 Great. Thanks everybody for joining us here today on the traditional territory of the Lacongan speaking people, the Songheesnes, Guamalt First Nation. I want to lift my hands to Chief Russ Chipps from the Sianu Nation, who's also here today. Russ, you don't need to identify yourself, but he's right behind you. We also have some kids playing soccer, and that's because part of our announcement today is to talk about affordability. One of the initiatives that we've renewed is our investment in kids sport, to make sure that the province is providing resources so that kids from families of limited means will be able to participate in sport. For me, sport brings people together, common purpose, mutual objectives, working together, creating friendships and bonds in many cases over a lifetime. So we're very proud of the work we've done with kids sport, and I just wanted to raise that at the top. That's why I've got some youngsters playing soccer behind me. At the start, I want to say that we've been experiencing unprecedented inflation, not just here in British Columbia, but indeed internationally. Families are seeing it at the grocery store. We certainly see it at the pumps where we've seen a 35 cent drop in gas prices, and still they remain unacceptably high for most British Columbians. But despite that, we've tried to do our best to bring forward initiatives to assist families where we can to make sure that we're doing everything we can to reduce costs. Our government started on that footing by eliminating medical services premiums as one of our first acts as government, as well as freezing ferry fares for a time, addressing challenges at ICBC, removing tolls on bridges in the lower mainland, and the list goes on and on of initiatives that we've brought forward to try and reduce costs for British Columbians. But despite our best efforts and the pandemic coming upon us and Putin's invasion of Ukraine has put us all collectively in a difficult spot. So that's why last week we announced $60 million to go to the K-12 system directly to school boards so that they can determine what kids need the supports, whether it be for equipment, whether it be for school supplies, or making sure that meal programs can continue in districts across the province. And it's that type of targeted investment that Minister Robinson and I have been focused on with our government over the past number of months. By allowing the districts to make these choices, we're putting the money in the hands of those who can make the best decisions on our behalf. Today, we're going to be announcing two enhanced tax measures as well as relief for renters. The tax measures include a one-time enhancement of the Climate Action Tax Credit for low and moderate income families. That means that when the Climate Action Tax Credits come out in early October, they will be four times as large as they would have been were it not for this investment. $500 million going into the Climate Action Tax Credit to be distributed to families that need it the most. We're also taking the opportunity today to rename the Child Opportunity Benefit Fund. And the reason we're doing that is that when we brought it in in 2019 and then implemented it in 2020, people didn't know what it was. And I don't know what it was. When I heard Child Opportunity Benefit, what I heard was is that money for post-secondary education for training down the road. Instead, I looked back to my youth and when I was raising my kids, there was a family bonus, a baby bonus, there was a family allowance. So we've renamed the Child Opportunity Benefit to the BC Family Benefit. Something that people can understand that goes directly into the pockets of families. There was a program in place before 2017 for kids up to the age of six. The BC Family Benefit Program will cover kids up to the age of 18. And as any parent will tell you, children cost more over time, not less. We believe this is a measure that doesn't only help us during an inflationary period, but helps us in the long term. That enhancement will be $100 million starting in January for a total of $600 million in today's package added to the $400 million that came through the ICBC rebate program, making this a billion dollar program with $60 million directed specifically to kids in classrooms. These payments will begin in October and run for six months into the new year when the family benefit kicks in. For example, an average family of four will see $760 more next year than they would have this year. A single parent with one child will see up to $500 in their pocket that wouldn't have been there otherwise. I want to touch upon another program that we initiated that doesn't get a lot of attention and that was eliminating the fare for kids under 12. That has meant 3 million dedicated rides by children under 12. That's a significant saving for families, allowing people to get acclimatized and adjusted to using public transit early in life that will carry on into adulthood, protecting the environment and of course reducing costs to people. All of these initiatives will be significant for people. One probably the most important for 1.5 million renters in British Columbia is our announcement today that effective January, the maximum rent increase for landlords will be 2%. We changed the law that was in place under the former government of an instant and automatic 2% lift as well as inflation to only have the increase attached to inflation. Unfortunately, during this extraordinary time, an inflationary increase in rents will be debilitating for 1.5 million British Columbians. We're not prepared for that. We're going to continue to work with the landlords of BC to find other ways to engage with them, to assist them with costs. But this year's rent increase will be limited to 2%. That will also be added to a BC hydro benefit that will be coming later in the year. I'm sure there will be questions about why that's coming later in the year, so I'll leave it for that. But I want to thank you for being here to talk about a billion dollars of money back to British Columbians so they can address some of the challenges of the cost of living that we've seen over the past number of months. And I'll ask Minister Robinson to join you for more details. Thank you, Premier. You know, the Premier has made a significant announcement and these measures are really going to go a long way to help a lot of people. 