Last week brought a reminder of why the minority NDP government will try to hang onto power for as long as possible.
Running a government can be challenging, but it also means being in a position to actually accomplish things and deliver the goods. One of those things was on display last week, and it brought with it an emotional response from Premier John Horgan.
Horgan was at the official announcement of a long-awaited increase in monthly payments to foster parents. There has not been a raise in a decade (another sign of the previous B.C. Liberals government’s tone-deafness in their final years in power) but the NDP government is boosting them by $179 a month (a 15 per cent hike).
The premier’s voice cracked and he appeared to tear up as he talked about the important role foster parents (and adoptive parents and other caregivers) play in all communities.
There were numerous appreciative foster parents and advocates in the legislature hall, and it was definitely one of the more positive vibes felt in the building this legislative session.
The NDP government has not had too many “feel good” announcements since it took power and, in fact, it has had to implement a number of policies that fall far short of what they were demanding while in Opposition.
The list of policy reversals or delays is a long one and it will likely get longer. These are not so much broken promises, but simply reflect that spending 16 years in Opposition can result in a political party taking positions that are simply not realistic when viewed through a government lens.
It starts with the decision to build the Site C dam. While in Opposition, some MLAs who are now cabinet ministers (hello Michelle Mungall and Lana Popham) were passionate opponents of the dam, and Popham was fond of saying if the NDP were able to get “nine more seats” in the 2017 election the dam was finished.
Well, it got those seats (with the help of the B.C. Greens) but opted to build the dam anyway. There are still opponents of the dam who cling to the illusion that if they make enough of a fuss the NDP will reverse course (sorry, this ship has sailed).
Another oft-promised position in Opposition was to make BC Ferries “part of the highway system,” turn it back into a Crown corporation and ban the company from building new vessels overseas.
The position now?
Transportation Minister Claire Trevena told me on a media conference call that she considers BC Ferries to be an “independent company” and she was not going to tell them to do much of anything, or really change anything to do with BC Ferries.
She said she hopes BC Ferries will build vessels in this province (hard to do when we don’t have much available shipyard capacity) one day, but ultimately it was the company’s decision where to go.
Then there is the K-12 education system.
While the NDP has increased the budget by hundreds of millions of dollars and hired thousands of new teachers, that has not been enough to appease their critics, who want quicker action on an impossible file.
In fact, rather than reducing the number of portable classrooms in Surrey (an issue that served as weekly fodder for the NDP in question period while in Opposition), the fast-growing district now says it may have to increase – not cut – the number of portables by more than 20.
The list of demands made in Opposition that clash with the realities of governing goes on: we still have a lot of fish farms, LNG is being aggressively courted, health wait times are still long for some (though reduced for many), public money is being used to fund political parties, thousands of families remain entrenched in poverty….
The NDP is discovering that governing is challenging, while opposing everything is easy.
However, that foster parent announcement was an example of the rewards that come with governing, and you can be sure the NDP cabinet wants to experience a lot more of those before they next test the electorate.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC
