Issue #2- February 21/25

By the time you read this Newsletter, the Spring Legislative Session will be underway. Over the past two weeks, I’ve been working with my Caucus and Constituency teams on advancing the Accord, preparing for the Spring Legislative Session, and meetings to get great advice on the issues facing our riding, as well as the province. Some of the highlights:

The Accord: Three key initiatives in the Accord are the Clean BC review; a special legislative all-party committee on democratic and electoral reform, and permanent protection for Fairy Creek:

• We had two meetings with Minister Adrian Dix on the terms of reference for the Clean BC review. As climate change accelerates, it is more important than ever that we update the Clean BC plan to tackle climate change. We need new more aggressive targets and a plan to transform our economy away from reliance on US markets, LNG, and 19th century technologies

• We are making progress on developing our recommendations for the Terms of Reference for the special committee on democratic and electoral reform. We live in a world of increasing polarization and disengagement, making it harder than ever to foster collaboration, respectful inclusive engagement, and consensus-based government decision-making. Just looking south of the border at the US first-past-the-post system we can see the impact of political polarization – the pendulum swings, longstanding laws are ignored, and major policies are eliminated. We can and must do better.

• We met with Pacheedaht Nation to begin the important work of building a positive and respectful relationship with the Nation. The Fairy Creek Watershed is on the Territory of the Nation and permanent protection of the Watershed depends on finding consensus on the path forward with everyone, especially Pacheedaht Nation. I want to thank Chief Arliss Daniels for a productive and helpful first meeting.

Spring Legislative Session – There has been lots of preparation for this session, including establishing Caucus priorities for the session, House Leader meetings, legislative committee priorities, identifying possible Private Members Bills, themes for the response to the Throne Speech, briefings with the Minister of Finance, briefing with Island Health, and on it goes. A few highlights:

• Last week we completed our second term of MLA School. With 56 new MLAS out of a total of 93, there are lots of rookies! The Speakers Office has done an amazing job of developing and delivering this course. Thank you! This “school term” we learned about the policies, procedures and rules that govern the work of the Legislature and the passage of bills and legislation. One day we held a simulation and debated a bill, applying our newly found knowledge of legislative procedure. This was not official business so, much like when I was in law school, the topic was lighthearted. I am happy to report that I passionately opposed a bill to ban vanilla ice cream in BC and when the votes were counted, the bill was defeated.

Saltspring Island - I caught the first ferry to Saltspring on Friday, February 7th and made my way to TJs for a much-needed coffee where I met with constituents to discuss a wide range of topics from dock permitting to housing, to mental health. Later in the day I had a productive and positive meeting with Gary Holman about housing and other issues. ASK SSI was one of the highlights of the day and if you haven’t seen the minutes of that meeting on the SSI Exchange, please click here. One interesting idea proposed by Gayle Baker was adding $1-$2 to the price a non-resident pays for the BC Ferry trip to Saltspring as a way of generating revenue from off islanders for Saltspring projects. Click here and send me an e-mail to let me know what you think of that idea!

Special Mentions – As MLA, I am making it a priority to meet key folks and draw on their wisdom and experience as I work with the Green Caucus to implement the Accord and be an effective opposition critic for eleven ministries. This past two weeks my meetings included: 

BC Poverty Reduction Coalition - poverty should be a thing of the past in a jurisdiction as wealthy as BC,   

Salt Spring Community Energy and the Community Solar Coalition (CSC) - Kjell Liem’s insights and advocacy on net metering and energy policy are a huge help,   

Dr. Jennifer Charlesworth, BC’s Representative for Children and Youth – I can’t say enough about the important work that Jennifer does. See for example, “Don’t Look Away” by clicking here.

Transforming Health Care in Saanich North and the Islands - Improving access to primary health care is essential. On Saanich Peninsula alone, there are almost 14,000 unattached patients – residents who have no family doctor or nurse practitioner. While there are many health care challenges that need to be addressed, effective primary care for everyone is a priority because it has so many related benefits, including reducing stress emergency rooms.

As part of our Accord with the NDP, we made the expansion of community health care centres across the province a top priority. While definitions differ, community health centres have several attributes, such as:

The provision of team-based care in a not-for-profit setting. Most importantly, these facilities provide a one-stop shop for a full range of health care services, driven and designed to meet the needs of each community.

Read Dr. Jane Philpott’ “Health for All” for a comprehensive and compelling case in favour of community health centres.

Last week we had our first meeting with the new Minister of Health, Josie Osborne. On a scale of ten, this initial meeting scored nine out of ten. Minister Osborne is very supportive, and we are looking forward to working collaboratively to put in place, as quickly as we can, the supporting analysis and groundwork to support the expansion of community health centres in our riding and across BC.

I am hopeful that through concerted, collaborative work we can find the money within the $33 billion Ministry of Health budget to support the expansion of community health centres over the next 4 years.

In parallel with this work at the provincial level, we have begun outreach and engagement across the riding to confirm the need, identify community partners, and document the obstacles that will need to be overcome to expand community-driven primary care. The response has been very positive, and I want to ensure that when opportunities to pursue community health centres open up, our riding is ready to be at the front of the line.

While there are no guarantees in this world, I am hopeful that within 4 years we can eliminate the number of constituents without primary care in this riding.

Finally, the BC Legislature has a terrific legislative intern program. These interns provide research and other support to each Caucus and, in doing so, learn first-hand about the inner workings of the legislature and its process. I recently had the privilege of joining a panel of MLAs to answer questions from this year’s interns – what a talented group!

Conclusion

With the start of the Spring Session, we now have an opportunity to tackle the issues facing British Columbians through debating legislation, the budget, and the many items that come before the Legislature on a day-to-day basis. Please keep in touch and help me ensure that I am representing your interests in the Legislature.

Follow the legislature here.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to our office at Rob.Botterell.MLA@leg.bc.ca with any questions, concerns, event notices, community news...

Until next time.