mungall: Just for the member’s information, the Rocky Mountain Solar project is actually not the only approved solar application in the SOP. There’s also the Tsilhqot’in solar project, which is being advanced under the micro SOP. It’s smaller, yes, but it is another solar project. I know that the member is very interested in what kinds of projects are out there, so I wanted to share that with him.

In terms of his question, in terms of what we’re doing to attract and retain clean energy sector in B.C., as well as the PowerBC plan that our party launched while we were in opposition — where is all of that? Well, that’s a fair question. I mentioned earlier that we were talking about the energy road map. We only got a chance to mention it briefly. But that’s precisely where we have driven these very issues, is into building our energy road map. That road map is about planning for the future. It is about looking at ways in which we can address load and demand.

One of the things that we need to do, and I know the member’s very passionate about this and is very, very well versed on this, is obviously reducing carbon emissions. How do we electrify the economy using clean, renewable electricity that is carbon free? We already have 98 percent of the energy we produce in B.C. meeting that test of carbon free. But if we want to be able to produce more carbon-free energy, then we also need to look at the demand side, the load of what is being demanded by British Columbians.

We have to look at where we are going into the future, what kind of demand we are anticipating and what kind of demand we can grow. I know that the member knows a lot about electric vehicles. He has an electric vehicle, and he really wants to see the transportation shift from fossil fuels to clean electricity. I agree very much with that vision. That’s part of our energy road map and planning out for that.

How do we do that? We already have incentive programs. We’re already working on expanding charging stations. But what more can we do to ensure that we’re reducing costs for people, which is one of the barriers, as well as making sure we have good, solid infrastructure? BCUC right now, as I mentioned earlier, is looking into the utilities aspect and who can actually sell power so that we can build out the infrastructure so that it’s just as commonplace as what fossil fuel infrastructure has been in the past, and so on and so forth.

There are a lot of questions and planning, and that’s where that energy road map comes into play. That’s where we see that broader vision that we’ve expressed in the past funneling into. Earlier we were talking about that energy road map then leading into, obviously, how B.C. Hydro would be organizing itself and placing itself into that future demand — for example, around electric vehicles, around partnerships with the clean energy sector, the private clean energy sector, and so on.

A. Weaver: I appreciate the answer, although I’m not sure it directly addressed the question I was raising. I do take issue with the assertion that the Tsilhqot’in program is on par with the Rocky Mountain. Of course, it isn’t. I’m quite aware of the micro–standing offer program, which is quite different from the larger standing offer program.

In fact, on March 14, 2018, B.C. Hydro issued a statement on that saying:

“…electricity purchase agreements for five clean energy projects that are part of the impact benefit agreements with B.C. Hydro and/or are mature projects that have significant First Nations involvement. B.C. Hydro supports the government’s decision to take a closer look at energy procurement to ensure the best value for B.C. Hydro’s customers through their review of B.C. Hydro this year. As a result, there are no plans at this time to issue any additional electricity purchase agreements. The standing offer and micro–standing offer programs will remain on hold until the review is complete.“

The issue I have here, and the issue I continue to raise, is companies have invested millions upon millions upon millions of dollars in British Columbia in good faith directly in response to signals that government sent and B.C. Hydro sent, and they are now on the hook for this. This is not because of any uncertainty in the market. It’s exclusively because of uncertainty in terms of direction B.C. Hydro is….

I’m sure the government is aware, for example, that larger power projects, like in Alberta, have seen prices coming in at 3.7 cents a kilowatt hour for wind. We know that the next call is Saskatchewan, which is supposed to follow. It’s likely going to have, if it hasn’t come in yet, wind power coming in at 4 cents a kilowatt hour. We know that if there was a call for power at 10 cents or 8 cents, industry would meet that. We know that firm wind power can be delivered at around that price, and it’s being done around the world.

My question to the minister is this. Why hasn’t she instructed B.C. Hydro to explore cheaper alternatives to Site C, cheaper alternatives that could include firm power calls that link wind with storage?

Hon. M. Mungall: The member’s question was specifically: why didn’t I direct B.C. Hydro to look at alternatives, specifically wind with firm storage? He’s right to say that I didn’t direct, because they were already doing it. They did do that, and they put it as part of their submission to the B.C. Utilities Commission, I believe, originally back in 2014 — the original submission to, I believe, government in 2014. Pardon me if I’m not getting that correct. But definitely their submission to the B.C. Utilities Commission, in their review of Site C that we put forward last fall.

