Monday March 23, 2020 ~ BC
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Today March 23, the 5th Session of the 41st Parliament of the BC legislature was brief but dramatically powerful.
By the end of committee discussion, it had taken less than four hours in the legislative chamber to introduce, discuss and pass two bills that are intended to address the economic challenges of individuals and businesses in BC as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds.
A poem called ‘Pandemic’ was read out by Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson, which set a somber but inspiring tone for the session. At at time where not touching is part of the survival mechanism against a menacing virus: “Our lives are in one another’s hands… reach out with your heart, with your words…”
The session, effectively ‘a council of 12’, was attended by Premier John Horgan and eight other NDP MLAs — Finance Minister Carole James, Public Safety Minister and Attorney General Mike Farnworth, Health Minister Adrian Dix, Education Minister Rob Fleming, Agriculture Minister Lana Popham, Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity Mitzi Dean, and Spencer Chandra Herbert (serving as Speaker); two BC Liberal MLAs — Mike de Jong and Jas Johal; and Green Party MLAs Adam Olsen and Sonja Furstenau.
The full legislative assembly is comprised of 87 MLAs, but today’s session was thinned out in response to the Provincial Health Officer’s directive that everyone during this pandemic keep one to two meters of distance between each other. So the persons in the chamber today were well spaced out.
Premier John Horgan noted that missing from the House was partisanship. Any criticism would “focus on better outcomes”, said Horgan, allowing for the celebration of “the absence of partisanism”.
Horgan began his remarks by thanking Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry for “putting us on the right footing”, with reference to the directives for frequent handwashing, physical distance, and self-isolation if ill. “These tools must be used if we’re going to flatten the curve,” he said in a short speech at the start of the afternoon session.
“The debate will be quick, but the debate will be held,” the Premier said, in defense of the role of democracy. “Together we will come out of this stronger than we went into it,” said John Horgan.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said: “We need 100 percent compliance in every community. Every person in BC has to be 100 percent all in.” He wants everyone to follow the directives of the Provincial Health Officer which requires everyone to stay home now, and to practice social (physical) distancing of one to two meters. The degree of community spread of COVID-19 is expected to ramp up now.
Dix has prepared the health care system by liberating the availability of hospital beds; last Monday all scheduled and elective surgeries were cancelled in order to accomplish that, and to give doctors, nurses and hospital staff time to prepare for an influx of patients with COVID-19 who will require acute care.
Dix said that the BC Centre for Disease Control “is the envy of the country”. To fight COVID-19, he said that under the direction of Provincial Health OFficer Dr Bonnie Henry that BC worked to break the chains of COVID-19 spread “in the months leading up to this”. A much broader outbreak is expected. The number of COVID-19 tests being done in BC is up to 3,500 per day, the Health Minister said.
On the public health side of things, the approach taken by BC to address this pandemic “is all based on science”, said Dix, “for the maximum protection to the entire BC population”.
BC Liberal MLA Mike de Jong (a former Minister of Finance and Attorney General under the previous government) delivered some fair and eloquent points — remarking on how all the parties were getting along. He thanked the government for the efforts to maintain effective communications and information exchanges. “Thanks to the thousands of frontline workers and health are providers to keep people safe, not withstanding the concerns they would naturally feel for the safety of their own families, they are at their posts expressing their sense of duty and professionalism, and we thank them all,” said de Jong.
De Jong likened the COVID-19 virus to the world threat that was seen in World War II. “Previous generations overcame adversity,” he said, “who purged the world of an evil virus called Nazism”.
“Today we are facing a different threat… an invisible silent invasion that randomly seeks its victims and attempts to enlist each one of us as an unwitting collaborator in its infectious spread,” said de Jong.
“In the economic dislocation that will follow in the wake of this health crisis — employee and employer will require support,” he said.
Finance Minister Carole James announced the details of a $5 billion pandemic response and economic recovery package, with $2.8 toward support for individuals and $2.2 million for business. It is a way of providing a coordinated government plan to provide support services for the health and safety of British Columbians, she said, and emphasized there would be “immediate relief to individuals and businesses”. She says the plan looks ahead to recovery.
