Today in the legislature I rose during Question Period to ask the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations two distinct questions. In the first, I asked how he reconciles his Ministry’s efforts to preserved at-risk caribou herds while at the same time issuing more hunting permits for the same caribou.  In the second question I ask him what he plans to do to preserve the last remaining old growth valley-bottoms on Vancouver Island.

Below I reproduce the text and video of our exchange.

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: I’ve just been walking around with a smile on my face today from ear to ear, and I continue to ask that question in that spirit.

There are 54 caribou herds in British Columbia, 30 of which are at risk of extirpation. Fourteen have less than 25 animals, and the B.C. Government website lists that one of these herds has precisely one individual, whereas another has three. Since the information was posted on the site, it’s likely that they’re gone as well.

British Columbia’s caribou herds are in crisis, and scientists have been raising the alarm for many, many years. After nearly managing the species into oblivion, we’re now desperately trying to save them by any means possible. Yet, at the same time as we try to avoid extirpation in one area, in a neighbouring area, the government issues and permits a legal caribou hunt.

To the Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations: aside from the First Nations’ food, social and ceremonial hunt, how many caribou is he permitting to be hunted in British Columbia in the 2019-2020 limited area hunt and general open season in management units 617 to 620 and 622 to 627?

Answer

Hon. D. Donaldson: Thank you to the Leader of the Third Party for the question to talk about an important animal, an iconic species in B.C. and across Canada and internationally. That is the caribou.

I think it’s been pointed out already in question period so far that unlike the old government, we take the decline in caribou populations very seriously. Going back to 2003, the previous government ignored calls for action to protect caribou habitat for over a decade and kept in place a patchwork of measures that don’t meet federal standards, putting jobs at risk and caribou at risk.

As far as the hunting of caribou that the member asked about, we know that the Chase, Wolverine and Itch-Ilgachuz herds are classified as threatened, and the herd populations continue to decline. That’s why we closed the caribou hunt for these three herds this past March, and this hunt will remain closed until further notice. There are some herds that are still available for hunting, and those are the Carcross and Atlin herds in my constituency, in the northwest corner of B.C. Both herds have in excess of 800 animals.

The member is right. When it’s based on the best available science, and when conservation is the top priority, followed by First Nations’ food spiritual and ceremonial needs, only then is hunting allowed. There are very few animals available for hunt — approximately ten.

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: Well, that’s inconsistent with the information I have here, where it looks like 268 permits have been issued for caribou in Skeena region 6, which would be ironic in light of the fact the minister just mentioned 800-some animals in and around that area.

The point I’m making here is we’re hunting caribou while we try to save caribou. There’s no overall strategy. Caribou, as we know, are dependent on old-growth boreal and mountain economic systems. For many herds, their main food source is lichen that grows on old trees, and cutblocks and logging roads make them much more vulnerable to predators, as we all know.

Yesterday the United Nations released a landmark study reporting that over a million species are now at risk of extinction, and habitat loss is the driving factor. In B.C., we only act when it’s already too late. For example, our invaluable Vancouver Island valley-bottom old growth is globally rare and is an essential habitat for many species.

My question is again to the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. Will this government stop its Loraxian approach to resource management and step in to protect the last intact, productive valley-bottom old growth on Vancouver Island?

Answer

Well, I understand we were talking about caribou. There are no caribou on Vancouver Island. I’m sure the member knows that. As far as old-growth forests go on Vancouver Island, we’re committed to creating an old-growth plan in consultation with industry, in consultation with environmental NGOs and in consultation with communities.

We know that old-growth forests provide incredibly important habitat for biodiversity. There are over 500,000 hectares of old growth already protected on Vancouver Island through protected areas and parks. We also know that old-growth forests provide important revenue for communities and important jobs for forestry workers. We’ll continue to manage old growth in a sustainable way, and we’ll continue to work on the caribou file to protect jobs and to protect caribou.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) today released its landmark assessment detailing the world’s declining state of biodiversity. Remarkably, British Columbia’s government has still not announced how it plans to deliver on its 2017 mandate to enact an endangered species law. Below I reproduced the text of our media release in response to the IPBES report.

