Thursday May 7, 2020 ~ VICTORIA
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
In his Restart BC announcement yesterday, Premier John Horgan said that “climate change continues to be the challenge of our time”. He noted that the wildfire season(is just starting even while the flood season has not yet ended.
“All of these changes are putting Clean BC at the centre of our recovery,” he said.
The pandemic has given BC a head start. With fewer cars on road and aircraft in the skies, the levels of pollution are down. Reduced noise and human activity has allowed animals to flourish a bit more and enjoy the spaces they’ve been pushed out of.
Climate change will be part and parcel:
“Today we take our first steps. There’s more to do. The hard work starts with every step,” the Premier said during his televised/livestreamed address to media the public on Wednesday afternoon.
Climate change will be part and parcel of the economic recovery of the province, which starts now as systems change toward emergence into Phase 4 of the new normal (i.e. when there is a vaccine or herd immunity).
Business success depends on good pandemic-management plans:
On the economic front, Horgan says that “businesses cannot succeed unless we decide to support them”. As a way of reminding businesses to develop good plans for physical distancing and hygiene in their workplaces, he said about businesses: “The only way they will survive, is that as people walk through their doors they know they will be well. And that business will be well at the same time.”
Restart BC supports success for everyone:
Horgan says BC’s new plan to emerge out of the pandemic is one that sees everyone supported through the restart, to recovery. Finance Minister Carole James a few weeks ago said that $1.5 billion has been set aside for the economic recovery phase, expenditure of which has yet to kick in.
No place for racism:
Horgan also took the opportunity to remind British Columbians that “hate has no place in BC. Period”. As part of the road to socioeconomic recovery, the Premier said “we need to stand together against that type of racism whenever we see it.”
And he delivered a clever line that should stick: “COVID-19 does not discriminate, British Columbians shouldn’t discriminate either.”
Earlier this week more funding was put toward Resilience BC and there is outreach for proposals to work with that hub.
Partisian politics likely to resume as pandemic gets under control:
Horgan added, likely in more than one context: “If we’re going to get through this we have to stop finger pointing and work together to get it done.” He said he expects that partisan politics will probably resume in BC once things settle down.
MLAs will start gathering more information and providing non-partisan services through the constituency offices. MLAs will be back in the legislature in a few weeks, so that active democracy continues, said Horgan yesterday.