B.C. Today – Daily Report December 12, 2018

Quotation of the day

“As soon as you announce your political party, a minimum of 50 per cent of your audience hates you.”

NDP MLA weighs in on political partisanship in the second installment of BC Today’s deep dive into whether PR systems can change the game for female politicians.

Today in B.C.

On the schedule The House is adjourned for the winter break. MLAs are scheduled to return to the House on February 12, 2019 for the delivery of the government’s throne speech.

B.C. Liberals continue to press for answers from the Speaker ahead of today’s committee meeting

Ahead of this morning’s meeting of the Finance and Audit Committee, Liberal Party House Leader released an open letter listing more than a dozen “issues [that] must be ​ ​ addressed urgently” at the meeting, as well as the Legislative Assembly Management Committee’s (LAMC) meeting on December 19.

“The credibility of the Legislature and its budget setting must be resolved prior to the expenditure of more public money on services that you have alleged to be subject to criminal activity of a financial nature,” Polak wrote in the five-page letter, which is addressed to Speaker Darryl Plecas. ​ ​

Many of the items — which Polak argues should be settled at the outset of the committee meetings — relate to statements made by the Speaker during last week’s LAMC meeting. Polak ​ ​ wants details, including the scope and timeline of forensic audits into the offices of the Speaker, clerk and sergeant-at-arms that Plecas forcefully called for.

Polak and the Liberals also want the Speaker to disclose the exact job description under which special advisor Alan Mullen was hired; how much former attorney general , hired ​ ​ ​ ​ as a second special advisor to Plecas, is being paid; and where the money for their salaries is coming from.

Today’s events

December 12 at 10 a.m. – Victoria ​

The Finance and Audit Committee, a sub-committee of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee, will meet today in the Douglas Fir Room at the B.C. Legislature. The committee’s agenda includes reviewing and approving minutes from its last meeting on November 27 and discussing preparations for its 2019-2020 budget submission.

December 12 at 12:15 p.m. – Victoria ​

NDP MLA (Vancouver—West End), who chairs the Rental Housing ​ ​ Task Force, will be joined by fellow task force member and Green Party MLA ​ (Saanich North and the Islands) to present recommendations to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister in the Hall of Honour at the B.C. Legislature. ​ ​

December 12 at 5:30 p.m. – Duncan ​

The B.C. Liberal Party’s Cowichan Valley riding association will host its Christmas social at the Craig Street Brew Pub.

December 12 at 5:30 p.m. – Vancouver ​

Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Michelle Mungall will host a fundraising ​ ​ event at Heritage Asian Eatery.

Topics of conversation

● Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is facing extradition to the United ​ ​ States on fraud charges, was granted $10 million bail in Vancouver court yesterday. ​ ​ Meng must abide by a number of conditions, including surrendering her passport, residing at one of her two Vancouver homes, wearing a GPS ankle monitor and paying for a 24-hour security detail. ○ Meng’s lawyers argued she should be granted bail ahead of her extradition hearing due to severe hypertension.

● Meanwhile, former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig has been detained in China ​ ​ ​ without explanation. Prime Minister said the federal government is ​ ​ “engaged on the file, which [it] takes very seriously.” Kovrig was involved in coordinating Trudeau’s 2016 visit to Hong Kong. Ottawa is considering increasing China’s travel risk ​ ​ level in light of rising tensions between the two countries. ○ A “large business delegation” from B.C.’s forestry sector arrived in China yesterday, even as Forests Minister returned home due to the ​ ​ “uncertainty” of Canada-China relations. ○ Alberta’s Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous said ​ ​ yesterday that his ministry has been in contact with China and is still planning to visit the country during a scheduled trade mission to Asian in the new year.

● Attorney General says ICBC will release its rate projections for the coming ​ ​ year on December 13. “ICBC bases the rate projections on what their actuaries look at in ​ terms of the anticipated costs as well as the impacts of the reforms we’re planning,” Eby told RadioNL yesterday. “Those rates will go to the BC Utilities Commission with an ​ ​ explanation of how ICBC got to those numbers.” ○ With a $1.3 billion loss last year, ICBC is on track to lose another $890 million this year; the rate increase is expected to be substantial.

● Yesterday, former CTV News anchor Tamara Taggart announced she will seek the ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Liberal Party of Canada’s nomination for the Vancouver—Kingsway riding in next fall’s federal election.

News briefs - Governmental

Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction At least 7,655 British Columbians are experiencing homelessness, according to the first report ​ to take a province-wide look at the issue.

"Too many British Columbians — working, on a pension, suffering from illness — have been left behind for far too long," Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister ​ said in response to the report. "This level of homelessness should never have been allowed to take hold. The numbers we're seeing make us even more determined to make housing more available and affordable for all British Columbians."

