February 16, 2006, Penticton

Check Against Delivery

It’s really great to be here, and it’s great to have such a fine introduction.

You know, when you hear those things, it makes you a little bit nervous. But I want to tell you: The reason that I am as confident as I am about tourism in British Columbia, about what this province can do and where this province can go, is I see what British Columbians have done in the last five years.

Just think back five years and think of how much better you feel, how much stronger you feel, how much more optimistic you are about this province. British Columbia is leading the country in job growth. We were looked to for leadership, and we are going to provide that leadership in B.C. and in Canada.

I want to thank my cousin Mike. Every time I see Mike Campbell is going to introduce me, I think: Oh, I thought he said he wasn’t going to mix his career with my career.

But I do want to say that Mike has been a great player, and that is because of your leadership. It’s because of people who are willing to talk directly to us, tell us where they’ve got challenges, and also come to the table with lots of solutions, ways that we can continue to build the industry and the foundation of tourism in British Columbia.

Mike Campbell has been a great leader for you, and I want to say thank you to Mike for all that time and hard work. Thank you for giving it to British Columbia.

I’m pleased that this year I am joined by a true leader and true advocate for tourism in British Columbia -- the Minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, Olga Ilich, is with us today.

Here we are in Penticton, a place an awful lot of us have visited and enjoyed.

The Speaker of the House has got to be back in the House because someone has got to keep that place in order: You know that. So Bill Barisoff is not with us today, but I know that he would want me to say how great it is to be in Penticton.

I am also speaking for my colleague, the Minister of Revenue and Small Business, Rick Thorpe, who’s also been a strong advocate of tourism in Penticton. Rick is proud of Penticton. He was one of the people that would participate in the Elvis event every year. You can see from his haircut that he’s decided to put that part of his life behind him.

You know, one of the things about Penticton that’s so exceptional is the way you continue to build your tourism industry. You’ve recognized your strengths, and you’ve stopped to ask, “How do we attract more and more people to our part of the world, to this part of the Okanagan, the southern Okanagan?” Whether it’s the IronMan, the Wine Festival, which is declared one of the hundred most exceptional tourist activities in 2006, right here in British Columbia, it’s a real tribute to the people here, to the wine industry and to Penticton, for the leadership you have shown. And I want to congratulate you for that work. It’s great work for on behalf of all British Columbians.

Today, I want to talk to you about where we are. Sometimes we set goals for ourselves, and we think to ourselves: That seems pretty far-reaching and maybe we can’t attain that goal. But I want to tell you this: I believe that this industry, that this province, with what we have before us, is about to have another major break through. Tourism in this province is about to take off in every single region of British Columbia.

If you just look at the video that we were presented by the Thompson Okanagan Association, you just start to see a small bit of what British Columbia has to offer tourists, people that come and visit us in this province.

Now, a lot of our natural endowments, the exceptional natural environment that we live in is really something that we can build on, and we have been building on in B.C. more and more.

I’ve had the experience now of being in three political campaigns. Two I remember particularly well. In those two, my sons were with me as we went through those campaigns. You know, seeing this province through a young person’s eyes who has not been able to experience all that this province has to offer, starts to give us an understanding of what the world sees when they come to British Columbia.

We’re a province that’s larger than England, France, and Germany combined. We’re a province with enormous diversity. We’re a province with huge opportunities, and  today we have a chance to ask ourselves, “What is tourism?” It’s sharing those opportunities with the world. It’s saying to the world: You’re welcome to come; you’re welcome to experience the best that we have to offer in British Columbia.

You know what? Go anywhere else in the world; you won’t find anything better than what we have to offer right here in our province, in your region, in British Columbia, Canada.

Think of the places that you haven’t been to in B.C. yet. How many of you have been to New Aiyansh? How many? Three. How many of you have actually gone to the world’s largest deciduous forests in the Peace? How many people understand that we have world-class resorts, not one, not two, but half a dozen of them in the Kootenays?

How many people in B.C. today really understand that you don’t have to go down to the Napa Valley to have a wine experience that’s second to none? You can go to the Okanagan Valley and you will see things that are the top of the line. Go to the Mission Hill vineyard; look at that; it’s spectacular.

I don’t know how many of you can imagine what it would have been like on the west coast of Vancouver Island at Chesterman’s Beach just a week or ten days ago when those storms were happening I mean, you can look at picture books of those storms and those spectacular beaches, but you know what? For a little bit of time, we get to own those storms. We get to say, “Why don’t you come and sit in one of our hotels and look out and watch those storms? I don’t advise you to go out in a sea kayak, but watch it from your hotel room, walk along the beach, see what it’s like, feel what it’s like. That’s British Columbia.” Put the picture books down and get here.

