Carole James' BC NDP Convention Address
Carole James' BC NDP Convention Address
Thank you, each and every one of you, for your contribution to this convention. You, and the members you represent, unselfishly work for a better British Columbia... one voter, one community, one riding at a time. For your success, and for your enduring commitment, your caucus and hundreds of thousands of British Columbians give you our gratitude. Thank you for your caring. Thank you for your amazing work. Let me introduce our caucus. Thirty-five marvelous MLAs. They're bright, energetic, determined, and make all of us proud. The caucus has come into its own, gaining experience as a strong, disciplined team. They've kept the government's feet to the fire. It's so hot in question period, ministers wear oven mitts to hold their notes. Here's our wonderful caucus: First, from the Kootenays and Interior: Katrine Conroy, Norm Macdonald, Michelle Mungall, Harry Lali, Bob Simpson and Doug Donaldson. Here are our Island MLAs: Maurine Karagianis, Rob Fleming, Lana Popham, John Horgan, Bill Routley, Doug Routley, Leonard Krog, Scott Fraser and Claire Trevena. Next, from New Westminster and the Eastern Suburbs: Dawn Black, Diane Thorne, Mike Farnworth, and Michael Sather. Here's our trio from the Coast: Robin Austin, Gary Coons and Nicholas Simons. Now from South of the Fraser: Bruce Ralston, Sue Hammell, Guy Gentner, Harry Bains, and Jagrup Brar. And finally from Vancouver and Burnaby: Jenny Kwan, Spencer Herbert, Shane Simpson, Mable Elmore, Adrian Dix, Raj Chouhan and Kathy Corrigan. Here they are, your New Democrat caucus, working for all British Columbians.And then there's the Liberal Caucus. Or as Gordon Campbell calls them, my fellow free Olympic ticket holders. Forgive me, Olympics Minister Mary MacNeil – aka the Ticketmaster – says the million-dollar luxury suites at the Olympics will only be used by the Liberal MLAs... if they're working. I understand there was excitement at a recent Liberal caucus meeting, when someone floated the idea of privatizing the Labour Ministry. But then Gordon Campbell told them Philip Hochstein already owns it. There's a sad truth to that. Just look at the Liberal refusal to raise the minimum wage. I'm proud of our commitment – and the fight by the labour movement – to give minimum wage workers their first raise in eight years. It's only fair and right. These days, many Liberal ministers are distinguishing themselves. There's Finance Minister Colin Hansen, who says the more people know about the HST, the more they love it. Such delusion. If Hansen keeps this up, he'll soon be the Liberal leader. There's Kevin Falcon, who canceled surgeries for British Columbians, and now wants to bring Regina patients here to use the operating rooms he emptied. You have to admit, Kevin Falcon is doing a great job... as the Saskatchewan Health Minister. There's Tourism Minister Kevin Krueger, who's set a new Liberal record. Before the ink was barely dry on his news release announcing a new roof for BC Place, he went $105 million over budget. If Krueger keeps this up, he'll soon be the Finance Minister. And there's Transportation Minister Shirley Bond, who didn't know she had a million-dollar CEO at BC Ferries. But then again, Bond didn't know she was paying four BC Rail executives $1.2 million to look after just 40 kilometers of track and no train. Well, I guess there is one train… the Liberal gravy train. This is quite the gang, stumbling and bumbling, giving BC more political jaw-droppers than the Press Gallery can sometimes cover. But the Liberals are more than a government of miscues and mismanagement. Far worse for our province, far more dangerous, the Liberals are a government of betrayal.Most British Columbians have concluded the Liberals lied to them... about the budget and about the HST. We know now that this deceit started in the pre-election campaign, when the Liberals adopted a willful blindness to a worsening economy. And then, in the middle of the election, their deceit deepened. It became informed lies, told to hide the soaring Liberal deficit and exploding welfare rolls... to conceal the Liberal's economic failures from British Columbians… and to save the Liberal election campaign. But the deceit didn't end there. After the election, the Liberals carried out a second betrayal. They did what they promised not to do. They abandoned British Columbians in their time of greatest need. The Liberal cuts came, and still come, and they're brutal. There is no other way to describe them: brutal and senseless. Let me ask you: Do you remember the Liberals promising to close emergency rooms and cut surgeries? Promising to devastate the arts? Promising to cut funding to the most vulnerable children? But that's exactly what they did. These cuts harm all British Columbians. They attack the disadvantaged, the ill, our children, our grandparents, students, workers. The list is endless. I want to tell you about some British Columbians the Liberals have left behind. And I want to talk about an affirming vision for the future, an inclusive vision to give British Columbians hope. A few weeks ago I