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| Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen provided his snapshot of the 2022 budget as part of the Legislature session on Thursday |
A good portion of the debate in the latter part of this week in the Legislature has been turned over to a review of Tuesday's budget, as MLA's from all parties offer up their review of the Finance Minister's blue print for the year and years ahead.
Thursday afternoon Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen had opportunity to share some of his thoughts on the financial planning and as a member of the NDP government, not surprisingly he found much to praise from the work of Finance Minister Selina Robinson and among some of his talking points included a nod towards some elements of note on Northern Issues.
Towards health care, Mr. Cullen took note of spending across the Northwest, with a focus on new or improved facilities for some communities, including the major hospital project for Terrace.
I'm so proud when I think of my friend from Nechako Lakes or my friend from Terrace, who represent opposition ridings as they're currently constructed, at the significant investment in the Terrace hospital — hundreds of millions of dollars.
Of the hospital in Fort St. James and Nechako Lakes getting, for the first time, out of portables for their health care centre, and to be able to properly serve that community. One of the oldest communities that we have in this province is finally getting those investments, not for some sort of political advantage, as some voters always suspect, but because that's what was needed.
We need that hospital in Terrace. That's where my wife and I had our kids. I can remember when we wheeling her in to get to the delivery room, the gurney didn't fit in the elevator because the elevator was so old that it had be pushed up. You can imagine — my wife was delivering twins — the idea of raising up a gurney in the midst of that particular moment wasn't pleasant. It's just been noted. You can see the paint peeling off the wall.
I'm so proud that we've broken ground and have cleared the space and are starting the good work that the people of Terrace and the northwest so richly deserve.
Along with his checklist was a short note of his hopes of one day sharing word about a new health care facility for the Smithers area as well.
When we say infrastructure, sometimes it can sound a bit cold and unimportant. Well, when you're able to plug into the rest of the world and this important technology, it's not just simply infrastructure. It's a cause for celebration.
In that infrastructure list, of course, is the hospitals and the roads and the schools and the affordable transit that we're bringing in.
I'm slipping a note to the Ministers of Health and Finance. That a hospital in Smithers…. A new one would be a great idea. I think ours is looking a little rough around the edges as well.
The Stikine MLA also shared his excitement at the expansion of High Speed Internet across the province and in particular the North West and coastal regions, making note of the partnership with Prince Rupert based CityWest as part of that communication blue print.
High-speed Internet. I represent a rural riding. This has been something we've been driving for a long time. Having decent Internet access, as we all know, has moved from a nice to have to a need to have in order to not just try to have those economic opportunities — the businesses that need high speed — but our health care system, accessing government services, just general living. It's moved up there. I can remember a poll recently done ranking all of the essential services — heat, water, phone, Internet.
The poll had been done over ten years. You could see having reliable high speed had been creeping up somewhere near home heating for some people. You do sort of question some of the priorities that people have, but we know it's essential. Well we're up to almost 280 more communities, just through this budget, rural and remote mostly, many of them First Nations, that are going to be accessing high-speed Internet for the first time.
There are ships right now laying submarine cable down our coast, going from Haida Gwaii to Prince Rupert, down the central coast, the north coast, connecting all of these communities that for so long were asking for this program to be brought in. We've partnered with CityWest and some other really good B.C. successful businesses to lay this cable, that is happening right now.
I can't tell you — I've visited and know many of these communities very well — how much this is going to help their ability to think differently about their future, about being able to connect themselves and connect with their young people to the services that are out there, that many other British Columbians simply enjoy, and the opportunities in terms of business, ecotourism and all of the rest. This is a significant investment from us.
His Budget review also explored areas where he sees progress when it comes to engagement with Indigenous leaders when it comes to resource development, putting an accent on the work in mining of late.
For years, I've been attending mining conferences. When I say years, almost 20 years. I can remember…. Sometimes you get politicians. You give a little lunch time introductory remark. I kept it simple and generally and gracefully, thankfully to all, fairly short. I'd say: "Look, in order to get support from somebody like me and the party that I represent, you have to take care of three things: people, the planet, and you must have relationship and agreements with First Nations people."
Twenty years ago, this was seen as…. I was a bit of a skunk at the party. It was not welcome. It was off-putting. It was uncertain. It wasn't something that a lot of mining executives were thrilled with. Flash forward 15, 18 years, I attended a mining conference not that long ago. It's not me making that speech any more. It's those mining executives. They're not making the speech. They're showing you the results. Here are the agreements that we have with local communities in terms of jobs and training and bringing young people into the industry. Here's our environmental stewardship plan which exceeds the B.C. standards, which had been gutted by previous governments, but are now being elevated a bit.
Some across the way call that red tape. I call that smart — to not leave a poison mess behind that costs you hundreds of millions of dollars for future taxpayers to pick up the bill. And here's our agreement with the First Nations people in whose territory we're working.
What was remarkable to me at a recent mining conference was that this was not being said by a progressive politician. It was being said by the mining companies. What was also remarkable was how little resistance or surprise there was in the room of these other mining outfits. That of course, this was the way to do business. There is more to go. There is more to go.
Many more themes were checked off on his list for Thursday, the work on housing, mental health challenges, wildfire and flood responses along with climate change efforts from the government to name a few.
You can review the full presentation to the Legislature from the Thursday Hansard, while the video overview of his remarks can be viewed from the Legislature Video archive.
Both records begin at the 3:30 PM mark.
More notes on the work of Mr. Cullen at the Legislature can found through our archive page.
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