NEW MINISTERS RUSH TO BE READY FOR TODAY'S START OF COVID-ERA SESSION
Veteran New Democrat MLA Nick Simons had been waiting 15 years to get the kind of phone call that came through to his desk in Powell River recently. It was Premier John Horgan, in the final stages of putting together his new cabinet, and he had a question for the MLA from Powell River– Sunshine Coast.
“The premier got on the phone and started talking,” said Simons. “And I switched from my right hand to my left hand. And my cheek hung up on the premier.”
Simons stared at the phone. The premier hadn't actually offered him a portfolio before the line went dead.
“I started laughing,” he said. “And I thought, `Well, it sounded like it was gonna be good news.'
“So then I answered the second call. And he said, `You going to hang up on me again?' And I said, `I don't think so.'”
Simons joked it was “an auspicious start” to what is otherwise a dream job.
The former social worker and criminologist worked briefly in the 1990s as a financial assistance worker, assessing people's eligibility for income assistance.
Today, the 55-year-old will (virtually) enter the legislature as the person responsible for all income assistance, as the minister of social development. He'll also oversee disability assistance, poverty reduction, accessibility legislation and the development of a basic income program for British Columbians.
Simons is one of the legislature's most skilled hecklers and debaters, and an eager participant in the building's cut-andthrust theatrics. Yet he expects to feel some nervousness when the legislature resumes today.
Horgan appointed eight new ministers after his re-election. Ministers have only had 11 days for briefings before being expected to stand in the house and debate issues or field questions.
“I've been sitting in a good seat for 15 years watching some of the best questions, and sometimes answers, back and forth,” said Simons.
“It's not an area that is daunting to me. I think I will enjoy that part of it, knowing that the important work to help people doesn't always show itself in that chamber.”
Joining Simons in cabinet for the first time is Ravi Kahlon, the minister of jobs, economic recovery and innovation. He said he'd asked Horgan for some type of economic field. He got his wish and then some, as the government's point person for economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's a high-responsibility post involving billions of dollars worth of decisions. But the legislative session is just the beginning of the hard work.
“It's going to be a short session,” said Kahlon. “For me, for the coming months, it's going to be critical to meet with as many small businesses, tourism operators and business leaders as possible. I believe to my core that the solutions post-pandemic are not only in government, they're in communities, they're with our business leaders, they're with our community leaders.”
It's not just rookies who'll arrive Monday with major shifts in their portfolios.
Horgan moved Selina Robinson from Municipal Affairs to the Ministry of Finance to succeed Carole James. Now she finds herself in the highest-profile ministry in government.
Finance, during the pandemic, has been a lot less about fiscal management than it has been about working across the province to craft the recovery programs needed to keep the economy from collapsing.
“I'm not an accountant, I'm a family therapist,” said Robinson, who ran a home-based practice before politics.
“I'm a people person. And I'm a strategic thinker. So I think, in this role, it is about relationships and it is about strategic thinking. Those are the things that I bring.”
Other cabinet veterans also start the session with new areas of responsibility.
David Eby remains attorney general, but he's also picked up affordable housing and homelessness.
Horgan removed the unpopular Insurance Corp. of B.C. from Eby's portfolio and replaced it with the equally unpopular issue of tent cities.
All Eby has to do now is figure out how to shut down the persistently large illegal encampment in Vancouver's Strathcona Park, house all its occupants, soothe angry and frightened neighbours who've watched crime skyrocket in the area, prevent any future tent cities from popping up in B.C. and continue government's contentious practice of building modular housing units for the homeless in communities that often don't want them.
“I don't think there's any easy solution,” said Eby. “I've asked B.C. Housing to come up with a plan to address the encampment and provide the people who are at the site with safe shelter, but also to address the concerns of the neighbourhood. There's a series of interests to be balanced.”
Eby also has to find a way to build 114,000 affordable rental and supportive housing units — the largest number in B.C.'s history — within 10 years, with four years already passed and so far unimpressive progress.
Eby said he intends to press Ottawa for more cash after it was revealed the federal government gives B.C. a paltry 0.5 per cent of federal housing funds, despite Vancouver having some of the worst housing affordability and homelessness problems.
“That's a basic fairness request,” he said.
He also plans to push the feds to better fund on-reserve affordable housing for First Nations, saying the lack of it contributes to the disproportionately high share of Indigenous people on the streets.
“It's an ongoing human rights scandal that the federal government has not stepped up to. It's squarely in their authority.”
Horgan said the legislative session will likely last two weeks.
Its primary focus will be on passing more than $2 billion in new spending for COVID-19 aid.
It's also possible extra assistance for the tourism sector and enhanced sick pay provisions could be debated during the session as well.
It all starts today with the election of a new Speaker, followed by an afternoon throne speech.