85% of British Columbians, individuals and families, will benefit from the Climate Action Tax Credit increase next month. And 75% of families with children will receive more on their BC family benefit payments starting in January. As the Premier mentioned, this was launched in the fall of 2020. And we launched this program to help combat child poverty and to help lower income parents with the cost of raising a family with providing more opportunities for their children all the way up to the age of 18. As the Premier mentioned, it was only till the age of six, but 12 more years of support for families to raise these children is absolutely critical. The BC family benefit offers more money. It serves more parents. And more importantly, it serves more children. Normally, without the extra support that we are announcing today, a family with one child would receive about $1600 over the course of the year through the BC family benefit. For January through March, we are adding another $175 to payments for people with one child and extra $350 for family with two children. Many families, many young people and those on fixed incomes will also benefit from capping rent increases below inflation. And we're not alone in this. The province of Ontario has capped rent increases as has Nova Scotia. We are all dealing with this incredible inflationary period and taking measures to help people through it. And while these are new temporary measures, this is not a new commitment from our government. We've been reducing costs for people since 2017. We've significantly reducing, we've been significantly reducing child care and car insurance rates. We've been providing ICBC rebates. We've introduced free transit for children. We've been increasing the minimum wage. And of course, last week, increasing funding for school meals and supplies. These additional temporary measures build on the commitment, on our commitment as a government to help people that and the work that we've been doing all along. The Climate Action Tax Credit, the BC Family Benefit and the temporary cap on rent increases are the next steps we are taking to reduce costs and putting people and putting money in people's pockets because we know that that's what people need right now. I'm pleased for British Columbians that we have the economic strength to help the people who need it most. Thank you, and we look forward to answering any questions. Thanks, Minister. Premier, we'll invite you back up to the podium to take questions from the media. If you have a question, please step over to the mic. As a reminder to a media on the phone line, please press star one to enter the queue. You're limited to one question and one follow-up. First question, Richard Zussman, Global News. Premier, there are some jurisdictions that are giving a lot more than that. We're seeing some places that have direct rebate checks where every British Columbian would get money. You've decided not to do that. Why? And on the issue of cost of living, can you also speak to the deal that has been reached with the BCGEU where members, they are already saying that that deal may not hit goals of cost of living based on what we're seeing with inflation? Well, we've decided that we want to focus and target the help that we're giving to British Columbians because not all British Columbians are in a position that they're struggling, whether it be with groceries, whether it be with rent, whether it be with meeting their other daily costs. And so by targeting these resources, we're helping the people that need it the most. That's been our choice. Other jurisdictions have made similar choices. Others have made different choices. But ultimately we believe that this is a fair package that will meet the needs of people in the short term and we're gonna continue to work on these issues. It's not something that you just stop because inflation starts to go down. The cost of living is a fundamental issue for families wherever they may live, here on the island, in the lower mainland, in Northern and interior British Columbia, wherever you are costs are going up. And so we believe this is a good start. We started with addressing gas prices back in May and June and we're continuing to do that. And as I said, there'll be more happening on the hydrofront. We kept costs down to the best of our ability on those things that we can control. And we're hoping that people will find the way forward. The federal government's taking its initiative very seriously. I understand the cabinets here in Vancouver meeting to discuss these issues. I'll see the Prime Minister at the end of the week and I look forward to a report from him that will give me comfort that they're focusing on British Columbians as well. Richard, follow it. Also hoping to hear on you on the BCGU deal. But I also need to ask about Kevin Falcon was in Vancouver today