North Island–Coast Development Initiative Trust Act (Bill 7)
October 18, 2005
North Island–Coast Development Initiative Trust Act (Bill 7)
Second Reading Debates [Click to view video]

R. Cantelon: I rise to enthusiastically support the North Island–Coast Development Initiative Trust Act. I bring my support from the perspective of a city councillor for six years in the city of Nanaimo. Many is the time we travelled the long road down here to Victoria, cap in hand, to meet various ministers to seek funding for one of our projects in our local area — very successfully on many occasions. In fact, I want to compliment and thank the government for their support of our Vancouver Island conference centre, where they contributed $8.3 million, a significant amount, towards the project in Nanaimo. That's a significant contribution that makes the project viable.

This is an inspired and creative legislation because, basically, the effect of it is to put the money and the power to use it in the hands of the local communities. Now, I referred earlier to the Vancouver Island conference centre, which is a major project in the Nanaimo area. We are going to be building a 40,000-square-foot conference centre. There will be a large, new Marriott hotel, a 16,000-square-foot museum and an auditorium to be used for public meetings, including city halls.

So in looking for funding support, we decided to contact all the local municipalities. Of course, the general idea, and it was mentioned by the previous speaker opposite, that there could be a tendency to pit one community against the other…. Much to our surprise and pleasure, the other communities — including Duncan, North Cowichan, as far away as Port Hardy and Port Alberni — supported the project. The reason for that is they saw this initiative as a strategic initiative that would bring new business and new economic opportunities to the centre part of the Island.

Where I'm going with this is that we learned from that experience that the communities are willing to work corroboratively, that they're willing to work together on projects like that. That's why this legislation is so appropriate to the times. Communities are able to work together and recognize what the strategic impacts are that affect their communities. It's far better, may I say — with all due respect to our own government here in Victoria — than a more remote administration.

This bill, and this fund, gives them the opportunity to set their own priorities. In fact, this bill requires that they do just that. They're not able to act and just cut cheques and send all the money out. They must act within the context of a well-thought out plan that looks at the area strategically, that gives the entire area the biggest bang for the dollar.

The speaker opposite talked about pitting against…. But at the same time, the speaker opposite also mentioned working together. Perhaps it's my optimistic nature that I believe that they will work together, and that's been my experience — that they're eager to work together.

There are many projects in the central Island area that can easily be identified. One of the needs is for a larger airport in the central Island area so that people don't have to go over the Malahat to get on a plane to get to Calgary. That's a key element. Another one that affects the entire Island is the E&N railway project. Certainly, that's a project that this committee may look at. There are others. There are cruise ship terminals. That's up for the communities to decide.

I respect that the speaker opposite said that they want it to be independent, although I notice that she said she'll try to make sure that they get their own support, which would seem to me to be a type of political influence, Mr. Speaker, if I may say. Nevertheless, they will be independent. They'll be guided by the regional boards, and then they will have to act absolutely independently. I expect that they will. It's a great opportunity. It's a wonderful program.

I think they have two approaches. That's one reason that they have to require a five-year plan. It would be easy to dole the money out in smaller amounts and try to fulfil so much for each community, but that is not the concept. The concept is to do projects that significantly impact a broader area and that bring business, whether it be tourism or other economic developments, to an entire area.

In doing that, one of the people we talked to — a banker who may well be a possible candidate for the board, a man with great perspective — indicated that you lever the money. You don't just hand it out. You try to keep the trust money in a working fund so that you can use that to lever other funds, either from private investment or other orders of government, to have a multiplying effect on the fund itself. While it's a $50-million fund, it may have the effect of $150 million, or even more times that, in terms of capital investment to the region.

This is a great bill. This is a groundbreaking bill for the entire Island. This answers many of the issues that we've had over the years about how we get funding and how we use it. It puts the power in the hands of the community. I'm very optimistic and assured that they're going to work together, because they know their areas the best, for strategic investments that will greatly improve the economic opportunity in their areas.

In closing, I just want to say, again, that I think this is a very innovative bill, a creative bill. It will unleash the creative juices in all those areas. I'm sure we'll see many innovative ways that they use this money to good advantage for their regions.
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