BC Today – Daily Report November 26, 2020

Quotation of the day

“Word of mouth that can’t be verified.”

BC Teachers’ Federation president Teri Mooring said the lack of “clear and transparent” data ​ ​ about Covid spread in schools has led to a rumour mill.

Today in B.C.

Written by Shannon Waters

On the schedule The new NDP cabinet will be sworn in today. The ceremony, scheduled to start at 2 p.m., will be mostly virtual with Premier and Lieutenant-Governor Janet Austin physically ​ ​ ​ ​ present.

Horgan will speak to media at 3:15 p.m. following the ceremony.

New NDP cabinet members take their posts today Today’s the day — the new NDP cabinet will be sworn in this afternoon.

Seven cabinet ministers opted not to seek re-election, leaving plenty of posts for Premier John ​ Horgan to fill. ​

Most prominent among them is the finance portfolio, where former minister has ​ ​ left big shoes to fill. The other ministerial vacancies include transportation, social development, forestry, Indigenous relations, jobs, and mental health and addictions.

Newly elected Oak Bay—Gordon Head MLA could be the pick for the ​ ​ Indigenous relations portfolio. The veteran NDP MP has is a lawyer who has been lauded for his understanding of the historic Delgamuukw Gisday’ Wa decision.

Rankin is also familiar with the NDP’s priorities on one of the most contentious aspects of provincial-Indigenous relations, having served as the province’s liaison during negotiations on a new reconciliation agreement with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. (Rankin was paid $122,000 plus $6,000 in expenses for his work on the file, per an FOI obtained by BC Today.) ​ ​

There are also several experienced party stalwarts still at their front-bench posts — many holding down portfolios at the forefront of B.C.’s pandemic response that the premier may be hesitant to meddle with.

Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General was sworn in for his seventh term ​ ​ as an MLA this week. Then there’s Health Minister , now a fixture of the province’s ​ ​ Covid briefings; Education Minister ; and Attorney General , who has ​ ​ ​ ​ led the NDP’s effort to douse the “dumpster fire” at ICBC and crack down on dirty cash flowing through B.C.’s casinos.

If Horgan is feeling bold, he might consider replacing Eby with another lawyer in the caucus. Rookie MLA is the first turbaned Sikh elected to the B.C. legislature and is ​ ​ well-known as a human rights and civil rights lawyer. Born in India and raised in Hong Kong, Singh speaks Hindi, Punjabi and Cantonese.

Horgan didn’t shake it up much in the past The previous NDP cabinet totalled 22 ministers, plus Horgan himself. With 16 additional MLAs in his new caucus, Horgan may decide to grow that number and spread the portfolio responsibilities further around.

Horgan’s previous cabinet was gender-balanced and — with a new caucus that features a majority of women — that representation seems likely to reappear in the new cabinet. The new NDP caucus is also more ethnically diverse than its predecessor, and there is room for the premier to improve diversity around the cabinet table. The 2017 cabinet included five ministers from visible minority groups.

On that front, several Filipino community organizations are pushing for Horgan to include ​ ​ —Kensington MLA on the executive council. Elmore — the only ​ ​ Filipino-Canadian MLA — is now on her fourth term and has previously served as parliamentary secretary for poverty reduction.

The premier will also need to consider regional representation. The new government bench is deepest on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland and also includes multiple reps from southern B.C. but just two MLAs from northern B.C.

North Coast MLA , the previous parliamentary secretary for emergency ​ ​ preparedness, is now on her third term and could be tapped for a cabinet gig.

Also in the north is Stikine MLA . The former federal superstar handily held onto ​ ​ former minister ’s seat, but his nomination scandal could make him a ​ ​ ​ ​ controversial cabinet pick.

During his government’s first term, Premier John Horgan made almost no changes to his ​ ​ cabinet, with only one minister replaced between 2017 and the general election. ( ​ resigned her post in October 2019 amid a secretive special prosecutor’s investigation that turned up no wrongdoing; she was replaced as citizens’ services minister by ). ​ ​

Teachers’ union wants data on Covid spread among staff The BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) wants the province to start sharing information about the number of teachers who have contracted COVID-19 — just like it does with workers in the health-care sector.

