LEGISLATURE BACK, AHEAD OF ELECTION
MLAs expected to clash over deaths of children in care and party financing
Provincial politicians return to Victoria this week for a preelection sitting of the B.C. legislature that promises clashes over the deaths of children in care and party financing.
Premier Christy Clark said her Liberal government will continue its focus on jobs and the economy in Tuesday’s speech from the throne. “Right now, B.C.’s No. 1 in economic growth, Victoria has the lowest unemployment in the country, but we can always do better,” she said.
B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan said his party plans to hold the government accountable for yet another damning report on the province’s child-welfare system.
Bernard Richard, who is expected to be confirmed as the new representative for children and youth this session, released a report last week on the death of Alex Gervais, an 18-year-old Métis youth who took his life at an Abbotsford hotel where he had been living for 49 days while in care.
Horgan said the Opposition will be “trying to get a straight answer” from the government on why such tragedies keep happening in B.C.
The Liberals have pledged to act on all of Richard’s recommendations. “But they need to have the resources to do that,” Horgan said. “They need to be candid with the people of B.C. with the challenges we face with children at risk.”
The Opposition also plans to put more pressure on Clark to get “big money” out of B.C. politics.
The Liberals have been under fire for the past year over “cashfor-access” fundraisers in which wealthy donors pay thousands of dollars to attend dinners with Clark and her ministers.
The NDP hopes to highlight the issue by introducing a bill to ban corporate and union donations for the sixth time since 2005. The previous five private member’s bills failed to receive government support.
The government likely will counter with legislation requiring parties to report their donations every two weeks — a practice recently adopted by the Liberals in response to criticism of their fundraising tactics.
The government enters the session flush with a projected $2.2-billion surplus and has hinted that it’s ready to embark on a preelection spending binge. The provincial election is scheduled for May 9.
Asked last week about protesters pushing for an increase in welfare rates, Premier Christy Clark said: “They should wait for the budget and see what’s going to be in that.”
Finance Minister Mike de Jong gave a similar response when asked whether people with disabilities can expect a further increase to assistance rates. He said the government has to be cautious, but is “in a position where we can — and we will — look at the challenges our most disadvantaged citizens are facing.”
The government came under attack last year when it increased disability rates, but imposed a new fee for a disability bus pass. The result, for some, was that their $77-a-month raise was reduced to $25 once they paid the new fee.
Clark is also under pressure to change the Medical Services Plan system, which has been attacked for years as an unfair form of taxation.
But B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, who has advocated for MSP reforms, remains skeptical that anything will happen on that front.
“The premier’s going to use the throne speech to outline what she wants the next four years to be,” he said. “She’s going to be make all sorts of outrageous promises in the throne speech, like four years ago — flashback to ‘we’re all going to be wealthy from [liquefied natural gas].’ ”
Weaver said he plans to ignore the house theatrics and quietly introduce a number of his own bills that will form part of the Green Party platform. “We need to talk about things other than how bad the Liberals are or how bad the NDP are,” he said.