Video of Exchange

Today in Kamloops I had the pleasure of giving a keynote presentation at the 2018 Annual General Meeting of the BC Chamber of Commerce.

I took the opportunity to outline our vision for a thriving, diverse 21^st century economy that builds upon our strategic strengths.

Below I reproduce the text of my speech.

Text of Speech

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me to “the River City” to speak not only about some of the work we’ve been doing over the past year, but also about our vision of economic prosperity for BC.

It’s been almost exactly one year since we signed our confidence and supply agreement with the BC NDP, signalling our commitment to supporting them in a minority government.

It’s somewhat ironic that it’s also been almost exactly one year since the publication of your breakfast keynote speaker (Adam Kahane’s) book Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust — a book I bought and read last summer.

The last year seems like a year on fast-forward.
The minority government produced by the election – the first in 65 years in BC – led to the BC Greens playing a role we’ve never before played in BC politics.

It provided us an opportunity to champion key aspects of our economic platform in our agreement with the NDP.

To be successful in the 21st century economy, we need to capitalize on our strategic strengths and position ourselves to be leaders in the new economy. Achieving this has been the focus of our efforts in BC’s minority government.

As many of you know, before running for office in 2013 I was a climate scientist at the University of Victoria for 25 years.

Year after year, my students would ask me why so little progress was being made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions given that the science on climate change was so clear.

I told them that if they didn’t like the decisions politicians were making, they should consider finding someone to run or consider running themselves.

In 2012, as I watched the dismantling of Gordon Campbell’s legacy of positioning BC as a leader in the new economy, I realized I had to take my own advice. So, what motivated me to get into politics is fundamentally the same thing that I’m sure motivates a lot of you to do what you do.

I believe we have a responsibility to the next generation.

I believe in British Columbia and want to contribute to building the brightest possible future for our province.

If we want to secure a bright future for BC, we will do ourselves no favours by doubling down on the economy of the last century.

Instead, we must take stock of global trends – climate change, technological innovation, the rise of the knowledge economy – and point ourselves in a clear direction of where we want to go.

This year, the auditor general confirmed BC will miss our legislated 2020 greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Without a plan we will almost certainly miss our recently legislated 2030 targets as well.

Last year, wildfires, which the scientific community agrees will become more extensive, cost our province $750 million. Communities in BC are still recovering from flooding. The effects of global warming are not in some distant future – they are here now. And they will get far worse.

In this context, it’s not acceptable to continue to ignore our greenhouse gas reduction targets, and to continue to expand the fossil fuel infrastructure of the last century thereby pushing our targets further out of reach.

And this isn’t just an environmental issue – It’s critical from a business perspective as well.

The cost of failing to reduce greenhouse emissions will be profound for all sectors of our economy, both here in BC and around the world.

The world is coming together to find innovative solutions to the energy challenges arising from the transition to the low carbon economy. Globally countries like Saudi Arabia, China and Germany are investing billions in alternative energy production to position themselves as leaders of tomorrow.

There are opportunities to be had from transitioning to the low carbon economy, but they will flow to those who lead, not to those who follow.

Climate/LNG

Global investment trends are being driven by the world’s shared Paris commitments, predicated on the fact that keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius is far more cost-effective than dealing with the effects of a temperature rise above that level.

In the next two decades, renewable energy sources like wind and solar will comprise almost three-quarters of the US$10.2 trillion in new global investment in power generating technology.

The cost of solar is already on par with coal in Germany, the U.S., Australia, Spain and Italy, and will reach parity in China, India, Mexico, the U.K. and Brazil in 2021, if not sooner.

This shift presents a significant opportunity for B.C.’s economy. Our province is well poised to bolster its leadership in the cleantech sector – Vancouver alone is home to a quarter of Canada’s cleantech companies. And we can thank the leadership of Gordon Campbell for bringing this to fruition.

In 2016, B.C. cleantech generated approximately 13,900 jobs with an average salary of $84,000. We have a strong competitive advantage in the building blocks required to foster a knowledge-based economy.