cutting a red ribbon for what would have been the opening of the brand new Massey Bridge today. As you well know, a replacement will not be coming for a number of years still because of the decision your government made to cancel the bridge. What do you say to commuters in that region who continue to wait in deadlock every morning and afternoon? Well, with respect to the collective bargaining process and the government or the GU's attempt for ratification, they're taking the package back to their members. So are the hospital employees union. We believe it's a fair package that meets the interests of taxpayers who access services that meets the needs of workers who provide those services. And we've done our best to ensure that collective bargaining can work. We'll see what comes back from the membership. That's what these processes are all about. With respect to Mr. Falcon, I saw him last night talk about how unacceptable it was to have a structure for salaries at BC Ferries. But that was the structure that he put in place. So I'll reserve my comments on his issues around infrastructure projects. He was going to toll a bridge. He was going to toll a bridge in the lower mainland. We're in the business of taking tolls off bridges. We believe that the submersed tunnel is a better course of action for the environment, better course of action for cost effectiveness. And it meets the needs of the majority of the municipalities in the region who were all uniformly save one opposed to the BC Liberal plan. Next question is from Binder Sajan, CTV. Hi there. I know you mentioned some hydro relief potentially coming, working with landlords of BC, potentially some work there. And I'm just wondering, I know months ago you were saying that you were working on this every single day. So why not announce all these things together, especially for lower income people who are making difficult choices in terms of their budgets? Why not provide all the information right now? Well, BC Hydro is a regulated utility. We have to ensure that the significant profit that they made last year, not from hydro rates for customers in British Columbia, but through trade. BC Hydro has a privileged position as one of the dominant utilities in North America and they trade electricity on the open market in the United States and in Alberta to a degree. And they made significant revenues from that. We don't want to follow in the footsteps of the former government where they use our Crown corporations like instant teller machines. We want to make sure that this is done appropriately and it's taken more time at BC Hydro than we had hoped. And we're announcing the climate action tax credit today because the checks will be coming out in the first week in October. And we wanted people to know that help was on the way and that's why we're here today. I know those ICBC checks were supposed to come a lot sooner than they actually did for some people. So I'm just wondering if you're really confident that those checks are gonna come in the first week of October. And I also wanted to ask the finance minister as well. Last year we saw a surprise surplus for the budget. Are there any measures that you're taking or doing something that you're doing differently to make sure that if there is some sort of a surplus this year and not a deficit that money could be redirected possibly to programs like this to help people with inflation? Yeah, thanks for that, Binder. And that's exactly what we're doing here today is addressing needs today that British Columbians have and making sure that we're targeting it to those who need it most. And we're gonna continue to monitor how our economy continues to manage through this inflationary period. The Bank of Canada raised interest rates again. And again, so we're watching to see how things play out. I'll be bringing forward a quarterly update in the near term and we'll have certainly more to say about how we're doing economically. But as you well pointed out, making sure that it's a balanced perspective, making sure that we can manage this responsibly is part of what we're doing here today. British Columbians need help and we're here to deliver today and provide relief for British Columbians who need it most. Next question is from Mary Brooke, Island Social Trends. Hi, Premier. You mentioned the $60 million that was announced last week to go to schools, to school districts and you're framing it today as going to classrooms. But the money as you know is up to the school districts to decide how they want to use it. And as was mentioned last week by minister Whiteside, the distribution of the money will be through programs either existing or new. So the money isn't really gonna roll immediately to families and all the programs as well intended aren't necessarily going to reach all the families. So I know you've taken care of a big part of this today with that four times increase on the child or the carbon benefit. But do you have confidence that across the board in schools, students will be helped by this $60 million? Well, every school district has different needs. Suks' needs are different from those in the Fraser Canyon, different from those needs in the Peace River area. So we felt the best way to ensure that kids going to school across British Columbia were getting access to these dollars, their families, were getting access to these dollars was to do it through the school boards. And I would argue that there are many programs currently in place in districts across BC that will be kicking in immediately. And there will be others that will take more time. And that's why this $60 million is not