The ministry looked at 24 communities around the province, representing around 85 per cent of B.C.’s population. Half of the communities received support from the province to conduct their counts, six received funding from Ottawa’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy and six were conducted independently.

The provincial compilation of the results is part of the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction’s attempt to quantify the extent and nature of homelessness in B.C. ahead of the province’s first-ever poverty reduction strategy, which is scheduled to be released “in early 2019.” The poverty plan’s release has been delayed twice since last spring.

Indigenous people and those who were formerly in government care are overrepresented among B.C.’s homeless population, according to the report, and more than two-thirds of British Columbians experiencing homelessness are men. More than half said they can’t afford rent in their community; about the same number said they have lived in the same community for a decade or more.

News briefs - Non-governmental

Office of the Auditor General B.C. needs to overhaul its approach to commercial vehicle safety, according to the latest report ​ from Auditor General Carol Bellringer. ​ ​

Currently, heavy commercial vehicles make up just three per cent of registered vehicles in the province but are involved in almost one-fifth of fatal collisions.

Better road safety education and awareness programs could help reduce the number of collisions involving commercial drivers, according to the AG’s office, which recommends streamlining the delivery of these programs in the province. Currently, responsibility for delivering such programs is shared by the ministries of Public Safety and Solicitor General and Transportation and Infrastructure, while ICBC runs its own initiatives.

The report also recommends the province review commercial licencing requirements; currently professional drivers are not required to take any driver training courses before taking the commercial licencing test.

Tightening oversight of inspection facilities would help ensure vehicle safety inspections are conducted to required standards, according to the report, while commercial vehicle safety and enforcement officers “could be more effective with better supports” for their “challenging” responsibilities.

Although B.C. collects a lot of data about road safety, Bellringer said the government is not making good use of the information it has on hand. To address that gap, Bellringer’s office used a data analysis model employed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the United States to build its report.

"We adapted the model for use in B.C., then used it to analyze the data collected by the B.C. government," said Bellringer. "Over the past three years, roadside inspection and enforcement activities with commercial vehicles in B.C. prevented an estimated 1,100 crashes, including four fatalities and more than 260 injuries.”

Better use of the available data could bring the B.C. government closer to its stated goal of zero fatal collisions on the province’s roads, according to Bellringer.

Women and proportional representation

In its second and final installment on women and PR, BC Today looks at whether proportional representation systems can really lead to a less partisan political arena and more durable policy-making — and whether switching to PR could make the political arena in B.C. more inviting to women.

Premier says a proportional representation voting system will lead to more ​ ​ women being elected to the B.C. Legislature — but a rationale he gave for this belief has ruffled some feathers.

“Taking away the confrontation and the hyper-partisanship which we are seeing here tonight will encourage more women to participate as well,” Horgan said during last month’s televised debate with Liberal Party Leader . ​

BC Today’s first installment on “Women and PR” looked at how PR systems provide space for ​ more individuals from underrepresented groups, including women, to find their way onto the ballot. But Horgan’s remarks also suggest the alternative voting system could create a more hospitable workplace for women — one free of the bloodsport that characterizes much of history’s male-dominated politics. On the night of the debate, Liberal Party finance critic Tracy Redies took to Twitter to call ​ ​ Horgan’s comment “condescending” and question the premise that less partisanship would lead ​ ​ to more women in politics.

In an interview with BC Today, five-term Liberal MLA and Redies’ co-critic said ​ ​ ​ ​ the premier’s “simplistic” theory fails to appreciate the work B.C.’s women politicians are already doing at the legislature.

“It is a very intense place by its nature,” Bond said of the B.C. Legislature — an atmosphere she doubts a PR system would dissipate.

Some women do undeniably well in the current political arena and Bond — no shrinking violet or stranger to confrontation — is one of them. Former premier is another. However ​ ​ ​ ​ some women, like Green Party MLA , have said they find B.C.’s current ​ ​ political climate less appealing.

“What I hear consistently is that the adversarial and sometimes very cutthroat and nasty behaviours in the [B.C. Legislature] building is an impediment to a lot of women considering politics,” Furstenau said. “They just do not want to be part of that kind of world.”

Even a political veteran like Bond, who is a fixture of question period, admits she still gets nervous before she stands up to ask a question. “It is very intense and can be very intimidating,” she said.

Furstenau, who served as a director for the Cowichan Valley Regional District before being ​ elected provincially, contends that provincial politics lacks the spirit of collaboration found at the ​ municipal and regional level.

“It was actually quite jarring for me to go from a regional district table to the legislature in 2017,” Furstenau told BC Today. “You have a different way of being at those tables. It is about creating ​ ​ effective working relationships.”