Natural gas – royalty credits

Despite the new opportunities we’re presented with, in BC today, our government is continuing to pursue the dream of exporting LNG, and is perpetuating a natural gas giveaway.

We have seen massively decreasing revenues to BC from gas extraction.

What the data shows is quite shocking – while gas production has gone from 25 billion cubic metres in 2001 to over 50 billion cubic meters in 2016/17, royalty and land lease revenues to the BC government have gone in the opposite direction, from a record $2.4 billion in 2008/09 down to only $139 million in 2015.

This is partly due to the fact that the B.C. government provides hundreds of millions of dollars every year to subsidize horizontal drilling in the northeast of our province, through the deep-well royalty credit program.

The deep well royalty credit program was originally meant to offset the cost of deep well drilling.

It was later extended to apply to horizontal drilling as well. Now both are common practice, so much so that companies have amassed more credits than they can spend.

The companies earn these credits by drilling qualified wells, and when the wells start to produce gas, the companies apply the credits to reduce or even eliminate provincial royalties that they normally pay on this public resource.

In recent years, the participating companies have amassed credits faster than they can spend them. The balance in their deep-drilling account has increased from $752 million in 2012 to an accumulated $3.2 billion today.

Not only are we not getting paid for this public resource, we are literally paying companies to take it from us.

In 2009, B.C. collected $1.3 billion in natural gas royalties. Last year, we collected a mere $152 million. Measured as a share of the value of oil and gas production in B.C., royalties collected by government has fallen from 44 percent in 2008 to just 4 percent last year.

In 2009, BC earned $39.90 in royalties for every 1000 cubic metres of natural gas. In 2017 it was $2.95.

This is a dismal return on the resources that are being extracted from our province. We are giving away more gas for less money while barrelling past our climate commitments. That’s race for the bottom economics at its finest.

Opportunity/innovation

The future of economic prosperity in BC lies in harnessing our innate potential for innovation and bringing new, more efficient technologies to bear in the resource sector.

BC will never compete in digging dirt out of the ground with jurisdictions that don’t internalize the same social and environmental externalities that we value.

We will excel through being smarter, more efficient, & cleaner.

This means that we not only export the dirt, but we also export the knowledge, technology and value added products associated with resource extraction.

A great example is Vancouver-based MineSense’s technology that saves mines between $20 million to $200 million per site, while also reducing electricity and water consumption by 20 to 25 per cent and tailings by up to 40 per cent.

Through MineSense’s innovation, B.C.’s economy grows by creating the technology that enables others to make this same transition.

Efficiency also means ensuring B.C. is getting the maximum value for our resources. The last two provincial budgets reported job losses in forestry, fisheries, mining and oil and gas.

My caucus and I hear a common theme from resource businesses, industry groups and local governments — the economic value of B.C.’s natural resources does not remain in our communities.

It’s profoundly ironic that many believe that doubling down on the approach of the BC Liberals is somehow good for the resource sector when in fact, the job losses, downturn in the resource sector, and economic troubles in rural BC have occurred precisely under the watch of the BC Liberals over the last six to eight years.

In forestry, sawmills close as raw log exports persist. In fisheries, quotas become concentrated in the hands of a few companies, pricing young fishers out of the market.

Seafood caught in Canadian waters is shipped to Asia, where it is processed, and then shipped back here to be sold.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion seeks to export diluted bitumen, which must be refined abroad before it can be of any use to consumers.

Every time we ship a raw commodity overseas, we forgo opportunities to create well-paying jobs and grow our economy.

There is no need for this — B.C. has a highly educated workforce, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and world-class research institutions.

Our high school students are consistently top ranked — with the OECD noting that BC is one of the smartest academic jurisdictions in the world. Our high quality of life and beautiful natural environment attract some of the best and brightest from around the globe.

In every corner of the province, innovative British Columbians are using these strengths to generate economic prosperity. After the Midway Mill closed in 2007, the town raised capital to invest in a technological overhaul and reinvigorate the mill.

At the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, students learn how to bring design, technology and forestry products together to develop innovative high-performance wood products.

The centre was built using value-added wood products from Structurlam, a highly innovative Penticton-based company whose products have been used in award-winning buildings all over the world.

