SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 9

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 2, 2021 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 9 - Dec/2/21
Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)
  • Dec/2/21 6:39:48 p.m.
  • Watch
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Nunavut for that beautiful speech and her powerful words. As this is my first speech of this Parliament, I would like to begin, as is our tradition, by thanking the people who have invested their trust in me, the people of Skeena—Bulkley Valley. To the folks back home, my ongoing commitment to them, no matter how they voted, is to listen carefully, to represent honestly and to work hard each and every day. My biggest gratitude, of course, goes to my family, to my two daughters Ella and Maddie, and to my wife, Michelle, who is an amazing leader in her own right and, of course, my most trusted and close adviser. I begin my speech by sending them my love from 4,500 kilometres away. Every riding in Canada has something unique about it, and among the many unique features of Skeena—Bulkley Valley that stand out, one of them that is remarked on the most, especially by folks from more urban parts of Canada, is its sheer size. Visiting the many communities across such a vast rural region is both the most rewarding and important part of this role, and often the most challenging. The last community I had a chance to visit before I headed east to Ottawa for the start of this sitting was the very special community of Takla Landing on the territory of the Takla Nation. To get to Takla from my home in Smithers, we drove three hours eastward on Highway 16, turned left on Highway 27, drove on to Fort St. James then drove and stopped in the communities of Binche and Tachie on the shore of Stuart Lake, and then continued on another three hours on a radio-controlled, forest service road to a part of remote northwest B.C. where few people live and very few people visit. The community of Takla is a special one. It is hard to convey the setting in words in this place, but the village is perched on the shore Takla Lake. When I got there, the first snow of late fall was sitting on the mountains. When the clouds lifted and the sun was shining for a brief moment, it was such a spectacular setting. The territory of the Takla Nation includes three great watersheds, three great river systems. The water from its lands flow into the Skeena and into the Fraser system, both of which flow into the Pacific, and also into the Finlay, which flows to the Arctic Ocean. We were welcomed in this community by a number of local leaders, including Elder Janet West and Councillor Wilma Abraham. The staff toured us around the community and showed us, with pride, their school, water plant, potlatch building and their new transfer station. They showed me the land that they had cleared adjacent to the community to protect it from wildfire, like the big wildfires that we saw in my region back in 2018. They plan to build housing on that land now and have a vision to build 100 houses in 10 years. It was a memorable visit, and one of the things that I will remember most about that visit is something that Dave Thompson told me. Just as we were leaving, we were gathered in their boardroom at their band office and he said, “Takla is a proud community. We are proud of what we showed you today, and we wanted to focus on the community's strengths, but I hope that does not give you the impression that this is a community that does not need help.” His words made me think about northwest B.C., this place I am so humbled and honoured to represent here in the House of Commons and the people who call it home. The people of the northwest are resilient, resourceful, proud of where they live and proud of how they live. If I were to simply rattle through the list of the myriad challenges that people in northwest B.C. face, I would be worried that this fact would not come through first. So, instead I thought it was right to start by honouring the innate strength of my neighbours, their resilience and their love for the place that we call home. As we face the most serious public health crisis in a century, a growing climate crisis that has been felt so acutely in British Columbia right now and a housing crisis that is denying such a basic human right to so many families, it is all too clear that the need for federal leadership has never been greater. Yet, reading through the Speech from the Throne, I think that many Canadians would be struck by its lack of depth and its lack of addressing the many issues that we face. At a time of so many pressing challenges, this speech failed to reflect the kind of bold vision and leadership I think Canadians and certainly the people in northwest B.C. feel that we need. Across the northwest, the collapse of wild salmon stocks is causing real alarm. It is hard to describe how integral these fish are to people's way of life in Skeena for food, culture and livelihood, yet in a single generation this resource that people have depended on for generations, over thousands of years, is disappearing right before their eyes. The salmon that arrive at Takla Lake are not Skeena River salmon: they are Stuart River sockeye. They are from the Fraser River system. They swim over 1,000 kilometres from the ocean to spawn there. It is truly a miracle of nature. Sadly, the Stuart River sockeye have been decimated by the Big Bar landslide, mismanagement of fisheries, industrialization, habitat impacts and all of the other things that are impacting wild salmon. When I was in Takla, Keith West gave us a tour of the new salmon hatchery. Earlier in the year, the residents travelled down to Lillooet on the lower Fraser and intercepted the early Stuart River run of those few fish that make it back up the river. They took the eggs from those fish and are now incubating them in a tiny shipping container hatchery in the community of Takla. They hope that the few that survive will make it back down the river, out to the ocean and then all the way back home to replenish the stock that community has existed on for millennia. In communities up and down the B.C. north coast, people are looking to the current government to finally come to the aid of wild salmon. There is hope in recent funding announcements, but people are waiting to see results on the ground and in the water. There was nothing in the Speech from the Throne about wild salmon. Similarly, forestry has long been at the centre of many communities in the region, such as Burns Lake, Houston, Fraser Lake, Fort St. James and my home community of Smithers. Getting a softwood lumber agreement would make a real difference for the viability and long-term success of the processing facilities in those communities. However, after years of uncertainty, instead of an agreement what we see is the Americans doubling softwood lumber duties. There was nothing in the throne speech on softwood lumber and a softwood lumber agreement. In a huge rural riding, transportation is a constant feature of the daily lives of people and often a challenging one. A few weeks back, as part of my commute east, I had a chance to ride on BC Bus North. This is the new regional bus system the B.C. government put in place in the wake of Greyhound pulling out of our region. In a region that includes the Highway of Tears, which tragically so many people have heard about, the trip on the bus was convenient and it was safe. At $25 for a two-hour trip, it was also affordable. A lot of regions across Canada are not as fortunate as northern B.C. I do not think any member in this place who is from a rural riding would disagree that having safe, affordable, consistent passenger transport is vital for their constituents. Today rural, low-income Canadians who do not drive have fewer transportation options than they have had in 100 years, yet there was nothing in the throne speech on connecting rural Canada. Sadly, the current government gave up long ago on passenger rail as a way to connect rural residents across our country. We cannot let it give up on bus transportation in the same way. Housing affordability is a challenge in every single community across Canada, but in addition to affordability, there is another aspect that is being neglected, which is housing in indigenous communities. In the riding that I represent of Skeena—Bulkley Valley, the community of Klemtu is struggling with housing issues. It has a vision for building new houses and repairing the ones that are in the community. I heard recently from Chief Councillor Doug Neasloss about a storm that damaged 16 houses. These are now leaking and have mould issues. These homes house elders and children. That has to be improved upon, yet there was nothing in the throne speech on indigenous housing. To finish, I will end where I began: with the strength and resilience of the people of the northwest. It has been a hard year and a half with this health crisis. People have lost loved ones. People have lost livelihoods. We have been called upon to look out for our neighbours and each other in ways that we have not for a long time. I know we are going to make it. In the meantime, there are many other pressing issues that deserve our attention, and I am thankful to the Speaker for giving me the time this evening to highlight a few of them.
1667 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border