Northern Beat Weekly 9
Déjà vu power grab, $4 billion boondoggle, and gull-hawking in Nanaimo
Hello there!
We have a raft of new developments in the hopper for you this week.
After seven years and $4 billion, B.C.’s big climate experiment has largely failed to pan out. The NDP government admitted this week it will miss its first legally mandated emissions target, with pollution levels basically unchanged from 2007. This comes as government phases out its signature climate tools like the carbon tax and EV rebates. All of which calls into question whether the government is serious about hitting that 2030 finish line or if it was even a real goal.
Elsewhere at the legislature: Critics call for mandatory care and Premier David Eby launched a review of the Mental Health Act following the horrific deaths at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival. This, despite expert advice last month saying the law doesn’t need changes.
Eby also unveiled legislation to give cabinet sweeping override powers. Again. This time to bulldoze permitting delays for “significant” projects, from schools to mines, for pretty much any reason under the sun.
Other legislation also introduced this week will allow projects deemed “clean energy” to bypass the environmental assessment process.
And in case Ottawa wasn’t listening, Eby wrote a very polite “fix softwood lumber now” letter to new PM Mark Carney.
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- Rob Shaw
Northern Beat Roundup
Seven years and $4 billion later, BC NDP won’t hit emission targets
BC failed to reduce its climate pollution levels at all after seven years and more than $4 billion in spending, and will not be able to hit even the first of its legislated emissions reductions targets, the government revealed this week. It calls into question the government’s pollution reduction path, particularly in the wake of the end of the carbon tax and the removal of electric vehicle subsides. Critics say government has been talking a big game about being a climate leader but has no evidence to back up the claim and no plan to fix things.
The Legislature
Mental Health Act review
Premier David Eby announced a review of the Mental Health Act after the tragic deaths of 11 people at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival. Eby said the move is in response to public concerns about how the man charged with driving his vehicle through the festival had been under the supervision of a mental health care team, and flagged to police for concerns, but nonetheless was able to harm dozens of people.
The review has no timeline or scope yet, and comes just a month after his involuntary care expert Dr. Daniel Vigo concluded the Mental Health Act did not need to be changed to provide involuntary care to people with serious concurrent addictions and mental health concerns who may be a risk to themselves or others.
Under Vigo’s version of mandatory care, patients can be released into the community with their mental health issues under involuntary prescribed drug treatment, but their addictions will not be treated without consent.
Many BC mayors have called for mandatory care. This week, Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew joined the chorus, asking the province to open a facility, such as the Red Fish Healing Centre, in Kelowna. Last summer, the head of the psychiatric ward at UNBC hospital urged government to provide secured psychiatric care for long-term addictions and mental health treatment in a former youth custody centre in Prince George. Currently there are no such beds in all of the north. BC NDP promised to expand the Red Fish model to three regional locations in its 2023 budget, but has yet to do so.
BC NDP power grab in name of fast-tracking projects
New legislation from the government this week would allow cabinet to fast-track projects it deems “provincially significant,” bypassing environmental assessment, automatically awarding permits and using extraordinary powers to push into construction projects it feels are being unfairly delayed.
The BC NDP said qualifying projects “would need to create significant economic, social or environmental benefits for people in BC and and significantly contribute to provincial priorities such as food security, critical mineral supply, replacement of US imports and disaster recovery.”
So, basically, anything of the government’s choosing.
Which reminds us uncomfortably of the wide-open powers government tried to give itself in its first version of Bill 7, alternately described by two former premiers and attorney generals as mind-boggling, authoritarian and completely indefensible.
[Ed. note: Rob Shaw’s description of the current fast-tracking legislation as “Bill 7 in a hard hat” sums it up.]
The exact criteria for what will qualify a project under this latest legislation as provincially significant is murky and will be provided “in the coming weeks.” Which means legislators will yet again be expected to vote on a law before the full application and scope of government’s powers are known. If passed, the law will also allow government to override municipalities on projects. Premier David Eby cited holdups over things like schools, but the legislation also applies to mines, third party partners, and other major projects.
‘Green’ energy projects to bypass EA process
The BC NDP also introduced legislation this week to “streamline” environmental permitting by exempting “green energy” projects from BC’s environmental assessment process. Once passed, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, ocean energy projects and more will instead be permitted by the BC Energy Regulator under an as yet undefined one-stop shopping-type process that promises to eliminate the need for cross-ministry and agency permitting but will be “in accordance with strict environmental standards,” according to BC Energy. Not everyone is pleased. The energy regulator will have to hire more staff to deliver this new service.
Government delays on short-term rental registry
Facing pressure from short-term rental companies like AirBnB and VRBO, the government has granted a one-month extension to validate whether people listed on their platform are complying with government’s new short-term rental requirements. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the move came at the request of the companies, who will now be given until June to finalize their verification systems, including whether people have appropriate government registration. The extension does not apply to hosts, however, who were required to register with the government as of May 1.
The changes ban people in most urban communities from renting anything other than their principal residence on short-term rental vacation sites. Critics said they’re too extreme, forcing people to turn to expensive hotels, but Kahlon reiterated this week the government has no plans to reconsider the change.
Eby writes the new PM
Newly re-elected Prime Minister Mark Carney had barely settled into his office before Premier Eby wrote him a letter requesting a “new era” of federal-provincial cooperation. That includes, according to Eby, a focus on interprovincial trade, a new energy corridor, support for affordable housing and efforts to supercharge the economy in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. Eby said he wants an immediate meeting of premiers and the prime minister, as well as for Ottawa to protect B.C.’s softwood lumber industry with the same interest as it does the Ontario auto sector. “People want to deal on softwood lumber, and so making sure that that's part of the discussion is going to be part of what I'm raising,” said Eby.
Rural Reads from Around the Web
PG delegation advocates to Eby on safety issues
Premier David Eby says he met with a delegation from Prince George at the legislature to discuss safety improvements, as part of his government’s efforts to better respond to addictions, mental health and crime concerns. [Prince George Citizen]
Man with 100 cars ordered to clean up
A Prince George man who has 100 cars on his five-acre lot has been ordered by a judge to clean up his property, which he says is an unfair attack but the local district says is an unsightly mess. [Prince George Citizen]
Dog death highlights lack of local vet services
A family is sounding the alarm after the death of their six-year-old chihuahua following routine dental surgery has highlighted the shortage of veterinarians in the north during an emergency. [CKPG]
Site C employment continues to decline
The number of people working at the Site C dam megaproject continues to decline as it nears completion. The drop in employment, is one of several major capital projects across the province that business leaders have warned will mean the end of good-paying jobs without alternatives. [EnergeticCity.ca]
Raptors against the Gulls and the Hawks have it
The City of Nanaimo has long deployed hawks to keep its seagulls in check. Jessica Durling writes a great little fact-filled story about the winged “bouncers” pulling shifts at the regional landfill, including Nanaimo’s very own maverick Top Gun, Vega. [Nanaimo News Bulletin]
Bonus
Quote of the Week:
“I respect the decision of the courts, whatever it will be. But it will not change my opinion that this man did a despicable thing, did the most hateful thing; that he ruined the work of thousands of people and traumatized thousands more; that he stole children from parents, parents from children; and that he should spend the rest of his life in jail. If that is a point of controversy in this House between our side and their side, then so be it. I will stand up for the Filipino community, I will stand up for the victims, and I will stand up for every right-minded, morally clear British Columbian and say that that man should spend the rest of his goddamn life in jail,” Premier David Eby during question period at the legislature May 1, 2025.
Closing
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