“We’ve been asking the provincial health office to share the data,” BCTF president Teri ​ Mooring told BC Today in an interview. “We know that it’s collected — the number of teachers ​ ​ ​

that are testing positive — because we know that when you phone in for a test, it’s required that you state your where you work.”

Ideally, the union also wants to know how many students are testing positive, Mooring said. B.C. does publish the number of children who test positive for Covid but does not offer information about their schooling status.

Mooring says the lack of “clear and transparent information ... about what's happening in schools” is spurring rumours.

“What we’re seeing right now is concerning, but a lot of it is word of mouth that can't be verified,” she said.

Mooring is also concerned about the delay in exposure notices, noting it is taking up to 10 days for families to receive one.

“That doesn't lend to the feeling of confidence that everything is going as it should,” she told BC ​ Today. ​

BCTF also wants improvements made to the steering committee that is guiding B.C.’s school operations. The committee’s composition has not been publicized, but Mooring said it includes “all the education partners” in the province — including BCTF and CUPE as well as parents, school trustees and other stakeholders.

“That committee is still functioning and still working — we’re wanting to be a little bit more effective,” Mooring said, pointing to the BCTF’s request to the Labour Relations Board for better ​ ​ coordination and communication from the province, as well as a mechanism to resolve disputes around school safety protocols.

The BCTF president hopes to see the province move quickly to implement the board’s recommendations once the new education minister is in place.

Today’s events

November 26 — Online ​ ​ The BC Federation of Labour wraps up its biennial convention today.

Topics of conversation

● B.C. reported 738 new Covid cases yesterday. There were 7,616 active cases (down 116) with 294 in hospital (up 10), 61 of them critical. Thirteen new deaths were reported, pushing the total to 371 and setting a new single day record.

○ A technical glitch led to a week’s worth of incorrect case data for the Fraser Health area, according to Dr. Bonnie Henry. The case reporting errors began on ​ ​ November 17 and were only noticed on November 24. The issue caused both over and underreporting of daily case numbers, which are expected to be corrected within 48 hours. In total there were 272 additional cases that were missing from the week’s data. On the bright side, the record-shattering 941 Covid cases for the province as a whole reported on Tuesday was actually 706 cases. ○ B.C. has received 27,000 rapid tests from Ottawa, along with 131 machines to process them. The province is now in the process of figuring out how best to deploy the tests. About 500,000 antigen testing kits have also been procured.

● Efforts to organize the rollout of Covid vaccines in B.C. is gathering steam. Dr. Ross ​ Brown has been chosen to coordinate preparations for the province’s Covid vaccine ​ program. ○ Dr. Brown has been leading Vancouver Coastal Health’s response to the pandemic.

News briefs

More than five British Columbians dying daily from drug toxicity, coroner says ● With at least 162 fatal overdoses in October, 2020 is on track to be the deadliest year yet for B.C.’s overdose crisis. The province’s annual overdose death toll could end up surpassing 2018, when a record total of 1,549 British Columbians died of overdose. That year there had been 1,295 fatalities recorded through October. Chief coroner Lisa ​ Lapointe said B.C.’s “unsafe drug supply” is driving the record-breaking overdose ​ numbers. ○ “We encourage clinicians to support those at risk of overdose by prescribing safe supply and reducing the numbers of lives lost to toxic substances,” she said in a statement. “We also continue to advocate for an accessible, evidence-based and accountable treatment and recovery system for anyone experiencing problematic substance use who is seeking this medical assistance.” ○ At 32.4 overdose deaths per 100,000 people, the provincial per capita fatality rate is the highest the province has seen to date. In hard-hit Northern Health, there have been 44.3 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents. The Fraser Health and Interior Health regions are below the provincial average at 27.7 and 31.1 overdose deaths per capita respectively. ○ The coroner’s service reported two additional September overdose deaths above the 129 previously recorded.

BC Today is written by Shannon Waters, reporting from the Legislative Press Gallery.

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