April 5, 2025

The Legislature has reconvened after a week of community outreach meetings in the constituency, as well as a break week, which turned out to be no break at all, as our focus pivoted to the contentious Bill 7. This past week also saw a debate on doing away with the BC Carbon Tax, which lasted until the earlier hours of the morning.   

Doing away with the Carbon Tax: 🌳

This is the statement I made in the house at MLA Saanich North and the Islands on this issue:

“Under Premier Eby, the province has blown through a $4 billion surplus to a deficit of $11 billion in just a few years. With the elimination of the Carbon Tax, the BC NDP has added over $2.5 billion to that figure. They are making it harder for the government to adequately respond to rampant unaffordability and a healthcare system already in crisis. 

In fact, Bill 8 has actually slashed a successful affordability measure - the Climate Action Tax Credit. Central to the Carbon Tax was this redistribution of funds to low- and moderate-income families, amounting to almost $1 billion in financial support annually.

Not only has the BC NDP taken a massive step backwards for climate action, but they have also taken a massive step backwards for fiscal management and affordability – all in a single day. Together with Jeremy Valeriote, I will work to find new ways to put B.C. back on track. We were able to find agreement with the BC NDP on many matters in the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord, and I hope we can similarly find a new path forward for major climate action, fiscal responsibility, and affordability.”

My colleague Jeremy Valeriote, MLA for West Vancouver – Sea to Sky, had the following to say:

“April Fool’s Day usually involves light-hearted jokes, but today, the BC NDP have managed to fool themselves into believing they are still climate leaders. The party that fought an election campaign on Axing the (Carbon) Tax in 2009 and would later come to support it because it is the most effective tool in a climate action toolbelt, has come full circle. This is a flip-flop not based on principle and evidence, but by following the lead of the Conservatives who flirt with climate change denial.

Premier Eby failed to make the case for the Carbon Tax, giving up on it even before last year’s election. He allowed the Conservatives to politicize it and flood B.C. with misinformation. This is the same BC NDP that bent over backwards with taxpayer dollars to expand a sunset LNG industry in B.C., again following the initiative of the BC Liberals (now reconstituted as the BC Conservatives). Piece by piece, the BC NDP is dismantling our province’s ability to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. 

As BC Greens, we have our work cut out for us. We will lean heavily into the early review of CleanBC, made possible by the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord. We will fight for a B.C. that can call itself a climate leader again. The BC Greens will not give up on an electrified, decarbonized economy and a sustainable British Columbia.”

More on Bill 7?

 Here’s a media scan of the Bill 7 coverage including us. Here it is.

Buy Canadian 🍁

Related the Bill 7, many of us are trying to buy Canadian and trying to find ways to figure out exactly which products are Canadian.

Here’s an interesting website, which is being developed to answer this need. It’s very cool …check out https://isthat.ca

The Spring Break has offered me a great opportunity to follow up on critical issues facing BC and to  connect with constituents on Salt Spring, Pender, Mayne, Galiano, Saturna and the Peninsula. Let me give you a quick recap.

On the 7th of March, I met with Salt Spring Island Firefighters, attended ASK Salt Spring, met with Robin Jenkins to discuss the SSI multi-use Trail, met with Corey Johnson regarding the ongoing dock issue and derelict vessels at Ganges Harbour, toured the SSI Health Clinic and held an early evening Community meeting at Fulford. I can’t say enough about how welcoming and informative my meetings on Salt Spring were.

⛴My visit to Pender started with a triple latte at the Vanilla Leaf Bakery, followed by community conversations, a productive meeting with government leaders at the Southern Gulf Islands Forum, a discussion with Rob Fawcett re: trails, Paul Petrie on key issues including tanker traffic, with an early evening Community Meeting to top things off.  There were so many great conversations and ideas share, and I will be following up on enforcement and monitoring of tanker traffic and considering how to counter Trump’s Tariffs with a stop to US coal being exported through Roberts Bank terminal in Tsawwassen. These would be steps in the right direction on several fronts.

The day of my Mayne visit started early with coffee in our living room, bathed in moonlight. After catching up on e-mail, I joined a meeting of Southern Gulf Island political leaders as well as Washington State Congressmen and Legislators to discuss the impacts of tariffs and other threats on our long-time cross border friendship and collaborative work on common interests. It was inspiring to hear everyone express support for continuing and strengthening our cooperation and joint work, despite the craziness in Washington. I am very hopeful we can translate that into action.

Later that day I travelled to Mayne Island to meet community members, update them on my work as MLA, and obtain valuable input and guidance on the issues they wish me to pursue provincially. Fallow deer, affordable housing, health care, homelessness, climate action, the PRGT are just a sampling of the issues we discussed. Every meeting with constituents offers new insights on how to address these issues. Discussions with Vancouver City College on issues of innovation, pursuit of smaller scale, non-market housing in rural areas like Mayne, Fallow Deer, and sharing the successes of the Village Model to address homelessness were flagged for follow-up.

