For all the interest in proportional representation, the legislative session was a good example of the disproportionate power in the legislature.
If you measure the relative clout of NDP, B.C. Liberal and Green MLAs side-by-side-by-side, the Greens vastly outweigh the others, and have lots to show for it.
They hold three seats and all the cards in the minority house. They got the provincial constitution rewritten to give them party status, which includes various perks and salary bumps all around. They got a secretariat in the NDP government solely dedicated to keeping them in the loop and happy.
They got the government’s agenda redesigned partly to their specifications. And they got to retain a degree of independence so they can still sit on the sidelines and criticize as the mood strikes them.
That’s the right that Andrew Weaver exercised Monday in a year-end media scrum that wound up as a sharp critique of his senior partners in the power-sharing deal they struck last summer.
The Greens will likely stick it out with the NDP for the full ride. But Weaver wasn’t shy about rapping NDP policies with which he disagrees. The deal covers confidence matters that keep the government in power. Everything else is fair game for the leader of a three-member party who is angling to make big gains in the next election.
Weaver said the NDP government has “dropped the ball, big time” on tackling the housing-affordability problem. The government earmarked several hundred million dollars for a few thousand new units, but he said: “Without a doubt, the problem is not on the supply side, it’s a demand-side problem. Our real estate is being used to park capital. It’s out of control.”
He said aggressive policies need to be put in place and “should have been put in place already.”
Government moves on speculators, foreign or otherwise, are expected in February. “They better be good,” said Weaver.
Also on housing, the NDP held off on following through in the September budget update on the campaign promise of a $400 annual rebate to all tenants in B.C.
Asked when he expects to see the program, Weaver said he doesn’t. Why not? Because it was a “gimmick” that should be abandoned. If they do just that and blame him for it, he’s fine with that.
“It was bad public policy. … We’ve been straight up with [Finance Minister] Carole James that this is not good public policy.” He said it was a reckless idea. With more than a half-million renters, it would cost out at more than $200 million a year, with the payment going to everyone in penthouses and basement suites alike. B.C. already has a rental supplement program for lower-income tenants, and the federal government has announced moves toward something similar.
“Why create an independent bureaucratic structure to start handing out cheques?” asked Weaver.
“Some of the Hail Mary promises to try to get people to vote for them are coming home to roost, and I think this is one that would be absolutely irresponsible if it goes forward.”
A universal rebate to all renters would involve giving money to some wealthy people and just jack rents up that much more.
“Why just write a cheque for $400 for everyone, when it’s not addressing the issue you want addressed — affordable rent? First-year economics says the market absorbs it and prices go up $400. It doesn’t accomplish the desired outcome.”
Weaver has no knowledge of what the NDP will do about the Site C dam, but he said decision-making has been “botched.”
Cabinet should have decided to abandon the power project right after the B.C. Utilities Commission report was concluded.
“When you’re afraid to make the principled decision up-front, you end up with the problem you have right now — no matter what decision you make, a whole bunch of people are going to be upset.”
The Green position at this point is to back the NDP regardless of what they decide on the project, but grudgingly, if they decide to carry on.
He summed it up as: “We’re going to make you wear this mistake by bringing it to attention of B.C. time in and time out … at the same time make the best of what happens.”