Media Release

Humans threaten 1 million species with extinction worldwide, B.C. still without any endangered species legislation
For immediate release
May 6, 2019

VICTORIA, B.C. – One million of the planet’s eight million species are threatened with extinction, according to a comprehensive report released today from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a UN committee, and yet British Columbia’s government has still not announced how it plans to deliver on its 2017 mandate to enact an endangered species law.

“The report identifies habitat loss, sustainable exploitation, climate change, and pollution as the main culprits, which are all areas that we can and should focus on in British Columbia to protect our at-risk species and the health of our province,” B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver said.

“I drafted and introduced an endangered species act for British Columbia twice in the legislature, most recently in November 2017. British Columbia is the most bio-diverse province in Canada, but it is also home to more at-risk species than any other province with 1,807 species at risk of extinction. In addition to detailing policies to identify, protect and rehabilitate at-risk wildlife populations and habitats, my Endangered Species Act introduced proactive measures that would prevent healthy species from declining in the first place.”

The world is in the midst of the sixth great global extinction event, and humans are the driving force. Proactive protection and active restoration are key to the resiliency of British Columbia.

Humans are part of nature and inextricably linked to its deterioration. As stated in the IPBES report, some 70 percent of drugs used for cancer treatment are natural or synthetic products linked to nature, and 75 percent of global food crops rely on animal pollination. In B.C., in 2017 nearly 10,000 people were employed in fisheries-related jobs and other 141,000 worked in forestry-related positions.

“If our ecosystems collapse, so does our economy,” Weaver said. “We need biodiversity for pollination, flood prevention, water and air purification, climate change resiliency, and social and cultural well-being.

“The IPBES report makes it abundantly clear governments must act urgently to change the trajectory of global extinction. My B.C. Green caucus colleagues and I will fight for the same in British Columbia.”

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

Yesterday during question period yesterday I rose to ask the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources questions about the ever increasing liability British Columbians are taking on as the number of orphan gas wells grows out of control. I remain deeply concerned about the Minister’s grasp of the file and profoundly troubled by the lack of substance in her answers to our questions.

Below I reproduce the video and text of our exchange

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: Yesterday my colleague from Cowichan Valley asked the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources how many gas wells in British Columbia are leaking, and she didn’t know. Well, here’s some information for her: out of the 134 wells in the province with confirmed gas migration — that’s leaking problems, as documented by the Oil and Gas Commission — almost half are owned by one company, the Shanghai Energy Corporation.

This company, which has strong links to the Communist Party of China, is buying up wells in our province at an alarming rate. They now own 1,128 wells, with 863 active, 184 inactive and 13 that are being decommissioned.

My question is to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources: does she think that the Communist Party of China buying up stranded assets in B.C. is concerning, and does she think that the Shanghai Energy Corporation will be a good corporate citizen and clean up their activity and all their leaky wells when the time comes?

Answer

Hon. M. Mungall: We have an open marketplace for tenures and for gas wells. That means that companies from around the world are able to purchase these tenures as well as the wells and so on. They then have the duty to be good corporate citizens, no matter who they are, no matter where they come from. We have the Oil and Gas Commission, as well as this government, who is taking its role as a regulator very seriously to ensure that, again, no matter who they are, no matter where they’re from, that any corporation who’s doing business in British Columbia and business in our oil and gas sector is following the rules.

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: I’m not sure I understood what the answer to the question was there, but nevertheless, let me try again.

Ranch Energy was one of three companies that became insolvent last year, leaving a forecasted $12.3 million deficit in the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission’s orphan reclamation fund. Currently — I know these facts are troubling to the minister — there are 310 sites designated as orphan sites, requiring further restoration. But there are 300 to 500 Ranch Energy wells that could be added to this, creating a further potential liability of $40 to $90 million.

Yesterday the minister told the chamber that things have gotten a lot better since her government was sworn in. Yet over the last two years, B.C.’s orphan well sites have increased by — get this — 48 percent. Bankrupt companies have left the province with massive cleanup bills.

Last month we heard from the Auditor General. There are more than 10,000 active wells, with a $3 billion price tag for decommissioning them. All the while, her ministry is giving massive handouts, corporate handouts. It’s not an open market. It’s a subsidized market by this government because the market would not exist in a free and open market, because it does not compete on the international scene.

