The BC NDP government started and ended the week preoccupied by the looming tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump. But it was the moments in-between, where it was hammered on provincial issues, such as the deteriorating health-care system, that the governing party really needs to worry about.
New Democrat ministers talked tough on Trump every moment they got, in preparation for what the American president reiterated Thursday would be a tariff date of March 4.
Premier David Eby mocked suggestions from Opposition Conservative Leader John Rustad that he apply a carbon tax to dirty American thermal coal shipped overseas using Vancouver ports – leverage in the trade dispute. Then, two days later, the premier turned around and proposed the idea himself to the prime minister.
All the Trump rhetoric helped distract from a troubled provincial budget set to land on the same date, March 4. The NDP’s latest run at the provincial books would have been awash in structural deficits even before Trump, but with the added $2.5 billion revenue hole Trump’s tariffs are expected to blow in the treasury, the budget is now threatening to be an economic bloodbath.
“Unfortunately, this is going to be a reality we have to live with for at least the next four years, and maybe longer,” said Kahlon. “And so things have changed.”
But elsewhere at the legislature, some things also remained very much the same.
The worsening state of health care in the province, specifically the weekend outage of Delta Hospital’s ER, dominated the start of the week.
Delta South MLA Ian Paton lambasted the government for the failures, which prompted Delta city council to demand an explanation from government and the health minister to admit the situation was concerning. Delta residents who drove to Surrey Memorial Hospital’s ER found wait times as long as 18 hours.
It was the largest urban outage of an emergency room to date, affecting more than 120,000 people. But it is only a fraction of the fear and anger felt in the rest of the province, where ER closures continue unabated.
The Opposition Conservatives closed the week on health care Thursday with 19 MLAs standing in the legislature to pepper the government with health-care horror stories that totalled 1,407 ER closures over the past two years due to staffing shortages.
A 25 per cent closure rate for the ER at Burns Lake this year. A staggering 1,213 days of ER disruption in Keremeos. A more than two-year ER closure in Elkford, in the East Kootenays.
The hits kept on coming as speaker after speaker rose to confront the government.
More than 26 days of diversion this year at Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt (including as recently as Wednesday) and Lillooet Hospital, each. Eighteen days at Cariboo Memorial Hospital. Thirteen days at Mackenzie Hospital. In Mission, Fort St. James, Slocan, Arrow Lakes, Oliver, Clearwater, Haida Gwaii, Creston Valley, 100 Mile House and more — stories of lengthy, frightening, disruptive periods of no emergency help.
In some cases, residents had to drive hours for care in a crisis.
“Last year in the Peace Region all four ER rooms closed on the same day, forcing people to have to drive up to 10 hours to seek critical care,” said Peace River North MLA Jordan Kealy.
Health Minister Josie Osborne sought refuge in the last bastion of hope for ministers in charge of health care — statistics. ER closures are actually down 40 per cent in the last six months, she claimed.
But that defence crumbled in the wake of the real-world experiences delivered by the local MLAs. Eventually, this was all she had left:
“We have canvassed many different communities across B.C. in today's question period. I didn't hear any ideas from the opposition,” said Osborne. As if, almost eight years into the NDP government, it’s the Opposition’s job to solve a problem the NDP keeps telling voters it’s got a handle on.
Still, the victories in question period masked deep divisions and drama inside the BC Conservative caucus, which bubbled to the surface and undermined the party’s reputation this week.
Five Conservative MLAs fell into an NDP trap to vote in favour of Trump’s tariffs, and then struggled to explain what they’d done. Rustad said it was all part of his free vote policy for MLAs, and likened it to a regular family that has internal disputes.
Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie faced harsh criticism after a social media post saying there is no evidence of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Leader John Rustad asked her to change the post. She refused. At least two Conservative MLAs — house leader A’aliya Warbus and finance critic Peter Milobar — publicly criticized Brodie.
Leader John Rustad triggered a non-confidence vote in the government Wednesday evening, but failed to win the vote. The NDP and Greens together made up 48 MLAs, compared to the Conservative’s 44.
Rustad also spent the week fielding questions about the party’s upcoming AGM, in which candidates who don’t support him, or the current party executive, are running to take over the board and presidency.
Rustad will survive the weekend as leader, because the convention doesn’t have a mechanism for a leadership vote. But he could end up with a hostile new board and a leadership vote later this year.
“It’ll be a very interesting AGM, in terms of the things we need to move forward, modernizing our party, bringing it forward and making sure we’re prepared to take on the NDP and take them out at the next election,” Rustad said Thursday.
The week concluded with — you guessed it, more Trump talk.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said B.C.’s small businesses reported the largest decline of confidence in Canada.
“There’s no question in that CFIB report that it’s Trump tariff threats that’s undermining confidence,” said Jobs Minister Brenda Bailey.
Undermining small business confidence, maybe. But overall confidence in the government’s performance on the major issues back in this province, like health care? As much as they’d like to, New Democrats can’t blame Trump for that at all. That’s on them.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
