HORGAN `STOKED' ABOUT OUTLOOK FOR NEW YEAR

As B.C. approaches the end of a year that none of us will miss, I asked Premier John Horgan the other day for his outlook.

“I'm pretty optimistic,” he told me. “I'm stoked.” Well, why wouldn't he be? Things are looking up on the pandemic front, the continuing second-wave case load and death toll notwithstanding.

A few months ago, he would “not have imagined” that a vaccine would be on the scene before Christmas, or that many of us could hope to be vaccinated by next summer.

Then there was the financial update released Thursday. The economy is recovering faster than the government expected it would back in the summer.

The deficit is still a stratospheric $14 billion, but Moody's agency this month reaffirmed B.C. at the top of Canadian provinces with a triple-a credit rating and a stable outlook.

Plus there was that snap election, which returned Horgan to office with a comfortable majority and no further need to rely on the support of those pesky Greens.

What about the point that Green party Leader Sonia Furstenau made recently about the premier's self-serving election call?

“The question is not whether the election caused (COVID) infections. It did not,” said Furstenau. “The question is whether

B.C. deserved more than a caretaker mode from their government during a state of emergency.

“We went through an election during the worst phase of the pandemic. For what? To fall behind and then continue the work that was already underway with all-party support.”

When I read those lines back to the premier, he replied with a flat: “I disagree with that.”

The Greens were increasingly flexing their voting power to obstruct the business of government, he told me, leaving no doubt that he felt well rid of them.

He says, too, that it is “insulting” to suggest that public servants and health officials weren't doing their jobs while the politicians campaigned.

But even Dr. Bonnie Henry has admitted to being “surprised” at how quickly the second wave built. She announced the first significant crackdown only after the votes were cast.

Nor was the public service ready to roll when the election was over. Witness the evasions and fumbling during the just-completed session on the budget, the $1.5-billion economic recovery plan, and the promised cash payments of $1,000 to families and $500 to individuals.

Back during the election campaign, Horgan acknowledged that all the programs and promises would have to be paid for somehow, sometime. “We've not been reckless,” he told reporters on Oct. 6. “We understand that when all this is over we're going to have to dig out from underneath it.”

He ruled out tax increases, saying the NDP had “no plans” for those, with the exception of the carbon tax, which will continue to go up.

This week, Horgan ducked when I asked if he supported Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plan to boost the country's carbon tax to $170 per tonne of emissions by 2030.

The new national level would be four times the current threshold of $40 here in B.C. But the premier said he had not fully “digested” the federal proposal. He did confirm his government will resume annual increases in the provincial levy after putting the last $5 boost on hold during the pandemic.

The made-in-b.c. carbon tax will increase to $45 next April 1, and to $50 on April 1, 2022. The latter translates into a tax of about 11 cents on a litre of gasoline.

By then, the carbon tax will be bringing about $2.2 billion a year into provincial government coffers, still well short of what it would take to keep pace with the NDP'S promise-making, or hopes of someday digging out from under a $14-billion deficit.

This time last year, the Horgan government was preparing to release an ambitious “economic framework for improving B.C.'S standard of living” via “quality” economic growth and “without raising taxes.”

The 92-page framework “is still very much in play,” says Horgan, but obviously in need of a makeover.

What about Site C? The New Democrats just passed the third anniversary of their decision to continue construction of the project they inherited from the B.C. Liberals.

Now they await a report from special adviser Peter Milburn on whether construction can continue, and at what cost.

Horgan expects the Milburn findings will be in the hands of Energy Minister Bruce Ralston by early next week.

It will then be reviewed by cabinet and the treasury board, before being released to the public.

With almost $6 billion spent and doubts mounting about the stability of the Site C foundations, the next decision will be as tough, maybe tougher, than the one the New Democrats faced in 2017.

That is only one of the many tough decisions ahead for a premier and cabinet facing arguably the biggest challenges of any B.C. government in modern times.

As Furstenau put it recently: “It is important for us on the opposition side to have empathy for the position the government is in right now. The burden on the premier and the burden on ministers is enormous.”

Or as a morning-after-the-election joke had it: “The good news, Mr. Premier, is you won the election and get to govern B.C. for the next four years. The bad news is you won the election and have to govern B.C. for the next four years.”

Horgan ducked when I asked if he supported Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plan to boost the country's carbon tax to $170 per tonne ... by 2030.