Women do seem to be taking to local politics in greater numbers — Vancouver’s city council is now mostly female — and Furstenau believes the relative lack of partisanship at city and town ​ ​ halls plays a big part in that surge.

While parliamentary systems foster adversarial politics by pitting the government and the opposition against each other, first past the post (FPTP) systems — particularly those dominated by two parties — can foster zero-sum approaches to policy and debate.

Looking at the current legislature, Furstenau sees a house divided. “There’s that team and there’s this team and never the twain shall meet,” she said.

PR and policy making

PR systems force politicians to look beyond safe seats and party lines, according to Maria ​ Dobrinskaya, B.C. director of the Broadbent Institute, which shifts parliamentarians away from ​ partisanship and can foster more collaborative governance.

“Because parties will need to be appealing to as many voters as they can — not just certain voters in certain ridings — and because they will need to have the support of other parties in order to form government, we are going to see a more collaborative process, more appeal to a broader range of the electorate,” she told BC Today. ​ ​

“When you change the scoring system, you change the way the players play the game.”

Dobrinskaya argues that not only could PR make politics more collegial, it could also improve how public policy is developed and implemented in B.C.

Under the current system, cooperation between parties is frequently penalized and compromise is “seen as weak, seen as a political point [for your opponent].”

“That discourages good policy outcomes,” she said. “We are getting policy that is designed based on certain constituencies that respective parties need to satisfy in order to [win crucial votes].”

Suzanne Anton, who succeeded Bond as attorney general and co-founded the No B.C. ​ Proportional Representation campaign, worries that the relative instability of PR systems compared to FPTP could bring policy implementation to a standstill.

She points to Sweden — a “blissful, liberal, lovely democracy” — where governance has been deadlocked since a September election that produced no clear winner. ​

Anton warns that political deadlock could halt progress on policy in areas such as child care and negatively impact women in .

Coalition governance can also make it more difficult for voters to see a clear path from party to policy, according to Anton, making casting a ballot based on a strong policy preference more difficult under PR.

“You get all these coalition groups and … you do not know what policies you are voting for when you vote for a whole schwack of little tiny political parties,” she told BC Today. “If women want to ​ ​ vote for a party that makes child care a marquee part of their platform … when you start having 10 parties in the legislature, you do not know what you are voting for anymore.”

Bowinn Ma — B.C.’s youngest MLA and an outspoken proponent of PR — disagrees. The ​ first-term MLA says FPTP systems only create the illusion of stability, especially when it comes to policy-making.

“You may get stable majority governments, but you get unstable policy making because of policy lurches,” she said, referring to the tendency for governments fresh to power to repeal policies implemented by their predecessors, often on partisan grounds.

“Under PR, you may appear to have unstable governments because they keep changing, but the policies are very stable because they were all created collaboratively,” Ma said. “It is a lot harder to lurch and undo good policy [when] more than 50 per cent of the legislature, and therefore more than 50 per cent of the electorate, supports [it].”

Furstenau says political lurching has left Canada and B.C. behind on environmental, social and economic policy fronts — all of which affect women. “We are flailing because we end up with these polarized positions ... and then do these policy lurches. It is devastating,” she told BC ​ Today. ​

“When you look at the top performing economic countries — countries with the strongest social policies … strongest safety nets — they are PR countries,” Furstenau said. “And the policies that come out are far more stable because there is a collaborative and consensus approach to getting to those policies.”

No referendum outcome will extinguish partisanship — or sexism

Ma says the current level of partisanship in B.C. is “damaging to democracy” and erodes public trust in elected representatives, saying she finds it hard to engage with polarized voters.

“As soon as you announce your political party, a minimum of 50 per cent of your audience hates you,” she said.

PR may ease partisan tensions but even its proponents don’t expect it would eliminate them — or the issues facing women in politics.

“PR is not going to fix everything,” Finance Minister said in an interview. “[FPTP] ​ ​ doesn’t fix everything but, to have a system that enables more cooperation, that enables the ability for people to work across party lines … takes away some of the vitriol that is out there around politicians.”

Political power, whether under PR or FPTP systems, has traditionally been wielded by male hands, and there are “significant discrepancies” between the way men and women in public office are treated, according to Dobrinskaya — particularly women in powerful positions.

“Women have to work hard to earn credibility in the Legislature,” Bond tweeted in response to ​ ​ Premier Horgan’s assertion that less partisanship would lead to more women seeking office. “Then when they are focused and tough that is considered a negative trait.”

“PR will not take politics out of politics,” Dobrinskaya concurred. “It is still about power and there will continue to be jostling in various ways.”