To get a fair value for our resources that deliver maximum benefits to our communities, we need to get smarter and more strategic when it comes to embracing innovation.

Government’s role

Government should be doing more to support these initiatives and create fertile ground for a sustainable, resilient, and diverse economy.

In our Confidence and Supply Agreement with the NDP, we included two key pieces from our 21st century economy platform to help us seize economic opportunities in the emerging economy.

The first piece is the Emerging Economy Task Force.

We proposed the Emerging Economy Task Force to enable government to adapt and respond to changes on the horizon.

We need to modernize government so that it is considerably more responsive to technological innovation.

In one example, six years since ride hailing attempted to enter our market, Vancouver is still stuck with fewer options than every other major city in North America. This shouldn’t be the case.

The role of the Emerging Economy Task Force is to look to the future, identify emerging trends and advise government on how to maintain our competitiveness and achieve prosperity amidst these changes.

The second item from our platform that we integrated into CASA is the Innovation Commission (now Innovate BC) as well as the appointment of an Innovation Commissioner.

The innovation commissioner was proposed to be an advocate and ambassador on behalf of the B.C. technology sector in Ottawa and abroad, to enable B.C. companies to more easily tap into existing federal programs and build key strategic relationships.

I’m confident that both of these initiatives will bolster key sectors of our economy as we go forward.

We should be using our strategic advantage as a destination of choice to attract industry to BC in highly mobile sectors, like tech, that have difficulty retaining employees in a competitive marketplace.

We should be using our boundless renewable energy resources to attract industry, including the manufacturing sector, that wants to brand itself as sustainable over its entire business cycle, just like Washington and Oregon have done.

We should be setting up seed funding mechanisms to allow the BC-based creative economy sector to leverage venture capital from other jurisdictions to our province.

Too often the only leveraging that is done is the shutting down of BC-based offices and opening of offices in the Silicon Valley.

We should fundamentally change the mandate of BC Hydro. BC Hydro should no longer be the builder of new power capacity.

Rather, it should be the broker of power deals, transmitter of electricity, and leveller of power load through improving British Columbia power storage capacity. Let industry risk their capital, not taxpayer capital, and let the market respond to demands for cheap power.

Similarly, by steadily increasing emissions pricing, we can send a signal to the market that incentivizes innovation and the transition to a low carbon economy. The funding could be transferred to municipalities across the province so that they might have the resources to deal with their aging infrastructure and growing transportation barriers.

Yes, we should be investing in trade skills, as described, for example, under the B.C. jobs plan. But we should also be investing further in education for 21st century industries like biotech, high tech and cleantech. It’s critical that we bring the typically urban-based tech and rural-based resource sectors together.

Natural gas has an important role to play.

But, we should use it to build our domestic market and explore options around using it to power local transport. BC businesses such as Westport Innovations and Vedder Transport have already positioned British Columbia as an innovative global leader in this area.

The digital technology supercluster provides another example of exactly the type of innovation government should be doing everything it can to support. The supercluster is estimated to generate up to 15,000 jobs and $15 billion in economic activity in the coming decade.

It offers an opportunity to bring together the private sector, our post-secondary institutions and government to solve problems and accelerate innovation in key sectors in our province, like health care, forestry and manufacturing.

The companies involved in the supercluster are diverse, innovative and deeply committed to seeing success in British Columbia, and their initiative will help B.C. be more competitive as we respond to changing global trends, and help us get a better return for our resources.

Benefit companies

Finally, I’d like to speak today to a recent initiative our office has undertaken, to have benefit company legislation passed in BC.

This legislation would support companies that choose to integrate economic sustainability and social responsibility into their business mandate, by enabling them to incorporate as benefit companies in BC.

By incorporating as benefit companies, businesses would achieve greater certainty for their directors and investors about their goals and mandate, enabling them to attract capital investment while staying true to their mission as they scale.

Benefit companies are critical because they recognize that in today’s new economy — with triple-bottom-line reporting, providing a workplace where you actually create an environment that is conducive to attracting and retaining employees in a very progressive manner — these are the types of companies that are attracting the millennial generation.

This legislation is an opportunity for B.C. to lead the country in supporting businesses that want to be a bigger part of developing innovative solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.

I am hopeful that government will support this legislation and that we will be the first jurisdiction in Canada to have benefit companies.