What is the minister’s plan? Please, please, I beg you — no more non-answer, no more rhetoric, no more 16 years nonsense. Answer the question for a change.

What is the minister’s plan to ensure British Columbians are not on the hook for the cleanup costs of this industry? There is no excuse for not hearing an answer here.

Answer

Hon. M. Mungall: The member might recall that just over a year ago we passed legislation — it was Bill 15 at the time — to address the issue of orphaned wells. We have done a considerable amount of work. Part of that bill was to address how we are funding the orphaned well reclamation fund.

The previous government had it funded through a taxation on production. We have moved from that because that was not an effective way to fund this fund. We’ve moved away from that, and we have a liability levy so we’re actually able to get the financial resources so that we can start reclaiming the orphaned well sites.

We have a multi-year plan to reclaim all of these sites. It involves Treaty 8 First Nations, who are doing a wide array of work to do this reclamation, including having nurseries with the appropriate vegetation of native plants so that we can truly reclaim these sites and the land to the state that they need to be in for future generations

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. In the legislature the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing rose to deliver a Ministerial Statement for which both the Member from Abbotsford West and I delivered a response. I reproduce the video and text of my remarks below. We also issued a media statement that is appended at the end.

Video of Statement

Text of Statement

A. Weaver: Today I rise to speak about Yom HaShoah. It’s a day dedicated to reflecting on the atrocities of the Holocaust and remembering those who suffered and lost their lives.

As time moves forward, each survivor that passes away emphasizes the importance of taking the time to remember. Their stories allow us to understand what happened. They allow us to reflect on our society. I’d like to thank and honour these survivors for sharing their story.

Sadly, anti-Semitism is rising in Canada. In British Columbia, we’ve seen a 127 percent increase in the number of incidents over the last year.

Greater volumes of hate are being spewed on line, often behind the masks of anonymity. Anti-hate groups are also reporting increased in-person incidents of hate.

Religious and ethnic intolerance is antithetical to the values we hold for society. The difficulty of accepting those who are different from ourselves has been a scourge on humankind throughout history. Our answer as a society must be a strong and resounding rejection of othering and hatred. We must consistently embrace our values of tolerance and liberty.

It was the deaths of people who wanted to live in an equal world that forged the society we live in today, and we cannot let their sacrifice slip away. We should use this day to remind ourselves we do not have a guarantee to our values of tolerance, freedom of religion. If we fail to defend them, we let slip the very humanity that generations have suffered to achieve.

Let us not forget the millions of Jewish people who were murdered. Let us not forget their stories. Let us not forget that there is still work to be done.

Media Statement

BC Green caucus statement on Yom HaShoah
For immediate release
May 2, 2019

VICTORIA, B.C. – Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party, issued the following statement in recognition of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“Today is dedicated to reflecting on the atrocities of the Holocaust and remembering those who suffered and lost their lives, as well as those who fought against it.”

“Religious and ethnic intolerance is antithetical to the values we hold for society. The difficulty of accepting those who are different than ourselves has been a scourge on humankind throughout history – our answer as a society must be a strong and resounding rejection of othering and hatred. We must consistently embrace values of tolerance and liberty.

“With the recent rise of antisemitism in Canada and in BC, it is even more important that we speak up against hate, and that we remember what can happen when we do not. Let us not forget the millions of people who were murdered; let us not forget their stories; let us not we forget that there is still work to be done.”

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

Yesterday in the BC Legislature we debated Bill 23: Land Owner Transparency Act, 2019 at second reading. This is an important bill that is aimed at increasing transparency in property ownership. The bill requires beneficial owners of corporations, partnerships and trusts to file a transparency declaration when there is a transfer of legal title of property or a change in beneficial ownership. It further requires pre-existing beneficial owners  to file a declaration. However, the bill will not affect individual property owners who are listed on title at the Land Title Office.