The $5 billion is to cover needs of the health care system, where there is something of a top-up to the per-capita amount received from the federal government (as BC’s population has proportionately more seniors for whom there is higher health care overhead).
For business, Minister James says the goal is to support and enable continuity. She outlined how the federal approach is for liquidity to generally larger business through deferral and tax liquidity. In BC she says the approach is for tax relief for individuals and families, and to address key sectors that help people such as health care, housing, vulnerable populations and core social services.
“This plan looks at the immediate and the future, to look at recovery,” the Finance Minister said. “It’s an ever-changing situation. The plan is the plan today,” said Carole James. She said there would be “pressures’ in the days, weeks and months to come. “We are all in this together.”
BC Liberal MLA Jas Johal delivered some of the most attentive detailed observations about the financial situation for businesses. He rolled out some stats including that 15% of restaurants in BC are “shutting for good” and that of the 8,000 small businesses in BC that 90% have already taken a sales loss. He reported out that 73% of small business respondents said they expect a 50% drop in revenues, while 25% said they expect 100% loss in revenues (or closure).
“This is a time to have faith in fellow British Columbians,” said Johal. He highlighted the heroic work of health care workers, police, paramedics and firefighters, as well as workers on the front lines in grocery stores and other essential retail. He commended the continued work of truckers, child care workers and delivery drivers who “keep the supply chain moving and care for our children”.
Finance Minister James responded to Johal that the aid package rolled out today would be “sufficient for now, it is a first step”. Said Carole James: “We’ll see where it goes in the next days, weeks and months ahead,” and that actions or adjustments to support expenditures will be taken “depending on what kind of situation we’re facing”. She feels that BC is now taking care of “immediate needs” of individuals and business, coordinating that with the federal response. “We expect we will need to be flexible to meet (those) needs,” she said.
Johal said that “small business is wanting to stay afloat” and that more infrastructure programs would be needed. He asked if the projects like the Pattullo Bridge and SkyTrain expansion could be moved up for work sooner than presently scheduled, and the Finance Minister indicated yes.
In the interchange between Johal and James, it was evident that the NDP government still takes their lead from organizations (James mentioned the Victoria Chamber of Commerce and Surrey Board of Trade), while Johal was more focussed on direct and immediate help to businesses.
If there is one glaring dangerous assumption in today’s economic response to the pandemic, is that the business community — and more specifically the property ownership class and the banks — will ‘do the right thing’. When Premier Horgan said that “no renter will be evicted because of COVID-19” he delivered that with a slight tone of horror that individuals might meet a fate of homelessness due to the cruelty of a system based on the intent of financial solvency by others. He admitted in his press conference ahead of the legislative session that it will depend on landlords passing the mortgage benefits that they get at the bank, over and along to tenants as some sort of tax relief. That’s a big leap of faith. But hopefully a global pandemic is enough incentive for landlords to do the right thing.
“More is coming on the evictions piece,” said Carole James, meaning that in addition to evictions being banned for tenants in socially-assisted BC Housing projects, that other renters would also be protected with regard to preventing eviction. Existing rental support programs such as SAFER (Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters) and RAP (Rental Assistance Program for low income workers) are part of more details being rolled out on Wednesday March 25.
In a joint statement of the three party leaders as issued by the BC Green Party later in the day: “There’s a long road ahead of us. But we are united in ensuring the health and safety of British Columbians is protected as we respond to this unprecedented challenge.”
The two bills were discussed in committee, led by Mitzi Dean, MLA (Esquimalt-Metchosin), and final assent was given by Lieutenant-Governor Janet Austin who arrived in the chamber, before the session wrapped up just ahead of 5 pm.
The joint statement continued: “As party leaders, we want to take this opportunity to speak with one voice and challenge every British Columbian to do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19. We expect everyone to follow the advice of the Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, and take the steps needed to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
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Watch the Video of the March 23, 2020 session of the BC Legislature (Session 5 of the 41st Parliament)