BC Today – Daily Report November 12, 2020

Quotation of the day

“This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re all in it together.”

In a statement, Premier announces the extension of the provincial state of ​ ​ emergency.

Today in B.C.

Written by Shannon Waters

At the legislature A small Remembrance Day ceremony was held at the cenotaph outside the legislature yesterday. Premier John Horgan was on site to lay a wreath. ​ ​

Head of public service resigns After three years as B.C.’s top public servant, Don Wright is resigning to spend more time with ​ ​ his family.

Wright took the gig after the NDP formed government in 2017 and simultaneously served as deputy minister to the premier, cabinet secretary and head of the BC Public Service.

The premier’s office made the announcement Tuesday evening. Premier John Horgan said ​ ​ Wright will stay on board during the transition period, then Lori Wanamaker, who has served as ​ ​ deputy minister of finance for three years, will take up the post.

Horgan thanked Wright for his “steady and professional leadership” during the NDP’s first term.

Dead bills likely to be revived when legislature resumes When the B.C. legislature reconvenes, the NDP’s significant majority will allow Premier John ​ Horgan to speed ahead with legislation required to enact campaign promises, such as the ​ means-tested recovery benefit and renter’s rebate 2.0.

The NDP will no longer be obliged to negotiate with the Greens for legislative support, which could smooth the way for two pieces of legislation that stalled during the 2020 summer session due to opposition from the government’s junior partner.

Those bills are the former Bill 22, Mental Health Amendment Act, and the former Bill 17, Clean ​ ​ ​ ​ Energy Amendment Act.

The former aimed to authorize one week of involuntarily “stabilization care” for youth immediately following an overdose. Bill 22 was introduced by former mental health and ​ ​ addictions minister Judy Darcy in June and immediately prompted concern from B.C.’s chief ​ ​ ​ ​ coroner.

Hours after Darcy put forward the bill, Lisa Lapointe released a statement cautioning it could ​ ​ have “serious unintended consequences” if it isn’t paired with “a comprehensive, culturally safe system of care and treatment.”

Critics say the NDP ‘got it wrong’ Lapointe wasn’t the only one worried the bill could do more harm than good. The BC Civil Liberties Association, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Health Justice and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users all called for the NDP government to drop the bill.

Jennifer Charlesworth, B.C.’s representative for children and youth, criticized the bill’s “lack of ​ balance,” noting the legislation comes with no additional resources needed to establish “a full array of voluntary substance use treatment and harm reduction services for youth.”

By July, the Green caucus said it would not support Bill 22 and “proposed pausing” it at second ​ ​

reading pending “detailed consultation” with stakeholders to address the “substantive concerns” about its effects.

“We were profoundly concerned about the disproportionate harm the policy could have on Indigenous youth,” Green MLA , then the party’s interim leader, said at the time. ​ ​

Horgan remains committed to the legislation Following the Greens’ rejection, Darcy announced the bill would not pass during the summer session due to lack of time and promised the government would conduct further consultations regarding regulatory safeguards “to protect young people’s rights.”

However, Horgan viewed the legislation’s failure differently. On the campaign trail this fall, he used the Greens’ lack of support for the bill to justify his snap election call.

“I want to get the election behind us, not for myself, but for the people of B.C. because they can't afford to have uncertainty about whether bills will pass or not,” Horgan told reporters in September.

The premier contended Bill 22 would “address the challenges that families face when it comes ​ ​ to the scourge of opioids” by providing time for young people who have experienced overdose to “find clarity” and choose to enter treatment.

The legislation itself does not provide a pathway to treatment options — it contains no provisions to move a minor who has “found clarity” into a treatment program after their medically supervised detention.

Green Party Leader said the Greens would have supported the bill if the NDP ​ ​ had addressed the stakeholders’ concerns and focused on voluntary treatment plans.

But the premier insisted the Greens blocked a bill that could have helped people.

“Having met with parents who have lost children, I was not prepared to accept that,” he said on the campaign trail.

Premier prepared to ‘agree to disagree’ on energy policy Bill 17, Clean Energy Amendment Act, also fell off the order paper due to a lack of Green Party ​ support.

Among a slew of changes to BC Hydro’s operations, the bill would have allowed the utility to purchase power on the U.S. spot market to keep electricity rates affordable for B.C. consumers.

The legislation prompted concerns from independent power producers who argued B.C. should ​ ​ ​ be prioritizing local renewable power options over cheap American sources.

The Greens called for further consultation with “First Nations and impacted parties” and planned to introduce amendments that would tighten up Bill 17’s definition of clean electricity and clean ​ ​ resources. But no progress was made before the end of the summer session.

On the campaign trail, Horgan admitted he found it easier to “agree to disagree on energy policy” than on whether involuntarily detaining minors is an effective approach to the overdose crisis.

For her part, Furstenau reminded reporters that the Confidence and Supply Agreement bound the Greens to support the NDP on confidence and supply votes — not every piece of legislation to hit the floor.

“What that agreement didn't stipulate was utter and total obedience to the NDP,” she said.

If the NDP decides to resurrect the bills in future, the Greens will be free to voice their concerns and vote as they see fit. And with 57 members in the house, the NDP will be loosed from the constraints of minority governance and able to pass legislation over even the most strenuous objections.

