Caretaker mode starting to wear thin
It has been eight weeks since the government went into caretaker mode for the election campaign, and there will be weeks more to go before there’s enough certainty to resume setting policy directions.
The absence of decision-making authority is becoming apparent. If the B.C. government were an airliner, the stall warning would be sounding. Some examples:
• Somebody somewhere needs to make some calls on the Site C dam project. By B.C. Hydro’s estimate, it’s facing $600 million in delay costs if some home-relocations aren’t decided upon and executed soon. The costs and urgency might be inflated for political reasons, because the two sides vying for control of the legislature have differing views on the project. But there’s no doubt that a $9-billion project has to stay on schedule if it’s going to stay on budget. And if it’s going to be mothballed, the $60-million-a-month burn rate at the job site means every day of delay costs money that is unrecoverable.
The argument ran much of this week, with timeouts for swearing-in ceremonies. Nothing was settled. Friday morning it resumed, with former Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett offering his views. He’s still nominally the minister of energy, but it’s a measure of how strange the situation is that a retiree is speaking on behalf of the government.
Bennett won’t be relieved of his portfolio until a new cabinet is sworn in. That’s expected next week, but there’s no official date yet. It will likely last just a few days before the Liberals lose a confidence vote and are replaced by the NDP, with Green Party support. Then they’ll have to swear in their own cabinet. It’s easy to say that somebody in charge has to make up their mind on the project. The harder part is figuring out who’s in charge. • Premier Christy Clark told reporters this week that there are unspecified decisions about the Kinder Morgan pipeline that have to be made in June. The expansion of the pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver’s harbour is on a timeline that requires decisions and Clark said: “That’s not something the civil service can change.”
The project already has the required federal approvals. The decisions are believed to relate to the numerous provincial permits the project requires. But those are made by statutory authorities, meaning designated technical experts in the ministries, not cabinet ministers.
The NDP has vowed to use every tool at its disposal to block the project, which could mean issuing political directives on those usually nonpolitical permitting decisions. • Eight premiers stormed Washington, D.C., to press the Canadian case in the softwood-lumber dispute this week, and Clark wasn’t among them. Forests Minister Steve Thomson represented the province, but declined interview requests after it wrapped up. B.C. continually stresses it’s the major player on the Canadian side in the fight, so it’s unusual to take such a low profile. The visit was probably a lost cause, since the capital was transfixed by former FBI director James Comey’s testimony about his dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump. But still … • There have been only two cabinet meetings in the past two months — one during the campaign to discuss a response to the softwood-lumber duties and one after the election to discuss the implications of the inconclusive results. The flow of orders-incouncil and ministerial orders — formal decisions made by ministers or cabinet — slowed to a trickle when the campaign started April 11 and hasn’t picked up since.
Neither has the number of government announcements. Number of news releases in the past two months — 60 (many about flooding and road closures). Number in the two months leading up to the campaign — 864.
It will take weeks more before the situation clarifies. The legislature is scheduled to resume June 22, which will be Day 74 of caretaker mode. If the Liberal government falls the week after that, as expected, it’s an open question how long the NDP would need to read all the transition binders, name a cabinet, fire and hire, decide a new spending plan of some sort, and fully take over the shop.
In the meantime, the long holding pattern will continue.