Part 2 – Response to the Budget Measures Implementation Act – YouTube

Part 2 – Response to the Budget Measures Implementation Act – YouTube

Tribute to Bill Heidrick – YouTube

Comox Valley students can look forward to better learning environments with a brand-new school coming to Hornby Island and work set to begin on a partially replaced Lake Trail Middle school.

“All students deserve to learn in safe and inspiring schools that give them the best chance to succeed,” said Rob Fleming, Minister of Education. “With new, modern facilities coming to Courtenay and Hornby Island, thousands of students will have a better learning experience for generations to come.”

The Government of B.C. is providing $10.4 million for a new, 95-seat Hornby Island Community school, replacing the previous building that was lost in a fire in August 2018. In addition, construction is set to begin on the $27.2-million seismic upgrade of Lake Trail Middle school, which will replace everything but the school’s gymnasium with a modern facility.

“People in our community showed how resilient they can be when the former Hornby Island Community school burned down,” said Scott Fraser, MLA for Mid Island-Pacific Rim. “Our government took immediate action to provide short-term classrooms for Hornby students after the fire, and the new school will give them the long-term learning environment they deserve.”

In addition to a seismically safe school, the investment in Lake Trail Middle school also includes a $1.5-million child care centre, which will benefit local families. This supports the creation of needed child-care space and government’s Childcare BC initiative.

“Building child care spaces on school grounds helps children have a smooth transition from child care to the classroom,” said Katrina Chen, Minister of State for Child Care. “It also brings key services closer to home for local families and makes mornings easier for parents who can drop off children of different ages at one location.”

Both of these projects are scheduled to be ready for students by September 2022, giving students modern schools that better align with 21st-century learning and B.C.’s new curriculum.

“It is exciting to join students and teachers to celebrate the progress toward a seismically safe Lake Trail Middle school, and a new child care centre,” said Ronna-Rae Leonard, MLA for Courtenay-Comox. “This is something our community has deserved for many years, and something our community can’t wait to see complete, so students can have a better place to go to school.”

“Today’s groundbreaking ceremony is one more positive step toward revitalizing and modernizing a unique school community here in west Courtenay,” said Ian Hargreaves, board chair, Comox Valley Schools. “This project will create a safe school for staff and students; moreover, it will allow for significant improvements in the learning environment.”

These investments are part of government’s work to provide B.C. students with improved schools to help them succeed as students and as adults in a growing economy.

Since September 2017, the Province has announced over $1.6 billion for school capital projects, including new and expanded schools, seismic upgrades and land purchases for future schools.

Today, MLA Leonard spoke to Bill 36, the Gaming Control Amendment Act. You can watch the video here, or read the transcript below.

I’m very pleased to be able to stand today in support of Bill 36, the Gaming Control Amendment Act. It is, as has been stated earlier, a significant step to further support First Nations in their self-determination.

I can’t help but think about the issue around equity and fairness when we have brought forward a world where there’s been systemic oppression, that we have systems in place that have not allowed communities to grow and to prosper based on how they’re able to create economic opportunities. This is a vehicle for economic opportunities.

In my own community, the K’ómoks First Nation has three different reserves. They have desires and vision to see economic growth, but they’ve never had the opportunity to tax, to raise the funds that are often needed to gain access to other funding opportunities. This will give them that space now to be able to really move forward with a lot of vigour on various opportunities.

It’s not just infrastructure, although infrastructure is some­thing that those of us from municipalities know very well. Residents want to see good sewers, and they want to see safe water supplies. These are opportunities now that First Nations are going to be able to move on, as have been listed earlier: health and wellness, safety, transportation, housing, business development, education, language, culture training, community development, environmental protection, capacity-building, fiscal management and governance.

These are all opportunities that have been rallied by First Nations for so long, and that desire has fallen on deaf ears for so many years. I’m very proud that we are able to take this action in a very collaborative process with the direction of leadership from the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Summit, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and through the First Nations Gaming Commission.

This is not a top-down approach. This is what is being asked for. It’s not unlike the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which gets federal funding that is then distributed to local governments. Instead of First Nations going to this government to seek funds, it is going to be amongst the people of the First Nations who are handling their own funds. This is British Columbia finally joining along with five other provinces to do what’s right, to find a way to provide the funds for First Nations on their road to self-determination.

I think that when you have an opportunity to do this kind of revenue-sharing, there are questions that we’ve heard today around fairness. Absolutely, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation made the point that revenue-sharing continues and is not in jeopardy. Revenue-sharing with local governments, including First Nations who host gaming facilities — Courtenay is one of those communities — is not affected, nor are community organizations and health services that already get gaming revenues. This is an opportunity for all of us to work together to help build a prosperous British Columbia for all people.

I think I’m going to stop now. I’m just so very proud that we are moving forward on a request that has been long-standing and that has been developed in a very fair process, in a collaborative way. I look forward to seeing the fruits of this, I expect when this legislation passes, soon to be entrenched and long-standing for 25 years — secure funding to be able to move forward and grow.

Today, MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard spoke about Ground Search and Rescue in the House. You can watch the video here or read the transcript below.

This spring I had the pleasure of meeting with Paul Berry and Bronwen Beedle, two well-respected leaders with Comox Valley Ground Search and Rescue.