Conclusion

We will not solve the challenges of the 21st century by chasing 20th century solutions. In the shadows of the massive challenges that we face, our province needs a new direction.

But we can turn these challenges into opportunities if we have a forward-looking vision, an evidence-based approach to policy and political leadership that thinks beyond a four-year election cycle.

Most importantly, I believe that we must reject politically motivated attempts to pit the environment against the economy. Doing so will only short-change resource-dependent communities by justifying the race-to-the bottom economics of raw commodity exports.
Instead, we need a new direction that offers a realistic and achievable vision grounded in hope and real change.

A new direction that places the interests of the people of British Columbia first and foremost in decision-making. And it’s not only today’s British Columbians that we must think about, it’s also the next generation who are not part of today’s decision-making process.

I am truly excited about the prospects that lie ahead in this minority government. British Columbia has so much to offer and we can and shall be a leader in the new economy.
Thank you all again for having me here today to speak with you.

I look forward to more conversations to come.

Today in the legislature I rose during question period to ask the Minister of Jobs, Trades and Technology about the provincial government’s support for the recently announced BC-based digital technology supercluster consortium.

The B.C.-based Digital Technology Supercluster consortium was selected in February as one of five successful national programs to share a portion of $950 million in federal innovation funding. More than $500 million in private sector funding has also been committed to the BC-based supercluster project.

Below I reproduce the video and text of the exchange.

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: In February, B.C.’s economy received a huge boost with the news that our digital supercluster won over $150 million in federal funding. The supercluster offers an opportunity to bring together the private sector and our post-secondary institutions and government to solve problems and accelerate innovation in key sectors in our province, like health care, forestry and manufacturing. This will help B.C. be more competitive as we respond to changing global trends.

The supercluster will generate more than $5 billion in GDP growth and tens of thousands of jobs over the next ten years. It already has hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and private sector commitments, with over 300 partners.

For the province to be able to participate in this groundbreaking initiative, all we need to do is contribute $1.5 million per year for five years. My question to the Minister of Jobs, Trades and Technology is this: will this government seize the opportunity before them, make at least the minimal contribution required and take a seat at the table of the digital supercluster?

Answer

Hon. B. Ralston: I share the Leader of the Third Party’s enthusiasm for the supercluster proposal. The federal government took the initiative by creating a fund and having a nationwide competition. British Columbia put together a consortium, as the member has mentioned, of over 300 companies — institutions, non-profits, start-up companies — led by some of the biggest companies in the province, and was successful. It has huge potential to create jobs, economic activity and research here in the province.

Just this week, the supercluster group appointed Sue Paish, who will be known to many people here, as the CEO of the supercluster. The structure, the governance model, is all being worked out. She just was hired earlier this week. Once that structure is in place, we will certainly consider provincial options to support this exciting initiative.

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: The digital supercluster provides a generational opportunity for this government. Familiar words, actually.

Government can bring the biggest issues B.C. faces to the table, harnessing the ingenuity of our private sector and our exceptional post-secondary institutions to find innovative solutions to our most complex and difficult problems: in areas like, for example, health care, where precision health can enable more effective and targeted treatment for patients; or in areas like our natural resources and manufacturing sectors, where partnerships will increase efficiency and productivity, creating more jobs in rural B.C. and helping us get better returns for our products.

My question, again, is to the Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology. Why wouldn’t government do everything in its power to support this initiative and to make sure that it has a seat at the table — that it seizes the power of this supercluster to tackle the most pressing challenges we face today?

Answer

Hon. B. Ralston: Indeed, that’s exactly what the government is doing. This opportunity is a very exciting one. There are some challenges, as Sue Paish puts together her team, devises a government structure. There are some issues about the ownership of IP that will come out of the research that’s going to be done, the way in which the funds will be divided among the companies involved.

So there are some challenges. I’m convinced that the group is definitely up to it. We are excited by the opportunities.

As the member mentions, there are huge challenges that we here in British Columbia can solve. In fact, just today, over across the water, at the tech conference, there is a group of 3,000 people meeting, talking about the opportunities presented to all regions of the province, all citizens of the province, by the promise of the digital transformation that we’re undergoing.

The supercluster is part of that, and we intend to do our part in spurring that group on to success.