Transparency International Canada, the Canadian Chapter of Transparency International, is an anti-corruption NGO that recently published an extensive analysis of the scale of anonymous ownership of Canadian companies and Trusts. Their 2016 report states:

“Analysis of land title records by TI Canada found that nearly half of the 100 most valuable residential properties in Greater Vancouver are held through structures that hide their beneficial owners. Nearly one-third of the properties are owned through shell companies, while at least 11 percent have a nominee listed on title. The use of nominees appears to be on the rise; more than a quarter of the high-end homes bought in the last five years are owned by students or homemakers with no clear source of income. Trusts are also common ownership structures for luxury properties; titles for six of the 100 properties disclose that they are held through trusts, but the actual number may be much higher as there is no need to register a trust’s existence.“

For over five years I have been calling on government to plug a loophole that lets corporations and wealthy individuals avoid paying BC’s property transfer tax. Plugging this loophole would bring tens of millions of dollars into provincial coffers and correct an injustice that unduly penalizes ordinary BC families. While Bill 23 does not close the loophole, it does provide government with important information about beneficial property ownership in British Columbia. This will allow government  to get a sense of the scale of the problem without actually solving it. I am hopeful that once the data starts rolling in, government will quickly recognize that the bare trust loophole must be closed to ensure that property transfer tax is applied on a transfer of beneficial ownership not on a transfer of title.

Below I reproduce the video and text of my second reading speech in support of this important bill.

Video of Speech

Forthcoming

Text of Speech

A. Weaver: That took me a little bit by surprise, as it was so succinct, the previous speaker. She was so timely in her words that she was speaking in, I think, support — caveated support — to this bill, but I’m not quite sure. I was indeed listening.

It gives me pleasure to rise and stand in very strong — let me be very clear — unequivocal support of Bill 23, Land Owner Transparency Act, at second reading. This is something that is long overdue in British Columbia. I am absolutely delighted that the government is stepping up to create the important registry required to ensure that partnerships, trusts and corporations that own property in British Columbia have beneficial ownership registered in such a registry.

This legislation will require owners of such corporations and partnerships and trusts to file a transparency declaration when there is a transfer of legal title of property or change in beneficial ownership. Pre-existing beneficial owners will also be required to file a declaration. It doesn’t apply to individual owners. The ownership information of individuals is already publicly available through the land title office, as we know. You and I have to do that whenever we buy a property.

Therein lies the problem. This is an issue that I’ve been raising in this Legislature since not long after I got elected in 2013, within the context of what was going on, when I asked question after question after question to the then B.C. Liberal government about what they were going to do to close the so-called bare trust loophole, which is continuing to this day to be used to avoid paying property transfer tax and to avoid disclosure of who is buying or is not buying property in British Columbia.

This is a first step there. This is a requirement that beneficial ownership now be declared in the registry.

Let me give you an example about why that’s important. Let’s suppose I want to speculate in the Victoria or Vancouver real estate market. I assign somebody to go and buy a property — to buy that property and put it in a trust. I’m going to put it in a trust. There may be a corporation that owns that trust. The beneficial owners of that corporation may be some people who were there initially to buy that property and develop the corporation. Those individuals have no need to disclose the owners of the shares of the corporation that owns the trust. The trust is on title. The trust is all that’s on title. No matter how many times those shares in that corporation change, no matter how many times not only the beneficial but the majority ownership of that corporation changes, there is no change of the registered owner at the land title office. It is the trust, the bare trust.

We had examples of properties being flipped, typically high-end properties being flipped from owner to owner to owner, not through the sale and change of land title, but through the change of the transfer of the shares of the corporations that owned the trust that owned the land title. All the time avoiding property transfer tax, because you only pay transfer tax on transfer of title, not on transfer of beneficial ownership, which is an area that I hope government, at some point in the future, will move towards closing.

I understand the rationale that they’re bringing forward now. They want to gather the data first to see how the scale of the problem is, in order to deal with the problem rather than going straight to deal with the problem. I have some sympathy from that argument. It’s taken some time to get here, but we are here, and I’m absolutely delighted that we are here. The registry that will be here will be publicly searchable, but with some information only accessible by government and law enforcement for reasons that were articulated by the minister in her opening remarks.

The bill also allows individuals to apply to omit information if their health or, as the minister alluded to, safety is at risk from public disclosure. You might imagine, for example, the issue of someone fleeing domestic violence or someone in the witness protection program. It would be kind of odd to have the beneficial ownership of a property of someone in witness protection to be actually in their original name. So there are reasons that we have that.

