The following interview with BC minister of social development and poverty reduction and Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons was conducted prior to the start of the latest sitting of the BC legislature, which began on February 8.
Peak: What are some highlights in the upcoming session that you're looking forward to? Are there any particular pieces of legislation you’re particularly focused on?
Simons: What we expect to see in this term is continued focus on issues around affordability. We’re expanding the $10 day child-care spaces, and we’re going to be reducing child-care fees for children under six by 50 per cent by the end of the year. So that’s a fairly big thing. It’s clearly an important social program and the first major social program introduced in a long time in BC.
In the budget, I think we’ll see more of the same kind of support to businesses and individuals to bring their recovery from the pandemic or in the continued, ongoing management of the pandemic to ensure communities and businesses maintain some resilience. I don’t suspect we’ll see great changes in terms of the direction of the government focusing on affordability.
We’re also going to be introducing legislation that has been recommended in terms of requiring a cooling off period on home sales. It’s an effort to partly cool down the overheated real estate market.
We’re going to be continuing to work with the various governments on making sure people who were affected by the wildfires and floods get the support they need, and we’re going to be working on finding ways to mitigate the risks to our communities.
We’re planning to introduce anti-racism data legislation, to better identify information that will inform policymakers when it comes to issues around diversity, where gaps exist in programs and services, where barriers exist in sectors like education, health care and policing.
Peak: Will that data be made publicly available?
Simons: I believe it’s going to be made publicly available. We’ll see; the actual legislation hasn’t been tabled yet. But that’s the kind of thing that will likely be included as [government determines] who gets to access the information and when.
Peak: There are concerns that it’s currently too early to loosen COVID-19 public health restrictions, but on the other hand there are limited numbers of people protesting the current restrictions. What are your thoughts on the government’s direction on this issue?
Simons: I think British Columbians are pretty unified in their acceptance of the fact that there continue to be measures in place, and we’re also unified in the view that the sooner we can end the measures, the better. We’re all interested in seeing an end to the impact of public health orders.
We’re all confident that our public health officials have been in the best position to determine when that’ll be safe. We’re all anxious for it to be over. But those decisions will be left to recommendations from the public health officer.
I try to counter the idea that we’re divided. There are people who don’t believe public health measures are helpful, but you know, we have close to 90 per cent of people who are vaccinated, and a lot of people are very comfortable, much more comfortable, going to places where vaccine passports are required.
Peak: What is your government doing to provide specific support for the 206 people impacted by the indefinite curtailment of the Catalyst Paper Tis’kwat mill? What is the government doing to make sure this community is supported in this difficult time?
Simons: It continues to have a big impact on our community members, many of whom will be out of work by the end of the month. I’ve been speaking to my colleagues hoping that there are support programs that are eligible for those workers affected.
I know there’s talk about different businesses or industries interested in the location, the community, but the uncertainty remains; we don’t quite know what exactly is going to happen.
My role will be to ensure my colleagues in labour and forestry know that community members in my area have been affected. There’s more to be decided around the future of the site.
There’s nothing specific in terms of supports that are above and beyond ones that have been made available so far. But that remains an issue that is active.
I’ve been having some communication with workers and the unions, and the conversations taking place haven’t resulted in anything that I can say is good news yet. It’s something that’s a work in progress.
Peak: The final report of the Cullen Commission into money laundering is due this May. What are your thoughts on that?
Simons: I hope it gives us information that helps guide public policy. I imagine there will be some things that will be impacted by the findings; it’ll be interesting to see what recommendations come out of that.
Peak: What will your ministry be working on over the coming months?
Simons: We’ve just established our provincial accessibility committee, which, we’re really happy to say, had its first meeting a couple of weeks ago, and so the process of putting the Accessible BC Act into effect has begun.
We’re also trying to put a focus on ensuring that employment is accessible to people who want to work, so those in receipt of income or disability assistance are given opportunities to find work, and providing support to nonprofits to hire these individuals.
That’s a good program because it recognizes that not everybody has the necessary resources to work full time, for example.
We’re going to be engaged in the collective bargaining process with the sector, and that’s going to be a focus of many in my ministry. There are a lot of employees in different sectors of the social services sector.