Luckily, I live on Pender, so I was able to get home late Monday evening ☘

Before visiting Galiano the next day, I met with Carl Olsen and many others at Goldstream to see first-hand the stretch of highway next to Goldstream River that the Ministry of Transportation plans to spend $162 million to widen. The loss of 700+ trees shading the river and the negative impact of road widening on this critical salmon river is very hard to justify, especially when compared to the improvements in fast, affordable, frequent and climate -friendly bus transit between Duncan and Victoria that $162 million would buy.

Following several other meetings at the Legislature, including a briefing with Minister Ravi Kahlon on affordable non-market housing, we headed out to Swartz Bay and travelled to Galiano Island for a community meeting. There was a great turnout, and we discussed a diverse range of issues from housing to health care to climate action. I was lucky enough to be joined by our two Legislative Interns, Connor Buzza and Kayla Bennett…. as well as our outreach manager, Patricia Pearson. We received two petitions, one on eliminating a gap in coverage of the rental assistance program and another on changing legislation to allow for human composting. Gotta love democracy in action!

The next day we hosted Josie Osborne, Minister of Health, and met with two visionary Community Health Centre proponents on the peninsula: Saanich Peninsula Outreach Team and Shoreline Medical. As part of our Accord with the NDP we are actively collaborating on developing an action plan for expanded community health centres. It is vital that our action planning be guided by community driven examples of the path forward. With 10-15 thousand residents on the peninsula who do not have doctors or nurse practitioners, there is a real opportunity to close that gap with team based, non-profit run, comprehensive health care. SPOT and Shoreline provided the Minister and me with enormously helpful input and suggestions on the best ways to make that happen on the peninsula. Thank you!

Much of the rest of the day was spent reviewing issues and legislation such as the proposed Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act and the BC NDPs recent announcement to eliminate the consumer Carbon Tax. In both cases, the BC Green Caucus have a vital role to play in holding the government to account and asking the tough questions around the “why” and “how” of these NDP actions.

Then it was off to Saturna Island for an evening meeting with community members. Before the meeting I had an opportunity to catch up with CRD director Paul Brent  - housing, health care, infrastructure  - there are many issues that overlap provincial, regional and local jurisdiction and so it was good to catch up. There was a great turnout to the community meeting, and we covered the full range of issues facing Saturna and the Province. As I mentioned in the meeting, I am confident we will get through this current perfect storm of trade war, accelerating climate change, the need to build a 21st century green economy, and ensure all of us, especially the most vulnerable have the supports, including health care and housing, that we need. While things may seem dire, we have successfully faced equally daunting challenges in the past – when we least expect it, we will see things tip in a good direction. One issue that was raised is the continuation of salmon fish farms that the federal government committed to close – I will make sure to raise this at the SGI Forum (federal, provincial, local leaders in our riding) to see what can be done to move forward.

Our Community meeting on the Saanich Peninsula was held amidst the initial uproar about Bill 7, so the days planned events were curtailed a little to give me time to pore over the legislation contained in the Bill.

Constituents joined us in the evening for discussions on affordable housing, the shortage of family doctors, the rules around STRs and the challenges involved with reducing our carbon footprints,

I plan to hold these community outreach meetings on a regular basis, and I look forward to meeting you at the next one.

While on Pender, I attended an event hosted by Pender Island Fire Rescue (PIFR), which recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Gulf Islands Fire Rescue Cadet Camp. The camp offers young  cadets, aged 15 to 18, hands-on training in emergency response. The camp, in partnership with Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue and other agencies, provides over 100 hours of intense training in areas like firefighting, search and rescue, and medical response. With more than 100 applicants for just 16 spots, the camps have becoming one of the most prestigious in Canada and are endorsed by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. The program also offers cadets opportunities to work with advanced rescue equipment, such as a Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft and a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter. Over 40 volunteers, including former cadet graduates, contribute their time and expertise to support the camp. Many alumni have gone on to pursue careers in public safety, and students can earn career credits toward graduation.

You can find links to photos and videos here.

My meetings with Ministers, Ministries and Constituents continue, including discussions with Minister Begg on the cost download for 911 dispatch service, which is being pushed onto 10 municipalities in BC, including Sidney. Watershed governance was the topic during a recent meeting with WLRS Minister Neill. Another recent highlight was the viewing of the Sugarcane film, which included a reception and meeting with representatives of the Pacheedaht Nation on the preservation of the Fairy Creek watershed.

For additional information please check out my website at www.MLABotterell.ca, providing another way for you to connect with myself and my staff and stay up-to-date with everything I’ve been up to at the Legislature and out in our constituency. I’ll be posting my current and past newsletters, links to videos from the Legislature, important updates, and more – please be sure to click on by!