B.C. New Democrats twisted every arm, deployed every trick and burnt every bridge possible in order to get Bill 15 passed in the final hours of the spring session this week. But was it worth it?
It’s a question that may prove to haunt the NDP, once it finds itself on the receiving end of protests and legal challenges that could tie it up for years.
The First Nations Leadership Council on Thursday reiterated calls to fight the government at every step for ignoring consultation, setting up the prospect of a long, bitter fight that could spill over into any number of other issues in unexpected ways.
“Premier Eby and his government have chosen to ignore our voices, dismiss our rights and trample on the very reconciliation framework they helped create,” said BC Association of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee.
“The damage to our relationship will be profound and lasting. But First Nations do not have the luxury of walking away from this fight. Our ancestors demand that we continue to stand up for our rights and title, as our future generations depend on it.”
New Democrats showed no signs of worry about the consequences as they applauded themselves in the chamber late Wednesday night. They closed the session Thursday drunk on their own bathwater, unwilling or unable to see they had bungled the issue from start to finish.
The vote exposed how weak the governing party has become, after losing eight seats in the October election. It was essentially a tie. Without Speaker Raj Chouhan abandoning the neutrality of his post to prop the government up on a confidence matter, the Eby government would have fallen.
It’s hardly a situation worth applauding. The moment shone a spotlight on a tired party devoid of bench strength; a shadow of what John Horgan once led.
Within the span of the month, New Democrats have managed to torch eight years of goodwill with Indigenous leaders, municipalities and other allies. The premier used up all the political capital he had in reserve, and then some.
Along the way, the NDP found itself forced to go all-in on Bill 15. It’s not a position the government intended. As criticism mounted, it started to panic, describing the bill in more grandiose terms to justify its stubbornness. It was like watching someone sink in quicksand.
What was once just enabling legislation for Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma, quickly snowballed into the lynchpin of the province’s economic future, a critical tool without which provincial schools would become overcrowded, and hospitals overwhelmed.
“The urgency for the Infrastructure Projects Act will be clear to any parent who is struggling to enroll their child in the school of their choice close to home, only to find that that school is completely bursting, brimming with students, and they have to drive their student, their child, to a school on the other end of town,” said Ma, during one of her more ludicrous descriptions of the bill.
“The urgency will be clear to any teacher that is teaching a classroom of students in a musty portable.
“We have seen an enormous growth in population here in British Columbia, and communities are calling upon us to move quickly on the projects that are important to them, the schools, the hospitals, the long-term care homes, the cancer centres, the Infrastructure Projects Act is about that.”
The problem in describing Bill 15 in such a way, is that now government will be expected to deliver.
Mayors in fast-growing communities like Surrey will point to overwrought political promises and say: OK, build our schools. Get our teachers out of musty portables. Get cracking on our new hospitals. What’s stopping the government now that it has its much-hyped, shiny, special new law?
But the fundamentals that straightjacketed the NDP on schools and hospitals the past eight years have not changed: The provincial treasury is broke, land is scarce, there’s a labour shortage and the price of materials keeps rising.
Bill 15 solves none of that. It speeds up permitting delays, which will help little if the province can’t afford to build the school or hospital in the first place. There’s no room left in the capital plan, with ballooning debt, record deficits and credit downgrades.
Worse, the bungled passage of Bill 15 may even leave New Democrat MLAs in key regions like Surrey more exposed to criticism, because they can no longer point to the bogeymen of local government, red tape and permitting for their inaction.
On private projects, Bill 15 contains extraordinary power to let cabinet designate a project in the provincial interest and unlock powers to rewrite environmental and permitting rules to build it faster.
Perhaps that will help, in some cases. But because the politicians now choose which projects to give special treatment, it will put anything selected under a microscope for connections to NDP insiders, lobbyists and donors.
Just the use of Bill 15 on a project in the future will make it a hyper-partisan event and the subject of polarizing debate in the legislature. Any expediency gained will have to be weighed against the cost of being put under an intense, uncomfortable, spotlight that some private companies might want to avoid.
All of which makes you wonder if Bill 15 is a bit of a pyrrhic victory for the NDP.
Yes, New Democrats got it passed, but at immense political cost to relationships they once prized. The political losses were so heavy, and the gains so questionable, it may end up tantamount to defeat.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
[email protected]
🚨New newsletter alert! Stay ahead of the curve in B.C. politics. Get expert political analysis delivered straight to your inbox, plus inside scoops and other stories from across the province. Sign up here for the Capital & Coast newsletter