expected to be drawn down completely in the first month or two of the school year, but in fact throughout the school year. And again, the best people to make those choices are the people on the ground in communities across the province. Mary, do you have a follow-up? Yeah, so in October, there will be elections for school trustees across the province. And I'm just wondering what you think parents should be looking for in their trustee candidates? I don't know. I haven't seen the list of candidates in my community. I'll look at them closely and make choices based on who I believe will be serving the best interest of kids and parents in the district that I live in. And I encourage other people to participate in the municipal elections upcoming. It's the most close to you form of government. And particularly if you've got youngsters in the K-12 system, you wanna know that your board of trustees is competent and focused on the needs of your family. That would be my advice to people. I'm Dr. Buffam, CTVVI. Hi Premier, as was alluded to, the Bank of Canada increased its interest rate hike today for the fifth time this year. In light of that, what do you say to folks who say, you know, British Columbians are gonna be struggling even more in light of that and more ought to have been done to help them today and is maybe more help coming down the line? Well, we didn't anticipate or we couldn't anticipate what the Bank of Canada would have done today. But as the minister said, we now will take stock of that. One of the challenges we have is that circumstances have been changing rather rapidly over the past number of years, whether it be responding to COVID, responding to atmospheric rivers, horrific fire seasons, you name it. Government's job is to respond to circumstances as we find them and do the best we can to either create programs or use the programs that are currently in place to meet the needs of the public. We will monitor the impacts of the interest rate increases. That's gonna be very challenging for many in the community and I'll certainly talk to the prime minister about that on Friday when I see him. Follow up, Rob? I do, and it's on a different topic. It relates to crime. There was a murder in Nanaimo on Monday night. I don't know if you heard about it, but it was a 29 year old man who was stabbed to death in the playground in Mafio Sutton Park, right in the heart of Nanaimo. It happened on Monday night. The RCMP have said it was an unprovoked attack, a 17 and 19 year old are now arrested, not yet charged at this point. Leonard Krogue, Nanaimo's mayor said he understands the murder victim was somebody who was disabled. I guess I'm just wondering if I can get you to weigh in on those facts and that murder. Well, certainly my heart goes out to the victim in the horrific act of random violence. It may not be random. We'll have to see what the investigation unfolds as the investigation unfolds, what the circumstances were. But I have to say, I think all British Columbians and in fact Canadians are observing an increase in violence in our communities, whether it be the mass shootings in Nova Scotia just 18 months ago, the attacks in Saskatchewan that are very front and center in our minds today, and also the events you've just articulated in Nanaimo. There has been an increase in violence against each other. And quite frankly, we all have a responsibility, not just governments, not just public safety officials, but all of us to work together to figure out how we address these issues. When it comes to mental health and addictions, we started a trend across the country by establishing a minister and a ministry. That now is common practice in every jurisdiction in the country. So making changes in how we deliver services, how we are there for people when they need us is critical. We did a review of the police act with the view to making sure that communities have law enforcement officers that have the tools they need to not just deal with crime, but to deal with mental health challenges because that's oftentimes what they're called out to address. And that's not part of their training. We need to make that part of training. We need to make sure that law enforcement has a balance of people with expertise in this area, as well as those who've gone through training to do the frontline work that they are there to provide for us and we're so grateful for. Rob Shah, check these. Hi, Premier. It looks like to take full advantage of this. You need to have a household income of under $117,000, which is the Canada, which is the child benefit threshold. There's a lot of people who have income slightly more than that, who would consider themselves struggling right now. So I'm wondering how you came to that amount. Do you think it's sufficient when there are people who will be making more, who are at risk due to interest rates or affordability of losing their housing or being unable to pay their bills? Yeah, we didn't thank you for the question, Rob. We didn't set out to find all of the solutions to the challenges of today. We set out to take the pieces that we could, a billion dollars worth, and direct it towards those who need it the most. Are people gonna miss that threshold? Is it gonna be sufficient for all families? Certainly not, but it is a significant step. A billion dollars is a ton of money and we need to make sure that it has a maximum impact. I'm gonna ask Selena to answer more detailed questions about the thresholds, but we set out to do the best we could today. Some have disagreed with that, but I think there are gonna be a whole bunch of people that are gonna be grateful for