Just a few days ago we announced the Central and North Coast plans for our province. That’s going to protect areas three times the size of Prince Edward Island.

You know, I flew up there a few days beforehand to a little village an hour’s north of Bella Bella by helicopter. You arrive, and you see some houses. Then, you go into what they call their Big House, and I’ll tell you it is spectacular.

How many of you have been to the U’mista Cultural Centre at Alert Bay? It’s spectacular. People from around the world want to go there and we have to share it with them. We have to tell them it’s there, we have to invite them in, and we have to be sure that we take full advantage of this.

How many people in this room like to play golf? How many of you play it well?

British Columbia has some of the best golf courses in the world. We have them, right here, in this province.

We’re about to invite the world in a way that, even today, even with 2010 just four years away, it’s hard for us to understand what that will mean to our tourism industry, to our province, to our young people, and to our communities. But what we have to do is remember that 2010 is just a springboard. The interesting part of that springboard is it’s starting to raise us up already. You know, we got right out to the end of that diving board in 2003, and we pushed it down. On July 1, 2003 it started to come back up, and it’s going to keep on coming back up, through 2010 and after 2010.

Our tourism industry is going to keep building and building and building, so that in just ten years we are going to double the tourism industry in British Columbia.

In 2008 the North American Indigenous Games are coming to the Cowichan Valley. They’re going to generate millions and millions of dollars of economic opportunities for us.

The 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the 21st episode, right here in British Columbia, Canada. We are inviting the world. Think of what that can do. We have to get prepared, we have to get ready, and being ready means recognizing that tourism is really about people; it's really about relationships; it's really about understanding what people want when they come and they visit us. It's not just mountains and Mounties, although I understand from British Columbia-Canada House in Torino that Mounties are still pretty darned popular. Give me a uniform; I'm ready to go.

We have to do more than that. We have to build on mountains and mounties. And so what we've announced as a province is we intend to establish a new national centre for northwest aboriginal rights and cultures. We're going to establish a new Asia-Pacific Museum of Trade and Culture. We're going to establish a new women's history museum.

Now, sometimes we don't recognize how well-regarded we are around the world. Today in Washington D.C., in the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, there is a featured exhibit on the native art of the Pacific Northwest. Just listen to this. There are artistic and cultural facilities there from all around; they could pick wherever they wanted. There are two aboriginal communities from Washington State, there is one community from Alaska, but there are ten from British Columbia, Canada. Ten B.C. First Nations communities on display to the world. It is a huge gift from Haida Gwaii to Hazelton, from Prince George to Princeton. We have First Nations with cultural artefacts, with a cultural idea that they can share with the world, and we can build on that.

As we think of the future, we have to think about what tourists want, what visitors want. It's not unusual, I have to be honest, for us in government to think what we would like for people to want. But what we have to do is to ask what they want.

As we build British Columbia, we're coming up to 2008. In 2008 British Columbia will celebrate its 150th anniversary as a province. We're going to celebrate that. We’re going to celebrate our history. We're going to celebrate our past. We're going to celebrate, and we're going to think about where we want to go in the future, and we're going to work with you to make sure British Columbians know what we have to offer, what British Columbians have built over the last 150 years. It's a great opportunity for us as we think of where we want to be and as we build the platform to double the amount of tourism activity in this province in just ten years.

So over the next few weeks you're going to hear from us. We're going to ask for those who are interested in joining us in putting together a provincewide program. Remember this: As we think of the world, it starts with home. About 49 percent of British Columbia's tourism is British Columbians touring British Columbia, but still there are not enough British Columbians taking full advantage of all the opportunities that British Columbia's tourism industry offers. So we want to make sure that we use this as a way of encouraging British Columbians to come and visit their own province. What we have to do is remember that we have to expand our horizons, and we can expand them a great way and still stay at home.

There are big advantages to that. I can tell you, the golf courses in the Kootenays, the golf courses in the Okanagan, the golf courses in the Cariboo, the golf courses on Vancouver Island are just as good as any golf courses in Arizona or California. In fact, they're better. For those of you who are learning how to play golf or trying to play golf, I can tell you: It's a really simple game when it's hot and warm and sunny and dry. Try and learn it in the cold rain and you’re automatically a better player. We have great golf courses here, and we can make them work, and we will make them work.

