News of the passing of the 18th Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney arrived at the BC Legislature on Nathan Cullen's watch, with the Stikine MLA making note of the passing of the former PM in the Chamber on Thursday.
"As I was about to rise, I got sent a note from a friend in Ottawa on the passing of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney just recently. We knew each other only in passing, and we know his daughter better. And also, as a son of Irish immigrants, we were at least able to agree on the value of the Irish community here in Canada.
I did greatly respect him for his tenacity as Prime Minister in this country. And that we can find space in politics, I think, where, while we find disagreement on issues and policies, we can also find humanness in our endeavour to try to represent people. And he did in his level ways.
So Godspeed to him and condolences to his family on behalf of the government. And I think I could, perhaps, speak on behalf of the Legislature.
In his passing, in a proper Irish way, we will raise a glass to him later tonight."
The main focus for Mr. Cullen's time in the Legislature on Thursday however was that of the recently presented BC Budget, with the Stikine MLA and Minister of Water Land and Resource Stewardship offering up a hearty defence of the financial plan
Among some of his highlights from the Budget was the theme of Daycare in BC/
"One of the things that we heard from the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, the B.C. Business Council and others was support for what is inherently a social program, affordable child care. That might seem unusual to folks, because normally the B.C. Chamber might be advocating on questions of taxation or other questions about industrial support.
But it was clear that without a good, strong and diverse affordable child care system, there were many women, in particular, who were unable to enter the workforce. That is changing, and it is growing each and every month.
Now, child care is an interesting example of what this government inherited seven years ago, which was an infrastructure and service deficit.
The government, as it had then formed 16 years prior to that, and had rejected an affordable child care program that was in place. There hadn't been investments in child care at all since then.
And In standing up a good system…. It's not just about spaces. It's not just about building new centres. It's not just about training and hiring and retaining new staff and paying them properly. It is not about just those things. It is about all of those things together. That takes time, and it has taken us time."
Mr. Cullen continued on the child care themes by observing of a number of locations created in the Stikine region and some of the focus that has been incorporated on language and culture in First Nation communities.
As he continued with his Budget review he noted of provincial efforts on Housing and large capital projects across British Columbia.
"We have also seen record housing being built in this province. Do we need more? Absolutely. But no one is suggesting that this government has not put virtually every tool imaginable into the toolbox for municipalities, for those who are building the housing, for the developers to be able to build more housing — to have greater concentration, greater density, and to not simply have single-family units be the predominant housing structure, particularly our cities.
All of that has been changed.
Those are seismic changes, I would offer. This is a state shift with respect to the opportunity and the ability to build more housing for the people that we seek to serve.
And on capital projects, these are the schools, these are the hospitals, these are the roads. This is the basic infrastructure, some of it not so sexy — the sewers and pipes and all of the things that keep our cities and communities safe and healthy. There's a record $43 billion over the next number of years, in this budget, to do exactly that.
The reason I know this is popular is because when we cut the ribbon on those hospitals and schools and road expansions, and they happen to be in colleagues' ridings across the way, they celebrate them too. Because they know their regional districts, their municipalities have been desperately crying out for these, because the infrastructure is aging.
If you look at the history of our province, much of it was put in place after the Second World War. Many things age well — fine wines and other things — but infrastructure does not. It was coming due 15, 17, 18 years ago. Previous governments decided to kick that can down the road, and the infrastructure got worse."
The recent announcement of funding for the Northwest BC Resource Benefits Alliance also was noted, as was other spending in the region.
The Resource Benefits Alliance and the $250 million attached to that, these communities are going to do outstanding things with. They are going to leverage this money in ways…. Because northwest communities know how to leverage money to make investments that are desperately needed with respect to all those things that I mentioned before.
There was $100 million in a previous budget, which is now fully implementing, for policing services in a lot of our small and rural communities.
Policing budgets can occupy a lot for any municipality, but particularly for smaller or mid-sized municipalities — 5,000 to 10,000, 15,000 people — they can occupy a huge amount of the local budget. We knew that there was a policing need within the northern communities, within rural communities, and our government put money in there.
I'm so excited this spring — it's not in my constituency, but it's one over, and it's a place we go often — to be able to finally open the new hospital in Terrace. There's a new hospital being built in Fort St. James. There are other hospitals down in the Cariboo that are being built.
It's good, and one of the reasons it's good: not only do these communities deserve it and need it, it shows that when we're making infrastructure decisions, we're not making it through a partisan lens. I hope that's generally celebrated in our province.
You can review the Minister full commentary from the Legislature Archive as well as the Chamber video, both starting at the 15:27 minute mark.
More notes from the BC Legislature and Northwest constituencies can be reviewed here.
Items of note on the provincial scene can also be accessed through our political portal D'Arcy McGee, we also observe on Federal politics there and much more on the passing of Prime Minister Mulroney will be available for review later tonight there.