the help and hopeful that we see a downturn in inflationary pressures and a return to what was a more normal environment for interest rates, which were virtually zero for a long, long, long, long time. And again, that's federal responsibility and I'm sure the Prime Minister will be able to give me a good explanation as to why they're not intervening in any meaningful way to address that. Follow up, Rob? Oh, Minister? I think the Premier asked me to be a little bit more detailed on the threshold and part of the decision was about looking at existing programs, Rob, making sure that we could move these resources to families as quickly as we could. So that's part of it. These are existing programs, but also the free transit is for all children, regardless of income. The program for schools, for example, the Student and Family Affordability Fund that we set out is for any family that's struggling. There's no threshold for that. Any family that needs help with supplies, with school supplies, with meal programs, again, that's available and we'll be talking more about the hydro opportunity in the coming months before the end of the year. So we recognize that not all programs are gonna benefit everyone equally, but again, we wanted to target those who are most impacted. And the last thing I'll just say is the rent threshold. So for those families that are renting, it's just a 2% right across the board. Again, that's not related at all to income. Go ahead, Rob. Would be interested in both of you on this as well. And Premier, you just touched on it. The Bank of Canada hiking interest rates again today to a very aggressive territory. Is it too much based on what you're hearing from people? Do you think the Bank of Canada has gone too far on its interest rates and we're squeezing people between the problem of inflation and the solution of interest rates? Yeah, well, it's always a delicate balance to try and find that space where public policy is intersecting with public need. And as I say, this is federal responsibility. I'm not trying to avoid answering the question. Instead, I'm going to say that I will talk to the Prime Minister this week and I'll get a better answer directly from him. I'm hopeful and all of you have access to the federal cabinet ministers that are in Vancouver. I'm hopeful you'll put those questions to them as well. But at the end of the day, we are experiencing something we haven't seen since the 1980s. And that's going to require us to roll up our sleeves and figure out were there solutions in the 1980s that we want to revisit? Were there solutions that were disregarded in the 1980s that may be relevant to today? Those are always challenges for governments, regardless of where you are in the country. On the rent side, we landed at 2%. Nova Scotia landed at 2%. Ontario is at 2.5%. And other provinces will go in other directions. In British Columbia, where we have high costs of living to start with, adding increases in the interest rates are certainly challenging. And we have to keep a close eye on that. And I know the minister will. Next question. Zoe Duclo, Capitol Daily. Hi there. Are you concerned about the trends that we're starting to see of doctors de-enrolling from MSP and starting to charge privately? I'm not concerned. Well, of course I'm concerned about the challenges we're facing on delivery of public health services in Canada, not just in British Columbia. As the head of the Council of Federation of all the premiers in the country, I've been tasked by my colleagues of different political stripes, liberals, conservatives, independence, to make the case to Ottawa that they need to sit down with us, not in an accusing way, but in a complementary and partnership way to reimagine healthcare so that we can meet the challenges of an aging population, which includes doctors. We have more doctors 70 years old or higher in the South Island than any other part of the country. That's a problem. We can't force doctors to continue working beyond their period of time that they want to work. So that means more recruitment, more retention, looking at new ways to compensate, trying to keep our elder doctors in place, either as mentors or providing other services rather than having what has become the norm, an office with overhead and all of the other challenges. As we look at this, we're going to need to do it arm in arm with the doctors of BC. And for the first time in my memory, and I've been engaged in governments for almost 30 years or over 30 years, what I've seen in the past number of months is doctors working with the Ministry of Health to try and find solutions. Everyone wants to make sure we're providing the best care possible. Doctors want to do that. The administration wants to do that. Certainly patients want to see that. So I'm confident that we're at the table. We're working together. We've made some preliminary steps in the right direction with respect to overhead costs and retention issues. And now we need to do more. We need to train more. We need to make sure Ottawa is working with us on a human resource strategy because we can't just keep poaching from other parts of the country. BC and Alberta have a capacity to pay more, but should we be able to go and say to nurses and other healthcare providers in other provinces, come here and we'll pay you more? That doesn't build a country. That fractures a country. Zoe, do you have a follow-up? I do. On an unrelated topic regarding capping rent at 2% is welcome for many people, but is your government interested or talking about the possibility of unit-based rent control? Want me to take that? Yeah. Right now