met with Renie Grosser, who's 78 and lives on her own a few blocks from the Legislature. Renie told me she keeps healthy because she gets first-rate health care from the James Bay Clinic – a not-for-profit, community-run centre, with a team of four salaried doctors, one nurse practitioner, and three nurses. They look after more than 2,000 patients at this clinic, 200 alone over the age of 90. The clinic is a shining example of quality primary care. The clinic team sees the bigger picture – keeping patients like Renie healthy, and out of expensive hospital and extended care. Patients get more attention than with fee-for-service offices. I've seen the community value of this clinic. It's where I get care. It's where my children got care. The clinic is a winning formula, for both patients and care providers. It's smart health care for everyone... except for the Liberals. The Liberals have cut the last nurse practitioner for James Bay. Just like they cut two other nurse practitioners and squeezed out geriatric care specialists. I'm angry that Renie and others are now needlessly put at greater risk. Community health centres like James Bay should be expanded, not cut. It's a model that can sustain public health care. One that would get two thumbs up from Tommy Douglas. We can do better. Our challenge… our commitment… is to get BC's public health care system back on track, to make sure quality care is there, when and where people need it, regardless of their income. Our challenge… our commitment… is to ensure strong public health care in every community, to bring dignity to seniors with quality home and long term care, and fair, competitive compensation and working conditions for all health care providers. I also want to tell you about a recent visit I made to Hazelton, west of Smithers, which has been hurt by the downturn in the forest economy. Hazelton has a 50-year-old arena, the only place where the community can gather for events. It's the hockey rink for kids, in an area with suicide rates at a crisis level.The arena is leaking and falling down. It's been condemned. You'd expect the Liberals would care about this, especially at a time when we're building Olympic legacies. That's what Hazelton thinks. You see, it's the hometown of Carol Huynh. She won a gold medal in wrestling for Canada at the Beijing Olympics. Justifiably proud, Hazelton asked the government to build on Carol Huynh's legacy, to get help with a new arena. Where kids could safely play and learn, and aspire to greater things. The government told them, "Check the internet. See if you can find a form to apply for a grant." Now a cynical person would ask, were the proponents for the new roof on BC Place were told the same thing? The Liberals can find half a billion dollars for BC Place but nothing for Hazelton. Hazelton, like too many BC communities, doesn't deserve a raw deal. They deserve the government's attention. They've earned it. They deserve support for a new arena.We can do better. Extraordinary community strength deserves extraordinary opportunity. Our challenge… our commitment… is to give BC communities the chance to succeed and thrive, to become the strong, healthy and safe communities they want to be. Our challenge… our commitment… is to give communities more access to local resources, to encourage entrepreneurship, create new jobs, and boost economic growth. Our challenge… our commitment… is to give communities a fairer share of tax revenue, to give them new opportunities to invest in themselves, and shape their future. Hazelton and Renie Grosser are representative of hundreds of thousands of British Columbians that are invisible to the Liberals. What the Liberals don't see, can't see, is that BC's future depends on strong, healthy and safe communities. That our future depends on giving every British Columbian the opportunity to make the most of themselves. It breaks my heart to hear about that young girl or boy with special needs in an overcrowded classroom, learning from an overstretched teacher. That young mind struggling to make sense of the world without the support they need. It breaks my heart and makes me so angry, that a province as rich as ours has the highest child poverty rate in the country for six years running. We leave these children behind and we all will be left behind. You can count on New Democrats to carry out a plan to eliminate child poverty in the province of British Columbia. As a foster parent, I learned that when we bring out the potential of every child, there is nothing we can't achieve. In heading up BC's school trustees and the Victoria school board, I saw first-hand the impact of education, on a child's life and our society. I saw the economic wallop of education, the power of education. Let me expand on that. Our province has tremendous natural advantages: our land, forest, energy and mineral resources, our enviable trading location, and our environmental ethic to name a few. These are our birthright. But as abundant as that natural capital is, if BC is going to lead the way, we must expand beyond it. At this moment in BC, almost one million children and youth are enrolled