We're going to move towards 2008 together. As we move towards that 150th celebration, we're going to work with you. We're going to work with communities so every community in British Columbia has the spirit of 2008 and are recognized for what they've contributed to the province.

And we're also going to make sure that as we do that, we build towards 2010. We're going to learn about the things that really work in these communities to be part of 2010. Here in Penticton they are looking forward to expanding their convention centre. There's an opportunity through the economic development initiatives we've put in place for them to be able to do that. Right now it's the third-busiest convention centre in the province. We want to continue to build that. When we bring conventions to the Lower Mainland, 60 percent of the people that come to the Lower Mainland, to the convention centre there, take trips out to the rest of the province. We want to make sure that we expand on that.

This year we want to enhance tourism experiences in British Columbia, so we're going to be working with your industry. We're going to have a summer tourism program; we're going to have a winter tourism program. We're going to remind British Columbians of something that's really important — I heard it just at the end of the video: We do live in the best place on Earth, and we might as well take advantage of that right here at home in British Columbia.

But we do have work to do, and it's going to be an exciting time, because there's an awful lot of activity taking place in the province. I was in Prince George last week or the week before, and they told me they're projecting about $89 billion of construction activity across this province. It's in roads, and it's in hospitals, and it's in schools. It's in universities. It's in housing. It's in communities. It's huge.

So we're going to have to plan out where we're investing and how we're moving forward and how we're making it easier for people to move around the province. When we talk about a gateway, we're talking about a gateway to British Columbia. The Pacific gateway is through British Columbia. When we think about expanding our own tourism and building our base up, we have to recognize people have got to get around the province. That's why we've committed to investing $200 million in the first phase of four-laning the Cariboo Connector. It's why we're going to invest $730 million in the Kicking Horse Canyon to bring people into British Columbia safely and securely. And they're going to arrive in Golden, and they're going to see that it is part of the best place on Earth, and that Gateway Centre is going to show them all of the things that British Columbia has to offer.

We're going to make sure our airports are getting improvements. We've got an airport improvement going ahead in Cranbrook. People can land in Cranbrook, and they can go all through the Kootenays. We've got airport improvements that are taking place on Vancouver Island, and already they're feeling the push and the opportunity across the northern part of the Island because of the airport expansion that we've seen in Comox.

Right here in the Okanagan significant road and transportation improvements — $144 million in the William R. Bennett Bridge to cross the Okanagan so it's not a place where we stop. It's a place that we move through and we experience the entire Okanagan region.

These gateways are critically important for our long-term future. About half of the province's population lives in the southwest corner, so as we move them out of that southwest corner we want them to think of going up to Williams Lake, or to Penticton.

I did that last summer. I decided to drive up to Penticton. You know the most difficult part of the trip? Any ideas? The Port Mann Bridge. It was about an hour to get there, and I thought, well, good. I did it. And then it was an hour to get to Langley. Nancy's sitting beside me saying, “We left at the wrong time.” I said, “Nance, this is going on for 13 hours a day. What time did you want to go? Three in the morning?"

Transportation is important. Moving people is important. So I want people to know that we're going to double the Port Mann Bridge, we're going to free up the flow of people and goods through the province, because that's how you get the economic lifeblood moving, and it's how you get the social lifeblood moving in the province.

Everyone in B.C. will benefit from that. Everyone in the province benefits as we improve Highway 16 that takes you from Prince George to Prince Rupert. Everyone in the province will benefit from improving the ferry services along the coast. Everyone in the province will benefit from better rail connections all through British Columbia.

And if we can think of that and think of bringing people here and moving them through the province, we are going to be more than successful in doubling our tourism. If we invite them, they will come. When we advertise, and we tell the world about British Columbia, they will come. And we're going to see more and more coming.

Here is what's important. When they come, they have to have an experience that they will never forget, and it should be a good one. Those bad experiences you never forget are not ones you want to repeat. So, B.C. should be a good experience.

So what is a good experience? Well, let me just use myself as an example. I have chatted with you before. Right now in the province of British Columbia we have 60,000 visitors from China every year — 60,000. Now, I want you to put this in your head and sort of think of the context of this. Now, 2020 is just 14 years away. Fourteen years ago it was 1992. How many people remember 1992? How many people feel like 1992 was really a long, long time ago? It was just yesterday. Let me tell you, 2020 is just tomorrow.

This year 60,000 visitors from China came to British Columbia. By 2020 it is anticipated there will be 100 million Chinese tourists a year — 100 million. Canada will be an approved destination for China: 100 million, approved destination. British Columbia is the only Pacific province in Canada. British Columbia, Pacific province. We are the closest province to China. That's why we are going to encourage direct flights from China to B.C. One hundred million.

