We’ve all heard the stories of women struggling due to a lack of affordable child care. I’ve heard stories of women in my community who have been forced out of the workforce due to a lack of affordable options. Stories of mothers struggling to make ends meet due to high child care costs. Stories of […]
Affordability
Action on Affordability
There are many things I love about serving my community as an MLA, but topping the list is when I meet people whose lives have been positively impacted by the work of our government. This happened recently when I met Gordon, who lives in my constituency of Esquimalt-Metchosin. Gordon is on a CPP disability pension, […]
Moving kids from long waitlists into learning centres
For far too long families across the province have struggled to find affordable, quality care for their children. In some communities, it’s because there aren’t enough spaces, and in some, because there aren’t enough staff. Being only accessible by ferry means that families on the upper and lower Sunshine Coast have had a particularly […]
CleanBC Supports Affordable, Lower-Carbon Living
On Bowen Road in Nanaimo, there’s a building complex that doesn’t look quite like anything else around it: Nuutsumuut Lelum, a new joint housing project from the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre and BC Housing, is cedar-sided and built to an internationally recognized ultra-efficient energy use standard called “Passive House”. It’s a new home to 25 Indigenous […]
Cracking Down on Dirty Money
It is now overwhelmingly clear that money laundering has been a huge problem in BC for years, affecting not only our casinos but also our real estate market, contributing to skyrocketing home prices. The Decade of Dirty Money happened largely because the government at the time refused to act and chose to look the other […]
Working together to end homelessness
This article was originally published on Georgia Straight. Homelessness has been hurting too many people in our province for too long. Thousands of British Columbians are without a home. They are living on the streets, in parks, tents, in shelters, or in cars. Homelessness hurts the health of our communities, our economy, it hurts those […]
Addressing the root causes of poverty
Like all Canadians, I was saddened to hear the recent news of another life lost in a clothing donation bin. Vulnerable people are getting seriously injured or killed in an attempt to address their basic needs. Access to warm clothing and proper footwear are essential for those who are homeless or precariously housed. The contents […]
Supportive housing works and we need more of it
Everyone deserves a home. Unfortunately, not everyone in BC can afford one. Nowhere is this more evident than in my home community of Maple Ridge, where the present tent city has been in place since early 2017. Sadly, most communities in BC are now familiar with the realities of tent cities. They create great difficulties […]
Post-Secondary students are finally getting the help they deserve
Going to school to get the skills you need shouldn’t be a lifelong debt sentence. I’m proud to be a part of a government prioritizing an affordable post-secondary education. By keeping costs low, and opening up new doors, we’re helping former, current, and future students successfully find their place in BC’s economy. Unfortunately, for 16 […]
Bringing back Buy BC to strengthen communities and grow jobs
Bringing back Buy BC to strengthen communities and grow jobs Buy BC champions local produce and the hard-working agrifood workers who supply them. My dad – born and raised in Trail – ate an apple a day every day of his life. Even when he became ill with dementia, he never went a day […]
We’re in a Housing Crisis. It’s time we start acting like it.
BC is in a housing crisis. Rampant speculation, destructive real estate market practices, insufficient affordable housing starts, low vacancy rates, and a curious refusal by the previous government to take action on the issue for years has led to the situation we’re in now. We’ve seen hollowed out communities, families pushed out to the […]