Premier David Eby arrives with his family followed by his cabinet before the swearing-in ceremony at Government House in Victoria, B.C., on Nov. 18.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
British Columbia Premier David Eby’s new government will be led by veteran MLAs, but critical cabinet portfolios have been shuffled, with fresh faces in health, finance and public safety, after an election where the NDP’s ranks have been significantly reduced.
The key, front-bench cabinet ministers, who will lead the implementation of the government’s new mandate, include a new Finance Minister, Brenda Bailey, who previously served as jobs minister.
Long-time minister of health Adrian Dix has been replaced by Josie Osborne, while he moves to the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions.
Garry Begg, a backbencher whose 21-vote margin of victory in Surrey-Guildford was critical to secure the NDP’s majority government, has been elevated to Minister of Public Safety.
Niki Sharma remains in her previous portfolio of Attorney-General, and on the important housing file, Mr. Eby has kept his chief lieutenant, Ravi Kahlon, in place as Minister of Housing, with the added responsibility for municipal affairs.
Mr. Eby secured a third consecutive term in the Oct. 19 election – but just barely. Voters downsized the NDP’s majority, and after painstaking recounts, the party hold 47 seats to the Conservatives’ 44 and the Greens’ two.
In the wake of the vote, the Premier has vowed to readjust his mandate to focus on a short list of basic but massive challenges. Mr. Eby said Monday the focus will be on bringing down costs for families, strengthening health care, making communities safer, and growing the economy based on clean energy and critical minerals.
“These are big challenges, and tackling them all will take time,” he said. “The message I took from the election and the narrow majority was that people wanted us to get on with this work, but they also wanted us to consider other perspectives.”
Mr. Eby on Monday arrived with his family at his side at Government House in Victoria in a rental bus for the swearing-in ceremony with his new, 23-member cabinet. There were a number of new faces, including five rookie MLAs, which was required in part because he lost 12 cabinet ministers to retirement or electoral losses.
Ms. Bailey, as Minister of Finance, will be expected to figure out how to implement the NDP’s chief campaign promise on affordability, which is to hand out what they call a grocery rebate to most households in the spring. It’s a measure that is estimated to cost $1.8-billion.
That’s on top of this year’s record-breaking deficit budget, which has prompted a credit downgrade from one bond-rating agency, and a warning from another. A third agency has sounded the alarm about the costly promises set out in the recent election campaign.
Ms. Bailey told reporters she will set to work immediately on developing a plan to return to a balanced budget, but she said that won’t be at the expense of people who are struggling with the cost of living. She said her finance officials have already been developing options for her government to implement the rebate “in a timely fashion.”
The new Health Minister, Ms. Osborne, inherits a system that has been stretched thin since the start of the pandemic, and Mr. Eby has acknowledged that the public is unhappy with ER closings, a shortage of family doctors and lack of capacity. On her first day on the job, the tension around the opioid crisis was already demanding her attention, after doctors in two major Vancouver Island hospitals opened unsanctioned overdose prevention sites.
Ms. Osborne said she hasn’t had enough time to respond to the sites, but promised to bring her experience as a former mayor of a rural community to the ministry, noting that smaller communities in particular are facing major challenges to access health care, including mental health and addictions services.
Mr. Begg, a former RCMP inspector who has served on the NDP backbench since 2017, takes on the difficult portfolio of public safety. He’ll be expected to find solutions to concerns about its erosion in communities that are in the grips of the toxic drug crisis, which has spilled into concerns about crime in downtown cores, and public drug use.
The cabinet now includes separate ministries for energy and climate solutions, led by Mr. Dix, and mining and critical minerals, headed by another veteran MLA, Jagrup Brar. Mr. Eby said that division between energy and mines reflects his intent to boost critical mineral development, and to develop the province’s clean energy sector.
Other notable appointments include the shift of long-serving MLA Mike Farnworth to transportation from the high-profile post of public safety. Tamara Davidson, whose Haida name is Laanas, was named Minister of Environment and Parks; the rookie MLA for North Coast-Haida Gwaii is one of the few rural New Democrats, helping boost representation in the north.