Good morning.
While Ottawa is rife with political intrigue after the dramatic resignation of Chrystia Freeland as finance minister on Monday, British Columbia is having its own spate of drama.
The province will deliver its second quarterly fiscal update today, later than the Nov. 30 deadline the law stipulates in a non-election year, but within the extra time allowed because of the October vote.
Indications are that whatever the results are, they are already having an impact.
Last Tuesday, Premier David Eby told members of the BC Chamber of Commerce that his government had work to do “around the administration of government services and ensuring that that is right-sized for the work that’s actually out there.” The Premier promised the business audience that his government would “reset” its relationship with them.
The next day, B.C.’s head of the public service announced that the government would freeze hiring for the civil service. Public-sector unions were big boosters of the NDP in the last provincial election.
Paul Finch, president of the BC General Employees’ Union, which represents the majority of unionized civil-service workers, was perplexed in an interview with reporter Justine Hunter.
Contract negotiations with public-sector unions are to begin in January, but the BC NDP has been facing mounting criticism about its ballooning deficit. The red ink predicted when the budget was introduced last February amounted to $7.9-billion, but that climbed to $9-billion after the first quarterly update in September.
Election promises, including a grocery rebate for most households, are expected to push the deficit up to at least $10-billion, though that money hasn’t yet been spent: It will be in addition to whatever the updated deficit will be.
A co-operation agreement with the two Green MLAs in the legislature is expected to add $200-million in spending, though it’s unclear whether that will be new money or money found within the existing budget.
Standard & Poor’s downgraded the province’s credit rating this year from AA to AA- in response to the record deficit tabled in February. Moody’s still gives B.C. a triple-A rating over the long term but has downgraded its outlook to negative.
All of this would be cannon fodder for B.C.’s opposition parties, but they are having their own problems.
The Conservatives, who form the Official Opposition with 44 seats to the NDP’s 47, ran in the election in part on a platform of better fiscal management. But even before its MLAs – the vast majority of them rookies – take their seats in the legislative chamber, Conservative Leader John Rustad was fielding questions last week about whether his oft-stated commitment to allowing his members to speak their minds was going to be workable.
In a letter leaked to radio host Jas Johal, 13 new Conservative MLAs rebuked their colleague Elenore Sturko after she publicly supported the decision of a Vancouver police board member to resign for making comments she said could be offensive toward ethnic and gender minorities.
What followed was a Monty Pythonesque spectacle: The 13, who decried Sturko’s comments as evidence of cancel culture, wanted their leader to instead cancel Sturko, calling on him to make her apologize.
Rustad had two choices: abide by his commitment to allow his MLAs to speak out – including Sturko. Or side with the letter-writers who wanted him to reaffirm his commitment to free speech, in part by disciplining one of their colleagues who had exercised hers.
Rustad tried to do both: He posted a photo of himself with the ousted police board member and urged Sturko to meet with her, without ordering her to do anything. She declined.
“We are redefining a political party,” he said in an interview with Justine the day his caucus met to hash out their differences.
A year ago, British Columbians had another opposition and a different alternative to either the NDP or the Conservatives.
That evaporated in late August when then-BC United leader Kevin Falcon, without consulting with his candidates, cancelled the party’s campaign and urged British Columbians to get behind the Conservatives.
But the party still maintains an office, a few staff and its registration as a political party. As such, it has debt, lots of it. According to notes obtained by Justine from an internal meeting of BC United, the once-dominant party owes $930,000 to vendors and $270,000 to staff. It has only $170,000 in cash on hand, but its monthly costs are $92,000.
The party is begging its supporters for help, but it’s unclear who might be willing to extend charity: Those who supported Falcon’s decision to collapse the campaign in favour of the Conservatives have a new suitor to support. Those who were furious about the decision aren’t likely feeling generous.
According to the notes, though, swag is available for purchase for any true believers.
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.