Horgan's comments put the `janitor' on cleanup duty

Experienced Farnworth steps up to attempt to explain `what the premier meant to say'

During the NDP government in the 1990s, Mike Farnworth earned the nickname the “janitor” because he was routinely called on to clean up other people's messes.

Local government, economic development, gambling … several times he was handed cabinet portfolios where a predecessor had stumbled.

Farnworth was pressed into cleanup service for the current government this week. The assignment being to clarify the third-wave-of-the-pandemic travel restrictions announced Monday by Premier John Horgan.

Horgan said government would be issuing orders at the end of the week under the Emergency Program Act “to restrict people's ability to leave their health authority. ... There will be a fine if you are travelling outside of your area without a legitimate reason.”

He also indicated that the police would enforce the restrictions on travel among the five regional authorities via what he called “random audits.”

The premier said he preferred not to use the term “checkpoints.” But he explicitly compared the audits with Counter Attack, the drunk-driving road blocks mounted by the police during the holiday season.

“Everyone who goes by will be asked where they are going and where they came from,” vowed Horgan. “It will be done in a way that includes everyone in a particular place at a particular time and there will be consequences if you are outside of your area on non-essential business. We're going to be randomly checking all vehicles for a period of time on a piece of highway somewhere in B.C.”

The ban on non-essential travel would likewise be enforced on B.C. Ferries, via restrictions on travel by recreational vehicles and stopping the usual practice of extra sailings on holiday weekends.

The premier's half-baked summation raised more questions than it answered. Civil libertarians were incensed. Police wanted to know what they were supposed to enforce.

People who live in one health region and work in the one next door wondered if they should expect to encounter the premier's “don't-call-them-checkpoints” en route to work.

Farnworth, who is scheduled to roll out the new restrictions April 23 in his capacity as solicitor general, had to spend some time defusing the controversies.

“We're very mindful of the issue around Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal because the interchange between the two is quite significant — so they will be treated as a region,” he told broadcaster Simi Sara on CKNW radio Wednesday. “There's not going to be roadside Counter-Attack-Style checks in the Lower Mainland. But we're looking at those points where you would go from the Lower Mainland up into the Interior, like Highway 1 or the Coquihalla, or the Hope-Princeton, for example.

“This is not going to impact people going to work. It's not going to impact health appointments,” he continued. “This is primarily about recreational travel.”

In a subsequent media scrum he indicated that voluntary guidelines would continue to apply to travel within regions, citing an example from the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

“So for example, if you're in Victoria, don't go up to Nanaimo. If you're in Nanaimo, don't go up to Port Hardy.”

The non-checkpoints could also be set up at B.C. Ferry terminals. “It's a logical place to be able to check and say, `This is recreational travel and, no, you're not going to the Island,'” Farnworth told reporters.

Horgan had also said B.C. “will be putting signs along the Alberta border, reminding travellers that unless they are coming for essential business they should be back in their home communities. We will be saying to those who are trying to book accommodation from outside B.C., you won't be able to do so.”

This managed to anger and confuse residents of a second province, as I discovered doing a phone-in show with a Calgary radio station Wednesday.

Farnworth clarified that Albertans wouldn't be stopped at the border. But if entering B.C. for non-essential reasons, they shouldn't expect to be able to travel all the way through — for example — the Interior Health region to the Lower Mainland or the Island.

Farnworth was still clarifying the restrictions when the legislature convened for question period on Thursday. But by then he had managed to get some of it down to one-word answers.

Question from the B.C. Liberals: “How many police resources will be diverted away from stopping this dangerous gang war in the Lower Mainland?” Answer from Farnworth: “None.”

Q: “Will people have to produce sensitive, personal information at these checkstops?” A: “No.”

Farnworth also provided the house with an executive summary of the premier's intentions.

“What the premier did appropriately was to foreshadow that we are having to take this step,” explained Farnworth, doing double-duty as NDP house leader. “He would rather not have to take this step, but the virus and the variants are spreading through this province, and travel is one of the ways in which they are transmitted. And one of the most effective ways to deal with that is to bring in travel restrictions, and the provincial health officer (Dr. Bonnie Henry) has indicated that between health authorities is the most effective way to do that.”

Such clarifications are becoming a common ritual with the Horgan government. Several times during the pandemic, Health Minister Adrian Dix has had to do the honours. This time it was Farnworth.

Each time the challenge was the same: Explain “what the premier meant to say” when Horgan has wandered beyond the safe confines of his message box.

The premier's half-baked summation raised more questions than it answered.