They arrive. This is my Cantonese: Gung hay fat choy. What do you say to a visitor after: Gung hay fat choy? I've visited China. Do you know how they speak to me when I go to China? "Hi, Mr. Campbell, nice to have you here. There's your hotel room." They're speaking in my language.

If we want someone to feel comfortable, we have to be speaking to them in their language, so whether they’re from China or Japan or India -- the fastest-growing middle class in the world -- or Korea, we have to develop a facility for communicating with those people, a product that they want and in a language that they understand. That's why the government is committing to do more language training specifically. It's not just for high school students or school students. It's for all of us.

And we can all do it. We can all learn the language. We can provide those supports; we can provide that special treatment because if we do, they'll come back. If we make them feel comfortable, they're coming back to B.C. As they come back, we'll see a larger and larger and larger market building up. If we make them feel uncomfortable and someone else does better — because believe me, the world knows about the Chinese tourists; the world knows about how tourism is growing — we know what's going to happen. They're going to go somewhere else.

This is what I know about British Columbia. I've been very fortunate over the last ten years now to travel around this province. When British Columbians set their minds to doing something, when British Columbians say they can be the best, we can be the best. We can be the best for China, for best for India and the best for the world — certainly, the best for Canada. We should lead the country and show them how to do this.

Those are objectives that we've set for ourselves, and they're objectives that we can reach. It's really important, though, for you to be part of that, for COTA to be able to say to us: “Yes, this is what can do,” because this is a hugely exciting time for us, and we get one shot at it.

I'm so excited about being here in this place at this time in the world knowing what we have to offer. We're going to build our alliances with the American tourism associations, with governors across the United States to make sure that we have that free flow of people and activities, social activity, which is so critical for our industry, and we can build it here in British Columbia.

We are going to have the Olympics probably once in our lifetimes, and it's coming, and it's going to be so great. You know, there's just 1,456 days left to go. That time is going to go even faster than it went from 1992 to 2006: 1,456 days.

In just a few weeks, the Paralympic flame will be turned off. And I've seen the ad on television right now that says the flame keeps on for these on for these athletes between the games, and they keep training, and I want you to know that flame is going to keep going for British Columbia and for Canada and for Canadian athletes and for Canadian communities as we move through the next 1,456 days. And we're going to continue to build. We're going to continue to be an example of excellence. We're going to continue to show people what we have to offer. We're going to reach out to one another, and we're going to reach out around the world, and we're going to bring people to this province.

Torino 2006 was coming up, and we said to ourselves: “We want to go. We want to be a presence in Torino. We want to show the world in some way what British Columbia, Canada, has to offer.” And we were talking about it, and we said, you know, this should be a partnership. We should bring in sponsors. We should make sure that we're showing British Columbia for what it is and the things that are unique about the province, so Sitka Log Homes agreed to build British Columbia-Canada Place in the centre of Torino.

And there were people that said we shouldn't show our log homes; we're much more modern than that. But this is how good British Columbia is: We have log homes and we're modern — both. And when you walk into B.C.-Canada Place, it is one of the hottest places to go in Torino right now. The international community is going to it. Athletes are going to it. The people who visit the Olympics are going to it. Do you know what they're saying? "That's incredible. That's great. We're coming back."

We decided that when we were going to put B.C.-Canada Place in Torino, we were going to do something that British Columbians would be proud of and that would show off our province, and I can tell you this. It is a huge success.

So, 2010 is coming. It's your chance to show off your province, to talk about your tourism province, to talk about what you're most excited about being here in this place. We want to be sure that you can do that.

We can all come out of 2010 winners, but we're only winners when we keep focused on the things that we want to do that are important to us, when we keep committed and disciplined and drive towards that goal. After 2010 comes to British Columbia, Canada, Canadians will be proud and British Columbia will be proud, and as our athletes stand on that podium and receive their medals, we'll all cheer.

But what's really important for all of you in this room to remember is this: 2010 is the beginning; 2010 is an opportunity that we will never see again but it will open a door to additional years of success, of excitement, of investment, of entrepreneurship and of excellence for British Columbians and your industry. You've led all the way from 1986 to 2006. You know how to show our province. You know what to do. You know what's required. We're going to work with you to make sure in 2010, when the Olympic flag goes down, when the flame goes out, that in British Columbia everyone in tourism and B.C. will be a gold medal winner. Thank-you very much.