NDP set to deliver its first throne speech in 16 years
B.C.’s first NDP government in 16 years starts work at the legislature today with high expectations of translating its election promises into law.
Campaign finance reform, moving the fixed-election date, reforming lobbying and laying the groundwork for a referendum on proportional representation are a few of the items Premier John Horgan is expected to outline in his government’s first speech from the throne, to be delivered by Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon at 2 p.m.
“The throne speech will be our vision,” said Carole James, the finance minister and deputy premier. “It will be focused on the three key priority areas we’ve promised the public. That includes affordability for people, improving services they count on and good jobs for a sustainable economy.”
The speech will be followed on Monday by the government’s budget update, in which the NDP administration will outline how it plans to spend the growing provincial surplus inherited from the Liberal government.
James said the update will include the NDP’s plans for Medical Services Plan premiums, which the party promised to phase out. But the NDP hasn’t explained how it would cover the almost $2.5 billion in missing revenue the tax brings in.
The budget will contain details of a non-partisan MSP elimination panel, which the NDP promised during the election, to advise the government on when and how to eliminate the tax.
James said she couldn’t reveal whether the NDP plans to follow through with campaign promises to raise taxes on high-income earners and corporations, because she can’t discuss matters of taxation before they are introduced.
The NDP and Greens toppled the Liberals on a confidence vote June 29 after signing a powersharing deal. The deal obligates the NDP to bring in several items in its first session of the legislature, including authorizing a referendum on proportional representation for the fall of 2018, banning corporate and union donations to political parties, tightening rules for lobbyists, moving the four-year fixed-election date from May to the fall and establishing a task force on an emerging economy.
“The government so far has been using orders in council and changes in regulation and so forth,” said Allan Warnke, a political science professor at Vancouver Island University and former Liberal MLA. “Now they have had to turn their attention to legislation, and that’s where the rubber hits the road.”
“The honeymoon, I think, will be there for a little while,” Warnke said. “I think everybody through this fall sitting will probably give (Horgan) a break, and the public generally will sit back and say, OK, let’s see what he’s done.”
Interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman said his caucus, including more than a dozen former cabinet ministers, is ready to hold the NDP government to account.
“You can expect my guys to perform very well,” Coleman said. “They are going to be very good. It will be professional, it will be competent and we’ll be on top of the issues that really matter.”
He said Liberals aren’t compromised by their failed June throne speech, in which the party changed its position on more than two dozen items in a last-minute bid to retain power. Coleman said the Liberals have moved on and need to hold the NDP to account for the details in their promises.
The NDP and Greens have extra breathing room following the resignation last month of Christy Clark. That gives the NDP (with 41 seats) and the Greens (with three seats) a two-vote advantage over the Liberals (with 42) until Horgan calls a byelection for Clark’s old Kelowna West riding.
James said the NDP’s biggest concern will be managing the expectations and pressure for immediate change. The government has had only a few weeks to develop the budget, and so, she said, “somebody asked how I’ll feel going into the legislature tomorrow as a minister after 12 years, and I said it’s incredibly exciting, but I feel every day in this job the weight of this responsibility because the public has been waiting 16 years for a change.”