Coming back to the background for this article, the confidence and supply agreement the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Greens signed back in 2017 states as follows: we will collectively focus on shared values to “make housing more affordable by increasing supply of affordable housing and take action to deal with the speculation and fraud that is driving up prices.” The B.C. Green caucus has been calling for this for I don’t know how long. We know we’ve been calling on government to eliminate the ability of buyers to hide their identities through shell companies, numbered companies and trusts.

We’ve been calling on them to improve transparency in the land title registry — not only this government, but the previous government before that — and to improve the land title and corporate registry by requiring the disclosure of beneficial ownership. Disclosure is critical to actually dealing with any issues that may be out there. We also have been, for quite some time, pleading with government to make existing and new data more regularly and freely accessible to researchers and the public. We hope that as the registry is created, and was promised in Budget 2018, that this will be the case.

This registry is, without a doubt, a significant step forward for transparency that ends hidden ownership. As we know, hidden ownership is intricately tied into speculation tax avoidance and money laundering in our housing market. One of the issues raised by the minister, and prior to that, by the member from Point Grey when in opposition, was the notion of shadow flipping, a notion where I put in a contract to purchase a property, but it’s me or my assignee who purchases that property. So I might, with the member for West Vancouver–Capilano…. I may buy his property. I may put an offer on his property with “the MLA for Oak Bay–Gordon Head, or assignee.” The member for West Vancouver–Capilano might say: “That’s a great offer. I want it.” But my “or assignee” clause is such that I could actually start assigning this contract to whoever I want, who can reassign it to whoever they want, who can reassign it to whoever they want, and they can jack up the price as we go along.

Now, steps have been taken. I think it was the previous government, or was it this government? I can’t remember. This place becomes a blur after a while. But certainly, we now have legislation that requires that any profits realized after the shadow flipping goes on actually go back to the original seller of the property.

So the member for West Vancouver–Capilano would not lose out if I were shadow flipping. Nevertheless, the transfer of the properties in between those stages would not be required even today to be disclosed.

This registry is critical. All stages of the process — transparency. The use of shell companies, as I mentioned, and trust and proxy ownership structures has obscured who has owned property in this province, undermining efforts at gathering and analyzing and allowing for an analysis of large-scale tax evasion and the data used to support this.

A report by Transparency International found that government can’t identify the owners — now get this — of almost half of Metro Vancouver’s most expensive homes. Government, whether it be Metro Vancouver or the city of Vancouver or the province or the federal government…. No government knows who more than half of the high-end properties in Vancouver…. We don’t know who owns them.

What a recipe for abuse. It’s just unbelievable this has been allowed to go on for so long. It’s absolutely unacceptable. This bill will close that. It will ensure that transparency is there.

We know that wise accountants, who know full well about the existence of the bare trust loophole, have been advising clients to avoid paying the property transfer tax by buying their property in a trust. If I, for example, were to buy a property in a trust…. Any house that I wanted to live in I buy in a trust instead of me. As soon as I buy it in a trust…. The very first time it happens, you will pay the property transfer tax. But every single time that that house is traded from thereon in, you will never pay any property transfer tax as you transfer the shares of the corporation that owns the trust from one to another.

This is one of the reasons why the higher-end homes, so many of them, have been put into trusts. When they flip, there is no property transfer tax, and the property transfer tax can be expensive.

There are also means and ways of hiding foreign ownership behind…. Some of that was indeed closed, again, by the previous government after much pestering.

We know that some of the money laundering has taken advantage of this, too, in Metro Vancouver. We still await Peter German’s report. We still await at least another chapter. We got one chapter. There’s got to be more coming. It’s clear…. We continue to push, and I will be doing so in the weeks ahead, for a public inquiry. We need a full-scale public inquiry into money laundering in this province. It is inexcusable that we have had as much as $5 billion laundered through Vancouver’s real estate market since 2012, distorting housing prices, particularly in the high-end markets.