we're really focused on today. As the former Minister of Housing that was, we did a task force, a rental housing task force. It was something that we'd heard a fair bit about and I know that Minister Rankin, who is currently the housing minister, is looking at what else we might need to do in order to help the one and a half million British Columbians who are renters. There have no decisions have been made on that. Next question. Alec Lazambi, BC Today. So the province has reached a tentative deal with 6,000 healthcare workers, which the HEU says provides for inflation, sensitive wage increases and other compensation improvements. Here in the next provincial budget. Wow. So a lot of questions in there. And thank you and welcome to the scrum. So while negotiations are currently under way with the public sector, it can't really provide too many details because it still has to be ratified, it has to go back to the members and I want to respect that. What I can say is that this is a reasonable and fair deal for employees now, as well as three years from now. And the deal needs to balance the needs of all of these public sector workers, including the healthcare workers that you mentioned with our fiscal responsibilities for the province and the people of British Columbia. Alec, do you have a follow-up? No, I'm good. Thank you very much. Thank you. And our last question on site is from Justin Samanski-Langier, Black Press. Thank you, Premier. People with disabilities in BC have been struggling to afford the daily necessities and have been even before the current economic situation became what it is. Is the government planning to expand financial support for people living with disabilities in British Columbia? Thank you very much for the question. And one of the first things we did upon being sworn in in 2017 was increase income assistance and disability pensions. And we did that again the next year and last year's budget was the largest increase in BC history. And we still have a long way to go. The challenges of living with a disability in British Columbia increase as time goes by. We need to make sure that we're providing the resources that those families, those individuals need to make ends meet at the end of the day and provide other opportunities as well. And that's what we've been focusing on, trying to ensure that the earnings exemption, for example, for those who are on income assistance or disability pensions can earn a bit more to supplement the pensions that they're already entitled to as part of our budget process. I know Minister Robinson will look at these issues very closely through the fall and preparing the budget for 2023. You have a follow-up? Yes, on the same note there, some disabled British Columbians have chosen medically assisted death. Due to the lack of support they feel they've received to continue living. What do you think that says about the government's approach and does that change anything about what the approach will be moving forward? I'm not familiar with anything other than anecdotal evidence of what you're just asking me. So I don't want to speculate on that. Individuals are just that. They make choices to meet their needs. I'm not aware of the circumstances that you're just describing to me. So I'll leave that, it's okay with you. Have one more question on the phone line. Von Palmer, Vancouver Sun. Oh, good afternoon, Premier. Hey, Von. Sorry, I'm not out there in Langford with you. I hear it's a beautiful place. You should venture out of Fairfield every now and again. It's lovely out here. Even out of my basement, you should say, but the cap on rent. So you've capped rent well below the rate of inflation. Doesn't that discourage investment in rental housing and development of rental housing? It does have consequences, absolutely, Von. And that's why we're continuing to work with the landlords of BC to try and find ways that we can meet their needs in the long term. But we have a short-term crisis, quite frankly, and 1.5 million British Columbians that rent will benefit from this, and it still is an increase, as I said, comparable to that that's going, taking place in Nova Scotia and slightly below what's happening in Ontario. But I absolutely agree that we need to ensure that the very vital housing stock that's provided not by massive landlords, but small landlords who are renting out part of their basement or a second property in a community that they don't even live in just to try and make ends meet. We need to be conscious of that, and we are. We're monitoring that and we'll keep talking and seeing where we need to go in the months ahead. Von, do you have a follow-up? Yes, please. Premier, is the government still working on legislation that would allow the province to override local government in order to expedite approval of needed types of housing? Hey, Von, it's Selena here as the previous housing minister. And I can say that I've been working very closely with David E. B. on a range of tools that we are considering to do an update to the 30 point plan that we brought forward in 2018. We've certainly all heard David E. B. speak to certainly his frustration and I think our government's frustration when there are really good viable projects brought forward in local governments for their own reasons, make decisions that don't support the fact that we are and continue to be in a challenged time around housing. And so that is something that we're continuing to work on through this time, even in David's absence from around the cabinet table. That's all the time we have for questions today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you.