from kindergarten to post-secondary. Much of our economic future rests in their heads. The world is an unpredictable place. But it's a time-tested covenant that advancing knowledge, that building our human capital can propel us towards a more successful stable economy. New ideas, new entrepreneurship and new wealth will come from the students of today. Their ingenuity and innovation will touch every sector of our economy. As their knowledge grows, so will our capacity to realize new jobs, and new growth… to leave behind boom and bust economics. Just as we must fulfill our obligation to preserve a healthy planet for future generations, we must meet our obligation to build a sustainable, new modern economy.The path to this future is not found, but made. I believe we can make it… if we invest in our children with a quality public education system, where teachers get the support and resources they need, where all students have an opportunity to learn and grow. We can make it… if we invest in our workers with new apprenticeship and training opportunities that build new skills and lead to fulfilling work. And we can make it… if we invest in our young men and women, and provide access to affordable quality post secondary education that engages their minds and imagination to build a better new world. I want British Columbians to take charge of our own destiny. That requires us pulling together, led by a government people can trust, that has their best interests at heart.British Columbians deserve fair and open government. For me, social justice is everyone getting a fair deal, no deals under the table, or through the back door. That's why we say 'No' to the HST. It's not a fair deal. Some governments never learn that no one of us knows as much as all of us. But it is core to who I am. My whole life in public service has been dedicated to the idea that everyone has a contribution to make. With pride, we can say it was an NDP government that took this lesson to heart to make our great environmental leap forward. The amazing work done then was successful and is lasting precisely because all British Columbians were valued and had a voice at the table. This morning, I've placed education at the top of my agenda to build a sustainable, new modern economy. I also want to hear from British Columbians about other changes needed to make our economy grow. Changes that are consistent with our values of fairness and environmental integrity. In the coming months, I'll be engaging you and a broad range of British Columbians from all walks of life, and experts in their field – including concerned business leaders – on how we tackle the big challenges that face us and move beyond the conflicts that hold us back. How we combine a forward-looking business climate with a more equitable society. This kind of openness will make our journey to a sustainable, new modern economy that much faster. It's not my conviction that British Columbians won't disagree at times. But in the name of economic progress, we must build on our common ground. In the name of social justice, we must do our duty. I lead this party, not simply to talk about our values, but to act on them. And today, I ask all of you to leave this hall more determined, more resolute in your heart than ever to take our great party to victory. To renew our commitment to progressive change, to building a just, dynamic and prosperous province for all our citizens. Let me conclude. British Columbia is larger than California, Oregon and Washington combined, wealthy in natural resources and remarkable environment. We're a universal family of 4 million, rich in diverse talent. We've a vast potential beyond almost any province you want to name. Yet today, BC has the highest cost of living, the lowest minimum wage and the worst child poverty rate in our nation. These are the painful results of a failed Liberal government that doesn't grasp that BC's greatness ultimately lies not in the quantity of our goods, but the quality of our life. Our economic progress can only be measured by what it contributes to the well-being of all British Columbians, and the land we love and share.I reject the cowardly Liberal agenda which leaves children and families behind, claiming empty pockets yet indulging in pet projects. I reject the hollow Liberal boosterism used to hide their incompetence and mismanagement of our tax dollars. And I reject the Liberal ideology, which devalues our public assets and our public entrepreneurship. We can, and are, going to build a better British Columbia. A more confident British Columbia, justifiably confident in our children, our strengths and our potential. A more compassionate British Columbia, led by a government that steadfastly and sensibly cares about the well-being of all of us. A more secure British Columbia, where families and communities have the security they deserve from unwarranted hardships. And a fairer British Columbia, where a New Democrat government offers a brighter future of hope and opportunity for all British Columbians. Thank you, delegates. Thank you, British Columbia.
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