We know…. I forget how many thousand homes are empty in the member’s riding, the member for West Vancouver–Capilano. I met with the council and mayor of West Vancouver–Capilano, who were at odds, not knowing what to do to actually go after the owners of these vacant homes that they simply are leaving there, not paying the social cost that has been historically developing by these homes being left vacant and distorting a market that would otherwise not be where it is, if it weren’t for someone laundering and nefarious activities going on.

We know, for example, just in 2016, over $1 billion of Vancouver’s property transactions have links to Chinese organized crime. Over $1 billion in one year alone had links to Chinese organized crime. That’s not counting any Russian organized crime, any Canadian organized crime, any American organized crime. Just one. It’s rampant in Vancouver, and we’ve sadly got a reputation internationally for being the home to the so-called Vancouver model of money laundering. Not a nice thing to be known for.

The president of the Law Society of B.C. stated: “This groundbreaking move by the B.C. government will increase the transparency of land ownership in B.C. and make it more difficult to use arrangements for tax evasion, fraud and money laundering. British Columbians will benefit from a fairer and more transparent real estate market.” Those are pretty powerful words of support from the president of the Law Society of British Columbia. I think that’s a strong independent endorsement of this legislation.

Transparency International has applauded the establishment of this registry — another pretty strong endorsement from an international organization. And a former director of FINTRAC has said that the province is now leading the country with this legislation. I can tell you, hon. Speaker, that if there is one thing I want British Columbia to be, it is a leader. We’re seeing, finally, leadership and transparency in the real estate sector in our province, and for that, the minister deserves a great deal of credit. I thank her, and I thank this government for bringing this forward.

You know, if ever there was a moment that we have second-guessed our decision in 2017 as to whether or not we support this side or that side in terms of a minority government, let me tell you that legislation like this makes us not question for a second that we did the right thing. The Liberals opposite had many, many years to deal with this, but they ignored it. I can’t remember how many times I stood up in this Legislature and posed questions to the then Finance Minister, asking him when he would take steps to deal with the transparency and beneficial ownership and close the bare trust loophole that was being used to avoid paying property transfer tax and also being used to launder money. The public record of this is available on my blog site. You can see it there, going back years. The answers I was getting were platitudes, because, to be honest, the members opposite simply had no idea. They had been in government too long. They’d lost ability to determine what the issues were. And there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this issue is before us.

S. Bond: Relevance.

A. Weaver: Thank you to the member for Prince George–Valemount for calling for relevance. Thank you. And the reason why I called it to your colleague — because every time anybody in our caucus stands up, you have the audacity to stand up and call relevance, yet you’re not willing to accept others calling relevance to the other side. So it’s part of the hypocrisy that we see. I enjoy the conversation, and I will make this relevant, hon. Speaker, before you must tell me to make this relevant.

Coming back to the bare trust loophole, as I noted, I’ve been calling on government for years to deal with this, and frankly, this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, government will move forward to closing this. I know that the market had discounted this, both the real estate market and the accounting market. They had both already discounted that government was going to close the bare trust loophole. They didn’t, but now they’re collecting data and that probably will lead it up to move for it.

Looking at this, we also need to expand this progressive approach to transparency, also to the corporate registry. Right now, the corporate registry is not searchable by director name, and as it’s hampering transparency and accountability, hopefully we’ll be able to see this transparency that we’re seeing here with respect to land-ownership move into the corporate registry as well. The Attorney General has called this issue a deliberate or grossly negligent decision that limits transparency, a benefit to firms and individuals who wish to evade accountability. I urge government as well to move beyond this and to change the corporate registry to fix this problem, in line with the spirit of the legislation before us today.

In conclusion, this legislation is an important step forward for opening up hidden ownership in real estate in British Columbia. And it’s timely. I’m very pleased the government has done it. And it’s just a shame that we’ve got to get to the position we’re in after so many years of neglect in this sector. We need to go further and crack down on tax avoidance, using the ownership structures that the data will be collected, and I’m looking forward to government stepping in to close that bare trust loophole, which many use to avoid paying property tax. I look forward to seeing information in the registry and will continue to push for action on this file and get to the root of the housing crisis.

With that, I do note the time. I would like to move adjournment of the debate and reserve my right to continue at the next sitting of the House after today.

A. Weaver moved adjournment of debate.