I think the bill greatly improves the ability to argue for change in B.C. The inclusion of social, economic, and cultural factors...there are many ways in which it lays a foundation that will make it much easier to argue for change.
Implementing it, however, depends on policy and regulation change, and that's going to be a tougher conversation. There needs to be work done to explore the options. As I said earlier, I believe there are options, and we're doing our own analysis on what those options may look like, just to provide evidence and data and analysis to the partners we're working with to help them form their decisions.
It's very hard, however, to know what exactly that will look like. I can't say exactly what it will look like right now, but I believe there are real options and real transitions that can happen. I think it can be done in a fair, principled way such that it doesn't compromise people who get caught up in the change.
What we heard at the gathering was that people consider this urgent. It needs to be timely and it needs to be committed to. Although we feel strongly about the necessity of the independent review, we would not want it to be used to shelve or delay action. I think the government's supporting of engagement while simultaneously exploring what the options for transition could be is doable; it has been done. The work has to be done, though, to figure out what the option is.
I believe this can happen, and I believe that the bill will more greatly enable it to happen.