Q&A
Q: There’s a lot of protectionist rhetoric from America. What is the Liberal game plan to expand and diversify export B.C.’s markets?
A: We’re doubling the amount of money that we’re putting in the foreign forest investment office. We’re going to make that $10 million. We are going to do an intense series of trade missions to China, Japan and Korea right after the election, if we’re elected. We have increased our trade with China by 2,000% and that’s made us less dependent on the United States than any other market in Canada. We’ve got to keep that going. It means also targeting India, which we’ve begun to do. We put another $5 million into supporting our new trade initiative in India.
Q: How about within Canada? The Canadian Free Trade Agreement has got about 130 pages of exemptions. What do you think of that?
A: Too many exclusions. When we went to the table, I was the only premier who said let’s have no exclusions. Let’s have real free trade within Canada. For our wine industry, that would be massive to be able to get into Ontario liquor stores. Unfortunately B.C. didn’t get everything it wanted. But to me, at least we got a deal. It’s not a perfect deal, but now we have something to perfect.
Q: You’ve asked the prime minister to ban thermal coal exports through B.C. ports in retaliation for American softwood lumber duties. That would threaten the Fraser Surrey Docks coal terminal project. Do you want to do that?
A: I want to ban thermal coal. And if the federal government doesn’t decide to do it – although I think they will agree with our request – we are going to impose a levy under our jurisdiction that is so onerous that there’s no percentage in shipping thermal coal through British Columbia.
Q: Softwood lumber duties could result in layoffs and closures at some of B.C.’s smaller sawmills. Have you considered financial support for them during the dispute period?
A: We are going to do that. We are working with the federal government … on a loan guarantee program, so bridging loans for people and an enriched [Employment Insurance] program, should any workers find themselves out of work for a little while. We are also investing $100 million in the rural dividend, which is rural diversification, and our rural economic development plan will produce about 26,000 jobs in rural B.C.
This election is going to be about which leader is best able to defend and secure and create jobs in British Columbia, especially in the midst of this rising tide of American protectionism. And the other two parties have spent the last four years of my term trying to figure out how they can kill jobs in the province – cancelling Site C, making sure they wave the white flag on LNG [liquefied natural gas], stopping the George Massey [Tunnel] replacement project. You name it, they’ve opposed it.
Q: What’s the Liberal game plan for the distribution and sale of marijuana?
A: Once we get that final legislation, we are going to pass it to an expert panel to advise us on how we make sure that the distribution is done properly. The most important priority for me is making sure that – however we distribute it – it stays out of the hands of kids. We also want to make sure organized crime stays out of it, and we want to make sure for people who need it, that it’s the quality that they’re expecting – it’s not poisoned by pesticides and other things.
I know that [BC NDP Leader] John Horgan has said he’s already decided that he wants it to be in liquor stores. Well, he took [$130,000] from the [BC Government and Service Employees’ Union], so that’s not a surprising decision coming from him. No one in the United States that’s legalized marijuana allows it to be beside alcohol.
Q: Transparency of ownership is a big issue. Shell companies, bear trusts, anonymous owners own a lot of expensive properties in Vancouver. Any plan to eliminate anonymous ownership?
A: We’ve been focused on residential properties, so that 15% foreign tax applies to residential properties no matter who owns it. The thing about commercial properties is that it’s commercial, and we want to make sure that we don’t have too big an impact on the housing market. [The NDP] don’t really understand how important it is for people to be able to own their own home, and that once you do own your own home, you don’t want it to be worth less after you bought it because the government has not done something that’s well thought out.
Q: All three parties are committed to matching federal funding for transit. But yours is the only one insisting on a referendum on new levies. How do you expect TransLink to pay for these projects if you’re hamstringing them?
A: People don’t want more taxes. I’ve been really committed to tax cuts. TransLink is not an elected body. Nobody wants to give them the right – except John Horgan – to be able to just, at the stroke of a pen, raise everybody’s taxes.
We’ve got the $2.2 billion matching the federal government. I think there are a lot of ways we can be imaginative about this, rather than whacking a new tax on people. What about building more density around transit stations and using some of that upzoning, rather than having it go just into the coffers of one city? Why don’t we use that to help support transit funding in the province?
Q: Any second thoughts about the George Massey Tunnel replacement?
A: No. That’s going to be thousands of jobs for people in the province, and it is the most congested area in the Lower Mainland. And the tunnel is not even seismically sound. If we had an earthquake over 6.0, it would fall down. John Horgan’s answer to that is, “Well, let’s study it some more.” We’ve been talking about this for four years. I promised it in the last election. We’re going to get on with it.
Q: What was the justification for allowing the Site C dam to avoid BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) scrutiny?
A: Dams have been an exception for the BCUC over the years. It was looked at by an independent panel, and the independent panel found that it was something worth doing.
I think back to W.A.C. Bennett. And when he built the dams … all the opposition yelled and screamed and they said this is the worst idea ever. And here we are with the fifth-lowest rates in North America. We are almost the cleanest energy system in North America. Why? Because W.A.C. Bennett had the courage to go out there and build those dams despite the naysayers. Our electricity use is going to go up by 40%, and we are going to have that somehow.
Q: Your promise of an LNG industry has yet to bear fruit. But if it does develop, are we not moving too slow on electrifying the natural gas fields, plants and pipelines?
A: We are negotiating with the federal government now to get their support in electrifying this. It’s part of their climate plan to make sure we electrify the upstream, and not just for gas. We have some of the best reserves of light oil in the Montney, and we are going to get that going. I know the NDP and Greens don’t support oil. We have some of the best light oil anywhere in the world, and we are going to get that industry going, should we be elected.
And it’s not true that LNG hasn’t gotten going. Fortis has been doing it. Woodfibre [LNG] is now being built, and we hope that Pacific NorthWest [LNG], which the NDP has just trashed at every opportunity, we hope that that will go ahead. There are 4,500 people looking for work up in the northwest. It’s their time. When the market improves for gas, British Columbia is going to be ready.