Today’s events

November 12 at 3 p.m. – Online ​

Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister will provide an update on Covid in B.C., ​ ​ ​ including the province's latest epidemiological modelling.

Topics of conversation

● B.C. reported 525 new Covid cases Tuesday. There were 5,133 active cases (up 242) with 142 people in hospital (up nine), 46 of them critical (up three). Three new deaths were reported, pushing the total to 284. There was no update on the Remembrance Day holiday, but one is expected today. ○ There is an outbreak in Nanaimo Regional General Hospital's transitional care unit for seniors; five staff members have tested positive. ○ More than 9,800 British Columbians are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known Covid cases. ○ The provincial state of emergency was extended through November 24 — six days past the six-month anniversary of B.C.’s original declaration of a state of emergency due to COVID-19.

● Great Canadian Gaming Corp. is being acquired by U.S.-based private equity firm Apollo ​ ​ Global for $3.3 billion. The gaming company, which operates 25 casinos across Canada, had its stock price pummelled by pandemic-related casino closures. ○ Great Canadian Gaming’s River Rock casino is at the centre of the money laundering allegations being probed by the Cullen Commission.

● Eight local government officials successfully made the leap to provincial politics during the 2020 election, per the Union of BC Municipalities. Seven of them — including ​ ​ Mission Mayor Pam Alexis and Tofino Mayor — are NDP members ​ ​ ​ ​ while Abbotsford councillor was elected under the Liberal banner. ​ ​ ○ The new MLAs will join 24 re-elected incumbents who got their start in local politics.

● “Broken on Arrival” — that’s the title of a new report on B.C.’s incoming land ownership ​ ​ registry compiled by the C.D. Howe Institute. The registry, which will require anyone purchasing property or signing extended leases in B.C. to declare any hidden partners such as corporations or trusts, is the first of its kind in Canada. But the current legislative framework will make the registry’s information “unreliable, difficult to access, difficult to process,” according to report author Kevin Comeau, a corporate lawyer and member of ​ ​ Transparency International Canada’s Working Group on Beneficial Ownership Transparency. ○ The Globe and Mail digs into the details of Comeau’s criticisms and concerns. ​ ​ ​ ​

● The City of Vancouver is in the “final stages of negotiations with a bunch of properties” that could house members of the city’s homeless population, but Mayor Kennedy ​

Stewart told Glacier Media the city needs the province to commit to covering operating ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ costs for the buildings in order to secure the federal funding required to purchase or lease them. ○ “If we don’t secure the wraparound services for this housing from the province by the end of November, the federal money goes away,” Stewart said. ○ A statement from the premier’s office outlined the capital funding the NDP government invested to address homelessness in Vancouver over the past three years and said the premier is “in the process of selecting a cabinet.”

● The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has filed a lawsuit against RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki over “inexcusable delays” in releasing a civilian watchdog ​ ​ ​ ​ report on the RCMP’s surveillance of Indigenous and climate activists opposed to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project. The BCCLA filed a complaint in 2014, arguing the RCMP’s “secret surveillance created a chilling effect and violated constitutional rights.” The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) released an interim report on its investigation into the complaint in 2017 and forwarded it to the RCMP commissioner — but, without a response, the CRCC cannot compile and release a final report. ○ “The RCMP Commissioner should not be allowed to effectively sabotage the civilian watchdog complaint process simply by sitting on a report for years on end,” said Paul Champ, the BCCLA’s legal counsel in the case. “Commissioner ​ ​ Lucki’s failure to respond to the report is a denial of the BCCLA’s constitutional rights and impacts public confidence in the complaint process.”

● At least four more Indigenous youth who have died since 2015 spent time living at the Xyolhemeylh (Fraser Valley Aboriginal Children and Family Services Society) — where an Indigenous teen was recently found dead — according to reporting from CBC. When ​ ​ Traevon Chalifoux-Desjarlais was found in the closet of his room at Xyolhemeylh in ​ ​ ​ September, he had been dead for four days.

● A B.C. judge has ordered Trans Mountain to release documents about the Tiny House ​ ​ Warriors (a First Nations group opposed to the pipeline expansion) to Thompson Rivers University on the grounds they may show police and security officials were biased against the group ahead of a confrontation in December 2018. ○ Three members of the Tiny House Warriors face charges of assault, disturbance and mischief in relation to the incident, which happened outside a meeting between federal officials and First Nations chiefs.

News briefs

Second Asian giant hornet found in Lower Mainland this month

● Two Asian giant hornets have been found in B.C. this month, per the Ministry of Agriculture, which sent out a notification that the second insect was found in Abbotsford on November 7. The second giant hornet — a queen — was found about five kilometres from where the other was located on November 2. ○ “Both findings are thought to coincide with a phase in the hornets' life cycle in which they disperse from their nests to look for new hornets to mate with,” the ministry’s statement says. ○ A total of five Asian giant hornets have been found in the Fraser Valley since 2019. The ministry has been conducting surveillance and trap monitoring along 0 Avenue near the border with the United States in an effort to detect the invasive insects. ○ Surveillance efforts are also ongoing in Nanaimo after a nest was found there last year.

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

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