Gary Coons

New census figures showing that B.C. is seeing the sharpest decline in incomes confirm what rural British Columbians have known for years: Gordon Campbell’s government has made this province a sharply divided society, NDP Leader Carole James says.

“These new figures confirm what average British Columbians feel. Under Gordon Campbell they aren’t benefiting from B.C.’s economy,” said James. “People are working harder but making less. And with costs increasing, balancing the family budget is harder than ever.”
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Bill 21, which adds the principle of ‘sustainability’ to the healthcare act is the first step towards greater privatization of our healthcare system says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.

“It isn’t as though just by slapping the term ‘sustainable’ on our medical system, costs will magically decrease,” said Coons. “I do not believe it’s unreasonable to ask the Minister of Health what the point of this legislation is. It does nothing to improve health care.”

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This week, North Coast MLA Gary Coons was asking ministers tough questions about the status of the Tsimshian Peninsula Fixed Link Project. The project, which has been in the works for several years now, has not been treated with the importance it deserves, according to Coons.

“The Mayor of Prince Rupert, Herb Pond, has called this infrastructure investment ‘too practical to ignore,’ and I think he is correct,” Coons wrote to Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen, and Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon. “The outlying villages in the Tsimshian Peninsula need a reliable transportation corridor if economic development is ever going to become a reality in this area.”
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Seniors in British Columbia deserve to know that their concerns are heard by the government, North Coast MLA Gary Coons told the Legislature on Monday. Coons was advocating for the creation of an Independent Senior’s Representative.

“Our elders deserve to be treated with the highest level of care and respect,” said Coons. “However, seniors throughout British Columbia are facing grave difficulties with a care system that is cold, impersonal and fails to take individual needs into account.”
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I recently read a report put together by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that shed light on the unfortunate and depressing reality facing people on welfare in this province. Most of the people that the study looked at were facing tremendous barriers to success, and it seems that our own government policies were often one of the biggest of those barriers.

Homelessness, addiction, and poverty are expensive. It seems the expenses that result from these problems are rooted in the politics of “being cheap”. The government claims that there is not enough money to fix social problems while running up 4 billion dollar plus budgetary surplus.

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In today’s question period, New Democrat MLA Gary Coons highlighted the negative impact of the B.C. Liberal policies on Prince Rupert’s schools.

“Prince Rupert’s Kanata Elementary was scheduled to receive a playground grant but is instead closing in September now,” said Coons, the MLA for North Coast.  “Meanwhile, Pineridge Elementary is desperately seeking funding to build an accessible playground. But apparently, according to the Campbell government, it isn’t needy enough compared to the elite private schools in Vancouver and didn’t get any money.”

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The government needs to support made-in-BC solutions to climate change while helping communities and regions transition to less carbon intensive economies, says North Coast MLA Gary Coons. Coons has been pushing the government to work with local expertise to create carbon savings in the north.

“It is short sighted of this government to delay the implantation of the Haida Gwaii Carbon Forest Pilot Project,” said Coons. “Especially since the project would be supporting another innovative, solutions oriented, local Prince Rupert business, Freegro.”

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Playgrounds aren’t a luxury; they are an essential component of growing up healthy and happy, says Gary Coons. The North Coast MLA hopes the province will step in to help the Pineridge PAC, which has raised 88 thousand dollars to build the city’s first accessible playground, make up the remainder of the funds required for the project.

“Really, I’d like to see every needy school in the province get access to funds for modern, inclusive playground equipment,” said Coons. “At the very least, every community should have at least one accessible playground. At the moment, none of the playgrounds in Prince Rupert meet CSA standards.”

The need for funds for the Pineridge playground is urgent, as the school will lose access to a 50 thousand dollar grant from the Rick Hansen foundation if the project isn’t funded up to $100 thousand by June 2008. The government recently announced funding for school playgrounds across the province, but the only school in Prince Rupert to get an allocation was Kanata elementary. Since the school is slated to close, that money won’t be forthcoming.

“I’ve written the Solicitor-General to ask him if he could, at the very least, reallocate the $17000 that would have gone to Kanata to Pineridge,” says Coons. “It wouldn’t be fair to take that money completely out of Prince Rupert, given this community’s desperate need for playground upgrades.”

The Prince Rupert School District has the third highest percentage of vulnerable children in the province; over 48% of children in the district are not ready to start kindergarten when they begin school.

“Kids in Prince Rupert need a supportive and positive school atmosphere to help them overcome the barriers they are facing. An accessible playground, like the one designed for Pineridge, would help send the message to our young people that they are valued,” noted Coons. “I hope the Solicitor-General sees the tremendous opportunity here to reach out to a community with lots of vulnerable youth, and to show his support for the effort the Pineridge PAC has put into this project.”

A recent announcement that the wreck at Robson’s Bight will be cleaned up by the province and the federal government has North Coast MLA Gary Coons wondering why the Queen of the North is being left to continuously leak contaminants into the marine environment near Hartley Bay, putting the health and well being of the community at risk.
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North Coast MLA Gary Coons is encouraged that the Liberal MLA Bill Bennett, formerly minister of Energy and Mines, has chosen to take the lead from his constituents by speaking out against coal mining and coalbed methane development in the Flathead Valley. Coons hopes Bennett’s colleague, Liberal MLA Dennis MacKay, will learn from Bennett’s mistakes and start listening to people in the Bulkley Valley-Stikine who want the Sacred Headwaters protected from coalbed methane extraction.

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