They invited me and legislative intern Gagan Lidhran, who has a particular interest herself, to tour their impressive base of operations. As the weather gets warmer and more people head out to the back country, we recognize the hard work, dedication and skill that the Comox Valley ground search and rescue team puts into making sure people in our community are safe.

Like all 80 ground search and rescue teams across B.C., the Comox Valley SAR team is on call 24-7, 365 days a year to respond to calls. They hone their skills in weekly trainings and are involved in outdoor education programs. In 2017, 60-plus Comox Valley SAR volunteers contributed over 12,000 hours to search and rescue operations, educational programs and community events.

At the time we met, they had just aided in rescuing a stranded photographer from the Courtenay estuary when the tide rose and he was stranded, perched on a log in the water. Next thing you know, members attended in the rescue of an injured mountain biker on Forbidden Plateau. Their equipment and expertise were critical in bringing the biker down through the rugged terrain.

These are some of the many stories that make up the community of Comox Valley ground search and rescue. They impressed upon us that people need to reach out and not fear that they can’t afford to be rescued. To support ground SAR’s best efforts everywhere, more provincial resources on top of the base funding, $16.9 million to be exact, have been dedicated over the next three years. So when recreating in the Comox Valley, be prepared, have fun and know that the brave men and women of our ground search and rescue have your back if trouble hits.

I am happy to have made it home from Victoria, after a harrowing 5 hour drive through the snow after this first week of the Legislature sitting in 2019. It’s good to be here, so I can attend BC Family Day events with my neighbours.

This year, our BCNDP Government provided $450,000 to help BC communities offer free events celebrating Family Day, up $100,000 over previous years.

Hope to see you out and about on Monday!

Lewis Centre and the LINC, Courtenay 10 am – 4 pm
https://www.courtenay.ca/EN/meta/events/events-list/recreation/70037.html

Filberg Lodge, Comox 11 am – 4 pm
https://filberg.com

Comox Museum 1 pm – 4 pm
http://www.comoxmuseum.ca/events/family-day-event/

Today, MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard spoke about Diversity and Human Rights in the Legislature. You can watch the video here, or read the transcript below.

As I was driving down-Island yesterday, I was struck by the beauty of the season, the licks of red and yellow and orange amongst the varying shades of green, the blue of the sky and the deep texture of the clouds, where even the colour grey can be celebrated. Then I thought about what it might look like if I were colour-blind. If all of the colour was washed out of that great vista, I would be keen to be looking for contrast, to excite the senses, to be alive to differences. That reflection told me that I crave diversity; I do not wish to suppress it. Selfishly, I suggest celebrating diversity in all of its forms is a way to improve our own personal quality of life.

Speaking of blindness, I’d like to acknowledge Michael McLellan, a visually impaired constituent. He’s tireless in his advocacy for better transit service. As he said, you really wouldn’t want him behind the wheel of a car. It’s just not a choice. He was the person who introduced me to the language of diversability, not disability. So as we put our efforts to supporting transit, we’re actually putting our efforts to celebrating diversity.

Last week in Kelowna, a presenter to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services was a father of a child with autism and developmental challenges, a man who knows that his daughter’s diverse abilities means a lifetime of challenges in order for her to thrive as well as anyone. He made a powerful statement when he flipped a common phrase on its head, saying: “My job as a parent is to prepare the world for my child.” Putting our efforts to celebrate diversity will help prepare us for his daughter and others of diverse abilities, and it will also be a positive force for the protection of their human rights.

Of course, our diversity is not limited to our physical or mental differences. The member for Richmond North Centre listed a grand list of ways of being diverse. Celebrating diversity in all its forms is what it takes to make us safe and living in a peaceful world.

I am a woman, which comes with its own challenges, but I know, in the greater scheme of things, I am a white woman of privilege. Sometimes walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is not enough to appreciate the lived experience of people who have been oppressed for generations.

Rosemary Brown, my hero — the first elected black woman in the Legislature, back in the ’70s — recognized that gap in the women’s movement in the 1970s. As she said in her speech to the annual banquet of the Negro Women’s Association of Ontario in 1973, and it’s still true today: “Unless the women’s liberation movement identifies with and locks into the liberation movement of all oppressed groups, it will never achieve its goals…that unless it identifies with and supports the struggles of the poor, of oppressed races, of the old and of other disadvantaged groups in society, it will never achieve its goals. Because not to do so would be to isolate oneself from the masses of women, since women make up a large segment of all of these groups.”

[11:25 a.m.]

Here’s a pretty good example. We are at a crossroads in responding to today’s oppression of First Nations women. The REDress campaign, Walking with Our Sisters and the orange t-shirt campaign are all good works that mark the constant vigilance Indigenous women have undertaken to overcome the discrimination and oppression they have and continue to experience. In celebrating diversity, this House can go a long way to supporting their efforts to protect their human rights and ensure they receive the dignity, respect and equal treatment they should come to expect.

I would like to mention the Comox Valley Community Justice Centre’s work on countering racism, homophobia and hate activity, and acknowledge chief administrator Bruce Curtis, who is the driver of many strong initiatives that have grown support for the protection of human rights and the celebration of diversity so needed in our community. One of his efforts brought to life the critical incident response protocol, originally signed by 43 organizations in 2009. More recently 126 organizations have signed on to the second iteration of the protocol in 2016.

This is what it takes to make a difference.

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