B.C. Premier David Eby speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, on Jan. 7.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
The B.C. government is scrambling to calculate what the current paralysis in Ottawa will mean for key programs that rely heavily on federal financial support, including housing, infrastructure and child care.
The prorogation of Parliament, announced Monday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to give the Liberal Party time to determine his successor, could cost the province funds that were promised by Ottawa but have not yet been delivered, warned B.C. Premier David Eby.
“There may be implications for funding that had been announced but not delivered. To be blunt and frank, we saw a lot of announcements of funding that weren’t delivered to British Columbia,” Mr. Eby told reporters at a Tuesday news conference. One example is the $215-million the federal government promised to support Metro Vancouver infrastructure – the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade – that is in limbo.
Mr. Eby said he’ll be meeting Wednesday with the country’s premiers to discuss how Canada can prepare for the prospect of U.S. tariffs after Mr. Trudeau’s announcement this week that he will step down. While that decision means months of uncertainty for Canada’s national leadership and likely an early federal election, the premiers will have to fill the void on the trade front, Mr. Eby said.
“I‘ll be joining with the premiers from across Canada and heading to Washington, D.C. to make our case to decision-makers in the United States that the proposed tariffs from the president-elect will mean a significant increase in prices for Americans.”
As the premiers prepare strategies to respond to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s intent to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian imports, the provinces are also contending with uncertainty about federal supports for domestic programs.
In B.C., the province’s flagship programs to invest in new housing and to subsidize daycare have been buttressed by federal funding. Mr. Eby said his government isn’t counting on any funding that hasn’t been delivered, but he said those programs need to be maintained with or without federal support.
“We’ll have a look at whether and how that announcement affects any programs or initiatives that we had planned at the provincial level that were counting on federal funding. But I can tell you we don’t count on the federal money until it’s in the bank.”
Jill Atkey, chief executive officer of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, said there is a great deal on the line during the political upheaval in Ottawa. The federal government promised $2-billion in 2024 to BC Builds, an initiative to build more housing for people with middle incomes. But her chief worry is that Ottawa won’t follow through with its promise to protect renters.
“While we anticipate that some longer-standing housing programs will continue as scheduled, the program most at risk is the Canada Rental Protection Fund,” she said. That $1.5-billion fund, announced last April by Mr. Trudeau, was meant to protect affordable housing and create thousands of new affordable apartments.
B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey will deliver the province’s next budget on March 4, and her government is already under considerable fiscal pressure. The current fiscal year is forecast to end in a record $9.4-billion deficit, and the NDP government made $3-billion worth of new spending commitments for the coming year during the fall election campaign.
While it is unclear who will deliver the next federal budget or when, Mr. Eby said he doesn’t expect Mr. Trudeau’s successor would tamper with federal supports for child care that are now available across the country.
The NDP government in B.C. launched a $10-per-day daycare program in 2017. In 2021, it was first province to reach an agreement with Ottawa on federal child-care funding.
“I think it would be a remarkable thing for the federal government or any party to cut supports to families right now that depend on child care,” Mr. Eby said. “We’re ensuring that families get the support they need. That’s a priority for us, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Sharon Gregson of the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC agreed it would politically unwise to cut supports that now are available.
“It seems highly unlikely that a new prime minister or new government would want the inevitable backlash of seeing a million families across Canada have their child care fees double, triple or more with the removal of federal funding. It would crush families financially and likely result in many mothers leaving the workforce,” she said.